FirstFT: US accuses China of mounting an ‘undeclared information war’

Receive free China updates

We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest China news every morning.

Good morning. The US has accused China of trying to create a “community of digital authoritarians” in a report designed to convince other countries that Beijing is mounting a global propaganda effort as part of an “undeclared information war”.

The state department’s report listed Beijing’s efforts to shape the global information arena, ranging from censorship and propaganda to pushing authoritarianism and exploiting international organisations.

In one example, the state department said China Investment Corporation, the sovereign wealth fund, had acquired a 7 per cent stake in Eutelsat, a French satellite fleet operator, and was using the investment to promote propaganda in regions such as Africa by broadcasting Chinese state-run media with the satellites.

James Rubin, a senior state department official, said China was using “coercive techniques and increasingly outright lies” to fulfil a “breathtaking ambition . . . to seek information dominance”. Read the full story.

Here’s more of our latest China coverage:

• Evergrande: The troubled Chinese property developer said its chair, Hui Ka Yan, had been placed under “mandatory measures” on suspicion of involvement in “illegal crimes”.

• Shake-up: Lan Fo’an, a former provincial governor and veteran official, is expected to be named soon as China’s new finance minister.

• Business split: IBM’s former IT services unit is planning to hive off its China business in the latest sign of how geopolitical tensions and Chinese data laws are forcing multinationals to rethink their global footprint.

And here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:

• Economic data: France releases September consumer spending data and the consumer price index, Germany reports unemployment rate change and the UK publishes revised second-quarter growth figures.

• Election: The Maldives holds its presidential run-off vote between Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Mohamed Muizzu on Saturday, following the first round on September 9 when neither candidate won more than half the vote.

• National Day in China: The country on Sunday commemorates Mao Zedong’s proclamation of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. National Day also begins a week of holiday in China, with millions expected to travel across the country.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.

Five more top stories

1. Exclusive: OpenAI is in advanced talks with former Apple designer Sir Jony Ive and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son to launch a venture to build the “iPhone of artificial intelligence”, according to three people familiar with the plan. Son, Ive and Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief, have discussed creating a company that would draw on talent and technology from their three groups. Read more on the project and how it will be funded.

• The AI rush for the ‘iPhone moment’: Companies are throwing whatever new ideas they can think of at the wall to see what sticks for the new technology, writes Richard Waters.

2. Taiwan has unveiled its first domestically built submarine, demonstrating its determination to push back against growing military pressure from China. Completion of the $1.5bn vessel is a milestone for Taiwan, which has struggled for decades to buy submarines and acquire the technology to build them. However, many US defence experts fear the project is a distraction from Taiwan’s need to strengthen its defences against a ground invasion force.

3. US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm has warned that transitioning from fossil fuels will make energy security “infinitely more complex” because of China’s stranglehold on the processing of the critical minerals essential for renewable power. “In this critical minerals context, we are up against a dominant supplier that is willing to weaponise market power for political gain,” said Granholm on Thursday, in remarks widely interpreted as referring to Beijing’s power.

4. Abu Dhabi conglomerate International Holding Company is to sell its stake in two of Indian tycoon Gautam Adani’s companies. IHC announced in April 2022 that it was investing about $500mn each in renewables arm Adani Green Energy and power company Adani Transmission, and a further $1bn in the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises. The conglomerate’s decision to exit is a blow to Adani Group, which is battling allegations of accounting fraud.

• More Adani news: The Indian conglomerate has changed the auditor of its main UK subsidiaries to a firm with four partners, the Adani Group’s latest audit since Hindenburg Research accused it of stock price manipulation and fraud in January.

5. Gulnara Karimova, the globetrotting former billionaire socialite and daughter of ex-Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov, has been indicted in Switzerland on charges of heading an international crime syndicate. Karimova, 51, has been imprisoned in Tashkent since 2014, but was once nicknamed “the princess of Uzbekistan” for her lavish lifestyle. The case accuses her of heading a criminal organisation known as “the office”. Read more about the allegations.

News in-depth

Armenia is reeling from the events of the past week, after Azerbaijan retook Nagorno-Karabakh by force in a brief but bloody war. Armenia sees the mountainous region as its ancestral heartland — a point strongly disputed by its oil-rich neighbour, which also has historical ties to the area. The abrupt end to one of the most bitter land disputes born of the Soviet Union’s collapse also dealt a blow to Russia’s influence in what it calls its “near abroad”.

We’re also reading and watching . . . 

• EV failure: The EU’s proposed anti-subsidy duties against China aren’t a cure so much as a symptom of problems with the car industry and complacent governments, writes Alan Beattie.

• Condemning Russia: Nostalgia for the Soviet Union in South Africa is real, writes David Pilling. But condemning Moscow does not mean an unthinking adherence to the west.

• 🎬 Chips war: Our latest FT Film explores China’s rise as a technological superpower, and whether the US can regain the upper hand in the race for semiconductor supremacy.

Chart of the day

The returns of south-east Asia’s conglomerates have plummeted, marking the end of a golden age for the sprawling businesses that are among the biggest drivers of the region’s $3.6tn economy.

Take a break from the news 

Autocracy is something today’s democracies thought they had left behind, but two books — one focused on antiquity, the other on modern history — shed light on how it is enabled. Read the latest FT Books Essay by Martin Wolf.

Additional contributions from Tee Zhuo and Gordon Smith