Free Republic

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, American political scientist Francis Fukuyama famously proclaimed the “end of history”, seeing the triumph of the United States as the only remaining superpower and the leader of Western democracies. “The end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy (is) the final form of human government,” he wrote in his best-selling 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man.Twenty-five years later, Fukuyama’s certainties have all but vanished. Liberal democracy in Europe and the United States is in crisis, while China and Russia demonstrate that authoritarian regimes are...

Another day, another shot across the bow from Donald Trump aimed squarely at China. Having already participated (and in the case of one, precipitated) two mini diplomatic snafus with Beijing in just the past two weeks, Trump is sending a clear message to Beijing that US-China trade under his administration will be anything but business as usual, by creating a National Trade Council inside the White House to oversee industrial policy and has decided to appoint a hard core China hawk to run it. According to the FT, which broke the news, Trump has chosen Peter Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist...

Taiwan says the African island nation of São Tomé and Principe has broken their diplomatic ties. Just 21 countries and governments now have diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Most of the world and the United Nations do not formally recognize Taiwan as a condition of maintaining relations with Beijing, which considers Taiwan a part of its territory. …

BEIJING — Only a day before a small Chinese boat sidled up to a United States Navy research vessel in waters off the Philippines and audaciously seized an underwater drone from American sailors, the commander of United States military operations in the region told an audience in Australia that America had a winning military formula. “Capability times resolve times signaling equals deterrence,” Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. told a blue-chip crowd of diplomats and analysts at the prestigious Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, the leading city in America’s closest ally in the region. In the eyes of America’s friends in...

China said Monday that it had “serious concern” about President-elect Donald Trump’s most recent comments about Taiwan, and warned that any changes to how America deals with the self-governing island could damage diplomatic ties between Washington and Beijing. China’s comments came a day after Trump said in a television interview that he didn’t feel “bound by a one-China policy.” Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said that established policy is the “political foundation” of any diplomatic relationship between China and the U.S., and that any damage to it could render cooperation “out of the question.” …

China remains opposed to unilateral sanctions against North Korea taken without the approval of the U.N. Security Council, the country’s chief negotiator on the North’s nuclear program was quoted Saturday as saying. Wu Dawei also told his South Korean counterpart in talks Friday that China is “adamantly opposed” to the South’s deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system that China says poses a threat to its own security, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement. […] China demands that South Korea “give weight to China’s concerns” about the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile system, which is intended...

Officials: China flew nuclear-capable bombers around Taiwan Less than a week before President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Taiwan’s president over the phone, China flew a pair of long-range nuclear-capable bombers around Taiwan for the first time, two U.S. officials revealed to Fox News.

President-elect Donald Trump is using Twitter to renew his defense of his engagement with the leader of Taiwan, a breach of diplomatic protocol as the U.S. shifted recognition from Taiwan to China nearly 40 years ago. In a series of Sunday evening tweets, Trump groused about criticism that he didn’t work with China ahead of the contact. China considers Taiwan a rogue province. “Did China ask us if it was OK to carry out a number of actions such as build up disputed islands in the South China Sea or take economic measures hurtful to the United States,” Trump tweeted....

The foreign ministers of China and Iran on Monday urged governments not to violate the deal that limits Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, in remarks apparently directed at President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said during a visit to Beijing that the seven nations who agreed to the deal in July 2015 “have the obligation to fully implement” it. “Iran will not allow any country to take unilateral action to violate the agreement and Iran has the right to take action against that,” Zarif said at a news conference after...

Citing a national security risk, President Barack Obama on Friday blocked a Chinese investor’s proposed takeover of Aixtron SE, a German maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, a rare move that drew objections from Beijing and complaints that the U.S. was injecting politics into the deal. Obama ordered Fujan Grand Chip to “fully and permanently abandon” its proposed acquisition of Aixtron SE’s California-based subsidiary, Aixtron, Inc. The decision upheld a recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which reviews foreign purchases of U.S. companies. The decision threatens to jeopardize the larger deal, which is under scrutiny [by] Berlin...

Microsoft’s MSFT 0.13% Chinese-language AI chat bot filters certain topics, the company confirmed Monday, although it did not clarify whether that included interactions deemed politically sensitive. Last week, CNNMoney and China Digital Times reported that Xiaoice would not directly respond to questions surrounding topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese state. References to the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 or “Steamed Bun Xi,” a nickname of Chinese President Xi Jinping, would draw evasive answers or non sequiturs from the chat bot, according to the report. “Am I stupid? Once I answer you’d take a screengrab,” read one answer to a question...

A Beijing trade official said Tuesday that Chinese companies have “very big” enthusiasm about investing in railways and airports and other major infrastructure projects in the Philippines, and his government will encourage them to build an industrial park. Wu Zhengping of China’s Ministry of Commerce said the two countries have agreed to hold a meeting of a joint trade and economic commission early next year and sign a six-year plan to boost trade and investment. …

This will be first major achievement for both the countries under the CPEC, as China is already working to make Gwadar a state-of-the-art port. Under the 'One Belt, One Road' policy, this port will increase the volume of trade between Pakistan and China, while the neighbouring countries will also benefit from it. Sources said that Russia and Iran have already showed their interest in joining the CPEC,

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Tuesday with Taiwan’s opposition leader, underscoring Beijing’s message to the island’s independence-leaning administration that it won't have access to the mainland’s highest levels of power if it doesn’t accept that Taiwan is part of China. Xi’s meeting with Nationalist Party Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing comes months after China cut off communication and exchanges with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration. Diplomatically, China has also sought to isolate the island even more by having its representatives barred from international gatherings. […] Xi said that China “resolutely...

China is the least generous country in the world, according to a worldwide survey on generosity by the Charities Aid Foundation. The 2016 CAF World Giving Index is based on a poll of 1,000 respondents from 140 countries and regions, asking them if in the last month they helped a stranger, donated money to charity or volunteered their time. China ranked 140th place in the poll, behind Palestine, Yemen, Greece and the Democratic Republic of Congo, lifestyle website Shanghaiist reports. […] Myanmar tops the index for the third year running with a score of 70 percent, followed by the United...

China’s Communist Party on Thursday elevated President Xí Jìnpíng to the position of “core” of the leadership, underscoring the clout he has amassed on the back of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign and crackdown on dissent. […] While mainly symbolic, the move to bestow Xí with “core” status reflects his assertion of himself as one of the country’s most powerful leaders in decades. It was an accolade bestowed on past leaders including famed reformist Dèng Xiǎopíng and ex-President Jiāng Zémín, but which Xí’s immediate predecessor never attained. …

Chinese officials unveiled plans for Monday’s launch of the country’s latest space mission in which two astronauts will be blasted into space and will dock with an orbiting space lab. The Shenzhou 11 spacecraft will be launched at 7:30 a.m., said Wu Ping, deputy director of China’s manned space engineering office, in a televised news conference. The Shenzhou mission will take off aboard a Long March-2F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northern China. …

The Treasury Department and Justice Department took actions Monday against four Chinese individuals and one Chinese company for conspiring to aid North Korea’s nuclear weapons program in violation of U.S. economic sanctions. The unsealing of criminal charges and the imposition of new sanctions are aimed at shutting down a major Chinese node supporting North Korea’s weapons proliferation, officials said. The Justice Department charged the individuals and the trading company with conspiring to launder money and with evading sanctions. The four individuals and the company are all located in China. …

Recent remarks by the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, have fueled speculation about a possible exchange of diplomatic representation between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China. Unfortunately, the cardinal’s remarks did not address any of the serious questions that have been raised about the evangelical and prudential wisdom of such an agreement at this moment in history. Those questions involve the nature of the PRC regime; the doctrine and canon law of the Church; the impact of such an agreement on Vatican diplomacy in promoting human rights; and the Church’s twenty-first-century mission in China. 1....

Treat us as your brothers and not enemies. President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday personally pleaded to the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines to allow Filipino fishermen to fish over the disputed West Philippine Sea. “I hope the Chinese may find a place in their hearts for the Filipinos. I hope you treat us [as] your brothers and not enemies and take note of our plight,” Duterte said in front of Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua during his speech at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. …