China news roundup / Nachrichten 2026-09-19/20
--- Travel time again. Service disruptions may occur.
Bessent proposes AI safety notifications in talks with China ahead of Xi-Trump meeting
"Bessent told reporters that the two sides discussed setting up a new US-China AI dialogue, with a particular emphasis on national security concerns with a notification system for common goals and common threats that would cover AI-related incidents that rise to a national security level."
--- & we definitely can trust China to be open & truthful about possible risks developing.
"The Chinese response to the US proposal was unclear with a state news agency Xinhua readout only briskly acknowledging that both sides spoke about AI."
--- As usual.
"The meeting covered other key topics, including plans to “operationalize” a process agreed in May for each side to identify potential tariff cuts on non-strategic goods, called the “Board of Trade.”"
--- Potential. Will anything come of it?
"Greer and Bessent did not mention any progress on improving the flow of critical minerals to US companies, which US officials have said are insufficient despite Beijing’s prior commitments to ease restrictions under last year’s US-China trade truce."
--- As usual. China doesn't care about commitments. Westerners don't learn that China doesn't care.
"Bessent and Greer did not provide updates on other issues that are unresolved after the May meeting in Beijing between Trump and Xi, including Chinese pledges to increase purchases of US agricultural goods by $17 billion a year and to purchase more than 200 Boeing aircraft."
--- More Chinese pledges not fulfilled. Surprise.
US military had close call after using AI for false intelligence report
"The intelligence report, circulated across the US military this spring in the midst of the war with Iran, immediately set off alarm bells: A Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program.
The US military swung into action with plans to intercept the vessel, according to four sources familiar with the episode. According to two of the sources, armed members of the US military were preparing to board the ship.
[...] It was only just before the planned operation that officials dug deeper into the report put together by a special operations command analyst and found it had been generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) — and that a chatbot the analyst had used inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying."
--- It should be general knowledge by now that AI tends to hallucinate. & that's the worrying part of the story: There are people in the US secret services who trust AI to be entirely truthful & correct. Moronic. But the media of course focus on something else:
"The report, according to one of the sources, was “entirely false.” But it also “almost started a war,” the source said. Any US operation against a Chinese vessel could have risked spiraling into an armed conflict between the two nations."
--- Bullshit. US soldiers boarding a Chinese freighter, even if warning shots were fired, would only lead to some strongly-worded protest by China. Even if said freighter would be sunk by some strange occurrence, China would not go to war over it. This is the typical fear-mongering you find in many Western media.
"The kind of “hallucination” that the tool used by the analyst in this case conjured has not been an isolated incident across the intelligence community since these tools began proliferating across government"
--- It has not been an isolated incident across AI usage, period. This is a well-known problem. Well, it should be well-known.
Hill investigates after F-35 parts diverted to Hong Kong
"A shipment of F-35 parts bound for the United States for repairs was rerouted as it transited the Pacific Ocean from Australia, according to three people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. The Pentagon confirmed the disappearance of some components."
--- Stupid. As if China had not already too much information about stealth technology.
"China has already engaged in widespread espionage on secret Pentagon programs, including the F-35.
“It's no secret that China has been aggressively trying to get F-35 data through electronic espionage, among other means,” said J.J. Gertler, a former House Armed Services Committee staff member and Congressional Research Service military aviation analyst. “But even if they already had specifications or other data about the part, possessing a real one can give them even more to go on and can verify or refine whatever they already had learned.”"
--- Exactly. So, how can this happen?
"Lockheed said in a statement it couldn’t discuss the status of shipments for security reasons but follows all U.S. regulations for shipping aircraft components.
“Our teams handle every shipment with the utmost diligence and safeguards to ensure the integrity of the F-35 program and the security of our allied partners,”"
--- Do you?
"Although the Defense Department has stepped up oversight of the F-35 supply chain in recent years, it does not account for spare parts in the pool — Lockheed does.
A Government Accountability Office report from 2023 found that more than 1 million F-35 spare parts have gone missing in the past five years."
--- Utmost diligence.
Why a new Pakistan-China border pact has irked India
"The two countries operationalised the Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission, which Pakistan described as a "significant milestone" that would deepen cooperation on border management, joint surveys, trade and people-to-people connectivity.
India reacted sharply, rejecting the move as having no legal basis, saying it did not recognise any Pakistan-China boundary involving territory it claims as Indian."
--- But, but, but ... Didn't we just recently hear of a rapprochement between China & India?
"Pakistan, he added, remained "China's secondary deterrent against India" - and Beijing's engagement with Islamabad would continue to send that message to Delhi."
--- Yep. But will the media remember, or even learn?
Philippines says Chinese ship 'rammed' government vessel in South China Sea
""At 11.04am, CCG-21585 cut across the stern of the BFAR (fisheries bureau) vessel at a distance of only about 10m."
Nine minutes later, the "Chinese vessel repeated the maneuver and this time made contact, striking the BFAR vessel", the statement shared with reporters said.
Video released on X by the Philippine Coast Guard shows the Chinese vessel near the stern of the boat and a crewmember shouting "collision", although the impact is not visible.
Jiang Lue, a spokesperson for China's coast guard, blamed the Philippine vessel for "disregarding repeated solemn warnings" and deliberately changing course to "cut across the bow of the Chinese coast guard vessel"."
--- Yeah, this evil Philippine ship just invited our coast guard to ram into its side. They wanted to be sunk to make innocent China look bad.
China keeps benchmark lending rates unchanged for 16th month in September
--- China Uncensored featured the usual weekend news variety:
--- China Uncensored: "China's Homeless Crisis"
„Hätte fast einen Krieg ausgelöst“: US‑Truppen bereiteten offenbar Angriff auf Schiff aus China vor – nach KI-Fehler
"ein Vorfall, der sich einem Bericht des US-Senders CNN zufolge in diesem Frühjahr inmitten des Krieges der USA und Israels gegen den Iran abspielte – und „fast einen Krieg ausgelöst“ haben soll, wie eine von mehreren Quellen demnach sagte.
Was genau war passiert? Dem US-Militär lag CNN zufolge ein Geheimdienstbericht vor: Ein chinesisches Schiff transportierte demnach im Nahen Osten Komponenten für Atomwaffen. In Washington fiel eine beinahe folgenschwere Entscheidung: Der Frachter sollte durch US-Truppen geentert werden, bestätigten demnach vier Quellen dem Sender. Der Einsatz war bereits angelaufen"
--- Es ist aber totale Idiotie, zu behaupten, das hätte fast einen Krieg ausgelöst. China wird keinen Krieg beginnen, nur weil US-Soldaten einen chinesischen Frachter entern.
"Der Bot fügte offenbar Informationen aus offenen Regierungsquellen zusammen und gelangte zu seiner folgenschweren Schlussfolgerung. Danach nutzte er dem Bericht zufolge KI erneut, um aus den Ergebnissen einen standardmäßigen Geheimdienstbericht zu machen, der im Militär als Grundlage von Entscheidungen gilt."
--- Hier liegt die größere Gefahr. Man verlässt sich auf die Wahrhaftigkeit & Genauigkeit von KI, obwohl man weiß - bzw. wissen sollte, dass KI zu sog. Halluzinationen neigt.
Wie geht China mit den Gefahren durch KI um?
"Chinas Ministerium für Staatssicherheit warnte diese Woche vor wachsenden Gefahren durch KI. Als eine der Hauptbedrohungen sieht es dabei nicht KI, die sich selbständig macht, sondern hochentwickelte Künstliche Intelligenz in den Händen von "feindlichen Kräften"."
--- Vor allen Dingen in den Händen feindlicher Kräfte im Inneren. Die KPCh fürchtet am meisten die eigene Bevölkerung.
"Das Misstrauen zwischen den USA und China sitzt also tief. Dass sie sich einigen könnten, die Entwicklung zu verlangsamen, hält Antonia Hmaidi von Merics für höchst unwahrscheinlich, zumal sich die Beschränkungen kaum kontrollieren ließen."
--- So sieht's aus.
US-Kampfjet F-35: Geheime F-35-Technologie ist offenbar nach Hongkong gelangt
"China ist möglicherweise an Informationen zu geheimer Technologie des US-Tarnkappenjets F-35 gekommen."
--- China ist mit Sicherheit schon vor langer Zeit an solche Informationen gekommen. Man hat ja schon eine Kopie in der Produktion. Allerdings kann man nochmal einen deutlichen Erkenntnisgewinn erzielen, wenn man das eigentliche Material untersuchen kann.
Philippinen werfen China gefährliches Ramm-Manöver vor
--- DER STANDARD: "Der Mythos von Chinas Weltherrschaft"
