Serious Xijinping's spy agency tracked SAF Jurassic toy tanks to HK, & BINGO!

http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/po...gents-tipped-hong-kong-about-singapores-tanks


Mainland agents ‘tipped off Hong Kong about Singaporean army vehicles’
Armoured vehicles at the centre of complicated diplomatic tangle have been held in the city since being found on a cargo ship
DANNY LEE AND MINNIE CHAN

[email protected]

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 26 November, 2016, 1:06pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 26 November, 2016, 11:52pm

According to reports, the ship carrying the equipment set sail from Taiwan but docked in Xiamen. Photo: FactWire
Mainland agents tipped off Hong Kong customs about nine Singaporean military vehicles after the boat carrying them docked in the mainland port of Xiamen, prompting their seizure and impounding in the city last Wednesday, a report has claimed.

Before the latest twist in the diplomatic row, Singapore stepped up efforts to recover the armoured vehicles, with a delegation arriving in Hong Kong on Friday night to expedite their release and quell the potential political fallout.

Sources said Singapore would need to contact the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get the vehicles back, adding that the discovery had been reported to Beijing already and the decision on whether to release them was no longer in Hong Kong hands.

Is Beijing trying to discourage Singapore-Taiwan relations by having Hong Kong seize armoured vehicles?

According to a report by the FactWire news agency on Saturday, the cargo ship carrying the cars had set sail from Taiwan, but docked in Xiamen en route to Hong Kong, where the military kit was found.

Quoting customs sources, FactWire said that, before the ship arrived in the city, mainland law enforcers informed their Hong Kong counterparts that the vessel contained undeclared military materials, and did not have an approval notice. When it arrived in Hong Kong, customs officers searched the vessel and confiscated military material.

The armoured cars were found at Kwai Chung cargo terminal. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The armoured cars were found at Kwai Chung cargo terminal. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Singapore’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Thursday night that local customs officials detained the vehicles as part of a “delay due to a request for routine inspections by Hong Kong customs”.

And on Friday, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department said the 12 Singapore-bound containers that carried “suspected controlled items” were found on board the vessel at Kwai Chung container terminal during a “routine ship search” on November 23.

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The stand-off – in which Hong Kong is playing man in the middle – comes as China adopts an increasingly hostile attitude towards Singapore, which has recently had strategic geopolitical disagreements with Beijing over the likes of the South China Sea.

Experts have said that the vehicles, which had been in Taiwan while Singapore held military drills there, could be seen as additional blowback for four decades of military co-operation between Taiwan and the city state, which an extremely unhappy Beijing has tolerated, while officially seeing Taiwan as a renegade province.

The equipment had been impounded at a facility in Tuen Mun. Photo: FactWire
The equipment had been impounded at a facility in Tuen Mun. Photo: FactWire

The impounding of the nine advanced combat vehicles has triggered frantic diplomatic manoeuvres between Hong Kong, Beijing, Taipei and Singapore.

An armed forces team representing Singapore’s Ministry of Defence was due to arrive in Hong Kong on Friday night to “address the security of the equipment”, which has since been impounded at a customs facility in Tuen Mun.

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Xiamen customs authorities could not be reached for comment on why they didn’t seize the vehicles themselves, tipping off their Hong Kong counterparts instead.

An officer from the General Administration of Customs in Beijing said Chinese customs had the right to detain military logistics carried on foreign ships that docked at mainland ports if they had not been declared in advance.

Lee Chih-hong, a research fellow at the Longus Institute for Development and Strategy in Singapore, said China might have allowed the seizure to happen in Hong Kong to embarrass Singapore whilst lessening the damage to the two countries’ ties.

“There is no doubt that the Chinese government wants to embarrass Singapore, but Beijing also doesn’t want to change the overall situation of Sino-Singapore diplomatic relations, so they let Hong Kong customs expose and handle this issue,” Lee said.

“China just wants to put pressure on Singapore over its stance in the South China Sea.”

A Hong Kong customs spokesman said it would not comment on enforcement operations.

Singapore’s defence ministry has been contacted for comment.

Additional reporting by Sidney Leng

http://www.todayonline.com/singapor...hk-began-chinese-law-enforcement-tip-factwire


Seizure of SAF armoured vehicles in HK began with Chinese law enforcement tip off: Factwire
Seizure of SAF armoured vehicles in HK began with Chinese law enforcement tip off: Factwire
The 9 SAF armoured vehicles seized in Hong Kong, now covered in green sheets, have been moved to the customs cargo examination compound at the River Trade Terminal. Photo: Factwire

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Published: 12:23 PM, November 26, 2016
Updated: 4:17 PM, November 26, 2016

SINGAPORE — Mainland Chinese law enforcement organisations had tipped off Hong Kong customs officials about a shipment of Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) armoured vehicles that arrived at the city's port earlier this week, leading to its eventual seizure, a new report has alleged.

Factwire, the Hong Kong news agency which broke the news of the seizure of the nine Terrex Infantry Carrier Vehicles, cited unnamed sources on Saturday saying that the shipment was discovered to have contained "undeclared military materials" when it stopped for a layover at Xiamen’s Haitian Container Terminals in Fujian, eastern China, after departing Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

"Before the vessel arrived at the Hong Kong port, Customs were informed by mainland law enforcement organisations that the vessel contained undeclared military materials, and did not have an approval notice," Factwire said in its latest report. "When it arrived in Hong Kong, the Customs searched the vessel and confiscated relevant military materials."

The news agency quoted a port worker saying that an entire team of officers was sent to search the vessel - APL QATAR 041 - when routine inspections typically involved just two to three officers.

"The officers apparently were specific about searching the vessel when it arrived at the terminal," Factwire said.

The report, however, did not name the mainland Chinese agencies which tipped off customs officials in Hong Kong, nor did it say how Chinese security organisations found out about the shipment of SAF armoured vehicles in Xiamen.

On Friday, Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily News published reports — complete with pictures and a video — of the vehicles being moved in the early hours under police escort to Hong Kong Customs’ cargo examination compound at the River Trade Terminal. This raised questions about whether they will be returned expeditiously, as Singapore has requested, even as a team from the SAF was expected to reach Hong Kong to “address the security of the equipment”, said Singapore’s Ministry of Defence (Mindef).

In its latest report, Factwire said it managed to track the shipping route and itinerary of the vessel moving the Terrex vehicles using code numbers on the confiscated containers. The SAF had contracted APL as the commercial shipping line to transport nine armoured vehicles and associated equipment to Singapore. APL is a unit of shipping giant CMA CGM Group, which bought over homegrown company Neptune Orient Lines earlier this year.

According to the service schedules for APL QATAR, which could be found on CMA CGM's website, the vessel departed Kaohsiung on November 21, Monday, and arrived at Xiamen's Haitian Container Terminals the same day.

Factwire, using information from Automatic Identification System that tracks the movement and location of ships, said APL QATAR stayed in Xiamen for 16 hours, and left for Hong Kong at 10.24am on Tuesday (Nov 22).

The vessel, reportedly hoisting a Singapore flag, arrived at Hong Kong’s Kwai Tsing Container Terminal 8 at 8:32am on Wednesday (Nov 23). It was scheduled to leave Hong Kong at 3pm the same day.

The armoured vehicles were seized on Wednesday, and the vessel not allowed to depart until 5:37am on Thursday when it left for Chiwan port in Shenzhen in southern China. The shipment of the Terrex vehicles was originally scheduled to arrive in Singapore on Nov 29.

Mindef said that during the transit through Hong Kong, “customs officials raised queries if the necessary permits and declarations by APL were in order and in the process detained the Terrex ICVs”.

It added that APL officials have assured the SAF that they are working with Hong Kong authorities to resolve the issue.

Mindef said that APL was required to adhere to all regulations, including declaring the equipment it transports in the ship’s cargo manifest and obtaining the permits needed to transit through ports. “The nine Terrex ICVs are training platforms with no ammunition or sensitive equipment on board,” the ministry said.

Responding to media queries, an APL spokesperson said the firm was extending its full cooperation to the Hong Kong authorities and working with the various stakeholders. “The matter is pending discussion and we are unable to comment further,” the spokesperson said. Nevertheless, the company is “committed to ensuring cargo security as well as full compliance with all regulatory and trade requirements in its conduct of business”.

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This is just a warning shot to tell LHL to toe the line. Next time, it will be seizure of sinkapore's business in China.

Someone in MINDEF screw up on the paper work ...which general will get the demotion?

[video=youtube_share;p78lGBhwXPs]https://youtu.be/p78lGBhwXPs[/video]

tiong spies are all over the world from africa to the arctic. but more so in sg as sg offers "blending in" into sensitive occupations and technologies. moreover sg is considered a u.s. strategic stooge thus has less red flags raised on export control procedures required by u.s. regulations, rules and laws. tiongs have long penetrated deep into sg r&d labs and organizations and are acting as deep sixty-nine agents of espionage on behalf of tionglang. for example, they are after gallium nitride manufacturing and production knowhow and sg offers a window into u.s. r&d and production capabilities. there are not too many cuntries and companies that can produce them in large quantities with high qualitative yields - lumileds (plant in san jose), a company in germany (not to be named here), and a company on the east coast are the 3 targets. lately, a tiong front company funded by their gov is attempting to acquire the german plant but faces resistance by the u.s. gov. but it's ultimately up to the german gov to approve. this acquisition is a cause of recent friction among the 3 cuntries. next, tiongs are attempting to acquire lumileds. both lumileds and the german company produce gallium nitride (gan) in mass quantities for the led industry. same material can be used for powerful radars, millimeter wave components, 5g tech, anti-stealth tech, radiocomm, drone and satellite applications. in other words, to help win ww3, you need gan, and high quality high yield gan which is currently beyond the grasp of tiongs.

Lawless Lee Hsien Loong ship military toys without paper docuemention still got the balls to transit in so many ports.

He asked for it. Lucky he didn't ship Leopard 2 tanks in this way.

Once China gets this German technology America will be screwed.