China

An elderly man on a stretcher is wheeled into the fever clinic at a hospital in Beijing, Friday, Dec. 9, 2022.

Health & Safety

China struggles with COVID infections after controls ease

4:04am December 09, 2022

by The Associated Press

A rash of COVID-19 cases were reported by social media users on Friday in areas across China although it wasn't clear how far above the official figure the total cases may be.

China's leader Xi Jinping (center) walks with Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman (right), following an official welcoming ceremony at the Palace of Yamamah in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday.

World News

China's Xi Jinping visits Saudi Arabia to assert power and rival U.S. influence

3:26pm December 08, 2022

by Aya Batrawy

China is looking to deepen ties with Saudi Arabia and meeting other Arab leaders months after President Biden visited the kingdom — and had rocky results.

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Sheets of blank white paper have become a symbol for social media censorship in China.

World News

How protesters in China bypass online censorship to express dissent

10:20am December 08, 2022

by Manuela López Restrepo

After weeks of protests, officials in China are loosening the country's notoriously strict anti-COVID measures. How did protestors succeed despite heavy online censorship?

A woman wearing a face mask and face shield get ready for her routine COVID-19 throat swab at a coronavirus testing site in Beijing, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. China has announced new measures rolling back COVID-19 restrictions, including limiting lockdowns and testing requirements.

China announces a rollback of its strict anti-COVID-19 measures

10:31am December 07, 2022

by The Associated Press

China has announced a series of measures rolling back some of its restrictive anti-COVID-19 restrictions, including limiting the scale of lockdown to individual apartment floors and buildings.

China's New Silk Road project is lending out billions to countries in Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa to build and upgrade railways, ports, pipelines, power grids and highways. Above: A Kenya Railways train pulls shipping containers as it departs from the Mombasa port station.

China lends billions to poor countries. Is that a burden ... or a blessing?

6:34pm December 06, 2022

by Andrew Connelly

China doles out much cash for infrastructure. It must be repaid. Is that frustrating for recipients? A new survey has a surprising answer. But skeptics wonder: How honest were the participants?

The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, showing Jiang Zemin (right) meeting journalists, including Frank Langfitt (center), at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 1997.

World News

Perspective: Jiang Zemin's passing marks the end of an era for China

4:35pm December 06, 2022

by Frank Langfitt

As China holds a memorial service for its late leader Jiang Zemin, an NPR correspondent who met Jiang reflects on the figure and his transforming country.

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Residents wearing masks wait at a public bus stop in Beijing on Saturday. Chinese authorities announced a further easing of COVID-19 curbs with major cities such as Shenzhen and Beijing no longer requiring negative tests to take public transport.

Beijing and other cities in China end required COVID-19 tests for public transit

9:06am December 03, 2022

by The Associated Press

The slight relaxation of testing requirements comes follows protests across China by residents frustrated by the rigid enforcement of anti-virus restrictions.

The Royal Mint Court office complex, bought by the Chinese government for 255 million pounds ($311 million) in May 2018, in London, on Friday. China's controversial plan to build a new embassy on the site near the Tower of London was rejected in a Tower Hamlets council meeting on Thursday.

World News

London says no to a big Chinese Embassy, in a blow to Beijing ties

3:02pm December 02, 2022

by Frank Langfitt

Local officials in London rejected plans for a massive, new Chinese Embassy, a bitter setback for China's government that once promised a "golden age" for its British relations.

China is doing many millions of tests a day to uncover cases of COVID-19 — part of its zero-COVID policy. Above: People line up for nucleic acid tests to detect the virus at a public testing site on Nov. 17 in Beijing.

Health & Safety

Why China's 'zero COVID' policy is finally faltering

5:03pm November 30, 2022

For nearly three years, China has enforced incredibly strict rules to keep coronavirus transmission in check. But now they're facing a potentially deadly omicron surge.

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Chinese President Jiang Zemin sings a selection from "Beijing Opera" on the last day of an eight-day visit to the U.S. on Nov. 2, 1997, in Los Angeles.

World News

China's ex-leader Jiang Zemin, an influential reformer, has died at 96

11:31am November 30, 2022

Jiang Zemin rose to power in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests and leaves a legacy of economic reforms — but also tight political control.

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