Stimulus spending and other emergency measures have set the stage for global economic recovery, but nations must push ahead with free trade and investment to ensure growth, US President Barack Obama and fellow Asia-Pacific leaders said yesterday.
Obama and 20 other leaders, meeting in Singapore for the annual APEC forum, rejected protectionism and agreed to develop long-term strategies that take into account the diverse needs of economies in a region stretching from Chile to China.
GROWTH PARADIGM
Recovery is not yet on a solid footing and the region “cannot go back to growth as usual,” Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said, reading from a joint statement by the APEC leaders. “We need a new growth paradigm. We need a fresh model of economic integration. We will pursue growth which is balanced, inclusive and sustainable, supported by innovation and a knowledge-based economy, to ensure a durable recovery that will create jobs and benefit our people.”
To that end, APEC members pledged to maintain economic stimulus policies until a durable recovery had clearly taken hold.
Nations must work toward “strong, sustainable and balanced global economic growth,” with policies that expand opportunities for all — including women and small business owners — take better care of the environment and promote development, while reducing poverty and ensuring security, they said.
There was no mention of currency rates in the final statement, despite finance ministers’ calls earlier in the week for maintaining “market-oriented exchange rates.”
That was a reference to the yuan, which critics say is kept artificially undervalued, making exports of other countries less competitive.
EXCHANGE RATES
Asked if leaders discussed the argument that controlled exchange rates such as China’s constituted a form of protectionism, Lee said: “Some leaders expressed their concern about the possibility of currency movements that could become unstable and the potential problems that could arise if governments had to continually intervene in order to manage their currencies.”
A push for concrete goals for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions was omitted from the statement. A previous draft had pledged a 50 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2050, but the final communique committed only to working toward “an ambitious outcome” at climate talks in Copenhagen next month.
WAY STATION
Obama and other world leaders agreed yesterday that the Copenhagen summit would be merely a way station, not the once hoped-for endpoint in the drive for a new global climate change treaty.
The World Wildlife Fund’s Global Climate Initiative said the leaders must begin taking stronger action.
“Deleting, rather than strengthening, emission reduction targets in their leaders’ declarations — like they did here in Singapore — is certainly not a solution,” spokeswoman Diane McFadzien said in a statement. “Leaders have to take the bull by the horns and finally tackle the difficult questions, instead of constantly avoiding them.”
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS