A Chinese diplomat says the new U.S. administration should not only show patience but also rationality and sincerity when handling bilateral ties.
The Chinese ambassador to the U.S. made the remarks after White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden wants to approach relations with Beijing with strategic patience.
Cui Tiankai says he hopes that the U.S. can use its patience to properly and objectively learn about its ties with China.
"It's good that the United States has patience. I hope the U.S. can use this time to review and reflect on its China policy in recent years to find the crux of the issue in China-U.S. relations. Then I hope they apply more active, constructive, and forward-looking policies, which are also in line with the reality of the world today."
Cui says the future of Sino-U.S. ties depends on the new U.S. administration and the policies it adopts.
The State Council Work Safety Committee has summoned and had a discussion with the Shandong provincial government in the wake of a deadly gold mine accident.
Ten people have been killed and one person is still unaccounted for following the accident on January 10. Eleven others have been rescued after spending two weeks trapped underground.
The mine's owner Shandong Wucailong Investment has been criticized for a 30-hour delay in reporting the accident.
Several managers from the company were detained by police afterward, and two officials from Qixia City, where the gold mine is located, were removed from office.
An investigation has opened into the cause of the accident.
Official data showed profits for China's major industrial enterprises reached over 6.4 trillion yuan in 2020, up 4.1 percent from a year earlier.
Major industrial companies in the country refer to those with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan from their main operations.
The National Bureau of Statistics said the December profits of major industrial enterprises reached 707 billion yuan, skyrocketing 20.1 percent from a year earlier.
The profits of major industrial enterprises dropped by 36.7 percent in the first quarter before reversing a downturn trend to 4.8 percent in the April-June period. The closely watched gauge then picked up the pace to grow 15.9 percent in the third quarter through to September.
WHO officials have commended China for submitting data of its COVID-19 vaccines to the organization for the Emergency Use Listing procedure.
WHO Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals says there are two Chinese-made vaccines, produced by Sinopharm and Sinovac, currently under WHO evaluation.
The data of the vaccines have been submitted to the WHO, but inspectors on the ground are still in quarantine waiting to go to the manufacturing sites for evaluation.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has thanked China for rapidly approving the export of active ingredients for local COVID-19 vaccine production.
The president said the supplies "are already being sent to Brazil and will arrive in the next few days".
The supplies are expected to produce about 8.5 million doses of Sinovac Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine at Sao Paulo's Butantan biomedical center.
Butantan has a contract with Sinovac for 46 million doses. The first six million were ready for use and have been distributed around Brazil. The rest have to be completed by Butantan.
Health officials say China's daily testing capacity for COVID-19 has surpassed 15 million samples.
The National Health Commission says China is facing rising demand for virus testing as more people are traveling home for the Spring Festival.
The commission urges local authorities to improve their testing capacity and explore ways to lower the testing cost and increase the convenience for people being tested.
China has seen a notable rise in imported cases, with the daily average number in January nearly double that of November last year, posing a challenge to the containment effort.