I addressed a group of more than 100 European ambassadors recently on the big challenges facing the continent this year and next. My main point to these senior diplomats was that, perhaps counterintuitively, Europe’s biggest external challenges over the next 12 months will come from Russia and China, rather than the US. Europe’s relationship with Trump’s America remains difficult. The US president has weakened confidence in Nato, raised new transatlantic trade tensions and introduced uncertainty into everything from US support for Ukraine to his territorial designs on Greenland. Yet paradoxically,…
Author: Media Library
How does Xi Jinping’s ‘special plane’ compare with Air Force One?
Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington this week, attention is already turning to the aircraft that will carry him and how it stacks up against America’s famous presidential plane. The aircraft carrying China’s leader, often referred to in state media and official statements as a zhuan ji, or special plane, remains far less known to the world than Air Force One, despite both countries using Boeing 747s for presidential travel. For a head of state, a presidential aircraft is more than a means of transport. Its range,…
AI looms large over Trump-Xi meeting amid deep distrust between US and China
When Xi Jinping, China’s leader, touches down in Maryland on Wednesday, he will step out into the arms – perhaps a hug, if Donald Trump’s wishes come true – of a US president who has shown China more bonhomie than any of his recent predecessors. The meeting between Xi and Trump this week will be the second time that the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies have talked face to face this year. At the previous summit, held in Beijing in May, there was much talk of building a…
Fissures over US investments stall plans for Chinese business leaders to join Xi visit
Differences between Washington and Beijing over potential investment announcements have created roadblocks for a Chinese business delegation expected to accompany President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the US, according to sources. The window for travel is narrowing by the hour for these Chinese business leaders, with Xi expected to arrive in Washington by Wednesday. A source familiar with the discussions said Washington and Beijing have yet to resolve their disagreements over the Board of Investment, particularly over possible Chinese investments in the US, contributing to uncertainty over the delegation’s participation.…
China launches its first commercial radio-tracking satellites in electronic warfare leap
A Lijian-1 Y18 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northern China at noon on Sunday, carrying nine satellites. Among them were three Diting-01 satellites, which successfully entered their planned orbit. The trio is named after Diting, a beast from Chinese mythology that crouches beneath the desk of Ksitigarbha, the bodhisattva of the underworld, and can identify all things simply by listening. South China Morning Post
China’s cancer breakthrough on CAR-T cell therapy shows progress
South China Morning Post
New rules to protect tech secrets could strand Taiwanese visitors in China
Taiwan has warned its high-tech professionals that if they visit mainland China, they could be stopped for questioning – or even barred from leaving the country – under new regulations that analysts told Radio Free Asia were put in place likely because Beijing is afraid of losing AI talent. The new regulations that took effect on Sept. 15 allow Chinese authorities to prevent its citizens from leaving the country if violations of export-control or technology-transfer rules could endanger “industrial or technological security.” The law applies to visiting citizens of Taiwan…
Can Xi and Trump use their leverage to actually make progress?
When the presidents of the United States and China meet in Washington, the world will be watching to see whether their two countries can make good on their agreement to work towards “constructive strategic stability”. In the fifth part of a series, Fan Chen and Orange Wang look at the negotiating chips and areas where progress might be made. There will be some powerful bargaining chips on the table when Xi Jinping and Donald Trump meet in Washington this week. Both sides have economic and geopolitical leverage, and according to…
Trump invades the UN with a brutish speech | Ted Widmer
Expectations were low for Donald Trump’s address to the UN on Tuesday, and yet somehow it was even worse than expected. He does not perform well in formal settings, like chambers of government, preferring a blingier room, like Mar-a-Lago, or an outdoor rally. For years, he has made no secret of his hostility to the UN, and the very principles of international order that define it. In recent years, that hostility has deepened into something more like a full-on assault, with frequent attacks on the International Criminal Court (perhaps out…
Vietnam’s leader is likely to warn of threats to middle powers.
The podium of the United Nations was an unusual setting for the leader of a global superpower to threaten to “annihilate the Islamic republic” of Iran or to declare that, in another conflict, “to the victor belong the spoils.” Yet that was exactly what President Trump did on Tuesday, in threatening Iran if it failed to make a deal to end a war that had stretched far longer than Mr. Trump anticipated, and justifying his claims on Venezuelan oil reserves after American forces deposed its leader. Mr. Trump has long…