Surveillance
Deep mistrust, dysfunction and dissonance characterize the current U.S.-China relationship.
This is bad news as a negative spiral in relations has the potential to intentionally or unintentionally descend into a kinetic conflict that could have consequential ramifications for Japan and the broader Indo-Pacific region.
Source: The Japan Times
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Read MoreIs China hacking western satellites with high-tech laser weaponry, in preparation for a potential nuclear war?
According to a report in Global Defence Technology, satellite imagery of the top secret Korla East Test Site in Xinjiang, China, shows the operation of laser anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) to engage with foreign satellites.
The satellite imagery from geospatial intelligence company BlackSky has uncovered a pattern of behaviour at Korla that is consistent with China’s development of technology to disrupt, destroy or hijack foreign satellites, the report said.
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Read MoreRick Claypool is a level-headed policy analyst and number-cruncher for Public Citizen, who is known for reporting the decline in corporate crime enforcement with each succeeding presidency. (Biden less than Trump.)
His latest report (with Cheyenne Hunt) clearly shows him in an unusually agitated state. Its title is “‘Sorry in Advance!’ Rapid Rush to Deploy Generative AI [artificial intelligence] Risks a Wide Array of Automated Harms.”
Claypool is not engaging in hyperbole or horrible hypotheticals concerning Chatbots controlling humanity. He is extrapolating from what is already starting to happen in almost every sector of our society.
I challenge you to read his report without experiencing cognitive dissonance and throwing up your hands thinking the genie is already out of a million bottles.
Claypool takes you through “real-world harms [that] the rush to release and monetize these tools can cause — and, in many cases, is already causing.”
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Read MoreBlinken and Xi pledge to stabilize deteriorated US-China ties, but China rebuffs the main US request
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said they agreed to “stabilize” badly deteriorated U.S.-China ties, but America’s top diplomat left Beijing with his biggest ask rebuffed: better communications between their militaries.
After meeting Xi, Blinken said China is not ready to resume military-to-military contacts, something the U.S. considers crucial to avoid miscalculation and conflict, particularly over Taiwan.
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Read MoreAddressing an audience in Montreal, Senator Victor Oh said he is planning to rent buses to transport up to 3,000 people to Ottawa for an upcoming demonstration against proposed legislation to create a foreign agent registry aimed at combatting foreign influence.
“We need to rent buses to [transport people] from Toronto. I plan to rent 50 buses. … Each can accommodate around 55 to 60 people, so with 50 buses, that’s 3,000 people,” Oh told his audience in Chinese at an event held at the Montreal Chinese Community United Centre (MCCUC), according to a video posted June 13 on Weixin, the Chinese version of WeChat. The video’s caption said Oh spoke “yesterday,” indicating the event was held on June 12.
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Read More$930 million in grants announced in Biden’s effort to expand internet access to every home in the US
The massive federal effort to expand internet access to every home in the U.S. took a major step forward on Friday with the announcement of $930 million in grants to shore up connections in remote parts of Alaska, rural Texas and dozens of other places where significant gaps in connectivity persist.
The so-called middle mile grants, announced by the Department of Commerce, are meant to create large-scale networks that will enable retail broadband providers to link subscribers to the internet. Department officials likened the role of the middle mile — the midsection of the infrastructure necessary to enable internet access, composed of high-capacity fiber lines carrying huge amounts of data at very high speeds — to how the interstate highway system forged connections between communities.
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Read MorePrivy Council President Bill Blair yesterday said he never saw a secret memo on Chinese spies because it was sent to the wrong office. Blair’s earlier claim that information was deliberately withheld by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was contradicted in committee testimony.
“I am advised they sent it to another office with the intent that I would somehow get to see it,” Blair told reporters. “The briefing note was sent to another deputy head, to another office, not my office, and I was never advised that the report existed or where it could be located.”
Blair would not name the official who received the security warning. “Do you know if the memo was read?” asked a reporter. “I have no idea,” replied Blair.
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Read MoreCabinet yesterday said Canadian delegates will no longer attend meetings of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank but stopped short of dumping Canada’s shares in the Beijing operation. It followed complaints by a Canadian executive working for the Bank that the Communist Party “runs the joint.”
“The Government of Canada will immediately halt all government-led activity at the Bank and I have instructed the Department of Finance to lead an immediate review of the allegations raised and of Canada’s involvement in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters. Freeland stopped short of withdrawing Canadian funds from the Bank.
The review follows the abrupt resignation of Bob Pickard, a Toronto publicist working as chief of communications for the Bank. “As a patriotic Canadian this was my only course,” Pickard said in a statement. “The Bank is dominated by Communist Party members.”
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Read MorePrivy Council President Bill Blair’s claim that federal spies withheld information on Chinese interference is false, the House affairs committee was told last night. The director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said he specifically sent a memo to warn Blair that foreign agents were targeting MPs.
“The information was meant to be seen by the Minister,” testified David Vigneault, CSIS director. “That was the purpose of this note, to bring it to the attention of these people,” he added.
The May 2021 memo said Chinese agents “intended to target” two MPs with family members in Hong Kong, Conservative MP Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton Hills, Ont.) and New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East). Neither MP was told. No action was taken.
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