CHINA is not winning any friends these days. Its stated grumpiness about a recent cohesive US-Japan dialogue smacks of sour grapes.
The backchat by the Chinese authorities given to Philippine government officials over representations relating to almost 200 Chinese vessels moored at Julian Felipe Reef is not friendly nor appropriate. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is supporting the Philippines. He says: “we will always stand by our allies and stand up for rules-based international order”.
Well said.
On the other side of the coin, I wonder if the US authorities should revisit the charges against Huawei’s CFO, Meng Wangzhou. She was arrested by Canadian police at Vancouver airport in December 2018. The US wants to extradite her although the Canadian authorities have not yet approved the US request. This request which came from the administration of former US president Trump may not have the same support from the Biden administration, particularly when the charges against Meng resulted indirectly from the 2015 agreement between US, the European Union, and Iran under the Obama administration. Trump called this agreement ‘a lousy deal’.
If the US charges against Meng were dropped, it may help to slow the downward slide in the Sino-US relationship.
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Third telecommunications player, Dito Telecommunity Corp has recently passed a technical audit which checked its capacity to deliver on its first-year commitments. Dito is majority-owned by the group of Dennis Uy and 40 percent owned by state-owned China Telecommunications.
The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) is closely monitoring Dito’s commercial rollout to ensure that the company is complying with its requirements.
I am glad the competitive environment is intensifying.
For a long time, PLDT held a monopoly and constantly behaved with arrogance and disdain towards its captive audience. I suffered from a chronic billing problem many years ago. For ages, PLDT never replied to my courteous (at least I think so) observations where I clearly showed how I was being overcharged.
Like many, therefore, I was delighted when Globe provided much-needed competition and quickly and unsurprisingly established a significant market share. We do not live in a perfect world, however. Globe keeps making arrangements to attend to technical issues in my home but does not adhere to these arrangements. Nor do they let me know they are not coming. Irritating.
The last two occasions were on 25th of March and 8th April.
No shows, particularly when we arrange for family members who speak fluent telecoms to be present, are upsetting.
We wish every success to Dito!/PN
