Geo-Strategic Trend - 86. page

Finnish media recently reported that the city of Kemijärvi, located in Finland’s northernmost Lapland region, after notifying the Finnish Defence Forces, rejected an offer a Chinese state agency made to buy or lease a local airport adjacent to a military zone.

The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) reported on March 4 that the  director of the Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC), the head of the polar research of China’s State Oceanic Administration, and a military attaché from Chinese Embassy in Finland, led a delegation, and traveled to Kemijärvi in 2018 with a plan to buy the airport. The airport would be used for landing and take-off of Arctic research airplanes. The Chinese side did not rule out covering the costs of renovating and expanding the airport.

“Their intention was to conduct Arctic research on the polar ice cover. They would have needed a base for these operations in Kemijärvi. A large jet aircraft with different measuring equipment would have come there, and they would have flown to the North Pole, taken their measurements and flown back,” explained Kemijärvi’s Mayor Atte Rantanen.

The flight route would have also made observations possible over the Arctic Ocean and the Northeast Passage, which is an area of interest to both China and Russia.

The 3,000-nautical-mile-long Northeast Passage of the Arctic Route, sailing westward through the Bering Strait, passing through the Chukchi Sea along the northern waters of the Eurasian continent, through the Barents Sea to the vicinity of the North Cape of Norway, and finally arriving at various ports in Europe, is the shortest sea channel to connect China and Europe. From the perspective of maritime transport efficiency, the Arctic route is 12 to 15 days less than the traditional route, known as the “Golden Waterway.”

The Kemijärvi municipal airport and airspace is adjacent to the Rovajärvi firing range, which  the Finnish Defence Forces often use. After receiving the Chinese proposal, the city inquired about the response of the Defence Forces to the idea. “There was a clear view from the army that this type of activity could not be carried out there. It’s too close to Rovajärvi,” said Mayor Rantanen.

Anu Sallinen, a consultant with the Finnish Ministry of Defence, also told YLE that the idea to buy the Kemijärvi airport came to the Ministry three years ago. She noted that the property is unlikely to be sold to a foreign state-owned enterprise as it is next to a strategically important firing range. Moreover, such a proposal would be unrealistic given the 2020 EU legislation restricting foreign investment. China currently has Arctic research centers in Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, situated north of mainland Europe.

Source: Radio France International, March 5, 2021
https://rfi.my/7BxW.T

A report from Holland made serious allegations against Huawei, China’s tech giant that supplied mobile cellphone network equipment for KPN, a Dutch mobile telecom company that also operates in Belgium, Germany and France. According to the report, Huawei was able to monitor any calls that subscribers made, even including the Prime Minister and several cabinet ministers.

According to reports from The Daily Mail on April19, “Huawei staff were able to monitor all of KPN’s mobile users and eavesdrop on their private conversations. According to the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, the staff even knew which numbers the police or intelligence agencies were tapping.”

“The newspaper cited a report that consultancy firm Capgemini prepared for KPN, which it said flagged that Huawei could have been accessing users’ calls in 2010 without KPN knowing.”

“Huawei was, allegedly, even able to monitor phone calls that the former Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, government ministers and Chinese dissidents made.”

Ma Yongtao, a Chinese citizen movement activist living in exile in the Netherlands, told Radio Free Asia that this is a real-life version of the movie “The Lives of Others.” Ma said, “Unlike the former East German regime, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been practicing high-tech totalitarianism not only in China, but around the globe. The CCP allows Huawei to enter the Western market as a private company with a low price and then it acts as a tool for its expansion.”

According to an anonymous source, Huawei remains a key supplier to KPN. This even includes the radio antenna equipment for its 5G network. This means that the company’s mobile network now runs almost entirely on Huawei equipment and technology. The source warned that once the Western governments start to monitor Huawei, Huawei can immediately turn off its surveillance functions. In Europe, he said, if these telecom companies cannot remove Huawei equipment, the security risks will remain.

The Daily Mail added, “The report’s findings were so shocking that the internal report was kept secret, de Volkskrant reports.  … ‘The continued existence of KPN Mobile is in serious jeopardy as licenses can be revoked or the government and businesses can lose their trust in KPN if it becomes known that the Chinese government can eavesdrop on KPN mobile numbers and shut down the network,’ the report said.”

The report disclosed that Huawei, as early as 2004, was acquiring the information of the then Dutch telecom company Telfort, which was later merged with KPN. In 2009, KPN started using Huawei’s network technology and hired six Huawei employees to work at its headquarters in the Hague.

KPN switched to working with Ericsson and Nokia only after the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD issued an alert and launched a security investigation into the matter. After the report came to light, KPN said it found no evidence of wiretapping by Huawei and insisted that it had not outsourced its core network to Huawei.

Source: The Daily Mail, April 19, 2021
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9487631
Radio Free Asia, April 20, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/nd-tap-04202021114941.html

Well-known Russian news agency Sputnik recently reported on its Chinese Edition site that the authorities from Turkey’s capital city are considering renaming the street where the Chinese Embassy sits. The motion was submitted to the city government committee for review. This happened after the Chinese Embassy in Turkey tweeted condemnation of Turkish politicians for slandering human rights in Xinjiang. The Chinese Embassy’s tweet was in response to criticism from two Turkish opposition politicians. Later the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Chinese Ambassador to Turkey to protest. At a regular press conference, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson supported the Chinese ambassador’s position against certain Turkish politicians’ comments on Xinjiang affairs and stated that the relevant response of the Chinese Embassy in Turkey was completely reasonable and beyond reproach. The Ankara city government has already started “maintenance work” near the Chinese Embassy and cut off the water supply to the Embassy.

Source: Sputnik Chinese, April 13, 2021
http://sputniknews.cn/politics/202104131033471779/

Radio Free Asia (RFA) Chinese Edition recently reported that thirteen victims who had been forced by the Chinese Communist Party to make TV confessions jointly called the European satellite carrier Eutelsat for an immediate stop to the broadcasting of the CCTV4 and CGTN channels. According to one of the organizers, Swedish human rights activist Peter Dahlin, Norway communications provider Telia already agreed to cut off CGTN. In addition to Peter Dahlin, the thirteen victims also include people from the former staff of the British Consulate General in Hong Kong, other Hong Kong residents, and Chinese Mainland human rights lawyers and activists. The joint announcement was published via NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) Safeguard Defenders. The announcement described the facts that the Chinese Communists forced the victims to confess guilt on national TV and took away their legal rights to a fair trial. The open announcement also stated that more victims could not speak up and some had even been executed. The victims have nowhere to claim compensation. Earlier, Sweden stopped CGTN and CCTV4 due to the fact that the channels broadcasted the forced confession video of two Swedish citizens.

Source: RFA, April 13, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/nw-tele-04132021102013.html

[Editor’s Note: As a result of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) genocide of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and other ethnic minority groups, many Western companies announced that they would not use Xinjiang cotton due to the persecution and the slave labor involved in the cotton production. China launched a boycott against multiple foreign companies including Swedish H&M clothing brand over their statement that they would ban cotton made in Xinjiang. Jojje Olson, a Swedish independent journalist recently received threats from the Chinese Embassy in Sweden for his coverage of Beijing’s boycott of H&M. As a result, members of the Swedish Christian Democrats and Sweden Democrats urged the Swedish government to expel Chinese Ambassador Gui Congyou from Sweden. See Chinascope’s previous article on the boycott at http://chinascope.org/archives/26323]

 

According to Expressen, an evening newspaper in Sweden, on Thursday April 8, Jojje Olson, an independent journalist who is familiar with China issues, received an email from the Chinese Embassy. The email demanded that he stop writing critical news reports on China and accused him of conspiring with people who advocate “Taiwan independence” and spreading misinformation to incite anti-Chinese sentiments. The email called Olson “dishonest and morally corrupt” and explicitly warned Olson that he would face consequences. This is not the first time that the embassy demanded that Olson stop reporting on China but the tone in the latest email appears to be more threatening.

A spokesperson for the Sweden Democrats stated that the Chinese ambassador to Sweden has threatened Swedish journalists and politicians for many years, which is unacceptable. In 2019, the Swedish Democratic Party proposed that Ambassador Gui Congyou be listed as an “unwelcomed person.” A spokesperson of the Christian Democrats mentioned that even though Gui Congyou was summoned, he didn’t change his wolf-warrior diplomatic style. Therefore the Swedish government should list Gui as an “unwelcome person.”

Since taking office as the Chinese ambassador to Sweden, Gui Congyou has repeatedly accused the Swedish media of “viciously attacking the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.” In 2020, Gui Congyou accused the Swedish Express and the Swedish Daily of “maliciously criticizing China.” The embassy sent at least three malicious e-mails to the political editor of the Swedish Nerikes Allehanda newspaper for publishing an interview with Taiwan’s representative to Sweden while criticizing China in the same report.

Other Swedish opposition parties also expressed dissatisfaction with the Chinese Embassy’s attempts to influence Sweden’s freedom of speech.

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde stated that the Swedish government has summoned Gui Congyou multiple times to inform him that freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Constitution of Sweden and that journalists are free to conduct interviews and reports. Meanwhile the Swedish government has repeatedly asked the Chinese ambassador to respect Swedish law and said they would not accept threats.

Source: Radio Free Asia, April 10, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/sw-journalist-04102021085656.html