1.
Foxconn Says It Plans to Build
Factory in Wisconsin, Adding 3,000 Jobs
The New York Times JULY 26, 2017
President Trump with Terry Gou, the chairman of the Taiwanese
electronics supplier Foxconn, at the White House on Wednesday, where the
company announced plans for a new plant in Wisconsin.CreditDoug Mills/The New
York Times
Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics supplier for Apple and
other tech giants, said Wednesday it would open its first major American
factory in Wisconsin, a boost both for the battleground state’s economy and the
Trump administration’s efforts to bolster domestic manufacturing.
White House officials noted President Trump’s direct negotiations with
Foxconn for the project, which they said would create at least 3,000 jobs and
represent a $10 billion investment.
Mr. Trump joined Foxconn’s chairman, Terry Gou, at the White House for
an announcement on Wednesday, with two Wisconsin Republicans, Gov. Scott Walker
and Paul D. Ryan, the House speaker, in attendance.
The new factory, which would produce flat-panel display screens for
televisions and other consumer electronics, could raise Wisconsin’s profile in
advanced manufacturing. Older industrial firms in the state, like Harley-Davidson
in Milwaukee, have struggled recently, with the motorcycle maker saying last
week that it planned to lay off 180 workers.
“TV was invented in America,” Mr. Gou said at the White House, before
noting that products like LCD displays and similar technology were no longer
made here. “We are going to change that. It starts today in Wisconsin.”
The company did not identify exactly where the plant would be built but
said it would be in Mr. Ryan’s district in southeastern Wisconsin. Mr. Walker
said that Foxconn would receive $3 billion in tax breaks and other subsidies
over the next 15 years from the state.
Like Mr. Trump’s visits to a Carrier factory in Indianapolis in December
and Snap-on’s tool plant in Kenosha, Wis. in April, the White House event on
Wednesday was as much a campaign-style rally as an economic announcement.
“This is a great day today for American manufacturing and American
workers and for everybody who believes in the concept, in the label, Made in
the U.S.A.,” he said. Mr. Gou, Mr. Trump said, “joins a growing list of
industry leaders who understand America’s capabilities are limitless.”
“I’d see Terry and say, ‘You’ve got to give us one of these massive
places,’” Mr. Trump said. “If I didn’t get elected, he definitely wouldn’t be
spending $10 billion.”
Mr. Trump hailed the Foxconn project as the latest sign that his efforts
to promote advanced manufacturing in this country were succeeding.
In February, Brian Krzanich, Intel’s chief executive, joined Mr. Trump
at the White House to announce that the company
would invest $7 billion to finish a computer-chip factory in Arizona and add
3,000 jobs.
And Mr. Trump said Tuesday that Apple had
promised to build three large plants in the United States. The company, which
owns only one factory anywhere, declined to comment on whether such promises
had been made.
Most of Apple’s iPhones are built by Foxconn in China, and Apple has
said in the past that it would be very difficult to move that work to the
United States.
Mr. Gou said in January that Foxconn, the
world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, was considering investing
more than $7 billion in the United States, and potentially adding 30,000 to
50,000 jobs.
Foxconn’s announcement could yield significant political benefits for
the company and for the White House. Although based in Taiwan, much of the
company’s production is done in China, and Mr. Trump has singled out Beijing’s
trade practices for attacks.
Mr. Walker said Foxconn’s investment could indirectly result in an
additional 22,000 new jobs, with its planned 20-million-square-foot complex
occupying a footprint three times the size of the Pentagon.
2.
China holds live fire
drills, as border dispute with India enters fifth week
CNN July 19, 2017
A Chinese soldier stands near an Indian soldier at the ancient Nathu La
border crossing.
Story highlights
·
Border dispute showing no sign of de-escalating
·
Chinese military conducted live fire drill in nearby
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
(CNN)The Chinese government has issued a warning to neighboring India to
withdraw its troops from the disputed Doklam border area to "avoid further
escalation of the situation."
The comments, made by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang during a
regular press briefing Tuesday, come amid what has evolved into an
increasingly bitter and entrenched border dispute between the two nations.
The standoff, now entering into its fifth week, centers on a thin strip
of land in the junction with Bhutan. Though not a part of Indian territory, the
area is close to the "chicken's neck," a strategic corridor that
serves as a vital artery between Delhi and its far northeastern states.
The dispute appears to have escalated in recent days, say analysts, with
both Beijing and Delhi looking to consolidate their positions. On Monday, China
conducted live-fire drills in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau close to the site of
the current standoff. The aim of the drills, according to reports in Chinese state
media, was to improve troops' "combat capability in such
locations."
An increasingly bellicose domestic media environment has further added
to the sense of intractability surrounding the dispute, with press reports from
both sides calling on leaders to protect the "sovereignty" and
"honor" of their respective nations.
A widely circulated op-ed, published by the
Chinese tabloid the Global Times on Tuesday, urged India to back down or
"face the consequence of an all-out confrontation."
The commentary repeated unconfirmed
reports in the Indian press that Indian troops are now stationed at the
border area and have set up logistical support. "In response, China must
continue strengthening border construction and speed up troop deployment and
construction in the Doklam area," said the op-ed.
Territorial claims
The Doklam dispute is the latest in a long-running series of territorial
flare-ups between India and China. In 1962, the two countries engaged in a
bloody border war and skirmishes have continued to break out sporadically in
the decades since.
"I'm not sure how this situation de-escalates, not just because of
the media hype on both sides, but also because China may not have an interest
in de-escalating," said Yvonne Chiu, assistant professor at the Department
of Politics at the University of Hong Kong.
"Unlike flashpoints in the South and East China Seas, a small
conflict with India can be better contained because it is less likely to draw
the involvement of other major powers in the region (such as the US),"
added Chiu.
The conflict, if contained, could potentially serve several useful
purposes for China, said Chiu, including "better establishing one of its
regional territorial claims, giving its domestic audience something to cheer
for, and giving its military some practice."
The dispute began on June 16, when China accused Indian border guards in the
northeastern state of Sikkim of crossing into its territory in southwestern
Tibet, in an attempt to obstruct the construction of a new mountain road.
India has not denied its troops were present in the area.
3.
Inside the Élysée: the
reflected glory of Macron's gilded cage
The Guardian 29 July 2017
France’s president likes to tightly control all his communications and
keeps journalists at arm’s-length – in stark contrast to his predecessor
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée palace in Paris,
where journalists are having to get used to a new style of communication to
François Hollande’s
One morning this spring, I found myself sitting in a place where the
silence seemed so extraordinary, so far from the normal riotous cacophony of
Paris, that it felt like being shut away from real life.
Now and again you could hear the chime of a golden clock, a faint
footstep on carpet, or a bird chirping in the perfectly-kept gardens that
stretched out beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. Whatever might be happening
outside, here it felt as though one was perfectly muffled and cocooned; wrapped
in several layers of metaphorical cotton wool and removed from it all.
I was sitting in the French president’s office at the Élysée palace.
That morning in the Salon Doré — the gilded “golden”
study where French presidents make the finishing touches to their speeches at a
huge 19th-century desk – the Socialist president François Hollande was in the
final days of his term. He was taking questions about the future of the EU from me and a
handful of European newspaper correspondents, sitting around a small table in
the corner of the room.
Afterwards, in a marble corridor, I chatted about French radio stations
with an adviser. I guessed the adviser would tune into France Culture, the
country’s most highbrow public service station upon waking. “Oh no,” he said.
“I listen to popular radio shows because it gives you an idea what people are
thinking.”
The 365-room Élysée palace is twice the size of the US White House -
some refer to the French president’s residence and workplace as a kind of
gilded cage. How much can you really know about what people are thinking from
behind its high walls, I wondered to myself.
A few weeks ago, I sat down at the Élysée palace with the new
president Emmanuel Macron, the “neither right nor
left” newcomer to politics who beat far-right candidate Marine Le Pen to become
France’s youngest modern leader in May, promising to blow apart the old
political order and “transform” the country.
Ushered onto the patio in the Élysée garden, overlooking the lawns and flowerbeds,
I waited for Macron with a few other journalists from European papers. It was a
scorching day, and we sat around a small table under a parasol.
The new president likes to tightly control all his communications, and
it seemed telling that he chose to hold the interview – his first since
the election – outside. This way, we were conveniently at arm’s length, politely
kept away from his office where we would no doubt have craned our necks, trying
to spot any changes from the Hollande era.
A butler in a white bow tie loudly announced: “The president of the
Republic!”, advisers hastily stood up, and the 39-year-old Macron appeared –
almost regally – from the patio doors. “I’d love a coffee, who else would love
a coffee?” he said, for a moment slipping into the studied casual manner of his
time as a candidate, before his face took on his new presidential demeanour and
he solemnly answered our questions.
The challenges of covering Macron’s presidency for journalists are
clear. Macron knows what it’s like to be stuck in an ivory tower — for two
years, he had his own garden-facing office at the Élysée as deputy chief of staff
to Hollande. “Of course power isolates,” he told an interviewer on the campaign
trail, arguing that he would not let it happen to him. But he also knows how to
take advantage of the isolation the Elysée offers, particularly when it comes
to controlling his media image.
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