China

  FILE - Employees wearing protective equipment work at a semiconductor production facility for Renesas Electronics in Beijing, China, May 14, 2020. The Biden administration announced Monday that it has imposed a new set of export controls on China, restricting the sale of cutting-edge, semiconductor-manufacturing equipment and high-bandwidth computer memory to the communist nation. The new rules ban the sale of 24 different kinds of equipment and three different software tools, all of which are used to produce what are known as “advanced node” semiconductors, the fastest and most efficient chips on the market. The export controls, announced by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, also restrict the transfer of high-...

  FILE - Employees work on the semiconductor chip production line at a factory in Huaian, Jiangsu province, China, March 25, 2022. (China Daily via Reuters) Washington — The United States announced new export restrictions Monday taking aim at China\'s ability to make advanced semiconductors — used in weapon systems and artificial intelligence as competition intensifies between the world\'s two biggest economies. "The United States has taken significant steps to protect our technology from being used by our adversaries in ways that threaten our national security," said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan in a statement. He added that Washington will keep working with allies and partners to "to proactively a...

  FILE - A Pakistan Navy soldier stands guard next to a loaded Chinese ship, at Gwadar port, about 700 kilometers (435 miles) west of Karachi, Pakistan, Nov. 13, 2016. Due to China’s slowing domestic economy and intensified trade disputes with the West, Chinese manufacturers are increasingly turning to developing countries to offload their surplus stocks, resulting in a flood of low-cost products. VOA Mandarin takes a look at how that affects merchants and consumers in a country like Pakistan. See the full story here.   By：VOA

  FILE - Workers walk past a billboard display showing a scene of Central Business District, as capital city skylines are shrouded with pollutant haze in Beijing, China, Nov. 9, 2015. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is widely expected to withdraw from the Paris Agreement treaty on climate change after he takes office January 20. China also is a party to the agreement. However, Beijing has long argued that it is not wealthy enough to be forced to provide similar financial assistance that Washington donates to the effort. VOA Mandarin spoke to analysts about how Beijing is likely to position itself on climate talks going forward. See the full story here.   By：VOA

  German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a press conference in Beijing, China, Dec. 2, 2024. Beijing — German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday warned her Chinese counterpart that Beijing\'s support for Moscow would impact ties and instead urged China to help end the Ukraine conflict. Speaking in Beijing, she said the over 1,000-day war was impacting the whole world and condemned the battlefield role of North Korean troops and the use of Chinese-made drones in the conflict. Baerbock urged an international peace process for Ukraine and said "that is why I am here in China today," adding that every permanent member of the U.N. Security Council had a "responsibility for peace and security in the wor...

  FILE - Liew Chin Tong, then-Malaysia's deputy defense minister, attends the Xiangshan Forum, a gathering of the region's security officials, in Beijing, Oct. 21, 2019. KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia has urged Chinese companies to refrain from using it as a base to "rebadge" products to avoid U.S. tariffs, its deputy trade minister said on Monday, amid increasing export restrictions and concerns of a U.S.-China trade war. Washington is expected to further curb exports to Chinese semiconductor toolmakers and sales of certain chipmaking equipment, including products manufactured in Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, sources have told Reuters. Malaysia is a major player in the semiconductor industry, accounting for 13% of globa...

  Environmental activists demonstrate in front of the convention center hosting international negotiations on reducing plastic pollution, in Busan, South Korea, on Nov. 29, 2024. BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA — The world’s nations will wrap up negotiating a treaty this weekend to address the global plastic pollution crisis. Their meeting is scheduled to conclude Sunday or early Monday in Busan, South Korea, where many environmental organizations have flocked to push for a treaty to address the volume of production and toxic chemicals used in plastic products. Greenpeace said it escalated its pressure Saturday by sending four international activists to Daesan, South Korea, who boarded a tanker headed into port to load chemicals used to make plastics....

  F-16 jets escort the plane of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who embarked on a trip to visit Taiwan's allies in the Pacific, on Nov. 30, 2024. Lai's weeklong tour will include stopovers in the United States, which has ignited fiery threats from Beijing. TAOYUAN, TAIWAN — Taiwan\'s president departed Saturday on a trip to the South Pacific that will include a two-day transit in the United States, his first since assuming office. The planned stopovers in Hawaii and the territory of Guam have already drawn fierce criticism from Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and objects to official exchanges between it and the U.S., the island\'s biggest backer and military provider. Lai Ching-te left on a weeklong trip to v...

  FILE - A worker wearing a protective suit harvests potato tubers at a greenhouse in Yakeshi, Inner Mongolia, China, June 16, 2024. YANQING, CHINA — In a research facility in the northwest of Beijing, molecular biologist Li Jieping and his team harvest a cluster of seven unusually small potatoes, one as tiny as a quail\'s egg, from a potted plant. Grown under conditions that simulate predictions of higher temperatures at the end of the century, the potatoes provide an ominous sign of future food security. At just 136 grams, the tubers weigh less than half that of a typical potato in China, where the most popular varieties are often twice the size of a baseball. China is the world\'s biggest producer of potatoes, which are crucial to glo...

  FILE - The American and Chinese flags wave at Genting Snow Park, Feb. 2, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. washington — This week’s rare prisoner swap between the United States and China saw each side claim victory and accuse the other of wrongfully detaining its citizens, while Beijing has kept quiet about the identities of the returned Chinese. China confirmed the repatriation of at least three Chinese nationals convicted of espionage and other crimes in the U.S. Among them was an individual whom Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, speaking at a regular briefing Thursday, described as “a fugitive who fled to the U.S. many years ago.” Some media reports indicated four individuals were returned to China. Mao did not name those wh...