Our picks: China syndromeChina Threat to Rare Earth Supply: "Strategic Pitfall" | The Risk of China Appeasement — Redux | China’s Cyber Threats Are “Made in America,” and more
· China Threat to Rare Earth Supply Could Create “Strategic Pitfall”
· U.S. Ban on China’s Xinjiang Cotton Fractures Fashion Industry Supply Chains
· Chinese Spyware Code Was Copied from America’s NSA: Researchers
· China Deploys Covid-19 Vaccine to Build Influence, With U.S. on Sidelines
· Can China Change the Definition of Human Rights?
· China’s Soft Power Push Attracts Scrutiny in U.K.
· U.S. Moves to Support Australian Push to Tackle China’s “Human and Labor Rights Abuses”
· The Risk of China Appeasement — Redux
· How China’s Most Dangerous Cyber Threats Are “Made in America”
· Biden Picks Up Where Trump Left Off in Hard-Line Stances at WTO
· The Communist Party’s Grip Threatens Academic Cooperation
· COVID Conspiracy Disinformation Campaign Has Had Vast Reach, Study Finds
· Factors Shaping China’s Use of Force Calculations Against Taiwan
· Rethinking the U.S.-China Fight: Does China Really Threaten American Power Abroad?
China Threat to Rare Earth Supply Could Create “Strategic Pitfall” (Baystreet)
The U.S. must secure a safer, far more reliable supply of rare earth outside of China. At the moment, according to Bloomberg, “The Chinese government is currently conducting a review of its rare-earths policy. Officials view the technology needed to refine and purify the raw materials as a more powerful weapon in protecting state interests than the actual minerals, and is looking at banning sales of the technology to some countries or companies. While China has no plans to restrict shipments of rare earths to the U.S., it is keeping the plan in its back pocket should a trade war break out again.”
At the same time, President Biden is expected to direct his Administration to conduct a key review of supply chains, including those for semiconductors, batteries, medical supplies, and rare earth metals, as noted by CNBC. Defense analysts from both sides of the aisle have also highlighted rare earths as a potential “strategic pitfall.”
U.S. Ban on China’s Xinjiang Cotton Fractures Fashion Industry Supply Chains (Eva Dou, Jeanne Whalen. and Alicia Chen, Washington Post)
What’s happening now in the fashion industry is rare in the history of global trade: a multibillion-dollar supply chain splintered almost overnight over a human rights issue.
Chinese Spyware Code Was Copied from America’s NSA: Researchers (Raphael Satter, Reuters)
Chinese spies used code first developed by the U.S. National Security Agency to support their hacking operations, Israeli researchers said on Monday, another indication of how malicious software developed by governments can boomerang against their creators.
Tel Aviv-based Check Point Software Technologies issued a report noting that some features in a piece of China-linked malware it dubs “Jian” were so similar they could only have been stolen from some of the National Security Agency break-in tools leaked to the internet in 2017.
Yaniv Balmas, Checkpoint’s head of research, called Jian “kind of a copycat, a Chinese replica.”
China Deploys Covid-19 Vaccine to Build Influence, With U.S. on Sidelines (Joe Parkinson, Chao Deng, and Liza Lin, Wall Street Journal)
Beijing is assembling a chain of airplanes, warehouses and trucks to deliver refrigerated doses to the developing world.
Can China Change the Definition of Human Rights? (Shannon Tiezzi, The Diplomat)
In a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council, China’s foreign minister gave China’s preferred spin to the concept.
