For four years, former President Donald Trump’s administration broke with previous U.S. governments to confront the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) head-on, pushing back against its malign actions aimed at remodeling the world to its own brand of techno-totalitarianism.
U.S. financial institutions have a duty to establish governance principles when it comes to investing in entities that directly or indirectly facilitate human rights abuses. The boards of these institutions have a moral duty, and perhaps even a fiduciary duty to divest from companies that contribute to human rights violations.
The tone of U.S.–Taiwan relations has dramatically changed under the Trump administration, particularly since a September 2020 visit to Taipei by Under Secretary Keith Krach that paved the way for new economic dialogue.
On September 17th, 2020, U.S. Under Secretary of State Keith Krach landed at the Shung Shan Air Force Base in Taipei to become the highest-ranking State Department official to visit the island since the U.S. established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979. Wearing a face mask and giving his clasped hands signature salutation, Krach descended from a Gulfstream G-V jet to bump elbows with a greeting party of senior Taiwanese officials.
As of this month, more than 50 nations, representing over two-thirds of the world’s economy, and 180 telecom companies had joined the “Clean Network” initiative led by the U.S. government. The alliance includes 26 of the 27 EU member states, as well as technologically advanced countries such as Japan, Israel, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Canada, New Zealand, and India. This triumph for the U.S. government seemed unthinkable at the beginning of this year, as the Chinese telecom giant, a dominant player in the global 5G market, seemed unbeatable.
Leadership by example is a key tenet for Krach especially for modeling the way for the Clean Network’s Trust Principles with respect to human rights and the environment.
A three article series containing seven parts on The Clean Network
In tech, Metcalfe’s Law posits that a network becomes more useful in proportion to the number of its users, squared. That means big networks are much more valuable than small ones. A Silicon Valley veteran at the State Department is trying to harness the power of Metcalfe’s Law to build a network of nations to counter China—a notable change in tone after years in which the Trump administration pursued a go-it-alone, “America First” strategy.
“Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down this Wall!” Famous words of US President Ronald Reagan shouted in 1987 Outside Brandenburg gate at the Berlin wall, to the Soviet leader inside the wall. This sentence came true two years later, the Berlin Wall fell, and the Soviet Communist regime collapsed in the cheers of the people. Now, the U.S. government has once again uttered the rhetoric of “Tear down the (CCP) firewall!”, leading people to speculate whether it will become the fuse to disintegrate the CCP regime.
The pandemic of 2020 will be in the history books for a long time. But this year will also be remembered as the year that citizens of the world woke up to the truth about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) doctrine of concealment, co-option, coercion, and corruption.
As of today, 38 eligible countries have requested to benefit from the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) by the Paris Club. Of these requests, 36 have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Paris Club creditors to implement the DSSI. These countries are: Angola, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic of), Congo (Republic of), Djibouti, Dominica, Ethiopia, Grenada, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyz Republic, Lesotho, Madagascar, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saint Lucia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Yemen and Zambia. For Cabo Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, Portugal, which is not member of the Paris Club, signed jointly with the Paris Club creditors both Memoranda of Understanding implementing the DSSI.
Two weeks ago, Brazil became the 50th Clean Network member, followed by Ecuador, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. In just six months, the Clean Network has grown to over 50 Clean Countries, representing 2/3 of the world’s GDP—180 Clean Telcos and many industry-leading Clean Companies like Oracle, Fujitsu, Cisco, Siemens, VMware, NEC, and HP. This alliance of democracies now includes 26 of the 27 EU member states along with technology savvy nations like Japan, Israel, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Canada, Vietnam, New Zealand, and India. The Clean Network partners also include an increasing list of global heavyweights like NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, Chairwoman of the Three Seas Initiative and Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid.
The U.S. and Taiwan are stepping up cooperation in a newly created economic dialogue, in another move from the outgoing Trump administration to increase official exchanges with the self-ruled island. The two sides signed a five-year agreement establishing the U.S.-Taiwan Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue, which is meant to be held annually.
Brazil’s government on Tuesday backed the United States’ Clean Network proposal to build a global digital alliance that excludes technology that Washington sees as manipulated by China’s Communist government.
The U.S. has brought 49 countries, representing two-thirds of global economic output, into its “Clean Network” initiative aimed at limiting Chinese companies from access to sensitive sectors such as cloud computing and 5G mobile networks, a senior administration official said.
Keith Krach, Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, joins Bonnie Glick, Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID for a press briefing on the Clean Network initiative and security in the digital economy.
The Deputy Secretary of State of the United States was in Estonia to sign the continuation of the cooperation agreement in both the fields of science and technology.
Cristina Cileacu of Digi24 discusses 5G Security and Clean Network with Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment, Keith Krach, and Mr. Mircea Geoana Deputy Secretary General of NATO.
Since Secretary of State Pompeo announced the Clean Network and the European Union launched its EU 5G Clean Toolbox earlier this year, 40 Clean Countries, and 50 Clean Telcos, including the largest telcos like Reliance Jio in India, Telstra in Australia, SK in Korea, NTT in Japan, Hrvatskiin Croatia, Tele2 in Estonia, Cosmote in Greece, Three in Ireland, LMT in Latvia, Ziggo in the Netherlands, Plus in Poland, TDC in Denmark, O2in the United Kingdom, Singtel, Starhub, and M1in Singapore and all the major telcos in Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, U.S., and Taiwan have joined the Clean Network.
Huawei Technologies Co., already getting squeezed out of Europe’s vast market for the next generation of telecom equipment, is under siege in another fast-growing business: cloud computing. (Source: Bloomberg)
Keith Krach, Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, discusses U.S. efforts to create “clean” 5G networks with global partners in order to keep American data safe from foreign powers such as China. He speaks with Bloomberg’s Kevin Cirilli in Washington. (Source: Bloomberg)
The Under Secretary’s visit was marked by two important milestones in the relations between our countries. First, a Memorandum of Understanding on Economic Cooperation was signed by U.S. Under Secretary Krach and the Albanian Minister of Finance and Economy Anila Denaj. Afterward, Under Secretary Krach and Prime Minister Rama presided over the signing of the Skavica Hydropower project between the Albanian government and one of America’s best-known engineering and construction companies, Bechtel.
The Trump administration’s ban targeting ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok isn’t about one company but about the Chinese communist party’s threat to democracy, Keith Krach, the U.S. Department of State’s Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment told Bloomberg’s Maria Tadeo exclusively in Brussels. They spoke on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)
In visit to Berlin, U.S. Under Secretary of State, Keith Krach, calls on China’s Xi Jinping to “Tear down China’s great (fire) wall.