China's Self-Governance System Only Serves the CCP
Deciphering Chinese leader Xi Jinping's periodic public statements could be a cottage industry. Some of his assertions and urgings are head-scratchers, given their divergence from easily verified facts. Take his pronouncement last month that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members 'need to advance full, rigorous self-governance of the Party by fostering good conduct.'
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NBC News
23 minutes ago
- NBC News
Focus on Prince Andrew intensifies with new book's revelations about Epstein ties
LONDON — A new book touting explosive revelations about the life of Britain's Prince Andrew has left the embattled duke facing a renewed wave of damaging headlines. The unauthorized biography, "Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York" by Andrew Lownie, was published Thursday. It centers on Andrew's relationship with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, and covers his finances and dealings with foreign governments, as well as the timeline of his ties with Jeffrey Epstein — the late financier and convicted sex offender who has been the subject of fervent attention in both Britain and the United States in recent weeks. NBC royal contributor Daisy McAndrew said Thursday that the good news for Andrew and the royal family may be that the impact of this renewed focus will be blunted by the reality that his reputation is already at 'rock bottom.' 'It's possible other people might well be taking some of the heat off Andrew,' she said, referring to politicians in the U.S. Publisher HarperCollins says Lownie, a historian, drew on four years of research and interviews with more than 100 people who haven't spoken before in writing the 448-page book. The majority spoke on the condition of anonymity. Excerpts have been splashed across Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, and a poll released this week found that two-thirds of Britons want the disgraced younger brother of King Charles III to be stripped of his remaining royal titles. An earlier YouGov survey found Andrew remains by far the most unpopular royal, with just 5% of respondents saying they held a positive view of him. Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, formerly known as Meghan Markle, was one place above Andrew, at 20%, with heir to the throne Prince William topping the rankings on 74%. A representative for Andrew and Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment about both the book and the polling. Andrew returned his military affiliations and royal patronages in January 2022 after his lawyers failed to persuade a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse. He later paid a substantial sum to Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that Andrew sexually abused her when she was 17. Andrew has repeatedly denied the allegation. Giuffre died by suicide in April this year, with her family saying in a statement that 'the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.' In December 2024, Andrew was caught up in an alleged spying case after cultivating an 'unusual degree of trust' with a Chinese man who was barred from the U.K. on national security grounds. Britain's High Court ruled that Andrew had been 'prepared to enter into business activities' with Yang Tengbo as it lifted an anonymity order protecting Tengbo's identity. Tengbo had been subjected to the highest levels of national security investigation in the U.K. Other royals have rarely appeared in public with Andrew since his fall from grace. His public standing has remained little changed since a disastrous interview about his ties to Epstein on the BBC's 'Newsnight' program in November 2019. Despite this simmering anger and growing pressure, McAndrew said she doesn't think the king will take the drastic step of removing Andrew's royal titles. But, she said, William might act differently when he ascends the throne. "He's much less sentimental as a personality. And the royal family (and future monarch peculiarly) ultimately must exist to protect the monarchy," she said. The royal family will have to consider whether taking new action against Andrew could run the risk of him retaliating publicly. They may feel it is better, McAndrew said, "to let sleeping dogs lie."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
U.S.-China chip war: How Trump's Nvidia-AMD deal has redefined Washington's export control policy
Under both the first Trump and Biden administrations, Washington argued that it needed to limit China's technological development by barring more and more sensitive products from being exported to its strategic rival. Now, Trump's decision to allow Nvidia and AMD to sell their advanced AI chips to China in exchange for a 15% cut of their revenue turns the export control regime into something like a bargaining chip. The Trump administration is already positioning the deal as a playbook for other products and industries. 'Now that we have the model and the beta test, why not expand it?' U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Bloomberg TV on Wednesday. Trump's move reflects Washington's uneasy position in its tech rivalry with Beijing. The lead the U.S. holds over China in AI and semiconductors is shrinking, with experts estimating a lead of just one to two years at most. Meanwhile, U.S. companies complain of being shut out of the world's second-largest economy. And now China is adopting the U.S.'s tactic of export controls, using its wealth of rare earth metals—key materials used in an array of electronic goods—to put pressure on Washington and its allies. Analysts that spoke to Fortune view Trump's Nvidia deal as a one-off measure stemming from the president's trade negotiations with China. Ray Wang, a semiconductor researcher at the Futurum Group, points out that the Trump administration first signaled that it would issue export licenses for Nvidia's H20 processor—an AI chip designed to comply with U.S. rules—in late July, as part of its trade war truce with Beijing. Wang suggests that the government's 15% cut, agreed upon over the weekend, is an add-on, an 'opportunity to raise government revenue,' in accordance with Trump's broader goals. But the damage to the export control regime may have already been done, says Jennifer Lind, an associate professor at Dartmouth University and international relations expert. 'This deal suggests that under the Trump administration, what gets banned or permitted is not being driven by careful calculations about the effect on Chinese military power—but rather on political whim and personalist politics,' Lind explains. 'This is ruinous for a functioning export control regime.' How have export controls changed? On Monday, Trump confirmed media reports that Nvidia and AMD had agreed to give 15% of their China sales to the U.S. government in exchange for export licenses. The chips in question are Nvidia's H20 and AMD's MI308, two AI processors designed for the Chinese market and tailored to comply with earlier U.S. export controls. In that same press conference, Trump suggested he might even let Nvidia sell a watered-down version of its leading Blackwell processor to China. Export controls have changed wildly in the past few months. In April, Nvidia revealed that the U.S. had blocked it from selling the H20 to China, and that it was taking a $5.5 billion charge on the unsold inventory. As Washington and Beijing escalated their trade war, the export controls ramped up. By late May, the U.S. had expanded controls to block the sale of chip design software and airplane parts, among other products and chemicals, to China. Then, almost as quickly as they were imposed, these export controls disappeared. As part of its trade negotiations with China, the U.S. agreed to scale back controls on chip design software and airplane parts. Officials argue that these agreements are needed to get China to loosen its own controls on rare earth magnets, which threaten several U.S. industries like automobiles and defense. Some lawmakers worried about the growing tech dominance of China fear that Trump's deal sets a bad precedent. John Moolenar, a Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on China, argued that 'we should not set a precedent that incentivizes the government to grant licenses to sell China technology that will enhance its AI capabilities.' His Democratic counterpart, Raja Krishnamoorthi, suggested that 'by putting a price on our security concerns, we signal to China and our allies that American national security principles are negotiable for the right fee.' Backlash to the deal might prevent further erosion of the export regime, says Chris Miller, author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology. 'We're going to see some pushback against the H20 decision in the U.S. from Congress, the media, and the bureaucracy, which will likely also discourage a further weakening of controls,' Miller says. Did the chip controls work? The Biden administration framed export controls as a national security measure, designed to maintain and expand the U.S.'s technological edge versus China. The Trump administration has used similar reasoning in the past. But now he seems to be treating the chip controls as tools for economic dealmaking, raising questions as to what might come next. 'There's no real leadership on this issue with the White House now, as there was in the Biden era,' Paul Triolo, a partner at the DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group, said at the Fortune Brainstorm AI Singapore conference in mid-July, after the first announcement that Trump would allow the H20 to be sold in China again. 'We're in a little bit of a weird moment.' It's unclear, however, how effective the export controls have been at throttling tech development in China. The country's tech sector, in spite of the export controls, seems to have developed satisfactory processors and powerful AI models. Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, is working with chipmaking giant SMIC to make its own AI processors. Huawei's Ascend chips still lag Nvidia's most advanced products, yet compare favorably to Nvidia's chips sold in China. This momentum puts the U.S. in a difficult position. It could double down on controls in the hope of restraining Chinese innovation in the short-term—even if, in the long run, China's domestic industry becomes self-sufficient. Or it can relax its curbs, retaining market access and hope that China never invests in domestic alternatives. U.S. officials, it seems, now believe it's better for Nvidia to keep selling to China. 'You want to sell the Chinese enough that their developers get addicted to the American technology stack,' U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on CNBC in mid-July, soon after reports emerged that Nvidia would be allowed to sell the H20 in China again. (Lutnick also dismissed the H20 as Nvidia's 'fourth-best' chip.) 'What we don't want is for Huawei to have a digital Belt and Road,' Bessent said Wednesday, referring to China's strategy to build infrastructure in emerging markets around the world. 'We do not want the standard to become Chinese.' China pushes back Chinese pressure likely played a role in getting Trump to let Nvidia and AMD chips back into China. While China had slowly started to limit exports of rare earths in recent years, Beijing stopped exports entirely as part of its retaliatory measures to Trump's tariffs earlier this year. Officials demanded that Chinese exporters apply for licenses before they sell to any overseas clients. The suspension froze industries in both the U.S. and Europe. China is the source of around 90% of the world's rare earths, thanks to a years-long project to invest in domestic processing. Governments are starting to invest in non-Chinese sources, but it may take years for such projects to come to fruition. After winning over Washington, Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang may now need to win over Beijing. Chinese officials have warned companies working in government-related areas against using Nvidia's chips, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Chinese state media have also gone after the H20. 'When a type of chip is neither environmentally friendly, nor advanced, nor safe, as consumers, we certainly have the option not to buy it,' a CCTV-affiliated WeChat posted on Sunday. And after Michael Kratsios, one of the U.S.'s leads on AI policy, suggested that Nvidia chips could contain 'location-tracking' to combat chip smuggling, Chinese regulators summoned Nvidia executives to a meeting to explain whether H20 chips contained security risks. The furor was enough to push Nvidia to forcefully state that 'Nvidia GPUs do not and should not have kill switches and backdoors.' Wang, the researcher at the Futurum Group, points out that China's private sector—big tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent and smaller startups like Moonshot—will consume the vast majority of Nvidia's chips. 'They really need those chips to train and develop their AI,' Wang says. 'I don't believe the guidelines from the government will stop this behavior.' This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
Atlantic
2 hours ago
- Atlantic
Trump Trades National Security for a Deal With China
After making a show of getting tough on China, President Donald Trump desperately needs a trade agreement to prove that his disruptive tactics get results. This week, the United States and China agreed to extend their negotiations, avoiding—for now—another round of tariffs that would have hurt business between the world's two largest economies. But the president's newfound willingness to allow the export of vital AI chips to China indicates that an eventual deal could imperil American interests. Eager for a pact, Trump may give up more than he receives. In 2022, then-President Joe Biden prohibited the export of advanced AI chips to China. Just four months ago, Trump expanded those restrictions. This week, though, Trump confirmed the details of an unusual arrangement effectively reversing that move: The American companies Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices will be allowed to sell certain chips to Chinese firms if the companies give the U.S. government a 15 percent cut of the revenue from these sales. In essence, Trump sold exemptions to technology-export controls that many experts consider crucial to protecting American security. In a letter last month, Matt Pottinger, who was Trump's deputy national security adviser during the president's first term, and 19 other policy professionals urged the administration not to allow the sale of Nvidia's H20 chip to China, calling the decision a 'strategic misstep that endangers the United States' economic and military edge in artificial intelligence.' Derek Thompson: The disturbing rise of MAGA Maoism Trump may see the arrangement not as a national-security issue but as a business deal: There's a lot of money to be made selling chips to China, and now the U.S. government will materially benefit. But Trump must also realize that he's made a concession to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Beijing has persistently demanded that Washington remove U.S. export controls on advanced chips, and Xi personally pressed Biden for relief without success. Trump justified his flip-flop by arguing that the H20 chip is not among Nvidia's most high-powered products. He's right about that, but it's far from outdated. Chinese companies crave the H20 to help them deploy AI services. Indeed, the demand for the H20 appears to have alarmed Chinese authorities, who would prefer that local companies use homemade alternatives. Even as Beijing fights the U.S. restrictions, officials have tried slowing the rush by signaling in state media that the Nvidia chip is unsafe. Although Chinese designers have developed a similar chip, they are unable to produce enough, also due to U.S. restrictions that prevent them from using the top chip manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Trump has left the door open to further concessions. Because China's tech industry still can't match Nvidia's AI chips, Beijing is likely to prod Trump to ease restrictions on more advanced semiconductors. Rather than firmly committing to export controls, Trump suggested on Monday that he would be open to permitting Nvidia to sell China downgraded versions of its most powerful chips. Xi has every reason to ask for more. Trump's desire for a deal gives Chinese leaders leverage. And given Trump's pattern of sudden policy reversals, he has likely left an impression that anything could be on the table. Beijing is clearly all in on the negotiations. According to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the Chinese government sent 75 officials to the most recent round of talks, in Stockholm in late July, compared with his own skeleton crew of 15. 'Xi now feels more emboldened to probe for a wider range of potential concessions, not only economic but also security concessions,' Ali Wyne, an expert on U.S.-China relations at the International Crisis Group, told me. Wyne fears this could lead to a 'lopsided bargain' in China's favor. Thomas Wright: Trump wasted no time derailing his own AI plan Xi has already gained on his top-priority issue: Taiwan. He urged Trump to approach Taiwan 'with prudence' during a phone conversation in June, according to the Chinese government's official summary. Washington then reportedly canceled meetings with Taiwan's defense minister, a step that surely pleased Beijing, which strives to isolate the island's government. The Trump administration also appears to have discouraged Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te from making stopovers in U.S. cities while en route to Latin America for diplomatic visits. Xi has done little in exchange. Beijing's most significant goodwill gesture was a June decision to restrict the sale of two chemicals that are used to make the illegal fentanyl circulating on American streets, an issue of utmost importance to the Trump team. But Beijing's action on curtailing the fentanyl trade will likely remain conditional on Trump's good behavior. Trump recently called on Xi in a social-media post to buy more U.S.-grown soybeans—which would be great for some American farmers, but is hardly an even swap for China's access to high-tech chips. Meanwhile, Xi has deftly created and deployed levers of pressure. Amid the escalating trade war in April, Beijing imposed controls on the export to the U.S. of rare-earth metals—an industry that China dominates—and then used their easing as a negotiating tool. In the end, Xi may not get all he wants. But he is winning just by talking. China's leaders have apparently learned that they can distract Trump from more strategic issues by haggling with him over tariff rates and soybean sales. The desire for a deal has so consumed the Trump team that any grander strategy to contend with China's growing power seems to have gotten lost. Last week, Trump imposed high tariffs on India in an attempt to compel New Delhi to curtail purchases of Russian oil—angering a potential partner in the global competition with China. Friendlier relations with China are certainly better than open hostility. The question has always been: At what cost? Trump may eventually seal a trade deal with China that benefits him, but not necessarily the nation.
