News About Cyber Warfare

San Francisco (AFP) Nov 1, 2024 – Silicon Valley, a stronghold of Democratic politics, is experiencing a shift as more voices, seemingly emboldened by Elon Musk, have openly declared their support for Donald Trump. The South African-born tech mogul is leading this change, committing nearly $100 million to the Republican’s presidential campaign, while leveraging his X social media platform and personally campaigning in crucial swing states to aid Trump’s White House bid. “Musk is revered by a lot of people in Silicon Valley,” said tech entrepreneur and author Vivek Wadhwa, who teaches at Carnegie Mellon University. “More people on the right are just saying ‘Look, we’re fed up, we’re going to vote for Trump,’ and they’re doing it fearlessly and are impacting the opinion of others.” Musk’s embrace of Trump has amplified ideological currents that have long existed quietly in the California tech scene, best represented today by Peter Thiel, a conservative investor who worked with Musk at PayPal 25 years ago. PayPal veteran David Sacks, a college friend of Thiel’s, co-hosted a high-profile fundraiser for Trump in San Francisco in June and spoke at the Republicans’ nominating convention. Nick Pinkston, founder and CEO of Volition, noted that many conservative voices, led by Thiel, have always been present, guided by libertarian principles. “Some of those people were already conservative, and now they’re given more license to speak,” he said. According to Pinkston, who closely follows tech-world politics, this group has grown disillusioned with today’s version of democracy and sees Trump as a ticket to less government and lower taxes. – ‘It’s gone too far’ – Trump secured only 34 percent of California’s vote in 2020 — and just 12.7 percent in San Francisco — but recent developments have given voice to anti-progressive sentiment. A perceived, if statistically nonexistent, rise in crime, and the city’s strict Covid-19 regulations, which led to the temporary closure of companies like Tesla, drew bitter criticism, with Republicans slamming San Francisco as out of control. “San Francisco is far more left than the rest of the country, and many people think it’s gone too far,” said Sheel Mohnot, a Fintech investor. “We have a lot of problems — crime, homelessness, et cetera — and people are just wanting to pivot hard against that.” These Silicon Valley conservatives argue that progressive policies focusing on diversity, inclusion and LGBTQ+ rights have come at the expense of addressing crime and taxes, and advancing innovation. “People are fed up with the extremism of the proclaimed progressives, how they have made San Francisco a complete mess and chased out companies such as Tesla,” Wadhwa said. Pinkston insisted that most tech workers remain relatively apolitical but vote Democratic in presidential elections. “The typical worker is a centrist Democrat,” he said, and not part of a group “that spends a lot of time thinking about women, for sure.” Abortion rights, protected in California but abolished or sharply limited in many American states, are a major theme of Democrat Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. For Lawrence Quill, professor of political theory at San Jose State University, the start-ups of the early days of innovation have grown up. “In the 1970s and ’80s, technology companies…thought of themselves as revolutionaries, good guys.” “That simplistic view of morality is hard to maintain in a global marketplace,” he said, adding, “Consider the issues surrounding Apple and Google doing business in China.” – Many techies still lay low – While some billionaire tech leaders, notably including Musk, have been outspoken, most are avoiding political involvement. Trump’s relationship with this group has been contentious. During his presidency, he frequently criticized Amazon, allegedly denying the company a major defense contract due to his animosity toward founder Jeff Bezos. Bezos recently prohibited the Washington Post, which he owns, from endorsing any presidential candidate, while Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reportedly initiated informal discussions with Trump. Other tech giants are similarly distancing themselves from politics and trying not to offend Trump. Mark Zuckerberg has stopped election-related philanthropy, while his company Meta has modified its algorithms to reduce political content. Trump claims to have received calls from Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook. But as their bosses lay low, opponents to Musk and Trump still outnumber their fans among “techies.” “Objectively, ‘you’ are the biggest threat to democracy in America today,” Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun replied to a Musk post last week. “You are an oligarch who bought himself a huge megaphone so he could use it to support a would-be dictator, and to discredit…all the institutions necessary for a functioning democracy,” he added.

Berlin (AFP) Nov 7, 2024 – An American former employee of US military forces stationed in Germany has been arrested for allegedly offering to pass information about them on to China, German prosecutors said Thursday. According to prosecutors, the man named only as “Martin D.” was held “on suspicion of expressing willingness to undertake intelligence activities for a foreign intelligence service,” adding that he had “contacted Chinese officials in 2024 and offered to hand them sensitive information about the US military.” Prosecutors said that he had been arrested in Frankfurt on Thursday and that his apartment had also been searched. They say he had worked for US forces “until recently” and that he offered to give China “information he gained as part of his work for US forces”. The investigation is being carried out “in close co-ordination” with German intelligence, they said. Last month Germany said it planned to tighten security checks for staff in sensitive areas of government and business amid growing espionage fears. Berlin has seen an increase in suspected spying cases linked to Russia since the Ukraine war, and to China with ties to Beijing under growing pressure. In the most high-profile case alleged to involve China, an aide to a German far-right member of the European Parliament was arrested in April on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

Beijing (AFP) Nov 6, 2024 – A former high-level Chinese government employee has been sentenced to death for leaking state secrets to a foreign power, Beijing’s spy agency said Wednesday. The individual surnamed Zhang “provided a large number of top secret and classified state secrets to foreign intelligence agencies,” the Ministry of State Security said in a post to its official WeChat account. In his job, Zhang had access to “a large number of state secrets”, the ministry said. He was recruited and became a “puppet” after leaving that job and began handing foreign spy agencies state secrets in exchange for cash, the ministry said. “Zhang… was weak in character and unable to resist the temptation of money,” it added. The ministry did not specify which state organization employed Zhang, nor did it give his full name. It accused a foreign spy surnamed Li of luring Zhang to an unnamed country with the promise of “experiencing exotic customs”, where they pressured him into becoming a double agent. Zhang was sentenced to death following an investigation, it added. A colleague who assisted him, surnamed Zhu, was given six years in jail, it said. No details were given about when he would be executed. China classifies death penalty statistics as a state secret, though rights groups including Amnesty believe thousands of people are executed in the country every year. Under Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful and authoritarian leader in decades, Beijing has stepped up dark warnings that foreign powers are seeking to clip the country’s rise. Beijing has warned that spies are working to lure loyal Chinese to betray their country, often in lurid and unusual ways. Its highly-secretive Ministry of State Security has also taken to sharing news of its findings on social media. In September, it warned students with access to sensitive information against falling for “handsome men” or “beautiful women” that might entice them to spy And in June, it accused Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency of recruiting a couple who worked for the central government to spy for the UK. China and Western powers have long traded accusations of spying but only recently started to disclose details of alleged individual cases. The United States Central Intelligence Agency last month posted instructions in Chinese on social media on how to securely contact the agency.

Washington DC (UPI) Nov 12, 2024 – President-elect Donald Trump announced his choice Tuesday for CIA Director, tapping his former intelligence chief John Ratcliffe, who he called a “warrior of truth.” “I am pleased to announce that former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe will serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency,” Trump wrote in a statement on Truth Social, which included claims about Ratcliffe “exposing fake Russian collusion” in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and exposing “intelligence officials lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop.” “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our nation’s highest Intelligence positions,” Trump added. “He will be a fearless fighter for the Constitutional rights of all Americans, while ensuring the highest levels of national security and peace through strength.” Ratcliffe is currently a co-chair at the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank for security issues. Before being appointed by Trump during his first administration, Ratcliffe represented Texas for five years in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served on the Judiciary and Intelligence committees. Before that, he served as U.S. attorney for eastern Texas in 2007 and 2008. Ratcliffe, who earned his bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame and law degree from Southern Methodist University, was first nominated for the DNI post during Trump’s final year of his first term, but withdrew after both Republican and Democratic lawmakers questioned his qualifications. Ratcliffe was confirmed in 2020 after Trump nominated him for a second time. Trump honored Ratcliffe with the National Security Medal, which is the highest honor for distinguished achievement in the field of intelligence and national security. Since winning the presidential election last week, Trump has been filling his Cabinet positions and other top posts as he prepares for his inauguration on Jan. 20, and a second term in the White House.

Washington (AFP) Nov 11, 2024 – Donald Trump’s election victory paves the way for a fresh wave of misinformation, not only around politics but also on vaccines and climate, with his expected cabinet picks ready to challenge the scientific community. In the closing weeks of his 2024 campaign, Trump aired false claims about weather manipulation and government assistance after hurricanes hit North Carolina, a swing state he would ultimately win. With fewer checks from social media platforms and the struggling traditional media, he also complained — without evidence — about voter fraud, the 2020 election, the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccine harms and more. These claims ricocheted across the internet through a network of social media influencers, who in many cases have become news sources for the public as media become increasingly fragmented. “The problem of misinformation and disinformation is the worst it’s ever been,” said Bill Adair, a Duke University professor who founded the fact-checking site PolitiFact and authored the 2024 book “Beyond the Big Lie.” The tactics designed to contain and correct misinformation, such as fact-checking and social media moderation, “are clearly not working,” Adair added. He predicted few changes ahead from platforms that have largely exempted elected officials from fact-checking “because they don’t want to make the politicians mad.” Even as the 2024 campaign was under way, polls found roughly one-third of Americans believed the 2020 election was stolen by Joe Biden. Misinformation researchers at NewsGuard found 963 websites and 793 social media accounts that have repeatedly published false election information, and 1,283 partisan websites masquerading as neutral news organizations during the campaign. “The right has invested, since 2016, in building participatory, activist, factional social media networks that are directly tied into its ‘small batch’ propaganda media ecosystem,” said Renee DiResta, a misinformation researcher, in a Threads post. “Things move from one sphere to the next: rumors are picked up by the propaganda machine if useful. Memes shape the messaging. “The influencers boost each other.” Ethan Porter, a researcher and professor at George Washington University, said that while misinformation efforts may not have been decisive in his victory, “Trump was almost certainly helped by Twitter/X’s apparent refusal to contain or mitigate pro-Trump misinformation.” – Science and health – The upcoming four more years for Trump have raised concerns of legitimizing misinformation about vaccines, climate change and other health issues given his alliance with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose nonprofit has been a major promoter of false conspiracy theories on Covid-19. “How are people not alarmed by Trump wanting RFK Jr, a person who has no formal education in health care, in charge of health… this man has promoted anti-vaccine misinformation and public-health conspiracy theories for years,” Alma Hernandez, a Democratic member of the Arizona House of Representatives, said on X. The Union of Concerned Scientists said the first Trump administration made 1,400 changes to agency websites that removed science-based information on environmental issues such as water pollution, climate change, and endangered species. “President-elect Trump’s path to the White House has been an unprecedented campaign of disinformation, threats, divisive language, and dangerous policy promises. It’s understandable to look ahead to the next four years with serious worry,” acting president Kim Waddell said in a statement. – Muzzling the media – Trump’s attacks on the media have also raised alarm bells about coverage of his administration. Journalist and author Kyle Paoletta wrote that he fears “Trump’s assault on the press will become a fusillade of discreet attempts to quash whatever reporting he views as antagonistic” and questions whether reporters will maintain access or face harassment. In a similar way, social media has retreated in content moderation as misinformation researchers face threats and attacks from conservative lawmakers. Since taking over Twitter, now known as X, Elon Musk — who may join Trump’s cabinet — has amplified rather than curbed misinformation. Matt Gertz of the left-leaning watchdog Media Matters said Trump won over voters thanks in part to “a right-wing media complex that bombards them with falsehoods and grievances while dissuading them from consulting any alternative sources of information, be they legacy news outlets or government officials or medical experts.” Daniel Kreiss, a professor and researcher at the University of North Carolina Center for Information, Technology and Public Life, said the failure of fact-checking and traditional reporting to stem the spread of misinformation could be “devastating.” “What we’re going to see are concerted campaigns to undermine democratic institutions and democratic norms,” Kreiss said.

Washington DC (UPI) Nov 12, 2024 – A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira to 15 years in prison for stealing classified information and sharing it online. Teixeira, 22, was an airman 1st class and in March pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention of defense records in violation of the Espionage Act after he shared hundreds of classified documents with others on the Discord social media site. U.S. District Court of Massachusetts Judge Indira Talwani sentenced Teixeira in part based on a sentencing memo submitted by Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy. Levy said the “scope of his betrayal is breathtaking” and the “amount of damage he caused is immeasurable.” While trying to “feed his own ego,” Teixeira caused “exceptionally grave damage” to the nation’s security by disclosing national defense information on the Discord site, Levy added. Teixeria’s defense attorneys argued he is autistic and felt isolated, which they said caused him to disclose information online to make new friends. “His intent was to educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation,” defense attorneys Brendan Kelley and Michael Bachrach told Judge Talwani. They said Teixeira never intended to harm the United States. Starting in or near 2022, Teixeira transcribed classified documents and started sharing them on Discord, which is a social media site that is popular among online gamers, in January 2023, federal prosecutors said. The leak was discovered about three months later in March 2023. The classified information included military equipment provided by the United States to Ukraine and discussions regarding a foreign entity’s plan to target U.S. military forces overseas. Teixeira in 2021 obtained top-secret security clearance and was trained regarding what constituted classified information, levels of classification and how to handle such information, according to the indictment against him

Washington (AFP) Nov 13, 2024 – Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk accused a senior NATO officer of Orwellian tendencies in a post on X Wednesday, a day after Donald Trump named the world’s richest man to a top government post. “Make Orwell Fiction Again! Guys like this think 1984 is an instruction manual,” Musk wrote in response to a clip of Admiral Rob Bauer — the chair of NATO’s military committee — speaking at a think tank event. In remarks at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Bauer warned of “disinformation and cyber attacks and all the things that are happening influencing elections,” saying that the use of social media is “basically amplifying everything that is being done by bot factories.” “I’m very much in favor of freedom of speech, but I’m not necessarily convinced that what… Mr Musk is doing on X is the right approach,” the admiral said. The day before Musk made the comment about Bauer, Trump announced that he would lead a new US government efficiency group tasked with cutting federal waste — a potentially powerful position in the administration. Trump said Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Musk became a key ally to Trump during his campaign, reportedly spending over $100 million to help the Republican win and repeatedly boosting Trump’s candidacy on X, the platform he owns.

Beijing (AFP) Nov 13, 2024 – At least 35 people were killed and dozens more injured when a man ploughed his car into pedestrians exercising around a sports centre in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai on Monday night. Footage showing bodies lying on the pavement appeared on social media in the hours after the crash but had vanished by early Tuesday morning, and local police reported only “injuries”. It took officials nearly 24 hours to reveal that dozens had died — in one of the country’s deadliest incidents in years. Here AFP looks at how China jumps into action to block information it does not want shared: – Social media scrub – China heavily monitors social media platforms, where it is common for words and topics deemed sensitive to be removed — sometimes within minutes. On X-like social media platform Weibo, videos and photos showing the bloody moments after the incident late Monday night were swiftly deleted. Videos of the aftermath posted to Xiaohongshu, China’s equivalent to Instagram, were also taken down. – 24-hour delay – Chinese officials did not reveal that dozens had died until almost 24 hours after the attack, with state media reporting the 35 deaths shortly after 6:30 pm on Tuesday. Soon after, the hashtag “Man in Zhuhai rammed the crowd causing 35 deaths” jumped to the No. 1 trending topic on Weibo and reached 69 million views within an hour. The fatal crash happened on the eve of China’s largest airshow, taking place in the same city, a showpiece event promoted for weeks by the country’s tightly controlled state media operation. – State narrative – State media in China also acts as a government mouthpiece. The state-backed newspaper Global Times on Wednesday morning published a short story on the “car ramming case” on page 3 — a stark contrast to the front page feature on fighter jets at the airshow nearby. The Communist Party’s People’s Daily included Chinese President Xi Jinping’s instructions to treat injured residents and punish the perpetrator in a short block of text on its front page. State broadcaster CCTV’s flagship evening news programme, Xinwen Lianbo, on Tuesday spent about a minute and a half on Xi’s directive to “treat those injured” during the 30-minute show, but shared no footage from the city. – ‘Order from the top’ – AFP reporters on the scene in Zhuhai late Tuesday night saw delivery drivers placing online orders of flower bouquets beside flickering candles to commemorate the victims. But just a few hours later, cleaning staff cleared away the memorial, with some telling AFP they were acting on an “order from the top”. A handful of people at the site were blocked from taking videos by a police car and security guards shouting: “No filming!” – Long history – China has a long history of clamping down on the spread of information, sometimes leading to costly delays in response. Authorities in 2008 worked to stifle news of contaminated milk that poisoned about 300,000 children — days before the start of the Beijing Olympics. The Chinese government that year also restricted foreign media access when protests broke out after an earthquake in southwest Sichuan province killed an estimated 70,000 people. And Chinese censors delayed an early response to Covid-19, penalising local health officials who warned of a fast-spreading coronavirus. Officials in southern China ramped up security on Wednesday at the site of one of the country’s deadliest mass-casualty events in years, snuffing out makeshift memorials to the 35 people killed when a man drove a car into a crowd at a sports complex. On Monday, the 62-year-old man surnamed Fan ploughed a small SUV through a gate to the complex in the city of Zhuhai and into crowds of people as they exercised on the roads inside, according to police. An initial police statement said people had been injured, but did not mention any deaths — and videos of the attack later appeared to be scrubbed from China’s tightly controlled social media platforms. As of Wednesday, the rampage had left 35 people dead and 43 with injuries not deemed life-threatening, according to state media reports. AFP witnessed residents and delivery drivers laying bouquets at a gate outside the complex on Wednesday morning, before the flowers were carried behind a cordon fence within minutes. “What happened wasn’t a small incident,” a woman of about 50 told AFP, requesting anonymity to protect her privacy. “We should remember those who passed away and not be so cold. I think more people in Zhuhai should come out here and lay some flowers in memorial,” she added. – Divorce ‘dissatisfaction’ – Police said Fan was apprehended at the scene but was in a coma after self-inflicted knife injuries, preventing them from interrogating him. But the force said preliminary enquiries suggested the attack was “triggered by (Fan’s) dissatisfaction with the division of property following his divorce”. Security at the scene was tight on Wednesday, with plainclothes officers using their bodies and umbrellas to block AFP reporters from taking photos and videos. Since Tuesday night, journalists had observed people placing candles and flowers near the site of the attack to commemorate the victims. But cleaning staff removed the memorials in the early hours of Wednesday, with some telling AFP they were acting on an “order from the top”. Officials at the site said the items were being moved to a “mourning hall” inside the complex, with no access to the public. Footage of Monday’s incident geolocated by AFP showed people lying motionless on the ground, while others were seen frantically attempting to resuscitate the seemingly unconscious. An eyewitness surnamed Liu told Chinese news magazine Caixin that the car “drove in a loop” around a dedicated exercise track encircling the stadium in the sports complex. “People were hurt in all areas of the running track — east, south, west, and north,” he said. Chinese President Xi Jinping urged “all-out efforts” to treat the injured and “demanded punishing the perpetrator in accordance with the law”, according to state news agency Xinhua. The incident took place as Zhuhai hosts China’s largest airshow, showcasing Beijing’s civil and military aerospace sector. – Spate of mass killings – Violent crime is generally rare in China compared to many Western countries, but the Asian nation has witnessed a spate of deadly attacks in recent months. In several cases, Beijing has described the killings as isolated incidents, or the motives of the perpetrators have not been publicly disclosed. After the Zhuhai attack, Xi called on authorities to “strictly guard against the occurrence of extreme cases”, Xinhua reported. Japan’s embassy warned its citizens in China to be on high alert and “refrain from speaking loudly in Japanese”, despite no initial indications that any had been targeted. In September, a Japanese schoolboy was fatally stabbed in the neighbouring city of Shenzhen, prompting an outcry from Tokyo. A man killed three people and wounded 15 in a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai in October, while in July, police said a vehicle crashed into pedestrians in the central city of Changsha, killing eight. Monday’s incident is on a par with some of China’s deadliest attacks in recent memory. In 2014, 31 people were killed and 143 were wounded in a knife attack at a railway station in the southwestern city of Kunming that officials later blamed on terrorism. The same year, a vehicle ramming and suicide bombing in the northwestern city of Urumqi killed 43 — including four assailants — and wounded more than 90. The incident was also deemed a terror attack.

Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Nov 15, 2024 – Donald Trump’s White House comeback gives his ally Elon Musk a sizeable advantage in a running standoff with EU tech regulators — who may now think twice before fining his X platform over disinformation concerns. The world’s richest man — as the boss of Tesla and SpaceX as well as the former Twitter — threw his full weight into Trump’s campaign to reclaim the US presidency. Musk backed the Republican with hard cash but also used his far-reaching social media platform to push pro-Trump messages, including inflammatory disinformation, to his more than 200 million followers. The bet amply paid off, with a victorious Trump tapping Musk for an outsized role to overhaul the US government — and putting Brussels in an uncomfortable spot. With the European Union counting on continued US backing to keep an aggressive Russia from its borders, can it really afford to upset Trump by going after a prized ally? Trump’s future vice-president J.D. Vance even mused on the campaign trail that Washington could drop support for NATO if the EU presses on with attempts to regulate Musk’s X network under a landmark new content law. “American power comes with certain strings attached. One of those is respect free speech, especially in our European allies,” he warned. For Musk, hostility to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is about more than just business: along with supporters on the American right he increasingly paints it as an ideological battle against censorship. “The election in the US will not impact our enforcement work,” a spokesman for the European Commission — the powerful tech enforcer for the 27-nation EU — told AFP. But experts are not so sure. – Billions in fines? – Musk’s X platform was formally accused by the commission in July of misleading users with its blue checkmarks for certified accounts, of insufficient advertising transparency and failing to give researchers access to the platform’s data. The allegations are part of a wider DSA inquiry into how X tackles the spread of illegal content and information manipulation. Each offence could theoretically trigger a fine of up to six percent of the annual global turnover of all the companies Musk controls — reaching into the billions. According to several sources close to the proceedings, the commission was wrapping up its probe — and readying a heavy fine — when its digital chief Thierry Breton quit in September, having been denied a second term by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen. But the stars have since realigned, with the EU now caught in the headlights for fear the volatile Trump will start a trade war and cut support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion. – ‘Provoke’ Trump? – With Trump at the reins, enforcing EU tech rules against X may become a matter of politics as much as anything else. “I’d be surprised if the commission chooses to provoke Trump over something like this,” said Alexandre de Streel, an expert at the Center on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) think tank. “Transatlantic relations are going to become more complicated — and this probably isn’t the area where they will need to fight hardest,” he said. “Musk believes the DSA goes too far in how it asks platforms to regulate content — and that is also the view of far-right parties in Europe,” de Streel noted. “It’s become a battle of ideas, and I don’t see Musk folding — especially not now.” The European Commission also has to factor in Trump’s hard-right allies within the bloc, from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Italian leader Giorgia Meloni. After Trump’s re-election, von der Leyen stressed the importance of the EU-US “partnership” and a “strong transatlantic agenda” — a stance echoed by Breton’s designated successor as digital enforcer, Henna Virkkunen. “With war on its doorstep, Europe must think carefully,” said Umberto Gambini, of European affairs consultancy Forward Global. “I don’t think it can afford to upset Trump in these first months.” Gambini predicts that the commission’s probes into X will keep ticking along but the departure of Breton — who clashed spectacularly with Musk via social media — will offer a chance to reset the relationship. Already back in August, Brussels had distanced itself from a letter of warning sent by the French commissioner before Musk interviewed Trump live on X. That said, “if Europe wants to remain credible” in the fight to rein in Big Tech, it “has to keep threatening fines in the billions, not millions”, Gambini said. But with fragile transatlantic ties in mind, it may choose to focus its firepower on Chinese platforms such as TikTok instead, judged the EU expert. aro/ec/ub/yad X

Manila (AFP) Nov 18, 2024 – US and Philippine defence chiefs signed an agreement Monday on sharing classified military information and technology, as the long-time treaty allies deepen cooperation in a bid to counter Chinese influence in the region. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed the deal with his Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro at the start of a visit to Manila that also included a closed-door meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos. The General Security of Military Information Agreement allows for the sharing of classified information that could benefit a US ally’s national defence, and streamlines the sale of certain classified technologies, officials said. It will give the Philippines access to “higher capabilities and big-ticket items” from the United States and “open opportunities to pursue similar agreements with like-minded nations”, Philippine Assistant Defence Secretary Arsenio Andolong said. Austin and Teodoro also held a ground-breaking ceremony for a combined command and coordination centre inside the Philippine military’s headquarters in Manila. “This centre will enable real-time information sharing for a common operating picture. It will help boost interoperability for many, many years to come,” Austin said in a speech. “It will be a place where our forces can work side by side to respond to regional challenges,” he added. – ‘Combine strengths’ – Philippine military chief General Romeo Brawner said the centre would “enhance our ability to collaborate during crises, fostering an environment where our strengths combine to safeguard peace and security in our region”. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said any military agreement or security cooperation must not target “any third party or harm a third party’s interests — let alone undermine regional peace, exacerbate regional tensions.” The Philippine defence department said Austin is due to visit the western island of Palawan on Tuesday for a meeting with Filipino forces responsible for patrolling the South China Sea and defending outposts. Austin’s visit comes as the Marcos government pushes back against Beijing’s territorial claims over most of the South China Sea and as president-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to office. China has brushed aside an international ruling that its claims in the South China Sea have no legal basis, and has deployed navy and coast guard vessels that Manila says harass its vessels and stop them accessing some reefs and islands in the waters. This has led to violent confrontations that have resulted in injuries to Filipino personnel and damage to their vessels in the past 18 months. That has sparked concern the United States could be drawn into an armed conflict due to its mutual defence treaty with the Philippines. Washington has been strengthening its network of alliances aimed at countering China’s growing military might and influence. It has ramped up joint military exercises and regularly deploys warships and fighter jets in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea — infuriating Beijing. Austin also announced $1 million in humanitarian aid to victims of a series of deadly typhoons and storms that hit the Philippines in the past month, the last one of which struck the country over the weekend. That was on top of the $5.5 million in aid already provided to the Philippines through USAID since September, Austin said on X.