Free Republic

Beijing has succeeded in recruiting spies from the island’s armed forces TAIPEI – For more than 20 years, Xie Xizhang presented himself as a Hong Kong businessman on visits to Taiwan. He now stands accused of having another mission: recruiting spies for China. On one trip in 2006, Xie met a senior retired Taiwanese navy officer, Chang Pei-ning, over a meal, according to official documents accusing the pair of espionage. Chang would become one of Xie’s agents, the documents allege, helping him penetrate Taiwan’s active military leadership as part of a long-running Chinese operation to build a spy ring among...

Chinese state-run media says 'PLA will heavily attack US troops who come to Taiwan's rescue' China's state-run media on Thursday (Dec. 9) warned that Chinese forces would attack U.S. troops if they attempted to come to Taiwan's aid when the "reunification force" invades. On Tuesday (Dec. 7), U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that his country would "take every action" to ensure that a scenario in which Russia and China simultaneously invade Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively, "never happens." In an editorial posted on Thursday, China's state-owned Global Times attempted to cast doubt about America's willingness to defend Taiwan in...

WATCH VIDEO! Lebanese journalist Pierre Abi Saab said on Al-Manar TV (Hizbullah-Lebanon) on November 30, 2021 that the American Embassy in Lebanon is a military base and that they are turning it into a fortress. He said that this would not help the Americans and that they will leave Lebanon horizontally like they left Vietnam, as Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said. Pierre Abi Saab: "The [American] embassy in Awkar is a military base. Technically, it is not called a base, but... They are building it while they are dismantling their missiles in the Gulf..." Interviewer: "The pictures of the building...

Thanh Hoa has suspended the use of a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine batch after over 120 students were hospitalized following their inoculation. Since November 30, the central province has been vaccinating children aged 15-17 with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. However, over 120 of the children were admitted to hospitals after exhibiting symptoms like nausea, high fever or breathing difficulties, the provincial Center for Disease Control (CDC) said Thursday. Of these, 17 had severe reactions, but their health has stabilized and they continue to be monitored at the hospital, the center said. The cause of their symptoms has yet to be confirmed...

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,...

A man from an opium-smoking village in Vietnam was imprisoned for more than two years not for drugs but because he converted to Christianity. Mission News Network reported that Thuan, not his real name, was arrested by the police a few months after he converted to Christianity. Thuan grew up in a village renowned for smoking opium and excessive drinking but was invited to the nearby village two years ago to have dinner with a local missionary named Pastor Dang, also not his real name. The leader of the said ministry, whose name was not disclosed, told Mission News Network...

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.

It took half a century to get a chance to say the words. Just “thank you.” That’s all. For Jim Roberts, this desire had become a fixation, part of a years-long process of coming to terms with the darkness he’d seen as an Army lieutenant in the Vietnam War. The women he wanted to thank were “Donut Dollies,” two among 600 women working with the American Red Cross who traveled to Vietnam to give a few hours of respite to troops longing for home, to play word games or just sit and chat. A forced landing by a helicopter with...

CommentaryFor far too long, China has been the “world’s factory.” That sweater you’re wearing, check the tag. Does it say “Made in China”? Everything, it seems, is made in China—the Walmart of the World.Last year, as other countries were crippled by the pandemic, China’s manufacturing output, according to a Time report, was $3.854 trillion, “accounting for nearly a third of the global market.”As the journalist Srivatsa Krishna has noted, China’s manufacturing output is now “equal to that of the US, Japan and Germany” combined. Moreover, as the world’s largest exporter of goods, China appears to be in a much stronger...

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.

Video Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt3vns42Nd8From Youtube: The message coming out of China is getting louder by the day. It doesn't like other countries, especially Australia, ganging up and meddling in its affairs. As we know Beijing is currently doing its best to punish us economically, but in the last few days President Xi Jinping has also ratcheted up the rhetoric by warning of the perils of a new cold war. A loose translation is if we don't stop poking the panda, we'll face serious consequences. Now it's worth taking the threat seriously because Xi controls the largest military force in the world,...

Sgt. 1st Class Doug Kirby curled up, broken and burned, on the ground in front of the flaming Army fuel depot. Nothing remained of his left leg but a bloody stump. Kirby enlisted in the Army in 1961 and was a sergeant first class by the time he arrived at Qui Nhon, South Vietnam, in June 1970. In the hours just after midnight that morning — June 5, 1970 — Kirby had been guarding the fuel farm at Qui Nhon, South Vietnam.

The United States is setting up its own version of the 'Iron Dome' on the Pacific Ocean island of Guam as it begins testing the missile-defense system on the heels of China flexing its military might. Soldiers from Fort Bliss, Texas flew to the US territory weeks ago to help set up the Iron Dome, according to a spokesman for the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command. The system arrived on Guam last week. ....

<p>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran seized a Vietnamese-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman last month and still holds the vessel off Bandar Abbas, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.</p><p>One of the officials said paramilitary Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops took control of the MV Southys on Oct. 24 at gunpoint. U.S. forces had monitored the seizure, but ultimately didn't take action as the vessel went into Iranian waters.</p>

China has been threatening war over Taiwan and has grown increasingly aggressive towards its neighbors and adversaries around the world. There has been a lot of speculation about how an authoritarian state like China would fare against a Western democracy like the United States. We discuss that plus India's relationship with Taiwan, the US-India alliance, and the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region. Joining us in this episode is Professor M.D. Nalapat, the director of the department of geopolitics and international relations at India’s Manipal University. .....

WASHINGTON (AP) — China’s growing military muscle and its drive to end American predominance in the Asia-Pacific is rattling the U.S. defense establishment. American officials see trouble quickly accumulating on multiple fronts — Beijing’s expanding nuclear arsenal, its advances in space, cyber and missile technologies, and threats to Taiwan. “The pace at which China is moving is stunning,” says Gen. John Hyten, the No. 2-ranking U.S. military officer, who previously commanded U.S. nuclear forces and oversaw Air Force space operations. At stake is a potential shift in the global balance of power that has favored the United States for decades....

The Biden administration has failed to enforce the U.S.-China phase one trade agreement. There are serious concerns about the enforcement mechanism of the deal as China's purchases fall behind targets. In the trade deal signed in January 2020, Beijing promised to purchase about $200 billion of US goods and services over 2020, 2021 compared with 2017 levels. We've noted on multiple occasions how China was never going to live up to the deal, and nearly two years later, it still hasn't. Top Biden officials have tried to reassure that the deal is still intact and said the administration would hold...

The US Navy successfully tested a booster rocket motor to launch a hypersonic vehicle on Thursday. The test comes a week after China stunned the world with the launch of its hypersonic missile.A "static firing" of the hypersonic rocket booster motor was conducted in Promontory, Utah, according to a Navy statement.The US Navy "successfully conducted a second test of the First Stage Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) on October 28, 2021, in Promontory, Utah, as part of the development of the Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) offensive hypersonic strike capability and the Army's Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW).""Today's successful test brings...

[P]ushed about whether the United States would defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack, Biden added: "Yes. Yes, we have a commitment to do that." The remark quickly made headlines, as the U.S. policy for decades has been one of "strategic ambiguity" toward how it would respond to such an attack. The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act commits the U.S. to support Taiwan, including providing it defensive capabilities, but not necessarily to engage in a military conflict. After Biden’s remarks, the White House soon clarified the comment, and said the President was not abandoning strategic ambiguity. A White House spokesperson told Fox...

(Reuters) - An estimated 30 million to 50 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine made early this year sits idle in Emergent BioSolutions Inc's plant in Baltimore awaiting a green light from U.S. regulators to ship, two sources familiar with the matter said. The exact number of doses sitting idle cannot be determined, the source said, because Emergent only makes raw vaccine substance and does not fill vials with finished product. The FDA in April halted operations at Emergent's production facility after J&J's vaccine was found to be contaminated with material from AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) COVID-19 shots, which were...