Tag: Politics and Government

In Taiwan, ‘Mainland Spouses’ From China Become a Focus of Infiltration Fears

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Among the hundreds of thousands of Chinese women who have settled in Taiwan after marrying men from the island, Hsu Chun-ying stood out for her political ambition. She organized other migrants from China, mingled with prominent Taiwanese politicians and came close to becoming a candidate for the legislature. Now she is in jail, fighting charges that she was recruited by the Chinese Communist Party to secretly infiltrate and influence Taiwan, the island democracy that Beijing claims as its territory. Prosecutors have accused her of taking instructions from Chinese officials to…

What Plunging Pork Prices Say About China’s Economy

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Sun Haoyu, a hog farmer in Dalian, in northern China’s Liaoning Province, first noticed pork prices beginning to tumble late last year. With 3,000 hogs to care for, Mr. Sun said, he had “no choice but to tough it out,” relying entirely on loans and borrowed money to keep his operation afloat. But prices kept plummeting, and last month they hit a 16-year low. Now, across his region, many small farms are on the brink of collapse. “Many hog farmers can no longer hold out,” Mr. Sun said in an…

A Quiet Pacific Village Becomes China’s Security Testing Ground

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The first sign that something unusual was unfolding in the Solomon Islands was when the Chinese police showed up at Fighter One, a quiet village ringed with banana trees. The Chinese officers gathered villagers on a grassy patch and proposed a system they said would help keep them safe. They suggested that the residents fill out cards providing the names, addresses and dates of birth for each household member. They recommended collecting fingerprints and palm prints — both highly unusual and legally dubious in a country lacking laws governing personal…

Xi Jinping Quit Smoking. China Still Cannot.

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On a warm spring day in 2012, Xi Jinping, then China’s vice president, met with Bill Gates in Beijing. As the men were walking out of the meeting room, the conversation turned to smoking in a country that consumes nearly half the world’s cigarettes. Mr. Xi, a former smoker, said he felt much better after quitting years earlier and described tobacco use as a serious problem for China, recalled Dr. Ray Yip, then head of the Gates Foundation in China. Mr. Xi, who would become president the next year, promised…

China Wants A.I. to Flourish, but Not at the Expense of Jobs

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When a Chinese court ruled late last month that a tech company had illegally laid off a worker after replacing him with artificial intelligence software, it delivered an implicit warning to other employers. “The development of artificial intelligence technology should be applied to liberating labor, promoting employment and improving people’s livelihood,” the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court wrote. “Labor law allows employers to undertake technological changes and upgrade their operations, but it should also take into account the protection of workers’ legitimate rights and interests. The case — the third time…

Trump’s and Xi’s Body Language at the Summit Mirrored Their Styles

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They shook hands. They took a long walk. One man touched the other’s arm, then he did it again. They later shook hands some more. For two leaders at odds on many fronts — Taiwan, trade, rare earth resources, among others — Thursday’s meeting between President Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, suggested they wanted the rivalry to be more friendly than not. The body language stood in stark contrast to Mr. Trump’s harsh criticism of China at home, and to many of his meetings with longtime U.S. allies. The…

As Trump and Xi Meet in China, American and Chinese People Are Drifting Apart

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During his 2005 presidential visit to China, George W. Bush, an enthusiastic mountain biker, cycled with members of the country’s national team. When China’s current leader, Xi Jinping, toured the United States in 2015, he received a football jersey from high schoolers in Tacoma, Wash., and promised to encourage more tourism between the countries. There seem to be few such displays of bilateral bonhomie in store for this week’s summit between Mr. Xi and President Trump in Beijing. That reflects a grim reality of U.S.-China relations: As geopolitical and economic…

Mayor of Arcadia, Calif., Will Plead Guilty to Working as Chinese Agent

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Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, Calif., resigned on Monday after federal prosecutors announced they had charged her with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. She will plead guilty to the charge, according to a plea deal unsealed the same day. The felony charge comes with a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison. The court document outlined Ms. Wang’s efforts, beginning in late 2020 and continuing until at least the end of 2022, to operate a purported news website called U.S. News Center that…

Is China Winning the A.I. Race?

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This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions. natalie kitroeff From “The New York Times,” I’m Natalie Kitroeff. This is “The Daily.” [MUSIC PLAYING] President Trump is preparing to make a crucial trip to China this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. A key question hanging over that meeting is artificial intelligence and whether the global race in AI may…

Why the Trump-Xi Summit Matters, Even if Little Seems to Come of It

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President Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, are scheduled to meet in Beijing this week for a high-stakes summit that could shape the next stage of rivalry between the world’s two major powers. Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi are expected to discuss the war in Iran, trade, Taiwan and other points of contention during a two-day summit beginning on Thursday. Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi last met in October in South Korea, where they agreed to pause a bruising trade war in which the U.S. imposed triple-digit tariffs on Chinese…