Day: July 1, 2023

Eye on AI as US-China rivalry enters new frontier with Unesco policymaking

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China was among the 10 members that voted against the motion, alongside Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Iran, Eritrea, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Syria and the Palestinian representatives, while 132 voted in favour. An exterior view of the Unesco headquarters is seen in Paris, France. Photo: EPA-EFE Édes said participating in Unesco and being involved in rule-setting and allocating resources offer China and the US opportunities to promote their values and interests in the international arena. Advertisement After the US said it would leave in 2017, China quickly increased its contribution and became…

Japanese Journalist Barred From Entering Hong Kong Without Clear Reason: Report

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HONG KONG —  A Japanese journalist was barred from entering Hong Kong without a clear reason and was sent back to his country, a Japanese newspaper said, raising concerns over the city’s shrinking press freedoms. The Japan Times, a prominent English-language newspaper, reported Friday that a freelance journalist was taken by officials to a room after arriving at the city’s airport Thursday evening. Yoshiaki Ogawa, known for his coverage in the financial hub, was later interviewed for around an hour, it said. Ogawa said officials only told him that he…

CIA chief: US decoupling from China would be ‘foolish’ given economic interdependence

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Also at the lecture on Saturday, Burns said the armed mutiny by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was a challenge to the Russian state that had shown the corrosive effect of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia on June Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE / Gavriil Grigorov / Sputnik / Kremlin / Pool But Burns said that disaffection in Russia with the war in Ukraine was creating a rare opportunity to recruit spies – and the CIA was not letting it pass. Advertisement “Disaffection with the…

China’s seeds, in an agricultural choke hold, must see breeding advancements

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Owing to faster agricultural development in the United States, China’s corn production per mu – a Chinese unit of measurement – has fallen further behind the US in the past decade, currently at 314kg (692 pounds) less per mu from 200kg in 2005. Our agricultural technology gap, particularly with the US, can’t be allowed to widen any further Deng Yan, professor “About 70 per cent of China’s corn seed comes from the US,” said Jia, who is also chairman of the African Academy of Sciences China branch. “Western countries, especially…

Hong Kong social activists brave threat of arrest to keep speaking out

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Three years after Beijing imposed a law criminalized public dissent and peaceful political opposition in Hong Kong, a dwindling band of social activists say they’re not giving up just yet. Opposition party leader Chan Po-ying, who chairs the League of Social Democrats, was recently detained by police on a downtown shopping street carrying an electric candle and a yellow paper flower on the 34th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, commemoration of which is now banned in Hong Kong. Undeterred, she showed up a few days later outside the headquarters…

China Forex Regulator Pan Gongsheng Named Central Bank Party Boss

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China’s ruling Communist Party appointed central bank Deputy Governor Pan Gongsheng as the bank’s party secretary Saturday, a move The Wall Street Journal said would be a prelude to becoming governor. The party’s Central Organization Department announced the decision at a meeting Saturday afternoon, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement on its website. The Journal reported hours earlier that Pan, chosen for his international background, would be named to the party post before being appointed by the government to head the PBOC. The PBOC did not…

Western-trained banker in line to lead China’s central bank

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Receive free People’s Bank of China updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest People’s Bank of China news every morning. China has tapped a western-trained risk firefighter to lead the country’s central bank, a move that is expected to provide some market certainty as Xi Jinping overhauls oversight of the financial sector. The People’s Bank of China announced on Saturday that Pan Gongsheng had been appointed to the role of Communist party chief at the bank, replacing Guo Shuqing. The party chief is the…

China hits out at US ‘coercion’ after Dutch move to curb chip gear exports

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“In order to maintain its global hegemony, the US has been, in recent years, constantly generalising the concept of national security, abusing export control measures, even at the expense of allies’ interests, coercion and co-optation of other countries to implement semiconductor suppression against China,” the statement said. By pushing forward its campaign to stop China’s access to cutting-edge microchip technology, the US was also trying to “artificially promote industry decoupling and disrupt the supply chain”, which the ministry said seriously damaged the global semiconductor industry. 02:05 China imposes restrictions on…

What Does Russia’s Wagner Rebellion Mean for China?

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Just three months ago, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, was in Moscow clinking glasses with Vladimir V. Putin and expressing his confidence in the “firm support” the Russian president enjoyed among his people. That confidence is now in question, after the Wagner private military group waged an insurrection in Russia that has shaken Mr. Putin’s image of invulnerability. Close watchers of China say that the mutiny, short-lived as it was, could lead Mr. Xi to hedge a close relationship with Russia that had already exposed Beijing to global criticism and…

China’s semiconductor ambitions dealt fresh blow by new Dutch export rules on ASML chip-making machines

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The impact of the updated export controls could initially be limited, as the NXT: 2000i and higher-end tools are used for the more advanced 7-nanometre and 5-nm process nodes, which are already difficult for Chinese chip makers to tackle given broader US export controls. ASML’s lower-end NXT1980i, which can be used for 10-nm node chips, is still allowed for sale to China. Advertisement Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines from ASML, used by top chip makers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Samsung Electronics and Intel to produce leading-edge chips for smartphones…