28 2GM Monday April 4 2022 | the times
Wo r l d
The trade battle between China and
Australia has led to a vintage year for
South African winemakers.
Growers in the Western Cape have
taken advantage of the row to double
their exports to China in a year. They
have also begun to adapt to the tastes of
the booming market, prioritising reds
over whites, keeping their tannins
low and abandoning screwtops in
favour of corks.
China imposed a 212 per cent tariff on
Australian wines in 2020 after relations
soured when Scott Morrison’s govern-
ment supported a call for an inter-
national inquiry into its handling of the
coronavirus. While the Australian
economy suffered, South Africa’s wine-
makers spotted an opportunity.
Australia had exported wine worth
$1 billion to China in 2019, 40 per cent
former cricketer was elected prime
minister in 2018. Bilawal Bhutto Zarda-
ri, head of the opposition Pakistan
People’s Party and son of the assassi-
nated prime minister Benazir Bhutto,
called a sit-in at parliament. “We are
moving to the Supreme Court,” he said.
Shehbaz Sharif, of the Pakistan Mus-
lim League (Nawaz), the opposition
leader in the House and a potential can-
didate for prime minister, said:
“It is nothing short of high
treason. Khan has pushed the
country into anarchy and
there will be consequences for
blatant and brazen violation of
the constitution.”
The opposition arrived in
parliament ready to vote
Khan out of power,
needing a simple
majority of 172
votes in the 342-seat chamber to unseat him. Khan’s
small but key coalition partners, and 17
of his own party members, joined the
opposition to oust him.
The confidence vote had been expec-
ted some time after parliament con-
vened yesterday but parliamentary
rules allow for three to seven days of
debate. The opposition had said it had
the numbers for an immediate vote.
After the dissolving of parliament,
Khan said there should be “elections in
a democratic way”, adding: “I call upon
the people of Pakistan to prepare for
elections. The people should decide
what they want, not foreigners. Buying
people through money has resulted in
this. Put that money in something
better. I implore the nation to prepare
for elections. You will decide the future
of this nation, not the corrupt or the
foreigners.”
The police were preparing them-
selves for violence after the events in
Islamabad. There was a heavy police
and paramilitary presence on the capi-
tal’s streets, with shipping containers
used to block off roads and main
entrances to the red zone that houses
government and military buildings.President Alvi of Pakistan dissolved its
parliament yesterday, setting the coun-
try on course for early elections, after a
failed attempt to unseat Imran Khan as
prime minister.
The deputy speaker of parliament
refused to hold a vote of confidence that
Khan had been expected to lose. The
prime minister and his allies claimed
that America had conspired with the
opposition to try to oust him.
Khan went on national television
shortly after the deputy speaker’s ruling
to say he would ask the president to dis-
solve parliament and call elections. The
PM had said that a Pakistani ambassa-
dor had received a letter warning “if
Khan stays as prime minister then
Pakistan will have to face difficulties”.
Khan said that the letter had come
“from America”.
Pakistani officials had been informed
of “an operation for a regime change by
a foreign government”, Fawad Chau-
dhry, the information minister, told
MPs. Khan has said that the White
House wants him gone because his
foreign policy often favours China and
Russia. He has also been a vocal oppo-
nent of Washington’s war on terror.
After Chaudhry made his state-
ment, Qasim Khan Suri, the deputy
speaker, said the proposed confi-
dence vote violated national secur-
ity, and was to be rejected by the
House, causing uproar in the
chamber. He declared that
the opposition’s motion
was unconstitutional and
abruptly ended the ses-
sion.
Pakistan’s main opposi-
tion parties, whose ideolo-
gies span left to right and rad-
ically religious, have been
working to oust Khan al-
most since the day the
Parliament dissolved as
bid to unseat Khan fails
Khan’s future hangs in the balance after
opposition politicians filed a petition in
the Supreme Court to oust him through
a fresh confidence vote.
Political pundits and constitutional
scholars questioned whether the
planned vote was indeed illegal,
whether the dismissal of it was or if the
claims of foreign interference meant
that treason charges could realistically
be triggered.
The army, which has ruled Pakistan
for about half of its existence since inde-
pendence from Britain in 1947, has
stayed neutral in the matter. However,
military chiefs have had a rocky rela-
tionship with Khan.
General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the
chief of the army staff, referred on Sat-
urday to Pakistan’s “long and excellent
strategic relationship with the US”,
when speaking to reporters.
His comments contrast with Khan’s
increasingly anti-American rhetoric.
“Khan’s biggest failing has been his
insistence on remaining a partisan
leader,” Michael Kugelman, deputy
director of the Asia programme at the
Washington-based Wilson Center
think tank, said.
“He hasn’t been willing to extend a
hand across the aisle to his rivals,”
Kugelman added. “He’s remained stub-
born and unwilling to make important
compromises. As a result, he’s burnt too
many bridges at a moment when he
badly needs all the help he can get.”
Khan’s insistence that there is Amer-
ican involvement in attempts to oust
him exploits a deep-seated mistrust
among many in Pakistan, Asfandyar
Mir, a senior Asia expert at the US
Institute of Peace, said.
“The fact that it has such easy trac-
tion in Pakistan speaks to some of the
damage US foreign policy has done in
the post 9/11 era in general and in Paki-
stan in particular,” he said. “There is a
reservoir of anti-American sentiment
in the country, which can be instru-
mentalised easily by politicians.”Pakistan
Haroon Janjua Islamabad
Saptarshi Ray Calcutta
Supporters of
Imran Khan’s
Pakistan Tehreek-
e-Insaf party
demonstrate
outside
parliament in
Islamabad where
the deputy
speaker ruled
that an
opposition
motion trying to
oust the prime
minister was
unconstitutionalImran Khan has
said that America
is conspiring with
the opposition to
remove him as
prime ministerCape wineries drink to China’s trade war with Australia
of the wine it bought. Wines of South
Africa, the trade body representing
growers, said that between 2020 and
last year its members achieved a 59 per
cent increase in shipments to China,
worth up to $31 million.
“There is obviously a big gap to fill
and the South African category has
benefited,” Marcus Ford, a manager at
Wines of South Africa, said. “The
momentum looks to be strong.”
Matthew Karan, the director of
South Africa’s largest beef exporter, has
added wines to his produce, catering to
the Chinese palate.
“We go through a rigorous to-and-fro
with China to make sure our product is
for their taste,” Karan said. He added
that they disliked high-tannin wines
and preferred reds, an auspicious
colour, to whites.
Karan said, however, that South
African wine did not command the re-
spect it deserved. Most Chinese clientswanted their own label and to be selling
exclusively, he added.
Morné le Roux, general manager of
Swartland Winery, said Chinese con-
noisseurs preferred dark reds, such as
pinotage, merlot, cabernet sauvignon
and cabernet sauvignon/merlot.
“They do not like screw caps,” he said.
“Only wine with corks in.”
Le Roux added that packaging was
important — “red, black, gold and silver
in the labels” were favourites, while
green was to be avoided. He said the
potential in the market was big.
Ford noted that the Chinese market,
which went from importing six million
nine-litre cases in 2001 to 60 million in
2018, was diverse and changing.
“In the north of China, which has a
relatively robust appetite for strong
alcohol, there’s a preference for rich,
heavy red wines,” he said. “In the south
there’s more openness to lighter styles
and white wines... and there’s ayounger generation who’ve embraced
white wines, sparkling wines.”
Ford said that two demographics
were starting to drink South African
wines. There were the elites who began
with the most expensive Bordeaux and
Burgundies for about $1,000 a bottle
but were trying wines from elsewhere
for about $100.
“Then you’ve got curious consumers
who’ve started on inexpensive French
wines,” he said. “South Africa is on the
radar for their next port of call.”
Obstacles from the pandemic re-
main. But Yang Lu, China’s only master
sommelier, said the future was bright
for South African wines.
“We reached a stage that the general
public was looking for diversity,” he
said. “South Africa came into the pic-
ture. The wine consumers, now they’ve
become more savvy, they’re looking for
a wine that can really give a bang for
their bucks.”South Africa
Richard Assheton
The conflict in neighbouring UkraineTrump’s book
President Trump’s official White House
photographer said yesterday she had
been forced to shelve plans to publish a
collection of her pictures so that the
former president could make millions
from his own coffee table book.
Shealah Craighead thought she had
agreed a deal with Trump for him to
write an introduction to her book,
following a tradition of official presi-
dential photographers. But Trump,
already hugely wealthy from his busi-
ness empire, wanted a share of the pro-
ceeds. His assistants then asked Craig-
head to delay her book while he pub-
lished Our Journey Together using
mainly her photographs.
Selling for $75, or $230 if signed, the
book sold out its initial print run of
200,000 and another 300,000 are
being produced. It was printed by Win-United States
David Charter Washington