Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) cofounder Jack Ma (馬雲) said his promise to create 1 million jobs in the US is impossible to fulfill because of the US-China trade war, a setback in one high-profile effort for deeper cooperation between the world’s two largest economies.
China’s richest man made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua news agency on Tuesday, saying the pledge made to US President Donald Trump is no longer feasible because of the unstable trade situation.
Ma and Trump met in January last year to discuss how adding small and medium-sized US businesses to Alibaba’s platform would boost employment.
Photo: AFP
Ma has grown increasingly critical of the trade battle between the US and China, saying it would damage businesses around the world.
In a speech on Tuesday, he cautioned China’s business and political leaders to prepare for the conflict to last 20 years, beyond the Trump presidency, as the two countries battle for economic supremacy.
“The [jobs] promise was made based on China and the US having a collaborative and friendly relationship,” he said in the Xinhua interview. “The situation now has completely destroyed our premise, so it can no longer be completed.”
Ma also said in the interview that he would keep making efforts to push for the healthy development of bilateral trade ties.
He said that trade is not a weapon and should not be used for wars.
Ma yesterday said that weakness in the economic outlook is “problematic” for the company.
“The economic outlook is not perfect of course, and it will last longer than people expect,” Ma said at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, China. “If you look at the government conference papers, every year they say we have complex problems in the economy.”
Tensions have escalated this week as the US announced additional tariffs on about US$200 billion in Chinese goods, and Beijing responded with tariffs on about US$60 billion of US goods.
“Short term, business communities in China, US, Europe will all be in trouble,” Ma said on Tuesday, during a speech at Alibaba’s investor day in Hangzhou. “This thing will last long. If you want a short-term solution, there is no solution.”
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”