Tag Archives: China government

Girl responsible in scheme to ship army boats to China

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A Florida lady has been convicted in a scheme to purchase and ship inflatable army boats from the U.S. to China

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Florida lady has been convicted in a scheme to purchase and ship inflatable army boats from america to China.

Yang Yang, 34, pleaded responsible Tuesday in Jacksonville federal courtroom to conspiring to submit false export data to fraudulently export to China maritime raiding craft and engines and to trying to fraudulently export that tools, in keeping with courtroom data.

She faces as much as 15 years in jail. No sentencing date was instantly introduced.

Yang was employed by a Chinese language firm referred to as Shanghai Breeze Know-how Co. Ltd. when she tried to order seven fight rubber raiding craft geared up with engines that may function utilizing gasoline, diesel gasoline or jet gasoline, in keeping with the plea settlement. These vessels and multi-fuel engines are utilized by the U.S. army and may be launched from a submarine or dropped by an plane. No comparable engine is manufactured in China.

When the U.S. producer instructed that Yang buy cheaper gasoline-fueled engines, she insisted on the military-model multi-fuel engines, prosecutors stated. Yang falsely advised the producer that her buyer was primarily based in Hong Kong moderately than Shanghai, fearing the U.S. firm could be much less prone to promote to an organization in mainland China, officers stated.

One among Yang’s co-conspirators, Zheng Yan, pleaded responsible final month to conspiring to submit false export data. A trial for 2 remaining co-defendants, Fan Yang and Ge Songtao, is scheduled for subsequent yr.

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Trump not able to OK TikTok deal, admits US will not get minimize

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President Donald Trump mentioned he expects to get a report Thursday about Oracle’s bid for the Chinese language-owned video app TikTok

“I’m not ready to log out on something. I’ve to see the deal,” Trump instructed White Home reporters Wednesday night about Oracle’s curiosity in TikTok.

Some within the U.S. have raised considerations concerning the deal, fearing that ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese language firm that owns TikTok, would keep entry to info on the 100 million TikTok customers in the USA.

“It needs to be 100% so far as nationwide safety is anxious,” Trump mentioned.

The president beforehand mentioned that he would ban TikTok if it wasn’t offered to an American firm. In an Aug. 6 order, Trump mentioned TikTok “reportedly censors content material that the Chinese language Communist Get together deems politically delicate,” is doubtlessly a supply for disinformation campaigns and “threatens to permit the Chinese language Communist Get together entry to Individuals’ private and proprietary info.”

TikTok maintains that it has not shared U.S. consumer information with the Chinese language authorities and wouldn’t achieve this, says it doesn’t censor movies on the request of Chinese language authorities and notes that moderators for U.S. operations are led by a U.S. crew.

Trump mentioned he was surprised to be taught that the Treasury couldn’t obtain any fee in change for the U.S. signing off on the deal.

“Amazingly, I discover that you just’re not allowed to do this,” Trump mentioned. “In the event that they’re keen to make large funds to the federal government they’re not allowed as a result of … there’s no authorized path to doing that. … How silly can we (the USA) be?”

TikTok, which says it has 100 million customers within the U.S. and 700 million globally, is understood for enjoyable, goofy movies of dancing, lip-syncing, pranks and jokes. It’s additionally dwelling to extra political materials, a few of which is essential of Trump.

The Oracle association, in accordance with an individual acquainted with the matter who isn’t approved to talk publicly, entrusts TikTok’s U.S. consumer information to Oracle, which might oversee technical operations for TikTok within the U.S. Oracle gained’t develop code for the app, however will evaluation it and updates to it.

Not all Republicans are on board with the Oracle deal. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a frequent critic of each China and the tech sector, referred to as for the federal government to reject the Oracle partnership and as a substitute pursue a full sale of TikTok within the U.S. or ban the app.

“An ongoing ‘partnership’ that enables for something aside from the complete emancipation of the TikTok software program from potential Chinese language Communist Get together management is totally unacceptable, and flatly inconsistent with the President’s Government Order of Aug. 6,” he wrote on Tuesday.

A bunch of six different Republican senators led by Marco Rubio of Florida on Wednesday despatched a letter to the president expressing reservations concerning the partnership settlement with Oracle, saying that it seems to have “important unresolved nationwide safety points” and {that a} deal “should be certain that TikTok’s U.S. operations, information and algorithms are completely outdoors the management of ByteDance or any Chinese language-state directed actors.”

A Trump govt order has set a Sept. 20 deadline, though it isn’t clear what’s going to occur on that day. TikTok has sued to cease the ban, which additionally impacts a individually owned Chinese language messaging app, WeChat, which is utilized by a number of million within the U.S.

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Italy’s virus cases more than quadruple as cluster emerges

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CODOGNO, Italy —
The number of people in Italy infected with the new virus from China more than quadrupled Friday due to an emerging cluster of cases in the country’s north that prompted officials to order schools, restaurants and businesses to close.

Many of the 14 new cases represented the first infections in Italy acquired through secondary contagion and brought the country’s total to 17. The cluster was located in a handful of tiny towns southeast of Milan in the Lombardy region, said Lombardy regional health chief Giulio Gallera.

“This was foreseeable even if we hoped it wouldn’t have happened,” Gallera said.

The first to fall ill was a 38-year-old Italian who met with someone who had returned from China on Jan. 21 without presenting any symptoms of the new virus, health authorities said. That person was being kept in isolation and appears to present antibodies to the virus.

The 38-year-old is now hospitalized in critical condition. His wife and a friend of his, who was a member of his running club, also tested positive for the virus. Three patients at the hospital in Codogno where he went with flu-like symptoms on Feb. 18 also have infections, as do five nurses and doctors.

In addition, another three elderly people, who frequented the same cafe as the runner’s father, also tested positive Friday, Gallera said.

Tests were under way, meanwhile, on the 38-year-old’s doctor, who made a house call on him, as well as on 120 people he worked with in the research and development branch of Unilever in Casalpusterlengo, Gallera said.

Word of the contagion sparked fears throughout the region, particularly given the closure of the emergency room at the Codogno hospital.

“We are old and we are very concerned,” said 76-year-old Codogno resident Carmelo Falcone. “I live on my own. I really don’t know what to do.”

Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza said Italy is now seeing the same sort of “cluster” of cases that Germany and France have seen. He signed an ordinance with Lombardy’s regional president outlining measures to contain the cluster to the 10 towns so far affected: Codogno, Castiglione d’Adda, Casalpusterlengo, Maleo, Fombio, Bertonico, Castelgerundo, Terranova dei Passerini, Somaglia and San Fiorano.

The towns, which have between 1,000-15,000 residents each, are located around 60 kilometers (37 miles) southeast of Milan, Lombardy’s capital and Italy’s business center.

The ordinance suspends public gatherings, commercial and business activity, sport, education, and other recreational activities throughout the region, Speranza, the health minister, said.

He defended the precautionary measures Italy took previously, noting that Italy remains the lone European country to have barred flights to and from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

“We had the highest measures in Europe,” he said.

The health ministry ordered anyone who came into direct contact with the victims to be quarantined for 14 days. And it recommended others in the region stay home. Italy’s civil protection agency, meanwhile, was working to identify military buildings, hotels or other structures that could serve as isolation wards if necessary.

“In other parts of the world, and also in China, it has been demonstrated that this system (of self-isolation) helps in a substantial way to block the spread,” Lombardy regional president Attilio Fontana said. “But we must not let ourselves be overcome by panic.”

The Codogno hospital closed its emergency room, and staff were seen wearing masks as movers brought in new beds and furniture as the quarantine got under way.

Rome’s infectious disease hospital is currently caring for three other people who were infected weeks ago, including a Chinese couple from hard-hit Wuhan and an Italian who is now testing “persistently negative” for the virus after two weeks of anti-viral treatment.

Despite the calls for safeguards, Italians were having a hard time finding protective face masks. A sampling of Milan pharmacies reported selling out out weeks ago, as did a pharmacist in Codogno who said Italy had been sending masks to China for weeks.

———

Winfield reported from Rome.

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Huawei hit by US export controls, potential import ban

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In a fateful swipe at telecommunications giant Huawei, the Trump administration issued an executive order Wednesday apparently aimed at banning its equipment from U.S. networks and said it was subjecting the Chinese company to strict export controls.

Huawei would be the largest business ever subjected to the controls, a law enforcement measure that requires it to obtain U.S. government approval on purchases of American technology, said Kevin Wolf, who had been the assistant secretary of commerce for export administration in the Obama administration.

“It’s going to have ripple effects through the entire global telecommunications network because Huawei affiliates all over the planet depend on U.S. content to function and if they can’t get the widget or the part or the software update to keep functioning then those systems go down,” he said.

Asked if that could include barring Google from selling its Android operating system, which Huawei uses on its handsets, Wolf said it would be premature to say until he’s seen a published order from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to be sure of the scope.

The executive order declares a national economic emergency that empowers the government to ban the technology and services of “foreign adversaries” deemed to pose “unacceptable risks” to national security — including from cyberespionage and sabotage.

While it doesn’t name specific countries or companies, it follows months of U.S. pressure on Huawei. It gives the Commerce Department 150 days to come up with regulations.

Washington and Beijing are locked in a trade war that partly reflects a struggle for global economic and technological dominance, and Wednesday’s actions up the ante.

The export restriction is “a grave escalation with China that at minimum plunges the prospect of continued trade negotiations into doubt,” said Eurasia Group analysts in a report.

“Unless handled carefully, this situation is likely to place U.S. and Chinese companies at new risk,” the report said.

It appears the law invoked in Wednesday’s executive order, the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, has never before been declared in a way that impacts an entire commercial sector. It has routinely been used to freeze the assets of designated terrorists and drug traffickers and impose embargoes on hostile former governments.

The order addresses U.S. government concerns that equipment from Chinese suppliers could pose an espionage threat to U.S. internet and telecommunications infrastructure. Huawei, the world’s biggest supplier of network gear, has been deemed a danger in U.S. national security circles for the better part of a decade.

U.S. justice and intelligence officials say Chinese economic espionage and trade secret theft are rampant. They have presented no evidence, however, of any Huawei equipment in the U.S. or elsewhere being compromised by backdoors installed by the manufacturer to facilitate espionage by Beijing. Huawei vehemently denies involvement in Chinese spying.

Huawei said blocking it from doing business in the United States would hamper introduction of next-generation communications technology in which the company is a world leader.

“We are ready and willing to engage with the U.S. government and come up with effective measures to ensure product security,” the company said in a statement.

The restrictions “will not make the U.S. more secure or stronger,” the company said. It said the United States would be limited to “inferior yet more expensive alternatives,” which would hurt companies and consumers.

A senior U.S. administration official, who briefed reports on condition of anonymity, said in a hastily arranged call that the order was “company and country agnostic” and would not be retroactive. Officials said “interim regulations” were expected before final rules were set but were vague on what that meant.

In a statement, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai called the executive order “a significant step toward securing America’s networks.”

“It signals to U.S. friends and allies how far Washington is willing to go to block Huawei,” said Adam Segal, cybersecurity director at the Council on Foreign Relations. Many in Europe have resisted a fierce U.S. diplomatic campaign to institute a wholesale ban on the Chinese company’s equipment in their next-generation 5G wireless networks.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a former telecoms executive, called the order “a needed step” because Chinese law compels Huawei to act as an agent of the state.

The order’s existence in draft form was first reported by The Washington Post last June. Segal said that with U.S.-China trade talks at a standstill, the White House “felt the time had finally come to pull the trigger.”

It is a “low-cost signal of resolve from the Trump administration,” Segal said, noting that there is little at stake economically.

All major U.S. wireless carriers and internet providers had already sworn off Chinese-made equipment after a 2012 report by the House Intelligence Committee said Huawei and ZTE, China’s No. 2 telecoms equipment company, should be excluded as enablers of Beijing-directed espionage.

Last year, Trump signed a bill that barred the U.S. government and its contractors from using equipment from the Chinese suppliers.

The FCC also has a rule in the works that would cut off subsidies for companies that use any equipment banned as posing a national security threat. Huawei’s handsets are virtually nonexistent in the U.S., and last week the FCC rejected a Chinese phone company’s bid to provide domestic service .

Huawei says it supplies 45 of the world’s top 50 phone companies. But only about 2 percent of telecom equipment purchased by North American carriers was Huawei-made in 2017.

The domestic economic impact will be restricted mostly to small rural carriers for whom Huawei equipment has been attractive because of its lower costs. That could make it more difficult to expand access to speedy internet in rural areas.

Blair Levin, an adviser to research firm New Street Research and a former FCC official, said the order is likely to widen the digital divide.

Roger Entner, founder of telecom research firm Recon Analytics, tweeted: “Banning Huawei in the U.S. has the FCC in a conundrum: Low cost Huawei equipment helps to build out broadband in rural America faster.” He wondered if the FCC would subsidize small rural carriers.

Requests for comment from a group representing small carriers, the Competitive Carriers Association, were not immediately returned. Administration officials told reporters they will welcome comments from the telecommunications industry as regulations are set.

They did not say whether subsidies would be considered.

Early this year, the Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against Huawei, a top company executive and several subsidiaries, alleging the company stole trade secrets, misled banks about its business and violated U.S. sanctions on Iran. The sweeping indictments accused the company of using extreme efforts to steal trade secrets from American businesses — including trying to take a piece of a robot from a T-Mobile lab.

The executive charged is Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of the company’s founder. She was arrested in Canada last December. The U.S. is seeking to extradite her.

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China criticizes US action against Huawei

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China vowed Thursday to “resolutely safeguard” Chinese companies after Washington labeled telecom equipment giant Huawei a security risk and imposed export curbs on U.S. technology sales to the company.

A foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, criticized the moves as an “abuse of export control measures” after the Trump administration issued an order requiring Huawei to obtain government permission for purchases.

Huawei Technologies Ltd., the biggest global maker of switching equipment for phone companies, has spent a decade fighting accusations it facilitates Chinese spying.

“We urge the United States to stop the wrong approach,” said a foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang. “China will take further necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.”

Lu gave no details, but analysts warned the export controls threaten to worsen a U.S.-Chinese conflict over technology and trade.

The restriction is “a grave escalation with China that at minimum plunges the prospect of continued trade negotiations into doubt,” said Eurasia Group analysts in a report.

“Unless handled carefully, this situation is likely to place U.S. and Chinese companies at new risk,” the report said.

President Donald Trump also issued an executive order Wednesday that bans phone carriers from using technology of “foreign adversaries” deemed to pose “unacceptable risks” to national security.

While it doesn’t name specific countries or companies, it follows months of U.S. pressure on Huawei. It gives the Commerce Department 150 days to come up with regulations.

A Ministry of Commerce spokesman, Gao Feng, gave a similar warning about “necessary measures” at a separate news conference but also gave no details of possible official steps.

Chinese retaliation against U.S. tariff hikes has included targeting American companies in China by slowing down customs clearance and issuance of business licenses.

Trump’s order addresses U.S. government concerns that equipment from Chinese suppliers could pose an espionage threat to U.S. internet and telecommunications infrastructure.

Huawei said blocking it from doing business in the United States would hamper introduction of next-generation communications technology in which the company is a world leader.

“We are ready and willing to engage with the U.S. government and come up with effective measures to ensure product security,” the company said in a statement.

———

Associated Press researcher Liu Zheng contributed.

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China’s Xi promotes building initiative amid debt worries

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Chinese President Xi Jinping promised Friday to set high standards for Beijing’s sweeping infrastructure-building initiative as fellow leaders praised the effort despite worries it is saddling some countries with too much debt.

Xi avoided mentioning debt in a speech at a Belt and Road forum celebrating his signature foreign initiative. But he promised changes in response to complaints about costs, dubious payoffs from the projects and possible environmental damage.

Beijing wants “open, green and clean cooperation” with “zero tolerance for corruption,” Xi said.

Developing countries have welcomed the initiative, launched in 2013, to expand trade by building roads, ports and other facilities from Asia through Africa and the Middle East to Europe. But some governments are struggling to repay Chinese loans, fueling complaints poor countries are being pushed into a “debt trap.”

The United States, Japan, India and Russia have chafed at the expansion of Beijing’s strategic influence with the building of trade and political networks centered on China.

Despite that, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday praised the initiative, saying it dovetails with the goals of a Russian-promoted market with four of its neighbors, the Eurasian Economic Union.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who had suspended plans for a Chinese-built railway and other projects due to their cost, said he was “fully in support.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, one of China’s closest allies, said Belt and Road has produced “substantial progress” in increasing power supplies and other areas.

The U.N.’s secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, said Belt and Road projects could help turn the balance in mitigating climate change.

Xi’s government is trying to revive the initiative’s momentum after the number of new projects plunged last year. That came after Chinese officials said state-owned banks would step up scrutiny of borrowers and some governments complained projects do too little for their economies and might give Beijing too much political influence.

Other countries including Thailand and Nepal have canceled or scaled back projects while Ethiopia and others have renegotiated debt repayment.

Xi promised changes to forestall corruption and environmental damage, and sought to allay worries Beijing is reaping most of the economic benefits and gaining power at the expense of countries involved.

The Belt and Road is “not an exclusive club” and promotes “common development and prosperity,” Xi said. He said Belt and Road will embrace international standards for project development, purchasing and operations.

China issued “debt sustainability” guidelines Thursday for assessing debt risks to borrowers that the Ministry of Finance said are based on standards of the International Monetary Fund and other international institutions.

Finance Minister Liu Kun said the guidelines, intended to “prevent and solve debt problems,” would classify countries by risk based on productivity, economic growth and other factors.

Other leaders attending the forum included Aung San Suu Kyi, state councilor for Myanmar, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and leaders or envoys from Germany, Italy and Greece.

Xi said Beijing wants to encourage cooperation on health, water resources, agriculture and technology. He promised scholarships for students from Belt and Road countries.

Chinese lenders have provided $440 billion in financing, the country’s central bank governor, Yi Gang, said Thursday without giving details on repayments or risks of defaults.

In addition, some 500 billion yuan ($75 billion) has been raised in Chinese bond markets, according to Yi.

The United States, Japan and other wealthy countries also finance construction in a region the Asia Development Bank says needs $26 trillion of investment through 2030 to keep economic growth strong.

In March, Italy became the first member of the Group of Seven major economies to sign an agreement to support Belt and Road.

Belt and Road countries also include many of the poorest and most indebted in Africa and Asia.

About one-quarter of the 115 governments that have signed agreements to support the initiative have foreign debt equal to at least 75% of their annual economic output, according to Moody’s. Mongolia is the most extreme at 240 percent. Egypt, Indonesia and Pakistan all are above 50%.

None is in immediate danger of default, but Belt and Road economies tend to have higher debt than average, weaker financial flows and more vulnerability to economic shocks, said Lillian Li, a Moody’s vice president.

Borrowing “more external funds will be more dangerous to themselves as well as to the lending countries,” Li said in an interview.

There’s a limit to how much Xi’s government might change the initiative because Beijing still wants to increase its influence and generate work for Chinese industries, Tom Rafferty of the Economist Intelligence Unit said in a report ahead of Friday’s forum.

One element to watch will be whether Beijing tries to enhance the appeal of Belt and Road by making it more like the World Bank or other multinational organizations, he said.

“This has the potential to generate further tensions with the U.S.,” Rafferty said.

———

Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen contributed.

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