Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the week rejoinder ...


Justin said in 2013 - and I quote -

"You know, there's a level of of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime ... "


Let's keep that in mind:

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Hey, Lametti, how do you like these tanks?!:

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A woman was not allowed to go into the hospital and was forced to give birth in the cold street.

It is a bit graphic so do be advised.

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Nearly 1,000 students rallied outside the Chinese consulate in Toronto Sunday night, calling for an end to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as they stood in solidarity with protesters in China following the deaths of at least 10 people in a fire in Xinjiang’s capital of Urumqi.

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Rare mass protests against COVID-19 lockdowns have broken out across China, including in major cities, following the horrific deaths of at least 10 people in Xinjiang’s capital city of Urumqi in north-western China, when first responders were unable to reach an apartment fire that was left to burn for hours due to COVID-19 blockades and locks throughout the residential compound.

Video footage of the incident went viral on Chinese social media before internet censors could remove news of the tragedy, sparking outrage as more districts around China announced their own lockdowns in response to surging numbers of COVID-19 infections.

Protests broke out in many places across Urumqi city on Nov. 25, with angry residents demanding that the city-wide lockdown, which had lasted for three to four months, be lifted.

A resident of Lianxing community in Urumqi told The Epoch Times on Nov. 26 that many residents rushed out of their residences on the night of Nov. 25. “People came out to protest in all communities in Urumqi, all of them came out.”

Angry residents have broke blockades and pushed down fences, shouting slogans of “down with the Communist Party” and “Xi Jinping should resign.”

Facing the protests, city authorities on Nov. 26 announced they were loosening Urumqi’s COVID-19 restrictions.

Citizens were told they can leave home as long as they have been isolated for three days and that shops were allowed to reopen. High-risk areas that have not reported new infections for five consecutive days would also be reclassified as low-risk areas, allowing residents to leave their residential compounds.

A resident who has a restaurant in Midong District told The Epoch Times: “This time, the protest was quite fierce, so it worked.”

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The West stood by while students at Tiananmen were mowed down, so there's that:

Xi Jinping’s censorship apparatus employs millions of web monitors and expends vast resources to patrol an ever-expanding list of banned words, search terms, phrases and hashtags. But that vast multi-agency infrastructure for censoring and obliterating messages and suspending accounts and disappearing netizens just couldn’t keep up last month, when all the “Bridge Man” posts started showing up on Chinese Tiktok, Weibo Wechat and other microblogging sites.

And the censors can’t keep up now as hundreds of thousands of people stare down riot police in Beijing, Shanghai, Urumqi, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, and in Wuhan — the city in Hubei province where the coronavirus was first unleashed upon the world in late 2019, several weeks before the authorities publicly admitted what was happening. Protests have been logged pretty much everywhere. Students have joined in at more than 50 universities across the country.


In other news, Jiang Zemin is dead.




Pablo Rodriguez must get all tingly when he reads this:

As it mulls kicking Elon Musk’s Twitter off the app store, it has now been revealed that Apple restricted the use of AirDrop in China, a move that harmed the organizational efforts of demonstrators protesting against the CCP’s lockdowns.

Over the past week, multiple major cities across China have seen massive protests against lockdowns, with the normally compliant Chinese exploding into rage in response to their government’s ‘zero COVID’ policy.

Much of the unrest blew up in response to an incident in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi, where at least 10 people, some say up to 40, were killed during an apartment fire because lockdown rules stopped residents from fleeing the burning building.

Most of the city’s residents have been prevented from leaving their homes for over 100 days as a result of the draconian rules, which are still in place nearly three years after the pandemic began.

With Beijing now trying to contain what some are calling the most serious mass uprising since Tiananmen Square, Apple is apparently helping them to crush dissent.

Earlier this month, Apple restricted the use of AirDrop in China, which protesters had been using to evade censorship.

AirDrop allows local connections between devices, meaning it cannot be monitored or censored by local authorities.

However, Apple launched an update to the app in China that restricted usage to just 10 minutes, making it harder for protesters to communicate with other activists, as well as send messages nearby bystanders and tourists.

AirDrop was also being used by protesters in Hong Kong, who were brutally suppressed by the CCP during months of unrest in 2019.

The smartphone company chose to roll out the new “feature” in China only right as the country experienced its biggest demonstrations in decades, which some would suggest is more than just a coincidence.

“Apple has helped Beijing to suppress public dissent multiple times, mostly by complying with its requests to remove apps used by protestors for information and communication,” reports Reclaim the Net.

“Apple also helps the Chinese Communist Party prevent users from remaining private by banning VPNs in the region.”

The development coincides with Elon Musk revealing that Apple is threatening to remove Twitter from the app store entirely over its support for – God forbid – free speech.

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Somewhat related:

Senators have added stronger privacy protections to the Liberal government’s controversial online streaming bill, although other amendments to exclude smaller platforms and add a reference to consumer choice were voted down by Liberal-appointed senators.


Get rid of the g-d- thing today.

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Cybersecurity experts say a federal inquiry should think of social media as the central nervous system of the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa last winter.


One of the reasons why Justin wants free speech banned.


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To remind one:

When Doug Ford called upon the notwithstanding clause just a few weeks back various federal ministers and the prime minister sounded ominous warnings and grave cautions that the premier should have reached for a specific and limited deployment of that clause. Which demonstrated they very clearly appreciated the injury to democracy and civil rights involved in even a one-time, narrowly-focused use of its powers.

Did the inquiry demonstrate that Ottawa’s calling upon the far more massive and invasive application of the Emergencies Act — the mother of all notwithstanding clauses was justified? Did it have an equal sense of the gravity of what was involved?

Clearly no. It was established early on during the inquiry that the conditions set out in the statute for the summoning of the Emergencies Act were not met. To stress: the conditions laid out in the act itself, as the absolute determinants of its legitimacy, its legality, were not met.

In other words that high bar, those defined circumstances in which alone any federal government could avail of the most draconian legislation on the Canadian statute books were not met.



Because some people are "special":

The blockade of rail lines through Tyendinaga Mohawk territory has crippled much of Canada’s freight and commuter rail traffic, and the string of protests have been blamed for 1,400 layoffs at Canada’s main rail companies, propane shortages in eastern Canada and economic hardship for farmers,” reported the Guardian about the protests intended to stop a $6.6 billion gas pipeline project in northern B.C.
In fact, the rail blockade was preceded in early January 2020 by a posting on the “North Shore Counter Info” anarchist website that urged disruption and sabotage in support of the indigenous protest. For two months, sabotage in Toronto, Hamilton, Burlington, Montreal, and elsewhere disrupted rail service. Ferry service was disrupted in B.C., and the provincial government there declared its own emergency powers, which the RCMP declined to enforce in the interests of further dialogue.
By Feb. 13, 2020, VIA Rail had shut down its national passenger service, leading to the layoff of about 1,000 employees. CNR shut down its rail lines east of Toronto, and five days later laid off 450 workers.
“I know patience is running short,” the Guardian quoted Prime Minister Trudeau in appealing for Canadians to let his government achieve a peaceful resolution to the rail shutdown. His choice of “dialogue and mutual respect” led to then Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller participating on Feb. 15 in a “Silver Covenant Chain” ceremony on the blockaded tracks, but his appeal for an end to the protests was rebuffed.
Three days later, Trudeau met with Opposition leaders to discuss the national crisis but refused to allow then Conservative leader Andrew Scheer into the meeting because he had criticized Trudeau’s handling of the blockade as “the weakest response to a national crisis in Canadian history. Will our country be one of the rule of the law, or will our country be one of the rule of the mob?”
Still choosing “dialogue and respect” over hair-trigger swinging into action unlike the reckless Mr. Scheer, the PM waited until Feb. 21 to call for the barricades to come down. It took three more days for the Ontario Provincial Police to move in, dismantle the blockade, and arrest some protesters.
Justin Trudeau, we can safely assume, was “absolutely, absolutely” serene in choosing not to choose the Emergencies Act. He knew he had a choice.


So ...



Also related:

Credit union depositors who made Freedom Convoy protest signs were reported to police, records show. Desjardins Group, one of the country’s largest credit unions, also reported customers who made “suspicious” purchases of fuel: “We are waiting for more instructions.”

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Liberal political aides were angry over the number of soldiers, sailors and air crew who sympathized with the Freedom Convoy, records show. The RCMP had so many members support protesters it issued a 35-page guide “regarding the participation of current or prior employees” in street demonstrations: “How the f—k many?”


(Sidebar: maybe that's why the government wants them dead.)

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Storage of mobile field hospitals will cost taxpayers more than $135 million this year, records show. “This is something I was completely unaware of,” said Public Works Minister Helena Jaczek. The storage costs follow a sole-sourced $150 million contract to SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. for field hospitals: “That is not exactly directed to preventing or treating Covid.”

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The Department of Finance privately ridiculed its own inflated claims of economic hardship blamed on the Freedom Convoy, records show. Bloomberg News figures repeatedly cited by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland were “too cute,” wrote the department’s director general of economic analysis: “Seems large to me?!”

 


No one speaks for the Pakistani Christians:

Two hundred Christian families remain homeless in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad after a government agency bulldozed their homes and the church building they used for Sunday worship.

The government’s Capital Development Authority demolished the homes in a Christian area, Nawaz Sharif Colony in Islamabad, the U.K.-based group Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS-UK), said in a statement to The Christian Post.

Christian residents had not been given any warning or time to remove their belongings before the demolition on Oct. 18, the group said in the statement this week, adding that the government agency also demolished a church, “but thankfully, there were no injuries or fatalities.”

The government has not provided any alternative place for the residents to live.



South Korea sends out fighter jets when Chinese and Russian jets enter air space:

South Korea said it used its fighter jets as a tactical measure after two Chinese and six Russian warplanes entered its air defence area on Wednesday.

South Korea’s joint chief of staff (JCS) said the Chinese H-6 bombers repeatedly entered and left the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone (KADIZ) off South Korea’s southern and northeast coasts starting around 5.50am, reported Reuters.

At 6.44am, the jets re-entered the zone from an area northeast of South Korea’s southern port city of Pohang and exited the zone at 7.07am, reported Yonhap.

At 12.18pm, six Russian aircraft, including four TU-95 bombers and two SU-35 fighters along with the two Chinese H-6 bombers, flew into the KADIZ from an area 200km northeast of the South’s Ulleung Island and exited the zone at 12.36pm.

The country’s JCS, however, said the aircraft did not violate South Korea’s airspace.

South Korea’s F-15K jets were deployed as a tactical step against a potential accidental situation, the JCS added.



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Monday, November 28, 2022

China's Other China, Canada

The Liberals - doing China's bidding since 1969:

Defence Minister Anita Anand said using Canadian soldiers during the Freedom Convoy protests was something she stressed had to be a measure of last resort and avoided at all costs.

 

Is that so?:

Only days after Freedom Convoy first set up shop in the Ottawa core, federal ministers were casually discussing whether they should order the demonstration to be crushed with tanks.

The exchange was revealed in text messages tabled before the Emergencies Act inquiry. On Feb. 2 – just five days after anti-mandate protesters set up blockades in the national capital — Justice Minister David Lametti sent a text to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino urging him to call in the Canadian Armed Forces.

“You need to get the police to move. And the CAF if necessary. Too many people are being seriously adversely impacted by what is an occupation,” Lametti texted to Mendicino.

“How many tanks are you asking for. I just wanna ask (Defence Minister) Anita (Anand) how many we’ve got on hand,” was the reply.

To which Lametti wrote back “I reckon one will do!!”

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Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in a confidential video conference with bankers said she “couldn’t agree more” with a recommendation that cabinet deploy armed soldiers against the Freedom Convoy. “It is a threat to our democracy,” said Freeland: “All options are on the table.”


 


 

The smears, of course, haven't stopped:

Former public safety minister Ralph Goodale in an email to cabinet said he suspected the Freedom Convoy was a U.S. neo-Nazi movement. The finding contradicted police memos denying protesters were violent extremists: “It may even have U.S. roots.”

 

(Sidebar: this Ralph Goodale.) 


Yes, about that:

In that interview, Perry claimed that, even by 2015, she’d identified “more than 100 active far-right groups across Canada.” Then in the intervening four years, she apparently discovered another 200. The new 300 estimate is cited in a March, 2019 Star interview — though, oddly, several months later, Perry was heard telling the CBC that the number is closer to 130. More recently, in August, 2020, she repeated the 300 figure to an Oshawa Express reporter, and added that these are real groups — not just one-off Twitter or Facebook accounts operated as fanboy relay stations for foreign haters — that (in the reporter’s words) “could range from three or four members up to several hundred.”

I emailed Prof. Perry this week to inquire about where I could find her database. Unfortunately, she told me that she wouldn’t be releasing the information till spring, even though she’s been sitting on the list for two years. When I asked why, she explained that releasing the list “wouldn’t make sense” unless the data were couched within a larger published report, such as the one she has planned. (I would like to quote her full response, but she would allow me to do so only if I showed her a draft of this article first, which I declined to do.)

I find it odd that, to my knowledge, I’m one of only two journalists who’ve publicly asked to see this information (the other being Lindsay Shepherd, who first raised this issue in late 2020). The Star and CBC, in particular, now regularly publish articles darkly suggesting that Canada is on the cusp of some kind of full-on white supremacist apocalypse. Given the urgent need to fight off the forces of Nazidom, shouldn’t they be leading the charge for this data rather than just repeating Perry’s bottom-line number?

Or consider the aforementioned NDP petition, which demands “measures to tackle online hate, including regulations to have social media platforms remove hateful and violent content.” But in pursuit of that goal, what resource could be more valuable to regulators and tech workers than a definitive catalog of the 300 Canadian groups that are actively fomenting white supremacism? Perry’s research is funded by Public Safety Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces. Shouldn’t the NDP, of all parties, be the first to demand that the public receives the benefit of this subsidized outlay?

 

 

Chrystia Chomiak's Freeland's -

This Chrystia Freeland, by the way:

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Below is a video of Finance Minister and Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland chuckling when she announces they have frozen the bank accounts of people associated with the Freedom Convoy. ...

 

- testimony (erroneous and frightfully subservient to the Americans- so she claims) was no match for Justin's, itself a sideshow alone:

Amid the media praise for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s performance as the final witness at the public inquiry into his invocation of the Emergencies Act, keep in mind his government refused to give the inquiry a key piece of evidence Justice Paul Rouleau wanted to see.

That was the legal brief prepared by the federal justice department — referred to by Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) director David Vigneault in his testimony — which Trudeau and his cabinet used to justify invoking the EA.

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Previously at the commission, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki testified after weeks of work the OPP, RCMP and Ottawa Police had come together with a proposal to end the protests. But Trudeau said his briefings on that plan indicated it was still incomplete.

“I would recommend people take a look at the actual plan,” he said. “It was not, even in the most generous of characterizations, a plan for how they’re going to end the occupation in Ottawa.”

During cross examination, Trudeau said he hadn’t read through the plan, but the briefings he received indicated it wasn’t a proposal to quickly and effectively clear the streets.

“There was no confidence that we were on a track to getting the national emergency under control,” he said.

Blockades in Windsor, Ont., and Coutts, Alta., were being wrapped up when Trudeau invoked the act, but he said he was concerned that without the act they would flare up again.

 

Yes, about all of that: 

Canada's intelligence agency didn't believe the self-styled Freedom Convoy constituted a threat to national security according to the definition in its enabling law, says a document previewed as part of the Emergencies Act inquiry Monday.

 

So, what was it really about?:

... what exactly was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s objective in evoking the Emergencies Act against the Freedom Convoy? 

After all, he could have cleared downtown Ottawa in exactly the same way the Ontario Provincial Police cleared the Ambassador Bridge, using the same legislative authority the OPP used in Windsor. Instead, he opted to freeze bank accounts, arrest organizers, and threaten truckers’ commercial insurance and vehicle registrations. 

It’s possible that in the Freedom Convoy, Trudeau’s team saw a real, growing opposition gaining support from millions of Canadian voters and taxpayers. The Convoy raised $10 million in only a few weeks; and when the government succeeded in freezing the truckers’ GoFundMe account, Convoy organizers turned around and raised millions again on the GiveSendGo platform. 

They in fact raised more money in a month than the Liberal Party raised in the entire year of 2020. That’s a frighteningly impressive fundraising ability, demonstrated by a brand-new group with no political track record.

 

Quite.

The government and the banks made haste in seizing bank accounts (and paid the price for it).

The popular grassroots movement was a homegrown affair, a sign that discontent against Trudeau was more than a few angry letters to the editor.

Justin had to use every tool to remove the humiliating reminder that he is hated, even the police, and especially lies:

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Premiers could not longer defend or support the over-reaching mandates that served no purpose:

The federal government invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14. Earlier that day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a meeting with premiers of provinces and territories to discuss the invocation of the act.
Then-premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney, said on the call that he had previously asked the federal government to end its vaccine mandate for truckers, which sparked the protests. The mandate, introduced on Jan. 15, required truck drivers entering Canada from the United States to be vaccinated for COVID-19 or face a 14-day quarantine upon re-entry.
“I do not understand the public health rationale, given the level of transmission,” notes from the meeting paraphrase Kenney as saying, according to evidence presented at the POEC.
“Truckers are isolated in cabs, can do rapid tests. Thought it was an unnecessary provocation, as well as language that has been used.” Kenney has been critical of Trudeau associating the protesters with Nazism, a charge protest organizers have rejected. ...
The notes show that Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said during the meeting that convoy protesters are demonstrating against “public health measures and mandates,” and that other countries had already either dropped similar mandates or announced plans to do so.
“Haven’t seen that yet from the federal government,” Moe is paraphrased as saying. “This would be the most effective tool to reduce the temperature and allow law enforcement to remove protesters, notably in Ottawa.”
Moe also said dropping the mandates “would provide another way to unite people across the country.” ...
Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said that many provinces are reducing or eliminating COVID-19 restrictions, “sending hope and opportunity for individual provinces and citizens across the country.”
“Should be a plan by the federal government to look at restrictions at the border to potentially deescalate things,” the notes paraphrase her as saying. ...
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said that “frustration is winding down, because people are seeing hope.”

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The majority of provinces and territories say there is no need to invoke the federal Emergencies Act, and that it should be up to each government to determine how they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The question was posed to premiers in a letter penned by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday, asking whether there’s a need for further federal oversight to fight the virus.

 

 

To wit - Justin's past performances of frustration and tantrums.

Enjoy:

 

 

Before one forgets, the martial law Justin inflicted on Canadians is not vastly different from what is happening in China.

Don't pretend that the two are different.

Justin isn't the hero:

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We Don't Have to Trade With China

It might be Justin's favourite country (so much so that he is willing to run interference for it - and himself!) but it's in a spot of bother at the moment: 

People opposed to China’s stringent Covid restrictions have protested in cities across the country in the biggest wave of civil disobedience on the mainland since Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago.

Protests triggered by a deadly apartment fire in the far west of the country last week took place on Sunday in cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan and Guangzhou, according to footage shared on social media, in defiance of a series of heavy-handed arrests of demonstrators on Saturday night.

In the early hours of Monday in Beijing, two groups of protesters totalling at least 1,000 people were gathered along the Chinese capital’s 3rd Ring Road near the Liangma River, refusing to disperse.

In an unusually bold act that appeared to indicate the level of people’s desperation, a crowd in Shanghai late on Saturday night called for the removal of the Communist party and Xi during a standoff with police, chanting: “Communist party! Step down! Xi Jinping! Step down!” Chinese people usually refrain from criticising the party and its leaders in public for fear of reprisals.

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China is facing its largest anti-government protests since the Tiananmen Square massacre after activists filled the streets to openly call for an end to the rule of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Hundreds of students at Tsinghua university in Beijing joined waves of demonstrations as unrest grows over the ruthless zero-Covid policies pursued by the authoritarian government.

The crowds carried a series of placards touting anti-regime slogans and erupted into a series of chants, calling for 'democracy' and 'freedom of expression'.

The university in the Chinese capital is the latest public location to be rocked by unprecedent civil unrest and demonstrations on a scale unseen since the infamous Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 which ended in hundreds of deaths when the army was deployed to quell the uprising.

'At 11:30 am students started holding up signs at the entrance of the canteen, then more and more people joined. Now there are 200 to 300 people,' one witness told an AFP journalist.

Participants sang the national anthem and 'the Internationale' - a standard of the international communist movement - and chanted 'freedom will prevail' and 'no to lockdowns, we want freedom', they said.

The witness also described students holding up blank pieces of paper, a symbolic protest against censorship.

Demonstrations have erupted in at least seven cities - including Shanghai, Nanjing and Guangzhou - with violence breaking out between local cops and furious protesters.

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Police forcibly cleared the demonstrators in China’s financial capital who called for Xi Jinping’s resignation and the end of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule — but hours later people rallied again in the same spot, and social media reports indicated protests also spread to at least seven other cities, including the capital of Beijing, and dozens of university campuses.

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Police beat workers protesting over a pay dispute at the biggest factory for Apple's iPhone, whose new model is delayed by controls imposed as China tries to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Foxconn, the biggest contract assembler of smartphones and other electronics, is struggling to fill orders for the iPhone 14 after thousands of employees walked away from the factory in the central city of Zhengzhou last month following complaints about unsafe working conditions.

China’s status as an export powerhouse is based on factories such as Foxconn's that assemble the world’s consumer electronics, toys and other goods.

The ruling Communist Party is trying to contain the latest wave of outbreaks without shutting down factories and the rest of its economy as it did in early 2020. Its tactics include “closed-loop management,” under which workers live in their factories with no outside contact.

Foxconn offered higher pay to attract more workers to the Zhengzhou factory to assemble the iPhone 14, which sells starting at $799 in the United States.

On Tuesday, a protest erupted after employees who had traveled long distances to take jobs at the factory complained that the company changed terms of their pay, according to an employee, Li Sanshan.

Li said he quit a catering job when he saw an advertisement promising 25,000 yuan ($3,500) for two months of work. That would be a significant hike over average pay for this type of work in the area.

After employees arrived, the company said they had to work two additional months at lower pay to receive the 25,000 yuan, according to Li.

“Foxconn released very tempting recruiting offers, and workers from all parts of the country came, only to find they were being made fools of,” he said.

Videos online showed thousands of people in masks facing rows of police in white protective suits with plastic riot shields.



And what are you going to do about those "engagements", Justin?:

On Nov. 7, Trudeau commented on allegations that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) covertly funded at least 11 candidates during the 2019 federal election. The allegations were outlined in a Global News story published the same day, which alleged that Trudeau was briefed about the illicitly-funded candidates in January.

(Sidebar: this brief.)

Trudeau told reporters on Nov. 7 that China and other state actors “are continuing to play aggressive games with our institutions, with our democracies.”
Less than two weeks later, he said he was never briefed about any candidates receiving Chinese funding.
“I get briefed up regularly from our intelligence and security officials,” Trudeau told reporters in Djerba, Tunisia, on Nov. 20. “I have no information on any federal candidates receiving money from China.”
Trudeau repeated a similar message today during question period.
“There are a range of threats out there that Canadians and Canadian security agencies continue to be vigilant against,” he said. “We will always be there to protect Canadians.”
Poilievre asked “what specific interference” Trudeau’s office was referring to when it summarized his conversation with Xi on Nov. 15.
“We’ve known for many years that there are consistent engagements by representatives of the Chinese government into Canadian communities,” Trudeau responded.


Also:

The Chinese Council for Western Ontario Elections says it wants to be an “incubator” for candidates who support the community’s interests and educate newcomers about Canadian democracy.



Birds of a feather:

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Cuban counterpart pledged mutual support over their fellow communist states’ “core interests” Friday at a meeting further hailing a return to face-to-face diplomacy by Beijing.

In comments to Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, Xi said China hoped to “strengthen coordination and cooperation in international and regional affairs” with Cuba. The two will “go hand in hand down the road of building socialism with each's own characteristics," Xi was quoted as saying in a Chinese government news release.

China generally defines core interests as the defense of its economic and political development aims, along with control over territory it claims, especially self-governing Taiwan.

No specific issues or other countries were mentioned in the Chinese government news release.


 

Cardinal Zen:

The emeritus bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen, has been deemed guilty by the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court in Hong Kong of having failed to properly register the now-defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, and fined HK $4,000 ($512). He will not face further penalties for this ruling.

Local news outlets reported Friday that the 90-year-old Catholic prelate, along with four other trustees and a secretary at the 612 Fund, must pay the fine as the Fund had not bee registered within the required one-month timeline. According to local law, organizations must be registered with the police commissioner within one month of being set up. Failure to do so can lead to an initial fine of HK$10,000 (around $1,200).

Beside Zen, the four trustees are former opposition legislator Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee; singer Denise Ho Wan-sze; cultural studies professor Hui Po Keung; and activist Sze Ching-wee. A fifth trustee, Cyd Ho Sau-lan, was already in jail for “illegal assemblies.” All pleaded not guilty upon their arrest in May.

The cardinal and his four fellow trustees will now have to pay the HK$4,000 fine, while the secretary Sze Ching-wee will have to pay a fine of HK $2,500. All six had pleaded not guilty to the charges.



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