stephen mcdonnell has the latest. the announcement has come from beijing.countries and banning all flights to and from the uk indefinitely. according to the chinese government, they will be closely monitoring the situation in britain, augmenting the control measures as the situation changes. right now, up until the ban, we had at least eight flights to and from the uk, including two from british airways in this has been ramping up from the time that there were no flights but they are all to be cancelled indefinitely. the announcement came from the foreign ministry spokesman said due to the exceptional nature of the virus mutation in britain and its potential impact, the chinese government will be making this decision. they said they had been studying responses from other countries and thought it seemed like the right thing to do but i think they were also trying to calm nerves, if you like, by saying they will be closely monitoring what is happening in the uk and as soon as possible, resuming the flight connections. stephen mcdonnell in beijing. canadian he

stephen mcdonnell, bbc news, beijing.ree democracy activists were sentenced to between seven and 13 and a half months in hong kong. he announced that he was leaving the democratic party and going into exile. hejoins us now from london. it's good of you to join us. let us talk about what has happened with the businessman, what do you make of the businessman, what do you make of the use of this new security law? of course he is seen as the enemy of the hong kong regime now because he isa the hong kong regime now because he is a symbol of leading the democratic movement and he is been one of the most outspoken generalists that the regime will ta ke generalists that the regime will take every effort to throw him into jailfor take every effort to throw him into jail for sure take every effort to throw him into jailfor sure glad take every effort to throw him into jail for sure glad they're doing the activists and politicians like me and people from all walks of life. i think the aim is to eliminate oppositions power totally fr

authorities‘ initial response to the virus were widely shared on social media. 0ur correspondent stephen mcdonnells authorities are to reports they were slow to reaction to the initial emergence of the virus in wuhan? yes, zhang zhan's hearing only lasted a few hours and she was found guilty of picking fights and provoking trouble. this is a crime that dissidents are often charged with and in factjailed for in her case for four years. that's the sentence she has received. and it is interesting, she has referred to as a kind of citizenjournalists. but her reporting was challenging the government more at the diss dent end ofjourn —— diss dents end of journalism. she was showing the chaos of the early stages of outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic in that city. and you can do many things in china, but one is not challenge the communist party. when it wants s to portray this has been handled well and if somebody should see any mishandling or cover up, it is not something they will accept and for this reason she is being punished heavily. i gather the authy sensoring any mention of that in china? yeah,