A Chinese ambassador on Wednesday ripped into the US for an “attack” on Beijing’s candidate to head a UN agency that monitors and tracks intellectual property rights (IPR) such as patents, trademarks and industrial designs — a lucrative and crucial part of the growing digital age.
The showdown over the leadership of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) amounts to the latest face-off between the US and China.
The comments by Chinese Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Chen Xu (陳旭) laid bare rising tensions over an alleged US campaign to prevent veteran WIPO official Wang Binying (王彬穎) from becoming director-general of the agency.
“The United States is turning this election into a political game. The United States has no candidate of its own, yet it tries every means to block Ms Wang Binying and even takes this venture at its top diplomatic agenda,” Chen told reporters at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
“It is sad that the United States has gone so far as to warn some of the medium and small countries not to vote for China, or they will face consequences, such as weakened relations with the United States or losing the World Bank and IMF loans,” Chen added.
“The United States attack on China’s candidature, China’s contribution, in the areas of IPR, is not only unfair, it’s irrational,” he said.
A WIPO coordination committee is set to select its nominee for director-general at a closed-door meeting on Wednesday and Thursday next week, before the agency’s general assembly makes the final decision in May.
The assembly has never rejected a coordination committee nominee since the WIPO was created in 1967.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo two weeks ago said that the US was “tracking” the WIPO election “very, very closely.”
“We are going to make sure that whoever runs that organization understands the importance of enforcing intellectual property rights across nations and across boundaries,” he said on Feb. 13. “You should know that we’re engaged in lots of conversations to make sure that whoever is ultimately selected has respect for property rights, and the rule of law in the context of intellectual property rights.”
US Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Director Peter Navarro on Sunday went even further in a column in the Financial Times, saying that international intellectual property rules “underpin the innovation economy.”
“The US believes that giving control of WIPO to a representative of China would be a terrible mistake,” Navarro wrote. “China is responsible for 85% of counterfeits seized by US border officials; and Chinese IP[R] theft costs the American economy between [US]$225-[US]$600 billion annually.”
He alleged a Chinese “gambit to gain control over the 15 specialized agencies of the UN.”
He noted that China already has leadership of four of those, while no other nation leads more than one.
Chen dismissed that charge.
“It’s not our strategy to intentionally to seek the dominance in terms of numbers. It’s a natural process,” he said.
He also criticized the US for having “turned their back” on multilateral cooperation, citing withdrawals from international organizations such as UNESCO and the Human Rights Council.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS