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January
Taiwan president tells pope war with China not an option
Written by Nur Yasmin
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has written to Pope Francis to say that war between Taiwan and China is not an option and only by respecting the Taiwanese people's insistence on sovereignty and freedom can there be healthy ties with Beijing.
The Vatican is Chinese-claimed Taiwan's sole European diplomatic ally, and Taipei has watched with concern as Pope Francis has moved to improve relations with China. The democratically governed island has formal ties with only 14 countries, largely due to Chinese pressure.
In the letter, sent in response to the pope's World Day Of Peace message on Jan. 1, Tsai said war in Ukraine has made the world appreciate the value of peace and that maintaining regional security has become an important consensus.
"In my National Day speech last year, I reiterated that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are the foundation for the development of cross-Strait relations and armed confrontation is absolutely not an option," Tsai said, according to a copy of the letter released by her office on Monday.
"Only by respecting the commitment of the Taiwanese people to our sovereignty, democracy, and freedom can there be a foundation for resuming constructive interaction across the Taiwan Strait," she said, referring to the speech she gave on Oct. 10 last year.
China staged war games near Taiwan last August, and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.
Tsai wrote that Taiwan has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and provided masks and protective equipment to countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it "hopes to give the world a better Taiwan".
"Though we are still excluded from the World Health Organization, we are convinced that taking the lead in making positive contributions will drive a 'virtuous circle'," she added.
Taiwan has complained repeatedly that its exclusion from the WHO, due to Chinese pressure, has hampered efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the WHO and China have denied that.
Taiwan rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying that only the island's 23 million people can decide their future. (Reuters)
January
New Zealand's Incoming PM Says He Is 'Making Haste' On Changes In Priorities
Written by Nur Yasmin
New Zealand's incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said on Monday that his government would be "making haste" on reprioritising and looking at whether current policies need to be scaled down.
Hipkins appeared Monday on a number of New Zealand media after he was chosen on Sunday to replace Jacinda Ardern as head of the Labour party, thereby making him the country's next prime minister.
Hipkins told TVNZ's Breakfast on Monday that the government would be refocusing on "bread and butter issues" for New Zealand including inflation and would look at reining in other policies, without elaborating.
"We'll be making haste on all of those issues," Hipkins told a second morning programme the AM Show. "Within the next few weeks you're going to see quite a lot of clarity around us about reprioritisation."
Hipkins has a tough road ahead with Labour trailing the opposition in opinion polls and the country expected to fall into recession in the next quarter before a general election on Oct. 14, but he was looking on the bright side.
"I'm really optimistic, I've had a huge amount of support. And I think New Zealand are giving me a fair hearing," Hipkins said on the programme.
Labour has pursued a number of policies that have been unpopular or seen as expensive by many voters, including the proposed merging of state-owned radio and television stations and an overhaul of ownership of the country's water infrastructure.
Hipkins is expected to be sworn in as prime minister on Wednesday after Ardern officially resigns. (Reuters)
January
It's 'Now or Never' to Stop Japan's Shrinking Population, PM Says
Written by Nur Yasmin
Japanese Prime minister Fumio Kishida pledged on Monday to take urgent steps to tackle the country's declining birth rate, saying it was "now or never" for one of the world's oldest societies.
Japan has in recent years been trying to encourage its people to have more children with promises of cash bonuses and better benefits, but it remains one of the most expensive places in the world to raise a child, according to surveys.
Births plunged to a new record low last year, according to official estimates, dropping below 800,000 for the first time - a watershed moment that came eight years earlier than the government had expected.
That most likely precipitated a further population decline in a country where the median age is 49, the highest in the world behind only the tiny city-state of Monaco.
"Our nation is on the cusp of whether it can maintain its societal functions," Kishida said in a policy speech at the opening of this year's parliamentary session.
"It is now or never when it comes to policies regarding births and child-rearing - it is an issue that simply cannot wait any longer," he added.
Kishida said he would submit plans to double the budget for child-related policies by June, and that a new Children and Families government agency to oversee the issue would be set up in April.
Japan is the third-most-expensive country globally to raise a child, according to YuWa Population Research, behind only China and South Korea, countries also seeing shrinking populations in worrying signs for the global economy.
Other countries are also coming to grips with ageing and shrinking populations. Last week, China reported that its population dropped in 2022 for the first time in 60 years. (reuters)
January
Japan PM Kishida Weighs Feb. Ukraine Visit To Hold Talks with Zelenskiy, Yomiuri Reports
Written by Nur Yasmin
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is considering visiting Kyiv in February and holding talks with Ukraine's President Volodomyr Zelenskiy, the Yomiuri newspaper said, citing Japanese government sources.
As chair of the Group of Seven (G7) leading economies this year, Japan wants to show it intends to keep providing support to Ukraine while it also aims to release a statement with Kyiv condemning Russia's aggression, Yomiuri said.
Kishida will make a final decision about whether to go ahead with the visit based on the state of the war in Ukraine, Yomiuri said, citing multiple unnamed government sources.
Japan's foreign ministry was not immediately available to comment on the report.
Speaking at a television programme on Sunday, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara said the idea was something Japan must contemplate as chair of G7 this year.
"But nothing has been decided at this stage," he said, when asked about the possibility of Kishida visiting Kyiv.
Earlier this month, the Japanese leader told Zelenskiy in a phone call that he would weigh an invitation to visit Kyiv depending on "various circumstances".
Japan will host the annual G7 summit in May in Hiroshima, when Ukraine is expected to be a major topic of discussion. The other G7 countries are the United States, Canada, Germany, Britain, France and Italy. (reuters)
January
Chinese Pray for Health in Lunar New Year as COVID Death Toll Rises
Written by Nur Yasmin
China rang in the Lunar New Year on Sunday with its people praying for health after three years of stress and financial hardship under the pandemic, as officials reported almost 13,000 new deaths caused by the virus between January 13 and 19.
Queues stretched for about one kilometre (a half-mile) outside the iconic Lama temple in Beijing, which had been repeatedly shut before COVID-19 restrictions ended in early December, with thousands of people waiting for their turn to pray for their loved ones.
One Beijing resident said she wished the year of the rabbit will bring "health to everyone".
"I think this wave of the pandemic is gone," said the 57-year-old, who only gave her last name, Fang. "I didn’t get the virus, but my husband and everyone in my family did. I still think it's important to protect ourselves."
Earlier, officials reported almost 13,000 deaths related to COVID in hospitals between January 13 and 19, adding to the nearly 60,000 in the month or so before that. Chinese health experts say the wave of infections across the country has already peaked.
The death toll update, from China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, comes amid doubts over Beijing's data transparency and remains extremely low by global standards.
Hospitals and funeral homes were overwhelmed after China abandoned the world's strictest regime of COVID controls and mass testing on Dec. 7 in an abrupt policy U-turn, which followed historic protests against the curbs.
The death count reported by Chinese authorities excludes those who died at home, and some doctors have said they are discouraged from putting COVID on death certificates.
China on Jan. 14 reported nearly 60,000 COVID-related deaths in hospitals between Dec. 8 and Jan. 12, a huge increase from the 5,000-plus deaths reported previously over the entire pandemic period.
Spending by funeral homes on items from body bags to cremation ovens has risen in many provinces, documents show, one of several indications of COVID's deadly impact in China.
Some health experts expect that more than one million people will die from the disease in China this year, with British-based health data firm Airfinity forecasting COVID fatalities could hit 36,000 a day this week.
As millions of migrant workers return home for Lunar New Year celebrations, health experts are particularly concerned about people living in China's vast countryside, where medical facilities are poor compared with those in the affluent coastal areas.
About 110 million railway passenger trips are estimated to have been made during Jan. 7-21, the first 15 days of the 40-day Lunar New Year travel rush, up 28% year-on-year, People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper, reported.
A total of 26.23 million trips were made on the Lunar New Year eve via railway, highway, ships and airplanes, half the pre-pandemic levels, but up 50.8% from last year, state-run CCTV reported.
The mass movement of people during the holiday period may spread the pandemic, boosting infections in some areas, but a second COVID wave is unlikely in the near term, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Saturday on the Weibo social media platform.
The possibility of a big COVID rebound in China over the next two or three months is remote as 80% of people have been infected, Wu said.
After China re-opened its borders on Jan. 8, some Chinese also booked trips abroad. Asia's tourist hotspots have been bracing for the return of Chinese tourists, who spent $255 billion a year globally before the pandemic.
"Because of the pandemic, we hadn't been out of China for three years," said tourist and business owner Kiki Hu, 28, in Krabi on Thailand's southwest coast. "Now that we can leave and come here for holiday, I feel so happy and emotional". (reuters)
January
Japan's Kishida Says He Will Nominate New BOJ Head Next Month
Written by Nur Yasmin
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Sunday he would nominate a new Bank of Japan governor next month, as markets test whether the central bank will change the ultra low-rate policy of the dovish Haruhiko Kuroda.
Kishida initially told a TV Tokyo programme that he would decide on Kuroda's replacement by considering the economic situation for April, but when pressed he acknowledged this would likely be in February, "considering parliament's schedule."
He did not elaborate.
Kuroda, whose five-year term ends on April 8, has stuck with policies aimed at stoking price rises and growth, even with inflation at 41-year highs and double the BOJ's target, and as central banks elsewhere have been raising interest rates.
The terms of Kuroda's two deputies end on March 19. The three nominations must be approved by both houses of parliament.
The BOJ stuck to its ultra-easy policy on Wednesday, defying investors who have recently sought to break the bank's cap on the 10-year government bond yield. But with even Kuroda sounding bullish about wage rises, expectations are growing that the BOJ will end its expansionist experiment this year.
Last week's test followed the BOJ's surprise December decision to double the target band for the yield to 0.5% above or below zero.
Former BOJ board member Sayuri Shirai, an advocate of reviewing the current stimulus who is considered a candidate for deputy governor, said on Sunday the BOJ should make its government bond buying more flexible but that low interest rates are warranted.
There is also speculation about changes to a policy accord between the central bank and the government, in which the BOJ pledges to achieve its 2% inflation target as early as possible.
Kishida said it was too early to comment on whether the accord needed to be altered but said there will be no change to the "basic stance" that his government and the BOJ work together "to achieve economic growth that involves structural wage hikes and reach the price-stability target stably and sustainably". (Reuters)
January
COVID curbs over, China's tourists hit Thai beaches for first time in 3 years
Written by Nur Yasmin
Hitting the white sand beaches and eating mango sticky rice and seafood, Chinese tourists are returning to Thailand for their first trips abroad since China ended its strict COVID-19 curbs and reopened its borders.
"Because of the pandemic, we hadn't been out of China for three years," said tourist and business owner Kiki Hu, 28, in Krabi on Thailand's southwest coast. "Now that we can leave and come here for holiday. I feel so happy and emotional".
With China celebrating the Lunar New Year, Asia's tourist hotspots have been bracing for the return of Chinese tourists, who spent $255 billion a year globally before the pandemic. Countries from Thailand to Japan had depended on China as their largest source of foreign visitors.
Beijing in December abruptly dropped some of the toughest COVID restrictions on earth, which had battered the world's second-biggest economy.
Business owner Yoyo Chen, 32, from Yiwu in central China, said returning to Thailand felt like coming home.
"I'm here to eat seafood. Previously, when I was here, I ate mango sticky rice, which was delicious. Back in China I kept thinking about the mango sticky rice here. I'm looking forward to the food, as well as visiting the beaches," Chen said.
"Getting visas is very convenient now. The tourism industry is more developed here, there are lots of fun activities and cuisine, and the Thai people are very hospitable," she said.
The Chinese return was welcomed by businesses, despite some wariness about a huge spike in COVID infections in China after Beijing ended its zero-COVID policy.
"We're glad that China finally allows their people to travel. At the moment, we've received some bookings through March," said Woranuch Maungtong, 44, manager of Tip-Top Destination on the resort island of Phuket, which provides daily speed boats to nearby islands.
China's reopening raises hopes for the return of Chinese visitors, who accounted for nearly a third of Thailand's 40 million foreign tourist arrivals in pre-pandemic 2019.
The Thai government is expecting at least five million Chinese tourist arrivals this year, with some 300,000 coming in the first quarter. (reuters)
January
G7 agrees to review level of price cap on Russian oil in March -US Treasury
Written by Nur Yasmin
Group of Seven officials have agreed to review the level of the price cap on exports of Russian oil in March, later than originally planned in order to give time to assess the market after more caps are placed on oil products from Russia, the U.S. Treasury said on Friday.
The G7 economies, the European Union and Australia agreed on Dec. 5 to ban the use of Western-supplied maritime insurance, finance and brokering for sea-borne Russian oil priced above $60 per barrel as part of Western sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
The coalition plans on Feb. 5 to set two caps on Russian oil products, one on products that trade at a premium to crude, such as diesel or gas oil, and one for products that trade at a discount to crude, such as fuel oil.
"The Deputies agreed that this approach will better calibrate the price cap policy for refined products, given the wide range of market prices at which these products trade," Treasury said after U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo met virtually with coalition officials on Friday.
The coalition had initially planned to review the level of the cap sometime in February, two months after its implementation.
Treasury officials have said the oil price cap has two goals: cutting Russia's revenues by institutionalizing heavy discounts on its oil bought by big consumers like China and India, and ensuring global oil markets are well supplied.
"As long as the price cap continues to meet the Coalition’s dual goals, the Deputies agreed to undertake a review of the level of the crude price cap in March," Treasury said.
The March date allows the coalition to assess developments in global markets after implementation of the refined products caps, and to be briefed on an EU technical review of the crude price cap, it said. (Reuters)
January
Unions press Biden administration to not change EV tax credit rules
Written by Nur Yasmin
Major unions and public interest and environmental groups are urging President Joe Biden to reject efforts by the European Union and other foreign governments to revise U.S. electric vehicle tax incentives.
The $430 billion U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in August restricts $7,500 consumer tax credits to North American-made EVs, but the U.S Treasury in December said consumers leasing vehicles assembled outside North America could benefit from the $7,500 commercial green vehicle tax credit.
Foreign governments have been pressing the Biden administration to do more to expand credit eligibility.
"The IRA has the potential to be a gamechanger for the industrial towns hit hardest by decades of offshoring," said a made public on Friday from the United Auto Workers, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, United Steelworkers, the Sierra Club and Public Citizen.
"We strongly urge you to ensure that the IRA is implemented as intended, without delays or technical changes that erode its promises to U.S. workers and climate goals," it said.
The White House did not comment on the letter on Friday but pointed to Biden's statements in September that said the IRA bill would create "good-paying union jobs" and "increase energy security."
EU Ambassador to the United States Stavros Lambrinidis said at the Washington auto show on Thursday that he was concerned by the "discriminatory" provision of the EV tax credit, arguing it means U.S. consumers "will have much less choice in what they can buy" that can receive the $7,500 credit.
"You can move to green without discriminating," Lambrinidis said.
The letter rejected the suggestion from foreign governments that the EV tax incentives violate World Trade Organization and free trade rules. "Out-dated trade rules should not be used to undermine our laws intended to support a growing clean energy economy," the letter said.
The EU in December praised the U.S. Treasury Department decision to allow EVs leased by consumers to qualify for up to $7,500 in commercial clean vehicle tax credits.
South Korea, Europe and some automakers in December had sought approval from Treasury to use the commercial electric vehicle tax credit to boost consumer EV access. (Reuters)
January
Top diplomats, former UN officials seek to fix 'Wild West' of peacemaking
Written by Nur Yasmin
A group of diplomats, former statesmen and U.N. officials began seeking political backing this week for a peacemaking framework to shape new standards for resolving conflicts that they say can avoid past mistakes such as in Mali and Afghanistan.
There are more than 50 active conflicts in the world, from Democratic Republic of Congo to Ukraine, affecting some 2 billion people – a record for the post-World War Two period.
But the framework's proponents, who have just completed a two-year consultation period in dozens of countries, say today's peace brokers are applying the wrong strategy.
"You could say 'Why the hell are people talking about peace when the whole thing falls apart?' But there's not a more important moment to talk about peace," Bert Koenders, former U.N. envoy for Mali who is the Principles for Peace co-chair, said on the sidelines of a meeting with countries in Geneva.
He added that currently peace brokers were applying misguided stabilisation ideas and then quickly pulling out. "You see that in Afghanistan, you see that in Mali. That is wrong."
The Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and other Western troops withdrew amid scenes of chaos. France's withdrawal from Mali last year has prompted a broader exit from a UN peacekeeping force there that has consistently struggled to fulfil its mandate amid tensions with the military government and an ongoing Islamist insurgency.
He added that currently peace brokers were applying misguided stabilisation ideas and then quickly pulling out. "You see that in Afghanistan, you see that in Mali. That is wrong."
The Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and other Western troops withdrew amid scenes of chaos. France's withdrawal from Mali last year has prompted a broader exit from a UN peacekeeping force there that has consistently struggled to fulfil its mandate amid tensions with the military government and an ongoing Islamist insurgency.
Yves Daccord, the former no. 2 of the International Committee of the Red Cross and also a Principles for Peace co-chair, told Reuters it was critical that peace processes shift from being led by international outsiders to being "rooted locally".
So far, the new covenant has five state sponsors - Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands - and its backers are in talks with others as well as private donors. It has more than 100 NGO supporters.
U.S. deputy permanent representative Ben Moeling made broadly supportive remarks at a Geneva meeting, saying innovation in warfare tactics and technology must be accompanied by "the same levels of creativity, resources and commitment" in peacemaking.
While still at an early stage, backers say the principles, which include "enhancing legitimacy" and "accountable security", could be elaborated into a set of rules and standards such as those that exist for humanitarian norms.
"Right now the peacemaking space is like the Wild West," said Hiba Qasas, the executive director of the Principles for Peace Initiative, who is Palestinian and a former U.N. official.
Current shortcomings are widely acknowledged and U.N. chief Antonio Guterres is working on a so-called "New Agenda For Peace" this year. The covenant's backers are in discussions to implement it in an east African country soon, they said. (Reuters)