March 14, 2022 | Daily Notes
US, China, Russia, Ukraine
Sullivan meets China's Yang, with U.S. warning of perils of aiding Russia (Reuters)
“U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday after American officials said he planned to stress the economic penalties that Beijing would face if it helps Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.”
“Officials of the United States and other countries have sought to make clear to China in recent weeks that siding with Russia could carry consequences for trade flows, development of new technologies and could expose it to secondary sanctions.
Chinese companies defying U.S. restrictions on exports to Russia may be cut off from American equipment and software they need to make their products, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said last week.”
US-China relations: Ukraine casts long shadow as National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan meets Beijing’s foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi (South China Morning Post)
“The meeting between Sullivan and Yang, a Politburo member and the Communist Party’s foreign affairs chief, took place a day after Sullivan warned Beijing it would face severe “consequences” if it helped Russia evade sanctions.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, denied US media reports that Moscow had asked Beijing for military assistance.
“The US side has repeatedly disseminated disinformation about China on the Ukraine issue and they are very ill-intentioned,” he told a regular press briefing Monday in Beijing.”
US will try to convince China not to supply arms to Russia at key Rome meeting (The Guardian)
“The United States will try to persuade China not to supply arms to Russia at a high-level meeting in Rome which the White House sees as critically important not just for the war in Ukraine but also for the future of the global balance of power.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, will meet his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, in the Italian capital amid reports that Russia has asked China for weapons to bolster its faltering invasion of Ukraine.”
胡伟:俄乌战争的可能结果与中国的抉择
China Covid Lockdowns
Foxconn suspends iPhone factories in Shenzhen amid lockdown of China’s southern tech hub (South China Morning Post)
“Apple supplier Foxconn Technology Group has suspended operations at its factories in Shenzhen, without a specific timeline for resumption, after the city announced a lockdown to battle a surge of Omicron cases.
The lockdown in Shenzhen, China’s tech hub in southern Guangdong province, is the latest example of how the nation's zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19 is translating into supply chain disruptions, while most other countries are learning to live with the virus.”
Shenzhen imposes a lockdown and Shanghai restricts nonessential travel as China’s new cases jump. (New York Times)
“Two of China’s largest cities, Shenzhen and Shanghai, imposed stringent restrictions on Sunday on the movements of their residents, as a coronavirus outbreak continued to spread across much of mainland China.
While China still has far fewer cases than most countries, the daily count of known infections has accelerated rapidly. The country’s National Health Commission reported 3,122 new cases on Sunday, up from 1,524 on Saturday and 1,100 on Friday. The average number of new cases has reached 1,370 per day over the past week, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.”
Lockdowns Spread Across China as Race to Contain Covid-19 Outbreak Intensifies (Wall Street Journal)
“Fallout from China’s race to halt its worsening coronavirus outbreak is growing as authorities order lockdowns and other restrictions across more of the country.
All 24 million residents of northeastern Jilin province, which borders Russia and North Korea, were locked down on Monday, the first time since Covid-19 was first detected two years ago in Wuhan that such restrictions have been imposed on an entire province. Shenzhen city began a weeklong lockdown on Monday, closing public transport, nonessential businesses and schools, while companies in Shanghai began shutting down over the weekend.
Whether authorities can swiftly end the outbreak will not only test China’s pandemic strategies against the more infectious Omicron variant behind the latest wave, but also has major implications for the rest of the world. China’s current restrictions have already disrupted global supply chains, including Foxconn Technology Group plants in Shenzhen that make devices for Apple Inc.”
Photo by Tareq Ajalyakin on Unsplash