China’s premier yesterday said that major powers must keep their differences under control and avoid “a new Cold War,” in a thinly veiled reference to Washington, as top Asian and US officials gathered for talks in Indonesia.
Beijing has expressed concern about US-backed blocs forming on its doorstep, while facing disputes with other powers in the region over the South China Sea and other issues.
“Disagreements and disputes may arise between countries due to misperceptions, diverging interests or external interferences,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) said at the start of an ASEAN Plus Three meeting with Japan and South Korea in Jakarta.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“To keep differences under control, what is essential now is to oppose picking sides, to oppose bloc confrontation and to oppose a new Cold War,” he said.
The 10-member ASEAN was holding separate summits with China, Japan, South Korea, the US and Canada, providing an arena for big powers to lobby the bloc and their rivalries to play out.
US Vice President Kamala Harris was attending in place of US President Joe Biden, while Li was taking part instead of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Yesterday’s meetings precede an 18-member East Asia Summit today to be attended by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and the G20 summit in New Delhi at the weekend, where broader geopolitical issues are expected to top the agenda.
Harris met ASEAN leaders, praising them for their “shared commitment to international rules and norms ... and regional issues.”
In a sign of Washington’s increasing regional engagement, she announced the creation of the first US-ASEAN center in Washington.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol are attending both days of meetings.
Yoon reportedly told ASEAN leaders there must be no cooperation with North Korea, which the US said this week is holding arms talks with Russia.
“Any attempts to forge military cooperation with North Korea ... should be immediately stopped,” Yoon was quoted by a presidential official as telling an ASEAN meeting, Yonhap news agency said.
Kishida and Yoon met Li alongside ASEAN leaders, with a row between China and Japan over the release of treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant one of the topics raised.
“Japan and China talked about Fukushima, but it wasn’t heated,” a Southeast Asian diplomat who was in the room said.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS