China

12 September 2019; AFP: Beijing's notoriously bad air quality has improved in recent years and the Chinese capital is expected to drop out of a list of 200 most polluted cities in the world this year, a data provider said Thursday.

Beijing "is on track" to reduce PM2.5 -- tiny particles that are the deadliest air pollutants -- by nearly 20 percent this year compared to 2018, Swiss air purification technology company IQAir's research arm AirVisual said.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - This is a transcript of a talk given in late August by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam to a group of businesspeople in the city. The transcript is taken from an audio recording of Lam’s remarks that was obtained by Reuters. Last week, Reuters published most of Lam’s remarks and is now able to publish them in full.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Commerce Ministry said on Thursday that Chinese companies have started to inquire about prices for U.S. agricultural goods purchases, in a further sign of a thaw emerging in a bitter trade war between the two countries.

Speaking at a weekly news briefing in Beijing, Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng also said working-level teams from both countries will meet soon to prepare for the next round of top-level talks.

Gao said that possible Chinese purchases of U.S. farm goods included pork and soybeans.

KUNMING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Two suspects were caught with more than 21 kg of drugs seized in southwest China's Yunnan Province, a major front in the country's battle against drug crime, local police said.

After receiving a tip-off regarding drug trafficking on Aug. 12, police in Yongping County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, initiated an investigation into the case.

TAIYUAN, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China sent a resource satellite and two small satellites into planned orbits from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province on Thursday.

They were launched on a Long March-4B carrier rocket at 11:26 a.m. (Beijing Time).

The resource satellite, ZY-1 02D, will provide observation data for natural resources asset management, ecological monitoring, disaster prevention and control, environmental protection, urban construction, transportation and contingency management.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China announced its first batch of tariff exemptions for 16 types of U.S. products, days ahead of a planned meeting between trade negotiators from the two countries to try and de-escalate their bruising tariff row.

The exemptions will apply to U.S. goods including some anti-cancer drugs and lubricants, as well as the animal feed ingredients whey and fish meal, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its website on Wednesday.

10 September 2019; AFP: Hong Kong's embattled leader warned the United States on Tuesday not to "interfere" with her government's response to the city's pro-democracy movement, after fresh protests called on Washington to ramp up pressure on Beijing.

Millions of people have demonstrated over the last 14 weeks in the biggest challenge to China's rule of the financial hub since its handover from Britain in 1997.

SHANGHAI, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- A satellite terminal, believed to be world's largest of its kind, will be put into operation at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport, as its third-phase expansion project starts operation on Sept. 16, local authorities said Monday.

Located south of the airport's existing T1 and T2 terminals, the satellite terminal, covering an area of 622,000 square meters and whose construction is part of the third-phase expansion project, will provide departure, arrival and transfer services.

Beijing, Sep 10 (AP) Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba Group, the world's biggest e-commerce company, is stepping down as chairman at a time when the rapidly changing industry faces uncertainty amid a US-Chinese trade war.

Ma stepped down Tuesday as part of a succession announced a year earlier. He will stay on as a member of the Alibaba Partnership, a group of 36 people with the right to nominate a majority of the company's board of directors.

Ma, 55, founded Alibaba in 1999 to connect Chinese exporters to American retailers.

HONG KONG (AP) — Thousands of students formed human chains outside schools across Hong Kong on Monday to show solidarity to push for democratic reforms after violent weekend clashes in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.

The silent protest comes as the Hong Kong government condemned the “illegal behavior of radical protesters” and warned the U.S. to stay out of its affairs.