Daily News Brief

August 29, 2024

Top of the Agenda

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and held rare talks with a top Chinese general as part of his visit to manage bilateral relations this week. He is returning to Washington with plans for U.S. President Joe Biden to hold a phone call with Xi in the coming weeks. The White House said Sullivan discussed security issues in the Taiwan Strait, Ukraine, and South China Sea, and that “both sides welcomed ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication.” Xi said the two countries should be “a stable source of world peace,” Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported. 

Sullivan’s trip came as Pacific Island nations have been meeting in Tonga this week to weigh their own responses to security concerns. They committed yesterday to a $271 million Australia-funded policing program that some island nations described as trying to curb China’s security role in the region. At the summit, senior U.S. State Department official Kurt Campbell said that Washington will also step up work with Pacific nations to fight drug trafficking by criminal groups from China. (Bloomberg, White House, FT, AFP, Reuters)

Analysis

“The idea that you shouldn’t increase diplomacy as competition intensifies is ahistoric—this is a long-standing tradition in American statecraft from [former U.S. diplomat George] Kennan to [former U.S. President Ronald] Reagan,” CFR Senior Fellow Rush Doshi posts. “It’s also a fundamental part of great power competition to attempt ‘tactical reassurance’—explaining what you are and are not doing.”

“Australian officials believe the [new policing] initiative will bolster Pacific law enforcement and make it harder for China to embed itself deeply in Pacific police forces,” ABC’s Stephen Dziedzic writes. “Several Pacific nations have been struggling with more complex and insidious forms of crime, including international drug smuggling syndicates which have been trafficking methamphetamines through the region on the way to Australia.”

Dive deep into the U.S.-China relationship with CFR’s China Strategy Initiative. 

Pacific Rim

The pledge of at least $1 billion in investment in a Pennsylvania factory and $300 million in a plant in Indiana comes as a U.S. steelworker union is staunchly opposing Nippon’s proposed takeover of the U.S. Steel Corporation.

This In Brief by CFR’s Noah Berman explains U.S. resistance to the Nippon steel deal. 

South and Central Asia

India’s ruling party called for yesterday’s demonstrations in the state of West Bengal, where it is in the opposition. A trainee doctor was raped and murdered at a government hospital there earlier this month. The state’s chief minister resolved to advance a bill giving the death penalty to those convicted of rape. (Reuters, The Hindu)

India: Tech giant Apple has begun mass producing the new line of iPhones in India after previously only building older versions there, Nikkei reported. Apple has sought to diversify its smartphone manufacturing beyond China in recent years, though a tech market analyst said much of the growth in India will likely be limited to final product assembly. Apple did not comment on its production shift. (Nikkei)

Middle East and North Africa

The Greek-flagged Sounion tanker poses an environmental hazard as it is carrying one million barrels of crude oil, shipping officials said. At that scale, any spill from the vessel could be one of the largest in recorded history. Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the Yemen-based Houthi rebels, which Tehran supports, will allow it to be towed in the Red Sea. (Reuters)

U.S./Israel/Palestinian territories: The U.S. Treasury and State Departments announced new sanctions on an Israeli nongovernmental group and individual, with the State Department saying they played a role in violence against civilians in the West Bank. The organization has received material and political support from Israeli government actors in recent years. The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said the country “is seriously concerned” with the announcement and the issue was under “intense discussion.” (Axios)

Sub-Saharan Africa

Chinese loans to African countries totaled around $4.6 billion in 2023, the first uptick in total lending in seven years, a new study from Boston University found. The increase does not appear to signal a reversion to the lending levels of the early days of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, when annual figures were above $10 billion. Beijing is preparing to host African leaders for the triennial Forum on Africa-China Cooperation next week. (Reuters, BU)

Africa: An estimated $245 million appeal to address mpox across the continent is less than 10 percent funded, a senior official at the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. That includes funding committed by the Democratic Republic of Congo and African Union. On top of it, France, Germany, and Spain have announced donations of hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses that have yet to arrive. (Reuters) 

For Think Global Health, CFR’s Chloe Searchinger and Allison Krugman track mpox vaccine deployment. 

Europe

The case against Pavel Durov includes allegations that he was complicit in the spread of sexual images of children on his messaging platform and that he refused to help police run legal wiretaps on subjects. He posted his $5.6 million bail yesterday but has been barred from leaving France. Durov’s lawyer said he was not responsible for crimes committed on the app. (Bloomberg)

Russia: The foreign ministry added ninety-two Americans to its list of people banned from entering the country, including journalists, government officials, and businesspeople. It cited “the Russophobic course pursued by the Biden administration.” The list includes the editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal. A spokesperson for the newspaper called the “laughable” list of targets part of an “all-out assault on free press and truth,” and said they no longer have any reporters in the country. (AP, CNN) 

Americas

The emissions from wildfires in Canada last year were on par with the total annual emissions from most large countries, excluding the United States, China, and India, a new paper by researchers including scientists at NASA calculated. Forests usually absorb about a quarter of global carbon emissions, but the scientists warned that fire trends could inhibit that capability. (NYT, Nature)

In this blog post, Tess Turner and CFR expert Alice C. Hill explain how last year’s fires signal a greater need to adapt.

Venezuela: Supporters of the country’s opposition marked a month since the country’s disputed election with demonstrations against President Nicolás Maduro’s claim of victory. Authorities have continued a string of arrests of opposition figures, including at least two reported on Tuesday, opposition groups said. (Reuters)

For the Latin America’s Moment blog, CFR expert Will Freeman details what the region’s role in Venezuela’s fraught election could look like.

U.S. Campaign 2024

The FBI detailed their investigation into last month’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump yesterday, saying shooter Thomas Crooks searched more than sixty times for information on both Trump and President Biden in “a sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some events.” The Trump rally was “a target of opportunity,” they said; their investigation did not show definitively that he was motivated by a left-wing or right-wing point of view. (Reuters)

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