China is not considering replacing Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (劉鶴) as the top economic envoy to the US, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said yesterday, denying a media report that the change was under consideration in Beijing.
Liu was the chief negotiator for the “phase one” trade deal signed with the US in January last year and is a close associate of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that the Chinese government was considering replacing him with Vice Premier Hu Chunhua (胡春華), citing unidentified officials.
“The report is not true,” ministry spokesman Gao Feng (高峰) told reporters at a news briefing in Beijing yesterday.
Hu, 58, is a member of Chinese Communist Party’s politburo and the vice premier overseeing agriculture, commerce, trade and also poverty reduction, which is a signature campaign of Xi.
Hu began his political career as a party Youth League official in Tibet in the early 1980s, and became one of China’s youngest provincial leaders when he was appointed Hebei Province governor in 2008. He later worked as party head of Inner Mongolia and Guangdong before becoming vice premier in 2018.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) last week said that she expected to talk to China’s top trade negotiators “soon,” without giving any details.
Lower-level officials from the two sides have spoken to discuss the trade deal, the Wall Street Journal report reported.
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
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