Day: March 11, 2024

US State Department Requests $4 Billion To Outcompete China

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WASHINGTON —  The United States must employ “all the tools at our disposal” to outcompete China, a top U.S. State Department official said on Monday, as the Biden administration unveiled its budget request for the 2025 fiscal year. The request includes $4 billion over five years in mandatory funding for this purpose, including $2 billion to create a new international infrastructure fund to provide a credible, reliable alternative to Chinese infrastructure funding, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Rich Verma told a news briefing. The other $2 billion…

Former US Official’s Work for Chinese Client Stirs Concern Over Disclosure Loopholes

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WASHINGTON —  When a Chinese drone company came under U.S. government scrutiny over its alleged ties to China’s military, the company turned to one of America’s pre-eminent lawyers: Loretta Lynch, a former attorney general in the Obama administration. Lynch, who ran the U.S. Department of Justice from 2015 to 2017 and is now a partner at the Paul, Weiss law firm, wrote a letter to a senior Defense Department official last July on behalf of SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd, asking that her client be removed from a list of…

Palau’s President Relieved by Security Pact Funding Approval

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Washington —  Critical funds to counter China in the Pacific are finally on their way to three U.S. allies: Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. On Friday, the Senate passed a funding package that provides $7 billion over 20 years for the Compacts of Free Association (COFA) as part of a partial government funding bill. It was signed into law by President Joe Biden over the weekend. “Extending Compact-related assistance is a critical component of the administration’s Pacific Partnership, Indo-Pacific, and National Security Strategies,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony…

US steel unions urge Biden to open probe into Chinese shipbuilding

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The United Steelworkers union will on Tuesday ask President Joe Biden to open a trade investigation into alleged Chinese unfair economic practices in the shipbuilding and maritime logistics sectors. The USW and other unions will file a petition with the US Trade Representative outlining alleged discriminatory practices that have helped China dominate global shipbuilding, according to people familiar with the move. The petition will be made under Section 301 of…

‘Two sessions’ 2024: China ‘all about the party’s leadership’ as it gets more control over cabinet

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“Xi has successfully revived Mao’s famous slogan about the party’s overall leadership,” he added. Former leader Mao Zedong’s slogan – “Government, the military, society and schools, north, south, east and west – the party leads them all” – was written into the party’s charter after the 19th party congress in 2017. Deng said Xi had “consolidated all the major decision-making power for the party and himself, making the State Council just an arm to execute the party’s policy decisions”. “He put Li Qiang there [as premier] to make sure the…

The US funding deal is good for the Pacific. But the key is what happens next | Meg Keen and Mihai Sora

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A dysfunctional US Congress finally got its act together and approved a $7bn funding package for three Pacific nations. After years of negotiations and more recently, months of delay by US lawmakers, Congress late Friday cleared the way for the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau to renew the Compacts of Free Association (Cofa) agreements that fund critical services for the next two decades, and keep open a special migration pathway to the US. In return, the American military secures exclusive access to vast north Pacific territories and…

South Korean chipmakers halt old equipment sales over fears of US backlash

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Samsung and SK Hynix, the world’s leading memory chipmakers, have stopped selling used chipmaking equipment for fear of falling foul of US export controls on China and western sanctions on Russia. The South Korean companies have been storing used machines in warehouses instead of putting them on the secondary market, three traders of second-hand chipmaking tools told the Financial Times. “We are worried it [the equipment] could fall into the…

What does Xi’s hi-tech push mean for China?

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Between 1980 and 2017, China’s foreign direct investment increased by more than 90 times, making it by far the top recipient among emerging markets. Similarly, when China first started its economic reforms in 1978, its population was around 960 million. By 2017, it had reached nearly 1.4 billion, adding more than 10 million newborns each year despite restrictive birth-control policies. This provided a huge pool of young, energetic and hardworking people to power the country’s growth. At its peak, there were nearly 300 million migrant workers – almost the size…

Marriage holds key to Japan’s falling births

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Between 2019 and 2021 the annual number of Japanese marriages plunged by almost a sixth to just over half a million. Not too surprising, perhaps, because the anti-gathering strictures of the pandemic years were disastrous for dating and weddings. Alarmingly, though, there has been no rebound. The spring wedding season is around the corner, and it will have to be truly spectacular to put Japan back on nuptial track. More…

Chinese arrests jump nearly 50% amid clampdown on ‘hostile foreign forces’

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Chinese authorities arrested 726,000 people last year, a jump of 47.1% from the previous year, the country’s chief prosecutor told the National People’s Congress that ended Monday amid a crackdown on crimes linked to “hostile foreign forces.” Authorities also formally prosecuted 1.688 million people last year, up 17.3%, Chief Prosecutor Ying Yong said.  Ying said more than 2.4 million people were “arrested or prosecuted” last year for offenses related to “national security,” although he didn’t provide a breakdown for each category. The Chinese authorities have typically employed a highly elastic…