China recalls 6 diplomats over Manchester violence: UK - CNA

LONDON: China has removed six diplomats from the UK, including its consul-general in Manchester, after they were accused of assaulting a Hong Kong protester in the northern English city, Britain said on Wednesday (Dec 14).

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the six envoys had left the country by a Wednesday deadline imposed by London for them to waive their diplomatic immunity and be questioned by police over the October incident.

Greater Manchester Police launched a criminal probe after Hong Konger Bob Chan alleged Chinese diplomats subjected him to "barbaric" treatment - dragging him inside their compound to assault him - at an anti-Beijing protest.

"As part of that investigation, we requested that six Chinese officials waive diplomatic immunity so they can be questioned," Cleverly said Wednesday.

He added that the Chinese embassy in London had been informed of the deadline for "them to take action".

"In response to our requests, the Chinese government has now removed from the UK those officials, including the consul-general himself," Cleverly noted.

Britain's top diplomat said London's response demonstrated its "adherence to the rule of law" as well as "the seriousness with which we take these incidents".

In response, China's embassy to Britain issued a rebuke to Cleverly on Wednesday, saying he made "irresponsible comments by distorting facts".

"The British government failed to effectively prevent the intrusion and assault carried out by those rioters and to protect the premises and members of the Chinese Consulate General," the Chinese embassy said in a statement posted on its website.

"The UK side shows no respect for justice and the rule of law, and is being most irresponsible and disgraceful," it said, adding that they had "launched solemn representations" with Britain over the issue.

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2022-12-15 06:06:18Z
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China COVID-19 'explosion' began before restrictions eased: WHO - CNA

GENEVA: The flare-up in COVID-19 cases in China was well underway before the government began easing restrictions, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday (Dec 14).

Officials in China warned that cases are rising rapidly in Beijing after the government abruptly abandoned its zero-COVID-19 policy, scrapping mass testing and quarantines after nearly three years of attempting to stamp out the virus.

"The explosion of cases in China is not due to the lifting of COVID restrictions. The explosion of cases in China had started long before any easing of the zero-COVID policy," WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan told reporters.

"There's a narrative that, in some way, China lifted the restrictions and all of a sudden, the disease is out of control," he added at the UN health agency's headquarters in Geneva.

"The disease was spreading intensively because the control measures in themselves were not stopping the disease.

"I believe the Chinese authorities have decided strategically that that, for them, is not the best option anymore," he said, referring to the control measures.

Ryan said the Omicron variant of the virus, which was first detected around a year ago, meant China-style restrictions were not as useful as they had been against previous strains circulating when vaccination coverage was low.

"The super-transmissibility of Omicron really took away the opportunity for using public health and social measures aimed at full containment of the virus," he told a press conference with the UN correspondents' association.

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2022-12-15 00:07:34Z
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Hong Kong police wrong to ban Tiananmen vigil, court rules - CNA

Despite her court victory, Chow remains in custody as she faces further prosecutions including for national security charges which carry up to a decade in jail.

Chow was arrested on the morning of Jun 4, 2021, when her articles appeared on social media and in a newspaper calling on residents to mourn Tiananmen victims.

At the time, police warned that the vigil was banned due to the pandemic and that thousands of officers would be on standby to halt any "unlawful assemblies".

But judge Barnes said on Wednesday that police failed to fulfil their duty under the law to take reasonable measures to facilitate public gatherings, such as imposing conditions on social distancing.

"Although the organisers expressed willingness to follow any reasonable demands by the police, the police only raised questions ... and did not propose measures or conditions that could obviously be considered," the judge said.

AFP has contacted the Department of Justice and Hong Kong police for comment.

In mainland China, censors have long scrubbed what happened at Tiananmen Square, both online and in the real world.

Commemoration of the Tiananmen incident in Hong Kong has largely been driven underground.

Last year, multiple statues marking the historical event were removed from university campuses while an activist-run museum was shut down.

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2022-12-14 12:01:00Z
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'Tough times': Warnings sound over China's rapid 'zero-COVID' exit - CNA

BEIJING: A week after China began dismantling its tough 'zero-COVID' controls, the World Health Organization warned of "very tough" times ahead and state media reported some seriously ill patients at hospitals in Beijing, raising fears of a wave of infections.

China last Wednesday (Dec 7) announced sweeping changes to testing and quarantine rules, aligning with a world that has largely reopened, after historic protests against mass lockdowns that caused mental strain for millions but kept the virus in check.

The elation that met those changes has quickly faded amid mounting signs that China may pay a price for shielding a population that lacks "herd immunity" and has low vaccination rates among the elderly.

"It's always very difficult for any country coming out of a situation where you've had very, very tight controls," WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris told a press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, adding that China faced a "very tough and difficult time".

The WHO typically refrains from commenting on individual countries' policies, although agency Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did say in May that China's previous COVID-19 regime was not sustainable.

Official COVID-19 case counts in China have been trending lower in recent weeks, but that has coincided with a drop in testing and is increasingly at odds with the situation on the ground, analysts say.

There were 50 severe and critical cases in hospitals in Beijing, most of whom have underlying health conditions, state news agency Xinhua reported late Tuesday. Such numbers are small considering China's 1.4 billion population, but there are growing fears that hospitals could soon become flooded with cases.

Amid the uncertainty, Chinese leaders have reportedly delayed a key economic policy meeting, which had been set to map out much-needed stimulus for the world's second largest economy.

A Bloomberg News report on Tuesday night, citing people familiar with the matter, said the meeting had been delayed and there was no timetable for rescheduling.

Policy insiders and business analysts said the leadership was expected to map out further stimulus steps and discuss growth targets in the annual three-day session.

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2022-12-14 04:45:14Z
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Singapore to begin importing chicken eggs from Brunei, further diversifying its food sources - CNA

SINGAPORE: Singapore will begin importing chicken eggs from Brunei, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said on Tuesday (Dec 13).

This follows Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu's visit to an egg farm in Brunei, where she announced that SFA has accredited the country as a new source of egg exports. 

This brings the number of countries and regions accredited to export "hen shell eggs" to Singapore to 17, up from 12 in 2019, said the agency. 

"The accreditation of Brunei as a new country source for eggs is another step towards augmenting food cooperation between both countries, as Brunei looks to produce eggs for export while Singapore diversifies its egg import sources further," said SFA.

Ms Fu visited Golden Chick Livestock Farm in Brunei on Tuesday, at the start of her three-day official visit to the country. It is the first Bruneian farm to export eggs to Singapore. 

She is also in Brunei to discuss and strengthen agri-food, environmental, water resource management and climate change cooperation between the two countries.

"We hope that this accreditation will see new markets for the agri-tech industry in Brunei," said Ms Fu, noting the increased business for the country's farms.

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2022-12-13 11:26:00Z
CBMidmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vc2luZ2Fwb3JlL3NpbmdhcG9yZS1jaGlja2VuLWVnZy1zdXBwbHktYnJ1bmVpLWltcG9ydC1uZXctc291cmNlLWFjY3JlZGl0ZWQtc2ZhLTMxNDEzNzHSAQA

China sends record wave of bombers into Taiwan defence zone - CNA

China sent a record 18 nuclear-capable bombers into Taiwan's air defence zone, Taipei said on Tuesday (Dec 13), just days after Beijing banned more Taiwanese imports in the latest sign of deteriorating ties.

Democratic Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which sees the self-ruled island as part of its territory to be seized one day.

Beijing has ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure since the 2016 election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who rejects its stance that the island is part of China.

In a daily update on Tuesday morning Taiwan's defence ministry said 21 aircraft entered the island's southwest air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over the last 24 hours, including 18 nuclear-capable H-6 bombers.

That represents by far the largest daily sortie by H-6 bombers since Taipei first began releasing daily incursion data in September 2020, according to a database maintained by AFP.

The wave came after China slapped fresh import bans on Taiwanese food, beverages, alcohol and fishery products last week, prompting Premier Su Tseng-chang to accuse Beijing of violating international trade rules and "discriminating" against the island.

The H-6 is China's main long distance bomber and is able to carry nuclear payloads.

It is rare for China to send more than five H-6 bombers in one day. But sorties have increased dramatically in recent weeks.

Until recently, October 2021 was the month with the largest number of H-6 flights on record at 16.

But last month China sent 21 of the bombers into Taiwan's ADIZ. And the current tally for December stands at 23.

Many nations maintain air defence identification zones (ADIZ), including the United States, Canada, South Korea, Japan and China.

They are not the same as a country's airspace.

Instead, they encompass a much wider area, in which any foreign aircraft is expected to announce itself to local aviation authorities.

Taiwan's ADIZ is much larger than its airspace. It overlaps with part of China's ADIZ and even includes some of the mainland.

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2022-12-13 09:45:56Z
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Queues form at fever clinics as China wrestles with COVID-19 surge - CNA

In recent weeks, local cases have been trending lower since a late November peak of 40,052, official figures show, however. Sunday's tally of 8,626 was down from 10,597 new cases the previous day.

But the figures reflect the dropping of testing requirements, say analysts, while Chinese health expects have warned of an imminent surge.

In comments on Monday in the state-backed newspaper Shanghai Securities News, Zhang Wenhong, head of a team of experts in the commercial hub, said the current outbreak could peak in a month, though the end of the pandemic might be three to six months away.

In a WeChat post, Zhang's team said that despite the surge, the current Omicron strain did not cause long-term damage and people should be optimistic.

"We are about to walk out of the tunnel; Air, sunshine, free travel, all waiting for us," the post said.

STOCKS, YUAN SAG

China's stock markets broadly retreated and the yuan eased from a near three-month high hit in the previous session, as investors fretted that rising infections might disrupt consumption and manufacturing.

But for the same reason, demand surged for stocks in Chinese drugmakers and providers of masks, antigen tests and funeral services.

"Please protect yourself," the management of a condominium in the capital's Dongcheng district warned residents on Sunday, saying almost all its staff had been infected.

"Try as much as you can not to go out ...," it said on messaging app WeChat. "Be the first person to take responsibility for your own health, let’s face this together."

Such messages appear to have hit home for some who say they are reluctant to visit crowded places or dine at restaurants.

That is why few analysts expect a quick, broad rebound in spending in the world's second largest economy, as the glee that greeted the abrupt relaxations was tempered with uncertainty for consumers and businesses.

Yet China is pushing to free up nationwide travel, even if foreign trips may be a while off.

A state-mandated mobile app identifying travellers to COVID-19 stricken areas will shut down at midnight on Monday, according to a notice on its official WeChat account.

The number of domestic flights available across China exceeded 7,400, nearly double from a week ago, flight tracker app VariFlight showed.

New home sales in 16 cities picked up last week, in a move partly attributed to the easing of curbs, as people venture out to view homes, the China Index Academy said.

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2022-12-12 11:00:40Z
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