President Xi Jinping made the remark in an exchange of congratulatory messages on Sunday with his Ghanaian counterpart, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China-Ghana diplomatic relations.

In his message, Xi said he highly values developing bilateral ties and is willing to work with Akufo-Addo to take the 60th anniversary as an opportunity to carry forward traditional friendship in order to benefit the two countries and their peoples and contribute to the building of a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

Over the past six decades, the traditional friendship between China and Ghana has grown stronger with practical cooperation yielding fruitful results, Xi said.

Bilateral relations have shown a good momentum for all-round development in recent years, bringing tangible benefits to both peoples, he added.

The president noted that China and African countries, including Ghana, have stood by each other in the joint fight against the COVID-19 pandemic since its outbreak, which has demonstrated their brotherly friendship.

As of Sunday, the pandemic had caused more than 11,800 deaths in Africa with over 463,300 people being infected, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

In his message, Akufo-Addo said that Xi has shown extraordinary leadership in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and China has won worldwide acclaim for its anti-epidemic assistance and support to countries around the world, including Ghana.

Deepening cooperation

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has also exchanged messages with Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, chairman of the ruling Mongolian People's Party and prime minister of Mongolia, according to a news release published on Saturday.

In the message, Xi said that the CPC is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the MPP to lead the China-Mongolia comprehensive strategic partnership to greater development and contribute to regional peace and prosperity.

Recalling that Khurelsukh sent a message to him recently on the occasion of the 99th founding anniversary of the CPC, Xi said it fully demonstrated the great importance Khurelsukh and the MPP attach to relations between the two parties and countries.

China is ready to strengthen anti-epidemic exchanges and cooperation with Mongolia and other countries, and jointly build a community of health for all, he said.

In a previous letter to Xi, Khurelsukh said that China's fight against COVID-19 has not only safeguarded the health of the Chinese people, but also made great contributions to protecting the health of people around the world, which he deeply admires.

According to state reports, the Bayannur patient - a herdsman - is in quarantine and in a stable condition.

Officials said they were also investigating a second suspected case, according to China's Global Times.

The bubonic plague was once the world's most feared disease, but can now be easily treated.

The first case was reported as suspected bubonic plague on Saturday at a hospital in Urad Middle Banner, in Bayannur city. It is not yet clear how or why the patient might have become infected.

The second suspected case involves a 15-year-old, who had apparently been in contact with a marmot hunted by a dog, a tweet from Global Times said.

A level 3 alert, which forbids the hunting and eating of animals that could carry plague and calls on the public to report suspected cases, has been put in place until the end of the year.

What is bubonic plague?
Bubonic plague, caused by bacterial infection, was responsible for one of the deadliest epidemics in human history - the Black Death - which killed about 50 million people across Africa, Asia and Europe in the 14th Century.

There have been a handful of large outbreaks since. It killed about a fifth of London's population during the Great Plague of 1665, while more than 12 million died in outbreaks during the 19th Century in China and India.

Black Death 'spread by humans not rats'
Why hasn't the US eradicated the plague?
But nowadays it can be treated by antibiotics. Left untreated, the disease - which is typically transmitted from animals to humans by fleas - has a 30-60% fatality rate.

Symptoms of the plague include high fever, chills, nausea, weakness and swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit or groin.

Could there be another epidemic?
Bubonic cases are rare, but there are still a few flare-ups of the disease from time to time.

Madagascar saw more than 300 cases during an outbreak in 2017. However, a study in medical journal The Lancet found less than 30 people died.

In May last year, two people in the country of Mongolia died from the plague, which they contracted after eating the raw meat of a marmot - the same type of rodent the second suspected case came into contact with.

However, it's unlikely any cases will lead to an epidemic.

"Unlike in the 14th Century, we now have an understanding of how this disease is transmitted," Dr Shanti Kappagoda, an infectious diseases doctor at Stanford Health Care, told news site Heathline.

"We know how to prevent it. We are also able to treat patients who are infected with effective antibiotics."

The green passage scheme will address the need for truck drivers driving freight across the national border and other key personnel needing to cross the border for business, logistics and production needs, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The ministry said the scheme will have a significant role in boosting the bilateral trade of goods and facilitate work and production resumption on key projects involving people from both countries.

China first piloted a fast-track entry mechanism with South Korea in April to keep the pandemic contained while kick-starting economic work and industrial production that inevitably involves personnel exchanges with its major trade partners. Fast track agreements with other countries, such as Germany and Singapore, followed.

However, most of these links were via international flights whereas land entry is of special significance for countries such as Mongolia.

Trade volume between Mongolia and China reached $8.9 billion in 2019, accounting for 64.4 percent of Mongolia's total foreign trade, public data showed in January.

The two countries have set a $10-billion target for bilateral trade in 2020.

J.Erdenebat from the Mongolian People’s Party won a seat in the State Great Khural for a constituency in the Selenge Province in the parliamentary election, which took place on 24 June, while he was still in detention. Subsequently, a bi-election will be held in Selenge to elect a new MP.

J.Erdenebat was imprisoned on 16 June after failing to pay the ridiculously large MNT 10 billion bail issued by the court. The 45-year-old politician was accused of abuse of power for illegally owning protected areas with special licenses in Tost, in the Tosonbulba Mountain Range in the South Gobi Province whilst working as Prime Minister.

So far, the country has 220 confirmed cases of coronavirus; 188 of whom have recovered. In other words, Mongolia’s recovery rate has now reached 85 percent.

Currently, under treatment at the NCCD there are 32 people with coronavirus; 30 of them have mild symptoms.

Further good news is that a third Mongolian woman has given birth to a girl while on coronavirus quarantine. The expectant mother was transferred to the NCCD from an isolation centre to give birth. The mother was in isolation for observation after having fully recovered from COVID-19.

The coal factory comprising of five workshops, three for the production of refined coal and two for coking and washing coal, will be opened this November. Currently infrastructure and installation works are underway on the construction site. On June 5, the first workshop was put into 72-hour trial operation.

The next two workshops will be opened in September. Each workshop will have an hourly capacity of 90 tons. The factory’s main building located underground is also expected to prevent the release of dust particles into the air.

According to Jonathan Barnes, senior copper analyst at Roskill, copper prices will be influenced by continued pressure on supply in the coming quarters. “So, what we might actually see is a supercharged recovery in the copper price this year, but actually next year we could see the prices more or less stabilize because this unique impact of Covid-19 and the dislocation to the scrap market suddenly is absent,” he told CNBC.

Experts at Citi say the metal could be overvalued going into the third quarter. “The copper rally over the past month, from $5,700 a ton to over $6,000 a ton, has occurred against a backdrop of flat-to-falling equity prices and bond yields, leaving copper looking overvalued by $220 to $420 per ton based on these historical relationships,” said the bank’s analysts.

“Overall, we stick with our very near-term point price target of $5,750 a ton (versus spot of $6,050 a ton) though we see a window for a pullback as the two to four weeks, and ultimately we recommend buying on dips,” they said.

They were echoed by Saxo Bank analysts, with the head of its commodity strategy Ole Hansen saying: “Copper’s recent recovery to pre-pandemic levels will challenge the metal’s ability to reach higher ground in the third quarter.”

The strategist explained that “a recovery in Chinese demand, combined with supply disruptions at mines in South America, were the triggers that finally forced speculators back into long positions following the break above $2.50/lb. The risk of a second wave – especially in the US and China, the world’s two biggest consumers – may force a rethink and we see no further upside during the coming quarter.”

Demand for the metal is projected to be stronger in the second half of the year, as economies and industries restart across the globe.

“We have a positive outlook and expect quite solid demand growth over the next few years,” Eleni Joannides, principal analyst in Wood Mackenzie’s copper team, told CNBC. “But while the picture is looking positive for demand, it’s looking even stronger on the supply side. So, when we look at the balance between supply and demand, we’re still looking at a surplus market for the next couple of years, and that will put some downward pressure on prices.”

Of them, 414 were outbound and 542 inbound, according to the Erenhot station of exit and entry frontier inspection.

These freight trains carried a total of 960,000 tonnes of goods worth around 1.7 billion U.S. dollars from January to June, up 65.6 percent and 2.7 percent year on year, respectively, the local customs data showed.

Initiated in 2011, the China-Europe cargo rail transport service is considered a significant part of the Belt and Road Initiative to boost trade between China and countries participating in the program. Amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, the service remains a reliable transportation channel.

The Erenhot Port is the largest land port on the border between China and Mongolia. So far, there are 38 routes of China-Europe freight trains via the land port.
Source: Xinhua