There is a growing acceptance among countries in the Indo-Pacific region that strategic competition between the United States and China is changing perceptions about security and the adequacy of the existing security architecture. While some have characterized the competition between the two as a new Cold War, it is clear that what is happening in the region is far more complex than the competition that characterized the original Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. First, the economic integration that has taken place since the early 1990s makes it much more difficult to draw bright ideological lines between the two sides. Further, the Asian context of the emerging competition is one where the two competitors have grown to share power. As the dominant military power, the United States has been the primary security guarantor in Asia and beyond. China, on the other hand, has emerged over the past decades as the primary economic catalyst in Asia and beyond. Currently, each side seems increasingly unwilling to accept that arrangement.
(CNN)The Unites States has charged eight people, including six Chinese citizens, over a three-year plot to intimidate a US resident into returning to China to face criminal charges.The case is believed to be part of the ruling Communist Party’s Operation Fox Hunt, an international anti-corruption campaign targeting Chinese fugitives — often former officials or rich individuals suspected of economic crimes.The US Department of Justice said Wednesday the charges included “conspiring to act in the US as illegal agents of the People’s Republic of China.” Five people have been arrested, while three are believed to be at large in China.In 2016, the group — which includes an American-licensed private investigator — is alleged to have embarked on an illegal campaign targeting a former Chinese government official, who has lived in the US since 2010. They are accused of recording and harassing his daughter, taping a threatening note to his front door and flying his elderly father from China — allegedly against his will — in 2017 to pressure his son to return to China.The note on the target’s New Jersey home said in Chinese: “If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be all right. That’s the end of this matter!”Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, US Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers said the arrests sent a message that the US “will not tolerate this type of flagrant conduct on our shores.”close dialog
Get daily analysis on the historic 2020 US election delivered to your inbox.Sign Me UpNo ThanksBy subscribing you agree to ourprivacy policy.“Without coordination with our government, China’s repatriation squads enter the United States, surveil and locate the alleged fugitives, and deploy intimidation and other tactics to force them back into China where they would face certain imprisonment or worse following illegitimate trials,” he said.Speaking at a press conference Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that Chinese law enforcement agencies “conduct foreign cooperation in strict accordance with international law, fully respect foreign laws and judicial sovereignty.””The United States ignores the basic facts and uses ulterior motives to smear China’s work in pursuit of escaped and stolen goods. China firmly opposes this. We urge the US to immediately correct its mistakes,” he said.
Operation Fox Hunt
The Chinese government launched Operation Fox Hunt in 2014 to target wealthy citizens who were accused of corruption and had fled the country with large amounts of money.Beijing authorities said at least 150 corrupt officials had fled to the US, and provided American counterparts with a list of “priority cases.”Demers said such operations — regardless of whether the targets were guilty or not — were “a clear violation of the rule of law and international norms.””Rather than work with US authorities for assistance with recognized criminal cases as responsible nations do, China resorts to extralegal means and unauthorized, often covert, law enforcement activity,” he said.FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a news conference Wednesday that in a different Operation Fox Hunt case, the Chinese government had sent an “emissary” to the target’s US-based family warning that the person should “return to China promptly or commit suicide.”Wray said that when Operation Fox Hunt targets refuse to return to China, family members in their home country “have even been arrested for leverage.””These are not the actions we would expect from a responsible nation state. Instead they’re more like something we would expect from an organized criminal syndicate,” Wray said.
Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have promised to take a tough stance on China. Photo: Xinhua
As the US presidential candidates sparred over how to counter China, the country’s leader Xi Jinping was making clear that a newly emboldened country would not back down from a fight.
In a speech marking the 70th anniversary of China’s entry into the Korean war – the only military conflict between Chinese and American forces – Xi outlined in no uncertain terms that the “century of humiliation” Beijing said it suffered at the hands of Western aggressors was long gone.
File photo of two US-made Taiwanese F-16 fighter jets. (Photo: AFP/Sam Yeh)
22 Oct 2020 05:44PM
BEIJING: China threatened on Thursday (Oct 22) to retaliate against the latest US arms sale to Taiwan, as the island welcomed the weapons package but said it was not looking to get into an arms race with Beijing.
The Trump administration has ramped up support for Taiwan through arms sales and visits by senior US officials, adding to tensions between Beijing and Washington, already heightened by disagreements over the South China Sea, Hong Kong, human rights and trade.
A screen showing stock prices at a securities company in Beijing on August 5. GREG BAKER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Welcome to the first edition of Foreign Policy’s China Brief, where every week we’ll bring you news and analysis from the most populous country in the world: the one with the angriest crowds, the hottest tech, and the smelliest dofu. I’m James Palmer, a senior editor at FP previously based in Beijing for 15 years. Every week, I’ll break down the news and explain it here.
What we’ve got today: China and the United States go tit for tat over currency, Hong Kong is split between police and protesters, and China criticizes India over Kashmir and Huawei.
Trump Accuses China of Manipulating the Yuan
A cease-fire in the ongoing U.S.-China trade war seems a long way off. This week, U.S. President Donald Trump directed the U.S. Treasury to officially designate China as a “currency manipulator” after Beijing allowed the yuan to depreciate below the symbolic level of 7 yuan to the U.S. dollar. The change itself is less than 2 percent—a smaller adjustment than market-driven fluctuations last summer—but the psychological threshold is an important one. Tiếp tục đọc “Is China Starting a Currency War?”→
TTO – Washington đã gọi Đài Loan là “một quốc gia” trong chiến lược Ấn Độ – Thái Bình Dương dài 55 trang vừa được công bố, nhấn mạnh sự hỗ trợ của Đài Bắc trong việc duy trì “một trật tự thế giới tự do và rộng mở”.
Chính quyền của nhà lãnh đạo Đài Loan Thái Anh Văn đã đứng trước nhiều sức ép từ Trung Quốc – Ảnh: AFP
Các từ ngữ và động thái đi ngược lại nguyên tắc “Một Trung Quốc” được dự báo chắc chắn sẽ chọc giận Bắc Kinh, đẩy căng thẳng giữa hai nước Mỹ-Trung lên một tầm cao mới.
CVD 