Pegasus Research Consortium

Breaking News => World News - Current Events => Topic started by: space otter on June 06, 2015, 10:23:21 am

Title: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on June 06, 2015, 10:23:21 am


lots of news on china lately..interesting


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/05/government-data-breach_n_7522192.html
Federal Government Data Breach Being Investigated As National Security Matter
Reuters
Posted: 06/05/2015 4:13 pm EDT Updated: 06/05/2015 10:59 pm EDT

By Andrea Shalal and Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - Data stolen from U.S. government computers by suspected Chinese hackers included security clearance information and background checks dating back three decades, U.S. officials said on Friday, underlining the scope of one of the largest known cyber attacks on federal networks.

The breach of computer systems of the Office of Personnel Management was disclosed on Thursday by the Obama administration, which said records of up to 4 million current and former federal employees may have been compromised.

Accusations by U.S. government sources of a Chinese role in the cyber attack, including possible state sponsorship, could further strain ties between Washington and Beijing. Tensions are already heightened over Chinese assertiveness in pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The hacking also raises questions about how the United States would respond if it confirmed that the Chinese government was behind it.

Several U.S. officials, who requested anonymity, said the hackers were believed to have been based in China but that it was not yet known if the Chinese government or criminal elements were involved.

Another U.S. official said the breach was being investigated as a matter of national security, meaning it may have originated from a foreign government.

The cyber attack was among the most extensive thefts of information on the federal work force, and one U.S. defense official said it was clearly aimed at gaining valuable information for intelligence purposes.

"This is deep. The data goes back to 1985," a U.S. official said. "This means that they potentially have information about retirees, and they could know what they did after leaving government."

Access to data from OPM's computers, such as birth dates, Social Security numbers and bank information, could help hackers test potential passwords to other sites, including those with information about weapons systems, the official said.

"That could give them a huge advantage," the official said.

According to a U.S. House of Representatives memo seen by Reuters, OPM knows what types of data were exposed to the hackers but not what data was taken. The memo was sent to House staff by Chief Administrative Officer Ed Cassidy, whose office provides support services to the House, including cyber security services.

In addition, the State Department said in a memo to its employees that most of them had not been exposed to the breach because their data was not housed on the hacked OPM systems. Only those who had previously been employed by another federal agency may have been exposed, it said.

Investigators have linked the OPM breach to earlier thefts of personal data from millions of records at Anthem Inc , the second largest U.S. health insurer, and Premera Blue Cross, a healthcare services provider.

It was the second computer break-in in less than a year at OPM, the federal government's personnel office, and the latest in a string of cyber attacks on U.S. agencies, some of which have been blamed on Chinese hackers.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said such accusations had been frequent of late and were irresponsible. Hacking attacks were often cross-border and hard to trace, he said.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, "It's not clear who the perpetrators are," but he noted that President Barack Obama and his aides regularly raise with their Chinese counterparts concerns about Chinese behavior in cyberspace.

Disclosure of the latest computer breach comes ahead of the annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialog scheduled for June 22-24 in Washington, D.C. Cyber security was already expected to be high on the agenda.

U.S. officials said the talks would proceed as scheduled, as would Obama's plans to host Chinese President Xi Jinping on a state visit to Washington in the fall.

U.S. LIKELY TO MOVE CAUTIOUSLY

At Friday's White House briefing, Earnest dodged the question of whether Washington might retaliate if it was determined that a state had been involved in the hacking.

In December, U.S. officials moved swiftly to accuse North Korea of being behind a high-profile attack on Sony over a movie depicting the assassination of North Korea's leader, and Obama vowed that the United States would respond.

Some lawmakers and defense officials want a more aggressive U.S. stance against cyber breaches, including legislation to strengthen U.S. cyber defenses. But the administration is likely to move cautiously in response to any Chinese role, mindful of the potential harm from escalating cyber warfare between the world's two biggest economies.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a probe of the OPM attack, and vowed that it would bring to account those responsible for the hacking.

OPM detected new malicious activity affecting its information systems in April and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it concluded early in May that OPM's data had been compromised and about 4 million workers may have been affected.

Hackers hit OPM's IT systems and its data stored at the Department of the Interior's data center, a shared service center for federal agencies, a DHS official said on condition of anonymity.

Chinese hackers were also blamed for penetrating OPM's computer networks last year, The New York Times reported last July, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

James Lewis, a cyber security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said the administration's disclosure of the hacking could be a signal to China of Washington's plan to push hard on cyber issues at this month's talks.

"The Chinese have been saying privately, and somewhat in public, that we want the summit to go really well. 'Let's not talk about espionage. Let's talk about how we can work together'," said Lewis, a former State Department official. "This might be a U.S. response to that: 'No, we are going to talk about espionage.'" (Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, David Brunnstrom, Julia Edwards, Roberta Rampton, David Lawder and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Jason Szep, Doina Chiacu, Toni Reinhold)



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http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/02/opinions/kraska-china-island-building/



Should U.S. worry about China's island building binge?
By James Kraska


Updated 6:42 PM ET, Tue June 2, 2015

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http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/look-how-quickly-china-is-building-its-island-bases-out-1691571576

Look How Quickly China is Building Its Island Bases Out Of Nothing
TylerRogoway
Filed to: China territorial disputes
South China Sea
Sea Bases3/16/15 6:25pm
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http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/11/chinas-dangerous-game/380789/



China’s Dangerous Game
The country's intensifying efforts to redraw maritime borders have its neighbors, and the U.S., fearing war. But does the aggression reflect a government growing in power—or one facing a crisis of legitimacy?

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https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/05/south-china-sea-dangerous-contest-military-united-states-navy/



The South China Sea Could Become a Dangerous Contest of Military Might
By Howard W. French   June 5, 2015

......

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-06-05/china-s-rising-military-now-for-the-hard-part



China's Rising Military: Now for the Hard Part
243 Jun 5, 2015 10:12 AM EDT
By Thomas J. Christensen
We should take no comfort in the apparent sincerity of all the claimants. If all actors truly feel they are defending rightful claims against the revisionism of others, the chicken game of international security politics is more likely to lead to a deadly collision.

These disputes are fueled by historical victimhood narratives and postcolonial nationalism. For the countries involved, defending sovereignty claims and recovering allegedly stolen territories are core missions. China is no exception.

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http://time.com/3899890/chinese-sat-cheating-conspiracy/



Chinese Nationals Accused of Vast SAT Cheating Conspiracy

It’s unclear how many students used these fraudulent test scores to gain admission to American colleges and universities, and to therefore illegally obtain F1 Student Visas.

“These students were not only cheating their way into the university, they were also cheating their way through our nation’s immigration system,” said special agent John Kelleghan of Homeland Security Investigations in Philadelphia. “HSI will continue to protect our nation’s borders and work with our federal law enforcement partners to seek out those committing transnational crimes and bring them to justice.”

A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh issued an indictment on May 21 on 35 charges, including conspiracy, counterfeiting foreign passports, and defrauding the Educational Testing Services (ETS) and the College Board, according to U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

If the defendants are found guilty, they face a maximum total sentence of 20 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.



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US colleges expelled thousands of Chinese students last year for bad grades and cheating

Peter Jacobs           May 29, 2015, 12:15 PM

Roughly 8,000 Chinese students were expelled from US colleges and universities last year, predominantly for bad grades and cheating, according to a new report from WholeRen Education.
"Chinese students used to be considered top-notch but over the past five years their image has changed completely — wealthy kids who cheat," Chen Hang, chief development officer at WholeRen, told The Wall Street Journal's China Real Time blog.

WholeRen representatives pointed out to The Journal that "huge numbers" of Chinese students study at American schools each year, so a few thousand expulsions is not a terrible failure rate. According to recent surveys, around one-third of America's nearly 1 million international college students are from China.

However, WholeRen's numbers do not paint these students in a flattering light. According to the education company, 80.55% of Chinese students' dismissals "resulted from academic dishonesty or low academic performances," while just over 50% of the students had a GPA lower than a 2.0 — typically, a C.

The WholeRen report is in Chinese, but The Wall Street Journal pulled out some interesting details about the expulsions.

"More than half of the Chinese students expelled were from top 100 US universities, the survey found. Cheating at exams, plagiarism and finding other students to write papers for them were frequently cited as the specific causes of expulsion," The Journal reports.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/wholeren-education-report-on-chinese-students-2015-5#ixzz3cIlLA0pq

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/06/03/sat-cheating-scandal-broadens-with-indictment-of-15-chinese-nationals/

SAT cheating scandal broadens with indictment of 15 Chinese nationals
By Valerie Strauss June 3


On Oct. 31, 2014, Time magazine ran a story with this headline: “Think You Can Cheat on the SAT? The College Board Says Think Again.” http://time.com/3551112/sat-cheating-scandal-china-college-board/

 Really? Consider:

*Last week, a federal grand jury indicted 15 Chinese nationals in a scheme in which they paid up to $6,000 for other people in the United States to take the SAT, the GRE, and other college and graduate school standardized entrance exams  for them to help them gain entry into U.S. universities. They were charged in a conspiracy to defraud the College Board, which owns the tests, and the Educational Testing Service, which administers the tests. According to the indictment, “The conspirators had counterfeit Chinese passports made and sent to the United States, which were used by the imposters to defraud ETS administrators into believing that they were other people, namely the conspirators who would receive the benefit of the imposter’s test score for use at American colleges and universities.” Some of the defendants actually won admissions to U.S. schools; one was arrested last week at Northeastern University in Boston.

David Hickton, the U.S. attorney for the District of Western Pennsylvania, where most of the tests were taken, said in this New York Times story: “I would not want anyone to be left with the impression that that’s the sole country involved or the scope of it.”

*The ETS is withholding an undetermined number of scores from the May 2 administration of the SAT in Asian and possibly other countries because of cheating concerns. This was not an isolated incident; scores were withheld after every single SAT administration in the 2014-15 school year in Asia amid reports of sophisticated cheating networks in which students obtain questions in advance. This year was not isolated either; the same problem has marred SAT administrations overseas for years. For example, the scores from the entire May 2013 administration of the SAT and SAT Subject tests in South Korea were cancelled because of a leak of questions.

Asked about the scores, Tom Ewing, director of external affairs at the Educational Testing Service, said in an e-mail:

 The College Board and its global test administration and security provider, Educational Testing Service (ETS), are dedicated to delivering valid, reliable test scores to colleges and universities. As a matter of course, we employ a range of procedures to prevent violations of our test administration and security policies.

We regularly identify and halt attempts to gain an unfair advantage. When an alleged security incident occurs, we conduct

a comprehensive investigation and statistical analyses to determine if a breach has occurred and take the necessary actions to ensure the integrity of that SAT administration.

Over the past year, with more than 4 million test takers around the globe, fewer than 5,000 scores have been cancelled after thorough investigation. Due to a reported test security violation, a small set of scores from the May SAT test are being delayed while we conduct our comprehensive investigation and statistical analyses.

SAT scores may be delayed for a variety of reasons. For each administration, there may be score delays anywhere in the world, including in the United States. The small number of scores delayed in the U.S. for the May 2015 SAT administration is consistent with a typical administration.

Score integrity is critical to the institutions receiving our scores, and following each administration we go to great lengths to confidently report valid scores. When we hold scores, we do so based on investigative actions and ensure that scores are only released once they have been validated through statistical analyses and other measures.

We will continue to enhance our test security measures while

keeping the SAT accessible and affordable – a commitment we have made to students across the globe and to our members in higher education.

There are periodic SAT cheating scandals that erupt in the United States – such as one in 2011 in Nassau County, N.Y., where a number of students from a handful of schools were accused of accepting payment or paying others to the the SAT and the ACT college entrance exams. In October 2011, Bernard Kaplan, principal of Great Neck North High School, told a state Senate hearing on the issue that “the procedures ETS uses to give the test are grossly inadequate in terms of security,” according to this New York Times story. College Board and ETS officials say they have improved security since then.

Yet sophisticated and lucrative overseas cheating networks thrive. How do they work? As I’ve reported before,  the ETS and College Board use questions on overseas exams forms that have already been given in the United States, and this opens a door to cheating that goes beyond having other people take the test for a student.

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, a nonprofit organization that advocates against the misuse of high-stakes standardized tests, has found that test-prep companies in Asia have been operating for years in various ways; they send compatriots to the United States to take tests and/or obtain test questions by memorizing them or obtaining them illegally, as well as by monitoring chat boards where students post questions.

Furthermore, on SAT days, these firms have people sit for the test at Asian sites in times zones several hours ahead, memorize questions and take a “bathroom break” to call or text questions that can e-mailed to clients or loaded on calculators students are permitted to use at test centers. Last October, Fiona Rees, president of the Overseas Association for College Admission Counseling, wrote in an e-mail to a Post reporter that she learned of “several cases where our members (not in China or Korea) found significant instances of student fraud — including a student with entire pages of the SAT scanned on the phone,” and she added that one student had “the entire test with answers and essay already completed.”

On May 1, two versions of an SAT exam were e-mailed separately to me and to FairTest, purportedly  to be the tests American students were to take across the United States the following day, on May 2, and possibly by some students in Asia. FairTest says it has confirmed that many of the questions on the versions we received were on the May 2 test given in the United States.

Said Bob Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest:

 Last week’s federal indictments of 15 people for their role in an international college admissions test cheating conspiracy again demonstrates that many well-to-do Asian families are willing to do whatever is necessary to get their children (often their eldest sons) into brand-name U.S. colleges. Along with many reports that cheating was widespread on all five SATs offered in Asia

during the current academic year and FairTest’s receipt of two “live” SAT forms before they were administered, the Department of Justice’s legal action is strong evidence of a fundamental breakdown in test security on College Board/ETS exams. Since it is not possible to tell which test-takers had prior access to actual test items or had imposters take the exam in their place, the validity and reliability of all recent SAT scores should be questioned.

And he said further:  “No admissions office can be certain whether an applicant’s reported scores are an accurate reflection of test performance or were inflated through prior knowledge of test content or other improper behavior.”

More broadly, there are related issues involving the growing number of Chinese nationals applying to study in the United States that are challenging college admissions officers even as many American colleges and universities welcome these students in part because a majority can pay full tuition.

According to the Institute of International Education, there were in the 2013-14 academic year, 274,439 students from China studying in the United States – up 16.5 percent from. China remains the leading place of origin for students coming to the United States for the fifth – and Chinese students now make up 31 percent of international students studying in the United States. The number of undergraduate students from China is growing too.

But there are questions  about how many of them get admitted to U.S. colleges. This 2014 Hechinger Report story reported that as many as 90 percent of recommendation letters for Chinese applicants to Western universities were falsified in 2011, according to the U.S. educational consulting firm Zinch China. It also said 70 percent of admissions essays were found to have been written by someone other than the applicants and half of secondary school transcripts were falsified.

It is reasonable to expect, then, that some of these students arrive at U.S. colleges unprepared to do the work because of language or other issues. This May 2015 Atlantic magazine story says a “startling number of Chinese students are getting kicked out of American colleges”:

According to a white paper published by WholeRen, a Pittsburgh-based consultancy, an estimated 8,000 students from China were expelled from universities and colleges across the United States in 2013-4. The vast majority of these students — around 80 percent — were removed due to cheating or failing their classes.

The 2014 Time story said that the SAT remains a pencil and paper exam and is not loaded onto computers that are connected to the Internet, so hacking into a system to get it is impossible. Clearly, that hasn’t stopped cheaters from finding other ways to get around the system.



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http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-sat-exam-american-values-chinese-students-20140829-story.html

China complains SAT may impose American values on its best students

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on June 06, 2015, 11:28:41 am
JPMorgan Sells Chase Manhattan Plaza in NYC to China’s Fosun

Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to sell 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, the tower built by David Rockefeller, to Fosun International Ltd., the investment arm of China’s biggest closely held industrial group, for $725 million.
Fosun, which invests in properties, pharmaceuticals and steel, is buying the 60-story, 2.2 million square-foot, lower Manhattan tower, according to a statement it filed to Hong Kong’s stock exchange.
China’s developers and companies are expanding in overseas property markets as the government maintains curbs on housing at home to cool prices. Greenland Holding Group Co., a Shanghai-based, state-owned developer, this month agreed to buy a 70 percent stake in a residential and commercial real estate project in Brooklyn.
“There’s a lot of excess capital in China that needs a way out at the moment,” Simon Lo, Hong Kong-based executive director for Asia research and advisory at property broker Colliers International, said in a phone interview today. “Also, by investing in markets like New York, they believe they can gain from the recovery of the U.S. economy and real estate market.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-10-18/jpmorgan-selling-chase-manhattan-plaza-in-nyc-to-china-s-fosun
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on June 06, 2015, 11:33:06 am
China Likely Bought 10,000 tons of Gold…and if They Did, Here’s Why

Gold has long represented the primary means of rebalancing trade surplus / deficits between nations. As a nation ran a trade surplus with another, the exporter ended up with an excess of the importer nations currency. The primary means to rebalance was for the exporter to transfer back to the importer nation it’s currency in exchange for gold. If this continued, the importing nations falling gold holdings would represent a weakening currency…which would mean higher prices to the importing nation and less purchasing of the exporting nations goods slowing down the trade imbalance. Since the advent of paper money until 1971, this had been the general method to rebalance.

http://srsroccoreport.com/china-likely-bought-10000-tons-of-goldand-if-they-did-heres-why/china-likely-bought-10000-tons-of-goldand-if-they-did-heres-why/
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on June 06, 2015, 11:35:26 am
Chinese Buy American Home Foreclosures
U.S. home market pulls in more Chinese buyers


China's great wall of cash is pouring into the struggling U.S. property market, from multi-million-dollar mansions on the West Coast to venerable hotels on the East Coast.

Buyers from mainland China and Hong Kong are snapping up luxury homes, often paying cash, in major U.S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. They're coming by the dozens to buy foreclosed properties in downtrodden cities in Florida and Nevada. Chinese buyers are even starting to snap up pricey commercial buildings and hotels in Manhattan.
Chinese interest in U.S. real estate began climbing during the U.S. housing meltdown, when plunging property prices made the U.S. a magnet for global buyers. Today, interest is growing as a rising yuan — up more than 8% since mid-2010 — gives the Chinese greater purchasing power, and the mainland's restrictions on property purchases encourages them to look overseas. With U.S. single-family home prices a third lower since 2006, the U.S. also compares favorably with other top markets for Chinese investment, such as the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/story/2012-04-03/us-homes-lure-chinese-buyers/53977638/1
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on June 06, 2015, 11:37:11 am
How and why buyers from China are snatching up Bay Area homes

When Linda Vida sold her house in the Oakland hills this summer, she was hoping for a buyer who would live there, put kids in the local schools and “give back or participate in the community,” she says.
However, “as is very typical these days, a woman from China paid all cash for the house, and is not going to live in it but is going to rent it out for a while,” said Vida, who moved to Colorado. The buyer, a professor in Shanghai, paid $1.022 million, $27,000 over the asking price, for the home on Bay Forest Drive.
“In the end, she was the strongest buyer because she didn’t want to negotiate over nickel-and-dime things,” Vida said.
ADVERTISING
Although the Bay Area has always attracted foreign home buyers, anecdotal evidence suggests that their numbers are growing, creating even more competition in areas where demand has far outstripped the supply of new homes. The boom is partly because of globalization, but mostly a result of the tremendous buildup of wealth in developing countries, especially China, which had 2.4 million millionaires in 2013, up 60 percent from the year before, according to the Boston Consulting Group.


http://www.sfgate.com/business/networth/article/How-and-why-buyers-from-China-are-snatching-up-5924991.php
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on June 06, 2015, 11:39:08 am
Chinese To Spend Billions On American Real Estate

Wealthy Chinese with a few million yuan to burn will spend billions on U.S. real estate in the years ahead, according to a report released Wednesday by CB Richard Ellis, a large global real estate firm.

The United States is the country of choice for China buyers.  Canada and Australia come in next at No. 2 and No. 3 respectively. That rich Chinese individuals and savvy corporations are buying up real estate in world class cities is no surprise at this point.

News of new Chinese real estate deals are popping up every quarter.  Similar moves happened with the Japanese back in the 1980s. Now it’s China’s turn. And by most estimates, they are snatching up high end real estate in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, in particular. In California, China is the third largest foreign buyer of real estate, following Mexico and people from the Philippines, according to Realtor.org.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/07/10/chinese-to-spend-billions-on-american-real-estate/
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on June 06, 2015, 12:14:13 pm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-a-series-of-hacks-china-appears-to-building-a-database-on-americans/2015/06/05/d2af51fa-0ba3-11e5-95fd-d580f1c5d44e_story.html



CHINA BUILDING 'DATABASE ON AMERICANS'


By Ellen Nakashima June 5 at 5:55 PM

China is building massive databases of Americans’ personal information by hacking government agencies and U.S. health-care companies, using a high-tech tactic to achieve an age-old goal of espionage: recruiting spies or gaining more information on an adversary, U.S. officials and analysts say.

Groups of hackers working for the Chinese government have compromised the networks of the Office of Personnel Management, which holds data on millions of current and former federal employees, as well as the health insurance giant Anthem, among other targets, the officials and researchers said.

“They’re definitely going after quite a bit of personnel information,” said Rich Barger, chief intelligence officer of ThreatConnect, a Northern Virginia cybersecurity firm. “We suspect they’re using it to understand more about who to target [for espionage], whether electronically or via human ­recruitment.”

[How the Internet became so vulnerable]

The targeting of large-scale data­bases is a relatively new tactic and is used by the Chinese government to further its ­intelligence-gathering, the officials and analysts say. It is government espionage, not commercial espionage, they say.

vid
China hacked into the federal government’s network, compromising four million current and former employees' information. The Post's Ellen Nakashima talks about what kind of national security risk this poses and why China wants this information. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)

“This is part of their strategic goal — to increase their intelligence collection via big-data theft and big-data aggregation,” said a U.S. government official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “It’s part of a strategic plan.”

One hack of OPM, which was disclosed by the government Thursday, dates at least to December, officials said. Earlier last year, OPM discovered a separate intrusion into a highly sensitive database that contains information on employees seeking or renewing security clearances and on their background investigations.

Once harvested, the data can be used to glean details about key government personnel and potential spy recruits, or to gain information useful for counter­intelligence. Records in OPM’s database of background investigations, for instance, could contain a complete history of where an individual has lived and all of his or her foreign contacts in, say, China. “So now the Chinese counterintelligence authorities know which American officials are meeting with which Chinese,” a China cyber and intelligence expert said.
The data could help Chinese analysts do more effective targeting of individuals, said a former National Security Agency official. “They can find specific individuals they want to go after, family members,” he said.

The trend has emerged and accelerated over the past 12 to 18 months, the official said. An increase in Chinese capability has opened the way “for bigger data storage, for bigger data theft,” he said. “And when you can gain it in bulk, you take it in bulk.”

The Chinese government, he said, is making use of Chinese companies that specialize in aggregating large sets of data “to help them in sifting through” the information for useful details. “The analogy would be one of our intelligence organizations using Google, Yahoo, Accenture to aggregate data that we collected.”

China on Friday dismissed the allegation of hacking as “irresponsible and unscientific.”


Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing wanted to cooperate with other nations to build a peaceful and secure cyberspace.

“We wish the United States would not be full of suspicions, catching wind and shadows, but rather have a larger measure of trust and cooperation,” he told a regular news briefing,

OPM disclosed that the latest hack of one of its systems exposed personal data of up to 4 million current and former employees — the largest hack of federal employee data in recent years.

It is possible that officials as senior as Cabinet secretaries had their data exposed, a congressional aide said on a briefing call with government officials Friday.

U.S. officials privately said China was behind it. The stolen information included Social Security numbers and performance evaluations.

[What to do if you are a federal worker]

“This is an intelligence operation designed to help the Chinese government,” the China expert said. “It’s a new phase in an evolution of what they’re doing. It certainly requires greater sophistication on their part in terms of being able to take out this much data.”

Barger’s firm has turned up technical evidence that the same Chinese group is behind the hacks of Premera Blue Cross and Empire BlueCross, which were discovered at roughly the same time earlier this year.

The first OPM incident has been linked to the health-care hacks by Barger and another security researcher, John Hultquist, senior manager for cyberespionage threat intelligence at iSight Partners. Hultquist said the same group is responsible for all of them, and for other intrusions into commercial databases containing large sets of Americans’ personal information.

“They would leverage this data to get to diplomatic, political, military and economic intelligence that they typically target,” said Hultquist, who declined to comment on who was behind the attacks.

Though much Chinese cyber­espionage is attributed to the People’s Liberation Army, these hacks, Barger said, appeared to be linked to the Ministry of State Security, which is a spy agency responsible for foreign espionage and domestic counterintelligence.

Other Chinese entities, including the military, may also be involved in the campaign, analysts said.

Chinese government hackers “are like a vacuum cleaner” in sucking up information electronically, said Robert “Bear” Bryant, a former top counterespionage official in the government. “They’re becoming much more sophisticated in tying it all together. And they’re trying to harm us.”

[Why the Internet’s massive flaws never get fixed]

Security researchers have pointed to a cyber tool or family of malicious software called Derusbi that has been linked exclusively to Chinese actors. One group that has used Derusbi is Deep Panda, a name coined by the firm CrowdStrike, which has linked that group to the Anthem hack.

Disclosed in February, that incident exposed the Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and member IDs of tens of millions of customers. No medical data such as diagnosis or treatment information was compromised, the company said.

Researchers note that in contrast to the hacks of Home Depot and Target, personal data that might have been stolen from OPM, Anthem and the other companies has not shown up on the black market, where it can be sold to identity thieves. That is another sign, they said, that the intrusions are not being made for commercial purposes.

“Usually if there’s a criminally or financially motivated breach like that, we see the data making its way into the black market soon after that,” Barger said.

The big-data approach being taken by the Chinese might seem to mirror techniques used abroad by the NSA, which has come under scrutiny for its data-gathering practices under executive authority. But in China, the authorities do not tolerate public debate over the proper limits of large-scale spying in the digital age.

“This is what all intelligence services do if they’re good,” said the China cyber expert. “If you want to find a needle, first you have to gather a haystack of needles.”

The massive data harvesting “reflects a maturity in Chinese” electronic intelligence gathering, the expert said. “You have to put in place structured data repositories. You have to have big-data management tools to be able to store and sift and analyze.”

Barger said that “with a large pool of data, they can prioritize who is the best to target electronically and who is the best to target via human recruitment.”

The U.S. official noted that the Chinese “would not take [the data] if they did not have the opportunity to aggregate it.” And, he added, “they are taking it.”




Simon Denyer in Beijing contributed to this report.


Ellen Nakashima is a national security reporter for The Washington Post. She focuses on issues relating to intelligence, technology and civil liberties



Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on June 06, 2015, 03:01:49 pm
Chinese Hackers

These are the serious military guys hacking into American (and other countries) computers

(http://www.muslimpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Chinese-hackers-Documents-reveal-Mossad-has-close-ties-with-ISIS.jpg)

These are the Chinese kids doing the same

(http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/sites/default/files/field/image/chinese%20hackers.jpg)
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: Shasta56 on June 06, 2015, 06:10:23 pm
We should have been worried about China decades ago.   Closing the barn door after all the livestock, hay, and farming implements are long gone doesn't do much good.

Shasta
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on June 07, 2015, 06:37:21 am


total agreement with you Shasta..i didn't understand when they sent guys over there to show them how to make steel.. and then complained about china dumping steel ..you just wonder who the hell is in charge here..

anywho here's another little story this guy was selling ppg paint secrets to them and now he's dead.. very suspicious in my book as he was very brash and outspoken about it..
I think he just may have had help..








http://triblive.com/news/editorspicks/8515710-74/rukavina-ppg-chemist#axzz3cNldYTfn

Retired PPG chemist's suicide won't stop spy probe

By Carl Prine    
 Saturday, June 6, 2015, 10:57 p.m.
 Updated 10 hours ago

Accused spy Thomas Rukavina killed himself Friday evening in his Plum home, but the federal probe involving industrial trade secrets, Chinese espionage and possible co-conspirators here and abroad continues.

As a result of a Saturday afternoon autopsy, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office ruled that Rukavina, 62, a retired PPG Industries chemist, died from asphyxiation by hanging himself, an electronic monitoring device still looped around his ankle.

FBI agents arrested Rukavina on May 7, alleging that he plotted nearly a year ago to sell PPG “Opticor” manufacturing plans to J.T.M.G. Co., a glass-making competitor based in Jiangsu, China.

One of the largest technological leaps for PPG in a half-century, the transparent plastic Opticor is used in a range of specialty windows, from high-speed trains to military jets.

PPG is the sole worldwide supplier of it, and Rukavina was on the Opticor development team, retiring in mid-2012 as PPG ramped up production. Because of its importance to national security, the State Department bans the transfer of Opticor secrets without a special permit.

In the criminal complaint supporting his indictment, federal agents maintained that Rukavina reached out to the Chinese and offered to turn other unnamed American experts to aid competitors abroad. In one email intercepted by investigators, Rukavina pledged the Chinese “access to all of PPG technology since 1947!!,” according to court documents.

U.S. Attorney David Hickton in Pittsburgh told the Tribune-Review that the FBI will continue to spearhead the spy probe but couldn't be more specific due to the “sensitive nature” of the case.

Rukavina's suicide ends the criminal proceedings against him, but Hickton said the investigation will highlight the “top priority to protect the intellectual property of companies in this country.”

Trade secrets shipped to China hurt American workers and investors, he added. The Chinese embassy did not return messages seeking comment.

For 20 days after his arrest, Rukavina remained in the Allegheny County Jail, pending a psychiatric examination. His attorney, Lee M. Rothman, said Rukavina's struggle inside the jail with insomnia, severe anxiety and chronic depression hampered his ability to forge a defense.

He believed that Rukavina could get better care under house arrest. Concerned that he would harm himself, federal prosecutors opposed his release.

On May 27, U.S. Magistrate Judge Maureen Kelly allowed Rukavina to drop his request for a competency hearing, letting him leave jail on a $100,000 unsecured bond. However, she ordered Rukavina to surrender his shotgun to Rothman and to forgo “excessively” drinking alcohol while confined to his home.

When contacted by the Trib, Rothman declined to discuss the case. Rukavina's relatives did not return messages seeking comment.

Despite opposing Rukavina's release, Hickton said no one should be blamed for Rukavina's “sad and tragic” death.

Carl Prine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7826 or cprine@tribweb.com.



http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/8441844-74/company-chinese-rukavina#axzz3cNldYTfn
Retired PPG chemist accused of selling trade secrets released on bail

By Brian Bowling    
 Tuesday, May 26, 2015, 7:12 p.m.

A federal judge Tuesday released a Plum man on a $100,000 unsecured bond after a determination that he is competent to stand trial on charges of selling industrial trade secrets to a Chinese company.

A retired PPG Industries chemist, Thomas Rukavina, 62, contacted J.T.M.G. Co. of Jiangsu, China, via email and offered to provide the company with a list of technologies, prosecutors say. The Chinese company makes glass for automotive and specialty purposes.

He provided the company with technologies associated with airplane windows and high-speed trains that are worth millions of dollars to PPG, prosecutors contend.

Federal agents arrested Rukavina on May 7. He was being held without bail pending a psychiatric examination. He was suffering from severe anxiety, depression and insomnia to the point that he had trouble talking about his case, his lawyer, Lee Rothman, said at an earlier hearing.

Rukavina withdrew his motion for a competency evaluation during a hearing Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Maureen Kelly released him on bail but placed him on house arrest with electronic monitoring.













http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/8331572-74/ppg-rukavina-chinese#axzz3cNldYTfn

Ex-PPG employee charged with stealing trade secrets for Chinese firm

By Rick Wills    
 Friday, May 8, 2015, 12:48 p.m.
 
 

 
The technology for high speed trains and airplane windows a disgruntled PPG chemist is accused of illegally giving to a Chinese company took years to develop and was worth millions of dollars to PPG Industries, according to federal authorities.

Federal agents arrested Thomas Rukavina, 62, of Plum on Thursday and charged him with theft of trade secrets.

It's a case of intellectual property theft that has tangled trade with China for decades, U.S. Attorney David Hickton said Friday.

“Theft, whether hands-on or through cyber intrusions, diminishes our competitive edge in technology and product development, and deprives our citizens of economic opportunities,” Hickton said.

Rukavina retired from PPG almost three years ago and has been in contact with J.T.M.G. Co. of Jiangsu, China, for at least two years, according to emails detailed in a federal criminal complaint.

The Chinese company makes glass for automotive and specialty purposes.

PPG told the FBI that the plastic window OPTICOR began development a decade ago “and was the industry's first new transparent plastic in more than 50 years.”

The company's chief technology officer told the FBI that information Rukavina shared with the Chinese company would be worth “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Ruvakina told employees from the Chinese company that he was “forced out” at PPG.

The federal complaint includes emails between Rukavina and the Chinese firm.

“If PPG owns my brain for life, then they should pay me 2 million per year to keep it!!” Rukavina wrote, complaining about the company's confidentiality agreements.

In an email, he offered the Chinese company a list of product technologies he can deliver — including sealants and optical coatings.

Rukavina was ordered detained pending a formal detention hearing scheduled for Monday. He could get a maximum total sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both.

PPG thanked federal authorities for charging Rukavina.

“The proprietary research-and-development work done by our scientists brings great value to our customers, and ultimately impacts our position in the competitive marketplace. It is essential that we continue to safeguard and protect that intellectual property,” PPG spokesman Bryan Iams said.

The Chinese company has not been charged.

Two years ago, a private advisory panel said a growing number of intellectual property thefts, mainly by China, costs the United States more than $300 billion each year.

Rick Wills is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.


Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on June 12, 2015, 04:26:42 pm

no make believe planets or illuminated groups here...just a bunch in the here and now and this visible dimension ready to flex some muscle and see how far they can go...


Chinese hack of U.S. network compromised security files



The Washington Post

Ellen Nakashima
1 hr ago



The Chinese breach of the Office of Personnel Management network was wider than first acknowledged and officials said Friday that a database holding sensitive security clearance information on millions of federal employees and contractors also was compromised.


An official announcement about the breach is expected soon.

“This is potentially devastating from a counterintelligence point of view,” said Joel Brenner, a former top counterintelligence official for the U.S. government. “These forums contain decades of personal information about people with clearances. ..which makes them easier to recruit for foreign espionage on behalf of a foreign country.”

Last week, the Office of Personnel Management announced that a massive database containing personal information of roughly 4 million current and former federal employees was hacked. Privately, U.S. officials said that the Chinese government was behind the breach.

The breach of the data system announced by OPM last week affected 4.1 million individuals--all 2.1 million current federal civilian employees and 2 million retired or former employees. Information of officials as senior as cabinet secretaries may have been breached. The president’s and vice-president’s data were not, officials said.

The second OPM database that was breached contains sensitive background check information --called SF-86 data --that includes applicants’ financial histories and investment records, children’s and relatives’ names, foreign trips taken and contacts with foreign nationals, past residences and names of neighbors and close friends.

That database was also breached last year by the Chinese in a separate incident and the new intrusion underscores how persistent and determined the adversary is in going after data valuable to counterespionage.

“That database is very huge and very old and it has lots of interfaces to it,” said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. So figuring out exactly what part of it was breached has taken some time, the official said.

Employees of intelligence agencies such as the CIA generally do not have their clearance checks records held by the OPM, though some do, officials said.

“That’s the open question--whether it’s going to hit CIA folks,” said a second U.S. official. “It would be a huge deal. They could start unmasking identities.”

The administration timed its announcement last week to comply with its own policy, as reflected in proposed legislation, to notify individuals of a breach within 30 days of determining that there is a “reasonable basis to believe” that people’s personal information has been compromised, the U.S. official said.

Though the breach was discovered in April, it was not until early May that the FBI, OPM and Department of Homeland Security determined that employees’ personal likely were taken. That led to the announcement last week even though, the official said, the investigation was not complete.

“In an ideal world, people doing the investigation would say ‘We need to wait until we’re completely done,’ “ the official said.

A senior DHS official briefed Congressional staff last week and tried to explain why it took four weeks to alert employees to the breach. “It takes time to do the forensics and to understand what’s happened, and even to understand what data, if any, has been exposed,” said Ann Barron-Dicamillo, director of the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, according to notes taken by a Congressional aide. “It’s a lot of data. It takes time for DHS and all the partners to analyze that data and come to a conclusion.”

The breach, she said, took place in December. “It took awhile to pinpoint what actually went out the door because it happened six months ago,” she said.

Adam Goldman and Lisa Rein contributed to this report.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/chinese-hack-of-us-network-compromised-security-files/ar-BBl4l4V




............................................



edit to add this

http://abcnews.go.com/US/feds-eye-link-private-contractor-massive-government-hack/story?id=31717372


Feds Eye Link to Private Contractor in Massive Government Hack


Jun 12, 2015, 6:45 PM ET
By MIKE LEVINE and JACK DATE

The hackers who recently launched a massive cyber-attack on the U.S. government, exposing sensitive information of millions of federal workers and millions of others, may have used information stolen from a private government contractor to break into federal systems, according to sources briefed on the matter.

Authorities suspect the hackers, likely from China, entered the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s computer systems after first gaining access last year to the systems of KeyPoint Government Solutions -- one of the primary providers of background checks for the U.S. government, sources said.

KeyPoint representatives contacted by ABC News declined comment for this story.

Authorities, meanwhile, believe hackers were able to extract electronic credentials or other information from within KeyPoint's systems and somehow use them to help unlock OPM's systems, according to sources.

The hackers then rummaged through separate "segments" of OPM's systems, potentially compromising personal information of not only the 4 million current and former federal employees already acknowledged publicly but also millions more, including relatives, friends and maybe even college roommates, the sources said.



OPM Hack Far Deeper Than Publicly Acknowledged, Went Undetected For More Than A Year, Sources Say

Jun 11, 2015, 4:59 PM ET    By MIKE LEVINE
vid at link

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/opm-hack-deeper-publicly-acknowledged-undetected-year-sources/story?id=31689059




Cabinet Secretaries Potentially Exposed in OPM Data Breach


WASHINGTON — Jun 9, 2015, 7:01 AM ET

By PIERRE THOMAS, JACK DATE, MIKE LEVINE and JACK CLOHERTY
 http://abcnews.go.com/US/cabinet-secretaries-potentially-exposed-opm-data-breach/story?id=31626021

Jack Cloherty More from Jack »
via Good Morning America vid at link




Feds Looking Into Whether Hack of US Government Affected Private Citizens Too


http://abcnews.go.com/US/feds-hack-us-government-affected-private-citizens/story?id=31600958
Jun 7, 2015, 8:18 PM ET

By MIKE LEVINE
 



In an unrelated statement today, OPM said authorities have "a high degree of confidence that OPM systems containing information related to the background investigations of current, former, and prospective Federal government employees, and those for whom a federal background investigation was conducted, may have been exfiltrated," as previously reported by ABC News.

The fact that Colorado-based KeyPoint suffered a cyber intrusion was well-publicized late last year. But the scope of the hack may not have been completely understood at the time by even the nation’s top cyber officials, sources indicated. Last year's incident has yet to be officially tied to the recent OPM hack.

The KeyPoint incident, mostly affecting employees of the Department of Homeland Security, was first detected in September, and two months ago DHS began notifying federal employees whose personal information "may have been compromised."
The notification was clear about what information was exposed: "[Your] first and last name, social security number, job title, investigation case number, education history, criminal history, and employment history; spouse or cohabitant’s name, date of birth, and social security number; the names, addresses, and dates of birth of relatives of the investigation subject; and names and addresses of friends of the investigation subject."

DHS discovered the KeyPoint intrusion only after undertaking a thorough assessment of all such contractors -- a move prompted by the hacking of another federal contractor, according to DHS.

Asked why the government waited seven months to notify potential victims, one U.S. official said it took time for authorities to conclude personal information may have been stolen in the incident.

Nevertheless, KeyPoint put in place "additional safeguards" after the intrusion was detected, and those steps should "prevent future incidents of this nature," according to the government notification.

In addition to the KeyPoint incident, investigators are also looking into whether another previously-known hack into OPM databases in March 2014 may be connected to the most recent breach.

That attack targeted an OPM system maintaining security clearance information. An OPM official, however, recently told lawmakers it didn’t expose any personal information.

Nevertheless, officials strongly suspect the cyber-attack came from China -- just like officials believe the most recent intrusion also came from China.

The most recent OPM hack is believed to have been far deeper and potentially more problematic than publicly acknowledged, sources said, with the hackers believed to have been moving in and out of government databases undetected for more than a year.

Much of the compromised data has been stored on OPM systems housed by the Department of the Interior in a Denver-area data center, sources said. And one of the "segments" compromised held forms filled out by federal employees seeking security clearances.

The 127-page forms -- known as SF-86's and used for background investigations -- require applicants to provide personal information not only about themselves but also relatives, friends and “associates” spanning several years. The forms also ask applicants if they have "illegally used a drug or controlled substance," and they require information on financial history and personal relationships.

That type of information, sources said, could be exploited to conduct "social-engineering" operations, potentially using the data to pressure or trick employees into further compromising their agencies.

Also of concern are U.S. employees stationed overseas, including in countries such as China, whose government would covet personal information on relatives and contacts of American officials living in the communist country, according to officials.

"If the SF-86's associated with this hack were, in their entirety, part of the stolen information, then that would mean the potential release of a staggering amount of information, affecting an exponential amount of people," one U.S. official told ABC News on Sunday.

Acting as the government's human resources division, OPM conducts about 90 percent of background investigations for the federal government. Information from SF-86 forms dating back three decades could have been exposed in the cyber-attack, sources said.

It's still unclear exactly what was compromised by the OPM hack, particularly because OPM officials and other authorities still don't have a good handle on how much information was actually stored by OPM in the first place, one U.S. official said.

Nearly 50 government agencies send data to OPM for storage in some form, according to the official.

The intrusion was only noticed after OPM began to upgrade its equipment and systems. As soon as anomalies within the systems were noticed, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI were notified.

Over two weeks, OPM will be sending notifications to the estimated 4 million current and former government employees whose "Personally Identifiable Information" may have been compromised by the hack.

And "since the investigation is ongoing, additional PII exposures may come to light," an OPM official acknowledged Sunday. "In that case, OPM will conduct additional notifications as necessary."

In a statement last week, an FBI spokesman said, "We take all potential threats to public and private sector systems seriously, and will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace."

Efforts to reach an OPM spokesman today were unsuccessful.

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on July 21, 2015, 02:21:25 pm

just another little acquisition

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/spain%e2%80%99s-unused-billion-euro-don-quixote-airport-is-about-to-be-sold-to-a-chinese-investor-for-just-dollar11000/ar-AAdgNOx

Quartz
Gabriel Fisher  9 hrs ago


Spain’s unused, billion-euro Don Quixote airport is about to be sold to a Chinese investor for just $11,000

In 2006, amid a construction boom in Spain, a tiny town with a population a little over 75,000 people an hour outside Madrid built an airport for €1 billion ($1.1 billion). The town, Ciudad Real, at the time named the new airport after Don Quixote, the windmill-fighting fictional character famous for his delusions of grandeur.

Fittingly, it turns out.

Just a few years later, the construction boom turned into a bust when the bubble burst, making Spain one of the hardest hit countries as the financial crisis swept the world and effectively mothballing the airport.

Now, a Chinese investment company is set to buy the airport former known as Don Quixote—for a paltry €10,000, or $11,000. In fact, it was the only bidder.

The deserted airport is one of the more famous examples of the boom—from apartment complexes to highways—that have given much of Spain the feeling of an empty ghost town.

Ciudad Real airport was built to handle more than 10 million travelers a year. It even has a runway large enough to hold the world’s largest passenger airplane, the Airbus A380—but the airport has sat almost unused since its opening.

In fact, Ciudad Real airport is not even the only deserted brand-new airport in Spain. Both Lleida–Alguaire Airport in Catalonia and Castellón–Costa Azahar Airport near Valencia remain practically unused since construction, The Guardian says; the first commercial flight took off from Castellón airport this year, over four years after opening.

Chinese investment company Tzaneen International was the sole bidder for the airport in a public auction. The price includes the majority of the airport grounds and buildings—but Tzaneen says that it is ready to invest up to €100 million in restoring the airport, which it hopes to turn into a European hub for Chinese cargo planes.

The deal is not done, however. The airport was put originally put on sale for €110 million, but later revised down to €40 million. Because Tzaneen’s lone offer was less than 70% of the asking price, potential competitors have 20 days to come up with something better.

If no-one steps forward, Tzaneen will have its own state-of-the-art airport for the same price as a used 2015 Nissan Versa.

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on July 21, 2015, 02:38:05 pm
Be concerned?  Depends

It depends on if the buyers are connected to the Chinese government in any way and these acquisitions are under Chinese Gov control

or

Are they rich Chinese hedging their bets outside of China

If the latter is true  then no worries  and the purchases will boost the economy. If the former is true, then start learning Chinese :P
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on July 25, 2015, 08:12:58 am

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-olander/west-africa-priorities-china-mark-kapchanga_b_7851770.html?utm_hp_ref=world


Posted:  07/22/2015 4:59 pm EDT    Updated:  07/22/2015 4:59 pm EDT
Eric Olander  Veteran New Media and Broadcast Journalist
  Cobus van Staden 
Lecturer, Media Studies, Wits University
 
Kenyan Journalist: The West Doesn't Have Its Priorities Right in Africa -- But China Does

 
vid at link

In Mark Kapchanga's view, the West, particularly media, really do not understand what the Chinese are doing in Africa. Kapchanga, a provocative Nairobi-based journalist and columnist, isn't shy in arguing his case that on balance China's presence in Africa is a net plus for the continent and its people. The West, he says, just doesn't have its priorities right in Africa, whereas Beijing's massive infrastructure spending across the continent  is the kind of engagement that has a direct impact on people's lives.

Kachanga writes a regular column in the fiery Chinese state-owned newspaper The Global Times that unsurprisingly takes a stridently pro-PRC stance. Although the Kenyan journalist does have some critical views of Chinese policy in Africa, few if any of those opinions make it past the newspaper's censors.

So while Kapchang's outlook on Sino-African relations in print may be filtered, he doesn't hesitate in the least when he joins Eric & Cobus -- in the podcast in the audio above -- for a full debrief on his views about the state of the Chinese in Africa.

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on July 25, 2015, 01:19:46 pm
I find it highly amusing that CHINA has adopted TRUE Capitalistic measures to take over the world.

To make money you need to spend money not hoard it. Grease the Wheel as it were. Tnhis is something the US USED to be expert at... it is what made the US strong and productive.

Seems we have forgotten that and have actually helped China realize their potential by sending our jobs to them and buying their goods

Well I would rather have China rule the world than the Arabs or Israelis :P

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on July 27, 2015, 08:29:52 pm


I was thinking of that strange configuration in the dessert of china but I can't find it right now..don't know if it is connected to this or not

http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150724/1024983202.html

Asia & Pacific
02:03 24.07.2015(updated 08:35 24.07.2015)


China Starts Building Huge Solar Plant to Span 10 Sq. Miles of Gobi Desert

China has begun construction on its largest solar power plant which, when completed, will be capable of powering one million homes and will drastically reduce the country's coal use.



The plant will cover 2,550 hectares (nearly 10 square miles) in the Gobi desert, in Qinghai province.

It will have an installed capacity of 200 megawatts, and be capable of supplying electricity to one million households, according to Qinghai Solar-Thermal Power Group.

"Its designed heat storage is 15 hours, thus, it can guarantee stable, continual power generation," state-owned news agency Xinhua quoted group board chair Wu Longyi as saying.

Once operational, the plant will slash standard coal use by 4.26 million tons every year, reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide by 896,000 tons and 8,080 tons, respectively.

The solar power tower system boasts higher efficiency and better energy storage than the more commonly used trough system.

The plant will also be China's first large-scale solar power plant under commercial operation, said Yu Mingzhen, vice director of Qinghai development and reform commission.

Beijing has been emphasizing clean energy. Between 2005 and 2014, the country has increased its solar power capacity 400 fold to 28.05 gigawatts. There are plans to increase capacity to around 100 gigawatts by 2020.

China also has plans to construct a new 50-megawatt solar power plant in Datong City, Shanxi Province.







Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: SerpUkhovian on July 28, 2015, 03:13:39 am

It will have an installed capacity of 200 megawatts, and be capable of supplying electricity to one million households

Let me see here, 1000000 homes divide up 200000000 Watts of power, and you get 200 Watts per home.  That is enough to light three sixty Watt light bulbs and power a cell phone charger.

Life in China is austere.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: ArMaP on July 28, 2015, 05:39:36 am
Let me see here, 1000000 homes divide up 200000000 Watts of power, and you get 200 Watts per home.  That is enough to light three sixty Watt light bulbs and power a cell phone charger.

Life in China is austere.
They didn't say "all at the same time". :)
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on July 28, 2015, 07:15:50 am


the poor ones get the 200 amps for their light bulbs the rich ones are movin on out..lol


http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20150727-the-newest-chinese-obsession

28 July 2015
By Phil Mercer


Why China’s super-rich want to buy here
Monika Tu certainly knows how to make a grand entrance.

As the gates of the A$25m ($18.6m) mansion in Sydney swing open, a Rolls Royce sweeps into the driveway. It glides to a stop, its heavy doors open and Tu, a Chinese-born estate agent who makes a living selling Australian property to Chinese buyers, steps out.

The opulent Georgian Regency villa, its cream facade bathed in sunshine, is flanked by tall blocks of flats in the Potts Point district of Sydney, one of the most densely-populated parts of Australia.

“This is everybody’s dream house,” she said, while ascending a wooden staircase. “Chinese buyers love a piece of history, so they come to this country [and] beside beautiful harbours and beautiful views, they want to have something of significant value.”

Born in Guizhou in southwestern China, Tu arrived in Australia in 1988 to study for an international trade degree in Melbourne. After moving to Sydney in the early 1990s, she sold cosmetics and insurance before setting up an IT firm. Her luxury property business, Black Diamondz, was founded six years ago and today, about 60% of her clients are from mainland China.

Tu recently sold a waterfront mansion in Sydney to one Chinese investor for A$40m ($29.7m). To another, she sold a A$33m ($24.5m) house in the nearby suburb of Vaulcuse with views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and opera house.

It is estimated that last year, the Chinese snapped a quarter of all new stock in Sydney and a fifth in Melbourne.

Chinese capital investments in Australia are on the rise and are expected to be boosted further by recent changes to currency regulations that make it easier for wealthy Chinese to invest in property overseas. Credit Suisse forecasts the Chinese will pump as much as A$60bn ($44.55bn) into Australian property over the next five years.

What’s happening in Australia is part of a broader global trend, with many other countries experiencing a spike in demand for real estate from Chinese buyers, experts say.

(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/464_261/images/live/p0/2x/s6/p02xs65p.jpg)


A mansion worth A$25m ($18.6m) in Potts Point, Sydney is the kind wealthy Chinese buyers look for. (Credit: BlackDiamondz)


“I had a meeting recently with a developer from Singapore and he looked at me and said ‘you haven’t seen anything other than the tip of the iceberg yet’,” said John McGrath, one of Australia’s most recognisable estate agents and a judge on TV reality show The Block. To meet demand, McGrath has employed a China specialist to field queries from potential buyers, helping them navigate complex rules and any cultural and language differences.

The draw — and the rules

One significant attraction for Chinese property investors is Australia’s proximity.

“It is only about nine hour’s flight [to Australia], so it is only about two hours’ time difference,” she said. “The school system is really good, and I think the Australian people are very welcoming. That is what the Chinese love to come to this country for.”

Australia has tough legislation that restricts foreigners to buying newly-constructed or planned homes. However, those who have temporary or permanent visas are free to buy whatever they like, and an entire industry has been built around helping rich clients, especially those from China, use trusts and other investment schemes to acquire expensive houses and apartments.

Since 2009, real-estate prices in Sydney, the nation’s most populous city, have leapt by 60% and are up around 15% in each of the past two years, fuelling fears that younger Australians will never get a foot on the property ladder.

WATCH: Take a look inside a Sydney mansion with Monika Tu. Plus, what's really driving Sydney real estate prices up? Click on the video below.

vid at link

Rising tension

While the British and others have long seen Sydney as a safe place to buy property, the surge of investment from China has sparked concern from some groups in Australia.

A fringe nationalist organisation even recently burnt flags outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney, where a small group of protestors claimed the nation was in the grip of a ‘Chinese real estate invasion’.

But McGrath said foreign real-estate buyers are just a “scapegoat” for the rising prices. He points out that the vast majority of properties in Sydney are still sold to Australians, who aren’t being squeezed out of the market by overseas buyers.

Back in the 1980s, the Japanese fell in love with Australian real estate, and therein lies a lesson for those riding the latest wave of investment from Asia, according to Nigel Stapleton, a real-estate economics fellow at the University of New South Wales Business School. He has cautioned that foreigners often lack a true understanding of the Australian market and because of that sometimes overpay.

“Generally, the foreign investors don’t do as well as local investors,” he said.

But this is where Tu comes in, guiding rich Chinese clients through the property maze.

“Everyone wants to come to Australia,” she said. “For (the) Chinese, this is a most desirable destination.”

To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrA0U-IGsAc
[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrA0U-IGsAc[/youtube]









Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on July 28, 2015, 07:28:13 am

and today's headline



http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/chinese-stocks-destroy-dollar398b-in-us-wealth/ar-AAdz2H0
USA Today
Matt Krantz  15 hrs ago






Chinese stocks destroy $39.8B in U.S. wealth


The Chinese stock implosion is starting to get serious. It's costing U.S. investors real money.

The 144 China-based stocks with primary listings on major U.S. exchanges have erased nearly $40 billion in paper wealth since the Shanghai Composite index peaked on June 12. It's an enormous destruction of wealth that in effect wipes out the market value of a company the size of cruise ship operator Carnival.

The Shanghai composite index' losses are only getting worse. The much-watched measure of Chinese stocks fell 8.5% in overnight trading Monday. The index has dropped more than 27% since hitting its peak this year back on June 12.

Some of the stock-specific shredding of value is getting noteworthy. Chinese e-commerce stock, Alibaba, has been the biggest destroyer of U.S. investor wealth. The stock is only down 6.1% since June 12 - but given it's enormous market value, investors have lost $7.6 billion on the stock during the downturn. The company still has a market value of $208.6 billion.

Also making U.S. investors feel the pain is JD.com, another online retailer based in China. This stock is down 15% since the Shanghai's peak - which given the company's large size - is handing investors a $4.5 billion paper loss.

Watching Chinese stocks go from a point of riches - to a point of pain - is quite the reversal for U.S. investors. The Vanguard Emerging Markets exchange-traded fund, which owns stakes in Chinese stocks, soared in late 2007 as it looked like the emerging nations were where the growth would be.

Once again - the crowd is wrong. And the stampede out proves to be painful.

But don't think if you didn't own any of these Chinese stocks directly that you're safe from the Chinese stock meltdown. Investors over the years have accumulated exposure to China through China-focused exchange-traded funds as well as emerging markets ETFs. The pain in China is spreading into these corners of the market - which financial advisors tell most investors to have at least some exposure to.


Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: SerpUkhovian on July 28, 2015, 03:33:55 pm

the poor ones get the 200 amps for their light bulbs the rich ones are movin on out..lol

It is not 200 amps; it is 200 watts.  With the standard voltage in China at 220 volts AC, that would be less than one ampere.  Most American homes are fused at 250 amps (but rarely use that much).  You couldn't make popcorn in the microwave oven with only one amp.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on July 28, 2015, 03:40:40 pm


thank you, SerpUkhovian

I knew I should have stopped and corrected that but I didn't..my bad
being specific is always more important that speed

my apologizes
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 03, 2015, 10:27:14 am

questions
China: should we be alarmed yet ?
answer
NAH..not till they get an fda  gov department

bwhahahahahahahah

Chinese Liquor Suppliers Accused Of Putting Viagra In Booze

Food safety is a chronic problem in China.



Reuters
Posted: 08/03/2015 09:03 AM EDT
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police are investigating if two distillers in the southwestern region of Guangxi added impotence treatment drug Viagra to their liquor in the latest food-safety scare in China.

The Liuzhou Food and Drug Administration said that it found the Guikun Alcohol Plant and the Deshun Alcohol Plant in Guangxi's Liuzhou city were putting Sildenafil, more commonly known as Viagra, into three of their baijiu products.

Baijiu is a fiery grain liquor that commands high prices in China.

Law enforcement officers have confiscated 5,357 bottles of the suspect products, 1,124 kg of raw alcohol and a batch of white powder labeled Sildenafil, in a case worth more than 700,000 yuan ($112,726), according to a statement posted by the Liuzhou Food and Drug Administration on its website on Saturday.

The case has been transferred to the police, the statement said.

The products were all marketed as having health-preserving qualities, it said.

Food safety is a chronic problem in China and public anxiety over cases of fake or toxic food often spreads quickly.

In June, state media said Chinese customs have seized around 3 billion yuan ($483 million) worth of smuggled meat, some more than 40 years old and rotting, the latest in a grim series of food safety scares.

In 2013, Chinese police said they broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton.

 ($1 = 6.2097 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Kim Coghill)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-viagra-alcohol_55bf617fe4b0d4f33a033d02?
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 06, 2015, 06:43:51 am


(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/mqznlo1SDFnwB3trXmS08g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTI1MztpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz00NTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2015-08-05T115903Z_1_LYNXNPEB740JF_RTROPTP_2_CNEWS-US-JAPAN-DEFENCE.JPG)
Chinese dredging vessels are purportedly seen in the waters around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in this still image from video taken by a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft provided by the United States Navy May 21, 2015. REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Handout via Reuters

http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-chinas-wang-discuss-south-china-sea-tensions-040713628.html

Reuters
By David Brunnstrom and Trinna Leong
August 5, 2015 9:16 AM


China says has stopped reclamation work in South China Sea

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday that Beijing had halted land reclamation in the South China Sea, and called on countries in the region to speed up talks on how claimant states should conduct themselves in the disputed waters.

In June, China said it would soon complete some of its reclamation in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea, while adding it would continue to build facilities on the man-made islands.

Wang's remarks at a regional meeting in Kuala Lumpur appeared designed to defuse tensions with other countries that lay claim to parts of the sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.

Beijing claims most of the waters, while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

The United States and Japan have expressed alarm at China's expansion in the South China Sea, which they suspect is aimed at extending its military reach, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry raised the issue with Wang in the Malaysian capital.

"China is always committed to working with the countries concerned to resolve disputes through peaceful negotiation," Wang told Kerry, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.

"Countries that are not in the region should respect the efforts made by China and ASEAN countries."

Wang made his remarks on the sidelines of meetings involving the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), where tensions over the South China Sea have dominated talks this week.

When asked by a reporter whether China would temporarily halt reclamation work in the strategic waterway, he replied: "China has already stopped. You just take an aeroplane to take a look."
Philippine foreign ministry spokesman Charles Jose said China had stopped reclamation because it had already formed its new islands.

"At the same time, China announced they are moving on to Phase 2, which is construction of facilities on the reclaimed features. The Philippines views these activities as destabilizing," Jose said.

In a statement, Japan's senior vice foreign minister Minoru Kiuchi "voiced deep concern over unilateral actions that change the status quo and heighten tensions in the South China Sea, including large-scale land reclamation, the construction of outposts and their use for military purposes".

China says the outposts will have undefined military purposes, as well as help with maritime search and rescue, disaster relief and navigation.

U.S. WORRIED BY "MILITARIZATION"

Wang told reporters that China and ASEAN countries shared a desire to advance the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea and resolve issues through dialogue.

They also wanted to strengthen cooperation in security and defense and maintain peace and stability in the area, he added.

Kerry had earlier expressed concern about China's land reclamation and construction on the man-made islands during talks with Wang, a senior State Department official said.

The official said Kerry told Wang that while Washington did not take a position on sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, it wanted to see them resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law.

Kerry also reiterated U.S. worries over the "militarization" of features on the Chinese-held islands in the Spratlys, the official added.

"He encouraged China, along with the other claimants, to halt problematic actions in order to create space for diplomacy," the official said.

Recent satellite images show China has almost finished building a 3,000-metre-long (10,000-foot) airstrip on one of its seven new islands in the Spratlys.

The airstrip will be long enough to accommodate most Chinese military aircraft, security experts have said, giving Beijing greater reach into the heart of maritime Southeast Asia.

China had said it did not want the South China Sea dispute raised at this week's ASEAN meetings, but some ministers, including from host Malaysia, rebuffed that call, saying the issue was too important to ignore.

China and Southeast Asian nations had agreed to set up a foreign ministers' hotline to tackle emergencies in the waterway, a senior ASEAN official said on Friday.

The senior State Department official said Kerry and Wang also discussed Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States in September, as well as U.S. concerns over cybersecurity and human rights in China.

"They agreed there are many shared challenges that both countries should work closer together to address, such as climate change and development, and that more dialogue and cooperation between the United States and China remains vital," the official said.

(Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Angie Teo; Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by Mike Collett-White)


Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 11, 2015, 06:30:12 am


I seem to have turned into a china watcher..hummmmmmmmm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-devalues-yuan-after-poor-economic-data_55c9e5a0e4b0923c12be0815?kvcommref=mostpopular

Reuters
By Pete Sweeney and Lu Jianxin
Posted: 08/11/2015 08:16 AM EDT | Edited: 48 minutes ago

China Devalues Yuan After Poor Economic Data

Some suspect the move could be the beginning of a longer-term slide in the exchange rate.

China devalued its currency on Tuesday after a run of poor economic data, a move it billed as a free-market reform but which some suspect could be the beginning of a longer-term slide in the exchange rate.

The central bank set its official guidance rate down nearly 2 percent to 6.2298 yuan per dollar - its lowest point in almost three years - in what it said was a change in methodology to make it more responsive to market forces.

It was the biggest one-day fall since a massive devaluation in 1994 when China aligned its official and market rates.

"Since China's trade in goods continues to post relatively large surpluses, the yuan's real effective exchange rate is still relatively strong versus various global currencies, and is deviating from market expectations," the central bank said.

"Therefore, it is necessary to further improve the yuan's midpoint pricing to meet the needs of the market."

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) called it a "one-off depreciation", but economists disagreed over the significance of a move that reversed a previous strong-yuan policy that aimed to boost domestic consumption and outward investment.

"For a long time, I gave the PBOC credit for holding the line on the renminbi (yuan) and recognizing that while it might be tempting to try to shore up the old-growth model by devaluing the currency, that really was a dead end," said fund manager Patrick Chovanec of U.S.-based Silvercrest Asset Management.

He said a strong yuan was needed to force China toward consumption and away from low-end manufacturing. "What the world needs from China is not more supply; what it needs is demand."

The devaluation followed weekend data that showed China's exports tumbled 8.3 percent in July, hit by weaker demand from Europe, the United States and Japan, and that producer prices were well into their fourth year of deflation.

The move hurt the Australian AUD=D4 and New Zealand NZD=D4 dollars and the Korean won KRW=D4, fanning talk of a round of currency devaluations from other major exporters. But some of Asia's most interventionist central banks appeared to be holding their nerve on currency policy.

"I don’t think the move would trigger a global currency war," a Japanese policymaker said.

Economists pointed out that until Tuesday, China had held the yuan firm while its neighbors had debased their currencies.

FEAR OF DEFLATION

While a weaker yuan will not cure all the ills of China's exporters, which suffer from rising labor costs and quality problems, it would help relieve deflationary pressure, a far bigger economic concern in the view of some economists.

Falling commodity prices have been blamed for producer price deflation, putting China at risk of repeating the deflationary cycle that blighted Japan for decades.

Growth in China, the world's second-largest economy, has slowed markedly this year and is set to hit a 25-year low even if it meets its official 7 percent target.

The devaluation hit shares in Asia and Europe. Chinese airline stocks also fell, given the impact higher fuel prices would have on their bottom line, though exporter stocks rose.

Some said the move was also to blame for a fall in futures contracts tracking the S&P 500 index SPc1, given the potential hit to U.S. exports to China.

MONEY MANAGEMENT

Spot yuan ended at 6.3231 on Tuesday, its weakest close since September 2012. The spot yuan CNY=CFXS is allowed to rise or fall by 2 percent from a midpoint CNY=CFXS that is set each day.

In the past, the central bank set the midpoint by a formula based on a basket of currencies, but the methodology was never publicized and many believed the midpoint was frequently used as a way to bend the market to policy goals.

Under the new method, investors moving assets out of yuan could take the rate lower in the weeks ahead.

The yuan had been locked in an extremely narrow intraday range since March, varying only 0.3 percent.

Some economists said the devaluation was also designed to support Beijing's push for the yuan to be included in a basket of reserve currencies known as Special Drawing Rights (SDR), which are used by the International Monetary Fund to lend money to sovereign borrowers.

"The PBOC aims to move the renminbi to a freer floating and accessible currency, prerequisites for it to be given the IMF’s reserve stamp of approval, and will see it move in a wider band," said Angus Campbell, analyst at FXpro.

The IMF proposed in a report this month to put off any move to add the yuan to its benchmark currency basket until after September 2016, and it gave mixed reviews of Beijing's progress in making key financial reforms to its currency market.



.........................

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-gardels/china-communist-party-capitalism-_b_7942478.html?utm_hp_ref=world


Nathan Gardels Become a fan
Editor-in-chief, THEWORLDPOST
    Posted:  08/05/2015 3:38 pm EDT    Updated:  08/07/2015 10:59 am EDT

In China, The Communist Party Rubber Hits The Capitalist Road

China's resilient system of governance has endured for millennia. Its success has rested on the hierarchical authority of an "emperor" who is ethically bound to serve "all the family" of society, combined with guidance by a learned "mandarinate" class tested by experience and empowered on the basis of merit.

Every dynasty under this system at first gave the civilization a new burst of energy and confidence, but in time failed to fulfill its ethical duties and eventually succumbed to the decay of corruption. Consequently that dynasty was overthrown and a new emperor took over.

The governing system in China today under the Communist Party is not a departure from, but a modern organizational echo, of this ancient political lineage. It has been responsible for pulling hundreds of millions out of poverty into moderate prosperity, laying the world's longest high-speed rail system anywhere that connects burgeoning new megacities and reaching the top ranks of the global economy in only three astonishing decades.

Today, however, the system which has managed to balance stability and change for so long is being challenged as never before. As in previous dynasties, the red emperor is fighting to retain legitimacy through a concerted and protracted crackdown on corruption.

Propping Up and Cracking Down

But new strains unique to the 21st century are also manifestly evident in the Party leadership's simultaneous effort to prop up the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges through massive state intervention while cracking down on an emergent civil society. Aside from ordering state-controlled brokerages and banks to stop selling any holdings, China's leaders have tightened censorship of social media and approved the sweeping arrests of rights lawyers across the country. Even activists who favor the Party's stated reform goals -- promotion of women's rights or curbing corruption and pollution -- are harassed or arrested.

Decades into reform, this is finally where the Communist Party rubber hits the capitalist road and a restless public connected by social networks. The nemesis undoing its capacity to stem volatility and maintain stability through traditional hierarchical control is the democratization of information. Publicly listed stocks are valued and traded based on information widely shared by investors and can't simply be commanded to only go up. Six hundred million Weibo and WeChat users, who share their reality several times a day with others, can't simply be told something evident to all is not true.


“The nemesis undoing its capacity to stem volatility and maintain stability through traditional hierarchical control is the democratization of information.



The Party's conundrum is real: As the "encompassing organization" in charge of everything, it is at fault if anything goes wrong. Despite the considerable merits of a one-party system that can forge consensus and unity of purpose for beneficial long-term goals, President Xi and his fellow leaders are laboring under the power of the wrong metaphor. Their guiding light seems to be a misreading of the lessons of the collapse of the Soviet Communist party in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

China's top party officials appear to believe that the Soviet party met its demise because of Gorbachev's policy of "glasnost," or transparent information, and has thus concluded the way to survive is to construct a narrative people are compelled to believe in by controlling what they are otherwise allowed to know.

The reality is that the Soviet party collapsed precisely because of a similar effort to disguise reality with a trumped up narrative that didn't square with the facts. When the lies were taken away under "glasnost," there was nothing there. The Chinese party could not be more different. In China, the emperor does have clothes. It has demonstrably delivered for its people over the last three decades.

Certainly there have been mistakes. But admitting mistakes and fixing them, not covering them up, is what establishes legitimacy in the information age when everyone knows what's what anyway.

A Challenge to the Unitary State

It is true that China has always been a unitary state that never experienced the Western battles between religious and secular authority which, historically, created the space for an autonomous civil society that is beyond the power of the state. For this reason China's governing philosophy has never developed an institutional separation of powers. Even the Qin Dynasty School of Legalism -- which is said to be President Xi's primary inspiration in his anti-corruption campaign -- was meant to reinforce the administrative power of the unitary state. "Rule by law" is not meant to give the individual a way to redress abuses of power through the appeal to an independent judiciary as "rule of law" would do, but to ensure that rulers and citizens alike abide by rules set down by the state when their ethical fortitude falters.

What is different for China now than during its 2,000 years of institutional civilization is the intrusion of the information age where all share the same access to information. Just as the bourgeoisie created the space for civil society vis-à-vis royal absolutism in Europe, and just as women are today the makers of civil society vis-à-vis theocracy and patriarchy in the Islamic world, so, too, are retail investors and netizens the makers of civil society in China.


“The Party's conundrum is real: As the 'encompassing organization' in charge of everything, it is at fault if anything goes wrong.



This is a new and unprecedented development for such an old civilization. Acknowledging this reality does not mean China should move toward the organized chaos and legalized campaign finance corruption of multi-party democracy. In much of the West, particularly in the U.S., competing partisanship has divided the body politic and paralyzed governance with disconsensus to the detriment of the common good. And when elected officials increasingly represent their contributors instead of constituents, voting becomes a form of disenfranchisement disguised as consent of the governed.

Rather, China might take its cue from Singapore. There, investor behavior makes or breaks stock prices based on transparent and trusted information. An independent judiciary blocks abuse of authority and disables endemic corruption.

When the encompassing umbrella of the banyan tree becomes so dense it shuts out too much light to allow new growth on the ground beneath, Singapore's former Foreign Minister George Yeo has written, it needs to be pruned, not uprooted. Having earned allegiance to its narrative through performance, Singapore's nanny state has gained the confidence to lighten up and give civil society more room to breathe.
 China's leaders would better serve their cause by adopting the power of the right metaphor from their own civilizational sphere -- Singapore -- instead of obsessing about the collapse of the old Soviet party that has little in common with the Asian way.



....................

I find it interesting that rich folk always want to be somewhere besides their country of origin

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/10/
Robert Frank   | @robtfrank
22 Hours Ago

Chinese billionaire buys $52 million home—sight unseen


A Chinese billionaire has bought a mansion in Australia for a reported $70 million Australian dollars ($52 million)—making it the most expensive home ever sold in the country.

Chinese developer and billionaire Chau Chak Wing bought Australian businessman James Packer's megamansion in Sydney "without even seeing it," according to Domain.
The six-story home took three years to build and was intended as the family home for Packer and his wife Erica, The Real Deal reported. Yet after Packer filed for divorce, the home remained vacant for two years. (Packer has since been linked to pop singer Mariah Carey).

Packer reportedly spent AU$30 million to buy the land for the property and an estimated AU$40 million to build it, Domain reported.

The deal shows that despite the economic slowdown in China, some of the rich Chinese continue to spend on overseas real estate. Chau, the chairman of Kingold Group, is mainly based in China, but his daughter and wife live in Australia

He told Domain that while his family already has a home in Syndey, he wanted "something a little bigger" to accommodate his growing clan.

Chau has strong political connections in China and Australia. According to Domain, he sat in on a meeting last year with former Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.


Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on August 11, 2015, 11:39:38 am


I seem to have turned into a china watcher..hummmmmmmmm

So am I LOL but I prefer the Days of Empire

[youtube]EQbZ7GVzN60[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQbZ7GVzN60

[youtube]p-nmfwQdkeM[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-nmfwQdkeM

I find it interesting that rich folk always want to be somewhere besides their country of origin

That is because if they put their holdings and money outside their native country they can not be taxed on it.

The USA recently passed a law that makes our rich pay taxes on foreign holdings. That is why many rich are wanting to renounce US citizenship

Say Goodbye, America: The Rich Are Renouncing Their Citizenship to Dodge Taxes
https://www.mainstreet.com/article/say-goodbye-america-the-rich-are-renouncing-their-citizenship-to-dodge-taxes

I bet that is why so many rich Chinese are buying in the USA

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 11, 2015, 03:43:00 pm

yep money seems to have more meaning than any loyalty to a country..but what they don't seem to understand is that they came in alone and that's how they..and all of us will be going out..equal / alone

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/chinas-new-mystery-missile-and-launcher/ar-BBlDTwo

China's New Mystery Missile And Launcher


(http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBlDGAo.img?h=373&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f)
China Cruise Missile TEL 12X12    Provided by Popular Science



(http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBlDGAq.img?h=373&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=356&y=396)
CJ-10 DH-10 China Cruise Missile        © Provided by Popular Science


(http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBlE1e3.img?h=373&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f)
China Cruise Missile TEL      © Provided by Popular Science



(http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBlDGAt.img?h=373&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f)
China Cruise Missile YJ-18    © Provided by Popular Science







In mid-August 2015, eagle-eyed Chinese drivers spotted a new Chinese military vehicle that may give an indication of new missile launcher capabilities on the way.

Transporter Erector Launch (TEL) vehicles provide a mobile, survivable platform for surface-to-air, cruise and ballistic missiles, allowing them to disperse across the countryside in preparation for quick launches. This new TEL vehicle is similar to the all-terrain 8X8 TEL for the CJ-10 land attack cruise missile (LACM), but it's much, much bigger. It appears to share a similar powertrain to the CJ-10 TEL and has the same width, but it's much longer; it has 6 axles with 12 all-terrain wheels. There's an extended section above the first and second axles, which would likely hold additional personnel and equipment for missile launch and flight corrections. Also, it has a satellite communications dome, suggesting that it requires higher bandwidth for datalinks necessary to operate a more sophisticated missile.

What's more extraordinary about this new missile launcher is its two giant mystery missiles. While the CJ-10 TEL vehicle comfortably carried 3 CJ-10 missile canisters, the new TEL carries only two missile canisters, suggesting a missile much wider than the CJ-10. Also, despite the new TEL vehicle's greater length, its twin missile canisters still extend to its rear bumper, showing that the new missile is longer and wider. The new canisters appear to be about 9-10 meters long, compared to 7 meters for the CJ-10 LACM canister.

Speculation is that the new TEL truck is for the 540km-range YJ-18 anti-ship missile, a Chinese adaption of Russian Klub rocket/cruise missile technology. The Klub missile uses a discardable turbofan engine to cruise at subsonic speeds for most of its flight, and then uses a rocket engine to reach supersonic speeds of Mach 3 in its final 50 kilometers of flight. Given that the longest Klub missiles are about 9 meters in length (including booster), the new TEL could be for the YJ-18 anti-ship missile. However, greater diameter of the new missile could point to other possibilities, such as the long-range surface-to-air and anti-ballistic HQ-26 missile, an ultra long-range (4,000km+) cruise missile, or another large supersonic cruise missile. What can be certain is that the new missile launch vehicle, its increased sophistication, along with a likely larger missile it will carry, shows China's continued goal to develop and deploy new weapons as part of an updated and integrated architecture for extending its reach in the Asia-Pacific region
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: SerpUkhovian on August 11, 2015, 04:03:45 pm
The United States had a ground launched cruise missile once.  It was the BGM-109 and Reagan traded it away in an arms reduction treaty (it pretty much had no tactical value).

I am glad to see China going down the path of a weapons system we determined was worthless years ago. 
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on August 11, 2015, 07:50:41 pm
One thing to Consider about Missiles...

If you own the USA... and all your rich Elite people have bought up all the prime Real Estate in the USA...

WHY would you send missiles to kill your own people and acquisitions?

China for thousands of years has taken a different approach. They ABSORB their enemy :D  This is easy to do by giving your enemy Chinese women... loyal and docile...

In a few generations you breed your enemy out of existence :P
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 14, 2015, 04:14:42 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukSf23CmeZw

[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukSf23CmeZw[/youtube]


.........

http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/55c2689c78c90a53ee000a27?cps=gravity_5020_-327838292050811711

vid at link - different than the one above

Top Chinese Businessman Defects To The U.S.

China wants the U.S. to return a well-connected businessman who fled to America after President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption. Michael Mazza of the American Enterprise Institute joins Josh to discuss what happens if the U.S. doesn’t comply.


Josh Zepps

Watch Full Segment (8/5/2015)

..................................

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/world/asia/china-seeks-ling-wancheng-businessman-said-to-have-fled-to-us.html?_r=0

China Seeks Businessman Said to Have Fled to U.S., Further Straining Ties

LOOMIS, Calif. — China is demanding that the Obama administration return a wealthy and politically connected businessman who fled to the United States, according to several American officials familiar with the case. Should he seek political asylum, he could become one of the most damaging defectors in the history of the People’s Republic.

The case of the businessman, Ling Wancheng, has strained relations between two nations already at odds over numerous issues before President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the United States in September, (Sept.. china and the pope both here..wwow yep that's enough to make me believe in that meteor hitting earth..yep for sure) including an extensive cybertheft of American government data and China’s aggressive territorial claims.

Mr. Ling is the youngest brother of Ling Jihua, who for years held a post equivalent to that of the White House chief of staff, overseeing the Communist Party’s inner sanctum as director of its General Office. Ling Jihua is one of the highest-profile casualties of an anticorruption campaign that Mr. Xi has made a centerpiece of his government

The Obama administration has thus far refused to accede to Beijing’s demands for Ling Wancheng, and his possible defection could be an intelligence coup at China’s expense after it was revealed last month that computer hackers had stolen the personnel files of millions of American government workers and contractors. American officials have said that they are nearly certain the Chinese government carried out the data theft.

Mr. Ling’s wealth and his family’s status have allowed him to move freely in elite circles in China, and he may be in possession of embarrassing information about current and former officials loyal to Mr. Xi.

Mr. Ling appears to have evaded the Chinese authorities. He is now in the United States, according to several American officials and his next-door neighbor here in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where property records show Mr. Ling owns a 7,800-square-foot home, which he bought from a professional basketball player for $2.5 million.

The Chinese government in recent months has been raising pressure on the Obama administration to return Mr. Ling, according to the American officials. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss a delicate diplomatic matter that has already complicated an arrangement made in April between the Department of Homeland Security and China’s Ministry of Public Security.

Under that arrangement, signed during a visit to Beijing by Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, the United States would be able to repatriate many of the tens of thousands of Chinese currently in the United States awaiting deportation, some in American detention facilities. In return, the United States would help the Chinese track down wealthy fugitives from China living in the United States who might also be breaking American laws.

Several American officials confirmed that Mr. Ling is in the United States, but they would not say publicly whether Mr. Ling had applied for asylum or give information about his whereabouts. The Department of Homeland Security, which handles asylum cases, does not comment about specific cases because of privacy laws.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not comment after being sent a faxed request for information on Mr. Ling’s case. Press officers for the White House, State Department and Department of Homeland Security declined to comment.

Three telephone numbers that people in California used to contact Mr. Ling all had Dallas area codes. Mr. Ling, whose English is said to be poor, did not respond to text messages in Chinese requesting an interview. Two of the three numbers are no longer in service, and no one answered the third number.

Christopher K. Johnson, a former C.I.A. analyst focusing on China, said the Chinese leadership might want Mr. Ling’s assistance in prosecuting his older brother. And, Mr. Johnson said, it would want to prevent the “treasure trove” of knowledge he has about Chinese politics from passing to United States officials.
 
“The leadership would want this guy badly,” Mr. Johnson, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in a telephone interview. “There’s no question that he would have access to a lot of interesting things.”

While it is unclear how much Ling Wancheng knows, the Communist Party itself has revealed some tantalizing clues about his brother Ling Jihua’s behavior, claiming that his corruption was a family affair. Last month, the party announced that Ling Jihua — a loyalist to the previous president, Hu Jintao — had been expelled from the party and would be tried, saying that he had “accepted huge bribes personally and through his family.”

Ling Jihua, 58, rose through the Communist Party’s Youth League under Mr. Hu in the 1980s and eventually served as either deputy or chief of the Central Committee’s General Office from 1999 to 2012. He was Mr. Hu’s personal secretary and closest protégé, and his position came with great powers: the ability to control the guards who protected the senior leadership, a significant voice in top personnel appointments and a central role in carrying out policy.

“It’s really the nerve center for the entire system,” Joseph Fewsmith, a professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University who focuses on Chinese politics, said of Ling Jihua’s former position. “This is the essence of power politics.”

Ling Jihua was expected to advance to the elite Politburo, as every person who previously held that position since 1942 had done, including former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

But on March 18, 2012, Ling Jihua’s son was killed when the black Ferrari he was driving crashed in Beijing. One of two women with him in the car later died.

(http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/08/04/world/asia/04defector3/04defector3-master180.jpg)
Ling Wancheng in an undated photo.

Ling Jihua’s botched cover-up of the episode helped lead to his political downfall. He was denied a spot on the Politburo, demoted to a less important post and, in December 2014, officially put under a corruption investigation.
 
But the corruption inquiry into Ling Jihua goes far beyond the Ferrari crash, and his younger brother, Ling Wancheng, may have played an important role.

As a senior official, Ling Jihua had his moves monitored. But his brother, as a private citizen, was far less constrained. He built a fortune as the chief of a Beijing-based investment company, which bought well-timed stakes in companies that went on to hold successful initial public offerings, earning the firm $225 million, according to a report in Caixin, a respected Chinese news media company. A company using the same California address that he used to buy his home in Loomis also bought at least two golf courses, one near Loomis, the other in Carson City, Nev., property records show.

Ling Wancheng is one of several Chinese citizens in the United States whom Beijing has requested be returned to China. A forum has been established to discuss these cases, called the U.S.-China Joint Liaison Group on Law Enforcement Cooperation, where the Chinese regularly press their case to Obama administration officials.
 
However, Ling Wancheng, who is believed to be in his mid-50s and goes by the name Wang Cheng or Jason Wang, was not on the publicly disclosed list of 40 fugitives believed to be in the United States that was released by the Chinese government this year, indicating how delicate the case may be to the senior leadership.

Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said the department “has repeatedly shown that it will vigorously pursue prosecutions in the United States where there is alleged money laundering or other criminal activity in this country by fugitives sought by China.”

But, he added, “it is not sufficient to simply provide a list of names.” The department has urged China to provide evidence, Mr. Raimondi said.

In late 2013, Mr. Ling, using the name Wang Cheng, and a person using the name Li Ping, the same name as a former presenter on state television whom the Chinese news media have identified as Mr. Ling’s wife, bought a house in a gated community in Loomis from a National Basketball Association player, Beno Udrih, real estate records show.

Ray Matteson, Mr. Ling’s neighbor in Loomis, and his wife soon became friends with the couple next door, who introduced themselves as Jason and Jane Wang. The Mattesons invited them over for dinner or drinks at least three times. Mr. Ling offered gifts, once giving them a bottle of liquor from the family’s home province, Shanxi, and on another occasion two magnums of California wine.

The Mattesons said their neighbor had given no hints about his family’s high-level political struggle, the arrest of Ling Jihua and another older brother or the death of his nephew.

“In my mind, there’s no question he was a gentleman,” said Mr. Matteson, who, along with another person who met him in Loomis, confirmed that Jason Wang was the man identified in the Chinese news media as Mr. Ling. Neither person, however, could match the woman introduced as Jane Wang with pictures of Li Ping, the former Chinese television presenter.

Mr. Ling would send text messages to his next-door neighbors. His English was poor, so he often used emoji, like a thumbs up or a happy face. He would send links to videos he found funny, and he asked for advice on where to find people to clean his windows.

Mr. Matteson said he had not seen Mr. Ling since October, when the two couples had dinner at Mr. Matteson’s home. But if Mr. Ling was in hiding in the United States, the prosaic details of maintaining a California estate kept him tethered to Loomis: There were homeowners association fees to pay, and a gardener had to keep the bushes trimmed and the lawn mowed.
 
Mr. Matteson’s last contact with Mr. Ling was in May, when the alarm system in Mr. Ling’s house was activated and the security company asked Mr. Matteson to contact Mr. Ling to obtain the code to enter the gate to his home.

The Mattesons said they had never seen any unusual activity in the neighborhood, except for one visit several months ago by officers from the Department of Homeland Security, who said they were trying to contact Mr. Ling.

Ling Wancheng’s visa status is unclear. Christopher Bentley, a spokesman for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of Homeland Security, said that it usually took one to three years for an asylum case to be settled. During that period, he said, the asylum seeker is allowed to stay legally in the country.

 


Michael Forsythe reported from Loomis, and Mark Mazzetti from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on August 4, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: China Seeks Businessman Said to Have Fled to U.S. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe 


tons of embedded links thur out the article
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 15, 2015, 01:48:50 pm




this is semi old news.. thought I had already put it here but sigh.. I forgot..
soooo going backwards in time of posting in the news

just another way for them to be here..





http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2015/07/29/Chinese-student-pleads-to-role-as-test-cheat-organizer-SAT-pittsburgh-university-pitt/stories/201507290177
By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
July 29, 2015 11:56 PM

First student to plead in Chinese test-taking scandal deported
The lead defendant in a scheme by Chinese students to cheat on university entrance tests pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to his role as an organizer, and a second member of the conspiracy was deported to China.

Han Tong, 24, who gained admittance to the University of Pittsburgh in 2011 by having someone in China take an English test for him, admitted that he either took entrance tests for others or found impostors to take the tests, each time using counterfeit passports manufactured in China and sent to him in Oakland.

He pleaded to conspiracy, making and using a forged passport and wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti.

Later in the day, Judge Conti sentenced a second defendant, Biyuan Li, 25, a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston with a degree in finance, to probation for his role in the scheme and then immediately turned him over to immigration authorities for deportation.

“I wasted a lot of time and money for my stupid decision,” Li told the judge. “I will forever regret my decision.”

Two weeks ago, Li admitted that he paid to have someone else use a fake passport and pose as him in taking a graduate school entrance test so he could get into Carnegie Mellon University and other elite schools.

He and Tong were among 15 Chinese nationals indicted in the plot earlier this year in the U.S. and China.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Tong worked with someone in China identified as “Ada” to take tests himself or recruit associates to take tests for Chinese students trying to get into American schools using fake passports as identification.

“When Ada had a client who had contacted her to have a test taken for them, Ada would arrange for the test to be taken at whatever location she had personnel, like Tong, available,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney James Kitchen. “Ada also provided Tong with the contact information of a document maker in China who could create fake identification documents, such as passports, for use in defrauding the test administration service.”

The document maker used a picture of Tong or another impostor who would take a test but included the name and identification information of the person who was supposed to be taking the test.

A ring of five to seven test-takers took 10 fraudulent tests. Tong said he was paid $2,000 for each test. Federal agents also seized seven fake passports.

Tong is set to be sentenced in November and remains free until then. His lawyer refused comment, but in court he said his client has finished three years of college at Pitt and is hoping to complete his degree at Ohio State University before returning to China.

It’s not clear what the U.S. attorney’s position is regarding that plan.

In Li’s case, he and the government agreed that deportation would be the best punishment.

“I have paid a heavy price for what I have done,” he said in court.

The judge imposed a term of five years of probation and released him to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for immediate removal to China. The probationary term would apply if he ever re-enters the U.S., she said.

Li, an only child of working-class parents who sacrificed to send him to study in America, was the first of the 15 to plead guilty.

He said his decision to cheat brought shame on his family and cost him his chance at the “American dream.”



..................

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2015/05/28/Pittsburgh-authorities-indict-15-Chinese-in-alleged-college-test-taking-scheme-SAT/stories/201505280178

May 28, 2015 10:50 PM           By Torsten Ove

Pittsburgh authorities indict 15 Chinese in college test-taking scheme
The U.S. Attorney’s office said the defendants, including two living in Pittsburgh, defrauded Educational Testing Services and the College Board, which administer standardized tests, between 2011 and 2015 by either taking the tests for others or paying others to take the tests for them.

Prosecutors said some of the conspirators had counterfeit Chinese passports made in China and sent to the U.S., where they were used by the impostors to fool administrators into thinking they were other people before taking exams conducted in Pittsburgh and its suburbs.

The conspirators received the benefit of the impostors’ test scores on the SAT and other exams for use at American colleges, one of which is identified in the indictment as Northeastern University in Boston.

The 35-count indictment, handed up May 21 and unsealed Thursday, identifies some of the defendants as students who paid up to $6,000 for others in the U.S. to pretend to be them in taking tests, such as the SAT, at Barack Obama Academy, another testing site in Monroeville and elsewhere.

Five of the defendants are identified as test-takers, including the lead defendant, Han Tong, 24, of Pittsburgh.

Another local defendant was identified as Gong Zhang, 23, who prosecutors said received a fake passport at his address on North Craig Street in Oakland from an unidentified conspirator in China on April 1, 2013, and then used it in posing as someone else that day in taking the Test of English as a Foreign Language.

Prosecutors would not say how many students were able to get into American schools through the scheme but said the investigation is continuing.

“These students were not only cheating their way into the university, they were also cheating their way through our nation’s immigration system,” said John Kelleghan, agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Philadelphia, one of the investigating agencies.

It wasn’t clear how the scheme was discovered, but U.S. Attorney David Hickton said Educational Testing Services, based in New Jersey, and the New York-based College Board have cooperated with investigators.

One example of how the scheme typically worked involved Han Tong and Siyuan Zhao, 24, of Massachusetts.

On March 9, 2012, a conspirator accessed Mr. Zhao’s ETS online account and, using Han Tong’s credit card, bought a test to be taken in Mr. Zhao’s name at a Monroeville testing site using a fake passport.

The impostor took the test, prosecutors said, and on March 19 Mr. Zhao accessed the score and had it sent electronically to Northeastern University.

Mr. Zhao was arrested Thursday in Boston and was scheduled to appear in federal court there for a hearing in which prosecutors said they would seek his detention and have him brought to Pittsburgh for trial.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said Mr. Tong and 10 others will be issued summonses to appear in U.S. District Court to face the charges.

The names of three others, all in China, remained sealed.

These are the other named defendants: Biyuan Li, 25, of Boston; Jia Song, 20, of Santa Ana, Calif.; Ning Wei, 24, of China; Songling Peng, 19, of Watertown, Wis.; Xi Fu, 26, of Portland, Ore.; Xiaojin Guo, 20, of China; Yudong Zhang, 21, of Blacksburg, Va.; Yue Zou, 20, of Blacksburg, Va.; and Yunlin Sun, 24, of Berlin, Pa., and Pittsburgh.

.......................................

http://nypost.com/2015/05/28/chinese-students-paid-smarties-to-take-sats-for-them-feds-say/

AP  May 28,2015

Chinese students paid smarties to take SATs for them, feds say
PITTSBURGH — Fifteen Chinese citizens conspired to take college entrance exams on behalf of others or paid to have that done for them so they could obtain student visas, federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh said Thursday.

The newly unsealed indictment contends the alleged conspirators scammed tests run by Educational Testing Service and the College Board — such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT.

Six named in the indictment were clearly identified as students who paid up to $6,000 to have others charged take the tests. Five defendants were test-takers, including the lead defendant, Han Tong, 24, of Pittsburgh, who even flew to California to take an SAT for one person, the indictment said.

The precise role of the other four defendants — three of whose names remained under seal — was not clear, though the final named defendant allegedly helped with a fake passport.

The test-takers “impersonated others, and those others were able to use the fraudulent test scores to obtain F1 visas,” US Attorney David Hickton told the Associated Press.

F1, or student, visas allow foreign citizens to remain in the country while they’re enrolled in American colleges or universities.

“These students were not only cheating their way into the university, they were also cheating their way through our nation’s immigration system,” John Kelleghan, the special agent in charge of the Homeland Security Investigations office in Philadelphia, said in a prepared statement.

Hickton wouldn’t say whether other students also benefited, or how many there may be, because the investigation was continuing.

For now, the indictment is confined to test-takers and students who benefited from tests administered in Pittsburgh and its suburbs since 2011. Investigators weren’t saying which, or how many, schools the students may have entered fraudulently.

The test-takers allegedly used fake passports that contained the students’ personal information, but a picture of the test-taker substituted for the student, the indictment

said.

Hickton said Princeton, New Jersey-based Educational Testing Service and the New York-based College Board were cooperating with the investigation. Hickton wouldn’t say whether the testing services alerted federal authorities to the alleged scheme, or vice versa, or whether it was discovered by the colleges and universities. A College Board spokesman planned a statement for later Thursday, but ETS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

ETS administers the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and the SAT, while the College Board oversees registration for the SAT.

The SAT is commonly used as an academic benchmark for college applicants. The TOEFL is given to foreign students wishing to study in the United States and the GRE tests a student’s readiness for graduate school.

Siyuan Zhao, 24, of Revere, Massachusetts, one of the students who allegedly benefited from the scheme, was arrested Thursday in Boston and prosecutors planned to ask a magistrate to jail him at least until he can be brought to Pittsburgh. Tong and the 10 others whose names were publicized were being mailed summonses to appear in court soon.

The suspects face charges including conspiracy, counterfeiting passports, mail and wire fraud. The fraud counts each carry up to 20 years in prison; 10 years for counterfeiting passports; and five years for conspiracy.

Court records don’t list defense attorneys for any of the suspects, and the AP could not immediate locate phone numbers for them.

........................................

8 plead not guilty in Pittsburgh to test-taking scheme

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/8584171-74/test-chinese-college#axzz3iv0wePYP

Jun 17, 2015 - Prosecutors say eight Chinese citizens conspired to cheat on American ... where some of the accused paid others up to $6,000 to take exams such as the SAT. ... “What, if any, action to take concerning an applicant or student's ...


By Jason Cato
Wednesday, June 17, 2015, 11:33 p.m.
 
Prosecutors say eight Chinese citizens conspired to cheat on American college entrance exams and the student visa process, but at least one defense attorney contends the matter was a misunderstanding foisted on unsuspecting youths.

“This is a young person, naive,” attorney Gary Gerson said of his client, Gong Zhang, 23, of Oakland — one of 15 people indicted in May by a federal grand jury. “He tried to help a friend out. He didn't realize what he was getting himself into.”

Prosecutors accuse Zhang and a group of alleged conspirators of having counterfeit Chinese passports made and sent to the United States, where some of the accused paid others up to $6,000 to take exams such as the SAT.

Once accepted into a college or university, those who paid obtained student visas to enter the country, prosecutors say.

Zhang pleaded not guilty Wednesday, as did lead defendant Han Tong, 24, of Pittsburgh and six co-defendants: Biyuan “Jack” Li, 25, of Boston; Songling Peng, 19, of Watertown, Wis.; Yudong Zhang, 21, and Yue Zou, 20, of Blacksburg, Va., and listed as students at Virginia Tech; Siyuan Zhao, 24, of Revere, Mass.; and Yunlin Sun, 24, of Pittsburgh and Berlin, Somerset County.

“We contest the allegations,” said Sun's attorney, Robert E. Mielnicki.

The charges against all the defendants include conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud and counterfeiting foreign passports.

U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti will preside over the case.

In addition to Virginia Tech, two Chinese nationals had fraudulent scores sent to American University in Washington and Northeastern University in Boston, the grand jury said.

Zhang, who is listed as a computer software student at the University of Pittsburgh, is an alleged test-taker.

A Pitt spokesman declined to comment, and a Virginia Tech spokesman did not respond to a message.

U.S. Attorney David Hickton declined to comment on the status of any students or college applicants in the case.

“What, if any, action to take concerning an applicant or student's status is the exclusive purview of the university,” Hickton said. “We have not and will not take any position on a university's decision.”

Prosecutors havn't said how the investigation started, only that it is ongoing. Princeton, N.J.-based Educational Testing Service and the New York-based College Board, which makes the SAT, cooperated with investigators.

According to the indictment, beneficiaries contacted test-takers online to request that someone take a standardized test in exchange for money. Test-takers then used fake passports that contained the students' personal information but the test-takers' photos.



Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 17, 2015, 08:55:08 pm


this plot thickens..

http://www.wsj.com/articles/hunt-for-chinese-man-in-u-s-fuels-political-intrigue-1439771779

By
Josh Chin in Plano, Texas
Jeremy Page in Beijing,
Alejandro Lazo in Loomis, Calif., and
August 17, 2015

Hunt for Chinese Man in U.S. Fuels Political Intrigue

Brother of top aide to former Beijing leader—who diplomats and analysts suspect has access to sensitive information—hasn’t been seen since October.

Tommy Yuan was preparing for class at the math-tutoring center he owns in Irving, Texas, one afternoon in June when two men walked in alongside the usual group of students’ parents and then quickly left.



The men returned, identifying themselves as representatives of China’s government and speaking with mainland accents. The older man was plump and wore his hair in a comb-over. The younger one was stocky, had close-cropped hair and looked like he “knew how to fight,” said Mr. Yuan.

“If you want to protect your ex-wife, you’ll give us information,” the visitors said, according to Mr. Yuan, who was born in China and settled in the U.S. in the 1990s. They said they were looking for a man called Ling Wancheng.

Mr. Ling’s brother was a top aide to China’s previous president, Hu Jintao, but was placed under investigation by the Communist Party in December and formally accused in July of bribe-taking, adultery and illegally obtaining state secrets.

For much of 2014, Mr. Ling was living under an alias in a mansion in a gated community in Loomis, Calif., near Sacramento, with Mr. Yuan’s ex-wife, neighbors said. The couple hasn’t been seen there since around October.

Mr. Ling is now the focus of political intrigue that could overshadow a visit to the U.S. in September by China’s leader, Xi Jinping.

 

  For much of last year, Ling Wancheng lived with a woman named Zhang Lijun in this home in a gated community in Loomis, Calif.
(http://www.wsj.com/articles/hunt-for-chinese-man-in-u-s-fuels-political-intrigue-1439771779)
For much of last year, Ling Wancheng lived with a woman named Zhang Lijun in this home in a gated community in Loomis, Calif.  Photo:  Alejandro Lazo/The Wall Street Journal 
.
Diplomats and analysts said Mr. Ling might have had access through this brother to sensitive information about Chinese leaders. If he sought political asylum, Mr. Ling would be the most significant Chinese defector in decades.

It isn’t clear why Mr. Ling, 55 years old, moved to the U.S. in 2013 or 2014. He lost touch with many friends in China around last fall, a family acquaintance said, but later reassured friends he was safe in the U.S.

Before that, he held a senior post at China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua, and then moved into private business and developed a taste for expensive hobbies, especially golf, the acquaintance said. Mr. Ling sometimes dressed flamboyantly and seemed less guarded than many members of other politically connected families.

In Loomis, Mr. Ling and Mr. Yuan’s ex-wife used the names Jason and Jane Wang, spoke little English and communicated with neighbors mostly by text message.

“He was so funny, he would send emojis but had trouble with the language sometimes,” said neighbor  Sarah Matteson. “He was really a very funny, happy-go-lucky guy who loved life, loved golf.”

Ms. Matteson and her husband Ray stayed in touch with Mr. Ling by phone until about May, after which he stopped responding, said Mr. Matteson. Three or four months ago, agents who identified themselves as being from the Department of Homeland Security came asking for him, she said.

Agents from the same agency were looking for Mr. Yuan’s ex-wife at her former home in Plano, Texas, in June, said a neighbor there.

DHS officials declined to comment on whether they have tried to locate Mr. Ling or if he has sought political asylum in the U.S., citing a policy of not commenting on individual cases.

 

   ENLARGE   
   
.
The Central Intelligence Agency also declined to comment. China’s foreign and public-security ministries and its Washington embassy didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Senior U.S. officials were notified last summer that Mr. Ling was talking to U.S. authorities. But those officials weren’t told who within the U.S. government was involved in the case and what the conversations involved.

It also isn’t clear if China has been tracking Mr. Ling in the U.S. without clearance from U.S. authorities. There were tensions recently over Chinese security officers coming to the U.S. to find fugitives without following U.S. procedures, said people familiar with the matter.

U.S. officials said the presence of covert Chinese agents and law-enforcement officials on U.S. soil, and their “aggressive tactics” against Chinese nationals here, has been a longstanding U.S. concern that Washington has raised with Beijing over the years. But the officials declined to comment specifically on the role of any Chinese agents in the Ling case.

Mr. Yuan said he met with the two surprise visitors twice at his school and once at a Chinese restaurant in Dallas. He showed a reporter for The Wall Street Journal a July 9 text message arranging dinner at the restaurant. The number, which includes a Washington, D.C., area code, is now out of service.

The two men never showed Mr. Yuan any identification, he said. When he asked for their names, both men said only that their surnames were Wen. They said they couldn’t stay for long, without explaining the reason.

 

  Ling Jihua, brother of Ling Wancheng and the former head of the Chinese Communist Party’s powerful General Office under President Hu Jintao, at the plenary session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing in 2013.  ENLARGE   
Ling Jihua, brother of Ling Wancheng and the former head of the Chinese Communist Party’s powerful General Office under President Hu Jintao, at the plenary session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing in 2013.   Photo:  Reuters 
.
A Department of Homeland Security official said the U.S. has a “nonbinding” agreement with Chinese police to cooperate on fugitive investigations. The official said China had two police investigators in the U.S. on detail, but they were directed to assist U.S. officials, not act independently.

China has ramped up efforts to retrieve suspects from abroad through a “Fox Hunt” program launched last year as part of a corruption crackdown. The U.S. agreed to cooperate in April.

China gave the U.S. a list of 40 people Chinese officials want deported, but it didn’t include Mr. Ling or any of his known aliases, said U.S. officials.

Chinese officials haven’t recently asked about Mr. Ling by name through normal diplomatic channels, including direct talks with senior White House or State Department officials, said people briefed on the matter.

 
 
.
Spokesmen for the State Department and Justice Department declined to comment on individual cases and said the U.S. is engaging with China on fugitives in the U.S. but insists on credible evidence of criminal activity.

The intrigue swirling around Mr. Ling could complicate relations between Beijing and Washington that already were strained by alleged Chinese cyberattacks on the U.S. and China’s island-building in the South China Sea.

Mr. Xi’s far-reaching anticorruption campaign has ensnared numerous senior political figures, including Mr. Ling’s brother, Ling Jihua, who led the Chinese Communist Party’s powerful General Office under Mr. Hu. The office controls the president’s schedule, document flow and personal security.

In 2012, Ling Jihua was transferred to a less-important post after his son died in a high-speed Ferrari crash in Beijing. Another brother was placed under investigation in June 2014. They are in detention in China, and their legal representatives couldn’t be reached for comment.

Ling Wancheng hasn’t been officially accused of wrongdoing in China, but recent state media reports have described his business dealings.

Mr. Yuan said the two men who visited him in June accused Mr. Ling of making money illegally and bringing a large sum into the U.S.

“One of them was very serious and said: ‘If you help us, maybe we can help you,’ ” said Mr. Yuan. “That’s when I realized these aren’t the kind of guys you can joke with.”

The men asked Mr. Yuan about his ex-wife’s friends and accused her of a fake marriage with Mr. Ling, said Mr. Yuan.

Her Chinese name is Zhang Lijun, but she also goes by the name Jane Zhang. She is 52 and divorced Mr. Yuan in 2011. He said she mentioned dating someone new last fall, describing him as a “successful businessman.”

By then, she had already been living for several months with Mr. Ling in the California mansion, neighbors said. She didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment, and a mobile-phone number provided by Mr. Yuan was disconnected.

Public records show the house was bought by Wang Cheng and Li Ping for $2.5 million in 2013. Wang Cheng is an alias used by Mr. Ling, the family acquaintance said. Li Ping is a famous Chinese television presenter who married Mr. Ling, said the acquaintance and state media reports. It isn’t clear if they divorced.

Ms. Matteson, the neighbor, said she asked Department of Homeland Security agents who approached her if they wanted to discuss a citizenship issue with Mr. Ling. They replied that they just wanted to talk to him.

She identified Mr. Ling and Ms. Zhang from photographs as the couple who lived in the mansion. Ms. Matteson didn’t recognize pictures of Li Ping.

At the Darkhorse Golf Club, a public course in Auburn, Calif., golf director  Geno Ivaldi said he recognized a photograph of the man he knew as Jason, the first name used by Mr. Ling.

The man was a good golfer and often played with the club’s owner, Li Shuhai, said Mr. Ivaldi. In China, Mr. Li was a business associate of Mr. Ling, according to state-run media.

Mr. Li’s business address in Irvine, Calif., is listed as a contact in property records for the mansion where Mr. Ling lived. He couldn’t be reached for comment.

Mr. Yuan says he got a visit in Texas from Mr. Li shortly before the two mysterious Chinese men arrived. Mr. Yuan met Mr. Li several years ago through his ex-wife, and all three of them are from northeastern China.

Mr. Li said he was looking for Wang Cheng and Zhang Lijun but didn’t need to know where they were, according to Mr. Yuan. He said Mr. Li wanted to pass along some urgent information so Mr. Ling “can make the right decision.”

Mr. Yuan said he couldn’t help. He says he might have spotted her at a local Wal-Mart in April or May but didn’t approach her.

For several months, Ms. Zhang had been renting out the house in Plano that they used to share and she lived in there after their divorce, said Mr. Yuan. No one answered the door when a Journal reporter visited.

Kim Gomez, who lives next door, says two Department of Homeland Security agents came to the house looking for Ms. Zhang in June.

Mr. Yuan said he hasn’t been contacted by Department of Homeland Security agents and hasn’t heard back from the two men who identified themselves as representatives of China’s government. He said he doesn’t know where his ex-wife is.

—Lisa Schwartz, Brian Spegele, Damian Paletta and Miriam Jordan contributed to this article.

Write to Josh Chin at josh.chin@wsj.com, Jeremy Page at jeremy.page@wsj.com, Alejandro Lazo at alejandro.lazo@wsj.com and Adam Entous at adam.entous@wsj.com

Correction

Ling Wancheng lived with a woman named Zhang Lijun in a gated community in Loomis, Calif. A photo caption in an earlier version of this article incorrectly said he lived there with his wife. (Aug. 17, 2015)
 
photo's aren't coming thur.. sorry  also lots of embedded links thur out article
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hunt-for-chinese-man-in-u-s-fuels-political-intrigue-1439771779
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 18, 2015, 05:41:56 am

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/j-michael-cole/china-military-recruitment-video_b_7999142.html?ir=WorldPost

Posted:  08/17/2015 3:51 pm EDT    Updated:  08/17/2015 3:59 pm EDT
J. Michael Cole
Senior Officer, Thinking Taiwan Foundation


Why China's New Military Recruitment Video Is Alarming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z8_KRMdbbs

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z8_KRMdbbs[/youtube]

interpreter

The People's Liberation Army Navy recently released a new recruitment video that is unlikely to assuage growing fears in the region over an increasingly nationalistic and expansionist China.

The slick nearly four-and-a-half-minute video opens with the header "Our Dream." Accompanied by a surprisingly restrained soundtrack, this section appeals to China's youth. We see young Chinese graduating from university and engaging in various sports, including snowboarding. This is interspersed with images of Hong Kong's retrocession, all meant to cultivate pride in a "new" China. "We were born in the 1990s," the accompanying text says, in Chinese. "By then, China had already risen. . . with bright dreams, we want to shine like the new century. . . we want to become very strong."

It doesn't take long, however, for the video to shift to bombastic music and visuals of a very different nature. The appeal to nationalism -- and to China's territorial claims -- is hard to miss, what with footage of the Diaoyutai/Senkaku islets in the East China Sea, which are also claimed by Japan and Taiwan, as well as various features in the South China Sea, a source of rising tension in recent years.

There are a few glimpses of the PLAN's humanitarian role, but this is contrasted with, and overtaken by, unmistakable militarism: endless footage of bombs falling, rockets being fired, things being blown up. There is definitely an element of signaling, and it's not meant to be reassuring. If we put this together with a campaign that included a video, aired on CCTV last month, of exercises ostensibly simulating an assault on Taiwan's Presidential Office, the intention is to scare potential opponents, perhaps to win a war without having to fight.

In line with the martial video, the accompanying text shifts to something more troubling. Titled "Call of Duty," part two tells us "71 percent of the globe we depend on is blue water. . . wherever there is blue water, we will be there to secure navigation. . . China's oceanic and overseas interests are expanding rapidly. . . our land is vast but we will not yield an inch of our territory to foreigners."

The text then claims that China has 3 million square kilometers of ocean under its jurisdiction, a territory that includes as many as 6,700 islands. "The struggle over our sea rights is not over,' it continues. 'We will not yield even the tiniest speck of our resources." Note that the text says "resources," not "territory," though the latter is implicit. In other words, territory and the resources it contains are China's alone. According to a recent report on the PLAN by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, the references by Chinese commentators to China's "3 million square kilometers of blue territory" would incorporate "nearly 90 percent of the area within the major bodies of water within the First Island Chain, including the Bo Hai, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea."

The third section of the video is titled, ominously, "The Honor Gene." "Thousands of sea battles forged us. . . in very bloody combat. . . hot blood and the smell of gunpowder, we kept working hard, we kept growing. . . the passionate efforts of youth. . . forging in trials made possible the breakthrough. . . we maintain combat readiness. . . we are prepared for war," the text says.

The last part of the video, "Seeking the Blue Dream," has a less alarming tone. "Here with us, we will let you demonstrate your extraordinary talents. . . we give you the chance to sprout wings. . . the eyes of the entire world are watching us!. . . a strong motherland needs a strong navy. . . let us realize the dream of the great Chinese renaissance together," it intones.

In reality, there are doubts as to whether Beijing, the Central Military Commission, or even the PLAN itself really has the intention of turning the Navy into a global force, especially not in the current geopolitical context, where such an endeavor would risk increasing tensions with the U.S. and and other Western navies.

This is partly the result of a lack of capabilities. Although the PLAN has conducted a number of live-fire exercises in the Western Pacific in recent years, that is a far cry from actual long-distance, months-long deployments. We are still probably years away (ONI says a decade) from the PLAN having the capability, cohesion and interoperability for long-distance blue water missions. So at this point claims of a blue water PLAN are unrealistic. At best, the PLAN is a green water navy that is gradually moving away from its traditional role as a littoral combat force. Its ability to engage in combat in distant theaters of operation is even more questionable, and it will be several years yet before the PLAN can compete with better trained and more experienced opponents such as the U.S. Navy or the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, let alone a combination thereof.

Bombast and appeals to nationalism make all the sense in the world as part of a campaign to recruit young people. However, the undeniably martial tone of the video, combined with references to blood and genes, will hardly contribute to China's efforts to dispel rising apprehensions about its future intentions.


Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: ArMaP on August 18, 2015, 06:01:45 am
Why China's New Military Recruitment Video Is Alarming
Because it's honest? :)
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 18, 2015, 08:46:26 pm



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-internet-crimes_55d32ca8e4b055a6dab1551b?utm_hp_ref=world&kvcommref=mostpopular
Reuters
Posted: 08/18/2015 09:10 AM EDT | Edited: 08/18/2015 03:20 PM EDT


China's Police Arrest 15,000 For Internet Crimes

Officials launched the "Cleaning the Internet" program last month.


vid at link
BEIJING (Reuters) - Police in China said on Tuesday they had arrested about 15,000 people for crimes that "jeopardized Internet security", as the government moves to tighten controls on the Internet.

Since taking over in 2013, President Xi Jinping has led an increasingly harsh crackdown on China's Internet, which the Communist Party views with greater importance and acknowledges it needs to control, academics and researchers say.

Police have investigated 7,400 cases of cyber crime, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on its website. It did not make clear over what period the arrests were made, but referred to a case dating to last December.

China launched a six-month program last month, code-named "Cleaning the Internet".

"For the next step, the public security organs will continue to increase their investigation and crackdown on cyber crimes," the ministry said.

The campaign would also focus on breaking major cases and destroying online criminal gangs, it added.

The sweep targeted websites providing "illegal and harmful information" besides advertisements for pornography, explosives and firearms and gambling. In total, the police said they investigated 66,000 websites.

China runs one of the world's most sophisticated online censorship mechanisms, known as the Great Firewall. Censors keep a tight grip on what can be published, particularly material that could potentially undermine the ruling Communist Party.

In February, China's internet watchdog said it would ban from March 1 internet accounts that impersonate people or organizations, and enforce the requirement for people to use their real names when registering online accounts.

anybody know if deuem got arrested..
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: ArMaP on August 19, 2015, 01:24:37 am
anybody know if deuem got arrested..
Why, does he have a site that provides "illegal and harmful information"? ???
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on August 19, 2015, 04:07:28 pm
anybody know if deuem got arrested..

Why, does he have a site that provides "illegal and harmful information"? ???

Depends on your definition of "illegal and harmful information"

Pegasus is blocked in China because I support the Dalai Lama. This was told to me by several and confirmed by Deuem  He even told us which building the blockade was in

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: ArMaP on August 19, 2015, 04:15:30 pm
Depends on your definition of "illegal and harmful information"

Pegasus is blocked in China because I support the Dalai Lama. This was told to me by several and confirmed by Deuem  He even told us which building the blockade was in
I know that, but I never saw deuem commenting about topics like that and doubt he could know where did the blockade came from.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 30, 2015, 08:36:03 pm

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/chinese-build-us-factories-bringing-jobs-along-with-tensions/ar-AAdKOpu?li=AA4Zjn

Bloomberg
Bonnie Cao and Ye Xie
10 hrs ago


Chinese Build U.S. Factories, Bringing Jobs Along With Tensions

(Bloomberg) -- When Chen Mingxu was a boy, U.S. businessmen poured into rural China, welcomed with tax breaks and steamed turtle. Thirty years later, in a kind of reverse migration, Chen finds himself in southwestern Alabama smiling wanly over bacon- wrapped meatloaf and banana pudding.
Chen, who employs about 200 locals, manages the first U.S. factory built by Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group Inc. with a $120-million investment in Wilcox, one of the poorest counties in Alabama. The state coughed up around $20 million, outbidding dozens of other cities and states hoping for the jobs and investments.

Last year, Chinese companies plowed $12 billion into the U.S., up from zero in the early 2000s, making it the fastest growing source of foreign direct investment in the country. Chinese-affiliated companies now employ more than 80,000 Americans, according to New York-based Rhodium Group, which tracks cross-border investment.

As the U.S. prepares for a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of September, the countries’ economic relations are undergoing a profound shift. With China facing rising wages, a falling labor supply and excess capacity, its companies are crossing the seas to sink roots in neglected corners of the U.S. heartland.

Chinese Expansion



“Like the Japanese and Koreans before them, Chinese companies want to invest in their export market,” said David Loevinger, a former China specialist at the U.S. Treasury who is now an analyst at fund manager TCW Group Inc. in Los Angeles. “As exporters move up the value chain, you increasingly want to get closer to your customers.”

One of the goals of Xi’s visit is to make progress on a treaty aimed at spurring Chinese ventures in the U.S. and opening up China to areas where foreign investment is barred or restricted. Under the treaty, U.S. banks would be permitted to own Chinese subsidiaries outright, retailers could run their own distribution networks there and manufacturers could build without a local partner.

Even if all that gets agreed to, tensions will hardly dissipate. The U.S. accuses China of vast industrial and governmental spying, and the spread of Chinese money is bound to come with increased concerns. China’s yuan devaluation this month seeped into the election debate, with Republicans accusing Beijing of manipulating its currency to the detriment of American workers.



Hostile Takeover?



As Gene Poteat, past president of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers in Falls Church, Virginia, put it, “China’s belligerent expansion into geographical areas claimed by others, their harassment of international flights and their continuous hacking into American cyber networks has not gone unnoticed.”

The Chinese have their own set of worries.

Golden Dragon chose Alabama to bring it closer to clients in the South and avoid anti-dumping tariffs on copper products. But it was caught unawares by the attitudes of some of the workers and the demands of the trade union.

“Individualism is strong among U.S. workers,” Qiao Gaopan, a 37-year-old Golden Dragon engineer, said pointedly. “They don’t listen to you but have lots of opinions.”

And although tens of millions of China’s workers belong to trade unions, those groups have no say on pay or conditions. The inverse is true in Alabama, a right-to-work state where barely a 10th of workers belong to unions that nonetheless wield real power. That created some tensions for Golden Dragon.



Dragon Adapts



When it set up shop a year ago, the company offered workers $11 an hour, less than the $18 paid by a similar factory in Mississippi, according to Daniel Flippo of United Steelworkers. There were also complaints about safety and lack of training and promotion, Flippo said.

As a result, and despite pressure from state and company officials, the workers voted to unionize.

Chen, 33, argued that $11 was only a starting salary for workers with no experience. Either way, Golden Dragon ended up increasing its wages and changing earlier restrictive rules, including a badge-in system and limited sick leave. It also dealt with a complaint over safety. Chen, who studied in Britain and led the company’s

factory in Mexico before coming to Wilcox, took over in May.



Cultural Differences



It hasn’t been easy for the company’s Chinese engineers, who speak limited English and live in trailers onsite about 10 miles from Thomasville, with some 4,000 inhabitants. The only cinema in town was closed several months ago. They spend nights online chatting with relatives in China.

James Deshler, a 29-year-old machinist working at the plant since March 2014, blames cultural differences and language barriers for most of the problems at the company. He said he gets into constant arguments with Chinese colleagues over the lengths of smoking breaks, cleanliness in the restrooms, even the right way to fix a leaking pipe.

There are bright spots. Sue Thomas, for one, is grateful that Golden Dragon came. Thomas, 50, lost her security guard job at the neighboring oil pipe company Energex Tube, as did her husband. She gets along with her Chinese coworkers and said she sometimes brings them home for dinner or takes them to local casinos.

Apart from Golden Dragon’s Wilcox facility, which produces 100 million pounds of copper tubing annually, Alabama is also home to two other Chinese companies -- Continental Motors, which makes piston engines for aircraft in Mobile, and Shandong Swan USA Inc., which makes saws for cotton gins in Montgomery.



Southern Allure



Elsewhere, Sany Group Co., China’s largest heavy equipment maker, has invested $60 million in a factory in Peachtree City, Georgia, pledging 500 jobs. And Wanxiang Group Corp., China’s biggest autoparts maker, has 28 factories in 14 states.

Major merger and acquisitions include Anbang Insurance Group Co.’s $1.95 billion purchase of New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel and the sale of One Chase Manhattan Plaza to Fosun International Ltd. for $750 million.

Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said Chinese investment in the U.S. could increase to $100 billion in the next five years.

Chinese remember with mixed emotions the invasion of foreign business three decades ago, when assurances on both sides often went unmet, and note the irony and parallels now that roles are reversed. Observers add that while Chinese companies are entering a steadier market with more established legal systems, they too face confusion and unkept promises.



Complicated Feelings



“This is a market not easy for them to understand immediately and know how to navigate and negotiate into,” said Orville Schell, director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York. “There’s a very big learning curve for both U.S. and Chinese companies.”

Alabama did live up to its offers to Golden Dragon, building GD Copper Drive in front of the factory and setting up training programs. But other states have failed to deliver the incentives they pledged to other companies, Chen said, declining to give names.

“States and cities don’t have foreign policy concerns,” said Scissors, the Washington-based analyst, who focuses on China.

On the other hand, Chinese companies just may.

“The best way to beat the enemy is probably to go to their homeland,” Chen said of his factory in Alabama. “As our former leader Deng Xiaoping put it, we’ll cross the river by touching the stones.”



--With assistance from Alfred Cang in Shanghai.



To contact the reporters on this story: Bonnie Cao in New York at bcao4@bloomberg.net; Ye Xie in New York at yxie6@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nikolaj Gammeltoft at ngammeltoft@bloomberg.net; John Liu at jliu42@bloomberg.net Ethan Bronner, Flavia Krause-Jackson


Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 31, 2015, 08:01:23 am
hummmmmmmmmm

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/administration-developing-sanctions-against-china-over-cyberespionage/2015/08/30/9b2910aa-480b-11e5-8ab4-c73967a143d3_story.html


By Ellen Nakashima August 30 at 7:13 PM
Ellen Nakashima is a national security reporter for The Washington Post. She focuses on issues relating to intelligence, technology and civil liberties.




U.S. developing sanctions against China over cyberthefts


The Obama administration is developing a package of unprecedented economic sanctions against Chinese companies and individuals who have benefited from their government’s cybertheft of valuable U.S. trade secrets.

The U.S. government has not yet decided whether to issue these sanctions, but a final call is expected soon — perhaps even within the next two weeks, according to several administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Issuing sanctions would represent a significant expansion in the administration’s public response to the rising wave of ­cyber-economic espionage initiated by Chinese hackers, who officials say have stolen everything from nuclear power plant designs to search engine source code to confidential negotiating positions of energy companies.

Any action would also come at a particularly sensitive moment between the world’s two biggest economies. President Xi Jinping of China is due to arrive next month in Washington for his first state visit — complete with a 21-gun salute on the South Lawn of the White House and an elaborate State Dinner. There is already tension over a host of other issues, including maritime skirmishes in the South China Sea and China’s efforts to devalue its currency in the face of its recent stock market plunge. At the same time, the two countries have deep trade ties and the administration has sometimes been wary of seeming too tough on China.

[Scott Walker: Obama should show ‘some backbone’ by canceling Chinese visit]

But the possibility of sanctions so close to Xi’s visit indicates how frustrated U.S. officials have become over the persistent cyber plundering.

The sanctions would mark the first use of an order signed by President Obama in April establishing the authority to freeze financial and property assets of, and bar commercial transactions with, individuals and entities overseas who engage in destructive attacks or commercial espionage in cyberspace.

The White House declined to comment on specific sanctions, but a senior administration official, speaking generally, said: “As the president said when signing the executive order enabling the use of economic sanctions against malicious cyber actors, the administration is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to confront such actors. That strategy includes diplomatic engagement, trade policy tools, law enforcement mechanisms, and imposing sanctions on individuals or entities that engage in certain significant, malicious cyber-enabled activities. The administration has taken and continues to introduce steps to protect our networks and our citizens in cyberspace, and we are assessing all of our options to respond to these threats in a manner and timeframe of our choosing.”
China is not the only country that hacks computer networks for trade secrets to aid its economy, but it is by far the most active, officials say. Just last month, the FBI said that economic espionage cases surged 53 percent in the past year, and that China accounted for most of that.

The expected sanctions move will send two signals, a second administration official said. “It sends a signal to Beijing that the administration is going to start fighting back on economic espionage, and it sends a signal to the private sector that we’re on your team. It tells China, enough is enough.”

The sanctions would be a second major shot at China on the issue. In May 2014, the Obama administration secured indictments on economic spying charges against five Chinese military members for hacking into the computer systems of major U.S. steel and other firms.

“The indictments were a strong move,” said Rob Knake, a former White House cyber official and currently a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “This is going to be an even stronger move. It’s really going to put China in the position of having to choose whether they want to be this pariah nation — this kleptocracy — or whether they want to be one of the leading nations in the world.”


Some officials within the government urged caution, arguing that sanctions would only create unnecessary friction. But everyone is on the same page now, officials said.

[In a world of cybertheft, U.S. names China, Russia as main culprits]

“Let’s be honest, I can see the White House saying, ‘Let’s not do [sanctions] while the head of state is here,” one administration official said. “I can see maybe they’d shift the timing by a few days .?.?. but I can’t imagine they’d shift the overall decision.”

In particular, officials from national security agencies, as well as at Treasury, which is the lead agency on economic sanctions under the executive order, have been eager to push ahead. The administration’s goal is to impose costs for economic cyberspying. And the best strategy for doing that, officials said, is to use a variety of tools — indictments, sanctions, maybe even covert cyber actions.

Sanctions alone likely will not change China’s behavior, some officials said. “Done in tandem with other diplomatic pressure, law enforcement, military, intelligence, then you can actually start to impose costs and indicate that there are costs to the bilateral relationship,” the first official said.

Some experts warn, though, that there are risks attached to imposing sanctions.

If sanctions are imposed, “I’d say the chances of Chinese retaliation are high,” said Jeffrey A. Bader, Obama’s principal adviser on Asia from 2009 to 2011. But, he said, “if a Chinese company was a beneficiary of stolen intellectual property from an American company, and the evidence is clear cut, then actions or sanctions against that Chinese company strike me as appropriate.”

While some officials fear that China might retaliate by discriminating against U.S. companies or freezing them out of contracts or markets, other officials counter that China has long discriminated against foreign companies, including U.S. firms, restricting access and procurement opportunities to create protected markets for domestic companies and instituting polices that require companies to turn over technology and intellectual property as a condition of doing business there.

The executive order authorizes the Treasury secretary, in consultation with the attorney general and secretary of state, to impose the sanctions on companies, individuals or entities that have harmed national security, or the nation’s economy or foreign policy. It’s not clear how many firms or individuals will be targeted, though one official said the Chinese firms would be large and multinational. Their activity must meet one of four “harms”: attacking critical infrastructure, such as a power grid; disrupting major computer networks; stealing intellectual property or trade secrets; or benefiting from the stolen secrets and property.

It is that last prong, in particular, that has the potential to be quite effective, sanctions experts say. “Obviously, there’s no silver bullet,” said Zachary Goldman, a former policy adviser at the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and now executive director of New York University’s Center on Law and Security. But if the sanctioned companies are large and global, “they will effectively be put out of business.”

In practice, he said, most significant financial institutions refuse to do business with individuals who have been sanctioned by the United States. “So any company that’s been targeted under this authority,” he said, “will likely find it very difficult to participate in the international financial sector.”

The designations are being drawn up by a number of agencies, including the Treasury and Justice departments, the White House and the intelligence community. Evidence that the Justice Department has assembled over the past year or so in preparing possible indictments for economic espionage against Chinese companies and individuals is being used in support of the designations, officials said.

Sanctions provide government officials a greater ability to protect classified sources and evidence than a criminal prosecution might. But, analysts point out, there likely will be significant pressure on the administration to release as much evidence as possible to back up its designations to convince skeptics.

It is possible, some officials said, that entities or individuals from other countries besides China could be included in the sanctions package.

The sanctions would not be imposed in retaliation for China’s hacks of the Office of Personnel Management databases, which compromised the personal and financial data of more than 22 million current and former government employees and family members. The data heists, which took place last year but were discovered this year, were judged as having been carried out for traditional intelligence purposes — not to benefit Chinese industry.

[What to do if you are a federal worker and your info was stolen]

Nonetheless, the severity of the OPM incidents helped convince wavering officials that firm action in the economic spying realm was warranted.

The U.S. government’s response to the personnel data hacks has been much more muted. Rather than a public naming and shaming, it is considering covert cyber action. Officials have hinted at this, saying they may be taking steps that are not public.

The administration plans to raise the issue of China’s behavior in cyberspace at the upcoming Obama-Xi summit, just as it has done at every major bilateral meeting. Cybersecurity is one of the top policy issues in the relationship, and also among the thorniest.

Ruan Zongze, a former Chinese Embassy official in Washington, said in a recent interview that separating economic from political espionage in cyberspace is “impossible.” He said: “It’s really difficult to tell one from the other.”

Ruan, vice president for the China Institute of International Studies, a think tank affiliated with the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said the two sides should talk about this. “Finger-pointing,” he said, “is not the best way.”

The relationship between China and the United States is large and complex. “There are going to be areas where we have cooperation and disagreement all at the same time,” the first U.S. official said. “That’s just the reality of the relationship. The economic espionage and cybersecurity issues are going to continue to be a major irritant to the bilateral relationship.”



David Nakamura, Steven Mufson and Alice Crites contributed to this report.



Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on September 02, 2015, 07:01:39 pm
lots of pics of people but nothing else at link


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-puts-on-massive-military-parade_55e79808e4b0b7a9633bbc17?511kmx6r


Reuters
By Ben Blanchard
Posted: 09/02/2015 09:01 PM EDT


China Puts On Huge Parade For World War II Anniversary.

The show of military might is a convenient distraction from China's economic woes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCfdGzXPN_w
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCfdGzXPN_w[/youtube]


BEIJING, Sept 3 (Reuters) - China will put on its biggest display of military might on Thursday in a parade to commemorate victory over Japan in World War Two, an event shunned by Western leaders but which underscores Beijing's growing confidence in its armed forces.

More than 12,000 troops, mostly Chinese but with contingents from Russia and elsewhere, will march through Beijing's central Tiananmen Square from 10 a.m. (0200 GMT). They will be accompanied by a range of ballistic missiles, tanks and armored vehicles, many never seen in public before, as advanced fighter jets and bombers fly overhead.

For President Xi Jinping, who will preside over China's biggest event of the year, the parade is a welcome distraction from the country's plunging stock markets, slowing economy and recent blasts at a chemical warehouse that killed 145 people.

Xi will be joined by Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of several other nations with close ties to China, including Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Most Western leaders rebuffed invitations to attend, diplomats said, unhappy about the guest list and wary of the message China is sending to a region already rattled by its military assertiveness, especially in the South China Sea.

On the eve of the event, Xi said Japanese invaders before and during World War Two behaved with barbarity and tried to slaughter the Chinese people into surrender.

The Chinese government has repeatedly said the parade is not aimed at today's Japan, but to remember the past and to remind the world of China's huge sacrifices during the conflict. However, it rarely misses an opportunity to draw attention to Japan's wartime role.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is not attending the event, which is being held one day after the 70th anniversary of Tokyo's surrender in World War Two.

"For decades, when people in Western countries talk about WWII, they usually refer to the battles on the European continent and have little knowledge about China's role as the major oriental theater of the war," state news agency Xinhua said in an English-language commentary this week.

CHINESE NAVY IN BERING SEA

Xi has set great store on China's military modernisation, including developing an ocean-going "blue water" navy capable of defending the country's growing global interests.

In a sign of that emerging capability, five Chinese Navy ships are sailing in international waters in the Bering Sea off Alaska, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, at a time when U.S. President Barack Obama is touring the state.
Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said it was the first time the United States had seen Chinese navy ships in the Bering Sea.

It was not clear whether their presence was timed to coincide with Obama's visit or if it followed a recent Chinese-Russian navy exercise. Chinese state media has said nothing about the Bering Sea deployment.

"It is living up to what the Chinese have been saying, 'We are now a blue water navy. We will operate in the far seas and we are a global presence'," said Dean Cheng, a China expert at the Heritage Foundation think-tank in Washington.

Xi will meet Obama in Washington for talks later this month that will be dominated by a host of thorny issues, including China's growing military reach.

Beijing has been put under lock-down to ensure nothing goes wrong at the parade, with much of the downtown off-limits, a three-day holiday declared and, according to one Chinese newspaper, monkeys used to clear birds' nests from trees along the route.

Factories hundreds of miles away have been closed to guarantee clear skies in the normally smoggy metropolis, and some residents whose apartments overlook roads along which the tanks will rumble have been warned not to look out of windows.



State media has gone into a propaganda overdrive, and entertainment programming on television has been suspended to ensure the proper reverential atmosphere. (Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in WASHINGTON; Editing by Nick Macfie and Dean Yates)
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on September 09, 2015, 02:46:21 pm


after reading some of the comments on here maybe giving them nasa secrets will slow them down. ;)


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-fbi-is-looking-for-a-star-chinese-ohio-state-professor-with-nasa-ties-who-disappeared/ar-AAe7moa

Business Insider
Natasha Bertrand
3 hrs ago



The FBI is looking for a star Chinese Ohio State professor with NASA ties who disappeared

(http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAe79rf.img?h=547&w=728&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=352&y=365)
© Provided by Business Insider Rongxing Ron Li Ohio State OSU China Rover
         

A world-renowned Ohio State University (OSU) professor who had access to restricted defense information as part of his work with NASA is under investigation by the FBI for failing to disclose his ongoing connections to Chinese scientists, The Columbus Dispatch has reported.

Professor Rongxing Li, 56, unexpectedly resigned from his position in the OSU Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering in February 2014.

Li told OSU that he was going back to China to take care of his sick mother, and no one has heard from him since.

A month before resigning, Li submitted a proposal to work with NASA on its Mars 2020 project, which gave Li access to Department of Defense information that he was prohibited from sharing with China.

A month after he resigned, homeland security agents searched Li's wife, Jue Tian, before she boarded a plane to China and found thumb drives containing restricted defense information. Neither she nor her husband have been charged.

Li's research interests include "planetary exploration, digital mapping, spatial data structures, coastal and marine GIS, photogrammetry and remote sensing," according to his biography on the Planetary Robotics Vision Ground Processing project website. He had worked with NASA previously on missions such as the Mars Exploration Rover and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

In his Mars 2020 NASA proposal, according to federal search documents reviewed by The Dispatch, Li claimed that he had no ties to China. However, OSU knew he had spent 2012 on sabbatical at Tongji University in Shanghai and subsequently launched an internal investigation into why Li had not notified NASA of his ties to China.

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The university reportedly discovered that Li not only had ongoing connections with Tongji, but had also allegedly collaborated on Chinese-government programs aimed at developing advanced technologies.

Li reportedly had access to International Traffic in Arms Regulations information with NASA and with Raytheon, a defense contractor. Concerned that he might have provided China with this restricted information, OSU officials notified the FBI, which is now investigating the circumstances surrounding Li's abrupt resignation and mysterious disappearance.


................................................

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/09/08/fbi-investigates-osus-star-of-mapping.html
The Columbus Dispatch   •  Tuesday September 8, 2015 4:31 AM
 
 
Professor Rongxing Li was a star at Ohio State University, attracting international attention as he helped NASA rovers explore Mars in the past decade.

Then, early last year, Li quit his post as OSU’s premier mapping expert and disappeared. No news release was issued to explain his departure, and most information about his 18-year tenure at Ohio State was removed from the university’s website.

Now, federal search warrants filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus reveal that the FBI was investigating Li, trying to determine whether he shared defense secrets with the Chinese.

Li, 56, a U.S. citizen who grew up in China, had been director of the OSU mapping and geographic information system laboratory. Also known as Ron Li, he held an endowed chair in the OSU Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering and was known worldwide for his work in mapping.

His renown came, in part, when NASA selected him to help with its 2003 and 2009 Mars exploration missions. His troubles, too, began with NASA projects.

OSU, the FBI and NASA declined to comment about the case. But search warrants unsealed in August lay out why the government took a hard look at Li.

In January 2014, Li submitted a $36.9 million proposal to NASA for imaging work for a 2020 Mars mission. As part of that proposal, Li had access to Department of Defense technical information that he was prohibited from sharing with the Chinese, according to search warrants.

Li had claimed in the proposal that he had no relationships with Chinese scientists. But OSU researchers knew he had spent 2012 on sabbatical at Tongji University in Shanghai, so Ohio State began an internal investigation to determine why Li had not notified NASA of his China connections.

Investigators determined that Li had numerous, ongoing connections with Tongji, including being listed as a professor and as the director of a center for spatial information. The investigators also found online evidence that he had collaborated with Chinese-government programs to develop advanced technologies, serving as chief scientist for one project.

On Feb. 15, 2014, Li notified Ohio State and NASA that he was withdrawing from the Mars 2020 project. He also told Ohio State that he was in China caring for his sick parents. A few days later, he emailed his resignation to the university. According to a search warrant, he said, “With this email I resign from my position at the Ohio State University.”

Jeff Grabmeier, a spokesman for university research, confirmed Li’s unexpected resignation but said he couldn’t discuss it further and could not say why Li left.

According to the search warrant, Ohio State then called the FBI because of the “unusual circumstances of Li’s departure and the restricted and sensitive nature of some of his research.” The university told the FBI that Li had access to International Traffic in Arms Regulations information with NASA and with Raytheon, a defense contractor.

As part of the FBI investigation, Homeland Security agents stopped and searched Li’s wife, Jue Tian, 56, in San Francisco before she boarded a plane for China on March 1, 2014. Agents seized Tian’s computer, a cellphone and several thumb drives. The thumb drives contained restricted defense information, the warrant says.

Investigators also searched Li’s home in Upper Arlington. According to Franklin County property records, Li and his wife purchased the five-bedroom house on Lane Road in 1997.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Solove said no charges have been filed against Li or his wife. She would not comment further.

Charles Toth, an OSU researcher who worked in the same department as Li, said Li ran “his own show” at the university and didn’t work with many other professors. He said he couldn’t say more because of “the sensitivity” of the case. Other professors contacted by The Dispatch didn’t return phone calls.

In 2014, Li was one of five scientists named as fellows for the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. His name, however, is no longer on the society’s online list of 2014 fellows.

Society President Stephen D. DeGloria said he knew Li had left Ohio State and was living in China but had no details of the FBI investigation. He said Li had been nominated as a fellow before he quit at Ohio State.

The Upper Arlington house has been for sale since June.

Tian, who returned from China in mid-2014, did not respond to a request for an interview.



............................
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/08/osu-prof-disappears-may-have-sold-defense-secrets-to-chinese/
by William Bigelow8 Sep 201584

The FBI is investigating an Ohio State University professor who disappeared and may have given defense secrets to the Chinese government.

Rongxing Li, 56, who taught at the university for 18 years, was internationally famous for his mapping skills, which enabled him to help guide NASA rovers on Mars in 2003 and 2009. Also known as Ron Li, the professor grew up in China. Last year, he quit his job at OSU and vanished.

Li obtained access to Department of Defense technical information by offering a $36.9 million proposal to NASA for imaging work for a 2020 Mars mission. Li said in his 2014 proposal that he knew no Chinese scientists. However, OSU researchers became alarmed because Li had taken a 2012 sabbatical at Tongji University in Shanghai.

Investigators found Li was lying; he had all sorts of contact with Tongji, even his listing as a professor and as the director of a center for spatial information. Worse yet, they discovered he had worked with Chinese government programs to develop advanced technologies.

On Feb. 15, 2014, Li told OSU and NASA he wanted out of the Mars 2020 project, adding he was in China looking after his parents who were ostensibly ill. Days later, his resignation was emailed to the university.

OSU notified the FBI, noting the “unusual circumstances of Li’s departure and the restricted and sensitive nature of some of his research.” The university asserted Li had access to International Traffic in Arms Regulations information with NASA and with Raytheon, an American defense contractor.

On March 1, 2014, the FBI then cooperated with Homeland Security, which searched Li’s wife, Jue Tian, 56, in the San Francisco airport; she was headed for China. On thumb drives belonging to Tian, they found restricted defense information.

In 2014, Li was named a 2014 ASPRS Fellow Award winner. That award is given to active society members who have “performed exceptional service in advancing the science and use of the mapping sciences.”

 
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on September 19, 2015, 02:13:58 pm


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34301456
19 September 2015

 

China warns Japan over expanding military role abroad

vid at link

China has said Japan is endangering peace in the region after it passed controversial laws expanding the role of its military abroad.

Japan should learn "profound lessons from history", China's defence ministry said after Japan's parliamentary vote.

The vote allows Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since the end of World War Two 70 years ago.

Tensions between China and Japan have escalated in recent months over a group of islands to which both lay claim.

The security laws were voted through Japan's upper house late on Friday, with 148 lawmakers voting in support and 90 against.

It followed nearly 200 hours of political wrangling, with scuffles breaking out at various points between the bills' supporters and opposition members attempting to delay the vote.


Reaction snapshot:

?"Japan's military stance has potentially become more dangerous... It is deplorable that [Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe, after acknowledging the mistake Japan had made over 70 years ago, is now choosing to repeat the same mistake" - China's Xinhua news agency

?The laws will add to "fears that an arms race could be sparked with China and its neighbours". Seoul will find it hard to boost security cooperation with Tokyo without "a frank apology" for Japan's actions in the past - South Korea's Hankyoreh newspaper

Compiled by BBC Monitoring

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The new laws fulfil one of Prime Minister Abe's long-held ambitions

The government says that the changes in defence policy are vital to meet new military challenges such as those posed from a rising China.

But China's defence ministry said on Saturday they "run counter to the trend of the times that upholds peace, development and co-operation", the Xinhua news agency reports.

"The move has breached the restrictions of Japan's pacifist constitution," the ministry added.

Many Japanese who opposed the bills - which prompted large public protests - were also attached to the pacifist provisions in the constitution that banned fighting overseas.

another vid at link


Scuffles broke out in parliament amid wrangling over Japan's security bill


China also urged Japan to "heed the security concern" of its Asian neighbours and do more to promote regional peace and stability.

South Korea, which also has a tense relationship with Japan, has warned Tokyo not to exercise the new defence laws without its approval.

But the US, Japan's ally, and the UK have both welcomed the changes.

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he looked forward to Japan "taking an increasingly active part in peacekeeping operations".


What is collective self-defence?

Japan's post-World War Two constitution bars it from using force to resolve international conflicts except in cases of self-defence.

The new security legislation allows Japan's military to mobilise overseas when these three conditions are met:
?when Japan is attacked, or when a close ally is attacked, and the result threatens Japan's survival and poses a clear danger to people
?when there is no other appropriate means available to repel the attack and ensure Japan's survival and protect its people
?use of force is restricted to a necessary minimum

What's behind Japan's military shift?

Critics say the changes violate the pacifist constitution and could lead Japan into US-led wars abroad.

Supporters of the measures insist they are essential for the defence of Japan and its regional allies, and will permit greater involvement in peacekeeping activities around the world.


(http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/161B9/production/_85635509_029135536-1.jpg)

There was a heavy police presence outside parliament during a rally against the new laws


What kinds of military actions do the laws allow?

?Japan would be able to provide logistical support to South Korea if the North invaded, though Mr Abe has said it would still be against the constitution to send Japanese troops to fight on Korean soil.

?It would be legal for Japan to shoot down a North Korean missile headed for the US. Currently, they have to threaten Japan to justify shooting them down. North Korea is thought to be several years from being able to hit mainland US targets though.

?Military action to keep shipping lanes secure, such as minesweeping, even if in an active conflict zone, might be allowed if the restriction on shipping was severe enough to constitute a threat to Japan's survival.

?Armed involvement in hostage rescues would also become possible. In January 2013, 10 Japanese hostages were killed at the Amenas gas plant in Algeria.

?Regional limits on Japanese military support for US and other foreign armed forces would also be eliminated.

Critics have focused on what they say is ambiguity in how the principles of the legislation will be interpreted, and the possibility that future governments will interpret them more broadly.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on September 19, 2015, 08:42:50 pm
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-and-china-seek-arms-deal-for-cyberspace/ar-AAew4fo?li=AA54ur

The New York Times
By DAVID E. SANGER
11 hrs ago


U.S. and China Seek Arms Deal for Cyberspace
WASHINGTON — The United States and China are negotiating what could become the first arms control accord for cyberspace, embracing a commitment by each country that it will not be the first to use cyberweapons to cripple the other’s critical infrastructure during peacetime, according to officials involved in the talks.

While such an agreement could address attacks on power stations, banking systems, cellphone networks and hospitals, it would not, at least in its first version, protect against most of the attacks that China has been accused of conducting in the United States, including the widespread poaching of intellectual property and the theft of millions of government employees’ personal data.

The negotiations have been conducted with urgency in recent weeks, with a goal to announce an agreement when President Xi Jinping of China arrives in Washington for a state visit on Thursday. President Obama hinted at the negotiations on Wednesday, when he told the Business Roundtable that the rising number of cyberattacks would “probably be one of the biggest topics” of the summit meeting, and that his goal was to see “if we and the Chinese are able to coalesce around a process for negotiations” that would ultimately “bring a lot of other countries along.”

But a senior administration official involved in the discussions cautioned that an initial statement between Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi may not contain “a specific, detailed mention” of a prohibition on attacking critical infrastructure. Rather, it would be a more “generic embrace” of a code of conduct adopted recently by a working group at the United Nations.

One of the key principles of the United Nations document on principles for cyberspace is that no state should allow activity “that intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the use and operation of critical infrastructure to provide services to the public.” The goal of the American negotiators is to have Chinese leaders embrace the principles of the United Nations code of conduct in a bilateral agreement with Washington.

But it seems unlikely that any deal coming out of the talks would directly address the most urgent problems with cyberattacks of Chinese origin, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe continuing negotiations.

Most of those attacks have focused on espionage and theft of intellectual property. The rules under discussion would have done nothing to stop the theft of 22 million personal security files from the Office of Personnel Management, which the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., recently told Congress did not constitute an “attack” because it was intelligence collection — something the United States does, too.

The agreement being negotiated would also not appear to cover the use of tools to steal intellectual property, as the Chinese military does often to bolster state-owned industries, according to an indictment of five officers of the People’s Liberation Army last year. And it is not clear that the rules would prohibit the kind of attack carried out last year against Sony Pictures Entertainment, for which the United States blamed North Korea. That attack melted down about 70 percent of Sony’s computer systems.

Sony is not, by most definitions, part of the nation’s “critical infrastructure,” although the Department of Homeland Security does include “movie studios” on its list of critical “commercial facilities,” along with stadiums, museums and convention centers.

Still, any agreement to limit cyberattacks in peacetime would be a start. “It would be the first time that cyber is treated as a military capability that needs to be governed as nuclear, chemical and biological weapons are,” said Vikram Singh, a former Pentagon and State Department official who is now vice president for international security at the Center for American Progress.

Within the Obama administration, the effort to design “a set of norms of behavior” to limit cyberattacks has been compared to President John F. Kennedy’s first major nuclear treaty with the Soviet Union in 1963, which banned atmospheric nuclear tests. That accord did not stop the development of nuclear weapons or even halt underground tests, which continued for decades. But it was a first effort to prevent an environmental disaster, just as this would be a first effort by the world’s two biggest economic powers to prevent the most catastrophic use of cyberweapons.

Joseph S. Nye, a Harvard professor known for his studies of American power, said the concept of a “no first use” doctrine for cyberattacks had been “gestating for some time” in a variety of international forums. “It could create some self-restraint,” Mr. Nye said, but he added that the problem was, “how do you verify it, and what is its value if it can’t be verified?”

That problem goes to the heart of why arms control agreements in the cyberspace arena are so much more complicated than better-known agreements covering nuclear weapons.

In the Cold War and still today, nuclear arms remain in the hands of states, meaning they can usually be counted and their movements observed. Cyberweapons, too, are often developed by countries — the United States, Russia, China and Iran are among the most sophisticated — but they can also be found in the hands of criminal groups and teenagers, neither of which negotiate treaties.

Moreover, it was usually clear where a conventional attack had originated; the trajectory of a missile could be tracked by radar or satellite. Mr. Obama himself noted last week the difficulty of tracing a cyberattack, and thus of deterring it — or retaliating with confidence.

Earlier efforts to get Mr. Xi and other senior Chinese leaders to address cyberattacks have largely failed. Mr. Obama spent a considerable amount of time on the issue during a summit meeting with Mr. Xi at Sunnylands, a California estate, in 2013. But even after that session, the Chinese denied that their military was involved in attacks, and portrayed themselves as victims of attacks from the United States.

It was not an entirely spurious claim: Classified documents released by Edward J. Snowden showed a complex effort by the National Security Agency to get into the systems of a Chinese telecommunications giant, Huawei, though the United States maintained that the effort was for national security surveillance, not for the theft of intellectual property.

The recent Chinese movement on cybersecurity can be traced to several events, officials say.

The Office of Personnel Management breach, which went undetected for roughly a year, was traced to Chinese sources, and one official said evidence had been presented to Chinese officials. In August, Susan E. Rice, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, took a trip to Beijing to meet with Mr. Xi and other officials, and used it to increase pressure on China, suggesting that newly devised economic sanctions could be imposed. Mr. Obama referred to that possibility in two recent speeches, suggesting that he would hold off only if there was progress with Mr. Xi.

Last week, a high-level Communist Party envoy, Meng Jianzhu, who is responsible for state security, came to Washington and met with Ms. Rice, several American intelligence officials and the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey. That session focused on coming up with some kind of agreement, however vaguely worded, that Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi could announce on Friday.

For the United States, agreements limiting cyberweapons are also problematic. The country is spending billions of dollars on new generations of weapons, and in at least one famous case, the cyberattacks on Iran’s nuclear enrichment site at Natanz, it has used them.

American cyberwarriors would be concerned about any rules that limited their ability in peacetime to place “beacons” or “implants” in foreign computer networks; these are pieces of code that monitor how foreign computer systems work, and they can be vital in determining how to launch a covert or wartime attack. The Chinese have littered American networks with similar technology, often to the consternation of the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.

“One of the things to look for are any rules that bar ‘preparing the battlefield,’ ” said Robert K. Knake, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who worked in the White House cybersecurity office earlier in the Obama administration.

Mr. Obama, who has said little about the United States’ development of cyberweapons during his presidency, has begun to talk about it in recent days. “If we wanted to go on offense, a whole bunch of countries would have some significant problems,” he told the Business Roundtable on Wednesday.

 
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on September 30, 2015, 07:45:46 am

http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/30/technology/china-opm-hack-us-spies/index.html
By Evan Perez   @CNNTech


U.S. pulls spies from China after hack

The United States is pulling spies from China as a result of a cyberattack that compromised the personal data of 21.5 million government workers, a U.S. official said Tuesday.

The U.S. suspects that Chinese hackers were behind the breach at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which exposed the fingerprints of 5.6 million government employees.

Because the stolen data includes records on State Department employees, the hackers could, by process of elimination, identify embassy personnel who are actually intelligence agents.

Employees of the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency assigned to China are at risk of being exposed, U.S. intelligence officials determined in recent months. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the CIA has pulled a number of officers from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

The hack is expected to have a major impact on U.S. national security, in part because the stolen data includes information from U.S. government forms used for security clearances, known as SF86 questionnaires.

The forms contain sensitive private information on current, former and even prospective government employees, as well as their family members and associates, U.S. officials said.

The concern now is that Chinese intelligence could use the OPM data to help determine the identities of future U.S. intelligence employees that may try to enter China. Beijing is known to scrutinize visa applications of people with U.S. ties, based on travel patterns and other data.

Even before the hack, technology advancements in biometrics made it difficult for the CIA to infiltrate operatives pretending to be someone else into China and other countries.

The CIA is now pushing to improve its technological spying capabilities to fill the void.

In Washington on Tuesday, Republican senators pushed Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to explain why the Obama administration hasn't responded more firmly to the hack.

Clapper acknowledged that one reason the U.S. hasn't responded is because the U.S. engages in the same type of espionage. "We're not bad at it," he said.

Beijing has long denied it is involved in hacking, and often claims to be a victim of similar attacks. Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reiterated that position on Wednesday.

"The Chinese government firmly opposes any forms of hacking," he said, noting the U.S. and China agreed just days ago not to conduct cybertheft of trade secrets and intellectual property against one another for commercial gain.



Related: Hackers stole 5.6 million government fingerprints - more than estimated

Related: U.S. Intel officials warn hacking is getting worse

Related: Researchers identify Chinese military hacker
 

 CNNMoney (Washington)  September 30, 2015: 9:50 AM ET
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: WarToad on September 30, 2015, 09:00:55 am
Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on October 10, 2015, 04:58:43 am

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/chinese-all-cash-buyers-of-us-homes-have-tripled-since-2005/ar-AAficro?li=AAa0dzB&OCID=msnHomepage

MarketWatch
By Daniel Goldstein
11 hrs ago

Chinese all-cash buyers of U.S. homes have tripled since 2005

Xi?oshòu. That’s how you say “For Sale” in Chinese. And if you’re selling to an all-cash buyer in a U.S. real estate deal, you may need to find a real-estate agent who speaks Mandarin.

A joint analysis by Irvine, Calif.-based realty research firm RealtyTrac, and New Jersey-based multicultural marketing company Ethnic Technologies, found that 46% of Mandarin Chinese-speaking buyers who purchased U.S. homes in the 17 months ending in May 2015 paid all cash, more than triple the number paying all cash in 2005. Overall, Mandarin speakers are the second largest non-English speaking cash-paying group, totaling nearly 18% of all cash deals, second behind those buyers speaking Spanish at 43%.

Among all non-English speaking groups, the share of all-cash buyers of U.S. homes increased from a 20% share in 2005 to a 33% share in the 17 months ending in May 2015.

 The two firms looked at 10 million publicly recorded residential property sales deeds in 2014 and 2015 compared with 2005 by ethnicity and native language spoken. The results were determined by predictive software that can determine ethnicity and language preference based on first name, last name, and address of the record, according to Lisa Radding, the director of research for Ethnic Technologies.

“Cash buyers across the board are playing a much bigger role in the housing market now than they were 10 years ago, and that is particularly true for Chinese Mandarin-speaking cash buyers, who are more likely to be foreign nationals,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Foreign cash buyers have helped to accelerate U.S. home price appreciation over the past few years given that these buyers are often not as constrained by income as local, traditionally financed buyers,” he said.

Indeed, median home values in the U.S. have risen to $180,800, the highest level since mid-2008, and up 3.3% in the past year, and they’re projected to rise another 2.2% in 2016.

Chinese Mandarin-speaking buyers also increased as a share of overall buyers more than any other language group between 2005 and 2015, up more than 9%, according to RealtyTrac. Other languages spoken increasingly by buyers were Hindi and Arabic, the research firm said.

Overall, Chinese buyers spent $22 billion on U.S. housing in the 12 months through March 2014 — 72% more than a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors, buying mostly high-end, expensive homes with a median price of over $500,000. Asian buyers make up more than a third of all international real estate buyers in the U.S., and Chinese investing in U.S. real estate is so popular that the Washington, D. C-based Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) offers its guide to real-estate investing in the U.S. in only two languages, English and Mandarin.

 OB Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate, a real-estate broker in Seattle, said that Chinese buyers account for almost half of all real estate activity in Seattle’s most expensive neighborhoods and says more than three-quarters of the real estate deals there are for cash. “Seattle is the closest mainland U.S. city to travel to from Beijing and offers things that really appeal to the Chinese, like clean air, quality education, and employment opportunities with several Fortune 500 companies,” Jacobi said. Seattle home prices rose 12% in the past year, and are expected to climb another 6.4% through 2016.

Ohio, Colorado and Southern California too are seeing plenty of all-cash Mandarin-speaking buyers, according to RealtyTrac and Ethnic Technologies.

“Annually since 2005, we have seen that destabilizing events around the world continue to increase the positioning for U.S. real estate, particularly Southern California, as a safe harbor for investment, particularly cash,” said Mark Hughes, chief operating officer with First Team Real Estate, a Realtor covering the Southern California market. “Given the somewhat laid-back Chinese government attention to withdrawal limits we expect these funds to continue to be a driver of activity and bidding throughout this year.”

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© MarketWatch

Daniel Goldstein is a personal-finance and real-estate reporter for MarketWatch.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on October 18, 2015, 11:58:02 am


interesting info  and   info/knowledge is power...not that we peons have much say in the political arena   BUT 
 still interesting



http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34549744

How China guards the Xi creation myth
Carrie Gracie
China editor
18 October 2015

(http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/343F/production/_86157331_ap_153325823603.jpg)

The UK says it wants to be China's best friend in the West, and will be laying out the red carpet for the country's new strongman, President Xi Jinping, when he begins a state visit on Monday. But what kind of person is he? I tried to find out by visiting the cave where he lived for seven years in his youth.

I was looking forward to seeing the cave where China's president grew up but as our van skimmed along behind the sleek black sedan, I was nervous too. The man from the propaganda department already had an anxious sheen about him. I foresaw trouble.

President Xi is building a personality cult. The last thing the strongman with the perfect creation myth needs is the BBC puncturing it. So pity that local propaganda chief in the car ahead.

In general the president's spin doctors do a very slick job of presenting him as a man of the people. He tours leaky back alley homes, ducking through washing lines and wearing no face mask - the message that this is a leader prepared to breathe the same polluted air as you. He talks to his public in earthy prose, telling students that life is like a shirt with buttons where you have to get the first few right or the rest will all go wrong. He queues up in an ordinary dumpling shop for lunch and pays for his own meal. Message - he is neither greedy nor showy.

(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/5B4F/production/_86157332_gettyimages-490418432.jpg)
Getty Images

It's all clever political signalling of course. Behind the smile, Xi Jinping is a ruthless operator. You don't rise to the top of the Chinese communist party without being a consummate political player and Mr Xi has spent a lifetime playing.

But the Sedan in front was now stopping at a police barrier. We'd arrived at the heart of the president's creation myth. Nearly five decades ago, the 15-year-old Xi fled from the chaos of the capital to this bleak and breathtaking landscape of yellow canyons, caves and mountains. The contrast with life in Beijing must have been even more extreme in those days

Especially for Xi himself. He had actually lived two lives by the age of 15. In the first his father was a hero of the communist revolution so Xi spent his early years as a so called red princeling, enjoying a privileged upbringing. But all of that was shattered by the civil war that an increasingly paranoid and vengeful Chairman Mao inflicted on the party elite in the 1960s. Xi's father was jailed, his family humiliated. One of his sisters died. Without parents or friends to protect him from the murderous red guards dispensing summary justice on the streets, the teenage Xi lived his second Beijing life, dodging death threats and detention… until he came to this village.

Millions of Chinese city kids were doing the same thing. Chairman Mao had decreed they should spend time in the countryside, learning from the hard life of the peasants, and Xi Jinping says he did learn. The spin doctors have turned his teenage trauma into triumph. This village has become a shrine to its most famous son, a vital part of the president's image. I left my heart in Liangjiahe. Liangjiahe made me, he likes to claim.

(http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/16612/production/_86166619_img_9212.jpg)
Liangjiahe, with all of its canyons and caves


There aren't many 21st Century leaders of whom you can say that they lived in a cave and made it as a farmer before clawing their way to the political summit. But in control-conscious China, those facts could not possibly be allowed to speak for themselves. So I was marched round a museum extolling the good deeds that Xi did for his fellow villagers, and whenever my attention flagged a gushing guide stepped forward to fill in narrative gaps, and I soon realised that what I'd mistaken for phalanxes of communist party pilgrims were actually propaganda officials. Also keeping an eye on me rather than the museum exhibits, a liberal sprinkling of plainclothes police.


(http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/825F/production/_86157333_img_9106.jpg)
The police and propaganda team watch on


Why the paranoia? Why does the history have to be sanitised, all trace of real personality expunged? I wasn't looking for revelations of youthful depravity or character flaws. But everywhere I turned the memories were so carefully crafted it was hard to work out whether any of them were real. And all the while, the propaganda chief's glassy pallor worsened. Eventually he asked me to sign a document promising that every word the BBC said about President Xi would be positive. He blanched when I said I couldn't. It might be his job to burnish the presidential image, but it certainly wasn't mine.

The great irony of Xi Jinping's personality cult is that under Chairman Mao he and his family suffered from strongman politics. And after the tragedy of the cultural revolution the communist party resolved it would never make the same mistake again. Grey faceless committees ran China for the next 40 years. But now the strongman is back. And perhaps also the danger that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

For us it was time to leave the caves. The propaganda chief had started threatening to confiscate our recordings. President Xi may have left his heart in Liangjiahe but I didn't want to leave all the material I'd gathered there. That night we made a sudden bolt, driving 200 miles (320km) to an airport from which we could get our work out of China. Strange exploits when you consider that the cave years are possibly the most positive chapter of Xi Jinping's life even without persuasion and threats from the propaganda department.

Mao's Cultural Revolution
?In May 1966, Chairman Mao launched the Cultural Revolution
?The 10-year political and ideological campaign was aimed at reviving revolutionary spirit and purging the country of "impure" elements
?Young Chinese people were sent to the countryside to learn from the hard life of the peasants
?Millions of people were persecuted and killed during Mao's rule

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on October 19, 2015, 06:58:18 am


many sides to what is going on ..this is  more knowledge


http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/china%e2%80%99s-selling-tons-of-us-debt-americans-cant-care-less/ar-AAfBhCi?li=BBieTUX

Bloomberg
Daniel Kruger
3 hrs ago

China’s selling tons of U.S. debt. Americans can't care less


For all the dire warnings over China’s retreat from U.S. government debt, there is one simple fact that is being overlooked: American demand is as robust as ever.

Not only are domestic mutual funds buying record amounts of Treasuries at auctions this year, U.S. investors are also increasing their share of the $12.9 trillion market for the first time since 2012, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The buying has been crucial in keeping a lid on America’s financing costs as China -- the largest foreign creditor with about $1.4 trillion of U.S. government debt -- pares its stake for the first time since at least 2001. Yields on benchmark Treasuries have surprised almost everyone by falling this year, dipping below 2 percent last week. The 10-year note yield was little changed at 2.04 percent at 10:50 a.m. in London on Monday.

It’s not the scenario that doomsayers predicted would leave the U.S. vulnerable to China’s whims. But the fact that Americans are pouring into Treasuries may point to a deeper concern: the world’s largest economy, plagued by lackluster wage growth and almost no inflation, just isn’t strong enough for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

“As you develop a more pessimistic view on global growth, inflation, and rates, asset managers are going to buy Treasuries in that environment,” said Brandon Swensen, the co-head of U.S. fixed-income at RBC Global Asset Management, which oversees $35 billion.

Overseas Creditors

Overseas creditors have played a key role in financing America’s debt as the nation borrowed heavily to pull the economy out of recession. Since 2008, foreigners have more than doubled their Treasury investments and now own about $6.1 trillion.

China has led the way, funneling hundreds of billions into Treasuries as the Asian nation boomed and it bought dollars to limit the gains in its currency.

Now that’s changing.

China’s economy grew 6.9 percent in the third quarter, the slowest pace since the first three months of 2009, a government report showed Monday, even as it kept Premier Li Keqiang’s target of 7 percent growth in 2015 within reach.

This year alone, China’s holdings have fallen about $200 billion as it raises money in support of its flagging economy and stock market. If the pattern holds, it would be the first time that China has pulled back from Treasuries on an annual basis. The tally includes Belgium, which analysts say is home to Chinese custodial accounts.

The People’s Bank of China directed questions on its Treasury holdings to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which didn’t reply to a fax seeking comment.

The Chinese pullback has led some to raise troubling questions about the U.S.’s ability to borrow and refinance its obligations at ultra-low rates year after year. It’s also reignited long-held concerns, aired over the years by both Republican and Democratic politicians, that China’s ownership of U.S. debt is a threat to America’s independence.

Homegrown Buyers

Homegrown demand for Treasuries suggests there’s no reason to panic.

American funds have purchased 42 percent of the $1.6 trillion of notes and bonds sold at auctions this year, the highest since the Treasury department began breaking out the data five years ago. As recently as 2011, they bought as little as 18 percent.

As a group, U.S. investors of all types have also stepped up their holdings of Treasuries since they fell to a low in mid-2014. In 2015, that share has climbed 2.1 percentage points to 33.1 percent of the U.S. government debt market.

That might not sound like much, but the annual increase -- which has pushed up Americans’ holdings to a record $4.3 trillion -- would be the first since 2012.

Misplaced Worries

“The worries about China selling are misplaced,” said David Ader, the head of U.S. government-bond strategy at CRT Capital Group LLC. “This was one of the great fears of the bond market, and it’s happening and we took it in stride.”

While the appetite among Americans for the haven of U.S. debt has kept the government’s financing costs low, what’s worrisome is what it suggests about the health of the economy, according to George Goncalves, the head of interest-rate strategy at Nomura Holdings Inc., one of 22 dealers that are obliged to bid at Treasury auctions.

Sure, the U.S. is creating jobs, but a raft of disappointing indicators, from retail sales to manufacturing, suggests consumers are scaling back just as overseas demand weakens.

And wages are stagnating for many Americans. Since the recession ended, average hourly earnings have increased less than in any expansion since the 1960s. Without higher wages to spur spending, inflation has remained stubbornly low.

Price Pressures

The auction data shows that U.S. funds targeted 30-year bonds -- those most vulnerable to rising growth and inflation -- the most among interest-bearing Treasuries. That comes as traders are pricing in the likelihood the inflation rate will remain below the Fed’s 2 percent goal over the coming decade.

Economists in a Bloomberg survey now see a 15 percent chance the U.S. will slide into a recession in the next 12 months, the highest estimate since 2013.

Investors in the U.S. “are making a decision based on their outlook and it’s a reflection of the economy as well as their risk aversion,” Nomura’s Goncalves said.

It also suggests the Fed policy makers may want to rethink their assumptions about the need to raise interest rates any time soon. While Fed Chair Janet Yellen has said she still sees the economy growing enough for the central bank to raise rates by year-end, traders are skeptical. They see only a 32 percent chance of a rate increase by December, while the odds of a March rise are at little more than a coin flip.

Some Fed officials are coming around to that view. Governors Lael Brainard and Daniel Tarullo both indicated this month the Fed should wait until clearer signs of inflation emerge.

“There’s no pressing reason for the Fed to hike rates and there are clear risks against a global backdrop that’s so fragile,” said Robert Tipp, the chief investment strategist at Prudential Financial’s fixed-income unit, which oversees $533 billion.

--With assistance from Steven Yang in Beijing.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on October 20, 2015, 03:26:37 pm

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34542147

By Richard Anderson
Business reporter, BBC News
20 October 2015



What does China own in the UK?

China may be the world's second-largest economy behind the US, but it has more money in the bank than any other country.

Indeed three of the world's 10 biggest sovereign wealth funds are Chinese, together holding more than $1.5tn (£988bn) in assets.

And despite the slowdown in the Chinese economy in the past five years, the government has been putting this money to good use, particularly so since it recovered from the global economic slowdown sparked by 2008's financial crisis.

In fact, overseas investments have grown from $20bn in 2005 to $171bn last year. And, as the chart below shows, the UK is one of China's favourite places to invest.

(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/116E7/production/_86199317_86199316.jpg)

In the first half of this year, Chinese investment in the UK fell sharply - just $1.8bn compared with more than $8bn in the whole of 2014.




But this figure is likely to be boosted significantly this week with the announcement of a number of deals while President Xi Jinping and his delegation visit Britain. Backing for a new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset could well be announced, while a separate deal for another nuclear plant at Bradwell in Essex has also been mooted.

If these and other deals like them don't come off, then the UK could well slip behind Italy - which has seen huge inflows of Chinese cash in the past two years - as China's favoured European investment destination.


(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/161FD/production/_86212609_china_uk_investements-01_v2.jpg)

Almost half of all China's global investments have been in the energy sector, many of them designed specifically to provide power for the Chinese. While the country's overall population may not grow significantly beyond its current 1.4 billion, an explosion in the middle class as wealth increases will see demand for energy rocket.

And as China develops technologies to satisfy this demand, it will become increasingly keen to export them. This is precisely why China is so keen to showcase its nuclear technologies in the UK.

But energy has not been China's primary interest in the UK. In fact, property investments far outweigh those in energy. The motivation here is far more straightforward - profit. The Chinese simply see UK commercial property as a good bet. Unsurprisingly, this is also the main motivation behind the huge sums of money China has pumped into the UK's financial sector.


(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/A295/production/_86212614_china_uk_investements-02-2.jpg)

One such investment is in Barclays bank - all $3bn of it. This is by far the largest single investment in the UK by the Chinese government or a Chinese company, in this case China Development Bank.



Sovereign Wealth Fund

Assets ($bn)

Launched

China Investment Corporation (CIC) 746.7 2007
SAFE Investment Company 547 1997
National Social Security Fund 236 2000
Source: SWFI   

As you will see from the chart below, when it comes to a massive global bank such as Barclays, not even $3bn gives you much of a stake.

The same is the case with oil giant BP, in which the SAFE sovereign wealth fund has invested more than $2bn.

But other investments in far smaller companies have given Chinese investors either outright ownership, in the case of Pizza Express, or a controlling interest, in the case of House of Fraser, Weetabix and Sunseeker yachts


(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/0320/production/_86200800_china_investments_chart2_624_v2.jpg)

This chart is not exhaustive, and does not include some property investments. You can download the full data from the American Enterprise Institute.
https://www.aei.org/china-global-investment-tracker/





..................

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34571436

Xi Jinping visit: UK-China ties 'will be lifted to new height'

1 hour ago


(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/0E9E/production/_86224730_029700411-1.jpg)
 
Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption
Mr Xi was given a guard of honour during the reception at Horse Guards Parade

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on November 02, 2015, 09:41:52 pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/exposed-beijings-covert-global-radio-network_5637d596e4b00a4d2e0b78b3
Reuters
By Koh Gui Qing and John Shiffman
Posted: 11/02/2015 04:33 PM EST


EXPOSED: Beijing's Covert Global Radio Network

By Koh Gui Qing and John Shiffman



BEIJING/WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - In August, foreign ministers from 10 nations blasted China for building artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea. As media around the world covered the diplomatic clash, a radio station that serves the most powerful city in America had a distinctive take on the news.

Located outside Washington, D.C., WCRW radio made no mention of China's provocative island project. Instead, an analyst explained that tensions in the region were due to unnamed "external forces" trying "to insert themselves into this part of the world using false claims."

Behind WCRW's coverage is a fact that's never broadcast: The Chinese government controls much of what airs on the station, which can be heard on Capitol Hill and at the White House.

WCRW is just one of a growing number of stations across the world through which Beijing is broadcasting China-friendly news and programming.

A Reuters investigation spanning four continents has identified at least 33 radio stations in 14 countries that are part of a global radio web structured in a way that obscures its majority shareholder: state-run China Radio International, or CRI.

Many of these stations primarily broadcast content created or supplied by CRI or by media companies it controls in the United States, Australia and Europe. Three Chinese expatriate businessmen, who are CRI's local partners, run the companies and in some cases own a stake in the stations. The network reaches from Finland to Nepal to Australia, and from Philadelphia to San Francisco.

At WCRW, Beijing holds a direct financial interest in the Washington station's broadcasts. Corporate records in the United States and China show a Beijing-based subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned radio broadcaster owns 60 percent of an American company that leases almost all of the station's airtime.

China has a number of state-run media properties, such as the Xinhua news agency, that are well-known around the world. But American officials charged with monitoring foreign media ownership and propaganda said they were unaware of the Chinese-controlled radio operation inside the United States until contacted by Reuters. A half-dozen former senior U.S. officials said federal authorities should investigate whether the arrangement violates laws governing foreign media and agents in the United States.


"SERIOUS INQUIRY"


A U.S. law enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prohibits foreign governments or their representatives from holding a radio license for a U.S. broadcast station. Under the Communications Act, foreign individuals, governments and corporations are permitted to hold up to 20 percent ownership directly in a station and up to 25 percent in the U.S. parent corporation of a station.

CRI itself doesn't hold ownership stakes in U.S. stations, but it does have a majority share via a subsidiary in the company that leases WCRW in Washington and a Philadelphia station with a similarly high-powered signal.

Said former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt: "If there were allegations made about de facto Chinese government ownership of radio stations, then I'm sure the FCC would investigate."

U.S. law also requires anyone inside the United States seeking to influence American policy or public opinion on behalf of a foreign government or group to register with the Department of Justice. Public records show that CRI's U.S. Chinese-American business partner and his companies haven't registered as foreign agents under the law, called the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA.

I would make a serious inquiry under FARA into a company rebroadcasting Chinese government propaganda inside the United States without revealing that it is acting on behalf of, or it's owned or controlled by China," said D.E. "Ed" Wilson Jr., a former senior White House and Treasury Department official.

CRI headquarters in Beijing and the Chinese embassy in Washington declined to make officials available for interviews or to comment on the findings of this article.

Justice Department national security spokesman Marc Raimondi and FCC spokesman Neil Grace declined to comment.


Other officials at the FCC said the agency receives so many license applications that it only launches a probe if it receives a complaint. People familiar with the matter said no such complaint has been lodged with the FCC about the CRI-backed network in the United States.


BUILDING "SOFT POWER"


Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has chafed at a world order he sees as dominated by the United States and its allies, is aware that China struggles to project its views in the international arena.

"We should increase China's soft power, give a good Chinese narrative and better communicate China's message to the world," Xi said in a policy address in November last year, according to Xinhua.

CRI head Wang Gengnian has described Beijing's messaging effort as the "borrowed boat" strategy - using existing media outlets in foreign nations to carry Chinese propaganda.

The 33 radio stations backed by CRI broadcast in English, Chinese or local languages, offering a mix of news, music and cultural programs. Newscasts are peppered with stories highlighting China's development, such as its space program, and its contribution to humanitarian causes, including earthquake relief in Nepal.

"We are not the evil empire that some Western media portray us to be," said a person close to the Communist Party leadership in Beijing who is familiar with the CRI network. "Western media reports about China are too negative. We just want to improve our international image. It's self-protection."

In some ways, the CRI-backed radio stations fulfill a similar advocacy role to that of the U.S.-run Voice of America. But there is a fundamental difference: VOA openly publishes the fact that it receives U.S. government funding. CRI is using front companies that cloak its role.

A few of the programs broadcast in the United States cite reports from CRI, but most don't. One program, The Beijing Hour, says it is "brought to you by China Radio International."


Some shows are slick, others lack polish. While many segments are indistinguishable from mainstream American radio shows, some include announcers speaking English with noticeable Chinese accents.

The production values vary because the broadcasts are appealing to three distinct audiences: first-generation Chinese immigrants with limited English skills; second-generation Chinese curious about their ancestral homeland; and non-Chinese listeners whom Beijing hopes to influence.

One thing the programs have in common: They generally ignore criticism of China and steer clear of anything that casts Beijing in a negative light.


A top-of-the-hour morning newscast on Oct. 15, broadcast in Washington and other U.S. cities, was identified only as "City News." It reported that U.S. officials were concerned about cyber attacks, including one in which the personal information of about 20 million American government workers was allegedly stolen. The broadcast left out a key element: It has been widely reported that U.S. officials believe China was behind that hack.

Last year, as thousands of protesters demanding free elections paralyzed Hong Kong for weeks, the news on CRI-backed stations in the United States presented China's point of view. A report the day after the protests ended did not explain why residents were on the streets and carried no comments from protest leaders. The demonstrations, a report said, had "failed without the support of the people in Hong Kong."

Many of these stations do not run ads and so do not appear to be commercially motivated.


THREE SURROGATES

Around the world, corporate records show, CRI's surrogates use the same business structure. The three Chinese businessmen in partnership with Beijing have each created a domestic media company that is 60 percent owned by a Beijing-based group called Guoguang Century Media Consultancy. Guoguang, in turn, is wholly owned by a subsidiary of CRI, according to Chinese company filings.

The three companies span the globe:

 In Europe, GBTimes of Tampere, Finland, has an ownership stake in or provides content to at least nine stations, according to interviews and an examination of company filings.

 In Asia-Pacific, Global CAMG Media Group of Melbourne, Australia, has an ownership stake in or supplies programming to at least eight stations, according to corporate records.


 And in North America, G&E Studio Inc, near Los Angeles, California, broadcasts content nearly full time on at least 15 U.S. stations. A station in Vancouver also broadcasts G&E content. In addition to distributing CRI programming, G&E produces and distributes original Beijing-friendly shows from its California studios.

In a Sept. 16 interview at his offices near Los Angeles, G&E president and CEO James Su confirmed that CRI subsidiary Guoguang Century Media holds a majority stake in his company and that he has a contract with the Chinese broadcaster. He said that a non-disclosure agreement bars him from divulging details.

Su said he complies with U.S. laws. G&E doesn't own stations, but rather leases the airtime on them. "It's like a management company that manages a condominium," he said.

Su added that he is a businessman, not an agent for China. "Our U.S. audience and our U.S. public has the choice," Su said. "They can choose to listen or not listen. I think this is an American value."


GBTimes CEO Zhao Yinong, who spearheads the European arm of the expatriate radiooperation, confirmed that he receives several million euros a year from CRI. In an interview in Beijing, Zhao said he was "not interested in creating a false China" and he had "nothing to hide."

Tommy Jiang, the head of CAMG, the Australian-based company that owns and operates stations in the Asia-Pacific region, declined to comment.


BORN IN A CAVE

CRI has grown remarkably since its founding in 1941. According to its English-language website, its first broadcast was aired from a cave, and the news reader had to frighten away wolves with a flashlight. Today, CRI says it broadcasts worldwide in more than 60 languages and Chinese dialects.



CRI content is carefully scripted, with the treatment of sensitive topics such as the banned Falun Gong spiritual group adhering strictly to the government line. Those restrictions might make China's soft-power push an uphill battle with audiences in places like Houston, Rome or Auckland.

But CRI does have something to offer station owners. Since 2010, CRI's broadcast partner in the United States has struck deals that bailed out struggling community radio stations, either by purchasing them outright or paying tens of thousands of dollars a month to lease virtually all their airtime. The latter is known as "time-brokering" and is the method G&E used to take to the air in Washington.

The 195-foot towers broadcasting Beijing's agenda throughout the Washington region are located in suburban Loudoun County, Virginia, near Dulles International Airport. They pump out a 50,000-watt signal, the maximum for an AM station in the United States.


The towers went live in 2011. In the previous five decades, before the Chinese got involved, the station was known as WAGE, and it used smaller equipment and broadcast mostly local news and talk.

At just 5,000 watts, the signal didn't carry far. This didn't matter much until the 1990s, when Loudoun County boomed into a bedroom community for Washington. Commuters would lose the signal halfway to the capital.

In 2005, an American company called Potomac Radio LLC purchased the station and added some nationally syndicated programming. Potomac Radio president Alan Pendleton said his company had a history of leasing time to ethnic programmers, including an hour a day to CRI on another station. Revenue at WAGE continued to fall, however, and in 2009, it went off the air.

"It was a painful, painful experience," said Pendleton. "We were losing millions of dollars a year down the drain."
 



LOUDOUN COUNTY'S "LAST HOPE"



Saying they hoped to resurrect the station, other Potomac Radio executives asked Loudoun County in 2009 for permission to erect three broadcast towers on land owned by a county utility, records show. The new towers would boost the station's signal tenfold to 50,000 watts, reaching into Washington.

In their application, Potomac Radio executives argued that the new towers offered the "last hope to retain Loudoun County's only" radio station. The paperwork made no mention of plans to lease airtime to Su and CRI.

Potomac Radio also invoked the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a day when the station provided "critical information to county businesses and parents" as mobile phone service became overloaded. The new towers would contribute to public safety, proponents said.

The county Board of Supervisors approved the towers. In the days before the station came back on air in April 2011, Potomac Radio sought FCC permission to change the name to WCRW.

Asked about the initials, Pendleton confirmed that they stand for China Radio Washington. The change was his idea, not CRI's, he said.

Loudoun County officials were surprised when the amped-up station returned as WCRW and began broadcasting G&E and CRI content about China.

"It was all very deceptive," said Kelly Burk, a county supervisor at the time. "They presented it as all about being about local radio, and never let on what they were really up to."


Potomac Radio's Pendleton said there was no deception. His company was approached by CRI several months after the county approved the towers, he said.

Pendleton said he didn't know that G&E was 60 percent owned by a subsidiary of the Chinese government until Reuters informed him. But the arrangement complies with FCC law, he said, because G&E leases the airwaves instead of owning the station.

In any event, he said, CRI is open about its goals: to present a window into Chinese culture and offer Chinese points of view on international affairs.

"If you listen to other state-sponsored broadcasters," especially Russia's, "they're really insidious," Pendleton said. "CRI's not like that at all."

Pendleton said he has no input in WCRW content: He simply rebroadcasts whatever programs arrive from CRI's man in America, G&E founder James Su.


CHINA'S "PROXY"

James Yantao Su was born in Shanghai in 1970, the year China launched its first satellite. He moved to the United States in 1989, he said, ultimately settling in West Covina, a suburb of Los Angeles, and became a U.S. citizen.

By the early 2000s, Su was a moderately successful media entrepreneur. But after his 2009 deal to create G&E, in which the Chinese state-owned subsidiary has a majority stake, his fortunes rose.

Today, the 44-year-old owns or co-owns real estate and radio stations worth more than $15 million, according to a Reuters analysis of U.S. corporate, property, tax and FCC records. His projects include English and Chinese-language stations, a magazine, a newspaper, four apartment buildings, condos at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, a film festival and a charity that last year donated $230,000 to an orphanage in China.

Two of his primary companies are G&E Studio and EDI Media Inc. G&E dedicated a page on its website to showcase CRI as a "close" partner, but it recently deleted the page after Reuters made inquiries. EDI's site says it has become "China's outward media and advertising proxy" in the United States.

In 2013, the Chinese government presented Su with a special contribution award at a media event for Chinese broadcasters.

Other ties are not as visible: The key disclosure that G&E is 60 percent owned by Guoguang Century - the Beijing firm that's 100 percent owned by CRI - is contained in a footnote in a lengthy FCC filing made on behalf of another Su company, Golden City Broadcast, LLC.

Su declined to discuss his business career in detail. An early highlight, though, was a speech he gave in 2003, when he was in his early thirties.

Covered by China's state-run media, the speech laid out Su's vision for a business that could be profitable and also help China project its message in the United States. The business would need to be structured to comply with U.S. ownership laws and would "endorse China's ideology," Su was quoted as saying.

In the same speech, he spoke of his fellow expats' affinity for China. "The sense of belonging to China among countrymen residing abroad and their endorsement of China's current policies grow with each day," Su said, according to Xinhua.

In 2008, Su gave an address in which he criticized U.S. media for focusing their China coverage on issues such as human rights.

The media were misleading "the American masses' objective understanding of China, even engendering hostile emotions," Su said, according to a China National Radio report.

It was in 2009 that Su's vision really began to take shape. That year, records show, Su created G&E Studio.


"UNFILTERED REAL NEWS"


G&E now broadcasts in English and Chinese on at least 15 U.S. stations, including Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Houston, Honolulu and Portland, Oregon.

The content is largely the same on each station, produced either by CRI from Beijing or by G&E from California.

A typical hour on most stations begins with a short newscast that can toggle between China news and stories about violent crimes in the United States. Besides the overtly political coverage, topics range from global currency fluctuations and Chinese trade missions to celebrity wardrobe analysis and modern parenting challenges.

While Su owns a minority share of G&E, he has structured his radio station holdings in various ways. According to the most recent FCC records, he is the majority owner of at least six stations, such as the one in Atlanta, which he purchased for $2.1 million in 2013.

In other cases he leases airtime. In Washington, for instance, he leases virtually all the time on WCRW for more than $720,000 a year through G&E. A Philadelphia station is leased under a similar arrangement for at least $600,000 a year.

A spokeswoman for Su said Reuters' description of the extent of his network is "generally correct."

Su declined to describe how he makes money when most of the U.S. stations air virtually no commercials. He also declined to say how he got the money to finance his radio leases and acquisitions.

His stations, Su said, offer the American public an alternative viewpoint on Chinese culture and politics. He has "no way to control" what CRI broadcasts on the stations, he said, nor is he part of any plan to spread Chinese propaganda.

"We are only telling the unfiltered real news to our audience," he said.


On Oct. 29, WCRW carried a program called "The Hourly News." Among the top stories: Senior Chinese and U.S. naval commanders planned to speak by video after a U.S. Navy ship passed close by China's new artificial islands in the South China Sea.

Washington and its allies see the island-building program as a ploy to grab control of strategic sea lanes, and the Navy sail-by was meant to counter China's territorial claims.


WCRW omitted that side of the story.

The admirals are holding the talks, the announcer said, "amid the tension the U.S. created this week."



(Edited by Bill Tarrant and Peter Hirschberg. Reported by Koh Gui Qing in Beijing and John Shiffman in Washington and Los Angeles. Additional reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim and Joseph Campbell in Beijing, Ritsuko Ando in Tokyo, Gopal Sharma and Ross Adkin in Kathmandu, Mirwais Harooni in Kabul, Joyce Lee in Seoul, Eveline Danubrata and Arzia Tivany Wargadiredja in Jakarta, Mohammed Shihar in Colombo, Khettiya Jittapong and Pairat Temphairojana in Bangkok, Terrence Edwards in Ulan Bator, Theodora D'cruz in Singapore, Diane Chan in Hong Kong, Jane Wardell and Ian Chua in Sydney, Balazs Koranyi and Harro Ten Wolde in Frankfurt, Jussi Rosendahl in Helsinki, Sara Ledwith in London, Julia Fioretti in Brussels, Can Sezer in Istanbul, Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, Kole Casule in Skopje, Renee Maltezou in Athens, Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi, Radu-Sorin Marinas in Bucharest, Geert De Clercq in Paris, Marton Dunai in Budapest, Ed Cropley in Johannesburg, Selam Gebrekidan in New York, Anna Driver in Houston, Renee Dudley in Boston, Brian Grow in Atlanta, David Storey in Washington and Euan Rocha in Toronto.)




MORE: China, beijing

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on January 08, 2016, 03:51:08 pm


well if we think usa is a mess  I think these guys are trying to make it a tight race...



Giant Chairman Mao Statue Torn Down By Embarrassed Officials
It was never approved for construction in the first place

(http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/scalefit_630_noupscale/569008741b0000460067502c.jpeg)

The 120-foot, gold-painted statue cost nearly half a million dollars to construct and was reportedly funded by local businessmen and villagers from Tongxu County in China's Henan province.

read the whole thing here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mao-statue-torn-down_568ff588e4b0cad15e648e1c


...................................

and hey another money guy  is missing..go figure


Chinese billionaire Zhou Chengjian goes missing

Chinese billionaire Zhou Chengjian of one of China's biggest fashion chains, Metersbonwe, has gone missing, the company confirmed.

Mr Zhou is the latest in a string of high-profile businessmen in the country to temporarily disappear.

Metersbonwe suspended trading in its shares over his unaccounted absence.

Chinese media reports have speculated he has been picked up by the police as part of Beijing's anti-corruption drive.



that article is here:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35261090

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on February 05, 2016, 03:53:46 pm


http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/05/investing/china-buys-chicago-stock-exchange/

by Matt Egan   @mattmegan5
February 5, 2016: 4:08 PM ET



China group to buy Chicago Stock Exchange

One of America's oldest stock exchanges has just been sold to China.

The 134-year-old Chicago Stock Exchange reached a deal on Friday to be acquired by a Chinese-led group of investors.
The purchase by Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group is the latest U.S. investment made by China and would give the country a foothold in the vast American stock market.

The struggling Chicago Stock Exchange is a very small player in the exchange world whose presence is overshadowed by Nasdaq (NDAQ), the iconic New York Stock Exchange and newer entrants.

As of January, the Chicago Stock Exchange handled just 0.5% of U.S. trading, making it the third-smallest U.S. exchange, according to TABB Group.

Terms of the Chicago acquisition were not released. Privately-held Casin Group was founded in 1997 and has investments in real estate, environmental protection, finance and other areas. The Chicago Stock Exchange is minority-owned by a group that includes Bank of America (BAC), E*Trade (ETFC), Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

It's not clear yet if the acquisition of the tiny Chicago Stock Exchange will face any political hurdles. Some prominent lawmakers opposed the attempted takeover of NYSE in 2011 by Deutsche Boerse, (DBOEF) a German company. That deal later collapsed and NYSE was acquired by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2012.

The Chicago Stock Exchange is "such a small player. It's certainly not as iconic as the New York Stock Exchange," said Joel Hasbrouck, a finance professor at New York University.

There is precedent for foreign ties to U.S. exchanges. For instance, in 2007 Nasdaq merged with OMX, a Nordic exchange, becoming Nasdaq OMX Group. It has since changed its name back to Nasdaq.

Still, Joe Saluzzi, co-head of trading at Themis Trading and author of "Broken Markets," said the fact that a foreign entity could soon control a U.S. exchange may raise security concerns.

"Does foreign ownership open up any potential for information leakage to someone who can take advantage of it? As an investor, I would raise an eyebrow," Saluzzi said.

"As long as the information is secure, I don't have any problem with it," he said.

China has been on a buying spree this year. Its largest deal was a $43 billion takeover of Swiss chemicals giant Sygenta earlier this week. So far in 2016, Chinese companies have announced plans to buy 66 foreign companies worth $68 billion, according to Dealogic.
Sayena Mostowfi, head of equities research at TABB, said the Chicago Stock Exchange deal represents a vote of confidence in the U.S. stock market.

"We have one of the most liquid and efficient stock markets in the world. People are looking at us as a model they want to be part of and invest in," she said.

--CNNMoney's Sophia Yan contributed to this report. 


CNNMoney (New York)
First published February 5, 2016: 2:29 PM ET





Related: China is buying foreign firms at a record rate
http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/03/investing/china-buying-foreign-companies-record/index.html?iid=EL

Related: Cash is way more popular than stocks or bonds
http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/05/investing/cash-more-popular-than-stocks-bonds/index.html?iid=EL
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on February 16, 2016, 07:27:01 pm


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-south-china-sea-missiles_us_56c3bafde4b0b40245c8657f
? 02/16/2016 07:27 pm ET
Reuters
 


China Sends Missiles To Contested South China Sea Island: REPORT

Satellite images show the deployment of a surface-to-air missile system to Woody Island, Fox News reports.

(http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/scalefit_630_noupscale/56c3bd6e1d00002700df6184.jpeg)

DigitalGlobe/ScapeWare3d via Getty Images
 

WASHINGTON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The Chinese military has deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system to one of its contested islands in the South China Sea, Fox News reported on Tuesday, citing civilian satellite imagery.

The images, from ImageSat International, show two batteries of eight surface-to-air missile launchers as well as a radar system on Woody Island, part of the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea, according to Fox News.

Woody Island is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

Bill Urban, a Pentagon spokesman, said: "While I cannot comment on matters related to intelligence, we do watch these matters very closely."

The report comes as U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations concluded a summit in California.

At a news conference following the summit, Obama said he and the Southeast Asian leaders discussed the need to ease tensions in the South China Sea, and they agreed that any territorial disputes there should be resolved peacefully and through legal means.

A U.S. Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracel chain last month in a move the Pentagon said was aimed at countering efforts by China, Vietnam and Taiwan to limit freedom of navigation. China condemned the U.S. action as provocative.

The missiles arrived at Woody Island over the past week, Fox News said. According to the images, a beach on the island was empty on Feb. 3, but the missiles were visible by Feb. 14, it reported.

A U.S. official confirmed the accuracy of the photos, Fox News said.

The official said the imagery viewed appears to show the HQ-9 air defense system, which has a range of 125 miles (200 km) and would pose a threat to any airplanes, civilian or military, flying close by, according to Fox News.

Over the weekend, The Diplomat magazine reported that China was building a helicopter base at Duncan Island in the Paracel chain.

A State Department spokeswoman responded to the Diplomat report by calling on all claimants to the islands to halt construction and militarization of outposts. (Writing by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on March 20, 2016, 12:47:31 pm



http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35844773
18 March 2016




China's Anbang closes in on Starwood Hotels


Chinese insurer Anbang is set to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide for $78 (£54) per share in cash, or about $13bn in total.

Starwood said it would terminate a deal to be bought by Marriott International, after it received a superior proposal from a group led by Anbang.

Marriott and Starwood had agreed to merge in November in a $12bn deal to create the world's largest hotel chain.

But the Anbang-led consortium has now outbid Marriott for Starwood.

Marriott now has five days to decide whether to put in a counter-bid.




Chinese firms have been buying overseas assets, despite their country's slowing economy.

Mainland investors have been snapping up prime US properties and other overseas assets to diversify their holdings amid concerns about weakness in China's economy.

Anbang bought New York's famous Waldorf-Astoria from Blackstone for a record $1.95bn last year.

And earlier this week, it agreed to buy a US luxury hotel collection from private equity giant Blackstone for a reported $6.5bn (£4.5bn).

The Beijing-based company also owns office buildings in New York and Canada and a South Korean insurance company.




Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on April 17, 2016, 05:52:27 pm

geese..i say   let 'em have the gmo stuff


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/in-a-midwestern-cornfield-a-scene-of-chinese-theft-and-espionage/ar-BBrDRvD?li=BBnb7Kz
Christian Science Monitor
Josh Kenworthy
4 hrs ago


In a Midwestern cornfield, a scene of Chinese theft and espionage




United States law enforcement agencies are a urging farmers and businesses more broadly to be increasingly vigilant amid a rise in attempted thefts of genetically engineered seed and other commercial secrets.

Mo Hailong, one of six Chinese nationals US authorities accused in 2013 of digging up seeds from Iowa farms with plans to send them back to China, pleaded guilty in January, according to Reuters. Mr. Mo had his case prosecuted by the Justice Department as a matter of national security rather than a normal criminal case.

The FBI and Justice Department has reported a growing number of agricultural espionage cases in the past two years, including government research facilities, companies and research facilities. While the FBI says it knows of connections between the accused individuals and the Chinese government, it does not have evidence to prove the link that would stand up in court. The Chinese government denies it is involved.

The trend particularly highlights how highly coveted and vulnerable advanced food technology secrets are, particularly in China where 1.36 billion of earth's roughly 7 billion person population lives, Reuters said. However, while the Chinese government has indicated it wants to be a leader in the biotechnology world, there is also evidence to suggest this may be stymied by Chinese consumer wariness about the yet unknown problems that could stem from the consumption of genetically modified food.
"Consumer resistance could present a major obstacle for President Xi Jinping, who wants China to be 'bold' in embracing biotechnology and transforming domestic farming. After decades of gains, crops yields in China have flattened, and the government fears becoming overly dependent on imported food if agriculture isn’t adequately modernized. They see engineered crops – mainly wheat, rice, and corn – as a way to increase productivity and possibly reduce use of fertilizers and pesticides," wrote Stuart Leavenworth for The Monitor earlier this year.
US senators recently called for a review of state-owned ChemChina’s $43 billion deal to buy Swiss seed group Syngenta, which generates nearly a quarter of its revenue from North America. From the Chinese government’s point of view, such a deal would ease its concerns that foreign companies would control the supply of GM food in China.

However, Carl Pray, a Rutgers University economist who specializes in Chinese agriculture, told the Monitor that "it may not ease the concerns of consumers who are largely focused on food safety."

Agribusiness giant Monsanto says if the Chinese were to acquire GMO seeds and recreate a corn plant it would allow Chinese companies to bypass around eight years of research, which costs the company roughly $1.5 billion per year, Reuters reported.

This article contains material from Reuters.

This article was written by Josh Kenworthy from Christian Science Monitor and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.


Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: robomont on April 18, 2016, 06:58:00 pm
imho.china will be the foundation economy of the future.
peggy may not be familiar but i have a thread about apophis and yellowstone going off.
china will be set better than anybody.
i see the world acting in concert and all is planned accordingly.
the rest is just to keep the chimps minds active.
a brief synopsis,
weather weapons create quakes then set off yellowstone.ww3 then iceage.middle east gets mile thick ice sheet then apophis hits in 2036.great melt and mud.then back to business.
maybe new north pole.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: astr0144 on April 20, 2016, 02:13:04 pm
Update...rather than delete once I posted..The post that I just made below, may be disinfo after someone suggested it maybe after I posted ...but I have not checked it out..

Someone I follow posted this that I think has ref to Yellowstone.

I have not watched it as yet...but they made the comments below..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_V10K6B8X4&feature=share


hot information as usual volcano fissure FEMA alert location north Dakota, by west of lake Michigan besides dept of interior at the white house by Omaha west point generals involved black cell nukes set off near underground DUMB in Virginia bullet train tunnels 2013. Carolina nuke set off Carolina coast. evacuations. airport Denver. Yellowstone area and 80 DUMBS were destroyed with lava fillings killing numerous people callpepper hub. why people are hearing strange sounds and shakings, Trans Atlantic tunnels under the oceans, under mikmak indian territory.



imho.china will be the foundation economy of the future.
peggy may not be familiar but i have a thread about apophis and yellowstone going off.
china will be set better than anybody.
i see the world acting in concert and all is planned accordingly.
the rest is just to keep the chimps minds active.
a brief synopsis,
weather weapons create quakes then set off yellowstone.ww3 then iceage.middle east gets mile thick ice sheet then apophis hits in 2036.great melt and mud.then back to business.
maybe new north pole.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on May 10, 2016, 08:34:52 am


i think the three are playing chicken with each other..china-russia-usa....idiots.!



http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-scrambles-fighters-as-us-sails-warship-near-chinese-claimed-reef/ar-BBsQyNU?li=BBnb7Kz
Reuters
Michael Martina
2 hrs ago

China scrambles fighters as U.S. sails warship near Chinese-claimed reef

(http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBsQwxU.img?h=486&w=728&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1084&y=813)
© (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) A photograph showing an island that China is building on the Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea is displayed by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Az., during the committee's hearing on…


BEIJING/HONG KONG, May 10 (Reuters) - China scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday as a U.S. navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, a patrol China denounced as an illegal threat to peace which only went to show its defense installations in the area were necessary.

Guided missile destroyer the USS William P. Lawrence traveled within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, U.S. Defense Department spokesman, Bill Urban said.

The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to "challenge excessive maritime claims" by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea, Urban said.

"These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise," Urban said in an emailed statement.

China and the United States have traded accusations of militarizing the South China Sea as China undertakes large-scale land reclamations and construction on disputed features while the United States has increased its patrols and exercises.

Facilities on Fiery Cross Reef include a 3,000-meter (10,000-foot) runway which the United States worries China will use it to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals.

China's Defence Ministry said two fighter jets were scrambled and three warships shadowed the U.S. ship, telling it to leave.

The U.S. patrol "again proves that China's construction of defensive facilities on the relevant reefs in the Nansha Islands is completely reasonable and totally necessary," it said, using China's name for the Spratly Islands where much of its reclamation work is taking place.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the U.S. ship illegally entered Chinese waters.

"This action by the U.S. side threatened China's sovereignty and security interests, endangered the staff and facilities on the reef, and damaged regional peace and stability," he told a daily news briefing.

SENSITIVE AREA

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

The Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it has no plans to deploy military aircraft in the Spratly Islands after China used a military plane to evacuate sick workers from Fiery Cross.

"Fiery Cross is sensitive because it is presumed to be the future hub of Chinese military operations in the South China Sea, given its already extensive infrastructure, including its large and deep port and 3000-meter runway," said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.

"The timing is interesting, too. It is a show of U.S. determination ahead of President Obama's trip to Vietnam later this month."

Speaking in Vietnam, Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said freedom of navigation operations were important for smaller nations.

"If the world's most powerful navy cannot sail where international law permits, then what happens to the ships of navy of smaller countries?," Russel told reporters before news of the operation was made public.

China has reacted with anger to previous U.S. freedom of navigation operations, including the overflight of fighter planes near the disputed Scarborough Shoal last month, and when long-range U.S. bombers flew near Chinese facilities under construction on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys last November.

U.S. naval officials believe China has plans to start reclamation and construction activities on Scarborough Shoal, which sits further north of the Spratlys within the Philippines claimed 200 nautical mile (370 km) exclusive economic zone.

A tough-talking city mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, looks set to become president of the Philippines after an election on Monday. He has proposed multilateral talks on the South China Sea.

A Chinese diplomat warned last week that criticism of China over the South China Sea would rebound like a coiled spring.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on April 14, 2017, 07:36:41 am

yeah , i know unless trupm says it .. it's all fake news

are you getting the idea yet of who's in charge and how much shi t we are in



http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-warns-of-n-korea-conflict-at-any-moment/ar-BBzPBno?li=BBnb7Kz

China warns of N. Korea conflict 'at any moment'
 AFP AFP
3 hrs ago

A conflict over North Korea could break out "at any moment", China said Friday, warning there would be no winner in any war as tensions soar with the United States.

The sharp language came after US President Donald Trump said the North Korea problem "will be taken care of", as speculation mounts the reclusive state could be preparing another nuclear or missile test.

Trump has sent an aircraft carrier-led strike group to the Korean peninsula to press his point, one of a series of measures that indicate his willingness to shake up foreign policy strategy.

"Lately, tensions have risen... and one has the feeling that a conflict could break out at any moment," Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said.

"If a war occurs, the result is a situation in which everybody loses and there can be no winner."

there's more to the article but i know no one wants to read more


Trump's loose nukes talk: Our view - USA Today
www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/01/...trump-nuclear-weapons.../95927136/
Jan 5, 2017 - It's hard to imagine an American leader boasting about his willingness to unleash a nuclear weapons race — and doing it on the phone with a ...
Donald Trump's Call for 'Arms Race' Boggles Nuclear Experts - NBC ...
www.nbcnews.com/.../trump-tweets-apparent-call-more-us-nuclear-weapons-n699221
Dec 23, 2016 - His tweet seemed to signal a break with decades of presidential actions ... of nuclear weapons or launchers, he told NBC News in an interview.
Trump: US must be 'top of the pack' on nuclear weapons - CNNPolitics ...


www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/politics/trump-interview-nuclear-weapons/
Feb 24, 2017 - In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Trump said he would prefer a world free of nuclear weapons but otherwise the United States ...
9 terrifying things Donald Trump has publicly said about nuclear ...


https://thinkprogress.org/9-terrifying-things-donald-trump-has-publicly-said-about-nu...
Aug 4, 2016 - Trump said he might use nuclear weapons and questioned why we would make them if ... Presidents don't talk about use of nuclear weapons”?
Trump's position on nukes endangers America and the world ...


www.businessinsider.com/trump-nuclear-weapons-expansion-risk-2017-1
Jan 4, 2017 - trump nuclear weapons getty shutterstock business insider .... Using Minuteman III system as one example, he wrote for The New Yorker:.

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: Irene on April 14, 2017, 08:38:54 am
We need to resist engaging Fatboy in North Korea. So far he's only tested missiles and not aimed them at anyone. I do believe he is stupid enough to launch them if we mess with him, so we should be prepared with the proper ordnance in the area of the peninsula.

I don't think we should be escalating anywhere else as well. We are in a no-win situation and should bite the bullet and withdraw. All that war money is better spent on infrastructure here.

Turkey is turning to radical Islam. I don't see them as a true ally anymore. We should be very wary in our dealings with them.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: Amaterasu on April 14, 2017, 09:12:44 am

i think the three are playing chicken with each other..china-russia-usa....idiots.!


I think the three are playing out Their script to APPEAR to be playing chicken...
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: biggles on April 14, 2017, 03:06:58 pm
That fatboy you talk about Irene; he reminds of a kid that hasn't grown up and his thinking look at all these toys I can let off.  That will scare people and make them respect us.

I just think his an idiot.

Now if the US or Russia started playing that game I'd shite myself. 
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: thorfourwinds on April 14, 2017, 07:18:26 pm
Greetings Esteemed Member biggles:

Perhaps this might be the right time for you to order up a big supply of PooPourri (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkJy0Z2P_1k).

It's interesting that the Moabites resided in the land of Moab which is now Syria.

You can't make this stuff up.

(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/BBC_news_room.png)

Or, maybe you can.   :o

Check this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tiSBZLG5M4) out.


Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: biggles on April 14, 2017, 08:55:05 pm
Oh boy, sounds like their getting itchy fingers, as long as fat boy doesn't start playing around.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: robomont on April 15, 2017, 06:29:24 am
i suspect just the opposite.we are using nk as excuse to get in close to china and then pow,we invade china in a quick full on bomb raid.then by default,control all of asia.
all our national debt is wiped clean,we get chinas gold reserves and high technology.
plus control of all of asia.
all before china can even flinch.
even if china launches nukes against the usa,we can spare to lose a few peeps.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: Irene on April 15, 2017, 08:40:20 am
Quote
De plane! De plane!
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on April 15, 2017, 03:06:26 pm
That fatboy you talk about Irene; he reminds of a kid that hasn't grown up and his thinking look at all these toys I can let off.  That will scare people and make them respect us.

Well his favorite game is killing people for falling asleep during his speeches using an anti aircraft gun :P

Quote
I just think his an idiot
.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anV3VcMB284

(http://Now if the US or Russia started playing that game I'd poope myself.)

Russia is NOT planning war with anyone despite what the Liberals here want :P

If I was younger I would consider moving to Russia  but its a bit to cold LOL
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: biggles on April 15, 2017, 05:46:54 pm
Steven Seagal apparently has and  applied for citizenship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl8XiXmYWZw




Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on July 09, 2018, 03:58:33 pm


imo if you have any big purchases  to make i think sooner would e better than later


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/chinas-options-to-hit-us-go-beyond-imports/ar-AAzNGYT?li=BBnbfcL

China's options to hit US go beyond imports
By JOE McDONALD, AP Business Writer  7 hrs ago

Video by CNBC
Quote
BEIJING — China's options to retaliate in its spiraling dispute with Washington go beyond matching U.S. tariff hikes to targeting American companies and government debt.

Until now, Beijing has stuck to mirroring President Donald Trump's tariff threats. But its lopsided trade balance means China will run out of imports for punitive duties before Washington does.

Beijing has other ways to inflict pain. The Commerce Ministry said in June it would adopt "comprehensive measures," suggesting it might strike at a wider range of American interests.

That includes possible harassment of automakers, retailers or other American companies that depend on China to drive revenue.

Other options include selling U.S. government debt or disrupting diplomatic efforts over North Korea, though those might hurt Beijing's interests.

On Friday, Washington imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods in response to complaints Beijing steals or pressuring companies to hand over technology. China announced retaliatory tariffs on a similar amount of U.S. goods.

With no resolution in sight, Trump has said the total amount of goods affected could exceed $500 billion, or more than China's 2017 exports to the United States.

A look at some of China's options:

TARGET AMERICAN COMPANIES

China's state-dominated and heavily regulated economy gives authorities an arsenal of tools to disrupt U.S. companies by withholding licenses or launching tax, anti-monopoly or other investigations.

Also open to retaliation are services such as engineering and logistics in which the United States runs a trade surplus.

"The U.S. focus is on goods, while China could very well look at services, as well as the operation of U.S. companies in China," said Taimur Baig, chief economist for DBS Group.

In one prominent case, U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. has waited for months for word on whether Chinese regulators will accept its proposed $44 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors. All other major governments have approved the deal.

China's entirely state-controlled media have encouraged consumer boycotts against Japanese, South Korean and other products during previous disputes with those governments.

Last year, Beijing destroyed Korean retailer Lotte's business in China after the company sold land in South Korea to the Seoul government for an anti-missile system opposed by Chinese leaders.

Beijing closed most of Lotte's 99 supermarkets and other outlets in China. Seoul and Beijing later mended relations, but Lotte gave up and sold its China operations.

FINANCIAL LEVERAGE

Nationalists point to China's $1.2 trillion holdings of U.S. government debt as leverage. Beijing might suffer losses if it sold enough to influence U.S. debt financing costs — but such sales might become necessary.

China's yuan has sagged against the dollar this year, which might require the central bank to intervene in currency markets.

To get the dollars it needs, the People's Bank of China might "become a net seller of U.S. Treasuries," said Carl B. Weinberg of High-Frequency Economics in a report.

"Punishing the U.S. Treasury market is one of the tactics China has available to retaliate against unilateral U.S. tariffs," said Weinberg.

DIPLOMATIC PRESSURE

Beijing can appeal for support to U.S. allies that are miffed by Trump's "America first" approach and the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate pact.

Trump's unilateral actions have allowed China to position itself as a defender of free trade despite its status as the most-closed major economy. That could help Beijing win over governments that have criticized Trump for acting outside the World Trade Organization.

"China could strike a common ground with the EU, Canada, Japan and other economies impacted by the U.S. tariffs," said Citigroup economists Li-Gang Liu, Xiaowen Jin and Xiangrong Yu in a report.

Chinese leaders have tried, so far without success, to recruit European and other governments as allies.

More broadly, Chinese commentators have suggested Beijing also could disrupt diplomatic work over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs or other initiatives. But political analysts say that would risk setting back work Chinese leaders see as a priority.

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: Irene on July 10, 2018, 03:27:12 am
If the rich weren't so greedy for more and narcissistic and selfish we could bring all our manufacturing home and kick China's ass.

I hate it that practically everything we buy these days is made over there.

I'm happy to say I bought a Hawaiian shirt for the Fourth covered with flags and the Declaration of Independence. It had a huge tag on it that said "Proudly Made in the USA". You don't see that from any other country in the world.

🇺🇸  🇺🇸  🇺🇸
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: petrus4 on July 10, 2018, 05:35:57 pm
We need to resist engaging Fatboy in North Korea.

Internationally speaking, Un is not a serious danger to anyone, and neither was his father.  Testing what are essentially fissionable firecrackers on atolls doesn't mean anything.  His delivery system is primitive, and he can't afford better.  He fires off those rockets and occasionally makes aggressive noises, more or less exclusively because the maintenance of his domestic authority depends on it. 

Un's power is based on keeping his population paranoid about the possibility of American invasion, and claiming that he can protect them from it.  If said invasion does not happen, and his own stance remains exclusively peaceful, then eventually his people are going to see through that story, and there is every possibility that they would overthrow him.  So he occasionally has to do something to offer some kind of superficial false proof that his bogus narrative is actually true.  He does what he does for the sake of his own public, not anyone in other countries.

The other thing to understand is that the existence of North Korea serves the psychopathic cabal's interests.  They want to keep a couple of failed states around, and deliberately keep said failed states in broken and chaotic conditions, in order to serve as examples to populations who are in the fold, of how bad life outside the dystopian Empire supposedly is.  If anyone starts complaining about how America is covered in dead shopping centers and deserted, foreclosed mansions, the streets of Paris are being covered in mattresses and sleeping bags, and entire cities like Detroit are turning into The Proper People's (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheProperPeople) wet dreams, politicians and the likes of Bill Maher can turn around and rhetorically ask, "Would you rather live in Somalia or North Korea?"

https://youtu.be/yuBe93FMiJc?t=2m20s

"You get up on your little 21 inch screen, and howl, about America, and democracy.  But there is no America, and there is no democracy."
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 19, 2018, 07:17:29 am
 
and in the news this week...hummmmmmmm

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2018/08/17/china-military-pilots-mission-targeting-us-starr-dnt-lead-vpx.cnn
Is China training its pilots to target the US?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/08/17/china-military-training-strike-us-pentagon-report/1017278002/
China's military is 'likely training for strikes' against US, Pentagon report says
 Updated 4:54 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2018 Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY


https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/17/china-military-us-taiwan-784302
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

Chinese military steps up strike strength against U.S. targets and Taiwan, says Pentagon
By SARAH ZHENG | SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
  08/17/2018 02:03 PM EDT






https://www.yahoo.com/news/taiwan-improves-missiles-counter-china-military-expansion-023122152.html
Taiwan improves missiles to counter China military expansion
RALPH JENNINGS, Associated Press•August 18, 2018





https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/world-powers-know-they-want-business-with-china-they-dont-know-how-to-handle-its-crackdown-on-millions-of-muslim-citizens_us_5b771105e4b05906b4136645

WORLD NEWS  08/18/2018 08:00 am ET
World Leaders Opt For China’s Money Over The Rights Of 1 Million Jailed Muslims
From the U.S. to Russia, Saudi Arabia to Iran, the desire for Chinese cash unites the international community and leaves the Uighurs’ prospects looking bleak.
by Akbar Shahid Ahmed





https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-detente-with-north-korea-trump-increasingly-takes-aim-at-a-new-foe--china/2018/08/18/077ca942-a2ef-11e8-83d2-70203b8d7b44_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ea5e9a950498

After detente with North Korea, Trump increasingly takes aim at a new foe — China
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 29, 2018, 08:40:54 am


somebody is beating the war drums..

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/with-ships-and-missiles-china-is-ready-to-challenge-us-navy-in-pacific/ar-BBMAgV1?li=BBnb7Kz

(https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAapfVx.img?h=40&w=138&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&f=png)

With Ships and Missiles, China Is Ready to Challenge U.S. Navy in Pacific
By STEVEN LEE MYERS  2 hrs ago

Quote
DALIAN, China — In April, on the 69th anniversary of the founding of China’s Navy, the country’s first domestically built aircraft carrier stirred from its berth in the port city of Dalian on the Bohai Sea, tethered to tugboats for a test of its seaworthiness.

“China’s first homegrown aircraft carrier just moved a bit, and the United States, Japan and India squirmed,” a military news website crowed, referring to the three nations China views as its main rivals.

Not long ago, such boasts would have been dismissed as the bravado of a second-string military. No longer.

A modernization program focused on naval and missile forces has shifted the balance of power in the Pacific in ways the United States and its allies are only beginning to digest.

While China lags in projecting firepower on a global scale, it can now challenge American military supremacy in the places that matter most to it: the waters around Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea.

That means a growing section of the Pacific Ocean — where the United States has operated unchallenged since the naval battles of World War II — is once again contested territory, with Chinese warships and aircraft regularly bumping up against those of the United States and its allies.

To prevail in these waters, according to officials and analysts who
scrutinize Chinese military developments, China does not need a military that can defeat the United States outright but merely one that can make intervention in the region too costly for Washington to contemplate. Many analysts say Beijing has already achieved that goal.

To do so, it has developed “anti-access” capabilities that use radar, satellites and missiles to neutralize the decisive edge that America’s powerful aircraft carrier strike groups have enjoyed. It is also rapidly expanding its naval forces with the goal of deploying a “blue water” navy that would allow it to defend its growing interests beyond its coastal waters.

“China is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios short of war with the United States,” the new commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Philip S. Davidson, acknowledged in written remarks submitted during his Senate confirmation process in March.

He described China as a “peer competitor” gaining on the United States not by matching its forces weapon by weapon but by building critical “asymmetrical capabilities,” including with anti-ship missiles and in submarine warfare. “There is no guarantee that the United States would win a future conflict with China,” he concluded.

Last year, the Chinese Navy became the world’s largest, with more warships and submarines than the United States, and it continues to build new ships at a stunning rate. Though the American fleet remains superior qualitatively, it is spread much thinner.

“The task of building a powerful navy has never been as urgent as it is today,” President Xi Jinping declared in April as he presided over a naval procession off the southern Chinese island of Hainan that opened exercises involving 48 ships and submarines. The Ministry of National Defense said they were the largest since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949.

Even as the United States wages a trade war against China, Chinese warships and aircraft have picked up the pace of operations in the waters off Japan, Taiwan, and the islands, shoals and reefs it has claimed in the South China Sea over the objections of Vietnam and the Philippines.

When two American warships — the Higgins, a destroyer, and the Antietam, a cruiser — sailed within a few miles of disputed islands in the Paracels in May, Chinese vessels rushed to challenge what Beijing later denounced as “a provocative act.” China did the same to three Australian ships passing through the South China Sea in April.

Only three years ago, Mr. Xi stood beside President Barack Obama in the Rose Garden and promised not to militarize artificial islands it has built farther south in the Spratlys archipelago. Chinese officials have since acknowledged deploying missiles there, but argue that they are necessary because of American “incursions” in Chinese waters.

When Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited Beijing in June, Mr. Xi bluntly warned him that China would not yield “even one inch” of territory it claims as its own.

‘Anti-Access/Area Denial’

China’s naval expansion began in 2000 but accelerated sharply after Mr. Xi took command in 2013. He has drastically shifted the military’s focus to naval as well as air and strategic rocket forces, while purging commanders accused of corruption and cutting the traditional land forces.

The People’s Liberation Army — the bedrock of Communist power since the revolution — has actually shrunk in order to free up resources for a more modern fighting force. Since 2015, the army has cut 300,000 enlisted soldiers and officers, paring the military to two million personnel over all, compared with 1.4 million in the United States.

While every branch of China’s armed forces lags behind the United States’ in firepower and experience, China has made significant gains in asymmetrical weaponry to blunt America’s advantages. One focus has been in what American military planners call A2/AD, for “anti-access/area denial,” or what the Chinese call “counter-intervention.”

A centerpiece of this strategy is an arsenal of high-speed ballistic missiles designed to strike moving ships. The latest versions, the DF-21D and, since 2016, the DF-26, are popularly known as “carrier killers,” since they can threaten the most powerful vessels in the American fleet long before they get close to China.

The DF-26, which made its debut in a military parade in Beijing in 2015 and was tested in the Bohai Sea last year, has a range that would allow it to menace ships and bases as far away as Guam, according to the latest Pentagon report on the Chinese military, released this month. These missiles are almost impossible to detect and intercept, and are directed at moving targets by an increasingly sophisticated Chinese network of radar and satellites.

China announced in April that the DF-26 had entered service. State television showed rocket launchers carrying 22 of them, though the number deployed now is unknown. A brigade equipped with them is reported to be based in Henan Province, in central China.

Such missiles pose a particular challenge to American commanders because neutralizing them might require an attack deep inside Chinese territory, which would be a major escalation.

The American Navy has never faced such a threat before, the Congressional Research Office warned in a report in May, adding that some analysts consider the missiles “game changing.”

The “carrier killers” have been supplemented by the deployment this year of missiles in the South China Sea. The weaponry includes the new YJ-12B anti-ship cruise missile, which puts most of the waters between the Philippines and Vietnam in range.

While all-out war between China and the United States seems unthinkable, the Chinese military is preparing for “a limited military conflict from the sea,” according to a 2013 paper in a journal called The Science of Military Strategy.

Lyle Morris, an analyst with the RAND Corporation, said that China’s deployment of missiles in the disputed Paracel and Spratly Islands “will dramatically change how the U.S. military operates” across Asia and the Pacific.

The best American response, he added, would be “to find new and innovative methods” of deploying ships outside their range. Given the longer range of the ballistic missiles, however, that is not possible “in most contingencies” the American Navy would be likely to face in Asia.

Blue-Water Ambitions

The aircraft carrier that put to sea in April for its first trials is China’s second, but the first built domestically. It is the most prominent manifestation of a modernization project meant to propel the country into the upper tier of military powers. Only the United States, with 11 nuclear-powered carriers, operates more than one.

A third Chinese carrier is under construction in a port near Shanghai. Analysts believe China will eventually build five or six.

The Chinese military, traditionally focused on repelling a land invasion, increasingly aims to project power into the “blue waters” of the world to protect China’s expanding economic and diplomatic interests, from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

The carriers attract the most attention but China’s naval expansion has been far broader. The Chinese Navy — officially the People’s Liberation Army Navy — has built more than 100 warships and submarines in the last decade alone, more than the entire naval fleets of all but a handful of nations.

Last year, China also introduced the first of a new class of a heavy cruisers — or “super destroyers” — that, according to the American Office of Naval Intelligence, “are comparable in many respects to most modern Western warships.” Two more were launched from dry dock in Dalian in July, the state media reported.

Last year, China counted 317 warships and submarines in active service, compared with 283 in the United States Navy, which has been essentially unrivaled in the open seas since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Unlike the Soviet Union, which drained its coffers during the Cold War arms race, military spending in China is a manageable percentage of a growing economy. Beijing’s defense budget now ranks second only to the United States: $228 billion to $610 billion, according to estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The roots of China’s focus on sea power and “area denial” can be traced to what many Chinese viewed as humiliation in 1995 and 1996. When Taiwan moved to hold its first democratic elections, China fired missiles near the island, prompting President Bill Clinton to dispatch two aircraft carriers to the region.

“We avoided the sea, took it as a moat and a joyful little pond to the Middle Kingdom,” a naval analyst, Chen Guoqiang, wrote recently in the official Navy newspaper. “So not only did we lose all the advantages of the sea but also our territories became the prey of the imperialist powers.”

China’s naval buildup since then has been remarkable. In 1995, China had only three submarines. It now has nearly 60 and plans to expand to nearly 80, according to a report last month by the United States Congressional Research Service.

As it has in its civilian economy, China has bought or absorbed technologies from the rest of the world, in some cases illicitly. Much of its military hardware is of Soviet origin or modeled on antiquated Soviet designs, but with each new wave of production, analysts say, China is deploying more advanced capabilities.

China’s first aircraft carrier was originally launched by the Soviet Union in 1988 and left to rust when the nation collapsed three years later. Newly independent Ukraine sold it for $20 million to a Chinese investor who claimed it would become a floating casino, though he was really acting on behalf of Beijing, which refurbished the vessel and named it the Liaoning.

The second aircraft carrier — as yet unnamed — is largely based on the Liaoning’s designs, but is reported to have enhanced technology. In February, the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation disclosed that it has plans to build nuclear-powered carriers, which have far greater endurance than ones that require refueling stops.

China’s military has encountered some growing pains. It is hampered by corruption, which Mr. Xi has vowed to wipe out, and a lack of combat experience. As a fighting force, it remains untested by combat.

In January, it was embarrassed when one of its most advanced submarines was detected as it neared disputed islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. The attack submarine should never have been spotted.

The second aircraft carrier also appears to have experienced hiccups. Its first sea trials were announced in April and then inexplicably delayed. Not long after the trials went ahead in May, the general manager of China Shipbuilding was placed under investigation for “serious violation of laws and discipline,” the official Xinhua news agency reported, without elaborating.

Defending Its Claims
China’s military advances have nonetheless emboldened the country’s leadership.

The state media declared the carrier Liaoning “combat ready” in the summer after it moved with six other warships through the Miyako Strait that splits Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and conducted its first flight operations in the Pacific.

The Liaoning’s battle group now routinely circles Taiwan. So do Chinese fighter jets and bombers.

China’s new J-20 stealth fighter conducted its first training mission at sea in May, while its strategic bomber, the H-6, landed for the first time on Woody Island in the Paracels. From the airfield there or from those in the Spratly Islands, the bombers could strike all of Southeast Asia.

The recent Pentagon report noted that H-6 flights in the Pacific were intended to demonstrate the ability to strike American bases in Japan and South Korea, and as far away as Guam.

“Competition is the American way of seeing it,” said Li Jie, an analyst with the Chinese Naval Research Institute in Beijing. “China is simply protecting its rights and its interests in the Pacific.”

And China’s interests are expanding.

In 2017, it opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, saying that it will be used to support its participation in multinational antipiracy patrols off Somalia.

It now appears to be planning to acquire access to a network of ports and bases throughout the Indian Ocean. Though ostensibly commercial, these projects have laid the groundwork for a necklace of refueling and resupply arrangements that will “facilitate Beijing’s long-range naval operations,” according to a new report by C4ADS, a research organization in Washington.

“They soon will be able, for example, to send a squadron of ships to somewhere, say in Africa, and have all the capabilities to make a landing in force to protect Chinese assets,” said Vassily Kashin, an expert with the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

The need was driven home in 2015 when Chinese warships evacuated 629 Chinese and 279 foreigners from Yemen when the country’s civil war raged in Aden, a southern port city.

One of the frigates involved in the rescue, the Linyi, was featured in a patriotic blockbuster film, “Operation Red Sea.”

“The Chinese are going to be more present,” Mr. Kashin added, “and everyone has to get used to it.”
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: fansongecho on August 29, 2018, 01:47:24 pm

Hey Space Otter  :)

Some interesting articles -

https://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.asp


https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a15297/us-navy-entire-fleet/

https://www.military.com/defensetech/2014/12/03/report-chinese-navys-fleet-will-outnumber-u-s-by-2020

Some are not new though.

Cheers buddy!

Fans'
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on August 29, 2018, 05:00:17 pm


hi Fans

i checked them out quickly but i question who is giving this info out..
 where do these folk get their info from ...i meant really

being the big skeptic that i am on any military info escaping
i'll just say that the sword rattling is getting louder
stock the bunker


Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: fansongecho on August 30, 2018, 01:51:13 am

Hi Space,

Here are some links to valid sources that I know a lot of military researchers and journo's go to and cross reference information.

These guys are viewed as the creme de la creme when it comes to genuine information on Defence related matters / information about military platforms.

https://www.janes.com/defence

https://rusi.org/  - UK Based Military Think Tank

https://www.rand.org/pubs/reprints/RP1050.html  - USA Based Think Tank

https://www.chacr.org.uk/ - UK Based Think Tank

https://www.fpri.org/ - USA Based Think Tank

and then there are the intentional leaks from the Intel Services, Military Branches and the Flag Officer(s) who want to get news out and develop a cover story that if investigated and corroborated with other stories leads to some semblance of the truth, BUT not forgetting there is of course a world of disinformation as well both intentional and unintentional -

Like everyone on this forum I am sure, that we all go to our trusted sources, alt media and even lamestream to gather what Intel we can ?
Lamestream and even some alternate media sources appear to produce fear porn on a daily basis

Also some critical analysis of the evidence can help shape belief in the story's we see on the net, like for example, how many aircraft carriers do China and Russia have for Force Projection?? compared to say the US or India ??

Which leads me to why are the Chinese building islands in the middle of the ocean?..  how easy is it to sink a Aircraft Carrier ?.. how easy is it to sink and island ?

Top posts Space, keep them coming, anything to stimulate my grey matter is good, cheers buddy!  :)

Fans'  :D
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on September 05, 2018, 08:41:26 am


https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/sep/5/china-boosting-trade-north-korea-undermine-donald-/

By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times - Wednesday, September 5, 2018

China boosting trade with North Korea to undermine Trump, report says

Quote
Nearly three dozen North Korean cargo ships were spotted pulling into coal docks at the Chinese port of Longkou during May and June, according to a report Wednesday that claimed Beijing has allowed increased trade with Pyongyang just as President Trump has tried to maintain economic pressure on Kim Jong-un’s regime.





Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfXdp4pgg8mEF8HP09H0zqn6w3d6VJaLqVXRujVvOjvXMHhlw/viewform



Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on September 23, 2018, 07:08:40 am

China summons US ambassador over military sanctions

21 hrs ago

Quote
China summoned the US ambassador on Saturday to lodge an official protest over sanctions imposed by the United States against a Chinese military organisation for buying Russian fighter jets and missiles, state media said.

The announcement came a day after China called on the United States to withdraw the sanctions or "bear the consequences".

The spat adds to tensions between the two global powers over trade, China's treatment of religious groups and the Asian country's claims to disputed islands in the South China Sea.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-summons-us-ambassador-over-military-sanctions/ar-AAAtFlU?li=BBnb7Kz




Iranian President Blames U.S.
After Deadly Military Parade Attack
President Hassan Rouhani claimed an unnamed U.S.-allied country was behind Saturday’s attack.
 Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrel
09/23/2018 05:41 am

 EThttps://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/iran-military-parade-attack-rouhani-us_us_5ba75b40e4b0181540ddd4c6






Russia and China hold the biggest military exercises for decades ...
https://www.economist.com/.../russia-and-china-hold-the-biggest-military-exercises-fo...
Sep 6, 2018 - One is addressed to China. By selling it Russia's latest military technology, including S-400 surface-to-air missiles and SU-35 fighter jets, and ...

 




China Buys Record Amount of Russian Soy as It Shuns U.S. Growers ...
https://www.bloomberg.com/.../china-buys-record-amount-of-russian-soy-as-it-shuns-...
May 17, 2018 - Russia sold about 850,000 metric tons of soybeans to China from the start of the 12-month season in July through mid-May, according to ...
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on December 13, 2018, 11:20:06 am

to me this looks like a bad situation that can only get worse considering who is in charge here
from what i have read trump ask canada to hold their CFO ..they are
and just released her to house arrest from jail
china is pissed and  is now holding canadians





who/what is Huawei

Huawei - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei


Everything you ever wanted to know about Huawei, Meng Wanzhou ...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/.../huawei-meng-extradition-questions-fraud-1.4943162
18 hours ago - A global firestorm was set off with the arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou. As she awaits extradition hearings on $10 million ...


https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/12/tech/huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou-what-next/index.html
Huawei's CFO is out on bail, but the crisis sparked by her arrest is snowballing
Analysis by Jethro Mullen, CNN Business

Updated 8:07 AM ET, Wed December 12, 2018



https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-huawei-cfo-arrest-china-trade-war-lighthizer-kudlow-plan-2018-12
Trump's trade team spent days building a strategy to deal with the Huawei CFO arrest. Then Trump blew it up in a single interview.



https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2177791/huawei-cfos-arrest-canada-claims-collateral-damage-telecom-giant
Huawei CFO arrest in Canada causes collateral damage as telecom giant freezes Japanese robot maker’s contract
Up to 23 per cent of Yaskawa’s US$4 billion in fiscal 2017 revenue came from China


https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/11/huawei-cfo-accused-of-fraud-is-granted-7-5m-bail/

Huawei CFO accused of fraud is granted $7.5M bail
Kate Clark@kateclarktweets / 2 days ago



Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland comments on the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou and President Trump's remarks on intervening in the situation. She also says a second Canadian is in trouble in China.
MORE: https://globalnews.ca/news/4755293/ch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ET9HjITN-w





Former Canadian diplomat detained in China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wf1WwL2OyI



https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/canadians-detained-in-china-could-be-held-incommunicado-for-months/2018/12/13/9af7a3a2-febb-11e8-ba87-8c7facdf6739_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8252a46c1628

Canadians detained in China could be held incommunicado for months
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on May 29, 2019, 07:40:02 pm


China holds trillions in u.s. bonds and if they decide to cash them in.. we are looking at some real problems..but that's beside this


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/dont-say-we-didnt-warn-you-a-phrase-from-china-signals-the-trade-war-could-get-even-worse/ar-AAC5jXm?li=BBnb7Kz

'Don't say we didn't warn you' - a phrase from China signals the trade war could get even worse
 Yun Li  2 hrs ago


video at  link
Quote
The biggest newspaper in China explicitly warned the U.S. on Wednesday that it would cut off rare earth minerals as a countermeasure in the escalated trade battle, using an expression it only used twice in history, both of which involved full-on wars.

"We advise the U.S. side not to underestimate the Chinese side's ability to safeguard its development rights and interests. Don't say we didn't warn you!" the People's Daily said in a commentary titled "United States, don't underestimate China's ability to strike back." The paper is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China.

The phrase "Don't say we didn't warn you" was only used two other times by the People's Daily in history — in 1963 ahead of China's border war with India and in 1987 right before China went to war with Vietnam.

"Will rare earths become a counter weapon for China to hit back against the pressure the United States has put on for no reason at all? The answer is no mystery," the paper said.

The trade conflict between the world's two largest economies escalated quickly this month with both sides slapping tariffs on billions of dollars worth of each other's goods. China's threat to restrict rare earth mineral sale to the U.S. came after President Trump blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei, which led to many chip makers and internet companies cutting ties with the company.

The speculation of China's payback first surfaced when Xi Jinping visited rare earth mining and processing facilities in Jiangxi province during a domestic tour last week. A Chinese official warned on Tuesday that products made from the materials should not be used against China's development, which was seen as a veiled threat aimed at the U.S. and its technology industry.

China's rare earth materials are crucial to the production of iPhones, electric vehicles and advanced precision weapons, although the imports are a relatively small part of the $420 billion U.S. goods deficit with China.

The Chinese tabloid Global Times also said Tuesday China can play the "rare earths card, and it's "seriously considering" move.




..................

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-treasury-securities/china-sells-most-us-treasuries-in-nearly-two-and-a-half-years-idUSKCN1SL2U4
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: zorgon on May 29, 2019, 10:24:15 pm
Chinese been ripping us off for DECADES...

They have so much money odours because we let them get away with it.

Bank foreclosure on your house? No worries China will buy it up

China undercuts our market but sell us goods that are bad quality and fall apart  and then get the tarif break as well

China sells CHEAP FAKE goods on Ebay but most Americans are to stupid to realize that they just bought glass instead of that Amethyst they got a fake certificate for. So these dummies and leave positive feedback. That causes Ebay to leave the account untouched for fraud because they are 4,ooo idiots for every 10 experts.

While an American does it they get account suspension.. 

On top of that, the USPS keeps raising rates in the US every 6 months, but set up a branch of the USPS "China Office" which allows Chinese seears to offer FREE SHIPPING to the US


Now then RARE EARTH

We have a huge mine just outside of Las Vegas that has been closed for YEARS. It's a rare earth mine. Thanks to this trade deal, the mine has reopened. So MORE JOBS..  Its a big mine but was closed because China cut prices on rare earth's so it was cheaper to buy it than mine it. In fact I was just doing an article on this for rock hunting a little while ago

(https://www.sciencesource.com/Doc/TR1_WATERMARKED/2/4/c/f/SS2550952.jpg?d63642712195)

There are several smaller mines around here  Lots of radioactive rare earths making China's "trade weapon" almost useless.

"Beijing has weaponized its dominance in the rare earth market before. In 2010, when China and Japan clashed over ownership of islands in the East China Sea, Beijing halted shipments of rare earths to its rival, disrupting supply lines for major manufacturers like Toyota and Panasonic. But Beijing emerged weaker for it."


"China, aided by its low labor costs and lax environmental regulations, became the dominant force in the rare earth market during the 1980s, surpassing the U.S. ChinaTaiwan) , which sits on close to 40% of global rare earth deposits, produces 120,000 metric tons of rare earth a year, or roughly 80% of the global supply. For comparison, Australia, the world’s second largest supplier, produced just 20,000 metric tons last year.

The U.S. imports 80% of its rare earth needs from China, but overall demand for rare earths in the U.S. is low. American demand accounted for just 4% of China’s rare earth shipments, totaling around $160 million in 2018.

Partly, that’s because most U.S. manufacturers that require rare earth metals have already moved to China. America’s remaining industries tend to import finished rare earth products, such as magnets, which are a trickier target for China to hit.

So  EMPTY THREAT :P

PAY UP YOUR TARIFS CHINA you been getting a FREE RIDE far to long

http://fortune.com/2019/05/29/china-rare-earth-metals-trade-war/

Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: ArMaP on May 30, 2019, 05:42:51 am
Portugal becomes the first euro zone country to issue debt on China’s market

Quote
Portugal has become the first ever euro zone country to issue bonds denominated in the Chinese yuan.

Known as “Panda” bonds, that’s yuan-denominated debt issued by a foreign sovereign issuer, the sale will take place Wednesday and Thursday. The southern European country announced last week its intention to sell 2 billion yuan ($289 million) worth of bonds with a maturity of three years.

These Panda bonds will not be the first in the European Union, with Poland issuing government bonds on the Chinese market in 2016 and Hungary in 2018.

Portugal’s Finance Minister Mario Centeno told CNBC that the issuance is a “positive step in managing Portugal’s external debt in the medium term.”

This sale will allow Portugal to expand its investor base, Centeno also said in emailed remarks.

Portugal is one of the European countries with the highest level of Chinese investment. The country went through an international bailout between 2011 and 2014 during the height of euro zone sovereign debt crisis.

Since then, the Portuguese economy has returned to positive growth figures and credit ratings agencies have also turned more optimistic about the country. Last week, Fitch ratings updated its outlook on Portugal from “stable” to “positive,” opening the door to a ratings upgrade later this year.

Portugal's relationship with China has always been relatively good, even Macao got a special treatment when it was transferred back to China. Since then we have received many Chinese citizens, a few from Macao but most from China itself. They usually open stores that sell everything and get their goods from Chinese importers. Some big companies like the Portuguese electricity company, EDP, have had a big part of their capital bought by China, in the case of EDP, 23.27%.
Title: Re: China: should we be alarmed yet ?
Post by: space otter on May 30, 2019, 06:43:23 am


the steel mills here used to be the main place to work
at shift changes there were huge traffic jams
 but somewhere in the 90's they were sending management of all levels to china to show them how to do it...
i never understood

now the steel mills are all gone

i just recently heard that the place i was employed for 12 yrs was sold to china
they stole intel and put many other like  business  out of business
and now they are no more
totally wild

there must be something in the water that makes us so  stupid
sigh

Sylvan acquired by Yuguan | Mushroom Business
https://www.mushroombusiness.com/news/sylvan-acquired-yuguan
Sep 5, 2018 - At the end of August, Sylvan started to inform customers about the imminent acquirement of the spawn company by Yuguan China, supported by investment firm KKR. ... The Yuguan Group, led by Mr. Jianguang Huang, has been dedicated to commercial mushroom growing, processing and sales for ...