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A University in Guangxi Is Inspecting Every Student and Faculty Member’s Phone and PC

Guilin University of Electronic Technology (GUET), a university in China’s southwest Guangxi Province, recently took a rare action unseen in the past few decades. For half a month, GUET has been inspecting the illegal audio and video files on more than 40,000 students and faculty members’ phones, personal computers, and removable hard disks, with no stone unturned. The university acknowledged this operation and claimed that the instructions came from the higher level authorities. All the schools were simply following the orders.

On November 13, a Radio Free Asia reporter obtained the No. 77 document, which GUET had issued. The document stated that domestic and foreign hostile forces were spreading illegal audio and visual materials through the Internet and mobile phones. Therefore, the university arranged this operation to strike the spread of audio and video programs involving violence, terrorism, reactionary contents, and pornography.

The operation began on November 7 and will end on November 23; it will target all faculty members and students. The scope of devices includes mobile phones, computers, mobile hard drives, and USB flash drives. The requirement is to complete coverage without missing a single person. After the inspection, subordinate units and colleges must submit written summaries, which the main leader must sign and affix with the official seal, and then hand them over to the school’s security unit.

It is the first time in the past 20 years that a public notice has been issued to conduct a large-scale computer inspection.

A staff member of the school confirmed that it was indeed the case. The staff said that the instructions came from the upper level and each school would release its own method of implementation.

In addition, the police can monitor the audios and videos. If illegal files are found and are found to be serious, the police will handle them or the Domestic Security Protection Bureau, a branch of Ministry of Public Security dealing with dissidents and activists will do so.

GUET is a university under the joint jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense; and the Guangxi Provincial government. It is also tasked with training technical personnel for the military.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 13, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/examination-11132018075349.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

PLA Daily: Army to Transition into the Type Oriented toward a “Proactive Strategy”

On November 12, People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Daily, the official voice of the Chinese military, published an opinion article titled, “Promoting the Transition of an Army into the Type Oriented toward a ‘Proactive Strategy.’”

“For a long time, the army has grown with the background of ‘active defense’ warfare, carrying out a ‘shield’ style of build-up and readiness. That is, the army has only passively responded when the enemy entered the country. This type of army is looking at the borders of the territory; its combat guideline is ‘defending the country and fighting against aggression.’ As history enters into the 21st century, the form of warfare is undergoing accelerated and profound changes. The development of the army must be based on the country’s strategic needs. It should have the courage to become the ‘backbone’ of information warfare and take the initiative to transition into the type that has a ‘proactive strategy.’”

“This strategy means planning and designing. It means to take the initiative, instead of relying on external forces, to make strategic plans and calculations. The army that has a ‘proactive strategy’ is in line with the trend of the evolution of the world’s military. It focuses on national strategic needs, works for the goal of ‘protecting its territory and its interests,’ proactively designs land warfare, and actively plans the development of a powerful modern new-type army.”

“Such an army has distinct characteristics: a strong sense of crisis, … a vast and broad strategic vision, … and a forward-looking land warfare design.”

Source: People’s Liberation Army Daily, November 12, 2018
http://www.81.cn/theory/2018-11/12/content_9341890.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Beijing’s Mouthpiece Charges “Crimes” of Social Media

China Central Television (CCTV), China’s official TV network, recently aired a program that listed “six major crimes” of social media. The official newspaper People’s Daily also published an article criticizing social media. They are indications that the authorities are ready to “clean up” social media. CCTV also mentioned that the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission (CCAC), the Chinese Communist Party’s policy and implementation arm of Internet regulations, will strengthen the supervision of social media.

The “six crimes” that CCTV listed include: being vulgar and pornographic, using sensational article titles, creating and spreading rumors, adopting black PR (influential netizens hired to use postings to support or attack some companies), paying for readership, and plagiarism.

The People’s Daily article also pointed out three problems of social media, including extortion, plagiarism, and a large volume of deception.

A CCAC official was quoted as saying, “In the next step, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission will coordinate relevant authorities and work harder.  …  It will carry out special rectification activities of the social media, strictly punish the illegal accounts according to the law, resolutely curb the chaos in the media, maintain the normal order of the Internet communications, and create a clean, positive, healthy, and orderly cyberspace.”

Source: Radio France International, November 11, 2018
http://rfi.my/3JsG.T

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Territorial Ownership a State Secret?

Recently, an article titled “Chinese People Have No Right to Know Their Territorial Map” sparked heated discussions on social media. The article told the story of an independent history researcher, Yin Minhong, who requested disclosure from the Chinese Foreign Ministry regarding the territorial ownership of the Tannu Uriankhai region on the Sino-Russian border. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the request on the grounds that it “involved secrecy.”

Yin Minhong made the request in August of 2017.  He told the BBC Chinese that he was hoping that the Chinese authorities would give a legal explanation of whether Tannu Uriankhai is still a territory that China has not given up, and whether there is hope to reclaim it.

Tannu Uriankhai (Chinese: 唐努乌梁海) was a historic region in the Mongolian Empire and, later, the Qing dynasty. It is located north of Xinjiang and northwest of Mongolia, an area near the Tuva Republic under today’s Russia. During World War II, the area became an independent state. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country remained in the Russian Federation as an autonomous republic. Neither the People’s Republic of China nor Taiwan has made a clear statement on the sovereignty of the land.

The letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, “According to Articles 14 and 21 of the Regulations on the Openness of Government Information of the People’s Republic of China, the information you applied for is confidential and does not belong to the scope of government information disclosure.”

In March 2018, Yin made appeals to the Beijing No.3 Intermediate People’s Court and later to the Beijing Municipal High People’s Court, but the courts decided not to accept his case.

Yin told BBC Chinese, “The signing of a territorial treaty is diplomatic state behavior, but the treaty that was signed belongs to government information.”

Si Weijiang, a lawyer in Shanghai, told BBC Chinese that, according to China’s secrecy system, whether a document is confidential or not can be determined by the authority that issued the document or by the Bureau of State Secrecy. “However,” Si said, “Every citizen should have the right to know information such as national territory and borders.”

Source: BBC Chinese, November 7, 2018
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-46120157

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China’s Gait Recognition Software, a New Weapon for Surveillance?

A Chinese firm recently released a gait recognition machine which uses the way people walk to identify them. Police in some cities have already deployed this tool.

According to the Chinese newspaper, the Yangtse Evening Post, the system is named “Shui Di Shen Jian (水滴神鉴).” It uses the characteristics of the human gait as the object and conducts rapid searches for and identification of people in massive video clips through the gait recognition technology. It has the ability to achieve a retrieval speed six times faster than other methods. With this technology, it only takes 10 minutes to screen a one-hour video with an accuracy rate of 94 percent.

Associated Press reported on November 5 that the Chinese police have already used the system on the streets of Beijing and Shanghai. “‘Gait recognition’ is part of a push across China to develop artificial-intelligence and data-driven surveillance that is raising concern about how far the technology will go.”

The developer of the tool Watrix announced last month that it had raised 100 million yuan (US$14.5 million) to step up the development and sale of the technology. Chinese police have been using facial recognition technology to monitor people and arrest pedestrians who violate traffic rules. The Police in Xinjiang, who are using facial recognition to monitor Muslim communities, are said to be interested in acquiring gait recognition products.

Huang Yongzhen, the CEO of Watrix, said using biotech to maintain social stability and managing the society is an inevitable trend and a perfect business opportunity as well.

Gait recognition technology is not a new technology. Defense information agencies in Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States have been studying the technology for years. Japanese police has been experimenting with gait recognition technology since 2013, but they have not yet tried to commercialize this technology. China is charging ahead because of its emphasis on social control.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 6, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/nu-11062018100430.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

China’s Increasing Presence in European Electricity Sector

Le Figaro, a French daily newspaper, recently carried an article on China’s increasing influence over the European electric power supply network. The article quoted from the World Energy Markets Observatory (WEMO) report of 2018, that Capgemini, a French consulting firm headquartered in Paris, had published. China, according to the report, is “the world’s second largest consumer of energy, the leading emitter of Greenhouse Gases (GHG), a significant energy equipment supplier, and a key player in critical resources. It has also become an important investor in electric companies.”

The report pointed out that a key strategy of Chinese expansion in Europe is to increase its control or influence over the continent’s electric power supply network. Chinese investment has already gained access to the electric sectors of Portugal, Italy, Greece, Malta, and the United Kingdom. It was due to the opposition of the German government that China did not have success in Germany. For energy experts, the control of the power supply network is of great strategic importance. Moreover, China is the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels, and is in a leading position in the field of wind energy. The Chinese government is currently investing in large-scale research and development of electricity storage and aims to export Chinese-made batteries to the world in the near future.

However, the problem is that in the process of producing the above-mentioned green energy products, Chinese companies will emit a large amount of greenhouse gases. In addition, China also exports a large number of its own thermal power plants. In addition, the Chinese government will obviously be unable to achieve its goal of CO2 reduction, which is the total coal-fired power generation of less than 1,100 gigawatts, by 2020.

Source: Radio France International, November 6, 2018
http://rfi.my/3Ihk.T

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

African Swine Fever Hit Chongqing and Has Spread through 14 Chinese Provinces

According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced on November 4 that a case of African swine fever broke out in a farm in Xingyi Town in China’s southwestern city of Chongqing. That pushed the number of provinces plagued by the epidemic to 14. The Chongqing farm reportedly has 309 pigs, among which three have died from the disease.

Although there were two cases of African swine fever in Shanxi Province in Northern China, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced on November 3 that another outbreak had been detected in Yangqu County of Shanxi. The involved Shanxi farmer is raising 47 pigs; 25 have been diagnosed with the disease and 7 have died.

Although China has taken many measures, the ever increasing number of confirmed cases shows that the epidemic has not been effectively contained. Outbreaks have been detected in 14 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions: Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Henan, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Tianjin, Shanxi, Yunnan, Hunan, Guizhou and Chongqing.

African swine fever has an acute death rate of 100 percent. Although it will not infect humans, there is no vaccine to prevent it. Infected or dead pigs can only be culled, buried or treated with chemicals so as to prevent the spread of the virus.

Source: Central News Agency, November 4, 2018
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201811040125.aspx

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Corrupt Officials Ran Away with Money; Depositors Made a Run on the Bank

Zigong Bank is a privately run bank in Zigong, Sichuan Province. People made a run on the bank after news spread on the Internet that the three executives of Zigong Bank fled with money they had embezzled. Many people in Zigong rushed to the bank to withdraw money.

The news of the run on Zigong Bank spread widely on the Internet. After only 20 minutes, the authorities ordered the information to be deleted, but the people had already flocked to the bank’s branches to withdraw funds. Rumors were that the bank did not have enough reserves to pay for the withdrawals.

The local government issued a notice denying the rumors and claimed that Zigong Bank is functioning normally. The police later claimed to have arrested a 31-year-old netizen.

Source: Radio France International, November 3, 2018
http://rfi.my/3I47.T

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources