Free Republic

American foreign policy experts have long argued that China has been laying the groundwork for a permanent rise as a major global power, and U.S. politicians (particularly on the Republican side) have certainly counted the ways in which China is clearly our No. 1 geopolitical foe. However, China's ascendency isn't without its setbacks, and at times it seems possible that China is closer to declining than rising. Their economy hasn't recovered since COVID-19, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has been dealing with more internal struggles than were previously let on. One such problem for the leader of the Chinese Communist...

The PRC has adopted a sustained coercive campaign against the Philippines to seize its sovereign territory. The world is witnessing this aggression today in the South China Sea. Awarning from the 20th century is that dictatorships tend to use aggression not first against great powers but against smaller states. Hitler pressured Austria and seized the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia before seizing the rest of the Czech Republic, turning Slovakia into a protectorate, and seizing Memel (Klaipeda) from Lithuania. After checking Japan in 1938 and 1939 in the Far East, Stalin aggressed against Poland with his ally Nazi Germany before turning to...

The Chinese coast guard targeted Philippine vessels with water cannon blasts Sunday and rammed one of them, causing damage and endangering Filipino crew members off a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, just a day after similar hostilities at another contested shoal, Philippine officials said. The Philippines and its treaty ally, the United States, immediately condemned the latest confrontation near the Second Thomas Shoal, where two Philippine navy-operated supply boats and two Philippine coast guard escort ships had sailed to deliver food and other supplies to Filipino forces in a long-marooned navy ship that serves as a territorial outpost....

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An explosion at a university gymnasium in the southern Philippines has killed three people and wounded nine others, according to local authorities. The blast ripped through a Catholic mass service on Sunday at Mindanao State University in Marawi City... Police said they were investigating the explosion, including the possibility that it was carried out by pro-Islamic State militants...

The Philippine Commission on Elections has banned Smartmatic Philippines Inc. from the nation’s elections, ending 13 years of the company being the main provider of election technology to the nation. The decision revolved around allegations of bribery that claim commission chairman Andres Bautista was paid off to ensure Smartmatic won the contract for the 2016 elections, according to the Philippine edition of CNN. Bautista has denied the allegations. Although Smartmatic argued it has followed the rules, noting that there are nothing but allegations against it, the commission was unmoved. “Although these allegations, stemming from incidents potentially spanning at least three...

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Tsunami warnings have ended for parts of the coastal Philippines after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck off the southeastern coast Saturday night, according to the USGS. The quake struck at 10:37 p.m. local time Saturday night, or 9:37 a.m. ET, near the province of Surigao del Sur in Mindanao, the second-largest island of the Philippines. The USGS noted the quake occurred at a depth of 32.8 km, or just over 20 miles deep out at sea.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck Mindanao, Philippines on Saturday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said. The quake was at a depth of 63 km (39.15 miles), EMSC added.

The death toll from a strong earthquake off the southern Philippines rose to five on Saturday as authorities reported more casualties across two provinces. The 6.7-magnitude quake that struck the Mindanao region mid-afternoon on Friday caused part of a shopping mall ceiling to collapse, triggered power cuts and sent people fleeing into the streets. Falling debris from the mall in General Santos City crushed a woman to death, while 19 other people were treated for shock, city police captain Ari Noel Cardos said. Police earlier reported the death of a couple pinned under a collapsing concrete wall in General Santos,...

There have been several recent incidents where China has done its best to bully the Philippines in the South China Sea. Those incidents haven’t gone unnoticed by some of China’s neighbors. Now Japan and the Philippines are teaming up to create a new defense pact. Japan’s PM headed to the Philippines today for two days of talks.Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan said on Friday that his country would start formal talks with the Philippines to allow the deployment of Japanese troops to the Southeast Asian country, further strengthening ties between two countries that have embraced each other as bulwarks...

President Biden said Wednesday that the US military is willing to fight nuclear-armed China on behalf of the Philippines after ships from the two Asian countries collided near a disputed, unpopulated island in the South China Sea. “The United States defense agreement with the Philippines is ironclad. Any attack on the Filipino aircraft, vessels or armed forces will invoke our mutual defense treaty with the Philippines,” Biden said during a joint press conference at the White House alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. On Sunday, two of Manila’s military ships collided with a Chinese vessel that sought to block them...

South China Sea Collision This image released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, shows a Chinese militia vessel, top, and Philippine coast guard vessel BRP Cabra as they approach Second Thomas Shoal, locally called Ayungin Shoal, at the disputed South China Sea on Sunday Oct. 22, 2023. (Armed Forces of the Philippines via AP) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The United States renewed a warning Monday that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a 1951 treaty, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Filipino vessels off a contested shoal in the South...

Manila said on Monday (Oct 23) that Chinese vessels "intentionally hit" Philippine boats at the weekend, escalating a diplomatic row over two collisions in the South China Sea. The countries have traded blame over Sunday's incidents near Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, with both sides filing diplomatic protests and releasing videos to support their accusations. The two collisions happened during a Philippine resupply mission to troops stationed on a navy vessel that was grounded on the shoal in 1999 to assert Manila's territorial claims.

A China Coast Guard ship and an accompanying vessel yesterday rammed a Philippine Coast Guard ship and a military-run supply boat off a contested shoal, Philippine officials said, in an encounter that heightened fears of an armed conflict in the disputed South China Sea. A top Philippine security official said there were no injuries among the Filipino crew and an assessment of the damage to both vessels was under way. The official said that the two incidents near Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙), where China has repeatedly tried to isolate a Philippine marine outpost, could have been worse if...

After being run out of Tarrant County for alleged election discrepancies in the 2020 vote-by-mail election, Heider Garcia is now running the elections office right next door in Dallas County. YIKES! Many Republicans in Dallas County are hoping Dallas Mayor and freshly-minted Republican, Eric Johnson, will bolster his newly discovered conservative brand by calling for Garcia’s removal and push for election integrity. Will he rise to the occasion? Star-Telegram: Tarrant County’s former election administrator is headed next door to Dallas County to run its elections. Heider Garcia resigned from his Tarrant County job in April, citing disagreements with County Judge...

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, known for his colourful language, has suggested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crush Gaza and turn the Hamas-controlled territory into the “world’s biggest cemetery”, after escalating attacks from both sides left more than 2,000 people dead. Israel relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip with hundreds of air strikes after Palestinian militants last Saturday rained rockets on the Jewish state and gunmen stormed its cities, killing hundreds and abducting dozens, including foreigners. Duterte told broadcaster SMNI News that if he were Netanyahu, he would eliminate Hamas by razing the sealed-off enclave to the ground. “I will crush...

She claims to be the Queen of Canada, and now she's holding court in an abandoned school.Romana Didulo, a QAnon-inspired conspiracy theorist, leads a group of supporters who have spent the last few years traveling around Canada in motorhomes and other vehicles. Recently, the group moved into Richmound, a village of around 150 people in south-western Saskatchewan, and settled in at a former school. Ms Didulo and around 15 to 25 of her followers have been at the site for about a week, says Thomas Fougere of Community TV, a local independent news outlet based in nearby Medicine Hat. Soon...

Sept. 25 (UPI) -- The Philippines said Monday it would take "all appropriate actions" to remove a floating barrier it accuses China of erecting in a disputed area of the South China Sea, a move that threatens to further fray fraught relations between the Asian neighbors.

The Philippines has condemned the Chinese coast guard for installing what it called a "floating barrier" in a disputed area of the South China Sea, saying that it prevented Filipino boats from entering and fishing in the area. In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said on Sunday the floating barrier was discovered by Philippine vessels during a routine maritime patrol on Friday and measured around 300 metres. "The Philippine coast guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources strongly condemn the China coast guard's installation of a floating barrier in the...

The Philippines has become the latest of China’s neighbors to object to its new national map, joining Malaysia and India in releasing strongly worded statements accusing Beijing of claiming their territory. China published a new version of its national map on Monday, as it has regularly done since at least 2006, to correct what Beijing has in the past referred to as “problematic maps” that it claims misrepresent its territorial borders. The Philippines said Thursday it “rejected” the map because of its inclusion of a dashed line around contested areas of the South China Sea that was subject to an...