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China Accuses U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories of Secret Dealings with Japanese Unit 731

On May 28, a reporter asked a question at a regular press conference at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “U.S. President Joe Biden claimed that a report may be released detailing the findings of the U.S. intelligence community on the origins of the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. intelligence agencies have also begun to comment on the traceability of the virus, saying they will continue to study all the evidence and collect and analyze new information. What is China’s comment on this?”

(Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson) Zhao Lijian replied, “Virus tracing is a serious scientific issue, but the U.S. is trying to let its so-called intelligence personnel lead to the conclusion, which only shows that the U.S. side does not care about the truth and does not want to engage in scientific research, but is only bent on playing politics and blaming other countries.”

“It is clear to the world that the U.S. side has recently once again maliciously rehashed the ‘laboratory leak’ and claimed to conduct an ‘investigation’ on this issue with impure motives and sinister intentions. I would like to remind them of two points. First, it is highly unlikely that the Chinese laboratory incident caused the virus, and this conclusion is clearly documented in the study report of the joint China-WHO mission. Second, the United States is the country with the largest and most numerous biological laboratories in the world. The news of the leak at the Fort Detrick biological camp has long been exposed in the media. According to public information, Fort Detrick is inextricably linked to the ‘Unit 731’ of the Japanese army invading China, and the head of the heinous ‘Unit 731’, Shiro Ishii, was a biological weapons advisor to Fort Detrick.”

“I would like to ask the U.S. side when it will provide details on the unexplained respiratory illness in northern Virginia in July 2019 and the massive ‘e-cigarette disease’ in Wisconsin? Is there the will and courage for WHO experts to come to the United States to investigate?”

U.S. President Biden recently ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to re-investigate the source of the coronavirus and urged China to participate in the global investigation. A bill was introduced in the U.S. Congress to require the intelligence community to release information about the investigation into the ties between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the coronavirus.

The mainland Chinese media once reported that according to the declassified information from the U.S. National Archives, after World War II, the U.S. military secretly contacted Shiro Ishii, Masaji Kitano and other personnel, and conducted investigations of Unit 731 of the Japanese army, and compiled a series of reports on Japan’s Unit 731 germ warfare investigations. The U.S. and Japan were also reported to have traded information on germ warfare research results, and the U.S. was able to use Japanese biochemical weapons research information, so as to develop the Fort Detrick Biological Laboratories, which is the only P4 biological processing laboratory in the U.S. Army.

Source: Chinese Foreign Ministry, May 28, 2021
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/web/wjdt_674879/fyrbt_674889/t1879392.shtml
China Times, May 28, 2021
https://www.chinatimes.com/cn/realtimenews/20210528005464-260409

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Tesla Cars Not Welcome in Government and Military Facilities in China

Starting on May 24, a “Notice on Disallowing Tesla Vehicles from the Provincial Administrative Center” was circulated online. The notice reads, “Due to a lack of parking spaces and other reasons, starting from May 31, 2021, Tesla vehicles will be disallowed from entering the provincial administrative center. Please notify the staff members in all units.” The “Security Office of the Zhejiang Provincial Administrative Center” signed the notice, which was dated May 21, 2021.

Netizens tended to believe that it was likely an authentic notice, although it has not been confirmed. Two months ago, the Chinese military had already banned Tesla cars from parking in military facilities or dormitory areas.

Wang Aizhong, a political dissident living in Guangzhou, told Radio Free Asia, “Over the years, there has been a sharply rising tide of government-guided nationalist sentiment in China. This includes the boycott of Tesla. Now some government bodies are imposing restrictions on Tesla. This is beyond Tesla’s original expectation when it came to China to set up a factory.”

Staff from at least two government agencies in Beijing and Shanghai received verbal instructions from officials in charge that they should not park Tesla cars in the office areas, Reuters reported on Friday May 21, “As of now, it is unclear whether the ban involves all government agencies or is simply a measure taken by individual officials.”

Recent news of Tesla’s intention to set up factories in Europe suggests that it plans no expansion in China. Media have reported that Tesla is now considering building factories in other parts of the world, including Russia and Germany.

Mr. Jiang, a scholar in Zhejiang, told RFA that the government hopes to obtain Tesla’s advanced technology by introducing the production line. “Learn the technology, copy the technology and then kick them out. Will a company like Tesla repeat the mistakes of its predecessor? Let’s wait and see.”

During the Shanghai Auto Show in April, a woman lodged a protest at the Tesla booth. The official media hyped up the incident and blasted Tesla as “bullying the customer.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 25, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/ql2-05252021064552.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

How Xinhua Spent More than $10 Million in North America

Radio Free Asia, through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) system, dug out the financials for the North American bureau of Xinhua, the official news agency of the People’s Republic of China. Xinhua spent more than US$10 million in the 14 months between March 18, 2020 and May 4, 2021. All of the funds came from Beijing. Employee salaries were over $5.3 million. In addition, the agency rented eight properties in the U.S. and spent more than $3.3 million on rent.Also, more than $500,000 was spent on administrative costs, including attorney fees.

Documents show that from March of last year to April of this year, the Xinhua News Agency paid a total of $8.64 million to its North American branches, including its New York headquarters and branches in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Houston, and Chicago.

In February 2020, the U.S. Department of State designated the Xinhua News Agency as a “foreign mission.” According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) is designed to ensure that the U.S. public is informed of the source of media contents. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice asked Xinhua News Agency to register as a “foreign agent” under FARA. Last March, the U.S. authorities announced a staffing cap for Chinese media outlets including Xinhua News Agency and China Global Television Network (CGTN), reducing the total number of Chinese employees in the U.S. from 160 to 100.

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 10, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/us-xinhua-05102021153237.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Lithuania Withdraws from 17+1, Calling on Other Countries to Follow Suit

Amid the deterioration of relations between the 27 EU countries and China, Lithuania believes that China constitutes a “division of the 17+1 mechanism.”  The country’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis announced that Lithuania has decided not to attend the 17+1 summit. Landsbergis called on EU member states to respond to China in unison, and called on other member states to withdraw from this mechanism.

The 17 + 1 mechanism was a cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. It was an initiative of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote business and investment relations between China and the 17 CEE countries.

On Thursday, this Baltic country’s parliament formally adopted a resolution that found Beijing to be committing “genocide” and a “human holocaust” against Uighur Muslims. The Lithuanian parliament also called on the United Nations to organize a mission to Xinjiang to investigate the mass detention of Uighurs and asked the European Union to revise its relations with Beijing.

Lithuania has taken several initiatives in recent months that have infuriated Beijing including vetoing Chinese investments and opening commercial offices in Taiwan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry lodged a protest on March 4, “strongly opposing” the establishment of Lithuanian official institutions in Taiwan.

In February this year, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia took the lead in lowering the level of participation in the summit between China and CEE countries, sending in a minister instead of a president or a prime minister. Six countries followed suit.

China has attached unprecedented importance to the February 17+1 summit. President Xi Jinping personally chaired the conference, which was usually hosted by Premier Li Keqiang. Although the Chinese Foreign Ministry has also been making frequent behind-the-scenes moves to get leaders of member states to attend, this year’s summit saw the lowest level of participation ever since the mechanism was established in 2012.

Analysis suggests that the 17+1, which was seen from the beginning by the EU as a mechanism to try to divide Europe, is now losing its initial aura. The failure of the Chinese to deliver on their investment promises, as well as the disproportionate trade benefit brought to Beijing, has disappointed the host countries. The outbreak of the corona virus epidemic has impaired China’s image even worse. Beijing’s recent counter-sanctions against the EU over the Uighur human rights issue have caused unprecedented damage to bilateral relations. The European Parliament’s recent decision to freeze the “EU-China Comprehensive Investment Agreement” is another example of the apparent deterioration of bilateral relations.

Source: Radio France International, May 23, 2021
https://rfi.my/7QAU.T

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China Invested in 700 Land Deals in Japan; Most Are Near Military Facilities

Chinese buyers are among the foreign investors who are buying Japanese real estate on a large scale before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. They are targeting land that is close to military facilities. The Japanese government set up an expert panel in November last year to review the national security risks of such land transactions. The panel found that at least 700 some deals involved Chinese companies.

Sankei Shimbun, a daily newspaper in Japan, reported on May 13 that most of these investment programs involved land that is located near defense bases, including: Self-Defense Forces (SDF), U.S. military bases, the Japanese Coast Guard and space development facilities.

According to the study, Chinese entities purchased 80 parcels of land in Japan’s “high security zone,” including 20 acres near the Hokkaido Self-Defense Force’s Chitose Air Base. Another deal was on Taketomi Island in Okinawa, which is near Taiwan. A third suspicious purchase gave buyers linked to Beijing control over what the SDF described as an “absolute choke point” near the vital Cape Noshappu radar base, which monitors the Russian border.

The report also mentioned a new wave of land purchases that appear to be focused on air and sea radar facilities off the coast of Japan. Examples are deals involving U.S. military bases on Okinawa and Japanese defense sites in Tottori Prefecture. The report stated that Chinese investors are targeting these areas. The reason is that these lands overlook the aforementioned facilities, enabling them to keep tabs on the activities of Japanese and U.S. ships, warplanes and personnel.

The Japanese Cabinet is considering a bill which designates real estate purchases by foreign investors within one kilometer of key facilities as meriting special review, including a requirement for the buyers to declare in advance how they plan to use the property.

Source: Epoch Times, May 16, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/5/16/n12953830.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

China to Build Airport in Kiribati in the Pacific

Beijing plans to rebuild an airport based on an abandoned U.S. military airfield runway and a bridge on Kanton Island, in the Republic of Kiribati. The move shows China’s ambition to further its foothold in the Pacific Ocean.

The island nation of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean has a population of 120,000 but has one of the largest exclusive economic zones in the world, covering an area of more than 3.5 million square kilometers of waters. Kanton Island is midway between Hawaii and Australia and 3,000 kilometers southwest of the U.S. military base in Hawaii. Any major infrastructure on the island would provide China with a stronghold deep into the region where the United States has maintained strong ties with and its allies since World War II.

Kanton has been a nature reserve since 2006. China plans to build a 2-kilometer long airstrip. During the World War II, the U.S. military used the island as part of an air ferry route between Hawaii and the South Pacific region. After the war, commercial airlines used the island as a trans-Pacific stopover for refueling.

Until the late 1960s, the U.S. had used the island for space and missile tracking; today, Kanton is used only for emergencies. Analysis indicates that once the existing runway is upgraded, it will be long enough to support the deployment of fighter jets. If further upgraded and extended, it will be able to support the deployment of large transport aircraft and maritime patrol aircraft.

China also has plans to build container ports in the region. Kiribati and Solomon established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 2019 after breaking diplomatic ties with Taiwan. They also joined the “Belt & Road Initiative.” Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Kiribati President Taneti Maamau on January 6, 2020.

The other four island nations in the Pacific region — the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Nauru, and Palau — continue to maintain diplomatic and economic relations with Taiwan. Palau’s new President Surangel Whipps has called for greater U.S. investment in the region.

China’s economic development efforts have resulted in the partial or complete purchase of more than a dozen ports around the world since 1990, with Southeast Asia among the major areas of Chinese investment. The current increase in Chinese investment in Pacific ports and islands is part of its longer-term strategic consideration. There have been concerns about the dual commercial and military use of these ports, although Beijing does not acknowledge its military purposes.

Source: Radio France International, May 7, 2021
https://rfi.my/7NQG.T

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China’s Surveillance of Uyghurs’ iPhones

An article on the website of the French weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur described a hacking competition, secretly organized by the Chinese government, which offered a reward of $200,000 to anyone who could hack into an iPhone. The competition finally paid off.

In November 2018, a Chinese hacker managed to find a way to intercept information on an iPhone remotely. A few months ago, the U.S. security authorities informed Apple of the information. A May 6 article published in the MIT Technology Review magazine detailed the above process. However, it did not reveal the channel through which the Chinese hacker gained the access. The article commented that, since 2018, Chinese hackers have stopped participating in the annual international hacking competition held in Vancouver, Canada, which is a side event of the Computer Security Conference. It is clear that Beijing believes that the findings of Chinese hackers should be used by China’s security apparatus. Starting in 2018, Beijing has been holding a competition called the Tianfu Cup Chinese Hacking Competition. A hacker named Qixun Zhao won the first Tianfu Cup prize for successfully hacking into the iPhone. He named his discovery “Chaos” and the Chinese media praised his work, calling it “the perfect remote jailbreak of the iPhone.” Two months later, Apple quietly patched the loophole. During this two-month gap, it was possible that the Chinese security authorities had monitored all iPhone users, especially those of Uyghurs. Research by the U.S. government and Google shows that the findings by Chinese hackers provided a great deal of assistance to the Beijing government’s mass surveillance of Uyghurs.

Source: Radio France International, May 15, 2021
https://rfi.my/7OpC.T

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Austrian Military Officials Receive Chinese Language Training at Confucius Institute

The Austrian newspaper Die Presse reported on May 14 that a spokesman for the Austrian military confirmed that civil servants have taken Chinese language courses at the Confucius Institute. In exceptional cases, teachers from the Confucius Institute also came to teach at an Austrian military base, such as the Theresian Military Academy in the Wiener Neustadt, a city south of Vienna.

Richard Trappl, the 70-year-old Austrian director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Vienna, wrote to the newspaper that “the Confucius Institute at the University of Vienna can be considered as a language intermediary agency, such as the Cervantes Institute or the Berlitz Language School.” He declined multiple interview requests from the reporter. The newspaper reported that officials from the Austrian military also receive Chinese language training at the controversial institution. Sweden, also a member of the European Union, closed its last Confucius Institute back in April last year. Universities in the United States, Germany and Australia have also recently ended, suspended or renegotiated their cooperation with Confucius Institutes.

A spokesman for the Austrian military confirmed to the newspaper that officers are taking Chinese language courses at the Confucius Institute. In exceptional cases, CI teachers also have come to teach at the premises of the armed forces, for example at the Theresian Military Academy in the city of Wiener Neustadt. The newspaper mentioned that Austrian officers started to learn the Chinese language in 1997, when one military officer was sent to Beijing. At that time there was no Confucius Institute.

Beijing Foreign Studies University and the University of Vienna jointly established the Confucius Institute at the University of Vienna on September 25, 2006. It was the first Confucius Institute in the country,

In the past two years, two Austrian military employees received language training from the Confucius Institute and paid 7,900 euros. Several Sinologists told the newspaper that, even without the Confucius Institute, there are enough highly qualified native-speaking teachers in Vienna to conduct language courses on this scale.

In addition to the Austrian military, the Confucius Institute also taught at the country’s Academy of Diplomats. While the Austrian Foreign Ministry recruits future diplomats from the Academy, it has not sent staff to the Confucius Institute for language training. A spokesperson for the ministry said, “In line with the political positioning of the EU, Austria sees the People’s Republic of China not only as a partner and economic competitor, but also as a strategic adversary that advocates alternative models of governance.”

Source: Radio France International, May 16, 2021
https://rfi.my/7Ots.T

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend