Tag: china

How China Hijacks the International Human Rights System

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is using money, collaboration with authoritarian allies, and manipulation of rules to shift the international human rights system’s priorities and discussions to advance narratives and issues that are friendly to China.  For example, Beijing has secured the inclusion of independent experts in the United Nations Special Procedures system who work on issues that align with Beijing’s interests and is populating the U.N. with Government Organized NGOs (GONGOs) that act as mouthpieces for the Chinese government.  

In the past, the experts in the Special Procedures system and civil society organizations have played a crucial role in spotlighting China’s human rights abuses.  But now Beijing is utilizing them to promote issues and narratives that align with China’s interests.   

China and the U.N. Special Procedures

Among Beijing’s targets are the U.N. Special Procedures, which comprises roughly 60 independent experts who focus on a theme or country.  The Special Procedures have spoken out about the worsening repression in China, issuing over two dozen joint statements expressing alarm about the PRC’s crackdown on Hong Kong, human rights defenders, and ethnic groups, particularly the Uyghur community, with some of the statements attracting over 40 signatures.  

While the majority of Special Procedures focus on crucial human rights issues, such as torture or freedom of expression, and demonstrate integrity, China and other authoritarian countries have begun creating Special Procedures with mandates that favor their views, such as the Special Rapporteur on “Unilateral Coercive Measures,” a term intended to give sanctions a negative gloss, and the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development, to name a few.  

Even though sanctions have long been a human rights tool, including to resist apartheid in South Africa, China and other countries that have been the target of sanctions managed to secure passage of a 2014 Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution that created a Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures.  

Despite opposition from a number of liberal democracies, including the U.S., the resolution, which was introduced by Iran, created in the United Nations an independent expert to examine “the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures.” It passed following a contentious vote with support from nations such as China, Russia, and Venezuela. 

After securing the creation of this position, Beijing and other authoritarian countries have cooperated with the mandate holder and provided funding. For example, since 2015, Russia, China, and Qatar – which are categorized as “not free” by Freedom House – have donated $1,325,000 (with roughly $800,000 coming from China) to the mandate on unilateral coercive measures.  Although rapporteurs do not receive a salary from the U.N., states can use donations to a specific Special Procedure to help support the mandate holder’s work by funding travel, staff, and research assistance. Most Special Procedures receive only enough funding to cover two trips per year and one staff position to support the independent expert. Therefore, additional funding can elevate and amplify a particular Special Procedure mandate. 

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China: Fentanyl Is Not Our Problem

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun insisted on Friday that “fentanyl is the U.S.’s problem, not China’s.”

“The U.S. and the U.S. alone has the responsibility to solve it,” Guo said at a press briefing.

“Despite the goodwill China has shown, the U.S. slapped tariffs on Chinese imports and blames it on fentanyl. This is bullying through and through, and highly damaging to dialogue and cooperation on counter-narcotics,” he complained.

“The U.S. should know that vilifying others will not hide its failed responsibility, to punish those who try to help will not solve any problem, and intimidation or threats are certainly not the right way to engage with China,” he said.

Guo was responding to reports about slow progress in talks between U.S. and Chinese officials about curtailing China’s supply of precursor chemicals for the deadly fentanyl drug. U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday that the Chinese “are failing to negotiate in good faith.”

These officials said China is “exchanging intelligence about traffickers,” but its proposals to resolve the fentanyl crisis have been “inadequate.”

Also, while China might be willing to share intel about traffickers, it rarely takes serious action against illicit chemical manufacturers. This is partly because fentanyl precursor chemicals also have legitimate uses, and the Chinese government is reluctant to compromise the profits of their huge chemical companies.

“Start putting big, important people behind bars as a signal to the whole industry or black market. We just haven’t seen that,” one U.S. official said.

The Trump administration wants China to aggressively prosecute those who produce and sell fentanyl chemicals, while China is merely offering to regulate the chemicals a little more tightly. Even this offer seems largely rhetorical to U.S. negotiators, who said “talk is cheap,” but China never seems to do anything meaningful to shut down the chemical pipeline.

Trump’s first round of 20 percent tariffs on China in February was presented as punishment for China failing to take the fentanyl crisis seriously enough. China responded by saying it would do nothing further to “address the fentanyl problem” until the tariffs were lifted.

American officials noted that China is a member of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which unanimously agreed to place tighter controls on fentanyl chemicals at a March 2024 meeting in Vienna, Austria. China’s proposals to regulate more chemicals are, therefore, a “bad faith” offer to do something it already pledged to do over a year ago.

Pressed on the issue, Chinese officials have lately been repeating Guo’s talking point that fentanyl is entirely an American problem, even though no one disputes that most of the chemicals come from China.

The biggest change in fentanyl production since the first Trump term has been that China no longer ships the precursor chemicals directly to American drug dealers – instead, it ships the chemicals to Mexican cartels, who manufacture the fentanyl and smuggle it across the U.S. border. Fentanyl users and traffickers in the United States say there has been very little reduction in the supply of the drug since China promised to crack down on chemical producers.

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U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst Sentenced to 7 Years for Leaking Top-Secret Military Documents to Communist China

25-year-old former Army intelligence analyst Korbein Schultz was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison for conspiring to hand over America’s most closely guarded military secrets to a hostile foreign power: Communist China.

The disgraced soldier from Wills Point, Texas, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to transmitting sensitive defense intelligence, unlawfully exporting classified material, and accepting bribes — all in the service of a foreign adversary.

“This defendant swore an oath to defend the United States — instead, he betrayed it for a payout and put America’s military and service members at risk,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement.

She continued, “The Justice Department remains vigilant against China’s efforts to target our military and will ensure that those who leak military secrets spend years behind bars.”

From May 2022 until his arrest in March 2024, Schultz conspired with an individual from Hong Kong, whom he believed to be affiliated with the Chinese government — referred to in court filings as Conspirator A.

That individual masqueraded as a geopolitical analyst on a freelance website but quickly turned the relationship into an espionage pipeline.

For just $42,000, Schultz sold out American troops, revealing tactical and technical data, training documents, and sensitive material relating to U.S. missile defense and aerial combat capabilities.

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Chinese Spies Bugging Park Benches, Pubs Near UK Gov’t Offices: Report

Chinese spies have planted surveillance throughout central London, including on park benches and pubs near Westminster, to eavesdrop on British political figures, a report has claimed.

Government sources have reportedly informed the Mail on Sunday that Chinese bugging devices have been discovered in popular areas frequented by civil servants and government researchers.

Such areas allegedly include the popular Red Lion pub, situated just steps away from the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street. A government source told the paper that the historic pub, which stands on the grounds of a 15th-century medieval tavern, is “full of Chinese agents”.

Other targets of Beijing’s dragnet reportedly ranged from five-star hotels to even benches in St James’s Park, located between Buckingham Palace and Downing Street, and close to major government departments, such as the Foreign Office and the Treasury.

A government source told the paper: “We have been told the Chinese literally have the park bugged, with devices in the bushes and under park benches.”

“Commons researchers are regarded by the Chinese, and other spies including the Russians and Iranians, as the soft underbelly of Whitehall,” said one source.

It is said to be thought that Communist China is particularly interested in lower-level civil servants, researchers and junior staffers to parliamentarians, who Beijing sees as the “soft underbelly” of the UK state. Many such staffers often frequent the Red Lion pub or have lunch in St James Park.

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China Is In Economic Dire Straits And They’re No Longer Able To Hide It

Official economic data from any government is always treated with suspicion by anyone with common sense.  The US, for example, witnessed some of the most egregious statistical tinkering imaginable under the Biden Administration, not to mention outright lies and propaganda from the establishment media on the health of the economy.  To this day no one has been fired (or tarred and feathered) for hiding the reality of the stagflation crisis.  Any government or corporate economist that called the threat “transitory” should be stripped of their financial prestige and banished to a cash register at Arby’s.

And let’s not forget Biden’s misrepresentation of the labor market, portraying millions of new jobs for illegal migrants and visa holders as if they were jobs benefiting American citizens.  In the US and across the western world, lying about the economy is generally seen by politicians as a temporary solution to secure reelection.  However, in China, lying about the economy is treated as a national security imperative.  If there’s anything in the world that gives communists a feeling of existential dread, it’s the fear that their ideological enemies will discover proof that communism doesn’t work.

The Trump Administration’s tariffs on China are not the initiator of the nation’s troubles, they are more a bookend to a process of decline that has been ongoing for years. 

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China Expels Missionaries, Treating Christianity As Existential Threat To Totalitarianism

This week is significant for Christians worldwide, including myself, as we commemorate Jesus Christ’s death and sacrifice on Good Friday and celebrate his resurrection on Easter Sunday. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has announced new regulations that will severely restrict foreign missionaries in China starting May 1. Citing the need to combat “extremism” and protect national security, these measures threaten religious freedoms.

Under the new regulation, foreign missionaries must obtain government approval for lectures, sermons, and group activities, facing a burdensome application process that details the date, time, location, and attendees.

Additionally, the regulation includes a comprehensive set of restrictions that prohibit foreign missionaries from engaging in activities such as “Recruiting religious believers among Chinese citizens and appointing religious clergy,” “Organizing and carrying out religious education and training,” “accepting religious donations from Chinese organizations and citizens,” and producing, distributing, and selling religious materials. Violators of these restrictions may face criminal charges depending on the severity of the offense. According to Breitbart, this new regulation is designed to formally end foreign missionary activities in China.

The new regulation is the latest example of the CCP’s deep-seated animosity toward all religions, especially Christianity. Between the 1980s and early 2000s, China’s Christian population surged significantly, with estimates in 2018 indicating it may range from 100 to 200 million — outnumbering the nearly 100 million members of the CCP itself. The CCP, an atheist organization, is alarmed by the rapid growth of Christians. One of the CCP’s worst fears is that the devotion to God could erode loyalty to the party and thus threaten its very legitimacy. As a result, the CCP sees Christianity as an existential threat.

Since assuming leadership of the CCP in 2013, Xi Jinping has implemented a three-pronged strategy against all religions, particularly Christianity. This strategy involves the sinicization of religion, which entails aligning religion with Chinese culture and communism, and ensuring loyalty to the CCP. It also includes the ruthless persecution of religious believers who refuse to conform to the sinicization of religion and instead remain steadfast in their actual religious beliefs and practices. The third leg of this strategy is using laws and regulations to curb the future growth and expansion of religion.

A well-known instance of the sinicization of Christianity is the CCP’s insistence on selecting Catholic bishops. This practice clearly violates the Catholic Church’s principle that only the pope has the authority to appoint bishops. Other examples of Sinicization include authorities’ instruction that both Catholic and Protestant congregations must prioritize patriotism over religion. In some impoverished areas, local officials compelled villagers to replace posters of Jesus with portraits of Xi Jinping and Chairman Mao, despite Mao in particular being responsible for the worst mass murders in human history. Additionally, the CCP reportedly has plans to “retranslate and annotate the Bible to align with socialism and establish a correct understanding of the text.”

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China’s Defense Budget Is Bigger than You Think

During the Cold War, the United States never trusted its adversaries’ claims about their capabilities. Instead, it always sought to verify them through intelligence analysis. Today, China’s impressive and aggressive military expansion, allegedly achieved on a shoestring budget, should raise eyebrows, even from typically credulous consumers of official CCP reports. Specifically, China reported at the National People’s Congress (NPC) earlier this month that its defense budget included total expenditures of only $245 billion.

Historically, these reports are intentionally vague and conveniently oversimplified. This year’s announcement is no different. It’s hard to know what the real numbers are. Still, it’s even harder to believe China’s officially reported military budget of $245 billion, which would equate to an implausibly low 1.5 percent of GDP.

The U.S. Defense Department’s 2024 China Military Power Report estimated that China’s 2024 military budget was publicly understated by at least 40–90 percent. The DOD has not yet released its 2025 China Military Power Report, but we can infer from perennial experience that the same is true again this year; China’s real military expenditure, accounting for all (or at least some) “off-budget spending,” probably amounts to between $330 and $450 billion. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) has estimated the real Chinese defense budget is as high as $700 billion—and that was last year.

The CCP has expanded its military budget by at least 7.2 percent for two consecutive years. However, that figure itself also comes from official CCP reports and should be regarded with skepticism.

Consider the People’s Liberation Army’s substantial gains in hypersonic missile technology, stealth fighters, and ballistic missile submarines, as well as its exponential increase in nuclear weapons production. Most—if not all—of these involve close relationships between state-run and private enterprise, making military-industrial investments all the harder to ascertain. After all, this sort of fusionism often assumes subtle forms (such as talent and logistics pooling between public and private sectors).

More obvious examples of this include Chinese companies providing the PLA with drones, AI companies (like Baidu) possibly working with CCP defense corporations in shared laboratories, and Chinese shipping companies participating in “cross-sea transport drills” that would be executed in an invasion of Taiwan.

The Defense Department warns that the PRC “has mobilized vast resources for…espionage activities” and to “acquire dual-use military grade-equipment,” and that it has “substantially reorganized its defense-industrial sector to improve weapon system research, development, acquisition, testing, evaluation, and production.” To what extent China’s development, testing, and production is obscured by its civil-military fusion, and what percentage of China’s GDP is dedicated to military spending, our own spy agencies will have to reveal.

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Island dripping with GOLD could be Trump’s next win if he seizes chance for ‘deal of the century’

Trump’s love of gold is no secret. From the gilded splendor of Trump Tower to Mar-a-lago’s gleaming ballroom, the president is known to revel in all that glitters. 

But has a golden opportunity just arisen for Trump to take control of a tropical island complete with its own gold mine? 

Bougainville, which is currently part of Papua New Guinea, voted overwhelmingly for independence in 2019, but the poll wasn’t binding. Now a local leader says he is open to a deal for it to become part of the United States. 

Given the island’s strategic significance in any future war with China, it could be well worth its weight! 

Bougainville’s president, former rebel commander Ishmael Toroama, says: ‘If the US comes and says, “Yes, we support Bougainville independence,” then, I can say, “Well, the Panguna mine is here. It’s up to you.”‘

‘Bougainville is for independence. It is only a matter of time,’ he told The World in October, setting 2027 as the target for full statehood. 

At the center of the battle for independence lies Bougainville’s immense natural wealth — particularly the dormant Panguna mine, once one of the world’s biggest sources of copper and gold. 

It’s estimated to still hold 5.84 million tons of copper and nearly 20 million ounces of gold — worth around $60 billion today.

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White House unleashes confirmation feds lied to Americans about COVID

Many in America’s government, along with those in the highly profitable pharmaceutical industry, insisted at the time, and some even insist how, that COVID-19 was a natural variation of a bat virus that came out of a Wuhan, China, “wet market” and infected people.

Ultimately, millions of people around the world died and trillions of dollars were lost economically. Even now, the side effects of the often-injurious mRNA shots are harming people, with consequences such as heart failure.

The government at that time, as President Donald Trump’s first term was ending and Joe Biden was taking over White House operations, claimed that only the new shots could be used, that other medications like hydroxychloroquine, which was proven effective against COVID, should not be allowed.

One of the results was billions of dollars going to the makers of the new shots.

But now the White House has exploded the COVID myths pushed by officials and authorities with a new report.

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While Russia Is At war, China Is Stealing Its Military Market

The situation at the front in Ukraine does not show any major change on the ground. There are no breakthroughs, no large surrenders of territory. However, there is one constant – the Russian army is constantly advancing.

This progress is not great, but it is constant and with the passage of time this progress becomes obvious. The pressure on the Ukrainian army is getting stronger and stronger. Logically, the question arises, how long will the Ukrainian army be able to hold the front lines?

To achieve this, the Russians underwent a complete transformation of their military industry. Over the past decade, the arms industry faced significant challenges, with many traditional companies going bankrupt and many repair plants closing.

From missiles to artillery, during the last 3 years, the Russian government invested billions to modernize the outdated Soviet-era infrastructure.

It is clear that Russia will win this war, but at what cost?

If the Russians celebrate a victory, it will be humiliating for the European Union. However, the Russians also will soon face their own reality.

After victory, a large part of Russian and military-industrial structure will be dismantled as the Russian state cannot sustain such a vast apparatus, including new equipment.

During Soviet times, many countries were clients, like the communist countries, the Arab world and others, but now there are several competitors, including the Chinese, Turks, Iranians and Indians, all offering low prices. The global market has shifted significantly, and Russians will fight hard to regain what they had.

They can no longer maintain this massive military industrial base due to several factors. To understand this, we need to observe the past two decades of the Russian arms industry. Despite their high Soviet stockpiles, these companies went bankrupt even with almost 1/3 of the global arms market. The answer lies in government treatment; they are required to offer up to 50% discount for domestic orders in exchange for future export opportunities. Who would invest under such conditions?

With new players, exporting will become challenging. Consequently, the Russian government will emerge with immense fiscal responsibilities, managing an economy transitioning out of a semi-war state. This will lead to thousands being laid off, normalizing labor shortages but also confronting post-war traumas.

Realistically, new Russian territories will demand investment for reconstruction. Who will invest if not the Russian state? Yes, the cost is substantial.

Thus, I highlight the reduction of industry, many pensions, reconstruction of territories, and maintaining a larger army. Challenging times are ahead as the military industry heavily pushes the Russian economy.

If Russia and Western countries (especially Germany) negotiate an end to sanctions and asset release, it could alleviate a significant part of the problem. The Russian economy has adapted to the eastern world.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, there was a whole sphere of Russian influence and a captive market for military equipment. That is gone, and the sphere of Russian influence is infinitely smaller and under threat, especially since there are now several Eastern suppliers positioned to compete on price with the Russians.

After the onset of the war in Ukraine, Russia suspended exports of ground equipment, leaving a huge vacuum for… the Chinese!

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