Matt Turpin's China Articles - July 30, 2023
Friends,
Aloha from Oahu! I’m taking a week off but will still get you an installment next week.
The first piece this week is from Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, on the necessity of keeping our foot on the gas pedal of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. I’ve included a lengthy quote, but I think its important:
We must not, however, shy away from building sharp tools for fear they may be turned against us.
A reluctance to grapple with the often grim reality of an ongoing geopolitical struggle for power poses its own danger. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed.
This is an arms race of a different kind, and it has begun.
Our hesitation, perceived or otherwise, to move forward with military applications of artificial intelligence will be punished. The ability to develop the tools required to deploy force against an opponent, combined with a credible threat to use such force, is often the foundation of any effective negotiation with an adversary.
The underlying cause of our cultural hesitation to openly pursue technical superiority may be our collective sense that we have already won. But the certainty with which many believed that history had come to an end, and that Western liberal democracy had emerged in permanent victory after the struggles of the 20th century, is as dangerous as it is pervasive.
We must not grow complacent.
The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software.
Thomas Schelling, an American game theorist who taught economics at Harvard and Yale, understood the relationship between technical advances in the development of weaponry and the ability of such weaponry to shape political outcomes.
“To be coercive, violence has to be anticipated,” he wrote in the 1960s as the United States grappled with its military escalation in Vietnam. “The power to hurt is bargaining power. To exploit it is diplomacy — vicious diplomacy, but diplomacy.”
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Following up on last week, it looks like a grey-haired Qin Gang will eventually stand in front of a judicial official dressed in a drab jacket and flanked by two policemen.
We don’t yet know the details, but its official Qin is no longer the Foreign Minister and his name is already being erased from the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
As a colleague recently pointed out, it must be absolutely demoralizing to work in the MFA. To have your Minister disappeared must be unsettling (to say the least). In a system that is becoming increasingly securitized and paranoid of foreigners, I’m certain that MFA diplomats must feel besieged. These are some of China’s best and brightest, they get to experience life outside of the PRC, and they must be at least partially aware that very few people believe the propaganda they are peddling.
The PRC’s own security forces must be increasingly suspicious of MFA diplomats, which of course heightens the fears of those diplomats and encourages them to only report back what the Party wants to hear. For a country as important as the PRC, that is probably worse than having no diplomats at all.
The individuals who joined the MFA over the last two decades were a positive and important part of China’s opening to the world. Now the Party is slamming those doors shut. In many ways, the PRC is becoming ‘West North Korea.’
This brings me to an interesting remark by CIA Director Burns at the Aspen Forum two weeks ago. When answering a question about the loss of agents in the PRC a decade ago, he said: “we’ve made progress and we’re working very hard to make sure we have a very strong human intelligence capability to complement what we can acquire through other methods.”
I’m not sure if Director Burns made this statement off-the-cuff or whether it was done to further heighten the sense of unease and paranoia inside the Party just as the Qin Gang debacle was unfolding.
One thing we can be pretty sure of is that as the Party’s security services crack down even more, there will be more opportunities for foreign intelligence services to recruit and turn insiders. Individuals from the MFA will be particularly susceptible to this as they have become the targets of suspicion within the Chinese system. This dynamic will degrade Beijing’s diplomatic capability even more.
Thanks for reading!
Matt
MUST READ
1. Our Oppenheimer Moment: The Creation of A.I. Weapons
Alexander C. Karp, New York Times, July 25, 2023
COMMENT - Palantir CEO, Alex Karp, comments on the importance of artificial intelligence to our long-term strategic rivalry with Moscow and Beijing: “our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications.”
2. Beijing pushes for toning down of China risks in IPO prospectuses
Julie Zhu, Kane Wu, and Selena Li, Reuters, July 24, 2023
Beijing has asked law firms to tone down the language used to describe China-related business risks in Chinese companies' offshore listing documents, warning failure to do so could cost them regulatory green light for the IPOs, three people familiar with the matter said.
The move, which not been reported before, is the latest in tightening scrutiny of Chinese companies' offshore listings, and comes at a time when Beijing is stepping up controls over cross-border transfer of sensitive information.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on July 20 met with local lawyers and asked them to refrain from including negative descriptions of China's policies or its business and legal environment in companies' listing prospectuses, the people said.
The closed-door meeting followed informal, so-called window guidance the regulator had offered on the subject to firms that work on listing applications over the past few months, the three sources said.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declined to comment.
COMMENT – It is interesting to see this and then consider asset managers, venture capital, and private equity firms are lobbying Congress and the Administration NOT to impose any restrictions on outbound investments in the PRC.
3. Why America Forgets—and China Remembers—the Korean War
Mike Gallagher and Aaron MacLean, Foreign Affairs, July 26, 2023
In the light of China’s aggressions today, the United States must understand how China is using the Korean War’s legacy as a form of political preparation for wars to come. At the same time, there must be an honest reckoning with why the United States has buried its memories of the conflict for so long.
The Korean War is ambiguously sandwiched in the U.S. public consciousness between memories of victory in World War II and perceptions of tragedy in Vietnam. An elite consensus has settled on approval of President Harry Truman’s leadership during the Korean War, particularly his focus on preventing escalation. At the time, however, Americans took a dimmer view of Truman’s handling of the conflict, which opened with shocking military setbacks and continued for two years of self-imposed, costly stalemate before ending in a frustrating armistice. Americans have long struggled to interpret, let alone celebrate, this brutal but limited action fought in a secondary theater, coming so soon after victory and ending in a tie. But the American tendency to forget the truth and the Chinese eagerness to remember a complicated mix of fact and fiction offer their own lessons, which are especially relevant in view of potential for war over Taiwan.
…
In its last war with China, Washington failed to deter its adversaries, failed to prepare its military, and prolonged the fighting, ultimately accepting outcomes in 1953 that would probably have been available in 1951 had it adequately projected its own resolve. The next time, the stakes will be even higher—and Washington must do better.
COMMENT - Great article by Congressman Gallagher, the Chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP. He is spot-on to draw lessons from the Korean War.
4. The Case for a Hard Break with China
Oren Cass and Gabriela Rodriguez, Foreign Affairs, July 25, 2023
For policymakers and analysts committed to globalization and conditioned to fear any inefficient overstepping in the market, a hard break from China may seem implausible. But only last year, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States revoked Russia’s “most favored nation” status and imposed aggressive sanctions designed to separate Russia from the international economic system. This was the hardest of breaks and was supported most strongly by those who are most vocally enthusiastic about global engagement and a rules-based international order. Whether the United States should take action on a similar scale against China is not a question of legality or capacity but of values and will.
COMMENT – This is worth reading in full.
For those who believe it simply cannot happen… just consider the next article.
5. China secretly sends enough gear to Russia to equip an army
Sarah Anne Aarup, Sergey Panov, and Douglas Busvine, Politico, July 24, 2023
Shipments of military-capable hardware expose a China-sized loophole in Western sanctions.
The pictures posted on the Chinese company’s website show a tall, Caucasian man with a crew cut and flattened nose inspecting body armor at its factory.
“This spring, one of our customers came to our company to confirm the style and quantity of bulletproof vests, and carefully tested the quality of our vests,” Shanghai H Win, a manufacturer of military-grade protective gear, proudly reported on its website in March. The customer “immediately directly confirmed the order quantity of bulletproof vests and subsequent purchase intention.”
The identity of the smiling customer isn’t clear, but there’s a fair chance he was Russian: According to customs records obtained by POLITICO, Russian buyers have declared orders for hundreds of thousands of bulletproof vests and helmets made by Shanghai H Win — the items listed in the documents match those in the company’s online catalog.
Evidence of this kind shows that China, despite Beijing’s calls for peace, is pushing right up to a red line in delivering enough nonlethal, but militarily useful, equipment to Russia to have a material impact on President Vladimir Putin’s 17-month-old war on Ukraine. The protective gear would be sufficient to equip many of the men mobilized by Russia since the invasion. Then there are drones that can be used to direct artillery fire or drop grenades, and thermal optical sights to target the enemy at night.
These shipments point to a China-sized loophole in the West’s attempts to hobble Putin’s war machine. The sale of so-called dual-use technology that can have both civilian and military uses leaves just enough deniability for Western authorities looking for reasons not to confront a huge economic power like Beijing.
The wartime strength of China’s exports of dual-use products to Russia is confirmed by customs data. And, while Ukraine is a customer of China too, its imports of most of the equipment covered in this story have fallen sharply, the figures show.
Russia has imported more than $100 million-worth of drones from China so far this year — 30 times more than Ukraine. And Chinese exports of ceramics, a component used in body armor, increased by 69 percent to Russia to more than $225 million, while dropping by 61 percent to Ukraine to a mere $5 million, Chinese and Ukrainian customs data show.
“What is very clear is that China, for all its claims that it is a neutral actor, is in fact supporting Russia’s positions in this war,” said Helena Legarda, a lead analyst specializing in Chinese defense and foreign policy at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a Berlin think tank.
Were China to cross the red line and sell weapons or military equipment to Russia, Legarda said she would expect the EU to enforce secondary sanctions targeting enablers of Putin’s war of aggression.
COMMENT – The United States and its Allies are stuck with a real dilemma: either allow the war in Ukraine to drag on as Russia circumvents sanctions or expand those sanctions to impose significant cost on Moscow’s main benefactor, the PRC.
I suspect that Beijing is pretty confident that it can continue to ramp up support for Moscow as Washington and its European allies will self-deter on imposing any meaningful sanctions on the PRC.
Authoritarianism
6. Prominent scientist ‘downplayed Covid lab leak theory to avoid upsetting China’
Sarah Knapton, The Telegraph, July 22, 2023
Private messages show Prof Andrew Rambaut helped stifle debate into virus’s origins because he feared ‘s---show’ for accusing Beijing.
7. The Ongoing Mystery of Covid’s Origin
David Quammen, New York Times, July 25, 2023
8. China Probed Covid-19 Policy Leaks by Ex-Government Officials
Rebecca Feng, Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2023
China’s heightened scrutiny of the expert-network firms that investors and international businesses rely on for information about the country began much earlier than is commonly believed.
Last autumn, in a previously unreported investigation, national-security agents showed up at some of those firms looking to track down leaks around China’s highly sensitive Covid policies and vaccine strategy. The investigators asked people at one consulting firm in Shanghai if they had arranged meetings or calls with experts who had inside knowledge of the country’s healthcare policy, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The investigators presented a list of names of experts, as well as times and dates of meetings at which those individuals spoke, the person said. The list included a former policy researcher at a regional outpost of China’s National Health Commission, the person said, adding that the investigators wanted to know who had been asking for the information and what the consulting firm’s clients wanted to know.
COMMENT – It is irresponsible to invest in the PRC. Anyone with a fiduciary duty to their clients or companies who have responsibilities to their shareholders should be prohibited from doing so.
9. China removes Qin Gang as foreign minister after month-long absence
Shi Jiangtao, South China Morning Post, July 25, 2023
10. Fateful demise of the Taiwan-China ’92 Consensus
Denny Roy, Asia Times, July 22, 2023
11. Fake Russian influencers are going viral on Chinese social media
Caiwei Chan, Rest of World, July 25, 2023
12. Xi Jinping’s Three Balancing Acts
Neil Thomas, China File, July 24, 2023
13. China’s Corruption Hunters Target Produce Aisle in Push for Seed Security
Chun Han Wong, Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2023
For one of his newest anticorruption campaigns, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is ordering his enforcers to dig up dirt. This time, he means, literally, the kind in the ground.
The Communist Party’s top disciplinary body—after punishing graft in the military, domestic security organs and the financial sector—is now hunting officials, merchants and farmers it suspects of harvesting illicit profits from trade in grains and seeds. The body is one of the busiest and most powerful agencies in China, tasked with imposing control in areas that Xi considers his top priorities.
Tasked with being more forceful in safeguarding the nation’s “seed security,” authorities have investigated dozens of cases involving seed-related misconduct and, in several instances, imprisoned grain-sector officials on corruption charges, according to government disclosures and state media reports. Meanwhile, local governments are directing their own crackdowns on “seed sector corruption,” sending cadres into the countryside to educate farmers and flush out offenders.
COMMENT – Should we think of this as Xi’s campaign against the Kulaks?
14. Work dries up for US consultancies in China after national security raids
Ryan McMorrow, Joe Leahy, Nian Liu, and Eleanor Olcott, Financial Times, July 23, 2023
15. Qin Gang Was Replaced, Then Erased: Mystery Deepens Around China’s Former Foreign Minister
Wenxin Fan, Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2023
Environmental Harms
16. China dams make 'upstream superpower' presence felt in Asia
Pak Yiu, Nikkei Asia, July 24, 2023
17. Chinese petrochemical firms bet big on energy transition products
Chen Aizhu, Reuters, July 24, 2023
18. The Little-Known Metals Giant that Rules a Global Market
Mark Burton, Bloomberg, July 25, 2023
19. The Energy Transition Will Require Cobalt. America’s Only Mine Can’t Get Off the Ground.
David Uberti and Rhiannon Hoyle, Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2023
Foreign Interference and Coercion
20. Retired Canada police officer charged with foreign interference for China
Leyland Cecco, The Guardian, July 21, 2023
A retired police officer in Canada has been arrested and is facing rare charges under the country’s national security laws, police said on Friday.
William Majcher, 60, “allegedly used his knowledge and his extensive network of contacts in Canada to obtain intelligence or services to benefit the People’s Republic of China”, the Royal Canadian Mounted police said in a news release.
Majcher is alleged to have “contributed to the Chinese government’s efforts to identify and intimidate an individual outside the scope of Canadian law”.
21. Sweden Is the Land of Ikea, ABBA—and China Hawks
Trita Parsi and Frida Stranne, Foreign Policy, July 24, 2023
22. The Multialigned Middle East
Jennifer Kavanagh and Frederic Wehrey, Foreign Affairs, July 17, 2023
23. Chinese Property Tycoon Zhang Li Admits Bribing San Francisco Official
Zhang Yukun, Caixin Global, July 21, 2023
Chinese property tycoon Zhang Li, who was arrested in London in December and later extradited to the U.S. to face corruption charges, has admitted bribing a local government official in San Francisco to facilitate a property development project in the city.
24. China’s Foothold in Europe
Aaron Mc Nicholas, The Wire China, July 23, 2023
25. Why Kissinger Went to China — Again
Daniel W. Drezner, Politico, July 22, 2023
26. China ‘complicit’ in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, MI6 chief tells POLITICO
Jamil Anderlini and Nicholas Vinocur, Politico, July 19, 2023
27. U.S. Lawmakers Demand Venture Capital Firms Provide Details of China Tech Investments
Yue Yue, Caixin Global, July 22, 2023
28. Pro-China influence campaign infiltrates U.S. news websites
Cate Cadell, Tim Starks, and David DiMolfetta, Washington Post, July 24, 2023
A Chinese marketing firm that has counted state police and other government bureaus as clients is leveraging newswire services to place pro-Beijing stories on the websites of almost three dozen news outlets across America in an apparent effort to help Beijing improve its image abroad.
The Shanghai-based firm — Shanghai Yihuan Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., which goes by the brand name Haixun Press — says on its website that it can plant news articles globally, and can boost the content by providing paid inauthentic social media likes on platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Haixun is a private company but has links to Chinese government actors, according to its own publicity and government media coverage of the firm.
It’s not clear whether the content published on U.S. news websites is paid for by Chinese state actors. However, much of it is directly reproduced from Chinese state media reports or state-funded think tanks.
The articles — which have appeared in financial news subdomains of at least 32 websites including the Arizona Republic and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — include Chinese state media stories and scathing critiques of U.S. policymakers, academics and others critical of Beijing.
Haixun has placed the articles using a newswire distribution service called CloudQuote.io, which is run by the California-based firm FinancialContent and provides financial and market content to small news outlets across America, according to a new report by cybersecurity firm Mandiant, which is owned by Google. The articles were still visible last week on sites that use CloudQuote.io content.
29. U.S. Weighs Potential Deal with China on Fentanyl
Brian Spegele and Charles Hutzler, Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2023
Beijing has demanded the U.S. lift restrictions on a police forensics institute said by Washington to have facilitated human-rights abuses.
The Biden administration is discussing lifting sanctions on a Chinese police forensics institute suspected of participating in human-rights abuses, people familiar with the matter said, in a bid to secure Beijing’s renewed cooperation in fighting the fentanyl crisis.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken during meetings in Beijing last month proposed setting up a new working group with China to try to resuscitate stalled talks on combating fentanyl. Chinese officials, however, stuck to their long-held position that the U.S. must first remove the sanctions on the police institute as a precondition for restarting joint counternarcotics work, the people familiar said.
COMMENT – Let me get this straight… in exchange for ceasing their support for drug trafficking, Beijing wants the U.S. to lift restrictions on PRC police units involved in human rights abuses.
Let’s hope the Administration has some backbone and imposes even more sanctions on PRC entities until Beijing agrees to stop the export of fentanyl that is killing tens of thousands of Americans.
Perhaps someone like Secretary Yellen could withhold economic support for the PRC until they agree to take action on these crimes.
30. In Singapore, loud echoes of Beijing's positions generate anxiety
Shibani Mahtani and Amrita Chandradas, Washington Post, July 24, 2023
President Xi Jinping wants to build influence among ethnic-Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, raising concerns that the Chinese Communist Party is stoking divided loyalties.
As China accelerates efforts to build its global power, President Xi Jinping has laid out an extravagant vision for overseas ethnic-Chinese communities that he hopes will “give shape to a powerful joint force for advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
Promoting these communities as a vehicle for China’s geopolitical ambitions has become something of a mantra in Beijing, often wrapped in bland rhetoric like building a “shared future.” But in seeking to incorporate citizens of other countries into its vision, critics say, Beijing is stoking divided loyalties, and their potentially destabilizing consequences, across Southeast Asia — home to more than 80 percent of the ethnic-Chinese people outside China and Taiwan, researchers say.
Concerns are most pronounced in Singapore, a multiracial city-state with a majority ethnic-Chinese population that is increasingly sympathetic to Beijing. A 2022 survey of 19 countries by the Pew Research Center found that Singapore was one of only three that saw China and Xi in favorable terms. In June, the Eurasia Group Foundation released a survey conducted in Singapore, South Korea and the Philippines that found Singapore was the only one that viewed China more favorably than it did the United States. Fewer than half of respondents in Singapore viewed the United States favorably, compared with 56 percent who viewed China favorably.
COMMENT – The CCP’s obsession with race-based, ultranationalism is going to be extremely threatening to the PRC’s neighbors. It doesn’t take too much to imagine that these diaspora communities will be weaponized by the Party and used as a pretext for territorial expansionism.
31. Fiji’s Leader Declines Invitation to China, Saying He Tripped and Fell
Natasha Frost, New York Times, July 26, 2023
32. U.S. Woos Pacific Nation Where China Has Stamped Its Mark
Vivian Salama, Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2023
33. Meta’s Threads Isn’t Labeling Propaganda Accounts from Russia, China State Media
Newley Purnell, Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2023
Human Rights and Religious Persecution
34. Statement of ABA President Deborah Enix-Ross Re: Arrest warrants and bounties on Hong Kong lawyers
American Bar Association, July 17, 2023
35. Why China Isn’t Feeling the ‘Barbenheimer’ Vibe
Jacky Wong, Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2023
Industrial Policies and Economic Espionage
36. India rejects BYD's $1 billion factory proposal, Economic Times reports
Reuters, July 22, 2023
37. The dangerous game of floating by China’s new rules
Craig Coben, Financial Times, July 25, 2023
38. The Biotech Urban Legend
Grady McGregor, The Wire China, July 23, 2023
39. China's pitch to foreign investors falls flat as incentives dwindle
Joe Cash, Reuters, July 24, 2023
40. China state banks seen selling US dollars to prop up yuan -sources
Reuters, July 25, 2023
41. China's jobless graduate army falls through cracks in economy
Marrian Zhou and CK Tan, Nikkei Asia, July 25, 2023
42. Sanctions lead to scientific collaboration between Russia and China
Stephen Chen, South China Morning Post, July 22, 2023
COMMENT – Misleading headline… suggests that the PRC and Russia would NOT be collaborating in these areas if there hadn’t been sanctions.
43. Yuan exceeds dollar in China's bilateral trade for first time
Noriyuki Doi and Saki Akita, Nikkei Asia, July 25, 2023
44. China hits back against Western sanctions
The Economist, July 23, 2023
45. Why Bosch, Continental and ZF are increasingly planning in China [Warum Bosch, Continental und ZF zunehmend in China planen]
Martin-W. Buchenau and Roman Tyborski, Handelsblatt, July 26, 2023 - ORIGINAL IN GERMAN
46. That's why the auto industry is running out of orders [Darum gehen der Autoindustrie die Aufträge aus]
Lazar Backovic, Franz Hubik, and Roman Tyborski, Handelsblatt, July 21, 2023 – ORIGINAL IN GERMAN
47. Deflation: This is the Crash [Deflation: Das ist der Absturz]
Felix Lee, Zeit Online, July 24, 2023 – ORIGINAL IN GERMAN
48. Chinese Money Flees the Western World
Stella Yifan Xie and Jason Douglas, Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2023
49. China’s data ‘black box’ puzzles economists
Thomas Hale, Financial Times, July 23, 2023
50. Big Pharma Bets Big on China
Clarence Leong, Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2023
51. Chinese Consumers Pinch Pennies on Staples as Pandemic Habits Linger
Cao Li, Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2023
52. Beijing Offers Love, but Chinese Entrepreneurs Aren't Buying It
Li Yuan, New York Times, July 22, 2023
53. China-backed AIIB secures World Bank deal
Joe Leahy and Alec Russell, Financial Times, July 21, 2023
54. US security officials scrutinise Abu Dhabi’s $3bn Fortress takeover
Arash Massoudi and Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times, July 25, 2023
Cyber & Information Technology
55. VIDEO – The Geopolitics of Technology
German Marshall Fund of the United States, July 14, 2023
COMMENT – Great quote by Senator Warner: “If [CEOs] don’t think America and our friends will react if Xi starts sending artillery shells to Putin, then you’re not a very good CEO.”
56. US’ space industry is ‘most advanced’, but China may have it beat in 1 measure
Ling Xin, South China Morning Post, July 25, 2023
57. Japan's new chip equipment export rules take effect Sunday
Riho Nagao, Nikkei Asia, July 23, 2023
58. Chip CEOs Urge US to Study Impact of China Curbs and Take Pause
Ian King and Jenny Leonard, Bloomberg, July 21, 2023
59. China’s Semiconductor Ambitions Fuel European Brain Drain
Jordan Robertson, Bloomberg, July 19, 2023
60. AI: How far is China behind the West?
Nik Martin, DW, July 24, 2023
61. The Internet should one day connect the world across all borders [Das Internet sollte die Welt einmal über alle Grenzen hinweg verbinden]
Thomas Fischermann, Zeit Online, July 22, 2023 - ORIGINAL IN GERMAN
62. China’s new scientists
Yu Jie, Chatham House, July 24, 2023
63. Microsoft disputes report that Chinese hackers could have accessed suite of programs
Jonathan Greig, The Record, July 22, 2023
64. TikTok Wants to Sell Made-in-China Goods to Americans
Raffaele Huang, Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2023
Military and Security Threats
65. Why China Won’t Talk with America’s Military
Yun Sun, Foreign Affairs, July 21, 2023
66. Putin Plans China Visit as a Russian Leader Joins a North Korea Celebration
Gaya Gupta and Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, July 25, 2023
67. China supplying equipment to Russia it should not, French diplomat says
Reuters, July 21, 2023
68. Western sanctions and distrust draw China, Russia closer in the Arctic
Seong Hyeon Choi, South China Morning Post, July 25, 2023
69. Defending the Ultimate High Ground
Corey Crowell and Sam Bresnick, CSET, July 12, 2023
70. Students are ‘magnetic targets’ for espionage, head of MI5 warns
Ewan Somerville, The Telegraph, July 22, 2023
71. State Pension Funds Invest Millions in Blacklisted Chinese Companies
Thomas McKenna, Washington Free Beacon, July 19, 2023
72. The New Spy Wars
Calder Walton, Foreign Affairs, July 19, 2023
73. Japan likely to come to Taiwan’s aid during a Chinese invasion
Nicola Smith, The Telegraph, July 23, 2023
74. The Only Thing Worse than Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight
Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery and Emily De La Bruyère, The Cipher Brief, July 13, 2023
75. U.S.-China Competition and Military AI
Jacob Stokes, Alexander Sullivan and Noah Greene, CNAS, July 25, 2023
76. UK spy agency tools up on AI to counter China, its chief says
Antoaneta Roussi, Politico, July 19, 2023
77. Russian air strike damages Chinese consulate in Odesa
Claudia Chiappa, Politico, July 20, 2023
78. Investigation: how Russia and China are arming the military junta in Burma [Enquête : comment la Russie et la Chine arment la junte militaire en Birmanie]
Liselotte Mas, Lise Kiennemann, Marceau Bretonnier, and Adrien Sahli, Le Monde, July 20, 2023 – ORIGINAL IN FRENCH
79. China sends 37 warplanes to Taiwan ahead of major combat and evacuation drills
Vishwam Sankaran, The Independent, July 23, 2023
80. Taiwan’s military practises repelling Chinese attack on airport
Kathrin Hille, Financial Times, July 26, 2023
81. How China’s military is slowly squeezing Taiwan
Kathrin Hille and Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times, July 24, 2023
82. Chinese base in Cambodia nears completion in challenge to US naval power
Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times, July 25, 2023
83. Chinese-Funded Naval Base in Cambodia Looks Strikingly Familiar
Cobus van Staden, China Global South Project, July 25, 2023
One Belt, One Road Strategy
84. China-Africa relations: Wang Yi pledges Beijing will help Ethiopia recover and boost ties with Kenya and Nigeria
Jevans Nyabiage, South China Morning Post, July 24, 2023
85. China to widen ASEAN trade with first major waterway in 700 years, but will Pinglu Canal be a game changer or white elephant?
He Huifeng, South China Morning Post, July 24, 2023
Opinion Pieces
86. China’s Influence Is Rising in Afghanistan
Adela Raz, Hudson Institute, July 19, 2023
87. Brad Setser on the Myths and Realities of China's Financial Power
Bob Davis, The Wire China, July 23, 2023
88. Asian Allies Have a Role to Play in NATO
John Bolton, Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2023
89. China, not NATO, is militarising Asia
Misha Zelinsky, Financial Review, July 20, 2023
90. The Illusion of Great-Power Competition
Jude Blanchette and Christopher Johnstone, Foreign Affairs, July 24, 2023
91. Youth Unemployment and China's Economic Future
Nancy Qian, The Wire China, July 23, 2023
92. Youthful disillusionment is China’s biggest soft power export
Tanveer Ahmed, Financial Review, July 24, 2023
93. Vladimir Putin Is Still Useful to Xi Jinping. Until He Isn't.
Sergey Radchenko, New York Times, July 23, 2023
94. Why America Is Losing the Tech War with China
David P. Goldman, The National Interest, July 24, 2023
95. What Happened to Japan?
Paul Krugman, New York Times, July 25, 2023