A “steady and growing” China-U.S. relationship serves the “fundamental interests” of both countries, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Friday when asked about President Donald Trump saying he's weighing cutting relations with China. “We’re not happy about China, I will tell you that,” said Trump at the White House Thursday. “The ink wasn’t dry on a great trade deal, and all of a sudden, the plague comes in from China.” The phase one trade agreement was signed Jan. 15 and took effect a month later (see 2001160022). The Foreign Ministry thinks China and the U.S. “should strengthen cooperation to prevail over the pandemic at an early date, and focus on saving lives, and resuming economic development and production,” said the spokesperson. “This, of course, calls for the U.S. and China working together towards the same goal.”
Republican FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O’Rielly defended recent tweets from President Donald Trump critical of NBC, Comcast and NBC reporter Chuck Todd (see 2005110046), answering our questions during news conferences. “The president has every right to criticize any news publication,” O’Rielly said. Some tweets tagged the FCC and Chairman Ajit Pai, and Trump previously urged the agency to take away NBC’s “license.” Carr has vocally condemned on First Amendment grounds calls by Free Press for the commission to act against false information broadcast about COVID-19. Carr drew a distinction between Free Press and the president’s tweets, noting FP filed a petition, explicitly seeking action against broadcasters. The president was expressing a view about Todd’s reporting, said Carr, saying he believes in the pushback between subjects and reporters. O’Rielly called the NBC report on Attorney General William Barr that was the focus of Trump's criticisms “crappy” and said the news outlet’s subsequent apology was “half-assed.” O'Rielly said protocol norms between the White House and the FCC stopped during the administration of then-President Barack Obama, who O'Rielly said pressured the agency to change its stance on net neutrality rules. Since that happened, such protocols have "gone out the window," he said. NBC News didn’t comment.
President Donald Trump tweeted complaints about Comcast and NBC reporter Chuck Todd at the FCC and Chairman Ajit Pai several times Sunday and Monday, appearing to be urging the agency to take action against Todd or his employers. “He should be FIRED by Concast [sic]. If done by a Republican, would be ‘prosecuted,’” Trump said in one tweet in which he tagged Pai. The tweets appeared to be a response to an NBC segment about Attorney General William Barr. “Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd should be FIRED by ‘Concast’ (NBC) for this fraud. He knew exactly what he was doing.” said the tweet, before including the twitter handles of Pai and the FCC itself, along with: “Public Airwaves = Fake News!.” Trump has invoked the FCC in tweets against media companies in the past (see 1710110075) but no FCC action apparently has resulted. At the time, Pai said the agency doesn’t have the authority to revoke a broadcaster’s license over the content of a newscast (see 1809040051). “This is not how our rules work,” tweeted Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “The FCC doesn't sanction stations for what journalists say.” The commission didn't comment.
Formal negotiations between President Donald Trump’s administration and Congress on a fourth major COVID-19 legislative package temporarily “paused” while the White House monitors the economic impact of the beginning of easing pandemic-related restrictions by some states, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters Friday. Trump and congressional Democrats want a future COVID-19 bill to include major broadband funding (see 2004300058). Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi and some other Republicans also signaled interest (see 2005070055). “We just had” major aid funding via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and a supplementary measure to inject further money into the Paycheck Protection Program, Kudlow said: “We put all this money in, which is fine. It's well worth it. Let's see what happens. As we move into the reopening phase this month, maybe spillover to June, let's have a look at it before we decide who, what, where, when.”
Michigan State University law professor Adam Candeub joined the Commerce Department as deputy assistant NTIA secretary (see 2005010060), making him the agency’s deputy administrator, NTIA said Friday. Doug Kinkoph remains acting administrator “performing the non-exclusive functions and duties” of the assistant secretary of commerce-communications and information, the agency said. Kinkoph has led NTIA since December, when former acting head Diane Rinaldo left (see 1912230065). There hasn’t been a permanent NTIA administrator since former head David Redl left in May 2019 (see 1905090051). Candeub in the past has focused on social media and First Amendment (see 1911150047). Last year, he represented Canadian blogger Meghan Murphy in a lawsuit against Twitter, which had permanently banned her because of tweets about transgender people. He previously worked in the FCC Media and Wireline bureaus. Candeub didn’t comment and referred us to NTIA. Former Charter Communications Group Vice President-Advanced Engineering Jim Medica joined NTIA as a senior adviser. He previously worked from Time Warner, Cisco, MCI and Skadden Arps. After we reported that industry officials believed that former Breitbart reporter Ian Mason joined the agency in a junior policy adviser role, Mason said that was incorrect. He had applied for a job there but decided against accepting a job offer, he said by phone on Sunday. The agency hadn't initially commented on reports of Mason’s appointment. Sunday, it confirmed he's not working there.
The Americans for Free Trade coalition wants the Trump administration to defer due dates for all federal duties and import fees payable through June, it wrote the White House and members of Congress Tuesday. Doing so would “immediately free up billions of dollars of working capital for American companies,” it said. “This cash is even more important for companies that have had to close their doors because of stay-at-home orders, leaving them with little to no revenue to make ends meet. Companies facing urgent liquidity issues need their duty payments deferred in order to succeed when the economy reopens.” More than 470 companies signed the letter, including Audio Control, Fossil, GameStop, JL Audio, Jasco Products and Voxx. CTA was among seven tech groups also signing, including ACT|The App Association and CompTIA. The White House didn’t comment.
Chief information officers should integrate Schema.org tags into COVID-19-related federal webpages “to help surface the latest federal guidance and information in search engine results,” the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said Wednesday. Schema.org is a partnership involving Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, that created standard tags for making specific information easier to find in results.
Four House members seek additional signers on a pending letter asking President Donald Trump to use executive branch resources to support local media. The lawmakers want Trump to direct cabinet secretaries “to review any resources intended to be used for advertising campaigns and have them expedite such activities with local media outlets.” The lawmakers want Trump to incentivize “a portion of stimulus funds” allocated to businesses via HR-748 and other COVID-19 measures “for advertising on local media.” Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., is leading work on the letter that ex-Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., also signed. Two other House Commerce members signed: Republican Bill Flores and Democrat Marc Veasey, both of Texas. The White House didn't comment Wednesday.
Technology and semiconductor trade groups objected last week to increased export restrictions under consideration by the Trump administration, saying the controls could lead to uncertainty. BSA|The Software Alliance, CompTIA, the Information Technology Industry Council, Semiconductor Industry Association, Software & Information Industry Association, U.S. Council for International Business and others wrote Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, asking the administration to seek input before finalizing the rule. If approved by President Donald Trump, the measures could block Huawei and other Chinese companies from buying U.S. semiconductors. “Initially, there was some talk about a generic change in de minimis” threshold, said Richard Sawaya, vice president of the National Foreign Trade Council, one of nine groups that signed the letter to Ross. “I think the effort within the interagency process is to narrow that and tailor it as much as possible so that it is Huawei-specific,” Sawaya said in an interview. The Commerce Department didn't comment Friday.
Executive branch agencies recommended the FCC revoke China Telecom's U.S. authorizations for international telecom services. DOJ, which led the review, said the agencies found "substantial and unacceptable national security and law enforcement risks," including Chinese government malicious cyber activity targeting the U.S., and concerns China Telecom -- a U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese government-owned telecom company -- is vulnerable to China's "exploitation, influence, and control." It said China Telecom made inaccurate statements to U.S. authorities about recordkeeping and made inaccurate public representations of cybersecurity practices. The 71-page redacted recommendation filed with the International Bureau said China Telecom "will be forced to comply with Chinese government requests without sufficient legal procedures subject to independent judicial oversight." It also said the company's U.S. operations are a route for Chinese state-sponsored actors "to engage in economic espionage and disrupt and misroute U.S. communications traffic." The "security of our government and professional communications, as well as of our most private data, depends on our use of trusted partners from nations that share our values and our aspirations for humanity," said Assistant Attorney General-National Security John Demers. DOJ said the recommendation was by it and the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, State, Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative. The FCC and China Telecom didn't comment.