Tag: United States Politics and Government

Trump Condemns Hunter Biden’s Foreign Business. He’s Quiet on His Own.

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After his fourth indictment, bringing his total count of felony charges to 91, former President Donald J. Trump last week posted a video online accusing President Biden and his family of being criminals. “The Biden crime family,” he claimed, had received millions of dollars from foreign countries. “I believe we have a compromised president,” Mr. Trump said, adding: “He’s a Manchurian candidate. That’s why Crooked Joe is letting other countries walk all over the United States.” For Mr. Trump, outrage is a selective commodity when it comes to presidential families…

‘Peak China’ (Post-Dynasty Version)

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“Peak China” refers to the hotly debated concept that China has reached the height of its economic power. Michael Beckley, head of the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, believes he coined the term in a 2018 article that argued China’s economy, the world’s second largest, would not necessarily overtake the U.S. economy, as many had long projected. He said he had been inspired by “peak oil.” NYT

The Sunday Read: ‘The Silicon Blockade’

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Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher Last October, the United States Bureau of Industry and Security issued a document that, underneath its 139 pages of dense bureaucratic jargon and minute technical detail, amounted to a declaration of economic war on China. The magnitude of the act was made all the more remarkable by the relative obscurity of its source. In recent years, semiconductor chips have become central to the bureau’s work. Despite the immense intricacy of their design, semiconductors are, in a sense, quite simple: tiny…

Biden to Restrict Investments in China, Citing National Security Threats

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The Biden administration plans on Wednesday to issue new restrictions on American investments in certain advanced industries in China, according to people familiar with the deliberations, a move that supporters have described as necessary to protect national security but that will undoubtedly rankle Beijing. The measure would be one of the first significant steps the United States has taken in its economic clash with China to clamp down on financial flows. It could set the stage for more restrictions on investments between the two countries in the years to come.…

Senate Targets China, Voting to Restrict Farmland Purchases and U.S. Investment

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The Senate on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to block businesses based in China from purchasing farmland in the United States and place new mandates on Americans investing in the country’s national security industries, taking the first legislative steps of the new Congress to counter Beijing’s espionage activities and curtail its economic power. The provisions, which would need to clear the House to become law, are a far cry from more ambitious efforts to target China’s economy through export controls and undermine its intelligence gathering and influence operations in the United States…

House Committee Targets U.C. Berkeley Program for China Ties

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A congressional committee focused on national security threats from China said it had “grave concerns” about a research partnership between the University of California, Berkeley, and several Chinese entities, claiming that the collaboration’s advanced research could help the Chinese government gain an economic, technological or military advantage. In a letter sent last week to Berkeley’s president and chancellor, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party requested extensive information about the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, a collaboration set up in 2014 with China’s prestigious Tsinghua University and the Chinese city…

Republicans Assail Kerry Before His Climate Talks With China

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Republicans on Thursday accused John Kerry, President Biden’s special envoy for climate, of being soft on China as he prepared to travel to Beijing to restart discussions between the world’s top two polluting countries. In a contentious hearing before a House Committee on Foreign Affairs panel, Republicans attacked Mr. Kerry for not doing enough to persuade China to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, several also sought to portray Mr. Kerry as putting Chinese interests above those of the United States by negotiating with America’s top economic…

Looming U.S. Investment Restrictions on China Threaten Diplomatic Outreach

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Efforts to ease tensions between the United States and China through a series of diplomatic visits to Beijing could be undermined as the White House presses ahead with plans to impose new restrictions on American investments in Chinese companies involved in quantum computing, artificial intelligence and semiconductors. The looming restrictions were a central topic of discussion between Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and senior Chinese officials during her four-day trip to China, which concluded on Sunday. The Treasury Department has sought to narrow the scope of the restrictions, which target…

Chinese Hackers Gained Access to Government Email Accounts, Microsoft Says

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Chinese hackers intent on collecting intelligence on the United States gained access to government email accounts, Microsoft disclosed on Tuesday night. In a blog post, Microsoft said about 25 organizations, including government agencies, had been compromised by the hacking group, which used forged authentication tokens to get access to individual email accounts. Hackers had access to at least some of the accounts for a month before the breach was detected, Microsoft said. It did not identify the organizations and agencies affected. The new breach does not appear to be of…

The G.O.P. Backed Gal Luft on Hunter Biden Claims. Now He’s Indicted.

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The co-director of a Maryland-based research group who claims to have damaging information about Hunter Biden has been charged with arms trafficking, sanctions violations and acting as an unregistered agent for China, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Monday. In an eight-count indictment, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York accused Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, of violating the Arms Export Control Act and the Foreign Agents Registration Act in brokering arms deals between Chinese companies, Iran and countries in the Middle East. Mr. Luft, promoted by…