China has decided to raise its defense spending by 7.1%, which is the largest increase since 2019. The rise is significant because the country’s economy is expected to grow this year at the lowest level in decades at 5.5%.
China’s defense spending is being carefully watched around the world in view of the atmosphere of political uncertainties caused by the Ukraine war. China has refused to pick sides or condemn the Russian attack. Some experts believe China will look for opportunities to invade Taiwan. Beijing regards Taiwan as a rogue province and has often indicated plans to take it over by force.
“While the world’s attention is diverted to Ukraine, an escalation across the Taiwan Straits, in the South China Sea and along the disputed Himalayan borders with India cannot be ruled out,” Mohan Malik, visiting fellow at the Washington-based Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) told VOA.
“For the Indo-Pacific, this is indeed the decade of living dangerously,” he said.
China will spend $229.47 billion on defense this year, according to estimates presented to the National People’s Congress, the Chinese parliament, by the country’s premier, Li Keqiang. Its defense budget rose 6.8% in 2021 and 6.6% in 2020.
Analysts said that the actual expenditure will be in the region of $270 billion, and a lot more would be spent on military-related infrastructure, like border roads that are shown under non-defense headings in the budget.
“We will enhance military training and combat readiness, stay firm and flexible in carrying out our military struggle, and safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” Li said.
Making a strong case for the higher defense expenditure, Li said, “Government at all levels must give strong support to the development of national defense and the armed forces, so unity between the military and government and between the military and the people will remain rock solid.” He emphasizes the need to modernize the military’s logistics and build a modern weaponry and equipment management system.
China, which has two aircraft carriers, plans to invest in two more. It has engaged in a sea rivalry with the U.S. Navy, which has 11 of them. The U.S.-China rivalry is evident because the U.S. sent aircraft carrier strike groups and amphibious groups into the South China Sea 13 times last year, according to Beijing-based research group the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative.
The Reuters news agency quoted Fu Qianshao, a retired Chinese air force equipment specialist, as saying, “Equipment is needed to fill performance gaps, and aircraft carriers, large warships, stealth fighters, third and fourth generations of tanks are expensive.”
Analysts said China is now forced to spend more on defense-related research and development because the U.S. is cutting off the flow of technology and there are similar actions in some European countries.
China may also reconsider planned arms purchases from Russia, including the proposed acquisition of Ka-52 attack helicopters, because the performance of Russian weapons in Ukraine has reportedly disappointed many arms experts.
A major area of focus is China’s military behavior in its neighborhood. Most of the country’s neighbors, including countries around the South China Sea, feel threatened by the rise in the strength of the People’s Liberation Army, which represents the land army, the navy and the air force.
Malik said China now spends more on its military than the combined military expenditures of Russia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India and Australia. That is significant because China is engaged in military disputes with Japan and India and wants to take over Taiwan.
“The growing power gap and military buildup in Asia doesn’t bode well for regional peace and stability at a time of heightened tensions over unresolved territorial and maritime disputes,” he said.
BOGOTA COLOMBIA). Monday, February 28, 2022 (RPTV NEWS AGENCY). The interoperability exercise between the Colombian Navy and the United States Navy was held 70 nautical miles (130 kilometers) from Cartagena, in which a nuclear submarine participates for the first time: the USS Minnesota.
The two Navies strengthened their anti-submarine warfare procedures to increase their interoperability and strengthen the ties of friendship and cooperation in pursuit of peace, security, defense of the Western Hemisphere and protection of common maritime interests, freedom of navigation and national sovereignty. .
For Defense Minister Diego Molano, this training and interoperability exercise that allows strengthening anti-submarine warfare procedures ratifies the mutual trust of Colombia and the United States in that alliance that exists in the development of different operations.
The head of the defense portfolio recalled that in the Caribbean Sea there are common interests such as efforts against drug trafficking, as is the case of Operation Orion, in which 40 countries participate and which allows the seizure of drugs.
“This exercise is carried out within the scope of NATO, in the case of Colombia as a global partner country, it seeks to adapt the best international standards in the development of maritime operations,” Minister Molano stressed.
In an unprecedented event for the military history of Colombia, for the first time a nuclear submarine emerges in national waters to participate in a tactical defense exercise.
At 95 nautical miles, 176 kilometers, from Cartagena, the US and Colombia closed ranks to show the military power of an alliance, in which, according to the United States Senate, Colombia is its main military ally outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO.
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the nuclear submarine Minnesotaspecialized in pursuit and attack
a nuclear submarine, which emerges for the first time in Colombian waters to be part of this binational defense exercise
For almost 7 hours, two Colombian frigates: ARC Almirante Padilla and ARC Independiente; as well as a national submarine, the ARC Pijao, formed and executed tactical movements alongside the mighty american warship Billing’s, and the USA Minnesota nuclear submarine, specialized in pursuit and attack.
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“We located two submarines towards the bow and two frigates, escorting an American Coastal Combat Ship type vessel. We had a nuclear submarine emerging in Colombian waters for the first time to be part of this binational defense exercise,” said Frigate Captain Héctor González, commander of the ARC Almirante Padilla Frigate.
In the global context of military tensions due to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, which already claims several hundred deaths, the National Army and the United States Navy showed the power of an alliance that defends the waters of the Caribbean.
United States warship in military practices in the waters of Cartagena.
Photo:
John Montaño/ THE TIME
low military exercise adverse weather conditions
We carry out a tactical maneuver with changes in the formation of ships, in a frog-jumping movement, with an approximation of 100 meters of distance between the ships
But this was also a maritime and air military tactical exercise: the boats were escorted by 2 CN235 house planes, and two helicopters: a Bell 412 and a Dauphin AS365.
In the midst of adverse wind and sea conditions, nearly 600 men and women from both nations attended this tactical military exercise that began at 8 a.m. yesterday, Sunday, with the arrival of the boats at the point of operations and ended at 4 in the afternoon.
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“We carried out a tactical maneuver with changes in the formation of the ships, in a frog-jumping movement, with an approximation of 100 meters of distance between the ships, then, once the ships were in line, we fired with 76 and 40-millimeter cannons. ”, added Frigate Captain Héctor González.
The night before, the ARC Almirante Padilla showed part of the power of his war artillery with the execution of cannon shots and bursts.
Warplane in military exercises over the waters of Cartagena
Photo:
John Montaño/ THE TIME
This military exercise, to which attended by the Minister of National Defense, Diego Molano, and part of the military leadership, had been postponed twice due to adverse weather conditions.
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John Montano Correspondent of THE TIME Cartagena On Twitter: @PilotodeCometas
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The United States has announced it is sending additional military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-tank and air defense capabilities. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy implored the world to help his people resist a full-scale Russian invasion, saying it is imperative to hold on to the capital city, Kyiv. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
Thursday, February 24, 2022 (RPTV NEWS AGENCY). The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has participated tonight in Brussels in the extraordinary European Council to address the military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, during which he has held a videoconference with the Ukrainian President, Volodímir Zelenski.
The Heads of State and Government have agreed on a new package of sanctions against the Russian Federation for the attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, a neighboring country and, as Pedro Sánchez highlighted, “an attack on the security of the entire European continent”. This is a second package of restrictive measures after the one adopted last Tuesday, February 22.
The President of the Government has underlined: “The situation is very serious. We are facing a flagrant violation of international law that we cannot accept. And the EU must respond along the lines that we have been maintaining in recent weeks: Unity, which is the basis of our strength; and firmness in our position, open to dialogue and diplomatic channels, but very willing to adopt harsh restrictive measures, if Russia opted for force, as it has been».
The Spanish Embassy in Kiev has been in contact for weeks with Spanish residents in Ukraine to provide them with available information on possible evacuation routes. Of the more than 400 Spaniards registered at the Embassy, more than a hundred are already in Spain. In this sense, President Sánchez has guaranteed that the necessary help will be provided to the Spaniards who still remain in Ukraine, just over 200.
Pedro Sánchez has recalled that Spain is a country of solidarity and has highlighted the need for the European Union to prepare for the humanitarian consequences arising from this aggression. “We reiterate our support and solidarity with the Ukrainian people and government at this difficult time. Spain and the European partners are by your side”, stated the Chief Executive.
EU sanctions on Russia
The extraordinary European Council, during the videoconference held with the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski Moncloa/European Union and Fernando CalvoPedro Sánchez, highlighted that, in this extraordinary European Council, additional restrictive measures have been reached “that we want them to have, as we have come pointing out, a forceful and massive effects against the Russian economy». And all of this, as the president highlighted, has been done “in close coordination with our transatlantic partners, our NATO allies and other international actors.”
The 27 have agreed on a new package of sanctions on Russia that complements those approved on Tuesday. The list of individual sanctions is extended and the sectoral ones are expanded, with restrictive measures that will further reduce the financing capacity of Russian public and private institutions, limiting movements, transactions and deposits and establishing a strict control of exports, in particular of dual-use and technological material.
“This aggression is a frontal attack on European principles and values that opens a multidimensional crisis. Today, we European leaders have reaffirmed our common commitment to confront this clear violation of the international order on the basis of our unity and firmness”, concluded the President of the Government.
Russia on Sunday extended its military drills in Belarus, along Ukraine’s northern border, after two days of sustained shelling in eastern Ukraine between Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces. This comes amid U.S. warnings of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, with more than 100,000 Russian troops massed at the border. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more
Reported sexual assaults at the U.S. military academies increased sharply during the 2020-21 school year, as students returned to in-person classes during the coronavirus pandemic.
The increase continues what officials believe is an upward trend at the academies, despite an influx of new sexual assault prevention and treatment programs.
Comparing the totals over the past three years, however, is tricky. The number of reports dropped at all the academies during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 school year, when in-person classes were canceled and students were sent home in the spring to finish the semester online.
Although there were fewer reports that year than the previous year, one senior defense official said that based on trends the total likely would have shown an increase if students had not left early. In addition, the number of reported assaults in 2020-21 was also higher than the pre-pandemic school year of 2018-19.
According to the Pentagon report released Thursday, the overall jump in cases was driven by increases at the Air Force Academy and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. There were 131 assaults reported by cadets or midshipmen in 2020-21, compared with 88 the previous year and 122 a year earlier.
Of the 131, cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado reported 52 assaults, compared with 46 at West Point in New York and 33 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland.
FILE – This May 10, 2007 file photo shows the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
During a visit to West Point earlier this month, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth met with academy leaders, staff members and cadets and talked about the sexual assault problem. She said they talked about the so-called Trust Program, which is led by cadets and helps train them to address sexual assault and harassment and encourage intervention when they see questionable behavior.
“West Point is working hard to increase cadets’ trust in their reporting system while at the same time preventing events from happening in the first place,” Wormuth said, adding that West Point has increased resources for victims “to ensure the academy handles each case with care.”
Victims at the academies are encouraged to report assaults, and at times students will come forward to talk about unwanted sexual contact that happened in the years before they started school there. If those episodes of unwanted sexual contact are included, as well as those involving students but reported by individuals outside the schools, the total sexual assault reports for 2020-21 is 161. That also is an increase over the pre-pandemic year, when there were 148.
The latest increase comes as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other leaders struggle to curb sexual assaults across the military, amid escalating criticism from Capitol Hill. Lawmakers are demanding better prevention efforts and more aggressive prosecutions.
Austin and others have acknowledged that while they continue to study what works and what doesn’t, they haven’t yet found the answers.
Nate Galbreath, acting director of the Pentagon’s sexual assault prevention office, said the department is encouraged that students are more willing to come forward and report assaults, allowing victims to get help and perpetrators to be held accountable. But the leaders across the military said they are also very concerned that the trends are going in the wrong direction, and Galbreath said that while there is an unprecedented attention on the problem right now, there is “still much more work to be done.”
Galbreath acknowledged that prevention efforts have been under way for years, but he said programs that may have worked in the past do not necessarily work now. He said the department is using scientific studies to narrow down what programs actually are successful.
Officials also say it is difficult to determine what impact the pandemic may have had. Students returned to the academies in the fall of 2020 but faced widespread restrictions, random COVID-19 testing and a mix of online and in-person classes. In many cases bars, restaurants and other businesses around the campuses may have been closed or less accessible.
A planned anonymous survey of the students, which often can provide greater insight into the problem, was not conducted in 2020 due to the pandemic. The survey normally is done every two years, and officials believe it provides a more accurate picture of assaults, harassment and unwanted sexual contact. A survey will be conducted this spring, Galbreath said.
After the complaints made by the representative of MedellinWilliam Yeffer Vivas Lloreda, on raids by the army in the capital of Antioquia, the Town hall of the city had a series of recommendations to avoid carrying out these actions that are illegal.
The complaint was made this Monday, February 7, and occurred in the vicinity of the Suramericana station of the Medellin Metro. To which the municipal administration responded with an initiative that seeks to clarify these facts and not allow young people to be arbitrarily detained.
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From the Youth Secretariat, the Secretariat of Non-Violence Y the Women’s Secretariat The #ObjetarEsUnDerecho strategy is advanced, which consists of a care route for young people who wish to declare themselves conscientious objectors to military service.
“The Municipal Administration installed the permanent monitoring table for the phenomena of illegal recruitment, raids and irregular incorporation procedures,” the Administration said in a statement.
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The Constitutional Court decreed through judgment C-879 that young people who have not defined their military situation cannot be retained or transferred for long periods of time, which is why several groups indicate that these routes are necessary so that these types of events do not repeat themselves.
“Traditionally, young people have been instrumentalized for war and conflict. In recent weeks we have collected the anguish and anxiety of many of them in the face of the incorporation and recruitment process that the National Army has been carrying out in the city. We want to provide them with guarantees and accompany them in processes that have arbitrariness and irregularities. Above all, we want to tell you that there is an alternative, that conscientious objection is a constitutional right,” said the youth secretarySantiago Bedoya.
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Groups denounce that due to the increase in accompaniment and attention routes so that young people are clear about their rights to conscientious objection, these raids have become more frequent by the Army.
The Mayor’s Office of Medellín created a permanent monitoring table in which the Army, Personería, attorney and the Medellin Subway to protect the freedom of young people from recruitment.
“The purpose is to sensitize the young people of the city about the routes they have to exercise their right to conscientious objection to military service. It is also important to remember that the victims of the armed conflict, palenqueros, blacks and only children are exempt from compulsory military service,” said the Secretary of Non-ViolenceJuan Carlos Upegui.
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If a young person is arbitrarily detained by the Army and wishes to report it, they can do so through www.medellin.gov.co/satmed or WhatsApp line 310 715 4095.
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The Third Army Brigade took over the act by order of the Council of Statealthough the crimes occurred in the territory of Caldes, What extrajudicial executions in the Eighth Brigade area.
Alfamir Castillo, mother of one of the two youths killed in those events, attended the event, but received written intimidation a day later.
(Read in context: Attack against Alfamir Castillo, victim of false positives )
The story began at 1:00 a.m. on the 8th of February 2008 when the Army reported a alleged combat in the village of Java, in the rural jurisdiction of Manizalescapital of Caldas.
In the alleged exchange shots died Darbey Mosquera Castillo and Alex Hernando Ramírez Hurtado.
Later it became known that José Didier Marín Camacho escaped death that day, when the soldier’s rifle jammed.
Initially, the bodies were reported as unidentified. What was discovered is that the victims were tricked into the territory of Caldas.
#URGENT at the same time that in Pradera an act of excuses is carried out ordered by @councilofstate Due to the extrajudicial execution of Darbey, son of Alfamir Castillo, this threat arrives at the courtier women’s workshop house against her. Keep doubting where and who it comes from! pic.twitter.com/31zQjmFkNT
The mourners did not stay with the official version and asked that the circumstances of their deaths be investigated.
The Prosecutor’s Office began to investigate whether the crimes were committed under the guidelines of reporting casualties to obtain congratulations and permits by showing positive results in combat.
Threat against Alfamir Castillo
Alfamir Castillo, the mother of Darbey Mosquera, stood up for her son and began to speak out among the mothers who have suffered “false positives.”
She has been the object of harassment and on October 17, 2012 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures and has had support from the National Protection Unit.
the proxies de Castillo and a son have also been the object of threats, for which precautionary measures were also ordered.
On Friday, January 11, 2019at 8:00 at night, on the road to Palmira to Pradera, (Valle del Cauca), the vehicle of the scheme assigned by the UNP, received 3 impacts fired by the grill of a motorcycle.
The UN urged the Attorney General’s Office to urgently investigate the motives for this attack. So far no catches.
The threats intensified when Castillo was recognized as a victim in the submission process of retired General Mario Montoya before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).
General William Fernando Prieto Ruiz, commander of the Third Brigade, apologized on behalf of the Army for the false positive in Caldas.
On Monday, in the center of the municipality of Pradera, where the victims were from, the National Army apologized for the extrajudicial executions, as ordered by the Council of State.
“Public excuses, an obligation that we have, that the Law demands and it is a ruling, part of that way of compensating things,” said the General William Fernando Prieto Ruiz, commander of the Third Brigade of the National Army.
Castillo said that “the authorities owe us justice and truth, we still ask ourselves, who gave the order and the truth for the people.”
After the act, mourners and relatives went to the House of the Cane Cutter Womenwhere when opening the door a sheet of paper fell out, according to a lawyer.
“There is no debt that is not paid. So we invite you to the funeral of this leader who was called Alfamir Castillo in life. Do not ask for our commander’s head anymore because the one that is going to fall is his. It seems that he thinks we are playing ”, says the message.
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The U.S. military is stepping up support to the United Arab Emirates after a series of missile and drone attacks launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. U.S. General Frank McKenzie, head of the U.S. Central Command overseeing American forces in the Middle East, has been in the UAE to bolster defenses. Analysts say the attacks on the Gulf nation could hurt its reputation as a stable business and tourist hub with tough security.
Speaking from the United Arab Emirates, U.S. General Frank McKenzie said battlefield setbacks in Yemen by Iran-backed Houthi rebels may have prompted recent attacks on the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, where a military base also hosts U.S. troops. The seven-year Yemen war has pit Houthis against government forces backed by Saudi Arabia and an Arab coalition, including the UAE. The conflict, viewed as a proxy war involving Iran, has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis, sparking one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
U.S. and United Nations officials have documented Iran smuggling high-end weapons to the Houthis. “Medium range ballistic missiles that were fired from Yemen and entered UAE were not invented, built, designed in Yemen,” McKenzie said. So, I think we certainly see the Iranian connection to this.”
FILE – U.S. Army troops work near a Patriot missile battery at Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, May 5, 2021.
Giuseppe Dentice heads the Middle East desk at Rome’s Center for International Studies. He told VOA that the Houthis are using the attacks to leverage their demands.
“It’s a strong and symbolic sign that shows how no one in the Gulf is safe and the Houthis have the ability to hit all these countries in the area. Maybe the main risk is the growing internationalization of the conflict with a widening front of new players; for instance, Israel that is interested to support Abu Dhabi to confront Iran in any scenario of this crisis. These attacks aim to weaken the security of the commercial, tourism, (and) financial hub in the Gulf,” he said.
Dr. Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at the School of Security at King’s College in London, agrees that the Houthi attacks pose a menace to the UAE’s standing as the key commercial and tourism hub in the Gulf and could hurt its safe reputation for finance and security.
“This is a major reputational damage to the idea of the UAE being one of the safest and more secure countries in the world,” Krieg told The New Arab online publication. “The fact that air defenses were unable to protect very critical infrastructure is definitely something the UAE will now have to consider,” he said.
Until recently, the UAE had been immune from such outright missile and drone attacks that the Houthis have rained down on neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The Pentagon says advanced F-22 fighter jets are being sent to the UAE and a guided missile destroyer, the USS Cole, will aid its navy to surveil Gulf waters for shipments of contraband. U.S. President Joe Biden says Washington is considering re-designating the Houthis as an international terrorist organization, a label which was rescinded last February. The UAE has called for the designation to be restored.
Cocaine is a source of criminal resources. Those with access to their wealth quickly gain rise and power, in general today, there are more opportunities than ever to access cocaine both in America and in Europe because while the cocaine trade has spawned some of the most powerful criminal structures and notorious on the planet, they must innovate to continue persisting. And this is evidenced by the seizure made by US authorities today.
On January 12, 2022, from early hours, the United States Department of Justice announced that its coast guard units, in cooperation with European agencies, tracked and captured with its maritime units, a large submersible drug trafficker, which had previously been had detected during patrol maneuvers. They were more surprised when the boat skillfully began to maneuver, and has evaded the coast guard units, evidencing not only the skill of the crew but also the presence of advanced technology on the boat for such purposes, in other words, high-end military equipment. and of unknown origin that at times gave the advantage to this modern underwater narco.
Inter-agency cooperation and the use of advanced maritime drones made it possible to successfully pursue and capture the stealthy vessel. At the time of boarding by the authorities, the crew did not try to flee or destroy the boat, its four crew members were arrested, and the cargo of 6,350 kilos of cocaine (more than 6 tons) was confiscated. The value of the cargo, the nationalities of those captured and its origin are unknown at this time.
It is speculated that the cargo, which in total would be more than 6 tons of cocaine, would be destined for the cartels that currently control the European market, among other situations that are still under investigation by the United States Drug Control Administration. States (DEA), which has not yet issued an official statement.
At some of the world’s most sensitive spots, authorities have installed security screening devices made by a single Chinese company with deep ties to China’s military and the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party.
The World Economic Forum in Davos. Europe’s largest ports. Airports from Amsterdam to Athens. NATO’s borders with Russia. All depend on equipment manufactured by Nuctech, which has quickly become the world’s leading company, by revenue, for cargo and vehicle scanners.
Nuctech has been frozen out of the U.S. for years due to national security concerns, but it has made deep inroads across Europe, installing its devices in 26 of 27 EU member states, according to public procurement, government and corporate records reviewed by The Associated Press.
The complexity of Nuctech’s ownership structure and its expanding global footprint have raised alarms on both sides of the Atlantic.
A growing number of Western security officials and policymakers fear that China could exploit Nuctech equipment to sabotage key transit points or get illicit access to government, industrial or personal data from the items that pass through its devices.
Nuctech’s critics allege the Chinese government has effectively subsidized the company so it can undercut competitors and give Beijing potential sway over critical infrastructure in the West as China seeks to establish itself as a global technology superpower.
“The data being processed by these devices is very sensitive. It’s personal data, military data, cargo data. It might be trade secrets at stake. You want to make sure it’s in right hands,” said Bart Groothuis, director of cybersecurity at the Dutch Ministry of Defense before becoming a member of the European Parliament. “You’re dependent on a foreign actor which is a geopolitical adversary and strategic rival.”
He and others say Europe doesn’t have tools in place to monitor and resist such potential encroachment. Different member states have taken opposing views on Nuctech’s security risks. No one has even been able to make a comprehensive public tally of where and how many Nuctech devices have been installed across the continent.
Nuctech dismisses those concerns, countering that Nuctech’s European operations comply with local laws, including strict security checks and data privacy rules.
“It’s our equipment, but it’s your data. Our customer decides what happens with the data,” said Robert Bos, deputy general manager of Nuctech in the Netherlands, where the company has a research and development center.
He said Nuctech is a victim of unfounded allegations that have cut its market share in Europe nearly in half since 2019.
“It’s quite frustrating to be honest,” Bos told AP. “In the 20 years we delivered this equipment we never had issues of breaches or data leaks. Till today we never had any proof of it.”
‘It’s not really a company’
As security screening becomes increasingly interconnected and data-driven, Nuctech has found itself on the front lines of the U.S.-China battle for technology dominance now playing out across Europe.
In addition to scanning systems for people, baggage and cargo, the company makes explosives detectors and interconnected devices capable of facial recognition, body temperature measurement and ID card or ticket identification.
On its website, Nuctech’s parent company explains that Nuctech does more than just provide hardware, integrating “cloud computing, big data and Internet of Things with safety inspection technologies and products to supply the clients with hi-tech safety inspection solution.”
Critics fear that under China’s national intelligence laws, which require Chinese companies to surrender data requested by state security agencies, Nuctech would be unable to resist calls from Beijing to hand over sensitive data about the cargo, people and devices that pass through its scanners. They say there is a risk Beijing could use Nuctech’s presence across Europe to gather big data about cross-border trade flows, pull information from local networks, like shipping manifests or passenger information, or sabotage trade flows in a conflict.
A July 2020 Canadian government security review of Nuctech found that X-ray security scanners could potentially be used to covertly collect and transmit information, compromise portable electronic devices as they pass through the scanner or alter results to allow transit of “nefarious” devices.
The European Union put measures in place in late 2020 that can be used to vet Chinese foreign direct investment. But policymakers in Brussels say there are currently no EU-wide systems in place to evaluate Chinese procurement, despite growing concerns about unfair state subsidies, lack of reciprocity, national security and human rights.
“This is becoming more and more dangerous. I wouldn’t mind if one or two airports had Nuctech systems, but with dumping prices a lot of regions are taking it,” said Axel Voss, a German member of the European Parliament who works on data protection. “This is becoming more and more a security question. You might think it’s a strategic investment of the Chinese government.”
The U.S. — home to OSI Systems, one of Nuctech’s most important commercial rivals — has come down hard against Nuctech. The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the U.S. National Security Council, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, and the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security all have raised concerns about Nuctech.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration told AP in an email that Nuctech was found ineligible to receive sensitive security information. Nuctech products, TSA said, “are not authorized to be used for the screening of passengers, baggage, accessible property or air cargo in the United States.”
In December 2020, the U.S. added Nuctech to the Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List, restricting exports to them on national security grounds.
“It’s not just commercial,” said a U.S. government official who was not authorized to speak on the record. “It’s using state-backed companies, with state subsidies, low-ball bids to get into European critical infrastructure, which is civil airports, passenger screening, seaport and cargo screening.”
Passengers walk next to Nuctech security scanners at the Brussels Eurostar train terminal on Jan. 17, 2022.
In Europe, Nuctech’s bids can be 30-50% below their rivals’, according to the company’s competitors, U.S. and European officials and researchers who study China. Sometimes they include other sweeteners like extended maintenance contracts and favorable loans.
In 2009, Nuctech’s main European competitor, Smiths Detection, complained that it was being squeezed out of the market by such practices, and the EU imposed an anti-dumping duty of 36.6% on Nuctech cargo scanners.
“Nuctech comes in with below market bids no one can match. It’s not a normal price, it’s an economic statecraft price,” said Didi Kirsten Tatlow, and co-editor of the book, China’s Quest for Foreign Technology. “It’s not really a company. They are more like a wing of a state development drive.”
Nuctech’s Bos said the company keeps prices low by manufacturing in Europe. “We don’t have to import goods from the U.S. or other countries,” he said. “Our supply chain is very efficient with local suppliers, that’s the main reason we can be very competitive.”
Nuctech’s successes abound. The company, which is opening offices in Brussels, Madrid and Rome, says it has supplied customers in more than 170 countries and regions. Nuctech said in 2019 that it had installed more than 1,000 security check devices in Europe for customs, civil aviation, ports and government organizations.
In November 2020, Norwegian Customs put out a call to buy a new cargo scanner for the Svinesund checkpoint, a complex of squat, grey buildings at the Swedish border. An American rival and two other companies complained that the terms as written gave Nuctech a leg up.
The specifications were rewritten, but Nuctech won the deal anyway. The Chinese company beat its rivals on both price and quality, said Jostein Engen, the customs agency’s director of procurement, and none of Norway’s government ministries raised red flags that would have disqualified Nuctech.
“We in Norwegian Customs must treat Nuctech like everybody else in our competition,” Engen said. “We can’t do anything else following EU rules on public tenders.”
Four of five NATO member states that border Russia — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland — have purchased Nuctech equipment for their border crossings with Russia. So has Finland.
Europe’s two largest ports — Rotterdam and Antwerp, which together handled more than a third of goods, by weight, entering and leaving the EU’s main ports in 2020 — use Nuctech devices, according to parliamentary testimony.
Other key states at the edges of the EU, including the U.K., Turkey, Ukraine, Albania, Belarus and Serbia have also purchased Nuctech scanners, some of which were donated or financed with low-interest loans from Chinese state banks, according to public procurement documents and government announcements.
Airports in London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Athens, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Zurich, Geneva and more than a dozen across Spain have all signed deals for Nuctech equipment, procurement and government documents, and corporate announcements show.
Nuctech says it provided security equipment for the Olympics in Brazil in 2016, then President Donald Trump’s visit to China in 2017 and the World Economic Forum in 2020. It has also provided equipment to some U.N. organizations, procurement records show.
Rising concerns
As Nuctech’s market share has grown, so too has skepticism about the company.
Canadian authorities dropped a standing offer from Nuctech to provide X-ray scanning equipment at more than 170 Canadian diplomatic missions around the world after a government assessment found an “elevated threat” of espionage.
Lithuania, which is involved in a diplomatic feud with China over Taiwan, blocked Nuctech from providing airport scanners earlier this year after a national security review found that it wasn’t possible for the equipment to operate in isolation and there was a risk information could leak back to China, according to Margiris Abukevicius, vice minister for international cooperation and cybersecurity at Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defense.
Then, in August, Lithuania approved a deal for a Nuctech scanner on its border with Belarus. There were only two bidders, Nuctech and a Russian company — both of which presented national security concerns — and there wasn’t time to reissue the tender, two Lithuanian officials told AP.
“It’s just an ad hoc decision choosing between bad and worse options,” Abukevicius said. He added that the government is developing a road map to replace all Nuctech scanners currently in use in Lithuania as well as a legal framework to ban purchases of untrusted equipment by government institutions and in critical sectors.
Human rights concerns are also generating headwinds for Nuctech. The company does business with police and other authorities in Western China’s Xinjiang region, where Beijing stands accused of genocide for mass incarceration and abuse of minority Uyghur Muslims.
Despite pressure from U.S. and European policymakers on companies to stop doing business in Xinjiang, European governments have continued to award tens of millions of dollars in contracts — sometimes backed by European Union funds — to Nuctech.
Nuctech says on its Chinese website that China’s western regions, including Xinjiang, are “are important business areas” for the company. It has signed multiple contracts to provide X-ray equipment to Xinjiang’s Department of Transportation and Public Security Department.
It has provided license plate recognition devices for a police checkpoint in Xinjiang, Chinese government records show, and an integrated security system for the subway in Urumqi, the region’s capital city. It regularly showcases its security equipment at trade fairs in Xinjiang.
“Companies like Nuctech directly enable Xinjiang’s high-tech police state and its intrusive ways of suppressing ethnic minorities. This should be taken into account when Western governments and corporations interface with Nuctech,” said Adrian Zenz, a researcher who has documented abuses in Xinjiang and compiled evidence of the company’s activities in the region.
Nuctech’s Bos said he can understand those views, but that the company tries to steer clear of politics. “Our daily goal is to have equipment to secure the world more and better,” he said. “We don’t interfere with politics.”
Complex web of ownership
Nuctech opened a factory in Poland in 2018 with the tagline “Designed in China and manufactured in Europe.” But ultimate responsibility for the company lies far from Warsaw, with the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council in Beijing, China’s top governing body.
Nuctech’s ownership structure is so complex that it can be difficult for outsiders to understand the true lines of influence and accountability.
Scott Kennedy, a Chinese economic policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that the ambiguous boundaries between the Communist Party, state companies and financial institutions in China — which have only grown murkier under China’s leader, Xi Jinping — can make it difficult to grasp how companies like Nuctech are structured and operate.
“Consider if the roles were reversed. If the Chinese were acquiring this equipment for their airports they’d want a whole variety of assurances,” Kennedy said. “China has launched a high-tech self-sufficiency drive because they don’t feel safe with foreign technology in their supply chain.”
What is clear is that Nuctech, from its very origins, has been tied to Chinese government, academic and military interests.
Nuctech was founded as an offshoot of Tsinghua University, an elite public research university in Beijing. It grew with backing from the Chinese government and for years was run by the son of China’s former leader, Hu Jintao.
Datenna, a Dutch economic intelligence company focused on China, mapped the ownership structure of Nuctech and found a dozen major entities across four layers of shareholding, including four state-owned enterprises and three government entities.
Today the majority shareholder in Nuctech is Tongfang Co., which has a 71% stake. The largest shareholder in Tongfang, in turn, is the investment arm of the China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC), a state-run energy and defense conglomerate controlled by China’s State Council. The U.S. Defense Department classifies CNNC as a Chinese military company because it shares advanced technologies and expertise with the People’s Liberation Army.
Xi has further blurred the lines between China’s civilian and military activities and deepened the power of the ruling Communist Party within private enterprises. One way: the creation of dozens of government-backed financing vehicles designed to speed the development of technologies that have both military and commercial applications.
In fact, one of those vehicles, the National Military-Civil Fusion Industry Investment Fund, announced in June 2020 that it wanted to take a 4.4% stake in Nuctech’s majority shareholder, along with the right to appoint a director to the Tongfang board. It never happened — “changes in the market environment,” Tongfeng explained in a Chinese stock exchange filing.
But there are other links between Nuctech’s ownership structure and the fusion fund.
CNNC, which has a 21% interest in Nuctech, holds a stake of more than 7% in the fund, according to Qichacha, a Chinese corporate information platform. They also share personnel: Chen Shutang, a member of CNNC’s Party Leadership Group and the company’s chief accountant serves as a director of the fund, records show.
“The question here is whether or not we want to allow Nuctech, which is controlled by the Chinese state and linked to the Chinese military, to be involved in crucial parts of our border security and infrastructure,” said Jaap van Etten, a former Dutch diplomat and CEO of Datenna.
Nuctech maintains that its operations are shaped by market forces, not politics, and says CNNC doesn’t control its corporate management or decision-making.
“We are a normal commercial operator here in Europe which has to obey the laws,” said Nuctech’s Bos. “We work here with local staff members, we pay tax, contribute to the social community and have local suppliers.”
But experts say these touchpoints are further evidence of the government and military interests encircling the company and show its strategic interest to Beijing.
“Under Xi Jinping, the national security elements of the state are being fused with the technological and innovation dimensions of the state,” said Tai Ming Cheung, a professor at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy.
“Military-civil fusion is one of the key battlegrounds between the U.S. and China. The Europeans will have to figure out where they stand.”
More than 1,000 U.S. military veterans and family members of those killed or wounded in attacks by Iran and its proxies are calling on President Joe Biden to compensate the victims of Iranian attacks before releasing frozen funds as part of nuclear negotiations with Tehran.
In a letter to the president obtained by VOA News, veterans and military family members wrote late last week that while they share Biden’s “view that Iran must never be allowed to develop and acquire nuclear weapons,” they feel that releasing frozen funds should not be an option until all of the estimated $60 billion of outstanding terrorism judgments against Iran and its proxies are “fully satisfied.”
“In our view, Iran’s frozen funds should go first to the regime’s American victims before a single dollar goes to the regime itself,” they wrote.
The letter asks Biden to meet with some of those “directly affected by this issue” and support their “efforts to hold Iran responsible for the deaths and maiming of thousands of Americans.”
U.S. officials have said Iran-backed militias killed hundreds of U.S. troops in the Iraq war, a claim Iran has denied.
Iran claimed responsibility for a 2020 attack on an Iraqi base hosting international forces that wounded more than 100 American troops, and Iran-backed militias continue to target U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria with rockets and armed drones.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday the administration is committed to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and believes diplomacy is the best way to do that, but “time is running short.”
U.S. and European powers are currently in talks with Iran in Vienna over reviving a 2015 nuclear deal designed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the accord and reimposed economic sanctions on Iran, blocking Tehran’s access to assets abroad.
Iran has asked the U.S. to unblock billions of dollars frozen by U.S. sanctions as a sign of goodwill. Last week, the U.S. Treasury allowed South Korea to send at least $63 million in overdue payments to an Iranian company, releasing a small portion of the Iranian assets frozen there by the sanctions.
The move appeared to be a step forward in nuclear negotiations in Vienna to rebuild trust between Iran and world powers and restore the 2015 deal.
South Korea’s Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun had visited the Austrian capital to meet with the U.S. special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, earlier this month.
