Free Republic

U.S. defense leaders have allowed China’s military might to grow unchecked while they prattle on about critical race theory and climate change. That increases the risk of war over Taiwan.The Chinese Communist Party is open about its imperial ambitions. Chinese leader Xi Jinping calls explicitly for “the transformation of the global governance system”—which means China in charge of the Asian Pacific and, ultimately, the world. America must act now to stop it. Our economic prosperity, no less than our national security, depends on it. A China that bestrides the Pacific would make today’s supply chain woes look pleasant. A China...

Alongside Poland, Hungary has formed a semi-alliance of conservative central European powers, and has been an example of sorts for Western conservatives. They all should do more.Entrenched leftists within the U.S. State Department are supporting the effort to demote Viktor Orban from prime minister of Hungary, if a report in Financial Times is correct. The Biden administration also left Hungary off its invitation list for a forthcoming international virtual Democracy Summit on Dec. 9 and 10 to which some 100 countries were invited.“Trump and his enablers and those who invaded and attacked our Capitol, they don’t like the world we’re...

Upon leaving my Cuban American community, I encountered individuals with no functional understanding of Cuba and the many millions debilitated by the regime.As a first-generation Cuban American from Miami, Florida, my upbringing, daily discourse, and education have been overwhelmingly influenced by the Cuban struggle. To me, it’s always seemed straightforward: Cuba’s communist system has inflicted human and civil rights violations, family separations, and sexual, religious, and ideological persecution of minorities since 1959. Yet upon leaving my Cuban American community, I encountered individuals with no functional understanding of Cuba and the dire context that defined the lives of myself and the...

Under no scenario would a unified European Union aligned with China be in the interest of America. Indeed, a united EU might not be a friend but a foe.Joseph Borrell, a former Spanish socialist and current High Representative of the European Union, recently argued the EU needs to be strategically independent. “It is foreseen that in 20 years, we [the EU] will not represent more than 11 percent of world GNP, far behind China, which will represent double it, below 14 percent for the United States and at par with India,” Borrell wrote, adding the next two decades would be...

America and the United Kingdom would be wise to let Egypt, France, and Greece take the lead in balancing a dangerous and resurgent Turkey. With Americans focused on the anarchy in Democrat-led cities, a cryptic tweet from French President Emmanuel Macron on July 20 went out relatively unnoticed. Macron tweeted he had a great discussion with “his friend” Donald Trump about Libya.Within hours, the Egyptian parliament declared they had voted unanimous support for Egyptian President Al-Sisi to send in Egyptian troops and armor in support of battered Eastern Libyan forces on their back foot due to Turkish intervention. Anyone keeping...

It's always ominous when a diplomatic mission destroys documents. Whatever the reason behind China's frantic purge at its Houston consulate, it isn't good. A dramatic scene unveiled Tuesday night when it was reported that personnel at the Consulate General of China in Houston were burning documents in its courtyard. Nearby residents reported seeing and smelling smoke in the air. Houston police and firemen rushed to the building but weren’t allowed to go inside.It is always an ominous sign when a diplomatic mission starts destroying documents. This scene is reminiscent of a similar event that took place on December 7, 1941,...

In an announcement on July 13, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo proclaimed, “Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them.”Pompeo remarked this policy shift, from the initial stance of neutrality to directly calling out Beijing’s intrusive behaviors, was necessary to uphold international law.The specific law in question stems from a 2016 UN tribunal ruling preventing China from bullying its neighbors and treating the South China Sea as its maritime empire. Beijing claims it owns the majority of the South China Sea, a...

I sat down with Florida Sen. Rick Scott for a wide-ranging discussion on the Chinese Communist PartyÂ’s ambitions, partisanship on China, and a host of other topics. One of the leading China hawks in the U.S. Senate is Republican Rick Scott of Florida. For a book I am writing on U.S.-China policy, I sat down with Scott for a wide-ranging discussion on the issue.We talked about the Chinese Communist PartyÂ’s (CCP) ambitions, partisanship on China and its effects on policy, the competition between our two nations for technological dominance, Wall StreetÂ’s cozy relationship with the CCP, and a host of...

While it may be too costly for Beijing to attack the United States directly, Beijing is getting its message out at relatively minimal cost through attacking U.S. allies like Australia. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave his strongest response to Communist China this week after enduring months of bullying from Beijing. He let Beijing know loud and clear that Australia is “an open trading nation, but I’m never going to trade our values in response to coercion.”It all began back in April, when Australia led a draft resolution, which demanded the World Health Organization (WHO) conduct an “impartial, independent and...

If the United States doesn’t follow through to revoke Hong Kong’s special treatment, Beijing may be emboldened to take aggressive actions against Taiwan. May 22, 2020 will go down in history as an important milestone. On this day, Beijing announced it will impose a new national security law on Hong Kong, which will effectively end the “One Country, Two Systems” era.Beijing made the move at this week’s “Two Sessions,” annual legislative meetings of two organizations: the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). In the past, more than 5,000 delegates, representing the elites in China,...

A recent Foreign Affairs essay predictably gives the public a false binary choice, blames the current administration, and defends the foreign policy establishment. Who do you think is responsible for the current coronavirus foreign influences fiasco? If you ask the Washington foreign policy establishment, the answer is evident. It is President Trump’s disdain for “the foreign policy establishment” that has led to this current crisis.This is their same answer for every problem humanity has faced since 2016. If only we listened to the establishment! If only they learned their lesson in 2016. Apparently not, if you go by the Foreign...

World Health Organization The Wuhan virus has shown that even during pandemics, the WHO will put politics ahead of public health. During a recent interview with Hong Kong news outlet RTHK, Bruce Aylward, a physician and senior adviser to the World Health OrganizationÂ’s director general, refused to answer a question about TaiwanÂ’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. A clip of the exchange has been viewed thousands of times on Twitter, and there are growing calls for Aylward to explain himself.DonÂ’t expect him to. AylwardÂ’s behavior is just the latest in a long line of instances of the WHO putting politics...

~Ever since Donald Trump became president, he has become a dynamic and powerful global leader. Thus, his presence (or absence) on the world stage has the potential to really disrupt global geopolitics. In this sense, I will largely use his absence as the bellwether for near-future scenarios. United States Economics ~First off, as the US continues to dig itself deeper into national debt (presently $22T), look for political leaders and “experts” to call for an alternative to the US Dollar. Technological advancements are now to the point that a loud and growing chorus will be singing the tune for a...

The length, scope, and operational duration of the attack suggests it is a targeted towards regime stability and an internal audience. Whether it leads to further escalation is a political call. Last night, around the time Iranian missiles were dropping on U.S. bases, a friend from the Pentagon texted me saying, “Oh, well, it appears they will do something dumb, and we may go to war.” Any crisis leads to paranoia, hysteria, and essentially all other basest instincts in a human being. What differentiates a realist or a strategist from an ideologue or a cultist is how one thinks in...

With all these scandals, you would think that the UN would finally vote to end this beleaguered agency. Yet it is as determined as ever to keep fleecing taxpayers around the world. The United Nations (UN) has a long, sorry track record of corruption and mismanagement. The latest in its long string of scandals comes from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which is facing its worst financial crisis since its founding in 1949.The UNRWA has always worked exclusively with Palestinian refugees. It operates alongside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which handles...

One of the most baffling reactions among liberals since 2016 was to compare Boris Johnson to Donald Trump. I reside in England, and saw tweet after tweet from the Max Boots and Tom Nichols of the world on why these two, and Brexit and the election of Trump, are exactly the same. The reality, as always, is a lot more complicated. There is of course similarity in both events. Both were a rebel yell against orthodoxy in the respective countries. In the United States, it was by masses of people who oppose the elites’ conventional wisdom, from mass immigration from...

Teleios conducted a survey regarding faith and politics on two Instagram accounts frequented by Christian adolescents and millennials. Of the 336 responses the majority were: female (62%), <34 years old (79%), from the United States (80%) and evangelical (76%). The majority of respondents (70%) indicated their faith was 'somewhat' to 'very outreach oriented' with only 19% saying it was private. Almost 80% 'somewhat agreed' to 'strongly agreed' that their country was founded on Christian morality and ethics. Further, over 92% noted it was important to maintain Christian morals and ethics in society. Regarding the current American president, Donald Trump, 63%...

At the second annual Hanway Lecture in Global Studies at Loyola University Maryland Oct. 22, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell suggested that, despite his prestige, he is now just an ordinary person. “I’m just (another) guy on the street now,” Powell said, after noting tongue in cheek that he no longer has his own airplane, which he “misses very badly.” Powell also no longer has bodyguards – which he says were conspicuous even when he simply wanted to walk down a New York City block to buy a hotdog. The former four-star general spoke candidly before several thousand...

Remember when Thunder Levin, the writer of Sharknado, said that when he was approached to write the film he misheard and thought they were pitching a movie called SharkNATO? About a daring international treaty organization battling a shark army? NOW IT IS A THING.

6 Provocative Predictions for 2013… and Beyond By Addison Wiggin 01/10/13 Someday, someone will fund an academic study identifying the crevice in the human brain that craves year-end predictions for the coming 12 months. Wherever it resides, it is undeniably strong and far more prevalent among the populace than the craving for news about, say, the “fiscal cliff” or the New York Jets’ quarterback saga. Within the finance sector, such predictions abound. “Macro surprises” from Morgan Stanley, “13 outliers for ’13” from Deutsche Bank, and the ever popular “outrageous predictions” from Denmark’s Saxo Bank. And you know what? These institutions...