China

BEIJING, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday urged the United States to stop political manipulation on the issue of coronavirus origins tracing.

If the U.S. insists on the "lab leak" theory, it should invite the World Health Organization to investigate the labs of Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina in the first place, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily press briefing. 

BEIJING, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The benefits of China's zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19 continue to outweigh the costs but it should cut back on excessive measures that risk exhausting people, a former Chinese disease control official said on Tuesday.

Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist at Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said "flood-like" measures and policies that prove inefficient should be avoided even though China has the financial resources to keep pursuing the goal of zero local infections.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities on Tuesday said they plan to amend a film censorship law to forbid screenings of movies deemed contrary to national security.

The proposed changes to Hong Kong’s Film Censorship Ordinance would step up censorship of movies in the semi-autonomous city, expanding an ongoing crackdown on political dissent that has led to the closure of various pro-democracy organizations and the arrests of dozens of activists.

BEIJING, Aug 22 (APP): Over the years, countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) including Pakistan have collaborated to explore the Digital Silk Road and reaped fruitful benefits in this regard.

This was stated by Li Yikai, Deputy Director of Centre for International Economic and Technological Cooperation, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT), at the 2021 Online Silk Road Conference of the Fifth China-Arab States Expo held in China’s northwest city of Yinchuan.

BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Heavy rains are expected to hit China in the next three days, likely pushing water levels in some rivers above warning levels, the Ministry of Water Resources said Saturday.

From Saturday to Monday, downpours will hit the north and northwest parts of the country as well as the regions along the Yellow and Huaihe rivers, with torrential rains expected in parts of central China's Henan Province, the ministry said.

BEIJING (AP) — In the U.S. departure from Afghanistan, China has seen the realization of long-held hopes for a reduction of the influence of a geopolitical rival in what it considers its backyard.

Yet, it is also deeply concerned that the very withdrawal could bring risk and instability to that backyard — Central Asia — and possibly even spill over their narrow, remote border into China itself and the heavily Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang.

SHANGHAI, Aug 21 (Reuters) - A suicide bomb attack in Pakistan on a motorcade carrying Chinese personnel injured one Chinese national and killed two local children, the Chinese embassy in Islamabad said on Saturday.

"The Chinese embassy in Pakistan strongly condemns this act of terrorism, extends its sincere sympathies to the injured of both countries, and expresses its deep condolences to the innocent victims in Pakistan," it said in a statement.

HONG KONG, Aug 21 (Reuters) - A council member of a professional group of solicitors in Hong Kong on Saturday dropped his bid to seek re-election next week, citing fears for his safety and that of his family.

Tuesday's elections to the Law Society, a professional body and regulator for 12,000 solicitors, come as critics say the legal system in the global financial hub faces pressure from a China-imposed national security law.

TAIPEI, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Taiwan's foreign minister accused China on Saturday of wanting to "emulate" the Taliban, saying the island that Beijing claims as sovereign Chinese territory did not wish to be subject to communism or crimes against humanity.

The rapid fall of the U.S.-backed Afghan government has sparked heated debate in Taiwan about whether they could suffer the same fate to a Chinese invasion, while state media in China has said Kabul's fate showed Taiwan it cannot trust Washington.

BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- As the situation in Afghanistan remains uncertain following the Taliban's swift takeover of most parts of the country on Sunday, the international community has warned against potential humanitarian challenges and expressed a willingness to help the country establish peace and stability.