The summit was one topic in a virtual meeting between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, which also addressed the US-Japan military alliance and China’s growing nuclear arsenal.

Amid criticism, members of Biden’s administration try to make the case that there have been successes and that Donald Trump left them with multiple challenges.

Department of Justice admits that it cannot prove its case, which was brought as part of its initiative to stop scientists from sharing sensitive technology with China.

Washington has moved slowly in regulating digital currency, while Beijing recently banned it outright, introducing a state-led version under direct government control.

Dropping prosecution of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor would be a high-profile setback for the Justice Department’s China Initiative.

Senior diplomat Huang Ping tells executives that trade links have always been the cornerstone of US-China relationship.

Federal jury in Boston reaches verdict in case of Professor Charles Lieber after less than three hours of deliberation.

Nanotechnologist Charles Lieber is on trial for tax evasion in a case brought by the Justice Department’s China Initiative, which is meant to cut down on trade-secret theft.

Prosecution of nanotechnologist Charles Lieber stems from US Justice Department’s ‘China Initiative’, which was set up to help stop tech theft but has drawn fire for overreach.

His lawyer suggests that what nanotechnologist Charles Lieber is accused of doing is just normal practice for professors with overseas ties.

Asian-American groups hope the trial and resulting publicity will help put an end to the programme, which was started in 2018 to stem the loss of scientific secrets to China.

The initiative aims to develop a common policy governing the export of technologies that help autocratic states spread cyber disinformation and surveil their citizens.

‘This is an urgent matter on all our parts,’ US president tells virtual gathering of more than 100 nations.

Beijing has condemned the event and expressed particular anger that Taiwan is among its 110 invitees.

‘Given the distance that China has come militarily in the last 20 years, we have to be clear eyed about the challenge we now face,’ said US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth.

A core strategy, say military experts, is to raise the cost of US defence of Taiwan by consolidating the Chinese grip over contested South China Sea islands.

Lower-level meetings that once yielded progress are less effective since Xi has consolidated power, according to Indo-Pacific affairs coordinator Kurt Campbell.

Former officers who served in the Indo-Pacific call for the US to make its defence intentions clear in hopes of deterring an attack by mainland China.

US-China Economic and Security Review Commission takes hard line, with chair saying ‘the Chinese government deepened its embrace of aggression … and coercion’.

After an annual session decried as acrimonious, Fiji’s ambassador in Geneva rejects the charge that the council is polarised.

A report by the Pentagon highlights growing concern in Washington about Beijing’s rush to build more nuclear weapons and other cutting-edge military technologies.

More than 90 per cent of researchers agreed their Chinese colleagues made important contributions to research and training.

‘President Xi has chosen not to attend these summits. He‘s chosen not to leave China at all in calendar year 2021,’ National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says; Joe Biden has yet to meet face-to-face with Xi since becoming US president and wants to by year’s end.

‘Taiwan being blocked for participation in nearly all of the UN activities creates an immense cost,’ said Rick Waters, the US State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for China, Taiwan and Mongolia.

US ambassador to China nominee Nicholas Burns says Beijing has weaknesses that Washington can use to its advantage, including the growing global pushback over its behaviour.

Despite ‘wearying’ US prodding to the contrary, and shared economic and military concerns, Brussels is determined to plough an independent furrow on China.

‘We see today the patterns, the choices, playing out around the world, even as we speak – the oppression and use of forced labour of the Uygurs in Xinjiang,’ said US President Joe Biden.

Analysts said as China becomes increasingly assertive in the UN, and the US pushes back, issues on the Human Rights Council are likely to to fuel more trans-Pacific tensions, although some questioned how far this would go beyond words.