The U.S. State Department announced Thursday (10) that it has sanctioned 17 officials from China, Russia, El Salvador and Jamaica and their immediate family members for alleged serious human rights violations. Among them, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by Chinese Communist Party public security officials is on the blacklist. Outrageous! U.S. Ambassador for Religious Freedom Exposes that Pakistan Sells Hindu and Christian Women to the Chinese as Concubines and Brides.
Heavyweight! On Thursday the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed the Huawei ZTE banned list, while revoking China Telecom’s operations in the U.S. An internal Huawei report confirms that Huawei participated in the testing of an artificial intelligence system to identify ethnic characteristics. French footballer Griezmann announces the immediate end of his partnership with Huawei.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warns business leaders that the U.S. will treat Hong Kong the same way it treats mainland China. Pompeo also disclosed that the first time he talked to Europe about Huawei, the European side thought Pompeo was crazy. By now, dozens of countries have joined the Clean Network Initiative.
Authoritative financial data, the total market value of the world’s stock markets reached 100 trillion dollars. S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the removal of 21 Chinese companies from the Global Equity Bond Index.
Outrageous! U.S. Ambassador: Pakistan Sells Women to the Chinese as Concubines
China’s gender imbalance has made it difficult for many men to find partners, and human trafficking has been reported. The U.S. State Department’s Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, said on December 9 that Pakistan sells Hindu and Christian women to the Chinese as concubines and “forced brides.
Brownback noted that the main sources of these women forced to marry Chinese men are “religious minorities, Christians and Hindu women.
Brownback said this happens because they fail to receive effective support, “and because discrimination against religious minorities makes them more vulnerable.
A Pakistani woman, Sumaila, shows a photo of her Chinese husband in Gujranwala, Pakistan, May 22, 2019.
The Associated Press had interviewed 629 Pakistani girls and women in December 2019 who were sold to Chinese men and brought to China in 2018 and early 2019.
Upon arrival in China, the women were often isolated, neglected, abused and forced into prostitution.
The Associated Press investigation revealed that the traffickers targeted poor Pakistani Christians and paid desperate families to marry their daughters and sisters off to Chinese men.
No one is doing anything to help these girls,” said an official familiar with the incident. These problems continue to happen because the people doing these things know they will be fine. Authorities will not follow up, and everyone is forced not to investigate. And now, human trafficking continues to increase.
What?! Europe thinks Pompeo is crazy to treat the Chinese Communist Party this way
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned business leaders at an event Dec. 8 that the U.S. would treat Hong Kong, one of the world’s trade and financial centers, the same way it treats mainland China.
In a question from Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Matt Murray, Pompeo said, “We treat Hong Kong as a special place because, in fact, it used to be a special place. It’s not anymore.”
“Hong Kong is another Chinese Communist-controlled city. The world and the business community should treat it as such.”
Murray also asked about the positioning of the United States in global multilateralism.
Pompeo replied, “European countries have decisions to make, just as the United States has a series of decisions to make. And we’ve all been asleep for decades on China. It took American leadership to wake the world up and make it aware. I remember the first time I was in Europe talking about Huawei and the risk that bringing Chinese hardware and software inside your country’s telecommunications infrastructure poses to the network – I mean, it’s crazy. I remember the first time I talked (with the European side). It was a painful conversation. They thought I was the one who was crazy. “
Pompeo added, “What’s happening is that we have dozens of countries that have joined the Clean Web Initiative. We have dozens of phone companies that have abandoned China’s telecommunications infrastructure. You can see that Ericsson and Nokia are doing better. That’s a market indicator that we’re right, that we’re telling this story right. I wish the Europeans had followed sooner. We are now in a dialogue between the EU and the US on China. This has never happened before.”
Murray also asked, “What should be the role of American businesses, multinational corporations, at this moment?”
Pompeo replied, “Every business leader operating internationally understands that it’s important to make sure that you’re not contributing to massive human rights abuses, to make sure that you’re operating in a way that even if it has a short-term cost to your own business. The way you do business fundamentally ensures the continued existence of freedom-loving nations, rule-following nations, and the chance of a free international order, rather than helping to prop up authoritarian regimes that want to take away the freedoms that led to your success and that of your companies.”
3 S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the removal of 21 Chinese companies from the Global Equity Bond Index
S&P Dow Jones Indices Inc. announced Thursday (Dec. 10) that it will remove 21 Chinese companies from its global stock and bond indexes on orders from the Trump administration, preventing U.S. investors from buying shares in those companies.
The index provider said it will take the stocks of 10 Chinese companies, including Hikvision, SMIC and Sinosolar, out of its stock and bond indexes from Dec. 21, before the stock market opens. It also plans to take out bonds issued by 11 Chinese companies from its fixed-income index before the market opens on Jan. 1 next year.
This follows a similar move by British index provider FTSE Russell last week to remove eight Chinese companies from its product line.
The Trump administration issued an executive order on Nov. 12 prohibiting U.S. investment firms, pension funds and other financial institutions and individuals from owning or trading in any securities issued by companies that the U.S. Department of Defense determines have a Chinese Communist military affiliation. The executive order was issued so that the stocks and securities of the affected Chinese companies no longer qualify for the index.
U.S. Sanctions 17 Foreign Officials, Lists Communist Party Public Security Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners
The U.S. State Department announced Thursday (10) that it has sanctioned 17 officials and their immediate families from China, Russia, El Salvador and Jamaica for allegedly committing serious human rights violations.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the sanctions were imposed on the officials on the occasion of International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10. The Chinese officials sanctioned are Huang Yuanxiong, head of the Wucun police station of the Xiamen Public Security Bureau in Fujian Province, and his spouse, who the State Department cited in a statement for serious violations of the religious freedom of Falun Gong followers, including the detention and interrogation of Falun Gong practitioners on the basis of their religious beliefs.
Sanctions were also imposed on Ramzan Kadyrov, president of the Russian Republic of Chechnya and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Others sanctioned include five individuals associated with the intelligence agency of the Yemeni rebel Youth Movement and three Haitians.
Heavyweight! FCC Passes Huawei ZTE Ban List, Revokes China Telecom Operations in U.S.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday, voted overwhelmingly 5-0 to adopt a list of equipment banned from Huawei and ZTE, and the FCC also launched a grant program to provide at least $1.6 billion in funding to compensate eligible smaller vendors for replacement equipment, which is pending congressional allotment.
It is understood that once the funds are available, U.S. remote communications carriers must exclude such equipment or services from their networks and dispose of them appropriately.
In addition, the FCC has initiated the process of revoking China Telecom’s authorization to operate in the U.S. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said we are very concerned about China Telecom and will be forced to comply with requests for information from the Chinese Communist authorities.
Huawei’s Internal Report Confirms Participation in Tests of Artificial Intelligence System to Identify Ethnic Characteristics
The Washington Post on Tuesday published an internal test report from the Huawei Group that proves Huawei did work with facial recognition startup MegviiTechnology Ltd. to test an artificial intelligence camera system that can identify ethnic Uyghurs, showing that the technology has been fully standardized.
The Washington Post said the internal Huawei document, from a Pennsylvania company called IPVM that reviews and investigates video surveillance equipment, documented that Huawei worked with Megvii in 2018 to test an artificial intelligence camera system that could scan people’s faces, estimate each person’s age, gender and race, and trigger a “Uyghur alert” if it detected the face of a Uyghur, which could be delivered to Chinese police.
The report said the test report was found on Huawei’s website, but was removed shortly after the Washington Post and IPVM asked the company for comment. However, both Huawei and Kuangwei Technology Group acknowledged that the document was authentic.
7 French star Griezmann announces immediate end to cooperation with Huawei
France’s Griezmann announces immediate end to cooperation with Huawei due to human rights concerns
French men’s national soccer team player and La Liga FC Barcelona star Antoine Griezmann announced via his personal Instagram account on December 10 that “after strong suspicions that Huawei used face recognition software to enable the development of ‘Uyghur Alert I am announcing the immediate termination of my cooperation with the company following strong suspicions that Huawei used facial recognition software to facilitate the development of ‘Uyghur Alert’.” He also invited Huawei to “take concrete action as soon as possible to denounce this massive crackdown and use its influence to promote respect for human and women’s rights in society.”
The $100 Trillion “New World of Stocks”
According to Bloomberg’s authoritative financial data, the total market capitalization of the world’s stock markets reached $100.5 trillion.
Nine months ago, in mid-March 2020, the total market capitalization of the world’s stock markets was only $60 trillion, so it’s a world away. If we count from the end of 2008, when the total market capitalization of the global stock market was less than $30 trillion, today, the total market capitalization of the stock market has increased by more than 200%.
The points of the major global stock markets and their gains since the end of 2008 are listed below.
Figure: List of global major stock market gains since the end of 2008 to date
It is important to note that the rise in total global stock market capitalization includes not only the rise in index points, but also the expansion of the stock market itself.
In 2019, the total size of global GDP is only $87.7 trillion and the total stock market capitalization is $100.5 trillion, which means that the capitalization rate of the global economy (total stock market capitalization/GDP, commonly known as the “Buffett indicator”) has reached 115%.
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