The year 2020 marked an extremely unusual year in human history.

This year, the world suffered a hard time as people's health was seriously threatened; international exchanges were restricted; the global economy fell into a deep recession; and unilateralism, protectionism and bullying practices were on a rise.

China's top legislature and political advisory body will start annual sessions this week, returning to their traditional March schedule after last year's events were postponed to May due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

As the year 2021 marks the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the world will watch how China, with the elimination of absolute poverty just declared, charts its course toward fully building a modern socialist country.

The first China International Consumer Products Expo is scheduled for May 7-10 in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province.

The event will be the first international expo to be held in Hainan since China released a master plan last June to build the island province into a globally influential and high-level free trade port by the middle of the century.

It is "extremely unlikely" that SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, escaped from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a member of a World Health Organization (WHO) expert team sent to China on a COVID-19 origin-tracing mission said on Monday.

"The most politically sensitive option we looked at was the virus escaping from a laboratory," said Professor Dominic Dwyer from University of Sydney in an article on The Conversation, a publisher of research-based news and analysis. "We concluded this was extremely unlikely."

Many of China’s Internet giants, including Baidu and Xiaomi, have recently issued announcements indicating their decision to seek a share of the market for smart electric vehicles, a market which has already witnessed heightened competition among emerging automakers like Nio, XPeng, and Li Xiang, alongside the active efforts of traditional carmakers like SAIC Motor who are also pursuing a similar transformation.

At the recent 2021 new product launch event for Xiaomi, Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Inc., said that the company will enter the smart electric car market and will aim to spend $10 billion on the new business in the coming 10 years.

Treading on the very same values and norms it has repeatedly preached, Washington is turning the United States, the world's only superpower, into the world's super double-dealer of human rights.

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The fine gloss that Washington has tried to put on its tainted human rights record was once again removed as the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2020 was released here on Wednesday.

World Health Day, the second amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This year's theme is "Building a fairer, healthier world."

As of April 1, over 2.8 million people had died from the virus. COVID-19 has hit all countries hard, but its impact has been harshest on those communities which were already vulnerable, who are more exposed to the disease and less likely to have access to quality healthcare services.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday said that Chinese and Russian vaccines are necessary for the world to win the "war" against COVID-19.

"We should work with the Chinese and Russians so that the vaccines developed by their scientists be integrated in this great multilateral effort -- immediately when they start the necessary certifications by the WHO (World Health Organisation)," he said in an interview with French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday met leaders from non-Communist parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), as well as public figures without party affiliation, ahead of the upcoming Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conveyed his festive greetings on behalf of the CPC Central Committee to those non-CPC personages and the vast number of members of the united front.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on people who work in the field of philosophy and social sciences to promote the evolution and growth of fine traditional Chinese culture in new and creative ways.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when writing back on Sunday to editors of the Journal of Chinese Humanities.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, on behalf of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council, extended Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese Wednesday at a reception in Beijing.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered a speech at the gathering at the Great Hall of the People, greeting Chinese people of all ethnic groups, compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese.

-- When Xi Jinping became China's top leader in 2012, he inherited a mission China had striven to achieve for generations, which is eradicating absolute poverty.

-- The entire system was mobilized to help the rural indigent population, with more than 250,000 teams dispatched to offer on-the-ground support and over 3 million people sent to countryside as special commissioners for poverty relief.

-- "Through eight years, under the current standard, China has eradicated extreme poverty for the nearly 100 million rural people affected," Xi said in the New Year speech that rang in 2021.

In his recent remarks during an inspection trip, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated strengthening belief via the learning of the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

As the CPC marks its centenary in 2021, the Party looks back at its history and recounts the shining moments in it.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday called on young officials to carry on the glorious traditions and fine conduct of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and make contributions to fully building a modern socialist country.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing the opening of a training session for young and middle-aged officials at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance).

From the ice-covered Tibetan plateau to the glittering delta on the East China Sea, the Yangtze River connects China’s magnificently disparate landscapes and culture, serving as the heart and soul of China. In his masterpiece Memorial to Yueyang Tower, Fan Zhongyan, a famous poet of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), described the beauty and vitality of the river: Fish with scales like glimmering silk disport themselves in the water, and the fishermen sing to each other for sheer joy.