Xinjiang: Twitter closes thousands of China state-linked accounts spreading propaganda

Twitter has shut down thousands of state-linked accounts in China that seek to counter evidence of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, as part of what experts called an “embarrassingly” produced propaganda operation.

The operations used photos and images, shell and potentially automated accounts, and fake Uyghur profiles, to disseminate state propaganda and fake testimonials about their happy lives in the region, seeking to dispel evidence of a years-long campaign of oppression, with mass internments, re-education programs, and allegations of forced labour and sterilisation.

Share

Liberal weasels offer deal to allow select MPs to see documents on fired ChiCom Winnipeg germ lab scientists

Justin Trudeau Xiangguo Qiu Keding Cheng – Everybody say Xi

OTTAWA — Parliamentarians could finally get a look at documents related to the firing of two scientists from Canada’s highest security laboratory — which the Liberals went to court to keep secret — under a new deal offered by the government.

Whatever is in there must be awfully embarrassing.

Share

Report: Authoritarian Governments Use Huawei Technology To Censor Journalists

Authoritarian governments use Huawei’s technology to censor journalists, according to an internet freedom watchdog.

Researchers at Top10VPN determined that 17 of the 69 countries studied use the Chinese telecom giant’s hardware to enforce censorship laws. Cuba uses Huawei’s “middlebox” devices to censor stories that criticize the country’s communist regime. In Burundi, the government blocks media outlets that have criticized the president. Fifteen other countries use Huawei hardware specifically to censor news, the report found.

Share

Beijing warns China-linked US businesses: you cannot ‘make a fortune in silence’

Beijing has urged US business groups with interests in China to “speak out” and lobby the US government in its defence, warning that as bilateral relations deteriorate they cannot make money “in silence”.

The vice-foreign minister Xie Feng, in charge of managing China’s relationship with the US, also urged against political boycotts of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, saying it harms the interests of athletes and was “unpopular”.

Key business groups including the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and the US-China Business Council, met Xie at a virtual forum on Tuesday, according to a transcript of his address.

Share

Surprise Electromagnetic Attack From China Part of Beijing’s ‘New Blitzkrieg’ Strategy

The United States is vulnerable to attack from an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), according to experts. Such an attack could devastate the nation’s power grid and wipe out vast swaths of the population.

“The risk of an EMP attack on U.S. infrastructure is very high, particularly in this international environment,” said Sam Kessler, a geopolitical adviser at North Star Support Group, a multinational risk management firm.

This won’t affect Canada as Justin’s economic policy will have us freezing in the dark.

Share

China Prepared to Launch Hostilities Against India Along Disputed Himalayan Border

Chinese missile-laden bombers flew over a contested border area with India recently, following the breakdown of bilateral talks between Indian and Chinese regional military commanders.

The near-simultaneity of the collapse of military negotiations and the threatening fly-over by People’s Liberation Army Air Force bombers underscores China’s willingness to punish India for having resisted Beijing’s territorial claims and aggression in the region.

China’s aggressive stance may also be, in part, motivated by Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping’s testing of the U.S. effort to develop strategic cooperation among America’s Pacific allies in order to curb Chinese expansionist policies. China is most likely also attempting to weaken the resolve of the non-U.S. countries of the so-called Quad — India, Australia and Japan — to rely on American promises to defend them.

Share

FBI Warns California Genetics Company Likely Shares Americans’ Health Data With China

The FBI says a genetics testing company with tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts is most likely providing Americans’ health data to China.

The agency told Los Angeles County officials last week it had obtained “very concerning information” about Fulgent Genetics, a California-based firm founded by Chinese-American billionaire Ming Hsieh. Los Angeles County sheriff Alex Villanueva said the FBI warned him and other county officials that Fulgent likely shares the health data it collects with the Chinese government.

Share

China’s disinformation campaign against Canada’s election is undeniable

It’s been more than two months since the September 20 federal election and the verdict is in. Not the verdict that put Justin Trudeau’s Liberals back in power with fewer votes than Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives, but the expert consensus that a disinformation operation hatched in Beijing was in operation during the campaign, and its target was primarily Chinese-Canadians.

Share

Facebook uncovers Chinese disinformation network behind Covid origins fake expert

Facebook owner Meta Platforms has removed more than 500 accounts linked to an online disinformation network primarily based in China.

The accounts had promoted the claims of a fake Swiss biologist called “Wilson Edwards”, who alleged the US was meddling in efforts to find the origins of Covid-19.

Edwards’ comments had been widely carried by Chinese state media outlets.

However, the Swiss embassy said that it was unlikely this person existed.

Share

Airbnb allegedly hosts Xinjiang rentals on land owned by sanctioned group

Airbnb has reportedly listed more than a dozen properties on land owned by the Xinjiang paramilitary corporation, which has been sanctioned by the US over its alleged involvement in mass human rights abuses against Uyghurs by the Chinese government.

The American media outlet Axios reported on Wednesday that the short-term rental company was at risk of exposure to US regulations preventing business dealings with sanctioned entities. Airbnb, which is a major sponsor of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, said it was not required to vet the “underlying landowner” of properties it lists.

Share

China Is The Primary Source Of Another Plague Killing Americans

While many in the U.S. have attacked China for its role in allowing COVID-19 to spread across the globe, China is also the primary source of another plague that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in recent years: Fentanyl.

Opioid and drug overdose deaths skyrocketed 200% in the U.S. from 2000 to 2014, and haven’t stopped increasing since. The country hit a record 63,600 deaths in 2016 and we crossed the 100,000 death threshold for the 12-month period following April 2020, with the majority of those deaths coming from synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

Share

The Moral Imperative to End China’s Regime

“We do business in 100 countries,” said Jamie Dimon to Fox News Channel’s Maria Bartiromo in early August. “And we do, we do it under the laws of those lands and under the law of America as they apply.”

“Foreign policy is set by the American government, not set by JPMorgan,” Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, argued.

Dimon is correct. The U.S. government does not prohibit banks or other companies from doing business in China.

Yet doing business in China strengthens a horrific regime, so the issue is not about legality, as Dimon suggests. It is about morality.

Share

Leaked papers link Xinjiang crackdown with China leadership

Excerpts from previously unpublished documents directly linking China’s crackdown on Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang province to speeches by the Chinese leadership in 2014 have been put online.

The documents – including three speeches by Chinese president Xi Jinping in April 2014 – cover security, population control and the need to punish the Uyghur population. Some are marked top secret. They were leaked to the Uyghur Tribunal – an independent people’s tribunal based in the UK.

In the documents, the highest levels of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) leadership call for Uyghur re-education and relocation to rectify an imbalance in the Uyghur and Han population in Xinjiang.

Share

China surveillance of journalists to use ‘traffic-light’ system

The Chinese province of Henan is building a surveillance system with face-scanning technology that can detect journalists and other “people of concern”.

Documents seen by BBC News describe a system that classifies journalists into a “traffic-light” system – green, amber and red.

Journalists in the “red” category would be “dealt with accordingly”, they say.

The Henan Public Security Bureau has not responded to a request for comment.

Share

UK Spy boss warns of China ‘debt and data traps’

Any strong words Trudeau may mouth about China are to be taken with a very large grain of salt.

MI6 chief Richard Moore has warned of China’s “debt traps and data traps” in his first live broadcast interview.

Mr Moore – known as “C” – told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme these traps threatened to erode sovereignty and have prompted defensive measures.

He denied the fall of Afghan capital Kabul was an intelligence failure and signalled closer ties with tech giants.

The decision to speak more openly about his work was important in a modern democracy, the ex-secret agent said.

Share