China’s Top Nuclear Lab Obtained US Microchips Despite Years-Long Sanctions: Report

Rhetoric or reality? The essence of Sino-US decoupling and trade war explained

House Democrats have unveiled their nominations for members to sit on the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced the 11 members in a prepared statement on Feb. 1, saying that the selection of lawmakers would bring a diverse array of backgrounds and expertise to the committee. “As we begin the new Congress, it remains my goal to prioritize and value input from every corner of the Caucus so we may unleash the full potential of our team,” Jeffries said. “The members of the select committees reflect the tremendous experience, background and ability of the House Democratic Caucus, and authentically represent the gorgeous mosaic of the American people.” Jeffries named Rep Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.) as ranking member to Republican Chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.). Krishnamoorthi thanked Jeffries for nominating him to be the top Democrat on the panel. “The Chinese Communist Party poses serious economic and security threats to the United States and to democracy and prosperity across the globe, illustrated by its threats against Taiwan’s democracy, its weaponization of TikTok, and its theft of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American intellectual property,” the Illinois lawmaker said in a statement. Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi previously worked together to urge sports media giant ESPN to drop TikTok as a sponsor. The other Democrats named to the select committee include Reps. Jake Auchincloss (Mass.), Shontel Brown (Ohio), Kathy Castor (Fla.), André Carson (Ind.), Ro Khanna (Calif.), Andy Kim (N.J.), Seth Moulton (Mass.), Mikie Sherrill (N.J.), Haley Stevens (Mich.), and Ritchie Torres (N.Y.). Notably, Brown was among the 65 Democrats who voted against establishing the panel. The bipartisan committee was created by a 365-65 vote to investigate the malign influence of the CCP, which rules China as a single-party state. The body does not have legislative authority, but is tasked with providing policy proposals to Congress for countering the communist regime. Gallagher has vowed to call on corporate leaders to testify before the committee regarding their ties to the CCP and alleged efforts to censor American citizens at the request of the regime. “The threat posed by the CCP is not abstract,” Gallagher said on the House floor before the vote to create the committee. “The CCP’s aggression is not limited to Taiwan, the South China Sea, Hong Kong, or even Xinjiang, where two successive administrations, Republican and Democrat alike, have determined that the CCP is engaging in genocide.” “The select committee will expose the CCP’s coordinated, whole-of-society strategy to undermine American leadership and American sovereignty while working on a bipartisan basis and within the committee’s jurisdiction to identify long overdue common sense approaches to counter CCP aggression.” The text of the bill creating the committee only allows for nine Republicans and seven Democrats to serve. The parties have currently nominated 13 and 11 respectively. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will now appoint the members in consultation with Jeffries. The Epoch Times has requested comment from Reps. Gallagher, Jeffries, and Brown.

UK counterpart responds saying he is proof of Britain's success in dealing with the past The United Kingdom must deal with its colonial past so that it can strengthen ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific region, says Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong. As part of her visit to the UK, the centre-left Wong delivered a speech to the King’s College in London where she spoke of how Australia eventually developed its own identity separate from the one it had as a British colony. “Today, as a modern, multicultural country—home to people of more than 300 ancestries and the oldest continuing culture on Earth—Australia sees itself as being in the Indo-Pacific, and being of the Indo-Pacific,” she told attendees. Wong said on her mother’s side, her forebears were some of the first British to settle in South Australia, but the story was different on her father’s side of the family, who had a “different experience of British colonisation.” “My father is descended from Hakka and Cantonese Chinese. Many from these clans laboured for the British North Borneo Company in tin mines and plantations for tobacco and timber. Many worked as domestic servants for British colonists, as did my own grandmother. “Such stories can sometimes feel uncomfortable—for those whose stories they are and for those who hear them. But understanding the past enables us to better share the present and the future. “It gives us the opportunity to find more common ground than if we stayed sheltered in narrower versions of our countries’ histories. It helps open the world to us. It helps open the Indo-Pacific to us.” Defence Minister Backs Speech Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles followed up Wong’s speech to say her comments were important for building ties in the Pacific. “Acknowledging the past allows us to do much more in terms of engaging in the future, and engagement going forward in the Indo-Pacific is going to be really important,” Marles told ABC TV. “We very much welcome the greater presence of Great Britain in the Indo-Pacific, and that’s going to be really important in terms of the stability of our region in the future.” The Old Empire Strikes Back Yet Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly was quick to point out that the top four cabinet positions of the UK government were held by individuals with non-Anglo heritage. “You’re asking the black foreign secretary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain?” Cleverly told The Sydney Morning Herald. “Yeah, I think the answer is yes—you’re looking at it, you’re talking to it!” “I mean the bottom line is we have a prime minister of Asian heritage, you have a home secretary of Asian heritage, you have a foreign secretary of African heritage.” Wong’s speech comes as Western governments continue a pivot towards the Indo-Pacific region amid ongoing tensions with Beijing; part of the effort includes building stronger relations with Pacific Island nations, many of whom were former colonies of Western nations. Whilst colonialism did impact certain societies, the label has often been used by current leaders of these countries—many with poorly run economies—to detract from the day-to-day governance and corruption issues. “These countries find it convenient (or ‘comforting’) to excuse their failures by blaming ‘colonialism’ or by accusing the developed world of being exploitative, patronising, or neo-colonial,” wrote Eric Louw, former member of the African National Congress, in The Epoch Times. “A recent variation of this ‘chip on the shoulder’ politics has been to exploit the radical left, Green narrative that underdeveloped Pacific Island countries are victims of climate change caused by the developed world.” This type of rhetoric has also been exploited by Beijing to win the influence battle over developing nations, he said.

MPs have voted unanimously in favour of a motion that calls on the federal government to resettle 10,000 Uyghurs in Canada over the next two years, in an effort to support those fleeing an ongoing genocide by Beijing. Introduced by Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi, the private member’s motion was passed in Parliament on Feb. 1 with a unanimous vote of 322-0. “What just happened was historic,” Zuberi said in a press conference after the vote. “This was the first time that cabinet pronounced itself on the issue of the Uyghurs.” The vote comes almost two years after the House adopted a motion on Feb. 22, 2021, that recognized the persecution against the Uyghurs by the People’s Republic of China as an act of genocide. The latest motion, M-62, calls on Ottawa to take further action to support members of the Uyghur community in China, as well as those living abroad, to escape Beijing’s persecution. The motion urged Ottawa to recognize that Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims who have fled to other countries face harassment and intimidation by Beijing to return to China, where they’re at “serious risk of mass arbitrary detention, mass arbitrary separation of children from their parents, forced sterilization, forced labour, torture and other atrocities.” M-62 further asked the government to acknowledge that many of the host countries are also facing “continued diplomatic and economic pressure” from China to detain and deport Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims, “leaving them without a safe haven in the world.” Resettlement Experts have estimated that one to three million Uyghurs are being arbitrarily detained in internment camps. The Chinese authorities have previously denied the existence of such camps. Facing increasing international scrutiny, the regime shifted in August 2018 to frame such camps as “vocational training facilities.” A facility believed to be a reeducation camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, in Artux, north of Kashgar in China’s western Xinjiang region, on June 2, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images) To address the ongoing persecution, M-62 asks the government to leverage the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s Refugee and Humanitarian Resettlement Program to expedite the entry into Canada of 10,000 Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims, over two years starting in 2024. It also asks that following the adoption of the motion, a report be presented in the House within 120 sitting days detailing how to implement the refugee resettlement plan. MPs also voted unanimously on Feb. 1, to amend M-62, shortening this period to 100 sitting days. The amendment, introduced by NDP MP Jenny Kwan, also asked the government to “ensure corresponding additional immigration levels in the refugee streams so that other persecuted members in the global community seeking safety in Canada are not impacted” by the expedition of the 10,000 Uyghurs to Canada. ‘Many People Sacrificed’ Zuberi said there are approximately 1,600 documented cases of Uyghurs being deported or detained in third countries at the behest of Beijing since 1997, citing a report from the U.S.-based Wilson Center. “What’s happening to the Uyghur people is unacceptable,” Zuberi said. Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, said many people have sacrificed to pass the motion and to stand up to Beijing, including many of his own family members. “I received a phone call on Jan. 16 from Chinese security officials with the presence of my cousin, and I learned that my two sisters already died in concentration camps, and my three brothers disappeared, and that my mother also died,” Tohti said at the press conference. “They (Chinese security officials) called me just to stop this initiative,” he said. “Many people sacrificed. This is not easy. Doing advocacy against China is not easy,” he added. “Many of our community members in Canada, Uyghur-Canadians, sacrificed their family members just to speak up. And for this reason, we value this motion.”

In a rare move, the Chinese Communist Party appears to be backing away from its hard-line attitude towards Australia with a bilateral video conference between trade ministers scheduled for next Wednesday. This will be the first meeting between the two countries’ trade officials in three years, with the Australian Labor government confident that China is moving toward removing its trade sanctions on a range of Australian goods. “We want these trade impediments removed, and next week I have organised to speak with my Chinese counterpart [Wang Wenbin] virtually to start the ball rolling,” Trade Minister Don Farrell told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). “We want to stabilise that relationship,” he said. “And in doing that, we want to ensure that we continue to protect our national interests and our national security.” Farrell has previously signalled that the coercive trade bans would be the first item he would discuss if the ministerial meeting went ahead. “The first item on the agenda will be seeking the removal of those $20 billion worth of trade bans on some of our important products, like wine, like barley, like meat, like crayfish,” Farrell told Sky News on Jan. 30. ” We’re trying to lock in a date at the moment, and all of the indications from the Chinese Government have been very, very positive.” The meeting comes after Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s visit to China in December 2022 and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in November 2022. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong prepares to speak to media during a press conference following a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, on Dec. 21, 2022. Penny Wong is meeting Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing for the first talks between ministers in China in four years. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) However, the minister said it would take time for Beijing to lift its bans on about $20 billion worth of trade with Australia, including wine, lobster, meat, barley, and coal, which was imposed in 2020 after then Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus. “It is my objective, as quickly as possible, to stabilise this relationship and get our products back in front of the Chinese consumers,” Farrell said. “These problems are not going to be solved overnight, and all of the problems are not going to be solved straight away … But we need to start the process.” Agriculture Minister Murray Watt also responded to the recent reports that the CCP has lifted its trade ban on Australian coal. “There are lots of rumours flying around, but nothing really confirmed about changes as far as they apply to agricultural products,” Watt told ABC radio about the sanctions. “Obviously, it’s an encouraging thing that our trade ministers can be having those discussions.” Then opposition Leader Anthony Albanese (L) with then Shadow Minister for Sports Don Farrell held a news conference at Parliament House on Feb. 05, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images) Asked how Australia would put pressure on Beijing to lift trade sanctions, Watt said: “By communicating that directly to them whenever we have that opportunity.” Australia Successfully Diversifies Export Markets Since the CCP launched a series of economic reprisals against the country after tension escalated due to political and public health matters, Australia’s response has been to diversify its export markets. In April 2022, Australia signed a historic Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement with India, which came into effect on Jan.31, further reducing its dependence on the Chinese market. Australia’s trade relationship with Britain is also set for a boost, with London preparing to ratify a bilateral free trade agreement. The agreement will go back through the House of Lords for its third reading. Watt said Canberra continued to work hard to see the agreement come into effect as quickly as possible after the Australian parliament ticked off their side of the deal in late 2022. Agriculture Minister Murray Watt speaks during a press conference in Brisbane, Australia on July 22, 2022. (Dan Peled/Getty Images) “There was some talk while we were in London that there would be a range of amendments to that legislation, which would have slowed things down,” he said. “But whether it was because of the meetings we had or other factors, pleasingly, all of those amendments were withdrawn.” Australia is also pushing to seal a free trade agreement with the European Union, with some points of contention holding up a final deal. The 14th round of negotiations will continue next week in Canberra at an official level. Speaking in Brussels, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said an agreement would be mutually beneficial by providing new opportunities for businesses. “Australia is