Openness brings progress, closure leads to backwardness: Chinese FM on U.S. tariffs

Openness brings progress, while closure leads to backwardness, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday when commenting on U.S.-imposed high tariffs against various countries.

Amid the ongoing mixture of changes and chaos in the current international situation, every country must make a choice between unilateralism and multilateraliasm, closeness and openness, unity and division, said Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, who was attending the ASEAN Plus foreign ministers' meetings in the Malaysian capital.

China's choice is to be more open, he stressed, explaining that this is not only the basic experience of China's development and growth, but also the inevitable logic of history moving forward.

China has taken the initiative to provide zero-tariff treatment for products to the least developed countries and the entire Africa, fully completed negotiations on the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, and has created a new model of cross-regional cooperation at the ASEAN-China-GCC summit, he added. In contrast, the high tariffs imposed on various countries are a clear violation of World Trade Organization rules, disrupting the stable operation of the production and supply chains, and hindering the recovery and development of the world economy, said the Chinese foreign minister, adding that such move is irresponsible, unpopular, and unsustainable.

Wang said that China will continue to stand firmly with countries in the region, promoting unity, cooperation, and collective strength, and will always be an advocate of multilateralism, a defender of free trade, and a contributor to open development, he said.

Openness brings progress, closure leads to backwardness: Chinese FM on U.S. tariffs

Openness brings progress, closure leads to backwardness: Chinese FM on U.S. tariffs

Openness brings progress, closure leads to backwardness: Chinese FM on U.S. tariffs

Openness brings progress, closure leads to backwardness: Chinese FM on U.S. tariffs

Influenza activity in China has declined for four consecutive weeks, with recent tests showing common pathogens and no evidence of new infectious diseases, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Tuesday.

At its first press briefing of 2026, the commission reported that flu activity nationwide remains moderate at the moment.

According to Xin Li, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, respiratory samples collected from sentinel hospitals indicated that the influenza virus was the most common pathogen, accounting for 27.4 percent of cases, followed by respiratory syncytial virus at 8.8 percent and rhinovirus at 5.7 percent.

"Influenza activity in China has declined for four consecutive weeks and remains at a moderate level overall. Analysis of nationwide fever clinic consultations, influenza-like illness cases at sentinel hospitals, and multi-pathogen testing shows that all detected pathogens are known common ones, with no evidence of unknown pathogens or new infectious diseases," Xin told the press.

Data from sentinel hospitals indicated flu activity was falling across provincial-level regions, while reports of school outbreaks dropped for five consecutive weeks. Laboratory tests showed that 97.3 percent of positive influenza samples were H3N2 subtype viruses.

China flu activity declines for fourth week, no new pathogens detected: official