Tag: china

Danish military says it’s monitoring Chinese ship closely after undersea cables severed

The Danish military said on Wednesday that it was staying close to a Chinese ship currently sitting idle in Danish waters, days after two fibre-optic data telecommunication cables in the Baltic Sea were severed.

Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 was anchored in the Kattegat strait between Denmark and Sweden on Wednesday, with a Danish navy patrol ship at anchor nearby, MarineTraffic vessel tracking data showed.

“The Danish Defence can confirm that we are present in the area near the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3,” the military said in a post on social media X, adding it had no further comments.

Two critical undersea fibre optic #cables in the #BalticSea—linking Sweden to Lithuania and Finland to Germany—were severed on November 17th and 18th, raising serious security concerns. The Chinese-flagged bulk carrier YI PENG 3 is suspended for its potential involvement.… pic.twitter.com/XRikzko8Pw— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) November 20, 2024

It is quite rare for Denmark’s military to comment publicly on individual vessels travelling in Danish waters. It did not mention the cable breaches or say why it was staying with the ship.

Swedish police later told news agency TT they were also interested in the Yi Peng 3, adding there might be other vessels of interest to Sweden’s investigation.

The Chinese ship left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov.

15 and was in the areas where the cable damages occurred, according to traffic data, which showed other ships to have been in the areas too.

One cable running between Sweden and Lithuania was cut on Sunday and another one between Finland and Germany was severed less than 24 hours later on Monday.

The breaches happened in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone and Swedish prosecutors started a preliminary investigation on Tuesday on suspicion of possible sabotage.

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Skynet On Wheels: Chinese Tech Firm Reveals Terrifying Robo-Dog

One of Tesla’s competitors in robotics is the Chinese company Unitree, which is already selling its humanoid G1 robot for $40,000. The company also sells robo-dogs on the Amazon marketplace. Another Chinese robotics company, Deep Robotics, released a new video featuring one of its robo-dogs equipped with wheels, showcasing its ability to scale hillsides and navigate off-road terrain.

Deep Robotics describes itself as a “leader in embodied AI technology innovation and application,” adding it’s “the first in China to achieve fully autonomous inspection of substations with quadruped robots.”

Earlier this week, Deep Robotics posted a short video on YouTube featuring one of its quadruped robots with wheels. The robot’s mobility is absolutely terrifying.

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US calls on Taiwan to stop supplying AI chips to China

Washington has officially demanded that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturing companies, stop supplying China with chips used in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Reuters reported on November 10. However, Washington’s pressure on China’s semiconductor industry also includes Taiwan once Donald Trump comes to power next year.

TSMC is one of the largest chip producers and cooperates with several technology companies, such as Nvidia and AMD, and specialises in integrated circuit, also known as a microchip, a small device made up of several interconnected electronic components that are etched onto a small piece of semiconductor material.

Taiwan produces about 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, mostly by TSMC, and ensuring these chips do not reach China is a priority for Washington, an effort that will only intensify when Trump becomes president.

“The US ordered Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers that are often used in artificial intelligence applications,” Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the subject.

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What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China

Maritime clashes between the Philippines and China had been mostly over the Philippines’ military outpost, BRP (BRP – Barko ng Republika ng Pilipinas, which translates to “Ship of the Republic of the Philippines” – the ship prefix for the Philippines) Sierra Madre, in the Spratly Islands, which is disputed by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan (a province of China, as recognized by the United Nations’ Resolution No. 2758), and Vietnam. The BRP Sierra Madre was intentionally run aground on a reef near the Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed Spratly Islands, in 1997, so that the Philippines could stake their territorial claim.

The WWII-era ship is rusted out and on its way to disintegrating.  In December 2023, the Philippines allocated funds to replace the ship with a permanent structure. Coincidentally, in September 2023, Blake Herzinger, a research fellow at the United States Studies Centre of the University of Sydney, penned an article titled, “It’s Time to Build Combined Forward Operating Base Sierra Madre.” This outpost would be “manned by combined rotational forces from both the Philippines and the U.S. Marine Corps,” according to Herzinger.  In it, he admits that doing so, “would be a provocative move, and it would not be without significant risk.”

In October 2023, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFU) admitted that their resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre were carrying materials that were used in the maintenance and repair of the ship. China had been accusing the Philippines of using its resupply missions to send “illegal building materials” to reinforce the dilapidated ship on several occasions.  In June of this year, The Financial Times revealed that the Philippines had “secretly” reinforced the BRP Sierra Madre at the Second Thomas Shoal.

On March 5, 2024, in response to an incident at the Second Thomas Shoal, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller stated that “Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft, including those of its coast guard, anywhere in the South China Sea.”  At the time, the crash was “not the time or reason to invoke a Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States,” according to Philippine President Bongbong Marcos. Invoking the Mutual Defense Treaty by the Philippines could lead to an armed conflict between China and the U.S. Military.

Recently, these clashes have been occurring at the Sabina Shoal, another disputed atoll in the Spratly Islands. In May, the Philippines claimed that China was carrying out “small-scale reclamation” and anchored the BRP Teresa Magbanua at Sabina Shoal to “catch and document the dumping of crushed corals over the sandbars” (China denied this).  The Philippines had been using the BRP Teresa Magbanua as a staging area for their resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre at Second Thomas Shoal. A new Philippine Coast Guard vessel was sent to Sabina Shoal, according to Jonathan Malaya, the spokesperson for the National Security Council of the Philippines, on September 26. However, he declined to comment on the specifics of their intentions or plans, citing operational security concerns.

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Massive Chinese Anti-Drone High-Power Microwave Weapon Emerges

Ahuge truck-mounted system is one of at least three large mobile ground-based high-power microwave directed energy weapons, primarily intended to down drones, at this year’s Zhuhai Airshow. This underscores a global explosion of demand for counter-drone capabilities, as well as China’s steady progress in the development, fielding, and exporting of microwave and laser directed energy weapons.

Officially known as the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, the Zhuhai Airshow also provides an opportunity for Chinese and foreign companies to showcase ground-based and maritime offerings. Pictures and videos of various aircraft and other systems have been steadily emerging ahead of the event’s formal opening next week.

The imagery that has appeared online already amid the Zhuhai preparations includes a promotional video from state-run firms China South Industries Group Corporation (CSGC) and Norinco that features footage of two high-power microwave directed energy weapons, as well as other air defense systems.

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FDA Knows That China and India Drug Quality Is Poor, But Independently Collects and Tests Only about 0.001%

Quality control errors during pharmaceutical manufacturing are unfortunately common occurrences. The majority (around 50%) of employees that work in pharmaceutical manufacturing tend to have duties which are safety/quality-control related, but apparently even that isn’t enough. 

Even with a major focus on quality, there is still an estimated 2-3σ (sigma) level of imprecision when it comes to pharmaceutical manufacturing. That corresponds to 66,807 to 308,537 defects per 1,000,000 opportunities. But with pharmaceutical development being so complicated, there could be more than 1,000,000 “opportunities” for error. 

The above listed error calculation – while alarming enough – was referenced in small-molecule pharmacology. However, increasingly complex pharmaceuticals (such as today’s widely used biotechnological products, including GLP-1 diabetes/weight loss or mRNA products for Covid-19) have molecular weights that can be thousands times larger than small molecule compounds. That could mean an even greater opportunity for error. 

The FDA is abundantly aware of pharmaceutical fragility and potential quality shortcomings, including at the highest levels of its leadership. 

In fact, Dr. Michael Kopcha, the current Director of the FDA’s Office of Pharmaceutical Quality (OPQ), wrote and published the above published Six Sigma calculation, lamenting the imprecise nature of pharmaceutical manufacturing – back in 2017. 

Any alteration in structure that occurs during manufacturing has the potential to vastly change a compound’s clinical activity, including a change from therapeutic drug into a poison.

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The Biden-Harris Govt Is Helping China Buy Land Near U.S. Bases.

The Biden-Harris government’s Department of Agriculture is quietly reclassifying numerous property developers and other companies in what appears to be an effort to work around restrictions on Chinese land ownership near U.S. military bases and installations. The move comes despite continued warnings from the U.S. intelligence community and other agencies in the Biden-Harris government that China poses an increasing national security risk and is actively opposing U.S. interests through domestic and foreign counter-intelligence actions.

At the center of the Department of Agriculture controversy is the recent change in designation for Walton Global, a property developer that has been considered one of the top Chinese-controlled U.S. land owners for years. The company has expanded its footprint in China since 2018 and was—until recently—listed by the U.S. government as one of the five top Chinese owners of U.S. agricultural land.

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Halloween Is a Middle Finger to Communists

Halloween, by its nature, is the one holiday that can essentially be about anything: fairy tales and storybook characters, movies and celebrities, robots and aliens, pizza and M&Ms, or, one of my new personal favorites, Mrs. Doubtfire and her hot flashes. That there are far more variables than constants on Halloween is a reminder that it is defined, above all, by freedom.

For another reminder, consider that police in China recently cracked down on costumed revelers because of the supposed threat they pose to the Communist government.

Indeed, law enforcement in Shanghai last weekend set their sights on celebrants who had the audacity to dress up, for example, as a poop emoji and as Kim Kardashian, the latter of whom can be seen on video waving goodbye to the group behind her as she was forced into a police van.

Before the parties began this month, police saturated the city. Those not in costume were reportedly left alone, while individuals were taken into custody for dressing up and were sometimes made to remove them. When law enforcement dispersed Zhongshan Park, the cops conditioned their freedom on decostuming. Private businesses were also allegedly ordered not to advertise or host Halloween events. The scrutiny was not limited to Shanghai.

In other words, this was not about crowd control.

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Putin Brings Peace Between China And India – Violent Himalayan Border Region May Be Quieted

This year’s BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia has produced more than expected, beyond the trade and reserve currency foreshadowed developments, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has begun the process of implementing a peace deal on the Himalayan border, long a violently contested area.

The deal was put together on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.

India and China have begun implementing an agreement to end a military standoff on their disputed Himalayan border, the two sides said on Friday, in the biggest thaw between the Asian giants since deadly clashes between their armies four years ago, reported Reuters.

Troops who were eyeball-to-eyeball at two points on the frontier in India’s Ladakh region in the western Himalayas had begun pulling back, an Indian government source said, heralding an end to the standoff.

The process began on Wednesday and is expected to conclude by the end of the month, a senior Indian army official said.

“According to the recently agreed solution between India and China … their frontline armies are implementing relevant work, with smooth progress so far,” Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said.

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Russian Foreign Minister – “If Ukraine Joins NATO Eeither Ukraine Disappears, Or NATO Does.”

Important quotes from the BRICS Summit where the other ‘new world order’ is shaping against Western hegemony.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia declared that if Ukraine joins NATO, Russia would destroy Ukraine as a nation, or even NATO itself.

President Putin also said he hoped NATO heard his warning about the consequences of allowing Ukraine to use Western-supplied missiles to strike inside Russia.

Russian President Putin warned failure to recognize a state of Palestine will fuel “permanent crisis and inevitable large-scale violence.”

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared, “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. The Taiwan question is not about freedom of navigation but about China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

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