Tag: China News

washington —  Vietnam expects to increase its agricultural exports to China this year as the two countries have agreed to review regulations opening the market to greater quantities of poultry, fish and fruits. Pham Thi Huan, the founder of Ba Huan Corp. in Ho Chi Minh City, one of Vietnam’s largest poultry and egg suppliers, said she would welcome greater access to China’s market of 1.4 billion consumers. “My company has not exported chicken meat or eggs into China mainland. Lifting this ban will open doors to my company and…

HONG KONG/MANILA —  Satellite images of the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea show a new floating barrier across its entrance, near where Philippine ships and China coast guard vessels have had frequent run-ins. One of the images taken by Maxar Technologies on Feb. 22 and viewed by Reuters showed the barrier blocking the mouth of the shoal, where the Chinese coast guard last week claimed to have driven off a Philippine vessel “illegally intruding” into Beijing’s waters. The Philippines, which last week deployed a Bureau of…

SYDNEY —  Tuvalu on Monday announced former attorney general and fisheries official Feleti Teo as its new prime minister, after he was elected unopposed by lawmakers in the Pacific Islands nation, officials said. Former Prime Minister Kausea Natano lost his seat in a general election on Jan. 26 closely watched by Taiwan, China, the U.S. and Australia, amid a geopolitical tussle for influence in the South Pacific. Tuvalu, with a population of about 11,200 spread across nine islands, is one of three remaining Pacific allies of Taiwan, after Nauru cut…

Beijing —  Zong Qinghou, a Chinese business magnate whose leading beverage firm once made him the richest person in the country, died Sunday, his company said. He was 79. Zong was the founder of the Wahaha conglomerate, which specializes in bottled water, soft drinks, tea and other products. He died Sunday morning after “treatment for an illness proved ineffective,” the company said in an obituary on its Weibo social media account. A memorial service for Zong will be held Wednesday at the company’s offices in the eastern city of Hangzhou,…

A 5.8-magnitude struck Akqi County in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region at 12:14 p.m. (0414 GMT) Sunday, the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) said. The quake’s epicenter was monitored at 41.15 degrees north latitude and 78.41 degrees east longitude, with a depth of 11 kilometers (6.84 miles), CENC said. No casualties or collapsed houses had been reported as of 1 p.m., Xinhua reported citing local authorities, adding that the areas around the epicenter are sparsely populated. The local main grid and power distribution networks are operating as normal, and local train…

Macao —  Macao, the former Portuguese colony that has become the world’s biggest gambling city in recent years, is embarking on an experiment to remake itself, but it’s unclear if it will succeed. Visitors to the city see a difference compared to 10 or 20 years ago. There are new and bigger casino resorts — from The Londoner to MGM Cotai — and they no longer offer just slot machines and gambling tables. They feature non-gaming entertainment — from water slides to concerts. There’s even a zipline. The city that…

BEIJING —  At least 15 people have been killed and 44 injured in a fire at a residential building in eastern China’s Nanjing, local authorities said Saturday. The fire broke out early Friday morning, officials said at a press conference, with a preliminary investigation suggesting the blaze started on the building’s first floor, where electric bikes had been placed. The building is located in the Yuhuatai district of Nanjing, a city of more than 8 million that lies about 260 kilometers northwest of Shanghai. By 6 a.m. local time the…