Geo-Strategic Trend – Page 67

Lianhe Zaobao: U.S. Has No Intention to Engage with China on Indo-Pacific Economic Framework

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that Daniel Kritenbrink, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said that the U.S. has no intention of engaging with China in the upcoming Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. However, it is in discussions with partners who share the same vision for a free and open region without coercion. The U.S. is in preliminary talks on the Economic Framework and currently does not intend to involve the People’s Republic of China in the Framework. Kritenbrink said that the U.S. is in initial dialogues with partners across the region who share the same vision of living again in a free and open region where nations are free to pursue economic and security interests. The United States released an Indo-Pacific strategy report on the 11th of this month, vowing to invest more diplomatic and security resources in the Indo-Pacific region to resist China, which it accused of trying to expand its influence in the Indo-Pacific region. This is the first regional strategy report of the U.S. Biden Administration. The strategy report said it will focus on the areas from South Asia to the Pacific Islands to strengthen the United States’ long-term position and commitment to the Indo-Pacific region. According to a recent study that the ASEAN Studies Centre – ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore conducted, the U.S. government refocused on Indo-Pacific, boosting Southeast Asian countries’ confidence in U.S. leadership. However, in terms of economic, political and strategic influence, Southeast Asian countries generally believe that China has more influence in the region.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, February 17, 2022
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20220217-1243762

Briefings | | February 21, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

Reference News: U.S. Eased Trump-Era Steel Tariffs on Japan

Reference News, a well-known branch of Xinhua, recently reported that the United States said it had agreed to lift the import tariffs it had imposed on Japanese steel under the Trump administration. It was a further move after the United States reached a similar agreement with the European Union last October. This showed that the Biden administration is stepping up its efforts to strengthen economic ties with Asia-Pacific countries to counter China’s growing influence.The Biden administration officials told reporters that the deal would allow Japan to export up to 1.25 million tons of steel annually to the United States duty-free. This is similar to the level of exports in 2018 and 2019. Such arrangements will help reduce the cost for U.S. steel importers. At the same time, it will maintain tariffs that exceed the protocol levels of steel to prevent the imports from increasing. The American Iron and Steel Institute welcomed the government’s announcement. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the deal would “level the playing field against China.” However, the current 10 percent tariff on Japanese aluminum will remain in place, while the new tariffs cover less steel than the 1.8 million tons of steel the U.S. imported from Japan in 2017, according to U.S. Commerce Department statistics. The World Steel Association’s data shows that Japan and the United States are among the world’s top steel producers behind China, the European Union and India.

Source: Reference News, February 10, 2022
http://www.cankaoxiaoxi.com/finance/20220210/2468694.shtml

Briefings | | February 15, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

CNA: Taiwan Ranked 8th in the Global Democracy Index

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) just released its Global Democracy Index 2021 Report. According to the Report, Taiwan ranked 8th out of 167 countries and regions, and is the only “full democracy” regime in Asia to hold a spot in the top 10. According to the Report, the top 10 are Norway, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Ireland and Taiwan, with Australia and Switzerland tied for the ninth place. Many European and American democracies, including Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, the United States, Canada, and others did not rank as high as Taiwan. Among them, France is 22nd, Spain is 24th, the United States is 26th, and Italy is 31st. They are in the “flawed democracy” category. Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom fall outside the top 10, although they are in the same “full democracy” category as Taiwan. South Korea and Japan are ranked 16th and 17th respectively. China is classified as “authoritarian” and ranked 148th. More than a third of the world’s population lives in authoritarian countries, a large number of which are in China. EIU noted that, “China has become richer, but not more democratic. On the contrary, China has become less free.” Afghanistan, Myanmar and North Korea are the three least democratic countries in the world.

Source: CNA, February 10, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aopl/202202100357.aspx

Briefings | | February 14, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

China and Argentina sign MoU on Belt & Road Initiative

According to a joint statement issued Sunday after a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernandez, China and Argentina have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Belt & Road Initiative,.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Fernandez is paying a visit to China, during which he attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.

The MoU is on jointly promoting the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It is between the government of the People’s Republic of China and the government of the Argentine Republic. It was signed as the two countries marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties this year.

The statement said that they also studied bilateral trade cooperation and agreed to continue to expand trade, enhance financial support for China’s export settlement to Argentina and actively encourage trade diversification,.

The two sides agreed actively to advance bilateral investment and to expand how they complement each other in economic activity and seek new economic opportunities. The statement added that they agreed to boost green sustainable development, and investment and cooperation in the digital economy.

According to the statement, the meeting outlined the framework of major projects for investment in infrastructure construction in Argentina, discussed the possibility of expanding localized participation in infrastructure investment projects, and identified key areas for investment cooperation to expand Argentina’s exports.

Source: Xinhua News Agency, February 6, 2022
http://english.news.cn/20220206/931db89ad713488e8e1aeece22bff660/c.html

Briefings | | February 9, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Nikkei Chinese: 23 Percent of Japan’s Import Categories Get Half of their Volume from China

Nikkei Chinese Edition recently reported that the Cabinet Office of Japan just released its World Economic Trends Report, analyzing the trade structure between major countries and China. The numbers showed that Japan relies more on imports from China than from the United States and Germany. The Report sounded alarms. The concern was that, if Japan maintained its current country-specific structure for Japan’s sourcing strategy it would risk supply chain disruptions. The report showed the number of categories with relatively concentrated import sources in three countries: Japan, the United States and Germany. Judging from the ratio of Chinese sourced value in 2019, Japan reached 23.3 percent, the highest ratio, the United States was 18.1 percent, and Germany was 8.5 percent. Among the approximately 5,000 imported categories, looking at the number of categories in which China’s share (in terms of value) exceeds 50 percent, Japan is 1,133 categories (23.0 percent), higher than the US’ 590 categories (11.9 percent) and Germany’s 250 categories (5.0 percent). Japan relies on China for a wide range of categories, including mobile phones and notebook computers, light-emitting diode (LED) related products, game consoles and toys. Among them, 85.7 percent of the import value in the mobile phone field came from China in 2019, an increase of 69.1 percent from 10 years ago. Imports of laptops and tablets from China reached 98.8 percent in 2019.

Source: Nikkei Chinese, February 4, 2022
https://cn.nikkei.com/politicsaeconomy/investtrade/47517-2022-02-04-10-27-18.html

Briefings | | February 8, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Global Times: Alert! Japan Clamors to Use Electromagnetic Guns to Intercept Hypersonic Weapons

Global Times, an English-language Chinese newspaper under People’s Daily recently reported that Japan is working on electromagnetic railgun technology to counter hypersonic missiles. This is because Japan is eager to deal with hypersonic weapons from China, Russia, and North Korea. The country has emphasized the need to strengthen deterrence against China. However, while Japan is exaggerating the threat of hypersonic weapons from other countries and making excuses for its own military spending, Japan is also actively developing offensive weapons including hypersonic missiles. Japan’s Defense Ministry is working on rail-gun technology that can fire artillery shells through electromagnetic acceleration, which means they can be fired faster than conventional interceptor systems and can fire continuously. Along with long-range missiles, this next-generation weapon system will provide Japan with multiple layers of interception capabilities. Hypersonic weapons typically travel at more than five times the speed of sound. In November last year, the Financial Times reported that, in August 2021, China conducted a test of a hypersonic weapon saying that the weapon could launch missiles during flight. North Korea also claimed to have conducted a new test of its Hwasong-8 hypersonic missile in September last year. Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously stated that, in 2022, Russia plans to deploy hypersonic cruise missiles. Japanese policymakers see hypersonic weapons as the next generation of military weapons and believe Japan must immediately strengthen its deterrent capabilities, especially against China.

Source: Global Times, January 5, 2022
https://mil.huanqiu.com/article/46H3xOyIBJS

Briefings | | February 6, 2022 | Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

Taiwan: Chinese Think Tanker: China Can Take Taiwan by Force in One Week by 2027

Jin Canrong, a Professor and Vice Dean of the School of International Relations at Renmin University in Beijing, is a hawkish think tanker in China. He got the world’s attention for providing diplomatic advice to the communist authorities.

In his recent interview with Nikkei Asia, he made the following statement:

“Reunification by force will be pushed to become a reality after the Chinese Communist Party’s 20^th National Congress is over in the fall of 2022. The leadership is likely to bring the date to 2027, around the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).”

“China already has the capability to reunify Taiwan within a week. The PLA can defeat any U.S. force within 1,000 nautical miles of (China’s) coast.”

“Japan should never intervene in the Taiwan emergency affair. The United States can no longer win over China on this. If Japan intervenes, China will have no choice but to defeat Japan as well. (Japan) should realize that a new change is taking place.”

Taiwan: IOC Pushed Taiwan to Attend the Olympic Opening Ceremony

On January 28, Taiwan announced that its athletes who were attending the Beijing Winter Olympic Games would not attend the Olympic’s Opening Ceremony and the Closing Ceremony. From January 29 on, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) contacted Taiwan’s Olympic Committee multiple times, stating that the Olympic Charter requests Olympic Committees of all countries to attend the related ceremonies. The Taiwan Olympic Committee discussed the issue with the athletes and then announced that they would attend both ceremonies.

The Taiwan team uses the name “Chinese Taipei” to attend the Olympic Games. In January, Beijing suddenly called it “China Taipei” making many Taiwan people feel it was purposely belittling Taiwan (indicating Taipei is under China). That is why Taiwan announced earlier that it would not attend the ceremonies.

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