After pleading #guilty to #MoneyLaundering & #obstruction of #justice, Paul #Manafort, the globe-trotting #political consultant & former campaign chairman for #Trump, asked for leniency in his sentencing, telling a federal judge 5 yrs ago that he was nearly 70, struggling w/health concerns & remorseful for his actions.
#Manafort has been assisting an effort to launch a #Netflix-like mobile streaming & entertainment platform in #China that, acc/to corporate docs, has the endorsement of the Chinese government. In an email to The Post, Manafort said he was “not involved w/China” & has “had nothing to do w/China, including Chinese businesses, government, individuals, or anything else,” but acknowledged that he “was asked to make introductions to #US studios & potential US partners in the venture.”
Europäische Firmen in China beurteilen Lage als schwierig
Europäische Unternehmen in China finden es so schwer wie nie, in der Volksrepublik Geschäfte zu machen. Das ist das Ergebnis einer Umfrage der EU-Handelskammer in China. Von Benjamin Eyssel.
While most Western countries are concerned with extrajudicial security personnel from #China going after Chinese dissidents and other interference via secret police stations, Hungary just went and signed a deal with China: "lol, police from a totalitarian country officially patrolling our streets? sure thing"
Boris Johnson’s former top adviser Dominic #Cummings launched a sweary attack on Western support for #Ukraine.
“This whole Ukrainian corrupt mafia state has basically conned us all and we’re all going to get fked as a consequence,” he argued. “We are getting fked now right?”
He argued that war would only strengthen the relationship between #Russia and #China, saying Western nations “pushed [Russia] into an alliance with the world’s biggest manufacturing power”
Gipfeltreffen in Budapest: Xi und Orban vereinbaren "strategische Partnerschaft"
Zum Abschluss seines Europa-Besuchs hat Chinas Präsident Xi in Ungarn eine "goldene Reise" mit gemeinsamen Wirtschafts- und Infrastrukturprojekten angekündigt. Beide Länder vermeldeten den Abschluss zahlreicher Abkommen.
#SocialMedia#TikTok#China#ContentModeration#Censorship#Surveillance: "What rarely gets mentioned in these discussions, however, is the fact that the Chinese government has built the most comprehensive digital surveillance system in the world, which it primarily uses not to protect children, but to squash any form of dissent that may threaten the power of the Chinese Communist Party. “Everybody exists in a censored environment, and so what gets censored for kids is just one step on top of what gets censored for adults,” Jeremy Daum, a senior research scholar at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center and the founder of the site China Law Translate, told me.
It should set off warning bells for Americans that many states have explored legislation limiting internet access for minors in ways that mirror what China has done."
Tom Burges Watson speaks to historian and political scientist Rana Mitter, who is the St Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School, as Xi Jinping met with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban on Thursday, following his visit to Serbia on Wednesday. #EU#Serbia#Hungary
Nicaragua entzieht Konsortium Lizenz für Bau von Atlantik-Pazifik-Kanal
Es ist das Prestigeprojekt der Regierung von Machthaber Ortega in Nicaragua: eine Seestraße zwischen Atlantik und Pazifik in Konkurrenz zum Panamakanal. Jetzt wurde dem chinesischen Baukonsortium die Konzession entzogen.
"We are witnessing a historic process -- Russians are leaving for the first time in two centuries," independent Azerbaijani analyst Elhan Shahinoglu told AFP.
I never thought I'd hashtag Ukraine & the South China Sea in the same post 😬
#Russia is the top supplier of weapons to #Vietnam and also plays a crucial role in the exploitation of Vietnam's gas reserves in the #SouthChinaSea, in waters that #China claims as its own.
The #EU, an important trading partner for Vietnam, has imposed wide-ranging sanctions on #Moscow over its war in #Ukraine.