Pun intended, but absolutely no slur (as anyone who follows this blog would know); it was just a catchy title for these two articles:
"Michelle Obama urges free speech in China; She extols rights for news media, Web in China" by Jane Perlez | New York Times March 23, 2014
BEIJING — On a visit that was supposed to be nonpolitical, Michelle Obama delivered an unmistakable message to the Chinese on Saturday, saying in a speech here that freedom of speech, particularly on the Internet and in the news media, provided the foundation for a vibrant society.
Related: Propagandists to be Protected
But not me.
On the second day of a weeklong trip to China with her two daughters and her mother, the US first lady spoke to an audience of Americans and Chinese at Peking University.
Related:
"Michelle Obama plans to avoid politics and focus on education and people-to-people contacts on her first visit to China. She arrived Thursday, traveling with her mother and two daughters on the seven-day, three-city visit. Her schedule over the next week includes...."
Someone doesn't look to happy about the trip!
"Michelle Obama met with President Xi Jinping on Friday, the first day of her weeklong visit to China, in a sign that the leaders of the world’s two largest economies are seeking to build stronger bonds. The formal meeting between Obama and Xi, in the company of Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan, and Obama’s two daughters and mother, took place in a state guesthouse after the first lady toured a Beijing high school and the former Imperial Palace. Obama thanked Xi for the warm reception for herself and her family. ‘‘We have had a wonderful first day here in China,’’ she told Xi. Later in the morning, Peng went with Obama to the former Imperial Palace in Beijing. That was to be followed by a private dinner and a performance. On Saturday, Obama is to speak at Peking University."
She is getting more coverage than her husband.
In the middle of an appeal for more US students to study abroad, she also spoke of the value for people of hearing “all sides of every argument.”
“Time and again, we have seen that countries are stronger and more prosperous when the voices and opinions of all their citizens can be heard,” she said.
The United States, she said, respected the “uniqueness” of other cultures and societies.
Before we bomb you based on lies.
“But when it comes to expressing yourself freely,” she said, “and worshipping as you choose, and having open access to information — we believe those are universal rights that are the birthright of every person on this planet.”
Does that include Palestinians?
Obama’s trip also took on political overtones when she was granted a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.
Xi arrived in the Netherlands on Saturday on the first state visit by a Chinese president to that country. He will attend next week’s nuclear security summit in The Hague. Amnesty International led a protest on Amsterdam’s central Dam Square to call attention to human rights abuses in China.
Michelle Obama’s forthright exposition of the American belief in freedom of speech came against a backdrop of broad censorship of the Internet by the Chinese government.
The government polices the Internet to prevent the nation’s 500 million users from seeing antigovernment sentiment, and it blocks a variety of foreign websites, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The authorities compel domestic Internet sites to censor themselves.
Oh, now I under$tand the concern.
Criticism of China’s top leadership is quickly deleted and is considered to be of particular concern to censors. Obliquely, Obama drew attention to this by making a comparison with the situation she and President Obama face in the United States.
“My husband and I are on the receiving end of plenty of questioning and criticism from our media and our fellow citizens,” she said. “And it’s not always easy, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”
I'm going to hold you to that, lady.
The White House stressed that Michelle Obama’s trip to China during the spring break of her daughters, Malia and Sasha, is intended to highlight the importance of education — foreign exchanges in particular.
Obama appeared at the Stanford University complex at Peking University, where she spoke to an audience of several hundred American students studying in China and some Chinese students who had studied in the United States.
In her speech, Obama said that study abroad should not be just the preserve of the rich.
It shouldn't be, but it is.
--more--"
I wonder if she is ordering out while she is there.
See if you can get this down:
"NSA compromised servers of Chinese firm, data show; Pathway created by US to company called a spy threat" by David E. Sanger | New York Times March 23, 2014
WASHINGTON — US officials have long considered Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications company, a security threat, blocking it from business deals in the United States for fear that it would create “back doors” in its equipment that could allow the Chinese military or Beijing-backed hackers to steal corporate and government secrets.
But even as the United States made a public case about the dangers of buying from Huawei, classified documents show that the National Security Agency was creating its own back doors — directly into Huawei’s networks.
The agency pried its way into the servers in Huawei’s sealed headquarters in Shenzhen, China’s industrial heart, according to NSA documents provided by former contractor Edward J. Snowden. It obtained information about the workings of the giant routers and complex digital switches that Huawei boasts connect one-third of the world’s population, and monitored communications of the company’s top executives.
One of the goals of the operation, code-named “Shotgiant,” was to find any links between Huawai and the People’s Liberation Army, one 2010 document made clear. But the plans went further: to exploit Huawai’s technology so that when the company sells equipment to other countries — including both allies and nations that avoid buying US products — the NSA can roam their computer and phone networks to conduct surveillance and, if ordered by the president, offensive cyberoperations.
I'll keep that in mind when the U.S. hollers hackers!
“Many of our targets communicate over Huawei-produced products,’’ the NSA document said. “We want to make sure that we know how to exploit these products,” it added, to “gain access to networks of interest” around the world.
The documents were disclosed by The New York Times and Der Spiegel, and are also part of a book by Der Spiegel, “The NSA Complex.” The documents, as well as interviews with intelligence officials, offer new insights into America’s escalating digital Cold War with Beijing. While President Obama and China’s president, Xi Jinping, have begun talks about limiting the cyber conflict, it appears to be intensifying.
The NSA, for example, is tracking more than 20 Chinese hacking groups — more than half of them Chinese army and navy units — as they break into the networks of the US government, companies including Google and drone and nuclear-weapon part makers, according to current and former US officials.
Uh-huh.
If anything, they said, the pace has increased since the revelation last year that some of the most aggressive Chinese hacking originated at a People’s Liberation Army facility, Unit 61398, in Shanghai.
The Obama administration distinguishes between the hacking and corporate theft that the Chinese conduct against US companies to buttress their own state-run businesses, and the intelligence operations the United States conducts against Chinese and other targets.
US officials have repeatedly said that the NSA breaks into foreign networks only for legitimate national security purposes.
And who could ever doubt U.S. officials?
A White House spokeswoman, Caitlin M. Hayden, said: “We do not give intelligence we collect to US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line. Many countries cannot say the same.”
Related: THE BUGGING OF THE APEC IN SEATTLE
Then Caity is a liar, ain't she?
But that does not mean the US government does not conduct its own form of corporate spying with a different goals.
The documents offer no answer to a central question: Is Huawei an independent company, as its leaders contend, or a front for the People’s Liberation Army, as US officials suggest but have never publicly proven?
--more--"
That puts the Locke on posts for today.
