International

China detected 137 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases on Sunday in Kashgar in the northwestern region of Xinjiang after one person was found to have the virus the previous day - the first local new cases for 10 days in mainland China. All 137 new cases were linked to a garment factory. The parents of a 17-year-old girl who was found on Saturday to have the virus but showed no symptoms worked there, an official from Xinjiang health commission told a press briefing. The new cases marked mainland China's first local infections since Oct. 14, when one was detected in Qingdao. Xinjiang was the site of a local cluster in August, but no new cases had been found in the region since Aug. 15. Kashgar launched a testing programme on Saturday night covering the region's 4.75 million people. As of Sunday afternoon, more than 2.84 million people had been tested and the rest would be covered by Tuesday, the city government said in a statement. The Kashgar government said on Sunday all schools except universities will be closed through Friday but supermarkets and shopping malls would remain open. Four towns in the Kashgar region were identified as "high-risk" areas, according to a statement from Kashgar city authority on Sunday night, and stringent controls such as travel restrictions are expected. China's national health commission dispatched experts on Sunday to guide coronavirus control work in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar. The novel coronavirus was first identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of last year. As of Saturday, mainland China had 85,790 confirmed coronavirus cases, the health authority said. The COVID-19 death toll stands at 4,634.

Two of Apple's latest iPhone 12 models went on sale in China on Friday, after early pre-order data showed strong consumer interest in the 5G-enabled device in the firm's second-largest market. The short queues outside Apple stores in the business hub of Shanghai struck a contrast with the crowds that flocked to past launch events, as most ordering has now shifted online. ‘I feel great being the first customer to get the new iPhone,’ said Yan Bingqing, 30, who arrived before the store opened, and was in a line of about 20 people. ‘I've been waiting a long time.’ A new green shade for the iPhone 12 was also a top trending topic on Chinese app Weibo on Friday, prompting positive reactions. Apple's announcement last week initially drew mixed reviews in China, but analysts expect a surge in orders this year, as loyal iPhone owners finally buy new handsets compatible with an upgraded 5G network infrastructure. Chinese e-commerce retailer JD.com saw pre-orders for all four models of the iPhone 12 hit 1.6 million on the first day of the announcement. ‘From the bottom of my heart, it's a little bit late for Apple to release the 5G iPhone,’ said Zhu Lin, another Apple fan who had queued. ‘I was expecting it last year.’ Apple and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd are the only top phone makers racking up shipment growth in China this year, with an annual rise of 35% for Apple in the second quarter, research firm Canalys says. Apple's store launch follows that of Huawei's Mate 40 flagship device on Thursday, which some in China had said they would wait for before deciding on the iPhone 12.

Cathay Pacific announced plans Wednesday to cut its workforce by nearly a quarter and close one of its short-haul airlines in an effort to survive the "devastating" impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Across the globe, airlines have been hammered as the pandemic has slashed international travel, and they face a long, hard winter after a much-hoped-for rebound failed to materialise. Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's flag carrier, published a corporate restructuring plan on Wednesday that will lead to 8,500 job losses in total -- nearly a quarter of its workforce -- and one of its airlines to disappear completely. "The global pandemic continues to have a devastating impact on aviation and the hard truth is we must fundamentally restructure the Group to survive," CEO Augustus Tang said in a statement. Cathay said 5,300 redundancies would be made among the airline's Hong Kong-based employees with a further 600 overseas. The remaining losses would come from a recruitment freeze and natural attrition. Cathay Dragon, a subsidiary that primarily flies shorter-haul flights within Asia, will cease operations. The company is seeking regulatory approval to absorb some of Dragon's routes into Cathay Pacific and its budget airline HK Express. The news of cuts was embraced by investors with Cathay's battered shares trading four percent up in afternoon trade. But employees reacted with dismay, noting the proportion of jobs going was higher than many competitors. Zuki Wong chairwoman of the Cathay Pacific Flight Attendants Union, said members were "severely disappointed". "We all feel very sad because the colleagues being laid off are all very dear to us," she told reporters. Hong Kong's government came to the rescue of Cathay with a taxpayer-funded bailout of US$5 billion earlier this summer. But Cathay CEO Tang said the airline was burning through up to HK$2 billion ($260 million) in cash each month during the pandemic. "This is simply unsustainable. The changes announced today will reduce our cash burn by about HK$500 million per month," he said. Airline revenues plunged 80 percent in the first six months of the year, according to industry body IATA, but they still had fixed costs to cover -- crew, maintenance, fuel, airport levies and now aircraft storage. Repeated efforts to reassure passengers that air travel is safe have failed to make much of a difference while government restrictions, including quarantines of up to 14 days for returning passengers, have only added pressure. Dozens of major airlines have slashed jobs in response. Cathay, much like regional rival Singapore Airlines, has no domestic market to fall back on. But even before the pandemic, Hong Kong's marquee carrier was in a tight spot. Months of huge and disruptive democracy protests in the city last year led to a plunge in customers, especially from the lucrative mainland Chinese market. The airline also found itself punished by authorities in Beijing because some of its employees joined or voiced support for the protests. By the time the pandemic hit at the start of the year, Hong Kong was already in recession and Cathay Pacific in the red. There is scant hope on the horizon. In a note to investors on Monday that detailed its most optimistic scenario, Cathay Pacific said it expected to run at half its pre-pandemic capacity next year. One of the biggest disappointments for airlines has been the absence of highly lucrative business class travellers who prefer now to rely on tele-conferencing rather than run the risk of catching the virus. Airlines are hopeful that better testing procedures at airports and "travel bubbles" between countries might encourage more people to fly. Work on the latter has been slow, especially as the virus surges for a second time in Europe and North America. Last week, Hong Kong and Singapore announced plans for a "travel bubble". Under the scheme, passengers who test negative for the virus will be able to travel on dedicated flights and not need to quarantine on arrival.

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: Chinese city offers residents experimental vaccines Shaoxing city in China's Zhejiang province will offer experimental coronavirus vaccines to its residents, as China broadens an emergency use programme to people in non-priority groups, the city's health commission said on Tuesday on its WeChat account. It did not name the vaccine, say when inoculation would start or how many doses would be offered. Residents aged between 18 and 59 who are not in priority groups, can apply online for inoculation. Applicants will need to give reasons for wanting the vaccine on their applications and will be charged 400 yuan ($60) for two doses, with an additional inoculation fee of 28 yuan per dose, the city said. Hundreds of thousands of people have already taken experimental Covid-19 vaccines in China since it launched its emergency use programmeme in July aimed at essential workers and other limited groups of people at higher risk of infection. Last week, Zhejiang became the first Chinese province to offer the voluntary inoculation to non-priority residents via the emergency use programmeme, without specifying how many people will be vaccinated. Victoria state paves way for pop-up dining Australia's heaviest-hit coronavirus state of Victoria logged a sixth consecutive day of low single-digit new cases on Wednesday, as the state government said it was on track to announce fresh easing measures at the weekend. Victoria, which has been under strict lockdown measures since early July, hopes to revitalise outdoor dining over the summer in the hospitality sector, by allowing pop-up restaurants in public gardens and carparks in downtown areas. Victorians were allowed to extend travel up to 25 km (15 miles) from their homes as of Monday, up from 5 km, although retail, most beauty services, and hospitality outside of takeaway remain closed. Brazil will use China's Sinovac in immunisation programme The Brazilian government will include China's Sinovac vaccine against Covid-19 in its national immunisation programme, state governors said on Tuesday after a meeting with the country's health minister, in addition to one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. The national vaccination programme could begin in January 2021, he said, which could make it one of the first immunisation efforts against coronavirus in the world. Sao Paulo state's research centre Butantan Institute said on Monday that preliminary results from late-stage clinical trials of the experimental Chinese vaccine called CoronaVac on 9,000 volunteers have proven that the two-dose vaccine is safe. It's the first set of results of Sinovac's global Phase 3 trials, which are also being conducted in Turkey and Indonesia. Separately, Venezuela plans to vaccinate citizens with Russian and Chinese coronavirus vaccines, which could arrive in the South American nation in December or January, President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday, adding that older people and those with existing diseases would take priority, but that all Venezuelans would be vaccinated. Mexico could share vaccine liabilities with laboratories Mexico could share some liabilities arising from any adverse side effects of the Covid-19 vaccines used in the country, but it will negotiate the issue once laboratories have finished developing the medicines, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday. As various vaccine candidates make their way through different stages of global clinical trials at a record pace, it remains unclear who foots the bill if people in poor countries fall sick from treatments. Martha Delgado, the deputy foreign minister in charge of Mexico's international response to the pandemic, earlier told Reuters in an interview that she did not expect Latin America's second-largest economy to need a contingency fund to cover liabilities, saying not participating in COVAX and missing out on its vaccines would have been a bigger risk for Mexico.

Yang Hengjun, an Australian writer detained in Beijing and facing trial for espionage on behalf of a country China hasn't publicly named was a former Chinese spy, according to a confidential letter he wrote to a supporter in 2011. In the detailed letter he wrote to his former teacher, which was reviewed by Reuters, Yang revealed he had worked for China’s Ministry of State Security for a decade from 1989, including in Hong Kong and Washington, before moving to Australia. The 55-year-old, who became a well-known pro-democracy blogger, faces 10 years or more in jail after Chinese authorities charged him with endangering national security by joining or accepting a mission from the unidentified espionage organisation, said Feng Chongyi, the Sydney-based liberal scholar who Yang sent the letter to. Yang has previously proclaimed his innocence, saying last month: "I will never confess to something I haven't done." Feng revealed the letter's details about Yang's past as a Chinese spy for the first time, which had been rumoured in overseas Chinese dissident circles, as a preemptive move to counter potential misinformation at Yang's trial over spying for another country. Reuters was unable to independently verify Yang's claim that he spied for China and some other details of his letter. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred Reuters to a statement it made on Oct 12, when a spokesman confirmed Yang had been indicted on charges of espionage on Oct 7, and that the first hearing of the case was underway. "Relevant Chinese authorities are handling the case in strict accordance with the law and Yang Jun's legal rights are fully protected," spokesman Zhao Lijian said at the time, referring to his Yang's legal name. The Australian government referred Reuters to Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne's statement last week that Australia has seen no evidence to support the charge of espionage against Yang. Yang's Beijing lawyers have been forbidden from speaking about the trial to media by Chinese authorities. The case underscores what Yang's supporters describe as a crackdown on liberal voices in China since 2016 under President Xi Jinping and comes at a time when diplomatic relations between Australia and China are already at a low ebb. Yang generated a strong following online more than a decade ago after writing hundreds of articles about Chinese, American and Taiwanese politics. He was first detained in China in 2011 by police on suspicion of being an instigator of Beijing’s Jasmine Revolution - short-lived protests spurred by online democracy activists. He was released after three days following interventions by the Australian government. In his May 2011 letter to Feng, Yang denied he was behind the protests and said he told police he worked for the MSS after 1989. According to his letter, Yang worked for the MSS in Hong Kong from 1992 until the city's handover from Britain to China in 1997, and then in Washington. Yang's cover in Hong Kong was at a travel service, while in Washington he worked as a think-tank researcher, Feng said, though the letter didn’t refer to these activities. China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a further request for comment about Yang's work for MSS in Hong Kong and Washington. Yang asked the Guangzhou police interrogating him in 2011 to contact the MSS to confirm his identity, but also told them he didn’t need permission to write publicly about Chinese democracy because he had left the security agency years earlier. "I have changed my mind and discovered a better way to patriotism. That is to promote China's social progress and political system reform to achieve democratic modernization, not just being a spy," he told them, according to the letter. A person answering the phone at the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau on Wednesday said he was unaware of the case and the office did not immediately respond to a faxed request seeking confirmation of Yang's detention and questioning in 2011. Yang had quit the MSS when he migrated to Australia in 1999 to follow his family, and became an Australian citizen in 2002, said Feng, who supervised Yang's PhD studies at Sydney's University of Technology in 2006. Yang spent the next four years writing spy novels. The three novels, published in Taiwan, are about a double agent, also surnamed Yang. In his 2004 novel, Finishing Stroke, the CIA director, U.S. president and Taiwan’s president are embroiled in a plot line about tensions in the Taiwan Strait. During his 2011 detention, police had demanded to know how Yang could write the novels without divulging state secrets, according to Yang's written account. "I know the boundary between love of country and treason," he replied, according to the 13-page letter. In addition to the letter, another source confirmed he told close friends of his MSS history after his 2011 detention. After his three day detention in 2011, he was detained again by police entering China from New York in January 2019. Feng said he believed Yang's detention was linked to a national police crackdown on "foreign interference" reported by state media in the same month. "In 2019, he was suspected of being a person with the potential of organising Colour Revolution," said Feng, referring to pro-democracy protest movements sometimes linked by critics to U.S. or Western interests, without providing more specifics. China's foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the details of Yang's arrest. Yang was living in New York in 2019 as a visiting scholar at Columbia University who supplemented his income by working as a "daigou" or online shopping agent for Chinese consumers wanting American products. "Yang Hengjun is being punished for his publications criticising human rights abuses and other malpractice of the (Chinese Communist Party) in China, and for promoting China's transition to introducing democracy," said Feng, who was himself detained by security police in Guangzhou in 2017. The Australian government has raised serious concerns about Yang's treatment during his 21 months in detention, saying he had been shackled at times last year, interrogated for extended periods, with limited access to lawyers and unable to see his wife. She is only allowed to pass a message to her husband through consular officials on a narrow range of topics. Yang's wife Yuan Xiaoliang, who spoke to Reuters in Shanghai about their relationship but not Yang's case or his MSS past, said Yang would not betray his family and readers in China. She also expressed concern for her husband's health, noting he had lost weight and that Australian consular officers who visited him last year told her they observed he was shaking as he walked while in detention. "I once hoped that they would let him go. But now it seems impossible," said Yuan, who has been granted a permanent resident visa by Australia, but is prevented by authorities from leaving China. "I am worried that he will not be able to survive."

China has passed a new law to improve its handling of disease outbreaks -- including protecting whistleblowers -- following a cascade of criticism over its coronavirus response and accusations of an early cover-up. The new biosecurity law, approved by lawmakers on Saturday, flags the right to report "acts that endanger biosecurity" and calls for risk prevention systems, ranging from active monitoring to emergency plans. It takes effect from April 15 next year. "Any work unit or individual has the right to report acts that endanger biosecurity," the regulation said. "When a report is required according to the law, no work unit or individual shall conceal (it)... or hinder others from making a report," it added on infectious diseases and epidemics. China's approval of the law comes in the face of Western criticism on the coronavirus, over accusations that it covered up the initial outbreak and silenced early whistleblowers. But China has been trying to reshape this narrative, with authorities seeking instead to model the country as a vanguard in the pandemic fight. Although doctor Li Wenliang who alerted colleagues to the new coronavirus in late December was at first reprimanded, a national outpouring of grief and anger over his death prompted Beijing to redirect criticism to local officials and subsequently paint him as a hero. President Xi Jinping in February raised the need to speed up establishing the biosecurity law, urging for reforms of mechanisms to prevent major outbreaks. Under the new law, those who conceal information, omit making reports or prevent others from reporting infectious diseases could be given warnings or suspended. The new law also calls for systems including to regularly monitor biosafety risks, and to trace the origins of incidents. Disease prevention agencies are also to help predict the occurrence and prevalence of emerging diseases. Based on these predictions, authorities should announce warnings and adopt prevention measures. Although Beijing established an information system after the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak that allowed for real-time reports of outbreaks, provincial authorities came under fire during the coronavirus outbreak for perceived incompetence, including delays in announcing the public health emergency. The new biosecurity law also takes aim at the management of research facilities, flagging the need for emergency plans for biosafety incidents.

China's disease control authority said on Saturday that contact with frozen food packaging contaminated by living new coronavirus could cause infection. The conclusion came as the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) detected and isolated living coronavirus on the outer packaging of frozen cod during efforts to trace the virus in an outbreak reported last week in the city of Qingdao, the agency said on its website. The finding, a world first, suggests it is possible for the virus to be conveyed over long distances via frozen goods, it said. Two dock workers in Qingdao who were initially diagnosed as asymptomatic infections in September brought the virus to a chest hospital during quarantine due to insufficient disinfection and protection, leading to another 12 infections linked to the hospital, authorities said last week. However, the CDC's latest statement does not show solid proof that the two workers in Qingdao caught the virus from the packaging directly, rather than contracting the virus from somewhere else and then contaminating the food packaging they handled, said Jin Dong-Yan, a virology professor at the University of Hong Kong. The CDC said no instance had been found of any consumer contracting the virus by having contact with frozen food and the risk of this happening remained very low. Nonetheless it advised that workers who handle, process and sell frozen products should avoid direct skin contact with products that could possibly be polluted. Staff should not touch their mouth or nose before taking off work garments that could possibly be contaminated without washing their hands and should take tests regularly, the agency said. Prior to the CDC's latest findings genetic traces of the virus had been found in some samples taken from frozen food or food packaging, but the amount of virus was low and no living virus was isolated, the agency said. Only living virus can infect people, while samples containing dead virus could also test positive for virus traces, Jin said. 

The Chinese city of Qingdao said yesterday it will test its entire population of more than 9mn people for coronavirus, after discovering 12 new infections that appeared to be linked to a hospital treating imported infections. Daily Covid-19 infections in mainland China have fallen drastically since early in the outbreak, which first emerged in the city of Wuhan. China had reported no new domestically transmitted cases since early August, but has remained on high alert. Qingdao reported a total of six new Covid-19 cases and six asymptomatic infections on Sunday, all linked to the Qingdao Chest Hospital, where infected travellers arriving from overseas have been treated in an isolated area.  The specific source of infection was still under investigation, the city government said on Sunday. The testing would cover the city in five days, the city said. The new cases were all of current or former patients in Qingdao Chest Hospital, hospital staff, or their family members. One asymptomatic case was a taxi driver whose wife worked at the hospital and was also infected. Qingdao said it has locked down the Qingdao Chest Hospital as well as the emergency department of its central hospital, which the taxi driver visited. Buildings housing infected individuals have also been locked down as part of the city’s virus containment measures. The new infections emerged shortly after China completed its Golden Week holiday, during which millions of people travelled domestically. Disease control authorities in several cities including Beijing advised residents to avoid unnecessary trips to Qingdao. An investment and trade expo in Qingdao organised by the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation and scheduled for the weekend of  Oct 16-18 was postponed, state TV reported. Qingdao’s mass testing campaign is not China’s first. Wuhan tested its entire population, and mass schemes involving several million samples have also been conducted in Beijing and Urumqi. The National Health Commission’s daily tally reported 21 confirmed Covid-19 cases, but none in Qingdao were included. The number of new nationwide asymptomatic cases, which China counts separately from confirmed cases, rose to 32 from 23 a day earlier, the NHC said.

Domestic tourism in China saw a robust rebound over the just-ended Golden Week holiday, encouraged by the country’s success in stamping out the novel coronavirus, although levels were still well short of last year. Tourism sites were visited by 637mn domestic tourists over the eight-day National Day holiday that started Oct 1, 79% of last year’s total, China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a statement on Thursday. Domestic tourism revenues stood at 466.56bn yuan ($68.7bn), it added, down from nearly 650bn yuan a year earlier. That, however, marked an improvement from China’s last long holiday period over May 1-5 for Labour Day, when 115mn domestic tourists travelled and tourism revenues were only 47.56bn yuan. Since then, Covid-19 cases have ebbed, with no new community transmissions in mainland China since early August. “The quick rebound may have alleviated concerns about China’s growth momentum, but it is too early to be complacent,” Betty Wang, senior China economist at ANZ, wrote in a note. The October Golden Week figures undershot last year’s levels, even though the holiday period was extended this year by a day as it overlapped with China’s mid-autumn festival. The figures also defied some expectations that domestic tourism would be much stronger with cross-border travel restrictions and a dearth of international flights deterring millions of Chinese nationals from overseas trips. “Tourism revenue during the holiday period only rebounded to 69.9% of last year,” Wang said, noting core inflation trended lower year-on-year to 0.5% growth in July and August, the lowest level since 2010. The soft CPI growth suggests domestic demand remained fragile. “We failed to see a so-called retaliatory rebound (in consumption),” said Zhang Qidi, visiting researcher at the Centre of International Finance Studies at the Central University of Finance Studies in Beijing. Zhang does not expect consumer spending to perform strongly in the near term, noting that middle and low-income households have been hit by the economic fallout of the pandemic. Household income fell 1.3% on the year as of end-June versus a 5.8% increase at end-December, according to official data. “It will still take a long time for income growth to return to normal,” Zhang said. Separate data from the commerce ministry showed average daily sales at key retail and catering enterprises rose 4.9% over the October holiday period from a year earlier, with sales totalling 1.6tn yuan ($238bn). It also noted strong car sales growth in some areas around the country, with sales in Beijing 23.5% higher. Car trips featured prominently this year, according to state media, contributing to highway congestion and also indicating continued caution over coronavirus transmissions and outbreaks.

A Chinese experimental coronavirus vaccine being developed by the Institute of Medical Biology under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences was shown to be safe in an early stage clinical trial, researchers said. In a Phase 1 trial of 191 healthy participants aged between 18 and 59, vaccination with the group's experimental shot showed no severe adverse reactions, its researchers said on Tuesday in a paper posted on medRxiv preprint server ahead of peer review. The most common adverse reactions reported by the trial participants were mild pain, slight fatigue and redness, itching and swelling at the injection site. The candidate also induced immune response. "All the data obtained in this trial support the safety and immunogenicity of this inactivated vaccine and are encouraging with regard to further studies of its efficacy in the future," the paper said. China has inoculated hundreds of thousands of essential workers and other groups considered at high risk with other vaccines, even as clinical trials had not been fully completed, raising safety concerns among experts. China has at least four experimental vaccines in the final stage of clinical trials. 

Sixteen workers died and one is in a critical condition after being trapped underground in a coal mine in southwest China on Sunday, reported state broadcaster CCTV. A conveyor belt caught fire in the early hours of the morning, state news agency Xinhua cited the government as saying, which produced dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. Medics are fighting to save the life of the remaining survivor, CCTV reported. The cause of the accident is still under investigation, said the Qijiang district government on social media platform Weibo. The facility, Songzao Coal Mine, is owned by state energy firm Chongqing Energy and located just outside the city of Chongqing. Mining accidents are common in China, where the industry has a poor safety record and regulations are often weakly enforced. At least 14 miners were killed in a coal and gas blast last December at a mine in southwestern Guizhou province. In December 2018, seven miners were killed in Chongqing after the connecting segment of a skip broke and fell down a shaft. In October the same year, 21 miners died in eastern Shandong province after pressure inside a mine caused rocks to fracture and break, blocking the tunnel and trapping the workers. Only one miner was rescued alive.

Taiwan's armed forces have held anti-landing drills on one of its offshore islands close to China amid rising tensions with Beijing, the island's defence ministry said on Friday, showing images of a cannon firing and soldiers loading the guns. China has stepped up its military activities near Taiwan which it claims as its own territory, including flying fighter jets across the unofficial mid-line of the sensitive Taiwan Strait, which combat aircraft normally don't breach. China says it has been reacting to what Beijing has called "collusion" between Taiwan and the United States, and to protect China's sovereignty, responding to US Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach's visit last week to Taipei. Taiwan's Defence Ministry said the drills to repel a landing took place on the Matsu archipelago, which lies just offshore the Chinese city of Fuzhou. "Whether the engine of a fighter plane or the rumbling of artillery, it is a reassuring sound for the national army that is defending the homeland," it said in a post on its Facebook page. The drills took place across the archipelago involving the use of cannons and machine guns, the ministry added, accompanied by pictures of the exercises. "Please give the greatest applause to these officers and soldiers! Be our strongest backers!" it said. Taiwan has held Matsu, along with Kinmen further down the coast, since defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 at the end of the Chinese civil war. When Taiwan and China last joined battle on a large scale in 1958 it was around Matsu and Kinmen, with Chinese forces carrying out more than a month of bombardments, including naval and air battles. Today the islands are popular tourist destinations, though Taiwan maintains a sizeable military presence. Both are considered by experts as likely targets for Chinese invasion in any war with Taiwan due to their proximity to China. 

China's Covid-19 vaccine development programme is in a "leading position" and Beijing is on track to produce over 600 million doses by the end of the year, officials said Friday. China has been bullish about the development of its coronavirus vaccine as scientists around the world race to halt the deadly pathogen which has caused global chaos and killed almost a million people. Health officials told reporters at a press conference Friday that China expects to produce 610 million vaccine doses by the end of this year, with annual production capacity to reach at least one billion doses next year. Eleven Chinese vaccines have now entered clinical trials, with four in Phase Three trials that are "progressing smoothly", said Wu Yuanbin from the Ministry of Science and Technology. "At present, China's Covid-19 vaccine research and development work is overall in a leading position," said Wu. "We've seen that the vaccines' safety is good and there have been no serious adverse reactions." Hundreds of thousands of essential workers at ports, hospitals and other high-risk areas have already been given an experimental vaccine since July, officials said, claiming that the programme had also gained the support of the World Health Organization (WHO). "The safety of the emergency use vaccine has been fully authenticated, but its efficacy has not been fully certified," said Zheng Zhongwei, an official at the National Health Commission. "Up until now, there has not been one serious adverse reaction from all participants in the Covid emergency vaccine programme," Zheng added. He insisted the final vaccine would be "affordable for the general public." There are 59 vaccines currently under research in China in total, according to Wu. Chinese President Xi Jinping has previously declared that Chinese vaccines would be made a "global public good". Two vaccines produced by China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a subsidiary of Sinopharm, have been tested on over 35,000 people during Phase Three trials in the Middle East, Wu said. Sinovac -- another leading vaccine producer -- has also been carrying out Phase Three trials in countries in South America and Southeast Asia, Wu added. A vaccine jointly developed by CanSino Biologics and the Chinese military has been approved for Phase Three trials in countries in Europe and Asia. Russia has boasted that it created the world's first approved coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, although it is still undergoing clinical trials.

Taiwan scrambled fighter jets yesterday as 18 Chinese aircraft buzzed the island, crossing the sensitive midline of the Taiwan Strait, in response to a senior US official holding talks in Taipei. China had earlier announced combat drills and denounced what it called collusion between the island, which it claims as part of its territory, and the United States. US Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach arrived in Taipei on Thursday for a three-day visit, the most senior US State Department official to come to Taiwan in four decades – to which China had promised a “necessary response”. The US State Department has said Krach, who arrived in Taipei on Thursday afternoon, is in Taiwan for a memorial service today for former president Lee Teng-hui, who was revered by many on the island and internationally as the father of Taiwan’s democracy. However, Beijing has watched with growing alarm the ever-closer relationship between Taipei and Washington, and has stepped up military exercises near the island, including two days of large-scale air and sea drills last week. With a US presidential election looming in November, Sino-US relations are already under huge strain from a trade war, US digital security concerns and the coronavirus pandemic. Taiwan said that 18 Chinese aircraft were involved yesterday, far more than in previous such encounters and entered its southwest air defence identification zone (ADIZ). “Sep. 18, two H-6 bombers, eight J-16 fighters, four J-10 fighters and four J-11 fighters crossed the midline of the TaiwanStrait and entered Taiwan’s southwest ADIZ,” the defence ministry said in an English-language tweet. Combat aircraft from both sides normally avoid passing through the Taiwan Strait midline. “ROCAF scrambled fighters, and deployed air defence missile system to monitor the activities.”  The ROCAF, Taiwan’s air force, has scrambled frequently in recent months in response to Chinese intrusions. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has led the Trump administration’s rhetorical offensive against China, accused Beijing of bluster when asked about the Chinese activity. “We sent the delegation to a funeral, and the Chinese have apparently responded by military blustering. I’ll leave it at that,” he told a news conference on a visit to Guyana. In a statement, the Pentagon said that it was another example of China using its military as a tool of coercion. “The PLA’s aggressive and destabilising reactions reflect a continued attempt to alter the status quo and rewrite history,” a Pentagon spokesman said, using an acronym for China’s People’s Liberation Army. The ministry showed a map of the flight paths of Chinese jets crossing the midline. Taiwan’s Liberty Times newspaper said Taiwanese jets had scrambled 17 times over four hours, warning China’s air force to stay away. It also showed a picture of missiles being loaded onto an F-16 fighter at the Hualien air base on Taiwan’s east coast. In Beijing, Chinese defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said that yesterday’s manoeuvres, about which he gave no details, involved the People’s Liberation Army’s eastern theater command. “They are a reasonable, necessary action aimed at the current situation in the Taiwan Strait and protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Ren said. He said that Taiwan is a purely internal Chinese affair and accused its ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of stepping up “collusion” with the United States. Trying to “use Taiwan to control China” or “rely on foreigners to build oneself up” was wishful thinking and futile. “Those who play with fire will get burnt,” Ren said. Taiwan’s presidential office urged China to exercise restraint, and urged the Taiwanese not to be alarmed, saying the military had a grasp on the situation. Government officials in Taiwan, including President Tsai Ing-wen, have expressed concern in recent weeks that an accidental military encounter could spark a wider conflict. Hu Xijin, editor of China’s widely-read state-backed Global Times tabloid, wrote on his Weibo microblog that the drills were preparation for an attack on Taiwan should the need arise, and that they enabled intelligence-gathering about Taiwan’s defence systems. “If the US secretary of state or defence secretary visits Taiwan, People’s Liberation Army fighters should fly over Taiwan island, and directly exercise in the skies above it,” he added. Chinese fighter jets briefly crossed the midline last month while US Health Secretary Alex Azar was in Taipei, and last week China carried out two days of large-scale drills off Taiwan’s southwestern coast. The United States, like most countries, has official ties only with China, not Taiwan, though Washington is the island’s main arms supplier and most important international backer. This week, the US ambassador to the United Nations had lunch with Taiwan’s top envoy in New York. China’s UN mission said it had lodged “stern representations” over the meeting.

Taiwan scrambled fighter jets on Friday as 18 Chinese aircraft buzzed the island, crossing the sensitive midline of the Taiwan Strait, in response to a senior US official holding talks in Taipei. China had earlier announced combat drills and denounced what it called collusion between the island, which it claims as part of its territory, and the United States. US Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach arrived in Taipei on Thursday for a three-day visit, the most senior State Department official to come to Taiwan in four decades - to which China had promised a "necessary response." The US State Department has said Krach, who arrived in Taipei on Thursday afternoon, is in Taiwan for a memorial service on Saturday for former President Lee Teng-hui, who was revered by many on the island and internationally as the father of Taiwan's democracy. But Beijing has watched with growing alarm the ever-closer relationship between Taipei and Washington, and has stepped up military exercises near the island, including two days of large-scale air and sea drills last week. With a US presidential election looming in November, Sino-US relations are already under huge strain from a trade war, US digital security concerns and the coronavirus pandemic. Taiwan said 18 Chinese aircraft were involved on Friday, far more than in previous such encounters. "Sep. 18, two H-6 bombers, eight J-16 fighters, four J-10 fighters and four J-11 fighters crossed the midline of the TaiwanStrait and entered Taiwan's southwest ADIZ," the defence ministry said in an English-language tweet. "ROCAF scrambled fighters, and deployed air defence missile system to monitor the activities." The ROCAF, Taiwan's air force, has scrambled frequently in recent months in response to Chinese intrusions. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has led the Trump administration's rhetorical offensive against China, accused Beijing of bluster when asked about the Chinese activity. "We sent the delegation to a funeral, and the Chinese have apparently responded by military blustering. I'll leave it at that," he told a news conference on a visit to Guyana. The ministry showed a map of the flight paths of Chinese jets crossing the Taiwan Strait midline, which combat aircraft from both sides normally avoid passing through. Taiwan's Liberty Times newspaper said Taiwanese jets had scrambled 17 times over four hours, warning China's air force to stay away. It also showed a picture of missiles being loaded onto an F-16 fighter at the Hualien air base on Taiwan's east coast. In Beijing, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said Friday's maneuvers, about which he gave no details, involved the People's Liberation Army's eastern theater command. "They are a reasonable, necessary action aimed at the current situation in the Taiwan Strait and protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Ren said. He said Taiwan was a purely internal Chinese affair and accused its ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of stepping up "collusion" with the United States. Trying to "use Taiwan to control China" or "rely on foreigners to build oneself up" was wishful thinking and futile. "Those who play with fire will get burnt," Ren said. Taiwan's presidential office urged China to exercise restraint, and urged the Taiwanese not to be alarmed, saying the military had a grasp on the situation. Government officials in Taiwan, including President Tsai Ing-wen, have expressed concern in recent weeks that an accidental military encounter could spark a wider conflict. Hu Xijin, editor of China's widely read state-backed Global Times tabloid, wrote on his Weibo microblog that the drills were preparation for an attack on Taiwan should the need arise, and that they enabled intelligence-gathering about Taiwan's defense systems. "If the US secretary of state or defence secretary visits Taiwan, People's Liberation Army fighters should fly over Taiwan island, and directly exercise in the skies above it," he added. Chinese fighter jets briefly crossed the midline of the Taiwan Strait last month while US Health Secretary Alex Azar was in Taipei, and last week China carried out two days of large-scale drills off Taiwan's southwestern coast. The United States, like most countries, has official ties only with China, not Taiwan, though Washington is the island's main arms supplier and most important international backer. This week, the US ambassador to the United Nations had lunch with Taiwan's top envoy in New York. China's UN mission said it had lodged "stern representations" over the meeting.

China's International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, the country's biggest airshow, scheduled for November, has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the next one will take place in 2022, the organiser said on Wednesday. The biennial event usually draws key suppliers - such as Airbus SE, Boeing Co and Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC) - and has traditionally been used by Beijing to show off its growing aviation capability, such as military fighters and drones. The cancellation comes as foreign nationals are largely barred from entering China due to concerns about importing coronavirus cases and as international flights have been severely restricted. It follows the cancellation of this year's largest aerospace expo, Britain's Farnborough Airshow, because of travel curbs and an industry downturn resulting from the pandemic. China's domestic aviation industry has been recovering and is now running at more than 90% of pre-pandemic capacity levels, according to data firm OAG, but that has yet to translate into a return to profitability for Chinese airlines. As the global industry reels from the devastating impact of the pandemic, many Western aerospace companies have reduced budgets and some were not planning to attend the Zhuhai airshow if it had gone ahead, company sources told Reuters. Progress on some key civilian aircraft programmes including COMAC's narrowbody jet C919 and widebody CR929, jointly developed with Russia, has also been slow amid rising geopolitical tensions.

Police fired rounds of pepper balls at protesters in Hong Kong on Sunday and arrested almost 300 after demonstrators took to the streets to oppose the postponement of legislative elections and a new national security law imposed by China. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam postponed the Sept. 6 election for seats in the Asian financial hub's Legislative Council for a year in July because of a spike in coronavirus cases. The move dealt a blow to the pro-democracy opposition which hoped to win a historic majority in the Council, where only half the seats are directly elected and the other half are appointed members who mostly support Beijing. ‘Today is supposedly our voting day, we need to resist to fight back for our vote,’ said a 70-year old woman surnamed Wong as she marched with other demonstrators. The poll would have been the former British colony’s first official vote since Beijing imposed new security legislation in late June. The government insists there was no political motive behind the delay. Thousands of police were stationed around the bustling Kowloon peninsula as hundreds of marchers waved placards and chanted popular anti-government slogans such as ‘liberate Hong Kong’. These slogans are now banned under the new security law. Police said they arrested 298 people, mainly for illegal gatherings, in a notice on their Facebook page. Several well-known activists were arrested during the demonstration including Figo Chan, the vice-convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front and former legislator Leung Kwok-hung, also known as ‘Long Hair’, according to a post on Chan's Facebook page. Anti-government demonstrations have declined this year mainly because of limits on group gatherings, imposed to counter the spread of coronavirus, and the security law, which punishes actions China sees as subversive, secessionist, terrorist or colluding with foreign forces. Critics say the law aims to quash dissent in the city, while supporters say it will bring more stability after a year of often-violent anti-government and anti-China unrest. Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a guarantee of autonomy but critics say the new law undermines that promise and puts the territory on a more authoritarian path. Advocates of the law say it plugs loopholes in national security left by the city’s inability to fulfil a constitutional requirement to pass such laws on its own. While street protests have largely lost momentum, anti-government and anti-Beijing sentiment persists, with China's offer of mass coronavirus testing for Hong Kong residents prompting calls for a boycott amid public distrust.

Hong Kong riot police used pepper spray to disperse protesters Monday evening on the anniversary of a notorious clash during last year's pro-democracy rallies where officers were filmed beating people on a train. Dozens of activists gathered outside Prince Edward subway station as night fell to chant pro-democracy slogans and lay flowers, but officers soon declared an illegal protest and riot police with batons and pepper ball guns arrived to break up the crowds. Throughout the evening they stopped and searched multiple people as pro-democracy slogans were chanted. Police said they made 12 arrests, including a 17-year-old male "claiming himself to be a reporter" and another person who possessed an imitation firearm. Nine were arrested for unlawful assembly. Hong Kong was rocked by seven straight months of huge and often violent protests last year calling for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability. Street demonstrations have since been snuffed out by zero tolerance policing tactics, anti-coronavirus measures banning public gatherings and a draconian new security law Beijing imposed on the restless city in late June. Small crowds still often form during key dates from last year's protests. The 31 August 2019 was one of many days during the unrest when footage of police action deepened public anger towards law enforcement and injected new vigour into the protest movement. That night police officers stormed into Prince Edward station and were filmed beating multiple people on a subway train with batons, leaving them bloodied. Reporters and paramedics were later denied access to the station, fuelling online rumours that swirled for weeks of missing people despite no compelling evidence emerging. An inquiry into the police handling of the protests became a core demand of democracy supporters and rights groups, alongside an amnesty for the more than 9,000 arrested and fully free elections. Beijing and Hong Kong's leaders have rejected those demands, portraying the protests as a foreign-fuelled plot to destabilise China.

At least 17 people died yesterday when a restaurant in northern China collapsed, state media said, with rescuers pulling dozens of survivors from the rubble and searching for others believed to be trapped. The two-storey building used for banquets came down in the morning in Xiangfen county, in Shanxi province, according to broadcaster CGTN. Xinhua news agency reported that “45 people have been brought out, of which 17 were dead, seven seriously injured and 21 slightly injured”. Rescuers in orange overalls and hard hats combed the crumbled ruin of the building, images on the CGTN website showed, with a decorative painting seen on one of the few walls still intact. Seven hundred people were involved in the rescue operation, CGTN said. While the cause of the disaster was not immediately clear, China is no stranger to building collapses and accidents. They are typically blamed on the country’s rapid growth leading to corner-cutting by builders and the widespread flouting of safety rules.

China has been giving experimental coronavirus vaccines to groups facing high infection risks since July, a health official told state media. No vaccine has yet passed final, large-scale trials to prove it is safe and effective enough to protect people from contracting the virus that has led to almost 800,000 deaths worldwide. The aim is to boost the immunity of specific groups of people, including medical workers and those who work at food markets and in the transportation and service sectors, Zheng Zhongwei, a National Health Commission official, told state TV in an interview aired late on Saturday. Authorities could consider modestly expanding the emergency use programme to try to prevent possible outbreaks during the autumn and winter, added Zheng, who heads the Chinese government-led team that coordinates state resources for coronavirus vaccine development. The guidelines for emergency use of potential coronavirus vaccines, approved on June 24 according to Zheng, have not been made public. State media Global Times reported in June that China had been offering candidate coronavirus vaccines to employees at state-owned firms travelling overseas. Some countries are sceptical about China's use of experimental vaccines. Papua New Guinea has denied entry to Chinese nationals who participated in a coronavirus vaccine trial, according to the Australian newspaper. China's coronavirus vaccines will be priced close to cost, Zheng said. ‘It does not mean that companies cannot make profits,’ Zheng said. ‘Companies should decide on moderate profits, or reasonable profits based on costs.’ A potential coronavirus vaccine being developed by a unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) could cost no more than 1,000 yuan ($144) for two shots, Sinopharm chairman Liu Jingzhen told state media last week. ‘[The price] will definitely be lower than what Liu said,’ Zheng said.