Conversations on Vietnam Development
17 Sep 2020 07:08AM(Updated: 17 Sep 2020 07:21AM) CNA
WASHINGTON: Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced on Wednesday (Sep 16) an ambitious plan to expand the US Navy with a range of unmanned and autonomous ships, submarines and aircraft to confront the growing maritime challenge from China.
Tiếp tục đọc “Eyeing China, Pentagon plans larger, ‘more lethal’ navy”By Justin Harper Business reporter, BBC News
Some of China’s biggest technology firms are expanding operations in Singapore as tensions rise between Washington and Beijing.
Tiếp tục đọc “Singapore becomes a hub for Chinese tech amid US tensions”
16 Sep 2020 11:55AM CNA
The measure is unlikely to have much of an immediate effect because of the city’s coronavirus restrictions, but it could worsen fraying U.S.-China ties.
By Austin Ramzy
Sept. 15, 2020, 9:37 a.m. ET New York Times
The State Department advisory warned that the security law, which came into force in June, could subject Americans who have been publicly critical of China “to a heightened risk of arrest, detention, expulsion, or prosecution.”
The security law targets what it deems acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign elements, but critics say the broad wording also gives the authorities wide-ranging powers to target voices of dissent. Dozens of people in Hong Kong have already been arrested under the law, including Jimmy Lai, a prominent pro-democracy media tycoon.
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The State Department has previously warned about the risk of arbitrary detention in mainland China and about the use of exit bans that cannot be readily challenged in court to keep Americans in the country.
Hong Kong, a semiautonomous territory of China, has its own legal system that is more independent and transparent than the Communist Party-controlled courts in the mainland. But the U.S. travel advisory suggests the risk of arbitrary enforcement is increasing in Hong Kong as well.
Americans traveling in mainland China or Hong Kong “may be detained without access to U.S. consular services or information about their alleged crime,” the advisory said. “U.S. citizens may be subjected to prolonged interrogations and extended detention without due process of law.”
Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, criticized the new travel warning on Tuesday, saying China was one of the safest places on earth and the mainland had recorded no local transmission of the coronavirus for a month.
Last year, the State Department warned of the risk of “confrontational” demonstrations in Hong Kong, as mass pro-democracy rallies evolved into an increasingly violent push against Chinese rule. Several other countries issued similar warnings.
Why Are Men Still Explaining Things to Women?Montana’s Greatest Cultural Export: Inane Campaign AdsIf You See Someone Not Wearing a Mask, Do You Say Something?Continue reading the main storyhttps://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
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The United States also suspended extradition and bilateral tax agreements with Hong Kong after President Trump ended the special status granted to the city. Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand have also halted their extradition agreements with Hong Kong over the security law.
The United States has penalized Hong Kong and Chinese officials, and Beijing has responded with similar measures against American lawmakers and heads of nongovernmental organizations.
The warning on Hong Kong came as the United States improved its assessment of the coronavirus risk in China, where the spread of the virus is largely controlled, by changing its advisory level to “reconsider travel” from “do not travel.”
Austin Ramzy is a Hong Kong reporter, focusing on coverage of the city and also of regional and breaking news. He previously covered major events around Asia from Taipei and Beijing. @austinramzy
The fact that China is now nearly as strong as the US economically and militarily has triggered the conflict
By DENNY ROYSEPTEMBER 11, 2020 Asia Times
The recent decline in US-China relations has many contributing factors that arise from the domestic politics of both countries.
Tiếp tục đọc “US-China tensions rooted in deep, long-term shift”China is introducing countermeasures ‘to urge the US to repeal its wrong decisions’.
![The unspecified countermeasures will apply to all US embassy and consulate staff and the consulate-general in Hong Kong, a ministry statement said [Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2020/9/11/e060e7920ca14e3cbcbe65d3513e6964_18.jpg "Beijing to impose restrictions on all US diplomats in China")
Beijing will impose “reciprocal restrictions” on all American diplomats in China in response to earlier curbs on the activities of its embassy staff in the United States, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.
-“>By David Lawder Reuters Posted September 9, 2020 12:55 am Updated September 9, 2020 12:56 am
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have prepared orders to block imports of cotton and tomato products from western China’s Xinjiang region over allegations they are produced with forced labor, although a formal announcement has been delayed.
The Trump administration announcement of the actions, initially expected on Tuesday, has been put off until later this week because of “scheduling issues,” a CBP spokesman said.
READ MORE: China vows to respond as U.S. sanctions 11 companies over Uighur abuse complaints
The cotton and tomato bans along with five other import bans over alleged Xinjiang forced-labor abuses would be an unprecedented move by CBP and likely stoke tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
The “Withhold Release Orders” allow the CBP to detain shipments based on suspicion of forced-labor involvement under long-standing U.S. laws aimed at combating human trafficking, child labor and other human rights abuses.STORY CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT
President Donald Trump’s administration is ratcheting up pressure on China over its treatment of Xinjiang’s Uighur Muslims. The United Nations has said it has credible reports that 1 million Muslims have been detained in camps in the region, where they are put to work.
1:46China warns U.S. over Uighur bill, raising doubts over early trade dealChina warns U.S. over Uighur bill, raising doubts over early trade deal
China denies mistreatment of the Uighurs and says the camps are vocational training centers needed to fight extremism.
CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner Brenda Smith told Reuters that the effective import bans would apply to the entire supply chains involving cotton, including cotton yarn, textiles and apparel, as well as tomatoes, tomato paste and other products exported from the region.
“We have reasonable but not conclusive evidence that there is a risk of forced labor in supply chains related to cotton textiles and tomatoes coming out of Xinjiang,” Smith said in an interview. “We will continue to work our investigations to fill in those gaps.”STORY CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT
READ MORE: China is forcing birth control on Uighurs. Experts call it ‘genocide’
U.S. law requires the agency to detain shipments when there is an allegation of forced labor, such as from non-governmental organizations, she said.
The bans could have far-reaching effects for U.S. retailers and apparel producers, as well as food manufacturers. China produces about 20% of the world’s cotton and most of it comes from Xinjiang. China also is the world’s largest importer of cotton, including from the United States.
The China Cotton Association, a trade body, declined to comment on Wednesday.
READ MORE: Trump signs bill to punish China with sanctions over Uighur Muslim treatment
A Beijing-based cotton trader said the impact may be limited as China brings in about 2 million tonnes of cotton and 2 million tonnes of cotton yarn from abroad each year, which may be sufficient to produce textiles for the United States. Xinjiang’s output is about 5 million tonnes.
“If Xinjiang cotton goes to the domestic industry and non-Western markets, the impact may be limited, it can probably still be digested,” he said.
In the short-term, it could also boost cotton imports into China, he added.STORY CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENThttps://df7719edd330f16da50a98d8c70a9d62.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
0:40Teen’s TikTok tutorial turns into a plea for Uighurs in ChinaTeen’s TikTok tutorial turns into a plea for Uighurs in China
In March, U.S. lawmakers proposed legislation that would effectively assume that all goods produced in Xinjiang are made with forced labor and would require certification that they are not.
In July, Washington issued an advisory saying companies doing business in Xinjiang or with entities using Xinjiang labor could be exposed to “reputational, economic, and legal risks.”
READ MORE: Chinese Uighurs worked in supply chains for dozens of companies, including Bombardier: report
The State Department also said it sent a letter to top American companies including Walmart Inc, Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc warning them over risks faced from maintaining supply chains associated with human rights abuses in Xinjiang region.
In a draft announcement seen by Reuters, the CBP said it identified forced-labor indicators involving the cotton, textile and tomato supply chains “including debt bondage, unfree movement, isolation, intimidation and threats, withholding of wages, and abusive working and living conditions.”STORY CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT
The agency’s orders would block cotton produced by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and apparel produced by Yili Zhuowan Garment Manufacturing Co Ltd and Baoding LYSZD Trade and Business Co Ltd. It says those entities use prison labor from Chinese government administered “re-education” internment camps.
2:18Leaked documents reveal China’s surveillance of minority UighursLeaked documents reveal China’s surveillance of minority Uighurs
In addition, the proposed CBP orders would block imports of products made at the Lop County Industrial Park as well as the Lop County No. 4 Vocational Skills Education and Training Center. The moves follow the detention on July 1 of hair extensions and other goods from the Lop County Meixin Hair Product Co..
The CBP orders would also block imports of computer parts made by the Hefei Bitland Information Technology Co Ltd, based in Anhui, China.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Dominique Patton; Editing by Alistair Bell, Peter Cooney and Michael Perry)STORY CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT© 2020 Reuters
Humeyra Pamuk, David Brunnstrom, Ryan Woo, Reuters
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States has revoked visas for more than 1,000 Chinese nationals under a May 29 presidential proclamation to suspend entry from China of students and researchers deemed security risks, a State Department spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Tiếp tục đọc “U.S. has canceled more than 1,000 visas for Chinese nationals deemed security risks”
10/09/2020 06:40 GMT+7 tuoitrenews
Bộ An ninh nội địa Mỹ ngày 9-9 tuyên bố sẽ tiếp tục chiến dịch ngăn chặn những người Trung Quốc có dính líu quân đội tới Mỹ ăn cắp sở hữu trí tuệ – Ảnh: AFP
Tiếp tục đọc “Mỹ tước 1.000 thị thực công dân Trung Quốc ‘dính líu quân đội Trung Quốc’”By Sherisse Pham, CNN Business
Updated 1607 GMT (0007 HKT) September 7, 2020 CNN
Hong Kong (CNN Business)Shares in Chinese chipmaker SMIC plummeted nearly 23% in Hong Kong on Monday on fears that it could become the latest casualty of the US-China tech war.The US Department of Defense and other US agencies are reportedly considering banning exports to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., according to Reuters and other news outlets. The chipmaker could be added to a list of companies that the US government considers to be undermining American interests.SMIC’s relationship to the Chinese military is under scrutiny, according to the Reuters report, which cited an unnamed US official and two former officials briefed on the matter. The plunge in SMIC stock wiped 31 billion Hong Kong dollars ($4 billion) off its market value.Companies on the US list face significant challenges obtaining vital technology because American firms are banned from selling to them without first obtaining a license to do so. Escalating restrictions on Chinese tech firm Huawei, which was added to the list last year, threaten to cripple its global business, for example.
Tiếp tục đọc “US sanction threat wipes 23% off the value of China’s biggest chipmaker”Ian Storey
Published: 5:00am, 8 Sep, 2020 SCMP
The US Navy aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis transits the South China Sea in 2019. Photo: Reuters
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March, tensions in the South China Sea have surged. This is mainly the result of China’s continued assertiveness coupled with the sharp deterioration in US-China relations over a variety of issues including the South China Sea itself.
Tiếp tục đọc “As US-China tensions rise, what is the outlook on the South China Sea dispute in 2020-21?”Washington threatens to expel Chinese companies from American stock markets
The administration of President Donald Trump is pressuring Chinese companies listed in the U.S. over non-compliance issues, threatening financial links between the two countries. © APYOICHI TAKITA, Nikkei senior staff writerSeptember 7, 2020 15:02 JST
TOKYO — Antagonism between the U.S. and China has moved beyond trade and technology and is now intensifying in the financial sector as well.
Global attention has been drawn to the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump. It imposes sanctions, including seizure of assets and exclusion from dollar-denominated account settlements, on officials and entities in the city and mainland China that are deemed to aid in the violation of the former British colony’s guaranteed autonomy.
Tiếp tục đọc “US-China tensions intensify as Trump pursues financial decoupling”
By Kai He07 Sep 2020 06:09AM(Updated: 07 Sep 2020 06:10AM)
There have been a series of rhetorical attacks directed at the CCP from high-ranking US officials since late June.Advertisement
National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have been dubbed the “four horsemen of the apocalypse” tasked by Trump to overthrow the CCP.
The Trump administration has taken concrete actions to decouple bilateral relations by closing the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, sending Health Secretary Alex Azar to Taiwan and attempting to ban Chinese social-media giants TikTok and WeChat in the United States.
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CHINA URGES DIALOGUE
China’s reactions have been surprisingly conciliatory given its reputation for tit-for-tat actions against the United States.
In an interview with Xinhua in early August, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi firmly rejected the idea of a new Cold War and proposed easing current tensions through dialogue “at any level, in any area and at any time”.
Two days later Yang Jiechi, Director of the Office of Foreign Affairs of the CCP, published an article titled Respect History, Look to the Future and Firmly Safeguard and Stabilise China–US Relations.
Yang praised the legacy of US engagement with China — pioneered by the Richard Nixon administration — and called for more “mutually beneficial cooperation in all fields”.
China’s goodwill diplomacy seems too little too late because no one in the Trump administration is taking it seriously. Beijing’s call for dialogue is falling on deaf ears in Washington in part because any such communication is seen as diplomatic kowtowing by the United States.
But this interpretation of Chinese diplomacy seems overly simplistic. Chinese culture and history offer a better way to understand the three messages China intends to convey to salvage relations with the United States.
CHINA DOES NOT WANT CONFLICT
First, China does not want a Cold War with the United States. Wang Yi remarked that China was not the former Soviet Union and it had no intention of becoming another United States.
This might be wishful thinking from the CCP, but it takes two to tango, and China has said it wants to avoid the Cold War trap that ensnared the Soviet Union and the United States.
Wang and Yang highlighted the good old days of US–China relations after Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to remind their US counterparts that the two countries co-existed by transcending their ideological differences. This is a taichi response to the punches thrown by the “four horsemen”.
THE US CANNOT GO ALONE
The second message is that the United States is unable to wage this Cold War alone. China wants to make it clear to US allies — including five-eyes countries Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada — that it has no intention to fight a new Cold War with the United States.
By striking a conciliatory tone, China aims to reduce the likelihood of the United States building a coalition against it. China’s anti-Cold War effort can also be seen in Wang Yi’s recent visits to five European countries.
Other interested countries — especially US allies — will need to choose whether to turn the Cold War into a reality or treat it as an illusion of the four horsemen.
While the Trump administration is trying to checkmate China through short-term confrontation, Chinese leaders are playing a game of Go insofar as they are seeking to position themselves for future advantages. This avoids direct confrontation in a game of high stakes, even if it forsakes short-term gains.
THE DANGERS OF CONFLICT
The third and final message is a warning to the international community about the danger of a potential conflict between the United States and China.
There are worries about the guns of August in the Asia Pacific — any strategic miscalculation or military accident might trigger a hot and potentially nuclear conflict in the South China Sea, East China Sea or over the Taiwan Strait.
The recent visit by US Health Secretary Azar to Taiwan may have led to Chinese military exercises around the Taiwan Strait as well as the carrier killer missile test in the South China Sea.
An early and sincere call for international cooperation during the pandemic is potentially China’s way of taking the moral high ground in preparation for something more heated with the United States.
Will China’s messages cut through to the United States? Will China behave according to the gentle signals it is trying to convey?
The coming months before the US election will be critical for US–China relations. It is time for the United States and China to work together to avoid a real, even if accidental, conflict.
Kai He is Professor of International Relations at the Griffith Asia Institute and the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University. This commentary first appeared in The Conversation.
Source: CNA/sl
Last Updated : Sep 07, 2020 11:06 AM IST | Source: Moneycontrol.com
Whoever wins in the US on November 3, there will be a new normal in US-China ties. There will be new opportunity for India if it builds on its Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership with the US, to consolidate a ‘trusted partner’ status, or ‘supply chain resilience’
On August 7, under the United States International Emergency Powers Act, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning, after 45 days, any transaction by a US entity with TikTok, and its parent company ByteDance. The order cited need to secure the information and communications technology and services supply chain, and asserted that “spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in China continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States”.
Concerns listed included TikTok automatically capturing vast swathes of information from users about network activity, location data, browsing and search histories. This, in turn, enabled the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to get Americans’ personal and proprietary information, with the potential for future blackmail and corporate espionage. Among its justifications for arriving at this assessment, the order specifically referred to recent Indian government action banning TikTok. In a subsequent order of August 14, ByteDance was given 90 days to divest itself of all its properties in the US.
Several years earlier, Chinese hackers had been suspected to have stolen personal data of nearly 15 million US federal officials, and insurance-related data of more than 100 million people in US.
The US action against TikTok followed earlier steps against Chinese technology companies Huawei and ZTE, controlling any further access by them to US technology, equipment, software etc. It was followed by restrictions on US entities using Weibo and WeChat. The US has also been running an aggressive international campaign to prevent use of Huawei in 5G rollouts, with some success so far in Europe and Asia.
The Chinese had so far been restrained in their responses, recognising the continued US technology inter-linkages for many of their leading companies, and not wanting to provoke the unpredictable Trump as he headed into a difficult re-election campaign. In the TikTok case, however, they have barred any sale of AI-related technology, and the algorithm used by the App — a clear signal of some countervailing technology power.
In an article in the May issue of The Atlantic, HR McMaster, a former Trump national security advisor, cited Chinese Premier Li Keqiang telling Trump in November 2017 that “China, having already developed its industrial and technology base, no longer needed the US….its role in the future would merely be to provide China with raw materials, agricultural products, and energy to fuel its production of the world’s cutting- edge industrial and consumer products”.
It can now be legitimately asked if the US-China economic and technology rivalry has finally crossed the Rubicon, and if some measure of decoupling is inevitable. The US has been struggling with its China policy for more than a decade now. For a long time, mainstream opinion supported ‘integrating China into the international mainstream’, which was assessed as leading to inevitable economic and political liberalisation. This did not happen.
China gamed the WTO and international trading systems, initially keeping the Yuan devalued, and then subsidising heavily its State-owned enterprises, and building excess capacity in many areas, including steel. It sponsored national champions in technology. Under President Xi Jinping, China abandoned the Deng Xiaoping era policy of ‘hide your strength and bide your time’, and threw the gauntlet through its China Dream, and Made in China 2025, seeking to make China a leading global high-tech manufacturer.
Trump has, no doubt, seized on a sharp anti-China rhetoric as electoral strategy, hoping to retain the votes of his 2016 base, which had seen its jobs vanish under globalisation, and to deflect the anger of those impacted by COVID-19. At the same time, his administration has taken the strongest measures, since the 1971 US opening to China, on tariffs, trade, technology denial, sanctions against Chinese officials and others for their actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, and the South China Sea.
Aside from Trump, many senior US officials, including the Vice-President, have made sustained statements calling out China on cyber hacking, disinformation, intellectual property theft, forced technology transfers, human rights violations, and transgressions of international law. Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden issued a statement on September 3, asserting that as US President he would “put values back at center of American foreign policy”, meet with Dalai Lama, and appoint a Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues.
Whoever wins in US on November 3, there will be a new normal in US-China ties. Tech rivalry and reordering of supply chains will continue. There will be new opportunity for India if it builds on its Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership with the US, to consolidate a ‘trusted partner’ status, or ‘supply chain resilience’ in areas of strength such as digital and pharma, or in new tech areas such as AI, cyber, quantum and big data.
Arun K Singh is former Indian Ambassador to the United States. Views are personal.
CVD 