Important Takeaways:
- China recently launched a not-so-secret submarine to spy on the US, and now they’ve launched cloud-seeding missiles to help combat a heatwave.
- The human intervention into the persistent dry weather resulted in gusts of 76mph blasting residents’ laundry from their balconies in what has been humorously referred to as “the 9/2 Chongqing underwear crisis,” reports Daily Star.
- Zhang Yixuan, the deputy director of the Chongqing Weather Modification Office, insisted that the wind was a natural occurrence and not a result of the cloud seeding.
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Important Takeaways:
- The head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific command, in the first direct communications in years with a senior Chinese general in charge of regional forces, warned Beijing was engaged in “dangerous” incidents in the South China Sea, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
- Sam Paparo held the video teleconference with Gen. Wu Yanan, commander of the People’s Liberation Army southern command, on Monday and urged his forces to abide by international law in the South China Sea. China has made expansive sovereignty claims to the strategic waterway that are rejected by the U.S. and smaller countries around the region.
- Monday’s meeting was the first time in more than two years that a regional PLA commander spoke to a commander of the Hawaii-based command, despite repeated efforts to resume direct communications the American side believes will reduce tensions.
- The Pentagon, under Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, has been pressing the command to resume regular talks with Chinese regional military leaders to “clarify intent” and reduce the risk of a U.S.-China military exchange. The talks between the two commanders were described as “constructive and respectful.”
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Important Takeaways:
- China is communist North Korea’s closest ally, but has refrained from major displays of support towards the Kim regime in the past year, particularly after Pyongyang published an excoriating screed against Beijing in May for backing a statement vaguely supporting the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. North Korean diplomacy has since trended towards Russia, signing a mutual defense treaty with Moscow in July during strongman Vladimir Putin’s first visit to North Korea in decades.
- China and North Korea nonetheless rely on each other significantly for ideological and economic support. Xi’s message hoping to “strengthen communication” with Kim arrives as North Korea escalates belligerent behavior against South Korea, flooding the country with a wave of trash-filled balloons over the weekend. China, in turn, faces growing economic challenges and resistance to its geopolitical agenda from the West.
- The South Korean news agency Yonhap described Beijing and Pyongyang as “relatively estranged” in the context of the founding anniversary message and the upcoming anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. South Korean sources have reportedly not seen any indication that the two countries will plan any “grand celebrations” together to mark the occasion.
- While still close allies, North Korea and China have kept a diplomatic distance this year compared to those prior, which appeared to expand following China participating in a summit in Seoul alongside the governments of that country and Japan in May. The trilateral summit, the ninth of its kind in modern history, united the conservative governments of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio with the Communist Party and resulted in a joint statement that outraged North Korea.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Chinese Defense Ministry on Monday said it would hold joint military drills with Russia sending naval and air forces for a maritime patrol of “relevant areas of the Pacific Ocean” in September.
- The move underscores the progressive alignment of the two countries, both militarily and economically, in opposition to the Western-led liberal democratic order.
- What do both countries have to gain?
- Russia is seeking China’s help in strengthening its position as a Pacific power, while Moscow has supported China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and elsewhere.
- Increasingly, this has come to include the 180-kilometer (110-mile) wide Taiwan Strait dividing mainland China from the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan. Beijing considers the island part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force if necessary.
- Moscow and Beijing have increased military and economic cooperation in recent years, each opposing “Western hegemony” — particularly a perceived US domination of global affairs. In the run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the two countries declared a “no limits” partnership.
- NATO leaders claim China has become “a decisive enabler” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prompting Beijing to warn the US-led military bloc against “provoking confrontation.”
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Important Takeaways:
- A popular tourist island south of mainland China has been hit by the most powerful typhoon in a decade, leaving the area facing potentially catastrophic winds and torrential rain.
- A super typhoon is equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.
- Super typhoon Yagi slammed into Wenchang city in the north-east of Hainan Island with winds of 138 mph at 16:00 local time on Friday, according to state media.
- Some 400,000 people in Hainan Island were evacuated to safe ground ahead of Yagi’s arrival.
- Chinese authorities believe Yagi will be the strongest typhoon to hit its southern coast in a decade.
- Earlier this week, floods and landslides brought by Yagi killed at least 13 people in northern Philippines, with thousands of people forced to evacuate to safer ground.
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Important Takeaways:
- On Tuesday, federal prosecutors unsealed the indictment against 41-year-old Linda Sun, born in China and a naturalized American citizen, and her husband, 40-year-old Chris Hu. The indictment charges the couple with operating a money laundering and bank fraud scheme thanks in part to Sun’s allegedly acting as an agent of influence for China while working in Cuomo and Hochul’s administrations.
- The couple were arrested and arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
- The 64-page indictment is far-reaching, detailing Sun’s alleged work as an agent for China and her husband’s subsequent illegal business dealings in China. In particular, the indictment lays out how Sun allegedly acted on behalf of the CCP while working for Cuomo, who is called “Politician-1,” and Hochul, who is called “Politician-2.” The indictment states:
- The defendant LINDA SUN acted at the order, direction, or request of representatives of the [People’s Republic of China (PRC)] government and the CCP to engage in political activities intended to influence the public, including the [New York State (NYS)] government, with respect to the political or public interests of the PRC government and the CCP.
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Important Takeaways:
- A top Chinese general on Thursday told White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan that the U.S. must stop its “collusion” with Taiwan, during a high-stakes meeting in Beijing.
- Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, told Sullivan that Taiwan “is at the very core of China’s core interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-US relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed,” according to a readout from the Chinese Ministry of National Defense.
- “The PLA will definitely take countermeasures against the provocations of the Taiwan independence forces,” the readout said…
- “China urges the US side to stop military collusion with Taiwan, stop arming Taiwan, and stop spreading false narratives on Taiwan.”
- The U.S. has unofficial relations with Taiwan, which China claims as its own, but commits to supporting and arming the self-governing island nation.
- Intimidating Chinese drills and military exercises around Taiwan have increased in recent years, and accelerated after the inauguration earlier this year of pro-U.S. Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te.
- Xi told Biden in the San Francisco summit that he would reunify with Taiwan, by force if necessary.
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Important Takeaways:
- Jack Hergenrother, IBM’s VP of global enterprise systems development, confirmed the R&D shutdown in China to IBM employees in a meeting on Monday, citing Chinese competition, The Wall Street Journal reports. Plus, IBM’s infrastructure business has not been doing as well in recent years, the executive reportedly said. IBM saw its revenue from China fall nearly 20% last year amid ongoing tech industry tensions between the US and China.
- IBM is planning to hire R&D staff in other locations, like India, according to employees familiar with the plans. Over 1,000 IBM employees in China are expected to lose their jobs, impacting staff in cities like Shanghai and Beijing. At time of writing, IBM’s research division only shows a handful of jobs available based in either Japan, the US, or Singapore. IBM has not yet responded to PCMag’s request for comment.
- IBM’s research primarily focuses on artificial intelligence development, semiconductor research, quantum computing, and cloud computing technology, according to the company’s website. In recent months, IBM launched an AI development platform for engineers called InstructLab and open-sourced some of its Granite AI models.
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Important Takeaways:
- A Chinese military surveillance plane breached Japanese airspace off the country’s southwestern coast on Monday, marking what Japan’s defense ministry described as the first known incursion by China’s military into its territorial airspace.
- According to a ministry official, a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft briefly entered Japanese territory near Nagasaki Prefecture around 11:30 a.m. on Monday. In response, Japan’s Self-Defense Force put fighter jets on high alert and issued a warning to the Chinese aircraft.
- While Chinese planes frequently appear in international airspace around Japan, this incident represents the first confirmed entry of a military aircraft into Japan’s territorial airspace.
- Over the past two decades, Japan has increasingly faced foreign aircraft encroachments. Last year, Japan’s Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter jets to intercept foreign planes on 669 occasions — more than three times the number of such responses two decades ago.
- Of these 669 cases, 479 were in response to Chinese aircraft sightings, according to Japan’s Ministry of Defense.
- Military analysts suggest that Monday’s airspace violation could be a message from China challenging Japan’s delineation of its territorial border. China asserts control over a large continental shelf in the East China Sea, with its outer edge extending close to the Danjo Islands area, where the Chinese plane was spotted.
- The airspace violation is the latest in a series of recent events heightening tensions between Japan and China.
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Important Takeaways:
- Panama’s government announced on Thursday additional deportation flights for migrants apprehended in the Central American nation to Ecuador, India and China, in a bid to reduce the flow of mostly U.S.-bound migration.
- Financed by Washington, the deportation flights kicked off earlier this week with a first planeload of Colombian migrants.
- The flights come less than three months before November’s U.S. presidential election, where unlawful migration has emerged as a major issue.
- Mulino did not specify the legal status of the migrants who will be flown to Ecuador or the two Asian countries, or if they have criminal records.
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