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I had a chat with a friend this morning and in the course of the chat he mentioned how China has been quietly building up its forces in Shenyang province, which is adjacent to Russia and North Korea. He says the unusual thing is that the troops and equipment are not being moved into existing military bases but instead into so-called "Ghost Cities" like the Hunnan Xin district of Shenyang City. He says he first noticed this about two months ago when a number of empty buildings started to have lights in them at night and he could see military...

BATA, Equatorial Guinea—Classified American intelligence reports suggest China intends to establish its first permanent military presence on the Atlantic Ocean in the tiny Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, according to U.S. officials. The officials declined to describe details of the secret intelligence findings. But they said the reports raise the prospect that Chinese warships would be able to rearm and refit opposite the East Coast of the U.S.—a threat that is setting off alarm bells at the White House and Pentagon. Principal deputy U.S. national security adviser Jon Finer visited Equatorial Guinea in October on a mission to persuade...

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Saturday that China's increased military activity near Taiwan seemingly indicates a "rehearsal" of the country's future intentions. Austin made his comment during a keynote discussion with Fox News anchor Bret Baier at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California. Pointing out how China has been launching multiple air operations near Taiwan in recent months, Baier asked Austin, "Do you think that these are training flights for future operations?" Austin noted that he didn't want to speculate, but said, "Certainly, it looks like them exploring what their true capabilities [are], and sure,...

PART 2 OF 3. The Hunter Biden Files Hunter Biden and his business partners were involved in discussions about possible deals in dozens of foreign countries, often corrupt backwaters, at times invoking official channels like ambassadors, emails reviewed by The Daily Wire show. While most attention has focused on Ukraine, where a gas company paid the now-president’s son tens of thousands of dollars a month while he was in deep crack addiction, and China, Hunter and his partners at a consultancy called Rosemont Seneca were eager to do business in a vast array of other places. The map below highlights...

BURBANK, CA—At the entertainment giant’s world headquarters, Disney Imagineers showed off new technology that uses artificial intelligence to scan the more than 700 episodes of “The Simpsons” and replace Bart Simpson’s probably-offensive catchphrase “Cowabunga!” with the much less problematic and more profitable catchphrase “Taiwan is not a sovereign state, dude!” Sam Carter, Disney’s Executive Vice President of Tyrant Placation, gushed over the technological achievement. “This new AI process is truly a great leap forward,” said Carter. “It allows us to instantly scan hundreds of hours of audio for Bart’s previous catchphrase, which is probably very offensive. We haven’t really looked...

Taiwan has offered a message of thanks to Australia in the wake of Peter Dutton’s stern warning to China not to invade the small island nation or risk destabilising the entire region. Taiwan has also asked for closer relations with Canberra in an attempt to strengthen ties. In an interview with The Australian, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said he was thankful for the Australian government’s escalating concerns and said the comments were helping to de-escalate conflict in the region. He told the newspaper that while his country was capable of defending itself, Australia’s support for Taiwan was helping to preserve...

On this date in 2008, Chinese biochemist and businessman Wo Weihan was shot for espionage along with his alleged co-conspirator Guo Wanjun. Wo was arrested in China in January 2005 and accused of passing “state secrets” to Taiwan and the U.S. He didn’t have a lawyer until 2006 — by which time he had produced a coerced confession that he tried in vain to retract — and the 2007 trial took place in secret, so the case against him was troublingly opaque at the time of his execution. The verdict publicly released in March 2008 even included such trifles as...

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has warned that all Australian major cities are within range of Chinese missiles and claims the conquest of Taiwan will be the first domino to fall in a campaign by Beijing to dominate the Indo-Pacific region. In the most aggressive anti-China speech by an Australian minister in decades, Mr Dutton said on Friday the world could not repeat the mistakes of the 1930s when Western powers ignored the rapid militarisation of Japan and Germany.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. But that loyalty is being tested amid a dispute with Washington over the terms of its “Compact of Free Association” agreement, which expires soon. The U.S. is refusing to engage the Marshallese on claims for environmental and health damage caused by dozens of nuclear tests it carried out in the 1940s and ’50s, including a huge thermonuclear blast on Bikini Atoll.... ... China...

...As residents took to the streets on Friday after the end of a 36-hour lockdown in Honiara, however, there was not yet any sign of the Australian peacekeepers, according to local journalist Georgina Kekea. And rioting continued in the center and east of the city. “It still hasn’t settled,” Kekea said in an interview. “I’ve been to Chinatown. There is basically nothing left there. There are only six buildings that are still standing, but otherwise most of the shops have been looted and burned. Scavengers are now … trying to look for whatever they can to carry back home.”.. ...Many...

A U.S. congresswoman on Thursday (Nov. 25) announced on Twitter that she had landed in the "Republic of Taiwan" as she joined a delegation of U.S. lawmakers on a surprise visit to the country. A 17-member, bipartisan delegation of U.S. representatives and congressional staff members, including Mark Takano, Elissa Slotkin, Colin Allred, Sara Jacobs, and Nancy Mace, landed at Taipei Songshan Airport aboard a C-40 Clipper military transport plane on Thursday evening.

The Solomon Islands Prime Minister is blaming foreign powers for encouraging civil unrest in the Pacific nation, as Australian police officers arrive in the country to help quell rioting. Protests in the capital Honiara quickly spiralled out of the control of local police, with arson and looting in the Chinatown district and the city centre, and crowds threatening to disrupt parliament. A mixture of grievances have fueled the protests, but the government's decision in 2019 to switch diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China is the main source of the conflict...

Joe Biden has invited Taiwan to a virtual summit on democracy alongside more than 100 countries -- a move that sparked indignation from authoritarian China, which is not on the list.Taiwan thanked Biden for the invitation and said the gathering would be a rare opportunity for the self-ruled democracy to burnish its credentials on the world stage."Through this summit, Taiwan can share its democratic success story," Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang told reporters.China said it "firmly opposed" the inclusion of an island it regards as "an inalienable part of Chinese territory". Beijing claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory...

After being denied entry into a convenience store for being unmasked, a Taiwanese man lost his cool, fatally stabbing the store clerk who asked him to put on a face mask. The stabbing took place outside a convenience store in Taoyuan early Nov 21 morning, FocusTaiwan reported. Police said that the suspect, a 41-year-old man surnamed Chiang, tried to enter the convenience store at 4am, but was stopped and asked to put on a mask by the store clerk Tsai. Shortly after, Chiang put on a mask and returned to the store. After browsing some shelves, he got into an...

Today was supposed to be a joint press conference between the Three Amigos: Joe Biden, the puddingheaded president of the United States; Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexico Prime Minister who once called Biden the migrant president; and Justin "I Feel Pretty" Trudeau, Canada's walking pile of soy and hair goop. They were SUPPOSED to hold a joint press conference, but the White House canceled it. Bloomberg's Justin Sink asked what's up with that: "The most recent data point is yesterday where you guys had to clean up not only this Olympic comment, but his comment on the timing for...

<p>In an editorial published Sunday in the Global Times, China condemned Lithuania for opening a representative office for Taiwan on Thursday, and warned that it would take swift actions if other nations do the same.</p><p>China views self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory under a 'One China ' policy and has continuously stepped up pressure for other countries to sever any relations that could threaten its claim.</p>

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said on Sunday that he does not expect China to launch a full-on military attack on Taiwan in the next decade. During an appearance on CNN, Kissinger told host Fareed Zakaria that the "ultimate creation of one China" is the objective of Chinese policy, but he doesn’t expect Beijing to use military force in the near future.

News AnalysisIn the past, countries allowed Beijing to dictate their relationship with Taiwan, under threat of economic sanctions. Gradually, free democracies are increasing their engagement with the island nation, in spite of the Chinese regime’s bullying.Over the past few years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has become more and more belligerent, while attempting to dictate the foreign policy of other countries. An increasing number of nations, however, have been defying China’s demands, and voting their conscience, in spite of threats or reprisals from Beijing.Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with the Dalai Lama in 2008, which angered the Chinese regime....

President Joe Biden walked back a comment apparently describing Taiwan as “independent” on Tuesday after dictator Xi Jinping threatened Biden in a virtual meeting that those supporting the island nation would get “burned.” After an event on infrastructure in New Hampshire, Biden told reporters he made it very clear to Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping during their video conference that the United States supported the 1979 Taiwan Act.

Australia has been warned of a heavy attack if it helps the United States defend Taiwan from China. It follows comments by Defence Minister Peter Dutton, that implied Australia would support America. Hu Xijin, the Editor-in-Chief of China’s state-run Global Times newspaper, tweeted the threat.