Farrukh Shah: China

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Activist sentenced to four months in prison for insulting Chinese flag

Hong Kong: Activist sentenced to four months in prison for insulting Chinese flag

He is accused of throwing a Chinese flag during clashes in May 2019 in front of the local parliament

Prosecutions against figures of the pro-democracy movement are on the rise in Hong Kong. A young Hong Kong activist was sentenced to four months in prison on Tuesday for insulting the Chinese flag and illegally gathering.

Tony Chung, the leader of a now-disbanded group calling for Hong Kong independence, was found guilty in early December of throwing a Chinese flag during clashes in May 2019 in front of the local parliament (Legco).

Money laundering and conspiracy

Tony Chung, 19, will await another trial for "secession" while in custody, punishable by life imprisonment under the national security law imposed by Beijing on the semi-autonomous territory atthe end of June. He is the first political figure to be prosecuted for violating new legislation designed to restore "order and stability" after seven months of monster, and often violent, protests in 2019. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to three months in prison for each of the two acts for which he had been convicted: contempt of the national flag and unlawful assembly. He will have to serve four months in detention.

He is also charged with money laundering and conspiracy to publish seditious content. The young man was arrested in late October by plainclothes police officers a few metres from the US consulate and has been in pre-trial detention ever since. According to a group calling himself "Friends of Hong Kong", the young activist was arrested by the police that day because he wanted to seek asylum at the US consulate in Hong Kong.

Extraditions to China

Many pro-democracy activists have left the city to seek refuge abroad since Beijing stepped up a crackdown on movements that denounce China's takeover of the country. Under the controversial law, which gives way to broad interpretation, activists who express their opinions can be accused of "subversion" and "collusion with foreign forces".

It also put an end to the legal safeguard that had previously separated Hong Kong's theoretically independent and widely recognized judicial system from that of mainland China, which is highly opaque and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The change paved the way for the extradition of suspects to China. On Sunday, China's CGTN television station reported that Hong Kong police have placed 30 people, who are not currently in the city, on a list of people wanted for violating the national security law.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

China, the world's largest economy by 2028

Asia China economy world

China, the world's largest economy by 2028

According to a British think tank, the United States will be dethroned five years earlier than previous forecasts. In these times of recession, the Chinese economy has rebounded more rapidly.

That is not his habit. But by the end of 2020, the Centre for Economics and Business Research(CEBR)in London is not listing the strongest growth. It merely highlights the savings that have best limited the damage. And in this competition, China is the one that fares best, according to the annual ranking that the British think tank publishes this Saturday, December 26 and which The Guardian reports on its website. To the point, he announces, that the Asian economy will dethrone its American rival before the end of the decade, in 2028 precisely.

"China has rebounded rapidly after the first effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and will grow by 2% in 2020," reports The Guardian. "While the U.S. economy will contract by 5%, China will close the gap with its great rival." Global growth is expected to decline by 4.4%, the worst contraction since world War II.

In Asia, China is no exception. According to Douglas McWilliams, vice-president of CEBR, "Other Asian economies are also climbing the rankings. Western political leaders, whose results during the pandemic are rather bad, should learn from it and be more attentive to what is happening in Asia rather than just watching each other."

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

Alibaba under investigation by competition authorities

alibaba China digital economy Tech

Alibaba under investigation by competition authorities

Beijing worries about the power of technology groups and their forays into the online lending sector

Alibaba is in Beijing'scrosshairs. Chinese competition authorities announced on Thursday that it was opening an investigation against the e-commerce giant on "suspicion of monopolistic practices." The State Administration for Market Regulation also announced that it had contacted Ant Group, the world's leading online payment company, for "supervision" issues, less than two months after Beijing cancelled at the last minute the IPO of thisAlibabasubsidiary.

Stock falls in Hong Kong

The announcements caused Alibaba shares to fall sharply on the Hong KongStock Exchange, with the stock falling more than 3 percent at the opening on Thursday. It must be said that this investigation is a thunderbolt in the Chinese business world, where Alibaba and its charismatic boss Jack Ma are symbols of the technological success of the Middle Kingdom.

The suspension in extremis of Ant Group's IPO at the beginning of November had already caused amazement. It came days after a speech in Shanghai by Jack Ma, in which the multi-billionaire criticised the actions of financial regulators. They are concerned about the power of technology groups and in particular their forays into the online lending sector, where they are breaking the prudential rules imposed on state-owned banks.

Strengthening anti-monopoly supervision

Chinese media have relayed these concerns by warning of the risks of financial turbulence. The investigation against Alibaba "is an important step for our country to strengthen anti-monopoly supervision in the Internet sector and promote a healthy long-term development of the digital economy," the People's Daily,an organ of the ruling Communist Party, wrote on Thursday. In a sign of the government's impatience with Alibaba, the group was fined 500,000 yuan (62,000 euros) last week for failing to report an acquisition.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

Justice: International Criminal Court refuses to investigate Uighurs in China

China human rights International UN

Justice: International Criminal Court refuses to investigate Uighurs in China

Prosecutors argue China is not a member of the ICC

On the Uighurcase, the International Criminal Court (ICC) cannot do anything legally. The Hague-based prosecutors refused to investigate the situation of the Muslim minority in China's Xinjiang region, as China is not a member of the ICC. According to a report published on Monday by the office of the Attorney General, Fatou Bensouda, an investigation is therefore impossible.

More than a million people, mostly Muslim, have been interned there in "camps," human rights groups say. China, for its part, claims that these are "professional training centres" designed to help people find jobs and thus distance them from religious extremism.

With regard to forced deportations of Uighur populations to China from Tajikistan and Cambodia,the prosecutor's office said that "there is not enough evidence at this stage" to launch investigations. Members of the exiled Uighur community believed that Tajikistan and Cambodia had parties to the Treaty of Rome that was the origin of the Court in 2002 and the events had taken place in their territories, and the ICC could launch investigations into these denounced deportations.

"Camps" vs. "Professional Training Centres"

Uighurs are the main ethnic group in Xinjiang, a huge region of China that has common borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Regularly hit by deadly attacks, attributed by Beijing to separatists or Uighur Islamists, the region is under heavy police surveillance.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

Global arms race escalates with China becoming the second biggest exporter

Army Asia China International Security War weapons

Global arms race escalates with China becoming the second biggest exporter

In the past five years, the Chinese military industry has become the world's second-largest arms manufacturer after the United States, according to recent data.

While science and rational thinking have become dominant themes in the modern world, warlike human nature and concerns for global security across all religions and backgrounds are progressing at a faster rate, new data suggests.

According to a Swedish peace institute, last year the world's arms manufacturing sector saw an increase of 8.5 percent, reaching $ 361 billion in sales compared to 2018.The institute's analysis is based on data collected of the top 25 arms sales companies in the world.

Some of the information, which has been prepared by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), says that China, which remained isolated for several centuries until gradually opening up to the world in the 1950s onwards, has become the second largest arms exporter in the world. It now surpasses some powerful European nations and Russia, with a 16 percent share of the top 25 companies.

The United States, the world's largest democracy, remains by far the world's leading arms manufacturer, "accounting for 61% of the combined arms sales of the top 25," according to the report.

China has overtaken some of the major European countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Russia, the successor state to the former communist Soviet Union, which competed with the United States in the arms race during the Cold War.

Among the top 25 arms companies that were reviewed, China is represented by four companies, with sales of $ 56.7 billion in 2019, while Russia has two companies with a net worth of $ 13.9 billion in the same year.

The United States tops all others with combined sales of $ 221.2 billion last year.

The rise of Chinese weapons

Experts think that China's share of the global arms sector could be much higher than that of various research groups such as SIPRI's estimate, because the country's authoritarian regime led by the communist party makes exact sales figures in missile manufacturing and shipbuilding are inaccessible.

"Those with access to additional data are likely to see even higher arms sales activity [in the People's Republic of China]," said Andrew Erickson, a professor at the China Institute for Maritime Studies at the US Naval War College.

"After all, China already enjoys the second largest defense spending in the world by any measure and is pursuing rapid military development and expansion of influence," the professor added.

Three Chinese arms companies were able to reserve a place on the list of the world's top ten arms manufacturers, which shows how adept the communist party-led country's political and financial system has been in competing fiercely with powerful capitalist countries in global markets.

The China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC) ranked sixth and the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) ranked eighth. China North Industries Group Corporation (NORINCO) ranked ninth.

"The combined revenues of the four Chinese companies in the top 25, which also include China South Industries Group Corporation (CSGC; ranked 24th), grew 4.8 percent between 2018 and 2019," the SIPRI report noted.

China can export its military technology to a diverse geography, ranging from its immediate Asian neighbors like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, to Africa and the Americas.

The large Asian continent accounts for 75 percent of China's total military exports, while Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar account for 61.3 percent of that sum according to the data, spanning a time period from 2008.

In Africa, Chinese arms also appear to have particular appeal, covering 20 percent of the country's total exports. North Africa accounts for almost half of the country's sales to the continent, while East Africa accounts for 21 percent.

Although Chinese arms companies are not doing so well in America, Venezuela, with a government of socialist tendencies, is by far the largest customer of the Asian power, accounting for 87 percent of all sales in the whole continent.

Beijing may even find customers in Europe, which has been a rare event for a long time.

At the end of 2019, Serbia showed its interest in Chinese-made UAVs and said it will buy 9 Wing Loong drones from Beijing.

Russia, which has invested heavily in developing its military technologies under the steadfast leadership of President Vladimir Putin, showing off its high-tech supersonic cruise missiles in places like Syria, is finding that its arms sales to the rest of the world are on the decline. . , according to the report.

“The revenues of the two Russian companies in the top 25, Almaz-Antey and United Shipbuilding, decreased between 2018 and 2019, by a combined $ 634 million. A third Russian company, United Aircraft, lost $ 1.3 billion in sales and pulled out of the top 25 in 2019, ”the report highlights.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

Iraq signs major oil contract with Chinese company ZhenHua

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Iraq signs major oil contract with Chinese company ZhenHua | Flash News

A Chinese state-run company has won a baghdad bid to buy 4 million barrels of oil per month for five years, Before receiving the first shipment, ZhenHua will have to pay more than $2 billion.

The Iraqi government is about to sign a long-term contract with the Chinese company ZhenHua "for several billion dollars,

The state-owned oil company was selected in a tender by the State Oil Marketing Organization, the state agency responsible for marketing Iraqi oil, the US news agency said:

Government spokesman Hassan Nadhim said on Tuesday [8 December] that there were 'several offers' and that they would be considered before Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi made the final decision.

The winner of the tender will buy 4 million barrels of oil per month for 5 years, and will have to pay a year's supply in advance. At current crude oil prices, this represents a down payment of more than $2 billion.

A welcome currency for this depleted country. All the major oil producers have suffered from the drop in demand - and therefore prices - caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the site says. "But Iraq, where oil provides virtually all state resources, is in a particularly difficult situation. Its economy will contract by 12% this year, the International Monetary Fund predicts." According to IMFfigures,the country is expected to have a GDP of $178 billion in 2020 and a debt ratio of 68.3%.

This type of contract, which amounts to a kind of oil-repaid loan, is not a first for China, where trading companies and state-controlled banks have already signed them with troubled oil countries such as Angola, Ecuador and Venezuela.

This is "one of the largest in recent history" by its amount, but it is far from the record set in 2013 by Rosneft, Bloombergnotes. At the time, the Russian state-backed oil company received an initial payment of $10 billion from Glencore and Vitol, two Trading houses domiciled in Switzerland.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

TripAdvisor and 104 apps banned by China

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TripAdvisor and 104 apps banned by China | Flash News

China has removed 105 apps from its app stores as part of a campaign to get rid of content related to pornography, prostitution, gambling and violence.

Most of the banned apps are Chinese, but the US travel app TripAdvisor is also included in the list.

According to the Chinese Cyberspace Administration, all of the apps broke one of the three cyber laws, although they did not provide details.

It comes as a second US court rules against the planned ban on TikTok.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said President Trump overstepped his authority in attempting to ban the Chinese video-sharing app on security grounds. He is the second judge to rule in favor of TikTok.

The majority of apps in Beijing's latest crackdown are domestic apps, with authorities saying the ban was in response to content that the public "deemed offensive."

It is not known why TripAdvisor was banned. The BBC has contacted the company for comment but has yet to receive a response.

Tensions between the United States and China have increasingly manifested in cyberspace in recent months.

When the TikTok ban was announced by President Trump this summer, Chinese officials accused the United States of intimidation tactics and said they would take "the necessary steps" to safeguard the interests of Chinese companies.

The internet remains heavily regulated in the country, with U.S. companies Google, Facebook and Twitter all blocked.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

JD.com becomes first online platform to accept China's digital currency | Flash News

China Cyber Security Technology

JD.com becomes first online platform to accept China's digital currency

Chinese e-commerce company JD.com Inc said on Saturday that it had become the country's first virtual platform to accept Beijing's local digital currency.

JD Digits, the fintech arm of the company, will accept the digital yuan as payment for certain products at its online mall, as part of an experimental digital yuan donation to citizens of Suzhou, near Shanghai, according to a posted post. on the company's official WeChat account.

China's digital yuan is one of the most advanced "central bank digital currency" initiatives in the world, as authorities globally respond to threats from private currencies such as bitcoin and Facebook's Libra.

Under the Suzhou program, the municipal government and the People's Bank of China (PBOC) will issue 200 digital yuan "red envelopes" to 100,000 consumers selected by lottery.

Suzhou's program is the second such digital lottery, after the PBOC issued 10 million yuan of digital currency to 50,000 randomly selected consumers in the southern city of Shenzhen.

PBOC Governor Yi Gang said last month that more than 2 billion yuan has been spent so far using China's digital currency in 4 million separate transactions.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

P7 Wing: Chinese autonomous sedan wants to overshadow Tesla's Model S | Flash News

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P7 Wing: Chinese autonomous sedan wants to overshadow Tesla's Model S

Chinese automaker Xpeng just unveiled its new electric sedan, the P7 Wing.

While Tesla is arguably the best-known car brand in the autonomous electric vehicle market, Elon Musk's company is far from the only one. Many other manufacturers have also entered this market with varying degrees of success. The sector has in fact been gaining popularity for several years because of its ecological arguments, but also of the driver's experience. And a player straight out of China may well overshadow Tesla in the next few years.

The Chinese manufacturer Xpeng has indeed just unveiled a new high-end vehicle - the American manufacturer's favorite niche - the P7 Wing, which could become a strong competitor to Tesla's Model S.

The Chinese electric sedan has a range of 568 km, a capacity close to that of the Tesla model, thanks to its 80.87 kWh battery. The Long Range version of the P7 Wing can go up to 706 km.

In addition to autonomy, the electric car has a host of features designed for driving, but also for the safety of passengers and pedestrians. It therefore incorporates LiDAR sensors that allow it to detect nearby obstacles, as well as other driving assistance features thanks to its XPILOT 3.0 on-board computer.

A premium polished aesthetic

The P7 Wing also stands out for its luxurious side. It sports a very pretty sporty design, but above all elytron doors that open vertically and not horizontally like traditional doors. Something to impress passers-by. The cabin also has 18 Dynaudio speakers for premium sound.

But its main asset remains its price. Where Tesla's Model S costs between $ 80,000 and $ 100,000, the P7 Wing is priced at 366,900 yuan ($ 47,000), up to 409,000 yuan ($ 52,000) depending on variants and options.

Should Tesla be worried ?

Unfortunately, at this time the vehicle is only intended for the Chinese market, but the features and price range of the P7 Wing make it a serious contender for Tesla's top model, even if the American manufacturer offers a more accessible model - the Model 3 - which starts all the same at 50,000 euros.

Note also that this is a special edition of the P7 model. If the latter meets with significant success in China, the manufacturer could launch into other markets, notably the European one. Since its inception in 2014 and the launch of its first model in 2018, Xpeng has grown and continues to impress. So it’s not unlikely that he could conquer other markets and overshadow Tesla.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

China conducting biological tests to create super soldiers | Flash News

China defence Innovation International Science Technology War

China conducting biological tests to create super soldiers

According to a senior US intelligence official, China has tested its military in hopes of developing a biologically better army.

John Wright Cliff, who has been Donald Trump's director of national intelligence since May, made the claims in a newspaper editorial, warning that China is "the greatest threat to the United States" today.

In the Wall Street Journal, Wright Cliff said: “The intelligence is clear: Beijing wants to dominate the United States and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technically. Only offer overflowing activities.

Wright Cliff said China has gone to great lengths to achieve its goal.

"US intelligence shows that China has also carried out humanitarian tests on members of the People's Liberation Army in hopes of developing biologically Strengthen troops." "There are no moral limits for Beijing to seize power."

Earlier, Ratcliffe, a five-year-old congressman representing Texas, said he had "allocated resources" to the intelligence budget to focus on China.

Ritcliffe said many analysts and officials from the government's intelligence agency focused on Russia and counterterrorism efforts. Safety attention is moving forward.

Ratcliffe’s spell as director of national intelligence is expected to end in about six weeks, when Joe Biden is sworn in as president. Biden appointed the Central Intelligence Agency's first deputy director, Aurel Haynes, for the role.

The enhancement of regular humans engaged in law enforcement or military operations has captured the imagination of many film and TV directors over the years.

The film Universal Soldier, starring Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme, tells the tale of soldiers who are genetically enhanced. The troops are capable of healing quickly and are stronger than normal men.

In the Robocop, Peter Wheeler depicts an American policeman killed by criminals, but whose brain and body are used by scientists to create an armed cyborg policeman of extreme power.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

Twitter rejects call to remove Chinese official’s tweet | Flash News

China Cyber Security International Social media Tech Technology War

Twitter rejects call to remove Chinese official’s tweet

Twitter on Tuesday rejected Australian calls to end a fiery tweet by a Beijing official targeting Australian troops, as China doubled down on its criticism of the international condemnation.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Xiao Lijian expressed outrage in Canberra on Monday when he posted a photo of a man dressed as an Australian soldier holding a bloody knife around the neck of an Afghan child.

The post comes just days after Australian prosecutors began investigating 19 members of the country's military for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.

Twitter said it called the tweet "sensitive," but added that comments on political issues or "foreign policy violations" between the government's political accounts were generally against its rules. Are not.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the tweet "null and void," calling for a virtual press conference to suppress Twitter and demand an apology from China.

He said Beijing should be "completely ashamed" of the "provocative and disgusting filth" against the Australian armed forces.

Twitter is banned for most Chinese citizens, and Beijing has been accused of widespread human rights violations for decades.

Some Australian allies have expressed concern over the tweet, including New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

"A photo was used in this case which is not really precise, it is not a real photo, so we took it directly with the Chinese authorities," he told reporters.

The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the post "does not meet the diplomatic standards we have in China."

A spokesperson said the image was "an insult to all countries whose armed forces have been in Afghanistan for 20 years."

In a limited statement, Kabul said it was "working with Canberra" to investigate the Australian military's alleged mismanagement, adding that Australia and China are committed to peace and development in Afghanistan. They are the “key players” in maintaining international consensus.

Another embarrassment for Australia came on Tuesday when the Guardian released an image showing an Australian soldier firing beer from the prosthetic leg of a slain Taliban fighter.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canberra accused Australia of exaggerating the incident.

“The outrage of some Australian politicians and media is nothing more than a misrepresentation and abuse of Mr Xiao's tweet,” the spokesperson said.

The embassy suggested Australian officials were trying "to bring public attention to the horrific atrocities committed by some Australian soldiers" and "to promote domestic nationalism".

The diplomatic corps has taken relations between Beijing and Canberra to a new low.

China has imposed a number of economic sanctions on Australian products in recent months, while state news outlets have repeatedly attacked Australia on a number of issues.

It comes after Canberra began to overtake Beijing's growing power in the region, crushing Chinese influence under the influence and calling for an independent investigation into the origin of the corona virus outbreak.

Source:- Flash News and News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

Chinese Beidou Navigation System Has exceeded American GPS In Over 165 Countries around the Globe | Flash News

China Innovation International Inventions Tech Technology Telecommunication U S

Chinese Beidou Navigation System Has exceeded American GPS In Over 165 Countries around the Globe

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) is a Chinese satellite navigation system. It consists of two separate satellite constellations. The first BeiDou system, officially called the BeiDou Satellite Navigation Experimental System and also known as BeiDou-1, consisted of three satellites which, beginning in 2000, offered limited coverage and navigation services, mainly for users in China and neighboring regions.

BeiDou Navigation Satellite System BeiDou-1 was decommissioned at the end of 2012. On 23 June 2020, the final BeiDou satellite was successfully launched, the launch of the 55th satellite in the Beidou family. The third iteration of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System promises to provide global coverage for timing and navigation, offering an alternative to Russia's GLONASS, the European Galileo positioning system, and America's GPS.

The second generation of the system, officially called the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and also known as COMPASS or BeiDou-2, became operational in China in December 2011 with a partial constellation of 10 satellites in orbit. Since December 2012, it has been offering services to customers in the Asia-Pacific region

In 2015, China launched the third generation BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BeiDou-3) for global coverage. The first BDS-3 satellite was launched on 30 March 2015. On 27 December 2018, BeiDou Navigation Satellite System started providing global services.The 35th and the final satellite of BDS-3 was launched into orbit on 23 June 2020.It was said in 2016 that BeiDou-3 will reach millimeter-level accuracy (with post-processing)

Read More:- US Senator calls for better threat identification technologies | Flash News

Now after the fifteen years of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, It has surpassed the US’ Global Positioning System (GPS) and has created it’s dominance.

The GPS was originally built for military applications, including missile guidance and tracking troop positions. But Beijing’s advanced satellite system, with which it can enhance its own military capabilities, not only threatens Washington but also challenges the US’ undisputed status of being the driving force in cyberspace.

As indicated by a report in Nikkei Asia, "information from US satellite recipient organization Trimble shows that Capital Cities for 165 out of all out 195 nations are noticed more often by Beidou satellites than by GPS". Upwards of 30 Beidou satellites send nonstop motions toward Addis Ababa, twice the same number of as in the US System, the report says. It asserts that the Deliver Addis Service has taken off in notoriety in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa as the application sends food to a client's area with surprising precision. It is because of the Chinese satellite innovation initially intended to help the military. Cell phone Positioning Information has improved significantly, Miyuki Koga, the owner of a Japanese eatery in the African city, told the news site. Koga says: "We can even oversee Deliveries in the Covid pandemic." This features Beijing's arising predominance in the worldwide battle for information. The US had dispatched its first satellite for GPS in 1978 while China finished Beidou in June this year after improvement started during the 1980s. Beijing's points are more than Economic.

The Chinese information infrastructure consists of undersea cables, where China has dominant, space-supported links, and other Earth-based links.

Nikkei Asia reports that it has examined the activities of 34 Chinese government ships via the website MarineTraffic, which tracks vessel movements worldwide based on public data from automatic identification systems.

The battle for data dominance isn't restricted to circle far over the Earth, however it grows to the limits if sky and deep in seas. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology sells the Information Silk Road, including Beidou and 5G networks, to worldwide crowds as an option in contrast to existing systems.

Source:- News Agencies

Farrukh Shah

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