Chinese association accused of mixing crime and patriotism as it serves Beijing

In December, a man considered by U.S. officials to be among Asia’s most powerful crime bosses gathered friends and allies in the Chinese casino city of Macao. Videos from the event show Wan Kuok Koi belting out Cantonese songs and smiling broadly for the cameras, seemingly unbothered by investigations across multiple countries into his alleged role in large-scale scams, fraud and money laundering.

The 69-year-old Wan — widely known by his nickname, “Broken Tooth” — presided over the celebration as chairman of the World Hongmen History and Culture Association, which describes itself as an ethnic Chinese fraternal organization devoted to promoting Chinese culture abroad. According to the U.S. Treasury, however, the association serves as a front for the 14K triad, one of China’s largest organized crime groups with involvement in “drug trafficking, illegal gambling, racketeering, human trafficking, and a range of other criminal activities.”

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Canada Says Network Devices Compromised in China-Linked Hack

Canada’s cybersecurity agency said Chinese-backed hackers were likely behind recent malicious activity targeting domestic telecommunications infrastructure, warning that three network devices registered to a Canadian company were compromised in the attacks.

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation urged Canadian organizations to take steps to harden their networks against the threat posed by Salt Typhoon, a group linked to the Chinese government, in a bulletin issued late on Friday.

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Federal Transport Minister Freeland slams B.C. Ferries deal with Chinese company

B.C. Ferries has drawn the ire of federal Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland for its decision to contract a Chinese state-owned shipyard to build four new vessels for its passenger fleet.

Freeland also expressed concerns about security risks related to the contract.

In a letter to B.C.’s Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth released Friday afternoon, Freeland expressed her “great consternation and disappointment” with the ferry operator.

Guess she didn’t get her cut.

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Foreign ministry criticizes CBC for changing Taiwan reference from country to ‘self-ruled island’

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday criticized CBC News for changing its description of Taiwan from a country to a “self-ruled island.”

On June 14, Canada’s largest news broadcaster posted an article on the alleged ties between Bliss and Wisdom, a Buddhist group with operations on Prince Edward Island, and the CCP. The piece originally described a high-ranking monk from Taiwan as traveling “between his home country, Prince Edward Island, and China” in 2023 at the invitation of a Buddhist group that reports to the United Front Work Department.

h/t HS

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As the U.S. trade war drags, CBC is instructed to plant the seed that Canada should improve ties with China

As the U.S. trade war drags, calls grow for Canada to cautiously improve ties with China

As Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government works to reshape its economic policies amid an unpredictable administration south of the border, Canadian businesses that trade with China say Ottawa needs to find ways to expand exports there — and fast.

While the Canada-China relationship has been stymied in recent years, there are signals of relations improving.


Policy for profit every time.

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Tasha Kheiriddin: Carney knows he has to choose Trump over China

Well, at least he didn’t walk out. While U.S. President Donald Trump left the G7 meeting in Kananaskis Monday night, it wasn’t in the huff the world witnessed at Charlevoix in 2018. This time, after a day of huddles and the signing of a U.K.–U.S. mini-deal that slashed auto tariffs, Trump hurried back to the White House because of “what’s going on in the Middle East.” His exit left Prime Minister Mark Carney and the remaining five leaders to hammer out the rest of the agenda, from trade to security to artificial intelligence, while keeping a nervous eye on the Iran-Israel war.

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Kash Patel Drops 2020 Election Interference Evidence Bombshell

FBI Director Kash Patel dropped a bombshell Monday evening, handing Congress an intelligence report that raises serious questions about China’s role in the 2020 election. According to the report, Chinese operatives mass-produced counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses as part of a broader scheme to flood the system with fake mail-in ballots—benefiting… you guessed it… Joe Biden.

h/t XC

 

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Israel Just Ended China’s Great Power Status in the Middle East

Israeli air and drone strikes during the early hours of June 13th crippled Iran — and severely set back Tehran’s regional ambitions. The Israel Defense Forces hit nuclear weapons development facilities and ballistic missile sites, and killed senior military officers, including Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the armed forces chief of staff, and Major General Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Iranian media announced the death of Ali Shamkhani, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top adviser.

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Chris Selley: Why would B.C. pay more for ferries just to spite Donald Trump?

British Columbia’s transportation minister claimed Friday that buying new ferries from European shipyards would have cost roughly $1.2 billion more than buying them from a Chinese government-owned shipyard in Weihai, Shandong province, which is a city roughly the size of Montreal that I had never heard of until this week. China knows how to build cities. They burst into existence from nothing, like popcorn. China also knows how to build ships, and highways, and high-speed rail, and just about anything else you would care to name, better and more efficiently than the Canadian public service can realistically comprehend.

Someone’s gettin paid.

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Former MP Han Dong settles defamation lawsuit with Global News

Former MP Han Dong has settled his defamation lawsuit against Global News, according to a statement posted to the news organization’s website, closing a two-year legal battle that came after the outlet published an article alleging he advised a Chinese diplomat to hold off on freeing two Canadians who were detained in China at the time.

On Sunday morning, Global published a statement on its website that said it and “former MP Han Dong have settled Mr. Dong’s lawsuit concerning Global News stories that reported on allegations about Mr. Dong.”

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Are Chinese robots in the West a trojan horse?

Spurred by Donald Trump’s push for industrial reshoring, Chinese robot manufacturers are aiming to enter into the American market.

Produced in large numbers and at relatively low cost by Chinese firms, these industrial robots would first take on menial logistics tasks, potentially paving the way for more advanced humanoid successors.

But this influx of Chinese robots might come with a catch: the harvesting of factories’ sensitive data. So warned a rival American executive, who said this week that high-end industrial robots are able to collect “massive amounts” of data and intellectual property. Daniel Diez, the chief business officer of Agility Robotics, warned that a walking robot equipped with depth-sensitive cameras would pose enough of a privacy risk that American and European buyers might reject them.

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Will Tam Make A Beeline To Communist China?

Canada’s top doctor Theresa Tam leaving position when term ends June 20

TORONTO — Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam is leaving her position at the end of next week.

Tam has been in the role since June 2017, but became a household name in the last five years as she led the country’s public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tam says her term ends on Friday, June 20 and she doesn’t have another job lined up.

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Anti-ICE Org Backing National Protests Led By Member Of CCP-Tied Group

The leader of a Chinese American political action committee involved in organizing upcoming protests against federal immigration enforcement under the “No Kings” banner is also a director of a taxpayer-funded group with extensive ties to Beijing’s intelligence network, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has discovered.

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Government told Liberal MP to put motion on honorary citizenship for Jimmy Lai on hold

The government’s leader in the House of Commons told the Liberal MP spearheading a drive to grant jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai honorary citizenship to shelve a motion supporting its award, just before she was about to present it on Wednesday.

Judy Sgro, a veteran Liberal MP, had gained the support of MPs from all parties for a unanimous consent motion raising the plight of Mr. Lai, who has been held in solitary confinement for four and a half years.

Mr. Lai, a British citizen and publisher of the now shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, was arrested in Hong Kong on conspiracy and sedition charges in December, 2020.

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