city Beijing: Latest News

(Reuters) – The Paris Club of creditor nations is ready to provide financing assurances to Sri Lanka, a key step needed to unlock a $2.9 billion bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.The informal group of bilateral lenders is set to "soon" announce its support to the crisis-hit nation on a debt overhaul, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because talks are private.The Asian island nation, which is grappling with soaring inflation, a recession and currency depreciation, entered into a staff level agreement with the IMF last September.But it needs financing assurances from key bilateral lenders before the fund's executive board approves the programme.Sri Lanka's public debt stood at 122% of GDP, of which 70% is denominated in foreign currency, according to data in a country presentation to investors in November.China and India, both non-Paris Club members, are the top bilateral lenders. "Paris Club assurance is not reliant on China," said the source.Another source said the informal group is currently reaching out to other non-Paris Club besides China on financing assurances, but did not provide any further details.India previously committed to help ease the debt burden of neighbour Sri Lanka as part of the IMF programme, and China's Eximbank offered a two-year moratorium in a letter sent to the island nation in January.While the IMF has not yet provided any guidance on where the lender stands regarding China's assurances to Sri Lanka, a U.S.

The chief of the World Health Organization urged Beijing to offer more information on the origins of Covid-19 and is ready to send a second team to probe the matter, the Financial Times reported today.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that according to a classified intelligence report provided to the White House, the Energy Department has concluded that COVID-19 "most likely arose from a laboratory leak."

There was no evidence that the Covid-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab, the head of US intelligence said.

BEIJING - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday kicked off two days of high-stakes diplomatic talks in Beijing aimed at trying to cool exploding U.S.-China tensions that have set many around the world on edge.Blinken opened his program by meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang for an extended discussion to be followed by a working dinner.

President Biden on Saturday claimed that a Chinese spy balloon that drifted across the U.S. and caused a major international incident was "more embarrassing than it was intentional" by the communist regime. The president also said he hopes to talk to China's President Xi Jinping about how the U.S.

LAKE PLACID, NY - DECEMBER 25: Patrick Gasienica of the United States jumps during the first round of the ski jumping competition at the U.S. Nordic Combined & Ski Jump Olympic Trials on December 25, 2021 in Lake Placid, New York.

Police vehicles drive along El Paseo del Prado street in Havana, on November 15, 2021. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images) China has been operating a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019, part of a global effort by Beijing to upgrade its intelligence-gathering capabilities, according to a Biden administration official.The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the U.S.

expanding its own activities around the Indo-Pacific to counter sweeping territorial claims from China, including regularly sailing through and flying over the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea.READ MORE: US Army under pressure to make more ammo for Ukraine, potential conflict with China"We are committed to ensuring that every country can fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows," he said at the forum hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank. "And every country, large or small, must remain free to conduct lawful maritime activities."U.S.

A Chinese warship came within 150 yards of hitting American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon, during a rare joint Canada-U.S. mission sailing through the Taiwan Strait, the latest aggressive military move from Beijing in the South China Sea.

Former Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole says the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) found an “active campaign of voter suppression” by China against him and his party in the 2021 election.

Chinese state-sponsored cyber threat actor is performing discrete espionage operations within critical U.S. infrastructure and may target other nations, Western cybersecurity agencies and Microsoft warned Wednesday.Those operations may be aimed at developing ways to disrupt critical communications between the U.S.

World Health Organisation (WHO) had announced that Covid-19 pandemic is no more an ‘emergency’.  China's latest surge has been fueled by the latest XBB variant. The surge is being driven from last April, and is expected to result in 40 million infections a week by the end of May, before peaking at 65 million a month later.  The local news outlet cited a presentation by respiratory disease specialist Zhong Nanshan at a biotech conference in the southern city of Guangzhou.

TikTok Inc. filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to overturn Montana's first-in-the-nation ban on the video sharing app, arguing the law is an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights and is based on "unfounded speculation" that the Chinese government could access users' data.The lawsuit by TikTok, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, follows one filed last week by five content creators. They made similar arguments including that the state of Montana has no authority to take action on matters of national security.

TikTok logo. (MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images)HELENA, Mont. - Montana became the first state in the U.S.

FILE - A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese flag near US flags before the start of a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting between China and the US during the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Ju BEIJING - China sentenced a 78-year-old United States citizen to life in prison Monday on spying charges, in a case that could exacerbate the deterioration in ties between Beijing and Washington over recent years.Details of the charges against John Shing-Wan Leung, who also holds permanent residency in Hong Kong, have not been publicly released.Leung was detained April 15, 2021, by the local bureau of China's counterintelligence agency in the southeastern city of Suzhou, according to a statement posted by the city’s intermediate court on its social media site. His detention came after China had closed its borders and imposed tight domestic travel restrictions and social controls to fight the spread of COVID-19.Such investigations and trials are held behind closed doors and little information is generally released other than vague accusations of infiltration, gathering secrets and threatening state security.Relations between Washington and Beijing are at their lowest in decades amid disputes over trade, technology, human rights and China’s increasingly aggressive approach toward its territorial claims involving self-governing Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Canada “will not be intimidated” after China expelled a Canadian diplomat Tuesday in retaliation for Ottawa removing a Beijing delegate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.

Canada is expelling the Chinese diplomat who allegedly worked with Beijing to target Conservative MP Michael Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong.

On a Sunday morning in Taipei, a few dozen Taiwanese civilians carrying travel coffee mugs and notebooks settled into their seats in a classroom for a day-long crash course on surviving a Chinese military invasion.

Taiwan’s foreign affairs minister says the island is actively trying to prepare for a military attack by China in the coming months or years, and believes it’s only a matter of time before Beijing will move in on the self-governing island.In an interview with Global News in Taipei, Joseph Wu said Taiwan is shoring up international support and focusing on military reforms to be “as ready as possible” for such an attack, which could come at any time as China displays increasingly “provocative and expansionist” behaviour.“(An attack) might be in 2025, 2027 or 2035,” he said. “There’s some merit to those analyses.“But from our perspective, we should not wait for those years to come.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s week-long family vacation in Jamaica over the winter holidays cost taxpayers at least $162,000, and is drawing criticism that it shows he does not “understand the realities of everyday Canadians” from NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

Photo taken on Aug. 11, 2022 shows the U.S.

Justin Trudeau received at least five formal briefings from top national security officials on foreign interference in Canada since 2021, according to documents shared with a House of Commons committee.Those formal briefings are in addition to “numerous” informal discussions about the issue with Trudeau and his staff since November 2022, when Global News began publishing reports about alleged Chinese political interference in Canadian federal elections. Read more: Trudeau’s chief of staff to face questions about foreign interference The information comes from Jody Thomas, Trudeau’s national security and intelligence advisor (NSIA), in a submission to the House of Commons committee probing the issue of Beijing’s covert influence over Canadian politics and politicians.

FILE - In this photo illustration, a Tik Tok logo seen displayed on a smartphone. (Thiago Prudêncio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)HELENA, Mont. - Montana lawmakers gave final passage Friday to a bill banning the social media app TikTok from operating in the state, a move that's bound to face legal challenges but also serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free America many national lawmakers have envisioned.The measure now goes to Republican Gov.

The president and CEO, as well as the entire volunteer board of directors of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, resigned Tuesday in the wake of “pressure” following a media report detailing a $200,000 donation with alleged ties to Beijing.

TikTok, a move the app-maker calls “ill-conceived.”The University of British Columbia (UBC), Dalhousie University, McGill University and Memorial University of Newfoundland have either implemented or are planning to enact policies or recommendations on the use of the popular social media app. Read more: UBC encourages students to uninstall TikTok app, citing ‘not yet’ proven data risks Canada has joined a growing number of countries in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region that have banned TikTok from government devices as privacy and cybersecurity concerns increase.

Toronto-area MP Han Dong is at the centre of a political firestorm following a Global News report that he allegedly spoke with a Chinese diplomat in 2021, advising Beijing to delay freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, according to two intelligence sources.

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance collects data on people who don’t even use the app, and those same trackers are showing up on government websites that banned TikTok from their networks, a new report found.In a review of more than 3,500 company, organization and government websites, Canada-based Feroot Security found ByteDance tracking pixels on 30 state government websites in the U.S. Some of those trackers were found in states that don’t allow TikTok on government networks or devices.The report was "eye-opening," Feroot Security CEO Ivan Tsarynny said, and shed new light on the "wild, wild West" of pixel tracking – or computer code that collects information on how a user interacts with a website.READ MORE: Skeptical US lawmakers grill TikTok CEO over safety concernsPixel trackers are used by lots of companies and "have legitimate business reasons," Tsarynny explained, but questions over how ByteDance collects and shares information – and who the company shares it with – have been plaguing the social media giant for months.In this photo illustration, the TikTok app is displayed on an Apple iPhone on August 7, 2020 in Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON - The CEO of TikTok made a rare public appearance Thursday before a U.S. Congressional committee, where he faced a grilling on data security and user safety while he makes his own case for why the hugely popular video-sharing app shouldn't be banned.Shou Zi Chew's testimony comes at a crucial time for the company, which has acquired 150 million American users but is under increasing pressure from U.S.

Han Dong announced Wednesday night he is leaving the Liberal caucus and will sit as an Independent member of Parliament.His remarks in the House of Commons came hours after Global News reported that Dong privately advised a senior Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that Beijing should hold off freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, according to two separate national security sources.“I have informed the prime minister and the leadership of the Liberal Party caucus that I will be sitting as an Independent at the conclusion of these remarks,” he said.“Mr. Speaker, I am in your hands as to what happens next.” Read more: Liberal MP Han Dong secretly advised Chinese diplomat in 2021 to delay freeing Two Michaels: sources Dong emphatically denied the allegations against him in remarks directed both to the House and the families of Kovrig and Spavor, who were detained in China for over three years on allegations of espionage.“The allegations made against me are as false as the ones made against you,” he said, referring to Kovrig and Spavor.“Let me assure you, as a parliamentarian and as a person, I have never and would never advocate or support the violation of the basic human rights of any Canadian — of anyone, anywhere, period.”He broke down in tears as he concluded his remarks by thanking his family.

Read more: Liberals ignored CSIS warning on 2019 candidate accused in Chinese interference probe, sources say In an emailed statement to Global News sent Tuesday, Dong confirmed that he had a discussion with Consul General Han, but disputed that he initiated it and also denies that he advised Beijing to delay releasing Kovrig and Spavor from prison.“I raised the status of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig and called for their immediate release,” he wrote.“At every opportunity before they returned home, I adamantly demanded their release to Canada without delay. Any suggestions otherwise are false and are attempts to mislead you and your readers, and slander me.”The Prime Minister’s Office said it only became aware of the two-year-old conversation following Global News’ inquiries about it.PMO spokesperson Alison Murphy wrote that her office “only became aware that a conversation took place after Mr.

'We need to get to the bottom of Covid-19's origins..., including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,' Biden said in a statement US President Joe Biden on Monday signed into law a bill requiring the release of intelligence materials on potential links between the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. "We need to get to the bottom of Covid-19's origins..., including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology," Biden said in a statement. "In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible," he added.

FILE IMAGE - Chinas President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) leaders summit in Samarkand on Sept. 15, 2022.

FILE-A health worker takes a swab sample from a woman to be tested for COVID-19 at a testing site in Beijing on March 23, 2022. (JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images) BEIJING - Genetic material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified show raccoon dog DNA comingled with the virus, suggesting the pandemic may have originated from animals, not a lab, international experts say.Other experts have not yet verified their analysis, which has yet to appear in a peer-reviewed journal.

FILE-Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose during their meeting in Beijing, on February 4, 2022. (ALEXEI DRUZHININ/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images) BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Russia from Monday to Wednesday, in an apparent show of support for Russian President Vladimir Putin amid sharpening East-West tensions over the war in Ukraine.Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine is expected to dominate Putin and Xi's discussions.

China will reopen its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in the three years since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted by allowing all categories of visas to be issued from tomorrow.

China lowers the chance of armed conflict between the Mideast rivals — both directly and in proxy conflicts around the region.The deal, struck in Beijing this week amid its ceremonial National People’s Congress, represents a major diplomatic victory for the Chinese as Gulf Arab states perceive the United States slowly withdrawing from the wider Middle East. It also comes as diplomats have been trying to end a long war in Yemen, a conflict in which both Iran and Saudi Arabia are deeply entrenched.The two countries released a joint communique on the deal with China, which brokered the agreement as President Xi Jinping was awarded a third five-year term as leader earlier Friday.Xi, whose administration in recent days has relaunched a campaign to challenge the U.S.-led Western liberal order with warnings of "conflict and confrontation," was credited in a trilateral statement with facilitating the talks through a "noble initiative" and having personally agreed to sponsor the negotiations that lasted from Monday through Friday.READ MORE: Sister of Kim Jong Un warns North Korea ready to act against US, SouthVideos showed Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, meeting with Saudi national security adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban and Wang Yi, China's most senior diplomat.The statement calls for reestablishing ties and reopening embassies to happen "within a maximum period of two months." A meeting by their foreign ministers is also planned.In the video, Wang could be heard offering "wholehearted congratulations" on the two countries' "wisdom.""Both sides have displayed sincerity," he said.

Read more: 2020 intel warned Trudeau government that China’s interference in Canadian elections will likely be ‘pervasive’ This high-level, finalized document was produced by the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat — a division of the PCO that regularly provides national security alerts for Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet.Prime Minister’s Office spokeswoman Alison Murphy gave a blanket denial Tuesday that Justin Trudeau was aware of Beijing’s money transfers to the 2019 candidates.“As the Prime Minister stated last fall, we have no information on any federal candidates receiving money from China,” Murphy wrote in a statement.The response refers to Global’s reporting last November, which did not state that China gave money directly to candidates.

The Chinese government represents an “existential threat” to Canada, a Liberal MP says amid a new Global News report into Beijing’s suspected foreign interference efforts.

Read more: Anything less than a public inquiry on foreign interference is not enough: Poilievre, Singh This document was derived from 100 Canada Security and Intelligence Service reports and was produced by the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat.

World Health Organization (WHO) is still working to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, its director general said on Friday, after a U.S. agency was reported to have assessed the pandemic had likely been caused by a Chinese laboratory leak.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was provided “multiple” intelligence briefs regarding Beijing’s role in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 federal elections, Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser confirmed Thursday at a multi-partisan committee on foreign interference.

The opposition New Democrats are pushing for a “national public inquiry” into foreign interference in Canadian elections, Global News has learned.

Likely cause of Covid pandemic is lab leak in Wuhan, China: FBI director The Wuhan lab leak allegations have also acted as a green signal for other assorted COVID-19 misinformation - with many antivaxxers triumphantly announcing that restrictive measures amid the pandemic had been for naught.   “School closures were a failed and catastrophic policy. Masks are ineffective.

Also read: Likely cause of Covid pandemic is lab leak in Wuhan, China: FBI director According to an update shared by NBC News' Beijing bureau chief, the Chinese newspaper had said that Musk could be “breaking the pot of China" - a sentiment that carries similar meaning to the phrase ‘biting the hand that feeds you’. An article published Tuesday by the official WeChat account of China’s Global Times also said that “ridiculously, anti-China forces in the United States are again hyping the rumors that the coronavirus originated from a lab leak in Wuhan" - citing Musk's recent posts.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has said the agency has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, likely caused the Covid-19 pandemic.

TORONTO - Canada is banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it might be a first step to further action.The European Union’s executive branch said last week it has temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a cybersecurity measure. The EU’s action follows similar moves in the U.S., where more than half of the states and Congress have banned TikTok from official government devices.TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore. It has been targeted by critics who say the Chinese government could access user data, such as browsing history and location.

Canada needs a public inquiry into allegations of Chinese election interference, Canada former spymaster says.

Justin Trudeau’s office, warning them that one of their candidates was part of a Chinese foreign interference network.According to sources, the candidate in question was Han Dong, then a former Ontario MPP whom Canada Security Intelligence Service started tracking in June of that year.National security officials also allege that Dong, now a sitting MP re-elected in 2021, is one of at least 11 Toronto-area riding candidates allegedly supported by Beijing in the 2019 contest. Sources say the service also believes Dong is a witting affiliate in China’s election interference networks.Three sources with knowledge of the investigation said Dong emerged as a successor to MP Geng Tan as the 2019 Liberal candidate in ways the service found suspicious.