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Bayer to spend €1 billion on China expansion

Germany's Bayer Group said Thursday it would spend €1 billion ($1.3 billion) over five years to expand its high-tech materials business in China to capitalise on the growing economy.

Bayer to spend €1 billion on China expansion
Photo: DPA

The company will invest in five separate projects to expand its production facilities in Shanghai, the financial hub of the world’s second largest economy, Bayer said in a statement.

The new investment is in addition to Bayer’s €2.1 billion investment in the city as part of a long-term project due to be completed in 2012. The latest plan signals Bayer will intensify its focus on the Asia Pacific region, where it expects consistent growth in its customer industries, the company said.

“The strong economic growth in China and in the whole region offers us outstanding opportunities, and we want to make the most of them,” Bayer MaterialScience chief executive Patrick Thomas said in the statement.

It also announced Thursday plans to move the headquarters of its polycarbonates business to Shanghai from Leverkusen in western Germany and expand its Shanghai research and development centre for polymers.

Polycarbonates are a type of plastic used in the automotive, electronic and construction industries.

China’s economy expanded 9.6 percent year-on-year in the third quarter. The World Bank expects the economy to grow 10 percent this year before slowing to 8.7 percent in 2011.

AFP/mry

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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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