Bloomberg - Alberto Nardelli / Europe Hits China With Medical Devices Probe Ahead of Xi’s Visit
 

• The European Union launched an investigation into China’s procurement of medical devices, the latest in a spate of actions that are raising tension ahead of President Xi Jinping’s first visit to the bloc in five years. 

• The probe was formally announced Wednesday morning Beijing time and will seek to address concerns that China unfairly favors domestic suppliers. 

• The EU already has an inquiry into Chinese government backing for electric-car manufacturers that could lead to new tariffs, and it’s scrutinizing other industries like wind energy, solar and railways. 

• EU relations with Beijing have been deteriorating over the past year and more, as Europe becomes more assertive in responding to China’s trade policies. European leaders have pushed back against China’s surge in manufacturing capacity, its massive trade surplus and its support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

   

SCMP - Khushboo Razdan / US Senate passes bill to force ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban of the app
 

• The US Congress took a decisive step late Tuesday to force ByteDance, the Chinese owner of popular social media app TikTok, to divest its US operations within a year or potentially face a nationwide ban. 

• The sell-or-be-banned measure cleared the US Senate by a margin of 79-18, garnering strong bipartisan support by including the legislation in a broader foreign-aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan worth US$95.3 billion. 

• “Congress has passed my legislation to strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of American leadership: we stand resolutely for democracy and freedom, and against tyranny and oppression,” US President Joe Biden said after final passage. 

• Biden has vowed to sign the bill into law Wednesday – even though his campaign joined TikTok to court young voters ahead of a presumed rematch for the White House this fall with his predecessor, Donald Trump.

   

Financial Times - Sam Jones / German staffer in EU parliament arrested on China spying charges

• Police have arrested a staffer working for a German far-right member of the European parliament on charges of spying for Beijing, the latest alleged Chinese agent to be unmasked in a trend alarming security authorities across the continent. 

• Jian Guo, an employee of Maximilian Krah, was accused by Germany’s federal prosecutor on Tuesday of being covertly employed by China’s Ministry of State Security. 

• Several alleged Chinese spies have been revealed to occupy high-level parliamentary positions in Europe, including in the UK and Belgium, prompting heightened concern over Beijing’s increasingly aggressive attempts at political subterfuge. 

• At the same time, German intelligence services have in recent weeks warned of a deteriorating security situation, with both China and Russia increasing their efforts as they seek to gain economic and technological advantages from, and political influence over, Europe’s largest economy.

   

The Washington Post - Ishaan Tharoor / The U.S. is in retreat in a crucial part of the world
 

• For boosters of U.S. security interests in Africa, the past few days carried grim tidings. At the end of last week, the United States informed the coup-plotting leadership of Niger that it would comply with its request to withdraw U.S. forces from the country, which had been operating in a counterterrorism role there for more than half a decade. 

• Around the same time, reports emerged that authorities in Chad had sent a letter this month to the U.S. defense attaché based there, ordering the United States to cease activities at a base that also accommodates French troops. 

• The potential withdrawal of a detachment of U.S. Special Forces based in Chad would mark yet another blow for the Western security presence in the Sahel — the vast arid region that stretches below the Sahara desert that has seen a wave of coups in recent years toppling fragile Central and West African governments. 

• Chad is slated to stage elections in May, and the orders to the United States may amount to a bit of nationalist preening by the country’s vulnerable interim leadership.

Our opinion reads for today:

• Project Syndicate - Laurence Boone and Nicu Popescu / Europe’s Red Tape Is Helping Russia 
• The New York Times - Elisabetta Povoledo and Jason Horowitz / Italy’s New Abortion Law Is a Lesson in How Meloni Governs