Huawei Peril

China Just Issued Stark New Threats Over Huawei: This Time Nokia And Ericsson Are In Its Sights
By Zak Doffman

China has issued threats to other countries before, warning of the economic consequences of discriminating against its telco champion Huawei in the award of 5G contracts. 

And so it’s little surprise that Beijing has done so once again, this time in France, where multiple media reports suggest a government shutout of the Chinese manufacturer from its network rollout.

What’s different this time, though, is that those threats have been aimed at Nokia and Ericsson, Huawei’s core competition. 

“China has always given Nokia and Ericsson fair treatment in the deployment of 5G networks in China,” said a statement on the website of Beijing’s embassy in Paris, “and has even allowed them to take part in the deployment of the core networks.”
In a long statement that ironically claimed that French action would go against “the principles of a market economy and free trade,” Beijing said that any “difference in treatment of companies according to their country of origin will constitute overt discrimination and disguised protectionism.”
And so the threat: “We do not wish to see the development of European companies in the Chinese market affected by the discrimination and protectionism of France and other European countries with regard to Huawei.”
France’s seeming decision to exclude Huawei has been seen in some quarters as a further rebuff to the U.K. and its decision to include the Chinese equipment in a limited capacity, much to the aggravation of the U.S. government and President Trump. 

There is a further irony that Paris can be seen to be taking U.S. warnings more seriously than London. One is Washington’s closest security ally, the other has been much more critical of U.S. security policy in the past. 

They seem to have got this the wrong way around.
Confirmation in France that its biggest operator, Orange, had selected Nokia and Ericsson came just days after London’s alternative view made headlines around the world. 

The French decision has become part of an intensifying campaign within the U.K.’s governing Conservative Party, as politicians look to push the government to overturn its decision. 

There is genuine alarm in the U.K. at the longterm implications of the decision, to say nothing of the damage it looks set to do to elements of the relationship with Washington.
For its part, Huawei has welcomed the U.K. decision. 

The Chinese embassy statement even referenced the security evaluation center set up in the U.K. to monitor Huawei as an example of how best security practice.
The Chinese statement talked up the technical advantages Huawei has over its European rivals, before reverting to more ominous tones. “China has never shown France the slightest concern about national security—we hope our two countries can maintain mutual trust in these areas.”
In December, I reported that China had been exposed threatening Germany and Denmark with economic penalties if the countries reversed awards to Huawei and followed U.S. advice to exclude the company. 

These threats of “serious consequences” were more blatant than this more nuanced tone in France.
But that said, there is obviously a further mix here of company and state, as China lobbies for Huawei this way, mixing business and politics. 

This does not help claims of independence. 

This is not a country beating its enterprise drum as would normally be the case, this is blunt politics and international influence at work. 

This is unlikely to wash well in France, and it may backfire, giving the U.K. hawks more ammunition to use in their campaign against the government.
“This makes no logical sense,” senior Conservative Sir Iain Duncan-Smith wrote in Sunday’s (February 9) Daily Telegraph on the U.K.’s own decision. 

“It is inconceivable that such a decision should be made in the face of all the evidence of the threat that China poses to us and our allies.”
The news from France will no doubt fuel the next wave of such protests.

Chinazism: State Terrorism

'Think of your family': China threatens European citizens over East Turkestan protests
Uighurs living in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and France have complained of intimidation by Beijing
By Benjamin Haas in Munich

Demonstrators holding Uighur flags in Berlin before a meeting between German chancellor Angela Merkel and Li Keqiang. 

Two days after Abdujelil Emet sat in the public gallery of Germany’s parliament during a hearing on human rights, he received a phone call from his sister for the first time in three years. 

But the call from East Turkestan, in western China, was anything but a joyous family chat. 

It was made at the direction of Chinese security officers, part of a campaign by Beijing to silence criticism of policies that have seen more than a million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities detained in concentration camps.
Emet’s sister began by praising the Communist party and making claims of a much improved life under its guidance before delivering a shock: his brother had died a year earlier. 

But Emet, 54, was suspicious from the start; he had never given his family his phone number. 

Amid the heartbreaking news and sloganeering, he could hear a flurry of whispers in the background, and he demanded to speak to the unknown voice. 

Moments later the phone was handed to a Chinese official who refused to identify himself.
By the end of the conversation, the façade constructed by the Chinese security agent was broken and Emet’s sister wept as she begged him to stop his activism. 

Then the Chinese official took the phone again with a final warning.
“You’re living overseas, but you need to think of your family while you’re running around doing your activism work in Germany,” he said. 

“You need to think of their safety.”
In interviews with more than two dozen Uighurs living across Europe and the United States, tales of threats across the world are the rule, not the exception. 

Uighurs living in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and France all complained of similar threats against family members back in East Turkestan, and some were asked to spy for China.
More than a million Uighurs, a Muslim Turkic ethnic group, and other minorities are being held in concentration camps, according to the UN, with some estimates saying the number is “closer to 3 million”.
Emet, originally from Aksu in East Turkestan, has lived in Germany for over two decades and is a naturalised citizen. 

He does volunteer work for the World Uyghur Congress and is a part-time imam in his community. He has never told his family about his activism, hoping the omission would protect them.
“I will not keep my silence and the Chinese government should not use my family to threaten me,” Emet said. 

“I was clear with them on the phone: if they harm my family, I will speak out louder and become a bigger problem for the government.”

‘China threatening people in Germany should never become normalised’
Most Uighurs remain silent, and have found little help from European authorities. 

But Margarete Bause, a member of the German parliament representing Munich, said Chinese interference was unacceptable and urged Uighurs to contact their MPs.
“We need to protect visitors to the Bundestag. Observing parliament is a fundamental right in any democracy,” she said. 

“It’s also important for the German public to know how China is trying to exert influence here. The Chinese government threatening people in Germany should never become normalised.”
Bause has been interested in Uighur issues for over a decade, after she was admonished by Chinese diplomats in 2006 for attending an event hosted by the World Uyghur Congress. 

In August she was denied a visa as part of a parliamentary visit to China and the trip was eventually cancelled in response.
Beyond discouraging activism, Chinese officials have also tried to recruit Uighurs living abroad to spy on others in their community, asking for photos of private gatherings, names, phone numbers, addresses and licence plate numbers. 

Some are recruited when they go to Chinese diplomatic missions in Europe to request documents, and others are contacted by security agents over WeChat, a popular Chinese messaging app. 

Emet’s number is likely to have been leaked to Chinese security agents this way, he said, with his number well known in the Uighur community in Munich.
Chinese agents offer cash, the promise of visas to visit East Turkestan or better treatment for family members as a reward, but also dangle the threat of harsh consequences for those same family members if their offers are refused. 

Uighurs described having crucial documents withheld from Chinese embassies and consulates unless they agreed.
One Uighur living in Germany who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation said a Chinese agent asked for photos of Eid and other celebrations, and specifically asked for information on Uighurs who had recently arrived in Europe.

A group of people stage a protest against China’s human rights violations against members of the Turkic Uighur minority.

The recent surge in activism among Uighurs overseas is mostly a direct response to the increasingly repressive policies in East Turkestan, and as more people speak out China has doubled efforts to silence them and control the narrative over what it calls “re-education camps”.
There are some signs China’s campaign to silence Uighurs in Europe is working. 

Gulhumar Haitiwaji became an outspoken critic of policies after her mother disappeared into one of the camps in East Turkestan, appearing on French television and starting a petition addressed to French president Emmanuel Macron that garnered nearly half a million signatures. 

But after threats from Chinese officials targeting her mother, Haitiwaji cancelled a planned appearance in March at a human rights summit in Geneva, according to two sources familiar with her plans. 

Haitiwaji and the organisers of the meeting did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Adrian Zenz, an independent researcher who focuses on East Turkestan, said European governments needed to do more to protect their citizens from Chinese intimidation.
“The biggest mistake European Union countries make is that once they allow China to get away with something, that emboldens Beijing,” he said. 

“China has systematic strategies in place and the threats to Uighurs in exile show that. Europe needs its own unified strategy to stand up to China and respond to these threats.”
The Chinese embassy in Berlin did not respond to requests for comment.

Demonstrators in London stand in solidarity with Hong Kong protest movement

HKFP Lens

Thousands rallied in over 40 cities around the world over the weekend in opposition to totalitarianism, and in solidarity with protesters in Hong Kong who also took to the streets en masse. Events were held in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Taiwan, and other places. 

Photographer Darcy Miller captured the rally in London.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Photo: Darcy Miller.

Interpol tragicomedy

China suspends cooperation with France on police affairs, says report
Action comes after France gave asylum to wife of jailed former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei
By Emma Graham-Harrison

Former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei at his trial in Tianjin in June. 

China has cut off all cooperation with France on police affairs, after Paris gave asylum to the Chinese wife of a former Interpol chief now in jail on corruption charges, the French newspaper Le Monde reported.

Chinese authorities told a diplomat in Beijing in late July that a decision had been made to halt all cooperation after Grace Meng was awarded political asylum in May, the newspaper reported.
Increasingly assertive internationally, Beijing has made the decision to suspend a key aspect of the diplomatic and security relationship with Paris at a time when it is already in the global spotlight over protests in Hong Kong and an escalating trade dispute with the US.
Meng first hit headlines last year, when she decided to go public about her husband’s sudden disappearance during a trip home to China in September.
Interpol had not been given any information about the whereabouts of Meng Hongwei, who had been elected president of the body in 2016, leading to the humiliating spectacle of the global police body pleading with China for information about its chief.

Grace Meng at a press conference with journalists in France in 2018, in which she did not want her face to be shown.

In October, under international pressure, China finally admitted that Hongwei had been detained. 

He was not seen in public again until June, when he appeared in court in the north-eastern port city of Tianjin, confessed to accepting more than $2m in bribes and expressed regret for his crime, a court statement said.
A confession assures a conviction but it was not immediately clear when a verdict and sentence would be handed down. 

Confessions in corruption cases, often televised, have become a hallmark of dictator Xi Jinping’s rule; he has put a very public crackdown on official graft at the heart of his rule.
Chinese authorities reportedly also wanted to charge Grace Meng, Le Monde said, but she stayed in France, where she has been given police protection, and sought asylum. 

Grace says she fears personal retaliation from Chinese authorities, and in spring France opened a judicial inquiry into a kidnapping attempt.
The end of police cooperation is likely to complicate Chinese efforts to seek fugitives in France, Le Monde said. 

For Paris, it will complicate efforts to track down up to €500m stolen by fraudsters and sent by bank transfer to China.
It will also undermine work to protect intellectual property rights in China, where, despite decades of pressure from western governments, counterfeiting is still rampant.

China tries to bribe France to break with America

By Tom Rogan

Beware of Xi Jinping bearing gifts. 

When Xi opens his wallet, it's never with a simple economic agenda.
This bears relevance in light of Xi's announcement in Paris on Tuesday that China will buy 300 jets from Airbus. 

That purchase order will benefit the French economy to the tune of around $34 billion. 

But while China says this purchase is designed to strengthen its domestic aviation sector, that's only the pretense. 

What this deal is really about is encouraging France to separate from the U.S. on matters affecting Chinese foreign policy.
The most obvious Chinese interest here is getting France to oppose U.S. efforts to constrain the Chinese telecommunications firm, Huawei. 

To its credit, the Trump administration has taken a harsh stance on Huawei, warning allies that if they allow the Chinese intelligence cutout to enter their telecommunications networks, they will lose out on U.S. intelligence support and economic opportunities.
But it's not just about Huawei. 

China also wants to prevent France from following Britain in supporting U.S. efforts to ensure the Indo-Pacific region remains open and free. 

As more nations support U.S. efforts to challenge China's imperial aggression in that region, China finds it harder to retain international legitimacy. 

China is also weakened by its reliance on allies of weak interest and political toxicity, such as Pakistan, and by its own domestic conduct because that legitimacy deficit weakens Xi's political influence, economic interests, and military power. 

Although, it must be said, China's cultivation of top research institutions such as Harvard University earns Beijing some political cover.
The U.S. cannot sit idle here. 

It must consolidate Emmanuel Macron to oppose even Xi's marginal interests. 

It's a relevant concern in that some European nations are already yielding to Xi. 

Italy, for example, just last week joined Beijing's Belt and Road initiative. 

That program is the cornerstone of Xi's effort to reshape international economics away from the U.S. free trade orbit, and into a mercantilism-feudal system with China at the top.
Fortunately, there is good cause for American optimism here. 

France is a better American ally than Italy (Rome should face U.S. economic retaliation for bowing to Xi), and recognizes the value of America's rule-of-law based economic system over China's cronyism. 

Xi is likely to be disappointed here.
Still, this vast Airbus purchase is a clear window to Chinese strategy. 

Xi is willing to spend big to try and buy friends.

Behind the Niceties of Chinese Leader’s Visit, France Is Wary

By Adam Nossiter

President Emmanuel Macron of France with Xi Jinping at a news conference in Paris on Monday.
PARIS — France rolled out red carpets and honor guards for Xi Jinping on Monday, but beneath the pomp, there were wary statements about China’s influence by his host, President Emmanuel Macron.
With Italy last week breaking from Europe in signing on to China’s global infrastructure project for moving Chinese goods, Mr. Macron has made it clear that a unified European response, in his view, is critical in dealing with the Chinese hegemon.
He reiterated that sentiment Monday as Xi listened in a deal-signing ceremony at the presidential Élysée Palace, where more than a dozen commercial and governmental treaties were signed worth billions of euros.
Earlier Mr. Macron welcomed Xi at a symbol of French imperial history and power, the Arc de Triomphe.
Beneath the tight smiles and brisk handshakes, Mr. Macron’s sharpened words resonated as the template for France’s attitude toward China, a country that floods France with luxury-shopping tourists but competes directly with it in a principal arena of mutual geopolitical interest, Africa.
Mr. Macron, keenly aware of France’s small position in the Chinese market — between 1 and 2 percent of imports — talks about Europe when he talks about China. 

Germany’s position is nearly five times as large.
After saying last week that the era of European “naïveté was over,” and that China had “played on our divisions,” he emphasized to the Chinese leader Monday that in talking to France, he was talking to Europe.
It was not immediately clear how France had avoided the “naïveté” Mr. Macron criticized, nor how it had reinforced the multilateral unified European approach he promulgated, in signing the French deals with the Chinese on Monday.
Still, unlike Italy, France has not signed on to China’s global goods-moving project, which it calls “One Belt One Road.”
Making reference to Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s famous declaration in 1964 that recognizing China was a matter of “reason” and “evidence,” Mr. Macron said Monday at the Élysée that those same words applied to the “choice” of the 21st century: the “relationship between Europeans and Chinese.”
De Gaulle was bucking the United States when he uttered those words, and Mr. Macron, 55 years later, was doing something of the same.
Appealing to China as a partner, he made a pointed reference to the United States under President Trump, who has repudiated multinational agreements like the Paris Climate accord and Iran nuclear deal.
“The order of things has been shaken,” the French president said, and “faced with the risk of the destruction of the multilateral order, France and China have a responsibility,” as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
“No country can redefine the rules of the international game,” Mr. Macron asserted, saying that France, like China, would stick to an agreement with Iran, and saying the two countries had made progress on the subject of climate change, and on the lifting of import restrictions for French beef and poultry.
Earlier French and Chinese officials and executives signed agreements on aeronautics — the Chinese are buying 300 airplanes from Airbus — and on space, banking and investment, shipbuilding and cultural exchanges.
On human rights violations in China, a subject that preoccupies French media but not official discourse or French business, Mr. Macron made only a hurried reference. 

Xi is visiting at a time when Galeries Lafayette, the emblematic French department store, is projecting a rapid expansion in China, which represents a third of the world market for luxury goods.
Jet-lagged Chinese tourists are bussed directly from the airport to the Galeries Lafayette store in central Paris, and the Rue Saint Honoré, a thoroughfare studded with luxury shops, routinely decks itself out for Chinese New Year.
The Chinese have invested in a wide scattering of French sectors, including wine, hotels, and industrial food production, including milk. 

France was the recipient of 9 percent of Chinese investments in the European Union in 2018; the Chinese have bought more than 150 wineries in Bordeaux, and China is the top export market for Bordeaux wine. 

The Chinese push into that culturally symbolic sector has created some backlash, but not enough to stop French owners from selling their properties.
With Xi silently listening Monday Mr. Macron said that Europe had never considered individual rights as “culturally specific,” and that its preoccupation remained for “the respect of fundamental and individual rights.” 

He said that the two had “had frank exchanges” on the subject.
But French analysts of relations with China said Monday that commercial relations were the real subject of preoccupation. 

“It’s the question of reciprocity,” said Jean-Philippe Béja of Sciences-Po, the research university. “We’ve been open towards trade and investment, and the Chinese have never let us enter their state procurements process.”
Europeans had also become more aware, and wary, of technology transfers and investments that “help the Chinese government develop its potential, and in the case of artificial intelligence it’s about control, and exporting control,” said Mr. Béja, referring to advances in Chinese government surveillance of its own citizenry.
“We’re more fearful than the other” members of the European Union about Chinese power and hegemony, said François Godement, an expert at the Institut Montaigne research center in Paris. “China is pushing its own pawns,” he said, particularly in parts of Africa where for decades French dominance has been undisputed.
Mr. Macron insisted Monday that France and China were “not strategic rivals” in Africa, though he said the two nations could be “much more important partners,” appearing to reflect a worry about Chinese investment on the continent.

Macron’s Africa visit reveals determination to weaken China’s grip on the continent

• French president Emmanuel Macron has just completed a trip to several African nations.
• A number of education and business partnerships were announced.
• Macron views African development as key to France’s global ambition.

By Chanel Monteine

(From L) French president Emmanuel Macron, Kenya president Uhuru Kenyatta and DR Congo president Felix Tshisekedi listen during the One Planet Summit on March 14, 2019, in Nairobi.

French President Emmanuel Macron embarked on a four-day charm offensive across the Horn of Africa last week, stopping off in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya. 

The trip is largely seen as a bid to cement new ties in a region where China’s influence has been growing fast.
In the first visit by a French president to Kenya since its independence in 1963, Macron concluded his trip with a bang, announcing an estimated 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) worth of deals with the East African powerhouse.
While specifics remain obscure, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta confirmed in a statement Thursday that an agreement with a “French consortium” had been reached on a series of major works to boost Kenya’s transport network, including the construction of a commuter rail line linking the Kenyan capital with its central railway station.
Accompanied by some of France’s corporate giants­ — including Danone, EDF, GE Alstom and Total Group — Macron’s message was quite clear.
“The intent is indeed to open a new partnership in economy,” Macron said in a joint press conference with Kenyatta on Wednesday. 

“Now what we want to do, especially with our delegation of companies, is to be part of your new growth agenda…This is how France could be a long term, credible economic partner,” he added.
Both sides expressed keen intent to turn this visit into a long-term affair with cooperation spanning beyond business and including a series of environmental and educational alignments of their interests.
However, some of the local reaction was less enthusiastic. 

Twitter was flooded with adverse reactions to Macron’s visit. 

One Tweet read: “People like Macron are the real stumbling blocks to the development in Africa”.

Uhuru Kenyatta
✔@UKenyatta
· Mar 13, 2019
I am delighted to host my friend H.E. President @EmmanuelMacron of France at State House, Nairobi in his historic visit to Kenya. Kenya and France enjoy a cordial relationship that has helped spur growth in different areas for the benefit of our people | #KenyaFranceRelations

Why this France-Africa push?
One clear goal for Macron is to curtail the influence of Beijing.
Macron is wooing African counterparts beyond traditional allies in non-Francophone Africa, such as Ethiopia and Kenya. 

This marks a significant effort to assert France’s competitive edge in a region where China’s grip runs deep.
“France has been competing with China across Africa now for a while”, Jean-Pierre Cabestan, Director of the Department of Government and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, told CNBC on Thursday.
“For a lot of French companies this has meant fierce business with deals often being signed behind closed doors,” added Cabestan who also acts as a member of the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China in Hong Kong.
Going from an almost non-existent engagement with the continent pre-2000s, China is now the region’s largest economic partner and nation creditor.
Figures from a 2015 McKinsey report estimate China’s trade with Africa stood at over $185 billion. In comparison, France’s trade with the region was estimated at a significantly lower figure of $57 billion.
The same report claimed that the number of Chinese firms in Africa is two to nine times the official count.
In Kenya, China fronted an estimated $4 billion to build the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, Kenya’s largest infrastructure project, while in Ethiopia the giant was the financial muscle behind the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, reportedly worth $3.4 billion.
These investments reflect how Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti have taken the lead as some of the most important partners in China’s “Belt and Road” reach for global influence.
“Belt and Road” is often described as a 21st century trading route linking China to Eastern Europe and Africa. 

It is made up of a “belt” of overland corridors and a maritime “road” of shipping lanes.
Macron had decided early on to place Africa as a top priority, a directive he clearly gave to France’s 170 ambassadors in his first foreign policy address in 2017.
“It is in Africa that the future of the world will largely play out”, he boldly stated.
Macron has wasted no time in implementing his plan. 

He swiftly launched the first ever Presidential Council for Africa, his very own advisory squad on France-Africa relations, and actioned his charm offensive blueprint with an initial trip to West Africa in July, and now East Africa.
But aside from curtailing Chinese dominance, a closer look at the data reveals the region is growing in economic importance. 

In 2017, Ethiopia became France’s third biggest market with French exports soaring to a record high of over 830 million euros.
The number of French companies in Kenya has almost tripled over the past five years. 

The likes of Peugeot, L’Oréal, Accor, Schneider Electric and Danone have all set up a regional base, reflecting Kenya’s growing image as a place to do business.

Can France beat China?
At first glance, the picture for Paris is bleak. 

France is no match for China’s deep pockets and economic might. 

But a closer look reveals a subtle shift in dynamics that could give Macron an upper hand.
In the first instance, it appears China’s approach to doing business with Africa has quietly shifted. Breaking with a tradition of doubling up, China announced in August that it would not be expanding its financial commitment to the region. 

Beijing’s financial pledge would instead cautiously remain at its previous level of $60 billion in 2015, perhaps a symptom of the Chinese economic slowdown.
Additionally, some African countries appear to have a greater willingness to do business with countries other than China and Macron appears to be taking advantage of that trend.
“Domestic politics is also a big factor here,” Cabestan told CNBC.
Ethiopia’s gradual return to democracy is creating distance with China and realigning interests with France.
Meanwhile, Kenya is also keen to diversify from its overt dependence on China. 

“Kenya, like many other countries in the region, has a big debt to China and there is certainly a willingness to rebalance their foreign relations”, Cabestan said.
Seemingly playing on these dynamics, Macron made his pitch clear on arrival in Djibouti. 

“French companies can offer a respectful partnership…one which will not bring on excessive, unsustainable debts and favors the development of local jobs”.
Macron bolstered his charm offensive with a strong soft power component. 

He pledged to support the development of Ethiopia’s cultural heritage and several higher education partnerships, while pushing an environmental alignment with Kenya, whose energy mix is 75% renewables.
In sum, “Macron may be able to out charm China, because of his youth, his style, France’s image, but France is not going to replace China ”, Cabestan told CNBC.
Instead France “will more actively compete with China”, he added.

What now?
Macron’s push in Africa reflects his drive to project France as a global power which will likely continue especially as he faces domestic challenges to his legitimacy.
Beijing will likely be using the resources at its disposal to maintain a leading position even as its partners warm up to France. 

How and when China will choose to flex its muscles remains to be seen.
What’s certain for now though, according to Cabestan, is that as long as there is tension with Washington, “the Chinese will be playing nice with Europe”, and the wider relation between the EU and China “will get more complicated”.

Interpol Tragicomic Saga

Wife of Former Interpol Chief Seeks Asylum in France

By Aurelien Breeden

Grace Meng, the wife of the former Interpol president Meng Hongwei, speaking to reporters in Lyon, France, during a news conference last year in which she did not want her face shown.

PARIS — Nearly four months after an Interpol chief was detained in China on corruption charges, his wife has applied for asylum in France, she said on Saturday.
Grace Meng, wife of Meng Hongwei, the former Interpol president, has remained in France, where the organization has its headquarters, since his arrest.
“I have officially claimed asylum in France,” Ms. Meng said in a text message on Saturday.
Ms. Meng, who has refused to specify her Chinese given name or to have her face photographed or filmed by the news media, said in interviews on Friday that she was seeking French protection for her and her twin boys.
“I cannot go back to China; such strange things happen there, and fundamental rights are not respected,” she told the newspaper Libération. 

“Even here, I am afraid of being kidnapped, and I fear for the safety of my children.”
The Chinese authorities have not specified the charges against Meng, who was also a vice minister in the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, and it is unclear where he is being held.
His abrupt detention in the fall, accompanied by the news that he had resigned from Interpol with immediate effect, has cast a cloud over China’s push for a more prominent role in global affairs by taking up more leadership roles in international bodies.
Ms. Meng was put under French police protection shortly after her husband’s arrest.
In the interviews published on Friday, Ms. Meng said that she had not had any contact with her husband or with any friends or relatives in China since the arrest, and that her Chinese phone and email had been blocked. 

She said that strangers had followed her, had tried to get her to travel with them and that she had received threatening phone calls.
“I need the French government to protect me, to assist me, to help me, me and my children,” Ms. Meng told Radio France in an off-air interview on Friday.
Both Libération and Radio France reported that Ms. Meng was supposed to go to the French asylum agency headquarters in Paris on Friday to file an official request. 

The agency was not immediately reachable for comment on Saturday, and it was not clear whether Ms. Meng had sufficient grounds to claim asylum.
In November, Interpol elected a South Korean police veteran as its next president to replace Meng, who was halfway through his four-year term when he was detained.
Interpol, which functions as a sort of clearinghouse for the circulation of arrest warrants, tips and data, does not have direct policing powers of its own. 

Its presidency is a largely ceremonial role that entails chairing meetings and representing the institution at official events; a secretary general runs the police organization on a day-to-day basis.
Jürgen Stock, the current secretary general, has said repeatedly that Interpol does not have a say in a state’s internal affairs and was not in a position to prevent the arrest of Meng.
Ms. Meng has denied that her husband is guilty of corruption.
“We don’t have any secret accounts abroad, no hidden money,” she told Libération. 

“I think that my husband was arrested for a political reason.”

Western nations condemn China at UN for repression of Muslims

By NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
Uyghurs people demonstrate against China during the Universal Periodic Review of China by the Human Rights Council, walking to the place des Nations in front of the European headquarters of the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018.

Canada has publicly accused China of repressing Muslims amid a “deterioration of human rights” in the world’s second largest economy.
China must “end prosecution and persecution on the basis of religion or belief,” Tamara Mawhinney, Canada’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said Tuesday as China was subjected to a rare moment of global scrutiny before the UN Human Rights Council, which examines each country’s treatment of its people every five years.
Ms. Mawhinney called on Beijing to “release Uyghurs and other Muslims who have been detained arbitrarily and without due process for their ethnicity or religion.” 

Canada, she said, is “deeply concerned by credible reports of the mass detention, repression and surveillance of Uyghurs and other Muslims in East Turkestan,” referring to the region in western China where, western scholars have estimated, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been incarcerated in centres for political indoctrination.
The U.S., too, on Tuesday urged China to “abolish all forms of arbitrary detention, including internment camps in East Turkestan.”
The public censure marked a new step in the international condemnation of Chinese conduct in what Beijing calls an “anti-extremism” campaign.
But criticism levelled by a smattering of democratic nations — Croatia, Japan and Switzerland among them — was all but drowned out by a chorus of flattery for Beijing.
More than 150 countries signed up to speak on Tuesday, and dozens of them — authoritarian regimes from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America — used their allotted 45 seconds to compliment China for fighting poverty, combatting corruption, encouraging entrepreneurship, responding to climate change, reducing smog, expanding forests, opposing double standards in human rights, imposing low tariffs on imports, providing radio broadcast coverage to virtually its entire population and penning a “high-quality” report on its own human rights.
China has cited separatist groups as a security threat in East Turkestan, where Beijing has in recent years built a network of concentration camps for political indoctrination amid an intensive campaign against what it calls "extremism".
Inside such camps, authorities force the disavowal of religion and recitation of loyalty to the Communist Party and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, former detainees have said.
Residents of the region say fears of detention without trial are so widespread that religious observance has largely been halted in a region that makes up one-sixth of the Chinese landmass.
But even among Muslim nations, China received little criticism Tuesday, underscoring the influence China has amassed as the world’s second-largest economy, and an increasingly important global source of trade, foreign investment and aid.
Indonesia commended “China’s strategic approach” to ensuring the “well-being of its population.” 
Malaysia pointed to China’s “many achievements in human rights.” 
Kuwait suggested Beijing focus “on the prevention of juvenile delinquency to ensure minors’ physical and psychological health.” 
Saudi Arabia recommended China “continue friendly exchanges in the field of cultural and religious issues.” 
Syria urged China to counter “extremist religious movements and continue its struggle against terrorism and separatism.” 
Pakistan said China should “continue its efforts to maintain and promote peace and stability.”
The upbeat assessment is ”partially a reflection of China's economic clout amongst these countries, but also its leadership role amongst countries that are actively trying to undermine human rights standards,” said Frances Eve, a researcher with the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
Among Muslim nations, only Turkey spoke out strongly against Chinese practices that involve “restrictions on basic rights and liberties, like confinement of individuals without any legal grounds, and their separation from families and society.”
More forceful denunciations of China’s conduct came largely from western nations.
Switzerland said it is “concerned about repression” and demanded the closure of what it termed “re-education centres” in East Turkestan.
France called on Beijing to “put an end to mass internment in camps” and guarantee freedom of religion.
Germany said China should ”end all unlawful detention, including unconstitutional mass detention of Uyghurs and other Muslims in East Turkestan.”
“Despite China’s best efforts — through propaganda and platitudes — to reduce the [UN review] to fawning adulation, numerous states expressed serious concerns,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch.

China's isolation at the Shangri-La Dialogue

Britain, France Join U.S. in Responding to Chinese Intimidation and Coercion in South China Sea

By Patrick Goodenough

Ships and submarines participating in the biennial RIMPAC exercise in 2012. The Obama administration invited China to take part in 2014 and 2016, but the Pentagon has rescinded the invitation for the 2018 exercises. 

Britain and France are backing U.S.-led efforts to challenge what Defense Secretary James Mattis at the weekend called Chinese “intimidation and coercion” in the disputed South China Sea.
The two European defense ministers indicated in Singapore – where they and Mattis were taking part in the annual Shangri La security dialogue – that their navy ships will conduct “freedom of navigation” operations in the region in the coming days.
French armed forces minister Florence Parly said French and British ships would visit Singapore in the days ahead before “sailing together to certain areas.”
“I mean those areas where, at some point, a stern voice intrudes into the transponder, and tells us, sail away from supposedly territorial waters,” she continued. 

“But our commander then calmly replies that he will sail forth, because these – under international law – are indeed international waters.”
British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson, who spoke at the security event and addressed sailors onboard a Royal Navy frigate docked in Singapore, said Britain has sent three warships to the region, where their presence aims “to send the strongest of signals.”
“We believe that countries should play by the rules,” he said, stressing the importance of the “rules-based order.”
Like the U.S., France and Britain do not themselves have territorial claims in the resource-rich South China Sea, a vital thoroughfare for international trade.
As China has moved military assets to and around the islands, reefs and artificial islands it claims as Chinese, the U.S. has led the pushback.

China is engaged in disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei over resource-rich areas of the South China Sea, an area that includes some of the world’s most important shipping trade corridors. 

A recent U.S. “freedom of navigation” operation in the area saw two U.S. Navy warships sail within 12 nautical miles of islands claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan in the Paracel group. 

Their presence drew sharp criticism from Beijing although Vietnam, which accuses China of illegally occupying the islands, welcomed the U.S. move.
In response to steps taken by China to back up its territorial claims by deploying military assets, the Pentagon has rescinded an invitation to China to participate in a major international military exercise in the Pacific this summer.
While China is excluded from the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises – after participating in the last two at the invitation of the Obama administration – Vietnam has been invited to take part for the first time since they began in 1971.
Other participants among the 26 nations include several further countries locked in territorial disputes with China in the South and East China Seas, including Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

‘Much larger consequences’
Speaking at the security dialogue, which is hosted by the International Institute For Strategic Studies, Mattis had strong words for China.
He noted that Beijing has deployed anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, electronic jammers in the South China Sea and recently landed long-range bombers on an island in the Paracel group.
“Despite China’s claims to the contrary, the placement of these weapons systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion,” Mattis said, adding that it also contravened assurances Xi Jinping gave to the U.S. during a visit to the White House in 2015.
During a question-and-answer session Mattis described the decision to disinvite China from “the world’s largest naval exercise” as a “relatively small consequence” of its behavior, but warned there could be “much larger consequences in the future” if it continues down its path. 

He did not elaborate.
Militarizing features in the contested region, he said, is “not going to be endorsed in the world” and is not going to enhance China’s standing.
“There are consequences that will continue to come home to roost, so to speak, with China if they do not find the way to work more collaboratively with all of the nations who have interest” in the region.
Beijing’s defense ministry early this year invited Mattis to visit during the first half of the year, in what would be the first visit by a U.S. defense secretary in four years. 

Speaking to reporters as he flew home from Singapore, Mattis said he still planned to go to China, despite the tensions over the South China Sea.

Sina Delenda Est

Great powers stepping up on China
By Peter Hartcher

One nation after another at a weekend conference lined up to denounce China for breaking international law and to reassert "the rules-based order", but a curious pattern quickly emerged.
The further a country from the front line of China's relentless expansion into the South China Sea, the tougher it talked.
The countries who are actually losing their claimed territories to China's military forces were much more diplomatic. 

So diplomatic, in fact, that they tiptoed carefully around the subject and had little or nothing to say.
One of the striking new responses to China's unchecked gains in the region is the rising protest from Europe. 

The annual Shangri-la security dialogue in Singapore heard stern words from the defence ministers of Britain, France and Germany on the weekend. 

All three declared that they will uphold "the rule of law" in the South China Sea.
France and Britain said that they were stepping up naval movements through the zone: "No less than five French ships sailed in this area in 2017," said French Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly. 

"European ships are mobilising more widely."
Britain's Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson quipped: "We have been pleased to commit three Royal Navy ships to this region in the last year, although hearing France committed five, I think I have to commit to six" this year.
Parly said that Britain and France, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, were sending naval ships to visit Singapore next week and then into "territorial waters" in the South China Sea. 

They would also be carrying German naval observers.

US warns of 'consequences' if China continues 'intimidation and coercion'
She said that the French vessels expected to come under challenge, just as the US navy was challenged by China's navy last week when they sailed within 12 nautical miles of Woody Island in the Paracels group. 

This is the island, also claimed by Vietnam, where China landed heavy bombers last month.
"At some point a stern voice intrudes into the transponder and tells us to sail away from supposedly ‘territorial waters’,” said Parly. 

“But our commander then calmly replies that he will sail forth, because these, under international law, are indeed international waters.”
Why does Europe care? 

Because, said Britain's Williamson, the commercial shipping artery that runs through the South China Sea is incredibly important: "If there's a problem there, there's a problem for the whole world."
Parly said: "We do it because under international law we know that practice can become accepted. If a fait accompli is not questioned it can be opened. We place ourselves in the position of persistent objector to any claim of de facto sovereignty."

HMS Sutherland

India, a fast-rising power, is a lot closer to the hot zone than Europe, and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi set out a policy that brings it even closer.
Modi described India's interests as defined by the Indo-Pacific, "from the shores of Africa to that of the Americas". 

A vast span that includes, of course, the South China Sea, which he mentioned specifically.
When Modi spoke of the problems in the region, he didn't name China but told the conference that "above all, we see assertion of power over recourse to international norms". 

He called for a "free, open, inclusive region". 

He noted the importance of freedom of navigation.
In competition with China's narrative of its history and values, Modi spelled out India's own historical relationship to the ocean over thousands of years and asserted the "foundation of our civilisational ethos – of pluralism, co-existence, openness and dialogue. The ideals of democracy that define us as a nation also shape the way we engage the world".

French Defence Minister Florence Parly.

Britain's Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson

Narendra Modi, India's Prime Minister, delivers the keynote at the Shangri-la dialogue.

And in a departure from India's long passivity, the Indian leader described an active military outreach: "Indian Armed Forces, especially our navy, are building partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region for peace and security, as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief."
While the great powers stepped forward to decry the breakdown of the rules-based order, the front-line casualties were very quiet. 

China's island-building and militarisation has hit the Philippines and Vietnam harder than any other countries, and in past years they were outspoken about it.
The defence ministers of both countries spoke at the conference. Both avoided any mention of their territorial claims. 

They avoided touching on China's forcible island-building and militarisation of the disputed maritime space.
One of their fellow ASEAN members, Indonesia's Defence Minister, Ryamizard Ryacudu, even went so far as to say that there was no problem. 

Indonesia makes no claim to the island groups claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam. 

But it has had its own clash with China over the Natuna Islands at the southern end of the South China Sea.
Ryamizard dismissed any possibility of armed conflict in the region. 

"I talked about factual threats," he said in response to a question on the subject. 

As for conventional war or strategic threat, "I don't see any potential threat. Indonesia sees the most factual threat as terrorism."
And the traditional leading power in the Pacific? 

Speaking at the same conference, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis was blunt on China's recent deployment of cruise missiles to the disputed territories of the South China Sea: "Despite China’s claims to the contrary, the placement of these weapons systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion.”
It seems to have worked. 

It seems that the Philippines and Vietnam have been intimidated into quiescence. 

And while Mattis talked tough and threatened China with unspecified "consequences", the force of his message was soon undercut by his President.
When the hundreds of military chiefs and defence officials who'd heard Mattis' words on the Saturday woke on the Sunday, they saw an overnight tweet from Donald Trump. 

Trump noted Mattis' charge that China had deployed "coercion and intimidation" and he added: "Very surprised that China would be doing this?"
The US has suffered a loss of credibility and, with antics like this, why would anyone take it seriously? 

South East Asia is giving up on America and yielding to China.
More distant great powers have noticed. 

They are worried but none is prepared to stand in China's way. 

China has launched more tonnage of new warships in just the last four years than the entire French navy can boast in totality, according to the International Institute of International Affairs. 

Beijing continues to get its way.

Rogue Nation

France, Australia call on China to observe rules
By Trevor Marshallsea 

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, presents the Legion d’Honneur award to Australian war veteran William Mackay in Sydney, Wednesday, May 2, 2018. Macron is on a three-day visit to Australia. 

SYDNEY — French President Emmanuel Macron and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Wednesday issued a reminder to China to respect a rules-based order in the South Pacific amid concerns about Beijing’s growing influence in the region.
Macron’s comments came during a three-day visit to Australia, during which the two nations signed a range of agreements, including a pact to strengthen defense ties.
The two leaders were also expected to discuss China’s growing influence in the South Pacific. Australia has become concerned about increasing Chinese investment in infrastructure projects in the area, especially reports — denied by Beijing — that it wants establish a permanent military base in Vanuatu. 

This follows China’s contentious claiming of islands in recent years in the South China Sea.
Macron was scheduled to depart on Thursday for New Caledonia, a French-controlled island near Vanuatu, which will hold a referendum in November on breaking away from France’s protection and becoming a republic.
While Macron and Turnbull did not specifically confirm they discussed China during their Sydney meetings. 

But when asked about Beijing’s South Pacific push at a joint news conference, the two leaders were eager to stress the need for lawful development in the area.
“China’s rise is very good news for everybody. It’s good for China itself, its middle classes, and it’s good for global growth, and regional growth,” Macron said. 

“What’s important is to preserve a rules-based development in the region, especially in the Indo-Pacific region, and to preserve the necessary balances in the region.”
“And it’s important not to have any hegemony in the region,” he said.
Turnbull said the economic rise of China was made possible “by a ruled-based order in our region”.
“We welcome further Chinese investment in our region. We welcome the benefits of the growth of China. But of course we are committed to the maintenance of the rules-based international order, to good governance, strong standards, that will enable us all to continue this remarkable arc of prosperity that has been enabled by that rule of law,” Turnbull said.
Turnbull cited an oft-used quote from former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew in pushing for mutual respect among nations in Asia, saying “big fish cannot eat little fish, and little fish cannot eat shrimps.” 

Macron added: “And especially New Caledonian shrimps.”
France is the only European nation with direct territorial links to Pacific region countries, which play a role in its defense building. 

It has more than 1.5 million citizens and 8,000 military personnel spread across several territories in the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Macron said he was keen for France to build a broader strategic relationship with Australia. 

Already, a French company Naval Group is building Australia’s new fleet of 12 submarines at a facility in Adelaide, under a deal worth $36.3 billion.
Also as part of Macron’s visit, France and Australia signed pacts to strengthen military ties, both through cooperation in maritime activities and the establishment of an annual Franco-Australian defense industry symposium.
Macron also expressed a desire for France to be “at the heart” of the Indo-Pacific region.
“I believe we have one shared goal, that is to turn our two countries to place them at the heart of a new axis, an Indo-Pacific axis,” Macron said.
Asked about growing tensions about Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities, Macron said that regardless of Trump’s May 12 decision a new agreement should be negotiated with Teheran.
Macron, who told the United Nations last September that the current deal was not sufficient, said it should be broadened to address three new main areas — Iran’s nuclear activity after the current deal expires in 2025; improvements in the monitoring and controlling of Iran’s domestic nuclear activity, and to have better containment of Iranian activity in the Middle East, especially in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
Macron, who visited Washington last week, said Trump responded “positively” to his recent suggestion for a new agreement while he had also “exchanged about that” in the past few days with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Macron said whatever Trump’s coming decision, a broader deal was needed because “nobody wants a war in the region and nobody wants an escalation in terms of tension in the region.”
With trade talks also a key part of the visit, Macron said France would support formal talks on a free trade deal between Australia and the European Union after it found solutions to concerns it had on agriculture.
The countries also signed agreements to counter cyberwarfare and on committing to strategies addressing climate change, including working to make coral reefs in the Pacific more resilient.
Macron also used a ceremony commemorating Australia’s wartime cooperation with France to highlight a global worldview as a counter to nationalism.
A week after criticizing Trump’s “America first” policies on his trip to Washington, and hours after a May Day gathering of European anti-immigration populist leaders and violent right-wing protests in his home country, Macron said the Australia’s wartime sacrifice in Europe should serve as “a powerful message at a time when nationalism is looming, entrenched behind its borders and its hostility to the rest of the world.”
“No great nation has ever been built by turning its back on the world,” he said.

France Should Spotlight China's Rights Crisis

Foreign Minister Le Drian Should Call for Releases, Announce Policy Review
Human Rights Watch

French President Emmanuel Macron and Xi Jinping attend a bilateral meeting in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017. 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian should publicly urge respect for human rights in meetings with China’s new leadership, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the foreign minister. 

Le Drian is visiting China for the first time as foreign minister from November 24 to 27, 2017.
“French President Emmanuel Macron has explicitly committed to promoting human rights in China along with diplomatic and economic concerns,” said Bénédicte Jeannerod, France director. “Minister Le Drian’s visit is an important opportunity to publicly challenge the Chinese leadership over its rampant human rights violations.”
Human Rights Watch urged Le Drian to:

• Publicly call for the releases of political prisoners Liu Xia, Gao Zhisheng, Jiang Tianyong, and Wang Quanzhang;
• Express concerns about China’s increasing efforts to undermine international institutions that should help defend human rights, including the United Nations, Interpol, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB); and
• Announce a review of all bilateral law enforcement cooperation.

“France has long been a defender of fundamental rights and liberties worldwide,” Jeannerod said. 

“In the face of an unreceptive Chinese leadership, Minister Le Drian’s visit will be a test of France’s commitment.”

Chinese Peril

France's newly elected president wants to curb Chinese takeovers in Europe's strategic industries
Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a ceremony marking the 77th anniversary of late French General Charles de Gaulle's appeal of June 18, 1940, at the Mont Valerien memorial in Suresnes.

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed on Thursday to convince China’s closest allies in Europe that curbing foreign takeovers in strategic industries was in their interest, warning EU governments not to be naive in global trade.
Smaller eastern and southern European economies that are dependent on Chinese investment have rejected any steps against Beijing, even going as far as to block EU statements criticising China’s human rights record.
But Macron, at his first EU summit, said being an attractive destination for investment did not mean exposing Europe to what he termed “the disorder of globalisation”, as he seeks to make good on a campaign pledge with a so-called protective Europe.
“Things are changing because we see the disorder of globalisation and the consequences in your own country. I want to build an alliance around this idea,” Macron told a news conference during the summit of EU leaders. 

“I am for free trade ... but I am not for naivety.”
State-owned ChemChina’s US$43 billion purchase of Swiss pesticides and seeds group Syngenta, Beijing’s biggest overseas sale to date, has deepened concerns in Europe that the bloc is ceding control of its advanced technology, EU diplomats said.
Macron, who defeated the anti-Europe, far-right leader Marine Le Pen last month, said that he had always been a defender of globalisation and free trade during his time as minister but that leaders should hear from workers hit by globalisation.
The issues of globalisation and “social dumping” took centre-stage in France’s campaign after Le Pen used the relocation of a Whirlpool factory in northern France to Poland to paint Macron as a globalist who did not care about workers.
A free-trade advocate, Macron let several national corporate champions be taken over by foreign firms as a minister. 

But since his election he has sought to drum up support in Europe for what he calls a “protection agenda”.
Logo of Syngenta on it's plant in Muenchwilen.

He has found some support from Germany and Italy. 

EU leaders will agree on Friday to allow the European Commission to explore ways to limit foreign takeovers in areas such as energy, banking and technology, where China seeks Europe’s know-how.
In a statement, leaders will ask the Commission “to examine the need and ways to screen investments from third countries in strategic sectors, while fully respecting members states’ competences,” a reference to national sovereignty on the issue.
Berlin, Paris and Rome are upset that the Commission, the bloc’s competition regulator, approved ChemChina’s purchase of Syngenta while China maintains restrictions on EU investment.
Chinese direct investment in the European Union jumped by 77 per cent last year to more than 35 billion euros (US$38 billion), compared with 2015, while EU acquisitions in China fell for the second consecutive year, according to the Rhodium Group.
But free-trade advocates such as Sweden want to avoid any measures that might contradict the bloc’s rejection of the protectionism promoted by US President Donald Trump.

La France Hong Kongisée

Quand la Chine vient récupérer ses fugitifs en France

La chasse à l’homme planétaire que mène Pékin pour rapatrier des suspects a lieu sans demande d’extradition et à l’insu du pays où ils se trouvent.
Par Harold Thibault et Brice Pedroletti

Sous la présidence de Xi Jinping, la Chine ne ménage pas ses efforts pour rapatrier ses fugitifs.

Les opérations menées conjointement à l’étranger par ses organes anticorruption et de sécurité, baptisées « Sky Net » et « Fox Hunt », ont permis de rapatrier près de 3 000 suspects depuis la fin 2012.
Mais cette chasse à l’homme planétaire révèle des surprises lorsqu’elle a lieu à l’insu du pays refuge – ce qui s’est passé avec la France, qui a pourtant signé avec la Chine un accord d’extradition. 

C’est en effet par un communiqué publié en mars sur le site de la Commission centrale d’inspection disciplinaire (CCID), le bras anticorruption du Parti communiste chinois, que les diplomates français ont découvert l’une de ces opérations.

Pas de demande d’extradition et autorités non informées
La commission félicitait la région autonome du Ningxia d’avoir réussi, le 24 février, le « rapatriement en douceur » d’un suspect. 

« C’est la première fois que notre police s’est rendue en France pour convaincre quelqu’un de se rendre depuis l’Europe », pouvait-on lire.
Avant sa fuite en France, en 2014, Zheng Ning était le numéro deux du groupe chinois Zhongyin, l’un des leaders mondiaux du tissage de cachemire, dont le siège est au Ningxia (nord-ouest). 

Ni le Quai d’Orsay, ni le ministère de la justice, ni celui de l’intérieur n’ont été sollicités, ou même informés par la partie chinoise de son intention de récupérer le suspect, qui faisait l’objet d’une notice rouge d’Interpol.
« Ils pouvaient faire une demande d’extradition, ils ne l’ont pas faite. C’est très problématique », explique une source française à Paris, qui poursuit : « L’idée que leurs équipes de police viennent opérer sur le territoire français est totalement inacceptable, il est impensable qu’on se laisse faire. » 

Mais Paris n’a toujours pas obtenu les « explications » réclamées il y a des semaines.
La France n’est pas la seule concernée. 

Le Canada et les Etats-Unis se sont inquiétés ces deux dernières années de la venue sur leur territoire d’agents chinois en visa de tourisme pour pousser des suspects à rentrer, en les menaçant notamment de représailles contre leurs familles au pays s’ils refusaient.

Un traité d’extradition entre Paris et Pékin en vigueur depuis 2015
Au Ningxia, le sort de Zheng Ning, 52 ans, reste un mystère. 

Tout comme la manière dont il a été persuadé de rentrer. 

Un responsable du bureau des affaires extérieures locales, An Jiansheng, affirme : « Le cas est à l’examen et il n’y aura pas de réponse avant le verdict. »
L’intéressé a été inculpé en juillet 2016 par un tribunal local au côté du fondateur et PDG de Zhongyin, Ma Shengguo, dans une affaire de fraude aux déductions de taxe à l’exportation portant sur 120 millions de yuans (15,5 millions d’euros). 

Le baron du cachemire, condamné uniquement à une peine avec sursis après avoir rendu l’argent, est depuis discrètement revenu aux affaires.
Sur l’immense site industriel de Zhongyin, un responsable marketing croit savoir que l’ex-numéro deux pourrait bénéficier de la même clémence. 

Une source locale, qui connaît l’affaire, en doute : «On ne sait pas à ce stade si Zheng Ning sera relâché ou si son cas sera transféré à la justice. » 

M. Zheng, poursuit cet interlocuteur, semble « avoir de sérieux problèmes ».
Avec la Chine, les Français avaient pourtant joué le jeu. 

La ratification d’un traité d’extradition signé en 2007 a longtemps été repoussée mais a finalement eu lieu en 2015, malgré les critiques des organisations de défense des droits de l’homme.

Brutalité, opacité et risque de torture
Les enquêteurs anticorruption opèrent de manière brutale et opaque, en dehors d’un système judiciaire déjà stigmatisé pour ses failles : refus de la séparation des pouvoirs, faible protection des droits de la défense, et enfin taux de condamnation des prévenus supérieur à 99 % du fait d’un recours systématique aux aveux faisant courir le risque de la torture.
En septembre 2016, la France avait procédé à la première extradition : celle de Chen Wenhua, accusé d’avoir détourné plus de 2,6 millions d’euros de fonds publics. 

A l’époque, les autorités françaises garantissaient qu’elles suivraient son retour en Chine au plus près, mais, depuis, elles reconnaissent être sans nouvelles.
Un deuxième suspect, une femme nommée Feng Jinfang, a été transféré mi-janvier. 

Une troisième personne, une dénommée Lili Chen, est accusée d’avoir monté une pyramide de Ponzi de plus de 30 millions d’euros non remboursés aux déposants. 

Elle a fait l’objet d’un avis favorable à l’extradition fin avril, lors de sa présentation devant la chambre de l’instruction de la cour d’appel de Paris, mais s’est pourvue en cassation.
La partie française souligne qu’elle n’a pas vocation, sous couvert de droits de l’homme, à héberger tous les malfrats issus de Chine qui viendraient trouver refuge dans l’Hexagone. 

De plus, la France a besoin de la Chine, tant dans la coopération économique que dans la lutte contre la criminalité.
Le traité d’extradition avec la France, de même que celui qui existe avec l’Espagne, est souvent érigé en modèle par la Chine, qui n’est parvenue à convaincre à ce sujet aucun des « five eyes » du renseignement – Washington et ses quatre grands alliés anglo-saxons les plus proches.

« Police politique »
Le parlement australien a repoussé fin mars une ratification du traité avec la Chine, au grand dam de Pékin, qui voit nombre de fugitifs opter pour cette destination, ainsi que pour le Canada et les Etats-Unis. 

« Il y a un intérêt judiciaire mutuel, mais ce n’est pas le genre de pays envers lequel on veut créer une obligation par un traité, car il ne garantit pas un procès équitable », résume Andrew Byrnes, professeur de droit international à l’université de Nouvelle-Galles du Sud, à Sydney.
La Chine présente ces extraditions comme une validation de son système judiciaire par les pays qui signent, estime Nicholas Bequelin, directeur d’Amnesty International pour l’Asie orientale. 

Mais en retour, ces Etats se trouvent pris dans un engrenage, juge-t-il : la Chine crée des « précédents de coopération » qui compliquent ensuite le refus d’extraditions dans des cas plus ambivalents où sont menacées la liberté d’expression ou d’autres libertés fondamentales.
« La police en Chine, contrairement à de nombreux pays, a une double mission : mission de maintien de l’ordre, mais aussi mission politique de protection du monopole du pouvoir du Parti. C’est une police politique assumée, mais dans la représentation à l’étranger, la Chine tente de gommer cet aspect », relève M. Bequelin.
La nomination à la tête d’Interpol, fin 2016, de Meng Hongwei, un vice-ministre de la sécurité publique chinoise, a un peu plus alarmé les ONG : « Le fait d’avoir un président chinois crée au sein de la bureaucratie d’Interpol une réticence à entraver des demandes qui viennent de la Chine », poursuit M. Bequelin.
Fin avril, Interpol avait diffusé avec la plus grande célérité une notice rouge à l’encontre d’un milliardaire en exil aux Etats-Unis, Guo Wengui, qui accuse les familles de dirigeants du Parti communiste chinois d’être à la tête d’empires financiers. 

La notice rouge fut opportunément publiée le jour de la diffusion annoncée d’une interview en direct de M. Guo par la radio Voice of America.

Sina Delenda Est: Vive la France

France leads Guam military exercises amid China Sea fears
By Haven Daley and Audrey McAvoy

HAGATNA, Guam — The U.S., the U.K. and Japan are joining a French-led amphibious exercise at remote U.S. islands in the Pacific over the next week. 

Participants say they are showing support for the free passage of vessels in international waters, an issue that has come to the fore amid fears China could restrict movement in the South China Sea.
The drills around Guam and Tinian may also get the attention of nearby North Korea. 

Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea spiked last month after Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile and the U.S. sent an aircraft carrier strike group to the region.
The drills will practice amphibious landings, delivering forces by helicopter and urban patrols.

Satellite images reveal Chinese expansion in South China Sea

Two ships from France are participating, both of which are in the middle of a four-month deployment to the Indian and Pacific oceans. 

Joining are U.K. helicopters and 70 U.K. troops deployed with the French amphibious assault ship FS Mistral. 

Parts of the exercise will feature British helicopters taking U.S. Marines ashore from a French ship.
"The message we want to send is that we're always ready to train and we're always ready for the next crisis and humanitarian disaster wherever that may be," said U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col Kemper Jones, the commander of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. 

About 100 Marines from Jones' unit will be part of the drills slated for this weekend and next week.
Cars enter Naval Base Guam on Thursday, May 11, 2017, near Hagatna, Guam.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea and has aggressively tried to fortify its foothold in recent years by transforming seven mostly submerged reefs into island outposts, some with runways and radars and — more recently — weapons systems. 

This has prompted criticism from other nations, who also claim the atolls, and from the United States, which insists on freedom of navigation in international waters.
Nations fear China's actions could restrict movement in a key waterway for world trade and rich fishing grounds.

Mira Rapp-Hooper of the Center for New American Security, a Washington think tank, said the exercises will send a strong message in support of a "rules-based order in Asia" at a time when China's actions have raised questions about this.
"A reminder in this exercise is that lots of other countries besides the United States have an interest in that international order," said Rapp-Hooper, who is a senior fellow with the center's Asia-Pacific Security Program.
The French stealth frigate Courbet is docked at Naval Base Guam on Thursday, May 11, 2017, near Hagatna, Guam. Military personnel from the United States, Japan, France and the United Kingdom are gathering in the remote U.S. Pacific islands of Guam and Tinian. The exercises come at a time of regional tensions in the South China Sea and North Korea.

Meanwhile, this week the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote Donald Trump to express concern that the U.S. hasn't conducted freedom of navigation operations since October.
The letter from Republican Sen. Bob Corker, Democrat Sen. Ben Cardin and five other senators supported a recent assessment by the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific that China is militarizing the South China Sea and is continuing a "methodical strategy" to control it.
The letter, dated Wednesday and obtained by The Associated Press, urged the administration to "routinely exercise" freedom of navigation and overflight. 

The senators described the South China Sea as critical to U.S. national security interests and to peace in the Asia-Pacific.
The Guam exercises come amid modestly growing European interest in the South China Sea, said David Santoro, a senior fellow for nuclear policy at Pacific Forum CSIS, a Honolulu think tank.
"What I'm hearing from the French and to some degree the British, is an increased interest in what's going on in Asia and how they can help," Santoro said. 

As for North Korea, Santoro said Pyongyang would likely be watching but he didn't think the exercises were intended to send any signal to the country.
Japan, which is sending 50 soldiers and 160 sailors and landing craft, has been investing in amphibious training so it can defend its own islands. 

Tokyo is particularly concerned China might attempt to take over its rocky, uninhabited outcrops in the East China Sea: the Senkaku islands.

Japan has also expressed an interest in vessels being able to freely transit the South China Sea.

Guam and Tinian are about 1,500 miles (2,414 kilometers) south of Tokyo. 

They're about the same distance to the east from Manila, Philippines.