Tag: china

Rep. Michael McCaul Says Drones Seen Flying Over US Military Sites are ‘Adversarial’ and Likely Coming from Communist China

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has raised alarms over unidentified drones observed near U.S. military installations, suggesting they may be adversarial and likely of Chinese origin.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, one of America’s most vital military installations, faced an unsettling breach of its airspace over the weekend, reigniting concerns about the security of critical U.S. defense facilities.

Mysterious drones buzzed over the Ohio base, forcing the temporary closure of its Class Delta airspace late Friday night and into Saturday morning.

According to base spokesman Bob Purtiman, the origin of the drones remains unidentified, and their intentions are officially deemed “not malicious.”

“I can confirm small aerial systems were spotted over Wright Patterson between Friday night and Saturday morning,” base spokesman Bob Purtiman told The War Zone on Sunday.

“Today leaders have determined that they did not impact base residents, facilities, or assets. The Air Force is taking all appropriate measures to safeguard our installations and residents,” he added.

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Biden Administration Launches Task Force on Chinese Censorship, Drawing Criticism for Hypocrisy in Domestic Free Speech Policies

The Biden-Harris administration on has revealed it was setting up an action group to “monitor and address the effects” of any censorship or intimidation of Americans by China.

Signed by President Joe Biden, the memorandum addressed heads of executive departments and agencies, while the task force is to be led by the assistant to the president for National Security Affairs and the director of the National Economic Council.

This move comes after the administration spent the past four years doubling and tripling down on policies encouraging unprecedented censorship at home and being sued and investigated for colluding (through pressure via third parties) with social platforms and other tech companies to do its (unconstitutional) bidding.

Hypocrisy this may be, but that might be the least of the problems with this sudden spur of activity by an administration that is weeks away from exiting, stage left.

If we choose to forget that many of the censorship and surveillance mechanisms that permeated the soon-to-be former administration’s activities were regularly mentioned by critics as “inspired” by those used by China’s authorities, the question remains: why establish an entirely new “task force” and why now?

The departments and agencies that will be represented at assistant secretary or above level include the departments of state, defense, treasury, commerce, agriculture, education, the Department of Homeland Security, the CIA, the FBI, the director of National Intelligence, etc. – plus, “other agencies and offices as the President may, from time to time, designate.”

Opponents of the Chinese authorities and their notorious brand of censorship welcome the move and believe it should be endorsed by the incoming Trump administration, but also – somehow – expanded to China itself.

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China’s Dark Secret: The Ongoing Tragedy of Forced Organ Harvesting

At the heart of one of the most pressing ethical debates of the 21st century lies the issue of  forced organ harvesting in China.

This practice, widely condemned internationally, has been linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime and is seen as a blatant abuse of human rights.

In particular, ethnic and religious minorities, as well as prisoners of conscience—such as practitioners of Falun Gong and Uyghurs—have been identified as the primary victims of this horrific crime.

Since 2006, independent investigations have uncovered that China has carried out thousands of organ transplants under suspicious circumstances. 

Canadian lawyers David Matas and the late David Kilgour discovered that, between 2000 and 2005, China performed over 41,500 transplants without an organized organ donation system in place. 

This raises disturbing questions, especially considering that Chinese culture traditionally does not encourage voluntary organ donation.

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The China Tribunal, an independent tribunal based in London, concluded in 2019 that  forced organ harvesting in China has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt . The court found evidence that prisoners of conscience, particularly Falun Gong practitioners, have been killed for their organ

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Biden releases Chinese prisoner arrested with 47,000 child sex abuse images

President Joe Biden has commuted the sentence of a Chinese national convicted of possessing child pornography after 47,000 files of child pornography were found on the man’s computer. The commutation was part of a prison swap between the United States and China. This comes as the Biden White House announced its “largest single-day grant of clemency” in America

According to the Financial Times, three Chinese nationals were part of a prisoner swap between China and the US last month. Two of these foreign nationals were convicted of espionage while the third pleaded guilty in 2021 to child pornography charges after 47,000 files of child sexual abuse material were found on his computer, per the Dallas Morning News.  

Jin Shanlin was set free in the uncommon prisoner swap and during his Texas trial, an FBI agent testified that his family was “connected to influential members of the Communist party in China.” 

Shanlin had been convicted and was sentenced to 97 months in prison with five years of supervised release, according to the grant of clemency issued by the Biden administration on November 22. Police found the child sex abuse material on Shanlin’s computer when they raided his home, and the material included “videos involving infants and toddlers.” 

When Shanlin was released, Chinese foreign ministry representative Mao Ning said, “This once again demonstrates that China will never abandon its compatriots under any circumstances, and the motherland will always be their strong support.” 

The two spies Xu Yanjun and Ji Chaoqun were convicted on charges related to espionage. Ji had been sentenced to 8 years in prison and had been caught trying to gather defense technology for China’s state department with Xu as a co-conspirator. 

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Chinese Hack Means Beijing Reading and Hearing All US Military and Intelligence Classified Phone Communications

There has been some limited press coverage about recent Salt Typhoon — a Chinese cyber / hacking operation — but most Americans are oblivious about what has transpired. The story is simple. Following Edward Snowden’s escape to Russia and the release of damning evidence that the US Government was spying on Americans, the US Department of Justice pressured the telecommunications giants — i.e., Verizon, ATT and T-Mobile — to create a backdoor in their network software that allows Federal law enforcement to read texts and listen to calls on classified apps. If you are using WhatsApp and think you are safe from the government’s spying eyes, think again.

Sometime before the November 5 Presidential election, the US intelligence community discovered (or learned?) that the Chinese had hacked the “backdoor” and have had full access to all US Government-issued cell phones that use a classified app for text and voice communications. A knowledgeable source told me that the compromise started in 2022 and was only recently discovered.

What does this mean? All conversations / communications over the commercial networks are (or were) being read / recorded by China. My source described the Chinese hack as something akin to the Brits, with help from Polish and American cryptologists, breaking the Enigma machine and reading classified German military traffic.

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China Police Debut Amphibious Robocop Sphere That Hunts Down Suspects

Disturbing footage features police in China patrolling streets using a spherical autonomous robot that can pursue and capture criminal suspects.

Video surfacing on social media this week shows police in an unidentified Chinese city walking down the street alongside a Logon Technology RT-G Rotunbot, which uses sophisticated technology to maneuver on water and land and can pursue suspects at up to 22 miles per hour.

China’s police robots are additionally outfitted with facial recognition cameras and can shoot nets to subdue suspects.

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Russia, China Tell Their Citizens To Evacuate Syria Immediately

In a sign of likely more bad things to come for Assad forces, Syria’s closest powerful ally Russia has ordered all of its civilian nationals to leave the country as the al-Qaeda linked group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham continues its shock offensive, making its way south from captured Aleppo area to Hama and Homs into the heart of the country.

“Russia on Friday urged its citizens to leave Syria, as rebel forces in the country press a lightning offensive against Moscow-ally Bashar al-Assad’s government,” AFP confirms.

The Russian embassy in Damascus issued an alert telling citizens “to leave the country on commercial flights through airports in operation” while underscoring “difficult military and political situation” in Syria.

China already on Thursday had issued an alert for all of its citizens to depart the country. The Chinese Embassy in Damascus told its nationals to depart “as soon as possible” at a moment the Syrian Army has been seen withdrawing from both Hama and Homs.

“At present, the war in northwestern Syria is growing tense, and the security situation in Syria is further deteriorating,” Beijing’s embassy said.

“The embassy in Syria suggests that Chinese citizens in Syria take advantage of the fact that commercial flights are still in operation to return home or leave the country as soon as possible,” it warned.

While China does not have a huge amount of citizens in Syria, Russia has long maintained deep ties to the country. There’s even a large apartment building in Damascus known to house Russian engineers and their families, which goes back decades.

Russia’s military presence in Syria is not expected to change, however. Its forces have deployed since 2015 in defense of the Assad government. Russian warplanes have been flying alongside Syrian jets, pounding insurgent positions.

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US escalates aggression in Asia-Pacific, Russia to support allies in the region

The Asia-Pacific region has been one of the most important drivers of global economic development, with numerous countries there experiencing unprecedented growth. The most prominent of these is certainly China, the world’s largest and most important economy, a fact that even the infamous CIA admits. However, it wasn’t always like this, unfortunately. There was a period when various Western powers (particularly the ever imperialist United Kingdom) were ravaging and plundering the many millennia-old civilizations in the Asia-Pacific region, brutally exploiting these countries and their populations. And no, these weren’t some obscure events from the distant past, but relatively recent developments, culminating with the US aggression on Vietnam, when Washington DC used a fabricated event as a pretext to attack yet another sovereign nation.

The resulting bloodbath can only be described as an unadulterated genocide, as the US military committed an intentional, cold-blooded murder of approximately five million people (although the number could be far higher). It should be noted that nobody in America was ever convicted for these gruesome atrocities in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Luckily, Washington DC was soundly defeated by Hanoi and forced to turn its tail and run. With the US gone, peace was established and it lasted until around a decade ago. However, America then started shifting focus to the Asia-Pacific once again, resulting in rising tensions that threaten to push the region into yet another disaster. In the last several years, the Pentagon has been setting up bases and deploying previously banned medium and intermediate-range missiles, targeting China and North Korea.

However, this isn’t enough for the warmongers and war criminals in Washington DC and they’re now sending the US Navy (USN) to begin the first permanent forward deployment of Virginia-class SSGNs (nuclear-powered guided missile submarines). According to military sources, USS “Minnesota” is to be based on Guam, where it’s “expected to facilitate more effective projection of American naval power into the Western Pacific”. The US-occupied island plays a major role in Washington DC’s aggression in the Asia-Pacific, as it’s also home to the Andersen Air Force Base, where there’s a constant rotation of fighter jets and nuclear-capable strategic bombers such as the B-52 “Stratofortress” and B-1B “Lancer”. The USN also operates another four Los Angeles-class attack submarines (SSNs) on Guam, namely the USS “Annapolis”, USS  “Asheville”, USS “Jefferson City” and USS “Springfield”.

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China Using U.S. Investor and Consumer Funds for Its Military

The People’s Republic of China is modernizing its military for a potential conflict with the United States, with Xi Jinping aiming for readiness by 2027—though a slowing economy may delay this goal.

Despite these tensions, China continues to benefit from U.S. capital markets, with significant funding for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) coming from American investors and consumers, effectively putting U.S. money to work against its own interests.

Since 2012, U.S.-China financial ties expanded significantly but have contracted since 2020 due to China’s economic slowdown, increased capital controls, and heightened U.S. government scrutiny of investments in China.

Much of this slowdown can be directly attributed to President Trump’s U.S.-China trade war, which significantly curtailed China’s access to U.S. funds.

During his first term, President Trump recognized the China threat and imposed numerous restrictions to decrease China’s access to U.S. capital.

His administration banned U.S. investments in Chinese firms linked to the military and intelligence sectors through Executive Order 13959 and pushed for the delisting of Chinese companies that failed to comply with U.S. audit requirements under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act.

The expansion of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) blocked Chinese acquisitions of U.S. firms in sensitive sectors, such as technology and infrastructure.

Trump also implemented Section 301 tariffs on over $360 billion worth of Chinese goods, reducing their competitiveness in U.S. markets. Export controls targeted critical technologies, while the federal retirement fund was barred from investing in Chinese firms.

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PRC Espionage: Are Chinese Americans Their Top Recruitment Targets?

On November 1, 2018 then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the launch of the “China Initiative” – a whole-of-government effort ostensibly designed to thwart espionage and technology theft by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Chinese American groups and activists immediately denounced the program as racially biased and its investigations improperly predicated, and in 2021 two studies provided them with ample proof that their allegations were correct.

The first was a study showing how rare it was for Chinese Americans to actually engage in espionage on behalf of the PRC. The second study chronicled the extremely high number of “China Initiative” cases that resulted in acquittals or dismissed cases. In late February 2022, the Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen announced the Department was ending the program, with Olsen telling a George Mason University crowd that he had “concluded that this initiative was not the right approach” to combatting PRC espionage and technology theft.

Three months later, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) issued a report that dealt in part with the question of whether or not PRC intelligence organizations prioritized the recruitment of Chinese Americans for spying or tech theft. That report, which was mandated by Congress, made a categorical statement about PRC intelligence asset targeting and recruitment strategy:

“It is the IC’s assessment that while the PRC promotes the false narrative that individuals of Chinese descent owe some allegiance to the PRC, neither race nor ethnicity is the primary criterion utilized by the PRC’s intelligence services in their recruitment of intelligence assets.”

But is this true? A recent trove of documents released to the Cato Institute via a Freedom of Information Act request leaves the question of whether the PRC targets Chinese Americans as potential agents.

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