An army of western social media influencers, each with hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok, Instagram or Twitch, is set to spread positive stories about China throughout next month’s Winter Olympics.
Concerned about the international backlash against the Beijing Games amid a wave of diplomatic boycotts, the government has hired western PR professionals to spread an alternative narrative through social media.
The ruling mullahs of Iran are strengthening their ties with the Chinese Communist Party as well as conveniently violating US sanctions without facing any repercussions from the Biden administration.
Canada must continue to engage with China despite its ongoing concerns about the country’s human rights record at home — and new evidence of its efforts to coerce dissidents living abroad to return.
That’s the message from two Canadians with extensive experience working inside China. They spoke to CBC’s The House in an interview airing Saturday about the challenge of balancing the need for security with economic interests when dealing with a superpower that doesn’t share Canada’s democratic values.
“I think that as Canadians, we need to fight for what we think is right, but also fight for our own position in things,” said Sarah Kutulakos, executive director of the Canada-China Business Council.
As Russia continues its troop build-up along the border with Ukraine, China has markedly increased its military activity near Taiwan. The twin geopolitical flashpoints, separated by 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles), are raising concerns that Russia and China could coordinate or conduct concurrent military offensives that the United States and its allies may find difficult to stop.
A failure to deter Russia and China — deterrence, especially military pre-positioning near the area under threat, is the least costly way to avoid war — would deal a potentially crushing blow to the post-World War II liberal international order. That system, whose principles and norms — including adherence to the rule of law, respect for human rights and the promotion of liberal democracy, as well as preserving the sanctity of territorial sovereignty and existing boundaries — has regulated the conduct of international relations for nearly 80 years.
China has brought back anal swab testing to screen for Covid-19 in a bid to stop the spread of the Omicron variant, just two weeks before the Beijing Winter Olympics begin.
At least 27 people underwent the controversial anal swab tests at an apartment building in Beijing where a 26-year-old woman had contracted Omicron, the city’s first recorded case of the variant, according to Chinese newspaper The Beijing News.
The anal tests involve inserting a sterile cotton swab up to two inches (5cm) into the rectum and rotating it several times. The swab is then removed before being analysed in a lab.
As the latest wave of COVID cases surges in the West, all is quiet in the East. It has always been quiet. Millions have died from the coronavirus epidemic as it sweeps the world. However, few consider it strange that the nation where the virus first appeared amid an entirely unprotected public of 1.3 billion people should record a mere 4,636 fatalities over the past three years.
It’s become a boring habit of Chinese supreme leader Xi Jinping and his senior officials to ridicule any effort by the world’s democracies to uphold some modicum of “rules-based” international decorum as evidence of a zero-sum “Cold War” mentality. It’s a propaganda tool that has proved somewhat useful in the work of infantilizing the western “discourse” around China, which is why Beijing employs it so frequently.
An official with China’s Olympics organizing committee has cautioned foreign athletes against speaking out during next month’s Winter Olympics, warning that any behavior that violates Chinese regulations could potentially get them ejected from the Games.
“Any expression that is in line with the Olympic spirit I’m sure will be protected, and anything and any behavior or speeches that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment,” said Yang Shu, deputy director-general of Beijing 2022’s international relations department.
‘I’m ready to risk everything’: Documents from failed prosecution detail GTA engineer’s alleged offer to spy for China
“I’m willing to be of paramount service to the Chinese government,” disgruntled naval engineer Qing Quentin Huang said during one of two calls to the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa, unaware the line had been wiretapped by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
Those phone calls in November 2013 led the RCMP to arrest Huang in Burlington, Ont., for allegedly attempting to spy for China. At the time, the Mounties told the public his actions were “a threat to Canada.”
Eleven fishermen and five “related personnel” reaped the rewards of their vigilance on Monday – quite literally – with authorities in China’s Jiangsu Province remunerating them generously for capturing a total of 10 “suspicious foreign devices with spying functions in Chinese territorial waters since 2020.” According to China’s state-affiliated Global Times outlet, upon technical investigation all 10 drones turned out be foreign-made and “posing a threat to national security.”
Liberals ask Conservatives to reconsider stance on Winnipeg lab documents
OTTAWA – Liberal house leader Mark Holland is again asking the Conservatives to agree to a compromise over documents the government wants to keep secret on the firing of two scientists from Canada’s national microbiology lab.
In July 2019, scientist Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted from the National Microbiology Laboratory and then later fired.
Federal authorities are investigating Chinese investment in a California-based plane maker after shareholders alleged that the firm’s technology was being transferred to China, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The FBI and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) have launched separate reviews of Chinese investment in small plane manufacturer Icon Aircraft Inc., according to the WSJ, which cited company documents and people familiar with the matter. The authorities are investigating allegations that technology from the company with military applications was transferred to China.
The year of the Tiger, 2022, is shaping up to be a year of escalating tension between the world’s two major superpowers. It will be go big or go home.
Not only will the U.S. go big against China, but it is likely the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will see 2022 as an opportunity to go big against the U.S. The target will be Taiwan.
For the CCP, the most important domestic and international goal is reclaiming and integrating Taiwan into the political, economic and military sphere of China. In 2022, we will see the CCP taking the first major offensive steps to move this process forward. The existing long-term framework will be challenged in a way not seen before, including possible kinetic military action against Taiwan.
America picked a bad time to elect Joe Biden president.
China’s Olympic app contains ‘simple but devastating’ flaw
TORONTO — Researchers at a Toronto-based tech laboratory have uncovered security vulnerabilities and censorship frameworks in an app all 2022 Beijing Olympics attendees must use.
The Citizen Lab, a research institute at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy that studies spyware, found a “simple but devastating” flaw in the MY2022 app that makes audio files, health and customs forms transmitting passport details, and medical and travel history vulnerable to hackers.
Golden State Warriors owner Chamath Palihapitiya wants fans to know he doesn’t care about China trampling on human rights.
