China

BEIJING, June 26 (APP): As Pakistan is a key partner in the current $400 billion global medical device industries, some Chinese homegrown medical device companies are developing the market and seeking cooperation in Pakistan, and they say CPEC has promoted cooperation between the two countries in this area.

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday said that China will continue to make all-out efforts in participating in UN affairs, safeguard the status of the UN, and promote the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

Wang made the remarks when attending the Lanting Forum on China and the UN: Cooperation in 50 Years and Beyond held on Friday in Beijing.

GUANGZHOU, June 25 (Xinhua) -- China's top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan said on Friday that Chinese vaccines are effective against the COVID-19 Delta variant, and he urged more people to be vaccinated.

Zhong said the epidemic resurgence in Guangzhou, the capital city of south China's Guangdong Province, was the first time that China had to cope with the Delta variant spreading in communities. The variant, which was first identified in India, has a shorter incubation period and those who are infected take a longer time to recover.

HONG KONG, June 24 (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry on Friday rejected comments by U.S. President Joe Biden that the closure of Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper signaled intensifying repression by Beijing in the semi-autonomous city.

Also on Friday, China approved the promotions of two officials in a move that critics said would further tighten Beijing's grip.

Hong Kong's security secretary John Lee was appointed chief

SHANGHAI, June 25 (Reuters) - The virus that causes COVID-19 could have started spreading in China as early as October 2019, two months before the first case was identified in the central city of Wuhan, a new study showed on Friday.

Researchers from Britain's University of Kent used methods from conservation science to estimate that SARS-CoV-2 first appeared from early October to mid-November 2019, according to a paper published in the PLOS Pathogens journal.

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Deep Sea No.1, China's first self-operated 1,500-meter deep-water gas field, started production on Friday, according to the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The operation of the gas field, 150 km off the city of Sanya in south China's island province of Hainan, marks the country's capability of ultra deep-water drilling for oil and gas, compared with the 300-meter depth previously, said the CNOOC.

Beijing, Jun 25 (PTI) China on Friday operationalised its first fully electrified bullet train in the remote Himalayan region of Tibet, connecting the provincial capital Lhasa and Nyingchi, a strategically located Tibetan border town close to Arunachal Pradesh.

The 435.5-km Lhasa-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway has been inaugurated ahead of the centenary celebrations of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) on July 1.

HONG KONG (AP) — China on Friday promoted Hong Kong’s top security official to the territory’s No. 2 spot as Beijing looks to the administration of the Asian financial hub to clamp down on free speech and political opposition.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Secretary for Security John Lee would replace Matthew Cheung as the city’s chief secretary, while police chief Chris Tang would take over Lee’s role. Raymond Siu Chak-yee, Tang’s deputy, will take over as head of the police force.

BEIJING, June 24 (APP): India’s increasing military deployment and encroaching on China’s territory is root cause of tension on Sino-Indian border, Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson, Zhao Lijian said.

Zhao said during his regular briefing while responding to Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s statement in which he said China’s military deployment along the border with India and uncertainty over whether Beijing will fulfill its promise on troop reductions remains “a challenge” for relations between the two neighbours.

BEIJING, June 24 (APP): Chinese enterprises donated oxygen concentrators and face masks to bolster Pakistan’s capacity in its ongoing efforts to combat Covid-19 pandemic at a ceremony held at the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) here on Thursday.

The donation ceremony was especially organised to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Pakistan and China which is being celebrated this year.