CHINESE
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FILE PHOTO – The entrance area and the showroom of German camera manufacturer Leica Camera AG are pictured at the Leica production site in Solms, 70km south-east of Frankfurt, September 13, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
April 21, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – Germany’s Leica Camera AG has distanced itself from a promotional video that depicts a news photographer covering democracy protests at Tiananmen Square amid a backlash on social media and broad censorship of the brand’s name.
The five-minute video, called “The Hunt”, includes a dramatized scene in which a photographer runs from Chinese-speaking policemen before capturing the iconic “tank-man” photograph of a protester standing in front of a convoy of tanks to block their path.
Mention of the June 4, 1989, event is heavily censored in Chinese news and social media, as well as related dates, names and symbols. The ruling Communist Party has never declared how many protesters were killed in the crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square, with many analysts putting the toll in the hundreds.
A spokesman for Leica, Dirk Große-Leege, said in a statement “the video was not commissioned, financed or approved by any company in the Leica Group. We expressly regret any confusion and will take further legal steps to prevent unauthorized use of our brand.”
Leica did not clarify how the promotional video was conceived, or comment on the company’s relationship with the Brazilian ad agency that created it, F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi.
F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, which previously produced promotional videos for Leica, produced “The Hunt” video and published the video on its Twitter account on April 16.
F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi did not respond to requests for comment, however a spokeswoman for the ad firm, Carolina Aranha, was quoted by Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post as saying the video was approved by Leica.
The backlash against the video in Chinese social media comes at a particularly sensitive time, ahead of the 30th anniversary of the protests.
Hundreds of people using Chinese social media site Weibo left comments on Leica’s recent posts, condemning the video before mentions of the company’s name were swiftly censored.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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FILE PHOTO: JD.com founder Richard Liu attends a Reuters interview in Hong Kong, China June 9, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo
April 20, 2019
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Hundreds of people have added their names to an online petition in support of a University of Minnesota student who said she was raped last August by Richard Liu, the chief executive officer of China’s e-commerce retailer JD.com Inc.
The student, Liu Jingyao, from China, filed a civil lawsuit against JD’s CEO in a Minneapolis court on Tuesday, nearly four months after prosecutors declined to press criminal charges against him.
The law suit identified the student for the first time. The two Lius are not related.
Richard Liu, through his lawyers, maintained his innocence throughout the law enforcement investigation, which ended in December. The company did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
It was unclear who launched the petition, which carried the hashtag #HereForJingyao, although signatories included Chinese students at foreign universities as well as in China. On Saturday, it was gathering momentum on the social media platform WeChat, with more than 500 names attached.
“To Liu Jingyao: You are not alone. We believe in survivors, we believe in your bravery and honesty, we will always stand with you. We must join hands and march together in the face of the challenge of a culture of blaming the victims of rape,” the petition said.
A Chinese-language translation of the indictment was also circulating online.
Liu Jingyao first accused Richard Liu of rape in August when he was visiting the University of Minnesota to attend a program directed at executives from China.
Liu, 46, who started JD.com as a humble electronics stall and expanded it into an e-commerce company with 2018 net revenues of $67 billion, was arrested on Aug. 31 but released without charge about 17 hours later.
A fledgling #MeToo-style movement in support of women’s rights has been slow to gain wide traction in China, where issues like sexual assault have traditionally been brushed under the carpet.
China’s ruling Communist Party, wary about grassroots organizing, has also in recent months put pressure on activists focused on issues like sexual assault on campuses and workers’ rights.
(Reporting by John Ruwitch and Shu Zhang; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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A female soldier of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy stands guard at a news conference ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, in Qingdao, China, April 20, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee
April 20, 2019
By Ben Blanchard
QINGDAO, China (Reuters) – China will show off new warships including nuclear submarines and destroyers at a parade next week marking 70 years since its navy’s founding, a senior commander said on Saturday, as Beijing flexes its increasingly well-equipped military muscle.
President Xi Jinping is overseeing a sweeping plan to refurbish the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) by developing everything from stealth jets to aircraft carriers as China ramps up its presence in the South China Sea and around self-ruled Taiwan.
The navy has been a key beneficiary of the modernization plan as China looks to project power far from the country’s shores and protect its trading routes and citizens overseas.
Last month, Beijing unveiled a target of 7.5 percent rise in defense spending for this year, a slower rate than last year but still outpacing China’s economic growth target.
Deputy naval commander Qiu Yanpeng told reporters in the eastern city of Qingdao that Tuesday’s naval parade – likely to be overseen by Xi himself, though China has not confirmed that – will feature 32 vessels and 39 aircraft.
“The PLA Navy ship and aircraft to be revealed are the Liaoning aircraft carrier, new types of nuclear submarines, new types of destroyers, as well as fighter aircraft,” Qiu said, without giving details. “Some ships will be revealed for the first time.”
The Liaoning, the country’s first carrier, was bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998 and refitted in China.
It’s not clear if China’s second carrier, an as-yet unnamed ship developed and built purely in China, will also take part, but in the past few days state media has run stories praising recent sea trials.
Around a dozen foreign navies are also taking part. While Qiu did not give an exact number, China has announced the parade would include ships from Russia, Singapore, India, Thailand and Vietnam – which frequently complains of Chinese military activity in the disputed South China Sea.
China’s last naval battles were with the Vietnamese in the South China Sea, in 1974 and 1988, though these were relatively minor skirmishes.
Chinese navy ships have also participated in international anti-piracy patrols off Somalia’s coast since late 2008.
STRONG NAVY ‘ESSENTIAL’
Qiu reiterated China’s frequent stance that its armed forces are not a threat to anyone and that no matter what happens it will never “pursue hegemony”.
“It is fair to say that the PLA Navy has not brought war or turbulence to any place,” Qiu said.
But China has been scared by its past and needs good defenses at sea, he added.
“A strong navy is essential for building a strong maritime country,” Qiu said. “From 1840 to 1949, China was invaded by foreign powers from the sea more than 470 times, which caused untold suffering and deep wounds to the Chinese nation.”
China has frequently had to rebuff concerns about its military intentions, especially as military spending continues to scale new heights.
Beijing says it has nothing to hide, and has invited foreign media to cover next week’s naval parade and related activities, including a keynote speech by navy chief Shen Jinlong, who is close to Xi.
Zhang Junshe, a researcher at the PLA’s Naval Research Academy, told reporters after Qiu had spoken that inviting foreign navies to take part in the parade was a sign of China’s openness and self-confidence, noting China had also done this for the 60th anniversary in 2009.
“New nuclear submarines and new warships will be shown – this further goes to show that China’s navy is open and transparent,” said Zhang.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
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A Huawei logo is pictured during the media day for the Shanghai auto show in Shanghai, China April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song
April 20, 2019
(Reuters) – U.S. intelligence has accused Huawei Technologies of being funded by Chinese state security, The Times said on Saturday, adding to the list of allegations faced by the Chinese technology company in the West.
The CIA accused Huawei of receiving funding from China’s National Security Commission, the People’s Liberation Army and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network, the British newspaper reported, citing a source.
Earlier this year, U.S. intelligence shared its claims with other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group, which includes Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, according to the report http://bit.ly/2KT7ztd.
Huawei dismissed the allegations in a statement cited by the newspaper.
“Huawei does not comment on unsubstantiated allegations backed up by zero evidence from anonymous sources,” a Huawei representative told The Times.
The company, the CIA and Chinese state security agencies did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The accusation comes at a time of trade tensions between Washington and Beijing and amid concerns in the United States that Huawei’s equipment could be used for espionage. The company has said the concerns are unfounded.
Authorities in the United States are probing Huawei for alleged sanctions violations.
Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and daughter of its founder, Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada in December at the request of the United States on charges of bank and wire fraud in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran.
She denies wrongdoing and her father has previously said the arrest was “politically motivated”.
Amid such charges, top educational institutions in the West have recently severed ties with Huawei to avoid losing federal funding.
Another Chinese technology company, ZTE Corp, has also been at the center of similar controversies in the United States.
U.S. sanctions forced ZTE to stop most business between April and July last year after Commerce Department officials said it broke a pact and was caught illegally shipping U.S.-origin goods to Iran and North Korea. The sanctions were lifted after ZTE paid $1.4 billion in penalties.
Reuters reported earlier this week that the United States will push its allies at a meeting in Prague next month to adopt shared security and policy measures that will make it more difficult for Huawei to dominate 5G telecommunications networks.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump’s lead attorneys Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani react after Attorney General William Barr sent lawmakers a summary of the key findings in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, at an office in Washington, U.S., March 24, 2019. Picture taken March 24, 2019. Courtesy of Peter Halmagyi/Handout via REUTERS.
April 19, 2019
By Karen Freifeld
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers spent at least 10 hours reviewing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election before it was made public, two of the lawyers told Reuters on Friday.
Rudy Giuliani, Jay Sekulow and two other Trump lawyers went to the U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday and Wednesday for an early look at the 448-page report into whether Trump’s team colluded with Russia and whether Trump obstructed the investigation, which was released to the public on Thursday.
Attorney General William Barr, who has drawn criticism from Democratic lawmakers over his handling of the Mueller probe, said on Thursday that both White House counsel and Trump’s personal lawyers had been allowed to review the redacted report.
Barr gave no details about how much access they were given but Sekulow and Giuliani said they reviewed copies of the report from about 4 p.m. until at least 9 p.m. on Tuesday and from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, taking notes on legal pads.
The lawyers said they gave up their cellphones and other electronic devices before being led into a Justice Department conference room in a restricted area known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), designed to ensure secret information stays secure.
“We were doing a lot of reading, not talking,” Sekulow told Reuters, referring to himself, Giuliani, and Jane and Marty Raskin.
“I had at least 30 pages of notes,” said Giuliani.
Sekulow pushed back against Democrats’ complaints that Barr had tried to help Trump by giving his lawyers an early look at the report.
“Our client was the subject of an inquiry,” Sekulow said, explaining that the team of lawyers sent a note to the Justice Department last week asking to see the report. “We believed it was an appropriate request to make.”
The disclosure followed news reports this week that Justice Department officials discussed Mueller’s conclusions with White House lawyers before the release.
Giuliani said the preview reassured them that the report did not contain any bombshells.
“It gave us some confidence the people who hate him will hate him, the people who love him will love him, and the people in between were not going to be persuaded,” he said.
After the first session, the lawyers went back to Sekulow’s Capitol Hill offices, ordered in Chinese food and created an outline of their own about the most important details in the report, they said.
On Wednesday night, they went out for Mexican food. And on Thursday night, after the report’s release, they celebrated at the Trump International Hotel in Washington.
Although Mueller’s team described in detail the extensive contact Trump’s team had with Russia during the election campaign and how Trump tried to impede the investigation, it stopped short of concluding he had committed a crime or that his aides had conspired with Moscow.
The team of personal lawyers was happy with the result. “No collusion and no obstruction,” Sekulow said, using a phrase often repeated by Trump.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Kieran Murray and Bill Rigby)
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Watergate journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein Friday said they have concerns after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, with Woodward saying the document points to a crisis in President Donald Trump’s administration and Bernstein seeing it as evidence of a coverup.
“The government can’t pause and take months to thrash it out, Woodward told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I believe from reporting that there is a governing crisis in the Trump administration.”
With North Korea, the Chinese trade and tariff debate, and the immigration questions, the “Trump administration really just doesn’t work [as] all the people who have more experience are gone,” Woodward added. “I worry about a crisis.”
And if that happens, Trump doesn’t “have a strategy on any of these issues, and he does not now have a team that can work together, said Woodward.
The campaign ” knew and happily welcomed” Russia’s aid, he added, which means the continuing threat of Russian interference is “very real.”
Meanwhile, Bernstein told CNN’s “New Day” that he believes the report shows that there is “no question that this has been a vast presidential coverup” and Congress must be able to see all the facts in the document “without the kind of muddled water” that Attorney General William Barr provided with his descriptions.
“The cover-up is in the 10 or 11 areas that the special prosecutor laid out as possible or likely obstructions of justice,” he added. “When you add it all up you get a picture in which the two parts of the report fuse together and it is a picture of an administration and a presidency and a campaign that crosses boundaries such as we have never seen with the possible exception of Watergate.”
Source: NewsMax Politics
An aerial view of tulip fields near the city of Creil, Netherlands April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman
April 19, 2019
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – As spring flower fields around the Netherlands burst into bloom, painting the countryside with dazzling swathes of red, white, and blue, a modern day tulip bubble may be forming: tourists.
More than a million foreign sightseers are expected to visit this country of 17 million people on Easter weekend, a record, the Dutch Tourism Bureau said on Thursday.
Director Jos Vranken said he expects them to spend 300 million euros — a boon for the national economy. Many are attracted to the country’s museums and other cultural offerings, but in April, the flower fields and Keukenhof flower show in The Hague top many “must see” lists.
While flower lovers and the photographs they share on social media are free advertising for the country’s tourism, cut flower and bulb industries, it isn’t all a bed of roses.
“That has a downside,” Vranken said. “Farmers are having increasing damage to their fields from tourists taking photos.”
Foreign and Dutch tourists alike have learned to use “Flower Radar” websites to identify where fields are in bloom, especially in the main bulb-growing center known as the “Bollenstreek” along the coast between Haarlem and Leiden.
DO NOT TIPTOE THROUGH THE TULIPS
Signs and barricades — now printed in Chinese and English — saying “Enjoy the Flowers, Respect Our Pride” have gone up at the edge of many fields.
They illustrate the concept that taking photos at the edge of a field is okay, but actually walking among the flowers to take pictures ruins them.
Meanwhile, farmers in less-promoted areas of the country sense an opportunity.
In Creil, northwest of Amsterdam, one enterprising group has set up a “Tulip Experience” complete with designated selfie area, hundreds of tulip varieties on display, helicopter tours, food and drinks, and bouncy castles for kids.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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FILE PHOTO: Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China April 1, 2019. Kenzaburo Fukuhara/KYODONEWS/Pool via REUTERS
April 19, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – A top decision-making body of China’s ruling Communist Party met on Friday to discuss the current economic situation, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The report said Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over the politburo meeting. It did not elaborate on specifics of what was discussed at the meeting.
(Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
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A woman walks past an advertisement on an elevator showing Huawei P30 series phones with a camera system co-developed with Leica, in Shanghai, China April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song
April 19, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – Germany’s Leica Camera AG drew criticism on Chinese social media over a video depicting a news photographer covering the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square three decades ago.
The five-minute dramatization, released this week, touches on a highly sensitive topic in China. The ruling Communist Party has never declared how many people died in the crackdown and discussion of the incident is censored on social media.
The video shows the photographer hiding and running from Chinese-speaking policemen before taking a picture that has come to symbolize the protests – the “tank man” – a protester standing in front of a convoy of tanks to block their path. The video ends with the Leica logo.
The hashtag “Leica insulting China” surfaced on China’s Twitter-like Weibo late on Thursday, before being censored. Users left hundreds of comments on Leica’s official Weibo account criticizing the company for the video.
“Get out of China, you are done,” one user posted.
Others cheered the video as daring ahead of the 30th anniversary of the crackdown on June 4, but the majority of posts were scrubbed from Chinese social media by Friday and the comments section on two of its most recent Weibo posts were disabled.
Users were also prevented from posting messages using Leica’s English or Chinese name with warnings that they were violating laws, regulations or the Weibo community guidelines.
Leica did not respond to several calls and emails from Reuters seeking comment on the video, which included other dramatizations about news photography.
However, Leica spokeswoman Emily Anderson was quoted by Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post as saying the video was not an officially sanctioned marketing film commissioned by the firm.
“Leica Camera AG must therefore distance itself from the content shown in the video and regrets any misunderstandings or false conclusions that may have been drawn,” it quoted her as saying by email, adding that the firm had taken measures to not share the film on Leica’s social media channels.
The video was created by Brazilian ad agency F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi and published on its verified Twitter account on April 16 with a tweet in Portuguese that said: “Inspired by the stories of photographers who spare no effort so that everyone can witness reality, Leica pays tribute to these brave professionals.”
Advertising websites such as Ads of the World republished the video saying it was created for Leica.
Some netizens suggested the video could put pressure on Chinese telecoms equipment provider Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, which uses Leica lenses in its flagship high-end phones.
Huawei declined to comment while F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, which has previously produced videos for Leica, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Several foreign companies have been tripped up by touching on certain topics that can provoke strong public reactions in China, including calls for boycotts.
Last year, companies ranging from Delta Air Lines to Muji were criticized by the Chinese government and netizens for the language they used to describe Taiwan, a self-ruled, democratic island that Beijing considers a wayward province.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Neil Fullick)
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FILE PHOTO: A Qualcomm sign is seen during the China International Import Expo (CIIE), at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, China November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song
April 19, 2019
(Reuters) – A joint venture between U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm Inc and China’s Guizhou province will shut down by the end of the month, The Information reported on Friday, citing employees at the venture.
The joint venture, Huaxintong Semiconductor (HXT), was formed in 2016 for the design, development and sale of advanced server technology.
Executives at the venture said in internal meetings on Thursday that it would close by April 30, The Information said, adding that Qualcomm and Guizhou province had invested a combined $570 million in HXT as of August 2018.
The development follows a report from earlier this month, which said the venture’s chief executive had been replaced and that its work on future chips had either slowed or stalled.
Qualcomm did not respond to a request for comment outside regular U.S. business hours. HXT could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
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