英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总 2023-11-02
November 3, 2023 31 min 6471 words
根据你提供的新闻报道,我总结了以下主要内容- 1. 美国财政部长耶伦访问亚太经合组织会议,表示印太地区国家不应该非要在美国和中国之间做选择。 2. 中国谷物买家在美国爱荷华州签署协议,承诺购买大量美国农产品,尤其是大豆。这是自2017年以来双方首次签署这样的协议。 3. 中国外长王毅最近访问美国,双方同意在近期举行一系列磋商。据报道,中美将就核武控制举行罕见的对话。 4. 中国外交部表示,中美将在本周于华盛顿就核不扩散举行谈判。这是奥巴马政府以来两国首次此类对话。 5. 中国前总理李克强逝世,受到公众哀悼。官方试图控制对其过度热烈的评价,但民众自发在李克强故居等地献花致意。 6. 多个报道提到李克强推行经济改革,关心普通人,与习近平强势执政形成对比。李克强去世使一些人怀念中国较为开放的时期。 7. 一些报道涉及中国在核武器上的迅速发展,以及中美是否会进行核武控制谈判。 8. 一些报道谈到中国限制报道李克强逝世一事,删除网上评论。显示出当局担心公众哀悼酿成抗议。 评论- 通过这些报道可以看出,西方媒体对中国政局和李克强逝世的报道存在一定偏见- 1. 过多报道李克强与习近平在政策取向上的差异,制造出李克强是改革派而习近平是强势派的对立印象。 2. 夸大李克强受到公众热烈追思的程度,宣扬李克强为人民 Premier 的形象。 3. 单方面报道中国限制报道和舆论诋毁中国言论自由。事实上李克强逝世报道量很大,公众表达哀思也有一定空间。 4. 关于中美关系报道更多从竞争对抗角度,渲染中国核威胁论。对中美存在广泛共同利益视而不见。 5. 整体smartindent还倾向于渲染中国政局不稳定,民众与政府对立的印象。 这些报道反映出西方媒体希望通过渲染中国内部矛盾来达到打击中国国际形象和政权合法性的目的。我们需要保持清醒认识西方媒体筛选性报道和 jours 污化中国的倾向,以更加全面和客观的视角了解中国国情。
- Yellen says Indo-Pacific countries should not have to choose between U.S. and China
- [World] Li Keqiang: Official nerves show as BBC hears praise for dead Chinese leader
- [World] Li Keqiang: Chinese grieve popular ex-premier in quiet show of dissent
- U.S. farm leaders, visiting China, talk up agriculture trade
- China says official to lead a delegation in China-US nuclear talks
- China cremates “people“s“ premier, lowers national flag amidst outpouring of grief
- China prepares to cremate “the people“s“ premier, lowers national flag amidst outpouring of grief
- Pro-Haley group falsely says DeSantis wanted to ‘fast track’ China deals
- Li Keqiang funeral in China brings out crowds despite suppression effort
- China and US reportedly agree to rare nuclear arms control talks
Yellen says Indo-Pacific countries should not have to choose between U.S. and China
https://reuters.com/article/apec-usa-yellen-china/yellen-says-indo-pacific-countries-should-not-have-to-choose-between-u-s-and-china-idUSKBN31X1RJU.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday sought to reassure Asian countries that the U.S. approach to China will not lead to a 'disastrous' division of the global economy that would force them to take sides.
In a speech ahead of the U.S.-hosted Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco later this month, Yellen said that a full de-coupling of the U.S. and Chinese economies was "simply not practical," especially given the complexity of Asian supply chains and deep economic linkages to China in the region.
Her comments sought to assuage growing concerns about geopolitical fragmentation of the global economy into U.S.-led and China-led factions as export and national security technology controls grow between the world's two largest economies.
She reiterated that the U.S. is not seeking to decouple from China.
"A full separation of our economies, or an approach in which countries including those in the Indo-Pacific are forced to take sides, would have significant negative global repercussions," Yellen said. "We have no interest in such a divided world and its disastrous effects."
Yellen said the U.S. was pursuing the "de-risking and diversifying" of its economic ties to China, by investing in manufacturing at home and by strengthening linkages with allies and partners around the world, including Indo-Pacific countries.
[World] Li Keqiang: Official nerves show as BBC hears praise for dead Chinese leader
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-67294136?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA"He was a great leader who has remained in our hearts," says a man who has come to pay his respects to Li Keqiang, China's popular former premier who died last week.
Flowers in hand, he and his son walk up to Li's childhood home on Hongxing road in the city of Hefei. The footpaths are covered in a sea of flowers. Crowds of mourners have been gathering since the 68-year-old suddenly died in Shanghai of a heart attack.
"He visited our textile factory and it left a deep impression," says the man. Li was from the same province as him, Anhui, he added: "It's too sad. I can't accept it."
China's Communist Party has had no choice but to allow this remembrance of Li, who had been the number two leader before he retired earlier this year. But even in death, he remains a challenge to China's current leader, Xi Jinping.
Publicly criticising Xi, or the Communist Party, would be dangerous. But Li's passing has provided a window to acknowledge his vision for the country and his seemingly more open and moderate approach to politics - which many see as a sharp contrast to Xi's hard-line style.
"My best friend and I took a day off to come here and place flowers," says a well-dressed middle-aged woman, wearing a pearl necklace and earrings. "He was always looking out for ordinary people. He always had us in his heart."
However, she is soon interrupted by officials telling her, and the BBC crew, to move on.
Officers in plain clothes keep gathering in greater numbers around those speaking to the BBC, listening in to what they say. Along Hongxing road, there are hundreds of them, and many more Communist Party volunteers. They are there to maintain order, and journalists are pushed out of the area, with interviews prevented.
Two young women in their 20s can barely be heard over the shouts telling them to leave, as they try to explain the gratitude and love they wanted to express towards Li.
Two other women emerge from Hongxing road, and one of them is pushing their mother in a wheelchair. "We took our mother to visit our former premier," one of them says.
"I saw him and paid my respects," her elderly mother chimes in, clasping her hands as if to pray. "He was a really good man…" she continues, but then a woman appears next to her and starts pushing the wheelchair away, urging them to leave and stop talking to the media.
Nearby, a man wearing a backpack is watching. He says he has come to Anhui province from Shanghai to honour Li, "a leader who ordinary people believe spoke the truth".
"When we had difficulties or hardships, he visited to try to understand the situation." Then, referring to the man who has replaced him as premier, he adds "not like Li Qiang", who he describes as a sycophant.
When asked to clarify if he thought Li Keqiang was better than Li Qiang, he says: "I don't need to say it. You can ask anyone in Shanghai."
By now, people are gathering to listen. "Chinese officials are not used to speaking the truth," he says. "When we heard about his death, we felt surprised because Chinese leaders normally have good health and live to a long age."
An official interrupts the interview, and starts pushing him down the street. She keeps telling him that he's not a local, implying that it is not his place to come to Hefei and start speaking to reporters. He turns to the BBC crew and says, "I can't stay here". The official physically manoeuvres him into a taxi and orders him to leave.
About an hour's drive out of Hefei, another house where Li used to live has become a place of remembrance. Like in Hefei, the regional capital, the home of Li's ancestors in the village of Jiuzi is surrounded by thousands of flowers, bunched together in black plastic for the occasion.
Police have cleared a pathway for mourners to enter and leave. Chickens and birds can be heard above the shuffle of feet and quiet words as people bow in front of the thatch-roofed, mud-walled house where Li spent time as a child.
His modest background has endeared him to ordinary Chinese, especially after he famously referred to the high proportion of them who still live on a meagre income. Two women who've brought their small daughters to place flowers acknowledge this - one of them describes him as "considerate" towards the country's poor and its millions of migrant labourers.
"He was always thinking of ordinary folk, so we brought our daughters here to send him off," she adds. Another woman walks past and stops to say: "He was really down to earth. He's the son of a farmer. He didn't behave like an official."
Then an 80-year-old woman arrives with her family. She is wearing a red medal around her neck with a hammer and sickle, the symbols of the Communist Party. She holds it up, declaring proudly that she's been in the Party for 60 years.
Asked if Li was one of the best leaders China has had, she says, "Yes, yes, yes". Her much younger companion adds: "He was actually the best."
Clutching her medal, the older woman says: "Premier Li won people's hearts."
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[World] Li Keqiang: Chinese grieve popular ex-premier in quiet show of dissent
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-67294919?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGANational flags flew at half-mast across China on Thursday as the country put its former premier Li Keqiang to rest.
Li, whose body was moved to Beijing from Shanghai where he had died of a heart attack on 27 October, was cremated.
Pictures show crowds gathered along the streets as a convoy said to be carrying his body drove past.
Muted state coverage of his funeral stands in contrast to the outpouring of sorrow among ordinary Chinese.
Li, 68, was once tipped to be China's future leader. But he was overtaken and then swiftly sidelined by Xi Jinping, who has centralised power in his own hands during his more than 10 years at the helm.
State news agency Xinhua issued a statement on Thursday afternoon accompanied by a picture of Mr Xi offering condolences to Li's widow Cheng Hong.
In an obituary published last Friday, China's Communist Party described Li as a "time-tested communist soldier" and urged the people to "turn grief into strength" and rally around the current leadership of Mr Xi.
Li's funeral was held at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, where his body lay on a bed of flowers and was covered with the Communist Party's flag. Mr Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan were in attendance, along with new premier Li Qiang and other members of the Politburo Standing Committee, which makes up the top rung of the Party leadership.
Across the country, Li's sudden death prompted tributes, showing warm praise and grief. While some analysts say Li's track record as an administrator was uneven, they believe people are mourning as much for the man as the loss of what China could have been under his leadership.
"The public outpouring of grief for Li reflects the mourning of some Chinese people for a more open and optimistic time, before Mr Xi steered the country in a more authoritarian, statist, and nationalist direction," said Neil Thomas, fellow for Chinese Politics at Asia Society Policy Institute.
He adds that the the public reaction to Li's death is especially strong because he died soon after leaving office.
Li served as China's premier for a decade until March this year. A trained economist, he entered Chinese elite politics at the young age of 28 and rose through the ranks to become the youngest provincial governor in China. His ascent in the Party was particularly noted given he had no power base and was not a "princeling" like many Chinese leaders whose fathers were high-ranking officials. Mr Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun, was the first secretary-general of China's State Council.
Li was known for being pragmatic rather than ideological in his economic policies, with a focus on reducing the wealth gap and providing affordable housing. But he struggled to implement reforms under Mr Xi, whose leadership saw the party taking a firmer grip of China's economy, which has increasingly raised concerns among foreign businesses.
Li was best-known outside of China for the Li Keqiang index, a term coined by The Economist to measure China's true economic growth, after Li described his country's gross domestic product figures as "man-made" in a private meeting with US officials.
Kyle Jaros, a professor on global affairs at the University of Notre Dame, says the Chinese public tends to feel a closer affinity to premiers whose mandates involve more domestic issues - as was the case with Li who often spoke of China's challenges, including jobs and cost of living.
In the days since Li's death, crowds of mourners have laid thousands of chrysanthemum bouquets across the country - including in Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan where Li once served as the top provincial official, and around his childhood home in the city of Hefei in Anhui province.
Many bouquets had cards bearing Li's words, including his parting words to the State Council, China's cabinet, when he stepped down in March: "The heavens are looking at what humans are doing. The firmament has eyes."
"Sometimes to praise the path not taken is to make a comment on the path that was taken… Li represented a top leader who looked out for the little guys. He made them feel 'seen'," says Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist at the Australian National University who studies China and Taiwan.
By the time he retired, Li was the last of the top Party leadership who was not handpicked by Mr Xi. In an attempt to crush the once-powerful Youth League faction that Li hails from, Mr Xi sidelined him. He left Li and former vice-premier Wang Yang out of the Party's top decision-making body in a twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle last year.
The decision came days after Mr Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao, who is part of the same faction, was asked to leave the Communist Party Congress while it was still under way. Mr Hu, 80, patted Li, widely seen as his protégé, on the shoulder as he was escorted out. Li briefly nodded in acknowledgement. Many viewed Mr Hu's exit as a public display of Mr Xi cementing his hold on power.
There has also been an outpouring of emotion online, despite the authorities' attempt at managing comments. According to the US-based China Digital Times, which also monitors Chinese censorship, Beijing had ordered platforms and media outlets to "pay particular attention to overly effusive" comments.
In contrast, on Chinese social media platform Weibo, a hashtag related to Li received more than 360 million views and 17,000 comments as of 13:30 local time (5:30 GMT) on Thursday.
Some users commented that this scale of mourning reflects "the highest regard" from the people. "The people know who are really serving them. The premier worked hard. He was too tired," wrote another Weibo user. Some users described Li as the "people's premier", although those comments and the like were swiftly censored.
In Li's hometown Hefei the BBC encountered difficulty speaking to mourners as local officials and party volunteers interrupted interviews and ordered the crew to leave.
A middle-aged woman who witnessed the commotion told the BBC: "[Li was] a great leader. Why can't we show it?"
"He's gone. We are all very sad," she said and teared up.
While he did not visibly challenge any of Mr Xi's priorities, Prof Jaros says people in and outside of China nevertheless valued his more liberal and less ideological outlook: "He stood as a symbol of a different path that China might have taken."
Some have labelled Li a "weak premier" who was quickly sidelined, but in death he seems to have become a symbol of quiet opposition to Mr Xi.
Additional reporting by Fan Wang and Ian Tang
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U.S. farm leaders, visiting China, talk up agriculture trade
https://reuters.com/article/china-usa-agriculture/u-s-farm-leaders-visiting-china-talk-up-agriculture-trade-idUSKBN31X0LKDozens of U.S. agriculture industry representatives gathered in Beijing on Thursday to meet Chinese counterparts amid growing U.S. efforts to bolster farm trade even as political ties between their two countries remain strained.
A delegation from 11 groups including the U.S. Soybean Export Council, U.S. Grains Council and U.S. Wheat Associates is visiting a week after Chinese grain buyers signed non-binding agreements in Iowa to buy billions of dollars worth of produce, mostly soybeans, the first such signing since 2017.
This week's visit, the likes of which had become rare due to bilateral tensions and three years of Chinese COVID-19 border controls, comes ahead of an expected meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden in San Francisco this month.
"We've got a big complicated relationship, but agriculture is the ballast in the relationship," Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to China, told the gathering of U.S. and Chinese industry officials.
U.S. Grains Council officials visited China's commerce ministry earlier on Thursday and raised China's anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures against U.S. imports of distillers dried grains (DDGS), a protein-rich byproduct from ethanol production that is fed to animals.
"They suggested we talk with the domestic industry here to have them give their support in the need of the product and they brought up the fact that they'd recently dropped the anti-dumping case on Australian barley, so whether that shows some hope for U.S. DDGs, possibly. I'm not sure," said Cary Sifferath, vice president of the U.S. Grains Council.
Oilseeds and grains are the top U.S. export to China, accounting for $25.4 billion last year, far ahead of other goods such as semiconductors, but Brazil has been eating into the U.S. share of the Chinese market after harvesting bumper crops of soybeans and corn.
China has been pushing to diversify its import sources in the years since former U.S. President Donald Trump launched a bruising trade war and amid rising geopolitical risks, opening its market to Brazilian corn late last year.
Imports of Brazilian soybeans are up 18% in the first nine months of 2023 compared with the same period last year, compared with an 8% increase in U.S. arrivals. Almost 4 million tons of Brazilian corn has reached China, with more on the way.
The delegation, the industry's largest to China since 2016, will travel to Shanghai for next week's annual China International Import Expo, where the USDA is hosting a pavilion for the first time since the event started in 2018.
(This story has been refiled to fix the spelling of 'semiconductors' in paragraph 7)
China says official to lead a delegation in China-US nuclear talks
https://reuters.com/article/china-usa-diplomacy/china-says-official-to-lead-a-delegation-in-china-us-nuclear-talks-idUSKBN31X0FXThe Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday a leading official from its department of arms control affairs will lead a delegation in China-U.S. nuclear talks.
The ministry did not name the official.
"Next week in Washington, China and U.S. will hold arms control and non-proliferation consultations at director-general level," spokesperson Wang Wenbin said when asked about a report that China agreed to nuclear arms-control talks with the United States.
According to plans agreed by both sides, Wang said China and the U.S. will conduct dialogue and exchanges on a wide range of issues such as implementation of international arms control treaties.
The talks come days after Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with senior U.S. officials, with both sides agreeing to hold a series of consultations in the near future.
Wang also met with U.S. President Biden in talks that the White House described as a "good opportunity" in terms of keeping lines of communication open between the two geopolitical rivals with deep policy differences.
China cremates “people“s“ premier, lowers national flag amidst outpouring of grief
https://reuters.com/article/china-politics-likeqiang/china-cremates-peoples-premier-lowers-national-flag-amidst-outpouring-of-grief-idUSKBN31X020China lowered the national flag at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Thursday amid an outpouring of grief online as the country cremated former premier Li Keqiang, known as "the people's premier" for his down-to-earth, hands-on leadership.
Li, a former economist and pro-reform leader who served as the premier for 10 years before retiring in March, died of a heart attack in Shanghai last Friday. He was 68.
"In memory of comrade Li Keqiang, flags were flown at half-mast at Tiananmen Square in the capital," state media said.
At Li's funeral at a Beijing cemetery where high-ranking officials and national heroes are laid to rest, President Xi Jinping and his wife, with the six other members of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, the highest rung of political power in China, as well as Vice President Han Zheng paid their final respects.
The group stood in silence and took three bows, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Former President Hu Jintao sent a wreath to express his condolences over Li's passing, according to Xinhua.
Messages for the late premier flooded social media platforms as Chinese citizens mourned his death. Many tributes said people would remember Li, while some shared yesteryear photos and videos of Li with his quotes.
On popular social media platform Weibo, which replaced its 'like' button with a chrysanthemum flower symbolising mourning on related posts, tens of thousands of people left comments bidding Li farewell on a Thursday post by China's national broadcaster.
Li was the top trending topic on Weibo. The hashtag for his mourning drew 430 million views.
A Beijinger surnamed Gao, 39, said Li will be remembered for his contibutions to the country.
"It can be said that he has made a great contribution to people's lives, to the improvement of living standards. For the past pandemic, the premier always rushed to the front line," Gao said.
Once viewed as a Communist Party leadership contender, Li was sidelined in recent years, analysts and diplomats said, as Xi tightened his grip on economic policymaking.
"Personally, I still feel a bit unreal (about his death) because I feel like he's a good premier and suddenly he's gone. And then I also feel sad for him because he was not yet old," a 24-year-old Beijing-based lawyer by the surname Wan said.
Shanghai resident Zhang Shijun described Li as down-to-earth.
"It is also obvious that (he has done a lot for) the welfare of the people's livelihood. (He did) a lot for our people. (He is) very humble and low-key," the 34-year-old said.
Some businesses such as international coffee chain Starbucks (SBUX.O) turned their app interface black and white in mourning for Li.
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China prepares to cremate “the people“s“ premier, lowers national flag amidst outpouring of grief
https://reuters.com/article/china-politics-likeqiang/china-prepares-to-cremate-the-peoples-premier-lowers-national-flag-amidst-outpouring-of-grief-idUSKBN31X020China lowered the national flag at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Thursday amid an outpour of grief online as the country prepared to cremate former premier Li Keqiang, known as "the people's premier" for his down-to-earth, hands-on leadership.
"In memory of comrade Li Keqiang, flags were flown at half-mast at Tiananmen Square in the capital," state media said.
Messages for the late premier, who died last week, flooded social media platforms as Chinese citizens mourned his death. Many tributes said people would remember Li, while some shared yesteryear photos and videos of Li with his quotes.
On popular social media platform Weibo, which replaced its 'like' button with a chrysanthemum flower symbolising mourning on related posts, tens of thousands of people left comments bidding Li farewell on a Thursday post by China's national broadcaster.
Li was the top trending topic on Weibo. The hashtag for his mourning drew 430 million views.
Undated photos of the memorial service on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showed the late leader's remains partially covered with a Chinese Communist Party flag, surrounded by flowers and plants.
Li, a former economist and pro-reform leader who served as the premier for 10 years before retiring in March, died of a heart attack in Shanghai last Friday and his remains were transferred to the capital Beijing the same day.
A Beijinger surnamed Gao, 39, said Li will be remembered for his contibutions to the country.
"It can be said that he has made a great contribution to people's lives, to the improvement of living standards. For the past pandemic, the premier always rushed to the front line," Gao said.
Once viewed as a Communist Party leadership contender, Li was sidelined in recent years, analysts and diplomats said, as President Xi Jinping tightened his grip on economic policymaking.
"Personally, I still feel a bit unreal (about his death) because I feel like he's a good premier and suddenly he's gone. And then I also feel sad for him because he was not yet old," a 24-year-old Beijing-based lawyer by the surname Wan said.
Shanghai resident Zhang Shijun described Li as down-to-earth.
"It is also obvious that (he has done a lot for) the welfare of the people's livelihood. (He did) a lot for our people. (He is) very humble and low-key," the 34-year-old said.
Some businesses such as international coffee chain Starbucks (SBUX.O) turned their app interface black and white in mourning for Li.
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Pro-Haley group falsely says DeSantis wanted to ‘fast track’ China deals
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/02/pro-haley-group-falsely-claims-desantis-wanted-fast-track-china-deals/2023-11-01T21:15:03.580Z“DeSantis even voted to fast-track Obama’s Chinese trade deals.”
— Voice-over in a campaign ad by SFA Fund, a super PAC that backs former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley (R)
Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are tied for a distant second place, behind former president Donald Trump, in the latest NBC News-Des Moines Register-Mediacom Iowa poll of Republicans in Iowa, whose voters will be the first to weigh in on the presidential race when they have their caucuses Jan. 15. It’s been a stunning drop for DeSantis, once seen as Trump’s main rival, and a rapid rise for Haley.
Now both teams are playing fast and loose with the facts.
This Stand for America super PAC ad starts with a voice-over saying DeSantis “can’t stop lying about Nikki Haley.” There are images of fact checks of a ridiculous claim DeSantis made about Haley — that a vague statement she made about how not all Gaza residents are supporters of Hamas meant she wanted to take in waves of Gaza refugees. We did not get around to vetting that claim, or else we would have given it Four Pinocchios. PolitiFact said it was “false,” as did Check Your Fact. David Weigel of Semafor said DeSantis “made it up,” which sounds about right.
It’s fair to call out DeSantis for his statement, which was amplified by his own super PAC, Never Back Down. But then this Haley ad offers its own whopper — that DeSantis voted to “fast-track Obama’s Chinese trade deals.” During the voice-over, the ad displays an image of DeSantis, wearing a face mask, standing behind Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The ad concludes with some tough talk on China by Haley. “Communist China won’t just lose. Communist China will end up on the ash heap of history,” she declares.
The Facts
The ad sets up the claim about trade deals with this line: “DeSantis gave millions to Chinese companies.” The citation is a Washington Times article from February 2020 titled “Lexmark, Lenovo tech funnels data to China intelligence services.” The article reported on a study that claimed Chinese-owned technology companies posed a security challenge.
What did this have to do with DeSantis? Good question. He’s not mentioned in the article. There is a reference to Florida having a contract with Lexmark, one of the companies named in the report. (Lexmark, a Kentucky-based printer manufacturer with Chinese investors, said the report was riddled with inaccuracies.) But there is no indication DeSantis even awarded the contract.
Then the ad makes its claim about DeSantis voting for Obama’s trade deals with China. Before being elected governor, DeSantis was a member of the House, so ancient congressional votes are always ripe for mischief in attack ads. This is an especially lame attempt.
The ad cites two votes in 2015. One, on June 12, was for the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, which was passed to avert a government default. The text of the deal does not mention China nor trade with China. The other vote, on June 18, was the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015. This bill at least has something to do with trade, but the claim in the ad is a real stretch.
Essentially, this bill was a vote to extend Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), or in the nomenclature of Congress, allowing a president to “fast-track” trade legislation. Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress regulates trade with foreign nations, but in recent decades it often has delegated negotiating authority to the executive branch. In the House, the bill passed by a vote of 218-208, with 190 Republicans voting for it — so DeSantis was not an outlier in his party.
In simple terms, TPA means that if a president negotiates a trade agreement with another country and brings it to Congress for approval, lawmakers have no opportunity to amend the agreement and simply must vote either for it or against it. Why is that necessary? No country is willing to waste years or even months on negotiations to strike a deal with the United States — only to see Congress change the terms later. According to the Congressional Research Service, Congress has sometimes directed an administration to renegotiate certain provisions in a trade agreement before it came up for vote, but ultimately lawmakers have approved every deal submitted under TPA.
Preya Samsundar, a spokesperson for Stand for America, flooded us with material to make the case that by voting for TPA, DeSantis was allowing Obama to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That deal, which Donald Trump ultimately rejected, included the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
So where’s China? Samsundar argued that there were indications that China might one day join the Trans-Pacific Partnership. She noted that Obama at one point said China had been “putting out feelers” about “participating at some point.”
That was basically diplomatic happy talk. The Trans-Pacific deal was designed to counter China.
“It is absolutely incorrect to say that the TPP is a vote for a ‘Chinese trade deal,’” said Michael G. Plummer, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Italy and co-author of a 2012 book on the partnership. “In fact, the truth is just the opposite. China was never part of the negotiations. As you suggest, it was an agreement that would have helped the U.S. improve its economic engagement with Asia and would have given it a leg up on China in the region, which is the most dynamic in the world.”
In any case, the Trans-Pacific Partnership never came up for a vote in Congress before Trump pulled the United States out of it. The enhanced trade authority that DeSantis voted for was used to negotiate agreements with European countries — and Trump used an extension of TPA to negotiate the rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Samsundar also sent us documents indicating the United States negotiated with China on a variety of trade issues with China after TPA was approved, but we’re not sure what the point is. Both countries are among the top export markets for each other, and trade discussions occur frequently, no matter which administration. She did not respond when we asked whether Haley was saying a president should not negotiate any trade deals with China.
The Pinocchio Test
By any measure, this ad does not pass the laugh test. It makes accusations against DeSantis that turn to dust upon closer inspection. His vote for Trade Promotion Authority in 2015 did not result in the “fast-tracking” of deals with China. SFA Fund earns Four Pinocchios.
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Li Keqiang funeral in China brings out crowds despite suppression effort
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/02/li-keqiang-funeral-in-china-brings-out-crowds-despite-suppression-effortHundreds of people gathered near a state funeral home in China on Thursday as former premier Li Keqiang was being laid to rest.
Plainclothes and uniformed police lined the roadway leading to the funeral home, blocking traffic and telling people to move along while watching for the presence of unofficial or foreign media.
Public tributes to Li have been strictly controlled as the government seeks to prevent a mass outpouring of grief that it regards as a possible trigger for social unrest.
But despite censorship targeting “overly effusive” comments and gatherings, in Li’s home city of Hefei, in Anhui province, hundreds of mourners laid flowers for one of their most significant sons over the weekend.
The deaths of former premier Zhou Enlai in 1976, and of Hu Yaobang, a former CCP general secretary, in 1989, prompted widespread outpourings of grief that morphed into protests.
More recently, the death of Covid whistleblower Li Wenliang in 2020, and a deadly apartment fire in Xinjiang in 2022, have triggered expressions of public grief – with the latter becoming the “white paper” protests that spread across several cities.
In Li’s honour, flags at Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing were lowered to half mast, as well as at government and party offices around China and embassies and consulates abroad.
“In memory of comrade Li Keqiang, flags were flown at half-mast at Tiananmen Square in the capital,” CCTV said in a report accompanied by a photo of the flag being lowered in front of the monumental gate against the backdrop of a foggy grey morning.
Li died last Friday of a heart attack at age 68. State media had said he would be cremated on Thursday but did not mention funeral plans. According to precedent, retired high-level officials usually lie in state briefly as top leaders pass the body and offer wreaths of white flowers, the traditional colour of mourning.
Li helped guide China’s economy for a decade before being dropped from the Communist party’s all-powerful politburo standing committee in October 2022. He left office in March 2023 despite being two years below the informal retirement age of 70.
Though his time in office was marked by numerous crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic, he was seen as an alternative to the increasingly authoritarian party leader Xi Jinping. When Li became premier, the second most powerful position in China’s leadership, in 2013, he carried hopes of embracing private enterprise and allowing the free market to flourish.
But Li was left with little authority after Xi made himself the most powerful Chinese leader in decades and tightened control over the economy and society.
Xi awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader and filled the top party ranks with loyalists. The role of premier was given to Li Qiang, the party secretary for Shanghai, who lacked Li Keqiang’s national level experience and later told reporters that his job was to do whatever Xi decided.
– With the Associated Press
China and US reportedly agree to rare nuclear arms control talks
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/02/china-and-us-reportedly-agree-to-rare-nuclear-arms-control-talksChina and the United States will reportedly discuss nuclear arms control next week, the first such talks since the Obama administration.
The talks would be led on Monday by Mallory Stewart, a senior state department official, and Sun Xiaobo, the head of the arms control department at China’s foreign ministry, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
On Monday, China’s foreign ministry said the two countries would hold “consultations on arms control and non-proliferation” in the coming days, as well as separate talks on maritime affairs and other issues. It follows a visit to Washington by the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi.
The US state department and China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests by Reuters for comment on the timing or format of the talks.
The US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in 2021 that the Chinese and US presidents had agreed to “look to begin to carry forward discussion on strategic stability”, a reference to Washington’s concerns about Beijing’s nuclear weapons buildup.
But the White House was quick to say at the time that the discussions would not resemble formal arms reduction talks, like those the US has had with Russia.
Since then, US officials have expressed frustration that China showed little interest in discussing steps to reduce nuclear weapons risks.
China has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads in its arsenal and will probably have more than 1,000 warheads by 2030, the Pentagon said in October. But Beijing has long argued that the US already has a much larger arsenal. Russia and the US together possess almost 90% of all the nuclear weapons globally. The US has an estimated total nuclear stockpile of more than 3,700 warheads.
Under the New Start treaty, Moscow and Washington are committed to deploying no more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads. Vladimir Putin said in February 2023 that Russia would halt its participation.
The arms talks would occur before a likely meeting between the US president, Joe Biden, and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in San Francisco in November, although a senior Biden administration official said on Tuesday that important details were yet to be hammered out.
A flurry of China-US diplomatic engagements in recent months, largely at Washington’s request, has sought to salvage what were rapidly deteriorating ties between the two countries after the US downing in February of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the United States.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said the overdue arms talks would likely focus on promoting greater transparency of each country’s nuclear doctrines and more effective crisis communication channels.
“I don’t think, however, we should expect breakthroughs in the near term. That’s going to take time and give and take from both sides,” Kimball said.
With Reuters