Underestimating Bad Faith: Quiet Diplomacy and its Limits- The EU’s and China

– Author(s):  Sophie Richardson, Published in: Human Rights in China

It’s been a quarter of a century since the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre in China, one of the events that spurred governments around the world into putting human rights on their foreign policy agendas. And since that time, diplomats, activists, scholars, and others have debated the best ways to support respect for human rights in China, especially in light of the government’s extraordinary intransigence on this issue, now reinforced by the country’s growing international influence and economic might. In the 1990s, the standard diplomatic tools included linking trade with human rights progress, pressuring Beijing to release individuals from jail and sometimes into exile, adopting resolutions criticizing China’s record at United Nations fora, and trying to engage Chinese officials in more systematic discussions about human rights.

“Highly sophisticated Chinese state-sponsored” cyberattack hits Canada Government’s top research organization

Note: Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is in Beijing

A “highly sophisticated Chinese state-sponsored actor” recently managed to hack into the computer systems at Canada’s National Research Council, confirms the country’s chief information officer, Corinne Charette.

Calls for action against live organ harvesting of Falun Gong

Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are said to die each year in China. Evidence reportedly indicates these prisoners are also victims of having their organs harvested by force. Calls for action are being voiced from various corners of the world.

5 Chinese Judges from Shanghai Soliciting Prostitutes Together — Jiang Zemin is the Creator of the Bad Precedents

A video exposed five Shanghai Superior Court officers who solicited prostitutes, causing a public sensation. Ironically, the places that court officers go to solicit prostitutes are labeled as “major reception sites of People’s Government of Shanghai City.” Some commentators stated that Shanghai judicial system is corrupt to such a degree that Jiang Zemin, former Municipal Secretary of Shanghai, cannot absolve himself from blame.

China Air Pollution Level 3-times Worse Than WHO Recommended in First Half

Air pollution in China’s largest cities, as measured by the concentration of fine particulates that pose the greatest health risk, was three-times worse in the first half of the year than levels advised by the World Health Organization.

Anti-graft Activists in China Pay Heavy Price

Chinese citizens who take the anti-corruption campaign of President Xi Jinping to heart by blowing the whistle on graft are likely to pay a high personal price, according to analysts.

Three Tibetans Detained for Refusing to Fly the Chinese Communist Flag at Home

Chinese authorities in Tibet have detained three villagers for refusing to fly the Chinese national flag from their homes, as local officials continue to press a campaign forcing displays of loyalty to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Western Intelligence Agencies Ban China Lenovo Computers Over Hacking Issues

Britain’s intelligence agencies, including MI6 and MI5, have allegedly banned the use of computers manufactured by Chinese company Lenovo due to concerns that the machines come hardwired with a vulnerability to hacking.

China Hackers Target Remote Conferencing Devices: Dell Researchers

(Reuters) – A Chinese hacking group tied to the breach of security company RSA two years ago has targeted a maker of audio-visual conference equipment in a likely attempt to tap into boardroom and other high-level remote meetings.

Techie Terms Censored Online in China, Revealed by New Study

China’s surveillance of its citizens’ digital activities is common knowledge. However, questions remain concerning what content is targeted by government censors and how these blacklists change in response to current events.

“Top 10 Most Likely Charges” Used by Chinese Government to Against Entrepreneurs

If you have a business in China, then you must be very careful not to be put in prison. A recent media report summarizes “ten most likely crimes” of Chinese entrepreneurs. This shows what a complex legal environment they have to face.

Hence comments that, for all Chinese business owners, they are either in prison or on their way there.

China’s Latest Leadership Ranking Change- Hu and Wen Moved Up, Jiang Zemin Lost Standing

Frequently, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) leadership ranking is displayed in public and it shows who the top dogs are.

Recently, Sichuan Agricultural University academic, Zhou Kaida’s funeral, the CCP top brass attendees’list had big changes. Hu Jintao was listed behind Xi Jinping, Wen Jiabao was behind Li Keqiang. Hu and Wen ranked on 2nd and 4th position.

Bodies at a Vienna Exhibition- Chinese Police, Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai

By ETHAN GUTMANN-

Vienna

I have taken my first steps into “Body Worlds,” an exhibition at Vienna’s Museum of Natural History, and it has sparked a memory. The room where I am standing—dark, somber, strangely hushed—exhibits fetuses at various stages of development, placed on blocks that evoke a pagan circle of standing stones. The show’s mastermind, German doctor Gunther von Hagens, has suctioned all the liquid and fat from the small bodies and filled the soft tissues with hard plastic through his ingenious process of “plastination.” Usually, if you see a fetus in a museum, it is floating in a jar of liquid and is red or yellow and translucent. These bodies seem to be flat gray, and that is what ignites the flashback, a surreal freeze-frame of my son, born a month prematurely by C-section: As the medical staff pulled him out of my wife’s womb, just for a second, his flesh looked gray.

America’s China Mistake，on Military

By Gordon G. Chang and James A. Lyons Jr-

This spring, China’s navy accepted the Pentagon’s invitation to participate in the 2014 Rim of the Pacific — RIMPAC — naval exercise to be held off Hawaii. This will be the first time China takes part in the biennial event.

Banned Book ‘Tombstone’ Chinese Author Yang Jisheng Receives Literary Prize in New York

A former senior editor for the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda mouthpiece collected the Manhattan Institute’s Hayek Prize Wednesday night.

The book award is given by the libertarian-leaning think tank to acknowledge recent works that “best reflect Hayek’s vision of economic and individual liberty.” It comes with a $50,000 cash prize.

Significant jump of China’s censorship capabilities before the Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre

Beginning early Friday morning, users of Sina Corp.’s massively popular Weibo microblog were able to search for information about one of the most sensitive incidents in recent Chinese history: the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

In a serious shift of censorship tactics just days ahead of the anniversary of the government’s bloody June 4, 1989 crackdown on protestors in Tiananmen, Sina appears to have begun to allow searches for terms associated with the highly sensitive event. But instead of turning up content related to the incident, searches yield results that have nothing to do with the protests or the government’s heavy-handed response.

Hollywood risks ‘artistic surrender’ in effort to please China Censors

In Hollywood, the screenwriter William Goldman once observed, “nobody knows anything”. Now, however, everybody knows at least one thing: whatever you do, be nice to China.

If your movie features a Chinese villain, change his nationality. If your plot omits a scene in China, insert one – preferably with gleaming skyscrapers. If your production deal lacks a Chinese partner, find one. If Beijing’s censors dislike certain scenes, cut them.

Censored and Frustrated Chinese People Send Complaints to White House Website

The Chinese people would like President Barack Obama to stop an oil refinery from being built in southern China, endorse sweet-flavoured tofu and reopen an 18-year-old criminal probe of a poisoning case. And while he’s at it, if he wouldn’t mind mobilising US troops to liberate Hong Kong, as well as China as a whole, that would be great, too.

U.S. Weapons System Designs Compromised by Chinese Cyberspies, Confidential report says

Designs for many of the nation’s most sensitive advanced weapons systems have been compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a report prepared for the Pentagon and to officials from government and the defense industry.

Among more than two dozen major weapons systems whose designs were breached were programs critical to U.S. missile defenses and combat aircraft and ships, according to a previously undisclosed section of a confidential report prepared for Pentagon leaders by the Defense Science Board.

A List of Compromised U.S. Weapons Designs and Technologies by Chinese Hackers

The following is reproduced from the nonpublic version of the
Defense Science Board report “Resilient Military Systems and the Advanced Cyber Threat”:

Table 2.2 Expanded partial list of DoD system designs and technologies compromised via cyber exploitation

“Dirty little secret”: Chinese Hacker Breaks in Australian Federal Government departments, ABC reports

While debate rages over Australia’s border security, there’s growing evidence that the greatest threat to Australia’s national security potentially comes from foreign computer hackers. Few in government or business will admit the full extent of the break-ins, with one expert calling it a “dirty little secret”.

Next on Four Corners reporter Andrew Fowler reveals that hackers, working from locations overseas, have targeted key Federal Government departments and major corporations in Australia. Their intention is to steal national security secrets and vital business information.

Chinese Hackers Strike Australian Intelligence Agency 2 Months After “strategic partnership” Negotiation

Blueprints for the new headquarters’ (building) of Australia’s intelligence agency, located in the capital of Canberra, have been stolen by Chinese hackers, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The news, which hit hard in Australia on Monday night, comes less than two months after Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard negotiated a “strategic partnership” with the Chinese Communist Party’s new leadership, and a subsequent Defence White Paper was released stating that the People’s Republic of China is no longer seen as a threat.

China Army’s “Department of Enemy Work” Reachs Out to Western Elites in Australia and US

John Garnaut, China correspondent for Fairfax Media-

General Zhang Yang had been in the elite leadership sanctum of the People’s Liberation Army for barely a month when he took time out to greet a former vice-chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.