Free Republic

China’s most prestigious aviation magazine has published an artist’s depictions of the Chinese Air Force’s next-generation heavy strategic bomber. The stealth bomber, known as JH-XX to aviation watchers, is a sleek, twin-engine aircraft quite different from U.S. stealth bomber designs. The Pentagon believes the plane will be capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Artist images of the the JH-XX appeared on the cover of the May 2018 issue of Aviation Knowledge magazine. Aviation Knowledge is the oldest and most popular aviation magazine in China. Founded in 1958, it is published by the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics and has ties...

File photo shows a J-10C fighter jet in a training. China's new multi-role fighter jet J-10C began combat duty Monday, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force announced. It is China's third-generation supersonic fighter and made its debut when the PLA marked its 90th anniversary in July 2017 at Zhurihe military training base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Equipped with an advanced avionics system and various airborne weapons, the domestically-developed fighter has airstrike capabilities within medium and close range and is capable of precisely striking land and maritime targets. (Xinhua/Xi Bobo) BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China's new multi-role fighter...

MANILA, Philippines – About 300 Filipino government officials, military officers, businessmen, diplomats, and journalists boarded a massive US aircraft carrier in Manila Bay Friday night, April 13, for a reception hosted by US ambassador Sung Kim. The USS Theodore Roosevelt, the flagship of US Navy Carrier Strike Group 9, arrived in Manila on April 11, the same day China began drills in the South China Sea. The reception aboard the carrier was held only hours after China ended the drills with a large naval parade that Chinese President Xi Jinping himself witnessed. Two Australian warships and a Japanese destroyer also...

Researchers have found a deposit of rare-earth minerals off the coast of Japan that could supply the world for centuries, according to a new study. The study, published in the journal Nature on Tuesday, says the deposit contains 16 million tons of the valuable metals. Rare-earth minerals are used in everything from smartphone batteries to electric vehicles. By definition, these minerals contain one or more of 17 metallic rare-earth elements (for those familiar with the periodic table, those are on the second row from the bottom).

Everything I have learned as a capitalist and a Republican is that tariffs are counterproductive. They are hidden taxes that raise the price of the goods we buy and harm trade with other countries, which is not good for America or for our trading partner. If that is so, then provide us with another path to solving the China trading problem. President Trump probably made a mistake with going after steel and aluminum importers as a class. Certainly he has a point that we must maintain our own production capabilities in those areas, but just because our industries are suffering...

WASHINGTON--The Trump administration has once again declined to brand China a currency manipulator, but it did target that country and five others for special monitoring for what the administration says are practices that are worsening America's trade deficit. (please see link for full article)

China hopes to create a 'mini biosphere' on the dark side of the Moon, with flowers and silkworms sustaining each other as they grow on the lifeless lunar surface. The unprecedented plan to create life in outer space is the most intriguing part of China's lunar probe mission later this year, and could be a major boost for dreams that humans will one day live on the Moon.

China has staged its largest naval drills ever in the South China Sea amid rising tensions with Taiwan over the disputed territory. President Xi Jinping was in attendance to watch the enormous show of drills - involving more than 10,000 seamen, 76 fighter jets and 48 warships and submarines. Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television showed footage of the President boarding one of his destroyers which then sailed to an unnamed location in the contentious waters to watch the drills.

Russia’s proposed UN Security Council resolution envisaging a speedy and realistic investigation into Douma incident was voted down by a triple veto. US, UK and France all voted against it. However an earlier US-proposed resolution, which proposed an investigation mechanism that couldn’t possibly work and would have opened an avenue for the American use of force had to be vetoed by Russia alone. Bolivia was the only other nation to vote against it as China merely abstained. China did so albeit it had previously called for restraint and for no side to resort to force which should have naturally made...

China must stop airing forced confessions from human rights activists, a campaign group has said in a report that details how detainees are coerced into delivering scripted remarks. There have been at least 45 forced televised confessions in China since 2013, according to the report from Safeguard Defenders, a human rights NGO in Asia. Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 there has been a wholesale crackdown on civil society and dissent, leading to hundreds of arrests targeting human rights activists and the lawyers that defend them. The practice of forced confessions was especially prominent during the 1966-76 Cultural...

China remains the “world’s top executioner” amid a decline in executions worldwide, Amnesty International has said in its annual report on capital punishment. According to the report, released on Thursday, China implemented “more death sentences than the rest of the world combined”. Amnesty believes thousands of executions and death sentences occurred in 2017 in China, where they are considered a state secret. China aside, executions worldwide dropped again in 2017, with at least 993 recorded in 23 countries – down 4% from 2016 and 39% from 2015. At least 2,591 death sentences were recorded in 53 countries in 2017 –...

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia and New Zealand warned China on Tuesday against building any military base in the South Pacific, following media reports that the Chinese have proposed a permanent stronghold in Vanuatu. Fairfax Media reported that China had approached the former French colony about building a permanent military presence in the South Pacific. China and Vanuatu denied the reports. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Vanuatu also assured his government that “no such request has been made” by China. “We would view with great concern the establishment of any foreign military bases in those Pacific island countries and neighbors...

WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Mike Rounds on Sunday said President Donald Trump needs to explain his "endgame" to the American people when it comes to imposing tariffs on goods from foreign countries and said the U.S. should "quit fighting with Mexico and Canada."

U.S. Pacific Command still calls itself PACOM, but it appears INDO-PACOM -- India-Pacific Command -- might be the acronym of the future. Pentagon and State Department studies now routinely refer to the "Indo-Pacific region," as do the defense and foreign policy papers authored by their counterparts in Japan and Australia. "INDO" obviously contracts Indian Ocean, equivalent to "PAC." However, Chinese admirals in Beijing detect another implication: the huge nation that dominates that body of water -- India. To paraphrase Shakespeare's Hamlet, aye, there's the rub. For China, India is a very large rub. The subcontinent dominates the Indian Ocean. China,...

The Trump administration is seeking to blunt domestic opposition to its trade policies with a relief package for farmers affected by the U.S. trade spat with China, say officials involved in the discussions. The aid package, which could climb into the billions of dollars, is still being developed. Agriculture and congressional officials are examining Depression-era programs like the Commodity Credit Corp., which was created in 1933 to stabilize farm incomes, and which permits borrowing of as much as $30 billion from the Treasury to finance its activities. Using the CCC would also give the administration an existing program to tap,...

Cape Town is in the unenviable situation of being the first major city in the modern era to face the threat of running out of drinking water. However, the plight of the drought-hit South African city is just one extreme example of a problem that experts have long been warning about - water scarcity. Despite covering about 70% of the Earth's surface, water, especially drinking water, is not as plentiful as one might think. Only 3% of it is fresh. Over one billion people lack access to water and another 2.7 billion find it scarce for at least one month...

Chinese President Xi Jinping promised on Tuesday to open the country’s economy further and lower import tariffs on products like cars, in a speech seen as an attempt to defuse an escalating trade dispute with the United States. While much of his pledges were reiterations of previously announced reforms that foreign businesses say are long overdue, Xi’s comments sent stock markets and the U.S. dollar higher on hopes of a compromise that could avert a trade war. Xi said China will widen market access for foreign investors, addressing a chief complaint of its trading partners and a point of contention...

President Donald Trump’s administration approved the license necessary for American firms to sell Taiwan the technology needed to build its own submarines, while Trump continued his apparent trade war with China. Taiwan’s Central News Agency first reported the approval Saturday, according to Reuters, stating the Southeast Asian nation’s defense minister, Chen Chung-Chi, confirmed the State Department’s go-head. An unnamed State Department official told Reuters that its policy toward American-Taiwan defense trade was “consistent” with previous administrations. “Our longstanding policy on defense sales to Taiwan has been consistent across seven different U.S. administrations,” the official said. “This policy has contributed to...

Call it at least a half-blink. After a war of words between the US and China spooked investors around the world, Xi Jinping indirectly offered two concessions to US trade concerns while speaking at a business conference. Xi offered to open up the auto market and increase flexibility on banking, but left out a couple of other key issues for Donald Trump: China’s President Xi Jinping may be starting to pull back from a trade confrontation with President Trump, promising to reduce Chinese tariffs on imported cars https://t.co/8sVBCFJDZ5 pic.twitter.com/53YqJpEbG2— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 10, 2018 President Xi Jinping promised...

The Summit of the Americas this Friday and Saturday in Peru was to be the centerpiece of President Trump's first visit to Latin America, and the first time he met many of the region's leaders. Now, Trump has suddenly announced he won't be attending after all — he's staying in D.C. to focus on Syria and sending Vice President Pence in his stead. Why it matters: Jason Marczak, director of the Atlantic Council's Latin America Center, says Trump's decision is a "significant blow" to the chances of improving relations with the region and with those leaders, many of whom are...