Asia In Brief Last week’s trade talks between the USA and China have seen the two countries ease some trade restrictions.

According to a fact sheet published by the White House on Saturday, the talks resulted in China lifting restrictions on the export of rare earths – the minerals needed to make most high-tech products.

Beijing also promised to “terminate its various investigations targeting U.S. companies in the semiconductor supply chain, including its antitrust, anti-monopoly, and anti-dumping investigations.” At the time of writing, China is investigating Nvidia, Qualcomm, and memory-maker Micron.

According to the White House, China will also “take appropriate measures to ensure the resumption of trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China, allowing production of critical legacy chips to flow to the rest of the world.”

At the time of writing, Beijing appears not to have commented on, or confirmed, the White House’s announcement.

But the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has commented on Nexperia, the China-owned chipmaker whose products are essential to the automotive industry. The government of the Netherlands recently prevented the local arm of the company from sharing certain intellectual property with China, which retaliated with an export ban of some Nexperia products made in the Middle Kingdom.

On Saturday, a Ministry spokesperson blamed the Dutch government for the situation, and said China will consider exemptions to its export ban.

Singapore Police last week conducted an “enforcement operation” and seized assets linked to Chen Zhi, an individual indicted by the US Department of Justice for wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, and for directing the operation of forced-labor scam compounds in Cambodia.

The DoJ claimed those held captive in the compounds “engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, known as ‘pig butchering’ scams, that stole billions of dollars from victims in the United States and around the world.”

Singapore’s police issued prohibition of disposal orders against six properties and various financial assets, including bank accounts, securities accounts and cash, with a total estimated value of more than S$150 million ($115 million). “Other assets, including a yacht, eleven cars and multiple bottles of liquor were also subjected to prohibition of disposal orders,” according to the Singapore Police’s statement.