Four Chinese soldiers were killed in the fierce clash with the Indian Army in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June last year, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) acknowledged for the first time on Friday.

We hope that the two sides will work in concerted efforts to achieve the goal, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said

Chatterjee, whose early career was in the Indian Army, was decorated for gallantry by the President of India in 1995.

Global Times, the Chinese Communist Party government's mouthpiece, said that the broadcaster is responsible "for falsified reporting" on China's handling of the coronavirus in the country.

China is a permanent member of the UNSC while India began its two-year tenure as a non-permanent member on January 1.

There was no comment from the Indian side on the statement made by the Chinese defence ministry spokesperson Colonel Wu Qian, and carried by China's official media.

The wet market was where a variety of live animals were traded until it was shut down following fears that the coronavirus had jumped to humans either from bats or pangolins.

'We stress that the boundary issue shall not be linked with the overall bilateral relations. That is an important experience we have gathered through many years' effort to keep the ties moving forward

The "bumper" 40 per cent increase followed a number of sweeping reforms intended to transform the "bloated People's Liberation Army, into a more modern, nimble fighting force".

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, known for fiery retorts against the US, welcomed Biden's first moves to join the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organisation (WHO) which was trashed by Trump as a puppet of China over its conduct to deal with the COVID-19.

"China's position on the Zangnan region (South Tibet) is consistent and clear. We never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing while responding to a question.

The sanctioned individuals and their immediate family members are prohibited from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao of China. They and companies and institutions associated with them are also restricted from doing business with China, according to the statement by the Chinese foreign ministry.

The World Health Organisation team's visit has become a bone of contention as Beijing, which questions the widely-held view about the virus' origins in Wuhan, had delayed granting permission to it.

Xi spoke of the importance of implementing the new development philosophy and advancing the new development paradigm of "dual circulation" in the country's new development phase to ensure a good start for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.

Confirming the visit, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing on Monday that China supported scientists around the world to conduct a global study on the origins and transmission routes of the virus.

"We raced against time and were the first country to report cases to the world," Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said in interviews to the official media over the weekend.

The new law, effective from January 1, weakens the role of the State Council, China's Cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang, in formulating military policy, handing decision-making powers to the Central Military Commission (CMC), the overall high-command of the two million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) headed by Xi, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.

The Chinese side hopes that the next US administration will return to a sensible approach, resume dialogue with China, restore normalcy to the bilateral relations and restart cooperation, Wang, who is also a state councillor, told the state-run Xinhua news agency in an interview.

The approval comes a day after Sinopharm said its vaccine showed 79.34 per cent efficacy and a 99.52 per cent antibody-positive conversion rate in the interim results of the Phase III clinical trials.

India and China have held several rounds of talks at the diplomatic and military-level to resolve the standoff that erupted in early May.