Hong Kong (CNN Business)President Donald Trump spent much of his term setting up Beijing as Washington’s greatest political and economic adversary. Don’t expectdrastic changes when Joe Biden takes the helm, even if he eschews the bluster and unpredictability of his predecessor.Economists and trade experts believe that the United States and China will move further apart on trade and technology as Washington continues to scrutinize virtually every aspect of its relationship with the world’s second-largesteconomy.”We have a fundamental, systematic rivalry between these two systems,” said Alex Capri, research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation and senior fellow and lecturer at the National University of Singapore. “In many ways, that rivalry is going to intensify.”
The latest episode of POLITICO’s Global Translations podcast explores the new industrial policy emerging in America to counter China’s ascent.
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during fifth plenary session of the 19th Communist Party of China Central Committee in Beijing. | Ju Peng/Xinhua via AP
A historic shift in U.S. economic policy is taking shape regardless of who sits in the White House or controls Congress: an increasingly muscular role for state power to build up industries U.S. leaders deem critical to America’s national security and place in the world.
Being tough on China is what unifies a polarized United States right now, according to former top White House trade negotiator Clete Willems.
A day after Americans voted, the race between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden is still up in the air — several states remain uncalled.
Willems explained that if Biden wins, he would be constrained by the political environment and will unlikely be able to go back to some of the China positions he’s held in the past that were seen as relatively weak.
WATCH NOWVIDEO03:25Being tough on China unifies a polarized U.S., former trade negotiator says
Being tough on China is what unifies a polarized United States right now, according to former top White House trade negotiator Clete Willems.
A day after Americans voted, the race between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden is still up in the air — with six states yet to be called by NBC News.
Regardless of who takes the White House, the relationship with China will remain more or less status quo, said Willems, a partner at Akin Gump.
“The truth of the matter is that being tough on China is what unifies us in a polarized nation right now. We’re polarized in our politics but we are not polarized on China,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday.
Hong Kong (CNN Business) China wants to counter the United States by boosting its technological capabilities and becoming more self sufficient. That’s easier said than done.Beijing outlined its goal for more economic independence this week as the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee put together its latest Five-Year Plan. The 14th iteration of the vast policy framework will cover 2021 to 2025, and is key to setting the country’s political and economic agenda.The full scope of the plan might not be known for months, but a statement published Thursday said that China wants to focus on economic self-reliance and technological independence. Doing so would help insulate the country from US attempts to restrict its access to critical technologies.”[We will] nurture a strong domestic market and establish a new development pattern,” the statement said. “Domestic consumption will be a strategic focus.”Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech in Shenzhen on October 14.
Light on detail
The statement did not yet outline any specific targets.But messages from Beijing are being closely watched right now.The world’s second largest economy is likely to be the only major world power to expand this year as the coronavirus pandemic prevents growth elsewhere. China’s future is also closely tied to its unfolding trade and technology war with the United States, and tensions between the two are getting worse.
“Economic globalization is facing headwinds now,” said Han Wenxiu, a senior finance official from the Communist Party’s Central Committee during a press conference Friday. The pandemic, coupled with rising protectionism, has weakened international economic cooperation, Han added.The need for innovation at home was underscored byWang Zhigang, China’s Minister of Science and Technology.”Technological self sufficiency is a strategic pillar of the nation’s development,” Wang said. “We must boost independent innovation and do our own job well. That’s because key technologies can’t be bought or asked for [from others].”
Easier said than done
China’s desire to achieve economic self-sufficiency isn’t a new one. Many of the country’s Five-Year Plans have prioritized sustainable growth and expanding domestic industry. And a recent, ambitious 10-year plan — “Made in China 2025″ — was created to push China’s manufacturing sector into more advanced technological fields.But achieving economic independence is easier said than done.”There is no guarantee that efforts to boost self-sufficiency in specific sectors will succeed,” wrote Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist for Capital Economics, in a research note late last week.Evans-Pritchard pointed out that unforeseen events can derail China’s plans, such as when an outbreak of African Swine Fever decimated the country’s pork industry last year. The disease wiped out a third of China’s pig population, causing a shortage that forced China to import massive amounts of meat.
For advanced sectors, shedding foreign independence is even more difficult. China is hugely reliant on other countries for the chipsets it needs to build the next generation of technology. The country imported more than $300 billion worth of chips last year, about $64 billion more than it spent on crude oil.”Made in China 2025″ was intended to help China reduce that reliance, and included goals for 40% of chips to be produced domestically by 2020. That share was supposed to increase to 70% by 2025.But the country doesn’t appear to be anywhere close to achieving those targets. Last year, less than 16% of the chips that China needed were produced within the country’s borders, according to an estimate published earlier this year by IC Insights.”Given the large gap between China and the US in the semiconductor industry, China will have to make gigantic investments over a long period in order to catch up with material progress,” according to Chaoping Zhu, global market strategist for JP Morgan Asset Management based in Shanghai.He wrote in a report Friday that it’s doubtful as to whether China will be able to achieve self-reliance in a variety of areas, with chips on top of that list.Economic self sufficiency is also not always good for economic development, according to Evans-Pritchard. He noted that companies are most productive when they can freely choose between domestic or imported inputs without political interference.”Pursuing self-sufficiency is (literally) a textbook way to depress productivity,” he wrote.
Beijing’s hands might be tied
China might not have a choice, though, when it comes to pursuing further economic independence.Washington and Beijing have been locked in an escalating battle over technology, trade and national security. Tensions have only increased this year as they blame each other for starting and mishandling the coronavirus pandemic and clash over Hong Kong and alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
The spat has led the United States to slap heavy sanctions on Chinese companies that rely on US technology to survive, including tech firm Huawei. Other tech champions, including China’s biggest chipmaker SMIC, have also entered Washington’s crosshairs.”Facing the risks of widening restrictions, it is increasingly critical for China to develop domestic capacity and reduce its dependence on foreign technology, ” wrote Zhufrom JP Morgan.Evans-Pritchard said that China still needs to figure out a way to address its biggest problems, including an over-reliance on infrastructure-focused investment as a means to protect growth and an aging population.”Without faster progress in addressing structural problems, we think growth could slow to just 2% by 2030,” he said.
Hong Kong (CNN) At the first meeting between Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, held over chocolate cake and sorbet at the US President’s vast Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida, the two leaders seemed on the brink of establishing an unlikely and potentially special relationship.Trump, less than three months into his first term, had spent his election campaign denouncing the Chinese government for undermining the United States, through a wide trade imbalance and cheap labor. “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country,” Trump said in May 2016.But when Trump was standing alongside Xi at Mar-a-Lago the following April, his tone changed dramatically. The two leaders exchanged compliments during a news conference, with Trump describing their relationship as “outstanding.” Pictures from the meeting showed the two men sitting side-by-side, smiling broadly, on a golden couch.”It was a great honor to have President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan of China as our guests … Tremendous goodwill and friendship was formed,” Trump tweeted shortly after the visit.US President Donald Trump poses with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan upon their arrival at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 6, 2017.
Hong Kong (CNN) China was one of two countries, along with Russia, named in a 2018 Pentagon report as posing the most significant military challenge to the United States. Two years on and that challenge has only grown.Beijing’s program of rapid modernization has seen its military transformed into a true global power, capable of comfortably projecting its forces throughout the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.This year alone has seen China engage in deadly border clashes with Indian troops; China’s People’s Liberation Army aircraft have repeatedly buzzed Taiwanese and Japanese air defenses; and Chinese ships have been involved in multiple incidents in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.<img alt=”The USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Groups conduct dual carrier operations in the Indo-Pacific earlier this year.” -=””>
With tariffs on Chinese products high, US importers are turning to other countries. A DW analysis shows where Americans are now buying their cell phones, computers, furniture and clothing from instead.
Dung Trans’ business is booming: “Last year, we added a second floor to our factory. And now I’m looking at a new site four times larger than the current one.” For his company, the ongoing trade dispute between China and the United States has been a boon. And he is not alone.
(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.
China says decision was ‘necessary’ after the US declared several more Chinese media outlets to be ‘foreign missions’
The US media firms affected are the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Feature Story News, the Bureau of National Affairs and Minnesota Public Radio Photograph: Richard Vogel/APStaff and agencies
Mon 26 Oct 2020 16.42 GMT
China has tightened the rules on a number of US media outlets, in a move it said was “necessary and reciprocal” after Chinese journalists in America were hit with restrictions last week.
The US media firms affected are the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Feature Story News, the Bureau of National Affairs and Minnesota Public Radio.
A foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said in a statement that the requirements were “legitimate and justified self-defense in every sense”.
“What the United States has done is exclusively targeting Chinese media organizations driven by the cold war mentality and ideological basis,” Zhao added.
The moves are the latest in a series of tit-for-tat measures between Beijing and Washington.
Last week the US designated a further six Chinese media organisations as propaganda outlets that answer to the state.
The department earlier imposed rules on nine outlets including the official Xinhua news agency and China Global Television Network.
China has denounced the regulations and retaliated by expelling US citizens who work for major news organisations, including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
In May the US shortened the visa for Chinese journalists in America to 90 days, and last month the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said Beijing was no longer renewing press credentials for US media employees in the country.
Updated 0946 GMT (1746 HKT) October 27, 2020US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (right) is greeted by US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster upon his arrival at an airport in New Delhi on October 26, 2020.
Hong Kong (CNN)The United States and India have reaffirmed their defensive and security relationship, as Washington continues to rally allies in Asia amid concerns over increased Chinese military activity in the region.During a press conference Tuesday in the Indian capital, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh announced the signing of the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA), enabling greater information-sharing and further defense cooperation between the two countries.”The defense ties between our two nations remains a key pillar of our overall bilateral relationship,” said Esper. “Based on our shared values and common interests, we stand shoulder to shoulder in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific for all, particularly in light of increasing aggression and destabilizing activities by China.”The agreement, said Singh furthered the two sides ongoing commitment to the “law and freedom of navigation in the international seas” while “upholding the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states.”Both India and the US are due to participate in the upcoming Malabar naval exercises which will be held in the Indian Ocean next month. The drills will feature all members of the so-called Quad, an informal alliance of the US, India, Japan and Australia, which has been proposed by some as a potential “Asian NATO,” intended to counterbalance Chinese military strength in the region. Tiếp tục đọc “India signs defensive agreement with US following Himalayan standoff with China”→
Hong Kong (CNN)Tens of thousands of US and Japanese troops will begin a massive island-landing exercise in the Pacific this week as part of joint military operations seen as a warning to China that Washington backs Tokyo over Beijing’s claim to Japanese-controlled islands.Speaking aboard a Japanese warship Monday, Lt. Gen. Kevin Schneider, commander of US Forces Japan, said the exercises would demonstrate the ability of the US-Japan alliance “to deliver combat troops to defend the Senkakus or respond to other crises or contingencies.”Both Tokyo and Beijing claim the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyus in China, as their own, but Japan has administered them since 1972.Tensions over the uninhabited rocky chain, 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo, have simmered for years, and with claims over them dating back centuries, neither Japan nor China is likely to back down.Chinese vessels have been spending record amounts of time in the waters around the islands this year, drawing condemnation from Tokyo.The US-Japan exercises, named Keen Sword 21, have been held biennially for more than 30 years. This year’s exercises run through to November 5.
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.
(CNN Business) The United States government has labeled six more Chinese media companies operating in the US as foreign missions in the latest round of tit-for-tat between Beijing and Washington over restrictions on journalists.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the decision at a press briefing on Wednesday, saying that the six media companies were “substantially or effectively controlled by a foreign government.””We’re not placing any restrictions on what these outlets can publish in the United States,” Pompeo said. “We simply want to ensure that American people, consumers of information, can differentiate between news written by a free press and propaganda distributed by the Chinese Communist Party itself. They’re not the same thing.”The US operations of Yicai Global, Jiefang Daily, Xinmin Evening News, Social Sciences in China Press, Beijing Review and Economic Daily will all be affected by the decision, according to a release from State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus.
Alan Crawford, DebWu, Colum Murphy and Ian KingFri, October 23, 2020, 12:42 AM GMT+7·11 mins read. Yahoo!Finance
The U.S.-China Conflict Over Chips Is About to Get Uglier
(Bloomberg) — On a scorching hot day in late August, representatives of Taiwan’s government and industry crowded into the clinical cool of a state-of-the-art semiconductor facility for a symbolic moment in the global tech conflict.
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech in Shenzhen on October 14.
US President Donald Trump poses with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan upon their arrival at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 6, 2017.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (right) is greeted by US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster upon his arrival at an airport in New Delhi on October 26, 2020.
CVD 