Mongolia establishes foundation to support athletes www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has established a foundation to provide financial assistance to athletes who will participate in Olympics and other international competitions.

Dalian iron ore rises as supply crunch concerns persist www.reuters.com

China’s iron ore futures extended gains on Friday after touching a record high in the previous session, as concerns persisted over tight supply amid declining shipment from Rio Tinto and expectations of strong demand.

Apple, Microsoft and other tech companies ask to be excluded from the China tariffs www.cnn.com

New York (CNN Business)Technology companies have been feeling the sting of the escalating trade war between the United States and China. Now, they're trying to avoid a proposed new round of tariffs that takes aim at many American tech products.

More than half a dozen big tech companies wrote to the Trump Administration this week asking it not to hit the products they produce in China with additional tariffs.
The White House has proposed a bill that would place a 25% tariff on $300 billion in Chinese goods not already subject to tariffs. The tariff would apply to a wide range of products, from live buffalo and primates to T-shirts and shoes. It would also cover laptops, video game consoles, battery cases and other products that tech companies say would increase costs for consumers or harm their abilities to make a profit.
In public filings commenting on the proposal, Apple (AAPL), Dell Technologies (DELL), HP (HPQ), Intel (INTC), Microsoft (MSFT), Sony (SNE) and Nintendo (NTDOY) asked that their products be excluded from the list of goods the tariff would apply to. The Consumer Technology Association also submitted a letter asking the government to develop a process for companies to request that their goods be excluded from the tariff, arguing that increasing tariffs is the wrong way to improve the US-China trade relationship.
"No one wins in a trade war, and an escalating tariff fight will inflict immense damage on American businesses, workers and consumers," the Association wrote.
The letters were filed ahead of a public hearing on the proposal earlier this week.

The proposed tariff is a continuation of an ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China. Last month, the United States raised tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese exports from 10% to 25%, and China responded by increasing tariffs on American goods, such as cotton and grain. The two countries have also been swapping other retaliatory measures, including a US export ban imposed on Chinese smartphone company Huawei.
The trade dispute has forced some tech companies to look beyond China for new locations, mostly in Southeast Asia, to produce their goods. But leaving China is a slow and costly process, because the country has for decades amassed the infrastructure, talent and suppliers needed for manufacturing.
In its letter, Apple highlighted its contribution to the US economy, saying it is the largest US corporate tax payer and is responsible for more than 2 million jobs across the country. The company said additional tariffs would reduce this contribution, and could also threaten Apple's ability to compete with foreign technology companies.
"The Chinese producers we compete with in global markets do not have a significant presence in the US market, and so would not be impacted by US tariffs," Apple wrote. "Neither would our other major non-US competitors. A US tariff would, therefore tilt the playing field in favor of our global competitors."
Apple attached a list of nearly 20 products ⁠— including iPhones, MacBooks and AppleTVs⁠ — that it wants excluded from the tariff.
A joint letter from Dell, HP, Intel and Microsoft asked the government to leave laptops and tablets out of the list of goods covered by the tariff. The companies said the tariff could raise the average retail price of a laptop by $120, citing a study from the Consumer Technology Association. Another letter from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft asked that video game consoles be excluded.
Among the reasons cited by the Trump Administration for the tariffs is a concern about Chinese theft of US companies' intellectual property. In the Dell letter, the companies acknowledged this as a legitimate concern, but argued that continued tariff hikes would do little to stop it.
"Imposing additional tariffs on laptops will in practice undermine the Administration's policy priorities in this China investigation," the companies wrote in the letter before going on to say the policy would force them to divert time and money away from developing new products and could also threaten their positions as tech industry leaders.
President Donald Trump and Chinese leaders are expected to meet at next week's G20 summit in Japan. Many are hoping that if the talks go well, Trump may decide not to impose the proposed tariff expansion.
The Consumer Technology Association in its letter asked Trump to abandon the tariff strategy altogether, specifically mentioning the G20 meeting as a chance to begin improving US-China relations.
"We further urge the administration to leverage multilateral action, join strategic trade agreements that move China toward transparency, competition and open markets," the letter reads, "while resisting the imposition of taxes and trade barriers that would continue to harm American interests, risk our economic future and jeopardize our technological leadership."

More Russian commodities expected to come into China www.chinadaily.com.cn

HARBIN - More Russian commodities are expected to come into the Chinese market, a Russian trade representative said.

High-level inter-regional conference against terrorism taking place in Ulaanbaatar www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On June 20, the High-Level Inter-Regional Conference on ‘Whole-of-Society Approach’ to Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism kicked off at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The conference is being co-organized by the Government of Mongolia, OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department (TNTD) and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.

Mongolia's possibility to become Eurasian integrated logistics hub discussed www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A seminar themed ‘Logistics trend in Eurasian Continent and Role of the Mongolian Transport Sector’ took place on June 19 at Construction Development Center. The Ministry of Construction and Urban Planning organized the consultation in partnership with JICA.

Mongolia ranks 42nd in Global Peace Index www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Institute for Economics and Peace released its thirteenth edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness.

Mongolia Rapidly Moving Out of Russian World, Raising Concerns in Moscow www.jamestown.org

For most of the Soviet period after 1945, Russians informally viewed Mongolia as “the 16th Soviet republic” not only because it tried to become one during World War II, but also because, even more than Bulgaria, it slavishly copied Soviet laws and practices. Notably, Mongolia introduced a Cyrillic-based alphabet close to Russian in 1941 (Asiarussia.ru, April 1, 2018). Moreover, it promoted Russian in its media and educational system to the point that, in many sectors, Russian displaced Mongol as the most frequently used language (Cod15.ru, May, 10 2018).

This pattern partially had its roots in the fact that Imperial Russia played a key role in Mongolia’s acquisition of independence from China just over a century ago. But additionally, it stems from the history of the Soviet Union using this large (one-third the size of the United States) but underpopulated (just over three million residents now) Northeast Asian country to put pressure on China, which still controls Inner Mongolia. Moscow further sought to use its dominance in Mongolia to prevent Beijing from using the Mongols against their co-ethnics inside Soviet Russian borders, the Buryats (or Buryat Mongols as they were known until 1958) (Fergananews.com, September 11, 2008). However, with the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989 and then of the Soviet Union itself two years later, all that began to change. And now, in the words of one Russian specialist, “an entire generation has grown up in Mongolia that does not know Russian” (Rossyiskaya Gazeta, June 11, 2019). Indeed, some in Mongolia even want to do away with the Cyrillic alphabet entirely and go back to the vertical script Mongols had used for centuries (Vb.kg, May 11, 2017; Gtrkchita.ru, April 17, 2018; 161.ru, May 16, 2019).

From Moscow’s perspective, such moves on language and alphabets in Mongolia are just as offensive and dangerous as similar policies in the former Soviet republics (see EDM, January 28, 2019; Commentaries, March 5, 2018). Indeed, they may be even more worrisome for two reasons. On the one hand, they introduce a new complexity to Russia’s relations with China, further undermining Moscow’s confidence that it can reliably expect Ulaanbaatar to be on its side in talks with Beijing. And on the other, changes in Mongolia in this regard are likely to have an impact on the already-restive Buryats within current Russian borders, who, to this day, follow closely what happens in Mongolia (Gazeta-n1.ru, March 17, 2017).

While Russian does remain the most widely known foreign language in Mongolia—Chinese has so far not made massive inroads as many had predicted—it is now very much a foreign language rather than a national one. It has not been a requirement for entry into Mongolian universities since 1990, and it has not been a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools since 2003, the year in which English replaced Russia as the required foreign language. What this means—and what anecdotal evidence appears to confirm (Quora.com, October 18, 2014)—is that while most Mongols over 35 know Russian, most below that age no longer do. This pattern suggests the role of Russian will continue to decline unless radical measures are taken, something Moscow would like to see but which Ulaanbaatar presently has no plans to introduce.

Just how dire the situation of the Russian language and, with it, of Russian cultural and political influence in Mongolia has become was recently described by Nyamzhav Naymdavaa, a Russian-language teacher in the Mongolian capital. In a paper for delivery at a Moscow competition on Russian-language use outside the Russian Federation, she recalls “the golden times of the end of the 1940s, when Russian was studied in all the schools of the country four or five hours a week, or the end of the 1970s, when a Pedagogical Institute of the Russian Language was established, an institution that, over the decade of its existence, graduated 1,847 Russian teachers.” Those times, she says, are not likely to reappear. Worse, Naymdavaa argues, in 1989, Ulaanbaatar canceled the contracts of all Russians teaching Russian in Mongolia. As a result, 500 lost their jobs altogether, and “more than 200” stopped providing Russian-language classes and began to teach English instead (Rossyiskaya Gazeta, June 11, 2019).

To be sure, the Ulaanbaatar-based teacher writes, Russian instruction did not completely disappear. But even positive steps contain negative aspects. Three years ago, for example, the Mongolian Ministry of Education said schools could reintroduce Russian-language courses but only where each could assemble “no less than 25” pupils who wanted to study the language. In some places, that has effectively blocked Russian instruction altogether. And she said she was encouraged that Ulaanbaatar has restored a Russian-language television program after canceling it 33 years ago.

Moscow has responded to this situation by increasing the number of scholarships for Mongols who want to study Russian in Russian universities, by providing more support to Russian-language instructors in Mongolia so that they can help the approximately 3,000 young people there in such classes continue, and by launching a major propaganda campaign against any further cuts in Russian-language instruction or any consideration of the idea that Mongolia should dispense with the Cyrillic alphabet and go back to its original national one (Russkiymir.ru, June 3, 2019; Vb.kg, May 11 2017; Gtrkchita.ru, April 17, 2018).

Moscow may be on the winning side of efforts to block a return to the pre-Cyrillic national script, as there are many Mongols who oppose such a move; but it almost certainly will be the loser elsewhere. All evidence seems to suggest that the Russian language will continue to decline in importance in Mongolia. And with that decline, Russian influence will wane there as well.

Péter Szijjártó concludes 57-million-dollar vaccine production plant investment agreement in Mongolia www.kormany.hu

“The Hungarian Government has concluded an agreement in Mongolia concerning a 57-million-dollar vaccine production plant investment, and Eximbank has opened a 46-million-dollar credit line to help enable Hungarian water management and mining industry enterprises that have already accumulated a high level of market experience to acquire an even larger share of the market in the Asian country”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI following negotiations in Ulaanbaatar.
“Thanks to the Government’s Eastern Opening policy, Hungarian enterprises are successfully appearing in more and more markets in the part of the world that lies to the east of us”, the Minister stated.

Rio Tinto looks at developing Simandou again — report www.mining.com

Rio Tinto (ASX, LON: RIO) is mulling options to develop the giant Simandou iron ore deposit in Guinea, which almost sold last year to its partner in the project Aluminium Corp of China, or Chinalco, as it is known.