Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) is to lead China’s delegation to the G20 summit in India this weekend, Beijing said yesterday, all but confirming that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) would snub the meeting of the world’s biggest economies.
Speculation and media reports have swirled for the past week that Xi would snub the event, but China had remained silent on the issue. US President Joe Biden has said he would be “disappointed” to see Xi skip the gathering of world leaders in New Delhi.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that Li would be at the G20 Leaders’ Summit on Saturday and Sunday, which it described as an important forum for economic cooperation.
Photo: AP
“In attending this meeting, Premier Li Qiang will convey China’s thoughts and positions on G20 cooperation, pushing for the G20 to strengthen unity and cooperation, and working together to combat global economic and development challenges,” ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) told a regular news briefing.
Asked whether the announcement meant Xi would not travel to New Delhi, Mao said: “I made an announcement about this just now. Premier Li Qiang will lead a delegation to New Delhi, India, to take part in the G20 Leaders’ Summit.”
The Group of 20 major economies consists of 19 countries and the EU, making up about 85 percent of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population.
Photo: Reuters
The summit has taken on additional importance this year as many countries wrestle with high inflation and economic turbulence amid a slowing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, has set an annual growth target of about 5 percent, but has its own problems, including weak consumer demand, soaring youth unemployment and a crisis in the crucial property sector.
Asked about Xi reportedly not planning to join the gathering in New Delhi, Biden told reporters on Sunday: “I am disappointed, but I am going to get to see him,” without elaborating.
Xi has attended every G20 summit since coming to power except Rome in 2021, when he participated by video link.
Xi’s likely absence from New Delhi stands in contrast to his grand reception at a key summit of major developing economies last month.
The Johannesburg meeting of the so-called BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — saw the Chinese president take center stage as six new countries were admitted into the bloc.
Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are to become full members from Jan. 1, in a decision that Xi hailed as “historic.”
Beijing also has a long-running border dispute with G20 host nation India, with deadly brawls breaking out along their contested boundary in recent years.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS