‘Time is not on our side’: Congress panel says tackling China defines next century

The US Congress must act urgently to counter the economic and national security threats posed by the Chinese government, a bipartisan chorus of lawmakers on a newly created special House committee has warned during an inaugural, primetime hearing. The two superpowers were locked in an “existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century”, the committee’s Republican chairman, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, said as the rivalry between the US and China deepens. With democracy advocates and protesters in attendance, the panel – formally the House Select Committee…

Foreign Efforts to Subvert Canada’s Last 2 Elections Failed, Report Says

OTTAWA — Foreign governments tried to interfere with the last two federal elections in Canada, but they did not succeed in “impacting” the voting results, according to an independent review released on Tuesday. That conclusion comes as opposition politicians and others are pressing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to open a separate, public inquiry into allegations of election interference by Chinese diplomats based in Canada, as well as by informal agents of the Chinese government — a move that Mr. Trudeau has rejected. The report released on Tuesday was a review…

6 years in a windowless cell: life in Thanh Hoa Prison No. 5

After six years in prison, political activist Nguyen Van Dien has been telling Radio Free Asia about his time served in a tiny cell with no window in the scorching heat of central Vietnam. Dien, also known as Dien Ai Quoc, returned to his home in northeastern Vietnam’s Yen Bai province on Feb. 22, six months before his sentence was due to end. He is still serving four years’ probation for the crime of “propaganda against the state.” “Being in prison was very harsh, we were kept in cells 24…

China’s Abrupt Reopening Sparks Student Accommodation Crisis in Australia

Sydney —  For Zoey Zhang, a student from China who is heading to a top Australian university, finding accommodation Down Under has been tough — so much so that she has even considered sleeping “rough on the streets.” Like Zhang, about 700,000 students from China enrolled to study overseas have been left in the lurch after a surprise January edict by Beijing said they would have to return to on-campus learning for their education to be recognized back home. This has triggered a rush for accommodation even as housing markets…

US, Japan, South Korea Launch Forum to Cut Off Chips to China 

WASHINGTON —  In a bid to outcompete China technologically, the Biden administration on Tuesday launched a new dialogue forum with Japan and South Korea on friend-shoring semiconductors as it invites companies to compete for a share of the $50 billion already approved to revitalize the U.S. chip industry. The inaugural meeting of the Economic Security Dialogue among the United States, Japan and South Korea was launched Tuesday in Honolulu. Japan and South Korea are home to two of the world’s strongest semiconductor industries, and the forum aims to address issues…

Blinken Finds Receptive Leaders in Central Asia, Where Russia Seeks Aid

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken came to Central Asia to press his case that the region should hold the line against Russian efforts to seek economic aid as Moscow grapples with Western sanctions. Within hours of landing in Astana, the snow-draped capital of Kazakhstan, he received a sign that the United States had some leverage. The Kazakh president stood next to Mr. Blinken in the blue-doomed presidential palace and thanked the Americans for their support of his nation’s “independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty.” The president, Kassym-Jomart…

‘Abusing state power’: China lashes out at US over TikTok bans

US government bans on Chinese-owned video sharing app TikTok reveal Washington’s own insecurities and are an abuse of state power, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson has said. China, though, has itself long blocked a large list of foreign social media platforms and messaging apps, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The US government “has been overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress other countries’ companies”, Mao Ning said at a daily briefing on Tuesday. “How unsure of itself can the US, the world’s top superpower,…

China Said to Ask Domestic Firms to Shun Big Four Accountants

In a possible sign that the so-called “decoupling” of the U.S. and Chinese economies is continuing, a recent media report said that the Chinese government has urged large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to cease using the world’s biggest global accounting firms to audit their onshore businesses. The report, published last week by Bloomberg, cites people familiar with communications between the Chinese Ministry of Finance and large SOEs, in which the ministry encouraged the companies to allow their existing contracts with Western firms to lapse when they expire, and to replace them…

China debt: Gansu province moves to restore investor confidence, double borrowing with no default vow

“We have repeatedly promised and will emphasise again … please be rest assured we will protect investors’ income and legal rights just like protecting our own lives and eyes, and resolutely defend Gansu’s good credit environment and healthy financial system.” Amid plans to double its debt issuance in 2023 from a year earlier, Wang urged investors to trust Gansu Province Highway Aviation Tourism Investment Group, the local authority company responsible for a wide range of infrastructure development, that also includes finance, trade, real estate, and energy. Advertisement Wang told investors…

‘Economic Nato’ alliance, other ideas to counter China are proposed by US lawmakers

The idea was endorsed by Daleep Singh, a former deputy national security adviser to US President Joe Biden and one of the primary architects of American sanctions against Russia last year. “It’s a fantastic idea, to look at where our collective strengths intersect with the target’s vulnerabilities and to move together,” Singh, now the chief global economist at PGIM Fixed Income, said at the hearing. Advertisement But Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, said the US should be “a bit tougher” on European allies to lower the price cap…