Ian Williams

Author of 'Vampire State. The rise and fall of the Chinese Economy'. Longtime foreign correspondent in Moscow, the Indo-Pacific and China @NBCNews @Channel4News

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

China's troubled but predatory economy remains addictive to some, but also coercive, corrupt and at times surreal. My new book, published by @BirlinnBooks on 5 Sept, shows how CCP ruthlessly bends business to its will - but is fast running out of options https://t.co/nceGvBVTy2

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

Government telling shops what to sell and what to charge? I think we've been there before ...

[Financial Times @FT]

Treasury pushes supermarkets to cap food prices https://t.co/WyDXEn9tJm

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

@stephenpollard Breaking news, the new minister for price controls and his vision for Sainsbury’s

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

@BBCNews Breaking news … the new minister for price controls and vision for Sainsbury’s

[The Spectator 🇺🇸 @TheSpectator]

America has a serious Chinese spying problem

By @ianwill

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

#china espionage and influence operations against the US are increasingly brazen - out of control, according to security officials. As I ask in @spectator, is America losing the spying game and does Trump really care? #espionage #cyber #taiwan #trump https://t.co/l2c6dnpfLK

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

A pleasure to join @JSHeappey on @TimesRadio superpowers podcast, talking the China-US summit, Ukraine, Russia and much more
https://t.co/xmrw9YCJNz

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

US-China summit opens with Taiwan warnings from Xi and bland flattery from Trump. Here's my @spectator hot take on why his desperate search for a deal makes this summit perilous of the US president #china #USChinasummit #trump #taiwan
https://t.co/OTRAzUwO9d

[The Spectator 🇺🇸 @TheSpectator]

Despite the hype surrounding China’s artificial intelligence capabilities, progress remains heavily dependent on theft and smuggling. The Chinese Communist party (CCP), meanwhile, is determined to maintain tight control. That has become increasingly clear ahead of this week’s Beijing summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The Chinese leader is determined to lead the world in what he terms an “epoch-defining technology.” He appears confident that Trump, preoccupied by his war against Iran, has limited options to counter Beijing’s increasingly brazen activities.

Last month, the White House accused Beijing of “industrial-scale” theft of know-how from American AI labs. Meanwhile, US prosecutors claim to have busted an international smuggling ring that funneled advanced chips worth billions of dollars to China in defiance of sanctions. The CCP is also stepping up efforts to protect China’s own AI innovation, blocking a $2 billion takeover by Meta of a Chinese AI start-up called Manus. For good measure, the authorities prevented Manus’s two founders from leaving the country.

The accusations of theft refer to a process called “distillation,” whereby China is accused of illicitly training its smaller AI models on the output of larger (and expensively developed) US models.

✍️ @ianwill

Article: https://t.co/aN7Iz9hOZj

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

Despite hype surrounding #China #AI capabilities, progress remains heavily dependent on theft and smuggling of American know-how - and as I report for @spectator Beijing has become increasingly brazen ahead of this week’s Trump-Xi summit https://t.co/hCID9ufoM9

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

Days away from @LewesSpeakers festival, where on 9 May I'm speaking about Vampire State, my latest book on #china predatory economy & how Beijing is exploiting the new global disorder. Tickets available! @BirlinnBooks @andrewlownie #tradewar #hacking
https://t.co/vj5GE9gean

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

#China thinks it can weather #Trump ill-conceived war on Iran and emerge as the real winner. As I argue in the ⁦@spectator⁩ it may not be as simple as that, but right now the US is hurting its erstwhile allies more than Beijing.
#iranwar #oil https://t.co/BdsvjI2hqK

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

A pleasure to join @PhilipIngMBE on the excellent Frontline podcast, talking Russia, China, Ukraine - and Xi Jinping’s extraordinary purge of his top generals
#china #ukraine #russia #ukrainewar
https://t.co/xAPhr9HWoW

[Ben Riley-Smith @benrileysmith]

**The dark side of Starmer’s China trip**

The Prime Minister’s visit has been dominated by messages of engagement, joint working and cooperation to solve world problems.

But here on the ground, on the edges, there are glimpses of a different set of values and practices that show how stark the gaps are between the nations.

:: The UK delegation has been using ‘burner’ phones and laptops, fearing their private data is not safe in China

:: Warnings of “honeytraps”. In 2008 during Gordon Brown’s trip a No10 aide went home with a mysterious woman met at a party and had his BlackBerry nicked.

:: British Embassy in Beijing has been the target of suspected meddling. Heating turned off. Eviction notices posted (such that some stay overnight just in case)

:: Travelling pack told to bring laptops with them wherever they go, not leave the in hotel rooms, to avoid hacks. And VPNs used due to fears over public / hotel WiFi

:: CCTV cameras abound. Diplomats who escape the city for nature walks find at the top of mountains there are cameras

More in here:
https://t.co/sPXN6J43A2

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

Meagre pickings. The most tangible result of ⁦@Keir_Starmer⁩ #china visit is visa-free access for Brits, though they won’t have luxury of burner phones & throwaway lap tops issued to PM’s entourage to escape the scrutiny of Xi’s surveillance state https://t.co/QoNMwJuXLD

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

A pleasure to join @CalumAM on @whitehallsource talking Starmer’s trip to China and the right and wrong ways of engaging with Beijing

[Whitehall Sources @whitehallsource]

"Arguably you could say that the Starmer would be quite in his element in that because it is lacking in substance."

@ianwill talks about the theatre of Chinese diplomacy.

@CalumAM | @straighttie

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

Vast Mekong cyber scamming industry is under pressure. But as I report in the ⁦@spectator⁩ many of the mostly Chinese gangs that run them have communist party links and continue to thrive amid rampant corruption and growing geopolitical competition https://t.co/CKzmqGb18J

[Daily Mail @DailyMail]

IAN WILLIAMS: China's vampire state is about to sink its fangs into Kowtow Keir. Stand by for a humiliating spectacle https://t.co/j9Swrccli8

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

Here’s my op-ed for ⁦@DailyMail⁩ on ⁦@Keir_Starmer⁩ visit to China, where he hopes to be rewarded for gifting China its new mega-embassy and a year of abject appeasement #china #starmer https://t.co/6S8LM5i9Wn

[Ian Williams @ianwill]

Timing of Starmer’s latest appeasement of #china could not be worse & as I report in ⁦@spectator⁩ approval of mega-embassy faces long & embarrassing judicial challenge on grounds that it was a done-deal - a mockery of planning process #chinaembaasy https://t.co/5Ge7fnbl8f