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New Delhi — China’s Xiaomi has told New Delhi that smartphone component suppliers are wary about setting up operations in India amid heavy scrutiny of Chinese companies by the government, according to a letter and a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Xiaomi Corp., which has the biggest share in India’s smartphone market at 18%, also asks in the letter dated Feb. 6 that India consider offering manufacturing incentives and lowering import tariffs for certain smartphone components.

The Chinese company assembles smartphones in India with mostly local components and the rest imported from China and elsewhere. The letter is Xiaomi’s response to a query from India’s information technology ministry asking how New Delhi can further develop the country’s component manufacturing sector.

India ramped up scrutiny of Chinese businesses after a 2020 border clash between the two countries killed at least 20 Indian soldiers and four from China, disrupting investment plans of big Chinese companies and drawing repeated protests from Beijing.

While Chinese companies operating in India are reticent to speak publicly about the scrutiny, Xiaomi’s letter shows that they continue to struggle in India, especially in the smartphone space where many critical components come from Chinese suppliers.

In the letter, Xiaomi India President Muralikrishnan B. said India needed to work on “confidence building” measures to encourage component suppliers to setup operations locally.

“There are apprehensions among component suppliers regarding establishing operations in India, stemming from the challenges faced by companies in India, particularly from Chinese origin,” Muralikrishnan said, without naming any companies.

The letter said the concerns were related to compliance and visa issues that it didn’t elaborate on, and other factors. It said, “the government should address these concerns and work to instill confidence among foreign component suppliers, encouraging them to set up manufacturing facilities in India.”

Xiaomi and the IT ministry did not respond to queries for further information and comment.

Indian authorities last year accused Chinese smartphone company Vivo Communication Technology of breaching some visa rules and alleged it siphoned $13 billion in funds from India.

India has also frozen more than $600 million in Xiaomi assets for alleged illegal remittances to foreign entities by passing them off as royalty payments.

Both Chinese companies deny any wrongdoing.

Other than regulatory scrutiny of the likes of Xiaomi and Vivo, India has since 2020 also banned more than 300 Chinese apps, including ByteDance’s TikTok, and halted planned projects such as those planned by Chinese automakers BYD Company and Great Wall Motor Company.

The source said many executives of Chinese electronics companies struggle to get visas to enter India, and their companies continue to face slow clearances for investments due to heavy scrutiny by New Delhi.

In the letter, Xiaomi’s Muralikrishnan also made a case for further lowering India’s import tariffs, just after New Delhi’s Jan. 31 move to reduce import taxes on battery covers and phone camera lenses.

Xiaomi is also asking India to reduce import tariffs on sub-components used in batteries, USB cables and phone covers, according to the letter.

Reducing the import tariffs could “increase India’s manufacturing competitiveness … in terms of costs,” Xiaomi said in the letter, but getting component manufacturers to set up shop in India would require bigger incentives.

In January, India’s top industrial policy bureaucrat Rajesh Kumar Singh signaled that India could ease its heightened scrutiny of Chinese investments if the two countries’ border remains peaceful.

ATHENS, Greece — Greece has announced new measures to protect locals from a deluge of mainly Chinese nationals purchasing homes and property in exchange for residency rights in the West — what is commonly known as a “Golden Visa” scheme.

For many of China’s newly well-off citizens, the incentive to emigrate has been rising, feeding what is being dubbed worldwide as “investment migration” businesses.

In recent years, there has been a massive rush of Chinese nationals to Greece, and that has created a serious housing crisis.

On Friday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would increase the threshold of real estate investment from $269,491 to $862,372 in certain pockets of the country to ease the crisis.

“It is a major investment boost for the country but also a serious measure we are considering to shield the local market,” he told lawmakers in the Greek parliament.

In a rare show of bipartisan support, opposition leaders sided with the plan.

Because of a lingering housing shortage, they are now urging the government to block foreign homebuyers, like the Chinese, from making a fortune off their investments, leasing them for short-term rentals rather than occupying them for residential purposes alone.

A local near the foot of the Acropolis, Greece’s star attraction and the hub of Chinese and other tourists — says finding an affordable apartment to lease in the area has become difficult.

“All you see are tourists staying in these flats. The prices for locals have become excessively high,” he said.

Since launching the Golden Visa program in 2014, Greece has been granting five-year renewable residence permits to foreigners in exchange for a minimum property investment of nearly $270,000.

In the last year alone, the number of permits issued has quadrupled, with Chinese nationals topping the list at 80 percent. Turks fleeing the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are second, with Lebanese nationals and Israelis both taking third position, according to data released from the Bank of Greece.

Government sources tell VOA the highest charges for Greece’s Golden Visas will apply for the country’s most coveted property — in central Athens and glitzy Greek islands like Mykonos and Santorini — a favorite among Chinese nationals.

 

 

A former army general who allegedly ordered troops to commit human rights abuses may be on the verge of becoming Indonesia’s next president. This possibility is raising questions about how much the archipelago’s youth know about their country’s past. Dave Grunebaum has the story from Jakarta.

Already facing social stigma in deeply religious or otherwise conservative societies, transgender individuals also risk losing their rights to vote in some of the over 50 countries holding elections this year. VOA’s Ahadian Utama reports on the challenges to registering transgender voters in one of those countries. Camera: Gregorius Giovanni

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PALU, Indonesia — Indonesian police Monday named two Chinese nationals as suspects in the explosion of a smelting furnace at a Chinese-owned nickel plant on Sulawesi Island that killed 21 workers and injured dozens of others.

Four Chinese and nine Indonesian workers died instantly on December 24 when the furnace at PT Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel, or PT ITSS, exploded while they were repairing it. Eight others died in the following days while being treated at hospitals. Of the total number of workers killed, eight were from from China.

The furnace was located inside a nickel processing-based industrial area under the management of PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, known as PT IMIP, in Morowali regency of Central Sulawesi province.

Following their investigation, police had enough evidence to designate the two Chinese nationals, identified only by their initials, ZG and Z, as suspects, said Djoko Wienartono, the Central Sulawesi police spokesperson.

ZG was the furnace supervisor and Z was his vice supervisor, Wienartono said. 

“ZG and Z were the persons in charge of the furnace when the explosion occurred,” Wienartono said at a news conference in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, “They have violated the company’s operational standard.”

He said police would bring a criminal charge of negligence leading to death or serious injury. The maximum penalty for conviction of the charge is five years in prison. 

The police investigation showed that the furnace was under maintenance and not operating at the time of the explosion, which was triggered by fire from “residual slag in the furnace” that flowed out, causing an explosion when the fire came into contact with nearby oxygen cylinders used for welding, Wienartono said.

The blast was the latest in a series of fatal incidents at nickel smelting plants in Indonesia that are part of China’s ambitious transnational development program known as the Belt and Road Initiative.

Nickel is a key component of batteries for electric vehicles.

Two dump truck operators were killed last April when they were engulfed by a wall of black, sludgelike material following the collapse of a nickel waste disposal site in Central Sulawesi province, which has the largest nickel reserves in Indonesia.

In January 2023, two workers, including a Chinese national, were killed in riots that involved workers of the two nations at an Indonesia-China joint venture in neighboring North Morowali regency.

In 2022, a loader truck ran over and killed a Chinese worker while he was repairing a road in PT IMIP’s mining area, and an Indonesian man burned to death when a furnace in the company’s factory exploded. 

Nearly 50% of PT IMIP’s shares are owned by a Chinese holding company, and the rest are owned by two Indonesian companies. It began smelter operations in 2013 and is now the largest nickel-based industrial area in Indonesia. 

Jakarta — Indonesians head to the polls February 14 to vote in the world’s largest single-day election to select local and parliamentary representatives and a new president.

Of the 270 million citizens on the country’s 17,000 islands, 205 million over the age of 17 are eligible to vote. Seventy-five percent of Indonesia’s population is expected to vote Wednesday, according to the Indonesian General Elections Commission, with 106 million of those expected voters under age 40, or 52% of anticipated voters.

This is only the second time that the Southeast Asian nation is holding a presidential and parliamentary election simultaneously since 2019. All told, there are some 20,000 administrative posts in play across the country. Voters cast a secret ballot on paper. And while unofficial results should be available within 24 hours of voting, the official results won’t be available until 35 days later, at the earliest.

Three men are vying for the top spot — Prabowo Subianto, Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan.

Their contest may end in a June runoff before the world’s most populous Muslim nation elects a successor to President Joko Widodo. Known as Jokowi, he must leave after serving two five-year terms despite his popularity. His son, Gibran Rakabuming, is the vice-presidential candidate running with Prabowo, who lost to Widodo in the 2014 and 2019 elections.

Economy, jobs, food

Domestic issues are central to the presidential race. Economic growth slowed to 5% in 2023 compared with 5.3% the year before, according to Statistics Indonesia, which reported the unemployment rate was 5.32% in August 2023. But for Indonesians ages 15 to 24, about 14% were jobless, according to the International Labor Organization.

According to a regional U.N. food security report, almost 70% of Indonesians cannot afford healthy food. Adding to the globally familiar list of the economy, jobs and food security is the domestic debate over Widodo’s ambitious plan to move the capital from Jakarta to Nusantara to ease congestion and distribute economic activity outside the nation’s largest metropolitan area. International issues include the South China Sea dispute with China and climate change.

Watch related report by Yuni Salim:

Complex rules

Prabowo, the son-in-law of Suharto, a former Indonesian strongman, is leading by nearly 30 points in recent polls. Of the 1,200 people surveyed by Indikator Politik Indonesia, between January 28 and February 4, 51.8% said they would vote for Prabowo’s ticket, while 24.1% and 19.6 % would choose Anies and Ganjar, respectively.

Victory for Prabowo is not assured, due to Indonesia’s election rules, even if he gets the most votes on February 14. To win, a candidate must obtain more than 50% of total votes cast, and at least 20% of votes in more than half of the country’s provinces. If Prabowo fails to make those percentages, he faces a June 26 runoff with the second-place finisher, which observers suggest could be a tougher race to win.

Prabowo, 72, is making his third run at the presidency. He is the current minister of defense. During the economic and political turmoil of the 1990s, he was dismissed from the military amid speculation of rights abuses over the kidnapping of democracy activists. He denies any wrongdoing.

Prabowo has rebranded himself on social media, where his “Cuddy Grandpa” social media persona appeals to millennials and Gen Z voters, who make up about 56% of the total eligible voting population, according to the Indonesian General Elections Commission.

But they are too young to recall his brutal past that prompted the United States to ban him until 2020, when he visited Washington after he became Widodo’s defense minister.

Ganjar, 55, comes from a Central Javanese family led by a father who worked as a police officer. He served as the governor of Central Java between 2013 and 2023 and belongs to the nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Before becoming governor, he served in parliament, where he worked on issues related to agriculture, maritime, food security, land and agricultural reforms.

Ganjar topped opinion surveys until he backed a call by the governor of Bali last year to stop Israel from taking part in the Under-20 World Cup, which Indonesia was due to host.

Anies, 54, is a former university rector who launched an initiative in 2010 to bring education to remote corners of the vast archipelago that attracted thousands of volunteers. He went on to serve as the minister of education during Jokowi’s first term. After he was dismissed, he ran for governor of Jakarta, a position often seen as the launch pad for the presidency. He was elected in 2017, when he was supported by hard-line Islamist groups organized against Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Christian politician.

Anies is not a member of any political party but is endorsed by Nasional Demokrat, a secular nationalist party, and PKS, the conservative Islamic Prosperous Justice Party.

China and climate change

A nationally televised presidential debate held last month illuminated the differences among the presidential candidates on handling the South China Sea dispute with Beijing and climate change.

Indonesia is just one country that has claims in the South China Sea, resource-rich waters that China claims in full as its own. Indonesia has faced pushback from China over its exploration of oil and gas reserves in the North Natuna Sea.

Ganjar proposed three solutions: endorsing a temporary agreement with China, strengthening Indonesia’s naval capacity and patrols, and starting the exploitation of gas reserves in the North Natuna Sea, which is between Indonesia and Vietnam and south of the South China Sea.

Similarly, Prabowo said disputes in the South China Sea underline the need for a strong defense force, platforms for patrols and additional satellites. Meanwhile, Anies said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) needs to play a bigger role in resolving disputes, including those in the South China Sea.

The three vice-presidential candidates tackled environmental issues during the debate. Iqbal Damanik, a forest campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia, said the statements by the vice- presidential candidates on climate change failed to offer lasting solutions for coastal communities and the importance of environmental impact assessment.

Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, compiled opinion surveys of Indonesian voters, which concluded that voters care more about climate change than politicians do, and climate change is the top concern of young voters.

Canberra, Australia — Thousands of sheep and cattle stuck on a ship that was forced to abandon a passage through the Red Sea last month have begun disembarking at the same Australian port they left nearly six weeks ago, Australia’s agriculture ministry said late Monday.

The MV Bahijah sailed from Fremantle, Western Australia on January 5 for Israel with about 14,000 sheep and 2,000 cattle onboard but diverted from its route due to the threat of attack by Yemen’s Houthi militia before being ordered home by the Australian government.

Animal rights advocates and some politicians have branded the treatment of the livestock on the ship as cruel, but the government and industry say they are in good condition.

The government last week rejected an application by the exporter to ship the animals to Israel around Africa, a nearly five-week journey that would have extended their time on board to more than two months.

“All livestock from the vessel MV Bahijah will be discharged commencing from Monday 12 February 2024 and taken by truck from Fremantle Port to appropriate premises in Western Australia,” the agriculture ministry said.

It said the unloading would take several days and the animals would be quarantined according to Australian biosecurity rules while the exporter, Israeli company Bassem Dabbah, which owns the livestock, considered its options.

Four cattle and 60 sheep had died on the ship since it sailed, the ministry said, but it added that this was below reportable mortality levels.

Reuters was unable to contact Bassem Dabbah. The ship’s manager, Korkyra Shipping, has not responded to requests for comment.

Most of the animals are likely to be re-exported after a short period on land, said Geoff Pearson at the farm group WAFarmers.

Australia exported more than half a million live sheep and half a million live cattle last year.

The center-left Labor government has pledged to outlaw live sheep exports but faces angry pushback from farm groups who say this would put people out of work and destroy farming communities.

Having enough feed for livestock is critical to the food security of many African countries. Some farmers are considering adopting a Chinese-engineered grass called Juncao, advertised as high-yielding and fast-maturing. Some scientists advise caution. Francis Ontomwa has more from Kajiado, Kenya. Video: Amos Wangwa.

Washington — Lionel Messi, arguably the world’s most popular soccer player, is the object of uncharacteristic hostility in Hong Kong, where he was roundly booed by frustrated fans after sitting out an exhibition match this week. China’s state-controlled media was quick to suggest a CIA hand in the debacle.

Messi later explained he had a hamstring strain that made him stay on the bench throughout the game on Sunday, but many fans don’t buy his excuse because Messi played about 30 minutes in Japan three days after his Hong Kong absence.

The near-capacity crowd of 38,323 in Hong Kong had paid upwards of 1,000 Hong Kong dollars ($125) to see their hero, and in many cases five times that amount. Some of them also caught sight of Messi walking away with his hands in his pockets when John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief executive, greeted Messi’s fellow Inter Miami players one by one and shook hands with them.

Regina Ip Lau Suk Yee, convenor of the Hong Kong Executive Council and a Legislative Council member, lashed out at the soccer hero: “Messi should never be allowed to return to Hong Kong. His lies and hypocrisy are disgusting.”

She further declared that “Hong Kong people hate Messi, Inter-Miami, and the black hand behind them, for the deliberate and calculated snub to Hong Kong.”

Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, a Hong Kong businessman and politician and brother of the Hong Kong Football Association chairman, published two long articles on Weibo, China’s most widely used but heavily censored social media platform.

Fok described how disappointed he was when he saw that Messi had played in Japan. “This is very upsetting, thinking how disappointed 40,000 Hong Kong soccer fans were, and how Messi had no facial expression and avoided a group photo-op.”

Fok said Messi’s performance in Japan was like “pouring salt to Hong Kong fans’ wounds.”

Not everyone is hurt

Global People, a magazine controlled by the Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece People’s Daily, jumped into the fray with an article headlined “Background of Messi’s Boss Exposed: CIA involved?”

The article noted that Messi’s Florida-based team, Inter Miami, is co-owned and managed by two sons of Jorge Lincoln Mas Canosa, a Cuban immigrant and successful businessman who was trained in the 1960s by the CIA for the Bay of Pigs invasion and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

Within a day, on the Chinese news portal Netease where the Global People article was posted, readers left 43,488 comments. While a large number of fans still feel disappointed and disrespected, many scorned the tabloid’s conspiracy theory.

One user wrote: “I’m glad Hong Kong is not mainland China, otherwise a few ‘traitors’ are bound to be found … don’t always put on a political label, it may backfire on yourself one day.”

Another user called “TAEYEON” suggested that Messi may not have deliberately snubbed the Hong Kong chief executive: “Messi may not know those politicians at all. He didn’t play so he walked away, while only those who played shook hands with Lee, believe it or not.”

Global Times, a widely circulated Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, suggested a more sinister explanation in a February 7 editorial. “Hong Kong intends to build a mega economy, and some external forces are deliberately using this as a means to embarrass Hong Kong,” it said.

Messi, who led his native Argentina to victory in the 2022 World Cup before joining the Miami team, has not responded to these accusations, but some Chinese human rights activists hailed his behavior on X and ridiculed China’s reactions.

“Toronto Square Face,” a commentator with 532,000 followers on X, wrote that “The Global Times has labeled Messi’s behavior as ’embarrassing Hong Kong.’ But if a country or a region’s heyday can be destroyed by a sport star, it can only mean this place is already in decline.”

Gao Yu, a former journalist in China, said on her social media X account: “The more Kenneth Fok criticizes Messi, the more isolated China and Hong Kong will become, and the more value will be lost by the pathetic Chinese soccer team.”

The sports administration in Hangzhou, a prosperous city in eastern China where e-commerce giant Alibaba is based, announced its official decision to cancel a friendly game with Argentina’s national soccer team in March due to “reasons known to all.”

Christoph Rehage, a German sinologist and China affair commentator, joked to his 173,000 followers on YouTube: “Is Xi Jinping ready to sever diplomatic relations with Argentina now?”