The Latest Breaking News from Beijing

"The ice thaws but slowly," says Foreign Minister Penny Wong as she prepares to break a four-year diplomatic freeze with her Chinese counterpart in Beijing.

Dozens of hearses queued outside a Beijing crematorium on Wednesday, even as China reported no new COVID-19 deaths in its growing outbreak, sparking criticism of its virus accounting as the capital braces for a surge of cases.

An epidemiologist and health economist's warning comes as shocking video footage shared online showed bodies piling up in hospitals and crematoriums in China

Penny Wong will meet Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing for the first talks between ministers in China in four years.

China and Germany should work together to foster good relations between Beijing and the European Union without any interference by a third party, President Xi Jinping told Germany's president in a phone call on Tuesday, state media reported.

If Beijing is expecting an immediate boost from abandoning its tough controls it is mistaken

China's embassy in Manila accused the United States on Tuesday of driving a wedge between the Philippines and Beijing, deploring Washington's "unfounded accusations" that it said sought to stir up trouble in the South China Sea.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING -- Novel coronavirus infections are spreading rapidly in China following Beijing's altering of the nation's zero-COVID policy designed to contain the disease. The Chinese government puts the number of COVID-related deaths for December at four as of Sunday, but the figure clearly does not reflect the actual situation.

Cities across China also scrambling to install hospital beds and build fever clinics amid a widening COVID-19 outbreak.