Just a quick update in case you missed it.
 | Released on 16.06.2023 | |
 | Germany takes aim at China in first national security blueprint The document prepared by Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition slammed China for putting regional stability and international security "under increasing pressure" and for disregarding human rights. "China is trying in various ways to remould the existing rules-based international order, is asserting a regionally dominant position with ever more vigour, acting time and again counter to our interests and values," the strategy paper said. Read more: france24.com |
 | Phone maker Foxconn to switch to cars as US-China tensions soar iPhone maker Foxconn is betting big on electric cars and redrawing some of its supply chains as it navigates a new era of icy Washington-Beijing relations. In an exclusive interview, chairman and boss Young Liu told the BBC what the future may hold for the Taiwanese firm. He said even as Foxconn shifts some supply chains away from China, electric vehicles (EVs) are what will drive its growth in the coming decades. Read more: bbc.com |
 | A Censored Story of the “One Child Policy” Days: When Uyghurs Adopted Abandoned Han Children Among the most popular social media among young Chinese is Zhihu, which is structured in a question-and-answer form. On February 22, a Zhihu user posted: “People often ask me if I am really from Xinjiang, because I am both of Han nationality and from Xinjiang. Mainlanders generally think that Xinjiang people are all ethnic minorities with high noses and big eyes. So I invite everyone to talk about what Xinjiang people look like in your eyes…” Read more: bitterwinter.org |
 | Americans 'Need to Be Prepared' for Chinese Cyberattacks The United States may not be resilient enough to fend off and survive Chinese attacks on its critical infrastructure should the present great power competition between Washington and Beijing evolve into an actual conflict, according to a top U.S. cyber official. U.S. officials have ramped up efforts to bolster cybersecurity for the country’s electric grid and water systems — much of them run by private companies — since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, but the head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned Monday that more precautions need to be taken in case China decides to strike. Read more: voanews.com |
 | Blinken walks a diplomatic tightrope to Beijing Nothing can stop U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing this time. Not the Chinese military’s “unsafe” moves in the South China Sea. Not a war of words over Chinese fentanyl exports. And not even the revelations of a multibillion-dollar Chinese spy base in Cuba. In a dramatic about-face over the weekend, the Biden administration reversed its denials of a Wall Street Journal report about the spy base to instead say it was not even news: The spy base, it said, had in fact been known to U.S. intelligence since the Trump administration. Read more: rfa.org |
 | The capitalists are revolting over China After marshalling Europe in its proxy war against Russia, America is now determined to repeat this success against China. Here, the consequences for Europe could be even more significant than the economic shock of the past year. Yet, despite a few grumbles from Macron and others, European leaders are largely playing along with this increasingly aggressive approach: at last week’s biannual US-EU Trade and Technology Council, both parties claimed to “see very much eye-to-eye” on the issue. Read more: unherd.com |
 | With eye on China, US and five allies condemn trade-related 'economic coercion' The United States and five of its allies on Friday condemned the use of trade practices that amount to economic coercion in a joint declaration that did not single out other countries but appeared to be aimed at China. Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand jointly released the statement with the United States, emphasizing that "trade-related economic coercion and non-market-oriented policies and practices" threatened the multi-lateral trading system and "harms relations between countries." Read more: reuters.com |