Day: March 27, 2024

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday accused China of manipulating global markets for green energy by exporting a “flood” of subsidized products, which she said suppresses the development of competing industries in other countries around the world.

The remarks came a day after China filed a complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organization accusing it of improperly subsidizing only electric vehicles without Chinese-made batteries.

Speaking at the Suniva solar-cell manufacturing plant in Norcross, Georgia, as part of the American-owned firm’s reopening of a shuttered factory, Yellen credited tax credits in the Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act for getting the solar plant back open.

“A flood of solar imports at artificially low prices due to heavy foreign government subsidies made it too hard to compete, and Suniva filed for bankruptcy in 2017,” Yellen said, adding that the “unfair competition” meant the company could not compete without a leg up of its own.

“In particular, I am concerned about global spillovers from the excess capacity that we are seeing in China,” she said. “China’s overcapacity distorts global prices and production patterns and hurts American firms and workers, as well as firms and workers around the world.”

The inability of other companies to compete with subsidized Chinese rivals was also creating “concentrated supply chains” that threaten the stability of global markets if China cuts off supply, Yellen said, adding that she planned to raise the issue on her next trip to Beijing.

She singled out the solar industry, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries as the main areas where an artificial oversupply exists.

Takes one to know one

In a complaint to the World Trade Organization on Tuesday, China accused the United States of engaging in similar practices using the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax credits for U.S.-made electric cars.

Beijing asked for the body’s dispute-settlement mechanism – which has been effectively shut down by the United States for the last five years – to adjudicate on whether the tax credits violate its rules. 

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, American consumers can claim a $7,500 tax credit if they buy an electric vehicle – so long as it does not contain battery parts from a “foreign entity of concern,” a label squarely directed at China, which dominates the lithium-ion battery market. 

In its complaint, China’s Ministry of Commerce said that the selective tax breaks are unfairly discriminatory and distort global markets.

The disputes over trade rules are also the latest example of slowly creeping tensions in the U.S.-China relationship following the detente declared during the summit in San Francisco between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping late last year.

American authorities last week accused China’s Ministry of State Security of orchestrating a yearslong, massive computer hacking program that targeted American lawmakers, the White House, the State Department, academics and Chinese dissidents living in the United States.

That followed warnings from FBI Director Christopher Wray and other intelligence leaders that China was directing hackers to gain access to software controlling critical U.S. physical infrastructure to potentially “wreak havoc” on the United States if ordered to do so by Beijing.

No breakdown

The tensions seem far from boiling over, though. 

In a meeting with American CEOs and other business leaders in Beijing on Wednesday, Xi indicated he still wanted to keep bilateral relations calm, according to a report by state mouthpiece Xinhua.

Attendees included Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, FedEx CEO Raj Subramanium, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and Mark Carney, the chairman of Bloomberg. The U.S.-China Business Council, which organized the meeting, said the meeting was to “discuss our concerns over the decline in trade” between the two countries.

Xi “listened attentively to his U.S. guests,” Xinhua reported.

“The two countries’ respective success is an opportunity for each other,” Xi was quoted as saying. “As long as both sides see each other as partners and show mutual respect, coexist in peace and cooperate for win-win results, China-U.S. relations will get better.”

Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Taiwan’s tiny Kinmen island, just six kilometers (four miles) off the coast of mainland China, has become a focal point of fishing and territorial disputes, much to the chagrin of island residents who just want to earn a living in peace.

Tensions have risen following the deaths of two Chinese men when their speed boat capsized after evading inspection by Taiwan’s Coast Guard on Feb. 14 in waters that Taiwan says are restricted around the island, but which Chinese fishermen have increasingly plied.

The incident prompted strongly worded protests from Beijing. Chinese officials said they wouldn’t recognize the restricted zone, and soon afterwards China Coast Guard vessels boarded and searched a Taiwanese cruise ship, according to media reports.

Local fishermen told Radio Free Asia that long before the incident, Chinese fishing boats had been helping themselves to fish that were once the preserve of Kinmen’s fishing community.

Some have filmed the boats – which often come in the evenings, shining bright lights to attract fish – on their phones, but there’s little they can do to stop them.

“Here’s a [Chinese] boat that’s just like the one that capsized … going after yellow croaker,” a fisherman who declined to be named told RFA, showing footage captured on his phone. “Yellow croaker goes for the highest prices in China.”

“This is in a protected area where we’re not allowed to fish, but you can see them putting out the nets everywhere — just 50 meters away [from our shoreline],” he said. “Their nets are all across the protected area — several hundred of them.”

He said the Chinese fishing boats have also been known to remove nets set by fishing boats from Kinmen, causing economic losses for island residents.

“These are all Chinese speedboats,” he said, pointing to several bright lights in the waters. Once this was “our traditional fishing ground, where we would catch yellow croaker and white pomfret, but now it is a Chinese fishing ground.”

Kinmen’s colorful history

Kinmen was occupied during World War II by Japanese forces, who drove Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang troops out.

But when the Kuomintang government relocated to Taiwan after losing a civil war to communist forces under Mao Zedong in 1949, they kept most of the Chinese navy and stationed large numbers of troops on Kinmen – which effectively deterred any attempt at a communist invasion.

Kinmen once more became a key battlefield at the beginning of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1958 when Chinese troops fired nearly half a million artillery shells on the island, which is roughly the size of the New York borough of Brooklyn.

The island is still littered with relics of the Chinese civil war: an abandoned tank on a beach, anti-landing spikes and a World War II era cannon fired to entertain tourists. 

There’s also a massive concrete speaker that plays sentimental hits by Taiwanese pop diva Teresa Teng and extols the benefits of a democratic way of life across the busy shipping lane that divides Kinmen from China.

A documentary about the island titled “The Island Between” was recently nominated for an Oscar.

Kinmen’s people have been bombed by Allied forces, starved by the Japanese army, forcibly conscripted by China and branded traitors by the authoritarian Kuomintang government in Taiwan.

It’s a liminal place that straddles borders of identity and loyalty, and has once more found itself on the front line of a historic conflict that could threaten regional stability.

Today, Kinmen’s 197,000 residents have family and history on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and shuttle regularly by ferry back and forth to the Chinese city of Xiamen. They are wary of talking to journalists for fear that doing so will hurt their businesses, which rely on Chinese customers, or loved ones who are Chinese citizens.

Some have expressed mistrust of the Democratic Progressive Party government in Taipei, especially during the recent dispute over the fatal Chinese fishing boat incident.

At times, the island’s loyalties can seem fluid. In 2022, it emerged that one of the island’s generals was a Chinese spy who had pledged to surrender the island in the event of a Chinese invasion.

Blaming Taiwanese politicians

If the Chinese fishing boat incursions continue, the island’s fishermen are worried about their livelihoods. Many blame Taiwanese politicians for politicizing the deaths of the two Chinese citizens by making them about cross-Straits tensions, rather than just a private tragedy.

“Those in power over us have never lived like we do, making our living from the sea,” one fisherman told RFA Mandarin. “All we care about is getting three meals a day and how much money we’ll make today.”

“How can a tiny country like ours compete with them over there?”

Many in Kinmen want their government to stop insisting so much on Taiwan’s sovereignty and go back to the days of tacit understandings and accommodations.

“We used to have an unspoken understanding with them,” another fisherman said. “But our government has broken the rules of the game by escalating, and so the other side has to escalate too.”

A fishmonger at Kinmen’s Kincheng Market who gave only the surname Chang told RFA that everyone needs to calm down and start being more polite to each other.

“I want to live in a country at peace, not in the chaos of war,” she said. 

The United States is bound by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help the island, whose 23 million people have little interest in being ruled by Beijing, to defend itself.

‘Very sensitive’

Meanwhile, the bodies of the two Chinese crewmembers are still in the Kinmen Funeral Home, as officials bicker about how to get them home in the absence of diplomatic ties between China and Taiwan, according to sources on the ground.

“It’s very sensitive,” a worker at the funeral home told RFA. “Most of us don’t know what’s happening.”

“There have been nearly 20 meetings, and there are a lot of problems, which have become political,” she said. “I don’t know how things are going to go across the Taiwan Strait.”

A Kinmen fisherman who declined to be named for fear of possible reprisals said he had seen Chinese fishing boats “snaking round and circling” Taiwan’s Coast Guard vessels, in a manner he described as “provocative.”

“They cross the median line [back into Chinese waters] the moment we give chase, and they’re always faster,” the fisherman said. “Our law enforcement boats can’t catch them.”

Tensions over fishing grounds are so commonplace that pro-China social media accounts claimed after the Feb. 14 incident that it was caused by a Taiwanese Coast Guard captain whose business interests were being harmed by the Chinese boats. 

These claims were later shown to be misleading by the Asia Fact Check Lab, which is affiliated with RFA.

Some said they resented that Taiwan’s government had dispatched officials from the Mainland Affairs Council in Taipei, rather than just letting local officials and the Red Cross sort out the return of the two men’s bodies.

They also point to what they call dubious claims by the Taiwanese Coast Guard that it has no video footage about the incident.

Reluctant to talk

Many who RFA contacted were wary of giving interviews for fear of reprisals from Beijing, even though they are citizens of democratic Taiwan, suggesting that the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front influence operations are already highly developed in Kinmen.

One fisherman commented anonymously: “China allows these fishing boats to fish indiscriminately off Kinmen, without identification plates or skipper licenses, yet the Taiwanese Coast Guard goes to rescue them if they get into trouble in bad weather — we’ve watched them do this from the shore.”

Another complained that the Chinese fishing boats were emboldened by a lack of adequate law enforcement by the Taiwanese Coast Guard, which is supposed to enforce Taiwanese law in waters on Kinmen’s side of the strait.

“We’ve relied on the sea for generations — how are we supposed to get enough to eat?” he said. “They have to regulate it.”

Kinmen County Councilor Tung Sen-pao, who has no party affiliation, said there should be mutual recognition of fishing bans to enable stocks to regenerate, yet this is increasingly being ignored by Chinese fishing fleets.

“I don’t think anybody wants to see tragic deaths like the ones [on Feb. 14],” Tung said. “Nobody wants to cause this level of heartache.”

He said that what’s not generally spoken about is the amount of smuggling that goes on between Kinmen and China, a trade that benefits the residents of Kinmen as well as those of China.

“Naturally the fishing community is keeping mum, because if this dispute rumbles on, they will lose those connections, their network, with China. Everybody’s income will take a hit if the maritime restrictions are enforced too strictly.”

Tung called for better enforcement of Taiwan’s fishing bans, which are designed to enable sustainability in the fishing industry.

Chen Shui-yee of the Kinmen Fishermen’s Association said the fishing community feels it is caught between, trying to appease both sides at once.

“The fishermen in China aren’t organized, so there’s no equivalent party we could talk to,” Chen said. “So we won’t get involved. Our local government never talks to us about these things anyway.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Thailand’s Parliament on Wednesday passed a same-sex marriage bill at the final reading, moving the country a step closer to becoming the first in Southeast Asia to provide equal marriage rights to LGBTQ+ persons.

The bill sailed through the lower house receiving 400 votes in favor and 10 against, according to deputy speaker Pichet Chuamuangphan.

The landmark legislation still requires approval from the conservative-leaning Senate and endorsement from the king before it becomes law – a process that would see Thailand join only Taiwan and Nepal in Asia in recognizing the rights of same-sex couples to wed.

“This law ensures that the rights of ordinary men and women are not diminished in any way. Your legal rights remain unchanged in all respects,” Danuporn Punnakan, chair of the special Committee reviewing the bill, told Parliament before the final reading.

“Simultaneously, this law will protect a group of people, whether they are called LGBT, transgender men, transgender women, or anything else.” 

Thailand boasts one of the most vibrant LGBTQ+ communities in Asia, and public surveys show that the bill enjoys overwhelming support.

However, discrimination against gay and lesbian individuals persists in the country, particularly in employment and health care, advocates say.

Same-sex couples were previously unable to adopt children, make emergency health care decisions for their partners, or access spousal benefits, including tax deductions and government pensions.

A key aspect of the bill is to allow “two individuals (of any gender)” to marry, amending current wording of the Civil and Commercial Code that specifies marriage as between a man and a woman. The change will allow spouses of all genders to manage assets and legally adopt children.

“A public opinion survey showed that 96.6% of the population agrees with this bill. The benefits of the act affirm the government’s intention and policy to respect and promote human rights by amending unjust laws to ensure that everyone has the right to equally and fairly establish family relationships,” said Deputy Prime Minister Somsak Thepsutin while presenting the bill for consideration.

Speaking before the vote, Pakodchakon Wongsupha, a 67-year-old woman with a transgender partner, said the amendments would provide social security and legal recognition. 

“If something went wrong that resulted in death, I wouldn’t have the legal right to file any complaint like other legalized couples. It makes me hurt when I think about it. Every couple in this world, regardless of gender, should have the right to receive welfare benefits or legal recognition like anyone else,” Pakodchakon told BenarNews. 

Thailand’s road to approving same-sex marriage legislation has been years in the making. 

An earlier draft marriage equality bill, introduced by opposition lawmakers from the progressive Move Forward Party, reached its second reading in November 2022, but didn’t move beyond that because of a series of legislative delays after which the Parliament was dissolved in March ahead of the May general election. 

Mookdapa Yangyuenpradorn, a Southeast Asian human rights associate at Fortify Rights, said she hoped that Thailand’s law could inspire other countries in Southeast Asia.

“While this law may not be 100% perfect, from the perspective of an international human rights organization, it makes Thailand’s legislation more aligned with international standards,” Mookdapa told BenarNews.

Wilawan Watcharasakwet and Ruj Chuenban in Bangkok contributed to this report.

BenarNews is and RFA-affiliated news service.

A prominent Chinese obstetrician has taken to social media to lament the closure of obstetrics departments in Chinese hospitals, prompting social media comments that the ruling Chinese Communist Party needs to make life better for young people if it wants to reverse falling birth rates.

“Save obstetrics!” wrote Duan Tao, obstetrician at the Shanghai No. 1 Maternal and Infant Health Hospital, in the title of his post to the social media platform Weibo at the end of last month, following a meeting of obstetrics department heads in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area.

“One man who has been a director of obstetrics for more than 20 years wept as he told the meeting that his department had recently been shut down,” Duan wrote, pointing to a fall in births from 17.86 million in 2016 to just 9.02 million in 2023.

“The government asked hospitals to add more beds after childbirth was liberalized [in May 2021],” Duan wrote. “The number of births has fallen … and the number of obstetric outpatient clinics and obstetric beds is falling every day.”

Communist Party leader Xi Jinping last October called on women to focus on raising families, and the National People’s Congress this month started looking at ways to boost flagging birth rates and kick-start the shrinking population, including flexible working policies, coverage for fertility treatment and extended maternity leave.

But young women in today’s China are increasingly choosing not to marry or have kids, citing huge inequalities and patriarchal attitudes that still run through family life, not to mention the sheer economic cost of raising a family.

According to Duan’s post, more than a dozen obstetrics departments closed in 2022, with further closures reported in Zhejiang, Guangzhou and Guangxi last year. So far this year, three more facilities have closed.

Trending on Weibo

The topic has been trending on Weibo in recent days, with some comments claiming to have recently visited obstetrics departments packed with pregnant women, and others complaining that young people have no time, money or energy to raise families amid the economic downturn and rampant youth unemployment.

“Let young people only work 8 hours a day so they have time to have sex,” Weibo user @Reflection_arc_super_long_star_silhouette_9 suggested. “Otherwise, they’re totally exhausted after working overtime, let alone having the time to conceive and raise a child.”

“Does it matter whether we have children or not?” @Dr._Zeng_who_performs_hernia_surgery wanted to know. “Perhaps more advanced technology will make in vitro fertilization possible, just like in the science fiction movies.”

@Mr._Sixth_Floor wrote: “[People] are thinking about the cost of their life choices, their quality of life, and their own fulfillment.”

Weibo celebrity @Dr._Xu_Chao seemed to agree. “For many young people, the current cost of living, high housing prices, physical and mental exhaustion, etc. are all important factors that hinder the desire to have children,” the user wrote.

“Current work pressures leave them no time to care about things other than survival, and they are feeling suffocated by unattainable housing prices … and don’t want that kind of life for their kids,” they wrote, adding: “First, save young people!”

@Yadong added: “Let’s save young people first. Only after we do that can we have more children,” while @Caibaoer commented that “high housing prices … and being laid off at 35 are the best form of contraception.”

Hospitals ‘shouldn’t be doing this’

A resident of Shandong province who gave only the surname Lu for fear of reprisals said hospitals should still offer services, as they receive government funding.

“Hospitals are nonprofits, and shouldn’t be doing this,” she said. “Low birth rates shouldn’t mean that hospitals can just shut down their obstetrics departments.”

She echoed comments on social media about the general lack of interest in raising children in today’s China.

“This is about the situation that people find themselves in regarding how well they eat, how often they are sick and so on,” Lu said. 

“That together with rising pressures like housing and transportation means they are giving up on having kids.”

Lu’s comments were also echoed by an anonymous blogger on the Sohu.com platform, who wrote that people and children are getting sick more often than they used to before the pandemic, and “have no energy for life.”

“Everyone is much more tired since the pandemic, compared with before,” the blogger wrote. “We have no family and no life of our own, yet the higher ups don’t want us to rest.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.

A junta-owned military helicopter crashed in northern Myanmar, according to a statement by officials on Wednesday. 

The accident was caused by mechanical failure during a training exercise in Mandalay region’s Meiktila city on Tuesday, the press release stated, adding that the pilot and trainee onboard were not injured during the crash. Meiktila is home to the junta’s Air Force Central Command.

Former junta air force sergeant Zayya told Radio Free Asia crashes have become more frequent because military aircraft are constantly in use by junta officials. 

“We have seen more aircraft crashes and the use of helicopters has increased,” said the man, who goes by one name. “Many of the aircraft that have come to us have weaknesses. Overuse of the aircraft will continue to happen.”

It’s important to check the condition of aircraft after each use, he added, but the junta can no longer do that because of the frequency they are being used in carrying out attacks all over the nation. According to a September report by the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, airstrike attacks increased in Myanmar by 324% between 2021 and 2023. 

On Feb. 29, a fighter jet crashed near Magway region’s Kyu Wun village in central Myanmar. Just weeks earlier, a military plane repatriating troops who fled to India skidded off the runway at Mizoram state’s Lengpui Airport.

These crashes were preceded by more infrequent crashes in earlier years of the coup. In November 2022, a training pilot plane crashed in Tanintharyi region’s Thayetchaung township.

In June 2021, a junta passenger plane crash killed 12 people at Pyinoolwin’s nearby Anisakhan Airport in Mandalay region. The dead included a monk, two army majors, a captain and a corporal.

According to data compiled by RFA, rebel armies in Kachin, Kayin and Karenni states, as well as guerilla armies, or People’s Defense Forces, claim to have shot down seven transport helicopters and fighter jets in the three years since the 2021 coup. Five additional junta aircraft have crashed due to technical or human error.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.