Free Republic

A few weeks ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping offered a Soviet-style five-year plan for China's progress at the Communist Party Congress in Beijing. Despite his talk of global cooperation, the themes were familiar socialist boilerplate about Chinese economic and military superiority to come. Implicit in the 205-minute harangue were echoes of the themes of the 1930s: A rising new Asian power would protect the region and replace declining Western influence. President Xi promised that the Chinese patronage offered a new option for his neighbors "to speed up their development while preserving their independence." Sound familiar? In the 1930s, Imperial Japan...

Is India Testing China Out on Their Disputed Border Again? China ‘firmly’ opposes to Indian president’s latest visit to disputed Arunachal Pradesh By Charlotte Gao November 21, 2017 Two months after China and India diffused tensions on the Doklam standoff, there seems to be a new risk looming over the two countries. On November 19, Indian President Shri Ram Nath Kovind paid his first visit since assuming office in July to Arunachal Pradesh — a long-disputed territory between Beijing and New Delhi. India categorizes Arunachal Pradesh as the northeastern-most state of the country, but the Chinese government has never recognized...

Donald Trump makes his first visit to China having frequently accused his hosts of stealing U.S. jobs. But Chinese companies are creating them all over the U.S. and often in states that voted for Trump. So how do those companies navigate the rhetoric? CGTN’s Owen Fairclough reports from the U.S. state of Tennessee. The live band belts out Dolly Parton’s classic chorus “Workin’ 9 to 5” as tourists enjoy happy hour drinks at Legend’s bar on Broadway, the strip that made Nashville world famous as country music’s home. And a short drive away, China is quietly challenging perceptions about where...

State-owned airline Air China suspended flights Tuesday between Beijing and North Korea due to a lack of demand, deepening the North's isolation amid mounting U.N. sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs. The move followed U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to add Pyongyang to a list of governments that support terrorism but there was no indication that prompted Air China's decision. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said he had no information. The suspension left North Korea's Air Koryo as the only airline with regularly scheduled service to the North. Its website lists flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Dandong in...

Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Basketball dad LaVar Ball says he would've thanked President Donald Trump for getting his son out of China if he had used Air Force One. Ball was on CNN Monday night when he made the claim. After several back-and-forths, Ball refused to thank President Trump for his help in getting LiAngelo Ball and his UCLA Bruins basketball teammates out of China. Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were questioned about allegedly stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store earlier this month in Hangzhou. They were later arrested and released on bail. Trump said he coordinated with...

The half-a-trillion-dollar initiative to build a tristate city at the Saudi, Egyptian, and Jordanian border in the Gulf of Aqaba will more than likely lead to Riyadh recognizing Israel and integrating Tel Aviv into the project. The ambitious Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman unveiled a $500 billion project at an investment forum earlier this week in an effort to bring some serious substance to his Vision 2030 project of fundamentally diversifying his country’s oil-dependent economy in the coming decade. The proposal calls for a gigantic city called NEOM to be built at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba...

Thanksgiving is around the corner, but LaVar Ball isn't exactly in the thankful spirit. The outspoken basketball dad sat down with Chris Cuomo on “CNN Tonight” Monday evening to discuss his son LiAngelo’s recent shoplifting arrest in China and LaVar’s insistence that he does not need to thank Donald Trump for his apparent help in freeing LiAngelo and the other two UCLA player’s arrested. “It just doesn't make any sense why you didn't thank him,” Cuomo said. “Did you thank the doctor for bringing you into this world?” Ball asked. Cumo chuckled, unable to respond. “Well you better go back...

President Trump sat down in Asia with the president of China and devoted valuable time to springing from jail three UCLA basketball players who decided to try to steal stuff from a Louis Vuitton store in China. The players themselves thanked Trump, but one of their fathers, LaVar Ball, decided to use the moment to diss the man who kept his son out of Chinese prison, where one can only imagine the conditions. “Who?” Ball told ESPN when asked about Trump’s assistance. “Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.” Trump, not suprisingly,...

Donald Trump discussed his 12-day trip to Asia and was Monday’s KVML “Newsmaker of the Day”. Here are his words: “I returned from a historic 12-day trip to Asia. This journey took us to five nations to meet with dozens of foreign leaders, participate in three formal state visits, and attend three key regional summits. It was the longest visit to the region by an American President in more than a quarter of a century. Everywhere we went, our foreign hosts greeted the American delegation, myself included, with incredible warmth, hospitality, and most importantly respect. And this great respect showed...

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — South Korea is vying with China to help develop the Philippines, as the aid recipient’s president crafts a multi-country foreign policy with no clear favorite. South Korean President Moon Jae-in told counterparts from the Philippines, as well as nine other Southeast Asian countries at regional summits last week, that Seoul was “the best partner to share the experience” of economic growth. South Korea, he said, can aid the others in high-tech, railways, clean energy and water management. The Philippines stands near the front of the line for that assistance, analysts say. China pledged $24 billion in aid...

On November 14 — days after U.S. President Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing — the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), one of the most prominent U.S. think tanks based in Washington D.C., held a debate on the proposition of “a growing risk of war between the U.S. and China.” Graham Allison (a Harvard University professor and author of the book Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?) was for the proposition and Evan Medeiros (managing director for Asia of Eurasia Group) was against it. When the debate ended, 51 percent of the audience voted their...

The father of one of the basketball players who had been facing shoplifting charges in China downplayed President Trump’s role in having him released — and Trump’s response may be one of the worst I’ve seen yet. Now, to be fair, I certainly do understand why President Trump would have been upset by this. If you want to argue that LiAngelo Ball’s father, LaVar, should have shown gratitude instead of dismissal of President Trump’s efforts, then I’d say that’s a fine argument. What’s not fine, however, is this: Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved...

Xi Jinping breaks taboo and enters the Forbidden City Chinese leader may still be commander-in-chief in 2035, when he would be 82 KATSUJI NAKAZAWA, Nikkei senior staff writer TOKYO -- Mao Zedong, the founding father of modern China, never once set foot inside the walls of Beijing's Forbidden City. While he did sometimes stand on the rostrum of Tiananmen -- the southernmost gate of the sprawling 72-hectare complex -- including on Oct. 1, 1949, when he declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China, he intentionally avoided entering the former home of emperors. Perhaps it was due to his...

'Unrivalled helmsman'? We read Chinese media's enormous ode to Xi so you don't have to Xinhua has issued a lengthy hagiography of president Xi Jinping. Here are the essentials so you can pass the pub test Tom Phillips in Beijing Saturday 18 November 2017 04.10 GMT Last modified on Saturday 18 November 2017 05.16 GMT China’s official news agency, Xinhua, has released a titanic and oleaginous 8,000-word profile of the country’s leader, Xi Jinping. Pushed for time? Here’s a quick Xi-nopsis Name: Xi Jinping. Age: 64. Job titles: Lots. General secretary of the Communist party of China, chairman of the...

Glen Dale, W. Va. — Bad news travels fast. Good news, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to travel at all. Last weekend in Beijing, as part of his 12-day trip to Asia, President Trump announced that the US and China had signed an $83.7 billion memorandum of understanding to create a number of petrochemical projects in West Virginia over the next 20 years. If the agreement holds tight, it is an economic game changer for the state. And yet, speaking to the locals here, you wouldn’t even know it had happened. “I am surprised I heard nothing about it on the national...

President Trump complained Sunday that the father of one of the three UCLA basketball players who were arrested in China for shoplifting had played down his role in winning their release, and that he therefore should not have interceded with China’s president. “I should have left them in jail!” the president tweeted. Trump’s tweet drew a quick backlash on social media. Many expressed incredulity that a sitting U.S. president would publicly regret having come to the aid of American citizens being held by an authoritarian government. Among Trump’s sharper critics was Rep. Adam Schiff, (D-Burbank) who tweeted back, “How can...

President Donald Trump says he should have left three UCLA basketball players accused of shoplifting in China in jail. Trump's tweet Sunday comes after the father of player LiAngelo Ball minimized Trump's involvement in winning the players' release in comments to ESPN. "Who?" LaVar Ball told ESPN on Friday, when asked about Trump's involvement in the matter. "What was he over there for? Don't tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out." Trump has said he raised the players' detention with Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) during the leaders' recent meeting in Beijing....

LaVar Ball, patriarch of the famed basketball family, has denied that President Donald Trump helped his son, UCLA freshman basketballer LiAngelo Ball, get out of potential shoplifting charges in China. Speaking to ESPN, LaVar Ball said “everyone” wanted to make it seem like Trump helped the family, and noted that people try to “make a big deal out of nothing.” Ball’s basketball family has a reality show, Ball in the Family, that airs on Facebook, and his brash style is regularly parodied by Kenan Thompson on Saturday Night Live. The family includes Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball; UCLA...

Beijing vies for greater control of foreign universities in China Communist party wants more influence despite academic freedom guarantees Emily Feng in Beijing The Chinese Communist party has ordered foreign-funded universities to install party units and grant decision-making powers to a party official, reversing an earlier promise to guarantee academic freedom as President Xi Jinping strengthens political control over all levels of education. More than two thousand education joint ventures between Chinese and overseas universities have been established since 2003, when they were first allowed. Some, such as New York University Shanghai or University of Nottingham Ningbo have their own...

Dandong Port Group, which manages the largest Chinese port trading with North Korea, failed to settle 1 billion yuan worth of bonds that matured at the end of October. The default raised questions over its ability to honour a further 6.95 billion yuan worth of publicly traded bonds and bills, two thirds of which will mature at the end of next year. *** A fixed-income manager who works in China’s interbank market, where much of Dandong’s debt is bought and sold, told the South China Morning Post that the chances of the company repaying the bonds were “not good”, based...