Free Republic

Hopes of a "phase one" trade deal between the United States and China have fluctuated since Friday, when President Donald Trump announced that the two countries would soon be signing a preliminary agreement. Even as talks between the countries continue, as Beijing and Washington seek to iron out the details of the "phase one" agreement to end the 18-month trade war, China cautioned on Thursday that the long-running conflict won't end until the U.S. removes all tariffs levied since July 2018. (Please see link for full article)

At a recent dinner for a group of high-ranking military officers at an undisclosed location in the bucolic American countryside, I cautioned the generals to prepare for the president to make a deal with China on trade. Many nodded but were skeptical. Why would the president unilaterally end a trade war that has been so successful against a country which he, and many of his most ardent supporters, believe is America’s number one geopolitical rival? I explained that the president is a transactional leader who favors short-term solutions over longer-term strategic considerations. This in itself is not bad. In fact,...

The U.S. Navy recently sent an aircraft carrier strike group and an amphibious ready group consisting of two large deck warships, dozens of aircraft, and thousands of sailors and Marines into the South China Sea, apparently for the first time ever.

I arrived here in China yesterday and after checking into my hotel I decided to take a look at the news and of course free republic is the first place I go. It is now blocked here, I come here often (747 CPT) And have never had an issue before. Looks like you guys of all been on your worst behavior and highlighted yourself somehow! I’d consider it a badge of honor, thank God for VPNs!

Hundreds of demonstrators wearing “Stand With Hong Kong” T-shirts attended an NBA game Friday night in Brooklyn to protest the league and show support for Chinese pro-democracy activists. Producer and activist Andrew Duncan bought 300 tickets for protesters to attend the Brooklyn Nets game against the Toronto Raptors, according to reporter Yashar Ali. SNIP

Judicial Watch Investigates if Obama Ambassador Ordered Monitoring of Journalists, Trump Allies University Funds and Gives Intellectual Property Rights to Chinese Institute Judicial Watch Investigates if Obama Ambassador Ordered Monitoring of Journalists, Trump Allies Was President Obama’s Ambassador to Ukraine unlawfully tracking articles, reports, and social media postings of conservatives? Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the story . Judicial Watch is investigating if prominent conservative figures, journalists and persons with ties to President Donald Trump were unlawfully monitored by the State Department in Ukraine at the request of ousted U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, an Obama appointee. Yovanovitch testified “in...

North Korean laborers have started fighting over and stealing each other’s excrement in an attempt to meet an impossible quota collection in time to prepare fertilizer for next year’s farming season, a report revealed this week...The quota, ordered by dictator Kim Jong-un in his New Year’s address, ordered that each household should meet a quota amounting to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) per able-bodied citizen. According to local sources, the quota was intentionally unattainable because its true goal was to force citizens to pay fines and bribes for their failure to meet the necessary targets.

Quentin Tarantino will not recut “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” to placate Chinese censors, Variety has confirmed. The decision likely means that the Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt buddy dramedy and ode to late sixties Tinseltown won’t be making an appearance in China — at least in non-pirated form. Tarantino previously ran afoul of higher ups in the country with “Django Unchained” and ultimately agreed to make some excisions that eliminated scenes of graphic violence and nudity after the film was yanked from release. It didn’t matter much. When it was re-released in edited form, the film went on...

President Donald Trump is one of the most controversial world leaders in modern times, igniting the ire of America’s staunchest allies. Whether it’s the proposed Muslim ban, the US border wall and immigration, or his praise of authoritarian leaders, Trump is deft at inciting deep divisions among the public. In 2018, political scientist Daniel Drezner summarized this consensus in The Washington Post: “The world hates President Trump.” Data from the Pew Research Center illustrates Drezner’s thinking. For the residents of US allies, their confidence in the US president dropped substantially from the last year of Obama’s presidency to the beginning...

A company bringing U.S. teachers to China announced Thursday that China arrested two of its members running an English language school on “bogus charges.” In a post on their Facebook page, China Horizons confirmed the company would be closing down following the arrest of owner Jacob Harlan and director Alyssa Petersen in Jiangsu province last month, citing increasing political and economic problems between the U.S. and China.

A MUST SEE! ONE OF THE MOST DISTURBING INTERVIEWS YOU'LL EVER SEE! 1 HOUR but the MEAT is from 15:45 Please share until Utube finds it and cuts it. If they do, tell me as I downloaded it. IS THE US CHINA TRADE WAR A NEW COLD WAR?

Foreign meddling, anyone? In a move that's sure to turn some Canadian voters off, resident Obama stepped in and offered his endorsement to Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. ... Barack Obama on Wednesday endorsed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s reelection bid, a high-profile boost to the Liberal leader‘s campaign less than a week before voters head to the polls. ... Seems foreign interference in other countries' elections is all right so long as Democrats do it. But never mind the Canadians, this one paints quite a picture of hypocrisy. Trudeau, recall, is yet another woke leftist who's had photos of...

A career State Department official overseeing Ukraine policy told congressional investigators this week that he had raised concerns in early 2015 about then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company but was turned away by a Biden staffer, according to three people familiar with the testimony. George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state, testified Tuesday that he worried that Hunter Biden’s position at the firm Burisma Holdings would complicate efforts by U.S. diplomats to convey to Ukrainian officials the importance of avoiding conflicts of interest, said the people, who spoke on the condition...

In Democratic circles, there have been whispers for years that Hunter Biden could become a liability for his father. Questions about the younger Biden's overseas business dealings in Ukraine and China as well as his checkered past at home -- he dated his brother's widow, used cocaine, bought crack and allegedly spent so much money in strip clubs and on prostitutes that his family couldn't pay their bills -- has made him an easy target for President Trump.

The Chinese government has banned African international students from worshiping in Christian churches under the pretext of “preventing foreign infiltration through religion,” a persecution watchdog group has revealed. A group of over 80 African students who are residing in a city in the northeastern province of Liaoning told Chinese persecution watchdog Bitter Winter that in September, the person in charge of the Three-Self church that they attended received a government order prohibiting foreigners from participating in gatherings at the church. “We just want to have a place to congregate,” one student told the outlet. A Chinese believer at the church...

Hearing this song, one might infer that I was a bit miffed at the PRC. One would be correct.

The Chinese government asked the N.B.A. to fire a team executive who posted on social media in support of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, the league’s commissioner, Adam Silver, said on Thursday in his first public appearance in the United States since returning from a contentious trip to Asia. “We said there’s no chance that’s happening,” Silver said. “There’s no chance we’ll even discipline him.” The executive, Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, set off the international firestorm with a Twitter post using a slogan used by the protesters in Hong Kong, just as the league was...

Chinese-American actress Liu Yifei has attracted support and brickbats online after voicing support for the Hong Kong police on social media this week amid the city’s anti-government protests. There were calls to boycott Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan , in which she has the title role. The hashtag #BoycottMulan was trending on Twitter on Friday, featuring in more than 21,000 posts. Liu’ s name featured in more than 16,000 posts. On Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, where she has 65.6 million followers, Liu shared a post by People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s Communist Party, with the quote “I...

Almost a year to the day after Bloomberg reported that the US government, Apple, Amazon, and others had their servers compromised by China, a security researcher has shown a similar hack can be pulled off with $190 worth of tools and a $2 chip. Citing six senior national security officials and several higher-ups within Apple and Amazon, Bloomberg claimed that the manufacturing facilities constructing Supermicro motherboards had been infiltrated by a branch of China’s People’s Liberation Army. The PLA was reportedly adding a rice grain-sized chip capable of monitoring and altering communications with the motherboard’s BMC (baseboard management controller). The...

Commissioner Adam Silver told TMZ Sports that’s he’s bothered so many people think the NBA knuckled under and apologized to China over Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting Hong Kong’s freedom. The initial statement read, “We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable.” “While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ education themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them.” Silver explained to TMZ...