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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49759007

Archived

China hacked the mobile phones of senior officials in Downing Street for several years, it has been claimed.

The Daily Telegraph said the hack had been in operation between 2021 and 2024 and was aimed at the phones of some of the closest aides to Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

However, senior sources who served in the government at the time said they did not recognise the account. They said they would have been aware if MI5 had uncovered a surveillance operation at the heart of government.

[...]

Security sources added that it was well-known that China had been targeting UK telecommunications systems more broadly but downplayed claims that this had been successful.

One said the security services had investigated whether China had been able to access metadata from Britain’s telecommunications network after the US authorities discovered that the Chinese authorities had infiltrated American phone networks and had been able to “record phone calls at will”.

However, they said there was no evidence that the so-called Salt Typhoon operation had been successful in the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer will visit China this week, where he will attempt to rebuild ties with Beijing and promote economic co-operation. Critics of the visit say the claims of hacking show the government needs to rethink its position on China.

[...]

Alicia Kearns, a shadow minister for national security and one of the alleged targets of the Westminster spy case, said: “How much more evidence does this government need before it ends its simpering to Xi and stands tall as the great country we are and defends us? Labour is rewarding hostile acts against our state.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49759007

Archived

China hacked the mobile phones of senior officials in Downing Street for several years, it has been claimed.

The Daily Telegraph said the hack had been in operation between 2021 and 2024 and was aimed at the phones of some of the closest aides to Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

However, senior sources who served in the government at the time said they did not recognise the account. They said they would have been aware if MI5 had uncovered a surveillance operation at the heart of government.

[...]

Security sources added that it was well-known that China had been targeting UK telecommunications systems more broadly but downplayed claims that this had been successful.

One said the security services had investigated whether China had been able to access metadata from Britain’s telecommunications network after the US authorities discovered that the Chinese authorities had infiltrated American phone networks and had been able to “record phone calls at will”.

However, they said there was no evidence that the so-called Salt Typhoon operation had been successful in the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer will visit China this week, where he will attempt to rebuild ties with Beijing and promote economic co-operation. Critics of the visit say the claims of hacking show the government needs to rethink its position on China.

[...]

Alicia Kearns, a shadow minister for national security and one of the alleged targets of the Westminster spy case, said: “How much more evidence does this government need before it ends its simpering to Xi and stands tall as the great country we are and defends us? Labour is rewarding hostile acts against our state.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49759007

Archived

China hacked the mobile phones of senior officials in Downing Street for several years, it has been claimed.

The Daily Telegraph said the hack had been in operation between 2021 and 2024 and was aimed at the phones of some of the closest aides to Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

However, senior sources who served in the government at the time said they did not recognise the account. They said they would have been aware if MI5 had uncovered a surveillance operation at the heart of government.

[...]

Security sources added that it was well-known that China had been targeting UK telecommunications systems more broadly but downplayed claims that this had been successful.

One said the security services had investigated whether China had been able to access metadata from Britain’s telecommunications network after the US authorities discovered that the Chinese authorities had infiltrated American phone networks and had been able to “record phone calls at will”.

However, they said there was no evidence that the so-called Salt Typhoon operation had been successful in the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer will visit China this week, where he will attempt to rebuild ties with Beijing and promote economic co-operation. Critics of the visit say the claims of hacking show the government needs to rethink its position on China.

[...]

Alicia Kearns, a shadow minister for national security and one of the alleged targets of the Westminster spy case, said: “How much more evidence does this government need before it ends its simpering to Xi and stands tall as the great country we are and defends us? Labour is rewarding hostile acts against our state.”

[...]

Archived

China hacked the mobile phones of senior officials in Downing Street for several years, it has been claimed.

The Daily Telegraph said the hack had been in operation between 2021 and 2024 and was aimed at the phones of some of the closest aides to Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

However, senior sources who served in the government at the time said they did not recognise the account. They said they would have been aware if MI5 had uncovered a surveillance operation at the heart of government.

[...]

Security sources added that it was well-known that China had been targeting UK telecommunications systems more broadly but downplayed claims that this had been successful.

One said the security services had investigated whether China had been able to access metadata from Britain’s telecommunications network after the US authorities discovered that the Chinese authorities had infiltrated American phone networks and had been able to “record phone calls at will”.

However, they said there was no evidence that the so-called Salt Typhoon operation had been successful in the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer will visit China this week, where he will attempt to rebuild ties with Beijing and promote economic co-operation. Critics of the visit say the claims of hacking show the government needs to rethink its position on China.

[...]

Alicia Kearns, a shadow minister for national security and one of the alleged targets of the Westminster spy case, said: “How much more evidence does this government need before it ends its simpering to Xi and stands tall as the great country we are and defends us? Labour is rewarding hostile acts against our state.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49758241

Archived

purge that raises concerns about the country’s stability. President Xi has sacked his most senior general and political confidant, Zhang Youxia, apparently in connection with corruption allegations and, according to some reports, for betraying nuclear secrets to the United States.

As a result of the clean-out, China’s central military commission, the body that controls its armed forces on behalf of the Communist party, now has only two out of seven of its original ­members still in place: Mr Xi himself and a general who has ­overseen the purges.

[...]

The official explanation in most of the cases is a crackdown on corruption in the procurement of weapons, or profiting from the sale of commissions to ambitious young officers. But in closed authoritarian societies, corruption charges are ­often used by nervous leaders to neutralise rivals.

[...]

Certainly the timing of the move, coming hard on the heels of the Davos gathering of business and political leaders, is striking. The divisions between the US and Europe, exposed in public and private, suggested that a significant number of western participants anticipate a future rupture in Nato. While the immediate prospect of a hostile takeover of Greenland by the Trump administration appears to have been set aside for now, there is nonetheless deep scepticism in Europe and ­elsewhere about the reliability of the US as the ­primary guarantor of western security. The point was made most clearly in Davos by Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, who had just flown in to the Swiss ski resort from China.

Much of this thinking leans heavily on the imagined stability and reliability of China in comparison with the unpredictability of Mr Trump and his lieutenants. But western powers should be aware that the more they distance themselves from Washington, the more they risk creeping subordination to China. When European elites talk in glowing terms about China’s environmental policies and technological prowess, they are making false assumptions about its political robustness.

[...]

The friction within China’s elites reflects tensions nationally, caused by relatively low growth, a weak property market, pressures on wages, lay-offs and high youth unemployment. The corruption in the military top brass also mirrors systemic corruption in wider society.

China’s dictatorship is not a satisfactory haven for Trump sceptics.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49758241

Archived

purge that raises concerns about the country’s stability. President Xi has sacked his most senior general and political confidant, Zhang Youxia, apparently in connection with corruption allegations and, according to some reports, for betraying nuclear secrets to the United States.

As a result of the clean-out, China’s central military commission, the body that controls its armed forces on behalf of the Communist party, now has only two out of seven of its original ­members still in place: Mr Xi himself and a general who has ­overseen the purges.

[...]

The official explanation in most of the cases is a crackdown on corruption in the procurement of weapons, or profiting from the sale of commissions to ambitious young officers. But in closed authoritarian societies, corruption charges are ­often used by nervous leaders to neutralise rivals.

[...]

Certainly the timing of the move, coming hard on the heels of the Davos gathering of business and political leaders, is striking. The divisions between the US and Europe, exposed in public and private, suggested that a significant number of western participants anticipate a future rupture in Nato. While the immediate prospect of a hostile takeover of Greenland by the Trump administration appears to have been set aside for now, there is nonetheless deep scepticism in Europe and ­elsewhere about the reliability of the US as the ­primary guarantor of western security. The point was made most clearly in Davos by Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, who had just flown in to the Swiss ski resort from China.

Much of this thinking leans heavily on the imagined stability and reliability of China in comparison with the unpredictability of Mr Trump and his lieutenants. But western powers should be aware that the more they distance themselves from Washington, the more they risk creeping subordination to China. When European elites talk in glowing terms about China’s environmental policies and technological prowess, they are making false assumptions about its political robustness.

[...]

The friction within China’s elites reflects tensions nationally, caused by relatively low growth, a weak property market, pressures on wages, lay-offs and high youth unemployment. The corruption in the military top brass also mirrors systemic corruption in wider society.

China’s dictatorship is not a satisfactory haven for Trump sceptics.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49758241

Archived

purge that raises concerns about the country’s stability. President Xi has sacked his most senior general and political confidant, Zhang Youxia, apparently in connection with corruption allegations and, according to some reports, for betraying nuclear secrets to the United States.

As a result of the clean-out, China’s central military commission, the body that controls its armed forces on behalf of the Communist party, now has only two out of seven of its original ­members still in place: Mr Xi himself and a general who has ­overseen the purges.

[...]

The official explanation in most of the cases is a crackdown on corruption in the procurement of weapons, or profiting from the sale of commissions to ambitious young officers. But in closed authoritarian societies, corruption charges are ­often used by nervous leaders to neutralise rivals.

[...]

Certainly the timing of the move, coming hard on the heels of the Davos gathering of business and political leaders, is striking. The divisions between the US and Europe, exposed in public and private, suggested that a significant number of western participants anticipate a future rupture in Nato. While the immediate prospect of a hostile takeover of Greenland by the Trump administration appears to have been set aside for now, there is nonetheless deep scepticism in Europe and ­elsewhere about the reliability of the US as the ­primary guarantor of western security. The point was made most clearly in Davos by Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, who had just flown in to the Swiss ski resort from China.

Much of this thinking leans heavily on the imagined stability and reliability of China in comparison with the unpredictability of Mr Trump and his lieutenants. But western powers should be aware that the more they distance themselves from Washington, the more they risk creeping subordination to China. When European elites talk in glowing terms about China’s environmental policies and technological prowess, they are making false assumptions about its political robustness.

[...]

The friction within China’s elites reflects tensions nationally, caused by relatively low growth, a weak property market, pressures on wages, lay-offs and high youth unemployment. The corruption in the military top brass also mirrors systemic corruption in wider society.

China’s dictatorship is not a satisfactory haven for Trump sceptics.

[...]

Archived

purge that raises concerns about the country’s stability. President Xi has sacked his most senior general and political confidant, Zhang Youxia, apparently in connection with corruption allegations and, according to some reports, for betraying nuclear secrets to the United States.

As a result of the clean-out, China’s central military commission, the body that controls its armed forces on behalf of the Communist party, now has only two out of seven of its original ­members still in place: Mr Xi himself and a general who has ­overseen the purges.

[...]

The official explanation in most of the cases is a crackdown on corruption in the procurement of weapons, or profiting from the sale of commissions to ambitious young officers. But in closed authoritarian societies, corruption charges are ­often used by nervous leaders to neutralise rivals.

[...]

Certainly the timing of the move, coming hard on the heels of the Davos gathering of business and political leaders, is striking. The divisions between the US and Europe, exposed in public and private, suggested that a significant number of western participants anticipate a future rupture in Nato. While the immediate prospect of a hostile takeover of Greenland by the Trump administration appears to have been set aside for now, there is nonetheless deep scepticism in Europe and ­elsewhere about the reliability of the US as the ­primary guarantor of western security. The point was made most clearly in Davos by Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, who had just flown in to the Swiss ski resort from China.

Much of this thinking leans heavily on the imagined stability and reliability of China in comparison with the unpredictability of Mr Trump and his lieutenants. But western powers should be aware that the more they distance themselves from Washington, the more they risk creeping subordination to China. When European elites talk in glowing terms about China’s environmental policies and technological prowess, they are making false assumptions about its political robustness.

[...]

The friction within China’s elites reflects tensions nationally, caused by relatively low growth, a weak property market, pressures on wages, lay-offs and high youth unemployment. The corruption in the military top brass also mirrors systemic corruption in wider society.

China’s dictatorship is not a satisfactory haven for Trump sceptics.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49702854

Archived

Though highly publicized cases of police stations, such as those in the UK, have resulted in their closure after COVID-19, some Balkan states are trending in the opposite direction. By doing so, they reveal a permissive attitude that endorses China’s incursion into their domestic security policy, in exchange for receiving means to renew their legitimacy, including powerful technology, and infrastructure investments.

[...]

NGOs such as the Madrid-based Safeguard Defenders, which tracks human rights violations and crackdowns on activists by Chinese authorities, through several investigations unearthed the presence of “at least 54 overseas police service centers.” At these centers, including one located in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, 230,000 claimed “suspects of fraud” were “persuaded to return” to China.

[...]

An unnamed Chinese official backed up the reports on secretive police stations by citing difficulties with European nations extraditing people to China and thus circumventing bilateral cooperation agreements. Previous revelations found “persuasion” to consist of three approaches to securing suspects, each with varying degrees of severity:

• harassing or persecuting family members at home,
• face-to-face confrontation with the target, and
• kidnapping – both with and without the suspects’ cooperation.

Similarly, in October 2024, the World Uyghur Congress, held in Sarajevo, had to ramp up security after organizers and attendees reported receiving threats and intimidation from Chinese nationals who were seen monitoring the event. China has been “arbitrarily detaining” Uyghurs in the country’s Xinjiang region because of fears of destabilizing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) control. Several countries, including the US have referred to the treatment as genocide.

[...]

Under Xi Jinping, China has worked to reinforce influence on foreign soil, and now operates under the “guide, buy, and coerce” model, which comprises strategies such as using diaspora communities as agents and encouraging those who are favorable to the government to become politically engaged. Campaigns of transnational repression are frequent, with dissidents, including students studying abroad, being targeted for their criticism of China’s government. During several of Xi’s foreign trips, protestors were arrested and detained with questionable legal justification for displaying signs supportive of Tibetan and Taiwanese independence. In the cases of France and Serbia, when activists probed officers over their detention, they were told that they were acting under orders from their superiors.

[...]

The adoption of surveillance technology has stretched the farthest in Bosnia and Serbia, where dozens of municipalities have implemented pedestrian and traffic monitoring systems in addition to video cameras [...] China has ignored the scrutiny that Aleksandar Vučić’s government has been under following the train station canopy collapse in Novi Sad – constructed as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – that took the lives of 16 people last year. As a response to massive protests following this tragedy, the government has implemented Chinese-made surveillance devices with at least 1000 known cameras in the capital, while intending to expand capacity by 3500 additional cameras, as suggested by a leaked purchase order with tech giant, Huawei. During Vučić’s tenure, Serbia has sought to extensively monitor protestors, including having plainclothes officers use high-tech cellphones to film individuals with the aim of cataloging “activists and other citizens who are critically aligned against the government.”

[...]

The EU might explore adjusting its accession strategy to include mitigative efforts regarding Chinese partnerships in the Western Balkans. However, limiting the role of Beijing is only one part of the task. The other consists of unearthing what enticements can be offered to prospective EU members to ensure their efforts are focused on long-term integration and not consolidating control within their own borders.

[Edit to insert archived link.]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49702544

China’s investigation into its top general is taking President Xi Jinping’s years-long corruption purge into his innermost circle, underlining that even close personal ties do not offer protection when it comes to loyalty to the party leadership.

China experts said Xi’s move against his long-term ally and Politburo member Gen. Zhang Youxia also concentrates even more power in the president's hands, makes the already secretive command of China’s military more opaque, and suggests that a near-term attack on Taiwan is less likely.

[...]

Both Xi and Zhang are princelings, children of former senior officers. The 75-year-old general was initially expected to retire in 2022, but Xi kept him on the Central Military Commission (CMC), the Chinese military's top leadership body, for a third term, underscoring their closeness.

[...]

The military was one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Xi after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached its elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Two former defence ministers were also purged from the ruling Communist Party in recent years for corruption.

“I think corruption concerns are probably real, though those are typically more a pretext to remove someone in Chinese politics," said Jonathan Czin [of the Washington-based Brookings Institution], citing how deeply entrenched graft was before Xi's campaign.

Another senior member, Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC's Joint Staff Department, was also placed under investigation, effectively shrinking the seven-member body into two, with Xi at the top. "Xi has eviscerated the People's Liberation Army (PLA) top brass like no leader before him," said Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society.

[...]

ELIMINATING THREATS

In a front-page editorial on Sunday, the PLA Daily described the probe as a major achievement, adding that the two generals had "seriously undermined and violated" the Chairman Responsibility System.

Under the system, Xi, as the CMC chairman, is vested with the "supreme military decision-making." It also serves as the "institutional arrangement for practising the party's absolute leadership over the army," according to China's government.

“To invoke violating the Chairman Responsibility System suggests Zhang had too much power outside of Xi himself,” said Lyle Morris, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

[...]

But leaving the army leadership depleted and without replacements raises questions about how the world's largest military is run.

“It is honestly not clear how the chain of command should be functioning - especially since so many of the officers who would otherwise be eligible to replace the disposed members of the CMC have themselves been ousted,” Brookings’ Czin said.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49702544

China’s investigation into its top general is taking President Xi Jinping’s years-long corruption purge into his innermost circle, underlining that even close personal ties do not offer protection when it comes to loyalty to the party leadership.

China experts said Xi’s move against his long-term ally and Politburo member Gen. Zhang Youxia also concentrates even more power in the president's hands, makes the already secretive command of China’s military more opaque, and suggests that a near-term attack on Taiwan is less likely.

[...]

Both Xi and Zhang are princelings, children of former senior officers. The 75-year-old general was initially expected to retire in 2022, but Xi kept him on the Central Military Commission (CMC), the Chinese military's top leadership body, for a third term, underscoring their closeness.

[...]

The military was one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Xi after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached its elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Two former defence ministers were also purged from the ruling Communist Party in recent years for corruption.

“I think corruption concerns are probably real, though those are typically more a pretext to remove someone in Chinese politics," said Jonathan Czin [of the Washington-based Brookings Institution], citing how deeply entrenched graft was before Xi's campaign.

Another senior member, Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC's Joint Staff Department, was also placed under investigation, effectively shrinking the seven-member body into two, with Xi at the top. "Xi has eviscerated the People's Liberation Army (PLA) top brass like no leader before him," said Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society.

[...]

ELIMINATING THREATS

In a front-page editorial on Sunday, the PLA Daily described the probe as a major achievement, adding that the two generals had "seriously undermined and violated" the Chairman Responsibility System.

Under the system, Xi, as the CMC chairman, is vested with the "supreme military decision-making." It also serves as the "institutional arrangement for practising the party's absolute leadership over the army," according to China's government.

“To invoke violating the Chairman Responsibility System suggests Zhang had too much power outside of Xi himself,” said Lyle Morris, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

[...]

But leaving the army leadership depleted and without replacements raises questions about how the world's largest military is run.

“It is honestly not clear how the chain of command should be functioning - especially since so many of the officers who would otherwise be eligible to replace the disposed members of the CMC have themselves been ousted,” Brookings’ Czin said.

[...]

Archived

Though highly publicized cases of police stations, such as those in the UK, have resulted in their closure after COVID-19, some Balkan states are trending in the opposite direction. By doing so, they reveal a permissive attitude that endorses China’s incursion into their domestic security policy, in exchange for receiving means to renew their legitimacy, including powerful technology, and infrastructure investments.

[...]

NGOs such as the Madrid-based Safeguard Defenders, which tracks human rights violations and crackdowns on activists by Chinese authorities, through several investigations unearthed the presence of “at least 54 overseas police service centers.” At these centers, including one located in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, 230,000 claimed “suspects of fraud” were “persuaded to return” to China.

[...]

An unnamed Chinese official backed up the reports on secretive police stations by citing difficulties with European nations extraditing people to China and thus circumventing bilateral cooperation agreements. Previous revelations found “persuasion” to consist of three approaches to securing suspects, each with varying degrees of severity:

• harassing or persecuting family members at home,
• face-to-face confrontation with the target, and
• kidnapping – both with and without the suspects’ cooperation.

Similarly, in October 2024, the World Uyghur Congress, held in Sarajevo, had to ramp up security after organizers and attendees reported receiving threats and intimidation from Chinese nationals who were seen monitoring the event. China has been “arbitrarily detaining” Uyghurs in the country’s Xinjiang region because of fears of destabilizing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) control. Several countries, including the US have referred to the treatment as genocide.

[...]

Under Xi Jinping, China has worked to reinforce influence on foreign soil, and now operates under the “guide, buy, and coerce” model, which comprises strategies such as using diaspora communities as agents and encouraging those who are favorable to the government to become politically engaged. Campaigns of transnational repression are frequent, with dissidents, including students studying abroad, being targeted for their criticism of China’s government. During several of Xi’s foreign trips, protestors were arrested and detained with questionable legal justification for displaying signs supportive of Tibetan and Taiwanese independence. In the cases of France and Serbia, when activists probed officers over their detention, they were told that they were acting under orders from their superiors.

[...]

The adoption of surveillance technology has stretched the farthest in Bosnia and Serbia, where dozens of municipalities have implemented pedestrian and traffic monitoring systems in addition to video cameras [...] China has ignored the scrutiny that Aleksandar Vučić’s government has been under following the train station canopy collapse in Novi Sad – constructed as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – that took the lives of 16 people last year. As a response to massive protests following this tragedy, the government has implemented Chinese-made surveillance devices with at least 1000 known cameras in the capital, while intending to expand capacity by 3500 additional cameras, as suggested by a leaked purchase order with tech giant, Huawei. During Vučić’s tenure, Serbia has sought to extensively monitor protestors, including having plainclothes officers use high-tech cellphones to film individuals with the aim of cataloging “activists and other citizens who are critically aligned against the government.”

[...]

The EU might explore adjusting its accession strategy to include mitigative efforts regarding Chinese partnerships in the Western Balkans. However, limiting the role of Beijing is only one part of the task. The other consists of unearthing what enticements can be offered to prospective EU members to ensure their efforts are focused on long-term integration and not consolidating control within their own borders.

[Edit to insert archived link.]