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White House  — The last time leaders of the world’s seven richest economies met, at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan in 2023, they denounced China’s rising economic security threats and vowed to support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion for as long as it takes. This week in Apulia, Italy, U.S. President Joe Biden wants the group to restrain the same two adversaries while continuing to tackle common global challenges, including infrastructure funding and AI, or artificial intelligence. However, a shift to the right of the European political landscape following EU parliamentary elections could complicate his plans. The U.S. is aiming for the G7 to agree on a united front against Chinese overcapacity, when production of goods exceeds demand, in key green technologies and a mechanism to use Russian frozen assets to aid Ukraine’s war efforts, a source familiar with Biden’s plans told VOA. On Russia, Biden is pushing a plan to give Kyiv tens of billions of dollars up front, using interest from the approximately $280 billion in Russian assets immobilized in Western financial institutions. Weeks after announcing new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, or EVs, and other strategic industries, Biden also wants leaders to confront Beijing’s practice of flooding global markets with cheap exports in those industries. Much work still needs to be done on both fronts, and officials are scrambling to agree on a final communique before the summit ends. Shifting political landscape in Europe With far-right parties gaining support in the European Parliament elections over the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have been weakened, while G7 host Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni consolidated her power. The European far-right has divergent views on China and Russia, adding another layer of uncertainty to the G7’s posture. A key factor: whether Ursula von der Leyen can keep her job as president of the European Commission for another five years. “If von der Leyen remains the likely candidate, we can expect continuity on the G7 agenda — she has been forward-leaning on Ukraine and on China,” said Liana Fix, a fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations. While von der Leyen is in a strong position, her second term is not guaranteed. Snap French parliamentary elections in late June, as announced by Macron on Sunday following his party’s loss in the parliamentary election, could be the wild card, Fix told VOA. With the prospects of a far-right government, Macron may be hesitant to confirm von der Leyen just a few days before the French elections. Russian retaliation Moscow sees the freezing of its assets by Western financial institutions following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine as theft. It has threatened to retaliate, should the G7 agree to adopt the plan pushed by Biden. The plan will provide Kyiv with a loan of up to $50 billion, which will be paid back to Western allies using interest earned from Russian assets, estimated at $3 billion a year or more until it is paid, or Moscow agrees to pay reparations. It’s a more aggressive plan than the EU agreed to in May, which would provide Ukraine with the interest income as it is generated annually. It’s also riskier — there’s no guarantee that Russian assets would be immobilized for the duration it takes to repay the loan. Under EU rules, the sanctions regime that freezes the funds must be unanimously renewed every six months by the bloc’s 27 member states. The push comes as Moscow's forces gained strategic advances on the battlefield, and amid war funding fatigue settling deeper among American and European taxpayers. A deal will be an important signal of transatlantic unity against Russia ahead of the NATO summit in Washington next month and give a measure of relief as Kyiv faces the prospects of a changing political landscape in the U.S. and Europe. “This used to be partly about (former president Donald) Trump-proofing support to Ukraine, but may now also be about (Marine) Le Pen-proofing it, considering the possibility of (the far-right) National Rally (political party) winning the French parliamentary election in a few weeks,” said Armida van Rij, director of the Europe program at Chatham House. The prospects of more populist, Putin-friendly politicians coming to power in Europe may help further galvanize support for Biden’s loan plan for Ukraine, she told VOA. Concern over Chinese overcapacity “There is no question that the U.S. and Europe share the concern that China is trying to export its way out of its domestic industrial overcapacity problem,” said Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. G7 finance ministers have highlighted Beijing’s “comprehensive use of non-market policies and practices” and said they will consider “steps to ensure a level playing field, in line with World Trade Organization principles.” Just as “Trump's greater economic nationalism has forced Biden to be more protectionist,” the rise of right-wing European parties could add more urgency to address Chinese overcapacity, Lachman told VOA. However, it’s unclear if the G7 can agree on how it would do that. EU members that consider China a major export market, particularly Germany and France, are anxious to avoid a trade war. The European Commission is expected to soon announce planned tariffs on Chinese EVs. The action could prompt retaliation from Beijing, which accuses the West of hyping overcapacity claims to blunt China’s competitive edge. AI, migration and international development Italy’s Meloni has made AI a key priority of her G7 presidency and invited Pope Francis to a special session to highlight the Rome Call for AI Ethics. The initiative urges governments and companies to follow the six ethical principles for AI: transparency, inclusion, responsibility, impartiality, reliability, as well as security and privacy. Leaders will discuss how AI impacts labor, sustainable development, foreign policy, disinformation, and election interference. A strategic partnership with Africa to curb migration to Europe is another key theme of Meloni’s G7 presidency. In January, she launched the “Mattei Plan,” an international investment initiative to boost development in the continent, in line with the G7’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, which is also known as PGI. PGI was launched at the G7 2021 summit as “Build Back Better World,” echoing the Biden administration's domestic agenda. The goal is to mobilize $600 billion in private infrastructure funding by 2027 as an alternative to the Chinese Belt and Road initiative that has increased Beijing’s political clout in developing countries. PGI is now focused on developing economic corridors, including the Lobito Corridor that connects the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Angola, and the Luzon Corridor in the Philippines. Following the U.N. Security Council resolution on a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the G7 is also expected to again voice its support for peace talks in Gaza. The president is scheduled to leave for Italy on Wednesday, the day after his son Hunter Biden was found guilty on federal charges of obtaining a gun in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Jurors resumed deliberations Tuesday in the criminal case against Hunter Biden over a gun President Joe Biden's son bought in 2018 when prosecutors say he was in the throes of a crack cocaine addiction.  The jurors had deliberated for less than an hour on Monday afternoon before leaving the federal courthouse in Delaware. They are weighing whether Hunter Biden is guilty of three felonies in the case pitting him against his father's Justice Department in the middle of the Democratic president's reelection campaign.  Prosecutors spent last week using testimony from Hunter Biden's ex-wife and former girlfriends, photos of him with drug paraphernalia and other tawdry evidence to make the case that he lied when he checked "no" on the form at the gun shop that asked whether he was "an unlawful user of, or addicted to" drugs.  "He knew he was using drugs. That's what the evidence shows. And he knew he was addicted to drugs. That's what the evidence shows," prosecutor Leo Wise told jurors in his closing argument Monday.  Hunter Biden's substance abuse struggles after the 2015 death of his brother, Beau, are well documented. But the defense has argued that he did not consider himself an "addict" when he bought the gun.  Hunter Biden's lawyers have sought to show he was trying to turn his life around at the time, having completed a rehabilitation program at the end of August 2018. The defense called three witnesses, including Hunter's daughter Naomi, who told jurors that he seemed be improving in the weeks before he bought the gun.  And the defense told jurors that no one witnessed Hunter Biden using drugs during the 11 days he had the gun before Beau's widow, Hallie, found it in Hunter's truck and threw it in a trash can. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell suggested that prosecutors were presenting circumstantial evidence like a magician might present a card trick, trying to get jurors to focus on one hand and ignore the other.  "With my last breath in this case, I ask for the only verdict that will hold the prosecutors to what the law requires of them" — a verdict of not guilty, Lowell said in his final pitch to jurors.  But prosecutors have shown jurors text messages sent in the days after the gun purchase in which Hunter Biden told Hallie he was waiting for a dealer and smoking crack. Hallie and Hunter briefly dated after Beau's death. Prosecutors have also said they found cocaine residue on the pouch in which Hallie put the gun before tossing it in a trash can outside an upscale grocery store.  First lady Jill Biden, the president's brother James and other family members watched from the first row of the courtroom as the defense rested its case on Monday without calling Hunter Biden to the witness stand. The first lady has been in court almost every day since the trial began last week.  Before the case went to the jury, the prosecutor urged jurors to focus on the "overwhelming" evidence against Hunter Biden and pay no mind to members of the president's family sitting in the courtroom.  "All of this is not evidence," Wise said, extending his hand and directing the jury to look at the gallery. "People sitting in the gallery are not evidence."  The defense has tried to poke holes in the case by pressing the prosecution's witnesses on their recollection of certain events. Hunter Biden's lawyer told jurors they should consider testimony from Hallie and another ex-girlfriend "with great care and caution," noting their immunity agreements with prosecutors in exchange for their testimony.  The proceedings have played out in the president's home state, where Hunter Biden grew up and where the family is deeply established. Joe Biden spent 36 years as a senator in Delaware, commuting daily to Washington, and Beau Biden was the state's attorney general.  Hunter Biden did not testify but jurors repeatedly heard his voice when prosecutors played audio excerpts of his 2021 memoir "Beautiful Things," in which he talks about hitting bottom after Beau's death, and descending into drugs and alcohol before his eventual sobriety in 2019.  Hunter Biden had hoped last year to resolve a long-running federal investigation into his business dealings under a deal with prosecutors that would have avoided the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. Under the deal, he would have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses in California and avoided prosecution in the gun case in Delaware if he stayed out of trouble for two years.  But the deal fell apart after U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was nominated by Trump, questioned unusual aspects of the proposed agreement, and the lawyers could not resolve the matter.  Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed top investigator David Weiss, Delaware's U.S. attorney, as a special counsel last August, and a month later Hunter Biden was indicted.  Hunter Biden has said he was charged because the Justice Department bowed to pressure from Republicans who argued the Democratic president's son was getting special treatment.  Under that deal, prosecutors would have recommended two years of probation. In the gun case, the three counts carry up to 25 years in prison, though the sentence would ultimately be up to the judge and it's unclear whether she would put him behind bars if he's convicted. s report. 

A drone equipped with a painting hose is being deployed against stubborn graffiti in hard-to-reach areas. Natasha Mozgovaya has more in this week’s episode of LogOn.

The destruction of the Kakhovka dam a year ago [June 2023] in southern Ukraine put the water supply of hundreds of thousands of people at risk, including residents of Kushuhum in the Zaporizhzhia region. With the region now in Ukrainian hands, Kushuhum officials say people are returning to their homes and making water issues worse. Eva Myronova has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Oleksadnr Oliynyk  

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

hong kong — A Chinese American writer living in Germany is delighted that a dance-drama adaptation of one of her novels is set to be performed on stage in China this month. Yet she can't help noticing that the homeland she left 35 years ago seems to have mixed feelings about her and her work. Many of Yan Geling's achievements that were documented across the Chinese internet over the past 10 to 15 years on digital news outlets and social media platforms seem to be gone or difficult to find, she told VOA Mandarin this week. The Flowers of War was published first as a novella in 2007 and then expanded into a novel in 2011. It depicts a group of young women in 1937 taking shelter in a church and attempting to resist the Japanese occupation in Nanking. She approved the book's adaptation for a dance-drama, which was written by Feng Shuangbai. The theatrical show is directed by Lang Kun. Their two names appear on the Chinese internet and are credited in conjunction with the upcoming Chengdu performance, but Yan’s name is not included. Yan said she first noticed about two years ago that large swaths of information about her life and her work were no longer accessible on the Chinese internet. This followed her online WeChat criticism of Chinese authorities' pandemic response and a broadcast interview in which she questioned Xi Jinping's leadership. During a high-profile 2022 incident, a mentally disturbed woman was photographed unlawfully detained and chained in a semiderelict building in Xuzhou city. She said that before 2022, much information about her and her work could be found on the Chinese internet on popular platforms such as Baidu Baike, the Chinese equivalent of Wikipedia. "Since I criticized Xi Jinping, it is as if I don't exist," Yan told VOA by phone this week from Berlin. "I'm completely removed from all search engines, and my name no longer exists. I think this whole thing is ridiculous." VOA reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comment. The embassy declined to comment, saying it was not "aware of the specifics." The dance-drama is scheduled to be performed June 21 in Chengdu city at the CDHT CPAA Grand Theater, according to the city's culture office. The play was first performed in China in March 2023 in Yangzhou city, according to the culture office of Yangzhou. Hengqing Henry Li, a U.S.-based independent economist who was a student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement in China, told VOA Mandarin that he noticed about 10 years ago that basic and nonpolitical information previously available about him on the Chinese internet was no longer there. For example, 10 years ago, he could find and read news accounts about a scientific paper he wrote as a high school student that won a top prize in Beijing. In recent years, he hasn't been able to find those news articles. "I just disappeared from the Chinese ordinary people's world," Li said. The New York Times reported this week that a recent review of content published and posted on the Chinese internet from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s showed much material previously available was gone. Searching the popular site Baidu Baike recently for information posted during that time frame about well-known tycoons Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, and Pony Ma, chief executive officer of Tencent, turned up little compared with searches in recent years. Previously, information about the early career work of Xi in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, before he became China's top leader, was available on Baidu Baike, but the paper said that was not the case now. Frank Tian Xie, a professor of business at the University of South Carolina-Aiken, told VOA it's likely that the Cyberspace Administration of China has asked and instructed internet service providers in China to erase and reduce access to information about Xi that is related to and was posted before he rose to top power in the nation. This indicates that the authorities' online internet supervision has been tightened, Xie said. "Some information was acceptable to Xi before he came to power, but now the Chinese Communist Party doesn't want people to see it again. The CCP authorities are now unwilling to admit and accept some of the practices and statements they made in the past. Some domestic and foreign policies might not have been a problem before, but now they feel embarrassed about them," he said. Two other examples of inconsistent national policy that authorities apparently are seeking to minimize public access to, Xie said, are related to childbirth and elder care. China now encourages childbirth, contrary to years ago when it promoted a one-child policy. China for decades touted its state-sponsored elder care services, but now encourages children to care for their elderly parents and family members. Xie said that if citizens had historical data, they could easily find inconsistencies in Chinese national policies. Yan said her livelihood has been harmed by her lower profile on the internet because it makes it more difficult to collect royalties for original writing and creative work. Yet she said she has no regrets about sharing her views publicly to, she hopes, help inform citizens. Working and writing without censorship is an important principle, she said. "I have to say it," Yan told VOA. "Otherwise, I feel that, in the last stage of my life, I will regret not saying what I wanted and feel ashamed." Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

BEIJING — Chinese police say a suspect is in custody in a stabbing attack on four instructors from Iowa's Cornell College who were teaching at a Chinese university in the northeast city of Jilin. Jilin city police said a 55-year old man surnamed Cui was walking in a public park when he had bumped into a foreigner. He then stabbed the foreigner and three other foreigners who were with him, and a Chinese person who approached in an attempt to intervene. The victims included four instructors from Cornell College teaching at Beihua University in northeastern China, officials at the U.S. school and the State Department said. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday that the injured were rushed to a hospital for treatment, and that none was in critical condition Cornell College President Jonathan Brand said in a statement that the instructors were attacked while at the park with a faculty member from Beihua, which is in an outlying part of Jilin, an industrial city about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of Beijing. Monday was a public holiday in China. The State Department said in a statement it was aware of reports of a stabbing and was monitoring the situation. The attack happened as both Beijing and Washington are seeking to expand people-to-people exchanges to help bolster relations amid tensions over trade and such international issues as Taiwan, the South China Sea and the war in Ukraine. An Iowa state lawmaker posted a statement on Instagram saying his brother, David Zabner, had been wounded during a stabbing attack in Jilin. Rep. Adam Zabner described his brother as a doctoral student at Tufts University who was in China under the Cornell-Beihua relationship. "I spoke to David a few minutes ago, he is recovering from his injuries and doing well," Adam Zabner wrote, adding that his brother was grateful for the care he received at a hospital. News of the incident was suppressed in China, where the government maintains control on information about anything considered sensitive. News media outlets had not reported it. Some social media accounts posted foreign media reports about the attack, but a hashtag about it was blocked on a popular portal and photos and video of the incident were quickly taken down. Cornell spokesperson Jen Visser said in an email that the college was still gathering information about what happened. Visser said the private college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, partners with Beihua University. A college news release from 2018, when the program started, says Beihua provides funding for Cornell professors to travel to China to teach a portion of courses in computer science, mathematics and physics over a two-week period. According to a 2020 post on Beihua's website, the Chinese university uses American teaching methods and resources to give engineering students an international perspective and English-language ability. About one-third of the core courses in the program use U.S. textbooks and are taught by American professors, according to the post. Students can apply to study for two years of their four-year education at Cornell College and receive degrees from both institutions. Chinese President Xi Jinping has unveiled a plan to invite 50,000 young Americans to China in the next five years, though Chinese diplomats say a travel advisory by the U.S. State Department has discouraged Americans from visiting China. Citing arbitrary detentions as well as exit bans that could prevent Americans from leaving the country, the State Department has issued a Level 3 travel advisory — the second-highest warning level — for mainland China. It urges Americans to "reconsider travel" to China. Some American universities have suspended their China programs due to the travel advisory. Lin, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said China has taken effective measures to protect the safety of foreigners. "We believe that the isolated incident will not disrupt normal cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries," he said.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Sydney — Bird flu continues to spread in the Australian state of Victoria, where more than 500,000 chickens have been euthanized.  Strict quarantine zones restricting the movement of birds and equipment have also been put in place.  Australian health authorities say bird flu spreads mainly among wild water birds. The highly pathogenic H7N3 strain of avian influenza has been found on four farms, while another virus, H7N9, has been detected at a fifth property over the past seven weeks in Victoria state.  The Australian farms have been put into lockdown.  At least 580,000 birds have been destroyed as part of sweeping biosecurity controls. Japan and the United States have temporarily banned imports of poultry from Victoria as a precaution. In Australia, some supermarkets are restricting the number of eggs that consumers can buy because of disruptions to the supply chain. Avian influenza is a viral disease found across the world. It spreads between birds or when contaminated animal feed and equipment is moved between areas. Danyel Cucinotta is the vice president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, an industry group.  She told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.  Tuesday that the virus can spread quickly. “There is very little we can do and no matter how good your biosecurity is you cannot stop wild fowl coming in. This is a particular flight path for migratory birds.  There is housing orders at the moment, which means all birds get locked up.  This is about protecting our birds and protecting the food supply chain,” she said. The strains of bird flu identified in the states of Victoria and Western Australia can infect people, but experts insist that cases are rare. The virus can also infect cows.  The United States’ Department of Agriculture has said that avian flu has infected dairy cows in more than 80 herds across several states since late March. At least three U.S. dairy workers have tested positive for bird flu after exposure to infected cattle.  All three patients are recovering.   The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the infections do not change its assessment that bird flu is a low risk to the general community and that it has not seen evidence of human-to-human transmission. Last month, health authorities in Mexico confirmed a fatal case of human infection with an avian flu virus that had been reported in poultry.

Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwanese photographer Lin Jai-hang never thought a seemingly routine business trip to China would turn into a 12-hour detention at a Chinese police station. Lin, who has published several books documenting the lives of gay men, said he was supposed to promote his works at a book fair in China’s Nanjing City on May 31. But less than half an hour after he began to set up his booth, seven or eight strangers came up to start taking photos of his books and soon they called the police to take Lin away.   “The police first went back to my hotel room for another round of search and took me and a staff from the book fair to the police station,” Lin told VOA in a phone interview, adding that the police told him he would be detained for 24 hours for “spreading obscene images.” “They took away my phone, put me in handcuffs, performed a strip search on me, and collected my fingerprints and blood samples,” he said.  During the questioning, the police asked Lin a series of personal questions, including his sexual orientation, details about his family, why he photographed gay men, and why he decided to join the book fair. “The police then sent me back to a room and I was detained for several hours with other people,” Lin recalled. He was eventually released around midnight, but the police confiscated most of his works. “They told me that I was detained because the subjects of my works aren’t appropriate for public display,” he told VOA, adding that the police took away anything related to LGBTQ topics.   Lin isn’t the only Taiwanese briefly detained in China in recent weeks. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which oversees cross-strait relations, revealed on June 6 that a Taiwanese citizen was taken away by Chinese police and detained for several days while traveling with a tour group in the southern province of Fujian. The council’s spokesperson Liang Wen-jie said this is the first time a member of a Taiwanese tour group was detained in China and the individual, whose identity remains undisclosed, was released a few days after his tour group returned to Taiwan. Chiu Chui-cheng, the head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, urged Taiwanese people to be aware of their safety and carefully assess the potential risks if they plan to travel to China, Hong Kong, or Macau.   The Chinese government hasn’t publicly commented on the two cases and VOA has reached out to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which manages cross-strait relations, for comment. Increased security risks The detentions come as China passed a series of laws aimed at safeguarding national security since last year. Last July, China revised its anti-espionage law that gives authorities more power to punish what they view as threats to national security. In March, China’s rubber-stamp parliament vowed to adopt several security-related laws in 2024.  Some analysts say the detention of the two Taiwanese reflects China’s growing concern about Taiwan potentially pursuing independence under President Lai Ching-te’s leadership and Beijing’s attempt to stop this trend. “Beijing’s efforts to enact a series of new laws related to national security show that they believe it’s necessary to roll out more forceful measures to safeguard their core interests,” said Hung Chin-fu, a political scientist at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan.    Against this backdrop, other experts say Taiwanese people will face greater risks when traveling to China. “With the counter-espionage law and the national security law, there has been an expansion in the range of activities that could bring in law enforcement action in [China,]” Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told VOA in a written response. In his view, citizens from countries or places that have higher tension with China may face higher risks of being targeted by Chinese law enforcement. “See the earlier detentions of Australians [and] Canadians,” Chong said, adding that this means Taiwanese people will also face greater risks in China as tensions between Beijing and Taipei continue to rise. Hung in Taiwan thinks this trend will create a chilling effect in Taiwan and deter some Taiwanese from traveling to China. “Since there is almost no guarantee of personal safety, any Taiwanese person thinking about traveling to China needs to carefully assess whether it’s worth taking the risks or not,” Hung said. Some Taiwanese activists say the two recent cases reflect the lack of transparency to know where the red lines are,” said Lee Ming-che, a Taiwanese activist sentenced to five years in prison on subversion charges in 2017 by a Chinese court. Taiwanese photographer Lin said the experience has convinced him that the risks of traveling to China are simply too high for artists like him, who focus on subjects considered inappropriate by the Chinese authorities. “I don’t think I will consider traveling to China anytime soon because I’m worried I could be targeted if they arrest me under a different crime,” he told VOA, adding that his experience makes him believe that China is an unfriendly place to LGBTQ artists like him. As China prepares to hold the annual Straits Forum in the coastal city of Xiamen on June 15, Hung thinks both sides of the Taiwan Strait are unlikely to reduce the increasingly heightened tension through the meeting. “While China will try to continue influencing some Taiwanese people who favor deepening cross-strait exchanges, the effect of their influence campaign will be limited because the overall trend of cross-strait relations is still deteriorating,” he told VOA. “A new Cold War is forming between the Chinese government and the Taiwanese government under the leadership of the pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive Party,” Hung said.