China news roundup / Nachrichten 2023-02-09

We Still Don’t Know the Truth About Covid

"Testing either hypothesis would require access to Wuhan lab records, biological samples, and personnel as well as frozen blood samples collected in 2019 by various Wuhan blood banks. The malfeasance of China’s rulers is the primary reason the international community doesn’t have access to these resources and data. Since the early days of the pandemic, Chinese officials have systematically destroyed samples, hidden records, imprisoned citizen journalists asking questions about the pandemic’s origins, and enforced a gag order on scientists."

--- Needs to be remembered, particularly since there are still Western scientists telling us that we can simply trust Chinese scientists, because science is oh-so independent.

"In a now infamous February 2020 letter in the Lancet, and in an equally problematic letter in Nature Medicine the next month, some of these scientists labeled any questions about a possible lab origin as “conspiracy theories,” even though they lacked evidence to dismiss the lab-leak hypothesis.
But in September 2021, a leaked Defense Department document revealed that some of the same scientists had worked together, along with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, on a 2018 proposal to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Their project? Genetically engineering rare gain-of-function features, called furin cleavage sites, into SARS-like viruses in their possession.
To its credit, Darpa didn’t fund that research, but it was highly significant—or spectacularly coincidental—that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, containing this precise feature never-before-seen in any SARS-like virus, began infecting people in Wuhan the next year."

--- Spectacularly coincidental. Indeed.

Chinese balloon capable of gathering intelligence - US official

"China also took aim at US President Joe Biden after he said during a PBS interview that Chinese leader Xi Jinping was facing "enormous problems". Those remarks were "highly irresponsible and violate basic diplomatic protocols""

--- Because demigod emperor Xi never has any problems. He sits on his heavenly cloud & watches as local cadres might have problems. But they are obviously not his problems.

"The US is considering taking action against groups linked to the Chinese government that were involved in the balloon's flight"

--- Interesting. More sanctions incoming?

"The latest US government information suggests that the craft indeed was some type of surveillance balloon, experts told the BBC.
"The types of antennas are meant for surveillance technology and this is not something you would expect for any type of scientific mission,""

--- You just don't understand China. Obviously, Chinese science is so advanced that Chinese scientists are trying to communicate with the atmosphere. They are trying to save the world from climate change.
cf.: US officials disclosed new details about the balloon’s capabilities

China wants to dominate the ‘near space’ battlefield. Balloons are a key asset

"“With the rapid development of modern technology, the space for information confrontation is no longer limited to land, sea, and the low altitude. Near space has also become a new battlefield in modern warfare and an important part of the national security system,” read a 2018 article in the PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
And a range of “near-space flight vehicles” will play a vital role in future joint combat operations that integrate outer space and the Earth’s atmosphere, the article said.
[...] Chinese researchers, both military and civilian, have published more than 1,000 papers and reports on “near space,” many of which focus on the development of “near space flight vehicles.” China has also set up a research center to design and develop high-altitude balloons and stratospheric airships, or dirigibles, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a top government think tank.
One particular area of interest is surveillance. While China already deploys a sprawling satellite network for sophisticated long-range surveillance, Chinese military experts have highlighted the advantages of lighter-than-air vehicles. "

--- If you go for plausible deniability, perhaps you should keep such research secret.

EU, UK to receive Xinjiang chief despite UN findings on human rights abuses

"“We can confirm that the Chinese mission to the EU informed the [European External Action Service] that a delegation from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region – led by the Governor of the Region — would visit Brussels in February,” Peter Stano, the EU’s spokesman on foreign policy, said."

--- But will EU officials meet him?

"His plan to visit Europe comes less than half a year after the U.N.’s human rights body found that China has committed “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghur Muslim community, adding that such acts are potential crimes against humanity."

--- Which makes him potentially vulnerable for legal action. He's personally responsible for what's going on in Xinjiang.

"British and Belgian activists are threatening to launch legal action against Tuniyaz once he’s on European soil."

--- Good. Could get interesting.

Pressure on China’s factories grows as U.S. demand falls

"“You have some high youth unemployment and there is a pool of labor, but when you start looking into it in a specific city, it’s hard to find both the qualified supervisors” and technical workers
[...] the majority only have at best a middle school education, making it hard for them to change to another industry"

--- But, but, but ... We've been told over & over again how great China's education system is. & how great the CCP is at planning ahead. How then can there be massive unemployment & lack of workers at the same time?

Sherman: China has ‘penetrated’ UN to declaw its oversight

"the U.S. government could adopt the same strategy of stacking U.N. agency staffing lists with its own people to counteract China’s putative efforts.
“Not to want to copy too many things from Chinese, but we could definitely take a lesson from their paper,” he said, noting Beijing had “methodically implemented their people in a way that ultimately leads them to have influence on a wide variety [of bodies] across the U.N. – and that's not the only place, [also the] World Health Organization”"

--- But to copy China's approach you need to be present in these institutions. If you withdraw, you leave the field to China.

Economist calls for lowering China’s minimum marriage age

‘The darkness of not knowing disappears’

Australia to remove Chinese surveillance cameras amid security fears

--- DW News: "Pentagon: Chinese balloon part of global surveillance program"

--- DW News: "US-China rivalry: What`s behind the growing tensions? | To the Point"

--- Hoover Institution: "China's Response To War In Ukraine | China’s Global Sharp Power"

USA bekräftigen Spionagevorwurf

"Der abgeschossene chinesische Ballon habe über "mehrere Antennen" verfügt, sei mit Hilfe von Solarpaneelen betrieben worden und sei vermutlich in der Lage gewesen, geheimdienstlich relevante "Kommunikation zu sammeln und zu lokalisieren""

--- China ist nunmal sehr kommunikativ. War bestimmt nicht böse gemeint.

"Wir sind sicher, dass der Ballonhersteller in direkter Beziehung zum chinesischen Militär steht"

--- & soll vermutlich entsprechend sanktioniert werden.

"US-Präsident Joe Biden bemühte sich am Mittwochabend in einem Interview mit dem Sender PBS, die Tonlage etwas zu mildern."

--- Wirklich? Dann hat die KPCh anscheinend etwas falsch verstanden:

China übt scharfe Kritik an Biden-Aussagen über Xi

"Ein Sprecher des chinesischen Außenministeriums sagte heute, Peking sei „sehr unzufrieden“. „Diese Art der Rhetorik der USA ist extrem unverantwortlich und widerspricht der grundlegenden diplomatischen Etikette“"

--- & was genau war so extrem unverantwortlich:

"Der Präsident sagte aber auch, dass Xi „enorme Probleme“ habe, darunter „eine Wirtschaft, die nicht sehr gut funktioniert“."

--- Ist ja ungeheuerlich! Gottkaiser Xi ist natürlich unfehlbar. Er kann gar keine Probleme haben. Solch ein Gerede grenzt schon an Blasphemie.

Pekinger Späher: Die technologische Abhängigkeit von China ist gigantisch

"Weit muss man gar nicht schauen, wenn es um die mögliche Angreifbarkeit technischer Infrastrukturen geht. Eine Studie der Beratungsfirma Strand geht davon aus, dass der chinesische Techriese Huawei 59 Prozent der Infrastruktur und der Basisstationen des für Deutschland so wichtigen mobilen 5G-Netzes liefert."

--- Es wird noch schlimmer. Jetzt hat man auch noch ZTE die Genehmigung erteilt, weitere Telekommunikationsausrüstung zu liefern. Ganz offenbar ist man in Berlin weitgehend lernunfähig oder -willig.

Als China das erste Mal nach Taiwan griff

"Diesmal mit Erfolg: Im Sommer 1683 eroberten seine Soldaten Taiwan für die Qing.
[...] Zum ersten Mal überhaupt wurde Taiwan damit Teil des chinesischen Kaiserreichs"

--- Nö. Der übliche Blödsinn zum Thema. Was mal wieder zeigt, daß man Spektrum auch nicht mehr trauen kann. Die Qing beherrschten nur ein relativ kleines Stück von Taiwan im Westen. Erst in der 2. Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts wurde nach & nach auch der Ostteil erobert.