News of the World

[kyonides]

US bars investments in Chinese military companies

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54926102

US President Donald Trump has issued an order banning American investments in Chinese firms the government determines have ties to the Chinese military.
In the order, Mr Trump accused China of "increasingly exploiting" US investors "to finance the development and modernisation of its military".
The ban is to go into effect in January.
It could affect some of China's biggest publicly-listed firms, including China Telecom and tech firm Hikvision.
Officials said the new order had been under review for months. It applies to shares owned directly or indirectly in 31 firms identified by the US earlier this year as backed by the Chinese military, a list that includes tech firms and large state-owned construction companies among others.
US investors have a year to comply with the rules.

They claim they were carefully analyzing their options but this could be quickly reverted by Biden in January.

China Muslims: Volkswagen says no forced labour at Xinjiang plant

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-54918309
Volkswagen operates a car plant in Xinjiang where they make about 20,000 units a year. Other foreign companies left the region but not Volkswagen. They just claim they will never partake in forced labor. 25% of their workforce consists of Uighurs and other groups. Curiously they admit they can't be 100% certain there's no single case of forced labor in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital.

Because opening a car plant in Xinjiang requires the partnership and approval of the Chinese authorities, the concern is that it risks lending tacit support to the policies of mass incarceration and ethnic repression, for which there is now compelling evidence.

Even if VW isn't depending on slaves to make their cars for now, that doesn't mean the CCP won't force them to do so.   German Politicians believe their true motivations are political not economical nor social.

With the number of cars being produced currently less than 10% of capacity of some of the company's 32 other plants in China, Dr Wollenstein said they would "love to do more."

So I need to insist on this, why Xinjiang? Oh and there's a weird agreement between VW and the paramilitary police  as well!
It seems it's the same paramilitary police that's related to the reeducation camps.
Wait! There are more revelations to be made here!

Ms von Cramon-Taubadel says that in recent meetings she's held with senior company executives, they've admitted as much.
"They told me that the condition for any expansion of the company within China is that at least one of the factories should be based in the west," she said.
"And they tried to convince me that if VW decides unilaterally to close [its Xinjiang plant] they could not produce a single car in China any more."

Of course, Volkswagen still denies this.

Hong Kong: China condemns defiant opposition lawmakers

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-54900174

China's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Thursday said the mass walk-out openly challenged the central government's authority and the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution.
It also said the move showed pro-democracy lawmakers' "stance of stubborn resistance" against the central government.

Even if USA, the United Kingdom and the European Union requested China to revert their position, China simply ignored their pleas. The CCP already stated this legislative movement of sorts means nothing to the Chinese government. How can anybody trust a government that has no will to keep its word? CCP had signed a treaty with UK and they just broke it. They just want to abolish Hong Kongers' rights at once.

Switzerland plan to close bribery loophole

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54922374
It's not like they can just go to some Swiss bank and bribe a worker there. What happens here is that they claim they can't avoid bribing foreign officials because of their shady business practices or system. A perfect example of this might be China.
Nowadays Swiss companies could get exemptions for paying such bribes but the OECD disagrees with this.
Back in 1996 countries like Germany France, Australia and New Zealand were used to deduct this kind of bribes from their tax declarations.

Belgium expels Danish right-wing activists over plot to burn Koran

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54919127

Belgium has expelled five Danish far-right activists and banned them for a year over their plans to burn a Koran in a mainly-Muslim area of Brussels.
Secretary of State for Asylum Sammy Mahdi called them "a serious threat to public order".
According to their Facebook page, the five are associates of the Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan.
Paludan was expelled from France on Wednesday after signalling his intention to burn a Koran in Paris.
Earlier this year, he was jailed for a month in Denmark for a string of offences including posting anti-Islam videos on the social media channels of his Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party.

I do understand that insulting anybody for almost any reason is reasonable. Even so burning books isn't as serious as killing people because they disagree with any interpretation of the Koran. We don't kill people because they disagree with the Bible. When the Secretary of State for Asylum calls this group a serious threat, perhaps they all should recall that no average citizen dies nor is persecuted after the burning. It's a provocation, a minor threat, in worst case scenario. Of course, I wouldn't promote such events at all. Once again this looks like a Muslim way to ask authorities for enforce sharia compliant laws and ordinances.