ASIA: Beijing has reported 106 new infections in the last five days. The city raised its alert level from Level 3 to Level 2 — the highest alert being Level 1 — the Beijing government’s Deputy Secretary Chen Bei announced in a press conference Tuesday night. Fearing the possibility of another outbreak, Beijing has imposed […]

ASIA: Beijing is reintroducing strict lockdown measures and rolling out mass testing after a fresh cluster of novel coronavirus cases emerged from the city’s largest wholesale food market, sparking fears of a resurgence of the deadly outbreak. The Chinese capital reported 36 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total number to 79 since a […]

Illinois became the first entity to borrow from the Fed’s new facility known as the “Municipal Liquidity Facility” for state and local governments. The Fed’s legal authority lies in section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act. This authorizes the Fed to directly lend to “individuals, partnerships and corporations” in “unusual and exigent circumstances.” Section 13(3) […]

ASIA: China has been accused by Brussels of running disinformation campaigns inside the European Union, as the bloc set out a plan to tackle a “huge wave” of false facts about the coronavirus pandemic. The European Commission said Russia and China were running “targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns in the EU, its neighborhood, and […]

ASIA: China is considering using about USD 28 billion in proceeds from government bond sales to help address risks in the banking sector, according to people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The debt will be part of the total issuance planned by the central government in 2020, and it’ll be used for measures including […]

ASIA: The World Health Organization struggled to get needed information from China during critical early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to recordings of internal meetings obtained by the Associated Press. The recordings obtained show officials complaining in meetings during the week of January 6 that Beijing was not sharing data needed to evaluate the […]

China’s Communist Party will impose a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong during the annual meeting of its top political body, criminalizing “foreign interference” along with secessionist activities and subversion of state power. This is directed at the protests for independence. It is a very dramatic and bold move that unquestionably undermines Hong Kong’s […]

ASIA: China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday spoke highly of World Health Organization (WHO) member states’ adherence to the one-China principle, saying that this proved “Taiwan independence” will lead nowhere. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks after the World Health Assembly (WHA) decided not to discuss a proposal made by Taiwan authorities and a […]

ASIA: Chinese President Xi Jinping said when addressing the World Health Assembly that he supports calls for an investigation into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but insisted that any inquiry should wait until the virus is contained. More than 100 countries have called for an independent inquiry into the pandemic, which has so far […]

ASIA: Chinese industry rebounded in April from record falls, but the country’s economic recovery remains fragile after the latest threat from US President Donald Trump strained relations further. Industrial production rose 3.9% year-on-year in April after collapsing 13.5% during the January-February period, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday. Taiwan has sought India’s support […]