China said it would be a responsible member when it joins the WTO and promised to deal fairly with foreign firms seeking to invest in China, an official newspaper reported yesterday.
"After China joins the WTO, it will definitely be a member that acts responsibly and has a constructive effect," the Xinhua Daily Telegraph quoted Long Yongtu, China's pointman on WTO negotiations, as saying on Saturday.
"While enjoying the benefits of being a member of the WTO, China will also perform its relevant duties and abide by the rules of the WTO," Long was quoted as saying at an investment and trade conference in China's southern city of Xiamen.
Long said China would speed up its reform of key sectors including insurance, which has become a focal point in the last stretch of China's negotiations.
Long said that after entering the WTO -- expected no later than early 2002 -- China would allow both the US and European nations to enter China's market favourably.
His statements come at a time when the EU and the US are lobbying to protect the interests of their respective insurance industries as China prepares to open the lucrative sector to foreign investment.
China will "implement fair, transparent and equal trade and investment policies," Long was quoted as saying.
The US on Thursday said it expected China to honor its bilateral market access commitments on insurance as part of any final agreement on its entry into the group.
The global insurance industry has been considering the question of whether China will allow US insurance firm American International Group Inc to own 100 percent of any new operations it opens in China.
As part of its WTO membership negotiations, Beijing negotiated a general 50 percent limit with both the EU and the US on foreign ownership of insurance firms in China.
But because AIG was long established in China, the US negotiated a "grandfather clause" in its 1999 bilateral agreement with China to allow the company to keep its existing wholly owned branches in the country.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group