Chinese Military,Political and Social Superthread

[The Bread Guy]

Hmmmmm ...

The founder of Huawei says the Chinese tech giant is moving its U.S. research center to Canada due to American sanctions on the company.

In an interview with Toronto's Global and Mail newspaper, Ren Zhengfei said the move was necessary because Huawei would be blocked from interacting with U.S. employees.

Huawei Technologies Ltd. is the No. 2 global smartphone brand and the biggest maker of network gear for phone carriers. U.S. authorities say the company is a security risk, which Huawei denies, and announced curbs in May on its access to American components and technology.

The Trump administration announced a 90-day reprieve on some sales to Huawei. The government said that would apply to components and technology needed to support wireless networks in rural areas.
Ren gave no details but Huawei confirmed in June it had cut 600 jobs at its Silicon Valley research center in Santa Clara, California, leaving about 250 employees. A Huawei spokesman said the company had no further comment.

``The research and development center will move from the United States, and Canada will be the center,'' Ren said in a video excerpt of the interview on the Globe and Mail website. ``According to the U.S. ban, we couldn't communicate with, call, email or contact our own employees in the United States.'' ...

 

[a_majoor]

China's worst nightmare coming true: Hong Kong style (and inspired) protests appear to be starting in the mainland:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/12/chicom_nightmare_hong_kong_protests_spread_to_gigantic_guangdong.html

Chicom Nightmare: Hong Kong protests spread to gigantic Guangdong province
By Monica Showalter

The Chicoms have a problem.

Seems the Hong Kong protests they are so desperate to tamp down have started to ignite elsewhere, deep into China's cities.

Here's one the Chicoms really didn't want:

Protesters in southern Guangdong province, China, took to the streets last week to demand the communist government not build a polluting crematorium near their town, adopting slogans common to the Hong Kong protest movement, Time magazine noted on Monday.

The Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, which openly supports the anti-communist movement, reported the use of slogans such as "revolution of our times," which China considers seditious hate speech, and "just like you, Hong Kong!" in Guangdong. As China heavily censors coverage of the Hong Kong protests and bans all statements of support from the few permitted social media sites in the country, the adoption of the Hong Kong movement's slogans and tactics is a sign that people within Communist China are informing themselves regarding the protests through unapproved means.

The Guardian reports that the Chicoms stomped them out, like an out-of-control campfire.  But the danger to the regime remains.

As I argued earlier, this is Beijing's worst nightmare come to life:

In short, there's evidence that amid that sea of millions of Hongkongers protesting communism from China, some of them are mainland Chinese. Message: the mainland Chinese are getting ideas. The Chicoms of Beijing cannot wall them out from Hong Kong nor can they stop this.

And this raises the specter of what happens when they return to China, because many of these Chinese have their families there, and they will. Are these Chinese going to return back to China and spread that democracy 'virus' they passionately embraced in Hong Kong, kicking off similar protests in Chengdu, Tianjin, Harbin, Shenzhen, Wuhan and other giant cities to duplicate what the Hongkongers launched? It actually seems plausible. What's more, it will be an awakening as Chinese finally come to the realization that they deserve the same freedoms their fellow Chinese in Hong Kong have enjoyed until recently. When ten or twelve Chinese megacities start holding the kinds of protests Hong Kong is holding, Bejing's old gray rulers will have a hell of a problem on their hands. And that is their worst, their very worst, nightmare.

Not only is China failing to keep the revolt in Hong Kong out of the consciousness of the Chinese people, protests now are taking inspiration from the Hong Kongers.  And in the worst possible place: in Guangdong province, which is gargantuan and shares a common language with Hong Kong.  Here's the Straits Times of Singapore's description of where this is happening:

Guangdong, China's most prosperous province, lies at the heart of the Greater Bay Area — a mega economic zone that includes nine cities in the province, Hong Kong and Macau — and is hungry for capital, talent and technology[.]

Rest of the article is at the link. One of the takeaway points in the larger article is the province is full of people from all different parts of China, much like Alberta has Canadians from all parts of the Dominion flocking there for jobs. If the protests take root in Guangdong Province, there are linkages from there to every other region and ethnic group in China. It will be interesting to see how the Chinese deal with this.

 

[MarkOttawa]

More diplomacy with Chinese characteristics:

Chinese ambassador warns Canada against adopting motion calling for sanctions
Ambassador Cong Peiwu reacted to comments by two Conservative senators

China's ambassador to Canada is threatening what he called "very firm countermeasures" should Parliament adopt a motion calling for sanctions against Chinese leaders.

Ambassador Cong Peiwu reacted today to comments by two Conservative senators who are planning to table a motion next week calling on the Trudeau government to impose sanctions on China for its alleged human rights abuses.

Cong told reporters in Montreal that if the Senate and House of Commons were to adopt such a motion, it would be a serious violation of Chinese domestic affairs.

"We firmly oppose this kind of behaviour. And I think it'd cause serious damage to our bilateral relations ... we'll make very firm countermeasures to this," he said.

"It is not in the interest of the Canada side. So we do hope that we stop this kind of dangerous activity."

Sen. Leo Housakos told Maclean's magazine earlier this week that he and Sen. Thanh Hai Ngo think Canada needs to show leadership on democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Canada-China relations have been strained since Dec. 1, 2018, when RCMP arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport, at the request of the United States.

Days later, two Canadians — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig — were detained in China on allegations of undermining national security, and the two men continue to be held in that country.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/china-cong-sanctions-1.5386020

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Matthew Fisher lets Justin Trudeau and the compradors have it with both barrels:

COMMENTARY: Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have been in a Chinese jail for one year

It will be one year this Tuesday that China has held both Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor hostage.

It is an anniversary that no Canadian will celebrate and few in other western countries know much about.

The detention of the two Michaels, what China has tried to do to try to thwart Hong Kong’s democratic protests, and the jailing of one million or more Uighur Muslims in harsh reeducation camps, have moved the needle so much that only one Canadian in 10 has a favourable view of China, according to a Nanos poll published four months ago.

Despite Canadians’ negative feelings about China, Beijing’s jailing of the two Michaels on spurious allegations, and the stiff trade sanctions that China has slapped on Canadian agricultural imports, Ottawa remains hell-bent on its China First Policy. Prominent Canadians who have had close business ties to China, such as former prime minister Jean Chretien and Ottawa’s new ambassador, Dominic Barton, continue to rally Canadian business leaders to cash in on the bonanza over there [emphasis added].

Kovrig, a diplomat on extended leave from Global Affairs Canada and working as a senior analyst for International Crisis Group in Hong Kong was the first of the Michaels to be detained during a visit to Beijing. Not long afterwards, Spavor, a Korean-speaking entrepreneur who encourages closer cultural and business ties with North Korea, was seized in a town by Chinese authorities on the China-North Korea border. It is alleged that both Canadians had endangered China’s security.

The arrest of the two Michaels was in obvious retaliation for Canada having a few days earlier detained one of China’s most favoured daughters, Meng Wanzhou, while a court in Vancouver considers whether to extradite her to the United States to face 13 bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy charges. The allegations stem from accusations that Meng, as chief financial officer of China’s largest company, Huawei, which was started by her father, had violated American sanctions against Iran.

What appears to irk Canadians most is that although no charges have been filed yet against Kovrig and Spavor, they have been held under strong lights that are never turned off with no access to their families and only monthly consular visits. At the same time Meng was swiftly granted bail and has been living in her fancy Vancouver home. Other than wearing an ankle bracelet to make sure she does not leave the city, the billionairess has been free to swan around town while her father boasts that he has more money than Ottawa.

China’s former envoy to Ottawa, Lu Shaye, publicly accused Canadians of being “racists” and “white supremacists” because Meng had been stopped as she changed planes while flying from China to Mexico.

Such insults by an ambassador would usually provoke outrage and probably result in his expulsion. But Canada’s timorous response to almost anything that China says or does these days has Canada looking spineless, weak-kneed or faint-hearted. Pick your body part [emphasis added].

The strategy seems to be to endure any abuse that China’s Communist dictatorship hurls, lest complaining distresses Chairman Xi Jinping. Publicly rebuking China might, of course, make the two Michaels’ dreadful situation even worse. Sadly, it is hard not to conclude that of equal or greater importance to the Canadian government is that if it were to respond to China as China has to Canada, it could scupper the eternal hope of much greater trade with that country — though based on the current circumstances, this looks like a fatuous pipe dream.

READ MORE: Huawei’s CEO wants to move research centre from U.S. to Canada: report

Huawei is heavily backed by the state and has 5G cell telephone technology that it is keen to sell in Canada and elsewhere. To curry favour with Ottawa, it made a bribe of sorts last week, announcing plans to move its North American research centre from the U.S. to Ontario.

Yet at almost the same moment China’s new ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, fired another diplomatic rocket. Cong warned Canada of “very firm countermeasures” if it ordered sanctions against any officials responsible for actions against Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrators and the appalling treatment of Uighers. A gloomy subtext to these outrages has been growing concern over how China might respond to Hong Kong-style civil disobedience by millions of Taiwanese if Beijing finally makes good on its longstanding promise to invade their prosperous democracy...[read on]
https://globalnews.ca/news/6262649/michael-kovrig-michael-spavor-detention-china/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

That diplomacy with Chinese characteristics on the Hong Kong front, Canada noted:

China launches PR blitz to combat ‘foreign interference’ in Hong Kong

    *Beijing’s ambassadors around the world are taking an assertive – and sometimes aggressive – stance against their hosts’ views on the city’s unrest
    *Analysts say heightened activism aims to prevent further internationalisation of China’s domestic issue

China’s diplomats are waging an increasingly assertive public relations campaign to counter growing international criticism over its handling of the unrest in Hong Kong, now in its seventh month.

Diplomatic and political pundits believe the heightened activism among Chinese envoys underlines an overriding priority to prevent further internationalisation of what Beijing insists is an internal issue, in the wake of Washington’s support for the city’s anti-government protesters.

Already buffeted by a prolonged trade war, China’s relations with the United States deteriorated further when President Donald Trump last month signed into law the Hong Kong Democracy and Human Rights Act, which American lawmakers passed almost unanimously.

More alarmingly for Beijing, Hong Kong protesters have been campaigning for other countries to follow Washington’s lead and pass similar bills in support of their cause.

In response, ambassadors in Europe – where a major shift is under way in relations with China – and other countries along the geopolitical fault line between Beijing and Washington, are speaking out as never before.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi
and his predecessor, Politburo member Yang Jiechi
– who both serve on the Communist Party’s coordination group for Hong Kong and Macau affairs – have led the way in blasting what Beijing sees as foreign interference, as Australia, Canada and Europe have joined the US in voicing support for the Hong Kong protesters.
In Britain, China’s longest-serving ambassador Liu Xiaoming
has been especially busy since the mass protests broke out in early June.

He was among the first batch of Chinese officials to comment after the initial rally – two days before any official statements were issued by Beijing’s top bodies overseeing the city, the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong.

Apart from giving speeches and penning opinion pieces for newspapers around the world, Liu has so far hosted three press briefings specifically on Hong Kong and taken more than a dozen interviews from British, American and Chinese media outlets, according to his embassy’s website.

Liu’s messaging has been clear and consistent – unswerving support for the city’s embattled local government and police force and condemnation of foreign interference and the violence perpetrated by protesters.

His lead has been followed by Chinese envoys in other European countries, such as Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Finland and the Netherlands, who have also spoken out, sometimes repeatedly, on the issue.

Ambassadors in Canada and Singapore, as well as dozens of others in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America have issued statements to local media, vigorously pushing Beijing’s official line on the demonstrations [emphasis added].

China’s foreign ministry and its diplomats in recent months have become visibly active on Twitter, which is blocked in mainland China, with envoys to the US, Britain, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Austria joining the service this year...
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3041645/china-launches-pr-blitz-combat-foreign-interference-hong-kong

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

And on the Confucius Institutes front:

Belgian university closes its Chinese state-funded Confucius Institute after spying claims

    *Vrije Universiteit Brussel says cooperating with the institute is no longer consistent with its policies
    #Security services had accused Song Xinning, former head of the institute at the university, of being a recruiter for Chinese intelligence

One of Belgium’s leading universities has decided to close the Chinese state-funded Confucius Institute
on its campus, following accusations that the former head professor conducted espionage
for China.

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) confirmed that it would not extend its contract with the institute when the agreement expires next June, although it did not refer to the espionage claims.

The university said cooperation with Confucius Institute – whose stated aims include promoting Chinese language and culture and facilitating cultural exchanges – was “not in line with [our] principles of free research”, based on the information it had obtained.

“The university is of the opinion that cooperating with the institution is no longer consistent with its policies and objectives,” it said in a statement on its website.

In October, Belgian security services accused Song Xinning, former head of the Confucius Institute at VUB, of working as a recruiter for Chinese intelligence.

The Belgian newspaper De Morgen reported that VUB had ignored a warning from the state security service about the institute’s activities [emphasis added].

Song was subsequently barred from entering the Schengen Area – comprising 26 European countries – for eight years.

In an earlier interview with the South China Morning Post, Song said Belgian immigration authorities had informed him on July 30 that his visa would not be renewed, because he “supported Chinese intelligence activities”...

Confucius Institutes, which are overseen by China’s Ministry of Education, have been set up in more than 480 higher education institutions around the world. Over the past decade, they have come under increased scrutiny from Western governments over allegations that they have links to espionage activities.

Confucius Institutes have been established in almost 500 higher education institutions globally. Photo: Doris LiuConfucius Institutes have been established in almost 500 higher education institutions globally. Photo: Doris Liu
Confucius Institutes have been established in almost 500 higher education institutions globally. Photo: Doris Liu
One of Belgium’s leading universities has decided to close the Chinese state-funded Confucius Institute
on its campus, following accusations that the former head professor conducted espionage
for China.

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) confirmed that it would not extend its contract with the institute when the agreement expires next June, although it did not refer to the espionage claims.

The university said cooperation with Confucius Institute – whose stated aims include promoting Chinese language and culture and facilitating cultural exchanges – was “not in line with [our] principles of free research”, based on the information it had obtained.

“The university is of the opinion that cooperating with the institution is no longer consistent with its policies and objectives,” it said in a statement on its website.
Song Xinning, pictured in 2016 at the University of Helsinki’s Confucius Institute, has been barred from entering a bloc of European countries. Photo: University of Helsinki website
Song Xinning, pictured in 2016 at the University of Helsinki’s Confucius Institute, has been barred from entering a bloc of European countries. Photo: University of Helsinki website
In October, Belgian security services accused Song Xinning
, former head of the Confucius Institute at VUB, of working as a recruiter for Chinese intelligence.

The Belgian newspaper De Morgen reported that VUB had ignored a warning from the state security service about the institute’s activities.
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How Belgium became a den of spies and gateway for China

Song was subsequently barred from entering the Schengen Area – comprising 26 European countries – for eight years.

In an earlier interview with the South China Morning Post, Song said Belgian immigration authorities had informed him on July 30 that his visa would not be renewed, because he “supported Chinese intelligence activities”.

Song said the decision had followed his refusal to cooperate with a US diplomat based in Brussels. He denied sharing contact and work information with the Chinese authorities, or receiving help from them after his travel ban became public.

Jonathan Holslag, an international relations professor at VUB and one of the most vocal critics of VUB’s Confucius Institute, called the university’s decision “brave”.
University of Michigan says it will cut ties with Confucius Institute

“This should stand as an example for many European universities,” he said. “It is also in the interest of Chinese students, because they are the main victims of the politicisation of academic exchanges and the suspicion that elicits.”

Confucius Institutes, which are overseen by China’s Ministry of Education, have been set up in more than 480 higher education institutions around the world. Over the past decade, they have come under increased scrutiny from Western governments over allegations that they have links to espionage activities.

Several of the institutes in the United States and Australia have been forced to close because of allegations that they had undue influence on campus, while several Chinese academics and researchers have been investigated, dismissed and even arrested in the US on suspicion of stealing intellectual property or failing to disclose funding ties with Chinese universities.

In Europe, the Confucius Institutes at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, Stockholm University in Sweden and University Lyon in France have all been closed...
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3041617/belgian-university-closes-its-chinese-state-funded-confucius

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

One way of looking at Xi Jinping:

MLI's Policy-Maker of the Year: Xi Jinping

CCP General-Secretary Xi Jinping as the top Canadian policy-maker? Sadly, yes. Beijing has reshaped Canada in ways that most Canadians don’t fully appreciate, and we ignore Xi’s growing influence here at our peril.

By Charles Burton, December 12, 2019

Each year, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute looks back at who or what had the greatest impact on Canadian federal public policy over the past 12 months. That person or institution is named the Policy-Maker of the Year, and always graces the cover of the December issue of the institute’s flagship magazine, Inside Policy. This year is no exception.

Of course, this does not necessarily mean the most positive impact, although some of Canada’s leading lights have been so recognized, including Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Murray Sinclair, former foreign minister Chrystia Freeland, former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, former foreign minister John Baird, and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney. But what we are really looking for is the one figure who has had a dominant role, for good or ill, in shaping government policy on the issues that matter most for Canadians.

Yet, this year a disheartening and desultory election campaign capped what has been a rather sorry year for fans of visionary political or policy leadership. We realized that the person who had done the most to shape public policy in Canada wasn’t even a Canadian. Indeed, on the question of who has done the most to reshape government policies, only one name truly comes to mind – Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General-Secretary Xi Jinping, though his impact on public policy is decidedly not in the best interests of Canadians.

Xi Jinping has forced more policy responses on Canada than any foreign leader, including even the US President. What follows lays out for our readers what we think has been Mr. Xi’s outsized policy influence in Canada...[read on]
https://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/policy-maker-year-xi-jinping/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[a_majoor]

An interesting counterpoint looking at yet another fissure in the Chinese socio-political landscape. Once again, this isn't something which can be jumped aboard (at least not without proper understanding, as is detailed by the article in the link), and the situation likely isn't as dire as suggested, but along with all the other articles that point at various weak points in the Chinese facade, the overall impression is of a strong but brittle structure. If something were to fracture (and it might even be something no one is looking at right now), the possibility of a "cascade failure" is in the background:

https://scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2019/12/fissures-in-facade.html

Fissures in the Facade

[snip]
A recent news item captures the anxieties of this wide swathe of people in a way that most outside coverage of China does not.

Here is the story as reported by the New York Times:
On the first anniversary of her arrest in Canada, Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, issued an open letter describing how she experienced fear, pain, disappointment, helplessness, torment and acceptance of the unknown.

She wrote at length about the support she received from her colleagues, about friendly people at a courthouse in Vancouver and about “numerous” Chinese online users who expressed their trust. Her letter, posted on Monday, was not well received on the Chinese internet, where Ms. Meng is known — in a term meant to be endearing — as “princess” because she is a daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei.

n the Twitter-like social media platform Weibo, many users posted the numbers 985, 996, 251 and 404 in the comment section below her letter. They were slyly referring to a former Huawei employee who graduated from one of the country’s top universities in a program code-named 985, worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week and was jailed for 251 days after he demanded severance pay when his contract wasn’t renewed.

His story went viral in China, generating angry responses online. That resulted in 404 error messages as articles and comments were deleted, a sign of China’s censors at work.

The former employee, Li Hongyuan, was eventually released from jail with no charges and received $15,000 in government compensation last week. He shared his story online last week, and that was when the hit to Huawei’s reputation began....

“One enjoyed a sunny Canadian mansion while the other enjoyed the cold and damp detention cell in Shenzhen,” Jiang Feng, a psychologist, commented on the Quora-like question-and-answer site Zhihu....

The anger on social media was also indicative of new insecurity among members of China’s middle class, who have never experienced an economic downturn and have always thought they had more protections than lower-paid migrant workers. People said they could see themselves in Mr. Li.

“Many middle-class Chinese used to believe that if they went to good schools, worked hard and cared little about the current affairs they would be able to realize their Chinese dreams,” a blogger wrote on Weibo. “Now their dreams are in tatters.”

Mr. Li, a Huawei employee for 12 years, negotiated a $48,000 severance package in March 2018, according to interviews he gave to Chinese media outlets. But he didn’t get an end-of-the-year bonus that he said had been promised to him. He sued Huawei in November last year.

A month later, he was detained in Shenzhen and accused of leaking commercial secrets. He was officially arrested in January on an extortion accusation. But he was released in August with no charges. He did not respond to interview requests.....

In a sign that many middle-class professionals are worried that what happened to Mr. Li could happen to them, online users circulated articles about jail life, especially in the Longgang detention center in Shenzhen, where Mr. Li spent more than eight months. Huawei is based in Shenzhen’s Longgang district.

Some online users are circulating a three-part blog post by a programmer who spent over a year in the detention center for working on gaming and gambling software. Gambling is illegal in China. The blogger wrote in detail what it was like to live in a 355-square-foot cell with 55 people in tropical weather — what they ate, wore and did every day....

Many Chinese are especially outraged by the degree to which news coverage and online responses have been censored. They say they feel helpless because they can’t criticize the government. Now they feel they are also not able to criticize a giant corporation.

One of the Weibo posts of Ms. Meng’s letter received 1,400 comments. Many simply said 251, the number of days Mr. Li was detained. Fewer than 10 comments, sympathetic ones, are still visible to the public.

“A company that’s too big to criticize is even scarier than a company that’s too big to fail,” Nie Huihua, an economics professor at Renmin University in Beijing, told the news site Jiemian on Tuesday.

Jiemian’s interview with Mr. Li, published on Monday, was deleted.[1]

[snip]

What is the most dangerous thought in modern China? Is it that the Party has jailed a million Uyghurs? That the Party has launched war on religion, speech, and a hundred other liberties? No, most Chinese do not care about these things; polling doesn't exist, but it would surprise me to learn that the majority of Chinese do not support the Party's policies fully in all of this. Anybody who has asked run-of-the-mill Chinese on the street what they think about Islam or minorities or  conditions that lead towards "luan" will understand this. Is it then that the Party has a history of violence and terror that left more Chinese dead than China's foreign enemies ever managed? That disconcerts Chinese who learn about it, though in my experience the shock is more at being lied to about their history than it is about actual death tolls. The regime can survive whispered conversations about Changchun and June 4th. The most subversive, explosive message you tell the Chinese people is something different. It goes like this:

The Party is a racket.  The guys at the top are not any different from the ones you deal with at the bottom. The Party exists to make sure their kids have a spot at the front of the line no matter how much more your kids deserve it. You are not forced to call Xi all these fancy titles because it will help him restore China to its ancestral glory: you are forced to do all of that so Xi Jinping's daughter gets into Harvard and his family racks up homes in Hong Kong. All of the taxes, the censorship, the ridiculous rules and regulations, the blustering about war, the hero-worship and the propaganda, the detention centers and the cameras—it is all a racket. You live a slave so that someone else's children can get ahead.

That is the fissure in the facade. It is whispered of. It is wondered at. Sooner or later, it will explode.

The rest of the article is available at the link

 

[MarkOttawa]

Looks like Germans turning seriously against Huawei for 5G:

Angela Merkel faces revolt over Huawei as German lawmakers seek full ban
    *New bill in parliament seeks to allow exclusion of ‘untrustworthy’ 5G equipment vendors from all networks
    *Move goes beyond previous calls to ban Chinese telecoms firm from sensitive core network alone

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing a potential revolt in parliament by lawmakers seeking to override her China policy and effectively ban equipment supplier Huawei Technologies from the country’s fifth-generation wireless network.

A bill drafted by lawmakers in Merkel’s ruling coalition stipulates that German authorities should be able to exclude “untrustworthy” 5G equipment vendors from “core as well as peripheral networks”. That goes beyond previous calls that sought to ban the Chinese firm from the more sensitive core network alone.

The effort in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, is a major challenge to Merkel’s attempts at balancing security considerations over 5G with Germany’s delicate economic ties with China.

Hawks in her government, including German intelligence agencies and the Interior Ministry, have warned that Huawei’s ties to the government in Beijing pose a security risk.

While the draft does not explicitly name Huawei, it is tailored to the Chinese company and comes after months of debate about 5G security. Huawei has repeatedly denied allegations over potential espionage and sabotage.

The draft legislation obtained by Bloomberg News says that security guidelines set out by Merkel’s government, which include a certification process and a declaration of trustworthiness, do not go far enough.

The political and legal systems in a vendor’s country of origin must also be taken into account, the draft says in a direct allusion to China [emphasis added].

While negotiators haggle over a final draft, the stringent security standards set by lawmakers in Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union-led bloc and in the Social Democratic Party [emphasis added, both the parties in the Grand Coalition] illustrate the momentum building against the Shenzhen-based technology giant. CDU lawmakers approved a motion at a party convention last month calling for further restrictions.

Calling 5G technology Germany’s “digital nervous system”, lawmakers said that Europe already possessed two companies that represent an alternative to “state subsidised” competitors posing a threat – a reference to Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson...
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3041896/angela-merkel-faces-revolt-over-huawei-german-lawmakers-seek-full

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Edward Campbell]

Although it's not a ban, per se, Norway (Telenor) has picked Ericsson to be its key technology provider rather than Huawei.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Japan's now showing some balls vs the Dragon, we should pay attention:

Japan’s defence chief hits out at Beijing on South China Sea, military build-up

    *Taro Kono, seen as a potential successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, made the remarks days ahead of a meeting with Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe
    *His comments serve as a reminder for Beijing to play by the international rules even as ties with Tokyo warm, according to one analyst

Japan’s Defence Minister Taro Kono has criticised China for its actions in the contested South China Sea
and waters close to Japan, days before visiting Beijing to meet his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe.

“China is engaging in unilateral and coercive attempts to alter the status quo based on its own assertions that are incompatible with the existing international order,” Kono on Sunday at the Doha Forum, an international conference in Qatar.

The senior politician – who previously served as foreign minister and has been touted as a potential successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
– added that Japan “is also concerned about China’s rapid enhancement of its military power without transparency, including its nuclear and missile capabilities”, public broadcaster NHK reported.

“The rule of law, which is of critical importance to global stability and security, is a value shared by the international community, including China,” he said, adding that countries cannot be permitted to expand their spheres of influence by force and “aggressors must be forced to pay the cost”...
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3042306/japans-defence-chief-hits-out-beijing-south-china-sea-military

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

How much longer will USN be able to operate anywhere near China in Western Pacific, and what about USAF, USMC bases in Guam, Okinawa, Japan, South Korea?

China flexes air power muscles

Beijing’s vast military parade on 1 October offered further insight into its thinking about how to keep enemies on the back foot in its near seas.

The most notable aircraft in the flying display was the new Xian H-6N (pictured below), a long-term descendent of the Tupolev Tu-16 bomber – and a mainstay of Chinese naval airpower. The type featured an aerial refuelling probe that could, tanker resources permitting, greatly extend its range. More intriguingly, a concave belly replaced the bomb bay found on previous versions.

Early speculation suggested that this was to carry an air-launched version of the DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile. This view changed, however, after the revelation of a pair of small, delta-shaped unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) designated the WZ-8. It is believed that the H-6N would deploy this vehicle from its belly. The WZ-8’s likely mission is to make a supersonic reconnaissance pass above enemy forces before landing at a friendly air base.

Such a capability, used in conjunction with other UAVs and sensor platforms, would be one part of the robust sensor-to-shooter “kill-chain” Beijing requires to observe and rapidly attack enemy air bases and warships with cruise or ballistic missiles [emphasis added].

Beijing also showed off its DF-26 anti-ship-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile, as well as numerous short-range missiles that could be used to powerful effect against enemy air bases. Also displayed were DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicles mounted atop China Aerospace Science and Industry DF-17 missiles. After a ballistic launch, the weapon would glide to its target after release. Its ability to manoeuvre mid-flight is deemed to make it invulnerable to missile defences.

Uncertainty about how capable these systems are and their levels of development – or deployment – complicates work for military planners working for potential rivals such as the USA, Japan and Taiwan.

Already China’s anti-access/area-denial strategy is having an impact on defence plans. Boeing’s developmental MQ-25 Stingray UAV will one day provide an improved refuelling capability for US aircraft carrier air wings, allowing the vessels to operate further from Chinese shores – though the tanking assets will take up valuable deck space [emphasis added]. To counter China’s growing navy, Washington is also brushing off its anti-ship missile capabilities, developing the Lockheed Martin AGM-158C long-range anti-ship missile.

Tokyo is keenly aware of Beijing’s growing capabilities. In October, the US Department of Defense cleared a $4.5 billion upgrade for 98 Mitsubishi F-15Js, with the type to receive an active electronically scanned array radar, new mission computers, and an upgraded electronic warfare system. Tokyo also continues to take delivery of up to 147 Lockheed F-35As, including 40 F-35Bs that will operate from two helicopter destroyers that will be converted to aircraft carriers.

Tokyo is also in the early stages of developing an all-new fighter, known variously as the F-3 or Future Fighter. This is likely to be a large, twin-engined jet with a heavy weapons payload.

It is a truism in defence circles that the Pentagon’s greatest ally in justifying defence procurement is Beijing. If recent years are any guide, 2020 will see continued speculation about Chinese capabilities, all fuelled by calculated stories in Chinese state media. And, in November, all eyes will be on Airshow China in Zhuhai, the biennial extravaganza of Chinese firepower.

https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/china-flexes-air-power-muscles/135864.article

Mark
Ottawa

 

[FJAG]

It's always quite interesting to see what capabilities China (and for that matter Russia) are developing and fielding on much smaller defence budgets. Perhaps we need to get back to Eisenhower's question about the US military-industrial complex. What the US needs to look at seriously is how to develop and field superior weapons system at much lower per unit costs. As it is, both Russia and China are winning the war of weapons' economics.

:cheers:

 

[a_majoor]

A disturbing Christmas present from China:

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/12/help-im-being-held-prisoner.php

POSTED ON DECEMBER 22, 2019 BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN CHINA
HELP! I’M BEING HELD PRISONER…
You’ve probably heard the old joke about the guy who opens a fortune cookie, and the paper says: “Help! I’m being held prisoner in a Chinese fortune cookie factory.”

Well, it actually happened, only it was a greeting card factory. The London Times reports:

When Florence Widdicombe opened a box of Tesco charity Christmas cards to send them to her friends, the six-year-old schoolgirl from Tooting, south London, was startled to find that one of them had already been used. The card, featuring a kitten in a Santa hat, contained a despairing message from a Chinese gulag.

“We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison China,” the message read in capital letters. “Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organisation.” Florence had accidentally stumbled on a chilling link between British Christmas fun and Chinese human rights abuse.

POSTED ON DECEMBER 22, 2019 BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN CHINA
HELP! I’M BEING HELD PRISONER…
You’ve probably heard the old joke about the guy who opens a fortune cookie, and the paper says: “Help! I’m being held prisoner in a Chinese fortune cookie factory.”

Well, it actually happened, only it was a greeting card factory. The London Times reports:

When Florence Widdicombe opened a box of Tesco charity Christmas cards to send them to her friends, the six-year-old schoolgirl from Tooting, south London, was startled to find that one of them had already been used. The card, featuring a kitten in a Santa hat, contained a despairing message from a Chinese gulag.

“We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison China,” the message read in capital letters. “Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organisation.” Florence had accidentally stumbled on a chilling link between British Christmas fun and Chinese human rights abuse.

The message in the card went on to say, “Use the link to contact Mr. Peter Humphrey.” The linked Times article is written by…Peter Humphrey.

Florence’s father Ben googled the name, and found a story about a former British journalist who had spent two years in jail in China — at the same Qingpu prison.

That journalist was me. …

I do not know the identities or nationalities of the prisoners who sneaked this note into the Tesco cards, but I have no doubt they are Qingpu prisoners who knew me before my release in June 2015 from the suburban prison where I spent nine of my 23 months.

The rest of the article is at the link. We may have to take action as a DIY project, carefully examining our purchases to ensure we are not buying Chinese goods or services whenever possible. The reason that it will have to be a DIY project is here:

https://www.macleans.ca/politics/worldpolitics/ottawa-goes-meek-and-gentle-with-beijing/

Ottawa goes meek and gentle with Beijing
Terry Glavin: The Trudeau government’s newfound faith in ‘appropriate discussion’ is the Canadian equivalent of ‘thoughts and prayers’—an easy out when dealing with the China lobby
by Terry GlavinNov 25, 2019

With Beijing’s most determined allies decisively crushed by a democratic alliance in Hong Kong’s district elections over the weekend, at least somebody’s putting up some kind of a fight against Xi Jinping’s increasingly savage aggression and belligerence. Because it certainly isn’t Canada.

An unprecedented 71.2 per cent turnout on Sunday in the ordinarily humdrum local elections resulted in a massive triumph for pro-democracy candidates and a withering rebuke to the Chinese Communist Party and its puppet Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive. Out of 18 district councils, all formerly under the establishment’s control, 17 are now in the democratic camp. Of the 452 posts up for election, Hong Kong’s democrats took nearly 400 of them, quadrupling their seat share. Pro-Beijing parties lost 243 seats.

It was a lot less uplifting that while Hongkongers were streaming to the polling stations over the weekend, at the 11th annual Halifax International Security Forum here in Canada, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan telegraphed the strongest signal yet that after several months of dithering, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has decisively retreated into the Liberal Party’s traditional approach to relations with Beijing—appeasement, capitulation, and normalization.

RELATED: Is Beijing sticking its nose into the election campaign in Markham?

“We don’t consider China as an adversary,” Sajjan said at the forum’s opening on Friday.

Hongkongers certainly do. So do the Uighurs of Xinjiang, a Muslim people whose persecution has accelerated to the point that at least a million of them are confined to concentration camps and forced-labour zones laid bare in the greatest detail yet in a trove of leaked Chinese  government documents just released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. So do Tibetans, whose dispossession and oppression over the past seven decades is now being replayed in Xinjiang—and whose tragic predicament, once a hallowed cause in Canada, is now rarely if ever even mentioned in polite company.

Rest of the article is at the link.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Statement from Chinese embassy, Ottawa:

Chinese Embassy Spokesperson's Remarks
2019/12/22

Recently, some Canadian polititians made erroneous remarks on China-Canada relations and the cases of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. The Chinese side expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition.

It should be pointed out that lately China-Canada relations have encountered serious difficulties. The responsibility lies completely with the Canadian side. Canada knows the root cause clearly. Attempting to gang up on China using "Megaphone Diplomacy" or pressuring China for unrelated matters is doomed to be in vain.We urge the Canadian side to reflect upon its wrongdoing, take China's solemn position seriously, immediately release Ms. Meng Wanzhou and ensure her safe return to China.

As to the cases involving two Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, they are suspected of conducting activities that endangered China's national security. Investigation on the two cases has been completed and they have been transferred to the procuratorial authority for prosecution following legal procedures. China's judicial authority handles cases in strict accordance with law and their legitimate rights and interests are guaranteed. The Chinese side urges the Canadian side to earnestly respect the spirit of rule of law and China's judicial sovereignty, and refrain from making irresponsible remarks.
http://ca.china-embassy.org/eng/sgxw/t1726867.htm

DIPLOMACY WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

From US Congressional Research Service (sort of does what our Library of Parliament does as research for MPs, Senators--but on a vastly greater scale):

Report to Congress on Chinese Naval Modernization
December 23, 2019 10:42 AM

The following is the Dec. 20, 2019 Congressional Research Service, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress.

From the report

"In an international security environment of renewed great power competition, China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, has become the top focus of U.S. defense planning and budgeting. China’s navy, which China has been steadily modernizing for roughly 25 years, since the early to mid-1990s, has become a formidable military force within China’s near-seas region, and it is conducting a growing number of operations in more-distant waters, including the broader waters of the Western Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and waters around Europe. China’s navy is viewed as posing a major challenge to the U.S. Navy’s ability to achieve and maintain wartime control of blue-water ocean areas in the Western Pacific—the first such challenge the U.S. Navy has faced since the end of the Cold War—and forms a key element of a Chinese challenge to the long-standing status of the United States as the leading military power in the Western Pacific.

China’s naval modernization effort encompasses a wide array of platform and weapon acquisition programs, including anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs), anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs), submarines, surface ships, aircraft, unmanned vehicles (UVs), and supporting C4ISR (command and control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) systems. China’s naval modernization effort also includes improvements in maintenance and logistics, doctrine, personnel quality, education and training, and exercises.

China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, is assessed as being aimed at developing capabilities for addressing the situation with Taiwan militarily, if need be; for achieving a greater degree of control or domination over China’s near-seas region, particularly the South China Sea; for enforcing China’s view that it has the right to regulate foreign military activities in its 200-mile maritime exclusive economic zone (EEZ); for defending China’s commercial sea lines of communication (SLOCs), particularly those linking China to the Persian Gulf; for displacing U.S. influence in the Western Pacific; and for asserting China’s status as the leading regional power and a major world power.

Consistent with these goals, observers believe China wants its navy to be capable of acting as part of a Chinese anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) force—a force that can deter U.S. intervention in a conflict in China’s near-seas region over Taiwan or some other issue, or failing that, delay the arrival or reduce the effectiveness of intervening U.S. forces. Additional missions for China’s navy include conducting maritime security (including antipiracy) operations, evacuating Chinese nationals from foreign countries when necessary, and conducting humanitarian assistance/disaster response (HA/DR) operations.

The U.S. Navy in recent years has taken a number of actions to counter China’s naval modernization effort. Among other things, the U.S. Navy has shifted a greater percentage of its fleet to the Pacific; assigned its most-capable new ships and aircraft and its best personnel to the Pacific; maintained or increased general presence operations, training and developmental exercises, and engagement and cooperation with allied and other navies in the Pacific; increased the planned future size of the Navy; initiated, increased, or accelerated numerous programs for developing new military technologies and acquiring new ships, aircraft, unmanned vehicles, and weapons; begun development of new operational concepts (i.e., new ways to employ Navy and Marine Corps forces) for countering Chinese maritime A2/AD forces; and signaled that the Navy in coming years will shift to a more-distributed fleet architecture that will feature a smaller portion of larger ships, a larger portion of smaller ships, and a substantially greater use of unmanned vehicles. The issue for Congress is whether the U.S. Navy is responding appropriately to China’s naval modernization effort."
https://news.usni.org/2019/12/23/report-to-congress-on-chinese-naval-modernization

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

No Swedish kowtow to diplomacy with Chinese characteristics:

China cools Sweden business ties after minister awards prize to Gui Minhai
Business trips called off after Swedish culture minister awards rights prize to detained dissident

China has called off two business delegation visits to Sweden after Stockholm presented a rights prize to dissident Gui Minhai in defiance of Beijing’s threat of “counter-measures”.

Tensions between the two countries have been strained since Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish citizen who is known for publishing scandalous books about Chinese political leaders out of a Hong Kong book shop, disappeared in 2015 before resurfacing on the mainland.

China had threatened “counter-measures” before 55-year-old Gui was awarded the Tucholsky award, which is given every year to a writer or a publisher being persecuted, threatened or in exile. The award was unveiled by Swedish culture minister, Amanda Lind, in November.

China’s ambassador to Sweden, Gui Congyou, said on Thursday [Dec. 19]: “As far as I know, two large delegations of businessmen who were planning to travel to Sweden have cancelled their trip.”

In early December, Sweden’s foreign ministry said Beijing had postponed a visit to Stockholm planned for 10 December to discuss trade. “China has no plans to return to this commission’s table at the moment. The ball is in the Swedish court. We are waiting,” Congyou said.

Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven said in November the country would not give into threats [emphasis added, c'mon Justin].

Gui disappeared from a holiday home in Thailand in 2015. Several months later, he appeared on Chinese state television confessing to a fatal drink-driving accident from more than a decade earlier.

He served two years in prison but three months after his October 2017 release, he was again arrested while on a train to Beijing while travelling with Swedish diplomats.

This month, Sweden’s former ambassador to Beijing Anna Lindstedt was accused of brokering an unauthorised meeting to try to get Gui freed. Lindstedt now faces trial and could face years in jail if convicted.

Gui’s supporters and family have claimed his detainment is part of a political repression campaign orchestrated by Chinese authorities.

China is Sweden’s eighth-largest trading partner, according to the Swedish Institute for statistics.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/china-cools-sweden-business-ties-after-minister-awards-prize-to-gui-minhai

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

US increasingly threatening to bring hammer down--hope Justin Trudeau and our compradors are paying attention:

US security chief warns UK against Huawei
The warning comes as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to decide whether to ban Huawei from the country’s 5G network.

The U.S. national security adviser said giving Huawei access to the U.K.'s 5G network poses a risk to British intelligence services.

Robert O’Brien said in an interview published in the Financial Times Tuesday that the Chinese equipment supplier would let Beijing steal U.K. state secrets “wholesale.”

“It is somewhat shocking to us that folks in the U.K. would look at Huawei as some sort of a commercial decision.” He said, “5G is a national security decision.”

The warning comes as U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to decide whether to ban Huawei from the country’s 5G network.

The U.S. has repeatedly urged allies to avoid Huawei on the basis that the company is used by Beijing to spy. Huawei denies the allegations.

The U.K. has come under extra pressure since it forms part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network with the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

O’Brien said in the interview that people in Europe, Japan, New Zealand and Australia [CANADA?] were waking up to the risks posed by Huawei.

He also used the interview to press German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been wavering on how to handle Huawei. Merkel is coming under pressure from lawmakers in her own party to shun the Chinese company, but is wary of doing so for fear of provoking reprisals.

“German citizens just are not ready to sign up for their state to become a vassal of Beijing [emphasis added],” O’Brien said.
https://www.politico.eu/article/us-security-chief-warns-uk-against-huawei/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[CBH99]

It shouldn't even be a debate.  There are plenty of companies in Canada, the US, and Europe that can provide the 5G network -- it's not like China is the only player in town. 

While I realize there are trade considerations, as well as freeing the 2 Canadian political prisoners (and preventing more from being taken) -- once they are released, there shouldn't even be a debate about whether Huawei is allowed to build our network.  (I personally think the whole 5G thing is bulls**t anyway, but since we seem determined to build this nonsense, may as well have it built by a company we can trust/control ourselves)

 

[a_majoor]

A Chinese protester holds a sign saying "Heaven will destroy the CCP" while facing a police officer with a drawn pistol. Luckily, she was not shot and apparently was able to leave the protest safely. This is a much larger level of defiance than previously, and I think we all know that without external support and a "safe haven", this will ultimately not end well for Hong Kong. On the other hand, what will the fallout be in the Mainland? Taiwan? The Chinese Diaspora?

https://www.theepochtimes.com/hong-kong-police-aim-gun-at-protester-holding-epoch-times-poster_3184292.html

Facing the Barrel of a Gun, Woman Holds Epoch Times Poster to Protest Hong Kong Police
BY EVA FU
28 CommentsDecember 24, 2019 Updated: December 26, 2019Share
 
In a stunning show of defiance, an unarmed Hong Kong protester held up a poster produced by The Epoch Times’ Hong Kong edition while gesturing at a police officer who had pointed a pistol towards her.

The Epoch Times has been unable to identify the woman, but understands that the police did not fire the weapon and that the protester safely left the protest scene on Dec. 22.

The poster contains a message that has become popular among Hong Kong protesters, reading “Heaven Will Destroy the CCP [the Chinese Communist Party],” in both Chinese and English. The slogan has spread to street corners, walls, and artworks in Hong Kong amid pro-democracy protests in recent months.

One protester previously explained the slogan’s meaning as “may God have mercy to break down the Communist Party.”

“We want the CCP [to] completely break down,” he said.

"We've heard the protesters just now chanting something called 'Tian mie zhong gong,' what does that mean?"@news_ntd's @PaulGreaney_ asks the meaning of what #HongKongProtesters are chanting, "may God have mercy to break down the communist party." pic.twitter.com/McykXoztiw

— The Epoch Times – China Insider (@EpochTimesChina) December 6, 2019

The incident on Sunday was one of the latest in more than six months of Hong Kong protests in anger against what they see as the Chinese regime’s growing encroachment into the city’s affairs. Protesters have consistently called for five demands, including genuine universal suffrage and an independent investigation into alleged police brutality.

Protesters organized the Sunday rally in support of the suppressed Uyghur minority in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang. That day, police also arrested at least two protesters attempting to burn a Chinese flag and used batons and pepper spray to disperse others.