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
In recent years, China has re-invigorated its support for leading state-owned enterprises in sectors it considers important to “economic security,” explicitly looking to foster globally competitive national champions.
China continues to lose arable land because of erosion and economic development.
The People’s Republic of China is the world’s second largest economy after the United States by both nominal GDP ($5 trillion in 2009) and by purchasing power parity ($8.77 trillion in 2009).
Nevertheless, key bottlenecks continue to constrain growth.
The disparities between the two sectors have combined to form an economic-cultural-social gap between the rural and urban areas, which is a major division in Chinese society.
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.
Globally, foreign investment decreased by almost 40 percent last year amid the financial downturn and is expected to show only marginal growth this year.
From January to June, the ODI in financial sectors was up by 44 percent to $17.9 billion, and in July alone, the ODI recorded $8.91 billion, the highest this year.
It also aims to sell more than 15 million of the most fuel-efficient vehicles in the world each year by then.
China’s challenge in the early 21st century will be to balance its highly centralized political system with an increasingly decentralized economic system.
Despite initial gains in farmers’ incomes in the early 1980s, taxes and fees have increasingly made farming an unprofitable occupation, and because the state owns all land farmers have at times been easily evicted when croplands are sought by developers.
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.
China ranks first in world production of red meat (including beef, veal, mutton, lamb, and pork).
There are also extensive iron-ore deposits; the largest mines are at Anshan and Benxi, in Liaoning province.
China’s leading export minerals are tungsten, antimony, tin, magnesium, molybdenum, mercury, manganese, barite, and salt.
In the 1990s a program of share-holding and greater market orientation went into effect; however, state enterprises continue to dominate many key industries in China’s socialist market economy.
Brick, tile, cement, and food-processing plants are found in almost every province.
Originally posted here:
Patriotic Chinese Hacking Group Reboots
Business
China Provides Clarification on the Implementation of Article 88 (1) of the New Company Law
China’s Supreme People’s Court clarified that Article 88(1) of the New Company Law won’t apply retroactively, easing concerns for prior shareholders in equity transfers before July 1, 2024.
Clarification on Article 88(1) Non-Retroactivity
The Supreme People’s Court of China has clarified that Article 88(1) of the New Company Law will not retroactively apply to equity transfer disputes occurring before July 1, 2024. This announcement aims to address concerns from existing shareholders and resolve discrepancies in judicial decisions nationwide. Companies are advised to strengthen risk management practices for future equity transactions.
Judicial Guidance and Legal Framework
On December 24, 2024, the Supreme People’s Court issued a response reaffirming that disputes tied to equity transfers before the July 1, 2024, deadline will be governed by previous laws. This decision follows inconsistencies in judicial rulings regarding capital contributions, prompting a review by the Legislative Affairs Commission, which concluded that retroactive application was not justifiable.
Risk Management Strategies Moving Forward
Despite the ruling, equity transfers after July 1, 2024, may still attract supplemental liability under Article 88(1). To mitigate these risks, businesses should consider reducing registered capital, conducting thorough risk assessments, and implementing contractual safeguards to protect against potential liabilities.
Source : China Clarifies the Application of Article 88 (1) of the New Company Law
China
China Unveils Draft Catalogue to Promote Foreign Investment
The 2024 Draft FI Encouraged Catalogue features a national and regional sub-catalogue, highlighting industries favorable for foreign direct investment in China. It expands incentives in sectors like medical devices, batteries, new energy vehicles, pet care, elderly care, and cultural tourism.
Similar to the previous version, the Draft FI Encouraged Catalogue includes two sub-catalogues – one covers the entire country (“national catalogue”) and one covers the central, western, and northeastern regions (“regional catalogue”).
Together, the FI encouraged catalogue identifies industries where foreign direct investment (FDI) will be welcome and treated with favorable policies in China.
The lengthening of the catalogue demonstrates China’s firm standing on economic opening-up and the fact that more investment fields will favor foreign investors.
Overall, the revision of the 2024 Draft Foreign Investment (FI) Encouraged Catalogue focuses on:
In specific sectors, the new Encouraged Catalogue introduces or refines incentives for areas like medical devices, batteries, new energy vehicles, pet care, elderly care, and cultural tourism, which are worth noting.
| 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. |
Read the rest of the original article.
China
Trump, Xi and Putin: a dysfunctional love triangle with stakes of global significance
Reports suggest a phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin hinted at a complex US-Russia relationship. Trump aims to exploit Russia-China tensions, potentially reshaping alliances and international dynamics.
Reports of a phone call between the US president-elect, Donald Trump, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin (although quickly denied by the Kremlin) have given a first flavour of the tone and direction of their relationship in the immediate future. According to the Washington Post, Trump spoke with Putin on November 7, warning him against any escalation in Ukraine and reminding him of “Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe”.
Regardless of whether it happened or not, any – if even only indirect – exchange of messages between the pair should be heeded by America’s allies in the west, as well as Russia’s major partner in the east: China’s Xi Jinping. And there has been plenty of such messaging over the past few months.
Putin, earlier on the day of the alleged phone call, gave a long address at the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club thinktank in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Unsurprisingly, the speech – and Putin’s answers to questions from the audience afterwards – were anti-western and full of confidence that a new world order was now in “the phase of genuine creation”.
But at the same time, Putin took pains to flatter Trump as a “courageous man”, saying he’d consider any proposals from Trump aimed at restoring US-Russia relations and ending what Putin called the “Ukrainian crisis”.
But he then spent considerably more time making the case for the relationship between Russia and China. Here his audience was less the incoming US president and more his old friend the Chinese president.
The reason for this goes back to one of Trump’s messages to Putin and Xi. Trump told Tucker Carlson at a campaign event on October 31 that he would work to “un-unite” Russia and China. Trump implied that the two are “natural enemies” because Russia has vast territory that China covets for its population.
Donald Trump: US will ‘un-unite’ Russia and China.
Russia and China have a history of conflict over territory along their long land border in Siberia. This was part of the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s, which preceded the US opening to China under then-president Richard Nixon in the 1970s.
In contrast to Nixon, Trump looks set to try to reset US relations with Moscow rather than Beijing. While it’s hard to imagine a similar split between Russia and China today, Trump’s apparent desire to exploit discord between Russia and China to the advantage of the US should not be dismissed as completely unrealistic either.
On the face of it, Putin and Xi are closely aligned. But a deeper dive into the relationship between Russia and China suggests it’s primarily one between their current leaders and lacks much of the institutional depth that other alliances have.
Putin and XI: a ‘new era’ of partnership between their two countries.
EPA-EFE/Maxim Shemetov/pool
There is a lot of resentment of China in Russia in both public and policy circles. Russians remain wary of China’s growing role in Central Asia and worry about the potential for disputes over long-contested borders. Many are also resentful of the fact that Moscow is now a junior partner to Beijing.
These are potentially all issues that Trump could use to drive a wedge between Russia and China. But a lot hinges on what Putin perceives is in it for Russia. This should be focusing minds in the west about what shape Trump’s Ukraine policy will take and what this means for Ukraine and the west.
A Trump-brokered agreement is likely to involve the recognition of Russian territorial gains in Ukraine since 2014, complete sanctions relief and broad international rehabilitation granted to Moscow. It would surely also involve a down-scaling of the US commitment to Nato and a pledge not to pursue further enlargement of the alliance.
Trump might get a deal with Putin, but whether Putin would stick to it is questionable. Putin is much more likely to simply play both sides in the hope that Russia might in this way become a third peer alongside China and the US in an emerging new international order.
This is of course a complete fantasy given the size of the Russian economy alone, but unlikely to affect Putin’s calculations, given his longing to restore Russia’s superpower status.
Chinese leverage
An American opening to Moscow, as opposed to Beijing, is also difficult to imagine because America’s European partners are unlikely to go along with it. Some, like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Slovakia’s Robert Fico might find the idea attractive in general, but Germany and France, among others in the EU, are more likely to want to make a deal with China.
The reason for this is economic – they have largely overcome their dependence on Russian oil and gas, but not on China as an export market.
Shared values? Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1918 armistice.
EPA-EFE/Ludovic Marin
Beijing, meanwhile, won’t sit idly by while Trump tries to drive a wedge between Russia and China. Despite Putin’s efforts to build parallel relations with North Korea and Iran, Xi retains plenty of economic leverage over Russia and is going to use it to keep Russia on side.
Diplomatically, Putin depends on Xi and China-led outfits such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Brics. While there are differences between Moscow and Beijing, they also both share a world view of a US in terminal decline – which is now likely to be further accelerated by the upheaval expected from a second Trump term.
For China in particular, preventing the US from completely pivoting to the Indo-Pacific will be a key priority – and not allowing Trump to cut a deal with Putin at China’s expense will be high on Xi’s agenda as a means to achieving that end.
Trump might still try to open up to Russia by striking a deal with Putin over Ukraine. But such a deal with Putin is not the same as dividing Russia and China. On the contrary, it is more likely to “un-unite” Europe and the US and to further weaken the transatlantic alliance.
Rather than making America great again, Trump could further hasten its decline by mistaking the destruction of what is left of the liberal international order with its reshaping according to US interests.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
- China Provides Clarification on the Implementation of Article 88 (1) of the New Company Law
- China Unveils Draft Catalogue to Promote Foreign Investment
- Trump, Xi and Putin: a dysfunctional love triangle with stakes of global significance
- Russia’s Booming Economy is Straining a Vital Trading Route with China
- Democrat Claims Musk is Undermining Spending Bill Due to China Restrictions – The Hill
- Dissolving a Company in China: A Comparison of General Deregistration and Simplified Deregistration
