China Watch
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The Wall Street Journal this month caught up with President Trump’s softness on China, only six years late. The President’s long-standing chase for China deals has pushed the US to avoid hard choices, only to get burned later. The Trump administration hiked tariffs right away, then caved because they didn’t even see vulnerability on rare-earth magnets. There are other glaring blind spots now, starting with land versus pharma.
Somehow Chinese land ownership here may have become the Sino-American issue most discussed outside the beltway. The PRC shouldn’t be allowed to own land near military sites or large amounts of farmland. But it hasn’t, doesn’t, and won’t. Many politicians around the country loudly trumpet solutions to what is currently a minor problem. No harm, no foul? When we simultaneously shy away from much tougher issues, there’s harm.
A mainstay issue being suspiciously soft-played is pharmaceuticals. Our industry is dangerously dependent on China and companies are actively trying to make it worse. Dependence on some Chinese drugs and ingredients for drugs has been recognized since at least 2017. Less recognized is that the leading source of our imports is European nations, now topped by Ireland, which are themselves facing China dependence.
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Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig is sounding the alarm about Canada seeking deeper trade ties with China in the face of growing tensions and uncertainty with the U.S., warning the pivot carries significant risks to Canada’s economic security.
Speaking Tuesday at the Future of Business Summit in Ottawa, Kovrig — a longtime China analyst who was arbitrarily detained by Beijing for more than 1,000 days after Canada detained Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou — said Ottawa’s new China strategy is a “risky play” that will not be viewed kindly by Washington and could threaten trade talks.
He pointed to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s criticism last week of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s deal with China, announced early this year, which included importing a limited number of Chinese electric vehicles.
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Should a war break out between China and the U.S. in the Pacific, “what you are seeing in the Strait of Hormuz will be a dry run,” Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said Wednesday.
Balakrishnan made the remarks at CNBC’s CONVERGE LIVE event in Singapore, responding to a question on whether the city-state was facing any pressure from Washington and Beijing to choose between the two.
Singapore has relationships with both the countries, and is uniquely positioned to take advantage of developments in the U.S. and China, Balakrishnan told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick.
The U.S. is Singapore’s largest foreign investor with around 6,000 American companies based in the city-state. Singapore also runs a goods trade deficit with Washington to the tune of about $3.6 billion, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
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So far, America has remained ahead in the new space race. But its biggest rival is making continual steps to catch up. China announced another step in that direction with the unveiling of its first ever reusable five-meter-wide composite propulsion module, announced in a press release on April 11th.
The module was designed by the China Aerospace and Technology Corporation (CASC), the primary state contractor for the Chinese space program. Specifically, it was developed at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), which is also known as the First Academy of the CASC. It marks the largest integrated composite structure ever manufactured domestically for China’s aerospace sector. The first prototype was completed in just seven months, from initial design to delivery, underscoring the rapid development timeline.
Composites are becoming a critical feature of modern launch systems. Traditional metal components simply weigh too much. The more structural weight a launch vehicle has to carry into orbit, the less cargo or fuel it is able to carry due to the tyranny of the rocket equation. Composites are significantly lighter while still having the physical properties of metal, allowing for more payloads, or, crucially, more fuel for reentry burns.
China hopes to soon deploy robots to control future rioters. The People’s Armed Police Force (PAP) is already testing the possibility in preparation for a potential mass riot event.
China may control riots in the future using robots – NewsBytes
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China‘s internal security forces are exploring the use of autonomous machines for riot control, according to a recent study. The research, conducted by engineering experts from the People’s Armed Police Force (PAP), imagines a future where urban unrest is managed without any human intervention. This futuristic approach was envisioned in response to a hypothetical scenario of mass protests triggered by rumors following a military takeover of a large city.
Machine intervention
How will it work?
In the imagined scenario, a large crowd gathers in a central square with the intention of attacking important government sites. However, their protest is met with an immediate response from autonomous machines. Roadblocks are suddenly deployed to cut off their advance and key instigators are quickly identified and captured by these machines. The protesters, cut off from the internet and unable to broadcast their cause, eventually disperse on their own without any direct confrontation with human soldiers or police officers.
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Internet users have found humor in the idea behind the tool, joking about automating their coworkers before themselves. However, Colleague Skill’s virality has sparked a lot of debate about workers’ dignity and individuality in the age of AI.
After seeing Colleague Skill on social media, Amber Li, 27, a tech worker in Shanghai, used it to recreate a former coworker as a personal experiment. Within minutes, the tool created a file detailing how that person did their job. “It is surprisingly good,” Li says. “It even captures the person’s little quirks, like how they react and their punctuation habits.” With this skill, Li can use an AI agent as a new “coworker” that helps debug her code and replies instantly. It felt uncanny and uncomfortable, Li says.
Even so, replacing coworkers with agents could become a norm. Since OpenClaw became a national craze, bosses in China have been pushing tech workers to experiment with agents.
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The Trump administration is rehauling its approach to wrestling influence in sub-Saharan Africa from China, an uphill battle against decades of Chinese momentum.
While the end of the Cold War saw the United States assert its unipolar moment over much of the world, this didn’t extend to sub-Saharan Africa, which ranked low on the list of U.S. priorities. The lack of U.S. interest helped facilitate China’s rise in the region, which has exploded since 2000. China’s dominance in sub-Saharan Africa has now exceeded anything ever achieved by the U.S. in the region.
The Trump administration is looking to buck this trend by drastically reworking its approach from previous administrations, switching from an aid-focused model to one of trade, a focus on critical mineral acquisition, and transactional economic cooperation.
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AI tool Claude, developed by Anthropic, suddenly announced the rollout of a new identity verification system requiring users to complete a real-time selfie check while holding a government-issued ID.
The move has drawn global attention, but for Chinese users in particular, it feels like a heavy blow that erects a difficult-to-cross “wall” in AI access.
This verification is not being applied universally to all users at once. Instead, it is being introduced gradually in specific scenarios. When users attempt to access certain advanced features, or as part of routine platform integrity checks and other safety and compliance measures, a verification prompt may appear.
The process itself appears simple and typically takes no more than five minutes. However, users must prepare a government-issued photo ID—such as a passport, driver’s license, or national ID card—and use a camera-enabled device to capture a real-time selfie.
For Chinese users, the impact of this mechanism is both broad and profound. The barrier to entry has been significantly raised: individuals without passports are excluded from using Claude.
Even for those who do have passports, older accounts may become valuable assets, while new users face hurdles due to real-name verification requirements, making normal access increasingly difficult.