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US-China Relations - 18. page

U.S. Announced New Controls over Chips and Chip-making Equipment

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that, on October 7, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced new export controls over chips. New export control measures restrict U.S. companies from selling certain advanced chips and manufacturing equipment to Chinese manufacturers. Also, the BIS increased export licensing requirements for technologies that China can use in supercomputing and semiconductor development. This may be the biggest change in U.S. policy on exporting technology to China since the 1990s. If implemented, U.S. technology and chip manufacturing will no longer be able to support China, which will set China’s chip manufacturing industry back by several years. The BIS stipulates that if U.S. manufacturers want to export equipment that can make DRAM of 18 nanometers or below, NAND Flash of 128 layers or above, or logic chips below 14 nanometers to local Chinese manufacturers, they must apply for export licenses. The Commerce Department said the move would protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests. A senior official at the ministry said that concerted action is still in discussions with allies. For Its own self interest, Americans have not hesitated to use the laws of fair trade, or suppress and contain the development of technology companies in other countries.  They have reached that point.

Source: NetEase, October 8, 2022
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HJ4UL3D50553JNEE.html?f=post2020_dy_recommends

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

Apple Is Very Glad to Make the iPhone 14 in India

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that Apple said, not long ago, that the iPhone manufacturers are “excited to produce the iPhone 14 in India.” In order to diversify the supply chain and avoid over-reliance on China, it is reported that Apple plans to transfer a quarter of iPhone production to India by 2025. J.P.Morgan Chase analysts said they believe Apple will move about 5 percent of the iPhone 14 production to India by the end of this year. The iPhone 14’s mass production progress in India this year is still about six weeks behind China, and it has generally been behind by a quarter or more in the past. Apple first started producing the iPhone SE in India in 2017. This April, Apple announced that it had started production of the iPhone 13 smartphone in India. Previously, some iPhones were assembled at Foxconn’s local Indian  factories, while others were assembled at Wistron’s Indian factories. Bloomberg revealed earlier in September that the Tata Group, a leading Indian company, is in talks with Taiwanese supplier Wistron, hoping to establish a joint venture to assemble Apple’s iPhones in India.

Source: NetEase, September 26, 2022
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HI6PD4OP0511B8LM.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

Tibetan Student Organization at Columbia Received Warning Letter from China; China Even Destroyed Posters

Columbia University recently saw the launch of Students for a Free Tibet at Columbia University, its first Tibetan student organization and an offshoot of the international organization Students for a Free Tibet (SFT). The association hopes to provide a platform for the students to communicate and engage in activities in solidarity with the people of Tibet who are under the oppressive rule of the Chinese Communist Party.

The organization has put up posters in several academic buildings, inviting students interested in Sino-Tibetan studies and Sino-Tibetan relations to learn about Tibetan culture and participate in campus activities. Examples include such as topics as Tibetan food, movies, and cultural festivals.

On Wednesday September 21, a number of SFT posters “disappeared.” In their place someone scrawled the words “Tibet is an inseparable part of the People’s Republic of China.”

A letter in Chinese appeared next to a poster at Columbia’s School of International Public Affairs (SIPA), warning students that, as Chinese, they should not tolerate but should back down from this “separatist act” and should not be silent or appeased. The letter also stated that SIPA adheres to the spirit of the UN, that the United States does not recognize Tibetan independence, and that students were urged  to say no to “separatist forces” and to protect their own country.

Sveta Li, one of the founders of SFT Columbia, suspected that the Chinese embassy was behind the incident and that the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) played the role of collecting information from the campus and reporting to the Chinese Embassy.

Li said, “Maybe there are individual students who are spontaneously patriotic, but I think it is more organized.  . . . The Chinese Consulate will certainly not see the emergence of a ‘Tibetan independence’ organization at such an American university.  . . . The Chinese Students and Scholars Association is funded by the Chinese Consulate, and this is a Chinese Communist spy organization.”

In 2017 when the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) invited the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetans, to speak at its graduation ceremony, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) organized a protest. At a memorial event of the Tiananmen Massacre on June 4 this year, also at UCSD, Chinese students violently tore down posters and sabotaged candles on campus.

Source: Radio Free Asia, September 23, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/us-poster-09232022114430.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Biden Said U.S. Will Defend Taiwan In the Event of a China Invasion

The 60 Minutes TV program that aired on Sunday, September 18, showed an interview with U.S. President Biden on September 15, in which Biden clearly stated that the U.S. will defend Taiwan.

The 60 Minutes correspondent, Scott Pelley, asked President Biden,”What should Chinese President Xi know about your commitment to Taiwan?”

Biden answered, “We agree with what we signed onto a long time ago,” “that there’s one China policy, and that Taiwan makes its own judgments about their independence. We are not moving– we’re not encouraging their being independent. We’re not– that– that’s their decision.”

“But would U.S. forces defend the island?” Pelley asked.

“Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack,” Biden said.

“So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir,” Pelley continued, “U.S. forces, U.S. men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?”

“Yes,” Biden replied.

Many observers felt this would shift the U.S. policy on defending Taiwan from “strategic ambiguity” to “strategic clarity.”

This is the fourth time that President Biden said the U.S. will defend Taiwan if China invades the island. He made similar statements last October and also in May this year.

Each time afterward, including the recent 60 Minutes interview, the White House spokesperson said the U.S. position on Taiwan has not changed.

Robert Tsao, a Taiwanese tech tycoon, told Financial Times in an interview that Taiwan’s stand-off with China is not about unification or independence. “These are fake issues,” he said. “China’s nationalism is anti-civilizational. Taiwan, on the other hand, stands on the side of civilization, which values reason, science, progress, peace, human rights, the rule of law and democracy. That is why we cannot be together with them.(ie. with China)”

Sources:
1. VOA, September 20, 2022
https://www.voachinese.com/a/us-taiwan-china-2022-09-19/6754043.html
2. CBS, September 18, 2022
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-joe-biden-taiwan-60-minutes-2022-09-18/
3. Financial Times, September 20, 2022
https://www.ft.com/content/e72d62af-7f01-40d4-83dc-b15612cf9764

Briefings | | |   @CS Defense/Military US-China Relations

CNA: Estimates Say Twitter Accepts “Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a Year” from China for Ads

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that, although China bans 1.4 billion citizens from Twitter, its government spent a great deal of money on global advertising on the Twitter social platform. China has become Twitter’s fastest-growing overseas advertising market and one of its largest revenue generators outside the United States. A review of open government information shows budget documents and propaganda tweets from 2020 to 2022 found that Chinese local governments and the Communist Party propaganda offices in cities, provinces and even in districts across China have been buying a large number of Twitter ads in the U.S. These campaigns are often outsourced by the government to state media, spreading the word about its economic achievements to international audiences, and, with exemptions, circumventing Twitter’s ban on state media advertising. For the first time, it shows how important China has become to Twitter. Twitter is in a tough spot right now, as the company’s U.S. business has stagnated and it still faces investor pressure on growth goals. However, China’s business has become a source of internal conflict at Twitter. One group is inclined to expand its business opportunities as much as possible. The other is concerned about the wisdom of dealing with state-run institutions amid growing tensions between the United States and China. According to sources familiar with this matter, Chinese gaming, e-commerce and technology companies are also major Twitter customers. The overseas advertising that Twitter sells to Chinese customers is estimated to be “hundreds of millions of dollars a year.” Twitter declined to comment on internal discussions and its sales in China.

Source: CNA, September 14, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aopl/202209140066.aspx

Briefings | | |   @CS Information/Technology US-China Relations

TikTok Refused to Commit to U.S. Demand to Block User Data Flowing to China

Taiwanese news site NewTalk recently reported that, at the Homeland Security Committee Senate hearing a few days ago, when confronted by US senators, TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas refused to promise to prevent the flow of U.S. user data to China. Pappas only said the company will work with the U.S. government on an agreement that will “address all national security concerns.” When asked if the company would completely block access to all U.S. data by “Chinese TikTok employees, employees of parent company ByteDance, or any other Chinese person with the ability to access information about U.S. users,” Pappas was reluctant to commit. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance and its founder is Chinese. Under China’s National Security Law and its Intelligence Law, the Beijing government can compel companies to provide intelligence agencies with customer information. In June of this year, online news BuzzFeed pointed out, based on leaked meeting recordings, that ByteDance’s Chinese employees had repeatedly accessed TikTok’s US user data. TikTok later admitted that ByteDance employees could, under certain circumstances, have access to the data of U.S. users.

Source: NewTalk, September 16, 2022
https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2022-09-16/817811

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

“Free Xinjiang” Blocked on Reddit – Netizens Criticize Tencent’s Possible Infiltration

A group of netizens set up a Chinese version of “Free XinJiang” on an American social media site, Reddit, to provide a platform for Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims and supporters to communicate in Chinese, and to upload reports and information on the Chinese Communist authorities human rights violations in XinJiang.

However, just within the first 23 hours after its creation, Reddit received a large number of malicious complaints that had been filed against this information on the Chinese Communist authorities’ human rights violations.

Tony, the administrator of the “Free Xinjiang” section, suspected that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), through its online army consisting of fifty-centers, had made these illegal “posts” and then filed these “complaints,” thereby triggering the shutdown of the channel. He also suspected that that since Reddit had been taking investments from Tencent since 2019, it had become an accomplice of the Chinese Communist Party.

In February 2019, Reddit announced that it had raised $300 million in Series D funding, half of which came from Tencent, the top Chinese internet company. In 2020, Tencent participated in Reddit’s Series E round of funding again.

Source: Radio Free Asia, September 5, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/reddit-09052022123021.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

US Trade Representative: Tariffs on China Will Continue

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said that the four-year-old tariffs on China will be extended. The reason for this decision is that the office has received hundreds of related requests from U.S. businesses. In the meantime, a tariff review process will follow. USTR Katherine Tai, the United States Trade Representative, has urged the maintenance of punitive tariffs on Chinese goods. She said she was reluctant to give up the leverage provided by the tariffs. Her attitude determines that it is difficult to cancel the US tariffs on China. In addition to the tariffs, more powerful trade measures are being considered, such as restructuring the high-tech industrial chain and restricting high-tech exports to China before making an investment. Recently, the U.S. government has been discussing a bill with Congress. It is an investment restriction bill that would require U.S. companies to disclose in advance which Chinese industries they may invest in  while establishing a system within the U.S. government that would empower the U.S. government to prevent directly any U.S. companies from investing in China. The reasons for the intensification of China-US trade tensions is that the relationship between the two countries is changing from trading partners to competitors. The Biden administration’s strategic positioning against China has undergone a fundamental change. The two world economic powers, China and the United States, are currently confronting each other in political, economic and security realms. After the U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last month, the escalation of tension in the Taiwan Strait made the relationship between the two countries even worse.

Source: NetEase, September 4, 2022
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HGCFM59I055325NQ.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations