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The AUKUS deal was an illogical strategic submission of Australia as it will bankrupt the country by buying U.S. nuclear submarines. They are only nominally for Australia's security but will stay at least informally under U.S. command.
A major point of the deal was that it screwed France which had a big contract with Australia to build conventional submarines for it. The French Foreign Minister said it was "a stab in the back". France wasn't even informed of the deal but learned of it from the press.
That the U.S. would screw France, a big European NATO ally, for its own political and economic purpose is not necessarily unprecedented, but to do it as publicly and open as the AUKUS deal did should have been a big wake-up call.
Unfortunately the French President Macron and his government went back to sleep and gave the U.S. the opportunity to screw France again.
It did so with AFRICOM, the U.S. instrument to undermine African countries through military 'cooperation'.
France has big interest in Africa where some of its former colonies, Françafrique, are bound to it by using a currency, the CFA Franc, that is solely under French government control.
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Cont. reading: France Can Only Be An Independent Power If It Learns To Push Back
As The U.S. Wages War On It China Reacts With Defiance
Just as U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo returns from China her department issues new restrictions on chip deliveries:
The United States has broadened restrictions on the export of high-performance artificial intelligence chips by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), extending them beyond China to other regions, including some countries in the Middle East, amid rising concerns about Beijing’s access to critical AI resources.
Reuters reported Thursday that a regulatory filing by Nvidia stated that its state-of-the-art A100 and H100 chips, which speed up machine learning on AI apps such as ChatGPT had been put on a “no-export” list.
The attempt is to prevent 'leaks' of chips from countries like the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia to Russia and China. But, as I noted yesterday, China is already making chips of equal capacity:
Huawei's compute GPU capabilities are now on par with Nvidia's A100 GPUs, Liu Qingfeng, founder and chairman of Chinese AI company iFlytek, said at the 19th Summer Summit of the 2023 Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum (via IT Home).
Liu Qingfeng stated that Huawei has made significant strides in the GPU sector, achieving capabilities and performance comparable to Nvidia's A100 GPU.
China is not only autarkic in making chips but now also in making the delicate machines needed to make chips:
China’s etching equipment giant Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) has reported hefty growth in earnings and revenue in the first half of 2023 thanks to strong demand for local tools as a result of US tech export controls, the company’s founder and CEO Gerald Yin Zhiyao said on Friday.
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AMEC’s market share of China’s capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) etching equipment market is expected to reach 60 per cent in the near future from 24 per cent last October, Yin said. In the inductive coupled plasma (ICP) tool market, Yin said its share could rise to 75 per cent from almost zero after once-dominant Lam Research from the US saw its share drop sharply.
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As China deepens its semiconductor self-sufficiency drive to include chip-making equipment and key components, Yin said that 80 per cent of restricted, imported parts at AMEC can be replaced domestically by the end of this year, with 100 per cent replacement following in the second half next year.
The New York Times resume of Secretary Raimondo's and other's trips is somewhat amusing:
U.S. Officials Are Streaming to China. Will Beijing Return the Favor?
Batteridge's law responds with "No!" There were obviously no 'favors' from either side:
When Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, left China this week, it marked the end of a three-month diplomatic blitz by the Biden administration to try to stabilize ties with Beijing and arrest a free fall in the relationship that had raised concerns about the risk of conflict.
President Biden had bet that high-level dialogue could help manage an escalating rivalry over trade, technology and the status of Taiwan. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was the first to make the trip to the Chinese capital in June, followed by Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and the presidential climate envoy, John Kerry, in July.
After logging all those miles, the question now is whether China will reciprocate by sending senior Chinese ministers to Washington.
The people Biden sent on visits in China had nothing to give and were given nothing. The U.S. attempt to deceive China by holding useless talks while it ramps up its cold war cordon around China have failed.
Cont. reading: As The U.S. Wages War On It China Reacts With Defiance
