Cyber War

April 17, 2010

The internet is a battleground between countries and criminals and no one is safe. On April 7, 2010, it was reported that the Yahoo email accounts of 10 Beijing-based foreign journalists and the IFJ’s Hong Kong-based coordinator were infiltrated during March. Source: Scoop

China is not the only player in this Cyber War. The German Police and Intelligence Agencies hired a company to create Trojans capable of capturing traffic from Skype and SSL, and the recording industry wants the right to hack into your computer and delete stolen MP3s.

After a Chinese fighter collided with an American surveillance plane in April 2001, Chinese hacker groups cyber-attacked American businesses causing millions of dollars in damage.

“The Carders“, cyber-criminals that specialize in using a sophisticated and automated process to steal information from credit cards, have made off with billions.

ISBN: 978-0130332738

When the “Cult of the Dead Cow” gains access to a computer, they spy on you through your own webcam and microphone. Imagine what the “Dead Cows” see if that webcam is in your bedroom. Good thing they consider themselves “Dead”.

The American National Security Administration’s (NSA) Red Team is suspected of distributing malicious software across the web as illegal hackers, and they do it under the the protection of the law.  In 2008, an elite U.S. Military Unit shut down a Saudi-CIA Website that was seen as a threat to US security. Source: CBS News

China isn’t alone on this battlefield where anarchy rules, so why does China get more than its share of media attention?

See “Hacking from China – Maybe” http://wp.me/pN4pY-p8

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1 Comment | America, China, crime, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Controlling Opinions

April 17, 2010

Have the Tea Baggers in the United States been learning from China, or is it the other way around?

“Another strategy is manipulation. In recent years, local and provincial officials have hired armies of low-paid commentators to monitor blogs and chat rooms for sensitive issues, then spin online comment in the government’s (China’s) favor.

“Mr. Xiao of Berkeley cites one example: Jiaozuo, a city southwest of Beijing, deployed 35 Internet commentators and 120 police officers to defuse online attacks on the local police after a traffic dispute. By flooding chat rooms with pro-police comments, the team turned the tone of online comment from negative to positive in just 20 minutes.” Source: New York Times

The Ku Klux Klan in 1926 - Is there a difference between them and today's American Tea Baggers

Isn’t this what Fox Network’s Glenn Beck, then Rush Limbaugh, who is heard on more than 600 radio stations, have been doing for years. Filling the airwaves with their opinions controlling what people hear and think. The American Tea Baggers are doing the same thing with the same results—behavior control.

Is America really different from China? See American Hypocrisy http://wp.me/pN4pY-6

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1 Comment | America, China, media, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Hacking from China – Maybe

April 16, 2010

China-based hackers are at it again.  Since Google fled to Hong Kong to escape being attacked in mainland China, the virtual ghosts slipped into the Dalai Lama’s office and sucked up 1,500 e-mails. I wonder what they discovered.

Researchers at the University of Toronto traced the hackers to the city of Chengdu but didn’t blame China or demand answers as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did when Google was hacked.  The Canadians said there is no evidence of involvement by the Chinese government.

Instead, the evidence points to a cyber-spy network that has hacked into government and private organization in 103 countries.

It is estimated that close to four hundred million Chinese are connected to the Internet.  In 2008, China required Internet cafes in Beijing to take the photographs of anyone using the Internet as a mean to control public use of cyberspace. Could that also mean discovering who is doing the hacking?

Cybercafe Police in China

Since the Chinese government does not like to be embarrassed, I’m sure they want to stop the amateurs who keep being traced back to China. Then again, some group in another country, like Germany, could be routing the signal through China.

See Google Recycled http://wp.me/pN4pY-2r

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2 Comments | China, government, media | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Summer Palace

April 16, 2010

The history of the Summer Palace starts with the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) when the Golden Hill Palace was built in the present site of the Summer Palace.  The Summer Palace that exists today dates back to Kublai Khan (Yuan Dynasty – 1277-1367).  In 1750, Emperor Qian Long (Ch’ing Dynasty – 1644 -1911) had canals built leading to Kunming Lake, which was enlarged to serve as a reservoir for Beijing and is still in use today. He built palaces on the hill to celebrate his mother’s birthday.

Summer Palace

In 1860, during the Second Opium War, a combined British-French military force invaded Beijing and destroyed many of the buildings.  Twenty-eight years later, the Dowager Empress Ci Xi’s brother-in-law rebuilt and expanded the palaces using money (when he was the leader of China’s the navy) that was meant to modernize the Chinese navy.

Summer Palace

After the Ch’ing Dynasty was swept aside during the 1911 rebellion, this new Summer Palace was opened to the public.  In 1990, the Summer Palace was designated a world heritage site by the United Nations.

Summer Palace

This “site” has more pictures and information about the Summer Palace.

Summer Palace

This “video” shows the Summer Palace from the main gate to Suzhou Street where Emperors went to be entertained.

Pagado seen from the Summer Palace

To learn more about China, see Zhouzhuang—China’s Venice

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Building Virtue

April 16, 2010

Regardless of the fact that the West calls the rulers of China Communists, it is clear that to the Chinese mind, the Mandate of Heaven shifted from Mao to Hua Guofeng and Deng Xiaoping and their predecessors. It will be up to China’s future rulers not to lose that mandate.

Milk and Tea for Chairman Hua

It doesn’t matter if the words ‘The Mandate of Heaven’ are invoked or not. It is obvious that the ‘Five Great Relationships’, as taught by Confucius, and the ‘Mandate of Heaven’ are infused in the Chinese thought process. Most born in China do not take a class to learn what this means, as students have to do in America to learn what the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights mean. In China, one is raised with these philosophies in mind.

Piety, face, The Five Great Relationships, and the Mandate of Heaven are the foundation guide the behavior of the majority of Chinese.

The Western media and the political rulers of Western nations infer that Communism is evil because it is one party, (so-called) socialist political system, but most Chinese don’t see it that way.

To most Chinese, if the current rulers of China do their job and rule with the blessings of Heaven. The Western democratic political process is foreign to Chinese. To them, “Why change something that works? Leave it to Heaven.”

See The Mandate of Heaven http://wp.me/pN4pY-nc

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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