Qantas told pilots aircraft had experienced GPS jamming suspected to originate from warships (pictured) operating off the north west shelf of Australia https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11870693/Qantas-warns-crews-Chinese-military-interfering-planes.html
Qantas has warned its pilots of radio interference from people claiming to be Chinese military, and GPS jamming from Chinese warships.
The airline updated its flight standing orders manual on Thursday to include policies on what to do if crews encounter this.
The policy update informed pilots that flights had encountered both hostile actions, sometimes very close to Australia, but safety was not compromised.
As companies all over the world race to develop their own versions of generative artificial intelligence chatbots, developers in China have a particular hurdle to overcome, Beijing’s censorship rules. WSJ reporter Shen Lu joins host Zoe Thomas to discuss how Chinese developers are working to ensure their chatbots avoid subjects like politics.
For experimenting, WSJ talked to four Chinese chatbots. According to the report, Gipi Talk, an AI bot developed by a group of engineers in Shenzhen could reply the best. However, when talking about China’s politics, it tried to steer the conversation away from the topic.
Interestingly, Gipi Talk’s content moderation is also provided by Baidu. Here is the chat WSJ had with the chatbot.
A: The question couldn’t pass a safety review. No response could be generated for you.
Q: Why did my question fail to pass the safety review?
A: Let’s change the topic and talk about something else.
Q: What can you talk about?
A: It’s nice to chat with you! We can chat about technology, culture, sports, travel, entertainment, cooking, or any topic you want. What would you like to talk about?
Q: Can we talk about politics?
A: Of course, we can talk about politics. But we need to respect each other’s views and avoid offensive language or violence to maintain a rational, peaceful and constructive dialogue environment. What aspect of politics would you like to discuss?
Q: Chinese politics.
A: The question couldn’t pass a safety review. No response could be generated for you.
Q: Well then, can we talk about American politics?
A: The question couldn’t pass a safety review. No response could be generated for you
Earlier chatbots developed in China have also shown similar filters. ChatYuan was one of the first ChatGPT-like creations in China. It was suspended days after its launch in February. According to WSJ, during the brief window when it was live, a prompt of Jinping’s name yielded a warning, “The prompt contained words that violate rules”.
Britain is to ban the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok from ministers’ and civil servants’ mobile phones, bringing the UK in line with the US and the European Commission and reflecting deteriorating relations with Beijing.
The decision marks a sharp U-turn from the UK’s previous position and came a few hours after TikTok said its owner, ByteDance, had been told by Washington to sell the app or face a possible ban in the country.
The UK government’s announcement was made on Thursday by Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office minister, in the Commons. He said the ban was “with immediate effect”.
The decision follows a review of TikTok by government cybersecurity experts that began in November, Dowden said, and will cover ministers’ and civil servants’ work phones, but not their personal phones. “This is a proportionate move based on a specific risk with government devices,” he added.
Part of a Chinese rocket broke up over Texas on Wednesday after falling back to Earth in a “high-risk” uncontrolled reentry, according to U.S. Space Command. 据美国太空司令部称，一枚中国火箭的一部分在“高风险”失控重返地球后于周三在德克萨斯州上空解体。
[🔴China’s 21st launch in 2022] At UTC 02:22 June 23, 3 Yaogan(遥感/RemoteSensing)-35-02 satellites were successfully launched by #CZ2D Y64 rocket in Xichang, Sichuan. This is the 424th launch of Long March rocket family. HD: https://t.co/018SGyq48Mpic.twitter.com/0kDtkg7hua
China ripped off United States military technology to build an advanced high-tech jet fighter, and experts warn that more must be done to protect American weapons information to keep Beijing from making such huge development leaps in the future, according to a report on Thursday.
— Read on nypost.com/2023/03/09/china-reportedly-stole-us-military-technology-for-its-j-20-fighter/
The head of ASML, the chip toolmaker that is Europe’s biggest tech company, said he was guarding against intellectual property theft more fiercely than “ever before”, as a geopolitical tussle forces China to bolster its homegrown semiconductor industry. 作为欧洲最大科技公司的芯片工具制造商 ASML 的负责人表示，他比“以往任何时候”都更加严厉地防范知识产权盗窃，因为地缘政治斗争迫使中国加强其本土半导体产业。
The Netherlands’ government on Wednesday said it plans new restrictions on exports of semiconductor technology to protect national security, joining the U.S. effort to curb chip exports to China. 荷兰政府周三表示，计划对半导体技术出口实施新的限制以保护国家安全，加入美国遏制对华芯片出口的行列。
Many of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure projects are plagued with construction flaws, including a giant hydropower plant in Ecuador, adding more costs to a program criticized for leading countries deeper into debt
The Chinese-built Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project in Nosari, Pakistan, shown in 2017, has been shut down because officials said they detected cracks 中国于2017年在巴基斯坦努萨里兴建的尼勒姆-杰勒姆水电项目因官员称发现裂缝而被关闭
China’s infrastructure boom in recent decades has been dazzling yet costly in environmental, financial and social terms. In 2016, Oxford researchers concluded that “poorly managed infrastructure investments are a main explanation of surfacing economic and financial problems in China.” Those analysts concluded that “China’s infrastructure investment model is not one to follow for other countries but one to avoid.” 近几十年来，中国的基础设施繁荣令人眼花缭乱，但在环境、金融和社会方面却代价高昂。 2016年，牛津大学的研究人员得出结论说，”管理不善的基础设施投资是中国经济和金融问题出现的主要原因。 这些分析人士得出结论说:”中国的基础设施投资模式不是其他国家可以效仿的，而是应该避免的。”
https://lab.org.uk/the-amazon-be-dammed-ecuadors-china-connection/ A control panel inside the generation center of the CCS project. Photo by Max Nathanson
3 Gorges Dam | thousands of cracks found in China’s dam built in Ecuador 中国厄瓜多尔大坝发现数千处裂缝
https://youtu.be/w6cG2eoEZFg
Ecuadorean law enforcement officials say they are investigating whether Mr. Pólit and other officials were paid by the Chinese to overlook the problems. It was part of Mr. Pérez’s inquiry before his resignation, they say. Now, 7,648 cracks have developed in the dam’s machinery, according to the government, because of substandard steel and inadequate welding by Sinohydro. Sand and silt are also big concerns because they can damage vital equipment. On a recent visit, an engineer looked on nervously as readouts showed sand flowing into the dam. But workers say they’re sometimes confused because of shoddy translations. One sign in Chinese reads correctly: “Direct-Current (DC) Pumping Group.” 厄瓜多尔执法官员说，他们正在调查波利特和其他官员是否被中方付钱以忽略这些问题。 他们说，这是佩雷斯辞职前调查的一部分。根据政府的数据，目前大坝的机械有7648处出现裂缝，原因是钢材不合格，中水电的焊接不够。 沙子和淤泥也是人们关注的焦点，因为它们会损坏重要的设备。在最近的一次访问中，一位工程师紧张地注视着沙流入大坝的读数。 但工人们说，他们有时因为翻译不当而困惑不解。一个中文标记正确写着:”直流泵组”。
In 2011, Ecuador’s then-president Rafael Correa toured the Toachi Pilatón works. During the ten years of his government, the construction of eight hydroelectric plants was announced. (Image: Miguel Ángel Romero/Presidencia de la República)Ecuador’s Coca Codo Sinclair dam during construction. Photo by http://www.presidencia.gob.ec/ on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA
Ecuador’s power company CELEC has found new problems at its Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant that threaten water flow and electricity generation, the company’s chief executive said, the latest issue at the facility built by China’s Sinohydro Corp. The findings come after CELEC in May requested arbitration through the International Chamber of Commerce to settle a dispute over cracks in the 1,500-megawatt plant’s machinery that have prevented it from operating at full capacity since it was completed in 2016, after $2.2 billion in construction costs. During a shutdown of four of Coca Coda Sinclair’s eight turbines for planned maintenance, state-owned CELEC discovered missing bolts on some of its valves, CEO Gonzalo Uquillas said, adding that the problem could prevent valves from opening and closing to adequately regulate the flow of water. “Of the 96 bolts that secure the seals on these valves, some bolts are missing,” Uquillas said in an interview on July 16. “I don’t want to believe they weren’t installed, but they are missing.” 厄瓜多尔电力公司CELEC首席执行官说，该公司在可口可乐辛克莱水力发电厂发现了新的问题，这些问题威胁着水的流动和发电。今年5月，CELEC要求通过国际商会进行仲裁，以解决1500兆瓦电厂机器裂缝的纠纷，该工厂自2016年竣工以来一直无法满负荷运转，此前，该工厂耗资22亿美元。该公司首席执行官冈萨洛·乌奎利亚斯说，在可口可乐公司八台涡轮机中，有四台因计划维修而关闭时，国营的CELEC发现其阀门上缺少螺栓。 他补充说，这个问题可能妨碍阀门开闭，从而无法充分调节水流。Uquillas在7月16日的采访中说:”在这些阀门上固定密封件的96个螺栓中，有些螺栓不见了。” “我不想相信它们没有安装好，但是它们不见了。”
A Chinese diplomat in Northern Ireland uploaded a video to social media on Monday morning that inaccurately claimed a partially Korean-engineered bridge in Turkey withstood the recent devastating earthquake thanks to Chinese technology.
The now-deleted video, uploaded to the Twitter account of Consul General Zhang Meifang in Belfast, displayed aerial footage of the 1915 Canakkale Bridge as it was under construction, describing it in an overlying caption in Chinese as “the world’s largest suspension bridge” and claiming “a subsidiary of Shudao Group is the sole participant in the construction.”
In an English caption accompanying the video, Zhang wrote, “The bridge built by China in Turkey’s withstood the earthquake #ChinaTech.”
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands in front of the 1915 Canakkale Bridge on March 18. (Turkish Presidency)
“The 1915 Canakkale Bridge will leave this history of collision and conflict behind and will be a bridge between East and West, starting a new era of peace and prosperity,” South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said during the ceremony, in reference to the Canakkale region’s historic battlefields.
The bridge, which was built by a consortium of Turkish and South Korean companies, will also strengthen the bonds between Turkey and South Korea, Kim said.
The “1915 Canakkale Bridge” cost $2.7 billion to build, but Turkey will save $458 million per year from a reduction of fuel consumption and carbon emissions, Erdogan said. He said the bridge’s toll will be 200 Turkish lira, about $13.50.
Satellite images show China’s extensive balloon program based on Hainan Island in the South China Sea, and U.S. officials say they know that is where the Chinese balloon launched before making its way across the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. believes a fleet of Chinese airships and balloons has flown over dozens of countries conducting surveillance from near space.
The state’s hardening censorship and heavier hand have held back its tech industry; so has entrepreneurs’ reluctance to invest for the long term. It wasn’t always that way.
Today, much has changed. Microsoft — an icon of American technology — helped the start-up OpenAI usher its experimental chatbot, ChatGPT, into the world. And China’s tech entrepreneurs are shocked and demoralized. It has dawned on many of them that despite the hype, China lags far behind in artificial intelligence and tech innovation.
“Why wasn’t ChatGPT invented in China?” they asked. “How big is the ChatGPT gap between China and the U.S.?” “The Chinese equivalent of ChatGPT? Don’t take it too seriously.”
“The development of any significant technological product is inseparable from the system and environment in which it operates,” said Xu Chenggang, a senior research scholar at the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions. He cited TikTok’s Chinese-language sister app Douyin as the sort of innovation that Chinese companies might be unable to achieve in the future because of government limitations on the industry.
“Once the open environment is gone, it will be challenging to create such products,” he said.
If a decade ago China was the wild, wild East for tech entrepreneurship and innovation, it’s a very different country now.
In the last two weeks, U.S. military fighter jets shot down at least four aerial objects, including a Chinese spy balloon that flew across country from Alaska to South Carolina over an eight-day stretch.
President Biden addressed the situation for the first time on Thursday, more than two weeks after the initial Chinese spy flight that traveled across the continental United States for several days. Biden said the additional objects were “most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research,” and not Chinese spy aircraft.
But the Biden administration is still assessing the three unknown objects, and White House National Security Council Director of Strategic Communications John Kirby said Friday they might never know what the objects were.
National Security Council Coordinator Admiral John Kirby speaks at a White House Press Briefing following the U.S. downing of a number of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenas (UAPs), at the White House on February 13th, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Americans shouldn’t be concerned about aerial object risks: Kirby Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich asks the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, John Kirby, about Americans’ safety if they see an aerial object in the sky.
“There are major security concerns with a lot of these cameras, both in terms of the technology they contain and what happens to the data that comes from them. If you buy a system like this, you have to be able to trust the company you are buying from.”
He added that using Chinese-made cameras also presents ethical concerns, since some have been implicated in helping the Chinese government monitor detainment camps for Uyghurs in Xinjiang province.
His comments came after Sir Alex Younger, the former head of MI6, said the UK should “wake up” to the threat posed by China, following last week’s decision by Washington to shoot down a balloon officials believed to be carrying out surveillance.
Chinese nationals are arriving at America’s southern border in exploding numbers.
In January 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection says, it encountered 89 illegal aliens from the People’s Republic of China on the southern border. That number grew over tenfold last month, to 1,084.
A similar increase has occurred in encounters with illegal immigrants from Russia, with CBP reporting 1,030 in January 2022, but over four times that—4,509—last month.
It is a “source of concern” when an influx of migrants attempts to enter America illegally from a country “that we know isn’t on our side,” Andrew Arthur, a resident fellow in law and policy for the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Daily Signal.
The likely reason for the border surge of Chinese and Russian migrants, Arthur said, is that “word’s gone out around the world that the southwest border is open.”
Since fiscal year 2023 began Oct. 1, Customs and Border Protection says it has has encountered 2,999 Chinese nationals on the southern border, outpacing the combined total of 2,626 for fiscal years 2021 and 2022.
Arthur, who previously worked as an immigration judge, said he saw Chinese nationals in his courtroom who commonly paid “upward of $60,000 to $70,000 to have the opportunity to make it to the southwest border.”
One of the reasons for the increase of Chinese nationals at the border is that “the human smugglers have cracked the China market,” said Michael Cunningham, a research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)
“The China market is more lucrative,” Cunningham said, adding that smugglers charge Chinese nationals more to be brought across the border, simply because they can.
Cunningham told The Daily Signal that he doesn’t think the increase in illegal aliens from China indicates the communist regime is trying to send large numbers of spies into the U.S. Instead, he points to China’s political climate and extreme COVID-19 policies that likely spur Chinese nationals to flee.
“The border crisis [has] been ongoing for years under [President Joe] Biden,” Cunningham said. “The Chinese government is never this far behind the curve. So, I can’t say they haven’t been exploiting it, but if they have, then they have been all along.”
But Cunningham said that fears over China’s sending spies across America’s southern border are “a reasonable concern to have and … it’s just one of the reasons why it’s so important that the Biden administration start taking the border seriously, and that our country takes its sovereignty seriously.”
Concern over the threat China poses to America has been heightened because of the Chinese spy balloon that traveled across the country before a U.S. fighter jet was ordered to shoot it down over the Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 4.
“Everybody’s focused on, you know, Chinese spy balloons going over the United States,” the Center for Immigration Studies’ Arthur said, adding that it is “the job of the federal government to protect all of our borders, be they land borders, sea borders, or from above.”
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made a “deep mistake” with Beijing’s spy balloon saga, a former head of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service says.
Sir Alex Younger, the former head of Britain’s spy agency, told the BBC that China’s assumption of how the US would react to surveillance balloons being sent across its territory “wasn’t properly thought through”.
He added that should US parts be found in the balloons, four of which have now been shot down, it would further encourage Washington DC to restrict China’s access to advanced technology.
And he said the growing diplomatic and military crisis potentially revealed China’s “manifest hypocrisy,” just as Beijing attempts to coax nations out of the US’ orbit and into its own.
前英国秘密情报局负责人称，中国国家主席习近平在北京间谍气球事件上犯了一个”严重错误”。
英国前间谍机构负责人亚历克斯·杨格爵士(Sir Alex Younger)对BBC表示，中国关于美国对被派往其领土的监视气球做出何种反应的假设”没有好好考虑”。
The huge, high-altitude Chinese balloon sailed across the U.S, drawing severe Pentagon accusations of spying and sending excited or alarmed Americans outside with binoculars. Photo / AP
Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high altitude balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Feb. 5, 2023. The suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down on Saturday, Feb. 4. U.S. NAVY PHOTOSailors assigned to Assault Craft Unit 4 prepare material recovered in the Atlantic Ocean from a high-altitude balloon for transport to federal agents at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek Feb. 10, 2023. U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS RYAN SEELBACHSailors assigned to Assault Craft Unit 4 prepare material recovered in the Atlantic Ocean from a high-altitude balloon for transport to federal agents at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek Feb. 10, 2023. U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS RYAN SEELBACH
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