Moscow: Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov announced on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would brief his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Moscow's talks with NATO. The Russian President would travel to Beijing next month, he added. Russia and China have moved closer under increasing pressure from the West.
Beijing: On Monday, China has expressed its desire to work with Kazakhstan to hinder the 'external forces'. Chinese Foreign Minister stated that China wants to increase "law enforcement and security" cooperation with neighboring Kazakhstan. "Recent turmoil in Kazakhstan shows that the situation in Central Asia is still facing severe challenges, and it once again proves that some external forces do not want peace and tranquillity in our region," the ministry quoted Wang. The statement came after violent protests in the Central Asian country.
China has announced that its space station, which will provide a bird's-eye perspective of the earth and is seen as a vital strategic asset in space, will be operational this year. China will be the only country to have its own space station once it is completed, as Russia's International Space Station (ISS) is a collaborative effort involving multiple countries. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC) said on Wednesday that the government will finish building the space station in 2022.
Chiayi: On Jan 5, Taiwan air force jets roared into the sky in a drill simulating a war scenario. Taiwan's move showed its combat readiness amid heightened military tensions with China, which asserted the island as its territory. The practices were part of a three-day drill to exhibit Taiwan's battle alacrity ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of this month.
Beijing: China's copyright regulator said on Wednesday that it would improve copyright protection livestreaming, e-commerce, and sports events by 2025. According to the 14th Five-Year Plan for Copyright Work issued by the National Copyright Administration, "Copyright protection will be strengthened and improved in new industries and new areas". The Plan also said the advancement and application of new technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain would be enhanced, and copyright protection in sports events, variety shows, livestreamings, and e-commerce platforms would be boosted.
Beijing: On Dec 29, a Beijing official warned that China would take "drastic measures" if Taiwan strives towards independence. He also added that Taiwan's instigations and outside intervening could expand next year. "If separatist forces in Taiwan seeking independence provoke, exert force or even break through any red line, we will have to take drastic measures," Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office said. China has stepped up forces and diplomatic pressure to declare its supremacy in Taiwan.
Beijing: On Dec 27, it emerged that China's aviation regulator would suspend two China Eastern flights from New York to Shanghai from January 3. The decision was taken due to COVID-19 cases reported in passengers from Los Angeles, the official news website under the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) reported.
Shanghai: On Monday, the Chinese government announced that it would require domestic firms to get clearance from regulators before listings their shares outside the country. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced the new rules in the annual "Foreign Investment Negative List". The List includes prohibited sectors such as compulsory education institutions, news organizations, and rare earth minerals.
Shanghai: On Dec 26, China Evergrande Group disclosed that it had made initial progress in resuming construction work. Evergrande's chairman vowed that it had delivered 39,000 units of properties in December as compared with less than 10,000 in the previous three months. Due to the Chinese government's deleveraging campaign, the company had been struggling to pay back bondholders, banks, suppliers, and deliver homes to buyers, epitomizing the expanded industry.
Beijing: On Dec 26, it emerged that China replaced Chen Quanguo, chief of Communist Party in the Xinjiang who supervised a security crackdown that targeted ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslims under the garb of fighting religious extremism. Chen was sanctioned by the United States last year. U.S. President Joe Biden, on Thursday, signed into law a ban on imports from Xinjiang speculating forced labor. The US move provoked a furious Chinese denunciation.
Mr. Biden's approval of the measure, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, demonstrates the "United States' commitment to combating forced labor, including in the context of the ongoing genocide in Xinjiang." According to the White House, US President Joe Biden signed legislation on December 23 prohibiting imports from China's Xinjiang region due to concerns over forced labor, eliciting a furious response from China. The Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act is part of the United States' response to Beijing's treatment of China's Muslim Uighur minority, which Washington has declared genocide.
Seoul: On Dec 23, senior South Korean envoys held talks with Chinese peers after a diplomatic spat with Taiwan. The dispute occurred over Seoul's revocation of an overture to a senior Taipei official to join a business forum last week. Both the Vice Foreign Ministers discussed efforts to reopen postponed denuclearisation talks with North Korea and Beijing's preparations to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
On Thursday, China shut down a 13-million-person city in an attempt to eradicate a small COVID-19 outbreak and achieve its zero-case goal, as other countries across the world battled massive Omicron-related virus outbreaks. Asia's stock markets followed Wall Street's trend, thanks in part to preliminary studies from the United Kingdom that showed Omicron infections were less likely to result in hospitalisation than Delta infections.
Vilnius/Frankfurt: On Dec 17, China is pressuring German car parts giant Continental (CONG.DE) to stop using parts made in Lithuania. The reports came amidst a conflict between Beijing and the Baltic state over the status of Taiwan. Continental, one of the world's largest car parts maker, has spare parts production units in Lithuania that make electronic parts for automobile doors and seats, and exports to clients including China.
Hong Kong: It emerged on Friday that the Chinese regulators are aiming at outlawing online brokerages from offering offshore trading services to mainland clients. It happened due to the problem of data security and capital outflows, sources repirted.
Beijing/Vilnius: On Dec 15, it was reported that Lithuania's diplomatic delegation to China fled the country in a quickly arranged exit. Diplomatic sources declared that after Taiwan opened a de facto embassy in Vilnius last month, Lithuania-china toes were sour. Lithuanian authorities stated that they had gathered their top envoy back from China for "consultations" but the embassy would operate remotely for the time being.
Moscow: On Dec 15, presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping agreed that Russia and China should stand firm against Western interference and uphold each other's security interests. "At present, certain international forces under the guise of 'democracy' and 'human rights' are interfering in the internal affairs of China and Russia, and brutally trampling on international law and recognized norms of international relations," China's Xi stated.
The federal government has once again failed to reach a decision on making Rs230 billion in payments to Chinese power plants operating under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, as well as opening a bank account to protect their investors from a vicious cycle of circular debt in the future. Officials from the finance and energy ministries, as well as the CPEC Authority, met on Monday under the chairmanship of Finance Adviser Shaukat Tarin, but no decision was reached on the timing of settling outstanding dues and opening a revolving account, according to at least three participants.
Boston: It emerged on Dec 14 that a Harvard University nanotechnology professor faced trial on U.S. charges that he fibbed to authorities about his links to a China-led recruitment program and hiding grant he attained from the Chinese government. Jury selection is scheduled to start up in Boston federal court in the trial of Charles Lieber under the garb of U.S. crackdown on Chinese impact within universities. He is an ex-chair of Harvard's chemistry department and charged in the highest-profile case.
It emerged on Dec 12 that china has started extending an olive branch to the Central American nation which was under a barrage of U.S. sanctions. China became an attractive partner for governments resisting Washington's campaign to tackle corruption and democratic backsliding in the region. Nicaragua cut its ties with Taiwan and re-established relations with China.
Liverpool: On Dec 12, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that G7, the Group of Seven major industrialized countries, expressed concerns about the "coercive" economic policies of China. "We have been clear at this meeting this weekend that we are concerned about the coercive economic policies of China," he said at a G7 news conference in Liverpool.
Beijing: It was reported on Sunday that Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding expelled a female worker who implicated a former co-worker of sexual assault earlier this year. She received a termination letter at the end of November which said the employee "caused decisive social concern and had a bad influence on the company." The letter also alleged the employee of spreading false information about being assaulted and about the company rejecting the case.
Washington: It emerged on Wednesday that the U.S. lawmakers proposed to allocate $300 million for Ukraine's military and a declaration of support for the defense of Taiwan. The decision was taken in the wake of pushing back Russia and China from aforesaid states. The fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) approves $770 billion in military spending which was $25 billion more than requested by President Joe Biden.
Washington/Beijing: On Dec 6, China's foreign ministry said that the U.S. politicians should stop calling for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics to avoid hurting bilateral ties and China will take "countermeasures" if necessary. It was reported on Sunday that the Biden administration would announce the acceptance or refusal to attend the 2022 Olympics in Beijing this week. "If the U.S. insists on wilfully clinging to its course, China will take resolute countermeasures," Zhao Lijian, China's foreign ministry spokesman stated.
Vientiane: On Dec 3, in Beijing's ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure projects, it has launched a $6 billion high-speed rail line connecting China with its Southeast Asian neighbour Laos. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith observed a virtual ceremony to mark the maiden voyages on the line, which extends from the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming to the Laotian capital Vientiane.
Beijing: Foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, briefed on Tuesday that China was determined to hold the 2022 Winter Olympics "smoothly" per the schedule despite challenges posed by the Omicron coronavirus variant. Zhao said, "China has experience in preventing and controlling the coronavirus, I fully believe that China will be able to host the Winter Olympics as scheduled, smoothly and successfully," Zhao said. Beijing is ready to stage the Games from Feb. 4 to Feb. 20, without foreign viewers and with all athletes and related personnel enclosed in a "closed-loop" and subject to daily testing for COVID-19.
Beijing: On Nov 29, President Xi Jinping announced that China would offer another 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to African countries and would motivate Chinese companies to finance up to $10 billion in Africa over the next three years. A sum of 200 million doses had already been supplied to the continent by China. The vow of additional vaccine doss was made as a new variant of the coronavirus, known as Omicron, which was first identified in southern Africa was intensified.
Washington: The Biden government on Wednesday invited Taiwan to its "Summit for Democracy" next month. This move enraged China as it regarded the democratically governed island as its territory. "Our country's invitation to participate in the 'Summit for Democracy' is an affirmation of Taiwan's efforts to promote the values of democracy and human rights over the years," the Taiwan ministry added. China's Foreign Ministry vehemently opposed the idea of inviting Taiwan.
Brussels: On Wednesday, European Union diplomats had approved the revival of embargoes on four Chinese officials and one Chinese entity as part of an extension of a human rights blacklist, two diplomats stated. The decision, will be implemented early next month, puts in danger a Chinese-EU investment treaty signed in late December 2020. Last week, China's envoy to the bloc said that there could be no ratification of the deal until the EU lifted its sanctions, which are internal interference according to Beijing.
Over the last two decades, China's economy has grown, making it the world's largest country as well as the richest, overtaking its bitter rival, the United States. According to the research arm of consulting firm McKinsey & Co., China is among the top ten countries in the world, accounting for more than 60% of global revenue. China is the world's richest nation, having amassed around one-third of the world's net wealth over the last two decades. Jan Mishke, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute in Zurich, remarked, "We are richer than ever."
