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US-China Relations - 55. page

U.S. Dollar Shines in Market Free Fall

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the U.S. Dollar Index has frequently reached highs when the financial market saw free falls across the globe. Key non-U.S. currencies suffered most, including the Euro, the British Pound, the Canadian Dollar, and the Australian Dollar. The Japanese Yen followed the U.S. Dollar’s growth, but with heavy fluctuations. With this background, central banks like the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have been lowering interest rates and pushing new easing plans. However, these activities have not made much of a difference. The U.S. Dollar remained outstanding among all of this bad news and appears to be able to hold its position to serve as a safe harbor for money looking for a place to park. The coronavirus situation continues to spread fear in financial markets globally. That, coupled with the Saudi-Russia oil price war, means that the future remains uncertain for the time being. Major economies are expected to have a new round of announcements regarding their poor economic data.

Source: Sina, March 14, 2020
https://finance.sina.com.cn/money/forex/hbfx/2020-03-14/doc-iimxyqwa0445356.shtml

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

World Journal: The U.S. Met Hong Kong Political Representatives from Both Sides

Well-known U.S. Chinese language newspaper World Journal recently reported that a Hong Kong political group attended The US-HK Dialogue that the World Affairs Council, the largest nonprofit organization for international affairs in the United States, had hosted. The group consisted of four representatives from Hong Kong’s pro-mainland parties and three from pro-democracy parties. In California, the group met Johnathan Fritz, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian & Pacific Affairs, and Hanscom Smith, Consul General representing the United States to Hong Kong and Macau, as well as people from the House Foreign Relations Committee. The event occurred right before the State Department’s annual Hong Kong Report was about to be released. The pro-mainland representatives described the conversations as frank and constructive, while the pro-democracy representatives brought detailed requests on what more the U.S. government should do on sanctioning the current Hong Kong government, especially on the human rights protection side. With the recent passage of the Taipei Act in Washington, it appears the U.S. government has a comprehensive political view on the issue of Hong Kong and Taiwan. It’s not unusual for the pro-democracy activists to visit the United States. However, pro-mainland leaders are not frequent visitors, especially not in groups. This at least made the typical label of “colluding with foreign powers” that Mainland media often gave the HK pro-democracy parties look very weak.

Source: World Journal, March 9, 2020
https://bit.ly/2IOgZlG

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

Deutsche Welle: Internal Documents Showed Huawei Supplied Iran

Deutsche Welle Chinese Edition recently reported that newly obtained Huawei internal documents showed that the company did supply Iran with banned goods such as computer equipment that the U.S. company HP had made. The documents, dated February 2011, are packing lists of items shipped to Tehran, which were pending clearance through customs. These represent very strong hard evidence that supports the U.S. government’s charges against Huawei. The listed equipment involved millions of dollars’ worth of spending on Iranian communications projects. Also in the packing lists were details of servers and switches, as well as U.S. software products from Microsoft, Symantec, and Novell. The volume of the goods reflected in the documents reached 340 standard containers. Huawei refused to comment on this matter, citing on-going legal proceedings. However, Huawei insisted that the company had committed no wrong-doing and followed all of the requirements regarding sanctions from the UN, the EU and the United States. HP did confirm that all its contracts banned these products from being exported to Iran.

Source: DW Chinese, March 3, 2020
https://bit.ly/2VVt28K

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

Washington Passed the Taipei Act

Global Times recently published a commentary on the Taipei Act that just passed the House of Representatives in Washington, D. C. The commentary described the new bill as “brutal interference in China’s internal affairs.” According to James Francis Moriarty, Chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, the move was to double the effort to help Taiwan step up on the world stage. Apparently, the U.S. is once again ignoring the “One China” principle it committed to. However, Taiwan is just a strategic chess piece for the U.S., and the Taipei Act is not a binding resolution. The language used in the bill is largely on the side of “should” rather than “shall.” Only hours after the House passage of the new bill, Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen went immediately to meet James Moriarty in order to thank him. Maybe, as a political gambler, she still has hope for the independence “vision” for Taiwan,.

Right after the Taipei Act passed the House, Radio France International (RFI) Chinese Edition reported on the fact that the bill went through with a sweeping 415 to zero voting result. The bill supported Taiwan to participate in more international organizations as observers. It also asked the Executive branch to punish those countries that took steps to significantly hurt Taiwan’s security and prosperity. As an example of the unfair treatment Taiwan received, Taiwan was excluded from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which caused a negative impact globally. The U.S. Senate already passed its version of the Taipei Act last year.

Sources:
(1) Global Times, March 6, 2020
https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnKpKEK

(2) RFI Chinese, March 5, 2020
https://bit.ly/38CTjuV

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

LTN: China Responded to Bernie Sander’s Military Protection Promise on Taiwan

Well-known Taiwanese Newspaper Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that U.S. Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders claimed that he would take military action to protect Taiwan if Mainland China took Taiwan by force. Sanders stated this position of his in a CBS 60 Minutes interview. He said he will “absolutely” take military action and he wanted to make this position clear to the world. The new spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian, responded in a press conference. Zhao said that the Chinese government noticed Sander’s comments; however, Taiwan issues are Chinese domestic matters and foreign countries have no right to intervene. Zhao would like to urge American politicians to remain careful on this matter and avoid destroying regional stability. Zhao is new to the spokesperson position. He served in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 24 years and worked at the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. and in Pakistan.

Source: LTN, February 24, 2020
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/3078700

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

US Embassy in China Posted Pompeo’s Speech on China Expelling Wall Street Journal Reporters

The United States Embassy in China placed a post on its own website in Chinese. It included excerpts from the speech that Secretary of State Pompeo made at the press conference held on February 25, 2020 (original English speech can be found at: https://www.state.gov/secretary-michael-r-pompeo-remarks-to-the-press-5/).

The original transcript is below:

“Expelling our journalists exposes, once again, the governance issue that led to SARS, and now, the coronavirus, namely censorship.  It can have deadly consequences.  Had China permitted its own and foreign journalists and medical personnel to speak and investigate freely, Chinese officials and other nations would have been far better prepared to address the challenge.

…

QUESTION:  On China, you have issued a strong statement to condemn China for expelling The Wall Street Journal reporters.  What other options being considered by the United States to respond?  And what is your take on this headline controversy that some of The Wall Street Journal’s China staff have asked the paper to apologize and that the headline was considered by the Chinese Government to be racist?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  So with respect to the decision that the Chinese Communist Party made to expel three Wall Street Journal journalists, we made a statement; we’ve condemned it.  We’ve condemned it because it’s the wrong thing to do from a perspective of freedom.  We talk about reciprocity and what Chinese media outlets have access to or are permitted to do here in the United States.  That is not the case for U.S. media outlets or, for that matter, other non-Chinese media outlets inside of China as well.  So there’s an important principle there that we want to defend.

But second, it’s also incredibly important that we get accurate information about what’s taking place there. With respect to the coronavirus, this data set matters. This information matters. The tactical situation on the ground matters, not only to assist us in helping the Chinese people, which we are committed to continuing to do, but to make sure that we are helping citizens all across the world, including citizens right here in the United States.

So we think that information flow inside of China is at a critical moment.  It’s always important that we get good information, that there’s free press everywhere. But it’s especially essential at this time, where data and information matter because they provide things that go beyond anecdote so that we can respond in a way that meets the actual threat, not based on anecdote and rumor.

I don’t want to get ahead of what our policy options are that are being considered.  We’re looking at a broad range of things.  We will take the appropriate action and, if necessary, we’ll make sure that the President also gets a chance to weigh in on this decision as we move through our decision-making process.”

Source: US Embassy and Consulates in China website, February 25, 2020
https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/zh/remarks-to-the-press-by-secretary-michael-r-pompeo-excerpts-zh/

Briefings | | |   Social Stability US-China Relations

UDN: The U.S. Plans to Restrict China’s Use of Chip-Making Equipment

United Daily News (UDN), one of the primary Taiwanese news groups, recently reported that the U.S. Trump administration is considering a new trade restriction. This time it points to banning China from using U.S. chip-making equipment for manufacturing. The U.S. Department of Commerce is planning to amend its policies around Country of Origin, which means if it is national security related, there will be more restrictions on foreign vendors who want to use U.S. technology based equipment. This may result in a requirement to obtain prior U.S. permission for foreign manufacturers to produce chips to supply Huawei. Analysts expressed the belief that the new policy aims to slow down China’s speed of improving its technologies. However, the plan may also bring the risk of disrupting the global supply chain of the U.S. giants in the semiconductor industry. The plan is still under debate within the U.S. federal government.

Source: UDN, February 17, 2020
https://udn.com/news/story/12639/4351556

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

The Paper: Bloomberg’s First Debate Performance a Major Disappointment

Well-known new Chinese news site The Paper recently reported that the U.S. Democratic Party had its ninth TV presidential debate in Las Vegas on February 19. The much-hyped former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg made his first debate appearance. However, his performance was a major blow to those who had high hopes for him. The current Democratic presidential field is quite chaotic, though Senator Bernie Sanders has shown some lead. With this background, many saw Bloomberg as someone who could unite the party. However, the other five candidates attacked him heavily while he showed no capability of handling the situation successfully. It was widely expected that Bloomberg would face serious attacks on his wealth as well as previous his record during his time when he served as the New York mayor, such as his Stop and Frisk policy. Bloomberg could not address the issues confidently even with weeks of prior preparations, while Sanders demonstrated strong personality and aggressiveness. U.S. news site Politico described Bloomberg’s performance as a disaster. The Washington Post pointed out that, after seeing the debate, many voters gave up believing that Bloomberg would be the one who could actually challenge Trump. Bloomberg’s lack of charisma may have a big negative impact on his Super Tuesday performance in less than two weeks. Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden did not have a good performance in the same debate either.

Source: The Paper, February 21, 2020
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_6058362

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations