Logo

American Security Council Foundation

Back to main site

Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Chinese Spies Could Be Using Jack Ma’s Alibaba to Infiltrate Major EU Airport, Claims Belgian Justice Minister

Monday, May 10, 2021

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats

Comments: 0

GettyImages-462003260-640x480

Chinese spies could be able to access “sensitive” information in Belgium through investments made into the Liège Airport by the Jack Ma-owned e-commerce giant Alibaba, the country’s justice minister admitted this week.

Appearing before a hearing of the House Justice Committee, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said that “Chinese intelligence service agents could have access to sensitive and secure areas of the airport”.

“Alibaba will also have to obey the Chinese security apparatus in the event that the latter wishes to have access to potentially sensitive commercial and personal data held by Alibaba in the context of its activities in Liège,” the minister added in comments reported on Friday by the local news outlet 7sur7.

Quickenborne referenced the 2017 National Intelligence Law, which mandates that Chinese companies allow the communist government access to their data, no matter whether such a company has overseas operations, such as Alibaba, which uses Liège as a distribution hub for shipping goods around Europe.

He also pointed to the 2016 cybersecurity law in China, which he said gives the power to Chinese intelligence operatives to “copy data, including user data. This law applies to any company that provides service via the internet, including Alibaba.”

The Flemish politician claimed that the Liège airport, which is outside the city of Maastricht, is of critical strategic importance to the Chinese Communist Party, saying: “This interest is not limited to intelligence and security purposes but can be viewed within a broader political and economic framework.”

He said that “the future economic importance of Liège Airport to China cannot be underestimated”, explaining that Beijing intends to build an additional 215 new airports by 2035 in order to expand its global economic reach.

Quickenborne also said that the risk of China attempting to use its economic pressure on politicians through projects like the Liège Airport “certainly” exists.

The Southern China Morning Post, which was bought out by the Alibaba Group in 2016, reported that the airport in Belgium “is the Western Europe linchpin of Alibaba’s global network of logistics centres, known as the electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP).”

The paper went on to say that the airport represents one of the six global logistics centres set up by the Amazon-style Chinese company.

Van Quickenborne said that while the European Union mandated last October that each member state examine foreign investment, which might impact national security, the Belgian government has so far failed to implement any such measures.

He said that the country must now take action or accept “the risk associated with large investments and the taking of a dominant position on the market by Chinese companies and therefore, by extension, by the Chinese authorities”.

The Chinese embassy in Belgium denied what it termed “baseless allegations”, claiming that the Chinese Communist Party does not “demand Chinese enterprises to engage in activities that breach local laws or regulations”.

“China never presents a threat to Belgium,” the embassy said, adding: “The cooperation between the two nations is built on the foundation of mutual respect, mutual benefits and win-win relationship.”

The power that the Chinese government holds over corporations within the country was put on full display when Jack Ma, the founder of the Alibaba Group, mysteriously disappeared from public view for months after making critical remarks about the regulatory state in China in October of last year.

In January, Breitbart News reported that the Chinese state had allegedly pressured Jack Ma to hand over consumer data to the government, adding further speculation to the true nature of his mysterious disappearance.

Three months later, regulators imposed a record $2.78 billion (£1.99bn) fine on the company for supposed antitrust violations.

Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images

Link: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/05/09/chinese-spies-likely-using-trade-infiltrate-major-eu-airport/

Comments RSS feed for comments on this page

There are no comments yet. Be the first to add a comment by using the form below.