They said that long time ago, although even in Switzerland many struggle to understand this after reports by the Swiss Intelligence.

Espionage: Russia, China pose greatest threat with spy bases operating in embassies, Swiss intelligence report says

The greatest espionage threat to Switzerland currently comes from the Russian intelligence services, the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service’s (FIS) says in its latest report. The threat to Switzerland from the Chinese intelligence services is also high. Numerous services maintain covert bases in Switzerland, known as residencies. These usually operate out of diplomatic missions.

There are some issues related to the topic:

A survey of Swiss banks has highlighted international sanctions imposed on other countries, such as against Russia over Ukraine, as the greatest geopolitical risk to their business

The report by the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) and consultants zeb said on Thursday that Swiss policymakers should develop an approach to sanctions that ensures neutral Switzerland remains a safe haven for banks and their customers […]

Shortly after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland decided to adopt EU sanctions against Moscow. One measure was to freeze assets belonging to sanctioned Russians.

August Benz, deputy head of the SBA, raised concerns about Switzerland’s rapid adoption of sanctions […]

According to bankers, Switzerland’s clear stance on the Ukraine war has raised fears among foreign customers that it could support further Western sanctions in the future.

And:

Switzerland praises China-Brazil peace plan for Ukraine

Switzerland says its view on the Chinese plan has significantly changed in recent months Ukraine expresses disappointment in Swiss position

The greatest espionage threat to Switzerland currently comes from the Russian intelligence services, the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service’s (FIS) says in its latest report. The threat to Switzerland from the Chinese intelligence services is also high. Numerous services maintain covert bases in Switzerland, known as residencies. These usually operate out of diplomatic missions.

[Edit typo.]

So prison labor for profit is bad now?

It should be a matter of course, but the EU already banned forced labour explicitly this years. The question is rather that we must ensure that the law is enforced.

It would be interesting to hear what the presumptive PM has to say about China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Last year, the Chinese ambassador to France said that former Soviet nations had ‘no effective status’ of independence in international law, and he said that Crimea belongs to Russia. Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said back then that "[Chinese] diplomats [should] reminded we [Lithuania] are not post-Soviet countries but countries that were illegally occupied by the Soviet Union”.

On social media, Landsbergis then wrote: “If anyone is still wondering why the Baltic states don’t trust China to ‘broker peace in Ukraine’, here’s a Chinese ambassador arguing that Crimea is Russian and our countries’ borders have no legal basis.”

What does Lithuania’s presumptive PM say about that?

Addition: Don’t give a free pass to Beijing for its aggressive behaviour

[…] The type of influence China exercises is not something we can accept as simply ‘what great powers do’. It launched a cyber attack on the Pacific Islands Forum, spreads online disinformation in the Pacific to undermine democracies and weaken Pacific partnerships, sought security agreements that lack public transparency, and undertaken various other malicious activities—such as hybrid and grey zone operations.

And that’s just in the Pacific—China is carrying out this malicious activity globally, not to mention being the main supporter enabling Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Of course, other significant powers seek influence, but responsible nations don’t behave like this […]

Or maybe a proxy war of democracies against dictatorships.

Also nobody agreed to protect Ukraine for giving up nukes.

This is irrelevant. We have to do it anyway, no matter whatever they agreed upon 30 years ago.

This is not about ‘neoliberals’ but about foreign malicious actors attacking digital systems for no reason.

This article has been published on 24 February 2020, exactly 2 years before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They may change their mind like Sweden and Norway are doing.

[Edit typo.]

In addition to what others have already said, China wants a chunk of Siberia for what it calls the “polar silk road”. Climate change will open the possibility of a navigable Arctic sea route connecting North America, Est Asia, and Europe. Such a route is a shorter and more economically viable transportation option than the current route via the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. But for this, China needs better access to the Arctic.

Some has posted in the meantime that Norway takes Israel to the International Court of Justice: https://feddit.org/post/4234663

What would one expect from this kind of politician. He has other priorities: After Israel’s Knesset approved final voting for two bills aimed at blocking UNRWA in areas under Israeli control, Geert Wilders congratulated the Jewish state in a Tuesday post on X/Twitter: ‘Well done Israel. Terrorists are terrorists, whatever their disguise.’

‘Entire population of north Gaza at risk of dying,’ warns UN’s top humanitarian official

“What Israeli forces are doing in besieged north Gaza cannot be allowed to continue,” said Joyce Msuya, acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a statement […] Hospitals have been hit, health workers detained and first responders prevented from rescuing people trapped under the rubble, she noted. “Shelters have been emptied and burned down…families have been separated, and men and boys taken away by the truckload,” she added.

According to reports, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since Israeli security forces renewed their offensive in northern Gaza earlier this month. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced again.

Yes :-) Now I’ve got it, sorry.

When science showed in the 1970s that gas stoves produced harmful indoor air pollution, the industry reached for tobacco’s PR playbook – (November 2023)

In 1976, beloved chef, cookbook author and television personality Julia Child returned to WGBH-TV’s studios in Boston for a new cooking show, “Julia Child & Company,” following her hit series “The French Chef.” Viewers probably didn’t know that Child’s new and improved kitchen studio, outfitted with gas stoves, was paid for by the American Gas Association.

While this may seem like any corporate sponsorship, we now know it was a part of a calculated campaign by gas industry executives to increase use of gas stoves across the United States. And stoves weren’t the only objective. The gas industry wanted to grow its residential market, and homes that used gas for cooking were likely also to use it for heat and hot water.

[…] The gas industry relied on Hill & Knowlton, the same public relations company that masterminded the tobacco industry’s playbook for responding to research linking smoking to lung cancer. Hill & Knowlton’s tactics included sponsoring research that would counter findings about gas stoves published in the scientific literature, emphasizing uncertainty in these findings to construct artificial controversy and engaging in aggressive public relations efforts.

The OSCE report (pdf) says:

Election day was generally procedurally well-organized and administered in an orderly manner but marked by a tense environment and several incidents of physical altercations and widespread intimidation of voters, as well as citizen observers. Voter identification (VID) and vote-counting devices (VCDs) were mostly operational, but the majority of voters in observed polling stations had difficulties operating the VCDs. Further, vote secrecy was potentially compromised in 24 per cent of observations, due to the manner of ballot insertion into VCDs or inadequate polling station layout. IEOM observers frequently reported indications of pressure on voters and overcrowding, and procedural inconsistencies.

In many cases, party representatives recorded the voting process and tracked voters, raising concerns about potential intimidation. While the presence of citizen and party observers contributed to transparency, many citizen observers appeared to act on behalf of contestants. During counting, procedural omissions included the improper handling of unused ballots, not announcing votes aloud and the IEOM noted inconsistencies in the determination of the validity of ballots. Tabulation was positively assessed, but the completeness and accuracy of results protocols was not consistently checked, with DECs citing that official results are finalized at the national level.

And here is another report.

Addition for the report by Transparency International Georgia

The election day took place in the context of serious and substantial violations. At the end of the day, it became clear that the various problems identified during the monitoring of the election process during the day were part of a larger scheme, the purpose of which was to subvert the final result of the election […] unprecedented pressure was exerted on the representatives of the monitoring organizations. There were physical attacks, verbal abuse, intimidation, expulsion from the electoral precincts without reason. In most cases, it was impossible to observe the voting process. In some cases, it was even necessary to evacuate the observers […] there was a concentration of unauthorized persons in the polling stations and their surrounding areas, who were particularly aggressive towards both voters and observers. As always, this time too, in order to pressure and intimidate the voters, the ruling party used criminal groups […] neither the election administration nor the law enforcement bodies reacted to the gross facts of the violation of the law. There was a clear impression that the persons involved in rigging the elections had guarantees that no one would raise the question of their responsibility, even though they committed crimes […]

This is another small timid step, but at least we are heading in the right direction.

China is trying to distort history and international law in Taiwan, MEPs warn

[The European] Parliament condemns China’s continued military provocations against Taiwan and firmly rejects any unilateral change to the status-quo in the Taiwan Strait.

These attempts, particularly by means of force or coercion, will not be accepted and will incur a decisive and firm reaction, warn MEPs. In a resolution adopted […] on Thursday, they condemn China’s unwarranted military exercises of 14 October and continued military provocations against Taiwan, stressing that the military build-up changes the power balance in the Indo-Pacific.

Parliament strongly rejects China’s attempts to distort history and international rules and underlines that UN resolution 2758 does not take a position on Taiwan. It opposes China’s constant efforts to block Taiwan’s participation in multilateral organisations and calls on the EU and its member states to support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organisations such as the World Health Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. MEPs also urge the UN to grant Taiwanese nationals and journalists the right to access its premises.

I am not a fan of Ms. Merkel -and, even less so, of Ms. Thatcher who “topped a poll of Britain’s best post-war leaders”-, but this article is just an empty rant without any substance. Except from the defense spending, there is not a single number, no source cited that would foster the authors’ argument.

Just a few points: There is a lot of reason why you could criticize the former German chancellor, but Ms. Merke’s “call to turn off Germany’s remaining nuclear power plants” isn’t likely one of them (the mistake here wasn’t the end of nuclear power but the failure of establishing a German renewable energy industry that was thriving in the 2000s).

And Ms. Merkel was not “inviting” over a million Syrians and others to Germany in 2015. The support Germany and some other states gave to refugees then fleeing a war was the right thing at the time. I can’t say whether this sign of humanity has “helped fuel the rise of the hard right in Germany and elsewhere,” but I am firmly convinced that if Ms. Merkel’s successors in politics -in Germany and elsewhere- would show a more human stance towards our current democracies and human rights and against autocracies, voters would likely have a real alternative to “the hard right in Germany and elsewhere”. (But, in the same article, the Economist criticizes Germany for “China [having] soaked up its exports, glad to face few questions over human rights, while Germany failed to worry about getting hooked on another autocratic regime”. What, I wonder, do they say about the current transparency discussions, forced labour and other issues in Chinese supply chains?)

So I conclude that you could write a whole book on Ms. Merkel’s economic policies, and not much of it may be positive. There is a lot to criticize. But this Economist article is another topic misconduct. To me reading this was a reminder why I unsubscribed to this magazine long time ago after having been a reader for many years.

I apologize for the long post.

Desert Dumps (May 2024) – [Archived]

Europe supports, finances and is directly involved in clandestine operations in North African countries to dump tens of thousands of Black people in the desert or remote areas each year to prevent them from coming to the EU.

[…] Europe knowingly funds, and in some instances is directly involved in systematic racial profiling detention and expulsion of Black communities across at least three North African countries […] In Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia, refugees and migrant workers, some of whom were on their way towards Europe, as well as people who had legal status and established livelihoods in these countries, are apprehended based on the colour of their skin, loaded onto buses and driven to the middle of nowhere, often arid desert areas.

How an EU-funded agency is working to keep migrants from reaching Europe (May 2023) – [Archived]

In 2019, the EU inked a deal to provide nearly 20 million euros’ (about $21.4 million) worth of radar, undersea and airborne drones, radios and other technology, as well as training, to the government of Tunisia […] Over the past decade, the EU has struck similar deals — exchanging hundreds of millions of euros worth of surveillance technology, other police equipment and accompanying training — with nearly every non-EU country that borders the bloc. At the center of these deals is the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, an innocuous-sounding international organization based in Vienna that has become one of the bloc’s go-to intermediaries for supplying surveillance equipment and training to police and coast guards in countries bordering the EU.

[…] “The EU is breaking its own rules and values with the border regime we have built up: They partner with autocratic regimes and provide them with technology to use in the Mediterranean to keep people out,” said Ozlem Demirel, a member of the European Parliament from Germany. Demirel pointed to the ICMPD as an example of efforts by the European Commission to carry out this work with as little scrutiny as possible.

These are just two investigation by external researchers. I would really be curious to read what the EU found. Did Ms. von der Leyen comment on why the Commission is hiding its findings?

This is somewhat related:

A survey of Swiss banks has highlighted international sanctions imposed on other countries, such as against Russia over Ukraine, as the greatest geopolitical risk to their business

The report by the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) and consultants zeb said on Thursday that Swiss policymakers should develop an approach to sanctions that ensures neutral Switzerland remains a safe haven for banks and their customers […]

Shortly after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland decided to adopt EU sanctions against Moscow. One measure was to freeze assets belonging to sanctioned Russians.

August Benz, deputy head of the SBA, raised concerns about Switzerland’s rapid adoption of sanctions […]

According to bankers, Switzerland’s clear stance on the Ukraine war has raised fears among foreign customers that it could support further Western sanctions in the future.

And:

Switzerland praises China-Brazil peace plan for Ukraine

Switzerland says its view on the Chinese plan has significantly changed in recent months Ukraine expresses disappointment in Swiss position

As an addition to that, the Canadians have different view:

Protecting Canadian workers: CLC welcomes tariffs on Chinese imports – (Archived)

Canada’s unions are pleased with the government’s announcement to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, including a 100% tariff on electric vehicles and a 25% tariff on aluminum and steel, matching recent U.S. actions. Coming into force on October 22, this marks one of the most significant shifts in our supply chain in decades and it’s a necessary step in protecting Canada’s economy, our workers, and the investments we’ve already made in the electric vehicle (EV) industry.

I wrote, “Chinese companies have been focusing on their bottom line very much as companies elsewhere. They can rely on an ongoing stream of cheap labour, and, therefore, extremely low operating costs, as workers have no rights.”

What has that to do with the EU?