Beijing on alert with two killed as heavy rain batters north China

BEIJING - Heavy rains battered northern China on Monday, killing at least two people in Beijing while washing away cars and forcing the capital to issue its highest alerts for flooding and landslides.

Storm Doksuri, a former super typhoon, has swept northwards over China since Friday, when it hit southern Fujian province after scything through the Philippines.

Emergency personnel recovered two bodies from waterways in Beijing's Mentougou district on Monday, the state-run People's Daily said.

AFP reporters saw tree branches and dented cars, left by receding floodwaters, strewn on riverbanks in Mentougou on Monday afternoon.

"This morning it was crazy, the water overflowed the Mentougou river and the whole avenue was flooded," Guo Zhenyu, a 49-year-old resident, told AFP.

Yellow bulldozers, workers in orange mackintoshes and residents cleared away the mud and debris during a period of lighter rain on Monday afternoon.

"I'm old but I've never seen flooding like this before in my life," Mentougou resident Qin Quan said.

She showed AFP a video on her phone, shared among residents of the area, of workers attempting to resuscitate an unconscious man, as well as footage of a man desperately clinging to a pole with one hand as water washes over him.

The much larger and still swollen Yongding River in the same district churned up debris in brown torrents as residents looked on in shock from a bridge.

Chen Hong, a resident of the southern Fengtai district, shared footage with AFP that showed a parked van half-submerged in fast-flowing brown water on Monday morning as the rain continued to fall.

Residents in Chen's neighbourhood cleared mud outside their homes with shovels during a brief respite from the downpour.

"Once it starts raining the road turns into a drain, and there's water on the first floor inside houses," said Chen, 52.

"The houses here are all old houses, so there are definitely concerns about safety," she said.

A section of road surface in the outer Fangshan district caved in under rising water, local media reported.

Hundreds of bus services in the capital were suspended, according to state news agency Xinhua, while the city government issued the highest flood warning for the suburban Dashihe River.

Social media users uploaded footage of vehicles swept away by muddy torrents and thoroughfares turned into rapids on the outskirts of the city.

Murky water can be seen in one clip posted on the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu platform on Monday swamping a large intersection in the outer Mentougou district next to high-rise apartment blocks. The clip was geolocated by AFP.

Rainwater also appeared to leak onto a subway platform in western Beijing's university district in another Xiaohongshu video from Sunday that was geolocated by AFP.

- Extreme weather -

The streets of central Beijing were quieter than usual on Monday morning as residents heeded official recommendations to work from home, with only a handful of delivery drivers braving pools of water seen in usually packed bike lanes.

The governments of Beijing and neighbouring Hebei province renewed red alerts for rainstorms on Monday.

China has been experiencing extreme weather and posting record temperatures this summer, events that scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change.

Experts have warned that the ongoing downpour could prompt even worse flooding than in July 2012, when 79 people were killed and tens of thousands evacuated, according to local media.

An average of 170.9 millimetres of rain inundated Beijing in 40 hours between Saturday night and noon on Monday, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said.

That is almost equivalent to the average rainfall for the entire month of July, according to official records.

Agence France-Presse

Half a million quarantined as China export hub faces COVID outbreak

BEIJING - China's economically important Zhejiang province wrestled on Tuesday with a Covid outbreak that has left half a million people quarantined and some districts under business shutdown.

Zhejiang, a major industrial and export hub on the country's east coast, reported 44 of China's 51 domestically transmitted coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the total since late last week to nearly 200.

Although Chinese case counts are miniscule compared to other major economies, officials in Zhejiang have employed the country's signature mass testing blitz and targeted lockdowns with concern high over fresh outbreaks as Beijing gears up to host the Winter Olympics in February.

More than 540,000 people have been put in quarantine in Zhejiang, officials have said. 

The problems in the province come as Chinese media reported on Monday that the country's first case of the fast-spreading Omicron variant had been identified in the northern port city of Tianjin.

In recent days, districts in Ningbo -- the province's main port -- and the nearby city of Shaoxing said they also were suspending some business operations.

Ningbo's Zhenhai district, a large petrochemical base, said all enterprises not related to virus control or deemed crucial to the public would be shut down and that petrochemical producers would have to reduce output.

A district in Shaoxing had ordered business to halt last Thursday.

Several publicly listed companies in Hangzhou, the province's capital and largest city, have also released statements saying they had suspended production.

Data from flight tracker VariFlight on Tuesday showed that hundreds of flights out of Hangzhou had been cancelled.

Zhejiang is one of China's leading provinces in terms of GDP and exports. 

"The shutdown of Zhejiang factories will impact on the supply chains of various sectors, especially fiber and textiles," Zhaopeng Xing, senior China strategist at ANZ Research, told AFP.

He expects the flare-up could take up to 40 days to subside, with manufacturers possibly resuming work only after the Lunar New Year holiday in February.

"The impact will be similar to what happened in September and October, when power rationing was implemented," Xing said.

The world's second-largest economy battled weeks of widespread power cuts -- blamed on strict emissions targets and record coal prices -- before stabilising the situation last month.

Xing said he expected Zhejiang's Covid woes could have a "mild impact" on Chinese GDP.

Agence France-Presse

Death toll rises to 17 in partial collapse of China hotel

BEIJING - The death toll in the partial collapse of a budget hotel in China's eastern city of Suzhou on Monday has risen to 17, state media said on Wednesday.

Of the 23 people trapped in the rubble of the Siji Kaiyuan Hotel in Suzhou only 6 survived, according to state media.

More than 650 people were involved in the search and rescue operation, which concluded on Wednesday morning.

The provincial government of Jiangsu has set up a team to conduct an in-depth investigation on the specific causes of the collapse.

The Siji Kaiyuan opened in 2018 and had a total of 54 rooms, according to online booking sites. The part of the hotel that collapsed was 3 storeys tall.

According to some state media reports, the collapse was initially determined to be caused by the property owner's alteration of the hotel structure.

A hotel guest who checked out on Monday just before the collapsed spoke of loud drilling noises and the sound of the shoveling of sand, according toe Beijing Youth Daily.

The building was shaking, the guest said.

Cities in Jiangsu have since held an emergency meeting on the safety of existing building structures, and called for tougher inspection and supervision.

-reuters-

Britain bans China's Huawei, handing US big win

LONDON - Britain on Tuesday bowed to growing US pressure and ordered the phased removal of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from its 5G network despite warnings of retaliation from Beijing.

The policy reversal hands a long-sought victory to US President Donald Trump's administration in its geopolitical tug-of-war with China.

The White House said the decision "reflects a growing international consensus that Huawei and other untrusted vendors pose a threat to national security, as they remain beholden to the Chinese Communist Party".

But the move threatens to further damage Britain's ties with the Asian power and carries a big cost for UK mobile providers that have relied on Huawei equipment for nearly 20 years.

Huawei called it "politicized" and likely to put Britain "in the digital slow lane".

The politically-fraught change in Britain's digital future was made by Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a meeting with his cabinet and National Security Council.

It requires companies to stop buying new 5G equipment from Huawei starting next year and strip out existing gear by the end of 2027.

"This has not been an easy decision, but it is the right one for the UK telecoms networks, for our national security and our economy," digital minister Oliver Dowden told parliament.

US SANCTIONS

Johnson infuriated Trump and upset some members of his own Conservative party by allowing the Chinese leader in global 5G technology to help roll out Britain's speedy new data network in January.

The UK was then completing its tortuous departure from the European Union and looking to establish strong ties with powerful Asian economies that could fulfill Johnson's vision of a "Global Britain".

But the Trump administration told the UK government that its choice imperiled intelligence sharing because British signals could be intercepted or manipulated by China.

Washington believes the private company can also shut down rival countries' 5G networks under Beijing's orders in times of war.

Huawei has always denied this and pointed to two decades of cooperation with British security agencies that checked on the safety of its existing 3G and 4G networks.

The British review was triggered by Washington sanctions in May that blocked Huawei's access to US chips at the heart of 5G networks.

The sanctions did not impact older 3G and 4G providers and Britain left its guidance for those networks unchanged.

'OUTAGES'

Johnson had come under intensifying pressure to not only dump Huawei but also adopt a tough line with China for its treatment of Hong Kong and repression of ethnic Uighurs in the western Xinjiang region.

But he also pledged to voters last year to bring broadband access to all Britons by 2025.

British telecoms companies had lobbied strongly against the policy reversal because of the cost of taking existing equipment out and finding untested alternatives.

Dowden conceded Britons will now have to wait longer to get full access to the speedy new network.

"This means a cumulative delay to 5G roll-out of two to three years and costs of up to £2 billion ($2.5 billion, 2.2 billion euros)," he said. 

"This will have real consequences for the connections on which all our constituents rely."

But officials insisted that Huawei had managed to install only a "small amount" of equipment since the 5G system began being offered to UK consumers last year.

DIVERSIFICATION

Johnson has challenged the Trump administration to come up with a reliable and cost-effective alternative to the Chinese firm.

Britain is pushing for the creation of a 5G club of nations that can pool their resources and provide individual components for an alternative solution that could be applied across the world.

The UK government said the process would begin with South Korea's Samsung and Japan's NEC -- two veterans with broad production capabilities -- while offering protection for Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson to ensure they remained viable players in the field.

Ericsson's regional head Arun Bansal said his firm was "ready to work with the UK operators to meet their timetable, with no disruption to customers".

Nokia's chief executive for UK and Ireland, Cormac Whelan, said the firm also has "the capacity and expertise to replace all of the Huawei equipment in the UK's networks at scale and speed".

But UK officials caution that all existing players have some Huawei equipment in their supply chains that need to be taken into account.

-Dmitry Zaks, Agence France-Presse-

Norwegian salmon was not source of coronavirus at Beijing food market, says Norway minister

OSLO - Chinese and Norwegian authorities have concluded that Norwegian salmon was likely not the source of the novel coronavirus that was found at cutting boards in a Beijing food market, the Norwegian fisheries and seafood minister said on Wednesday.

Following a meeting between Chinese and Norwegian officials on Tuesday, both countries have concluded that the source of the outbreak did not originate with fish from the Nordic country, Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen said.

"We can clear away uncertainty and the halt in salmon export to China," he told a video conference including journalists.

The resurgence of COVID-19 in the Chinese capital over the past six days has upended daily life for many, with some fearing the entire city is headed for a lockdown as the number of new cases mounts. 

-reuters-

Home at last from China: A foreign exchange student's travel ordeal

LOS ANGELES — When Jaden Taylor, 17, pulled a mask off his face at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday morning and smiled at the customs officer, who gave him a thumbs up, it was much more than the end of a 12-hour flight from Shanghai.

He was taking the final step in a weekslong scramble to get out of China, where he had been an exchange student caught in an outbreak of coronavirus, which was rapidly spreading and causing fatalities.

“Oddly enough, the officer didn’t ask me a single question,” said Jaden, after exiting the airport. “I feel lucky, I thought I was definitely going to be quarantined but it was so fast.”

His struggle, involving canceled flights, frantic negotiations across two continents and a series of checkpoints where authorities checked his temperature, was playing out for countless travelers trying to leave China as the world tries to seal itself off from the fast-moving virus.

Jaden, a former high school student from Portland, Oregon, may have been among the last Americans to get out of China and clear security with ease. By Monday morning, American air travelers who had been to China in the last 14 days were being routed through one of 11 airports to undergo enhanced health screenings, with the possibility that they could be quarantined.


Each year, thousands of Americans and other foreigners travel to China on student exchange programs. Since last month, these students have been among those caught up in the widening health crisis. Because of the nature of their studies, often embedded with families across China, some of them are hundreds of miles from a consulate or embassy. Many students have had to find their own way from far-flung cities to major airports for the return home.

American Field Service sent more than 300 students from all over the world to China, including about two dozen Americans, during the current school year. Jaden was the only American student placed in Anhui province, which borders Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.

The nonprofit organization canceled all programs in China on Jan. 31.

'IT SEEMED LIKE A FUN ADVENTURE'

Bored with high school in Portland, Jaden had hatched a plan to learn Mandarin and graduate early so that he could spend a year in China before college.

“It seemed like a fun adventure to a place that was completely foreign to me,” he said. “I would not know what to expect.”

He made the move in August, becoming the third generation in his family to go abroad as an exchange student.

In the city of Wuhu, he settled in with a host family and started school, planning to remain until June. He made Chinese friends and tried new foods, like turtle and cow stomach. As trade tensions between the United States and China escalated, he took it in stride when taxi drivers turned him away because he was an American.

It was early January when he first heard that the coronavirus had struck. Emails streamed in from his Chinese teachers informing him about an illness spreading in Wuhan, the capital of the adjoining province.

Around Jan. 15, the local coordinator for American Field Service and Jaden’s host family ordered him to remain inside at all times. “I was reminded almost every day not to go outside,” he recalled.

By Jan. 20, the virus had crossed international borders. China had reported hundreds of infections, and the death toll jumped from three to 17 in a matter of days.

Two days later, Jaden’s grandmother, Christine Berardo, sent him a WhatsApp message saying that she had been reading about the virus and felt sorry that it might affect his travel plans for the Lunar New Year.

“The virus has been found in my city so everyone is wearing face masks,” he told her.

'Have some grit,' his mother said

On Jan. 23, Wuhan, home to about 11 million people, was placed under quarantine and Chinese authorities closed off the city. “I was seeing images of borders shutting down and people not being able to leave Wuhan,” Jaden recalled. He began to worry.

So did his mother, Karin Berardo, 51, an investment manager in Washington, D.C. But she did not want to let on.

In a WhatsApp exchange, Berardo told her adventurous child, “to suck it up. Have some grit,” she recalled. “He had always been eager to conquer the world.”

Wuhu, about 300 miles northeast of Wuhan, was not officially quarantined but it might as well have been. Instead of celebrating the Lunar New Year with fireworks and festivities, people locked themselves indoors.

Except for those trying to stock up on food and masks, the streets were deserted; store shelves were almost bare. People glared at anyone who coughed, Jaden said. The images of a city in fear began to haunt him at night, and he had trouble sleeping. “I became very paranoid and anxious,” he said.


Friends from Portland; Berkeley, California; Baltimore and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; places where Jaden had lived, were reaching out on Snapchat and WhatsApp to express concern about the risk of staying in China.

With ample time on his hands, Jaden scanned news reports on Reddit and waited for emails from the State Department. Chinese friends shared information they were gleaning from Chinese media. The news was getting worse with each passing day, it seemed.

Back in Washington, his mother contacted American Field Service to get their assessment of the situation.

“They said they were in close contact with AFS Beijing and were advising the students to just stay inside,” Berardo recalled.

On Jan. 26, after learning that 56 million people were under quarantine in China, Berardo contacted a program representative in New York to request that her son be returned to the U.S. as soon as possible.

TRYING TO FIND A WAY OUT

The next day, program representatives had a tentative plan to get Jaden out. It involved flying out of Shanghai, about 215 miles away. But there was no one on the ground to escort him there, Berardo was told. “They said they could put him on a train, but he would have to figure out how to get to the airport in Shanghai,” she said.

Berardo feared that her son might end up stranded in the one of the world’s largest cities, where many cases of the virus had been reported.

Still, in a conversation, mother and son agreed to give it a try. Ultimately, program officials found someone to drive Jaden to Nanjing, about 60 miles from Wuhu, where he would catch a flight to Shanghai.

Jaden was booked on an American Airlines flight that was to leave Sunday. But on Friday afternoon, the carrier announced that it had canceled the flight, as a spate of airlines began suspending their operations in China. He was rebooked on China Eastern Airlines leaving the same day.

“We calmed down for a minute,” Berardo recalled.


Jaden sneaked out of the apartment to say goodbye to Chinese friends and to take his last pictures of an empty Wuhu. His bags had been packed for two days.

He was scheduled for a 3 a.m. pickup but his host brother knocked on his door shortly after 11 p.m. A car was there to take him.

THE ONLY CAR ON THE ROAD

His escort was concerned about potential delays if they encountered road closures along the way. Indeed, some portions were blocked, and the driver had to divert to side roads.

“I’m stressed and worried,” Jaden jotted down in a diary that he had decided to start to record his last hours in China. It was about 11:30 p.m. Saturday night.

“It’s pretty much pitch black everywhere and we’re the only car on the road,” he wrote. “I took my mask off for five seconds and the driver turned his head yelling.”

At multiple checkpoints, police officers pulled over the car and checked whether they were wearing their masks. Jaden’s temperature was taken with an infrared temperature gun every time.

Shortly after 12:30 a.m. Sunday, as they approached the Nanjing airport, police stopped the car. People in hazmat suits instructed Jaden to get out. They checked his temperature once, twice, three times. Every time, they said, his temperature was too high.

Jaden was not sure what was happening. He felt fine.

“I didn’t know what I would do if they didn’t let me go to the airport,” he said.

Finally, one of the health workers retrieved a different thermometer from their supply kits. This time, they said, Jaden’s temperature was acceptable.

ARRIVING AT A DESERTED AIRPORT

Four hours after they had left, they completed the 60-mile journey and arrived at a deserted airport. It was just after 2 a.m.

When he checked in for his flight to Shanghai, three hours later, the agent told him that she could not check his bags all the way to Los Angeles because his flight might be canceled. Did he still want to go to Shanghai, the agent wanted to know.

Jaden figured there was no looking back at this point.

Once on the plane to Los Angeles, he tried to sleep, but it was hard: He kept thinking about the five months his program had been cut short, the lost opportunities.

At Los Angeles International Airport, he joined the swarms of people converging in the passport-control area after landing from all corners of the globe.

He entered the line for U.S. citizens, pulled off his mask and waited his turn. In his pocket, he carried a booklet of the U.S. Constitution, in case he got pulled out of line by the authorities and had to reference his rights.

But when he got to the counter, the officer scanned his passport and returned it to him without asking a single question.

“At all the other kiosks,” he said, “anyone with a mask or who had traveled to China was being asked where they went and why. But not me.”

On the other side of security, his mother swooped all 6 feet, 3 inches of her son into her arms. “Hi, Mom,” he said. “I’m tired.”

He strapped on his mask again briefly as they left the airport — before realizing that he was no longer in the middle of a virus emergency. He removed it, and they headed to a Chipotle, where he dug into two bean-and-cheese burritos. “This is heaven,” he said.


c.2020 The New York Times Company

After 8-day construction, China virus hospital to receive patients

BEIJING - Built in just eight days, a Chinese hospital dedicated to treat people infected with a new coronavirus in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, will begin to receive patients on Monday, state media said.

The hospital, Huoshenshan, or "fire-god mountain", is designed to have 1,000 beds for patients with confirmed infections to ease a shortage of beds elsewhere in the city as the virus spreads.

The epidemic has killed 361 people and infected more than 17,000 in China and at least 171 overseas. There are more than 11,000 cases in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, state television said on Monday.

Construction of Huoshenshan was copied from a hospital built in Beijing in 2003 that was dedicated to the fight against SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. More than 7,500 workers took part in the fast-build project, which commenced on Jan. 25 and finished this weekend.

China is building a second hospital in Wuhan dedicated to the treatment of coronavirus patients, with 1,600 beds. Leishenshan, or "thunder-god mountain", is scheduled to be completed on Feb 5.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Apple to close all China mainland stores due to virus outbreak

SHANGHAI - Apple Inc on Saturday said it would shut all of its official stores and corporate offices in mainland China until Feb 9. as fears over the coronavirus outbreak mounted and the death toll more than doubled to over 250 from a week ago.

"Out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts, we're closing all our corporate offices, stores, and contact centers in mainland China through February 9," Apple said in a statement. 

The company said it looked forward to re-opening stores "as soon as possible."

Earlier this week, Apple closed 3 stores in China due to concerns about the spread of the virus.

It is joining a handful of overseas retailers, including Starbucks Corp and McDonald's Corp, in temporarily shutting storefronts as a precautionary measure.

Many other companies, meanwhile, have called for employees in China to work from home and cease non-essential business travel in the first week of February.

Normally, businesses in China would be preparing to return to normal operations following the end of the week-long Lunar New Year Holiday.

Apple remains heavily reliant on China both for smartphone sales as well as for its supply chain and manufacturing. Many factories in Hubei province, including plants run by AB InBev and General Motors Co, have temporarily suspended production due to the virus.

In a recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company was working out mitigation plans to deal with possible production loss from its suppliers in Wuhan. The city where the virus outbreak originated is home to several Apple suppliers.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Chinese movie to premiere online as virus closes cinemas

BEIJING -- Chinese movie fans can catch the premier of much-anticipated new comedy this holiday weekend under a 630 million yuan ($91.25 million) deal to issue the film over the internet, as fears of a deadly new virus keep audiences away from cinemas.

The Hong Kong-listed Huanxi Media Group announced on Friday an agreement with Beijing Bytedance Network to show its new movie "Lost in Russia" on Bytedance's online platforms.

Bytedance, which owns the popular TikTok video-sharing app and the news app Jinri Toutiao, said given the efforts to reduce the risks of big gatherings, it had secured the deal to let fans watch "Lost in Russia" for free on its apps.

"The film will keep the appointment to meet everyone on Jan. 25, but the meeting point has changed to your cellphone and television, instead of the cinema," the company said in a statement posted on Jinri Toutiao.

Huanxi Media's share price rose as much as 30 percent after the agreement was announced.

Neither ByteDance nor Huanxi responded to requests for comment on their agreement.

China has stepped efforts to contain the coronavirus, which has killed 25 people and infected more than 800, with public transport suspended in 10 cities and public gatherings discouraged across the country.

The week-long Lunar New Year holiday usually sees audiences flock to cinemas with distributors taking advantage of the crowds to launch films but the premieres of at least 7 movies, including "Lost in Russia," postponed. 

($1 = 6.9040 Chinese yuan renminbi)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

TikTok accused in California lawsuit of sending user data to China

SAN FRANCISCO - A California college student has accused popular video-sharing app TikTok in a class-action lawsuit of transferring private user data to servers in China, despite the company's assurances that it does not store personal data there.

The allegations may deepen legal troubles in the United States for TikTok, which is owned by Beijing ByteDance Technology Co but operates entirely outside of China and has developed an especially devoted fan base among U.S. teenagers.

The company is already facing a U.S. government national security probe over concerns about data storage and possible censorship of political sensitive content.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California last Wednesday and originally reported by The Daily Beast, alleges TikTok has surreptitiously "vacuumed up and transferred to servers in China vast quantities of private and personally-identifiable user data."

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations, but maintains that it stores all U.S. user data in the United States with backups in Singapore.

The documents identify the plaintiff as Misty Hong, a college student and resident of Palo Alto, California, who downloaded the TikTok app in March or April 2019 but never created an account.

Months later, she alleges, she discovered that TikTok had created an account for her without her knowledge and produced a dossier of private information about her, including biometric information gleaned from videos she created but never posted.

According to the filing, TikTok transferred user data to two servers in China - bugly.qq.com and umeng.com - as recently as April 2019, including information about the user's device and any websites the user had visited.

Bugly is owned by Tencent, China's largest mobile software company, which also owns social network WeChat, while Umeng is part of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.

The lawsuit also claims that source code from Chinese tech giant Baidu is embedded within the TikTok app, as is code from Igexin, a Chinese advertising service, which security researchers discovered in 2017 was enabling developers to install spyware on a user's phone.

The legal documents did not provide evidence of the data transfers or the existence of Baidu or Igexin source code in the app. Hong and her legal representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facing US sanctions, Venezuela offers suppliers payment in Chinese yuan: sources

CARACAS - Venezuela's government and its oil company PDVSA have offered to pay suppliers and contractors into accounts in China using the yuan currency, five people familiar with the matter said.

The move made in recent months is the latest example of how Caracas has sought new ways of making international payments since sweeping sanctions by Washington, intended to force out socialist President Nicolas Maduro, cut off the country's access to the U.S. financial system.

Officials have made the proposal verbally to at least four companies that provide services to the public sector, said the people, including two government officials and three sources from private companies in the financial or oil sectors. The individuals declined to disclose which companies have been approached.

The companies are evaluating the proposal, the sources said. Reuters could not determine whether any such payments in yuan have been made.

China's central bank, the Peoples' Bank of China, did not respond to a faxed request for comment. PDVSA, Venezuela's central bank, and Venezuela's information ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Venezuelan public entities have traditionally paid private sector partners in the local bolivar currency or U.S. dollars. But hyperinflation and U.S. sanctions, which prohibit American companies from doing business with Venezuela's public sector, are complicating those methods.

The offer comes after Venezuela's government and PDVSA have paid some suppliers and contractors with euros in cash, which they have received from some oil and gold sales, in response to the loss of access to the U.S. financial system due to the sanctions.

Paying suppliers in yuan would allow Venezuela to take advantage of funds it has available in China, without touching the U.S. financial system. However, two of the sources said the process of opening accounts at Chinese banks was proving complicated.

PDVSA and Venezuela's central bank have long maintained accounts in China, in part thanks to a financing deal inked more than a decade ago that saw China lend some $50 billion to the OPEC nation in exchange for crude shipments.

Venezuela's central bank has at least $700 million in yuan in an account at China's central bank, which it received earlier this year as compensation for an oil shipment, according to two people with knowledge of the Venezuelan central bank's operations. Reuters could not independently confirm this.

Receiving payments in foreign currency, or overseas banks, are "the kind of setup that some contractors now have to engage in to get paid," said Raul Gallegos, consultancy Control Risks' director for the Andean region. "This will become standard operating procedure as long as Maduro and U.S. sanctions remain in place."

Venezuela's offer to pay in yuan comes even as some Chinese entities have taken steps to try to distance themselves from the sanctioned country.

China National Petroleum Corp, one of the largest foreign investors in Venezuela's oil sector, in August stopped lifting crude from Venezuelan ports due to worries about sanctions.

Analysts said they expect China's imports of Venezuelan crude to have fallen to zero last month. But China is importing more and more crude blends from Malaysia, which include some Venezuelan oil. (Additional reporting by Stella Qiu in Beijing; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

source: news.ab s-cbn.com

Protesters left on besieged Hong Kong campus weigh options

HONG KONG - At least 8 protesters who had been holding out at a trashed Hong Kong university surrendered on Friday, while others searched for escape routes past the riot police surrounding the campus.

The siege at the Polytechnic University on the Kowloon peninsula appeared to be nearing an end with the number of protesters dwindling to a handful, days after some of the worst violence since anti-government demonstrations escalated in June.

Police chief Chris Tang, who took up the post this week, urged those remaining inside to come out.

"I believe people inside the campus do not want their parents, friends ... to worry about them," Tang told reporters.

Those who remain say they want to avoid being arrested for rioting or on other charges, so hope to find some way to slip past the police or hide.

Sitting in the largely deserted campus, one holdout described how his girlfriend had pleaded with him to surrender to the police.

He had refused, he said, telling her she might as well find another partner because he would likely go to jail.

"A man has to abandon everything otherwise it's impossible to take part in a revolution," the protester told Reuters.

The US Congress has passed legislation to back the Hong Kong protesters and threaten China with possible sanctions for human rights violations, angering Beijing.

President Donald Trump, who is seeking a resolution to a tit-for-tat tariff trade war with Beijing, was vague on Friday when asked whether he would sign the bills.

Trump said in an interview with Fox News Channel that he told Chinese President Xi Jinping that crushing the protesters would have "a tremendous negative impact" on efforts to end the 16-month trade war.

"If it weren't for me Hong Kong would have been obliterated in 14 minutes," he said, without offering any evidence.

"He's got a million soldiers standing outside of Hong Kong that aren't going in only because I ask him please don't do it, you'll be making a big mistake, it's going to have a tremendous negative impact on the trade deal and he wants to make a trade deal."

CAMPUS QUIET

The Polytechnic campus was so quiet on Friday you could hear the chants of Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers exercising on their nearby base.

Many levels of the buildings look like abandoned hideouts strewn with remains — rucksacks, masks, water bottles, cigarette butts, with security cameras smashed throughout. Lockers were stuffed with gas masks and black clothes, and a samurai sword lay on the ground where it was abandoned.

"We are feeling a little tired. All of us feel tired but we will not give up trying to get out," said a 23-year-old demonstrator, who gave his name as Shiba as he ate noodles in the protesters' canteen.

A Reuters reporter saw 6 black-clad protesters holding hands walk towards police lines, while a first aid worker said 2 more surrendered later.

The protests snowballed from June after years of resentment over what many residents see as Chinese meddling in freedoms promised to Hong Kong when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Protesters, who have thrown petrol bombs and rocks and fired bows and arrows at police, are calling for full democracy and an independent inquiry into perceived police brutality, among other demands.

Police have responded to the attacks with rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannon and occasional live rounds but say they have acted with restraint in life-threatening situations.

On Friday, Hong Kong's High Court said it would temporarily suspend its ruling that found a controversial law banning protesters from wearing face masks is unconstitutional.

The court said it would suspend its ruling for 7 days while appeals processes proceeded.

Beijing has said it is committed to the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong is governed. It denies meddling in its affairs and accuses foreign governments of stirring up trouble.

One older protester, who estimated only about 30 demonstrators remained at the university, said some had given up looking for escape routes and were making new weapons to protect themselves in case police stormed the campus.

There have been 2 days and nights of relative calm in the city ahead of district council elections that are due to take place on Sunday.

Tang said police would adopt a "high-profile" presence on Sunday and he appealed to protesters to refrain from violence so people feel safe to vote.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Beijing eyes facial recognition tech for metro security

BEIJING - Beijing will use facial recognition tools to speed up security checks in the city's overcrowded metro, using a 'credit system' to sort passengers into different channels, state-run media reported on Wednesday.

Long queues and commuters arguing with staff over slow security procedures are common sites during rush hour in the metro system of the 20 million-strong metropolis. 

The city plans to install cameras that will scan the faces of passengers as they enter a subway station and sort them into different security channels, said Zhan Minghui, director of the Beijing Rail Traffic Control Center.

He said the plan involves creating a "passenger credit system," and individuals on a "white list" will be offered expedited security clearance, Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Those who receive "abnormal feedback" after their faces are scanned will be subjected to extra checks.

Zhan did not offer details on the criteria used to sort passengers or what could trigger that type of feedback.

"The technique aims to improve the efficiency of security checks and includes both body checks and luggage screening when large numbers of passengers enter the station," he told an urban transportation forum in Beijing on Tuesday.

The Beijing subway in May said it has started "deducting credit points" from passengers who eat in railway carriages.

The city's subway system currently handles over 12 million trips on a work day and the number is expected to increase to 17 million trips by 2022.

Zhan did not offer a timetable for rolling out the technology.

Facial recognition is gaining traction across China, where it is being used for everything from supermarket checkouts to surveillance.

While researchers have warned of the privacy risks associated with gathering facial recognition data, consumers have widely embraced the technology.

The Universal Studios amusement park under construction in Beijing recently said it will admit visitors without a ticket -- thanks to cameras that will scan their faces to determine if they paid for entry.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Beijing's new $63-billion mega-airport begins international flights

BEIJING -- Beijing's new $63-billion Daxing airport began its first scheduled international flights on Sunday as it ramped up operations to help relieve pressure on the city's existing Capital airport.

Shaped like a phoenix -- though to some observers it is more reminiscent of a starfish -- the airport was designed by famed Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid, and formally opened in late September ahead of the Oct. 1 celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

It boasts four runways and is expected to handle up to 72 million passengers a year by 2025, eventually reaching 100 million.

China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines will be the main domestic carriers at Daxing, though Air China will provide a small number of flights too.

An Air China flight to Bangkok was the first international flight to leave on Sunday, while British Airways will operate the first transcontinental flight, to London.

About 50 foreign airlines, including Finnair, plan to move all or part of their China operations to the airport in the coming quarters.

The relocation of all the airlines which will use Daxing is due to be completed by the winter of 2021. Air China and its Star Alliance partners will remain mostly at Capital airport.

The airport, roughly the size of 100 football fields and expected to become one of the world's busiest, has come in for some criticism due to its distance from central Beijing.

By public transport it takes over an hour to reach it from Beijing's central business district, more than double the time needed to reach Capital airport, which strains at the seams and is often hit by delays.

Officials say Daxing airport is not only designed to serve Beijing, but also the surrounding province of Hebei and next-door city of Tianjin, to boost regional development.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tennis: Barty through to Beijing semis, Osaka ends Andreescu's win streak

World number one Ash Barty battled back from a set down to beat Czech Republic's seventh seed Petra Kvitova 4-6 6-4 6-3 to advance to the semi-finals of the China Open in Beijing on Friday.

French Open champion Barty, who had been beaten twice by Kvitova in Australia earlier this year, fired nine aces and converted three of six break points to win the encounter.

"That was one of the highest quality matches I played all year," Barty told reporters. "Petra always has a way of bringing out the best in me, she really does.

"From both of us, I think the level was incredible. Regardless of winning or losing, I think I'd be sitting here with the exact same perspective, kind of the same feeling of the match afterwards."

Although Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, fired 36 winners to Barty's 31, her unforced error count of 28 proved to be her downfall.

The Czech saved three match points when Barty served for the match at 5-3 in the decider but the Australian fought back to deuce and then fired a crosscourt forehand winner to move into the tournament's semis for the first time in her career.

Barty will face eighth seed Kiki Bertens, who upset third seed Elina Svitolina 7-6(6) 6-2.

In another battle of Grand Slam champions, Japan's Naomi Osaka beat U.S. Open holder Bianca Andreescu 5-7 6-3 6-4 in a thrilling encounter, ending the Canadian's 17-match winning streak to book her place in the semi-finals.

"I forgot how it felt and honestly it sucks, I didn't miss it," Andreescu said after her first loss since the Miami Open in March and her first loss against a top 10 opponent. "Hopefully that was fun.

"I think we're going to have many matches like this. Our game styles are pretty different, but they level up pretty equally."

Osaka fired 10 aces, 31 winners and won 78 percent of her first service points in a see-saw encounter that had a total of 11 breaks of serve. She will play defending champion Caroline Wozniacki, who beat Russia's Daria Kasatkina 6-3 7-6(5).

Osaka became the fifth player to qualify for the season-ending WTA Finals in Shenzhen after Barty, Karolina Pliskova, Wimbledon champion Simona Halep and Andreescu.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Spycraft in SanFo: San Francisco tour guide charged with carrying US secrets to China

A San Francisco tour guide has been charged with being an agent of the Chinese government, accused of picking up U.S. national security secrets from furtive locations and delivering them cloak and dagger style to Beijing, federal prosecutors said on Monday.

Xuehua Peng, also known as Edward Peng, was arrested on Friday in the San Francisco suburb of Hayward, California, and was denied bail during an initial court appearance by a U.S. magistrate judge that same day, federal prosecutors said at a Monday morning news conference.

"The conduct charged in this case alleges a combination of age-old spycraft and modern technology," U.S. Attorney David Anderson said.

"Defendant Xuehua (Edward) Peng is charged with executing dead drops, delivering payments, and personally carrying to Beijing, China, secure digital cards containing classified information related to the national security of the United States," Anderson said.

Peng, 56, is not accused of stealing secrets from the U.S. government himself, but is charged with acting as a courier who between October 2015 and June 2018 picked up classified information from the "dead drops" in Oakland and Newark, California, and Columbus, Georgia and delivering them to his handlers from the Ministry of State Security (MSS) in Beijing.

FBI agents began conducting surveillance on Peng after a double agent, referred to in court papers only as "the Source," was told by MSS officers in March 2015 that "Ed", who had family and business dealings in China, could be relied on.

"I believe that 'Ed' - who was later identified as Peng - had been instructed in spycraft, practiced it and knew that he was working for intelligence operatives of the PRC," FBI Agent Spiro Fokas, said in a sworn affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, referring to the People's Republic of China.

An MSS officer told the Source that the ministry "control(s) everything about Ed's" company and would "cut him off" if he did not do as told.

According to Fokas' affidavit, the double agent on several occasions passed information to Peng for delivery to Beijing, dropping them at the front desk of a hotel or in rooms reserved by Peng.

The dead drops sometimes involved Peng leaving $10,000 or $20,000 taped in white envelopes inside the drawer of a television stand and retrieving secure digital cards with the classified information, according to the court papers.

Peng then flew to Beijing with the digital cards, the affidavit alleges.

Peng, who works as a sight-seeing tour operator for Chinese tourists in the Bay Area, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted, prosecutors said. He has been ordered to return to court in San Francisco on Oct. 2.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Happy holidays? Not in China if frozen pork is on the table

* China has released 30,000 tons of reserve pork this month

* Aims to keep lid on soaring prices ahead of holidays

* Consumers say volumes too small, frozen meat not appetizing

BEIJING - China's supermarkets are topping up their meat counters with frozen pork from state reserves, after prices of the nation's favorite protein source surged to budget-busting levels, threatening to mar this week's National Day festivities.

Pork, which has a prominent place at nearly every Chinese dinner table, is in short supply after a deadly virus infected and killed millions of hogs across China over the last year.

Beijing has stepped in to try and quell prices that have jumped to almost double what they were a year ago and are still climbing, releasing 30,000 tons of pork in three batches over the last fortnight.

That appears to have dampened further price increases for now and helped sales, at least in the capital Beijing.

"Pork is selling much better compared with three weeks ago," said a butcher at the Qianxi Street branch of Yonghui Superstores in southwestern Beijing.

"Today we have very cheap frozen pork belly, it's only 17.98 yuan (per kg, or $2.52 per pound) compared with 35.98 yuan for fresh," he said. "We're not sure where the meat is from but it must be from Beijing's reserves."

Cheaper meat will be a relief to many ahead of the holidays. Chinese typically gather for elaborate meals during festivals, and most of the repasts will feature pork in some form.

Sufficient pork supply is a "most basic requirement" for the people's welfare, said Vice Premier Hu Chunhua in a televised message to officials in late August. He urged them to guarantee supplies and increase the scale of reserves.

Shoppers in Beijing said they will not skimp on meat during the National Day holiday, whatever the price, although they have been reducing their intake at regular mealtimes.

"Before I would buy four or five ribs, but now I only buy two or three, as long as it's enough for a meal," said a retiree surnamed Wang shopping at the Yonghui store.

Many people are substituting chicken, duck or beef for some of their pork intake, with pork so pricy that even more expensive meats now appear affordable.

For some, however, it is hard to stomach a change in diet.

"My family doesn't like beef, it's a heating food, so I can only buy pork," said Wang, referring to the classification of foods as either "heating" or "cooling" in traditional Chinese medicine.

DROP IN THE OCEAN

State sales will have limited impact on prices overall, said Miranda Zhou, an analyst at Euromonitor, with total reserve volumes sold in recent weeks just a "drop in the ocean" in a country that eats about 40 million tonnes of pork a year.

News of the latest sale from state food stores was trending on Weibo, China's popular microblogging site, with many users commenting on how reserve pork had done little to cool prices.

Others questioned the quality of pork that had been in storage, describing it as "zombie meat".

"In addition to the small volumes, in the south they like fresh pork, so frozen pork really isn't appealing," said Zhou, the analyst.

A man surnamed Zheng shopping in a wet market in downtown Nanning, 2,000 km (1,250 miles) south of the capital, said he had not seen any frozen meat on sale there.

"We don't eat that kind of stuff here," he said.

"Even if there was frozen pork, we wouldn't buy it. We only eat fresh meat."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Beijing hopes glitzy new airport will take off as aviation hub

BEIJING - Beijing's new futuristic airport that resembles a giant starfish -- opened days before the country celebrates the 70th anniversary of communist rule -- promises to transform the Chinese capital into a major Asian aviation hub.

Located 46 kilometers (29 miles) south of Tiananmen Square, Beijing Daxing International Airport will be able to handle 45 million passengers by 2021, with plans for 72 million by 2025 and 100 million by 2040.

It was opened by President Xi Jinping Wednesday, but had an immediate hitch when its maiden commercial flight -- an A380 superjumbo heading to the southern city of Guangzhou -- was delayed by nearly 30 minutes.

About a decade ago, Daxing was a sleepy suburb of dusty farmland and cramped quarters home to migrant workers building roads and skyscrapers in the city. 

Now -- with the airport code PKX -- Daxing is seen as an embodiment of the "Chinese dream" Xi has offered his fellow citizens.

At 700,000 square meters (173 acres) -- about the size of 100 football pitches -- the new structure will be one of the world's largest airport terminals.

So far only China United Airlines has shifted their operations to the new hub but operations manager Wang Qiang said another seven domestic and eight international airlines would arrive in the "near future." 

British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Finnair have already announced new routes to tap into its potential.

The SkyTeam alliance -- which includes Delta, Air France and Dutch airline KLM -- was also expected to move, along with local partners Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. 

The building was designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, who died in 2016.

The central atrium, with curves like a rolling landscape, is supported by eight giant columns and skylights filling the terminals with natural light. 

Relatives and friends can also watch as their loved ones proceed to boarding gates through a viewing gallery.

An underground train station and metro line will allow travelers to reach Beijing city within 20 to 30 minutes. 

Have money, will travel 

The project cost 120 billion yuan ($17.5 billion), or 400 billion yuan if rail and road links are included.

At full capacity, Daxing would be the world's largest single terminal in terms of traveler capacity, according to its designers.

Dozens of self check-in counters -- where travelers only need to scan their passports -- have been set up alongside conventional airline counters to speed up operations.

Traveller Xie Hangyu said the check-in procedures were "very smooth and very convenient."

The current Beijing Capital International Airport -- the world's second-largest -- is already overflowing, handling 100 million passengers last year. 

With the opening of Daxing, Beijing joins a select group of cities, including Tokyo, London, Paris and New York, that have two long-haul international airports.

Air transport is booming in China as living standards increase along with peoples' desire to travel.

It is expected to surpass the US to become the world's biggest aviation market by the mid-2020s, according to the International Air Transport Association. 

By 2037 the country will have 1.6 billion plane journeys each year -- a billion more than in 2017, the organization estimates.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Pentagon steps up efforts to counter China's rising power

WASHINGTON, United States - Maritime operations, missile tests, landing exercises: the Pentagon has been sharply stepping up its efforts to counter China's growing military power, seen increasingly as a threat.

On Friday an American warship approached the Paracel Islands, an island chain claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea, to affirm international "freedom of navigation" in the region.

The USS Wayne E. Meyer, a guided-missile destroyer, passed near the islands to contest Beijing's sweeping claims to the seas around the archipelago, which is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

The Chinese claim would block "innocent passage" by other countries' ships and is "not permitted by international law," a US Seventh Fleet spokeswoman, Commander Reann Mommsen, said.

Friday's was the sixth "freedom of navigation operation" -- or FONOPS in naval jargon -- this year, a clear acceleration in pace.

There were a total of eight in 2017 and 2018, and only six during the entire Obama presidency.

On Wednesday, the US Marine Corps announced it had conducted exercises on the Japanese islet of Tori Shima, hundreds of miles south of Tokyo, to practice landings on "hostile" shores and the seizure of landing strips.

The exercises were clearly designed to highlight the ability of the American military to invade a disputed island and establish a supply base for aerial operations.

"This type of raid gives the commanders in the Indo-Pacific region the ability to project power and conduct expeditionary operations in a potentially contested littoral environment," one of the officers in charge, Commander Anthony Cesaro, said in a statement.

Such a forthright description, coming from a Pentagon hardly known for unguarded talk, reflects the fresh impetus Defense Secretary Mark Esper has given to the US policy of "strategic rivalry" with China and Russia.

Esper, who chose Asia for his first overseas trip only weeks after being sworn in as Pentagon chief, has made clear that the US wants to rapidly deploy new missiles in Asia -- possibly within months -- to counter China's rising military power.

TO 'CHANGE THE GEOMETRY'

On Thursday, acting US army secretary Ryan McCarthy, speaking in a Senate confirmation hearing, defended the development of such new missiles.

He said the new medium-range conventional missiles Washington wants to develop -- now that the US is no longer constrained by the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which the Trump administration abandoned last year -- would "change the geometry within Southeast Asia."

"If we can get the appropriate partnerships, expeditionary basing rights with partners within the region," McCarthy said, "we can change the geometry and basically reverse anti-access, area-denial capabilities that have been invested by near-peer competitors" -- jargon for pushing back against sovereignty claims by China and Russia.

Last month the Pentagon chose the Pacific Ocean for its first test of a conventional medium-range missile since the end of the Cold War -- effectively driving a nail into the coffin of the INF treaty, which banned the use of land-based missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,400 miles).

And in late August, Washington formally established its Space Command, or Spacecom, a new unified command charged with ensuring US domination in space, where China has been increasingly active.

Beijing rattled US military officials in 2007 when it launched a missile that located and then destroyed a Chinese satellite, in a dramatic demonstration of China's growing ability to militarize space.

sl/bbk/jm

source: news.abs-cbn.com