An anti-dumping complaint filed by US solar firms against their Chinese counterparts is driven by envy at China’s rapid growth in the field and goes against global efforts to fight climate change, a major state-run newspaper said yesterday.
Seven US solar manufacturers this month asked the administration of US President Barack Obama to impose duties of more than 100 percent on China solar imports, which they said were unfairly undercutting US prices and destroying US jobs.
In a front-page commentary, the China Energy News, published by Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, said this was a foolish, misguided attempt at trade protectionism driven by jealousy.
“In the space of just five years, the rapid development of the Chinese companies has attracted envious eyes overseas,” wrote Wang Yuehai (王月海), secretary-general of the All China Federation of Industry and Commerce’s new energy commission.
Obama had failed to live up to his promises to boost growth by supporting the renewable energy sector, leaving China to lead the way, he said.
“The US solar industry is using the awkwardness of the Obama government to try and force it into trade protectionism and attack the rapid development of China’s solar industry,” Wang wrote.
The complaint also runs counter to the consensus reached by the two countries to develop clean energy, an important sector to support as the world tries to stimulate growth at a time of global financial crisis, he added.
The controversy comes at a sensitive time in US-China trade relations, which are plagued by US concerns over market access in China, Beijing’s treatment of intellectual property rights and stern debate over the value of China’s currency.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry has already warned the US not to take protectionist measures over the solar energy issue that could harm the global economy.
The US companies’ complaint — filed with the International Trade Commission and the US Department of Commerce against the world’s No. 2 economy — has drawn skepticism from within the industry, as many fear a trade war could disrupt growth.
Many executives from the US and Europe have complained privately for years about China’s impact on solar markets, but most have also said the business was so globalized that penalizing one country would not help firms that are struggling to survive.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained