Chinese State media reported on Sunday, Beijing will require travellers to get a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arrival in the Chinese capital, a day after the city reported its first Omicron case and as it readies to stage the Winter Olympics next month. This is further tightening in addition to the requirement of a negative COVID test report within 48 hours of boarding to the city.<br />''<br />''AFP writes that the number of Covid-19 cases in China reached the highest since March 2020 on Monday, as Beijing races to stamp out the highly transmissible coronavirus variant just three weeks before hosting the Winter Olympics.<br />''<br />''Mint headline reads, China's zero-omicron approach impacting its economy, supply chains. It adds that Goldman Sachs has just slashed its projection for Chinese economic growth in 2022 to 4.3% from 4.8% Economists say China's zero-tolerance strategy is likely to do more bad than good in 2022, Omicron could deal a blow to factories and supply chains, compounding the economic threat.<br />''<br />''<br />''SCMP reports that mainland China's population increased to 1.4126 billion last year, while Chinese mothers gave birth to 10.62 million babies, marking an 11.5 percent decline from 2020, data released on Monday showed.<br />''<br />''According to Reuters, China will release crude oil from its national strategic stockpiles around the Lunar New Year holidays that start on Feb. 1 as part of a plan coordinated by the United States with other major consumers to reduce global prices.<br />''<br />''The Guardian writes that decline in local Chinese dialects among the younger generation has become more apparent in recent years as China's president, Xi Jinping, has sought to strengthen a uniform Chinese identity. Mandarin is now being spoken by more than 80% of China's population, up from 70% a decade ago. Last month, China's state council vowed to increase the figure to 85% within the next four years. But the popularisation of a standard national language is often at the expense of regional languages, including dialects of the Han majority and ethnic languages such as Mongolian and Uyghur.<br />''<br />''<br />''Bloomberg reports that China's property market slump persisted in December, contributing to an economic slowdown that spurred policy makers to cut a key interest rate.  The downturn spanned developers' sales, investments, land purchasing, and financing activities, according to Bloomberg calculations based on full-year government figures released Monday.<br />''<br />''According to SCMP, China's talks with Middle Eastern countries last week brought progress in economic cooperation, but little in other areas despite Beijing's desire to play a greater role in the region.<br />''<br />''Japan Times reports that Zero COVID' and Xi's ambitions may slow China's economy in 2022.<br />''<br />''SCMP  writes that a senior official in China's top law enforcement body singled out pressure from external forces as a major threat to the country, saying it complicated the country's political and legal activities. The warning comes as China tries to ensure stability for this year's Communist Party national congress.<br />''<br />''Business Standard quotes Bloomberg news according to which Omicron has breached the political, financial, and technology centers of China for the first time, putting pressure on the country's response to the more transmissible variant as it awaits the Winter Olympics starting in less than three weeks.<br />''<br />''According to SCMP, Taiwan will spend close to USD 8.71 billion on eight types of weapons to help boost its defences in the face of growing military threats from Beijing. Military observers said the weapons, to be built by the self-ruled island, included missiles capable of striking coastal and inland mainland China. It came on top of the record defence budget approved by the island this year.<br />''<br />''South China Morning Post reported, a senior official from China's central bank has warned that China's supply chains are under growing pressure amid increasing uncertainty in the global markets. "The impact of Covid-19 has sped up the shift in the global distribution of production," Liu Guiping, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said in Beijing. "In addition to the influence of geopolitical contests, China's industrial sectors are facing double pressure – industries moving into Southeast Asia and back to developed countries. "Chip shortages and supply chain stoppages threaten supply chain security and competitiveness."<br />''<br />''South Korean news agency Yonhap writes that China may resume regular trade with North Korea as soon as Monday, after a North Korean train pulled into a Chinese border town on Sunday in the first such crossing since anti-coronavirus border lockdowns began in 2020. It was unclear whether the train was carrying any cargo into China but was likely to return to North Korea on Monday with a load of "emergency materials", according to the report. Japan's Kyodo news agency also reported the train's arrival.<br />