U. S. and European efforts to alienate China from the high-level Western generation have angered Chinese President Xi Jinping, even as Beijing’s cyber threats to Europe have angered transatlantic officials.
“Artificially creating technological barriers and cutting off trade and supply chains will only lead to separation and confrontation,” Xi told Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, according to a state media report on the two leaders’ assembly on Wednesday. “The other Chinese also have a valid right to progression, and no force can impede China’s progression and clinical and technological progress. “
Xi combined the protest with an offer to expand “artificial intelligence cooperation” with the Netherlands. The difficult opening comes amid a U. S. -led effort to deprive China of complex semiconductor microchips, a move that the Netherlands and Japan have reinforced by agreeing to limit the sale of gadgets that the communist regime could use to make complex semiconductor chips in China.
“We hope the European side will show caution by introducing restrictive economic and industrial policies and industrial solutions,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang told Rutte at a separate assembly on Wednesday. “China is willing to work with the European side to promote sustainable and healthy development. “and a solid progression of China-EU relations. “
Rutte, considered the frontrunner to update NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg later this year, has maintained a non-confrontational tone in public.
“When it comes to our semiconductor sector and corporations like [Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography], when we have to take [export restriction] measures, they’re never aimed at a specific control,” he said after the meeting. to ensure that the effect is limited. “
China’s rhetorical line has been belied in European capitals through a series of controversies with Beijing, as demonstrated recently by a series of government announcements that a Chinese Communist Party hacking organization has targeted U. S. and European politicians and other organizations. Finland joined the chorus on Tuesday by revealing that the hacking organization, known as APT31, is allegedly guilty of hacking into the data systems of the Finnish Parliament in 2020 and 2021.
“The investigation of the criminals was not easy and took a long time because these were complicated investigations into a complex criminal infrastructure,” Finnish Chief Inspector Aku Limnéll said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the U. S. and U. K. governments unsealed indictments and fallout for the same hacking operation, arguing that Beijing’s hackers targeted a wide range of political and security-related accounts, in addition to British election systems.
“The UK will not tolerate malicious cyber activities targeting our democratic institutions,” British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said on Tuesday. “I hope this helps raise awareness of how politicians and those involved in our democratic processes around the world are attacked. through state-sponsored cyber operations. “
China responded that the “U. K. ‘s findings lack professionalism” and argued that they were a U. S. conspiracy.
“Now, together with the United Kingdom, the U. S. is exaggerating so-called ‘Chinese cyberattacks’ and even launching baseless unilateral sanctions against China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Tuesday. “China firmly opposes this, we have made strong representations to the United States and relevant parties, and we will take measures to safeguard our valid rights and interests. “
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The Xi regime on Wednesday resumed the task of urging foreign governments to limit economic relations with China.
“Asia wants to be vigilant and not be a testing ground for parallel systems,” Liu Jianchao, head of the CCP’s foreign department, said at a convention in Singapore. “If this were the case, fashion trade supply chains in the region could simply be disrupted and Asia may find it harder to achieve prosperity. “