China

BEIJING (AP) — Senior Chinese officials, releasing a lengthy report on the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, defended their government’s actions and said that China provided information in a timely and transparent manner.

National Health Commission Chairman Ma Xiaowei said Sunday that a recent news media report that the Chinese government didn’t initially share the genome sequence for the virus “seriously goes against the facts.”

BEIJING (AP) — China’s exports and imports both fell in May as the coronavirus and trade tensions with the U.S. weighed on demand both at home and abroad.

Exports fell 3.3% compared to a year earlier to $206.8 billion and imports dropped 16.7%to $143.9 billion, the Chinese customs agency said Sunday.

The plunge in imports drove the country’s trade surplus up to $62.9 billion. The surplus with the United States reached $27.9 billion.

BEIJING — China has reported its first non-imported case of the new coronavirus in two weeks, an infected person on the island of Hainan off the southern coast.

The National Health Commission said Sunday that there were also five imported cases in the previous 24-hour period, bringing the nation’s total case count to 83,036.

HONG KONG, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) Charles Li said on Friday that Hong Kong's status as an international financial center will not be affected by the national security legislation for Hong Kong or the sanctions threatened by the United States.

BEIJING (AP) — China is advising its citizens not to visit Australia, citing racial discrimination and violence against Asians, in what appears to be Beijing’s latest attempt to punish the country for advocating an investigation into the coronavirus pandemic.

A notice issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism late Friday said there has “been an increase in words and deeds of racial discrimination and acts of violence against Chinese and Asians in Australia, due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.”

BEIJING, June 5 (APP): The serious military confrontation in the Sino-Indian border area lasting more than a month was entirely caused by the Indian side, Cheng Xizhong, a distinguished professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law and a former military diplomat in South Asian countries said while expressing his views on the recent Sino-Indian border confrontation.

He pointed out that there is only one way to solve the current serious military confrontation problem. The Indian Army will return wherever it comes from.

BEIJING, June 4 (APP): China on Thursday appreciated the United Nations and Saudi Arabia for jointly organizing a high-level video donation meeting on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

“China attaches great importance to the development of the situation in Yemen. It has always supported and participated in the efforts of the international community to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during his regular briefing held here.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The last British colonial governor of Hong Kong said the city’s democrats are on the same side of history as Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, and blamed Chinese President Xi Jinping for “tightening the screws” on the city’s freedoms.

In a video question-and-answer session from the United Kingdom on Friday, Chris Patten also called for a global reset of international relations with China.

He urged the United States to take leadership in bringing countries together in their dealings with China to prevent being “picked off” one by one by Beijing.

BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- China regrets the U.S. decision to suspend scheduled passenger flights of Chinese carriers to and from the United States, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesperson Thursday.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks when asked to comment on a statement issued Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which announced the order to suspend the scheduled passenger flights of Chinese carriers to and from the United States, effective from June 16.

BEIJING, June 4 (APP): A Chinese man in East China’s Jiangsu province was sentenced to death in a first-instance judgement for killing Moiz Uddin, a Pakistani student of the Nanjing University, according to the local media here on Thursday.

The man surnamed Cong, 28, stabbed Moiz in his chest with a knife on July 11, 2018, following a quarrel. The attack ruptured the victim’s heart and he bled to death, Jiangsu police said in a statement later that day.