Under the Trump administration, US-China relations have been locked in political and trade disputes. Over the last four years, the US has put protectionist tariffs on Chinese imports, pledged to develop relations with Taiwan and challenged the Chinese Communist Party in the wake of the protests in Hong Kong.

TikTok was previously faced with a 14-day deadline set to conclude on 28 November to sell its US operations or be shut down, in accordance with Trump's divestiture order.

Their all-English track "Dynamite" has been nominated along with music from such stars as Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.

BANGKOK (Sputnik) - Anti-government protesters in Bangkok on Wednesday tricked the authorities by switching the location of their mass event to another part of the city.

SEOUL (Sputnik) - South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on Wednesday urged Central Asian nations to continue their support for Seoul’s efforts to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Ever since the division of the Korean Peninsula in 1953, people from North Korea have been untertaking attempts to cross the border and defect to territory controlled by Seoul.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Ninety-seven pilot whales and thee dolphins died in a mass stranding on the remote Chatham Islands in New Zealand, the national Department of Conservation (DOC) said on Wednesday.

Thailand has been swept by numerous protests sparked by discontent over the monarchy in the country and its current constitution.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Chinese software company ZTE's request to free itself from a US national security threat designation has been denied, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said in a statement.

The first case of the novel coronavirus virus was reported on December 31, 2019, in Wuhan, China. Since then, the virus has spread to more than 200 countries and territories around the world infecting more than 59 million people and killing more than 1.4 million.

The Shenyang J-16 is a domestically produced copy of the Russia’s Sukhoi Su-30 fighter aircraft. The J-16’s advanced avionics systems and capability to carry a large amount of various munitions make it one of the PLA Air Force’s most powerful fighter jets.

The US official spiked further tensions with China amid a last-ditch effort to counter Beijing in the two nations, damaging relations with Asian neighbours, Chinese embassies in the two countries said.

With some Indian media hyping a Chinese village two kilometres within Bhutanese territory, which is claimed to the first one to be noticed in the area since the Doklam standoff, Chinese experts on border issues and China-India relationship refuted the reports, with a satellite image showing the village inside Chinese territory.

After the Chinese government tried to impose an extradition bill in June 2019, massive protests erupted, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets. The protests escalated into violence, resulting in mass arrests. In order to regain control over the area, Beijing came up with the National Security Law.

Amid vaccination breakthroughs by multiple trials, the question of whether the Covid-19 vaccine will be enforced on the public by companies and state bodies has become ever more prominent.  

Beijing and Washington have been on strained terms since 2017, when the White House's updated National Security Strategy portrayed China as a major threat to US interests across the globe.

In September, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation reported that gold smugglers were arrested with 37 kg of gold bars valued at approximately $1.8 million. The smugglers worked as train drivers and reportedly transferred gold to the Chinese city of Manzhouli.

WENCHANG (Sputnik) - China is set to begin construction of its orbital space station next year, deputy head of the Chang Zheng 5 (Long March 5) launch vehicle project of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), Qu Yiguang, told reporters.

WENCHANG (Sputnik) - A Chinese heavy-lift Chang Zheng 5 launch vehicle with a Chang'e 5 return vehicle, which is planned to land on the Moon, collect samples of lunar soil, and return with them to Earth, was launched from the cosmodrome at Hainan, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

The launch of Chang'e-5 mission has been rescheduled several times. The mission failed to take off in 2017 and was rescheduled to take place in 2018, but was again postponed to July 2019, and then to late 2019 - only to be postponed once again.