#China U.S. relation

[infonewsmania]

US faces critical years in fighting 'China challenge,' Pentagon chief warns

US faces critical years in fighting ‘China challenge,’ Pentagon chief warns

The US is at a critical juncture with China and will need military power to ensure that American values, not Beijing’s, set global goals in the 21st century, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday. Austin’s speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum capped a week in which the Pentagon was focused on China’s rise and what that might mean for America’s position in the world. by 2035,…

[apas-95]

Yao Ming, chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association and National People's Congress deputy, meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

[kp777]

The US and China must unite to fight the climate crisis, not each other

[futurefatum]

Allan Lichtman's prediction VS An Astrological Analysis.

Astrologer Jeff Harmon predicts a tumultuous U.S. election with potential unrest. He foresees a Trump win despite global instability. #Election2024 #Astrology

Posted September 9th, 2024 by @JeffHarmanAstrologer Allan Lichtman’s prediction VS An Astrological Analysis. ABOUT THIS VIDEO: This video discusses an astrological analysis by Jeff Harmon, contrasting it with historian Allan Lichtman’s prediction that Kamala Harris will win the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Harmon uses both Western and Vedic astrology to explore the possible outcomes of…

[beauila-blog]

India's Increasing Dependence on China Challenges U.S. Trade Strategy

NEW DELHI – In recent years, American businesses seeking to reduce their reliance on China have increasingly turned to India as a promising alternative manufacturing hub. India’s growing production capabilities in sectors like smartphones, solar panels, and pharmaceuticals have attracted global attention. However, as India's manufacturing sector expands, its economy has become even more reliant on Chinese imports, particularly for essential components, a development that poses a challenge for U.S. trade strategy.

Despite efforts to diversify supply chains and reduce dependence on China, India’s imports from China have surged, now constituting nearly a third of the country’s total imports in industries such as electronics, renewable energy, and pharmaceuticals. According to the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a leading Indian think tank, these imports include both finished products and intermediate goods necessary for manufacturing.

The U.S. has been actively promoting the diversification of supply chains away from Chinese factories to mitigate geopolitical risks. However, experts argue that this goal remains elusive for countries like India, which rely heavily on Chinese components for assembly and production. Sriparna Pathak, an associate professor at Jindal University specializing in India-China relations, noted, "Unless China stops being the third party from where components come in and we just assemble, that de-risking is not going to happen for any country coming in and producing in India."

Data from the Confederation of Indian Industry shows that nearly two-thirds of India’s electronic components, including circuit boards and batteries, are sourced from China. Over the past five years, the volume of these imports has tripled. Additionally, India

[opencommunion]

"The story of  'John Doe 1' of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is tucked in a lawsuit filed five years ago against several U.S. tech companies, including Tesla, the world’s largest electric vehicle producer. In a country where the earth hides its treasures beneath its surface, those who chip away at its bounty pay an unfair price. As a pre-teen, his family could no longer afford to pay his $6 monthly school fee, leaving him with one option: a life working underground in a tunnel, digging for cobalt rocks.  But soon after he began working for roughly two U.S. dollars per day, the child was buried alive under the rubble of a collapsed mine tunnel. His body was never recovered. 

The nation, fractured by war, disease, and famine, has seen more than 6 million people die since the mid-1990s, making the conflict the deadliest since World War II. But, in recent years, the death and destruction have been aided by the growing number of electric vehicles humming down American streets. In 2022, the U.S., the world’s third-largest importer of cobalt, spent nearly $525 million on the mineral, much of which came from the Congo.

As America’s dependence on the Congo has grown, Black-led labor and environmental organizers here in the U.S. have worked to build a transnational solidarity movement. Activists also say that the inequities faced in the Congo relate to those that Black Americans experience. And thanks in part to social media, the desire to better understand what’s happening in the Congo has grown in the past 10 years. In some ways, the Black Lives Matter movement first took root in the Congo after the uprising in Ferguson in 2014, advocates say. And since the murder of George Floyd and the outrage over the Gaza war, there has been an uptick in Congolese and Black American groups working on solidarity campaigns.

Throughout it all, the inequities faced by Congolese people and Black Americans show how the supply chain highlights similar patterns of exploitation and disenfranchisement. ... While the American South has picked up about two-thirds of the electric vehicle production jobs, Black workers there are more likely to work in non-unionized warehouses, receiving less pay and protections. The White House has also failed to share data that definitively proves whether Black workers are receiving these jobs, rather than them just being placed near Black communities. 'Automakers are moving their EV manufacturing and operations to the South in hopes of exploiting low labor costs and making higher profits,' explained Yterenickia Bell, an at-large council member in Clarkston, Georgia, last year. While Georgia has been targeted for investment by the Biden administration, workers are 'refusing to stand idly by and let them repeat a cycle that harms Black communities and working families.'

... Of the 255,000 Congolese mining for cobalt, 40,000 are children. They are not only exposed to physical threats but environmental ones. Cobalt mining pollutes critical water sources, plus the air and land. It is linked to respiratory illnesses, food insecurity, and violence. Still, in March, a U.S. court ruled on the case, finding that American companies could not be held liable for child labor in the Congo, even as they helped intensify the prevalence. ... Recently, the push for mining in the Congo has reached new heights because of a rift in China-U.S. relations regarding EV production. Earlier this month, the Biden administration issued a 100% tariff on Chinese-produced EVs to deter their purchase in the U.S. Currently, China owns about 80% of the legal mines in the Congo, but tens of thousands of Congolese work in 'artisanal' mines outside these facilities, where there are no rules or regulations, and where the U.S. gets much of its cobalt imports.  'Cobalt mining is the slave farm perfected,' wrote Siddharth Kara last year in the award-winning investigative book Cobalt Red: How The Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. 'It is a system of absolute exploitation for absolute profit.' While it is the world’s richest country in terms of wealth from natural resources, Congo is among the poorest in terms of life outcomes. Of the 201 countries recognized by the World Bank Group, it has the 191st lowest life expectancy."

[gud4knowledge]

US, Chinese Officials Cite Need for Stable Economic Relations news.gud4knowledge

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told her Chinese counterpart Monday during a meeting in Beijing that the Biden administration seeks healthy competition with China and that a “growing Chinese economy that plays by the rules is in both of our interests. Raimondo told Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao that it is important for the United States and China to have a “stable economic…

[faultfalha]

The grey wall of the future looms, a formidable divide between the two powers. Commerce chief, a figure in a white suit, stands before it, a chasm to be crossed. As he gazes, a whisper of possibility flits through the air like a nighttime breeze. Somewhere, in the distance, is the answer for a trade and tourism boost in the talks of Chinese leaders. He looks back, ready to brave the unknown in the hope of a brightened future.

[evehiclesaura]

Senators Question Biden's 'Buy America' Waiver: Implications for U.S. EV Industry

Battle Over Buy America Provisions for EV Charging Stations In an attempt to reverse a decision made by the Biden administration, four Republican U.S. Senators – Marco Rubio, Roger Marshall, Rick Scott, and Kevin Cramer – have raised their voices against the waiving of “Buy America” requirements for government-funded electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. This comes amid the administration’s…

[xtruss]

Chinese Scientists Are Leaving the United States! Here’s Why That Spells Bad News For Washington.

— By Christina Lu and Anusha Rathi | July 13, 2023 | Foreign Policy

A view of Building 10 on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States on March 12, 2020. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Facing an increasingly suspicious research climate, a growing number of Chinese scientists are leaving the United States for positions abroad, the latest indicator of how worsening U.S.-China relations are complicating academic collaboration and could hamstring Washington’s tech ambitions.

Chinese scientists living in the United States have for decades contributed to research efforts driving developments in advanced technology and science. But a growing number of them may now be looking elsewhere for work, as deteriorating geopolitical relations fuel extra scrutiny of Chinese researchers and Beijing ramps up efforts to recruit and retain talent. Between 2010 and 2021, the number of Chinese scientists leaving the United States has steadily increased, according to new research published last month. If the trend continues, experts warn that the brain drain could deal a major blow to U.S. research efforts in the long run.

“It’s absolutely devastating,” said David Bier, the associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute. “So many of the researchers that the United States depends on in [the] advanced technology field are from China, or are foreign students, and this phenomenon is certainly going to negatively impact U.S. firms and U.S. research going forward.”

From semiconductor chips to artificial intelligence, technology has been at the forefront of U.S.-China competition, with both Washington and Beijing maneuvering to strangle each other’s sectors. Cooperation, even in key sectors like combating climate change, has been rare.

From 2010 to 2021, the number of scientists of Chinese descent who left the United States for another country has surged from 900 to 2,621, with scientists leaving at an expedited rate between 2018 and 2021, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Nearly half of this group moved to China and Hong Kong in 2010, the study said, and a growing percentage of Chinese scientists have relocated to China over the years.

While this number represents a small fraction of the Chinese scientists in the United States, the uptick reflects researchers’ growing concerns and broader apprehension amid a tense geopolitical climate. After surveying 1,304 Chinese American researchers, the report found that 89 percent of respondents wanted to contribute to U.S. science and technology leadership. Yet 72 percent also reported feeling unsafe as researchers in the United States, while 61 percent had previously considered seeking opportunities outside of the country.

“Scientists of Chinese descent in the United States now face higher incentives to leave the United States and lower incentives to apply for federal grants,” the report said. There are “general feelings of fear and anxiety that lead them to consider leaving the United States and/or stop applying for federal grants.”

The incentives to leave are twofold. Beijing has funneled resources into research and development programs and has long attempted to recruit scientists, even its own, from around the world. For one of its initiatives, the Thousand Talents Plan, Beijing harnessed at least 600 recruitment stations worldwide to acquire new talent. “China has been really trying to lure back scientists for a long time,” said Eric Fish, the author of China’s Millennials.

But this latest outflow of Chinese scientists accelerated in 2018, the same year that then-U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled the China Initiative, a controversial program that was aimed at countering IP theft—and cast a chill over researchers of Chinese descent and collaborations with Chinese institutions. In 2020, he also issued a proclamation denying visas for graduate students and researchers affiliated with Chinese universities associated with the military.

Although the Biden administration shut down the China Initiative, experts warn that its shadow still looms over Chinese scientists. More than one-third of respondents in the PNAS survey reported feeling unwelcome in the United States, while nearly two-thirds expressed concerns about research collaboration with China.

“There is this chilling effect that we’re still witnessing now, where there is a stigma attached to collaboration with China,” said Jenny Lee, a professor at the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona.

The challenges are emblematic of how the breakdown in U.S.-China relations has thrown universities into a geopolitical firestorm, particularly as some states’ lawmakers pressure them to sever ties with Chinese counterparts. On the U.S. side, interest in Mandarin language studies and study abroad has plummeted over the years, largely the result of worsening ties, Beijing’s growing repression, and the coronavirus pandemic. Today, while there are roughly 300,000 Chinese students in America, only 350 Americans studied in China in the most recent academic year. If interest continues to recede, experts warn of spillover effects that could hamper Washington’s understanding of Beijing.

“We’re losing a generation of people who are knowledgeable about China,” said Daniel Murphy, the former director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. “I’m concerned that the United States is going about this issue in a way that excessively focuses on risks of the academic relationship, without due consideration for the benefits. And I think we see this in a whole host of arenas, and that it’s bipartisan.”

At the same time as a growing number of Chinese scientists exit the United States, new students appear to be facing higher barriers to entry as student visa denials and backlogs reach record high levels. According to a blog post by the Cato Institute, student visa denials peaked at about 35 percent in 2022—the highest rate recorded in two decades.

Student visa denial data is not available by nationality, but Bier, the Cato Institute expert who wrote the piece, said that there is a high degree of correlation between denial rates for B-visas, or tourist visas, and student visas. “Having reviewed the B-visa denials in China, it’s pretty clear that the Chinese overall visa denial rate has increased significantly over the last few years and is at a level now where it’s the highest it’s been in decades,” he said.

Just as some Chinese scientists are looking abroad, these challenges are pushing a growing number of international students to turn elsewhere for academic opportunities. Students are increasingly heading to countries like Canada, Australia, Japan, and the United Kingdom, all of which are opening their doors to high-skilled workers and researchers. To attract more talent, the United Kingdom has issued “Global Talent” and “High Potential Individual” visas, which allow scholars from top universities to work there for 2-3 years and 1-5 years, respectively.

Universities are being impacted “by geopolitical tensions, by political agendas, and so it’s certainly inhibiting U.S. Universities’ ability to attract the best and brightest,” Lee said.

— Christina Lu is a Reporter at Foreign Policy. Anusha Rathi is an Editorial Fellow at Foreign Policy.

[rodspurethoughts]

In an age of drones and UAVs, why balloons are having a moment

Newswise — Several unidentified flying objects were shot down over the U.S. and Canada over the weekend. Countries have long used balloons to extend intelligence collection though more sophisticated technologies have replaced them in recent years. Paul Lushenko is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and senior policy fellow at Cornell University’s Tech Policy Lab. He discusses several…

[kp777]

US vows to support ‘free media’ in Pacific as concern over China influence grows

[futurefatum]

NATO PREPARES FOR NUCLEAR STRIKE (Tone: 175)

NATO's nuclear drills near Russia and Russia's oil-for-gold shift could ignite major global conflict. Prepare for the fallout. #NuclearWar #GlobalTension

Posted September 7th, 2024 by @CanadianPrepper NATO PREPARES FOR NUCLEAR STRIKE RIGHT ON RUSSIAS BORDER! UKRAINE PREPS FOR D-DAY ABOUT THIS VIDEO: This video explores the escalating tensions between NATO and Russia, focusing on the potential for nuclear conflict. It argues that NATO is preparing for nuclear strikes near Russia’s borders, with a nuclear exercise involving Finland scheduled for…

[liberalsarecool]

The United Nations Security Council on Monday passed its first resolution calling for a Gaza cease-fire after four failed attempts. The United States abstained, allowing it to pass.

The resolution, backed by 14 nations, including China and Russia, demands an immediate cease-fire during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the release of all hostages.

Four previous cease-fire resolutions had failed, including one proposed by the United States on Friday. The U.S. abstention is likely to further strain U.S. relations with Israel amid sharp disagreements over Israel’s planned military offensive in Rafah.

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