The US cannot “get tough” with China because it depends on it for a modern way of life, Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has said, asserting that Washington needs to declare economic independence from Beijing.

The 38-year-old multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur made the comment on Wednesday during the Republican Party’s third presidential debate in Miami, Florida.

Indian-American presidential candidate Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott participated in the debate. Former US president Donald Trump, who is leading the race, did not participate in the debate again.

“Here’s why we can’t get tough with China. It’s because we depend on them for our modern way of life. And we have to declare economic independence from our enemy,” Mr Ramaswamy said.

“That’s the Declaration of Independence that Thomas Jefferson, at the age of 33, would have signed. And today, if he were alive, that’s the Declaration of Independence that I will sign as the next president,” Mr Ramaswamy said in response to a question.

Underlining that the actual defence industrial base of the US depends on China for the supply chain, he said, “For the F-35 jets, for the ships that we’re building. Think about this. Why are we stockpiling that if it isn’t to actually be strong against our enemy, China? We depend on them for that. Just like we depend on them for pharmaceuticals. Just like we depend on them for semiconductors.” 

“We need politicians who are independent of the forces that increase our dependence on China. My message to Xi Jinping is this, you are done buying land in this country. You will not donate to universities in this country. US businesses won’t expand into the Chinese market until you play by the same set of rules,” Mr Ramaswamy said.

He added that the US needs to increase its naval capacity by at least 20 per cent over the next several years.

“I think we have to, at minimum, be able to meet our AUKUS agreement standards. Right now, we are at risk of not even being able to meet our AUKUS standards with Australia and the UK. So, what we need to do is have a plan that reverses the trajectory of the divest to invest programme by 20 per cent over the next three years,” he said.

The AUKUS pact is a trilateral alliance between the UK, the US and Australia, seen as a counter to an aggressive China in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.

During the debate, Mr Ramaswamy alleged that fellow Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Haley called China a great friend of America while serving as the US Ambassador to the UN, “When she was UN Ambassador, called them literally her words, not my, ‘Our great friend’. You can’t be fair-weather fans of the right policy. Get to the root cause. Even US companies in Silicon Valley are regularly doing it,” he said.

Haley denied the allegations.

“When he talks about me praising China, he doesn’t know the fact that the reason China was praised was because I negotiated with China and Russia the largest set of sanctions against North Korea in a generation,” she said.

“That is literally the reason North Korea stopped testing ballistic missiles. So, I said China did good on their part. That was a negotiation you could never — had fought against China my entire career at the United Nations,” she added.

“You’ve brought them to South Carolina. … Look at the actual hard facts. You brought them to this country,” Mr Ramaswamy alleged.

“..By making sure no one could get any agency heads in the UN. I did it by making sure that we called them out on human rights. I did it by making sure that we held them accountable for everything that they did. That’s the reason we got out of the Human Rights Council. That’s the reason we called them out,” Ms Haley said in defence.

The two Indian Americans clashed on the debate stage multiple times. It started when Ramaswamy called Haley, former US vice president Dick Cheney in three-inch heels. The former South Carolina governor was the only woman on the debate stage.

“You have the likes of Nikki Haley, who stepped down from her time at the UN, bankrupt or in debt is — was her family. Then, she becomes a military contractor. She joins the board of Boeing and otherwise. And is now a multi-millionaire. So I think that that’s wrong when Republicans do it or Democrats do it. That’s the choice we face,” he alleged.

“Do you want a leader from a different generation who’s going to put this country first, or do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels?” Mr Ramaswamy said.

Haley blasted Mr Ramaswamy when her turn came soon thereafter.

“Yes. I’d first like to say they’re five-inch heels, and I don’t wear them unless you can run in them. The second thing that I will say is: that I wear heels. They’re not for a fashion statement. They’re for ammunition,” Ms Haley said amidst cheers from the audience.

She also blasted Mr Ramaswamy, asking him not to bring her daughters into the debate.

Mr Ramaswamy mentioned her daughter during the portion of the debate that discussed the ban on TikTok.

“I want to laugh at why Nikki Haley didn’t answer your question, which is about looking at families in the eye. In the last debate, she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok, while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time. So, you might want to take care of your family first before preaching to anybody else,” he said.

“Leave my daughter out of your voice,” a furious Ms Haley responded.

“Adult daughter,” Ramaswamy said as he was booed. “And that’s actually the point. You have her supporters propping her up. That’s fine. Here is the truth,” he said.

Talking about the multiple bills signed in August by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis prohibiting Chinese citizens from purchasing land in the state, Mr Ramaswamy said, “Bring in the CCP to South Carolina. What he left out though, Ron, and to be honest about it, there was a lobbying-based exemption in that bill that allowed Chinese nationals to buy land within a 20-mile radius of a military base lobbied for by one of your donors. So, I think we have to call a spade a spade.” Ramaswamy also asserted that his administration would ban any US company from transferring data to the Chinese.

“Here is a story most people don’t know. Airbnb hands over US user data to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Now, that’s a US-owned company. So, this is the problem when you have Republicans that temporarily go the way the winds blow, and now it’s popular to talk tough on China,” he said.

Speaking about Tiktok, he said, “Cut the virtue signalling. The fact of the matter is Democrats are on TikTok today. The only person, one of the few people who is putting up content the way the actual algorithms work, speaking for pro-Israel views or others, is me.” 

To counter the rising air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR), the Delhi government is planning to use artificial rain through cloud seeding. The mechanism is being developed by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur.  Environment Minister Gopal Rai met with a team from IIT Kanpur on November 8 to discuss the implementation of the cloud seeding. He informed that Delhi might experience artificial rainfall if the skies of the city remain cloudy on November 20-21.

Professor Manindra Agrawal from Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur shared some insights on the working and implementation of the process.

“IIT Kanpur has its own aircraft that has been attached with flares for implementing cloud seeding. We have also received approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the flares and aircraft. We can now carry on with the process of cloud seeding to create artificial rain wherever possible,” said Prof Agrawal.

“IIT Kanpur has been working and planning in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the past two months to introduce measures and steps for curbing air pollution in the national capital region with the help of cloud seeding,” said Prof Agarwal. “The Delhi government has recently reached out to the institute multiple times to seek help for creating artificial rain in the city,” he said.

Talking about the efficiency of the process, the professor added, “Countering or controlling pollution through cloud seeding is not a permanent solution. It is a temporary process and lasts for a maximum of two weeks. The dust particles present in the atmosphere are washed away in the artificial rains created and gets settled in the soil making the environment pollution-free. The process will result in a temporary relief to the people. Also, the artificial rains can be formed only at places where clouds are present. To eliminate pollution permanently from the atmosphere, we must try and work on introducing measures to counter the sources of pollution in the atmosphere.”

The Delhi NCR region is spread over an area of more than 1,000 square kilometres, he said. The institute will therefore require to do cloud seeding in a very large area. He also explained that creation of artificial rains depends on the presence and kind of clouds in a region which is not under human control. The cost of the entire process is quite expensive as the aircraft charges, its fuel maintenance, flares are a bit costly.
 

In the two years before the war in Ukraine, a private Boeing 737 linked to Russian oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov criss-crossed the globe, taking in the French Riviera, the Maldives and Seychelles along with world capitals and financial centres.

This year, instead of traditional playgrounds of the well-heeled, the jet has visited ex-Soviet states Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Belarus a handful of times, along with China, flight tracking data by Flightradar24 shows.

In a sign of both the limitations and reach of Western sanctions in place since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, some of Russia’s rich and powerful are finding ways to keep personal jets airborne, Reuters reporting shows, but the restrictions have sharply curtailed where the planes can travel.

The Boeing linked to Yevtushenkov was among at least 50 private jets re-registered under the Russian flag since the February 2022 invasion, according to previously unreported national aircraft registry data up to early August reviewed by Reuters.

Several of the repatriated private jets were associated with prominent politicians and business figures, according to two senior Russian aviation industry sources, who were not authorised to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The two sources said Yevtushenkov personally used the Boeing-737, which until last year bore the logo of the company he founded, telecoms-to-timber conglomerate AFK Sistema, pictures on website Jetphotos show.

Yevtushenkov said he would not respond to questions about the aircraft, including whether he uses the plane. Yevtushenkov formally ceded control of Sistema after the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on him last year. He remains the main shareholder of the group.

Russia’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, and the Ministry of Transport did not respond to requests for comment. There is no suggestion companies associated with the planes have contravened any sanctions with the repatriations or ongoing flights.

SOME JETS ARE STRANDED

Jurisdictions including Aruba and the Isle of Man, where some of the jets were previously registered, observe the Western sanctions. That had made it hard to get insurance, fuel and permits for Russian-owned planes flying under their flags, one of the sources said.

Putting the planes under the Russian flag allows them to fly to and from nations that have not imposed a flight ban or where individual travellers are not sanctioned, including Turkey and Dubai.

Despite such manoeuvres, more than half of Russia’s private and corporate jet fleet of around 400 remains stranded abroad or has been sold, the same source estimated, based on his extensive knowledge of the sector.

The total number of business jets under the Russian flag is now 145, up from 97 as of early March 2022, according to the list.

Because of sanctions, Russian planes are prohibited from entering the 27-country European Union, where Russia’s oligarchs previously flew frequently for business and leisure and where many private jets linked to them were registered before the war, tail numbers show.

Both aviation sources, who organise and manage business jets, said some jet owners are flying from Russia to Turkey or ex-Soviet states and then chartering different aircraft to EU airports, providing the individuals were not under personal sanctions.

Examples of this practice happen at least once a week, one of the sources added, without giving specific examples.

According to customs data, some of the repatriated aircraft are linked to state enterprises and business leaders who have backed President Vladimir Putin in the war in Ukraine or who are associated with him.

They include a Bombardier Challenger 650 the data shows was imported by Uralkali, a major fertiliser producer formerly led by Dmitry Mazepin – among the tycoons who attended a gathering of leading entrepreneurs led by Putin earlier this year.

A Bombardier Global 6000 was imported by VEB.RF, a state-owned development bank led by Igor Shuvalov, a former first deputy prime minister.

VEB, Uralkali and Mazepin did not respond to requests for comment on the registration of the jets in Russia.

The customs data shows that most private aircraft repatriated after the outbreak of the war returned to Russia from ex-Soviet countries as well as from the UAE and Turkey.

As in the case of the Boeing linked to Yevtushenkov, the other re-registered aircraft have avoided crossing into EU airspace and have kept to countries considered friendly to Russia, Flightradar24 data shows.

CLIPPED WINGS

In December 2021, the Boeing was photographed on the tarmac in Prague, bearing the Aruba-flagged registration P4-AFK, a picture on website Jetphotos shows. The plane sported grey stripes, along with the Sistema logo on its tail.

Just over a year later, after the war had started, the plane appeared in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, according to a photo on Jetphotos. The tail number had changed to the Russian registration RA-73890 and the Sistema logo had been removed.

But the engine covers still bore the identification P4-AFK and the grey stripes remained.

Sistema declined to comment on the plane or its ownership. The United States added Sistema to its sanctions list on Nov. 2.

Between early 2020 and the invasion of Ukraine, which Russian officials call a “special military operation”, P4-AFK made multiple trips to Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the Maldives, and one each to Croatia, the Czech Republic and the Seychelles, Flightradar24 data shows.

It also travelled 105 times in Russia, 17 in France, eight in Italy, the United Arab Emirates and Latvia, five in Britain and four in Turkey.

After the invasion began, the plane flew between airports in Turkey, UAE, Oman and Kazakhstan for the remainder of 2022, never crossing into EU territory. It made only 14 trips during that period.

According to Russia’s aircraft registry, published on Rosaviatsiya’s website in August, the jet was registered under the Russian flag in late December.

Customs data shows it was officially imported to Russia on Dec. 30 from Bishkek, the capital of ex-Soviet member Kyrgyzstan, after which its flights have been largely limited to Russia.

So far in 2023, it has flown 47 times within Russia and a combined nine times to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and China.