U.S. Move on Taiwan Threatens World

China-U.S. Relations

Summary:

The Taiwan question will be an important test for the U.S., because it is the most sensitive issue in Sino-U.S. relations and the foundation on which bilateral ties are based.

The presidents of China and the United States discussed bilateral relations and issues of common concern on the telephone on July 28, the second time they did so since March. Needless to say, such top-level China-U.S. exchanges are of major significance to bilateral relations and world stability in the current global situation.

The international situation highlights the need for China and the United States to fulfill their due responsibilities and cooperate in different areas, so as to maintain global stability. The risks and challenges facing the international community have become more complicated, not least because the COVID-19 pandemic remains a threat to the health and lives of people around the globe.

Also, the global impact of the protracted Russia-Ukraine conflict is being increasingly felt across the world. The disruptions in global supply chains and adjustments to industry chains have dealt a heavy blow to systems and normal operations around the globe. And the energy and food crises, and financial risks are intensifying in some countries.

Against such a backdrop, the global connotations of China-U.S. relations have become even more important, so there is an urgent need to put China-U.S. ties back on the normal track. For that, however, the two countries need to maintain regular communication and exchanges; in fact, they need to increase the frequency of candid, in-depth communication, both on bilateral and major international issues.

Indeed, communication between the two sides in different fields and at different levels have increased of late, which is good news for the world at large. But the two sides also need to shoulder their due major-country responsibilities and play their respective role as a global stabilizer.

An important premise to this is that the U.S. needs to see China in an objective, rational manner. The last two U.S. administrations have viewed and defined Sino-U.S. relations from the perspective of strategic competition, continuously hyped the so-called China threat theory, and recklessly tried to contain and suppress China in various ways.

The U.S. government's outlook on China has led to misjudgment of China's development goals and misreading of China's intentions. It has also misled the international community regarding China's initiatives and regional and global development projects. That's why Sino-U.S. relations have deteriorated dramatically and the scope for the two countries to work together to resolve global issues has shrunk. China has pointed out the U.S.' strategic mistakes many a time but to no avail.

So it's time the U.S. side faithfully implemented the consensuses the two countries' leaders have reached over the years and U.S. strategic circles developed an objective, rational outlook on China. As for the Joe Biden administration, it needs to address the domestic political and economic issues and drive some sense into the anti-China forces in the U.S.. This is the only way China and the U.S. can cooperate to boost their economies, sustain global growth and stave off risks of turbulence and recession.

The Taiwan question will be an important test for the U.S., because it is the most sensitive issue in Sino-U.S. relations and the foundation on which bilateral ties are based. But the U.S. has been frequently playing the Taiwan card and gradually upgrading exchanges with Taiwan at various levels and in various fields, undermining the political foundation of Sino-U.S. ties.

The Chinese side has repeatedly underscored the Taiwan question's importance and sensitivity in recent dialogues with the U.S. side. During the July 28 phone conversation, President Xi highlighted Beijing's position on the Taiwan question, pointing out its importance and sensitivity.

Biden, on his part, did assert that the U.S. has not changed its one-China policy and doesn't support Taiwan independence. But the U.S. side has been saying one thing and doing just the opposite, as evident from its anti-China rhetoric and actions, especially U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's stopover in Taiwan on Aug 2 on her way to the Republic of Korea.

Therefore, the U.S. needs to honor its pledges, match its words with deeds and correct its mistakes.

In the years since the People's Republic of China and the U.S. established diplomatic relations in 1979, all U.S. administrations, both the Democratic and Republican parties and all political forces have been fully aware of the sensitivity of the Taiwan question. Even after that, if the U.S. side keeps playing the Taiwan card, it will fundamentally damage Sino-U.S. ties.

To consolidate the political foundation of Sino-U.S. ties, bilateral interactions have increased lately, albeit at a slow pace, gradually creating an atmosphere for the two sides to cooperate on common issues and maintain world stability.

Given the increasingly gloomy world economic outlook, the two sides should maintain close communication and coordinate their macroeconomic policies, taking inspiration from the Sino-U.S. policy coordination during the 2008 financial crisis which helped the global economy deal with many financial and economic challenges.

Facing the challenges created by the global energy and food crises, China and the U.S. need to strengthen collaboration through bilateral cooperation networks or multilateral platforms such as the United Nations and G20. For instance, the two sides can collaborate on projects to clear the bottlenecks of the international supply chains and provide assistance to countries suffering from shortages of grain, oil and gas, thus clearing the way to deeper cooperation in different fields, thereby boosting bilateral ties.

Source: chinausfocus.com

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Kevin Du

Thailand plans to overhaul its digital rules to confer more powers on the central bank, and tighten the oversight of platforms offering cryptocurrencies and other tokens, after a recent market rout left retail investors reeling from losses.

Thai Central Bank Set to Get More Powers in Crypto Law Overhaul_1

The planned amendments to the regulations will "bring the central bank to be part of it", Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said in an interview. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which currently has the sole mandate to supervise the industry under the rules passed in 2018, had been asked to take the lead on the overhaul, he said.

The move to tighten the rules comes after Thai authorities were criticised for not acting promptly to protect investors at Zipmex (Thailand) Ltd, a licensed cryptocurrency exchange that briefly suspended coin withdrawals. While the platform has since lifted most of the freeze on transactions, it has filed for a moratorium in Singapore for protection from creditors against any lawsuits, and to buy time for raising funds.

"Right now, the central bank has no room to enter into the regulatory framework except for notifying that cryptos are not a legal means of payment for goods and services," Arkhom said on Monday (Aug 8). "The framework is not clear enough to regulate the industry."

With the global crypto market meltdown wiping out about US$2 trillion (RM8.91 trillion), and forcing many players to halt withdrawals and some to file for bankruptcy, Thailand has seen the number of active trading accounts shrink to about 230,000, from a peak of almost 700,000 in December, according to official data.

Bitkub Online Co, Thailand's largest crypto exchange, and its chief executive were fined by the SEC in June for creating "artificial trading volume" on the platform. The company and five officials were also fined for breaching guidelines in listing the company's own digital coins.

While Bank of Thailand governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput has said the authority wants to draw "red lines" on cryptos, it is set to test a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by the end of the year in a pilot project. But it had no plans yet to issue a retail CBDC, it said last week.

Arkhom said tighter crypto regulations will not be aimed at throttling innovation and technology, but to ensure greater protection for investors similar to in the stock market.

"For the stock exchange, you have the paper to prove you are the owner. In the digital world, you have nothing except for the consent that you put at the bottom, which people never read," Arkhomm said. "We are trying to protect investors, as well as keeping players in the industry on fair terms."

Source: Bloomberg

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Damon

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned the token mixing platform Tornado Cash.

According to the department, the mixing service has been responsible for $7 billion in illicit fund flows since its founding in 2019. Over $455 million stolen by the Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking collective, was funneled through the mixer. US Treasury Department Sanctions Crypto Mixing Service Tornado Cash_1

US Treasury Department Sanctions Crypto Mixing Service Tornado Cash_1

These sanctions come after funds from the recent Horizon bridge attack in June 2022 and the recent Nomad heist were laundered through Tornado cash.

Those behind the privacy coin Zcash developed Tornado Cash.

Tornado Cash failed to implement effective AML measures

Tornado is being sanctioned according to Executive Order 13694. All property of Tornado Cash in the United States or owned by U.S. citizens must be reported to OFAC, and the citizens blocked. Blocked citizens owning more than 50% of a particular entity will have their entities blocked. No person or entity will be allowed to transact with blocked individuals except under authorization from OFAC. The list of wallet addresses belonging to Tornado Cash involved in sanctions is available on the department's website.

According to a statement by the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, the mixer has failed to impose effective anti-money laundering practices to prevent illicit fund flows and has failed to implement basic risk management protocols. The department added that while most cryptocurrency transactions are legal, mixers provide a fertile playground for sanctions evasion, as do peer-to-peer exchanges and darknet marketplaces. Ransomware, heists, and other crimes are also perpetrated through these channels.

The department said it would continue to cooperate with other agencies in the U.S. and foreign partners to target entities enabling criminals to profit from illegal activities.

Tornado Cash started down the right path

Tornado Cash recently came under fire from privacy advocates for sanctioning addresses using a Chainlink oracle. OFAC had already sanctioned these addresses. They included an address belonging to North Korean hackers, the Lazarus Group, a notorious cybercrime entity accused of pilfering $620 million from Axie Infinity's Ronin sidechain. Several Russians and a Russian ransomware group were also among the addresses sanctioned.

Daniele Casamassima, CEO of cryptocurrency bank and ecosystem "Pure," said that the compliance of decentralized applications with state directives will depend on to what extent developers tolerate enforcement encroaching on their financial freedom.

Tornado Cash was built to break the link between the source and destination of a transaction. It receives different transactions and mixes them before sending the funds to their intended recipients.

Source: beincrypto

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Devin

The UK Health Security Agency has issued a heat-health alert for southern and central England from Tuesday to Saturday.

Experts advise people to look out for young children and people who are older or with existing health conditions.

Much of the UK is braced for another heatwave, with little rain expected to help relieve the threat of drought yjay has led to hosepipe bans and fire warnings.

The Met Office said temperatures were likely to rise into the low to mid-30s in central and southern parts of the UK, but will not be as extreme as the record-breaking heat in July when the mercury climbed above 40ºC.

Heatwave thresholds, which are met at different temperatures in different parts of the country, are likely to be hit in much of the UK.

Outside the hottest areas, much of England and Wales and south-east Scotland could see temperatures widely in the high 20s, with a chance of a few spots moving into the low 30s, the Met Office said.

Scotland and Northern Ireland will also see temperatures in the high 20s and could reach official heatwave criteria by Friday, forecasters said.

With the latest heatwave coming after months of low rain, which have left the countryside and urban parks and gardens tinder-dry, households in some areas are being urged not to light fires or have barbecues.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service is urging people not to light barbecues or bonfires, or let off fireworks or sky lanterns, after a large blaze that damaged gardens, sheds and trees was started by a chiminea.

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents 28,000 farmers and landowners in England and Wales, has demanded retailers follow the lead of Marks & Spencer and ban the sale of disposable barbecues across the UK this summer to reduce the risk of wildfires in the dry conditions.

The Met Office's fire severity index, an assessment of how severe a fire could become if it were to start, is very high for most of England and Wales, and will reach "exceptional" for a large part of England by the weekend.

Two water companies have already announced hosepipe bans and others have warned they may need to follow, after the driest eight months from November to June since 1976, and the driest July on record for parts of southern and eastern England.

Scientists warn that the likelihood of droughts occurring is becoming higher due to climate change, driven by greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and other human activities.

Climate change is also making heatwaves more intense, frequent and likely, with last month's record temperatures made at least 10 times more likely because of global warming, research shows.

The Met Office recently raised the temperatures that have to be reached for an official heatwave for eight English counties, to reflect the warming conditions in the UK.

"Heatwave criteria look likely to be met for large areas of the UK later this week, with the hottest areas expected in central and southern England and Wales on Friday and Saturday," said deputy chief meteorologist Tony Wardle.

"Temperatures could peak at 35ºC, or even an isolated 36ºC on Saturday.

"Elsewhere will see temperatures widely into the high 20s and low 30s Celsius later this week as temperatures build day on day through the week due to an area of high pressure extending over much of the UK," Mr. Wardle said.

"Coupled with the high daytime temperatures will be continued warm nights, with the mercury expected to drop to only around low 20s Celsius for some areas in the south."

The Met Office said there is little rain in the forecast, with only the north-west likely to see any short-lived showers.

"Further south, which has seen little rain for some time now, dryness will continue through the week and provide no relief for parched land, especially in the South East," Mr. Wardle said.

Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading, said there were many reasons why drought events become worse as a result of human-driven climate change.

A warmer atmosphere is thirstier and dries out the ground, while heatwaves exacerbate the development of drought conditions, and, because continents are warming so fast, ocean winds cannot blow enough moisture over the land.

Uneven global warming can also disrupt weather patterns, and make periods of more persistent wet or dry conditions more common.

"Human caused warming of climate is intensifying the global water cycle and disrupting weather patterns leading to more severe droughts but also more serious flooding events across the globe," said Prof Allan.

Dr Leslie Mabon, lecturer in environmental systems at The Open University, said: "Above all else, the drought risk we are seeing in the UK is a reminder that we urgently need to tackle the problem at source.

"This means reducing emissions from fossil fuels to limit the extent of harmful climate change we will face.

"Moreover, countries like the UK, which have traditionally had more a more temperate climate and have less experience of managing the prolonged effects of hot, dry spells, need to plan now to adapt to hotter weather.

"More than encouraging individuals to save water, this also means looking at our water infrastructure and considering where investments are made to ensure we are better prepared for managing water in hot spells."

Source: The National News

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Owen Li

The Philippine economy expanded less than expected in the second quarter, but at pace still in line with the official 2022 growth target, giving the central bank leeway to further tighten monetary policy to curb red-hot inflation.

The Southeast Asian country's gross domestic product was 7.4 per cent higher in the June quarter than a year earlier, growing more slowly than the downwardly revised 8.2 per cent annual rate seen in the previous quarter and the median 8.6 per cent forecast in a Reuters poll.

It was the slowest growth in three quarters but the second-fastest so far in Asia for the second quarter, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has flagged the possibility of raising key interest rates further by 50 basis points at its Aug. 18 policy meeting, confident the economy can withstand a less accommodative policy.

It has raised interest rates by a total 125 basis points since the start of the year to tame inflation, which soared to its fastest pace in nearly four years in July.

Balisacan attributed the second-quarter growth rate to strong construction and household consumption, among other factors.

He said the country's economic recovery remained strong, with the second-quarter performance in line with this year's growth target for full-year GDP of 6.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent.

The administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, whose six-year term began on Jun 30, is further targeting growth in full-year GDP of 6.5 per cent to 8.0 per cent annually from 2023 to 2028.

Marcos, who is concurrent agriculture secretary, has vowed to turn the long-neglected farm sector into an engine of growth and to focus on fiscal management and infrastructure upgrades to sustain the economy's rebound from the pandemic.

Source: Reuters

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Kevin Du

So far, 23 cities in 15 provincial regions have participated in the pilot use of the digital yuan within China, according to a report by Xinhua News Agency. Ten operating institutions have conducted research on developing digital renminbi in the areas of wholesale and retail, catering, cultural tourism, education, medical care, public services and other fields, making China the pioneer in global digital currency research.

A digital currency is supported by blockchain technology. However, due to its virtual and decentralized characteristics, a virtual currency is usually under poor supervision. This can be rectified once a digital currency is incorporated into the existing financial regulatory system and its advantages like distributed accounting, confidentiality, high payment efficiency and low use cost are utilized, and its excessive decentralization can be addressed to some extent.

The digital renminbi is led by China's central bank, which has accumulated experience in the regulation of the digital renminbi through market practices. Which has proved that Chinese people who are fully accustomed to mobile payment can accept the payment and consumption mode of a digital currency. The market has demonstrated that the digital renminbi not only maintains the convenience and efficiency of mobile payments, but also embodies its confidentiality, security and traceability.

The expansion of its pilot use from only a few cities at the beginning to 23 cities nowadays, the lifting of its "white list" restriction in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong'an New Area and Chengdu, as well as its use at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics, are all conducive to increasing the global influence of the digital renminbi.

Given that digital renminbi is mainly positioned as cash payment vouchers, and enjoys the same legal status and economic value as physical renminbi, whatever financial functions and economic values are enjoyed by the physical renminbi should be covered by digital renminbi. The financial function of digital renminbi is still in its infancy, and its economic value needs to be expanded, but it will become a new currency that coexists with the physical currency, fits in with the era of big data, making it necessary for the central bank to form a new financial supervision system.

As the use of digital RMB continues to expand in China, how to better serve people's livelihoods and realize financial dividends is a positive prospect that both investors and the Chinese government are looking forward to.

Source: China Daily

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FastBull Featured

Daily News

【Quick Facts】

1. Senate passes Biden's Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, with $370 billion to relieve U.S. inflation.

2. High temperatures "bake" the Rhine River, and Europe's energy supply again encounters challenges.

3. The U.S. provides Ukraine with another $1 billion in security assistance.

4. Biden ends his isolation.

【News Details】

Senate passes Biden's Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, with $370 billion to relieve U.S. inflation

U.S. Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 proposed by the Democratic Party with 51 votes in favor and 50 votes against on August 7 after 27 hours of "marathon" debate. The bill aims to, among other things, cut carbon emissions to combat climate change, lower drug prices, strengthen tax enforcement against businesses, and reduce the federal deficit. The bill is expected to go to the House of Representatives where Democrats have the upper hand for a vote on August 12 and then will be signed into law by President Joe Biden.

Democrats said the bill is "the boldest climate program in U.S. history and will open the era of affordable clean energy in the U.S.", but Republicans criticize the bill for leading to higher taxes and more spending and exacerbating the already high inflation.

high temperatures "bake" the Rhine River, and Europe's energy supply again encounters challenges

High temperatures swept Europe, with Spain, Portugal, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other regions seeing extreme heat of more than 40 degrees Celsius. Record high temperatures are registered in many places. As the high temperatures in Europe are accompanied by dry weather, the water level of the Rhine River in Germany has reached a record low since 1970 and continues to decline.

In response to the shortage of natural gas supplies, Germany passed a decree in early July to allow coal power to return to the electricity market. This week, Germany's coal-fired power plants began to operate. Previously, Germany had moved up the date for phasing out coal power from 2038 to 2030.

Germany imports one-third of its coal from the upper Rhine River and faces supply chain problems in restarting coal-fired power plants to replace natural gas demand.

The U.S. provides Ukraine with another $1 billion in security assistance

The U.S. Department of Defense announced on August 8 that the United States will provide another $1 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. This is the largest single U.S. security assistance that has been provided to Ukraine to date.

Russia has temporarily withdrawn its facilities from inspections under the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on August 8 that Russia has notified the United States through diplomatic channels of its decision to temporarily withdraw from the inspection regime under the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and to withdraw relevant Russian facilities from inspection activities under the treaty.

Biden ends his isolation

U.S. President Joe Biden will depart for his home state of Delaware after testing negative for COVID-19. On August 7, Biden tested negative for COVID-19 for the second consecutive day and ended his isolation at the White House. He will travel to Delaware to reunite with his wife.

Despite the mild symptoms, Biden has been in quarantine at the White House for more than two weeks since contracting COVID-19, resulting in the cancellation of all his travel and activities.

"I feel fine," said Biden, 79, as he departed for Rehoboth Beach after ending his isolation on August 7.