Peru and US Close to Signing Deal to Counter Chinese Influence in Region: Diplomat

Will Germany Come to China’s Rescue?

Commentary With President Trump in London to discuss the future of NATO, the future of the Eurozone itself is unclear. Germany finds itself rising to a great power position it hasn’t known in almost 65 years. This emerging reality is due in part to a very messy, on-again, off-again Brexit divorce, as well as deteriorating relations with the United States. That trend is still heading downward. Things became dicey between the United States and Germany in 2013, when the Obama administration was found to be listening in on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone calls. But President Trump’s demands that Germany contribute more to NATO’s defense budget and stop buying natural gas from Russia have certainly helped solidify the negative feelings between the two nations’ governments. Germany’s expanding relationship with China…

LIMA—Peru and the United States are in the final stages of talks on a deal to promote American investments in the South American country as part of a U.S. initiative to counter Chinese influence in the region, a Peruvian diplomat told Reuters.

The United States launched its “Growth in the Americas” initiative in 2018 to bolster private-sector investments in energy and infrastructure in Latin America after China invited countries in the region to join its “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR, also known as Belt and Road) initiative.

So far, the United States has signed memorandums of understanding within the Growth in the Americas framework with Argentina, Chile, Jamaica and Panama. Chile, Jamaica, Panama and Peru have also signed MOUs with China to join its OBOR.

“The Trump administration is interested in balancing Chinese influence in the region a bit,” Cecilia Galarreta, the director of North American affairs in Peru’s foreign ministry, told Reuters on the sidelines of an event on Dec. 5.

Galarreta said the draft MOU with Washington to join the Growth in the Americas initiative was now being evaluated in the energy and mines ministry and the finance ministry.

China replaced the United States as Peru’s top trade partner years ago and Chinese companies are increasingly investing in infrastructure projects in the Andean country.

“We’ve had meetings with delegations from the United States that have strongly insisted on the importance of the greater presence of North American companies investing here, especially in infrastructure,” Deputy Foreign Minister Jaime Pomareda told Reuters on the sidelines of the same event.

The U.S. embassy in Lima did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

By Maria Cervantes

This article is from the Internet:Peru and US Close to Signing Deal to Counter Chinese Influence in Region: Diplomat

Huawei Refuses to Apologize For Treatment of Former Employee Who Was Detained by Police for 251 Days

Chinese tech giant Huawei has come under fire after news of its treatment of a former employee went viral on Chinese social media. Li Hongyuan, who had worked for Huawei for 13 years, was dismissed and wrongfully detained by police after attempting to expose corruption within the company. Huawei has enjoyed broad patriotic support within China since last year, when the company’s chief financial officer was arrested in Canada after federal prosecutors sought her extradition to face charges of violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran. The domestic support continued after it was put on a trade blacklist by the United States over national security concerns, but Huawei is under growing pressure to make an apology. Details of Li’s case surfaced at the end of November when court documents were posted…