Day: September 16, 2021

In Submarine Deal With Australia, U.S. Counters China but Enrages France

Chin@Strategy

PARIS — President Biden’s announcement of a deal to help Australia deploy nuclear-powered submarines has strained the Western alliance, infuriating France and foreshadowing how the conflicting American and European responses to confrontation with China may redraw the global strategic map. In announcing the deal on Wednesday, Mr. Biden said it was meant to reinforce alliances and update them as strategic priorities shift. But in drawing a Pacific ally closer to meet the China challenge, he appears to have alienated an important European one and aggravated already tense relations with Beijing.…

Inquiry finds World Bank officials, including now-I.M.F. chief, pushed staff to inflate China data.

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — An investigation into manipulation of an annual World Bank report has found that Kristalina Georgieva, the bank’s former chief executive, who now leads the International Monetary Fund, directed staff to alter data to placate China. The findings of the investigation, which was conducted by the law firm WilmerHale at the request of the bank’s ethics committee, raised questions about the judgment of Ms. Georgieva during her time at the World Bank and underscored the pressure that the bank has been under to accommodate China, its third-largest shareholder after…

Rural Affairs Specialist Han Jun Likely to Ascend to Vice Premier in 2022

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement In China’s political philosophy, rural is half the China state: half the polity is urban, the other half rural. While state-party dichotomies tend to dominate analyses of China’s elite politics, the rural aspect of the urban-rural split is often overlooked. More than simply agricultural, peasant, or village policy, rural affairs is a broad portfolio. Yet while this rural affairs portfolio is a sprawl of governance, economic, and social policy competence, there is no Politburo chair institutionalized for rural affairs responsibility. Rural affairs is largely governed from within the State…

Why Australia Bet the House on Lasting American Power in Asia

Chin@Strategy

Speaking Thursday, Mr. Morrison said the reinforced security alliance with the United States and Britain, which will include collaborations on artificial intelligence and other emerging technology, reflected the needs of a more dangerous dynamic in the Asia-Pacific region. “The relatively benign environment we’ve enjoyed for many decades in our region is behind us,” he said, without directly mentioning China. “We have entered a new era with new challenges for Australia and our partners.” Some security analysts argued that China’s recent retaliation against Australia over its harder line — slashing imports…

‘Red Roulette’: Tell-All Book Reveals the Dark Underbelly of China’s Gilded Age

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement Whitney Duan was once the poster woman for China’s rags-to-riches narrative of business success. But she went missing in 2017 following reports that she facilitated business dealings with family members of China’s then-Premier Wen Jiabao and other senior Communist Party officials. Four years after Duan’s mysterious disappearance, her ex-husband and business partner, Desmond Shum’s tell-all book, “Red Roulette: An Insider’s Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today’s China” is quickly shaping up to be the new must-read among observers of Chinese elite politics. The book so startled…

Understanding China’s Draft Algorithm Regulations

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement Data and algorithms are the fundamental blocks of cyberspace, but while data practices are increasingly being regulated around the world algorithm regulation is relatively untouched. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for example, remains the groundbreaking model for data protection regulations in most parts of the world. However, there is a void in the regulation of algorithms. In August, China issued the Draft Internet Information Service Algorithmic Recommendation Management Provisions, with an interest in standard setting in this space. The provisions provide a framework for the regulation of…

China Says It Has Vaccinated 1 Billion People

Chin@Strategy

China said on Thursday that it had fully inoculated 1 billion people, a milestone for the world’s most populous country that brings it closer to its goal of vaccinating 80 percent of its population by the end of the year. It was a significant accomplishment, representing 71 percent of China’s population of 1.4 billion. China has administered 2.16 billion doses, nearly triple that of India, which is ranked second for shots given and has doled out 752.7 million doses, according to Our World in Data, which tracks vaccination figures. More…