China's trade promotion body urges US to lift restrictions on investment

The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) on Thursday called on the United States to lift restrictions on investments aimed at China.

According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday, the U.S. has finalized restrictions on investments by U.S. individuals and companies into advanced technology sectors in China, including the semiconductor, quantum computing and AI sectors.

The council said that it has expressed strong concern over the U.S. investment restriction rules on China. In the rule-making process, the council submitted a written statement pointing out that these restrictions are based on erroneous assumptions and distorted facts, representing typical economic coercion and technological bullying. Such measures do not address the U.S.' stated national security concerns and instead have serious adverse impacts on relevant industries in both China and the U.S., while also undermining the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains, according to the council.

"Both Chinese and U.S. business communities hope to collaborate based on the principles of market economy and fair competition to achieve mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. We strongly call on the U.S. to lift such investment restrictions," said Sun Xiao, spokesman of the trade promotion body, at a press conference.

China's trade promotion body urges US to lift restrictions on investment

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight