China’s Lessons From Russia’s War in Ukraine

SAN FRANCISCO — China is learning from Russia’s troubled war in Ukraine to improve its battle strategies and prepare for economic sanctions if Beijing ever attacks self-ruled Taiwan, experts believe.

The country may also be looking harder at peaceful solutions for Taiwan, they say.

Russia is facing stronger-than-expected military resistance in Ukraine since its invasion on February 24, especially in the streets, along with stiff Western-led economic sanctions and stepped-up military aid from abroad.

Share

Shanghai’s Lockdowns Result in Starvation and Quarantine Enforcers Being Attacked

The situation has grown increasingly dire: Two people who tried to leave their apartment to walk their dog were confronted by a COVID prevention worker who they ended up attacking. At least one man allegedly tried to get the cops to apprehend him so he could at least have food to eat. Meanwhile, people who end up in central quarantine—state-administered facilities where COVID-positive people are sometimes sent so others in their apartment buildings don’t get sick—complain about the fact that it’s so unhygienic, it may well be facilitating greater spread of the virus (or even reinfection). Shared rooms, no running water, broken toilets (or disgusting ones shared by hundreds of people), and people crammed into overflow beds in hospital hallways have grown to be expected by the city’s increasingly angry residents.

Share

China Taking Over Africa: ‘China’s Second Continent’

China continues to deepen its engagement in Africa on all levels. Recently it engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity with African countries. In March alone, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held bilateral talks with his African counterparts in Algeria, Egypt, The Gambia, Niger, Somalia, Tanzania and Zambia. The talks came only two months after Wang Yi visited Eritrea, Kenya and Comoros. Also in March, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone conversation with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, during which the two spoke about deepening cooperation between the two countries. Ramaphosa affirmed that he supports China’s policies on Taiwan, Tibet, and other “major issues”.

Share

China kills pets, starves citizens in COVID lockdowns

Reason Magazine reports that pets are being killed and citizens left without adequate food in China’s lockdowns aimed at controlling the coronavirus.

Just more video proof how the zero covid policy is slowly killing more people than covid itself. 5 Stars! (He’s probably dead now)

Pets filled up in bags for their duly execution in Shanghai, China as a part of the government’s Covid response.

People Screaming out of Their Windows After a Week of Total Lockdown in Shanghai.

Share

GOLDSTEIN: Replacing fossil fuels with green energy trades one dictator for another

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other global leaders, especially in Europe, are touting wind and solar power to end Europe’s dependency on Russia for 45% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil.

They claim it’s the solution to global energy security threatened by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Share

Chinese Communist Party is ‘World’s Common Enemy’: Victor Davis Hanson

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a common enemy of the free world and would prefer Taiwan to be destroyed than remain independent, according to military historian Victor Davis Hanson.

CCP leaders hoped that Russia would win the war in Ukraine, Hanson said during a recent interview with EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program, because it would vindicate the regime’s own imperial ambitions.

“If the Chinese had a choice between an independent Taiwan or a destroyed Taiwan that they were responsible for, they would take the destroyed Taiwan,” Hanson said. “In other words, they say ‘we own Taiwan, and we don’t really care that it has been leveled.’”

Share

Report: ‘Slave Labor‘-Fueled Chinese Fleet Destroying Fishing Industry in West Africa

The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), a London-based non-governmental organization, this week published a report on the destructive, largely unregulated, and often illegal operations of China’s immense deep-water fishing fleet.

An especially disturbing chapter of the report dealt with the harmful impact of Chinese fishing on West African nations, where entire coastal communities tremble on the verge of economic collapse thanks to China’s rapacious practices.

Share

DEA Administrator: ‘China Is Providing Chemicals‘ ‘to the Criminal Drug Networks‘ That Are ‘Mass-Producing‘ Fentanyl Pills

During an interview with ABC on Tuesday aired on Tuesday’s edition of “Nightline,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram stated that China provides chemicals “to Mexico, to the criminal drug networks that are then mass-producing” fake prescription pills that are sold as though they’re prescription drugs, but are actually laced with fentanyl.

Share

Will the U.S. Lead or Continue to ‘Lose Ground’?

The world is seeing Vladimir Putin’s clear plan to reestablish the Russian Empire. It also is hearing rumblings from Asia about restoration of a Chinese dynasty, and in the Middle East, a return to when Persia — now an extremely different Iran — dominated the region.

For any of these empires to expand, they need to take control of other states or groups of people. Those states can either be overrun and annexed, or they can be controlled and remain smaller, more manageable political units. Today, Russia in Ukraine is the focus, but the aspirations of China and Iran must not be ignored.

Russia, China and Iran are all totalitarian regimes with authoritarian leaders. Russia by its actions in Syria and Ukraine, as well as Iran for its actions in the Middle East, easily can be identified as terrorist states. China — with its genocide against the Uyghurs, its illegal seizure of Hong Kong, and its continuing threats against Taiwan — should also be designated that way.

Share

‘Big guy’ reemerges in Hunter Biden grand jury: Report

A grand jury witness was asked to identify the infamous “big guy” mentioned in discussions regarding a Chinese business deal involving the president’s son Hunter Biden, according to a new report.

The question came up after this person, who was not identified, was shown a piece of evidence before the grand jury, located in Wilmington, Delaware, a source told the New York Post. The answer that was given was not reported, though some have claimed the “big guy” is President Joe Biden, raising the prospect that the commander in chief could be drawn into a federal criminal investigation. So far, the White House has been adamant in asserting that the president is not involved and that Hunter Biden, 52, did not commit any crimes.

Share

China Undercuts Sanctions on Russia: Where Are the ‘Consequences’?

Despite tough Western sanctions on Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has now lasted for more than a month and Putin is showing no signs of backing down. The power helping him to withstand the effects of the sanctions and continue the war is Russia’s most powerful ally — China.

Shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russia and China entered into contracts worth hundreds of billions of dollars. On February 4, Putin announced new Russian oil and gas deals with China worth an estimated $117.5 billion. On February 18, six days before the invasion, Russia announced a $20 billion deal to sell 100 million tons of coal to China. On the day of the invasion, China, lifting restrictions that had been in place previously due to concerns about plant diseases, agreed to buy Russian wheat.

Share

Corporate America’s Hypocrisy

 

There’s something heartening about the way corporate America has rushed to cut ties with its operations in Russia. But the quick, sweeping moves offer a strange contrast to the way corporate America has rarely if ever uttered a critical word about the government of China despite its ongoing genocide of the Uyghurs, its human-rights abuses, its oppression of Hong Kong, its threats toward Taiwan, etc.

In fact, corporate America might be getting tough on the Russian government in hopes that people forget how much it has groveled to Beijing and obeyed the wishes of the equally autocratic, equally aggressive and abusive Chinese government.

Share

China Takes Over the Solomon Islands — And the Pacific

The Solomon Islands Campaign: Guadalcanal

On March 25, the Solomon Islands announced it was “expanding” security arrangements, “diversifying the country’s security partnership including with China.”

The announcement was defensive. The day before, opponents of a security pact with China leaked what was labeled a “draft” agreement. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s government did not confirm the authenticity of the leaked document, but observers believe he intends that version to be final. Australia, which expressed “great concern,” confirmed the draft as authentic.

The pact, titled “Framework Agreement Between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of Solomon Islands on Security Cooperation,” highlights a disturbing trend: China, after years of persistent commercial, diplomatic, and military efforts, is taking over the Pacific.

Share

Why China Won’t Break With Russia Over Ukraine

The Chinese authorities are confronting serious problems over Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. On the one hand, the closeness of relations between Beijing and Moscow is at its highest level in years. As far as Beijing is concerned, Russia’s importance stems from its role as a supplier of raw materials and its value as a geopolitical ally in the confrontational relationship with the United States thrust upon China during Donald Trump’s presidency. Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed the situation in the famous formula in January 2021, when he stated that Sino-Russian strategic cooperation had no limit, no forbidden zones, and no ceiling. A year later, China and Russia reinforced this political line in a joint statement adopted during a visit by President Vladimir Putin to China, in which, for the first time, Beijing associated itself clearly with Russia’s demands to halt the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansion, as well as calling on the organization, jointly with Moscow, “to abandon its ideologized cold war approaches, to respect the sovereignty, security and interests of other countries, the diversity of their civilizational, cultural and historical backgrounds, and to exercise a fair and objective attitude towards the peaceful development of other States.”

Share