Free Republic

Wealthy Chinese couples are implanting their embryos into American women so their children can be born as US citizens, The Post has learned. The service is provided by a surrogacy agency, Patriot Conceptions, which operates between China and the US and has been accused of hiding details of who the biological parents are from surrogates. Women who carry babies for the agency are recruited informally through social media and collect between $60,000 and $120,000 dollars for their services. The children are then swept off by their parents to be raised in China, where it is seen as a status symbol...

A Chinese satellite breakup has created a new debris field in a rare orbit where fragments may remain for centuries. A Chinese reconnaissance satellite has broken apart in a rare high-altitude orbit, creating dozens of tracked debris fragments that may remain around Earth for centuries, according to reports from Gizmodo and orbital tracking experts. The failure of Yaogan-50 (02) has added a new debris field to one of the more difficult regions of space to manage. The fragments are now traveling in a highly retrograde orbit, a path that moves against the direction of Earth’s rotation and creates challenging conditions...

Speaking at an event titled "Harnessing American Power" last month, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum expressed dismay at what he saw as a new wave of local opposition to data centers in America.What's more, he claimed, not everything was as it seemed."It's not organic and local, some of this is foreign-sourced dark money," he told the crowd.He isn't alone in his suspicions. Over on the podcast All-In, which is hosted by a group of tech multimillionaires who call each other "besties," there was also talk of foreign influence, specifically from China.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials appointed Sen. Mitch McConnell’s wife to multiple government positions, many of which partially overlapped with her two U.S. Cabinet posts, according to Chinese government and state media reports unearthed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Elaine Chao, who married the Kentucky Republican in 1993, has held numerous U.S. government positions since the 1980s, including serving as Department of Labor (DOL) secretary throughout President George W. Bush’s tenure and as Department of Transportation (DOT) secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term. After resigning from the Trump administration in January 2021, Chao then served on the board...

[Catholic Caucus] Leo XIV Appoints Communist Chinese Bishop: "Love the Party!" Today, the Vatican announced that Leo XIV approved Archbishop Andrea Ding Yang, 44, of Chongqing, China, on 28 July and that he was consecrated a bishop today.Andrea Ding Yang, born in Chongqing in 1981, was ordained a priest in 2007 after studying at the Beijing state seminary.He was chosen unilateral by the Chinese state religion on 15 April. ChinaCatholic.cn states that he “was elected bishop-designate” on that date.Beijing’s ApparatchikHe served as a formator at the National Seminary in Beijing from 2012–14, and was allowed to study at the Pontifical...

[Catholic Caucus] Catholicism’s Surrender to Maoism: Beijing Chooses Communist Bishops. Rome Says Yes. Beijing has chosen a new Catholic bishop who promoted Communist ideology, participated in Maoist political “re-education,” and dismissed reports of persecution against Catholics in his own diocese. Rome approved him anyway. The consecration of Paul Liu Honggang, argues Gaetano Masciullo, is a shocking example of what the Sino-Vatican agreement has produced: The Communist regime chooses, and Rome goes along with it.The diplomatic farce of the Vatican’s Ostpolitik has reached a new, desolate peak. Last August 31, Paul Liu Honggang was consecrated bishop of Datong. The appointment had...

X has said it uncovered a Chinese bot farm of approximately 200,000 inauthentic accounts involved in influence operations. The platform’s safety team said in an Aug. 27 statement that about 200 accounts within the newly identified network had posted material aimed at influencing U.S. debate over artificial intelligence and energy policy. X did not say how the rest of the roughly 200,000 accounts were being used. Other technology companies and U.S. authorities have separately documented Chinese influence operations involving tens or hundreds of thousands of fake, coordinated, or repurposed accounts, including networks tied to Chinese state actors and law enforcement....

Cybersecurity researchers have found surveillance backdoors in Chinese carrier routers made by Zbtlink and the same software in a different Zbtlink-made router sold through Amazon. Chinese law requires telecom and internet companies to provide technical assistance to police and state-security agencies. In an Aug. 27 report, cybersecurity firm VulnCheck said it found two hidden programs in an $88 router bought through Amazon from a U.S. seller. One, which the researchers named Speakingstone, sends information about the router to a remote server and can receive instructions to redirect internet traffic, obtain login credentials, or take control of the device. The second,...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo approves his seventh bishop for Chinese Communist ‘Catholic’ church The Vatican reported that the new bishop of Datong was appointed ‘under the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.’A bishop of Datong was consecrated in China today with the approval of Pope Leo XIV under the controversial Vatican-China deal. Pope Leo XIV appointed Paolo Liu Honggang Bishop of Datong in Shanxi, China, on August 10, “following the approval of his candidacy under the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China,”...

Vatican Double Standard: Communists IN, Traditionalists OUTWhy does the Vatican tolerate Communist China’s state-appointed Catholic bishops while cracking down on the SSPX and the Traditional Latin Mass? Michael Matt examines the growing double standard and the disturbing ramifications for faithful Catholics. Why is the Vatican eager to tolerate bishops appointed by Communist China without a papal mandate while taking increasingly severe action against Traditional Catholic bishops of the SSPX?Michael Matt examines this contradiction alongside a series of developments affecting Traditional Catholics: reported restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass in Seattle and Pittsburgh, new pressure against the TLM in England, and...

Catholic politician slams Vatican-China agreement: ‘Deal with the devil’ ‘Fear of upsetting the Chinese Communist Party has led the Vatican to remain silent about gross violations of religious freedom,’ the UK’s Lord David Alton said.Lord David Alton of Liverpool, a Catholic member of the UK’s House of Lords, in an interview published on Tuesday, slammed the Vatican’s secret agreement with the communist Chinese government as a “deal with the devil” and criticized Rome’s silence as the faithful are persecuted.During his interview with Crux, published August 18, Lord Alton, while discussing an ongoing petition launched by Aid to the Church in...

Replacing the Cross with a Portrait of XiThe CCP is mandating the removal of thousands of crosses, icons, and sacramentals from Catholic churches and replacing them with portraits of former Chairman Mao Zedong and those of President Xi Jinping.While the Vatican is apparently counting the secret payoffs it receives from the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP is mandating the removal of thousands of crosses, icons, and sacramentals from Catholic churches and replacing them with portraits of former Chairman Mao Zedong and those of President Xi Jinping, which must be affixed above the pulpit and elsewhere. For example, in Anhui Province...

CNN’s Dana Bash: “I also don't want to use this interview to allow you to say things that aren't entirely true. It is also factually true that the COVID vaccine worked. The COVID vaccine prevented deaths. There is data, upon data, upon data.” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “You think the COVID vaccine protected children?” Dana Bash: “I have talked to scientists and doctors…” Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “Can you show me one study that shows that children were protected by the COVID vaccine?” “That that vaccine did more good than harm to children? Can you show me one...

The 8-Year Betrayal of Chinese CatholicsNo one can fail to see the irony of the excommunication of the SSPX in view of the renewed Vatican deal with the CCP and their ongoing consecrations of bishops without papal oversight or pre-approval.Last Thursday marked the eighth anniversary of the secret provisional agreement between the Holy See and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regarding the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. (CCPA). Designed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in 2018, with the blessing of Pope Francis, the agreement recognizes the supreme authority of the CCP to appoint bishops and suppress and/or establish...

Eight years after Vatican-China deal, persecution of faithful Catholics intensifiesThe Vatican's secret deal with China has empowered the Chinese Communist Party's war on religious freedom that Rome needs to address.“Nobody has any illusion about the Chinese Communists Party’s determination to eliminate all religion.”~Bishop James E. Walsh, Maryknoll Missionary to China, 1948, imprisoned for 12 years by the CCP.(Elizabeth Yore) — The Patriotic Chinese Catholic Association was established in 1957 by the authority of Mao Zedong, and under the control of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the CCP with the goal to bring Catholicism into alignment...

Desirée Townsend@Cheering4ChangeSenator Mitch McConnell has now been hospitalized for three weeks. The gravity of this situation cannot be overstated, especially given that his wife, Elaine Chao, appeared in China just days after his hospitalization to meet with high-ranking Chinese officials. The question now is about national security: if Senator McConnell has been unable to independently perform his duties, what safeguards exist to ensure classified intelligence briefings, defense appropriations information, or other sensitive congressional matters could not be accessed, discussed, or shared by individuals operating behind the scenes? And given the timing of Chao’s meeting with China’s vice president, what exactly...

Democrats, among them some of the most recognizable names in politics, have accepted millions of dollars in campaign contributions from top employees at firms the Pentagon recently designated as "Chinese military companies" operating in the U.S. The Department of War on June 8 designated Alibaba, Baidu and BYD as "Chinese military companies," meaning that the three firms, in the eyes of the U.S. government, are providing assistance to the People’s Liberation Army through its military-civil fusion strategy or other means. Senior employees at these companies, including executives, have donated roughly $2.6 million to Democratic political committees since 2020, a Fox...

Almost all media commentators seem convinced that Donald Trump’s foreign policy in his second term is a disaster. He is bogged down in Iran, snookered in Ukraine, his tariff agenda has failed and he has alienated his NATO allies. But this consensus has been too hastily formed. Looking at the bigger global picture, Trump’s foreign policy has been a spectacular success. Take the western hemisphere. We have the so-called “Donroe Doctrine,” the updated version of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine. In 1822, president James Monroe, having welcomed South America’s overthrow of Spanish and Portuguese imperial rule, stated that Latin American nations...

Is this Chinese takeover the new reality? Or, can a coordinated effort by the U.S. and its allies challenge China’s hegemony in the region? The Iran war and the fight for control of the Strait of Hormuz—through which vital oil cargo from Gulf countries feeds the global economy—is a reminder that America must not forget the South China Sea, another strategic region where China, a greater threat than Iran, has gained alarming control over many decades. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has blatantly seized key points in the region and built a fortified military presence by constructing artificial islands on...

A Chinese tracking device was discovered in the Prime Minister's official car, MPs were told yesterday. The bug is believed to have been found in a sealed part of the vehicle imported from China. Its discovery during a sweep first emerged in 2023, sparking fears that Beijing was aggressively spying on ministers in the then-Conservative government. Now it has been revealed that the device was in fact found in the Prime Minister's car the previous year. Charles Parton, of think-tank the Council on Geostrategy, told the Commons Business and Trade Committee yesterday: 'The prime minister's car in 2022 was emanating...