NEW YORK: President Donald Trump on Sunday said foreign workers sent to the United States are “welcome” and he doesn’t want to “frighten off” investors, 10 days after hundreds of South Koreans were arrested at a work site in Georgia.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, the 79-year-old Republican wrote: “I don’t want to frighten off or disincentivize investment.”
Some 475 people, mostly South Korean nationals, were arrested at the construction site of an electric vehicle battery factory, operated by Hyundai-LG, in the southeastern US state of Georgia on September 4.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials alleged South Koreans had overstayed their visas or held permits that didn’t allow them to perform manual labor.
The Georgia raid was the largest single-site operation conducted since Trump launched a sweeping immigration crackdown across the country.
Though the United States decided against deportation, images of the workers being chained and handcuffed during the raid caused widespread alarm in South Korea.
Seoul repatriated the workers on Friday.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called the raid “bewildering” and warned Thursday that the raid could discourage future investment.
In his post, Trump described the circumstances for temporarily allowing foreign experts into the US to build “extremely complex products.”
“Chips, Semiconductors, Computers, Ships, Trains, and so many other products that we have to learn from others how to make, or, in many cases, relearn because we used to be great at it, but not anymore,” Trump wrote.
“We welcome them, we welcome their employees, and we are willing to proudly say we will learn from them, and do even better than them at their own ‘game,’ sometime in the not too distant future,” Trump added.
Korea’s trade unions have called on Trump to issue an official apology.
Trump concerned South Korean arrests could ‘frighten’ investors
https://arab.news/8qux2
Trump concerned South Korean arrests could ‘frighten’ investors
- In a post on his Truth Social platform, the 79-year-old Republican wrote: “I don’t want to frighten off or disincentivize investment”
China overturns death sentence for Canadian in drug case
TORONTO: China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian official told AFP Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing.
Schellenberg’s lawyer Zhang Dongshuo, reached by AFP over the phone in Beijing on Saturday, confirmed the decision was announced Friday by China’s highest court.
Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived following the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou.
That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig — on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory.
Then, in January 2019, a court in northeast China retried Schellenberg, who was 36 at the time, sentencing him to death while declaring that his 15?year prison term for drug trafficking had been too lenient.
The court said he had been a central player in a scheme to ship narcotics to Australia, in a one-day retrial that Amnesty International called “a flagrant violation of international law.”
Schellenberg has denied wrongdoing.
The Canadian official requested anonymity in confirming the decision by China’s highest court to overturn Schellenberg’s death sentence.
Schellenberg, who has been held in northeastern Dalian since 2014, will be retried by the Liaoning High People’s Court, his lawyer Zhang said. The timing for the retrial has not yet been set.
Zhang said he met with Schellenberg in Dalian on Friday, and said the Canadian appeared relatively relaxed.
Carney, who took office last year, visited China in January as part of his global effort to broaden Canada’s export markets to reduce trade reliance on the United States.
“Global Affairs Canada (GAC) is aware of a decision issued by the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China in Mr. Robert Schellenberg’s case,” foreign ministry spokesperson Thida Ith said in a statement sent to AFP.
Ith said the ministry “will continue to provide consular services to Mr. Schellenberg and to his family,” adding: “Canada has advocated for clemency in this case, as it does for all Canadians who are sentenced to the death penalty.”
New partners
Key sectors of the Canadian economy have been hammered by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and Carney has said Canada can no longer count on the United States as a reliable trading partner.
Carney says that despite ongoing tensions, including allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian elections, Ottawa needs a functioning relationship with Beijing to safeguard its economic future.
When in Beijing last month, Carney met Chinese President Xi Jinping and heralded an improved era in relations — saying the two countries had struck a “new strategic partnership” and a preliminary trade deal.
Global Affairs Canada did not comment on whether diplomacy during Carney’s visit related to Schellenberg’s case impacted the Chinese court decision.
“Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be provided,” Ith said.
Schellenberg’s lawyer Zhang said Carney’s visit raised his hopes that the Chinese court would announce a relatively positive outcome for his client.
Meng, who had initially been charged with scheming to evade US sanctions on Iran, was freed in September 2021.
Spavor and Kovrig were released the same month.
