By Aditya Kalra and Aftab Ahmed
NEW
DELHI (Reuters) - India has stepped up scrutiny of investments from
companies based in neighbouring countries, in what is widely seen as a
move to stave off takeovers by Chinese firms during the coronavirus
outbreak.
India's trade ministry said in a notification dated
April 17 the changes to federal rules on investment were meant to curb
"opportunistic takeovers/acquisitions". It did not mention China.
Investments
from an entity in a country that shares a land border with India will
require government approval, it said, meaning they can not go through a
so-called automatic route.
"These times should not be used by other countries to take over our companies," a senior government official told Reuters.
Similar
restrictions are already in place for Bangladesh and Pakistan. But up
to now, they have not applied to China and India's other neighbours
including Bhutan, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Nepal.
"This will
certainly impact sentiment among Chinese investors. However, greenfield
investments will not be impacted," said Santosh Pai, a partner at Indian
law firm Link Legal that advises several Chinese companies.
Australia
has also said all foreign investment proposals will be assessed by a
review board during the coronavirus crisis to prevent a fire sale of
distressed corporate assets. Germany has taken similar measures.
A February report by research group Gateway House said Chinese foreign direct investment into India stood at $6.2 billion.
China's
Bytedance has plans to invest $1 billion in India, while automakers
including Great Wall Motor Co Ltd and MG Motor, a unit of China's SAIC,
have said they intend to invest millions.
Delano Furtado, a
partner with law firm Trilegal, said the notification may also impact
Chinese companies with existing investments in the country.
"Any follow-on investments in those entities may now require approvals," he said.
India's
notification also said government approval would also be needed to
change the ownership of an Indian entity that had existing foreign
investment.
(Editing by Euan Rocha and Andrew Heavens)
FILE
PHOTO: Students wear masks of China's President Xi Jinping as other
waves national flags of India and China, ahead of the informal summit
with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a school in Chennai
Some of India's biggest startups including financial services firm Paytm, e-commerce giant Flipkart, social media operator ShareChat, and food delivery firm Zomato are backed by Chinese VCs.
HDFC, India's biggest bank, said earlier this month that Bank of China had raised its stake in the mortgage lender by over 1%.
Rahul
Gandhi, the former head of political party Indian Nation Congress,
urged the ruling government earlier this month to take measures to
prevent "foreign interests from taking control of any Indian corporate
at this time of national crisis."
The revision in policy comes at a time when major investors in India have cautioned local startups to prepare for a tough period ahead.
Earlier this month, they told startup founders that raising fresh
capital is likely be more challenging than ever for the next few months.
Recent data from research firm Tracxn showed that Indian startups have already started to face the pressure.
Local
startups participated in 79 deals to raise $496 million in March, down
from $2.86 billion that they raised across 104 deals in February and
$1.24 billion they raised from 93 deals in January this year, according
to Tracxn. In March last year, Indian startups had raised $2.1 billion
across 153 deals, the firm said.
India ordered a nationwide
lockdown last month in a bid to curtail the spread of the coronavirus
disease. But the move, as in other markets, has come at a cost. Millions
of businesses and startups are facing severe disruptions.
Late last month, more than 100 prominent startups, VC funds, and industry bodies requested New Delhi to provide them with a relief fund to combat the disruption.
If the
deadly and destructive made-in-China COVID-19 crisis has a silver
lining, it is this: The strengths and weaknesses of particular leaders,
governments, and institutions around the world have been exposed by the
pandemic, thus providing an impetus for reform.
The World Health
Organization (WHO) has come under particular scrutiny at a time of
rising skepticism about the ability of international institutions to act
responsibly and transparently independent of corrupt political
influence. The U.S., which is by far the single largest funder of the
WHO, has enormous leverage in this case, and is now beginning to use it:
The Trump administration, angered by the WHO’s role in the pandemic
crisis, recently announced that it would suspend and review the $400
million annual American contribution to the group.
Dr. Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general, bears primary
responsibility for its missteps in responding to the crisis,
particularly its crucial early delay in classifying COVID-19 as a Public
Health Emergency of International Concern. It is thus appropriate to
inquire about his background and the motivations that have driven his
actions in this pandemic.
Tedros, a trained microbiologist who did
earn an MSc in the immunology of infectious diseases at the University
of London, was Ethiopia’s minister of health from 2005 to 2012, and
subsequently its minister of foreign affairs from 2012 to 2016. He was
also served on the nine-member executive committee of the Tigray
People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), one of four ethnically based political
parties making up the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front
(EPRDF), the brutal authoritarian regime that ruled Ethiopia with an iron fist from 1991 to 2019.
When
Tedros sought to become WHO director-general in 2017, he met with
fierce opposition to his candidacy from Ethiopians angry with his
service to and defense of the country’s abusive regime, as well as his
record as minister of health. He was ultimately confirmed despite allegations
that, as minister of health, he directed the cover-up of three deadly
cholera epidemics by simply insisting that they were Acute Watery
Diarrhea (AWD), apparently hoping to avoid the impact that the public
admission of a cholera epidemic might have had on Ethiopian tourism and
the image of his party.
In retrospect, that episode bears a
striking, chilling resemblance to the WHO’s response to the
coronavirus’s appearance in China.
For as long as he could, Tedros
was happy to validate Beijing’s clumsy efforts to minimize and downplay
the viral outbreak in Wuhan. While China was actively covering up the
virus and censoring information about it, Tedros lavished praise on Xi
Jinping’s response as “transparent,” “responsible,” and “setting a new
standard of the world.” Even as international pressure grew, he delayed
declaring the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of
International Concern. When the declaration was finally made
on January 30, 2020, he was careful to say that, it was “not a vote of
no confidence in China. On the contrary, WHO continues to have the
confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak.”
Days
later, at a time when China had reported 361 deaths from the virus — and
when, we know now, the actual number of Chinese deaths was actually
much higher — Tedros, echoing the Chinese government’s stance, remained adamantly opposed
to restrictions that would “unnecessarily interfere with international
trade and travel” in an effort to stop the pandemic’s spread. Until at
least as late as February 29,
shortly before the extent of the pandemic’s global reach and threat
began to become clear, WHO was still officially opposed to such
restrictions. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in turn, was all too
happy to criticize the United States and other countries that had
imposed early travel restrictions on China as having “violated the WHO’s
advice.”
Meanwhile, plenty of countries believed the CCP and
Tedros’s WHO, and chose not to implement necessary border controls
against the epidemic. As a result, the virus began to spread from
country to country across the globe, until even those nations that had
tried to restrict travel from affected areas early on were powerless to
stop it from invading their shores.
What makes all of this even
less forgivable is that the Tedros-led WHO was informed of the truth
about the virus at a time when life-saving action could have been taken,
and chose to ignore it. On December 31, 2019, scientists in Taiwan,
which continues to be excluded from the WHO due to Chinese pressure,
notified WHO officials of evidence of “human-to-human” transmission, but
the officials did not pass on this information to other countries.
(Ironically, Taiwan, forced to deal with the threat without any help
from the WHO, fared better than many other countries in the end, because
its natural distrust of the CCP meant it was not fooled by Beijing’s
efforts to downplay the outbreak’s seriousness.)
For as long as he
could, Tedros ignored Taiwan’s warnings and validated China’s grossly
negligent lies. But when the world finally began to awaken to the threat
of COVID-19, Tedros almost immediately began blaming the international
community for its earlier inaction. On March 11, 2020, as the WHO
declared that the coronavirus had become a global pandemic, Tedros had
the gall to say that “some countries are struggling with a lack of
resolve,” that the WHO was “deeply concerned . . . by the alarming
levels of inaction,” and that “some countries are not approaching this
threat with the level of political commitment needed to control it.”
There
is a lesson to be learned from WHO’s response to this global crisis,
and it concerns the corruption of international institutions by
authoritarian regimes. Tedros favors dictators because he is favored by
them, and vice-versa. His candidacy for director-general of the WHO was
endorsed by health ministers from Algeria and numerous other
nondemocratic countries. The World Health Assembly approved him for the
post with an overwhelming 133 votes out of 185, despite
strong opposition from many Ethiopians who knew his derisory domestic
record. China was a major backer of Tedros’s candidacy, as was his own
TPLF party, which spent millions of dollars on his campaign.
Not
surprisingly, Tedros’s record at the WHO has been one of whitewashing
and coddling dictatorships. On October 18, 2017, only three months into
his tenure as director-general, Tedros appointed Zimbabwe’s Robert
Mugabe, one of the longest-ruling and most brutal dictators on the
planet, to serve as a WHO goodwill ambassador focused on tackling non-communicable diseases in
Africa. “I am honored to be joined by President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, a
country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at
the center of its policies to provide healthcare to all,” he said at a
conference in Uruguay announcing the decision. (After the appointment
was widely condemned by influential leaders in the health sector,
politicians, and human-rights defenders, he eventually rescinded it.)
Of
course, one need not even mention Tedros’s general affinity for
dictators to explain his direction of the WHO’s response to the
coronavirus pandemic. The CCP and Tedros clearly enjoy a reciprocal
relationship, one based on material interests as well as common values.
The CCP donated generously to Ethiopia while Tedros was the Ethiopian
foreign minister, and provided forceful backing of his campaign to lead
the WHO. In response to the widespread criticism of the organization’s
mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak, Chinese state-run media outlets
have vigorously defended Tedros, claiming he is being “attacked by the
West” for “helping us.”
The ultimate, primary responsibility for
the COVID-19 pandemic lies with CCP authorities, who concealed the
outbreak from the beginning and suppressed the spread of accurate
information about it. But Tedros also bears significant responsibility
for aiding and abetting the CCP’s coverup. He is a living testament to
the success of Beijing’s aggressive efforts to coopt international
institutions to its will, efforts that must be stopped sooner rather
than later. And his actions have endangered hundreds of thousands if not
millions of lives across the globe. The free citizens and governments
of the world should not rest until he is removed from his post atop the
WHO.
— Jianli Yang is the founder and president of Citizen
Power Initiatives for China. Aaron Rhodes is the president of the Forum
for Religious Freedom-Europe, the human-rights editor of Dissident magazine, and the author of The Debasement of Human Rights.
By Natalia Zinets
KIEV
(Reuters) - A Kiev court has rejected an appeal by Chinese investors to
unfreeze the shares of a Ukrainian aircraft engine maker, a setback for
the Chinese company that has sought to acquire the Ukrainian firm in a
deal opposed by the United States.
China's Skyrizon Aircraft
Holdings Limited bought a majority stake in the aircraft engine maker
Motor Sich, but the shares were frozen in 2017 pending an investigation
by Ukraine's security service (SBU). Washington wants the deal scrapped.
The
United States and China have competed for influence in Ukraine since
its relations with Moscow soured when Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea
peninsula in 2014.
In its ruling, the court kept the shares
frozen, citing the SBU probe into whether selling Motor Sich sabotages
national security by allowing sensitive technology into foreign hands.
The ruling was dated March 13, shared with the parties this week and
reviewed by Reuters on Friday.
Skyrizon plans further appeals,
said a lawyer involved in the case, speaking anonymously due to the
political sensitivity of the case. Zelenskiy's office, the U.S. embassy
and the Chinese embassy did not respond to a request for comment. Motor
Sich and the SBU declined comment.
Motor Sich severed ties with
Russia, its biggest client, after the annexation of Crimea. The wrangle
over its future has held up efforts to find new markets, and supporters
of a quick resolution say it is now operating at less than half
capacity.
"Motor Sich has become a hostage to the geopolitical
situation," former Prime Minister Anatoliy Kinakh, chairman of an
industrial union which has called for the government to resolve the
dispute quickly, told Reuters.
The state's anti-monopoly committee
has launched its own investigation and says it is waiting to receive
more documents before deciding whether to sanction the sale.
President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy's administration has had to balance strengthening
ties to Beijing with keeping the United States, its biggest military aid
donor, onside. In recent weeks, Beijing and Washington have both
offered aid to Ukraine to fight the coronavirus.
At the moment it
is a very difficult task when we have the biggest powers in the world
and their interests are in conflict in Ukraine," Oleksandr Danylyuk, a
former top security official under Zelenskiy, told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Ilya Zhegulev; Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Peter Graff)
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said China's
role in the global coronavirus pandemic is likely to force countries to
rethink their telecommunications infrastructure, including the adoption
of China-based Huawei's 5G networks.
Asked about use of Huawei and
5G, Pompeo told Fox Business Network in an interview: "I am very
confident that this moment -- this moment where the Chinese Communist
Party failed to be transparent and open and handle data in an
appropriate way -- will cause many, many countries rethink what they
were doing with respect to their telecom architecture."
"And when
Huawei comes knocking to sell them equipment and hardware, that they
will have a different prism through which to view that decision."
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Toby Chopra) FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Trump leads daily coronavirus response briefing at the White House in Washington
Navy
officials say they've been unable to make a definitive link between
hundreds of coronavirus cases on an aircraft carrier and a controversial
port call in Vietnam, leading them to consider the possibility that
pilots delivering goods to the ship carried it aboard.
Carrier
onboard deliveries, known as CODs, could be to blame for the ongoing
health crisis onboard the carrier Theodore Roosevelt, a Navy official
told Military.com. The flights in question could have originated in the
Philippines or Japan as the carrier operated in the Asia-Pacific region,
the official said.
When the first coronavirus cases among the
crew were announced late last month, questions were raised about the
decision to have the ship make a planned stop in Vietnam in early March.
But the sailors got sick with COVID-19, the illness caused by the
coronavirus, 15 days after it left the country, the official said.
The incubation period for COVID-19 is believed to span between two and 14 days.
"It's
not conclusive, and it's very hard to tell if we're going to be able to
get to a conclusive, 'This is where it came from,'" the Navy official
said. The Wall Street Journal first reported that the Navy was considering CODs as a possible explanation behind the outbreak. Related: Could Fired Navy Captain Face Charges? Military Justice Experts Weigh In
CODs
bring mail, replacement parts and other supplies out to carriers from
ashore almost daily. The Navy uses C2A Greyhound twin-engine cargo
planes and CMV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft for the mission.
The aircraft typically board the carriers at the start of a deployment, but leave once land is in range. There, they set up at the nearest large airport and commence shuttle runs, the Smithsonian's Air and Space magazine described in a feature on their missions.
The
Navy has faced criticism over the decision to have the Roosevelt stop
in Vietnam in early March as coronavirus cases spread throughout the
region. President Donald Trump was one who questioned the decision,
blaming the ship's former commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier.
"Perhaps
you don't do that in the middle of a pandemic or something that looked
like it was going to be," Trump said. "History says you don't
necessarily stop and let your sailors get off."
But the call was
made by two admirals in coordination with several other government
agencies. Adm. John Aquilino, head of Pacific fleet, recommended the
port visit occur as scheduled, and Adm. Phil Davidson, head of U.S.
Indo-Pacific Command, approved it, said Cmdr. J. Myers Vasquez, a
Pacific Fleet spokesman.
"This decision was made after a thorough
assessment in coordination with Department of State, Office of the
Secretary of Defense, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Pacific Fleet, the
Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense, U.S.
Embassy in Vietnam, and associated health experts," he added.
Chief
of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday has called the decision "a
risk-informed" one and said there were just 16 COVID-19 cases in Vietnam
at the time, and they were isolated in Hanoi.
The guided-missile
cruiser Bunker Hill, which stopped in Vietnam with the Roosevelt, hasn't
reported any COVID-19 cases, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said this
week.
Vasquez said the crews got a brief from medical personnel on
coronavirus prevention. And when two British people tested positive for
the illness at a hotel that dozens of sailors had visited, those
personnel were tested for COVID-19 and placed into quarantine for 14
days, he said.
None of those personnel were among the first three Roosevelt crew members to test positive for COVID-19, Vasquez added.
Both
ships left Vietnam on March 9. The first three Roosevelt sailors to
have flu-like symptoms and test positive for COVID-19 did so on March 24
-- 15 days after they left, Vasquez said.
"Theodore Roosevelt
medical representatives conducted a thorough contact tracing to
determine who these individuals came in contact with in an attempt to
identify the origin of the infection," he added. "Since 14 days had
passed, ship's medical was unable to determine the specific source."
Other
carriers have adjusted their flight operations to prevent pilots and
crews from infecting any sailors onboard, Rear Adm. Andrew Loiselle,
commander of Carrier Strike Group 8, told reporters this week.
The
Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group left the Middle East and was
scheduled to head back to the East Coast. Now it'll continue operating
at sea.
The crew is COVID-19-free, and the Navy needs to have a
healthy strike group at the ready, as the Roosevelt has been sidelined
in Guam for nearly a month now.
Deliveries bound for the strike
group spend enough time aboard supply ships that any possible infected
residue dies off before it's delivered, Loiselle said. And if
helicopters or planes that take the supplies onto the Truman, those
inside aren't allowed to step foot onto the ship.
"We gave them a box lunch and sent them on their way," Loiselle said. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins. Read More: Navy Cancels Carrier Homecoming Plans Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
WHO đã chứng
tỏ sự thiếu tin cậy trong thông tin về dịch bệnh coronavirus. Số tiền gần 500
triệu đô la hằng năm của người dân Hoa Kỳ đóng thuế cho đất nước được dùng tài
trợ cho WHO cần phải được cân nhắc hay ngừng lại nếu WHO không đem lại lợi ích
cho người dân Hoa Kỳ. Vấn đề WHO tương tự vấn đề Khí Hậu, mọi quốc gia cần đóng
góp tiền cho Chính Sách Khí Hậu nếu họ thật sự quan tâm. Tất cả các quốc gia trȇn
thế giới cần phải tích cực đóng góp tài chính cho WHO một cách công bằng. Trung
cộng không thể chỉ đóng góp 40 triệu đô la một năm so với Hoa Kỳ gần 500 triệu đô
la năm. Hoa Kỳ không thể từ bi rộng lượng cho những ai lợi dụng sự rộng lượng đó
làm những việc không có lợi ích thiết thực cho người dân Hoa Kỳ.
Không phải
phȇ bình mà mở cuộc điều tra WHO và Hoa Kỳ có thể rút ra bỏ WHO như rút ra khỏi
Hiệp ước Khí Hậu.
Politics
Defeat virus first, criticise later, WHO envoy says after U.S. funding halt
By Alexander Cornwell
DUBAI
(Reuters) - The World Health Organization’s COVID-19 special envoy on
Wednesday urged countries to focus on defeating the deadly virus after
the United States halted funding to the WHO over its handling of the
global pandemic.
President Donald Trump, who has become
increasingly hostile towards the WHO, on Tuesday announced the United
States would cut off funding the Geneva-based organisation, prompting
condemnation from infectious disease experts.
“There are one or
two countries that seem to be quite concerned about actions that were
taken early on in the pandemic...We say to everybody, we plead with
everybody, look forward. Focus on the epic struggle right now and leave
the recriminations until later,” special envoy David Nabarro told an
online conference, without naming the United States or Trump.
"If
in the process you decide you want to declare that you’re going to
withdraw funding or make other comments about the WHO, remember this is
not just the WHO, this is the whole public health community that is
involved right now and every single person in the world...is
sacrificing."
The United States contributed more than $400 million
to the WHO in 2019, roughly 15% of its budget and its biggest overall
donor.
Trump has said the WHO failed to act on credible reports
from sources in China's Wuhan province, where the virus was first
identified in December, that conflicted with Beijing's account of the
spread.
Nabarro, who served as the United Nations special envoy on
Ebola, warned countries against complacency in tackling the virus which
has infected some 2,001,548 people globally and killed at least
131,101, according to a Reuters tally.
"Respond rapidly, respond robustly and then you will be able to contain this virus and hold it at bay," he said.
"If
we argue about it, we will get into trouble. The virus will find its
way between us and will catch us out and we will be asking ourselves why
on earth didn't we move more quickly. Why on earth didn't we develop a
unified strategic approach."
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Toby Chopra and Mark Heinrich)
Nabarro candidate for Director General of the WHO attends a news conference in Geneva
Cần nȇn có một
cuộc điều tra tìm hiểu về nguồn gốc coronavirus tại Vũ Hán (Wuhan) và về những
gì xãy ra tại đây mà Trung Cộng chưa bao giờ nói thật với thế giới. WHO đã tiếp
tay cho sự thiếu trong sáng này. WHO đã làm gì cho Sức Khoẻ Thế Giới? WHO đã
làm gì ích lợi cho sức khoẻ thế giới và nước Mỹ với gần 500 triệu đô la mỗi năm
từ tiền thuế mà người dân Mỹ đóng. Ngừng tài trợ cho WHO sẽ không gây phương hại
gì cho nước Mỹ. Công bằng, tất cả các quốc gia trȇn thế giới cần bỏ tiền túi ra
tài trợ WHO. Vấn đề WHO hôm nay cho thấy nước Mỹ, giống như một anh chàng hào
hiệp, đã chi phí quá tốn kém cho những thứ không cần thiết, nhưng khi anh ngã
ngựa, chính những kẻ mà anh đã hào hiệp giúp đỡ sẽ phản bội.
-----
FOX News Videos
Secretary Mike Pompeo: We need answers and transparency from China and for WHO to do its job
“We have
deep concerns about whether America's generosity has been put to the best use
possible,” the president said in a Rose Garden press conference. “The
reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain, vet and share information
in a timely and transparent fashion."
Trump has
accused the organization of not moving quickly enough to sound the alarm over COVID-19 and of being too
China friendly. He has attacked the agency for advising the U.S. against banning
travel from China to other parts of the world amid the outbreak.
"And
the World – WHO – World Health got it wrong," the president told reporters
at the White House last week. "I mean, they got it very wrong. In many
ways, they were wrong. They also minimized the threat very strongly and – not
good."
Trump has
previously said he was considering cutting WHO funding, but on Tuesday he
accused the organization of "severely mismanaging and covering
up" the spread of the coronavirus after the initial outbreak in
Wuhan,China.
The U.S.
paid $893 million to the WHO during its two-year budget window, according
to the organization's website. That money represents about 15% of the WHO's
budget.
Established in
1948, the WHO is an autonomous organization that works with the United Nations
and is considered part of the U.N. system.
During
Tuesday's briefing, the president asked whether it was appropriate to freeze
WHO's funding in the middle of a pandemic that has claimed more than 125,000
lives worldwide with over 2 million cases confirmed, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
"This
is an evaluation period, but in the meantime, we're putting a hold on all funds
going to World Health," Trump said.
Trump said
the review would last between 60 and 90 days. He said the administration would
"channel" the money into other areas to combat the coronavirus
outbreak, but declined to provide any specifics.
The American
Medical Association was quick to criticize the president's move and urged
him to reconsider his decision.
"During
the worst public health crisis in a century, halting funding to the World
Health Organization (WHO) is a dangerous step in the wrong direction that will
not make defeating COVID-19 easier," AMA President Patrice A. Harris said
in a statement.
Harris added
that battling a pandemic requires international cooperation and data.
"Cutting
funding to the WHO - rather than focusing on solutions - is a dangerous
move at a precarious moment for the world," she said.
Leslie Dach,
chair of the pro-Obamacare group Protect Our Care and the former global
Ebola coordinator for the Department of Health and Human Services, called the
decision an attempt to shift blame for the coronavirus outbreak in the
U.S.
"This
is nothing more than a transparent attempt by President Trump to distract from
his history downplaying the severity of the coronavirus crisis and his
administration’s failure to prepare our nation," she said. "To be
sure, the World Health Organization is not without fault but it is beyond
irresponsible to cut its funding at the height of a global pandemic. This move will
undoubtedly make Americans less safe."
President
Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing
Room of the White House, Monday, April 6, 2020, in Washington.
