China

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities are testing millions of people, imposing lockdowns and shutting down schools after multiple locally transmitted coronavirus cases were discovered in three cities across the country last week.

As temperatures drop, large-scale measures are being enacted in the cities of Tianjin, Shanghai and Manzhouli, despite the low number of new cases compared to the United States and other countries that are seeing new waves of infections.

BEIJING, November 22. /TASS/: The Chinese authorities’ decision to impose a lockdown in Manzhouli, a city in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, northeast China, has not affected the work of the Russian-Chinese border crossing Zabaykalsk-Manchuria, Russia’s Consul-General in Harbin Vladimir Oschepkov told TASS on Sunday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China plans to launch an unmanned spacecraft to the moon this week to bring back lunar rocks in the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from Earth’s natural satellite since the 1970s.

The Chang’e-5 probe, named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the moon, will seek to collect material that can help scientists understand more about the moon’s origins and formation. The mission will test China’s ability to remotely acquire samples from space, ahead of more complex missions.

BEIJING, Nov 21 (APP): China has reaffirmed its support to Pakistan in fighting terrorist forces and stressed that any scheme to sabotage the building of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) flagship project linking the two countries will not succeed.

“I have already made my response to this issue. No attempt to sabotage the CPEC will succeed,” Zhao Lijian made these remarks during his briefing while answering a question about the Foreign Minister and Director General, ISPR joint briefing wherein they accused India of supporting terrorist forces and sabotaging CPEC.

BEIJING, Nov. 21 (APP): Zhang Qin, Vice President of China Seed Association (CSA) has proposed inter-enterprise cooperation for seed industry between China and Pakistan.

Addressing a webinar themed China-Pakistan Agricultural Technology Cooperation and Prospects, she said the association had established communication and cooperation mechanisms with multinational counterparts, and organized member enterprises to visit Pakistan, Uzbekistan and other countries to promote seed industry exchanges and cooperation.

HONG KONG (AP) — Singapore and Hong Kong on Saturday postponed the start of an air travel bubble meant to boost tourism for both cities, amid a spike in coronavirus infections in Hong Kong.

The travel bubble, originally slated to begin Sunday, will be delayed by at least two weeks, Hong Kong’s minister of commerce and economic development, Edward Yau, said at a news conference.

BEIJING, Nov 20 (APP): Speakers at a webinar discussed ways and means to further enhance cooperation in the agriculture sector between Pakistan and China.

“Agriculture sector forms an important theme of CPEC whereby an effective cooperation strategy between Pakistan and China can prove to be greatly beneficial for both countries,” said Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam.

(Reuters) - China’s securities regulator said on Friday it looked forward to holding discussions with its U.S. counterparts as soon as possible on “specific plans” to conduct joint inspections of Chinese firms listed in the United States.

Washington has long complained of lack of access to audit working papers for U.S.-listed Chinese companies and in August threatened measures to delist Chinese firms that fail to meet its auditing requirements, before Beijing proposed a trial joint inspection of any of its state-run firms.

Hong Kong, Nov 20 (AP-PTI) Hong Kong has suspended in-person classes for lower primary school students after the city's top health official said the coronavirus situation in the city was rapidly deteriorating.

Classes for primary 1 to 3 students will be suspended for two weeks from Monday.

The suspension comes just over a week after kindergartens were ordered to close following an outbreak of upper respiratory tract infections.

Hong Kong confirmed 26 new coronavirus infections on Friday, 21 of which are local cases.

BEIJING, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Thursday said some Americans habitually hype up the so-called "China threat" because they need excuses for their expanding military prowess and budget so as to seek regional and global hegemony.

U.S. Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite has reportedly called on the U.S. Navy to establish a new fleet at the intersection of the Indian and Pacific Oceans to deal with China's growing geopolitical ambitions.