China :: Exposé

The U.S. electric power grid is vulnerable to damage from severe electromagnetic solar storms and remedial measures should be taken to reduce that vulnerability, a new study (large pdf) from the JASON scientific advisory panel concluded. On the other hand, the JASONs said, catastrophic worst-case scenarios advanced by some are not plausible, and they should not serve as a basis for policy making. Public disclosure of the new JASON study was blocked by the Department of Homeland Security, which sponsored the analysis. But a copy was obtained by Secrecy News. Concerns about the vulnerabilities of technical infrastructure to space weather have been growing since the sun entered the early stages of the current sunspot cycle in 2009, increasing prospects for severe solar storms, the report said. We agree that the U.S. electric grid remains vulnerable, the JASONs concluded . Mitigation should be undertaken as soon as possible to reduce the vulnerability of the U.S. grid. The cost appears m...

Sun Guangwen, a retired professor from Shandong University, ran for Peoples Congress deputy at Lichen District in Jinan City, Shandong Province. On Dec. 12, police prevented him from voting, and on Dec. 9, Shandong University authorities confiscated his home of 26 years. (Courtesy of Prof. Sun) Although the Chinese regimes crackdown on independent candidates for the Peoples Congress has escalated, the surge in independent candidates demonstrates Chinas budding democracy consciousness. 2011 has been an election year for deputy positions in the Peoples Congress at district, township, and county levels in China. The surge of independent grassroots candidates, many of whom have promoted themselves via microblogs, has garnered much domestic and international attention. However, the regime has been suppressing these independent candidates like never before. He Huahui, Deputy Secretary of the National Peoples Congress (NPC) Standing Committee told Chinese media, this year 900 million c...

Attorney Gao Zhisheng with his family, prior to his arrest in 2006. (The Epoch Times) The high-profile and galvanizing Chinese human rights figure Gao Zhisheng, held by Chinese security forces almost continually since late 2006, has been officially sentenced to prison for three years. The announcement, carried by Communist Party mouthpiece Xinhua , is a rare acknowledgment of Gaos existence by officials, who have repeatedly refused to answer a chorus of protest from the international community about the treatment and whereabouts of the now-renowned lawyer. The three year term was originally handed down on Dec. 22, 2006, for subversion, after he wrote a series of letters to top Party leaders calling for an end to the persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual group, following a career spent defending marginalized groups that got the raw end of the stick in dealings with Chinese authorities. The sentence was suspended for a five year probationary period, and those five years are goin...

Congress has given the U.S. military a green light to conduct offensive military activities in cyberspace . Congress affirms that the Department of Defense has the capability, and upon direction by the President may conduct offensive operations in cyberspace to defend our Nation, allies and interests, said the FY 2012 defense authorization act that was adopted in conference this week ( section 954 ). The blanket authorization for offensive cyber operations is conditional on compliance with the law of armed conflict, and the War Powers Resolution, which mandated congressional consultation in decisions to go to war. The conferees recognize that because of the evolving nature of cyber warfare, there is a lack of historical precedent for what constitutes traditional military activities in relation to cyber operations and that it is necessary to affirm that such operations may be conducted pursuant to the same policy, principles, and legal regimes that pertain to kinetic capabilities, the c...

More than 1,000 police in antiriot gear entered Wukan village in Lufeng county, Guangdong province, before dawn on Dec. 11, 2011. Police fired more than 50 rounds of tear gas and other ammunitions. Wukan villagers have staged several large-scale, well-organized, protests during the last few months against illegal land grabs and corruption by officials. (Photo provided by villagers) Over 5,000 villagers, armed with farm tools, had yet another standoff with more than a thousand heavily armed police in Lufeng county, Guangdong province on Dec. 11. Police fired more than 50 rounds of tear gas and other ammunitions. The area has erupted in several large-scale, well-organized, protests during the last months. Illegal land expropriation by local officials, embezzlement of compensation funds, and the arrest of four village representatives are reasons given by villagers and local media for the latest protests in Wukan village of Lufeng county. According to a Weibo Internet post, on Dec. ...

Open Source Works, which is the CIAs in-house open source analysis component, is devoted to intelligence analysis of unclassified, open source information. Oddly, however, the directive that established Open Source Works is classified, as is the charter of the organization. In fact, CIA says the very existence of any such records is a classified fact. The CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records responsive to your request, wrote Susan Viscuso, CIA Information and Privacy Coordinator, in a November 29 response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Jeffrey Richelson of the National Security Archive for the Open Source Works directive and charter. The fact of the existence or nonexistence of requested records is currently and properly classified and is intelligence sources and methods information that is protected from disclosure, Dr. Viscuso wrote . This is a surprising development since Open Source Works by definition does not engage in clandes...

The U.S. State Department insists that the publication of many thousands of classified diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks does not alter their classification status. In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union for 23 of the cables, the Department of State this week released redacted versions of 11 of them and withheld the other 12 in their entirety even though the full text of all of them is readily available online. In principle, the question of whether unauthorized disclosure of classified information is tantamount to declassification of that information is not new, although the WikiLeaks case presents it with new force. The government has always contended, and courts have generally accepted, that unauthorized or unofficial disclosure does not imply or require declassification. The official acknowledgment by an authoritative source of information that is already in the public domain adds a quantum of validity and may itself constitut...

Dr. Wang Henggeng, a former mathematics professor of Southern China's Normal University, was once locked up in a mental hospital for writing political commentaries. He says the disintegration of the Chinese communist party is inevitable. (Courtesy of Wang Henggeng) A Chinese mathematics professor, once locked up in a mental hospital for writing political commentaries, says he has stopped hoping for political reform in China and is appealing to Chinese people everywhere to resist the Chinese communist Partys (CCP) tyranny and disintegrate the Party. Professor Wang Henggeng was born in 1971. He graduated with a Ph.D. in mathematics from Zhejiang University, one of Chinas top universities, in 1998. He got a faculty position at Southern China Normal University in Guangzhou in July 1998. Because of his outspokenness on political and social matters, Professor Wang has suffered much harassment and persecution at the hands of Chinese officials and fled to Australia earlier this yea...

Tibetans are forced to bow down as they are taken away by Chinese security forces. (From a Chinese military forum) The tragic news of a twelfth self-immolation case by a Tibetan monk in China this year was published simultaneously with photos posted on several websites showing how Chinese security forces have been cracking down on Tibetans in a manner that is reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution. Forty-six-year-old Tenzin Phuntsok, a former Tibetan monk, was hospitalized after setting himself on fire on Dec. 1. It was the first self-immolation case in the Tibetan autonomous region, and the twelfth case in China this year. Phuntsok set himself on fire in the Chamdo area of Tibet to protest the arrest by Chinese authorities of over 70 Tibetan monks from the Karma Monastery, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA) . Chinese authorities have accused the temple of causing an explosion in Karma Township in late October and arrested more than 70 monks, with many more being forced to flee...

A new report from the Congressional Research Service explores ongoing legal debates over the tracking of private cell phones and vehicles by law enforcement agencies. It is undeniable that advances in technology threaten to diminish privacy, the CRS report says. Law enforcements use of cell phones and GPS devices to track an individuals movements brings into sharp relief the challenge of reconciling technology, privacy, and law. The 22 page CRS report provides a survey of relevant Fourth Amendment law, federal electronic surveillance statutes and case law, pending GPS-vehicle tracking cases, and electronic surveillance legislation that is before Congress. The primary debate surrounding cell phone and GPS tracking is not whether they are permitted by statute but rather what legal standard should apply: probable cause, reasonable suspicion, or something less, the report says. A copy of the CRS report was obtained by Secrecy News. See Governmental Tracking of Cell Phones and Vehicles: Th...

Hu Jun, a 46 year-old amputee from Xinjiang, who works as a web master for the Human Rights Campaign in China blog, recently shared his thoughts and feelings after reading the Epoch Times editorial series, Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. I think the CCPs entire history is about making people suffer, Hu said. He is speaking from experience. Hu said he lost his legs in a coal mine accident while being wrongfully imprisoned without a trial. Nineteen years ago Hu was a buyer for a company. One day, his supervisor got into a fight with a customer. Because Hu didnt come to his defense, the supervisor became upset with him and falsely accused him of fraud. As a result, Hu spent two years in jail between 1992 and 1994, without going through the courts. While imprisoned, he had to work in a coal mine. Seven months before being released, Hu was injured in a coal mine accident and his legs were amputated. Hes now in a wheel chair. Still he spends long hours at the computer every day t...

Hu Jun, a 46 year-old amputee from Xinjiang, who works as a web master for the Human Rights Campaign in China blog, recently shared his thoughts and feelings after reading the Epoch Times editorial series, Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. I think the CCPs entire history is about making people suffer, Hu said. He is speaking from experience. Hu said he lost his legs in a coal mine accident while being wrongfully imprisoned without a trial. Nineteen years ago Hu was a buyer for a company. One day, his supervisor got into a fight with a customer. Because Hu didnt come to his defense, the supervisor became upset with him and falsely accused him of fraud. As a result, Hu spent two years in jail between 1992 and 1994, without going through the courts. While imprisoned, he had to work in a coal mine. Seven months before being released, Hu was injured in a coal mine accident and his legs were amputated. Hes now in a wheel chair. Still he spends long hours at the computer every day t...

Jade sellers in the town that is at the center of the jade industry in China protested in the thousands, but police violently dispersed the protest on its second day, with some arrests being made. The protest started on the morning of Nov. 25 when thousands of stall renters at the Tian Guang Xu jade market of Zhaoqing City in Guangdong Province in southern China started a large-scale strike. They were protesting the most recent increase in the rent for their stalls. The city government met with the protesters and claimed that the market owner had promised to negotiate with the stallholders at 9 a.m. the next day. But the next day the owner never showed up. Some stall holders, angered and frustrated by what they believed was the market owners insincerity, smashed the management office and blocked the traffic on Sihui Boulevard. On the afternoon of Nov. 26, hundreds of special police arrived. They gave a warning to the crowd to leave within 15 minutes, but then, after only 2 minutes had...

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has issued a new Intelligence Community Directive on Congressional Notification (pdf) that generally encourages a presumption of notification to Congress regarding significant intelligence activities. The November 16 directive, designated ICD 112 , elaborates on the intelligence communitys responsibility to keep the congressional oversight committees fully and currently informed of U.S. intelligence activities, which is required by the National Security Act. Among the types of activities that would normally warrant congressional notification, the directive says, are: intelligence activities that entail significant risk of exposure, compromise, and loss of human life; activities undertaken pursuant to specific direction of the President or the National Security Council, other than covert action (which is subject to a separate reporting requirement); a significant unauthorized disclosure of classified intelligence information; a conclu...