Hyundai to temporarily suspend Indian plant amid spreading pandemic
Hyundai Motor Co., South Koreas biggest carmaker, said Tuesday it will temporarily suspend its Indian plant due to the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic.
Hyundai Motor will halt the Indian plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu for five days starting Tuesday, a company spokesman said over the phone.
The decision came after two workers were infected with COVID-19 and several workers staged a sit-in at the plant Monday amid rising virus fears among workers.
Tamil Nadu is one of the worst hit states in India. The state has imposed a lockdown on factories, except for some plants, until the end of May.
Hyundai’s other overseas plants are in operation despite the ongoing global chip shortage, a company spokesman said.
On the domestic front, Hyundai has temporarily halted some of its domestic plants in recent weeks due to semiconductor shortages.
Hyundai has seven domestic plants — five in Ulsan, one in Asan and one in Jeonju — and 10 overseas plants — four in China and one each in the United States, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Russia, India and Brazil. Their combined capacity reaches 5.5 million vehicles.
On Monday, its affiliate Kia Corp. said it plans to suspend its Georgia plant on Thursday and Friday due to a chip shortage, following a two-day suspension last month.
Kia has also temporarily suspended some of its domestic plants due to parts problems.
Kia has eight domestic plants in Korea and seven overseas ones — three in China and one each in the United States, Slovakia, Mexico and India. Their overall capacity is 3.84 million units per year.
Hyundai and Kia together form the world’s fifth-biggest carmaker by sales. (Yonhap)
With its ratification steadily advancing, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement is likely to come into force next year, shoring up regional development and injecting strong growth impetus into the global economy, experts and industry insiders said.
Signed by China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in November 2020, the agreement has created the world’s largest free trade bloc. It will enter into force 60 days after being ratified by six of the ASEAN members and three non-ASEAN countries.
Thailand, Singapore, China and Japan have already ratified the RCEP. And the Ministry of Commerce has said that all the signatory states have expressed their intention to ratify the deal within the year so that it can come into force on Jan 1,2022.
Zhang Jianping, director-general of the Beijing-based China Center for Regional Economic Cooperation, said closer ties among the RCEP signatory countries will have a far-reaching impact on regional trade, investment, and market integration. This will help the recovery of the global economy, which is smarting from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and facing rising trade protectionism.
The cooperation among the participating countries leveraging on each other’s advantages will greatly boost regional trade and investment, adding new energy to regional development and providing strong support for global economic recovery, Zhang said.
The RCEP is designed to cut tariffs by as much as 90 percent on goods traded between the signatory states in the 20 years since coming into effect. In the common rule of origin established by the RCEP, only 40 percent of regional content is required for goods to be considered of RCEP origin, much lower than the thresholds of other free trade agreements.
The agreement promises to extensively boost the regional economy, by facilitating trade and investment, accelerating the flow factors of production, furthering the integration and coordination of industrial and supply chains, and promoting the development of new industries and businesses including cross-border e-commerce.
According to Da Hongfei, CEO of Onchain, a blockchain tech start-up, the RCEP promises a huge and thriving market for innovation-oriented companies, such as fintech start-ups, thanks to intensified regional cooperation. He also said the RCEP agreement shows its signatory economies have confidence in and firmly support globalization at a time when globalization faces many challenges.
A report released on Sunday during the RCEP Media & Think Tank Forum held online and offline in Haikou, Hainan province, estimated the RCEP could help increase member states’ exports, foreign investment stocks and GDP by 10.4 percent, 2.6 percent, and 1.8 percent respectively by 2025.
The forum was jointly organized by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Hainan Provincial Committee, China Daily, Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development, and the China Institute for Free Trade Ports with Chinese Characteristics.
The report also said the RCEP could boost global GDP growth by US$186 billion a year. And Credit insurer Euler Hermes predicted that the common rule of origin could increase intra-regional trade by US$90 billion annually, and the RCEP’s less restrictive rules, compared with other FTAs, imply fewer impediments for trade in the region.
The common rule of origin will also attract manufacturers seeking to optimize the comparative advantages of individual markets, according to Jia Jingwei, vice-chairman of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions’ China branch.
The RCEP will drive the growth of regional investment in the medium to long term, Jia said, adding that he expects higher demand for cargo, transport and credit insurance.
According to Deutsche Bank’s Kenny Khoo, who recently moved from Shanghai to Singapore to set up the bank’s China-ASEAN desk, Chinese corporations are paying more attention to ASEAN since the signing of the RCEP.
Tu Xinquan, dean of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said the RCEP economies, despite having different levels of development and resource endowment, have strong economic and trade complementarity, and deeper economic and trade cooperation among them means better utilization of resources and higher levels of efficiency in production. The RCEP also provides a valuable opportunity for lower-income economies to further integrate into the global industrial and trade and investment networks, he said.
“For the world economy, the RCEP promises not only more exporters of quality goods and services, but also expanding markets with increasingly deep-pocketed consumers,” Tu said.
As the RECP region, the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, also promotes innovation, it will unleash the innovation potential of the Asia-Pacific and therefore create more business opportunities for both regional and non-regional businesses, greatly contributing to global economic recovery, Tu added.
George Yong-Boon Yeo, Singapore’s former minister for Trade and Industry and Foreign Affairs, and senior adviser to Kuok Group and Kerry Logistics Network, said at the forum that the RCEP must never turn inwards. An inclusive RCEP will encourage others to liberalize too, and oppose the ill wind of decoupling and trade war, he said.
Published : May 25, 2021
By : Liu Zhihua and Ma Zhiping in Haikou/China Daily/ANN
[Malaysia] Probe to take place immediately after crash injures over 200 passengers
KUALA LUMPUR: A head-on collision involving two LRT trains between Kampung Baru and KLCC here occurred last night, leaving 213 people injured, 47 of them seriously.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said the authorities have launched an investigation into the accident that took place underground at 8.45pm.
Dr Wee, who immediately rushed to the scene of the incident, said the injured passengers were rushed to Hospital Kuala Lumpur for treatment.
“Further investigations on the cause of the accident will commence immediately, ” Dr Wee told a press conference at Avenue K, one of the exits to the KLCC LRT station of the Kelana Jaya line.
Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Mohamad Zainal Abdullah said that 47 individuals suffered serious injuries and 166 were lightly injured.
In a Facebook post last night, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin also said a thorough probe will be conducted by the authorities.
“I view this accident seriously and I have ordered the Transport Ministry and Prasarana Malaysia Bhd to conduct thorough investigations in order to ascertain the cause of this accident, and stern action will be taken immediately, ” he said.
“The priority now must be given to the victims of the accident and I have ordered all sides to give full cooperation in order to ensure that victims get a comprehensive treatment, since we are also facing a worsening Covid-19 pandemic, ” he added.
It is understood that one of the trains involved in the collision was not under passenger service, and was being manually driven, though the Kelana Jaya line runs on a fully-automated mode under normal passenger service.
On social media, several pictures and videos of the incident quickly went viral, with some depicting persons bleeding profusely, while others were seen lying on the train floor.
There was broken glass strewn across the floor with many passengers appearing disorientated.
The difficulty in extracting the injured from this rare incident stems from the fact that they had to be manually stretchered out, or walk out on their own, from the mangled trains to the nearest underground station.
According to the Fire and Rescue Department spokesman, care has to be taken to ensure the electricity supply on the track is cut off before rescuers could access the wreckage, while injured passengers have to struggle to walk through the uneven surface and tight confines of the tunnel.
The Kelana Jaya line was the first fully automated metro line in Malaysia when it opened in 1998.
With 37 stations, the Kelana Jaya line is the busiest metro line in Malaysia, moving nearly 300,000 passengers on an average working day before Covid-19 landed here.
The arrival of the pandemic easily wiped out ridership by around 40% of this line that is known to carry up to 350,000 passengers a day during national events.
Construction of this line began in 1994, about the same time as construction of the Ampang LRT Line.
Phase One of operations commenced on Sept 1,1998, between Lembah Subang Depot (next to the Lembah Subang station) and Pasar Seni, while Phase Two from Pasar Seni to Gombak took place on June 1,1999.
In early 2010, the Kelana Jaya line underwent a 17km extension under the LRT extension programme.
By 2016,13 new stations had been added to the line, which is now connected to the Seri Petaling line at Putra Heights, bringing the total number of stations to 37.
The line is also the first metro line in Malaysia to have underground stations: at Masjid Jamek, Dang Wangi, Kampung Baru, KLCC and Ampang Park.
Pakistan to continue giving air, ground access, says Pentagon
WASHINGTON: Pakistan has allowed the US military to use its airspace and given ground access so that it can support its presence in Afghanistan, according to a Pentagon official.
David F. Helvey, Assistant Secretary of Defence for Indo-Pacific Affairs, told the US Senate Armed Services Committee last week that the United States would continue its conversation with Pakistan because it had a critical role in restoring peace to Afghanistan.
The official was replying to a question from Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, who asked him to “outline your assessment of Pakistan, and particularly of Pakistani intelligence agencies, and the role you expect them to play in our future”.
“Pakistan has played an important role in Afghanistan. They supported the Afghan peace process. Pakistan also has allowed us to have overflight and access to be able to support our military presence in Afghanistan,” Mr Helvey said.
“We will continue our conversations with Pakistan because their support and contribution to the future of Afghanistan, to future peace in Afghanistan, is going to be critical,” he added.
Diplomatic sources in Washington told Dawn that Pakistan had always allowed overflights and ground access to the US to facilitate its military presence in Afghanistan and would continue to do so.
Earlier in the hearing, Senator Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, asked the Pentagon official what type of manned or unmanned capabilities the US would need in the region to prevent “terrorists from returning to Afghanistan”.
“Things we cannot have in Afghanistan,” such as overflights, Mr Helvey. He said that there were other assets that were not available in the region and the US has the capability to bring them into the region “on a regular basis”.
Senator Manchin reminded him that with really no assets on the ground, Washington will have to rely on its regional partners to work with the US. “Are you confident of our regional partners and their capacity and commitment to drive terrorists out of the region?” he asked.
“We will have to work with our local and regional partners, and we want to continue developing those capabilities and those partnerships to be able to ensure that we have the right of framework to address the threats.”
The US Defence Department, he said, was “working today” with its inter-agency colleagues on the right type of arrangements, relationships and frameworks to ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a haven for terrorism.
Last month, President Joe Biden announced his plan to withdraw all US and Nato troops from Afghanistan by Sept 11 this year. The announcement followed a landmark
US-Taliban deal in Doha on Feb 29 last year to end the Afghan war and bring US troops home after America’s longest war.
On Saturday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told lawmakers in New York that Pakistan was seeking a broad-based, strategic partnership with America, which would also cover Afghanistan.
Mr Qureshi stressed the need for “a broad-based strategic partnership” that looks after the interests of both countries, said a statement.
The foreign minister’s meeting with the lawmakers followed a congressional hearing on Afghanistan in Washington last week.
During the hearing, several lawmakers and America’s chief negotiator for Afghanistan, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, underlined Pakistan’s role in the Afghan peace process and expressed the desire to enhance bilateral ties.
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi defiant in first comments since coup
NAYPYIDAW (AFP) – Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday (May 24) voiced defiance as she made her first court appearance since being detained in a coup, vowing her ousted political party would live on.
Myanmar has been in uproar since the Feb 1 putsch, with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement. More than 800 people have been killed by the military, according to a local monitoring group.
The junta has threatened to dissolve her National League for Democracy (NLD) – which swept elections in 2020 – over alleged voter fraud. The Nobel laureate – who has not been seen in public since the coup – sounded “healthy and fully confident” during the 30-minute meeting, her lawyer Min Min Soe told AFP.
“She wishes her people to stay healthy as well as affirmed the NLD will exist as long as people exist because it was founded for people.”
Suu Kyi has been hit with a string of criminal charges including flouting coronavirus restrictions during last year’s election campaign and possessing unlicensed walkie-talkies.
There was a heavy security presence in the capital Naypyidaw, an AFP correspondent said, with the road to the specially constructed courthouse blocked by police trucks.
There have been weeks of delays to Suu Kyi’s legal case and her lawyers have struggled to gain access to her. The next hearing was set for June 7, Min Min Soe said, adding she had also met former president Win Myint, who was ousted and detained along with Suu Kyi.
“It’s hard to say why this meeting was now allowed,” Richard Horsey, Senior Adviser on Myanmar to the International Crisis Group told AFP.
“But (it) certainly suggests that the regime is feeling more confident – despite the magnitude of the ongoing crisis and resistance.” As the lawyers left the compound in Naypyidaw, police arrested a legal representative of senior NLD figure Myo Aung, lawyers told AFP.
‘Everything she can’
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing gave a two-hour interview to Hong Kong’s Phoenix Television last week, with the full programme yet to air, though portions have been released.
Asked about Suu Kyi’s political achievements, the military leader said: “In short, she has done everything she can.”
The military announced a one-year state of emergency after it seized power, and said it would be followed by fresh multi-party elections.
A group of ousted lawmakers – many of them previously part of the NLD – have formed a shadow “National Unity Government” in an attempt to undermine the junta.
The junta has classified them as “terrorists”.
In a separate interview excerpt, Min Aung Hlaing disputed the death toll from the protests and said he was not ready to adopt a consensus brokered last month by the Association of South-East Asian Nations to halt the violence.
The continuing bloodshed has pushed some in the anti-junta movement to form a so-called “People’s Defence Force” (PDF) in their townships – made up of civilians who fight back against security forces with homemade weapons.
Sunday saw heavy fighting between junta forces and the Karenni National Progressive Party – an ethnic armed group with a stronghold in Kayah state on Myanmar’s eastern fringe.
The military used tanks, mortars and helicopters in the fighting which continued into Sunday night, according to a senior KNPP leader. Four people taking refuge in a church were killed in army shelling, according to media and a spokesperson for a local group coordinating evacuations from the area.
‘Yaas’ could turn into severe cyclonic storm: Indian Met Department
The deep depression over the Bay of Bengal today intensified into Cyclone Yaas and it is likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm packed with a maximum windspeed of 180km per hour in the next 24 hours, the India Meteorological Department has said.
The cyclone is very likely to cross north Odisha-West Bengal coasts between Paradip and Sagar Island around May 26 noon as a ”very severe cyclonic storm”.
It is expected to bring in winds of 155 to 165 kilometres per hour, gusting up to 180 kmph, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
“It (Cyclone Yaas) is very likely to move slowly north-northwestwards, intensify further into a severe cyclonic storm during next 24 hours and into a very severe cyclonic storm during subsequent 24 hours,” the Cyclone Warning Division of the IMD said.
The West Bengal and Odisha governments have been bracing to deal with the impact of the cyclone.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a high-level meeting on Sunday with the DMs and SPs of and disaster management teams on cyclone-related preparedness.
Mamata herself would stay put in a special control room set up at a building called “Upanna” adjacent to “Nabanna”, the state secretariat, on May 25 and 26 and monitor the ground situation 24X7 following the onset of Yaas.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too chaired a high-level meeting to review the preparedness of the state and central agencies to deal with the situation, and called for a timely evacuation of those involved in offshore activities.
The Indian armed forces are also on alert, with the Navy putting four warships and a number of aircraft on standby.
The Air Force has kept 11 transport aircraft and 25 helicopters ready to carry out humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, officials said
Authorities send relief supplies, rescue and medical teams to two provinces
Earthquakes that rattled the provinces of Yunnan and Qinghai over the weekend left three people dead and dozens injured.
Students from Yangbi No 1 High School study outdoors at a disaster relief center in Yangbi, Yunnan province, on Sunday. They were preparing for the national college entrance exam, which will take place in about two weeks. CAO BOYUAN/FOR CHINA DAILY
The three deaths were reported in Yunnan, in southwestern China, after a 6.4 magnitude quake and aftershocks struck the Yangbi Yi autonomous county in Dali Bai autonomous prefecture from 9:48 pm to 11 pm on Friday. At least 32 people were injured.
A few hours later, at 2:04 am Saturday, a 7.4 magnitude quake jolted Madoi county in the Golog Tibetan autonomous prefecture in sparsely populated Qinghai, in the northwest of the country. No deaths were reported, but the Ministry of Emergency Management said 11 people had minor injuries.
There was no causal relationship between the Yunnan and Qinghai quakes, but they shared the same root cause, Sun Shihong, a researcher at the China Earthquake Networks Center, told The Beijing News.
“Both earthquakes were affected by the squeezing of the Indian Ocean plate against the Eurasian plate,” Sun said. “The power came from the same source.”
The impact of the two earthquakes was relatively slight. The population density in the part of Qinghai that was affected is low and the quake was relatively deep, while the magnitude of the quake in Yunnan was relatively low, he added.
“It is unlikely that another magnitude 7 or above earthquake will occur in these two regions,” Sun said.
Gao Mengtan, a former official with the China Earthquake Administration, said the country should not relax its vigilance on major earthquake risks, even though the situation was less severe this time.
“If the two strong earthquakes occurred in eastern China, with a high population density and developed economy, they would result in major disasters,” he said in a post on the Beijing Earthquake Bureau’s social media platform.
Ten million yuan ($1.56 million) in natural disaster relief funds has been allocated to each of the provinces.
The Ministry of Emergency Management and the China Earthquake Administration have dispatched teams to Yunnan and Qinghai to aid rescue work and disaster relief efforts. The administration also sent 57 people to the two regions to monitor the state of infrastructure and inspect geological risks.
The National Health Commission has dispatched medical teams to the two provinces.
The ministry said 5,000 tents, 10,000 folding cots and 20,000 blankets have been sent to stricken areas in Yunnan to facilitate relief work.
Yunnan dispatched 664 firefighters with equipment to the earthquake region by Saturday afternoon. They have rescued 17 trapped people. More than 22,000 people in the county seat of Yangbi have been evacuated to three emergency shelter areas, and the local government has set up 380 temporary shelters.
Yang Zhongxian, deputy director of Yangbi’s housing and construction bureau, said 192 houses in the county collapsed after the quake, but no casualties were reported in the collapses.
Yang added that formerly dilapidated houses reinforced during poverty-alleviation projects had been able to withstand the temblor.
Chen Qi, 25, expressed lingering fears following the Yangbi quake.
“The earth was shaking and houses collapsed in a second,” he said. “We hadn’t experienced such a strong earthquake before. Everybody was scared.”
He said that in the days before the 6.4 magnitude quake struck on Friday, small earthquakes of around 4 magnitude were frequently felt in his home village.
At noon on Saturday, dozens of villagers gathered various cooking materials and ate a simple lunch together near their tents, Chen said.
People in the county have carried on with their lives despite moving into temporary shelters.
Beside one relief tent, a couple was putting on makeup ahead of their wedding ceremony.
“We postponed our wedding due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Although the earthquake happened, we decided to finish the wedding this time,” said the bride, surnamed Wang.
The couple planned to get married during Spring Festival last year, but rescheduled it to Saturday due to the epidemic.
“We already booked the catering services. Some of our relatives cannot show up because of the sudden earthquake, but we are still going to finish the simple ceremony,” she said.
Wind power sector attractive to investors, construction firms
HÀ NỘI — With an increasing demand for electricity in Việt Nam, the wind power construction sector has flourished, with local and foreign firms getting in on the action.
Atop executive at Coteccons, one of the biggest realty firms in Việt Nam, told media the firm may invest in wind power construction due to the opportunities on offer.
Coteccons’ deputy general director Phan Hữu Duy Quốc said: “We are associated with a large consulting enterprise in the power industry to participate in the bidding as an EPC general contractor of wind power projects,” adding, “In the future, we may consider investing in the field.”
Similar to Coteccons, realty firm Phát Đạt is considering investing in wind power while construction firm Licogi 16 is awaiting Government approval to implement four wind power projects in Gia Lai and Quảng Trị provinces with its Japanese and German partners.
Licogi 16 said it was studying some offshore wind power projects for potential future investment.
The firm Power Construction 1 plans to finish three wind power projects of Liên Lập, Phong Huy and Phong Nguyên in Quảng Trị Province before October 31 as it continues to survey, research and develop new projects in other areas.
With its experience from the construction of large hydroelectric and irrigation projects, the firm Construction 47 also plans to expand its work into wind power in the near future while the SCI E&C Company will execute the wind power projects Hướng Phùng 2&3, Gelex 1,2,3 and Hướng Linh 7&8 in Quảng Trị Province.
Known as the leading foundation engineering and underground construction company in Việt Nam, FECON Corporation is also building six wind power plants across the country.
Quốc from Coteccons told local media: “The profit margin for civil construction is approximately 5 per cent, while infrastructure and wind power construction can make a higher profit.”
According to a report from Vietnam Electricity (EVN), as of March 22, there were about 4.4GW of wind power projects under construction while a remaining 6.2GW would be developed in 2022-2025, based on the draft Power Master Plan 8.
Lots of foreign investors have also been reported to be mulling an investment in Vietnamese wind power.
Less than a month after Trung Nam Group inaugurated the largest wind farm of Việt Nam in Ninh Thuan, Hitachi SE’s renewable energy business expanded its market to Việt Nam by signing a strategic co-operation agreement with the group, buying more than 35 per cent of the stake in the wind farm on May 14.
Seeing Trung Nam Group‘s 151.95 MW wind farm worth VNĐ4 trillion (US$172.4 million) with an estimated output of 432,000,000 kWh per year, as a quality, long-term and effective project, the Japanese investor bought in as a way to further implement renewable energy projects in Việt Nam.
This month, the Central Highlands province of Đắk Lắk granted in-principle investment approval to six foreign-funded wind power projects worth more than VNĐ10.08 trillion while the People’s Committee of Hậu Giang Province did the same thing for a VNĐ3.2 trillion wind power plant project from Hong Kong’s Envision Energy Company.
According to SSI Research, assuming electricity consumption growth of about 7.6 to 8 per cent in 2022-2025, there was still room to deploy a wind power project with a capacity of 6.2GW.
According to the World Bank’s assessment, Việt Nam is the country with the largest wind power development potential of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Việt Nam, with more than 39 per cent of Việt Nam’s total area estimated to have an average annual wind speed per year greater than 6m per second at an altitude of 65m, equivalent to a capacity of 512 GW. — VNS
Moon visits SKs battery plant construction site in US
ATLANTA/SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in visited a plant construction site of SK Innovation Co., the countrys leading battery maker, in the United States on Saturday.
The facility in the state of Georgia is regarded as symbolizing close partnerships between the two countries in the electric vehicle (EV) battery sector.
The company is investing around 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) in the construction project, with trial production under way starting in March.
“This plant symbolizes friendship and high-tech cooperation between South Korea and the United States,” Moon said in a speech. “South Korean firms are best partners in the battery field. Cooperation in the sector offers a good opportunity for the US and South Korea to develop together.”
The Joe Biden administration is pushing to secure stable supply chains in such high-tech industries as semiconductors and EV batteries.
Moon said he and Biden had discussions on promoting mutual investments and joint technology development.
He added South Korean businesses are working closely with the US in the chipmaking and future car sectors as well.
SK is partnering with Ford Motor for a joint venture to manufacture EV battery cells.
Moon made a stopover in Atlanta for a visit to the site on his way back home following summit talks with Biden, during which they agreed to cooperate closely on the global supply chain issue.
He was accompanied by South Korea’s Industry Minister Moon Sung-wook, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Georgia Gov. Brian P. Kemp during the tour of the facility.
The governor expressed his gratitude for the South Korean company’s investment in his state, saying many workers will get jobs at the plant.
Once its construction is completed on the outskirts of Atlanta, the facility is expected to become a “successful cooperation model” between the two nations, according to Moon’s office Cheong Wa Dae. (Joint Press Corps)
WASHINGTON – Former US president Donald Trump has been sued by a civil rights group for calling COVID-19 the “China virus.”
The complaint, filed in a federal court in New York by the Chinese Americans Civil Rights Coalition (CACRC), alleged that Trump’s use of that phrase and other similar racist slurs is baseless, since the origin of the coronavirus is not yet determined, and that the former president’s conduct harmed the Chinese American community.
Trump’s “extreme and outrageous conduct was carried out throughout the pandemic with reckless disregard of whether such conduct would cause Chinese Americans to suffer emotional distress,” stated the suit dated May 20.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to a spike in violence against Asian Americans – a sizable portion of them Americans of Chinese descent – which activists have blamed on Trump’s rhetoric.
The suit further alleged that Trump continued to use those derogatory words to refer to the coronavirus even as he knew that the virus didn’t necessarily come from China.
“The truth matters, words have consequences … especially from those in powerful and influential positions,” the complaint said. “(Trump) intentionally repeated those defamatory words to serve his own personal and political interest with astonishing level of actual malice and negligence, hence severely injuring the Chinese/Asian Americans communities in the process.”
The CACRC is asking that US$1 be paid to every Asian American and Pacific Islander living in the United States as an apology, which would total US$22.9 million.
The plaintiffs said they would use the money to establish a museum that will showcase the history of Asian American and Pacific Islanders communities and their contribution to the United States.
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