Dutch chips won’t go to China, but a Hong Kong bishop will
News briefing for March 9, 2023
Here’s what else you need to know about China today:
Top story: China’s “Two Sessions” are well underway in Beijing, and the country’s top leaders are proposing all sorts of strategies to bring Xi’s self-sufficiency drive to life, including a sweeping overhaul of its key ministries. Scroll down for a summary or click through for the whole thing.
Beijing hit back at the Dutch plan to join U.S.-led chip curbs on China. The Hague announced new export restrictions for the “most advanced” semiconductor technologies, including some cutting-edge tools made by Dutch chipmaking giant ASML, in the first public details about an earlier deal Japan and the Netherlands struck with the U.S. to limit such sales to China.
Hong Kong’s Catholic bishop will visit Beijing for the first time in four decades. The five-day trip next month by Bishop Stephen Chow (周守仁 Zhōu Shǒurén) “underscores the mission of the Diocese of Hong Kong to be a bridge…and promote exchanges and interactions between the two sides” amid an uneasy Sino-Vatican relationship. His predecessor, the 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen (陳日君 Chén Rìjūn), was a prominent critic of the Sino-Vatican deal and an outspoken advocate of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement that began in 2019. Zen was arrested and found guilty last year of failing to properly register a now-defunct humanitarian fund.
China and Russia abstained from a UN decision to keep an arms embargo on Sudan for the violence in the country’s western Darfur region that began in 2004. The two world powers were the only ones out of the 15 council members that did not vote in favor of the resolution, arguing that the Darfur conflict is largely over.
Australia lifted COVID testing rules for travelers coming from China, Hong Kong, and Macau on March 11, following a similar move made by the U.S. and other countries to roll back such travel restrictions. The move comes two months after the controversial rules were put in place to stop the wave of post-COVID-zero infections that were sweeping over China.
