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[b]Biden to Announce Australian Submarine Deal[/b][/h1]  
 
President Joe Biden is set to meet with two of Americas closest allies to announce that Australia will purchase U.S.-manufactured, nuclear-powered attack submarines to modernize its fleet, amid growing concerns about Chinas influence in the Indo-Pacific region, the [link=https://apnews.com/article/biden-australia-united-kingdom-submarines-nuclear-cf330037f9e6befdec0f6c1658601462?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_06]AP[/link] reports.
 
Biden is traveling Monday to San Diego, where he will meet Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for talks on the 18-month-old nuclear partnership known by the acronym AUKUS.
 
Sunak [link=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/uks-rishi-sunak-aukus-china-challenge-world-order-nuclear-submarine-rcna74396]told NBC News[/link] that a more assertive China poses a systemic challenge to the global order,

 

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[h1][b]China Campaign to Influence US Elected Officials[/b][/h1]  
[link=https://apnews.com/article/china-foreign-influence-utah-legislature-mormon-church-921526d0c8eda2732c361488d20dd1b4?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_10]Associated Press[/link]: Chinas global campaign to win friends and influence policy has blossomed in a surprising place: Utah, a deeply religious and conservative state with few obvious ties to the worlds most powerful communist country.
 
An investigation by the Associated Press has found that China and its U.S.-based advocates spent years building relationships with the states officials and lawmakers. Those efforts have paid dividends at home and abroad, the AP found: Lawmakers delayed legislation Beijing didnt like, nixed resolutions that conveyed displeasure with its actions and expressed support in ways that enhanced the Chinese governments image.
 
Its work in Utah is emblematic of a broader effort by Beijing to secure allies at the local level as its relations with the U.S. and its western allies have turned acrimonious. U.S. officials say local leaders are at risk of being manipulated by China and have deemed the influence campaign a threat to national security.
 

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[b]McCarthy Meets Taiwans Leader[/b][/h1]  
 
Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen gathered alongside a bipartisan group of House lawmakers Wednesday outside of Los Angeles, projecting a united democratic front that brushed aside stern warnings from China that the meeting not go forward, [link=https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/05/mccarthy-taiwan-leader-historic-meeting-00090639]Politico[/link] reports.
 
The high-profile confab, which occurred at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, marks a concrete step in furtherance of one of McCarthys top priorities: pushing back on the influence of China. McCarthy becomes the highest U.S. official to meet with Taiwans leader on domestic soil since the U.S. established formal diplomatic ties with China in 1979.
 
[link=https://punchbowl.news/archive/4623-punchbowl-news-am/]Punchbowl News[/link]: This was McCarthys first big foreign-policy foray as speaker. But it was also a chance for him to prove that, on one of the most vexing contemporary global challenges, lawmakers can show a united front.

 

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[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/15/indictment-paints-tale-chinese-interests-2016-trump-campaign/]https://www.washingtonpos…s-2016-trump-campaign/[/link]

[b]Gal Luft Indictment paints tale of Chinese interests and 2016 Trump campaign[/b][/h1] [h2]Prosecutors describe an effort to place a former high-ranking U.S. government official in the corridors of power in a foreign influence operation[/h2]

The Chinese business executive and the former senior U.S. government official arent named in the indictment, but the context indicates they are [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/05/business/cefc-china-patrick-ho.html]Patrick Ho[/link] (identified as CC-1) and former CIA director James Woolsey (identified as Individual-1), respectively.

Luft and Woolsey have ties dating back several years, with Luft serving as a senior adviser to a think tank co-founded by Woolsey called the [link=http://www.usesc.org/energy_security/members]U.S. Energy Security Council[/link], according to the organizations website and [link=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/natural-gas-export-ukraine-104414/]Lufts past opinion writings[/link].
…

On Sept. 12, 2016, [link=https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/12/politics/james-woolsey-clinton-cia-director-backs-trump/index.html]Woolsey joined Trumps campaign[/link] as a senior adviser. At this time, Luft emailed CC-1 about Individual-1 joining Trumps campaign, saying, We nailed it! according to the indictment. (The indictment doesnt cite Trump by name but describes a presidential candidate who was elected President two months later.)

…
The indictment cites Individual-1 as offering a quote about China on or around Dec. 1 at a Belt and Road Forum in Washington. The quote directly matches [link=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/newsrepublic/2016-12/01/content_27543694.htm]a quote China Daily attributed to Woolsey[/link] at the forum on Dec. 1. It also cites Individual-1 talking about world policeman fatigue, which matches a quote Woolsey [link=https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2044746/under-donald-trump-us-will-accept-chinas-rise-long-it-doesnt]employed around this time[/link].

..

The indictment contains no allegations or[b] [/b]suggestions that the Trump campaign knew what was happening.
But what it does[b] [/b]spell out is that someone who might have been in line for a position of real power in American government was essentially being wrapped up in what the indictment casts as a foreign influence operation this time connected not to Russia, but to China.

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[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/18/biden-declares-new-era-partnership-with-south-korea-japan/]Biden declares ‘new era’ of partnership with South Korea and Japan

[/link]
Biden declares new era of partnership with South Korea and Japan[/h1] [h2]The meeting marked the beginning of what the White House hopes will be an extended stretch of three-way engagement[/h2]

CAMP DAVID, Md.  [link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/joe-biden-2024/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2]President Biden[/link] sought to mark a new era for one of the United States [link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/17/biden-japan-south-korea-camp-david/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2]most high-profile trilateral partnerships [/link]Friday, using a first-of-its-kind summit with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts at Camp David to announce new measures on defense, technology, education and other key areas of cooperation.
 
This is the first summit Ive hosted at Camp David, and I can think of no more fitting location to begin the next era of cooperation, Biden said at a joint news conference, standing between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at his presidential retreat in Maryland and pledging that the commitments the leaders agreed to will stand the test of time. This is about decades and decades.
 
The summit was the culmination of what White House aides have described as a two-year effort to assist in a rapprochement between South Korea and Japan after decades of frosty relations. It also marked the beginning of what the White House hopes will be an extended stretch of three-way engagement, designed in part to counter Chinas military aggression and economic coercion and North Koreas growing nuclear weapons program.

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 [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/19/world/asia/china-biden-camp-david.html]New York Times[/link] 

Ever since members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization sprang into action to help Ukraine try to thwart Russias invasion last year, China has warned about a similar U.S.-led security alliance forming in Asia that would seek to hobble Beijings ambitions and provoke a confrontation.
 
President Bidens Camp David summit on Friday with the leaders of Japan and South Korea most likely reinforces Beijings perception. The talks saw Japan and South Korea put aside their historical animosities to forge a defense pact with the United States aimed at deterring Chinese and North Korean aggression.