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Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said the U.S. is to blame for “continuous provocation and containment” of China for the “considerable difficulties and challenges.” Wu said that during the calls, the countries “exchanged in-depth views on relations between the two countries and the two militaries and issues of common concern.” Department of Defense spokesperson Lt. Col. Martin Meiners said the two sides held “a frank, in-depth and open discussion on a range of issues....

At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Pelosi said the United States had an “obligation to speak out” against China’s worsening human rights record and its oppressive policies against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. She called on Washington D.C. and other capitals to shun the Games at a governmental level. “Let’s have a diplomatic boycott if in fact this Olympics takes place,” she said. “Let’s not honor the Chinese government by having heads of state go to China to show their support for their athletes....

Pompeo said in a Tuesday tweet that he had “determined” that China “is committing genocide and crimes against humanity” against Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim minority group located mainly in the nation’s in Xinjiang province. The outgoing Trump administration official added that China’s “genocide” targeted other religious groups and minorities as well. A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Minister said that Beijing didn’t put any stock in Pompeo’s accusation. “In our view, Pompeo’s so-called designation is a piece of wastepaper....

China’s zero-tolerance approach involves shutting down borders and putting any local areas with reported cases under lockdown to avoid the spread. The report, which was published in China CDC Weekly on Wednesday, included the findings of four mathematicians from Peking University who argued that the country will be at risk if it lifted entry-exit quarantine measures without having more effective vaccinations and specific treatments. “The estimates revealed the real possibility of a colossal outbreak which would almost certainly put an unbearable burden on the medical system,” they said in the report that was published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention....

After a mysterious new disease for which there is no treatment or vaccine began sickening people in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Hubei province, in December 2019, officials took steps including quarantining millions of people to try to slow the rate of infection. As shown in the Statista graphic below, the virus has since arrived on every continent except Antarctica. According to Johns Hopkins University, of the more than 877,400 total COVID-19 cases worldwide, 82,361 have been confirmed in China....

That’s making high-quality and innovative facilities all the more attractive. Case in point is the Yixian Home for the Elderly in Shanghai’s Changning district, which is filled to capacity with 300 residents and has 500 to 600 more on a waiting list. The claim to fame for Yixian, founded in 2003, is a system of Webcams, or “global eyes,” mounted in public areas such as the restaurant, gym and leisure hall....

China has reported 139 new cases of the illness caused by a new coronavirus, the World Health Organisation said Sunday. The WHO said the reports were “the result of increased searching and testing” for the virus among people sick with respiratory illnesses. According to Reuters, China’s National Health Commission said over the weekend that the bug appeared to be controllable. The organization will step up its efforts to track the infection as new year celebrations are due to start on January 24, with what is known as the Chunyun travel period set to last 40 days....

“At this,” recounts His Holiness in his autobiography, Freedom in Exile, “I felt a violent burning sensation all over my face and I was suddenly very afraid. ‘So,’ I thought, ‘you are the destroyer of the Dharma after all.’” Mao’s convictions indeed led to devastating consequences for Tibet as a Buddhist nation—including the destruction of more than 6,000 Tibetan monasteries, the disrobing and killing of thousands of monks and nuns....

Chris Gibbs, who runs 560 acres of farmland in the key swing state of Ohio, said he was “dubious” about the details of the deal that Trump touted as a “tremendous deal for farmers,” hit hard by an ongoing trade spat. Under the plans announced by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week, China would resume farm purchases in exchange for the U.S. not increasing tariffs on Chinese imports. He also said there was an agreement on intellectual property rights, financial services and currency rules....

The Chiefs’ two touchdowns came from players who don’t regularly see the end zone. Mahomes rushed 10 yards for the first score of the game in the first quarter; safety Daniel Sorenson intercepted a Teddy Bridgewater pass and returned it 75 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. PLAYOFF PICTURE: Updated NFL standings for Week 13 Broncos running back Javonte Williams shined Sunday night. He led the Broncos with 102 yards rushing on 23 carries and had a team-high six catches for 76 yards and the Broncos’ lone touchdown....

China has begun “speeding up” the process of constructing some 700 state laboratories, which it plans to complete by the end of 2020, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday, citing the state-run newspaper Economic Information Daily. The facilities are intended to “serve as a significant force to lead fundamental research.” Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the State Department for comment but did not hear back before publication....

Japan’s State Minister of Defense Yasuhide Nakayama made the comments at a Hudson Institute event on Monday, in which he sounded the alarm about Chinese and Russian military collaboration, and the resultant threat to the Indo-Pacific region. At a press conference Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin described the official’s remarks as “erroneous.” He said Beijing had “lodged solemn representations” with Tokyo over Nakayama’s use of the word “country....

The Global Times, an English-language tabloid owned by People’s Daily, the Chinese Community Party’s official newspaper, quoted a spokesperson for the Xinjiang government’s Information Office speaking about the reports. According to the Global Times, spokesperson Elijan Anayat said at an April 18 press conference, “There’s no so-called forced demolition of mosques problem in Xinjiang.” Xinjiang, officially named Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, is located in the northwest region of China. Last September, The New York Times reported that the government was destroying many mosques throughout the area, in an attempt to “erode the cultural and religious heritage of the region and forcibly assimilate its Muslim minorities....

A draft document released by the Chinese Centre for Drug Evaluation (CCDE) laid out the guidelines, stipulating that while 50 percent efficacy is the minimum, the target is that vaccines should be effective for 70 percent of the population. Emergency use of vaccines that have achieved the minimum efficacy rate but haven’t yet completed their final phase of clinical trials could also be approved, according to the CCDE document. The final phases of these trials can take up to a year to complete, but state leaders are eager to roll out a successful vaccine as soon as possible....

A theory that was once dismissed as a fringe conspiracy, America’s intelligence community hasn’t ruled out the Wuhan Institute of Virology as a starting point. Since the outset of the pandemic, China’s firmly pushed back on the theory as running contrary to science, a means of slandering Beijing and a political maneuver on the part of the United States. During a Thursday briefing, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the “vigorous hyping up” of the lab leak theory on the part of American politicians reminded him of the early 2000s when Americans were “hyping up the assertion that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction....

Xi spoke virtually with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and described the developments in Ukraine as “worrisome,” according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout of the call. China still isn’t calling Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military operation an “invasion,” but the Chinese leader lamented “the outbreak of war again on the European continent.” In the most recent round of peace talks in Belarus, the Moscow delegation laid out terms including a formal commitment by Kyiv never to join NATO; Ukraine’s recognition of Crimea as Russian territory and the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states; and the cessation of all military resistance....

The 2016 season has been one of the most consistent of Andy Murray’s career. The entire season was dotted with memorable moments for the Scot where he won his second Wimbledon title, his second Olympic gold medal, reached finals of two other Grand Slams and even defeated the World No. 1 Novak Djokovic for the Rome Masters crown. He also reunited with his former mentor Ivan Lendl who was instrumental in turning Murray into a Grand Slam champion back in 2012....

Before the crisis, China was making around half of the world’s medical masks, totaling some 20 million each day. China’s mask industry has exploded in response to the pandemic, with producers in the nation now making more than 116 million every day. Even the richest nations have struggled to provide enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for front line medical workers, not to mention other citizens. The international community has turned to China for help, despite concerns over the quality of such products and suspicions that Beijing tried to cover-up the scale and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak....

But Baranowski and other hacker activists, or hacktivists, opposed to government control of the Internet may just be banging their heads against the Great Firewall. In recent months, Beijing–using state-of-the-art technology–has significantly stepped up its efforts to control the country’s cyberspace, delaying dreams that the Internet would channel new ideas and freedom of expression in China. Some even wonder if the government hasn’t already turned the technology to its own advantage as a tool of repression....