Day: February 12, 2019

Huawei’s Presence in Hungary Complicates Partnership with US, Warns Pompeo

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is warning Hungary the presence of Chinese telecommunication manufacturer Huawei in the European country is complicating Budapest’s partnership with Washington. 

The chief American diplomat Monday arrived in Budapest on Monday, the first leg of his European trip. Huawei has established Hungary as a European hub, where it can develop its fifth-generation mobile networks.

“If that equipment is co-located in places where we have important American systems, it makes it more difficult for us to partner alongside them. We want to make sure we identify [to] them the opportunities and the risks associated with using that equipment,” said Pompeo.

While noting sovereign nations such as Hungary will “make their own decisions,” Pompeo said it’s imperative the United States shares potential risks from Huawei with its NATO allies.

American officials are increasingly troubled by Huawei’s expansion in Europe, especially in NATO member states where Washington believes the Chinese telecom manufacturer poses significant information security threats.

At a joint press conference with Hungarian Foreign minister Peter Szijjarto, Pompeo said he has raised with Szijjarto “the dangers of allowing China to gain a bridgehead in Hungary.”

But the U.S. pressure campaign against Huawei faces challenges. Hungary has said it has no plans to reconsider the decision to award the 5G networks contract to Huawei. 

Many in China believe that the U.S. government concerns over Huawei’s security are at least in part aimed at helping American companies better compete against foreign rivals. But U.S. officials reject that notion.

“That sounds like a lot of mirror imaging to me,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Christopher Ford in an interview with VOA, noting “the Chinese government has actually been extraordinarily grand in its ambitions to do just that sort of thing with Chinese companies.”

Ford pointed to numerous public reports in recent years that have blamed Chinese government-backed hackers with cyber campaigns stealing corporate secrets and financial data. 

“Cyber-facilitated theft of intellectual property, for example, has become notorious around the world. But the Chinese government has been doing that very systematically in order to advantage its own national champion industries in particular sectors,” Ford added.

Social media threats?

Weary of data collection and Chinese technology transfer for military purposes, the U.S. government is considering tighter restrictions on the use of social media apps that have geolocation features within diplomatic and military facilities.

While the State Department does not expressly prohibit the use of commercial geolocation applications on smartphones and other personal electronic devices by employees serving internationally, measures are taken to address the potential security risks.

The State Department has issued guidance requiring each post to develop a policy regarding the restrictions placed on using personal electronic devices.

“We obviously need to continue to be mindful of that, and to update and improve our understanding of best practices,” said Assistant Secretary of State Ford.

Last year, the Pentagon started prohibiting personnel from using geolocation features on electronic devices while in locations designated as operational areas.

Those restrictions could impact popular social media applications like TikTok, a Chinese-made app for sharing short videos that is popular among young adults.

All social media companies gather data on their users, but experts warn that Chinese companies in particular pose unique challenges because the Beijing government has absolute authority to request private user data. 

“The user in Western countries might not be aware that in China, the government has a far broader reach compared to over here, so they can request data out from a private company on national security grounds,” Claudia Biancotti, visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), told VOA in a recent interview.

Biancotti added in China, “they don’t really have independent courts to oversee the process.”

“If this information is sent to China, it can be easily accessed by the government and leveraged, say, to make Beijing’s surveillance software better at recognizing Western faces, or at extracting intelligence on Western military activities,” warned Biancotti in a recent report.

TikTok, launched as Douyin in China in 2016, is owned by Chinese internet technology company ByteDance who later acquired Musical.ly, a popular lip-sync app among American teenagers. ByteDance merged Musical.ly with TikTok in 2018 as a means of entering the U.S. market. 

Last October, TikTok surpassed Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat in monthly installations. 

TikTok recently updated its privacy policy for U.S. residents, removing all references about storing data in China. 

Last August, TikTok stated in the privacy policy: “We will also share your information with any member or affiliate of our group, in China,” but the latest update in January of 2019 deleted the word “China.”

The company wrote an email to VOA’s Mandarin service that they regularly update their privacy policies while noting that TikTok does not operate in China.

TikTok’s current privacy policy stated it automatically collects technically and behavioral information from users, including IP address, location-related data or other unique device identifiers. 

“We may also collect Global Positioning System (GPS) data and mobile device location information.” But users can switch off location information functionality on their mobile device if they do not wish to share such data.

“We will share your information with law enforcement agencies, public authorities or other organizations if legally required to do so,” TikTok stated. 

VOA’s Mandarin Service, Jeff Seldin and Mo Yu contributed to this report.
…

more

Oscar Nominees in Foreign Picture Category Tackle Political Oppression, War, Social Injustice

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Totalitarian regimes and their mark on the human psyche, nostalgic depictions of life in Mexico City riddled with socio-economic and racial divisions, and the toll of poverty and war on children and families are themes of this year’s Oscar nominees in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

‘Never Look Away’

The epic drama Never Look Away focuses on the personal journey of Kurt, a young artist from East Germany who tries to find meaning through art after experiencing the murder of family members and the destruction of his country during the Nazi regime and political oppression under Communism.

Academy award-winning filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck says dictatorships first try to control art.

“Because it can truly change minds, it can change hearts. But the problem is, as soon as the dictatorship gets its hands on the art, it’s no longer art.”

The filmmaker says he also wanted to show how the Communist regime in East Germany harbored Nazis.

“Unfortunately, the very characteristics that allow you to rise to the top in a dictatorship like the Nazis will allow you to, in a way, hide your crimes in the next system and rise to the top again,” Donnersmarck said. “The sad truth is that a lot of the people who commit the terrible crimes throughout history will go unpunished.”

That’s why, he says, many survivors of war and political oppression find redemption through artistic expression. In his film, Donnersmarck says, Kurt is the hero who never looks away, who stares crimes in the face and struggles to find a way to express them on canvas.

The filmmaker, who tapped into his personal experiences and his family history for the story, shows how the main character’s self-exile to the capitalist West also shaped him.

“The sudden freedom is something very scary. It’s very messy. You feel like at least there was a certain solidarity or someone who was supposed to look after you. But I’ll take the chaos and the despair of freedom any day over just the death that is slavery,” Donnersmarck said.

‘Cold War’

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War echoes Donnersmarck’s message about how totalitarianism imprisons the human psyche. It takes place in Communist Poland, and like Kurt in Never Look Away, the main characters in the Cold War — musicians Zula and Wiktor — are stifled by the communist regime. They, too, flee to Western Europe in the 1960s. Cold War also shows the alienation and identity crisis Eastern European exiles often felt in the West.

‘Roma’

Critics consider Roma the front-runner of the group, with 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Roma also won the Bafta award for Best Picture. Bafta, the British film awards and the equivalent of the American Oscars, often forecasts the Oscar winners.

Director Alfonso Cuaron’s film is a nostalgic depiction of 1970s life in Mexico City, inspired by personal memories of middle-class life and racial and class divisions. In order to make the story as authentic as possible, Cuaron used people who had never acted before, including Yalitza Aparicio, who plays the lead character, Cleo, a tireless and caring domestic worker.

Aparicio, an indigenous woman, has received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. In an interview with VOA, she credited Cuaron for throwing a light on the indigenous domestic workers in Mexico.

“Domestic workers play a very important role at households and are not being recognized,” she said. “He showed the world that they are human beings, that they have rights. They need to be respected.”

‘Capernaum’, ‘Shoplifters’

The other Oscar contenders in this category are Capernaum and Shoplifters. Set in Lebanon, the main character in Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum is a child suing his parents for bringing him into a chaotic war-torn world.

In Shoplifters, director Hirokazu Kore-eda shows the heartbreak of a Japanese family in extreme poverty.

Regardless of which film wins the coveted award, all of them depict love, freedom and personal honesty as the antidote to political brutality and injustice.

Donnersmarck told VOA that film, like other forms of art, can help wide audiences learn history in a visceral way.

“You are telling the story through the plot,” he said. “You are telling the story through the dialogue. You are telling it through the costumes, the production design. It’s such a multilayered simultaneous experience. I love movies.”
…

more

US Sees Growing Threats to ‘Freedom of Action’ in Space

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Russia and China are racing to advance their space-based military capabilities and could soon prevent the United States and its allies from using outer space freely.

The warning, in a new report Monday from the Defense Intelligence Agency, builds on a series of warnings issued by the defense and intelligence communities over the past several years.

But unlike many previous assessments, which focused on Russian and Chinese efforts to match or counter U.S. capabilities, the new DIA report suggests both countries are pursuing a far more aggressive agenda.

“They are developing systems that pose a threat to freedom of action in space,” the report warned, citing current Russian and Chinese military doctrine that sees the ability to control outer space as “integral to winning modern wars.”

U.S. defense intelligence officials believe Russia and China have spent the past four years increasingly aligning their militaries around the importance of space operations.

Already, those efforts have resulted in what officials describe as “robust and capable” space services for both countries, with improvements constantly in the works.

Additionally, Russia and China now have “enhanced situational awareness, enabling them to monitor, track and target U.S. and allied forces,” the report said.

Both countries have also made gains in tracking U.S. space assets.

“Chinese and Russian space surveillance networks are capable of searching, tracking, and characterizing satellites in all Earth orbits,” the report added.

Such capabilities are critical in order for Russia and China to successfully use a variety of systems that could eliminate or incapacitate U.S. satellites, from directed energy weapons to anti-satellite missiles.

While the DIA report warns Russia and China pose the greatest threats to the U.S. in space, other countries are also taking aim at U.S. dominance in space, including Iran and North Korea.

Both Tehran and Pyongyang have shown the ability to jam space-based communications and “maintain independent space launch capabilities.”

In January, the U.S. issued a new National Intelligence Strategy, which warned of growing competition in space.

The strategy, by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said both Russia and China are pursuing “a full range of anti-satellite weapons, which could degrade U.S. intelligence gathering abilities.”

The U.S. Worldwide Threat Assessment issued late last month also said China already has an anti-satellite missile capable of hitting satellites in low-Earth orbits, while Russia has been field testing ground-based laser weapons.
…

more