Important Takeaways:
- The United States must prepare for possible simultaneous wars with Russia and China by expanding its conventional forces, strengthening alliances and enhancing its nuclear weapons modernization program, a congressionally appointed bipartisan panel said on Thursday.
- The report from the Strategic Posture Commission comes amid tensions with China over Taiwan and other issues and worsening frictions with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
- “We worry … there may be ultimate coordination between them in some way, which gets us to this two-war construct,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
- The findings would upend current U.S. national security strategy calling for winning one conflict while deterring another and require huge defense spending increases with uncertain congressional support.
- The report contrasts with U.S. President Joe Biden’s position that the current U.S. nuclear arsenal is sufficient to deter the combined forces of Russia and China.
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Important Takeaways:
- DeSantis calls for policy reversal at southern border — says system ‘spits in the faces of those who respect our laws’
- Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis called for a reversal of policies at the southwest land border that has seen record surges of illegal immigrants, while recent reports showed thousands of migrants had been apprehended from the middle east.
- “I would also ask the president to consider reversing his policies on the southern border. We are vulnerable when you have all these military-age men coming in. Do you think that our enemies have not been looking at that weakness?”
- “We know people from Iran have come, we know people from Russia have come, and we know China and other parts of the Middle East.
- Israel probably has the strongest border security in the world, and yet, this happened to them,” the governor added.
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Important Takeaways:
- China wants to be a peace broker in the Middle East. How has it responded to the Israel-Gaza war?
- When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Beijing in June, China vowed to contribute “Chinese wisdom, Chinese strength” to resolve the long-standing conflict between the Palestinians and Israel.
- That pledge, coming on the heels of a Beijing-brokered rapprochement between bitter rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, was widely seen as part of China’s ambition to expand its diplomatic clout in the Middle East – a region traditionally dominated by US power.
- A few months on, Beijing’s offer to broker peace in one of the world’s most intractable conflicts is being tested by a fresh outbreak of war between Israel and Gaza, after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel.
- So far, China’s response to the crisis – which has left at least 1,200 Israelis dead alongside 950 Palestinians and thousands more wounded or displaced – has been a bland call for restraint from both sides, with no condemnation of Hamas for a rampage that unleashed the killing of civilians and kidnapping of hostages, including children and the elderly.
- As condemnations against Hamas poured in from the United States, Europe and much of Asia, Africa and Latin America, Beijing refrained from calling out the group and sought to present itself as a neutral party in the conflict.
- US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was in Beijing for a bipartisan congressional visit, also expressed his disappointment with China’s response during a meeting with Xi on Monday.
- “I say this with respect but I’m disappointed by the foreign ministry’s statement showing no sympathy or support for the Israeli people during these tragic times,”
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Important Takeaways:
- Taiwan has made an important move toward modernizing its submarine force, with the launch of the country’s first domestically-made submarine. The advanced diesel-electric design is part of a program that seeks to eventually field eight new boats for a much-needed overhaul of Taiwan’s aging submarine force, one that will still be vastly outnumbered by China’s fast-growing underwater armada.
- Reportedly coming with a price tag of $1.54 billion, the new submarine was built by Taiwan’s China Shipbuilding Corporation (CSBC Corp.).
- According to reports from Taiwan, the new submarine is around 260 feet long and has a displacement of between 2,460 and 2,950 tons. Although unconfirmed, the Hai Kun is thought to feature some form of air-independent propulsion (AIP) system, which should greatly increase the time it can stay submerged and make it harder to detect. Otherwise, the appearance of the new submarine is immediately reminiscent of the Dutch-built Hai Lung class boats that Taiwan already operates.
- A second boat of the same design is now under construction and is reportedly expected to enter service in 2027.
- Eventually, Taiwan aims to operate a fleet of 10 submarines — the eight Hai Kun class boats plus two older Hai Lung class boats, built in the Netherlands in the mid-1980s but subject to a mid-life upgrade that began in 2016.
- Despite Beijing recently talking of its goal of peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan, officials on the island and in the United States have repeatedly warned that, while not necessarily imminent, a Chinese military operation is certainly a possibility within the next few years.
- Many have suggested that 2027 — which also marks the centenary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army — is the year China could be capable of invading Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also instructed the PLA to be prepared to conduct a successful invasion of Taiwan by no later than that date.
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Important Takeaways:
- Exclusive – Alex Marlow’s ‘Breaking Biden’: China-Linked University of Delaware Biden Partnership Was Hunter’s ‘Baby,’ Part of ‘Wealth Creation’ Strategy
- While media reports have focused University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center, less attention has been paid to University of Delaware’s Biden Institute, even though these two “institutes” were opened on the same day and meant to serve a shared goal of being incubators of advancing globalism and leftism. The UPenn Biden Center became a pipeline for longtime Biden allies into his administration, and, as previously reported by Peter Schweizer, proceeded a suspicious influx in Chinese donations to the university.
- Together with a Penn Biden office in DC, the two entities that would be the public-facing “stage” for the “Biden Brand.”
- The key players at the University of Delaware’s Biden Institute were either Biden family members, people with deep ties to China, or both
- This money from China is cause for alarm given that UD has thirty-seven international partnerships with Chinese universities, including several that support the development of Chinese military technologies. The most logical reasons for the Chinese to engage in these partnerships is that they want to influence American institutions, acquire American intellectual property, or both
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Important Takeaways:
- China and Russia: The New Axis of Evil
- Xi has been eyeing the South and East China Seas, coopting the Solomon Islands, building and militarizing his own artificial islands, and threatening not only Taiwan, but neighbors such as Australia, India and Japan.
- Putin seized and occupied territory in Georgia in 2008, and Ukraine in 2014 (Crimea) and 2023, not to mention his relentless bellicosity towards the Baltic states and eastern Europe.
- There are mounting concerns… in Western security circles that in return for providing any uplift in military support for Russia, Kim wants Moscow to provide technical assistance for his missile and satellite programs, which would seriously enhance North Korea’s ability to threaten the West with its nuclear arsenal.
- Any attempt by Russia to help improve North Korea’s military strength will also benefit China’s Communist rulers: it will provide North Korea with the ability to intensify the threat that all three countries pose to the US and its allies — and to global security.
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Important Takeaways:
- China’s ‘CEO Whisperers’: Chinese Communist Party Takes Over Canada
- “When I look… at the subtle but intense influence of China on Canadian institutions — parliaments, provincial governments, local governments, universities, the intellectual community, the policy community — it makes me deadly worried,” said Australian professor Clive Hamilton, author of Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World (co-authored by Mareike Ohlberg), speaking to Canada’s National Post in 2019. “I’ve met some very well-informed Canadians who aren’t sure Canada will be able to extricate itself from this situation.”
- Hamilton, who “blew the whistle on Australia says Canada is in even worse trouble.”
- “I was pretty dismayed at the extent of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence in the federal Parliament. I should probably not say any more to stay on the right side of the libel laws… My response is to ask what are the authorities doing about this…? I think that’s the real measure of China’s influence.”
- Despite leaked intelligence reports about Chinese interference in Canada’s last two federal elections in 2019 and 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has refused to hold a public probe into the matter.
- “The CCP’s basic strategy of overseas influence and interference is to capture elites in politics, business, media, think tanks, universities, and cultural institutions…It deploys a range of techniques including flattery, financial inducement, exploitation of anti-racist and anti-American sentiment, bribery, and honey traps… Key figures in the Liberal Party have long historical ties to the CCP, not least through business connections…” — Clive Hamilton, thehub.ca, June 2, 2023.
- China has reportedly openly been trying to influence [Canadian PM] Justin Trudeau for the past ten years. One unnamed CSIS source said that the CCP had its eyes on Justin Trudeau well before he became prime minister.
- .. is a real threat to Canada’s sovereignty. “Recent Chinese actions and announcements are pointing to Beijing’s determination to have a military capability in the region that will exceed that of Canada.” — Rob Hueber, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and associate professor of political science at the University of Calgary, Globe and Mail, August 25, 2023.
- “What has not received as much attention is a research paper, published in 2021, in which Chinese scientists explain their success in developing Arctic-resilient underwater listening systems. The paper says the listening systems are for peaceful purposes, but the actual ramifications of the HABs, buoys and research systems are inescapable. China is refining its means of monitoring the Canadian North…
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Important Takeaways:
- China deploys over 40 planes to Taiwan Strait, is massing forces at coastal military bases, Taiwan warns
- “This year, the Chinese Communist Party has aggressively expanded its armaments and continued to build various types of fighter jets and drones,” Maj. Gen. Huang Wen-Chi said of the report. “The information we have received is that all important military bases along the coast … are being continuously updated.”
- The Chinese military also sent nearly two dozen warplanes on a sortie near Taiwan’s territory Tuesday morning. The Defense Ministry reported that 22 Chinese warplanes and 20 warships entered the Taiwan Strait and that 13 of the aircraft crossed the median line, which has historically served as a demarcation line for military activity.
- On Monday, China deployed one of its three aircraft carriers, the Shandong, to the Taiwan strait. The carrier group sailed within 70 miles of the island and conducted various drills.
- Displays of military power around Taiwan have become a regular strategy for China, often resorting to the practice when a Taiwanese official has an undesirable meeting with the U.S.
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Important Takeaways:
- What Will America Be Like Under Biden’s Digital Dollar? Look At Communist China
- Biden’s executive order gave the game away by stating that a U.S. digital dollar must ensure ‘financial inclusion and equity’ and monitor or mitigate ‘climate change and pollution.’
- President Joe Biden issued a sweeping executive order last year on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which “places the highest urgency on research and development efforts into the potential design and deployment options of a United States CBDC.”
- But experiences in China, a nation that launched a digital currency in 2020, have shown that a CBDC considerably expands government power at the expense of individual freedom.
- According to The Wall Street Journal, the Chinese digital yuan is programable, and “Beijing has tested expiration dates to encourage users to spend it quickly, for times when the economy needs a jump start.”
- Even before the digital yuan’s issuance, those Chinese citizens who received lower social credit scores due to “bad behaviors” struggled to live an everyday life. Many couldn’t travel because they were unable to buy plane or train tickets, some were denied school or employment opportunities, and some pet owners even had their pets confiscated.
- The digital yuan has enabled the Chinese government to reprimand human rights activists, religious practitioners, and government critics in new and terrifying ways: by instantly deducting fines from their bank accounts, confiscating their wealth, or banishing them from China’s digital payment system completely. Knowing they won’t be able to survive for a day in a cashless society is frightening enough to silence most dissenting voices.
- Anyone who assumes the U.S. and other democracies will not abuse CBDCs like China has done is delusional. The Covid-19 pandemic revealed how quickly democratically elected governments in the West expanded their powers and intruded on citizens’ economic and political freedom in the name of public health.
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Important Takeaways:
- Pope Francis: Vatican’s Relationship with China is ‘Very, Very Respectful’
- Pope Francis said Monday that the Vatican is walking a “friendly path” with China, insisting that “relations are moving forward” on both sides.
- “The relationship with China is very respectful, very respectful. I personally have great admiration for the Chinese people,” the pontiff told reporters aboard the papal plane returning to Rome from Mongolia.
- The pope was asked why he urged Chinese Catholics to be “good citizens” after Beijing denied permission for Chinese bishops to travel to Mongolia for the papal visit.
- Pope Francis has faced widespread criticism for his policy of appeasement with the CCP, demonstrated by his unwillingness to call out China’s egregious human rights violations toward the Uyghur Muslims and other groups.
- “While the Vatican has reached a provisional agreement with China on the issue of episcopal appointments, reports of persecution by the Chinese government persist as underground churches are closed and their priests detained, crosses destroyed, bibles confiscated, and children under 18 forbidden from attending Mass and receiving religious instruction,” the U.S. bishops said in a 2020 communiqué.
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