Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Wednesday, 24 April 2024.
- BLINKEN TO WARN CHINA ON SUPPORT FOR RUSSIA: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in China today, meeting with business leaders before tomorrow’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
- Blinken is expected to step up pressure against Chinese sales of dual-use components to Russia, which is using that material to rebuild its military.
Why It Matters: U.S.-China relations have improved in the past couple of years, but the U.S. continues to impose a set of demands that irritate China. The United States has threatened secondary sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Russia and followed through on some of them. Most recently, the U.S. threatened to sanction Chinese banks financing dual-use trade with Russia. U.S. officials continue to request China do more to influence North Korea away from nuclear saber-rattling against South Korea. The United States demands that China take greater steps to curb the exports of fentanyl precursors to Mexico. Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-49. All these demands are occurring as the United States arms and provides training to Taiwan and is clearly building alliances in Europe and the Indo-Pacific to contain China economically and militarily. In short, Blinken is going to have challenges in tomorrow’s meeting with Xi and Wang. – M.S.
- Global Rollup
- Thirteen governors are demanding the Air Force and Department of Defense immediately retract Legislative Proposal 480, which would allow the USAF to absorb 14 space-focused national guard units without governor permission.
- The U.S. is considering building ships in South Korea and Japan due to their speed and quality of shipbuilding, according to U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro at a naval forum yesterday. (This would dramatically speed up Pacific Force Reposturing but also require Congress to change laws regarding weapon acquisition. – J.V.)
THAT’S A WRAP: This does it for today’s edition. Thank you for reading. If you know folks who would also like to receive this email, would you please forward it to them? We appreciate you spreading the word. – M.S.