Chinese ‘military’ Aircraft landed in Bagram Airbase

Posted on October 4, 2021October 4, 2021 by Denise Simon

The Pentagon knows for sure and is not talking or doing any reporting. We have advanced technology to see the activity at Bagram including GeoSpatial systems. Anyone asking the right questions? Not so far but read on.

Ah, but the Taliban denies this story…of course they do as does the Chinese Foreign Minister.

Chinese ‘military’ aircraft landed in Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, said the Daily Mail on Sunday.

The UK newspaper’s report was based on its own sources, noting that power was restored in the airbase the US left in July.

The Daily Mail said unconfirmed reports suggest that the Chinese forces are the ones who “occupied the former US stronghold.”

The Daily Mail also noted that many military aircraft had been seen taking off and landing in the airbase, as images and videos circulating on social media show its floodlights in the distance amid reports of flights.

China, a country bordering Afghanistan, accused the United States of “leaving chaos” behind in Afghanistan after withdrawing from the country. This comes especially after scenes of civilians attempting to escape through the Kabul airport as the US was evacuating its nationals and embassy staff went viral.

A Chinese government spokesperson later declared that China was ready to enhance cooperation with Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the country.

In July, ahead of the US withdrawal, a Taliban delegation met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and the Taliban pledged that Afghan territories would not be used to undermine the security of other countries. In return, China offered economic support and investments to rebuild the country torn by the 20-year US-NATO war on it.

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The Taliban has already begun talking up plans for cooperation with Beijing.

A Taliban spokesman told an Italian newspaper that Afghanistan’s new rulers will rely primarily on financing from China as it seeks to head off a looming humanitarian crisis and begin reconstruction.

‘China is our most important partner and represents a fundamental and extraordinary opportunity for us, because it is ready to invest and rebuild our country,’ Zabihullah Mujahid told La Repubblica in an interview.

He also praised the New Silk Road – part of the Belt and Road Initiative that China is using to open up trade routes – and said Beijing investment could help reopen copper mines.

A report suggests China’s deployment might not be coming for another two years and it would not involve them taking over the base, merely sending personnel at the Taliban’s invite.

China likely achieve its latest ambitions for Bagram through help from Pakistan, Sun says, adding, ‘I am sure they would like to cut out the middleman,’ she added. ‘If the Taliban requests Chinese assistance, I think China will be inclined to send human support. Most likely, they will frame it as technical support or logistic support.’ source

***

In late September –

Chinese Delegation Visits Bagram Airbase: As soon as America is out of Afghanistan, Pakistan and China are showing their interest in almost every matter related to this country. A few days before the announcement of the interim government of the Taliban, Faiz Hameed, the chief of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, arrived in Kabul. Now the news has come that the Chinese delegation has visited the Bagram airbase last week. This airbase was Afghanistan’s largest military base for the US during the war that lasted for two decades. It is also considered strategically very important.

According to a media report, this Chinese delegation included senior intelligence and military officials (Chinese Delegation at Bagram Airbase). It is not yet clear why they visited the airbase, but they are believed to have come here allegedly “to gather evidence and data against the US”. According to sources, it seems that China is developing a ‘facility’ here in collaboration with Taliban and Pakistan to keep an eye on Uyghur Muslims living in its Xinjiang province.

Chinese officials who came through Pakistan

The report quoted sources as saying that the most interesting thing during this period was that instead of landing at Kabul airport, Chinese officials came here via Pakistan. The arrival of Chinese officials to Bagram airbase is also a matter of concern for India (China Bagram Airfield). The report quoted senior government sources as saying, “We are confirming the news of the arrival of the Chinese group here. This is very serious… If they establish a base here with Pakistan, they will encourage terrorist activities and create instability in the region.

Earlier this month, Pakistan ISI Chief Faiz Hameed met the intelligence chiefs of Russia, China, Iran and Tajikistan. During this, Hameed informed them about the Taliban government of Afghanistan and the changes that took place there. Hameed allegedly spewed a lot of venom against India as well (Taliban Afghanistan Government). At the same time, in the internal government formed by the Taliban with the Haqqani network, terrorists have been placed in high positions. This government was announced about three days after Hameed’s visit. Talking about China, it is the first country that has established diplomatic contacts with Afghanistan after the occupation of Taliban.

Supply Chain Broken Cargo Ships Parked at Sea

Posted on September 27, 2021September 27, 2021 by Denise Simon

There are several sources reporting this crisis including retailers. Big box stores are working to even send their own charter ships and aircraft to release the inventory.Large, empty spaces have returned to store shelves as consumers return to stockpiling essential items and supply chain issues slow deliveries. Shortage of container ships in service is unsustainable - ESC

Costco has reimposed limits on the purchase of toilet paper, paper towels, and bottled water — limits first imposed during the early days of the pandemic when panicked consumers overstocked their pantries.

With the spread of the Delta variant, some consumers are returning to that buying pattern. However, retail analysts say some consumers never changed their behavior and continue to buy in larger quantities than before the pandemic.

Supply chain bottlenecks

Overbuying isn’t the only reason for the growing gaps on supermarket shelves. The empty spaces in the soft drink aisle are caused by nagging supply chain bottlenecks that continue to slow both production and delivery.

According to the Economic Times (ET), Vietnam is a source of persistent supply chain problems. The U.S. depends on that country for a large amount of food and consumer product manufacturing. It’s one of the Asian nations currently struggling to contain the Delta variant.

“Shipping containers are in the wrong place. Sea freight costs are up tenfold. If goods do arrive at the destined ports, there are too few truck drivers to transport them to retailers,” ET reported. “Shortages of workers to harvest and prepare foods are also adding to the pressures.”

Slowed production has also led to fewer choices in the soft drink aisle. Soft drink manufacturers are dealing with a shortage of packaging, including aluminum cans. There is also a shortage of C02, which produces carbonation. That problem has been felt the most so far in the U.K.

Other products in short supply

Other categories experiencing increased demand are coffee, school supplies, consumer electronics, and pet food. Retailers report that the shortages have been caused by both increased demand from consumers and delivery problems.

With school starting up again, demand for Kraft Heinz’s Lunchables” packaged snack/meal product has created shortages at grocery stores. The food manufacturer told KIRO-TV in Seattle that the product is seeing double-digit sales growth for the first time in five years.

Economists say shortages inevitably lead to higher prices, which are already being seen in some food and beverage categories. The Federal Reserve has acknowledged the presence of inflation but predicted it will be “transitory” in nature.

Economist Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economics, says manufacturers are paying more to produce their products. Unfortunately, they will likely pass those costs along to consumers at some point. He says labor shortages and supply chain issues could keep prices higher for longer than expected.

BI: The Southern California ports that are responsible for almost half of all US imports hit a new record every day last week.

Over the past week, the queue of ships waiting to unload at the ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach have lengthened by 10 ships. On Friday, the ports had 65 cargo ships stuck at anchor or in drift areas waiting for spots to open up to dock and unload. The ports, which are a primary thoroughfare for key imports between Asia and the US, had 147 ships in the locations, including 95 hulking cargo ships on Friday — both new records.

The average wait time for the vessels is about 8.7 days — about 2.5 days longer than the same time the month before, Los Angeles port data indicated. So far, the ports have handled about 862,000 imports in 2021.

The locations hit new records for the number of ships in the port, as well as the number of container ships waiting to undock every day last week, the Marine Exchange of Southern California said.

The ports have hit seven new records in less than four weeks as shipping delays continue to surge past early pandemic levels. When the ports hit an all-time high in late August, it was the first time since February, when the onset of pandemic shutdowns and the panic-buying frenzy wreaked havoc on global supply chains.

“The normal number of container ships at anchor is between zero and one,” Kip Louttit, the executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, told Insider in July.

Freightos told Bloomberg that the average time it takes for an ocean freight to go door-to-door has increased 43% over the past year, from 50 days to 71.5 days.

At the same time, shipping costs have skyrocketed. Last week, Judah Levine, the head of research at Freightos, told Insider that the price for transporting a 40-foot container between the US and Asia jumped 500% from this time last year to $20,586.

Ultimately, the ports are facing backlogs as a result of COVID-19 disruptions and a labor shortage paired with spikes in demand.

Executives have warned that rising transportation costs would increase shortages of goods, as well as necessitate more price hikes. Last week, Scott Price, UPS’s president, said the company anticipated that supply-chain snags would continue through 2022.

Meanwhile, many companies have already begun raising their prices to offset the transportation costs.

“When we see these massive increases in transportation costs, it’s clear somebody will have to pay for it,” Douglas Kent, the executive vice president of strategy and alliances at the Association for Supply Chain Management, told Insider.

“One more disruption could send it into complete chaos,” he said of the global supply chain.

This photo is a screen shot taken a few minutes ago that demonstrates the issue.

Iranian Businessman Living in China has Been Financing Hezbollah and the IRGC

Posted on September 20, 2021September 20, 2021 by Denise Simon

The Treasury Department has sanctioned several Chinese entities and individuals for allegedly financing Iran-related terrorist activities.The Treasury Department said the sanctions action would involve the seizure of US-based property of the individuals and entities and prohibit all transactions with them.

The agency’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said Friday it is imposing sanctions on members of the networks that finance the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon and Kuwait, according to the Epoch Times.

Several of the sanctioned companies are based in Hong Kong including PCA Xiang Gang Ltd.; Damineh Optic Ltd.; China 49 Group Co. Ltd.; Taiwan Be Charm Trading Co., Ltd.; and Black Drop Intl Co., Ltd., the news outlet also reports.

The companies are either directly or indirectly owned, controlled or directed by Morteza Minaye Hashemi, an Iranian businessman living in China who’s also on the sanctions list.

Hashemi is accused by the U.S. government of funding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, the Epoch Times also reports.

***. US slaps new sanctions on Hezbollah over Iran's fuel ...

In part: The seven entities include PCA Xiang Gang Limited, Damineh Optic Limited, China 49 Group Co, Taiwan Be Charm Trading Co, Black Drop International Co, Victory Somo Group (HK) Limited, and Yummy Be Charm Trading (HK) Limited, according to a press release on the Treasury Department website.

The designations came as part of a broader action by the department that targeted Lebanon and Kuwait-based financial conduits that fund the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah as well as financial facilitators and front companies that support the group and Iran.

Black Drop International Co could not be found in the Hong Kong government’s company registry when the Post did a search on Saturday night. Detailed information on the other companies, such as the owners’ names and office addresses, was also not accessible.

Hashemi, Yan Su Xuan, Song Jing and the seven companies named by the Treasury department join a list of 351 entities still sanctioned under an executive order signed by former president George W Bush shortly after the terrorist attacks against the US on September 11, 2001.

The Treasury Department said international networks have laundered tens of millions of dollars through regional financial systems and conducted currency exchange operations and trades in gold and electronics for the benefit of both IRGC-QF.

Hezbollah, with the support of the IRGC-QF, uses the revenues generated by these networks to fund terrorist activities, as well as to perpetuate instability in Lebanon and throughout the region, the department said.

Is the Chinese Company Evergrande Causing a US Financial Crisis?

Posted on September 20, 2021September 20, 2021 by Denise Simon

EVERGRANDE GROUP

Evergrande is one of China’s leading lenders for everything from property to autos. The company has 2.3 trillion Chinese yuan in assets, which equates to about $355 billion in USD, according to the lender, which employs 200,000 workers.

By 2022, Evergrande expects to reach 3 trillion yuan in total assets, 1 trillion yuan of annual sales and 150 billion yuan of annual profits and taxes to become “one of the world’s top 100 companies.”

FACING DEFAULT ON BILLIONS

Rating agencies say Evergrande Group appears unlikely to be able to repay all of the 572 billion yuan ($89 billion) it owes banks and other bondholders, as reported by the Associated Press, which also noted Beijing is likely to step in to prevent systemic damage.

“I suspect the Chinese government is on top of this, and I don’t doubt they will deal with it severely, but I don’t think it will have the global effects the market is suggesting this morning,” said Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein during an appearance Monday on “Mornings With Maria.”

One U.S. investor in China tells FOX Business “just about every bank in China has exposure to the company,” which explains the heightened contagion fears.

U.S. INVESTORS?

According to Factset data, BlackRock has some holdings in Evergrande across several units, while Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and JPMorgan have small, fractional holdings. “I don’t think the major US banks are on the hook for very much money,” Rubenstein noted. source China's Property Problems Go Beyond Evergrande | Barron's related reading

Source: News that real-estate giant Evergrande Group—once China’s top property developer, now Earth’s most heavily indebted—has reached the brink of collapse is causing what you might call “market jitters” today. Evergrande reportedly told banks that it won’t be able to meet the interest payments due today on its loans, and the Dow has responded by tanking more than 700 points so far, the Nasdaq by sinking by 2%, and the S&P 500 by dropping more than 1.5%, that index’s greatest volatility since May.

Why does a single property developer in China have traders sweating bullets? Because the total debt that Evergrande has amassed ($305 billion, literally 2% of China’s GDP) suggests it may be too big to fail, and could have a ripple effect on the global economy if it did. That’s crippling nervous analysts with PTSD; some are calling this “China’s Lehman Brothers moment,” believing it’s unfolding much like the scenario in which Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy during America’s housing crisis, setting in motion the 2008 global financial crisis. The situation has investors angry enough to assemble in the plaza outside Evergrande’s Shenzen headquarters and protest over the troubled investments—something of a rarity in China, apparently.

Evergrande’s problems began last year, when Beijing clamped down on the amount of debt that big real-estate developers can owe. The way Evergrande grew so large, to a market cap of $50 billion at its peak, was by borrowing money—that $305 billion. (One estimate says as much as two-thirds of its liabilities could be cash that people put down for homes that have not been finished yet.) Evergrande responded to Beijing’s clampdown by selling properties at serious discounts to shore up its bottom line. Despite that fire sale, the company still struggled to make interest payments on its enormous debts, leaving it teetering on default.

Obviously, this liquidity crisis has been months in the making. It also didn’t sneak up on traders: Evergrande’s shares have plunged by 85% since the start of the year. China’s real-estate market has also been looking more and more like an America-circa-2007-esque bubble. Here’s video from the city of Kunming, of 15 unused skyscrapers being demolished last month after sitting vacant for nearly a decade:

15 buildings were demolished in Yunnan’s capital city in #Kunming on Aug. 27. It seems one building in the middle refuses to fall. pic.twitter.com/Q0vINR7KQm

— Amazing Pu‘er (@AmazingPuer) August 28, 2021

General Milley Says China is not an Enemy

Posted on September 15, 2021September 15, 2021 by Denise Simon

It was 2017 when General Milley said China is not an enemy.

Well let’s go back to some facts shall we?

Has General Milley even met FBI Director Chris Wray?

The counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States.

The Chinese government is employing tactics that seek to influence lawmakers and public opinion to achieve policies that are more favorable to China.

At the same time, the Chinese government is seeking to become the world’s greatest superpower through predatory lending and business practices, systematic theft of intellectual property, and brazen cyber intrusions.

China’s efforts target businesses, academic institutions, researchers, lawmakers, and the general public and will require a whole-of-society response. The government and the private sector must commit to working together to better understand and counter the threat.

Then, the New York Times publishes an article on April 13, 2021 titled: ‘China Poses Biggest threat to U.S., Intelligence Report Says’

Sure, it is several years later but and after Milley says he has known his CCP counterpart for 5 years…there is this –>

and this –>

May be an image of text that says 'Four #ChineseWarships, including a Chinese destroyer, have sailed into the United States' exclusive economic zone. Chinese state-run media says this is a warning to the United State about China's naval capabilities.'

The Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community published on April 9, 2021 is here in full.

The 112th Congress held a hearing (House Foreign Affairs Committee) on May 28, 2012 titled: Investigating the Chinese Threat, Part I: Military and Economic Aggression.

How about APT 40 (Advanced Persistent Threat) published by CISA? Can we really safeguard our trade secrets, intellectual property and infrastructure from the Chinese cyber war? Did General Milley discuss any of this in any other phone calls with his Chinese Communist Party counterpart?

China hacked Microsoft. Chinese hacking goes back several years. How about NASA, the World Bank, the State Department (East Asia Division), the Commerce Department, the Naval War College or the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter program?

Remember when President Obama removed all CIA operatives from China? That was because the Chinese military was killing our operatives in country. How did they know?

CHINA USED STOLEN DATA TO EXPOSE CIA OPERATIVES IN AFRICA AND EUROPE

The discovery of U.S. spy networks in China fueled a decadelong global war over data between Beijing and Washington.

Around 2013, U.S. intelligence began noticing an alarming pattern: Undercover CIA personnel, flying into countries in Africa and Europe for sensitive work, were being rapidly and successfully identified by Chinese intelligence, according to three former U.S. officials. The surveillance by Chinese operatives began in some cases as soon as the CIA officers had cleared passport control. Sometimes, the surveillance was so overt that U.S. intelligence officials speculated that the Chinese wanted the U.S. side to know they had identified the CIA operatives, disrupting their missions; other times, however, it was much more subtle and only detected through U.S. spy agencies’ own sophisticated technical countersurveillance capabilities.

In part:

More than a thousand visiting researchers from China working at US universities have left the country since the summer, according to John Demers, chief of the Department of Justice’s national security division. This exodus comes as the Department of Justice has intensified its investigations of espionage by scientists at US institutions who are secretly affiliated with the Chinese government or military.

This summer, the Department of Justice has had at least five researchers from China arrested. They all had US visas but hadn’t disclosed their affiliations with the Chinese Communist party or military in their visa applications, Demers explained at a 2 December virtual summit of the Aspen Institute, a global non-profit think tank based in Washington DC. Those handful of arrests were ‘just the tip of the iceberg’, Demers stated.

‘Between those five or six arrests, and the dozens of interviews that the [FBI] did with individuals who were here under similar circumstances … more than 1000 [People’s Liberation Army]-affiliated Chinese researchers left the country,’ he claimed.

It appears that those departures were in addition to about a thousand Chinese graduate and postgraduate students whose visas were revoked by the State Department back in September under a ‘proclamation’ announced by outgoing President Trump. That directive prohibited individuals from studying or conducting research in the US if they were found to have links with the Chinese government or its military.

Bill Evanina, the US government’s top counterintelligence official, said at the summit that of the 1000-plus Chinese researchers who left the US he is ‘most concerned about the graduate-level students’. These researchers all came to the US ‘at the behest of the Chinese government and intelligence services’, and are going to particular universities to study specific fields that are expected to benefit China, he claimed.

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CHICAGO (WLS) — The spy case against a former U.S. Army reservist and student at Illinois Institute of Technology wasn’t a one-man espionage show, according to federal investigators.

Ji Chaoqun’s federal court appearance in Chicago on Thursday is routine, in an anything-but-normal case. Chaoqun is charged against the backdrop of a possibly wider Chinese scheme to siphon intelligence information overseas.

Chaoqun and a similarly-accused spyman in Cincinnati, Ohio, shared the same foreign connection according to authorities, what’s known in intelligence circles as a “handler.” That link is pointed out in federal court records examined by the I-Team.

Chinese national Chaoqun, 30, is charged with providing intelligence officials in China with background check information on eight American citizens including defense contractors, federal investigators say. He had arrived in Chicago in 2013 with a student visa to study electrical engineering at IIT on the South Side but since being arrested has been locked up at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in the Loop for allegedly violating America’s Foreign Agents Registration Act.

In the Cincinnati case, Yanjun Xu is being held on charges he tried to steal trade secrets from GE Aviation, the giant military contractor and manufacturer. Xu, 40, is accused of downloading GE Aviation records onto his personal laptop and then smuggling them on a flight to China. As part of the charged scheme, federal authorities said Xu had posed as a technology association official and invited a GE Aviation employee to travel to China for a presentation. Xu became the first suspected Chinese intelligence official ever extradited to the U.S. He was arrested in Belgium and is now being detained at the federal penitentiary in Milan, Michigan.

So, what’s the connection between Cincinnati’s Xu and Chicago’s Chaoqun? While there is no indication the men were actual associates, commiserated in crime, or even ever met, the alleged link is buried in a Chicago court file.

Chaoqun’s criminal complaint cites a “clandestine and overt human source collection” used by Chinese officials to recruit spies and gather stolen intelligence.

“Chinese intelligence services conduct extensive overt, covert, and clandestine intelligence collection operations against U.S. national security entities, including private U.S. defense companies, through a network of agents within and outside of China,” states FBI Special Agent Andrew K. McKay.

According to the FBI, Chaoqun and Xu shared the very same covert, Chinese handler. U.S. authorities say the Chinese man assigned to secretly oversee both assignments, met with each alleged operative separately. They would get together in secret locations, frequently hotel rooms, but for the same alleged purpose: provide “information as a benefit to the Chinese government.”

Did General Milley discuss of of this with Li Zuocheng? Remember it is said that China was a little rattled at the potential instability of the United States and needed hand holding before and after the election of 2020 and the January 6 chaos in Washington DC. Seems, we Americans need hand holding from the woke Joint Chiefs of Staff and Pelosi.

Calls are routine? But the subject matter is hardly routine much less loyal to the homeland and the Constitution. Joint Chiefs spokesperson confirms Milley calls with China, defends them as routine Greg Nash

Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Col. Dave Butler on Wednesday confirmed that Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley called his Chinese counterparts after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol but said those calls were routine.

Butler said in a statement that Milley “regular communicates with Chiefs of Defense around the world, including China and Russia. These conversations remain vital to improving mutual understanding of U.S. national security interests, reducing tensions, providing clarity and avoiding unintended consequences or conflict.”

The statement comes in response to reports that a forthcoming book says Milley once told his Chinese counterpart that he would give a heads up before any attack on China by the U.S.

“You and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise,” Milley said, according to an excerpt from a new book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward and The Washington Post’s Robert Costa.

“All calls from the Chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency,” Butler said in Wednesday’s statement.