Tag: China

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Health

W.H.O. Researcher on His Journey to China In search of Virus Origins

W.H.O. Researcher on His Trip to China Seeking Virus Origins

What about the cases that occurred before the fish market erupted?

There were other spreads outside of the Huanan market. There are other patients unrelated to the market, some in December. There were other markets. And we know that some of the patients have had connections with other markets. We have to keep working and then our Chinese colleagues have to keep working.

When we sat down as a group, on the last full day of work, the China team and WHO team said, “Let’s go over the hypotheses.” The route that received the most enthusiastic support was this route – wildlife through a domesticated wildlife association to Wuhan .

What is the next step?

It’s straightforward for the animal chain. The suppliers are known. You know the farm name; You know the owner of the farm. You have to go to the farm and interview the farmer and family. You have to test them. You have to test the community. You need to see if there are any animals left on nearby farms, if there are any signs of infection, and if there is any cross-border movement. If the virus is in these southern border states, it is possible that there has been movement in neighboring countries like Vietnam, Laos or Myanmar. We are now finding more and more related viruses. There is one in Japan and one in Cambodia, one in Thailand.

For the human side, look for previous cases, for clusters. If possible, check the blood banks for serum. Something like this is going to be sensitive in China and it will take some persuasion, diplomacy and energy to do because, to be honest, finding the source of this virus in China is not a high priority for the Chinese government think you. Anywhere this virus appears it is a political problem. That is one of the problems and that is clear and obvious to anyone who has looked at it.

Do you have a particular animal that you currently suspect as an intermediate link stronger than others?

It’s too high in the air. We don’t know if civets were for sale. We know they get infected very easily. We don’t know what the situation is with the mink farms in China or the other fur farms like raccoon dogs, although they are usually bred in a different part of China. That too needs to be followed up.

But if you were to say which route you put the most weight on, the virus would emerge from bats in either Southeast Asia or South China and end up on a domesticated game farm. I’ve been to many of them and they often have mixed species – civets, ferret badgers, raccoon dogs. These animals could be infected by bats.

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Business

Covid Vaccines: New Diplomacy Software for India and China

Covid Vaccines: New Diplomacy Tool for India and China

NEW DELHI – India, the unmatched vaccine producer, is dispensing millions of doses to friendly and estranged neighbors. It seeks to counter China, which has made the gun distribution a central point of its external relations. And the United Arab Emirates, which are drawing on their oil wealth, are buying pounds on behalf of their allies.

The coronavirus vaccine – one of the most sought-after products in the world – has become a new currency for international diplomacy.

Countries with the means or the know-how use the shots to find favor or to thaw frosty relationships. India sent them to Nepal, a country that has increasingly come under Chinese influence. Sri Lanka, in the midst of a diplomatic tug-of-war between New Delhi and Beijing, gets doses of both.

The strategy carries risks. India and China, both of which make vaccines for the rest of the world, have large populations of their own to vaccinate. While there is little evidence of grumbling in either country, this could change if the public watch boxes are sold or donated overseas.

“Indians are dying. Indians are still getting the disease, ”said Manoj Joshi, a distinguished contributor to the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. “I could understand if our needs were being met and you were giving the stuff away. But I think there is a false moral superiority that you are trying to convey where you say we give our things away even before we use them ourselves. “

Donor countries are making their offerings at a time when the United States and other wealthy nations are taking up the world’s supplies. The poorer countries are desperately trying to get their own. An inequality recently warned by the World Health Organization has brought the world “to the brink of catastrophic moral failure.”

With their health systems tested like never before, many countries are eager to take up the offer – and donors could reap good political will as a reward.

“Instead of securing a country by sending troops, you can secure the country by saving lives, saving the economy and helping with vaccination,” said Dania Thafer, executive director of the Gulf International Forum, a Washington-based think tank.

China was one of the first countries to undertake a diplomatic vaccine boost, pledging to help developing countries last year even before the nation mass-produced a vaccine that was proven effective. Just this week it was announced that it would donate 300,000 doses of vaccine to Egypt.

However, some of China’s efforts in vaccine diplomacy have stemmed from late shipments, lack of disclosure of the effectiveness of its vaccines, and other issues. Chinese government officials have cited unexpectedly strong needs at home in isolated outbreaks, a move that could mitigate any domestic backlash.

Even as Chinese-made vaccines spread, India saw an opportunity to bolster its own image.

The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine factory, produces the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine at a daily rate of approximately 2.5 million doses. This pace has allowed India to distribute free cans to its neighbors. Too much fanfare, plane loads have arrived in Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, the Seychelles and Afghanistan.

“Act eastward. Quick action ”, said the Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar on Twitter the arrival of 1.5 million cans in Myanmar.

Updated

Apr. 11, 2021 at 7:21 ET

The Indian government has tried to collect promotional points for cans that have been shipped to places like Brazil and Morocco despite those countries buying theirs. The Serum Institute has also pledged 200 million doses for a global WHO pool called Covax, which would go to poorer nations, while China recently pledged 10 million.

Currently, the Indian government has room to donate overseas, even after months when cases have skyrocketed and the economy has faltered, and despite vaccinating only a tiny percent of its 1.3 billion people. One reason for the lack of setbacks: The Serum Institute is producing faster than the Indias vaccination program can currently handle, leaving extras for donations and exports.

And some Indians are in no rush to get vaccinated because they are skeptical of a native vaccine called Covaxin. The Indian government approved its use in an emergency without disclosing much data on it, causing some people to doubt its effectiveness. While the AstraZeneca-Oxford shock was less skeptical, those who are vaccinated have no choice as to which vaccine to receive.

For India, it has received a rejoinder to China for its soft-power vaccine initiative after years of making political gains for the Chinese in their own backyard – in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Nepal and elsewhere. Beijing offered deep pockets and quick answers when it came to large investments that India, with a complex bureaucracy and a slowing economy, was struggling to achieve.

“India’s neighborhood has become more crowded and competitive,” said Constantino Xavier, who studies India’s relations with its neighbors at the Center for Social and Economic Progress, a think tank in New Delhi. “The vaccine boost strengthens India’s credibility as a reliable crisis helper and solution provider for these neighboring countries.”

One of India’s largest donations went to Nepal, where India’s relationship was at an all-time low. The tiny land between India and China is of strategic importance to both.

For the past five years, the government of CP Sharma Oli, the prime minister, has started to snuggle up to China after border disputes and what some in Nepal criticize as a master-servant relationship with India. Mr. Oli gave Xi Jinping Thought workshops based on the strategies of the Chinese leader and signed contracts for several projects under the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s Infrastructure and Development Boost.

But the prime minister lost power last year. When both Chinese and Indian delegations arrived in Kathmandu to direct Nepal’s domestic jockeying, the Nepalese leader appears to have cut the temperature with India.

After Mr Oli sent his foreign minister to New Delhi for talks, India donated a million cans. China’s Sinopharm has also applied for approval of its vaccine from Nepal, but drug authorities there have not given it approval.

“The vaccine came as an opportunity to normalize relations between Nepal and India,” said Tanka Karki, a former Nepalese envoy to China.

Still, the strategy of winning hearts and minds with vaccines is not always successful.

The United Arab Emirates, which is importing vaccines faster than any other country besides Israel, has started donating Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccines to countries where it has strategic or commercial interests, including 50,000 doses each to Seychelles, the island nation in the US, Indian Ocean and Egypt, one of its Arab allies.

In Egypt, some doctors have resisted using them because they did not trust the data that the UAE and the Chinese manufacturer of the vaccine had published on studies. The government of Malaysia, one of the Emirates’ largest trading partners, declined an offer of 500,000 doses, saying regulators would need to independently approve the Sinopharm vaccine. After regulatory approval, Malaysia instead bought vaccines from Pfizer in the US, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, and a vaccine from another Chinese company, Sinovac.

Even accepted goodwill can be short-lived. Experience Sri Lanka, where India and China battle for influence.

Since Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office as president in 2019, New Delhi has struggled to get its government to commit to a contract that its predecessor signed to complete a terminal project in the port of Colombo, part of which will be developed by India should. While large Chinese projects continued, Mr Rajapaksa opened the Indian deal for review.

Indian Foreign Minister visited Jaishankar last month hoping to highlight the importance of the project. In the same month, 500,000 doses of vaccine arrived from India. Mr. Rajapaksa was at the airport to meet them. Sri Lanka has also placed an order for 18 million doses from the Serum Institute, the Ministry of Health in Colombo confirmed.

The Indian media saw both as a diplomatic victory, and it seems clear that Sri Lanka will largely depend on India for vaccines. On January 27th, Mr. Rajapaksa received another gift from China: a promise to donate 300,000 cans.

The duel donations are only part of a much larger diplomatic dance. Just a week later, Mr Rajapaksa’s cabinet decided that Sri Lanka would develop the Colombo terminal itself and force India out of the project.

Mujib Mashal reported from New Delhi and Vivian Yee from Cairo. Bhadra Sharma, Elsie Chen, Aanya Piyari, Salman Masood and Zia ur-Rehman contributed to the coverage.

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Politics

Biden unveils Pentagon group to guage U.S. technique for coping with China

Biden unveils Pentagon group to evaluate U.S. strategy for dealing with China

President Joe Biden speaks at the Pentagon in Washington, DC on February 10, 2021.

Alex Brandon | AFP | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday a new Department of Defense task force to assess the US military’s China strategy.

“This is how we will meet the China challenge and ensure that the American people win the competition in the future,” said Biden on his first visit as Pentagon Commander in Chief.

The new Pentagon group, comprised of around 15 experts, will be responsible for making recommendations on China-related issues to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Results and recommendations are due within four months.

“No final public report is expected, although the department will discuss recommendations with Congress and other stakeholders if necessary,” the Pentagon wrote in a statement announcing the new task force.

China’s influence on global trade and international relations has continued to grow, even as the nation faced accountability calls in the initial response to the Covid-19 crisis.

The novel coronavirus that causes the disease emerged in China in late 2019. Biden asked on Wednesday whether the US would hold China accountable.

United States President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Chief of Staff, will tour African Americans in defense of our corridor of our nations on February 10 at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. 2021.

Alex Brandon | Pool | Reuters

Biden, who has not yet spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping, said during a speech at the State Department last week that he would work more closely with allies to secure a backlash against Beijing.

“We will face China’s economic abuse,” said Biden, describing Beijing as America’s “most serious competitor.”

Tensions between Beijing and Washington, the world’s two largest economies, increased under the Trump administration. In an interview with CBS, Biden said his government was ready for “extreme competition” with China, but his approach would be different from that of his predecessor.

“I will not do it like Trump. We will focus on the international traffic rules,” said Biden on Sunday.

Following his remarks at the Pentagon on Wednesday, a reporter asked Biden if he was interested in punishing China for the nation’s lack of transparency over the Covid-19 outbreak last year.

“I’m interested in knowing all the facts,” Biden said, according to a pool report.

Flashing pressures china

State Secretary Antony Blinken spoke to his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi for the first time at the weekend.

In a tense appeal, Blinken Yang said the US would hold China accountable for explaining a range of issues including human rights abuses.

Blinken also called on Beijing to condemn the recent military coup in Myanmar.

On Wednesday before, Biden announced sanctions against military leaders in Myanmar who led the coup on February 1. Biden also reiterated the call for the Myanmar military to abandon the power he had seized and release his prisoners.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was coordinating with partners to launch “steep and deep” retaliatory measures.

Biden’s family ties

Speaking alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and Austin, Biden also took a moment to thank the service members and their civilian supporters.

He is the first president in 40 years to have a child serve in the US military and stationed in a war zone.

“The Biden family know what rural service is like and they understand sacrifice. They know how to care for those who seek leadership,” said Austin, who with the president’s late son, Beau Biden, cooperated in Iraq, in his opening remarks.

After the Pentagon address, Austin took Biden and Harris on a tour of the corridor of the building dedicated to Black Service members.

Austin is the nation’s first black Secretary of Defense, and Harris is the first black vice president.

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Business

China Blocks Clubhouse App After Temporary Flowering of Debate

China Blocks Clubhouse App After Brief Flowering of Debate

It is unclear how many Chinese users were registered in the clubhouse in the mainland. While it was unlocked, the app was only available on Apple’s operating system, making it inaccessible to the vast majority of Chinese people who use Android. Users had to switch from Apple’s China App Store to download Clubhouse.

The app is also only available by invitation, which has led to a small black market for invitation codes in recent days. Before the app was blocked, the price of a code was up to 300 yuan, or around $ 46.

That didn’t stop thousands of Chinese users from flocking to the platform, which has audio chat rooms that disappear when the conversations are over. In the past few days, several Chinese language chat rooms with a capacity of 5,000 users have been occupied. Some said they would connect from the mainland while others identified as Chinese based overseas. Many said they were from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Apparently every topic on China’s censorship blacklist had been discussed. In a chat room, participants discussed which Chinese leaders were responsible for Tiananmen Square in 1989. In another chat, users shared their experiences with the Chinese police and security guards.

In a third case, participants sat in silence as they mourned the first anniversary of the death of Li Wenliang, the doctor reprimanded for warning of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China. He died of the same disease, and his death caused the hashtag “freedom of speech” to spread widely on Chinese social media.

The app’s sudden popularity in China had led many to wonder how long the party’s government would give the party a lifetime. Social media companies operating in China are required to monitor user identity, share data with the police, and adhere to strict censorship guidelines.

Most of the major Western news sites and social media apps like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are completely blocked in China, and access to VPNs on the mainland is becoming increasingly difficult. The domestic social media platforms approved in China, such as WeChat and Weibo, are strictly regulated and monitored by censors.

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Health

With Mission to China, W.H.O. Tries to Rehabilitate Its Picture

With Mission to China, W.H.O. Tries to Rehabilitate Its Image

A team of World Health Organization scientists said Tuesday in China that the coronavirus is likely to spread to humans first via an intermediate animal host and that the outcome of a laboratory accident is “extremely unlikely”.

The results, presented by the team in Wuhan, China, after 12 days of fieldwork, were the first step in a most likely painstaking process to trace the origins of the global pandemic. This question is crucial to prevent recurrence.

“All of the work that has been done on the virus trying to identify its origin continues to suggest a natural reservoir,” said Dr. Peter K. Ben Embarek, a food safety scientist at WHO who leads the team of experts, at a press conference in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus was first discovered in late 2019.

Dr. Embarek rejected the idea that the virus could have originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, a theory that has gained traction among some officials and experts in the US and elsewhere. “It was very unlikely that anything could escape from such a place,” he said, citing security protocols.

The WHO experts largely focused their comments on the scientific aspects of their mission. However, the investigation has been overshadowed by politics in many ways.

The Chinese government has further warned that the virus may have come from overseas, an idea many scientists are rejecting. Chinese officials used Tuesday’s press conference to further advance this theory, arguing that the search for the virus’ origin should focus on locations outside of China.

The investigation will “not be limited to one location,” said Liang Wannian, who led the team of Chinese scientists who assisted the WHO mission.

The WHO experts at the three-hour press conference did not question the statements made by Chinese officials. They promised to look into reports of early cases of the virus outside of China. They also called for more research on the animals being sold in a sprawling market in Wuhan, where some of the first cases of the virus were discovered.

The visit was an opportunity for WHO to dispel criticism that it is too respectful of China.

For months, experts and politicians have condemned the WHO for allowing the Chinese government to control the investigation into the cause of the pandemic. Chinese officials, careful not to point out missteps during the outbreak, repeatedly delayed visits by WHO experts and tried to narrow the scope of their mission. The Chinese government gave in to mounting global pressure and finally let the 14-person team go to Wuhan last month.

Updated

Apr. 9, 2021, 9:36 p.m. ET

The WHO used the research to project an image of transparency and independence. During their stay in Wuhan, the team of scientists used social media to record their visits to laboratories, disease control centers and live animal markets. WHO officials have vowed to ask tough questions and press for access to data and research, but it remains unclear how soon the Chinese government will be.

“If the team can’t come up with a substance, there’s a risk that people will say this is all just a show,” said Daniel R. Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University.

The investigation takes place in a charged political environment. Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, recently suggested that the United States allow WHO to send investigators there as part of its investigation.

Officials in the United States and other Western countries have at times expressed doubts about the independence of the WHO investigation, fearing that China may try to influence the results.

Now it will be up to the team of scientists to conduct a difficult study that many say could take months or even years.

While China ultimately cooperated with the visit, the government still has a firm grip on research related to the virus in China and could try to prevent any embarrassing information from being published.

“One visit is not enough for a thorough investigation,” said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow on global health with the Council on Foreign Relations. “They do all the work within the parameters set by the Chinese government.”

The WHO team commended the Chinese scientists involved in the mission and said the government had worked in good faith to provide access to key locations such as the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where some of the earliest cases were discovered . Scientists were also allowed to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is home to a state-of-the-art laboratory that has been at the center of several unfounded theories about the virus.

Albee Zhang contributed to the research.

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World News

Tesla’s China gross sales greater than doubled in 2020

Tesla Model 3 reportedly explodes in Shanghai parking garage

Model 3 vehicles manufactured by Tesla China are on display during a delivery event at its facility in Shanghai, China on Jan. 7, 2020.

Aly Song | Reuters

BEIJING – Tesla’s sales in China more than doubled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The electric car maker’s sales in China of $ 6.66 billion last year accounted for about a fifth, or 21%, of the $ 31.54 billion.

In 2019, Tesla achieved sales of $ 2.98 billion in China, which is only 12% of total sales of $ 24.58 billion.

The US remained Tesla’s largest market. Revenue rose 20% to $ 15.21 billion last year and accounted for about half of total revenue.

Tesla started ramping up production at its Shanghai plant last year and selling China-made cars in the local market.

The company’s Model 3 was the top-selling electric car in the country in 2020, according to China’s Passenger Car Association. The automaker also began shipping a new model, a China-made Model Y, to local customers that year.

However, Tesla faces competition in the local market from Chinese electric car startups like Nio and Xpeng, while government scrutiny has increased.

On Monday, the Chinese State Administration of Market Regulation announced on its website that it and four other government departments recently spoke with Tesla’s local subsidiaries about an increase in consumer reports of vehicle problems.

Among several incidents that have garnered attention on Chinese social media in recent weeks, a Model 3 reportedly exploded in a parking garage in Shanghai in January. Last week, Chinese authorities said Tesla had to recall more than 36,000 cars due to a touchscreen failure.

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Politics

Biden will compete with China, however received’t take Trump method

Biden will compete with China, but won’t take Trump approach

President Xi Jingping.

Getty Images

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said his administration was ready for “extreme competition” with China, but his approach would be different from that of his predecessor.

“I will not do it like Trump. We will focus on the international traffic rules,” said Biden in a CBS interview clip that was released on Sunday.

“We don’t need a conflict, but there will be extreme competition,” he added.

In his interview with CBS, Biden said he has not spoken to China’s Xi Jinping since he rose to the highest office in the country last month.

“I know him pretty well,” said Biden, explaining that as Vice President he has spent more time with Xi than any other world leader. “He’s very smart and he’s very tough and – I don’t mean it as a criticism, it’s just a reality – he doesn’t have a democratic … bone in his body.”

Tensions between Beijing and Washington, the world’s two largest economies, increased under the Trump administration. Over the past four years, Trump has blamed China for a wide variety of grievances, including intellectual property theft, unfair trade practices, and most recently the coronavirus pandemic that killed more than 460,000 Americans.

Last week, Biden said he would work more closely with allies to secure a knockback against China.

“We will face China’s economic abuse,” said Biden, describing Beijing as America’s “most serious competitor.”

US President Donald Trump (L) and China’s President Xi Jinping shake hands at a press conference after their meeting outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Artyom Ivanov | TASS | Getty Images

“But we are also ready to work with Beijing if it is in the interests of the US. We will compete from a position of strength by improving at home and working with our allies and partners,” said the president in the state Department.

Although Biden has not yet spoken to Xi, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken spoke to his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi for the first time at the weekend.

In a tense appeal, Blinken Yang said the US would hold China accountable for its actions, particularly with regard to Taiwan. He also called on Beijing to condemn the recent military coup in Myanmar.

During his Senate confirmation hearing, Blinken told lawmakers that Trump “was right to take a tougher approach on China.”

“I strongly disagree with how he proceeded in a number of areas, but the rationale was the right one, and I think that is actually helpful for our foreign policy,” Blinken said a day before Biden’s inauguration.

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World News

Cheng Lei, Australian Journalist for CGTN, Is Arrested by China

Cheng Lei, Australian Journalist for CGTN, Is Arrested by China

Chinese investigators formally arrested an Australian journalist who worked for Chinese state television on suspicion of divulging national secrets, the Australian Foreign Minister said Monday. This is likely to increase tensions between the two countries.

Journalist Cheng Lei was hosting a business show on China Global Television News (CGTN) when she was arrested in August. The Chinese Foreign Ministry later announced that Ms. Cheng had been charged with a national security crime, but did not provide any further details.

“The Chinese authorities have announced that Ms. Cheng has been arrested on suspicion of illegally delivering state secrets overseas,” Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a brief statement on Monday. She gave no further details.

“We expect basic standards of justice, procedural justice and humane treatment to be met in accordance with international norms,” ​​added Ms. Payne.

Ms. Cheng, 45, was born in the southern Chinese province of Hunan and immigrated to Australia with her parents as a child. Her arrest on such a politically charged accusation comes while the two countries have clashed in a series of disputes that have dragged relations to the lowest point in decades.

“I don’t think it’s about the bilateral relationship, although it doesn’t help them,” said Geoff Raby, a former Australian ambassador to Beijing who has written about the deteriorating relationship, of Ms. Cheng’s arrest. China’s definition of state secrets is very broad, he said, adding, “acquittals are rare in such cases.”

Australia’s ability to secure Ms. Cheng’s release through diplomacy appears appallingly limited.

In recent years, Canberra has tried to discourage Beijing from engaging in influence-building activities on Australian soil, including the country’s large population of migrants from China. The Australian government has also angered China by blocking the potential involvement of Chinese tech giant Huawei in building the Australian 5G network.

Last year, Australia called for an international investigation into the causes and course of the coronavirus pandemic, which is enraging China, which has been looking into questions about its guilt at the origin of the outbreak.

China, in turn, has restricted imports of Australian goods such as wine, coal and barley. The Chinese government has not called these actions political retaliation, but few in Australia believe it.

Ms. Cheng’s 11-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son are cared for by their mother in Melbourne, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.

“I have a feeling that the children do not fully understand the situation, so it is likely to be quite difficult for the children to wonder what is going on,” Louisa Wen, a niece of Ms. Cheng, told the broadcaster.

“We don’t understand anything about the case,” said Ms. Wen. “But we know she has been in detention for five and a half months and her conditions are deteriorating.”

Prior to Ms. Cheng’s case, Yang Hengjun, another Australian with Chinese heritage, was charged with espionage in China. Mr. Yang, a writer and businessman also known as Yang Jun, has been detained in China since early 2019 and charged with espionage last year.

Two Canadians – Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman – are also awaiting trial in China for espionage. Her supporters said Beijing used her as a farmer to force Canada to refuse to extradite a Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, to the United States, where she is charged with fraud.

Ms. Cheng’s case has been linked to those of two Australian journalists who abruptly left China in September for fear of arrest. After a diplomatic standoff, journalists – Michael Smith, the China correspondent for The Australian Financial Review; and Bill Birtles, a correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, were interviewed by Chinese security officials, including about Ms. Cheng.

Haze Fan, a Chinese employee of Bloomberg News in Beijing, was arrested in December in the Chinese capital on suspicion of “criminal activity that endangers national security,” according to Bloomberg

Ms. Cheng first worked in Australia and China. As a CGTN journalist, she appeared keen to foster better relations between the two countries and had highlighted China’s economic success story.

“Passionate speaker on China history,” says the introduction on her Twitter account.

However, last year when the coronavirus pandemic was worst in China, Ms. Cheng made critical comments on Chinese government officials on her Facebook page. She mocked a Communist Party cadre who said citizens should be grateful.

“Even in China, where the satire pool never runs out, this is too rich,” she wrote. “In China, the belief ‘do what I say, not like me’ is deeply rooted in public office. “Serve the people” are the slogans. The reality is the opposite. “

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World News

The U.S. should concentrate on three enduring points in China relationship

Biden may draw 'red lines' against Chinese authoritarianism

The heated global debate sparked this week by a thought-provoking paper – “The Longer Telegram: Towards a New American China Strategy” – has underscored the urgency and difficulty of finding a durable and actionable US approach to China To develop China when the country becomes more authoritarian, more self-confident and more globally assertive.

The 26,000-word paper, published simultaneously by the Atlantic Council and, in a shorter form, by Politico Magazine, served the expert community for China as a kind of Rorschach test. Responses ranged from critics who found the paper’s rules too provocative to supporters who praised its groundbreaking contributions.

Beijing was noted not least because of the author’s obvious familiarity with communist party politics and the focus on President Xi Jinping. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman accused the anonymous author of “dark motives and cowardice” for starting “a new Cold War”.

Former CIA China analyst Paul Heer, who wrote in the realistic, conservative National Interest, seemed to agree, exposing the singular Xi emphasis as “a deeply misguided, if not dangerous, approach.”

Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf agreed with Anonymous that China “is increasingly behaving like an emerging great power ruled by a ruthless and effective despot,” but criticized the author’s myriad goals because of economic performance and underutilization China’s potential are not achievable.

After digesting the liveliest debate sparked by one of the growing industrial strategy papers in China, I stand with Senator Dan Sullivan, Republican of Alaska, who praised the paper during an extraordinary speech in the Senate.

Sullivan’s credibility grows from his history as a marine veteran, former Alaska attorney general, former National Security Council officer, and senior State Department official involved in business and economics.

“’The longer telegram’ is not perfect,” he argued, standing alongside an enlarged reproduction of the easel-balanced cover of the paper as the United States must tackle this significant challenge that we will face for decades. “

“I hope my fellow Democrats and Republicans all have the opportunity to read and analyze this. Like Kennan’s strategy of containment, to be successful our China policy must be very bipartisan and ready to be operationalized for decades will. “”

The three elements of The Longer Telegram’s approach that should stand the test of time are:

  1. The urgent need to better understand China’s domestic politics and political dynamics in order to succeed.
  2. The reality that a declining US state cannot handle an emerging China regardless of its strategy.
  3. The focus on reviving and reinventing alliances, not out of nostalgia, but because no policy will be successful that does not motivate the partners in creative new ways.

Let’s take each of these priorities in turn.

First, The Longer Telegram’s most innovative and controversial idea is to focus on China’s leaders and behavior.

“US strategy must continue to focus on Xi, his inner circle and the Chinese political context in which they govern,” argued the paper. “In order to change their decision-making, you have to understand their political and strategic paradigm, act in it and change it.”

Most of the newspapers’ most virulent critics picked up on this Xi focus. Some argued that the author overestimated Xi’s role; others argued over the idea that if Xi were replaced over time, under more moderate leadership, China would become a more cooperative partner.

Others warned that China would view any US policy directed at Xi as a dangerously escalating effort in regime change.

These points, however, miss the author’s more significant and irrefutable point: No American strategy towards Beijing can succeed without a better understanding of how China’s decision-making is developing.

“The core wisdom of Kennan’s analysis of 1946 was his assessment of the internal functioning of the Soviet Union and the realization that a US strategy was to be developed that corresponds to the core of this complex political reality,” writes Anonymous. “The same must be done to address China.”

The author’s informed view is that Xi’s concentration of power, his campaign to eradicate political opponents, and his emerging cult of personality “have sparked simmering resentments among large sections of the Chinese Communist Party elite.”

Whether or not you agree with the author’s view that China failed to recognize political rifts and fragility, the real point is that the US needs to invest more in understanding these dynamics. One of Beijing’s competitive advantages is its insight into America’s painfully transparent political divisions and vulnerabilities.

On the second point, President Biden’s first foreign policy speech underlined his agreement with the author’s second important point. “The US strategy must begin by taking into account the country’s economic and institutional weaknesses,” writes the author.

“We will compete from a position of strength by doing better at home,” said President Biden.

Nothing will be more important.

Finally, and this was the gist of the Biden speech, the author argues that the US must bring allies together behind a more coherent and coherent approach. That will be difficult to achieve because so many US partners have China as their leading trading partner.

Forging a common cause among traditional US partners and allies will require an unprecedented level of global commitment and give and take – and an acceptance of the reality of China’s economic influence.

Critics selected other elements of the paper. For example, some identified the author’s appeal for “red lines” in relation to affairs from Taiwan to the South China Sea as particularly dangerous.

Others viewed the author’s call for greater efforts to pull Russia away from its deeper ties with China as folly.

However, both would only be a return to a solid strategic practice à la Henry Kissinger. Sharing red lines privately can lead to miscalculations. Its enforcement can be measured and proportionate.

You don’t have to love Vladimir Putin either to realize that Russia’s tightening strategic alignment, military cooperation, and sharing of information with Beijing have been a profound US foreign policy failure.

We published the Longer Telegram at the Atlantic Council, where I am President and CEO, and I admit that the value of the paper is biased in some ways. I’m glad it sparked a global discussion with criticism and positive suggestions.

How we approach China is a complex and critical challenge. There would be no better time for this debate.

Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist, and President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of the most influential US think tanks on global affairs. He worked for the Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as a foreign correspondent, assistant editor-in-chief and senior editor for the European edition of the newspaper. His latest book – “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place in the World” – was a New York Times bestseller and has been published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredKempe and subscribe here to Inflection Points, his view every Saturday of the top stories and trends of the past week.

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U.S. calls on China to sentence Myanmar coup in first excessive stage dialog

U.S. calls on China to condemn Myanmar coup in first high level conversation

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden to the U.S. Department of State in Washington on February 4, 2021.

Tom Brenner | Reuters

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged China to condemn the military coup in Myanmar and warned Beijing that Washington would work with its allies to hold the People’s Republic accountable for its efforts to threaten international stability, particularly on the Taiwan Strait.

Blinken spoke to his Foreign Secretary Yang Jiechi late Friday in the first conversation between senior US and Chinese officials since President Joe Biden took office. The top US diplomat emphasized human rights in the appeal, while Yang urged Washington to respect China’s sovereignty.

“Minister Blinken stressed that the United States would continue to stand up for human rights and democratic values, including in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, and urged China to join the international community in condemning the military coup in Burma,” said Ned, spokesman for the White House Price said in a statement. Myanmar is also known as Burma.

The controversial call between top diplomats in Washington and Beijing shows that relations between the world’s two largest economies are unlikely to improve under the Biden administration. Yang urged the US not to interfere in China’s internal affairs in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet. Yang warned Blinken that any attempt to slander China would be unsuccessful.

Tensions between the US and China reached a boiling point under the Trump administration. Although President Joe Biden is reviewing a number of Trump-era foreign policy decisions, it is unlikely to reverse most of the previous administration’s policy towards China. Biden has already announced that he will not immediately remove the hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs that Trump has imposed on Chinese exports as the new administration also tries to keep trade strict.

On the day before Biden’s inauguration, the Trump administration labeled the repression of Uighur Muslims in western China’s Xinjiang province as genocide and a crime against humanity. As soon as Trump stepped down, Beijing imposed sanctions on former administrative officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and trade advisor Peter Navarro.

Women with red ribbons hold candles during a nighttime protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on February 5, 2021.

Reuters

The Biden administration will maintain the genocidal designation, Biden’s candidate for UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during her confirmation hearing. Biden had condemned China’s actions in Xinjiang as genocide during its presidential campaign.

The White House is already facing its first major international hotspot with China after the Myanmar military toppled and arrested the country’s civilian leadership earlier this month.

The US has warned that if it does not release the imprisoned civilian leadership and support the country’s democratic transition, it will take action against those responsible for the coup. For its part, China has avoided condemning the coup and has instead called for a solution to the crisis in accordance with the country’s constitution.

Tensions are also mounting in Taiwan. Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan, which is self-governing under the umbrella of US security guarantees. Days after Biden’s inauguration, China sent fighter jets across the strait and was convicted by Washington. On Thursday, a US Navy warship sailed through the strait for the first time since Biden took office.

“The Secretary reaffirmed that the United States will work with its allies and partners to defend our common values ​​and interests and hold the PRC accountable for its efforts to threaten and undermine stability in the Indo-Pacific, including the Taiwan Strait pull the rules-based international system, “State Department spokesman Price said of Blinken’s Friday call.

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