On Wednesday, Beijing was under a red alert for smog, the highest of four levels, and a yellow alert for fog. Other areas, particularly in northern China were still under red alert as of Wednesday for both fog and smog. The high pollution has been going on for a number of weeks, causing flight delays, and leading to traffic bans, as part of what is called smog season or airpocalypse.
China says it will hand over an underwater U.S. drone it seized in the international waters of the South China Sea, prompting President-elect Donald Trump to say the United States should tell China to keep the device. Trump does not assume power for another month, but weighed in on the maritime incident in which Chinese naval forces seized the unmanned submersible while it was collecting unclassified scientific data on Thursday.
China's battle for recognition as a market economy that would help it avoid penalties from key trade partners has been thwarted, as a key clause in Beijing's deal to join the WTO expired on Sunday.
China's Pingtan Marine has announced the launch of two new squid jiggers, bound for the southwest Atlantic and southeast Pacific oceans. The two newly-completed vessels should reach fishing grounds by late December, and sales of squid catches are then expected to begin in the first quarter of 2017.
Zhang Xiangchen, China's deputy international trade representative, said his country would defend its rights under World Trade Organization tariff rules should Trump uphold his campaign threats to levy punitive duties on China-made goods, which, according to an Auxtralian expert, is “very unlikely” to happen.
Chinese President said that his country's alliance with Latin America and Caribbean countries was of strategic importance as he opened the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Media Leaders Summit in Santiago.
iPhones might soon be made in the U.S., a result of Donald Trump’s win on Election Day, according to Nikkei Asian Review report. Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn Technology Group, a main Apple assembler, has allegedly been looking into the possibility of making iPhones in the United States, sources revealed to Nikkei.
The following editorial was published by The New York Times - Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, has had a history of allowing its international database of fugitives to be used by authoritarian governments to persecute dissidents and critics. It is therefore deeply troubling that a senior Chinese security official will become the organization’s next president.
China appointed a new finance minister on Monday who is expected to maintain an expansionary fiscal policy and push reforms to put a lid on rising debt levels in the economy. Xiao Jie, a former tax chief and Minister of Finance deputy minister, was named minister of finance, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
Argentine president Mauricio Macri promised his Uruguayan peer Tabare Vazquez to look into the draft of a Uruguay/China free trade deal, and expressed their deep concern about political events in Venezuela suggesting that under the current circumstances the Nicolas Maduro government cannot be considered a member of Mercosur.