China

U.S. Rep. Chris Smtih (R-N.J.) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who chair the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), sent letters to the chief executives Costco and ADI.

The PRC-based brands’ products are banned for use by the U.S. government and “implicated in assisting with genocide and other horrific human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR),” the lawmakers said.

In addition to identifying Muslim students that are fasting during Ramadan, based on their dining records, the Minjiang University smart campus project tracks and provides school management with extensive information on a person’s daily habits and life, according to the tender.

Within the 600 page tender Hikvision won from the Chinese government is the outline of a system called the "Assisted Analysis Of Ethnic Minority Students" which is intended to support administrators' "decision-making" and includes a feature that alerts administration to students suspected of fasting, according to a study.

This includes details on book borrowing, holiday destinations, passport use, student club activities, information about family members and where individuals stand on their application for membership to the Chinese Communist Party.

While reasons for observing fasting may vary, Beijing’s repression of Muslims raises suspicions that China wants to watch tired and hungry students observing the holy month of Ramadan, during which the faithful abstain from eating or drinking from dawn to sunset.

The credits were sourced from the Bachu carbon project, which was developed by South Pole, the world’s largest carbon consultancy. The project focussed on a biomass power plant in Xinjiang, China, which said it would lower global carbon emissions by using waste cotton stalks from nearby fields to generate electricity.

Surveillance cameras now cover the Damascus Gate, the main entrance into the old city of Jerusalem and one of the only public areas for Palestinians to gather socially and hold demonstrations. It’s at that gate that “Palestinians are being watched and assessed at all times”, according to an Amnesty International report, Automated Apartheid.

These cameras have created a chilling effect on not just the ability to protest but also on the daily lives of Palestinians who live under occupation, according to Amnesty investigators. The organization had previously concluded that Israel has established a system of apartheid against Palestinians.

The Annualex exercises that began Saturday off Japan’s coast also included the United States, Australia and Canada. Their aim is to demonstrate and increase ways the navies can work together, and show their presence and commitment to defend a “free and open” Indo-Pacific, which the allies say is hampered by China’s growing ambitions that include sweeping territorial claims.

In September, the Chinese Communist Party made a move to further subjugate and control religious institutions in China and the occupied regions of Tibet, East Turkestan and Southern Mongolia.

French oil company Total and majority state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) are on the cusp of building the world’s longest heated oil pipeline right through the heart of Africa - with devastating environmental and social consequences.

"Stretching for nearly 1,445 kilometers, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) would have disastrous consequences for local communities, for wildlife and for the entire planet," StopEACOP, an alliance of dozens African and international NGOs says.

"The project threatens to displace thousands of families and farmers from their land. It poses significant risks to water resources and wetlands in both Uganda and Tanzania – including the Lake Victoria basin, which over 40 million people rely upon for drinking water and food production," it says.

On the alliance's website, the communities detail their experiences of wrongful displacement, income loss, militarization, and environmental degradation under this project, which is being forced upon them by CNOOC, Total, and their governments.

The pipeline would rip through numerous sensitive biodiversity hotspots, and risk significantly degrading several nature reserves crucial to the preservation of threatened elephant, lion and chimpanzee species.

And of course, burning more crude oil is the last thing our planet needs, the Alliance says.

EACOP will increase the severity of the global climate emergency by transporting oil that will generate over 34 million tons of carbon emissions each year. The pipeline would open up critical ecosystems in the landlocked regions of Central and Eastern Africa to commercial oil exploitation.

Building a massive crude oil pipeline in 2021 when the whole world is trying to urgently shift away from fossil fuels makes no sense – environmentally or economically.

The people of Uganda and other neighboring countries in East and Central Africa shouldn’t be burdened with the money-losing and polluting industries of yesterday ­– they should have the same opportunities to embrace the clean renewable energy of the future and all the benefits that come with it.

Economic strength will come from celebrating the area’s rich diversity, heritage and nature. Investing in sustainable industries like tourism and in reforestation programs will provide more jobs and better long-term security to local communities than the dying oil industry would.

The future hangs in the balance, but as we’ve seen in so many cases around the world, when we unite to support local communities taking a stand for their rights and a better future, we can be a powerful match for any corporate giant.

The video (6 min) is here: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=oj4F98NoezQ

Or at tbe bottom of this page: https://www.stopeacop.net/why-stop-eacop

Even though Beijing has sought to reassure entrepreneurs and foreign investors that China is open for business, experts say the steady stream of investigations — including cases of detention — are unsettling executives.

“The message was clear: Regardless of global financial status, if you are a Chinese company, you will work with the Chinese government first and foremost; and if you do not, you will suffer significant consequences,” said Doug Guthrie, a professor and the director of China Initiatives at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management.

The pro-democracy Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (HKPTU) – the city’s largest single-industry union with more than 95,000 members – passed a special resolution in September 2021 to dissolve after Chinese state-run People’s Daily and news wire Xinhua denounced it as a “poisonous tumour” that must be “eradicated” and the city’s education authorities severed ties with it.

Now the dissolution is set to complete, the union announced. Remaining funds will be distributed to its members.

The Philippines on Friday condemned China's coast guard for "dangerous manoeuvres" that "put the lives of our people at risk", including its use of a water cannon against one of its boats, in an attempt to disrupt a resupply mission in the South China Sea.

For years, Manila and Beijing have been embroiled in on-off confrontations at the Second Thomas Shoal as China has become more assertive in pressing its maritime claims, alarming rival claimants and other states operating in the South China Sea, including the US and Japan.

After Oct. 7, China’s internet — from message boards to video platforms to social media — suddenly flooded with viciously anti-Israel and antisemitic comments. Pointing to Israel’s actions against the Palestinians, people have said things ranging from support for Hitler and Nazi Germany to the idea that oppressed Jews have become oppressive Nazis.

At least 16 people have been accused of spying for China since the start of the year, compared with the 44 espionage cases registered by Taiwan's Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau between 2013 and 2019.

This comes as China's claims over the self-governed island have turned more threatening, with increased military and political pressure. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to take the island, even as US support for Taiwan has grown more vocal.

Unit 42, a cyber risk intelligence firm, has identified malicious Chinese APT infrastructure masquerading as cloud backup services. According to a report, the detected activity "is believed to be part of a long-term espionage campaign".

Monitoring telemetry associated with two prominent Chinese APT groups, the experts observed network connections predominately originating from the country of Cambodia, including inbound connections originating from at least 24 Cambodian government organizations.

There is "high confidence that these Cambodian government entities were targeted and remain compromised by Chinese APT actors," Unit 42 writes in the report, adding that this assessment is due to the malicious nature and ownership of the infrastructure combined with persistent connections over a period of several months.

Cambodia and China maintain strong diplomatic and economic ties. Since Cambodia signed on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, the relationship between these two countries has grown steadily.

In recent years, China’s most notable investment has been a project to modernize Cambodia's Ream Naval Base. This project generated controversy and drew scrutiny from several Western nations due to initial attempts by both countries to conceal the project.

As the project nears completion this year, the naval base is on track to become China’s first overseas outpost in Southeast Asia. As such, this project demonstrates how significant Cambodia is to China’s ambitions of projecting power and expanding naval operations in the region.

Affected government agencies include the National Defense, Election Oversight, Human Rights, National Treasury, Finance, Commerce, Politics, Natural Resources and Telecommunications, while these organizations hold vast amount of sensitive financial data, citizen information and classified government documents.

"The observed activity aligns with geopolitical goals of the Chinese government as it seeks to leverage their strong relations with Cambodia to project their power and expand their naval operations in the region," the cyber experts conclude.

They encourage all affected organizations to leverage their findings to inform the deployment of protective measures to defend against this activity, which are also listed in the report.

[Edit typo.]

In keeping with the theme of this year’s summit, “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All,” participating APEC countries should also prioritize action on climate change and economic justice, while reaffirming international human rights norms and institutions to confront worsening repression and instability around the world.

“The Chinese government is not going to change its conduct unless it faces sustained public pressure about its horrendous crimes in Xinjiang and Tibet, intensifying repression across China, and the dismantling of democracy in Hong Kong,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Government leaders at APEC need to press President Xi both about domestic rights violations and China’s efforts to undermine global human rights norms.”

While China's role in Egyptian ports reflects Beijing’s growing ambitions in the region, the opacity of the Sino-Egyptian agreements and the blurry lines between China's commercial ports and its military aspirations raise questions about the potential implications, writes Amr Salah Mohamed, non-Resident scholar with The Middle East Institute's Program on Egypt and the Horn of Africa.

"While China's role in Egyptian ports reflects Beijing’s growing ambitions in the region, the opacity of the Sino-Egyptian agreements and the blurry lines between China's commercial ports and its military aspirations raise questions about the potential implications," he writes.

At present, 54 nations with over 110 stations are reportedly functioning under the mandate of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), undertaking monitoring and coercion of nearly 230,000 Chinese living abroad to return to China and face charges for raising concerns over the brutality of Xi Jinping’s regime.

The typical modus operandi of the secret Police is to control Chinese residents by hook or crook; the tactics adopted by the Chinese police range from threats, coercion, illegal arrests and forced disappearances of family members living in China, kidnapping, or luring Chinese dissidents to a foreign country having relatively less strict laws or with whom China holds good bilateral relations.

Persuasion, intimidation, and harassment are utilised, either through the victim’s family, friends, and loved ones staying in China, or with agents approaching the target overseas.

Chinese secret police stations set up in foreign countries play an important role in all these activities.

Global Affairs Canada said the campaign, which accelerated over the first weekend of September, featured a bot network that "left thousands of comments" in Canada's two official languages - English and French - on the social media accounts of several Canadian politicians.

The comments claimed that a critic of the Chinese Communist Party in Canada had accused the various politicians of criminal and ethical breaches.

"The Spamouflage campaign also included the use of likely 'deep fake' videos, which are digitally modified by artificial intelligence, targeting the individual," Global Affairs Canada said.

The incident was the second of two encounters the Ottawa’s helicopter had with Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy J-11 fighter jets over international waters on October 29, which saw the fighters get as close as 100 feet from the helicopter, said Maj. Rob Millen, air officer aboard the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ottawa, the warship from which the Sikorsky Cyclone helicopter was flying.

The move was prompted by a complaint from a coalition of 28 organizations, including Stop Uyghur Genocide Canada, the Uyghur Refugee Relief Fund and the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project.

The complainants allege that Zara has ties with Huafu Top Dyed Melange Yarn Co., Shandong Zoucheng Guosheng and Xinjiang Zhongtai Group, three Chinese companies singled out by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in 2020 and Sheffield Hallam University’s Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice in 2022 for their involvement in the exploitation of Uyghurs through state-sponsored labor transfers and work placements.

Taiwanese businessman Morrison Lee spent almost four years locked up or under an exit ban in China, detained only because he had postcards deemed sensitive and a few publicly-taken shots of military vehicles on his phone.

Lee is one of many overseas victims of China’s secret RSDL jail system. Under what is called 'Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location', police can hold victims incommunicado without sunlight, exercise, or access to a lawyer for six months. Well-known RSDL victims include the Canadian Michaels (Kovrig and Spavor), Australian journalist Cheng Lei, and countless Chinese human rights lawyers.