China news roundup / Nachrichten 2024-03-20
The US is firing back again in the great China chip wars
"The US took another couple of swings at China in the chip battle between the global superpowers.
The Biden administration is considering imposing sanctions on several Chinese semiconductor firms linked to Huawei Technologies"
--- 'Considering'. What a great swing...
Meanwhile, in the UK China lover Cameron seemingly works hard to make sanctions ineffective:
Foreign Office pauses ‘indefinitely’ sanctions on Chinese officials, MPs hear
"Internal documents show the Foreign Office has “indefinitely” paused targeted sanctions against Chinese officials"
--- Cameron's 'Zeitenwende' (turning point or sea change) seems to be as much a joke as Scholz's.
"“We do not discuss across the floor of the House our approach to sanctions, but he may rest assured that we are keeping all such matters under regular review.”"
--- 'We don't like to talk about our idiocy.'
Insurgents Launch Deadly Attack on Pakistani City Housing China-Run Port
"six people, mostly security personnel, were killed when a group of heavily armed “terrorists” stormed a government building in the southwestern city of Gwadar, home to a China-run port.
A senior security official confirmed the casualties, telling VOA that Pakistani forces “swiftly engaged” and killed “all eight assailants” in a fierce gunfight."
--- China's still a target for local terrorists. Got lucky this time because of obvious incompetence by the attackers, but I wonder how long China will look on, before it sends its own troops to Pakistan.
EU-China trade relations are in a ‘slow-motion train accident,’ business group says
"“Europe cannot just accept that strategically viable industries constituting the European industrial base are being priced out of the market,” Eskelund said. “That’s when trade becomes a security question and I think that is perhaps not fully appreciated in China just yet.”"
--- Because the EU's response has been weak all along. Even now, we cannot be sure that there will be a somewhat stronger reaction to Chinese dumping. Morons like Scholz still think they can have friendly, profitable relations with China.
"The report cited one unnamed member in advanced manufacturing as saying their company’s market share in China collapsed to nothing, down from 35%, over the course of 10 years.
“China has us in a geopolitical trap. We remain dependent on sourcing from China but we cannot sell to the market,” the unnamed executive said in the report. “We are investing elsewhere to diversify, but in practice this will take a long-time – maybe more than 10 years.”"
--- Your own fault. It was long clear what was happening with European tech companies in China: China steals/buys/copies your technology, builds up manufacturing capacity & prices you out of the market. But because you were only interested in short term profits, you ignored it.
Experts: China is sequencing Uyghur DNA for organ harvesting
"Chinese authorities are collecting genetic data from the country’s Muslim Uyghur minority as part of a forced organ-transplant program marketed to Muslim medical tourists from Gulf states, experts told a U.S. congressional committee hearing on Wednesday.
The medical tourists are willing to pay premiums for organs from fellow Muslims who abstain from pork and alcohol
[...] While China’s organ harvesting industry began a decade ago using adherents of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, he said, it switched focus to Uyghurs and other Muslims interned in Xinjiang around 2017 due to demand from Middle Eastern medical tourists.
[...] medical personnel started to use portable “ECMO machines,” which can oxygenate an incapacitated person and their organs for hours. That allowed them to keep Uyghurs in a state of brain-dead “suspended animation” for long enough to be transported east for transplants to paying foreign customers.
The machines, he said, also allowed surgeons to “harvest as many as four healthy organs from a single person” instead of only one, he said, “turning a person from $100,000 into half a million or more.”"
--- Genocide industry.
Article 23: What is Hong Kong's tough new security law?
HK security law is final nail in coffin, say critics
--- China Uncensored: "Why China’s So Desperate to Keep Control Over TikTok"
--- WION: Gravitas | Gwadar Port Under Attack: Terror strikes China-operated complex in Balochistan
--- ABC News (AUS): Solomon Islands prime minister critical of democracy, praises 'Chinese-style' governance
--- ABC News (AUS): China's top diplomat Wang Yi meets Australian counterpart in Canberra
EU-Unternehmen in China zunehmend unter Druck - aber kaum wer zieht Reißleine
"Die Beziehungen zwischen Peking und Brüssel sind schwierig. Die EU verfolgt nach eigenen Angaben eine Strategie der Risikoreduzierung, jedoch ohne China explizit zu nennen: Abhängigkeiten von einzelnen Volkswirtschaften sollen verringert werden, ohne sich gänzlich abzukoppeln. Damit bildet die EU einen Kontrast zu den USA, die auch vor dem Hintergrund militärischer Spannungen eine tatsächliche Entkopplung anstreben, um China wirtschaftlich zu isolieren."
--- Quark. Auch die USA sind nach wie vor nicht an einer effektiven Entkopplung interessiert. Es geht v.a. darum, China den Zugang zu bestimmten Hochtechnologien zu erschweren.
Sicherheitsgesetz: Hongkongs Gleichschaltung mit China ist vollendet
"Die Europäische Union zeigte sich in einem Statement "besorgt um die potenziellen Folgen für Rechte und Freiheiten der Menschen in Hongkong" und um die Zukunft von "Hongkong als internationalem Handelshub". Ein Sprecher des US-Außenministeriums kritisierte das Eilverfahren und die "Uneindeutigkeit" der formulierten Straftatbestände. Der britische Außenminister David Cameron warnte vor einer "Zunahme der Selbstzensur in der gesellschaftlichen und politischen Landschaft Hongkongs". In den Ohren der kommunistischen Führung Chinas sind das die üblichen, gebetsmühlenartigen Klagen des Westens – konkrete Gegenmaßnahmen muss sie nicht fürchten."
--- Die übliche Weicheierei aus Europa. & daran wird sich so schnell auch nichts ändern.
Diese Aufforderung aus China soll US-Unternehmen ausbremsen — aber auch die USA verschärfen die Spielregeln
China: 14 Tote bei Busunfall in Autobahntunnel
