Free Republic

Go figure that high-minded public engagement like this from China’s media orgs hasn’t won hearts and minds around the world. Senator Josh Hawley promoted a bill that would strip sovereign immunity from China to allow for COVID-19 lawsuits, a proposal that would face numerous obstacles anyway. Instead of shrugging it off, China Daily editor Chen Weihua decided to pick a fight, much to Hawley’s delight.The end result made Chen look less like a journalist and more like a paid troll: Because you are a joke— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) April 14, 2020 The nearly desperate effort to shift focus away...

Unless Beijing addresses internal issues immediately and decisively, it will destroy any hope of restoring its credibility and economy. The worldwide spread of the coronavirus, which originated from communist China, has brought serious detriment to Beijing’s credibility and image as a global leader. Through a series of public relations campaigns, Beijing had hoped not only to repair its credibility, but also to come out of this pandemic even stronger by casting itself as the only reliable global leader. However, Beijing’s absurd blame game and a number of faulty exported products may destroy this hope.As more than 1 billion people worldwide...

One of China's top coronavirus experts has warned that the nation is facing a second outbreak due to the increasing number of infections detected among new arrivals from abroad. Professor Li Lanjuan, a member of Beijing's expert team on the virus, said she was 'very worried that imported cases could trigger another large-scale epidemic in our country'. Her comment came after health officials reported the country's first case of someone who is believed to have contracted the disease, known as COVID-19, from another person returning from abroad. It also came as life in former epicentre Wuhan is slowly returning to...

Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned. The American disease expert, a medical epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency, left her post in July, according to four sources with knowledge of the issue. The first cases of the new coronavirus may have emerged as early as November, and as cases exploded, the Trump administration in February chastised China for censoring information about the outbreak and keeping U.S. experts from entering the country to help. “It was...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 721 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (section 721), 50 U.S.C. 4565, it is hereby ordered as follows:Section 1.  Findings.  (a)  There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that (1) Beijing Shiji Information Technology Co., Ltd., a public company organized under the laws of China, and (2) its wholly owned direct subsidiary Shiji (Hong Kong) Ltd., a Hong Kong limited company (together, the “Purchaser”), through acquiring an interest in StayNTouch, Inc. (“StayNTouch”), a Delaware corporation, might take action...

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As the Wuhan virus continues to spread across China unabated, Beijing authorities on Sunday evening (Feb. 9) announced that the city is being locked down. As the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) continues to rage across China, 80 cities have been locked down under "closed-off management" (封閉式管理) measures. On Sunday, Beijing authorities announced an "Epidemic prevention and control notice of strict closed community management" and declared that the city is going under lockdown (封城), reported the Beijing Daily.

The United Nations’ World Health Organization on Jan. 9 announced an outbreak of a new—or novel—coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Wuhan, China. In the three weeks since the announcement, the virus has intensified in China, infecting thousands there and is now spreading across the globe, far beyond its origin in Hubei province. Indeed, this new coronavirus has taken nearly 200 lives in China. As Chinese public health officials strive to contain the virus, it’s important to identify three early lessons that can be drawn from the outbreak and the initial response to it to prevent this Chinese epidemic—and others that will undoubtedly...

America’s adversaries know there is “no worse enemy” than the United States under President Donald Trump’s leadership, assessed Sebastian Gorka, host of the America First radio show and former deputy assistant to the president, offering his remarks in an interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday with host Matt Boyle. Gorka reflected on his work with Trump’s presidential transition team. “One of the first things we did on the official presidential transition team working for General Flynn, that great American patriot, and after the election, we were authorized — as transition teams are — to reach out to heads of state...

CNN live feed of Democratic presidential debate goes to black in Beijing. Candidates were asked about China’s human rights record & the mass detention of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

China is making swift progress on its 200 billion yuan (US$29.08 billion) fund aimed at investing in home-grown semiconductor development, as the world’s second-largest economy looks to reduce dependence on foreign chips amid a tech war with the US. New investment is likely to lean towards applications in the downstream supply chain, such as chip design, advanced materials and equipment areas, according to the report. The fundraising progress comes amid an escalating tech war with the US, which has seen China tone down statements on its wider “Made in China 2025” policy ambitions, after President Xi Jinping first called for...

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called for Germany to cease its practice of training Chinese soldiers. The organization’s arms and human rights expert Mathias John made the plea in a conversation with German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, published Sunday. “In light of the human rights situation in China and the general role of the military there, there is no justifiable reason for Germany to help train the Chinese military,” said John. Referring to the current situation in Hong Kong, he added that “the German government should send a clear sign and immediately cease any military cooperation.” […] Bild said...

... According to an account of the Banqiao Dam by a Chinese journalist writing under the pseudonym Yi Si, on Aug. 8, as workers stared curiously at the retreating water level of the reservoir, a voice in the dark called out: “The River Dragon has come!” And suddenly the dam ruptured, unleashing 600 billion liters of water and destroying an entire village. By Aug. 17, reports Si, 1.1 million people remained trapped by flooding with 50 to 60 percent of food air-dropped into the area floating in the murky waters. It would take weeks for the waters to drain, revealing...

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that Turkey had dropped its block on a plan to bolster the defences of Baltic states and Poland against Russia. He told a news conference after an alliance summit outside London that NATO leaders did not discuss the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Turkey views as a terrorist organisation. Ahead of the summit, Ankara had refused to back the NATO defence plan for the Baltics and Poland until it received more support for its battle with the YPG, including other alliance members recognising it as a terrorist group. In a final press conference...

Three years ago, Donald Trump began a rhetorical offensive targeting the governments of NATO nations that chronically failed to meet their allied defense financial commitments. With bombastic huff, Trump intimated that allies pay their share or America might walk. It's 2019. Few NATO members currently meet the 2% GDP defense commitment. However, several once-laggard NATO nations have increased military spending, and the alliance is stronger for it. The era of blithe freeloading has ended. Cheapskates like Germany pay a price in lost prestige. America not only hasn't walked; it is modernizing its forces. Earlier this year, President Trump began grousing...

President Trump’s comment that he had no deadline on a China deal has predictably thrown markets into a tizzy, as the self-imposed deadline of Dec. 15 for additional tariffs is now less than two weeks away. The market is now grappling with the likelihood of no trade deal, but the critical issue is tariffs. I asked UBS Art Cashin if traders would be satisfied with 1) no new tariffs on Dec. 15, 2) keeping additional tariffs, and 3) no deal going into the new year. (Please see link for full article)

Beijing’s decision to suspend US military port calls in Hong Kong has been greeted with a degree of derision in Taiwan, with many suggesting that the Americans would be welcome to come to the island instead. Although the United States is unlikely to risk angering Beijing further by sending warships on a port call to the self-ruled island, many Taiwanese internet users said the southern port city of Kaoshiung would “win big” if the Americans did decide to visit. One comment on the PTT terminal bulletin board system joked those visits would happen only when “US-China [trade] talks fall apart...

American pastors who traveled to Hong Kong to support the months-long pro-democracy demonstrations say they faced tear gas and water cannons as they stood in solidarity with student demonstrators during one of the most dynamic five-day stretches of the protests. Rev. Bill Devlin of the Infinity Bible Church in New York City and Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition were in Hong Kong from Nov. 13 until Nov. 18. They were present as police besieged Hong Kong Polytechnic University where students barricaded themselves in and clashed with riot police. Devlin and Mahoney say they spent time between PolyU...

North Korea's recent test of its super-large multiple rocket launcher has not only proved the weapon system's improved "volley-firing" capabilities but also showed that North Korea's weapons development programs have proceeded steadily for the past two years, experts said Monday. On Nov. 28, North Korea conducted the test-firing of the super-large multiple launch rocket system for the fourth time this year following Aug. 24, Sept. 10 and Oct. 31 launches. All four tests involved two rockets fired from the weapon system, with the North succeeding to narrow down the firing interval from 17 minutes on Aug. 24 and 3 minutes...

Breitbart News, citing an NBC investigative report, reported that Chinese students have some very easy ways of staying in the U.S. after they get their studies behind them.  Numerous U.S.-based companies that got Optional Practical Training (OPT) work permits for Chinese graduates have quietly closed their doors following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdown and media investigations, according to a report by NBC Bay Area. “NBC’s efforts to contact officers at 14 suspicious companies [who got many OPT work permits] were met with a series of dead-end business addresses and disconnected phone numbers, ” said the NBC Bay Area report....

Smiles and waves between Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping on Monday (December 2). Though this isn't just a casual video chat between two of the world's most powerful men, but the launch of a landmark pipeline that will transport natural gas from Siberia to north east China - a boost to economic and political ties between Moscow and Beijing and part of Russia's attempt to pivot East, away from the pain of Western financial sanctions imposed over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea. (SOUNDBITE) PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "This is a remarkable, genuinely historical event not only for...