Thứ Hai, 1 tháng 6, 2020

ASIA PACIFIC (AP) Czech Senate speaker plans to visit Taiwan, angering China. (Reuters) Taiwan warns off Chinese fighters which approached island. (Reuters) Taiwan eyes $1.3 billion in foreign tech investment under new scheme. (The National Interest) Why Taiwan Needs Nuclear Weapons

ASIA PACIFIC
June 1, 2020
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World

Czech Senate speaker plans to visit Taiwan, angering China

FILE - In this file photo taken Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, mayor of Prague Zdenek Hrib, left, and Taipei city mayor Ko Wen-je shake hands before signing a partnership agreement between the two cities at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic. Speaker of the upper house of the Czech Parliament Milos Vystrcil announced on Tuesday June 9, 2020, that he will visit Taiwan despite threats from China. Vystrcil said he would be accompanied by a business delegation on his visit that is preliminary scheduled to open on August 30. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File)
FILE - In this file photo taken Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, mayor of Prague Zdenek Hrib, left, and Taipei city mayor Ko Wen-je shake hands before signing a partnership agreement between the two cities at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic. Speaker of the upper house of the Czech Parliament Milos Vystrcil announced on Tuesday June 9, 2020, that he will visit Taiwan despite threats from China. Vystrcil said he would be accompanied by a business delegation on his visit that is preliminary scheduled to open on August 30. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File)

PRAGUE (AP) — The speaker of the Czech Republic's Senate announced Tuesday he will visit Taiwan despite warnings from China and a recommendation from his own government that he not take the trip.

Milos Vystrcil said he would be accompanied by a business delegation on his visit, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Aug. 30.

Vystrcil said he was also planning to meet Taiwan’s leaders, but didn’t immediately give details.

Vystrcil’s predecessor in the post, Jaroslav Kubera, was planning to travel to Taiwan before he died in January. His plans angered pro-China Czech President Milos Zeman.

A letter to Kubera from the Chinese Embassy in Prague warned him against going on the trip, saying the visit would have negatives consequences for future economic relations between China and the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic has established informal relations with Taiwan but recognizes the one-China principle — the notion that Taiwan belongs to Communist Party-ruled China.

Vystrcil said China's pressure, including a warning from the Chinese Embassy against congratulating Taiwan's pro-independence President Tsai Ing-wen on her re-election, contributed to his decision to travel to the island.

“The People's Republic of China believes it has a right to tell us what to do,” Vystrcil said. He said the Czech Republic will benefit from his trip.

Taiwan is an important business partner for the Czech Republic and has invested more in the Czech economy than mainland China.

In a separate development condemned by China, the Czech capital of Prague signed in January a partnership agreement with Taiwan's capital, Taipei, three months after canceling a similar deal with Beijing.

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World

Taiwan warns off Chinese fighters which approached island

Reuters

https://www.yahoo.com/news/taiwan-says-warns-off-chinese-045319761.html

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's air force warned off several Chinese fighter jets that briefly entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone to its southwest on Tuesday, the defence ministry said.

The Su-30 fighters, some of China's most advanced jets, were given verbal warnings to leave and Taiwanese air force jets "drove away" the intruders, ministry added.

Taiwan has complained that China, which claims the democratic island as its own, has stepped up military activities in recent months, menacing Taiwan even as the world deals with the coronavirus pandemic.

China says such exercises are nothing unusual.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. One of China's most senior generals last month said China would attack if there was no other way of stopping Taiwan becoming independent.

China is deeply suspicious of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, whom it accuses of being a separatist bent on declaring formal independence. Tsai says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name.

The United States has stepped up its military activities near the island too, with semi-regular navy voyages through the narrow Taiwan Strait.

A U.S. C-40A, a military version of the Boeing 737, had entered Taiwanese air space with permission, though it did not land at any Taiwanese airports, Taiwan's Defence Ministry said in a separate statement on Tuesday.

The U.S. aircraft took off from Japan's Okinawa island, where there is a major U.S. air base, and flew over northern and western Taiwan on its way to Southeast Asia, Taiwanese media reported.

While Washington and Taipei have no formal diplomatic ties, the United States is Taiwan's strongest international supporter and main arms supplier, becoming another source of U.S.-China tension.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Editing by Tom Hogue and Stephen Coates)

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World

Taiwan eyes $1.3 billion in foreign tech investment under new scheme

Reuters
 General view of Taipei city during sunset hour

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan hopes a new programme will attract T$40 billion ($1.34 billion) of research and development investment by foreign tech companies, creating more than 6,300 jobs a year, the government said on Thursday.
Taipei will spend more than T$10 billion in subsidies over the next seven years to attract the investment, Lin Chuan-neng, the island's vice minister of economic affairs, said on Thursday.
"We will target three investment in three areas, which are 5G, artificial intelligence and semiconductors," Lin told a news conference in Taipei.
"We hope to get them to Taiwan to do research and development," he added. "We hope to boost related supply chains in Taiwan."
The export-reliant island is home to tech behemoths like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd <2330.TW>, the world's biggest contract chipmaker and supplier to U.S. tech giants such as Apple Inc <AAPL.O>.
Lin said the government wants to turn Taiwan into a "global hub for high technology" under the programme, in a bid to "seize the opportunity" amid a global reshuffle of the technology supply chain following U.S.-China trade tensions.
Taiwan's government is in talks with international companies for future investments, Lin added, declining to give details.
($1=29.8960 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Yimou Lee; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Gerry Doyle)
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World

Why Taiwan Needs Nuclear Weapons

Michael Rubin
The National Interest
Chinese President Xi Jinping is on the warpath. He has abrogated the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration which guaranteed Hong Kong’s special status more than a quarter-century early. He has precipitated the worst military crisis with India since the 1962 Sino-India War. His repression and incarceration of the Uighur minority is on a scale far greater than what happened during the Balkan wars at the end of the 20th century. China’s artificial island-building in the South China Sea and its farcical and ahistorical claims to the “Nine-Dash Line” represent a land grab against the Philippines and the theft of maritime resources against other regional states.
Now, Chinese officials are again signaling they may attack Taiwan. On Friday, Li Zuocheng, chief of the Joint Staff Department and member of the Central Military Commission, promised to “resolutely smash any separatist plots or actions.” He added, “We do not promise to abandon the use of force, and reserve the option to take all necessary measures, to stabilize and control the situation in the Taiwan Strait.” What Li sees as “separatist plots or actions,” the Taiwanese might call popular sovereignty and the exercise of democracy. After all, Taiwanese—both those indigenous to the island and those who are more recent immigrants—have a very different narrative, one rooted more in history. They realize that while Chinese officials have long claimed the island nation as an indivisible part of China, historically and with the exception of just a few decades over the course of centuries, Taiwan has been distinct and its own entity. Any visitor to Taiwan can observe this the second they leave the airport.
Authorities in Taiwan cannot afford to take Chinese threats lightly. They recognize that the fact that Western democracies and regional Asian states have offered little more than rhetoric in response to Chinese aggression only emboldens Beijing and makes it more likely the fact that Chinese ‘salami-slicing’ will continue. And while the U.S. Navy will continue to traverse the South China Sea to demonstrate its commitment to maintain freedom of passage in international waters, the Pentagon is simply not prepared to risk war with China to counter the occupation of the Scarborough Shoal or Mischief Reef, let alone the Penghu islands or the Taiwanese mainland.
With communist authorities in China openly and gleefully shredding the post-World War II liberal order, it may be time for the United States and Taiwan to show Beijing the dangers of doing so by allowing Taiwan to become a nuclear weapons power.
The Clinton administration popularized the term “rogue regime” as a state that promoted terrorism or acted aggressively toward its neighbors but for political scientists, the origin of the concept was different. In 1977, for example, political scientist Richard K. Betts spoke wrote about nuclear ambitions among paranoid, pygmy, and pariah states. He defined both Israel and Taiwan as pariah states, not as a moral judgment, but rather because neighboring and regional states posed existential challenges to their national status. Two years later, the New York Times wrote about Israel, Taiwan, and South Africa as “nuclear outcasts” because they might require nuclear weapons to deter existential challenges.
While Israel has never signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and so is not governed by its constraints, Taiwan’s nuclear program was in violation of its treaty obligations. In 1968, Taiwan—then recognized at the United Nations—as the legitimate government of China has signed the NPT and was a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Officially, when Washington and the United Nations shifted recognition of China from Taipei to Beijing, the United States and Taiwan agreed that Taiwan would continue to abide by the NPT. As Taiwan nevertheless quietly pursued a nuclear capability, the Clinton administration acted covertly to sabotage Taiwanese ambitions.
In hindsight, that was a mistake. If the Trump administration wishes to push back on Xi’s aggression, it is time to reconsider the interpretation of Taiwan’s NPT commitments, both in Washington and Taipei. After all, if the international community will not uphold its obligations to Taiwan, then Taiwan should not bend over backward to preserve an order in which the People’s Republic of China is deliberately ending.
Should Taiwan start from scratch and indigenously build its program, it might precipitate further communist Chinese aggression. But, if Taiwan was gifted medium-range nuclear weapons which were placed under its control, it would both acquire a sufficient deterrent in order to maintain stability if not peace across the Taiwan Strait and absolve the United States of the need to deploy multiple carrier groups to the region should communist China attack the only remaining free and democratic Chinese republic.
Now is the time for hard decisions in Washington. If China digests Taiwan as it has Hong Kong, it is unlikely it will simply be satiated. As China faces its own economic turmoil, Xi can put forward baseless claims as fact and encroach further in Southeast Asia, the East China Sea, and the Pacific. And while Taiwan’s membership in the nuclear weapons club will be a blow to the spirit of the NPT, no country should be expected to sacrifice the freedom of 24 million people to preserve order and a system in which the international community lets Beijing deconstruct with ease.
Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). You can follow him on Twitter: @mrubin1971.

Read the original article.

US NEWS (AP) Trump OKs sanctions against international tribunal employees. (Time) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Slams China's 'Coercive Bullying Tactics' Against the U.K. (Business Insider) The UK steps up its fight with China by preparing tough new laws to prevent hostile takeovers of British firms. (The National Interest) We Cannot Forget the Massacre At Tiananmen Square—China Is Going Back Down That Path. (Reuters) Exclusive: U.S. to impose restrictions on additional Chinese media outlets - sources. (Reuters) New U.S. restrictions on 33 Chinese firms and institutions take effect June 5. (NBC News) New U.S. ban on Chinese airlines hurts Chinese students who were already struggling to get home. (Reuters) Russia not welcome at G7, Canada's Trudeau says

US NEWS
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World

Trump OKs sanctions against international tribunal employees

Attorney General William Barr speaks from behind a teleprompter as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens, during a joint briefing, Thursday, June 11, 2020 at the State Department in Washington, on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump aimed at the International Criminal Court. Trump has lobbed a broadside attack against the International Criminal Court. He's authorizing economic sanctions and travel restrictions against court workers directly involved in investigating American troops and intelligence officials for possible war crimes in Afghanistan without U.S. consent. The executive order Trump signed on Thursday marks his administration’s latest attack against international organizations, treaties and agreements that do not hew to its policies. (Yuri Gripas/Pool via AP)

US International Court

Attorney General William Barr speaks from behind a teleprompter as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens, during a joint briefing, Thursday, June 11, 2020 at the State Department in Washington, on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump aimed at the International Criminal Court. Trump has lobbed a broadside attack against the International Criminal Court. He's authorizing economic sanctions and travel restrictions against court workers directly involved in investigating American troops and intelligence officials for possible war crimes in Afghanistan without U.S. consent. The executive order Trump signed on Thursday marks his administration’s latest attack against international organizations, treaties and agreements that do not hew to its policies. (Yuri Gripas/Pool via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lobbed a broadside attack Thursday against the International Criminal Court by authorizing economic sanctions and travel restrictions against court workers involved in investigating American troops and intelligence officials and those of allied nations, including Israel, for possible war crimes in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Trump's executive order marked his administration’s latest attack against international organizations, treaties and agreements that don’t hew to its policies. It would block the financial assets of court employees and bar those employees and their immediate relatives from entering the United States.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced The Hague-based tribunal as a “kangaroo court” that has been unsuccessful and inefficient in its mandate to prosecute war crimes. He said that the U.S. would punish the ICC employees for any investigation or prosecution of Americans in Afghanistan and added that they could also be banned for prosecuting Israelis for alleged abuses against Palestinians.

Pompeo's comments were echoed by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Attorney General Wiliiam Barr and national security adviser Robert O'Brien, who spoke at a State Department announcement of the new measures. Barr also announced that the U.S. would investigate possible corruption within the ICC hierarchy that he said raised suspicions that Russia and other adversaries could be interfering in the investigatory process.

None of the four men took questions from reporters at the event.

The Hague-based court was created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes and crimes of humanity and genocide in areas where perpetrators might not otherwise face justice. It has 123 state parties that recognize its jurisdiction.

Human rights groups deplored the Trump administration’s move.

“The Trump administration’s latest action paves the way for imposing sanctions against ICC officials and demonstrates contempt for the global rule of law,” said Andrea Prasow, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch. “This assault on the ICC is an effort to block victims of serious crimes whether in Afghanistan, Israel or Palestine from seeing justice. Countries that support international justice should publicly oppose this blatant attempt at obstruction.”

Thursday's announcement is the latest action that puts the administration at odds with allies in Europe and elsewhere. Since taking office, Trump has withdrawn from the Paris climate accord, the Iran nuclear deal and two arms control treaties with Russia. He has pulled the U.S. out of the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, threatened to leave the International Postal Union and announced an end to cooperation with the World Health Organization.

Unlike those treaties and agreements, though, the United States has never been a member of the International Criminal Court. Administrations of both parties have been concerned about the potential for political prosecutions of American troops and officials for alleged war crimes and other atrocities.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Trump's order “is a matter of serious concern,” describing the European Union nations as “steadfast supporters of the International Criminal Court.”

“The court has been playing a key role in providing international justice and addressing the gravest international crimes," he said. “It is a key factor in bringing justice and peace. It must be respected and supported by all nations.”

The executive order authorizes the secretary of state, in consultation with the Treasury secretary, to block financial assets within U.S. jurisdiction of court personnel who directly engage in investigating, harassing or detaining U.S. personnel. The order authorizes the secretary of state to block court officials and their family members involved in the investigations from entering the United States. The ICC-related travel restrictions go beyond what the State Department issued last year.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement that, despite repeated calls by the United States and its allies, the ICC has not embraced reform. She alleged the court continues to pursue politically motivated investigations against the U.S. and its partners, including Israel.

“We are concerned that adversary nations are manipulating the International Criminal Court by encouraging these allegations against United States personnel,” McEnany said. “Further, we have strong reason to believe there is corruption and misconduct at the highest levels of the International Criminal Court office of the prosecutor, calling into question the integrity of its investigation into American service members.”

The U.S. has extracted pledges from most of the court’s members that they will not seek such prosecutions and risk losing U.S. military and other assistance.

However, ICC prosecutors have shown a willingness to press ahead with investigations into U.S. service members and earlier this year launched one that drew swift U.S. condemnation.

Last year, after then-national security adviser John Bolton threatened ICC employees with sanctions if they went forward with prosecutions of U.S. or allied troops, including from Israel. Pompeo then revoked the visa of the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda. Bensouda had asked ICC judges to open an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan that could have involved Americans. The judges initially rejected the request, but the denial was overturned after Bensouda appealed the decision and the investigation was authorized in March.

The appellate ruling marked the first time the court’s prosecutor has been cleared to investigate U.S. forces, and it set the global tribunal on a collision course with the Trump administration. Bensouda pledged to carry out an independent and impartial investigation and called for full support and cooperation from all parties. Pompeo called the decision “a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body.”

The case involves allegations of war crimes committed by Afghan national security forces, Taliban and Haqqani network militants, as well as U.S. forces and intelligence officials in Afghanistan since May 2003. Bensouda say there’s information that members of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies “committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence.”

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Time

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Slams China's 'Coercive Bullying Tactics' Against the U.K.

Amy Gunia
Time

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed the Chinese government Tuesday for what he called “coercive bullying tactics” against the United Kingdom.

Pompeo referred to Beijing’s reported threats to punish the London-based bank HSBC and to break commitments to build nuclear plants in the U.K. if Chinese telecoms giant Huawei is not allowed to build the country’s 5G networks.

“Free nations deal in true friendship and desire mutual prosperity, not political and corporate kowtows,” he said in a statement.

He added that the Chinese Communist Party’s “browbeating” of HSBC “should serve as a cautionary tale.” Last week, the bank’s Asia-Pacific CEO, Peter Wong, a member of China’s top political advisory body, signed a petition supporting a controversial national security law that Beijing plans to enact in Hong Kong following a year of anti-government protests in the semiautonomous territory.

“That show of fealty seems to have earned HSBC little respect in Beijing, which continues to use the bank’s business in China as political leverage against London,” Pompeo said.

HSBC, which is headquartered in London but has deep roots in Hong Kong, did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

Pompeo said that the U.S. stands ready to help the U.K. with building nuclear plants and developing 5G solutions. “Beijing’s aggressive behavior shows why countries should avoid economic overreliance on China,” he said.

Tensions have been ratcheting up between Washington and Beijing in recent months over the coronavirus outbreak and Beijng’s actions in Hong Kong. In late May, Pompeo said that Hong Kong no longer exercises the high degree of autonomy it was promised for 50 years after retroceding to China in 1997. His announcement came after Beijing decided to bypass Hong Kong’s legislature to impose the sweeping new national security legislation.

In May, Washington released a major China policy document that argues 40 years of U.S. engagement with China has failed to produce the “citizen-centric, free and open rules-based order” the U.S. had hoped it would. The document announced that the U.S. would take a “competitive approach” to China “based on a clear-eyed assessment of the CCP’s intentions and actions.”

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World

The UK steps up its fight with China by preparing tough new laws to prevent hostile takeovers of British firms

tcolson@businessinsider.com (Thomas Colson)
Business Insider
  • The UK risks further escalating tensions with China by preparing tough new laws to prevent takeovers of British firms.

  • Boris Johnson is reportedly planning new rules which make it compulsory for British firms to report attempted takeovers that could create risks to national security.

  • The move comes amid growing tensions between London and Beijing over COVID-19 and Huawei.

  • China is also angered by Johnson's pledge to offer millions of Hong Kong residents extended UK visas.

  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The UK is stepping up its action against China by preparing tough new laws to prevent takeovers of British firms.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson risks putting more strain on London's relationship with Beijing by preparing legislation to prevent foreign takeovers that are deemed to pose a risk to UK national security.

Johnson is pushing for new rules which make it compulsory for British firms to report attempted takeovers that could create risks to national security, the Times of London newspaper reported.

The new legislation, which could be tabled within weeks, comes amid increasing concerns about China's growing influence in Britain and fears that UK firms could find themselves exposed to aggressive Chinese takeover bids during the expected coronavirus-induced recession.

Earlier this year, the UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee launched an emergency inquiry into an apparent Chinese attempt to take control of AI firm Imagination Technologies, based in southern England.

The new takeover laws proposed by Johnson would require a UK business to declare when a company tries to buy more than 25% of their shares, or to acquire "significant" influence, to purchase assets, or intellectual property.

The new laws would make it a criminal offence for UK companies to fail to report such information, and company directors could be either jailed or fined hundreds of thousands of pounds, the report said.

Firms would have to report any such takeover if there was a risk that it could allow a company or a hostile state the power to undermine British national security by disrupting services or carry out espionage.

Tensions between London and Beijing have increased in recent months amid criticism of how China handled the outbreak of the coronavirus. 

Johnson is under growing pressure from Members of Parliament in his Conservative party to loosen ties with Beijing.

A number of Conservative MPs in April set up a new parliamentary bloc called the "China Research Group," which is pressuring Johnson's Conservative government to reset UK ties with China.

The prime minister is expected to reduce the role of Huawei in building Britain's 5G network amid concerns about espionage and national security, after striking a contentious deal with the telecomms firm earlier this year.

Johnson reportedly has a long-term ambition of forming an alliance with the US, Germany, and other nations, that together would develop technology and reduce their dependence on Chinese technology.

China has also been angered by the UK plan to offer millions of Hong Kong residents extended visas to live in the UK if Beijing pressed ahead with contentious new national security laws on the semiautonomous island.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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World

We Cannot Forget the Massacre At Tiananmen Square—China Is Going Back Down That Path

Olivia Enos
The National Interest
Click here to read the full original article.

The image from June 5, 1989, is etched in our minds.

One man.

Four tanks.

This iconic image has become a symbol of the resilience of the Chinese people during the Tiananmen Square massacre. Hundreds to thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators were killed by communist troops from June 3 to June 5, 1989.

It is a visual representation of the Chinese people’s fight for freedom, and the great lengths that the Chinese government will go to in order to quash it.

This June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests is especially ominous.

It comes during the growing collapse of the “one country, two systems” framework that preserved liberty and prosperity in Hong Kong since 1997. Vigils commemorating the events of Tiananmen Square have even been outlawed.

It’s being commemorated against the backdrop of the Chinese Communist Party’s gross mishandling of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s happening while at least 1 million Uighurs are languishing in political reeducation facilities in China’s Xinjiang region. Other religious minorities face persecution as well.

The oppression of the Chinese people is evident. Perhaps there has been no greater threat to freedom in China since Mao than Xi Jinping.

Xi has further tightened his grip on the levers of control. Widespread use of surveillance tracks ordinary Chinese citizens’ every move. Tracking is deployed for the purpose of measuring a person’s “social credit” to determine how well their personal behavior aligns with the Chinese Communist Party’s priorities.

The party is also undertaking efforts to Sinicize religion, making Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and all other religions conform to Chinese characteristics—replacing the sacred with the secular.

All private life is considered public, therefore falling under the party’s control. This we know well from the now famous whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang.

His attempts to sound the alarm about the novel coronavirus resulted in him being called in for questioning by Chinese authorities, being forced to recant his statement, and eventually, succumbing to death by the very virus he tried to alert the public about.

It is for the Chinese people that we commemorate the anniversary of Tiananmen Square. We mark their fight for freedom—recognizing it as a battle that has not yet been won. We remember their plight because it is a poignant reminder that freedom is not free and that it is absolutely worth fighting for and defending where possible.

There is a battle over values being waged in Asia. One model suppresses and undermines freedom while the other seeks to preserve and promote it. One system blurs the lines between public and private, while the other keeps those lines distinct. One embraces authoritarianism where the other embraces liberty.

The U.S. must stand on the side of values. That means standing unwaveringly with the people of China wherever freedom is under threat—whether in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, or in the People’s Republic of China.

This article by Olivia Enos first appeared in The Daily Signal on June 3, 2020.

Image: Tank Man. Flickr/Mike Licht. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).

Click here to read the full original article.

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World

UK to announce laws to prevent foreign takeovers posing national security risk - Times

Reuters
Prime Minister's Questions at House of Commons in London
Prime Minister's Questions at House of Commons in London

(Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is preparing to announce tough laws to prevent foreign takeovers that pose risks to national security amid growing concern about the influence of China, The Times newspaper reported.

The prime minister is said to be pressing for legislation to make it mandatory for companies to report attempted takeovers which could give rise to security risks, backed by the threat of criminal sanctions, according to the newspaper.

Companies that fail to report takeovers or ignore conditions imposed by the UK government after takeovers could see their directors jailed, disqualified or fined, the newspaper said.

The approach, which is being pushed by the prime minister's adviser Dominic Cummings, is said to have the support of finance minister Rishi Sunak and will require businesses to declare when a foreign company tries to buy more than 25% of shares, purchase assets or intellectual property, the Times said.

The prime minister also wants academic partnerships and research projects to be included under the rules, the newspaper added.

The legislation, which The Times said could be tabled within weeks, comes at a time of increased tension between Britain and China, after the country designated Huawei a "high-risk vendor" in January and expressed concern over Beijing's handling of the situation in Hong Kong.

Johnson has also come under pressure from the United States and lawmakers from his own party, who have argued that Huawei's equipment could be used by Beijing for spying, which the Chinese telecom giant has repeatedly denied.

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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World

Exclusive: U.S. to impose restrictions on additional Chinese media outlets - sources

Patricia Zengerle, Matt Spetalnick, Humeyra Pamuk and David Brunnstrom
Reuters

By Patricia Zengerle, Matt Spetalnick, Humeyra Pamuk and David Brunnstrom

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-u-designate-additional-chinese-185154018.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is expected to designate at least four additional state-run Chinese media outlets as foreign embassies, increasing restrictions on their operations on American soil, three people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The action by the State Department, sure to further inflame U.S.-China tensions, could come as soon as Thursday, the sources told Reuters. It follows President Donald Trump's announcement on Friday of retaliatory measures against Beijing over its tightened grip on Hong Kong.

The designations are expected to include China Central Television (CCTV), the top state-owned network, and China News Service, the country's second-largest state-owned news agency, two sources said on condition of anonymity.

They would be added to five Chinese outlets placed under restrictions in February over U.S. allegations they were used by China and its Communist rulers to spread propaganda.

Like the others, they will be required to register their employees and U.S. properties with the State Department, similar to rules covering embassies and other diplomatic missions.

Though three sources said the announcement was on track for as early as Thursday, a fourth did not rule out a delay.

The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment. There also was no response from the Chinese embassy in Washington.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have spiked, as Trump and his aides have complained about China's early handling of the coronavirus outbreak and its treatment of Hong Kong, which has enjoyed special U.S. treatment as a global financial center.

Chinese state media has been reveling over chaotic race-related protests in the United States and highlighting Trump's threat to use troops, even as the anniversary looms of its own bloody military crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square 31 years ago.


HONG KONG TENSIONS

Trump on Friday ordered his administration to begin the process of eliminating special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong on the grounds it no longer had enough autonomy, but stopped short of calling an immediate end to former British colony's privileges.

China's state-run Global Times newspaper called Trump's announcement "recklessly arbitrary."

The United States and China have clashed in recent months over journalists working in each other's countries.

Michael McCaul, top Republican on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “These are Chinese Communist Party propaganda outlets that peddle dangerous information to grow the Party’s power -- not report the news."

In February, the Trump administration said it would treat five major media entities with U.S. operations the same as embassies: Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily Distribution Corp. and Hai Tian Development USA, Inc.

In March, Washington said it was slashing the number of journalists allowed to work at U.S. offices of major Chinese media outlets to 100 from 160 due to Beijing's "long-standing intimidation and harassment of journalists."

In response, China said it was revoking accreditations of American correspondents with the New York Times, News Corp's Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post whose credentials expire by the end of 2020.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Humeyra Pamuk, Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom, Editing by Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)

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Business

New U.S. restrictions on 33 Chinese firms and institutions take effect June 5

David Shepardson and Karen Freifeld
Reuters

By David Shepardson and Karen Freifeld

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-restrictions-33-chinese-firms-162134191.html

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S Commerce Department said on Wednesday that new restrictions on 33 Chinese firms and institutions it announced last month will take effect Friday.

The agency has added the companies and institutions to an economic blacklist, accusing them of helping China spy on its minority Muslim Uighur population in Xinjiang or because of alleged ties to weapons of mass destruction and China's military.

China's foreign ministry said last month it deplored and firmly opposed U.S. sanctions over Xinjiang, calling it a purely internal affair for China.

The move will restrict the sales of U.S. goods to the companies and institutions on the list, as well as certain items made abroad with U.S. content or technology. Companies can apply for licenses to make the sales, but they must overcome a presumption of denial.

Seven companies and two institutions were listed for being "complicit in human rights violations and abuses committed in China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs" and others, the Commerce Department said.

Two dozen other companies, government institutions and commercial organizations were added over Washington allegations that they supported procurement of items for use by the Chinese military.

The blacklisted companies focus on artificial intelligence and facial recognition, markets in which U.S. chip companies such as Nvidia Corp <NVDA.O> and Intel Corp <INTC.O> have been heavily investing.

The new listings follow a similar October 2019 action, when the Department of Commerce added 28 Chinese public security bureaus and companies - including some of China's top artificial intelligence startups and video surveillance company Hikvision <002415.SZ> - to a U.S. trade blacklist.

The actions follow the same blueprint used by Washington in its attempt to limit the influence of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] for what it says are national security reasons. Last month, the Department of Commerce took action to try to further cut off Huawei's access to U.S. chipmakers.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Rosalba O'Brien)


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World

New U.S. ban on Chinese airlines hurts Chinese students who were already struggling to get home

Didi Martinez
NBC News

https://www.yahoo.com/news/department-transportation-ban-leaves-fate-191228204.html

A new Department of Transportation order banning Chinese airlines from flying to and from the U.S. is an added hardship for thousands of Chinese students in the U.S. who were already struggling to get back home due to their own government’s cap on international flights.

The U.S. DOT order, posted Wednesday on a federal website, is scheduled to take effect on June 16. Several Chinese students in New York tell NBC News that previous Chinese regulations limiting the number of flights into China because of the coronavirus pandemic have already had them scrambling for weeks to find flights home with little success. There are more than 400,000 Chinese students at U.S. universities.

“I know the relationships between the two countries are kind of frayed on multiple fronts, but you know, it’s your students, you’ve got to take care of us,” said Jiang Li, a former New York University student who has been trying to book a flight back to China since April.

Li, 30, said he was initially angry when he first heard of the decision Wednesday morning, but is hopeful that an agreement will be reached to resume flights later this month.

Li had hoped that the summer after his graduation would be the “perfect opportunity” to spend time with his family. “I have not spent more than two weeks with my family at a time,” said Li.

In March, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) drastically reduced the number of international flights through its so-called “Five One” policy. Under the policy, foreign airlines can only fly one route into China and Chinese domestic airlines only one route out to any country -- both with no more than one weekly flight. The aviation authority also limited the number of passengers on each plane to no more than 75 percent capacity.

The policy created a dilemma for Chinese students: finish the semester here in the U.S. and risk being stranded or immediately buy a ticket home.

“I was pretty stressed, especially when they first announced the limited flights,” said Owen, 28, who was finishing his master of business administration at NYU. “I was debating whether I should just leave the country ASAP.”

Owen, who didn’t want his last name used, chose to stay in the U.S. to finish his degree. But the decision came at a price, as tickets back to China have become increasingly hard to obtain.

According to aviation analytics firm OAG, the number of flights into China dropped from 1,340 in January to 69 in April. Before Wednesday’s announcement, the number of scheduled flights from the U.S. to China for June 2020 was about 79 flights, compared to 1,524 for June 2019.

Given the estimated 410,000 Chinese students in the U.S., according to April figures from China’s Ministry of Education, the lack of commercial airline tickets has created a market that cannot keep up with consumer demand.

In Owen’s case, he purchased multiple tickets back to China in hopes that one of the flights would not get cancelled.

“I have to admit that it was a very draining process to have to constantly checking on the available tickets,” Owen, who showed NBC News the more than $20,000 worth of transactions he made to purchase plane tickets. “You have to bet on multiple tickets to be able to go back to China.”

None of those tickets worked, but he was able to return to China through a last-minute flight on Monday.

Others have not yet been as lucky.

Jenny Zhuang, a rising senior from NYU, says she tried to get back to China by buying tickets from a friend. Those tickets didn’t pan out, but by Tuesday night, she was already packing for a flight she was hoping to obtain through a ticket transfer.

“There's an uncertainty in it, but I still have to prepare for that,” the 21-year-old said.

CAAC has defended its policy to restrict flights as an effort to contain the risk of importing coronavirus infections.

Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, addressed questions about CAAC’s policy and its impact on students abroad in a May 27 press conference. He noted that the Chinese government had chartered planes to bring its citizens home and had pledged “to protect and assist Chinese nationals wherever they are.”

But China’s Foreign Ministry has also used its platform to address reports of growing tension between Chinese and U.S. transportation authorities -- a reality that led to Wednesday’s U.S. ban on Chinese airlines.

“China opposes any possible U.S. disruption of or restriction on Chinese airlines' normal passenger flight operations,” Lijian said in response to a May 22 U.S. DOT order for certain Chinese airlines to file schedules and flight details with the U.S. government.

According to the DOT, this earlier order was issued because of “the failure of the Government of the People’s Republic of China to permit U.S. carriers to exercise the full extent of their bilateral right to conduct scheduled passenger air services to China.”

At the time, the DOT had said that Delta and United Airlines had submitted applications to the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) to resume flights in June.

Delta told NBC News that its applications to CAAC have not been approved.

“We support and appreciate the U.S. government’s actions to enforce our rights and ensure fairness,” Delta said in a statement about Wednesday’s DOT order.

When asked about their CAAC applications to resume flights, United Airlines told NBC News that it is “not currently operating passenger flights between the U.S. and China.”

On Wednesday, in announcing its new restrictions on Chinese airlines, the U.S. DOT said, “[W]e continue to find that the Government of China has, over the objections of the U.S. Government, impaired the operating rights of U.S. carriers and denied U.S. air carriers the fair and equal opportunity to exercise their operating rights under the agreement.”

The department said the Chinese airline suspension is intended to “restore a competitive balance and fair and equal opportunity among U.S. and Chinese air carriers.”

CAAC and the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., also did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Department of Transportation’s decision

Though China has continued to schedule chartered flights home for its citizens, Zhuang and Li say competition for these flights had already been fierce and does not make up for the shortage of commercial flight options.

“The government is sending way fewer flights than we actually need to get our students back,” Zhuang, who signed up for a charter flight, said.

Zhuang says she understands the reasoning behind the CAAC policy, but that for her family in Shenzhen, China, the waiting has been difficult.

“My father has experienced a mental breakdown or something,” Zhuang said. “He almost cried because he said he wants me to go back but why couldn't I? And I had to just tell him, ‘I'm okay. I'm safe here.’”

Similarly, Li, who says he wants to be reunited with his family in Hunan Province, stood outside the Chinese Consulate in New York with a sign that read, “My mom is waiting for me for dinner at home.” Li says he is frustrated with the current situation because his citizenship alone should enable him to return.

“I love my country,” he said. “And that's why I didn't choose to stay here.”

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World

Russia not welcome at G7, Canada's Trudeau says

Steve Scherer
Reuters

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada does not support Russia's return to the Group of Seven, proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend, because Moscow continues to flout international law, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday.
"Russia was excluded from the G7 after it invaded Crimea a number of years ago, and its continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7, and it will continue to remain out," Trudeau said during his daily news conference.
Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until at least September and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.
On Saturday Trump said the G7, which groups the world's most advanced economies, was a "very outdated group of countries" in its current format.
When asked if he would attend the G7 if Russian President Vladimir Putin came, Trudeau did not answer, saying that there were still "many discussions" needed before the meeting.
But he did say the G20 group, which includes Russia, was a forum that included countries "we don't necessarily have great relations with".
"The G7 has always been a place for frank conversations with allies and friends who share so much. That's certainly what I'm hoping to continue to see," Trudeau said.
Trump spoke to Putin on Monday and informed him about his plans to hold an expanded G7 meeting later this year, the Kremlin said on Monday.
Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 in 2014 when Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, was U.S. president, after Moscow annexed the Crimea region from Ukraine. Russia still holds the territory, and various G7 governments have rebuffed previous calls from Trump to re-admit Moscow.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer, Editing by Franklin Paul and Tom Brown)

Thứ Sáu, 29 tháng 5, 2020

US NEWS (AFP) Trump announces probe of Chinese companies listed in US. (Reuters) Trump orders his administration to begin eliminating Hong Kong privileges. (The Wrap) Trump Cuts US Ties to World Health Organization, Ends Briefing Without Taking Questions. (Reuters) U.S. planning to cancel visas of Chinese graduate students: sources. (AP) Chinese grad students may be next hit by US-China tensions

 US NEWS
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Business

Trump announces probe of Chinese companies listed in US

AFP
US President Donald Trump said his administration would be looking into the practices of Chinese comapnies listed on US exchanges, of which there are around 156 (AFP Photo/MANDEL NGAN)
US President Donald Trump said his administration would be looking into the practices of Chinese comapnies listed on US exchanges, of which there are around 156 (AFP Photo/MANDEL NGAN)

US President Donald Trump on Friday ordered a probe into the actions of Chinese companies listed on American financial markets as tensions flared anew between the world's two biggest economies.

The announcement followed Beijing's move to implement a new security law on semi-autonomous Hong Kong that critics say would stifle freedom, as well as with Trump's claims that China obfuscated the origins of the coronavirus that has killed more than 100,000 people in the United States.

"I'm instructing my presidential working group on financial markets to study the differing practices of Chinese companies listed on the US financial markets with the goal of protecting American investors," Trump said, without providing details on what steps his administration might take.

"Investment firms should not be subjecting clients to the hidden and undue risks associated with financing Chinese companies that do not play by the same rules. Americans are entitled to fairness and transparency," he added.

As of February 2019, 156 Chinese companies with a market capitalization of $1.2 trillion were listed on US markets, at least 11 of which were state-owned, according to the Congressionally-mandated US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Among the largest were e-commerce giant Alibaba, China's largest oil producer PetroChina and Sinopec, the world's largest oil refiner.

Starbucks competitor Luckin Coffee debuted on Nasdaq last year with a market value of about $4 billion, but was asked to de-listed earlier this month after a massive fraud scandal.

The announcement of the review came as Trump said he would be suspending the entry of certain Chinese citizens and reviewing US relations with Hong Kong, which saw seven months of huge and sometimes-violent pro-democracy protests last year.


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World

Trump orders his administration to begin eliminating Hong Kong privileges

Reuters

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-tells-administration-begin-process-191203438.html

U.S. President Trump holds news conference on China at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Trump holds news conference on China at the White House in Washington

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he was directing his administration to begin the process of eliminating special treatment for Hong Kong, in response to China's plans to impose new security legislation in the territory.

Trump made the announcement at a White House news conference, saying China had broken its word over Hong Kong's autonomy. He said its move against Hong Kong was a tragedy for the people of Hong Kong, China and the world.

"We will take action to revoke Hong Kong's preferential treatment," he said, adding that the United States would also impose sanctions on individuals seen as responsible for smothering Hong Kong's autonomy.

Trump's move follows Chinese plans to impose new national security legislation on the former British colony. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the territory no longer warrants special treatment under U.S. law that has enabled it to remain a global financial center.

Trump said he was directing his administration to begin the process of eliminating policy agreements on Hong Kong, ranging from extradition treatment to export controls.

He said he would also issue a proclamation on Friday to better safeguard vital university research by suspending the entry of foreign nationals from China identified as potential security risks.

Sources, including a current U.S. official, told Reuters on Thursday that the latter move, which had been expected, could impact 3,000 to 5,000 Chinese graduate students.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Franklin Paul and Rosalba O'Brien)

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Politics

Trump Cuts US Ties to World Health Organization, Ends Briefing Without Taking Questions

J. Clara Chan
The Wrap

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/trump-severs-us-ties-world-200434255.html

President Donald Trump announced on Friday he was severing the United States’ relationship with the World Health Organization, claiming China had “total control” over the organization and pressured the body to “mislead the world” about the COVID-19 pandemic. He then left the scheduled press conference without answering any questions.

Trump also said the U.S. would be revoking Hong Kong’s special trade and customs treatment and would be suspending the entry of Chinese citizens who were identified as “potential security risks.” The president did not detail what those “potential security risks” were or how they would be determined, and reporters did not have the opportunity to ask for clarification given that Trump left the podium abruptly after his statement.

Trump’s announcement — and subsequent departure from the White House’s Rose Garden — comes two days after the U.S. surpassed 100,000 COVID-19 deaths and a day after he tweeted about “shooting” protesters in Minneapolis, writing, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” (The tweet received a content warning from Twitter for “glorifying violence.”)

Also Read: Twitter Hits Trump With Content Warning for Tweet 'Glorifying Violence'

The president did not comment at all on the protests in Minneapolis or the murder charge filed against the former police officer who choked George Floyd with his knee for several minutes, causing his death.

Read original story Trump Cuts US Ties to World Health Organization, Ends Briefing Without Taking Questions At TheWrap

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World

U.S. planning to cancel visas of Chinese graduate students: sources

Matt Spetalnick and Humeyra Pamuk
Reuters

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-planning-cancel-visas-chinese-140528121.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is planning to cancel the visas of thousands of Chinese graduate students believed by President Donald Trump's administration to have links with China's military, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

The move, first reported by the New York Times, could impact 3,000 to 5,000 Chinese students and could be announced as early as this week, according to the sources, including a current U.S. official and another individual who was briefed on the administration's internal discussions.

The United States and China are at loggerheads over China's decision to go forward with national security legislation for Hong Kong that democracy activists in the city and Western countries fear could erode its freedoms and jeopardize its role as a global financial hub.

Chinese students who are in the United States will have their visas canceled and will be expelled, the source briefed on the plans said, while those already outside the United States will not be allowed to return.

The main purpose of the action is to clamp down on spying and intellectual property theft that some Chinese nationals are suspected of engaging in on U.S. university and college campuses, the source said, adding that the administration expected significant push back from those institutions because of their financial interests in Chinese student enrollment.

Some 360,000 Chinese nationals who attend U.S. schools annually generate economic activity of about $14 billion, largely from tuitions and other fees.

The decision on the visas is likely to further sour ties between the world's top two economies - also at odds over the coronavirus pandemic and trade.

Deliberations on the visa move have been in the works for months, the sources said. While not directly related to the tensions over Hong Kong, the timing appears to be part of "an overall pressure campaign" against China that has intensified in recent months, the source familiar with discussions said.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Congress China had undermined Hong Kong's autonomy so fundamentally he could not support recertifying the city's special pre-1997 trading status established when it was a British colony.


(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Will Dunham)

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 Associated Press

Chinese grad students may be next hit by US-China tensions

MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press
President Donald Trump speaks as he receives a briefing on the 2020 hurricane season in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, May 28, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks as he receives a briefing on the 2020 hurricane season in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, May 28, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks as he receives a briefing on the 2020 hurricane season in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, May 28, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration may soon expel thousands of Chinese graduate students enrolled at U.S. universities and impose other sanctions against Chinese officials in the latest signs of tensions between Washington and Beijing that are raging over trade, the coronavirus pandemic, human rights and the status of Hong Kong.
President Donald Trump said he would make an announcement about China on Friday, and administration officials said he is considering a months-old proposal to revoke the visas of students affiliated with educational institutions in China linked to the People’s Liberation Army or Chinese intelligence.
Trump is also weighing targeted travel and financial sanctions against Chinese officials for actions in Hong Kong, according to the officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“We’ll be announcing what we’re doing tomorrow with respect to China and we are not happy with China," Trump told reporters at an unrelated event Thursday, referring mainly to COVID-19. "We are not happy with what’s happened. All over the world people are suffering, 186 countries. All over the world they’re suffering. We’re not happy.”
Although the student expulsions aren't directly related to Hong Kong and China’s move to assert full control over the former British territory, potential sanctions against officials involved in that effort would be a result of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's determination that Hong Kong can no longer be considered autonomous from mainland China.
Pompeo notified Congress on Wednesday that Hong Kong is no longer deserving of the preferential trade and commercial status it has enjoyed from the U.S. since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. Under a joint Sino-British agreement on the handover, Hong Kong was to be governed differently than the mainland for 50 years under a “one country, two systems” policy.
Pompeo's determination opened the door to possible sanctions and the loss of special perks Hong Kong has received from the United States. But neither Pompeo nor other officials were able Wednesday to describe what action the administration might take, an uncertainty related to the impact that such sanctions would have on U.S. companies that operate in Hong Kong and the city's position as Asia's major financial hub. Trump's comments sparked a drop in U.S. financial markets.
Serious consideration of the visa revocation proposal, first reported by The New York Times, has faced opposition from U.S. universities and scientific organizations who depend on tuition fees paid by Chinese students to offset other costs. In addition, those institutions fear possible reciprocal action from Beijing that could limit their students' and educators' access to China.
In a nod to those concerns, the officials said any restrictions would be narrowly tailored to affect only students who present a significant risk of engaging in espionage or intellectual property theft. The officials could not say how many people could ultimately be expelled, although they said it would be only a fraction of the Chinese students in the country.
Still, the possibility that the proposal may be implemented has drawn concerns from educators.
“We’re very worried about how broadly this will be applied, and we’re concerned it could send a message that we no longer welcome talented students and scholars from around the globe," said Sarah Spreitzer, director of government relations at the American Council on Education.
“We don’t have a lot of details about how they are going to define ties to Chinese universities, what type of universities are they going to target, what would constitute a university having ties to the Chinese military," she said. If the situation were reversed and another nation imposed limits on students from U.S. universities that receive Defense Department funding, she noted it would affect a wide range of schools.
The U.S. hosted 133,396 graduate students from China in the 2018-19 academic year, and they made up 36.1% of all international graduate students, according to the Institute of International Education. Overall, there were 369,548 students from China, accounting for 33.7% of international students who contributed nearly $15 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018.
The proposal to revoke the visas is not directly related to the dispute over Hong Kong, nor is it tied to U.S. criticism of China for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Rather, it is connected to various elements of trade and human rights issues that have seen U.S. officials complain about Chinese industrial espionage and spying and harassment of dissidents and religious and ethnic minorities.
But the timing of a potential announcement could come at a time of increasingly heated rhetoric about the imposition of national security laws on Hong Hong in violation of the Sino-British accord.
The proposal first began to be discussed last year when the administration moved to require Chinese diplomats based in the United States to report their domestic U.S. travel and meetings with American scientists and academics. At the time, U.S. officials said it was a reciprocal measure to match restrictions that American diplomats face in China.
Those limits were followed by a requirement that Chinese state-run media in the U.S. register as “foreign diplomatic missions” and report their property holdings and employee rosters to the government. That was, in turn, followed by the limiting of the number of visas for Chinese journalists allowed to work in the United States.
China retaliated for the visa limitations by expelling several reporters from U.S. media outlets, including The Washington Post and The New York Times.
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AP Education Writer Collin Binkley in Boston contributed to this report.