'In essence, confront where we must, but cooperate where we can.''..they’re no legal basis for China to claim the entire South China Sea as its private lake. The argument has been firmly rejected by all other nations that surround that body of water, and by
international courts.
..
To push back against Chinese claims, the U.S. Navy conducts so-called freedom of navigation patrols, designed to demonstrate that these are international waters — “high seas” in the parlance of international law.
..
The key for the U.S. is to gradually bend Chinese behavior without breaking the international relationship in a way that leads into a Cold War or armed conflict. The best way to do that is to bring more international allies into the freedom of navigation patrols (including North Atlantic Treaty Organization partners along with Australia and Japan); increase U.S. engagement with Taiwan, particularly in military-to-military cooperation; insist on a full-blown international investigation into the Wuhan outbreak of the coronavirus; and build stronger relations with other nations around the littoral of the South China Sea.
These confrontational measures should be accompanied by a basket of offers to gain China’s cooperation .. conducting joint humanitarian operations; working to create “norms of behavior” between the two nations’ naval forces (much as Russia and the U.S. have hammered out); and exploring strategic and tactical arms-control agreements.
In essence, confront where we must, but cooperate where we can. Henry Kissinger warned several months ago that he sees the U.S. and China as being “in the foothills of a Cold War.” While I like his mountainous metaphor, we should also look to the sea to gauge how contentious this relationship is about to become. The forecast for the South China Sea is choppy weather indeed.'
- Bloomberg,
A Cold War Is Heating Up in the South China Sea, May 21, 2020
'China promised during the Obama administration that it would stop government-directed cyber theft of trade secrets for commercial gain and restated the same promise in the first two years of the Trump administration, the report said. In late 2018, however, the U.S. and a dozen other countries reported that China was hacking computers to target intellectual property and steal business information.
"Since the 1980s, Beijing has signed multiple international agreements to protect intellectual property. Despite this, more than 63 percent of the world's counterfeits originate in China, inflicting hundreds of billions of dollars of damage on legitimate businesses around the world," the report said.
The Trump administration also is upset at how China continues to argue to the World Trade Organization that it is a "developing country," even though it is the top importer of high-tech products and ranks second only to the U.S. in terms of gross domestic product, defense spending and outward investment.
Under the Xi government, Chinese officials have purged political opposition; bloggers, activists and lawyers have been unjustly prosecuted; stringent controls have been imposed to censor not only media, but universities, businesses and non-governmental organizations; citizens and corporations have been targeted with surveillance; and people perceived as dissidents have been subjected to arbitrary detention, torture and abuse.
China retains its non-market economic structure and state-led approach to trade and investment, the report said. Political reforms have likewise atrophied or reversed and distinctions between the government and the Chinese Chinese Party are eroding.
"Xi's decision to remove presidential term limits, effectively extending his tenure indefinitely, epitomized these trends," the report said. "In a stark example of domestic conformity, local officials publicized a book burning event at a community library to demonstrate their ideological alignment to 'Xi Jinping Thought.'"
Chinese authorities also have detained more than 1 million Uighurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in indoctrination camps where many endure forced labor, ideological indoctrination and physical and psychological abuse.'
- CNBC,
White House report criticizes China's economic policies, human rights violations, May 21, 2020
Context(Reuters) - 'Europe should .. ban Chinese takeovers.' 'What do we do about China now?' - '..the Chinese manipulated Western politicians and business leaders into thinking China was evolving toward democracy and capitalism.'