US semiconductor wafer maker AXT said it would seek permits to keep exporting gallium and germanium substrate products from China, after Beijing abruptly imposed export controls on the metals.

Security impasse between Beijing and Washington is ‘darkest cloud’ hanging over regional stability, diplomats and policy experts say.

Beijing imposes export controls on two metals crucial to the production of semiconductors, communication equipment and solar panels.

China will release its second-quarter gross domestic product data in mid-July, while US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will visit and attention this month will also be on the yuan exchange rate and the possibility of stimulus measures.

Some critics have expressed concern that the US$141 million deal heralds a change to a long-standing strategy of fighting decisive battles away from the island.

Beijing orders export controls on gallium, germanium and several compounds used to make semiconductors just days after the Netherlands announces new measures to limit China’s access to advanced chip-making technology.

In thinly veiled swipe, Wang says Washington sows division in East Asia and urges neighbours to adhere to ‘independence and self-reliance’.

In this edition of the Global Impact newsletter, we wrap up recent visits by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and look at who is in the better position and what the next moves might be.

As Nato upgrades its ties with Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, the wider region is ‘generally happy’ to have Western powers’ support to help balance China’s influence, observers say – despite lingering concerns about security initiatives.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will begin a four-day visit to China on Thursday, and is set to meet senior officials to ‘work together to address global challenges’.

The trial highlighted some of the excesses of Beijing’s decade-long effort to repatriate people accused of corruption, analyst says.

Blocking China’s efforts to set global AI standards and hobble its AI ability is of strong interest to the US, observer says.

‘China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and increasingly the … power to do so,’ Central Intelligence Agency chief William Burns said in a lecture in Oxfordshire, UK.

The US should promote unity and cooperation, rather than resist ‘influence of a specific country’, China’s permanent representative to Unesco says.

Cheng Li, formerly of the Brookings Institution, will lead a new think tank called the Centre on Governance of China and the World.

Chinese leader wants PLA to develop capability by then and Pentagon must modernise to deter him, says Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman.

The US counter-intelligence centre said an update to Beijing’s anti-espionage legislation, that goes into effect on July 1, could compel companies’ locally employed Chinese nationals to assist in Chinese intelligence efforts.

Latin American nations are strengthening relations with China amid a belief that Washington’s focus turned to the Middle East and now the Indo-Pacific.

Proposed sale will ‘help build our response to the military threat from the Communist Party of China’, Taiwan’s defence ministry says.

Pledges on ‘guiding the settlement of sea-related issues’ follow high-profile visit to China by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Applicants can face months-long waits for interview slots as three years of pent-up desire for a foreign vacation is released.

Pentagon says Chinese craft didn’t collect information as it flew over the United States, but tension between the two powers ‘has not been removed’, according to observer.