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FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

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Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#121

Post by Analemma_ »

walshemj wrote: post #102
IntronExon wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FBI’s remit includes domestic counterintelligence.

it probley wound be better if the usa split the FBI in two 1 A federal police force (with reduced surveillance powers) which would take over the BATF and the currency and uniformed part of the secret service. 2 A separate contra espionage organisation similar to MI5

Oh god, don't give them any ideas. We already have an alphabet soup of intelligence agencies (the IC consists of 16 at the moment), don't make it worse.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#122

Post by mc32 »

thephyber wrote: post #114
mc32 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you imagine if Russians were a another "race". They'd be able to throw the racism card all over dems for having the temerity to accuse them of all sorts of political interference and other meddling... Alas, they cannot make such accusations. At most they can use "xenophobia".

> Can you imagine if Russians were a another "race". > Alas, they cannot make such accusations. Why not? Can you prove that Russians are "another race"? Is there such thing as a scientific definition that states unambiguously where any one race ends and another begins? I don't doubt that populations of humans commonly share family lineage, phenotypes, and genotypes, but the concept of "race" escapes any sufficient de…

>Is there such thing as a scientific definition that states unambiguously where any one race ends and another begins"

No, that's why it's in scare quotes.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#123

Post by labster »

jdavis703 wrote: post #62
tptacek wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you expect the Confucius Institute to provide information on the negatives of Chinese government? It's a Chinese culture organization, and it's directly affiliated with the government of China.

Voice of America, and other media provided by the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau provide a balanced perspective on the U.S. If there are anti-government situations going on, they cover it. Just take a look at the headlines about Trump on voanews.com vs. the headlines about Xi on xinhuanet.com.

    > GOP Women Frustrated by Trump's Approach to Abuse Charges
    > 2018 Congressional Elections Loom as Referendum on Trump
    > House Panel Launches Probe into Trump Aide's Employment Amid Domestic Abuse Allegations
Oh, wow, point taken.

I always forget about VOA because the government doesn't promote it inside the United States. BBC and even NHK have a much higher profile than Voice of America does in America.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#124

Post by schoen »

DrJokepu wrote: post #58
tptacek wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you expect the Confucius Institute to provide information on the negatives of Chinese government? It's a Chinese culture organization, and it's directly affiliated with the government of China.

Other, similar organizations from other countries often at least try to maintain the illusion of some degree of objectivity. If you take advanced French classes at the French Institute, there is a good chance that contemporary issues affecting France will be discussed in class.

Indeed, when I took German at the Goethe-Institut there was a fair amount of class-time reference to social problems in Germany (although perhaps with an optimistic spin, something like "Germany is great because Germans acknowledge important social problems and work to solve them¹"). I haven't experienced the Confucius Institute for comparison.

¹ It seemed like nearly every course had a dialogue on the theme "Was machen Sie für die Umwelt?" ('What do you do for the environment?').

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#125

Post by Cw67NTN8F »

olyjohn wrote: post #57
zengid wrote: post #50

That would explain why my school's international students have such nice, James Bond-esk, cars.

Eh... I worked at a community college whose bread and butter was international students. Lots of them had really expensive cars. Not sure why China would send hundreds of operatives to infiltrate a community college and then pay to put them in flashy cars. It's more likely just rich parents.

a lot of this probably is "if you see something useful to the motherland, let us know." Or being approached when the state agencies decide you're useful. Not everyone is a card-carrying spy.

It's perfectly normal to have loyalties to your own (or original) country, US and China aren't exactly like USA and England, relationship wise. Most US citizens would probably do the same in China.

Add the fact that China has a lot more leverage than a "normal" country when it comes to blackmailing families /friends.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#126

Post by thephyber »

mc32 wrote: post #122
thephyber wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you imagine if Russians were a another "race". > Alas, they cannot make such accusations. Why not? Can you prove that Russians are "another race"? Is there such thing as a scientific definition that states unambiguously where any one race ends and another begins? I don't doubt that populations of humans commonly share family lineage, phenotypes, and genotypes, but the concept of "race" escapes any sufficient de…

>Is there such thing as a scientific definition that states unambiguously where any one race ends and another begins" No, that's why it's in scare quotes.

Fair point.

I think DJT has already desensitized me to details like capitalization and quoting.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#127

Post by danjoc »

mc32 wrote: post #47
Cyberdog wrote: post #25

Australia has of late had its own issues involving accusations of Chinese espionage as well as good old-fashioned palm-greasing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Dastyari#Chinese_influence... If the US starts clamping down on this sort of thing, expect China to accuse the US government of xenophobia, since of course "we'd like to stop so many Chinese agents and toadies from infiltrating our governmental and educatio…

Can you imagine if Russians were a another "race". They'd be able to throw the racism card all over dems for having the temerity to accuse them of all sorts of political interference and other meddling... Alas, they cannot make such accusations. At most they can use "xenophobia".

>Can you imagine if Russians were a another "race".

I was under the impression they are,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs

http://www.slovio.com/slavic-gene/index.html

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#128

Post by pobo »

mc32 wrote: post #98
HumanDrivenDev wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you imagine if Russians were a another "race". They'd be able to throw the racism card all over dems for having the temerity to accuse them of all sorts of political interference and other meddling... I assume this is why everyone turns a blind eye to the elephant in the room when it comes to foreign influence of American affairs - Israel.

That one's a bit more complicated. Our interests intersect with theirs along many axes. And they have lots of lobbyists in DC and Americans of Israeli/Jewish heritage donate lots to DC politicians along Israeli policy lines. People of Russian heritage on the other hand typically have opposing views to that of Moscow in many areas, so they are not as aligned, if at all; in addition, many people of Russians descent hav…

this is a typical narrative of double standard.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#129

Post by tetrahedr0n »

Hard to get through some of these statements:

> They have a long-term strategic objective to become a world power. > Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats

O RLY? Funny, last I checked, China was a world power. Shit, China rivals the US as a world power.

> Most Americans have not heard of all of these companies. > Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat

Surprise surprise! Well, most American's haven't heard of Acxiom either. It's always surprising how much other people don't know, isn't it?

And, FWIW, I bet more people have heard about ZTE than half the organizations that contribute to Mark Warner's campaigns. New companies entering our markets from China have to play by the same rules our own companies do, how is this any different. If it is different, why? How does this matter in the discussion of Chinese intelligence gathering. More importantly, who cares?

The fear-mongerers care, that's who.

Re: FBI Says Chinese Operatives Active at Scores of U.S. Universities

#130

Post by InitialLastName »

THE_PUN_STOPS wrote: post #71
zengid wrote: post #50

That would explain why my school's international students have such nice, James Bond-esk, cars.

Those cars are more expensive to purchase in China/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/etc then they are to purchase in the USA/Canada/etc and import later. Additionally, exotic cars tend to hold value well and are easy to sell for liquid assets. Thus, for wealthy international families sending a student to North America, this is a two-birds-one-stone situation. The child gets a nice way to get around and the parents get a discount o…

This might just be my bias, but I wouldn't necessarily call a high-performance luxury car being driven by an under-occupied 19-year old a "stable asset".
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