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US Commerce Secretary Vows 'Strongest Action' on Huawei Chip Issue

Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 17:31
WASHINGTON — U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo vowed Monday to take the “strongest action possible” in response to a semiconductor chip-making breakthrough in China that a House Foreign Affairs Committee said “almost certainly required the use of U.S. origin technology and should be an export control violation.” In an interview with Bloomberg News, Raimondo called Huawei Technology’s advanced processor in its Mate Pro 60 smartphone released in August “deeply concerning” and said the Commerce Department investigates such things vigorously. The United States has banned chip sales to Huawei, which reportedly used chips from China chip giant Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., or SMIC, in the phone that are 7 nanometers, a technology China has not been known as able to produce. Raimondo said the U.S. was also looking into the specifics of three new artificial intelligence accelerator chips that California-based Nvidia Corp. is developing for China. “We look at every spec of every new chip, obviously, to make sure it doesn’t violate the export controls,” she said. Nvidia came under U.S. scrutiny for designing China-specific chips that were just under new Commerce Department requirements announced in October for tighter export controls on advanced AI chips for civilian use that could have military applications. China’s Foreign Ministry responded to Raimondo’s comments Tuesday, saying the U.S. was “undermining the rights of Chinese companies” and contradicting the principles of a market economy. 'Almost certainly required US origin technology' The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee in a December 7 report criticized the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, or BIS, the regulatory body for regulating dual-use export controls. The report said Chinese chip giant “SMIC is producing 7 nanometer chips — advanced technology for semiconductors that had been only capable of development by TSMC, Intel and Samsung.” “Despite this breakthrough by SMIC, which almost certainly required the use of U.S. origin technology and should be an export control violation, BIS has not acted,” the 66-page report said. “We can no longer afford to avoid the truth: the unimpeded transfer of U.S. technology to China is one of the single-largest contributors to China’s emergence as one of the world’s premier scientific and technological powers.” Excessive approvals alleged Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said BIS had an excessive rate of approval for controlled technology transfers and lacked checks on end-use, raising serious questions about the current U.S. export control mechanism. “U.S. export control officials should adopt a presumption that all [Chinese] entities will divert technology to military or surveillance uses,” said McCaul’s report, but “currently, the overwhelming approval rates for licenses or exceptions for dual-use technology transfers to China indicate that licensing officials at BIS are likely presuming that items will be used only for their intended purposes.” According to BIS’s website, a key in determining whether an export license is needed from the Department of Commerce is knowing whether the item one intends to export has a specific Export Control Classification Number, or ECCN. All ECCNs are listed in the Commerce Control List, or CCL, which is divided into ten broad categories. The committee’s report said that “in 2020, nearly 98% of CCL items export to China went without a license,” and “in 2021, BIS approved nearly 90% of applications for the export of CCL items to China.” The report said that between 2016 and 2021, “the United States government’s two export control officers in China conducted on average only 55 end-user checks per year of the roughly 4,000 active licenses in China. Put another way, BIS likely verified less than 0.01% of all licenses, which represent less than 1% of all trade with China.” China skilled in avoiding controls But China is also skilled at avoiding U.S. export controls, analysts said. William Yu, an economist at UCLA Anderson Forecast, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview that China can get banned chips through a third country. “For example, some countries in the Middle East set up a company in that country to buy these high-level chips from the United States. From there, one is transferred back to China,” Yu said. Thomas Duesterberg, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview that the Commerce Department’s BIS has a hard job. “If you forbid technology from going to one company in China, the Chinese are experts at creating another company or just moving the company to a new address and disguising its name to try to evade the controls. China is a big country and there's a lot of technology that is at stake here,” he said. “It's true on the one hand that BIS has been successful in some areas, such as advanced semiconductors in conjunction with denial of Chinese ability to buy American technology companies,” said Duesterberg. “But it's also true as the [House Foreign Affairs Committee] report emphasizes that a lot of activities that policymakers would like to restrict is not being done.” Insufficient resources or political will? Despite its huge responsibility to ensure that the United States stays ahead in the escalating U.S.-China science and technology competition, the Commerce Department’s BIS is small, employing just over 300 people. At the annual Reagan National Defense Forum on December 2, Secretary Raimondo lamented that BIS “has the same budget today as it did a decade ago” despite the increasing challenges and workload, reported Breaking Defense, a New York-based online publication on global defense and politics. U.S. Representatives Elise Stefanik, Mike Gallagher, who is chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and McCaul released a joint response to Raimondo's call for additional funds for the BIS, saying resources alone would not resolve export control shortcomings. Raimondo also warned chip companies that the U.S. would further tighten controls to prevent cutting edge AI technology from going to Beijing. “The threat from China is large and growing,” she said in an interview to CNBC at the December 2 forum. “China wants access to our most sophisticated semiconductors, and we can’t afford to give them that access. We’re not just going to deny a single company in China, we’re going to deny the whole country access to our cutting-edge semiconductors.”

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Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 17:00
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Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 16:00
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Humanitarian Situation in Gaza Worsening

Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 15:36
As heavy fighting in Gaza continues, humanitarian organizations warn of a growing crisis in the Gaza Strip with the onset of winter. Palestinians say 85 percent of the population has been internally displaced and warn of disease spreading. VOA's Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem. Videographer: Ricki Rosen

Declassified US Intelligence Reveals Massive Russian Losses in Ukraine

Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 15:20
Washington — Newly declassified U.S. intelligence indicates Russia has suffered from some staggering losses as a result of its nearly two-year-old invasion of Ukraine, including major setbacks during its latest offensive. The assessment, parts of which were shared with VOA, estimates more than 13,000 Russian forces have been killed or wounded since Moscow launched its October offensive along the Avdiivka-Novopavlivka axis in eastern Ukraine. U.S. intelligence also believes Ukraine’s military has destroyed or immobilized more than 220 Russian combat vehicles, the equivalent of six battalions’ worth of vehicles. “Russia’s attempt at an offensive has resulted in no strategic gains,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told VOA in a statement, describing the Russian losses as “severe.”  “But Russia is determined to press forward,” she added. “Russia seems to believe that a military deadlock through the winter will drain Western support for Ukraine and ultimately give Russia the advantage despite Russian losses and persistent shortages of trained personnel, munitions, and equipment.” The decision to declassify the latest intelligence Tuesday comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Washington, visiting with U.S. lawmakers and with U.S. President Joe Biden. During a speech at the National Defense University in Washington on Monday, Zelenskyy pleaded with U.S. lawmakers “not to betray” Ukraine’s forces and provide more weapons and support, warning Moscow sees Ukraine as “just a stepping-stone.” “We know what to do,” he said. “You can count on Ukraine, and we hope just as much to be able to count on you.” The White House has been pushing U.S. lawmakers to approve more than $61 billion in supplemental funding for Kyiv before the end of the year. But some lawmakers have balked, with some Republicans insisting any deal to provide more money to Ukraine must also include provisions to strengthen U.S. immigration policies and security along the U.S. southern border with Mexico. White House officials, however, point to the latest declassified intelligence to argue that funding for Ukraine simply cannot wait. “This shows how Ukraine is having success stopping Russian forces, but Putin is continuing to order his troops forward,” a senior administration official told VOA, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the intelligence and the political negotiations. “It’s critical we continue to support Ukraine and make sure they have what they need to defend themselves,” the official added. Top U.S. military and intelligence officials have previously said Russia’s losses in Ukraine have set its military back by as much as five to ten years. Still, the Pentagon warned Monday a failure to back Ukraine will send Russian President Vladimir Putin the wrong message. “Despite his isolation, Putin still believes that he can outlast Ukraine, and that he can outlast America,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday, speaking with Zelenskyy at the National Defense University.  “If we do not stand up to the Kremlin's aggression today, if we do not deter other would-be aggressors, we will only invite more aggression, more bloodshed, and more chaos.” Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.

Pakistan's Former PM Cleared of All Graft Charges

Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 15:07
islamabad — A Pakistani federal court on Tuesday quashed the conviction of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a final corruption case, which brings him closer to running for national elections in February. Sharif has served as Pakistan’s prime minister for three nonconsecutive terms. Sharif returned to Pakistan in October after a four-year self-imposed exile in London to avoid serving a 10-year prison sentence for corruption charges. His party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, or PML-N, says the 73-year-old politician plans to run for prime minister again for the fourth time. The high court in the capital, Islamabad, announced its verdict on Tuesday in response to Sharif's appeal, which he filed against his conviction shortly after returning to Pakistan. The acquittal came nearly two weeks after the court overturned his conviction in another graft case. Sharif’s party welcomed Tuesday’s court ruling, claiming he stands “acquitted in all lawsuits today” and dismissing “fake” corruption charges against him. “God willing, Nawaz Sharif will become the Prime Minister for the fourth time with the people's vote,” Marriyum Aurangzeb, a PML-N spokesperson, said on X, formerly known as Twitter. Sharif is expected to be a top contender in elections scheduled for February 8, 2024, if his legal challenges are removed. However, legal experts noted that quashing the two corruption convictions does not mean the stage is set for Sharif’s political comeback. He stepped down from the prime minister's office in 2017 after Pakistan’s Supreme Court found him guilty of lying about his assets during a corruption probe and disqualified him from holding any public office. The deposed leader was subsequently convicted and sentenced to seven years and 10 years concurrently in prison by an anti-graft court in 2018 in the now-quashed graft charges against him. Sharif has never completed a full term in office, as all his governments were dismissed or faced allegations of corruption and misrule. He has denied wrongdoing and maintained the charges brought against him have been politically motivated, blaming the Pakistani military for orchestrating them after he fell out with the powerful institution. He claims that after staging his 2017 ouster from power, the military supported his political rival, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in the 2018 elections. Khan also fell out with the military and is currently serving a three-year sentence on corruption charges, which he alleges are the work of the military to prevent him from returning to power. The 71-year-old cricket star-turned-former prime minister remains the most popular politician in Pakistan, with his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party the biggest political force, according to the latest opinion polls. Pakistani politicians and independent critics have increasingly accused army generals of plotting the removal of elected governments that don’t fall in line with the military, particularly when it comes to making foreign and security policies or questioning the military’s commercial interests. While the army has consistently denied any interference with national politics, its former chief, retired General Qamar Javed Bajwa, admitted publicly just before stepping down last year that his institution had meddled in civilian affairs for decades, exposing it to severe public criticism. “I believe the major reason for this is the constant meddling by the army in politics for the last 70 years, which is unconstitutional,” Bajwa said in a televised speech to military officers and deceased soldiers’ relatives in November 2022. “That is why since February last year, the military has decided they will not interfere in any political matter,” he added, though critics quickly dismissed Bajwa’s statement as mere claims. The military has staged three coups and ruled Pakistan for more than three decades since the country gained independence from Britain in 1947.

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Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 15:00
Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

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Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 14:00
Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

FLASHPOINT: GLOBAL CRISES - War in Gaza Divides Public Opinion Worldwide

Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 13:35
Worldwide public opinion is divided over the war in Gaza, we’ll see how this is playing out in Australia and at the United nations as the General Assembly prepares for a Tuesday vote. It's a big week for Ukraine on the world stage, plus a look at the climate crisis in Iraq, and COP28 in Dubai.

China Ramps Up Efforts to Interfere in Taiwan’s Coming Elections

Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 13:22
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Analysts say China is ramping up its efforts to interfere in Taiwan’s coming presidential and legislative elections, launching high-level, coordinated disinformation campaigns on social media and sponsoring Taiwanese politicians on trips to China, hoping to sway public opinion through influential local leaders. Analysts say Beijing’s goal is to help the main opposition party, the China-friendly Kuomintang or KMT, win the election. “Beijing will do whatever they can to help the KMT win, but I think they still don’t know how to do that well,” Kharis Templeman, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, told VOA in a recent interview. Taiwanese intelligence authorities said last week that senior Chinese officials from various government agencies, including China’s defense ministry and Taiwan Affairs Office, held a meeting earlier this month to “coordinate” Beijing’s efforts to influence the January 13 elections. The meeting, led by China’s fourth-ranked official, Wang Huning, reportedly assigned different tasks to several government agencies, with the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party and a psychological warfare unit under the People’s Liberation Army leading influence campaigns to sway public opinion. The Taiwan Affairs Office and the United Front Work Department focus on facilitating outreach programs, according to an internal Taiwanese memo shared with Reuters. Rorry Daniels, managing director of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said the meeting was designed to organize the Chinese Communist Party’s internal efforts to influence Taiwanese voters’ choices. “They want to make sure that their internal policy organs are coordinated on what each of them wants to do to change the conversation inside Taiwan with regard to influencing voter choices,” Daniels told VOA in a phone interview. TikTok and YouTube The main tool of influence involves disinformation campaigns on YouTube and TikTok designed to amplify pro-Beijing narratives while creating divisions in Taiwanese society. “The main aim is to exacerbate certain narratives that are advantageous to Beijing, to weaken its partners’ opponents in Taiwan, to sow divisions and confuse the public,” J. Michael Cole, senior adviser on Countering Foreign Authoritarian Influence with the International Republican Institute in Taiwan, told VOA. Chiu Tai-San, the minister of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, urged Beijing to “act as a responsible power and stop intimidating and coercing Taiwan.” He said doing so could help to gradually eliminate the “hostile spiral” between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council oversees cross-strait relations. The Chinese Embassy in the United States told VOA in a written response that Beijing respects the current social system in Taiwan and hopes the results of the election will “help maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” and bring cross-strait relations back to the “right track of peaceful development.” Beijing has also sponsored hundreds of Taiwanese politicians on trips to China over the last month. Taiwan’s interior minister, Lin Yu-chang, said on Monday that at least 556 borough chiefs or village leaders in Taiwan have participated in 51 group trips to China. Last week, Taiwanese prosecutors launched an investigation into five people for allegedly arranging free trips to China for dozens of voters. According to them, one man surnamed Chou offered “unfair benefits” such as free meals and accommodation to 60 people who took part in the trip and asked these individuals to support candidates from specific political parties. Cole in Taipei said the effectiveness of Beijing’s attempt to influence Taiwanese elections through sponsored trips remains questionable. “Certainly, a small number of individuals might agree to be co-opted and ‘return the favor’ by doing something that furthers Beijing’s interests,” he told VOA. “However, most Taiwanese are clear-eyed when it comes to these favors.” In his view, success through these efforts is “too limited” to overthrow trends in Taiwanese attitudes toward China. "Cognitive warfare" However, some Taiwanese experts warn that China’s efforts to discredit the ruling Democratic Progressive Party or DPP could pose serious challenges to the Taiwanese authorities in the run-up to the election. “The target of Beijing’s cognitive warfare has long been swing voters and doubling down on narratives related to the potential conflict across the Taiwan Strait is an effective strategy to sway swing voters,” Puma Shen, chairperson of Taipei-based research group Doublethink Lab, told VOA by phone. In addition to amplifying fears that a victory by DPP’s presidential candidate, Lai Ching-te, could heighten the risk of war across the Taiwan Strait, Shen said Beijing is also spreading disinformation. He cited as falsehoods word that Taiwan’s public safety is deteriorating and that the Taiwanese government is wasting money on maintaining diplomatic allies while people are struggling economically. In his view, these efforts could increase swing voters’ political apathy and eventually lead to their disengagement from politics. “While Beijing focuses on discrediting Taiwan’s ruling party through a range of narratives, the Taiwanese government could only react to these false narratives and issue corresponding clarifications,” Shen said. Whatever China tries to do, Templeman from Stanford University thinks the impact on the elections will be limited. “I don’t expect [these efforts] to fundamentally reshape the election,” he told VOA. “The trends in Taiwan are too strong for Beijing to just weigh in at the margins and affect the outcome.”

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Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 13:00
Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

VOA Newscasts

Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 13:00
Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

'Foreign Ownership' Case Against Ressa Dismissed  

Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 12:28
Washington — The legal team representing journalist and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa welcomed a Philippine Justice Department decision Tuesday to drop a criminal case against the award-winning journalist.  Ressa had been facing charges of alleged foreign ownership of her news website Rappler. If convicted, she could have faced up to 21 years in prison.  "For years our brave client Maria Ressa has faced a barrage of spurious criminal investigations and prosecutions for doing her job — for being a journalist. We are pleased to see another spurious case against Maria dismissed," Ressa's lawyer, Caoilfhionn Gallagher, said in a statement.  The charges related to whether a 2015 investment from an American philanthropic investment fund allegedly violated a prohibition in Philippine law against foreign ownership or control of media organizations. Her international legal team said there was no evidence of any wrongdoing in the case.  "Again, facts win. Truth wins. Justice wins. We will continue to hold the line," Ressa said in a statement.  The dismissal of the charges is the latest development in Ressa's multiyear legal saga in the Philippines, which media critics widely view as retaliatory.   At one point, the Filipino American journalist faced a potential combined sentence of more than 100 years in jail for the multiple cases filed.       The Philippine government has previously denied that the legal action against Ressa and Rappler is retaliatory.  "This is an important victory for Maria and for the press. Maria has spent four years with these baseless charges hanging over her, and we are delighted that they have finally been dismissed," said Amal Clooney, who leads Ressa's international legal team with Gallagher at Doughty Street Chambers.  In September, a Philippine court acquitted Ressa and Rappler of tax evasion charges. But other cases remain active. Ressa is on bail while appealing a 6 ½-year prison sentence handed down in 2020 for cyber libel. She is also facing separate criminal proceedings, which carry a maximum 15-year sentence, stemming from the same 2015 foreign investment.   Rappler, meanwhile, is fighting a closure order issued by the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission.  "We hope that the remaining charges will now be dropped so that justice can be restored, and journalism can thrive in the Philippines," Clooney said in a statement.  

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Voice of America’s immigration news - December 12, 2023 - 12:00
Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

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