China mocks US ‘congratulations’ over Dominican closure of Chinese-run factory

China’s embassy in Santo Domingo accused the United States on Monday evening of “sinister intentions” and mocked Washington for “congratulating” the Dominican Republic on closing a Chinese-run cardboard factory.

The rebuke came hours after Juan Pablo Segura, who leads the US State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, praised Dominican authorities on social media for “taking decisive action to shut down a massive, illegal, Chinese-operated cardboard factory”.

Operating without permits, running an illicit fuel depot and illegally hiring foreign workers “will not stand”, he wrote.

In its statement, the Chinese embassy said the Dominican Republic was a sovereign country that did not need outside forces handing out condescending “congratulations” or passing judgment on how it applied its own laws.

“We advise US officials to do more practical things for the region’s development and engage less in verbal political manipulation,” it said.

The statement, which named neither Segura nor the factory, called the closure an isolated law enforcement case that Washington had seized on to label Chinese companies and sow discord.

It said Beijing told its citizens and businesses abroad to obey local laws but would firmly defend their legitimate rights.

The Dominican Ministry of Industry and Commerce announced at the start of the month that it had shut down Cartesa, which made cardboard at a complex of three industrial warehouses and a four-storey office and residential building in San Antonio de Guerra, on the edge of the capital Santo Domingo.

The ministry said the company had no land-use certificate or commercial licences and had hired foreign workers irregularly. Inspectors also dismantled an unlicensed fuel depot on the site, seizing a 5,000-litre tank and about 3,800 litres of diesel worth 2.25 million Dominican pesos (US$37,000) combined.

The housing ministry halted construction at the site for breaching building rules, while migration officers checked the papers of the foreign staff, whom officials described only as Asian.

Authorities have not identified Cartesa’s owners, and a South China Morning Post search of the Dominican tax authority’s public registry found no company registered under that name.

China has since become the Dominican Republic’s second-largest supplier, accounting for 18.4 per cent of its imports between January and September, compared with 42.1 per cent from the United States, according to the National Statistics Office.

Crackdown comes after months of inspections

Dominican authorities have been squeezing Chinese-owned businesses for more than a year, partly under pressure from local shopkeepers and hardware dealers who say their Chinese rivals undervalue imports, skip taxes and ignore labour rules.

Housing ministry inspectors began closing Chinese-run shops and shopping plazas over structural safety concerns last year, after the roof of a Santo Domingo nightclub collapsed in April and killed more than 230 people. More than a dozen were closed.

In September, as a leading traders’ federation threatened a 48-hour commercial strike, Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader said the tax authority had more than 40 audits open on Chinese-owned companies.

Labour inspectors then inspected 101 Chinese-owned shops over eight days last month and ordered 24 to stop work because of risks to employees.

The ministry said 91 had been letting workers go before they completed three months on the job to prevent them from accruing holiday and severance rights.

Consumer protection officials closed eight more Chinese-owned stores around the capital this month for selling products not registered with health authorities and leaving adult items within reach of children.

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