Don't let America's enemies use defamation lawsuits as proxy warfare. by Wesley Alexander Hill, opinion contributor - 10/13/26 10:00 AM ET Expectations for the September summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump were low and were largely met. The meeting produced a few modest agreements, including additional economic talks and new channels for discussing artificial intelligence and preventing military crises, but the fundamental disputes between Washington and Beijing remain unresolved. This is no surprise. A stalemate was widely predicted, and few incentives exist for compromise right now. This doesn't mean the competition will stop. Instead, it will migrate. Domestic stalemates tend to empower the courts. International stalemates increasingly do the same. International lawfare is nothing new, and China has become particularly adept at using legal mechanisms as an instrument of statecraft. As Washington and Beijing settle into prolonged strategic competition, American courts will inevitably become another arena where both sides seek leverage. Chinese entities are already testing the limits of American jurisprudence. Chinese automaker BYD sued both the Alliance for American Manufacturing and VICE Media for defamation. More recently, Chinese semiconductor company Yangtze Memory Technologies sued the Danish firm Strand Consult over allegedly false and damaging statements. Each case stemmed from allegations that the companies were cooperating with the Chinese government. Courts dismissed all three cases. Now, a lawsuit brought by Azerbaijan against CNN offers an early glimpse of what full-blown sovereign international lawfare in American courts could look like. Azerbaijan has sued CNN in federal court over a June report alleging that Israel had used Azerbaijani territory for military and intelligence operations against Iran. Azerbaijan says the allegations were false, relied on anonymous sources and ignored the government's denials before publication. Azerbaijan argues that CNN's reporting created a national security threat, exposing the country and its citizens to retaliation. Iran had already attacked Azerbaijan in March. CNN has stood by its reporting. Azerbaijan is asking an American court to consider whether a sovereign entity can seek damages when false reporting produces concrete security consequences. The complaint acknowledges this as a novel legal question - a test case. American courts have historically been deeply skeptical of U.S. state and federal government agencies and offices using defamation law against their domestic critics, particularly the press. Whether the U.S. legal system distinguishes between criticism of a government by its own citizens and allegations about a foreign sovereign state made by an American media organization remains an open question. Azerbaijan's argument invites courts to distinguish between domestic and foreign government plaintiffs. Azerbaijan may have a legitimate grievance. However, if American courts recognize a foreign sovereign's ability to bring such claims against the U.S. press, they will create a mechanism available not only to Azerbaijan. A precedent permitting a foreign government to sue American media organizations over alleged national security damage could easily be invoked by Beijing, Chinese state-owned enterprises or other state-linked entities. China itself could argue that false reporting about its activities caused measurable economic or national security harm. Beijing could then seek to turn what was previously a political dispute into a legal proceeding. The lawsuit would not have to succeed to cause damage. The United States has spent years building its China policy around executive orders. Congress has often responded after the fact, leaving the courts to interpret an increasingly complicated collection of rules and rulings. This is a vulnerability. Sustained competition with China requires durable statutory authorities, clear congressional mandates and predictable judicial standards. Otherwise, every new restriction invites litigation, and every legal ambiguity becomes another potential avenue for Chinese leverage. The answer is not to prevent foreign actors from using American courts or to dismiss Azerbaijan's lawsuit against CNN because of what Beijing might do. Nor should Washington weaken judicial independence simply because China might eventually exploit a precedent. Those principles are precisely what make the American system durable. Instead, Congress has a few actionable bipartisan bills it can advance to preempt Chinese lawfare. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Congress can strengthen safeguards for journalists reporting on foreign activities through the Granite Act and establish a definition of transnational repression that includes lawfare through amendments to the STOP TNR Act. The SAMS Act of 2025 can codify ever-contentious critical minerals executive orders, while the Restoring American Mineral Security Act empowers trade representatives to work with foreign partners to counter Chinese critical minerals initiatives. Meanwhile, the COINS Act of 2025, enacted through the 2026 defense authorization, directs the Treasury Department to restrict certain U.S. investments in countries of concern involving sensitive technologies. These are all steps in the right direction. These stalled bills, among many worthy considerations backlogged by congressional myopia, must be passed. Pleading for bipartisan action on common-sense bills is a thoroughly American tradition I must now indulge. Many more worthy bills remain unlisted here, and reasonable minds will disagree on which ones to prioritize. But at least some of them must be advanced to preempt a predictable deluge of lawfare. If Washington fails to grasp the urgency, Beijing will not fail to seize the opportunity. Wesley Alexander Hill is the associate director and lead analyst for the Energy, Growth, and Security Program at the International Tax and Investment Center. Hill focuses mostly on Chinese influence in the Global South and Sino-American energy competition.

AI is moving fast. Are businesses losing the human edge? AI's rise demands a balance between technology and human judgement, says Mark Adams at The Tax Summit in Sydney. AI is transforming the way businesses operate, but as the technology races ahead, the biggest challenge may be keeping people at the heart of the revolution. At The Tax Summit in Sydney, Mark Adams, Co-Founder of Vice Media and Araya Labs, explores what a people-powered future looks like in an increasingly AI-driven world. From businesses chasing the latest AI hype to the decisions that should never be handed over to a machine, the conversation examines where human judgement remains critical. As AI becomes more capable, leaders are also facing the challenge of adapting without being overwhelmed by the pace of change. Adams also looks at what separates businesses getting AI right from those getting it wrong, and why the future may depend less on having better AI and more on having better people using it. His insights offer a closer look at how businesses can embrace the technology without losing sight of the human element. #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork #Business #Technology #Leadership #Innovation #TaxSummit

Entropico strengthens its Sydney studio. Meet the new faces fuelling Entropico's growth, as the global creative company builds out creative and post bench with six senior Sydney hires. Multidisciplinary creative studio Entropico, is strengthening its Sydney studio with multiple hires across creative and post-production. The team that brought you triple j's celebrated sonic rebrand, the NSW Government's high impact #MakeNoDoubt consent and Coercive Control campaigns, Netflix original feature ONEFOUR: Against All Odds, branded feature documentary Lane Violation with Disney+ and Hahn, and Google's global 2025 Black-Owned Friday campaign (and picked up a D&AD social impact pencil in the process), have raided the creative vanguard to expand their in-house creative and post-production capabilities. Entropico, known for delivering comprehensive global campaigns for titans like Google, Square, Peloton, and YouTube, was built on the belief that diverse perspectives and a multidisciplinary creative ecosystem is the best framework for effective advertising and bold cultural moments. The studio is scaling its Sydney team to support its growing global footprint, which also includes offices in Los Angeles and New York City. The expansion brings in talent across creative leadership, post-production, and design, including: Head of Post Production - Arthur Randell. Post Production Executive for Emmy-award winning projects, Randell joins from VICE Media, where he served as Senior Director of Post Production. With a career spanning HBO and Showtime, and credits at Tribeca and Berlin Film Festivals, Randell brings a unique expertise in designing complex global workflows and managing large-scale, multi-million dollar operations. Creative Director - Harri Dunwell. Formerly of Thinkerbell and founder of BOY! Incognito, Dunwell brings a decade of agency leadership and experience design across brand, digital and emerging technology. With a background spanning fashion, culture, Web3 and AI-powered platforms, he has built and led multidisciplinary teams at the intersection of creativity, technology and contemporary culture. He will lead the multi-disciplinary creative team in Sydney, focusing on work that is strategically sharp and culturally urgent. Senior Post Producer - Tanya Curnow. With 15 years of experience at global titans including The Mill and FutureDeluxe, Curnow's expertise ranges from traditional CG and post-production pipelines to emerging tech involving robotics and game-engine-based solutions. Working directly with brand and marketing teams at the global headquarters of Apple, Google, BMW, Amazon, and Mercedes-Benz, Curnow's an Australian-born creative production star making some of the world's slickest tech campaigns, just like Entropico. Membership offers you insight, inspiration and tools to transform your workflow Find out more Senior Motion Designer - Supriya Bhonsle. Previously a Creative Lead at Never Sit Still, Supriya specialises in high end commercial motion graphics with a broad skill set ranging from animation to illustration, compositing and art direction. Incredible narrative character design, slick and seamless movement, unexpected and eye-catching illustrative style. Senior Designer / Art Director - Anthony "Pads" Hinton. A former creative lead for General Pants, Ksubi, and Sibling, Hinton's beauty-in-simplicity philosophy has shaped campaigns for Splendour in the Grass and Vivid 2025. His work is characterized by clean, intentional, and tactile design. Motion Designer - Karina Smole. With experience in scroll-stopping social assets, slick explainer videos, comprehensive brand motion toolkits and bingeable broadcast campaigns for the likes of SBS, AKQA, Nectar and Future Super, Karina moves effortlessly between hand-rendered animation styles, and data-generative design. Her stylish bold and playful, makes Karina the perfect artist to join Entropico's growing global motion design team. "These six new team members represent the absolute vanguard of their respective crafts," says Entropico Founding Partner Erin Moy. "By investing in post-production leadership and really interesting artists, we are ensuring that Entropico remains at the edge of creative and production innovation, delivering bigger, better, and more interesting work for our global partners."