Society

Photo by Toutiao, people receive Covid-19 Vaccine shot at Fengtai Stadium in Fengtai District of Beijing on 13^th Jan 2021.

China has started offering free shots of COVID-19 vaccines among some key groups of individuals, and will expand the range to others as more vaccines become available. Here we've provided answers to commonly asked questions about COVID-19 vaccines.

7th Jan 2021, Photo was taken near Shijiazhuang Railway Station by drone. Currently the city which has 11million people is locking down.

Hebei province reported 46 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 13 asymptomatic carriers on Saturday. Over 60 percent of the confirmed were previously diagnosed as asymptomatic carriers, according to the Health Commission of Hebei on Sunday.

Speaking on Wednesday at the online Vision China event, Kishore Mahbubani, Singapore's former ambassador to the United Nations, said the reason this accomplishment was so remarkable was that in the past Chinese people had their lives threatened by foreign invasions, civil war, famine and starvation, lack of medical care, no access to modern education and massive unemployment.

He said that until recently, many economists thought that eliminating poverty was a "mission impossible". "But the story of China tells us that in poverty reduction, a mission impossible can become a mission possible," he said, "and this is why we need to spread the story about China to every corner."

Mahbubani attributed China's success to its correct policies, both domestically and internationally, to achieve the poverty reduction goals.

On the domestic front, Mahbubani said, China has followed the "magic M-P-H formula" with "M" standing for "meritocracy", "P" for "pragmatism" and "H" for "honesty".

He explained that meritocracy means the Chinese government was able to select the best people to work and serve in many agencies of government and to improve the quality of governance. "When you have good governance, you can have the right policies to improve people's lives," he added.

In terms of pragmatism, China has the unique ability to select the best policies from around the world, learn the best practices and implement them in a pragmatic fashion. "So pragmatism is another thing we need to learn from China if you want to understand how we can use it to solve many of the problems in the world," he said.

Regarding honesty, Mahbubani said, the countries that succeed are the ones that are able to fight corruption and ensure that the resources of the state can be used to help the people rather than be put in private pockets, and China has done well in combating corruption.

On the international front, China has carried out the right policies by integrating itself into the liberal rules-based international order, Mahbubani said.

"The data will show clearly China's poverty came down very sharply after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001," he said, highlighting the importance of international trade.

The Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday that it was firmly opposed to the Indian government's decision to ban 118 Chinese apps and urged the neighboring country to desist from such actions against Chinese enterprises.

The Indian government is abusing the concept of national security, and has adopted discriminatory and restrictive measures against Chinese enterprises, which are in violation of the World Trade Organization rules, ministry spokesman Gao Feng said during a news briefing.