• EV makers’ use of Chinese suppliers raises concerns about forced labor
• Top US diplomat Blinken meets China“s VP Han at U.N. amid strained ties
• Analysis: Lula struggles to revive Brazil“s “soft power“ amid US-China tensions
• Taiwan urges China to stop ‘destructive’ military sorties as tensions mount
• Explainer: China“s military hierarchy under spotlight after defence minister disappears
• [World] China sends top envoy Wang Yi to Russia for security talks
• Russia-Ukraine war live: key village near Bakhmut retaken; Chinese foreign minister to visit Russia
• Taiwan urges China to stop “destructive“ military activities
• Taiwan urges China to stop ‘destructive’ military activities as fighter jets cross median line
• China, EU should maintain open attitude, reject protectionism, Chinese foreign minister says: state media
• Evergrande arrests: China police detain staff at property giant’s wealth management arm
• Biden aide held hours of “constructive“ talks with Chinese diplomat
• Top US and Chinese diplomats meet in Malta to smooth strained relations

EV makers’ use of Chinese suppliers raises concerns about forced labor

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2023/electric-vehicles-forced-labor-china/2023-07-27T19:20:22.285Z

Reporter Evan Halper spent months mapping the opaque China-based supply chains behind the production of millions of electric vehicles. With the help of researchers, he pieced together hundreds of financial disclosures, company communications, social media postings, reports from Xinjiang news outlets and contracts to reach the findings in this project. Halper covers energy for The Washington Post’s business desk.

Tesla boasts that its electric vehicles are a marvel not just of innovation but also ethics, pledging in annual reports that it will “not knowingly accept products or services from suppliers that include forced labour or human trafficking in any form.” The carmaker touts its teams of monitors that travel to mining operations around the world, and has pledged to mount a camera at an African mine to prevent the use of underage or slave labor.

But Tesla has been conspicuously silent when it comes to China, despite evidence that materials that go into its vehicles come from the Xinjiang region, where forced labor has been rampant. Firms that appear to undermine a U.S. ban on products made in Xinjiang emerge near the top of Tesla’s sprawling network of suppliers, according to a Washington Post examination of corporate records and Chinese media reports. Among them are companies that have openly complied with China’s quotas for moving minority Muslim Uyghurs out of rural villages and into factory towns through what Chinese authorities call “labor transfers” or “surplus labor employment.”

Tesla is among several EV companies that have suppliers with Xinjiang connections, records show. Ford has a deal with a battery maker that congressional investigators allege has ties to vast lithium mining and processing operations in Xinjiang, and Volkswagen operates a factory in the region with a Chinese partner.

Though not all labor in Xinjiang is forced, China’s lockdown on information flowing from the region led the U.S. government last year to bar the import of any Xinjiang-made parts and products out of a concern they could be made with coerced labor.

The companies’ kid-glove approach on China and potential violations of U.S. law come as the White House and powerful congressional committees scrutinize the EV industry, which is booming as automakers race to gain the upper hand in the transition to climate-friendly battery-powered engines. The situation in Xinjiang is a key point of tension in the strained relationship between China and the West, as the United States and allies step up enforcement of penalties on industries operating there.

EVs are widely considered vital for confronting climate change, and the companies that make them are at an inflection point. The contracts and accountability measures they lock in now could affect communities around the world for decades. Many experts warn that companies are failing to ensure that their supply chains are free of forced labor, washing their hands of responsibility for upstream suppliers they shrug off as out of their managerial reach.

“We know from every other industry there is that if we don’t fix this now, in the early days of this transition, it will be a massive mistake,” said Duncan Jepson, a lawyer and supply-chain management expert. “But the auto companies are not giving much hope they are willing to do anything to make a difference.”

Automakers say they take pains to ensure that their suppliers are not sourcing from Xinjiang. Their efforts are hampered by China’s lack of transparency and demands that companies doing business there fall in line with the country’s industrial and ethnic policies even when they conflict with Western laws. And they say the vast web of up to 13,000 companies that provide materials is difficult to vet.

Yet evidence of sourcing from Xinjiang lies not very deep in their supply chains, The Post found. Chinese supply chains that provide the industry with materials for batteries, bodies and wheels include companies that openly use Xinjiang labor, according to The Post’s examination.

The extraction and processing of materials used in EV manufacture, such as lithium, manganese and bauxite, are rapidly expanding, posing a test for company policies that tout respect for human rights and the environment. Tepid enforcement has contributed to the exploitation of workers in the cobalt mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the destruction of livelihoods in the villages of Guinea and the potential enrichment of the repressive Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The shifting of Uyghurs from rural areas to factory towns has been part of a larger crackdown in Xinjiang, mounted by the Chinese government and aided by private industry. In recent years, Muslim minorities have been forced into reeducation camps where, rights investigators say, they undergo political indoctrination and military-style training.

Many of the reeducation camps have emptied since the peak of the repression in the late 2010s. But the United Nations said last year that the continued mass detentions may constitute crimes against humanity, and the United States accuses Beijing of genocide.

China’s secrecy and threats of penalties for those who cooperate with human rights inquiries make it nearly impossible to verify if workers in a factory or mine are there by choice. Against that backdrop, the United States last year implemented the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which treats all manufacturing in Xinjiang as tainted by forced labor unless firms can prove otherwise.

Particular scrutiny is falling on Tesla because of its market dominance and conscientious image.

“Tesla is proclaiming one thing in its sustainability reports and English-language pronouncements and then doing something totally different,” said Nathan Picarsic, a co-founder of Horizon Advisory, a geopolitical risk advisory firm that worked with The Post to map EV company links to Xinjiang.

Tesla did not respond to detailed questions from The Post. At a May investor meeting, chief executive Elon Musk promised to place a webcam at a Congo cobalt mine but ignored calls from shareholder groups for the company to disclose and sever ties with firms suspected of using forced labor in Xinjiang. On its website, the company says it continues “to map our complex supply chains to understand their origins. New suppliers are required to disclose the details of their supply chains so we can verify sources and identify risks via third-party audits.”

Tesla relies on China as a supplier, but also a market for its top-selling EVs. It sells about 40 percent of its new cars in the country.

“The risk of not being able to sell in China is crippling to Tesla,” said an industry supply-chain consultant who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. “There are just red lines Tesla cannot cross because of that. Talking about the problem of forced labor publicly is one of them. They might be working on the issue privately, but if they are, they won’t be talking about it.”

Chinese companies supply nearly 40 percent of the materials for batteries that go into Teslas worldwide, according to Nikkei Asia, a financial newspaper that scrutinized more than 13,000 companies in the Tesla supply chain.

Researchers at the Helena Kennedy Center for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University in Britain found that a complex web of suppliers and middlemen allows Tesla and several other companies to source material from Xinjiang without buying directly from there.

“We knew that there was forced labor built into the whole program,” said Kendyl Salcito, a co-author of the center’s report. “But we didn’t know it would touch on so many commodities and parts. We hadn’t actually understood how horrific the spread of forced labor was in this sector.”

A battery supply chain

The Post examined several Chinese supply chains that provide the EV industry with lithium for batteries; aluminum for batteries, bodies and wheels; and graphene, a lightweight material used in batteries and bodies. Each chain originated with companies that openly operate in Xinjiang using local labor.

One of those chains involves the world’s largest EV battery maker, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL, based in Ningde, on China’s east coast. CATL’s products power hundreds of thousands of Teslas assembled in both China and North America. It also has contracts with at least six other major global automakers.

CATL has already attracted scrutiny from U.S. officials because of its business relationship with Xinjiang Zhicun Lithium, one of the largest lithium carbonate producers in China. CATL’s collaboration with Ford on a new battery plant in Michigan has triggered forced-labor inquiries from two influential House committees and a group of Republican senators.

While there are large lithium deposits around the world, much of the refining and processing happens in China, where three-quarters of the world’s lithium-ion batteries are made. China is expanding those sectors in Xinjiang, and Zhicun is a big part of that effort. In the past few months alone, Zhicun has poured more than $1 billion into the region, according to corporate disclosures and media reports in China.

A confidential report to investors from a Chinese research firm lays out Zhicun’s growth in Xinjiang, detailing four major acquisitions in the region’s mining belts, some of them in partnership with government authorities. The report, which was written in February, was shared with The Post by a researcher on the condition that the author’s name and firm not be disclosed, as the person could be at risk of prosecution under China’s anti-sanctions laws.

The report warns clients that if U.S. regulators become aware of the scope of Zhicun’s involvement in Xinjiang, it could trigger seizures of products.

Auto industry suppliers such as Zhicun are a linchpin of the Chinese government’s policies in Xinjiang. The information they share with Chinese news outlets and on social media platforms has included photos of ethnic-minority laborers transferred to the factory cities of Xinjiang. Recent local press coverage of Zhicun emphasizes how the company is facilitating “rural employment of surplus labor” and is helping government officials “strengthen the transfer of employment of the rural labor force.” Such phrases are not an admission that labor is forced but are seen by investigators as indicating there is a high risk. Refusing a labor transfer order can lead to internment, activists say. Officials from other companies have shared details about months-long ideological and military-style training programs their workers complete.

CATL said in a statement that it hasn’t had a relationship with Zhicun since selling its stake in the lithium company this year. It said it “opposes and prohibits any forms of forced labor in the operations of CATL and our suppliers.” The company said that it has an audit program to assess the sustainability of its suppliers and that it has joined the U.N. Global Compact, a voluntary initiative in which companies pledge to support human rights.

But days after CATL’s sale of Zhicun closed, a limited partnership run by a former senior manager at CATL “with the financial support of CATL and one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries” purchased a majority stake in Zhicun, according to House investigators. Zhicun did not respond to questions from The Post.

Ford, which has entered into a licensing agreement with CATL, said in a statement that there are no Zhicun materials in its supply chain, and that Ford will “continue to engage CATL to prevent and, if necessary, address human rights issues in their supply chain.”

An aluminum supply chain

A second supply chain examined by The Post focuses on the provision of aluminum.

One company that has emerged as a red flag for researchers is Shandong Nanshan Aluminum, based in Yantai, on China’s northeastern coast, which supplies metal for EV batteries and exteriors to Tesla and several other automakers, as well as CATL.

Shandong Nanshan appears to be buying and shipping aluminum from smelters in Xinjiang through another company and a joint venture, according to evidence uncovered by the Sheffield Hallam researchers. A separate review of Chinese public financial disclosures by Horizon suggests that Shandong Nanshan and a subsidiary have been major buyers from a Xinjiang industrial giant called Xinjiang Zhonghe Co., which is deeply involved in carrying out the Chinese government’s labor transfer programs.

Shandong Nanshan did not respond to a detailed list of questions from The Post. Xinjiang Zhonghe, which did not respond to questions either, has been open about its role in China’s ethnic policies. The company in 2019 was among those that set up “vocational” training centers. Investigators from the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council warned in March that some of Xinjiang’s vocational centers have functioned more like prisons.

A top official at Xinjiang Zhonghe in September 2021 received an award from the regional government for embracing “the [Communist] Party’s ethnic policies” and helping secure “an ideological Great Wall for safeguarding national unity and ethnic unity.”

Xinjiang Zhonghe works with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, or XPCC, a paramilitary organization that carries out the Communist Party’s repression in the region. The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the XPCC in 2020, accusing it of “implementing a comprehensive surveillance, detention, and indoctrination program targeting Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minority groups.” The Chinese government denied the allegations and retaliated with sanctions against Western officials.

Xinjiang Zhonghe also reported in financial disclosures in 2020 and 2021 that its major customers included a Chinese firm called Beijing WKW Automotive Parts. Beijing WKW, which did not respond to written questions, has a deal to supply exterior parts to a Tesla factory in Shanghai.

Beijing WKW reported in its financial disclosures in China that Xinjiang Zhonghe was a top supplier from 2014 to 2019, after which the company stopped revealing the names of its top suppliers.

Another supply chain for EV metals

A third supply chain examined by The Post centers on Xinjiang Zhongtai Group, a huge industrial player in China that supplies the EV industry with aluminum and graphene. The company openly embraced Uyghur labor transfers as recently as 2020.

As Uyghur repression was intensifying in 2017, the company reported that it had transferred “2,000 surplus workers” to its industrial parks in Urumqi and Korla from Kashgar and Hotan, both about 900 miles away. The article highlighted how workers were taught to “appreciate the kindness of the [Communist] party” and participated in military-style training. The Uyghurs, who speak their own Turkic language, were also required to learn Mandarin and adhere to the “three loves and three antis — love the Party, love the motherland, love the big family of Chinese nationals; anti-separatism, anti-violence, and anti-extremism.”

In separate photos, groups of workers from a rural village — some pinned with big red flowers, others in military fatigues — are exhorted as they board buses and trains headed for the factory to strive toward Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s expectations for social stability. Postings in 2020 showed transferred workers in face masks at a facility where they were undergoing up to six months of training in such topics as “national unity” and “ideological and moral education.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in June placed the publicly traded arm of Xinjiang Zhongtai on its list of companies whose products cannot be imported under any condition, as a result of its “working with the government of Xinjiang to recruit, transport, transfer, harbor or receive forced labor or Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, or members of other persecuted groups out of Xinjiang.” Robert Silvers, the department’s undersecretary for policy, put U.S. companies on notice at the time that ties to the Chinese suppliers would have consequences. “Businesses must know their supply chains,” he said. Xinjiang Zhongtai did not respond to questions from The Post.

But enforcement of such rules is inconsistent. The auto industry has been able to work around the Biden administration’s ban on investments in, and certain business partnerships with, major suppliers to the Chinese military, including China South Industries Group Corp., a firm that sells weapons and also is a large auto manufacturer.

A review of EV maker connections to the Chinese military, commissioned by The Post from the firm Strategy Risks, revealed that Ford nonetheless remains in a major joint venture with a subsidiary of China South Industries Group. The partnership, which operates under the name Changan Ford Automobile Co. Ltd., employs 13,000 people making EVs and other cars in China.

Ford said it is in compliance with the White House order, as it is not an investor in Changan or China South Industries Group. “Changan is one of China’s largest publicly traded auto companies with most of the shares held by the public,” a statement from Ford said. “When Ford entered the China market more than 20 years ago, Ford and Changan created an independent joint venture as required to manufacture and distribute Ford vehicles.”

Experts shocked

As international condemnation and investor concern mount over Uyghur-made products infiltrating global supply chains, Chinese companies have become more selective about the information they share revealing participation in the mass transfer of “surplus” Uyghur labor, according to Adrian Zenz, a scholar who has compiled some of the most vivid evidence of what the U.S. government calls genocide. Photos of indoctrination ceremonies and military-style training on social media have given way to reports of job fairs and employee success stories.

Zenz this year presented research before Congress finding that while many of the reeducation centers have closed, the repression is taking other forms — including outright imprisonment, stepped-up surveillance and restriction of movement — as “intrusive and coercive labor placement and retention mechanisms are being intensified rather than dismantled.” The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, part of the federal government, found the same this year. China has meanwhile prohibited investigators from accessing the region and threatens harsh penalties for anyone who helps companies operating in China investigate their exposure to forced labor.

The extent to which Xinjiang labor has seeped into the broader EV supply chain has shocked even experts who have long studied the region. The Sheffield Hallam report detailed the links that most major auto companies now have, finding that every one of them is at high risk of making cars that use forced labor.

The report touched off a Senate Finance Committee investigation into auto companies’ ties to forced labor in Xinjiang.

“There is no excuse,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the committee’s chair. “This is a place where the Chinese government is committing genocide. … These companies are not going to be able to get on top of their forced-labor problem by papering it over with a bunch of marketing gloss.”

The targets of Wyden’s committee include Volkswagen, which is among the non-Chinese automakers most closely linked to Xinjiang. The company, which relies on sales in China for nearly half its revenue, operates a plant together with a Chinese firm in Xinjiang. Volkswagen said in a statement to The Post that it has found no evidence of forced labor in its operations there and plans an independent audit.

Wyden said the responses the committee is receiving from the carmakers reveal that EV companies do very little to apply their ethics codes to the lion’s share of businesses that make their parts. They typically vet their suppliers by asking them to fill out a questionnaire.

“These questionnaires are hilarious,” said Salcito, the co-author of the Sheffield Hallam report. “They include questions like, ‘Do you employ forced labor? Do you employ children?’ You’ll be shocked to learn the answer is always no.”

Several experts interviewed said EV companies risk a reckoning similar to that of solar panel firms, which plunged into crisis last year as U.S. agents seized more than 1,000 shipments over concerns of possible forced labor in Xinjiang and other trade violations.

Automakers are addressing the issues with varying degrees of urgency.

Researchers at Sheffield Hallam and the nonprofit Lead the Charge, which ranks EV companies for supply-chain ethics, pointed to Mercedes-Benz as an example of a company that is working hard to address human rights problems in its supply chain. The company has aggressive auditing targets, sends teams to investigate abuses reported at upstream suppliers, and gives its sustainability team considerable clout in the corporate office.

Ford argues that it does many of those same things and has one of the industry’s most comprehensive systems tracing raw materials from mines to assembly plants.

Tesla helped launch a mapping program to show customers the origins of the cobalt in one of its batteries. Volvo, which disputes findings by Sheffield Hallam that at least six of its suppliers have links to forced labor, says it is using blockchain technology and artificial intelligence to locate problems.

“Mapping our supply chain is an immense work, which is an equally important as challenging task,” said a statement from Volvo. “The supply chains are complex, global and dynamic. Hence, this is a way of working that has no end date.”

Tracking EV materials

There’s still heated debate, though, over whether the industry is up to the task of honestly confronting human and environmental exploitation in the production of EVs, considering how rampant they remain. And there is suspicion by even many inside the industry that some of the mapping and tracing initiatives automakers are unveiling are more driven by the hope of keeping regulators at bay than boosting accountability.

Such concerns have moved the European Union to mandate that by 2026 all EVs come equipped with a “battery passport” that details the origin of materials in the battery, along with its carbon footprint.

“Some in the industry are saying tracing these things through the supply chain can’t be done. [Though] it may not be easy … it is nowhere close to impossible,” said Doug Johnson-Poensgen, chief executive of Circulor, a supply-chain monitoring firm advising European regulators. “Everybody is going to have to do this.”

Johnson-Poensgen says new technologies enable auto companies and their suppliers to track materials through each step in the production process, setting off alarms if sustainably mined minerals are mixed with other minerals, for example. The tracking systems sort through reams of data to determine if there are local labor or environmental violations at facilities. Satellites can use cameras to help monitor the operations and who is coming and going from them.

Some major suppliers and automakers, though, are lobbying the E.U. to allow the industry to design and enforce battery-passport rules, rather than subjecting their reports to independent review.

Jepson, who has deep experience helping companies use technology to confront modern slavery, said the ability of shoestring-budget operations like Horizon and Sheffield Hallam to discover forced-labor connections that car companies haven’t found shows that the firms are not trying hard enough.

“You are going to tell me a tiny [nongovernmental organization] can find out what is happening with your suppliers and you can’t?” he said. “For car companies to say they don’t have the technology or manpower to figure this out is nonsense.”

About this story

Reporting by Evan Halper. Photography by James Forde, Shuran Huang, Lauren Justice, Leah Nash and Stephen Speranza.

Design by Lucy Naland. Development by Irfan Uraizee. Graphic by Júlia Ledur.

Sandhya Somashekhar was the lead editor. Editing by Haley Hamblin, Courtney Kan, Vanessa H. Larson, Olivier Laurent, Joe Moore, Martha Murdock and Alan Sipress.

Additional support from Steven Bohner, Matt Clough, David Dombrowski, Gwen Milder, Sarah Murray, Andrea Platten, Tyler Remmel, Erica Snow and Daniela Vivas Labrador.

Clean cars, hidden toll

As the global demand for electric cars begins to outpace the demand for gas-powered cars, Washington Post reporters set out to investigate the unintended consequences of a global EV boom. This series explores the impact of securing the minerals needed to build and power electric vehicles on local communities, workers and the environment.

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Top US diplomat Blinken meets China“s VP Han at U.N. amid strained ties

https://reuters.com/article/usa-china-blinken/top-us-diplomat-blinken-meets-chinas-vp-han-at-u-n-amid-strained-ties-idUSKBN30O1FI

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Monday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly as the world's two largest economies hold a series of meetings to stabilize their strained relationship.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Malta for 12 hours last weekend, in what both sides have described as "candid, substantive and constructive" talks.

The meeting between Blinken and Han was the latest in a series of high-level talks between U.S. and Chinese officials that could lay the groundwork for a meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year.

"The world expects us to responsibly manage our relationship," Blinken said in brief remarks at the beginning of his meeting with Han. "The United States is committed to doing just that," he added.

"From the perspective of the United States, face to face diplomacy is the best way to deal with areas where we disagree, and also the best way to explore areas of cooperation between us," Blinken said.

Blinken, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Biden climate envoy John Kerry have traveled to China this year to thaw relations and ensure continued communication between the two countries amid tensions that flared after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that traveled over the United States.

Biden this month expressed disappointment that Xi had skipped a summit of Group of 20 leaders in India, but said he would "get to see him." The next likely opportunity for Biden to hold talks with Xi is an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November, where U.S. aides for months have hoped to stage such a meeting.

Neither Blinken nor Han in their remarks explicitly mentioned whether such a meeting will materialize.

"Currently, China-U.S. relations face many difficulties and challenges," Han told Blinken, noting that China hoped the U.S. would make efforts to implement the consensus reached by the two countries' leaders and promote the stable development of relations.

"The world needs stable and healthy China-U.S. relations,” Han said.

Analysis: Lula struggles to revive Brazil“s “soft power“ amid US-China tensions

https://reuters.com/article/brazil-diplomacy/analysis-lula-struggles-to-revive-brazils-soft-power-amid-us-china-tensions-idUSKBN30O0WL

Since he returned to office in January, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has traveled to 21 countries and met with more than 50 heads of state, including two kings and the Pope.

The globe-trotting leftist leader, the first head of state to address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, has prioritized foreign trips in his third term so far, as he strives to restore his country as a global player.

"Brazil is back," he repeats in speeches across five continents, in contrast with the growing isolation that came with his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro's hard-right political stance and dismal environmental record.

But diplomats and foreign policy experts say Lula is far from restoring the "soft power" status Brazil enjoyed after his first two terms, from 2003 to 2010, when the country became a voice for the rising global south while remaining independent from both the U.S. and China.

In part, that reflects the choppier waters the 77-year-old Brazilian leader now navigates, as Beijing and Washington flirt with a new Cold War while war rages in Ukraine. Brazil has also become increasingly dependent on Asian markets, which buy half of its exports. China alone, Brazil's main trading partner, buys 37% of its farm exports.

"This is a very tricky balancing act and Lula so far has not been able to find the right equilibrium," said Oliver Stuenkel, an associate professor of international relations at the FGV think tank in Sao Paulo. "There is a perception in Brazilian society now that he is tilting towards the Sino-Russian axis more than the West."

On Wednesday, Lula is scheduled to meet U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the climate crisis on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, focusing where the Brazilian leader has shined.

Lula has helped to restore Brazil's central role in climate diplomacy, leading a regional rainforest summit, drawing global contributions to protect the Amazon and overhauling policies to bring down deforestation sharply.

Even before he took office, Lula was greeted like a rock star last November at the U.N. climate change conference in Egypt. His polices have helped to nearly halve deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon through August, compared to the first eight months of last year, rebuilding Brazil's credibility for climate talks.

But his comments about the war in Ukraine - he has said both sides are responsible for the conflict as he sought to broker a peace deal - have angered U.S. and European allies, who have accused him of parroting Russian rhetoric.

Lula's penchant for off-the cuff remarks have occasionally made matters worse.

During a G20 meeting in India this month, he said there was "no way" Russian President Vladimir Putin would be arrested if he attended next year's summit in Rio de Janeiro. When reporters probed him on Brazil's commitments to enforce an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, he rowed back his comments but suggested Brazil could leave the ICC.

"There have been some bruising moments. The whole Russia -Ukraine issue was a lesson learned," said Thomas Shannon, a former U.S. ambassador to Brazil who is now senior international policy advisor at Arnold & Porter.

At last month's BRICS summit in South Africa, where the group of leading emerging economies expanded its membership as China called for, Brazil got Chinese backing for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat it wants. But that is unlikely to happen any time soon, according to Shannon.

The closer ties to Beijing could complicate Brazil's relationship with Washington, including access to key technology, Shannon added.

Closer to home, Lula has reaped little in concrete terms from Latin America's broad left-of-center alignment. The Mercosur trade bloc took nearly half a year to respond formally to a new European position on a trade deal now on the ropes.

And Lula's longstanding sympathies with leftist governments in Nicaragua and Venezuela accused of human rights abuses have him looking out of step with a new generation of progressive Latin American leaders.

Lula rolled out the red carpet for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Brasilia at a regional summit in May, helping to bring the socialist leader out of isolation. Other leaders, including Chile's leftist President Gabriel Boric, criticized Maduro's presence.

Impressions of ideological bias may hurt Brazil's image as the country returns to the international spotlight, putting Lula at odds sometimes with his Foreign Ministry, said Rubens Barbosa, a former Brazilian ambassador to London and Washington.

"Where is Brazil the defender of human rights? It's not clear what Brazil stands for today when it picks Putin and Maduro as allies," said a South American ambassador in Brasilia, who asked not to be identified.

"Brazil is rapidly wasting its soft power by trying to be an international player with an outdated agenda," he said.

Taiwan urges China to stop ‘destructive’ military sorties as tensions mount

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/18/china-taiwan-military-planes-median-line/2023-09-18T04:01:27.391Z

TAIPEI, Taiwan — China sent more than 100 fighter jets and nine navy ships into the Taiwan Strait on Monday, marking the largest single-day incursion in three years as Beijing escalates its threats against the island democracy.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 103 Chinese military aircraft and nine navy vessels were detected near Taiwan as of 6 a.m. local time Monday. Forty of the aircraft had entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) by crossing the median line, an unofficial sea border between Taiwan and China that helped maintain stability for years in the 110-mile-wide strait.

Beijing, which claims Taiwan is an inseparable part of the People’s Republic of China, has increasingly ignored the median line, sending sorties closer to Taiwan in what is known as gray zone tactics intended to exhaust and intimidate Taiwan’s smaller military.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Monday’s incursion set a “new high” and would pose “severe challenges” to security in the Taiwan Strait.

“The People’s Liberation Army’s continued military harassment could easily cause a sharp increase in tensions and worsen regional security,” it said in a statement, referring to the official name of China’s military. “We call on the Beijing authorities to take responsibility and immediately stop such destructive unilateral actions.”

The Taiwanese military said it was monitoring the situation and had dispatched aircraft, navy vessels and land-based missile systems to respond. When asked about the incursion at a news briefing Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said: “Taiwan is part of China. There is no such thing as the ‘median line.’”

Military observers in Taiwan said the reason for the escalation, which came a day after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan in an effort to stabilize deteriorating ties, was not obvious. Chinese Vice President Han Zheng is set to meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

103 PLA aircraft and 9 PLAN vessels around Taiwan were detected by 6 a.m.(UTC+8) today. R.O.C. Armed Forces have monitored the situation and tasked CAP aircraft, Navy vessels, and land-based missile systems to respond these activities. pic.twitter.com/YjebwioA4v

— 國防部 Ministry of National Defense, R.O.C. 🇹🇼 (@MoNDefense) September 18, 2023

“It stands to reason that when high-level officials from the United States and China are in talks, they will create a more relaxed atmosphere,” said Shu Hsiao-huang, associate research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

“In the past, when incursions hit new heights, it was usually in response to a specific event,” he said, “but this time doesn’t seem to be in response to anything.”

Taiwan’s typhoon season may have prevented the Chinese military from sending planes earlier, or the PLA may simply be conducting large-scale exercises, according to Shu. China’s Shandong aircraft carrier was seen last Monday sailing through the Bashi Channel, between Taiwan and the Philippines, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. Dozens of PLA ships and war craft were detected in the Western Pacific, possibly in response to the U.S. series of military exercises held with Indo-Pacific allies in August.

China has said for years that it seeks “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan but will take it by force if necessary. In recent years, ties between the two sides have broken down following the election of Tsai Ing-wen, whose Democratic Progressive Party is seen as less favorable to Beijing. As China-U.S. relations have deteriorated, cross-strait tensions have also risen.

In the days following a high-profile visit to Taiwan by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August last year, the PLA fired missiles around Taiwan and sent more than 200 military aircraft and more than 50 warships in a show of force, conducting military exercises that encircled the main island. Since then, China has created a “new normal” of PLA aircraft regularly crossing the median line.

Monday’s incursion included China’s fourth-generation fighter jets, the J-10 and the J-16, as well as refueling planes. A map released by the Taiwanese Defense Ministry showed some of the aircraft crossing the median line and continuing past the southern tip of Taiwan’s main island into the Bashi Channel, potentially cutting Taiwan off from the Philippines, where the United States will soon have access to new military bases.

“They are trying to create a new normal — to say they don’t need a special reason. They can display their military might at any time. They want to put constant pressure on Taiwan’s perimeter. One of the things they want to say is that they can blockade Taiwan anytime if they want to,” said Lin Ying-yu, a professor who teaches PLA studies at Tamkang University in Taiwan.

Explainer: China“s military hierarchy under spotlight after defence minister disappears

https://reuters.com/article/china-poliitcs-defence-leadership/explainer-chinas-military-hierarchy-under-spotlight-after-defence-minister-disappears-idUSKBN30O0BK

The disappearance of Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu highlights the opaque and complex nature of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), diplomats and analysts say.

Reuters reported on Friday that Li is under investigation over the corrupt procurement of military equipment during his previous role. Eight other senior officials are also being investigated. His fate has not been officially explained.

In the Chinese system, the Minister of National Defence is seen as significantly less powerful than the U.S. defence secretary and many international equivalents.

The position is essentially a diplomatic and ceremonial role without a direct command function.

Even so, Li is among the six military officials under Commander-in-Chief and President Xi Jinping on the core Central Military Commission (CMC) and is one of five State Councillors, a post outranking a regular cabinet minister.

An aerospace engineer who worked in China's satellite program, Li was seen as technocrat who helped implement Xi's modernisation vision for the PLA, military attaches and analysts say.

The PLA is the armed wing of the ruling Communist Party and, according the Pentagon's annual report on China's military, "does not directly serve the state but is rather under the direct control of the party".

As Li rose through his career to this point, he would have been vetted to ensure he was absolutely loyal to the party and to Xi.

The PLA still operates an active cadre of political commissars who flank the command chain, tasked with ensuring loyalty, unity and morale. The commissar system does not have clear equivalents outside traditional Communist militaries.

The CMC, meanwhile, is the party's highest-level decision-making body on military matters.

"Since becoming CMC Chairman, Xi Jinping has implemented multiple reforms reducing PLA autonomy and greatly strengthening Party control over the military," notes the Pentagon report, which was released in November 2022.

That adds an extra layer of opacity beyond routine military secrecy, according to foreign defence attaches who scrutinise the PLA.

For sure. The PLA is already the world's largest fighting force and growing more capable and modernised. As it absorbs new weapons, its system is changing too, with the creation in recent years of new unified regional commands and a Strategic Support Force to cover its space and cyber warfare capabilities - a body Li was deputy commander of in 2016.

As the PLA's power and reach expands, foreign militaries are eager to learn more about how it functions and the strategic intentions of its leadership - efforts that underpin military-to-military to diplomacy.

The disappearance of Li has raised concerns among some diplomats and analysts that Chinese military outreach is being trumped by an internal security clampdown.

U.S. defence chiefs are eager to restore routine communications with their Chinese counterparts amid regional tensions.

Li, who was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 over the purchase of Russian weapons, shunned formal discussions with U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in Singapore in June.

After weekend talks between White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Malta, U.S. officials said they noted "limited" signs that the communications chill could ease.

Even if China announces a new defence minister and allows them to meet Austin, some analysts say a more senior figure, such as CMC vice-chairman and close Xi ally Zhang Youxia, would be a figure on a more equal footing.

Given the upheaval, an international security conference Li was due to host in October is now being closely watched.

If Li does not appear at the upcoming Xiangshan Forum, Beijing's biggest defence diplomacy outreach event, it could mean that he is still being held for investigation.

Diplomats say China is set to hold the forum in the latter half of next month, but has not sent invitations - late by China's standards.

Billed as Beijing's version of the Shangri La Dialogue, the Xiangshan Forum is a high-level conference through which China tries to shape global discussions on defence and security issues.

When the forum was last held in-person in 2019, more than 530 defence and military officials and scholars attended, including defence ministers from 23 countries.

The Chinese defence minister would typically give the keynote speech at the forum and meet with delegations.

[World] China sends top envoy Wang Yi to Russia for security talks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-66840138?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

Russia-Ukraine war live: key village near Bakhmut retaken; Chinese foreign minister to visit Russia

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/sep/18/russia-ukraine-war-live-updates-ukrainian-drone-strikes-repelled-russia-chinese-foreign-minister-wang-yi-russia-visit

Taiwan urges China to stop “destructive“ military activities

https://reuters.com/article/taiwan-china-defence/taiwan-urges-china-to-stop-destructive-military-activities-idUSKBN30O01G

Taiwan's defence ministry on Monday urged China to stop "destructive, unilateral action" after reporting a sharp rise in Chinese military activities near the island, warning such behaviour could lead to a sharp increase in tensions.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has in recent years regularly carried out military drills around the island as it seeks to assert its sovereignty claims and pressure Taipei.

The ministry said that since Sunday it had spotted 103 Chinese military aircraft over the sea, a number it called a "recent high".

Its map of Chinese activities over the past 24 hours showed fighter jets crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which had served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides until China began regularly crossing it a year ago.

Other aircraft flew south of Taiwan through the Bashi Channel, which separates the island from the Philippines.

China's activities over the past day have caused "serious challenges" to security in the strait and regionally, the ministry said in an accompanying statement.

Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are the common responsibilities of all parties in the region, it added.

"The continuous military harassment by the Communist military can easily lead to a sharp increase in tensions and worsen regional security," the ministry said. "We call on the Beijing authorities to take responsibility and immediately stop such destructive unilateral actions."

China's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition to the air force incursion near Taiwan over the weekend, China last week also dispatched more than 100 naval ships for exercises in the region, including in the strategic waters in the South China Sea and off Taiwan's northeastern coast, a regional security official told Reuters.

The official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the activity put pressure on everyone in the region and called the scale of naval exercises the "largest in years".

Taiwan's defence ministry noted last week that July to September is traditionally the busiest season for Chinese military drills along the coast.

Chieh Chung, a military researcher at Taiwan's National Policy Foundation think tank, said that there may not be a direct "political motivation" for these drills, but that China was pressuring Taiwan with longer missions across the median line.

China is also honing its abilities to operate fighters further out at sea, as seen with the Y-20 aerial refuelling aircraft accompanying fighter jets, Chieh added.

China is bolstering its air power facing Taiwan, with a permanent deployment of new fighters and drones at expanded air bases, Taiwan's defence ministry said in its biennial report this month.

Taiwan urges China to stop ‘destructive’ military activities as fighter jets cross median line

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/18/taiwan-china-conflict-destructive-military-activities-fighter-jets

Taiwan’s defence ministry has urged China to stop “destructive, unilateral action” after reporting a sharp rise in Chinese military activities near the island, warning such behaviour could lead to an increase in tensions.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has in recent years regularly carried out military drills around the island as it seeks to assert its sovereignty claims and pressure Taipei.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said that since Sunday it had spotted 103 Chinese military aircraft over the sea, a number it called a “recent high”.

Its map of Chinese activities over the past 24 hours showed fighter jets crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which had served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides until China began regularly crossing it a year ago.

Other aircraft flew south of Taiwan through the Bashi Channel, which separates the island from the Philippines.

China’s activities over the past day have caused “serious challenges” to security in the strait and regionally, the ministry said in an accompanying statement.

Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are the common responsibilities of all parties in the region, it added.

“The continuous military harassment by the Communist military can easily lead to a sharp increase in tensions and worsen regional security,” the ministry said. “We call on the Beijing authorities to take responsibility and immediately stop such destructive unilateral actions.“

China’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Taiwan’s defence ministry noted last week that July to September is traditionally the busiest season for Chinese military drills along the coast.

China is bolstering its air power facing Taiwan, with a permanent deployment of new fighters and drones at expanded airbases, Taiwan’s defence ministry said in its biennial report this month.

Last week, China’s government unveiled a “new path towards integrated development” with Taiwan, including proposals to make it easier for Taiwanese people to live, study and work in China.

At the same time, it sent the largest number of warships to gather in years to the waters on Taiwan’s east, in what analysts said signalled a choice between peaceful “reunification” and military violence, just months out from Taiwan’s presidential election.

With Reuters

China, EU should maintain open attitude, reject protectionism, Chinese foreign minister says: state media

https://reuters.com/article/china-diplomacy-malta/china-eu-should-maintain-open-attitude-reject-protectionism-chinese-state-media-idUSKBN30O00A

China and the European Union (EU) should continue to maintain an "open attitude" and "reject protectionism", Chinese state media said on Monday, citing Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

State-backed Xinhua quoted Wang as saying that China has consistently supported the EU's strategic independence and European integration and that both sides should maintain an "open attitude, firmly support free trade, reject protectionism, and achieve the positive effects of China-EU cooperation".

"China-EU cooperation outweighs differences and the two sides are partners instead of rivals," Wang was quoted as saying.

Wang's remarks come days after the European Commission launched an investigation last week into whether to impose punitive tariffs to protect EU automakers against Chinese electric vehicle imports it says are benefiting from excessive state subsidies.

The remarks were made during Wang's meeting with his Malta counterpart Ian Borg on Saturday, at which China and Malta have agreed to work together to promote China-European Union cooperation, Xinhua said.

China hopes Malta would continue to play a positive role in development of China-EU relations, Wang said.

Evergrande arrests: China police detain staff at property giant’s wealth management arm

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/18/evergrande-arrests-china-police-detain-staff-at-wealth-management-arm-property-giant

Police in China have arrested several employees at a subsidiary of Evergrande, the troubled property giant that is struggling under debts running into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Employees at Evergrande’s financial subsidiary, Evergrande Wealth Management, were arrested, police in the southern city of Shenzhen said in a statement, without specifying the number of employees or the charges against them.

Police in the statement also urged the public to report any cases of suspected fraud to the authorities.

Evergrande’s enormous debt has contributed to the country’s deepening property market crisis, raising fears of a global spillover.

The property sector which, along with construction, accounts for about a quarter of China’s GDP, is a key pillar of the country’s growth and has experienced a dazzling boom in recent decades.

But the massive debt accrued by the industry’s biggest players – Evergrande had estimated debt of $328bn (307bn euros) at the end of June – has been seen by Beijing in recent years as an unacceptable risk for China’s financial system and overall economic health.

Authorities have gradually tightened developers’ access to credit since 2020, and a wave of defaults have followed – notably that of Evergrande.

Another Chinese property giant, Country Garden, has narrowly avoided default in recent months, after reporting a record loss and debts of more than $150bn.

State-backed developer Sino-Ocean is the latest company to show signs of trouble. On Friday it announced it would suspend payments of offshore debts.

Meanwhile, the Moody’s rating agency recently downgraded the outlook for China’s property sector from “stable” to “negative”, arguing that the government support measures will have only a short-term impact.

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Biden aide held hours of “constructive“ talks with Chinese diplomat

https://reuters.com/article/usa-china/biden-aide-held-hours-of-constructive-talks-with-chinese-diplomat-idUSKBN30N05O

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Malta for hours this weekend, Beijing and Washington said on Sunday, as the world's two largest economies seek to stabilize troubled relations.

Both sides held "candid, substantive and constructive" talks during multiple meetings held Sept. 16-17, according to separate statements from the White House and the Chinese foreign ministry published on Sunday.

There were also "limited" early signs that severed military communications between the two sides may start to be restored, a senior Biden administration official said.

Chinese officials did not comment on the prospect of military-to-military communication.

Sullivan's meeting with Wang was the latest in a series of high-level discussions between U.S. and Chinese officials that could lay the groundwork for a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year.

They come amid a string of upheavals in the Chinese government's top ranks, including the disappearance of defense minister Li Shangfu, and wobbles in the country's economy that have caused consternation in foreign capitals.

The Malta talks spanned about 12 hours over the two days, a senior Biden administration official told reporters. Sullivan last met Wang in Vienna in May.

China's foreign ministry said both sides agreed to maintain high-level exchanges and hold bilateral consultations on Asia-Pacific affairs, maritime affairs and foreign policy.

The United States told China it was ready to work together on counter-narcotics, artificial intelligence and climate change even as it expressed concerns over unspecified Chinese support for Russia and Beijing recently sending fighter jets across the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. official said.

Wang cautioned the United States that the Taiwan issue is the "first insurmountable red line of Sino-U.S. relations," according to the Chinese foreign ministry statement. China claims the self-ruled island as its own territory.

The U.S. official said "there have been some small or limited indications" that Beijing is ready to re-open some cross-military communications used to de-escalate conflict between the two countries after those ties were cut following an Aug. 2022 visit by former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan that enraged China.

In its statement, the White House strongly suggested that more meetings are to come between the U.S. and China, adding that both sides "committed to maintain this strategic channel of communication and to pursue additional high-level engagement and consultations in key areas ... in the coming months."

Biden this month expressed disappointment that Xi skipped a summit of Group of 20 leaders in India, but said he would "get to see him." The next likely opportunity for Biden to hold talks with Xi is an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November, where U.S. aides for months have hoped to stage such a meeting.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Biden climate envoy John Kerry have traveled to China this year to thaw relations and ensure continued communication between the two countries amid tensions that flared after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that traveled over the United States.

Biden and Xi last met in 2022 on the sidelines of a G20 summit on Indonesia's resort island of Bali.

Related Galleries:

Top US and Chinese diplomats meet in Malta to smooth strained relations

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/17/china-united-states-jake-sullivan-wang-yi-meeting-malta

Top US and Chinese diplomats met in Malta over the weekend as the world’s two largest economies attempted to smooth strained relations and clear a path for their respective presidents – Joe Biden and Xi Jinping – to meet in November.

According to both Beijing and Washington, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met multiple times with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in Malta, where – according to separate statements – “candid, substantive and constructive” talks were held.

A readout from the White House on Sunday said the two officials had discussed the US-China bilateral relationship, global and regional security concerns, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and issues around the Taiwan strait.

China’s foreign ministry said the sides came away with an agreement to maintain high-level exchanges and hold bilateral consultations on Asia-Pacific affairs, maritime issues and foreign policy.

The meetings are the first to be held between Sullivan and Wang since May, four months after Biden ordered American fighter jets to shoot down a Chinese-operated balloon off the US coast. China condemned the downing as “a serious violation of international practice”.

The balloon’s downing later caused the Biden administration to cancel a trip to Beijing by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken.

Strained US-China relations over American support for Taiwan, trade frictions around intellectual property and a Chinese military buildup – particularly in the area of hypersonic missiles, which the US does not have – put in doubt a meeting between Biden and Xi at an Asia-Pacific economic cooperation (Apec) meeting in San Francisco in November.

Last week, China’s top security agency hinted that any meeting between the two leaders depended on the US “showing sufficient sincerity”. Biden and Xi have not met since November 2022, when they had a three-and-a-half-hour sideline meeting at the G20 in Bali, Indonesia.

After that meeting, Biden said the US will “compete vigorously” with China while insisting that he’s “not looking for conflict”. Xi said the countries need to “explore the right way to get along”.

But Xi was a no-show at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, last weekend. Biden later expressed disappointment but added that he was going to “get to see him”.

Sunday’s read-out provided by the White House said the meeting between Sullivan and Wang was part of “ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the relationship”.

The statement added that the talks had built on the Bali conversation, the meetings of Sullivan and Wang in May, and US diplomatic visits to Beijing over the past several months by Blinken, treasury secretary Janet Yellen, special climate envoy John Kerry and commerce secretary Gina Raimondo.

The US notice said that Sullivan “noted the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan strait” during the meetings. According to the Chinese foreign ministry statement, Wang cautioned the US that Taiwan is the “first insurmountable red line of Sino-US relations”.

Reuters contributed reporting