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One person died during a highway pile-up involving hundreds of vehicles in central China, state broadcaster CCTV reported Wednesday, with images of the accident showing scenes of chaos. Aerial pictures showed hundreds of passenger cars, vans and lorries — many of which had smashed into one another — piled up on one section of the highway in dense fog. Other viral videos posted online showed the mangled remains of several vehicles that had crashed into […]
Hong Kong, China (AFP) Hong Kong authorities on Wednesday asked Japan to remove restrictions on direct flights from the city, which were imposed following the explosion of coronavirus cases in mainland China. The city deployed similar curbs during its own fight against Covid, including rapid bans on airlines for carrying virus-positive passengers and travel restrictions for nations with major outbreaks. Japan became one of the first countries to impose China-specific travel restrictions this week […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – Beijing’s sudden pivot away from containing Covid-19 has caused jitters around the world, with the United States saying it may restrict travel from China following its decision to end mandatory quarantine for overseas arrivals. China late Monday scrapped quarantine for inbound travelers from January 8 onwards, dismantling the last remaining piece of its stringent zero-Covid policy and ending some of the world’s harshest border restrictions. The move was greeted with jubilation by […]
Beijing, China (AFP) Chinese President Xi Jinping urged officials on Monday to take steps to protect lives in his first public remarks on Covid-19 since Beijing dramatically loosened hardline containment measures this month. Having mostly cut itself off from the rest of the world during the pandemic, China is now experiencing the planet’s biggest surge in infections after abruptly lifting restrictions that torpedoed the economy. Studies have estimated that around one million people could die […]
Agence France Presse — China conducted military exercises near Taiwan on Sunday in response to “provocations” and “collusion” between the United States and the self-ruled island, a People’s Liberation Army spokesperson said. Beijing claims democratic, self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, to be taken one day by force if necessary, and has ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on the island. Beijing has been incensed by US President Joe Biden’s handling of Taiwan […]
Hong Kong, China (AFP) Hong Kong is aiming to reopen its border with China by mid-January, city leader John Lee announced on Saturday after returning from meetings in Beijing. The border has been effectively shut for nearly three years while China enforced a zero-Covid strategy of snap lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing that battered the world’s second-largest economy. After abruptly reversing on its pandemic policies last month, Beijing has been grappling with a […]
CHONGQING, China (AFP) – “Deceased, deceased,” a staffer in full protective gear shouted as she handed a nurse a death certificate, their hospital in central China overflowing with Covid patients. China is battling a wave of infections that has hit the elderly hard, but has officially logged only a handful of deaths from the coronavirus after the government redefined the criteria by which Covid deaths are counted. At No. 5 People’s Hospital in Chongqing, the main […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – Employees of Chinese tech giant ByteDance improperly accessed data from social media platform TikTok to track journalists in a bid to identify the source of leaks to the media, the company admitted Friday. TikTok has gone to great lengths to convince customers and governments of major markets like the United States that users’ data privacy is protected and that it poses no threat to national security. But parent company ByteDance told AFP […]
by Sebastien RICCI with Luna LIN and Holmes CHAN in Hong Kong Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China has requisitioned medical supplies production across the country as millions struggle to obtain basic drugs and testing kits in the face of a surge in Covid-19 cases. Pharmacies in major cities have been stripped bare in the wake of the Chinese government’s sudden decision to lift years of lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing. Authorities have urged […]
by Laurie CHEN and Vivian LIN in Shanghai Agence France-Presse CHONGQING, China (AFP) — Elderly patients lined the wards of hospitals in major cities in China Thursday as the country battled a wave of Covid cases. The virus is surging across the vast Asian nation in an outbreak authorities say is impossible to track after the end of mandatory mass testing. And with cases soaring, Washington called on Beijing to share its Covid outbreak data, […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – China said Wednesday that not a single person had died of Covid-19 the previous day, after changing the criteria for recording virus deaths to mean most are no longer counted. Hospitals are struggling, pharmacy shelves are stripped bare and crematoriums are overwhelmed in the wake of the Chinese government’s sudden decision to lift years of lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing. China had recorded a total of seven deaths — all in Beijing […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — The Philippines said Wednesday it was “seriously concerned” over a report that China has started reclaiming several unoccupied land features in the disputed South China Sea. Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing satellite images from US officials, that new land formations have emerged around the contested Spratly Islands in the sea, where a Chinese vessel with a hydraulic excavator was seen operating over the years. “We are seriously concerned as such activities contravene […]
