China

BEIJING (AP) — China’s auto sales sank 17.7% in April from a year earlier, the 10th straight month of decline amid trade tension with Washington and an economic slowdown.

Drivers in the industry’s biggest global market bought 1.6 million sedans, SUVs and minivans, according to an industry group, the China Association of Auto Manufacturers. Total vehicle sales, including trucks and buses, fell 14.6% to 2 million.

BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua): Beijing's Yuanmingyuan, or the Old Summer Palace, has recently launched a large-scale restoration project to repair broken cultural relics that had been unearthed, according to China Central Television.

Six pieces of porcelain are part of the first batch of cultural relics to be repaired, including two bowls used during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua): China's top political advisor Wang Yang on Tuesday met with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena in Beijing.

BEIJING (AP) — Sending Wall Street into a slide, China announced higher tariffs Monday on $60 billion worth of American goods in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s latest penalties on Chinese products.

Duties of 5% to 25% will take effect on June 1 on about 5,200 American products, including batteries, spinach and coffee, China’s Finance Ministry said.

Beijing, May 13; PTI/GANASHAKTI: China, which is developing its navy at a feverish pace, has commissioned two more guided missile destroyers taking the total of such warships to 20 with more in the pipeline, state-media reported on Monday.

Two Type 052D guided missile destroyers were launched last Friday in Dalian, a coastal city, state-run Global Times reported.

Their commissioning marked the 19th and 20th of launches of their kind, the report said and quoted Chinese analysts as saying that plans are afoot to build more guided missile destroyers.

BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua): Mobile payment, online shopping, entertainment, dining and beyond -- Chinese apps have been catching on with consumers across Asia.

App Annie, an analyst firm, said Chinese apps for e-commerce, social media and leisure have gained strong growth in Asian countries, and their users have been expanding.

In 2018, the number of downloads of shopping apps grew 54 percent compared with the figure in 2017, the firm said.

BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua): China will hold over 1,000 lectures on earthquake resistance and disaster relief nationwide this year as the country made persistent efforts on raising public awareness and capability of disaster reduction.

The lectures will be held in schools, government agencies, enterprises, communities and villages in forms including expert instruction, emergency first-aid training and evacuation drills, the China Earthquake Administration said on the launch ceremony of the lectures Sunday.

BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua): Beijing Daxing International Airport completed its first test flight of passenger planes as four aircraft landed safely on the runway Monday morning.

China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Air China and Xiamen Airlines sent their flagship models A380, A350-900, B747-8 and B787-9, respectively, for the test.

"The test shows that the new airport has now turned its focus from infrastructure construction to operation preparations," said Wan Xiangdong, chief pilot of Civil Aviation Administration of China.

BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua): Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing were the top three Chinese cities seeing the strongest development in mobile payment in 2018, a recent report showed.

The ranking was based on indexes measuring the mutual promotion between mobile payment and urban competitiveness, according to a report on China's mobile payment development jointly released by the State Information Center, China Economic Information Service, and Ant Financial.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s leading envoy to trade talks in Washington says the failure to strike a deal in the tariffs war with the U.S. was “just a small setback” and negotiations will continue despite increases in import duties on American imports from China.

In comments to reporters before he left Washington for Beijing on Friday, Vice Premier Liu He said he was cautiously optimistic but that a deal would require the Trump administration to agree to end the punitive tariffs it has imposed on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese goods.