Tag: Joe Biden news

South Asian diaspora group starts mobilizing for Biden-Harris 2024

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With just over six months left for the American general elections, some South Asian election activists are mobilizing to re-elect U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House. The all-volunteer group, South Asians for Mr. Biden, kicked off its activities for the election season with a virtual event held on April 25 that featured messages from lawmakers and functionaries of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and focused on issues such as reproductive rights and gun control.

The group, like other groups working in this space, is motivated by the idea that South Asian populations in battleground States had exceeded the margins of victory for Democrats in previous election cycles (2020 and 2021 for example). This makes South Asians, like other Asian American and Pacific Islander groups (AAPI or  AANHNPI to include Native Hawaiians ), a potential deciding factor in who wins in battleground states.

 In a close election, such as the 2020 race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden,  winning swing states could be key to winning the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. However, Democrats and Republicans are focused not just on the Biden v Trump rematch this year but also other ‘down ballot’ races –  crucial Senate and House seats as well as contests for  state offices.  

South Asians for Biden had reached out to  a few hundred thousand South Asian and AAPI voters directly and via its digital and video campaigns in 2020 and 2021, according to Neha Dewan, National Co-Director of the group. Ms Dewan listed the group’s outreach in States such as Georgia and Wisconsin where Mr Biden won by wafer-thin margins ( around 12,000 votes in Georgia for example).

During the virtual event, titled, ‘Mobilizing the South Asian Community to be the Margin of Victory’, Ms Dewan highlighted the work of the Biden administration in areas she said were of importance to the community : reproductive rights (e.g., women’s access to contraception and abortion), curbing gun violence and hate crimes against Asian Americans.

“I know that the calls that were made into Georgia and into Wisconsin, were beyond the winning margin,” said Principal Deputy Campaign Manager for Biden-Harris 2024, Quentin Fulks, in a recorded video message.

The AAPI vote was 4% of the electorate in Georgia, and an important part of the margin (just under 3%) that got Senator Raphael Warnock re-elected the Senate (December 2022), Mr Fulks said. Democrats retained control (51-49) of the U.S. Senate with Mr Warnock – who initially came to the chamber after winning a partial term in 2020 – getting elected for full term in the 118th Congress that began in 2023.

“It’s going to take all of us again in 2024 to make sure that we hit 270 electoral votes,” Mr Fulks said.

The majority of U.S. born and foreign-born Indian Americans lean towards the Democratic Party (as per 2020 data), a statistic the group appears to capitalise on. One of the speakers at the virtual event, Washington (State)  Democrat, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal cited data to support the view that South Asian social and political priorities were aligned with those of the Biden-Harris platform.

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Ro Khanna, an Indian American California Democrat emphasized that South Asian voters were critical  to electoral victories  in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Arizona. Mr Biden won the electoral college votes in each of these States in 2020.

“We were key to President Biden and Vice President Harris’s 2020 historic win. We need to mobilize again,” he said.

Mr Khanna, whose constituency includes a part of Silicon Valley,  highlighted his involvement with the CHIPS and Science Act, one of the Biden administration’s big ticket policies aimed at increasing semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. (Mr Khanna was one of the lawmakers who introduced one of the  two pieces of legislation that later went on to become the Act).

“There are so many South Asians involved in creating good jobs and Arizona, in upstate New York, in Ohio, as a result of that act,” he said.

Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) AAPI Caucus Bel Leong Hong described the 2024 elections in existential terms.

“We are fighting for a place for us to be in, we are fighting to be who we are,” she said.

Democrats rallying around abortion rights and gun control

Issues important to South Asian Americans – especially reproductive rights, voting rights and gun violence – featured repeatedly through the event. This mirrors the overall approach of Democrats – starting at the top with Mr Biden and Ms Harris – to rally voters, especially women, will who would otherwise have not voted or voted for Mr Trump, to vote for Mr Biden.

Anita Somani, a physician who is a representative in the Ohio State Assembly had a message about voting officials in who would  protect reproductive rights.

Abortion and — more broadly — reproductive rights, have been a key electoral issue, especially since June 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, a judgement that broadly protected a woman’s right to have an abortion. With reproductive rights becoming a state issue since the judgement was overturned, a number of States have enacted measures to protect these rights, with Ohio residents voting in November 2023 to do the same.  

“Imagine that kids are now the experts on how to dodge bullets while sitting at their desks are walking to the corner store,” said Shikha Hamilton,  the parent of bi-cultural Indian and Black daughter , who has worked for over two decades on gun violence prevention.

Anita Somani, a physician who is a representative in the Ohio State Assembly had a message about voting officials in who would  protect reproductive rights.

Editorial | Square one: On the 2024 U.S. Presidential election as a Biden-Trump rematch

Ballot access is an issue

Battle lines this year are also drawn around voting rights with a number of Republican governed states passing tightening access to the ballot. Last year (data as of October) at least 14 States had passed laws making it harder to vote while 23 had made it easier to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

At the South Asians for Biden re-launch, Gen Z candidate for Georgia State Senate, Aswhin Ramaswami, a former election security official, discussed the growing legislative challenges to voting in Georgia. The 24 year old is  running against State Senator Shawn Still, who was indicted, along with Mr Trump and others, for illegally trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Americans will elect the next President of the United Sates, as well as a number of U.S. Senators and Congressmen, State governors and local officials on November 5 this year.

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Joe Biden says ‘very dangerous’ if no Gaza ceasefire by Ramadan

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March 06, 2024 09:32 am | Updated 10:07 am IST – Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories

U.S. President Joe Biden on March 5 called on Hamas to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, while the Palestinian militant group warned talks for a truce and hostage release cannot go on “indefinitely”.

As famine threatens Gazans, U.S. and Jordanian planes again airdropped food aid into the besieged territory of 2.4 million people in a joint operation with Egypt and France.

Bombing and fighting in the war sparked by the October 7 attack killed another 97 people in Gaza, said the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, where Israel said its jets had struck 50 targets over the past day.

In Cairo, U.S. and Hamas envoys were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in protracted negotiations to end the fighting and free hostages before Ramadan starts on March 10 or 11.

Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, which is close to the country’s intelligence services, said the talks were “ongoing” and would continue for a fourth consecutive day on Wednesday.

The parties in Egypt — so far excluding Israel — have discussed a plan for a six-week truce, the exchange of dozens of hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and increased aid into Gaza.

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official in Beirut, said the Islamist group would “not allow the path of negotiations to be open indefinitely”.

Mr. Biden warned Hamas to agree to a Gaza ceasefire by Ramadan, after his top diplomat, Antony Blinken, urged it to accept an “immediate ceasefire”.

“It’s in the hands of Hamas right now,” the U.S. president told reporters.

“There’s got to be a ceasefire because Ramadan — if we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous.”


Also read | U.N. envoy says ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe Hamas committed sexual violence on October 7

He did not elaborate, but the United States last week urged Israel to allow Muslims to worship at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem during Ramadan.

The Israeli government said later that it would allow Muslim worshippers to access Al-Aqsa during Ramadan “in similar numbers to those in previous years”.

‘We want to eat and live’

As conditions in Gaza deteriorate, Israel has also faced increasingly sharp rebukes from Washington.

Vice President Kamala Harris had expressed “deep concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza” during talks on Monday with war cabinet member Benny Gantz, a centrist political rival of right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

American cargo planes airdropped more than 36,000 meals into Gaza Tuesday in a joint operation with Jordan, which said French and Egyptian planes also took part.

The United Nations has warned famine is “almost inevitable” in the Palestinian territory.

Israeli media reported, meanwhile, that the country’s negotiating team had so far boycotted the Cairo talks after Hamas had failed to provide it with a list of the living hostages.

Israel has said it believes 130 of the original 250 captives remain in Gaza, but that 31 have been killed.

Senior Hamas leader Bassem Naim told AFP on Monday that the group did not know “who among them are alive or dead, killed because of strikes or hunger”, and that the captives were being held by “numerous groups in multiple places”.

He said that, in order for all of them to be located, “a ceasefire is necessary”.

The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 30,631 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

Fighting raged on in Gaza, with Hamas officials reporting dozens of Israeli air strikes near the European Hospital in Hamad City, in the main southern city of Khan Yunis.

Khan Yunis residents said decomposing bodies were lying in streets lined with destroyed homes and shops.

“We want to eat and live,” said Nader Abu Shanab, pointing to the rubble with blackened hands.

“Take a look at our homes. How am I to blame, a single, unarmed person without any income in this impoverished country?”

Israel-U.N. tensions

The U.N. World Health Organization said an aid mission to two hospitals in northern Gaza had found children dying of starvation.

“The lack of food resulted in the deaths of 10 children,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

On Tuesday, the WHO estimated at least 8,000 Gaza patients needed evacuating for treatment, which would relieve pressure on the few functioning hospitals.

Tensions between Israel and the United Nations flared on Monday, with Israel recalling its ambassador over the handling of allegations of sexual assault during the October attack.

Israel accused the U.N. of taking too long to respond to the claims, as the world body published a report that said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” rapes were committed and that hostages taken to Gaza had also faced sexual violence.

“In most of these incidents, victims first subjected to rape were then killed, and at least two incidents relate to the rape of women’s corpses,” the report said.

Shortly before the report’s release, Israel said it was recalling its ambassador Gilad Erdan over what it said was an attempt by the U.N. to “silence” reports of sexual violence by Hamas.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman denied trying to suppress the report.

The war has sparked violence across the region, including near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who urged a diplomatic solution during a Beirut visit Monday, met with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv.

Mr. Gallant told Mr. Hochstein on Tuesday that Israel was committed to the diplomatic process but “emphasised that Hezbollah’s aggression is dragging the parties to a dangerous escalation”, his office said.

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Joe Biden declared ‘fit for duty’ as age issue looms in U.S. presidential election

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February 29, 2024 08:52 am | Updated 08:52 am IST – BETHESDA, Md.

President Joe Biden “continues to be fit for duty,” his doctor wrote on February 28 after conducting an annual physical that is being closely watched as the 81-year-old seeks re-election in November.

Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Mr. Biden’s physician, wrote that the president is adjusting well to a new device that helps control his sleep apnea and has experienced some hip discomfort but also works out five times per week.

Also Read | U.S. President Joe Biden launches 2024 re-election bid

“President Biden is a healthy, active, robust, 81-year-old male who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency,” Dr. O’Connor said in a six-page memo on the president’s health, following a physical that took Mr. Biden to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for more than 2 1/2 hours.

His memo added that Mr. Biden “feels well and this year’s physical identifies no new concerns.”

The oldest president in U.S. history, Mr. Biden would be 86 by the end of a second term, should he win one. His latest physical mirrored one he had in February last year when Dr. O’Connor described Mr. Biden as “healthy, vigorous” and “fit” to handle his White House duties.

Still, voters are approaching this year’s election with misgivings about Mr. Biden’s age, having scrutinised his gaffes, his coughing, his slow walking and even a tumble off his bicycle.

After he returned to the White House on Wednesday, Mr. Biden attended an event on combating crime and suggested that when it came to his health “everything is squared away” and “there is nothing different than last year.”

Also Read | Joe Biden | From being one of the youngest senators to oldest U.S. president

He also joked about his age and people thinking “I look too young.”

Former President Donald Trump, 77, is the favourite to lock up the Republican nomination later this month, which would bring him closer to a November rematch against Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump was 70 when he took office in 2017, which made him the oldest American president to be inaugurated — until Mr. Biden broke his record by being inaugurated at 78 in 2021.

Watch | A quick look at the oldest and youngest U.S. presidents 

Dr. O’Connor’s report said that Mr. Biden’s stiff walking was no worse than last year and was the result of arthritic changes in his spine. He said the president also noted “some increased left hip discomfort.” There were no signs of stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or other similar conditions in what the report called an “extremely detailed neurologic exam.”

Also Read | Trump calls himself a ‘proud political dissident’ in CPAC speech

Mr. Biden, last summer, began using a continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine at night to help with sleep apnea, and Dr. O’Connor wrote that the president had responded well to that treatment and is “diligently compliant” about using it.

A recent special counsel’s report on the investigation into Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents repeatedly derided Mr. Biden’s memory, calling it “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.” It also noted that Mr. Biden could not recall defining milestones in his own life such as when his son Beau died or when he served as vice president.

Still, addressing reporters the evening of the report’s release, Mr. Biden said “my memory is fine” and grew visibly angry as he denied forgetting when his son died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Dr. O’Connor was one of a team of 20 different medical specialists who helped complete the physical.

Asked why Mr. Biden wasn’t undergoing a cognitive test as part of the physical, Ms. Jean-Pierre said that Dr. O’Connor and Mr. Biden’s neurologist “don’t believe he needs one.”

“He passes a cognitive test every day, every day as he moves from one topic to another topic, understanding the granular level of these topics,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said, noting that Mr. Biden tackled such diverse issues as Wednesday’s crime prevention event before his planned trip to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday and next week’s State of the Union address.

Also Read | U.S. poised for a potential presidential ‘rematch’ of far-reaching implications

“This is a very rigorous job,” she added.

That picture of the president doesn’t reflect the type of struggles with routine tasks that might indicate the need for further tests, said Dr. Michael Rosenbloom, a neurologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

“Constantly questioning older folks who may have an occasional lapse is a form of ageism,” Dr. Rosenbloom said.

From sleep apnea to arthritis, Mr. Biden’s health report “seems pretty run of the mill for an 81-year-old person,” said Dr. Jeffrey A. Linder, chief of general internal medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

“His doctors are in a unique position to assess his cognitive ability on a daily basis,” Dr. Linder said. “These doctors are able to see how he’s functioning day to day. That’s much more useful” than a cognitive assessment.

Many Americans, including Democrats, have expressed reservations about Mr. Biden seeking a second term during this fall’s election. Only 37% of Democrats say Mr. Biden should pursue re-election, down from 52% before the 2022 midterm elections, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Mr. Biden counters that his age brings wisdom, and he has begun to criticise Mr. Trump for the former president’s recent public gaffes.

The president joked that his age was classified information and suggested during a taping in New York on Monday of Late Night With Seth Meyers that Mr. Trump mistakenly called his wife Melania, “Mercedes” during a weekend speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference — though the Trump campaign says he was correctly referring to political commentator Mercedes Schlapp.

Mr. Trump has indeed had his share of verbal miscues, mixing up the city and state where he was campaigning, calling Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the leader of Turkey and repeatedly mispronouncing the militant group Hamas as “hummus.” More recently, he confused his Republican primary rival Nikki Haley with former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

While he was president, Mr. Trump’s annual physical in 2019 revealed that he had gained weight and was up to 243 pounds. With his 6-foot, 3-inch frame, that meant Mr. Trump’s Body Mass Index was 30.4. An index rating of 30 is the level at which doctors consider someone obese under this commonly used formula.

Wednesday’s report listed Mr. Biden as 6-foot tall and weighing 178 pounds.

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Biden opens Vietnam visit by saying the two countries are ‘critical partners’ at a ‘critical time’

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U.S. President Joe Biden opened a brief visit to Vietnam on Sunday by telling the country’s leadership that the two nations have a chance to shape the Indo-Pacific for decades to come.

Mr. Biden said he hoped progress could be made on climate, the economy and other issues during his 24-hour visit.

“Vietnam and the U.S. are critical partners at what I would argue is a very critical time,” Mr. Biden told Nguyễn Phú Trọng, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, during the public portion of their meeting at party headquarters.

Mr. Trọng agreed that their meeting presented an “excellent opportunity“ to expand bilateral ties. He thanked Mr. Biden for inviting him to visit Washington soon.

Vietnam is elevating its relationship with the U.S. to the status of being a comprehensive strategic partner, which one of Biden’s top national security advisers said represents Vietnam’s highest tier of international partnership.

Other countries that Vietnam has extended the designation to include China and Russia. Elevating the U.S. to the same status suggests that Vietnam wants to hedge its friendships as U.S. and European companies look for alternatives to Chinese factories.

Mr. Biden, who arrived in Hanoi on Sunday afternoon, said last month at a fundraiser in Salt Lake City that Vietnam doesn’t want a defense alliance with the U.S., “but they want relationships because they want China to know that they’re not alone” and can choose its own partners. The president decided to tack a visit to Vietnam on to his trip to India for the Group of 20 summit that wrapped up Sunday.

With China’s economic slowdown and President Xi Jinping’s consolidation of political power, Mr. Biden sees an opportunity to bring more nations — including Vietnam and Cambodia — into America’s orbit.

“We find ourselves in a situation where all of these changes around the world are taking place,” Mr. Biden explained last month about Vietnam. “We have an opportunity, if we’re smart, to change the dynamic.”

Mr. Biden was welcomed with a pomp-filled ceremony outside the mustard-colored Presidential Palace. Scores of schoolchildren lined the steps waving small U.S. and Vietnam flags and Mr. Biden watched from an elevated review stand as high-stepping members of the military marched past. The president waved to the children before he got into his limousine to go to Communist Party headquarters to meet with Trong.

The president and Trong expressed mutual happiness over seeing each other again after last meeting some eight years ago in Washington, said Mr. Biden, who was vice president at the time.

Trong sought to flatter Mr. Biden, who faces persistent questions at home about being 80 years old and running for reelection next year.

“You have nary aged a day, and I would say you look even better than before,” Trong said. “I would say every feature of you Mr. President is complementing your image.” Mr. Biden chuckled in response.

Earlier Sunday, Jon Finer, Mr. Biden’s chief deputy national security adviser, said the elevated status represents Vietnam’s highest tier of international partnership.

“It’s important to make clear that this is more than words,” Finer told reporters aboard Mr. Biden’s flight to Hanoi. “In a system like Vietnam, it’s a signal to their entire government, their entire bureaucracy about the depth and cooperation and alignment with another country that is possible.”

Finer noted a five-decade arc in U.S.-Vietnam relations, from conflict during the Vietnam War to normalization and Vietnam’s status as a top trading partner that also shares Washington’s concerns over security in the South China Sea.

“We will be deepening that relationship through this visit,” he added.

Finer also addressed reports that Vietnam was pursuing a deal to buy weapons from Russia, even as it sought deeper ties to the United States. Finer acknowledged Vietnam’s lengthy military relationship with Russia and said the U.S. continues to work with Vietnam and other countries with similar ties to Russia to try to limit their interactions with a nation the U.S. accuses of committing war crimes and violating international law with its aggression in Ukraine.

U.S. trade with Vietnam has already accelerated since 2019. But there are limits to how much further it can progress without improvements to the country’s infrastructure, its workers’ skills and its governance. Nor has increased trade automatically put the Vietnamese economy on an upward trajectory.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that the CEOs she talks with rank Vietnam highly as a place to diversify supply chains that before the pandemic had been overly dependent on China. Raimondo has been trying to broaden those supply chains through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, an initiative Mr. Biden launched last year.

“Whether it’s Vietnam or Malaysia, Indonesia, India, companies are really taking a hard look at those countries as places to do more business,” Raimondo said. “It is also true that they need to improve their workforce, housing, infrastructure and, I’d say, transparency in government operations.”

Vietnam’s economic growth slipped during the first three months of 2023. Its exporters faced higher costs and weaker demand as high inflation worldwide has hurt the market for consumer goods.

Still, U.S. imports of Vietnamese goods have nearly doubled since 2019 to $127 billion annually, according to the Census Bureau. It is unlikely that Vietnam, with its population of 100 million, can match the scale of Chinese manufacturing. In 2022, China, with 1.4 billion people, exported four times as many goods to the U.S. as did Vietnam.

There is also evidence that China is still central to the economies of many countries in the Indo-Pacific. A new analysis from the Peterson Institute of International Economics found that countries in IPEF received on average more than 30% of their imports from China and sent nearly 20% of their exports to China. This dependence has increased sharply since 2010.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan saw an opening to broaden the U.S. relationship with Vietnam when one of its top officials, Lê Hoài Trung, visited Washington on June 29.

After talking with Trung, Sullivan walked back to his office and decided after consulting with his team to issue a letter to the Vietnamese government proposing that the two countries take their trade and diplomatic relations to the highest possible level, according to an administration official who insisted on anonymity to discuss the details.

Sullivan picked the issue back up on July 13 while traveling with Mr. Biden in Helsinki, speaking by phone with Trọng, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

At a fundraiser at a barn in Maine a few weeks later, Mr. Biden went public with the deal.

“I’ve gotten a call from the head of Vietnam, desperately wants to meet me when I go to the G-20,” Mr. Biden said. “He wants to elevate us to a major partner, along with Russia and China. What do you think that’s about?”

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Biden issues an executive order restricting U.S. investments in Chinese technology

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President Joe Biden signed an executive order on August 9 to block and regulate high-tech U.S.-based investments going toward China— a move the administration said was targeted even though it reflected an intensifying competition between the world’s two biggest powers.

The order covers advanced computer chips, micro electronics, quantum information technologies and artificial intelligence. Senior administration officials said that the effort stemmed from national security goals rather than economic interests, and that the categories it covered were intentionally narrow in scope. The order seeks to blunt China’s ability to use U.S. investments in its technology companies to upgrade its military while also preserving broader levels of trade that are vital for both nations’ economies.

The United States and China appear to be increasingly locked in a geopolitical competition with a conflicting set of values. Biden administration officials have insisted that they have no interest in “decoupling” from China, yet the U.S. also has limited the export of advanced computer chips and kept the expanded tariffs set up by President Donald Trump. China has engaged in crackdowns on foreign companies.

Mr. Biden has suggested that China’s economy is struggling and its global ambitions have been tempered as the U.S. has reenergized its alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia and the European Union. The administration consulted with allies and industry in shaping the executive order.

“Worry about China, but don’t worry about China,” Mr. Biden told donors at a June fundraising event in California.

The officials previewing the order said that China has exploited U.S. investments to support the development of weapons and modernize its military. The new limits were tailored not to disrupt China’s economy, but they would complement the export controls on advanced computer chips from last year that led to pushback by Chinese officials. The Treasury Department, which would monitor the investments, will announce a proposed rulemaking with definitions that would conform to the presidential order and go through a public comment process.

The goals of the order would be to have investors notify the U.S. government about certain types of transactions with China as well as to place prohibitions on some investments. Officials said the order is focused on areas such as private equity, venture capital and joint partnerships in which the investments could possibly give countries of concern such as China additional knowledge and military capabilities.

J. Philip Ludvigson, a lawyer and former Treasury official, said the order was an initial framework that could be expanded over time.

“The executive order issued today really represents the start of a conversation between the U.S. government and industry regarding the details of the ultimate screening regime,” Mr. Ludvigson said. “While the executive order is limited initially to semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and artificial intelligence, it explicitly provides for a future broadening to other sectors.”

The issue is also a bipartisan priority. In July by a vote of 91-6, the Senate added as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act requirements to monitor and limit investments in countries of concern, including China.

Yet the reaction to Mr. Biden’s order on August 9 showed a desire to push harder on China. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., said the order was an “essential step forward,” but it “cannot be the final step.” Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Mr. Biden should been more aggressive, saying, “We have to stop all U.S. investment in China’s critical technology and military companies — period.”

Mr. Biden has called Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator” in the aftermath of the U.S. shooting down a spy balloon from China that floated over the United States. Taiwan’s status has been a source of tension, with Mr. Biden saying that China had become coercive regarding its independence.

China has supported Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, though Mr. Biden has noted that the friendship has not extended to the shipment of weapons.

U.S. officials have long signaled the coming executive order on investing in China, but it’s unclear whether financial markets will regard it as a tapered step or a continued escalation of tensions at a fragile moment.

“The message it sends to the market may be far more decisive,” said Elaine Dezenski, a senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “U.S. and multinational companies are already reexamining the risks of investing in China. Beijing’s so-called ‘national security’ and ‘anti-espionage’ laws that curb routine and necessary corporate due diligence and compliance were already having a chilling effect on U.S. foreign direct investment. That chilling now risks turning into a deep freeze.”

China ‘gravely’ concerned about US order on foreign investment

China’s Commerce Ministry said it is “gravely concerned” about the United States’ signing of an executive order that will prohibit some new U.S. investment in China in sensitive technology, and said it reserves the right to take measures.

It said it hopes the U.S. will respect the laws of the market economy and the principle of fair competition, and refrain from “artificially hindering global economic and trade exchanges and cooperation”.

China’s strong economic growth has stumbled coming out of pandemic lockdowns. On August 9 its National Bureau of Statistics reported a 0.3% decline in consumer prices in July from a year ago. That level of deflation points to a lack of consumer demand in China that could hamper growth.

Separately, foreign direct investment into China fell 89% from a year earlier in the second quarter of this year to $4.9 billion, according to data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Most foreign investment is believed to be brought in by Chinese companies and disguised as foreign money to get tax breaks and other benefits, according to Chinese researchers.

However, foreign business groups say global companies also are shifting investment plans to other economies.

Foreign companies have lost confidence in China following tighter security controls and a lack of action on reform promises. Calls by Xi and other leaders for more economic self-reliance have left investors uneasy about their future in the state-dominated economy.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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Biden is wrapping a campaign fundraising blitz aimed at making a bold early statement

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President Joe Biden has cozied up to high-dollar donors at Upper East Side penthouses in New York and on West Coast decks in recent weeks. He has two more fundraisers in Manhattan on Thursday that will close out an end-of-quarter campaign blitz that his team believes will put him on strong financial footing for a 2024 White House contest expected to set spending records.

The pair of evening events will be Biden’s 9th and 10th fundraising receptions of the past two weeks, numbers matched by Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff. The Biden campaign has been mum before the July 15 reporting date about how much he has raised at the often freewheeling gatherings but is confident about the size.

The president is also marshaling the whole of the Democratic Party to dial for dollars, enlisting help from Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois as well as former President Barack Obama, among others.

Mr. Obama is featured in a new campaign video to encourage small-dollar online donations before Friday’s donation deadline. Mr. Biden allies insist that despite polls showing lagging enthusiasm among the Democratic base for the 80-year-old president, his party is solidly behind him.

“I’ve been doing this for a really long time for a number of presidents and presidential candidates,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul, major Democratic donor and co-chair of Biden’s campaign. “I’ve never seen from top to bottom, the Democratic enterprise kick into gear this way, from President Obama, governors, senators, congressmen, just across the board — he’s gotten outstanding support.”

Aides say they are trying to motivate donors, especially small-dollar contributors, to dig deeper early on.

The recent blitz was also a function of Mr. Biden’s official duties, Katzenberg said, adding that “his first, second and third job is to run the country.” Mr. Biden had foreign trips in April and May, and the weekslong showdown over raising the nation’s debt limit kept him in Washington. He is set to travel to Europe next month, giving the campaign a narrow window before the historically slow summer season to fit in donor events.

While the first quarter is widely viewed as a benchmark of campaign strength, Katzenberg said there is “no urgency right now” for Mr. Biden to raise or spend vast sums because he lacks a credible primary threat and the election is 16 months away. Still, Mr. Biden is aiming to make a statement with the early totals.

Katzenberg said there were “very optimistic signals” for the Biden campaign’s ability to comfortably exceed its 2020 fundraising levels, including strong numbers of first-time Biden donors. Other campaign aides and allies have grown more bullish about the soon-to-be-reported total.

The president’s fundraising events, closed to cameras and with limited media access, feature a far less guarded Biden than the public often sees. He sometimes uses them to test a new campaign line or dish out more candid remarks than in formal events.

He usually starts behind a lectern but often shifts to using his preferred handheld microphone, which allows him to roam the room and speak more directly to guests.

Mr. Biden makes a personal nod to the hosts. In a fundraiser at the New York home of Greek American shipping magnate George Logothetis in May, Mr. Biden noted that the lessons he learned from his family as a child weren’t any different than “if my mom had been ‘Bidenopoulos’ instead of ‘Finnegan’.”

Though his aides make it a point not to engage with prospective 2024 opponents, Mr. Biden often does not shy away at these events from criticizing the Republican candidates, from Donald Trump on down.

“I’ve been stunned at the damage done by the last administration to us internationally and globally. I mean, I’ve been stunned how deep it goes,’ Mr. Biden said Tuesday evening in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

And this veiled reference to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut: “Did you ever think you’d go through a time when the No. 2 contender on another team was banning books?”

When a baby squealed while Mr. Biden was talking about Republicans to Chicago donors Wednesday, the president said, “I don’t blame you kiddo.”

Mr. Biden’s sometimes rambling remarks are full of anecdotes about his lengthy time in public office, peppered with references to issues such as tougher gun restrictions and abortion rights that animate Democrats. In more intimate settings, where cameras are barred, the president can open up. For example, he made a rare reference to his personal views on abortion when speaking about the issue at a separate Chevy Chase fundraiser on Tuesday.

“I’m a practicing Catholic,” Mr. Biden said. “I’m not big on abortion, but guess what? Roe vs. Wade got it right.” At the same event, he misspoke when talking about the Ukraine war, referring instead to Iraq.

At a fundraiser last week, Mr. Biden caused a diplomatic dust-up after calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator” — a comment coming hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken had met Xi as part of a bid to thaw tensions between the countries. Mr. Biden insisted that his remark would not affect that relationship.

“He wants to shake every hand and chat with everyone,” Katzenberg said. “When there’s something that is on his mind, he’ll say it — and you know, that’s what makes him authentic.”

Last week in the San Francisco area, his fundraisers seemed to prove his argument that the U.S. economy has been favoring the wealthy. He attended events near homes whose Zillow price listings were about four times higher than an average U.S. worker’s lifetime earnings.

“Mr. President, trust me, this is a fancy crowd,” Newsom said to polite laughter at one event. “I know these folks.”

Mr. Biden tries to draw connections to a blue-collar past, even as he touches on big-picture issues such as climate change, relations with China and the fate of democracy.

“How many of you are from smaller Midwestern towns?” he asked. “You know what happened when the factory closes. The soul of the community is lost. Not a joke.”

Breaking with the level of transparency followed by the Obama campaign when Mr. Biden was vice president, Biden’s campaign does not share the total amount raised from any individual event.

Those numbers will be shared when the campaign submits its filing to the Federal Election Commission in July, campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said.

“We are encouraged by the strong response we are seeing from donors and our grassroots supporters, including a significant number of new donors since 2020,” he said in a statement.

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