The Wire China · China
TIER 4 Sun, 25 May 2025 23:15:02 +0000
Plus, Xi Jinping’s bold gambit in the South Pacific | | --- | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | #### Weekly newsletter | May 25th, 2025 --- | --- | **Good evening.** In April, President Trump signed an executive order that sent shockwaves around the world. The order aims to spur seabed mining for rare earth minerals in international waters — in defiance of an international moratorium on the activity. But a move made a few months earlier by China garnered much less attention, when the Chinese government signed a cooperative exploration agreement with the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. The diplomatic coup, writes Sean Williams, drove a wedge between the Cook Islands and New Zealand, with which it has loose constitutional ties. It could also eventually lead to Chinese mining in the Cook Islands’ vast exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, that covers an area the size of Mexico. The two moves highlight how the U.S. and China’s intense rivalry now extends from outer space to the bottom of the oceans. Also in this week’s issue: The Big Picture looks at GD Culture Group, a China-linked, Nasdaq-listed company that is helping to enrich the Trump family; Eliot Chen on tracking Nvidia’s coveted chips; Patrick McGee, author of _Apple in China_ , on why he will probably never be invited to visit Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California again; and Mike Kuiken and Randall Shriver on how the Trump administration can fix a broken export controls regime. If you’re not already a paid subscriber to _The Wire_ , please sign up here. _Was this email forwarded to you?_ Sign up to receive our free newsletter. Click here to view this email in your browser. --- | | | | | | --- | | --- | | --- | --- | --- _Illustration by Pete Ryan_ | **Hidden Treasures** At the time, few people took note of Mark Brown’s presence at the February opening of the Asian Winter Games in China’s frigid northeast. The prime minister of the Cook Islands was not in Harbin for the sport, writes Sean Williams. Instead he had travelled far from his tropical**** home to sign a bold cooperation agreement with his Chinese hosts, potentially allowing them access to his island’s subterranean riches. --- | --- | --- _Credit: Jonathan Raa/Sipa via AP Images_ | **Trump Cryptocurrency’s Big Investor Has Extensive China Ties** The Chinese government has made clear its displeasure with being the primary target of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” trade war. So it would follow that President Xi would be similarly unhappy with China-linked companies and executives enriching his adversary by buying and promoting Trump family-linked cryptocurrencies. But buy they do. In this week’s Big Picture, Noah Berman looks at Nasdaq-listed GD Culture Group, which recently announced plans to buy $300 million worth of Trump cryptocurrency. --- | --- | --- NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang delivers remarks as President Donald Trump looks on during an “Investing in America” event, April 30, 2025. _Credit: The White House via Flickr_ | **To Track or Not to Track: The Latest Question Unsettling America’s AI Chipmakers** The U.S. government has restricted sale of certain high-grade semiconductor chips, especially powerful ones produced by the likes of Nvidia and AMD, to Chinese entities. But if a chip is sold to, for example, a company in Singapore or Malaysia, how can U.S. authorities ensure that it stays there and does not end up in China? A new bipartisan Congressional bill would put the onus on chipmakers, Eliot Chen writes, by requiring them to come up with ways to geolocate their products remotely. --- | --- | --- | --- | | --- ### **A Q &A with Patrick McGee** After postings to Hong Kong and Germany for the _Financial Times_ , Patrick McGee found his true calling in San Francisco — covering Apple. The culmination of that beat was his new book _Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company_ , published earlier this month. On May 18 _The Wire China_ published an article based on the book, about how Apple was blindsided by the rapid development of its Chinese competitors, most notably Huawei. In this week’s Q&A with Noah Berman, McGee looks back on his research and his conclusions, which Apple hated but Jon Stewart loved. Apple’s alleged Faustian bargain with the Chinese Communist Party still puzzles him. “You wouldn’t sell F-35 jets to China,” McGee tells Berman. “Why are we sending America’s best engineers [to train Chinese engineers]? … That seems like a weird strategy.” Patrick McGee _Illustration by Kate Copeland_ --- | --- | --- Richard Yu (left), executive director of Huawei, introduces the Huawei Pura X mobile phone during the Appliance & Electronics World Expo, March 21, 2025, in Shanghai, China. _Credit: VCG via AP Images_ | **America’s Digital Iron Curtain Needs an Urgent Overhaul** Can the U.S. hold back the rapid pace of technological development in China? Recent evidence suggests not. Each new hurdle that the Trump and Biden administrations tried to put in front of China’s domestic champions only seemed to inspire them to find new ways to get over and around them. Mike Kuiken and Randall Shriver suggest a new approach. --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | Subscribe today for unlimited access. 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