Singapore

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday she raised issues of human rights abuses and restrictions on political activism in her conversations with Vietnamese leaders this week, but offered no indication those talks bore fruit. “We’re not going to shy away from difficult conversations. Difficult conversations often must be had with the people that you otherwise may have a partnership with,” she said at a news conference in Hanoi on Thursday. Harris said she spoke with Vietnamese leaders in particular about the release of political dissidents, but did not describe the outcome of those conversations. Vietnam has faced criticism for restrictions on freedom of expression and on the press and a crackdown on people it deems political dissidents. But Harris didn’t re

Fixing the US-China tech split Heightened US-China tensions have raised the prospect of a deep global technology divide, potentially forcing other countries to choose which camp to join. There are plenty of grim scenarios involving irreconcilable splits between core technologies that power a wide range of products and services, from aircraft and automobiles to precision engineering for robotics and payment systems for e-commerce. Should these scenarios materialise, the world's two largest economies will pour huge amounts of resources into a zero-sum race to control technology's cutting edge. Both the United States and China understand the central role of technology in driving their economies and global development. They also know that mastering it, as well as safeguarding relevant intell...