Eager eyes are currently turning to Geneva – even before her departure as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet promised the publication of her controversial China report. Bachelet has barely two weeks left to do so. More than a few observers fear that she has fallen for the Chinese narrative. Her report will show if that is true – when it finally comes out.
Another, no less important UN report is already making serious accusations against the People’s Republic. The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, considers it proven that “forms of slavery” occur both in the autonomous region of Xinjiang and Tibet. Marcel Grzanna took a closer look at the document. The report bluntly states exactly those accusations that China has always rejected
The involvement of Huawei or ZTE in the European 5G network expansion is an ongoing issue. In the past, it was primarily the distribution network between the stations and the providers’ backbone lines that were considered critical. However, since the Huawei debate and with 5G, the focus has begun to shift to the mobile network‘s endpoints, writes Falk Steiner. One idea to ensure more security at the endpoints is Open RAN, a system of predefined, standardized radio network components and software. Of all parties, Chinese players are currently shaping the Open RAN Alliance. The EU Commission and the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) are raising concerns.
Jack Ma apparently wanted to alleviate concerns among authorities. Our Beijing team reports that Ma wants to transfer a large part of his voting shares in Ant to executives to clear the way for an IPO. However, this is not only good news for the group.
A few days after the solemnly presented ratification of international conventions against forced labor, the People’s Republic of China is facing serious accusations by a UN body. A Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Tomoya Obokata, considers it proven that “forms of slavery” occur both in the autonomous region of Xinjiang and Tibet.
According to a 20-page report released Tuesday, “independent academic research, open sources, testimonies of victims, consultations with stakeholders, and accounts provided by the Government,” justified that conclusion. Even more, “excessive surveillance, abusive living and working conditions, restriction of movement through internment, threats, physical and/or sexual violence and other inhuman or degrading treatment” could constitute crimes against humanity, it said.
The drastic conclusion of the Japanese Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery is part of a paper that deals not only with forced labor in China but also in other parts of the world. It will serve as a basis for discussion at the Human Rights Council for its 51st session in Geneva in September.
When the Council assembles, the UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, who is currently in office, will no longer attend. Actually, Bachelet was supposed to present a report on the situation of the Uyghurs and other minorities. But the publication has been postponed several times. The High Commissioner, who visited the People’s Republic at the end of May, is accused of delaying the report in the interests of the Chinese government and adopting its linguistic trivialization.
Now, the document will reportedly be published on her last day in office at the end of August. Beijing has already seen the report and commented on its assessments. It is very likely that they will wrangle over critical formulations until the very end and that China will want to smooth out the accusations.
Obokata’s report is not in any way to China’s liking, as it formulates precisely those accusations that the country always states to be mere fabrications. On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry once again reacted with verbal counterattacks, reflexively casting the People’s Republic in the victim role. Obokata chose to believe “lies and misinformation fabricated by the US as well as anti-Chinese forces.” The Special Rapporteur “maliciously” besmirched China’s reputation.
For years, the People’s Republic has tried to paint a different picture of Xinjiang with a meticulously controlled information policy. To lessen the impact of the increasingly massive accusations, Beijing also relies on economic coercion against foreign companies, many of which are afraid of consequences for their sales in the country. Therefore, they either remain silent on the issue or engage in dubious whitewashing.
Accordingly, Obokata’s report also takes international companies to task. He cites the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) in the US or supply chain laws in Germany, France, the UK, or the EU level as good examples to oblige companies to exercise diligence.
Uyghur stakeholders reacted hopefully. “This report’s findings must be a wake-up call to those that have so far refused to take action on the proliferation of Uyghur forced labor-made goods in global supply chains”, said World Uyghur Congress (WUC) President Dolkun Isa. The WUC also calls on Michelle Bachelet to immediately publish her report.
There was positive feedback from Tibetan organizations. The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) welcomed the report’s explicit reference to forced labor in Tibetan settlement areas of the People’s Republic. “The Special Rapporteur’s finding also underscores the dramatic nature of the situation in Tibet and the fact that it also deserves special attention,” ICT Executive Director Kai Mueller said in a statement. “We have repeatedly pointed out so-called labor programs of the Chinese government, into which hundreds of thousands of Tibetans are forced,” said Mueller, who added his voice to the call for the immediate publication of Bachelet’s report.
Just last week, China ratified International Labor Organization (ILO) Conventions 29 and 105. The Forced Labor Convention of 1930 and the Abolition of Forced Labor Convention of 1957 require the People’s Republic to prohibit any form of forced or compulsory labor, including “as a means of political coercion or education or as a punishment for holding or expressing political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system.”
Adrian Zenz commented on Twitter, that “the report’s timing is quite sensitive in light of China’s very recent ratification of two ILO conventions forbidding the use of forced labor.” The German anthropologist’s meticulous research on forced labor in Xinjiang dramatically raised awareness of the issue worldwide. Zenz evaluates the UN paper as an “extremely significant and strong assessment.”
However, as pressing as the evidence on which the report is based is, China is likely to continue to field a front of advocates seeking to invalidate the allegations. In early August, the Chinese government invited envoys from 30 Islamic states to Xinjiang, including representatives from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Algeria, Iraq, and Yemen. According to Chinese media, the delegation concluded that participants had come to believe that the rights of ethnic minorities such as the Uyghurs would be upheld. The Algerian ambassador enthused, “The fruit here is so sweet, just like the life of people here.”
Actually, the goal is clear: Untrusted hardware and software should not be used in critical infrastructures, especially not in telecommunications infrastructures. The debate about the role of the Chinese supplier Huawei had also arrived in the EU and Germany in 2018, mainly at the instigation of the USA. The fear: The components of the Chinese manufacturers and their software could be used both for espionage and – in the event of confrontation – as a kill switch, i.e., misused to shut down entire network areas.
Particularly in the area of the rollout of 5G networks and subsequent generations, there has therefore been a hectic political search for solutions as to how a clear preference can be placed on other providers, above all the European equipment suppliers Nokia and Ericsson. At the same time, Chinese providers should not be subject to legal market exclusion. The EU then published its so-called 5G toolbox, and in Germany, the IT Security Act and the BSI Act were amended.
The core of the political debates: Whereas in the past, it was primarily the distribution network between stations and the providers’ backbone lines that were considered critical since the Huawei debate, and with 5G, the focus has increasingly been on the endpoints of the mobile network. This is because 5G gives them a larger and more active role. The RAN is the mobile network area that establishes the radio link to the end users and connects antennas and hardware at the radio tower with the core network of the providers. One idea for ensuring greater security there: Open RAN – a system of predefined, standardized radio network components and software.
With interoperable individual elements, Open RAN is intended to enable security and interchangeability – without blanket exclusion of certain manufacturers. German and European mobile communications companies, therefore, see Open RAN as a way of minimizing risks. On the other hand, however, the fact that completely different providers can be used should keep costs low. Chinese providers jumped on the allegedly open concept early on and have been supporting it intensively ever since.
In a recently published paper (PDF) by the Digital Power China research consortium, authors Jan-Peter Kleinhans and Tim Rühlig warn against credulity in connection with Open RAN. They say a very precise distinction must be made between what is meant by Open RAN in the first place – and which actors with which interests were involved in the Open RAN definitions. “At least 16 members of the O-RAN Alliance have ties to the Chinese security apparatus,” the paper says, adding that all three of the People’s Republic’s state-owned mobile operators are also involved.
China Mobile, in particular, is problematic as a founding member because it co-chairs ten working groups and is represented on the supervisory board and management board. In addition, China Mobile is a member of the technical steering committee, which decides on technological matters even before publication. The EU Commission and the German government are also warning with increasing intensity of the threat of Chinese players having too much power in such standardization bodies.
The authors see another major problem in the fact that Open RAN committees specify not only hardware but also software. Even if the source code is open, the sheer volume of RAN code is almost impossible to check.
The authors warn against narrowing the debate to Huawei alone – it is about China. Overall, the O-RAN Alliance is “anything but a trustworthy partner”. It is “highly questionable whether cooperation within and use of O-RAN Alliance-compatible equipment can effectively address the issues that are surfacing around Huawei’s role in the 5G rollout.”
At the beginning of May, the EU Commission published a study on the security of Open RAN, in which the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) was involved. This study also identified significant security risks for Open RAN. According to the
The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) had already commissioned a study in 2019 to examine security risks posed by Open RAN. At the time, the authors from the Barkhausen Institute and Advancing Individual Networks had concluded that the status at that time “contained multiple security risks”. One of these is particularly relevant: Open RAN had not been designed according to the principles of security by design or security by default; building security into standards after the fact was extremely difficult.
“Every 20 years, the tide turns in China.” This is how Christian Soffel observes politics in the People’s Republic. The sinologist identified the last turning point in 2008 when openness to the West peaked. Under Xi Jinping, things are going downhill at the moment, which also applies to European-Chinese relations. More than two years of the pandemic have made the exchange between the two blocs even more difficult. In big politics and exchange between scientists: “I miss the coffee breaks,” says the sinologist, “where the backgrounds are discussed.”
The 55-year-old is a Professor of Sinology at the University of Trier. When he began studying sinology in Munich in the early 1990s, the mood was at an all-time low. After the Tiananmen massacre, hardly anyone in Europe wants anything to do with the People’s Republic. “I remember a language course in my second year of study. There were three of us,” says Soffel.
He initially studies Slavic studies, mathematics, and theoretical physics. Rather by chance he visits a friend in Beijing – and is fascinated. Soffel begins to learn Mandarin and studies in Taiwan for several months. There he encounters the texts of Confucius for the first time. “The profoundly humane values appealed to me,” says Soffel: “Patience, modesty, humanity.”
In Chinese turbo-capitalism, values are changing. In mainland China, Confucianism is developing in a very materialistic direction, says Soffel. That fits well with economic growth in the People’s Republic. “The main argument of the Communist Party is that it has brought a lot of prosperity to the people,” Soffel says. In a materialistic Confucianism that prosperity is an important reason for humane action, he explains. This, in turn, can legitimize the party, he says.
This does not necessarily mean that the everyday life of the Chinese has much to do with basic Confucian values. Nevertheless, Confucianism is now on the rise again, tolerated and promoted by the party. The CP wants to use philosophical ideas for its benefit. “The party invokes traditions and can thus encourage positive energies in the population,” says Soffel.
“In Taiwan, you get a very different picture,” says the sinologist. The Confucian scene on the island is more open and creative. He says: “Morals and ideals like human dignity are more important there.”
Soffel hopes that he will soon be able to discuss such ideas in person with colleagues again. He is Secretary of the European Association for Chinese Philosophy, and next year its members plan to meet for a conference in Italy. The sinologist cannot yet estimate when the next trip to China will be possible. Nevertheless, Soffel is certain: “I will probably see the relationship improve again.” Jana Hemmersmeier
Workstation overlooking the Yangtze River: Utility engineers wait for one of the final parts for a power transmission tower on the 800-kilovolt Baihetan-Zhejiang UHV direct line. This week, work on several transmission towers was completed. With a total length of about 2,140 kilometers, the project is an important part of China’s west-east power supply.
Eager eyes are currently turning to Geneva – even before her departure as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet promised the publication of her controversial China report. Bachelet has barely two weeks left to do so. More than a few observers fear that she has fallen for the Chinese narrative. Her report will show if that is true – when it finally comes out.
Another, no less important UN report is already making serious accusations against the People’s Republic. The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, considers it proven that “forms of slavery” occur both in the autonomous region of Xinjiang and Tibet. Marcel Grzanna took a closer look at the document. The report bluntly states exactly those accusations that China has always rejected
The involvement of Huawei or ZTE in the European 5G network expansion is an ongoing issue. In the past, it was primarily the distribution network between the stations and the providers’ backbone lines that were considered critical. However, since the Huawei debate and with 5G, the focus has begun to shift to the mobile network‘s endpoints, writes Falk Steiner. One idea to ensure more security at the endpoints is Open RAN, a system of predefined, standardized radio network components and software. Of all parties, Chinese players are currently shaping the Open RAN Alliance. The EU Commission and the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) are raising concerns.
Jack Ma apparently wanted to alleviate concerns among authorities. Our Beijing team reports that Ma wants to transfer a large part of his voting shares in Ant to executives to clear the way for an IPO. However, this is not only good news for the group.
A few days after the solemnly presented ratification of international conventions against forced labor, the People’s Republic of China is facing serious accusations by a UN body. A Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Tomoya Obokata, considers it proven that “forms of slavery” occur both in the autonomous region of Xinjiang and Tibet.
According to a 20-page report released Tuesday, “independent academic research, open sources, testimonies of victims, consultations with stakeholders, and accounts provided by the Government,” justified that conclusion. Even more, “excessive surveillance, abusive living and working conditions, restriction of movement through internment, threats, physical and/or sexual violence and other inhuman or degrading treatment” could constitute crimes against humanity, it said.
The drastic conclusion of the Japanese Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery is part of a paper that deals not only with forced labor in China but also in other parts of the world. It will serve as a basis for discussion at the Human Rights Council for its 51st session in Geneva in September.
When the Council assembles, the UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, who is currently in office, will no longer attend. Actually, Bachelet was supposed to present a report on the situation of the Uyghurs and other minorities. But the publication has been postponed several times. The High Commissioner, who visited the People’s Republic at the end of May, is accused of delaying the report in the interests of the Chinese government and adopting its linguistic trivialization.
Now, the document will reportedly be published on her last day in office at the end of August. Beijing has already seen the report and commented on its assessments. It is very likely that they will wrangle over critical formulations until the very end and that China will want to smooth out the accusations.
Obokata’s report is not in any way to China’s liking, as it formulates precisely those accusations that the country always states to be mere fabrications. On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry once again reacted with verbal counterattacks, reflexively casting the People’s Republic in the victim role. Obokata chose to believe “lies and misinformation fabricated by the US as well as anti-Chinese forces.” The Special Rapporteur “maliciously” besmirched China’s reputation.
For years, the People’s Republic has tried to paint a different picture of Xinjiang with a meticulously controlled information policy. To lessen the impact of the increasingly massive accusations, Beijing also relies on economic coercion against foreign companies, many of which are afraid of consequences for their sales in the country. Therefore, they either remain silent on the issue or engage in dubious whitewashing.
Accordingly, Obokata’s report also takes international companies to task. He cites the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) in the US or supply chain laws in Germany, France, the UK, or the EU level as good examples to oblige companies to exercise diligence.
Uyghur stakeholders reacted hopefully. “This report’s findings must be a wake-up call to those that have so far refused to take action on the proliferation of Uyghur forced labor-made goods in global supply chains”, said World Uyghur Congress (WUC) President Dolkun Isa. The WUC also calls on Michelle Bachelet to immediately publish her report.
There was positive feedback from Tibetan organizations. The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) welcomed the report’s explicit reference to forced labor in Tibetan settlement areas of the People’s Republic. “The Special Rapporteur’s finding also underscores the dramatic nature of the situation in Tibet and the fact that it also deserves special attention,” ICT Executive Director Kai Mueller said in a statement. “We have repeatedly pointed out so-called labor programs of the Chinese government, into which hundreds of thousands of Tibetans are forced,” said Mueller, who added his voice to the call for the immediate publication of Bachelet’s report.
Just last week, China ratified International Labor Organization (ILO) Conventions 29 and 105. The Forced Labor Convention of 1930 and the Abolition of Forced Labor Convention of 1957 require the People’s Republic to prohibit any form of forced or compulsory labor, including “as a means of political coercion or education or as a punishment for holding or expressing political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system.”
Adrian Zenz commented on Twitter, that “the report’s timing is quite sensitive in light of China’s very recent ratification of two ILO conventions forbidding the use of forced labor.” The German anthropologist’s meticulous research on forced labor in Xinjiang dramatically raised awareness of the issue worldwide. Zenz evaluates the UN paper as an “extremely significant and strong assessment.”
However, as pressing as the evidence on which the report is based is, China is likely to continue to field a front of advocates seeking to invalidate the allegations. In early August, the Chinese government invited envoys from 30 Islamic states to Xinjiang, including representatives from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Algeria, Iraq, and Yemen. According to Chinese media, the delegation concluded that participants had come to believe that the rights of ethnic minorities such as the Uyghurs would be upheld. The Algerian ambassador enthused, “The fruit here is so sweet, just like the life of people here.”
Actually, the goal is clear: Untrusted hardware and software should not be used in critical infrastructures, especially not in telecommunications infrastructures. The debate about the role of the Chinese supplier Huawei had also arrived in the EU and Germany in 2018, mainly at the instigation of the USA. The fear: The components of the Chinese manufacturers and their software could be used both for espionage and – in the event of confrontation – as a kill switch, i.e., misused to shut down entire network areas.
Particularly in the area of the rollout of 5G networks and subsequent generations, there has therefore been a hectic political search for solutions as to how a clear preference can be placed on other providers, above all the European equipment suppliers Nokia and Ericsson. At the same time, Chinese providers should not be subject to legal market exclusion. The EU then published its so-called 5G toolbox, and in Germany, the IT Security Act and the BSI Act were amended.
The core of the political debates: Whereas in the past, it was primarily the distribution network between stations and the providers’ backbone lines that were considered critical since the Huawei debate, and with 5G, the focus has increasingly been on the endpoints of the mobile network. This is because 5G gives them a larger and more active role. The RAN is the mobile network area that establishes the radio link to the end users and connects antennas and hardware at the radio tower with the core network of the providers. One idea for ensuring greater security there: Open RAN – a system of predefined, standardized radio network components and software.
With interoperable individual elements, Open RAN is intended to enable security and interchangeability – without blanket exclusion of certain manufacturers. German and European mobile communications companies, therefore, see Open RAN as a way of minimizing risks. On the other hand, however, the fact that completely different providers can be used should keep costs low. Chinese providers jumped on the allegedly open concept early on and have been supporting it intensively ever since.
In a recently published paper (PDF) by the Digital Power China research consortium, authors Jan-Peter Kleinhans and Tim Rühlig warn against credulity in connection with Open RAN. They say a very precise distinction must be made between what is meant by Open RAN in the first place – and which actors with which interests were involved in the Open RAN definitions. “At least 16 members of the O-RAN Alliance have ties to the Chinese security apparatus,” the paper says, adding that all three of the People’s Republic’s state-owned mobile operators are also involved.
China Mobile, in particular, is problematic as a founding member because it co-chairs ten working groups and is represented on the supervisory board and management board. In addition, China Mobile is a member of the technical steering committee, which decides on technological matters even before publication. The EU Commission and the German government are also warning with increasing intensity of the threat of Chinese players having too much power in such standardization bodies.
The authors see another major problem in the fact that Open RAN committees specify not only hardware but also software. Even if the source code is open, the sheer volume of RAN code is almost impossible to check.
The authors warn against narrowing the debate to Huawei alone – it is about China. Overall, the O-RAN Alliance is “anything but a trustworthy partner”. It is “highly questionable whether cooperation within and use of O-RAN Alliance-compatible equipment can effectively address the issues that are surfacing around Huawei’s role in the 5G rollout.”
At the beginning of May, the EU Commission published a study on the security of Open RAN, in which the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) was involved. This study also identified significant security risks for Open RAN. According to the
The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) had already commissioned a study in 2019 to examine security risks posed by Open RAN. At the time, the authors from the Barkhausen Institute and Advancing Individual Networks had concluded that the status at that time “contained multiple security risks”. One of these is particularly relevant: Open RAN had not been designed according to the principles of security by design or security by default; building security into standards after the fact was extremely difficult.
“Every 20 years, the tide turns in China.” This is how Christian Soffel observes politics in the People’s Republic. The sinologist identified the last turning point in 2008 when openness to the West peaked. Under Xi Jinping, things are going downhill at the moment, which also applies to European-Chinese relations. More than two years of the pandemic have made the exchange between the two blocs even more difficult. In big politics and exchange between scientists: “I miss the coffee breaks,” says the sinologist, “where the backgrounds are discussed.”
The 55-year-old is a Professor of Sinology at the University of Trier. When he began studying sinology in Munich in the early 1990s, the mood was at an all-time low. After the Tiananmen massacre, hardly anyone in Europe wants anything to do with the People’s Republic. “I remember a language course in my second year of study. There were three of us,” says Soffel.
He initially studies Slavic studies, mathematics, and theoretical physics. Rather by chance he visits a friend in Beijing – and is fascinated. Soffel begins to learn Mandarin and studies in Taiwan for several months. There he encounters the texts of Confucius for the first time. “The profoundly humane values appealed to me,” says Soffel: “Patience, modesty, humanity.”
In Chinese turbo-capitalism, values are changing. In mainland China, Confucianism is developing in a very materialistic direction, says Soffel. That fits well with economic growth in the People’s Republic. “The main argument of the Communist Party is that it has brought a lot of prosperity to the people,” Soffel says. In a materialistic Confucianism that prosperity is an important reason for humane action, he explains. This, in turn, can legitimize the party, he says.
This does not necessarily mean that the everyday life of the Chinese has much to do with basic Confucian values. Nevertheless, Confucianism is now on the rise again, tolerated and promoted by the party. The CP wants to use philosophical ideas for its benefit. “The party invokes traditions and can thus encourage positive energies in the population,” says Soffel.
“In Taiwan, you get a very different picture,” says the sinologist. The Confucian scene on the island is more open and creative. He says: “Morals and ideals like human dignity are more important there.”
Soffel hopes that he will soon be able to discuss such ideas in person with colleagues again. He is Secretary of the European Association for Chinese Philosophy, and next year its members plan to meet for a conference in Italy. The sinologist cannot yet estimate when the next trip to China will be possible. Nevertheless, Soffel is certain: “I will probably see the relationship improve again.” Jana Hemmersmeier
Workstation overlooking the Yangtze River: Utility engineers wait for one of the final parts for a power transmission tower on the 800-kilovolt Baihetan-Zhejiang UHV direct line. This week, work on several transmission towers was completed. With a total length of about 2,140 kilometers, the project is an important part of China’s west-east power supply.
