Archived version

...

“A Russian soldier came to her house in May 2022, smashed her face with his rifle butt and broke her teeth, slashed her stomach with a knife, and raped her. He then stole her bicycle and left her a Kalashnikov bullet as a souvenir.”

...

“How can you look in the eyes of this 75-year-old woman and say there won’t be punishment for what that Russian soldier did to you?” said Kovalenko, her own eyes wet with tears.

The 38-year-old [Ukrainian documentary-maker Alisa Kovalenko] from Zaporizhzhia was one of a group of four Ukrainian survivors of sexual violence and activists who came to London last week to lobby MPs, members of the House of Lords, and Foreign Office officials to try to get British support against the proposed amnesty.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6254738

Archived version

In almost four years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has become evident that Moscow’s technological alliances have reshaped not only the future of the battlefield but also the foundations of international security. The threats no longer lie in the number of tanks or missiles that a given army has. As the war in Ukraine has shown, technological advances in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and advanced radar jamming technologies have allowed for asymmetric application of such technologies, often rendering classical concepts of deterrence, defense, and security architecture obsolete.

At the center of this shift stands a China-enabled drone supply network that is rapidly transforming Russia’s capacity for sustained, cost-effective, and scalable warfare.

...

Chinese-supplied components in Shahed-type and now Geran drones enable longer-range, more cost-effective, and precise strikes. The result is an increasing asymmetric threat to the European continent and beyond. Even more alarming are reverse technological transfers to Moscow’s other Asian allies, such as North Korea, which has been rumored to receive both technology and manufacturing training for the Shahed/Geran drones.

If left unaddressed, this China-enabled supply chain risks becoming the backbone of a new model of warfare that exploits cost asymmetries, sanctions loopholes, and alliance-based technology transfers across multiple domains simultaneously.

...

Chinese-made components is much more substantial [according to] Ukrainian drone specialists [who] indicate that Russia has made significant upgrades to three dimensions of Shahed/Geran drones: maneuverability and controllability, jamming resistance, and tactical versatility. Combined, these upgrades allow Russia to test new asymmetrical tactics that are becoming an increasingly challenging issue for air defenses in Ukraine and could be utilized beyond Ukraine in the future. Russia’s UAV barrages continue playing a successful role in strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as part of Russia’s cognitive warfare as well.

...

Chinese-supplied components that enable Geran’s maneuverability and controllability also allow for other tactical and asymmetric applications. As an example, Ukrainian Air Forces and Army Aviation Forces have been seen utilizing helicopters and Yak-52 trainer aircraft as airborne anti-Geran defenses. To counter this threat, a Geran-2 drone has been fitted with an R-60 air-to-air missile. While currently rumored to be a one-off occurrence, the integration of heat-seeking missiles into the drone makes Geran a fully fledged air-to-air weapons-systems platform.

...

In 2025, Moscow also conducted drone incursions over NATO airspace. Reports from the incident in Poland indicate that the Gerbera decoy drones were used in these provocations. While most of the drones were successfully neutralized, the equipment used to shoot down the drones shows both the asymmetric threat of such barrages and the unprecedented levels of cost-effectiveness that Moscow was able to reach.

...

Russia is also rumored to be supplying North Korea with the technology for Shahed/Geran drones and even employing and training up to 12,000 North Korean workers in its Geran drone production lines. Combined with the effectiveness of constant drone innovation and technological transfers within Moscow’s close-knit circle of allies, it is only a matter of time until the spillover effect of the Geran drones reaches the Asia-Pacific and alters the strategic balance in the region.

...

Ukrainian defense specialists emphasize that Russia’s military-industrial sector continues to acquire drone technologies ... often via third countries that re-label and repackage components, making traceability nearly impossible under current sanction frameworks. Recent reports of drones produced entirely from Chinese parts further underscore the selectivity of Beijing’s export restrictions and the vulnerability of current EU and U.S. controls.

Targeting these networks demands coordinated monitoring of Russia’s parallel import hubs in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkiye, Vietnam, and the Balkan states, alongside penalties for intermediaries and financial institutions supporting these schemes.

...

Equally important is addressing the role of e-commerce platforms, where dual-use components can be purchased in small but continuous volumes and aggregated into a significant industrial supply source for Russia’s drone assembly lines. Restricting these procurement routes is essential for limiting Russia’s ability to sustain its cost-effective asymmetric warfare capabilities and the broader China-enabled military-industrial complex. Sanctions must not only focus on intermediaries directly supplying Russia but also on financial institutions enabling monetary transfers, such as Russian burner banks.

...

Archived version

[UK] General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, the first sea lord, [said] that Moscow was renewing investment in the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research (GUGI) team and that Britain could not afford to ignore the threat posed by Russia’s advanced underwater capabilities, which were “improving all the time”.

The unit of expert submariners is responsible for mapping and potentially disrupting seabed infrastructure — such as internet cables and gas pipelines — on which Britain and its Nato allies rely for communications and power supplies.

“We’ve seen GUGI’s subsurface capabilities restarting,” Jenkins said in an interview. “We know that they’ve had some issues with that programme. It appears that they have reset that programme. So we’re expecting them to deploy again.”

GUGI can operate submersibles at extreme depths, which “gives [Moscow] the option for physical action, if they want it,” he added.

While GUGI has been conducting underwater missions for several decades, its actions are highly classified and UK naval chiefs have, until recently, refused to acknowledge its existence or discuss what they know of its activities.

...

Jenkins — who was appointed first sea lord and chief of the naval staff in May this year — declined to say exactly what “physical action” by GUGI might constitute.

But naval experts have suggested that Moscow could plant explosives at the nodes where cables meet.

“You have an aggressive regime with an acknowledged capability, an acknowledged desire to implement sabotage and transition towards points of tension, and you have a facility that enables them to go to depths with submersibles on mapped infrastructure that is sensitive to us,” Jenkins said. “That doesn’t seem like a good combination to me.”

...

“The Russians continue to invest in these [naval] capabilities, and they’re improving all the time . . . we should take that threat very seriously, because the comfort that we take from being an island that is separated from continental Europe is a false comfort,” added Jenkins.

...

His comments come as spies and defence chiefs have drawn attention to the increasing threat of Russian sabotage in the UK and across Europe.

In her first public remarks since taking the helm of the Secret Intelligence Service in October, MI6 chief Blaise Metreweli last week accused Moscow of “testing” Britain with “grey zone” activities including state-sponsored sabotage, cyber attacks and drone harassment at airports and military bases.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6251883

Chinese embassy staffers attempted to interrupt an award ceremony of an international tea competition in France when the organizer introduced Taiwan and displayed the Republic of China flag, a Taiwanese tea farmer said in an interview published today.

Hsieh Chung-lin (謝忠霖), chief executive of Juxin Tea Factory from Taichung's Lishan (梨山) area, on Dec. 2 attended the Teas of the World International Contest held at the Peruvian embassy in Paris.

Hsieh was awarded a special prize for his Huagang Snow Source Tea by the nonprofit Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products (AVPA).

...

During the ceremony, two Chinese embassy staffers in attendance stood up and shouted “Taiwan is just a province of China” and “Taiwan is part of China,” video of the event showed.

The organizer ignored the disruption and continued the ceremony, while attendees booed the staffers and gave Hsieh a round of applause.

...

AVPA is a non-governmental organization founded in 2005 that holds contests attracting more than 700 producers from around the world every year, according to its official Web site.

This year’s competitors included tea producers from the US, Japan and Sri Lanka.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6236953

Archived version

"We were mistreated": Former worker at Chinese company in Serbia tells of 'forced labour experience'

• Suspicions of forced labor at the Chinese Linglong factory in Serbia emerged several years ago, when local and international organizations warned about it
• The EU issued a Resolution on forced labour in the Linglong factory and environmental protests in Serbia [opens pdf]
• MAN Truck & Bus had stopped taking tyres from Chinese Linglong’s Serbian plant already in 2024 after reports alleging the exploitation and possible trafficking of Vietnamese and Indian workers
• This week, The US banned the import of car tyres made by China’s Shandong Linglong Tire Co owing to suspicions that the company has used forced labour

...

"What we experienced in Serbia was forced labor," Rafik Buks from India [said] ... During 2024, he worked on the construction of the Chinese Linglong factory in northern Serbia. "We were controlled, exploited and treated without dignity," says Buks.

...

"We were under constant pressure, under threats, and there were even physical fights. We were forced to endure mistreatment," Buks said.

...

He says that the agency they worked for sent them not only to the factory construction site, but also to other construction sites of Chinese companies in Serbia, "while Linglong later claimed that we never worked for them."

...

Reports of 'slave labour' at Linglong came up immediately after Chinese company started its construction site in Zrenjanin in Serbia in 2021, when around 500 Vietnamese workers were building the first Chinese tire factory in Europe. Activists back then said their working conditions are inhumane: no money, no passports, no hot water.

"It's terrible. People there don't even have medical support," says Ivana Gordic, an investigative journalist who was the first to report on the Vietnamese laborers' living and working conditions.

Footage on the cable channel N1 shows dilapidated shacks on the outskirts of the city. They have the kind of beds you find in overcrowded prisons, and there are just two old bathrooms for hundreds of people. "There's no heating and the hot water in the boiler is enough for five people at most," Gordic [said].

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6236953

Archived version

"We were mistreated": Former worker at Chinese company in Serbia tells of 'forced labour experience'

• Suspicions of forced labor at the Chinese Linglong factory in Serbia emerged several years ago, when local and international organizations warned about it
• The EU issued a Resolution on forced labour in the Linglong factory and environmental protests in Serbia [opens pdf]
• MAN Truck & Bus had stopped taking tyres from Chinese Linglong’s Serbian plant already in 2024 after reports alleging the exploitation and possible trafficking of Vietnamese and Indian workers
• This week, The US banned the import of car tyres made by China’s Shandong Linglong Tire Co owing to suspicions that the company has used forced labour

...

"What we experienced in Serbia was forced labor," Rafik Buks from India [said] ... During 2024, he worked on the construction of the Chinese Linglong factory in northern Serbia. "We were controlled, exploited and treated without dignity," says Buks.

...

"We were under constant pressure, under threats, and there were even physical fights. We were forced to endure mistreatment," Buks said.

...

He says that the agency they worked for sent them not only to the factory construction site, but also to other construction sites of Chinese companies in Serbia, "while Linglong later claimed that we never worked for them."

...

Reports of 'slave labour' at Linglong came up immediately after Chinese company started its construction site in Zrenjanin in Serbia in 2021, when around 500 Vietnamese workers were building the first Chinese tire factory in Europe. Activists back then said their working conditions are inhumane: no money, no passports, no hot water.

"It's terrible. People there don't even have medical support," says Ivana Gordic, an investigative journalist who was the first to report on the Vietnamese laborers' living and working conditions.

Footage on the cable channel N1 shows dilapidated shacks on the outskirts of the city. They have the kind of beds you find in overcrowded prisons, and there are just two old bathrooms for hundreds of people. "There's no heating and the hot water in the boiler is enough for five people at most," Gordic [said].

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6199732

Archived version

...

Amid the backdrop of its spat with Japan, Beijing has hosted a flurry of recent diplomatic activity with European leaders. German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil visited in November, followed this month by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.

...

This whirlwind of visits follows a similar active scene in the fall, when European leaders visited Japan during the World Expo Osaka.

The timing of the European leaders' visits to China comes at a curious time for Japan. Last month in parliament, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made comments about a Taiwan emergency that triggered a furious response from China.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has been using his meetings with European officials to push Beijing's narrative about the dispute.

...

He reportedly told Wadephul that, unlike Germany, Japan has not thoroughly reflected on its history of aggression even 80 years after World War II.

He told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot that Beijing believes France will understand and support China's legitimate position, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The European countries have refrained from commenting on these reports directly, an attitude that can be interpreted as tacit approval.

But Japan should not be too concerned about Europe cozying up to China. The recent diplomatic visits were mostly planned before Takaichi took office. European diplomacy in Asia typically balances visits among Japan, China, India and other major countries.

Europe's basic position is to position Japan as a country with which it shares democratic values and the rule of law.

...

Beijing is trying to spread the narrative that Tokyo is reverting to its militaristic ways, but EU policymakers are not buying it. Rather, they see China's hegemonic ambitions as increasing the risk of a Taiwan conflict, forcing Japan to respond.

...

The Chinese government's call for its citizens to refrain from traveling to Japan has been widely reported in Europe. Meanwhile, China has a history of using export controls on rare-earth elements to pressure European companies. When these factors are combined, the image in Europe of China as an authoritarian state that uses economic coercion as a weapon grows stronger.

...

Policymakers in major European economies frequently exchange information and coordinate China policies, though approaches vary across the continent. Long-term plans are emerging to reduce economic dependence on China, tighten regulations on Chinese companies operating in the European market and control the inflow of Chinese products into Europe.

Europe is pursuing strategic autonomy while seeking to distance itself from both Washington -- which it is also at odds with -- and Beijing moving forward. It is quietly working to de-risk from both powers as part of its long-term strategy to strengthen itself as an economic bloc.

Signs are emerging that China's excessive pressure on Japan is failing to win over Europe.

...

Japan must clearly demonstrate that it is a country based on the rule of law and an open society, and that it is a defender of liberal democracy and market economics. If Takaichi uses Group of Seven summits and other forums to explain this thoroughly, Europe will listen.

...

Now is the time to deepen cooperation with democratic forces in the Indo-Pacific region like South Korea, Taiwan and Australia, and gird against authoritarian states seeking to disrupt the international order.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6199732

Archived version

...

Amid the backdrop of its spat with Japan, Beijing has hosted a flurry of recent diplomatic activity with European leaders. German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil visited in November, followed this month by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.

...

This whirlwind of visits follows a similar active scene in the fall, when European leaders visited Japan during the World Expo Osaka.

The timing of the European leaders' visits to China comes at a curious time for Japan. Last month in parliament, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made comments about a Taiwan emergency that triggered a furious response from China.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has been using his meetings with European officials to push Beijing's narrative about the dispute.

...

He reportedly told Wadephul that, unlike Germany, Japan has not thoroughly reflected on its history of aggression even 80 years after World War II.

He told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot that Beijing believes France will understand and support China's legitimate position, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The European countries have refrained from commenting on these reports directly, an attitude that can be interpreted as tacit approval.

But Japan should not be too concerned about Europe cozying up to China. The recent diplomatic visits were mostly planned before Takaichi took office. European diplomacy in Asia typically balances visits among Japan, China, India and other major countries.

Europe's basic position is to position Japan as a country with which it shares democratic values and the rule of law.

...

Beijing is trying to spread the narrative that Tokyo is reverting to its militaristic ways, but EU policymakers are not buying it. Rather, they see China's hegemonic ambitions as increasing the risk of a Taiwan conflict, forcing Japan to respond.

...

The Chinese government's call for its citizens to refrain from traveling to Japan has been widely reported in Europe. Meanwhile, China has a history of using export controls on rare-earth elements to pressure European companies. When these factors are combined, the image in Europe of China as an authoritarian state that uses economic coercion as a weapon grows stronger.

...

Policymakers in major European economies frequently exchange information and coordinate China policies, though approaches vary across the continent. Long-term plans are emerging to reduce economic dependence on China, tighten regulations on Chinese companies operating in the European market and control the inflow of Chinese products into Europe.

Europe is pursuing strategic autonomy while seeking to distance itself from both Washington -- which it is also at odds with -- and Beijing moving forward. It is quietly working to de-risk from both powers as part of its long-term strategy to strengthen itself as an economic bloc.

Signs are emerging that China's excessive pressure on Japan is failing to win over Europe.

...

Japan must clearly demonstrate that it is a country based on the rule of law and an open society, and that it is a defender of liberal democracy and market economics. If Takaichi uses Group of Seven summits and other forums to explain this thoroughly, Europe will listen.

...

Now is the time to deepen cooperation with democratic forces in the Indo-Pacific region like South Korea, Taiwan and Australia, and gird against authoritarian states seeking to disrupt the international order.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6164123

Archived version

A security doctrine published by the European Commission has identified solar inverters from Chinese suppliers as a high-risk dependency.

The document, on how to strengthen EU economic security [opens pdf], outlines how the bloc plans to react to growing external economic threats. It says the commission’s immediate focus will be on six priority high-risk areas, identified as reducing strategic dependencies for goods and services; attracting safe investment into the EU; supporting Europe’s defence, space and critical industrial industries; securing EU leadership across critical technologies; protecting sensitive data and shielding Europe's critical infrastructure.

The communication goes on to specifically highlight reliance on solar inverters as an example of a security risk due to supplier concentration, cyber-manipulation risks, access to grid-relevant operational data and the possibility of actors infiltrating supply chains. Today, around 80% of Europe’s PV systems rely on Chinese inverters.

...

Mainstream semiconductors, battery electric vehicles, key components for drones and detection equipment at EU borders are listed as other high-risk dependency areas in the communication.

The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) has released a statement saying it strongly supports the strategic shift outlined in the document.

...

The council says it particularly welcomes the council’s intention to “support the development of trusted suppliers of critical subcomponents in the EU and in trusted third countries so that there are viable alternatives” and reiterated that European and other Western manufacturers remain on the technological forefront, with the manufacturing capacity to meet all of European demand.

ESMC is calling for a series of actions, including the establishment of an EU-level whitelist of trustworthy inverter vendors based on cybersecurity and jurisdictional risk criteria that is integrated into NIS2, the ICT supply‑chain toolbox, NZIA Articles and all relevant EU network codes. It also says EU member states should be permitted to deny grid connection to inverter hardware from high-risk vendors.

...

The council has established an Inverter, Storage and Energy Management Systems Forum, open to ESMC members and eligible Western non-members, that it says will work with grid operators, energy-security agencies, standardization bodies and other stakeholders to advance Europe’s digital and energy resilience.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6163809

Archived version

• Italy completes first solar auction excluding Chinese gear
• Average price 17% above ordinary renewable auction
• Auction backs EU push to cut reliance on Chinese components

Italy awarded more than 1.1 gigawatts of capacity to 88 projects in its first auction exclusively for solar projects built without equipment manufactured in China, setting an average price of 66.38 euros per megawatt hour.

The tariff is 17% higher than the average price for a renewable auction earlier this year that had no restrictions on equipment origin, according to data from Italy's electricity services agency (GSE).

...

The auction is among the first in Europe to apply non-price criteria linked to the European Union's Net-Zero Industry Act, a package of measures that aims to curb reliance on low-cost renewable components from China.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6143296

Archive version

The EU has announced a €3 billion ($3.52 billion) strategy to reduce its dependency on critical raw materials and other goods from China, citing the nation’s “weaponization” of supplies.

...

EU industry commissioner Stéphane Séjourné said the trading bloc is considering legally forcing industries to reduce purchases from China in order to insulate Europe from future hostile acts.

The Commission's newly unveiled ReSourceEU program seeks to de-risk and diversify the bloc’s supply chains by introducing new rules to stop scrap aluminum leaving the bloc, recycling of magnets used in car batteries and a new €2 billion-per-year fund backed by the European Investment Bank to support industries diversifying away from cheap Chinese supplies.

Séjourné said that, if European industry did not respond, the commission reserved the right to introduce legislation.

“We would force European companies legally to diversify their sources of supply. That is not the case now, and it is not what is proposed in the plan [ReSourceEU], but this is a wakeup call, a strong wakeup call,” said Séjourné.

The EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said Brussels remained committed to the concept of open access to its markets but that was repeatedly “fire-fighting” a succession of crises, including the disruption to the car industry caused by the recent, now lifted, ban on exports of chips by China in response to the Dutch government taking control of the Chinese-owned chip firm Nexperia.

...

Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also warned that China is increasingly weaponizing economic ties for political gains.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6126095

Russian and Chinese support for Venezuela has largely dried up, with no prospect of real military or financial aid.