China

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s embattled leader insisted a new measure banning masks at rallies was not a move toward authoritarian rule or at the behest of the Chinese government, which signaled its approval shortly after she implemented the toughened response to quell four months of increasingly violent protests.

International observers worried, however, that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s use of the Emergency Ordinance — last invoked more than 50 years ago — could lead to harsher measures that would limit free expression in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

BEIJING, Sep 4 (APP): Pakistan Ambassador to China Naghmana Alamgir Hashmi has said that Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed between Pakistan and China would become operational in a few months.

“Actually the free trade agreement will hopefully be implemented shortly, because it’s still going through the internal processes of being ratified. We hope that in the next few months, it will become operational,” she said in an exclusive interview to China Economic Net (CEN) here on Friday.

SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The former head of China’s top securities regulator, Liu Shiyu, has been removed from a government position following an investigation by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, the watchdog said on Friday.

Liu “severely violated political discipline and political rules”, received gifts and used his power and position to seek personal gains for others, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement.

HONG KONG (AP) — Masked pro-democracy protesters marched Friday in central Hong Kong ahead of an expected ban on wearing facemasks in a hardening of the government’s stance to the territory’s most disruptive crisis since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam will hold a news conference at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT), her office said without giving details. Local media reported Lam planned to bypass the legislature to announce the mask ban under emergency powers to quash four months of anti-government demonstrations.

BEIJING, Oct 3 (APP): The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) construction has entered the second stage, focusing on industrial-agricultural cooperation, Gwadar Port construction and socio-economic development, of which 27 new projects will be launched within this year.

HONG KONG (AP) — Born after the historic July 1 day when Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the 18-year-old protester who was shot at close range in the chest by a police officer during violent demonstrations this week and then arrested in the hospital is part of a generation for whom the clock is ticking.

In the lifetimes of young Hong Kong citizens born after 1997, the sands will run out on China’s promise _ enshrined in the territory’s constitution _ that Hong Kong’s “capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years.”

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Before he was battling police on the front lines of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, Tony Tsang, 18, was best known to his peers as a school vice-captain, organizing events for fellow students, friends said on Wednesday.

They were speaking a day after the teenager was shot in the chest at point-blank range as he fought an officer with a metal pipe in Tsuen Wan district during some of the most violent clashes in Hong Kong since protests escalated in mid-June.

Tsang is stable in hospital where he is under arrest.

BEIJING (AP) — Military planners in Washington and elsewhere will be taking note of new missile technology displayed by China, particularly a hypersonic ballistic nuclear missile believed capable of breaching all existing anti-missile shields deployed by the U.S. and its allies.

HONG KONG (AP) — Heads bowed and dressed in black, schoolmates of a teenage demonstrator shot at close range in the chest by a Hong Kong riot officer condemned police tactics and demanded accountability Wednesday.

The shooting Tuesday during widespread anti-government demonstrations on China’s National Day marked a fearsome escalation in Hong Kong’s protest violence. The 18-year-old is the first known victim of police gunfire since the protests began in June. His condition in the hospital was described by the government as stable on Wednesday.

HONG KONG (AP) — Police used pepper spray to break up a brief scuffle Tuesday between Beijing supporters and a small group of pro-democracy protesters who were marching in Hong Kong on the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China.

The semi-autonomous city’s government marked the anniversary in a morning ceremony on what is expected to be a day of protests demanding democratic reforms. Posters in the city where many worry the Beijing central government is eroding Hong Kong’s promised freedoms are calling for the Oct. 1 anniversary to be marked as “A Day of Grief.”