China in Latin America – Part 1

In 2000, China’s trade with Latin America amounted to $12 billion. By 2019, the number had grown to a staggering $330 billion.

The astounding growth is suggestive of how China’s influence in Latin America has deepened over the past two decades.

China’s involvement in Latin America clearly seems to be translating into control, and not just of national resources. “In the past four years, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Panama have each switched their recognition from Taiwan to China”, TIME Magazine wrote in February.

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US intel and satellite images show Saudi Arabia is now building its own ballistic missiles with help of China

US intelligence agencies have assessed that Saudi Arabia is now actively manufacturing its own ballistic missiles with the help of China, CNN has learned, a development that could have significant ripple effects across the Middle East and complicate the Biden administration’s efforts to restrain the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the Saudis’ top regional rival.

Saudi Arabia is known to have purchased ballistic missiles from China in the past but has never been able to build its own — until now, according to three sources familiar with the latest intelligence. Satellite images obtained by CNN also suggest the Kingdom is currently manufacturing the weapons in at least one location.

The Bug-Out is going to plan says the State Department.

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Glavin: The demise of the Special Committee on Canada-China Relations is not a good look

It was one of Parliament’s only open windows into the Trudeau government’s secretive dealings with Xi Jinping’s regime in Beijing. It was one of the few vantage points available for Canadians to get a glimpse of the Chinese regime’s influence operations in Canada.

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Pundits, Diaspora Groups Criticize Tories for Not Reviving Canada–China Committee

Just wants to be loved. Is that so wrong?

From pundits to groups representing the Chinese and Hong Kong diaspora in Canada, many have expressed disappointment over the Conservative Party’s decision not to bring back the committee that probed Canada-China relations in the new Parliament.

The Conservatives say they will not be launching a bid to revive the House of Commons Special Committee on Canada–China Relations (CACN) formed in the last Parliament, according to The Globe and Mail. The committee examined a range of topics and issues related to China, including the Beijing-linked Huawei, Beijing’s influence operations in Canada, and China’s human rights record, among other topics.

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Harvard professor found guilty of hiding ties to Chinese-run recruitment program

A Harvard University professor charged with hiding his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program has been found guilty on all counts.

Charles Lieber, 62, the former chair of Harvard’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of filing false tax returns, two counts of making false statements, and two counts of failing to file reports for a foreign bank account in China.

The jury deliberated for about two hours and 45 minutes before announcing the verdict after five days of testimony in Boston federal court.

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CCP Paid DC Radio Station $4.4 Million To Broadcast Propaganda

The Chinese Communist Party paid a Washington, D.C., radio station $4.4 million over the past two years to broadcast propaganda, according to new federal foreign agent disclosures.

The Virginia-based Potomac Media Group detailed its lucrative contract with the Communist Party’s International Communication Planning Bureau in filings last Thursday with the Justice Department. As part of the deal, Potomac Media’s WCRW, an AM station, airs content from China Global Television Network and a series of talk shows that portray China in a positive light.

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‘Ill-considered’ vaccine deal quashed by China cost Canadian taxpayers $250,000 for aborted study

China’s decision to effectively quash a deal for Canada to test and produce a Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine cost the government more than a quarter-million dollars, newly released figures indicates.

The National Research Council (NRC) paid Dalhousie University $253,997 to conduct a clinical trial of the CanSino Biologics vaccine last year — though the trial had to be called off before any patients were actually treated, a disclosure document posted online says.

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China Planning the Ultimate Genocide; Biden Responding with Empty Words

President Joe Biden on December 15 “smirked and walked away” when a reporter wanted to know why he has not asked Beijing “to do more to be transparent on the origins” of COVID-19.

China’s coronavirus has now killed more than 806,400 Americans, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

China lied about the contagiousness of COVID-19 and then, while locking down China, pressured other countries to take arrivals from its soil without restrictions or quarantines.

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Tories boycott security committee over Trudeau refusal to release docs on fired ChiCom scientists

OTTAWA — Erin O’Toole is refusing to name Conservative members to the national security and intelligence committee of parliamentarians.

The Conservative leader pulled his party’s MPs from the committee last spring to protest the Liberal government’s refusal to hand over unredacted documents related to the firing of two scientists from Canada’s highest security laboratory.

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Canada, allies must confront China challenge united after two Michaels: Trudeau

 

OTTAWA — Canada owes no debts to its allies, including the United States, for their help in standing up to China and bringing the Meng Wanzhou-two Michaels affair to a close, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Canada and the U.S. resolved the nearly three-year standoff with China by holding firm to their shared belief in the “rules-based” international order, and that united approach will be key to confronting the challenges posed by China in the future, Trudeau said in a year-end interview with the Ottawa bureau of The Canadian Press.

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Chinese spies have penetrated Taiwan’s military, case documents reveal

TAIPEI – For more than 20 years, Xie Xizhang presented himself as a Hong Kong businessman on visits to Taiwan. He now stands accused of having another mission: recruiting spies for China.

On one trip in 2006, Xie met a senior retired Taiwanese navy officer, Chang Pei-ning, over a meal, according to official documents accusing the pair of espionage. Chang would become one of Xie’s agents, the documents allege, helping him penetrate Taiwan’s active military leadership as part of a long-running Chinese operation to build a spy ring among serving and retired military officers.

The Taiwanese officers and their families were allegedly lured by Xie’s offers of all-expenses-paid trips abroad, thousands of dollars in cash payments, and gifts such as silk scarves and belts for their wives. In June 2019, counter-espionage officers moved against Xie’s network, launching raids that uncovered further evidence, according to the documents, which were reviewed by Reuters. Now, Chang is facing espionage charges and a warrant has been issued for the arrest of Xie. According to a person familiar with the case, Xie is not in Taiwan.

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Liberals’ Decision on Huawei Still Pending, While Reports Mount on Telecom Giant’s Alleged Spying Activities

It’s been more than two months since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government will announce “in the coming weeks” its decision on whether to ban Chinese telecom giant Huawei from Canada’s 5G network. But as Ottawa drags its feet on a decision, reports on Huawei’s alleged espionage activities continue to mount.

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, senior fellow at the University of Ottawa’s graduate school of public and international affairs, says the decision to ban Huawei is a no-brainer, considering the “overwhelming evidence” that Huawei equipment has been used to spy for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) around the world.

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Conservative Party will not seek to bring back Commons China committee

The federal Conservatives say they will not launch a bid to resurrect a parliamentary committee that probed Canada-China relations for more than eighteen months.

In December, 2019, Conservative MP Erin O’Toole, before he became leader of his party, spearheaded a motion in the Commons to establish the special Committee on Canada-China relations. It was created over the objections of the governing Liberals and with the support of the Bloc Québécois and NDP.

At the time, Mr. O’Toole as the party’s foreign-affairs critic said: “The challenge of the China relationship is the foreign-policy challenge that Canada will face over the next generation.”


Seems odd for a party that claims China interfered in the last election costing the conservatives seats. I guess he doesn’t want to upset the China vote.

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