China

"I think it's inevitable. I think it's seventh nuclear test is inevitable and I think another Hwasong-17 (intercontinental ballistic missile) test using a solid fuel propeller, I think that's inevitable because in the New Year speech, they said that," said Cha, currently a senior vice president and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

Anecdotal reports and long queues at morgues and crematoriums point to a high death toll, but until Saturday the authorities had only officially recorded a few dozen Covid-19 deaths, the report said. The shortfall was due to stringent definitions of how a death is attributed to Covid. Only people who died of respiratory failure were counted.

Reports of infection rates of around 70 per cent across much of China in recent days would mean an estimated 900 million people in China have been infected at least once with Omicron. If Chen's figure were to be extrapolated nationwide, that would mean the country is also seeing around 10 million reinfections, RFA reported.

As part of its dismantling of the country's zero-Covid policy last month, China's government also lifted quarantine and other border restrictions, The Guardian reported . It prompted a wave of interest in overseas travel, particularly for the upcoming lunar new year holiday later this month.

The report estimates that 64 per cent of the country's population has the virus, BBC said. It ranks Gansu province, where 91 per cent of the people are reported to be infected, at the top, followed by Yunnan (84 per cent) and and Qinghai (80 per cent). A top Chinese epidemiologist has also warned that cases will surge in rural China over the lunar new year.

"We see an earlier and stronger growth recovery from 1Q23 amid faster reopening, stronger housing support and tech regulatory easing, lifting 2023 GDP to 5.7 per cent and 12m USDCNY to 6.65. China is set to top global equity market performance in 2023, in our view, with structural improvement on ERP and ROE. .

The protest started on Saturday after a sudden announcement of layoffs and disputes over wages in the south-western city of Chongqing, the BBC reported. Some videos were filmed at Zybio, a company specialising in in-vitro diagnostic reagents and equipment.

A team comprising 26 official delegates headed by Auramon Supthaweethum, Director General of the Department of Trade Negotiations, Thailand is to start negotiations on Monday and Tuesday with Sri Lanka aiming to strike a balance on trade which is not in favour of the crisis-hit South Asian island nation right now.

Officials have warned of a fresh surge in coronavirus cases brought to rural areas by city residents traveling back home to welcome in the Year of the Rabbit, state broadcaster CGTN reported. "We are extremely worried about the potential COVID-19 surge in rural areas

According to South China Morning Post, Beijing's embassy in Washington, DC, countered allegations after several countries, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), criticised China for withholding actual Covid figures, requesting the country to come clean on the infection surge and hospitalisations. "China has always shared its information and data responsibly with the international community," Liu Pengyu, spokesman for Beijing's Washington embassy, said in a news briefing. Chinese scientists are "now working with WHO to have further discussions about the data," he said,