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The Chinese President has met with leaders of the country's non-Communist parties ahead of Spring Festival.
Representatives from the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and public figures without party affiliation also attended the meeting.
Xi Jinping conveyed his holiday greetings on behalf of the CPC Central Committee to the other parties and attendees.
Senior Communist Party of China member Yang Jiechi has delivered a speech on the state of China-U.S. relations and prospects for the future.
Yang says effective cooperation between the two sides will be beneficial for the world.
Yang is the director of the Office for the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee.
It is his first speech to the American audience since the Biden administration took office.
China says it hopes all sides in Myanmar will uphold political and social stability.
The Chinese foreign ministry calls on all parties involved to properly handle their differences under the constitutional and legal framework.
Myanmar's military has declared a state of emergency in the country for one year after carrying out detentions of senior government leaders, including Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint.
Experts from the World Health Organization and China have visited Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention as well as Hubei Provincial CDC.
The China-WHO joint team went to laboratories during their visits, including a biosafety level three laboratory and a flu reference lab.
The team also looked at samples and research data of initial COVID-19 cases and spoke with experts at the two centers.
Meanwhile, WHO technical lead for COVID-19 Maria Van Kerkhove praised the interaction between scientists from the two sides.
"They are having very productive discussions with Chinese counterparts, visiting different hospitals around Wuhan, they've had a very good visit to the market, seeing first hand the stalls and walking through — we had some good feedback from them of the importance of being able to physically walk through."
The WHO expert team is responsible for conducting joint scientific research with Chinese scientists on the origin-tracing of the novel coronavirus.
A batch of China-donated COVID-19 vaccines has been handed over to Pakistan.
The donation includes 500 thousand doses of Sinopharm vaccine.
A handover ceremony was held at an air base near Islamabad.
Pakistani officials say the donation will enable the country to begin its vaccination drive this week.
The European Union has defended its COVID-19 vaccination program which has been marred by various problems lately.
European Commission Director General for vaccine procurement Sandra Gallina addressed the European Parliament's budget committee in Brussels.
She says more than 12 million vaccinations have been administered by member states, putting them on par with leading nations.
"Today we have already gone beyond a mark of 12 million vaccinations. So may I say, if you calculate what has happened, we have already joined the bigger league of countries. When you look at the list of the top vaccinating countries, all the member states are in the top league."
The EU's vaccination programme has come under pressure from the World Health Organization and EU member states.
The CDC in the United States says new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are down, but three new variants are causing concern.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says that most of the US cases of coronavirus mutations involve the strain first detected in the United Kingdom.
"Variants remain a great concern and we continue to detect them in the United States with at least 33 jurisdictions reporting 471 variant cases as of January 31st. 467 of these cases are now B117 variants first detected in the UK and cases of this variant have now been detected in 32 states."
The UK strain spreads more easily and is believed to be deadlier while early indications show that vaccines may not protect against the South African strain.
A United Nations senior envoy in Somalia has condemned the attack on Afrik Hotel, which left nine people dead and more than ten others injured.
Al-Shabab militants attacked the popular hotel in Mogadishu on Sunday evening and engaged in the hours-long siege before being dislodged by Somali security forces.
