Free Republic

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...

Yesterday, we were all sort of stunned to find that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping had summarily dismissed and had placed under investigation General Zhang Youxia, the now-former vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission; see New Round of Purges Wrack the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Defense Establishment – RedState. The removal of Zhang meant 37 of the 81 generals appointed since October 2022 were either under arrest or had simply disappeared. The initial reports said Zhang was removed because he “undermined Xi’s authority, abetted political and corruption problems that impaired the party’s leadership over the armed forces, and damaged...

Perhaps US intelligence has an idea about who is increasingly the real power behind the throne in BeijingXi Jinping effectively vanished in July and the first half of August. Some China watchers speculated that his unexplained absence was a sign he was losing his grip on power. But he has since reappeared and been very visible again. At the end of the month, he visited Tibet, then indulged in a high-profile, backslapping meeting with Vladimir Putin and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tianjin. He capped off his busy two weeks with the September 3 military parade in Beijing...