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US Not Backing Down on Biden Calling China’s Leader a ‘Dictator’

The US is not backing down on comments made by President Joe Biden likening Chinese President Xi Jinping to a dictator. The remarks, which came a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China to repair bilateral relations, drew sharp criticism from Beijing. White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Biden to Host Modi for Talks, State Dinner

U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks Thursday at the White House.

“The visit will strengthen our two countries’ shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific and shared resolve to elevate the technology partnership, including in defense, clean energy, and space,” the White House said ahead of the meeting.

In a rare move for the Indian leader, Modi and Biden are scheduled to appear at a joint news conference Thursday.

Modi is also due to give an address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

Thursday’s events close with a state dinner at the White House.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Hunter Biden Plea Deal Renews Debate Over Political Investigations

US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to two minor criminal charges this week. While Republicans said the plea deal would not stop their inquiry into the president and his family, Democrats said those concerns did not compare to the charges faced by former president Donald Trump. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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Biden Says Risks Posed by AI to Security, Economy Must be Addressed

The risks of artificial intelligence to national security and the economy need to be addressed, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, adding he would seek expert advice.

“My administration is committed to safeguarding Americans’ rights and safety while protecting privacy, to addressing bias and misinformation, to making sure AI systems are safe before they are released,” Biden said at an event in San Francisco.

Biden met a group of civil society leaders and advocates who have previously criticized the influence of major tech companies, to discuss artificial intelligence.

“I wanted to hear directly from the experts,” he said.

Several governments are considering how to mitigate the dangers of the emerging technology, which has experienced a boom in investment and consumer popularity in recent months after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Biden’s meeting on Tuesday included Tristan Harris, executive director of the Center for Humane Technology, Algorithmic Justice League founder Joy Buolamwini, and Stanford University Professor Rob Reich.

Regulators globally have been working to draw up rules governing the use of generative AI, which can create text and images, and whose impact has been compared to that of the internet.

Biden has also recently discussed the issue of AI with other world leaders, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak whose government will later this year hold a first global summit on artificial intelligence safety. Biden is expected to discuss the topic with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his ongoing U.S. visit.

European Union lawmakers agreed last week to changes in draft rules on artificial intelligence proposed by the European Commission in a bid to set a global standard for a technology used on everything from automated factories to self-driving cars to chatbots.
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Blinken Highlights Need for Direct Engagement in US, China Talks

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday the United States and China have an obligation to manage their relationship responsibly, and that he told Chinese leaders during meetings in Beijing that direct engagement is the best way to ensure disagreements do not turn into conflict.     

Speaking to reporters in Beijing, Blinken said he had candid and substantive discussions Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi.     

“I would expect additional visits by senior U.S. officials to China over the coming weeks,” Blinken said during a news conference. He added that Washington welcomes further visits by Chinese officials to the United States.       

Xi called on the U.S. side to adopt a rational and pragmatic attitude, and work with China in the same direction, according to a statement issued by the Chinese government. 

While both sides agreed on the need to stabilize communication, Blinken will not return to Washington with an agreement from the Chinese side to set up military-to-military communication channels.     

“At this moment, China has not agreed to move forward with that,” Blinken said.   

Washington says military communication lines should remain open in the event of a crisis.     

Ali Wyne, a senior analyst with Eurasia Group’s Global Macro-Geopolitics practice, said in an email to VOA that while it is concerning that China did not accept Blinken’s proposal to establish military communication channels,   Xi’s decision to meet with Blinken “suggests that China, not just the United States, appreciates the importance of slowing the deterioration of U.S.-China ties.”  

“The trip will not — and was not — expected to change the fundamentally and intensely competitive nature of U.S.-China relations, but it will give the two countries an opportunity to increase the frequency and broaden the scope of high-level dialogues,” he said.  

Blinken said he raised U.S. concerns about provocative Chinese actions in the Taiwan Strait. He said he reiterated that the United States does not support Taiwan independence and that it continues to expect the peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences.     

US ready to cooperate, says Blinken

For decades, the U.S. has been clear that its decision to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1979 rested on the expectation that “the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means,” as stipulated in the Taiwan Relations Act.    

Moritz Rudolf, a research scholar at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, told VOA’s Mandarin Service in a phone interview that Blinken’s comments on Taiwan were “key for the Chinese side” to hear.   

He said that while expectations were low for Blinken’s visit and there were no major breakthroughs, the talks did not go “as bad as some people might have anticipated.”  

“I think it went fairly well because … this visit laid the foundation for more visits and more exchanges in the future,” he said.    

Blinken told reporters he also raised human rights issues, including international concerns about the treatment of people in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as the wrongful detention of U.S. citizens in China.     

Blinken also said the United States is ready to cooperate with China on issues of mutual interest. He said those include climate change, macroeconomic stability, public health, food security and counter-narcotics efforts.     

The United States and China have also agreed to set up “a working group” of joint efforts to address the illicit flow of fentanyl, according to Blinken.           

Blinken, who arrived in Beijing Sunday, is the highest-level U.S. official to visit China since 2018. His trip was rescheduled from February after a Chinese surveillance balloon flew through U.S. airspace and was shot down.                        

Americans wrongfully detained in China                              

Children of Americans who the U.S. considers wrongfully detained by Chinese authorities had asked Blinken to raise their fathers’ cases with his Chinese counterparts.                              

“Behind every hostage is a family suffering every day,” the Bring Our Families Home Campaign said in a tweet on Sunday.       

“This Sunday will be the 7th time I’ve missed Father’s Day with my dad,” said Harrison Li.  “Releasing my dad is one of the easiest things that the Chinese government can do to show they are serious about normalizing relations.”                 

Harrison Li’s father, Kai Li, is an American citizen who has been detained in China since September 2016. He was later sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage, a charge his family rejects.               

Alice Lin is the daughter of American pastor David Lin, who was detained under unclear circumstances in 2006 and later sentenced to life in prison on charges of contract fraud. Lin’s family staunchly maintains his innocence. Lin’s sentence was later reduced, and he is expected to be released in 2029.               

“Secretary Blinken, we miss my dad. Please do everything possible to bring him home,” Lin told VOA.                             

Taiwan               

Washington has said China’s military escalation in the Taiwan Strait was “a global concern.”                   

A senior State Department official told VOA it is an “abiding interest” of the U.S. to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. China is seen as ramping up economic coercion targeting Taiwan ahead of its presidential election.    

In May, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told senators that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could halt the world’s largest advanced semiconductor production, wiping out up to $1 trillion per year.               

“I will say this number is way too small,” because it only costs about 6% of China’s gross domestic product, said Chen-Yu Li, chief economist of Taishin Financial Holdings in Taiwan.               

Li said a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait will affect other Asian economies such as Japan and South Korea, whose GDP totals at least $5 trillion. He also cited the market value of tech giants such as Apple, Nvidia and AMD, which Li estimates is at least $3 trillion.               

“If Taiwan is under attack, the stock market in the U.S. may vanish $3 trillion,” Li said during a May 12 event hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.                                  

“If I am Xi Jinping, I’ll be very happy to attack Taiwan. It’s just 6%,”   Li said.                            

Some information for this story came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb and Si Yang of VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this report.  
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US Judge Orders Trump Lawyers Not to Release Evidence in Documents Probe

A U.S. judge in Florida on Monday ordered defense lawyers for former President Donald Trump not to release evidence in the classified documents case to the media or public, according to a court filing.

The order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart also put strict conditions on Trump’s access to the materials.

“The Discovery materials, along with any information derived therefrom, shall not be disclosed to the public or the news media, or disseminated on any news or social media platform, without prior notice to and consent of the United States or approval of the Court,” the order filed on Monday said.

It also specified that Trump “shall not retain copies” and that he may only review case materials “under the direct supervision of Defense Counsel or a member of Defense Counsel’s staff.”

The order granted a motion filed last week by prosecutors who had asked the court to put conditions on how the defense stores and uses the documents.

Trump, who is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was indicted on federal charges this month. He was accused of illegally retaining classified government documents after leaving the White House and then conspiring to obstruct a federal probe of the matter.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in court to all 37 counts.

He defended his handling of the boxes in an interview with Fox News on Monday, saying that he needed to go through the boxes to remove personal items including golf shirts, pants and shoes.

“Before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out. These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things,” Trump said. “I was very busy, as you’ve sort of seen.”

Trump repeated his claim that the boxes contained magazine articles, personal items and art. The Justice Department told a court that the boxes contained highly classified documents, including a plan to attack Iran.

The former president faces other legal hurdles, having been indicted by New York City prosecutors in connection with an alleged hush-money payment to a porn star.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is also probing Trump’s alleged role in actions surrounding his loss in the 2020 presidential election that culminated in Trump supporters’ deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump is also being investigated in connection with efforts to change the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in Georgia.
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More Than 1 Million in US Lose Medicaid Health Care Coverage in Post-Pandemic Purge

More than 1 million people have been dropped from Medicaid in the past couple months as some states moved swiftly to halt health care coverage following the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

Most got dropped for not filling out paperwork.

Though the eligibility review is required by the federal government, President Joe Biden’s administration isn’t pleased at how efficiently some states are accomplishing the task.

“Pushing through things and rushing it will lead to eligible people — kids and families — losing coverage for some period of time,” Daniel Tsai, a top federal Medicaid official recently told reporters.

Already, about 1.5 million people have been removed from Medicaid in more than two dozen states that started the process in April or May, according to publicly available reports and data obtained by The Associated Press.

Florida has dropped several hundred thousand people, by far the most among states.

The drop rate also has been particularly high in other states. For people whose cases were decided in May, around half or more got dropped in Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.

By its own count, Arkansas has dropped more than 140,000 people from Medicaid.

The eligibility redeterminations have created headaches for Jennifer Mojica, 28, who was told in April that she no longer qualified for Medicaid because Arkansas had incorrectly determined her income was above the limit.

She got that resolved, but was then told her 5-year-old son was being dropped from Medicaid because she had requested his cancellation — something that never happened, she said. Her son’s coverage has been restored, but now Mojica says she’s been told her husband no longer qualifies. The uncertainty has been frustrating, she said.

“It was like fixing one thing and then another problem came up, and they fixed it and then something else came up,” Mojica said.

‘Swiftly disenroll’

Arkansas officials said they have tried to renew coverage automatically for as many people as possible and placed a special emphasis on reaching families with children.

But a 2021 state law requires the post-pandemic eligibility redeterminations to be completed in six months, and the state will continue “to swiftly disenroll individuals who are no longer eligible,” the Department of Human Services said in statement.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has dismissed criticism of the state’s process.

“Those who do not qualify for Medicaid are taking resources from those who need them,” Sanders said on Twitter last month. “But the pandemic is over — and we are leading the way back to normalcy.”

More than 93 million people nationwide were enrolled in Medicaid as of the most recent available data in February — up nearly one-third from the pre-pandemic total in January 2020. The rolls swelled because federal law prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid during the health emergency in exchange for providing states with increased funding.

Now that eligibility reviews have resumed, states have begun plowing through a backlog of cases to determine whether people’s income or life circumstances have changed.

States have a year to complete the process. But tracking down responses from everyone has proved difficult because some people have moved, changed contact information, or disregarded mailings about the renewal process.

Outreach via text, email, phone

Before dropping people from Medicaid, the Florida Department of Children and Families said it makes between five and 13 contact attempts, including texts, emails and phone calls. Yet the department said 152,600 people have been non-responsive.

Their coverage could be restored retroactively if people submit information showing their eligibility up to 90 days after their deadline.

Unlike some states, Idaho continued to evaluate people’s Medicaid eligibility during the pandemic even though it didn’t remove anyone. When the enrollment freeze ended in April, Idaho started processing those cases — dropping nearly 67,000 of the 92,000 people whose cases have been decided so far.

Advocates fear that many households losing coverage may include children who are actually still eligible, because Medicaid covers children at higher income levels than their parents or guardians. A report last year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services forecast that children would be disproportionately impacted, with more than half of those disenrolled still actually eligible.

That’s difficult to confirm, however, because the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services doesn’t require states to report a demographic breakdown of those dropped. In fact, CMS has yet to release any state-by-state data. The AP obtained data directly from states and from other groups that have been collecting it.

Some states haven’t been able to complete all the eligibility determinations that are due each month. Pennsylvania reported more than 100,000 incomplete cases in both April and May. Tens of thousands of cases also remained incomplete in April or May in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico and Ohio.

“If states are already behind in processing renewals, that’s going to snowball over time,” said Tricia Brooks, a research professor at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. “Once they get piles of stuff that haven’t been processed, I don’t see how they catch up easily.”
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US Lawmakers Discuss Expectations for Blinken Trip to China

Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Washington on Friday night for China. The trip, which was postponed after an incident in February over a suspected Chinese spy balloon, is being closely watched on Capitol Hill.

Blinken is expected to focus on the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the two countries and discussing regional security issues, climate change and the global economy. State Department officials also said the issue of illegal fentanyl trafficking to the United States would also be a prominent part of the talks.

Ahead of the trip, VOA Mandarin Service spoke with several U.S. lawmakers about their expectations for the talks, including what issues should be the top priorities for the bilateral dialogue.

The interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: Is this a good time for Secretary Blinken to go to Beijing?

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee: I guess there’s never really a good time. I know [the Biden administration is] trying to use more of a charm offensive approach. We have to be a little careful, because when we go over there, that’s a big concession on the part of the United States to China. So, I think it’s good to have an open line of communication, have a hotline.

Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific: Obviously, the relationship is not at a great place right now. But I think  it’s important for both sides to continue to talk and communicate.

Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA), member, Foreign Affairs Committee:  I think it’s important to go. We have great differences. We have great competitions. But ultimately, we have to work in this globe together on issues where that’s possible. And we won’t have the possibility of improving that situation without having discussions.

VOA: What would you like Secretary Blinken to discuss with his counterparts in Beijing?

Young Kim (R-CA), chairwoman, House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific: Our foreign policy towards China should be very, very clear in terms their surveillance of operations targeting in the United States, or their increased aggression towards Taiwan or other Indo-Pacific partners and human rights abuses. Those are not acceptable. China’s treatment of its people, especially with respect to human rights violations, especially in the Xinjiang province and other areas, we’re not going to be tolerating it.

McCaul: De-escalation of the tension in the Taiwan Strait is number one. Human rights issues, obviously. I’m working on export controls. I don’t want to sell them technology, that they’re going to turn around and use in their advanced weapon systems that then can be pointed against us in a future conflict.

Bera: Climate change, certainly global health security are two areas that are important to both of us. And certainly, maybe there’s some areas around trade.

Keating: In terms of some of the military issues, trying to de-escalate there would be a smart move.

VOA: Are you optimistic China will work with the U.S. on issues such as climate change?

Bera: Not 100% optimistic, but I think it’s important that we make the effort. I think it’s important for both sides to continue to talk and communicate.

Kim: We hope that they will be able to cooperate with us, but you know, historically speaking, they have shown that they are not a reliable, trusting partner. At this point, Secretary Blinken should be able to make it very clear that we want China to abide by the same rules we expect other partners and allies in the Indo Pacific to.

Keating: I hope so. We all share the same planet. Climate change is real. 
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