BEDMINSTER, NEW JERSEY: Even as he seeks Beijing’s help on North Korea, President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order asking his trade office to consider investigating China for the alleged theft of American technology and intellectual property, an administration official said Saturday.
That step is expected Monday but won’t come as a surprise to the Beijing government. There is no deadline for deciding if any investigation is necessary. Such an investigation easily could last a year.
In a phone call Friday, Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for backing the recent UN vote to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea, and the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. But Trump also told Xi about the move toward a possible inquiry into China’s trade practices, according to two US officials familiar with that conversation. They were not authorized to publicly discuss the private call and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump wants government officials to look at Chinese practices that force American companies to share their intellectual property in order to gain access to the world’s second largest economy. Many US businesses must create joint ventures with Chinese companies and turn over valuable technology assets, a practice that Washington says stifles US economic growth.
Trump’s action amounts to a request that his trade representative determine whether an investigation is needed under the Trade Act of 1974. If an investigation begins, the US government could seek remedies either through the World Trade Organization or outside of it.
China’s foreign and commerce ministries did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment Sunday.
While Beijing has promised to open more industries to foreign companies, it also has issued new rules on electric car manufacturing, data security, Internet censorship and other fields.
Trump, who is on a working vacation at his New Jersey golf club, said Friday that he planned to be in Washington on Monday “for a very important meeting’” and “we’re going to have a pretty big press conference.” It was not immediately clear whether he was talking about trade was the subject.
The administration official who confirmed that Trump would sign the order contended it was unrelated to the showdown with North Korea. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the order before Trump’s formal announcement.
As the crisis has unfolded, Trump has alternated praising China for its help and chiding it for not ratcheting up pressure on its Asian neighbor.
“I think China can do a lot more,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “And I think China will do a lot more.”
Trump has escalated his harsh criticism of North Korea for days, tweeting Friday that the US had military options “locked and loaded.” Xi, in his phone conversation with Trump, urged calm.
“At present, relevant parties should exercise restraint and avoid words and actions that would escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula,” Xi said, according to the statement provided by China’s government.
Trump, in the past, has tied trade policy to national security. In April, he said he wouldn’t label China a currency manipulator, in return for help in dealing with North Korea. This past week, Trump said he could soften his views on trade if China stepped up its assistance, leading to speculation that the investigation could be a negotiating tactic.
The forced sharing of intellectual property with Chinese firms has been a long-standing concern of the US business community.
A 2013 report by a commission co-chaired by Jon Huntsman, ambassador to China under President Barack Obama and Trump’s nominee to be Russian envoy, pegged the losses from US intellectual property theft at hundreds of billions of dollars annually that cost the US economy millions of jobs.
Trump has requested similar inquiries on trade, but the reports haven’t been delivered on deadline. Trump made addressing the US trade deficit with China a centerpiece of his campaign last year and has suggested raising tariffs on goods from China.
At the end of March, Trump asked the Commerce Department to prepare a report on the causes of the trade deficit, country by country and product by product, in 90 days. The report has yet to be released.
Similarly, the president also asked for a review about whether steel and aluminum imports were jeopardizing national security. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had hoped to finish the review by June, but parts of it remain in the final stages of interagency review.
Trump to request possible probe of China trade practices
Trump to request possible probe of China trade practices
US envoy Witkoff says he expects Trump and Putin to speak this week
- Witkoff, speaking after what he called positive talks with Putin in Moscow, told CNN that he was hopeful of real progress to end the conflict
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he expects the US president to speak with Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week on ways to end the three-year war in Ukraine.
Witkoff, speaking after what he called positive talks with Putin in Moscow, told CNN that he was hopeful of real progress to end the conflict.
“I expect that there will be a call with both presidents this week, and we’re also continuing to engage and have conversation with the Ukrainians,” he said, adding that he thought the talk between Trump and Putin would be “really good and positive.”
Witkoff said that although the situation on the ground was highly complicated, “We’re bridging the gap between two sides.”
Indonesian NGOs to build new women’s and children’s hospital in Gaza City
- New healthcare facility will be the second in the Gaza Strip to carry Indonesia’s name, after the Indonesian hospital in the enclave’s north
- Hospital will be on a 5,000 square-meter plot of land donated by the Palestinian Ministry of Health
Jakarta: Construction on a new women’s and children’s hospital in Gaza City, funded by the Indonesian people and NGOs, will begin next month as part of a national campaign to support Palestine.
The 402 billion rupiah ($24.5 million) project is organized by Jakarta-based Aqsa Working Group and Maemuna Center Indonesia with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The hospital — which will be called the Indonesian Mother and Child Hospital, or RSIA Indonesia — will be built on a 5,000 square-meter plot of land near Al-Rantisi Hospital in the city’s Nasser neighborhood, which was donated by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
“As we all know, the majority of victims of Zionist Israel’s genocide in Gaza are children and women … We hope this hospital will help provide healthcare for children and women in Gaza,” AWG chairman Muhammad Anshorullah told Arab News on Sunday.
The new healthcare facility will be the second to bear Indonesia’s name, after the Indonesia Hospital in north Gaza, which was funded by the Indonesian NGO Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, or MER-C, and has been open since late 2015.
Since Israel began its assault on Gaza in October 2023, the Indonesia Hospital has been one of the last functioning health facilities in the north.
“We hope that RSIA will only strengthen the strong reputation that MER-C has built through the Indonesia Hospital in northern Gaza. The Indonesia Hospital is a symbol of the friendship and brotherhood of Indonesia and Palestine, God willing, RSIA will only strengthen that bond,” Anshorullah said.
A staunch supporter of Palestine, the Indonesian government and people see Palestinian statehood as being mandated by their own constitution, which calls for the abolition of colonialism.
Last month, the foreign affairs ministry, the Indonesian Ulema Council and Indonesia’s National Alms Agency launched a solidarity campaign to raise $200 million in humanitarian aid for Palestinians and support the rebuilding of Gaza.
Several Indonesian NGOs have pledged contributions for RSIA fundraising, while donations have also been made by the Indonesian people.
“One of the big projects for Gaza that have been proposed and will be handled by Indonesian charity and humanitarian organizations is the development of the Indonesian Mother and Child Hospital in Gaza City,” Ahrul Tsani, Middle East director at the foreign affairs ministry, said in a statement.
“This is an important part in Indonesia’s humanitarian diplomacy in Palestine, and a real product of Indonesia’s support as a nation.”
Israeli forces have killed more than 48,000 people and injured more than 111,000, although the real death toll is feared to be much higher. According to the UN Human Rights Office, women and children make up nearly 70 percent of the fatalities it has verified since October 2023.
Maemuna Center and AWG will dispatch a team to survey the location in the next few weeks, with plans for construction to begin by the end of April at the latest.
“The construction of RSIA is not just a matter of building a health infrastructure, but it is a real form of solidarity from Indonesia to Palestine,” said Onny Firyanti Hamidi, head of Maemuna Center Indonesia.
“This is a concrete step to ensure that the women and children of Gaza will have access to proper healthcare.”
Elderly UK couple held by Taliban ‘moved to high security jail’: media
- Daughter expressed concern for the health of her father who will turn 80 in April
- She said that according to information provided by a “reliable source” he had been “beaten and shackled”
LONDON: An elderly British couple arrested by Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have been separated and moved to a high-security prison, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Peter and Barbie Reynolds, who are in their 70s, were detained last month with an American friend, Faye Hall, as they traveled to their home in central Bamyan province.
Their daughter Sarah Entwistle described her parents’ alleged transfer to a heavily guarded prison in an undisclosed location as a “shocking escalation,” the Sunday Times reported.
In particular she expressed concern for the health of her father who will turn 80 in April.
She said that according to information provided by a “reliable source” he had been “beaten and shackled.”
He was in “immense pain” and her mother, 75, had been told she could no longer see him.
“We hear he now has a chest infection, a double eye infection and serious digestive issues due to poor nutrition. Without immediate access to necessary medication, his life is in serious danger,” she told the Sunday Times.
“Our desperate appeal to the Taliban is that they release them to their home, where they have the medication he needs to survive,” she added.
The Reynolds, who married in Kabul in 1970, have run school training programs in the south Asian country for 18 years.
They remained in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021 when the British embassy withdrew its staff.
Following their arrest on February 1, the couple’s home had been ransacked and staff questioned over whether there was a missionary component to the training, the report said.
The suggestion is strongly denied by the staff and family.
The Taliban’s interior ministry has confirmed the detention of two Britons, a Chinese-American and their Afghan translator arrested “based on certain considerations.”
“Efforts are underway to resolve this issue,” a spokesperson said in late February, without identifying the detainees.
Taliban leaders swept back to power in 2021 ousting the US-backed government and implementing a strict interpretation of Islamic law, despite promises not to return to the brutality displayed when they ruled in the 1990s.
They have since imposed broad restrictions on women and girls, barring them from education beyond the age of 12 and squeezing them out of jobs and public life with rules the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid.”
China’s Xi declines EU invitation to anniversary summit, FT reports
- Beijing told EU officials that Premier Li Qiang would meet the presidents of the European Council and Commission instead of Xi
Chinese President Xi Jinping has declined an invitation to visit Brussels for a summit to mark the 50th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic ties, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Beijing told EU officials that Premier Li Qiang would meet the presidents of the European Council and Commission instead of Xi, the FT said, citing two people familiar with the matter whom it did not identify.
The Chinese premier usually attends the summit when it is held in Brussels, while the president hosts it in Beijing, but the EU wants Xi to attend to commemorate half a century of relations between Beijing and the bloc, the newspaper said.
Tensions between Brussels and Beijing have grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the EU accusing China of backing the Kremlin, the FT said. Last year, the European Union also imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports.
China’s Foreign Ministry and the EU did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
“Informal discussions are ongoing, both about setting the date for the EU-China summit this year and the level of representation,” an EU official told the newspaper, while the Chinese ministry was quoted as saying it did not have any information to provide on the matter.
China, the world’s second-biggest economy, and the EU, its third-largest, spent most of 2024 exchanging barbs over allegations of overcapacity, illegal subsidies and dumping in each other’s markets.
In October, the EU imposed double-digit tariffs on China-made electric vehicles after an anti-subsidy investigation, in addition to its standard car import duty of 10 percent. The move drew loud protests from Beijing, which in return, raised market entry barriers for certain EU products such as brandy.
Tornadoes strike US South, killing 33 people amid rising risk
- Twenty-six tornadoes were reported but not confirmed to have touched down late on Friday night and early on Saturday
ATLANTA: Tornadoes killed at least 33 people across several states in the US Midwest and Southeast on Saturday night, CNN reported.
Missouri reported 12 fatalities spanning five counties, the state’s highway patrol posted on X.
Robbie Myers, the director of emergency management in Missouri’s Butler County, told reporters that more than 500 homes, a church and grocery store in the county were destroyed. A mobile home park had been “totally destroyed,” he said. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves posted on X that six deaths had been reported in the state – one in Covington County, two in Jeff Davis County and three in Walthall County.
According to preliminary assessments, 29 people were injured statewide and 21 counties sustained storm damage, Reeves said.
In Arkansas, three deaths occurred, the state’s Department of Emergency Management said, adding that there were 32 injuries.
Twenty-six tornadoes were reported but not confirmed to have touched down late on Friday night and early on Saturday as a low-pressure system drove powerful thunderstorms across parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri, said David Roth, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.
