Day: July 14, 2023

Sources: US Chip CEOs Plan Washington Trip to Talk China Policy

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The chief executives of Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc are planning to visit Washington next week to discuss China policy, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The executives plan to hold meetings with U.S. officials to talk about market conditions, export controls and other matters affecting their businesses, one of the sources said. It was not immediately clear whom the executives would meet. Intel and Qualcomm declined to comment, and officials at the White House did not immediately return a request for comment. The sources said other semiconductor…

US Senators Push China Investments Tracker in Defense Bill

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Two U.S. senators are pursuing a legislative plan to track U.S. investments in China, as the White House works to complete long-awaited action that would also restrict investment in certain, highly targeted sectors. The Outbound Investment Transparency Act, filed late on Thursday as an amendment to a defense bill, is the latest bipartisan legislation introduced by Democratic Senator Bob Casey and Republican John Cornyn aimed at tackling the risks of U.S. investment going to foreign adversaries like China. Unlike an unsuccessful version the senators introduced in 2021, the latest measure…

Myanmar’s Pro-Democracy Camp Faults Secret Meeting With Aung San Suu Kyi 

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The National Unity Government of Myanmar, led by opponents of the ruling junta, has criticized a recent meeting between Thailand’s top diplomat and Aung San Suu Kyi, saying that it may complicate ASEAN’s efforts to resolve the crisis in Myanmar. Thailand’s foreign minister, Don Pramudwinai, has revealed that he met with the ousted Myanmar leader on July 9, and that she expressed her willingness to discuss with him further the issues in her war-torn country. Zin Mar Aung, the foreign minister of the NUG, expressed her disapproval, saying the Thai…

Blinken: Broad ASEAN Support to Press Myanmar’s Junta to Stop Violence

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Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations again condemned the violence in Myanmar, triggered by the military junta’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy opponents. At a summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought support to counter China’s support for the junta and Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports. Voice of America

China eyes Asean trade ties, but members fear ‘geopolitical trap’ as US also seeks regional influence

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“It can be used as a bridgehead to connect overseas resources and logistics,” Hu Peihong, general manager of the CNGR base, told a media delegation in May. “We built and operated the industrial base [phase one] in such a short period of time so we can work with overseas partners and replicate it quickly out of China.” One of the benefits is that shipping from the Chinese port city of Qinzhou to the Vietnamese industrial gateway of Hai Phong now takes just half a day. Advertisement In August 2019, when…

Hun Sen deletes Twitter post linking Thai election to Cambodian opposition

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Prime Minister Hun Sen has removed a Twitter post that attempted to connect the Cambodian opposition to a Thai politician’s failure this week to win enough parliamentary votes to become the country’s next prime minister. Pita Limjaroenrat and his Move Forward Party fell short of the 375 votes needed to clinch power in an initial round of voting on Thursday. Hun Sen tweeted that Pita’s setback was also “a major failure” to Cambodia’s exiled opposition activists. He was most likely referring to Sam Rainsy, the former head of the now-disbanded…

Fighting between Myanmar’s military and ethnic rebels in Kachin rages 13 days

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Fierce fighting between Myanmar’s military junta and an ethnic rebel group in the country’s northern Kachin state has raged for 13 days in a village close to the rebels’ headquarters, people living near the area told Radio Free Asia. The headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, is in Lai Zar, and the military attacked Nam Sang Yang village, roughly 9.6 kilometers (six miles) away, on July 2.  The ethnic army has been aiding anti-junta local militias and publicly supporting the shadow National Unity Government – made up of…

China conducts a 100-day ‘strike hard’ campaign against Uyghurs

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In the latest “strike hard” campaign in Xinjiang, authorities are cracking down on any gatherings of more than 30 people and say it will last 100 days, according to Chinese media and two police officers in the region, in the latest effort to persecute the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs who live there.   China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in its far western region of Xinjiang that include police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices and curbs on the culture and language of the ethnic minority group. Reports about the start…

China blocks prominent Tibetan lama from preaching

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The Chinese government has canceled a Tibetan Buddhist religious event where a prominent lama was scheduled to preach, though organizers obtained permission from authorities in advance, two Tibetans with knowledge of the situation said.   The seventh Gungthang Rinpoche Lobsang Jamyang Geleg Tenpe Khenchen was to give a Kalachakra teaching in Dzoege, Ngaba county, in the western Chinese province of Sichuan, where the he was born, the sources said.  The Kalachakra, which literally means “infinite wheel of time” in Sanskrit, is a sacred event where key Buddhist teachings are passed on…

US again touts importance of Myanmar peace plan despite divisions within ASEAN

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Washington on Friday again urged countries to push Myanmar on a peace plan that has failed so far, although the regional bloc is divided over how to handle the Burmese crisis. Countries must persuade the Burmese military to follow through on the five-point plan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said as he met with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other countries in Jakarta on Friday. “In Myanmar, we must press the military regime to stop the violence, to implement ASEAN’s five-point consensus, to support…