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Chinese Military,Political and Social Superthread

https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-tells-china-stop-making-threats-over-taiwan-hong-kong-2020-9?amp

Germany appears to of grown tired of Beijing's attitude and bully like tactics when something doesn't go its way, basically telling them to pound salt over a Czech politician visiting Taiwan.

If only more nations would do this, maybe some will follow germanys lead.
 
The menace of WeChat--quite a bit about Canada in this major NY Times article, two excerpts:

Forget TikTok. China’s Powerhouse App Is WeChat, and Its Power Is Sweeping.
A vital connection for the Chinese diaspora, the app has also become a global conduit of Chinese state propaganda, surveillance and intimidation. The United States has proposed banning it.

Just after the 2016 presidential election in the United States, Joanne Li realized the app that connected her to fellow Chinese immigrants had disconnected her from reality.

Everything she saw on the Chinese app, WeChat, indicated Donald J. Trump was an admired leader and impressive businessman. She believed it was the unquestioned consensus on the newly elected American president. “But then I started talking to some foreigners about him, non-Chinese,” she said. “I was totally confused.”

She began to read more widely, and Ms. Li, who lived in Toronto at the time, increasingly found WeChat filled with gossip, conspiracy theories and outright lies. One article claimed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada planned to legalize hard drugs. Another rumor purported that Canada had begun selling marijuana in grocery stores. A post from a news account in Shanghai warned Chinese people to take care lest they accidentally bring the drug back from Canada and get arrested.

She also questioned what was being said about China. When a top Huawei executive was arrested in Canada in 2018, articles from foreign news media were quickly censored on WeChat. Her Chinese friends both inside and outside China began to say that Canada had no justice, which contradicted her own experience. “All of a sudden I discovered talking to others about the issue didn’t make sense,” Ms. Li said. “It felt like if I only watched Chinese media, all of my thoughts would be different.”

Ms. Li had little choice but to take the bad with the good. Built to be everything for everyone, WeChat is indispensable.

For most Chinese people in China, WeChat is a sort of all-in-one app: a way to swap stories, talk to old classmates, pay bills, coordinate with co-workers, post envy-inducing vacation photos, buy stuff and get news. For the millions of members of China’s diaspora, it is the bridge that links them to the trappings of home, from family chatter to food photos...

Ms. Li felt the whipcrack of China’s internet controls firsthand when she returned to China in 2018 to take a real estate job. After her experience overseas, she sought to balance her news diet with groups that shared articles on world events. As the coronavirus spread in early 2020 and China’s relations with countries around the world strained, she posted an article on WeChat from the U.S. government-run Radio Free Asia about the deterioration of Chinese-Canadian diplomacy, a piece that would have been censored.

The next day, four police officers showed up at her family’s apartment. They carried guns and riot shields.

“My mother was terrified,” she said. “She turned white when she saw them.”

The police officers took Ms. Li, along with her phone and computer, to the local police station. She said they manacled her legs to a restraining device known as a tiger chair for questioning. They asked repeatedly about the article and her WeChat contacts overseas before locking her in a barred cell for the night.

Twice she was released, only to be dragged back to the station for fresh interrogation sessions. Ms. Li said an officer even insisted China had freedom of speech protections as he questioned her over what she had said online. “I didn’t say anything,” she said. “I just thought, what is your freedom of speech? Is it the freedom to drag me down to the police station and keep me night after sleepless night interrogating me?”

Finally, the police forced her to write out a confession and vow of support for China, then let her go...[read on]
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/technology/wechat-china-united-states.html

Mark
Ottawa

 
Another country is worried by the CCP plan to dominate the seas


In Move Against China, Palau Invites Pentagon to Build New Bases in Pacific

Jack Beyrer - SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 2:32 PM

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/in-move-against-china-palau-invites-pentagon-to-build-new-bases-in-pacific/

The Republic of Palau is moving against China by inviting the United States to build new military bases in the Pacific island country, the Wall Street Journal first reported Tuesday.

A small island nation located between Guam, the Philippines, and Indonesia, Palau occupies a critical region where Beijing has looked to expand its influence.

"Palau is a very important place in the Pacific," U.S. ambassador to Palau John Hennessey-Niland told the Journal. "Palau has suffered from predatory economic behavior and malign influence from the PRC. … Palau is a good friend of the United States and a great partner in the Pacific."

China, which has focused on asserting its influence over the neighboring South China Sea, now sports the largest navy fleet in the world and has constructed underwater warning systems and new aircraft carriers. The United States' growing relationship with Palau corresponds with Washington's efforts to counter Chinese supremacy in the region by developing stronger ties with allies.

"Our robust network of allies and partners remains the enduring asymmetric advantage we have over near-peer rivals, namely China, that attempt to undermine and subvert the rules-based order to advance their own interests, often at the expense of others," Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in an August speech.

In recent months, the United States has conducted multiple freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea. In August, Department of Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar became the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Palaun ally Taiwan since 1979.

(Note: The WSJ article is subscription)
 
Canada and Australia, compare and contrast:

1) Canada:

China threatens and intimidates people within Canada as Ottawa remains silent

Notwithstanding its nimble handling of a pandemic, Justin Trudeau’s government will be vulnerable in the next election if voters don’t see meaningful action replace Canada’s passive rhetoric on China’s human rights, trade and hostage diplomacy.

This summer, the Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights and the Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations heard harrowing testimony from witnesses who say Chinese government agents threaten them and their families in Canada and in China.

Canadian Chinese and Canadian Uighur activists told of being threatened with rape or even death if they keep speaking out against violations committed by China against the Uighurs, or the persecution of Hong Kong residents clinging to political rights.

Witnesses pleaded for Canada to stop this intimidation campaign being co-ordinated by the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa and its consulates in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. All people in Canada are entitled to the protection of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including Chinese Canadians or citizens of China here in Canada as students or for other purposes.

Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s nonresponse to calls to protect Chinese Canadians amounts to tacit consent for Beijing to continue acting as if ethnic Chinese, Tibetans and Uighurs within Canada should still be subject to repression by China’s Communist regime.

Sadly, this is consistent with Canada’s nonaction on China. Regarding offering sanctuary to Hong Kong activists facing persecution due to repressive moves by Beijing, we are told that Ottawa is thinking it over. Ditto to applying Magnitsky sanctions against Chinese officials complicit in genocidal measures against Uighur people, including forced sterilization of women…”
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/09/08/china-threatens-and-intimidates-people-within-canada-as-ottawa-remains-silent.html

2) Australia:

Australia revokes Chinese scholar visas and targets media officials, prompting furious China response

Senior Chinese media officials in Australia have been targeted and the visas of two leading Chinese scholars have been revoked in an unprecedented foreign interference investigation into a NSW political staffer, provoking a furious response from the Chinese Government.

The Chinese Government has sensationally used state media to accuse Australian authorities of secretly raiding the homes of four Chinese journalists in Australia in late June, after receiving questions from the ABC yesterday about the investigation.

The Chinese embassy did not reply to the ABC’s questions yesterday, but several state media organisations published articles overnight reporting details of the alleged raids and accusing Australia of “severely infring[ing] on the legitimate rights of Chinese journalists” and “hypocrisy in upholding so-called ‘freedom of the press'”.

The ABC has uncovered the identities of senior Chinese journalists and academics who have been drawn into the joint investigation by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

They include: the Australia bureau chief of China News Service, Tao Shelan; China Radio International’s Sydney bureau chief Li Dayong; prominent Chinese scholar and media commentator Professor Chen Hong; and another leading Australian studies scholar, Li Jianjun

The AFP-ASIO Foreign Interference Task Force is investigating an alleged plot by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to infiltrate New South Wales Parliament through the office of Labor backbencher Shaoquett Moselmane, using his former staffer John Zhang.

The AFP is investigating whether Mr Zhang used a chat group on the Chinese social media platform, WeChat, to encourage Mr Moselmane to advocate for the Chinese Government’s interests.

The journalists and academics have been drawn into the investigation over the alleged infiltration because they were members of the WeChat group.

Mr Zhang categorically denies the AFP’s allegations and is challenging the investigation in the High Court.

According to documents filed by Mr Zhang in the High Court, the AFP alleges he and others “concealed or failed to disclose to Mr Moselmane that they were acting on behalf of or in collaboration with Chinese State and Party apparatus”…’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-09/chinese-scholars-have-visas-revoked-as-diplomatic-crisis-grows/12644022

Mark
Ottawa
 
Trump is quite likely only taking a harder line on China until after the election. That places the entire H.K. controversy in limbo. There are indications that Trump will begin to view China and Xi as favourably as he views Russia and Putin.

Trump did before he had to take a negative position against China for the political purpose of the coming election.
 
Donald H said:
Trump is quite likely only taking a harder line on China until after the election. That places the entire H.K. controversy in limbo. There are indications that Trump will begin to view China and Xi as favourably as he views Russia and Putin.

Trump did before he had to take a negative position against China for the political purpose of the coming election.


I have to respectfully disagree with you.

As much as the west likes to demonize Russia, Russia isn't really a threat in terms of it's political ambitions.

Does it want to remain relevant?  Absolutely.

Does it want to influence events in it's general sphere and in areas close to it's own borders?  Yes.

Does it want a stable region for which it can operate & expand it's economic interests, even if that means supporting evil dictators?  Yes.  (But before we point the finger at them for that, the USA does the same thing with Saudi Arabia.)


As much as we constantly release media reports about the threats that Russia poses & how the evil Russians are up to no good - like I've said before, from a sheer economic perspective, it isn't going to invade Europe anytime soon. 

Will they be a pain in the butt with disinformation campaigns, stir up trouble among ethnic Russian populations, etc etc?  Yes.  Russia isn't our friend.  But it isn't likely to be our military adversary anytime soon.  Russian air forces, as capable as they are, would be completely dominated by NATO air forces in the opening weeks (and I highly suspect much sooner) of a conflict.



China on the other hand?  China has emerged a very potent enemy, not only militarily but in terms of how they operate.  They make dealing with the Russians look pleasant in comparison.

Not only to they subtly subvert local politicians, but they subvert local industries also.  Universities, local supply trains, local businesses, local media coverage - not to mention the economic warfare they can wage against the west at the macro level. 

Taiwan and Hong Kong have been very real, and recent, examples of how little the Chinese leadership values human life, or any sort of freedom.  They consistently threaten to invade & kill an island of people who prefer democracy.  They impose, with force, themselves into Hong Kong and then immediately create a law that legalizes them to detail, interrogate, and imprison anybody who protests such actions.

They are openly preparing for war against the west in the SCS, and now have the world's largest navy.  Not only do they now have the world's largest navy, but they have modernized at a mind-blowing pace, in many ways catching up to the USA.  China and the USA openly discuss, in no subtle terms, of how they are basing assets against each other. 

Both openly discuss a conflict against each other, and are very much preparing for such a conflict - so much so that the USMC has realized they can no longer be America's second army, and have drastically reorganized themselves to fight in the SCS.



Even after the election, I highly doubt Trump and Xi will be 'buddies'.  He may have to pretend to bring the hammer down on Russia from time to time, but the tensions with China are very real regardless of who gets elected in November.  :2c:
 
CBH99 said:
I have to respectfully disagree with you.

As much as the west likes to demonize Russia, Russia isn't really a threat in terms of it's political ambitions.

Does it want to remain relevant?  Absolutely.

Does it want to influence events in it's general sphere and in areas close to it's own borders?  Yes.

Does it want a stable region for which it can operate & expand it's economic interests, even if that means supporting evil dictators?  Yes.  (But before we point the finger at them for that, the USA does the same thing with Saudi Arabia.)


As much as we constantly release media reports about the threats that Russia poses & how the evil Russians are up to no good - like I've said before, from a sheer economic perspective, it isn't going to invade Europe anytime soon. 

Will they be a pain in the butt with disinformation campaigns, stir up trouble among ethnic Russian populations, etc etc?  Yes.  Russia isn't our friend.  But it isn't likely to be our military adversary anytime soon.  Russian air forces, as capable as they are, would be completely dominated by NATO air forces in the opening weeks (and I highly suspect much sooner) of a conflict.



China on the other hand?  China has emerged a very potent enemy, not only militarily but in terms of how they operate.  They make dealing with the Russians look pleasant in comparison.

Not only to they subtly subvert local politicians, but they subvert local industries also.  Universities, local supply trains, local businesses, local media coverage - not to mention the economic warfare they can wage against the west at the macro level. 

Taiwan and Hong Kong have been very real, and recent, examples of how little the Chinese leadership values human life, or any sort of freedom.  They consistently threaten to invade & kill an island of people who prefer democracy.  They impose, with force, themselves into Hong Kong and then immediately create a law that legalizes them to detail, interrogate, and imprison anybody who protests such actions.

They are openly preparing for war against the west in the SCS, and now have the world's largest navy.  Not only do they now have the world's largest navy, but they have modernized at a mind-blowing pace, in many ways catching up to the USA.  China and the USA openly discuss, in no subtle terms, of how they are basing assets against each other. 

Both openly discuss a conflict against each other, and are very much preparing for such a conflict - so much so that the USMC has realized they can no longer be America's second army, and have drastically reorganized themselves to fight in the SCS.



Even after the election, I highly doubt Trump and Xi will be 'buddies'.  He may have to pretend to bring the hammer down on Russia from time to time, but the tensions with China are very real regardless of who gets elected in November.  :2c:

There's very little in that which I disagree on. But for now at least I think Trump's antiwar stance toward China is being under estimated, as well as his support for same. At least on China, but not much doubt on Russia.

I have to qualify that on Trump's reasons for good relations on Russia/Putin. There are various possible reasons for that being the case. You stated the facts but you didn't state the reasons in Trump's head.
 
MarkOttawa said:
Canada and Australia, compare and contrast:

Now Canada and US, compare and contrast:

1) Canada:

'We know where your parents live': Hong Kong activists say Canadian police helpless against online threats
The committee probing Canada's relationship with China was shut down when Trudeau prorogued Parliament

For Cherie Wong, the threats of rape and murder she receives on social media are only a semi-constant reminder that many supporters of the Chinese Communist Party see her as an enemy.

They're not what scares her the most.

Back in January, Wong — executive director and co-founder of Alliance Canada Hong Kong, a group pressing the Canadian government to defend the former British colony's democracy — flew to Vancouver for events associated with the alliance's launch. Someone had been keeping tabs on her, she said.

"My hotel room was booked by someone else as a security measure. And two days after the launch ... I received a threatening phone call to my hotel room demanding that I leave immediately, that these people are coming to collect me," she said.

"That was something that really shocked me."

Wong said she still doesn't know how her whereabouts were disclosed. She said she reported the call to the police but was told there was little they could do.

Wong's experience is one of a number of disturbing incidents reported to a new parliamentary committee tasked with looking into Canada's fraught relationship with China. The committee's proceedings were interrupted by the Trudeau government's decision to prorogue Parliament until later this month.

Doxxed in the diaspora

Wong said activists in her group had a foretaste of the impotence of Canadian police in the face of such harassment on August 17, 2019, when members of the Hong Kong diaspora rallied in 30 cities around the world to back Hong Kong's anti-extradition protests. They were met by counter-protesters waving Chinese flags.

Wong said she was one of a number of protest participants who were subsequently "doxxed" by online antagonists. "They took photos of me and started digging up my personal information, my email address, where I was living, my phone number," she said. "And [they] shared that kind of information maliciously through WeChat channels."

Hong Kong activists point to the similarities between the counter-protests that occurred in August 2019 — in almost every city that saw pro-Hong Kong demonstrations — as evidence that they are being centrally organized...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/china-hong-kong-democracy-protests-chinese-embassy-canada-1.5717288

2) US:

US reveals it has revoked more than 1,000 visas to Chinese nationals deemed security risks

More than 1,000 Chinese nationals have had their visas revoked by the United States since June, under a program aimed at graduate students and researchers believed to have ties to the Chinese military.
The US State Department said in a statement Wednesday that "high-risk graduate students and research scholars" had been expelled, after they "were found to be subject to Presidential Proclamation 10043 and therefore ineligible for a visa."
Issued by President Donald Trump at the end of May, and implemented beginning June 1, the proclamation claims that China "is engaged in a wide‑ranging and heavily resourced campaign to acquire sensitive United States technologies and intellectual property, in part to bolster the modernization and capability of its military, the People's Liberation Army."
The State Department said the revocation of visas "safeguards US national security by limiting the PRC's ability to leverage Chinese graduate students and researchers in the United States to steal United States technologies, intellectual property, and information to develop advanced military capabilities."

Speaking Wednesday, acting US Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said that "China has leveraged every aspect of its country including its economy, its military, and its diplomatic power, demonstrating a rejection of western liberal democracy and continually renewing its commitment to remake the world order in its own authoritarian image."..
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/09/politics/china-us-visas-intl-hnk/index.html

Mark
Ottawa
 
See the cartoons at the CCP's English-language mouthpiece, Global Times--e.g.:
https://www.google.com/search?q=global+times+panda+cartoons&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9hr7Q9N7rAhV7lnIEHcRYBvoQ_AUoAXoECDgQAw&biw=1025&bih=449

fd5d4fe0-c18a-11ea-bb35-9c8f1765e642


Mark
Ottawa
 
Question for any ex-intelligence folks who may be familiar with NCIU, or similar units in law enforcement agencies.

If Chinese operatives were found to be 'collecting' individuals wanted by the CCP because of how vocal or dangerous they are to the CCP agenda, what actions (if any) could be taken?  (Obviously there is the Criminal Code as the primary tool for law enforcement agencies.)
 
Donald H said:
Trump is quite likely only taking a harder line on China until after the election. That places the entire H.K. controversy in limbo. There are indications that Trump will begin to view China and Xi as favourably as he views Russia and Putin.

Trump did before he had to take a negative position against China for the political purpose of the coming election.

Hi Don

Nah, I think you're strecthing the whatever happens in the future but remember, trump has frequently verbally attacked China for years.  :2c:
 
CBH99 said:
Question for any ex-intelligence folks who may be familiar with NCIU, or similar units in law enforcement agencies.

If Chinese operatives were found to be 'collecting' individuals wanted by the CCP because of how vocal or dangerous they are to the CCP agenda, what actions (if any) could be taken?  (Obviously there is the Criminal Code as the primary tool for law enforcement agencies.)

Well Uttering threats, intimidation of a public official (in some cases), being an agent of a foreign government just to name a couple off the top of my head. We need to start treating these groups watching and threatening individuals like the old soviet spy rings, and eliminate them.
 
Recent report by Dept of Def to Congress

Chinese military calls US ‘destroyer of world peace’ following critical DOD report
China's Defense Ministry calls on U.S. to reflect on itself following critical report
By Stephen Sorace | Fox News

China’s Defense Ministry has called the U.S. “the destroyer of world peace” in response to a critical Department of Defense report that said the country’s military buildup aims to “revise” the international order.

Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Wu Qian called the Sept. 2 report a “wanton distortion” of China’s aims and the relationship between the People’s Liberation Army and China’s 1.4 billion people.
...

See article here.

See full DoD report here.

:cheers:
 
On of the amazing things about China's treatment of Muslim Uighurs is how little outrage it has generated among Muslims countries/groups. However, as this article from Foreign Affairs says that may be changing.

The Long Shadow of Xinjiang: Anger Grows in Muslim Countries at China’s Treatment of the Uighurs

By Nithin Coca

September 10, 2020

For years, evidence has accumulated of Chinese atrocities against minority groups in Xinjiang, the northwestern province that is home to the mostly Muslim Uighur people. Investigative journalists, researchers, and refugees paint a grim picture of mass surveillance, arbitrary arrest, forced labor, sprawling detention camps, torture, and murder. The Chinese government has not only engaged in political and cultural repression but taken specific aim at the Muslim faith: it has destroyed mosques, confiscated Korans, forbidden halal diets, and banned fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

And yet the countries and entities that regularly criticize Israel, Myanmar, the United States, and other nations for their actions against Muslims have kept quiet about China’s treatment of the Uighurs. The governments of Muslim-majority states, Muslim religious leaders, and international institutions such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation have avoided calling out the litany of abuses in Xinjiang. Some have accepted Chinese funds in support of infrastructure projects and even signed on to letters supporting China’s behavior in Xinjiang.

Civil society groups in Muslim-majority countries, however, are increasingly uncomfortable with their governments’ reticence. Activists are organizing boycotts, protests, and media campaigns in a bid to bring the plight of the Uighurs to broader attention. Their efforts are slowly shifting the behavior of their governments: Chinese investment and political influence may prevent many leaders from openly criticizing China, but opposition figures and officials at lower levels of government have begun to speak out in response to pressure from below.

China’s growing economic might has bought quiescence from many quarters. Many Muslim-majority countries in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East have signed on to Beijing’s infrastructure and investment project known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Some of these countries now count China as their largest or second-largest trading partner, and they fear losing access to Chinese capital and to the Chinese market should they take outspoken positions on Xinjiang. Moreover, these governments may feel distant from the plight of a community that once lived at the heart of Asia’s greatest trading routes but now resides far from the political, religious, and economic centers of the Muslim world. The Palestinians, by contrast, live alongside some of Islam’s holiest sites and have never ceased to be a central concern of regional governments.

Activists—especially in the large Muslim-majority countries that permit the most space for media and civil society—are pressing their governments to make the Uighurs a priority. In Malaysia, Ahmad Farouk Musa, director of the Islamic Renaissance Front, a nongovernmental organization that raises awareness of human rights abuses perpetuated both by and against Muslims, has been organizing events, responding to Chinese propaganda in the media, and trying to push the new government to speak out for Uighurs. Thanks in part to its growing clout and the effectiveness of its campaigns, Malaysia withstood Chinese demands and declined to deport Uighur asylum seekers in 2019. Ahmad applauded his government’s decision. “We were able to say there was no valid reason for us to deport the asylum seekers back to China, because if we send them to China, we send them to the gallows,” Ahmad told me. “This has given Muslims and Malaysians a moral boost.”

In Indonesia, Azzam M. Izzulhaq, a social entrepreneur and founder of a small nonprofit foundation, took the brave step of traveling to Xinjiang in 2018, documented what he saw, and has been organizing events across the country to inform his compatriots of China’s actions in the province. He has built a broad following of more than 100,000 people on social media, appeared on national media, and begun to directly call on politicians—including President Joko Widodo—to speak out against Chinese abuses.   


And in Turkey, Kadir Akinci, a businessman who runs a machinery company, has successfully signed up dozens of local companies to boycott Chinese products in solidarity with the Uighurs, with his effort receiving wide attention in domestic media. Turkey has the largest community of Uighur émigrés, estimated at 50,000, and hosts the World Uyghur Congress, the umbrella organization for Uighur groups outside of China.


Elsewhere, the cause of the Uighurs is even leading to violent unrest. In Pakistan, which receives considerable BRI funding, the radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir has criticized Prime Minister Imran Khan and his ruling party for their close ties to Beijing. Militants have attacked Chinese nationals and businesses, citing China’s crimes against Muslims in Xinjiang.

Arabic-language news media, such as the New Arab and Al Jazeera, have reported on Xinjiang, and such coverage has since spread throughout the Middle East and become a hot topic of discussion on social media. Public outrage has grown as a result. According to the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, China’s repression of the Uighurs was mostly unknown in the Islamic world just two years ago. Now UHRP and other Uighur diaspora organizations, such as the World Uyghur Congress, say they are receiving a rising number of inquiries from across the Muslim world from people who want to know what they can do to help the Uighur cause.

As a result of this shift in public awareness, some politicians have begun to speak out. In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party had been relatively silent until late 2018, when the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) raised the matter in parliament. The HDP’s pressure, along with growing agitation from Turkish Islamists, led Turkey’s Foreign Ministry to issue a statement in early 2019 condemning China for “violating the fundamental human rights of Uighur Turks and other Muslim communities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.” In response to protests in Jakarta in late 2019, Indonesia’s foreign minister released a statement claiming that his government was “actively communicating with China on Uighur issues.” The government of Qatar has quietly but meaningfully removed itself from a letter signed by 37 nations—including several Muslim-majority ones—supporting China’s policies in Xinjiang.

MOVING THE MOUNTAIN

Such public rebukes may have little immediate impact on the policies of Muslim-majority countries toward China. Many Muslim countries, particularly in the Middle East, see China as a necessary counterweight to the United States—much the same way that they saw the United States as a counterweight to colonial European powers in the early twentieth century. Years of military alliances that resulted in an ever-expanding U.S. presence in the region, invasions, and overreach have left many governments in the Middle East with the impression that the United States is an untrustworthy partner. Today they turn to Beijing as the emerging power in the region. China has forged economic ties that have won it public esteem in the Middle East. Polls show that 50 percent of people in Middle Eastern countries had favorable views of China between 2005 and 2018 (by contrast, just 29 percent of Americans had positive views of China in that same period).

In the long run, however, China’s treatment of the Uighurs is a vulnerability that the governments of or political oppositions in Muslim-majority countries can raise in the event of a geopolitical spat, elections, or a trade dispute to quickly and perhaps permanently destroy China’s image with their populations. Neither the United States nor the countries of Europe, for all their faults and failures, had to answer for anything quite like a genocidal campaign against a domestic Muslim ethnic group.

Outrage over Xinjiang runs high in Southeast Asia.

Outrage over Xinjiang already runs high in Southeast Asia, which perhaps not coincidentally is disgruntled with other Chinese policies. China is pushing to expand BRI projects in Indonesia and Malaysia while simultaneously encroaching on the territorial waters of both countries. During the 2018 Malaysian general election, the opposition accused the government of agreeing to BRI deals that disproportionately benefited China during its winning campaign. When in power, it stopped the practice of deporting Uighur asylum seekers to China. Indonesia’s opposition staged protests supporting the Uighurs at Chinese consulates across the country during its 2019 presidential campaign. Since then, distrust of China has only grown—giving both leaders and opposition parties a powerful weapon to potentially mobilize public support in their favor. According to Pew Research Center polls, only 36 percent of Indonesians held a favorable opinion of China in 2019, a drop of 17 points from the previous year.

For now, China’s economic power gives it the latitude to repress Muslim Uighurs at home while building partnerships with Muslim nations abroad. But Beijing has painted itself into a corner. The evidence of cultural genocide is overwhelming, the destruction of Uighur mosques, cemeteries, shrines, and other cultural heritage sites impossible to deny. More people in Muslim-majority countries are becoming aware of Chinese actions in Xinjiang and beginning to see China as an anti-Muslim nation. As aggressive Chinese foreign policy angers the public in certain regions, such as Southeast Asia, governments will feel increasingly compelled to react. Beijing has acted with a sense of impunity in its northwestern province, but its abuses there could bedevil its foreign relations with the Muslim world in the years to come.

NITHIN COCA is a freelance journalist who covers political, social, and environmental issues across Asia.

Link
 
Retired AF Guy said:
On of the amazing things about China's treatment of Muslim Uighurs is how little outrage it has generated among Muslims countries/groups. However, as this article from Foreign Affairs says that may be changing.

Link

It looks like Disney is helping to get the word out, unwittingly of course:

Disney criticised for filming Mulan in China's Xinjiang province

Disney is under fire for shooting its new film Mulan in parts of China where the government is accused of serious human rights abuses.

The final credits thank a government security agency in Xinjiang province, where about 1m people - mostly Muslim Uighurs - are thought to be detained.

The film was already the target of a boycott after its lead actress backed a crackdown on Hong Kong protesters.

China says it is fighting the "three evil forces" of separatism, terrorism, and extremism in Xinjiang and says the camps are voluntary schools for anti-extremism training.

In 2017 Mulan director Niki Caro posted photos on Instagram from the capital of Xinjiang. The production team behind the film also told the Architectural Digest magazine that they spent months in Xinjiang to research filming locations.

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong has also condemned Disney, tweeting that viewers watching Mulan are "potentially complicit in the mass incarceration of Muslim Uighurs".


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-54064654
 
While in Canada we wait. And wait. And wait. For our government of perpetual dither to make a decision on Huawei/5G:

Ottawa looks set for a fight over $1-billion compensation for Huawei equipment

Canada is signalling it might not compensate major telecommunications providers if the federal government bans equipment made by China’s Huawei from 5G networks, setting up a potential fight over a bill that could hit $1-billion.

Canada, under pressure from the United States to ban Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd .gear on security grounds, is studying whether to allow the firm into the country’s next-generation 5G networks.

If Ottawa does announce a formal ban, the affected companies have made it clear they want compensation for tearing out their existing Huawei gear, said two sources close to the matter.

But the Liberal government, already pressing wireless providers to cut what it says are excessively high bills, seems less convinced.

“I’m not sure there is a solid legal case that we would have to compensate for making a proper national security decision,” said a government source who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.

Federal politicians, said the source, also had to worry about “the public perception of handing over a billion dollars or more to very large companies.”

Ottawa has spent almost two years studying whether to allow Huawei into 5G networks and in June, with no sign of a decision coming any time soon, impatient Canadian providers took matters into their own hands.

Bell Canada and Telus Corp. said they would partner with Ericsson and Nokia Oyj, even though they use Huawei in their 4G networks.

Technical experts say it is hard to marry one company’s 5G equipment with 4G gear from another provider. This effectively means the decision to go with Ericsson would eventually force Telus and Bell to remove the Chinese firm’s 4G equipment.

Bell and Telus do not have to act immediately, since a crucial auction of spectrum needed for 5G networks will not happen until June, 2021.

In a February, 2019 filing, Telus said a ban without compensation could increase the cost of its 5G network deployment and make services more expensive for consumers.

Telus did not respond to a query as to whether it still felt the same way about compensation. Bell did not respond to a request for comment.

Scotiabank analysts said on June 2 it would cost Bell a total of between $300-million and $350-million over three to five years to strip out Huawei gear. At the same time, BMO estimated Telus had roughly double the exposure than that of Bell.

In March, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill to provide US$1-billion to help small providers replace equipment made by Huawei and Chinese firm ZTE.

Canada’s government is on track to run up the highest budget deficit since the Second World War as it tackles the coronavirus outbreak and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will on Sept 23 outline major measures to revive the economy.

“We obviously want to spend money on things we feel are going to grow the economy rather than on something like that [compensation],” the government source said.

One person directly familiar with the file took a more jaundiced view, noting that while Britain had told firms to remove their Huawei equipment, it had given them until 2027.

The person said this also happened to be the time when the gear would become obsolete and require replacement.

“I don’t think the thinking in the Canadian government is dissimilar with respect to that question,” said the person.

The office of Canada Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains – which will announce the decision on Huawei and 5G – said it would be premature to discuss future actions.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-canada-looks-set-for-a-fight-over-1-billion-compensation-for-huawei/

Mark
Ottawa
 
MarkOttawa said:
While in Canada we wait. And wait. And wait. For our government of perpetual dither to make a decision on Huawei/5G:

Mark
Ottawa

Sticking your head up your butt is not dithering. It's a conscious policy decision.

In all seriousness though, the Canadian Telecoms have already made the decision against Huawei and therefore the point is moot and is saving the government from overtly peeing the Chinese off. Makes me wonder how much went on behind the scenes, though. I'd like to think there was some pressure from the government in that direction but in reality  :dunno:

:worms:
 
The Liberals have no idea how amazingly lucky they are, that they have somehow turned dithering & the inability to take decisive actions into something that we have benefited from in some ways. 

F-35 / future fighter replacement dithering?  Gave the US time to work out a lot of the bugs from the F-35, bring down the purchase price, lower operating costs, streamline maintenance, and update software to be FAR more favourable in all of those areas than if we'd purchased 10 years ago.

Huawei?  I understand wanting to walk a fine line until the Canadian political 'hostages' are released.  In my ignorant opinion, they've dithered on that too, and that should have been able to be discussed/negotiated ages ago.  I do understand them wanting to secure their release, prior to making an announcement that could potentially endanger them even further.

So, in the meantime, the telecom companies decide for themselves not to use Huawei gear.  Was their quiet pressure behind the scenes for them to go that direction from the government? 

I'm with FJAG on this one, as I think most of us are.  I HOPE so, but... 



While dithering on pipelines out west, major energy & agriculture projects, LNG pipelines throughout Ontario and Quebec, etc etc has crippled our ability to recover economically from COVID in a healthy or timely manner, it's surprised me how their absolute incompetence has somehow benefited us.  It's almost like a Mr. Bean sketch in some ways. 
 
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