Here’s a taste of what it’s like, via Bloomie:
The Maldives is reportedly planning to pull out of a free trade agreement with China as the island nation moves closer to India and the West after Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won the presidency in a September election…As he took office Saturday, Solih declared that large-scale corruption had drained state coffers and warned that the country had become estranged from the international community.
…Underlining the shift away from China’s influence, Solih’s office said Monday that the nation would rejoin Britain’s Commonwealth of Nations. In a veiled reference to restrictions on freedom of speech and the jailing of opposition leaders under Yameen, the statement noted the importance of promoting human rights, freedom of expression and democracy.
Unless you’re on the take, it really is no choice at all. Helloooo Victoria.
Or is that Australia, via Domainfax:
Internet traffic heading to Australia was diverted via mainland China over a six-day period last year, in what some experts believe may have enabled a targeted data theft.
The diverted traffic from Europe and North America was logged as a routing error by the state-owned China Telecom, according to data released for the first time by researchers at Tel Aviv University and the Naval War College in the US.
“We noticed unusual and systematic hijacking patterns associated with China Telecom,” one of the researchers, Yuval Shavitt, a professor at Tel Aviv University told Fairfax Media.
But no, says an always angry China, via the AFR:
China has downplayed suggestions its peak security agency has directed a surge in cyber attacks on Australian companies over the past year, saying cyber hacking is a common challenge faced by every country.
Asked to respond to an investigation by The Australian Financial Review and Nine News that found China had breached an agreement with Australia not to steal each other’s commercial secrets, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that “related reports and accusations are sheer fabrication”.
The investigation said China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), was responsible for what is known in cyber circles as “Operation Cloud Hopper”, a wave of attacks detected by Australia and its partners in the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance.
Just to be sure, better get off the porn or your social credit score will take a hit and you’ll be off for “re-education”.
