Hip Hop T-Shirt Sets Off More Tensions in China-Canada Ties

The article below is from Associated Press. Visit the source for an image accompanying the article.

February 2, 2021

BEIJING (AP) — China says it has lodged a formal complaint with Canada over T-shirts ordered by one of the country’s Beijing Embassy staff that allegedly mocked China’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, in an apparent mix-up between the city of Wuhan and the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

China arrests more than 80 people in ‘fake vaccine’ ring crackdown

The article below is from CNN. Visit the source for an image accompanying the article.

By Rob Picheta

February 1, 2021

(CNN)China has said it is cracking down on a crime ring making “fake vaccines” for Covid-19 that has been running since September, state media report.

WHO team visits 2nd Wuhan hospital in virus investigation

The article below is from ABC News. Visit the source for media accompanying the article.

Members of a World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic have visited another Wuhan hospital that had treated early COVID-19 patients on their second full day of work

Taiwan asks Germany to help obtain coronavirus vaccines

The article below is from Reuters. Visit the source for images accompanying the article.

Taiwan asks Germany to help obtain coronavirus vaccines

JANUARY 28, 2021

By Reuters Staff

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan has sought Germany’s help in securing COVID-19 vaccines, Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua said on Thursday, after Berlin asked for the island’s assistance in easing a shortage of automobile semiconductor chips.

Wang told reporters she made the request at a meeting with Germany’s de facto ambassador in Taipei, who handed her a letter seeking help to resolve the shortage, which is hampering the European nation’s fledgling economic recovery from the pandemic.

At their meeting on Wednesday, Wang said, she told the head of the German mission in Taipei that she hoped Germany could “assist Taiwan in obtaining vaccines within the feasible range”.

Germany’s Economy Ministry declined comment.

In the letter, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier asked Wang to help persuade manufacturers in Taiwan, home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker and one of Germany’s main suppliers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), to ease the chip shortage.

Wang met senior chip executives this week who pledged to help tackle the problem.

Late last month, Taiwan said it had agreed to buy almost 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including 10 million from AstraZeneca Plc, with the first to start arriving from March.

Another 4.76 million are expected to come from global vaccine programme COVAX, but the government has given no details of which company may supply the rest.

Pfizer Inc has jointly developed with Germany’s BioNTech SE one of the main vaccines which is now being rolled out worldwide.

Countries are battling vaccine shortages worldwide. Germany’s health minister said on Thursday he expected the current shortage to persist into April.

Taiwan has kept the pandemic well under control thanks to early and effective prevention, with 896 cases, including seven deaths. Most the infections have been imported from abroad and only 79 people are now in hospital.

Reporting by Jeanny Kao and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Michael Nienaber in Berlin; Editing by Toby Chopra

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-taiwan-idINKBN29X11P

Hong Kong to place tens of thousands in lockdown for first time: report

The article below is from Reuters. Visit the source for a video accompanying the article.

JANUARY 21, 2021

By Reuters Staff

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong will place tens of thousands of its residents in a lockdown to contain a new outbreak of the coronavirus, the first such measure the Chinese-ruled city has taken since the pandemic began, a local newspaper reported on Friday.