China had planned to announce a US$10 billion infrastucture investment fund and offer credit to neighbors at a canceled weekend summit of Asian leaders in Thailand, its foreign minister said.
Anti-government protesters forced the cancelation of the 16-nation summit in Pattaya after they swarmed into the summit venue.
The summit was to bring together leaders of the 10-member ASEAN, regional powers China, Japan and India, and the UN secretary-general and president of the World Bank, who had planned to discuss the global financial crisis.
In an interview with China’s Xinhua news agency on Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎) said that the fund would promote construction to better connect China with its Southeast Asian neighbors, but did not give examples of projects.
Yang avoided direct criticism of the Thai government, while detailing measures that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) had planned to offer at the summit.
It was not immediately clear if China would go ahead with the planned investments. Calls to the Foreign Ministry and its after-hours mobile phone rang unanswered yesterday.
China has been active in building roads from its southern border through neighboring Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, to ease trade.
It will also offer a credit of US$15 billion to ASEAN countries, including preferential loans of US$1.7 billion for cooperation projects, Yang said.
It plans to offer 270 million yuan (US$39.51 million) in aid to Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to help them combat the global financial crisis, and will inject US$50 million into the China-ASEAN cooperation fund, Yang said.
While not an ASEAN member, China’s growing economic clout, huge market and competitive exports make it an important participant in ASEAN summits, although tensions persist over competing claims to the South China Sea and Chinese plans for dams that are opposed by other nations along the Mekong River.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS