Asia

Three cases of Coronavirus have been confirmed in France, the first in Europe, as the Chinese government locks down whole cities.

According to an announcement by the Wuchang District People’s Court on Wednesday, a Chinese student named Luo Daiqing was sentenced to six months in prison in the summer of 2019 for posting “comments and inappropriate images insulting to the leader of this country.”

Chinese state media confirmed on Friday that the coronavirus that originated in the city of Wuhan has now infected 29 of China’s 31 provinces, a concession likely to be taken by critics as confirmation that the Chinese government has not been honest about how rapidly the disease is spreading. Increasingly draconian measures abruptly taken to combat the virus, such as effectively quarantining Wuhan and several other cities, convey the impression of a crisis that is much more serious than Beijing wanted to admit.

Human rights activists have issued warnings that the novel coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, could pose a dire threat to prisoners in western China’s Muslim concentration camps, Radio Free Asia (RFA) noted on Thursday.

A Wuhan resident from Bogotá told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo on Thursday that residents of the Chinese metropolis were aware of a flu-like illness spreading “before 2019 ended,” weeks before the Communist Party publicly revealed an outbreak of a newly documented deadly coronavirus.

Chinese hospitals in Wuhan are being forced to turn away possible coronavirus patients due to overcrowding and a critical shortage of supplies. Companies that manufacture supplies are also having difficulties getting employees to come to work.

University of Missouri (Mizzou) has announced that it is closing its Confucius Institute after the U.S. Department of State notifying the school that it is no longer allowed to have Chinese instructors teaching Mandarin without the supervision of a Chinese-speaking American.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will deploy to central Wuhan, the metropolis where a previously unidentified coronavirus that has killed at least 26 people originated, to help build medical facilities to fight the virus, the Communist Party confirmed on Friday.

A Chicago woman who traveled to Wuhan, China, in December has been diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus, making her the second case in the United States, officials announced Friday. 

Chinese state media claimed in several effusive pieces on Thursday that residents of Wuhan, the origin city of a deadly new coronavirus, remain full of “caution and optimism” that local health authorities will successfully prevent it from spreading.

Health secretary Matt Hancock has warned that it is “increasingly likely” there will be a UK case of coronavirus, after the number of people being tested for the Chinese-origin virus rises from four to 14.

Chinese citizens are masking their flu-like symptoms to make it through airport checkpoints set up around the world to screen for the coronavirus, according to several reports on Thursday citing Chinese social media posts.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the South China Morning Post, the U.S. Navy on Thursday released video of an unsafe encounter between a Chinese warship and the destroyer USS Decatur in September 2018. 

China’s years-long expansion into Africa – and the corresponding flood of Chinese workers establishing themselves there – has left the continent particularly vulnerable to the spread of a new iteration of coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China.

Pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong protested against the city’s Beijing-controlled government on Thursday over its inadequate response to the coronavirus.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to reconsider membership for Taiwan, which has long been blocked by Beijing, in light of the virus epidemic spreading from Wuhan.

A passenger who landed at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) from Mexico City was immediately quarantined Wednesday evening after showing possible symptoms of the deadly coronavirus, U.S. health officials announced Thursday.

TEL AVIV – A senior Iranian chess official is afraid to return to her home country after photos of her without a headscarf while at a tournament in Shanghai caused an outcry back home.

China’s state-run newspaper Global Times questions in a recent article whether Tesla’s new commitments in China will help the country to take over the electric car market, as Apple’s investment in Chinese factories helped it to dominate the smartphone manufacturing industry.

Tests are being carried out on four people in Scotland for suspected cases of the Coronavirus which originates from China.

The founder of China’s oldest environmental organization and his wife died of “severe lung disease” amid the spread of a novel virus that causes pneumonia, but tested neither of them for the virus and failed to isolate any potential contacts, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on Wednesday.

Professor Feng Tao of the University of Kansas was charged by federal authorities with two counts of wire fraud and one count of program fraud for attempting to funnel publicly-funded research to the Chinese government.

China is more urbanized and its economy more geared around consumption than it was back in 2003 when SARS struck.

Chinese authorities added four cities to their lockdown of Wuhan, home to a deadly new virus spreading rapidly, on Thursday afternoon, bringing the total population within the transport shutdown zone to about 20 million people.

British citizens are being warned to avoid travelling to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus.

People from Kazakhstan whose relatives have disappeared into Chinese concentration camps object to their government’s friendliness with Beijing, Radio Free Europe reported on Tuesday.

North Korea’s communist regime banned all foreign visitors from entering the country on Tuesday as a precaution against the recent outbreak of the coronavirus in China, according to tourist companies who operate in the country. 

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is urging President Donald Trump’s administration to consider implementing a ban on travelers from China to the United States over the Chinese Communist Party’s mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak that has left more than a dozen people dead.

Local police in Wuhan, China, revealed they had “handled” the cases of eight individuals accused of publishing statements not approved by the Communist Party on social media regarding the deadly respiratory disease that recently originated in that city, Radio Free Asia (RFA) revealed on Tuesday.

Hong Kong confirmed its first case of a mystery coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, on Wednesday after weeks of expanding its power to isolate potential patients and amid warning the virus could evolve to be deadlier.