Author: Michael Martina
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Report: State Department’s top China policy official to step down
WASHINGTON • The State Department’s top China policy official Rick Waters is set to step down, four sources familiar with the matter said, at a time of fraught relations between Washington and Beijing. Waters, deputy assistant secretary of State for China and Taiwan who leads the department’s recently created China House policy division, announced his…
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Gallagher to lead new U.S. House China select committee
WASHINGTON • Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher was named on Thursday to lead a select committee being created in the U.S. House of Representatives to focus on economic and security competition with China. Gallagher, a former Marine counterintelligence officer who has served on the House Armed Services Committee, has been a vocal critic of China’s…
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FBI director ‘very concerned’ by Chinese ‘police stations’ in U.S.
WASHINGTON • The United States is deeply concerned about the Chinese government setting up unauthorized ‘police stations’ in U.S. cities to possibly pursue influence operations, FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on Thursday. Safeguard Defenders, a Europe-based human rights organization, published a report in September revealing the presence of dozens of Chinese police “service stations”…
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Pelosi: U.S. cannot allow China’s ‘new normal’ over Taiwan
WASHINGTON • House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday the United States could not allow China to normalize the new level of pressure on Taiwan it asserted with days of military drills following her visit to the Chinese-claimed island. “What we saw with China is that they were trying to establish sort of…
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Russian, Chinese jets deliver pointed send-off on last day of Biden Asia trip
TOKYO/SEOUL/WASHINGTON • Russian and Chinese bombers flew joint patrols near Japanese and South Korea air defense zones on Tuesday in a pointed farewell to U.S. President Joe Biden as he concluded a trip to Asia that rankled Beijing. The patrols came hours after Biden angered China by saying he would be willing to respond militarily…
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Pelosi says U.S. athletes should not anger Chinese gov’t
WASHINGTON • U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday the United States has a moral duty to condemn China’s rights abuses but she urged U.S. athletes not to risk angering the “ruthless” Chinese government, a day before the opening of the Beijing Olympics. Pelosi, speaking at a Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing, said…
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Senators propose adding boycott of China’s Winter Olympics to defense bill
WASHINGTON • A bipartisan group of U.S. senators Thursday proposed an amendment to an annual defense policy bill that would impose a diplomatic boycott of China’s Winter Olympics — less than 100 days away — amid accusations of rights abuses by Beijing. The amendment, led by Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, mirrors language included in sweeping…
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China criticizes U.S. over COVID origin report
BEIJING/WASHINGTON • China on Wednesday criticized the U.S. “politicization” of efforts to trace the origin of the coronavirus, demanding without evidence that American labs be investigated, ahead of the release of a U.S. intelligence report on the virus. The U.S. report is intended to resolve disputes among intelligence agencies considering different theories about how the…