ASML’s sale to SMIC delayed until end of year as Biden unites allies in setback
Is it possible for the U.S. and China, two major nuclear weapons powers, to start a nuclear war? A U.S. Congress report points to AI technology as a potential factor.
The world joins forces to contain the Chinese Communist Party. Following the U.S., Britain and France, Germany will send warships through the South China Sea for the first Time in 19 years. The U.S., together with Japan, India and Australia, will provide vaccines to Asian countries to counter the influence of the Chinese Communist Party.
Biden immigration policy trouble! 108 released illegal immigrants at the Texas border tested positive for the virus. U.S. lawmakers push legislation to ban sanctioned foreign leaders from using U.S. social media.
ASML’s sale to SMIC extended until end of year as Biden unites allies in setback
The latest move by top Dutch chip equipment maker ASML to extend lithography equipment exports to China underscores the practical difficulties for the Biden Administration to pull together allies and fight the Chinese Communist Party.
Photo: ASML, based in Veldhoven, Netherlands, makes state-of-the-art chip machines.
ASML, the Netherlands’ largest chip (chip) equipment maker, announced Wednesday that it has extended its sales agreement to China’s largest integrated circuit maker, SMIC, through the end of this year to sell $1.2 billion worth of machines to China.
ASML said in a statement Wednesday that its volume purchase deal with SMIC involves an older technology known as deep ultraviolet lithography, or DUV.
Photo: Netherlands-based ASML is the world’s largest manufacturer of lithography machines.
On Monday, the Biden administration’s National Security Council on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) released a seven-hundred-page report recommending that the U.S. join the Netherlands and Japan in denying export licenses to China for key chip-making equipment.
Prior to that, the Trump administration had already imposed restrictions on U.S. semiconductor equipment manufacturers selling related high-end semiconductor equipment to Chinese customers.
The report also extraordinarily reminded that the key factor is still from the United Japan’s Nikon Corporation and Canon Corporation and other countries such as the Netherlands ASML equipment vendors to limit the strength of the chip manufacturing equipment exports to China.
News of the Dutch ASML’s extension of lithography equipment exports to China has highlighted the setback to the Biden administration’s strategy of pulling in allies to fight the Chinese Communist Party. A U.S. semiconductor executive told Reuters on condition of anonymity, “This [sale] is a slap in the face to the NSCAI proposal and shows how far apart the gap is with allies on these issues.”
Matthew Turpin, who served as director of China affairs for the National Security Council in the Trump Administration, said, “It’s really hard to lead when any (joint ally) action has to be premised on a full consensus.”
For the first time in 19 years, Germany will send warships through the South China Sea
A number of senior German government officials revealed Tuesday (March 2) that a German patrol ship (frigate) will depart for Asia in August this year and will cross the South China Sea on its return trip, becoming the first German warship to sail in the South China Sea since 2002.
Photo: German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Reuters reported that German Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry officials said the warship will not cross the so-called “12 nautical miles” waters.
Since this year, the Chinese Communist Party has been conducting frequent military exercises in the South China Sea and other waters, and sending military aircraft to harass Taiwan frequently, further escalating the situation in the South China Sea and triggering international concern and response. In February, France sent a warship and a submarine to the South China Sea, the United States sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to conduct joint military exercises in the South China Sea, and Britain will also send an aircraft carrier to the Indo-Pacific region.
The South China Sea is an important international shipping lane, and it also contains rich oil and gas resources under the sea. Currently, in addition to mainland China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim partial sovereignty in the sea.
Anti-Communist influence, the United States together with Japan, India and Australia will provide vaccines to Asia
The Central News Agency quoted the Financial Times as reporting that six people who know the content of the talks revealed that the White House has held talks with other countries in the “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue” in recent weeks. “The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue is a diplomatic and security initiative between the United States, Japan, India and Australia.
A Pfizer vaccine is pictured here on Nov. 23, 2020.
The use of the distribution of the COVID-19 (Chinese Communist virus-induced pneumonia disease) vaccine to counter Chinese (Communist Party of China) actions is one of a series of measures that the countries hope to announce soon, two people familiar with the matter said.
Biden’s effort is aided by President Joe Biden’s emphasis on greater cooperation with allies and growing concern among Asian nations about the military and economic might of the Chinese Communist Party.
“The Biden administration is making the ‘Quadrilateral Security Dialogue’ one of the centerpieces of its Asia policy,” said a person familiar with the strategy.
A person familiar with the talks said the strategy being developed by the four countries is not just about vaccines, but could have long-term implications for the Indo-Pacific region. The person said, “The U.S. is in the final stages of preparing for what it hopes will be a major, bold step in the Indo-Pacific region.”
Report: U.S. wants to avoid U.S.-China nuclear war and maintain AI hegemony
Is there a risk that the U.S. and China, two major powers with nuclear weapons, could have a strategic miscalculation that would lead to a nuclear war in World War III? A report sent to Congress on Monday by the U.S. National Security Council on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) recommended that the U.S. government should make clear that it will not allow artificial intelligence (AI) technology to dominate the use of nuclear weapons systems, while asking China and Russia to make similar commitments. Some scholars told the station that the lack of international norms for the application of AI technology makes it urgent for the U.S. and China to avoid the risk of a repeat of the near nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1983.
Although the late Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Petrov (Stanislav Petrov) in the documentary “The Man Who Saved the World” modestly says he is no hero, if Petrov had not made a calm judgment in those 23 minutes at 00:15 a.m. on September 26, 1983, it is suspected that the “highest level” of danger ” alarm blast was an error in the Soviet Union’s own system, the world might not have recovered from the tragedy of a nuclear war that left lives in ruins.
That was a major oops in the Cold War era between the United States and the former Soviet Union, each with tens of thousands of nuclear warheads, that came close to the brink of war. Soviet military satellites misjudged the sunlight reflected from clouds as the trailing flame of a missile, triggering an alert notification that the United States had fired five nuclear intercontinental missiles at the Soviet homeland.
If both the United States and China in the 21st century leave Petrov’s job to the technology of artificial intelligence, Ryan Fedasiuk, a researcher at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service’s Center for Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET), told Radio Free Asia that if artificial intelligence technology is applied to He is alarmed if AI technology is applied to nuclear weapons systems.
Ryan Fedasiuk, who specializes in the application of artificial intelligence technology, told Radio Free Asia, “The Petrov incident in 1983 was the activation of an alarm because of incomplete information, and the deliberate misuse of the system, such as locking it down. gone wrong, which could result in them being forced to take nuclear retaliation.”
On the other hand, the U.S. is wary of China’s ambitions, including restrictions on personnel with Chinese PLA backgrounds in U.S. research and restrictions on sensitive technologies in the semiconductor industry.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, chairman of NSCAI, called for a $40 billion U.S. investment to win a strategic competition with China on AI.
108 Released Illegal Immigrants at Texas Border Test Positive for Virus
Officials in a Texas city on the U.S.-Mexico border have confirmed that 108 illegal immigrants released to Texas by the Border Patrol since late January have tested positive for the Chinese Communist virus (Neocoronavirus) upon their arrival.
Felipe Romero, a spokesman for the Texas city of Brownsville, said Wednesday (March 3) that the 108 positive individuals represent 6.3 percent of the total number of illegal immigrants who underwent rapid testing for the virus at the city’s main bus station, Fox News reported. There, they were released by the Border Patrol. Rapid testing of those individuals began Jan. 25.
He added that Brownsville has no authority to prevent illegal immigrants who test positive from traveling to other parts of the U.S., and recommended that they be quarantined and follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for social distancing.
The city also told the news organization Noticias Telemundo Investiga that it is advising illegal immigrants who test positive to seek help from NGOs and nonprofit organizations in the area to find shelter and a place where they can be isolated from others. The local countywide positive rate is estimated at 13.8 percent.
Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican, tweeted Tuesday (March 2), condemning Biden’s policies for creating a border crisis.
Cotton said, “President Biden bears full responsibility for the illegal immigration crisis at our southern border. Instead of welcoming illegal immigrants, the Biden administration should focus on supporting American workers, especially during this global pandemic.”
In another tweet, Cotton questioned, “Why is the Biden Administration suppressing public safety messages at a time when open border policies have triggered a surge in illegal immigration?”
Cotton added, “During the presidential debates, Joe Biden promised mass Amnesty and the rest of the globe took notice (of Biden’s promise).” “Millions of Americans are without jobs. Yet Joe Biden wants to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants, which will lower wages for American workers and make it harder for them to find jobs.”
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Oversight Committee Ranking Republican James Comer and 18 Oversight Committee members wrote: “The increase in illegal immigration at the southern border not only poses a risk to Border Patrol agents who apprehend immigrants crossing the border illegally, it also poses a risk to those agents. but also to the communities into which these individuals will move – likely leading to widespread COVID-19 infections and deaths.”
U.S. Lawmakers Push Legislation to Ban Sanctioned Foreign Leaders from Using U.S. Social Media
House Republicans are pushing legislation in recent days that would ban sanctioned foreign leaders from using U.S. social media platforms.
According to Fox News on Tuesday, March 2, Rep. Andy Barr (R-Texas) said, “U.S. law gives big tech companies a free pass and provides a platform for terrorist groups and dictators.”
Pictured are icons for Facebook and Twitter, the two largest social media outlets in the United States.
The legislation “requires the president to impose regulations that treat social media platforms like banks and insurance companies, so that they cannot provide services to sanctioned individuals or entities.”
Under current U.S. sanctions laws, specifically the Berman Amendment, the President of the United States does not have the authority to regulate any conduct related to the free flow of information services. And Republicans argue that the Berman Amendment was passed before modern social media existed, and that these amendments have been used by big tech companies to confirm: they can provide services to terrorists.
The new legislation gives the president the power to sanction social media platforms if they “provide services” to foreign individuals or entities sanctioned for supporting terrorism. These social media outlets include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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