Xi Jinping’s attendance at the G20 this weekend has been all but ruled out after China’s foreign ministry announced the team would be led by the country’s premier, Li Qiang. It will be the first time that a Chinese leader has not attended the G20 leaders’ summit since the first was held in 2008, although Xi attended only virtually in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. The US president, Joe Biden, said last week that he hoped Xi would attend the summit in Delhi, but US officials played down…
Tag: Joe Biden
Biden hopes Xi Jinping will attend G20 amid reports Chinese president will skip Delhi summit
Joe Biden has said he hopes Xi Jinping will attend the G20 leaders summit in India next week, following reports the Chinese president will skip the meeting. “I hope he attends,” Biden told reporters on Thursday in Washington, as some US officials played down the chances of a Xi-Biden meeting in New Delhi, suggesting it would be more likely at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or Apec, conference in San Francisco in November. The possible absence of Xi was reported by Reuters on Thursday. Analysts quoted by Reuters said any decision…
‘They would not listen to us’: inside Biden’s troubled $53bn chip plant
Posed in front of an American flag and a large banner reading “A Future Made in America Phoenix, AZ,” Joe Biden told a crowd of assembled workers, supporters and media last December: “American manufacturing is back, folks.” Eight months on, the Phoenix microchip plant – the centerpiece of Biden’s $52.7bn US hi-tech manufacturing agenda – is struggling to get online. The plant’s owner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the largest chip maker in the world, has pushed back plans to start manufacturing to 2025, blaming a lack of skilled labor.…
The Camp David summit signals a new cold war – this time with China | Observer editorial
If it sounds like a new cold war and looks like a new cold war, then it probably is a new cold war. For what other interpretation is to be placed on US president Joe Biden’s latest ramping up of diplomatic, economic and military pressure on China? Western officials tend to avoid the term, recalling as it does decades of hair-trigger confrontation with the former Soviet Union. They talk instead about enhanced security and defence cooperation and the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific region. But such bland generalisations…
US promises ‘new era’ as Biden prepares to host first summit with Japan and South Korea
The US has promised to usher in a “new era” in relations with its most important allies in Asia, as the region struggles to address the threat posed by an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea. Joe Biden is expected to take advantage of a recent thaw in ties between Japan and South Korea – home to tens of thousands of US troops – to announce new collaborations on missile defence and technology, when he meets the countries’ leaders on Friday. Biden will host the South Korean president,…
Putin and Xi are the Laurel and Hardy of statesmen – but it’s no laughing matter | Simon Tisdall
It must be tough, being a dictator, when your diktats are ignored, thwarted and scorned. Vladimir Putin is a sad case in point. He ordered the glorious reintegration of Ukraine into his imaginary Russian empire. What he got was an existential crisis that he couldn’t control. China’s president, Xi Jinping, is another paramount leader with dictatorship issues. Xi presumes to exercise supreme control, channelling Mao Zedong like a card-carrying Communist party Zeus – yet repeatedly messes up. Xi’s signature tune could be the chorus to Moby’s Extreme Ways: “Then it…
China a ‘ticking time bomb’ because of economic woes, Joe Biden warns
Joe Biden has called China a “ticking time bomb in many cases” because of its economic challenges, saying the country was in trouble because of weak growth. The US president pointed to the country’s high unemployment and ageing workforce, saying: “China is in trouble.” “They have got some problems. That’s not good, because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things,” Biden said at a political fundraiser in Utah on Thursday. He said he did not want to hurt China and wanted a rational relationship with the country. Biden’s…
UK considers tighter rules on investment in China after US clampdown
The British government is considering tightening rules on investment in China after the US president announced new measures aimed at limiting the dollars and expertise flowing into sensitive technologies in the country. Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that authorises the US treasury secretary to prohibit or restrict US investments in Chinese entities in three sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics; quantum information technologies; and certain artificial intelligence systems. The US government has said the measures are designed to address national security risks. China said on Thursday it was gravely…
Biden’s China investment ban: who’s targeted and what does it mean for the 2024 US election?
Joe Biden has moved to restrict US investment in Chinese technology, signing an executive order which focuses on a few, sensitive hi-tech sectors including semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI). It is the latest in a series of measures taken by the US to restrict China’s access to the most advanced technology and comes as the president has embarked on a multi-state tour of the south-west to tout his plans to revive American manufacturing after decades of decline. The restrictions are expected to take effect next year – and…
US-China cultural exchange at low point after tensions and Covid, data shows
Cultural ties between the US and China are at a low point after several years of decline, according to Guardian analysis of official figures. The Covid-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, coupled with the continuing trade war between the two countries, is diluting cultural exchanges, with visitor numbers, students and even the world of literature all affected. During the late 2000s and early 2010s there was an increase in cultural exchange between the US and China. Since then, tensions between the two countries – which rose under Donald Trump and have…