Xerof
Have a Cigar 1975
Chinese takeaways?
AVZ Discussion 2022
- Thread starter GazDix
- Start date
Nellie17
Regular
I'm sure I'll find something on the menu tomorrow dickbrain! And I won't be paying!!
Cheers,
Nells x
Mr Inappropriate
Regular
The debt is not the problem - a default on the debt payments as a massive problem.
Don’t rule out the Republicants doing everything they can to drive the economy off the cliff. They stand for nothing except power itself, and will do literally anything if they think it enhances their prospects of re-election.
The U.S. has been through this before. When its all sorted out and passed the share market will take off like a rocket.
Yes, yes of course. My bad. Back to the naughty corner lol.
CashKing
Regular
What ? Bro they can’t keep printing their way out of debt, Covid printing alone there’s no coming back from that let alone the major debt before hand..
Your kids great grandkids will be paying that off in taxes mate…
Unless you own a shit tonne of gold push the price up double or triple & sell it off and pay your debt ish ! Maybe 1/2 if your lucky depending on how much gold you sell to 
China ? Slippery slope GLTAH
Exclusive: Chinese hackers attacked Kenyan government as debt strains grew
By Aaron Ross, James Pearson
and Christopher Bing
May 25, 20235:28 AM GMT+8Updated 16 hours ago
[1/9] A general view shows a cargo train on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and financed by the Chinese government in Athi River, Kenya May 16, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
- Summary
- Cyber spies infiltrated Kenyan networks from 2019
- Hit finance ministry, president's office, spy agency and others
- Sources believe Beijing was seeking info on debt
Two of the sources assessed the hacks to be aimed, at least in part, at gaining information on debt owed to Beijing by the East African nation: Kenya is a strategic link in the Belt and Road Initiative - President Xi Jinping's plan for a global infrastructure network.
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"Further compromises may occur as the requirement for understanding upcoming repayment strategies becomes needed," a July 2021 research report written by a defence contractor for private clients stated.
China's foreign ministry said it was "not aware" of any such hacking, while China's embassy in Britain called the accusations "baseless", adding that Beijing opposes and combats "cyberattacks and theft in all their forms."
China's influence in Africa has grown rapidly over the past two decades. But, like several African nations, Kenya's finances are being strained by the growing cost of servicing external debt - much of it owed to China.
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The hacking campaign demonstrates China's willingness to leverage its espionage capabilities to monitor and protect economic and strategic interests abroad, two of the sources said.
The hacks constitute a three-year campaign that targeted eight of Kenya's ministries and government departments, including the presidential office, according to an intelligence analyst in the region. The analyst also shared with Reuters research documents that included the timeline of attacks, the targets, and provided some technical data relating to the compromise of a server used exclusively by Kenya's main spy agency.
A Kenyan cybersecurity expert described similar hacking activity against the foreign and finance ministries. All three of the sources asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of their work.
"Your allegation of hacking attempts by Chinese Government entities is not unique," Kenya's presidential office said, adding the government had been targeted by "frequent infiltration attempts" from Chinese, American and European hackers.
"As far as we are concerned, none of the attempts were successful," it said.
It did not provide further details nor respond to follow-up questions.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Britain said China is against "irresponsible moves that use topics like cybersecurity to sow discord in the relations between China and other developing countries".
"China attaches great importance to Africa's debt issue and works intensively to help Africa cope with it," the spokesperson added.
THE HACKS
Between 2000 and 2020, China committed nearly $160 billion in loans to African countries, according to a comprehensive database on Chinese lending hosted by Boston University, much of it for large-scale infrastructure projects.Kenya used over $9 billion in Chinese loans to fund an aggressive push to build or upgrade railways, ports and highways.
Beijing became the country's largest bilateral creditor and gained a firm foothold in the most important East African consumer market and a vital logistical hub on Africa's Indian Ocean coast.
By late 2019, however, when the Kenyan cybersecurity expert told Reuters he was brought in by Kenyan authorities to assess a hack of a government-wide network, Chinese lending was drying up. And Kenya's financial strains were showing.
The breach reviewed by the Kenyan cybersecurity expert and attributed to China began with a "spearphishing" attack at the end of that same year, when a Kenyan government employee unknowingly downloaded an infected document, allowing hackers to infiltrate the network and access other agencies.
"A lot of documents from the ministry of foreign affairs were stolen and from the finance department as well. The attacks appeared focused on the debt situation," the Kenyan cybersecurity expert said.
Another source - the intelligence analyst working in the region - said Chinese hackers carried out a far-reaching campaign against Kenya that began in late 2019 and continued until at least 2022.
According to documents provided by the analyst, Chinese cyber spies subjected the office of Kenya's president, its defence, information, health, land and interior ministries, its counter-terrorism centre and other institutions to persistent and prolonged hacking activity.
The affected government departments did not respond to requests for comment, declined to be interviewed or were unreachable.
By 2021, global economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic had already helped push one major Chinese borrower - Zambia - to default on its external debt. Kenya managed to secure a temporary debt repayment moratorium from China.
In early July 2021, the cybersecurity research reports shared by the intelligence analyst in the region detailed how the hackers secretly accessed an email server used by Kenya's National Intelligence Service (NIS).
Reuters was able to confirm that the victim's IP address belonged to the NIS. The incident was also covered in a report from the private defence contractor reviewed by Reuters.
Reuters could not determine what information was taken during the hacks or conclusively establish the motive for the attacks. But the defence contractor's report said the NIS breach was possibly aimed at gleaning information on how Kenya planned to manage its debt payments.
"Kenya is currently feeling the pressure of these debt burdens...as many of the projects financed by Chinese loans are not generating enough income to pay for themselves yet," the report stated.
A Reuters review of internet logs delineating the Chinese digital espionage activity showed that a server controlled by the Chinese hackers also accessed a shared Kenyan government webmail service more recently from December 2022 until February this year.
Chinese officials declined to comment on this recent breach, and the Kenyan authorities did not respond to a question about it.
'BACKDOOR DIPLOMACY'
The defence contractor, pointing to identical tools and techniques used in other hacking campaigns, identified a Chinese state-linked hacking team as having carried out the attack on Kenya's intelligence agency.The group is known as "BackdoorDiplomacy" in the cybersecurity research community, because of its record of trying to further the objectives of Chinese diplomatic strategy.
According to Slovakia-based cybersecurity firm ESET, BackdoorDiplomacy re-uses malicious software against its victims to gain access to their networks, making it possible to track their activities.
Provided by Reuters with the IP address of the NIS hackers, Palo Alto Networks, a U.S. cybersecurity firm that tracks BackdoorDiplomacy's activities, confirmed that it belongs to the group, adding that its prior analysis shows the group is sponsored by the Chinese state.
Cybersecurity researchers have documented BackdoorDiplomacy hacks targeting governments and institutions in a number of countries in Asia and Europe.
Incursions into the Middle East and Africa appear less common, making the focus and scale of its hacking activities in Kenya particularly noteworthy, the defence contractor's report said.
"This angle is clearly a priority for the group."
China's embassy in Britain rejected any involvement in the Kenya hackings, and did not directly address questions about the government's relationship with BackdoorDiplomacy.
"China is a main victim of cyber theft and attacks and a staunch defender of cybersecurity," a spokesperson said.
Reporting by Aaron Ross in Nairobi, James Pearson in London and Christopher Bing in Washington Additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Beijing Editing by Chris Sanders and Joe Bavier
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
"China is a main victim of cyber theft and attacks and a staunch defender of cybersecurity," a spokesperson said.
Why am I not surprised, China's typical response, making the allegation their allegation.
Fraudulently obtaining 15% of Dathcom followed by accusing AVZ being the bloody culprits.
I really wonder how much they paid in bribes.
What ? Bro they can’t keep printing their way out of debt, Covid printing alone there’s no coming back from that let alone the major debt before hand..
Your kids great grandkids will be paying that off in taxes mate…
GLTAH
[/QUOTE
China has a huge debt problem in the trillions too.
Rediah
Regular
Carlos Danger
Top 20
What ? Bro they can’t keep printing their way out of debt, Covid printing alone there’s no coming back from that let alone the major debt before hand..
Your kids great grandkids will be paying that off in taxes mate…
GLTAH
Content warning - boring shit below.
For those economically minded, the DRC runs an annual budget deficit, and is a net importer of funds to meet its spending and debt obligations. According to the World Bank, the DRC fiscal deficit deteriorated from minus 0.8% of GDP (2021) to minus 2.7% (2022). The 2023 budget deficit is expected to approximate 1.5% of GDP.
The World Bank's Doing Business report (2020) ranked the DRC at 183 out of 190 economies.
If Zijin and its acolytes stopped under-reporting the amount of mineral ore extracted, stopped selling extracted minerals to their Chinese partners at cheap rates, paid their fair share of tax, paid their Congolese workers properly, stopped bribing officials to get around environmental and workforce regulations, and generally made a positive contribution to local society, then maybe Felix would not need to go to China with a begging bowl.
Oh, and if AVZ eventually takes the DRC govt to the ICC in order to get justice and claim damages for the illegal loss of Manono, this is one way the DRC may meet its multi-billion dollar ticket:
www.reuters.com
Cheers
F
For those economically minded, the DRC runs an annual budget deficit, and is a net importer of funds to meet its spending and debt obligations. According to the World Bank, the DRC fiscal deficit deteriorated from minus 0.8% of GDP (2021) to minus 2.7% (2022). The 2023 budget deficit is expected to approximate 1.5% of GDP.
The World Bank's Doing Business report (2020) ranked the DRC at 183 out of 190 economies.
If Zijin and its acolytes stopped under-reporting the amount of mineral ore extracted, stopped selling extracted minerals to their Chinese partners at cheap rates, paid their fair share of tax, paid their Congolese workers properly, stopped bribing officials to get around environmental and workforce regulations, and generally made a positive contribution to local society, then maybe Felix would not need to go to China with a begging bowl.
Oh, and if AVZ eventually takes the DRC govt to the ICC in order to get justice and claim damages for the illegal loss of Manono, this is one way the DRC may meet its multi-billion dollar ticket:
Outgoing Nigerian president issues $1.18 bln notes to settle judgment debts
Nigeria has issued debt securities worth $1.18 billion to settle various judgment debts, outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari said in a public letter requesting parliament's approval.
Cheers
F
Last edited:
Frank
Top 20
Update of the Chinese contract: the DRC and China in discussions in Beijing
The updating of the "Chinese contract", signed in 2008 by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and China, was on the menu of exchanges in Beijing, between the Congolese delegation and the Chinese party, learned the ACP from Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"After fifteen years of Chinese contracts, they must be updated, comply with the requirements and development needs of the DRC, taking into account the challenges of the moment", reported the source, explaining in essence the subject of the day's discussions between the two parties led respectively by the Deputy Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs, Christophe Lutundula, and the head of the Chinese “National Reform and Development Commission”, Zheng Shanjie.
Zheng Shanjie promised to sensitize Chinese companies already in the DRC in the mining sector, such as TFM and SICOMINES, on the scrupulous respect of Congolese laws.
“All these contracts will be subject to the memorandum that the two Chinese and Congolese Heads of State will sign one of these mornings for this new dimension of cooperation”, explained the Congolese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In addition, files on diplomacy, the environment, finance, infrastructure, mining and digital technology have also been put on the table, so that the objectives guiding this cooperation respond to the context, both national and internationally, we said.
A delegation of six members of the Congolese government accompanied Deputy Prime Minister Christophe Lutundula during these exchanges with the Chinese side.
The DRC for the review of the contract
During the Council of Ministers, held in March 2023, the President of the Republic had mentioned "the imperative need to revisit the agreement signed between the DRC and the Group of Chinese companies (GEC) in April 2008".
Felix Tshisekedi, said so after taking note of the conclusions of the audit carried out by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) on the execution of this Agreement.
According to the IGF, this contract, which had raised a lot of hope at the time, did not keep its promise: that of providing the DRC with a range of the most modern infrastructures.
In 2008, the Agreement signed provided that the group of Chinese companies (GEC) would provide approximately 6 billion USD to finance the infrastructures.
In return, the DRC offered its minerals, mainly cobalt and copper, with an estimated value of 10 million tonnes per year.
To carry out this project, a joint venture called SICOMINES was created.
Despite some readjustments to the initial contract, the rate of completion of infrastructure under this Agreement remains very low.
It is even disillusionment, according to the IGF.
Indeed, only one hospital was built out of the 32 expected.
Kavumu airport and Goma airport have not been rehabilitated as promised.
Around 380 km of roads have been built or rehabilitated out of the 7088 km planned.
Finally, no km of railway was built out of the 380 listed.
In the energy sector, the work of the Katende hydroelectric dam in Kasai is struggling to be finalized, revealed the audit of the General Inspectorate of Finance.
For his part, the Chinese ambassador stationed in the DRC, Zhu Jing, had estimated that this contract is not "win-lose" as attested by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) but rather win-win with regard to data available to the Chinese side.
“Chinese companies do not have the right to say such and such an infrastructure project will be carried out…
All infrastructure projects are decided and proposed by the Congolese government.
The list in question (Editor's note around thirty hospitals, the 3000 km of railway, the Rehabilitation of Kavumu airports,) is not a list of commitments, it is rather a pool of projects that the Congolese government plans to do,” said the Chinese diplomat.
mediacongo
The updating of the "Chinese contract", signed in 2008 by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and China, was on the menu of exchanges in Beijing, between the Congolese delegation and the Chinese party, learned the ACP from Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"After fifteen years of Chinese contracts, they must be updated, comply with the requirements and development needs of the DRC, taking into account the challenges of the moment", reported the source, explaining in essence the subject of the day's discussions between the two parties led respectively by the Deputy Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs, Christophe Lutundula, and the head of the Chinese “National Reform and Development Commission”, Zheng Shanjie.
Zheng Shanjie promised to sensitize Chinese companies already in the DRC in the mining sector, such as TFM and SICOMINES, on the scrupulous respect of Congolese laws.
“All these contracts will be subject to the memorandum that the two Chinese and Congolese Heads of State will sign one of these mornings for this new dimension of cooperation”, explained the Congolese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In addition, files on diplomacy, the environment, finance, infrastructure, mining and digital technology have also been put on the table, so that the objectives guiding this cooperation respond to the context, both national and internationally, we said.
A delegation of six members of the Congolese government accompanied Deputy Prime Minister Christophe Lutundula during these exchanges with the Chinese side.
The DRC for the review of the contract
During the Council of Ministers, held in March 2023, the President of the Republic had mentioned "the imperative need to revisit the agreement signed between the DRC and the Group of Chinese companies (GEC) in April 2008".
Felix Tshisekedi, said so after taking note of the conclusions of the audit carried out by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) on the execution of this Agreement.
According to the IGF, this contract, which had raised a lot of hope at the time, did not keep its promise: that of providing the DRC with a range of the most modern infrastructures.
In 2008, the Agreement signed provided that the group of Chinese companies (GEC) would provide approximately 6 billion USD to finance the infrastructures.
In return, the DRC offered its minerals, mainly cobalt and copper, with an estimated value of 10 million tonnes per year.
To carry out this project, a joint venture called SICOMINES was created.
Despite some readjustments to the initial contract, the rate of completion of infrastructure under this Agreement remains very low.
It is even disillusionment, according to the IGF.
Indeed, only one hospital was built out of the 32 expected.
Kavumu airport and Goma airport have not been rehabilitated as promised.
Around 380 km of roads have been built or rehabilitated out of the 7088 km planned.
Finally, no km of railway was built out of the 380 listed.
In the energy sector, the work of the Katende hydroelectric dam in Kasai is struggling to be finalized, revealed the audit of the General Inspectorate of Finance.
For his part, the Chinese ambassador stationed in the DRC, Zhu Jing, had estimated that this contract is not "win-lose" as attested by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) but rather win-win with regard to data available to the Chinese side.
“Chinese companies do not have the right to say such and such an infrastructure project will be carried out…
All infrastructure projects are decided and proposed by the Congolese government.
The list in question (Editor's note around thirty hospitals, the 3000 km of railway, the Rehabilitation of Kavumu airports,) is not a list of commitments, it is rather a pool of projects that the Congolese government plans to do,” said the Chinese diplomat.
mediacongo
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