The Chinese delegation is in the Spanish capital until Wednesday and senior officials, including Vice Premier He Lifeng, will meet with the US delegation led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The Spanish government said Sunday’s talks got under way at the Palacio de Santa Cruz, the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Trade tensions between Beijing and Washington have been on a rollercoaster ride in 2025, with both sides slapping escalating tariffs on each other.

Tit-for-tat US-China tariffs reached triple digits on both sides at one point this year, snarling supply chains.

Washington and Beijing have since reached an agreement to de-escalate tensions, temporarily lowering tariffs to 30 percent on the United States’ side and 10 percent on China’s part.

In August, they delayed the threatened reimposition of higher tariffs on each other’s exports for another 90 days – meaning the pause on steeper duties will be in place until November 10.

US, Chinese officials to launch talks in Spain on trade irritants, TikTok deadline

“The Chinese and US delegations convened here on Sunday for talks on economic and trade issues,” China’s official Xinhua news agency said in a report from the Spanish capital.

Top leaders from both countries will also discuss their dispute over the TikTok social media platform during the meetings in Madrid.

China urged the United States on Friday to address their dispute through dialogue.

The deadline for the popular app to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned in the United States is September 17, after Trump extended it for the third time.

A federal law requiring TikTok’s sale or ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump’s January inauguration.

Beijing’s commerce ministry called on Washington on Friday to “work with China on the basis of mutual respect and equal consultations, to resolve each other’s concerns through dialogue and find a solution to the problem”, according to a statement.

Shaky truce

China launched two investigations into the US semiconductor sector on Saturday.

Beijing opened an anti-dumping probe into some IC chips originating from the US, its commerce ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also said in a separate statement it will launch an investigation into whether the United States had discriminated against the Chinese chip sector.

Senior Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang urged “equal dialogue and consultation” between China and the United States after a three-day visit to Washington in August.

The US-China trade truce has been an uneasy one, with Washington accusing Beijing of violating their agreement and slow-walking export license approvals for rare earths.

China is the world’s leading producer of rare earths, used to make magnets essential to the automotive, electronics and defence industries.

Top diplomats and defence chiefs from both nations held back-to-back discussions on Wednesday, which analysts said could mark a step towards a meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Trump said in August he expects to visit China this year or shortly afterwards, noting that economic ties between the two countries have improved.

China’s finance ministry said in a statement that European Union companies, with the exception of “those with European capital established in China, will have to be excluded” from orders of more than 45 million yuan ($6.3 million).

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the EU’s headquarters, as well as France and Germany, over the past week in a bid to improve relations with the 27-member bloc.

However, deep frictions remain over economic ties, including a yawning trade deficit of $357.1 billion between China and the EU.

China’s Xi declines to EU invitation to anniversary summit, FT reports

China’s ban, which comes into effect from Sunday, covers a wide range of products, from prosthetic devices and parts to medical machinery and surgical instruments.

Beijing’s finance ministry also specified that the proportion of products from the EU could not exceed 50 percent in bids from non-European companies.

The EU drew an angry response from Beijing, and an accusation of double standards, when it banned Chinese firms from government medical device purchases worth more than five million euros ($5.8 million) in retaliation for limits Beijing places on access to its own market.

The European Commission said at the time the ban was a reaction to “China’s longstanding exclusion of EU-made medical devices from Chinese government contracts”.

According to Brussels, just under 90 percent of public procurement contracts for medical devices in China “were subject to exclusionary and discriminatory measures” against EU firms.

“China has repeatedly expressed, through bilateral dialogue, its willingness to resolve these disputes appropriately through consultations, dialogue and bilateral arrangements in the field of public procurement,” China’s commerce ministry said in a separate statement.

Over the last three years, Brussels and Beijing have come into conflict in a number of economic sectors, including electric cars, the rail industry, solar panels and wind turbines.

Argentina’s government needs to rebuild reserves to cover trade costs and future debt repayments, and more reserves are a key objective of a major debt deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

President Alberto Fernandez announced the deal in November last year and said at the time it was worth $5 billion.

The heads of the Argentine and Chinese central banks “confirmed that the deal for the swap of currencies between both institutions has been activated and committed to deepening the use of (Chinese yuan) in the Argentine market,” the central bank said in a statement.

China is Argentina’s second biggest trade partner, after Brazil, and the second most important destination for Argentine exports.

“The swap comprises the exchange of currency for reinforcement of international reserves of 130 billion yuan and a special activation of 35 billion yuan to compensate operations on the foreign exchange market,” the statement said.

Yellen said the United States expected China to make good its pledge to work constructively on issues such as debt relief and climate change, noting that delays raised costs for both borrowers and creditors.

Yellen calls for ‘constructive and fair’ US economic ties with China

Speaking at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, Yellen welcomed China’s provision of financing assurances for Sri Lanka, but said Washington continued to urge China’s “full participation” in providing debt treatments for Zambia, Ghana and other countries.

Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would risk a potential escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and Ukraine and the US-led NATO military alliance on the other.

After sparring over the shooting down of balloons over the United States, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, accused the United States of violating international norms with “hysterical” behaviour.

Wang suggested European countries “think calmly” about how to end the war and said Beijing would put forward “China’s position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis”.

US says China mulling weapons for Russia in Ukraine war

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the planned visit by Wang to Moscow but gave no date for the trip.

“We don’t rule out a meeting between Mr Wang and the president (Putin),” Peskov told reporters. “The agenda is clear and very extensive, so there is lots to talk about.”

A diplomatic source who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters earlier that Wang was expected in Moscow shortly and would discuss Chinese ideas for a political settlement of the Ukraine conflict as well as bilateral issues.

Wang, speaking in Budapest on Monday, said China was ready to work with Hungary and other countries to bring hostilities to an end.

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War Two and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

China rejects US claim it may arm Russia

Chinese President Xi Jinping has stood by Putin, resisting Western pressure to isolate Russia. Chinese-Russian trade has soared since the invasion of Ukraine, and Russia has sold Asian powers including China greater volumes of oil.

Putin and Xi

The United States casts China and Russia as the two biggest nation-state threats to its security. China is viewed by Washington as the gravest long-term “strategic competitor” and Russia as an “acute threat”.

Putin and Xi share a broad world view which sees the West as decadent and in decline just as China challenges US supremacy in everything from technology to espionage and military power.

China has refrained from condemning Moscow’s operation against Ukraine or calling it an “invasion” in line with the Kremlin, which describes the war as a “special military operation” designed to protect Russia’s own security.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Wang Yi on Saturday of consequences should China provide material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

EU warns China supplying Russia arms would be ‘red line’

China hit back at the United States on Monday.

“The United States is in no position to make demands of China,” foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular daily briefing in Beijing, when asked about Blinken’s comments.

“China’s comprehensive collaborative partnership with Russia is based on non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties, and is a matter within the sovereignty of two independent countries,” Wang Wenbin said.

When Putin and Xi met face to face just before the Ukraine conflict began, the two leaders sealed a “no limits” partnership between China and Russia that triggered anxiety in the West.

“We will never accept the US pointing fingers at Sino-Russian relations or even coercing us,” Wang Wenbin told the briefing in Beijing.

The WHO’s emergencies director, Mike Ryan, said on Wednesday in some of the U.N. health agency’s most critical remarks to date, that Chinese officials were under-representing data on several fronts.

China scrapped its stringent COVID controls last month after protests against them, abandoning a policy that had shielded its 1.4 billion population from the virus for three years.

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press briefing in Beijing that China had transparently and quickly shared COVID data with the WHO.

Mao said that China’s “epidemic situation is controllable” and that it hoped the WHO would “uphold a scientific, objective, and impartial position”.

WHO says China reports 218,019 new COVID cases at the beginning of 2023

“Facts have proved that China has always, in accordance with the principles of legality, timeliness, openness and transparency, maintained close communication and shared relevant information and data with the WHO in a timely manner,” Mao said.

China reported one new COVID death in the mainland for Wednesday, compared with five a day earlier, bringing its official death toll to 5,259.

Ryan said on Wednesday the numbers China was publishing under-represented hospital admissions, intensive care unit patients and deaths.

Hours later, U.S. President Joe Biden also raised concern about China’s handling of a COVID outbreak that is filling hospitals and overwhelming some funeral homes.

“They’re very sensitive … when we suggest they haven’t been that forthcoming,” Biden told reporters while on a visit to Kentucky.

China to open border with Hong Kong on Sunday

The French health minister voiced similar fears while German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach voiced concern about a new COVID subvariant linked to growing hospitalisations in the northeastern United States.

Crowded hospital

The United States is one of more than a dozen countries that have imposed restrictions on travellers from China, while Lauterbach also announced on Thursday tighter rules for entry to Germany.

China has criticised such border controls as unreasonable and unscientific and the government said on Thursday that its border with its special administrative region of Hong Kong would also reopen on Sunday, for the first time in three years.

Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific Airways said on Thursday that it welcomed quarantine-free travel and would more than double flights to the mainland Chinese cities.

China pledges ‘final victory’ over COVID as outbreak raises global alarm

Millions of people will be travelling within China later this month for the Lunar New Year holiday.

China’s government has played down the severity of the situation in recent days and the state-run Global Times said in an article on Wednesday that COVID had peaked in several cities including the capital, Beijing, citing interviews with doctors.

But at a hospital in Shanghai’s suburban Qingpu district, patients on beds lined the corridors of the emergency treatment area and main lobby on Thursday, most of them elderly and several breathing with oxygen tanks, a Reuters witness said.

A notice on a board advised that patients would have to wait an average of five hours to be seen.

Staff declared one elderly patient dead and pinned a note to the body on the floor stating the cause of death “respiratory failure”.

Police patrolled outside a nearby crematorium, where a stream of mourners carried wreathes and waited to collect the ashes of loved ones.

Data gaps

With one of the lowest official COVID death tolls in the world, China has been routinely accused of under-reporting for political reasons.

In December last year, the WHO said it had received no data from China on new COVID hospitalisations since Beijing lifted its zero-COVID policy.

In its latest weekly report, the WHO said China reported 218,019 new weekly COVID cases as of Jan. 1, adding that gaps in data might be due to authorities simply struggling to tally cases.

The methods for counting COVID deaths have varied across countries since the pandemic first erupted in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

Chinese health officials have said only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure in patients who had the virus are classified as COVID deaths.

But disease experts outside China have said its approach would miss several other widely recognised types of fatal COVID complications, from blood clots to heart attacks as well as sepsis and kidney failure.

International health experts predict at least 1 million COVID-related deaths in China this year without urgent action. British-based health data firm Airfinity has estimated about 9,000 people in China are probably dying each day from COVID.

Surging COVID infections are hurting demand in China’s $17 trillion economy, with a private-sector survey on Thursday showing services activity shrank in December.

But investors remain optimistic that China’s dismantling of COVID controls will eventually help revive growth that has slid to its lowest rate in nearly half a century. Those hopes were seen lifting Asian equity markets on Thursday.

“China reopening has a big impact … worldwide,” said Joanne Goh, an investment strategist at DBS Bank in Singapore, adding the move would spur tourism and consumption and ease supply-chain crunches seen last year.

An end to China’s travel curbs this month is expected to revive demand in the global luxury retail market, but many consumers now see more reasons to do their high-end shopping locally.

A European Commission spokeswoman, Dana Spinant, said the bloc months ago proposed giving vaccines and Covid expertise to Beijing and “the offer stands”.

A commission spokesman, Tim McPhie, added that the EU health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, “has reached out and made that offer (of vaccines) to the Chinese authorities”.

He said any supplies of vaccines would be “dependent on the reaction” from Beijing.

Mainland China reports one COVID death for Jan 1

The EU is weighing a coordinated response for passengers arriving from China after several member states, including France, Italy and Spain imposed test requirements on them.

Many EU countries have a surplus of mRNA vaccines – especially the one made by BioNTech/Pfizer – that scientific studies have shown to be more effective against severe Covid than the inactivated-virus ones China has developed and uses.

There is also concern among countries in the European Union that China’s data on Covid infections is unreliable and incomplete.

Data compiled by the World Health Organization, upon which the EU relies, shows no fresh Covid figures from China for over a week.

China has only recorded 22 Covid deaths since December and has dramatically narrowed the criteria for classifying such deaths – meaning that Beijing’s own statistics about the unprecedented wave are now widely seen as not reflecting reality.

Asked about a report in the Financial Times newspaper that the EU offered to give China the Covid jabs for free, McPhie said he had no “specific details on what format it could eventually take”.

EU health ministry officials Tuesday were holding a meeting to discuss the issue, and a follow-up crisis meeting was to take place Wednesday.

China has railed against the increased restrictions on travellers from its territory to some EU countries, as well as to the United States and Japan.

Having mostly cut itself off from the rest of the world during the pandemic, China is now experiencing the planet’s biggest surge in infections after abruptly lifting restrictions that torpedoed the economy.

Studies have estimated that around one million people could die over the next few months. Many in the population are now grappling with shortages of medicine, while emergency medical facilities are strained by an influx of undervaccinated elderly patients.

“At present, Covid-19 prevention and control in China are facing a new situation and new tasks,” Xi said in a directive, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

“We should launch the patriotic health campaign in a more targeted way… fortify a community line of defence for epidemic prevention and control, and effectively protect people’s lives, safety and health,” Xi said.

Hospitals and crematoriums across the country have been overflowing with Covid patients and victims, while China’s National Health Commission on Sunday announced it would stop publishing daily nationwide infection and death statistics.

The decision to scrap the daily virus count comes amid concerns that the country’s blooming wave of infections is not being accurately reflected in official statistics.

China’s propaganda machine sputters in zero-Covid reversal

Beijing has admitted the scale of the outbreak has become “impossible” to track following the end of mandatory mass testing, as people are now not obliged to declare test results to authorities.

And last week, Beijing narrowed the criteria by which Covid-19 fatalities were counted – a move experts said would suppress the number of deaths attributable to the virus.

The winter surge comes ahead of two major public holidays next month, in which millions of migrant workers are expected to travel to their hometowns to reunite with relatives.

Authorities are bracing for the virus to hit under-resourced rural areas hard, and on Monday called for the guaranteed supply of drugs and medical treatment during New Year’s Day and the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, which begins January 21.

The ruling Communist Party and State Council issued a notice calling on officials to “ensure the smooth and orderly adjustment and transition of epidemic prevention and control measures”.

Millions infected per day

In recent days, health officials in the wealthy coastal province Zhejiang estimated that one million residents were being infected per day, while the coastal city of Qingdao predicted roughly 500,000 new daily infections and the southern manufacturing city of Dongguan eyed 250,000 to 300,000.

Hong Kong eyes reopening border with China by mid-January

Unofficial surveys and modelling based on search engine terms suggest that the wave may have already peaked in some major cities, including Beijing and Chongqing.

A poll of over 150,000 residents of the southwestern province of Sichuan organised by disease control officials showed that 63 percent had tested positive for Covid, and estimated that infections peaked Friday.

Only six Covid deaths have been officially reported since Beijing unwound most of its restrictions earlier this month.

But crematorium workers interviewed by AFP have reported an unusually high influx of bodies, while hospitals have said they are tallying multiple fatalities per day, as emergency wards fill up..

The main funeral service centre in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou postponed all ceremonies until January 10 to focus on cremations due to the “large workload”, according to a notice published online Sunday.

China’s censors and mouthpieces have been working overtime to spin the decision to scrap strict travel curbs, quarantines and snap lockdowns as a victory, even as cases soar.

According to the NDMA, about 1,000 tents have been delivered to the provincial PDMA (Punjab Disaster Management Authority) to assist victims in Khanewal.

From Sukkur, 670 tents shipped on 13 trucks are en route, and an additional 330 tents have been sent from the NDMA warehouse in Islamabad via five trucks.

Floods, rains and heatwaves in Pakistan: Over 300m early warnings issued digitally

In addition to tents, relief supplies include blankets, mosquito nets, water filtration units, quilts, folding beds, and 17 boats supplied to help in rescue and relief efforts.

So far, a total of 36,000 tents have been delivered for flood relief in Punjab.

Meanwhile, the NDMA has issued an urban flooding alert for Sindh province, warning residents and authorities to prepare for likely flooding due to ongoing rains and overflowing waterways.

The United States and China, the world’s biggest economies, must work together to address climate change, Kerry said. The two countries are also the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters.

“My hope is that President Xi will get back to the table with us so that we can work together to deal with this international threat,” he said.

China last month suspended talks with the United States on climate, security and other areas in response to a controversial visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It has said the United States must dispel the “negative influence” of that visit before talks can resume.

Speaking to a group of US businesses in Hanoi, Kerry also called on the private sector to boost its investment in the energy transition process. He highlighted the urgency with which countries need to move away from dirty fuels like coal and oil to renewable sources, to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

IMF report focuses on crucial threat of climate change

“No government on earth has enough money to fund the transition,” he said. “The only way to fund this is to bring the private sector to the table.”

The former US secretary of state spoke just days after environment officials from the Group of 20 (G20) major economies failed to agree a joint communique following a meeting in Bali.

Kerry also said Vietnam’s utilisation rate of renewable energy sources was too low. Wind and solar energy account for 23% of Vietnam’s installed power generation capacity, but, he said, their utilisation rate is only 4%, partly due to weak transmission infrastructure.

Vietnam, a regional manufacturing hub, last month said it needs investment of between $8 billion and $14 billion a year through to 2030 to develop new power plants and expand its grid.

The National Medical Products Administration gave the go-ahead for the vaccine for emergency use as a booster, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sunday.

Following the announcement, company shares surged 14 percent on Monday morning before closing 7.1 percent higher than their opening value.

The needle-free vaccine — which can be stored and administered more easily than intramuscular jabs — will be given through a nebuliser, the company said.

“The approval will have a positive impact on the company’s performance if the vaccine is subsequently purchased and used by relevant government agencies,” the statement added.

The company did not offer details on when the adenovirus-vectored vaccine will be made available for public use.

There is no publicly available verified or peer-reviewed data on the efficacy of the new vaccine.

Scientists in several countries including Cuba, Canada and the United States are also trialling inhalable Covid-19 vaccines. China has so far approved eight other locally manufactured injectable vaccines since 2020.

But the country’s drug administrator is yet to greenlight any foreign vaccines, including mRNA shots produced by Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna that have better efficacy rates compared to other types of vaccines.

China is the only major economy sticking to a zero-Covid policy, disrupting travel and businesses.

Officials across the country are now under pressure to curb local virus flare-ups ahead of a key political meeting next month.

The southern tech hub of Shenzhen, with more than 18 million residents, imposed a weekend lockdown in most parts of the city on Saturday, while more than 21 million people in the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu are undergoing mass testing from Monday through Wednesday.

Beijing has hit back hard against the United States after reports emerged last week that Pelosi, a Democrat who is second in line to the presidency, could visit the self-ruled island of Taiwan in August.

The potential visit is likely to dominate a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Joe Biden, which the US leader has said he expects will take place this week.

Ties between the two global superpowers have continued to deteriorate under Biden’s presidency, over issues including Taiwan, human rights and technology sector competition.

Beijing this week warned that it was “getting ready” for a possible visit by Pelosi, which would be the first to Taiwan by a sitting US House speaker since 1997.

“We are firmly opposed to Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference Wednesday.

“If the US pushes ahead and challenges China’s bottom line... the US side will bear all the consequences,” he added.

A possible visit by Pelosi — yet to be confirmed by the senior Democrat — has stirred alarm in Biden’s administration, which fears the trip may cross red lines for China.

It also comes at an especially fraught time as Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares to cement his rule later this year at a major party meeting amid economic headwinds.

Last week Biden said the US military thought a visit was “not a good idea right now”.

Democratic Taiwan lives under constant threat of being invaded by China, which views it as part of its territory to be seized by force if necessary.

China’s air incursions near Taiwan have risen sharply this year as Beijing works to isolate the island on the international stage.

Pelosi told reporters last week it was “important for us to show support for Taiwan”, while denying Congress was pushing for independence for the island.

In 1979 Washington switched relations from Taipei to Beijing, and successive administrations have been careful to recognise only “one China” by not sending top-ranking officials to Taiwan.

Washington has had a long-standing policy of strategic ambiguity on whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack on the island.

Biden recently said the United States was ready to defend Taiwan militarily in an invasion — going beyond just providing weapons — although the White House has walked back his remarks.

The US State Department in April approved the potential sale of equipment, training and other items to support Taiwan’s Air Defense System in a deal valued at up to $95 million.

But Taiwan enjoys bipartisan backing in divided Washington and China’s warnings have only fuelled calls for Pelosi to go ahead.

She has long been an outspoken critic of Beijing’s human rights record, in 1991 outraging her hosts by unfurling a banner in Tiananmen Square in memory of pro-democracy demonstrators killed there two years earlier.

Taipei has said it welcomes visits from any “friendly foreign guests” and Premier Su Tseng-chang on Wednesday said Taiwan was “very grateful to Speaker Pelosi for her support and friendliness... over the years”.

China launched its largest ever military drills in the seas and skies around Taiwan on Thursday, a day after US House of Representatives Speaker Pelosi enraged Beijing by becoming the highest-level US visitor to the island in 25 years. The live-fire drills are scheduled to continue until noon on Sunday.

The White House summonded Ambassador Qin Gang on Thursday, the White House said.

The United States condemned China’s actions, which it called irresponsible and at odds with maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait.

China says ending cooperation with US on multiple issues

“We also made clear that the United States is prepared for what Beijing chooses to do. We will not seek and do not want a crisis,” Kirby said.

“At the same time, we will not be deterred from operating in the seas and skies of the Western Pacific, consistent with international law, as we have for decades – supporting Taiwan and defending a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

A virtual summit of leaders and foreign ministers was expected to discuss proposals to radically increase China’s involvement in the security, economy and politics of the South Pacific.

But the effort appeared to have fallen short after some regional leaders voiced deep concern.

“As always, we put consensus first,” co-host and Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said after the meeting, indicating that broad agreement would be needed before inking any “new regional agreements”.

Wang is in the Fijian capital Suva as part of a 10-day diplomatic blitz, as Beijing jostles with Washington and its allies over influence in the strategically vital Pacific.

Ahead of his visit, China proposed a pact that would see Beijing train Pacific Island police, become involved in cybersecurity, expand political ties, conduct sensitive marine mapping and gain greater access to natural resources on land and in the water.

As an enticement, Beijing offered millions of dollars in financial assistance, the prospect of a China-Pacific Islands free trade agreement and access to China’s vast market of 1.4 billion people.

China has pitched itself to the South Pacific as a “major developing country” that stands shoulder to shoulder with small and medium-sized nations.

Before the meeting, President Xi Jinping sent a message that China would be “a good brother” to the region and that they shared a “common destiny”, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

But in a letter to other regional leaders, President of the Federated States of Micronesia David Panuelo warned the proposed agreement was “disingenuous” and would “ensure Chinese influence in government” and “economic control” of key industries.

Following Monday’s closed-door meeting, Wang did not cite the proposed “Common Development Vision” document directly, but said the two sides would “continue to have ongoing and in-depth discussions and consultations to shape more consensus on cooperation.”

He added: “China will release its own position paper” highlighting “our own positions and propositions and cooperation proposals with Pacific Island countries”.

Wang instead announced that 10 Pacific Island nations had agreed on memorandums of understanding on China’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative and urged those worried by Beijing’s intentions not to be “too anxious and don’t be too nervous”.

Western powers have bristled against China’s move into the region, with the US State Department warning South Pacific nations to be wary of “shadowy, vague deals with little transparency”.

Australia joined the United States in urging a spurning of China’s attempts to expand its security reach deep into the region, with the country’s new foreign minister warning of the “consequences” of such deals.

Many in the Pacific are keen to maintain amicable ties with China, balancing relations between Beijing and Washington while focusing on the more urgent threat of climate change and day-to-day economic issues.

During a joint appearance with Wang, Bainimarama hit out at those engaged in “geopolitical point-scoring” that “means less than little to anyone whose community is slipping beneath the rising seas, whose job has been lost to a pandemic or whose family is impacted by the rapid rise in the price of commodities”.

All but a few of the Pacific Islands are low-lying and deeply vulnerable to sea-level rises caused by climate change.

The trade surplus hit $676.43 billion in 2021, the highest since records started in 1950, up from $523.99 bln in 2020, according to data from the statistics bureau.

China also posted a record trade surplus for the month of December as exports remained robust while import growth slowed sharply, customs data showed on Friday.

The trade surplus rose to $94.46 billion in December, the highest since records started in August 1994. That was up sharply from a $71.72 billion surplus in November and above a forecast for a $74.50 billion surplus in a Reuters poll.

China's hefty trade surplus with the United States, a key source of contention between the world's two biggest economies, hit $39.23 billion in December, widening from $36.95 billion the month before, but below this year's high of $42 billion in September.

China's commerce ministry said on Thursday that it hopes the United States can create conditions to expand trade cooperation, after Chinese purchases of US goods in the past two years fell well short of the targets in a Trump-era trade deal.

China's exports outperformed expectations for much of 2021, but shipments have been slowing as an overseas surge in demand for goods eases and high costs pressure exporters. It was unclear how the Omicron coronavirus variant would affect that trend.

Exports increased 20.9% year-on-year last month, beating expectations for a 20% rise, but down from a 22% gain in November.

The trade data provided some support to the yuan, which looked set for the biggest weekly gain in two months.

"Exports remained strong last month but may soften in the coming months amid growing disruptions at ports," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics, in a note.

China exports surge in 2021 as global demand picks up

China reported a total of 143 local confirmed COVID-19 cases for Jan. 13, its health authority said on Friday, including in the key northern port city of Tianjin.

But Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said exports may already be benefiting from Omicron's disruption to other countries' supply chains.

"We expect China's exports to remain strong in Q1 because of resilient global demand and worsening pandemic in many developing countries. Currently the strong exports may be the only driver helping China's economy," said Zhang.

Import Growth

The world's second-largest economy staged an impressive recovery from the pandemic, with exports helping to buoy growth as several other sectors were faltering, but there are signs the momentum is flagging.

A property downturn and strict COVID-19 curbs could hurt the 2022 outlook, with some analysts pointing to the slowdown in import growth as evidence that this is already happening.

Imports rose 19.5% year-on-year in December, the customs data showed, missing a forecast for a 26.3% rise and down sharply from a 31.7% gain in November.

"Imports dropped back sharply, consistent with continued domestic weakness, especially in the property sector," said Evans-Pritchard.

Customs data showed China's imports of the key steelmaking ingredient iron ore slipped from the month before on steel production curbs and slowing property construction.

"We expect import growth to remain muted in H1 this year as China's domestic demand will continue to be dampened by the property slowdown and weak consumption," said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics, in a note.

China's economic growth is likely to slow to 5.2% in 2022, before steadying in 2023, a Reuters poll showed, as the central bank steadily ramps up policy easing to ward off a sharper downturn.

China releases fourth quarter gross domestic product data on Monday.

For all of 2021, total exports rose 29.9%, compared to a 3.6% gain in 2020. Imports for the year gained 30.1% percent, after falling 1.1 percent in 2020.

State broadcaster CCTV showed windows ripped out of several buildings in a street coated with dust and debris in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province in northern China. Rescuers found four people dead and 47 injured, and the cause of the explosion is under investigation, the Shenyang government said in a social media statement.

The government said the city was launching a gas safety campaign in response to the accident to "comprehensively eliminate risks and hidden dangers" and vowed to "strictly hold to account" those found responsible.

Ambulances and fire engines lined the street after the blast as workers towed away destroyed cars and a smashed-in bus, the CCTV footage showed. The blast occurred Thursday morning on the residential street, which is lined with businesses, official news agency Xinhua said.

Rescue work was still ongoing.

Investigators have "preliminarily determined that the explosion occurred within a commercial and residential building," Liaoning's emergency response authority said in a social media post.

Photos published by the emergency services showed rescuers in hard hats surrounded by debris as stunned passersby were seen shaking shards of glass off their clothes.

Gas explosions are common in China due to weak safety standards and poor enforcement. A blast in June killed 25 people and injured more than a hundred others when a gas line exploded in a residential compound in central China's Hubei province.

Eight people, including the general manager of the company that owned the gas line, were detained after authorities found "unsound" safety practices and serious defects in the pipe.

After years of runaway growth in the world's second largest economy, regulators have been to trying to strengthen control over Chinese society by tightening oversight over a broad swathe of industries ranging from technology to education and culture.

Communist Party authorities can censor anything they believe violates core socialist values and already have stringent rules on content ranging from video games to movies and music.

The latest moves reining in the entertainment industry come in the wake of a series of celebrity scandals involving tax evasion and sexual assault. Two government ministries, a party agency and an industry association published fresh guidelines on Thursday, with the Party's publicity department blasting some in the entertainment industry for their alleged bad influence on the young and for "severely polluting the social atmosphere".

Penalties should be increased for actors who have engaged in illegal or unethical behaviour, and agencies which condone such behaviours promptly punished, said the Party notice.

The ideological and moral education of children should be beefed up and they should be forbidden from joining activities of "idol" groups, the notice added, while party cadres at all levels should "deeply recognise" the importance of "moulding" future generations.

The NRTA, a ministry level body, said it will bolster regulation of stars' salaries and punish tax evaders. It also said it would weed out any content in cultural programmes that it deems unhealthy. Last week, China's internet regulator said it was taking action against what it described as a "chaotic" celebrity fan culture.

The selection of actors and guests should be carefully controlled, with political literacy and moral conduct included as criteria, NRTA said, adding that performers should be encouraged to participate in public welfare programmes and assume social responsibilities.

The notice further said that programmes portraying "effeminate" behaviour and other content deemed "warped" should be stopped, along with shows built around scandals, ostentatious wealth and "vulgar" internet celebrities.

Unhealthy fan culture should be deterred and strict controls placed on programmes with voting segments, it said, and any that encourage fans to spend money to vote should be forbidden.

The latest outbreak, which began in mid-July when cleaners at a Nanjing airport tested positive, is the most severe since Covid-19 first surfaced in the central city of Wuhan. Over a thousand people have been infected across dozens of cities.

But Communist authorities reacted with swift localised lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing of neighbourhoods with infections as part of their "zero case" approach to the pandemic, which has virtually sealed off China's borders but allowed the economy to rebound.

New domestic infections have been falling for over two weeks.

On Monday, National Health Commission data showed local infections returned to zero after a five week battle.

Meanwhile health experts are attempting to shore up confidence in the country's vaccination drive with leading virologist Zhong Nanshan saying "effective herd immunity" is on the horizon once over 80 percent of the population is vaccinated - a target likely achieved by year-end.

China launched the tech-focused STAR Market in Shanghai in mid-2019, along with the introduction of a US-style, registration-based initial public offering (IPO) system in that market.

The Securities Association of China (SAC) said late on Friday that a joint probe recently with the Shanghai Stock Exchange over STAR IPOs had exposed issues with 19 institutional investors.

The problems included weak internal controls, inadequate rationale for price-settings, non-compliance with stipulated procedures and improper storage of working papers, the SAC said in a statement, without identifying the companies.

One insurer has been temporarily banned from participating in the institutional portion of IPO subscriptions, while eight fund houses and one asset manager have been barred from the share placement market for a month, according to the statement.

SAC said regulators will strengthen supervision and step up penalties against misbehaviour to maintain order for IPO price-setting and protect investors.

China has already replicated the registration-based IPO system to Shenzhen's start-up board ChiNext, and aims to gradually roll out the mechanism to the rest of China's stock market, which still uses a system based on regulators' approvals.

Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was originally sentenced to 15 years in prison in late 2018, but that was changed to the death penalty just months after a diplomatic rift exploded between Ottawa and Beijing over the detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

The upholding of the death sentence comes a week after Meng began the latest round of her court battle in Canada against US extradition, a case that has infuriated China.

A ruling was also expected Wednesday in the case of Michael Spavor, the Canadian ambassador said, one of two Canadians detained by China for espionage in the wake of Meng's arrest in Canada.

An unidentified female employee made the allegations in a lengthy internal posting quoted by Chinese media, which AFP is unable to verify. She accused her manager and a client of sexual assault during a work trip to the city of Jinan in Shandong province, according to media reports.

A hashtag for the allegation was among the top-viewed items on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Sunday.

Sexual misconduct has garnered increasing attention in China especially since the country's own #MeToo movement was sparked by Chinese feminists in 2018.

In one of the biggest cases so far, Beijing police earlier this month said Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu had been detained on suspicion of rape.

Wu had been accused by a 19-year-old student of date-raping her when she was 17, drawing widespread condemnation of the singer on Chinese social media and leading to several luxury brands dropping deals with him.

Alibaba had already been under scrutiny from the government, which has launched a broad campaign to rein in the growing clout of the country's tech giants.

Regulators in April hit Alibaba with a record $2.78 billion fine over practices deemed to be an abuse of its dominant market position.

State media on Sunday quoted an internal memo reportedly posted by Alibaba chief executive officer Daniel Zhang, saying he was "shocked, furious, and ashamed" about the misconduct case.

Jinan police said they were investigating an alleged rape case involving a female Alibaba employee, according to a statement issued on Weibo that gave no other details.

The typhoon landed in the Putuo district of the city of Zhoushan, a major port in the east coast province of Zhejiang, at 12:30 p.m. (0430 GMT) on Sunday, state broadcaster CCTV said, citing the China Meteorological Administration.

The storm hit as central China was still reeling from record flooding that killed at least 63, cut off power and forced the relocation of more than 1 million people.

"We will make every effort to ensure the safety of people's lives and property, and do everything to minimize disaster losses, and strive to achieve the goal of no deaths and few injuries and economic losses," said Yuan Jiajun, the Zhejiang province Communist Party secretary, during an inspection of preparations on Saturday, official media reported.

After flooding 6 kilometres (4 miles) of roads in Zhoushan with seawater and felling around 1,000 trees in Shanghai on Sunday afternoon, the typhoon was due to make a second landfall on the coast between Zhejiang's Jiaxing city and Jiangsu province's Qidong city on Sunday night.

The Meteorological Administration earlier said the typhoon was moving at a speed of 15 km per hour (9 miles per hour).

In-fa's wind speeds were up to 38 metres per second, the Meteorological Administration said. That is equal to about 137 kph (85 mph), according to Reuters calculations. The Zhejiang emergency management department upgraded its typhoon response to the highest level on Saturday, closing schools and markets and suspending road traffic when necessary. Both Shanghai, home to about 26 million people, and Hangzhou to the south cancelled inbound and outbound flights from Saturday, and many train services in the region were also halted.

The Shanghai government said it would slow its subway trains and supended some lines from noon, and Hangzhou authorities also cancelled all underground trains.

Flooding in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou last week killed 12 people who were trapped in the subway system.

Shanghai Disneyland would close on Sunday and Monday because of the weather, the resort announced, while the city's Yangshan Port has evacuated hundreds of vessels, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The typhoon was set to linger in eastern China after its second landfall and bring strong rainstorms to Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, and Shanghai, said Xinhua.

The logistics warehouse, located in Changchun, the capital of the northeastern province of Jilin, caught on fire Saturday afternoon, and rescue work is still underway, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Images published by the agency showed firefighters using ladders and cranes outside the burned-out shell of a glass-walled building.

"The cause of the incident is under investigation," Xinhua said.

Deadly fires are not uncommon in China, where lax enforcement of building codes and rampant unauthorised construction can make it hard for people to escape burning buildings.

A fire at a martial arts boarding school in central China's Henan province killed 18 people in June - mostly children studying at the school, with state media later reporting that the school building had not completed mandatory fire safety audits.

The school fire prompted an online uproar, with Chinese social media users calling for better fire safety standards.

In 2017, more than two dozen people were killed in two blazes in Beijing's migrant neighbourhoods.

The first, which killed 19 people in November that year, prompted authorities to begin tearing down unsafe buildings in the capital, driving hundreds of thousands of residents out of their homes in the middle of winter.

In 2010, a huge blaze swept a 28-storey Shanghai residential block, killing 58 people.

Rescue workers are uncertain how many people may still be trapped under the debris, according to a statement from the disaster management bureau in the city of Shiyan. Videos shot by witnesses and verified by Beijing News show several buildings reduced to rubble and rescuers carrying shocked survivors on stretchers. The blast ripped through a vegetable market that was filled with shoppers and people eating breakfast, an eyewitness told state-run Global Times.

“I heard a loud bang and immediately ducked under the table, thinking it was an earthquake,” a man who owns a small restaurant near the explosion site told the newspaper.

State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of buildings with charred walls and shattered windows.

Rescuers were seen lifting large slabs to pull out those trapped underneath.

The blast occurred in a two-story building that earlier housed a vehicle frame manufacturer. Several survivors told local media that the gas pipeline had fallen into disrepair after the factory was moved last year. In a rare move, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a statement urging local officials to “learn profound lessons from the incident” and double down on efforts to prevent such incidents.

Among the dead were elite Chinese long-distance runners, local media reported.

Official news agency Xinhua confirmed that 21 of the 172 participants had died, citing the local rescue command headquarters. The other 151 are now safe, according to state media.

Baiyin city mayor Zhang Xuchen said that at around midday Saturday a section of the rugged ultramarathon course - between kilometres 20 and 31 - was "suddenly affected by disastrous weather".

"In a short period of time, hailstones and ice rain suddenly fell in the local area, and there were strong winds. The temperature sharply dropped," Zhang said. Shortly after receiving messages for help, marathon organisers dispatched a rescue team.

At around 2 pm, weather conditions worsened and the race was called off, Zhang said. The victims included top domestic marathon runners Liang Jing and Huang Guanjun, local media reported. Liang had won multiple Chinese ultramarathons in recent years. The race, backed by the Baiyin city government and the Chinese Athletic Association, has been held for four successive years.

The epicentre of the quake in Qinghai, which struck at 2:04 am (1804 GMT Friday) at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), was located about 400 kilometres southwest of the city of Xining, US seismologists said.

The quake was initially measured at a magnitude of 7.4 but then slightly revised downwards by the USGS.

The building was sealed shut as of 2:40pm, according to local media reports. Completed in 2000, the tower is home to a major electronics market as well as various offices in the downtown of one of China’s fastest-growing cities.

Emergency management officials are investigating what caused the tower in Shenzhen’s Futian district to wobble, according to a post on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.

“After checking and analysing the data of various earthquake monitoring stations across the city, there was no earthquake in Shenzhen today,” the statement said.

The district said in another statement late Tuesday that everyone inside had been safely evacuated and that no further movements of the building had been detected. Experts “found no safety abnormalities in the main structure and surrounding environment of the building,” and the interior and exterior components of the building appeared undamaged, the district said.

Everest base camp on the Nepalese side has been hit by coronavirus cases since late April. The Nepalese government, starved of tourism revenue, has yet to cancel the spring climbing season, usually from April to early June before the monsoon rains.

It was not immediately clear how the line would be enforced on the summit, a tiny, perilous and inhospitable area the size of a dining table.

A small team of Tibetan climbing guides will ascend Everest and set up the “line of separation” at the summit to stop any contact between mountaineers from both sides of the peak, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the head of Tibet’s sports bureau.

Nine crew members from a fishing boat that capsized during the gale on Friday evening were still missing after two others were rescued. Strong winds pounded Nantong, a town of 8 million on the north bank of the Yangtze River, accompanied by hailstones the size of large marbles, according to the website Toutiao.com.

Those killed were hit by falling trees and electricity poles, or had been blown into the water by the wind, local authorities said on social media platform Weibo. They added that 102 people were injured and many homes damaged, with over 3,000 residents evacuated.

China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated that the Chinese delegation was not present at the location, when the explosion occurred in the car park of the hotel in the Balochistan province.

Pakistan's military is fighting an insurgency in the province, and it is host to China's significant strategic infrastructure interests, through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.