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US-China Relations - 19. page

CNA: Far Fewer U.S. Companies Are Optimistic about Future Business in China

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that, according to a report just released by the US-China Business Council, due to factors such as strict Covid control measures and rising geopolitical tensions, the proportion of U.S. companies that are optimistic about China’s business prospects for the next five years has plummeted from nearly 90 percent 10 years ago to barely more than half as much now. This is a new all-time low. The report is based on interviewing the Council’s 117 member companies, most of whom are large multinational companies headquartered in the United States that have operated in China for more than 20 years. The survey found that optimism about the business outlook in China for the next five years among respondents has fallen sharply. It fell by 18 percentage points this year, to an all-time low of 51 percent. Comparing China’s current business environment with three years ago, 83 percent of the companies surveyed said they are not as optimistic now as they used to be. This represents an increase of 24 percentage points compared to last year. At the same time, the proportion who felt pessimistic doubled last year’s number to 21 percent, a record high. The report pointed out that, given the long-term impact and uncertainties caused by the tension between China and the United States, the surveyed companies believe that geopolitical factors will have the greatest impact on the outlook, including China’s Covid control policies as well as technology regulations. This annual report also details the top ten challenges faced by American businessmen in China. The lockdown policy replaces Sino-US relations as the number one challenge this year. Around 96 percent of the companies surveyed have suffered heavy losses due to the government’s Covid control measures.

Source: CNA, August 30, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202208300180.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources US-China Relations

RFI Chinese: Five Chinese State-Owned Companies Announced the Start of Delisting US Stocks

Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition recently reported that five companies, including PetroChina, Sinopec, Aluminum Corporation of China, China Life, and Shanghai Petrochemical announced separately that they applied for the voluntary delisting of their American Depositary Shares from the New York Stock Exchange. The China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a statement on “Initiating delisting from the U.S. for Individual Chinese Companies.” The Commission explained that, “ever since these companies listed in the United States, they have strictly abided by the rules and regulatory requirements of the U.S. capital market. They made the choice of delisting out of their own business considerations.” The Commission further stated that listing and delisting are the norm in the capital market. Previously, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on May 4 that it had included more than 80 Chinese companies on its scheduled delisting list, and ordered these companies to submit evidence that they met the listing conditions before May 25. Under the U.S. Foreign Company Accountability Act of 2020, the committee can remove foreign companies from U.S. securities markets if they fail to comply with U.S. auditing standards for three consecutive years. Beijing and Washington are negotiating the resolution of the longstanding audit disputes. U.S. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said on July 27 that U.S. and Chinese officials must reach an agreement “as soon as possible” to obtain audit papers of Chinese companies in order to avoid the delisting of U.S.-listed Chinese stocks.

Source: RFI Chinese, August 12, 2022
https://bit.ly/3pexEUS

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

U.S. Imposed New Technology Export Controls

Well-known Chinese news site Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU) reported not long ago that, in advanced technology fields such as semiconductors, the United States has recently been intervening frequently in normal market competition. Biden just signed the $280 billion chip bill to restrict semiconductor giants from investing in China. Now the U.S. Department of Commerce announced new export control measures. The U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an announcement stating that four “emerging and foundational technologies” were included in new export controls due to national security concerns. The four technologies are: fourth-generation semiconductor materials gallium oxide and diamond that can withstand high temperature and high voltage; ECAD software specially designed for 3nm and below chips; pressure gain combustion technology that can be used in rockets and hypersonic systems. Although BIS did not directly mention China, yet China is now one of the countries that the United States has listed under national security controls. As long as technology items are listed in the import and export control catalogue, the U.S. government will likely impose restrictions on China. This will actually lead to further decoupling between China and the US in the semiconductor field. In its announcement, BIS claimed that the inclusion of four technologies supporting the production of advanced semiconductors and gas turbine engines under export controls was the result of an agreement among the 42 participating countries of the Wassenaar Agreement at the December 2021 plenary meeting. Considering that China is increasing its investment in semiconductors, in order to maintain its own advantages, the United States is trying to hinder the development speed of China’s semiconductor industry.

Source: Sohu, August 13, 2022
https://www.sohu.com/a/576560607_115479

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

Global Times Commentary Calls Pelosi’s Taiwan Trip a “Sneaky Visit” with “Four Conspiracies” of the United States to Split and Contain China

China’s State media Global Times published a commentary article on U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. The article said, “Pelosi’s sneaky visit to Taiwan is a grand show of the US’s anti-China strategy and a big exposure of its geopolitical ambitions. From the beginning to the end, Pelosi has not talked about the exchanges between the legislatures, but the conspiracy to split the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in all aspects, contain China in all aspects, shape the ‘Indo-Pacific’ in all aspects, and promote the new Cold War in all aspects.”

The article listed 4 such conspiracies of the United States:

1. Turn Taiwan into a colony of American ideology;
2. Turn Taiwan into an unsinkable aircraft carrier for the Asia-Pacific alliance;
3. Turning Taiwan into a Military Frontier for the Indo-Pacific Strategy;
4. Turn Taiwan into a chip killer for China’s tech blockade.

Source: Global Times, August 10, 2022
https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/49BKoXTuWGc

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Global Times: U.S. Is Tightening Export of Chip Equipment to China

Global Times recently reported that two U.S. chip equipment companies confirmed that the U.S. crackdown on Chinese chips has expanded from 10 nm to 14 nm technologies. In addition, the scope of the new regulations may not be limited to China’s SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation), but may also include other chip manufacturers investing and operating in China. Analysts expressed the belief that the latest move by the United States to suppress China’s chip industry may try to have a long-term impact on the Chinese chip industry, On the one hand, it will also hurt the interests of American companies. The scope of U.S. export restrictions may include other chip manufacturers operating in China, such as Taiwan’s TSMC. According to people familiar with the matter, in the past two weeks or so, all U.S. equipment makers have received letters from the Commerce Department describing the requirement. A statement released by the U.S. Department of Commerce said that the Biden administration is tightening relevant policies against China, focusing on weakening China’s efforts to produce cutting-edge chips in response to major national security risks facing the United States. In the eyes of the U.S. government, 14nm is a watershed between advanced and backward chip manufacturing processes. Since 14nm and below technologies are considered advanced, the U.S. embargo focuses on chip equipment with 14nm and below capabilities in order to achieve the purpose of containing Chinese chips and their competition. The chip industry is an industry requiring close cooperation among global industries. The suppression of China by the United States will inevitably affect the normal development of the global chip industry.

Source: Global Times, August 1, 2022
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/493RXZYbLEo

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

North Dakota Governor Urged Federal Investigation of Chinese Company’s Purchase of Land near Air Force Base

Doug Burgum, Governor of North Dakoda wrote a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense, asking the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to speed up its review of the Chinese company Fufeng Group’s plan to  purchase land in North Dakota because it is a national security concern. Also in a letter to the U.S. Department of Defense ,Senators John Hoeven, Kevin Cramer and Marco Rubio requested that (CFIUS) conduct a review of the Fufeng Group’s land purchase.

Fufeng Group wants to buy 360 acres of land in Grand Forks, North Dakota, to build a corn processing plant. However, the site just happens to be only 22 miles away from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, which is what raises the national security issue.

China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Co. Ltd bought Cirrus Aircraft, headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota in 2011. Cirrus has factories in Duluth and Grand Forks. Its Grand Forks plant was even closer to the air force base than Fufeng Group’s planned plant site.

Source: VOA, July 28, 2022
https://www.voachinese.com/a/burgum-calls-for-security-review-of-chinese-firm-s-project-20220727/6676606.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military US-China Relations

China Opposes “Chip 4” Alliance

China has taken multiple actions to oppose the “Chip 4” alliance, an initiative that the U.S. is proposing for four major chip production countries, the U.S., Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Beijing is afraid that forming the “Chip 4” alliance will isolate China. Other consequences are implied.

Huanqiu (Global Times) published a commentary on July 20, stating, “(T)he South Korean government and related companies can judge by common sense alone that participating in this matter not only will not have any incremental gains, but will also face the risk of significant damage to their interests. Data shows that last year, South Korea’s semiconductor exports totaled $128 billion, of which 60 percent went to mainland China and Hong Kong. To cut ties with this large market is tantamount to business suicide. The U.S. has handed South Korea a knife and is forcing it to do so.”

On July 25, China’s Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming met with Yang Hyang-ja, a South Korean National Assembly member and Chairman of the Special Committee on Strengthening the Competitiveness of the Semiconductor Industry. Xing said, “China is willing to work with South Korea to adhere to the principle of a fair and just market, eliminate external interference, and to strengthen cooperation in semiconductors and other fields .…”

Xing met with South Korean Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun on the same day.

Huanqiu (Global Times) also published an article on July 28 to suggest that Taiwan should not  join the “Chip 4.” It stated, “Currently, Taiwan’s chip exports to the mainland account for more than 40 percent of its total chip exports. Semiconductors and other electronic and communication products are large commodities. If the TSMC  (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) joins the ‘chip 4’ alliance to exclude the mainland China market, it will undoubtedly cause huge losses to the entire Taiwan economy.”

Sources:
1. Huanqiu (Global Times), July 20, 2022
https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/48uEl4JUSyX
2. Global Times, July 25, 2022
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202207/1271363.shtml
3. Huanqiu (Global Times), July 28, 2022
https://taiwan.huanqiu.com/article/4909A65sqgo

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Information/Technology US-China Relations

U.S. Veteran: How the Chinese Consulate Tries to Control the Voting in U.S. Elections

The U.S. will hold its mid-term elections on November 8. To prevent foreign governments from interfering in the U.S. elections, the State Department offered a $10 million reward for reporting such interfering activities.

Yan Xiong, a candidate running for the U.S. Congress in New York State’s 10th district, said the Chinese Consulate in New York ordered the Chinese diaspora not to vote for him. He told the Epoch Times on July 24, “The Chinese Consulate informed Chinese associations not to let their people vote for me. Many people called me or wrote to me to tell me about it.” There are many in the Chinese diaspora in the 10th district. Mr. Xiong feels his case is solid evidence that Beijing is interfering in the U.S. election.

Mr. Xiong is a Chinese-American human rights activist. He was a law student at Beijing University and a student leader in the Tiananmen democracy movement in 1989. He came to the U.S. in 1992 as a political refugee and served in the U.S. military for 27 years. He retired as a chaplain in the army.

Mr. Xiong told the Epoch Times newspaper about another instance of Beijing’s interference cases in March. He was planning the opening ceremony of his campaign office on March 19. The Chinese Consulate asked Chinese association leaders not to support him, to give him no donation and not to vote for him. The Chinese Consulate called people from Fujian Province and Guangdong Province in for a meeting on either March 17 or 18, giving them a choice: “Would you rather do business in China or support his campaign?” Those people then didn’t come to Mr. Xiong’s gathering. An immigrant from Fuzhou City, Fujian Province confirmed independently to the Epoch Times that the President of a Fuzhou Fellowship Association received a Chinese Consulate’s notice saying not to support Mr. Xiong.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on March 16 that  five people were Chinese agents. Their actions included ruining Mr. Xiong’s election. Qiming Lin, a member of China’s State Security Department asked a private detective (who happened to be an FBI undercover agent) to defame Mr. Xiong, such as by digging into his past affairs looking for something to use against him  or tax evasion information or by setting him up with a woman, or directly beating him or creating a car accident.

An independent news commentator Ge Bidong shared a story about the Chinese Consulate’s interference on May 12, 2021. Ge and his friend running for a position visited Zhou. The President of the Shanghai Chinese Association was there. Zhou told them that the campaign in New York “cannot do without the Chinese Consulate” and the business associations and fellowship associations won’t let a person pass without the Chinese Consulate’s support for that candidate.

Mr. Ge and his candidate friend had previously been  imprisoned in China.

“The (Chinese) Consulate said that your things are an ‘internal conflicts’ but the Falun Gong issue is a ‘conflict with the enemy.’” Zhou told them, “As long as you are not Falun Gong, you will be fine.” Zhou also promised to take them to the Chinese Consulate and “all your things will be resolved.”

Source: Epoch Times, July 26, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/7/26/n13789113.htm.

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics US-China Relations