Month: February 2023

Biden Administration Grilled Over $23B in Licenses for Blacklisted Chinese Firms

Chin@Strategy

The Biden administration approved more than $23 billion worth of licenses for companies to ship U.S. goods and technology to blacklisted Chinese companies in the first quarter of 2022, a Republican lawmaker said Tuesday. The data comes amid growing pressure on the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden to further expand a broad crackdown on shipments of sensitive U.S. technology to China from Republican lawmakers, who now control the House of Representatives. “Overwhelmingly, [the Commerce Department] continues to grant licenses that allow critical U.S. technology to be sold to our…

US bid to cut China dependence by bringing jobs home and shifting supply chains ineffective: analysts

Chin@Strategy

In recent years, the US and other Western economies have grown increasingly alarmed at their dependence on Chinese-tied supply lines, stoked by the US-China trade war launched five years ago by ex-president Donald Trump and accentuated by disruptions tied to the coronavirus pandemic. The realisation has prompted calls to accelerate coordination among USMCA member countries. “Policymakers are turning in earnest to worry a lot more about the resiliency and security of supply chains,” said Simon Kennedy, Canada’s deputy minister of innovation, science and economic development, at the Brookings event. “The…

Myanmar military destroys more than 100 homes in Mandalay on encroachment claims

Chin@Strategy

As soldiers and police looked on, bulldozers destroyed more than 100 houses on two streets in Myanmar’s second largest city, leaving residents – many of whom had been living there for decades – homeless overnight, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia. The junta demolished the homes on Monday on Mandalay’s Ma Kha Yar street and on 49th street the following day, claiming that the structures had “encroached on land owned by the state.” According to rights organizations, the junta has forcibly evicted people living in informal settlements as…

More than 2 dozen former Voice of Democracy staffers apply for Cambodian gov’t jobs

Chin@Strategy

At least 25 former staffers of the shuttered Cambodian media outlet Voice of Democracy have applied for government jobs as of Tuesday, the deadline that Prime Minister Hun Sen set for them to join without taking the required entrance examinations.  The offer from the prime minister followed the closing of the country’s last independent news outfit earlier this month. The government job offers are part of a wider effort ahead of the July general elections to co-opt opposition members by luring them to join the ruling Cambodia People’s Party. Six…

People posing as Reuters reporters try to infiltrate China’s ‘white paper movement’

Chin@Strategy

Two Reuters journalists had their identities impersonated by someone who used fake social media accounts to try to obtain information from activists about overseas Hong Kongers, the news service reported. The false portrayals of the two journalists, Hong Kong-based correspondent Jessie Pang and Shanghai bureau chief Brenda Goh, began in late November and took place on the Telegram message app and on Instagram, according to Reuters. The unknown impersonator or impersonators sought information about people linked to the “white paper” protests of late last year, in which people protested against…

Who are Wang Huning and Ding Xuexiang, the candidates in line to head Communist Party’s Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macau Affairs?

Chin@Strategy

The CPPCC meeting will begin on Saturday, with the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, to open the next day. The meetings, which usually last around a fortnight, are known as the “two sessions” in China and serve as occasions for the country’s top political leaders to discuss and endorse personnel changes, new laws and policies. Advertisement Ding, a close aide of President Xi Jinping, is tipped to succeed Han, 68, as executive vice-premier. The reshuffle at the two sessions will be one of the last…

Images of plump, well-dressed daughter of Kim Jong Un arouse secret resentment

Chin@Strategy

The officially titled “Beloved Child” of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wore a fur-collared long coat with golden buttons, festooned with a golden brooch  and high-quality leather gloves.  She was careful not to mess up her immaculately-primped hairstyle as she, her father, and several other VIPs dug the ceremonial first shovels of dirt at the dedication of a new street in the capital Pyongyang on Feb. 25 in her latest official public appearance, and third in the same month.  Experts speculate that the recent introduction of Kim Ju Ae,…

Cambodia’s prime minister rebuffs apology statement from opposition figure

Chin@Strategy

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has rejected a statement from a senior opposition party leader that followed a recent Supreme Court decision upholding a U.S.$1 million defamation judgment. Son Chhay, vice president of the Candlelight Party, has been ordered to pay the damages to the Cambodian People’s Party and the National Election Commission. The judgment, which was upheld by the Supreme Court last week, stems from comments he made last year following local commune elections, which he said was marred by irregularities. In anticipation of that decision, Son Chhay wrote…

China spends billions on pro-Russia disinformation, US special envoy says

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The west has been slow to respond to China spending billions globally to spread poisonous disinformation, including messaging that is completely aligned with Russia on Ukraine, a US special envoy has claimed. James Rubin, a coordinator for the Global Engagement Center, a US state department body set up to “expose and counter” foreign propaganda and disinformation, made the remarks during a European tour this week. “The well has been poisoned by Chinese and Russian disinformation – it’s pernicious,” said Rubin, a broadcaster and former official in the Clinton administration and…

China’s Plan for Ukraine Is No Plan at All

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement On February 24, one year after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, China released a paper on “China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis.” In classic Beijing style, the document unpacks China’s official position in 12 points. These points repeat previous Chinese positions on the conflict, and in this sense do not offer anything new in terms of Beijing’s rhetoric and supposed neutrality. They do, however, offer several useful insights into China’s own perception about its role in the international arena as well as its positioning…