U.S.-China Espionage Entanglements | Losing the Race’ For AI with China | War Games Fears, and more

U.S. Investigations of Chinese Scientists Expand Focus to Military Ties (Nidhi Subbaraman, Nature)
Authorities in the United States increase scrutiny of Chinese researchers’ background, causing concern about unfair accusations.

Britain’s New Sanctions Regime Could Be Weaponized against Chinese Officials (Annabelle Timsit, Quartz)
In July, the UK’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab announced the launch of the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations, a sanctions regime that will allow the British government to target individuals and entities that violate human rights around the world. It’s part of a wave of so-called “Magnitsky-style” sanctions—in effect in the US and Canada, and under consideration in other countries—inspired by Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was tortured and imprisoned after uncovering a large-scale tax fraud scheme, and who died in jail in 2009.
The UK launched its sanctions regime with a bang, by sanctioning 49 individuals and organizations (pdf) allegedly involved in murders, torture, and forced labor in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, and North Korea.
Now, calls are growing within Britain’s Parliament and its activist groups to extend the list of sanctioned targets to officials involved in the imposition and enforcement of a new security law in Hong Kong that severely curtails individual rights in favor of stability in the semi-autonomous territory. Their main target is chief executive Carrie Lam, whose husband and sons are British citizens.

The Czechs Are Giving Europe a Lesson on How to Deal with China (Dalibor Rohac, Washington Post)
This week, a senior Czech politician, Milos Vystrcil, visited Taiwan and delivered a powerful speech to the parliament in Taipei, echoing John F. Kennedy‘s “Ich bin ein Berliner” — or, as Vystrcil put it, “I am Taiwanese.”
The reaction of Chinese state media and the government was instant. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on a visit to Germany, threatened to make Vystrcil, the speaker of the upper house of the Czech parliament, “pay a heavy price for his short-sighted behavior and political opportunism.” Wang’s outburst triggered immediate pushback not only from the Czech foreign ministry but also from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the French.
The affair, which has turned the Czech Republic into the European Union’s most outspoken critic of Chinese hegemony, is refreshing at a time when many reflexively associate post-communist Central Europe with “illiberal democracy” and a flagging commitment to Western alliances.

China Now Tops U.S. in Shipbuilding, Missiles, and Air Defense, DOD Says (John A. Tirpak, Air Force Magazine)
China is making substantial progress in improving its armed forces, now eclipsing the U.S. in the areas of shipbuilding, missiles, and air defenses, according to the Pentagon’s 20th annual assessment of the People’s Republic of China’s military power.

The Defense Department’s annual report, which is usually released in January, says China is spending about $200 billion a year on its military, a 6.2 percent increase from last year. The rate of growth of its Gross Domestic Product has declined from nine percent 10 years ago to six percent today, yet China’s defense spending has nearly doubled over the last decade.

‘We May Be Losing the Race’ For AI with China: Bob Work (Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Breaking Defense)
Robert Work, who pushed hard for AI under Obama, calls for major reforms to catch up with China and Russia. His model? Adm. Rickover’s creation of the nuclear Navy in the 1950s.