The corruption trial of U.S. Senator Robert Menendez ends with guilty verdicts on all charges against him. Aron Ranen reports from New York City.
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Month: July 2024
Americans view China’s economic impact negatively, survey finds
A Pew Research Center survey finds most people recognize China’s economic influence in their country, but are divided on whether that influence is good. The poll also finds more people in the U.S. view China’s economic influence negatively compared to other countries. Michael Baturin reports. Camera: Elizabeth Lee.
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Japan-Germany security cooperation troubles North Korea, China
washington — North Korea and China are watching for possible regional impacts from Japan’s recent enhanced security cooperation with Germany.
This weekend, Japan will hold joint drills with Germany around the Chitose Air Base in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island. Spain is slated to join them there, while France will join Japan next week for drills over Hyakuri Air Base in Ibaraki Prefecture bordering the Pacific Ocean.
At a joint press conference in Berlin late last week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said defense cooperation will be enhanced by the planned visits of German aircraft and frigates to Japan and of a Japanese training fleet to Hamburg this summer.
North Korea slammed the security cooperation as “collusion” that crossed a “red line” and is “reminiscent of the Second World War,” according to North Korea’s state-run KCNA on Monday.
“The defeated war criminal nations are in cahoots to stage a series of war games escalating the regional tensions,” KCNA continued.
Kishida said Japan hopes to work with Germany “to deal with the deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea as well as China’s moves related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” according to Nippon.com, a news agency based in Tokyo.
Kishida and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed in Berlin on Friday to boost their security cooperation after attending a NATO summit in Washington. It was Kishida’s first trip to Germany as prime minister.
Pact enters into force
Also on Friday, a military supply-sharing pact that aims to exchange food, fuel, and ammunition between Japan and Germany entered into force. The agreement was signed in January.
Beijing said the cooperation between Japan and Germany should not create tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Monday that “cooperation between countries, including military and security ties, should not target any third party or harm their interests.”
Maki Kobayashi, Japanese cabinet secretary for public affairs, told VOA’s Mandarin Service during the NATO summit that Japan has been working “very closely” with NATO countries on security issues and joint exercises.
“China has been saying there is an attempt at creating NATO in Asia, which is not correct,” she said.
Rather, she said, Japan has been seeking closer ties among like-minded countries “to share situational analyses and also align some policies” in support of an international order based on the rule of law.
In Berlin, Kishida and Scholz also agreed to enhance economic security including safeguarding the resilience of supply chains for key items such as critical minerals and semiconductors.
Cooperation seen two different ways
In Washington last week, the leaders of NATO and four Indo-Pacific countries, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, discussed how to ramp up their combined defense capacity.
“A union of defense industrial bases between NATO and IP4 countries would have significant and positive implications for international peace and stability,” said Matthew Brummer, professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.
“Japan has recently moved to provide surface-to-air missiles to the United States, which then sends them to Ukraine,” he added.
In December, Tokyo agreed to ship Japanese-made Patriot guided missiles to backfill U.S. inventory after taking a major step away from its pacifist self-defense policies and easing its postwar ban on the export of lethal weapons.
“In general, the NATO-IP4 cooperation is a good thing, since it symbolizes the recognition that both the Indo-Pacific theater and the European theater are linked,” Elli-Katharina Pohlkamp, visiting fellow of the Asia Program at the European Council on Foreign Relations based in Berlin said via email.
However, she continued, “Strengthening NATO-IP4 ties could exacerbate tensions with China and Russia, who may perceive this cooperation as a containment strategy,” and encourage countries like North Korea to align more closely with them.
Adam Xu contributed to this report.
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Iran open to resuming nuclear accord talks, acting foreign minister says
Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Tehran remains open to resuming negotiations with Washington on restoring their participation in a nuclear agreement, Iran’s acting foreign minister told Newsweek magazine in an interview published on Tuesday.
Ali Bagheri Kani’s remarks come as he prepares to address the United Nations Security Council in New York.
The United States under President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018 from the nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers, which restricted Tehran’s nuclear programs.
Indirect talks between the U.S. and Tehran to revive the deal have stalled. Iran is still part of the agreement, but it has decreased its commitments because of U.S. sanctions imposed on it.
Newsweek reported: “On the foreign policy front, he [Bagheri Kani] said that Tehran remained open to resuming negotiations with Washington toward restoring mutual participation in a nuclear deal.”
However, Iran also intended to foster its deepening ties with China, Russia and neighboring nations, it quoted him as saying. Iran will also call for greater action against Israel in view of the Gaza war, he said.
The Biden administration said last week the United States was not ready to resume nuclear talks with Iran under its new president.
Bagheri Kani became the acting foreign minister after foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian died in a helicopter crash along with Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi in May.
Iranians then elected Masoud Pezeshkian as president, a moderate who said he will promote a pragmatic foreign policy and ease tensions with the powers involved in the 2015 nuclear pact.
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Nigeria to resume crude oil refining in August, industry authorities say
Abuja, Nigeria — Nigeria plans to resume local refining of crude oil in early August, national petroleum authorities announced Monday.
The resumption would end years of idleness at Nigeria’s state-owned refineries, and analysts say that if successfully implemented, it would lower fuel prices.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company made the announcement while addressing an emergency session at the National Assembly. Lawmakers called the session to interrogate central bank authorities, the national economic management team and the NNPC about the country’s economic standing.
The chief executive officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, said one of the two Port Harcourt refineries in the oil-rich Niger Delta region will begin operations in about two weeks.
He said the other one will come into operation by the end of the year and allow Nigeria to begin exporting refined oil.
“We’re very optimistic that by December this country will be a net exporter,” he said, “that is [in] combination of production coming from us and the Dangote refinery and other smaller producing companies.”
The Dangote refinery is a privately owned facility being built near Lagos.
Nigeria’s minister of state of petroleum resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, voiced optimism about the impact of the revived refineries.
“The easiest way for Nigeria to come out of its economic problems is through the oil and gas sector,” Lokpobiri said. “As a sector, we have a clear plan to gradually ramp up production. Right now, we have a clear plan to see how we can get 2 million barrels and more.”
This is not the first time officials have announced the resumption of domestic oil refining.
They made similar announcements in December and March. On Monday, authorities said unforeseen technical difficulties hampered previous resumption dates.
All four government-owned refineries, which can process about 450,000 barrels of crude per day, have been moribund for years, forcing the country to rely on imports to meet its petroleum needs, estimated at 66 million liters (17.4 million gallons) per day.
Oil industry analyst Faith Nwadishi voiced doubts the refineries will operate again.
“I’m just keeping my fingers crossed and trying to be very optimistic about this because it will go a long way in reducing the hardship and perhaps also reduce the pump price … especially,” Nwadishi said. “But being somebody who’s in the sector, I become a little bit skeptical. We have an allocation of about 445,000 [barrels per day] for domestic consumption, which, if properly refined, we’ll have about 70 million liters. That covers our daily consumption.”
The Nigerian oil industry has been hampered in recent years by theft and corruption. On Monday, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative said about 140,000 barrels of crude oil were lost to theft every day between 2009 and 2018.
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Forced labor in North Korea cited as possible crime against humanity
geneva — A report by the United Nations human rights office Tuesday accuses the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) of widespread forced labor, which in some instances “may constitute a crime against humanity of enslavement” under international criminal law.
“The testimonies in this report give a shocking and distressing insight into the suffering inflicted through forced labor upon people, both in its scale and in the levels of violence and inhuman treatment,” Volker Türk, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement to coincide with the release of the report.
“These people are forced to work in intolerable conditions, often in dangerous sectors,” he said. “They are placed under constant surveillance, regularly beaten, while women are exposed to continuing risks of sexual violence.”
The report is based on various sources, including 183 interviews conducted between 2015 and 2023 with victims and witnesses of forced labor who managed to escape and now live abroad.
“The strength of this report is that it is based on a large amount of first-hand information,” James Heenan, representative of the U.N. human rights office in Seoul, told journalists in Geneva, noting that North Korean officials “are fully aware of our concerns.”
According to the report, people in North Korea are controlled and exploited through an extensive and multi-layered system of forced labor that “provides a source of free labor for the state and acts as a means for the state to control, monitor and indoctrinate the population.”
The report identifies six forms of forced labor, which are “institutionalized” through the country’s prisons system, schools, compulsory state-allocated employment, military conscription, “Shock Brigade deployments” and a system of overseas labor.
“Perhaps the most concerning is the forced labor extracted from people in detention,” Heenan said. “These detainees are systematically compelled to work under the threat of punishment or physical violence under inhumane conditions, with little food or health care and disproportionate work quotas.”
Given the almost total control over the civilian population of detainees, the widespread extraction of forced labor in North Korean prisons may “in some instances reach degrees of effective ownership over individuals which is an element of crimes of inhumanity and of enslavement,” he said.
The report finds that the state assigns every North Korean to a workplace after completing school or military service. It says military conscripts, who must serve 10 or more years, are “routinely forced to work in agriculture or construction,” which is described as “hard and dangerous, without adequate health and safety measures.”
A former nurse who worked in the surgery department of a military hospital during her compulsory service told U.N. investigators that “most soldiers who came to the clinic were malnourished and came down with tuberculosis, since they were physically weak and tired.”
Another state-organized system of forced labor mobilizations comes in the form of so-called “Shock Brigades” — state-organized groups of citizens forced to carry out “arduous manual labor,” often in construction and agriculture.
“These people are very often sent very far away from their homes to complete projects under state supervision. It can go on for months. It can go on even for years during which workers are obliged to live on site, with little or no remuneration,” Heenan said.
“The conditions described in the Shock Brigade are indeed shocking,” he said. “Little concerns for health, for safety. Scarce food, scarce shelter, and punishment for failure to meet quotas.”
The report says citizens who are sent to work overseas and earn foreign currency for the government “lose up to 90 percent of their wages to the state.” It says they also lose all freedom of movement. “They are kept under constant surveillance, their passports are confiscated, and they live under appalling conditions, with almost no time off.”
Heenan said there also is a very worrying, appalling situation of child labor in the country, with “children as young as 10 being drafted into forced labor.”
Authors of the report say children are “requested to volunteer extensive periods of their day” to work on farms and in mines, collect wood in the forests, repair railroads and participate in many other initiatives, “which interfere with their rights to education, health, rest and leisure.”
The U.N. human rights report calls on the North Korean government to “abolish the use of forced labor and end any forms of slavery.” It urges the international community to investigate and prosecute those suspected of committing international crimes and calls on the Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.
Heenan said North Korean authorities “did not comment” on the report, which was sent to them. However, he added that human rights colleagues in Geneva and other parts of the U.N. system regularly engage with the government. “We do talk to the DPRK.”
“We monitor, we report, but we also engage, and we hope that that engagement will improve some of these issues,” he said.
In his statement, High Commissioner Türk noted that “Decent work, free choice, freedom from violence, and just and favorable conditions of work … must be respected and fulfilled.”
He said, “Economic prosperity should serve people, not be the reason for their enslavement.”
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US, Latin American grouping aims to confront economic problems
WASHINGTON — The problems of rising poverty and decreasing productivity in Latin America will be on the agenda when the foreign ministers of 12 regional countries convene in Washington on Wednesday, a U.S. State Department official said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken aims during the talks to “tackle” those challenges and work toward making the Americas “the world’s most economically competitive region,” said Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.
The ministers represent members of the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, established two years ago to “achieve concrete results for the middle class, workers, and historically marginalized groups” by deepening economic integration and creating good paying jobs, Nichols said, speaking at a briefing this week.
“Through this partnership, we will work together to build resilient supply chains, reinvigorate our region’s economic institutions, and invest in our workers, our infrastructure, and our strategic industries – whether through semiconductors or clean energy, or medical supplies or the critical minerals needed for our modern economy.”
Nichols pointed out that the United States is Latin America’s largest trading partner and its largest source of foreign direct investment. In 2023, U.S. trade with Latin America and the Caribbean totaled over $1.1 trillion, and Mexico displaced China as America’s top trading partner.
Nevertheless, he said “poverty rates are rising in Latin America, productivity has lagged, and income inequality remains a serious problem. The pandemic demonstrated to us and to our regional partners the importance of developing more diversified and reliable supply chains closer to home.”
Lisa Kubiske, a former U.S. ambassador to Honduras and former deputy assistant secretary of state, said that in the past two years, the member nations have been able to close gaps in their free trade agreements and address structural issues that thwart broad-based economic growth.
At a summit in November, she said, the leaders of the 12 countries directed their ministers to develop three tracks: trade, finance and foreign affairs. On the foreign affairs front, the group has engaged “on clean hydrogen, entrepreneurship, rule of law and transparency, smart agriculture, peaceful uses of space” and other issues, she told journalists at a briefing.
The president of the Inter-American Development Bank and the deputy CEO of the Development Finance Corporation have been invited to a lunch with the ministers. There will also be two side events, one hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and another hosted by the Council of the Americas.
The founding members of the group are Barbados, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, the United States, and Uruguay. Their leaders will meet again next year in Costa Rica.
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US sees ‘incremental progress’ in Ethiopia’s reconciliation efforts
State Department — The United States is encouraged by “incremental progress” on peace and reconciliation efforts in Ethiopia, 20 months after a cease-fire was implemented in the northern Tigray region, according to a senior U.S. official.
In November 2022, Ethiopia’s government and leaders from the Tigray region reached a cease-fire, known as the Pretoria Agreement or Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, after a two-year civil war that devastated much of northern Ethiopia.
Mike Hammer, U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa, told VOA during an interview on Monday that Ethiopia is moving “in the right direction.” He noted that internally displaced people have started to return to their homes, and human rights abuses in Tigray have “dramatically decreased.”
But he acknowledged continued conflicts in the Amhara and Oromia regions, stating that the U.S. is prepared to support any efforts to bring peace to these areas through dialogue.
Hammer traveled to Ethiopia last week to attend the African Union’s second meeting to review implementation of the Pretoria Agreement.
The following excerpts from the interview have been edited for brevity and clarity.
VOA: Given ongoing reports of starvation and food insecurity in Tigray, along with continued conflict in the Amhara and Oromia regions, what actions should the U.S. take to address these crises?
Mike Hammer, U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa: I did see some progress during my recent visit. We conducted the second review of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement while I was in Ethiopia from July 8th to the 9th. I was encouraged to see internally displaced people starting to return to their homes, and we’re starting to move towards a comprehensive program of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of combatants (DDR.)
In November 2022, the guns were silent. Now, 20 months later, they remain silent. This is critically significant, because at that time, it was one of the bloodiest wars in the world. And so, we’ve worked together with the African Union to create an opportunity for peace. Of course, much more needs to be done. As I mentioned, we need to work on the return of internally displaced people, a comprehensive [Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration] program, transitional justice and accountability.
VOA: Are all the parties involved in the Pretoria Agreement following through with the promises they made?
Hammer: Both the government of Ethiopia and the Tigray Interim Regional Administration in the TPLF [Tigray People’s Liberation Front] remain very much committed to the agreement. That’s critically important, obviously, to proceed with its implementation. Now, it hasn’t been fully implemented, and that’s why the United States continues to be very fully engaged in pressing both parties to deliver on their commitments.
One of the major commitments, of course, is that they should resolve their issues through political dialogue. So, we must avoid any return to violence. They must come to agreements on the way forward on how to resolve some of the contested areas. We are also prepared to continue to support any efforts to try to bring peace to other regions like Oromia and Amhara through dialogue.
VOA: Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, “War crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing” took place in the Tigray war. Why has the U.S. failed to bring this case to the International Criminal Court?
Hammer: It’s very important that we called out the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and atrocities that were committed. We stand behind supporting the process that Ethiopia has launched to try to make sure that those responsible are held accountable. Ethiopia is developing a transitional justice process to ensure accountability for war crimes through the Ethiopian court system, and we are prepared to support that.
VOA: You also went to Djibouti, where you consulted on regional issues with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. What was the consensus on ending the Sudan crisis?
Hammer: There’s a lot of concern over the situation in Sudan. I was also in Addis Ababa at the African Union and participated in the launch of preparatory meetings supporting Sudanese civilians. The entire region is very alarmed by what’s happening. The United States is alarmed. The world needs to hear about the despair that the Sudanese people are experiencing in this continuous and horrific war. With a lack of humanitarian assistance, killings and atrocities are being committed.
VOA: Do you see a resumption of Sudan peace talks soon?
Hammer: U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello is working very hard to move forward on any opportunity to launch new cease-fire talks in Jeddah, or wherever it might be possible.
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200 additional Kenyan police arrive in Haiti in UN-backed mission to fight criminal gangs
PORT-AU-PRINCE — A second contingent of 200 police officers from Kenya arrived Tuesday in Haiti to bolster a U.N.-backed mission led by the East African country to battle violent gangs in the troubled Caribbean country.
The officers arrived nearly a month after the first contingent of 200 landed in the capital of Port-au-Prince, where gangs control at least 80% of the territory.
Authorities have declined to provide details on the Kenyans’ assignments, citing security concerns, although AP journalists have seen them on patrol in areas near the main international airport, which reopened in late May after gang violence forced it to close for nearly three months.
More Kenyans are expected to arrive in coming weeks and months and will be joined by police and soldiers from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica for a total of 2,500 personnel. They will be deployed in phases at a cost of some $600 million a year, according to the U.N. Security Council.
While some Haitians have welcomed the arrival of the Kenyans, others remain wary. Kenyan police have faced years of allegations of abuses in their country, including extrajudicial killings.
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Spain confirms body found is missing UK teen’s
MADRID — Spanish authorities confirmed on Tuesday that a body found in a remote area of the island of Tenerife a day earlier was that of a missing British teenager and that the injuries sustained were compatible with an accidental fall.
“We have a positive ID,” a court spokesperson said. “Fingerprinting confirms that the body belongs to Jay Slater, and the death was due to multiple traumas compatible with a fall in the mountainous area.”
Earlier, the same spokesperson said it would take some days before autopsy results were available.
Slater’s mother, Debbie, issued a statement through the British overseas missing persons charity LBT Global acknowledging the “worst news.”
“I just can’t believe this could happen to my beautiful boy,” the statement read. “Our hearts are broken.”
The body was found Monday morning by a Civil Guard mountain rescue group.
Slater, 19, went missing on June 17, and his phone was last traced to the Masca ravine in a remote national park on the Canary Islands archipelago.
The remains were found with Slater’s possessions and clothes close to the site of his mobile phone’s last location, LBT Global said on Monday.
Matthew Searle, chief executive of LBT Global, which has issued several statements on behalf of the family, said it would help repatriate Slater’s body and belongings and make funeral arrangements.
“There will, of course, be many more hurdles for the family to face in the coming days, and we will work with them to make this horrific time as easy as possible,” he said.
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Six found dead in Bangkok hotel in suspected poisoning
BANGKOK — Police in Thailand say the bodies of six people were found Tuesday in a luxury hotel in downtown Bangkok and poisoning is suspected.
Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said in a short statement that the dead were reported to be two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals. They were not identified further.
The Thai newspaper Matichon showed photos of police at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel investigating the deaths after being summoned by hotel staff at late afternoon. It said five bodies were found inside a room and one outside.
Investigators said the bodies were found foaming at the mouth, an officer from the Lumpini police station said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release information.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin went to the scene in the evening but did not provide any additional information to reporters gathered there.
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Nobel laureates call on Belarus’ leader to release all political prisoners
Tallinn, Estonia — Dozens of Nobel Prize laureates are calling in an open letter on Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to free all political prisoners, after 18 seriously ill activists were released this month.
The Belarusian human rights group Viasna counts almost 1,400 political prisoners, including its Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder Ales Bialiatski.
Many of Belarus’ most prominent opposition figures are behind bars while others fled abroad as authorities cracked down severely on opponents as protests gripped the country in 2020. But only one well-known figure was among the 18 prisoners whom Lukashenko allowed to be freed earlier this month.
The letter from Nobel winners urged Lukashenko to follow through with more releases.
“You have a unique opportunity to turn the page on the past and enter history not only as an uncompromising ruler but also as a political leader who has shown wisdom and compassion, responsible to your people and their future,” said the letter that was posted Friday on the website of Belarusian political scientist Dmitry Bolkunets.
The 58 signatories include literature prize winners Svetlana Alexievich of Belarus, J.M. Coetzee, Herta Mueller, and peace prize laureates Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Oscar Arias, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Tawakkol Karman, Juan Manuel Santos, Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa.
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French PM poised to take caretaker role in deadlocked France
Paris — French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was set to resign but stay on as head of a caretaker government Tuesday, officials said, with no replacement in sight as divided parliamentary groups succumb to infighting.
President Emmanuel Macron is expected to accept Attal’s resignation after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting — the first since his allies got roundly beaten in a snap National Assembly election called to “clarify” the political landscape.
But he was also likely to ask the prime minister and his team to stay on as a caretaker government with restricted powers until after the Paris Olympics, which open on July 26.
This would also give political parties more time to build a governing coalition after the July 7 election runoff left the National Assembly without an overall majority.
A broad alliance — called New Popular Front (NFP) — of Socialists, Communists, Greens and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) won the most seats, with 193 in the 577-strong lower chamber.
Macron’s allies came second with 164 seats and the far-right National Rally (RN) third at 143.
The divided NFP alliance has been scrambling to come up with a consensus candidate for prime minister.
But internal conflicts — notably between the LFI and the more moderate Socialists — have thwarted all efforts to find a personality able to survive a confidence vote in parliament.
‘Shameful’
Over the weekend, the Socialists torpedoed the hopes of Huguette Bello, 73, a former communist MP and the president of the regional council in France’s overseas territory La Reunion, who had support from the other left-wing parties.
The LFI, in turn, rejected Laurence Tubiana, an economist and climate specialist without political affiliation, who had the backing of the Socialists, Communists and Green party.
Leftist deputy Francois Ruffin on Tuesday called the NFP’s infighting “shameful,” while Green deputy Sandrine Rousseau said the disagreements made her “very angry.”
On Saturday, Attal was voted in as leader of his party’s National Assembly contingent, as he eyes his own future outside government, saying he would “contribute to the emergence of a majority concerning projects and ideas.”
Macron and Attal, observers say, are still hoping to find a right-of-center majority in parliament that would keep both the LFI or the far-right RN out of any new coalition.
Once Attal resigns, he and other cabinet members will be able to take their seats in parliament and participate in any coalition-building.
Parliament reconvenes on Thursday and will start by filling the National Assembly speaker job and other key positions.
Cracks have appeared between Attal and his former mentor Macron, whom the prime minister appears to blame for the electoral defeat only six months after being appointed France’s youngest ever head of government at 34.
Macron still has almost three years to go as president before elections in 2027, at which far-right leader Marine Le Pen is expected to make a fresh bid for power.
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Chinese e-commerce companies popular in South Africa
Johannesburg — Rotondwa Mbadaliga is a self-professed “shopping addict.” The 25-year-old South African fashion influencer says she is a huge fan of Chinese-linked e-commerce companies Shein and Temu because she can get the latest trends at the cheapest prices delivered straight to her door.
Mbadaliga has more than 200,000 followers on TikTok where she mostly talks about fashion, sometimes posting videos of herself excitedly opening her newly arrived purchases from China.
“The variety is the main thing I really like and enjoy with shopping on Temu or Shein,” she says, adding that South African brands and shops aren’t as trendy.
“I don’t think you can beat the prices,” she adds.
But the prices of clothing on these e-commerce sites are expected to soon get more expensive.
South Africa’s tax authority plans to start imposing a 45% tariff and a value-added tax, or VAT, an indirect tax on the consumption of goods and services on orders of imported clothing that cost under 500 rand, or $27. Some consumers are pushing back with an online petition protesting the higher import duties.
Chinese e-commerce in South Africa
Shein, which has been available in South Africa since 2020, and Temu, which entered the market in January, have had huge success in the country, which has a growing middle class, tech-savvy youth and widespread internet access.
For women’s clothing purchases online, Shein is the top retailer with a 35% market share, according to data from Marketing Research Foundation, a nonprofit South Africa-based marketing survey group.
For its part, Temu is the most-downloaded app among iOS and Android users in South Africa.
Mbadaliga acknowledges that quality can sometimes be an issue.
“With shopping from China, you need to be OK with making a loss in some way,” she says, adding that she has a box of clothes bought on the platforms that didn’t fit or work out.
Her aunts in their 30s, who earn more, prefer to buy from foreign brands with brick-and-mortar stores in South Africa such as Zara because they believe the quality of clothing is better, Mbadaliga notes.
But she says longevity and quality don’t matter so much to her because she will only wear a garment while it is in style.
Industry pushback
South African retailers and local e-commerce platforms have been left reeling by the success of Chinese e-commerce and fearing their inability to compete.
Some South African companies and industry groups have lobbied the government to close an import tax loophole, a so-called de minimis rule, for small parcels of clothing. The loophole was introduced decades ago for items such as gifts before the advent of online shopping.
Under that system, small parcels pay a low 20% import duty. However, local clothing retailers, who order in bulk, pay a 45% tariff plus a VAT rate.
“We don’t mind competition … but what we find unpalatable, quite frankly, is an opportunity which is being taken advantage of where we believe we actually have an unfair and non-level playing field,” Michael Lawrence, executive director the National Clothing Retail Federation of South Africa, told VOA.
“We’re seeing 100,000 parcels a day, I’m told by some players, coming in. So, we’re not talking about an occasional occurrence. We’re talking about a significant commercial activity,” he says.
When South Africa’s tax authorities implement the higher tax rate for imported clothing under 500 rand, those shippers will be paying the same rate of 45% plus a VAT as the bulk shipments incur.
Contacted for comment, a Temu spokesperson told VOA: “Temu operates a direct-from-factory online marketplace that connects consumers with cost-efficient manufacturers. By reducing the number of intermediaries between consumers and producers, we can eliminate extra costs and pass those savings on to consumers through lower prices.”
“We compete fairly and transparently, adhering to the rules and regulations of each market we serve. Our growth does not rely on the de minimis policy. We support policy changes that benefit consumers and believe that as long as rules are applied fairly, they will not affect the competitive landscape,” the spokesperson added.
Shein did not respond to a request for comment.
Local alternatives
South Africa is not without its own e-commerce sites.
E-commerce company Takealot has accused the Chinese online shopping giants of exploiting tax loopholes.
“These platforms contribute to a market imbalance by flooding the market with inexpensive imports,” the company said last month in a statement. “Such trends pose significant challenges to the development and sustainability of domestic industries.”
“This form of commerce extracts value from South African consumers without contributing to local communities, ultimately harming small businesses, local manufacturers and the limited job opportunities available,” it continued.
To boost local industry, Takealot recently signed a multimillion-dollar deal with the government in South Africa’s Gauteng province, which includes the capital, Pretoria, and economic powerhouse Johannesburg. Called the Takealot Township Economy Initiative, it is focused on creating jobs and supporting small, Black-owned businesses.
Local online fashion retailer Zando launched its international e-commerce platform Zando Global earlier this year.
“With the rise of Shein and Temu, South African consumers have often found themselves hesitant to order internationally due to concerns about product quality, delivery reliability, and returns processes. Zando Global steps in as the local hero, offering a trustworthy alternative for those seeking international products without the uncertainties of ordering from abroad,” the company said in an April press statement.
When asked whether the market is already saturated by Shein and Temu, Zando Global’s CEO Morgane Imbert told VOA she believed the company could compete.
“We genuinely believe there is room for a player like Zando, because we think that we can offer a different experience, focusing on the quality of the product, the customer service and curated local and global fashion trends,” she says.
“We’re definitely supporting local brands and companies through the marketplace,” Imbert added.
US behemoth
Zando and Takealot must also compete with U.S. e-commerce company Amazon, which entered the South African market in May, its first foray into sub-Saharan Africa. Reports suggest Amazon had a slow start, but that could change.
On its website, Amazon says it is providing South African consumers with a “new online shopping experience.” It added, the site will include products from independent South African sellers and small and medium-size enterprises “to connect customers with businesses throughout the country.”
Still, like “shopping addict” Mbadaliga, many South Africans will not be easily weaned off Shein and Temu.
The on-line petition to the South African government aimed at stopping the import duty has garnered more than 21,000 signatures since June, hoping to change the minds of government authorities who have yet to implement the new tax rules originally set for July 1.
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J.D. Vance selected as Trump’s vice presidential running mate
After months of speculation, Donald Trump announced his vice presidential running mate. J.D. Vance joins the Republican presidential ticket as one of the youngest vice presidential candidates since Richard Nixon in 1952. The nomination puts his newcomer status and political inexperience to the test. Tina Trinh reports.
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