BMW CEO reaffirms auto giant's commitment to China

The head of German auto giant BMW on Tuesday highlighted the company's deep integration with the Chinese market and reaffirmed its commitment to continue cooperation with its Chinese partners on developing a number of cutting-edge innovations.

Oliver Zipse, chairman of the board of management and CEO of BMW AG, was speaking ahead of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit to China.

Merz arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a two-day official visit, his first since taking office last May, with the chancellor being accompanied by top executives from 30 German firms, including BMW.

Zipse said he was privileged to be a part this delegation and said the visit gives a clear message of the need for the two countries to strengthen cooperation.

"It's an honor and a privilege to join Chancellor Merz on his first visit to China. This visit sends a strong signal for dialogue, collaboration, and mutual trust, because these are crucial ingredients, not only for the future of the Sino-German partnership, but also for tackling today's complex global challenges together," Zipse said.

BMW has established its largest research and development location outside Germany in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, and has invested heavily in the plant in recent years, with a focus on expanding new energy vehicle (NEV) production. The company also operates additional innovation bases in Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing, focusing on vehicle development, digital services, software systems, and autonomous driving.

Expounding on BMW's cooperation with China, Zipse listed a series of collaborations and innovations the auto giant has been working on together with different Chinese partners.

"China is the largest automotive market in the world, and one of the most important technology and innovation powerhouses for our industry. Our Shenyang production base [is] our largest research and development location outside of Germany. As for example, battery cells come from CATL. [Our] autonomous driving stack is jointly developed with Momenta. And the large language model for the BMW intelligent personal assistant is the result of our longstanding partnership with Alibaba. These features are a perfect example of cross-border collaboration, joint pioneering spirit and mutual openness," he said.

BMW CEO reaffirms auto giant's commitment to China

The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed on Monday that a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has caused 220 suspected deaths, as health officials struggle to catch up with the pace of spread of the epidemic.

While 101 confirmed cases and 10 confirmed deaths have been recorded, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the true scale is far larger. "There are now more than 900 suspected cases and 220 suspected deaths," Tedros said at the Virtual Ministerial Briefing on the Bundibugyo Ebola Outbreak on Monday.

The outbreak, declared as a public health emergency of international concern on May 17, has also spread to Uganda, which has seven confirmed cases and one death.

Tedros highlighted a critical challenge: the delay in detecting the outbreak means that health teams are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic."We are urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment, the epidemic is outpacing us," he said.

The Ebola strain involved is Bundibugyo virus, for which no approved vaccines or therapeutics exist. Previous outbreaks of this strain occurred only twice - in Uganda (2007) and DRC (2012). WHO has recommended prioritizing two monoclonal antibodies for clinical trials.

Compounding the crisis, the affected provinces of Ituri and North Kivu are plagued by intense insecurity and community distrust. Recent months have seen intensified fighting displacing over 100,000 people, along with two security incidents at health facilities last week.

The WHO has raised its national risk assessment to "very high," while regional risk remains "high" and global risk "low." Neighboring countries are urged to take immediate action.

Tedros is set to travel to the DRC with the WHO's emergencies director, as the agency commits to stopping the outbreak. "It will get worse before it gets better," he admitted. "But we know this virus, and we know how to stop it."

WHO reports 220 suspected Ebola deaths in DRC, warns outbreak outpacing response