Day: January 21, 2023

Qin Gang uses NBA game to send first public message to US since becoming China’s foreign minister

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“Good luck to everyone and enjoy the game,” he added in the video played at a timeout during the second quarter of the match, where the Wizards emerged as the victors. Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang previously served as Beijing’s ambassador to the US for 17 months. Photo: AFP The foreign minister’s remarks came as senior American and Chinese officials have renewed efforts to improve their fraught bilateral relationship of recent years following a summit between President Xi Jinping and his counterpart Joe Biden in Indonesia in November. Advertisement US…

China Celebrates Lunar New Year After ‘Zero Covid’ With Caution

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Sheng Chun had not visited his parents in their mountain village in southern China for more than three years because China’s “zero Covid” restrictions made travel difficult. Then the country abandoned its stringent pandemic rules, and he decided to take a long-anticipated road trip. With his son and wife, Mr. Sheng, 43, embarked on a two-week journey from Beijing that would cover more than 1,000 miles, through cultural spots like a Ming dynasty village and temples, then finally home for the Lunar New Year. He hoped to later drive his…

Envoy Says Taiwan Learns from Ukraine War

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WASHINGTON —  Taiwan has learned important lessons from Ukraine’s war that would help it deter any attack by China or defend itself if invaded, the self-ruled island’s top envoy to the U.S. said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. Among the lessons: Do more to prepare military reservists and civilians for the kind of all-of-society fight that Ukrainians are waging against Russia. “Everything we’re doing now is to prevent the pain and suffering of the tragedy of Ukraine from being repeated in our scenario in Taiwan,” said Bi-khim…

China Says COVID Outbreak Has Infected 80% of Population

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Beijing —  The possibility of a big COVID-19 rebound in China over the next two or three months is remote because 80% of China’s population has been infected, a prominent government scientist said on Saturday. The mass movement of people during the ongoing Lunar New Year holiday might spread the pandemic, boosting infections in some areas, but a second COVID wave is unlikely in the near term, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on the Weibo social media platform. Hundreds of millions…

South Africa ‘plays China and Russia’ card against US with joint naval exercise

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It will be the second such exercise after a previous drill in November 2019. The United States, which has fostered a decades-long strategic partnership with South Africa, immediately expressed disapproval. David Feldmann, a spokesman for the United States Embassy in Pretoria, said the US noted “with concern” the plan to hold the exercise “even as Moscow continues its brutal and unlawful invasion of Ukraine”, according to the New York Times. Advertisement “South Africa is going to play the Russia and China cards and try to achieve more bargaining chips when…

Fireworks, Flowers in Wuhan for Lunar New Year, but Grief Lingers

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Wuhan, China —  Three years after a once-mysterious virus plunged the Chinese city of Wuhan into a terrifying lockdown, residents are celebrating the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit with fireworks, flowers and offerings to the loved ones they have lost to COVID-19. But while many stocked Saturday on colorful blooms at the bustling flower market to welcome the Lunar New Year and enjoy the Spring Festival, others had a more somber reason: to mourn loved ones lost in the most recent wave of cases. “I have friends and…

Long Covid could be longer – and more severe -than we thought, study finds

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They estimated that 10 per cent of the 651 million documented Covid-19 cases around the world – at least 65 million people – have long Covid. They quoted other studies suggesting that 10 to 30 per cent of non-hospitalised coronavirus cases would develop long Covid. The percentage increased to 50 to 70 per cent for hospitalised cases. 01:54 ‘No holiday mood’: China’s Covid-19 wave dampens spirits ahead of Lunar New Year However, the study did not clarify the definition of long Covid, and some of the findings contradicted those of…

Why Vietnam Is Celebrating the Year of the Cat, Not the Rabbit

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Hanoi —  As China gears up to welcome the Year of the Rabbit, Lunar New Year looks slightly different in Vietnam, where the Year of the Cat is about to begin. Across the country, streets are decked out with statues of felines and shops are stocked full of cat-themed decorations, popular gifts during Vietnamese New Year, known as Tet. Vietnam and neighboring China share 10 of the zodiac calendar’s 12 signs — the rat, tiger, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. But the Vietnamese honor the cat…

Rising food prices sap North Koreans’ holiday cheer ahead of Lunar New Year

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The holiday spirit in North Korea is at a low ebb as higher prices for meat, rice and other foods make celebrating the Lunar New Year a costly affair, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia. The Lunar New Year, along with the autumn harvest Chuseok festival, are the two most important holidays in Korean culture, when extended families gather for jesa, a ceremony and feast that honors ancestors. “We have to prepare for the Lunar New Year holiday, but prices are rising steeply, so the hearts of ordinary…

China refuses to lift suspension on multiple-entry visas despite appeal from thousands of Chinese-Americans

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It said holders of these visas can apply for new ones if they need to travel to China and the embassy and consulates will “review [the applications] and issue new visas” to them. “In the future, China will adjust relevant measures in a timely manner according to the development of the epidemic situation, and promote the gradual normalisation of personnel exchanges between China and other countries,” the statement said. Advertisement The response came 10 days after more than 29,000 Chinese Americans signed a petition on change.org, appealing to the Chinese…