Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Saturday pledged to open China’s economy further as leaders of Asia-Pacific nations sought new free-trade options following US president-elect Donald Trump’s victory at the polls on promises to scrap or renegotiate trade deals.
All eyes were on China at this year’s APEC summit in Lima, Peru, just over a week after Trump’s surprise victory dashed hopes of the largest-ever US-proposed trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), coming to fruition.
US President Barack Obama has championed the TPP as a way to counter China’s rise, but he has now stopped trying to win congressional approval for the deal signed by 12 economies in the Americas and Asia-Pacific, excluding China.
Following a meeting with Obama, Xi said Beijing’s relationship with Washington was at a “hinge moment” and called for a smooth transition.
Xi has been selling an alternate vision for regional trade by promoting the Beijing-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which as it stands excludes the Americas.
“China will not shut its door to the outside world but open more,” Xi said in a keynote address at APEC. “We’re going to ... make sure the fruits of development are shared.”
With the fate of the TPP uncertain, China’s talks on RCEP, which include Australia, India and more than a dozen other countries, are seen as perhaps the only path to the broader Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific that APEC aspires to.
Meanwhile, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte lashed out at Western “bullying” and “hypocrisy” during his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said when it came to alliances, the US could not be trusted.
“Historically, I have been identified with the Western world. It was good until it lasted,” he told the Russian leader in their meeting at the summit.
“And of late, I see a lot of these Western nations bullying small nations. And not only that, they are into so much hypocrisy,” he said, according to a transcript of Saturday’s meeting provided by his office.
Putin congratulated Duterte on his May election win and said he had done a lot in a very short time to build trust and confidence between Russia and the Philippines.
Prior to leaving for Peru, Duterte said he might follow Russia and withdraw from the International Criminal Court because of Western criticism of his deadly war on drugs.
He said if Russia and China decided to create a “new order” in the world, he would be first to join.
In related news, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday that Xi, in separate meetings with the leaders of the Philippines and Vietnam, said disputes over the South China Sea should be resolved bilaterally.
Xi told Duterte “to actively mull maritime cooperation and promote positive interaction on the sea,” turning the South China Sea into “an opportunity for bilateral friendly cooperation,” Xinhua reported.
That sentiment was echoed by Duterte, Xinhua reported.
The Philippines president has overseen a rapid improvement of previously frosty relations between the two countries since taking office in June.
The Philippines “is willing to properly address maritime issues with China through dialogue and consultation,” Xinhua said.
Xi made similar overtures to Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang at the summit in Lima.
He said the two countries should “solve disputes through bilateral consultations and dialogues, adhere to a cooperative path of ‘shelving differences and engaging in joint development,’ and properly address problems in order to maintain regional peace and tranquillity,” Xinhua said.
The Chinese news agency did not say whether Quang also addressed the South China Sea.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS