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The Biden administration proposed new rules on Friday aimed at shifting more production of electric vehicle batteries and the materials that power them to the United States, in an attempt to build up a strategic industry now dominated by China. The rules are meant to limit the role that Chinese firms can play in supplying materials for electric vehicles that qualify for federal tax credits. They will also discourage companies that seek federal funding to build battery factories in the United States from sourcing materials from Chinese partners. The rules could cause some consternation among automakers, who continue to rely heavily on China for materials and components of electric vehicles. The Biden administration is attempting to use billions of dollars in new federal funding to change that dynamic and create a U.S. supply chain for electric vehicles, through both carrots and sticks.

Persons: Biden Locations: United States, China, U.S

The Biden administration has been trying to jump-start the domestic supply chain for electric vehicles so cleaner cars can be made in the United States. But the experience of one Texas company, whose plans to help make an all-American electric vehicle were upended by China, highlights the stakes involved as the administration finalizes rules governing the industry. Huntsman Corporation started construction two years ago on a $50 million plant in Texas to make ethylene carbonate, a chemical that is used in electric vehicle batteries. It would have been the only site in North America making the product, with the goal of feeding battery factories that would crop up to serve the electric vehicle market. But as new facilities in China came online and flooded the market, the price of the chemical plummeted to $700 a ton from $4,000.

Persons: Biden, ”, Peter R, Huntsman, “ I’d Organizations: Huntsman Corporation Locations: United States, Texas, China, North America

As the most powerful Chinese leader in generations, Xi Jinping rarely bothers to glad-hand or to try charming a crowd. His public appearances in China are carefully crafted, with fawning cadres and adoring fans positioned around him. So when Mr. Xi landed in San Francisco this week to meet with President Biden, to try to stabilize a relationship with the United States that has been spiraling downward, it provided a rare opportunity to see the Chinese leader up close and, at times, less filtered than usual. Earlier, the Chinese leader had compared presidential limousines with Mr. Biden as they met on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. And he thanked Mr. Biden for reminding him that his wife, Peng Liyuan, a famous Chinese soprano and folk singer, has a birthday on Monday, as does Mr. Biden.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Xi, Biden, Mr, Peng Liyuan Organizations: Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Locations: China, San Francisco, United States, Iowa, Hebei

☆ Pandas, Ping-Pong and Profits: Chinese Leader Woos U.S. CEOs
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Ana Swanson | More About Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The streets outside the San Francisco hotel where Chinese leader Xi Jinping addressed a crowd of American business executives Wednesday night were chaotic, echoing with police sirens and the chants of protesters. Mr. Xi spoke of pandas. He spoke of Americans and Chinese working together during World War II to battle the Japanese. “The number one question for us is: are we adversaries, or partners?” Mr. Xi asked. “China is ready to be a partner and friend of the United States.”

Persons: Xi Jinping, Xi —, —, Xi, Mr, ” Organizations: Hyatt Regency Locations: San Francisco, China, United States

President Biden will press the Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday to crack down on the Chinese firms that are helping to produce fentanyl, a potent drug that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. An agreement to curb China’s illicit exports of fentanyl — and particularly the chemicals that can be combined to make the drug — could be one of the more significant achievements for the United States out of Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi’s meeting, which is taking place as leaders from Pacific nations gather for an international conference in San Francisco. China is home to a thriving chemical industry that pumps out compounds that are made into pharmaceuticals, fragrances, textile dyes and fertilizers. Some of those same compounds can also be combined to create fentanyl, an opioid that can be 100 times as potent as morphine. U.S. officials argue that this vast chemical industry is playing a key role in the American fentanyl crisis by supplying the bulk of materials used in illegal drug labs, including in Mexico, which is now the largest exporter of fentanyl to the United States.

Persons: Biden, Xi Jinping, Xi’s Locations: United States, Pacific, San Francisco . China, Mexico

☆ Biden’s Pacific Trade Pact Suffers Setback After Criticism From Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Ana Swanson | More About Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration has pulled back on plans to announce the conclusion of substantial portions of a new Asian-Pacific trade pact at an international meeting in San Francisco this week, after several top Democratic lawmakers threatened to oppose the deal, people familiar with the matter said. The White House had been aiming to announce that the United States and its trading partners had largely settled the terms of its Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, an agreement that aims to strengthen alliances and economic ties among the United States and its allies in East and South Asia. But Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, and other prominent lawmakers have criticized the pact, saying it lacks adequate protections for workers in the countries it covers, among other shortcomings. The Biden administration, facing the possibility of additional critical public statements, has decided not to push to conclude the trade portion of the agreement this week, and has been briefing members of Congress and foreign trading partners in recent days on its decision, the people said.

Persons: Biden, Sherrod Brown Organizations: Democratic, White, Prosperity, Democrat Locations: Pacific, San Francisco, United States, East, South Asia, Ohio

☆ Xi Jinping to Address U.S. Business Leaders Amid Rising Skepticism of China Ties
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Ana Swanson | More About Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who is set to to meet with President Biden in San Francisco next week, is expected to speak to top American business executives at a dinner following that bilateral meeting. Mr. Xi, who is traveling to the United States for an international conference, will address business leaders at a challenging moment in U.S.-China relations. The United States has expressed growing concern about China’s military ambitions and has sought to cut off Beijing’s access to technology that could be used against the United States. Still, Chinese and American leaders have expressed interest in bolstering ties between their economies, the world’s two largest, which remain inextricably linked through trade. The Biden administration has sent several top officials to China this year to try to make clear that while the United States wants to protect national security, it does not seek to sever economic ties with Beijing.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Biden, Xi, Xi’s Organizations: United, Chinese Communist Party Locations: San Francisco, United States, China, Beijing

Still, analysts say, electric vehicle sales are projected to jump sharply under the right conditions. Administration officials must speed the deployment of charging stations meant to ease the logistics of owning and driving an electric vehicle. Mr. Biden is trying to jump-start the electric vehicle market as the global transition to cleaner fuels is accelerating more quickly than expected. The administration’s policies to boost electric vehicles aren’t just aimed at climate change. Without an American supply chain, electric vehicles can’t qualify for the full $7,500 consumer tax credit the law created.

Persons: Biden, — they’re, ”, Rhett Ricart Organizations: Ricart Automotive, National Automobile Dealers Association Locations: U.S, America, Columbus , Ohio

Six years ago, an executive from Suniva, a bankrupt solar panel manufacturer, warned a packed hearing room in Washington that competition from companies in China and Southeast Asia was causing a “blood bath” in his industry. More than 30 U.S.-based solar companies had been forced to shut down in the previous five years alone, he said, and others would soon follow unless the government supported them. Suniva’s pleas helped spur the Trump administration to impose tariffs in 2018 on foreign-made solar panels, but that did not reverse the flow of jobs in the industry from going overseas. Last month, Suniva announced plans to reopen a Georgia plant, buoyed by tariffs, protective regulations and, crucially, lavish new tax breaks for Made-in-America solar manufacturing that President Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, created. Solar companies have long been the beneficiaries of government subsidies and trade protections, but in the United States, they have never been the object of so many simultaneous efforts to support the industry — and so much money from the government to back them up.

Persons: Suniva Organizations: Suniva Locations: Washington, China, Southeast Asia, U.S, Georgia, America, United States

☆ Shipping Contributes Heavily to Climate Change. Are Green Ships the Solution?
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Ana Swanson | More About Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a bright September day on the harbor in Copenhagen, several hundred people gathered to welcome the official arrival of Laura Maersk. She was a hulking containership, towering a hundred feet above the crowd, and the most visible evidence to date of an effort by the global shipping industry to mitigate its role in the planet’s warming. By switching to green methanol, this single ship will produce 100 fewer tons of greenhouse gas per day, an amount equivalent to the emissions of 8,000 cars. The effect of global shipping on the climate is hard to overstate. Cargo shipping is responsible for nearly 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — producing roughly as much carbon each year as the aviation industry does.

Persons: Laura Maersk, Laura Locations: Copenhagen, Danish

The Biden administration said on Monday that it had chosen 31 regions as potential recipients of federal money that would seek to fund innovation in parts of the country that government investment overlooked in the past. The announcement was the first phase of a program that aims to establish so-called tech hubs around the country across a variety of cutting-edge industries, like quantum computing, precision medicine and clean energy. In the coming months, the regions will compete for a share of $500 million, with roughly five to 10 of the projects receiving up to about $75 million each, the administration said. The program will test a central idea of a bipartisan bill that lawmakers passed last year: that science and technology funding should not just be concentrated in Silicon Valley and a few thriving coastal regions but flow to parts of the country that are less populated or have historically received less government funding. Proponents of the program say these investments can tap into pools of workers and economic resources that are not reaching their full potential, and improve the American economy as well as its technological abilities.

Persons: Biden Locations: Silicon Valley

That decision gives U.S. officials new sway over companies in the Netherlands and Japan, where some of the most advanced chip machinery is made. In particular, U.S. rules will now stop shipments of some machines that use deep ultraviolet, or DUV, technology made mainly by the Dutch firm ASML, which dominates the lithography market. Peter Wennink, the chief executive officer, said that it was “just a handful” of Chinese chip factories where the company would not be able to ship certain tools. But “it is still sales that we had in 2023 that we’ll not have in 2024,” he added. ASML’s technology has enabled leaps in global computing power.

Persons: Vera Kranenburg, ASML, “, ”, Peter Wennink, we’ll, Liesje Schreinemacher Organizations: Clingendael Institute, U.S . Department of Commerce Locations: Netherlands, Japan, U.S, China, Dutch, United States

☆ U.S. Tightens China’s Access to Advanced Chips for Artificial Intelligence
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Ana Swanson | More About Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a call with reporters on Monday, a senior administration official said that the United States had seen people try to work around the earlier rules, and that recent breakthroughs in generative A.I. had given regulators more insight into how the so-called large language models behind it were being developed and used. access to advanced semiconductors that could fuel breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and sophisticated computers that are critical to P.R.C. The Biden administration has been trying to counter China’s growing mastery of many cutting-edge technologies by pumping money into new chip factories in the United States. U.S. officials describe the strategy as protecting American technology with “a small yard and high fence.”

Persons: Gina M, Raimondo, “, it’s, Biden, China’s, Xi Jinping Locations: United States, People’s Republic of China, California, China, U.S

☆ U.S. Finalizes Rules to Keep Chip Funds Out of China
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Ana Swanson | More About Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration on Friday issued final rules that would prohibit chip companies vying for a new infusion of federal cash from carrying out certain business expansions, partnerships and research in China, in what it described as an effort to protect United States national security. The new rules aim to prevent chip makers who benefit from U.S. grants from passing technology, business know-how or other benefits to China. The final restrictions will prohibit firms that receive federal money from using it to construct chip factories outside of the United States. They also restrict companies from significantly expanding semiconductor manufacturing in “foreign countries of concern” — defined as China, Iran, Russia and North Korea — for 10 years after receiving an award, it said. The rules also prevent companies that receive funding from carrying out certain joint research projects in those countries, or licensing technology that would raise national security concerns to those countries.

Persons: Biden Organizations: United, North Korea — Locations: China, United States, U.S, Iran, Russia, North Korea

☆ Defense Department Awards Chip Funding to Fuel Domestic Research
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Ana Swanson | More About Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced that it was awarding $238 million through the Defense Department to set up eight hubs around the United States for promoting innovation in the semiconductor industry. The funds are one of the earliest releases of the nearly $53 billion in grants and subsidies that Congress and the Biden administration have approved to build up the domestic semiconductor industry, which U.S. officials say has been left vulnerable by decades of offshoring. The Biden administration has a variety of funding programs in the works to encourage chip research institutions and manufacturers to set up operations in the United States. Most of these programs are run through the Commerce Department, and many will begin handing out money this fall. While U.S. companies still design many of the world’s most advanced chips, much of the manufacturing of the technology has been outsourced to foreign locations, including Taiwan, leaving U.S. chip supply vulnerable if, for example, the Chinese government were to invade Taiwan.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Wednesday, Defense Department, Commerce Department, U.S Locations: United States, U.S, Taiwan

☆ Huawei Phone Is Latest Shot Fired in the U.S.-China Tech War
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Ana Swanson | More About Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Chinese media have referred to the phone as a sign of the country’s technological independence, but U.S. analysts said the achievement still most likely hinged on the use of American technology and machinery, which would have been in violation of U.S. trade restrictions. For the past several years, those restrictions have curtailed Huawei’s ability to produce 5G phones. But Huawei appears to have found a way around those restrictions to make an advanced phone, at least in limited quantities. Though detailed information about the phone is limited, Huawei’s jade-green Mate 60 Pro appears to have many of the same basic capabilities as other smartphones on the market. An examination of the phone by TechInsights, a Canadian firm that analyzes the semiconductor industry, concluded that the advanced chip inside was manufactured by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation of China and was operating beyond the technology limits that the United States has been trying to enforce.

Persons: Trump, Biden, Douglas Fuller, SMIC Organizations: Huawei, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation of China, Copenhagen Business School Locations: United States, China

The Biden administration was willing to work to promote trade with China for many categories of goods. There is a long history of frustrating and unproductive economic dialogues between the United States and China, and there are not many reasons to believe this time will prove different. And Biden administration officials argue that even the shift to begin talking has been significant, after a particularly tense period. Relations between the United States and China became frosty last August when Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker at the time, visited Taiwan, and they froze entirely after a Chinese surveillance balloon flew across the United States in February. Ms. Raimondo’s trip capped a summer of outreach by four senior Biden officials.

Persons: Biden, China’s, Ms, Raimondo, Nancy Pelosi, Nicholas Burns, “, ” Organizations: U.S ., Biden Locations: China, United States, U.S, Taiwan

The United States has spent the past five years pushing to reduce its reliance on China for computer chips, solar panels and various consumer imports amid growing concern over Beijing’s security threats, human rights record and dominance of critical industries. But even as policymakers and corporate executives look for ways to cut ties with China, a growing body of evidence suggests that the world’s largest economies remain deeply intertwined as Chinese products make their way to America through other countries. New and forthcoming economic papers call into question whether the United States has actually lessened its reliance on China — and what a recent reshuffling of trade relationships means for the global economy and American consumers. Changes to global manufacturing and supply chains are still unfolding, as both punishing tariffs imposed by the administration of former President Donald J. Trump and tougher restrictions on the sale of technology to China imposed by the Biden administration play out. The key architect of the latest restrictions — Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary — is meeting with top Chinese officials in Beijing and Shanghai this week, a visit that underscores the challenge facing the United States as it seeks to reduce how much it depends on China at a moment when the countries’ economies share so many ties.

Persons: Donald J, Biden, — Gina Raimondo, — Organizations: Trump Locations: States, China, America, United States, Beijing, Shanghai

He has broad oversight of economic policy, and has long been closely associated with Xi Jinping, China’s top leader. Seated in a red-carpeted reception room on the second floor of the Great Hall, Mr. He said at the start of their meeting that he was ready to work with Ms. Raimondo, and hoped the United States would adopt rational and practical policies. “The U.S.-China commercial relationship is one of the most globally consequential, and managing that relationship responsibly is critical to both our nations and indeed to the whole world,” Ms. Raimondo said. “And while we will never of course compromise in protecting our national security, I want to be clear that we do not seek to decouple or to hold China’s economy back.”

Persons: Gina Raimondo, Xi Jinping, Ms, Raimondo, Biden, ” Organizations: of Locations: United States, Beijing, U.S, China

High-ranking United States and Chinese officials held a series of economic policy meetings on Tuesday in Beijing, in the latest sign that both countries are trying to stop the long deterioration in their relationship and restore communications. Seated in a red-carpeted reception room on the second floor of the Great Hall, Mr. She responded that while the United States would not compromise on issues of national security, it also would not try to disconnect from China or hold back China’s economic development. He has broad oversight of economic policy as one of four vice premiers, and has also been closely associated with Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, since 1985. That was when the two men began collaborating on economic development as officials in Xiamen, a city in Fujian Province on the southeastern coast of China.

Persons: Gina Raimondo, Ms, Raimondo, Xi Jinping Organizations: of Locations: United States, Beijing, U.S, China, Xiamen, Fujian Province

The United States and China on Monday agreed to hold regular conversations about commercial issues and restrictions on access to advanced technology, the latest step this summer toward reducing tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The announcement came during a visit to Beijing by Gina Raimondo, the U.S. commerce secretary, who is meeting with senior Chinese officials in Beijing and Shanghai this week. The agreement to hold regular discussions is the latest move toward rebuilding frayed links between the two countries, a process that had already begun during three trips in the past 10 weeks by senior American officials: Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and John Kerry, the president’s climate envoy. “I think it’s a very good sign that we agreed to concrete dialogue, and I would say, more than just kind of nebulous commitments to continue to talk, this is an official channel,” Ms. Raimondo said in an interview after four hours of negotiations with China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao.

Persons: Gina Raimondo, Antony J, Blinken, Janet L, Yellen, John Kerry, “, Ms, Raimondo, Wang Wentao Locations: States, China, Beijing, U.S, Shanghai

Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, who arrived in Beijing on Sunday, is the latest Biden administration emissary seeking to stabilize ties between the world’s two largest economies. The fourth senior U.S. official to travel to China in less than three months, Ms. Raimondo is taking her trip at a critical juncture. Relations between the countries are strained, partly because the United States has clamped down on China’s access to technology that could aid its military. Ms. Raimondo’s agenda is varied, including economic diplomacy, getting to know China’s new economic team and defending the interests of American companies and their employees. Ms. Raimondo’s department oversees the export controls and other restrictions that the Biden administration has put in place, many of which have angered Chinese officials and prompted retaliation.

Persons: Gina Raimondo, Biden, Raimondo Organizations: U.S Locations: Beijing, China, United States, U.S

☆ Raimondo Heads to China to Both Promote Trade, and Restrict It
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Ana Swanson | More About Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, is heading to China on Saturday with two seemingly contradictory responsibilities: a mandate to strengthen U.S. business relations with Beijing while also imposing some of the toughest Chinese trade restrictions in years. The head of the Commerce Department is traditionally the government’s biggest champion for the business community both at home and abroad, promoting the kind of extensive ties U.S. firms have with China, the world’s second-largest economy. But U.S.-China relations have turned chillier as China has become more aggressive in flexing its economic and military might. While China remains an important economic partner, American officials have increasingly viewed the country as a security threat and have imposed a raft of new restrictions aimed at crippling Beijing’s access to technology that could be used to strengthen the Chinese military or security services. The bulk of those restrictions — which have stoked anger and irritation from the Chinese government — have been imposed by Ms. Raimondo’s agency.

Persons: Gina Raimondo Organizations: Commerce Department, U.S Locations: China, Beijing

☆ Commerce Secretary to Visit China Next Week in Bid to Steady Ties
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Ana Swanson | More About Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, will travel to Beijing and Shanghai for a series of meetings next week, becoming the latest Biden official to visit China as the United States seeks to stabilize the relationship between the countries. Ms. Raimondo will meet with senior Chinese officials and American business leaders between Aug. 27 and Aug. 30, the Department of Commerce said in an announcement Tuesday. The department said that Ms. Raimondo was looking forward to “constructive discussions on issues relating to the U.S.-China commercial relationship, challenges faced by U.S. businesses, and areas for potential cooperation.”The visit comes during a period of tensions between Washington and Beijing, and amid extreme volatility in the Chinese economy, which is struggling with stalling growth, a real estate crisis and lackluster consumer confidence. The Biden administration has dispatched a series of officials to China in recent months in an attempt to restore some stability to the bilateral relationship, after the flight of a Chinese surveillance balloon across the United States early this year left ties badly frayed.

Persons: Gina Raimondo, Raimondo, Ms, Biden Organizations: Biden, Department of Commerce, U.S . Locations: Beijing, Shanghai, China, United, U.S, Washington, United States

First Solar, a leading U.S. solar panel manufacturer, said on Tuesday that an audit had found that migrant workers in its operations in Malaysia were victims of forced labor. The independent audit, which was included in a corporate sustainability report, found that four subcontractors in Malaysia had charged the workers recruitment fees in their home countries and withheld their pay and passports. U.S. officials and human rights activists have become increasingly concerned about the use of forced labor in the manufacture of solar panels, most of which takes place in Asia. Global supply chains for solar panels have for years relied on China, in particular for polysilicon, a crucial component in most solar panels made around the world. But a recent ban on products from Xinjiang, a region where the U.S. government and United Nations accuse the Chinese government of committing human rights violations, including forced labor, has led to a shift away from China.

Organizations: United Nations Locations: U.S, Malaysia, Asia, Global, China, Xinjiang

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