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4,558 articles matching the search query.
Exclusive: U.S. calls for 'concrete action' from China on trade deal
The U.S. is getting tougher on China, after the House passed a new China competition bill that would pour nearly $300 billion into scientific research and domestic manufacturing, per the New York Times. U.S. officials have also called for ”concrete action” from China to fulfill its commitment to the “Phase 1” trade deal signed under the Trump administration, Reuters reports.
House Passes Bill Adding Billions to Research to Compete With China
The U.S. is getting tougher on China, after the House passed a new China competition bill that would pour nearly $300 billion into scientific research and domestic manufacturing, per the New York Times. U.S. officials have also called for “concrete action” from China to fulfill its commitment to the “Phase 1” trade deal signed under the Trump administration, Reuters reports.
Drone company DJI obscured ties to Chinese state funding, documents show
DJI and SMIC are facing a fresh wave of scrutiny from Republican senators, who are ramping up pressure on the Biden administration to further restrict the flow of sensitive technology between the U.S. and China. Though drone-maker DJI and top chipmaker SMIC are both on the U.S. blacklist, recent reports of DJI’s concealed Chinese state funding and dangerous loopholes that give SMIC access to U.S. items have reignited national security concerns that their technologies may be used to advance China’s government and military.
No reason for Ukraine war fears, China tells UN meeting
“No reason for concern” over Ukraine, Beijing says: At the UN Security Council on January 31, China’s envoy, Zhāng Jūn 张军, downplayed the risk of war over Ukraine, and accused “the United States of obstructing efforts to resolve the crisis through dialogue,” the South China Morning Post reports. Meanwhile, Russia and China continue to solidify ties, and when Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 meet in Beijing on February 4, they “could sign more than 15 agreements…with lots of new deals being prepared in relation to natural gas,” per Reuters.
See also:
In clash with U.S. over Ukraine, Putin has a lifeline from China / NYT (paywall) Beijing throws weight behind Moscow: China-Russia weekly update / SupChina
Biden Promised to Confront China. First He Has to Confront America’s Bizarre Trade Politics.
When and how will the Biden administration make a proper China policy? First, it has to get past its infighting over trade policy. As Bob Davis reports at Politico, when it came to how to “confront America’s bizarre trade politics,” a “vague proposal was the only way that squabbling officials could come to a public consensus.” Separately, Axios has reported a previously undisclosed spat between U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and national security adviser Jake Sullivan last September, when Tai accused Sullivan of undermining him by prematurely announcing to the press that the Biden administration was considering additional tariffs on China — before Tai’s office had finished its review of trade policy.
Related on SupChina:
After calling Xi, Biden considers pressuring China over trade, Taiwan (September 13) Biden’s trade chief presses China to fulfill Trump agreement pledges, signals little change in tariffs (October 4)
China’s extended naval reach in western Pacific fuels Taiwan tensions
China’s navy has ramped up operations east of Taiwan: “For at least six months, the People’s Liberation Army Navy has rotated destroyers and missile corvettes through the waters east and south of the southernmost tip of the Ryukyu chain — which Tokyo calls the Nansei islands — according to officials from Taiwan, Japan and the U.S.,” the Financial Times reports. Meanwhile, a day after the U.S. and Japanese navies made a “massive show of force in the Philippine Sea,” China sent 39 planes into Taiwan’s ADIZ (air defense identification zone). Context on SupChina last October: Explaining China’s surge in warplane activity in the Taiwanese ‘air defense zone.’
Watching China in Europe Newsletter | Watching China in Europe with Noah Barkin
U.S. national security officials have recently threatened Germany with a “return of bare-knuckles U.S. unilateralism” if German officials “did not send clear signals about their readiness to work with Washington on China by the U.S. midterm elections in November,” according to Noah Barkin, a senior visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund think tank.
Alibaba-Led (BABA) Bid for Tsinghua Unigroup Hits Last-Minute Snag
Alibaba may fail in its quest to take over Tsinghua Unigroup, once a rising star of China’s chipmaking industry, because officials are worried that with Alibaba listed in the United States, sensitive chip data could end up exposed. It’s perhaps another inducement for Alibaba to leave U.S. finance behind, as other major companies have.
House Passes Bill to Punish China Over Oppression of Uyghurs
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation yesterday to punish China for its treatment of Uyghurs, demonstrating broad bipartisan support for a harder line against China. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would ban the import of goods produced by ethnic Muslims in internment camps, was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of 428 to 1. Shares of Chinese solar equipment manufacturers operating in Xinjiang, including JA Solar Technology, fell on the news.
WSJ News Exclusive | China Seeks First Military Base on Africa’s Atlantic Coast, U.S. Intelligence Finds
Will Bata, on Africa’s Atlantic coast, be the site of China’s next military base? China likely “intends to establish its first permanent military presence on the Atlantic Ocean” in the port city in Equatorial Guinea, which “already has a Chinese-built deep-water commercial port on the Gulf of Guinea, and excellent highways link the city to Gabon and the interior of Central Africa,” the Wall Street Journal reports, citing U.S. intelligence. The Biden administration has attempted to convince the small Central African country to reject Beijing’s overtures, but “believes it will require a persistent, long-term effort to fend off a Chinese naval presence.” If built, the Bata base would be China’s second in Africa after Djibouti in 2017.
US government agencies bought Chinese surveillance tech despite federal ban
At least three U.S. government agencies accidentally bought banned Chinese surveillance equipment two years after the relevant companies were put on a blacklist due to security concerns and ties to Xinjiang.
As U.S. Hunts for Chinese Spies, University Scientists Warn of Backlash
“A chilling effect has taken hold on American campuses,” the New York Times reports in the aftermath of the prosecution and acquittal of nanotechnology professor Hú Ānmíng 胡安明 of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Hu told the NYT that the trial was “the darkest time of my life,” adding, “My basic human rights were invaded, my reputation was destroyed, my heart was deeply hurt, my family was hurt.” Scientists and university administrators say that the U.S. government targeting of ethnic Chinese scientists “has slowed research and contributed to a flow of talent out of the United States that may benefit Beijing.”
U.S. invites Taiwan to its democracy summit; China angered
China is “firmly opposed” to the “Summit for Democracy” that the Biden administration invited Taiwan to last week. The virtual gathering of 110 governments on December 9 and 10 is aimed at preventing democratic backsliding and the erosion of rights and freedoms around the world. In recent meetings with Russia, India, and Iran, Chinese Foreign Minister Wáng Yì 王毅 has criticized the summit as divisive, in what Nikkei Asia interprets as concern “that the virtual meeting will lead to Taiwan’s recognition by the international community.”
Samsung Orders U.S. Chips, With a Side of Geopolitics
Samsung invested $17 billion for a semiconductor plant in Texas, reports the Wall Street Journal, at a time where “increasing rivalry between China and the U.S. means that basing so many advanced chip-making plants in China’s neighborhood is becoming more risky.” Meanwhile, Washington is blocking “South Korean chip firms from moving advanced equipment to China, analysts say,” reports the South China Morning Post.
How Hunter Biden’s Firm Helped Secure Cobalt for the Chinese
Did Biden’s son help China secure supplies of cobalt? Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, was “part owner of a venture involved in the $3.8 billion purchase by a Chinese conglomerate of one of the world’s largest cobalt deposits” in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the New York Times reports. A separate NYT story describes a bare-knuckled great power contest between the U.S. and China over the Congo’s cobalt resources, and “a hidden history of the cobalt acquisitions in which the United States essentially surrendered the resources to China, failing to safeguard decades of diplomatic and financial investments in Congo.”
U.S. and China to Elevate Military Talks in Bid to Ease Tensions
U.S.-China arms talks could be held at a high level, Bloomberg reports, as during the virtual meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xí Jìnpíng 习近平, Xi “agreed to support such discussions between the U.S. military and top officials from the People’s Liberation Army, including the vice chairman of the country’s powerful Central Military Commission.” This would be an upgrade from a “Track II dialogue, among nongovernment defense analysts and academics,” which is what one Chinese source suggested to the Wall Street Journal, and potentially even a step up from semiofficial talks between 2004 and 2009.
Clinton Sees Changes to U.S. Tariffs on China, Blasts Putin
The Biden administration is likely to remove some punitive tariffs on China, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton predicted in an interview with Bloomberg.
Beijing denounces report to US Congress on Hong Kong as ‘pack of lies’
Local office of foreign affairs ministry slams experts’ report that claims Hong Kong has effectively become a police state serving Communist Party.
U.S. House, Senate will negotiate on China tech bill
U.S. House and Senate leaders said on Wednesday that lawmakers would negotiate to try to reach final agreement on a bill to boost U.S. technology competitiveness with China and semiconductor manufacturing.
Schumer Drops Effort to Attach China Bill to Pentagon Measure
The decision is another setback for the China bill, which includes $52 billion in incentives and grants to foster semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.
