Just a quick update in case you missed it.
 | Released on 18.08.2023 | |
 | Rights groups call for release of Chinese lawyer who’s been missing for 6 years Six years after prominent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng disappeared from his cave-dwelling home in the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi, rights groups and his family are still calling for his release. Gao's wife Geng He said she has had no communication from him, nor any update about him from the authorities since he went missing, believed detained one year after he published a memoir about being tortured in prison. Read more: rfa.org |
 | Act Now to Reduce Your China Manufacturing Risks China Manufacturing Has Changed. Outsourced manufacturing has changed dramatically in recent years. Making products in China is much more complex now than it was five years ago, due to these factors. Before doing anything with anyone in China, the typical big company secures its China trademarks for its company name, its brand name, and its logos — at least whatever names and logos it will be putting on the products and packaging it will be having made in China. For why this is smart, check out China Trademarks: Register Yours BEFORE You Do ANYTHING Else. This big company also likely required each of its potential Chinese suppliers sign a China NNN Agreement before it revealed any trade secrets. Read more: harrisbricken.com |
 | Americans are unwittingly funding China’s military expansion Wall Street firms and their proxies on Capitol Hill are hoping that most Americans will never be confronted with the question: Do you want your 401(k) to help fund the Chinese military or the genocide in Xinjiang? Most Americans would say no. That’s why President Biden’s new restrictions on investing in China are only the beginning. Last week, the Biden administration announced new restrictions on U.S private investment in several of China’s high-technology sectors. For years now, the U.S. government has been scrutinizing Chinese investments in the United States in areas that impinge on national security. Read more: washingtonpost.com |
 | I Watched the Dramatic Rise of Qin Gang — and Never Expected His Sudden Fall Until recently, Qin Gang was one of China’s most prominent American experts and influential policymakers. But after a mysterious, month-long disappearance from public view, he was unceremoniously ousted from the position of foreign minister in late July. Few Chinese officials had as rapid a rise as Qin, whom I first met three decades ago when he was a low-level functionary. Qin served as Chinese ambassador to the U.S. for 18 months before being promoted to one of China’s top foreign policy jobs just a year ago, at the age of 56. Read more: politico.com |
 | Intel Purchase Of Tower Semiconductor Terminated, China Blamed Intel’s multi billion dollar acquisition of Tower Semiconductor has been called off by both parties, after Chinese authorities reportedly failed to sign-off the deal. Intel had revealed in February 2022 that it would acquire specialised chip manufacturing expert Tower Semiconductor for approximately $5.4 billion. Tower Semiconductor specialises in manufacturing analogue integrated circuits (on 150mm, 200mm, and 300mm wafers) for a number of markets including infrastructure, automotive, mobile, medical, industrial, consumer and aerospace and defence. Read more: silicon.co.uk |
 | Beijing’s Tibetan studies seminar serves as ‘propaganda tool,’ critics say China is hosting a three-day international symposium on Tibetan studies in Beijing by bringing together more than 300 scholars from around the world. But critics say the seminar – titled “Prosperity of Tibetan Studies and the Opening of Tibet” – is nothing more than a propaganda tool meant to whitewash its efforts to erode Tibetan culture and identity. “The Chinese government’s claim of protecting Tibetan culture, language and religion is completely untrue,” said Tenzin Lekshey, spokesman for the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. Read more: rfa.org |
 | Chinese Sanctions Enforcement Just Got Even Harder The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) is the centrepiece of Washington’s response to the slew of repressive measures enacted by the Chinese state, sometimes in collaboration with private Chinese companies, against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim peoples in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region—including forced labor, mass internment, family separation, and according to some reports, forced birth control and sterilization. Signed into law in December 2021 and in effect since June 2022, the act establishes a “rebuttable presumption” that all goods produced entirely or in part in Xinjiang are implicated in forced labor and bans their import unless importers can demonstrate otherwise. Read more: foreignpolicy.com |