Free Republic

Taipei is very closely watching Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong—and so far it doesn’t like what it sees. The events of the past three weeks in Hong Kong have underlined two major points. First, Beijing’s policy has not changed. Second, China’s attempt to reintegrate Taiwan with the mainland has been postponed indefinitely—perhaps forever. Beijing’s preeminent leader, Xi Jinping, has refused to allow Hong Kongers to participate in the nomination process that is the first step in the selection of the next leader of the province. This does not surprise anyone in Taipei. Even though Beijing formally accepts the one country-two...

The U.S. and China pledged Saturday to overcome mistrust, manage their differences and cooperate on key issues like combating terrorism and the spread of the Ebola virus as President Barack Obama prepares to travel to the Chinese capital next month. Meeting in Boston, Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi said the relationship between the two countries is mature enough to discuss disagreements while building on areas of shared interest. …

At an event on Thursday at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, used a Chinese Communist Party official’s statistic to point out how many babies have been aborted in the 34 years since the one-child per couple policy was put in place. “Forced abortion is not a choice,” Littlejohn said. “The Chinese Communist Party has become the enemy of the people, and has boasted that it has prevented 400 million lives through the one child policy.” “That is a greater number than the entire population of the United States and...

Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday that despite his and other congressmens’ efforts to hold Communist China accountable for its one-child, forced abortion policy, President Barack Obama and his administration are not only ignoring the policy but are advancing the “brutal program.” “I respectfully submit that not only is the Obama administration turning a blind eye to the atrocities being committed under the one-child policy, but it is even contributing financial support—contrary to U.S. law—to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),” Smith said in a keynote address at the event. …

A U.S. report released Thursday says China’s human rights record has worsened in key areas over the past year and that limits on free speech and assembly are growing. The annual report by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said the country has tightened restrictions on civil society, rights advocates, journalists and religious organizations. It added that President Xi Jinping has adhered “to the authoritarian model of his predecessors” since taking power last year. That model “poses a serious challenge to U.S.-China relations and China’s own development,” the report said. It recommended that the U.S. press for more freedoms in China,...

The Chinese economy just surpassed the U.S. economy to become the world’s largest in terms of purchasing power, according to the International Monetary Fund.The IMF measures economic strength by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in both market exchange rates and average purchasing power, the latter being where China has overtaken the U.S. with a GDP of $17.6 trillion by the end of 2014 — 16.4 percent of the world’s purchasing power. The U.S. will close out the year with a purchasing-power adjusted GDP of $17.4 trillion, or 16.2 percent of the world’s total.Financial Times predicted the change in April and illustrated...

Americans are caught up with the Ebola crisis and the Secret Service lapses in protecting the White House and the president’s family. But what is transpiring in Hong Kong may be of far greater consequence. Last weekend, Hong Kong authorities used pepper spray and tear gas to scatter the remnants of a student protest of the decision to give Beijing veto power over candidates in future elections. The gassing was a blunder. Citizens poured into the streets in solidarity with the protesters. Hong Kong police lacked the nerve or numbers to remove them. The People’s Liberation Army stayed in its...

A growing Chinese military space program could put America’s orbiting assets at risk, especially now that China has demonstrated the ability to knock out satellites, says a professor of international affairs. China's anti-satellite weaponry is a concern because the United States is “much more reliant on satellite technology than any other nation,” for everything from telecommunications to guided missiles, Mariel Borowitz of Georgia Tech told “MidPoint” host Ed Berliner on Newsmax TV Tuesday. …

A Chinese noodle shop owner has admitted to lacing his wares with opium poppy seeds in an apparent effort to keep customers coming back, it’s reported. The use of the unusual ingredient—used to make opium—at the restaurant in Yan’an, in Shaanxi province, came to light after one of its clients tested positive in a routine urine test by traffic police, despite insisting he’d never touched drugs, the Xi’an Evening News reports. Suspecting the noodle shop he’d eaten at a few hours before the test might be to blame, the customer, Liu Juyou, persuaded relatives to frequent the shop as well...

Russia is already more isolated than at any time since the Cold War" - President Obama, August 2014 "China will never support or join recently imposed sanctions against Russia" - China President Xi Jinping, September 2014

Dozens of Chinese firms are producing and exporting “tools of torture”, from electric stun guns to metal spiked batons, to countries with bad human rights records, rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday. More than 130 companies are involved in producing or trading the equipment, typically marketed to law enforcement agencies, up from about 28 companies a decade ago, Amnesty said. […] One company, China Xining Import/Export Corporation, which advertises thumb cuffs, restraint chairs and electric stun guns, said in 2012 it had ties to more than 40 African countries, according to Amnesty. The firm could not be reached for...

President Xi Jinping should find the “handshake across the Himalayas” a lot warmer than usual when he starts his India trip today. As India prepares to overcome the reflexive suspicion of its giant neighbor and open the floodgates to Chinese capital, and Xi responds by opening the checkbook, relations between the two Asian giants are set for, as India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval puts it, an “orbital jump”. […] China, which (Modi) sees as his economic role model and has visited four times, in particular rolled out the red carpet. […] “There are two factors pushing India towards China....

In 1986, Deng Xiaoping launched the “863 program”, aimed to gain control of the rare earths market … saying: “The Arab countries have oil; China has rare earths.” […] The Ukraine crisis—and China’s rare earths industrial consolidation and reform—has given Russia an unprecedented incentive to develop a rare earths mining industry, which, in addition to its hydrocarbons, would give it further huge bargaining power on the world economy. It does not have the know-how, technology or refining plants yet, but China can offer these. …

The last king of Nepal is in stable condition in a hospital after suffering a heart attack, doctors said Sunday. Gyanendra Shah was brought to the hospital Saturday night, and was recovering in the intensive care unit and was out of danger, said Dr. Bharat Rawat at the Norvic Hospital in Katmandu. […] Gyanendra was the last king to rule Nepal before the Constituent Assembly abolished the centuries-old monarchy and turned the country into a republic. …

Ottawa confirms it has ratified a foreign investment treaty with China, more than two years after the controversial agreement was signed, as CBC News first reported Friday. The controversial Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) will come into force on Oct. 1, said International Trade Minister Ed Fast in a news release Friday afternoon. […] China ratified the deal quickly, but the Harper government did not. The deal has also faced opposition from the NDP, as well as a First Nations group who challenged the agreement in court. The NDP issued a statement saying “the agreement will give...

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has signalled a rare attempt to mend fences with China when he appointed two MPs considered friendly towards Beijing to two senior posts in his governing Liberal Democratic party (LDP). […] In his first cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, Abe also increased the number of female ministers to five—equaling a record set by his LDP predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, in 2001—as part of his program to increase the number of women in the workforce, a key part of his long-term growth strategy. His decision to appoint Sadakazu Tanigaki as LDP’s secretary general, and veteran MP Toshihiro Nikai...

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi starts a five-day visit to Japan on Saturday, looking to deepen defense and commercial ties between the two Asian countries as they grapple with an increasingly assertive China. Mr. Modi is to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other officials for what are expected to be wide-ranging discussions about regional security as well as a possible deal on civil nuclear cooperation. […] “It is a watershed meeting,” said Brahma Chellaney, a strategic affairs analyst at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. “It is crucial to preventing the rise of a Sino-centric Asia.”...

China is wooing filmmakers at the same time as it’s cracking down on them. Authorities are handing more slots to documentaries, giving even independent filmmakers a chance to be shown on state television. But while China is avidly pursuing what it considers serious content to replace popular dating, reality and game shows, it is also stifling material with any whiff of challenging the Communist Party line. A weekend crackdown by authorities on an independent film festival in Beijing was the worst in its eight-year history, with police confiscating hundreds of films and briefly detaining two organizers. China’s broadcasting authority has...

Outside a mosque in China’s restive west, a government-appointed Muslim cleric was dodging a foreign reporter’s question about why young men of the Uighur ethnic minority don’t have beards when one such youth interrupted. “Why don’t you just tell them the truth?” he shouted to the cleric…. “It’s because the government doesn’t allow beards.” A plainclothes Uighur policeman swiftly rebuked the young man. “Be careful what you say,” he warned. […] … Such a mood pervades Xinjiang’s south, a vast, mainly rural region that’s become a key battleground in the ruling Communist Party’s struggle to contain escalating ethnic violence that...

China recently conducted the second flight test of a new, ultra-high-speed missile that is part of what analysts say is Beijing’s global system of attack weapons capable of striking the United States with nuclear warheads. (please see article for full text)