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The meeting was the first in four decades that came amid tense relations between the United States and China. Taiwan's national security chief David Lee met White House national security adviser John Bolton earlier this month, the island's foreign affairs ministry said in a statement on Saturday. The official Central News Agency said the meeting was the first since the island and the United States ended formal diplomatic ties in 1979. China considers Taiwan a renegade province, to be reclaimed by force if necessary, and the meeting is likely to anger Beijing further with Sino-U.S. relations already tense. The diplomatic temperature has risen in recent weeks amid an escalating trade war, U.S. sanctions and China's increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols. The rare meeting will be viewed by Taiwan as a sign of support from the Trump administration. Tensions have also risen between Taipei and … [Read more...] about Taiwan and US security officials hold rare meeting amid China tension

U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary for Southeast Asia W. Patrick Murphy also said the United States was keen to help Pacific countries protect their sovereignty, in a region where the United States and is allies are competing for influence with China. "Our encouragement on countries that have relations with Taiwan is to maintain the status quo," Murphy told reporters in Canberra, on a three-day visit to Australia. China claims self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as sacred Chinese territory and merely a province with no right to state-to-state ties. Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and China's increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea. "China is changing (the) status quo, and the Pacific is a good example where China is attempting to reduce Taiwan’s diplomatic relations in the region," Murphy said. "And that's kind of heavy handed." "Countries should be able to make their own … [Read more...] about US official urges Pacific Island nations to keep ties with Taiwan

BRUSSELS -- U.S. disruption of the global economic order reaches a major milestone on Tuesday as the World Trade Organization (WTO) loses its ability to intervene in trade wars, threatening the future of the Geneva-based body. Two years after starting to block appointments, the United States will finally paralyze the WTO’s Appellate Body, which acts as the supreme court for international trade, as two of three members exit and leave it unable to issue rulings. Major trade disputes, including the U.S. conflict with China and metal tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, will not be resolved by the global trade arbiter. Stephen Vaughn, who served as general counsel to the U.S. Trade Representative during Trump’s first two years, said many disputes would be settled in future by negotiations. Critics say this means a return to a post-war period of inconsistent settlements, problems the WTO’s creation in 1995 was designed to fix. The EU ambassador to the WTO told … [Read more...] about U.S. trade offensive takes out WTO as global arbiter

A European business lobby added that its outlook on the country's regulatory environment is "bleak." China's trading partners have long complained that their companies are often compelled to hand over prized technology in exchange for access to the world's second-largest economy. Demands by the United States that China address the problem are central to the two countries' ongoing trade war, which has seen both sides pile tariffs on billions of dollars of each other's goods. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said on Monday that results from its annual survey showed 20 percent of members reported being compelled to transfer technology for market access, up from 10 percent two years ago. Nearly a quarter of those who reported such transfers said the practice was currently ongoing, while another 39 percent said the transfers had occurred less than two years ago. "Unfortunately, our members have reported that compelled technology transfers not only persist, but that they … [Read more...] about China’s tech transfer problem is growing, EU business group says

 While the Government has announced the CPI in January-April was at its lowest level in three years, the National Assembly (NA) Economic Committee has voiced concern over the possible recurrence of high inflation. Workers fix power lines in HCMC. The recent electricity and gasoline price hikes have sent production costs and consumer goods prices soaring A Cabinet member said in a report at a meeting of the NA Standing Committee on May 8 that the average CPI in the first four months rose 2.71% from a year earlier, the lowest in three years. The Ministry of Industry and Trade also said in its report released on the same day that the hikes in gasoline and electricity prices had caused knock-on effects on consumer prices in the four-month period. However, the effects of African swine fever on the psychology of consumers, and the adoption of a flexible monetary policy for macroeconomic stability helped rein in inflation. The CPI in April inched up 0.31% month-on-month, and as a … [Read more...] about NA concerned about inflation pressure