International

* China says tariff to be introduced from May 19 * Duty to last for five years * Australia calls decision disappointing, may appeal  China added to tensions with Australia on Monday by announcing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties totalling 80.5% on Australian barley imports from May 19, which is expected to all but halt a billion-dollar trade between them. China's Ministry of Commerce said it had confirmed dumping by Australia and significant damage on its domestic industry as a result, following an inquiry which began in 2018. The tariffs on barley, which will remain in place for five years, are the latest agricultural commodity to be affected by a deteriorating relationship between Canberra and Beijing. The Chinese ministry said duties of 73.6% would be levied on all companies, including four named exporters, The Iluka Trust, Kalgan Nominees Pty. Ltd, JW&JI Mcdonald & Sons and Haycroft Enterprises, as well as an anti-subsidy duty of 6.9%. Australia is the biggest barley supplier to China, exporting about A$1.5 billion to A$2 billion ($980 million to $1.3 billion) worth a year, which is more than half its exports. Barley is used both for brewing and animal feed. "There aren't many alternative markets. It could be sold to Saudi Arabia, but it will be heavily discounted to what Australian farmers could have received by selling to China," an Australian government source told Reuters. By contrast, China - the world's top barley importer - will simply shift purchasing to other key producers, including France, Canada, Argentina and some smaller European exporters. "It's very replaceable," said Andries De Groen, managing director at Germany headquartered barley trader Evergrain. Australia's Minister for Trade Simon Birmingham said the Chinese decision was deeply disappointing. "We reject the basis of this decision and will be assessing the details of the findings while we consider the next steps," Birmingham said in an emailed statement. "We reserve the right to appeal this matter further." Australia's relationship with Beijing soured in 2018 when it banned Huawei from its nascent 5G broadband network, while tensions were escalated by concerns within Canberra over China's attempts to secure greater influence in the Pacific. "The issue is part of broader juggle that Australia makes between its political place in the west and economic place in the east," Tobin Gorey, director of agricultural strategy, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said of the barley tariff. China has been angered in recent weeks by Australia's call for an independent inquiry into the origins of coronavirus. Last month, Beijing's ambassador to Australia said Chinese consumers could boycott Australian beef, wine, tourism and universities in response to Canberra's demand. Days later, Beijing suspended imports from four of Australia's largest meat processors, worth about 20% of Canberra's beef exports to China. 

Mainland China reported five new confirmed Covid-19 cases for May 16, down from eight the previous day, the National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement yesterday. Two of the five confirmed cases were so-called imported infections, while three were locally transmitted in the northeastern Chinese city of Jilin. The number of confirmed cases in the mainland now stands at 82,947 and the death toll at 4,634. China does not include people who have been tested and found to be asymptomatic carriers in its tally of confirmed cases. The three domestically-transmitted cases are related to a district in Jilin city called Fengman, which has been classified by Chinese officials as a high-risk area for Covid-19. Heightened disease control measures in the district include allowing only one person from a family to go out and purchase daily necessities each day, according to the district’s official post on WeChat.  Residents were advised not to leave the city and any who do need to leave must provide a negative test result taken within the previous 48 hours. Jilin is the second largest city of Jilin province, which borders North Korea and Russia. It temporarily suspended passenger train services last Wednesday. Fengman district said in a Wechat post on Sunday that it will tighten the lockdown by closing stores including department stores, house appliance stores and furniture stores but will keep supermarkets open to maintain supply to residents. The number of China’s new asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus fell to 12 from 13, the NHC said. Zhong Nanshan, the Chinese government’s senior medical adviser told CNN on Saturday that the danger of a second wave of infections is looming large.

As Wuhan, the Chinese city where the COVID-19 pandemic began, revs up a massive testing campaign, some residents crowding the test centres expressed concern on Saturday that the very act of getting tested could expose them to the coronavirus. Safety has become a hot topic on social media groups among the 11 million residents of Wuhan, people told Reuters as they converged on open-air test sites at clinics and other facilities. Many said, though, that they support the voluntary campaign. Wuhan health authorities sprang back into action after confirming last weekend the central Chinese city's first cluster of new infections since it was released from virtual lockdown on April 8. The new cases - all of them people who had previously shown no symptoms of the disease - spurred Wuhan authorities to launch a citywide search for asymptomatic carriers of the virus, aiming to gauge the level of COVID-19 risk. ‘Some people have expressed worry in the (social media) groups about the tests, which require people to cluster, and whether there's any infection risk,’ said one Wuhan resident who asked not to be named. ‘But others rebutted those worries, saying such comments are not supportive of the government.’ The unprecedented scale of testing indicates the official level of concern, some experts say. Others say it is an extremely costly exercise and question its effectiveness. At a testing kiosk in Jianghan district in central Wuhan, a volunteer was patrolling and spraying disinfectant at a long line of people. Many people observed social distancing, such as queuing 1 metre apart, and there were signs to remind them. But just as many did not. In some cases, volunteer workers were not insisting that they comply. At another open-air testing kiosk, where throat swabs were taken, yellow and black stickers on the ground kept people from converging. But at the back of the long queue, about 40 people gathered with no guidance from officials or volunteers. Residents said the authorities have not told them when they would get the results of their tests. China has confirmed 82,941 cases of COVID-19 as of Friday and 4,633 deaths. The government does not include people found to be asymptomatic carriers of the virus in its tally and does not publish a cumulative number of asymptomatic cases.

China has five potential coronavirus vaccines in human trials and more are on the way, a health official said Friday, as the world races to find a formula to stop the contagion in its tracks. So far there have been no "major adverse reactions" reported among the 2,575 volunteers participating in the phase-two tests, said Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission. "According to the plan, if all goes well, the above projects will complete the second phase of clinical trials in July this year," Zeng said. More vaccine candidates are in the pipeline and awaiting approval for human trials, he added. Zeng did not say when the trials, which must complete three phases for the drug to be approved for use, might be finished. Scientists around the world are working at breakneck speed to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, which has killed more than 300,000 people and infected over 4.4 million. But China's success in largely taming the outbreak could pose a hurdle for its vaccine developers when they reach the final stage of testing. The drug must be administered to a group of volunteers and a placebo given to a control group in the same area where the virus is spreading to see if it works. Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech, which developed one of the vaccines being tested, has told AFP that it is looking to carry out the final stage of its trial abroad because China does not have a large enough coronavirus cluster. Experts say it will take at least 12 to 18 months to develop an effective vaccine, possibly even longer.

Authorities in Wuhan have tested over 3 million residents for the coronavirus in April and May and aim to test all of the rest, state media said, as the city at the epicentre of the original outbreak faces the threat of a second wave of infections. Priority will go to residents who have not been tested before, and people living in residential compounds with previous cases of infection, or old or densely populated estates, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Thursday, citing a Wuhan government meeting. Fears of a second wave just as businesses and schools reopen flared at the weekend after Wuhan reported a cluster of cases, the first since a lockdown was lifted on April 8. Those infections were previously asymptomatic - people who had the virus but had shown no fever or other symptoms. Authorities should have a clear indication of the number of asymptomatic cases once everyone in the city has been tested, Xinhua said, without giving a timeframe for that process. Reuters, citing an internal document to district officials, reported on May 11 that the city planned to conduct the tests for the rest of its 11 million residents over just 10 days. On Friday in open-air plazas, Wuhan residents waited patiently in long queues for their turn to take the test. "I think it's necessary," said Wuhan resident Tong Zheguang, 32. "There's a possibility of a recurrence of the epidemic." Jiang Liandi, 70, said: "Of course I'm a little bit worried. I'm also afraid there will be new infections." Wuhan has detected more than a dozen asymptomatic infections per day in recent days. Some experts say the mass testing is unprecedented in scale, and shows the level of concern. Others say the sheer size of the operation is bound to lead to errors. The city conducted 1.79 million coronavirus tests from April 1 to May 13, according to Reuters calculations based on daily reports published by the city's health commission. If Xinhua's report that 3 million tests have been conducted since April also uses figures from the health commission, that would suggest up to 1.2 million tests were administered on May 14 alone. But the health authority said late on Friday, without elaborating, that 72,791 tests had been conducted on May 14. That was up from 67,026 tests on May 13 and the second-highest total since it started publishing such data on Feb. 21. Recent outbreaks in the northeasterly Heilongjiang province and Jilin city have contributed to fears of other fresh outbreaks in China. On Friday, the mainland reported four new confirmed cases for May 14, the National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement on Friday. All were locally transmitted. "The epidemic situation is now fragmented domestically, but the task of preventing a rebound of the epidemic remains arduous," Zeng Yixin, a vice minister at the NHC, told a news conference. "The epidemic situation abroad is still severe and complex, and the pressure to defend against the outside continues to increase," Zeng added, referring to cases of citizens returning from abroad infected with the virus. China has stopped foreigners entering as a precaution against imported infections. Zeng also said some Covid-19 vaccines were set to complete their second-phase clinical trials in July. Confirmed cases in mainland China stand at 82,933 and the death toll at 4,633. China does not disclose numbers of confirmed asymptomatic cases or include them in its tally.

A northeastern Chinese city has partially shut its borders, cut off transport links and closed schools after the emergence of a local coronavirus cluster that has fuelled fears about a second wave of infections in China. Jilin, with a population of more than 4mn, suspended bus services yesterday and said it will only allow residents to leave the city if they have tested negative for Covid-19 in the past 48 hours and complete an unspecified period of “strict self-isolation”.  All cinemas, indoor gyms, Internet cafes and other enclosed entertainment venues must shut immediately, and pharmacies must report all sales of fever and antiviral medicines, the local government said in a statement.  The city is located in the eponymous province of Jilin, which borders Russia and North Korea. A cluster of infections was reported in the suburb of Shulan over the weekend, with Jilin’s vice mayor warning yesterday that the situation was “extremely severe and complicated” and “there is major risk of further spread”.  The city recorded six new cases yesterday, all linked to the Shulan cluster, bringing the total number of cases connected to a local laundry worker to 21.   Shulan shut down public transport including trains leaving the city on Sunday. Jilin city, the second-largest in Jilin province, also suspended train services from its main railway station yesterday morning, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The city announced yesterday that schools that had reopened in recent weeks would have to shut again, with students returning to online learning.  Final-year high school students across Jilin province returned to campuses on April 7 after months at home, while some younger students had been scheduled to resume classes this week, according to CCTV.   Meanwhile, Jiaohe, another area of Jilin city, put out an urgent call for all attendees of a wedding connected to one confirmed case to alert local authorities and isolate themselves at home immediately.  One patient confirmed yesterday had recently driven two wedding photographers to Jiaohe, where a celebration was being held in a hotel, the local government said in a social media post yesterday.   China has largely brought the virus under control, but it has been on edge about a potential second wave as it has lifted lockdowns across the country.   The emergence of new cases in Wuhan in recent days, after weeks without fresh infections, has prompted a campaign to test all 11mn residents in the city where Covid-19 first emerged late last year.

Beijing resident Wang Yukun was happy to comply in April when the construction firm he works for told him he'd need to take a test for the novel coronavirus before he could come back to work, even though he was at low risk of having the disease. "My company arranged it and covered the test fee. The process was less time-consuming than I imagined," he said, recalling how he got his negative result the next day. "I think everyone should be tested as a matter of personal health." While coronavirus tests can be difficult to obtain in many countries, China is rapidly expanding their availability and affordability, enabling the masses - not just frontline workers, people from hard-hit areas or the sick - to get tested. China is able to produce 5 million test kits a day, the country's industry ministry said last month. While China has not tallied how many daily tests are being carried out nationally, its capacity is far greater than other countries including the United States, which has conducted around 300,000 tests daily on average in recent days, according to the non-profit Covid Tracking Project. Even South Korea and Germany, hailed for tested widely, were able to conduct roughly 20,000 and 120,000 tests a day, respectively, at their peak. Major Chinese cities and provinces have published lists of hundreds of hospitals and clinics now authorised to perform tests and are expanding laboratory capabilities to allow people to obtain their nucleic acid test results in a few hours. Some local governments have added the tests to basic medical insurance schemes, helping to cover costs which range from 60-270 yuan ($8.50-$38). The easy access has helped firms, schools and entertainment providers to reopen after widespread testing. Hosts of popular Chinese singing competition, Singer 2020, invited 251 audience members to record a live show last month after testing them. It is also laying the groundwork for mass testing efforts, should the need arise. Wuhan, the epicentre of China's coronavirus outbreak, plans to conduct nucleic acid testing across the city of 11 million after a cluster of new infections emerged, sources said. China began pushing for widespread testing in April as concerns about the potential asymptomatic patients spreading the virus rose. Since April 13, each Chinese province has been required to provide daily reports on their virus testing efforts, and a stringent nationwide regime of screening, testing and quarantine has seen case numbers fall sharply since peaking in mid-February. Even so, China has refrained from making testing mandatory for all people. Daily, country-wide testing data is not published, and the ramp up of testing capability has been uneven. Hubei, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Heilongjiang, which have a combined population of over 267 million, are together able to conduct at least 321,000 tests a day, according to statements they made in April and May. Beijing has 67 labs capable of processing 48,000 tests a day. But other less well-off provinces including Yunnan and Guangxi are playing catch-up, opening new labs in recent weeks. And with testing compulsory only for certain categories of people, decisions are mainly left to companies or individuals. A source from a Hunan-based state-owned steel mill that employs around 80 people said they were initially asked to take a test only if they lived near a confirmed case. However, colleagues who travel outside the province are now asked to take a test before they return to the office. Still, everyone who wants to get tested is being encouraged to do so. Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.com allow people to book appointments via their widely used platforms, and companies often waive the fees for workers. One taxi company based in Guangzhou sent all 14,000 of its drivers for tests at the request of the government. "This given to the drivers for free," said Kuang Yali, head of Guangzhou Baiyun Car Rental Group's publicity department. "This is to give the drivers assurance, and to also put passengers at ease."

Chinese health authorities yesterday called for vigilance to be maintained against the novel coronavirus as new clusters emerge, even though the peak of the epidemic has passed in the country where it first appeared.  In the past two weeks, new cases have been reported in seven provinces, including Hubei, the original epicentre of the outbreak late last year. On Monday, Wuhan, capital of Hubei, reported its first cluster of infections since a lockdown on the city was lifted a month ago. The reappearance of clusters suggested that counter-epidemic measures could not be relaxed, Mi Feng, spokesman at the National Health Commission, told a media briefing. While prevention and control efforts had normalised, that did not mean measures could be eased, Mi said. As of Monday, mainland China had 115 current confirmed cases, while 5,470 people were under medical observation for signs of novel coronavirus infection. A major worry is asymptomatic cases -- people who show no clinical signs of infection but spread the virus. The number of such cases is not known as they only appear on the radar of health authorities when they show up in tests. In Beijing, where just 13 cases are still being treated, health authorities also warned against complacency. “Even after the 13 patients have recovered and have been discharged from hospital, that does not mean there is zero risk afterwards,” Lei Haichao, head of the Beijing Health Commission, told a media briefing.  Beijing was among the few places in China that upheld strict rules on screening, testing and quarantine. It even stopped all international flights from landing in the city directly. But now China has to strike a balance between maintaining a degree of public health control and easing restrictions where it is deemed safe to do so and returning society and the economy to some state of normalcy.  “The sealing of the city was once an extremely effective method for us in dealing with the epidemic, but now we need to find a balance between economic recovery and epidemic prevention and control,” Lei said. The government has allowed cinemas, museums and other recreational venues across the country to gradually reopen, a move welcome by a virus-hit services sector. But performance venues must keep their operating capacity at no more than 30%, the China Culture Administration Association said. The operating capacity of internet bars and entertainment venues should be capped at less than 50%, it said. Shanghai Disneyland reopened on Monday for the first time in three months, but restricted daily visitor numbers to 20% of capacity.

Wuhan plans to conduct coronavirus tests on the Chinese city's entire population after new cases emerged for the first time in weeks in the cradle of the global pandemic, state media reported Tuesday. Officials have been ordered to submit by noon on Tuesday plans to administer nucleic acid tests on all residents in the city of 11 million people, according to an official notice carried by news outlets. "Each district should make plans and arrangements to conduct nucleic acid tests on the entire population in its jurisdiction within a 10-day time limit," the notice said, although it was unclear when testing would begin. The plan come after Wuhan reported the first cluster of new COVID-19 infections since the city re-opened after a 76-day lockdown on April 8. Six new cases were reported on Sunday and Monday from a residential compound in Dongxihu District. But an official from the Dongxihu District epidemic prevention and control commanding office told AFP that they have "not yet received news about this notice". Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told state broadcaster CCTV it was "not necessary" for every person in Wuhan to be tested. "Neighbourhoods without any cases don't need to screen every person," Wu said, while large-scale screening should focus on "key jobs" and other criteria. China has largely brought the virus under control, but it has been on edge about being hit by a second wave as it has lifted lockdowns and restrictions across the country. Virus clusters have appeared recent weeks in the northeastern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang, which border Russia. With the virus taking hold in other nations, China has barred most foreigners from entering the country. Wuhan has reported 3,869 deaths since the novel coronavirus first emerged there in December, accounting for most fatalities in China. Scientists believe the virus jumped from animals to humans at a market that sold wildlife in the city. prw-tjx/lth/fox

* Five new cases reported in Wuhan * All new cases previously classified as asymptomatic * Infections come as China begins to reopen recreational venues * Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, reported on Monday its first cluster of infections since a lockdown on the city was lifted a month ago, stoking concerns of a wider resurgence of the disease. The new infections sounded a note of caution amid efforts to ease coronavirus-related restrictions across China as businesses restart and individuals get back to work. Wuhan reported five new confirmed cases, all from the same residential compound. One was the wife of an 89-year-old patient reported a day earlier in the first confirmed case in the central city in more than a month. "At present, the task of epidemic prevention and control in the city is still very heavy," the Wuhan health authority said in a statement. "We must resolutely contain the risk of a rebound." All of the latest cases were previously classified as asymptomatic, people who test positive for the virus and are capable of infecting others but do not show clinical signs such as a fever. The number of asymptomatic cases in China is not known, as they only appear on the radar of health officials when they show up positive during tests conducted as part of contact tracing and health checks. China does not include asymptomatic cases in its overall tally of confirmed cases, now at 82,918, until they exhibit signs of infection. Mainland China has reported 4,633 deaths. Hundreds of asymptomatic cases in Wuhan, which was released on April 8 from a months-long lockdown, are being monitored. The numbers of new cases reported in China since April have been small compared with the thousands confirmed every day in February, thanks to a nationwide regime of screening, testing and quarantine. The government said on Friday cinemas, museums and other venues would gradually be reopened, though restrictions including mandatory reservations and a limit on numbers of visitors would be in place. The financial hub of Shanghai has reopened some night spots and Walt Disney Co reopened its Shanghai Disneyland park on Monday to a reduced number of visitors. New outbreaks in China in the past two months have mainly developed in residential compounds or at hospitals. The national health authority called for stronger protocols at laboratories handling samples of coronavirus strains and human nucleic acid tests, and said tests should be carried out under appropriate laboratory settings. Transport of samples and material that could be infectious must be strictly managed and accounted for, the National Health Commission said. 'WAR-TIME MODE' Mi Feng, spokesman at the National Health Commission, said new infections in seven provinces were being traced. "In the past 14 days, seven provinces have reported new locally transmitted cases, with cases involving clusters continuing to increase," Mi told a media briefing, . "We need to investigate and determine the origin of the infections and transmission routes." The northeastern province of Jilin, which on Saturday reported a cluster of infections in one of its cities, Shulan, reported three additional cases. Shulan has been marked a high-risk area, the only place in China currently with that designation. "We're now in a 'war-time' mode," said Jin Hua, the mayor of Shulan, which until the weekend had reported no local cases for more than 70 days. Shulan has imposed a lockdown on its 600,000 residents since the weekend, with just one member of a household being allowed out each day to buy necessities. One of the three cases confirmed in Jilin province on May 10 was from Shulan. The other two were uncovered through contact tracing of people who were in contact with earlier Shulan cases. Nearby Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces each reported one case, adding to worries about a resurgence of the outbreak in the region. A 70-year-old patient in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, had tested negative seven times before results turned positive. Of the new cases, seven were so-called imported cases in the northern region of Inner Mongolia involving travellers from abroad. Across China, the number of new asymptomatic coronavirus cases fell to 12 on May 10 compared with 20 reported a day earlier.

* No new deaths; cluster in Shulan city in NE province of Jilin * Risk level in Shulan city raised to high * Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus China's National Health Commission reported 14 new confirmed coronavirus cases on May 9, the highest number since April 28, including the first for more than a month in the city of Wuhan where the outbreak was first detected late last year. While China had officially designated all areas of the country as low-risk last Thursday, the new cases according to data published on Sunday represent a jump from the single case reported for the day before. The number was lifted by a cluster of 11 in Shulan city in northeastern Jilin province. Jilin officials on Sunday raised the Shulan city risk level to high from medium, having hoisted it to medium the day before after one woman tested positive on May 7. The 11 new cases made public on Sunday are members of her family or people who came into contact with her or family members. The new Wuhan case, the first reported in the epicentre of China's outbreak since April 3, was previously asymptomatic, according to the health commission. Aside from the Shulan cluster and the Wuhan case, the remaining two new confirmed cases were imported infections. It also said newly discovered asymptomatic cases were at 20, the highest since May 1 and up from 15 a day earlier. No new deaths were reported, it said. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in mainland China reached 82,901 as of May 9, while the total death toll from the virus stood at 4,633, according to the commission.

Five prominent labour activists have returned to their homes more than a year after they were arrested in coordinated raids in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, according to people close to them and a Hong Kong-based rights group. In a closed-door trial, Zhang Zhiru and Wu Guijun were sentenced to three years imprisonment, suspended for four years, while Jian Hui, Song Jiahui and He Yuancheng were sentenced to 18 months, suspended for two years, according to the China Labour Bulletin. While the five were released on April 24, they had to undergo a 14-day quarantine period before finally returning home on Thursday, it said. Their families and friends only learned of their release and sentencing once they arrived home, two people close to Zhang and Wu told Reuters. The five were originally arrested in January last year and charged with “gathering a crowd to disturb public order,” according to the China Labour Bulletin. All five had been important advocates for factory workers’ rights during the 2010s, it said, with the state-run Global Times writing a feature praising Zhang’s efforts in  September 2014. Labour activists in China have long been under pressure from the ruling Communist Party, which is deeply suspicious of social organising that occurs outside of its control. Authorities have sharply intensified their efforts in recent years. Despite the release of the five, worker groups and their former staff continue to be monitored closely, according to sources who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject. A representative for the Shenzhen courts was unable to provide immediate confirmation or comment over telephone yesterday. Zhang’s ex-wife Xiao Hongxia said he seemed healthy and “in good spirits” when she visited him on Friday. “I brought his two sons who haven’t seen him for more than a year,” she said. “They were very happy – what son wouldn’t be happy to see their father?”

China reported one new coronavirus case for Friday, unchanged from the day before, data from the national health authority showed on Saturday. One new imported case was recorded on May 8, the National Health Commission said in a statement. The commission also reported 15 new asymptomatic cases for Friday, versus 16 the previous day. China’s total number of coronavirus cases now stands at 82,887, while the death toll from Covid-19, the disease it causes, remained unchanged at 4,633, the national health authority said. 

China said yesterday it supports the World Health Organisation (WHO) in trying to pinpoint the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of telling one lie after another in his attacks on Beijing.  The virus has killed more than 255,000 people worldwide, including more than 70,000 in the United States, the worst-affected country, since it was first identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December. Pompeo accused China of withholding virus samples he said were needed for global vaccine research, and he demanded transparency.  Most experts believe Covid-19 originated in a market selling wildlife and jumped from animals to people, but Pompeo and US President Donald Trump have said there is evidence it came from a laboratory, without elaborating.  Pompeo also accused the WHO of being too slow to respond to the disease and said it “needs to still demand that there be an investigation” in China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, addressing reporters in Beijing yesterday, said China supported WHO efforts to investigate the origin of the pandemic.  “We are always open to co-operate with the WHO on matters, including on the question of origin,” she said. But she repeated a timeline of signals from France, Sweden and the United States itself that the virus may not have emerged in China. “While scientists have not come to a conclusion, why is Secretary Pompeo drawing the hasty conclusion that the virus came from a Wuhan lab? Where is his proof? Show us the proof. If he cannot show any evidence, then he may still be in the process of making up this evidence.” The WHO has urged countries to investigate any early suspicious cases and called earlier comments about a possible laboratory source by Pompeo “speculative”.  Hua said Pompeo had contradicted himself in interviews about the virus. “The reason why he contradicts himself is because he is always making up a lie to cover up another lie. This is an open secret.” At a White House event on Wednesday, Trump, who is seeking re-election in November, called the virus the worst “attack” the United States had ever experienced, and blamed China for not stopping it.  “This is worse than Pearl Harbor. This is worse than the World Trade Center,” Trump said.  “And it should have never happened. It could have been stopped at the source. It could have been stopped in China. It should have been stopped right at the source, and it wasn’t.” He has accused the WHO of being “China-centric” and acting too slowly to fight the disease, and threatened to withdraw funds, while many scientists have said now is the time to increase funding and global cooperation to find a vaccine.  Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in 1941 and Al Qaeda militants flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center in New York on Sept 11, 2001. Hua said the only enemy was the virus.  “Because that is the common enemy of all of humanity... Faced with this mankind battle against the virus, China should be (a) US comrade in arms, not enemy.” Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force, said in an interview published on Monday the best evidence showed the virus was not made in a lab, but appeared to have “evolved in nature and then jumped species”. The European Union ambassador to China said yesterday it was “regrettable” that part of an opinion piece about the pandemic co-authored by 27 European ambassadors and published in the official China Daily’ had been removed before publication.  A comparison between the original op-ed uploaded onto the EU embassy website and the one published on Tuesday by the China Daily showed that in a sentence beginning,  “But the outbreak of the coronavirus”, the words that followed – “in China, and its subsequent spread to the rest of the world over the past three months” – had been removed.

Chinese youngsters in the global virus epicentre of Wuhan filed back to class yesterday, wearing masks and walking in single file past thermal scanners. Senior school students in 121 institutions were back in front of chalk boards and digital displays for the first time since their city - the ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic - shut down in January.  “School is finally reopening!” posted one user of Weibo, China’s Twitter-like short messaging platform.   “This is the first time that I’m so happy to go back to school, although I have to sit a monthly examination on the 8th.” Teenagers sat at individual desks spaced a metre (3.3 feet) apart, seeing their teachers in the flesh after months of distance learning. Wednesday’s back-to-school was the latest step in a gradual normalising of life in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province.  The city, where the coronavirus appeared late last year before spreading around the world, was locked down for 76 days and only reopened last month.  Only the province’s oldest students were present on Wednesday - vocational students and seniors who are due to take the make-or-break university entrance exams.   Return dates have generally not been confirmed for junior and middle school students, although some localities have allowed their return as well.  Officials in Wuhan say students and staff must all have had virus tests before going back to school, and campuses have been disinfected and cleaned.  In preparation for reopening, some schools spaced out their desks and organised smaller class sizes, according to local media.  Thermal scanners greeted everyone walking through school gates, and anyone with a high temperature was not allowed in.  State-run China Daily said some places arranged staggered arrival times for teachers and students.  Armed police officers were seen standing guard at the entrance of Wuhan No 17 Middle School, with officers also pictured outside other schools around the province.   Elsewhere in China, schools that have been closed or online-only since January began gradually reopening last month, with Beijing and Shanghai letting some students return last week. China’s major cities are gradually returning to normal after imposing strict travel restrictions and closing huge swathes of the economy to control the spread of the virus.   In recent months infections nationwide have dwindled, and there have been no new cases reported in Hubei province for over a month.  Over a five-day holiday to start the month, there were 115mn domestic trips, with many tourist sites reopening - although with limited attendance.  Shanghai Disneyland will reopen next week, the entertainment giant said Tuesday, with enhanced safety measures including temperature screening and social distancing.   However, most foreigners are still banned from entering the country as China works to contain infections being brought in from overseas.  Chinese nationals returning home must undergo 14 days of quarantine.

China's Hong Kong affairs office warned on Wednesday that the city will never be calm unless ‘black-clad violent protesters’ were all removed, describing them as a ‘political virus’ that seeks independence from Beijing. The strongly worded statement comes amid mounting concerns among democracy activists that China is tightening its grip over the former British colony, while a lockdown to prevent coronavirus infections has largely kept their movement off the streets. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs office warned that China's central government will not sit idly by ‘with this recklessly demented force in place’ and that China's central government has the greatest responsibility in maintaining order and safeguarding national security. ‘The scorched-earth action of the black-clad violent protesters is a political virus in Hong Kong society and a big enemy to 'one-country-two-systems',’ the office said in a statement on Wednesday. ‘As long as the protesters are not removed, Hong Kong will never be calm,’ it said. The Asian financial hub was rocked in 2019 by months of massive, and sometimes violent, political protests over a now-withdrawn extradition bill that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial. Many young protesters dressed in black fought running battles with Hong Kong police as the demonstrations evolved into calls for greater democracy. Protesters said Beijing was seeking to erode the ‘one country, two systems’ style of governance that guarantees broad freedoms for Hong Kong since its return to Chinese rule in 1997. Beijing rejects criticism that it is seeking to encroach on the city’s much-cherished freedoms. Hong Kong riot police dispersed a crowd of 300 pro-democracy activists, some wearing black, late last month -- the first sizable protest since the government imposed a ban on public meetings at the end of March to curb coronavirus infections. The arrests of 15 activists in April, including veteran politicians, a publishing tycoon and senior barristers, thrust the protest movement back into the spotlight and drew condemnation from Washington and international rights groups. Beijing's top representative office in Hong Kong on Saturday condemned what it described as extreme radicals for holding illegal assemblies over the Labour Day holiday and accused them of undermining the rule of law. A war of words has intensified in the past few weeks, with Beijing's top official in Hong Kong urging the local government to work to enact national security legislation ‘as soon as possible’, fuelling worries over what many see as encroachment on the territory's freedoms. Fear that Beijing is flexing its muscle over Hong Kong risks a revival of anti-government protests after months of relative calm amid social distancing rules to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Hong Kong’s economy recorded in the first quarter its deepest annual contraction since at least 1974, as the coronavirus pandemic dealt a heavy blow to business activity, already in decline following the anti-government protests. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs office said that while there were many factors contributing to Hong Kong's economic woes, the main problem was anti-government protests. ‘Hong Kong's biggest trouble comes from within, that is the violent forces openly calling for and engaging in 'lanchao',’ said the office, referring to a scorched-earth tactic.

China has published a short animation titled ‘Once Upon a Virus’ mocking the US response to the new coronavirus using Lego-like figures to represent the two countries. Washington and Beijing are locked in a war of words over the origins of the disease which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and has spread to become a global pandemic. US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was confident the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but declined to describe the evidence. In the animation posted online by China's official Xinhua news agency, red curtains open to reveal a stage featuring Lego-like figures in the form of a terracotta warrior wearing a face mask and the Statue of Liberty. ‘We discovered a new virus,’ says the warrior. ‘So what?’ replies the Statue of Liberty. ‘It's only a flu.’ As the warrior issues warnings about the virus and counts off the grim milestones in China's outbreak, the Statue of Liberty replies dismissively with echoes of Trump's press conferences in which he played down the severity of the illness. ‘Are you listening to yourselves?’ asks the warrior as the statue begins to turn red with fever and gets hooked up to an intravenous drip. ‘We are always correct, even though we contradict ourselves,’ the statue replies. ‘That's what I love about you Americans, your consistency,’ says the warrior. Since its April 29 release on Xinhua's official YouTube channel, ‘New China TV’, the video has been viewed more than 960,000 times and was retweeted by some Chinese diplomats. Both YouTube and Twitter are blocked in China, although China's diplomats have increasingly taken to global social media platforms to broadcast their messages. The United States has accused China of misleading the world about the severity of the outbreak, and there are growing calls for an international inquiry into the origins of the virus. Social media reaction to the video was mixed. Twitter user ‘masood mortazavi’ agreed with the video's messaging, saying ‘US follies bemuse no one anymore.’ But some comments came with the hashtag ‘ChinaLiedPeopleDied’ or show Chinese President Xi Jinping in a variety of virus-related visuals. Others were scathing about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ‘Clever propaganda. Where is the bit where the CCP covered it up and publicly shamed a hero doctor who then died?’ said Twitter user ‘AC’. Along with clips of English-language Xinhua video news stories, New China TV has previously uploaded publicity videos such as one of children of different ethnicities singing praises of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Lego said it was not involved in the animation.

Robots delivering meals, ghostly figures in hazmat suits and cameras pointed at front doors: China's methods to enforce coronavirus quarantines have looked like a sci-fi dystopia for legions of people. Authorities have taken drastic steps to ensure that people do not break isolation rules after China largely tamed the virus that had paralysed the country for months. With cases imported from abroad threatening to unravel China's progress, travellers arriving from overseas have been required to stay home or in designated hotels for 14 days. Beijing loosened the rule in the capital this week -- except for those arriving from abroad and Hubei, the province where the virus first surfaced late last year. At one quarantine hotel in central Beijing, a guard sits at a desk on each floor to monitor all movements. The solitude is broken by one of the few visitors allowed near the rooms: A three-foot-tall cylindrical robot that delivers water bottles, meals and packages to hotel guests. The robot rides the elevator and navigates hallways on its own to minimise contact between guests and human staff. When the robot arrives at its destination, it dials the landline phone in the room and informs the occupant in an eerie, childlike voice: ‘Hello, this is your service robot. Your order has arrived outside your room.’ Its belly opens and the guest takes the delivery items before the robot turns and rolls away. Doctors in hazmat suits go from room to room daily reminding occupants, including an AFP journalist who had been in Hubei, to take their temperatures with the mercury thermometer provided at check-in, and to ask if any are experiencing symptoms. People under home quarantine elsewhere in the city have had silent electronic alarms installed on their doors. Officials put up a notice on each quarantined household's door asking neighbours to keep an eye on the confined inhabitants. In one Beijing residential compound, officials told AFP that people under home quarantine must inform community volunteers whenever they open their doors. Friederike Boege, a German journalist, began her second quarantine in Beijing this year on Sunday after returning from Hubei's capital Wuhan. Her building's management installed a camera in front of her door to monitor her movements. ‘It's quite scary how you get used to such things,’ she told AFP. ‘Apart from the camera I do believe that the guards and the cleaner on the compound would denunciate me if I were to go out,’ Boege said. During her previous quarantine experience in March after returning from a trip to Thailand, she was reported to building management by a cleaner for going downstairs to take out the trash. - No human contact - Total isolation has become a temporary norm for those under strict quarantine, without even a single trip to the grocery store or walk to break up the monotony. Joy Zhong, a 25-year-old media professional returning to Beijing from a work trip in the virus epicentre of Wuhan, spent three weeks without leaving a cramped room at another hotel in the Chinese capital. There, guests were not allowed to order their own food and were instead given standardised meals. Friends were allowed to bring packages to the front desk, which were then left outside hotel rooms by staff who avoided direct contact with guests. ‘Spending 21 days in a row without seeing a single person, it felt like time was passing extremely slowly,’ Zhong told AFP. Not all people under quarantine are as closely watched as those in Beijing, however. Charlotte Poirot, a French teacher who arrived in China in late March -- just before a ban on foreigners entering the country was introduced -- spent two weeks under quarantine at a hostel in the southeastern city Guangzhou. She was confined alone in a 10-bunk room, with meals delivered to her door and medical personnel coming to check her temperature multiple times a day. ‘They never locked the door and the (whole) process was based on reliance,’ Poirot told AFP. ‘We all played the game without contesting.’

With optimism and a heavy dose of caution, millions of Chinese hit the road or visited newly re-opened tourist sites yesterday for an extended national holiday in a post-coronavirus confidence test.   Officials have cast the five-day Labour Day observance as an opportunity to ease pent-up travel demand in the country where the pandemic emerged and which was first to impose stifling mass quarantines and other travel curbs.  Caution reigned at sites like the Forbidden City imperial palace in the heart of Beijing, which reopened for the first time in three months. People queued up two metres apart beneath its high red walls as a female voice on a loudspeaker told them: “Don’t crowd together, keep your distance, protect yourself.”  A staff member held up a sign instructing visitors not to spit.   Around 117mn people are expected to travel during the May 1-5 break, according to forecasts from China’s transport ministry, as the country pushes to return to normal life while also guarding against new infections. That will be just one-third of the passenger flows during last year’s holiday, due to the lingering fear of packing into trains and planes.  But that will still see the biggest movement of travellers since China began weeks ago to ease restrictions as new Covid-19 case numbers plummeted. “We hope this can be a turning point, and that we can show the world that the epidemic can be overcome,” said Bao Ping, a 46-year-old Shanghai insurance agent, who strolled along the city’s picturesque Bund riverfront with his wife and teen daughter - all in medical masks. Authorities have advised people against long-distance travel, in favour of shorter excursions within their city or province. Many indoor attractions will remain closed while those still open can admit only 30 percent of their normal numbers. The Forbidden City quickly sold out of entry tickets after capping visitors at just 5,000 a day, down from 80,000 normally.  The thinner crowds were met with approval from one young woman wielding a selfie stick.  “It’s so great! You can really enjoy it,” she said to her boyfriend. The far larger travel rush for the Lunar New Year holiday in January has been blamed for spreading the virus from its origins in the central city of Wuhan to the rest of China and the world.  But while much of the world is still under lockdown, China has returned to work and reopened schools. Beijing this week lowered its emergency alert and lifted a strict quarantine requirement for domestic travellers from “low-risk” areas, prompting an immediate surge in online searches for air tickets, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The government and state-controlled media have expressed hope that an infection-free holiday could signal China’s triumph over the Covid-19 outbreak. But a 36-year-old Beijing woman surnamed Li, out walking her dog, said she was still holding off from travel or gatherings with loved ones. “I’m not going to neglect to protect myself just for a little pleasure, because the danger, even if it is invisible, is still great,” she said. The pandemic has hit travel particularly hard, and China’s massive market is being watched as a proxy for how quickly the world can return to normal. “All eyes are on China as a potential leading indicator of the shape of the recovery that could be expected,” aviation analytics firm Cirium said last week.

China announced on Wednesday that its parliament will open a key annual session on May 22, signalling that Beijing sees the country returning to normal after being reduced to a near-standstill for months by the Covid-19 epidemic. During the gathering of the National People's Congress in the capital, delegates will ratify major legislation, and the government will unveil economic targets, set defence spending projections and make personnel changes. The ruling Communist Party also typically announces signature policy initiatives. The session was initially scheduled to start on March 5 but was postponed due to Covid-19, which has infected nearly 83,000 people and killed more than 4,600 on the mainland after emerging late last year in the central city of Wuhan. As the epidemic has subsided, economic and social life gradually returned to normal, making it possible for the congress to convene, the official Xinhua news agency quoted the standing committee of the NPC, the legislature's top decision-making body, as saying. The committee also appointed Huang Runqiu as the new minister for ecology and environment, a post vacated when predecessor Li Ganjie became deputy Communist Party chief for Shandong province earlier this month, Xinhua reported. Tang Yijun was also named as the new justice minister to replace Fu Zhenghua, who has reached the retirement age of 65 for ministers. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body to parliament, has proposed starting its annual session a day before the parliamentary session opens. Analysts expect China to roll out additional fiscal stimulus in order to cushion the blow from Covid-19, which has developed in to a worldwide pandemic that some fear will trigger a severe global recession. China's economy contracted for the first time on record during the January-March period, when the government imposed severe travel and transport restriction to curb the spread of the epidemic. Parliament is also expected to discuss the anti-government protests in Hong Kong, amid growing speculation that Beijing take steps to strengthen its grip on the city. It is unclear how long parliament and its advisory body will meet for this time, and people familiar with the matter have told Reuters that this year's annual sessions could be the shortest in decades due to Covid-19 concerns. Usually more than 5,000 delegates descend on Beijing from all over China for at least 10 days. Beijing city announced on Wednesday it will lower its Covid-19 emergency response level effective as of 0000 hours on Thursday and no longer require 14-day quarantine for some people arriving from low-risk areas of the country, removing a logistics hurdle for delegates travelling to the capital for the key political meetings next month. (Reporting by Se Young Lee, Huizhong Wu, Yew Lun Tian, Judy Hua and Min Zhang in Beijing, Keith Zhai in Singapore; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Simon Cameron-Moore)