several recent angles on China

3-29-18     The $50 billion to $60 billion in tariffs (recently imposed upon China) will only go a small way toward fixing the overall problem, however.  The U.S. trade deficit with China is estimated at $375 billion.  According to the independent IP Commission’s 2017 report, the United States suffers an estimated $600 billion a year in IP theft, with the principal thief being China. ... 

Also, unlike the CCP’s military hackers, who were illegally breaching company networks and stealing technology, the CCP in many cases uses legal loopholes to take advantage of the open system of the United States.

In its latest push, the CCP has mobilized investors, regulating where their money can or cannot go so as to fulfill the regime’s broader interests.  It is targeting startup companies, establishing and funding research conferences in order to gain access to frontier findings, and partnering with or leveraging existing ties with universities to access cutting-edge research.

The goal of the CCP today remains the same as when it began Project 863:  it aims to replace the United States as the world’s leading power and to spread globally its “China model.”  Based on communist totalitarianism, the China model lacks the basic principles of human rights and freedom of belief that are at the foundations of the West.   https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-chinese-regimes-economic-war-on-the-united-states-2_2475056.html

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   Over 400,000 of Taiwan’s workforce have sought higher salaries and better job prospects on the Chinese mainland   https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/31/taiwan-accuses-china-deliberately-fueling-brain-drain-wooing/
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    In the month prior t0 last year’s 19th Party Congress, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) released one of the most authoritative policy documents to date outlining Xi and the Party’s thinking on cyberspace.  The document outlines the need to “Promote the deepened development of military-civilian integration for cybersecurity and informatization.”  Further to this directive are instructions to implement civil-military integration systems, cybersecurity projects, and innovation policies.

  This follows the January 2017 creation of the Central Commission for Integrated Military and Civilian Development, with civil-military cyber integration being named by Xi as a key area the commission would expedite.  Under the instruction of the commission, China’s first “cybersecurity innovation center” was established in December 2017.  Operated by 360 Enterprise Security Group – one of China’s primary cybersecurity companies – the center’s remit is to foster private sector cooperation to “help [the military] win future cyber wars.”...

  The centralization that Beijing is therefore pursuing is a manifestation of the corporate state model, which is increasingly defining the Chinese political system.  Here, the CCP acknowledges the presence of societal interest groups as an inevitable result of the inexorably pluralizing society.  However, the Party seeks to co-opt or direct the behavior of these entities in order to prevent the proliferation of autonomous action, perceived as inherently threatening to stability and Party rule.  Today, the CCP endeavors to achieve this by appealing to the nationalist motivations of these civil society actors and seeking to weave them into the more tightly controlled machine of state nationalism that organizations like the PLA's Strategic Support Force represent. ...

   Considering that the government has stated that “Military and civilian integration is the ‘nature’ of the information war,” while simultaneously recognizing that information war will dictate future conflict, this is definitely a space to watch.  

-Nicholas Lyall, researcher at at the Australian National University’s National Security College    https://thediplomat.com/2018/03/chinas-cyber-militias/

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3-14-18   By 2015, China Energy (CEFC) had posted nearly $40 billion in revenue.  While not state run, CEFC showed it knew how to navigate politics.  Mr. Ye, for example, has said in his official biography that he was once deputy secretary of an organization called the China Association for International Friendly Contact.  That group is part of China’s People’s Liberation Army, according to researchers for the United States Congress and Mark Stokes, a former United States military attaché in China and the executive director of a defense research group, the Project 2049 Institute.

It also has direct ties to the ruling Communist Party, through an internal party committee and the Communist Youth League, a training ground for many officials, according to its website.    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/business/china-cefc-investigation.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Pho It also has direct ties to the ruling Communist Party, through an internal party committee and the Communist Youth League, a training ground for many officials, according to its website.