China Road and Bridge Corporation has not yet repaired the damage done by highway construction to the UNESCO-protected Tara River, Montenegro's environmental agency confirms. Montenegro’s Agency for Environmental Protection reported recently that China Road and Bridge Corporation, CRBC, has not yet corrected the damage done to the Tara River, part of which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which occurred during construction of the Bar-Boljare highway. A BIRN investigation showed that the Chinese company was obliged to correct the damage by July 2022. “Projected remediation measures have not yet been completed … We expect that, in the coming period, CRBC will fully realize all the obligations, otherwise we will do it ]ourselves] at the expense of the Chinese company,” the agency told BIRN. “CRBC has so far corrected the left bank of the river, rehabilitated the local macadam road, and remedied the bed of the Tara River to a length of about 500 meters,” the Agency specified. The Bar-Boljare highway represents the Montenegrin leg of a larger highway running from the Adriatic coast to the Serbian capital, Belgrade. CRBC is building the Montenegrin leg and 85 per cent of the first section is being covered by a $944 million loan from China’s Exim Bank. On July 13, 2023, the first section of the highway was officially opened, seven years after the Chinese-financed project started, driving up Montenegro’s public debt to 90.85 per cent of GDP. In June 2019, the local watchdog NGO MANS warned that the highway’s construction was devastating the Tara River, including its UNESCO-protected area, stressing that the construction of bridges and the exploitation and disposal of gravel and sand had damaged the riverbed. After the Environmental Protection Agency determined the damage, a remediation plan with CRBC was determined on August 2, 2021. But civic organisations criticized the remediation measures approved by the Agency, stating that the rehabilitation of only 500 meters of river bed was not enough because more than six kilometres of the river course has been damaged. Lazar Grdinic, from MANS, said there have been no serious efforts to rehabilitate the devastated part of the Tara riverbed and even partially restore it. “So far, there are no serious scientific studies that would give a definitive answer to the question of the extent of the devastation,” Grdinic told BIRN. The head of the local Sports Fishing Club, Momir Zivkovic, also said highway construction had destroyed both the river and its fish stock. In April 2018, the club received a concession to manage fish stocks on part of the Tara, but, due to the devastation of the river, it had demanded compensation from the Chinese company.
“In the past, dozens of fish could be caught on Tara in one day. Today, the situation with the fish stock is a catastrophic, and you can hardly meet a fisherman here, ” Zivkovic told BIRN. BIRN was not able to contact CRBC. Nicknamed the “tear of Europe”, the Tara is considered one of the most beautiful rivers on the continent, and its deep canyons are popular among river rafters. In its 2019 progress report on the country, the European Commission urged Montenegro to prevent possible environmental damage being done to the Tara in the context of the highway.
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Chinese migrants are flocking to the southern border of the USA and some have Chinese TikTok guides on how to enter the USA.
Over four days, journalists observed nearly 600 migrants, some of whom were Chinese, crossing the border through a gap at the end of a border fence near San Diego. Chinese migrants who spoke to 60 Minutes said they learned about the gap via the video application Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. The Chinesehad reviewed several Douyin posts, which gave detailed instructions on how migrants could hire smugglers to get to the border. And the journey is no walk in the park either. Chinese migrants hoping to start a new life in the US have to trek through multiple countries before they arrive stateside. Some have had to crisscross through Turkey, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and then Mexico, per CNN. There has been a surge in the number of Chinese migrants entering the US through its borders. According to data from the US Customs and Border Protection, the number of encounters the agency has had with Chinese nationals at the Southwest land border has increased more than 50-fold, from 450 people in 2021 to 24,314 in 2023. Chinese social media platforms have been a boon for migrants hoping to enter the US. In April, Reuters interviewed more than two dozen Chinese migrants entering the US via southeastern Texas. All the migrants that Reuters spoke to said that social media had helped them to plan their journey. It's not just China. Content creators from Venezuela and India have been producing similar videos as well. "Migration sells. My public is a public that wants a dream," Venezuelan Manuel Monterrosa, 35, told The New York Times in a story published in December. A representative for the Department of Homeland Security told BI that the department was "experiencing historical global migration." "DHS is working with our partners throughout the hemisphere and around the world to disrupt the criminal networks who take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants," the representative said. Last week, a Hong Kong court ruled that the largest indebted property developer in the world, Evergrande, would be liquidated, two years after the company defaulted on its debt in late 2021.
Much of the media reporting on the decision focused on whether foreign creditors would ever recoup their losses from Evergrande, as the Chinese government has already said it will prioritize completing the group’s existing projects, though how this will happen is less clear. But beyond the question of who will get repaid, Evergrande’s liquidation opens up a slew of larger and more profound questions about the future of the Chinese economy, especially the relationships between the central government, local governments, the private sector and households. The liquidation of Evergrande is not an accident. It is part of a larger crackdown on the private sector and government collusion that President Xi Jinping launched at the very start of his term, beginning in 2013 with the Anti-Corruption Campaign, which has become one of the most consequential and longest-running campaigns in the history of the People’s Republic of China. Taken as a whole, this crackdown has fundamentally changed the relationship between the Communist Party and the business community, creating deep distrust and fear, while leading to capital flight and a deep downturn in confidence. The Anti-Corruption Campaign was followed by other policies that put the private sector on notice that old patterns of behavior would no longer be tolerated. Xi’s “new normal” would include more discipline and oversight. Xi’s confidence in the ability of his government to implement this crackdown expanded enormously in late 2020 and early 2021, coinciding with the regime’s successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic before the arrival of the incredibly infectious omicron variant. Xi made numerous speeches and statements at the time about the importance of “common prosperity” and the need to crack down on “disorderly capital,” while also emphasizing his dislike of real estate development as investment, epitomized by his oft-quoted mantra that “houses are for living in.” The “three red lines” policy, which reined in debt-fueled property development and directly targeted firms like Evergrande that were enormously leveraged, dates back to this period. In addition to launching the attack on the over-leveraged property sector, Chinese authorities canceled the IPO of Ant Financial, forced the rewinding of Didi’s listing on the N.Y. Stock Exchange, banned private tutoring and nationalized gray rhinos, as large firms that create systemic risk, such as Anbang Insurance and HNA, are known. At the same time, in his speeches on “common prosperity,” Xi vaguely alluded to new forms of taxation and redistribution so that China would eventually become an “olive-shaped society” with a large middle class and relatively few rich and poor. But crackdowns alone cannot substitute for the deep structural reform that the Chinese economy desperately needs. Any viable solution to the property crisis and to local government’s fiscal health requires that China’s central government take on more responsibility and more accountability. Xi must shift from being a disciplinarian to accepting that these problems are not only rooted in the bad behavior of corrupt officials, greedy capitalists or overextended households. All of these actors were responding to incentives set up by China’s development model, which grew increasingly dependent on real estate and land development for growth. So while Xi talks frequently about high-quality development as the “hard truth” of his administration, this is unlikely to be achieved without a fundamental shift in responsibility upward toward the central government. In other words, it’s not just local governments and private entrepreneurs who must change their behavior—the central government must as well. Given the scale of the current crisis—over 1.5 million home purchasers are still waiting for residences that they have already paid Evergrande for—it’s possible that local governments will still be held responsible for finding other viable real estate developers to take over the unfinished projects in their regions. But local governments are themselves deeply in debt for both related and unrelated reasons. Local governments were caught up in the same frenzy of real estate development and land sales for years. But they are also reeling from debt related to COVID-19 management and testing, as well as from the basic structure of their fiscal relations with the central government, which leaves them with many mandates to fund social security and public goods like education, but without enough resources to do so. This fiscal imbalance is one of the primary reasons that local governments became so reliant on land speculation and real estate development in the first place, because in a period of ever-rising property prices, it provided much-needed revenue. It was also, not coincidentally, an excellent mechanism for local officials to collude with real estate developers to become personally wealthy. As a result, local governments are implicated in the accumulated problems of overinvestment and corruption. But any long-term solution will require changes to the tax system, so that they have sufficient tax revenue to pay for the disproportionate amount of governance they are tasked with. This will by necessity include more directly taxing both the wealthy and property, and directing more tax revenue to localities instead of the central government. Requiring local governments to find “viable developers” to take over Evergrande’s unfinished homes also ignores how Evergrande’s problems are only the tip of the iceberg of real estate development debt. It is not even clear which developers are viable enough to take on the burden of finishing the homes Evergrande has already been paid for, while also attempting to make money on new development, given China’s significant overbuilding and declining property values. A new International Monetary Fund report on the Chinese economy estimates that China’s fundamental demand for housing will decrease by 50 percent over the next decade, even as media reports indicate a current oversupply in excess of 50 million homes. The real estate sector cannot deal with these problems alone, but most local governments are in no position to help. An effective solution will require that the central government allow for substantial restructuring of existing firms and perhaps direct bailouts to households currently left holding the bag. The IMF estimates that such measures will cost about 5 percent of GDP but will be offset by avoiding longer-term losses. For households, the real estate sector’s unraveling is hitting their pocketbooks directly. Because of China’s presale model of development, households have already paid for the promised properties, so they cannot be expected to pay more, especially when the value of these future properties are going down. Meanwhile, investments in existing property are the most important source of wealth for China’s urbanites, representing about 70 percent of household wealth. So the contraction in the real estate sector, while necessary, will make many Chinese poorer. Employment opportunities have also worsened, as the real estate decline affects not just construction, but everything else tied to property, from landscaping to interior design. All of these impacts will exacerbate the problem of consumer confidence, inducing households to save rather than spend, an incentive structure that is already reinforced by China’s weak social safety net. This in turn means that China will be forced to look to external markets to absorb excess capacity in everything from building materials to electric vehicles, further exacerbating imbalances that are complicating China’s relations with trade partners. Once again, any effective policy to address the problem of consumer confidence will similarly require more support from the central government and improvements to China’s underfunded and shallow welfare state. The risk of social unrest is still low due to strong state capacity to repress street protests. But Chinese households have already shown ingenious ways to express their displeasure through inaction, such as not paying mortgages and not seeking employment—the practice known as lying flat. Beijing has accomplished much with Xi’s dramatic crackdowns as he seeks to shift China’s development in a new and more sustainable direction. But the crackdowns are only the first step. They need to be followed by increased support for local governments from the central government. So far, Xi has deftly yielded sticks. Much will depend on whether he can now do the same with carrots. Chinese sporting authorities have cancelled next month's friendly international between Argentina and Nigeria amid a growing backlash against Lionel Messi's failure to play in an Inter Miami match in Hong Kong last week.
Argentina were scheduled to play Nigeria in the Chinese city of Hangzhou next month before facing the Ivory Coast in Beijing, but Messi's failure to take the field for Inter Miami in Hong Kong on Sunday caused widespread anger among fans. The organiser of the Hong Kong match said they would give fans a 50 percent refund for tickets after the Argentine did not take the field due to injury, but played in Japan days later. The backlash grew on Friday, with Hangzhou sports authorities saying that Argentina's friendly against Nigeria would no longer take place. "As a commercial event, a company and the Argentinean soccer team negotiated that the team would play a friendly match in March this year in the city of Hangzhou," the Hangzhou authorities said in a statement. "In view of the current well-known reasons, according to the competent authorities, conditions to hold the friendly match are not mature, therefore (we) have decided to cancel it." It was not immediately clear if Argentina's other friendly against Ivory Coast in Beijing would also be cancelled. The Chinese FA did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment sent outside normal business hours. The Argentine FA also did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Tatler Asian, a privately owned publishing and lifestyle company, said in a statement on its Instagram page that it was "deeply sorry" and "heartbroken" that fans were let down after Messi stayed on the bench during Sunday's match. The match in Hong Kong drew 40,000 fans, with some spectators paying up to $1000 per ticket. The cost of all match tickets bought from official channels can be 50 percent refunded, Tatler said, adding that it had been in discussions with the Hong Kong government to resolve the issue. Inter Miami head coach Gerardo "Tata" Martino said Messi was deemed unfit to play in the friendly in Hong Kong, but he came on as a 60th minute substitute against Vissel Kobe on Wednesday. "When we learned that Messi would not be playing, we pleaded with Inter Miami CF ownership and management to urge him to stand up, engage with the spectators and explain why he couldn't play," Tatler said. "He didn't. The fact that Messi and (team mate Luis) Suarez played in Japan on Feb. 7 feels like another slap in the face." In the match in Tokyo, entire blocks of seats at the Japan National Stadium were unoccupied, with just 28,614 tickets sold. Chinese state media, Hong Kong politicians and some fans swiftly condemned Messi's participation in the Japan match, with state-controlled Global Times writing that his absence posed many questions on the differential treatment for Hong Kong. In a statement, Hong Kong's government said Tatler Asia had made its best effort to arrange a refund, adding that many people had questions about the incident. "The government hopes that the Inter Miami team will eventually provide a reasonable explanation to Hong Kong citizens and fans who came to Hong Kong to watch the game." Tatler Asia said Inter Miami had committed to ensuring that their top players, including Messi and Uruguay's Suarez, would play for 45 minutes unless injured. It said it had hoped to create an iconic moment in support of the government's efforts to remind the world how relevant and exciting Hong Kong is. "That dream is broken today for us and all those who bought tickets to see Messi on the pitch." Chinese investors and households were major gold consumers in 2023 amid strong global demand for the safe-haven metal, the World Gold Council’s quarterly report has shown.
According to the publication, Chinese investment demand for gold – spanning bars and coins – jumped 28% last year to 280 tons. Jewelry consumption was also up 10% to 630 tons. Overall, gold purchases reached nearly 960 tons in 2023. “China was key to a lot of what was happening last year,” said Louise Street, senior market analyst at the WGC. “When you look at the consumer sector, China is not the price-setting factor but it is providing a floor.” The world’s second-biggest consumer, India, saw total gold purchases slide to 748 tons in 2023. It was followed by the US (249 tons), Türkiye (201.6 tons), and Iran (71.8 tons). The top ten also included Russia, Germany, Egypt, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia. The report indicated that together with “blistering” demand from global central banks, Chinese consumer demand helped push the yellow metal’s price to record highs in December and keep it above $2,000 per troy ounce this year. According to the WGC, total worldwide gold demand in 2023 was the highest on record at 4,899 tons, with annual bar and coin investment seeing a mild contraction and annual jewelry consumption holding steady at 2,093 tons. China’s troubled real-estate giant the Evergrande Group has been ordered to liquidate, a move that could deal a new blow to confidence in the world’s second-largest economy. A Hong Kong court made the ruling on Monday after the company failed to convince a judge it had a workable plan to restructure some $300bn in debts. “It would be a situation where the court says enough is enough,” judge Linda Chan said. “I consider that it is appropriate for the court to make a winding up order against the company, and I so order.” The ruling follows 18 months of legal wrangling after creditor Top Shine, in 2022, filed a petition to wind up the developer in a bid to recoup its losses. Evergrande, the world’s most indebted developer, had been granted a brief reprieve in December after arguing it needed time to refine its restructuring plan. Chan said the court had in December “made it very clear it expected to see a fully formulated and viable proposal”. Evergrande Executive Director Shawn Siu called the ruling regrettable but said the group would do “everything possible to safeguard the stability of its domestic business and operation”, which he said is independent of its Hong Kong arm. Evergrande’s default on repayments to international investors in 2021, after Beijing began cracking down on excessive borrowing for real estate, sent shockwaves through China’s property sector, which accounts for an estimated 15-30 percent of the economy. More than 50 Chinese real-estate developers have defaulted or missed payments during the past three years, according to credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P).
Hong Kong-listed shares in Evergrande plunged by more than 20 percent following the ruling on Monday, before the city’s stock exchange halted trading in the stock. The move is the latest in a series of warning signs for China’s $18 trillion economy, whose post-COVID recovery is facing challenges ranging from crackdowns on private industry to a declining population and an exodus of foreign capital. China’s official gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.2 percent last year was the worst performance in decades, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic. “Evergrande’s liquidation will pose more challenges to itself and other developers, but it will only have a limited impact on the already battered property sector and the macroeconomy,” Gary Ng, an economist at Natixis in Hong Kong, said. “Household sentiment is already very cautious of units from troubled developers, and it is unlikely to worsen further. However, it may still delay the recovery of the home market and the weaker confidence may linger longer.” After Monday’s ruling in Hong Kong, the fate of Evergrande’s asset sheet is uncertain. While China signed an agreement with Hong Kong to recognise insolvency and restructuring proceedings in the Chinese cities of Shenzhen, Shanghai and Xiamen, it is unclear whether mainland courts would sanction liquidators seizing the developer’s assets in the country. Hong Kong’s common law system, adopted during the British colonial era, is distinct from China’s Communist Party-controlled courts. In 2021, a Shenzhen court recognised insolvency proceedings in Hong Kong for the first time when it accepted the standing of liquidators for the paper manufacturing firm Samson Paper. “As most of Evergrande’s assets are in mainland China, there are uncertainties about how the creditors can seize the assets and the repayment rank of offshore bondholders,” Ng said. A video that captured the confrontation between a group of Chinese tourists and a piano-playing YouTuber at a train station in London did go viral. A confrontation erupts when British pianist Brendan Kavanag, also known as Dr.K, found himself at the center of a spat with a group of tourists waving Chinese flags at a public piano in the St Pancras International station. In the video, livestreamed on Kavanagh's DrKBoogieWoogie YouTube channel on Jan. 19, he was initially seen engaging with the tourists, referring to them as “Japanese.” At one point, he asks one of the women in the group if she'd like to dance. When she declined, he returned to the piano and commented, “Whatever, I think British girls are more fun.” Tensions escalate later in the video, when members from the Chinese group express that they want to use the piano. After vacating the piano, Kavanagh continued filming, which sparked an objection from a woman in the group. She insisted that he stop as they were filming for "Chinese TV" and their footage was "not disclosable." Kavanagh challenged her, asking which Chinese law prohibited him from filming in a public space. A man from the group reiterated their refusal to be filmed, citing their need to protect their rights and avoid having their images shared online.
As of this writing, the video of the incident got viral as it has so far garnered 4.8 million views and ignited online debates about cultural sensitivity, freedom of expression and the implications of public filming. Kavanagh claimed in a subsequent video that there were attempts to take down the livestream.
A senior official of the Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist group says Chinese and Russian vessels will have safe passage through the Red Sea.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political leadership, said in an interview with the Russian outlet Izvestia that the shipping lanes around Yemen are safe to ships from China and Russia as long as vessels are not connected with Israel, Agence France-Presse reported Friday, citing Izvestia. The Houthis have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza and have carried out more than 30 attacks in the Red Sea. However, the Houthis have launched attacks on ships with no apparent connection with Israel, resulting in some shipping firms avoiding the shipping lanes where the Houthis have launched attacks. Major shipping companies have responded by rerouting vessels on the longer and more expensive route around Africa. The Red Sea route is a vital shipping link between Europe and Asia, carrying about 15% of the world’s maritime traffic. The Houthi rebels launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles at a U.S.-owned ship in the Gulf of Aden, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement late Thursday. The statement said the crew saw the missiles land in the water near the ship. There were no reported injuries or damage to the ship, the M/V Chem Ranger, a Marshall Island-flagged, U.S.-owned, Greek-operated tanker ship, U.S. Central Command said. Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they had carried out the attack, claiming “direct hits,” a statement on the group’s social media said. On Thursday, U.S. forces carried out more strikes against targets inside Iranian-backed, Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, as concerns grow that the Israel-Hamas conflict could expand into a full-blown war across the Middle East. Lai Ching-te, the leader of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), won Taiwan's presidential elections on Saturday. The DPP champions Taiwan's separate identity and rejects China's territorial claims and Beijing had repeatedly denounced Lai as a dangerous separatist.
Lai, the current vice president, was facing two opponents for the presidency - Hou Yu-ih of Taiwan's largest opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT) and former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je of the small Taiwan People's Party, only founded in 2019. Both conceded defeat, reported news agency Reuters. The election held on Saturday was framed as a choice between war and peace by China. In the run-up to the elections, the opposition party, Kuomintang, warned voters that choosing Lai Ching-te could lead to unrest. Lai had said he is committed to preserving peace and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and boosting the island's defences The Chinese Communist Party has gained increasing influence over Chinese weekend schools in the Netherlands in recent years. This is the conclusion of Follow The Money (FTM) and RTL News after research. The schools receive free textbooks from the Chinese government and organize courses for teachers and camps for students in China. There are 28 Chinese weekend schools in the Netherlands, where approximately 5,000 Dutch children between the ages of 5 and 18 receive lessons every week. These are mainly language and culture lessons, usually with a Chinese background. Chinese geography and history are also taught at a number of schools. These weekend schools are affiliated with an umbrella organization that, according to FTM and RTL, has close ties with the Chinese embassy and a ministry that wants to exercise control over everyone abroad who is considered Chinese by the Chinese government. For example, this so-called United Front Work Department counters opposition voices and tries to influence global opinion about China. The chairman of the Dutch umbrella organization traveled to China in October for consultations with the ministry. The chairman confirms to RTL News that the foundation is supported by the Chinese government. "It is financially difficult for weekend schools. Fewer and fewer companies want to sponsor Chinese education. Last October I asked in China whether the Chinese government would like to continue the support." Trainings and summer camps The ministry ensures, among other things, that teachers from China regularly go to the Netherlands to give lessons to children, or to provide training to teachers of the weekend schools. The ministry also organizes summer camps in China for Dutch students. The trip is largely paid for by the Communist Party. Since 2001, textbooks have also been imported and distributed to the 28 weekend schools through the umbrella foundation. These are donated by the Chinese government. Schools only have to pay 1 euro for distribution and customs costs. The textbooks contain material approved by the Communist Party. For example, Taiwan is described as a province of China, and nothing is said about the millions of deaths that occurred in the 20th century due to famine and internal violence under Chinese leader Mao Zedong. According to the foundation, the books are not used in lessons, but are mainly ordered by parents to use them at home. China increasingly active
Experts tell RTL News that China has been increasingly active in dealing with Chinese abroad in recent years. "You actually see a break since Xi Jinping came to power," says Christopher Houtkamp of the Clingendael Institute. "Then China started investing more heavily in weekend schools." The Dutch Education Inspectorate does not carry out any checks on the weekend schools, because they do not receive any money from the Dutch government. The Ministry of Education tells RTL that it will discuss it internally. The ministry is also working on a bill to give the Education Inspectorate the opportunity to inspect weekend schools. Hundreds of Hongkongers gathered at Victoria Harbour to see one of the new passenger jets made in mainland China fly over the city on Saturday morning, with enthusiasts hailing the aircraft as a fresh start for the country’s aviation industry.
The narrowbody C919 plane took off just before 10.30am from Hong Kong International Airport and made two passes over the harbour for excited onlookers, despite the cloudy weather. Crowds gathered at the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade, with teenagers and retirees alike eagerly snapping pictures, cameras and long lenses in hand, as the aircraft soared in the sky above. Among the plane spotters was 13-year-old secondary school student Carson Chan, who left his home in Tin Shui Wai at 7am with his camera and tripod. “It’s a very rare chance to see the C919 fly here in Hong Kong, so I came here to take advantage of the opportunity,” he said. “I get to see it with my own eyes and use my own camera to take photos. I feel very honoured and happy.” Tokyo has been expanding its security ties with multiple Southeast Asian countries ahead of a Japan-ASEAN summit that analysts see as a forum to offset China's aggressive behavior in the region.
Japan is scheduled to host the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit in Tokyo from Saturday to Monday, marking the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation. Japan and 10 ASEAN countries seek to expand ties at a time when "the free and open international order based on the rule of law is under serious challenge," Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday. Kishida said challenges in the Indo-Pacific include "attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force" in the East and South China seas and "North Korea's increasing nuclear missile activities." Saying that ASEAN is "the key for the realization of Japan's vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific," Kishida added that the economic prosperity of ASEAN's 10 members "can only be achieved if the peace and stability of the region are protected." Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said on Thursday that "China is glad to see relevant countries and regional organizations develop friendly and cooperative relations." He continued: "But we hope that such relations would not target a third party and should contribute to regional peace, stability and prosperity." While China will not be at the summit, analysts said it is likely to figure prominently in the talks. "Japan regards China's regional hegemonic ambitions as a grave threat to its security and has actively worked to upgrade security partnerships … to contain China in line with the U.S.-backed free and open Indo-Pacific," Jeff Kingston, professor of history and Asian studies at Temple University, Japan Campus, told VOA in an email. In Japan, 76% of adults see China as a bigger threat than North Korea's nuclear weapons, according to a survey that the Pew Research Center conducted from June to September and released on December 5. Just as the Philippines and Vietnam have maritime disputes with China in the South China Sea, Tokyo has a long-standing territorial dispute with Beijing over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, known in China as the Diaoyu Islands. The Japanese Foreign Ministry expressed "serious concern" on Wednesday about clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, supporting the Philippines' "long-standing objections to unlawful maritime claims, militarization, coercive activities" in the area. In the run-up to the summit, Japan has held meetings with several Southeast Asian countries to broaden their security ties. On December 7, Japanese Ambassador Atsushi Ueno met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in Phnom Penh and discussed forging closer security ties, including organizing joint naval exercises and army working group meetings. Kishida held talks with Vietnam's President Vo Van Thuong on November 27 in Tokyo and, in upgrading their ties to a "comprehensive strategic partnership," agreed to expand defense exchanges and transfers of defense equipment. The United States and Taiwan are exploring ways to expand Taiwan’s participation in the United Nations system and other international forums, as well as addressing a range of global challenges, including public health, aviation safety and climate change. The most recent routine consultation between the U.S. and Taiwan took place Wednesday, days after the Chinese delegation at COP28 opposed calls to include Taiwan in the United Nations climate talks in Dubai. All participants in the latest U.S.-Taiwan talks "recognized the importance of working closely with likeminded partners who share our concerns regarding attempts to exclude Taiwan from the international community," according to the U.S. State Department in a statement. Taiwan Relations Act Senior American officials have said Washington’s "One China" policy is "distinct" from Beijing’s "One China" principle. The U.S. policy is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances. China has objected to the Taiwan Relations Act and deemed it as invalid. The Taiwan Relations Act has stated that "nothing in this Act may be construed as a basis for supporting the exclusion or expulsion of Taiwan from continued membership in any international financial institution or any other international organization." The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan but claims sovereignty over the island, which became home to the Chinese Nationalist government after its defeat in 1949. During the U.N. climate talks held in the United Arab Emirates, Chinese officials lodged a protest after calls to include Taiwan's participation in the climate summit by other countries. "China has noted that during the meeting a handful of countries ignore the fact that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and make noises about the participation by the Taiwan authorities in the COP," a member of the Chinese delegation said via a translator in the plenary hall in Dubai. Wednesday, officials from the State Department and Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs discussed near-term opportunities to support Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA) and other global public health bodies, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), as well as Taiwan’s meaningful participation in other multilateral organizations. World Health Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization The Beijing government has been blocking Taiwan's representation at WHA meetings after the self-ruled democracy elected Tsai Ing-wen, a China skeptic, as president in 2016. China has also blocked Taiwan's participation in ICAO assemblies since 2013. Since the U.S. switched its diplomatic recognition from the government of Taipei to Beijing in 1979, Washington has insisted that the two sides should resolve their political disputes peacefully. Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said "fundamental differences" over Taiwan persist in Washington’s relationship with Beijing. The top U.S. diplomat on China said the United States will continue to implement the Taiwan Relations Act and help Taiwan with its defense needs, renewing the U.S. commitment to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
In recent months, China has been increasing its military activities near the strait. The United States has voiced concerns about any Chinese interference through military coercion, as Taiwan prepares for a presidential election in January 2024. "I think what we can do is to insist that the people in Taiwan have an opportunity to vote freely on January 13," Burns told an audience during a seminar hosted by the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations. In Beijing, Chinese officials said the election in Taiwan "is purely China’s internal affair." "Taiwan independence" means war and "Taiwan independence" is a dead end, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said during a recent briefing. In a recent interview with VOA, U.S. Senior Official for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Matt Murray said, "We certainly want to make sure there are opportunities for engagement" between the U.S. and Taiwan in international economic forums, as Taiwan is one of the top trading partners and investors in the United States. Morris Chang, founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, represented Taiwan during the APEC summit in San Francisco in mid-November, where he held talks with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. The two discussed the U.S.-Taiwan "relationship on the economy and technology," Harris said in a social media post on X, formerly Twitter. Chang also had a pull-aside meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the APEC meetings, according to Murray. The last U.S.-Taiwan working group meeting on international organizations took place in April. Canada is broadening a probe of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and freezing its participation in the multilateral organization indefinitely, the government said Friday.
Ottawa had temporarily suspended its involvement in the AIIB in June after a whistleblower asserted that China's ruling party pulls the strings at the bank. The AIIB, a project pushed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, was launched in 2016 to counter Western dominance of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It has 106 global members, including Australia, Canada, France and Germany. "In consultation with some of our closest international partners, Canada is expanding its review of the AIIB," Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement, adding that its participation in the bank would remain indefinitely suspended. The probe will include an analysis of AIIB investments, as well as its governance and management frameworks, and an assessment of management's response to concerns raised by a former executive. Bob Pickard, a Canadian who was the bank's communications chief, resigned in June and alleged that the organization is dominated by members of the Chinese Communist Party and primarily funds projects of interest to Beijing. Ottawa said it has raised those concerns with Australia, Britain, Germany and Sweden on the sidelines of a recent IMF meeting. The AIIB and China's foreign ministry have rejected Pickard's explosive claims, saying the bank operates with "openness, meritocracy and transparency." Thailand’s new civilian-led administration is facing criticism over its plan to go forward with the purchase of a high-cost navy frigate from China in a deal first negotiated by the previous military government.
The purchase of the vessel was negotiated after China reneged on a 2017 plan to sell Thailand a S26T Yuan-class submarine because it could not obtain diesel engines from Germany, which forbids them to be used in Chinese military hardware, according to the Bangkok Post. However the frigate, which would add to an existing fleet of seven mostly Chinese-built frigates, will cost the country $480 million — $28 million more than the submarine would have cost. That has been criticized by the opposition Move Forward Party, which argues that the submarine deal should simply have been allowed to lapse. "Chinese authority should rather take responsibility for failing the agreement," said Move Forward MP Rangsiman Rome, who was quoted by Matichon, a major Thai newspaper and website. Thai Defense Minister Sutin Klungsang has defended the purchase, saying that revoking the deal or asking for a refund from China “would only impact other aspects of cooperation and relations” between the two countries. Sutin also said that the submarine deal is being shelved rather than replaced by the new warship deal. Scott Edwards, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Reading in the U.K., said there may be other countries where Thailand could purchase a frigate but that political considerations can go into a purchase. "Vessels sometimes rely on originating countries for spare parts and maintenance," he wrote in an email exchange. John Bradford, executive director of the Japan-based Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies, pointed out some advantages to a frigate over a submarine. He said the training and maintenance costs should be lower, and that a frigate would be more useful in dealing with challenges posed by Thailand's "exceptionally complex" maritime environment. Those challenges include fishing regulation enforcement, guarding against smuggling, ocean resource protection and governance over waters that face both the Indian and Pacific oceans, Bradford said. Edwards agreed that a frigate is more sensible than a submarine, which would likely be underutilized and of limited use to Thailand. "While Thailand may want submarines to match the subsurface capabilities of its neighbors, frigates can also be equipped with anti-submarine warfare capabilities," said Edwards, who is an expert in Southeast Asia's maritime security governance. However, he questioned Bangkok's decision to purchase a frigate from Beijing, citing China's assertive behavior in the South China Sea. "China's actions in the South China Sea should still be a consideration despite Thailand not being in direct dispute," he said. Thailand previously purchased two Naresuan-class and four Chao Phraya-class frigates from China as well as one frigate from South Korea. Most of the missile-launching warships have been in commission since the 1990s. While Thailand has relied on both the United States and China for military hardware, the kingdom shifted toward Beijing after a 2014 coup prompted the U.S. to suspend millions of dollars in military financing and funding for military education and training. Washington normalized its relations with Bangkok after a 2019 election, widely seen as legitimizing the military-led government. The vote was held under a junta-written constitution and resulted in the victory of coup leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha. Dulyapak Preecharush, associate professor of Asian studies at Thammasat University in Bangkok, noted that Thailand has been led by a civilian government since August and argued that the kingdom should maintain a nonalignment policy, including more balance on military hardware procurement. "Thai [Defense Ministry] has acknowledged the current geopolitical competition between the US and China and will put more balance on Thai relations with major powers," he wrote in a recent email to VOA Thai. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Thailand bought 33% of its military material from South Korea, 14% from China and 10% from the United States during the period from 2018 to 2022. Edwards, from the University of Reading, agreed that the current Thai government, led by the Pheu Thai Party and consisting of pro-military and pro-establishment coalitions, is likely to rebalance toward the U.S. But "it is unlikely such shifts will be dramatic in nature," he wrote, noting that as recently as May, the U.S. rejected selling F-35 stealth fighter jets to Thailand. Thailand's trade volume with China in 2022 was about $135 billion, according to China's state-run Business Information Center. Its total trade with the United States that year was an estimated $79.1 billion, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. |
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