#Mainlandization #CivilService
HK Authorities To Implement Exchange Programme with China for All #CivilServants

After drastically changing the electoral system, Hong Kong Chief Executive #CarrieLam said on an interview with China media that Hong Kong had to “enhance” its public service system, education system and media environment.

Talking to China's state media #CCTV, Lam revealed more details about the civil servants' "Temporary Post Exchange Programme" between China and Hong Kong.

“Very soon, the Hong Kong SAR Government is going to sign relevant agreements with Guangdong and Shenzhen to allow civil servants to exchange posts temporarily.”

#PatrickNip, Secretary for the Civil Service in Hong Kong, announced that all civil servants must attend one Temporary Post Exchange programme in their 3-year probation to be considered for appointment on permanent terms.

Source: Apple Daily #May10
https://bit.ly/2SBOnEl

#FailedState #MadeinChina

#FakeNews #MadeinChina
#ChinaDaily Caught Promoting China with Stolen Photo of #Switzerland, After Criticizing Western Media's Credibility

Source: Twitter #May19

Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/29768

#FakeNews #MadeinChina
#ChinaDaily Caught Promoting China with Stolen Photo of #Switzerland, After Criticizing Western Media's Credibility

China Daily, China's state-owned newspaper, released a satirical cartoon via its Twitter account on May 10, 2021, suggesting that "western media lacks credibility".

The account subsequently shared a promotional video on sightseeing in China, which showed a natural landscape with the hashtag “#ChineGlamour”. However, German and French TV station #ARTE（Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne) discovered that the landscape image was taken by a travel blogger, and was in fact recorded in #Brienz, Switzerland. The image is then flipped horizontally, and the blogger's watermark cropped out.

The blogger criticised China Daily’s #plagiarism, and mocked them for promoting China with a stolen picture of Switzerland. China Daily had since deleted the video without apologies.

#IntellectualProperty #Originality #Credibility #Theft

Source: Twitter #May19
https://twitter.com/chinadaily/status/1391573916276039682?s=21
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10225478008796046&set=a.3424228683399&type=3

#CNN Exclusive : Reported leak at Chinese nuclear power facility, 130km from Hong Kong

//The #US government has spent the past week assessing a report of a leak at a Chinese nuclear power plant, after a French company that part owns and helps operate it warned of an "imminent #RadiologicalThreat," according to US officials and documents reviewed by CNN.

The warning included an accusation that the Chinese safety authority was raising the acceptable limits for radiation detection outside the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in #Guangdong province in order to avoid having to shut it down, according to a letter from Framatome the French company to the US Department of Energy obtained by CNN.

#Framatome had reached out to the US in order to obtain a waiver that would allow them to share American technical assistance in order to resolve the issue at the Chinese plant. There are only two reasons why this waiver would be granted, and one is an "imminent radiological threat," the same verbiage used in the June 8 memo.

The memo claims the Chinese limit was increased to exceed French standards, yet it remains unclear how that compares to US limits.

"It is not surprising that the French would reach out," according to Cheryl Rofer, a nuclear scientist who retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2001. "In general, this sort of thing is not extraordinary, particularly if they think the country they are contacting has some special ability to help."

"But #China likes to project that everything is just fine, all the time," she added.

...the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant published a statement on its website Sunday night local time, maintaining that environmental readings for both the plant and its surrounding area were "normal."...//

Read the full article:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/14/politics/china-nuclear-reactor-leak-us-monitoring/index.html

Source: CNN #Jun14

#Taishan #NuclearPowerPlant #MadeinChina #NuclearCrisis #Radioactivity #Leak

#InternationalRelations #Regime
#China Pressures #Ukraine by blocking #COVID19 #vaccine shipment

//China pressured Ukraine into withdrawing its support for a call for more scrutiny of human rights in China’s western region of Xinjiang by threatening to withhold Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines destined for Ukraine unless it did so, diplomats told The Associated Press on Friday, June 15, 2021.

Ukraine briefly joined a statement by over 40 countries, presented by Canada at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, urging China to allow immediate access for independent observers to Xinjiang. Some human rights groups have alleged Chinese mistreatment of Muslim Uyghurs and others in the region.

On Thursday, Ukraine pulled its name off the list of supporting states after Chinese authorities warned Kyiv that they would block a planned shipment of at least 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Ukraine unless it did so, said diplomats from two Western countries. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Ukraine has agreed to purchase 1.9 million doses of CoronaVac vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech. As of early May, Ukraine had received 1.2 million doses, according to Health Minister Maxim Stepanov.

In the past, China’s government has been no stranger to pressuring other countries in Geneva diplomatic circles or in national capitals either to line up behind its statements or avoid backing statements that criticize, question or seek scrutiny of human rights in the country...//

Read full article:
https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-china-europe-ukraine-health-a0a5ae8f735b92e39c623e453529cbb9

Source: Associated Press #Jun25

#Uyghurs #CCP #WolfWarrior #Diplomacy #MadeinChina #Sinovac

Image: Stand News

https://bit.ly/3ykp09J

#France suggests #China should halt nuclear reactor after problems

//French power group #EDF (EDF.PA) said on July 22, 2021 that it would halt the Taishan nuclear reactor it operates with a Chinese partner if similar problems around fuel rod seals were to occur in France, suggesting the plant should hit pause.

The state-controlled French group stopped short of directly calling on China to stop operations, and said the venture it runs with China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), the majority shareholder in the plant, should decide.

China said there was no leak, and refuted a report that it has raised limits on permissible levels of radiation outside the plant.//

Read more:
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/edf-says-partners-must-decide-taishan-reactor-shutdown-2021-07-22/

Source: Reuters #Jul22

#CCPRules #MadeinChina #Taishan #NuclearPlant

#Covid19 #Pandemic
#US Intel agencies scour reams of genetic data from #Wuhan lab in Covid origins hunt

//US intelligence agencies are digging through a treasure trove of genetic data that could be key to uncovering the origins of the coronavirus -- as soon as they can decipher it.

This giant catalog of information contains genetic blueprints drawn from virus samples studied at the lab in Wuhan, China which some officials believe may have been the source of the Covid-19 outbreak, multiple people familiar with the matter tell CNN...

Officials conducting the 90-day review hope this information will help answer the question of how the virus jumped from animals to humans. Unlocking that mystery is essential to ultimately determining whether Covid-19 leaked from the lab or was transmitted to humans from animals in the wild...

Investigators both inside and outside the government have long sought genetic data from 22,000 virus samples that were being studied at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That data was removed from the internet by Chinese officials in September 2019, and China has since refused to turn over this and other raw data on early coronavirus cases to the World Health Organization and the US.

The question for investigators is whether the WIV or other labs in China possessed virus samples or other contextual information that could help them trace the coronavirus' evolutionary history.

For now, senior intelligence officials still say that they are genuinely split between the two prevailing theories on the pandemic's origins, or some combination of both scenarios. CNN reported last month that senior Biden administration officials overseeing the 90-day review now believe the theory that the virus accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan is at least as credible as the possibility that it emerged naturally in the wild -- a dramatic shift from a year ago, when Democrats publicly downplayed the so-called lab leak theory.//

Source: CNN #Aug5

Read full article:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/05/politics/covid-origins-genetic-data-wuhan-lab/index.html

#CovidOrigin #MadeinChina #Investigation #WuhanPneumonia #WuhanLab

#Cybersecurity #FakeNews
Facebook takes down China-based network spreading false COVID-19 claims

//The parent company of #Facebook and #Instagram said on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, it has taken down more than 600 accounts, pages and groups connected to a Chinese influence operation spreading #COVID19 #disinformation, including an account purporting to be a fictitious Swiss biologist.

The China-based network was one of six #Meta, formerly know as Facebook, removed in November for abusing its platforms, a reminder that bad actors around the world are using social media to promote false information and harass opponents.

The China-based operation came to light after the company was alerted to an account purporting to be a Swiss biologist named Wilson Edwards (no such person exists). The account posted claims on Facebook and Twitter in July that the U.S. was pressuring World Health Organization scientists to blame China for the COVID-19 virus. The posts alleging U.S. intimidation soon appeared in Chinese state media stories.//

Image: Stand News
Source: NPR #Dec1
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/01/1060645940/facebook-takes-down-china-based-fake-covid-claims

#FakeIdentity #MadeInChina #CCPControls #CCP #Regime

#LegCoElection #CCPCharacteristics
In Hong Kong: 41 Privileged voters’ power is 7,200 times a single-vote holder’s under new #LegCo electoral system

//At least 41 ‘privileged voters’ will be able to influence 1.47% of LegCo seats in Sunday’s ‘improved’ election, finds a FactWire analysis. The voting power of each of these 41 four-vote holders is comparable to that of 7,215 Geographical Constituency voters who hold one vote each.

The #LegCoGeneralElection, scheduled for Sunday, December 19, will be the first one under the ‘improved electoral system’, relevant amendments having been passed in May of this year. 

Under the Improving Electoral System (Consolidated Amendments) Bill of 2021, the total number of seats in LegCo has been increased from 70 to 90. The numbers of seats in Geographical Constituencies (#GC) and Functional Constituencies (#FC) have been reduced from 35 to 20 and 30 respectively, while the newly-formed Election Committee Constituency will comprise 40 new seats.

The FC’s composition will also see changes. The District Council sector has been abolished, and three new sectors introduced: namely, ‘Commercial (third)’, ‘Technology and innovation’, and ‘HKSAR deputies to the NPC, HKSAR members of the National Committee of the CPPCC, and representatives of relevant national organisations’. In some sectors, individual electors have been replaced by corporate electors.

The electorate of the Election Committee Constituency comprises 1,500 Chief Executive Election Committee (#EC) members, each assigned a ‘block vote’ to select 40 candidates, albeit there are only 1,448 EC members in the current term, owing to vacancies in its LegCo members subsector and the fact that certain members have,ex officio, dual eligibilities.

Under the new electoral system, EC members will be significantly influential as some of them are qualified to vote in the EC Constituency, their own GC districts and two FC sectors (as individual and corporate electors respectively) at the same time, adding up to as many as four votes per person.//

Read the full article:
https://bit.ly/3s87FRI

Source: FactWire #Dec15

#Regime #AuthoritarianRule #CCPRules #PoliceState #MadeinChina

Related news:

Hong Kong Authorities Ban Citizens from Displaying "Hong Kong Add Oil" on Outfits
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/31621

#Propaganda #CCP
Buying Influence: How China Manipulates #Facebook and #Twitter

//...a new set of documents reviewed by The New York Times reveals in stark detail how Chinese officials tap private businesses to generate content on demand, draw followers, track critics and provide other services for information campaigns. That operation increasingly plays out on international platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which the Chinese government blocks at home.

The documents, which were part of a request for bids from contractors, offer a rare glimpse into how China’s vast bureaucracy works to spread propaganda and to sculpt opinion on global social media. They were taken offline after The Times contacted the Chinese government about them...

A separate document reviewed by The Times shows that the same local branch of Shanghai police purchased video-making services from a different company in November. The police asked the supplier to provide at least 20 videos a month and to distribute those on domestic and overseas social media. The document referred to the task as original video production that would be used to fight the “battle of public opinion.”

Earlier this year, a New York Times and ProPublica analysis showed howthousands of videos portraying members of the Uyghur ethnic minority living happy and free lives were a key part of an information campaign that Twitter ultimately attributed to the Chinese Communist Party...

Work like what Shanghai Cloud Link pitched is likely just the tip of the iceberg. Local governments and police across China have put out similar requests for services to influence overseas social media, but often in vague terms. Occasionally, specifics are revealed.

In 2017, for instance, the police in Inner Mongolia purchased software that allowed government trolls to post directly to multiple social media sites, inside and outside of China, according to documents reviewed by The Times.

In another case, a contractor had downloaded hundreds of access credentials for Facebook’s public feed, allowing it to collect data about who commented on which posts and when.//

Read the full article:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/20/technology/china-facebook-twitter-influence-manipulation.htmlb

Source: New York Times #Dec20

#Manipulation #PublicOpinionManagement #SocialMedia #Meta #Disinformation #MadeinChina #CCPRules

#MadeinChina #Surveillance
Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to #censorship concerns

Source: Reuters #Sept21;
National Communications Commision of Taiwan #Jan6

Read more
⬇️⬇️

#MadeinChina #Surveillance
Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to #censorship concerns

[Editor's note: The National Communications Commision of #Taiwan has confirmed the same result of Chinese censorship in China-made mobile phones in the findings released on January 6, 2022. Taiwan conducted a similar investigation after Lithuania published their report on September 21, 2021 as below]

#Lithuania's #DefenseMinistry recommended that consumers avoid buying Chinese mobile phones and advised people to throw away the ones they have now after a government report found the devices had built-in censorship capabilities.

Flagship phones sold in Europe by China's smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK)have a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as "Free Tibet", "Long live Taiwan independence" or "democracy movement", Lithuania's state-run cybersecurity body said on Tuesday.

The capability in Xiaomi's Mi 10T 5G phone software had been turned off for the "European Union region", but can be turned on remotely at any time, the Defence Ministry's National Cyber Security Centre said in the report.

"Our recommendation is to not buy new Chinese phones, and to get rid of those already purchased as fast as reasonably possible," Defence Deputy Minister Margiris Abukevicius told reporters in introducing the report.

Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns.

Read the full article:
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/lithuania-says-throw-away-chinese-phones-due-censorship-concerns-2021-09-21/

#Cybersecurity #Censorship #Xiaomi

Source: Reuters #Sept21;
National Communications Commision of Taiwan #Jan6

The Report of National Communications Commision (#NCC) of Taiwan in Chinese:
https://www.ncc.gov.tw/chinese/news_detail.aspx

#MassSurveillance #CCP
Security scanners across Europe tied to China govt, military

//At some of the world’s most sensitive spots, authorities have installed security screening devices made by a single Chinese company with deep ties to China’s military and the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party.

The World Economic Forum in Davos. Europe’s largest ports. Airports from Amsterdam to Athens. NATO’s borders with Russia. All depend on equipment manufactured by Nuctech, which has quickly become the world’s leading company, by revenue, for cargo and vehicle scanners.

Nuctech’s critics allege the Chinese government has effectively subsidized the company so it can undercut competitors and give Beijing potential sway over critical infrastructure in the West as China seeks to establish itself as a global technology superpower.

“The data being processed by these devices is very sensitive. It’s personal data, military data, cargo data. It might be trade secrets at stake. You want to make sure it’s in right hands,” said Bart Groothuis, director of cybersecurity at the Dutch Ministry of Defense before becoming a member of the European Parliament. “You’re dependent on a foreign actor which is a geopolitical adversary and strategic rival.”//

Read the full article:
https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-china-russia-europe-120b7dedacd8d545bf4521a1948bc31e

Source: Associated Press #Jan20

#SecurityBreach #Scanner #Europe #MadeinChina

#FactWire: #Sinovac limits Hong Kong’s protection against infection from #Omicron, analysis suggests

//Analysis conducted by FactWire suggests that only 16.5 per cent of Hong Kong’s population is currently protected against infection from the Omicron variant of Covid-19, when factors such as the percentage of vaccinated residents, the type of vaccine received, and waning antibody levels are taken into consideration.

This is due to the limited effectiveness of the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine, commonly known as Sinovac – one of the two options available in Hong Kong – against infection from the Omicron variant. Almost half of those receiving their first or third jabs in February opted for Sinovac, which may prevent severe illness but not infection.

...three doses of Sinovac may only be 36 per cent effective, falling drastically to 19 per cent after three months, and standing at a mere 8 per cent after six months.

Had BioNTech been the only vaccine offered in Hong Kong since the beginning of its vaccination programme, a protection rate of 56.93 per cent would have been achieved by the end of April, and would have reached 77.4 per cent at the end of October.//

Read the full article:
https://hongkongfp.com/2022/02/26/factwire-sinovac-limits-hong-kongs-protection-against-infection-from-omicron-analysis-suggests/

Source: FactWire; Hong Kong Free Press #Feb26

#Covid19 #Pandemic #MadeinChina #ChineseVaccine

#CarrieLam Condemns Local Newspaper for "preventing" government's works

In a press conference on March 15, 2022, Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam accused the local newspaper #MingPao of disseminating "misleading" information and "wrong message".

This 'wrong message', according to Carrie Lam, concerned the made-in-China vaccine Sinovac.

Lam claimed that the news report published by the said newspaper in relation to #Covid19 deaths and #Sinovac "prevent the government from doing what should have been done."

Source: Ming Pao; InMedia #Mar25
https://bit.ly/3JHeKyi

#Regime #PressFreedom #Mingpao #CovidDeath #Pandemic #MadeinChina

Chinese #Drones Company #DJI denies accusations of leaking Ukrainian Military Secrets

#MediaMarkt, a German electronic retailer, removed all DJI products from their shelves last week, after sources confirmed that the Chinese drone manufacturer has been leaking Ukrainian Military secrets and locations to Russia.

DJI has responded on Twitter earlier this week, denying any breach of data.

Pulling all the DJI products from over 800 stores across 12 EU countries and Turkey, MediaMarkt only stated that immediate action was needed due to their responsibilities as a corporate, without any further explanation to the cause of the pull. However, in a response to an enquiry from the internet, the company claimed that DJI has been leaking the GPS data of Ukrainian army to Russia, and that they would follow up with situation as it develops.

Source: Unwire.hk #Mar31

https://unwire.hk/2022/03/31/dji-rejects-claim-that-it-leaks-data-to-russia-on-ukrainian-military-positions/life-tech/drone/

#MadeInChina #RussianInvasion #Ukraine

A #US Federal Communications commissioner pushes #Apple and #Google to remove #TikTok from their app stores

In a letter to the companies released on Tuesday, Jine 29, 2022, #BrendanCarr, a Republican commissioner, said he believed that “TikTok’s pattern of conduct and misrepresentations regarding the unfettered access that persons in Beijing have to sensitive U.S. user data” violated Apple’s and Google’s standards and that TikTok should be taken out of the app stores...

The Biden administration has considered other measures to keep American data away from China but has not publicly pushed TikTok to cut ties with its Chinese owner.

TikTok has maintained that it is taking steps to keep employees in China from gaining access to its data. Shortly before a recent news report revealed it was struggling to do so, it said it was routing all data from its U.S. users through servers controlled by Oracle.//

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/technology/apple-google-tiktok.html

Source: New York Times #Jun29

#CyberSecurity #DataSecurity #App #MadeinChina