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CHINA

China now Volvo’s third-largest market: reports

China has become the third-largest market for Volvo following its acquisition by Chinese automaker Geely, state media reported Saturday.

China now Volvo's third-largest market: reports
Geely's Li with Volvo France head Wim Maes at the Paris Motor Show, October 3

Alexander Klose, head of Volvo Cars China, made the comments at a trade show in the northern city of Tianjin, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

He said sales of the Swedish brand’s vehicles had soared in the world’s largest auto market in 2010.

“As of the end of September, Volvo’s global sales volume was up 12.5 percent year-on-year, compared with a 52 percent year-on-year rise in China,” he was quoted as saying.

Volvo also expanded its dealer network to 81 Chinese cities in 2010, he said, adding he was confident of seeing huge growth in the nation’s auto market in the next five years.

The struggling Swedish brand — known for its sturdy, family-friendly vehicles — was acquired from US auto giant Ford by China’s Geely in August for $1.5 billion.

Li Shufu, head of Geely, said in a September interview with the Wall Street Journal that he hoped to build three Volvo assembly plants in China that would produce up to 300,000 autos a year for sale in the Asian nation.

Volvo has joined a long list of car makers trying to cash in on China’s vast auto market, which overtook the United States last year to become the world’s largest.

On Friday, German automaker Daimler said it planned to invest €3 billion ($4.2 billion) in China by 2015 to boost production of Mercedes-Benz cars.

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CHINA

China derides Copenhagen democracy meet as ‘political farce’

China on Tuesday blasted a democracy conference in Copenhagen attended by Taiwan's president and a Hong Kong activist alongside Danish government officials this week, qualifying it a "political farce".

China derides Copenhagen democracy meet as 'political farce'
Demonstrators gathered outside the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday. Photo: Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix

The Copenhagen Democracy Summit was held Monday and Tuesday in the Danish capital and organised by the Alliance of Democracies, an organisation targeted by Beijing sanctions in March and founded by former NATO boss Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

In addition to Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod also participated in the forum by video link, which Beijing said violated “the one-China principle.”

“This summit is a political farce,” the Chinese embassy in Denmark wrote in a statement published on Tuesday. “Inviting those who advocate Taiwan and Hong Kong ‘independence’ to the meeting violates the one-China principle and interferes in China’s internal affairs,” it said.

“Some hypocritical western politicians are good at meddling in other countries’ internal affairs and creating divisions and confrontation in the name of ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’. They are bound to fail,” it added.

At the conference on Monday, Kofod said it was “deplorable” that Beijing had imposed sanctions on 10 European individuals and organisations in response to EU sanctions on Xinjiang officials over their actions against the Uyghur Muslim minority.

Like most countries, Denmark applies the one-China principle — under which Beijing bars other countries from having simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taipei — though it does maintain relations with Taiwan.

Cut off politically from the rest of China since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the territory is self-governing but is not recognised by
the United Nations.

Beijing considers Taiwan a rebel province that will one day return under its control, by force if necessary.

China’s sabre-rattling has increased considerably over the past year, with fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers breaching Taiwan’s air defence zone on a near-daily basis.

“Our government is fully aware of the threats to regional security, and is actively enhancing our national defence capabilities to protect our
democracy,” Tsai told the conference in a video address on Monday. US President Joe Biden is expected to present his China strategy soon, as
calls mount for him to publicly commit to defending Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.

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