China

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s security chief said on Friday that police surveillance of communications can come under the city’s national security law, potentially giving officers broader powers of interception.

John Lee, speaking at an online Legislative Council meeting on security, said the Committee of Safeguarding National Security would have oversight over such surveillance operations.

“If it involves crimes endangering national security, they will be dealt with the rules and mechanisms established under the National Security Law,” Lee said.

BEIJING, Jan 14 (APP): China on Thursday reported its first local COVID-19 fatality in about eight months since May17, a female patient from North China’s Hebei Province who had an underlying disease and had been extremely ill before she died on Wednesday afternoon.

Experts say the case is not a direct indication that the virus has become more pathogenic, according to Global Times.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police have arrested 11 people over suspected crimes related to assisting a group of 12 pro-democracy activists accused of attempting to flee the city by boat for Taiwan last year, local media and activists reported on Thursday.

Those arrested, ages 18 to 72, according to local broadcaster RTHK, included eight men and three women.

Daniel Wong, a lawyer who tried to help the 12 people detained in mainland China last August, was among those arrested.

Wong wrote on Facebook that police arrived at his apartment at 6 a.m. local time.

WUHAN, China (AP) — A global team of researchers arrived Thursday in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic was first detected to conduct a politically sensitive investigation into its origins amid uncertainty about whether Beijing might try to prevent embarrassing discoveries.

The 10-member team sent to Wuhan by the World Health Organization was approved by President Xi Jinping’s government after months of diplomatic wrangling that prompted an unusual public complaint by the head of the WHO.

BEIJING, Jan 13 (APP): A delegation of China International Culture Exchange Center (CICEC) on Wednesday visited Pakistan Embassy, Beijing and donated a batch of medical supplies to support Pakistan in its fight against Covid-19.

The batch of supplies includes 30,000 masks, PPE suits, 3000 boxes of Chinese herbal medicine, and nucleic acid test kits, China Economic Net (CEN) reported.

BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday rebutted U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's slanderous comments about the Communist Party of China (CPC), saying that blaming and stigmatizing China will never "make America great again."

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a daily press briefing when asked to comment on Pompeo's recent tweet, in which he claimed that the CPC is the biggest threat to the United Nations (UN).

BEIJING, January 12. /TASS/: The Chinese authorities have announced the lockdown of the cities of Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and Langfang with a total population of over 23 mln due to a new coronavirus outbreak, according to the Hebei province’s health committee.

Security measures will be tightened on highways and railroads leading to the three cities, the committee said. People are allowed to leave the cities only when absolutely necessary. At the same time, local watchdogs plan to conduct mass coronavirus testing.

BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday expressed firm opposition to and deploration about recent U.S. moves and remarks concerning Taiwan, saying any attempt of undermining China's core interests will meet "resolute counterattacks" from the Chinese side and will not succeed.

According to media reports, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced a decision to lift restrictions on interactions with Taiwan.

"China firmly opposes and deplores such practices," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a press briefing when asked to make comments.

BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The raging COVID-19 pandemic shows no sign of abating as confirmed cases worldwide have exceeded 90 million and a new variant genome has been detected in Japan.

PASSING 90-MLN MARK

The global case count reached 90,045,410, with a total of 1,931,571 deaths worldwide as of 3:22 p.m. local time (2022 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s Ministry of Commerce on Saturday published new rules for countering “unjustified” laws and restrictions imposed by foreign countries on Chinese companies and citizens, as economic relations between Beijing and Washington deteriorate.

The rules on “unjustified extra-territorial application of foreign legislation” were posted on department’s website and established a “working mechanism” to assess the legal implications of such incidents.