In announcing the move, the White House cited "strong support for people in Hong Kong in the face of ongoing repression by the People's Republic of China."
China is battling to stem the spread of new cases tied to the more infectious variant. Nearly 200 people have been infected since last week, when a case was detected at an international airport.
Qin Gang brought a tougher style to China's foreign ministry pulpit. Now he is Beijing's man in Washington, inheriting a hard post amid the most fraught relations in years between China and the U.S.
The staunch advocate of social justice and rural development was found guilty of eight charges. His harsh prison sentence comes amid broader efforts by authorities to rein in powerful businessmen.
The officially designated Communist Party historical sites venerate Mao Zedong and, increasingly, the country's current leader, Xi Jinping. Tourists sometimes do manual labor and dress up as soldiers.
The Biden administration, backed by U.S. allies, is publicly calling out Beijing for an attack this year on Microsoft's Exchange email server software that targeted computers worldwide.
Guo Xinzhen was abducted as a toddler outside their home. Abductions of children for sale are reported regularly in China, though how often it happens is unclear.
In a fiery speech at Tiananmen Square, Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping vowed to keep an iron grip on Hong Kong and to conquer Tiawan, and warned foreign forces against trying to bully China.
Apple Daily was closed, universities were muzzled and prominent activists were either jailed or exiled. The national security law has surely made an impact in Hong Kong in its first year in force.
President Biden sees foreign policy as a battle between democracies and autocracies — and that's a flawed doctrine, according to analysts Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky.
In the wake of heated debate over the unproven lab leak theory, the world is calling on China to cooperate with investigations. But efforts to delve into this matter seem to be stalling.
The three astronauts who blasted off Thursday from the Jiuquan launch center in northwestern China will stay three months in the Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony.
