When communist leader Xi Jinping met with President Joe Biden last November, China considered itself the world’s role model in controlling the pandemic. It watched America struggle over inflation risks. President Biden’s party had just lost the House majority, albeit with a much smaller margin than expected. A year later, the tables may have turned. Inflation has somewhat cooled in the United States, and China’s economy has faltered after Mr. Xi ended his zero-COVID policy in December. President Biden’s party scored sweeping victories in the off-year state elections. On top of that, Washington tightened its export controls on semiconductors in October and announced restrictions on U.S. investment in China in high tech in August....Read more https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/a-weaker-china-to-meet-with-a-more-wary-us-5522206
News Analysis China edged back into disinflation in October as consumer demand continued to weaken and producer prices fell, highlighting the persistence of disinflationary pressures and shaky recovery while policymakers struggled to reignite growth in the world’s second-largest economy. The consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, fell 0.2 percent year-on-year (YOY) in October, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data released on Nov. 9, higher than the 0.1 percent reduction predicted in a Reuters poll. Furthermore, the producer price index (PPI) decreased for the 13th consecutive month, down 2.6 percent YOY, compared to a 2.7 percent loss predicted by economists and a 2.5 percent contraction in September....
The U.S. government updated its restrictions on chip exports to China in October. Specialized chips like Nvidia A800 and H800, which were previously exportable to China, are no longer permitted to be sold to the Chinese market. Additionally, even the less advanced deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography equipment capable of producing chips in the 14 to 28-nanometer range has also been subjected to export prohibitions. Semiconductors, a general term for chips, can be found in thousands of products, including smartphones, computers, and medical equipment. It is also an advanced and critical component of military electronic systems. The restrictions adopted by the United States are deemed as measures to “choke off China’s access” to high-end chips made and designed in the United States and relevant American technologies and equipment....
A congressional commission has put together a list of political prisoners in China and is asking President Joe Biden to use it when talking to Chinese leader Xi Jinping at this month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the chair and co-chair, respectively, of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, sent a letter to President Biden on Nov. 8, asking him to submit the list to Mr. Xi and “discuss with him the reasons political prisoners are a critical concerns of the United States” in bilateral relations. “For the past decade, PRC officials have refused to accept lists of political prisoners from the United States and have limited our access to information on individual detainees’ treatment and location,” the lawmakers wrote, referring to China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China....