China Watch Thread

[weatheriscool]

Biden, Xi seek to 'manage our differences' in meeting
Source: AP

By SEUNG MIN KIM and ZEKE MILLER

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) — President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks for about three hours Monday in their first in-person meeting since the U.S. president took office nearly two years ago, aiming to “manage” differences between the superpowers as they compete for global influence amid increasing economic and security tensions.

Xi and Biden greeted each other with a handshake at a luxury resort hotel in Indonesia, where they are attending the Group of 20 summit of large economies, before they sat down for formal talks. Biden was set to hold a news conference to discuss the meeting, which came in the middle of a seven-day, round-the-world trip.

“As the leaders of our two nations, we share responsibility, in my view, to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation,” Biden said to open the meeting.

Xi called on Biden to “chart the right course” and “elevate the relationship” between China and the U.S. He said he was ready for a “candid and in-depth exchange of views” with Biden.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/biden-taiwan ... osition_01

[wjfox]

G20: Xi accuses Trudeau of leaks to media about China-Canada relations

46 minutes ago

China's Xi Jinping has been filmed accusing Justin Trudeau of leaking meeting details, days after they held talks at the G20 summit in Bali.

President Xi told the Canadian PM, via a translator, this was inappropriate and accused him of lacking "sincerity".

He was likely referring to reports that Mr Trudeau discussed alleged Chinese espionage and interference in Canadian elections at the sit down.

The talks, which happened behind closed doors, were the pair's first in years.

In the footage, filmed by journalists at the now finished gathering of world leaders, President Xi and Mr Trudeau can be seen standing close to each other and conversing via a translator.

"Everything we discussed has been leaked to the papers and that is not appropriate," the Chinese leader told Mr Trudeau in Mandarin.

It captures a rare candid moment of President Xi, whose image is normally carefully curated by Chinese state media.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-63654337

[weatheriscool]

Why Xi Jinping publicly rebuked Justin Trudeau, and what it means for Canada's relations with China
Source: CBC

Xi Jinping's threatening rebuke of Justin Trudeau was a rare and surprising move by the Chinese president, and highlighted the disregard he has for the Canadian prime minister, according to some experts and former diplomats.

snip

According to the readout, during the brief discussion between the two leaders — who have been at odds over trade, China's arrest and detention of two Canadians and Canada's arrest and detention of a Chinese Huawei executive — Trudeau raised concerns about media reports that China covertly funded 11 candidates in the 2019 federal election.

But the two later crossed paths again in a public space in Bali, in full view of the media, which captured their exchange. Through an interpreter, Xi accused Trudeau of inappropriately leaking the content of their discussion, and also claimed that what was reported in the media was not an accurate reflection of their conversation.

Trudeau interrupted the Chinese leader, saying Canada believes in "free and open and frank dialogue," and that while they have disagreements, they should work together. However, Xi's translator didn't translate everything the president said.

According to a translation by The Canadian Press, Xi also told Trudeau that "we should have conversations in a respectful way, otherwise, the result can't be predicted."

After the exchange, the pair shook hands and parted ways.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/china- ... -1.6653939

[weatheriscool]

China pushes back on FBI claims of Chinese 'police stations' in U.S.
Source: reuters

FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate hearing on Thursday that it was "outrageous" that the Chinese government would attempt to set up a police presence in the United States, saying it "violates sovereignty and circumvents standard judicial and law enforcement cooperation processes."

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chi ... 022-11-18/

[weatheriscool]

Top U.S. House Republican McCarthy Plans Special Committee on China
Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, said on Sunday he would form a select committee on China if he is elected speaker of the chamber, accusing the Biden administration of not standing up to Beijing.

"China is the No. 1 country when it comes to intellectual property theft," he told Fox News in an interview.

"We will put a stop to this and no longer allow the administration to sit back and let China do what they are doing to America."

McCarthy also said he would keep his promise to oust a number of Democrats from key House committees, including Representative Adam Schiff, the chairman of the intelligence committee.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/ar ... ed-speaker

[weatheriscool]

Crowds angered by lockdowns call for China's Xi to step down (UPDATE)


By DAKE KANG and HUIZHONG WU 32 minutes ago

SHANGHAI (AP) — Protesters pushed to the brink by China’s strict COVID measures in Shanghai called for the removal of the country’s all-powerful leader and clashed with police Sunday as crowds took to the streets in several cities in an astounding challenge to the government.

Police forcibly cleared the demonstrators in China’s financial capital who called for Xi Jinping’s resignation and the end of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule — but hours later people rallied again in the same spot, and social media reports indicated protests also spread to at least seven other cities, including the capital of Beijing, and dozens of university campuses.

Largescale protests are exceedingly rare in China, where public expressions of dissent are routinely stifled — but a direct rebuke of Xi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, is extraordinary.

Three years after the virus first emerged, China is the only major country still trying to stop transmission of COVID-19 — a “zero COVID” policy that regularly sees millions of people confined to their homes for weeks at a time and requires near-constant testing. The measures were originally widely accepted for minimizing deaths while other countries suffered devastating wavs of infections, but that consensus has begun to fray in recent weeks.



Chinese police officers block off access to a site where protesters had gathered in Shanghai on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022. Protests against China's strict "zero-COVID" policies resurfaced in Shanghai and Beijing on Sunday afternoon, continuing a round of demonstrations that have spread across the country since a deadly apartment fire in the northwestern city of Urumqi led to questions over such rigid anti-virus measures. (AP Photo)



Original story at same link below.

By HUIZHONG WU an hour ago

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Protests against China’s strict “zero-COVID” policies resurfaced in Shanghai and Beijing on Sunday afternoon, continuing a round of demonstrations that have spread across the country since a deadly apartment fire in the northwestern city of Urumqi led to questions over such rigid anti-virus measures.

Crowds stood and filmed as police started shoving at people who had gathered in on the same street in Shanghai where police had cleared hundreds away with force just hours before.

They shouted, “We don’t want PCR tests, we want freedom!” according to a witness who did not want to be named for fear of retribution.

Since Friday people have held protests across China, where street demonstrations are extremely rare. But anger and frustration have flared over the deaths from a fire in an apartment building in Urumqi that the public believes was caused by excessive lockdown measures that delayed rescue.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-healt ... osition_03

[wjfox]

[peekpok]

I didn't have "uprising in China" on my 2022 bingo card. I don't know if that country is really unstable enough for an actual regime change. It's hard to imagine Xi being the kind of guy to relent and give some freedom back to the people after defying him.

[caltrek]

^^^Whether China is stable or unstable is something that seems to be frequently debated. For me, it brings back memories of the slaughter at Tiananmen Square. So generally, I have a bad feeling about how it will all end. What I came here to post, which is of some relevance to the stability debate:


Virus Protests Hit Hong Kong After Mainland Rallies
November 28 , 2022

Introduction:

HONG KONG (AP via Courthouse News) — Students in Hong Kong chanted “oppose dictatorship” in a protest against China’s Covid rules Monday after demonstrators on the mainland issued an unprecedented call for President Xi Jinping to resign in the biggest show of opposition to the ruling Communist Party in decades.

Rallies against China's unusually strict anti-virus measures spread to several cities over the weekend, and authorities eased some regulations, apparently as part of an attempt to quell that public anger. But the government showed no sign of backing down on its larger Covid strategy, and analysts expect authorities to quickly silence the dissent.

With police out in force on Monday, there was no word of protests in Beijing or Shanghai. But about 50 students sang at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and some lit candles in a show of support for those in mainland cities who demonstrated against restrictions that have confined millions of people to their homes. Hiding their faces to avoid official retaliation, the students chanted, “No PCR tests but freedom,” and “oppose dictatorship, don’t be slaves.”

The gathering and a similar one elsewhere in Hong Kong were the biggest protests there in more than a year under rules imposed to crush a pro-democracy movement in the territory, which is Chinese but has a separate legal system from the mainland.

“I’ve wanted to speak up for a long time, but I did not get the chance to,” said James Cai, a 29-year-old from Shanghai who attended a Hong Kong protest and held up a piece of white paper, a symbol of defiance against the ruling party’s pervasive censorship. ” If people in the mainland can’t tolerate it anymore, then I cannot as well.”

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/virus-p ... -rallies/

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Protests in China are Not Rare – but the Current Unrest is Significant
by Teresa Wright
November 28, 2022

Introduction:

(The Conversation) Street protests across China have evoked memories of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations that were brutally quashed in 1989. Indeed, foreign media have suggested the current unrest sweeping cities across China is unlike anything seen in the country since that time.

The implication is that protest in China is a rarity. Meanwhile, the Nov. 30, 2022, death of Jiang Zemin – the leader brought in after the bloody crackdown of 1989 – gives further reason to reflect on how China has changed since the Tiananmen Square massacre, and how Communist party leaders might react to unrest now.

But how uncommon are these recent public actions? And how do they compare with the massive weekslong demonstrations of 1989?

Having written extensively on protest in China, I can attest that protests in China are not at all uncommon – but that doesn’t make what is happening now any less significant. Alongside similarities between the current street actions and more typical protests of recent years, there are also parallels between the demonstrations today and those in 1989. Yet differences in China’s international status and domestic leadership reduce the chances for liberal democratic transformation now.

The current protests are ostensibly about the Chinese government’s strict “zero COVID” policies. They were triggered by a deadly fire in the northwestern city of Urumqi on Nov. 24, with some residents blaming lockdown rules for hampering rescue efforts. Unrest has since spread to multiple cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.

Read more of The Conversation article here: https://theconversation.com/protests-i ... nt-195622

Read a brief biography and more on the death of Jiang Zemin here: https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/chine ... emin-dead/

[weatheriscool]

China's foreign minister signals deeper ties with Russia
Source: AP

today

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi defended what he said was his country’s position of impartiality on the war in Ukraine on Sunday and signaled that China would deepen ties with Russia in the coming year.

Wang, speaking by video to a conference in the Chinese capital, also blamed America for the deterioration in relations between the world’s two largest economies, saying that China has “firmly rejected the United States’ erroneous China policy.”

China has pushed back against Western pressure on trade, technology, human rights and its claims to a broad swath of the western Pacific, accusing the U.S. of bullying. Its refusal to condemn the invasion of Ukraine and join others in imposing sanctions on Russia has further frayed ties and fueled an emerging divide with much of Europe.

Wang said that China would “deepen strategic mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation” with Russia. Warships from the two countries held joint naval drills in the East China Sea last week.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukrai ... 3199a76a5d

[wjfox]

China reopens borders as lunar new year travel kicks off amid Covid surge

Virus outbreaks tipped to worsen as mainland China opens to Hong Kong, ends quarantine for visitors and millions begin holiday-period travel

Sun 8 Jan 2023 01.44 GMT

China has lifted quarantine requirements for inbound travellers, ending almost three years of self-imposed isolation even as the country battles a surge in Covid cases.

On Sunday, mainland China also opened its border to Hong Kong, dismantling the last pillars of a zero-Covid policy that had shielded people from the virus but also cut them off from the rest of the world.

The containment policy had a huge impact on the world’s second-biggest economy and generated resentment throughout Chinese society that led to nationwide protests just before it was eased.

In the final unravelling of those rules, Sunday saw inbound travellers to China no longer required to quarantine, after almost three years of being subject to varying durations of mandatory isolation.

At Shanghai’s Pudong international airport, a woman surnamed Pang told news agency AFP she was thrilled with the change to the rules.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... ovid-surge

[wjfox]

US tracking suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

1 hour ago

The US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted flying over sensitive sites in recent days.

Defence officials said they were confident the "high-altitude surveillance balloon" belonged to China. It was most recently seen above the western state of Montana.

But military leaders decided against shooting it down as there were concerns over the danger of falling debris.

China has not yet commented.

Canada said on Friday that it was monitoring "a potential second incident" involving a surveillance balloon, but did not say which country could be behind it. It said in the statement that it is working closely with the US to "safeguard Canada's sensitive information from foreign intelligence threats".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64507225



Credit: Reuters

[wjfox]

[ººº]

US tracking suspected Chinese surveillance balloon
1 hour ago

The US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted flying over sensitive sites in recent days.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64507225

Credit: Reuters

For some reason I find this oddly funny.

[wjfox]

My Dad's latest blog –

https://richardhfox.wordpress.com/2023/ ... direction/

[caltrek]

Republicans Have Manufactured a Controversy Over the Chinese Spy Balloon
by Pema Levy
February 5, 2023

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) A US military fighter jet shot down the Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, but the Biden administration has a different kind of foe that has yet to be neutralized: attacks coming from Republicans trying to score political points over the floating white orb that appeared in America’s skies.

The balloon first came to the public’s attention as it hovered over Montana early this week. Republicans immediately called on the president to shoot it down. “President Biden should stop coddling and appeasing the Chinese communists,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) tweeted Friday. “It was a mistake to not shoot down that Chinese spy balloon when it was over a sparsely populated area,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) weighed in Friday. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called for an investigation into the balloon and Biden’s response. Even former Donald Trump advised a course of action on his social media platform Truth Social: “SHOOT DOWN THE BALLOON!”

But once the balloon was shot down, Republicans kept up the criticism, unhappy that the administration had waited days to neutralize it. “The President taking it down over the Atlantic is sort of like tackling the quarterback after the game is over,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday on “Meet the Press.”

The White House, meanwhile, has been putting out its own version of the story. “I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible,” President Joe Biden told reporters on Saturday. But the administration opted to wait because the safest course of action was to shoot down the balloon over water.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... -balloon/

[weatheriscool]

China leading US in technology race in all but a few fields, thinktank finds
Source: The Guardian

The United States and other western countries are losing the race with China to develop advanced technologies and retain talent, with Beijing potentially establishing a monopoly in some areas, a new report has said.

China leads in 37 of 44 technologies tracked in a year-long project by thinktank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The fields include electric batteries, hypersonics and advanced radio-frequency communications such as 5G and 6G.

The report, published on Thursday, said the US was the leader in just the remaining seven technologies such as vaccines, quantum computing and space launch systems.

“Our research reveals that China has built the foundations to position itself as the world’s leading science and technology superpower, by establishing a sometimes stunning lead in high-impact research across the majority of critical and emerging technology domains,” the report said.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... tank-finds