Is There a Tipping Point for China and Human Rights Violations???

[China]

Pro-China social media campaign hits new countries, blames U.S. for COVID

 

A misinformation campaign on social media in support of Chinese government interests has expanded to new languages and platforms, and it even tried to get people to show up to protests in the United States, researchers said on Wednesday.

 

Experts at security company FireEye (FEYE.O) and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google said the operation was identified in 2019 as running hundreds of accounts in English and Chinese aimed at discrediting the Hong Kong democracy movement. The effort has broadened its mission and spread from Twitter (TWTR.N), Facebook(FB.O) and Google to thousands of handles on dozens of sites around the world.

 

This expansion suggests Chinese interests have made a deeper commitment to the sort of international propaganda techniques Russia has used for several years, experts said.

 

Some of the new accounts are on networks used predominantly in countries that have not previously been significant Chinese propaganda targets, such as Argentina. Other networks have users around the world but with a large proportion in Russia or Germany.

 

False information about COVID-19 has been a major focus. For example, accounts on social networking sites vKontakte, LiveJournal and elsewhere in Russian, German, Spanish and other languages have asserted that the novel coronavirus emerged in the United States before China and that it was developed by the U.S. military.

 

Multiple Russian-language LiveJournal accounts used identical wording: "U.S. Ft. Detrick was the source of COVID-19," referring to the U.S. Army's Fort Detrick installation in Maryland.

In addition to promoting false information on the virus, researchers said priorities for the group include criticizing fugitive Chinese propagandist Guo Wengui and his ally, former Donald Trump strategist Steve Bannon, and exploiting concerns about anti-Asian racism.

 

“We have observed extensive promotion of Russian, German, Spanish, Korean, and Japanese-language content on U.S. and non-U.S.-based platforms, in addition to the typical English and Chinese-language activity that has been widely reported on,” FireEye said in a report published Wednesday. Many of the accounts link to each other or use the same photos, helping the researchers see connections among them.

 

Many of the posts echo claims in state-controlled Chinese media, and they are consistent with other government propaganda efforts.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Taiwanese Foreign Minister warns his country is preparing for war with China, asks Australia for help

 

Taiwan's Foreign Minister warns his nation is preparing for war with China and urges Australia to increase intelligence sharing and security cooperation as Beijing intensifies a campaign of military intimidation.

 

Dozens of aircraft from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have flown sorties into Taiwan's Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) since Friday, prompting the self-ruled island to scramble its own military jets.

 

 

Speaking to the ABC's China Tonight program, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu declared that if the PLA were to launch an actual strike, his democratic state would be ready to repel it.

 

"The defence of Taiwan is in our own hands, and we are absolutely committed to that," Mr Wu has told the ABC's Stan Grant in an interview to be broadcast on Monday evening.

"If China is going to launch a war against Taiwan we will fight to the end, and that is our commitment.

 

"I'm sure that if China is going to launch an attack against Taiwan, I think they are going to suffer tremendously as well."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

China launches suspected anti-satellite weapon into space

 

China has launched a new satellite that analysts say can be used as a weapon capable of grabbing and crushing American satellites.

 

The Shijian-21 satellite was sent aloft on Sunday atop a rocket booster from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, ostensibly for cleaning “space debris,” according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, Beijing’s state-run space company. The company stated that the satellite is “tasked with demonstrating technologies to alleviate and neutralize space debris.”

 

The robotic satellite launch followed a suspected recent test of a new hypersonic missile that Chinese officials said was a peaceful space experiment.

 

The commander of the U.S. Space Command, Air Force Gen. James Dickinson told Congress in April that spacecraft like the Shijian-21 is part of an effort by China to seek “space superiority through space and space-attack systems.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Chinese tennis star says she is safe in video call with Olympic official: IOC

 

Chinese tennis star Peng Shaui had a video call on Sunday with the president of the International Olympic Committee and told him she was safe and well, the IOC said in a statement.

Photos and videos of Peng at a tournament in Beijing earlier on Sunday had done little to dampen international concerns, following a nearly three-week public absence after she alleged that a former senior Chinese official sexually assaulted her.

 

In a statement, the IOC said that at the start of the 30-minute call with its president Thomas Bach, Peng had thanked the IOC for its concern about her well-being.

 

“She explained that she is safe and well, living at her home in Beijing, but would like to have her privacy respected at this time,” the IOC’s statement said.

 

“That is why she prefers to spend her time with friends and family right now. Nevertheless, she will continue to be involved in tennis, the sport she loves so much.”

 

France’s foreign minister had earlier called on the Chinese authorities to provide more reassurance, echoing a statement by the Women’s Tennis Association that the images were “insufficient” proof.

 

“I’m expecting only one thing: that she speaks,” France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian told LCI television, adding that there could be unspecified diplomatic consequences if China did not clear up the situation. The United States and Britain had also called for China to provide proof of Peng’s whereabouts.

 

Current and former tennis players, from Naomi Osaka to Serena Williams to Billie Jean King, had joined the calls seeking to confirm she was safe, using the social media hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai?

 

The concern over Peng came as global rights groups and others have called for a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February over China’s human rights record.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Xi is so full of ****.

 

Xi says China will not seek dominance over Southeast Asia

 

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday said his country will not seek dominance over Southeast Asia or bully its smaller neighbors, amid ongoing friction over the South China Sea.

 

Xi made the remarks during a virtual conference with the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, held to mark the 30th anniversary of relations between China and the grouping.

 

Two diplomats said ASEAN member Myanmar was not represented at Monday’s meeting after its military-installed government refused to allow an ASEAN envoy to meet with ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other arrested politicians. Military ruler Gen. Min Aung Hlaing was also barred from representing his country at the last ASEAN summit.

 

China has repeatedly sought to overcome concerns about its rising power and influence in the region, particularly its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea that overlaps the claims of ASEAN members Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines.

 

“China resolutely opposes hegemonism and power politics, wishes to maintain friendly relations with its neighbors and jointly nurture lasting peace in the region and absolutely will not seek hegemony or even less, bully the small,” Xi said, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Renegade7]

Calling them small says what he thinks of them...

[China]

China’s nominee for Interpol role meets international opposition, sparks fears for dissidents

 

China is defending the candidacy of a senior public security official for Interpol’s executive committee in the face of rising criticism from foreign politicians and human rights groups who fear his election could put thousands of Chinese political dissidents abroad at risk. 

 

The official, Hu Binchen, is one of three candidates up for two seats as Asia delegates on the 13-member committee, which sets policy and direction for Interpol and supervises the work of its general secretariat.  

 

Interpol, the international police network that counts 194 members, controls a number of databases that collect information that is shared among forces to take action against terrorists and fugitive criminals, including fingerprints, DNA and facial recognition data. It also operates the system of “red notices,” requests “to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition.”

 

Fifty politicians from 20 countries, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., as well as lawmakers from the U.K., Australia and the European Parliament, wrote to their governments last Monday urging them to oppose Hu’s election.

 

Hu’s election would “be giving a green light” to China’s government “to continue their misuse of Interpol and would place the tens of thousands of Hong Konger, Uyghur, Tibetan, Taiwanese and Chinese dissidents living abroad at even graver risk.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

China warns of 'firm countermeasures' if US stages diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics

 

China is threatening to take "firm countermeasures" against the U.S. if the Biden administration decides to go ahead with a possible diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games in February next year.

 

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said such a move would be an “outright political provocation,” but gave no details on how China would retaliate, The Associated Press reported.

 

Those calling for a boycott should stop "so as not to affect the dialogue and cooperation between China and the United States in important areas," Zhao added, according to Reuters.

 

The Biden administration is expected to announce a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics this week, CNN reported on Sunday. The White House declined to comment on CNN's report.

 

The decision would mean no U.S. government officials attend next year's Games, though U.S. athletes could still compete. 

 

“Without being invited, American politicians keep hyping the so-called diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic, which is purely wishful thinking and grandstanding,” Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing, according to the AP.

 

The potential U.S. boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics comes as ties between the two countries have been strained by China's actions on Taiwan, human rights, Hong Kong, the South China Sea and trade.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[CousinsCowgirl84]

I like the “don’t say your not coming but also you weren’t invited” passive aggressiveness.

[China]

 

[ixcuincle]

 

[China]

JOURNAL RETRACTS PAPER BASED ON DNA OF VULNERABLE CHINESE MINORITIES

 

A HIGHLY REGARDED scientific journal has retracted a paper based on DNA samples from nearly 38,000 men in China, including Tibetans and Uyghurs who almost certainly did not give proper consent.

 

The rare retraction by the journal, Human Genetics, follows a two-year crusade by a Belgian scientist to push publishers to investigate research that he and others say is complicit in human rights violations.

 

The paper’s authors used DNA samples from across China to assess genetic variation among and within ethnic groups. The journal’s editors retracted the paper because of doubts about the informed consent process.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

China lists 100 topics citizens can't include in online vids

 

China's Netcasting Services Association has issued a list of 100 topics local netizens must not include in short videos posted online.

 

The list, officially the "Online Short Video Content Review Standard Rules (2021)", includes predictable prohibitions on mocking China's leadership, or suggesting that history did not unfurl precisely as the Chinese Communist Party's textbooks describe.

 

But the regs also add some new red lines – among them a ban on using clips from TV shows. Clips of shows not permitted to be shown in China are also forbidden.

 

So is depiction of unconventional marriages. Sex is out, and so are fig leaves, or fig-leaf sized token garments that almost cover body parts likely to be depicted during sex.

 

Discussions of extreme nationalistic politics or fascism are barred, as is anything that challenges the doctrines of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.

 

Cryptocurrency also makes the list, with vids that promote mining it, trading it, or speculating on its values now forbidden.

 

Other banned themes include depiction of:

-Drug use, and the effects of having taken drugs;
- Gambling machines;
- Organised crime activities and gangs;
- Glorification or glamorisation of crime;
- Violence or mental abuse.

 

The Register has sought to understand how China's citizens respond to rules of this sort, since they greatly restrict self-expression. We understand they do so stoically – with occasional outbursts like puns on alpacas – because flouting the rules can reduce access to jobs, education, and even access to high-speed internet.

 

Sanctions also await platforms that host vids deemed inappropriate. The Register expects it won't be long before China's Cyberspace Administration starts scolding, then fining, the likes of Tencent, Douyin, and Weibo for vids that don't comply with the new rules.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Documents show Chinese government collects droves of data from Western social media: report

 

China is using part of its internal internet surveillance network to mine data from Western social media and provide its government agents with information on foreign targets, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

 

Reviewing hundreds of Chinese bidding documents, contracts and company filings, the Post reported that China's public opinion analysis software — used to detect politically sensitive information online — was also being used to collect information on foreign targets through U.S. companies like Twitter and Facebook.

 

Not only is China using its pre-existing software to gather data, it is also investing in more sophisticated programs to further its ambitions, the Post reported. One $320,000 Chinese state media software program reportedly mines through Twitter and Facebook to create a database of foreign journalists and academics.

 

Other programs have reportedly been developed to observe Western and foreign language in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, two places where the international community has condemned China for its alleged human rights violations. The Post reported that these operations have been in the works since the beginning of 2020.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Activists urge Tesla to close its new Xinjiang showroom

 

American activists are appealing to Tesla Inc. to close a new showroom in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, where officials are accused of abuses against mostly Muslim ethnic minorities.

 

Tesla on Friday announced the opening of its showroom in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital, and said on its Chinese social media account, "Let's start Xinjiang's all-electric journey!"

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an American organization based in Washington, D.C., on Monday urged Tesla and its chairman, Elon Musk, to close the showroom and "cease what amounts to economic support for genocide."

 

Pressure on foreign companies to take positions on Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan and other politically charged issues has been rising. The ruling Communist Party pushes companies to adopt its positions in their advertising and on websites. It has attacked clothing and other brands that express concern about reports of forced labor and other abuses in Xinjiang.

 

"No American corporation should be doing business in a region that is the focal point of a campaign of genocide targeting a religious and ethnic minority," the group's communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, said in a statement.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Sex, Drugs, and Homosexuality Censored in China’s ‘Friends’

 

Friends fans in China have been offended by a heavily censored version of their beloved sitcom, with suggestive lines altered and LGBTQ plots removed entirely.

 

The country’s major video platforms, including Tencent Video, Alibaba’s Youku and Bilibili, started streaming the first season of Friends on Friday, in the first re-release of the show in years. 

 

But fans soon found the new version very different. For example, it never mentions Ross’ ex-wife Carol is a lesbian. Joey and Chandler’s New Year’s Eve kiss in the 10th episode never happens.

 

When Joey advises Ross to go to “strip joints,” the Chinese subtitle reads “go out to play.” And when Ross says women can have “multiple orgasms” in the fifth episode, the line is translated as “women have endless gossip.”

 

Imported films and TV shows often get edited when they are approved for release in China, where the Communist Party requires all media content to reflect what it deems correct aesthetics, morality, and ideology. When Friends: The Reunion was released in China last year, scenes featuring Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and BTS were removed, possibly due to past political controversies. 

 

Although scenes related to violence, drug use, and sex are often removed from foreign shows, people are still shocked and angered by the heavy censorship of the sitcom that premiered nearly 28 years ago. 

 

Many fans say the removal of lesbian and sexual references shows China’s increasingly conservative censorship rules are going against the global trend of growing diversity. Even a 2012 version released in China was less censored. That version was taken down in 2018. 

 

“I would rather they didn’t import it,” a user said on the microblogging site Weibo. “What’s the point?” 

 

“Do they think they can reduce the number of lesbians in China by deleting lesbian plots?” another person said. 

 

Following an outcry against the censorship, microblogging site Weibo censored the hashtag #FriendsCensored, citing “relevant laws, regulations and policies.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

AP Exclusive: US admiral says China fully militarized isles

 

China has fully militarized at least three of several islands it built in the disputed South China Sea, arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment, and fighter jets in an increasingly aggressive move that threatens all nations operating nearby, a top U.S. military commander said Sunday.

 

U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Adm. John C. Aquilino said the hostile actions were in stark contrast to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s past assurances that Beijing would not transform the artificial islands in contested waters into military bases. The efforts were part of China’s flexing its military muscle, he said.

 

“I think over the past 20 years we’ve witnessed the largest military buildup since World War II by the PRC,” Aquilino told The Associated Press in an interview, using the initials of China’s formal name. “They have advanced all their capabilities and that buildup of weaponization is destabilizing to the region.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

It's the Daily Mail, so must be taken with a grain of salt, but here it is nevertheless:

 

China's leader Xi Jinping is suffering from brain aneurysm and wants to be treated with traditional medicine, reports claim

 

Chinese premier Xi Jinping won't go under the knife to treat a rumoured brain aneurysm, reports in China claim.

 

Bloggers suggested the Beijing leader, 68, prefers traditional medicine and will refuse brain surgery, according to posts removed by state censors.

 

At the start of the pandemic, China worked to export traditional medicine options for the treatment of Covid. Xi was one of the campaign's leading advocates. 

The premier has reportedly struggled as a wave of ultra-strict Covid lockdowns across China stretch the nation's economy - and the government's ability to suppress dissent.

 

He is thought to have been rushed to hospital late last year after doctors spotted a bulging blood vessel in his brain, news agency ANI reported.

 

Like Putin, Xi's health has always been a closely guarded secret. 

 

Click on the link for more

[China]

Western powers sound alarm on China’s plan for South Pacific

 

Western powers sounded the alarm Thursday over leaked plans to dramatically expand China’s security and economic reach in the South Pacific, in what one regional leader called a thinly veiled effort to lock island states into “Beijing’s orbit”.

 

If approved by Pacific island nations, the wide-ranging draft agreement and a five-year plan would give China a larger security footprint in a region seen as crucial to the interests of the United States and its allies.

 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi rejected Western criticism of Beijing’s deepening engagement in the Pacific as he launched an eight-nation tour to present the potentially lucrative offer.

“China’s cooperation with Pacific Island countries does not target any country,” he said in the Solomon Islands’ capital Honiara, while warning other countries not to interfere.

 

“All the Pacific island countries are entitled to make their own choice instead of being just mere followers of others,” he told journalists.

 

The Chinese package would offer 10 small island states millions of dollars in assistance, the prospect of a China-Pacific Islands free trade agreement and access to China’s vast market of 1.4 billion people.

 

It would also give China the chance to train local police, become involved in local cybersecurity, expand political ties, conduct sensitive marine mapping and gain greater access to natural resources.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[China]

On 10/4/2021 at 2:29 PM, China said:

Taiwanese Foreign Minister warns his country is preparing for war with China, asks Australia for help

 

Taiwan's Foreign Minister warns his nation is preparing for war with China and urges Australia to increase intelligence sharing and security cooperation as Beijing intensifies a campaign of military intimidation.

 

Dozens of aircraft from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have flown sorties into Taiwan's Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) since Friday, prompting the self-ruled island to scramble its own military jets.

 

 

Speaking to the ABC's China Tonight program, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu declared that if the PLA were to launch an actual strike, his democratic state would be ready to repel it.

 

"The defence of Taiwan is in our own hands, and we are absolutely committed to that," Mr Wu has told the ABC's Stan Grant in an interview to be broadcast on Monday evening.

"If China is going to launch a war against Taiwan we will fight to the end, and that is our commitment.

 

"I'm sure that if China is going to launch an attack against Taiwan, I think they are going to suffer tremendously as well."

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

‘Smash to smithereens’: China threatens all-out war over Taiwan

 

China will “not hesitate to start a war” and “smash to smithereens” any Taiwan independence efforts, its defence minister warned his US counterpart in the pair’s first face-to-face talks.

 

“If anyone dares to split Taiwan from China, the Chinese army will definitely not hesitate to start a war no matter the cost,” Defence Minister Wei Fenghe said during a meeting with Lloyd Austin on Friday.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Renegade7]

4 hours ago, China said:

 

‘Smash to smithereens’: China threatens all-out war over Taiwan

 

China will “not hesitate to start a war” and “smash to smithereens” any Taiwan independence efforts, its defence minister warned his US counterpart in the pair’s first face-to-face talks.

 

“If anyone dares to split Taiwan from China, the Chinese army will definitely not hesitate to start a war no matter the cost,” Defence Minister Wei Fenghe said during a meeting with Lloyd Austin on Friday.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Sorry, but the more I look at their "no limits" friendship with Russia that clearly has limits and Russia treating nuclear holocaust every day that ends in Y, I'm not buying "no matter the costs".

[Larry]

1 hour ago, Renegade7 said:

 

Sorry, but the more I look at their "no limits" friendship with Russia that clearly has limits and Russia treating nuclear holocaust every day that ends in Y, I'm not buying "no matter the costs".

Just pointing out, China is absolutely not Russia. 

[Renegade7]

4 minutes ago, Larry said:

Just pointing out, China is absolutely not Russia. 

 

They are when it comes to making outrageous threats that get to the point of becoming hallow. 

 

They speak in hyperbolic absolutes when they really don't mean that, same as Russia. 

 

Not saying they wouldn't go to war over Taiwan, but no being "no matter the costs" at all given they are seeing how bad the sanctions are in Russia on Ukraine and bulking at helping then circumvent them out of fear if getting their own sanctions.  Clearly they have limits and costs they won't accept with respect to stopping Taiwan independence.

[CousinsCowgirl84]

I’m not really sure Taiwan is worth dying for? Taiwan has always been a part of China and has never been officially independent where has Ukraine was and has been a separate country.
 

I am slightly more understanding of China wanting Taiwan to be a part of them than I am of Russia wanting Ukrain.

Edited June 12, 2022 by CousinsCowgirl84

[Renegade7]

46 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

I’m not really sure Taiwan is worth dying for? Taiwan has always been a part of China and has never been officially independent where has Ukraine was and has been a separate country.
 

I am slightly more understanding of China wanting Taiwan to be a part of them than I am of Russia wanting Ukrain.

 

I'm sure a pro/con table can be made for every country "worth dying for", even ours...