China's logistics sector reports steady growth in 10 months

China's logistics sector reported steady growth in the first 10 months of 2022, according to an industry report. Social logistics rose 3.6 percent year on year to 275.4 trillion yuan (about 38.26 trillion U.S. dollars) in the January-October period, said the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

During the period, the logistics for industrial products climbed 4 percent year on year, as industrial production continued to expand, according to the report. Logistics for hightech manufacturing grew 10.6 percent year on year in October, up 1.3 percentage points from September.

As a raft of policies to facilitate flows of logistics and support enterprises gradually took effect, business operations in the logistics sector have shown overall stability, the report said. The EU's medicines regulator urged Europe to prepare for a new wave of COVID-19 as "cold winter months" arrive.

"Over the last weeks we have not seen a major increase in COVID-19 case rates in the EU as a result of rising immunity following vaccinations and natural infections," Marco Cavaleri, head of Health Threats and Vaccines Strategy of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), told an online press briefing.

"However, this could change rapidly as we are getting into the cold winter months," Cavaleri said. "This virus is maintaining a fast pace in its evolution and new subvariants of Omicron such as BQ.1.1 and its offsprings are on the rise and replacing

Omicron BA.5."

These strains show "an increased propensity for immune evasion and growth advantage," he noted, expressing concern that new subvariants like BQ.1.1 are "escaping neutralization by the currently available monoclonal antibody products

EU chief Charles Michel will head to Beijing next week for a meeting with China's President Xi Jinping, a European official told AFP.

The official, confirming a report in the Financial Times, said the European Council president's December 1 visit would be formally announced. The trip comes amid a lively debate between EU capitals as to how to handle relations with China, amid concerns over Beijing's rights record, threat to Taiwan, trade pressure on some EU countries and support for Russia.

The United States is pushing its Western allies to align themselves against China, but some EU members with important trade links resist splitting world affairs into two camps.

Michel walks a line between Germany, with its important economic interests in China, and EU members like Lithuania, which has courted Beijing's anger by building links with Taiwan.

EU capitals have also been concerned by China's bond with Russia, even in the wake of Moscow's invasion and bombardment of Westernbacked Ukraine.

Earlier this month at an ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh, just ahead of the G20 summit at which Xi met US President Joe Biden, Michel urged Beijing to push Russia to respect international law.

"We encourage the Chinese authorities to use all the means at their disposal to convince Russia to respect internationally recognised borders, to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine," Michel told AFP at the time.

Also this month, in an incident that underlined the tensions between Brussels and Beijing, a speech that Michel had been scheduled to broadcast at a Chinese trade fair was cancelled.

European diplomats told AFP that China had sought to censor a video speech from Michel for the China International Import Expo (CIIE) and that Brussels had preferred to pull it.

One diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said authorities had wanted to censor all reference to the war in Ukraine, a sensitive issue for Beijing.

China seeks to position itself as neutral over the conflict but has offered diplomatic backing to its strategic ally Russia.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met Xi in China on November 4 to push for greater economic cooperation and more equal trade ties, despite his fellow EU leaders' misgivings.