2026-02-19
If the State Department absolutely wants to spend US taxpayer money on a portal exhibiting Holocaust denial and hate speech banned in Germany, that's the US government's choice. Germany should be pretty chill about it. Won't make much of a difference.
Reuters
Sources: the US State Department is building an online portal at freedom.gov that will let users in Europe and elsewhere see content banned by their governments
The U.S. State Department is developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned …
If the State Department absolutely wants to spend US taxpayer money on a portal exhibiting Holocaust denial and hate speech banned in Germany, that's the US government's choice. Germany should be pretty chill about it. Won't make much of a difference.
The Guardian
Sources and docs: the US “effectively gutted” the Internet Freedom program that dispensed $500M+ since 2016 to help build tech to evade state internet controls
Programme that funds groups building tech to evade oppressive government controls under serious threat
2025-11-15
A lot of credit to Merz here. He corrects fundamental failures by both Merkel and Scholz who gave in to Deutsche Telekom and other Huawei cheerleaders.
Politico
Germany approves legislation granting Interior Ministry new powers to ban Chinese tech suppliers from critical infrastructure sectors like energy and transport
Sam Clark / Politico :
At final last Merz is doing the right thing for Germany. Germany should have excluded Chinese high-risk providers from 5G critical infrastructure six years ago. Better late than never. [image]
Politico
Germany approves legislation granting Interior Ministry new powers to ban Chinese tech suppliers from critical infrastructure sectors like energy and transport
Sam Clark / Politico :
2024-12-27
All this (including often neglected issue of investing in repair capabilities) makes sense. But more is needed to impose costs on those behind these acts. Otherwise no increase of deterrence against grey zone attacks. [image]
Financial Times
Finland says it suspects an oil tanker in Russia's shadow fleet of damaging three undersea internet cables on December 25, the latest Baltic Sea cable damaged
Richard Milne / Financial Times :
2024-11-27
“It's extremely unlikely the captain would not have noticed that his ship dropped & dragged its anchor, losing speed for hours & cutting cables on the way,” said a senior European investigator. @bopanc on possible Sino (or Sino-Russian) cable sabotage. https://www.wsj.com/...
Wall Street Journal
Sources: investigators suspect Chinese ship Yi Peng 3 dragged its anchor for 100+ miles to sever two Baltic internet cables, possibly at the behest of Russia
NATO warships surround Yi Peng 3, a Chinese bulk carrier at the center of an international probe into suspected sabotage Bluesky: @martinsfp.bsky.social . X: @auonsson , @airassets...
2024-07-17
„Taiwan should pay us for defense. You know, we're no different than an insurance company. Taiwan doesn't give us anything. Taiwan is 9,500 miles away. It's 68 miles away from 🇨🇳". „Taiwan took our chip business from us, I mean, how stupid are we?". https://www.bloomberg.com/... [image]
Bloomberg
Donald Trump says “I'm for TikTok, because you need competition”, and “if you don't have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram” and “that's Zuckerberg”
It's late June, and Donald Trump is plotting his next presidency in the gilded offseason isolation of the Mar-a-Lago Club.
Biden considering imposing “draconian” FDPR on semiconductor technology exports by allies — with Netherlands, Japan, Korea key targets. Germany's Zeiss & Trumpf might also be affected by new US efforts to keep “as large a lead as possible” over China. https://www.bloomberg.com/... [image]
Bloomberg
Sources: the US is mulling imposing the foreign direct product rule, seen as draconian by allies, on Tokyo Electron and ASML's chip equipment business in China
- Restrictions would hit technology from Tokyo Electron and ASML — US companies like Lam have urged softer approach in meetings
2024-03-26
UK couldn't be clearer in its statement on 🇨🇳 activities. 🇪🇺 countries should strongly stand by UK. It shouldn't take 5 painful paragraphs before EEAS drafters get themselves to include weak mention of the threat actor at the heart of this: Beijing. https://www.gov.uk/... [image]
BleepingComputer
The US and the UK sanction a Wuhan-based company linked to the Chinese state-backed hacking group APT31 for targeting critical infrastructure organizations
APT31 has a focus on political targets, but also high tech and intellectual property — The benign emails with tracking links followed by remote exploitation of routers is a usually...
UK couldn't be clearer in its statement on 🇨🇳 activities. 🇪🇺 countries should strongly stand by UK. It shouldn't take 5 painful paragraphs before EEAS drafters get themselves to include weak mention of the threat actor at the heart of this: Beijing. https://www.gov.uk/... [image]
CNBC
The UK says Chinese state-affiliated actors were responsible for a “malicious cyber campaign” on the country's Electoral Commission between 2021 and 2022
2023-12-12
Macron: “We can decide to regulate much faster and much stronger than our major competitors. But we will regulate things that we will no longer produce or invent. This is never a good idea”. https://www.ft.com/...
Financial Times
Emmanuel Macron warns the EU's AI Act risks hampering tech companies compared to US, UK, and China rivals, and says France is “neck and neck with the British”
French president argues landmark rules may leave European tech companies lagging rivals in US, UK and China
2023-12-07
The courage of Tang Mingfang. @YuanfenYang on how one Chinese man stood up against the abuse of teenage labour at a plant of Taiwan's Foxconn producing for Amazon. Nothing has changed — except for him. https://www.ft.com/...
Financial Times
A profile of Chinese whistleblower Tang Mingfang, who is still paying the price for calling out injustices at a Foxconn factory making Amazon devices in 2019
Four years after Tang Mingfang called out the injustices he witnessed at a Foxconn factory in China, nothing has changed — except for him X: @thorstenbenner and @neilos49 LinkedIn:...
2023-07-05
We can be grateful to Beijing for this timely reminder that EU & US have not nearly done enough to reduce reliance on critical materials on a Chinese party state that will not shy away from using these dependencies for political gain. https://www.marketwatch.com/ ...
Financial Times
South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan are assessing the fallout from China's limits on chipmaking chemicals gallium and germanium; Japan imported $203.2M worth in 2022
2023-01-31
Regardless of whether you think ever escalating US sanctions against Huawei are smart, clearly it's not smart for Germany to rely on such a heavily sanctioned company for more than 50% of 5G RAN. About time to change course, @NancyFaeser @BMI_Bund. https://www.ft.com/...
Financial Times
Sources: the Department of Commerce told some companies the Biden administration stopped giving licenses for exporting US tech to Huawei ahead of a total ban
Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times :
2022-12-23
TSMC in talks with key suppliers to set up first European plant in Dresden. TSMC team will come to Germany for talks with government & possible local suppliers in early 2023. https://asia.nikkei.com/...
Financial Times
Sources: TSMC is in advanced talks with key suppliers about setting up its first European plant in Dresden, Germany; construction could begin in early 2024
Company to send senior executives to Dresden early next year to discuss potential factory project in Germany
2021-12-14
When pandemic control meets smart cities: lessons from South Korea. https://twitter.com/...
Los Angeles Times
A look at a “smart city” project near Busan, as the South Korean government normalizes surveillance by repurposing its “smart city” systems to battle COVID-19
Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times : Tweets: @ideafaktory , @niklaskossow , @margotroosevelt , @timonpoint , @thorstenbenner , @latimes , and @vicjkim Tweets: Steve Faktor / @ideafa...
2021-01-30
„Clumsily executed & easy to identify". How faux journalism sites like EU Reporter & lawyers paid to write pro Huawei opinions become part of Huawei's online campaigns pushed by fake accounts & Huawei trolls. https://www.nytimes.com/...
New York Times
Graphika: Huawei officials retweeted messages from fake accounts on Twitter to spread a pro-5G influence campaign in Belgium; Huawei is investigating the claim
A covert online push to sway telecommunications policy in favor of the Chinese company may presage a new twist in social manipulation. Source: Graphika .
2020-11-30
“This groundbreaking bill will give UK one of toughest telecoms security regimes in the world & allow us to take action necessary to protect our networks.” New UK bill paves way toward complete removal of Huawei high-risk gear from 5G networks by 2027. https://www.gov.uk/...
Bloomberg
The UK will ban the installation of new Huawei 5G network equipment starting September 2021, after initially announcing a 2027 timeframe in July
- Britain set to impose security law on mobile network operators — White House pushed allies to exclude Chinese tech giant Huawei
2020-09-28
“In the worst-case scenario, SMIC is completely cut off, which would severely set back China's ability to produce chips. This would be tipping point for US-China relations”. @pstAsiatech on US move to cut off China's most important semiconductor manufacturer from US technology. https://twitter.com/...
Financial Times
US sets export restrictions on China's biggest chipmaker SMIC, saying exports to SMIC posed an “unacceptable risk” of being diverted to “military end use”
2020-09-27
“In the worst-case scenario, SMIC is completely cut off, which would severely set back China's ability to produce chips. This would be tipping point for US-China relations”. @pstAsiatech on US move to cut off China's most important semiconductor manufacturer from US technology. https://twitter.com/...
Financial Times
US sets export restrictions on China's biggest chipmaker SMIC, saying exports to SMIC posed an “unacceptable risk” of being diverted to “military end use”
Move against SMIC further hurts chip sector after penalties on Huawei — The US government …