Hong Kong COVID-19 Contact Tracing App ‘LeaveHomeSafe’ Had Hidden Facial Recognition Technology Similar To Mainland China’s “Social Credit System”.

The Hong Kong government has acknowledged that their contact tracing smartphone app LeaveHomeSafe includes a facial recognition feature. The authorities, on the other hand, maintained that they were unaware of the function and had never utilized it. Since the implementation of LeaveHomeSafe, Hong Kong citizens have expressed worry. Many individuals are concerned that it will be used by the government to impose greater social controls or infringe on people’s privacy. To alleviate public worries, Wong Ho-wa, a Hong Kong data scientist and pro-democracy activist, believes the government should make the app’s source code available to the public. The contact tracing app pushed by Hong Kong’s government resembled mainland China’s “social credit system,” which uses artificial intelligence and facial recognition to conduct mass surveillance and assign points based on citizens’ behavior, according to Antony Leung, a senior media professional in Hong…

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China Seeks To Enhance Their Robotic Manufacturing Capabilities; Putting A Target On The Back Of Taiwan.

For nearly a decade, China has been the world’s biggest producer and customer of industrial robots. According to experts, because foreign corporations own the necessary technologies, they have “no pricing power” in the market. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China has been the world’s largest user of industrial robots for the past eight years. In 2020, the country’s robotics industry earned $15.7 billion in sales, and its industrial robot density was 246 units per 10,000 workers, about double the global average. However, because foreign robotics businesses control the majority of the high-end market share, China mostly manufactures lower-end items in the field. Fanuc and Yaskawa of Japan, ABB of Switzerland, and KUKA of Germany are the four leading industrial robotics brands in China. In 2016, KUKA was purchased by a Chinese company during a financial crisis.…

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Biden Admin Halts Anti-CCP Espionage Initiative Because It’s “Racist”.

The recent decision by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to withdraw the “China Initiative,” a Trump-era effort to disrupt Chinese Communist Party (CCP) economic espionage, is “another show of weakness” by the Biden administration, according to a US lawmaker. “The CCP has stolen trillions of dollars in American intellectual property, destroyed millions of American jobs, and transformed American students and researchers into Chinese spies,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in a statement released on Feb. 23. “Yet today, the Biden administration stated that the project entrusted with combating China’s extraordinary internal sabotage and aggression will be canceled because it is racist.” He also described the program’s termination as “another example of weakness from a government more concerned with being politically acceptable than safeguarding Americans.” Following a review of its policies prompted by charges of racial discrimination and mishandled cases, the…

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DOD Is Far Too Slow To Innovate Emerging Technologies Due To The Bureaucratic Nature of Congress.

According to the former top software officer of the Air Force, bureaucracy and waste are stifling U.S. military progress and negatively impacting the country’s military readiness. As a result, the US is less prepared for a possible battle with China. In a recent interview, Nicolas Chaillan, who left in September, warned, “Any bureaucracy that slows down outcomes for the sake of bureaucracy will assure we fall behind China.” He told The Epoch Times, “China doesn’t let complacency or bureaucracy get in the way of its military.” He made the remarks amid rising tensions between the US and China’s Communist Party (CCP) over Taiwan’s de facto independence, widespread intellectual property theft, and human rights violations in Xinjiang and elsewhere. As the rivalry becomes more hostile, the CCP has shifted its focus to technological advancements in areas that its leadership views as…

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Hundreds of Drones Flying Overhead to Monitor Citizen Movement Amid COVID Lockdown in China.

Beginning on February 1, a northern Chinese county imposed a stay-at-home quarantine on its inhabitants during the Chinese New Year holidays, sending hundreds of drones to monitor movement in the area. However, one local said that the Chinese government’s draconian tactics are intended to maintain control rather than combat the outbreak. On Jan. 31, the Gucheng County Health Commission in Hebei Province reported four infections, with one more the next day. Residents were subjected to four large-scale testing for the CCP virus, also known as COVID-19, over the course of five days, according to reports. The results of confirmed instances, on the other hand, were not made public. Due to a lack of transparency in China’s pandemic reporting, the true situation, including the number of new cases, has yet to be validated. Due to the lack of transparency in China’s…

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China’s Ambition to Harness the Fourth Industrial Revolution Incomparable to America.

Since at least the turn of the century, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been experiencing a significant restructuring. For starters, it has spent years pursuing a mechanization and “informationization” “double construction” strategy. This “two-track” strategy called for near-term modernization of “existing equipment combined with the selective introduction of new generations of conventional weapons,” as well as a longer-term transformation of the PLA along the lines of the “revolution in military affairs” based on information technology (RMA). Officially, the PLA targets mechanization and “major progress” toward informationization by 2020, “complete military modernization” by 2035, and “world-class” military status by 2049. The PLA is currently focused on “informationization” in accordance with this timeline. Informationization refers to the application of information technologies to combined military operations on land, sea, air, space, cyberspace, and the electromagnetic spectrum. It also entails equipping the PLA with…

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China Starts Initiative to Become Technologically Autonomous Despite Semiconductor Challenges.

Beijing’s quest for “scientific and technological independence,” particularly in the semiconductor sector, has gotten mixed reactions from around the world. While overseas companies fear the measure will stifle innovation and disrupt global trade, some China experts feel China’s chip development quality and success rate aren’t likely to produce meaningful results. In October 2021, T-Head, Alibaba’s semiconductor division, revealed the E-Ten 710, a new CPU chip. The chip, which is reported to be 5 nanometers in size, will be utilized only for Alibaba’s cloud computing business, with no intentions to sell it to third parties, according to Alibaba. Alibaba’s cross-border chip development is tied to the Chinese Communist Party’s  “core making” objectives as an e-commerce powerhouse. China is the world’s largest chip consumer, accounting for around 36% of global consumption but just 15.9% of global output. Chip production is a primary objective…

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