Tuesday, June 15, 2021

NZ, Aus, USA vs China in Pacific

> PLA > 





21-4-21 Australia provokes China anger over scrapped deals: Australia has scrapped agreements tied to China's Belt and Road initiative, prompting anger from Beijing and adding further strain to tense relations between the countries. The federal government used new powers to rip up two deals made between the state of Victoria and China.

Canberra said it was backing away from the agreements to protect Australia's national interestIt is the first time Canberra has used the powers to veto deals made by states, local governments or public universities with foreign countries. The laws allow the government to cancel agreements deemed to threaten Australia's national interest.

In addition to the China deals, Foreign Minister Marise Payne also scrapped agreements with Iran and Syria. They were a memorandum of understanding sealed between Victoria's education department and Iran, signed in 2004, and a 1999 scientific cooperation agreement signed with Syria. Senator Payne said the four agreements were "inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations".

Canberra has taken other steps to curtail China's influence in the country, including putting a ban on telecoms giant Huawei from building Australia's 5G network and tightening foreign investment laws.

21-11-24 US restricts trade with a dozen more Chinese technology firmsThe US government has added a dozen more Chinese companies to its restricted trade list, citing national security and foreign policy concerns. Washington says that some of the firms are helping develop the Chinese military's quantum computing programme. Chinese telecoms giant Huawei was added to the list in 2019 over claims that it posed a risk US national security. The new move cut it off from some of its key suppliers and made it difficult for the company to produce mobile phones. A total of 27 new entities were added to the list from China, Japan, Pakistan, and Singapore.

Eight Chinese-based technology firms were added to the so-called "Entity List" for their alleged role in assisting the Chinese military's quantum computing efforts and acquiring or attempting "to acquire US origin-items in support of military applications". This entity list has increasingly been used for national security reasons since the previous tRUMP Badministration.

The US Commerce Department also said 16 individuals and entities operating in China and Pakistan were added to the list due to their involvement in "Pakistan's unsafeguarded nuclear activities or ballistic missile program." 

Separately, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology was added to the department's military end user list, although the listing gave no more details other than it had produced military equipment.

Trade was among the items discussed at a virtual summit between the leaders of both countries earlier this month. This latest move comes as tensions grow between the US and China over the status of Taiwan and other issues.

The new listings will help prevent American technology from supporting the development of Chinese and Russian "military advancement and activities of non-proliferation concern like Pakistan's unsafeguarded nuclear activities or ballistic missile program," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...