Thứ Tư, 18 tháng 3, 2020

California man gets prison for working as agent for China


U.S.

California man gets prison for working as agent for China

Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A former San Francisco Bay Area tour operator was sentenced to four years in prison for serving as an unregistered agent for China’s Ministry of State Security in a scheme to use “dead drops” to pick up digital memory cards from a source and take them to China.
Xuehua Edward Peng, 56, also was sentenced Monday in Oakland, California, federal court to pay a $30,000 fine, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Peng pleaded guilty on Nov. 25, 2019, to acting at the direction and under the control of ministry of state security officials in China. If convicted at trial, he could have faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The Hayward, California, resident admitted that while he was on a business trip to China in March 2015, an official of the People’s Republic of China introduced himself and asked Peng to use his U.S. citizenship to assist him.
Peng came to understand the official worked for China’s Ministry of State Security but agreed to take actions in the U.S. on behalf of China and learned how to use dead drops: rent hotel rooms, leave money and leave for several hours.
“The official instructed Peng to return later and retrieve small electronic storage devices that the source would leave for him,” a Justice Department statement said. “Thereafter, Peng was to fly to the PRC and deliver the retrieved devices to the PRC official. Peng never met nor interacted with the individual who left the devices for him and was instructed not to access the information stored on the SD cards.”
Peng made practice run in June 2015 and then participated two dead drops in the San Francisco Bay Area between October 2015 and April 2016. He then made three dead drops from Columbus, Georgia, before telling the Chinese official that he wanted to return to dead drops in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The U.S. was never at risk because the information left for Peng was provided by an FBI double agent who had also been approached for spy work by the Chinese government but decided to inform the U.S. government instead, prosecutors have said.
Peng was arrested in September 2019 before completing the next dead drop.
“This case exposed one of the ways that Chinese intelligence officers work to collect classified information from the United States without having to step foot in this country,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in a statement.
Investigators described Peng as a sightseeing operator in the San Francisco area for Chinese visitors and students. Public records listed Peng as president of U.S. Tour and Travel in San Francisco, but no website for the company was found.
Peng entered the country in 2001 on a temporary business visa. He became a lawful permanent resident in 2006 following his marriage and was naturalized in September 2012.

Thứ Ba, 17 tháng 3, 2020

Tình Yȇu Mùa Dịch Corona


Tình Yȇu Mùa Dịch Corona

Tình Yȇu Mùa Dịch Corona là khởi đầu của một giòng tình yȇu trong ngăn cách khi hai người yȇu nhau sẽ phải chấp nhận một khoảng cách xã hội (social distance) là 6 feet (2m) khi đứng gần nhau và có lẽ những nụ hôn nồng cháy giữa nơi phố xá không còn nữa vì hai người đang mang khẩu trang (mask). Cho dù ở bất cứ hoàn cảnh nào, cuộc đời vẫn có những chuyện tình yȇu và ngay ở thời kỳ dịch Corona cũng có, nhưng thật ra ít ai nói lời lãng mạn yȇu nhau trong chính thời gian này.
Thời dịch Corona đã khiến nhiều người Việt lưu vong ở hải ngoại mang nổi sợ kinh hoàng, nhiều người hối hả mua sắm chen lấn nhau ở các chợ giống như cảnh chen lấn tích trử lương thực (đȇm chôn dầu) để chuẫn bị vượt biȇn chạy trốn đại dịch thổ tả cộng sản trong thời gian sau 30/4/1975. Những cảnh bồng bế cha mẹ con cái trốn chật kín dưới những khoang ghe, ngồi chen chúc dưới hầm tàu nóng bức nghẹt thở để tìm đường trốn đai dịch cộng sản Việt Nam, và khi giữa đại dương minh mông bao la, có người quỳ lạy khấn cầu phép lạ mong sao có tàu Mỹ (không phải tàu lạ!) hay tàu nước nào cũng được (chứ không phải tàu hải tặc Thái Lan) cứu giúp, có người còn nói mang theo cả lá cờ Vàng mong sao hồn thiȇng sông núi và anh linh tử sĩ VNCH phò trợ đến bến bờ tự do. Thật tế thì, ước chừng 80% người chạy trốn đại dịch cộng sản Việt Nam đều được tàu Mỹ cứu vớt và mang đến bến bờ nước Mỹ, nơi sẽ cưu mang họ, cung cấp tiền bạc foodstamp, y tế sức khoẻ medical và tạo điều kiện cho con cái họ đến trường. Cái đất nước mà họ bỏ ra đi trong sợ hải nạn dịch cộng sản kinh hoàng năm 1975 ấy giờ đây đang nằm dưới gót giầy đinh và được cai trị bằng những bàn tay sắt bọc nhung giờ đây đang được một số trong họ cảm thấy cần phải quay về thần phục. Nhưng ngược lại đối với đất nước cưu mang họ cho họ giòng sửa ngọt bát cơm ngon thì họ sống bám vào như loài tầm gởi. Người ta có cảm tưởng khi họ chết đi họ cũng mong linh hồn họ sẽ vượt đại dương nghìn trùng để phiȇu du nơi cỏi vĩnh hằng trȇn đất Việt Nam hiện đang cai trị bởi đảng cộng sản Việt Nam.
Cũng có những người Việt lưu vong, hay tự nhận việt kiều lưu vong thường tự nghĩ rằng cần phải “đóng góp tài năng” mình cho nền dân chủ Mỹ được “phong phú hơn” bằng cách này hay cách khác, có người tự nhận giàu có bạc tỷ và lớn tiếng kȇu gào “đấu tranh dân chủ,” nhưng lại phát biểu vung vít phỉ báng “thiếu dân chủ” người khác. Có những người nghĩ rằng làm dân chủ đúng là đi về Việt Nam làm những thiȇn phóng sự để quảng cáo và ca ngợi sự “phát triễn kinh tế, dân chủ, và tự do” dưới chế độ cộng sản. Nghĩa là trong khi họ hít thở không khi tự do dân chủ, xài đô la, hưởng thụ nền học vấn giàu sang vợ đẹp con ngoan mà nước Mỹ này ban cho họ thì ngược lại họ cho rằng nơi mà họ đáng sống hơn hết là đất nước họ đã trốn chạy đi vào thời kỳ thổ tả.
Tình yȇu thời kỳ dịch corona có thể ít chua xót hơn tình yȇu còn sót lại thời kỳ thổ tả Việt Nam, vì tình yȇu thời dịch corona có y tế Mỹ chăm lo, tìm tòi nghiȇn cứu thuốc để chữa trị trong khi tình yȇu còn sót lại thời thổ tả Việt Nam không thể có phương thuốc trị, chỉ trừ khi những người mang virus thời thổ tả Việt Nam quay ngược lại chính nơi phát sinh bệnh thổ tả ấy mà sống thay vì chọn kiếp sống tầm gởi hay loại ký sinh.
Hoàng Hoa
Quan Ðiểm Việt Nam
Mùa dịch corona Vũ Hán


Trump Sends Hateful ‘Chinese Virus’ Tweet, But He Praised The Country’s Response For Weeks



Trump Sends Hateful ‘Chinese Virus’ Tweet, But He Praised The Country’s Response For Weeks
HuffPostMarch 16, 2020, 8:12 PM PDT

 Source: https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/trump-china-virus-xenophobia-031259545.html

https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/CxbHPTv5Tfq.CG3OGkawBA--~B/Zmk9ZmlsbDtweW9mZj0wO3c9NjM1O2g9MzU2O3NtPTE7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/http:/media.zenfs.com/en-US/video/the_huffington_post_584/3aa81f26749adc36a9e81d1f4026ee57
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President Donald Trump sent a xenophobic tweet Monday evening, noting that he plans to bail out airlines and other industries “that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus.” Only a few hours earlier, Trump held a White House news conference on the emerging coronavirus outbreak and was praised for finally offering a relatively sober assessment of the emerging disaster. But the president unleashed the real Trump online not long after, calling COVID-19 the “China virus” for the first time and giving voice to a hateful blame game that has been simmering among hardcore right-wingers for weeks. He used the phrase in a tweet again Tuesday morning.
Prominent Fox News voices like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have been intoning for weeks that the dangerous virus was China’s fault and decrying any criticism they faced for tying the infection to one country. “On the left, you’ve heard them tell you that the real worry is you might use the wrong word to describe what’s happening to the country,” Carlson said in late February. “Wokeness is a cult. They would let you die before they admitted that diversity is not our strength,” he would later say. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a close Trump ally, even suggested in January that the coronavirus was the product of a Chinese “super laboratory that works with the world’s most deadly pathogens.”
There have been anti-Asian hate crimes in several places affected by the outbreak, and they appeared in New York City over the past week. It would be a dangerous development if the U.S. president decided to elevate that xenophobia.
It would also be hypocritical. For weeks beginning in late January, Trump praised Chinese officials profusely for their response to the virus, even as some global observers were raising reasonable concerns about early Chinese efforts to downplay the severity of the crisis. Time and again, Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for his handling of the outbreak and even boasted of a U.S. partnership in helping China fight the virus — until Trump seemed to find a useful scapegoat. 
In an interview with Sean Hannity that aired right before the Super Bowl on Feb. 2, Trump declared: “We have a tremendous relationship with China, which is a very positive thing... . We’re offering them tremendous help. We have the best in the world for that.”
Three days later, on Feb. 7, a reporter on the White House lawn asked Trump if he was concerned that China might be covering up the extent of the coronavirus. The World Health Organization has consistently praised China for sharing information with the global health community early and often, but inside the country, it was a different story, with Chinese officials keeping citizens in the dark and downplaying the severity of the coronavirus spread until it could no longer be denied ― and after many thousands of people had already been infected.
President Donald Trump holds a news briefing Monday on the coronavirus outbreak while accompanied by members of the coronavirus task force at the White House (Photo: Leah Millis/Reuters)
President Donald Trump holds a news briefing Monday on the coronavirus outbreak while accompanied by members of the coronavirus task force at the White House (Photo: Leah Millis/Reuters)
“No. China is working very hard,” Trump said in response to the reporter’s question. “They’re working really hard, and I think they are doing a very professional job.”
Questions about the Chinese government’s handling of the emerging global crisis soiled a talking point Trump was keen to push as the presidential election drew closer: that the economy was doing great, with no signs of trouble. In January Trump “signaled to advisers that he wanted to play it down” because he didn’t want to rattle financial markets, according to The New York Times. Trump also wanted to boast about a new trade deal with China and his former rival Xi. That was apparent at a Feb. 10 campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire.
“Last month, we signed a groundbreaking trade agreement with China that will defeat so many of our opponents. The money that’s pouring in, people don’t even believe it,” Trump said at the rally. “And, by the way, the virus, they’re working hard. Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”
That same day, he did an interview with Fox News. “Well, I think China is very, you know, professionally run in the sense that they have everything under control. I really believe they are going to have it under control fairly soon,” Trump said. “You know in April, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather. And that’s a beautiful date to look forward to. But China, I can tell you, is working very hard.”
Three days after that, on Feb. 13, reporter Geraldo Rivera again asked Trump if China was being honest about the damage being wrought there by the coronavirus. Trump granted maybe not — but sympathized with Xi. “I think they want to put the best face on it. So, you know, I mean, if somebody ― if you were running it, you’d probably ― you wouldn’t want to run out to the world and go crazy and start saying whatever it is because you don’t want to create a panic,” Trump said. “But, no, I think they’ve handled it professionally and I think they’re extremely capable and I think President Xi is extremely capable and I hope that it’s going to be resolved.”
Trump repeated these lines again and again in the following days. “I know this: President Xi loves the people of China, he loves his country, and he’s doing a very good job with a very, very tough situation,” Trump told a reporter on the White House lawn on Feb. 18. The next day, he told a local reporter in Arizona, “I mean, I know President Xi ― I get along with him very well. We’ve just made a great trade deal, which is going to be a lot of business for Arizona and every other place. But they are trying very, very hard, and I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along.” Five days later: “President Xi loves his country. He’s working very hard to solve the problem and he will solve the problem. OK?”
By this time, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was already criticizing China publicly for failing to let medical personnel in the country speak freely about the virus in the early days of the outbreak. 
As the novel coronavirus spread around the globe and looked to threaten the United States, Trump’s praise ceased. The first hint in public comments that Trump might seek to blame China came at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 29. “In our efforts to keep America safe, my administration has taken the most aggressive action in modern history to control our borders and protect Americans from the coronavirus,” Trump said. The virus, he added curtly, “Came from China.”
Early, constructive pressure from Trump on China to be honest with its people about the outbreak might have helped slow its spread. But Trump declined because lavishing praise on Xi Jinping and the deal they struck helped Trump’s politics. At the time, it was also in Trump’s interest to minimize the risk of a global pandemic, which would spook investors. Now Trump looks to be pulling a 180-degree turn and looking to blame the entire outbreak on China. It again suits his politics — and they are very dark.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.

Chủ Nhật, 15 tháng 3, 2020

Người Việt Nam và Hiểm Họa Bệnh Dịch Vũ Hán



Người Việt Nam và Hiểm Họa Bệnh Dịch Vũ Hán

Là người mang giòng máu Việt Nam hiện đang sống lưu vong trȇn đất nước Mỹ, chúng ta luôn thừa hưởng những di sản tốt đẹp đạo đức từ ngàn xưa của dân tộc Việt Nam và nhất là tiềm tàng di sản văn hóa giáo dục và nghệ thuật âm nhạc của Việt Nam Cộng Hòa. Tuy Việt Nam là nơi chôn nhau cắt rún của chúng ta, nơi mồ mả tổ tiȇn giòng họ cha mẹ anh chị em chúng ta hiện đang nằm dưới gót sắt của cộng sản Việt Nam, nhưng nước Mỹ hôm nay chính là quȇ hương thứ hai cưu mang chúng ta, một tổ quốc thứ hai, nơi con cháu chúng ta chôn nhau cắt rún, và chính là tổ quốc mà họ sẽ chấp nhận hy sinh bảo vệ.

Là người Việt Nam, đứng trước những khó khăn mà nước Mỹ gặp phải vì lây nhiễm đại dịch Vũ Hán, phát xuất từ thành phố Vũ Hán (Wuhan) thuộc tỉnh Hồ Bắc (Hubei) của Trung cộng chúng ta cần phải hết lòng tuân thủ những quy định y tế phòng chống dịch bệnh và các thông báo lệnh khẩn cấp ban hành từ các cơ quan chức năng chính quyền, theo sát những diễn biến về y tế sức khỏe công cộng để theo đó bảo vệ sức khoẻ của cộng đồng và cho gia đình cá nhân.

“Ᾰn Cây Nào Rào Cây Nấy,” “Uống Nước Nhớ Nguồn,” Một Con Ngựa Ðau, Cả Tàu Không Ᾰn Cỏ,” Bầu Ơi Thương Lấy Bí Cùng, Tuy Là Khác Giống Nhưng Chung Một Giàn,” … là những phương ngôn muôn đời của giòng giống Lạc Việt.

Tình yȇu dành cho tổ quốc thứ hai cũng ngang bằng với tình yȇu dành cho tổ quốc Việt Nam khi xưa chúng ta từng phục vụ xã thân cho đại nghĩa dân tộc mà biểu tượng là Việt Nam Cộng Hòa với lá cờ Vàng Ba Sọc Ðỏ của ba giòng máu Việt Nam. Hiểm họa đại dịch Vũ Hán tại Mỹ là một bài học nhắc nhở chúng ta về tình yȇu đó hôm nay lớn mạnh hơn bao giờ hết khi tất cả từ trường học, nhà thờ, cộng đồng, công sở, tiệm buôn… cùng chia xẻ lo âu chung. Các thanh niȇn Việt Nam trưởng thành tại tổ quốc thứ hai cần luôn tự nhắc nhở bản thân về những lý tưởng khi cha ông các anh đã bỏ đất nước Việt ra đi trước đại dịch cộng sản Việt Nam vào ngày Quốc Hận 30/4/1975 mà luôn thức tỉnh, cầu tiến trȇn đường học vấn, và sẳn sàng lȇn đường phục vụ cho tổ quốc đất đai biển hải đảo, và vũ trụ không gian của tổ quốc Mỹ khi tổ quốc kȇu gọi.

Hoàng Hoa
Quan Ðiểm Việt Nam

Thứ Ba, 10 tháng 3, 2020

Rights groups condemn 10-year jail term for Vietnam blogger


World

Rights groups condemn 10-year jail term for Vietnam blogger

AFPMarch 9, 2020, 10:51 PM PDT

Source:  https://www.yahoo.com/news/rights-groups-condemn-10-jail-term-vietnam-blogger-052556775.html
 Vietnamese blogger Truong Duy Nhat was a regular contributor to Radio Free Asia and a critic of the government (AFP Photo/-)
Vietnamese blogger Truong Duy Nhat was a regular contributor to Radio Free Asia and a critic of the government (AFP Photo/-)
The jailing of a Vietnamese blogger for 10 years was condemned by rights groups Tuesday as "unacceptable" and an attack on free speech.
Truong Duy Nhat, a regular contributor to Radio Free Asia, was found guilty in a brief trial Monday of defrauding the public of $560,000 when he worked for a state-owned newspaper in the central city of Danang in 2004, state media said.
Describing the sentence as "harsh and totally unacceptable", Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for the "immediate release" of Nhat who had posted articles critical of the government on his blog.
RSF ranked Vietnam 176th on its 2019 World Press Freedom Index as one of the world's biggest jailers of journalists and bloggers.
"Officially convicted of abusing his professional position, he is in fact paying dearly for his professionalism," said Daniel Bastard, RSF's Asia-Pacific director.
Radio Free Asia also condemned the conviction as "unjust" and "a blow against free speech and free expression."
All media in Vietnam is state-run and independent journalism and bloggers are banned.
Since its hardline leadership took power in 2016, the country's single-party state has tightened its grip on criticism and different viewpoints.
This is Nhat's second prison stint. He was jailed for two years in 2014 for "abusing democratic freedoms" for critical blog postings.
He was discovered in a Vietnamese prison in March last year after fleeing to Thailand seeking refugee status with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The circumstances of Nhat's return to Vietnam were never clarified by Hanoi.