China

(Reuters) --- China denounced on Monday a joint statement by the Group of Seven leaders that had scolded Beijing over a range of issues as a gross interference in the country’s internal affairs, and urged the grouping to stop slandering China.

The G7 leaders on Sunday took China to task over human rights in the heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang, called for Hong Kong to keep a high degree of autonomy and underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait - all highly sensitive issues for Beijing.

BEIJING, June 13 (APP): Pakistan Ambassador to China, Moin ul Haq on Sunday said that Hunan province of China would play a greater role in building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of Belt and Road Initiative.

“Pakistan and China are “iron brothers” and Chairman Mao Zedong has made a great contribution to the friendship between the two countries, and I am pleased to be in Chairman Mao’s hometown of Hunan on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China,” he said in an exclusive interview with Hunan Daily.

(Reuters) --- Group of Seven leaders on Sunday scolded China over human rights in Xinjiang, called for Hong Kong to keep a high degree of autonomy and demanded a full and thorough investigation of the origins of the novel coronavirus in China.

After discussing how to come up with a unified position on China, leaders issued a highly critical final communique that delved into what are for China some of the most sensitive issues, including also Taiwan.

BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 jolted South Sandwich Islands region at 07:24:46 GMT on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 60.9198 degrees south latitude and 25.705 degrees west longitude. 

HONG KONG, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam on Sunday called on residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine to let daily lives in the global financial hub return to normal at an early date.

Hong Kong must work to raise the vaccination rate so that people can make trips for businesses, tourism or family reunions as before, Lam said on her social media account.

BEIJING (AP) — At least 12 people were killed and 39 seriously injured Sunday after a gas line explosion tore through a residential neighborhood in central China.

Responders to the early morning blast in the Hubei province city of Shiyan sent more than 150 people to hospital, according to a statement on the city’s official social media channel.

The statement said rescue efforts were continuing but gave no word on the cause of the explosion.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow was released from jail Saturday after serving more than six months for taking part in unauthorized assemblies during massive 2019 anti-government protests that triggered a crackdown on dissent in the former British colony.

Chow, 24, was greeted by a crowd of journalists as she left the Tai Lam Center for Women. She transferred from a prison van to a private car without making any remarks.

BEIJING (AP) — Top U.S. and Chinese diplomats appear to have had another sharply worded exchange, with Beijing saying it told the U.S. to cease interfering in its internal affairs and accusing Washington of politicizing the search for the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi and Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call Friday that revealed wide divisions in a number of contentious areas, including the curtailing of freedoms in Hong Kong and the mass detention of Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang region.

(Reuters) --- Congestion at container shipping ports in southern China is worsening as authorities step up disinfection measures amid a flare-up in COVID-19 cases, causing the biggest backlog since at least 2019.

More than 150 coronavirus cases have been reported in Guangdong province, a key manufacturing and exporting hub in southern China, since the latest wave of cases struck in late May, triggering local governments to step up prevention and control efforts that have curbed port processing capacity. 

(Reuters) --- The top U.S. diplomat in Hong Kong said the imposition of a new national security law had created an "atmosphere of coercion" that threatens both the city's freedoms and its standing as an international business hub.

In unusually strident remarks to Reuters this week, U.S. Consul-General Hanscom Smith called it "appalling" that Beijing's influence had "vilified" routine diplomatic activities such as meeting local activists, part of a government crackdown on foreign forces that was "casting a pall over the city".