Free Republic

In the first sign of confirmation that the current COVID resurgence taking place in northeastern China might be more widespread than the Chinese state (and its attendant party-controlled press organs) have been letting on, the city of Hong Kong on Friday just announced its first-ever lockdown, a measure that is reminiscent of the harsher measures used to combat the outbreak of SARs, which hammered the tiny (formally) autonomous city state nearly 20 years ago.According to the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong will lock down around 150 residential buildings in coronavirus-hit Yau Tsim Mong district. To enforce the measure, the...

An American-Chinese socialite has reportedly died in Hong Kong after plunging from her penthouse naked while carrying her five-month-old daughter in her arms. Luo Lili, 34, who had rubbed shoulders with the likes of Hillary Clinton and Rita Ora, reportedly jumped to her death with her baby after suffering post-natal depression, according to multiple reports from local media. As the only daughter of a real estate tycoon mother who owns multiple luxury development projects in China, Ms Luo appeared to have lived a lavish life, studying and travelling around the world from a young age.(snip) Ms Luo, a single mother,...

Hong Kong (AFP) - A Hong Kong internet provider said Thursday it had blocked access to a website following a police order, the first confirmed takedown using a new national security law imposed by Beijing last year. Unlike mainland China, Hong Kong has open internet access, but critics of Beijing fear powers given to the police under the new law could herald the end of that freedom. Internet users noticed the website HKChronicles was unreachable from some Hong Kong-based devices last week, and its owner put out a statement saying she believed authorities were blocking access. HKChronicles, which is still...

In China, we are seeing forced televised confessions, a mass surveillance state, the killing of Falun Gong practitioners for their organs, and what many are calling a genocide of the Uyghur people. 83 global brands, including major U.S. companies, are tied to Uyghur forced labor in China. Over in Hong Kong, 53 pro-democracy activists, lawmakers, and lawyers were arrested on Jan. 6 under the draconian national security law. Despite all this, the EU recently announced a major trade deal with China. American Thought Leaders interviews human rights activist and writer Benedict Rogers, founder of Hong Kong Watch and deputy...

In May 2020, the Trump Administration foresaw and declared the death of Hong Kong’s free and open society at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Last week’s politicized arrests of more than 50 people, former elected officials among them, for exercising their political rights guaranteed under the Basic Law, is the latest of many successive nails that Beijing has driven into the coffin of Hong Kong democracy. In May, the Administration demanded answers from Beijing about the origins of the virus and accused the World Health Organization of enabling a cover up by deferring to the CCP. Just...

More than 50 of Hong Kong's most prominent pro-democracy activists and politicians have been arrested in the biggest crackdown since China imposed a draconian security law last year. About 1,000 police took part in morning raids on 72 premises across the city. Those held helped run an unofficial "primary" to pick opposition candidates ahead of postponed 2020 elections. They are accused of trying to "overthrow" the government. Activists say the new law aims to quash dissent. China's government imposed the legislation on the semi-autonomous territory in June, saying it was necessary to curb months of sometimes violent pro-democracy protests. Beijing...

By late morning on Wednesday, at least 53 Hong Kong residents — former lawmakers, activists and an American lawyer among them — had been detained under Beijing’s new national security law, and their offices and homes raided. Accused of subversion, they face up to life in prison for holding a primary vote last year ahead of legislative elections that were ultimately postponed and which many of them were barred from contesting.

The New York Stock Exchange said it no longer plans to delist three Chinese telecommunications giants. In a late Monday statement, the NYSE said it dropped the plans after "further consultation with relevant regulatory authorities in connection with Office of Foreign Assets Control." Hong Kong-listed shares of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom rallied after news of the reversal. The announcement comes after the NYSE said on Dec. 31 that it would move to delist American depositary shares of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom. The exchange had originally planned to drop those listings in order to comply...

Chinese streaming giant Tencent has stopped live broadcasts of games by the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers in apparent protest at their new president Daryl Morey, who sparked a row by voicing support for Hong Kong protesters last year. Tencent has been offering text updates only for Sixers games as well as those involving the Houston Rockets, Morey’s former employer. It also refused to screen Rockets games last season. Milwaukee Bucks set NBA record for three-pointers in 47-point win at Miami Read more State broadcaster CCTV, which holds China’s exclusive TV rights for the NBA, has not aired any games since the...

Right now, the NBA and China are both attacking America, just in different ways. China, a nation the US is in an existential, Cold War struggle with, is using its influence in the Pacific to weaken our allies and our standing with them. Additionally, it is engaging in industrial espionage against America and constantly launches cyberattacks against us. But, at least it is a foreign nation. While I stand firmly against Red China, America’s mortal enemy, I understand why it would want to attack and weaken America. It is an adversarial nation; we have dealt with those since our Founding....

A host of corporate media outlets including CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and MSNBC have participated in private dinners and sponsored trips with the China-United States Exchange Foundation, a Chinese Communist Party-funded group seeking to garner “favorable coverage” and “disseminate positive messages” regarding China, The National Pulse can reveal.Other outlets involved in the propaganda operation include Forbes, the Financial Times, Newsweek, Bloomberg, Reuters, ABC News, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, AFP, TIME magazine, LA Times, The Hill, BBC, and The Atlantic.The relationship is revealed in the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filings, which...

.... With billions of birds hosting an uncountable number of permutations of influenza strains, it’s inevitable that once in a while, one of these combinations will evolve the ability to replicate in humans. This has happened with an influenza type known as H5N1, the “bird flu” that the world has been watching since it was first isolated from human infections in Hong Kong in 1997. In the past 16 years, H5N1 has caused more than 600 infections in humans and almost 400 deaths—killing approximately 60 percent of those who are known to have been infected with this virus. Luckily, H5N1...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blocked a bill, which would grant Hongkongers a special refugee status. He asserted Beijing would exploit the bill’s weakened immigration policies and send spies into the United States. On Friday, the Texas senator shot down the bill, citing the dangers of the Chinese Communist Party. “The good news is that our Democrat colleagues are finally discovering that the Chinese communists are not our friends,” Cruz stated. “They are finally acknowledging that the Chinese communists are murdering, torturing, oppressive tyrants and our Democrat colleagues are likewise discovering that Hong Kong is a beacon for democracy…and liberty.” The...

Hong Kong (AFP) - Hong Kong civil servants swore a new pledge of allegiance to the government Wednesday in the first ceremony overseen by the city's leader to enforce greater loyalty in the governing class after last year's huge democracy protests. Chief executive Carrie Lam stood before a group of senior officials at a closed-door ceremony for the pledge, which all the finance hub's 180,000 civil servants will be expected to make in the coming weeks. Those taking the oath promise to uphold Hong Kong's mini-constitution and "bear allegiance" to the city and its government. A government spokesperson said the...

Hong Kong’s leader on Tuesday (Dec 15) lashed out at rumours claiming the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines from mainland China was politically motivated, saying the acquisition was backed by two expert committees of medical professionals. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor added the government would seek funding approval from lawmakers before Christmas for a fourth round of relief measures targeting those worst affected by the pandemic. In a weekly press conference before meeting her Executive Council, the city leader confirmed she had still not received any details from the central government about her annual official trip to Beijing , which...

<p>HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been charged under the city’s national security law as authorities step up a crackdown on dissent, local media reported.</p><p>Lai, who founded the Apple Daily tabloid, was charged on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces and endangering national security, local broadcaster TVB reported Friday. He is the most high-profile person out of more than two dozen charged under the sweeping law since it was imposed by Beijing in June.</p>

The Supreme Court rejects the Texas election lawsuit but first... The Christmas Coronavirus Crackdown picking up steam with indoor dining banned in New York City... A 10 pm curfew for restaurants and bars in Delaware... Here in Pennsylvania restaurants and gyms in the Harrisburg area vowing to stay open in defiance... In Boise, Idaho Central District Health is set to vote on a Christmas Coronavirus Crackdown... You will still have to wear a muzzle (mask) after you get the coronavirus vaccine. That is what an immunologist at Stanford University is saying... US Attorney General William Barr was aware of federal...

After Axios reported on Tuesday that a Chinese spy had been romantically involved with Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Georgia Democrat Senate candidate Jon Ossoff is coming under fire after allegedly hiding his own ties to a pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) media company. Georgia GOP officials had filed a complaint accusing Ossoff of knowingly failing to disclose payments from a pro-CCP media company, PCCW Media Limited, in his May 2020 campaign financial disclosure. Ossoff amended the filing in July to reflect receiving the payments. The spy at the center of the Swalwell scandal,...

The U.N human rights chief says she expects the U.S. administration of President-elect Joe Biden will be “much, much better” when it comes to human rights, and warned of shrinking “democratic space” in Hong Kong — saying her office will be monitoring the rights situation there. Michelle Bachelet spoke to reporters in Geneva in a catch-all news conference to recap the year and look ahead to 2021. She cited concerns about the inequalities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism like that highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement. Bachelet hailed “a series of promising pledges” by Biden, on...

History shows totalitarian regimes fall when brave people rise up. As the future of Hong Kong, time is on the side of Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam.Three prominent leaders of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement were sentenced to prison this week for leading a protest last year. Joshua Wong received 13 and a half months; Agnes Chow, 10 months; and Ivan Lam, seven months. Wong has already been in prison a few times as the result of his activism.They are young. Lam is 26. Wong is 24. Chow turned 24 this past Dec. 3, the day after she received...