Chinese government

A cluster of more than 50 pneumonia cases in China's central city of Wuhan may be due to a newly emerging member of the family of viruses that caused the deadly SARS and MERS outbreaks, World Health Organization (WHO) said on Jan. 8.   

China has removed the head of its Hong Kong liaison office Wang Zhimin, according to a Jan. 4 post on the official website of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

The move comes as sometimes violent protests roil Hong Kong in a months-long show of anti-Beijing sentiment.

Automaker Volkswagen is accelerating its move into battery-powered cars, saying it will reach its goal of 1 million electric cars per year two years earlier than planned. Dec. 27's announcement came as European automakers are under pressure to meet lower emissions limits aimed at fighting global warming.

The Chinese government has allocated part of the 2020 funding for poverty alleviation to local authorities, the Treasury said on Monday.

A rare and huge leak of Chinese government documents has shed new light on a security crackdown on Muslims in China's Xinjiang region, where President Xi Jinping ordered officials to act with "absolutely no mercy" against separatism and extremism, The New York Times has reported.

Apple has removed a smartphone app used by Hong Kong demonstrators to track police officers from its app store today, the Associated Press reported. This came after the Chinese Communist Party newspaper "People Daily" criticized Apple for facilitating the illegal activities of Hong Kong protesters.

The US State Department has announced visa restrictions for a number of Chinese government officials and members of the ruling Communist Party, writes Reuters.

Chinese politicians are suspected of harbouring Islamist minorities in northwest China's Xinjiang province.

China's prime minister promised Friday that his government will respect European standards and fair trade, seeking to allay concerns that it is flouting European Union competition rules with huge investments on the continent.
Opening an annual summit between Eastern and Central European nations and China, Li Keqiang said "we intend to fully respect European standards."

Chinese Embassy to Turkey has announced that the country's general-consulate in Izmir was closed as of Feb. 28 due to general arrangements with regard to consular activities. The move comes amid an ongoing row between Ankara and Beijing over the Uighur problem in which the former has harshly criticized Chinese government of assimilating the Muslim Turkic minority.

Tensions between the U.S. and China shifted to another course from tariffs. Last week, the Canadian police arrested Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer and daughter of the firm's founder, upon the demand of the U.S.