Thread: The View, from China

China harvests masses of data on Western targets, documents show

China is turning a major part of its internal Internet-data surveillance network outward, mining Western social media, including Facebook and Twitter, to equip its government agencies, military and police with information on foreign targets, according to a Washington Post review of hundreds of Chinese bidding documents, contracts and company filings.


China maintains a countrywide network of government data surveillance services — called public opinion analysis software — that were developed over the past decade and are used domestically to warn officials of politically sensitive information online.

The software primarily targets China’s domestic Internet users and media, but a Post review of bidding documents and contracts for over 300 Chinese government projects since the beginning of 2020 include orders for software designed to collect data on foreign targets from sources such as Twitter, Facebook and other Western social media.


The documents, publicly accessible through domestic government bidding platforms, also show that agencies including state media, propaganda departments, police, military and cyber regulators are purchasing new or more sophisticated systems to gather data.


These include a $320,000 Chinese state media software program that mines Twitter and Facebook to create a database of foreign journalists and academics; a $216,000 Beijing police intelligence program that analyzes Western chatter on Hong Kong and Taiwan; and a cybercenter in Xinjiang, home to most of China’s Uyghur population, that catalogues the mainly Muslim minority group’s language content abroad.

MORE.


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Obviously, amerka would never do anyting like dat. Just ask Angela Merkel. Of course they are gathering information, all of them.

Chinky bastards will still be at it all through 2022.

Expect China to maintain this pace through 2022 by launching, among other things, the first, greenfield, automated, 21st century city for six million knowledge workers.

Why don't they just use one of those many unoccupied ones that lay around unused?

It's a win-win.

How China's Ghost Cities Are Linked to the Evergrande Crisis?

MI6 chief thanks China for ‘free publicity’ after James Bond spoof | China | The Guardian

That acting is even worse than lakorn.

That's a point- will the next James Bond be Oriental?

Originally Posted by sabang

That's a point- will the next James Bond be Oriental?

No, but they could create another spy character, call him "Chin Ki" or something.

Originally Posted by hallelujah

MI6 chief thanks China for ‘free publicity’ after James Bond spoof | China | The Guardian

That acting is even worse than lakorn.

It's a bit mean criticising the chinkies' poor attempt at comedy, considering they are a miserable bunch of fuckers with next to no sense of humour.

Originally Posted by sabang

That's a point- will the next James Bond be Oriental?

"Oriental"? You never really did live there, did you.

MI6 chief thanks China for ‘free publicity’ after James Bond spoof | China | The Guardian

*Cringe*

Would you have prefer I put Mongoloid?

Yup, confirmed . . . navy yes. HK? Hardly.

Will the next 007 be Oriental poontang? Suzy Wong Ho? I'd love to visit hot, steamy Wanchai one day, and have one of those world famous Singapore slings.

Last year, there was rarely a week when international attention wasn't on China.

Disappearing celebrities, billionaire crackdowns, the Evergrande fiasco, hypersonic missile tests, Hong Kong activist arrests, trade wars, climate goals, COVID.
This was hardly a coincidence.

When President Xi Jinping came into power in 2012, he set out to make his agenda widely known — both domestically and internationally.

Unlike his predecessor Hu Jintao — a man of mystery who carried the stereotype of being dull and wooden — Mr Xi has fiercely asserted himself on the world stage.

While at home, he has strategically consolidated power, and enforced sweeping structural reforms in Chinese economy and society that have transformed the country at warp speed.



President Xi has secured his place in history as China's most powerful leader since Chairman Mao. (Reuters)

In the last few years, the high-profile leader has been ramping up his bold diplomatic rhetoric, stamping out opponents, and spreading the country's tentacles of influence across the Pacific, the South China Sea, Africa and beyond.

And after abolishing presidential term limits in 2018, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in November last yearpassed a "historic resolution" elevating Mr Xi's authority to the same pedestal as era-defining leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

It seems unlikely the President will be shrinking away anytime soon.

He currently heads all branches of the CCP, government and military, and the 68-year-old's sights are set to inevitably extend his rule into a third five-year term this year.

Let's look back at some of his signature moves over the past nine years, and what the future holds for China and the world under his leadership.

China's biggest anti-corruption crackdown

Introduced soon after becoming Chairman of the CCP, Mr Xi's pledge to crackdown on "tigers and flies" – high- and low-level officials – has become China's most sweeping anti-corruption campaign.
It has been both his greatest challenge and strongest political weapon.

"He inherited a communist regime, and the Chinese Communist Party was facing a lot of challenges," Dr Ming Xia, a professor of political science at the City University of New York, told the ABC.

"It was divided among itself, and the corruption was out of control."

Mr Xi arrived when China was basking in the glow of its economic golden years.

For two decades, China had the fastest-growing economy in the world and entrepreneurs were becoming billionaires seemingly overnight.

Leading with the catchcry, "to get rich is glorious", the reforms of supreme leader Deng in the 70s and 80s helped pave the way for the country's rapid accumulation of wealth.

This surged to new heights in the succeeding decades, but with little regulation a culture of corruption was allowed to spread throughout the business world and into the CCP ranks.

Well-connected Chinese business tycoon Desmond Shum detailed the extent of the political palm-greasing in his memoir Red Roulette.

On any given night, he said entrepreneurs would host members of the communist party elite in private hotel dining rooms, buying favours to seal lucrative business deals.

Wooing government officials with $1,000 bowls of maw fish soup, $25,000 watches and so many deal-brokering trips to the bathhouse that one employee's skin started peeling off was "just the cost of doing business in China in the 2000s," Mr Shum told the ABC.


4 million snared in the great party purge

Focusing much of his attention within the CCP itself, in 2014 Mr Xi set an example when ex-security chief Zhou Yongkang became the most senior Chinese official to be arrested and expelled from the Communist Party for corruption.


There were many more to come.

By 2018, the campaign had reportedly snared more than 2 million party, government, military, and state-owned company officials.

According to Professor Xia, that number now stands at around 4 million.

"This purge has been a chance for him to be regarded as a meat grinder. As this meat grinder he is working very fast and hurting the Chinese elite," he said.

Singaporean former diplomat and political commentator Kishore Mahbubani sees the crackdown as one of Mr Xi's great achievements, saying he has so far successfully overcome "many big challenges like growing corruption and factionalism in the party".

"He's been riding a very wild horse over the last nine years, and kept going at a steady pace," he told the ABC.


While the anti-corruption drive has instilled more trust among some parts of society, the President has been accused of using the campaign to neutralise political opponents.

"We know that this anti-corruption has been used – and to some extent abused – by Xi Jinping to purge his political opponents or competitors," Professor Xia said.

Mr Shum claims that many corrupt officials are still within the top echelons of the political party today, and they were being protected through Mr Xi's "selective" campaign.

Full article- President Xi Jinping is set to extend his 10-year rule in 2022. This is how China has transformed under his reign - ABC News

Originally Posted by sabang

I'd love to visit hot, steamy Wanchai one day

I wonder if the average chinky knows they're being spied on all the time?

AMSTERDAM, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Dutch athletes competing in next month's Beijing Winter Olympics will need to leave their phones and laptops at home in an unprecedented move to avoid Chinese espionage, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant reported on Tuesday.

Dutch athletes warned to keep phones and laptops out of China -media | Reuters

Washington has been attempting to instigate a conflict between China and its neighboring countries. The political elites in Washington do not believe China and Russia can retain a long-lasting and stable relationship, and they think a war will inevitably break out between China and India. They measure major power relations with a zero-sum mentality and apply their own experience of "a powerful country is bound to threaten its neighbors" to think of others.

But the reality tells a different story. China-Russia relations have entered their best period in history. China and India generally remain rational and restrained. While those policy elites cannot believe it, they just try every possible means to make a fuss from tiny issues. Their ridiculous mania has come to the extent of collective hysteria.

It is high time that the US' geopolitical self-obsession come to an end. It has tried to fool the other major powers like monkeys, and treated small countries like bananas to tame the monkeys. Washington wants to repeat the abandoned Cold War fantasy, but when it wakes up, it will find that the circus has dissolved, with no audience left.

Sowing discord shouldn’t be ‘smart power’ of the US: Global Times editorial - Global Times

That should really be in the chinky whinging thread.

This is the chinky whinging about amerka whinging thread 'arry.

No FTA signing, but steps are being taken.

China, Gulf countries pledge advancing partnership, FTA talks

By Cao Siqi and Wan Hengyi Published: Jan 12, 2022 11:36 PM




Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right) meets with Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf, secretary-general of the GCC, on Tuesday in Wuxi, East China’s Jiangsu Province. Photo: fmprc.gov.cn

"China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) issued a joint statement on Wednesday, calling for the establishment of a strategic partnership, promotion of the free trade agreement negotiations, and implementation of a free trade area.

The statement is seen as a direct reflection of the broad consensus reached when Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf, secretary-general of the GCC, on Tuesday in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu Province. The secretary-general and foreign ministers of four Middle East countries - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain - are visiting China from Monday to Friday.

China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) issued a joint statement on Wednesday, calling for the establishment of a strategic partnership, promotion of the free trade agreement negotiations, and implementation of a free trade area.

The statement is seen as a direct reflection of the broad consensus reached when Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf, secretary-general of the GCC, on Tuesday in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu Province. The secretary-general and foreign ministers of four Middle East countries - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain - are visiting China from Monday to Friday.

Chinese analysts on Middle East affairs said it highlights the strong will shared by China and the GCC in in-depth cooperation, and proves that the first-ever group visit of GCC countries to China, which is seen as "historically unprecedented" amid domestic resurgences in COVID-19 cases as well as the approaching of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, is not run-of-the-mill but has strategic significance.

During the meeting, Wang said that in recent years China and the GCC have consolidated their political mutual trust and deepened practical cooperation. China appreciates the GCC's understanding of and support for China's propositions on issues concerning China's core interests and major concerns. China also firmly supports GCC countries in safeguarding their national independence, security and stability, the Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

Nayef said that the GCC greatly appreciates China's important influence and positive role in international and regional affairs, and has high expectations for the future of bilateral relations.

The two sides agreed that the conditions for China and the GCC to establish a strategic partnership are ripe, and they will accelerate this process. They will also work together to formulate and sign an action plan for strategic dialogue in the next three years. They also agreed to complete negotiations on a free trade agreement between China and the GCC at an early date.

Yin Gang, a researcher at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the joint statement showcases the strong will on enhancing cooperation between China and the region. He predicted further high-level exchange visits with other countries.

"At the beginning of the New Year, China was engaged in diplomatic exchanges with the Gulf, indicating that China will attach great importance to political, economic, scientific and technological cooperation with countries in the Middle East," Yin told the Global Times, noting that the statement lays a solid foundation for advancing the negotiations of the FTA.

The expert noted that as the US has reduced the existence and investment in the Middle East, the Arab countries know that they need a partner like China which is neutral and strong.

China's consistent position is to develop equal relations with all countries, which is an important basis for mutual trust, Yin said, noting that stability in the region also could help China guarantee its security in energy imports and the advancement of its Belt and Road Initiative."

China, Gulf countries pledge advancing partnership, FTA talks - Global Times

Gosh, imagine that, the GCC schmoozing one of its best customers.

The Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus has caused a surge in infections in the United States, with the country reporting more than 1 million new cases daily of late. It is surprising that the US, with less than 5 percent of global population, accounts for more than one-fifth of the total cases worldwide and 15 percent of the deaths.

How come the world leader in medical science and treatment, as well as science and technology has such an ignoble COVID-19 record?

Despite being battered by the pandemic for more than one and a half years, the US chose not to respond to the Omicron variant threat and instead let it run wild, putting not only the American people but also people in the rest of the world in danger.

The US, in a way, has fueled social Darwinism, for 75 percent of those who have died in the country of COVID-19 were aged 65 or above. The pandemic has also exposed the chronic disease of racial discrimination in the form of unfair vaccination and high rates of infections and deaths among ethnic minority groups.

Washington has sabotaged the global fight against the pandemic in more ways than one and threatened global health security by not fulfilling its responsibilities as a superpower despite being a global leader in science and technology and having the best medical facilities in the world.

While previous US president Donald Trump withdrew the US from the World Health Organization and declined to shoulder his responsibility as a global leader, greatly harming global cooperation in the fight against the virus, incumbent President Joe Biden, despite changing some of Trump's policies, continues to follow his predecessor when it comes to encouraging virus-related disinformation against China, contaminating global public opinion.

Besides, the US has disrupted global supply chains by promoting decoupling of the Chinese and US economies. For example, US officials intercepted 200,000 made-in-China masks destined for Germany at Bangkok airport in Thailand, and redirected them to the US when the pandemic broke out in early 2020. In essence, it was piracy.

The US has not only helped cause an immunity gap worldwide but also wasted a lot of resources out of selfishness. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US wasted at least 15.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from March to September, and reportedly has let more vaccines expire than what many developing countries have received.

World should not foot the bill for US failure - Opinion - Chinadaily.com.cn

So this is chinkystan saying the US should pay for the Wuhan virus?

That's a bit like baldy orange cunto saying Mexico should pay for the wall.

Syria joins BRI to rebuild amid wars, Western sanctions, pandemic via cooperation with China


By GT staff reporters Published: Jan 13, 2022 12:21 PM Updated: Jan 13, 2022

" Syria on Wednesday joined China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which experts said is a great achievement of the BRI as it now has connected with the whole Middle East, demonstrating its influence and appeal.

The achievement comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping's phone conversation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in November, 2021 and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Syria in July, last year. It also comes amid intensive visits of six other Middle East countries' foreign ministers to China. The move also demonstrates that China is playing an increasingly important role in coordinating the Middle East as the region is seeking development and stability via looking to the East amid COVID-19 and changing ties with the US.

The deal will help Syria open broad horizons of cooperation with China and other countries and rebuild itself amid wars and economic sanctions from the West, like how China has helped Iraq, experts noted.

The ceremony of Syria's admission into the BRI took place at the Planning and International Cooperation Commission in the capital Damascus and was attended by Fadi Khalil, the head of the commission, and Feng Biao, China's ambassador to Syria, during which both sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Syria joining the BRI, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The BRI, proposed by China in 2013, comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming to build a trade, investment, and infrastructure network connecting Asia with other parts of the world along the ancient Silk Road trade routes and beyond.

Besides Syria, Nicaragua also signed an MOU to jointly push the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road on Wednesday as China and the Central American country moved closer to strengthen bilateral relations and economic cooperation.

"More and more countries joining the BRI amid the impact of the pandemic indicates that development and exchanges are what the world wants to see. For Arab countries, economic development is a precondition for them to step out of chaos caused by wars, for which, the BRI will be a good opportunity," Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Thursday.

The severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Middle East has made countries in the region realize that the US' strategy would not do them good. The priority for these countries is to defeat the pandemic and revive their economies as soon as possible. China has proven to be the appropriate partner to work with in both fields, experts noted.

Khalil said the admission of Syria into the initiative revives the old role of Syria in the ancient Silk Road and will help in boosting bilateral cooperation with China and multilateral cooperation with other countries.

Feng added that the cooperation between the two countries provides the greatest contribution to the economic reconstruction and social development of Syria and it also enhances the harmonization between the BRI and the eastward strategy proposed by Syria.

The ambassador said the BRI is in line with the desire of the world for broad economic participation, noting that the initiative has become the biggest international cooperation platform in the world.

"Syria's participation in the BRI means that the BRI now has no blind angle in the Middle East, demonstrating its influence and appeal," said Zhou Rong, a senior researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.

Syria, long crippled by Western sanctions, has been struggling economically and is eager to rebuild itself. Cooperation with China under the BRI will revive Syria's economy and help it fight the pandemic, Zhou said.

Damascus faces a serious power shortage in part due to lack of necessary infrastructure. Any infrastructure-focused help to Syria will be a much-needed shot in the arm, said Zhou.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, Chinese investment in Syria had totaled $135.7 billion by 2019. The two sides' bilateral trade totaled $1.3 billion in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 3.3 percent."

Syria joins BRI to rebuild amid wars, Western sanctions, pandemic via cooperation with China - Global Times

China and Nicaragua sign MoU to push BRI cooperation


By Global Times Published: Jan 13, 2022 12:17 AM

"Nicaragua became the latest nation to join the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as China and the Central American country moved closer to strengthen bilateral relations and economic cooperation.

According to a post on WeChat by the National Development and Reform Commission on Wednesday, the governments of China and Nicaragua signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly push the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

So far, China has signed more than 200 agreements with 146 countries and 32 international organizations on the joint construction of the BRI, according to the post.

Media also reported earlier that Beijing and Managua signed an agreement for the mutual exemption of visas for holders of diplomatic passports, service passports, and public or official affairs passports.

Nicaragua joined China's BRI about one month after China and Nicaragua announced the resumption of diplomatic relations. China also sent an envoy to the country to attend the inauguration ceremony of Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega held on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Ortega administration has been facing pressure from western countries, as the US and the EU imposed sanctions on several Nicaraguan officials for their participation in what the US Treasury called "fraudulent national elections."

Analysts said that BRI projects, such as public infrastructure and telecommunications, will benefit residents of Nicaragua given the country's stable political situation.

Data released by the Ministry of Commerce of China also show that China's non-financial direct investment in countries along the BRI surged by 12.7 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2021. "

China and Nicaragua sign MoU to push BRI cooperation - Global Times