The Latest Breaking News from Xi Jinping

Chinese authorities on Saturday announced a further easing of COVID-19 curbs with major cities such as Shenzhen and Beijing no longer requiring negative tests to take public transport.

The southern Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen has ended mandatory Covid testing to enter public venues, joining a growing list of local authorities easing the strict social curbs imposed across the country since the pandemic broke out three years ago.

Protests in China against the world's toughest COVID-19 restrictions are dying down because they have had an effect, a top U.S. diplomat said on Friday, as Beijing further eased testing and quarantine rules.

Chinese President Xi Jinping blamed mass protests in Chinese cities on youth frustrated by years of the COVID-19 pandemic, but said the now dominant Omicron variant of the virus paved the way for fewer restrictions, European Union officials said.

Mobile apps and state media websites turned black and white, flags on some government buildings in Beijing were at half-mast and flowers were laid late last week as China mourned the death of former leader Jiang Zemin.

Increasingly oppressive policies are prompting some Chinese people to consider taking up Australian citizenship. It's a difficult decision, with practical and emotional considerations.

Xi’s pandemic policy has created a crisis for the regime.

The recent protests in China against the country’s zero-COVID policy have been unprecedented in their scale, intensity and distribution. Protestors numbering in the thousands were reported in dozens of cities. Not since 1989’s Tiananmen Square protests has there been such widespread civil disobedience.

Protesters in several major Chinese cities have expressed their anger over the country’s stringent “zero Covid” policy, under which cities are put on lockdown over just a handful of coronavirus cases. This is the biggest wave of demonstrations since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 – creating an unprecedented challenge…