Free Republic

New virus in China similar to Covid?Reports: Another virus reportedly starting in China similar to Covid, say Chinese researchers.— FrontalForce (@FrontalForce) March 14, 2021"I just saw this tweet below from Dr. Gordon Chang. I have no idea at this point what it means. Better to share the information with a caveat." #China’s military is talking about pathogens that will sicken only non-#Chinese, so one day #Beijing will develop a civilization-killer. In the meantime, we need to deter #XiJinping from spreading it as he deliberately spread #COVID19. #coronavirus https://t.co/tRcK1bs4xw— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) March 14, 2021

This morning, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof launched a full-throated—and empty-headed—defense of free trade. Along the way he praised President Bush and attacked Senators Clinton and Obama. Their offense? The pair of presidential hopefuls engaged in “cowboy diplomacy” by co-sponsoring legislation that targets China for manipulating the value of its currency (he was referring to the bipartisan Baucus-Grassley-Schumer-Graham bill). The proposed legislation, in Kristof’s view, will antagonize the Chinese, politicize trade disputes, and betray President Clinton’s “outstanding legacy on economic issues.”

This morning, the New York Times reported that Chinese authorities, working with the FBI, seized more than $500 million of counterfeit Microsoft and Symantec software and arrested 25 people involved in the counterfeiting operation. “This is a real milestone,” said David Finn, Microsoft associate general counsel. Finn is right. The Chinese deserve great credit for busting a ring that looks as if it were responsible for at least $2 billion of pirated software sales. (As Gao Feng, Deputy Director General of China’s Ministry of Public Security, has said, profit margins for software piracy exceed those for drug trafficking.) Unfortunately, with...

On Saturday, the New York Times criticized the Pentagon’s spending plans for buying, among other things, the F-22 stealth fighter, also known as the Raptor. According to the paper, that’s just concentrating on “the kind of weapons that might have made sense during the cold war but have little use in the kind of conflicts America is involved in and is likely to face in the foreseeable future.” The Air Force acquired the F-22 to penetrate the Soviet Union and face its fleet of Su-27 fighters. The Times reasons that, because the USSR disappeared, so did our need for the...

On Friday, the Taipei government announced that it had applied for U.N. membership under its commonly used name, Taiwan. Previous attempts to gain admission under the official designation of Republic of China have failed, due to opposition from Beijing. The Mainland was quick to denounce Taipei’s most recent move. “We resolutely oppose it,” said Liu Jianchao, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman. “The Taiwan authorities’ attempt to split China will absolutely not succeed.” Beijing’s is not the only government that is peeved. I predict that the Bush administration will, as a means of expressing its irritation at President Chen Shui-bian’s attempt...

Yesterday, Iran continued work on its first nuclear weapon, Moscow and Beijing conspired to undermine the Western democracies, and fanatics prepared their next attack on the United States. Oh, there was one other thing that happened—the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 14,000 for the first time. Although the index eventually ended up below that magic mark (at 13,971.55), yesterday’s was the fourth successive record close. I think this is a form of irrational exuberance. Investors, traders, and speculators needed just 57 trading days to push the Dow from 13,000 to 14,000, and they required only 129 days to make the...