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The Chinese government is out to destroy Falun Gong, a fast-growing spiritual movement that blends elements of Buddhism, Taoism and traditional Chinese morality. The group claims to have 70 million members on the mainland, and an additional 30 million followers in the rest of the world. Beijing describes the group as an “evil cult” with subversive intentions, and has stepped up its violent crackdown. According to Falun Gong, Beijing has killed more than 100 followers over the last two years and thrown tens of thousands of members into prison camps and psychiatric hospitals....

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing would welcome cooperation with Washington, as long as it’s mutually beneficial, according to a transcript released on the government’s website. His address at the Symposium on the International Situation and China’s Foreign Relations in 2021 followed on from themes present in his assessment from 2020. It was a year similarly overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic and fractured U.S.-China relations during the final 12 months of the Donald Trump administration....

Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing, singled out Joseph Wu by name at a fortnightly press conference on Wednesday, calling Taiwan’s minister of foreign affairs a “stubborn Taiwan secessionist.” President Tsai Ing-wen’s chief diplomat becomes the first official in her cabinet to be named by China as a credible threat to its cross-strait ambition of “unification” with the island. Wu has made several notable media appearances in recent months, warning English-speaking audiences about Beijing’s military coercion and its attempts to isolate Taiwan from the international community....

The South China Morning Post reported it had seen government data showing that a 55-year-old from Hubei may have had the first confirmed case of the new coronavirus on November 17, but did not make the data public. The newspaper also said that it was possible there were cases reported before the November date set out in the government data, adding that Chinese officials had identified 266 cases of COVID-19 last year....

The rare hint at potential retaliation didn’t come from the government, but rather from Taiwan’s parliamentary speaker, You Si-kun, who was one of three Taiwanese officials—along with Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and Premier Su Tseng-chang—to be sanctioned by China late last year. Speaking at a virtual event on Sunday, You departed from Taipei’s usual emphasis on defense to note that Taiwan’s domestically produced Yun Feng supersonic cruise missiles could reach Beijing....

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying responded to President Joe Biden’s turnaround on the WHO during Thursday’s press conference in Beijing. “With regard to the retraction of the U.S. withdrawal from WHO, we all know that WHO is a specialized institution in the field of international health and plays an important leading and coordinating role in international anti-epidemic cooperation,” Hua said. “China always maintains that all countries should actively support WHO’s work and jointly safeguard international public health security....

The leader of the Chinese pack is Geely Automotive Holdings, says Tina Jantzi, manager of North American forecasting for J.D. Power Automotive Forecasting. Its strategy borrows heavily from Asian predecessors: establish a foothold with affordable economy cars and build brand confidence from there. Geely is building a U.S.-based executive staff led by American John Harmer, and this year sent 6,000 subcompacts to Puerto Rico as a test market. J.D. Power predicts that the first Geely will not reach the United States until mid-2009, and that sales will reach just 7,500 cars in 2010....

The Chinese government said it would recall its ambassador from Vilnius on Tuesday after Lithuania disregarded diplomatic protests and threats of “potential consequences” over the planned opening of a Taiwanese Representative Office in the city. The office would be the island’s first de facto embassy in Europe to bear the name “Taiwan” instead of the typical “Taipei,” which affords a degree of ambiguity to countries that have no formal diplomatic ties with the Chinese-claimed democracy....

Leaders from the four countries, referred to as the “Quad,” will meet next week for talks in the interest of “promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the Biden administration said. On Wednesday, Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory, conducted military exercises on rural roads to prepare for any possible Chinese attacks on its main airfields. The action comes as China has increased its assertiveness in the East and South China Seas, pushing Taiwan to bolster its defense and the U....

Not long ago few Chinese leaders would have been comfortable riffing on trade surpluses and T-bonds. But as Wen kicks off an official visit to the United States this week, he represents a new government team, a new sophistication in Beijing–and, in some ways, a new China. Almost as soon as Wen and his boss, President Hu Jintao, took over China’s top government jobs in March, they launched an international charm offensive....

Cases there surged again during the first half of January 2021. While the U.S., India and Europe were still struggling to cope with a surge of coronavirus cases and adverse effects on their economies, in September 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping held an ironic award ceremony in Beijing commending China’s “model role” in fighting the global epidemic. Xi claimed that “we have passed an extraordinary and historic test,” and “the pandemic once again proves the superiority of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics....

Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, the digital form of the renminbi is controlled by the country’s banking system and can be regulated through a far greater level of government oversight. In introducing the pilot version of this digital currency system, China steps ahead of the United States when it comes to unrolling a government-backed digital form of payment. At the moment, the U.S. still finds itself in the research phase as the popularity of unregulated cryptocurrencies continues to rise....

Following a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Thursday, Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels that China’s failure to stand against Russian aggression represents “a serious challenge to us all.” China’s mission to the EU told Newsweek in a statement that it is the North Atlantic alliance, not Beijing, that is destabilizing international security. “Since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, China has always maintained an objective and fair position, remained committed to promoting peace talks and made positive efforts towards the de-escalation of the situation,” the mission said....

Citing the Central Military Commission’s Logistic Support Department Health Bureau, the Chinese military’s official site reported Wednesday that a team of 91 personnel has departed for Munich to participate alongside Germany’s own medical corps in the 14-day Combined Aid-2019 exercise set to begin that same day. The deployment was described as “the first time for China to dispatch a complete unit of medical service forces with real combat equipment to conduct joint exercise in Europe....

Being a set down, Bencic recorded a stunning and equally remarkable come from behind win over Williams as she also had to fend off the match points in the 10th game of the third set before eventually closing out the roller-coaster-like contest 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. While Bencic had to stretch herself to reach the third round, her next opponent Kvitova eased through her second-round contest against Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets to register a 6-4, 6-4 win....

After sharing the first singles and first doubles, the defending champions came back strongly to win the next singles and doubles clashes and seal the tie. Reigning Olympic champion and World No.1 Li Xuerui set the stage for a rout when she took just 36 minutes to run through Minatsu Mitani 21-15, 21-5 in the first singles. However, World No.2 doubles pair of Yixin Bao and Jinhua Tang found it difficult to overcome the pair of Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi and eventually lost 18-21, 9-21 in 46 minutes....

The majority of cases were imported, according to Chinese authorities, with 98 of those infections having come from abroad. Half of the cases involved Chinese nationals returning from Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District who had entered China via border crossings into Heilongjiang province, officials said. China’s northern border province with Russia is becoming the new battleground in the country’s fight against COVID-19, as lockdown restrictions have been eased elsewhere in China, including Hubei province....

Former U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus told Newsweek that the political significance of a potential vaccine might lead the Chinese government to cut corners in the hunt for one. “The big danger here is that China will move too quickly to develop a vaccine and it’ll be unsafe,” he said, noting this would be less likely in the U.S. where bodies like the Food and Drug Administration oversee generally tighter regulations....

In a progress report on genocide and atrocities prevention sent to Congress on Monday, the Biden administration listed key regions of concern in Africa and Asia, highlighting what the U.S. government has deemed “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang, where rights groups say mainly Muslim-minority groups such as Uyghurs are subject to mass detention and forced labor. The State Department has upheld the Trump administration’s determination that the Chinese government is continuing to commit “genocide” in the autonomous region, where it says a range of human rights violations include “imprisonment, torture, enforced sterilization, and persecution....