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Isaac soloman View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2018 at 12:56pm

Missing Interpol chief Meng Hongwei under investigation, China's anti-corruption watchdog says

China's anti-corruption watchdog says it is investigating Meng Hongwei, who heads the global law enforcement organisation Interpol, for suspected violations of the law.

Key points:

  • Chinese authorities say Mr Meng is "currently under investigation"
  • Mr Meng's wife says his last message to her was an emoji image of a knife
  • Interpol says it has made a formal request for more information

Mr Meng, 64, who is also Vice-Minister of Public Security in China, had been reported missing after travelling from France, where Interpol is based, to China.

"Public Security Ministry Vice-Minister Meng Hongwei is currently under investigation by the National Supervisory Commission for suspected violations of law," the Chinese anti-corruption body said in a brief statement on its website.

The statement did not specify the nature of the alleged legal violations, and was the first from China since Mr Meng's disappearance was reported in France on Friday.

When asked about the Chinese announcement, France's Interior Ministry said it had no information.

Interpol, which is based in the French city of Lyon, said it had made a formal request to China for information about Mr Meng.

Wife sMr Meng's wife Grace, who remains in France, has been placed under police protection after receiving threats.

She told reporters in Lyon that she had not heard from her husband since September 25. Ms Meng said he used his Interpol phone to send her an emoji image of a knife that day, four minutes after he sent a message saying "Wait for my call."

She said the call never came and she does not know what happened to him.

Of the knife image, she said: "I think he means he is in danger."

She said he was in China when he sent the image.

"This is the last, last message from my husband," she said. "After that I have no call and he disappeared."

Ms Meng detailed the last messages she exchanged with her husband to reporters as part of an impassioned plea to help bring her missing husband to safety.

"I have gone from sorrow and fear to the pursuit of truth, justice and responsibility toward history," she said, her voice trembling with emotion.

"For the husband whom I deeply love, for my young children, for the people of my motherland, for all the wives and children, so that their husbands and fathers will no longer disappear."

Ms Meng would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her own safety and the safety of her children.

She was accompanied to the hotel where she held her press conference by two French police officers who were assigned to look after her.

Before her husband shared the knife image, she sent him a photo of two animal figurines, one of a bear and another of a horse, meant to represent their two children.

One of them loves horses, she said, and the other "looks like the bear".

She said they had been in daily contact during his trip before he went missing in China.

In his role as a senior public security official in China, Mr Meng regularly travelled between Beijing and Lyon, France, where Interpol is based.

He had been on a three-country tour to Norway, Sweden and Serbia for Interpol before his latest trip back to China, Ms Meng said.

Mr Meng 'resigns' as Interpol president

The announcement that Mr Meng was under investigation makes him the latest high-profile official to fall victim to a sweeping crackdown by the ruling Communist Party.

The one-sentence announcement, issued when it was nearly midnight in China, said only that Mr Meng was in the custody of party investigators.

Soon after the statement was released, Interpol announced that Mr Meng had resigned as president, effective immediately.

It did not say why, or provide details about Mr Meng's whereabouts or condition.ays Mr Meng sent knife emoji as danger signal

Mr Meng was the first person from China to serve as Interpol's president, a post that is largely symbolic but powerful in status.

Interpol's secretary-general is responsible for the day-to-day running of the agency's operations, so Mr Meng's absence is likely to have had little operational effect.

The organisation links up police officials from its 192 member states, who can use Interpol to disseminate their search for a fugitive or a missing person.

Only at the behest of a country does the information go public via a "red notice", the closest thing to an international arrest warrant. "Yellow notices" are issued for missing persons.

Mr Meng has held various positions within China's security establishment, and has been Public Security Ministry Vice-Minister since 2004.

His appointment as Interpol president in 2016 alarmed some human rights organisations, fearful it would embolden China to strike out at dissidents and refugees abroad.

His term as Interpol president was originally due to run until 2020.

Xi Xinping's harsh crackdown on civil society

Mr Meng's unexplained disappearance threatens to tarnish Beijing's image as a rising Asian power.

President Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, has overseen a harsh crackdown on civil society that is aimed at crushing dissent and activism among lawyers and rights advocates.

He has also used a popular and wide-ranging anti-corruption campaign to boost supervision of the party and as a powerful weapon with which to purge his political opponents.

Mr Meng's various jobs put him in close contact with Chinese leaders in the security establishment, a sector long synonymous with corruption, opacity and human rights abuses.

A member of the Communist Party, Mr Meng worked with former security chief and Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang, who is now serving a life sentence for corruption.

However, Ms Meng sought to distance her husband from Mr Zhou, saying the two men did not get on.

She said Mr Zhou had sought to muscle her husband out of the public security ministry — the national police force — several times and disliked her husband "very much".

She did not explain what, if any, relation that animosity may now have with her husband's case.

Reuters/AP



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2018 at 1:43pm
is this false news pt?

China inserted surveillance microchip in servers used by Amazon, Apple: report

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2018 at 5:34pm
I would be more surprised if you said they didn't. Does Kaspersky use their anti virus software to spy on us, or doesn't it matter because it's Trump's boss Putin doing it, not Chinese?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Oct 2018 at 10:39am

'Stealth doorway': China's stunning server hack shows its true hand

Russia and China are united in one big aim. They want to undermine the West. They want to cut the West down to size so they can increase their own power. It's a very old story in the history of nations.

But they have many differences, too. One difference is becoming clearer by the day.

While Vladimir Putin's Russia is expert at manipulating the US and its systems, Xi Jinping's China is much more ambitious. The Chinese Communist Party wants to own and control those systems. Russia wants to mess with America's world. China wants America's world. And it's making good progress.

Russia wants to mess with Americas world. China wants Americas world.

Russia wants to mess with America's world. China wants America's world.CREDIT:ANDREW DYSON

The latest example was a startling story published last Thursday by a US news service, Bloomberg Businessweek, under the headline "The Big Hack". Bloomberg, which has a solid reputation for professionalism and accuracy, says its staff spent a year working on the report.

It says that a specialist unit of the People's Liberation Army secretly slipped computer microchips into the servers being manufactured by an American company, SuperMicro Computer Inc Servers are the heart of the internet. A server is a computer that manages networks of computers. And SuperMicro is one of the world's biggest manufacturers of the "brains", the motherboards, that go into servers around the world.One of SuperMicro's customers, a firm called Elemental, sent some of its servers for testing in 2015, and here's how Bloomberg described the discovery: "Nested on the servers’ motherboards, the testers found a tiny microchip, not much bigger than a grain of rice, that wasn’t part of the boards’ original design."

This discovery prompted US authorities to investigate, and, according to Bloomberg: "During the ensuing top-secret probe, which remains open more than three years later, investigators determined that the chips allowed the attackers to create a stealth doorway into any network that included the altered machines.

Vladimir Putin uses the Wests systems against it.

Vladimir Putin uses the West's systems against it.CREDIT:EPA

"Multiple people familiar with the matter say investigators found that the chips had been inserted at factories run by manufacturing subcontractors in China."

Where are these altered machines to be found? In US Department of Defence data centres, the CIA’s drone operations, and the onboard networks of US Navy warships, according to the article. And, in the corporate sector, they're in the data centres of Apple Inc, reports Bloomberg. "And Elemental was just one of hundreds of SuperMicro customers."

So what would be the effect of such an infiltration? "It's not just the ability to steal data," says an expert at Central Queensland University, Ritesh Chugh, "but to initiate connections with other servers and getting those servers to perform functions," he says.Like what? "You could shut down the electricity system in Victoria," for instance, says Chugh, discipline leader in information systems and analysis. According to Bloomberg, the Chinese-implanted chips are not known to have been used in any such disruption. But, as the story says, a compromised server "could let the attackers alter how the device functioned, line by line, however they wanted, leaving no one the wiser".

When the story was published, two things happened in short order. First, the companies involved denied elements of the story, in emphatic statements. So did the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry. The US intelligence agencies declined to comment. Against this, Bloomberg said its sources included six current and former senior US intelligence officials plus people in the companies involved, for a total of 17 claimed sources, all unnamed.

Second, the sharemarket investors pronounced their own verdict on the credibility of the story. Investors savaged the share price of SuperMicro in Friday trade on Wall Street. It lost almost half its value.

Chinese tech companies also suffered. Hong Kong-listed shares in Lenovo, which makes PCs and servers, lost 13 per cent of their value. Shares in ZTE, maker of mobile phones and telecoms gear, lost 11 per cent.

American politicians including the Republicans' Senator Ron Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, will now seek investigations of their own into the story. More will doubtless emerge by way of proof or disproof in time.

Xi Jinpings plans are ambitious.

Xi Jinping's plans are ambitious.CREDIT:EPA

In the meantime, Chugh says that he finds the story "absolutely plausible". He says: "It's disconcerting not just at the organisational level but the individual level. There would be Australian companies that have purchased hardware from SuperMicro, an American company where the manufacturing was taking place in China. We know the network risks ... and you also would imagine that such chips are implanted in mobile phones."

The story also follows the Australian government's recent decision to ban any Chinese company from any role in building Australia's fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile network. And the US decision to ban any military purchases of mobile phones made by Chinese companies. Each of these developments attests to a rising mistrust of mainland Chinese companies and businesses as possible agents of the Chinese Communist Party.

There is an even larger question hanging over the subject. What needs to be done to fix the problem of any implanted spy chips? The risk can't be eliminated by software, says Chugh: "You have to physically remove it."To remove this and future risks, do companies and countries need to disentangle their supply chains from China? Chinese firms dominate the telecoms and computer components industries. Disconnecting is a task of daunting scale and cost.

Beijing doesn't just mess with these industries and systems. China owns and controls dominant shares of them. And China proposes to be the world leader in all cutting-edge technologies of the future, including quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

China's ambitious industry plan "Made in China 2025" constitutes a "real existential threat to US technological leadership", according to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. But of course. That's the whole point.

Beijing already dominates the world trade system, with more than 120 countries counting China as their main trading partner. It's coming to dominate the investment system, too. And its Belt and Road initiative embodies its plan to dominate vital infrastructure over most of the planet.

Not content with Putin's tricky plans for meddling with other people's infrastructure and systems, Xi wants to own them. The question is whether the world can manage to maintain an alternative.

Peter Hartcher is international editor.

www.watoday.com.au/national/stealth-doorway-china-s-stunning-server-hack-shows-its-true-hand-20181008-p508co.html

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Oct 2018 at 11:49am

China appears to blink in trade confrontation with the US

There’s a whiff of fear in the air in China as escalating trade frictions with the US begin to impact on an economy that had its own pre-existing issues.

Returning after a week-long national holiday, China’s stock markets and its currency were rattledon Monday by the People’s Bank of China’s (PBoC) weekend decision to inject liquidity into the banking system for the fourth time this year, a signal of the central bank’s concerns about the vulnerability of the economy.China's stock market fell heavily, rattled by an injection of cash into its banking system.

CREDIT:AP

The Shanghai Composite index fell nearly 4 per cent and the Hong Kong market was down nearly 2 per cent. The renminbi was about 0.4 per cent weaker against the US dollar.

The PBoC announced a 1 per cent cut in banks’ reserve requirements at the weekend. In effect, it released about $US175 billion ($247 billion) of cash into the banking system, although it directed some of that to be used to refinance maturing short-term bank funding. The net injection of liquidity into the economy via increased bank lending is about $US109 billion.

Last month, the Trump administration slapped tariffs on $US250 billion of China’s exports to the US, with the threat of another $US267 billion to come if China retaliated, which it has. If the second tranche of the tariffs is imposed, all China’s exports to the US would become more expensive and less competitive.The trade dispute initiated by the US has come at an awkward moment for the Chinese authorities.

They have been trying to deleverage an economy that has been made vulnerable by, not just a debt bubble – China’s national debt-to-GDP ratio is around 260 per cent – but the unproductive use to which much of that debt has been put.They have also been managing a major restructuring of their industrial sector, both to improve its productivity and to reduce levels of pollution levels within the major industrial centres. There’s been large-scale rationalisation of heavy industry occurring to focus on larger, more efficient and less-polluting businesses and some cleaning out, or the shoring up of the finances, of weaker and sub-economic state-owned enterprises.

Even before the Trump administration declared a trade war on China, there had been a controlled but modest slowdown in the economy, with the authorities targeting still-healthy 6.5 per cent annual GDP growth.

Infrastructure investment, retail sales and wages growth have all been weakening this year. The renminbi has depreciated by nearly 10 per cent against the US dollar since the start of the year and China’s sharemarket has fallen about 15 per cent

In recent weeks, there have been signs that the US actions are starting to have their own impact, with new export orders falling away sharply last month as manufacturing sector activity slowed.

The PBoC’s weekend announcement is China’s conventional response to weaker growth.

The PBoC’s weekend announcement is China’s conventional response to weaker growth.t stimulates lending for infrastructure to generate growth even though the authorities know the funds will go into sub-optimal investments and that its actions are at odds with their strategy of reducing debt and leverage and strengthening its financial system.

There is also a risk that relaxing the reserve requirements will cause the renminbi to weaken further and create a new front in the confrontation with the US.While the currency has fallen nearly 10 per cent since April without causing too much angst elsewhere, it reflects both the weakening economy and, more particularly, the divergence in the direction of growth rates between China and the US.

Indeed, the US dollar has strengthened against almost all the major currencies as its economic growth rate has surged under the impetus of the Trump tax cuts and increased government spending.

That growth and the material increase in US interest rates relative to the rest of the world is sucking capital towards the US.

It isn’t just China. With the Reserve Bank of Australia holding the cash rate steady, the Australian dollar, for instance, is threatening to fall through the US70¢ level as the rate differential with the US continues to swell. The exposure of our economy to China’s, our largest trade partner, is another obvious influence.

Nevertheless, with the US rhetoric on China shifting from the simplistic view that China is stealing US jobs and manufacturing activity as well as its intellectual property to one that appears more strategic and designed to try to frustrate China’s longer term ambitions of economic and technological supremacy, there is a real risk for the Chinese if the renminbi keeps falling.The Australian dollar is threatening to fall through the US70¢ level as the rate differential with the US continues to swell.

Donald Trump has previously labelled China a currency manipulator even when his own Treasury department has said that it isn’t.

In fact, China runs a managed "peg" of its currency to a basket of its trading partners’ currencies, allowing the market to influence its value within tolerances determined by the PBoC. If it were free-floating, it would probably have experienced a more significant depreciation.

Nevertheless, there are rumblings in the US about the renminbi’s weakening and an obvious risk that the Trump administration will, regardless of the facts, label China a currency manipulator and devise some new form of economic or financial sanctions to add to the pressure of the tariffs on a vulnerable Chinese economy.Stephen Bartholomeusz

Stephen is one of Australia’s most respected business journalists. He was most recently co-founder and associate editor of the Business Spectator website and an associate editor and senior columnist at The Australian.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Oct 2018 at 10:09am
Bad luck Isaac, when the Chinese arrive you wont be needed for the breeding program..Shocked


Same-sex mice have babies

By James GallagherHealth and science correspondent, BBC News
  • Baby mice have been made with two mums and no dad, say researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

    It took a substantial feat of genetic engineering to break the rules of reproduction.

    The scientists said the "bimaternal" (two mammas) animals were healthy and went on to have pups of their own.

    But there was bad news on the all-male front. Mice with double-dads were attempted, but died within days of being born.

    Why even try?

    The researchers were trying to answer fundamental questions about why we have sex.

    Mammals, including us, can make babies only through sexual reproduction - aka you need an egg from mum and a sperm from dad.

    But the rest of the natural world doesn't play by the same rules; some female fish, reptiles, amphibians and birds can go it alone.

    Welcome to the bizarre world of virgin births known officially as parthenogenesis.
  • The aim of the Chinese researchers was to work out which rules of reproduction they needed to break to make baby mice from same-sex parents.

    That in turn helps understand why the rules are so important.

    "It's an interesting paper... they're trying to work out what you would have to do to turn us into turkeys," said Prof Robin Lovell-Badge at t more....

  • http://www.bbc.com/news/health-45801043

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Softy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Oct 2018 at 5:28pm
What did you think of the Everest Isaac?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Oct 2018 at 9:05am
Great news Isaac, the first arrest of it's kind Only about 10 million to go. Thumbs Up

US agents arrest 'Chinese SPY' on charges of stealing aviation secrets from TOP firms

A SENIOR officer for China’s Ministry of State Security has been arrested by the US and charged with stealing US aviation secrets and extradited for prosecution.

Federal agents lured a Chinese government spy to Belgium and arrested him.

He has been transferred to the US for prosecution on economic espionage charges, US Justice Department officials said.

Yanjun Xu is accused of trying to steal trade secrets from leading aviation firms.

Justice Department officials said the case is the latest example of China trying to advance its economy at the expense of American firms and information.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1029813/usa-china-spy-yanjun-xu-espionage-aviation-secrets

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Oct 2018 at 11:34am
Its a start ptThumbs Up

thanks for the contribution to this threadLOL

plenty around; where to start....

Who watched Pine Gap last night? ch 2 very intriguing. chinese "courting" the aboriginal elders to drill on their land. another character, a serbian refugee from their war, counters what the a americans have to say about china with a "truism" of america. You would enjoy that pt.

Thing is, she works in Pine Gap....wont have her job for long, methinks...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Oct 2018 at 11:44am

Trump's team is 'very confusing' to diplomats, China's ambassador to US says

  • The role of President Donald Trump's various policy advisers is "very confusing" to diplomats, China's U.S. ambassador told Fox News.
  • Diplomats are uncertain whether hardliners or moderates in the administration are driving policy decisions, Ambassador Cui Tiankai said.
  • Tiankai suggested a U.S. destroyer bore responsibility for a recent near collision with a Chinese military vessel in the South China Sea.
  • LOL
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Oct 2018 at 11:45am

Economy relies on China as international students prop up our universities

AUSTRALIA is relying on Chinese students paying huge amounts of money to study in Australia and our economy is at risk.

Harrison White
news.com.auOCTOBER 14, 20189:28PM
www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/economy-relies-on-china-as-international-students-prop-up-our-universities/news-story/6bea7fc2c0c7dbd364346b74722c67df

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Oct 2018 at 11:49am

China is trying to erase the Uighurs and their culture

Uighurs are neither extremists nor separatists as Beijing claims. They just want their rights.

Rukiye Turdushby Rukiye Turdush
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Oct 2018 at 11:41am

China has issued a direct warning to Australia in a blistering new editorial

CHINA has issued a scary new warning to Australia amid fears we’ll be caught in a cold war between the rising power and the USHINA has issued a stern new direct warning to Australia, saying we’re walking a “tightrope” between the US and China.

In a blistering editorial, state media outlet The China Daily warned the nation not to be “led by the nose by America, cautioning the Morrison government against adopting a “Cold War” mentality.

It said there was a “fragile peace” in the region which could be “shattered by the slightest misstep”.

The editorial was written in response to renewed criticism from Australia and Japan over China’s position in the South China Sea.

It comes after President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said the Morrison government would be increasing its naval co-operation with the US in the tense regionSpeaking in a radio interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show aired last week, Mr Bolton said Mr Trump believed China had taken advantage of the international order for far too long and not enough Americans had stood up to it.

“We’ve got to do more first to establish for the Chinese that we do not acknowledge the legitimacy of any of (their claims to the South China Sea),” Mr Bolton said.

He said Mr Trump’s tough approach to China had left Beijing “confused”.

“They’ve never seen an American president this tough before. I think their behaviour needs to be adjusted in the trade area, in the international, military and political areas, in a whole range of areas,” he said.

He also reiterated that the US was committed to keeping international sea lanes open.

“This is something the Chinese need to understand,” Mr Bolton said. “We’re going to do a lot more on that.

“I think we could see more exploitation of mineral resources in the South China Sea with or without Chinese co-operation. They need to know they have not achieved a fait accompli here. This is not a Chinese province and will not be.”Last week, Canberra and Tokyo together condemned Chinese government militarisation in the region.

“Canberra and Tokyo should not allow the resurgence of the Cold War paranoia that has

already taken hold of the US, shape their actions,” The China Daily editorial said.

“(Australian leaders) should ­realise the full significance of a ­return of the full-scale mistrust of the Cold War, as it will create a fragile peace that risks being shattered by the slightest misstep.

“They should be aware that letting the US lead them by the nose as it pursues a confrontational strategy toward China is really not in their best interests.”

If a Cold War-like scenario does play out between the US and China, Australia will be in a vulnerable position, given China is our largest trading partner and the US is our key strategic alliance partner.So far, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has sought to maintain the peace with both nations.

Last month, when American and Chinese vessels narrowly avoided collision in the South China Sea, Mr Morrison said Australia would to provide a calming influence on rising tensions between the two countries.

“We’re cool heads in this situation,” Mr Morrison told 6PR. “Times of uncertainty are exactly that and it’s our job to work with everybody to reduce that uncertainty. That’s what we’re doing.”

He said Australia has strong relationships with both countries, vowing to work for the best strategic outcomes for the national interest.

“The prosperity of our region has been a major boon for Australia and we want to see that continue,” Mr Morrison said.

TRUMP’S EXTRAORDINARY AGGRESSION TOWARDS CHINA

Donald Trump has escalated his feud with China into a full-press offensive that has drawn comparisons to the Cold War. Now the question on both sides of the Pacific is, how will it end?

In recent weeks, Mr Trump has slapped on $250 billion worth of tariffs, boosted military support for rival Taiwan, accused China of interfering in US elections, stepped up denunciations of Beijing’s human rights record and curtailed its access to US nuclear technology.

The real estate mogul, who early in his tenure had described Chinese President Xi Jinping as a friend, was generally presumed to be most interested in trade as he has repeatedly vowed to ramp up US factory production by fighting back the flow of cheaper manufactured imports.ut his administration has expanded its pressure campaign to virtually all fronts, a strategy unprecedented since the time the United States and China established diplomatic relations four decades ago.

“It is a full-frontal assault by the US on China,” said Elizabeth Economy, Director for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“There is a general sense in Washington that China is simply too big now, it’s simply too large as a country and as an economy, to allow it to continue to violate all sorts of expected international trade and investment norms,” she said.

Ms Economy said that the United States was also struck at how Xi has “presented a very different China to the world” with a “much more ambitious and expansive foreign policy.” “The US and other countries say, ‘Okay, this is the China we have to deal with, not what we anticipated ten years ago.’”

www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/china-has-issued-a-direct-warning-to-australia-in-a-blistering-new-editorial/news-story/2dc17494e63803c4fba6cd7940b44165

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Oct 2018 at 12:29pm
Is it a surprise to you Isaac, that we are and have been threading the needle between China and US relations?

It is just that now with a power vacuum in Washington that China is moving forward at a rapid rate, and would like some tangible commitment. This govt whispers stuff like they are thinking about OBOR. They are thinking about TPP 2.0 with Trump hinting at having a second thought and are now interested after previously withdrawing. China are just telling get to get onboard one or the other or miss out. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Whale Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2018 at 5:50pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2018 at 6:05pm
They do struggle a bit culturally Whale. It is why they are entering joint ventures in Africa with mostly their bitter enemies the Japanese and less so the Indians. They both have longer engagements in Africa and understand the locals better.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2018 at 9:21pm
your empathy is touching pt.

Didnt know you had it in you, obviously reserved for a select few.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2018 at 9:25pm
the chinese; so advanced and yet so backward.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2018 at 9:38pm

A New Chinese-Funded Railway In Kenya Sparks Debt-Trap Fears

The Standard Gauge Railway station in Nairobi is easily the most impressive public building in Kenya.

While a lot of Kenyan government buildings are drab and functional and date back to colonial days, this station is adventurous. It's all gray and modern. Geometric shapes form an abstract locomotive, and red neon announces the "Nairobi Terminus."

The train runs 293 miles from Kenya's capital city to the port of Mombasa and back twice a day and represents the biggest infrastructure project since Kenya's independence 54 years ago. The Chinese financed it; a Chinese company built it; and the Chinese will operate it for many years to come.

The project, which launched in the summer of 2017, has not only come to signify Kenya's ambitions, but also China's ambitions on the African continent. In the past decade, China has become the biggest lender to governments in Africa. The money has helped build ports, roads, bridges, airports and trains. But critics warn the loans are full of traps that could leave African countries in the lurch. Kenya alone owes $5.3 billion to China.

Africa: What China’s Investing In And Where

China is tapping into Africa’s vast resources and potential for infrastructural development. Since 2005, the bulk of Chinese investments on the continent has gone toward the transportation, energy, real estate and metals sectors.

China's $3.2 billion loan for the railway project is hard to ignore. At the entrance of every single rail car, an image of the Kenyan flag is flanked by one of the Chinese flag.

Since the railway line opened for business, hundreds of thousands have taken trains to and from Mombasa, a strategically important port on the Indian Ocean. Riding in economy class from Nairobi, two strangers are having a spirited argument.

Paul Gichango, a marketing executive, says Kenyans can learn something from the Chinese. They built nearly 300 miles of rail ahead of schedule. He says when he would drive past the construction site in Nairobi, he saw the Chinese working nonstop. They'd start at 6 a.m. and work until 7 at night.

It's a culture that turned a poor country into an industrial powerhouse, he says, and Kenyans would be wise to pay attention.

But as he talks, Faith Kidullah, a lawyer sitting right next to him, interrupts.

"We are not interested in [Chinese] culture," she says. "We brought these people here for their technology. So they should just bring us the technology. They can just remain with their own culture."

In early July, Kenyan media were full of news stories about the railway. The Standardnewspaper had published pictures of Kenyans allegedly being physically punished by Chinese managers. "Chinese nationals have created a small kingdom in which they run roughshod over Kenyan workers who say they are experiencing neo-colonialism, racism and blatant discrimination," the paper reported.

The paper revealed that the only time Kenyan workers had taken control of a locomotive was on opening day, a year ago. During a parliamentary hearing, the government defended the railway, saying most workers (nearly 2,679, compared with 841 Chinese) were Kenyan. But the Chinese still hold most supervisory positions.

www.npr.org/2018/10/08/641625157/a-new-chinese-funded-railway-in-kenya-sparks-debt-trap-fears

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 2018 at 7:55am
Oh, not that dreaded debt trap scare again Isaac? Shocked
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 2018 at 2:52pm
Originally posted by Passing Through Passing Through wrote:

They do struggle a bit culturally Whale. It is why they are entering joint ventures in Africa with mostly their bitter enemies the Japanese and less so the Indians. They both have longer engagements in Africa and understand the locals better.

what do you call this pt? sounds like a grovel to me.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 2018 at 2:54pm
It is an explanation Isaac. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Oct 2018 at 10:45am


oh dear pt....how long do you think xi will remain in power?LOL

Consciously mystifying': Xi Jinping Thought mapped for the masses


Beijing: It turns out that harnessing a communist state's propaganda for the social media age can be complicated.

Very complicated. An infographic designed to distil Chinese president Xi Jinping's Thought into a mind map was released by the People's Daily smartphone app on Thursday. It also caused a sensation on Western social media.

Xi Jinping Thought map.

Xi Jinping Thought map.

"Is it a nightmarish subway map?" asked one unkind person on Twitter.

Thirty colourful branches spread out into sub-branches, and then sub-branches of sub-branches.

"The words too small to see?" asked the People's Daily app. Zoom in, it advised.

People's Daily said the mind map commemorated the anniversary of president Xi's "Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era" being written into the constitution one year ago.Since this was the "guiding ideology that the party must adhere to for a long time", a handy infographic would help everyone "learn together".

Xi Jinping Thought has become compulsory study at Chinese universities, and it appears the infographic compilers took great care not to leave anything important out.

"My first impression is that this is more of a mind game than an explanation," says Kevin Carrico, a lecturer in Chinese studies at Macquarie University.

Carrico recently graduated from an online education course titled Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, offered by Beijing's Tsinghua University for foreigners. He wrote about the experience for Foreign Policy magazine.He told Fairfax Media the mind map was presented as "'Hey, here's a nice simple graph of Xi Jinping Thought'. But the presentation itself is overwhelming. Like wow, so complex, that it is actually making something fairly un-nuanced seem overly intellectual and complex."

"I mean, if this was just laid out as a list on people.com.cn it would be quite underwhelming. So the substance is in the presentation."

Chinese propaganda officials have worked hard in recent years to try to keep up with social media trends in the world's biggest smartphone market, where most Chinese are more interested in sharing online videos than watching the nightly news.he People's Daily’s social media accounts bear little resemblance to the staid official communist party newspaper that turns up on newsstands each morning with a photo of Xi on the cover.

Instead, cute furry animals, funny videos and often ghoulish traffic accidents are pumped out.

Is the mind map another example of propaganda trying too hard?

Carrico doesn't think so. "Consciously mystifying," he says.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Oct 2018 at 10:49am
https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_780/t_resize_width/t_sharpen%2Cq_auto%2Cf_auto/c3515a7df0d8f450b9426ebedad4242eda191825
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Oct 2018 at 11:11pm
How good are the Chinese Isaac? Lighting up the night sky with man made moons Clap

China to launch 3 artificial moons in space by 2022

The artificial or man-made moon is a satellite carrying a huge space mirror, which can reflect the sunlight to the Earth.

China is preparing to launch three artificial moons in space in 2022, the state-run Science and Technology Daily reported.

The artificial or man-made moon is a satellite carrying a huge space mirror, which can reflect the sunlight to the Earth.

According to plans, the verification of launch, orbit injection, unfolding, illumination, adjust and control of the man-made moon will be completed by 2020, the daily reported, quoting Wu Chunfeng, head of Tianfu New District System Science Research Institute in Chengdu in China's southwest Sichuan province.

Three man-made moons will be launched in 2022, it said.

"By then, the three huge mirrors will divide the 360-degree orbital plane, realising illuminating an area for 24 hours continuously," Wu said.

The reflected sunlight can cover an area of 3,600 sq km to 6,400 sq km, and the illumination intensity is expected to be eight times of the moonlight, he said.

The moon orbits the Earth about 380,000 km from the Earth, while the man-made moon is expected to be put on an orbit within 500 km from the Earth, the state-run China Daily reported.

About concerns that the man-made moonlight will interrupt the normal day-night cycle of animals and plants, Wu said the light intensity and illumination time can be adjusted and the accuracy of illumination can be controlled within scores of meters. When a man-made moon is orbiting, people can only see a bright star in the sky.

Man-made moon is especially useful in civil area.

"Using man-made moon to illuminate an area 50 sq km can save 1.2 billion yuan of electric charge," Wu said. "It can also illuminate blackout areas when natural disasters such as earthquake happen."

The US and Russia have explored man-made moon, hoping it can bring convenience to night-time activities.

In the 1990s, Russia carried out an experiment called Banner, testing the idea of using a mirror to reflect the sun light to Earth. The mirror failed to unfold in space and the experiment was halted.

"China, Russia, the US, Japan and the EU are all striving to make technological breakthroughs on space energy application," Wu said.
First Published on Oct 18, 2018 09:06 pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Softy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Oct 2018 at 12:47am
Originally posted by Passing Through Passing Through wrote:

How good are the Chinese Isaac? Lighting up the night sky with man made moons Clap

China to launch 3 artificial moons in space by 2022

The artificial or man-made moon is a satellite carrying a huge space mirror, which can reflect the sunlight to the Earth.

China is preparing to launch three artificial moons in space in 2022, the state-run Science and Technology Daily reported.

The artificial or man-made moon is a satellite carrying a huge space mirror, which can reflect the sunlight to the Earth.

According to plans, the verification of launch, orbit injection, unfolding, illumination, adjust and control of the man-made moon will be completed by 2020, the daily reported, quoting Wu Chunfeng, head of Tianfu New District System Science Research Institute in Chengdu in China's southwest Sichuan province.

Three man-made moons will be launched in 2022, it said.

"By then, the three huge mirrors will divide the 360-degree orbital plane, realising illuminating an area for 24 hours continuously," Wu said.

The reflected sunlight can cover an area of 3,600 sq km to 6,400 sq km, and the illumination intensity is expected to be eight times of the moonlight, he said.

The moon orbits the Earth about 380,000 km from the Earth, while the man-made moon is expected to be put on an orbit within 500 km from the Earth, the state-run China Daily reported.

About concerns that the man-made moonlight will interrupt the normal day-night cycle of animals and plants, Wu said the light intensity and illumination time can be adjusted and the accuracy of illumination can be controlled within scores of meters. When a man-made moon is orbiting, people can only see a bright star in the sky.

Man-made moon is especially useful in civil area.

"Using man-made moon to illuminate an area 50 sq km can save 1.2 billion yuan of electric charge," Wu said. "It can also illuminate blackout areas when natural disasters such as earthquake happen."

The US and Russia have explored man-made moon, hoping it can bring convenience to night-time activities.

In the 1990s, Russia carried out an experiment called Banner, testing the idea of using a mirror to reflect the sun light to Earth. The mirror failed to unfold in space and the experiment was halted.

"China, Russia, the US, Japan and the EU are all striving to make technological breakthroughs on space energy application," Wu said.
First Published on Oct 18, 2018 09:06 pm

 
Always on the front foot down here PT.
Apparently the Hodgman Govt. has been in discussions with the Chinese Govt. about this for a while, in the hope of extending daylight savings for another 1-2 hours per day during summer, thus helping our burgeoning photosynthesis and renewable energy industries.
Saltwater fisherman however are up in arms, as they currently have no idea how 4 moons will affect tide levels.
Tongue
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dr E Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Oct 2018 at 6:01am
I like this idea! ... I'm all in on clean reliable affordable energy (I assume it will be all of that), and I like the fact that it will all be done and dusted before 2030, when they ditch the Paris Agreement.Big smile

I wonder how much more of our coal will they need to get this done, and how it will push the price up?Thumbs Up


In reference to every post in the Trump thread ... "There may have been a tiny bit of license taken there" ... Ok, Thanks for the "heads up" PT!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Oct 2018 at 9:30pm
this would be more to your liking softy.


The bizarre trend — where people dressed up in their finery pose as if they've just fallen head first out of a luxury car and spilled their most valuable possessions onto the pavement — has gone viral on Chinese social media, puzzling outsiders and sparking a series of satirical memes.
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Photos of wealthy people lying face down — surrounded by luxury bags, shoes, and cash — go viral on Chinese social media.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Softy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Oct 2018 at 9:34pm
Can you get Whale to show you how to post that please?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dr E Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Oct 2018 at 10:46pm
Originally posted by Softy Softy wrote:

Can you get Whale to show you how to post that please?

Outstanding!Clap ... and he didn't feel a thing!LOL
In reference to every post in the Trump thread ... "There may have been a tiny bit of license taken there" ... Ok, Thanks for the "heads up" PT!
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