The former British colony also reported COVID-related 87 deaths taking the overall toll to 3,729, the report said.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who is at the helm of managing the country's economy for a decade, said that he will be stepping down this year, setting in motion the once-in-a-decade sweeping leadership change in the Communist country.

Premier Li, replying to a question on China's refusal to criticise Russia's military action against Ukraine, said that utmost efforts should be made to support Russia and Ukraine in carrying forward ceasefire negotiations.

'We hope this round of meeting, on the basis of previous meetings, can move forward, further enlarge consensus, narrow differences and work for a solution that is acceptable to both parties,' the spokesperson said in updated comments posted on the ministry's website.

China hiked its annual defence budget by 7.1 per cent.

China on Saturday lowered its GDP target to 5.5 per cent for this year bringing it down from last year's 6.1 per cent. The new target for the second-largest economy was announced by Premier Li Keqiang in his work report presented to the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's Parliament which opened its annual session in Beijing on Saturday. In 2021, China's economy grew by 8.1 per cent 2021 to about $18 trillion stated to be the best in a decade.

Wang said that the situation in Ukraine has changed rapidly and that China laments the outbreak of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and is 'extremely concerned' with the harm to civilians, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

China on Tuesday warned the United States that it will pay a 'heavy price' for its attempts to show support to Taiwan's independence as a delegation of ex-American defence officials dispatched by President Joe Biden landed in Taipei amid apprehensions that Beijing may attempt action against the self-ruled island akin to Russia's military assault in Ukraine.

China on Thursday criticised India's latest decision to block access to 54 more Chinese mobile apps over security and privacy concerns, saying that the move has damaged the legitimate interests of companies from China. India on Monday blocked 54 more apps with Chinese links, including Tencent Xriver, Nice Video baidu, Viva Video Editor, and gaming app Garena Free Fire Illuminate. The Chinese apps allegedly obtain various critical permissions and collect sensitive user data. The collected real-time data are being misused and transmitted to servers located in a hostile country, sources in India said, adding that the IT ministry has issued interim directions for the blocking of 54 apps.

"On the border issue, China always maintains that we should follow through on treaties and agreements we signed and we jointly uphold peace and tranquility at the border region," Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said while responding to Jaishankar's remarks.

China, which has territorial disputes with many countries in the strategic Indo-Pacific region, has been opposing the Quad alliance since its formation.

China in a provocative move fielded Qi Fabao, the regimental commander of the (PLA), who was injured during the June 2020 clash in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, as a torchbearer for the Olympics Games Torch Relay, which led India to diplomatically boycott the opening ceremony of the games on Friday.

In the past, India strongly rejected references made to Jammu and Kashmir in a previous joint statement by Pakistan and China.

Asked for his reaction to the allegation of the PLA abducting Taron, the spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing said, "I don't know the situation."

China's economy grew by 8.1 per cent in 2021 to about $18 trillion despite challenges, including epidemic resurgences and a complicated external environment, the government said on Monday. According to the official figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China's economy grew by four per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, slowing from the 4.9 per cent growth in the third quarter, rounding off the full year's growth rate to 8.1 per cent in 2021. The GDP increase is also above the six per cent target set by the government for the year.

As Covid-19 cases spiralled in China ahead of the next month's Beijing Winter Olympics, authorities effectively put Anyang under lockdown, the third city after Xian and Tianjin, confining over 20 million people to their homes to arrest the spread of the contagion.

China said on Tuesday that the current situation on the border areas with India was "stable" as it confirmed that the 14th round of Corps Commander-level talks to discuss the disengagement process in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh will be held on Wednesday.

India will continue to take up with China the return of over 23,000 stranded Indian students, besides a large number of Indian workers and their families who are currently stranded back home for the last two years due travel restrictions imposed by Beijing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a senior diplomat has said.

India on Thursday strongly rejected China renaming 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh and asserted that the state has 'always been' and will 'always be' an integral part of India and that assigning 'invented' names does not alter this fact.

China's Zero-COVID-19 case policy is increasingly coming under stress as the country is reporting a spike in the number of coronavirus infections from different provinces ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games with over 2,500 people undergoing treatment.