China

Shanghai, Nov 5 (AFP/PTI) Chinese President Xi Jinping has expressed a "high degree of trust" in Hong Kong's unpopular leader Carrie Lam as the two met after months of increasingly violent protests in the semi-autonomous city.

Xi's show of support follows speculation that Beijing was preparing to remove Lam as city authorities struggle to contain pro-democracy demonstrations that have rocked the financial hub.

BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's lunar rover Yutu-2 has driven 318.62 meters on the far side of the moon to conduct scientific exploration of the virgin territory.

Both the lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have ended their work for the 11th lunar day, and switched to dormant mode for the lunar night on Monday (Beijing time), according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.

The rover is now located 218.11 meters northwest of the lander.

SHANGHAI/PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron will seek to make China deliver on promises to grant more access to foreign companies, eyeing agribusiness and finance, advisers said ahead of his arrival in Shanghai for a giant import fair.

Macron, who will attend the fair along with other European officials including incoming EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan, would take China “at its word” that it aims to open itself up to trade, a presidential adviser said ahead of the Nov. 4-6 trip.

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s state-owned Xinhua News Agency denounced the attack on its office in Hong Kong by pro-democracy protesters as “barbaric” during a melee that marked nearly five months of unrest in the Chinese territory.

More protests are being planned in seven districts Sunday in a sustained push for political reform and genuine autonomy, after the ruling Communist Party vowed to tighten the grip on one of the world’s freest financial hubs.

2 November 2019; AFP: Major state telecom operators are rolling out 5G wireless advances in China as the country races to close a technology gap with the United States amid a bruising trade war.

The new-generation telecommunication networks move data at blazing speeds, promising economic and technological advantages to countries where they are deployed.

BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's non-financial investment in countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) stood at 10.04 billion U.S. dollars in the first three quarters, down 6.9 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The investment took up 12.4 percent of China's total non-financial outbound investment in the same period, and it went mainly to Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and Kazakhstan.

BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chief of the Chinese side of the China-U.S. comprehensive economic dialogue, held a phone conversation at the request of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin late Friday.

In the phone talks, the two sides had earnest and constructive discussions on properly addressing each other's core concerns, and reached principled consensus.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong riot police fired multiple rounds of tear gas and used a water cannon Saturday to break up a rally by thousands of masked protesters demanding meaningful autonomy after Beijing indicated it could tighten its grip on the Chinese territory.

BEIJING, Nov 1 (APP): China on Friday reiterated its stance over “bifurcation” of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) into two union territories and said it deplored and firmly opposed to the Indian move.

The Indian government officially announced the establishment of the so-called “Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir” and “Union Territory of Ladakh”, placing part of Chinese territory under Indian administration.

“China deplores and firmly opposes this,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Geng Shuang said during his regular briefing held here.

HONG KONG (AP) — Steps from Hong Kong’s main tourist strip, Ashfaqur Rahman’s tailor shop usually is a mainstay for tourists dropping in to peruse neatly stacked rolls of fabric and get measured for custom-made suits.

Not anymore.

Business has dried up since anti-government protests began in early June in the Asian financial center.

On Thursday, the government said Hong Kong’s economy shrank 3.2% in July-September from the previous quarter, pushing the city into a technical recession.