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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after touring multiple Arab countries, is meeting Israeli leaders on Tuesday amid the enduring Gaza humanitarian disaster, Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping and the escalation in hostilities at the Israel-Lebanon borders.

Speaking alongside Israeli President Isaac Herzog ahead of their meeting on Tuesday, Blinken said he would share what he had heard from regional countries during a day of meetings with Israel's government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters reported.

Blinken's agenda for his fifth Israel visit in three months includes discussing the next phase of Israel's military campaign and pressing on the protection of civilians, according to the US Department of State. 

But Chinese observers have low expectations that Blinken's trip can help alleviate the tension, as Israel shows no signs of softening its military assertiveness while the US eyes a diplomatic posture rather than real mediation. 

Since Friday, Blinken has visited countries including Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. During the trip, he repeated multiple times the urgency of de-escalating the tension and discussed plans for the future governance of Gaza. 

On Monday, Blinken said Palestinians "must not be pressed to leave Gaza" and he criticized "irresponsible" comments by some Israel ministers calling for people's resettlement outside the enclave, media reported.

Yet US calls may only get symbolic resonation from Israel as the two close allies are diverging wider and wider on Gaza and Middle East issues, Zhu Yongbiao, executive director of the Research Center for the Belt and Road at Lanzhou University, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

Israeli officials said the strikes in Gaza have entered a new phase of more targeted warfare, but there was no respite in the fighting on Monday, Reuters reported. "The fighting will continue through 2024," said Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, Reuters reported. 

Sun Degang, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times that Israel aims to use its recent victories as leverage to address security concerns in the north and potentially extend its military achievements. 

The US has to deal with the presidential election this year and does not want the Middle East to take up too much of its attention from its competition with China and Russia, Sun said. 

Zhu pointed out that under the US' guideline of withdrawing from the Middle East, Blinken's trip aims to display the US' diplomatic presence and fulfillment of responsibilities as Israel's ally rather than play a constructive role in mediation. 

Therefore the US and Israel could showcase they have reached some consensus on non-significant topics, but that consensus can hardly have meaningful impact on the overall conflicts raging in the region, Zhu said. 

In the latest sign that the war may be spreading, Israel killed a top commander of Hamas' ally Hezbollah in south Lebanon on Monday. It came after an attack in Beirut last week which killed Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri, for which Israel did not claim responsibility, according to CNN. 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Monday that if Hezbollah is not deterred, Israel can "copy-paste" the Gaza war to Beirut. Gallant told media that his country was determined to end Hamas' rule of Gaza and deter other Iran-backed adversaries, Reuters reported. 

Hezbollah has vowed revenge, and analysts believe there will be more rocket launches, but a "large-scale retaliatory assault" is unlikely as it is beyond regional forces' capacity and will.

However, the possibility cannot be ruled out that there might be actions internationalizing the consequences of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such as Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, Zhu said. 

The Caixin services purchasing managers' index (PMI), a private gauge of the country's service sector, rose to 52.9 in December, increasing 1.4 percentage points over the previous month and hitting the highest level in the past five months, according to a private survey released on Thursday.

The index for service activity remains above the expansion-contraction line for consecutive 12 months in 2023, indicating the continuous rebound of the country's service sector, according to the Caixin report.

"It signaled the country's service sector has strong and improved growth momentum at the end of 2023, as the PMI readings have kept going up over time ," read the report, noting that both services supply and demand expanded, as the market continued to recover. The gauges for business activity and total new orders have seen a considerable growth in the past six months.

Meanwhile, companies and entrepreneurs expressed greater optimism over the year-ahead outlook. Employment has also ticked up, the first recorded improvement in past three months, though some firms have maintained cautious approach to hiring.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the National Commission of Supervision (NCS), the country’s top anti-graft body, has pledged to intensify scrutiny in areas including finance, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), healthcare, grain procurement and sale, rural revitalization, tobacco, sports, statistics and more.

Special efforts will be carried out to tackle industrial, systemic and regional corruption cases, and effectively prevent and defuse systemic risks, according to an article released on the CCDI and NCS’ website on Monday.

The article highlighted that in order to decisively win the protracted and tough battle against corruption, it is imperative to consistently maintain a “high-pressure stance” and never relent in the determination to punish wrongdoing.

According to a five-year work plan of the Central Anti-Corruption Coordination Group from 2023 to 2027, the anti-corruption work will be further expanded to the primary level, with harsh punishments for misconduct including embezzlement, illegal possession and misappropriation, as well as ways to solicit bribes.

A total of 405,000 officials at all levels were punished over the first nine months of 2023, of whom 34 of were senior officials at provincial or ministerial levels, per data from the CCDI and NCS.

In recent years, the financial sector has been a focal point for anti-corruption efforts. In 2023, at least 101 individuals in the financial field were put under investigation, according to media reports.

Notably, the list includes senior officials like Liu Liange, former Party chief and president of the Bank of China, Zhou Qingyu, a former vice president of China Development Bank, and Li Xiaopeng, former Party chief and chairman of China Everbright Group.

Out of the 101 individuals under investigation, 74 are from the banking sector, 12 from regulatory authorities, seven from insurance institutions, two from financial groups, one from a securities institution, and five from other financial organizations, domestic news site Thepaper.cn reported.

The high-intensity anti-corruption campaign continues into the beginning of 2024, with the latest busted case involving Wang Yongsheng, former deputy president of China Development Bank, who was expelled from the CPC for severe violations of Party discipline and the law, the country's top anti-graft body said on Friday.

The latest COVID-19 variant JN.1 is spreading around the world, leading to growing concerns in Chinese society, following a recent severe wave of respiratory infections. Chinese experts estimate that the variant will cause more infections in the near future, but it is not likely to seriously worsen the current situation.

Named JN.1, this variant was first identified in Luxembourg, before spreading to the UK, Iceland, France, and the US.

By the end of October, JN.1 made up less than 0.1 percent of SARS-CoV-2 viruses circulating in the US. But as of December 8, 2023, the ratio climbed to 15-29 percent, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The US estimated that COVID-19 infections are likely to increase in the next month.

Data in the UK also suggested that the variant is spreading more than every other known strain, making up one in 13 cases in England last month.

The JN.1 variant is part of the BA.2.86 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with an additional L455S mutation in the RBD region. Early studies have shown that BA.2.86 has similar immune escape capabilities as the XBB variants. However, recent research has found that the L455S mutation in the JN.1 variant further enhances its immune evasion ability, allowing it to partially escape the humoral immune response induced by XBB.1.5 breakthrough infections, Lu Hongzhou, head of the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

According to current research, BA.2.86, first identified in August 2023, carries more than 30 mutations in the spike (S) protein compared to the XBB and BA.2 variants, indicating high potential for immune evasion.

Another name of JN.1 is BA.2.86.1.1 and there is only a single change between JN.1 and BA.2.86 in the spike protein, according to current research.

A recent study by Japanese scientists published on bioRxiv on December 8 evaluated the virological characteristics of the omicron subvariant JN.1, which shows robust immune evasion ability compared to other variants. This could be due to the acquisition of the L455S mutation in the spike protein. The study noted that JN.1 has the ability to become a dominant variant worldwide in the future.

But so far, there is no evidence that JN.1 presents an increased risk to public health compared to other variants, according to the US CDC.

Currently, the XBB variant of COVID-19 is still the main strain of the local infections in China. Many clinical doctors told the media that they had witnessed an increase in COVID-19 infections recently and they predicted this wave of infections will last till late January 2024 with mortality and severe illness rates likely to increase.

"Since December last year, SARS-CoV-2 has been co-circulating with other respiratory pathogens in China, leading to many domestic residents in the country having experienced two or even three infections. Existing research data indicates that such infection experiences can generate strong and broad-spectrum neutralizing antibodies against different subvariants of Omicron. Furthermore, although JN.1 has increased immune escape ability, there is currently no evidence to suggest an increase in the pathogenicity of the JN.1 variant," Lu explained.

"Therefore, we speculate that the future prevalence of JN.1 in our country may temporarily increase the number of COVID-19 patients and burden hospitals, but it will not significantly worsen the ongoing respiratory disease outbreaks," he said.

Lu reiterated the necessity of vaccination as it is an effective method to improve the speed and intensity of antibody production, providing better protection for the body.

Authorities in multiple cities across China such as Shanghai and Tianjin have sent notices to advise local residents to take COVID-19 vaccines targeting the XBB variant, urging eligible individuals to get the vaccine in a timely manner to enhance their protection against the virus.

Train tickets for the first day of the upcoming New Year's Day holidays went on sale on Saturday, with some popular routes sold out within seconds, data from online travel platforms showed.

As of 10 am, multiple train services departing from Beijing to cities of Zhengzhou and Wuhan, from Nanjing to Hefei and Hangzhou, among others, were already sold out. Notably, tickets for several popular routes were sold out within seconds, Tongcheng Travel Holdings said in a statement it sent to the Global Times.

This year's New Year's Day holidays extends from December 30, 2023, to January 1, 2024.

According to an analysis by the Tongcheng Research Institute, the combination of family visits and tourism during the upcoming holidays, coupled with the popularity of "ice and snow" tourism, is expected to increase traffic on high-speed rail routes from cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Zhengzhou to popular winter destinations including Harbin, Shenyang, Urumqi, and Hulun Buir.

Additionally, there is anticipated high demand for dedicated "ski trains" from Beijing to Zhangjiakou in North China's Hebei Province during the holiday period, Tongcheng said.

An earlier report released by Tongcheng showed that travel enthusiasm for the New Year's Day holidays has seen a year-on-year increase of 465 percent in the seven days leading up to Monday.

In addition, higher hotel booking volumes for the New Year's Eve were observed in cities like Harbin, Nanjing, Wuhan, Shanghai, and Beijing, travel platform Qunar said in a statement it sent to the Global Times on Saturday.

Over the past few days, many travelers have already begun making reservations for tickets through third-party platforms. As of Friday, the pre-booked travel orders for 2024 New Year's Day holidays' train tickets have shown a remarkable 194-percent year-on-year increase compared to the same period last year, according to data from the online travel agency Trip.com.

With the holidays approaching and the "ice and snow" tourism season gaining momentum, enthusiasm for travel remains unabated despite falling temperatures, promising to further stimulate consumption growth, experts said.

A Beijing resident surnamed Yao told the Global Times that he had booked tickets for his family to Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. The primary purpose is to visit his parents at home, and additionally, they plan to take their four-year-old son to the Harbin Ice-Snow World. He said that this would be his son's first visit to the theme park, with the entire family eagerly anticipating the trip.

Another Beijing-resident surnamed Fu said that she plans to go skiing in Zhangjiakou with her friends during the upcoming holiday. "Skiing, hot springs, and gourmet food will be the three main themes of our trip," Fu told the Global Times.

The New Year's Day holidays is a traditional golden season for consumption. Meanwhile, it is the first complete winter consumption season after the pandemic, and it is expected to extend retail spending momentum of consumption in the year, driving a spike in winter-themed spending, Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Per data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday, the service industry experienced rapid growth in November, as year-on-year growth of the national service industry production index came in at 9.3 percent, accelerating 1.6 percentage points compared to the previous month.

Breaking down by industry, the production index of the accommodation and catering industry increased by 30.6 percent year-on-year, showing a 9.3 percentage point acceleration compared to the previous month.

Total retail sales of consumer goods reached 4.25 trillion yuan in the month, representing a year-on-year growth of 10.1 percent, accelerating by 2.5 percentage points compared to October, NBS data showed.

In recent years, the "ice and snow" consumption season has been rapidly growing across China, especially in the northern regions. It typically kicks off in winter and extends through to the following spring, Zhang said.

China's "ice and snow" consumption market has now developed a relatively complete consumer ecosystem, including tourism, sports, related equipment, and culture, he said, noting that compared to summer consumption, the development of "ice and snow" consumption has only recently gained steam but it possesses strong potential for future growth.

Rescue and disaster relief forces, medical teams and urgent supplies are pouring into Northwest China's Gansu Province and the neighboring Qianghai Province after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake jolted a Gansu county at a depth of 10 kilometers at 11:59 pm Monday, causing 127 deaths as of press time.

More than 700 people were injured in the two provinces and dozens more were reported missing; more than 155,000 houses were damaged or collapsed, according to media reports. Infrastructure related to water, electricity, telecommunication, and roads around the epicenter of Jishishan county of Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu have also been damaged to varying degrees.

President Xi Jinping has urged all-out search and rescue efforts and proper arrangements for affected people to ensure the safety of people's lives and property. He also urged allocation of relief supplies to the affected regions as soon as possible, repair of damaged infrastructure such as electricity, communications, transportation and heating, and proper accommodation of the affected people to ensure their basic living needs, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday.    

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management allocated on Tuesday 200 million yuan ($28 million) of central emergency response fund to the quake-stricken areas.

The State Council's Earthquake Relief Command and the Ministry of Emergency Management have raised the national earthquake emergency response to Level II. The national disaster relief emergency response has also been elevated to Level III.

A Y-20 large transport aircraft from the Air Force of the People's Liberation Army Western Theater Command arrived in Lanzhou, capital city of Gansu, on Tuesday noon to deliver the emergency command group and supplies.

China's home-developed Wing Loong-2H emergency relief unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) have also been deployed, the Global Times learned from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. Upon arrival at the disaster zone, the drones will carry out emergency communication support and disaster reconnaissance, among other tasks.

More than 1,500 firefighters, 1,500 police officers, and 1,000 PLA soldiers have been dispatched to the disaster-stricken area, Gansu authorities revealed. Coordinating departments also urgently transported the first batch of emergency supplies to the affected region, including cotton tents, folding beds, blankets, stoves, and more.

The National Health Commission (NHC) sent out a team of medical experts and ordered medical teams from nearby provinces to assist the affected region. More than 100 ambulances were dispatched to transfer the injured.

NHC is working together with local medical staff to systematically screen for hidden injuries, and has already developed individualized diagnosis and treatment plans.

A total of 386 medics from hospitals within Gansu have formed 19 teams to aid the rescue and treatment in Jishishan county and other places in Linxia prefecture.

According to Xinhua, 279 out of 314 telecommunication base stations in Jishishan county have resumed operation and power supply returned for 88 percent of local households as of Tuesday afternoon.

At a temporary shelter in Dahe village, Jishishan coutnty, the Global Times saw local government staff preparing hot food, drinks and instant noodles for victims. About 130 tents were built and each can accommodate five people.

Dahejia Middle School is located in the severely affected Jishishan county. The school principal, surnamed Ma, told the media that all 2,100 students and 190 teachers have safely returned home without injuries. "We have conducted frequent drills at our school for fire and earthquake safety. In critical situations, our teachers were able to quickly evacuate the students," Ma said, adding that more than 1,500 students and all the teachers in school live on campus.

The principal recalled that when the tremor began late Monday night, they first heard a loud bang and then realized that the entire building was shaking. "The teachers soon found that many doors couldn't be opened as they were deformed by the quake. Several male teachers worked together to strike open all the doors." As the school lost power amid the quake, students helped each other by shaking everyone awake, while the teachers ran into each dormitory to evacuate the students. "It only took about 5 minutes to evacuate the entire school," Ma said.

Preliminary analysis of the cause of the earthquake indicates a thrust rupture. Within a 200-kilometer radius of the epicenter, there have been three quakes measuring magnitude 6 or higher since 1900.

There also remains possibility of strong aftershocks with magnitude 5 or higher in the epicenter in the coming days, based on seismic zone analysis, local officials in Gansu warned.

Hours after the quake in Gansu, another 5.5-magnitude quake struck the city of Artux in the neighboring Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at 9:46 am on Tuesday, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. No casualties have been reported as of press time.

Relief complex

Analysts explained that the relatively large casualties and losses resulted from its high intensity and the shallow depth of epicenter. The seismic resistance of the affected-region's buildings is lower than that of the developed regions, the epicenter is a densely populated county, and the timing of midnight also aggravated the situation.

Secondary disasters also pose challenges to the disaster relief. Mountain landslide occurred in a village in Minhe county neighboring Jishishan, which trapped residents and buried several houses.

Yan Wei, deputy director of China's civilian rescue organization the Blue Sky Rescue Team's Gansu branch, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the disaster situation in the local region is severe as 70 to 80 percent of the houses have collapsed in areas around the epicenter.

Yan said that local communication and transportation were also damaged to different degrees, but rescue vehicles are still able to reach the epicenter despite the damages.

Experts reached by the Global Times also warned that the sweeping cold wave and the drastic drop in temperatures have posed another major challenge. The typical golden rescue time window for earthquakes is 72 hours, but this time it is likely to be shortened due to the bitter cold weather, analysts said.

The temperatures drop to -14 C at night, which is a big problem, said Yan. "Many villagers were left without shelters after their houses collapsed. The rescue forces, right after arrival, started building hundreds of tents. They also provided instant noodles and hot water. The situation is improving."

Malaysian artist Mohamad Rusli Bin Ahmad makes a kite during an intangible cultural heritage exhibition on the Maritime Silk Road in Quanzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 9, 2023.(Photo: Xinhua)

China dominated in the diving event at the Fukuoka World Aquatics Championships despite losing in the last event on Saturday, as Chinese divers claimed a total of 12 out of 13 gold medals at this year's worlds diving.

In the men's 10m final, China's Lian Junjie finished runner-up while his compatriot Yang Hao won bronze. Australian Cassiel Rousseau broke China's grip on diving for the first time in six years by winning gold. China had won every world championship diving event it had entered since 2017.

Meanwhile, China's Zhu Zifeng and Lin Shan won gold in the mixed 3m synchronized as China finished the worlds diving event with 12 gold, four silver and three bronze medals. 

In the artistic swimming on Saturday, China's Cheng Wentao and Shi Haoyu clinched gold with an impressive performance.

In the Mixed 3m & 10m Team final of diving on Tuesday, China pocketed its ninth gold in convincing fashion by surpassing Mexico and Germany.

"China's diving dream team has never disappointed us," said one user on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo. 

In the Artistic Swimming Team Technical Routine final on Monday, the Chinese team secured the gold medal with a score of 238.0033. The teams from the US and Japan claimed the silver and bronze medals, respectively. 

The Chinese diving team excelled in the women's 3m synchronized springboard and men's 10m synchronized platform, clinching two gold medals. Chen Yiwen and Chang Yani, the defending champions in the women's 3m synchronized from the previous edition of the Swimming World Championships, took the gold with a score of 341.94. 

In the men's 10m synchronized platform final, which featured 12 pairs of participants, the Chinese duo Yang Hao and Lian Junjie garnered a total of 477.75 points for their six dives, leading the second-place pair by nearly 40 points.

On Sunday, the Chinese team added two golden medals. Peng Jianfeng won the men's 1m springboard gold. In the women's 10m synchronized platform final, China's female diving aces Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan claimed the championship, dominating the competition with a total score of 369.84 points. They surpassed the second-place British pair of Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson by 58.08 points. The victory also secured a berth for the duo in the diving competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

A total of 22 female swimmers and 19 male swimmers from China are competing in all 42 events at the championships, which were originally scheduled to be held in Fukuoka in 2021.

South Korean soccer star Son Heung-min's goal celebration in their 3-0 away win over China on Tuesday aroused controversy on Chinese social media.

Chinese team was defeated by South Korea in their second group match of the second stage of 2026 World Cup Asian Zone qualifiers held in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province. 

Spurs star Son, who captains South Korean national team, bagged a first half brace before setting up teammate Jung Seung-hyun to add a third, putting South Korea on top of the group and in pole position to a secure spot at the 2026 World Cup.

However, Son's goal celebration caused uproars on Chinese social media with fans saying his gesture is highly disrespectful to the crowd. 

Playing in front of a sell-out crowd of more than 40,000 in Shenzhen, Son opened the scoring with a penalty on the 11th minute. In celebration, the man of the match rushed close to the stand and made a gesture of shushing to the Chinese fans. The gesture was met with jeers from the crowd.

Chinese strikers Wu Lei and Tan Long immediately went to argue with Son on the pitch over his provoking gesture.

"We need to respond to Son's disrespectful gesture by scoring and winning the match," said one user on China's Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo.

"It was a really difficult game today and obviously coming to China, it's a great experience and they have amazing fans," said Son after the match.

Having defeated Thailand 2-1 in the first match, China now stands third in Group C, level on points with the second-placed Thailand.

The top two teams from the nine groups progress to the third qualifying stage for the 2026 World Cup in North America.

Chinese golfer Li Linqiang finally won his third championship trophy at the Guotai Cup Men's Professional Match Play on Sunday after four days of fierce competition in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province.

Hosted by the China Golf Association and the Henan Provincial Sports Bureau, the Guotai Cup is a 72-hole stroke play competition with a total prize as high as 500,000 yuan ($68,083) and attracts over 100 players from ten countries and regions, including 12 champions of China Tours.

Li said that it was a close match, as two other players in the same group had huge potential, but he finally won the match.

Zhang Xiaoning, chairman of the China Golf Association, stated before the game that continuing the China Tours is key to the development of professional golf in China. The China Golf Association actively unites and mobilizes the forces of all parties, plans a blueprint for professional events, and strives to build China's own professional tour.