China

SHENZHEN, China (AP) — The founder of Huawei, in a new effort to allay Western security concerns, said Tuesday that the Chinese tech giant would not comply with Chinese government requests to disclose confidential information about its foreign customers and their communication networks.

Ren Zhengfei spoke in a rare meeting with foreign reporters as Huawei Technologies Ltd. counters concerns that threaten to hamper its access to global markets. Telecom carriers are preparing to spend billions of dollars on next-generation technology.

15 Jan 2019; AFP: Hong Kong scientists claim they have made a potential breakthrough discovery in the fight against infectious diseases -- a chemical that could slow the spread of deadly viral illnesses.

A team from the University of Hong Kong described the newly discovered chemical as "highly potent in interrupting the life cycle of diverse viruses" in a study published this month in the journal Nature Communications.

15 Jan 2019; AFP: A small green shoot is growing on the moon in an out-of-this-world first after a cotton seed germinated on board a Chinese lunar lander, scientists said Tuesday.

The sprout has emerged from a lattice-like structure inside a canister since the Chang'e-4 lander set down earlier this month, according to a series of photos released by the Advanced Technology Research Institute at Chongqing University.

BEIJING, January 14. /TASS/. China is ready to cooperate with Russia in operating its yet-to-be created orbital station and to let some other countries participate in similar projects, the secretary-general of the China National Space Administration, Li Guoping, told a news conference on Monday.

BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- China will launch the Chang'e-5 probe by the end of this year to bring moon samples back to Earth, a senior official of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced Monday.

The Chang'e-4 mission realized the first-ever soft-landing on the far side of the moon, and its success has inaugurated the fourth phase of China's lunar exploration program.

BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday expressed stern opposition to participation by the United States and other countries in Taiwan's submarine production project.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks when responding to media reports saying the United States has permitted some of its military enterprises to export technology to help Taiwan build submarines.

Enterprises from the United States, Europe, Japan and India have reportedly demonstrated their interest to take part in the project.

BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade rose 9.7 percent year on year to a historic high of 30.51 trillion yuan (about 4.5 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2018, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Monday.

The value was 2.7 trillion yuan higher than that of 2017, according to the GAC.

"China effectively tackled changes of the external environment last year, and the foreign trade maintained stable and positive growth, reaching a historic high in import and export volume," GAC spokesman Li Kuiwen told a press conference.

BEIJING, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Beijing's new international airport, which is set to be operational this year, will be an airport in the forest, district officials said Sunday.

The Beijing Daxing International Airport is located 46 km south of downtown Beijing. It sits at the junction of Beijing's Daxing District and Langfang, a city in neighboring Hebei Province.

Forest will cover 17,866 hectares of surrounding areas of the new airport, officials said at the on-going Daxing district people's congress.

Beijing, Jan 13 (PTI) India plans to achieve electric mobility by 2030 and welcomes Chinese industries participation and investment in the expansion of Indian Electric Vehicles (EV) Market, NITI Aayog Principal Advisor Anil Srivatsava has said.

Srivastava, who led an industry delegation from India and addressed summit forum 'Global Zero Emission and All Electric Vehicle' held from January 11-13, met Chen Qingtai, President of China EV100, and invited China's participation in India's ambitious plans to go for full electric mobility.

BEIJING (AP) — Twenty-one coal miners were killed when a mine collapsed in northern China, state media reported Sunday.

The disaster occurred Saturday in Shenmu in Shaanxi province in the heart of the country’s coal-mining belt, according to state TV and the Xinhua News Agency.

Sixty-six other miners were rescued, the city government said in a statement.

The number of fatalities reported in cave-ins, explosions and other disasters in Chinese coal mines has fallen sharply over the past decade but the industry still is the world’s deadliest.