Tag: news

Google Employees Considered Adjusting Search Engine Algorithm to Hide Islamophobic Results

GoogleIn response to the Muslim travel ban announced by President Trump in January 2017, some Google employees discussed making changes to their search engine so that Islamophobic and anti-immigrant results would be less prominent.

That’s according to emails obtained by The Wall Street Journal, which reports:

The list of ideas included:

“Actively counter islamophobic, algorithmically biased results from search terms ‘Islam’, ‘Muslim’, ‘Iran’, etc.”

“Actively counter prejudiced, algorithmically biased search results from search terms ‘Mexico’, ‘Hispanic’, ‘Latino’, etc.”

“Can we launch an ephemeral experience that includes Highlights, up-to-date info from the US State Dept, DHS, links to donate to ACLU, etc?” the email added.

Several officials responded favorably to the overall idea. “We’re absolutely in…Anything you need,” one wrote.

But a public-affairs executive wrote: “Very much in favor of Google stepping up, but just have a few questions on this,” including “how partisan we want to be on this.”

Nothing came of these ideas, a Google spokesperson said.

Nevertheless, the existence of the emails has prompted furious denunciation from many conservatives who already believe giant tech corporations are working against them. Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson discussed the story on his program Thursday, “Here, Google employees are plotting to subvert our entire public conversation secretly.” Canadian psychologist and Intellectual Dark Web superstar Jordan Peterson tweeted, “If this is true it is treasonous and should be treated as such.”

Treason is an absurd allegation here, especially coming from someone like Peterson, who purports to defend free speech. Google is a private company, and its algorithm is not required by law to humor conservative talking points about immigration and Islam. Unfortunately, many on the right increasingly sound like they want the government to regulate tech companies, which is a serious betrayal of principle.

It’s perfectly understandable to think Google ought not to stack its search results in a politically biased way. But pretending that these emails betray criminal intent, or treasonous behavior, is silly. Conservatives peddling this line sound just as unhinged as the #Resistance partisans who blindly insist that every Trump utterance is evidence of some grand conspiracy to hand the country over to Russia.

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Faisal Al Mutar Fights Radical Islam with Western Bestsellers: New at Reason

The head of Ideas Beyond Borders is translating books by Steven Pinker, Sam Harris, and others into Arabic and distributing them for free.

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Partisan Hackery, Supreme Court Confirmations, and the Decline of Public Trust

If nothing else, the confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh are an object lesson in the how purely partisan politics can reduce human beings to utter garbage.

Following a late-breaking, credible accusation of a sexual assault that allegedly occurred in the early 1980s, when future Judge Kavanaugh was in high school, the outcome of his confirmation proceedings is far from clear. The details haven’t been worked out fully, but there will be some sort of extra hearings next week in which Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, will directly address the issue. There will likely be a vote next week too, which, with perhaps one or two GOP defections, will almost certainly proceed along strict party lines. That is, of course, what everyone knew would happen before Kavanaugh’s hearings even started.

Virtually everyone acknowledges that given the nature of the accusations and the passage of time it may be impossible to ever know the truth of exactly what happened in that Bethesda bedroom so many years ago. Even Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who basically brought the charges to public view, admits as much. People of good faith can disagree about what should come next. But politics, especially in D.C. and especially when it comes to Supreme Court nominations, are rarely conducted in good faith. An astonishing set of statements makes that clear.

Ed Whelan is the head of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), a conservative think tank that describes its mission as “defending American ideals.” He’s a former clerk for Antonin Scalia, co-editor of a bestselling collection of Scalia speeches, and a pioneer of legal blogging. He’s also personally close to Kavanaugh and has helped various Republican nominees (John Roberts, Samuel Alito) thread their way through their Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Last night, in a series of detailed tweets that included floor plans of houses pulled from Zillow and other real-estate sites, he propounded a theory that Kavanaugh’s accuser was confusing the judge with a lookalike classmate. Whelan advertised the coming tweetstorm days ago, writing, “By one week from today, I expect that Judge Kavanaugh will have been clearly vindicated on this matter. Specifically, I expect that compelling evidence will show his categorical denial to be truthful. There will be no cloud over him.”

It didn’t work out that way. Media, including many prominent voices on the right, immediately called out Whelan’s fact-light speculation in real time:

Whelan deleted the tweets and it’s almost impossible to reconstruct their sheer craziness, especially as they unfolded in real time. He has apologized not so much for spinning a mistaken-identity theory out of thin air but for naming the person he thinks Ford confused with Kavanaugh. Ford has said unambiguously, “There is zero chance that I would confuse them.”

If Whelan’s fantasy trip shows the lengths to which a partisan activist will go in defense of a specific outcome, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D–Calif.) represents an even more disturbing case. Feinstein knew about Ford’s accusations since July but reportedly dismissed their importance and relevance to the Kavanaugh confirmation process. According to The New Yorker,

A source familiar with the committee’s activities said that Feinstein’s staff initially conveyed to other Democratic members’ offices that the incident was too distant in the past to merit public discussion, and that Feinstein had “taken care of it.”

After the letter’s existence was outed by The Intercept, Feinstein finally shared a version of the letter with her colleagues and the FBI. Feinstein’s reticence to show them the document sooner remains a mystery. She insists that it was partly out of concern for Ford, who originally wished to remain anonymous, but there were any number of ways the senator could have raised the issue without compromising her source. Did she think the story too old, unprovable, or unreliable? Did she think the die was cast for Kavanaugh no matter what, so why bother? Or did she or someone in her office leak the news as a hail-mary to stop the confirmation?

In any case, Feinstein’s opposition to Kavanaugh has little or nothing to do with the sexual assault charge. In an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times that was published on September 16, she lays out her case for why she’ll be voting no regardless of anything that might have come up in the confirmation process:

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee entered the confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh with concerns about his record and his views. After four days of testimony and questions, those concerns remain—and in some cases have increased considerably….

We already knew that Judge Kavanaugh held highly ideological views on the 2nd Amendment, women’s reproductive rights and the executive power of the presidency. Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony shed new light on these positions and on his loyalty to President Trump and his political agenda.

Supreme Court justices should not be an extension of the Republican Party. They must also have unquestionable character and integrity, and serious questions remain about Judge Kavanaugh in this regard, as indicated in information I referred to the FBI. For these and other reasons detailed below, I strongly oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

The charges by Christine Blasey Ford need to be addressed and will be next week, almost certainly in a manner that fully pleases no one. That is in large part due to Feinstein’s own actions. As even Donald Trump could realize, she should have brought the matter up sooner in the process. Instead of a confirmation hearing that allows for a full airing of competing ideas and the exploration of different governing philosophies, we’re treated to a spectacle that has collapsed into the worst sort of partisan mudslinging. The only achievement here is that right-wing partisans will walk away feeling as if the media and Democrats are using any means possible to stymie them. And liberals, feminists, and Democrats will feel like their concerns haven’t been taken seriously. Both sides will have a point.

The last-gasp fabulism coming from the Ed Whelans of the world is pathetic, risible, and destructive. The only saving grace is that it isn’t coming an actual elected leader such as Feinstein. According to one survey, just 3 percent of us strongly approve of Congress. Is it any wonder, given the way that its members act? In the waning months of the Obama presidency, the Republican Senate refused to hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland even though they had the votes to deny his confirmation to the Supreme Court. From a legal perspective, the Senate majority was within its rights to stall until a new president was in office (even if it had no reason to believe that a Republican, much less Donald Trump, would eventually be in power). But such an action is immensely corrosive of public trust even if it’s technically permissible.

Nothing good comes when high-trust societies became low-trust societies. Americans aren’t born cynical. We’re made that way by the actions of elites such as Ed Whelan and officials such as Dianne Feinstein. And the trend toward cynicism won’t end until they change their behavior.

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Bank of America Spots A “Watershed Data Point”

Retail investors are back with a bang: in the last week, investors plowed $13.9BN in global equities (of which $18.3BN was in the form of ETF inflows, while active money saw another $4.5BN in outflows) with another $0.7BN flowing into bonds, $0.4BN out of gold (as has been the case lately). Of note: a return of the big inflows to tech funds ($1.1bn), while EM funds also saw a change in sentiment with the biggest inflows in 8 weeks of $0.5BN.

These reversing flows are clearly manifesting in the market: after a sharp selloff…

from 2018 highs: Eurozone -12%, global banks -15%, Emerging Markets -17%, industrial metals -18%…

… all now bouncing hard (see Amazon versus Turkish Garanti Bank)…

… as SPX & INDU hit new highs and US dollar rolls over despite epic rate differentials.

With the weekly flows out of the way, here are the other salient observations from BofA’s latest weekly Flow Show. In it, author Michael Hartnett coins a new term: the “cannibal sector” namely buybacks: Hartnett notes that the largest buyer of corporate equities has been… corporates themselves, as the Fed asset purchases of $3.6TN since Lehman now easily surpassed by $4.4TN in US stock buybacks.

The next question is arguably the most important: how are investor positioned? According to the latest BofA data, the “pain trade” is  risk assets up next 3-5 weeks (buyback window closes Oct 5, Q3 EPS begins Oct 12); Meanwhile, professional investors are very much underinvested, as BofAML Fund Manager Survey revealed cash levels at 5.1%, an 18-month high. This may also explain why hedge funds have continued to underperform the market, and are still negative for the year even with the S&P hitting all time highs.

And with BofA’s Bull & Bear Indicator at 3.6, Hartnett’s reco is that shorts should wait for SPX >3000, while the 10Y rising to 3.3% would be pricing in of 3 (currently 2) Fed hikes in 2019, a level that would likely cripple equities.

Meanwhile, central banks around the globe are even further behind the Fed curve, and are scrambling to catch up with no less than 40 rate hikes in 2018, the fastest pace of hiking since 2011. According to BofA, rising rates will start to bite when:

1. higher rates = lower US bank stocks

2. higher rates & higher corporate debt levels – as corporates, not consumers or banks, will cause the next recession – increase defaults & credit spreads (watch US IG BBB, EU IG & fund flows into private equity).

Summarizing BofA’s 3P metrics, Positioning indicates tactical upside; while the peak in Profits & Policy means that returns will stay low & volatile, while assets with strong cash flows will outperform assets with weak balance sheets, until the Fed stops tightening.

Finally, for all the inflation watchers, BofA notes that it has seen a “watershed data point”: for the 1st time since 1991, Japanese land prices rose 0.1% this year. Or, as Hartnett explains, “$100 of Japanese land in 1991 is now worth just $47 which is positive for Japan banks… who have lost 80% of their market cap since 1991.”

With all due respect to Albert Edwards, could it be that a global inflationary tide is about to cover the globe?

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Dershowitz: Why Should We Automatically Believe Kavanaugh’s Accuser? 

Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz made the rounds on Fox News this week, saying that he rejects the idea that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, should be automatically believed just because she is a women – and that people who say “I believe her” are basing that opinion on virtually no evidence. 

“The most disturbing thing is these people who are on television, some people I know and respect, [who say] ‘I believe her,'” said Dershowitz, adding “You never met her. You don’t know anything about her. Are women born with a special gene for telling the truth, and men with a special gene for lying?” 

“I don’t believe her. I don’t believe him,” he added. “I have an open mind, I want to hear both sides of the story and make a determination.”

Dershowitz warned against the creation of multiple standards of justice in America, and said that would lead to a politicization of the justice system. He said in this case, the decision to confirm or not confirm Kavanaugh should be based on evidence, “not genetic belief in the inferiority or superiority of one gender.” –Washington Examiner

On Thursday, Dershowitz told Fox: “Look, nobody should be referring to her as a victim or him as a perpetrator until we hear from both of them, under oath, subject to cross-examination. There is nothing more essential to American justice than the opportunity to cross-examine your accuser – to confront your accuser, it’s in the Constitution. Essentially it goes back to Magna Carta. 

The idea that we’re calling somebody a perpetrator and somebody else a victim, based simply on he-said / she-said, is just wrong and it’s un-American.”

Ford’s supporters say they find her story that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982 “credible,” while Kavanaugh has denied it ever happened – agreeing to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the accusation. Ford said that she is willing to testify next week, however she laid out a series of conditions; not on Monday, only if her “safety is guaranteed, and only if Kavanaugh goes first.

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Ripple Is Up 150% This Week, Passes Ethereum As 2nd Largest Cryptocurrency

Altcoin Ripple has soared over 150% this week (up 50% today) to its highest level since May as optimism spread surrounding Ripple Labs Inc.’s plans for using a digital coin.

The optimism spread, dragging the rest of the crypto-space higher on the week..

 

And, as CoinTelegraph’s Moilly Jane Zuckerman notes, Ripple (XRP) has now overtaken Ethereum (ETH) to be ranked number two by total market capitalization on CoinMarketCap.

 

As of press time, Ripple has a listed market cap of around $23.39 billion, while Ethereum – now in third on CoinMarketCap – has around $23.2 billion in market cap.

Notably the last two times that XRP has topped ETH, it has quickly collapsed.

 Bitcoin (BTC) is still ranked number one, with a market cap of around $116 billion.

At the beginning of this week, Ripple executives hinted that it may launch a service that will use the digital currency “in the next month or so.”. Called xRapid, the service lets financial companies such as payment providers speed up money transfers into emerging markets using XRP, which Ripple says is an independent digital asset. A Ripple spokeswoman said Thursday that there isn’t an official commercial release timeline at this point.

Also this week, PNC, a top ten U.S. bank, announced that it would use RippleNet to process international payments for its customers.

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Tesla Exodus Continues As VP Of Global Supply Management Resigns

Tesla’s Vice President of Global Supply Management has reportedly resigned from the company. Liam O’Connor, who came to Tesla from Apple in March of 2015, has become the latest in a deluge of executive departures from Tesla this year. O’Connor may have been one of the employees intimately involved in trying to manage the company’s ballooning payables, which grew to over $3 billion last quarter.

O’Connor is the fifth senior executive who has been reported to be leaving the company over the last several weeks. Just days ago, it was reported that the company’s Vice President of Worldwide Finance, Justin McAnear, was set to leave the company in October.

Of interest is the list of responsibilities that O’Connor may have had in his position. This list of duties for various Global Supply Manager positions, pulled off the Tesla careers website, may lend some insight into what O’Connor had to oversee on a day-to-day basis. The list includes tasks like “driv[ing] price negotiations”, “driv[ing] continual cost reductions” and “analyz[ing] current spend and evaluat[ing] current suppliers” – all tasks that could have proven stressful for a company with over $3 billion in unpaid bills:

O’Connor’s resignation also follows departures like that of chief people officer Gabrielle Toledano, who had previously been on leave before it was recently reported that she would not be coming back to her position at the company.

Weeks prior, we reported that Tesla’s chief accounting officer, Dave Morton, had also left the company – leaving a potential $10 million equity package behind – after less than one month on the job. Morton was the second Chief Accounting Officer at Tesla over the last 6 months. He resigned on September 4 after starting on August 6.

His departure came just months after the last Chief Accounting Officer, Eric Branderiz, resigned. Branderiz resigned from Tesla back in March of this year. The company spent a couple of months looking to fill the position, which they finally did in August of this year with Morton.

The market doesn’t seem to notice, or care, however. After falling to about $250 per share on news of Toledano and Morton leaving, Tesla stock was once again trading over $300 during trading late this week. One party that may be interested, however, is the Department of Justice. After it was reported days ago that the Department of Justice had opened an informal criminal probe into Tesla, it was also reported that they may probe why the company’s CAO recently left. Bloomberg wrote:

Once federal prosecutors begin looking into Musk’s comments, they may also examine other things, including why the company’s new chief accountant picked up and left after just a month on the job — though he said at the time he had “no disagreements with Tesla’s leadership or its financial reporting.” Under securities fraud laws, prosecutors could go back five years and more if they find evidence of a conspiracy.

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Taiwan Police Apprehend 3-D Printed Gun Pioneer Accused Of Child Sex Abuse

Update: Hours after the search began, Reuters  reports that Taiwan police have apprehended Cody Wilson in Taipei after U.S. authorities annulled his passport.

Wilson, 30, was taken to immigration authorities in the capital by officers from Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, according to local media reports and an official from the bureau who asked not to be named. However, two Taiwanese officials denied Wilson was arrested or in custody. His exact status was unclear.

Because his U.S. passport was later annulled, the agency’s statement said, he “no longer has the legal status to stay in Taiwan.”

*  *  *

Authored by Joseph Jankowski via PlanetFreeWill.com,

Facing accusations of having sex with a minor, it appears that Cody Wilson, the man behind the 3-D Printable firearms company Defense Distributed, is somewhere in Taiwan being pursued by local police.

Cody Wilson

According to reporting by Chinese-language media outlet United Daily News, Wilson has skipped his flight home to the U.S. and has attempted to rent an apartment in Taiwan. He appears to have initially passed himself off as an American student living in the city but has since been turned away by a prospected landlord who recognized him and called the authorities.

United Daily News reports that area police and Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau are now trying to locate Wilson.

On Wednesday, Police in Austin Texas announced that they had a warrant out for the arrest of the 3D-printed gun pioneer on allegations of sexual assault of an underage girl. Investigators say both Wilson and the young girl met through a website called SugarDaddyMeet.com and were spotted at an Austin Hotel.

The department revealed that Wilson’s last known location was Taipei, Taiwan but that authorities were unsure whether the 30-year-old had gone to Taiwan on legitimate business or whether he was expressly trying to flee the United States.

“We can’t confirm any of the [Taiwan] reports just yet; no updates planned for today,” Lisa Cortinas, a spokeswoman for the Austin Police Department, told ArsTechnica on Thursday afternoon.

The Taiwan News has also reported that Wilson is on the ground in Taiwan, having been spotted at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Taipei after arriving in the city on September 6. However, they report that Wilson checked out the next day.

Wilson, who has recently won a legal battle against the State Department, a court decision which has pissed off Attorney Generals across the United States, has relentlessly pursued his principled passion for disseminating 3-D printable gun blueprints to the general public.

After a federal judge in Seattle blocked Defense Distributed from having the gun blueprints available to anyone free of price, Wilson jumped through a loophole, placing them for sale inorder to keep them available.

“I’m happy now to become the iTunes of downloadable guns if I can’t be the Napster,” he said in an August press conference.

According to Wilson, the legal battles he has faced over the blueprints are a stance in defiance against those who seek to shut down the first amendment by limiting the free flow of information. He also claims to be a champion of the second amendment.

“I believe that I am championing the Second Amendment in the 21st century,” Wilson told CBS This Morning in August. “I think access to the firearm is a fundamental human dignity. It’s a fundamental human right,” he added.

In a separate interview with CBS, Wilson would compare the access to the blueprints of 3-D printable firearms and accessories available at the Defense Distributed website to seeking information at a public library.

Wilson first came to the public eye after posting plans for his mostly plastic, 3-D printed Liberator pistol in 2013.

The Liberator 3-D Printed Gun

As ArsTechnica notes, given Wilsons reported location in Taiwan, it is unlikely that an arrest leading to an extradition to the U.S. will happen.

A major difference between dealing with cases in Mexico versus Taiwan is that Mexico will extradite Americans who are wanted. China lacks such a treaty with the United States, and Taiwan is considered by Beijing to be a part of the People’s Republic of China despite often acting as its own country.

Even if extradition isn’t a given in this scenario, Wilson could be subject to deportation order under Taiwanese law. According to The Taiwan News, the National Immigration Agency would detain Wilson should he attempt to leave the island. Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau has noted to the press that, since Wilson has not committed any crimes in Taiwan, he cannot be arrested. But he could be ordered to leave the island.

So as this story unfolds, one of two things seem likely to happen. 1) Wilson will eventually return to the U.S. to face accusations of a sexual crime. 2) We have a Julian Assange 2.0 on our hands who has to seek shelter in a far-off land because he has totally pissed off his political adversaries with his pro-freedom ideas.

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How to dodge student debt and get a second passport

This month, college freshmen across the US are settling into their new lives.

For the next four (or five… or maybe even six) years, they’ll be immersed in safe spaces and bombarded with repugnant, hyper-socialist groupthink.

Then, at the end, they’ll walk away with a degree of questionable use… but they’ll also walk away with TONS OF DEBT.

Consumers are on pace to end 2018 with over $4 trillion of debt. And $1.5 trillion of that is student debt (more than credit cards and auto loans).

According to the latest stats, the average student loan debt in the US is nearly $40,000.

But that’s just average…

There are more than two million former students in the Land of the Free with more than $100,000 of debt… around 415,000 people have more than $200,000 of student debt.

Yet while the cost of a college education and student debt loads are soaring, wages are stagnant.

So you’re paying more and more for something that delivers stagnant value.

It’s the definition of a bad deal.

Still, every year, hordes of young people line up for this punishment. Then they graduate, indebted to the state, with no clear path forward.

Luckily, students have options.

You don’t have to be a debt serf for the rest of your life to receive an excellent education.

Going abroad is one option.

Enrolling in a foreign university will definitely spice up your resume. But it also gives you a global network, exposure to new cultures and it vastly expands your job search.

But one of the biggest benefits of international study is the low cost.

There are plenty of countries where you can study at a top-tier university for a fraction of the cost back home.

And, as an added bonus, studying abroad is a great way to obtain foreign residency and perhaps even a second passport.

A foreign residency and a second passport are components of what I call a Plan B.

Foreign residency ensures that, no matter what happens (or doesn’t happen) next in your home country, there will always be somewhere else where you and your family are welcome to live, study, work, invest and do business.

Plus, most countries have rules that allow legal residents to apply for citizenship and a passport after a certain number of years.

And if you choose the right country, on top of a low-cost (but still high quality) education, foreign residency, you’ll also have tremendous business and entrepreneurial opportunities after graduation… all in one place.

Estonia, in Europe’s far north, is one country that offers huge opportunities for a young person.

First, the University of Tartu (in Tartu) is a world-class research university – among the top 1% of the world’s best universities, in fact. It offers 23 programs taught in English, including computer science, robotics and computer engineering, software engineering and others… for only €2,000 ($2,325) per semester.

And when you graduate, you can stay and work for an Estonian startup, or start your own business. Both Skype and Transferwise were started in Estonia.

If you complete university in Estonia and remain in the country after graduation, you could be eligible for permanent residency three years later.

(That would mean you can come and go as you please and travel/live freely across Europe, from Ireland to Switzerland to Croatia.)

That’s a world-class education for a fraction of the cost and a clear path toward residency in another country. And you’ve expanded your job prospects across another continent.

But Estonia isn’t the only country where you can receive an excellent university education on the cheap.

Average annual tuition in Germany is less than $1,000. And Germany grants non-European Union (EU) graduates an 18-month residence permit to find a job. (The clock starts ticking when you receive your final exam results.)

When you find a job, you can apply for either a German residence permit or an EU Blue Card that allows residency in all of the EU. After two years, you’re eligible for permanent residency in Germany.

Before you take on a huge amount of debt for a degree of questionable value, remember that there are ALWAYS other choices.

Source

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“The US Will Bear Responsibility”: China Furious After US Sanctions Beijing For Buying Russian Weapons

It has been barely two weeks since China joined Russia in the “Vostok” war games, the largest display of Eurasian military might since 1981 when the Soviet Union was still a global superpower, and already the US has found an opening to try and drive a wedge between China and Russia, or at least express its displeasure with their increasingly close relationship.

Amid a simmering trade dispute between the US and China, the US has imposed sanctions on a branch of the Chinese military in retaliation for China’s recent purchase of Russian combat aircraft and anti-air surface to air missiles.

The sanctions are more of a nuisance than anything else, blocking China’s Equipment Development Department from participating in the dollar-based financial system and from doing business with US businesses, while also blocking the agency and its head, Li Shangfu, from applying for US export licenses.

Aircraft

As Reuters adds, the US State Department said it would immediately impose sanctions on China’s Equipment Development Department (EDD), the military branch responsible for weapons and equipment, and its director, Li Shangfu, for engaging in “significant transactions” with Rosoboronexport, Russia’s main arms exporter.

The sanctions are related to China’s purchase of 10 SU-35 combat aircraft in 2017 and S-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment in 2018, the State Department said. They block the Chinese agency, and Li, from applying for export licenses and participating in the U.S. financial system.

It also adds them to the Treasury Department’s list of specially designated individuals with whom Americans are barred from doing business.

The US also blacklisted another 33 people and entities associated with the Russian military and intelligence, adding them to a list under the 2017 law, known as the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA.

As one might expect, the sanctions provoked an outraged response from China, which demanded that the US correct its “mistake” immediately or face “consequences”, per RT.

Beijing has threatened that Washington will face “consequences” if it doesn’t withdraw the recent batch of sanctions against China over military cooperation with Russia.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not mince words, saying Washington should immediately correct its “mistakes” before it’s too late.

China, predictably, was furious, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang telling reporters in Beijing that the move seriously harmed bilateral relations and military ties.

“China expresses strong indignation at these unreasonable actions by the U.S. side and has already lodged stern representations.”

“We strongly urge the U.S. side to immediately correct the mistake and rescind the so-called sanctions, otherwise the US side will necessarily bear responsibility for the consequences,” he said, without giving details.

Geng also insisted that the purchases were part of “normal” military exchanges between Russia and China – pushing back against the US as it seeks to dictate the terms of global trade between two geopolitical rivals.

China has “normal” military exchanges and cooperation with Russia, aimed at protecting regional peace and stability, which is not against international law or aimed at any third party, Geng added.

China will continue to work with Russia to promote strategic cooperation at an even higher level, he said.

But for all of China’s indignation, one anonymous US official told Reuters that the sanctions are actually targeted at Moscow, not Beijing.

One US administration official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the sanctions imposed on the Chinese agency were aimed at Moscow, not Beijing or its military, despite an escalating trade war between the United States and China.

“The ultimate target of these sanctions is Russia. CAATSA sanctions in this context are not intended to undermine the defense capabilities of any particular country,” the official told reporters on a conference call.

“They are instead aimed at imposing costs upon Russia in response to its malign activities,” the official said.

Meanwhile, an analyst said the sanctions would do little to impede China’s military expansion, as Beijing only relies on Russia to “plug holes” in its military offerings.

Collin Koh, a security analyst at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the sanctions would do little to counter the evolving research and development relationship between China and Russia.

One Russian lawmaker insisted that the sales would have “zero impact” on Russian arms sales.

In Moscow, Russian member of parliament Franz Klintsevich said the sanctions would not affect the S-400 and SU-35 deals.

“I am sure that these contracts will be executed in line with the schedule,” Klintsevich was quoted as saying by Russia’s Interfax news agency. “The possession of this military equipment is very important for China.”

Security analysts in Asia said the move was largely symbolic and would only push Moscow and Beijing closer together.

“The imposition of U.S. sanctions will have zero impact on Russian arms sales to China,” said Ian Storey, of Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.

Instead of discouraging their trading relationship, the sanctions will only push Russia and Beijing closer together.

“Both countries are opposed to what they see as U.S. bullying and these kind of actions will just push Beijing and Moscow even closer together,” he said, adding that Moscow needed Chinese money and Beijing wanted advanced military technology.

The US has previously taken steps to sanction China’s military: For example, under President Obama, the US DOJ indicted several military intelligence operatives for hacking into the networks of US companies. President Trump issued the sanctions on Thursday, shortly after China announced that it would cut import levies for foreign goods (except for the US). But beyond the trade war and rising geopolitical tensions between the US and Russia, the subtext of Trump’s decision is clear: If you’re going to buy arms, buy them from a US defense contractor, or face the consequences. Yet, we’re sure the mainstream media will overlook this story since it clashes with the narrative that President Trump is merely a “pawn” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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