Biden to visit China and Japan

With New Crackdown, Biden Wages Global Campaign on Chinese Technology

Tens of thousands of U.S. companies will soon be subject to the United States’ new restrictions on Chinese investments and technology transfers, an action described by President Barack Obama as a major step against Chinese cheating.

The Chinese government says the regulations, which will come into force on January 10, are needed to address unfair Chinese subsidies and market distortions. They will affect not only U.S. multinationals, but small and mid-sized enterprises as well as foreign investors.

The guidelines, to be published by the Commerce Department on the same day, are “a direct response to past incidents of unfair Chinese behavior,” said Jim Kraska, the department’s assistant secretary for Asian regional affairs.

The U.S. restrictions are a major change to a situation that has been largely unchanged since 2009, when the administration of former president George W. Bush tightened its restrictions on the Chinese market.

China, the U.S. and other international organizations say the rules, which will force firms to transfer technology to the U.S., are needed to prevent a repeat of the Chinese government’s decision to use the World Trade Organization to delay the import of solar panels from South Africa for five months.

Biden will try to win back the White House by talking about jobs and the economy when he visits China and Japan next month, his advisers say.

Biden is the first Democrat to visit the two Asian countries since Bill Clinton became president in 1993. He will stop in China on his way back from New York to begin an Asian tour that begins in Vietnam on February 20.

Biden will continue through South Korea on February 24 and Japan on March 2, including two nights in Shanghai, the capital of China’s financial capital, where he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a state visit for the first time as vice president.

Biden’s advisers say his schedule is focused on boosting a foreign policy message that is central to his campaign.

“The vice president will talk about free and fair trade, about the importance of our relationships with the people who trade with us and how we have the best friends and the deadliest enemy in the world, China,�

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