Two US senators on Tuesday accused China of hampering a congressional probe into how counterfeit electronics end up in the US military supply chain by denying entry visas to investigators.
“I can’t say that I’m surprised, but I surely am disappointed and it’s not in their interest,” Democratic Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin told reporters. “I am disappointed that they don’t see that.”
“The United States and China are not destined to be adversaries. We have overlapping interests and this is actually one of them,” said Senator John McCain, the top Republican on Levin’s panel.
The senators also said China had required that government minders attend any interviews conducted in China as part of the investigation, which was announced in March, but agreed that request was a “non-starter.”
Levin and McCain said that they had worked for weeks to get entry visas for staff to visit Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, which they described as the epicenter of the fake parts trade based on US government reports.
“We are not confirming guilt or innocence, but there are sufficient allegations,” said McCain, who warned that what was at stake was “the ability of this country to defend itself with weapons systems that it can rely on.”
US defense contractors and component distributors “almost totally and exclusively point to China, specifically the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, as a source of counterfeit electronic parts,” Levin said.
The Democrat said the investigators would meet with the US consul general in Hong Kong early yesterday as part of a last-ditch attempt to secure the necessary visas for what he said would be a one or two-day visit.
“Our staff has been told that the trade in counterfeit electronic parts takes place openly in that city and in that province, and they plan to travel to that city to make a firsthand assessment,” Levin said.
Wang Baodong (王寶東), a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said the issue “involves law enforcement and China’s judicial sovereignty, which should be respected.”
“We’ve been telling the congressmen’s offices that such issues are supposed to be raised through the normal channel of China-US law enforcement cooperation and we’re ready to stay in touch with the US side,” Wang said.
McCain, asked what would happen if Beijing continues to block the trip, said: “I would guess that we will then complain about it, but then also we’ll seek further investigation on this issue.”
He noted that a report last year by the Government Accountability Office — the US Congress’ investigative arm — on the issue “didn’t get Chinese cooperation.”
Levin said that report found that counterfeit electronics had “infiltrated” the Pentagon’s supply chain, including microprocessors for the F-15 fighter jet and microcircuits for US Missile Defense Agency hardware.
Levin also pointed to a US Department of Commerce report in January last year that surveyed 400 companies that “overwhelmingly cited China” as the source for counterfeit electronics.
“It should be in China’s interest not to have counterfeiting of these electronic parts going on, because it would harm legitimate Chinese companies as well,” McCain said.
“So I hope that the Chinese will recognize that this is in both countries’ interests to track down allegations that have been made,” he added.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
RSS