Day: January 27, 2023

Curious Washington Awaits Next Chinese Ambassador

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON —  One of the lowest points in recent Sino-American relations came in July 2021 when U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, on a visit to Beijing, was scolded by her Chinese interlocutor and handed a “List of U.S. Wrongdoings that Must Stop.” Sherman was also warned during the strained encounter about what the Chinese described as the Biden administration’s “highly misguided mindset” and handed a second “List of Key Individual Cases that China Has Concerns With.” The man who delivered those messages, Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng, is…

Auckland Starts Cleanup After Torrential Rains, Flash Floods

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Authorities in New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland, began mopping up on Saturday, a day after torrential rain brought flooding and evacuations, shutting airports and forcing organizers to cancel a scheduled concert by Elton John. A state of emergency remained in place in the city of 1.6 million people on New Zealand’s north island as the rains eased after causing flooding in the north, northwest and west. Auckland Emergency Management, part of the city’s council, said daylight had revealed the first “true understanding” of the impact of the storm, caused by…

EU to stand with US in ‘depriving China of the most advanced chips’, trade official says

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In October, the US restricted exports of high-end semiconductors and chip-making technology to China. Since then, the Biden administration has pressed Europe to take similar measures. But the EU has been wary. Last week, the Dutch trade minister Liesje Schreinemacher said that the Netherlands would not immediately comply with US restrictions on China, and that it was consulting allies in Asia and the EU. Advertisement Since 2019, the Dutch government has denied ASML Holding, the Netherlands’ largest company and the world’s leading manufacturer of hi-tech equipment used in producing most…

China’s Oil and Gas Use Fell in 2022 for First Time in Decades

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With its economy severely hampered by stringent measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, China’s oil and gas consumption declined in 2022 for the first time in decades, the International Energy Agency said on Friday. But after China’s recent reversal of its lockdown policies, the agency’s executive director, Fatih Birol, said he expected a sharp rebound in demand, which could mean higher energy prices in other markets. The reduction in Chinese energy use last year kept world prices from soaring even higher after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, giving relief to…

Bombing Underscores Need for Task Force, Indonesian Journalists Say

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jakarta, indonesia —  Journalist associations in Indonesia are demanding greater efforts to protect media from attacks after a bombing outside the home of an investigative reporter. Victor Mambor, the editor of the Papua news outlet Jubi, was at home watching television around 6 a.m. local time Monday when he heard a motorbike stop outside his home in Jayapura City. Shortly after he heard the motorbike drive off, “there was an explosion,” he told VOA. At first, Mambor said, he stayed indoors but he could hear a crowd starting to gather.…

As residents flee Hong Kong, officials trawl region in the hope of luring talent

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Hong Kong officials have begun traveling the region in a bid to attract fresh talent, particularly younger people, to settle in the city as a crackdown on dissent continues to drive middle-class families to flee the former British colony. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun made a trip to Singapore and the Philippines earlier this month to peddle the “advantages” offered by Hong Kong’s proximity to mainland China and its growing integration with other cities in the Pearl River Delta under the “Greater Bay Area” plan. Chief Executive John…

Japanese and Dutch officials in US to discuss chips

Chin@Strategy

Officials from Japan and the Netherlands, two of the world’s biggest microchip exporters, are in Washington for talks on a trilateral deal to limit sales of key technology to China, a top official said Friday. The meeting comes amid a report from Bloomberg that a deal was nearing completion. Cooperation from the two countries – which together with the United States produce the bulk of the world’s high-end chipmaking fabrication technology – is being sought by the Biden administration to give teeth to its unilateral export bans. U.S. officials have…

Massive fire razes 200-year-old monastery in Nepal

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A massive fire has destroyed much of Nepal’s ancient Hinang Pungtsey Buddhist monastery on the border with Tibet, according to sources.  The fire, which broke out on Wednesday, razed the central prayer hall in the 200-year-old monastery, sources told RFA, adding that most of the prayer books in the building were also torched.  Authorities are still investigating the cause of the blaze, and have yet to report any deaths or injuries. Most of the idols inside the monastery were also destroyed, sources said, because of how long it took to…

US appeals against WTO verdicts on steel tariffs on China and other countries

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The expert panels the WTO set up in 2018 to settle complaints filed over the tariffs ruled last month that they were inconsistent with various articles of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The panels also determined that these inconsistencies were not justified by the security exceptions provided for in the GATT, as they were not applied in a time of war or during a case of serious international tension. Advertisement US Ambassador Maria Pagan criticised the rulings during a meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB)…

Uyghur member of ‘propaganda vanguard’ confirmed detained in China’s Xinjiang

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Authorities in Xinjiang have given a 20-year jail sentence to a Uyghur woman who at one time staunchly supported China’s anti-extremism campaign targeting the mostly Muslim ethnic group in the restive northwestern region, while two of her sons were each jailed for 17 years, local security officials said.   Hurshide Kerim was a member of the Communist Party’s “propaganda vanguard,” a group of Uyghurs who traveled around Xinjiang and publicly denounced “religious extremism” under China’s nearly 10-year-old “strike hard” campaign aimed at what Beijing deems to be terrorism and extremism in…