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The four types of COVID-19 vaccine

Over the past month, a number of COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for general or emergency use in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Understandably, there remains confusion over which one to choose – for example, should it be based on technology? On which one has the most advantages? Or simply on the one a country’s government chooses?To get more news about sinopharm update, you can visit shine news official website.

We’re not here to tell you which type of vaccine to choose - that is, and should be, your own choice. However, what we can agree on is that all vaccines work by exposing the human body to particles or molecules that trigger an immune response, thus protecting the subject from future infection. The key difference between the four main types of vaccines is the method of exposure used.
What to know: The whole virus vaccine uses a weakened or deactivated form of the pathogen that causes COVID-19 to trigger protective immunity to it.

The two vaccines mentioned above – Sinopharm and Sinovac – both use inactivated pathogens, therefore they cannot infect cells and replicate, but can trigger an immune response.

Benefits: According to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), the advantages of an inactivated whole virus vaccine include the fact its technology is well established, it is suitable for people with compromised immune systems, and it’s relatively simple to manufacture.What to know: Since no other existing licensed or approved vaccine uses this type of technology, the Messenger RNA (mRNA) variety could be mistaken for something completely new to healthcare. However, a number of mRNA vaccines have been studied in the past for illnesses and diseases including cytomegalovirus (CMV), influenza, rabies, and the Zika virus.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): “Researchers have been studying and working with mRNA vaccines for decades. Interest has grown in these vaccines because they can be developed in a laboratory using readily available materials. This means the process can be standardised and scaled up, making vaccine development faster than traditional methods of making vaccines.”

So how does it reportedly work? The COVID-19 RNA vaccine consists of mRNA molecules made in a lab that code for parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – specifically the virus’ spike protein.

Once injected into the body, the mRNA instructs the cells to produce antigens – such as the spike protein mentioned – which are then detected by immune cells, triggering a response by the body’s lymphocytes.

The killer T-cells destroy the infected cells, while the B-cells and helper T-cells support antibody production. Whoever is exposed to the COVID-19 coronavirus in the future would have an immune system that recognises it, and in turn fight off the infection.

Benefits: According to the University of Cambridge’s PHG Foundation, advantages include good safety (since there are no live components, there’s no risk of the vaccine triggering disease), reliability, and that it’s relatively simple to manufacture.

Challenges: Disadvantages include unintended effects (such as an unintended immune reaction), ensuring effective delivery into the body (since free RNA in the body is quickly broken down), storage issues, plus the fact that this type of vaccine has never previously been licensed for humans.What to know: This type of vaccine introduces a safe, modified version of the virus – known as “the vector” – to deliver genetic code for the antigen. In a COVID-19 vaccine, the “vector” is the spike proteins found on the surface of the coronavirus.

Once the body’s cells are “infected”, the cells are instructed to produce a large amount of antigens, which in turn trigger an immune response.

Benefits: Viral vector-based vaccination is another well-established technology that can trigger a strong immune response as it also involves both B cells and T cells.

Challenges: Previous exposure to the vector could reduce effectiveness, plus these types of vaccines are relatively complex to manufacture compared to others.

China’s Economy: 40 Years of Soaring Exports

China has the second highest GDP in the world, and it exports 15% of all the world’s goods. But how did this come to be?To get more economy news today, you can visit shine news official website.

A mere 40 years ago, China’s economy was in an entirely different situation, making up less than 1% of global exports and still in the infancy stages of building its economy. The above animated chart from the UNCTAD showcases China’s rise to global trade dominance over time.
The China of the mid-20th century looks remarkably different when compared to the modern-day nation. Prior to the 1980s, China was going through a period of social upheaval, poverty, and dictatorship under Mao Zedong.

The 1970s
Beginning in the late 1970s, China’s share of global exports stood at less than 1%. The country had few trade hubs and little industry. In 1979, for example, Shenzhen was a city of just around 30,000 inhabitants.

In fact, China (excluding Taiwan* and Hong Kong) did not even show up in the top 10 global exporters until 1997 when it hit a 3.3% share of global exports.
In the 1980s, several cities and regions, like the Pearl River Delta, were designated as Special Economic Zones. These SEZs had tax incentives that worked to attract foreign investment.

Additionally, in 1989, the Coastal Development Strategy was implemented to use strategic regions along the country’s coast as catalysts for economic development.

The 1990s and Onwards
By the 1990s, the world saw the rise of global value chains and transnational production lines, with China offering a cheap manufacturing hub due to low labor costs.

Rounding out the ‘90s, the Western Development Strategy was implemented in 1999, dubbed the “Open Up the West” program. This program worked to build up infrastructure and education to retain talent in China’s economy, with the goal of attracting further foreign investment.

Finally, China officially joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 which allowed the country to progress full steam ahead.In 2021, China’s trade recovery from the crisis has bested most other countries—in Q1 2021, its exports grew by almost 50% compared to the previous year’s quarter, to around $710 billion.

And the country is not slowing down any time soon. Further plans for economic development are well under way, like Made in China 2025, with the goal of becoming a dominant player in global high-tech manufacturing. Additionally, the famous One Belt, One Road initiative has been funding infrastructure projects globally over the past decade, and the country is also a founding member of the RCEP—which is soon to be the world’s biggest trading bloc.
A declining population has many implications like a shrinking workforce and domestic market. Additionally, many companies are setting up shop in less costly manufacturing hubs like Vietnam.

Furthermore, inexpensive innovations in labor-saving technologies, such as robotics and automation, have already begun to undermine the cheap manual labor that has made China the world’s manufacturer.

All of these elements and more could potentially spell a slowing of growth in China’s export dominance. However, while the future for China may not be certain, currently, global trade and production could not function without it.

Chinese stocks took a hit on Monday as a new wave of COVID-19 lockdowns, along with reports of Russia asking China for military assistance, spooked investors.To get more shanghai stock market news, you can visit shine news official website.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index closed down 7.2% to start the week, its largest one-day drop since November 2008, while the Shanghai Composite fell 2.6% and the Shenzhen Component dropped roughly 3.1%.

Tech stocks were under particular pressure in Chinese markets, as shares of Meituan cratered 16.8% on Monday while Tencent and Alibaba sank 9.8% and 10.9%, respectively.

In U.S. trading, Chinese ADRs struggled to start the week. Shares of e-commerce powerhouses Alibaba, and the agriculture-focused Pinduoduo were all down well over 7% through mid-morning hours. Search-engine operator Baidu also fell as much as 14% in early morning trading before recovering some of its losses. The Golden Dragon China Index, which tracks American Depository Receipts (ADRs) of Chinese companies, is now down over 36% in the past month alone. And lockdown fears added to investors’ pain on Monday, as the index fell as much as 13%.

JPMorgan analysts also downgraded at least 10 Chinese internet stocks to sell-equivalent ratings on Monday, calling them “uninvestable” due to “rising geopolitical and macro risks.”The fall for Chinese equities came after authorities in China’s tech hub Shenzhen ordered 17.5 million residents into a week-long lockdown on Sunday. Sixty-six new cases of COVID-19 brought the city’s total to over 400 since February, prompting action from health officials under China’s zero-COVID policy.

Shenzhen’s shutdown could cause major disruptions to international supply chains as the city boasts some of the world’s largest ports and plays a crucial role in connecting U.S. and Chinese businesses.

Investors and analysts fear a slowdown in economic growth due to lockdowns could translate to falling stock prices in the coming months as well. Analysts at ANZ Research wrote in a Monday note to clients that “if the lockdown is extended, China’s economic growth will be significantly affected,” CNBC reported.

The lockdown of Shenzhen has already led to problems for Apple as the firm’s largest supplier Foxconn was forced to shut two of its manufacturing sites on Sunday. The broad rout in Chinese stocks also comes after reports that Russia has asked China for military assistance in its fight against Ukraine. Despite Chinese officials’ denials, investors fear that global backlash or even sanctions could be in the cards if China is seen to be undermining Western efforts to help Ukraine defend itself.

The sell-off in Chinese stocks shows how the war between Russia and Ukraine could have many far-reaching financial effects, especially when combined with a still-ongoing pandemic.

Beyond COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine-related fears, regulatory risks in the U.S. have played a part in the latest downturn for Chinese stocks.

Last Thursday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed a spate of new Chinese companies subject to delisting under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act as it continues to crack down on foreign firms that refuse to open their books to regulators.

Analysts predict the number of delistings of Chinese companies trading in the U.S. may only continue to rise over the next few weeks.

“The SEC identifies what companies are subject to delisting as early as the firm files its annual report and on a rolling basis,” Morningstar senior equity analyst Ivan Su writes told Forbes. “Therefore, we expect more Chinese ADRs to be included in the Provisional List over the next few weeks.”

Authorities in Shanghai have again tightened anti-virus restrictions, just as the city was emerging from a month of strict lockdown due to a COVID-19 outbreak.To get more news about shanghai covid cases, you can visit shine news official website.

Notices issued in several districts said residents were ordered to stay home and are barred from receiving nonessential deliveries as part of a “quiet period” lasting at least until Wednesday. The tightened measures could be extended depending on the results of mass testing, the notices said.Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Together we can lift the lockdown at an early date," said one notice issued in the city's Huangpu district and posted online.

It wasn’t clear what prompted the renewed tightening, with numbers of new COVID-19 cases in the city continuing to fall.

Shanghai on Monday reported 3,947 cases over the previous 24 hours, almost all of them asymptomatic, along with 11 deaths. Authorities have been gradually lifting isolation rules on the city’s 25 million residents, but the new orders appear to be returning to conditions at the early stage of the outbreak.

Shanghai originally ordered mass testing along with a limited lockdown, but extended that as case numbers rose. Thousands of residents have been forced into centralized quarantine centers for showing a positive test result or merely having been in contact with an infected person.

Two Shanghai residents reached through social media said they'd had no prior notice of the new restrictions, which they were told could last for up to a week.

“We're unprepared," said Zhang Chen, a researcher with a technology company. “I packed my luggage thinking it would be my turn next" to be taken to a quarantine facility.

“I don't know what will happen in May, but after the lockdown, I think I'll need psychological help," Zhang said.

A marketing professional in the western Pudong district said quality of life has been declining even as living expenses continue to rise under lockdown.

“Every time, they say lockdown will be eased after a few days, but there seems to be no end," said the woman, who asked that she be identified only by her surname, Lu, to avoid repercussions from authorities who have cracked down heavily on dissent.

“All aspects of work are affected. I don’t know when it will be time for the lockdown to come to an end," Lu said.

In Beijing, authorities closed down the largest city district, with residents told to stay home and stores closed. Beijing has ordered daily testing of all residents, closed parks and other leisure venues and limited restaurants to takeout business only.

The usually bustling Sanlitun area crammed with restaurants, boutiques and an Apple store was all but deserted. Despite that, retiree Yang Xiaochang said Beijing appeared to be far better prepared to weather the surge than its southern cousin.

Even some COVID-free Shanghai residents say they've been forced into distant quarantine centers

In the middle of the night, Shanghai resident Lucy said she and her neighbors were forced onto buses and taken hundreds of miles away from the locked-down Chinese metropolis to a makeshift coronavirus quarantine center.To get more news about shanghai covid update, you can visit shine news official website.

CBS News senior foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer says that according to Chinese authorities, more than half of Shanghai's 25 million residents have been freed from lockdown conditions, but as the city battles a major COVID-19 outbreak, you'd never know it. The vast majority are still confined to their homes or neighborhoods.

Hundreds of thousands of virus-positive people have been taken to makeshift facilities as China does not allow them to quarantine at home. But some residents who tested negative told AFP that they were also forced out of their homes and taken to camps outside the city, some hundreds of miles away."The police told us that there were too many positive cases in our compound and if we carried on living here, we'd all become infected," Lucy told AFP, using only her first name for privacy reasons. "We had no choice."

She said the virus-negative group were sent to a quarantine site containing hundreds of single-room prefab cabins in neighboring Anhui province, about 250 miles away, and that it was not initially clear where they going.

AFP spoke with other Shanghai residents who said healthy, virus-negative people in some housing compounds were sent to other provinces for quarantine. One said his neighbors had protested and refused to join.

Another from the city's Jing'an district told AFP she was taken, along with dozens of people from her residential compound, to a single-room quarantine center in Anhui late one night.

"We all received calls from the neighborhood committee saying that since there are too many positives in our compound, the negatives need to be transferred to hotels for isolation," that resident told AFP, preferring to stay anonymous.Shanghai on Monday remained under a patchwork of different restrictions as new virus cases dropped to around 7,000, with 32 dead.

City authorities have imposed a three-tiered system of "freedoms," although stringent local enforcement appeared to still restrict the majority of residents to within residential compounds or neighborhoods.

China's relentless pursuit of a zero-COVID policy has left many Shanghai residents chafing under the tight curbs. The Shanghai government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Officials in the economic hub are likely under more pressure than elsewhere to achieve "zero-COVID at the community level" — meaning no transmission outside quarantine centers — according to Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.

"When they face strong pressure from above to achieve zero-COVID targets, these heavy-handed, excessive measures become more likely."

"Moving negative people could be considered a pre-emptive strategy, with the expectation that more positive cases may be found if they stay there," Huang added.Tens of thousands of close contacts of virus cases have been quarantined in neighboring provinces, according to official news agency Xinhua, but there has been no mention in official media of the relocation of negative cases.

Shanghai authorities have faced wide criticism after they initially announced phased four-day lockdowns in different parts of the city that were not then lifted.Tall metal barriers were erected around some locked-down compounds in recent days, as part of measures described as a "hard lockdown."

CBS News' Palmer reports that while most of Shanghai remains under restrictions, city officials have made efforts to get essential workers back on the job in a bid to get China's economic hub spinning again. Agricultural workers have been told to return, and even some factories have brought staff back in — but in some cases they're being forced to remain at the factories day and night to limit mixing in the community.

China battles multiple COVID-19 outbreaks

Chinese authorities reported 1,337 locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 across dozens of mainland cities Monday as the fast-spreading variant commonly known as "stealth omicron" fuels China's biggest outbreak in two years.To get more news about coronavirus update china, you can visit shine news official website.

The vast majority of the new cases were in far northeastern Jilin province with 895. Shenzhen reported 75 new cases as residents began the first of three rounds of mass testing. Officials on Sunday locked down the city, which has 17.5 million people and is a major tech and finance hub that neighbors Hong Kong.

The surge on the Chinese mainland is infecting people in cities ranging from Shenzhen to Qingdao on the coast, to Xingtai in the north and the numbers have crept steadily higher since early March. While the numbers are small relative to numbers reported in Europe or in the U.S., or even the city of Hong Kong, which had reported 32,000 cases Sunday, they are the highest since the first big outbreak of COVID-19 in the central city of Wuhan in early 2020.
China has seen very few infections since its strict Wuhan lockdown as the government held fast to its zero-tolerance strategy, which is focused on stopping transmission of the coronavirus as fast as possible, by relying on strict lockdowns and mandatory quarantines for anyone who has come into contact with a positive case.

The government has indicated it will continue to stick to its strict strategy of stopping transmission for the time being.

On Monday, Zhang Wenhong, a prominent infectious disease expert at a hospital affiliated with Shanghai's Fudan University noted in an essay for China's business outlet Caixin, that the numbers for the mainland were still in the beginning stages of an "exponential rise." Shanghai confirmed 41 new cases on Monday.

Much of the current outbreak is being driven the variant commonly known as "stealth omicron," or the B.A.2 lineage of the omicron variant, Zhang noted. Early research suggests it spreads faster than the original omicron, which itself spread faster than the original virus and other variants.

"But if our country opens up quickly now, it will cause a large number of infections in people in a short period of time," Zhang wrote on Monday. "No matter how low the death rate is, it will still cause a run on medical resources and a short term shock to social life, causing irreparable harm to families and society."

As many as 12.38 million Shanghai residents, nearly half the population of China’s financial hub, are now in lower-risk areas, meaning they can leave their homes, the government said on Friday (April 29).To get more news about covid cases shanghai, you can visit shine news official website.

The city classifies each housing unit according to three levels of risk, designating those that have not seen a Covid-19 positive case for 14 days as "prevention zones", allowing residents to go out for "appropriate" activities.

By Thursday, the number of people living in high-risk "sealed and controlled zones", subject to the strictest lockdown measures, was 5.27 million, down by 6.6 million since the last readjustment on April 20.The number of people in the sealed and controlled zones has clearly fallen," Mr Zhao Dandan, deputy director of Shanghai’s health commission, told a media briefing.

Another 5.93 million medium-risk residents are now allowed, in principle, to leave their apartments but are still confined to their compounds.

The financial hub on Friday reported 9,970 infections and 52 deaths for Thursday, slightly up from 9,764 cases on Wednesday.While the number of daily infections in Shanghai has been fluctuating, community spread has been dropping in the past week.

After removing cases found in the quarantine system and previous asymptomatic infections reclassified as symptomatic, the number of infections found in the community dropped to 108 on Thursday from 250 a week ago, according to data from the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission.

Beijing reported 49 cases for Thursday, down slightly from 50 on Wednesday, suggesting a mass-testing drive in the capital is yet to find signs of a wider outbreak.Cities across the country are rolling out swift measures from mass-testing drives to lockdowns for just a mere handful of Covid-19 cases, aiming to keep flareups at bay and avoid the economic and social hardship endured in Shanghai, where most of the city's 25 million residents have been confined to their homes for a month or more.

Hangzhou, an e-commerce hub a short train ride from Shanghai, started a mass testing drive earlier this week. Schools in Beijing will start their Labour Day holiday early, and don't have a firm return date.

And the port city of Qinhuangdao, along with Yiwu - known for its production of Christmas decorations - have gone into full or partial lockdowns.China’s dogged pursuit of Covid Zero, as the rest of the world lives with the virus and dismantles restrictions, has seen it slide in Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking of where the pandemic is being handled best with the least economic and social disruption.

In an interview with news site The Market, Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, blasted the government’s handling of the latest outbreak.

“The authorities do not inform that the Omicron variant is milder, they do not inform that other countries have learned to live with the virus,” Wuttke said. “The political leadership can’t admit, so close to the Party Congress, that there is another way in dealing with Covid.”

“They are prisoners of their own narrative. It’s rather tragic: China was the first to get into the pandemic, and it’s the last to get out,” he said. “And in the meantime, they’ve been telling the whole world that they’re the best.”China’s growth outlook is deteriorating sharply. Lockdowns in Shanghai and other parts of the country are adding to pain. In our new base case, with the government sticking with its Covid Zero strategy, growth for the year comes in at 3.6 per cent. That’s down from our forecast of 5.1 per cent in late March and substantially below the 5.5 per cent target for the year.

Unlike elsewhere in the world where people are confirmed as a Covid-19 case as long as they test positive for the virus, China only counts people who test positive and develop symptoms as a confirmed case, and classifies those without any outward symptoms as asymptomatic cases.

When asymptomatic people start to develop symptoms, they are then moved into the confirmed case category. For much of 2020 and 2021, asymptomatic infections were only a fraction of China’s total cases. That changed in the latest outbreak that started around March, when asymptomatic infections began to far outnumber confirmed cases in Jilin and Shanghai, which account for more than 90 per cent of all infections China reported in this period.

Shanghai reported higher Covid-19 cases and deaths on Friday, following five straight daily declines, as the city vows to step up lockdown enforcement to stamp out community spread in China’s worst virus outbreak.To get more news about covid cases in shanghai, you can visit shine news official website.

There were 23,370 new local infections reported in the financial hub Friday, compared with 17,629 cases the day before, the Shanghai Health Commission said Saturday morning.

The city is entering its fourth week of strict lockdown since April 1, while people living in the eastern part or neighborhoods with earlier reported cases have been confined to their apartments for even longer. Frustration among residents has been building due to lack of access to food or medical care, moldy government rations, and the location of quarantine centers.

The Covid outbreak had significant impact on the local economy in March, when part of the city started to put in place restrictions on personnel mobility and production. Shanghai’s retail sales slumped 18.9% in March from a year ago, reversing the 3.7% growth in the first two months of the year, as some malls and restaurants suspended operations even before the city’s full lockdown. Meanwhile, industrial output fell 7.5% in the month, according to a statement by the Shanghai statistics bureau.

The city reported 12 deaths Friday, one more than the previous day, bringing total fatalities from the current outbreak to 48. At an average age of 88.2 years old, the people who died Friday all had underlying diseases, according to the report.
Disappointing some expectations that restrictions would be eased gradually, the municipal government on Friday said it would adopt nine actions to achieve the goal of “no community spread,” a milestone that’s eluded the city despite weeks of lockdown.

“We are not ready to loosen the Covid zero policy” as the vaccination rate among the elderly and children remains low, said Liang Wannian, one of China’s top epidemiologists, in an interview on state TV. “We’ll stick to the policy to maximize our protection of people’s lives and the social and economic development.”

The pledge largely reiterated existing measures in place, with a vow to strictly implement rules like making sure people don’t leave their homes in restricted areas.

Meanwhile, Beijing’s municipal government said late Friday that 14 people had tested positive for Covid-19. The Chinese capital ordered a school shut as officials race to stop the virus spreading, calling the situation “urgent and serious.”

The Chaoyang district reported 26 cases over the weekend - the highest number so far in Beijing's latest surge.Long queues outside supermarkets and shops were seen despite government assurances there is sufficient food.To get more china coronavirus update, you can visit shine news official website.

It comes amid fears that Beijing could face a similar situation to Shanghai, which has seen some 25 million people shut in their homes for weeks.All 3.5 million residents in Chaoyang, Beijing's most populous district, will undergo three rounds of mass testing, according to a notice by the city's disease prevention team.

The news prompted residents to rush to stock up essential supplies, with images circulating on local media showing supermarket shelves emptied of goods and snaking queues at check-out counters.

Beijing's major supermarkets also extended their opening hours to accommodate the spike in demand."Never thought I would go to the market early in the morning….when I got there, all the eggs and prawns were gone and all the meat was snatched up," said one Weibo user in Shanghai, before adding they managed to get some vegetables.

Another Weibo user in Shanghai said: "Seeing people in Beijing rush to buy food is both funny and distressing… it's like looking at what my own life was like just last month."

State-media news outlet The Global Times said that Beijing's fresh food companies have been ordered to increase the supply of groceries like meat, poultry eggs and vegetables.

They also quoted health experts as saying that the results of the mass testing would indicate whether there is a need to escalate measures further, such as locking down several areas.

Separately, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, told state-media outlet China Daily that the number of cases in Beijing is expected to increase in the following days.The latest outbreak in Shanghai, first detected in late March, has seen more than 400,000 cases recorded so far and 138 deaths.

Some of the measures Chinese authorities have enforced include placing electronic door alarms to prevent those infected from leaving and forcibly evacuating people from their homes to carry out disinfection procedures.

Some in locked-down areas of Shanghai say they have been struggling to access food supplies, and forced to wait for government drop-offs of vegetables, meat and eggs.Green barricades have also been erected overnight in parts of Shanghai without prior warning, effectively preventing residents from leaving their homes.

In contrast to many other countries, China is pursuing a zero-Covid strategy with the aim of eradicating the virus from the country completely.While officials managed to keep infection levels relatively low at the beginning of the pandemic, later lockdowns have struggled to contain recent, more transmissible variants of the virus.

Tencent is shutting down its video game streaming platform months after Beijing shut down a huge merger that would have made the Chinese internet giant a major player in the area.To get more news about tencent news, you can visit shine news official website.

The service Penguin Esports will shut down from June 7, Tencent said, citing a change of business strategy.

Like Amazon’s Twitch, Tencent’s Penguin Esports hosts livestreams of professional gaming tournaments and other video game-related content. Tencent is one of the world’s largest online gaming players and is aggressively pushing into the area of professional gaming, also known as e-sports, for a potential new revenue stream.

The latest move is a blow to those ambitions and comes months after Chinese regulators blocked a key merger that would have turned Tencent into one of the world’s largest game streaming players.

In 2020, Tencent proposed merging Huya and DouYu, two live game streaming companies that it had substantial stakes in. That would have valued the new company at around $6 billion at the time and Tencent planned to move its Penguin Esports brand under the combined entity.From Thursday, Tencent said it would stop new user registration on Penguin Esports. On June 7, the app will be removed from app stores and its servers will stop operating.

Tencent continues to invest in areas like e-sports but regulators have also tightened gaming regulations in China to protect addiction among younger users, including cutting down the amount of time kids under 18 can play online and and freezing approvals of new titles.

That is weighing on Tencent, which reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth on record in the fourth quarter of last year.