Word battles between China and the U.S.
The latest exchanges in the ongoing war of words between China and the United States:
- “Irresponsible” is what China’s foreign ministry called U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s claims that Beijing is blocking access to energy beneath the South China Sea, reports the South China Morning Post.
- “China is using ‘payday loan diplomacy’ to exert influence in the Pacific, the new U.S. ambassador to Australia said on Wednesday, in comments that threaten to inflame regional tensions,” according to Reuters.
- An internal U.S. Navy report — it’s not publicly available — has concluded that the “Navy and its industry partners are ‘under cyber siege’ by Chinese hackers and others who have stolen tranches of national security secrets in recent years, exploiting critical weaknesses that threaten the U.S.’s standing as the world’s top military power,” says the Wall Street Journal (paywall).