Top U.K. Universities Worked with Chinese Nuclear Weapons Labs | China’s Rare Earth & U.S.-China Tech War | Boycotting Beijing Winter Olympics, and more

Meet China’s Best British Friends: The Johnson Clan  (Gabriel Pogrund and Caroline Wheeler, The Times)
The PM’s father and half-brother Max are vocal backers of Beijing

A Solid Plan to Compete with China in Artificial Intelligence  (Megan Lamberth and Martijn Rasser, Defense One)
The NSCAI’s new report should also be taken as the first plank in a national technology strategy.

Boycott Questions over Beijing Winter Olympics Raise Eerie Echoes of 1936  (Sean Ingle, Guardian)
China’s treatment of Uighurs has been deemed by Canada as genocide. Are we about to legitimize the regime responsible?

How China’s Digital Silk Road Is Leading Countries Away from the United States  (Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
Beijing is using technology products, markets, and training to secure influence with U.S. security partners, a IISS report finds.

A Salami Slice for Taiwan’s Security  (Andrew Latham, Defense One)
The U.S. can put a revisionist tactic to its own use in the Western Pacific.

Chinese Enterprises Expand in U.K.  (Angus McNeice, China Daily)
Chinese business activity in the United Kingdom remained resilient last year despite trade tensions and pandemic disruption, a new report has shown, with the number of large UK-based China-owned businesses increasing along with the total value of Chinese investments into Britain.

China Says Domestic Competition Hurting Rare Earth Prices  (Gabriel Crossley and Min Zhang, Reuters)
China’s rare earths, a group of 17 minerals used in military equipment and consumer electronics, are being undersold due to “vicious competition” domestically and face low resource utilization, the country’s industry minister said on Monday.
Prices for some rare earths in China, such as praseodymium-neodymium (PrNd) - used in rare earth magnets - have spiked to multi-year highs this year amid strong demand from the electric vehicle sector.

China Boosts Rare-Earth Output Amid Growing Tech War with U.S.  (Shunsuke Tabeta, Nikkei Asia)
New quota is 30% higher than last year as demand for EVs and robotics soars

As U.S., U.K. Converge on China, British Lawmaker Says “Golden Era Is Over”  (John Feng, Newsweek)
The United States and United Kingdom are in near total alignment in major foreign policy areas, a British lawmaker with the country’s ruling party has said, as analysts in Washington predict a coordinated effort to tackle some of the most pressing challenges posed by China.
Echoing recent sentiments expressed on Capitol Hill, Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said there had been an “awakening” in the U.K. to the many irreconcilable practices of the Chinese government.

Analysis: China’s Unsustainable Poverty Eradication Claims Are a House of Cards  (Sophia Yan, The Telegraph)
On paper, China appears to have lifted many out of poverty, but in practice it hasn’t been enough to broadly improve living standards.