Millions of residents of China's southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou will be required to have COVID-19 tests on Wednesday, authorities said, in an effort to control the city's worst outbreak with infections topping 2,000 for two consecutive days.

As local cases across China reached their highest level since April 30, authorities announced on social media that five districts representing more than half Guangzhou's population of almost 19 million would need to undergo mass testing.

The latest round of mass testing in Guangzhou comes as China battles a rebound in infections in several economically vital cities, including the capital Beijing, which have dampened hopes that the world's second-largest economy could ease curbs and restrictions soon.

Authorities are determined to get on top of the outbreaks and make good on President Xi Jinping's zero-COVID policy, without having to impose mass lockdowns of the sort that shut Shanghai earlier this year.

The districts in Guangzhou subject to mass testing this week include Haizhu, which has seen the bulk of the city's cases. A district-wide lockdown from Saturday to Monday has been extended to Friday as cases rise.

"My residential compound in Tianhe (district) has been locked up since yesterday," said Guangzhou resident Jason Li.

"I was suddenly notified by my compound. Residents were instructed not to leave our building."

Li said he hadn't been told for how long his compound would be locked up.

"Thank god I've stocked up on groceries recently," he said.

Lily Li, a Guangzhou resident, said the outbreak in the city had worsened in the past two days, having spread to Tianhe, just north of Haizhu.

"Honestly, it's already a huge surprise that Tianhe hadn't been affected sooner," she said.

Guangzhou reported 2,637 new locally transmitted COVID cases for Nov. 8, up from 2,377 a day earlier amid the city's most serious outbreak to date and accounting for nearly a third of the 8,176 new local infections reported in China on the day.

ECONOMIC TOLL

In the latest sign of how anti-virus measures are crushing consumer demand, China's factory gate prices for October dropped for the first time since December 2020 and consumer inflation moderated, in part due to strict COVID curbs.

In central China, Apple (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn (2317.TW) said it would continue to maintain closed-loop operations - a system where staff live on-site isolated from the wider world - at its iPhone plant even as the economic zone that housed the factory lifted a seven-day lockdown.

Foxconn has declined to disclose the number of infections or comment on the conditions of those infected. The issues at the plant have hit iPhone production, prompting Apple on Monday to say that it expects lower shipments of premium iPhone 14 models.

While COVID cases in China are small by global standards, the policy response has been relentless and mass testing for large populations has been the norm since 2020.

Mass testing is generally free, but some local governments are resuming charges for tests as their finances come under strain amid a slowing economy.

A COVID testing company in Xuchang, a city in Henan province, said on Tuesday they would stop all testing-related work from Friday due to late payments from authorities. (Reuters)

North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile into the sea on Wednesday, as South Korea said it had identified debris from an earlier launch as part of a Soviet-era SA-5 surface-to-air missile.

Japan's Coast Guard said the ballistic missile appeared to have fallen into the sea minutes after the launch was reported.

The missile flew to an altitude of up to 50 km, and covered a range of 250 km, Japan's Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters.

He said the government lodged a strong protest with North Korea via diplomatic channels through Beijing, and that Tokyo had strongly condemned the launch.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) also said it had detected the launch of an unspecified ballistic missile from North Korea.

The launch came after South Korea concluded an analysis of what it had initially said was part of a North Korean short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) that landed near South Korean waters last week.

The analysis, however, showed the piece, about 3 metres (3.3 yards) long and 2 metres wide, was part of an SA-5 anti-aircraft missile, the defence ministry said, citing its appearance and features.

The ministry strongly condemned the missile launch at the time, calling it a breach of a 2018 inter-Korean military pact banning any activities stoking border tensions.

"This SA-5 missile launch was a clearly deliberate, intentional provocation," it said in a statement. "The SA-5 also has characteristics of a surface-to-surface missile, and Russia has used similar missiles in Ukraine for surface-to-surface attacks."

A South Korean Navy ship used an underwater probe to recover the missile, which came as the North test-fired multiple missiles last week, including a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), protesting against joint air drills by South Korea and the United States.

It was the first time a North Korean ballistic missile had landed near South Korean waters.

North Korea's military said the launches were simulated strikes on South Korea and the United States, criticising their exercises as an "dangerous, aggressive war drill."

South Korean and U.S. officials have also said that Pyongyang has made technical preparations to test a nuclear device, the first time it will have done so since 2017.

The SA-5 is an air defence missile originally designed by the Soviet Union, where it was designated the S-200, to shoot down strategic bombers and other high-altitude targets.

The missile was exported around the world, and is still in service in at least a dozen countries, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Missile Defense Project.

North Korea took delivery of SA-5 systems in the mid-1980s, according to "The Armed Forces of North Korea: On the Path of Songun", a 2020 survey by Dutch researchers.

"Two sites equipped with these very long-ranged systems cover the entirety of North Korean airspace as well as a sizeable chunk of that of the South," the researchers wrote.

"However, having been designed to counter strategic aircraft, their use against modern fast jets such as the F-15 and F-16 is questionable to say the least." (Reuters)

Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday a meeting with China's President Xi Jinping it would be a positive development after years of strained relations between the two countries.

Albanese is set to attend the G20 summit in Bali, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok and the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, his office said on Wednesday.

Xi is also set to attend the G20, an adviser to the Indonesian president has previously said, but it is unclear if he will be at the other meetings in the region that Albanese will attend.

"I've made it very clear that dialogue is a good thing, and if a meeting is arranged with Xi, then that would be a positive thing," Albanese told a news conference in Canberra.

"We're organizing a range of meetings but they haven't been finalized," he added.

Diplomatic ties between Australia and China have deteriorated sharply in recent years, with China imposing trade sanctions on some imports from Australia and reacting angrily to Canberra's call for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus.

Canberra on Wednesday ordered an inquiry into reports Australians were among Western military pilots who had been approached to help train the Chinese military.

The leaders of the two countries last met when Albanese's predecessor Scott Morrison met Xi at the G20 in 2019, according to Australia's foreign ministry.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told his Australian counterpart Penny Wong during a call on Tuesday that the countries should address each others' legitimate concerns and make contributions to address global challenges. 

Both countries should work to rebuild trust and put their relationship back on the right track, a statement from China's foreign ministry quoted Wang as saying. (Reuters)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will attend meetings of ASEAN and the Group of 20 industrialised nations this month, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

South Korea is arranging a possible bilateral summit between Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden as well as a trilateral summit involving the United States and Japan on the sidelines of the events, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency."We are arranging summits with key countries on the occasion of attending the ASEAN and G20 meetings," Yoon's national security adviser, Kim Sung-han, told a briefing.

Nothing has been decided regarding a possible one-on-one meeting between Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Yonhap said.

The latest in-person meeting between Yoon and Kishida was in September. The two leaders agreed then on the need to improve relations dogged by historical disputes.

Yoon, who took office in May, has been keen to improve relations with Tokyo at a time when both countries face North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.

The September meeting, which took place in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, was the first between leaders of the two countries since 2019. (Reuters)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks on the government budget at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, 25 October 2022. JEON HEON-KYUN/Pool via REUTERS

SEOUL, Nov 9 (Reuters) - South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will attend meetings of ASEAN and the Group of 20 industrialised nations this month, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

South Korea is arranging a possible bilateral summit between Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden as well as a trilateral summit involving the United States and Japan on the sidelines of the events, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

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"We are arranging summits with key countries on the occasion of attending the ASEAN and G20 meetings," Yoon's national security adviser, Kim Sung-han, told a briefing.

Nothing has been decided regarding a possible one-on-one meeting between Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Yonhap said.

The latest in-person meeting between Yoon and Kishida was in September. The two leaders agreed then on the need to improve relations dogged by historical disputes.