steve mcdonnell in bei'ina , not russia. steve mcdonnell in beijing, china is _ not russia. is also _ not russia. steve mcdonnell in beijing, china is also denying l not russia. steve mcdonnell in j beijing, china is also denying it has been asked to supply military weapons to russia to help with the war in ukraine?— war in ukraine? yes, a foreign ministry spokesman _ war in ukraine? yes, a foreign ministry spokesman was - war in ukraine? yes, a foreign| ministry spokesman was asked war in ukraine? yes, a foreign - ministry spokesman was asked about these reports that moscow had asked beijing for military assistance for the invasion in ukraine. he said that recently the us had been coming up with various theories to smear china and he described this as fake information, fake news. and yet china is also being accused of spreading its own misinformation. we have the foreign ministry spokesman against speaking about what was described by many as conspiracy theories that the us has the kind of by a weapons programme campaign in ukraine. now the us have said there are no buy weap

here is steve mcdonnell on what it said. ording to the readout, china hasn't criticized russia at all for the invasion of ukraine. in fact, as you mentioned, wang yi praised russia along with others for preventing a humanitarian crisis, as he put it, in ukraine. he said the issue complex and was the result of cold war mentality. whenever he says that, that is a reference to the u.s. and nato. so, that is china' is china' as way of blaming the west that that is china's way -- that is china's way of blaming the west. there isn't the slightest hint of intention of trying plying -- china applying pressure on russia at all to ease off the war. maryam: wang yi even said today that china is ready to take its relationship with russia to a higher level. but there was no explicit support for the invasion either. here is jenny hill's take. >> obviously, russia wants full inese support. what we saw in statements from the chinese side were fairly tentative words of support. john is very much sitting on the fence diplomatically, saying it

arejoining that number, as china continues to follow its zero covid model. 0ur correspondent steve mcdonnellh—east to the south, tens of millions of people are now confined to their homes. and yet compared with the united states and europe, the infection rates are pretty low. in the week prior to 24th march, there were just over 1a,000 new cases in the whole of mainland china. in the uk over a similar period, there were over 610,000 new infections. albeit the vaccines here are working and hospitalisation is comparitively low. rising, but low comparative to where they might have been two years ago with that level of infection. ayes ha, ayesha, when you put the stats together, you show what china is doing a 1a,000 infections in a week and what we are doing here, it is remarkable, really, but does that speak about the confidence they have in their vaccine? does it not stop the hospitalisations to the extent hours to? it the hospitalisations to the extent hours to? . the hospitalisations to the extent hours to? , , . ., hours to? it is difficult for countries _ hours to? it is difficult for coun