Xinhua News Agency

As many as 112 people have now officially been declared dead as a result of the blasts in the Chinese port city of Tianjin earlier this week.

An evacuation was triggered earlier over fears that cyanide had been found near the site of the explosion. The reports have now been confirmed, the BBC says.

More than 720 people have been taken to hospital.

Chinese authorities ordered the evacuation of citizens within a radius of three kilometres from the site of the exploded warehouse in Tianjin over fears of chemical contamination with the highly toxic sodium cyanide.

A series of enormous explosions at an industrial area in the Chinese port of Tianjin killed at least 44 people and injured more than 500, state media reported on August 13, unleashing a fireball that ripped through the night sky.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an met his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, for talks in Beijing on July 29, in a visit expected to cover trade ties, missile defense program bargaining and spat over the Asian giant?s Uighur minority. 

Former Chinese security chief Zhou Yongkang, the highest ranking ex-official to be investigated for corruption in decades, was sentenced on June 11 to life in prison at a secret trial, state-media said.

A total of 396 people have been confirmed dead after a cruise ship capsized in China, state media said, making it the country's worst shipping disaster in nearly 70 years.

Only 14 people have been confirmed alive out of the 456 - mostly tourists aged over 60 - on board when the "Eastern Star" rapidly sunk on the Yangtze river in a storm on June 1.

Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis continued his visit to China on Friday by holding talks with Vice Premier Ma Kai in Beijing, where both men pledged to strengthen ties between the two countries.

Fireworks illuminated the skies across China as millions around Asia ushered in the Year of the Sheep on Feb. 19, kicking off festivities with an annual televised gala that got a thumbs down on social media for heavy Communist Party propaganda.
      

Chinese media: West facing "payback for colonialism"

BEIJING -- The religious and cultural tensions the West faces are "payback" for slavery and colonialism, a Chinese state-run newspaper said on Tuesday.

The editorial came in the wake of the Islamist attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine, AFP reported.

A Chinese teenager executed after being convicted of murder and rape 18 years ago was declared innocent by a court Dec. 15, in a rare overturning of a wrongful conviction.