China
Patriotic Chinese Hacking Group Reboots
Chown Group Lin Yong, wearing long sleeves, accepted an award from a hacker group in September. A Chinese hacking group that launched patriotic cyberattacks on websites in the U.S. and other countries is reorganizing after years of inactivity. And its founder says he can’t guarantee members won’t launch attacks again, even though the group’s new focus will be on defensive research. The re-emergence of the Honker Union of China highlights a continued nationalistic streak among certain influential Chinese hackers—something that could be a liability for China’s government if it sparks independent cyberattacks, but that could also serve its goals if it inspires talented hackers to seek work with the government or the military. Lin Yong, also known by the online name Lion, ran the group’s website from 2000 to 2004, when members attacked many foreign websites for political causes–mainly by defacing them, or altering their appearance and leaving messages. Mr. Lin himself attacked websites in the U.S., Japan and Taiwan, he said in a recent phone interview. The group took part, for instance, in a website defacement battle between Chinese and U.S. hackers in 2001, when the midair collision of a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. Navy plane caused a diplomatic firestorm. The Honker Union at the time had up to 60,000 users of its online forums and over 20,000 on its electronic-mailing list, Mr. Lin said. According to a Dow Jones Newswires report at the time, among the group’s targets was a Philadelphia City government website, which was altered to show a waving Chinese flag and the words: “Beat down Imperialism of American!” The Honker Union has never had ties to China’s government or military, Mr. Lin said. “Honker” transliterates the key term in the group’s Chinese name: “hong ke,” or “red hacker.” The group’s new incarnation will be different, Mr. Lin said. Mr. Lin himself, who is 31 years old and lives in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, says he hasn’t been involved in the Chinese computer-security community since 2006 and now trades stocks and foreign currency for a living. He has also become a Buddhist, one “large reason” he decided to reorganize the Honker Union, he said in a message on the group’s new website. The reorganized Honker Union will hold network-security training sessions at colleges and encourage Chinese hackers and security students to use their skills to seek legitimate jobs, rather than turning to cybercrime to make money, Lin said. The group will also develop an online platform meant to help users turn security-related research into legitimate business plans, including by helping them find investment, Mr. Lin said. “Mainly now [we want] to get them to put energy into researching technology, and to help protect the networks of Chinese companies, government ministries and research institutions,” he said. When asked if the group would continue to launch attacks, Mr. Lin said: “We won’t, we probably won’t. If there’s some special incident, I can’t guarantee that other group members won’t have their own ideas. At least, right now there aren’t signs of that.” Lin also said attacks now would be “unnecessary,” given China’s rise on the international stage and an increase in Chinese regulations governing hacking. “You have to go according to the international situation. China’s international status is already not bad,” he said. Foreign officials and security experts for years have pointed to China as the source of many politically motivated attacks on foreign companies and governments. China’s government has repeatedly denied sponsoring hacking activity and said it is a major victim of hacking attacks. Authorities have also discouraged cyberattacks by private citizens, including in direct communication with hackers like Mr. Lin, who said a provincial police official in 2001 discouraged him from attacking the U.S. websites. (Mr. Lin says his group went ahead with attacks anyway and wasn’t punished.) The group’s reboot comes after two other prominent Chinese hackers last month led a public call for their peers to steer clear of cybercrime. A larger circle of hackers, including Mr. Lin, reviewed a document containing the appeal and put it online. That document, called the “Chinese Hackers’ Self-Discipline Convention,” asks that hackers pledge to avoid acts that could harm the public, such as stealing from regular Internet users. But it doesn’t condemn all forms of cyberattacks, leaving unclear whether it would allow activist attacks on foreign targets. For instance, the document says denial-of-service attacks–in which a target website can be knocked offline—aren’t legitimate if they are done for profit or are “not in the public interest.” It doesn’t elaborate. At a Shanghai conference last month held by the organizers of the appeal against cybercrime, Mr. Lin received an award recognizing his “social influence,” underlining the strong association his group had with the surge in patriotic cyberattacks from China a decade ago. Mr. Lin also first announced his plan to revive the Honker Union in a speech at the event. Mr. Lin has since put a new manifesto for the Honker Union on its website. Posted on Oct. 1, the “National Day” holiday that commemorates the 1949 founding of Communist China, it highlights a need to help prepare the country to defend itself in any “information war.” “There are currently companies and governments in certain countries with specialized teams actively preparing for information war, and in this area we are obviously behind,” part of the manifesto says. “As security technicians, we must cultivate future technical talent and enter companies and institutions, taking up the work of defense and construction in information security. This is our job and our social responsibility.” “Honker is a kind of spirit, a kind of patriotic spirit,” it says. –Owen Fletcher
- Chown Group
- Lin Yong, wearing long sleeves, accepted an award from a hacker group in September.
A Chinese hacking group that launched patriotic cyberattacks on websites in the U.S. and other countries is reorganizing after years of inactivity. And its founder says he can’t guarantee members won’t launch attacks again, even though the group’s new focus will be on defensive research.
The re-emergence of the Honker Union of China highlights a continued nationalistic streak among certain influential Chinese hackers—something that could be a liability for China’s government if it sparks independent cyberattacks, but that could also serve its goals if it inspires talented hackers to seek work with the government or the military.
Lin Yong, also known by the online name Lion, ran the group’s website from 2000 to 2004, when members attacked many foreign websites for political causes–mainly by defacing them, or altering their appearance and leaving messages. Mr. Lin himself attacked websites in the U.S., Japan and Taiwan, he said in a recent phone interview.
The group took part, for instance, in a website defacement battle between Chinese and U.S. hackers in 2001, when the midair collision of a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. Navy plane caused a diplomatic firestorm. The Honker Union at the time had up to 60,000 users of its online forums and over 20,000 on its electronic-mailing list, Mr. Lin said. According to a Dow Jones Newswires report at the time, among the group’s targets was a Philadelphia City government website, which was altered to show a waving Chinese flag and the words: “Beat down Imperialism of American!”
The Honker Union has never had ties to China’s government or military, Mr. Lin said. “Honker” transliterates the key term in the group’s Chinese name: “hong ke,” or “red hacker.”
The group’s new incarnation will be different, Mr. Lin said. Mr. Lin himself, who is 31 years old and lives in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, says he hasn’t been involved in the Chinese computer-security community since 2006 and now trades stocks and foreign currency for a living. He has also become a Buddhist, one “large reason” he decided to reorganize the Honker Union, he said in a message on the group’s new website.
The reorganized Honker Union will hold network-security training sessions at colleges and encourage Chinese hackers and security students to use their skills to seek legitimate jobs, rather than turning to cybercrime to make money, Lin said. The group will also develop an online platform meant to help users turn security-related research into legitimate business plans, including by helping them find investment, Mr. Lin said.
“Mainly now [we want] to get them to put energy into researching technology, and to help protect the networks of Chinese companies, government ministries and research institutions,” he said.
When asked if the group would continue to launch attacks, Mr. Lin said: “We won’t, we probably won’t. If there’s some special incident, I can’t guarantee that other group members won’t have their own ideas. At least, right now there aren’t signs of that.”
Lin also said attacks now would be “unnecessary,” given China’s rise on the international stage and an increase in Chinese regulations governing hacking. “You have to go according to the international situation. China’s international status is already not bad,” he said.
Foreign officials and security experts for years have pointed to China as the source of many politically motivated attacks on foreign companies and governments. China’s government has repeatedly denied sponsoring hacking activity and said it is a major victim of hacking attacks.
Authorities have also discouraged cyberattacks by private citizens, including in direct communication with hackers like Mr. Lin, who said a provincial police official in 2001 discouraged him from attacking the U.S. websites. (Mr. Lin says his group went ahead with attacks anyway and wasn’t punished.)
The group’s reboot comes after two other prominent Chinese hackers last month led a public call for their peers to steer clear of cybercrime. A larger circle of hackers, including Mr. Lin, reviewed a document containing the appeal and put it online.
That document, called the “Chinese Hackers’ Self-Discipline Convention,” asks that hackers pledge to avoid acts that could harm the public, such as stealing from regular Internet users. But it doesn’t condemn all forms of cyberattacks, leaving unclear whether it would allow activist attacks on foreign targets. For instance, the document says denial-of-service attacks–in which a target website can be knocked offline—aren’t legitimate if they are done for profit or are “not in the public interest.” It doesn’t elaborate.
At a Shanghai conference last month held by the organizers of the appeal against cybercrime, Mr. Lin received an award recognizing his “social influence,” underlining the strong association his group had with the surge in patriotic cyberattacks from China a decade ago. Mr. Lin also first announced his plan to revive the Honker Union in a speech at the event.
Mr. Lin has since put a new manifesto for the Honker Union on its website. Posted on Oct. 1, the “National Day” holiday that commemorates the 1949 founding of Communist China, it highlights a need to help prepare the country to defend itself in any “information war.”
“There are currently companies and governments in certain countries with specialized teams actively preparing for information war, and in this area we are obviously behind,” part of the manifesto says. “As security technicians, we must cultivate future technical talent and enter companies and institutions, taking up the work of defense and construction in information security. This is our job and our social responsibility.”
“Honker is a kind of spirit, a kind of patriotic spirit,” it says.
–Owen Fletcher
Reforms started in the late 1970s with the phasing out of collectivized agriculture, and expanded to include the gradual liberalization of prices, fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state enterprises, the foundation of a diversified banking system, the development of stock markets, the rapid growth of the non-state sector, and the opening to foreign trade and investment.
In 2009, China announced that by 2020 it would reduce carbon intensity 40% from 2005 levels.
China is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with an average growth rate of 10% for the past 30 years.
The restructuring of the economy and resulting efficiency gains have contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978.
Agricultural output has been vulnerable to the effects of weather, while industry has been more directly influenced by the government.
The technological level and quality standards of its industry as a whole are still fairly low, notwithstanding a marked change since 2000, spurred in part by foreign investment.
Over the years, large subsidies were built into the price structure, and these subsidies grew substantially in the late 1970s and 1980s.
On top of this, foreign direct investment (FDI) this year was set to “surpass $100 billion”, compared to $90 billion last year, ministry officials predicted.
Last year was the eighth consecutive year that the nation’s ODI had grown.
China is aiming to be the world’s largest new energy vehicle market by 2020 with 5 million cars.
China’s challenge in the early 21st century will be to balance its highly centralized political system with an increasingly decentralized economic system.
Agriculture is by far the leading occupation, involving over 50% of the population, although extensive rough, high terrain and large arid areas – especially in the west and north – limit cultivation to only about 10% of the land surface.
China is the world’s largest producer of rice and wheat and a major producer of sweet potatoes, sorghum, millet, barley, peanuts, corn, soybeans, and potatoes.
Hogs and poultry are widely raised in China, furnishing important export staples, such as hog bristles and egg products.
Offshore exploration has become important to meeting domestic needs; massive deposits off the coasts are believed to exceed all the world’s known oil reserves.
There are also deposits of vanadium, magnetite, copper, fluorite, nickel, asbestos, phosphate rock, pyrite, and sulfur.
The largest completed project, Gezhouba Dam, on the Chang (Yangtze) River, opened in 1981; the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest engineering project, on the lower Chang, is scheduled for completion in 2009.
Beginning in the late 1970s, changes in economic policy, including decentralization of control and the creation of special economic zones to attract foreign investment, led to considerable industrial growth, especially in light industries that produce consumer goods.
China’s economy, though strengthened by the more liberal economic policies of the 1980s and 90s, continues to suffer from inadequate transportation, communication, and energy resources.
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Patriotic Chinese Hacking Group Reboots
Business
BRICS: China Classifies Crypto as Property and Prohibits Business Ownership
China’s Shanghai court ruled cryptocurrencies are property, boosting optimism in the crypto industry while maintaining a ban on business transactions. This may signal a shift in future regulations.
China’s Ruling on Cryptocurrency
In a pivotal decision for the nation and its BRICS alliance, China has officially classified cryptocurrency as property while maintaining prohibitions against business transactions involving digital assets. A notable ruling from the Shanghai Songjiant People’s Court affirmed cryptocurrencies as property, sparking optimism within the crypto industry regarding future regulations.
Implications for the Crypto Industry
As cryptocurrencies gain significance globally, the Chinese ruling is viewed as a potential-positive shift amidst ongoing restrictions. While individuals can hold virtual currency, businesses remain barred from engaging in investment transactions or issuing tokens independently. This decision has generated anticipation for more accommodating regulations in the future.
Future Prospects for Cryptocurrency in China
Experts like Max Keiser believe this ruling indicates China’s growing acknowledgment of Bitcoin’s influence. As BRICS nations explore increased cryptocurrency utilization in trade, this legal shift could enhance market demand and lead to greater acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a legitimate asset class, setting the stage for potential developments in 2025.
Source : BRICS: China Rules Crypto as Property, Bars Business Holdings
China
Digital Taxation in China: Effects on Corporate Tax Risk Management and Compliance Strategies
Tax digitalization in China enhances efficiency and accuracy in tax administration through AI and technology. Significant advancements include online services, e-invoicing, and data integration, improving risk management. The government targets further reforms by 2025 to establish a robust intelligent taxation system.
Tax digitalization, also known as “digitalized tax administration” or “tax administration by data,” is gaining momentum in China. Enabled by digital technologies and artificial intelligence, Chinese tax authorities have significantly improved the efficiency and accuracy of tax administration. As a result, tax risks are now easier to identify, and tax audits have become more focused and targeted.
The Chinese tax bureau has made significant efforts to advance tax administration through digital upgrades and intelligent transformation. By utilizing modern information technology, the tax authorities have established platforms such as the electronic tax bureau, which enables online processing of tax registration, filing, and payments. Additionally, the promotion of electronic invoicing and the Golden Tax IV system has improved the efficiency and accuracy of tax administration.
This digital landscape allows tax authorities to integrate data from various sources, including invoices, banking information, business records, and customs data. Such integration facilitates more accurate identification of potential tax risks.
This article explores the impact of tax digitalization on businesses in China, emphasizing the evolving dynamics of tax risk management, particularly regarding data supervision.
At the opening ceremony of the 5th Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Forum on September 24, 2024, Hu Jinglin, Commissioner of the State Taxation Administration (STA) of China, delivered a speech outlining the efforts of Chinese tax authorities to enhance tax administration and efficiency. He emphasized the importance of advancing tax governance through data, highlighting the STA’s commitment to leveraging data and algorithms for intelligent tax management.
Currently, a pilot program for fully digitalized electronic invoices (e-fapiao) has been expanded nationwide, alongside the launch of a unified electronic tax bureau. Additionally, a smart office platform for tax personnel is under development. These systems aim to provide intelligent services for taxpayers and enable tax officers to deliver differentiated and precise services based on dynamic credit risk assessments.
Furthermore, according to a document released by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and General Office of the State Council in 2021, titled “Opinions on Further Deepening the Reform of Tax Collection and Administration,” China aims to achieve significant progress by 2025 in reforming its tax administration system. In particular, it aims to establish a robust and intelligent taxation framework and develop a first-class intelligent administrative application system, thereby improving tax law enforcement, service, and regulatory capabilities.
| This article was first published by China Briefing , which is produced by Dezan Shira & Associates. The firm assists foreign investors throughout Asia from offices across the world, including in in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, and India . Readers may write to info@dezshira.com for more support. |
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China
Farms to fame: How China’s rural influencers are redefining country life
In Yunnan, influencer Dianxi Xiaoge redefines rural China’s image, showcasing pastoral life, bridging cultural gaps between urbanites and rural communities, and sparking interest through nostalgic content and government support.
In the quiet backwaters of Yunnan, Dong Meihua – though her followers know her by the public alias Dianxi Xiaoge – has done something remarkable: She’s taken the pastoral simplicity of rural China and made it irresistible to millions. In her hands, a village kitchen becomes a stage, and the rhythms of farm life become a story as compelling as any novel. She is one of many rural influencers returning to their roots.
In a digital revolution turning established narratives on their head, China’s countryside is emerging as an unlikely epicenter of viral content. Xiaoge is one of thousands of influencers redefining through social media how the countryside is perceived.
Upending preconceptions of rural China as a hinterland of poverty and stagnation, this new breed of social media mavens is serving up a feast of bucolic bliss to millions of urbanites. It is a narrative shift encouraged by authorities; the Chinese government has given its blessing to influencers promoting picturesque rural images. Doing so helps downplay urban-rural chasms and stoke national pride. It also fits nicely with Beijing’s rural revitalization strategy.
Hardship to revival
To fully appreciate any phenomenon, it’s necessary to first consider the historical context. For decades, China’s countryside was synonymous with hardship and backwardness. The Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s and early 1960s – Communist China’s revered founder Mao Zedong’s disastrous attempt to industrialize a largely agrarian country – devastated rural communities and led to widespread famine that saw tens of millions die.
The subsequent Cultural Revolution, in which Mao strengthened his grip on power through a broad purge of the nation’s intelligentsia, further disrupted customary rural life as educated youth were sent to the countryside for “reeducation.” These traumatic events inflicted deep scars on the rural psyche and economy.
Meanwhile, the “hukou” system, which since the late 1950s has tied social benefits to a person’s birthplace and divided citizens into “agricultural ” and “nonagricultural” residency status, has created a stark divide between urban and rural citizens.
The reform era of Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, beginning in 1978, brought new challenges. As China’s cities boomed, the countryside lagged behind.
Millions of rural Chinese have migrated to cities for better opportunities, abandoning aging populations and hollowed-out communities. In 1980, 19% of China’s population lived in urban areas. By 2023, that figure had risen to 66%.
Government policies have since developed extensively toward rural areas. The abolition of agricultural taxes in 2006 heralded a major milestone, demonstrating a renewed commitment to rural prosperity. Most recently, President Xi Jinping’s “rural revitalization” has put countryside development at the forefront of national policy. The launch of the Internet Plus Agriculture initiative and investment in rural e-commerce platforms such as Taobao Villages allow isolated farming communities to connect to urban markets.
Notwithstanding these efforts, China’s urban-rural income gap remains substantial, with the average annual per capita disposable income of rural households standing at 21,691 yuan (about US$3,100), approximately 40% of the amount for urban households.
Enter the ‘new farmer’
Digital-savvy farmers and countryside dwellers have used nostalgia and authenticity to win over Chinese social media. Stars such as Li Ziqi and Dianxi Xiaoge have racked up huge numbers of followers as they paint rural China as both an idyllic escape and a thriving cultural hub.
The Chinese term for this social media phenomenon is “new farmer.” This encapsulates the rise of rural celebrities who use platforms such as Douyin and Weibo to document and commercialize their way of life. Take Sister Yu: With over 23 million followers, she showcases the rustic charm of northeast China as she pickles vegetables and cooks hearty meals. Or Peng Chuanming: a farmer in Fujian whose videos on crafting traditional teas and restoring his home have captivated millions.
Since 2016, these platforms have turned rural life into digital gold. What began as simple documentation has evolved into a phenomenon commanding enormous audiences, fueled not just by nostalgia but also economic necessity. China’s post-COVID-19 economic downturn, marked by soaring youth unemployment and diminishing urban opportunities, has driven some to seek livelihoods in the countryside.
In China’s megacities, where the air is thick with pollution and opportunity, there’s clearly a hunger for something real – something that doesn’t come shrink-wrapped or with a QR code. And rural influencers serve slices of a life many thought lost to China’s breakneck development.
Compared with their urban counterparts, rural influencers carve out a unique niche in China’s vast social media landscape. Although fashion bloggers, gaming streamers and lifestyle gurus dominate platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, the Chinese TikTok, rural content creators tap into a different cultural romanticism and a yearning for connection to nature. In addition, their content capitalizes on the rising popularity of short video platforms such as Kuaishou and Pinduoduo, augmenting their reach across a wide demographic, from nostalgic retirees to eco-conscious millennials.
But this is not simply digital escapism for the masses. Tourism is booming in once-forgotten villages. Traditional crafts are finding new markets. In 2020 alone, Taobao Villages reported a staggering 1.2 trillion yuan (around $169.36 billion) in sales.
The Chinese government, never one to miss a PR opportunity, has spotted potential. Rural revitalization is now the buzzword among government officials. It’s a win-win: Villagers net economic opportunities, and the state polishes its reputation as a champion of traditional values. Government officials have leveraged platforms such as X to showcase China’s rural revitalization efforts to international audiences.
Authenticity or illusion?
As with all algorithms, there’s a catch to the new farmer movement. The more popular rural influencers become, the more pressure they face to perform “authenticity.” Or put another way: The more real it looks, the less real it might actually be.
It raises another question: Who truly benefits? Are we witnessing rural empowerment or a commodification of rural life for urban consumption? With corporate sponsors and government initiatives piling in, the line between genuine representation and curated fantasy blurs.
Local governments, recognizing the economic potential, have begun offering subsidies to rural content creators, causing skepticism about whether this content is truly grassroots or part of a bigger, state-led campaign to sanitize the countryside’s image.
Yet, for all the conceivable pitfalls, the new farmer trend is an opportunity to challenge the urban-centric narrative that has dominated China’s development story for decades and rethink whether progress always means high-rises and highways, or if there’s value in preserving ways of life that have sustained communities for centuries.
More importantly, it’s narrowing the cultural disconnect that has long separated China’s rural and urban populations. In a country where your hukou can determine your destiny, these viral videos foster understanding in ways that no government program ever could.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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