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Hong Kong, China | AFP Hong Kong’s half-trillion-dollar investment fund set up to defend the financial hub’s currency has suffered its largest loss on record of more than HK$200 billion ($25 billion), authorities said Monday. The Exchange Fund, the semi-autonomous Chinese city’s de facto sovereign wealth fund, is one of the largest public investment vehicles in the world. Its slump last year was only the third loss since Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority (HKMA) began disclosing […]
by Sébastien Ricci and Vivian Lin Agence France-Presse WUHAN, China (AFP) — Residents of China’s Wuhan said Monday they were hopeful for the future and no longer afraid of Covid-19, three years after the city was locked down over what was then a mysterious virus. Since Beijing ordered Wuhan sealed off in a bid to suffocate the outbreak in January 2020, Covid has devastated the planet, killing millions and plunging the global economy into turmoil. […]
Beijing, China | AFP | China reported nearly 13,000 Covid-related deaths in hospitals between January 13 and 19, after a top health official said the vast majority of the population had already been infected. The death toll came a week after China said nearly 60,000 people had died with Covid in hospitals in just over a month — but there has been widespread scepticism over official data since Beijing abruptly axed anti-virus controls last […]
by Ludovic EHRET Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades, official data showed Tuesday, as the world’s most populous nation faces a looming demographic crisis. The nation of 1.4 billion has seen birth rates plunge to record lows as its workforce ages, in a rapid decline that analysts warn could stymie economic growth and pile pressure on strained public coffers. The population […]
Beijing, China (AFP) Beijing said Wednesday it would scrap visa-free transit for South Korean and Japanese citizens, stepping up a diplomatic tit-for-tat after both countries placed travel curbs on visitors from China. South Korea and Japan have in recent weeks imposed fresh travel requirements on all visitors from China, as the world’s most populous country battles a surge in Covid cases. China hit back at what it deems “unacceptable” curbs, ending short-term visas for all […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — China on Tuesday said Australia should remember Japan’s war crimes during World War II before cozying up to the regional power. Australia’s center-left government has been trying to repair its relationship with China, which soured considerably under the former conservative government. But it has also recently signed a new security pact with China’s regional rival Japan, seen as an attempt to limit Beijing’s muscle in the Pacific region. China’s ambassador to […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A former US marine accused of illegally training Chinese military pilots believes his arrest was politically motivated and will fight extradition from Australia, his lawyer said Tuesday. Daniel Edmund Duggan was arrested in Australia late last year and now faces extradition to the United States, where he is accused of violating an arms embargo. The 54-year-old was a highly-regarded jet pilot who spent 12 years in the US Marine Corps, reaching […]
Beijing, China (AFP) China Monday invoked Germany’s “painful” history in slamming a Taiwan visit by a high-ranking parliamentary delegation from Berlin, in an apparent reference to the country’s wartime record. The group of German lawmakers arrived in the self-ruled island on Monday ahead of an anticipated ministerial visit later this year in a move that will likely enrage China. The visit is a “sign of solidarity” with the democracy which China claims as part of […]
Hong Kong, China (AFP) by Su Xinqi Hugging her boyfriend goodbye, student Yuri Tan was among hundreds excitedly heading north across Hong Kong’s border with mainland China on Sunday as pandemic travel restrictions were mostly lifted, finally allowing separated families to reunite. “I am going back because I don’t have to undergo quarantine anymore,” an elated Tan told AFP, clutching luggage containing a few boxes of fever medication for family. Tan, 23, was planning […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Almost 90 percent of people in China’s third most populous province have now been infected with Covid-19, a top official said Monday, as the country battles an unprecedented surge in cases. Kan Quancheng, director of the health commission for central Henan province, told a press conference that “as of January 6, 2023, the province’s Covid infection rate is 89.0 percent.” With a population of 99.4 million, the figures suggest about 88.5 […]
by Sara HUSSEIN / Tomohiro OSAKI Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — In Tokyo’s Asakusa tourist district, caricaturist Masashi Higashitani is dusting off his Chinese as he prepares for an influx of travelers after Beijing ends inbound quarantine rules. “We used to say ‘ni hao’ all the time,” he said with a laugh as he whipped up a portrait in minutes. Nearly 9.6 million Chinese visited Japan in 2019, the biggest group of foreign tourists […]
Bangkok, Thailand (AFP) Thai authorities said Thursday that travellers from China could enter the kingdom without pre-departure coronavirus tests, hoping their return would be a shot in the arm for the country’s tourism sector recovery. China has experienced a surge in infections and its hospitals and crematoriums have been inundated after Beijing last month wound back tight restrictions. The United States, Canada, Japan and France are among the countries that have imposed new rules requiring […]
