Chinese Military,Political and Social Superthread

[Lumber]

Jesus people you can't have it both ways. You want an "unbiased" rapporteur, but you all talk like you already knew what the outcome should be: a public inquiring. Since there was no recommendation for a public inquiry, it must mean that David Johnson is corrupt, not because his decision had any merit.

Second, you and all these pundits you're posting are completely ignoring the fact that he didn't say "nothing to see here folks, move along"; he just didn't recommend a formal public inquiry, which a very specific type of investigation established under the Inquiries Act. He's still intending on conducting an investigation into what went wrong and how we can improve things in the future.

 

[Lumber]

PP could simply have come out and said "he didn't agree with David Johnson's conclusions", and even put a clever "PP" spin on the tweet.

Instead, PP is directly accusing David Johnson of "covering up" Chinese influence in our election.

Questioning David Johnson's impartiality is one thing (and complete valid), but insinuting that he is actually covering up something as egregious as election interference is beyond the pale.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1661443512502558722

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Jesus people you can't have it both ways. You want an "unbiased" rapporteur, but you all talk like you already knew what the outcome should be: a public inquiring. Since there was no recommendation for a public inquiry, it must mean that David Johnson is corrupt, not because his decision had any merit.

Second, you and all these pundits you're posting are completely ignoring the fact that he didn't say "nothing to see here folks, move along"; he just didn't recommend a formal public inquiry, which a very specific type of investigation established under the Inquiries Act. He's still intending on conducting an investigation into what went wrong and how we can improve things in the future.

…and only bothering to interview Erin O’toole when the report was already in translation? Just a “misunderstanding”?

 

[dapaterson]

As someone who deals far too often with translation, sending incomplete drafts to translation while still working on the meat is a feature, not a bug - the translator gets to finish the easy stuff early, and then address more complex stuff under the final crunch when they are already aware of the file.

Lots of things to criticize, but being proactive in staffing documents is not one of them.

 

[FSTO]

Johnston did a good job under the arcs of fire he was given. But Trudeau should never have put that man in this position. There had to be some person out there who is clear of any whiff of compromise. Or is the pool of qualified Canadians that shallow and that incestious?

 

[OldSolduer]

Johnston did a good job under the arcs of fire he was given. But Trudeau should never have put that man in this position. There had to be some person out there who is clear of any whiff of compromise. Or is the pool of qualified Canadians that shallow and that incestious?

JT underbussed Mr. Johnston.

I’m pretty sure the LPC leadership knew this would happen.

Let us not forget the actions - pardon me - in actions of past governments

 

[brihard]

PP could simply have come out and said "he didn't agree with David Johnson's conclusions", and even put a clever "PP" spin on the tweet.

Instead, PP is directly accusing David Johnson of "covering up" Chinese influence in our election.

Questioning David Johnson's impartiality is one thing (and complete valid), but insinuting that he is actually covering up something as egregious as election interference is beyond the pale.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1661443512502558722

If and when he’s PM, unless he repeals the Security of Information Act, anything classified will still be sequestered from public view… So I mean, I’m not totally convinced that what he’s staying on this is in accordance with what could actually be meaningfully done.

If, in fact, he has not yet obtained a security clearance and accepted an offer of classified briefings on these matters, that would probably be a productive step. That’s as far as I’ll go in opining on the partisan political considerations in Canadian security intelligence review.

 

[FSTO]

JT underbussed Mr. Johnston.

I’m pretty sure the LPC leadership knew this would happen.

Let us not forget the actions - pardon me - in actions of past governments

Notice how they (LPC) continually mention that Johnston was appointed GG by Harper? This is political fuckery at its finest. Defence of the realm my ass, it’s defence of JT and the incompetent bozos that surround him.

Our issues are not a result of the LPC being in the back pocket of the CPC. It’s that the LPC in its current form cannot dig it’s head out of its ass when it comes to “Events dear boy, Events”

 

[FSTO]

If and when he’s PM, unless he repeals the Security of Information Act, anything classified will still be sequestered from public view… So I mean, I’m not totally convinced that what he’s staying on this is in accordance with what could actually be meaningfully done.

If, in fact, he has not yet obtained a security clearance and accepted an offer of classified briefings on these matters, that would probably be a productive step. That’s as far as I’ll go in opining on the partisan political considerations in Canadian security intelligence review.

We as a nation need to review our classification policies. A few security experts have mentioned that Canada’s document protection policies are the most restrictive in the 5 eyes and is likely the most in need of revamp.

“Just trust us” when they have abused our trust for years is not a way to get the general public to have faith in our national institutions.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I don't think Johnston cares one way or the other what we think of him. He's never travelled in the same circles as us peasants anyway. He's a Laurentien Elite, a class unto themselves, with egos and personalities important to them. Right now, to his circle, he's a rock star. Don't be worried about where his stature or reputation is. To those that are important to him he's golden. What we think, want or deserve is not his concern. He knew full well what he needed to do and how to do it.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Meanwhile, in the Pacific...

China-backed hackers ‘living off the land’ to target critical systems, says Five Eyes group​

Targets include US military facilities on Guam that would be key in an Asia-Pacific conflict, say Microsoft and western spy agencies


A state-sponsored Chinese hacking group has been spying on a wide range of US critical infrastructure organisations and similar activities could be occurring globally, western intelligence agencies and Microsoft have warned.

“The United States and international cybersecurity authorities are issuing this joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to highlight a recently discovered cluster of activity of interest associated with a People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber actor, also known as Volt Typhoon,” said a statement released by authorities in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK – countries that make up the Five Eyes intelligence network.

In a separate statement, Microsoft said Volt Typhoon had been active since mid-2021 and had targeted critical infrastructure in Guam, a crucial US military outpost in the Pacific Ocean. “Mitigating this attack could be challenging,” Microsoft said.

While Chinese hackers are known to spy on western countries, this is one of the largest known cyber-espionage campaigns against American critical infrastructure.

“Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that this Volt Typhoon campaign is pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises,” the tech company said.

“In this campaign, the affected organisations span the communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology, and education sectors.

“Observed behaviour suggests that the threat actor intends to perform espionage and maintain access without being detected for as long as possible.”

The US and western security agencies warned in their advisory that the activities involved “living off the land” tactics, which take advantage of built-in network tools to blend in with normal Windows systems.

It warned that the hacking could then incorporate legitimate system administration commands that appear “benign”.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. However Beijing routinely denies carrying out state-sponsored cyber-attacks, and China in turn regularly accuses the US of cyber espionage.

Guam is home to US military facilities that would be key to responding to any conflict in the Asia-Pacific region.

China-backed hackers ‘living off the land’ to target critical systems, says Five Eyes group

Targets include US military facilities on Guam that would be key in an Asia-Pacific conflict, say Microsoft and western spy agencies

www.theguardian.com

 

[Good2Golf]

Notice how they (LPC) continually mention that Johnston was appointed GG by Harper? This is political fuckery at its finest. Defence of the realm my ass, it’s defence of JT and the incompetent bozos that surround him.

It was a savvy move by Harper to appoint someone ‘nice enough’ that the Liberals wouldn’t dare push pack to Harper. It didn’t mean that Johnson fully captured a more conservative representation of Her Majesty in Canada.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

If and when he’s PM, unless he repeals the Security of Information Act, anything classified will still be sequestered from public view… So I mean, I’m not totally convinced that what he’s staying on this is in accordance with what could actually be meaningfully done.

If, in fact, he has not yet obtained a security clearance and accepted an offer of classified briefings on these matters, that would probably be a productive step. That’s as far as I’ll go in opining on the partisan political considerations in Canadian security intelligence review.

He was asked about it in a media scrum. He said as part of the Privy Council, he said he had it. (words to that effect, I'll try find the video of the media scrum). He also spoke to taking the briefings, he and the Bloc guy won't because they consider it a trap, knowing they'll be asked to swear to the secrecy of what turns up and effectively stops them from them from pursuing it in the House.

Just passing what I heard in the clip and on the news.

Still looking for the vid, here's a print copy that addresses some of it. Red Star but the main stuff is mostly there. The rest is opinion, but still fairly even given the source.

PressReader.com - Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions

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Got the vid. Pick it up the question around 7:15 - 8:30

Pierre Poliviere Johnson report – Qwant Search

The 1st European search engine that respects your privacy.

www.qwant.com

 

[OldSolduer]

If and when he’s PM, unless he repeals the Security of Information Act, anything classified will still be sequestered from public view… So I mean, I’m not totally convinced that what he’s staying on this is in accordance with what could actually be meaningfully done.

If, in fact, he has not yet obtained a security clearance and accepted an offer of classified briefings on these matters, that would probably be a productive step. That’s as far as I’ll go in opining on the partisan political considerations in Canadian security intelligence review.

The PM was making political hay of PP not accepting the clearance. And accused PP of partisan political attacks.

Hey Pot this is Kettle.....

AND it applies to all sides in this case.

 

[Rifleman62]

From The Line: By: Jen Gerson

Far be it from me to steal the thunder of my fellow editor, Matt Gurney, who did yeoman's work combing through the Johnston report shortly after it came out on Tuesday. I think he did some of the most able and credible snap analysis of any Canadian pundit, and was able to identify what ought to be the key reflections from the report.

As for me, I had a hard time justifying an in-depth examination of the report itself, for two major reasons. Yes, Gurney did it first and better. But also because that necessary work just struck me as profoundly futile.

I could note that, for all his eminence, David Johnston did not conduct a credible investigation into Chinese foreign interference, and that the entire exercise comes off as a painfully credulous whitewash that depended far too heavily on the word of the same people whose very competence and judgement are facing scrutiny.

Anyone who reads former CPC leader Erin O'Toole's explanation of how Johnston handled him or his party's concerns cannot then take the report seriously. By the time Johnston met with O'Toole to consider the dossier and evidence presented, his report had already been sent out for French translation. This is not behaviour indicative of someone who is taking his brief as an independent rapporteur seriously.

The report itself dedicates an entire section to media analysis in an attempt to discredit Global News and the Globe and Mail based on classified documents Johnston has seen, but cannot share. That alone is indicative of the true intent of this report; why did Johnston feel the need to trash the media, rather than simply share the findings of his oh-so-thorough investigations, and allow people to come to their own conclusions? Heck, I’m not even ruling out the possibility that some of my media peers have messed up the reporting — indeed, it would be normal for investigative teams to make some mistakes given the nature and limitations of the sources.

However, framing the report this way makes it seem as if the entire process has been jerry-rigged for such a result: the government hiding behind a reliable but well-credentialed member of their class to review classified documents for the sole purpose of undermining damaging media.

That's to say nothing of the obvious conflict of interest involved in appointing Johnston — a family associate of the prime minister — to the role of heading this investigation in the first place. Anyone who deserved the deference to judgement that he subsequently demanded would have been smart enough to realize he was not the correct individual for the job in the first place.

To top this all off, Johnston presented his painfully flawed report with the characteristically patronizing admonishment to the media and the Canadian public to rally around the credibility excited by his apparent eminence, to trust him and his government.

Well, I don't. I don't trust these people.

There is nothing in evidence here that convinces me that any of them are acting appropriately, competently or in good faith.

In a democratic society, authority does not demand trust, it earns it. The facts before me don't warrant any extraordinary leave from my ordinary degree of cynicism. To put it another way, I don't perfectly trust my own husband — and I like him. (That's a joke, honey.)

But of course, everyone reading this already agrees with me. Which brings me to the second problem: futility.

Because if you're allied with the Conservative camp, you're already outraged; if you are sympathetic to the NDP, equally so — but not so much as to challenge the Liberals' hold on power. And if you're a member of the third of the electorate that supports the Liberals, you're long-since convinced that there is no story here, that the media is out to get you and that all of the anger and opposition around Chinese foreign interference is nothing more than disingenuous partisan bluster.

And as long as you believe that — and as long as enough of you in key ridings in the 905 continue to believe that — the Liberals will maintain their tenuous hold on power and none of this will matter. The government will be able to get away with any egregious bullshit it wants and accountability on any file will be impossible. And the Liberals know it. Which is why they’re, even now, reportedly considering welcoming Han Dong back into the Liberal caucus and insinuating that the leaks are all motivated by malice.

So what's the point? Honestly. Why bother?

As I've written in columns previously, so much of the Liberals' response on controversial files has become extraordinarily daft. Take this case in point: Trudeau et al have botched their response to reports of Chinese interference at every single turn in ways that were both strategically short-sighted, and also utterly unnecessary. At every juncture, they made things worse.

The Johnston appointment and report is only the latest instance of this. The smartest move for the Liberals would have been to behave in ways that an innocent government would be expected to behave — to call a public inquiry into the matter of foreign interference, to take the issue seriously, to commit to improvements in the system to ensure foreign actors do not have undue sway over our electoral process and the like.

Instead, what we've been given is a half-baked, whitewash report by a conflicted “special rapporteur” that does absolutely zilch to restore trust in public institutions, kill the story, or convince members of our intelligence community that the government will take this issue seriously. Thus, the only obvious response for the leakers of this information is to leak harder.

The Liberals have squandered political capital to create a report that gives them superficial political cover to declare themselves vindicated in the short term. The price for this is some unknowable number of long-term consequences for both them, and for the country at large.

(And, yes, I'm aware that Johnston advised against an inquiry on the grounds that much of the material is classified. This is shoddy reasoning. As we saw with POEC, it’s entirely possible to run a credible public inquiry with a truly independent source deciding what information ought to be released to the public. Especially when that sources errs on the side of “quite a lot.” Frankly, so much of this classified information has been so dissected and rebutted in the media that they are effectively if not actually within the public domain. Further, there's no version of "national security" that ought to preserve secrecy over documents and information that preserve nothing more than the interests and expedience of the government in power.)

Regardless of one's partisan leanings, it ought to be obvious at this point that our government isn't running as well as it must, particularly in areas of national security. Communication between departments is dismal; ministers lack clearance to access crucial email data; information is stuffed into binders that no one tracks, ensuring there is no way to be assured that crucial information is making its way to necessary leaders. It's a disaster.

No ally — or enemy — will read Johnston's report and conclude anything good about the state of Canadian state capacity or decision making.

Even if I were a Liberal partisan I would imagine that, perhaps this is something it behooves us all to fix. But if I'm being honest, I don't have a lot of hope. Or trust.

 

[RangerRay]

It was a savvy move by Harper to appoint someone ‘nice enough’ that the Liberals wouldn’t dare push pack to Harper. It didn’t mean that Johnson fully captured a more conservative representation of Her Majesty in Canada.

I seem to recall all sorts of lefties complaining that Johnson was a Tory lackey/tool/insert bad name here. I hadn’t heard of his closeness to the Trudeaus and the United Front influence campaigns until he was given this new-fangled role.

 

[daftandbarmy]

China's influence activities are well known outside of Canada, which you wouldn't know from looking at what's going on inside of Canada of course

Chinese political interference has Western spooks worried​

With money and support, China hopes to bend foreign politicians to its will​

Christine lee once mingled easily with members of Britain’s elite. The Hong Kong-born British solicitor frequently visited Parliament, where legislators supported her work helping ethnic Chinese get more involved in politics. She even received an award for her efforts from Theresa May, who was then prime minister. The two were photographed together at Downing Street in 2019.

In January that award was rescinded—because, according to mi5, a British spy agency, Ms Lee has been covertly working for China. In a security notice issued to parliamentarians that month, the agency warned them about her “political interference activities”. It was the first of its kind naming China, though not a complete surprise. “You might think in terms of the Russian intelligence services providing bursts of bad weather,” said Ken McCallum in 2020, shortly after becoming mi5’s chief. “China is changing the climate.”

Britain is not the only Western country sensing a change in atmosphere. American officials also warn of covert attempts by China to bend local politicians to its will. The alarms grew louder during the presidency of Donald Trump. “China is expanding its influence efforts to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and counter criticism of China,” noted William Evanina, then the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Centre, in 2020.

Chinese political interference has Western spooks worried

With money and support, China hopes to bend foreign politicians to its will

www.economist.com

 

[Good2Golf]

I seem to recall all sorts of lefties complaining that Johnson was a Tory lackey/tool/insert bad name here. I hadn’t heard of his closeness to the Trudeaus and the United Front influence campaigns until he was given this new-fangled role.

I think Harper accepted it for the hypocritical bumpf it was at the time, knowing he had a silver bullet in the mag if he needed it later, and call BS on the “oh, our anointed one never knew him” that they would subsequently try for a slick second, until the truth came out…

 

[RangerRay]

Vice-regals were set up after retirement so they wouldn’t have to face the risks to their reputations of public roles again. Mr. Johnson is learning that now.

Philippe Lagassé: Former governors general should be neither seen, nor heard

Serving as a vice-regal representative should be the last public role an individual performs. That's what the money is for.

open.substack.com

Although his appointment has been plagued by questions about his perceived conflicts of interest, it’s hard to accept that Johnston set out to protect the Liberal party. Whether one agrees with him or not, Johnston's conclusions were arrived at sincerely and in keeping with his view that "Democracy is built on trust." Unfortunately, his recommendation against a public inquiry is not only bewildering from a political perspective, but could erode the very trust in democracy that he wants to strengthen.

Whatever we think about Johnston's first report, we should be concerned with his appointment as the special rapporteur. Aside from the perceived conflicts of interest, we should ask why a former governor general accepted the role in the first place. Serving as a vice-regal representative should be the last public role an individual performs. Any other public duty performed by a former governor general or lieutenant governor, however well-intentioned and performed, carries risks that can diminish these offices. Johnston’s experience is a cautionary tale for future vice-regals.

Although less vital, independence and non-partisanship are also important for the governor general’s ceremonial roles. Having the governor general bestow honours ensures that Canadians are recognized by a neutral, but high-standing, representative of the state. An ardent Conservative can receive the Order of Canada while a Liberal government is in power without wincing, since the prime minister and cabinet are kept at a safe distance from the whole thing.

Since governors general tend to be in office for about five years and make just over $350,000 while serving, this is a pretty sweet deal. The salary and annuity are meant to guard the independence of governors general against any financial enticements or offers of future employment. If governors general were worried about their income security after they leave office, the theory goes, they would be susceptible to influence from partisans dangling plum appointments and business connections in front of them.

In effect, the annuity is supposed to give former governors general “fuck you money”; anyone who tries to influence them can be told off. In less crass terms, the annuity allows governors general to mirror the independence the monarch enjoys in the United Kingdom owing to their hereditary position and considerable wealth.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Tom Mulcair weighs in and is not amused.