Tom Kirkman + 8,860 February 6, 2020 FBI points to China as biggest U.S. law-enforcement threat (Reuters) - The FBI on Thursday identified China as the biggest law enforcement threat to the United States, and its director said Beijing was seeking to steal American technology by "any means necessary." FBI Director Christopher Wray told a conference the bureau currently had about 1,000 open investigations of Chinese technology theft across its 56 regional offices. FBI counterintelligence chief John Brown said the bureau arrested 24 people last year in China-related cases and had already arrested 19 in 2020. He told the conference at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that the FBI believed "no country poses a greater threat than Communist China.” ... ... In late January alone, federal prosecutors in Boston announced three criminal cases involving industrial spying or stealing, including charges against a Harvard department chair. Prosecutors said Harvard's Charles Lieber lied to the Pentagon and the NIH about his involvement in the Thousand Talents Plan: a Chinese government program that offers mainly Chinese scientists working overseas lavish financial incentives to bring their expertise and knowledge back to China. They said he also lied about his affiliation with China's Wuhan University of Technology. During at least part of the time he had ties to the Chinese university, Lieber was also a "principal investigator" working on at least six research projects funded by U.S. Defense Department agencies, court documents show. ... 1 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Kirkman + 8,860 February 7, 2020 Attorney General William P. Barr Delivers the Keynote Address at the Department of Justice's China Initiative Conference ... Barr, "My original career goal was to go into the CIA as a China expert, and so I focused on Chinese studies for my BA and MA at Columbia University. I remember in one of my Government classes, we were having a debate as to which foreign adversary posed the greatest long-term threat – Russia or China. I recall the observation of one of my classmates in arguing that it was China that posed the greatest threat. He said, “Russia wants to conquer the world. We can deal with that. China wants to own the world. That is going to be more challenging to deal with.” There was a certain truth in that………….. I mentioned my classmate's comment about China wanting to own the world because, today, I’d like to focus on the challenge of China’s drive for economic and technological supremacy. But I am not suggesting that China’s ambitions are merely economic, or that our competition with China is, at bottom, merely an economic rivalry. The Chinese have long been a commercial people, but for China, purely economic success is not an end in itself. It is a means to wider political and strategic objectives. Throughout its long history, China has always used its economic strength as a tool to achieve its political and strategic objectives. In 2015, the Chinese leadership launched its “Made in China 2025” plan — a sustained, highly-coordinated campaign to replace the United States as the dominant technological superpower. The dictatorship has mobilized all elements of Chinese society – all government, all corporations, all academia, and all of its industrious people – to execute seamlessly an ambitious plan to dominate the core technologies of the future. This drive is backed by industrial policy involving huge investments in key technologies, massive financing, and subsidies in the hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars. Unfortunately, it also involves industrial espionage and theft of technology and intellectual property, as well as forced technology transfers, predatory pricing, leveraging China’s foreign direct investment, and strong-arm sales tactics in target markets, including the use of corruption." ... 1 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Otis11 + 551 ZP February 7, 2020 13 hours ago, Dan Warnick said: Doesn't everyone? But in my case, I can speak from experience. And from a decade living and working with the people of whom I speak. This. I have been told before by close friends that they intended to become experts and go back to their home country. When asked why they said they would live like royalty there... and more than them, their families would be taken care of and live lavishly... They are competing and hiring away our experts... they're just playing the long game and making our experts their own nationals. Much easier to ascertain loyalties then (though it takes longer). To be clear, none of these friends had any ill intention toward the US as far as I can tell... I can only hope as more of this comes out their thoughts evolve accordingly... 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ward Smith + 6,615 February 8, 2020 Intriguing opportunity to finally Connect all the dots This stuff is right out of a spy thriller, happening in real time in the real world? Stranger than fiction Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dan Warnick + 6,100 February 9, 2020 (edited) 7 hours ago, Ward Smith said: Intriguing opportunity to finally Connect all the dots This stuff is right out of a spy thriller, happening in real time in the real world? Stranger than fiction It is very interesting what industrious human beings can and do accomplish, especially when conditioned to consider the group more important than the individual. Combine that with indoctrination, yes it's a strong word; but it fits, that leads the group to believe that the entire world outside your borders has gravely wronged your great country throughout history and is in fact responsible for most of the woes that have befallen your Great nation (read Party, and now President for Life), or will do so into the future. It seems that this all too often evolves into a mass group of individuals carrying out the bidding/ideology of the few at the top of what is called "leadership", or government, or CEO/C-suite, etc. Did anyone else notice that the protesters in Hong Kong, and any supporters they may have had, have been made impotent by all of this? Does anyone in the Middle Kingdom doubt the State's power and control at this stage? Do you think it is lost on the citizens that the government claims all rights to being the saviour, and that argument about this point could cost you your life? The figures vary, but somewhere around 100 million citizens have been effectively imprisoned in and around a number of Chinese cities, and what goes on inside the prison is virtually unverifiable. I'd wager that no other country on earth could carry out such a "quarantine" at such a scale as the Chinese. It is my opinion that this whole affair, when it is boiled down to nuts and bolts, is a warning from the ruler(s) to the ruled. And, to a certain extent, to the world at large. You can call this conspiratorial madness, but you have not seen the forces of the government of China unleashed upon its own people the way I have, and you have not seen how the world at large was impotent at doing a damn thing about it. This is not China of 1890 anymore. This is evolution in a dangerous direction. (rant over!) Edited February 9, 2020 by Dan Warnick 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ward Smith + 6,615 February 9, 2020 1 hour ago, Dan Warnick said: It is very interesting what industrious human beings can and do accomplish, especially when conditioned to consider the group more important than the individual. Combine that with indoctrination, yes it's a strong word; but it fits, that leads the group to believe that the entire world outside your borders has gravely wronged your great country throughout history and is in fact responsible for most of the woes that have befallen your Great nation (read Party, and now President for Life), or will do so into the future. It seems that this all too often evolves into a mass group of individuals carrying out the bidding/ideology of the few at the top of what is called "leadership", or government, or CEO/C-suite, etc. Did anyone else notice that the protesters in Hong Kong, and any supporters they may have had, have been made impotent by all of this? Does anyone in the Middle Kingdom doubt the State's power and control at this stage? Do you think it is lost on the citizens that the government claims all rights to being the saviour, and that argument about this point could cost you your life? The figures vary, but somewhere around 100 million citizens have been effectively imprisoned in and around a number of Chinese cities, and what goes on inside the prison is virtually unverifiable. I'd wager that no other country on earth could carry out such a "quarantine" at such a scale as the Chinese. It is my opinion that this whole affair, when it is boiled down to nuts and bolts, is a warning from the ruler(s) to the ruled. And, to a certain extent, to the world at large. You can call this conspiratorial madness, but you have not seen the forces of the government of China unleashed upon its own people the way I have, and you have not seen how the world at large was impotent at doing a damn thing about it. This is not China of 1890 anymore. This is evolution in a dangerous direction. (rant over!) Dude, I'm with you. I just had someone over today from Shinzen. There's more to the story, but all the info isn't in yet. Bottom line, don't trust CCP no matter what. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
frankfurter + 562 ff February 9, 2020 Big bloody deal. What exactly transpired and how dire was the loss if any? This game has continued since time immemorial and is played by all governments. The Soviets caught Americans. Americans caught Soviets. What else are embassies for? This time, the Americans caught the Chinese. Next time, the Chinese will catch an American, and so forth. If anything, this story shows how the USA is vulnerable. This story is just another piece of rubbish to trash China. Soon, we should see likewise in obverse. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marcin2 + 725 MK February 9, 2020 17 hours ago, Ward Smith said: Dude, I'm with you. I just had someone over today from Shinzen. There's more to the story, but all the info isn't in yet. Bottom line, don't trust CCP no matter what. In my opinion it is very probable that unqualified people in Wuhan were handling some sort of bat viruses, maybe even doing genetic manipulations (like zerohedge reported). Yesterday I have found the article about BSL-4 training for lab staff: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/5/18-0220_article from official cdc webpage, it was written by Virusology Center staff, it was to be applied starting 2019 in Wuhan. I cannot assess whether the procedure is ok. I would expect reference to BSL-3 lab experience as entry level requirement, but that was not there. Could you look at it ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ward Smith + 6,615 February 9, 2020 1 hour ago, Marcin2 said: In my opinion it is very probable that unqualified people in Wuhan were handling some sort of bat viruses, maybe even doing genetic manipulations (like zerohedge reported). Yesterday I have found the article about BSL-4 training for lab staff: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/5/18-0220_article from official cdc webpage, it was written by Virusology Center staff, it was to be applied starting 2019 in Wuhan. I cannot assess whether the procedure is ok. I would expect reference to BSL-3 lab experience as entry level requirement, but that was not there. Could you look at it ? I've read it and the appendix. It reads to me like an operations manual implemented after the fact, kind of like software engineers writing the program then doing the flowchart. I could be wrong Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marcin2 + 725 MK February 9, 2020 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Ward Smith said: I've read it and the appendix. It reads to me like an operations manual implemented after the fact, kind of like software engineers writing the program then doing the flowchart. I could be wrong But it is wrong in both cases (unless program is straightforward). You could be right, I have not noticed this before, but there were too many paths/variations of conduct, that is a wrong approach in a high risk environment. I mean the customization of training on the basis of previous assessment ? You need to ensure that trainee excels in all the aspects of curriculum, with customization, every training program being actually different, it is more difficult. Edited February 9, 2020 by Marcin2 typo 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites