Our Strange TikTok Odyssey
Friends,
I’ve been observing the debate over TikTok for years now, but I’m still surprised by the strange twists and turns.
In many ways, it is a microcosm of the broader rivalry between the two countries.
Your guess is as good as mine on how this will all turn out.
The battle lines are forming in the Senate. If Senate Majority Leader Schumer follows his earlier position on TikTok then it should come for a vote soon:
Tweet by Senator Schumer on August 3, 2020, days before President Trump issued an Executive Order directing ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok.
My take on the overall state of affairs: ByteDance, and its American surrogates, are desperate to halt attempts by Congress to impose reasonable protections and guardrails on a foreign controlled social media platform.
Their preferred policy arguments center around the First Amendment (essentially equating an internet based platform which uses an algorithm to determine which videos a user sees with the exercise of free speech by individuals), censorship, and the false claim that the bill passed in the House would give the Biden Administration the authority to strip X/Twitter from Elon Musk.
Side-eye at Tucker Carlson and Senator Rand Paul… in Tucker’s monologue complaining about the legislation he sarcastically points out that instead of TikTok, we should prevent “CCP control over our water or energy or communications infrastructure, basic elemental things”… of course TikTok is the primary news source for adults in the U.S. under 30, so that makes it critical communications infrastructure and hence the thing that he says we should be focused on.
The influence campaign that ByteDance/TikTok waged a week ago (geolocated push notifications imploring users to call their Members of Congress) demonstrated better than any intelligence briefing what ByteDance/TikTok’s capabilities are to manipulate broad public opinion at the drop of a hat.
I’m sure ByteDance, and its subsidiary, TikTok, thought it was a good idea to launch a massive influence campaign across its 170 million American users targeted by Congressional district… but that action backfired, badly.
As children and young adults flooded Member’s offices with calls, some threatening to harm themselves or others, ByteDance (TikTok) made the point crystal clear for elected officials: this platform, controlled by Beijing, could be employed to interfere with the American political process.
As the effort to force ByteDance to divest of TikTok has gained momentum, the PRC Government has started to weigh in about the “unfairness” of it all.
Statement by PRC Foreign Ministry Spokesperson on March 14, 2024:
AFP: The US House of Representatives passed legislation yesterday that would ask ByteDance to divest TikTok. What’s your response?
Wang Wenbin (MFA Spokesperson): This bill adopted by the US House of Representatives puts the US on the wrong side of the principles of fair competition and international trade rules.
If “national security” can be abused to bring down other countries’ competitive companies, there would be no fairness or justice at all. It is sheer robbers’ logic to try every means to snatch from others all the good things that they have.
How the US has handled TikTok enables the world to see clearly whether the US’s “rules” and “order” serve the whole world or only the US.
And Chinese Communist Party propagandists, like the State-owned Xinhua News Services, have turned to outlets like X [formerly Twitter] to make their points as well:
Notice the hook nose… antisemitism thrives within the Chinese Communist Party.
This prompted a response from U.S. Ambassador to the PRC, Nick Burns. Here he is in an interview on Thursday by Bloomberg:
“We've heard a number of complaints from the government here in Beijing this week about the American debate on TikTok.
I find it supremely ironic because government officials here are using the X platform [formerly Twitter] to criticize the United States.
They don't give their own citizens the right to use X, to use Instagram, to use Facebook, to have access of Google.
And so it is ironic, indeed, that the government here is complaining about a process when they shut down access for 1.4 billion Chinese to all these platforms.”
Ambassador Nick Burns interviewed by Bloomberg on Beijing’s complaints about TikTok.
For some context on ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, I’d like to thank one of my colleagues for reminding me of Zhang Yiming’s 2018 apology to PRC regulators and the Chinese people when he was still the CEO of ByteDance.
In April 2018, ByteDance was a six-year-old internet company and the fastest growing in the PRC. Its founder and CEO Zhang Yiming had built a news aggregator, Jinri Toutiao (Today’s Headlines), and a social media platform, Neihan Duanzi, which mainly shared jokes and memes. Both were powered with artificial intelligence to send users content that they wanted to see, the platforms used algorithms that learned which content users liked and sent them ore of that content.
[As an aside, when Zhang Yiming pursued funding for his idea early in the decade, his concept of using AI to drive user engagement was dismissed by many except for Philadelphia-based Susquehanna International Group and its founder Jeff Yass… the bankroller of the current campaign to protect TikTok and rumored to be former President Trump’s potential pick for Treasury Secretary… let that sink in]
On April 9th 2018, the PRC Government ordered ByteDance to cease operation of Jinri Toutiao and the next day to close down Neihan Duanzi.
Officials said that the two platforms had “triggered intense resentment among Internet users.” But in reality, the platforms were showing users what they wanted to see. And what Chinese users wanted to see was NOT what the Chinese Communist Party wanted them to see.
In order to restart operations, ByteDance had to agree to manipulate their algorithms to serve up content that the CCP approved of.
On April 11, Zhang Yiming issued an apology on Weibo [the PRC’s Twitter] that is worth reading in full in light of the arguments over whether or not ByteDance, and its subsidiary TikTok, would comply with orders from the CCP to manipulate content on its platforms.
I’ll let you judge for yourselves:
Apology and reflection
Dear friends of Jinri Toutiao:
I earnestly apologize to regulatory authorities, and to our users and colleagues. Since receiving the notice yesterday from regulatory authorities, I have been filled with remorse and guilt, entirely unable to sleep.
Jinri Toutiao will shut down once and for all its “Neihan Duanzi” app and its public accounts. Our product took the wrong path, and content appeared that was incommensurate with socialist core values, that did not properly implement public opinion guidance — and I am personally responsible for the punishments we have received [as a result].
I am responsible because I failed to live up to the guidance and expectations supervisory organs have demanded all along. Over the past few years, the regulatory authorities have provided us with much guidance and assistance, but in our hearts we failed to properly understand and recognize [their demands]. Nor did we properly rectify the situation, which led to the present failure to be responsible to our users.
I am responsible also because I failed to live up to the trust and support placed in me by our users. We prioritized only the expansion of [platform] scale, and we were not timely in strengthening quality and responsibility, overlooking our responsibility to channel users in the uptake of information with positive energy. We were insufficiently attentive, and in our thinking placed insufficient emphasis on our corporate social responsibility, to promote positive energy and to grasp correct guidance of public opinion.
At the same time, I failed my colleagues who invested such boundless enthusiasm and hard work to create this product. For such major problems to emerge with the product, and for service to halt, I bear leadership responsibility.
On March 29, after China Central Television reported problems with our advertisements, I engaged in steady reflection over my previous ways of thinking, reflected upon the company’s current methods, and began an energetic campaign among our staff to raise their consciousness, improve management and streamline processes.
My background is engineering, and my originating idea in starting this business was to create a product that would facilitate interaction and exchange among users worldwide. Over the past few years we have invested more energy and resources in the growth of the company, but we did not take the proper measures to improve supervision of the platform, and we did not adequately do our homework in terms of effectively controlling such things as low-row, violent and harmful content, and fake advertising.
As a start-up company developing rapidly in the wake of the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, we profoundly understand that our rapid development was an opportunity afforded us by this great era. I thank this era. I thank the historic opportunity of economic reform and opening; and I thank the support the government has given for the development of the technology industry.
I profoundly reflect on the fact that a deep-level cause of the recent problems in my company is: a weak [understanding and implementation of] the “four consciousnesses” [of Xi Jinping]; deficiencies in education on the socialist core values; and deviation from public opinion guidance. All along, we have placed excessive emphasis on the role of technology, and we have not acknowledged that technology must be led by the socialist core value system, broadcasting positive energy, suiting the demands of the era, and respecting common convention.
We must make a renewed effort to sort out our vision of the future. We say, we want to make global platform for creation and conversation. This demands that we must ensure that the content of “creation” and “conversation” are positive, healthy and beneficial, that they can offer positive energy to the era, and to the people.
We must renew our understanding and enactment of our social responsibility; upright and good, innovative technology, value creation, taking responsibility, cooperation and mutual benefit. I profoundly recognize that the company’s development must stick closely to the era and to the main theme of national development.
Today, supervisory organs, the public and the media have pointed out problems in our company, and this is well-intentioned reminder and an encouragement to us. I and my colleagues will work immediately to bring about change — changing our own thoughts, and changing our methods.
Introducing correct values into technology and products
1. Strengthening the work of Party construction, carrying out education among our entire staff on the “four consciousnesses,” socialist core values, [correct] guidance of public opinion, and laws and regulations, truly acting on the company’s social responsibility.
2. Strengthening implementation of systems and mechanisms for social responsibility in various business activities, bringing them into the scope of business assessment.
3. Further deepening cooperation with authoritative [official Party] media, elevating distribution of authoritative media content, ensuring that authoritative [official Party] media voices are broadcast to strength.
4. Strengthening the editor-in-chief responsibility system, comprehensively correcting deficiencies in algorithmic and machine review [of content], steadily strengthening human operations and review, raising the current number of operational review staff from 6,000 to 10,000 persons [carrying out content review].
…
Finally, I again express my apologies to supervisory organs, and to the friends who care about us.
We ought to do better. We will definitely do better.
We earnestly await help from various parts of society in supervising our rectification. We will not disappoint everyones’ hopes.
Jinri Toutiao founder and CEO Zhang Yiming.
April 11, 2018
Ultimately, this apology wasn’t enough to save Zhang Yiming or prevent a hostile takeover of ByteDance by the CCP.
By 2021, Zhang was forced out the company he had founded in 2012 and replaced by a more pliable team… one might even say that the CCP forced the founders of ByteDance to divest themselves of control.
Let’s look back at the archive:
Chinese government acquires stake in domestic unit of TikTok owner ByteDance in another sign of tech crackdown (Washington Post, August 17, 2021)
Beijing Tightens Grip on ByteDance by Quietly Taking Stake, China Board Seat (The Information, August 16, 2021)
Founder of TikTok owner ByteDance steps down as chairman as Chinese tech execs quit day-to-day roles (CNBC, November 3, 2021)
TikTok Parent’s Founder Zhang Yiming Steps Down as Chairman (Wall Street Journal, November 3, 2021)
Zhang’s co-founder and college roommate, Liang Rubo, took over as interim CEO and he has since been kicked upstairs to be the “Chairman” of ByteDance’s Board of Directors. In reality, the CCP waged a hostile takeover of ByteDance in 2021 and incorporated CCP apparatuses within the company structure to ensure that it would never again stray from the path laid out by the Party.
Investors like Yass still have a sizable stake in ByteDance and based on their own financial interests, are strongly motivated to protect the “value” of their investment. This means staying mum about the CCP’s control over a purportedly “private company.” I think the technical term is that the Party has investors, like Yass, by the short hairs.
During this hostile takeover in 2021, the Singaporean Shou Zi Chew, was brought in to be ByteDance’s new CFO. Within a few months, he became the head of one of ByteDance’s business units, the platform brand we know as TikTok.
While Shou Zi Chew holds the title of “CEO of TikTok,” it is important to remember that TikTok is NOT a separate, free-standing company, which makes the title “Chief Executive Officer” a bit misleading. The title looks nice on a business card, but he is just the manager of one of six business units at ByteDance, an internet company controlled by the Chinese Communist Party since at least 2021.
When all is said and done, Shou Zi Chew is an employee of ByteDance.
As we are likely to find out over the next few weeks and months, he has no authority to make decisions for TikTok independent from his bosses at ByteDance in Beijing.
Have a great Saint Patrick’s Day and drink a Guinness, or three, this evening!
Thanks for reading!
Matt
MUST READ
1. The Chinese government is using TikTok to meddle in elections, ODNI says
Mallory Culhane, Politico, March 11, 2024
The Chinese government is using TikTok to expand its global influence operations to promote pro-China narratives and undermine U.S. democracy, according to a report released today from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The annual assessment from ODNI outlines national security threats facing the U.S. in the coming year, and warns that China may attempt to influence this year’s elections through online influence and disinformation campaigns.
ODNI alleges that “TikTok accounts run by a PRC propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the U.S. midterm election cycle in 2022,” and that “China is demonstrating a higher degree of sophistication in its influence activity, including experimenting with generative AI.”
The report’s release comes as lawmakers are increasingly concerned about national security threats that TikTok poses. House lawmakers are expected to vote Wednesday on a bill that would force Beijing-based ByteDance to sell TikTok — or it would face a ban from U.S. app stores.
2. Mo Yan Against the Martyrs
Alex Colville, China Media Project, March 11, 2024
A spat about the red credentials of one of China’s most celebrated writers has been blown out of proportion on the Chinese internet, thanks to harsher nationalist laws and an increasingly rabid cancel culture.
One of China’s most celebrated modern authors is in the firing line, and the ammunition is a hardline 2018 law on the protection of heroes and martyrs. The Nobel Prize-winning writer Mo Yan has irked extreme nationalist bloggers on the internet, one of whom, writing under the account name “Mao Xinghuo Who Speaks the Truth”, filed a court order late last month to remove Mo Yan’s books from circulation and force him to pay 1.5 billion RMB in damages to the Chinese people and “stop infringing on heroes and martyrs” in his fiction.
The blogger’s four-page indictment, submitted to the Beijing Procuratorate, meticulously lists Mo Yan’s supposed offenses, including portraying members of the Eighth Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War as sexually abusive, “beautifying” Japanese soldiers, insulting Mao Zedong, and saying that the Chinese people have “no truth and no common sense.”
“Such words and deeds have greatly hurt the feelings of the Chinese people,” Mao Xinghuo solemnly claims. “As an upright and patriotic young man, I feel very angry. How does the country allow such behavior to exist?” The blogger has been trying to bring a case against Mo Yan for months, and has asked publishers not to work with him. Fellow nationalist bloggers rallied to the cause, pointing to the more sexually explicit parts of his oeuvre as pornographic.
The incident shows how the active efforts of China’s leadership in recent years to enforce nationalist sentiment around the sanitized history of the Party can backfire and turn on cultural figures who are seen as a source of national pride.
3. Chinese Premier Li to skip meeting with global CEOs at key business summit
Reuters, March 12, 2024
Chinese Premier Li Qiang does not intend to hold a meeting with visiting foreign CEOs at the upcoming China Development Forum (CDF) in late March, three sources briefed on the matter said, raising concerns about Beijing's commitment to attract investment from abroad at a time of souring sentiment.
Organised annually by Beijing since 2000 at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the high-level forum traditionally serves as an opportunity for global CEOs and Chinese policymakers to meet and discuss foreign investment. Regular attendees include Apple CEO Tim Cook and Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates.
COMMENT – As with the point I made last week when Li Qiang skipped the news conference following the National People’s Congress (NPC), if the Party’s intention is to bolster confidence in the Chinese economy, this is NOT the way to do it.
4. China's Global EV Domination Is Just Beginning
Howard W. French, Foreign Policy, March 13, 2024
In short, the Chinese state has provided massive support to companies in industrial sectors, such as the electric vehicle segment, that it has deemed strategic. This support comes in many forms, from subsidized loans to research support, land breaks, and tax incentives. And this has brought new manufacturers flooding eagerly into the automobile and other sectors, seeking to grasp a historic opportunity for industrial success at greatly reduced risk. This is what has driven the price of EVs in China down to levels unimaginable, say, in the U.S. market. Eventually, many of these novice firms will fail or be absorbed by others, but for now there is no end in sight for the pricing race to the bottom.
Where this becomes especially difficult is where the economics of this meet the politics. This can be seen best in two of the largest countries concerned. Under President Xi Jinping, China has faced an accumulation of serious economic problems, from a looming demographic crisis of potentially crushing proportions to a poorly managed real estate bubble and steadily declining economic growth.
This has created what appears to be an irresistible temptation on Xi’s part to try to export his way out of the country’s difficulties, and high value-added goods, such as EVs and microchips, are the key. The fact that there is not enough demand in the rest of the world to allow China to pull this off seems to have had no deterring effect.
This means that for the foreseeable future, the Chinese state is likely to continue to offer strong support to its favored sectors and turn a deaf ear to complaints about dumping or other unfair trade practices. To paraphrase Thucydides, those weaker than China will have to suffer whatever they must.
5. Matthews Shuts Shanghai Office, Joining Asset Manager Retreat
Bloomberg, March 7, 2024
Asset manager Matthews International Capital Management LLC is closing its Shanghai office, adding to the list of global firms that have cut back in mainland China.
The San Francisco-based company will centralize its regional research business in Hong Kong and remains committed to conducting China analysis, it said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg on Friday.
COMMENT - Stories like these help reinforce just how much conventional wisdom has changed on the PRC.
6. China Has Never Canceled This Many Shipments of US Wheat
Michael Hirtzer and Tarso Veloso, Bloomberg, March 11, 2024
China canceled another batch of US wheat export shipments, adding to an already record number of cancellations that have weighed on Chicago futures.
The US Department of Agriculture in a Monday statement said private exporters exited purchases of 264,000 metric tons of US soft red winter wheat to China. It was the third straight session with such an announcement, bringing the cancellation total to 504,000 tons, the most in USDA data going back to 1999.
COMMENT – The PRC made these orders last year when we were still experiencing relatively high prices on the futures market based on several factors (the Ukraine War, etc.). But in the first three months of this year, the price of wheat has fallen nearly 15%.
This means that their orders last year are grossly overpriced and they are pulling out of those futures contracts.
What’s causing this?
According to the team at Trivium China, a policy and economic analysis firm, futures traders expect both Russia and the PRC will have excellent winter wheat harvests of their own in May, which means that sellers who hold wheat are dumping it on the market now in anticipation of even lower prices later in the year. [I recommend signing up for Trivium’s free daily email brief, “One Thing from Beijing”]
Also, Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain exports has failed. This means that the shortage of Ukrainian foodstuffs, which had pushed up prices around the world starting in February 2022, is no longer the factor it once was, and this further depresses prices. While there has been stalemate in the land war in Ukraine, the Ukrainians have been extremely successful at destroying Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (over 40% of it is at the bottom of the Black Sea… now I wasn’t in the Navy, but I hear that is not where ships are supposed to be).
The Europeans have also permitted the export of Ukrainian grains through Europe, something which had caused significant political turmoil across the EU as it undercut European farmers… contributing to the protests by farmers roiling the EU.
7. U.S. and China Extend Landmark Bilateral Deal, Very Quietly
Sha Hua, Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2024
When a landmark science and technology agreement between the U.S. and China reached its expiration in late February without an extension, it plunged the academic community in both countries into uncertainty. Neither country confirmed an extension for nine days.
Had it lapsed?
Not really, it turns out. But the extension was made so quietly as to be imperceptible, without an official statement published online. And for a second time in a row, it would only keep the agreement alive for another six months while Washington and Beijing continue negotiations.
The U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement was the first bilateral deal signed after Washington formally recognized the Communist-ruled People’s Republic of China in 1979. At the time, China was a scientific laggard and the U.S. saw the pact as a way to influence China’s behavior and developmental trajectory. Nowadays, each country is simultaneously the other’s biggest research partner and its biggest rival, as the world’s two largest economies compete for global leadership in areas such as quantum computing, biotechnology and nanoscience.
Over the decades, the agreement was renewed as a matter of course, for five-year extensions, even as more U.S. institutions grew increasingly wary of collaborating with Chinese counterparts. Then in August of last year, with bilateral tensions at a boil, the two sides could manage only a six-month extension—just enough to keep the landmark deal from collapsing. As the next deadline approached in February this year, the tone of bilateral ties was better—though not enough for a full renewal.
The stealthiness of the latest move, and the prolonged nature of the deeper discussions, highlight the complex state of U.S.-China relations, as both countries try to work out new parameters of engagement and rivalry while vying for global technological and military supremacy.
“The two sides have to figure out how to operate and engage with each other as peer colleagues and peer competitors,” said Deborah Seligsohn, an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University.
Both proponents and critics say the agreement hasn’t kept up with changes in bilateral ties and the two countries’ respective strategic priorities.
Critics of the deal say that in fields such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, clearer distinctions are needed between military and civilian uses. Trade tensions over clean technologies such as electric vehicles, solar panels and batteries have also been growing.
COMMENT – It is time to scrap the agreement… the sky won’t fall and science won’t cease to take place. If the reporting is true, then this will all come up again by August.
If we end this agreement, then various institutions across the United States will finally be forced to reset their relationships with PRC entities.
Advocates for the agreement in the scientific community will howl that “science” isn’t and shouldn’t be politicized… but if that were true, then we wouldn’t need an agreement like this.
The fact is that science and technology ARE politicized, they provide enormous military and economic advantages to the countries that fund and support scientific endeavors. The rationale for why taxpayers should fund S&T rests upon the assumption that these are investments into future capabilities that Americans will benefit from.
Whether we like it or not, the domains of science and technology are the principal arenas for geopolitical rivalry. The U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement as it exists today provides significant advantages to Beijing that are no longer in our interest to grant to them. It would be far better for the Biden Administration to just walk away and let it lapse.
If there are areas where it is in both countries mutual interest to cooperate scientifically, then I fully support creating a new, more limited agreement. But that won’t happen as long as we stay in the current one.
Beijing knows it gets more out of the current agreement than we do. In essence, U.S. taxpayers through the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. National Institutes of Health, as well as the vast ecosystem of U.S. universities and research institutions, provide the PRC with a science and technological base for their own industries, military, and economy. We do not get equal access to their much less advanced S&T ecosystem.
The current agreement is a bad deal for Americans.
Beijing also knows that any new agreement will be much more limited in scope and so therefore it has no interest in hammering out a new agreement. To prevent the Biden Administration from pulling out, Beijing exerts pressure through the U.S. scientific community, much as it does through the U.S. business community when Washington tries to enforce fair trade provisions.
Authoritarianism
8. Why China’s confidence crisis goes unfixed
The Economist, March 7, 2024
9. From Protests to Prosecutions: A Tale of Modern Hong Kong
June Teufel Dreyer, Foreign Policy Research Institute, March 6, 2024
10. China’s Lexicon of Digital Resistance
Xiao Qiang, China Books Review, March 7, 2024
11. Hong Kong fast-tracks tough new national security law
Chan Ho-him and William Langley, Financial Times, March 7, 2024
12. With Unusual Speed, Hong Kong Pushes Strict New Security Law
David Pierson, New York Times, March 7, 2024
13. Taiwan urges China not to alter situation around waters near frontline islands
Yimou Lee and Fabian Hamacher, Reuters, March 8, 2024
14. Taiwan, China launch rescue bid after boat capsizes near sensitive islands
Reuters, March 14, 2024
Taiwan dispatched coast guard boats on Thursday to join a rescue mission at China's request after a fishing vessel capsized near the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands, amid heightened tension in the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
COMMENT – This looks like good news. A fishing vessel capsized and the PRC and Taiwanese Coast Guards collaborated to conduct a rescue mission.
Unfortunately, a day later tensions were flaring again as PRC Coast Guard vessels entered Taiwan’s territorial waters.
See next article.
15. 'Turn around immediately': Taiwan warns off Chinese coast guard boats again as tensions simmer
Yimou Lee and Fabian Hamacher, Reuters, March 16, 2024
Taiwan on Saturday warned off Chinese coast guard ships that entered its restricted waters near frontline islands close to China for a second day in a row, as tensions simmer across the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan's coast guard said four Chinese coast guard boats on Saturday morning entered the restricted waters of Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands, which hug the Chinese coast. It said the Chinese boats stayed just over an hour after Taiwan authorities asked them to leave.
China claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, over the island's strong objections. It has stepped up military activities near Taiwan in recent years, with almost daily incursions into air defence identification zones.
"You have entered our country's restricted waters. Please turn around immediately," a Taiwan official said via radio in a broadcast message to their Chinese counterparts, according to footage released on Saturday by Taiwan's coast guard.
The footage shows a Taiwan coast guard boat tracking the movement of two Chinese ships in the near distance.
"The move has seriously impacted traffic and safety. To avoid triggering naval incidents we urge them to stop such behaviours," Taiwan's coast guard said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from China's coast guard, which does not have publicly available contact details.
China's coast guard conducted patrols near the Kinmen Islands on Friday as well, with four Chinese coast guard boats being warned away by their Taiwanese counterparts, according to Taiwan's official Central News Agency.
Last month, China's coast guard began regular patrols around Kinmen, after two Chinese nationals died while trying to flee Taiwan's coast guard after their boat entered prohibited waters.
Taiwan dispatched coast guard boats on Thursday to join a rescue mission at China's request after a Chinese fishing vessel capsized near the Kinmen islands. Taiwan's government has stressed the importance of co-operation between Taiwan and China amid the heightened tensions.
On Friday, Taiwan also sent several boats at China's request to help search for a Chinese fisherman who went overboard near the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands, in the northern end of the Taiwan Strait.
A senior Taiwan security official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters that Beijing is sending out "confusing" messages by continuing its harassment of Taiwan, while also asking for Taipei's assistance on dealing with maritime incidents.
The official said the latest moves by the Chinese coast guard in Kinmen "did not carry substantial security threats" but complicated the situation there.
"We are clueless," the official said. "We tried to save their fishermen yesterday and today they are baring their teeth and claws."
Last week, Taiwan's top China policy-making body urged its giant neighbour not to change the "status quo" in waters near Kinmen by sending coast guard boats into restricted areas.
COMMENT – I’m reminded of Yang Jiechi’s infamous outburst at the ASEAN Regional Forum in July 2010. At the time, he was the PRC Foreign Minister and had been confronted by ASEAN member states, along with Secretary of State Clinton, about the PRC’s aggressive actions across the South China Sea.
In a fit of anger, Yang stormed out of the room and returned an hour later to give his ASEAN hosts a tongue lashing in a 30-minute monologue. The most memorable line of that monologue being: “China is a big country, and other countries are small countries, and that’s just a fact.”
[In my experience, it was fairly easy to get Yang to break character and show his true face. It was something he did again a decade later with Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken in Anchorage in front of news cameras.]
The Party is outraged when other countries challenge their worldview. Instead of trying to understand why they don’t see eye-to-eye, Beijing turns to manipulation, political interference, intimidation, coercion, and violence.
That is what’s happening here near Kinmen against Taiwan and in the South China Sea against the Philippines. The Chinese Communist Party is waging two simultaneous maritime intimidation campaigns against “small countries” who have the gall to defend themselves and their interests.
While each have their own dynamics and backstory, I suspect that both campaigns share a common objective: demonstrate that both countries are isolated and that collective security arrangements won’t protect them.
While this sounds like a feasible plan (the PRC coerces its neighbors, convinces them that they are isolated, and then both Taipei and Manila capitulate to Beijing’s demands), these campaigns may also backfire on Beijing. In fact, Beijing has been waging versions of intimidation campaigns for decades and it hasn’t resulted in success, in fact it has only harden their resolve.
Essentially, the CCP is backing Manila and Taipei into a corner together and demonstrating to everyone that Beijing cannot be trusted to act responsibly and peacefully.
It seems like Beijing’s theory of victory is that intimidation by stronger powers results in weaker powers surrendering. But intimidation also results in weaker powers improving their positions, drawing upon their own latent nationalism, and banding together.
Rather than achieving the PRC’s grand strategic goals, coercion and intimidation of its neighbors creates the kind of international environment that undermines their grand strategic goals. They are causing the kind of containment that they most fear, which of course only amplifies their outrage.
I wonder if there is anyone in the PRC national security establishment who can point out these inconvenient truths… I suspect the answer is no.
16. China's choreographed political meet carries message of control
Colleen Howe, Laurie Chen, and Liz Lee, Reuters, March 11, 2024
17. At China’s Great Leadership Gathering, What’s Unsaid Speaks Volumes
Brian Spegele, Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2024
18. Three Is Best: How China’s Family Planning Propaganda Has Changed
Isabelle Qian and Pablo Robles, New York Times, March 8, 2024
For decades, China harshly restricted the number of children couples could have, arguing that everyone would be better off with fewer mouths to feed. The government’s one-child policy was woven into the fabric of everyday life, through slogans on street banners and in popular culture and public art.
Now, faced with a shrinking and aging population, China is using many of the same propaganda channels to send the opposite message: Have more babies.
The government has also been offering financial incentives for couples to have two or three children. But the efforts have not been successful. The birthrate in China has fallen steeply, and last year was the lowest since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
Instead of enforcing birth limits, the government has shifted gears to promote a “pro-birth culture,” organizing beauty pageants for pregnant women and producing rap videos about the advantages of having children.
In recent years, the state broadcaster’s annual spring festival gala, one of the country’s most-watched TV events, has prominently featured public service ads promoting families with two or three children.
In one ad that aired last year, a visibly pregnant woman was shown resting her hand on her belly while her husband and son peacefully slept in bed. The caption read: “It’s getting livelier around here.”
COMMENT – Fascinating chart.
If we ever needed an example of the kind of harm that can come from a totalitarian government, the above chart serves as exhibit A. I suspect that future interventions by the Chinese Communist Party will result in continued harms.
The Chinese people would be far better off with a limited government that cannot impose these sorts of far reaching interventions into the lives of its citizens.
19. How Microsoft’s Bing Helps Maintain Beijing’s Great Firewall
Ryan Gallagher, Bloomberg, March 7, 2024
Environmental Harms
20. US solar wafer build stutters as Chinese surplus bites
Mark Shenk, Reuters, March 7, 2024
21. How China Came to Dominate the World in Solar Energy
Keith Bradsher, New York Times, March 7, 2024
Foreign Interference and Coercion
22. Former US official's work for Chinese client stirs concern over disclosure loopholes
Michael Martina, Reuters, March 12, 2024
When a Chinese drone company came under U.S. government scrutiny over its alleged ties to China's military, the company turned to one of America's pre-eminent lawyers: Loretta Lynch, a former attorney general in the Obama administration.
Lynch, who ran the U.S. Department of Justice from 2015 to 2017 and is now a partner at the Paul, Weiss law firm, wrote a letter to a senior Defense Department official last July on behalf of SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd, asking that her client be removed from a list of Chinese military companies.
Advocating for foreign clients is legal and U.S. law includes a public disclosure exemption for lawyers.
But the letter, seen by Reuters, is an example of what transparency advocates and some members of Congress - dozens of whom have supported bills to change rules - say are gaps in the law that allow lawyers and lobbyists, including former officials, to avoid disclosing their advocacy for companies possibly subject to U.S. sanctions.
The Paul, Weiss law firm declined to comment on the letter, and Lynch did not respond to Reuters emails. DJI also declined to comment, but it has said previously that it is not a military company and that it was prepared to formally challenge its inclusion on the list.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a decades-old law requiring public disclosure of work done on behalf of non-U.S. entities, includes a list of exemptions, including for commercial activities and legal representation.
The work by the onetime top U.S. law enforcement officer on behalf of a company the Department of Defense says poses "threats to national security" comes as U.S. agencies warn about companies with links to China's Communist Party and as lawmakers push to tighten FARA's disclosure requirements.
The U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments say DJI supported biometric surveillance and tracking of Muslim Uyghur minorities in China.
The Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment on Lynch's letter. DJI remained on the Pentagon list when it was updated in late January.
The Justice Department also declined comment on the letter and broader FARA enforcement.
Almost a dozen critics of FARA told Reuters the law's loopholes have allowed less transparency for other companies with alleged ties to China's military, including surveillance technology firm Hikvision and biotech firm WuXi AppTec.
Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says reforms to the law are needed, given the blurry lines between many Chinese companies and the Chinese government, and to keep former members of the U.S. government from effectively lobbying on their behalf.
"It is appalling that former senior U.S. officials use their connections to serve the interests of U.S. adversaries," Risch said.
However, the American Civil Liberties Union and others assert that broadening disclosure requirements could act as a barrier to legally protected free speech.
In 2022 the ACLU and 13 other groups wrote to the Justice Department about their concerns, cautioning that problems with the law could "enable selective enforcement for bad faith or malicious reasons."
Others argue that stricter FARA rules on disclosure could give authoritarian countries like Russia and China cover for their own stifling of free speech.
Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law school professor, said some countries, such as Russia, label citizens and reporters as foreign agents to limit their activities.
"I do have concerns over some past investigations and prosecutions that targeted individuals who appeared to be engaging in First Amendment activities," Turley told Reuters.
REQUESTING A MEETING
The Pentagon in 2022 placed DJI on its Chinese Military Companies list, a designation that serves as a warning about the risks of conducting business with those entities.
In her letter to Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Taylor-Kale on behalf of DJI, Lynch urged the department to promptly remove the drone maker.
"The wide use and dependence on DJI products by a variety of U.S. stakeholders reinforces the importance and urgency of deleting DJI from the list," Lynch wrote.
She added that DJI requested "a meeting to discuss this matter." Reuters could not establish whether that meeting occurred.
Also signing the letter, labeled "confidential treatment requested," were former Assistant United States Attorney Michael Gertzman and Associate White House Counsel in the Obama administration Roberto Gonzalez – now both partners at Paul, Weiss.
Gertzman and Gonzalez did not respond to requests for comment.
FARA enforcement has intensified in recent years, with the Justice Department prosecuting individuals for their work on behalf of Chinese interests and pushing some law firms to register.
Paul, Weiss attorneys have acknowledged growing enforcement tied to China.
In a 2022 memo to clients about a U.S. court's dismissal of a FARA case against casino magnate Steve Wynn, Lynch, Gonzalez and other Paul, Weiss attorneys wrote: "The targeting of lobbying on behalf of China by the DOJ is further evidence of the Biden Administration's intention to use all of the legal tools at its disposal in a multi-faceted strategy to counter the perceived threat posed by China."
Paul, Weiss did not respond to questions about the memo and a White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At the Justice Department's request, the Sidley Austin law firm in 2022 retroactively registered its lobbying on behalf of Hikvision, a company the U.S. says has been implicated in human rights violations toward Uyghurs.
Sidley Austin declined to comment on its registration. While the firm had not originally filed under FARA it had disclosed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, which has less rigorous disclosure requirements, according to the Justice Department.
The Justice Department has called for the repeal of an LDA exemption from FARA filing.
Hikvision did not respond to a request for comment but has previously denied reports that the company is complicit in human rights abuses.
Congressional pressure again has begun to tick up.
On March 5, the House of Representatives select committee on China asked the Justice Department to review trade association Biotechnology Innovation Organization's lobbying on behalf of Chinese biotech firm WuXi AppTec for possible FARA requirements.
BIO told Reuters that its advocacy was fulfilling its duty to let Congress and patients know the impact of potential policies and "nothing more."
WuXi AppTec, when asked by Reuters about the House committee's request, said it objected to "inaccurate assertions and preemptive actions against our company without due process," adding it was confident lawmakers would see it as a trusted partner.
REFORM IS UP TO CONGRESS
Some experts, including those who have concerns about extending FARA's reach, agree the law is vague and presents particular challenges for attorneys.
David Laufman, a partner at law firm Wiggin and Dana who previously oversaw the Justice Department's FARA enforcement, said while lawyers may not need to register under FARA if they avoid policy discussions with government officials, the only way to know for certain is to seek an opinion from the Justice Department.
"In the meantime, life goes on for attorneys. We have to represent our clients," he said.
Reforms to the law would be up to Congress. Several bipartisan bills to close FARA loopholes have been proposed.
One, proposed last year in the House and Senate could require retroactive FARA registration by anyone who acts as an "agent for a foreign principal."
COMMENT – Congress needs to close this law firm lobbying loophole. Former senior officials use their positions at these firms to influence policy making on behalf of foreign clients for their own financial gain.
Former Attorney General Lynch should know better than this.
23. Germany’s Ukraine policy is incoherent for a reason
Matthew Karnitschnig, Politico, March 7, 2024
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has sown confusion and consternation across Europe for adopting contradictory positions on Ukraine, but there’s a method to his madness.
Scholz has perplexed his European allies by refusing to supply Kyiv with cruise missiles, citing the risks of Russian retaliation even as he berates those allies for not delivering more military aid to help Ukraine fend off Russia.
Angry backlash over the chancellor’s seeming incoherence has been on full display in recent days, particularly as European allies try to project rhetorical resolve when it comes to helping Ukraine.
“Europe clearly faces a moment when it will be necessary not to be cowards,” French President Emmanuel Macron said this week, in comments that appeared to be aimed at Scholz.
“Scholz’s behavior has showed that as far as the security of Europe goes he is the wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time,” former United Kingdom Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said last week.
But what might appear to be Scholz’s incoherence is, in fact, a considered strategy.
Ever since Scholz realized Ukraine was capable of defending itself against Russia, his strategy has been to act in tandem with Washington in supplying Ukraine with just enough weaponry and equipment to survive, including anti-aircraft batteries and tanks, while withholding the tools it would need to win.
He has made no secret of this approach. To this day, Scholz, who belongs to Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), has refused to say he wants Ukraine to win the war, saying only that “Russia must not win and Ukraine must not lose.”
That may seem like semantics — but for many Ukrainians, hearing the leader of Europe’s political and economic powerhouse joining their quest for victory would offer an important psychological boost while also sending a clear message to Moscow about Berlin’s commitment.
COMMENT – Important insight into how political leaders in Berlin understand the world around them.
24. Former US official's work for Chinese client stirs concern over disclosure loopholes
Michael Martina, Reuters, March 11, 2024
25. UCL bans lecturer from China course to protect its ‘commercial interests’
Robert Mendick, The Telegraph, March 8, 2024
26. Chinese social media and the 2025 Australian federal election
Fan Yang, Robbie Fordyce, and Luke Heemsbergen, Lowy Institute, March 12, 2024
27. China is worried about the return of Trump, but it also sees opportunities if he wins the 2024 election
Simone McCarthy, CNN, March 10, 2024
28. US spy chief "cannot rule out" that China would use TikTok to influence US elections
Michael Martina and Patricia Zengerle, Reuters, March 12, 2024
Human Rights and Religious Persecution
29. U.S. lawmakers urge Blinken to issue 'do not travel' notice for Xinjiang
Marrian Zhou, Nikkei Asia, March 8, 2024
30. China’s Nobel winner Mo Yan targeted by growing band of online nationalists
Yuanyue Dang, South China Morning Post, March 10, 2024
31. Xinjiang Authorities Are Retroactively Applying Laws to Prosecute Religious Leaders as Criminals
Darren Byler, ChinaFile, March 8, 2024
A Leaked Court Verdict Details the Logic Behind One Cleric’s Prosecution and 17-Year Sentence.
Sholpan Amirkhan and her aunt gasped when the guards carried her brother-in-law Nurlan Pioner into the Jimunai County People’s Court, on the border with Kazakhstan in China’s western region of Xinjiang. He was gaunt, and a fetid smell followed him. When she shouted his name, she did not see any recognition on his face. He trembled, barely able to maintain a sitting posture as the guards settled him into the seat in the defendant’s cage.
Here was a man that everyone in Amirkhan’s community adored and admired, a vital and eloquent religious leader wrecked by 14 months in detention. He was a kind of living Quran, giving voice to the sacred Arabic words that most in his Kazakh community couldn’t read. He was a molla, a religious scholar and cleric, who had studied how to recite Islamic texts in Arabic and how to conduct religious rituals in an official Chinese state-run Islamic training center. He conducted marriages, funerals, and circumcisions, pulling families together, the elderly into the afterlife, the young into the world. Their relationships to each other and to their ancestors flowed through him. And now, his limbs paralyzed, he sat in his own urine in the courtroom.
Pioner had just turned 50. Before public security officials took him into custody on June 10, 2017, as part of China’s ongoing crackdown on ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, he had been perfectly healthy, an active village representative of the Jimunai County People’s Congress. His status as a state-appointed community leader, however, did not stop the three judges, all ethnic Kazakhs, from describing him as a criminal who had led members of the Kazakh community into extremism. When the proceedings were over, Amirkhan and her aunt leaned on each other as they walked out of the courthouse. Amirkhan said she whispered to her aunt, “it would be better if they just killed him.”
On August 31, 2018, almost a month after Amirkhan had seen Pioner at his bail hearing, the court sentenced him to 17 years in prison on three separate counts: gathering a crowd to disturb social order, “using extremism to undermine law enforcement,” and “illegal possession of items propagating extremism and terrorism.” The court gave Pioner’s family a written copy of the official verdict soon after his sentencing. Amirkhan smuggled it across the Kazakhstan-China border when she managed to flee the region in 2018. It provides a rare glimpse into the mechanisms of power guiding the now years-long campaign of repression in Xinjiang. Since the crackdown began in 2017, court authorities have deemed verdicts and other case documents related to social stability “not appropriate” to make publicly available.
Pioner’s verdict is one of the most detailed official government accounts available of the way routine Islamic practice has been criminalized across Xinjiang. His case shows how prosecutors and judges reimagine the past activities of Muslim communities, once accepted by the state, as the behavior of “evil gangs.” The verdict presents evidence against Pioner and a Uyghur bookseller named Tokhti Silam, who the prosecutors say together led dozens of people in the community to practice extremism. It describes in granular detail activities labeled instances of extremism, books that foster extremist thought, how homes and devices were searched for extremist content, even who drove in which cars to religious events and the student status of young people who illegally fasted during Ramadan.
Most importantly, it shows in explicit detail how “crimes” committed before they were deemed illegal have been retroactively prosecuted. As the legal state-appointed defenders for Silam state in the verdict, “Judging from the year and a month of the criminal charges, all the crimes committed by the defendant occurred between 1994 and 1995 and between 2011 and 2015. At that time, the relevant laws and regulations had not yet been promulgated, and legal publicity work had not yet been implemented. Therefore, during this period there was a widespread lack of awareness of legal responsibilities in society. Every legal provision related to this case was announced and implemented after 2015.”
COMMENT – Islamophobia, systemic racism, and colonialism still exist in the world… they can be found, in particularly malicious forms, inside the People’s Republic of China.
32. Canadian Jailed by China in Tit-for-Tat Dispute Gets a Settlement
Ian Austen and Vjosa Isai, New York Times, March 7, 2024
Industrial Policies and Economic Espionage
33. Weight Loss Drugs Threatened by US Effort to Contain China
Sangmi Cha, Madison Muller, and Michelle Fay Cortez, Bloomberg, March 6, 2024
34. Shift in China-U.S. trade is hurting California, helping Texas
Don Lee, Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2024
35. The Influencers Getting Paid to Promote Designer Knockoffs from China
Louise Matsakis, Wired, March 10, 2024
36. Singapore steps up scrutiny of China wealth after money laundering case
Echo Wong, Nikkei Asia, March 11, 2024
37. The Hidden Dangers in China’s GDP Numbers
Amit Kumar, Foreign Policy, March 11, 2024
38. Elderly retirees face big losses after Chinese trust goes bust, reflecting turbulent economy
Dake Kang, Associated Press, March 12, 2024
39. Having Overtaken Tesla, BYD Is Running into Problems Overseas
Selina Cheng, River Davis, and Raffaele Huang, Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2024
40. China’s ‘Two Sessions’ Doesn’t Show Clear Path to Recovery
Jiahui Huang and Fabiana Negrin Ochoa, Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2024
41. Malaysia: the surprise winner from US-China chip wars
Mercedes Ruehl, Financial Times, March 10, 2024
42. US steel unions urge Joe Biden to open probe into Chinese shipbuilding
Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times, March 12, 2024
43. China’s Exports Surge Are Drawing a Global Backlash
Keith Bradsher, New York Times, March 12, 2024
Increasing overseas sales of manufactured goods are helping China’s economy and creating employment, but countries from Europe to South Asia may lose jobs.
China’s factory exports are powering ahead faster than almost anyone expected, putting jobs around the world in jeopardy and setting off a backlash that is gaining momentum.
From steel and cars to consumer electronics and solar panels, Chinese factories are finding more overseas buyers for goods. The world’s appetite for its goods is welcomed by China, which is enduring a severe downturn in what had been the economy’s biggest driver of growth: building and outfitting apartments. But other countries are increasingly concerned that China’s rise is coming partly at their expense, and are starting to take action.
The European Union announced last week that it was preparing to charge tariffs, which are import taxes, on all electric cars arriving from China. The European Union said that it had found “substantial evidence” that Chinese government agencies have been illegally subsidizing these exports, something China denies.
The amount of the tariffs will not be set until summer but will apply to any electric car imported by the bloc from March 7 onward.
During a visit to Beijing in December, European leaders warned that China is compensating for its housing crisis by building far more factories than it needs.
China already produces a third of the world’s manufactured goods, more than the United States, Germany, Japan and South Korea combined, according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
The European Union has also been mulling import restrictions on wind turbines and solar panels from China. India announced last September that it would impose broad tariffs on steel from China. Turkey has been complaining that China is lopsidedly sending it exports while buying little.
COMMENT – Is it just me, or does the photo in this NYTs story seem to provide evidence of child labor on a washing machine assembly line?
44. China Readies $27 Billion Chip Fund to Counter Growing US Curbs
Dong Cao and Yuan Gao, Bloomberg, March 8, 2024
Local government, SDIC may join China’s biggest-ever chip fund. Washington urges allies to tighten China export controls.
China is in the process of raising more than $27 billion for its largest chip fund to date, accelerating the development of cutting-edge technologies to counter a US campaign to thwart its rise.
The National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund is amassing a pool of capital from local governments and state enterprises for its third vehicle that should exceed the 200 billion yuan of its second fund, according to people familiar with the matter.
COMMENT – Over the past decade, the PRC has provided nearly $100 billion in subsidies to its domestic semiconductor industry. Known as the “Big Fund,” the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (ICF) was established in September 2014 with the goal of achieving self-sufficiency in the semiconductor industry, in other words to “decouple” the PRC from a globalized semiconductor ecosystem. When ‘Made in China 2025’ was rolled out a year later, these efforts in the semiconductor industry were folded underneath that broader plan.
It would create the PRC’s own semiconductor design firms (replacing the Qualcomms, AMDs, and Nvidias of the world), it would build out domestic chip fabrication (replacing the TSMCs and Samsungs of the world), and it would construct domestic tool and EDC companies so that the PRC wouldn’t be dependent on foreign equipment to make semiconductors (replacing the ASMLs, Applied Materials, and Tokyo Electrons of the world).
As the world’s factory for nearly all electronics, the PRC stood a good chance of directing the replacement of foreign designed and manufactured semiconductors with domestically designed and manufactured chips (as the Party did in its roadmap for implementing Made in China 2025).
To date, this fund has disbursed upwards of $100 billion through “Big Fund I” (2014-2019) (which was managed poorly and resulted in massive corruption) and “Big Fund II” (2019 to 2024) (which has been managed more conservatively). The fund operates as a corporate entity under the PRC’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Ministry of Finance, but remains a top priority for the State Council.
It’s important to put the establishment of this fund in chronological order with everything else that has happened over the past decade.
Proposed by the PRC State Council in June 2014 and created that September, Beijing’s efforts to decouple itself from the global semiconductor ecosystem started years before the Trump and Biden Administrations came into office.
I see many folks argue that actions taken by the United States and other countries (export controls, the CHIPS Act, CFIUS actions, etc.) force Beijing to adopt their market distorting policies. Many imply that if Washington stopped trying to hold the PRC back, then the PRC would abandon their policies and we could return to a more cooperative economic system.
I my opinion, that is an ahistorical conclusion, one that is chronologically ignorant.
The Party developed and implemented these industrial policies with the goal of overturning a globalized semiconductor industry, years before Washington responded. Beijing’s harmful policies, convinced the US, EU, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea to develop policies to protect themselves.
Actions by Washington, Brussels, Tokyo, Taipei, and Seoul have made it MORE costly and time-consuming for Beijing to achieve its objectives. The fact that Beijing is announcing more subsidies suggests that these protections are working. Abandoning our protections (ceasing enforcement of dual-use export controls, lifting restrictions on FDI, or ending our own support for semiconductor companies through efforts like the CHIPS Act) will not convince Beijing to abandon its objectives… it will simply make it easier and less costly for them to achieve those objectives.
Cyber & Information Technology
45. China's lidar technology faces intensified scrutiny in U.S.
Ken Moriyasu and Echo Wong, Nikkei Asia, March 12, 2024
46. TikTok ban: Tech VC Keith Rabois threatens Republicans with funding halt ahead of House vote
Brian Schwartz, CNBC, March 12, 2024
47. Temu’s Push into America Pays Off Big Time for Meta and Google
Dana Mattioli, Suzanne Vranica, and Miles Kruppa, Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2024
48. Biden Backs Effort to Force Sale of TikTok by Chinese Owners
Stu Woo, Natalie Andrews, and Kristina Peterson, Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2024
49. Despite Trump’s Opposition to TikTok Ban, House Moves Ahead with Bill
Annie Karni and Jonathan Swan, New York Times, March 11, 2024
50. Huawei Chip Breakthrough Used Tech from Two US Gear Suppliers
Cagan Koc and Mackenzie Hawkins, Bloomberg, March 7, 2024
51. China puts trust in AI to maintain largest high-speed rail network on Earth
Stephen Chen, South China Morning Post, March 12, 2024
52. Apple to expand applied research operations in Shanghai and Shenzhen
Xinmei Shen, South China Morning Post, March 12, 2024
53. Ericsson denies exiting China despite losing ground to Huawei
Kelly Le, South China Morning Post, March 13, 2024
54. US 2025 defense budget to cut semiconductor spending
Misha Lu, Digitimes Asia, March 13, 2024
55. Trump Meets TikTok Investor, Suddenly Doesn’t Want to Ban It
Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine, March 11, 2024
56. 5 Things to Know About ByteDance, TikTok’s Parent Company
Foundation for Defense of Democracies, March 12, 2024
57. China Intensifies Push to ‘Delete America’ From Its Technology
Liza Lin, Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2024
58. Former Google AI engineer charged with trade secret theft for China firm
Eva Dou, Washington Post, March 6, 2024
59. US lawmakers tune out TikTok lobbying to advance bill to ban app
Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times, March 7, 2024
60. Intel survived bid to halt millions in sales to China's Huawei, sources say
Alexandra Alper, Reuters, March 12, 2024
Intel has survived an effort to halt hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of chip sales to Huawei, two people familiar with the matter said, giving one of the world's largest chipmakers more time to sell to the heavily sanctioned Chinese telecoms company.
U.S. President Joe Biden has long been under pressure to revoke a license, issued by the Trump administration, that allows Intel, opens new tab to ship advanced central processors to Huawei for use in laptops.
COMMENT - This is the same Intel that is lobbying the U.S. Commerce Department for massive subsidies under the CHIPS Act to support the company from threats posed by Huawei.
Commerce should tie support from U.S. taxpayers to more stringent export controls.
If Intel can only survive by taking taxpayer handouts while selling technology to our adversaries, then maybe it isn’t a company worth saving.
61. South Korean chipmakers halt old equipment sales over fears of US backlash
Qianer Liu and Christian Davies, Financial Times, March 12, 2024
62. STMicroelectronics CEO says China is a growth market despite US chip war
Reuters, March 12, 2024
Military and Security Threats
63. China, Philippines at a sea fight breaking point - Asia Times
Richard Javad Heydarian, Asia Times, March 7, 2024
64. China Leads the US, Russia in Hypersonics, Pentagon Analyst Says
Anthony Capaccio, Bloomberg, March 12, 2024
65. No risk of cross-strait war before new president takes office: Taiwan spy chief
Lawrence Chung, South China Morning Post, March 11, 2024
66. Xi issues hi-tech military call in push for integrated armed forces
Amber Wang and Liu Zhen, South China Morning Post, March 8, 2024
67. North Korean missiles developed with foreign help, Nikkei finds
Yuichiro Kanematsu, Toru Tsunashima, and Shoji Yano, Nikkei Asia, March 10, 2024
68. Army intelligence analyst charged with selling military secrets to contact in China for $42,000
Robert Legare and Eleanor Watson, CBS News, March 7, 2024
69. Navy postpones several modernization programs to pay for operations
Megan Eckstein, Defense News, March 11, 2024
70. Espionage Probe Finds Communications Device on Chinese Cranes at U.S. Ports
Dustin Volz, Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2024
71. India Adds Firepower to a Missile Program Focused on China
Rajesh Roy, Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2024
One Belt, One Road Strategy
72. China's Belt and Road Initiative is bringing new risks to Europe
Elaine Dezenski, Euronews, February 28, 2024
Opinion Pieces
73. The U.S.-Japan gap: a challenge in economic security cooperation
Mariko Togashi, Japan Times, March 5, 2024
74. Shipbuilding: the new battleground in the US-China trade war
Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, March 12, 2024
75. Tackling the TikTok Threat
The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2024
76. Global Chaos or the Orange Peril?
Walter Russell Mead, Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2024
77. Red Sea inaction proves China is not a 'responsible stakeholder'
Marco Rubio, Nikkei Asia, March 13, 2024
78. A TikTok Ban May Be Easier in Theory
Jacky Wong, Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2024