China Refutes US Politician’s Remarks Labeling Taiwan Region as a Warring State
China Refutes US Politician’s Remarks Labeling Taiwan Region as a Warring State
In a routine press conference held by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on the morning of December 13th, spokesperson Zhu Fenglian refuted the erroneous statements made by the US politician regarding Taiwan.
During a discussion at the Atlantic Council, Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff once asserted, “The US can support Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan at the same time.”
In response, Zhu Fenglian questioned, “What is the intention behind American politicians lumping Taiwan, a part of China, together with countries currently embroiled in armed conflicts? Are they aiming to replicate such scenarios and turn Taiwan into a blazing battlefield? Once the Taiwan Strait becomes a battleground due to ‘Taiwan independence’ or external forces’ intervention, the Taiwanese people will inevitably be caught in the crossfire.”
Zhu Fenglian emphasized that China urges the US to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the provisions of The Three Communiqués, ceasing all forms of military support to Taiwan and genuinely implementing the important consensus reached during the meetings between the Chinese and US leaders.
Huawei to Open First Overseas Factory in France by 2025
Huawei France’s deputy general manager Zhang Minggang recently revealed that Huawei’s first overseas factory has been set for France, expected to begin production by end-2025.
According to Zhang, the Huawei France factory will be located in the town of Brumath in the Rhineland region, occupying about 80,000 square meters of land. The 200 million euro project is forecast to produce 1 billion euro worth of output annually, delivering high returns while creating 800 jobs, including 300 in the near term and 500 longer-term positions.
The plant is projected to manufacture 1 billion devices per year, specifically 4G/5G base station components like chipsets and motherboards to supply the greater European market. Since entering France in 2003, Huawei now operates 6 R&D centers and 1 global design center in Paris alone, enabling nearly 10,000 local jobs so far. France was previously Huawei’s largest overseas market with 2.5 billion euro revenue in 2021, though environmental hurdles had delayed the factory announcement first made in 2019.
In nearly 20 years since entering France, Huawei has established extensive operations centered around six research hubs and a global design center in Paris. The firm achieved 2.5 billion euro sales in France by 2021, created close to 10,000 jobs, and captured 20% share of the French telecom infrastructure market.
New Florida Law Restricts Chinese Students in State University Labs
According to a December 12th report by Science, a new Florida state law is preventing faculty at the state’s 12 public universities and colleges from hiring Chinese graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to work in their labs.
Passed in May and effective since July 2022, the law prohibits Florida public universities from accepting any donations or signing agreements with China and six other “countries of concern” including Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela. Certain research and academic collaborations, including visiting scholar programs, have also been banned since December 1st.
While students from those countries can still enroll in graduate programs, they cannot obtain paid research positions including graduate assistantships or postdoctoral appointments. The restrictions currently apply to those living in or receiving a year or more of training/employment abroad, even with U.S. citizenship, unless granted case-by-case exceptions by the state Higher Education Board.
As universities formulate rules to implement the legislation, the resultant uncertainty has already frozen admissions offers originally scheduled for December-January to Chinese graduate applicants for Fall 2024.
The chilling effect comes as Chinese students increasingly opt for alternative destinations beyond the U.S. amid travel barriers, surging anti-Asian hate, safety fears, geopolitics. Already, Chinese enrollment in America dropped 8.6% last year.