Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2021 September 30

= September 30 =

Coverage of rogue Chinese activities
Amid recent AUKUS fuss I feel that compared to Russia there's much less Western news coverage of Chinese activities that raise West's concerns. Generally, I can't recall seeing any more or less recent CNN or BBC report on Chinese military threats or the like. Is it indeed so (biased underreporting, military secrecy) or did I miss something? 212.180.235.46 (talk) 18:57, 30 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Belt and Road Initiative, Great Wall of Sand and after land reclamation, the artificial islands are sinking. Sleigh (talk) 22:56, 30 September 2021 (UTC)


 * You probably did miss something. As a Brit with no particular watching brief on the topic, I have been aware of regular instances of Chinese sabre-rattling and expansionist manoeuvering in the region for some time. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.131.207 (talk) 23:22, 30 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Actual fighting and grabbing of land in Ukraine does tend to get more press coverage, but Chinese military and political aggression crops up all too frequently in the news. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:58, 1 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks! 212.180.235.46 (talk) 10:59, 1 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Agree with others there's been a fair amount of coverage of various things. I would add the Nine-dash line which while not new has had a lot of sabre rattling recently especially given the above mentioned Great Wall of Sand and associated increasing push of the claim and pushback e.g. in freedom of navigation exercise by countries like the US and Australia. (See also Territorial disputes in the South China Sea.) There was also the Air Defense Identification Zone (East China Sea). If we're talking very recently, I just saw this [//www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58771369] as the top story in the BBC app and it was the top story on the news page for me a few minutes ago except now replaced by Rodrigo Duterte announcing he isn't going to run for VP. And while that particular story might be very recent, it's something I keep seeing e.g. [//www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58459128].  There's of course significant overlap with trade concerns, not helped IMO by the crap Trump did and said. Concerns over the Belt and Road Initiative are one area, but for example, the justification for several countries denying or phasing out Huawei equipment in their 5G backbones Concerns over Chinese involvement in 5G wireless networks has been for security reasons. And it's clearly far from one sided, e.g. whatever people think of the Extradition case of Meng Wanzhou, the counter treatment of Canadian citizens in China is understandably controversial. (This isn't a military issue, but having your citizens subject to retaliatory arrest or punishment is generally considered a security issue.) Likewise whatever people think of Australia's calls for an independent inquiry on COVID-19 the limitations placed on Australia trade apparently as a response have a significant effect on the Australian economy and are perceived as effectively trying to force Australia to choose between trade with China and raising concerns that they feel are justified.  Then there's concerns over Chinese involvement in the cyber attacks (Chinese cyberwarfare) etc. E.g. as far back as 2009 there was Operation Aurora and more recently there are claims of Chinese involvement in the 2021 Microsoft Exchange Server data breach partly what lead to this [//www.reuters.com/technology/us-allies-accuse-china-global-cyber-hacking-campaign-2021-07-19/]. These concerns generally cover both government and corporate espionage (stealing trade secrets etc). On a personal level, I expect an interaction of what I mentioned in theese last two paragraphs, I can't help thinking that the restrictions effectively preventing TSMC working with Huawei and others, or ASML Holding working with SMIC has virtually guaranteed within a few years some Chinese company is going to have "worked out" the tech and so will have gotten very close to TSMC.  Nil Einne (talk) 10:03, 2 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Oh and the 2020–2021 China–India skirmishes received a significant amount of attention for a time, while the situation seems to have calmed down now, including it sounds like most Chinese apps that were banned now being allowed again there is still I think a long tail of legacy effects e.g. it sounds like AliExpress still won't ship to India [//www.quora.com/Can-I-order-from-AliExpress-Will-it-be-banned-in-India] Nil Einne (talk) 12:59, 2 October 2021 (UTC)