Day: September 17, 2021

The Secret Talks Behind the U.S. Deal That France Called a ‘Betrayal’

Chin@Strategy

According to French officials, Mr. Blinken also stayed silent on June 25 when his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, welcomed him back to Paris — where Mr. Blinken spent his high school years — and extolled the importance of the French submarine deal. And as recently as Aug. 30, when the French and Australian defense and foreign ministers held their annual “consultation,” they issued a joint communiqué that said the two countries were committed to deepening cooperation in the defense industry and “underlined the importance of the Future Submarine program.”…

The Sharp U.S. Pivot to Asia Is Throwing Europe Off Balance

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There are deeper questions about America’s future reliability as a security partner, especially if the conflict with China turns kinetic, which is part of Mr. Macron’s argument, Mr. Lesser acknowledged. “For all the U.S. commitment to Europe, if things go wrong in the Indo-Pacific, that would change the force structure in Europe pretty fast.” In Poland, a strong American ally in the European Union and NATO, the reaction to the new alliance was more positive, focusing not on a pivot away from Europe “but on the U.S., with the British…

I.M.F. Chief Kristalina Georgieva Denies Claims She Inflated China Data

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WASHINGTON — In remarks to staff on Friday, Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, denied allegations that she pressured staff to manipulate a report to placate China when she was a top World Bank official and said she cares deeply about the integrity of data and analysis, according to people familiar with the meeting. “I disagree with the implications for my role, and let me put it very simply to you: Not true,” she said, according to a transcript of her remarks. A day earlier, an…

The Chinese Communist Party’s model emperor

Chin@Strategy

Sep 18th 2021 WHAT WITH his dozens of concubines, his obsession with collecting precious jade and his penchant for inscribing his own (not very good) poems onto ancient paintings, the Qianlong emperor makes an unlikely hero for the Communist Party of China, especially one led by Xi Jinping, a stern ascetic. Qianlong was a man of formidable intellect and will, whose long reign from 1736-95 marked a high point of the Qing dynasty. But he was also a conservative aristocrat, from his passion for genealogy to his love of bowhunting…

Protesters in China besiege an indebted property developer

Chin@Strategy

Sep 18th 2021 Hong Kong PROTESTS BY ANGRY investors are common in China. Average folk who have been deceived by online lenders or other scam artists have few outlets for redress. They occupy office lobbies until a senior executive appears to calm their nerves. It is rare, however, for demonstrators to target well-known companies, and rarer still for connected protests to crop up all across the country. Events such as these have made Evergrande, a massive property developer on the brink of default, something of a spectacle in recent days.…

China’s ‘Standards 2035’ Project Could Result in a Technological Cold War

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement The eventual decline of the West’s dominance in the standards domain has offered an opportunity for China to play a bigger role in finalizing and setting technology standards. The Chinese state has gradually increased its technical capabilities and has worked toward strengthening the technology sector in the country during the last two decades. The domestic private technology sector of China, supported by the state, has gained immense heft on the international stage. Now, it looks to play an active role in advocating for global technical standards and a worldwide…

Will China Actually Join the CPTPP?

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement On September 16, China formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) an 11-member trade bloc touted as setting “a new standard for trade and investment in one of the world’s fastest growing and most dynamic regions.” Commerce Minister Wang Wentao submitted an application to New Zealand, the repository state of the CPTPP, the Chinese ministry announced Thursday. Notably, the CPTPP – then known simply as the Trans-Pacific Partnership – was originally brought to the finish line under the leadership of U.S. President Barack…

Hong Kong Forces Tiananmen Square Group to Delete Facebook Page

Chin@Strategy

HONG KONG — The Hong Kong police have forced one of the city’s best-known activist groups to scrub its online presence, in the latest sign of how officials may use a powerful national security law to restrict online speech and impose mainland Chinese-style internet censorship. The group, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, has for decades organized annual vigils to commemorate the 1989 government massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing. Even as the central Chinese government tried to erase memory of the massacre from…

Biden Set to Host World Leaders for Climate Forum

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President Biden is set to host a climate change summit Friday morning that is expected to draw pledges from the United States, Europe and a number of countries to slash their use of methane, a potent planet-warming greenhouse gas, according to environmental groups. The White House meeting, which is called the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, will be held virtually starting at 8:30 a.m. It comes less than two months before a pivotal United Nations conference in Glasgow where nearly 200 nations are expected to announce more ambitious…