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Chinese imperialism and future Australian sovereignty

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Jezza Taurus

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 5:39 pm
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China's 'hybrid war': Beijing's mass surveillance of Australia and the world for secrets and scandal

Quote:
A Chinese company with links to Beijing's military and intelligence networks has been amassing a vast database of detailed personal information on thousands of Australians, including prominent and influential figures.

A database of 2.4 million people, including more than 35,000 Australians, has been leaked from the Shenzhen company Zhenhua Data which is believed to be used by China's intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security.

Zhenhua has the People's Liberation Army and the Chinese Communist Party among its main clients.

Information collected includes dates of birth, addresses, marital status, along with photographs, political associations, relatives and social media IDs.

It collates Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and even TikTok accounts, as well as news stories, criminal records and corporate misdemeanours.

While much of the information has been "scraped" from open-source material, some profiles have information which appears to have been sourced from confidential bank records, job applications and psychological profiles.

The company is believed to have sourced some of its information from the so-called "dark web".

One intelligence analyst said the database was "Cambridge Analytica on steroids", referring to the trove of personal information sourced from Facebook profiles in the lead up to the 2016 US election campaign.

But this data dump goes much further, suggesting a complex global operation using artificial intelligence to trawl publicly available data to create intricate profiles of individuals and organisations, potentially probing for compromise opportunities.

The database has been shared with an international consortium of media outlets in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Australia, comprising the Australian Financial Review and the ABC.

The media consortium sought comment from Zhenhua, but received no reply.

The company's chief executive Wang Xuefeng, a former IBM employee, has used Chinese social media app WeChat to endorse waging "hybrid warfare" through manipulation of public opinion and "psychological warfare".

Of the 35,558 Australians on the database, there are state and federal politicians, military officers, diplomats, academics, civil servants, business executives, engineers, journalists, lawyers and accountants.

They range from the current and former prime ministers, to Atlassian billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, and business figures David Gonski and Jennifer Westacott.

But there are 656 of the Australians featured on the list as being of "special interest" or "politically exposed". Exactly what the company means by either of these terms is unexplained, but the people on the list are disparate in occupation and background, and there seems little to no explanation in who has made the list.

The list includes current Victorian Supreme Court Judge Anthony Cavanough, retired Navy Admiral and former Lockheed Martin chief executive Raydon Gates, former ambassador to China Geoff Raby, ex Tasmanian Premier Tony Rundle and former foreign minister Bob Carr.

Singer Natalie Imbruglia features in this list, along with One Nation co-founder David Oldfield, National Party President Larry Anthony, former treasurer Peter Costello's son Sebastian, ex-Labor MP Emma Husar, News Corp journalist Ellen Whinnett and rural businesswoman and ABC director Georgie Somerset.

But it also has some Australians with a criminal past, including self-proclaimed Perth sheikh Junaid Thorne, Geelong accountant and fraudster Robert Andrew Kirsopp and ex-TEAC boss Gavin Muir who died in 2007 just weeks before he faced court for dishonesty offences.

The database was leaked to a US academic based in Vietnam, Professor Chris Balding, who until 2018 had worked at the elite Peking University before leaving China citing fears for his physical safety.

"China is absolutely building out a massive surveillance state both domestically and internationally," Professor Balding told the ABC.

"They're using a wide variety of tools — this one is taken primarily from public sources, there is non-public data in here, but it is taken primarily from public sources.

Professor Balding has returned to the United States, leaving Vietnam after being advised it was no longer safe for him to be there.

It was also a grave risk taken by the person who leaked the database to him, who contacted him as he started publishing articles about Chinese tech giant Huawei.

"We've worked very hard to make sure that there are no links between me and that person, once I realised what had been given to me," he said.

"They are still in China. But hopefully I think they will be safe."


Full article below.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-14/chinese-data-leak-linked-to-military-names-australians/12656668

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David Libra

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 2:04 am
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A short piece on the escape of the last remaining Australian foreign correspondents from China after local crackdowns:

https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/china/12662914

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stui magpie Gemini

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:45 am
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^

They've still got one.

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stui magpie Gemini

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 1:13 pm
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Very interesting article (I thought) about China's history and present and the insecurities that casts.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/fragility-not-strength-at-the-heart-of-chinese-politics-20201019-p566et.html

I loved the little story about the map and contrasting their reaction with how Germany may have reacted if the roles were reversed.

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stui magpie Gemini

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2020 10:27 pm
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/doctored-image-of-australian-soldier-tweeted-by-chinese-diplomat/12938244

So we now have Chinese bagging us for human rights abuse. Really. #fuckchina

Well done to Morrison for calling out this bullshit.

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think positive Libra

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2020 11:06 pm
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stui magpie wrote:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/doctored-image-of-australian-soldier-tweeted-by-chinese-diplomat/12938244

So we now have Chinese bagging us for human rights abuse. Really. #fuckchina

Well done to Morrison for calling out this bullshit.

100perfuckingcent!!!

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pietillidie 



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PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 1:48 am
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stui magpie wrote:
Very interesting article (I thought) about China's history and present and the insecurities that casts.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/fragility-not-strength-at-the-heart-of-chinese-politics-20201019-p566et.html

I loved the little story about the map and contrasting their reaction with how Germany may have reacted if the roles were reversed.

You could substitute in any number of face-sensitive cultures and get the same response though, including beloved allies Japan. In fact, Germany is almost a lone example of a country that has grappled with its history at a serious level.

China's identity would be less fragile than most. That bit was a bizarre clutching at straws.

To get the strength of a national identity, you've got to separate the rhetoric of the hour from the more enduring forces that bind (myth, place, language, accumulated group assets), and the most powerful ingredient of all: the provision of economic access and security.

As long as the context keeps providing betterment, fewer questions will be asked of Xi internally than one would like. But, like halfwit Trump and Bush before him, there will come a point when the damage being done becomes obvious.

On the doggedness of cultural identity, look no further than England, complete melting pot of a history, culture, language and identity. Yet publishing the facts about the nation's history history, and repeating them ad nauseum, has zero effect on the ugliest fist-waving nationalism. In fact, the delusions of the nationalist religion only grow to compensate for the threat of reality.

Sane liberal forces will eventually soften the hard edges of China by expanding the incentive base (those people over there are now more important to me than my third cousin or the flag). But you will still get ugly nationalist swings as with Brexit and Trumpism, and as is happening right now with Xi and his wing. But it's just much harder to tolerate that sort of fanaticism coming from a culture that you don't identify with.

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watt price tully Scorpio



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PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 9:16 am
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Turnbull and Morrison have contributed to this unfortunate mess with China. A little less stridency and a lot more diplomacy could well have helped. Morrison should have lost the megaphone a while ago.

We’ve made huge mistakes and Morrison has been part of that.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/01/does-australia-really-have-to-be-so-strident-when-it-comes-to-china

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David Libra

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 10:15 am
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stui magpie wrote:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/doctored-image-of-australian-soldier-tweeted-by-chinese-diplomat/12938244

So we now have Chinese bagging us for human rights abuse. Really. #fuckchina

Well done to Morrison for calling out this bullshit.


Of course it's all just nationalist propaganda and low-level sabre-rattling, but unfortunately this is an inevitable consequence of being responsible for human rights abuses: if we condemn those of other countries (as we should), we shouldn't get all high and mighty when we get hoisted by our own petard.

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Pies4shaw Leo

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 11:59 am
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^ "Hoisted by" or "Hoist with"?
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David Libra

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 12:09 pm
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Good question! I looked it up, and the Shakespearean idiom is definitely "hoist with" – and thus is probably the only one that should be employed – but "hoisted" is otherwise grammatically correct, as the participle form of the verb "hoist", and "by"/"with" are interchangeable. (Wish I'd had the opportunity to be pulled up on this before I sent the last issue of the magazine off to print. Embarassed)
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stui magpie Gemini

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 2:17 pm
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watt price tully wrote:
Turnbull and Morrison have contributed to this unfortunate mess with China. A little less stridency and a lot more diplomacy could well have helped. Morrison should have lost the megaphone a while ago.

We’ve made huge mistakes and Morrison has been part of that.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/01/does-australia-really-have-to-be-so-strident-when-it-comes-to-china


Bullshit.

We've set the benchmark for dealing with China that other countries have been copying, inclusing legislative steps and banning Huawai from sensitive infrastructure contracts.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/china-is-humiliating-australia-as-an-example-to-others-but-the-bullying-won-t-last-20201201-p56jfz.html

Jacinda Ardern has stated agreement with Australia and a largew number of other countries are encouraging the populace to drink Australian wine in a show of solidarity against China

https://www.theage.com.au/national/twitter-post-garbage-the-clearest-sign-yet-of-desperation-in-beijing-20201129-p56iye.html


David wrote:
stui magpie wrote:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/doctored-image-of-australian-soldier-tweeted-by-chinese-diplomat/12938244

So we now have Chinese bagging us for human rights abuse. Really. #fuckchina

Well done to Morrison for calling out this bullshit.


Of course it's all just nationalist propaganda and low-level sabre-rattling, but unfortunately this is an inevitable consequence of being responsible for human rights abuses: if we condemn those of other countries (as we should), we shouldn't get all high and mighty when we get hoisted by our own petard.


At this stage we have allegations, which are being investigated, no-one has been found guilty, whereas China engages in state sponsored ethnic cleansing and drives tanks over protestors.

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David Libra

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 2:39 pm
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For what it's worth, the Chinese government also considers those human rights abuses to be mere "allegations" and systematically cover them up where possible – as our government tried to do here when it sent in the cops to raid the ABC.

I'm not trying to assert any kind of equivalence – China's human-rights transgressions are far more systemic and wide-ranging – but sadly it's not entirely chalk and cheese, either. We have some accountability here (hence the very existence of this report), but we also have cover-ups and have aggressively pursued whistleblowers who sought to expose such crimes. As a case in point, army lawyer David McBride, who helped bring these crimes to light, is currently facing life imprisonment; if he were in China, he might have already swallowed a bullet and have disappeared off the face of the earth, but I don't find either kind of response particularly comforting.

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watt price tully Scorpio



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PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 5:15 pm
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stui magpie wrote:
watt price tully wrote:
Turnbull and Morrison have contributed to this unfortunate mess with China. A little less stridency and a lot more diplomacy could well have helped. Morrison should have lost the megaphone a while ago.

We’ve made huge mistakes and Morrison has been part of that.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/01/does-australia-really-have-to-be-so-strident-when-it-comes-to-china


Bullshit.

We've set the benchmark for dealing with China that other countries have been copying, inclusing legislative steps and banning Huawai from sensitive infrastructure contracts.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/china-is-humiliating-australia-as-an-example-to-others-but-the-bullying-won-t-last-20201201-p56jfz.html

Jacinda Ardern has stated agreement with Australia and a largew number of other countries are encouraging the populace to drink Australian wine in a show of solidarity against China

https://www.theage.com.au/national/twitter-post-garbage-the-clearest-sign-yet-of-desperation-in-beijing-20201129-p56iye.html


David wrote:
stui magpie wrote:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/doctored-image-of-australian-soldier-tweeted-by-chinese-diplomat/12938244

So we now have Chinese bagging us for human rights abuse. Really. #fuckchina

Well done to Morrison for calling out this bullshit.


Of course it's all just nationalist propaganda and low-level sabre-rattling, but unfortunately this is an inevitable consequence of being responsible for human rights abuses: if we condemn those of other countries (as we should), we shouldn't get all high and mighty when we get hoisted by our own petard.


At this stage we have allegations, which are being investigated, no-one has been found guilty, whereas China engages in state sponsored ethnic cleansing and drives tanks over protestors.


You miss the point. Being angry and incensed might make you feel good but does nada. Morrison did not cause the furore with China but poured petrol on it by his stupid comments early on about holding China to account for the Coronavirus spread. He’s a dickhead. Do the same but don’t publicly embarrass them: we have your mate the loser Donald to do that.

I felt in a knee jerk sort of way glad Scotty told the Chinese off over the Twitter feed. However I’m not so sure that was in Australia’s best interests to do it like he did: feeds into the idiots like Pauline Hanson and Sky News: never a good idea. The wine producers agree with me.

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stui magpie Gemini

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 5:36 pm
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Not sure that the wine producers agree with you

Quote:
Treasury Wine Estates chief executive Tim Ford has revealed the nation’s biggest winemaker stopped shipping wine to China a month before Beijing imposed punishing 200 per cent-plus tariffs on Saturday, commencing a company-wide pivot to send his premium wines to new drinkers from London to Taipei.


https://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/treasury-wine-estates-acts-to-counter-china-hit/news-story/1128b5e0150ed0874779984dc11937c0

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