04 CHINA CONTACT US AT: 8351-9435, AR_YANGZ@163.COMThursday July 2, 2020

At a Glance

DELIVERYMEN with major courier companies in Beijing who regularly traverse the city have undergone nucleic acid tests for the novel coronavirus, and the results show they are all clear of the pathogen, according to the State Post Bureau.

Since June 19, Beijing munici-pal post regulators have been carrying out nucleic acid tests to detect traces of coronavirus on all parcel delivery workers. A total of 104,807 couriers from all major delivery companies had been tested as of June 27, with all results coming back negative, the bureau said.

Li Jie, a deliveryman from ZTO Express, said the test is not just for their own health, but also for the safety of all residents. The outlet screens their body temperatures

daily and provides them with protective gear.

“We also have hand sanitizers, disposable gloves and masks in the vehicles to ensure the safety of ourselves and our customers,” he said.

The nucleic acid tests for the couriers came after a food deliv-ery worker from China’s leading food delivery platform Ele.me in Beijing was confirmed to be infected with the virus last week, raising public concerns about fur-ther spread of the disease in the capital as people have been rely-ing heavily on delivery services for necessities amid the outbreak.

After completing the testing, authorities urged all delivery companies to improve disinfec-tion of delivery vehicles and venues and step up protective

measures for deliverymen, said an official with the Beijing post bureau.

While taking a slew of strict epidemic control and preven-tion measures, the Beijing post bureau also deployed 28 outlets across the city to handle residents’ online orders of fresh vegetables and fruits in an effort to ensure the delivery of daily supplies.

The State Post Bureau said it will continue to coordinate cou-rier enterprises, adopt smart cou-rier cabinets and improve delivery outlet services to ensure the deliv-ery and supply of food and daily necessities for residents.

Beijing reported three new con-firmed domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases Tuesday, the municipal health commission said yesterday. (China Daily)

Capital deliverymen all test negative for COVID-19

CHINA said Tuesday that India’s move to ban 59 Chi-nese-origin mobile apps could be a breach of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, and urged New Delhi to create an open and fair business envi-ronment.

“India’s measure selectively and discriminatorily aims at certain Chinese apps on ambiguous and far-fetched grounds, runs against fair and transparent procedure require-ments, abuses national security exceptions and [is suspected of]

violating WTO rules,” Ji Rong, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, said in a statement.

TikTok was blocked on Google and Apple app stores in India after New Delhi said Monday night it was among the 59 apps which it believed posed a “threat to sovereignty and integrity.” A raucous move against China in the online space since fighting erupted on the two countries’ border last month.

With more than 600 million

downloads, India accounts for 30 percent of TikTok’s two billion downloads worldwide. ByteDance last year hired several senior executives and laid out plans to invest US$1 billion in India, its top growth market.

Late on Tuesday, TikTok’s already downloaded versions on phones in India stopped showing any videos.

Ji said the ban would affect Indian jobs, and urged India to treat all investments and service providers equally, and

create an open, fair and just business environment.

The head of TikTok India issued a statement Tuesday saying the firm has “not shared any information of our users in India with any foreign govern-ment, including the Chinese Government.”

Nikhil Gandhi added that “hundreds of millions of users, artists, story-tellers, educators and performers ... (depend) on it for their livelihood.”

Many TikTok users posted videos expressing their displea-

sure before the app stopped showing content on Tuesday. Some told their followers to track their future posts on YouTube or Instagram.

One user @omkarsharma988 posted a video in which he throws utensils to the ground, hits a chair and weeps, with a Hindi song playing “You’ve left me, how will I live now?” The video had been liked 218,000 times, when the app still func-tioned on phones on which it was already downloaded.

(CGTN)

India’s ban on Chinese apps may violate WTO rules

UNITED Airlines will resume services to China with scheduled flights between San Francisco and Shanghai, starting July 8, according to the United Airlines China office Tuesday.

The flights will be operated on the Boeing 777-300ER twice a week, via Incheon Interna-tional Airport in the Republic of Korea.

The resumed San Francisco-Shanghai flights will be available Wednesday and Saturday, and the return flights are scheduled for Thursday and Sunday.

Prior to suspending flight services to Shanghai in February due to COVID-19, United Airlines was operating five daily flights between China’s Shanghai and the hub cities such as San Fran-cisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York of the United States.

Starting this July, the airline plans to gradually restart ser-vices to Hong Kong, and will fly to Singapore via a stop in Hong Kong.

The Civil Aviation Administra-

tion of China (CAAC) adjusted policies for international passen-ger flights in early June, allowing more foreign carriers to resume flights to China on a once-a-week basis starting from June 8.

China may “modestly increase” flights from some qualified coun-tries under the conditions of controllable risks and adequate receiving capacities, according to the CAAC.

On June 25, the Delta Air Lines restarted its passenger flight ser-vices on the Seattle and Shang-hai air route, via Incheon in the Republic of Korea. To date, the flights have operated smoothly, according to the airline.

Delta was the first U.S. airline to resume the U.S.-China pas-senger flights since the temporary suspension in February due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Starting from July, Delta will operate once-weekly flights from Seattle and Detroit to Shanghai, also via Incheon, according to the airline.

(Xinhua)

United Airlines to resume US-China passenger flights

FOUR U.S. media organizations have been required to declare to China, in written form, informa-tion including their staff, finances, operations, and real estate owned by them in China within seven calendar days, starting from yesterday.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian, the four U.S. organiza-tions are the Associated Press (AP), United Press International (UPI), the Columbia Broadcast-ing System (CBS) and National Public Radio (NPR).

Zhao made the announcement at a daily press briefing yesterday

in response to a U.S. announce-ment on June 22 that China Central Television, the People’s Daily, the Global Times, and China News Service had been designated as foreign missions in the United States.

“The above-mentioned measures by China are entirely necessary and reciprocal coun-termeasures in response to the unreasonable oppression conducted by the U.S. to these Chinese media organizations’ branches in the U.S.,” said Zhao, stressing that China’s mea-sures are an entirely justifiable defense. (Xinhua)

China announces countermeasures against media restrictions in US

Taxes loweredAUTHORITIES have rolled out preferential income tax plans for companies and individuals in the southern island province of Hainan to build it into a globally influential free trade port.

Long-term operation THE newly launched last satel-lite of China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System successfully entered the long-term operation mode yesterday, announced the Xi’an Satellite Control Center.

A NATIONAL campaign will be launched by local traffic manage-ment departments to improve the transport safety of hazardous chemicals, according to the traffic management authority.

The six-month campaign, scheduled from yesterday to Dec. 31, aims to strictly prevent the occurrence of accidents with mass casualties, involving hazardous chemicals transport

vehicles, said the traffic manage-ment bureau under the Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday.

Traffic violations of hazardous chemicals transport vehicles, including speeding, fatigue driv-ing and illegal parking, are tar-geted in the campaign, according to the bureau.

It also called on local traffic management departments to fully implement specific mea-

sures in certificates issuance, road inspection, and four other aspects, as well as strengthen traffic control at key areas and increase the frequency of inspec-tions.

The bureau also called on the public to promptly report serious traffic violations of hazardous chemicals transport vehicles to traffic management depart-ments. (Xinhua)

Transport safety of dangerous chemicals stressed

Giant panda garden opens in Fenghuang, HunanXing’an, one of eight giant pandas that were transferred to Fenghuang County, Hunan Province, one month ago, meets visitors at a giant panda garden in the county yesterday. The giant panda garden was officially opened to the public yesterday. China News Service