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Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can, thank you.

Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map, who is an independent youtuber with a mostly neutral viewpoint.

Moon of Alabama, which tends to have good analysis (though also a couple bad takes here and there)

Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources.

On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the Ukrainian warzones.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Yesterday's discussion post.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]M29•2 years ago

    China Orders Government, State Firms to Dump Foreign PCs src

    China has ordered central government agencies and state-backed corporations to replace foreign-branded personal computers with domestic alternatives within two years, marking one of Beijing’s most aggressive efforts so far to eradicate key overseas technology from within its most sensitive organs.

    It continues

    Staff were asked after the week-long May break to turn in foreign PCs for local alternatives that run on operating software developed domestically, people familiar with the plan said. The exercise, which was mandated by central government authorities, is likely to eventually replace at least 50 million PCs on a central-government level alone, they said, asking to remain anonymous discussing a sensitive matter.

    The decision advances China’s decade-long campaign to replace imported technology with local alternatives, a sweeping effort to reduce its dependence on geopolitical rivals such as the U.S. for everything from semiconductors to servers and phones. It’s likely to directly affect sales by HP Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc., the country’s biggest PC brands after local champion Lenovo Group Ltd.

    Lenovo erased losses to climb as much as 5% on Friday in Hong Kong, while software developer Kingsoft Corp. also recouped its earlier decline to gain 3.3%. On mainland Chinese exchanges, Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co., a server maker, gained 6% while peer Dawning Information Industry Co. jumped more than 4%. Inspur Software Co., an affiliate of the Inspur group, and China National Software & Service Co. both soared their daily 10% limits.

    The push to replace foreign suppliers is part of a longstanding effort to wean China off its reliance on American technology -- a vulnerability exposed after sanctions against companies like Huawei Technologies Co. hammered local firms and businesses. That initiative has accelerated since 2021, when the Chinese central government quietly empowered a secretive government-backed organization to vet and approve local suppliers in sensitive areas from cloud to semiconductors.

    The latest PC replacement project also reflects Beijing’s growing concerns around information security as well as a confidence in homegrown hardware: the world’s biggest laptop and server makers today include Lenovo, Huawei and Inspur Ltd., while local developers such as Kingsoft and Standard Software have made rapid strides in office software against the likes of Microsoft Corp. and Adobe Inc.

    The campaign will be extended to provincial governments later and also abide by the two-year timeframe, the people said. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and State Council Information Office didn’t respond to faxed requests for comment.

    Really hoping China (and Russia, and, well, every country outside the west, but especially China) succeeds in distancing themselves from western products. I'm assuming that basically every internet-capable device that's produced or maintained by a western company has like 17 background processes or viruses or whatever that allows the US intelligence agencies access to the information within.

    Like the recent thing in Spain, and I think there was some kind of Israeli-developed virus that wormed its way into Iranian nuclear facilities to destroy them or something? Shit like that's gotta be all over the place.

    • jackal [he/him]24•2 years ago

      The last thing you're thinking of regarding Iranian nuclear facilities is Stuxnet that would (IIRC) insidiously fuck with the centrifuge speeds and cause damage over time, while reporting normal operations. Believed to have been developed jointly by the (US) NSA, CIA, and Israeli intelligence because of course it was.

      • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]17•2 years ago

        Isn't this the one that also uhhhh... escaped and fucked up alot of computers all over the place?

        • jackal [he/him]17•2 years ago

          Yeah others modified it for attacking other industrial systems:

          The Legacy of Stuxnet

          Although the makers of Stuxnet reportedly programed it to expire in June 2012, and Siemens issued fixes for its PLC software, the legacy of Stuxnet lives on in other malware attacks based on the original code. These “sons of Stuxnet” include:

          • Duqu (2011). Based on Stuxnet code, Duqu was designed to log keystrokes and mine data from industrial facilities, presumably to launch a later attack.
          • Flame (2012). Flame, like Stuxnet, traveled via USB stick. Flame was sophisticated spyware that recorded Skype conversations, logged keystrokes, and gathered screenshots, among other activities. It targeted government and educational organizations and some private individuals mostly in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries.
          • Havex (2013). The intention of Havex was to gather information from energy, aviation, defense, and pharmaceutical companies, among others. Havex malware targeted mainly U.S., European, and Canadian organizations. Industroyer (2016). This targeted power facilities. It’s credited with causing a power outage in the Ukraine in December 2016.
          • Triton (2017). This targeted the safety systems of a petrochemical plant in the Middle East, raising concerns about the malware maker’s intent to cause physical injury to workers.
          • Most recent (2018). An unnamed virus with characteristics of Stuxnet reportedly struck unspecified network infrastructure in Iran in October 2018.

          While ordinary computer users have little reason to worry about these Stuxnet-based malware attacks, they are clearly a major threat to a range of critical industries, including power production, electrical grids, and defense. While extortion is a common goal of virus makers, the Stuxnet family of viruses appears to be more interested in attacking infrastructure.

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]6•2 years ago

            This is funny because it's the same reason that using actual viruses and bacteria in warfare is foolish; once it's in the wild you can't control where it goes next.