Chronologies
US - China
Chronology from Sep 2020 to Dec 2020
: Treasury clarifies on its website that the executive order signed by President Trump in November banning investments in Chinese companies with suspected ties to the PLA applies to subsidiaries.
: Trump signs into law a $2.3 trillion government spending package that includes the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 and the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020.
: USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) asserts navigational rights and freedoms near Vietnam in the vicinity of the Con Dao Islands in the South China Sea.
: US guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain conducts a FONOP near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
: Tibet Policy and Support Act of 2020 is passed by Congress as an amendment to the US$1.4 trillion government spending bill.
: Pompeo announces additional restrictions for issuing visas to Chinese officials believed to be complicit in human rights abuses.
: Chinese FM Wang Yi gives address to the Asia Society about US-China relations.
: Commerce Department adds China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation to the entity list restricting access to US technology.
: USS Mustin transits the Taiwan Strait, conducting a Freedom-of-Navigation operation.
: Trump signs into law “The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act,” which bars securities of foreign companies from being listed on a US exchange if they have failed to comply with the US Public Accounting Oversight Board’s audits for three consecutive years.
: US imposes sanctions on members of the Chinese Communist Party engaged in “malign activities,” including actions related to mass surveillance, military modernization, human rights abuses, and coercion in the South China Sea.
: Treasury Department imposes sanctions on two Chinese companies for their role in supporting the sale of Iranian petrochemicals.
: China’s navy fails to participate in a planned three-day annual high-level virtual meeting of the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement.
: Beijing revokes visa-free visits to Hong Kong and Macau for holders of US diplomatic passports in retaliation for US restrictions on the movement of 14 members of China’s National People’s Congress.
: Pompeo delivers speech entitled “The Chinese Communist Party on the American Campus,” which warns against the influence of the CCP in the American education system.
: Speaking to the US-China Business Council, Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, pledges to uphold the Phase 1 trade deal with the United States under the Biden administration.
: District Court in Washington rules that the Department of Commerce cannot ban US platforms from hosting TikTok.
: Treasury Department imposes financial sanctions and a travel ban on 14 members of China’s National People’s Congress over their role in Beijing’s disqualification of pro-democracy legislators in Hong Kong.
: State Department approves sale of a Field Information Communications System (FICS) to Taiwan for an estimated US$280 million.
: State Department announces sanctions that would restrict visa access to PRC and CCP officials engaged in “coercive influence activities.”
: State Department terminates five cultural exchange programs with China after calling them “soft power propaganda tools.”
: Department of Defense adds four Chinese companies, including SMIC and CNOOC, to its original blacklist published in June 2020.
: Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe publishes op-ed in The Wall Street Journal entitled, “China Is National Security Threat No. 1.”
: Pompeo releases statement condemning the Hong Kong government’s political persecution of the city’s courageous pro-democracy advocates.
: Trump administration issues rules limiting the duration of travel visas to the US from a maximum of 10 years to a maximum of one month for members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their families.
: Department of Homeland Security announces a ban on cotton products made in whole or in part by the Xinjiang Production and Constructions Corps, alleging that its products are made using slave labor.
: China announces sanctions against National Democratic Institute (NDI) and National Endowment for Democracy (NED) personnel in a tit-for-tat measure against US sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials.
: CFIUS extends the deadline for the sale of TikTok to Dec. 4.
: Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan sends message to Kamala Harris to congratulate her on her election as vice president of the United States.
: Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulates Biden on his election as president of the United States 12 days after China’s initial congratulations.
: US imposes sanctions against Chinese firms allegedly promoting Iran’s missile program.
: USS Barry transits Taiwan Strait in a Freedom of Navigation Operation.
: US military sends two long-range bombers into China’s air defense identification zone.
: Governments of the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom release a joint statement expressing “serious concern regarding China’s imposition of new rules to disqualify elected legislators in Hong Kong.”
: Department of Justice publishes a review of its China Initiative to deter national security threats posed by the PRC, calling the initiative a “success.”
: Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) extends the deadline for the sale of TikTok to November 27.
: Department of Commerce announces that it will not enact the ban of TikTok and WeChat, and a federal appeals court will extend the deadline to submit documents against the ban until Dec. 14.
: China’s MFA spokesman congratulates Joe Biden on his election as president of the United States after staying silent for 10 days following the election on Nov. 3.
: Secretary of State Pompeo says on a US radio interview that “Taiwan has not been a part of China.”
: Trump signs an executive order prohibiting Americans from investing in Chinese firms the administration says are owned or controlled by the Chinese military.
: US and Chinese militaries begin a three-day-long video seminar on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
: Pompeo delivers remarks at the Reagan Institute Center for Freedom and Democracy.
: US imposes sanctions on 4 additional PRC and Hong Kong officials over the Hong Kong National Security Law.
: US removes the designation of the Uighur-founded group the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as a terrorist organization.
: State Department approves a $600 million sale of four Weapons-Ready MQ-9B Remotely Piloted Aircraft to Taiwan.
: White House publishes compilation of Trump administration remarks into document entitled “Trump on China: Putting America First.”
: Stilwell delivers virtual remarks at Hoover Institution webinar on “Covert, Coercive, and Corrupting: Countering the Chinese Communist Party’s Malign Influence in Free Societies.”
: Pompeo issues a statement condemning the arrest and detention of three student activists in Hong Kong under the National Security Law.
: Department of Defense hosts a crisis communications working group with PLA to discuss concepts of crisis communications, crisis prevention, and crisis management.
: Department of State designates the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification (NACPU) as a foreign mission of the PRC.
: Eight individuals are charged with conspiring to act as illegal agents of the PRC in a federal court in Brooklyn.
: United States lodges an appeal against a World Trade Organization ruling that some of Trump’s trade war tariffs on China were unlawful.Oct. 27, 2020: Three pro-democracy activists are arrested by Hong Kong police after briefly entering the US consulate in the city in an apparent bid to seek asylum.
: State Department approves sale of 100 Harpoon Coastal Defense Systems (HCDS) to Taiwan in a package worth $2.37 billion.
: US appeals court in San Francisco, CA rejects a request from the Justice Department to reverse a prior ruling that Apple and Google continue to allow users to download TikTok and WeChat.
: US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien characterizes the United States as a Pacific power and says that PRC fishing operations in the EEZ of other countries in the Indo-Pacific “threatens [US] sovereignty, the sovereignty of [the US’s] Pacific neighbors and endangers regional stability.”
: Deputy National Security Advisory Matt Pottinger gives remarks on “The Importance of Being Candid” (贵在坦诚) in Mandarin.
: Department of State designates US operations of six entities as foreign missions of the PRC.
: State Department approves the sale of an arms package totaling $1.8 billion to Taiwan, including 135 precision-guided cruise missiles and mobile light rocket launchers.
: US imposes sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong persons for doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), which the US alleges has transported proliferation-sensitive items intended for Iran’s ballistic missile and military programs.
: China threatens to detain US citizens if the Justice Department proceeds with prosecutions of arrested scholars who are members of Chinese military.
: Guided-missile destroyer USS Barry transits the Taiwan Strait, the first time for a US warship since Aug. 31.
: Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the State Department releases a list of Hong Kong, Macau, and PRC officials it says have contributed to undermining of autonomy in Hong Kong.
: Pompeo requests that think tanks and other foreign policy organizations publish foreign funding that they receive on their websites and says that disclosure will be considered in determining whether the State Department engages with those organizations.
: USS John McCain sails close to Paracel Islands as part of a Freedom of Navigation Operation.
: Pompeo and US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos publish a joint letter to state commissioners of education warning about the threat posed by Confucius Classrooms.
: A Pew Research survey finds that negative views of China have increased nearly 20 percentage points since Trump took office and 13 points since 2019.
: US Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) updates rules to prevent members of “the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party” from being issued permanent residence or citizenship in the United States.
: Trump determines that China will be among countries not to receive nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related assistance until the countries bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards regarding trafficking in persons.
: H.R.6270 – Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act of 2020 is passed in the US House of Representatives.
: Trump issues an Executive Order requiring the Secretary of the Interior to identify critical minerals and reduce reliance on critical minerals from “foreign adversaries.”
: District Court for District of Columbia grants nationwide preliminary injunction against the implementation of President Trump’s executive orders against TikTok/ByteDance.
: US State Department publishes a fact sheet on China’s environmental abuses.
: Pompeo delivers a speech in Madison entitled “State Legislatures and the China Challenge” in which he warns of PRC influence in US state and local governments.
: House of Representatives passes H.R.6210 – Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which bans certain imports from Xinjiang and sanctioned individuals contributing to the human rights violations in Xinjiang.
: Trump delivers address at the UN General Assembly in which he says “We must hold accountable the nation which has unleashed this plague onto the world: China.”
: PRC Ministry of Commerce issues rules that could allow it to halt exports, imports and investments by businesses accused of endangering national security in response to the ban of TikTok and WeChat on US app stores.
: Department of Commerce delays TikTok-related prohibition in US app stores from Sept. 20 to Sept. 27.
: US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Keith Krach arrives in Taiwan for a visit.
: Department of Commerce announces prohibitions on transactions relating to mobile apps WeChat and TikTok to take effect Sept. 20 and Nov. 12 for WeChat and TikTok respectively in response to President Trump’s Aug. 6 executive orders.
: Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives conducts a hearing entitled “Enforcing the Ban on Imports Produced by Forced Labor in Xinjiang.”
: United States imposes sanctions on Chinese state-owned enterprise Union Development Group, Ltd., citing corrupt practices in Cambodia and alleging that a coastal development project at Dara Sakor may be used to host PRC military assets.
: World Trade Organization (WTO) panel says that the US broke global regulations in imposing tariffs on Chinese goods in 2018.
: Department of Homeland Security issues five Withhold Release Orders (WRO) on goods produced by state-sponsored forced labor in Xinjiang.
: China announces new restrictions on the activities of US diplomats in Hong Kong and China in response to new US rules requiring Chinese diplomats receive approval when visiting US university campuses and meeting with local government officials.
: US-China Security Commission holds a hearing on US-China relations in 2020.
: Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces their Global Initiative on Data Security, an eight-part framework to improve global standards around data security.
: Trump tells reporters, “Whether it’s decoupling, or putting in massive tariffs like I’ve been doing already, we will end our reliance in China, because we can’t rely on China.”
: Department of State revokes more than 1,000 visas of PRC nationals following a May 29 proclamation by Trump in response to China’s curbs on democracy in Hong Kong.
: In remarks at a press conference, President Trump says “there’s been no country anywhere, at any time, that’s ripped us off like China has” and “If Biden wins, China wins, because China will own this country.”
: Department of State publishes website entitled “The Chinese Communist Party’s Human Rights Abuses in Xinjiang” detailing aspects of alleged violations of human rights in Xinjiang.
: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces that the State Department will require senior PRC diplomats in the US to receive approval to visit US university campuses and to meet with local government officials.