China

BEIJING, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a Chinese court's sentencing of Canadian businessman Michael Spavor to 11 years in prison for espionage on Wednesday was "absolutely unacceptable" and called for his immediate release.

The United States embassy in Beijing also condemned the sentencing in a statement, saying that proceedings against Spavor and another Canadian charged with espionage were an attempt to "use human beings as bargaining leverage".

BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The volume of China's foreign trade, exports and imports all hit record highs in the first seven months of 2021, while their year-on-year growth rates set 10-year highs compared with the same period in previous years, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Tuesday.

DANDONG, China (AP) — A Chinese court sentenced Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor to 11 years in prison Wednesday in a spying case linked to Beijing’s pressure campaign against the Canadian government over the arrest of an executive at tech giant Huawei.

A Canadian court will hear final arguments in the next few weeks over whether to hand over the executive, Meng Wanzhou, to face U.S. criminal charges in connection with possible violations of trade sanctions on Iran.

BEIJING, Aug 10 (APP): A shipment of nearly 980,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines donated by domestic drug maker China National Biotech Group through COVAX was transported to Pakistan as part of China’s effort to help the rest of the world tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said.

The doses, the first sent in a 170 million dose agreement, were packaged at a Beijing unit of CNBG, a subsidiary of State-owned Sinopharm. They were sent to cold storage at an airport for a security check and customs clearance.

HONG KONG, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday she supports the implementation of a mainland Chinese law in the former British colony to respond to foreign sanctions, the strongest signal yet that the city is set to adopt the legislation.

Lam, speaking at her weekly news conference, said she would prefer the law be introduced through Hong Kong legislation rather than Beijing legislation, by adding it to an annex of Hong Kong's mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law.

BEIJING/OTTAWA, Aug 10 (Reuters) - A Chinese court upheld on Tuesday a Canadian man's death sentence for drug smuggling, a day before another court is due to rule on the case of another Canadian accused of spying.

The court proceedings for the two Canadians come as lawyers in Canada representing the detained chief financial officer of telecoms giant Huawei make a final push to convince a court there not to extradite her to the United States, where she faces charges linked to violating sanctions. 

BEIJING (AP) — China on Tuesday recalled its ambassador to Lithuania and expelled the Baltic nation’s top representative to Beijing over the country’s decision to allow self-governing Taiwan to open an office in Lithuania under its own name.

Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory without the right to diplomatic recognition, although the island maintains informal ties with all major nations through trade offices that act as de facto embassies, including in the United States and Japan. Chinese pressure has reduced Taiwan’s formal diplomatic allies to just 15.

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council on Sunday strongly opposed and condemned the U.S. intervention in Hong Kong affairs, which are China's domestic affairs.

A spokesperson with the office made the statement in response to a Hong Kong-related memorandum from the U.S. government.

When the U.S. government said that it wanted to stand with people in Hong Kong, it obviously wanted to stand with those few anti-China forces seeking to disrupt Hong Kong, the spokesperson said.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher Monday after China and Australia tightened anti-virus controls that threaten to weigh on an economic recovery.

Shanghai, Hong Kong, South Korea and Sydney advanced. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.

On Friday, Wall Street ended at a new high after a government report showed the U.S. job market improving.

BEIJING, Aug 8 (APP): Expressing satisfaction over tremendous increase in exports to China in first half of 2021 as compared to first six months of last year, Commercial Counsellor, Pakistan Embassy, Beijing, Badar uz Zaman on Sunday said that the Pakistani exporters needed to establish good brands to attract Chinese customers and further increase exports to China.