Free Republic

American bluff and bombast toward Moscow has stoked Russian nationalism, convinced Putin we're weak, and fostered a dangerous realignment. PRESIDENT BARACK Obama likes to say that America and the world have progressed beyond the unpleasantness of the nineteenth century and, for that matter, much of the rest of human history. He could not be more wrong. And as a result, he is well on the way to repeating some of history’s most dangerous mistakes. Few would think to compare Obama to Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II. Nevertheless, Emperor Nicholas II, like President Obama, thought of himself as a man of...

Aviadarts is Moscow’s Top Gun Chinese and Russian fighter pilots have been testing their skills in an unprecedented series of maneuvers in southeast Russia. Some observers have billed the Aviadarts exercise as a Russian Top Gun—a reference to the U.S. Navy’s fighter tactics schoolhouse, which the sailing branch established after losing a shocking number of pilots during the Vietnam War. The reality is not as straightforward, but it’s significant that Moscow is inviting foreign fighter jocks—the Chinese, namely—to test their mettle against the best Russia has to offer. Russian air force units long have pursued advanced tactics and combat training,...

TOKYO -- Nearly three months after lifting its long-standing arms embargo, Japan recently approved plans to supply missile parts to the U.S. and conduct joint military research with a British company. Behind the scenes, however, there was a deal that fell through. Under new guidelines governing the transfer of defense equipment and technology, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 17 convened the National Security Council to look into two applications submitted by private companies. One was Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' request for permission to export seeker gyros used in Patriot surface-to-air missiles to the U.S. The other involved Mitsubishi Electric, which...

While this is definitely a "what could go wrong" story what with an atheist government creating a theology fit for its population, there's definitely a sign of hope here. Atheist China, worried about the rapidly growing number of Christians, is constructing a "theology" in order to attempt to control this whole Christian thing. Funny, I think the Romans tried to control Christianity as well. How'd that work out? The South China Morning Post: China will construct a "Chinese Christian theology" suitable for the country, state media reported on Thursday, as both the number of believers and tensions with the authorities...

A five-inch kitchen knife falls from the sky and enters the head of 57-year-old man in Sichuan province Last Thursday morning, 57-year-old Xiao Yunzhi was taking a stroll in his home town of Guangyuan, Sichuan province, when his head started feeling strangely heavy.

Japan will give six navy boats to Vietnam to boost its patrols and surveillance in the East Sea (aka South China Sea), Japan's foreign minister said on Friday, in the latest sign of a strengthening of alliances between states locked in maritime rows with China. The used vessels, worth 500 million yen (US$4.86 million), would be accompanied by training and equipment to help the coastguard and fisheries surveillance effort, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said after talks with Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh. The deal represents a notable shift in the two countries' close diplomatic and investment ties towards defense,...

China will construct a "Chinese Christian theology" suitable for the country, state media reported on Thursday, as both the number of believers and tensions with the authorities are on the rise. China has between 23 million and 40 million Protestants, accounting for 1.7 to 2.9 per cent of the total population, the state-run China Daily said, citing figures given at a seminar in Shanghai. About 500,000 people are baptised as Protestants every year, it added. "Over the past decades, the Protestant churches in China have developed very quickly with the implementation of the country's religious policy," the paper quoted Wang...

(UPDATED) US Secretary of State John Kerry is pushing for an agreement to end all acts that risk further inflaming relations between Beijing and its Southeast Asian neighbors.US Secretary of State John Kerry and some of his fellow foreign ministers - dressed in traditional shirts - pose for an "ASEAN-style" handshake before a dinner with members of the Southeast Asian regional group in Naypyitaw, Burma, on August 9, 2014.The United States sought to ease maritime tensions as Asian and global powers gathered for security talks Sunday, August 10, but said that it did not want to "confront" China over its...

Already scrambling to confront multiple simultaneous international crises, the Obama administration stepped up efforts Saturday to avert another, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on China and its smaller neighbors to take new steps to ease tensions over maritime disputes in Asian waters that many fear could spark conflict....

The last 3 months have seen Russia's "de-dollarization" plans accelerate. First Gazprom clients shift to Euros and Renminbi, then the UK signs currency swap agreements with China, then NATO ally Turkey cuts ties and mulls de-dollarization, Switzerland jumps in the currency swap agreements, and BRICS create their own non-US-based funding vehicle, and then finally this week, Russia's oligarchs have shifted cash holdings to Hong Kong. But this week, as RT reports, Russian and Chinese central banks have agreed a draft currency swap agreement, which will allow them to increase trade in domestic currencies and cut the dependence on the US...

A photo meant to highlight the bravery and adaptability of China's military members has apparently created a public outrage instead. The image of Chinese soldiers using dirty water to cook noodles was meant to showcase a display of the "soldiers' bravery" by the state-run media sources Chinese National Radio and the Global Times Newspaper, according to the BBC. "These men stood tall in the face of adversity with or without clean water," state-run media reported. The picture of Chinese soldiers responding to an earthquake in China's Yunnan province, was met with derision by users of the Chinese social media site...

It was strange. Joe Scarborough had just completed a comprehensive indictment of failed American foreign policy around the globe. But at the very moment when he should have laid those disasters at the feet of the sitting President of the United States, Scarborough came down with a bad case of . . . cold feet. Scarborough laid out to David Gregory a tour d'horizon of failed American foreign policy from the Middle East, to Iran, to Russia/Ukraine, describing it as "one disaster after another." But perhaps fearful of where the ineluctable logic of his comments was taking him, Scarborough suddenly...

The objects found in the sacrificial pits included animal-faced sculptures and masks with dragon ears, open mouths and grinning teeth; human-like heads with gold foil masks; decorative animals including dragons, snakes, and birds; a giant wand, a sacrificial altar, a 4-meter-tall (13-foot-tall) bronze tree; axes, tablets, rings, knives, and hundreds of other unique items. Among the collection was also the world’s largest and best preserved bronze upright human figure, measuring 2.62 meters (8 feet). However, by far the most striking findings were dozens of large bronze masks and heads represented with angular human features, exaggerated almond-shaped eyes, straight noses, square...

China will establish its own Christian theology compatible with the Communist country's socialist principles, state media has reported, adding that the government will promote it in a correct manner through mass programmes. The number of Christians in China is rising rapidly but so is, according to rights groups, the simmering tension with the government. In April, one of the largest churches was demolished in the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province ending a standoff between members and authorities. Authorities said the 85000 square foot church was demolished because of permission issues and had nothing to do with religious persecution.The Communist...

China has successfully developed it own airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system, with the KJ-2000 and the KJ-200, reported overseas Chinese news outlet Duowei on Aug. 4. After China's initial attempts to develop its own system in the 1970s, the nation looked to Russia but the price was too high and the functionality fell short of China's expectations. An attempt to import the Israeli A-501 in the mid-1990s was blocked by the US and eventually fell through. In 2002, China stopped importing Russian AEW&C systems and developed its own, the KJ-2000 and KJ-200 which served as the lead aircraft...

Tyler Durden 08/06/2014 A month ago, a Nicaraguan committee approved Chinese billionaire Wang Jing's project to create The Nicaraguan Canal. With a planned capacity to accommodate ships with loaded displacement of 400,000 tons (notably bigger than The Panama Canal), the proposed 278-kilometer-long canal that will run across the Nicaragua isthmus would probably change the landscape of the world's maritime trade. "The project is the largest infrastructure project ever in the history of man in terms of engineering difficulty, investment scale, workload and its global impact," Wang told reporters, adding that with regard the project's financing, which is around $50 billion,...

Siberia is 73.6% of the Russian territory. The population is not too dense, but rural and urban villages are distributed all over the area. If the planned March for Federation goes well, in the forest, Eastern and Western Siberia may appear with a dozen new breakaway States. It is because of this crazy world record and Kremlin clock filters the information throughout the CIS. The Kremlin understands that to crush the rebellion would be simply impossible. Analyst site ELISE.COM.UA Valentin Ivanov. "The organizers have planned federation very clearly. Shares initially will be in small towns of the Siberian Federal District...

BEIJING (AP) — China's smog-plagued capital has announced that it will ban all coal sales and use by the end of 2020 as part of its anti-pollution fight. Beijing's Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau posted the plan on its website on Monday, saying the city will instead prioritize electricity and natural gas, especially for heating. China's official Xinhua News Agency said coal accounted for a quarter of Beijing's energy consumption in 2012. Even with the Beijing ban, coal use is expected to soar in China. Coal is a major generator of greenhouse gases and has helped turn China into the world's...

Nuclear Threat: Beijing's strategic military buildup continues with the unveiling of a road-mobile missile capable of delivering up to 10 atomic warheads anywhere in America. Time to show some flexibility, Mr. President? While President Obama was playing the back nine, and as it was confirmed that the Russians had developed a cruise missile, the R500, which violates 1987's Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty, the Chinese were busy as well. They now have a mobile intercontinental nuclear missile with no other purpose than to make war against the U.S. The announcement of the DF-41's existence was not exactly approved by the Chinese...

The emails reveal Lai's links to right-wing US politicians.Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has maintained close ties with right-wing politicians in the United States, according to documents leaked to the media. The documents, mostly email exchanges between Lai's top aide Mark Simon and others, were sent to major news outlets yesterday by the same person who last month leaked information about Lai's donations to Hong Kong politicians. The documents suggest Lai had regular contacts with US politicians. In one case, Simon acted as a go-between to set up a meeting between former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and a group of...