U.S. businesses say China is ‘uninvestable’
Gina Raimondo, the U.S. commerce secretary, told Chinese officials yesterday that the U.S. was not seeking to sever economic ties with China. But she raised a list of concerns that were prompting American businesses to describe China as “uninvestable” because it’s “too risky.”
American companies are worried about long-running issues like intellectual property theft, as well as newer developments like raids on businesses, a counterespionage law and exorbitant fines that come without explanations. After raising the concerns with Premier Li Qiang, China’s second-highest official, Raimondo said she “didn’t receive any commitments.”
Raimondo, who is on a four-day trip to China, also asked for Beijing’s cooperation on broader threats like climate change, the opioid fentanyl and artificial intelligence. Chinese officials in turn asked the U.S. to reduce export controls on advanced technology and retract a recent executive order that bans new investments in certain advanced technologies, Raimondo said. The commerce secretary said she had refused those requests, saying the U.S. doesn’t negotiate on matters of national security.
Still, Raimondo tried to assure the Chinese that export controls applied only to a small proportion of U.S.-China trade, and that other economic opportunities between the countries should be embraced.
Premier Li told Raimondo that economic relations between China and the U.S. were “mutually beneficial,” according to the official Xinhua news agency. But he also warned that “politicizing economic and trade issues and overstretching the concept of security” would “seriously affect bilateral relations and mutual trust.”
More China news:
A legal victory for Imran Khan
A court in Pakistan suspended former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s three-year prison sentence in a corruption case yesterday, after an appeal by Khan’s legal team. It was the latest twist in a political showdown between Khan — a former cricket star turned populist politician who was ousted as prime minister last year — and military leaders who appear intent on sidelining him from politics.
Despite the legal victory, Khan remained in prison yesterday evening, with dozens of court cases remaining against him. He is expected to appear in court today in a case related to leaking state secrets — a charge that may pose the greatest challenge yet to his future, analysts say.
Wagner said Prigozhin was buried
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian mercenary leader who last week died in a plane crash, was buried in a private ceremony at a cemetery in St. Petersburg, his press service said yesterday. The Porokhovskoye cemetery, where he was buried, was heavily guarded yesterday by Russian police, riot police and national guardsmen, who did not allow people to enter, alluding to the lengths the state has gone to minimize public mourning for Prigozhin.
The Kremlin said it had no information about the funeral for Prigozhin, who launched a failed mutiny against Moscow’s military leadership in June, except that President Vladimir Putin would not attend.
THE LATEST NEWS
The War In Ukraine
Perhaps no sport has been affected as profoundly by the war in Ukraine as tennis. That is a function of numbers — there are many players from Ukraine and Russia — and proximity: With shared locker rooms, lounges and practice facilities, it can be hard to avoid people you would rather not see.
For Ukrainian players, as well as those from Russia and its allies, the conflict has plunged professional tennis into a cold war of its own. Now they are facing off at the U.S. Open.
ARTS AND IDEAS
A focus on Roma survivors
Hundreds of thousands of Romani people were killed in the Holocaust, a mass murder long overlooked because little data was collected about the population before or after World War II.
But a new database of Romani testimonies of their Holocaust experiences hopes to heighten public awareness of the suffering of Europe’s largest ethnic minority. With 115 survivor accounts, the database centralizes stories that used to be difficult to locate in dispersed archives.
“Roma are so profoundly marginalized on all counts,” said the author of a book on Roma, Jews and the Holocaust. “We need these testimonies to make them visible.”
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