Asia-Business

News from China

China's Wuhan begins emergency-use COVID-19 vaccination

29th December 2020

The city of Wuhan in central China has started the emergency use of COVID-19 vaccine candidates on certain key groups of people, the municipal government said on Monday.

The vaccination, available at 48 designated clinics in 15 districts, began on December 24, targeting some key groups of people aged between 18 and 59, said He Zhenyu, deputy director of the center for disease control and prevention in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province.

Those receiving the vaccine need to take two shots with an interval of four weeks, said He at a press briefing.

From October 1 to December 27, Wuhan reported a total of 43 cases of imported COVID-19 infections — 10 confirmed cases and 33 asymptomatic ones. All but four asymptomatic carriers have been discharged from hospitals, said Peng Houpeng, deputy director of the municipal health commission.

Source: Shanghai Daily, December 29, 2020

China's language research center unveils top 10 media buzzwords of 2020

28th December 2020

China's National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center released the top 10 media buzzwords of 2020, highlighting matters that grabbed the spotlight of the country's media outlets and linguistic features of the reports.

The list was compiled with the help of linguistic information processing technology from a corpus of articles, programs and news stories totaling 1.9 billion characters appearing in nine newspapers, 20 radio and TV stations, and four web portals from January to November.

Chronicling the changes in people's lives and economic and social development in China in 2020, English translations of these 10 phrases are roughly as follows:

— Work and production resumption

The resumption of normal production and business activities.

— COVID-19

An infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus.

— Asymptomatic infections

A person who has no relevant clinical symptoms of COVID-19 but tests positive for the virus.

— Cabin hospitals

Makeshift hospitals built in converted sports venues, exhibition and convention centers, and other facilities for the centralized treatment of mild COVID-19 cases.

— Health QR code

Automatically generated quick response codes that are assigned to citizens as an indicator of their health status.

— Digital RMB

A legal tender to be issued by the People's Bank of China.

— Service trade fair

China International Fair for Trade in Services.

— Dual circulation

China's new development paradigm of "dual circulation," where the domestic and overseas markets reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay.

— Tianwen-1

Name of China's first interplanetary mission to Mars launched on July 23, 2020. "Tianwen" means "Questions to Heaven" and comes from a poem written by Qu Yuan (about 340-278 BC), one of the greatest poets of ancient China.

— Contactless delivery

A delivery method in which goods are delivered without direct contact between delivery personnel and recipients.

Source: Shanghai Daily, December 28, 2020

Chinese mainland reports 14 new COVID-19 cases

25th December 2020

The Chinese mainland on Thursday reported 14 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, including seven locally transmitted cases in northeast China's Liaoning Province, the National Health Commission said on Friday.

Seven of the new COVID-19 cases arrived from outside the mainland, the commission said in its daily report.

No new suspected cases or deaths related to the disease were reported Thursday.

Nine COVID-19 patients on the Chinese mainland were discharged from hospitals following recovery on Thursday.

By the end of Thursday, a total of 4,181 imported cases had been reported on the mainland. Among them, 3,909 had been discharged from hospitals following recovery, and 272 remained hospitalized. No deaths had been reported among the imported cases.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the mainland reached 86,913 by Thursday, including 320 patients still receiving treatment, six of whom were in severe conditions.

A total of 81,959 patients had been discharged following recovery on the mainland, and 4,634 had died as a result of the virus, according to the commission.

There were no suspected COVID-19 cases on the mainland on Thursday, and 9,890 close contacts remained under medical observation.

Source: Shanghai Daily, December 25, 2020

China adjusts tariffs on imported commodities

24th December 2020

China will adjust import tariffs on a range of products starting January 1, 2021 to support fostering the new development paradigm and promoting high-quality development, according to the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council.

Provisional import tariffs that are lower than the most-favored-nation (MFN) rates will be levied on 883 commodities, including some anti-cancer drugs and raw materials for infant formulas, the commission said in a circular released Wednesday.

It will also adjust provisional import tariff rates implemented in 2020 considering changes in domestic industrial development and supply-demand situations.

In accordance with the free trade agreements and preferential trade arrangements with other countries or regions, China will impose conventional tariff rates on some imported products from such countries and regions.

Tariff rates will be lowered after the free trade agreement between China and Mauritius takes effect on January 1, 2021.

Further tariff reduction will be made under the free trade agreements China has separately signed with countries including New Zealand, Peru, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Iceland, Pakistan, Chile, Australia, the Republic of Korea, Georgia, as well as the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement.

In 2021, China will continue to apply preferential tariff rates to goods from the 43 least developed countries that have established diplomatic ties and completed the exchange of notes on the establishment of diplomatic relations with China.

China will also make adjustments to the relevant countries in line with the United Nations' list of the least developed countries and China's transition period arrangements, the commission said.

From July 1, 2021, China will implement the sixth MFN tariff concession on 176 information technology products.

Source: Shanghai Daily, December 24, 2020

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