BEIJING – China’s coal output has increased during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday amid the country’s efforts to keep coal production and supply stable, the country’s top economic planner said Tuesday. During the holiday, the daily output, supply and transportation of coal all saw increases from the same lunar new year period of the previous … Read more
South Korea’s sports organisation announced Tuesday that it will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over “unfair” officiating in short track speed skating at the Beijing Winter Olympics, after two medal hopefuls were disqualified. After finishing first and second in their heats, South Koreans Hwang Dae-heon and Lee June-seo were disqualified from … Read more
US freestyle skier Colby Stevenson said Tuesday he wants to put his traumatic past behind him as he goes for Olympic glory in Beijing, having survived a near-fatal car crash six years ago. On Wednesday, the 24-year-old qualified fifth for the men’s freeski Big Air final and reflected on a watershed moment in his short … Read more
BEIJING – Beijing on Monday reported no new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, the municipal health commission said Tuesday. This is the first time the Chinese capital has reported zero new confirmed local cases since Jan. 17. Beijing reported one imported COVID-19 case and eight imported asymptomatic carriers on Monday, according to the health commission. Read … Read more
HONG KONG: When Hong Kong made a Covid check-in app mandatory at restaurants, friends Birdy and Bu — wary of government tracking — decided to avoid eateries entirely and go for picnics instead. The idea caught fire: their private social media picnic group has swelled from 50 in December to more than 6,000 members, as … Read more
Russian and Canadian women’s ice hockey players wore medical face masks during their Beijing Winter Olympics match on Monday, which also began an hour late. The exact reasons for the delay and the masks was not immediately clear, but these Olympics are taking place in a Covid-secure “closed loop” bubble. Everyone in the bubble must … Read more
Russian teenage star Kamila Valieva made figure skating history Monday, becoming the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics — and not content with one, she landed two. The 15-year-old landed the quadruple leaps – when a skater rotates four times in the air – as she crushed the competition in Beijing’s … Read more
BEIJING – Beijing reported three new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Sunday, according to local health authorities. Of the three cases, one had been reported as an asymptomatic carrier before and the other two were detected among people under quarantine, said the Beijing Municipal Health Commission. Read more: Beijing reports another new locally-transmitted COVID-19 case … Read more
BEIJING – The Chinese mainland on Sunday recorded 45 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission said on Monday. Of the new local infections, 37 were reported in Guangxi, four in Guangdong, three in Beijing, and one in Tianjin, the commission said in its daily report. Read more: Chinese mainland reports 54 new local … Read more
BEIJIN: China Unicom has said there were no “justifiable grounds” for a US order that banned the company from operating in the country on national security concerns. The decision by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday was the latest broadside in a standoff that has seen Beijing and Washington clash over trade, technology, … Read more
BEIJING: A funding crisis battering China’s big property developers could start to shake the wider economy and global markets, the IMF warned on Friday, saying deeper reforms were needed to fully curb the threat. The International Monetary Fund’s report comes as property firms in the world’s second-biggest economy struggle with liquidity problems as Beijing looks … Read more
Norway’s cross-country ski squad has been winning a huge haul of medals at one Game after another and with Beijing Winter Olympics just started, Norwegians are expected to again top the medals table. Norway has hosted the Games on two occasions including the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo and the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. … Read more
Beijing – Shao Shougang is a lawyer based in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong province, who focuses on offering legal counsel for companies. The 48-year-old is better known to the public, however, for his efforts to address the issue of student bullying. Practicing at a branch of a law firm headquartered in Beijing, Shao turned the … Read more
BEIJING: China will be able to achieve around 5.5 per cent GDP growth this year, and it has room for making macroeconomic policy adjustments to support the economy, experts said on Friday. Zhu Guangyao, former vice-minister of finance, told a news briefing in Beijing that the economy’s potential growth rate will likely be between 5 … Read more
BEIJING: The stark contrast between the lives of two coronavirus patients unearthed by Chinese contact tracers sparked a widespread debate on Thursday over the country’s entrenched wealth inequality. One patient recently infected in Beijing went skiing, shopped at Dior and watched live comedy. Another hauled construction waste through the night across China’s capital, working more … Read more
Climate change is threatening the future of the Winter Olympics, reducing the number of suitable venues for the event around the globe, a report warned ahead of the Beijing Games. The Olympics in China, which start on February 4, will be the first Winter Games to rely almost 100% on artificial snow, according to the … Read more
China did not appear at a Winter Olympics until 1980 at Lake Placid and has hardly sparkled since, winning one gold medal — in short track speed skating — at the last Games, in South Korea’s Pyeongchang, in 2018. China topped the medals table at its 2008 Summer Olympics but expectations are much lower for the next month’s Beijing Games … Read more
BEIJING – The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and the country’s energy administration on Monday signed a cooperation deal to boost clean energy use as well as energy transformation in rural areas. In the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the ABC plans to lend 3 trillion yuan (about 473.19 billion U.S. dollars) to the energy … Read more
BEIJING: One of China’s longest coronavirus lockdowns since the start of the pandemic came to an end on Monday as authorities announced the lifting of most restrictions in the northern megacity of Xi’an. The historic city’s 13 million residents had been confined to their homes since December 22 after the discovery of a Covid-19 cluster … Read more
BEIJING: China’s GDP has expanded at 8.1 per cent in 2021, growing the fastest in nearly a decade and landing well above the government’s annual target of achieving a growth rate above 6 per cent. The robust expansion, which beats the market expectation and eclipses most of other major economies in two-year terms, spells out … Read more
BEIJING: China further reduced bank lending costs on Thursday in the latest move to boost its stuttering economy, providing some much-needed support to the country’s beleaguered developers. Property firm shares and bonds surged on the fresh rate cut from the People’s Bank of China, the second in two months, days after Beijing reported slower growth … Read more
BEIJING – The Chinese mainland recorded 55 new locally-transmitted COVID-19 infections over the past day, a considerable drop compared with 127 newly reported a day earlier. Tuesday saw 33 new local infections in Henan, 14 in Tianjin, seven in Guangdong, and one in Beijing, according to the latest data from the National Health Commission. Read … Read more
BEIJING: The Chinese megacity of Xi’an has partially resumed public transport, according to official announcements, after millions were confined to their homes for weeks because of a coronavirus outbreak. The easing of transport rules — including the resumption of some inter-city train routes — comes just before the Lunar New Year holiday later this month, … Read more
BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) — The Chinese mainland on Monday reported 127 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Tuesday. Of the new local cases, 102 were reported in Henan, 18 in Tianjin, five in Guangdong, and one each in Beijing and Shaanxi, the commission said. Read … Read more
BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) — Beijing reported another new locally-transmitted COVID-19 case on Monday after the first locally-transmitted Omicron case was reported Saturday, the municipal health commission said Tuesday. The new case is confirmed to be a close contact with the first Omicron case in Beijing, said the commission. Read more: Chinese mainland reports 163 … Read more
BEIJING: China’s postal service has ordered workers to disinfect international deliveries and urged the public to reduce orders from overseas after authorities claimed mail could be the source of recent coronavirus outbreaks. China, where the virus first emerged in late 2019, has stuck to a strict policy of targeting zero Covid cases even as the … Read more
TOKYO – Japan moved ahead with an expansion of support to US troops as the allies held top-level talks last week over tensions with China and North Korea. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the two nations were signing a five-year extension of the support package provided by Japan for the hosting of around … Read more
BEIJING: China continued to see a generally stable housing market in December 2021, with home prices in 70 major cities showing slight month-on-month declines, official data showed on Saturday. New home prices in four first-tier cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou edged down 0.1 per cent month-on-month on average in December although price movements diverged, … Read more
