Posts

A notice by the Xi’an city government said the stay-at-home order would come into effect at midnight local time on Thursday. The mandatory quarantine period is indefinite, with an end date to be announced at a later time, according to the statement. Xi’an reported 52 of Shaanxi province’s 57 symptomatic cases. The growing outbreak accounted for the majority of the 77 coronavirus cases reported across the country on December 21, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said in a report on Wednesday....

Mr Xi’s visit in October 2015 made the front pages of many national and local newspapers as he mingled with political and footballing heavyweights – taking a selfie with then UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero – and was granted a tour of the Etihad Stadium. Later he would meet with former City star Sun Jihai, a Chinese trailblazer who was just being inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame....

“A lab employee infected in the field while collecting samples in a bat cave—such a scenario belongs both as a lab-leak hypothesis and as our first hypothesis of direct infection from bat to human,” he told Danish state-owned television station TV2 in a documentary that aired last Thursday. “We’ve seen that hypothesis as a likely hypothesis.” Now he tells us. Embarek sang a very different tune in an interview with Science in February....

This week, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) led a five-member bipartisan delegation to Taipei for a two-day trip. The Communist Party’s Global Times published a dire threat to the members of the delegation. Earlier this month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) led a high-profile trip to the Taiwan capital. Hu Xijin, formerly Global Times’ editor and now China’s “most famous propagandist,” threatened a shoot-down of the speaker’s plane. The harsh tone of Chinese propaganda issued in connection with both delegations is in line with China’s white paper on Taiwan, released last Wednesday....

The world’s two most dangerous actors, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, are meeting in the middle of this month. The in-person get-together, the 39th since Xi became Chinese president in 2013, will take place in the Silk Road city of Samarkand, in Uzbekistan. China has not confirmed the meeting with Putin, but it will undoubtedly take place at the summit of the China-sponsored SCO, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, on the 15th and 16th....

Addressing a plenary meeting of the fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress on Tuesday, Xi emphasized self-reliance, innovation and optimization among the world’s largest standing armed forces, the People’s Liberation Army, in order to realize national goals. He praised the military’s successful achievements of last year’s goals, as well as its contribution to the defeat of COVID-19 in China, but warned of more troubling times ahead as the People’s Republic continues its rise to superpower status....

General Li Zuocheng, the chief of the Joint Staff Department and member of the Central Military Commission, said Friday that while peaceful diplomacy is preferred, China will consider using force to establish control over Taipei as part of its “One China” policy. “If the possibility for peaceful reunification is lost, the people’s armed forces will, with the whole nation, including the people of Taiwan, take all necessary steps to resolutely smash any separatist plots or actions,” Li said, according to Reuters....

The Republican senator for South Carolina is leading the congressional delegation, or CODEL, which was greeted on the tarmac by Taiwanese officials including Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. The group of six U.S. legislators includes New Jersey Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez, their visit an unmistakable signal of solitary with Taiwan’s leadership at a time of increasing political and military pressure from Beijing. Washington severed diplomatic ties with Taipei in 1979. It established formal relations with Beijing in part to take on their once common Cold War foe, the Soviet Union....

The ministry put forward a plan to compile the list of forbidden tracks in a document published to its website late last week, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Friday. The document explained that songs will be banned if they are deemed to “endanger national unity, sovereignty or territorial integrity, or harm national security, honour or interests.” Tracks that the government views as inciting “ethnic hatred” will be added to the list....

Chinese government ministers said this weekend they are willing to boost international cooperation in the search for a potential novel coronavirus vaccine, which is believed to be the most effective way to rid the world of the infectious respiratory illness. In a media conference today, the director of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, Wang Zhigang, doubled down on the stance that any vaccine China’s finds will become a “global public good,” but said worldwide cooperation will be needed....

In a commentary published on Saturday, Hu Xijin, the former editor of nationalistic tabloid the Global Times, describes a “real sense of crisis in Taiwan,” where he says the public is more psychologically prepared for war than China. “As the situation in the Taiwan Strait deteriorates, we must prepare for a military struggle,” Hu wrote, urging Chinese citizens to be “ready to face major challenges and hardships” as a result of a hypothetical U....

During his visit, Azar expressed continued support for Taiwan from Washington, D.C., where there is growing bipartisan desire to challenge perceived Chinese expansionism. He also attacked China’s response to the COVID-19 coronavirus, accusing Beijing of failing the international community. The pandemic is one element of deteriorating U.S.-Chinese relations, which have taken a nosedive since President Donald Trump took office. Beijing and Washington have repeatedly clashed over trade, technology, territorial disputes, human rights, and Taiwan....

They discovered the body in south London’s Brunswick Park, The Guardian reported. Police believe the body was that of Petra Srncova, a 32-year-old National Health Service worker last seen November 28. Police are still waiting for formal identification, but her family has been notified, according to the newspaper. They are treating her death as unexplained at this point in the investigation. Authorities say Srncova disappeared while on her way home after finishing a shift at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, where she worked as a senior nurse assistant in Westminster, The Guardian reported....

Tuesday saw the South American pair draw 1-1 in their final qualifier in Lima, a result that put Colombia into Russia 2018 automatically while sealing Peru a spot in the inter-continental play-off against New Zealand. Argentina 17/2 to win World Cup Chile, meanwhile, were sent crashing out of contention as a 3-0 defeat to CONMEBOL group winners Brazil sealed their fate, prompting coach Juan Antonio Pizzi to resign shortly afterwards....

The new regulations—effective immediately starting Wednesday—limit the length of U.S. visitor visas granted to registered Communist Party members and their immediate families to a single entry lasting just 30 days, according to the New York Times. Denial of the usual 10-year, multiple-entry visitor visas could affect some 270 million Chinese citizens with ties to their country’s ruling party, including those less politically inclined who join in order to further business interests in the mainland....

At a Friday press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying criticized Twitter for the action and maintained that China was a victim, rather than an instigator, of online disinformation campaigns, Reuters reported. Hua told reporters that Twitter should address anti-Chinese accounts if it was serious about dealing with disinformation on its platforms. She also claimed that many platforms allowed falsehoods about China and that there was a clear need for objective Chinese voices....

In contrast, Ajay Jayaram – the only Indian to reach the men’s singles quarter-finals – found the going extremely tough against the second seed and Olympic champion Chen Long. The Indian bowed out 15-21, 14-21 in 40 minutes. Sindhu sizzles Bingjiao had been Sindhu’s nemesis this year, having won three of the five matches they played prior to this showdown. The World No. 10, in fact, has been the most in-form women’s singles player for the past few weeks, who won three of her last five tournaments that included the French Open Superseries title....

This was the fourth meeting between the two, with Svitolina leading the head-to-head record 2-1. After putting in a lot of effort to defeat Sofia Kenin on Wednesday night, the 25-year-old needed to bring her best to defeat the surging World No. 8. Double faults were a regular feature at the start of the match for both and as Bertens got into her second service game, the issue nearly got out of control....

In the past week, China has seen a wave of impassioned protests from citizens, a rarity in an authoritarian state known for tight control of expression. The demonstrations were spurred by opposition to the government’s strict zero-COVID policies, which heavily restrict the movement of citizens in areas with positive tests for the virus and are believed to have caused the deaths of 10 in an apartment fire due to emergency services being unable to reach it in time....