A European business group yesterday urged China to delay a new government procurement plan that gives priority to Chinese “indigenous innovation,” a practice that links government purchases with local patents.
The rule, in place for six weeks but only widely known last week, requires sellers of high-tech products to have them accredited based on “indigenous innovation” — or local intellectual property — before they can be listed in a government procurement catalog.
Approved products will get preference over those without accreditation.
Billions of dollars of business are potentially at stake. China’s Finance Ministry said in August that government purchasing, including nontechnical goods, last year rose 28.5 percent year-on-year to 599.1 billion yuan (US$81.9 billion).
The EU Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 1,000 companies, said it was concerned that there was a lack of transparency in the ruling and that the application period was too short to get in the procurement catalog.
“Such an accreditation system would also call into question China’s recent commitments to resist protectionist pressures,” Chamber President Joerg Wuttke said in a letter to the government ministries and agency that issued the notice.
The notice, jointly issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission, said the accreditation process would help develop an “innovative” country.
Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu (姜瑜) said in a statement on Monday that “the accreditation work treats both domestic and foreign-invested enterprises equally, without discrimination.”
The chamber said European companies were worried that they would be forced to transfer their intellectual properties developed at home to China to qualify for the government procurement list.
Last week, more than 30 business groups from the US and other countries sent a joint protest letter “to strongly urge the Chinese government not to proceed” with the new rule.
The six categories requiring accreditation are computers and appliances, telecom products, modern office equipment, software, renewable energy and equipment, and energy-saving products.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last