Month: June 2023

US Expects More Cooperation With India in South China Sea

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washington —  WASHINGTON – The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said Wednesday that he expected a greater U.S.-India partnership over issues in the South China Sea, where China has been at the center of numerous territorial disputes with regional countries. The United States and India declared themselves “among the closest partners in the world” last week during a state visit to Washington by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and emphasized adherence to international law in addressing challenges to the maritime rules-based order, including in the South China…

Antony Blinken says he told Beijing officials that US does not seek to ‘contain’ China

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But, he contended, it was not in the interests of the US to allow China to gain access to some critical technology. “We want to see a China that’s actually succeeding economically – it’s in our interest. But equally, and again I shared this with our counterparts, how is it in our interest to allow them to get technology that they may turn around and use against us?,” he asked. Advertisement As examples, Blinken cited China’s “building a very opaque nuclear weapons programme and expanding it at a very rapid…

US-China conflict resolution needs more than a latter-day Nixon going to Beijing

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President Xi Jinping, for example, insisted on sitting at the head of the table in his brief 35-minute meeting with Blinken, casting the senior US diplomat in a decidedly subservient light. No sooner had Blinken left the country than US President Joe Biden referred to the Chinese leader as a dictator, further inflaming China’s sensitivities. Such an approach no longer works because diplomacy derives its legitimacy from domestic politics. On the US side, poisonous anti-China sentiment tied Blinken’s hands long before he set foot in Beijing. US Representative Mike Gallagher,…

In the Name of Energy Security, China Is Doubling Down on Both Renewables and Coal

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Advertisement With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupting fossil fuel supplies and prices, global attention to energy security has heightened. Ensuring affordable and secure supplies of energy resources, or energy security, is an uphill battle for China, which has massive energy demand but constrained domestic supply. With climate change and geopolitics worsening, coupled with the need to maintain economic growth, balancing climate goals and energy security is increasingly a paradox for Beijing. China is simultaneously the world’s largest producer of renewable energy (solar, wind, and hydropower) and coal power, the dirtiest…

Uyghur forced labor is focus of German, French and U.S. scrutiny

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A string of multinational companies – including German car giant Volkswagen, Spanish clothier Zara and China-based online retailer Temu – have come under renewed scrutiny this month for allegedly inadequate efforts to determine whether Uyghur forced labor is used in their supply chains.  In Europe, a prominent human rights organization and two other organizations filed a complaint on June 21 with German authorities alleging that Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW haven’t taken appropriate measures to prevent or eliminate forced labor in the making of their automobiles. In the United States, a…

After 6 years in prison, Vietnam frees father and son adherents of Buddhist group

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Vietnamese authorities have released two family members belonging to an unofficial branch of the Hoa Hao Buddhist community after serving six-year prison sentences for disrupting public order during a confrontation with authorities at their home. Bui Van Trung, 62, and his son, Bui Van Tham, 36, were convicted in February 2018 in the country’s An Giang province. Vietnam’s government officially recognizes the Hoa Hao religion, which has some 2 million followers across the country, but imposes harsh controls on dissenting Hoa Hao groups, including the sect in An Giang province,…

Chinese Cybercrime Syndicates in Myanmar Now Target Victims Worldwide

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Organized criminal groups from China operating on the Thai-Myanmar border are threatening internet users worldwide with online scams and financial fraud, using trafficked “cyber slaves” to carry out their crimes, according to a new report by the congressionally established United States Institute of Peace in Washington. The groups have been pushed out of China by Chinese authorities and are now operating in bordering Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. Despite what is characterized by the report as a “global security threat,” little has been done to stop…

Blinken: No US goal for China but peace

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There’s no “finish line” for U.S. foreign policy toward China besides maintaining peace, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday, even if Beijing and Moscow seek to build an “illiberal” world order. The comments came less than two weeks after Blinken made a visit to Beijing that U.S. officials described as an effort only to reopen talks with their Chinese counterparts, and which delivered little more. Speaking at an event at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Blinken said in the near-term and “maybe even in the lifetimes…

China’s ruling party expels Beijing official for possessing banned books, journals

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Chinese Communist Party investigators have expelled a high-ranking official in the Beijing city government for possession of banned political books and journals, as the authorities continue to purge unapproved content and replace it with official propaganda that sticks to the party line. The Beijing branch of the party’s disciplinary arm, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, announced on June 25 it had expelled former state assets supervisory official Zhang Guilin for “serious violations of discipline and law,” paving the way for a criminal prosecution. “The investigation found that Zhang Guilin’s…