China tried to defuse a trade row with the US over wind technology on Thursday, as bilateral rivalries threatened to dash global hopes for green energy cooperation.
Officials in Beijing said they were willing to discuss incentives for turbine manufacturers, which US President Barack Obama’s administration described as “illegal subsidies” in a request for talks on the subject at the WTO.
The US claims China has given an unfair advantage to domestic firms by channeling hundreds of millions of dollars to them through a special fund established in 2008.
The United Steelworkers union (USW) is frustrated that this weakens the competitiveness of US firms such as General Electric in a Chinese market that has doubled in size almost every year since 2005 and is now the biggest in the world in terms of generating capacity.
Obama is expected to raise the issue at a summit in Washington next month with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Beijing insists its wind policies are good for the global environment and within global trade rules, but its initial response on Thursday was conciliatory.
“China will conscientiously study the US request for consultations, and will deal with this in accordance with WTO dispute settlement rules,” the Chinese Commerce Ministry said in a statement on its Web site.
However, government advisers were scathing. Pan Jiahua (潘家華), the executive director of the sustainable development research center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said the symbolic impact would be significant.
“At a global level, the US action is terrible. It’s very silly,” Pan said. “This gives a very bad signal for the world. It says renewable energy technologies should not be encouraged. This is a huge blow to the fast deployment of wind energy.”
Beijing has pledged to boost wind power capacity from 20 gigawatts last year to 90 gigawatts, and foreign firms — which currently provide less than one in four wind turbines in China — want a bigger share of the business.
With renewable energy set to become more lucrative, other rows are likely to break out. The USW has also urged Washington to oppose Chinese restrictions on antimony, tungsten and other rare earth minerals essential for solar cells, energy-efficient lighting and electric cars.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese