A data dump of files from Chinese firm i-Soon revealed alleged hacking exploits, in an incident reminiscent of Edward Snowden’s case
Like the West, Beijing is finding out the hard way the perils and advantages of outsourcing to private firms to maintain plausible deniability
A massive data leak that hit a Chinese cybersecurity firm earlier this month, exposing alleged hacking and intelligence operations, has showcased how even China’s spy agencies rely on private contractors to do its bidding.
On February 16, a total of 571 files allegedly containing hacking exploits and internal conversations from Shanghai Anxun Information Company (i-Soon) appeared on open-source repository GitHub, revealing what The New York Times called “a rare look inside the secretive world of China’s state-backed hackers for hire”.
Like past incidents involving compromising data leaks, this data set took on a life of its own. Despite swift action by GitHub to block access to the leaked data over policy violations, the repercussions will echo across intelligence agencies, media circles, academia and security pundits for the foreseeable future.
June 4th marks the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, when Chinese soliders opened fire on peaceful, student-led, pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing. The topic is banned in mainland China, but people in Hong Kong long held annual commemorations. However, since Beijing imposed a 2020 security law on the once-autonomous territory, calling attention to the 1989 crackdown means a swift response from local authorities. 6 月 4 日是天安门广场大屠杀 34 周年纪念日，当时中国士兵向北京和平的、学生领导的亲民主示威者开火。 这个话题在中国大陆是被禁止的，但香港人长期以来每年都会举行纪念活动。 然而，自从北京在 2020 年对曾经自治的领土实施国安法以来，呼吁关注 1989 年的镇压意味着地方当局的迅速反应。
The two-tonne copper Pillar of Shame was first exhibited at a Tiananmen Square commemoration in Hong Kong in 1997, the same year Britain handed the city back to China.
In 2021, the University of Hong Kong dismantled and removed the statue “based on external legal advice and risk assessment for the best interest of the university”. It has since been kept in a cargo container on university-owned land.
Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot, who created the work, said he had not been informed about its seizure by police.
The Chinese-language Mingpao newspaper reported that the publications were sent from Britain to Hong Kong and were several copies of illustrated children’s books in a series that portrayed Hongkongers during the 2019 unrest as sheep trying to defend their village from wolves, an apparent reference to the mainland Chinese authorities.
The pair have been released on bail but must report to police next month, Mingpao quoted police as saying on Wednesday.
The books were ruled by a court as seditious in a high-profile trial in 2022, in which five speech therapists were jailed for 19 months for “conspiring to publish, distribute and display three books with seditious intent”.
Police warned parents at the time to destroy the books because they were “too radical and instilled in children the ideas to confront and oppose the government”.
The three were arrested in 2021 during a crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement following massive protests more than three years ago. They were leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China and were found guilty last week. The alliance was best known for organising candlelight vigils in Hong Kong on the anniversary of the Chinese military’s crushing of Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in 1989, but it voted to disband in 2021 under the shadow of the Beijing-imposed national security law. Supporters say its closure has shown freedoms and autonomy that were promised when Hong Kong returned to China from the UK in 1997 are diminishing.Before its disbandment, police sought details about its operations and finances in connection with alleged links to democracy groups overseas, accusing it of being a foreign agent. 这三人是在3年前大规模示威后,在2021年镇压城市民主化运动时被逮捕的。 他们是香港支持中国爱国民主运动联盟的领导人，上周被判有罪。1989年中国军队镇压天安门民主抗议活动周年纪念日，该联盟在香港组织烛光集会最为著名，但在2021年北京颁布的国家安全法的阴影下投票解散。支持者说，关闭该机场表明，1997年香港从英国返回中国时所承诺的自由和自治正在减少。在解散前，警方要求提供与据称与海外民主团体有联系的有关其业务和财政方面的细节，指控它是一个外国特工。
What’s left of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement? Since the implementation of the 2020 National Security law, police have been arresting anti-regime activists en masse. Most are now in prison or in exile. Authorities dissuade and crack down on all forms of protest. But discreetly, some activists are determined to make their voices heard despite the risks.
December 2022 The national security trial of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was adjourned on its scheduled starting date until December 13 as Hong Kong waits for Beijing to “clarify” the law as to whether overseas lawyers are allowed to appear in such cases. Defendants charged under the national security law could be sent to mainland China for trial if they cannot find a lawyer in Hong Kong, the city’s top delegate to Beijing’s advisory body said. US-based NGO Human Rights Watch announced it would co-host the Human Rights Press Awards after Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) cancelled the event earlier this year. Jimmy Lai, the founder of defunct pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, was sentenced to five years and nine months in jail after being convicted of fraud. The jailing of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai over fraud charges “has nothing to do with freedom of the press or freedom of speech,” the Hong Kong government said, following criticism from the US. Chung Pui-kuen, a former top editor of Hong Kong news outlet Stand News facing sedition charges was granted bail after spending almost a year in custody pending trial. The national security trial against Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai was adjourned until September 25, 2023. Proceedings against former editors of independent outlet Stand News were “unfair” and “not transparent,” the defence argued, as the court sought to rule on whether the discovery of previously undisclosed evidence was grounds to terminate the trial. An additional six articles published by the shuttered independent media outlet Stand News were flagged by the prosecution for potentially violating Hong Kong’s colonial-era sedition law.
Around 170 protesters formed a human chain in Reading town centre on Sunday, October 23. Reading Hong Kongers from the group Reading UK Stands with Hong Kong took to Broad Street to protest against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Many Hongkongers fled their country in 2021 and arrived in the UK – which ruled the colony until it was handed back to the People’s Republic of China in 1997. Recently, protestors were allegedly assaulted outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester and this led to Hongkongers in Reading and other parts of the country banding together to demonstrate against this.
China accelerates global campaign to sway foreign media
As part of the campaign, Chinese diplomats and state media outlets have “openly promoted falsehoods or misleading content,” the report said.
“[T]here was a concerted effort to whitewash and deny the human rights atrocities and violations of international law being committed against members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” Freedom House said, calling this “the most disturbing result of the CCP’s global media influence campaign.”
The Xinjiang isolation camp, filmed on 4-Oct, it is so wide that you can’t see the end of it … Looks like a concentration camp to experts, but China claims it is just covid isolation camp
Chinese internet users detained over Xinjiang Covid-19 outbreak ‘rumours’
4 people in Yining ordered to serve up to 10 days behind bars for various offences, including ‘inciting opposition’Announcement comes just days after authorities in the prefecture admit failings in access to medical services
