For years now, the US has been strong-arming the Netherlands into accepting technology restrictions on the export of advanced lithography machines to China. These machines, produced by the Dutch firm ASML, use lasers to help create circuits for microchips.

Although ASML is a world-leading specialist company, its foundational patents are derived from the US, which allows Washington to coerce it into following unilateral export controls as the Americans see fit.

American restrictions have come in several waves, building on the sweeping export controls introduced in 2022. One such update concerning a specific kind of lithography machine came into effect on Monday, January 1, 2024. ASML attempted to rush through the sale of several such machines to China before the deadline but canceled it at the last moment – reportedly due to pressure from the US.

The news caused ASML’s US shares to drop. The fundamental goal of US foreign policy here is to try and crush China’s semiconductor industry and hobble its high tech ambitions, which has become one of the critical strategies to try and curb China’s military and economic rise as a whole.

In doing so, the US has blacklisted Chinese technology firms and has increasingly tried to stave off the exports of semiconductor equipment to China, describing it as a “small yard, high fence”approach. Despite this, there is overwhelming evidence at this stage that such sanctions are not working, not least because China is pursuing a coordinated state and industry effort to forcibly advance itself in semiconductor technology which has seen Huawei, the original US target of sanctions, effectively piece together its very own semiconductor supply chain.

While doing this, China has also found increasingly creative ways around restrictions, secured loopholes for US equipment, and has continued to make progress on new chip nodes while also making older designs more efficient and effectively shrugging off America’s coercive campaign. If it wasn’t obvious already, the US is doubling down on failure and is forcing China towards self-sufficiency, which, of course, most ironically, will hurt US companies and exports above all. How exactly can the US feasibly maintain strict export controls over the world’s second-largest economy and largest trading nation?

However, moves targeted at companies such as ASML show that the US continues to represent an obvious threat and challenge to European economic competitiveness and prosperity. Why? Because EU firms are being forced, by command of a third party, to sever ties with their most lucrative market, in order to meet American goals. The US likes to claim that it supports free and fair trade in a market governed by the rule of law, but what kind of “rule of law” is there in a system where a firm you operate has secured a large number of sales in anticipation of a restriction deadline imposed by a third party outside of your legal system and then has to cancel those sales anyway because the same third party doesn’t want to wait for the deadline?

China is the world’s largest semiconductor market, whose high-tech development fuels a greater demand for microchips than anywhere else in the world. The US believes it can hamstring China’s long-term prospects by blocking this ascension as the country moves away from low-end manufacturing. Washington’s plan to stop China’s development and induce stagnation is based on faulty logic that China is incapable of innovating or moving forward without Western technology, which goes against all evidence to the contrary.

Instead, in the long-term, this approach will effectively cut off Western firms from the critical and lucrative Chinese market, as the US aims to create a new global supply chain in technology which it dominates, and therefore make the EU dependent upon it. This reminds us that the EU is the biggest loser of America’s war on China as it seeks to break a lucrative trading relationship but also, more critically, undermine European competitiveness, as it has done by depriving it of Russian energy over the war in Ukraine, and therefore absorb the market space for itself. To follow American wishes on China is to sacrifice sovereignty, geopolitical autonomy, and prosperity to serve the goals of the United States. It is a lose-lose situation. What happens to ASML when the time comes that China is capable of creating its own high-end chips and lithography equipment? And no longer has need of it for its domestic market, and offers the same solutions to other countries? You need to be in China to compete in the game, you don’t win by refusing to participate when the other side is still kicking the ball.

https://www.rt.com/news/590080-china-us-semiconductors-eu/

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There cannot be more than one China. The idea never made any sense. It’s a weird relic of the 1950s.

People don’t really even seem to understand that Taiwan claims it is the government of all of China. It’s not called “Taiwan,” officially it is called “The Republic of China.” Now, Joe Biden is claiming it is an independent country, which no one ever claimed, including the government of Taiwan.

What happened was: there was a communist revolution, and the non-communists fled to Taiwan, and were supported by America as the government of China. Then, in the 1970s, when China opened up, the US itself agreed that there is only one China. It’s called “The One China Policy.”

Joe Biden has apparently totally reversed this policy. It’s not at all clear what the current status is. But Biden has stated publicly that Taiwan either is currently (???) or should become an independent country.

It’s all just a mess, because none of the conditions that created it exist anymore. Mao Zedong is no longer alive. There is very little difference between the basic functioning of the two countries at this point, other than the various social experiments that the US has pushed on Taiwan (feminism, homosexuality, etc.). If you want to talk about freedoms – Taiwan had forced vax and real China didn’t. That’s really all you need to know. (In theory, Taiwan has more freedom of speech. But go try to start a Daily Stormer in Taiwan and see what happens. America literally claims to have free speech, and yet is six million times more censorious than China, which does not claim to have free speech.) It’s an American colony, where America sets policy. So, is that freedom? In real China, policy is determined by the will of the people and enacted by the Emperor in the name of the people. Taiwan voted against so-called “anal marriage” three times, and they got it anyway.

The reason that the people in Taiwan wanted to remain separate after Maoism ended was that Taiwan was much richer than China. That is not really the case anymore. It is technically the case per capita, but that’s a gap that has closed so rapidly, it will be totally closed in less than a decade.

Further, the Hong Kong model worked.

So, Xi’s idea was to begin reunification in 2045. Then Joe Biden starts sailing war ships back and forth through the straits every day, flying around nuclear-armed bomber jets, and so on, while claiming he’s “defending Taiwan.” The Biden strategy – that is, the Blinken/Nuland/Sullivan strategy (those three people – two Jews and a homo – make 100% of the choices about American foreign policy, in secret, and lie about all of it) – is to provoke a Chinese invasion of Taiwan by accusing China of planning to invade Taiwan, even as China’s leader is saying “we’ll figure it out in a couple decades or whatever.”

Conservatives don’t seem to be aware of any of this at all. Conservatives have been made to believe that China is bad. This is really inexplicable. It doesn’t even make any sense. It is, like Taiwan, a holdover from the middle of the 20th century. China is an ultra-conservative, ultra-nationalist country, with zero territorial ambitions beyond Taiwan (and the South China Sea, I guess you would have to say, but they don’t really have a choice there as the US is trying to seize it in order to blockade Chinese exports). They are not going to invade America.

In general, a lot of Chinese people often behave in a way that most other countries view as anti-social. They talk very loudly, they chain smoke, they generally appear totally oblivious to the people whose country they are visiting. I think that is true. But that is really related to the fact that China developed so quickly that the rich generation of Chinese that is now traveling the world are the sons of rice farmers. Basically, many of them just haven’t developed proper urban manners. However, we can see from the Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong Chinese that after a couple generations of affluence, these behaviors that are interpreted as rude go away.

Xi has been doing a big push to tell people to behave themselves in other countries. And I mean, it’s not like they are Somalians. They just talk really loud in public and don’t have normal social politeness.

I’m not even sure Americans are exposed to Chinese people very much. If they are, maybe they are offended personally.

Further, China is in theory a competitor. But they’re competing with Jews who run America. If Jews didn’t run America, we’d have economic competition in a way that would be healthy for both countries. Instead, “America” (read: “the Jews”) doesn’t believe in economic competition, they believe in manipulating the global economy and starting wars all over the world.

Right now, viewing the economic competition with China as a priority – more important than the fact that our country is run by the Jews – is like coming down stairs to find that a black guy has broken into your home and is raping your wife at knifepoint and walking past the scene to go argue with the neighbor about his dog pooping on your lawn. It is simply not rational to view China as a competitor to our country when we do not control our own country.

On the whole, this idea of “China bad” is a Cold War holdover for conservatives, and for liberals, the idea of bad Chinese is related to the fact that China is illiberal (racism, sexism, anti-homo, nationalism, etc.).

There is nothing dumber than seeing conservatives talk about China as their enemy. It makes more sense for liberals, because they have this idea of going around the world and using war to force homosexuality and feminism on everyone. Conservatives defending Taiwan is obviously just a massive psy-op.

Reuters:

China’s “reunification” with Taiwan is inevitable, President Xi Jinping said in his New Year’s address on Sunday, striking a stronger tone than he did last year with less than two weeks to go before the Chinese-claimed island elects a new leader.

The Jan. 13 presidential and parliamentary elections are happening at a time of fraught relations between Beijing and Taipei. China has been ramping up military pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over democratically governed Taiwan.

Am I the single political commentator on earth who understands what “democratically governed” means?

https://www.unz.com/aanglin/after-years-of-joe-biden-threatening-war-media-frames-xis-statements-on-taiwan-as-aggressive/

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THE FACT IS THAT TAIWAN IS AN ISLAND.... IN THE TECHNICAL GEOPOLITICAL TERM ACCORDING TO Sir Halford John Mackinder, ONE HAS TO OWN THE ISLANDS IN ORDER TO CONQUER THE HEARTLAND.... AMERICA WANTS TO STEAL A BIT OF CHINA LIKE IT DID STEAL BITS FROM MEXICO, ETC....

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China reaffirmed its commitment to building a stable, healthy and sustainable relationship with the United States on Friday, with its top diplomat calling on both sides to assume the vision and role befitting major countries to give the world "rock-solid certainty and positive energy".

Addressing a reception commemorating the 45th anniversary of China-US diplomatic relations, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said bilateral cooperation is "not something dispensable or optional". "It is something we must do, and must do well," he told diplomats, business leaders and scholars attending a ceremony held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

The reception was held days after President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden exchanged congratulatory letters on the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations, with both heads of states pledging to keep advancing the bilateral ties, building on the progress made during their San Francisco summit in November.

Speaking at the reception, Wang underlined peace as the "most fundamental bedrock of China-US relations". "The absence of conflict and confrontation between the two major countries is in itself the most important peace dividend for humanity," he said.

He also stressed that win-win cooperation is the most essential feature of China-US interaction. Trade between the world's two largest economies reached about $760 billion in 2022, with two-way investment exceeding $260 billion. The number points to the complementarity between the two nations in economic structure, connectivity in global industrial and supply chains, and shared interest in common development, Wang said.

Wang elaborated on the need for both nations to ensure peaceful coexistence with effective management of disagreements as the top priority. Disagreements between the two nations should not lead to confrontation, still less willful sanctions, power politics, hegemonism or zero-sum game, he stressed.

"What is needed is a vision and an unwavering commitment to seeking common ground while shelving differences and allowing no disagreements or differences to dominate or disrupt the bilateral relationship," he said. Wang also made an appeal for both nations to "remove barriers to exchanges, break false information cocoons, forge closer links between the two peoples, and generate more positive energy for China-US relations".

Shari Bistransky, deputy public affairs officer of the US Embassy in China, said on the sidelines of the event that she is optimistic that the US and China "are on track to work well together in 2024", as both nations are looking to take advantage of the momentum created by the summit in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, China has already started to implement the pledge by Xi in San Francisco to invite 50,000 young US citizens to China on exchange and study programs in the next five years.

Boris Escalona Berbetty, a program manager at the International Studies Office of the University of Virginia, said students from the university are now setting the stage for the exchange and study programs.

"The reciprocal exchange between both nations is essential not only to develop cultural understanding, but to create a solid foundation for both nations to work together and continue building on this existing relationship," he said.

"We hope that we can continue bringing more students in the years ahead so they can actually take advantage and understand more about Chinese culture."

Yuan Zheng, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of American Studies, said it could require greater efforts for Beijing and Washington to stabilize ties in 2024, with the US general elections expected to deliver more disruptive factors.

"In this context, scaling up people-to-people exchanges is even more important to build up the foundation and garner greater public support for the stability of China-US relations," he said.

xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202401/06/WS659888eda3105f21a507ad83.html

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In the heart of the Asia-Pacific, the self-governing island of Taiwan – formally the Republic of China (ROC) – finds itself at the crossroads of history and geopolitics once again as it rides the wake of a pivotal presidential election.

While important not only for the domestic future of Taiwan’s people and a major global issue, this election saw the emergence of a major third party, showing that the region’s political landscape is evolving and that locals are looking to escape the two-party duopoly that is consistently cast every cycle as a vote between “war and peace,” as New Taipei Mayor Hou Yu-ih from the Kuomintang party (KMT) described it.

The victory of Lai Ching-te, leader of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the party of outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen, appears to be a strategic win for the US and the collective West – at least at a first glance. But delving deeper, the election – in which Lai received a plurality of votes (just over 40%) and not a majority – reflects deeper frustrations locals have with their livelihoods and the fact that they do not take the DPP’s overtures toward formal independence from Beijing that seriously.

At the heart of Taiwan’s political discourse lies the complex tapestry of identity politics. The island has long grappled with its historical ties to mainland China and the question of independence. President Tsai Ing-wen, the incumbent who could no longer seek re-election but whose policies will endure with Lai, has been a staunch advocate for Taiwan’s sovereignty, emphasizing the island’s separate identity and pushing back against Beijing’s claims of reunification.

Lai’s main opponent, Hou, however, echoed a more conciliatory approach. Indeed, the KMT has long been the party willing to play ball with Beijing, tone down the rhetoric, and make concessions. It was the KMT that helped establish the island’s current status quo through the so-called 1992 consensus, which saw both sides of the Taiwan Strait agree to the One China principle but differ on their definition of China – i.e., the ROC or the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

In 2022, the KMT had a strong showing in the local elections that prompted Tsai Ing-wen to step down as DPP chairwoman. The newly elected officials from the nationalist party vowed to step up cross-strait exchanges with the mainland in hopes of cooling tensions and undermining the DPP’s use of the “China threat” in this year’s election.

https://www.rt.com/news/590617-taiwan-president-independence-china-war/

SO WHY ARE THE AMERICANS NOT HAPPY ABOUT THE "INDEPENDENCE OF THE DONBASS AND OF CRIMEA, FROM UKRAINIA?

EASY: INDEPENDENT DONBASS AND CRIMEA IS A WIN FOR RUSSIA. INDEPENDENT TAIWAN IS A WIN FOR AMERICA.... 

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