China is battling the spread of its biggest Covid-19 outbreak caused by the Delta variant, according to numbers announced yesterday, with travellers from a city where infections have grown faster than elsewhere in the country subject to tough quarantine rules in nearby areas.

Beijing authorities have sealed off a mall and locked down several residential compounds over a Covid flare-up, as the latest outbreak spread to the Chinese capital’s central districts.

The Asia-Pacific region must not return to the tensions of the Cold War era, Chinese President Xi Jinping said yesterday, ahead of a virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden expected as soon as next week.

China on Thursday held a subdued version of its annual  “Single’s Day” shopping spree, shorn of the usual boasting on sales volume as the country’s chastened e-commerce sector kept a lower profile amid a government crackdown on platforms such as those operated by Alibaba.

Astronaut Wang Yaping became the first Chinese woman to walk in space, authorities said yesterday, as her team completed a six-hour stint outside the Tiangong space station as part of its ongoing construction.

China’s state news agency Xinhua lauded President Xi Jinping on Saturday as a tireless, selfless and scholarly servant of the people, ahead of a key meeting of the ruling Communist Party that is expected to further cement his authority.

A spy for the Chinese Ministry of State Security has been convicted by a federal jury of plotting to steal trade secrets from several U.S. aviation and aerospace companies, the Justice Department said on Friday.

China yesterday vowed to punish “diehard” Taiwan politicians, saying it would ban several from visiting the mainland, as tensions between Beijing and Taipei spiked to their highest level in years. 

Highways and school playgrounds in Beijing were closed yesterday due to heavy pollution, as China ramps up coal production and faces scrutiny of its environmental record at make-or-break international climate talks. 

China’s online censors Thursday scrubbed out a tennis star’s reported allegations that a powerful politician sexually assaulted her, the first time that the #MeToo movement has reached the highest echelons of the ruling Communist Party.

Beijing lashed out against a US intelligence review into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic yesterday, calling it “political and false” while urging Washington to “stop attacking” China.

Chinese telecom giant Huawei said Friday its revenue plunged by a third in the first three quarters of the year, as it continued to struggle under US sanctions that have hit its smartphone sales.

Six years ago, nearly every country in the world set targets for reducing their carbon emissions -- but the sum total of their pledges fell far short of what was needed to keep the planet from dangerously overheating.

China has submitted a revised plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions before the end of this current decade, but critics say the country that produces 27 percent of global emissions has failed to go further and demonstrate leadership at a critical moment for the planet.

Top US General Mark Milley has called China’s recent hypersonic missile test “very close” to a Sputnik moment.

Reuters, Shanghai

Chinese authorities have told Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin, once the country’s richest man, to use his personal wealth to alleviate the embattled company’s debt crisis, according to media reports.

China yesterday insisted that Taiwan had no right to join the United Nations, after the United States ratcheted up tensions with a call for the democratic island to have greater involvement in the world body.

Bottled water, vaccine development, short video platform TikTok and electric vehicle technology propelled the big earners on China's rich list this year, as embattled property moguls and others facing regulatory scrutiny slipped down the rankings.

Children as young as 3 will start receiving Covid-19 vaccines in China, where 76% of the population has been fully vaccinated and authorities are maintaining a zero-tolerance policy toward outbreaks.