Tag: Embargoes and Sanctions

With New Crackdown, Biden Wages Global Campaign on Chinese Technology

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — In conversations with American executives this spring, top officials in the Biden administration revealed an aggressive plan to counter the Chinese military’s rapid technological advances. China was using supercomputing and artificial intelligence to develop stealth and hypersonic weapons systems, and to try to crack the U.S. government’s most encrypted messaging, according to intelligence reports. For months, administration officials debated what they could do to hobble the country’s progress. They saw a path: The Biden administration would use U.S. influence over global technology and supply chains to try to…

Biden Administration Clamps Down on China’s Access to Chip Technology

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Friday announced sweeping new limits on the sale of semiconductor technology to China, a step aimed at crippling Beijing’s ability to access critical technologies that are needed for everything from supercomputing to guiding weapons. The moves are the clearest sign yet that a dangerous standoff between the world’s two major superpowers is increasingly playing out in the technological sphere, with the U.S. trying to establish a stranglehold on advanced computing and semiconductor technology that are essential to China’s military and economic ambitions. The package…

US Penalizes Chinese Companies for Aiding Iran’s Oil Exports

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it would impose sanctions on two Chinese companies that transport and store Iranian oil, a shift to a tougher stance on Tehran amid signs that efforts to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have failed. In a statement, the State Department said the United States was targeting Zhonggu Storage and Transportation Co. Ltd., which it said operates a commercial crude oil storage facility for Iranian petroleum, and WS Shipping Co. Ltd., which it said manages a vessel that has transported Iranian…

Oil Prices Tumble to Their Lowest Level Since January

Chin@Strategy

The U.S. benchmark oil price tumbled below $80 a barrel on Friday for the first time since January as traders grew increasingly worried that much of the world was headed into a recession or was already in one. The steady fall in prices from more than $120 a barrel a few months ago could easily reverse if the European Union severely limits its purchases of Russian oil as it has threatened to do. But for now, the falling oil price has offered consumers some relief from inflation. Oil prices had…

Biden Criticizes Iran and China on Human Rights and Security Issues

Chin@Strategy

In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, President Biden criticized the governments of Iran and China for their human rights records, while vowing that the United States would always stand up for those rights. Alluding to the protests that have erupted in Iran over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the country’s morality police last week allegedly for violating dress codes, Mr. Biden said the United States stood with “the brave citizens and brave women of Iran, who…

Lockdowns in China, and North Korea, Deal Double Blow to Bridge City

Chin@Strategy

SHENYANG, China — There are plenty of reasons that business has been lousy recently at Steven Wen’s clothing store in Shenyang, the largest city in northeastern China. Local officials locked down the city for one month this spring after detecting just a few dozen coronavirus cases among its nine million people. Residents have guarded their spending closely since the lockdown was lifted. And in a region often referred to as China’s Rust Belt, the local economy had already been shaky for years. Possibly the main problem, though, is that Ms.…

Of Dictators and Trade Surpluses

Chin@Strategy

According to a new NBC News poll, U.S. voters now consider “threats to democracy” the most important issue facing the nation, which is both disturbing and a welcome sign that people are paying attention. It’s also worth noting that this isn’t just an American issue. Democracy is eroding worldwide; according to the latest survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit, there are now 59 fully authoritarian regimes out there, home to 37 percent of the world’s population. Of these 59 regimes, however, only two — China and Russia — are powerful…

China’s Options for Punishing Taiwan Economically are Limited

Chin@Strategy

In retaliation for Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week, China conducted large-scale military exercises around the self-governing island democracy and suspended some trade between the sides. The exercises led to a few shipping disruptions, but they did not affect traffic at Taiwanese or Chinese ports, analysts say. And the trade bans were notable mainly for what they did not target: Taiwan’s increasingly powerful semiconductor industry, a crucial supplier to Chinese manufacturers. The bans that Beijing did impose — on exports of its natural sand to Taiwan, and on…

Economic Headwinds Mount as Leaders Weigh Costs of Confronting Russia

Chin@Strategy

The interruption of wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia, which together account for 28 percent of global exports, along with supply chain disruptions, a severe drought in India that has caused it to ban shipments of grain and Covid-related lockdowns in China, are also causing food prices to spiral and increasing global hunger, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. The question for both American and European policymakers is how to corral leaping prices without sending their economies into recession. The Federal Reserve has begun raising interest rates to tame…

Your Thursday Briefing: A Ban on Russian Oil?

Chin@Strategy

Good morning. We’re covering the E.U.’s plan to ban Russian oil, growing U.S. frustration with the politicized Supreme Court and a separatist movement in Pakistan. The E.U. may ban Russian oil With no end to the Ukraine conflict in sight, the European Union took a major step on Wednesday toward weakening Moscow’s ability to finance the war, proposing a total embargo on Russian oil. If approved this week as expected, it would be the bloc’s biggest and costliest step yet toward supporting Ukraine and ending its own dependence on Russian…