Free Republic

After insisting their forces would "fight to the death," Ukraine has ceded control of the major city to Russia.

During an April 25 visit to one of China’s most prestigious universities, Renmin University in Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping stressed that to build a world-class university with the Chinese characteristics, “you cannot follow in others’ footsteps.” Shortly after, on May 6, Renmin University announced that it will no longer provide data to the relevant international institutions to participate in world university rankings.Prior to that, China’s Nanjing University and Lanzhou University, also considered top-notch universities in China, also announced their withdrawal from the international university rankings system. Analysts believe that these are obvious signs of China’s further decoupling from the...

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese netizens have uncovered evidence that the gunman behind the deadline shooting of a Taiwanese church in Orange County may be a member of a radical Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pro-unification group in Las Vegas. During a Monday press conference, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes identified the lone gunman as David Wenwei Chou (周文偉), 68, of Las Vegas. Barnes said that based on information collected, the shooting "was a politically motivated hate incident, a grievance that this individual had between himself and the Taiwanese community at large,” and added that “It is believed the suspect involved...

Oil prices have topped $113 per barrel on optimism that China’s lockdowns are coming to an end and demand will not take a prolonged hit. In early afternoon markets Monday, news that Shanghai was seeing a strong recovery from COVID cases, with plans in place to ease lockdown restrictions beginning this week, outweighed a litany of bearish news for oil. Brent was at $113.97 per barrel on 3:20 pm EST, while WTI was trading at $113.77. WTI neared $115…Authorities in Shanghai on Monday said restrictions would finally ease, in stages, after nearly six weeks of lockdowns that have shaken the...

Since the CCP initiated its ‘Zero Covid’ policy several months ago, millions of Chinese civilians have endured immense suffering.China’s ruling communist party (CCP) recently announced it is doubling down on its “Zero Covid” strategy, wherein it is forcibly locking down and oppressing millions of Chinese citizens with the ostensible goal of completely stamping out the respiratory virus. A little over a week ago, members of the CCP’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee held a meeting in which party leadership reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining the government’s current lockdown policies in major cities like Shanghai. According to a report from the China...

Ten more European gas buyers have opened accounts in Gazprombank JSC, doubling the total number of clients preparing to pay in rubles for Russian gas as President Vladimir Putin demanded.A total of twenty European companies have opened accounts, with another 14 clients asking for the paperwork needed to set them up, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters. He declined to identify the companies.

The year is 2027. China has invaded Taiwan and the wheels of all-out war have begun to turn. “We are not going to let them survive the initial onslaught of our military operations,” says one of the masterminds of Beijing’s military strategy. “We are not going to let the president of Taiwan survive the first day.” To achieve that swift decapitation of Taiwan’s government, China casts a wide net of destruction — even pre-emptively attacking American bases in Japan and Guam. The U.S. responds by bombing Chinese ports and Australia mobilize forces against Beijing as the worst fears of the...

China sees NATO allies backing Ukraine as a potential threat to its strategy in the Indo-Pacific. NATO said last year that it intended to focus more on China and Beijing is expected to play a large role in the bloc's strategy moving forward. "NATO, a military organization in the North Atlantic, has in recent years come to the Asia-Pacific region to throw its weight around and stir up conflicts,” said Wang Wenbin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman. China increasingly sees the war in Ukraine -- and the roles of the United States and its NATO allies in backing Kyiv against...

More and more the United States views Russia’s war on Ukraine as a pivotal episode in a global contest that pits Washington not only against Moscow but against a group of active adversaries – with China at the group’s core. At a briefing convened by the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee last week, China shared top billing with Russia and the conflict in Ukraine as a talking point. In particular, attention centered on China’s military plans vis-a-vis a possible takeover of Taiwan. The two top intelligence agency heads – civilian and military – put China atop a list of four...

Afghanistan’s internal insecurity, border tensions, and the potentially Pakistani-backed US military factor are combining to create yet another storm in the New Cold War that threatens to destabilize the region. Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine and the US-led West’s unprecedented response to it have distracted the international community from Afghanistan, which is once again becoming an issue of regional concern. The foreign occupiers’ chaotic evacuation from that country last August and the Taliban’s return to power in the aftermath haven’t stabilized the situation all that much. The group is still designated as terrorists by most of the world...

In his recent visit to the Ladakh sector, Army chief Gen Manoj Pande reviewed the security situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in view of the Chinese threat for which the Indian Army has shifted six Divisions which were earlier deployed in counter-terrorism roles and after taking care of Pakistan front. The military standoff with China has been going on for over two years now when the Chinese side attempted to change the status quo unilaterally by moving troops in large numbers against Indian positions. The Indian Army has been doing rebalancing and realignment of its forces which...

PRESIDENT Xi Jinping is suffering from a deadly brain aneurysm, reports claim - as he faces a coup over China's devastating Covid lockdowns.The Chinese president, 68, reportedly wanted to be treated with traditional medicine rather than undergo major surgery after he was rushed to hospital.According to news agency ANI, Xi suffered the "cerebral aneurysm" at the end of 2021.Rumours about the state of Xi's health have been swirling for years, with fresh speculation sparked by his unexplained absence from the Beijing Winter Olympics.

A Chinese genius flexed his mathematical prowess by solving a problem that flummoxed a team of mathematicians with Ph.D.s for four months in a single night. Wei Dongyi, a 30-year-old assistant mathematics professor at Peking University in Beijing, came to the rescue after six mathematicians called him for help as they tried building a complex mathematics model. After using the equations he provided to alter their experiment, the team’s model obtained a passing rate of over 96%. The mathematicians wanted to pay the professor to show their gratitude, but he declined. "It’s unnecessary to pay me for such an easy...

A statement issued by the Russian Ministry of Defense (MOD) on Wednesday accused a slew of prominent politicians, pharmaceutical companies and government entities of participating in a global conspiracy in Ukraine.Specifically, the Russian MOD claims the U.S. and other NATO nations have been engaged in illegal military-biological projects within Ukraine.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former press secretary Iuliia Mendel wrote on Twitter that Russia is spreading “baseless accusations that the U.S. military was developing secret biological weapons in Ukraine, but this time they were helped by the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna.”The Russian Defense Ministry again spread baseless accusations that the...

Satellite images of a Chinese shipyard suggest the country may have developed a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarines, Reuters reported Tuesday. The images clearly show a submarine in dry dock, but shrouds over key areas of the vessel make it difficult to determine whether it is an entirely new class of ship or merely an upgrade to an existing model, according to Reuters. The changes in question relate to adding vertical-launching missile tubes for guided missiles as well as an upgraded propulsion system. The images were captured at China's Huludao Port in the Liaoning province. The parts of the...

Hong Kong “elected” a new chief while the world wasn’t paying attention. Hong Kong’s current chief Carrie Lam will retire at the end of June. The selection of her successor has followed the rules Beijing dictated since it took control of Hong Kong in 1997. Beijing stamped out any hope of universal suffrage in Hong Kong in 2004. Rather than letting more than 7 million residents in Hong Kong have a say in whom the city’s chief should be, Beijing created a “nomi­nating committee” (which has more than 1,400 members today), the majority of which are pro-Beijing elites. The committee...

China is “working hard” to be in a position to take over a nation on Australia’s doorstep within years, top US intelligence officials havTaiwan is facing an “acute” threat from China within the next eight years as Beijing ramps up its military to enable the nation to seize control – even if the US intervenes. That’s according to several top American intelligence officials, who have sounded the alarm over the renewed risk posed by China in the region after years of rising tensions. ‘Acute’ threat During a disturbing testimony to the Senate on Tuesday, the US director of national intelligence,...

Senior Democratic Party politicians are the chief "ideologists" of America's illegal operations in biolabs operating throughout Ukraine, and have involved major multinational biotech companies in their activities, Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops, has indicated. Citing an MoD analysis of seized documents, the RCB Troops chief said the profits politicians earn for the US private biotech sector helps to pay for their reelection via campaign donations. According to Kirillov, the US executive branch has also worked to create a "legislative framework to finance military biological research directly from the federal budget," with "funds of...

“The prophet of Allah took off his gown and put it on Om Ali and slept with her in her grave and they kicked dirt on him, saying: ‘Oh messenger of Allah, we saw you do something no one else has ever done.’ He said: ‘I dressed her in my gown, so she can wear the gowns of paradise and I slept with her in her grave to relieve her of the torments of the grave.'” (Kanz al-‘Ommal in Sunan al Aqwal wa al-Af’al, vol. 16, p. 158) “There is no need to rewash a dead woman if her husband...

At the White House press briefing last Dec. 6, press secretary Jen Psaki made it clear that resident Joe Biden wanted the People's Republic of China to pay a price for its human rights abuses. He would do so by declining to send any U.S. government officials to the Beijing Winter Olympics, which would be held in February. "The Biden administration," Psaki said, "will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games given the PRC's ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses." "U.S. diplomatic or official...