Tag: china

Empty shelves and anxiety as Shanghai Covid-19 cases surge

SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — Shanghai recorded a steep climb in Covid-19 cases Tuesday as spreading anxiety in the Chinese city of about 25 million prompted panic-buying at supermarkets. Millions endured a second day of lockdown after authorities effectively split the country’s biggest urban area in two, with residents of the city’s eastern half confined to their homes for four days and subjected to mandatory testing.  China reported 6,886 domestic Covid cases nationwide on Tuesday, with more […]

Shanghai warns against ‘panic’ as Covid cases mount

by Dan Martin SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — Shanghai authorities on Wednesday called for calm as worried citizens swamped online grocery platforms to stock up on food over fears of impending lockdowns in a city struggling to halt a Covid spike. China is experiencing its worst Covid-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic more than two years ago, with Shanghai posting record-high case counts as the highly transmissible Omicron variant frustrates authorities. China’s biggest city […]

Shanghai to lock down in phases to rein in Covid-19 outbreak

  by Dan Martin Agence France Presse SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — Shanghai will launch a phased lockdown to curb an Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 outbreak that has hit China with its highest caseloads since the early days of the pandemic, the city government said Sunday. China’s biggest city will lock down its eastern half from Monday until Friday, officials said, followed by a similar lockdown of its western side beginning on April 1. The metropolis of 25 […]

Drones, thermal scanners scour China Eastern crash site

WUZHOU, China (AFP) – Recovery teams deployed drones and thermal imaging equipment Thursday across a mountainous area where a China Eastern plane inexplicably crashed with 132 people on board. Four days after flight MU5735 ploughed into rugged terrain near Wuzhou in southern China, officials are still yet to declare all of the 123 passengers and nine crew dead. The velocity of the crash cut deep wounds into the muddy ground and scattered plane parts and […]

China says Russia is ‘important’ G20 member, cannot be expelled by others

  BEIJING, China (AFP) — Beijing on Wednesday described Russia as an “important member” of the G20 after Washington raised the prospect of excluding Moscow from the group. China has provided a level of diplomatic protection to Russia, which is increasingly isolated over its invasion of Ukraine, with its economy tied up by sanctions. “The G20 is the main forum for international economic cooperation,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters. “Russia is an […]

Putin plans to attend G20 summit: Russian ambassador

  JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — President Vladimir Putin plans to attend a G20 summit later this year in Indonesia, Moscow’s envoy said Wednesday, dismissing suggestions Russia could be excluded from the group over the war in Ukraine. A day earlier, the United States indicated it would consult allies over Russia’s membership in international forums to increase pressure over the invasion of Ukraine, which has prompted a refugee crisis in Europe and roiled global markets. Russian […]

Chinese recovery teams sift debris of crashed China Eastern jet

by Matthew Walsh WUZHOU, China (AFP) — Chinese recovery teams on Tuesday picked through the debris of a crashed China Eastern jet after it inexplicably plummeted from the sky into a mountainside with 132 people on board. Hopes of finding any survivors had all but vanished a day after the Boeing 737-800 passenger jet nosedived into the mountain — likely making it China’s deadliest air crash in nearly three decades. Questions mounted over the cause […]

China locks down city of 9 million as virus ripples across country

BEIJING, China (AFP) — China locked down an industrial city of nine million people overnight and reported more than 4,000 virus cases on Tuesday, as the nation’s “zero-Covid” strategy is confronted by an Omicron wave. Health authorities reported 4,770 new infections across the country, the bulk in the northeastern province of Jilin, as the city of Shenyang in neighboring Liaoning province was ordered to lockdown late Monday. China has moved fast in recent weeks to […]

Plane carrying 132 crashes into mountain in southern China

by Matthew WALSH with Laurie CHEN in Beijing Agence France-Presse GUANGZHOU, China (AFP) – A China Eastern passenger jet carrying 132 people crashed into a remote mountainside in southern China on Monday after dropping more than 20,000 feet in just over a minute, sparking a massive fire on impact. The airline acknowledged that some aboard the Boeing 737-800 travelling from the city of Kunming to the southern hub of Guangzhou had died, but did not […]

JUST IN: Plane carrying 133 crashes in China, casualties unknown

BEIJING, China (AFP) — A China Eastern passenger jet carrying 133 people has crashed in southwest China with an unknown number of casualties, state broadcaster CCTV reported Monday. The Boeing 737 plane crashed in the rural countryside near Wuzhou city, Guangxi region and “caused a mountain fire”, CCTV said, adding that rescue teams were dispatched to the scene. © Agence France-Presse

Hong Kong to lift ban on flights from nine countries in April

by Su Xinqi HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong is set to resume international flights from the United States, Britain and seven other countries, the government said Monday as it announced a loosening of some of the world’s toughest Covid-19 restrictions. The finance hub has struggled to maintain China’s zero-Covid policy during an Omicron-fuelled outbreak. After the highly transmissible variant fuelled a fresh wave of cases in January, authorities quickly put in place flight […]

Biden to press Xi to get in line over condemnation of Russia

by Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden will warn his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday that he will face “costs” if Beijing rescues fellow authoritarian ally Russia from intense Western sanctions aimed at punishing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The two leaders’ 9:00 am (1300 GMT) scheduled phone call, their first since a video summit in November, will be a chance to air differences as the United States spearheads an […]