Februari 2023 | 232 comments (232 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

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rollcall | Lawmakers seek to stop China's tech rise without a 'Great Wall', 14 Feb "progressive caucus"

"There are certain areas that meet the test of national security as well as issues that the American people care about ... including semiconductors, large-capacity batteries that have to do with electric vehicles, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, but also pharmaceutical ingredients, automobile manufacturing," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee.
[...]
DeLauro, a founding member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she intended to take up her capital-flow [read: FDI] measure in the current Congress and push back against opposition from U.S. companies, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that called for more narrowly tailored legislation. DeLauro is also encouraging the Biden administration to take executive action to track and restrict U.S. capital investment in China.
[...]
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said it's possible to trade some goods with China even as the U.S. closes Beijing's access to others. Gallagher is chair of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party, tasked [sic] with proposing a wide range of measures to address the U.S.-China ties.
"I don't have a problem with us buying cheap clothes from China. ... We probably don't want to spend a bunch of money onshoring textile manufacturing," Gallagher said in an interview. "I also don't have a problem with Wisconsin farmers selling soybeans to China, but I do have a problem with us being dependent on China for advanced pharmaceutical ingredients, or micro electronics. ... I have a problem with dependency on rare earths," he said.
[...]

wut

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a member of the select committee on China and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said it's not enough to decouple from China and that the U.S. must aim for a broader economic rebalancing and reduce the U.S.-China goods and services trade deficit that was about $383 billion last year.
In addition to bringing back key U.S. industries, such as steel, that shifted operations abroad in the past few decades, "we have to push to open the Chinese markets to American products," Khanna said in an interview. "What's going to keep us ahead of China is to have China become dependent on American technology and have American technology lead."
[...]
"If we don't ... then we descend into autarky, and that doesn't help Americans," Gallagher said.

archived self-sustainability or autarky, this kind of autarky, Mohamed Ali's state-centered autarky

by Cat on Wed Feb 15th, 2023 at 12:46:28 PM EST
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SIDEBAR official status in "tensions" (none / 0)

CNN | China sanctions Lockheed, Raytheon after vowing to retaliate against US ["]restrictions["], 16 Feb

China has imposed sanctions on two American defense [sic] manufacturers over arms sales to Taiwan, a day after Beijing pledged to take "countermeasures" in response to Washington's handling of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that entered US airspace late last month.
archived a rare, auspicious CNN appearance
Both companies are also subject to fines "twice the amount" of their arms sales to Taiwan dating back to September 2020, and their senior executives will be prohibited from entering and working in China.
It was not immediately clear how Beijing would enforce the fines. While the United States prohibits the sale of weapons to China, some US defense contractors have ties to civilian sectors.
Beijing has previously imposed sanctions on both companies in relation to their arms sales to Taiwan, without specifying what the penalties would entail and how they would be enforced. China's ruling Communist Party views democratic Taiwan as its territory, despite never having controlled it.
archived Ministry of Foreign Affairs Announces Countermeasures in Response to Nancy Pelosi's Visit, Mr. Qin Gang published an article
The move comes just days after the US Commerce Department ["]restricted["] six Chinese companies that it said were tied to the Chinese army's aerospace program from obtaining US technology without government authorization. That move came after American forces downed what it called a Chinese surveillance balloon that entered its airspace late last month.
[...]

"late last month"
NY Post reuters | Ukraine says it shot down 6 Russian spy balloons over Kyiv, 15 Feb

[...]
"Aerial targets were detected in the sky over the Kyiv region. As a result air defense kicked into action," the Kyiv Regional Military Administration reported on Telegram. "Keep calm and stay in shelters!"
Although the message did not specify when the balloons were shot down, air alerts were issued in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The apparent use of balloons comes on top of the US shooting down several unusual objects in American [and Canadian] skies, including a balloon with a payload the THE SIZE OF THREE BUSES that reportedly had been tracked from China ["late last month"?].
Kyiv's military said the balloons it shot down appeared to be carrying corner reflectors and reconnaissance equipment.
"According to information that is now being clarified, these were balloons that move in the air under the propulsion of wind," the military administration wrote.
[...]