Free Republic

When China's legislators gather Monday, they are expected to set the stage for President Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely, as they vote on a constitutional amendment to end presidential term limits.  

Argentina’s coast guard said it fired on a Chinese boat illegally fishing in its waters before embarking on an almost eight hour chase to capture it. Nobody was reportedly injured and no fishermen were detained. The Argentine Naval Prefecture said in a statement Friday that its officers fired shots at the Jing Yuan 626 after the vessel was caught illegally fishing in the country’s exclusive economic zone. The Chinese embassy in Argentina did not immediately provide a statement about the incident, which occurred Thursday after four other vessels also flying under a Chinese flag attempted to ram into coast guard...

The party's Central Committee proposed to remove from the constitution the expression that China's president and vice president "shall serve no more than two consecutive terms," the Xinhua News Agency said. "Xi Jinping has finally achieved his ultimate goal when he first embarked on Chinese politics — that is to be the Mao Zedong of the 21st century," said Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, referring to the founder of communist China. Xi, 64, cemented his status as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao in the 1970s at last year's twice-a-decade Communist Party...

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday promised measures to help prevent foreign investors buying agricultural land in France after a string of international controversies over Chinese purchases. “For me, French agricultural lands are strategic investments on which our sovereignty depends, so we can’t allow hundreds of hectares of land to be bought by foreign powers without us knowing the aims of these purchases,” Macron told a crowd of young farmers at the presidential palace. He was referring to news last year that a Chinese fund had bought 900 hectares of land in the cereal-growing Allier region in central France, following an...

China's J-20 stealth fighter has entered combat service, the country's armed forces confirmed on Friday, expanding the military's air power options as it presses on with a massive modernisation programme. People's Liberation Army Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke said the deployment of the J-20 to combat units would "help the air force better shoulder the sacred mission of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity". Shen said the air force was moving towards a modernised military service that could operate in all fronts, and had become an effective force to control, contain and win a war. (please see link for...

While criticizing the US Mons. Sorondo believes that the Chinese communist dictatorship is the one that best carries out the social doctrine of the Church According to Andres Beltramo at the Vatican Insider, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, assured that "at this moment, the Chinese people are the ones who best realize the social doctrine of the Church."

A Vatican source says the deal would give the Holy See input on the appointment of future bishopsAn accord between the Vatican and China’s Communist government could be signed within the next few months. Reuters reports that an unnamed “senior Vatican source” said the deal would allow the Holy See to have a say on the appointment of future Chinese bishops. “It is not great agreement,” the source said, “But we don’t know what the situation will be like in 10 or 20 years. It could even be worse.” “Afterwards we will still be like a bird in a cage...

President Donald Trump threatened Friday to cut off aid and slap sanctions on countries that refuse to accept nationals the U.S. tries to deport. Trump said during a briefing with Department of Homeland Security officials at the Customs and Border Protection National Targeting Center in Virginia that he knows how to change the trend. “If they don’t take ’em back, we’ll put sanctions on the countries, we’ll put tariffs on the countries,” Trump said. He added: “They’ll take ’em back so fast your head would spin.” He’s also threatened to cut off aid to the countries, which include China and...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday warned countries in the Western Hemisphere to beware of Chinese investment, saying it is reminiscent of European colonialism. He also derided Russia for selling weaponry to unfriendly, authoritarian governments in the region. Before embarking Thursday on a five-nation trip to Latin America, Tillerson said China seeks only to enrich itself with investment and development projects. He said regional governments should protect themselves against "predatory actors that are now showing up in our hemisphere," specifically mentioning China. He said Chinese investment may look good but comes with a heavy price. (please...

The reason for even considering nationalization of part of the system is that China "has achieved a dominant position in the manufacture and operation of network infrastructure" and it's "the dominant malicious actor in the Information Domain," the document said, according to Axios. Reuters reported that a senior administration official on Sunday said that the government wants to build a secure 5G network and it'll have to work with the industry to figure out the best way to do it. "We want to build a network so the Chinese can't listen to your calls," the official told Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron has offered a very special gift to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, during his trip to China — a horse from France’s famed Garde Républicaine. The nine-year-old gelding bred in Normandy, named Vesuve de Brekka, is trained and ready for use. […] The tweet says the horse is “a symbol of our friendship.” Macron hopes for big things in return. On Tuesday, the second day of his visit, Macron said the two nations should “settle on an economic and geopolitical plan for the affairs of our world.” …

The mission will consist of a relay orbiter being launched aboard a Long March 5 rocket in June of 2018. This relay will assume orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange Point, followed by the launch of the lander and rover about six months later. In addition to an advanced suite of instruments for studying the lunar surface, the lander will also be carrying an aluminum alloy container filled with seeds and insects. “The container will send potatoes, arabidopsis seeds and silkworm eggs to the surface of the Moon. The eggs will hatch into silkworms, which can produce carbon dioxide, while the potatoes and...

BEIJING — China said on Thursday that it would temporarily exempt foreign companies from paying tax on their earnings, a bid to keep American businesses from taking their profits out of China following Washington’s overhaul of the United States tax code. There is, however, a catch: To be eligible, foreign companies must invest those earnings in sectors encouraged by China’s government — including railways, mining, technology and agriculture — according to a statement from the Finance Ministry. The measure is retroactive from Jan. 1 this year, the ministry said. The move would “promote the growth of foreign investment, improve the...

President Trump said Thursday that China has been “caught red handed” selling oil to North Korea, despite U.N. sanctions and the president’s efforts to pressure the Chinese to stop doing business with Pyongyang. “Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea,” Mr. Trumptweeted. “There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!” China said Thursday there had been no U.N. sanction-breaking oil sales by Chinese ships to North Korea, after a South Korea newspaper said Chinese and North Korean vessels had been illicitly linking...

South America’s new transcontinental railway is considered to be one the biggest infrastructure projects of the century and is also known as the “Panama Canal on railway tracks.” A 3,755-kilometer land connection is set to be built between the continent’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Bolivia is a landlocked country, so the Andean nation is especially keen on getting the ball rolling soon. Bolivian President Evo Morales met Swiss President Doris Leuthard to sign a memorandum of understanding on the construction of the transcontinental railway. Morales met with representatives of German and Swiss railway firms, and Germany’s State Secretary of Transport,...

URUMQI, China—This city on China’s Central Asia frontier may be one of the most closely surveilled places on earth. Security checkpoints with identification scanners guard the train station and roads in and out of town. Facial scanners track comings and goings at hotels, shopping malls and banks. Police use hand-held devices to search smartphones for encrypted chat apps, politically charged videos and other suspect content. To fill up with gas, drivers must first swipe their ID cards and stare into a camera. China’s efforts to snuff out a violent separatist movement by some members of the predominantly Muslim Uighur ethnic...

From DNA samples to iris scans, Chinese authorities are using free physical exams to gather and store biological data from millions of people who live in the country's far west region of Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday, citing an official document that suggests the government's surveillance program in the region is even wider than previously believed. Xinjiang, the historical home of the Uighur ethnic group, has become a testing ground for heavy-handed, high-tech surveillance measures by the government over the past year. China says the measures are necessary to combat extremist violence, but critics say they violate the...

After the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) had warned that China was trying to recruit German informants for intelligence services via social media networks, Beijing denied these accusations on Monday. They are “baseless accusations” for which there is no evidence, said Lu Kang, a Chinese state department spokesman, adding that the relevant organizations and the German government should act “more responsibly.” The BfV had previously warned that Chinese intelligence were trying to infiltrate parliaments, ministries and authorities with informants, particularly via the professional social media network LinkedIn. […] The BfV added that the aim of Chinese...

The general behind Zimbabwe’s coup may have sought Chinese approval days before the army launched its takeover of Robert Mugabe’s government, it emerged on Wednesday. Mr. Mugabe remained under house arrest, still president of Zimbabwe if in name alone, a prisoner of once slavishly loyal generals who now hold the country’s fate in their hands. As the former British colony faced a deeply uncertain future under military tutelage, a trip to Beijing by General Constantine Chiwenga, the head of the armed forces, last week has reignited concerns about rising Chinese influence in Africa. The general held high-level meetings with officials...

Needy Christians are forced to replace religious images with pictures of the president to get aid. “They think God is their saviour,” an official said. “After our cadres’ work, they’ll realise their mistakes and think: we should no longer rely on Jesus, but on the party for help”. According to some sources, the number of Christians exceeds that of party members.Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) – Yugan County, a poor rural area in the southern province of Jiangxi Province, has undertaken a campaign to replace religious faith with faith in the party. To achieve this, the local government is asking people to replace...