Court ‘may act on’ Pita share issue
The Constitutional Court may suspend Move Forward Party (MFP) leader Pita Limjaroenrat if it agrees to hear the case involving his media share ownership, says Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam.
The Election Commission (EC) has begun its probe into whether Mr Pita, who is the party’s list-MP and prime minister candidate, was eligible to run in the election due to his alleged holding of 42,000 shares in a media company.
The constitution prohibits electoral candidates from holding stakes in media companies.
Mr Wissanu said the EC might endorse Mr Pita as a list-MP while the probe is underway, and if the EC rules in Mr Pita’s favour, the case is closed. However, if the poll agency rules against him, the case will be brought to the Constitutional Court, which may suspend Mr Pita pending its decision.
The EC can investigate the complaint before or after the election results are officially announced.
The deputy prime minister cited as an example the case against Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, former leader of the now-dissolved Future Forward Party (FFP), who was accused of violating the share-holding rule.
The court voted to suspend Mr Thanathorn as an MP when accepting the case against him in May 2019.
Mr Thanathorn was then nominated as prime minister for a vote in parliament in June while the ruling was handed down in November of that year.
When asked about the intent of the share-holding rule, Mr Wissanu said the matter is decided by the Constitutional Court, adding that the charter does not address the size of shares or a media company.
However, he noted that previous court rulings on similar share-holding violation claims against electoral candidates might be used to predict the outcome of the case against Mr Pita.
Meanwhile, political activist Ruangkrai Leekitwattana, who sought the EC probe into Mr Pita’s share-holding, yesterday gave a statement to the EC on the case and submitted the previous Constitutional Court rulings on holding shares to the poll agency.
Stage set for speaker showdown
Pheu Thai insists on its candidate for post
The Pheu Thai Party is still locking horns with the Move Forward Party over the House Speaker position, insisting the position be filled by one of its candidates ahead of a scheduled meeting today to thrash out a solution to the dispute.
Pheu Thai secretary-general Prasert Chantararuangthong said on Monday that the House Speaker role should be filled by Pheu Thai’s candidate.
“As the MFP wants to take the prime minister post, the House Speaker role should belong to Pheu Thai,” Mr Prasert said.
“It should be left to the two parties to thrash out the issue as it has nothing to do with other coalition partners,” he added.
Mr Prasert later said that Pheu Thai and the MFP have decided that the House speakership issue will be discussed by only the two parties at today’s meeting.
The dispute over who should get the House Speaker position has raged on for days in interviews and on social media, prompting MFP leader and prime minister candidate Pita Limjaroenrat on Friday to call on the coalition partners to remain united and settle the matter in a dialogue.
Chaithawat Tulathon, MFP secretary-general in his capacity as the party’s coordinator in the talks to form an MFP-led coalition, had earlier said the discussion is expected to begin at 2.30pm on Tuesday at the Prachachart Party’s headquarters.
Mr Pita is urging all coalition parties to cooperate, Mr Chaithawat said.
The meeting was initially intended to serve as a forum for the parties to discuss who will implement parts of a memorandum of understanding jointly signed on May 22, he said.
The MoU, signed by MFP and its coalition partners, sets out the policies they have agreed on.
However, a source at Pheu Thai said that the party disagreed with the MFP’s move to include other coalition partners in the discussion on the House Speaker role.
“It is a matter between the two parties. Pheu Thai believes the MFP wants to use other coalition partners to pressure Pheu Thai,” the source said.
“Pheu Thai also disagreed with the MFP’s unilateral decision to hold the discussion at the Prachachart’s headquarters.”
Mr Chaithawat said yesterday that he wanted the MFP and Pheu Thai to stop talking about the issue in media interviews or on social media to avoid stoking conflict and causing further confusion.
However, he said that Prachachart leader Wan Muhamad Nor Matha, a former House Speaker, had suggested the role be filled by the party that won the most House seats in the May 14 election. Meanwhile, the two deputy House Speaker positions should be candidates from parties that won the second and third largest seats.
Mr Chaithawat went on to say today’s meeting will also discuss the plan to set up a committee to ensure a smooth transition of power so the new government can get down to work immediately.
Commenting on the dispute over the House Speaker post, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said that every political party wants the House Speaker role as it is the symbol of leadership of the legislative branch.
Mr Wissanu also said that the House Speaker must maintain neutrality during parliament meetings, and any MP who takes the role must resign as a party leader or executive first.
The House Speaker is one of the most important roles in politics as the speaker oversees House meetings and agendas.
If the MFP wishes to push its legislative initiatives and fulfil its campaign promises, it needs to take control of the post.
Meanwhile, Senator Somchai Swangkarn said the senators will weigh carefully the issues that each prime ministerial candidate will be focusing on before the vote for the next prime minister.
He indicated some decisions by senators could be based on issues in the MoU.
Some issues agreeable to some senators might be given more weight over others in their consideration before voting, he said.
Man uniting Indian families torn by colonialism
Shamshu Deen “I feel very emotional and elated when I find a missing family. It also gives me a sense of accomplishment,” Shamshu Deen says.
For the past 25 years, Mr Deen, 76, a resident of Trinidad and Tobago, has been helping families in the Caribbean find long-lost relatives in India. He says he’s helped over 300 people so far.
The ancestors of these people arrived in the Caribbean – a former British colony – as indentured labourers in the 1800s and early 1900s, but lost touch with their families back home over time.
Mr Deen – a geography teacher turned geologist – is now helping the descendants of Indian indentured labourers in the Caribbean trace and reconnect with their loved ones.
During British rule in India, known as the British Raj, slavery had been abolished. But indentured labourers were used as “cheap labour” across the British Empire in response to a so-called labour shortage.
Many Indians travelled from their country to British colonies like the Caribbean, South Africa, Mauritius, and Fiji to work on sugar plantations between 1838 and 1917.
Even though most labourers went willingly – possibly because they were not fully aware of the conditions they would face or signed agreements when they were illiterate – others were forcibly taken abroad.
Some historians even described the system of indentured labour as the “new slave trade”.
Mr Deen became curious about this system and the impact it had on families after he learnt that his grandfather’s grandfather – Munradin – had travelled to the Caribbean as an indentured labourer.
He was in school when he learnt that the land his house was built on had been purchased by Munradin.
“No-one in the family could tell us any more about him,” Mr Deen says.
In 1972, Mr Deen went to the Red House in Trinidad – which subsequently became the ministry of legal affairs – and sifted through piles of documents searching for the mystery man.
After about four hours, he found his name on the last page of a moth-eaten book.
He learnt that Munradin had left Calcutta (now Kolkata) on 5 January 1858 and reached Trinidad on 10 April the same year.
“We know he was educated and spoke English. Munradin worked on sugar plantations. Later, he started doing translation work. After finishing his indentured contract, Munradin went on to become a teacher and finally opened two shops. He had two wives and five children. The house he lived in was inherited by his children but was destroyed in a fire.”
Mr Deen eventually also found family members from his mother’s ancestry and could reconnect with relatives of the last person in his family to travel to the Caribbean, Bhongee.
She arrived in Trinidad in 1872 at the age of seven, accompanied by her parents and three siblings.
“I have only one photo of Bhongee, who died in 1949 when I was three years old. She lived to see her great-great-grandchildren,” Mr Deen says.
Mr Deen went on to become a geography teacher but his success in finding lost relatives caught the eye of the Indian High Commission in Trinidad. It gave him a scholarship to trace the relatives of 10 Hindu and 10 Muslim families.
He would later make this his career, becoming a genealogist and getting paid to do the work with the help of research teams in both Trinidad and India.
Some of the family reunions he has helped facilitate include that of two former prime ministers of Trinidad and Tobago, Basdeo Panday and Kamla Persad Bissessar.
Mr Deen also helped Trinidad-based David Lakhan, 65, find out more about his great-grandfather, who travelled from India to Trinidad in 1888 when he was 22.
“He just gave one name in a document – Lakhan. But I wanted to discover the strength and resilience behind his decision to travel such a long distance,” Mr Lakhan tells the BBC.
From the national archives, Mr Deen was able to dig up emigration documents which had the name of Mr Lakhan’s great-grandfather’s brother, father, caste and his village.
He then used his contacts in India to trace Mr Lakhan’s relatives, paving the way for a family reunion in India in 2020.
“We didn’t expect the whole village to come out and greet us. They garlanded us,” says Mr Lakhan’s wife, Geeta.
The family has since kept in touch with many of their Indian relatives, using translation tools to overcome language barriers. Ms Lakhan said she finds many similarities with them because of the cultural knowledge passed on by their common ancestors.
They are now feeding the curiosity of their 7-year-old grandson by telling him about their trip to India, in the hope that he will take an interest in his heritage.
Mr Deen says that tracing people today is a bit easier than it was at the beginning of his career due to digital maps and better access to historical records, but challenges remain. He estimates that he has about an 80% success rate in every case.
“I can’t get everyone’s ancestry. In some cases, wrong information was given in the documents,” he explains.
Also, some indentured workers died while making their journey to Trinidad. Those who managed to reach often lived in dire conditions, their lives never being documented in any official way.
But many workers also voluntarily stayed back in Trinidad after the end of their contract and were able to live as free people, he says.
Mr Deen says he doesn’t want to give up his work even though he has retired. In fact, just after he retired, he went to India for six months in 1996, and tracked down 14 more families.
He says the work he does still gives him “happiness and health”.
“Every case is a puzzle. No two cases are the same,” Mr Deen says.
“Like all humankind, we are all migrants. But the thread of Indian heritage is sewn deeply in us.”
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17 August 2022
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Pita Limjaroenrat: Thai election upstart who vows to be different
Pita Limjaroenrat is not your typical Thai politician.
In a country where the average age of cabinet ministers is 65, where unquestioning deference to elders is still a cherished tradition, his youth – he looks far younger than his 42 years – and unabashed confidence make him stand out.
That he is, after a shock election result which put his reformist Move Forward party ahead of all the others, poised to become the youngest prime minister in 78 years, has stunned the conservative political establishment which has dominated Thailand for much of the modern era.
Difficult negotiations are now under way to form a coalition government with Pheu Thai, the second largest party, which has won every election held in Thailand since 2001, and had been expected to win the latest, held on 14 May.
Both Pheu Thai and Move Forward consider themselves to be progressive, opposed to military interference in politics like the 2014 coup, which deposed a Pheu Thai administration.
But the young activists of Move Forward outmanoeuvred the older party, and beat many of its candidates, with an imaginative, social media-based campaign offering voters a complete break with the past, and a different kind of political leadership.
“I’m different,” Pita tells me. “We are not getting into a coalition to pursue a quick fix, or to get me the prime ministership. I’m in government for the people. The world has changed.
“You don’t have to be a strong man, with toxic masculinity, to make sure ‘people have to listen to me, and I have to be the one in the spotlight all the time’.
“I don’t have to be perfect all the time. I can just be like a regular human being here in Thailand, riding motorcycles, eating on the streets like any other people.”
Pita Limjaroenrat was born into a wealthy Thai family.
He cites being sent to school as a teenager in New Zealand, the time he lived in the United States doing postgraduate study, and his experience working in the family rice-bran business, and then as an executive with the ride-hailing company Grab, as formative influences.
He admires down-to-earth leaders like New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern and Uruguay’s José “Pepe” Mujica.
Move Forward has the most ambitious reform agenda of any party in Thailand’s electoral history.
Among the 300 policies in its manifesto are equal marriage for LGBTQ Thais, ending military conscription, tackling business monopolies, and overhauling the education system to make it fit for a 21st Century economy.
The party plans to scrap the military-drafted constitution, and bring the army’s many business interests under the Ministry of Finance.
“It is time to end the cycle of military coups, and time to end the corruption in politics which opens the door to coups,” Pita says.
But the party’s most controversial proposal is to amend the lèse majesté law, which imposes long jail sentences on those convicted of insulting the royal family, and to begin a conversation about the relationship between the monarchy and the Thai people.
Many of the 250 senators, who were appointed by the previous military government, and who are required to join the parliamentary vote for the next prime minister, say they will block Move Forward from taking office over this issue.
“The sentiment of the era has changed,” says Pita.
“I think we now have the maturity and tolerance to speak about the monarchy. Even conservatives understand what the role of a constitutional monarchy should be in the 21st Century.
“We won the votes of 14 million people. And they understood – it was clear, it was transparent – that this was one of the agendas we wanted to push.”
The Move Forward leader believes that his coalition, which currently holds 312 out of the 500 seats in the lower house of parliament, will get the necessary backing of 64 senators to give them the super-majority they need.
Sources inside the senate, though, say this will be difficult to achieve so long as Move Forward remains committed to amending the lèse majesté law; but that at least some of the senators, who only have a year left of their unelected terms, do feel uneasy about opposing a coalition which won a clear majority in the election.
Pita Limjaroenrat is promising a new foreign policy as well.
Under the military-backed governments of the past decade Thailand is widely viewed as having punched below its weight in international affairs, with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha taking little interest in foreign policy.
“Definitely we need to engage the international community more,” Pita says.
“We have to rebalance. We have to speak out more, and we have to side with the rules-based world order. No words, no weight in foreign policy.
“And a lot of our problems, whether its economic, it’s air pollution, it’s the price of fertiliser, come from the rest of the world.”
His government, he says, would work more closely with Thailand’s Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) neighbours to seek a solution to the civil war in Myanmar, and he would try to channel more humanitarian aid across the Thai-Myanmar border.
The challenges still confronting this young prime minister-in-waiting are daunting.
There is the sceptical senate, and the need to hammer out a deal with Pheu Thai, which won only ten seats fewer than Move Forward and has more experienced negotiators in its team.
Pheu Thai has been demanding top ministries, and the powerful parliamentary speaker position, which Pita views as a priority to get his many new bills tabled.
His party is made up mainly of first-time MPs, some too young to pass the 35 years age threshold to be a minister, some still facing serious criminal charges from their past political activism.
Ideologically more flexible, and taking a hands-off approach to the monarchy, Pheu Thai has the option of joining an alternative coalition which includes parties in the outgoing administration.
Move Forward has ruled out such a compromise, having won many of its votes through its promise not to do deals with the generals.
Pita Limjaroenrat believes neither party can abandon what he is calling a coalition of dreams and hope, because of the damage it would do to their reputations.
He wears the weight of these responsibilities lightly, still making time to spend with his family, and breezily optimistic that things will work out.
“I don’t want to be like those other Thai politicians still fighting for positions well into their 70s and 80s,” he tells me.
“I want to keep doing this for maybe another ten years, and then it will be time for something else.”
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Canadian mobster hit suspect brought to Thailand
Alleged contract killer Matthew Dupre, wanted for the shooting of a Canadian gangster in Phuket on Feb 4, 2022, has been extradited to Thailand to face a murder charge.
He was brought back by a team of Crime Suppression Division (CSD) special weapons and tactics officers and members of an air force special operations unit on a special flight from Vancouver, Canada.
The flight, with Mr Dupre on board, landed at Don Mueang Airport’s Wing 6 terminal on Sunday night around 11pm. The airport was under tight security and was temporarily closed. The flight was met by about 30 other members of the Hanuman unit and air force ground security.
From the airport, he was taken by motorcade to CSD headquarters. His detention is now under the supervision of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB). Mr Dupre has denied all allegations made against him, a source said.
He was transferred from the CSD yesterday afternoon to the Bangkok Remand Prison.
The suspect was guarded by the CSD’s Hanuman special weapons and tactics unit as he was considered a dangerous suspect and a member of an important international criminal network.
National police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas held a press conference at the CSD about the extradition.
According to Pol Gen Damrongsak, Mr Dupre is a retired soldier who had spent time in Afghanistan and had worked in the security industry in Middle Eastern countries.
On Feb 4, 2022, Jimi Sandhu, a Canadian mobster, was found dead in the parking lot of a beachfront villa resort on Rawai Beach in Phuket’s Muang district. Sandhu’s body had been riddled with bullets, and 21 casings were found at the scene.
Two foreign shooters were captured entering the villa by a security camera; one of them was identified as Mr Dupre.
The second suspect in the case, Gene Lahrkamp, 36, died in a plane crash in Canada in May 2022 with a man who was reportedly involved with the Independent Soldiers, an organized crime group based in British Columbia.
Pol Gen Damrongsak said Mr Dupre was a prime suspect along with Lahrkamp, as the Red Scorpions, a crime network they belonged to, had a conflict with the network that Sandhu belonged to.
On Feb 11, 2022, the Phuket Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Mr Dupre and his alleged accomplice on charges of premeditated murder, having guns and ammunition in possession without permission, and illegally carrying and using the guns in public.
Police later found the two suspects had left Thailand for Canada on Feb 6.
‘Ineligible’ applicant ‘tests negative’ for meth use
Khon Kaen: The family of a Grade 12 student who reportedly became ineligible to sit for an interview test for her college application after testing positive for methamphetamine said she took a second test and the result was negative, making her eligible to reapply for Khon Kaen University’s Faculty of Pharmacy.
On Friday, Anama Muphasa, 19, reportedly tested positive for traces of methamphetamine in her urine, which caused a hospital doing the test to refuse issuing a health certificate required for her college application.
However, Ms Anama’s family announced that she took a blood test yesterday, and the result showed no methamphetamine in her body.
Her father said the family would submit the blood test to the university to prove she has passed all health requirements and is eligible to sit for an interview test.
Ms Anama said she has never taken drugs and is still at a loss as to how traces of methamphetamine were found in her urine.
While waiting for the blood test result, Ms Anama’s mother told local reporters that the traces may have come from a whitening supplement her daughter ordered from TikTok.
The family was concerned that Ms Anama would not be eligible to sit for an interview test for the pharmacy school.
However, Narin Chanseri, dean of Khon Kaen University’s Faculty of Pharmacy, on Facebook said the faculty has never dismissed an applicant for an interview test on May 31, reportedly the initial date of Ms Anama’s first interview test.
“If the faculty finds that applicants did not pass the health examination, we will request them to take another test at the university’s Srinagarind Hospital without dismissing their eligibility,” he said.
Weerachai Nolwachai, deputy secretary-general of the Food and Drug Administration, said the whitening supplement in question was certified by the FDA.
However, he said FDA officials collected samples from its factory in Ratchaburi province and the lab test result will be done in one week.
Meanwhile, Wichai Chaimongkol, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, said it is possible that the manufacturers added drugs into their products to hook customers.
This is because the cost of methamphetamine is much cheaper than in the past, he said.
Foreign visitors to Surat Thani surpass 1.5m this year
Surat Thani: International arrivals to the resort province have exceeded 1.5 million, up 155% so far this year, according to the provincial governor.
Governor Witchawut Jinto said yesterday 2.05 million visitors have arrived in the province since January. Of them, 1.5 million are foreign visitors, representing a 155% increase from the same period last year.
The foreign visitors generated revenue of 35.9 billion baht, up 159% year on year.
The governor said foreign visitors spend their money mostly on accommodation, meals, souvenirs, entertainment activities and transportation.
The hotel occupancy rate since the beginning of the year is around 77%, an increase of 39% from the same period last year.
PPRP resolves row over poll budget
The Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) has resolved an internal rift stemming from its former election candidates’ complaints they did not receive enough financial support during the May 14 poll, according to the party’s election strategy panel for the North.
Capt Thamanat Prompow, head of the panel and the MP-elect for Phayao, said he had patched things with the 22 poll candidates who failed to get elected.
According to the former candidates, the party had set aside a canvassing budget for the May 14 election within the legal limit.
However, the 22 candidates were not getting enough funds for their campaigns, which inhibited their winning chances and subsequently led to their electoral defeat.
The group claimed a certain party member had acted as a “broker” and laid their hands on part of the financial assistance which should have gone to them.
The PPRP won 40 seats both from the constituency and list systems, down 76% from the previous general election in 2019 when it gained 116 House seats.
The 22-candidate group raised the complaint with Capt Thamanat through Khomdet Matchamawong, a former poll candidate for Constituency 7 in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Capt Thamanat, also a former PPRP secretary-general, yesterday put the complaint down to a miscommunication problem between the former candidates and the party.
He said he has acted on PPRP leader Gen Prawit Wongsuwon’s order to talk to the former candidates. The group and the party have now settled their differences.
The former candidates have maintained they have respect for and trust in Gen Prawit and vowed to continue their support for the party.
Mr Khomdet said the discussion between Capt Thamanat and the former candidates took place on Sunday. “We understood each other better now,” he added.
The group will be waiting to see what steps the party will take to solve the issue with the canvassing finances.
The group held a press conference at the weekend to complain about the inadequate financial support from the party and called on Gen Prawit to deal with the matter.
Mr Khomdet said during the conference that the former constituency candidates were given less canvassing money than they were promised.
“The party was very popular in several constituencies, but some vital financial lifelines were cut off.
“It was obvious we were being left to fend for ourselves. The party has to grow, but unless we clean up our act, the party may never be able to carry on,” he told the conference.
Dengue fever cases to rise next month
The number of dengue fever cases is expected to rise next month as Thailand enters the rainy season, with 16,650 cases and 17 deaths reported since Jan 1, the Public Health Ministry warned yesterday.
According to Opas Karnkawinpong, permanent secretary of the Public Health Ministry, the number of dengue fever cases reported this year is significantly higher than the number reported over the same period last year.
He said over half of residential areas and other public spaces such as schools, temples, factories and government offices surveyed by public health officials were fertile breeding grounds for mosquito larvae.
To prepare for the rainy season, the Public Health Ministry will work with the Education Ministry and other relevant agencies to carry out larvicide, he added.
Dr Opas said misdiagnosis has been a problem in recent months, some with fatal consequences.
With medical workers on alert for Covid-19 cases, several dengue patients have been given aspirin in an attempt to control their body temperature, which is standard practice for Covid-19 patients.
However, aspirin has anticoagulant properties, which would worsen the haemorrhaging associated with dengue fever.
Dr Opas suggested those who suspect they may have dengue fever seek immediate medical advice and avoid taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen.
He emphasised that the primary symptoms of dengue fever are similar to flu, Covid-19 and leptospirosis.
Dr Opas said that the ministry would send a letter to provincial health offices to advise them on the matter.
US-China trade talks end in more chip war salvos
Top US and Chinese trade officials have resumed trade talks but both sides continue to threaten each other with semiconductor industry-related sanctions.
China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo had “candid and substantive discussions” in a meeting in Washington on May 25, according to news reports quoting official statements.
But on May 27, Raimondo announced the conclusion of negotiations on a landmark Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Supply Chain Agreement that irked Chinese officials.
According to the agreement, 14 IPEF member countries including the US, Australia, India and Japan will create a new IPEF Supply Chain Crisis Response Network that can serve as an emergency communications channel when one or more partners face an acute supply chain crisis.
They will also create an IPEF Supply Chain Council to oversee the development of sector-specific action plans designed to build resilience and competitiveness in critical commercial areas.
“Regional cooperation frameworks, in whatever name, need to stay open and inclusive, rather than discriminatory or exclusive,” Mao Ning, a Chinese government spokesperson, said on Monday about the IPEF.
“Disrupting the function of the market, politicizing normal trade activities and setting barriers to hinder industrial cooperation such as semiconductor cooperation is the biggest risk to supply chain stability.”
Mao said Japan and the US should not undermine other countries to perpetrate hegemony or protect what she characterized as “selfish” interests.
Chinese state media on Monday also criticized Raimondo for pushing forward an agreement expressly created to suppress and contain China. The state reports said Beijing will fight back if the US imposes more technology curbs on China.
“Fourteen IPEF countries led by the US have reached a consensus to improve the resilience and security of their supply chains of semiconductors and key minerals,” Xin Bin, a commentator, wrote in an article published by the Communist Party-run Global Times on Monday, “But this will only hurt the stability of the world’s supply chain.”
“The purpose of the Biden administration’s foreign economic policy is not to ensure the interests of the US’s allies, but to use the allies to strengthen the US’s own supply chains and contain China,” the Global Times report said.
Investment curbs
China had been unwilling to talk to the US for months after bilateral tensions spiked due a Chinese spy balloon that was spotted in North American airspace in late January.
The situation was poised to deteriorate further in April after reports indicated US President Joe Biden would soon sign an executive order to restrict US companies and private equity and venture capital funds from investing in China’s high technology sectors.
The US has not yet unveiled the investment curbs but it successfully persuaded other G7 countries to join hands to “de-risk,” rather than “decouple,” from China during the G7 Summit held in Hiroshima, Japan, from May 19-21.
Tit for tat, Beijing announced on May 21 that China’s key national infrastructure operators are barred from purchasing products from Micron Technology because the US chip maker reputedly poses network security risks.
On May 23, the Japanese government officially said it will add 23 items, including advanced chip-making equipment, to its list of regulated exports to China. The new measures will take effect on July 23.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said Monday that Wang had expressed its diplomatic discontent to Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura during a recent meeting over the matter.
“Japan ignored China’s strong opposition and insisted on introducing semiconductor export control measures, which seriously violated international economic and trade rules and severely damaged the foundation of industrial development,” Wang told Nishimura during an APEC ministerial meeting held on May 25-26. “China is strongly dissatisfied with this and urges Japan to correct its wrong practices.”
“We hope that Japan will correct its perception of China and truly promote the stable development of economic and trade relations between the two countries with a constructive attitude,” he said.
Wang also said China firmly opposes the G7 Leaders’ Statement on Economic Resilience and Economic Security, which called for adopting a common approach to de-risk and diversify the West’s economic ties with both Beijing and Moscow.
Meanwhile, in a May 25 meeting with Wang in Washington, Raimondo raised concerns about the recent spate of actions Beijing has taken against US companies operating in mainland China.
She said in a media briefing on May 27 that the US government “firmly opposes” China’s ban on Micron and “won’t tolerate” the restrictions, which she characterized as “plain and simple economic coercion.”
China’s countermeasures
Similarly, Beijing expressed concerns about US trade policy, semiconductor sanctions, export bans and outbound investment screening against China at the meeting, a Shanxi-based writer said in an article published by Paitou Observe, a social media account operated by the state-owned Defense Times, on May 28.
“The US wants to resume dialogues with China but it keeps stepping up its efforts to contain China,” the columnist wrote. “Perhaps the US is now feeling guilty. It tries to use the term ‘de-risking’ to describe its decoupling with China.”
He wrote the ban on Micron’s products is likely only the first round of countermeasures to be imposed in retaliation against the US’ tech curbs. He says China will cooperate with the US only if it can show more sincerity.
Before meeting with Raimondo, Wang chaired a meeting with major US companies including Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Dow, Merck and Honeywell in Shanghai on May 22. The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai also attended the meeting.
The Shanxi-based writer said in an article on May 25 that by holding a meeting with top American firms, Wang wanted to emphasize that China is still committed to high-level opening of the economy and continues to place high importance on attracting foreign investment.
The same writer also noted that some US officials have described the Micron ban as “retaliation,” making some US firms worry that they will be targeted by China in the same way.
“Actually, China did not ban all Micron’s products, but only those used in key information infrastructure, such as government departments, state-owned enterprises and financial institutions,” he wrote. “China’s ban on Micron is a preliminary warning: only naughty children will be punished.”
He wrote that China is confident that Micron’s current market share in the country will be absorbed by Chinese chip makers such as Yangtze Memory Technologies Co and ChangXin Memory Technologies.
Matthew Miller, a US State Department spokesperson, said on May 22 that Beijing’s action against Micron is inconsistent with China’s assertion “that it is open for business and committed to a transparent regulatory framework.”
Read: With Micron ban, China says no to ‘de-risking’
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3