China

WUHAN, China (AP) — World Health Organization experts are to begin face-to-face meetings with their Chinese counterparts Friday in the central city of Wuhan at the start of the team’s long-awaited fact-finding mission into the origins of the coronavirus.

Those meetings should be followed by the first field visits in and around the industrial and transport hub on Friday, WHO said on Twitter but did not give further details about the team’s agenda.

BEIJING, January 28. /TASS/: In 2021, the Chinese authorities plan to intensify trade and economic cooperation with Russia in order to increase bilateral trade to $200 bln, official representative of the Ministry of Commerce of China Gao Feng said on Thursday.

According to him, through joint efforts, in 2021, the Chinese-Russian economic cooperation will be even better and more stable, and the volumes of bilateral trade will recover in the near future on the way to the target of trade turnover of $200 bln.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China toughened its language towards Taiwan on Thursday, warning after recent stepped up military activities near the island that “independence means war” and that its armed forces were acting in response to provocation and foreign interference.

Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, reported multiple Chinese fighter jets and bombers entering its southwestern air defence identification zone last weekend, prompting Washington to urge Beijing to stop pressuring Taiwan.

WUHAN, China (Reuters) - A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic left its quarantine hotel in Wuhan on Thursday to begin field work, two weeks after arriving in the Chinese city where the virus emerged in late 2019.

The mission has been plagued by delays, concern over access and bickering between China and the United States, which has accused China of hiding the extent of the initial outbreak and criticised the terms of the visit, under which Chinese experts conducted the first phase of research.

BEIJING, Jan 27 (APP): At a time when Indian media was relieved by high rate of coronavirus antibodies found in the New Delhi population, Chinese experts believed it did indicate the country’s inadequate virus control capacity, warning that India may even become a global ‘base camp’ for the virus if the situation continues after the borders reopen.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday it was seeking details about 25 of its nationals who were among 61 crew on two supertankers seized by Indonesia on suspicion of illegally transferring oil.

Indonesia said on Sunday it had seized the vessels after they were detected making the transfer from Iranian-flagged MT Horse to Panamanian-flagged MT Freya, causing an oil spill.

The Indonesian authorities said the seizure was not related to U.S. sanctions, which Washington imposed in a bid to shut off Iran’s oil exports in a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Beijing, Jan 27 (AP-PTI) The Chinese government said Wednesday that actions like its warplanes flying near Taiwan last weekend are a warning against both foreign interference in Taiwan and any independence moves by the island.

Asked about the flights, Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said China's military drills are to show the nation's resolution to protect its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

BEIJING, Jan 26 (APP): Pakistan Ambassador Moin-ul Haque on Tuesday sought support of the Chinese government and enterprises to improve agriculture sector in Pakistan and expressed the confidence that both countries could turn a new page in agriculture and industrial modernization for shared benefits.

BEIJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- China and New Zealand on Tuesday signed a protocol on upgrading their 12-year-old free trade agreement (FTA), which is expected to bring more benefits to the peoples of the two countries.

Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and his New Zealand counterpart signed the protocol via video link.

In 2008, China signed an FTA with New Zealand, the first FTA between China and a developed country.

BEIJING (AP) — The U.S.-Chinese trade war isn’t going away under President Joe Biden.

Biden won’t confront Beijing right away, economists say, because he wants to focus on the coronavirus and the economy. However, Biden looks set to renew pressure over trade and technology grievances that prompted President Donald Trump to hike tariffs on Chinese imports in 2017.