China's Xi Belatedly Congratulates Biden On Victory, Hopes For "Win-Win Cooperation"

On Wednesday Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a belated message of congratulations to President-Elect Joe Biden for his election victory, reports Xinhua state news agency.

Though most world leaders had issued formal messages in the days following the AP calling the ultra-tight race which unusually wasn't called until the Saturday following Nov.4, this is the first acknowledgement Xi has given to Biden's win.

Xinhua wrote of Xi's message that the PRC leader "pointed out that promoting the healthy and stable development of China-US relations not only conforms to the fundamental interests of the two peoples, but also is the common expectation of the international community."

And further according to the state media paraphrase:

"It is hoped that both sides will uphold the spirit of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation, focus on cooperation, manage differences, promote the healthy and stable development of Sino-US relations, and work with other countries and the international community to advance the noble cause of world peace and development."

China's foreign ministry had initially issued a tentative congratulations to Biden on Nov.13, but Xi remained among a handful of world leaders that included the heads of Brazil, Mexico, and Russia to hold out issuing a formal acknowledgment of the results.

The message Xi sent to Biden underscores China's understanding of the new type of major power relationship that has been put forward in the Obama era. https://t.co/QwHteSMcUQ https://t.co/Kjlzxo9eRb

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) November 25, 2020

According to Axios, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan on the same day called Vice President-elect Harris to offer congratulations.

Meanwhile it appears Beijing is hoping for a "reset" in relations but is remaining ultra-cautious in its optimism.

The US has formed a political correctness that is to confront China. Whether the Biden administration will be bound by this political correctness or face up to the reality of Sino-US relations will be the major challenge: Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin #HuSays pic.twitter.com/EFRsjuv0Vr

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) November 24, 2020

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hoped-win-win-cooperation-chinas-xi-belatedly-congratulates-biden-election-win

Biden’s National Security Adviser Wants to ‘Encourage China’s Rise’

Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s pick for National Security Adviser, has repeatedly praised China’s rise – an ideological position that has necessarily related to American decline.

Sullivan, formerly a Senior Adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and an alum of the Obama administration.

While speaking with CBS News Senior National Security Contributor Michael Morell on the Intelligence Matters podcast he insisted that the U.S facilitating China’s rise is a “success”:

In full, the remarks from September 11th, 2018 read:

“We helped create the conditions of stability and security in East Asia that allowed China to have this remarkable economic rise. So that it’s rising, in a way, is not the failure of American foreign policy; it’s the success of creating those stable conditions.”

Sullivan peddled a similar sentiment while speaking at the Lowy Institute in 2017.

When his fellow panelist Owen Harries insisted that “containment” of China was a self-defeating policy, Sullivan emphasized he was “right” to warn against the policy.

“Let me be clear, that’s not about containing China it’s about reinforcing the very foundation of regional stability that has among other things facilitated China’s remarkable rise over the past several decades,” he added.

He continued, noting U.S. policy towards China ought to “encourage China’s rise”:

“We need to strike a middle course – one that encourages China’s rise in a manner consistent with an open, fair, rules-based, regional order. This will require care and prudence and strategic foresight, and maybe even more basically it will require sustained attention. It may not have escaped your notice that these are not in ample supply in Washington right now.”

Later in the lecture, Sullivan noted the U.S. and China relationship needs to be broader than bilateral ties, noting “it needs to be about our ties to the region that create an environment more conducive to a peaceful and positive-sum Chinese rise.”

Sullivan’s comments are not far off from his potential boss, as Biden said in 2011:

“I’ve held the view for so many years and continue to hold the view that a rising China is a positive development.”

And in 2019, he insisted China is “not bad” and “not competition” for the U.S., even adding the U.S. “should be helping China” in 2020.

https://thenationalpulse.com/politics/biden-nat-sec-adviser-china/

REPEAT: Georgia Sees 800,000 Absentee Ballot Requests For January Election

As questions are left unanswered about absentee ballot handling and tabulations from the November 3, 2020 General Election, Georgia’s Secretary of State goes for round two

As the most important election in Georgia’s history since the Civil War looms in the near future, questions of vote fraud, secret deals, and ballot tampering are still unanswered from the General Election that created the need for a run-off. As if to almost double down on the issue, Georgia’s electorate has, again, requested a huge number of absentee ballots.

Nearly 800,000 Georgians have requested absentee ballots for that state’s all-important runoff elections this January 5, 2021. The race will decide which party has the majority in the US Senate, and whether the US government succumbs to one-party rule.

The General Counsel for Georgia’s Secretary of State, Ryan Germany, told reporters attending an election board meeting Monday that approximately 762,000 absentee ballots have been requested for the runoffs to date.

Germany noted that a record 1.3 million Georgians voted via absentee ballot in the November 3, 2020, General Election.

In the State of Georgia, election law says voters who choose to vote absentee do not need to provide a reason. They are permitted to submit an application for an absentee ballot online, by mail, by fax, or in person.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has come under fire for his lackadaisical approach to investigating innumerable claims of vote fraud and ballot tampering in the November 3, 2020 General Election. His performance has led to some in the GOP naming him a RINO.

Reports have surfaced that Raffensperger entered into secret deals with the Georgia Democrat Party that helped to change the rules about the handling of absentee ballots prior to the General Election.

The question of whether unlegislated changes to Georgia election law is at the center of litigation about the November 3 election.

https://nationalfile.com/repeat-georgia-sees-800000-absentee-ballot-requests-for-january-election/

Move along, nothing to see here: Australian government insists ‘incidental’ collection of COVIDSafe data didn’t violate privacy

Australian intelligence agencies “incidentally” slurped up private data from the country’s much-touted COVIDSafe smartphone app, according to the their inspector-general, who nevertheless insisted no one’s privacy was violated.

At least one intelligence agency collected private data generated by the government’s COVIDSafe contact-tracing app during its first six months of use, the inspector-general of intelligence and security (IGIS) revealed on Monday, before attempting to reassure skittish Australians that “there is no evidence that any agency within IGIS jurisdiction has decrypted, accessed or used any COVID app data.”

However, IGIS acknowledged that further “inspection activities” would be underway to “verify data deletion” and confirm that the intelligence agencies had not, in fact, pawed through users’ supposedly private data. The body has also refused to reveal which of the six agencies it presides over actually did the collecting – hardly a confidence-inspiring move.

The data collection took place “in the course of the lawful collection of other data,” the IGIS explained, adding that such ‘collateral snooping’ was permitted under the nation’s Privacy Act. However, that same law requires agencies to delete the surplus data “as soon as practicable.”

Australians have been subject to some of the strictest Covid-19 control measures in the world, depending on which state they live in. They were urged to download the COVIDSafe app when it debuted in April, fueled by $70 million in taxpayer money – but the app has only detected 17 cases since its launch, working out to about $4.12 million spent to detect each case.

The COVIDSafe app was promoted as “the only contact app approved by the Australian Government,” with the promise that “state and territory health officials can only access app information if someone tests positive and agrees to the information in their phone being uploaded.” Officials touted its supposedly privacy-friendly Bluetooth-based locating system, but users had to upload personal data like name, age, phone number, and postal code in order to use the app.

Australia is not alone, however – most of the government-backed contact tracing apps on the market have run into problems, either with convincing people to adopt them in the first place or accurately tracking cases once installed. The UK reportedly spent a whopping £12 billion on its own contact tracing app, which has failed both to retrieve contact data from a third of Covid-positive users and to reach a third of those contacts the tracers did obtain. The app has only detected one coronavirus outbreak at a public venue, even as government officials insist bars and restaurants are generating nearly a third of new Covid-19 cases.

https://www.rt.com/news/507799-australian-contact-tracing-spies-privacy/