China isn’t being terribly subtle about trying to send a message to the incoming Biden administration. Over the weekend, it sent planes including bombers into the airspace near Taiwan two days in a row:
Taiwan’s defence ministry said eight Chinese bomber planes capable of carrying nuclear weapons, four fighter jets and one anti-submarine aircraft entered its self-declared south-western air defense identification zone on Saturday.
Sunday’s operation involved 12 fighters, two anti-submarine aircraft and a reconnaissance plane, the ministry said. On both occasions, Taiwan’s air force warned away the aircraft and deployed air defense missile systems to monitor the planes.
Saturday the U.S. sent a signal back. The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt cruised through the South China Sea, making clear that America will continue the “freedom of navigation” tours through the region. The State Dept. also issued a statement about the Chinese bombers near Taiwan:
Washington slammed Beijing over the move, criticizing “ongoing PRC attempts to intimidate its neighbors,” using an acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
“We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan’s democratically elected representatives,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
“We will continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability.”…
The State Department also said the U.S. “will continue to support a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues, consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people of Taiwan,” adding that Washington’s commitment to Taipei is “rock solid” and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability in Asia.
Today, Xi Jinping himself issued a statement which didn’t mention Taiwan but which did warn the Biden administration about igniting a new cold war by messing with China’s attempts to dominate the world’s technology market.
“Forming small groups or launching new cold wars on the world stage; excluding, threatening and intimidating others; resorting to decoupling, supply disruption or sanctions … would only push the world towards division, if not confrontation,” Xi said…
The European Commission subsequently proposed a “Transatlantic Trade and Technology Council” to set joint standards on new technologies, in a bid to prevent China from establishing economic dominance across a number of high-value sectors by developing its own widely used technological and industrial standards.
America is messing with China’s plans for dominance and they clearly don’t like it. Key to their plans for tech dominance is Huawei, the company that manufactures phones and 5G equipment. Some countries including the UK have refused to allow Huawei tech to be installed over fears it could be used to spy on people as a proxy for the CCP.
This isn’t far-fetched. The CCP is known to outsource its sifting of stolen data to major companies who have the infrastructure and manpower to get things done quickly. Essentially, all resources in China are part of the CCP’s intelligence effort.
Huawei was recently found to have been working on a system to help authorities use AI to identify Uygur minorities and distinguish them automatically from the Han majority in surveillance video. Here’s a video on the information found buried in a Huawei patent.
So yes, there is reason to worry if Chinese tech becomes dominant. Because China is already using that tech for social control at home. Even if they don’t plan to export those features abroad, the western world shouldn’t be financially supporting a company that is part of that effort in China. The only sensible option is for the free world to continue to stand up to China wherever and whenever it can.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member