America
Biden to meet Xi on Wednesday in San Francisco Bay area, US says
The White House announced that on Wednesday, President Joe Biden would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in person for the first time in a year. This is a high-stakes diplomatic attempt to defuse tensions between the two giants of the globe.
Teams of officials from Beijing and Washington will be involved in the widely awaited exchange, which is expected to take hours, on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in the San Francisco Bay region.
According to top Biden administration officials, it is anticipated to address a wide range of international concerns, including the Israel-Hamas conflict, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea’s connections with Russia, Taiwan, the Indo-Pacific region, fentanyl, artificial intelligence, human rights, and “fair” trade and economic relations.
“Everything is on the table; nothing will be held back,” said a U.S. official. U.S. wished to remain anonymous, reporters told reporters during a briefing.
“We’re not blind to this. We are aware that several decades’ worth of attempts to mold or reform China have failed. But for the remainder of our lives, we anticipate China to exist and play a significant role globally.” For over a year, U.S. officials have advocated for this conference and believe Beijing is deliberately trying to sabotage U.S. strategy globally.
In a statement released on Friday, the White House confirmed the meeting’s date. On Friday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Xi would go to the U.S. from November 14–17 to attend the APEC conference and meet with Biden.
Despite their vastly divergent ideological views, Biden and Xi will converse for the first time since November 2022. Following Biden’s decision to fire down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that was seen flying over American airspace in February, the president of the United States and his entourage launched a diplomatic blitz to mend strained relations.
More diplomacy is anticipated as a primary outcome, with commitments to discuss important topics like the environment, global health, economic stability, measures to combat drugs, and maybe the reopening of specific military-to-military channels following a high-level freeze.
Two additional people informed of the meetings said that both parties may provide little tokens of goodwill to facilitate negotiations. Profound advancement, however, will not be easy. According to U.S. and Chinese leaders, both nations increasingly see themselves as engaged in a direct struggle to gain a military advantage, dominate the economy of the twenty-first century, and win over other countries.
With a long history of left-wing protest and agitation, the restive metropolis of Northern California may upend the meticulous planning that went into organizing Xi’s visit.
In the course of six encounters since Biden’s inauguration in 2021, the two leaders, who have known each other for almost ten years, have talked for hours. However, experts claim that both men enter the meeting with mistrust, grudges, and distorted perceptions of each other’s goals. Biden is likely to bring up delicate subjects such as Chinese “influence operations” in overseas elections and the situation of American nationals who Washington claims are unjustly incarcerated in China.
After the COVID-19 epidemic, Biden’s 80-year-old economy has functioned better than other wealthy countries. He is running for a second term in power despite being unpopular with citizens at home and raising doubts about the viability of American democracy.
Though some disagree on the Israel-Hamas conflict, Biden has rallied the country’s longstanding friends from Europe to Asia to oppose Russia in Ukraine. To avert a confrontation with China, Washington is quietly calling upon its extensive network of allies, ranging from NATO to the defense accords in the Pacific.
Ten years Biden’s junior, Xi has tightened control over state leaders, the media, the military, and policy. He has also changed the constitution to become the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. The nation has recently deviated from its three-decade, rocket-propelled growth track due to escalating economic constraints.
In the upcoming weeks, Washington diplomats anticipate that Beijing will put the United States to the test as it pursues its own goals in the Indo-Pacific, presumably capitalizing on the perceived shift in American attention from Ukraine and Israel.
Biden is anticipated to inform Xi that American obligations in the Indo-Pacific region remain unaltered. China’s actions in the Taiwan Strait, South China Sea, and East China Sea—areas of international dispute—have alarmed its neighbors in recent years. According to one of the U.S. sources, Biden would also make a clear commitment to the security of the Philippines.
According to the person, Biden is also anticipated to pressure Xi to persuade Iran that attempting to escalate the Middle East conflict would be foolish.
On Thursday, China said that the Biden administration’s intention to restrict the amount of Chinese content in batteries eligible for significant tax incentives for electric vehicles beginning next year violates international trade rules and will cause disruptions in global supply chains.
According to the proposals, investors in the supply chain for electric vehicles (EVs) in the United States will be ineligible for tax credits if they utilize more than a trace quantity of crucial materials from China or other nations that are considered to be a “Foreign Entity of Concern” (FEOC).
According to He Yadong, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Commerce, “targeting Chinese enterprises by excluding their products from the scope of a subsidy is a typical example of a policy that is not market-oriented.”
“Many World Trade Organization members, including China, have expressed concern about the discriminatory policy of the U.S., which violates the WTO’s basic principles,” said the representative.
As a result of China’s preeminent position in the global battery supply chain, policymakers in the United States and Europe have taken action in response to concerns that low-cost electric vehicles manufactured in China will flood their respective markets.
The European Commission is currently conducting investigations to determine whether Chinese businesses receive improper state subsidies.
Two laws have already been approved in Washington that expressly exclude investors from being able to profit from a $6 billion allocation of tax credits for batteries and essential minerals, as well as subsidies of $7,500 for every new energy vehicle manufactured, should they use FEOCs in their supply chains. These laws make it clear that investors are not eligible to get these benefits.
Specifically, China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are included in this category. The regulations will go into force in 2024 for batteries that have been built and in 2025 for materials that are considered important.
The administration of Vice President Joe Biden of the United States of America is also recommending strict guidelines, one of which is a threshold of 25% ownership, to determine whether a corporation is under the control of an FEOC.
“By establishing ‘glass barriers’, the U.S. is doing more harm than good to the development of EV technologies and the industry more broadly,” he stated, pointing out that the proposals would “seriously disrupt international trade and investment” .
It is estimated that China is responsible for roughly two-thirds of the world’s lithium processing capacity and seventy-five percent of the world’s cobalt capacity. Both of these elements are utilized in the production of batteries.
Analysts, on the other hand, have questioned whether the hyperbole that the United States and the European Union are using on the possible hazards is warranted by China’s role in global battery supply chains.
“There is a great deal of exaggeration surrounding this. Dan Marks, a research fellow for energy security at the Royal United Services think tank, stated that he is uncertain whether the actions that the European Union or the United States are contemplating are proportionate to the magnitude of the risk.
It is more accurate to argue that the strategies being implemented in Europe and the United States are, in fact, industrial strategies. Simply put, they are concerned with having industries that are competitive and able to endure.
After receiving warnings from Democrats and some Republicans that the United States of America was in danger of becoming an autocracy if he were to win the election in 2024, Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that he will not become a dictator until “on day one” if he is elected president of the United States of America again.
To disprove the assertion that he would misuse authority to get vengeance on his adversaries if he were to be re-elected to the White House, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was questioned twice during a town hall meeting broadcast on television in Iowa.
No, no, no. In response to a question on whether or not he would become a “dictator” if he were to win the election in November, Trump stated, “Aside from day one.”
Trump stated that he would utilize his presidential powers to block the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling on the “day one” that he was referring to.
Trump, who is running for a second term in the White House and is expected to face Democratic Vice President Joe Biden in a rematch election, has repeatedly pledged to exact “retribution” on his political adversaries if he can regain power.
In campaign speeches and television appearances this year, he stated that his targets include Vice President Joe Biden, prosecutors who have charged him with scores of felonies, the Department of Justice, and the federal bureaucracy.
One of the most prominent candidates for the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump, was appearing at a Fox News event in Davenport, Iowa, in front of a welcoming audience. Davenport is the state in which the Republican Party’s nomination process will begin on January 15.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the campaign manager for Joe Biden, issued a statement as soon as the event ended. She stated, “Donald Trump has been telling us exactly what he will do if he is re-elected, and tonight he said that he will be a dictator on day one.” Americans must believe him.
Donald Trump, who served as President of the United States from 2017 to 2021, has refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden defeated him in the election of 2020.
Since then, Trump has been spreading false accusations that the election in 2020 was stolen from him. This conspiracy was the driving force for the violent uprising that took place on January 6, 2021, in the United States Capitol, which Trump loyalists spearheaded. The lies that Trump told throughout the election are also a central tenet of his present campaign for the White House.
During a televised discussion that will take place on Wednesday at the University of Alabama at 7 p.m. Central Standard Time (0100 GMT), Trump’s opponents for the nomination, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, who served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, will be there.
The event will be skipped by Trump, just as he has done for the three Republican debates before it.
Biden has frequently expressed his concern that Donald Trump poses a threat to democracy and that a second term for Trump might bring in an era of authoritarianism in the United States that is unprecedented and perhaps deadly.
In comments with the media this week, former United States Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican who is a vocal opponent of President Trump and who co-chaired the congressional investigation into the attack on the Capitol, stated that a Trump dictatorship is a “very real threat” if he is re-elected. Cheney is a member of the Republican candidate for president.
During his trip to Israel, Elon Musk, who had been criticized for an anti-Jewish remark on his social networking platform X, was presented with a symbolic dog tag by the father of an Israeli who had been held captive by Hamas in Gaza. Musk committed the dog tag until all of the pages were released.
“Our hearts are hostage in Gaza,” read the metal tag that Musk got from Malki Shem-Tov, the father of Omer Shem-Tov, who is now being held as a hostage. The office of Israeli President Isaac Herzog released the footage of Musk’s visit on Monday.
The bracelet was wrapped around Musk’s neck. In the latter hours of Monday, he posted a message on X that said, “I will wear it every day until your loved ones are released.”
The dog tags, which are widely distributed across Israel, are a reminder of the cross-border death spree that Hamas carried out on October 7, during which 240 individuals were hauled back to Gaza.
On November 15, Musk expressed his agreement with a post that made a false allegation that Jewish people were inciting hatred against white people. He stated that the poster who mentioned the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory was using “the actual truth” in their statement.
Immediately after the post, significant corporations in the United States, such as Walt Disney (DIS.N), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD.O), and Comcast (CMCSA.O), the parent company of NBCUniversal, decided to cease their ads on X, which was once known as Twitter.
An “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate” that “runs against our core values as Americans” was what the White House of the United States of America referred to as Musk’s actions.
Musk has indicated that he is opposed to antisemitism and anything that “promotes hate and conflict.” He has also stated that X would not promote hate speech.
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