Free Republic

Gyeongju, South Korea – United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to call off a mutual escalation in their countries’ trade war, lowering the temperature in a heated confrontation that has threatened to upend the global economy. Trump and Xi sealed a one-year trade truce on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea, where the two leaders met face-to-face for the first time since 2019. But while Trump and Xi’s agreement offered a reprieve to businesses unsettled by months of back-and-forth trade salvoes, it did little to roll...

President Trump announced “we have a deal” shortly after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday in their first face-to-face since he returned to the White House. “On the scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One after leaving the South Korean air base that hosted the nearly two-hour summit. “We have a deal. Now, every year we will renegotiate the deal. But I think the deal will go on for a long time.” Trump said that Xi agreed to pause for a...

On Friday, I started a regular series that I'll post at the end of each week called "The New Monroe Doctrine." (And thank you all for the wonderful feedback I've received. It's encouraging.) My goal with that is to tell you what's going on in the Western Hemisphere each week as it relates to the United States. Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are making this a priority, thank goodness, and I'm going to cover it every step of the way. In that article, I mentioned that I was also planning to launch a second, complementary column specifically about China's influence...

Late in World War 2, in the European theater, the Germans hit the Allied air forces with something new: Jet fighters. Chief among them was the Messerschmitt Me-262, a big, brutal twin-engine beast packing four 30-mm cannons. It was considerably faster than the American P-51 Mustang, generally considered the best piston-engine fighter in the air at the time. It was near-impossible to defeat in the air, but it was slow and cumbersome on taxi, vulnerable during takeoff and landing, and required a long runway.So we went after them when they were on the ground, destroying aircraft and bases alike. It...

In a speech before the House of Commons on May 13, 1940, referencing the war against Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill stated, “What is our policy? … To wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime.” The Prussian military theorist Karl von Clausewitz once observed that “war is the continuation of politics by other means.” Various political and moral interpretations exist regarding what constitutes a “just war.” That usually depends on one’s point of view. As the saying goes, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. What if there were a country...

🚨 JUST IN: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) accuses President Trump of doing what CHINA and IRAN do when he "executes" narco-terrorists "I would call them extrajudicial killings. This is akin to what China does, what Iran does with drug dealers -- they summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public. So it's WRONG."

China has threatened to cut diplomatic ties with Britain unless Keir Starmer supports its ownership of Taiwan. Beijing's ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, said that the 'key to ensuring the sound and steady development of UK-China relations' depended on Britain accepting that 'Taiwan has never been a country' and that Taiwan 'belongs to China'. Zeguang said that Britain made an 'unequivocal commitment' to defend China's ownership of Taiwan when relations were established with the People's Republic of China in 1972, and stressed that the deal must not be forgotten. Britain has long acknowledged China's claim on Taiwan without endorsing...

Chinese and Russian operatives are using “sex warfare” to seduce and spy on Silicon Valley professionals, industry insiders have told The Times. James Mulvenon, the chief intelligence officer of Pamir Consulting, which provides risk assessments for American companies investing in China, said he was one of the many men recently targeted by foreign seductresses hoping to gain access to US tech secrets. “I’m getting an enormous number of very sophisticated LinkedIn requests from the same type of attractive young Chinese woman,” said Mulvenon. “It really seems to have ramped up recently.” Mulvenon also described how, at a business conference on...

SNIPIn August 2025, a federal jury convicted Jinchao Wei, an active-duty U.S. Navy sailor stationed at San Diego's naval base, on multiple counts of espionage and illegal export of defense-related technical data to the Chinese government. Wei "agreed to sell Navy secrets to a Chinese intelligence officer for $12,000," according to the Department of Justice.Weeks earlier, the DOJ charged two Chinese citizens with acting as agents of China's Ministry of State Security for recruiting U.S. military personnel and gathering intelligence. In March, the DOJ also announced a series of charges against 12 Chinese nationals for conducting a sweeping cyber-espionage...

The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs. The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts. TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are due to meet in South Korea next week. However, it is uncertain whether they actually will. Such is the shocking state of the world’s most important relationship. For weeks, America and China have been lashing out at each other. America has tightened tech-export restrictions and threatened higher tariffs; China has wielded sanctions and restrictions on rare earths. The two sides communicate poorly. In the White House there is a belief that America has the upper hand in this test of nerves and pain-tolerance. Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, says China is “weak”. But the...

President Trump tore into a foreign ambassador on Monday who badmouthed him in the past after signing a multibillion-dollar, rare-earth and critical minerals deal with visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “Did an ambassador say something bad about me?” Trump asked Albanese when a journalist mentioned Australian Ambassador Kevin Rudd’s prior remarks vilifying the 45th and 47th president. “Where is he? Is he still working for you?” Albanese informed Trump that Rudd, a former prime minister and Australia’s top diplomat in Washington since 2023, was sitting across the table, prompting Trump to ask, “You said bad? “Before I took this...

Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to America, who trash talked Trump in the past found himself getting some payback in the Oval Office duding the US/Australia meeting. Not a great idea to get into fights with Trump, Chuckle.

Why Washington Must Accelerate the U.A.E. Chip PartnershipThe United States and China are locked in a technology cold war. Beijing’s latest move—restricting exports of rare earth minerals critical to advanced manufacturing of everything from semiconductors to defense systems—shows that China is willing to weaponize every advantage it has. But the trade war is only part of the story. China’s quest to become a hegemonic power runs through the Gulf, where it seeks to establish a military presence to secure energy and shipping routes vital to its economy. For years, Beijing has courted the region’s energy and capital-rich states through the...

Photo: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg For years, international investors poured billions into China’s booming property market, drawn by promises of rapid urbanization, soaring apartment demand, and a government committed to growth. Today, that once-promising bet—valued at more than $140 billion—has become one of the biggest financial traps in modern real estate history. Private equity firms, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, and pension managers from the U.S., Europe, and Asia are now stranded in distressed Chinese property assets that are nearly impossible to sell. Some portfolios have suffered 80–95% value collapses, while others are entangled in bankruptcies, halted construction, legal disputes, or regulatory...

"We're going to be signing an agreement that's been negotiated over a period of four or five months."WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump on Monday signed a critical minerals and rare earths deal with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling the leader a trusted friend and steadfast ally.Under the deal, the U.S. and Australian governments will invest more than $3 billion in critical mineral projects over the next six months, “with recoverable resources in the projects estimated to be worth $53 billion,” according to the White House. The Department of War will also invest in constructing a “100 metric ton-per-year advanced gallium...

President Trump and President Xi Jinping are locked in a fresh trade war standoff—and Beijing is betting the U.S. stock market will blink first. China’s escalating economic retaliation is timed with precision, and the message is clear: Xi believes Trump won’t risk another market meltdown. That assumption could shape every policy move over the next few weeks and shift investor sentiment worldwide. From rare-earth sanctions to new export controls and shipping-related penalties, China is tightening the screws just as President Trump threatens 100% tariffs on Chinese goods. Meanwhile, both countries prepare for a high-stakes summit later this month in South...

The remapping of global supply chains.When President Trump announced a new 100% tariff on Chinese imports, in retaliation for Beijing’s latest export controls on rare earth elements, markets saw only the headline risk. But the real story lies beyond the ticker: a structural reordering of global trade. The world’s supply chains, long anchored to the Chinese mainland, are splintering.Capital is scattering across Asia’s periphery, and shipping routes that once followed predictable trans-Pacific lines are being redrawn into a new web of uncertainty and opportunity. Alongside an eastward turn worth $100 billion in investment, the trends of the last 30 years...

President Trump said his proposed 100% additional tariffs on goods from China were "not sustainable."

The espionage case against Christopher Berry and Christopher Cash collapsed after government officials refused to testify under oath that China posed a threat to national security. China poses a daily threat to Britain’s security, the head of the country's domestic intelligence agency said on Thursday, remarks that step up pressure on authorities to explain why the prosecution of two men charged with spying for Beijing collapsed just before they were due to stand trial. The government, opposition politicians and prosecutors have traded blame over the failed criminal case as the United Kingdom tries to balance between challenging and engaging with...