ASIA: International experts investigating the origins of Covid-19 have all but dismissed a theory that the virus came from a laboratory in China. Peter Ben Embarek, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) mission (Mission to China), said it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a lab in the city of Wuhan. […]

ASIA: China’s capital city, Beijing, will hand out about $1.5 million in a limited trial of the central bank’s digital currency, the municipal government announced over the weekend. That marks the third major test of the digital currency under development by the People’s Bank of China. The cities of Shenzhen and Suzhou held similar experiments […]

ASIA: Australian farmers have warned that the country’s trade dispute with China and supply chain disruption linked to the coronavirus pandemic will cost the industry $28bn over the next decade. In a pre-budget submission published on Friday, the National Farmers’ Federation appealed to the government to invest A$3.5bn (US$2.66bn) to support a trading strategy aimed […]

ASIA: Britain’s broadcasting regulator said on Thursday that it had withdrawn the license for China Global Television Network, an international news channel owned by a Chinese state broadcaster, to operate in the United Kingdom in part because its affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party violates broadcasting laws. The regulator said that those that most likely […]

ASIA: China and Russia have blocked the UN from condemning the ongoing military coup in Myanmar. The UN statement sought to “condemn the military coup” and call on the military to “immediately release those unlawfully detained,” according to a draft seen by Politico. Wider fiscal deficits and a more gradual pace of consolidation will lift […]

ASIA: China’s growth is likely to moderate in the coming months as the country faces risks on two fronts, according to the chief Asia economist of Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs economist Andrew Tilton said the policy makers are quite comfortable with the recovery so far and are starting to pull back on policy stimulus to […]

ASIA: China is cracking down on a crime ring making “fake vaccines” for Covid-19 that has been running since September, state media reported. Police departments in Jiangsu, Beijing, and Shandong have arrested more than 80 people involved in producing more than 3,000 fake Covid-19 vaccine doses, Xinhua News Agency reported. Xinhua said China’s Ministry of […]

ASIA: China has warned Taiwan that any attempt to seek independence “means war.” The warning comes days after China stepped up its military activities and flew warplanes near the island. This reaction from China came after new US President Joe Biden reaffirmed his commitment to Taiwan, and set out his stance in Asia. The US […]

ASIA: A World Health Organization (WHO) team has come out of quarantine and will start on-the-ground investigations into the origins of the coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The scientists will begin interviewing people from research institutes, hospitals and the seafood market linked to the initial outbreak. Their research will rely upon evidence provided […]

ASIA: Profits at China’s industrial firms grew for the eighth straight month in December, suggesting a sustained recovery as the manufacturing sector rapidly emerged from its COVID-19 slump, Reuters reported. Profits surged 20.1% year-on-year in December to 707.11-billion-yuan ($109.40 billion), after rising 15.5% in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Wednesday. […]