The FBI chief, Chris Wray, has endorsed the theory that the Covid pandemic was the result of a laboratory leak in China, further sharpening an increasingly combative bilateral relationship. In making his intervention, Wray, who was appointed by Donald Trump, was also taking sides in an internal debate over Covid’s origins, which has become a proxy for a broader tussle between hawks and doves within the administration. The Biden White House has sought to strike a balance between confronting Beijing over what it sees as unacceptable behaviour and trying to…
Tag: Biden administration
Some politicians seem comfortable with the prospect of a new cold war. They shouldn’t be | Christopher S Chivvis
Events surrounding the first year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine have had a cold war-esque feel, with America and its allies lined up on one side and China and Russia on the other. Some politicians in Washington – and perhaps Beijing – seem comfortable with this. But they should be careful. There’s no reason to believe a cold war re-run in the 21st century would turn out well for anyone, above all the US. This past week, President Biden paid a dramatic visit to Kyiv and then addressed…
Covid-19 likely emerged from laboratory leak, US energy department says
The virus which drove the Covid-19 pandemic most likely emerged from a laboratory leak but not as part of a weapons program, according to an updated and classified 2021 US energy department study provided to the White House and senior American lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The department’s finding – a departure from previous studies on how the virus emerged – came in an update to a document from the office of National Intelligence director Avril Haines. It follows an FBI finding, issued with “moderate confidence”, that…
Biden promises Kyiv extra military aid as EU discusses ammunition
Joe Biden has promised further military aid for Ukraine worth $500m (£415m) during his unannounced visit to Kyiv, as EU foreign ministers met in Brussels to discuss ways to accelerate the provision of ammunition. The US president also said additional sanctions would be announced this week against Russia’s elite and companies trying to evade existing sanctions in order to “back the Russian war machine”. In a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Biden discussed the text of a resolution to be put to a vote at the UN on…
Competitor or adversary? The west struggles to define its relationship with Beijing
If you want to solve a problem, it helps to be able to define it, but when it comes to a problem like China, western leaders have been struggling to find the right words. Liz Truss sought to designate China as a “threat” to Britain, but did not stay prime minister long enough for that to become established policy. Her successor, Rishi Sunak, has opted for the less combative “systemic challenge” but he is under pressure from backbench MPs to follow Truss’s path and call Beijing a “strategic threat”. Sunak…
‘Hot air’: Marjorie Taylor Greene in State of the Union balloon stunt
Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to tee up a State of the Union stunt on Tuesday, patrolling the halls of Congress with a large white balloon in reference to Republican criticism of Joe Biden over his handling of a flight over US territory by a Chinese surveillance dirigible. “Just an innocent white balloon everybody,” the Georgia extremist said, hours before Biden’s address to Congress, attempting to keep aloft the balloon saga which ended when it was shot down off the Carolinas on Saturday. Greene did not discuss the Pentagon disclosure that…
White House rejects Republican fire over wait to down Chinese spy balloon
The US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, on Sunday rejected Republican criticism of Joe Biden over an eight-day wait to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon which flew over US military sites. “The president gave instructions to have it shot down in a way that was safe,” Buttigieg told CNN’s State of the Union, of the operation off the Carolina coast on Saturday. “The debris field that was created by this balloon which was shot down, it’s about seven miles long. And so any time the military is considering an…
Second spy balloon spotted over Latin America, says Pentagon, as Blinken postpones China trip
A second Chinese spy balloon was reportedly flying over Latin America, according to the Pentagon, in comments that came as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, postponed a visit to China after the intrusion of a separate high-altitude Chinese balloon into US airspace. “We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America,” Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said, a day after the first craft was spotted over US skies. “We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon.” The Pentagon did not specify the balloon’s exact location, but a…
US secretary of state postpones China visit after spy balloon flies over Montana
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is reported to have postponed a planned visit to China this weekend after the intrusion of a high-altitude Chinese balloon into US airspace. China had claimed the balloon that flew over Canada and the US was for “mainly meteorological purposes” and had been blown off course, and apologised to the US for its “unintended entry” into American airspace. But the postponement of Blinken’s visit, reported by Bloomberg and ABC News, suggests that the Biden administration views the overflight as a major incident in…
China’s future to AI and jobs: five big questions from Davos
A number of big themes emerged from the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort Davos. Here are five of most pressing questions that came to dominate this year’s gathering of the global elite. Will China be forced to make friends with the west? Donald Trump’s trade war with China – continued by his successor Joe Biden – has left relations between east and west at rock bottom. But with Covid and trade tensions halving Chinese growth last year to just 3% and western businesses such as Apple moving business…