China Reform Monitor No. 1512

FBI AND MI5 HEADS WARN OF CHINA THREAT
Standing together at MI5 headquarters in London, the heads of the U.S. and UK's security services used their first-ever joint appearance to warn an audience of business executives and university leaders about the threat from China. FBI director Christopher Wray said China was the "biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security" and had interfered in recent elections. The director of Britain's MI5, Ken McCallum, said his agency is now running seven times as many investigations related to CPC activities as they were in 2018, and was sharing intelligence about its cyber threats with 37 countries. McCallum called China's challenge "game-changing," while Wray called it "immense" and "breathtaking." Wray warned listeners that the CPC is using cyber espionage to "cheat and steal on a massive scale." He said "China has for far too long counted on being everybody's second-highest priority. They are not flying under the radar anymore." McCallum said the UK needed to become a "harder target" and ensure that all parts of society were more aware of the risks. (BBC, July 7, 2022)

PAKISTAN RESISTS BEIJING'S PRESSURE TO PROTECT ASSETS
Following recent attacks against Chinese interests in Pakistan, China's Ministry of State Security asked Pakistan to allow Chinese security companies to operate inside the country. Pakistan's Interior Ministry objected and assured Beijing that Pakistani security forces were able to protect Chinese nationals and assets in their country. Beijing's security concerns have grown since ten Chinese people were killed in a bus attack last year in Dasu. This April, the murder of three Chinese instructors and their driver at the Confucius Institute in Karachi "further pushed the Chinese to ask Pakistan to allow operations of Chinese security companies," according to an anonymous Pakistani official. About twenty of China's 5000 private security companies operate overseas. (Nikkei, June 28, 2022)

VAST CACHE OF HACKED CHINESE POLICE FILES OFFERED FOR SALE
An anonymous hacking group stole a vast trove of personal data on a billion Chinese citizens between 1995 and 2019 from the Shanghai police and is now selling it online. The hack of Aliyun, a cloud computing subsidiary of Alibaba Group, would rank among the biggest ever recorded and China's largest. A post by the hackers on a cybercrime forum offered the data for 10 Bitcoin, or roughly $200,000. It included a sample of 750,000 records, contained names, ID numbers, phone numbers, birthdays, birthplaces, and summaries of police reports from petty theft and cyber fraud to domestic violence. The Wall Street Journal verified several of the records by calling people to confirm details. (Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2022)

CHINA TO TAKE OVER THE MOON: NASA CHIEF
"We must be very concerned that China is landing on the moon and saying: 'It's ours now and you stay out," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has said. The U.S. space agency chief said China has a military-run space program based on stolen ideas and technology. In response, China's foreign ministry spokesman responded that: "The U.S. side has constantly constructed a smear campaign against China's normal and reasonable outer space endeavors." China has stepped up its space program with a focus on moon exploration. The PRC made its first unmanned lunar landing in 2013 and expects to have rockets powerful enough to send astronauts to the moon this decade. NASA's Artemis program plans to send a crewed mission to orbit the moon in 2024 and make a crewed landing near the lunar south pole by 2025. (Reuters, July 4, 2022)

CHINA CRUSHES PROTEST BY BANK DEPOSITORS
Authorities in Henan have violently dispersed a peaceful protest by hundreds of customers demanding their savings from four rural banks that have frozen millions in deposits. Having been ignored for months, more than 1,000 depositors gathered outside a branch of the country's central bank, the People's Bank of China, in Zhengzhou. The crowd, which arrived at 4am to avoid being intercepted, occupied a flight of stairs outside the bank, held up banners, waved Chinese flags, and chanted "Henan banks, return my savings!" Across the street, hundreds of security personnel massed until after 11am, when without warning they charged the stairs and clashed with protesters, who pelted them with bottles and other objects. Security officers beat and dragged protesters down the stairs and threw them into dozens of buses which sent them to makeshift detention sites in hotels, schools and factories across the city. Many were released in the late afternoon. "I did not expect them to be so violent and shameless this time. There was no communication, no warning," said one depositor. (CNN, July 11, 2022)