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
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats