China had planned to announce a US$10 billion infrastucture investment fund and offer credit to neighbors at a canceled weekend summit of Asian leaders in Thailand, its foreign minister said.
Anti-government protesters forced the cancelation of the 16-nation summit in Pattaya after they swarmed into the summit venue.
The summit was to bring together leaders of the 10-member ASEAN, regional powers China, Japan and India, and the UN secretary-general and president of the World Bank, who had planned to discuss the global financial crisis.
In an interview with China’s Xinhua news agency on Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎) said that the fund would promote construction to better connect China with its Southeast Asian neighbors, but did not give examples of projects.
Yang avoided direct criticism of the Thai government, while detailing measures that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) had planned to offer at the summit.
It was not immediately clear if China would go ahead with the planned investments. Calls to the Foreign Ministry and its after-hours mobile phone rang unanswered yesterday.
China has been active in building roads from its southern border through neighboring Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, to ease trade.
It will also offer a credit of US$15 billion to ASEAN countries, including preferential loans of US$1.7 billion for cooperation projects, Yang said.
It plans to offer 270 million yuan (US$39.51 million) in aid to Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to help them combat the global financial crisis, and will inject US$50 million into the China-ASEAN cooperation fund, Yang said.
While not an ASEAN member, China’s growing economic clout, huge market and competitive exports make it an important participant in ASEAN summits, although tensions persist over competing claims to the South China Sea and Chinese plans for dams that are opposed by other nations along the Mekong River.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS: The suspects formed spy networks and paramilitary groups to kill government officials during a possible Chinese invasion, prosecutors said Prosecutors have indicted seven retired military officers, members of the Rehabilitation Alliance Party, for allegedly obtaining funds from China, and forming paramilitary groups and assassination squads in Taiwan to collaborate with Chinese troops in a possible war. The suspects contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法) by taking photos and drawing maps of key radar stations, missile installations and the American Institute in Taiwan’s headquarters in Taipei, prosecutors said. They allegedly prepared to collaborate with China during a possible invasion of Taiwan, prosecutors said. Retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義), 62, a Republic of China Army Academy graduate, went to China
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
RSS