FirstFT: ‘No room to compromise’ with China on nationwide safety, says US commerce secretary

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US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo started a tour of China with a warning that Washington wouldn’t bend on nationwide safety, whereas highlighting the significance of secure financial ties between the world’s two greatest economies.

Talking to her counterpart, Chinese language commerce minister Wang Wentao, in Beijing as a part of a visit designed to revive dialogue between the 2 nations, Raimondo stated the US believed “a powerful Chinese language financial system is an effective factor”.

“In fact, in issues of nationwide safety, there isn’t any room to compromise or negotiate,” Raimondo stated. “And as you say, the overwhelming majority of our commerce and funding relationship doesn’t contain nationwide safety considerations.” Selling journey and tourism between the 2 sides can be on Raimondo’s agenda, regardless of Washington’s current transfer to clamp down on some funding in Chinese language tech in an try to cease the Chinese language army from accessing US funding and information.

US efforts to proceed tightening restrictions on technology-related exports and investments in China have sparked a backlash from Beijing, which is scuffling with flagging international and home investor confidence. Learn the newest from our Beijing bureau chief.

For extra of the FT’s finest options and evaluation on China, go to our China Focus hub. Right here’s what else I’m maintaining tabs on at this time:

• Donald Trump: A decide in Washington is predicted to set a trial date at a standing convention within the federal investigation into the previous president’s alleged interference within the 2020 election.

• Mark Meadows: On the identical time in Atlanta, a decide will hear arguments on whether or not Mark Meadows, the previous White Home chief of employees, ought to be allowed to struggle the costs towards him within the Georgia 2020 election subversion case in federal courtroom relatively than in a state courtroom.

• ‘I’ve a dream’: Right this moment marks the sixtieth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s well-known speech in the course of the March on Washington, the place about 250,000 Individuals gathered within the US capital to push for equality and justice.

5 extra high tales

1. Chinese language corporations’ earnings will lay naked the affect of the nation’s financial slowdown. Their company studies are forecast to log poor efficiency and firms are anticipated to downgrade outlooks, notably in sectors with heavy publicity to the struggling actual property trade.

2. DNA testing has confirmed the dying of Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian authorities stated yesterday. Western officers assume the Wagner warlord was killed as retribution for a mutiny he led towards President Vladimir Putin in June, however the Kremlin has denied any involvement. Right here’s extra on the mounting hypothesis in regards to the group’s future.

3. US college students and faculties adapt to affirmative motion ruling. Candidates are inspired to deal with hardships they’ve overcome whereas faculties are searching for proxies for race in admissions, following the Supreme Court docket choice which states that “the applicant’s race in and of itself” shouldn’t be an element within the course of.

4. Oil trade urged to convey plans on local weather change to US summit. US local weather envoy John Kerry has been assembly world oil and gasoline trade leaders to urge them to convey concrete plans to spice up renewable power and lower greenhouse gasoline emissions by 2030 to the upcoming UN local weather summit.

5. Delivery teams are clashing with merchants over who ought to pay for losses from new local weather guidelines that might downgrade vessels based mostly on their carbon depth. Oil and commodities merchants who lease the ships have criticised shipowners’ makes an attempt to “exempt [themselves] from accountability”, deepening a longstanding wrestle to decarbonise a extremely polluting sector.

• Extra transport: Fuelled by money reserves from the pandemic, freight teams are dashing to purchase amenities in Asia to assist their clients develop provide chains past China.

The Massive Learn

Pathogens which might be immune to antibiotics killed 1.26mn folks in 2019, in accordance with an evaluation printed within the medical journal The Lancet — and the issue is predicted to worsen. However with governments accustomed to purchasing low-cost generic medicine and cautious use decreasing gross sales of recent antibiotics, there may be little incentive for Massive Pharma to sort out this “silent pandemic”.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• EU enlargement scoop: The EU should be prepared to simply accept new member states by 2030, Charles Michel, the European Council president, will declare at this time, kick-starting an existential debate on enlargement that’s set to dominate high-level discussions inside the bloc between now and the tip of the 12 months.

• Foxconn founder launches Taiwan presidency bid: The billionaire founding father of Apple provider Foxconn has stated he’ll run as an unbiased candidate in January’s presidential election in Taiwan, throwing a race of essential geopolitical significance into uncertainty.

• Breakaway bishops: A schism in Ethiopia’s Orthodox church dangers inflaming tensions following a peace deal that ended a brutal two-year battle in Tigray.

• Electrical-car batteries: China’s CATL and BYD dominate the worldwide trade. Can anybody develop cheaper or higher expertise to loosen their grip?

Chart of the day

In current months, there have been extra moms within the US workforce than at any time because the authorities started monitoring them in 1948, as a post-pandemic labour scarcity has pushed employers to embrace insurance policies which might be drawing American girls again to work.

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