China's military space station in Argentina is a 'black box'

By Cassandra Garrison

The installations of a Chinese space station are seen in Las Lajas, Argentina, January 22, 2019. 

LAS LAJAS, Argentina -- When China built a military-run space station in Argentina’s Patagonian region it promised to include a visitors’ center to explain the purpose of its powerful 16-story antenna.
The center is now built -- behind the 8-foot barbed wire fence that surrounds the entire space station compound. 

Visits are by appointment only.
Shrouded in secrecy, the compound has stirred unease among local residents, fueled conspiracy theories and sparked concerns in the Trump administration about its true purpose, according to interviews with dozens of residents, current and former Argentine government officials, U.S. officials, satellite and astronomy specialists and legal experts.
The station’s stated aim is peaceful space observation and exploration and, according to Chinese media, it played a key role in China’s landing of a spacecraft on the dark side of the moon in January.
But the remote 200-hectare compound operates with little oversight by the Argentine authorities, according to hundreds of pages of Argentine government documents obtained by Reuters and reviewed by international law experts. (For an interactive version of this story: tmsnrt.rs/2TlXEMj)
President Mauricio Macri’s former foreign minister, Susana Malcorra, said in an interview that Argentina has no physical oversight of the station’s operations. 

In 2016, she revised the China space station deal to include a stipulation it be for civilian use only.
The agreement obliges China to inform Argentina of its activities at the station but provides no enforcement mechanism for authorities to ensure it is not being used for military purposes, the international law experts said.
“It really doesn’t matter what it says in the contract or in the agreement,” said Juan Uriburu, an Argentine lawyer who worked on two major Argentina-China joint ventures. 

“How do you make sure they play by the rules?”
“I would say that, given that one of the actors involved in the agreements reports directly to the Chinese military, it is at least intriguing to see that the Argentine government did not deal with this issue with greater specificity,” he said.
China’s space program is run by its military, the People’s Liberation Army. 

The Patagonian station is managed by the China Satellite Launch and Tracking Control General (CLTC), which reports to the PLA’s Strategic Support Force.
Beijing insists its space program is for peaceful purposes and its foreign ministry in a statement stressed the Argentine station is for civilian use only. 

It said the station was open to the public and media.
“The suspicions of some individuals have ulterior motives,” the ministry said.
Asked how it ensures the station is not used for military purposes, Argentina’s space agency CONAE said the agreement between the two countries stated their commitment to “peaceful use” of the project.
It said radio emissions from the station were also monitored, but radio astronomy experts said the Chinese could easily hide illicit data in these transmissions or add encrypted channels to the frequencies agreed upon with Argentina.
CONAE also said it had no staff permanently based at the station, but they made “periodic” trips there.

SPYING CONCERNS
The United States has long been worried about what it sees as China’s strategy to “militarize” space, according to one U.S. official, who added there was reason to be skeptical of Beijing’s insistence that the Argentine base was strictly for exploration.
Other U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters expressed similar concerns.
“The Patagonia ground station, agreed to in secret by a corrupt and financially vulnerable government a decade ago, is another example of opaque and predatory Chinese dealings that undermine the sovereignty of host nations,” said Garrett Marquis, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

Argentine officials have defended the Chinese station, saying the agreement with China is similar to one signed with the European Space Agency, which built a station in a neighboring province. 

Both have 50-year, tax-free leases. 

Argentine scientists in theory have access to 10 percent of the antenna time at both stations.
The law experts who reviewed the documents said there is one notable difference: ESA is a civilian agency.
“All of the ESA governments play by democratic rules,” Uriburu said. 

“The party is not the state. But that’s not the case in China. The party is the state.”
In the United States, NASA, like the ESA, is a civilian agency, while the U.S. military has it own space command for military or national security missions. 

In some instances, NASA and the military have collaborated, said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
“The line does blur sometimes,” he said. 

“But that’s very much the exception.”

BLACK BOX
In Las Lajas, a town of 7,000 people located about 40 minutes drive from the station, the antenna is a source of bewilderment and suspicion.
“These people don’t allow you access, they don’t let you see,” said shop owner Alfredo Garrido, 51. 

“My opinion is that it is not a scientific research base, but rather a Chinese military base.”
Among the wilder conspiracy theories reporters heard during a visit to the town: That the base was being used to build a nuclear bomb.
The drive from Las Lajas to the space station is barren and dusty. 

There are no signs indicating the station’s existence. 

The sprawling antenna is suddenly visible after a curve in the gravel road off the main thoroughfare. The massive dish is the only sign of human life for miles around.
The station became operational in April. 

Thirty Chinese employees work and live on site, which employs no locals, according to the Las Lajas mayor, Maria Espinosa, adding that the station has been good for the local economy.
Espinosa said she rented her house to Chinese space station workers before they moved to the base and had visited the site herself at least eight times.
Others in Las Lajas said they rarely see anyone from the station in town, except when the staff make a trip to its Chinese supermarket.
Reuters requested access to the station through CONAE, the local provincial government and China’s embassy. 

CONAE said it was not able to approve a visit by Reuters in the short term but it was planning a media day.
It added that students from nearby towns have already visited the compound.

NO OVERSIGHT
When Argentina’s Congress debated the space station in 2015, during the presidency of Cristina Fernandez, opposition lawmakers questioned why there was no stipulation that it only be for civilian use. 

Nonetheless, Congress approved the deal.
When Macri took office in 2015 he was worried the space station agreement did not explicitly say it should be for civilian use only, said Malcorra, his then foreign minister, who flew to Beijing in 2016 to rework it.
Malcorra said she was constrained in her ability to revise it because it had already been signed by Fernandez. 

The Chinese, however, agreed to include the stipulation that it be for civilian use. 

She insisted on a press conference with her Chinese counterpart in Beijing to publicize this.
“This was something I requested to make sure there was no doubt or no hidden agenda from any side here, and that our people knew that we had done this,” she said from her home in Spain.
But it still fell short on one key point -- oversight.
“There was no way we could do that after the level of recognition that this agreement had from our side. This was recognized, accepted and approved by Congress,” Malcorra said.
“I would have written the agreement in a different way,” she added. 

“I would have clauses that articulate the access to oversight.”
Malcorra said she was confident that Argentina could approach China for “reassurances” if there was ever any doubt about activities at the station. 

When asked how Argentina would know about those activities, she said, “There will be some people who will tell us, don’t worry.”

LOGGING VISITORS
The opaqueness of the station’s operations and the reluctance of Argentine officials to talk about it makes it hard to determine who exactly has visited the compound.
A provincial government official provided Reuters a list of local journalists who had toured the facility. 

A number appeared to have visited on a single day in February 2017, 14 months before it became operational, a review of their stories and social media postings showed.
Aside from Espinosa, the mayor of Las Lajas, no one else interviewed by Reuters in town had toured the station. 

Resident Matias Uran, 24, however, said his sister was among a group of students who visited last year. 

They saw a dining room and a games room, he said.
Alberto Hugo Amarilla, 60, who runs a small hotel in Las Lajas, recalled a dinner he attended shortly after construction began at the site.
There, he said, a Chinese official in town to visit the site greeted him enthusiastically. 

His fellow dinner guests told him the official had learned that Amarilla was a retired army officer.
The official, they said, was a Chinese general.

Rogue Company: Huawei Sinks Deeper As The World Turns Its Back

Governments worldwide have started to view Huawei's expansion as a serious threat
By David Volodzko

In this Jan. 9, 2019, photo, a security guard stands near the Huawei company logo during a new product launching event in Beijing. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said late Friday, Jan. 11, 2019, it is "closely following the detention of Huawei employee Wang Weijing" on charges of spying for China.

Huawei Technologies now faces shocking new charges, in addition to a growing litany of scandals, suggesting the world's second-largest smartphone maker is working with the Chinese military to steal our technology, defraud our institutions and spy on us using our own devices.
The company, its chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou and subsidiaries Skycom Tech and Huawei Device USA now face criminal charges for bank fraud, wire fraud, violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and conspiring to obstruct justice. 

Governments worldwide have started to view its expansion as a serious threat.
"It's been a longstanding concern of the U.S. intelligence community," former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said, "that any of the Chinese IT and telecommunications companies like Huawei, like ZTE, for example, have to be considered as extensions of Chinese intelligence service — in fact, Chinese law encourages, if not mandates, that when called upon, these companies will cooperate with the Chinese government."
The latest charges claim Meng delivered a presentation to a bank executive in 2013, during which she repeatedly lied about Huawei's relationship with Skycom, which tried to sell U.S. technology to Iran despite sanctions. 

Then in 2017, when Huawei became aware of the U.S. investigation, Huawei Device USA tried to obstruct justice by attempting to move witnesses who knew about its operations in Iran back to China, where FBI agents couldn't interview them.
On December 1, Canadian officials arrested Meng for extradition to the United States. 

But Meng is the daughter of Ren Zhengfei, who formerly worked as a technology engineer for the Chinese military before founding Huawei, which makes her Chinese corporate royalty — and Chinese officials made no attempt to mask their outrage.
Days later, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng summoned Canadian Ambassador to China John McCallum to protest Meng's arrest, calling it "vile in nature" and threatening Canada with "grave consequences."
China then arrested consultant Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig, both Canadian nationals, on charges of endangering state security. 

This past weekend, another Canadian national was arrested on fraud charges.
The pressure was enough to force some Canadian officials to openly question the government's move. “From Canada’s point of view," McCallum said at a charity lunch in Vancouver, "if [the U.S.] drops the extradition request, that would be great for Canada."
McCallum, an outspoken critic of his government's decision to arrest Meng, has previously said she has “strong arguments” to fight extradition. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired him after these recent remarks.
Meng remains detained in Vancouver, but the fraud allegations involving her are only part of Huawei's problems. 

The U.S. Justice Department has separately accused two Huawei affiliates of stealing trade secrets, wire fraud and obstruction of justice over violating agreements with T-Mobile in 2012 by secretly taking photos of its Tappy robot technology, which mimics human fingers to test smartphones, and stealing a piece so Huawei engineers could reverse engineer it.
North America isn't the only place turning its back on the company, either. 

Earlier this month, the Huawei sales director for Poland was arrested for espionage.
Australia's TPG Telecom has abandoned plans to build a new mobile telephone network that would have relied on Huawei technology. 

French European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said last week European states must stand united when dealing with Huawei.
And Vodafone has announced it is halting the purchase of Huawei technology for its new 5G networks in Europe.
But some are wondering why this awakening didn't take place sooner, since Huawei has for years been mired in scandal. 

In July 2012, vulnerabilities were found in its routers that could allow remote access to the devices. In early 2015, German cybersecurity company G Data reported it had found malware pre-installed on Lenovo, Xiaomi and Huawei smartphones enabling audio surveillance and location tracking. 

In January 2018, African Union officials accused China of hacking the computer system at its headquarters every night for the past five years. 

The building, located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, had been built by Chinese contractors — including Huawei.
Then there's a slew of accusations, such as that Huawei has provided surveillance equipment to the Taliban. 

Or the case of Shane Todd, the American engineer who apparently committed "suicide" in Singapore in June 2012 under suspicious circumstances, in connection with work he had been doing involving a semiconductor amplifying device purportedly for Huawei, with potential military applications.
Todd had evidently told his family the project could endanger U.S. national security, and that he felt he was in danger.
China continues to respond with denial and threats. 

Nation of Thieves

The Huawei indictment tells a story of deceit and corporate espionage
The Washington Post

Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Dec. 12. 

HUAWEI, THE Chinese telecom giant, has insisted in recent years that it operates within the bounds of local and international laws and norms. 

When a former employee filed a legal claim alleging that he was directed by Huawei to steal rivals’ trade secrets, the firm declared, “Every employee is expected to adhere to applicable laws, regulations and business ethics in the countries where we operate.” 

But a new U.S. federal indictment issued this week alleges this was far from true.
Huawei, which makes smartphones as well as gear for connectivity, including the forthcoming super-fast 5G networks, has been largely barred from business in the United States for some time, partly over suspicions that it could build “back doors” into its equipment for spying or network mischief. Chinese companies are closely intertwined with, and required to be subservient to, the state. 

Concerns voiced in recent years about Huawei’s behavior now look prescient. 

Huawei’s approach resembles that of the Chinese state: It is unbound by a rules-based, law-governed international order, and it is determined to succeed by using theft and duplicity.
In one case described in the indictment unveiled Monday by the Justice Department, Huawei headquarters in China instructed its employees in the United States to steal the design of a mobile-phone-testing robot developed by T-Mobile. 

This was a valuable piece of intellectual property that Huawei wanted for its own robot. 

Huawei engineers were repeatedly encouraged to carry out theft, and on May 29, 2013, a Huawei engineer visiting T-Mobile slipped a robot arm into his bag and walked out of the laboratory. 

Overnight, he photographed the device and took critical measurements before returning it the next day, apologizing that it was taken by “mistake.” 

Later, Huawei responded to T-Mobile about the incident with gross deception, saying the thefts were “a moment of indiscretion” and did not reflect company policy when, in fact, the data had been sent to headquarters. 

Huawei even created a bonus program for workers who stole information from competitors.
This corporate deception is also behind the separate indictment of Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, the founder’s daughter, for bank and wire fraud. 

The indictment charges that Huawei misled the U.S. government and banks about business that violated Western sanctions against Iran. 

The legal proceedings against Meng, who is being held under house arrest in Canada pending an extradition request by the United States, should not be politicized in the current Sino-American trade dispute. 

It is clear Huawei intentionally snubbed its nose at international norms and laws, which in turn means it could pose a potentially large national security risk to the West.
Doubts about Huawei are now being heard elsewhere, including in Australia, Poland, Britain and Germany. 

The next generation of connectivity — 5G networks — is far too important to put in the hands of a company that may work by lies and coverups.

US Needs Assist from Allies to Curb China’s Theft of Advanced Technology

By Nike Ching and Hongshen Zhao
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., shake hands with FBI Director Christopher Wray as CIA Director Gina Haspel looks on before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 29, 2019.

Senior U.S. officials and experts say the United States needs to rally allies to pressure China stealing advanced technology through cyber espionage.

At the same time, key American lawmakers are questioning the readiness and capacity of the U.S. to counter such threats.
The renewed push comes after U.S. federal prosecutors pressed criminal charges against the world's largest telecommunications company — China's Huawei Technologies — its chief financial officer and several subsidiaries for financial fraud and theft of U.S. intellectual property.

The Trump administration said Washington is deeply concerned about the potential of Beijing using Chinese technology firms to spy on the U.S. and its allies.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats testifies to the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about worldwide threats on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., Jan. 29, 2019.

"China's pursuit of intellectual property, sensitive research and development plans, and the U.S. person data remains a significant threat to the United States government and the private sector," Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told lawmakers at a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on Tuesday.
Other officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-proliferation Christopher Ford, advocate for a global coalition against Chinese technology-transfer threats.
At another hearing, experts said threats that Huawei poses to supply chains and critical infrastructure are absolutely real.
"We need defensive measures and we need to invest in our own technologies as well, and we need to be cooperating with allies and partners," said Ely Ratner, who was deputy national security advisor to former Vice President Joe Biden.
"We know that the Huawei leadership has members of the Communist Party within it, and the company has a long and deep relationship with both PLA and the Ministry of State Security in China. And of course is subject to Chinese law and their new National Intelligence law which gives the government the right to use the networks and data as they wish," added Ratner at a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing.
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby warned that China may gain "economic, informational, and blackmail" leverage over other countries through data collected by companies such as Huawei.
"This dissolves or corrodes the resolve in these countries potentially to stand up to Chinese potential coercion," Colby told senators.
"We need to be able to form a network that is sufficient and cohesive to stand up to these Chinese threats," he added.
Bipartisan senators have been pushing for the creation of a White House office to fight China's state-sponsored technology theft and defend critical supply chains.
Senator Marco Rubio questions witnesses before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about "worldwide threats" on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 29, 2019.

"China is currently attempting to achieve technological and economic superiority over the United States through the aggressive use of state-directed or state-supported technology transfers," said Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) who introduced a bill to fight China's technology threats earlier this month.
"A national response to combat these threats and ensure our national security has, to date, been hampered by insufficient coordination at the federal level," added Warner and Rubio in a statement.
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., speaks during the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 29, 2019.

Under the bill, the Office of Critical Technologies & Security would coordinate with federal and state regulators, the private sector, experts and U.S. allies to ensure that every available tool is being utilized to safeguard the supply chain and protect emerging dual-use technologies.

China's State Terrorrism

Kevin and Julia Garratt on their experience as detainees in China
By Jessica Murphy

Julia and Kevin Garratt (centre) with their children Peter and Hannah. Their second son Simeon is not pictured.

Canadian couple Kevin and Julia Garratt were detained in China in 2014 and accused of spying. Amid an escalating feud between Canada and China and allegations of retaliatory detentions, the pair tells the BBC about what it was like -- and how they ever made it home.
Kevin Garratt remembers well the night he and Julia were arrested in north-eastern China.
He recalls being pulled away from his wife as they walked through a restaurant's downstairs lobby, and pushed into the back of a black sedan filled with burly officers.
He thought the whole thing was some terrible mistake.
Julia, forced into a separate sedan, found herself shaking in fear and shock at the sudden turn of events, and the drive in the darkness.
She thought: "This is going to be my last night.
"I don't think I've ever felt that level of fear and panic before. And also just sad for my family and my children, because there was no warning, there would be no chance to say goodbye."
The Garratts had lived in China since 1984, and from 2008 operated a coffee house popular with Western expats and tourists in Dandong, a city on the North Korean border, while continuing to carry out Christian aid work.

The couple lived in Dandong, at the main China-North Korea border.

But unbeknownst to either of them, early in 2014 and thousands of miles away, American authorities were launching a crackdown on Chinese cyber-espionage. 

One of the men in their sights was Su Bin, a Chinese resident working in Canada.
That June, Canadian authorities picked up Su, accused of stealing data about military projects and selling it to China, for extradition to the US.
Canadian officials and observers believed the Garratts' arrest was a tit-for-tat detention and an attempt to pressure Canada for Su's release.
Canada's ambassador in Beijing at the time, Guy Saint-Jacques, describes them as "a couple of Canadian missionaries who had been in China 30 years doing good work".
He tells the BBC their arrest "was the first case where we saw a clear retaliation for something that had happened in Canada".
When he met counterparts at the foreign ministry about the case, Saint-Jacques recalls: "They never said directly 'let's do a swap.' But it was very clear what they wanted."
On the night of the Garratts' arrest -- the beginning of months of detention for the pair -- they had been invited for dinner by a friend of a friend, who told the couple they wanted to talk about their daughter going to study in Canada.
But something about the dinner felt strange.
"It didn't seem genuine, and the daughter never came," Kevin says.
Julia says it was only later they realised the whole evening had been a set-up for their arrest.
"It was very carefully thought through and planned in advance. We had no idea," she says.
Parts of the couple's story could be pulled directly from today's headlines.

Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver last December

In December, Chinese telecoms executive Meng Wanzhou, 46, was detained in Vancouver for allegedly breaking US sanctions against Iran.
This week, the US filed charges against Huawei and Meng, and the US is seeking her extradition.
Following Meng's arrest came threats of "grave consequences" from China if the tech heiress and chief finance officer at Huawei, China's largest private company, was not released.
In mid-December, two Canadian men -- former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor -- were held in China on accusations of harming national security.
Like in the Garratts' case, their detention is seen by China analysts as a reprisal.Michael Spavor (L) and Michael Kovrig have been put under "compulsory measures"

The Garratts' experience in detention parallels what Canadian officials and others have suggested that Kovrig and Spavor are living through -- daily interrogations, being kept in a room with lights on day and night.
"I don't know what they did or didn't do, but I know what they're going through right now," says Julia.
The Garratts say they were never physically harmed but were watched by guards around the clock, and had to request the most basic necessities when they needed them.
"You want a drink of water, they have to go get it for it. Brush your teeth, they get it for you. It's really meant to frighten and control you," says Kevin.
Julia says the first few nights, she put a blanket over her eyes to block the light, but the guard pulled it down.
They also experienced daily interrogations for up to six hours.

------
Tit for tat arrests

• About 200 Canadians held in China
• The cases of Michael Spavor, Michael Kovrig and Robert Lloyd Schellenberg are linked to China's displeasure at arrest of Meng Wanzhou
• Kovrig, a diplomat on leave, and Spavor, a businessman with close ties to North Korea, are accused of engaging in activities that harm China's national security
• Schellenberg was convicted last year on drug smuggling charges and given a death sentence in January
• Canada has accused China of acting arbitrarily in his sentencing
• The country updated its travel advisory to China following Schellenberg sentencing, urging caution due to risk of "arbitrary enforcement of local law"

--------
Their interrogators had a decade of details about their time in China and their travels, and asked over and over about the minutia of their activities -- the why, the when, and the where.
Whom they met.
"They would ask the same questions two month later and compare the answers," says Julia.
"It's very, very gruelling."Kevin Garratt is reunited with his wife Julia in Vancouver

Some four years later, they have documented their experience in a book, Two Tears on the Window, published in November.
Devout Christians, they say prayer and the support of both their close family and the wider church community helped them through their time in detention.
"I had the sense that my peace cannot be stolen from me, my true freedom cannot be stolen from me. And I think there was great comfort in that," says Julia.
She was released on bail in February 2015, pending trial.
In January 2016, still in detention, Kevin was charged with stealing state secrets.
A month later, Su waived extradition and headed to the US, where in March he pleaded guilty to hacking into major US defence contractors, stealing sensitive military data and sending it to China.
Saint-Jacques says that Chinese officials seemed taken by surprise by Su's decision to cut a deal with American officials.Justin Trudeau raised the Garratt case with Chinese officials in August 2016

He believes that turn of events, combined with a visit to China by Justin Trudeau, during which the newly elected PM raised Kevin's case, were instrumental in securing Kevin's release.
He was deported to Canada in September 2016 after 775 days in detention, and reunited with Julia, who had left the country earlier that year.
Meanwhile, Meng's case continues to strain China's ties with Canada and the US.
Chinese officials have called her arrest a "serious mistake", accusing Canada of double standards and "Western egotism and white supremacy".
She is out on bail and under house arrest in Vancouver, where she owns property.
She is next due in court on 6 March, but the case could possibly drag on for years.
It also comes amid growing scrutiny in Western countries over Huawei, which is a world leader in telecoms infrastructure, in particular the next generation of mobile phone networks, known as 5G.
Concern about the security of the company's technology has been growing, particularly in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Germany, which fear its products could be used for spying.
Amid the diplomatic dispute, Canada has worked to rally international allies to its corner.
Earlier this month, over 140 diplomats -- including Saint-Jacques -- and academics signed an open letter to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping calling for the release of Kovrig and Spavor.
Canada also fired ambassador John McCallum on Sunday following controversial comments he made about Meng's extradition case.

Rogue Nation, Rogue Company

Huawei and Meng Wanzhou Face Criminal Charges
By David E. Sanger, Katie Benner and Matthew Goldstein

The Justice Department unveiled charges against Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, for helping evade American sanctions on Iran.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department unveiled sweeping charges on Monday against the Chinese telecom firm Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, outlining a decade-long attempt by the company to steal trade secrets, obstruct a criminal investigation and evade economic sanctions on Iran.
The pair of indictments, which were partly unsealed on Monday, come amid a broad campaign by the United States to thwart China’s biggest telecom equipment maker.
Officials have long suspected Huawei of working to advance Beijing’s global ambitions and undermine America’s interests and have begun taking steps to curb its international presence.
The charges underscore Washington’s determination to prove that Huawei poses a national security threat and to convince other nations that it cannot be trusted to build their next generation of wireless networks, known as 5G. 
The indictments, based in part on the company’s internal emails, describe a plot to steal testing equipment from T-Mobile laboratories in Bellevue, Wash.
They also cite internal memos, obtained from Meng, that link her to an elaborate bank fraud that helped Huawei profit by evading Iran sanctions.
The acting attorney general, Matthew G. Whitaker, flanked by the heads of several other cabinet agencies, said the United States would seek to have Meng extradited from Canada, where she was detained last year at the request of the United States.
The charges outlined Monday come at a sensitive diplomatic moment, as top officials from China are expected to arrive in Washington this week for two days of talks aimed at resolving a months long trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
Trump administration officials have insisted that Meng’s detention will not affect the trade talks, but the timing of the indictment coming so close to in-person discussions is likely to further strain relations between the two countries.
Meng is the daughter of Huawei’s founder and one of the most powerful industrialists in the country. Her arrest has outraged the Chinese government, which has since arrested two Canadians in retaliation.
The indictment now presents Canada with a politically charged decision: whether to extradite Meng to face the fraud charges, or make a political determination to send her back to Beijing.
A spokesman for Huawei, Joe Kelly, said it “is not aware of any wrongdoing by Meng, and believes the U.S. courts will ultimately reach the same conclusion.”
The indictment unsealed against Meng is similar to the charges leveled against the Huawei executive in filings made by federal prosecutors in connection with the bail hearing in Canada.
It claimed that Huawei defrauded four large banks into clearing transactions with Iran in violation of international sanctions through a subsidiary called Skycom.
Federal authorities did not identify the banks, but in an earlier court proceeding in Canada after Meng’s arrest, prosecutors had identified one of the banks as HSBC.
The most serious new allegation in the indictment, which could have bearing on the extradition proceeding in Canada, is the contention by federal prosecutors that Huawei sought to impede the investigation into the telecom company’s attempt to evade economic sanctions on Iran by destroying or concealing evidence.
Huawei moved employees out of the United States so they could not be called as witnesses before a grand jury in Brooklyn. 
The company destroyed evidence in order to hinder the inquiry.
Richard P. Donoghue, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said that the telecom firm’s actions began in 2007 and “allowed Iran to evade sanctions imposed by the United States and to allow Huawei to profit.”
The arrest of a top executive for sanctions evasion is unusual.
In 2015, Deutsche Bank was fined $258 million for violating American sanctions on Iran and Syria. No executives involved in the scheme were indicted, though six employees were fired.
Meng is under house arrest at one of two residences that she owns in Vancouver.
American officials said Monday that they will request her extradition before a deadline on Wednesday. 
The next stage of her case will be decided at the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
“Companies like Huawei pose a dual threat to both our economic and national security,” said Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, who joined Mr. Whitaker and two other cabinet members, Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, and Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary.
Mr. Wray argued that “the magnitude of these charges make clear just how seriously the F.B.I. takes this threat.”
“Today should serve as a warning that we will not tolerate businesses that violate our laws, obstruct justice or jeopardize national and economic well-being,” he added.
Parts of the indictment were redacted and left open the question of whether the United States had secretly indicted Meng’s father, Ren Zhengfei, a former People’s Liberation Army officer and member of the Communist Party.
A United States government interview with Ren from 2007 is cited in one of the indictments, to make the case that he misled investigators, and the name of at least one of those indicted is blacked out from the publicly filed version of the indictment.
Mr. Whitaker fueled the speculation about an indictment of Ren when he told reporters on Monday that the criminal activity “goes all the way to the top of the company.”
The Justice Department also accused Huawei of conspiring to steal trade secrets from a competitor, T-Mobile.
The charges relate to a criminal investigation that stemmed from a 2014 civil suit between the two companies.
In that case, T-Mobile accused Huawei of stealing proprietary robotics technology that the telecom company used to diagnose quality-control issues in cellphones.
Huawei was found guilty in May 2017.
The indictment cited internal emails from Huawei and its American subsidiary that set up a bonus system for employees who could illicitly obtain the T-Mobile testing system.
“These are very serious actions by a company that appears to be using corporate espionage not only to enhance their bottom line but to compete in the world economy,” Mr. Whitaker said.
The legal drama now shifts to Canada, where the government has warned that it will not extradite Meng if it appears that the request is being made for political reasons.
Trump said after her arrest that he would consider using her case for leverage in the upcoming trade negotiations, which fueled speculation that the United States may be more interested in Meng’s value in winning trade concessions than in obtaining a conviction.
Canada’s ambassador to Beijing was fired over the weekend by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for suggesting that the case against Meng was political and that Canada might accede to Chinese demands and return her home.
Mr. Whitaker declined to say Monday whether the White House would interfere in the criminal case against Meng.
But the array of officials present at the announcement was clearly intended to demonstrate a coordinated government effort to go after Huawei.
“Given the seriousness of these charges, and the direct involvement of cabinet officials in their rollout, today’s announcements underscore that there is a unified full-court press by the administration to hold China accountable for the theft of proprietary U.S. technology and violations of U.S. export control and sanctions laws,” said David Laufman, the former chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence and export control section.
The indictments could further complicate the trade talks that the administration is holding this week with Beijing.
The Trump administration is seeking significant changes to China’s trade practices, including what it says is a pattern of Beijing pressuring American companies to hand over valuable technology and outright theft of intellectual property.
“The Americans are not going to surrender global technological supremacy without a fight, and the indictment of Huawei is the opening shot in that struggle,” said Michael Pillsbury, a China scholar at the Hudson Institute who advises the Trump administration.
Lawmakers like Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, who have long argued for action to be taken against Chinese technology providers including Huawei and ZTE, a smaller firm that has faced similar accusations, called the indictment “a reminder that we need to take seriously the risks of doing business with companies like Huawei and allowing them access to our markets.”
Mr. Warner said that he would continue to press Canada to reconsider using any Huawei technology as it upgrades its telecommunications network.
On Tuesday, American intelligence officials are expected to cite 5G investments by Chinese telecom companies, including Huawei, as a worldwide threat. 
And the United States has been drafting an executive order, expected in the coming weeks, that would effectively ban American companies from using Chinese-origin equipment in critical telecommunications networks.

FBI Director Christopher Wray’s Remarks Regarding Indictments of Huawei and Wanzhou Meng

Christopher Wray

Good afternoon. 

The charges unsealed today are the result of years of investigative work conducted by the FBI and our law enforcement partners. 

Both sets of charges expose Huawei’s brazen and persistent actions to exploit American companies and financial institutions, and to threaten the free and fair global marketplace.
As you can tell from the number and magnitude of charges, Huawei and its senior executives repeatedly refused to respect the laws of the United States and standard international business practices. 

Huawei also intentionally and systematically sought to steal valuable intellectual property from an American company so it could circumvent hard-earned, time-consuming research and gain an unfair market advantage.
In pursuit of their commercial ambitions, Huawei relied on dishonest business practices that contradict the economic principles that have allowed American companies and the United States to thrive. 

There is no place for this criminal behavior in our country or any other committed to the rule of law.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, standing with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (left) and Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, remarks on the charges against Huawei during a press conference today at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
The prosperity that drives our economic security is inherently linked to our national security. 

And the immense influence that the Chinese government holds over Chinese corporations like Huawei represents a threat to both.
As Americans, we should all be concerned by the potential for any company beholden to a foreign government—especially one that doesn’t share our values—to burrow into the American telecommunications market. 

That kind of access could give a foreign government the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information, conduct undetected espionage, or exert pressure or control.
These cases make clear that, as a country, we must consider carefully the risk that companies like Huawei pose if we allow them into our telecommunications infrastructure.
Today’s charges serve as a warning that the FBI does not—and will not—tolerate businesses that violate our laws, obstruct our justice, and jeopardize our national security. 

We will not stand idly by while any entity—be it a foreign power or corporation—seeks to criminally or unfairly undermine our country’s place in the world.
This announcement would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of FBI personnel in our Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigative Divisions, and in our New York, Dallas, and Seattle Field Offices. 

I’m proud of their hard work rooting out pervasive criminal behavior by Huawei and its executives.
I’d also like to thank our law enforcement partners in Canada for their continued and invaluable assistance to the United States on law enforcement matters such as this.
And lastly, I want to extend our gratitude to our partners at the Departments of Commerce and Homeland Security for their support in our broader efforts to defend our economic and national security. Thank you.

Huawei and China Have Limited Ways to Answer U.S. Charges

By Paul Mozur and Raymond Zhong

Wilbur Ross, the United States secretary of commerce, speaking on Monday about charges of bank fraud and stealing trade secrets against Huawei of China.

SHANGHAI — Ever since Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer at the Chinese technology giant Huawei, was arrested in Canada nearly two months ago, Chinese officials have denounced the move as “wrongful” and “arbitrary” — a political affair cloaked in a judicial one.
Now that the United States has laid out its case against Meng in greater detail, neither Huawei nor the Chinese government has easy options for responding or retaliating.
Huawei, the world’s largest provider of the equipment that powers mobile phone and data networks, said on Tuesday that it was innocent of charges unveiled in Washington the day before that it had misled the United States government about its business in Iran, obstructed a criminal investigation and stolen American industrial secrets.
China’s Foreign Ministry called, once again, for the United States and Canada to release Meng, who is a daughter of Huawei’s founder and chief executive, Ren Zhengfei.
But should Meng be brought from Canada to the United States to face charges, as American officials say they plan to request before a deadline on Wednesday, Beijing will have few ways to force Washington’s hand.
China is in the middle of a trade war that it is anxious to end as its vast economy slows. 

Any effort to get tough on the United States — such as by detaining American nationals, as it did to Canadians after Meng was arrested — could scuttle the negotiations. 

Those talks are set to resume on Wednesday.
And Huawei’s Washington operations have undergone drastic turnover as it appears to rein in its sales ambitions in America and shift tactics in its relations with the government. 

In the second shake-up of its American leadership in less than a year, the company is replacing Regent Zhang, its head of government affairs in Washington, with Joy Tan, currently its head of global communications.
The broad language of the Justice Department’s indictments suggests that other Huawei leaders, including Ren, a former officer in the People’s Liberation Army, might wish to exercise caution while traveling to countries that have an extradition treaty with the United States.
“If I was his lawyer, I would advise him to be careful,” said Julian Ku, a professor of law at Hofstra University.

Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, in Vancouver, British Columbia, in December. China and Huawei alike have few easy options if she is extradited to the United States.

But that kind of caution could make it more difficult still for Huawei to hold on to its business in places like Europe. 

Already, the United States has been applying pressure on all sides against Huawei, fearing that the Chinese government could use the company’s gear to sabotage other countries’ communication networks.
Previously, Canadian officials had said that Meng was accused of tricking financial institutions into making transactions that violated United States sanctions on Iran. 

One of the two indictments unsealed on Monday outlines a broader effort.
The indictment says that Huawei’s misrepresentations to the United States government and four multinational financial institutions began in 2007. 

It cites an interview between agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Ren around July of that year, in which Ren said that his company complied with all American laws and that it had not dealt directly with any Iranian company.
The indictment also cites 2012 testimony before the United States Congress in which a Huawei executive said that the company’s business in Iran had not violated sanctions. 

That executive was Charles Ding, a corporate senior vice president. 

Ding, who was not mentioned by name in Monday’s indictment, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Also in the indictment is a reference to a file found on an electronic device that Meng was carrying when she arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2014. 

Officials detained her for a couple of hours when she arrived, according to a person with knowledge of the events. 

During that time, they briefly confiscated her electronic devices, said the person, who asked for anonymity because the events haven’t made public.
The file she was carrying, which the indictment said may have been deleted before being discovered, contained “suggested talking points” about Huawei’s relationship with Skycom, the company that prosecutors accuse Huawei of using as an unofficial subsidiary to obtain American-sourced goods, technology and services for its Iranian business.
The indictment also said that Skycom employed at least one United States citizen in Iran, a violation of American law. 

And it said that after Huawei found out that the United States was pursuing a criminal investigation in 2017, the company destroyed evidence and tried to move unspecified witnesses who knew about its Iranian business to China, beyond the reach of the American government.
The other indictment, which concerns the theft of trade secrets from the American wireless provider T-Mobile, refers to internal emails describing a plot to steal testing equipment from T-Mobile’s lab in Bellevue, Wash.
Huawei has contended that its employees were acting on their own to learn more about a robot that T-Mobile used to test smartphones, nicknamed Tappy because it could rapidly tap a phone screen. 

But the indictment cites multiple emails exchanged between Huawei engineers urging those with access to Tappy to take increasingly precise measurements.
Eventually, the indictment says, a Huawei engineer was sneaked into the Tappy laboratory by other Huawei employees who had access. 

He was caught and thrown out but returned, the indictment said.

Ren Zhengfei, the founder and chief executive of Huawei, is Meng’s father.

Later, after all but one Huawei employee had their access to the robot revoked, the employee took a Tappy robotic arm home for closer study, according to the indictment. 

A Huawei investigation into the issue, which concluded there was minimal coordination among the engineers, contained false statements, the indictment said.
The indictment also cites a Huawei program started in 2013 to reward employees for stealing confidential information from competitors. 

They were directed to post such information to an internal Huawei website, or in special cases to an encrypted email address, the indictment said. 

Bonuses were apportioned to those who stole the most valuable information, it said.
The evidence presented in this week’s indictments bolsters the American case for extraditing Meng, said Mr. Ku of Hofstra University.
“The standard for extradition is whether a Canadian court would send her to trial,” Mr. Ku said. “Essentially, is there enough evidence to indict someone? I think this will help meet that standard.”
Prosecutors redacted the identity of at least one of the defendants, most likely to leave open the option of arresting that person. 

That person isn’t likely to be Ren, said Mr. Ku, because he is mentioned later in the indictment. 

But that doesn’t guarantee prosectors won’t target him later.
Huawei has worked for a reset in Washington as relations with the American government have worsened. 

Last year it cut staff in Washington after investigations into the company deepened and AT&T walked away from a deal to sell Huawei’s phones. 

Further personnel shifts in recent weeks appear to be focused on improving its image in America.
Tan, Huawei’s incoming head of government affairs in Washington, has for years played a key role in the company’s media relations. 

She will be tasked with engaging an American administration that has grown hawkish on China. 

Her predecessor in Washington, Zhang, had previously been responsible for sales in Mexico.
The mounting global skepticism toward Huawei and other Chinese tech suppliers is starting to have practical effects on the telecommunications industry.
On Tuesday, TPG Telecom, an internet provider in Australia, said it has been forced to cancel the construction of its mobile network because of the Australian government’s decision last year to forbid Huawei from supplying 5G equipment.
In a stock-exchange filing, TPG said that it had already spent around $70 million on its new network, largely on Huawei gear. 

But the company said that it did not make sense to invest further in a network that could not later be upgraded to 5G.

How China uses shadowy United Front as 'magic weapon' to try to extend its influence in Canada

Its activities include influencing the Chinese diaspora to back China, co-opting foreign political and economic elites and promoting Beijing’s agenda worldwide
By Tom Blackwell

The scene outside the offices of the Toronto public school board was raucous.
It was October 2014, and the board was planning to vote on a contract with the Confucius Institute, an organization affiliated with the education ministry of the government of China, which had offered its services to teach Mandarin to the city’s schoolchildren.
Critics decried the arrangement, calling the institute a propaganda or espionage arm of the Chinese state. 

But its supporters were out in force, scores of them, rallying noisily and waving Chinese flags in the heart of Canada’s biggest city.
“You are a damn traitor to China,” one of them shouted to an institute opponent of Chinese descent. “Down with traitors!”
The demonstration was no spontaneous occurrence. 

Three days earlier, as the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Associations hosted a farewell banquet for the departing Chinese vice-consul, Consul General Fang Li had urged locals to come out in support of the institute.

After a request for support from the local consul general of China, Chinese-Canadian backers of the Confucius Institute rally outside the Toronto school board offices in 2014. Subtitles were added by Falun Gong practitioners but the translation was independently verified by the National Post. 

The confederation, according to the local MingPao newspaper, echoed his call, predicting 500 would attend the rally.
While the Toronto trustees eventually voted to send the Institute packing, Confucius is now entrenched at three other school boards and on nine university and college campuses across Canada. 

And the Toronto dispute underscored Beijing’s sometimes surprising reach into Canada — the subject of renewed scrutiny amid the bitter diplomatic dispute sparked by Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive with Chinese infotech giant Huawei, at the request of the United States.
China has long strived to influence and monitor Chinese-Canadians, Chinese citizens who study here and Canadian society as a whole — and done the same in many other countries. 

In recent years, however, that project appears to have surged in importance.
Since rising to prominence in 2012, the country’s paramount leader, Xi Jinping, has overseen what one leading academic expert calls a “massive expansion” in China’s use of soft power overseas, much of it under the auspices of the United Front Work Department, a shadowy offshoot of the Chinese communist party.
The United Front began in pre-revolutionary China, used by the party to co-opt non-communist groups into its struggle for power. 

In recent years, it has been increasingly deployed to win over overseas Chinese — and the broader societies around them.
“United Front work has taken on a level of significance not seen since the years before 1949,” Anne-Marie Brady, a political scientist at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury, told a U.S. conference last year. 

“(China) is increasingly able to use its soft-power ‘magic weapons’ to help influence the decision-making of foreign governments and societies.”
Working partly through officials in foreign missions, its activities include influencing the Chinese diaspora to back China, co-opting foreign political and economic elites, promoting Beijing’s agenda worldwide and forming a China-centred economic bloc, the political science professor says.
And doing “United Front work” is considered the duty of all party members — who now include a majority of Chinese corporate CEOs — not just the department itself, says Brady.
Xi himself has quoted Mao’s description of the United Front as one of the communists’ “magic weapons,” and has elevated the United Front’s role in the party, an expansion that has included adding 40,000 staff to the department and absorbing three government agencies, according to Gerry Groot, a China-studies lecturer at Australia’s University of Adelaide.
Last August, Xi made a direct appeal to ethnic Chinese residents of countries like Canada — what Beijing calls the “overseas Chinese” — urging them to “remember the call from the Party and the people, spread China’s voice, support the country’s development, safeguard national interests.”

The Huawei research and development centre at Dongguan, China. 

Charles Burton, a political scientist at Ontario’s Brock University who closely monitors China-related rights issues, says one of the United Front’s key goals is to soften opinions around issues like Chinese companies’ acquisition of Canadian natural resources and technology, or the looming decision Canada must make about Huawei’s involvement in building the country’s 5G telecom network. 

The company, considered to have close links to the Chinese state and having for years faced accusations of corporate espionage, was barred from taking part in 5G trials in the U.S., Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand — the four countries that with Canada comprise the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance.
It’s difficult to map exactly how the United Front Work Department deploys its resources in places like Canada. 

But Burton argues its influence — helped by immigration in the last two decades made up increasingly of people raised under Communist rule on the Chinese mainland — has been tangible. 

A substantial portion of Chinese diplomatic staff in Canada are United Front operatives, interacting with Chinese-Canadian leaders, politicians, students and others.
And there are a lot of those staffers. 

Global Affairs Canada lists 211 accredited representatives of China, not much less than the 276 fielded by the U.S., Canada’s closest ally and neighbour. 

The U.K. has 38. 

The Chinese embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
Most of the Chinese-language media in Canada are now owned by businesses tied to Beijing, offering positive coverage of China, while Chinese-Canadian community groups have largely fallen under the sway of the “motherland.” 
In his own region, the Niagara Chinese Cultural Association was once dedicated to domestic causes and reaching out to the wider community, but now seems just as interested in cheering on a rising China, says Burton, a fluent Mandarin speaker. 

Both the Canadian and Chinese flags are raised at meetings today, and there was even discussion of adding the Chinese anthem, he says.
“An organization that once had another purpose has gradually been taken over to serve China’s national interest. Where United Front work becomes problematic is when it’s engaging persons of Chinese origin who have Canadian citizenship … to serve the interests of the motherland, when in fact the motherland should be Canada.”
One of the Niagara group’s leaders denies there has been any change in direction, or political thrust. “Our executive committee’s background is a combination of Canada, mainland China, Taiwan and Chinese from other Asian countries,” says Li Yu, the association’s former president. 

Yet Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former Asia-Pacific chief for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, documented ties between the leaders of a number of Chinese-Canadian groups and China, arguing in a presentation to the Toronto school board the groups “are following Beijing’s request, not the Canadian constituents.”
The Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Associations has joined forces with the local consulate on contentious issues other than just the Confucius Institute, while China’s Overseas Affairs Office — under Xi, now officially part of the United Front — heaped praise on the group in a recent online article, since removed, that cited its willingness to defend Chinese interests.
Confederation executives could not be reached for comment. 

Their website talks of building “a truly beautiful and wonderful homeland — Canada,” while pledging to also help strengthen both the bridge of friendship to China, and China’s economic development.

In August 2018, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping made a direct appeal to ethnic Chinese residents of countries such as Canada urging them to remember the call from the Party and the people, spread China's voice, support the country's development, safeguard national interests.

Even an Ottawa Chinese senior’s group was not immune. 

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal ruled in 2006 the association had violated the law by throwing out a member who practiced Falun Gong. 

Asked to explain the decision, one group leader allegedly said the expelled senior was “against the Chinese government,” another that the organization had to “maintain unity and solidarity” with Beijing, the tribunal reported.
Not all experts are convinced that China’s attempts to shape opinion in Canada have borne much fruit.

“There is definitely an attempt to influence domestic public opinion here,” Lynette Ong, a University of Toronto professor and China expert, said in an interview. 

“But from what I see, the extent of success here is rather limited.”
And the Canadian government has been reluctant to do what Australia did earlier this year and implement laws geared to countering undue foreign influence. 

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland did not respond when asked whether Canada would now consider such legislation.
But politicians themselves have also been the target of Beijing’s influence campaigns.
In the Antipodes, where the issue has been most prominent, a New Zealand MP landed in hot water after his pre-immigration past as a member of Chinese military intelligence was revealed, while an Australian senator quit amid revelations that he had taken pro-China positions after getting donations from a Beijing-linked tycoon.
Ong argues that Beijing’s political influence in Canada has been negligible compared to what has happened in New Zealand or Australia, whose economies are far more dependent on China.
Yet a training manual for United Front cadres, obtained by the Financial Times newspaper, notes with approval that the number of politicians of Chinese descent elected in Toronto had almost doubled between 2003 and 2006.
Department officials should “aim to work with” those and other individuals who have prospects for advancement, the manual advises, while offering no details of what exactly that means.
It’s not just politicians of Chinese background who are targeted, although not necessarily by the United Front.

Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou exits court following a bail hearing at British Columbia Superior Courts in Vancouver on Dec. 11, 2018. 

Prime Minister Trudeau was forced on the defensive in 2016 when it emerged that he took part in a private fundraiser attended by a Chinese billionaire with close ties to the Beijing leadership. 

A billionaire who then donated $250,000 to the charitable Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation and the raising of a Trudeau statue.
At least nine MPs have taken trips to China in recent years — usually flying business class — that were paid for by Chinese government agencies, indicate Ethics Commissioner records, which don’t include former members. 

The Canada-China Legislative Association meets regularly — and as recently as this month — with members of the Chinese People’s Congress. 

The Congress is an unelected body that rubber-stamps Communist Party decisions, not equivalent to Canada’s Parliament, Burton notes.
While a backbench MP, Canada’s current ambassador to China, John McCallum — who was forced to withdraw comments this week he made to a group of Chinese-Canadian stakeholders and media suggesting Meng had a strong case that her arrest was politically motivated — accepted $73,000 worth of trips to the country, paid for by both the Chinese government and pro-Beijing business groups, the Globe and Mail has reported.
Chinese-Canadian politicians, meanwhile, have to be cognizant that recent Chinese immigrants are mostly products of the mainland Communist regime, said Kenny Chiu, a losing 2015 federal Conservative candidate in B.C.
“That has a significant impact or influence on the view of China in the community,” Chiu said. “There are many immigrants coming to Canada who are actually very proud of the development that has occurred in the motherland.”
To encourage such leanings, the United Front’s tools include both the Confucius Institutes, and the less-well-known Chinese Students and Scholars Associations at post-secondary institutions across Canada — and in numerous other countries.
The associations are sometimes dispatched to counteract protests against visiting Chinese dignitaries, promote the homeland and monitor the activities of Chinese students, Burton says.
In an echo of the Toronto school board protest, shortly after Meng’s arrest a little-known Chinese women’s group held a news conference in Vancouver to call for her release — though they said they had no link to the People’s Republic — and another group rallied outside the courthouse in her support.
Meanwhile, a leaked video obtained and translated by the Falun Gong appears to show an embassy first secretary briefing students about a planned pro-China demonstration on Parliament Hill in 2010, promising them food and accommodation. 

The work was mandatory for any student funded by the Chinese government, he said.
It would be a “battle that relates to defending the reputation of our Motherland,” the diplomat says on the recording.

Chinese fifth column: People hold a sign at a B.C. courthouse prior to the bail hearing for Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer on Monday, December 10, 2018. 

Students coached by embassy staff staked out an Ottawa hotel all night in 2016 to welcome visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqing the next afternoon — and try to drown out protesters, says Grace Wollensak, a Falun Gong spokeswoman who was there.
Lingdi Zhong, a Falun Gong practitioner and Chinese student, told the authors of an Amnesty International-led, confidential report on intimidation tactics by Beijing in Canada that the vice-president of the University of Ottawa association warned her in 2005 his group was under the guidance of the Chinese embassy and that she was being watched.
China’s actions may raise questions about the appropriate role of a foreign power in domestic affairs, but they are unlikely to be debated in Canada’s Chinese-language media.
With the exception of Falun Gong’s Epoch Times and one or two other newspapers, most toe Beijing’s line, says Cheuk Kwan, head of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China.
Journalists from such outlets have told him they sometimes even get calls from the consulate with advice on what to cover, and not cover.
Whether all this has an impact depends on the individual, when they immigrated and where they came from, adds Kwan.
“A lot of people don’t think of the long arm of influence of China in Canada, because they’re under the influence, to put it mildly,” he says. 

“Outsiders like me, who is a Hong Kong immigrant … we see very clearly that this is a United Front effort, a very subtle, soft-power kind of advance into Canadian society.”

No longer safe: Researcher harassed by China in her own country

By Peter Hartcher

After a quarter-century of researching China, Anne-Marie Brady is a veteran of Chinese government spying and harassment. 

 "I was prepared for pressure in China," says the 52-year-old New Zealander, a well-regarded professor of political science at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. 

"But I always felt safe in New Zealand. So that changed." 

Last week she wrote to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern seeking police protection. 

It was her first direct appeal to Ardern, but her third in a series of pleas to escalating levels of officialdom.

China expert Anne-Marie Brady has been subject to ongoing harassment.

First came the pressure on her university. 

Chinese officials demanded that her immediate superior stop her research. 

It might have worked – the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the mayor of Christchurch backed them up in an effort to appease Beijing. 

 They failed when the university vice-chancellor intervened on behalf of academic freedom. 

But it was just the beginning.
Next, her office was broken into in December 2017. 

As far as she could tell, nothing was taken. 

"I think it was meant to scare me, to show me people could come into my office." 

If so, it worked: "I felt this great dread," after the intrusion. 

"I reported it to security and there was no follow-up."
If she had any doubt that she'd been targeted, she got a detailed warning letter from a concerned friend in the Chinese community to let her know that an official campaign of intimidation against her – and others – was under way.
Brady's home was next. 

While she was on the phone to the New Zealand Secret Intelligence Service negotiating to give them the letter, her husband called to say that someone had broken in. 

"Cash, pearls, jewellery, other electronics were ignored," Brady tells me. 

The only things missing were laptops, phones and an encrypted memory stick from her last trip to China. 

Other memory sticks were left behind. 

"It was very telling." 

 She immediately reported the break-in to the intelligence service and the police. 

Brady went to her office the next morning to discover that it had been broken into. 

Again. 

It was February 15 last year. 

Brady was scheduled to give testimony to Australia's Parliament that afternoon.
She gave evidence by video link to two committees keen to know about, among other things, her groundbreaking research into the Chinese Communist Party's activities in Antarctica in the course of producing her book China as a Polar Great Power. 

This is a vital interest for Australia, which has sovereignty over 42 per cent of the continent, as well as a vital area for New Zealand. 

And it turns out to be an area of very lively interest to China's military too, as Brady's research had unearthed. 

Her work uncovered, for instance, that the Chinese People's Liberation Army had built three military facilities on Australian Antarctic territory.

So when Australian Liberal MP Julian Leeser asked Brady whether she'd encountered any personal difficulties from Beijing over her work, she replied "yes", and summarised the various incidents. 

The Chinese government was deeply displeased that Brady had spoken out. 

"Soon after my testimony to the Australian parliamentary committees, some of my colleagues in Chinese universities were visited by the Ministry of State Security.
"They were very angry that I had spoken about the burglaries and break-ins. They were particularly upset that I had spoken it into Hansard," the official record of proceedings of the Parliament. 

Yet the New Zealand police didn't take the matter seriously. 

And the incidents continue. 

In November, Brady's car was tampered with. 

The New Zealand police treated the matter with familiar indifference and told the mechanic not to speak to the media.

When Brady and her family returned home this month after a Christmas holiday, their phone rang at 3am. 

The caller was silent. 

The number is unlisted.
It's not only her Antarctic research that Beijing wants to stop. 

She also unearthed the fact that a member of the New Zealand Parliament spent 15 years working for Chinese military intelligence but never disclosed it. 

 But the harassment in her own country seems to have been in angry response to her 2017 report in New Zealand, titled Magic Weapons: China's Political Influence Activities Under Xi Jinping.
The title is a reference to the fact that Xi named three "magic weapons" of Chinese Communist Party power – the People's Liberation Army, the party's program to strengthen and build itself, and the party's United Front Work Department that covertly spreads party influence through the overseas Chinese diaspora and elements of Chinese culture and business. 

This is the same Chinese Communist Party agenda that the Turnbull government sought to address with its foreign influence laws, which are just now about to take full effect.

The power of Brady's work is that she meticulously reads original Chinese documents in the original Chinese. 

It is her own "secret weapon". 

Australia's John Garnaut, a Mandarin-speaking former Beijing correspondent for this newspaper, says: "Professor Brady is a first-rate scholar who has led the global conversation and almost single-handedly woken up New Zealand." 

The chair of the Australian Parliament's security and intelligence committee, Andrew Hastie, says that after listening to her evidence and other conversations, "it appears that she's a target of interest for the Chinese Communist Party or apparatchiks of the Chinese state as a way of silencing her and intimidating her."

Unfortunately for Brady, her country's government is more interested in appeasing China's rulers than protecting her, or protecting New Zealand's democratic freedoms. 

"It's very clear," says Brady, "that my country's government wants this story to go away. The Chinese Ministry of State Security operates in our societies unhindered and our governments just watch. It's happening in Australia, too."
John Garnaut, who was commissioned by Malcolm Turnbull to write the classified report that informed his government's foreign interference laws, confirms: "It would be naive and also reckless to assume that similar activities are not happening here."
In the meantime Brady and her family are left to defend themselves. 

"It's an uneven contest," she says. 

"We are just an ordinary family facing down the Chinese Communist Party." 

She is continuing her work regardless: "I haven't changed. China's changed."

ADVERTISING CHINA'S THUGGISH SOCIALISM

Promoting China's communist regime to Australia's 1.2 million ethnic Chinese

By Andrew Bolt

Cinema advertisements espousing Chinese propaganda’ and socialism are airing in movie theatres across Sydney, including before children’s films such as the latest How To Train Your Dragon sequel.
A bizarre advertisement promoting “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and aimed at increasing China’s “soft power’’ over Australia has appeared on the silver screen in a string of theatres.
So who pays for this?
Chinese film distribution company TangRen... is behind the advertisement.
The Daily Telegraph yesterday asked TangRen owner Jiayin Yuan if the company was financially supported by the Chinese government and why it was promoting socialism in Australia.
She directed the questions to company director Li Tongliang who did not respond.
The company’s website states TangRen distributes two thirds of all the Chinese and Korean films shown in Australia and New Zealand.
“TangRen promotes Chinese political philosophy and cultural concepts of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” the advertisement states.
The propaganda is the carrot. 

Then there's the stick: a Chinese Australian critic of the regime gets arrested in China:
Yang Hengjun, the Australian-Chinese writer and democracy activist... was detained in China accused of spying.
He now has a friend release a letter:
In the letter, Mr Yang urges activists to "maintain belief in China's democratic future, and, when it doesn't put yourself or your family at risk, to use all your means to push China's democratic development to happen sooner... If I cannot come out or disappear again, remember my articles and let your children read them."
The 53-year-old had been living in New York as a visiting scholar at Columbia University, before leaving for Guangzhou on January 18.
Yang admits in that letter he was also arrested by China in 2011 and forced to lie about it:
On Monday, Australian professor Feng Chongyi published an apology that Yang wrote to his supporters on US-based ­Chinese alternative news website Boxun, detailing his regret over how he handled his previous detention in China in 2011...
Back then, when Yang was ­released, he denied it occurred and said his phone was turned off and there had been a misunderstanding. 

Chinese dissidents and critics of the Chinese government abroad were suspicious of his ­explanation, and accused him of being a spy for the Communist Party...
In the letter, Yang said he did not reveal that he was detained publicly in order to be able to ­return to China and continue his work writing about Chinese democracy...
“I choose to ‘lie’ and let myself be insulted (in order to continue to be) able to do the things which I think right. Can you forgive me?”...
Dr Feng, a University of Technology Sydney professor who is also a critic of the Chinese government and has been detained in China, said Yang asked him to release the letter if he was ever detained again.
Chinese Australians here get the message. 

Here's Jieh-Yung Lo in the Sydney Morning Herald:
Since the news about Chinese-Australian writer and blogger Yang Hengjun broke, I received a call from my mother urging me to stop writing and commentating on issues relating to China. 

She pointed out it doesn’t matter what I write or how I write it, it will cause “unnecessary complications” and make myself and my immediate family a target.
But it's not just Chinese Australia critics who should worry:
After a quarter-century of researching China, Anne-Marie Brady is a veteran of Chinese government spying and harassment. 

"I was prepared for pressure in China," says the 52-year-old New Zealander, a well-regarded professor of political science at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. 

"But I always felt safe in New Zealand. So that changed." ...
First came the pressure on her university. 

Chinese officials demanded that her immediate superior stop her research...
Next, her office was broken into in December 2017.... 

If she had any doubt that she'd been targeted, she got a detailed warning letter from a concerned friend in the Chinese community to let her know that an official campaign of intimidation against her – and others – was under way.
Brady's home was next... 

The only things missing were laptops, phones and an encrypted memory stick from her last trip to China... 

Brady went to her office the next morning to discover that it had been broken into. 

Again. 

It was February 15 last year.
Brady was scheduled to give testimony to Australia's Parliament that afternoon... to two committees keen to know about, among other things, her groundbreaking research into the Chinese Communist Party's activities in Antarctica... 

Her work uncovered, for instance, that the Chinese People's Liberation Army had built three military facilities on Australian Antarctic territory...
The harassment in her own country seems to have been in angry response to her 2017 report in New Zealand, titled Magic Weapons: China's Political Influence Activities Under Xi Jinping.

The title is a reference to the fact that Xi named three "magic weapons" of Chinese Communist Party power – the People's Liberation Army, the party's program to strengthen and build itself, and the party's United Front Work Department that covertly spreads party influence through the overseas Chinese diaspora and elements of Chinese culture and business.
Given this growing Chinese authoritarianism, this seems very unwise:
Australia is playing a role in helping China develop its rival global positioning system that will be used for guiding missiles and other military technology, according to a leading expert.
New Zealand academic Anne-Marie Brady — who says she has faced a campaign of harassment and intimidation for her research on the Chinese Communist Party — said the "BeiDou" alternative to the American-controlled GPS carries significant benefits for the Chinese military.