News: March 2009 Archives
By Dune Lawrence | Bloomberg.com
March 30, 2009
A China-based cyber spying operation penetrated almost 1,300 computers in embassies and international organizations around the world, according to a report published yesterday that may spur concern about the country's espionage efforts.
The spying extended to "high value" targets in 103 countries, according to a report by Information Warfare Monitor, a joint project by researchers at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and the Ottawa-based SecDev Group, a think tank. Computers in South Korea's embassy in China, India's embassy in the U.S., the Taiwan government service network, and the Associated Press in the U.K and Hong Kong were affected.
"The most obvious explanation, and certainly the one in which the circumstantial evidence tilts the strongest, would be that this set of high profile targets has been exploited by the Chinese state for military and strategic-intelligence purposes," the paper concludes. China's Foreign Ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment made through their official media hotline. The report includes information provided by Tibet's government-in-exile.
The findings are a "wake-up call" regardless of who ultimately directed the espionage efforts, because they show the "relative ease" of creating such an effective spy net, the authors said.
The Times of India
March 30, 2009
China's cyber warfare army is marching on, and India is suffering silently. Over the past one and a half years, officials said, China has mounted almost daily attacks on Indian computer networks, both government and private, showing its intent and capability.
The sustained assault almost coincides with the history of the present political disquiet between the two countries.
According to senior government officials, these attacks are not isolated incidents of something so generic or basic as "hacking" -- they are far more sophisticated and complete -- and there is a method behind the madness.
Publicly, senior government officials, when questioned, take refuge under the argument that "hacking" is a routine activity and happens from many areas around the world. But privately, they acknowledge that the cyber warfare threat from China is more real than from other countries.
The core of the assault is that the Chinese are constantly scanning and mapping India's official networks. This gives them a very good idea of not only the content but also of how to disable the networks or distract them during a conflict.
By Kim Covert, Canwest News Service | NATIONAL POST
March 28, 2009
10-month investigation by a team of researchers at the University of Toronto uncovered a broad Chinese espionage scheme that reached into foreign embassies, news services and even the office of the Dalai Lama.
The researchers says the system - called GhostNet - sent e-mails that introduced malware into host computers, which in turn fed information back to servers located on the Chinese mainland.
"The GhostNet system directs infected computers to download a Trojan (horse) known as ghOst RAT that allows attackers to gain complete, real-time control," the authors write in Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network.
"Our investigation reveals that GhostNet is capable of taking full control of infected computers, including searching and downloading specific files, and covertly operating attached devices, including microphones and web cameras."
By Agence France Presse | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
March 25, 2009
Congress voted Tuesday to reaffirm the US commitment to ensuring Taiwan's security, despite protests from China which claims the island.
The House of Representatives in a voice vote approved a resolution that pledged an "unwavering commitment" to the Taiwan Relations Act -- passed 30 years ago next month -- and called it a "cornerstone" of US policy.
The Taiwan Relations Act requires the United States to maintain the capability to defend Taiwan and to provide the island "arms of a defensive character."
Congress pushed through the 1979 act when president Jimmy Carter recognized Beijing and broke off relations with Taiwan, where China's nationalists fled 30 years earlier after losing the civil war to the communists.
China had warned Congress not to reaffirm the Taiwan Relations Act, which it views as a violation of US promises to recognize only Beijing as China's legitimate government.
China has told US President Barack Obama's administration it will never compromise on Taiwan, despite easing tensions since the island last year elected a Beijing-friendly president, Ma Ying-jeou.
Taiwan's de facto embassy in Washington in the absence of diplomatic relations hailed Congress for offering "staunch support."
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office said in a statement it "deeply appreciates the bipartisan and uniform support of the US Congress."
Representative Shelley Berkley, the chief sponsor of the bill and a member of Obama's Democratic Party, said the resolution sent an important signal as Taiwan "enters a new era of cross-Strait relations."
"Taiwan is an inspiring story of expanding freedom, a robust capitalist economy and a strong trading partner of the United States," she said on the House floor.
"We must do everything in our power to continue protecting it and ensuring its survival," she said.
By David Barboza | THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 24, 2009
Nearly 100 people, most of them monks, were being held in a Tibetan area of northwestern China after a crowd attacked a police station there on Saturday, according to the state-controlled media.
The authorities, who said they had restored order in the region, said 6 people were arrested and 89 others had "surrendered" to the police. The attack involved monks from the Ragya Monastery in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Golog in Qinghai Province.
The riot was the latest and biggest skirmish this month between ethnic Tibetans and Chinese authorities and comes as Tibet and adjoining areas face growing tensions amid a series of historically delicate anniversaries.
China's Tibetan region consists largely of Tibet and several bordering provinces that have large Tibetan populations. The police said the unrest broke out Saturday after rumors spread in the region about a man being investigated by the police and then disappearing after he broke Chinese law by advocating Tibetan independence.
China has sent thousands of troops to Tibetan areas in the northwest part of the country to guard against a repeat of the anti-Chinese riots that occurred last March, when Tibetans rioted in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, killing some Han Chinese.
While China is celebrating the 50th anniversary of what it calls the liberation of Tibet from serfdom this March, many Tibetans are calling for independence and marking the date when China took control over the region and forced its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to flee into exile in India.
Much of the region is closed to journalists and independent observers, making it difficult to verify the government reports.
Several journalists who have entered the region have been detained or forced to leave.
In recent weeks, China has released a series of papers on how its rule has created a safer and more prosperous Tibet. Beijing has also repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama of advocating independence for Tibet. He insists he is seeking only autonomy, not secession.
But in Tibetan areas, where there remains a great deal of support for the Dalai Lama, there are frequent reports of small uprisings. Last Monday, a bomb was set off in a government building in a Tibetan part of western China's Sichuan Province. About a week earlier, a police car and a fire truck were damaged by minor explosions in a Tibetan part of Qinghai.
Last week, the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India, released a seven-minute video, which is being shown on YouTube*), that purports to show Chinese police officers brutally beating Tibetans last March following the riots in Lhasa. There has been no independent confirmation that the footage is authentic.
*) TAC: blocked by the Government of Communist China
By Tim Padgett / Miami | TIME Magazine in Partnership with CNN
March 23, 2009
Soon after Danie Beck and her husband bought their two-story townhouse west of Miami in the summer of 2006, she thought an animal had died somewhere behind the walls. The strong sulfurous odor lingered, she says, and she began having dizzy spells that would keep her in bed for days. She began suffering from insomnia and sore, swollen joints. The house, too, appeared to be ailing: Lights began blinking on and off, and Beck noticed discoloring of her wood furniture. The air conditioner, an indispensable appliance in South Florida, kept conking out. "It was an absolute nightmare," the 67-year-old dance teacher. "I felt as if something in this house was hammering me into the ground every day."
It wasn't until her repairman got fed up with fixing inexplicably corroded air-conditioner coils that Beck finally discovered what she and her homebuilder suspect is the source of the poltergeist: the Chinese drywall of the house's interiors. Beck is among hundreds of homeowners in Florida alleging that toxic levels of chemical pollutants such as sulfur are issuing from contaminated drywall made in some Chinese factories. At least four class-action lawsuits have been filed in Florida; others have been filed in California, Louisiana and Alabama.
By Michael Bristow | BBC World News
20 March 2009
Local Chinese officials have been told to text their superiors for approval if they want to drink alcohol.
Officials in Hua County in Henan Province must text by 1700 [5 pm] on the day they want a tipple, according to a notice on a government website.
Teams of inspectors are being sent around the county with breathalysers to check the new rule is being observed.
It has been brought in to prevent corrupt officials using public money to "eat big and drink big".
Public exposure
"Government workers are strictly forbidden from drinking alcohol at lunchtimes on workdays," the government posting said of the rule, which came into force earlier this month.
"If there are special circumstances where officials need to drink on weekday evenings, they should text before 5pm," it added.
The notice says special circumstances include visits to the county by senior leaders or outside business people.
Officials working for local government or communist party organisations are also forbidden from getting drunk - anytime, any place.
Nine supervision teams will tour local government and party workplaces with breathalysers to check the rule is being kept.
These teams will also make sure officials are at their desks when they should be and are not wasting time by playing computer games, a local official said.
Anyone who fails to meet the new strict standards could face exposure on television.
Hua County appears preoccupied with improving the moral behaviour of its local officials.
Last year it held a conference that explored ways of "rectifying unhealthy tendencies".
Corruption is a major problem in China, where there are few checks and balances on what officials get up to.
China's Communist Party periodically launches anti-corruption campaigns in an effort to show it is serious about the issue.
By BBC World News
March 16, 2009
Bone tests on teenage athletes in south China have shown that thousands had faked their age, often in order to keep competing in junior events.
Tests on nearly 13,000 athletes found that more than 3,000 were older than their registered age, according to the Sports Bureau of Guangdong Province.
At least one athlete was seven years older than their stated age, but most were said to differ by a year or two.
The news comes as Guangdong prepares to host the 2010 Asian Games.
The investigation is the latest in a number of initiatives by the Chinese authorities to crack down on the practice of age-faking, which many experts believe is rampant.
The expensive bone age analysis tests were carried out on teenage athletes registered with sports academies in Guangdong.
The province's governing body found that about a fifth of those tested had lied about how old they were.
"We must ensure that those athletes faking their ages cannot find any way to take advantage [in competition]," officials were quoted by local media as saying.
"Based on the bone X-ray examinations, we will review all the results of youth sports competition in 2008."
'Widespread practice'
Funding of sport at provincial level is dependent on success.
The BBC's sport news reporter, Alex Capstick, says local officials are under huge pressure to win, which makes them more likely to bend the rules.
It is no surprise some athletes and their families, many of whom see sport as a way out of hardship, have joined in the lie as the system only rewards the very best, our correspondent says.
Chinese athletes have faced repeated claims of age-faking in recent years.
At last year's Olympics in Beijing, some of China's gold-winning gymnasts were alleged to be below the minimum age of 16.
However, after an inquiry, the sport's governing body cleared them of any wrongdoing.
The Chinese Basketball Association recently announced that last year 26 players in the top league had registered an incorrect age. This would have allowed them to represent junior teams when they were in fact too old.
There have been similar problems in football.
At the weekend, it emerged that a badminton player who had won a provincial title as a 14-year-old had now admitted to being 17 at the time of the contest.
By The Epoch Times
March 15, 2009
The family of respected Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng arrived in New York at JFK airport on Saturday night at about 10 PM. Gao's wife Geng He, and their two children, aged 16 and 5, began their escape from China weeks ago and finally arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday March 11.
In a complicated and dangerous plan that involved escape on foot, by train and air travel, the three have defected from China to seek safety from the Chinese Communist Party.
Their escape was aided by human traffickers and several groups, including Friends of Gao Zhisheng, the Global Association for the Rescue of Gao Zhisheng, and the U.N. Refugee Agency.
The escape began on January 9, when Geng He her two children began the trip from Beijing, fleeing for the border to Thailand. Geng He spoke of a harrowing journey in a Radio Free Asia interview earlier this week. "We left from Beijing. We took the train. With the help of friends, we escaped the police and slowly and step by step arrived at a second country. Many things happened during that time, but I can't recall them now. We were on the road day and night, and it was very tough. I don't even remember the places we traveled through."
When asked why she decided to escape from China, Geng He said, "The Chinese regime had been monitoring my family closely for a long time, and it had brought great inconvenience to our life and work. My daughter Gege was not able to attend school, and she became self-destructive and suicidal. I had no place to turn to, so I fled with my children."
Gao Zhisheng's whereabouts are presently unknown. Gao was abducted from his home in Shanxi by Chinese police on February 4, and has not been seen since. Gao had been detained previously after having written three open letters to China's top leaders, as well as the U.S. Congress urging Chinese leaders to cease their persecution of Christians and Falun Gong practitioners. He was a top contender for the Nobel Peace Prize last year and was formerly recognized as a top human rights lawyer in China.
It has been over 2 years since Gao's connections to the outside world were cut off by the regime. In May 2007, the American Board of Trial Advocates granted Gao the Courageous Advocacy Award.
In September 2007, Gao was kidnapped again. During the 13 days, he was stripped naked and laid on the floor. He was hit by electron batons all over his body including his genitals, and even had toothpicks stuck into his genitals. When Gao regained consciousness, he found himself soaked in urine.
>> 中文
THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Edward Wong
Jonathan Ansfield contributed reporting from Beijing, and Hari Kumar from New Delhi
March 10, 2009
The Dalai Lama delivered on Tuesday one of his harshest attacks on the Chinese government in recent times, saying that the Chinese Communist Party had transformed Tibet into a "hell on earth" and that the Chinese authorities regard Tibetans as "criminals deserving to be put to death."
"Today, the religion, culture, language and identity, which successive generations of Tibetans have considered more precious than their lives, are nearing extinction," said the Dalai Lama, 73, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans.
Those words came during a blistering speech made Tuesday morning in Dharamsala, India, the Himalayan hill town that is the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Tibetans outside of China and their supporters held rallies around the world on Tuesday to mark the 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. The Chinese military crushed the rebellion, forcing the Dalai Lama to flee across the Himalayas to India.
The furious tone of the Dalai Lama's speech may have been in reaction to a new clampdown by China on the Tibetan regions. The Dalai Lama might also have adopted an angry approach to placate younger Tibetans who have accused the Dalai Lama of being too conciliatory toward China. The Dalai Lama advocates genuine autonomy for Tibet and not secession, while more radical Tibetans are urging the Dalai Lama to support outright independence.
In the rugged Tibetan regions of China, where there is widespread resentment at Chinese rule, no reports emerged on Tuesday of any large-scale protests. The Chinese government, fearing civil unrest among six million Tibetans, has locked down the vast area, which measures up to a quarter of China, by sending in thousands of troops in the last few weeks and cutting off cell phone and Internet services in some locations. An unofficial state of martial law now exists, with soldiers and police officers operating checkpoints, marching through streets and checking people for identification cards.
Chinese President Hu Jintao called this week for the building of a "Great Wall" of stability in Tibet.
"We must reinforce the solid Great Wall for combating separatism and safeguarding national unity, so that Tibet, now basically stable, will enjoy lasting peace and stability," Mr. Hu said while meeting with Tibetan officials in Beijing on Monday, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.
Across Tibet, monks at large monasteries have been ordered to stay indoors. In the town of Tongren in Qinghai Province, monks at the sprawling Rongwo Monastery, where protests erupted last year, have been told they cannot leave the compound from March 6 to March 16, according to two monks reached by telephone. No classes or prayer gatherings were held on Tuesday. One monk said he and his peers were reading Buddhist scriptures in their bedrooms.
"This morning, I cried," he said.
The monk declined to give his name for fear of government retribution. A year ago this month, he was studying in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and taking part in protests to mark the 49th anniversary of the failed uprising. When security forces suppressed those protests, Tibetans began rioting in the streets, attacking ethnic Han Chinese civilians and burning shops and vehicles.
The uprising quickly spread to Tibetan areas in other provinces, becoming the largest rebellion against Chinese rule in decades. At least 19 people were killed in Lhasa, most of them Han Chinese civilians, according to the Chinese government. In the violent repression that followed, 220 Tibetans were killed, nearly 1,300 were injured and nearly 7,000 were detained or imprisoned, according to the Tibetan government-in-exile. More than 1,000 Tibetans are still missing.
"There has been a brutal crackdown on the Tibetan protests that have shaken the whole of Tibet since last March," the Dalai Lama said in his speech.
In a report released Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said that a careful study of official Chinese accounts of last year's uprising and its aftermath showed that "there have been thousands of arbitrary arrests, and more than 100 trials pushed through the judicial system." The government's official figures on arrests and prosecutions suggest that several hundred suspected protestors remain in custody, Human Rights Watch said.
By Andrew Jacobs | The New York Times
09 March 2009
They are often tucked away in the rough-and-tumble sections of the city's south side, hidden beneath dingy hotels and guarded by men in dark coats. Known as "black houses," they are unofficial jails for the pesky hordes of petitioners who flock to the capital seeking justice.
This month, Wang Shixiang, a 48-year-old businessman from Heilongjong Province, came to Beijing to agitate for the prosecution of corrupt policemen. Instead, he was seized and confined to a dank room underneath the Juyuan Hotel with 40 other abducted petitioners.
During his two days in captivity, Mr. Wang said, he was beaten and deprived of food, and then bundled onto an overnight train. Guards who were paid with government money, he said, made sure he arrived at his front door.
As Beijing hosts 10 days of political pageantry known as the National People's Congress, tens of thousands of desperate citizens are trying to seek redress by lodging formal complaints at petition offices. A few, when hope is lost, go to extremes, as a couple from the Xinjiang region did last week: they set their car afire on the city's best-known shopping street, injuring themselves critically.
In his annual report to the legislature on Thursday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said China should use its petition system to head off social unrest in the face of a worsening economy. "We should improve the mechanism to resolve social conflicts, and guide the public to express their requests and interests through legal channels," he said.
According to the state media, 10 million petitions have been filed in the last five years on complaints as diverse as illegal land seizures and unpaid wages. The numbers would be far higher but for the black houses, also called black jails, the newest weapon local officials use to prevent these aggrieved citizens from embarrassing them in front of central government superiors. Officially, these jails do not exist.
In China's authoritarian state, senior officials tally petitions to get a rough sense of social order around the country. A successfully filed petition -- however illusory the prospect of justice -- is considered a black mark on the bureaucratic record of the local officials accused of wrongdoing.
So the game, sometimes deadly, is to prevent a filing. The cat-and-mouse contest has created a sizable underground economy that enriches the interceptors, the police and those who run the city's ad hoc detention centers.
Human rights activists and petitioners say plainclothes security officers and hired thugs grab the aggrieved off the streets and hide them in a growing constellation of unmarked detention centers. There, the activists say, the aggrieved will be insulted, roughed up and then escorted back to their home provinces. Some are held for weeks and months without charge, activists say, and in a few cases, the beatings are fatal.
The police in Beijing have done little to prevent such abuses. They are regularly accused of turning a blind eye or even helping local thugs round up petitioners. That raises suspicions that the central government is not especially upset about efforts to undermine the integrity of the petition system.
By BBC World News
02 March 2009
Oasis' debut concerts in China have been cancelled after the authorities revoked the band's licences to play, deeming them "unsuitable".
Shows in Beijing and Shanghai due to take place next month have been pulled, and fans are to be reimbursed.
Concert promoters said the Chinese culture ministry recently found out that Noel Gallagher played at a Free Tibet benefit in the US in 1997.
The rest of the band's South-East Asian tour will go ahead as planned.
Profane language
In a statement issued through their publicists, Oasis said they were "extremely disappointed" about the news, and hoped the Chinese authorities would "reconsider their decision".
Organisers said that the immigration and licensing processes for the concerts had been completed before tickets went on sale.
The band are currently touring the world to promote their current release Dig Out Your Soul.
Other acts have encountered difficulties in playing China, which is celebrating the 60th anniversary since the foundation of the People's Republic this year.
Rapper Jay-Z was denied permission to perform in 2006 due to his use of profane language.
And Britney Spears was permitted to play the country in 2004 on the understanding that her costumes were not too revealing.
Last year, Icelandic star Bjork shouted "Free Tibet!" after a song about independence performed during a Shanghai concert, which went unreported in the state-controlled Chinese media.
By REUTERS | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
February 27, 2009
A group representing families of demonstrators killed or maimed in the armed crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests 20 years ago has urged China to name the dead, denouncing official silence over the anniversary.
The call came from the "Tiananmen Mothers" in a petition issued on Friday that carried 127 names of people who claimed their children or family members were victims of the June 4 quelling of the pro-democracy protests that challenged Communist Party power in 1989.
The group urged the government to investigate the military crackdown, name all the dead, compensate their families and punish "those responsible for the killings."
"It was nothing short of an unconscionable atrocity," the group said in the petition issued through Human Rights in China, a New York-based advocacy group.
"China has become like an airtight iron chamber and all the demands of the people about June 4, all the anguish, lament and moaning of the victims' relatives and the wounded have been sealed off," stated the petition addressed to China's national parliament, which opens its annual session next week.
The relatives' campaign for an official reckoning with the killings has long been led by Ding Zilin, a retired Beijing professor whose 17-year-old son was killed as tanks and armed troops swept through Beijing's streets.
She and other campaigners could not be contacted to comment on the petition or verify they signed it. But the group has made similar calls before.
The latest petition, however, comes during an especially sensitive year, when the Communist Party must navigate through potentially volatile anniversaries, including the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight into exile from Tibet, while also coping with a slowed economy and rising joblessness.
After initial division and uncertainty over how to respond to the student-led demonstrations in the spring of 1989, the Communist Party sent troops to crush the protests, killing hundreds, some say thousands.
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