Konflikti Kiinan merellä

[ctg]

China has placed millions of its citizens under renewed lockdown after fresh outbreaks of Covid-19 as the government persists in its hardline policy on containing the virus in the face of more evidence that it is suffocating the economy.

The measures affected cities from the southern cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou to the northern port city of Dalian, and from the western metropolis of Chengdu to Shijiazhuang in central Hebei province.

The lockdown in Dalian was expected to affect about half of its six million residents and was due to last five days, although authorities have in the past extended restrictions depending on the number of new cases.

China places millions into Covid lockdown again as economy continues to struggle

Key cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Dalian are under curbs again, amid protests and data showing factory slowdown

www.theguardian.com

 

[ctg]

The Solomon Islands has issued a moratorium on all nations requesting to send in naval ships while it works on new processes for military vessels entering port.

The announcement from the prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, comes after it was revealed the US had been issued with a notice of the moratorium.

“On August 29, the United States received formal notification from the government of Solomon Islands regarding a moratorium on all naval visits, pending updates in protocol procedures,” the US embassy in Canberra said in a statement on Tuesday.

Solomon Islands bans all foreign navy ships from its ports

Solomon Islands has issued a moratorium on all nations while it works on new processes for docking of military vessels

www.theguardian.com

 

[ctg]

Kiinan uiguurialueilla on tehty vakavia ihmisoikeusrikkomuksia ja mahdollisesti rikoksia ihmisyyttä vastaan, kerrotaan YK:n ihmisoikeusasioiden korkean edustajan toimiston (OHCHR) tuoreessa raportissa (siirryt toiseen palveluun).

Odotettu raportti julkaistiin vain muutama minuutti ennen puoltayötä Geneven aikaa eli hetki ennen YK:n ihmisoikeusvaltuutettu Michelle Bacheletin kauden päättymistä. OHCHR toimii Genevestä käsin.

Kiinaa on syytetty useiden vuosien ajan yli miljoonan uiguurin ja muiden muslimivähemmistöjen edustajien sulkemisesta vankileireille Kiinan länsiosissa sijaitsevalla Xinjiangin alueella. Kiina kutsuu kyseisiä pidätyskeskuksia koulutuskeskuksiksi.

Raportin mukaan väitteet pidätyskeskuksissa tapahtuvista toistuvista kidutuksista, pakotetuista lääketieteellisistä toimenpiteistä sekä yksittäisistä seksuaaliväkivaltatapauksista ovat uskottavia.
Raportissa vaaditaan kansainväliseltä yhteisöltä kiireellistä huomiota alueen ihmisoikeusongelmiin.

– Ihmisoikeustilanne Xinjiangin alueella vaatii kiireellistä huomiota (Kiinan) hallitukselta, YK:n kansainvälisiltä järjestöiltä, ihmisoikeusjärjestelmältä sekä myös laajemmin kansainväliseltä yhteisöltä, raportissa sanotaan.

49-sivuisessa raportissa ei mainittu kertaakaan sanaa "kansanmurha", jollaiseksi Kiinan uiguurien kohtelua on kutsuttu useissa länsimaissa.

YK:n raportti: Kiinan uiguurialueilla on tehty vakavia ihmisoikeusrikkomuksia ja mahdollisesti rikoksia ihmisyyttä vastaan

Ihmisoikeustilanne Xinjiangin alueella vaatii kansainväliseltä yhteisöltä kiireellistä huomiota, raportissa sanotaan. Kiina on yrittänyt estää raportin julkaisua.

yle.fi

 

[ctg]

The UN has accused China of "serious human rights violations" in a long-awaited report into allegations of abuse in Xinjiang province.

China had urged the UN not to release the report - with Beijing calling it a "farce" arranged by Western powers.

The report assesses claims of abuse against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities, which China denies.

But investigators said they found "credible evidence" of torture possibly amounting to "crimes against humanity".

The report was released on Michelle Bachelet's final day on the job after four years as the UN's high commissioner for human rights. Her term has been dominated by the accusations of abuse against the Uyghurs.

Her team's report accused China of using vague national security laws to clamp down on the rights of minorities and establishing "systems of arbitrary detention".

It said prisoners had been subjected to "patterns of ill-treatment" which included "incidents of sexual and gender-based violence".

Others, they said, faced forced medical treatment and "discriminatory enforcement of family planning and birth control policies".

The UN recommended that China immediately takes steps to release "all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty" and suggested that some of Beijing's actions could amount to the "commission of international crimes, including crimes against humanity".

Uyghurs: China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang - UN

China urged the UN not to release the report - Beijing called it a "farce" arranged by the West.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[ctg]

A Taiwanese tycoon has announced his plan to train 3.3 million “civilian warriors” and marksmen to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion, using one billion Taiwan dollars ($32m) of his own money.

The announcement by Robert Tsao, a well-known Taiwanese businessman and founder of United Microelectronics Corp, a major microchip producer, comes amid increasing military activity between Taiwan and China. On Thursday Taiwan’s defence ministry announced its soldiers had shot down a Chinese drone over Taiwan’s Kinmen islands.

At a press conference on Thursday, Tsao, 75, said the Chinese Communist party (CCP) threat to Taiwan was growing. Wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet, he pledged funds to train “three million people in three years”. Working with the island’s civilian defence organisation, the Kuma Academy, 60% of the funds would go towards building an army of “warriors”, and 40% to training another 300,000 in how to shoot.

Taiwan tycoon to fund 3.3 million-strong army of ‘civilian warriors’ to defend against invasion

Robert Tsao, a microchip entrepreneur, pledges $32m to train and equip civil defence force to combat threat of Chinese attack

www.theguardian.com

 

[SJ]

Taiwan tycoon to fund 3.3 million-strong army of ‘civilian warriors’ to defend against invasion

Robert Tsao, a microchip entrepreneur, pledges $32m to train and equip civil defence force to combat threat of Chinese attack

www.theguardian.com

Minulla on huomattavia epäilyksiä kiinan kyvystä valloittaa Taiwan, jos siis Taiwanin väestö ei vaan päätä, että "antaas olla, ei tämä niin paha ole". Mutta ottaen huomioon miten urbaania aluetta Taiwan on, niin muutama miljoona ampumataitoista siviiliä väijymässä kiväärin kanssa Taiwanin armeijan lisäksi olisi varsin paska juttu kiinalaiselle valloittajalle. Toki kaupungin voi valloittaa menemällä talosta taloon seinän läpi ja puhdistamalla joka huoneen, mutta en usko sen onnituvan sellaisessa aikataulussa mikä olisi mahdollinen maihinnousun yhteydessä.

 

[ctg]

A snap ban on foreign military vessels docking in Solomon Islands is poised to be lifted, the Pacific nation's leader told parliament Monday.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said a review of the makeshift ban was "progressing very well. We do not expect the temporary moratorium to last for a long time".

Two weeks ago, US Coast Guard ship Oliver Henry opted to turn away from Honiara, capital of the Solomons, after a lengthy delay to their request to dock.

The HMS Spey, a British naval patrol vessel, also left Solomons waters before getting a late answer to their docking request.

Sogavare's office then confirmed a snap ban on military vessels from "all countries" while naval approval processes were reviewed.

When asked on Monday about the Oliver Henry incident, Sogavare said it had not been refused permission but instead opted to leave "our waters prior to being informed of approval" to dock.

He said the "temporary" ban was because the Pacific nation had seen "a sudden increase" in requests for visits by military vessels.

"In many cases, service requests are made at short notice and there is expectation that all requests will always be approved," Sogavare added.

"Each request needs proper assessment, including of the benefits and risks to Solomon Islands."
He told parliament the review was nearly complete.

Solomon Islands PM says to lift ban on foreign navy ships soon

METATEXT

www.spacewar.com

 

[ctg]

Australia and New Zealand are exempt from a ban on foreign naval visits to Solomon Islands, the country's prime minister said Monday as he flagged an end to the moratorium.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said a review of the makeshift ban was "progressing very well. We do not expect the temporary moratorium to last for a long time".

Solomon Islands suspended visits from all foreign navies last week, citing a need to review approval processes, after a US coast guard was unable to refuel at its port.

But when questioned in parliament on Monday, Sogavare said that the pause did not apply to military ships involved in the Solomons International Assistance Force -- which includes Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Vessels deployed as part of this mission -- established after deadly riots in Honiara late last year -- will be granted exemptions, he said.

He also said vessels taking part in planned illegal fishing patrols, or responding to direct requests for assistance from the Solomons, could be allowed to dock during the moratorium.

Australia, New Zealand exempt from Solomons naval ban

METATEXT

www.spacewar.com

 

[ctg]

A cyberespionage group has targeted government agencies and big-name corporations throughout Asia since at least 2020, using the notorious ProxyShell vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange to gain initial access.

According to ESET, the crew it has dubbed as Worok may be associated with TA428, a similar group thought to be backed by China, that has been around since 2019.

Threat intelligence researchers with the cybersecurity software vendor saw activity from a range of advanced persistent threat (APT) groups in early 2021, after the disclosure of the ProxyShell (CVE-2021-34523) vulnerability, and one of those groups showed some similarities to TA428, such as common activity times, targeted verticals, and the use of ShadowPad, a backdoor used in a number of espionage campaigns.

However, other tools used by the group differed from those employed by TA428, a Chinese state-sponsored gang known for targeting organizations in East Asia and Russia and which also is referred to as Colorful Panda.

"We consider that the links are not strong enough to consider Worok to be the same group as TA428, but the two groups might share tools and have common interests," Thibaut Passilly, a malware researcher at ESET, wrote in a report Tuesday. "We decided to create a cluster and named it Worok."

The researchers then linked other attacks to Worok through the use of variants of the same tools, concluding that the group has been around since late 2020 and is still active now.

Worok's toolset includes CLRLoad, a C++ loader; PowHeartBeat, PowerShell backdoor; and PNGLoad, a C# .NET loader that uses steganography – concealing a message in another message – to extract hidden malicious payloads from PNG files.

"Considering the targets' profiles and the tools we've seen deployed against these victims, we think Worok's main objective is to steal information," Passilly wrote.

In late 2020, the group targeted a telecommunications company in East Asia, a bank in Central Asia, and a Southeastern Asia company in the maritime industry. There also was a government entity in the Middle East and a private company in southern Africa.

There then was a pause in Worok's activity from May 2021 to January before it returned with attacks on an energy company in Central Asia and a public sector entity in Southeast Asia.

Newly discovered cyberspy group targets Asia

Worok uses mix of publicly available tools, custom malware to steal info, gang active since 2020

www.theregister.com

 

[ctg]

China has accused the United States of a savage cyber attack on a university famed for conducting aerospace research and linked to China's military.

The National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre (NCVERC) made its accusation on September 5, claiming that the Office of Tailored Access Operations at the USA's National Security Agency (NSA) has unleashed over 10,000 attacks in China, some using zero-day exploits, and lifted 140GB of "high value data".

A June attack on Northwestern Polytechnical University is said to have seen the NSA deploy over 40 cyber weapons to learn details of the educational institution's network and computing infrastructure. NCVERC assets that attackers sniffed passwords, read log files, and relentlessly probed the University in the hope of lifting useful data. Thousands of devices were hijacked, the organization asserts.

Beijing claims US attacked Uni that does military research

National Security Agency apparently has tools that crack Solaris boxes

www.theregister.com

 

[ctg]

 

[Rambo]

Kiinalaisen megakaupungin asukkaita koetellaan: Maanjäristyksen runteleman Chengdun koronasulku jatkuu, eikä loppua näy

Yli 21 miljoonan asukkaan Chengdu on lähes kokonaan suljettu erityisen tiukan koronalinjan vuoksi.

www.mtvuutiset.fi

Dystopiaa.

 

[John Hilly]

Kiina saattaa vetää johtopäätöksiä Ukrainan sodasta.

China May Draw Lessons From Russian Failures in Ukraine

While China is very interested in expanding its sphere of political and military influence in the Indo-Pacific region, it's likely going to be more cautious when it comes to a move as aggressive as an

www.defense.gov

 

[ctg]

Imperial College will shut down two major research centres sponsored by Chinese aerospace and defence companies amid a crackdown on academic collaborations with China, the Guardian has learned.

The Avic Centre for Structural Design and Manufacturing is a long-running partnership with China’s leading civilian and military aviation supplier, which has provided more than £6m to research cutting-edge aerospace materials. The second centre is run jointly with Biam, a subsidiary of another state-owned aerospace and defence company, which has contributed £4.5m for projects on high-performance batteries, jet engine components and impact-resistant aircraft windshields. The centres’ stated goals are to advance civilian aerospace technologies, but critics have repeatedly warned that the research could also advance China’s military ambitions.

Now Imperial has confirmed the two centres will be shut by the end of the year after the rejection of two licence applications to the government’s Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), which oversees the sharing of sensitive research with international partners. The closures follow a warning in July by the heads of MI5 and the FBI of the espionage threat posed by China to UK universities, and highlight the government’s hardening attitude on the issue.

Imperial College to shut joint research ventures with Chinese defence firms

Exclusive: two Chinese-sponsored aerospace research centres to close after warnings of ‘sleepwalking’ into aiding Chinese military

www.theguardian.com

 

[ctg]

Chinese censors have reportedly been ordered to flood social media with innocuous posts about Xinjiang to drown out mounting complaints of food and medication shortages in a region under lockdown for more than a month.

The Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture, also known as Yili, is home to about 4.5 million people, and is believed to have been first put into lockdown in early August, without official public announcement, after an outbreak of Covid-19. In recent days social media has hosted reams of post about food shortages, delays or refusals of medical care.

But according to a leaked directive published by the China Digital Times, censors were told to “open a campaign of comment flooding” to drown them out.

Xinjiang lockdown: Chinese censors drown out posts about food and medicine shortages

‘Internet commentary personnel’ told to deluge social media with thoughts on anything from cooking to their personal mood

www.theguardian.com

 

[ctg]

China appears to have begun to address one of the big unanswered questions about its central bank digital currency: how to get people using it, given rival electronic payment schemes are already ubiquitous.

Beijing has slowly rolled out its Digital Yuan over the last couple of years, giving it away to promote uptake and persuading millions of merchants to accept the currency.

But existing payment systems already do huge amounts of business in China, where up to 80 percent of retail transactions are conducted using mobile payment schemes. Alibaba's AliPay and Tencent's WeChat Pay dominate the market, each handling over 100 million transactions daily – with potential for more because both companies boast over 500 million monthly active users and more than a billion signed-up customers.

Millions of merchants are signed up for those schemes, both of which have become utterly ingrained in everyday life.

Beijing's digital currency therefore has deeply entrenched competition, and a user population for whom forced change would be an inconvenience.

Which is what makes a speech delivered last week by Fan Yifei, a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, so interesting.

According to an account of the meeting in state-controlled media, Fan said standardization across payment systems will be needed to ensure the success of the Digital Yuan.

The kind of standardization he envisioned is interoperability between existing payment systems – whether they use QR codes, NFC or Bluetooth.

That's an offer AliPay and WeChat Pay can't refuse, unless they want Beijing to flex its regulatory muscles and compel them to do it.

A hint: they don't want to see those muscles even begin to tense, because the consequences could be terrifying.

China's digital currency to link with other payment schemes

It needs to, because the likes of Alipay are already ubiquitous – and used overseas

www.theregister.com

voiko digivaluutta estää romahtamista?

 

[ctg]

The Biden Administration is reportedly prepping another round of sanctions in a bid to further hamper Chinese chipmakers.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Reuters says the Commerce Department is poised to enact export bans on semiconductor manufacturing equipment necessary to produce chips smaller than 14nm to the Middle Kingdom.

The findings stem in part from letters on intent provided to three prominent US companies responsible for producing chipmaking equipment — KLA Corp, Lam Research, and Applied Materials — advising them they are forbidden from exporting equipment to China without explicit licensing from the Commerce Department. Reuters says these companies have confirmed the letters, though the Commerce Department has yet to take definitive action.

The next bout of restrictions are also expected to officially enforce an export ban on advanced AI accelerators to China by the likes of AMD and Nvidia.

These bans, announced late last month, restricted the export of Nvidia’s A100 and H100 AI accelerators as well as AMD’s MI250X GPUs, which power the Department of Energy’s Frontier supercomputer.

And that may not be the end of it. Unnamed sources have reportedly told Reuters that the commerce department may go even further enact even stiffer restrictions of semiconductor exports to China.

US preparing to bring hammer down on Chinese chipmakers

Wait? Is the plan to ban them from buying parts they can already make?

www.theregister.com

 

[ctg]

China's leading text-to-image synthesis model, Baidu's ERNIE-ViLG, censors political text such as "Tiananmen Square" or names of political leaders, reports Zeyi Yang for MIT Technology Review.

Image synthesis has proven popular (and controversial) recently on social media and in online art communities. Tools like Stable Diffusion and DALL-E 2 allow people to create images of almost anything they can imagine by typing in a text description called a "prompt."

In 2021, Chinese tech company Baidu developed its own image synthesis model called ERNIE-ViLG, and while testing public demos, some users found that it censors political phrases. Following MIT Technology Review's detailed report, we ran our own test of an ERNIE-ViLG demo hosted on Hugging Face and confirmed that phrases such as "democracy in China" and "Chinese flag" fail to generate imagery. Instead, they produce a Chinese language warning that approximately reads (translated), "The input content does not meet the relevant rules, please adjust and try again!"

China’s most advanced AI image generator already blocks political content

Baidu's ERNIE-ViLG text-to-image model prevents users from creating political images.

arstechnica.com

 

[ctg]

Life may seem tranquil on Japan's remote Yonaguni island, where wild horses graze and tourists dive to spot hammerhead sharks, but China's recent huge military exercises have rattled residents.

The western island is just 110 kilometres (70 miles) from Taiwan, and a Chinese missile fired during the drills last month landed not far from Yonaguni's shores.

"Everyone is on edge," Shigenori Takenishi, head of the island's fishing association, told AFP.
"Even if we don't talk about it, we still have the memory of the fear we felt, of the shock."

He told fishing boats to stay in port during the drills that followed US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in defiance of Beijing's warnings.

The incident was the latest reminder of how growing Chinese assertiveness has affected Yonaguni, shifting debate about a contentious military presence on the island.

People used to say Yonaguni was defended by two guns, one for each policeman stationed there.
But since 2016, the island has hosted a base for Japan's army, the Self-Defense Forces, which was established despite initial objections from residents.

The base for maritime and air surveillance is home to 170 soldiers, who with their families make up 15 percent of Yonaguni's population of 1,700.

An "electronic warfare" unit is also due to be installed there by March 2024.

"When we see Chinese military activity today, we tell ourselves that we got our base just in time," Yonaguni's mayor Kenichi Itokazu told AFP.

"We've succeeded in sending a message to China."

Chinese moves on Taiwan rattle remote Japanese island

METATEXT

www.spacewar.com

 

[ctg]

A US Senate committee has advanced a law bill that would provide billions in military support to Taiwan, the island nation that makes so many many of our chips and is being menaced by China.

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations advanced the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022 on a 17-5 vote, Reuters reported, sending it to the full Senate for consideration. If signed into law, the bill would allocate $4.5 billion in military aid to Taiwan over four years and details economic sanctions that could be taken if China invades.

"As China intensifies its threatening rhetoric and military aggression, it's imperative we take action now to bolster Taiwan's self-defense before it's too late," said Senator Jim Risch (R-ID), the ranking Republican member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

The bill would also re-classify Taiwan as a "major non-NATO ally," which would allow it to enter into additional military agreements and make it eligible to receive "excess defense articles," or US military surplus equipment.

Passage of the bill out of committee doesn't mean it's bound to become law, and the Biden administration has signaled it's wary of supporting such an extreme change in relations over Taiwan.

China has increased its aggression toward the smaller country, which it considers part of Chinese territory. Last week the US publicly suggested the Middle kingdom learn from Russia's invasion of Ukraine before making any moves.

Taiwan needs $4.5b to protect its chip fabs, say US Senators

Gotta keep those phone processors and GPUs coming, folks

www.theregister.com