Tag: Biden, Joseph R Jr

How Russian and Chinese Interference Could Affect the 2024 Election

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The U.S. government is preparing for its adversaries to intensify efforts to influence American voters next year. Russia has huge stakes in the presidential election. China seems poised to back a more aggressive campaign. Other countries, like Iran, might again try to sow division in the United States. As Washington looks ahead to the 2024 vote, U.S. intelligence agencies last week released a report on the 2022 midterm elections — a document that gives us some hints about what might be to come. Spy agencies concluded Russia favored Trump in…

U.S. and China Restore Military Dialogue

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The United States and China restored communications between their two militaries on Thursday, as President Biden’s senior military adviser, Gen. Charles Q. Brown, held a videoconference call with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Liu Zhenli. The call signaled a significant step in the relationship between two of the world’s most powerful militaries. The Pentagon and the Chinese military have had frosty relations over the past few years amid tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea. Relations further deteriorated earlier this year after the Pentagon shot down a Chinese spy balloon…

Three Months After Biden, It’s Xi’s Turn to Court Vietnam

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China’s leader, Xi Jinping, arrived in Vietnam on Tuesday for a relatively rare trip abroad, seeking to elevate ties with an important neighbor just three months after President Biden visited Hanoi on a similar mission. Few nations now feature more centrally in the great-power competition between the United States and China, placing Vietnam, which has a long history of fierce independence, in a high-risk, high-reward position. Keeping both giants happy could mean a transformative economic boost; angering one or the other could bring heavy costs. “This is a very delicate…

U.S. Moves to Crack Down on Money Behind Fentanyl Trade

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The Biden administration said on Monday that it was creating a “counter-fentanyl strike force” within the Treasury Department to combat trafficking of the drug into the United States by more aggressively scrutinizing the finances of suspected narcotics dealers. The Treasury’s office of terrorism and financial intelligence and the criminal investigation unit of the Internal Revenue Service will lead the new team. It will attempt to find and disrupt money laundering associated with fentanyl trafficking and to more effectively crack down on sanctions violations. Officials from Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network…

U.S. Limits China’s Ability to Benefit From Electric Vehicle Subsidies

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The Biden administration proposed new rules on Friday aimed at shifting more production of electric vehicle batteries and the materials that power them to the United States, in an attempt to build up a strategic industry now dominated by China. The rules are meant to limit the role that firms in China can play in supplying materials for electric vehicles that qualify for federal tax credits. They will also discourage companies that seek federal funding to build battery factories in the United States from sourcing materials from China or Russia.…

U.S. Debates How Much to Sever Electric Car Industry’s Ties to China

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The Biden administration has been trying to jump-start the domestic supply chain for electric vehicles so cleaner cars can be made in the United States. But the experience of one Texas company, whose plans to help make an all-American electric vehicle were upended by China, highlights the stakes involved as the administration finalizes rules governing the industry. Huntsman Corporation started construction two years ago on a $50 million plant in Texas to make ethylene carbonate, a chemical that is used in electric vehicle batteries. It would have been the only…

Could Biden’s Clean Energy Push Be a Victim of Its Success?

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Dalton, Ga., was once known as the carpet capital of the country. Economic diversification meant branching out from wall-to-wall to hardwood flooring. Now, at Qcells, a solar panel company, robots patrol acres of shop floor where delicate solar cells are packaged, laminated and boxed into sophisticated panels — almost 30,000 a day at peak production — in a highly automated production line. The company built a massive factory in Georgia — one of the most crucial states in the 2024 presidential election — and has another in the works. Both…

A Rare Opportunity to See China’s Leader Up Close and (Sort of) Personal

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As the most powerful Chinese leader in generations, Xi Jinping rarely bothers to glad-hand or to try charming a crowd. His public appearances in China are carefully crafted, with fawning cadres and adoring fans carefully positioned around him. So when Mr. Xi landed in San Francisco this week to meet with President Biden, to try to stabilize a relationship with the United States that has been spiraling downward, it provided a rare opportunity to see the Chinese leader up close and, at times, less filtered than usual. There were a…

Two Superpowers Walk Into a Garden

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Biden and Xi Make Nice Despite U.S.-China Tensions

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In Washington, President Xi Jinping of China is largely considered a mysterious autocrat who has long harbored a fatalistic view of his country’s relationship with the United States. But for a brief moment on Wednesday, at a century-old gilded mansion in the hills of Northern California, President Biden treated Mr. Xi like just another car guy. “It’s a beautiful vehicle!” Mr. Biden said as he walked the Chinese leader to his car, an armored, 18-foot Hongqi sedan, after a long day of diplomatic wrangling, according to a video published by…