Guo’s intelligence handlers, Ma and Zhou, were allies of Ling Jihua, who was former President Hu Jintao’s chief of staff. The crucial link between Ma and Ling was provided by Sun Zhengcai, the former party secretary of Chongqing, also a Politburo member.
As we’ve seen, Zhou, Ling, and Sun all ended up in jail – targets of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign. But, remarkably, not Guo – who according to former Chinese government officials was Ma’s MSS agent in charge of special ops overseas.
Guo’s job in 2012 was to sabotage the ascension of Xi by spreading an array of fake news in China and among the Chinese diaspora. That failed.
Nonetheless, Guo remained at work as an MSS agent until at least October 2021, according to well-placed Chinese sources. Considering his recent activities and the fact he was lavishly embraced by prominent US China hawks, it appears that his assignment was to cause maximum damage to US-China relations, arguably derailing them to a point of no return.
Steve Bannon & Guo Wengui.
Links behind paywalls (all but a few that I weren’t archived):
The Senate majority leader pushed through a funding bill that now supports a structure under which U.S. citizens and politicians — including a challenger for his own seat — are being targeted as “information terrorists.”
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Myanmar on August 3 shows that the relationship is assuming a strategic character. The Foreign Ministry in a press release on August 2 highlighted that the relationship is “one of the priorities of foreign policy in the Asia–Pacific region, an important factor in ensuring peace, stability and sustainable development.”
China’s cancelation of the three military-to-military cooperation could have national security consequences given it reduces the level of engagement between the United States and China. To that end, the China-U.S. Defense Policy Coordination Talks (DPCT) have been in place since early 2005, designed to provide senior level dialogue in support of the China-U.S. Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA). The MMCA, in place since 1998, is meant to reduce the likelihood of an inadvertent incident at sea.
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With the cancelation of the DPCT and MMCA, the likelihood of an incident similar to that which took place in April 2001, when a U.S. EP-3E Aries II aircraft collided with a Chinese aircraft. The EP-3 was able to make an emergency landing on China’s Hainan Island. The 24 crew members were taken into custody and eventually released some 10 days later. It would not be until July 2001 when the dismantled EP3 was flown out of China.
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The ability for Defense Secretary Austin to communicate directly with the PRC Minister of National Defense, General Wei Fenghe remains in place. Indeed, in June 2022, Austin and Wei held one-on-one discussions in Singapore where they discussed improving crisis management. Those discussions have clearly been overtaken by events of the day. In addition, “The Secretary reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Strait, opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo, and called on the PRC to refrain from further destabilizing actions toward Taiwan,” according to the Department of Defense readout in the meeting.
Apple supplier Pegatron has denied media reports claiming shipments to and from its factories in China were being held for scrutiny by Chinese customs officials, following a Pegatron executive’s meeting with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (via DigiTimes).
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Pegatron is the second largest Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer and iPhone assembler behind Foxconn, while TSMC is the sole supplier of Apple’s custom silicon chips and the world’s most valuable semiconductor company. All three firms operate plants in China.
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Update:Nikkei reports that Apple on Friday asked suppliers to ensure that shipments from Taiwan to China strictly comply with Chinese customs regulations, which state that Taiwanese-made parts and components must be labeled as being made either in “Taiwan, China” or “Chinese Taipei,” language that indicates the island is part of China.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is set to rapidly grow its market share by the end of this year according to a fresh report from Korea. TSMC is the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, as it is responsible for supplying semiconductors to most of the world’s largest technology firms. This list includes the Cupertino, California consumer electronics giant Apple, Inc along with chip designer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (AMD). Additionally, TSMC is also in partnerships with Intel Corporation and Qualcomm Incorporated, both crucial players in the modern day semiconductor industry.
Now, it appears as if the Taiwanese company might soon be responsible for supplying NVIDIA Corporation with all of the latter’s graphics processing units (GPUs). NVIDIA already has a partnership with TSMC for some of its products, but purported problems at the company’s other chip supplier, the Korean firm Samsung Foundry, will force it to switch sides completely to TSMC according to Business Korea.
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The complete switch to TSMC, if true, is ironic since NVIDIA had originally intended to retain some power over suppliers by diversifying as much as it could. TSMC and Samsung are the only two companies in the world that manufacture and sell chips built through advanced technologies (below 7nm) to other firms. NVIDIA is rumored to have agreed to pay as much as $10 billion to TSMC for jumping to the 4nm ship, and the company is also reportedly in talks with Intel Corporation for the latter’s Intel Foundry Services (IFS) plans that will mark Intel’s entry as another player in the contract chip manufacturing industry.
Heard someone say that NVIDIA doesn’t rely so much on TSMC, anymore, but it turns out not to be true.Maybe they meant that they didn’t rely on Samsung, anymore?! On another note, looks like Pelosi dumped some Apple stock before she bought and sold Nvidia.
The company’s Arizona facility would begin mass production in the first quarter of 2024, according to TSMC Chairman Mark Liu’s announcement from the previous year.
The chips made in Arizona are likely purchased by Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Apple. The new Arizona facility should theoretically enable Apple to produce its 5nm bespoke silicon chips for the first time in the country.
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The Arizona facility will be the business’s second production location in the United States. Although TSMC’s primary factories are in Taiwan, the company also has a factory centre in Washington, a design centre in Austin, Texas, and two design centres in San Jose, California. For more updates, follow TechGenies.
Third, the CHIPS Act actually has provisions designed specifically to restrict investments in China. These so-called “guardrails” require that companies taking federal dollars for American projects must also agree not to invest in state-of-the-art technology in China—not just with the federal dollars, with any dollars. Good-faith critics have raised fair concerns that these guardrails should be broader, tougher, and firmer. But any guardrails at all represent unprecedented restrictions on what U.S. companies can do in the People’s Republic. It’s one thing to say an ideal bill would hurt China even more; it’s quite another to try and claim that less-than-perfect restrictions count as “help.”
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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