Free Republic

China’s leader Xi Jinping will meet President Biden Nov. 15 in San Francisco with four high cards in his hand. Policy advisers close to Xi express an unprecedented kind of confidence in China’s strategic position. First, the collapse of Ukraine’s offensive against Russian forces and its commander’s admission that the war is a “stalemate” is a setback for America’s strategic position and a gain for China, which has doubled its exports to Russia since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Second, the US tech war on China has flopped, as Chinese AI firms buy fast Huawei processers in place of...

A prominent pseudonymous blogger has shut down his site after a New York Times reporter refused to conceal his identity in a forthcoming piece, putting his livelihood and life in danger. Psychiatrist Scott Alexander (his first and middle, but not last, name) has worked for years to cultivate a small but thriving intellectual community through his blog Slate Star Codex. That came to a halt Monday evening, however, when Alexander deleted the blog, replacing it with a post entitled "NYT Is Threatening My Safety By Revealing My Real Name, So I Am Deleting The Blog." The deletion was the culmination...

China’s state-run media quickly seized on the obsessions of their American counterparts over the weekend by linking President Donald Trump to “white nationalism” and blaming gun violence on the large supply of firearms and loose gun laws in the United States. The Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times worked the “white supremacist” angle on Sunday, citing the manifesto left by El Paso, Texas, alleged mass murderer Patrick Crusius: A hate crime is motivated by prejudice, and the victim is targeted because of their social group or race. Many US states have their hate crime laws. However, the number of hate crimes...

SNIPPET: “Western economies, with the United States at the forefront, would likely be targeted by terrorists, according to a research by an Israeli expert on terrorism. Professor Gabriel Weimann of the University of Haifa noted that since the attacks on Washington and New York on Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist organizations have realized that enormous damage can be done to the economy and have been increasingly aiming at economically and financially heavyweight targets.” SNIPPET: “Several of the world’s leading experts on terrorism and the Internet gave varying responses to Weimann’s research during interviews with Xinhua. “I believe it is an accurate...

Editor's note: While revelations about the mysterious life of the Democratic fund raiser Norman Hsu have sent shockwaves through the mainstream political world, the Chinese media are wondering who is Norman Hsu and where did his money come from. NEW YORK — Revelations about the mysterious life of the Democratic fund raiser Norman Hsu have not only sent shockwaves through the mainstream political world, the Chinese are also left to worry about a possible fallout. Still somewhat new to the American political game and trying to figure out how to participate in the democratic process, Chinese here fear that Hsu...

China tightened its control over the distribution of news by foreign agencies Sunday, further restricting international access to the already tightly regulated Chinese media market. The new measures took effect immediately upon being issued by the state Xinhua News Agency. The regulations give Xinhua broad authority over foreign news agencies, requiring them to distribute stories, photos and other services solely through Xinhua or entities authorized by Xinhua. The rules would affect The Associated Press, Reuters and other foreign news agencies seeking wider access to the rapidly expanding Chinese market. It was unclear how other news organizations would be affected. Under...