Tag: NATIONAL SECURITY

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Xi loyalists take control of China’s national security

Xi’s loyalists from Fujian and Zhejiang factions take charge of China’s national security

With Xi Jinping firmly at the apex, the rest of the chain of command of ultra-loyalists will pass through Cai Qi, China’s new security Tsar, reports Atul Aneja

Riding on the wave of the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) which gave the Chinese President unbridled power, Xi Jinping has earnestly begun to position trusted loyalists in key positions of power.

So far, the line up of new chain of command on the security side are visible in plain sight.

The new line up shows a clear-cut pattern. Most of the officials belong either to the Fujian and Zhejiang factions. Both Fujian, and Zhejiang on the Chinese coast, are provinces where Xi had earlier served in senior positions at the provincial level. Incidentally Fujian’s capital Xiamen was the venue of the ninth BRICS summit which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended. Zhejiang is a trading hub, with its capital Yiwu, the source of much of the merchandise which heads into wholesale markets in India.

Leading the pack of Xi’s loyalists is Cai Qi. Cai, a part of the seven-member standing committee of the Politburo – China’s top leadership – has virtually become Xi’s Chief of Staff. Officially, he heads the party’s General Office. This is a break from the past for the director of this office was usually drawn from the 24-member Politburo, the second layer of leadership in the party-state after the standing committee.

Xi Jinping was unanimously elected Chinese president for the third time. (Photo: Xinhua)

Incidentally, Cai was conspicuous in the recent Xi-Putin summit in Moscow, where he sat next to the Chinese president at the high-table.

Cai is now the gatekeeper of security – both external and internal, the latter coming in sharp focus by the “white paper movement” which publicly opposed Xi’s zero-covid policy.

With Xi paying a premium on loyalty, it is not surprising that Cai served in the eighties with Xi when he was in Fujian between 1985-2002.

The thread continued when Xi moved to Zhejiang for a five-year tenure from 2002.

The Xi-Cai linkup also became evident when the former became President in 2012. After Xi assumed presidency, Cai moved to Beijing, becoming deputy director of the Office of the National Security Commission – a body that Xi setup in 2013, becoming the centrepiece of national security policy.

Others drawn from the Fujian and Zhejiang factions include Chen Wenqing who heads The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, was also a senior official in Fujian. The commission oversees the police, judicial and intelligence divisions, making Chen a key official in the Xi’s tightly controlled security setup.

Xi Jinping arrives for the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Ju Peng/IANS)

Another official, Wang Xiaohong also belongs to the Fujian faction. Wang is the minister of public security, is also a state councillor – a vice premier-level post.

Besides Xi has promoted He Weidong, who once served as chief of staff of the 31st Group Army – a unit based in Xiamen, facing the Taiwan Strait. He is now the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC).

Song Tao, the former head of the international department of the CPC, who is now director of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, a critically important post at this juncture, once worked at the Fujian International Trust and Investment Corporation.

With Xi firmly at the apex, the rest of the chain of command of ultra-loyalists will pass through Cai, China’s new security Tsar.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

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-Top News India News

National security main highlight of Personal Data Protection Bill

Once application for verification is submitted with necessary documents, the social media intermediaries must mandatorily verify the account, it added…reports Asian Lite News.

The Joint Committee Report on Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, was presented in the Parliament on Thursday. The main highlights of the report included social media regulations, national security, and protection of employee data, among other points.

“The Committee, considering the immediate need to regulate social media intermediaries, has expressed a strong view that these designated intermediaries may be working as publishers of the content in many situations, owing to the fact that they have the ability to select the receiver of the content and also exercise control over the access to any such content hosted by them. Therefore, a mechanism must be devised for their regulation,” read the report prepared by the joint committee headed by Lok Sabha member P.P. Chaudhary.

“The Committee has, therefore, recommended that all social media platforms, which do not act as intermediaries, should be treated as publishers and be held accountable for the content they host,” the statement read, adding that a mechanism may be devised under which social media platforms, which do not act as intermediaries, will be held responsible for the content from unverified accounts on their platforms.

Once application for verification is submitted with necessary documents, the social media intermediaries must mandatorily verify the account, it added.

Moreover, the Committee has also recommended that no social media platform should be allowed to operate in India unless the parent company handling the technology sets up an office in India.

Further, the Committee has recommended that a statutory media regulatory authority, on the lines of Press Council of India (PCI), may be set up for the regulation of content on all such media platforms, irrespective of the platform where their content is published, whether online, print or otherwise.

As the Bill will deal with various kinds of data at different levels of security, a single administration and regulatory body will be set up to deal with both personal and non-personal data so as to avoid any kind of confusion, contradiction and mis-management.

“In the Committee’s view, all data has to be dealt with by one Data Protection Authority (DPA),” the report stated.

Also, a mechanism will be followed for processing personal data when a child attains the age of majority, i.e., 18 years.

“Data fiduciaries dealing exclusively with children’s data must register themselves with the Data Protection Authority. With respect to any contract that may exist between a data fiduciary or data processor and a data principal who is a child, the provisions of the majority act may apply when he or she attains the age of 18 years,” the report mentioned.

“Three months before a child attains the age of majority, the data fiduciary should inform the child for providing consent again on the date of attaining the age of majority; and whatever services the person was getting will continue unless and until the person is either opting out of that or giving a fresh consent so that there is no discontinuity in the services being offered,” it added.

The committee also stressed upon the government that it should set up a dedicated lab and testing facility, with branches spread throughout India that will provide certification of integrity and security to all digital devices.

Stating that national security is of paramount importance and India cannot compromise it on the ground of promotion of businesses, the report said that concrete steps must be taken by the Central government to ensure that a mirror copy of the sensitive and critical personal data, which is already in possession of the foreign entities, be mandatorily brought to India in a time-bound manner.

The committee observed that the employer cannot be given complete freedom to process the personal data of an employee without his or her consent for the sake of employment purposes. Therefore, it holds the view that the relation between the employee and employer is very sensitive and should be dealt with utmost care so that no harm is caused to either of them.

“As the employer collects all the data of the employee, there is a trust relation between them which the Committee thinks should be respected. Therefore, there should be equilibrium in processing of data of employee by the employer and its use or misuse by the employer. The employee must also be given the opportunity to ensure that his or her personal data is not being processed for unreasonable purposes,” it added.

To avoid creating uncertainty for the concerned stakeholders, the committee also recommended that an approximate period of 24 months may be provided for implementation of any and all the provisions of the Act so that the data fiduciaries and data processors have enough time to make the necessary changes to their policies, infrastructure, processes etc.

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Categories
-Top News USA

US thanks India for resuming vax exports; assures national security

US Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman assures Foreign Secretary of Washington’s commitment to India’s national security during their meeting when they reviewed security issues relating to Afghanistan and China, reports Arul Louis

US Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, thanked India on behalf of the US for resuming Covid-19 vaccine exports when she met India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla in New Delhi on Wednesday, according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

She also assured Shringla of Washington’s commitment to India’s national security during their meeting when they reviewed security issues relating to Afghanistan and China, Price said in a readout of the meeting.

Sherman, who is on a two-day visit to India, also met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who tweeted after their meeting, “A good conversation on our relationship, its significance and its growth. Appreciated the successful visit of PM @narendramodi to the US and the Quad Leaders’ Summit.”

In the readout of the meeting with Shringla, Price said that Sherman “expressed the US’ gratitude for Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s announcement that India, which is the world’s largest vaccine producer, would soon resume exports of Covid-19 vaccines to the US.”

Providing vaccines to countries in the Indo-Pacific region is a major commitment by the Quad, the grouping of India, the US, Australia and Japan, and it was reiterated at the summit of their leaders in Washington last month.

The expression of thanks came while they “discussed the growing security, economic, and Indo-Pacific convergence between India and the United States, including around ending the Covid-19 pandemic, combating the climate crisis and accelerating clean energy deployment, deepening trade and investment ties, and expanding cooperation on cybersecurity and emerging technologies”, according to Price.

“The Deputy Secretary assured the Foreign Secretary of the US’ ongoing commitment to India’s national security and they reviewed pressing regional and global security issues, including Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, and the People’s Republic of China,” he said.

“The two expressed their mutual commitment to upholding democracy and human rights and agreed on the importance of continued close cooperation on shared global challenges,” Price said.

In particular, they “discussed the ongoing efforts to return Myanmar to a path to democracy”, he added.

She also spoke at the US-India Business Council’s India Ideas Summit on the theme ‘Recovery to Resurgence’, which looks at planning for the post-Covid future.

Her visit follows the meetings in Washington between President Joe Biden and Modi and their Quad summit with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia and Yoshihide Suga, who was then the leader of Japan.

Sherman, the second-highest-ranking US diplomat, is visiting India after visits by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and CIA Director Bill Burns.

She will be in Mumbai on Thursday and will go to Pakistan from there.

Sherman also met with US diplomatic staff in New Delhi and visited the Mahatma Gandhi memorial on Wednesday.

She tweeted, “It was humbling to visit the peaceful grounds of Gandhi Smriti, where Mahatma Gandhi spent the last days of his life, and to honour his commitment to democracy and human rights.”

Sherman ticks off China

Sherman also sent China an unequivocal message while on a visit to New Delhi: “economic coercion” is not the way forward.

It was a vital message conveyed by the diplomat from the region as China has been using predatory lending practices to build and bolster its influence in Sri Lanka and Maldives, threatening their sovereignty. Pakistan is a victim as well, but is going along in the interest of strategic ties with Beijing.

“We don’t ask countries to choose between the United States and the PRC (the People’s Republic of China), but we do ask for a level-playing field. We do ask that countries understand that economic coercion is not the way forward to build a strong international economy and a global prosperity and peace and security,” Wendy Sherman said, joining the annual summit of the US-India Business Council, virtually from Delhi.

Sherman’s remarks on China came in response to a question about US relationship with India and US relationship with China in the Indo-Pacific.

With Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla also on the stage, Wendy Sherman said “democratic values are the bedrock of the US-India relationship”, which enjoys wide bipartisan support in both countries. The relationship is built on an international ruled-based order, as is America’s strong network of Indo-Pacific alliances and partnerships. “Our partnership is essential to upholding that as we have a shared interest and we are major defence partners.”

About the relationship with China, Wendy Sherman said that the US is “ready to compete and compete vigorously but we want a level-playing field … we’ll compete vigorously with China where we should and will cooperate with China where it’s in our interest to do so. We will challenge China where we must, where it undermines our interests, the interests of our partners and allies or threatens the rules-based international order.”

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