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Brussels, Belgium (AFP) The EU on Wednesday escalated disputes with China to the WTO, requesting panels be assembled to hear cases over trade restrictions on Lithuania and on legal recourses for EU patent holders. “In both cases, the Chinese measures are highly damaging to European businesses” and, in the Lithuania case, “impact the functioning of the EU internal market,” the European Commission said in a statement. China is the European Union’s biggest trading partner, […]
Beijing, China (AFP) China announced Wednesday a nationwide loosening of its hardline Covid restrictions that had hammered the world’s second biggest economy and ignited rare protests against the ruling Communist Party. The new rules are a major relaxation of President Xi Jinping’s signature zero-Covid policy, three years into the pandemic and long after the rest of the world had largely learnt to live with the virus. However, with vaccination rates remaining low among China’s elderly […]
by Robbie Corey-Boulet Agence France-Presse RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for three days of meetings with regional leaders likely focused on energy. The overseas trip is only Xi’s third since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020, and his first to Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude oil exporter, since 2016. It will feature bilateral meetings with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Sirens will wail across China as the country comes to a standstill Tuesday during a public memorial service for former leader Jiang Zemin, who died last week at the age of 96. Jiang oversaw a transformational era from the late 1980s into the new millennium, taking power in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and leading China towards its emergence as a powerhouse on the global stage. But […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Businesses reopened and testing requirements were relaxed in Beijing and other Chinese cities on Monday as the country tentatively eases out of a strict zero-Covid policy that sparked nationwide protests. Local authorities across China have begun a slow rollback of the restrictions that have governed daily life for years, encouraged by the central government’s orders for a new approach to fighting the coronavirus. In the capital Beijing, where many businesses have […]
Beijing, China (AFP) Authorities in China’s financial hub of Shanghai will from Monday scrap some testing requirements in the country’s latest relaxing of its strict zero-Covid policy following nationwide protests unseen in decades. Multiple cities have started to roll back some restrictions after public resentment at harsh and prolonged containment measures reached a boiling point last weekend, when spontaneous protests broke out in multiple Chinese cities. Shanghai residents will no longer need a 48-hour negative […]
Bruxelles, Belgium (AFP) China’s President Xi Jinping suggested in talks with EU chief Charles Michel that the spread of the less lethal Omicron strain of Covid-19 may allow Beijing to ease lockdown rules, European officials said Friday. Michel met the Chinese leader in Beijing on Thursday. According to an account of the meeting from a senior European official, Xi told Michel that Chinese “people were frustrated” after three years of the coronavirus epidemic. Anger […]
Shanghai, China (AFP) by Matthew WALSH and Michael ZHANG Mobile apps and state media websites turned black-and-white, flags on some government buildings in Beijing were at half-mast, and flowers were laid as China on Thursday mourned the death of former leader Jiang Zemin. State media said Jiang had died of leukaemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai on Wednesday at the age of 96 after all medical treatments failed, and that funeral preparations had begun. […]
Hong Kong, China (AFP) A major Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange has scrubbed some of its social media presence two weeks after it halted withdrawals, fuelling fears the firm may collapse as the sector reels from the implosion of giant FTX. Atom Asset Exchange (AAX) prevented customer withdrawals on November 15, saying its capital position was under “acute pressure” after some investors asked for their money back. This came after the stunning fall of industry leader […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – Overworked, underpaid and thoroughly fed up, Wang’s troubles deepened even further when authorities abruptly locked down the delivery driver’s Beijing apartment block earlier this month. Officials in the Chinese capital have doubled down on the country’s hallmark zero-Covid policy in recent weeks, one of an array of cities to impose sweeping shutdowns, mass testing and teleworking mandates as caseloads have hit all-time highs. Wang is not alone in feeling frustrated. The ruling […]
by Matthew WALSH with Ludovic EHRET in Beijing Agence France-Presse SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — China’s major cities of Beijing and Shanghai were blanketed with security on Tuesday in the wake of nationwide rallies calling for political freedoms and an end to Covid lockdowns. The country’s leadership is facing a wave of protest not seen in decades, fuelled by anger over the unrelenting lockdowns as well as deep-rooted frustrations over China’s political direction. A deadly fire […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – US President Joe Biden is closely monitoring unrest in China by protesters demanding an end to Covid lockdowns and greater political freedoms, the White House said Monday, as smaller demonstrations spilled over outside the country. The comments came after hundreds of people took to the streets in China’s major cities over the weekend, in a rare outpouring of public frustration that spread to international Chinese-speaking communities as well. “He’s monitoring this. […]
