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#MassSurveillance #CCPControl
Chinese company with CCP's Military and Intelligence Network Surveys the World

A Chinese company, Zhenhua Data, with links to Beijing's military and intelligence networks has been amassing a vast database of detailed personal information on prominent and influential figures, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, members of the royal family, Australian Prime Minister Morrison and Indian Prime Minister Naomohan Modi, military officers, celebrities, entrepreneurs, journalists, accountants, academics, scientists, as well as criminals and politically sensitive people.

The database of 2.4 million people has been leaked from the Shenzhen-based company is believed to be used by China's intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security. Of the 250,000 records recovered, there are 52,000 on Americans, 35,000 Australians, 10,000 Indian, 9,700 British, 5,000 Canadians, 2,100 Indonesians, 1,400 Malaysia and 138 from Papua New Guinea.

While much of the information has been "scraped" from open-source material, some profiles have information which appears to have been sourced from confidential bank records, job applications and psychological profiles. The company is believed to have sourced some of its information from the so-called "dark web".

One intelligence analyst said the database goes much further that of "Cambridge Analytica”, suggesting a complex global operation using artificial intelligence to trawl publicly available data to create intricate profiles of individuals and organisations, potentially probing for compromise opportunities.

The database was leaked to a US academic based in Vietnam, Professor Chris Balding, who until 2018 had worked at the elite Peking University before leaving China citing fears for his physical safety.

"China is absolutely building out a massive surveillance state both domestically and internationally.” “I think it speaks to the broader threat of what China is doing and how they are surveilling, monitoring and seeking to influence… not just their own citizens, but citizens around the world." Professor Balding told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Source: ABC #Sep15

Read full article :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-14/chinese-data-leak-linked-to-military-names-australians/12656668

#Zhenhua #CCPControl #MassSurveillance #BigBrother
For Hong Kong residents looking to escape repression, it might already be too late

Source: The Globe and Mail #Sep15

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For Hong Kong residents looking to escape repression, it might already be too late

The Hong Kong we see now is completely different to the knee we envisioned when Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997.

A police force, once hailed as 'Asia's finest', has now stooped down to a level where locals and people from all around the world despise and disrespect. Just recently, a 12-year-old girl shopping for art supplies was violently tackled by multiple police officers.

While seeking abode overseas might be the only option for some to escape this tyrannical regime, fears of being arrested are mounting after the arrest of 12 youths who were trying to flee to Taiwan. They were arrested in Chinese waters, and are currently detained in the Mainland.

Will the Hong Kong government, fearing the city’s best and brightest may flee, strengthen existing exit controls to discourage a mass exodus?
Exit routes to countries such as Taiwan are getting blocked, and become more risky. Is it already too late for Hong Kong residents to escape repression?

#PoliceState #MassExodus #China

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-for-hong-kong-residents-looking-to-escape-repression-it-might-already/

Source: The Globe and Mail #Sep15
Religious, Not Diplomatic: Holy See Reassures Taiwan over Reported Renewal of Vatican’s Bishop Appointment Pact with China

Source: Stand News #Sep15

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Religious, Not Diplomatic: Holy See Reassures Taiwan over Reported Renewal of Vatican’s Bishop Appointment Pact with China

The Vatican has recently been reported to have renewed the agreement on bishop appointment it signed with China in 2018, due to expire this year. Neither the Vatican nor Beijing has confirmed the reports, while Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it had been closely following the Vatican’s interaction with China and had maintained close ties with the Holy See. Taiwan had also been reassured by the Vatican that there was nothing to worry about the agreement’s being extended, which the Holy See claimed to be a religious, not diplomatic, matter.

A report by Reuters quoted a senior Vatican source as saying on 14 September that Pope Francis had signed an agreement to extend the pact for two years. The Vatican’s state secretary Pietro Parolin said on the same day that the Holy See intended to renew the pact and believed it would be renewed. This was the first time in recent years that the Vatican has openly discussed its position on renewing the pact.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular press briefing that China’s relations with the Vatican had been improving and that China hoped to keep in touch with the Holy See for further development of their relations.

Source: Stand News #Sep15

#China #Vatican #Taiwan #PopeFrancis #Bishop #Agreement #Diplomacy

https://tinyurl.com/yx8l8vgk
US halts imports from China's Uighur region for forced labor

Four companies and a manufacturing facility in northwestern China were blocked Monday from shipping their products to the U.S. because of their suspected reliance on forced labor from people detained as part of a massive campaign against ethnic minorities in the region.

Many Uyghurs in Xinjiang have been detained in re-education camps, and the Human Rights Watch has alleged that these camps have been used to indoctrinate Uyghurs and other Muslims since 2017 as part of a "people's war on terror," a policy announced in 2014. The re-educarion camps also functioned as forced labor camps, in which the detainees labor to produce products such as cotton for export.

Cotton is central to the industry of the region, and majority of China's cotton is produced in the Xinjiang province.

#US #Xinjiang #Uyghurs #Uighurs

Source: Associate Press #Sep15
https://apnews.com/0a2b64d4b2dfee8dc6be8d402a96ecbe
Attacks on media coverage of protests increase worldwide. UNESCO: Police don’t have to fear punishment.

Source:Appledaily #Sep15

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Attacks on media coverage of protests increase worldwide. UNESCO: Police don’t have to fear punishment.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a report on Monday, stating that violence against journalists covering protests has risen sharply across the world, mainly due to police not fear of punishment. The Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, urged governments to take positive steps to ensure the safety of journalists at work.

UNESCO monitoring media development stated that journalists attacked, arrested and even killed in 21 protests around the world between January and June this year were just the tip of the iceberg. The report pointed to “a wide upward trend in the use of unlawful force by police and security forces over the past five years”.

According to a report investigated protests in study 65 countries, at least 10 journalists were killed during protests, and there were 125 instances of attacks on, or arrests of journalists who worked in Syria, Mexico, Israel, Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, Nigeria and Iraq. “Hundreds of journalists around the world trying to cover protests have been harassed, assaulted, intimidated, arrested, put under surveillance and kidnapped and their work equipment have been destroyed, “ mentioned in the report.

The report stated that the police and security forces carried out most of the attacks. "The police use of non-lethal ammunition such as rubber bullets and pepper bullets has injured dozens of journalists, and some lost their eyes." Police don’t fear to attack reporters. Impunity has continued to be the norm in recent years."

#UNESCO #PoliceBrutality #ViolenceAgainstJounalists #AFP

Source:Appledaily #Sep15

https://hk.appledaily.com/international/20200915/MOUCF7VSHFAJFBTS6AGJEM4VEA/
Human rights groups issued open letter calling for UN investigation into humanitarian and genocide crimes against Uighurs

Source: Apple Daily #Sep15

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Human rights groups issued open letter calling for UN investigation into humanitarian and genocide crimes against Uighurs

More than 20 human rights groups on Tuesday (15 September) issued an open letter calling for a United Nations investigation into humanitarian and genocide crimes against the Uighurs in China's Xinjiang, where more than a million people are currently detained in camps.

The letter was signed by human rights organisations including the Uighur Human Rights Project and Genocide Watch, both based in the United States. The open letter states: 'These atrocities include the arbitrary placement of 1 million to 1.8 million people in detention camps, massive political indoctrination programs, forced disappearances, the destruction of cultural venues, forced labor, disproportionate incarceration rates, and coercive birth control actions and policies.'

These human rights groups said the measures met the threshold for genocide, a major international crime under the UN Genocide Convention, and asked the UN Human Rights Council to initiate an investigation. China has claimed that the detention camps are vocational training centres as part of its counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation measures.

The Convention prohibits "measures intended to prevent births" within an ethnic or religious group. In international law, crimes against humanity are defined as widespread and systematic crimes. Genocide, on the other hand, is defined as the attempted extermination of part of a population, but is more difficult to provide evidence.

Source: Apple Daily #Sep15

https://hk.appledaily.com/international/20200915/CR242PNX4JDVLKG3GB2KBKGFE4/

#HumanRights #Uighur #Xinjiang