Tag: International Relations

Warnings Emerge Over Emirati A.I. Firm G42’s Ties to China

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When the secretive national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, visited the White House in June, his American counterpart, Jake Sullivan, raised a delicate issue: G42, an artificial intelligence firm controlled by the sheikh that American officials believe is hiding the extent of its work with China. In public, the company has announced its staggering growth with a steady cadence of news releases. They have included agreements with European pharmaceutical giants like AstraZeneca and a $100 million deal with a Silicon Valley firm to build…

An Oratorio About Shanghai’s Jews Opens in China at a Difficult Time

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“Émigré,” a new oratorio about Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany for Shanghai in the late 1930s, begins with a song by two brothers, Josef and Otto, as their steamship approaches a Chinese harbor. “Shanghai, beacon of light on a silent shore,” they sing. “Shanghai, answer these desperate cries.” The emigration of thousands of Central European and Eastern European Jews to China in the late 1930s and early 1940s — and their survival of the Holocaust — is one of World War II’s most dramatic but little-known chapters. In “Émigré,”…

Can Taiwan Continue to Fight Off Chinese Disinformation?

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Suspicious videos that began circulating in Taiwan this month seemed to show the country’s leader advertising cryptocurrency investments. President Tsai Ing-wen, who has repeatedly risked Beijing’s ire by asserting her island’s autonomy, appeared to claim in the clips that the government helped develop investment software for digital currencies, using a term that is common in China but rarely used in Taiwan. Her mouth appeared blurry and her voice unfamiliar, leading Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to deem the video to be almost certainly a deepfake — an artificially generated spoof —…

At BRICS Summit, Countries Diverge Slightly on Israel and War in Gaza

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The BRICS group of developing countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — held a virtual summit on the war in Gaza on Tuesday, articulating divergent positions on the conflict that together reflected the reluctance of some nations outside the world’s largest industrialized democracies to fall in behind Washington’s support for Israel. Several other nations that have been invited to join the BRICS group next year also attended the conference — Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates. A joint statement released by the…

What the Biden-Xi Talks Accomplished (and Didn’t)

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Biden and Xi try direct diplomacy The mood music was upbeat but pragmatic after the first face-to-face meeting in a year between President Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. There was no joint communiqué after Wednesday’s talks, but both sides issued positive statements trumpeting where they found common ground, including on tackling climate change and improving communications. The San Francisco summit, and Xi’s banquet with American business leaders afterward, were signs of how entwined the economies remain despite years of rising tensions — and why both sides and many…

In Talks With Biden, Xi Defends China’s Rise, While Seeking to Reassure

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Meeting with President Biden for the first time in a year, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, reiterated his determination to unify with Taiwan, but stopped short of mentioning the potential use of force. He denounced what he called futile American efforts at containing China, but also acknowledged that U.S. tech restrictions had taken a toll. And he broadcast that China had global ambitions for its influence — while also trying to reassure the world that those ambitions did not have to lead to conflict with the United States. Mr. Xi’s message…

U.S. to Press China to Stop Flow of Fentanyl

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President Biden will press the Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday to crack down on the Chinese firms that are helping to produce fentanyl, a potent drug that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. An agreement to curb China’s illicit exports of fentanyl — and particularly the chemicals that can be combined to make the drug — could be one of the more significant achievements for the United States out of Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi’s meeting, which is taking place as leaders from Pacific nations gather for an…

Ahead of APEC Summit, Musicians from Philadelphia Orchestra Tour China

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President Biden and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, face a host of thorny geopolitical issues as they meet Wednesday in San Francisco: trade, Taiwan and the war between Israel and Hamas. But they have found some common ground in the cultural sphere. Both leaders have in recent days praised the visit by a delegation of Philadelphia Orchestra musicians to China. The musicians arrived there last week to mark the 50th anniversary of the orchestra’s celebrated 1973 visit to Beijing, when it became the first American ensemble to perform in Communist-led China…

U.S. and China Agree to Displace Fossil Fuels by Ramping Up Renewables

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The United States and China, the world’s two largest climate polluters, have agreed to jointly tackle global warming by ramping up wind, solar and other renewable energy with the goal of displacing fossil fuels, the State Department said Tuesday. The announcement comes as President Biden prepares to meet Wednesday with President Xi Jinping of China for their first face-to-face discussion in a year. The climate agreement could emerge as a bright spot in talks that are likely to focus on sensitive topics including Taiwan, the war in Ukraine and the…

U.S. Manages Expectations of a Breakthrough Before Biden and Xi Meet

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Of all the issues dividing the United States and China — spy balloons, Beijing’s rapid nuclear buildup and Washington’s crackdown on advanced computer chips — the White House has been engaged in one more topic of debate: what China’s leader will see when he looks out of his window during his visit to California this week. When President Biden meets with President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, China’s diplomats want to know what Mr. Xi will be looking at, and to make sure the scenery does not include protesters. Nearly every…