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Archived

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Sanctions were imposed on Central Asia Silk Road International Trade, Suzhou Ecod Precision Manufacturing, Shenzhen Royo Technology, Shenzhen Jinduobang Technology, and Ningbo BLIN Machinery.

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China has emerged as one of Moscow's key wartime partners, helping Russia circumvent sanctions and becoming the largest supplier of dual-use goods aiding its defense sector.

Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president's commissioner for sanctions, told journalists on July 7 that Russia's growing ability to sustain weapons production is being driven by a flow of Chinese components and materials.

Zelensky has repeatedly accused China of backing Russia and providing technological and logistical support for its war effort. On May 29, he said Beijing had blocked the sale of drones to Ukraine while continuing to supply them to Russia.

Ukraine has already sanctioned several Chinese companies tied to Russia's war effort.

[...]

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/32902531

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38235122

Archived

The oohs and aahs came in a steady stream. The lion, made up of two lads inside a costume of elaborate, fluorescent riffles and painted swirls, was going shop to shop performing dramatic gyrations to a flurry of drumbeats, before rearing up to chomp lettuces hung from windows, and then spraying out the bits to onlookers. This was London’s Chinese New Year parade and it was, in short, a better day out than Glastonbury.

But though I did not realise it at the time, there was a similarly troubling political backdrop. That very day, a few streets away, Sadiq Khan was posing for photos with a man called Chu Ting Tang who, to all appearances, was just a regular diaspora bigwig who leads the London Chinatown Chinese Association. This, it turns out, is a bit like calling Captain Hook a cultural ambassador for amputees. What Tang actually is, according to a new report by the investigative charity UK China Transparency (UKCT), is an exceptionally senior official linked to the notorious Chinese propaganda and espionage department known as the United Front. (Neither he, nor the LCCA, responded to my queries.)

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In this important work, as he puts it: “Our ancestor-land is our strongest support.” He is not talking figuratively. Tang appears to have an extensive communist party infrastructure behind him, not that you would ever see this disclosed openly in English-language sources. Only by trawling Chinese sources was the UKCT able to discover that Tang was appointed a “senior vice president” of the China Overseas Friendship Association, a United Front-run organisation whose stated aim is to aid in the “reunification of the ancestor lands”, meaning all the territories, from Xinjiang to Taiwan and the South China Sea, that China claims as its own (rather like Putin’s mission to “regather the lands” of Ancient Rus).

[...]

The United Front Work Department (UFWD) is a key Chinese Communist Party vehicle whose mission is to achieve control of civil society and suppress anti-communist dissent, originally just in China, but now globally. One of the chief channels through which it operates is party sympathisers (or simply the ambitious or the corrupt) in the Chinese diaspora.

[...]

It’s not as if Tang is a single case. There is Christine Lee, a United Front agent outed by MI5 in 2022. There is Xuelin Bates, wife of Lord Bates, linked to a United Front organisation while ferociously networking her way through the Tory establishment (she has said she cut her links with the United Front after 2020). There is Yang Tengbo, who became a confidant of Prince Andrew before being banned from the UK. There is Edmond Yeo, who ran a charity offering help to Hong Kongers fleeing Chinese oppression, while repeatedly meeting a Chinese embassy United Front official (Yeo has denied working on behalf of the UFWD). There are more, probably hundreds if not thousands, and the Firs was meant to be a vital tool by which British civil society could be informed about and protected from them.

[...]

[The UK government] decided to turn an official blind eye, and let individual journalists and tiny organisations like UKCT do the government’s job, picking off one agent at a time, slowly, painstakingly, constantly outgunned by a CCP organ of some 40,000 people. It’s almost as if some in government don’t want this problem tackled. They struggle to see that you can enjoy the lion dance, admire Chinese civilisation and welcome its talented diaspora without kowtowing to the sinister, meddlesome flunkies of its mafioso-communist regime.

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Archived

Germany summoned the Chinese ambassador to the foreign ministry on Tuesday after saying China's military had laser targeted a German aircraft taking part in an EU operation in the Red Sea.

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There was no immediate response from China's foreign ministry and the Chinese embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

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Germany's defence ministry said the aircraft, taking part in the EU's ASPIDES mission which protects international sea routes in the Red Sea, had been contributing a Multi-Sensor Platform, or "flying eye" for reconnaissance of the area since October.

A Chinese warship, which had been encountered several times in the area, had laser targeted the aircraft with no reason or prior communication during a routine mission flight, said a ministry spokesperson. The incident took place at the beginning of July.

"By using the laser, the warship put at risk the safety of personnel and material," said the spokesperson, adding the mission flight was aborted as a precaution and the aircraft landed safely at a base in Djibouti.

[...]

China has previously denied accusations of firing or pointing lasers at U.S. planes.

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In 2020, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said a Chinese warship had fired a laser at a U.S. naval patrol aircraft flying in airspace above international waters west of Guam. China said that did not accord with the facts.

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Mistral AI translation

The man had barricaded himself in his house and shot at the Mossos despite mediation attempts

This morning, the Mossos d'Esquadra shot dead a man in his 50s who had barricaded himself in his house with a weapon and was holding two of his brothers and his mother hostage in Calldetenes, a village of about 2,400 inhabitants near Vic, in the region of Osona. In fact, the agents acted after hours of unsuccessful negotiations with the aggressor, and after he had already killed one of the brothers and shot the other. The neighbours of Calldetenes could not believe it this Tuesday: the aggressor is from a family that has lived in the village all their lives and that everyone knows. In addition to the two fatal victims, the incident left five Mossos injured, three of them seriously.

The Catalan police received a call early in the morning that a man had barricaded himself in his house with a firearm and was holding two members of his family, his brother and mother, hostage inside. When the first officers arrived - a citizen security patrol - the alleged aggressor is said to have shot at them, according to sources from the force. At that moment, agents from the GEI - the Mossos' special intervention group - were also activated and mediation began. At the same time, a security device was deployed around the house.

According to police sources, the man maintained a "hostile" and "violent" attitude at all times and "paid no heed to anything". Faced with the risk to the family members held inside the house, the agents began to think about how to free them. In the context of these operations, however, the aggressor is said to have shot again and the agents responded with firearms. In the exchange of gunfire, the man was shot dead.

A woman freed

When the agents entered the house they found the body of another man with wounds compatible with a firearm and a woman, the mother of the two victims, who was finally freed. According to the Catalan High Court of Justice (TSJC), it was the brother of the man who was shot dead. Everything indicates that the man who shot at the police had already killed his brother inside the house and then barricaded himself in.

During the operation, five Mossos d'Esquadra officers were injured to varying degrees. According to the same body, three were taken to hospital in serious condition and two had minor injuries. The investigation has now been handed over to the Mossos' Criminal Investigation Division (DIC).

Three days of mourning

As municipal sources have confirmed to ARA, the City Council will decree three days of mourning as a result of the events. The mayor of the municipality, Miquel Riera, explained to this newspaper the situation of "shock" in which the village finds itself after learning the extent of the situation throughout the morning. "Calldetenes is a village of 2,700 inhabitants and those affected are well-known people, we are very upset and surprised," he said.

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Police in Budapest announced Monday that they will not initiate any legal proceedings against participants of the Pride parade that occurred in the Hungarian capital at the end of June, despite the ceremony being prohibited.

The decision from the police came amid fears that those who took part could face fines and with organizers facing up to a year in prison.

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Pride parades are held across the globe in support of LGBTQ+ rights. Budapest police said in a statement that this year's organizers created public uncertainty about the event's legal status.

Among them was Budapest's liberal mayor, Gergely Karacsony, who declared Pride an official municipal event and argued this renders the government's ban irrelevant.

According to the law in Hungary, municipal and state occasions are exempt from public assembly decisions.

In a statement on Monday, Budapest police said that they would not initiate any legal proceedings as participants came to believe that the march was legal due to comments by organizers and due to the participation of the municipal government.

Karacsony has been under police investigation for four days, with organizers of prohibited gatherings under threat of up to one year in prison.

Right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbandescribed the event as "repulsive and shameful" and accused the EU of orchestrating the march.

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Archived version

TLDR:

  • Aero-HIT, a Russian company, partnered with Chinese firms to build drones for the Russian military, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg.
  • The documents show Aero-HIT has been working with Autel engineers since early 2023 to localize production of the Autel EVO Max 4T drone, which was originally designed for civilian use but has proven effective in combat.
  • Aero-HIT claims its production plant in Khabarovsk will have the capacity to produce as many as 10,000 drones per month this year, and the company has grown rapidly into one of Russia's main drone suppliers for military operations in Ukraine.

Soon after President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale war on Ukraine, a little-known Russian company thousands of miles away hatched a plan to partner with Chinese firms and solve one of the most urgent challenges faced by the invading army — the need for combat drones that were radically reshaping the battlefield.

Documents reviewed by Bloomberg — including memos from the company, Aero-HIT, as well as correspondence with Russian government officials — offer unprecedented insight into how Moscow capitalized on its friendly ties with Beijing to skirt Western sanctions and acquire the know-how and capability to build drones to attack Ukraine. They lay out in detail a previously unreported case study of Russian-Chinese corporate collaboration on defense technology.

Taken together, the documents show how sensitive technologies can move from China to Russia even if President Xi Jinping's government says it's not supplying either side.

Aero-HIT, which has received Russian state funding, claims its production plant close to the airport in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk will have the capacity to turn out as many as 10,000 drones per month this year and it’s planning to expand production further into more advanced models. It has grown rapidly into one of Russia’s main drone suppliers for military operations in Kherson, the partly occupied region of Ukraine that Putin insists must be handed over fully to Moscow’s control as part of any deal to end the war. Its products include the Veles, a First-Person View (FPV) drone that allows pilots to monitor the battlefield in real time via a screen or virtual-reality goggles linked to the quadcopter’s camera. FPV drones have become a crucial weapon for both sides in the war, and multiple reports suggest Russia has deployed them to deliberately target and hunt down civilians in Kherson city that Ukraine successfully retook in late 2022.

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Last June, the US Treasury sanctioned Aero-HIT, stating that the Veles drones it makes “have been used by Russian forces based in Kherson against Ukrainian targets.” ...

The documents, which date from late 2022 through to June 2025, show the extent to which Moscow goes to mask its suppliers and deliver equipment to its military, often by using intermediaries that operate in other sectors like airline catering, agricultural supplies and seafood transportation services. In a letter dated June 16 this year, Aero-HIT wrote to the head of the department of interdisciplinary research and special projects at Moscow’s Ministry of Defense requesting financial support to expand its output by localizing the production of the Autel EVO Max 4T drone. Autel Robotics is one of China’s major manufacturers of drones and drone parts. It denies supplying or having any business relationships with Russian firms as of February 2022.

The letter, which contains financial plans for what would be a 7.1 billion ruble ($90 million) investment and a schedule of proposed deliverables over 28 months, states that the Russian company has been cooperating with Autel engineers since early 2023. The relationship between the two firms was briefly interrupted due to sanctions, but contacts with Autel personnel were re-established around the end of 2024 and the parties have been negotiating localizing production for the drone since May 2025, the letter states.

The proposal says the Autel EVO Max 4T was originally designed for civilian use but has proven highly effective in combat due to several key advantages such as a radio module resistant to electronic warfare. The sale price would be 650,000 rubles apiece, VAT included, and the plan foresees making as many as 30,000 units per year, according to details outlined in the proposal.

By localizing production of that model, Aero-HIT says it would be able to bolster high-tech drone manufacturing in Russia and gain the transfer of technologies and know-how, including firmware, debugging, production, and repair. Crucially, the project would integrate the drones with domestic IT systems and adapt them to frontline needs.

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The origins of Aero-HIT and its relationship with suppliers in China date back to the second half of 2022 — and have been crucial to Russia’s ability to manufacture Veles drones at scale, the documents show. In the fall of 2022, discussions began between a Russian company called Komax, representatives of the Harbin Comprehensive Bonded Zone in China, and Khabarovsk Airport — which lies around 20 miles from the Chinese border — to build a warehouse with special tax and customs arrangements to facilitate imports, as well as establish the production of drones using Chinese parts and technologies nearby. Russia’s business registry shows Komax is owned by an individual named Konstantin Basyuk. He is a former KGB operative, according to Russian media reports, and since 2022 a senator for Russian-occupied Kherson. Basyuk was sanctioned by the European Union in 2023. Komax also manages Khabarovsk airport.

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The relationship stepped up when, between April 28 and May 3, 2023, a Russian delegation traveled to China to meet with representatives of the Harbin Comprehensive Bonded Zone and companies linked to the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), one of China’s top engineering universities and particularly prestigious in the fields of astronautics and defense-related technologies.

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The parties agreed to set up a joint venture in Khabarovsk and that a sample of 100 drone kits would be delivered to Russia. During the same trip, the Russian delegation also visited the headquarters of Autel Robotics and a drone factory in Shenzhen, according to a Russian memo.

Later that month, on May 22, Russian and Chinese representatives of the joint venture met with Putin’s special envoy for the Far East, Yury Trutnev, on the sidelines of the China-Russia Business Forum in Shanghai. Trutnev recognized the project as a priority and promised to help it receive permits from Russia’s customs service to allow for tax-free imports, another memo indicates. A readout on the website of the Russian government confirms that Trutnev met with Chinese executives “to discuss the development of cooperation between Russia and China in the Russian Far East.”

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In January 2024, Aero-HIT presented its business at a Kremlin event for small and medium enterprises in Khabarovsk organized as part of Russia’s presidential election campaign that was taking place at the time. Ahead of the event, the company sent the Kremlin an overview of its plans to produce drones for military purposes under the name Veles and pitched for support. The pitch made no mention of Chinese involvement and it is not known whether that support was received. However, other documents indicate that the company has business ties with the Russian Defense Ministry and military — and its product, packed with Chinese components, was making its way onto the battlefield to be deployed against Ukraine.

Document suggests that it is likely that ... Aero-HIT was procuring Autel parts and components from China via intermediaries. One such company named in one of the documents is Renovatsio-Invest, a firm sanctioned by the US in June 2024 for procuring Chinese-manufactured drones on behalf of Aero-HIT. ... Bloomberg is unable to confirm whether the drones were delivered to the 76th Guards Air Assault Division in Pskov, but Veles drones — easy to produce at scale as long as Chinese components remain available — continue to rain down on Ukraine’s cities each day.

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Archived version

Russia’s growing ability to sustain weapons production despite Western sanctions is being driven by a flow of Chinese components and materials, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for sanctions, told journalists on July 7.

Vlasiuk’s statement comes as Russia escalates its drone and missile strikes on Ukraine, while the U.S. continues to hold back on imposing tougher sanctions against Moscow and foreign-made components are still being found in Russian weapons used in the attacks.

Ukraine has previously documented that Chinese companies have contributed electronics and materials used in the production of these drones.

Just days earlier, after a large-scale Russian attack on July 4, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha shared on social media a photo of a component from a Shahed-136/Geran-2 combat drone discovered in Kyiv. According to Sybiha, the part was manufactured in China and delivered recently.

"The trend of China’s (role) is increasing," Vlasiuk told journalists.

...

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38181164

Britain on Monday targeted two Russian individuals and one Russian entity as part of its chemical weapons sanctions regime, in its latest effort to punish Moscow for the war in Ukraine.

It imposed asset freezes and travel bans on Aleksey Viktorovich Rtishchev and Andrei Marchenko, the head and deputy head of Russia's radiological chemical and biological defence troops, for their role in the transfer and use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, the British government said.

It said the Joint Stock Company Federal Scientific and Production Centre Scientific Research Institute of Applied Chemistry was sanctioned for supplying RG-Vo riot control agent grenades to the Russian military.

The grenades have been used as a method of warfare against Ukraine in contravention of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the British government said.

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