Premier Li Keqiang says the COVID-19 pandemic will not stop Sino-German cooperation.
The Chinese premier made the remarks in a video meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Premier Li says the two countries can safeguard multilateralism and promote trade and investment for economic recovery after the pandemic.
He calls on Germany to play a positive role in promoting China-EU relations, as Germany will assume the EU presidency in the second half of this year.
Merkel says Germany welcomes China's insistence on greater opening-up to the outside world and will continue to work to promote bilateral cooperation in various fields.
The Chinese mainland is urging Washington to abide by the one-China principle after a U.S. military transport aircraft flew over Taiwan on Tuesday.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry condemns the flight and says China will take all necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security, and development interests.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has signed the National Anthem Ordinance passed by the Legislative Council.
The ordinance will come into immediate effect after it is published in the Gazette today.
Lam says as an inalienable part of China, the special administrative region is duty-bound to preserve the dignity of the national anthem through legislation.
She adds that the Education Bureau will help promote the Ordinance by issuing directions to schools.
China has dismissed as "ridiculous" a Harvard Medical School study that used satellite images and search engine data to conclude that the coronavirus may have emerged in the country as early as August last year.
The research used satellite imagery of hospital parking lots in Wuhan and data for symptom-related queries on search engines for things such as "cough" and "diarrhoea."
The authors said increased hospital traffic and symptom search data preceded the documented start of the pandemic.
The article was posted to Harvard's online repository and has not been peer-reviewed.
In response, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying calls it a bizarre way to put two things together.
She says the rise of 'cough' and 'diarrhea' search data cited by the study is less than that over the same period in 2017 and 2018.
Meantime, the World Health Organization has also suggested it should not over-interpret the change in the number of cars in parking lots of hospitals and associate it with the pandemic.
The Chinese capital has reported one new confirmed COVID-19 case.
A 52-year-old went to a hospital in Xicheng District on Wednesday after feeling cold and exhausted.
His coronavirus test was confirmed positive yesterday.
The man had not been out of Beijing during the past two weeks and reported no close contact with people from other cities.
His two family members are under medical observation.
The residential community where he lives has been closed-off. All residents there will receive nucleic acid tests.
Authorities will also trace back places where the patient has been and collect samples.
As of Thursday, Beijing had reported no new cases for 56 consecutive days.
The Trump administration has imposed sanctions against the International Criminal Court officials investigating American troops for possible war crimes in Afghanistan.
The executive order signed by President Donald Trump allows the U.S. to block assets of ICC workers and stop them from entering the country.
It also blocks the family members of ICC officials involved in the investigations from entering the United States.
The Hague-based court was created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The U.S. has never been a member of the International Criminal Court.