James Kynge

That is, of course, China's spy ministry.

And this is over a massive cyber espionage campaign that was being waged by a group called Salt Typhoon and other advanced persistent threat groups.

groups.

These are called APT groups that the U.S.

believes has been responsible for targeting United States infrastructure and government agencies and really hacking the phones of many high-level individuals in the United States through U.S.

telecoms networks.

And so

This was a really big cause for concern in the U.S.

all the way from 2019 until now.

And now the Trump administration is saying that it wants to, well, halt the plans to impose sanctions on the Ministry of State Security.

Of course,

It could go back on that.

It could change its mind.

But at the moment, that seems to be potentially part of this softening towards China ahead of Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping in April.

And perhaps because, you know, the U.S.

is now taking a softer tone on China altogether.

Well, I mean, they say that two things in life are certain, death and taxes.

And I also think it's the case that you can really see what a country intends for its people by looking how it taxes them.

So although the authorities in China have not said that this tax on contraceptives, including condoms, is part of its pro-natal policies, it certainly looks like that because it's

there will be value added tax imposed on condoms and other contraceptives up to the usual 13% from next year.