China’s cyber activities in the U.S., development plans in Eurasia, diplomatic maneuvers between Israel and Palestine
News briefing for May 25, 2023
Here’s what else you need to know about China today:
Top story: Montana and Florida are being sued in separate cases for new bans restricting Chinese people and entities. Both lawsuits claim the rules are steeped in anti-China discrimination. Click through for the whole thing.
State-backed Chinese hackers have compromised “critical infrastructure” in the U.S., the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S., warned yesterday. American tech giant Microsoft also issued a separate statement claiming that Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored cyber actor based in China that typically focuses on espionage and information gathering, has been active since mid-2021 and has “targeted critical infrastructure organizations in Guam and elsewhere in the United States.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry denied the accusations, calling the joint warning “a patchwork with a broken chain of evidence” and a “collective disinformation campaign.”
Israel should “stop encroaching” on Palestinian land and resources, Chinese envoy to the United Nations (UN) Gěng Shuǎng 耿爽 told a UN Security Council meeting today. The strong rebuke of the “illegal expansion” of West Bank settlements and right-wing Israeli official’s visit to a Jerusalem holy site comes just more than a month after Beijing stated its willingness to facilitate peace talks between Israel and Palestine.
China wants to deepen engagement with Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia, the members of the Eurasian Economic Union whose representatives have been meeting at the Eurasian Economic Forum yesterday and today. Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 called on participants to boost Belt and Road cooperation, just a week after he wooed his Central Asian counterparts with a grand development plan at a regional summit in Xi’an.
Chinese state media: The print edition of Party paper the People’s Daily headlines the meeting yesterday in Beijing between Xi Jinping and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin (English here). Xinhua News Agency’s top story is about Xi’s speech to the Eurasian Economic Forum (English here).
The new U.S. House committee on China proposed new measures to push back on Beijing for its treatment of Uyghurs and strengthen support for Taiwan in the committee’s first published reports since its formation in January. The two reports call for new restrictions to curb financial flows from the U.S. that may be contributing to China’s mass detention and surveillance apparatus in Xinjiang, as well as policy recommendations to speed up the delivery of weapons already promised to Taipei and other measures of support in case of a conflict with Beijing.
Bank of America is retreating from China and has told “around 40 bankers in Asia to look for new roles within the organization” in a move to cut costs globally and as dealmaking in China slows.
