An Opportunity for India’s Defence Manufacturing Sector,Risks of Doing Business in China,Germany China Relations

During PM Modi’s visit to the US last week, two major defence deals - co-production of the General Electric F414 fighter jet engine and the acquisition of MQ-9B drones - were announced. The onus is now on India’s defence industrial base ecosystem led by DRDO to transform itself to deliver for India:

 There is a compelling case for the DRDO to concentrate its efforts on technologies that will not be readily transferred from foreign sources. This shift requires a major reorientation and restructuring of the DRDO.

 As part of the reorientation, the DRDO should shed technologies that can be developed by India’s civil and private sectors, such as special rations and clothing. Once specific technologies are identified, the DRDO must be restructured by creating competing verticals within the organisation, which will obviate the monopoly that verticals enjoy currently because it faces no competition.

 Therefore, if there are two verticals for aero-engines instead of one as at present, each of them can team up with different corporate entities to produce the prototype. This will foster a broader research and development base, and stimulate competitive progress in development of key technologies.

US Spies Issue Warnings Over Risks of Doing Business in China

 

US intelligence officials renewed warnings for American companies doing business in China, citing an update to a counterespionage law that’s due to take effect in the next day.

A bulletin issued by the National Counterintelligence and Security Center on Friday warns executives that an update to China’s counterespionage law, which comes into effect on July 1, has the “potential to create legal risks or uncertainty” for companies doing business in China.

 

EU leaders agree to ‘de-risk’ the bloc’s trade dealings with China

Issue statement after Brussels meeting that move is to reduce supply chain dependencies, but that EU ‘does not intend to decouple’ from China

EU also restates its concerns about China’s positions on Russia, Taiwan and human rights.

With Elon Musk’s Starlink, Japan ‘could buy more time’ in conflict over Taiwan

The Japanese Self-Defence Forces have been testing the system, which is now an essential tool for the Ukrainian military,But billionaire Elon Musk might not be keen on in it being used for combat with the People’s Liberation Army, analyst saysMinnie Chan.

 

Countering  China In Taiwan

 

US State Department OKs two possible military sales to Taiwan -Pentagon

The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of ammunition and logistics support to Taiwan in two separate deals valued at up to $440 million, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

Taiwan has asked to purchase 30mm ammunition, including high-explosive incendiary-tracer rounds, multi-purpose rounds and training rounds, for an estimated cost of $332.2 million, the Pentagon said.

 

Taiwan says 11 Chinese Fighter aircrafts crossed the Taiwan Strait median line.

 

1.China’s enhanced intelligence-gathering and new military presence in Cuba shows Beijing simply no longer cares what the US thinks. It has long been clear that China and Cuba, among the handful of remaining communist countries, view the U.S. as a common enemy. A fuller picture of their common cause was revealed recently, first by the Journal and then by government disclosure that China is using Cuba for eavesdropping and military training. China has been running extensive spying operations out of Cuba and secretly arming Havana for more than two decades. As far back as 2001, U.S. intelligence was reported to have known the existence of the Chinese eavesdropping operation in Cuba.

 

2.Hong Kong's pro-democracy online Citizens' Radio station aired its final show on Friday and will cease operations owing to what its founder described as a "dangerous" political situation and the freezing of its bank account by China. A Hong Kong lawyer resisted airbrushing history. Now she is in jail.

Exercising freedom of expression and association — such as by carrying a candle in memory of Tiananmen Square — should not be a crime.

3. As China Reopens Borders, Trafficking of Women and Girls Resumes.

Covid restrictions had mostly halted the smuggling of Vietnamese women for marriage to Chinese men

Before the Covid pandemic, the China-Vietnam border region was a hot spot for human trafficking as many Chinese men sought brides from outside China.

4. China’s Pensions System Is Buckling Under an Aging Population,Beijing has hard choices ahead .

Germany China Relations

5.The German strategy makes clear that Germany cannot do without China. Berlin insists that cooperation should and will continue to be sought on global challenges.

 

The reality on the ground, meanwhile, further complicates Germany’s China equation. Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Germany last week, highlighting the importance of the relationship. A preparatory visit to Beijing in May by Jens Plötner, Scholz’s national security adviser, was described by all sides as positive and friendly.

Li’s visit came not long after the decision by Scholz to override concerns by the Federal Foreign Office and allow Chinese involvement in the Hamburg port terminal Tollerort. A less discussed, but perhaps more important, development was COSCO’s withdrawal from the Port of Duisburg in October 2022.