RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17137/china-pattern-of-anti-us-hostility

China’s pattern of hostile acts against U.S. interests seems indicative of a deep-seated antipathy for American values, including its democratic form of government, rule of law, and respect for human rights. While the U.S. and China could, theoretically, cooperate on areas of common interest, the enduring norm seems to have been, at least on China’s part, one of fierce confrontation, similar to the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

China has already been waging an asymmetric war against the U.S. for years. One frequent weapon against used by China against U.S. interests is the cyber attack. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) possesses a sophisticated and predatory cyber infrastructure consisting of several distinct sections of the General Staff.[1] One attack orchestrated by China on the U.S. involved hacking into terminals which contained digital personnel records of millions federal employees. . China’s hacking operations, however, are usually not disruptive, as opposed to Russia’s Iran, and North Korea’s attacks. The clear objective of Chinese cyber assaults has been the theft of intellectual property and trade secrets. In fact, Mike Rogers former Director of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has delineated China’s thieving attacks to have been collection missions covering most of the key sectors of the U.S. economy.

Several PLA officers as early as 2014 boasted in a military doctrine periodical that China will win the “Cyber Network War” against the U.S.[2] The scope of China’s cyber offensive against America is massive, frequent, and comprehensive, covering the entire spectrum of critical technologies. China acknowledges the existence of a PLA cyber warfare unit, entitled “The Science of Military Strategy.” One source suggests that this unit may employ as many as 100 hundred thousand personnel.

China, as early as 2006, carried out laser attacks against U.S. imaging during passes over the Chinese Mainland. The Chinese military has lasered U.S. naval personnel on ships in Chinese-claimed waters in the South China Sea. These aggressions by China also have occurred when U.S. assets were operating near the Japanese owned but Chinese claimed Senkaku Islands (called by the Chinese, Diaoyu Islands).

One particularly aggressive and obvious indicator of Chinese hostile military intent occurred in the East African country of Djibouti where both the U.S. and China have military facilities. A U.S. C-130 transport left Camp Lemonier Airfield in early June 2018 when both pilots sustained injuries from a laser originating on the Chinese Djibouti support base at the Port of Doraleh. The Chinese action prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to issue an official “Notice to Airmen” warning all pilots in the region. These assaults are occurring despite the fact that China is a signatory of the 1995 “Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons. One 2013 PLA publication laid out China’s plans to deploy space-based laser weapons systems.[3] China claims that it has developed four different military and portable lasers, one of the hand-held models is designed to be employed against, presumably, U.S. drones.[4]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-koreas-missiles-and-nuclear-weapons-everything-you-need-to-know-11610712018?mod=world_major_1_pos1

North Korea sees its nuclear program as essential to regime survival, serving to deter a U.S.-led invasion. Decades of denuclearization talks, economic sanctions and diplomacy have done little to slow Pyongyang’s advance to becoming a self-declared nuclear state.

One of the world’s poorest and most-isolated countries, North Korea has managed to stay high on Washington’s list of foreign-policy priorities for years. It spends more on its military, as a ratio of gross domestic product, than any other of the 170 countries tracked by the U.S. State Department.

Pyongyang developed its weapons program brazenly, flouting sanctions and breaking promises to halt nuclear production. In 2003 it withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the main global commitment to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.

At 2018’s Singapore summit with President Trump, Kim Jong Un greatly boosted his global legitimacy by becoming the first North Korean leader to meet a sitting U.S. leader. In 2017 Pyongyang had ratcheted up tensions with the U.S. to their highest level in years by conducting its sixth nuclear test and firing off three intercontinental ballistic missiles—the last of them showing the range to strike anywhere in the U.S.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-tries-michael-kovrig-second-canadian-at-center-of-diplomatic-standoff-11616415654

BEIJING—Chinese authorities opened and closed the espionage trial of the second Canadian at the center of a long-running standoff with both Canada and the U.S. without delivering a verdict.

Michael Kovrig, a researcher on leave from Canada’s diplomatic service, attended the hearing Monday with his lawyer, said Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court, adding that it would issue a verdict at a later date. Mr. Kovrig has been charged with “probing into state secrets and intelligence” on behalf of foreign actors.

The trial began three days after a similar hearing for Michael Spavor in the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong, on the border with North Korea. That hearing concluded in a matter of hours, also without a verdict. Mr. Spavor ran a nonprofit that organized academic, tourist and business trips to North Korea.

Jim Nickel, Canada’s deputy chief of mission in China, said outside the Beijing court Monday morning that he had requested entry to the hearing but that he was denied on national security grounds. He cited Mr. Kovrig’s lawyer and a court official in saying the trial had begun.

Flanked by U.S. acting deputy chief of mission, William Klein, and diplomats from more than two dozen countries, many of them European, Mr. Nickel called for Chinese authorities to grant them access. He pointed to the Canada-China consular agreement, which he said guarantees consular access to citizens being tried. Canadian diplomats were also denied consular access to Mr. Spavor’s trial on national security grounds.

“Because the cases involve state secrets, the hearings are not held in open courts,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing Monday. The court also cited national security.