Bangladesh on Tuesday received 1 million doses of Sinovac vaccine as a gift from the Chinese government. This is the fifth batch of gifted Covid-19 vaccine doses from the Chinese Government to Bangladesh. Bangladesh received four batches of gifted Chinese Sinopharm vaccine doses in May, June, and August of 2021.

Bangladesh will receive 10 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccine on Friday evening from the Chinese government as a gift. A Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight is on the way to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport from Tianjin International Airport in China. Read: 1.77 mln doses of Sinopharm vaccine on way to Dhaka Earlier, Bangladesh received 11 lakh doses of Sinopharm as a gift from China. These 10 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccine are coming as a gift from China for Bangladeshi brothers and sisters, said Hualong Yan, Deputy Chief of Mission at Chinese Embassy in Dhaka on Friday. Read:1.7mn Sinopharm vaccine doses to arrive soon Bangladesh also received over 34 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccine under the COVAX facility. Bangladesh is also receiving Sinopharm vaccine doses under a commercial purchase agreement.

The Chinese government is cracking down on the country's private education industry, largely Western run. Tutoring and education services companies have been told to become  NGOs. Core-curriculum tutoring, which is meant to help students pass the all-important entrance exams, has been banned and a big clampdown on online teaching from abroad and hiring of foreign teachers has been ordered. Read: Russia and China vexing Biden The private sector education industry globally is big, as large as $120 billion. New Oriental, VIPKid and other companies that lead the English language teaching market particularly in China have suffered massive losses on the stock market after this. Some are saying it’s also part of Beijing’s aggression against tech companies while others say middle class China, now growing rapidly, needs some help in regulating such a sector, largely owned from the outside.    Gaokao Gaokao is the college entrance examination, on which depends where life will go in the future. Chinese families spend thousands of dollars to ensure that kids get a seat in the better colleges. However, it’s part of the new middle and upper class elite life in China only. Most kids grow up in the rural areas where the income per capita is still low - around $2,635 - and college education is far away. Some are speculating that these regulations are meant to reduce child raising costs which many think is leading to a demographic squeeze. Although the GoC has extended family size limits, interest in raising larger families than now is low and costs are mentioned as retardants. Meanwhile, China may also be trying to reduce exposure to the Western world, say critics. This is probably a bit of anti-China tirade on the side because China has a huge expat population and almost all are pro-Beijing. And the decisions have hurt Western companies.     Two issues are at work. One is the economics of private education, now largely in Western hands which  has just got hammered. So Western investors are unhappy but not much can be done. China may have run out of need for these goods and the West has lost a major market, all inside China. Read:China rebuffs WHO’s terms for further COVID-19 origins study The other point is that the need for private coaching tutoring  remains -so it’s possible that a local English and entrance education market will grow indigenously which China would much prefer. The South Korean experience shows that private sector education can’t be stamped out by regulations and in the end, if laws of supply and demand of the middle class are to be considered, private tutoring is here to stay, whether in China, US or Bangladesh.  

China has agreed that the World Health Organization (WHO) will send experts to Beijing to exchange ideas with Chinese scientists and medical experts on science-based cooperation to trace the origin of the COVID-19 virus, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Wednesday.

Dhaka, Jan 28 (UNB) – Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Tuesday reiterated its readiness to bring back Bangladesh citizens, willing to return from Wuhan city of China, once China lifts the ongoing 14-day restriction in the city that faced lockdown over the coronavirus outbreak.

Face masks sold out and officials at airports and train stations checked passengers for fevers as China on Tuesday sought to control the outbreak of a new virus that has reached four other countries and territories and threatens to spread further during the Lunar New Year travel rush.