Latest news with #RobertDelaney
South China Morning Post
20-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
EU trade chief hopeful about averting US tariffs after ‘intense' talks
Robert Delaney in Washington Published: 3:31am, 21 Feb 2025 The European Union 's trade chief held 'intense' talks with his counterparts in US President Donald Trump 's administration, voicing hope on Thursday that a transatlantic trade war could be averted and despite the Oval Office's searing criticism of the bloc. Maros Sefcovic met with newly confirmed US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick , the director of the US National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, and the president's nominee for US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, in a four-hour meeting in which the EU envoy said the two sides focused heavily on steel. The Trump administration is expected to slap a 25 per cent tariff on foreign steel and aluminium on March 12. It is also preparing to raise tariffs to match those charged by other countries on American exports, deploying an overall policy of 'reciprocity' against all US trading partners. Trade is one of several fronts on which the transatlantic alliance that has prevailed since the end of the second world war has frayed since Trump's second presidential term started last month. Brussels considers the two sides to represent 'the most integrated economic relationship in the world' when goods, services and investment are taken into account. Europe has a trade surplus in goods of about US$160 billion with the US, although the US has a surplus in services trade of about US$106 billion with the EU, according to the bloc's data.
South China Morning Post
11-02-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
China in ‘axis of evil', says US lawmaker of countries under Trump and Xi
Robert Delaney in Washington Published: 7:24am, 12 Feb 2025 Starkly divergent views of the US under Donald Trump and Xi Jinping 's China came into focus in Washington on Tuesday, when a lawmaker said Beijing was part of an 'axis of evil' and a Chinese academic suggested Trump was trying to carve up the world to the detriment of America's allies. Delivering a keynote address at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, US congressman Rob Wittman, vice-chair of the influential House Armed Services Committee, said the American belief in the rule of law was among principles that the US has 'in common with other nations around the world'. 'There's a big contrast between the United States and our allies and China, Russia , North Korea and Iran ,' the Virginia Republican said. 'That is a building axis of evil. The same thing is emerging today, as we saw in 1938 and we ought to be very, very mindful of that.' Wittman, who also serves as chairman of the House subcommittee on tactical air and land forces, called for cooperation with allies in a range of military fronts, including shipbuilding and critical minerals supply, to match the defence industrial base that China has built up under Xi. Wittman's usage of the term 'axis of evil' echoed testimony before the House Armed Services Committee last year by retired Admiral John Aquilino, then the commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific, underscoring the degree to which Washington's military establishment sees Beijing as a grave threat to US interests.
South China Morning Post
11-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China's ‘top puppet' Elon Musk poses US national security risks: House Democrats
Igor Patrick , Robert Delaney and Bochen Han in Washington Published: 5:10am, 12 Feb 2025 Convened by a House subcommittee on transportation and maritime security, the hearing focused on how China's presence in ports in Panama , Peru and Brazil could affect Washington's interests in the region. US congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida said Hong Kong -based company Hutchison Ports' operations in two ports on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the Panama Canal gave Beijing 'a strategic position over one of the world's most important waterways'. '[It] provides the Communist Party with an opportunity to exert influence over commercial shipping, gather intelligence on American and allied vessel traffic and potentially restrict the mobility of our Navy in a time of crisis,' he said. 'The United States cannot and will not accept the scenario where a foreign adversary, one that openly seeks to undermine our global standing, controls infrastructure critical to us, homeland security, military readiness and economic stability,' Gimenez added.
South China Morning Post
06-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China's ability to launch DeepSeek chatbot draws US panel's scrutiny
Robert Delaney in Washington Published: 7:40am, 7 Feb 2025 China's ability to launch DeepSeek 's popular chatbot came under scrutiny before a US government advisory panel on Thursday, with one witness stressing the role that American technology played and another cautioning that the country's ability to 'iterate' other breakthroughs in the industry could overcome this factor. Testimony before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) also came with a warning about China's ability to dominate the 'potentially world-changing technology of' artificial general intelligence, or AGI. Hanna Dohmen of Georgetown University's Centre for Security and Emerging Technology, said China's 'most advanced [ AI ] models, including DeepSeek R1, are largely relying on US-made semiconductors , including chips that companies stockpiled before the controls took effect. 'As these stockpiles deplete over the next couple of years, the controls have the potential to create a growing gap between the AI chip quantity and quality inside and outside of China,' said Dohmen. 'But that gap will only hold if US export controls on chip manufacturing tools and other measures aimed at slowing China's semiconductor fabrication capacities are effective. 'Similar to the stockpiles of AI chips, Chinese equipment firms also stocked up on foreign equipment before controls were implemented,' she added. 'This, once again, imposes a lag between the control when the controls were implemented and when the controls will bite.'
South China Morning Post
04-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Trump downplays China's retaliatory tariffs and ‘in no rush' to talk to Xi
Robert Delaney in Washington Published: 5:27am, 5 Feb 2025 US President Donald Trump dismissed the implications of retaliatory measures that Beijing enacted against the United States following Washington's imposition of 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports on Tuesday, adding he is 'in no rush' to talk to his Chinese President Xi Jinping . 'That's fine. It's fine,' Trump told reporters asking about Beijing's tit-for-tat response. 'We're going to do very well against China and against everybody else. Right now, they've taken advantage of the Biden administration like I've never seen. 'The deficit with China is about a trillion dollars. Think of it, a trillion dollars. They're using our money to build their military,' he added. The White House in a February 1 fact sheet stated that 'in 2023 the US trade deficit in goods was the world's largest at over US$1 trillion'. According to US government data, America's trade deficit with China was US$270 billion in 2024, down from US$279 billion in 2023. China announced plans to impose retaliatory tariffs on a range of American goods from February 10, including 15 per cent duty on coal and natural gas imports and 10 per cent on petroleum, agricultural equipment, high-emission vehicles and pickup trucks.
