Canada’s spy agency CSIS warns universities against Alibaba

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Some good reporting by Robert Fife and Steven Chase at the Globe and Mail on more China Communist Party horribleness (horribleness is my word, as if I had to tell you):

“Canada’s spy agency warned Canadian universities in August to be wary of using Chinese technology, including a service offered by e-commerce company Alibaba to help students based in China take online Zoom classes in this country.

“Alibaba, which has come under close scrutiny from China’s ruling Communist Party after its billionaire founder, Jack Ma, ran afoul of President Xi Jinping, provides an accelerated virtual private network server so students in China can attend Zoom classes without lag. The “Alibaba Global Accelerator” service is marketed as a solution to avoid network congestion and reduce delays in communication….”

Also,

“Mr. Ellis [Andy Ellis, a former assistant director of operations at CSIS and chief executive officer of 3 Sixty Security] said universities should not put sensitive research on supercomputer systems using Huawei gear.

““Anything with Huawei in it is dangerous. I would highly recommend that there be a reconsideration of that,” Mr. Ellis said. “The research and development of all the universities that use this system is at risk, unquestionably.””

It’d be a separate but related article (alas there isn’t one) about how Canadian universities — almost all of them taxpayer-funded and most are state-owned — have gotten themselves hooked on Chinese students and even Chinese state funding, which is an amazing state of affairs for our country. Astounding really. Canadian colleges and universities, and even some K-12s, are now exceedingly reliant upon Communist China for the revenue they need to fully function. Thanks, government. Good job.

How did Canadian institutional leaders and governments, politicians, and regulators all get away with this disaster-in-the-making? Who the hell is running these institutions and where is the oversight? Moreover, what is the motivation behind all of this? Why, exactly, i$ thi$ happening, I wonder.

Joel Johannesen
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