More recent developments
China drags US to the WTO over EV subsidies
China is going after "discriminatory" US electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in a new WTO dispute opened Tuesday. The official line, per the Ministry of Commerce (Reuters): "[The US is subsidizing EVs] under the disguise of responding to climate change, [but… Read More »
MoST R&D budget cut
Beijing has massively cut the Ministry of Science and Technology’s (MoST) 2024 R&D budget. According to MoST’s annual report, released on Tuesday: Its 2024 R&D budget is RMB 24.16 billion, a whopping 60% lower than 2023’s RMB 60.12 billion. But… Read More »
Xi and Rutte have a tête-à-tête
On Wednesday, Xi Jinping and Dutch PM Mark Rutte met in Beijing. The meeting was a high-stakes event for semiconductor geopolitics. Xi wants the Netherlands to continue allowing Dutch chip equipment maker ASML to perform maintenance on chipmaking machines owned… Read More »