China

BEIJING, January 18. /TASS/: Russia’s withdrawal from the Treaty on Open Skies, announced by the Russian Foreign Ministry Friday, was inevitable due to the lack of desire to cooperate in the United States, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying told a regular briefing Monday.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Former Hong Kong lawmaker Ted Hui has renewed his criticism of HSBC for freezing his local bank accounts even after the global bank’s chief executive, Noel Quinn, wrote to him to explain the circumstances of the change.

Hui, who fled Hong Kong late last year after facing criminal charges over pro-democracy protests in the Asian financial hub, disclosed some of the contents of Quinn’s message in a Facebook post on Sunday.

HONG KONG, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Monday strongly condemned the so-called "sanctions" announced by the United States on six officials of the central authorities and the HKSAR government.

The U.S. action wantonly damaged the rule of law and the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong and blatantly provoked the Chinese government and the Chinese people safeguarding national interests, a spokesperson of the liaison office said in a statement.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese state media say 12 out of 22 workers trapped for a week by an explosion in a gold mine are alive, as hundreds of rescuers seek to bring them to safety.

The Xinhua News Agency said Monday a note passed through a rescue shaft Sunday night reported the fate of the other 10 remains unknown.

The handwritten note said four of the workers were injured and that the condition of others was deteriorating because of a lack of fresh air and an influx of water.

BEIJING (AP) — China eked out 2.3% economic growth in 2020, likely becoming the only major economy to expand as shops and factories reopened relatively early from a shutdown to fight the coronavirus while the United States, Japan and Europe struggled with disease flare-ups.

Growth in the three months ending in December rose to 6.5% over a year earlier, up from the previous quarter’s 4.9% and stronger than many forecasters expected, official data showed Monday.

HONG KONG, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The spokesperson of the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Saturday condemned the latest so-called "sanctions" announced by the United States on six officials of the central and the HKSAR governments, expressing strong indignation and firm opposition.

BEIJING (AP) — The coronavirus was found on ice cream produced in eastern China, prompting a recall of cartons from the same batch, according to the government.

The Daqiaodao Food Co., Ltd. in Tianjin, adjacent to Beijing, was sealed and its employees were being tested for the coronavirus, a city government statement said. There was no indication anyone had contracted the virus from the ice cream.

BEIJING, Jan 16 (APP): The flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Air China, Turkish Airlines, Egypt Airlines and Sichuan Airlines to China were suspended by China’s civil aviation regulator after several passengers tested positive for COVID-19 during recent flights.

Pakistan International Airlines’ Islamabad-Xi’an flight PK854 will be suspended for four weeks starting January 18 after 10 passengers tested positive on the January 2 flight, according to an announcement of Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Friday rebuked the Trump administration for blacklisting some Chinese companies with alleged military ties, which he said has shown the world exactly what bullying is.

Spokesman Zhao Lijian told a press briefing that China firmly opposed the United States' repeated sanctions against Chinese firms, adding that the move went against the trend of the times and the United States' much-touted principles of market competition and international economic trade rules.

BEIJING (AP) — China on Saturday finished building a 1,500-room hospital for COVID-19 patients in five days to fight a surge in infections in a city south of Beijing, state media reported.

The hospital is one of six with a total of 6,500 rooms being built in Nangong in Hebei province, the Xinhua News Agency said. All are due to be completed within the next week.

China, which largely contained the spread of the coronavirus, has suffered hundreds of infections this month in Nangong and the Hebei provincial capital of Shijiazhuang, southwest of the Chinese capital.