New Zealand's back-and-forth attitude on whether to call China's Xinjiang policy "genocide" showed that it is struggling to act in line with its "Western identity" while carefully weighing its own interests with China, Chinese experts said.

China's top economic planner announced on Thursday that it is suspending indefinitely all activities under the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue, marking the first time that a diplomatic mechanism between the two countries was frozen on the heels of downward spiraling bilateral relations.

With China topping the agenda of the Group of Seven (G7) meeting as foreign ministers of member states have been urged to coordinate and form a common stance in addressing the “challenges” posed by China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected claims of a “Cold War” between the US and China, signaling that rather than making all-out efforts to form an anti-China choir, the Biden administration is making subtle moves to align its allies, Chinese experts said, noting that in return, EU officials' mixed signals on the ratification of its most promising investment deal appear to be a gesture of echoing the “alignment sentiment” in the face of growing domestic pressure.

China will make its utmost efforts to provide help to India in accordance with the demands of the Indian side, and the production of at least 40,000 oxygen generators as the orders placed by India is underway. Chinese companies will soon deliver necessary medical supplies to India, Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong told the Global Times in an exclusive interview.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met virtually with his counterparts from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on Tuesday to discuss efforts on COVID-19 fight and post-pandemic economic recovery, on which vaccine cooperation and supply chain stability became major concerns. China also extended the invitation to India to attend the online meeting. Despite the absence of New Delhi in the meeting, Beijing is still committed to helping it fight the pandemic.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, will meet with his counterparts from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on Tuesday to discuss efforts to fight COVID-19 and post-pandemic economic recovery. Experts expect that vaccine cooperation will be a major topic given the grave situation in India.

Under tremendous pressure, the US, which has remained silent in face of the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in India, an important partner to Washington's Indo-Pacific strategy, over the weekend, finally responded positively, pledging medical aid such as raw materials for vaccines and oxygen concentrators. Such a U-turn in attitude is largely driven by geopolitical interests, in addition to countries' actual concerns about the epidemic crisis, and displays how this so-called political alliance failed to address India's major concerns, experts said.

The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong warned Paul Harris, chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association, not to "step foot on the road of no return," by defending the violence and "glorifying the violence," and the association should not tolerate him continuing as head of the association.

China is committed to achieving its major targets on fighting climate change, including realizing a carbon emissions peak in 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality in 2060, calling for jointly building a community for man and nature, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the World Leaders' Climate Summit on Thursday.

Following the latest decision by the Canadian court to delay the ongoing legal proceedings of Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou until August to allow judges to review new documents obtained from HSBC, some legal experts and observers raised the question on Thursday about whether this signals “a big victory” in this marathon lawsuit and if it will become a major turning point in the legal fight against extradition to the US.

Approximately 90 percent of the young Chinese participating in the latest survey conducted by the Global Times Research Center believe China should not "look up to the West" anymore, with more people in the past five years even "looking down on the West" due to multiple reasons including China's achievements in its development and the West's failed handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There were some major mistakes that the BBC made in its latest TV program Newsnight, including a biased tone and misinformation on the illegal protests led by radical anti-government figures who were wrongfully deemed "pro-democracy activists," a Chinese scholar who recently engaged in an online debate with Hong Kong secessionist Nathan Law told the Global Times.

Over 80 percent of the respondents to the latest survey conducted by the Global Times believe that there is currently a widely shared bias in Western society toward China, and over the past five years, over 55 percent of the respondents showed declined trust in Western media's coverage of China. This is especially true on Western-led accusations of the so-called genocide in China's Xinjiang, which over 76 percent see as a complete lie that serves only as an excuse for containing China.

The sixth National Security Education Day falls on Thursday, with the Chinese national security agency releasing a series of cases related to the threat against China's political security. Experts on international intelligence and security said under the intensifying China-US competition, foreign hostile forces have increased efforts to target the political security of China rather than merely conducting regular espionage activities.

As Hong Kong celebrates the National Security Education Day for the first time, the Hong Kong Police College staged, also for the first time, performed the Chinese-style foot drills for the public, including commanding swords and flags, to allow local residents experience the sentiment for the motherland, Commissioner of Police Chris Tang Ping-keung told the Global Times in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

Many unanswered doubts need further global investigations, such as tracing the imported food supply chain during the military games. Prominent scientists from the joint WHO-China study and Chinese health authority believe that tracking down these hypotheses was a process for the world to know possible early circulation of the disease and get closer to possible COVID-19 patient zero.

Hong Kong will embrace its first National Security Education Day on Thursday with a number of activities to promote public awareness about national security as the city, once hit by black-clad protests and riots, is stepping up efforts to fix the local governance loopholes while enhancing education of the young generation once affected by radical ideas amid misunderstanding about the country.

The highly expected Hong Kong electoral reform draft bill was officially introduced to the legislative body of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Wednesday, and after the hearing debate, the draft will be handed in to the internal affairs committee. Local officials spoke highly of the draft bill as part of top-down efforts in fixing the system loopholes in Hong Kong.

The first China-developed mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is expected to enter Phase III clinical trials overseas next month, vaccine developer Suzhou Abogen Biosciences confirmed to the Global Times on Tuesday, another step forward in China's vaccine development despite attacks from Western media on the efficacy of Chinese doses.

The legislative body of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will introduce an amendment bill as part of the Hong Kong electoral reform on Wednesday for the first reading and second reading of the bill, with a number of detailed amendments in key areas for electing the chief executive, the composition of the Legislative Council (LegCo), and the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee.

The latest mixed messages from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concerning certain core issues such as Taiwan, Xinjiang and the coronavirus show that the Biden administration has been facing challenges in clearly defining its China policy, struggling to keep a hard-line stance to respond to domestic anti-China consensus, but still hoping for possible cooperation in more sectors with the world's second-largest economy.

Huawei and HSBC reached an agreement in a Hong Kong court on Monday over the relevant documents for legal proceedings as Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou fights her extradition case in Canada, the two companies confirmed with the Global Times.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's playing a threadbare blame game in an attempt to pressure China was ridiculed by netizens on Twitter, as a clear, widely recognized timeline of the handling of the outbreak has already been released and China cannot be blamed for the failure of the US government in its handling of the epidemic, which has caused about 562,000 deaths in the country.

The recently unveiled $715 billion defense budget by the Biden administration to counter the so-called threats from China and Russia - a real cost of Washington's Russophobia and Sinophobia - is a vivid reflection that the defense spending of Washington being kidnapped by military industrial complex, but such high cost would lead it on a path to nowhere as it is unrealistic for the US government to successfully curb two major powers at the same time, Chinese experts said.

A number of foreign databases on so-called issues in China's Xinjiang including the Uygur Transitional Justice Database (UTJD) have been fabricated by anti-China forces, and claim to include eyewitness accounts and testimonies; however, they are full of outright lies and are purely political in nature, based on which Western countries and media outlets make up allegations such as "genocide and crimes against humanity." These "databases" can be clearly refuted by actual figures, official records and the family members of those listed in them, said officials from Xinjiang.

"You should apologize!" A veteran Chinese expert on French studies delivered this message to Le Monde, a major publication in France, for claiming that a French journalist who spoke out the truth about Xinjiang does not exist. The accusation came only because she told a story about China that goes against the mainstream anti-China public opinion in France.

With China and some Southeast Asian countries seeking further areas of cooperation such as mutual recognition of health codes and whole supply-chain vaccine development, a slew of consensuses reached by foreign ministers of those countries reflects that the long-lasting momentum of the cooperation between China and the ASEAN bloc echoes the real needs of regional countries in the post-epidemic era, and will prevail over the influence of the US-led external destabilizing factor, Chinese experts said on Monday.

Chinese authorities on Wednesday slammed foreign countries' accusations against China over the electoral system reform plan for Hong Kong, following their comments on the issue the previous day, when the plan was approved by China's top legislature.

Chinese top lawmakers unanimously approved the Hong Kong electoral reform plan on Tuesday, with revised measures for electing the Hong Kong chief executive and the formation of the Legislative Council (LegCo), which is seen as another major step in tackling the loopholes in the city's governance structure. The plan was approved after two-day meeting of the Standing Committee of China's top legislative body and rounds of discussions.

After a two-day meeting of the Standing Committee of China's top legislative body and rounds of discussions, Chinese top lawmakers have unanimously approved the draft of the Hong Kong electoral reform plan, with revised measures for electing the Hong Kong chief executive and the formation of the Legislative Council, which is seen as another major step in tackling the loopholes in the city's governance structure.

Standing Committee of China's top legislative body was scheduled to discuss details of the Hong Kong electoral reform on Monday to “ Tuesday” , and the final full version of the overhaul is expected to be unveiled on Tuesday after the top authorities listened to opinions from Hong Kong society, the Global Times learned from people familiar with the matter.

The US President Joe Biden's suggestion to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to design another infrastructure scheme to rival China's Belt and Road Initiative amid escalating sanctions between certain Western countries and China only exposed a lack of long-term understanding of China and a clearly-defined strategy, some Chinese experts say, since he comes up with an idea that imitates China's proposal.

A senior official of China's CDC, and also the expert of the WHO joint team on COVID-19 tracing studies in China, laid out major recommendations for the next phase of global efforts in the search for the origins of the virus, including the need to conduct studies at a wider scope to look for possible animal hosts, including in neighboring countries, and not only restricting research to bat species.

The Chinese Ambassador to France made solemn representations on the Taiwan question and the EU's latest sanction on China over Xinjiang in a very intense meeting with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday when the Chinese official denounced a series of misdeeds of France, firmly defended China's position and harshly criticizing France for poisoning the bilateral relationship, the Global Times learned.

China published its annual US human rights situation report on Wednesday at a time when the US-led ideological battle against China has intensified, mainly over Xinjiang and other domestic issues.

China published its annual US human rights situation report on Wednesday at a time when the US-led ideological battle against China has intensified lately over mainly Xinjiang and other domestic issues. By highlighting the COVID-19 turning into a humanitarian tragedy, disorder in American democracy being vividly reflected in the Capitol riots, and recent growing discrimination against ethnic minorities, China slammed the US' terrible human rights record, which made its remarks on other countries' human rights situation "hypocrisy and double standards."

The Chinese ambassador to France won widespread support from the Chinese public after he pushed back against radical words and deeds by some French politicians and pseudo-scholars over China's internal affairs in Xinjiang, and shrugged off French complaints and sought to make representations with French authorities over EU's sanctions on Chinese individuals and entities over Xinjiang as well as the Taiwan question.

After the UK joined the sanctions campaign against Chinese officials over so-called human rights issues in China's Xinjiang, the Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned the UK ambassador to China to lodge a strong condemnation.

Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), said on Tuesday that the local government welcomes the timetable for amending relevant laws concerning Hong Kong electoral reform, and local authorities will work day and night to advance local law amendments involving over 20 main texts and auxiliaries.

A French scholar who recently engaged in a war of words with the Chinese Embassy to France was disdained by Chinese experts and officials on China-France affairs, with some expressing their support for the embassy's firm rebuttal against the claims of Antoine Bondaz, who appeared to be a "rising star" in some Western hawk-led anti-China circles engaging in another form of "political correctness."

High-profile China hawk European politicians, including certain German parliamentarians, are likely to be included in China's countermeasures against EU's planned sanctions over Xinjiang, Chinese observers said ahead of the EU's signing off of punitive measures directed at China on Monday.

Senior diplomats from China and the US wrapped up their first face-to-face meeting under the Biden administration over the weekend, such high-profile and candid dialogue, with tough exchanges, not only attracted global attention but also offered some clues for the tone of China-US relationship, with experts seeing specific issues on which the two countries will soon work on such as climate change, diplomatic facilities and staff as well as media personnel.

Central authority officials on Hong Kong affairs wrapped up on Wednesday a three-day seminar with over 1,000 representatives from various sectors of Hong Kong on their opinions about the upcoming electoral reform in Hong Kong, including those from the opposition, and their opinions will be presented to the next meeting of China's top legislature for the election overhaul, officials told the Global Times.

As the world turns its eyes to a critical high-level meeting between senior Chinese and US officials, the US picked up a signature Trump era strategy of wielding the stick ahead of talks by issuing sanctions against two dozen Chinese mainland and Hong Kong officials, including 14 vice chairmen of the Standing Committee of China's top legislature, less than 24 hours before the meeting in Alaska. The attempt is unlikely to pressure China on its core stances but will only undermine US sincerity and dim any hope for a reset in near frozen bilateral ties, analysts said.

The struggle between China and the West, especially with the US and the UK, on Hong Kong will continue and likely become "a long fight" due to the latest electoral reform plan for the city passed by China's top legislature, Chinese experts say, as China on Sunday, through diplomatic and political channels, firmly refuted the latest joint and separate statements issued by the G7, the EU, and the UK to stigmatize China's reform of Hong Kong's electoral system.

The electoral reform for Hong Kong set the tone for the city's future development for the next 25 years and more on which the central government won't take any comprises when dealing with Hong Kong affairs, Priscilla Leung Mei-fun, a member of the Basic Law Committee, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview, by referring the reform as "a mid-term surgery" for the city's political path in the past two decades.

Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai (Fan), former president of Legislative Council (LegCo) and former member of National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, was among attendees to a seminar recently held by senior central government officials on electoral reform in Hong Kong. She was also the first LegCo president since the city returned to the motherland in 1997, who has a deep understanding of the city's democratic processes. In the latest exclusive interview with the Global Times reporters Chen Qingqing and Bai Yunyi (GT), Fan shared her thoughts on why it is necessary and urgent to implement electoral reform and what's gone wrong with the current system; why the West-led attack on Hong Kong's affairs won't waver the determination of the central government. The senior Hong Kong politician also cleared up the longstanding misunderstanding surrounding the "one country, two systems" policy.

Chinese lawmakers voted on Thursday to adopt a decision on improving the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) at the closing of the fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, in a move to fix the loopholes in the local governance.

The highly expected draft decision to overhaul Hong Kong electoral system with the aim of fixing the loopholes in local governance is scheduled to be voted on and implemented on Thursday as the annual two sessions conclude, reflecting a shared consensus over the urgency and necessity about the implementation of the principle of "patriots governing Hong Kong" while setting the tone for the city's future development for the next 25 years and more.

The social turmoil triggered by anti-government protests that turned into black-clad rioting activities in 2019 deprived Hong Kong people of security and happiness, making Hong Kong residents to reflect on what democracy really is, which should not be defined by the West-led public opinion, a Hong Kong-based columnist Chris Wat Wing-yin told the Global Times,.amid Western media's criticism of Hong Kong's recent electoral reform.

The World Health Organization on Monday once again expressed practical and ethical concerns over using a vaccination passport as a certificate for international travel, while China on the same day launched its version of a health code for people who travel abroad. Chinese experts noted on Tuesday that China can help by sharing its experience with and provide technical support to the WHO to organize the issue as China is the most experienced country in using a health code system in the world while the WHO is the most proper organizer for the matter to ensure independence, fairness and data security.

The "two systems" in the policy baseline for Hong Kong - that of "one country, two systems" - refer to the economic systems, instead of the political system, the first president of the Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) after the city returned to the motherland was quoted as saying in a recent media report, which was considered an interpretation, helping clarifying a vague and longstanding understanding about "two systems" in Hong Kong society.

A Hong Kong expert team said Monday that they deemed that the second death case in the city following vaccination of Sinovac vaccines was not related to the vaccine as the autopsy report showed that the cause of death of the recipient, a 55-year-old woman, was myocardial infarction and she had an aortic laceration.

Nearly 200 civil servants who refused to pledge allegiance to the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will be required to leave their posts, which experts said won't cause any impact on administrative affairs as the HKSAR government will soon seek replacements, but there's no alternative to patriotism and loyalty.

HK to overhaul local election laws and make full interpretation of electoral reform to public: Chief Executive Carrie Lam

The upcoming electoral reform in Hong Kong does not touch on the question of democratic processes in Hong Kong, a senior Chinese official said on Sunday, refuting some critics in Western countries and regions, including the US and EU, on the reform, saying that no side cares more about the city's democratic development, stability and prosperity more than the Chinese central government.

A draft decision on improving the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was submitted to China's top legislature on Friday, as the fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) opened in Beijing.

China officially launched its legislative process for electoral system reform in Hong Kong, the top legislature confirmed on Thursday. In tackling exposed loopholes in the city's political system, top Chinese policymakers came up with two major steps in introducing the Hong Kong-related laws - the national security law and electoral reform legislature within a year, which fundamentally changes the rules of the political game in sweeping out the anti-China figures and some backed by Western forces, helping patriots hold power firmly, experts said.

Ahead of China's most important annual political event that kicks off on Thursday, an overhaul of Hong Kong's electoral system is expected to top the agenda, raising considerable public discussion about how to define patriotism and interpret love for the Communist Party of China (CPC)-led country, the essence of which has been proposed as fundamental for the principle of only patriots governing Hong Kong.

Over the week, senior central government officials on Hong Kong affairs listened to views from Hong Kong society on imminent political reforms, unleashing important messages about how to plug the loopholes in existing systems and carry on the reform process, with major consensus reached on the principle of only patriots governing Hong Kong, urgency of fixing the systematic loopholes and reforms to be led by the central government.

The latest edition of Zijing magazine has published the full text of a recent speech by Xia Baolong, head of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, China's cabinet, concerning the standards and fundamentals for upcoming Hong Kong political reforms, in which the senior Chinese official mentioned some extreme rioters including Benny Tai, Joshua Wong and Jimmy Lai by name, saying that they should be severely punished.

Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou was scheduled to return to the British Columbia Supreme Court in Canada on Monday, as the court will hear the arguments related to the four branches of abuse of process raised by her lawyers. Both her lawyers and Huawei firmly believe in her innocence, calling for the release of Meng.

On Sunday, 47 anti-government figures in Hong Kong including local scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting were formally charged with conspiring to subvert state power, as the imminent electoral reform in Hong Kong to ensure the city's political system meets the principle that only patriots govern Hong Kong is expected to become a major focus of the upcoming two sessions. The reform will fix the loopholes in the city's political system.

Hong Kong scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who illegally manipulated the city's election system, was due to report to local police on Sunday, local media reports said. He was expected to face formal charges and be put into jail.

The central government has appointed China's top climate advisor, Xie Zhenhua, as China's special envoy on climate change, with observers describing his return as "answering the nation's call" when China needs a powerful and experienced figure to lead its climate negotiations with the US after the US rejoined the Paris Agreement.

Reports in the Australian media about the Australian visa program being linked to a Chinese firm are "typical rumor mongering," a Chinese expert said, after the visa services provider denied that it has access to data related to visa applications.

In a rare move, the GSMA, the world's largest telecom industry body that organizes the annual Mobile World Congress, launched this year's event in China in February, as the rest of the world was still struggling with COVID-19.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021, which usually takes place in Barcelona, Spain in February, was scheduled to be held in Shanghai this week. This comes after China became the world's largest 5G market, while being the first one to effectively contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

UK financial institutions are increasingly pivoting toward China, even as the Johnson government stirs up a series of incidents that have undermined bilateral ties. Chinese analysts call the move a sensible choice that will bring more profit from China's vast and promising market, as well as its sustained growth in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Patriotism and profound respect toward the People's Liberation Army (PLA) martyrs who sacrificed their lives to defend China's territory in the Galwan Valley conflict with India in June 2020 have been the hottest topics trending on Chinese social media networks in recent days, but Chinese authorities and the public are demonstrating sophistication of not letting antagonism overwhelm rationality.

Deputies to China's National People's Congress (NPC) and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) are preparing to come to Beijing to attend China's most important annual political events, as the two sessions period begins next week.

How does the US, the most powerful country on earth, keep failing so astonishingly to respond to natural disasters? That question is on the minds of many in China and beyond, as they watched in disbelief a severe winter storm sweeping through parts of the US, leaving over 30 people dead and several million in the dark without power.

Hong Kong secessionist Jimmy Lai was denied bail again on Thursday, the second rejection within a month, after the Court of Final Appeal, the city's highest judicial institution, revoked the bail order for the Hong Kong media tycoon on February 9.

The Huanan seafood market may not have been the original site of COVID-19 outbreak, bats and pangolin sample in Wuhan failed to provide evidence of coronavirus origins either, while viruses are extremely unlikely to leak from Wuhan labs according to a report jointly published by experts from China and World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday.

Hong Kong's top court denied bail on Tuesday for media tycoon and secessionist Jimmy Lai, who will stay behind bars until his trial on national security charges in April.

US social audio app Clubhouse seems to have attracted more Chinese users in recent days, with many going there for discussions on a wide range of topics. But unlike some media reports on Chinese users seeing the app as “free speech heaven” for political topics, many said they view Clubhouse as a platform to exchange ideas and dislike the idea of politicizing it.

The Hong Kong radio host known as Giggs was again arrested by the National Security Department of Hong Kong police on Sunday on suspicion of having behavior with seditious intent, making him another media figure to be arrested on charges related to national security after media mogul Jimmy Lai.

A Canadian diplomat involved in the latest diplomatic spat over tailor-made T-shirts featuring a bat image and the "Wuhan" word had deceived the Chinese T-shirt maker and deliberately planned to conceal his ill-intentioned motive since May when he placed the order, sources close to the matter told the Global Times on Wednesday, rejecting Canada's side of the story that China has mixed up between the city of Wuhan and the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

The WHO expert team visited on Wednesday the P4 lab inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a major target of a storm of Western public opinion following a massive smear campaign led by some US politicians.

Maxime Vivas is a French writer and journalist. Based on his two visits to Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in 2016 and 2018, he wrote a book titled Ou?ghours, pour en finir avec les fake news (Uygurs, to put an end to the fake news), in which he described his observations regarding Xinjiang's anti-terrorism efforts and the region's development, and analyzed the relations that the US National Endowment Democracy has with the separatist organization the World Uyghur Congress and some nongovernmental organizations like Human Rights Watch. He shone light on how these organizations colluded in concocting and spreading "genocide" accusations against China's Xinjiang. The book was published late last year in French.

The WHO expert team visited the P4 lab inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) on Wednesday, a place that became target of a storm of Western public opinion following a massive smear campaign led by some US politicians. The visit came after days of intensive field work looking for the origins of the novel coronavirus.

WHO team in Wuhan visited an animal health facility on Tue morning, Reuters reported. A member of the team said in a Tweet they are “meeting with key staff in charge of livestock surveillance in the province. Tour of laboratory facilities and in-depth discussion Q&A.”

An outbreak of H5N8 bird flu among wild swans at Beijing's Old Summer Palace has been brought under control, the local animal disease prevention and control department announced on Tuesday, minimizing the possibility that the disease could spread.

As the detained anti-government figure and secessionist Jimmy Lai appeared before the Court of Final Appeal on Monday for his bail hearing for violating the national security law for Hong Kong, legal experts considered the case as a test of how Hong Kong's legal system interprets bail conditions under the national security law.

In its efforts to search for clues to the origin of the novel coronavirus, the team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday visited the cold-chain storage area of the largest agricultural product market in Wuhan, as well as Huanan seafood market which was sealed off in January 2020 after being drawn into speculation that the market was the possible origin of the early outbreak of the COVID-19.

China has officially withdrawn its recognition of British National Overseas, or BN(O) passports as a valid travel and ID document starting from Sunday (January 31) as the UK has begun accepting citizenship applications for BN(O)-eligible Hong Kong residents starting on the same day. Experts say this is just the first of many countermeasures that China can take to retaliate against the UK regarding the violation of China's sovereignty.

China's top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan will hold a dialogue in March with the US chief immunologist Anthony Fauci, the first public dialogue between the two prominent advisers who have led the anti-epidemic fights in each country since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus reportedly visited a cold storage area in Wuhan Sunday morning. The team is expected to visit the Huanan seafood market Sunday afternoon, an expert from the team told the Global Times.

The WHO team of 13 scientists on the mission to study the origins of the coronavirus is scheduled to visit local hospitals and seafood market and have face-to-face meetings with Chinese scientists in Wuhan, starting Friday, having finished their 14-day quarantine, with one member telling the Global Times there are "records and information everywhere" worth being explored.

In a rare move, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government chief Carrie Lam reported her work to Chinese President Xi Jinping via a videoconference on Wednesday - the first time since the city returned to the motherland in 1997, given the severe COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong.

The recent defense by HSBC's chief executive of the move to freeze the bank accounts of former anti-government lawmaker Ted Hui in Hong Kong shows the bank's rational stance and respect for Chinese laws, analysts said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday heard the annual duty report from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor via video link, praising Lam on her "firm stand" on major issues such as national security, and stressed that the HKSAR must be governed by patriots.

Beijing is conducting nucleic acid testing among employees in key and "high-risk" industries including cold chain, farm markets, restaurants, food delivery, public transport and daily life services, as part of ramped up efforts to find asymptomatic and imported cases.

The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine developed by BioNTech was approved for emergency use in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Monday.

Huawei has no plans to sell its mobile phone business, the company told the Global Times on Monday, in response to media reports saying that Huawei is in talks to sell premium smartphone brands P and Mate series.

One year on, the city of Wuhan, with a population of 11 million, has emerged from an unparalleled lockdown. The city has fully returned to normal, resuming its bustle and hustle scene, and people are moving on with caution. “The COVID-19 wound will remain with us forever, even a simple reminder is painful,” a resident told the Global Times.

A Chinese documentary on how medical staff raced to rescue patients and ordinary people watched for each other to survive the Wuhan's outbreak in early 2020 was released on Friday, a day before the first anniversary of Wuhan's COVID-19 lockdown.

Fang Fang — the author of Wuhan Diary — is facing a new wave of backlash online, just half a year after the overseas publication of her daily accounts on Wuhan residents' lives under lockdown was slammed for only exposing the “dark side” of the city which soon became a handy tool for the West to sabotage Chinese people's efforts in fighting COVID-19.

A year ago, Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first reported in China, made a decision that has little parallel in modern society: to lock down the city of 11 million. During the 76-day lockdown, the city struggled to save lives and contain the virus, while maintaining the daily lives of ordinary people, a strategy that Chinese top epidemiologists said to "suffocate the virus within Wuhan."

A year ago, Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first reported in China, made a decision that has little parallel in modern society: to lock down the city of 11 million. During the 76-day lockdown, the city struggled to save lives and contain the virus, while maintaining the daily lives of ordinary people, a strategy that Chinese top epidemiologists said to "suffocate the virus within Wuhan." The city was therefore dubbed a "heroic city," whose sacrifice paved the way for the quick recovery of the country.

Recent clusters of coronavirus infections in China were mainly caused by inbound visitors and imported goods, and port cities that are at constant risk of exposure to such sources are prone to see the resurgence of the disease, a senior Chinese official said on Wednesday.

Chinese pharmaceutical company Fosun Pharma told the Global Times on Tuesday that they are closely communicating with Hong Kong's regional government over emergency use of the BioNTech vaccine in the city.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the Davos Agenda of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and deliver a speech via video link on January 25, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday, marking the first major diplomatic event of the new year for the Chinese president at a critical time when the world remains engulfed in a COVID-19 pandemic and lasting disruptions to global cooperation from unilateralism orchestrated by the US.

The work of tracing the origin for the latest outbreak in North China's Hebei Province is most difficult, China's CDC director Gao Fu was quoted as saying in a post published on the CDC's website as the province sees double-digit increases in new cases and major cities are under strict lockdown.

Some of the WHO experts who came to Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, to study the origin of the coronavirus have shared their quarantine experience on social media, including daily body temperature checks and daily food and necessity supplies, saying they are being "well taken care of."

Chinese netizens and experts ridiculed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the man US media have painted as the worst secretary of state in history, after he launched anti-China Twitter tirade on social media in recent days, a display writ large of his mixed feelings of frustration, the sense of failure and anxiety over his own future political path, some experts said.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Saturday expressed its "utmost anger" at the US' latest sanctions on six officials from the Chinese mainland and the city, denouncing the move as "insane, shameless and despicable" and vowing to fully support the central government in adopting appropriate countermeasures.

Western hypocrisy and double standards, which usually point the finger at China's information security and the application of AI technology, have been thoroughly exposed, with the US dealing with Capitol Hill rioters.

In a rare move, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), China's national intelligence and anti-espionage authority uncovered its veil of mystery on Sunday by introducing itself in a four-minute video. Such a high-profile presentation on China's first People's Police Day demonstrates that the national security authority is becoming more confident in shaping its image to fit the country's overall strength and is determined to safeguard the country's national security, observers said.

US social media platforms' sharply contrasting reactions to US President Donald Trump's messages of violent content and those of Hong Kong rioters have fully exposed their double standards when they spare no efforts to criticize other nations' "violations of free speech" while taking drastic moves to restrict the speech of their own incumbent president, Chinese observers said.

Global Times reporter Fu Guohao's three attackers at the Hong Kong airport in 2019 were sentenced to jail for four years and three months, five years and three months, and five years and six months, respectively, on Friday. The sentences were the most severe punishments handed out since the Hong Kong anti-government riots began in 2019, legal experts said.

The violent and chaotic scenes on Wednesday night from Capitol Hill, during which four people died including one shot by US Capitol Police, reminded many Chinese of riots at the LegCo building in Hong Kong in 2019, but the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) reacted totally differently with the maximum restraint, some netizens said.

China may require the US Consulate General in Hong Kong to slash staff, register with the Chinese authorities, and restrict its activities, and it may also consider investigating some Americans or American enterprises, if the US imposes more sanctions over Hong Kong, Chinese analysts said.

The national security department of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) have arrested at least 50 anti-government political figures on charges of subversion, including law professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who initiated the opposition camp's "primary election," as well as anti-government lawmakers and district councilors who took part in the so-called "35-plus" political strategy last year, according to local media reports.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and other high-level officials on Tuesday, kicking off his five-nation tour in Africa, which is expected to involve accessing to China-made COVID-19 vaccines and enhancing cooperation in other domains.

More Chinese cities have begun mass COVID-19 vaccinations after the New Year holidays as China has approved its domestically produced vaccine for general use and expanded its scope of vaccination during the winter and spring seasons with the country soon embracing its largest holiday travel season by mid-February.

The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal revoked the bail order of Jimmy Lai, Apple Daily founder and a notorious anti-government figure, on Thursday, ending his short eight-day bail period as his case concerning the violation of the national security law for Hong Kong has been processing.

China's latest national epidemiological serum survey, which showed the positive rate of coronavirus antibodies in Wuhan was 4.43 percent, has become a point of attack by the foreign media against the Chinese government for underreporting during the initial stages of the outbreak.

A local court in Shenzhen on Wednesday sentenced 10 Hong Kong fugitives to imprisonment from seven months to three years for illegally crossing the border into the Chinese mainland and organizing the crime in August, after a two-day trial where the 10 suspects had pleaded guilty.

Shenzhen's Yantian District People's Court on Wednesday sentenced 10 Hong Kong detainees to imprisonment from seven months to three years for organizing illegal border crossing and illegally entering Chinese mainland waters in August, after a two-day trial where the 10 suspects had already pleaded guilty.

China's national rail operator issued a notification of ticket pre-sales for the 40-day 2021 Spring Festival travel period, known as chunyun, on Tuesday. For the Chinese people, who spent an unforgettable Spring Festival this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak, this means they are now officially entering the most important annual holiday season. This time, they are fully prepared for the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush, the world's largest migration, despite the outbreak of sporadic new cases in several cities in China.

Shenzhen's Yantian District People's Court began the trial of 10 Hong Kong residents who had been detained in August for illegally entering mainland Chinese waters, with the court hearing the public prosecution's opinions as well as the suspects' defense. It will announce sentencing on another day, the court said on Monday.