Japan and China yesterday held their first high-level economic dialogue in almost eight years against a backdrop of trade threats from the US.
Neither side is publicly linking the talks in Tokyo between Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) and Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono to US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies, but the meeting is a timely reminder of how much they both rely on the US market and how interdependent the two Asian nations have become.
Japan asked China to ensure fair and free transfers of technology and exchanges of intellectual property, Kono told reporters after the meeting with Wang.
Photo: AP
The US is threatening tariffs on about US$50 billion on imports from China to address what it called “unfair Chinese economic practices” in intellectual property and forced technology transfers.
Japan also made requests of China regarding steel overproduction, Kono said, but denied an earlier report from Kyodo News that China had asked for Japan’s help on US steel tariffs, which have been imposed on both Japan and China.
Even before he was elected, Trump had criticized Chinese and Japanese trade and economic policy as unfair and damaging to the US. Recently, he has threatened tariffs on Chinese exports and limits on investment, and just last week took a shot at Japan, saying the nation “has hit us hard on trade for years!”
That trade might be on the table for discussion when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets with Trump later this week in Florida, but the rise of intra-Asian trade has weakened the power of US attempts to coerce nations.
China has replaced the US as the No. 1 trading partner for most nations in Asia, even those that have military alliances with the US, like South Korea, Japan and Australia.
China is not just a trading partner, but also an important source of investment and tourists, which give it added bargaining and coercive power against other Asian nations.
That being said, the US is still a more important overall economic partner for many in Asia. Japan, for example, has multiple times as much money invested in the US as it does in China, and even with the recent tensions, many Asian companies rely on the US market.
Trade tension between the US and China is not new. Even before Trump began railing against the persistent trade deficit, the US had complained to the WTO about Chinese actions more than about any other nation, and China has reciprocated.
However, the current situation is much more tense and Japan’s economy would be damaged if it gets worse.
Therefore, Japan will have to walk a fine line this week, balancing often tense relations with its biggest trading partner against the demands of its second-largest trading partner, which is also its military ally and guarantor of its security.
Kono on Sunday said that he and Wang agreed to improve ties by having their leaders pay mutual visits, starting with a visit next month to Japan by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) for a trilateral summit involving South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
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],”
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
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