Month: January 2024

China-US relations: navy dialogue depends on status of American delegation, military analysts say

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While most countries, including the US, do not recognise the self-governed island as independent, Washington is opposed to any attempt to take Taiwan by force and is committed to arming it. The US might send a “relatively high, but not top-level” delegation to the Qingdao symposium, according to Zhou Bo, a retired PLA senior colonel and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University. “We should note that the military-to-military relations between China and the United States have just been restored and are still…

China Circumspect After International Court Ruling on Israel

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Johannesburg, South Africa —  In a carefully worded response this week, China voiced its support of the U.N.’s International Court of Justice, or ICJ, ruling that orders Israel to desist from the killing of Palestinians in Gaza. Experts tell VOA that privately China has reservations about the use of such courts to deal with allegations of genocide, which could have awkward implications for Beijing. “We hope that the ICJ’s provisional measures can be effectively implemented,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin when asked about the issue at a regular press…

Vietnam gets tough on drunk driving

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Vietnam has been getting tougher on drunk driving the past few months, and that’s led to a drop in alcohol consumption, emptier streets at night and lower sales at major beer companies.  Drivers with even trace amounts of alcohol in their blood have been charged with driving under the influence, local media outlets reported. The crackdown enforces 2019 laws with zero tolerance for drivers with alcohol in their systems. VnExpress reported that in the last two months of 2023, Ho Chi Minh City launched the largest- ever anti-drunk driving campaign,…

Three years of misery in Myanmar, by the numbers

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Three years after Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup that ousted the democratically elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, citing unsupported claims of electoral fraud, Myanmar is in a state of war, chaos and economic ruin and the junta rules less territory than it did at the start. The Civil Disobedience Movement, the early civilian uprising of street protests against the return of military rule after a decade of reforms, was met by the junta with mass arrests and gunfire.  Police arrest a protester during…

FBI director: Chinese hackers targeting US infrastructure

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Chinese state hackers are targeting U.S. civilian infrastructure, including the electrical grid, water treatment plants and transport systems, and are waiting to “wreak havoc” when ordered by Beijing, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress on Wednesday. The aim is to prepare for an “everything, everywhere, all at once” attack that also shuts down hospitals, cell phone networks and air traffic to shake public support for strategic objectives like the defense of Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, another official said. Wray told the hearing of the House Select…

F.B.I. Director Warns of China Hacking Threat

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Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, warned on Wednesday that China was ramping up an extensive hacking operation geared at taking down the United States’ power grid, oil pipelines and water systems in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. Mr. Wray, appearing before a House subcommittee on China, offered an alarming assessment of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts. Its intent is to sow confusion, sap the United States’ will to fight and hamper the American military from deploying resources if the dispute over Taiwan, a…

US deems more Chinese tech companies ‘military’ and a national security risk

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The Pentagon on Wednesday labelled more than a dozen Chinese tech firms, including memory-chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC), as “military companies” that pose a national security risk to the US. Artificial intelligence companies Yitu Technology and Beijing Megvii, drone maker Chengdu JOUAV, lidar maker Hesai Technology and tech company NetPosa are also entities that operate in the United States but have ties to the Chinese military, according to the US Defence Department. They join Shenzhen-based consumer drone maker DJI Technology and China’s leading genetics firm, BGI, on what…

Ahead of Tibetan New Year, China urges monks to ‘expose, denounce’ Dalai Lama

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Bearing gifts ahead of the Tibetan New Year, Chinese authorities in Tibetan-populated parts of Sichuan province visited at least 35 Buddhist monasteries, and urged eminent monks to “deeply expose and denounce” the Dalai Lama and to safeguard the “unity of the motherland.”  The officials, led by Secretary Liu Yan of the Palyul (in Chinese, Baiyu) County Communist Party Committee, visited the monasteries in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on Jan. 11- Jan. 17, according to a statement by the United Front Work Department, which oversees the Chinese government’s domestic and external…

White House Touts China Outreach Success 

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The Biden administration is touting its outreach to China, pointing to cooperation on counternarcotics, discussions on artificial intelligence, and the resumption of military-to-military contacts as evidence of cooperation that has reduced tension between the two rivals. “This intensive diplomacy was about managing tough issues rather than patching up the relationship,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at a Council on Foreign Relations event Tuesday evening. He pointed to Taiwan holding “historic elections” earlier this month “without any major cross-strait incident” and said that was in part due to…

10 offenses that could lead to getting hauled in to ‘drink tea’

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China’s feared state security police have published a listicle of 10 offenses under the country’s vague Counter-espionage Law that can get you hauled in for questioning, known colloquially as “drinking tea.” They range from the straightforward – anyone engaged in spying or the theft of ill-defined “state secrets” – to owning a miniature camera or video recorder, considered possible “specialist spying equipment.” In a post titled “10 Cups of Tea” that appeared in the Beijing Daily, the Ministry of State Security listed situations in which members of the public could…