Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has asked former Starbucks chief executive officer Howard Schultz to help repair US-China relations that have plunged to their lowest level in decades amid a trade dispute and tension over technology and security.
A letter from Xi to Schultz reported on Friday by the official Xinhua news agency was a rare direct communication from China’s leader to a foreign business figure.
Schultz had opened Starbucks’ first outlet in China in 1999 and is a frequent visitor.
Photo: AP
Xi wrote to Schultz “to encourage him and Starbucks to continue to play an active role in promoting Chinese-US economic and trade cooperation and the development of bilateral relations,” Xinhua reported.
In a statement issued on the same day, Schultz did not directly address Xi’s request to help repair relations, but said it was “a great honor” to receive the letter from China’s president.
Schultz said Xi was replying to a letter Schultz recently sent him along with a Chinese-language edition of his book, From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America.
Xinhua reported that Schultz congratulated Xi on “the completion of a well-off society” under his leadership.
Schultz did not release a copy of his letter to Xi, but he said that he shared his respect for the Chinese people and culture.
In his statement, Schultz said that he has formed many close relationships with Starbucks employees in China, which is Starbucks’ biggest market outside the US.
It has 4,700 stores and 58,000 employees in nearly 190 Chinese cities.
“I truly believe Starbucks best days are ahead in China and that the values of creativity, compassion, community and hard work will guide the company toward an even greater business and community contribution, while continuing to build common ground for cooperation between our two countries,” Schultz said in his statement.
Starbucks said it had no comment.
Schultz in 2017 stepped down as Starbucks’ chief executive and in 2018 retired as chairman of the company.
Xinhua gave no indication whether the letter reflected an initiative to ask corporate leaders in the US to help change policy after US president-elect Joe Biden takes office on Wednesday.
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS