Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑企業), the nation’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday said that anti-China protesters in Vietnam broke into the facilities of its division in Nhon Trach District, Dong Nai Province, on Tuesday, injuring one employee from Taiwan.
The protests were caused by China’s dispatch of an oil rig to a disputed area in the South China Sea 120km from Vietnam’s coast.
However, protesters on Tuesday either could not or did not differentiate between Taiwanese companies and Chinese ones, Hong Fu-yuan (洪福源), president of the group’s Vietnamese division, Formosa Industries Corp (台灣興業), said in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: CNA
About 300 protesters, some carrying steel bars and others on motorcycles, stormed Formosa Industries’ offices, factory and dormitory at 11:45pm on Tuesday. They stole or destroyed computer monitors and TV, as well as robbed employees of personal property, before leaving at about 4am, Hong said.
Formosa Plastics Group is one of the biggest foreign investors in Vietnam. Hong said Formosa Industries had halted its operations in Dong Nai and is assessing the damage. While major facilities were not affected, resuming operations will depend on whether the local government can offer the firm sufficient protection, he said.
“The situation was close to anarchy,” Hong said. “Since the Vietnamese government is incapable of protecting investors from abroad, we believe foreign investors will have to reconsider their future investments in the country.”
Asked about the company’s US$500 million capacity expansion plan for textile and plastics production in the area, Hong said it will re-evaluate the parts of the initiative that have not been initiated yet, without offering details.
Formosa Industries has no plan to repatriate its 200 Taiwanese employees because it is still too dangerous, he added.
Formosa Industries posts annual revenues of NT$25 billion (US$803.08 million) on average and employs 3,000 workers, Hong said.
Tire maker Cheng Shin Rubber Industrial Co (正新輪胎), which rents land from Formosa Industries in the area, said its premises were also attacked by anti-China protesters, causing it to shut its Vietnamese division down yesterday.
Cheng Shin is still assessing the damage at its Vietnamese unit, which produces 15,000 tires for motorcycles a year and posts annual revenue of NT$3 billion a year on average, or about 3 percent of the tire maker’s total revenue.
However, Advanced International Multitech Co (明安國際), which also rents land from Formosa Industries in the area to manufacture golf club heads and putters, is sending 30 of its Taiwanese staff home.
The golf equipment firm’s division in Vietnam, which generates 10 percent of its products, yesterday said it would use its Chinese plants to meet client orders.
Apparel maker Eclat Textile Co (儒鴻) also shut down five factories in southern Vietnam yesterday, but kept two in the north open.
Sales of Eclat’s Vietnamese division accounted for more than 50 percent of the company’s revenue of NT$18.14 billion last year, vice president Roger Lo (羅仁傑) said.
Eclat did not receive any report of damage at its factories, Lo said.
As for its capacity expansion drive in Nhon Trach, Lo said it will be completed by the end of this quarter as scheduled.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
A clandestine US Navy special missions unit colloquially known as SEAL Team 6 has been training for missions to assist Taiwan’s defense against an attack by China, the Financial Times said in a report yesterday. The navy commando team famous for killing Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, has been conducting training to take part in a Taiwan conflict at its Dam Neck headquarters in Virginia Beach for more than one year, it said, citing sources familiar with the matter. “The secret training underlines the increased US focus on deterring China from attacking Taiwan, while stepping up preparations for such an event,”
RSS