The CHN/ China thread

[Jimbuna]

Life is so cheap in China.

A South Korean prisoner accused of committing drugs offences has been executed in China.

The death sentence was carried out on August 4 in Guangzhou, located in the coastal Guangdong province bordering Hong Kong and Macau.

Beijing was deaf to Seoul's repeated calls for clemency, a South Korean foreign ministry official said upon sharing the news.

Ahead of the sentence, China had notified the prisoner's country of origin through diplomatic channels, the official said.

He also said in a statement widely reported by South Korean media: "The government regrets, from a humanitarian perspective, that the execution took place on one of our nationals."

The Korean government had asked multiple times Beijing to reconsider or delay the execution, the official also said.

The man executed on Friday had been arrested in China in 2014 on charges of drug trafficking.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...f17ae94c&ei=16

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

The United States on Wednesday raised concerns over a Chinese call to encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work and said it has been closely monitoring the implementation of Beijing's expanded anti-spying law.

China's Ministry of State Security on Tuesday said China should encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work, including creating channels for individuals to report suspicious activity and rewarding them for doing do.

China's declaration that it is under threat from spies comes as Western nations, most prominently the United States, accuse China of espionage and cyberattacks,
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-say...es-2023-08-02/

Just days ago it was reported that the US navy arrested - once again - two sailors with Chinese migration background who gave secret information to China, they both had clearances for secret stuff on their ship.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Just days ago it was reported that the US navy arrested - once again - two sailors with Chinese migration background who gave secret information to China, they both had clearances for secret stuff on their ship.

Yeah, China plats a clever game of chess me thinks.

[Jimbuna]

[Reece]

[Jimbuna]

China and Russia launched an unprecedented joint naval drill near US waters earlier this week, sparking a major response from the US Navy, officials have said.

Eleven Russian and Chinese ships steamed close to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska in a 'highly provocative' move amid escalating tensions with the US.

It is believed to be the largest such flotilla to have approached American shores.

Four US destroyers and a P-8 Poseidon aircraft were deployed in response to divert the ships away from American territory to avert a serious international incident, officials said.

Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Wall Street Journal the patrol was a reminder that the US has entered 'a new era of authoritarian aggression,' but praised the strong naval response.

He compared it to a similar but smaller incident last September, in which the US sent a single Coast Guard cutter to chaperone a Chinese guided missile cruiser alongside two other Chinese ships and four Russian ships about 90 miles north of the Aleutian Islands.

The size of the latest joint China-Russia operation is 'an historical first,' according to Brent Sadler, a senior researcher.

A spokesman for the US Northern Command confirmed Russia and China had carried out a combined naval patrol near Alaska, but didn't specify the number of ships or their precise location.

'Air and maritime assets under our commands conducted operations to assure the defense of the United States and Canada. The patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat,' the command told the WSJ.

The USS John S. McCain, the USS Benfold, the USS John Finn and the USS Chung-Hoon were deployed in response, a US defense official said.

The drills come amid an emerging power battle in the Arctic, as the Russian and Chinese navies seek to counter US alliances with Japan, South Korea and other regional partners.

Russian warships and Chinese research vessels have been spotted in Arctic waters before, but joint patrols are a new development.

Admiral John Aquilino, who leads the US Indo-Pacific Command, said last month that joint Russian and Chinese exercises have increased.

'I only see the cooperation getting stronger, and boy that's concerning. That's a dangerous world,' he told the Aspen Security Forum.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said the patrol earlier this week wasn't aimed at Washington.

'According to the annual cooperation plan between the Chinese and Russian militaries, naval vessels of the two countries have recently conducted joint maritime patrols in relevant waters in the western and northern Pacific Ocean.

'This action is not targeted at any third party and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation,' the Chinese Embassy spokesman, Liu Pengyu, said.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...97fcfb7a&ei=12

[mapuc]

Yea what was the purpose behind this lab

If it were not for an errant hose sticking out of the back of the warehouse last spring, city officials would not have known that a shady biotech company with links to China had set up shop there, filling it with industrial freezers, hundreds of vials of viruses, and about 1,000 dead and dying lab mice.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...s-malaria.html

Markus

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Further to the above...

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines has never promised China it would remove a grounded warship serving as a military outpost in the South China Sea, a senior security official said on Wednesday, deriding the claim by Beijing as a "figment of its imagination".

The Philippines maintains a handful of troops aboard the World War Two-era Sierra Madre at the Second Thomas Shoal, known by Manila as Ayungin shoal, which is located inside its 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

China on Monday accused the Philippines of reneging on a promise made "explicitly" to remove the ship, which Manila grounded in 1999 to bolster its territorial claims in one of the world's most contested areas.

"The Philippine government will never enter into an agreement where we will abandon our sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the Ayungin shoal," Jonathan Malaya, National Security Council assistant director general, told a press conference.

"For all intents and purposes, it is a figment of their imagination," Malaya said, challenging China to produce evidence of the promise.

China's embassy in Manila said it had no comment.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...247c7588&ei=14

[Jimbuna]

Cracks have started to show in the partnership between China and Russia, and the war in Ukraine appears to be the leading point of contention.

China alliance with Russia at breaking point as Beijing frustrated over Ukraine war

While Beijing has maintained what it claimed to be a neutral position since the start of the invasion, refusing to condemn Moscow and claiming NATO expansion had contributed to igniting the war, the People's Republic has also called for an end to the conflict.

This week Chinese representatives attended an international summit in Saudi Arabia led by Kyiv to establish a framework for peace, and praised Ukraine for its effort.

And the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) highlighted further reasons to believe the alliance could be hitting a rocky spot after reviewing the different responses of China and Russia to a call between two of its top diplomats.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Communist Party Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi spoke on the phone in the aftermath of the Jeddah meeting.

The ISW noted that the Chinese and Russian ministries had "portrayed the conversation between Lavrov and Wang differently," suggesting that Beijing "is increasingly diverging with Russia on proposed settlements to end the war."

The report noted that China's insistence on claiming impartiality has frustrated Russia, as have the PRC's overtures to peace.

Beijing and Moscow struck what Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping referred to as a "no-limits" partnership deal shortly before the start of the invasion in February 2022.

Xi appeared to reaffirm his country's commitment to the agreement with a visit to Moscow earlier this year. But in April it emerged he had phoned Volodymyr Zelensky to express his country's dedication to facilitate peace.

The ISW noted a stark contrast in the way the two foreign ministries portrayed the call between Lavrov and Wang in a read-out after their conversation.

While the Russians claimed several hot regional topics, including the war, had been discussed, China reported the two sides had exchanged views about the conflict alone.

The report added that "the Chinese Foreign Ministry's description of the talks may suggest that the Kremlin is becoming dissatisfied with China's continued efforts to promote its peace plan in international fora."

It added that China's behaviour is "consistent with ISW's previous assessments that China is not interested in a 'no-limits partnership' with Russia as the Kremlin desires."

The assessment comes days after the United States urged China to refrain from supporting Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...8cb89e9a&ei=16

[Jimbuna]

China has uncovered a Chinese national suspected of spying for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), its state security ministry said on Friday, highlighting what it said were the risks and dangers of Chinese citizens being recruited abroad.

The Chinese national surnamed Zeng, who had worked for a military industrial group, was recruited by a CIA agent based in Italy, the ministry said in a statement posted on its WeChat channel.

Zeng was sent to Italy by the military industrial group for further studies and became acquainted with the CIA agent.

Through dinner parties, outings and trips to the opera, the two developed a "close" relationship, with Zeng gradually becoming "psychologically dependent" on the CIA agent, the ministry said.

After succeeding in "shaking" Zeng's political stance, the CIA agent sought sensitive information about the Chinese military from Zeng, according to the statement. It did not say when the events took place.

The statement did not specify Zeng's gender but said the person was born in 1971 and the alleged CIA agent was named "Seth".
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...ry/ar-AA1f7Pya

[Jimbuna]

[Skybird]

https://www-achgut-com.translate.goo..._x_tr_pto=wapp


I remember a time when the Japanese military was considered among the most technologically advanced in the world, especially the navy. Small but beautiful. It seems they got the German disease.

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]