Sen. Duckworth visits Taiwan

• A group led by U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) started a 3-day visit to Taiwan on Monday, the Taiwan authorities announced on Twitter after the delegation arrived in Taipei. During the trip, Duckworth will meet with the island’s leader Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and other senior officials, including Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Wang Mei-hua (王美花), and Joseph Wu (吳釗燮).

• More than a dozen U.S. Congress members have traveled to Taiwan after President Joe Biden took office in 2021. Duckworth is the only lawmaker who paid two visits in the past two years. The recent congressional visits to Taiwan imply bipartisan support of the Taipei authorities in both chambers:
  • June 6, 2021: Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Dan Sullivan (D-Del.)
  • November 9-11, 2021: Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-Texas), and another House Representative
  • April 15-16, 2022: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), and Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas)

EU moves forward to ban oil from Russia

• The European Union has agreed on a far-reaching oil embargo on Russia on Monday, immediately banning 2/3 of oil imports from the country. The deal exempted deliveries via the Druzhba Pipeline, which runs through Belarus, Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. The pipeline deliveries made up 1/3 of EU imports of Russian oil, but if Germany and Poland can phase out their oil imports from Russia as promised, the embargo would affect around 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of this year.

• Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic — the countries that heavily rely on Russian oil — resisted the original plan of the ban that was raised earlier this month. The exemptions for these countries cleared the way for reaching an agreement.

HK-Mainland Connects could include ETFs soon

• The stock connects schemes that allow Hong Kong and Chinese mainland investors to access each other’s stock markets directly could include the trades of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in two months. The move would further enhance the integration of the financial markets of Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.

• The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) outlined the plan in a statement (Ch) on Friday. The document was issued months after the securities regulators from Mainland China and Hong Kong agreed to include the financial product. Investors have been anticipating the expansion since the launch of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect.