Red Dragon Menacing III(2)

On CCP’s All-Out Aggression Against Humanity

Table Of Contents

China Ambushes Top American Diplomat

China Chasing Dissidents Among US Allies

Xi Jinping Is War Hungry, at China’s Expense

CCP Demand Concessions From Washington While Committing Thievery

China’s War on Christians

The New Civil War in China

The Afghanistan Debacle Is a Dagger Aimed at Overseas Chinese

Chinese Leader Fast Tracks to Military Modernization at All Cost

Beijing and the Taliban: Securing Chinese Investments

Condemning Beijing’s Latest Assault on Freedom of the Press

China Went to War a Long Time Ago, but the US Didn’t (Want to) Notice

America Evacuates From Afghanistan, the CCP Evacuates From Hollywood

China Seeks UN Crackdown on Internet Freedom

EpochTV Review: Hostage Diplomacy

Espionage Is a Fundamental Engine Behind China’s Economic Growth

General: China Trying to Become the Most Dominant Force in Space

China Uses ‘Whole-of-Society’ Effort to Steal From US: Former-CIA Officer

Gen. Milley Calls China’s Suspected Hypersonic Missile Testa ‘Sputnik Moment

Chinese Military Plans Foreign Port Destruction

China’s Control of Global Supply Chains Will Extend to the Sea and Moon

China’s ‘Satellite Crusher’: ‘Space Pearl Harbor’ Is Coming

China Ambushes Top American Diplomat

The Commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in the HKSAR, Xie Feng, gives a speech in a press conference in Hong Kong on Feb. 7, 2020. (Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images)

Gordon G. Chang

July 30, 2021

Commentary

Once again, China ’s regime went out of its way to insult Biden administration diplomats.

The mauling this time took place in the Chinese city of Tianjin, on July 26. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the most senior Biden administration official to visit China, was the victim.

Beijing used the meeting with Ms. Sherman, as it used the now-infamous March meeting in Anchorage, not to work with the United States but to launch a propaganda campaign against Washington.

Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng, for instance, publicly accused the United States of trying to end the Chinese regime. “A whole-of-government and whole-of-society campaign is being waged to bring China down,” Xie said , according to the official China Daily, during Sherman’s visit.

Xie even went so far as to hand Sherman two lists, containing what were portrayed as Beijing’s demands. “China has for the first time given the U.S. a list of red lines and remedial action it must take to repair relations,” Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post   reported .

Xie did not let up after Sherman departed Chinese soil. Days later he was issuing additional hostile comments, including one posted on the website of China’s embassy in the United States. “It is,” Xie stated , “the United States, not anybody else, who is the inventor, and patent and intellectual property owner of coercive diplomacy .”

This propaganda blast mirrored the one that immediately followed the mid-March meeting in Anchorage, where China’s Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Just moments after the first day of that tense encounter, Beijing issued statements inciting, among other things, hatred against America and a global race war against white people, some of its most vicious propaganda  in the post-Mao history of the People’s Republic.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in Tokyo, Japan, on July 20, 2021. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

It was no accident that Xie was chosen for the task of taking on Sherman. Beijing had first offered the American diplomat, then about to embark on a trip to Japan, South Korea, and Mongolia, a meeting with him, the No. 5 in the foreign ministry. State scrubbed a stopover in China over the intended slight to Sherman, America’s No. 2 diplomat. The U.S. side agreed to a meeting in China only after Beijing offered a sit-down with Foreign Minister Wang, the regime’s No. 2 diplomat and Sherman’s counterpart.

Sherman in fact met Wang, but Beijing afterwards omitted this crucial fact in its propaganda releases, reporting only that Sherman met Xie Feng. The slight mirrored Beijing’s attempt to insult  U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier this year. The Chinese regime evidently thinks it is open season on senior American officials.

We should not be surprised. “I’ve heard presidents of both political parties say complimentary things about the leader of China,” Trey Gowdy said  on his new Fox News Channel show in July. “Are we sending the right message? I mean if we really believe China is responsible for COVID-19 and stealing intellectual property and aggression in the South China Sea, are we sending the right message to them?”

No, Washington is most certainly not. The generous messages American presidents send to Beijing are obviously counterproductive. That messaging, for instance, has led China’s leaders, who are critically reliant on the United States, to believe they hold the high cards.

President Joe Biden in particular is guilty of needlessly giving the Chinese leverage. “Chinese leaders give the impression that the U.S.A. has much more to seek from them than they from Washington,” said  Yogesh Gupta, former Indian diplomat and specialist on China-India relations, to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, referring to the Sherman meeting. “This time, the Americans were on the defensive as they sought Beijing’s cooperation on a range of issues—climate change, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, and others—ensuring that the U.S.A. did not seek conflict.”

Americans have fed the already inflated egos of their Chinese counterparts by telling them how important they are, and those statements have naturally given Beijing far more power in the relationship than it either has or deserves. For decades, U.S. presidents have not used the tools at their disposal in dealings with Beijing. On the contrary, most of them essentially gave China’s despots a veto on American policy by saying that Chinese cooperation was absolutely essential.

In fact, the Chinese are not that essential, and American leaders do not have to listen to them. Take their economy. Last year, China became even more dependent on exports, and it remains extraordinarily reliant on access to the U.S. market. In 2020, China’s merchandise trade surplus with the United States accounted for a stunning 58.0 percent of its overall merchandise trade surplus.

Moreover, China’s financial markets have become even more dependent on foreign capital because of Xi Jinping’s unrelenting attack on his country’s tech sector. Xi began the most recent phase of his months-long assault with the unprecedented last-minute halting  last November of Ant Group’s initial public offering, slated to be the world’s largest at $39.5 billion. This year, Xi has wiped more than $140 billion of value  off U.S.-listed Chinese tech giants during the last week of July alone, and most analysts believe the carnage will continue.

China, as a result, is needy, requiring foreign cash to replace what has already been lost—and what will be lost as Xi continues to take apart his tech giants. Biden can use his considerable powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977—or, if he is even bolder, the Trading with Enemy Act of 1917—to halt commerce with China and investment into the Chinese markets, ending once and for all the China threat.

Biden’s attempts to build a working relationship have failed, as the Sherman meeting clearly shows.

The best way to deal with China’s regime is not deal with it. That’s a far better message to send than the ones Gowdy is concerned about.

There is no sense strengthening China with American resources, especially when Beijing has shown no interest in dialogue or a constructive relationship with Washington. Xi Jinping no longer wants to accommodate America or compromise with Americans. He prefers to lecture, dictate, demand, and humiliate them.

Wendy Sherman just learned that. China’s diplomats ambushed her. There must be a consequence. It is time to say to Beijing, “No more!”

From the Gatestone Institute .

Gordon G. Chang is a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a member of its Advisory Board, and the author of “The Coming Collapse of China.” Follow Gordon at GordonChang.com and on Twitter @GordonGChang

https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-ambushes-top-american-diplomat_3926124.html

China Chasing Dissidents Among US Allies

FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a virtual news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, on Oct. 28, 2020. – Five Chinese agents have been arrested in the United States for their role in an operation targeting opponents of the Chinese regime. (Sarah Silbiger/AFP via Getty Images)

Peter Dahlin

July 30, 2021

Commentary

This week the U.S. Department of Justice announced indictments against nine Chinese nationals  for acting as illegal agents in the United States, roaming the country to intimidate and harass Chinese nationals living in the United States—including dissidents —with one clear aim: to force them to return to China “voluntarily.” One of the nine is even a Chinese prosecutor.

Unfortunately, nothing about this is shocking. In fact, already late last year, eight other Chinese nationals were accused of conducting “an aggressive harassment campaign on behalf of China to pressure political dissidents and fugitives in the United States to return home to face trial,” according to The New York Times.

These campaigns where agents are sent abroad to hunt Chinese nationals—often those critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—take different forms by which, according to the scattered official statistics available, at least thousands of people have thus been forced to return. A forthcoming report by Safeguard Defenders delves deeply into these different techniques and numbers, providing a first comprehensive overview of the CCP’s extra-judicial operations abroad.

Meanwhile across the pond, in Europe and its neighborhood, just in the last week alone Safeguard Defenders has witnessed a number of dramatic cases. At this very moment, as announced on July 25, one Uyghur activist is detained in Morocco, facing deportation to China . While Yidiresi Aishan traveled to Morocco legally as a Turkish permanent resident, he was detained upon arrival at Casablanca Airport, as an Interpol Red Notice, of which he was unaware, had been issued by China. Yet another, Xu Zheng, was hiding from the Chinese police after having criticized the People’s Liberation Army (PLA or Chinese military) on Twitter in Ukraine. Xu was quickly identified and threatened to be returned via extradition  if he did not oblige to the police’s orders. He managed to escape to the Netherlands just last week, and has just obtained asylum. His situation may sound familiar, as very recently I wrote about teenage dissident Wang Jingyu . Wang, also living in Turkey, was detained in transit to the United States in Dubai, and to be deported to China. Dubai authorities, when pressed by international media, gave an evolving set of excuses for his detention. Like Xu, Wang is now seeking asylum in the Netherlands.

Still this week, a Hong Kong resident and his family applied for asylum in Sweden. They are the first Hongkongers seeking political asylum there, in what will be a test of Swedish commitment to human rights protections and which could set a positive or negative precedent. Only a few weeks have passed since Sweden stopped the deportation of an Inner Mongolian man back to China .

I myself returned from Cyprus just days ago, preparing for the country’s very first extradition case to China of a Falun Gong  adherent. What many of these cases have in common is that the victims have been sought out for “voluntary” return first, and when such attempts failed, other means are being employed.

Those “other means” take many forms, and new forms seem to appear step by step. As noted above, the use of roaming agents is one experienced by the United States; while across Europe and worldwide, people are often pressured via their families back home. Denying people the right to renew their passports abroad is another common tactic. On top of that—often with full knowledge of their Western counterparts—China seeks to retrieve people via “disguised extraditions,” getting a cooperating state to send the person back on the basis of immigration law, even though they should seek extradition and therefore afford proper due process. As has been noted in Hong Kong, and in multiple cases in Thailand, China’s public security bureau (Chinese police) and Ministry of State Security (MSS) are not above direct kidnappings  either.

While China expands these operations—as data presented by Safeguard Defenders in its forthcoming report will show—it is becoming ever more pressing that Western nations institute fast-track options for human rights defenders to seek asylum ( similar to what Canada announced this month ), suspend and review existing extradition agreements, and pay closer attention to how China uses deportations to get its victims back.

Nowhere is that more important than across Europe and the European Union, which remains an almost free zone for China to operate unhindered, while Europe receives more and more Chinese dissidents seeking a safe haven for exile.

Peter Dahlin is the founder of the NGO Safeguard Defenders and the co-founder of the Beijing-based Chinese NGO China Action (2007–2016). He is the author of “Trial By Media,” and contributor to The People’s Republic of the Disappeared. He lived in Beijing from 2007, until detained and placed in a secret jail in 2016, subsequently deported and banned. Prior to living in China, he worked for the Swedish government with gender equality issues, and now lives in Madrid, Spain.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-chasing-dissidents-among-us-allies_3926051.html

Xi Jinping Is War Hungry, at China’s Expense

The Chinese military’s new DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles, that can reportedly reach the United States, are seen at a parade to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Communist Party’s takeover of China, at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Anders Corr

August 1, 2021

Commentary

Chinese leader Xi Jinping  is increasingly taking China down a disastrous path of scientific decoupling and military buildup that leads to the country’s estrangement from the world, and risks war. On July 30, according to the South China Morning Post, Xi made a series of comments promoting China’s military power and economic independence, with the sole control of that economic and military power to be held by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Xi Jinping leads the CCP, and his call for more military power under the control of the CCP is typically self-serving, rather than in the interests of China.

Xi said, “On the path of completely building a modern socialist country and realizing the second centennial goal, national defense and the military must be placed in a more important position, and the consolidation of national defense and a strong military must be accelerated. We must persist in strengthening the overall planning of war and make preparations for military struggle.”

These comments are sure to stoke already-heightened concerns about China’s military, especially in the United States, Japan, Australia, India, and Taiwan. They were made two days prior to the People’s Liberation Army’s 94th anniversary, to a 25-member Politburo group study session, according to the Post article, written by Eduardo Baptista.

China’s state media, Xinhua, reported on the comments, and on an article that Xi reportedly wrote for the CCP’s leading journal, to be published on Aug. 1.

Xi specifically mentioned the need for scientific self-reliance during the study session. “It is necessary to promote high-level scientific and technological self-reliance, accelerate research on key core technologies, accelerate the development of strategic, cutting-edge, and disruptive technologies,” Xi said.

According to the Post, Xi “called on the ‘entire Party and entire country’ to work to realize the military’s long-term goals. The military’s needs would have to be considered when laying out plans for societal and economic development.”

He said, “It is necessary to … rigidly implement national defense requirements in the construction of major infrastructure and provide strong support to construction projects for combat readiness training.”

Brian Hart at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) previously noted that Xi has held more than two times the number of Politburo study sessions on military and security topics, compared to Hu Jintao, who was the former CCP leader. Hart wrote in Jamestown Foundation’s China Brief, “Observers of Chinese politics have long paid attention to Politburo group study sessions, as the meetings provide unique insights into the interests and priorities of the CCP’s elite.”

Hart’s article, published on July 2, continued, “When analyzed across time, they [the study sessions] offer a useful body of evidence for identifying significant changes in the party leadership’s priorities. A close analysis of study sessions reveals that, under Xi Jinping, the Politburo has more heavily focused on Party affairs, foreign affairs, and security and military affairs. This represents a dramatic departure from the Hu Jintao (胡锦涛) era, when Politburo study sessions were dominated by economic development and other domestic issues.”

According to the Post, Xi’s article, to be published in Qiushi, “ordered the army to be ‘absolutely loyal’ to the Party,” and “argued that the Party’s absolute leadership was one of the Chinese military ’s advantages.”

Xinhua paraphrased Xi’s article as saying that, “Firmly following the Party’s leadership is the fundamental reason why the People’s Liberation Army triumphed over all kinds of trials and tribulations, and advanced from victory to victory. … The troops should be armed with the thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era and the Party’s strategy on strengthening military capabilities for the new era. … Under any circumstances and at any time, the Chinese armed forces must always remain loyal to the Party, socialism, the country, and the people. … Over a long period of practice, the Chinese armed forces have developed a complete set of fine traditions, which are the fundamental principles and contents of its political work … [there should be a] deepened understanding of the significance of the armed forces’ political work, conducting Party history education in light of actual conditions, thus guiding servicemen to stay true to the original aspiration and mission, and pass on the fine traditions forged by their forefathers.”

Xi’s public statements and writing, in which he calls on the Chinese people to prepare for war, in the context of China’s specific threats of war against, or territorial takings from, Taiwan, Japan, India, Bhutan, the Philippines, Myanmar (Burma), Australia, and the United States, are incredibly misguided, and contrary to the interests of the Chinese people, their scientific advancement, and their economy. Xi’s saber-rattling will only quicken other countries’ ongoing decoupling from China, increase their defense expenditures, strengthen their alliances, and reorient their militaries to defend against Beijing.

Xi’s comments on war can only be seen as rational from his own personal perspective of attempting to hold onto power. By manufacturing an enemy abroad, and a historical mission to take territory from China’s neighbors, Xi creates a justification for his own hold on increasingly centralized power structures in China. But he does this at the expense of what little international goodwill is left towards China, and at great risk to China’s economy, and peace in Asia and the world.

Anders Corr has a bachelor’s/master’s in political science from Yale University (2001) and a doctorate in government from Harvard University (2008). He’s a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, and has conducted extensive research in North America, Europe, and Asia. He authored “The Concentration of Power” (forthcoming in 2021) and “No Trespassing,” and edited “Great Powers, Grand Strategies.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/xi-jinping-is-war-hungry-at-chinas-expense_3928444.html

China’s Communists Demand Concessions From Washington While Committing Thievery

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman meets Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Tianjin, China, on July 26, 2021. (U.S. Department of State/Handout via Reuters)

Cheng Xiaonong

Contributor

August 9, 2021

Commentary

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) turned the Tianjin talks on July 26 into Alaska talks  Version 2. The CCP’s foreign minister Wang Yi  blatantly made three demands on the United States , which he claimed to be the “bottom lines” that the regime “firmly upholds.”

These demands are: firstly, “the United States must not challenge, slander or even attempt to subvert” the CCP’s socialist system; secondly, “The United States must not attempt to obstruct or even interrupt China’s development process;” and thirdly, “the United States must not infringe upon China’s state sovereignty, or even damage China’s territorial integrity.”

With these three demands, the CCP wants the United States to recognize the legitimacy of the party’s authoritarian system. In addition, it asks the U.S. to fully satisfy the CCP’s economic needs, including the massive dumping of pirated and counterfeit products, the massive theft of U.S. technical secrets, and the continuation of the huge trade surplus with the U.S. The CCP even challenges the U.S. by requiring the U.S. not to concern itself with regime’s military actions against Taiwan.

The CCP mirrored its strategies of the Alaska talks in the Tianjin talks by requesting the United States to change the Trump administration’s China policies, as the regime wants to accomplish its goal of “ hollowing out ” and weakening the U.S., as the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) asserted in its annual report  to the U.S. Congress in 2016.

Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi is displayed on a screen as he attends via video link a news conference on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress (NPC), in Beijing, China, on March 7. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A Thief Won’t Cooperate With the Police

In the last century, the CCP competed in vain with Western powers in the production of steel, grain, and automobiles. In this new century, the competition shifted to technological development capabilities.

The CCP’s autocratic system stifles freedom of thought and freedom of action, which naturally also stifles freedom of creation. Without freedom of thought and speech, researchers in China are driven by bureaucrats with economic benefits and administrative orders, and resources are at the arbitrary disposal of the government, or as the party’s leaders put it, “concentrated to accomplish large undertakings.” Under such circumstances, the CCP’s technological research and development can achieve independent breakthroughs in a few key projects.

In most industries, the CCP’s technological progress can only be achieved by stealing and robbing from democratic countries (by robbing, I mean forcing foreign companies to transfer their technology).

Since most of the technologies in China are originally stolen from Western countries, the CCP wants to turn these stolen technologies into nationwide economic benefits as soon as possible. It is of course highly tolerant of domestic enterprises stealing intellectual property rights from each other. This practice destroys the market mechanism for technological progress.

When innovation is easily copied and imitated, enterprises are bound to shy away from independent R&D unless they can get government subsidies. When they obtain government subsidies on a regular basis, they are not really pursuing real independent innovation, but are using the project to cheat money from the government. The recent ups and downs of China’s chip industry  is a good example.

The theft of Western technological research efforts is an ideal shortcut for the CCP, and the United States has become the main target for such theft. Hence, the party’s hostility towards the U.S. is deeply rooted in its mentality of “thieves fearing the police.”

A professional thief won’t cooperate willingly with a police officer unless the police is bribed by the thief and is corrupt.

Reasons Why CCP Chooses to Confront US Politically

Although China is a signatory to the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WIPO Copyright Treaty or WCT), the CCP is absolutely unwilling to honestly comply with it and develop its economy without stealing or robbing. Just like thieves who are afraid of the police, the CCP fears the United States. It is worried that the U.S. will not let it steal and that the U.S. and other Western countries will see through its inborn weaknesses.

This wanted poster displayed at the Justice Department in Washington, May 19, 2014, shows five Chinese hackers charged with economic espionage and trade secret theft, the first-of-its-kind criminal charges against Chinese military officials in an international cyber-espionage case. (AP Photo)

In the earlier days, the CCP concealed its true intentions and pretended to be good and friendly, but in fact, it was expanding its technology theft step by step. When the organized activities of large-scale technology theft were exposed, it became furious, but it would never rectify its wrongdoings. Former U.S. President Donald Trump caught the CCP red-handed and used the trade talks to force it to stop the technology theft. That’s the true reason why President Trump is much hated by the Communist Party in China.

The CCP cannot compete honestly as demanded by the United States; it’s impossible, just like a habitual thief who is told to earn his living by doing a decent job after having spent his lifetime stealing. The CCP’s agenda is to use its power to force the U.S. to make concessions. The regime thus uses rogue tricks to respond to the U.S., which is coercion which is the only option that the CCP knows when dealing with pressure from the U.S. Starting a China-US cold war and escalating the political confrontation between the two countries is one form of CCP coercion.

Therefore, when the CCP was cornered by Trump’s countermeasures, and was at a diplomatic disadvantage, it ignited the cold war and tried to force the United States to make concessions.

The Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi (C), director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office, and Wang Yi (2nd L), China’s foreign minister, speak with their U.S. counterparts at the opening session of U.S.-China talks at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 18, 2021. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

With the Biden administration, the CCP’s coercive tactics are strengthening its military readiness on the one hand and forcing President Joe Biden to make concessions in the diplomatic field on the other.

The regime thinks that it can do anything at its will in the United States once Washington concedes to it. Then it is able to accomplish its goal of “ hollowing out ” and weakening the U.S. without further restriction by any rule or law.

Understanding the regime’s strategy toward the United States in this way, it is almost entirely predictable that the U.S.-China Alaska farce will be mirrored again and again. The expectation of a rapprochement and improvement in U.S.-China relations, and the hope that the CCP will rationally abide by international rules, are doomed to fall through.

Dr. Cheng Xiaonong is a scholar of China’s politics and economy based in New Jersey. Cheng was a policy researcher and aide to the former Party leader Zhao Ziyang, when Zhao was premier. He also served as chief editor of the journal Modern China Studies.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinas-communists-demand-concessions-from-washington-while-committing-thievery_3939608.html

China’s War on Christians

Christians pray during a mass at a church in Xining in China’s northwest Qinghai Province, on July 3, 2005. China officially sanctions five religious groups: Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism and Taoism. The Chinese are allowed to worship only in state-sanctioned churches and temples. (China Photos/Getty Images)

John Mac Ghlionn

August 12, 2021

Commentary

In China, there is a war taking place. Christianity is under attack. As Foreign Policy’s Azeem Ibrahim warns, the Chinese regime has the world’s most popular religion in its crosshairs.

Three years ago, the Vatican signed a deal with the Chinese Communist Party ( CCP ). Described at the time as “the fruit of a gradual and reciprocal rapprochement,” the deal was intended to give the religious greater freedoms in China. Today, however, “reciprocal rapprochement” has been replaced by unrestrained hostility. “The repression of Christians,” writes Azeem, “whatever their denomination, is at its highest point since the Cultural Revolution.”

Of course, the Chinese regime’s utter disdain for organized religion has been visible for decades. Ever since Mao Zedong’s first Five-Year Plan, which was based on the belief that socialism would become the dominant ideology within China, religion has been a taboo subject.

In recent times, though, the crackdown on religion, especially Christianity, has been particularly brutal. Since 2018, the same year the Vatican and the CCP signed the agreement, a large number of churches have been shut down across China; roughly 10,000 Christians have been detained by the Chinese regime. According to Ibrahim, a number of prominent clergy members have been given lengthy prison sentences. With no other option, a large number of Christians “have resorted to underground churches in an attempt to avoid police harassment.”

With the CCP reportedly planning to roll out a “One Person, One File” system in the near future, government officials are busy filing reports on worshippers. This information is being used to discriminate against people in the employment sector, writes Ibrahim.

Furthermore, across the land, icons of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary have been replaced with portraits of the current CCP leader, Xi Jinping. This is not necessarily surprising, as the cult of Xi appears to be getting stronger.

In China, a country where meaning and hope are sorely lacking, tens of millions of Christians find themselves under attack. The message from the CCP is clear: homage must be paid to one person and one person only. That man’s name is Xi Jinping.

The pillar of a demolished Catholic church is seen in Puyang, in China’s central Henan Province on Aug. 13, 2018. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images)

Religion Gives Hope

For decades, research has shown that religion gives the hopeless hope. In China, almost half the population survive on a monthly income of 1,000 yuan (roughly $140). For these people, life is incredibly difficult. Although Christianity doesn’t help pay the bills directly, it does provide people with a greater sense of structure. With greater structure, one is in a better place, both spiritually and psychologically, to cope with the inevitable stresses of life. As the researcher Luna Greenstein writes, traditional religions help foster a sense of community. “These facets can have a large positive impact on mental health—research suggests that religiosity reduces suicide rates, alcoholism and drug use.”

However, in the eyes of the Chinese regime, a religion like Christianity is a threat to the establishment. Rather predictably, the regime has responded to Christianity in the same way that it has responded to Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies threaten the legitimacy of the digital yuan, and Christianity, at least in the eyes of those in Beijing, threatens the legitimacy of the CCP. Both must be dismantled and ultimately destroyed. This is what happens when a nation is ruled by despots. Hope is always smothered. Freedom of choice disappears.

The Necessity of Religion

As the writer Daniel Peterson has noted, “religious people tend to be much happier and more satisfied than the irreligious.” In China, mental health crises are on the rise. Religious people, as Peterson outlines, tend to “cope better with crises.” For those 600 million people living on less than $40 a week, every day is a crisis, and an existential one at that. Furthermore, according to Peterson, the religious “recover faster from divorce, bereavement and being fired.” Additionally, by enjoying “higher rates of marital stability and marital satisfaction,” the religious tend to make better parents and community members. Not surprisingly, they’re also less likely to engage in criminal activity. Lastly, elderly religious people, although not immune to the effects of depression, are less likely to suffer from the illness than their skeptical counterparts.

Considering the Chinese appear to have fallen out of love with marriage , and an increasing number are attracted to the idea of divorce, Christianity has the potential to improve the lives of millions of people. This is not to say that religion is a panacea for all of life’s ills. It’s not. Then again, nothing is. But in a country where hope is sorely lacking, Christianity offers the masses a legitimate lifeline. But the CCP is not in the business of giving lifelines. Its members are in the business of taking them away. The regime is interested in one thing and one thing only: maintaining its vice-like grip over society.

Twenty years ago, political scientist Robert D. Putnam released “Bowling Alone,” a groundbreaking book that outlined the problems facing broader society. In one particularly striking passage, Putman focused on churchgoers. They are, according to his research, “much more likely than other persons to visit friends, to entertain at home, to attend club meetings, and to belong to sports groups; professional and academic societies; school service groups; youth groups; service clubs; hobby or garden clubs; literary, art, discussion, and study groups; school fraternities and sororities; farm organizations; political clubs; nationality groups; and other miscellaneous groups.” With this paragraph, it’s easy to see why the Chinese regime has cracked down on Christianity.

Believers are more likely to get together, engage in deep, honest discussions, and quite possibly question the very nature of existence. In China, questioning the nature of existence is not allowed, and because of this, Christians must be silenced.

John Mac Ghlionn is a researcher and essayist. His work has been published by the likes of the New York Post, Sydney Morning Herald, The American Conservative, National Review, The Public Discourse, and other respectable outlets. He is also a columnist at Cointelegraph.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinas-war-on-christians_3946060.html

The New Civil War in China

Chinese leader Xi Jinping waves during a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party at Tiananmen Gate in Beijing on July 1, 2021. (Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Gregory Copley

August 17, 2021

Commentary

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has plunged into its own civil war.

It is between the “ultra-Maoists” around CCP leader Xi Jinping  and the “liberals.” The outcome will be massively disruptive for the Chinese population and for nations which depend economically on China.

The “ultra-Maoists” are in the ascendant, leading China toward a new era of isolation from the world, possibly worse than the Mao Zedong era from 1949 to 1976.

The battle lines have been drawn over the direction of the country between the “ultra-Maoists” within the CCP leadership and the more market-oriented “liberals.” This growing polarization mirrors the “nationalist-globalist” split seen in many Western societies in recent years, but with “Chinese characteristics,” different causes, and the probability of violence.

The “ultra-Maoists” around Xi recognize that China has already depleted its foreign exchange reserves as well as its control over food and water. Hard currency holdings are believed to be at around Saudi Arabian levels. There are other assets, such as U.S. debt holdings (for which there is a limited market), but the question becomes how best to utilize its resources.

Growing urbanization , the Maoists have discovered, may have been essential for China’s economic and strategic growth, but it became the source of great unrest  as the fortunes of most Chinese people began to be shaken; their security and happiness evaporating.

Resident shops in the almost empty supermarket in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 12, 2020. (Stringer/Getty Images)

The CCP placed mainland China into a new lockdown  in early August 2021, ostensibly over the surge in cases of COVID-19 Delta virus, but this may not have solely been the case . More likely, the CCP placed the country in lockdown to prevent a growing movement toward protest  and challenge from the grassroots  level .

This unhappiness—actually widespread anger—has been stimulated by the failure of the CCP to respond adequately to the widespread natural disasters such as massive flooding in some areas, and drought in others. The CCP initially claimed, for example, that there were only a handful of deaths in some of the recent flooding in Henan Province, when the actual number of deaths was certainly in the tens of thousands.

Xi Jinping has been steadily reining in the private sector of China’s economy, the source of the “Chinese economic miracle.” Instead, he favors dependence only on the sluggish and unproductive state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which contributed little or nothing to the “economic miracle.”

What could this mean, other than a preparation for China to return to a closed economy, autarkic and reliant only on what CCP theorists are calling an “internal circulation” economy?

The U.S. Bloomberg financial reporting agency, which has supported an appeasing U.S. approach to China under the Joe Biden administration, on Aug. 1, acknowledged that Xi’s “cudgel of state power” had “at its most extreme erased $1.5-trillion from Chinese stocks and dented the portfolios of some of the biggest names in global finance.” Bloomberg quoted one Beijing investor saying: “The Government is going after industries that are creating the most social discontent.” That was an oblique reference to the private sector replacing the CCP as the hope for a prosperous future for the Chinese people.

So how quickly could the “ultra-Maoists” impose a lockdown on protest and eradicate hope that wealth could allow any freedom of action by individuals? Do the “liberals”—the globalists—in the CCP have enough leverage to constrain or overthrow Xi Jinping? And, if they could do this, is there enough viability left in China’s economy to spark actual real growth again, given that recent claims of economic growth have clearly been fictitious. What are the ramifications for China’s trading partners?

Massive, rapid curtailment of large resource contracts with the United States, Australia, Brazil, etc. can be expected within the coming few years, among the wider global impact.

Xi is fighting for his life and for continued CCP control over China. There is now little realistic prospect of China competing even with a sluggish and declining United States for “global hegemony.” Is there a middle-path in the curve, which might see a “softer landing” or a “gradual decline” for China?

But there is no substance to claim that China has a growing economy or relief from its existential food and water crisis .

Gregory Copley is president of the International Strategic Studies Association based in Washington. Born in Australia, Copley is a Member of the Order of Australia, entrepreneur, writer, government adviser, and defense publication editor. His latest book is The New Total War of the 21st Century and the Trigger of the Fear Pandemic.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-new-civil-war-in-china_3950133.html

The Afghanistan Debacle Is a Dagger Aimed at Overseas Chinese

Afghan people sit as they wait to leave the Kabul airport in Kabul after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan’s 20-year war, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

Stu Cvrk

August 17, 2021

Commentary

The world is focused on the unfolding disaster in Afghanistan. That is, a disaster for American foreign policy and alliances, but a boon to U.S. adversaries, particularly the Chinese communist regime.

What must it feel like to be a senior Taliban terrorist who has defeated the “Great Satan” after two decades of fighting in the Afghan mountains and valleys? Ask a few geriatric veterans of the North Vietnamese Army or the handful of Vietcong who survived the 1968 Tet Offensive. They know that feeling, too. Black April  for the South Vietnamese (i.e., the month in 1975 in which they lost their country to the communists) is a direct parallel with Black August in Afghanistan.

And what must the Afghans who have been fighting the Taliban over the last 20 years be thinking? What are their emotions? What will happen to those erstwhile allies of the United States and NATO over the next weeks and months? The coming horrors are easy to imagine, and the pictures and videos of Afghans frantically trying to escape  on aircraft leaving Kabul International Airport are clear indications they know exactly what to expect from the Taliban.

But these emotions of the victors and the vanquished are not important; what really matters are the cataclysmic geopolitical results from this debacle. While the long-term impacts can only be predicted, there are obvious short-term disasters-in-the-making:

- The Taliban are empowered by their victory on every level: militarily (billions of dollars in abandoned U.S. equipment), economically (control of the country’s vast mineral wealth and poppy fields), and spiritually (vindication of their beliefs in casting out the foreign “invader”). Will they limit their reprisals and other actions to those within Afghanistan’s borders? Or will a few Taliban cross the wide-open U.S.-Mexico border to conduct terror attacks in the United States?

- Bailing out on an ally undermines relations with allies in the region—and around the world, for that matter. What message does the debacle send to Iraq, India, the Gulf Cooperation Council  states, the “Stans” in Central Asia , and other countries? Is the United States now considered more or less trustworthy in honoring its agreements and commitments?

- The relocation of tens of thousands of Afghan nationals in the United States will be a costly endeavor, with their assimilation into the American way of life by no means guaranteed. How many Taliban or other extremists will also be relocated with those refugees?

- In preparing to recognize the new Taliban regime , communist China will have unfettered access to the mineral wealth of Afghanistan , estimated at over $1 trillion in value. “The deposits are mainly copper but also include gold, iron ore, uranium, and precious stones, such as emeralds.” Communist China already controls the production of 97 percent of rare earth elements . Control of Afghanistan’s resources will provide the ChiComs with an additional stranglehold on natural resources needed for the production of “ high-tech consumer products , such as cellular telephones, computer hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicles, and flat-screen monitors and televisions.”

Taliban terrorists stand guard in front of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Rahmat Gul/AP Photo)

The above are obvious results of the collapse in Afghanistan. A much more ominous outcome is being enabled by this disaster: the consolidation of near-abroad overseas Chinese into “Greater China.” Here  is a polite definition for Greater China:

Greater China, or Greater China Region, is a term used to refer to mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As a “phrase of the moment,” the precise meaning is not entirely clear, and people may use it for only the commercial ties, only the cultural actions, or even as a euphemism for the two Chinas, while others may use it for some combination of the three. The term Greater China is generally used for referring to the cultural and economic ties between the relevant territories, and is not intended to imply sovereignty.

The ChiCom definition is decidedly different and specifically extends to the political realm: any and all overseas Chinese outside China are considered part of “Greater China” and are thereby subject to ChiCom laws and regulations regardless of their nationality. Greater China is a dream of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—to consolidate all Chinese under one totalitarian regime regardless of their country of residence under the extraterritorial authority of article 38 of the new national security law  passed by the CCP’s rubber-stamp legislature on June 30, 2020 and also China’s civil code  as adopted on May 28, 2020. The national security law criminalizes any activities by anyone anywhere on earth deemed by the CCP to be a threat to “national security” (undefined in the law itself) while the civil code micromanages Chinese society—economic, social, travel, education, etc.—and mandates compliance by all Chinese citizens (including overseas Chinese in the future).

It is no secret that Red China has returned to Chinese expansionism since taking power in 1949. First, the Tibetans have been brutally pacified and absorbed , and the Dalai Lama’s cultural and religious influences harshly suppressed  (but not eradicated). Chinese genocide against the Uyghur minority  in Xinjiang is ongoing. Hong Kong has been swallowed whole , with the national security law and the civil code being given a “road test” there prior to their application elsewhere.

With the national security law and civil code comes the ability to politically influence events and policies in countries that have a significant minority population of Chinese. Several neighboring countries have large Chinese populations ripe for control/influence by Beijing, and these are the immediate targets for absorption into Greater China:

- Singapore: 76 percent of the population are Chinese (2.7 million)

- Thailand: the largest group of overseas Chinese and the largest minority group at 14 percent of the population (10 million)

- Malaysia: largest minority group at 23 percent of the population (6.6 million)

- Brunei: largest minority group at 10 percent of the population (42,000)

- New Zealand: the largest ethnic minority at 231,000 (five percent of the population)

But these countries are tidbits compared to the big egg roll: Taiwan. ChiCom animus against the descendants of the Gen. Chiang Kai-Shek’s Kuomintang and others who fled the mainland to escape the Communists in 1949 has been relentless. That animosity carried over into the recently completed Olympics, as Taiwan beat China for the badminton gold medal, as noted here . One wonders what retribution the ChiComs will seek if/when they are successful in “absorbing” Taiwan into their vision of Greater China!

This brings the discussion back to the Afghanistan debacle. What must the Taiwan government (and those smaller governments listed above) be thinking as they watched the United States bail out on their Afghan allies? Is their trust that the United States will come to their aid in the event of a ChiCom cross-strait invasion as firm as it was two weeks ago? Because it is clear that the ChiComs are gleefully pushing the psychological advantage gained in Afghanistan by continuing to pressure Taiwan. Here is an agitprop by ChiCom state-run media, in this instance from the Global Times :

“Once a cross-Straits war breaks out while the mainland seizes the island with forces, the US would have to have a much greater determination than it had for Afghanistan, Syria, and Vietnam if it wants to interfere. A military intervention of the US will be a move to change the status quo in the Taiwan Straits, and this will make Washington pay a huge price rather than earn profit.

“Some people on the island of Taiwan hype that the island is different from Afghanistan, and that the US wouldn’t leave them alone. Indeed, the island is different from Afghanistan. But the difference is the deeper hopelessness of a US victory if it gets itself involved in a cross-Straits war. Such a war would mean unthinkable costs for the US, in front of which the so-called special importance of Taiwan is nothing but wishful thinking of the DPP authorities and secessionist forces on the island.”

A cynical person might conclude that what is unfolding in Afghanistan amounts to the ChiComs collecting on their investments (briberies) over the years among the U.S. political class, especially the Biden family . The events over the last week almost seem to be scripted: the United States abandons billions of dollars of equipment to the Taliban (arming them for who knows what), the Afghan army is left without any U.S. support and collapses, the Taliban marches through the country like a knife through butter, the Biden Defense and State Departments are caught flat-footed in a chaotic extraction of U.S. forces and Afghan civilians from Kabul Airport (ongoing), and the ChiComs ultimately gain control of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth. And the ChiComs were certainly quick to turn the U.S. bailout into a political advantage by increasing psychological and political pressure on Taiwan, their main strategic objective in consolidating Greater China. It sure seems like a ChiCom strategic plan succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

Stu Cvrk retired as a Captain after serving 30 years in the U.S. Navy in a variety of active and reserve capacities, with considerable operational experience in the Middle East and the Western Pacific. Through education and experience as an oceanographer and systems analyst, Stu is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he received a classical liberal education that serves as the key foundation for his political commentary.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-afghanistan-debacle-is-a-dagger-aimed-at-overseas-chinese_3951854.html

Chinese Leader Fast Tracks to Military Modernization at All Cost

Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers line up during military training at Pamir Mountains in Kashgar, China, on Jan. 4, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Wang He

August 23, 2021

Commentary

Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping  touted the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) military centenary goal to build the world’s strongest force by 2027 in an internal meeting on July 30.

The year 2027 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CCP and the PLA (People’s Liberation Army). Xi’s goal can be seen as a dangerous sign that he intends to use all armed might to indulge in aggressive wars.

Xi has actually advanced the military developments ahead of schedule. On July 31, 2020, Xi voiced the CCP’s plan  to accelerate “the development of strategic, cutting-edge, disruptive technologies” and “the integrated development of a mechanized, informationized, and intelligent military.” The CCP uses a whole-society approach and calls it “ military-civil fusion strategy. ”

Since Xi took power in 2012, the CCP has been running fast along the military path in its national strategy. Though this may have something to do with Xi personally, it is more related to the CCP’s violent and warlike nature.

CCP’s Military Spending ‘the Second-Highest in the World:’ Research Report

Notoriously opaque in disclosing information, the CCP’s actual military spending is likely much higher than what has been reported.

Nonetheless, the CCP’s military spending  is “the second highest” in the world and “has risen for 26 consecutive years, the longest series of uninterrupted increases by any country,” according to an April 2021 report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a research institute that provides data and analysis on global military spending.

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a U.S. think tank, revealed the CCP’s military expansion in a February 2020 article, quoting analysts’ estimates of the CCP’s military spending to be as high as $238 billion in 2018—higher than in the CCP’s public report.

In comparison, the 2020 estimate from SIPRI pegs the CCP’s nominal defense spending at $252.3 billion—almost 1.4 times higher than the official figure.

In May 2020 , the CCP announced a yearly defense budget of $183.5 billion.

In 2020, the CCP’s premier Li Keqiang clearly acknowledged  that 600 million people have a monthly income of only $140, yet the CCP is running fast on the road of militarism at all costs.

Lindsay Maizland, author of the CFR report, noted that the CCP’s traditional military services of the Army, Navy, and Air Force have been significantly upgraded both in terms of the number of weaponry and in high-tech use since 2015—when Xi was “pushing to transform the PLA from a largely territorial force into a major maritime power.”

Chinese J-15 fighter jets on the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier during military drills in the South China Sea, on Jan. 2, 2017. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

For example, the CCP’s military has elevated its rocket force, responsible for maintaining its conventional and nuclear missiles, to become an independent service.

Another example is the Strategic Support Force, established in 2015 and responsible for the military’s space operations including those with satellites, “manages the PLA’s electronic warfare, cyber warfare, and psychological operations, among other high-tech missions,” Maizland said.

Emphasis On AI in Military Build-up: Domestic Propaganda

To comply with Xi’s instruction, the CCP’s official media CCTV published an article  in November 2020 on the importance of intelligent technologies. Wu Zhizhong, a researcher at Chinese military think tank, the Academy of Military Science of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, said in the article that China “must seize the opportunity of the technological revolution and take extraordinary measures to advance intelligent technologies.”

Intelligent technologies involve the substantial use of unmanned equipment and technology, i.e., artificial intelligence  (AI).

Wu emphasized in the article his belief that “the United States has developed or used a large number of Small Diameter Bombs, smart missiles, drones, and robotic soldiers” as a strategic measure to target China and Russia.

Actually, the CCP’s accomplishments in military modernization of weaponry, significant progress in information technologies, as well as the use of artificial intelligence technologies demonstrates that this is the field that likely has a strategy for targeting the United States.

In October 2020, Michael Brown, director of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, a U.S. think tank, told the National Defense  that the CCP has already led the United States in many areas of AI.

Brown revealed areas in which the CCP is ahead, such as “facial recognition software, small drones, quantum communications, telecommunications, genetic data, cryptocurrency, and more.”

It is important to note the danger of a possible unmanned war through the use of AI. If such a war gives the power of life and death to an autonomous weapon system, it could be as destructive as the outbreak of a nuclear war. The CCP has no moral bottom line, and it dares to develop any kind of AI. If the CCP takes the lead in AI, I believe all of mankind will face danger.

Wang He has master’s degrees in law and history, and has studied the international communist movement. He was a university lecturer and an executive of a large private firm in China. Wang now lives in North America and has published commentaries on China’s current affairs and politics since 2017.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-leader-fast-tracks-to-military-modernization-at-all-cost_3947215.html

Beijing and the Taliban: Securing Chinese Investments

(L): Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during the Lanting Forum in Beijing, on June 25, 2021. (R): The leader of the Taliban negotiating team Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar looks on the final declaration of the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, on July 18, 2021. (Jade Gao, Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)

Antonio Graceffo

August 25, 2021

Commentary

The success of China’s Pakistan investments depends on strengthening relations with the Taliban .

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a series of initiatives, similar to the rest of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including infrastructure, transportation, energy, raw materials, telecommunications, and banking. CPEC and the Maritime Belt and Road connect China with Pakistan’s Gwadar Port, which will facilitate shipments of petroleum from Iran to China. Additionally, China and Pakistan had plans in place to expand CPEC  to include 12 border markets with Afghanistan. In total, the value of CPEC is estimated at $62 billion .

Since the United States announced its withdrawal from Afghanistan, terrorist attacks in Pakistan have increased, particularly against CPEC projects. Some experts feel that the success of CPEC and of the BRI, in general, is dependent on stability  in Afghanistan and an accompanying cessation of terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Sindhi separatists have combined forces with the Baloch Liberation Army to attack CPEC projects, as has the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban. Chinese workers were targeted in a terrorist attack against a CPEC hydropower project in the TTP’s traditional stronghold, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province . TTP also carried out an attack on a hotel in Quetta, the provincial capital of southwestern Balochistan Province, targeting the Chinese ambassador .

Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) is yet another terrorist organization that is active in the region. JEM has close ties to the Taliban and is believed to have had funding from Osama bin Laden . The Chinese regime blocked efforts by the United States and India to blacklist JEM chief Masood Azhar. The United States and several allied nations had asked the U.N. Security Council to subject Azhar to an arms embargo, travel ban, and asset freeze, but China placed a “technical hold” on the motion. JEM is known to have attacked Indian targets, but has not been closely linked to attacks on Chinese assets. The group, which has ties to al-Qaeda, was accused by Pakistani authorities of having killed U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, as well as perpetrating two assassination attempts on former President Pervez Musharraf  in 2003. It is possible that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) support of JEM in the Security Council was an attempt to maintain good relations with terrorist groups in order to preempt attacks on Chinese assets.

With the loss of U.S. control in Afghanistan, it is expected that the TTP and other  terrorist groups will become emboldened, carrying out more attacks in Pakistan. In July, Chinese workers at the Dasu hydropower project were killed in a bomb attack. In August, a motorcade, carrying Chinese workers  was attacked by a suicide bomber. Chinese officials have blamed the attacks on the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) .

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid looks on during a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 24, 2021. (Hoshang Hashimi/AFP via Getty Images)

Defense experts see three possible outcomes to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The situation may end in a negotiated resolution, a civil war, or a wholesale Taliban takeover. Regardless of which outcome, it seems that the Taliban will emerge as the rulers of Afghanistan . Consequently, Beijing  is poised to further cement relations with the Taliban, in order to secure their Pakistan investments. Meanwhile, the strength and stability of a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan will depend largely on the funding they receive from abroad, as well as their political relationship with primary actors—China, Pakistan, and the United States .

Officially, the Afghanistan Taliban have said that they will not harbor terrorist groups attacking other countries, such as China and Pakistan, but it is known that TTP members have taken refuge in Afghanistan, launching attacks  into Pakistan. As Chinese investment in Pakistan has increased, the CCP has pushed Pakistan’s government to engage with terrorist groups. At the same time, the CCP wants increased stability in Afghanistan, as they believed that instability in Afghanistan increases the risk of attacks on Chinese projects.

China’s Xinjiang region  shares a border with Afghanistan. Beijing fears Taliban support for separatists in Xinjiang. Chinese security officials have already accused the Taliban of aiding Uyghur militants, including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which carried out several terrorist attacks in the early 2000s. Believing that the Taliban’s co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar may become the next president of Afghanistan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told him that he should cut ties with ETIM .

On the fate of Afghanistan, Wang has said that he hopes for a “soft landing.” At the end of the day, the CCP’s main concern in geopolitics is to maintain stability of the regime and safety at home, while securing its investments abroad. Beijing’s objectives could best be achieved through a peaceful transition of Afghanistan’s government and a quick return to a relatively stable situation in the country. Consequently, China has never been as concerned as the United States and other international actors about whether the country was ruled by the Taliban or some form of the democratically elected government. For this reason, Beijing has repeatedly engaged with the Taliban, diplomatically. Last month, a high-level Taliban delegation  was welcomed to China. At present, China is seeking reassurance that the Taliban will neither support terrorist activity in Xinjiang, nor threaten China’s economic interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

For at least a decade, China has contemplated economic projects in Afghanistan , largely related to copper and oil. As of 2020, Chinese companies had won contracts in the amount of $110 million , but the country’s instability prevented those projects from ever coming to fruition. While the Chinese regime is expected to cooperate with a Taliban-led government and may complete these and other projects, it is unlikely to make significant additional investments .

Afghanistan is a medium-sized landlocked country of about 38 million people, with 47 percent of those who  live below the poverty line. Even with the Taliban in power, resistance fighting may continue, maintaining enough instability that the country will remain unattractive to Chinese investors. Regardless of direct investment, Afghanistan is still crucial to maintaining security and safety in Xinjiang, as well as to maintaining Chinese investments in Pakistan.

Pakistan and Tajikistan both share a border with China and are both members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), where Afghanistan is an observer. This means that these countries are already poised to work together. China will most likely increase its security cooperation with Tajikistan , for fear of the Taliban attacking that country and threatening its Belt and Road projects or causing instability in central Asia and Xinjiang.

In order to avoid violence and to maintain regional stability, Pakistan and China will have to work together on the Afghanistan issue. This will naturally serve to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, possibly squeezing out India and the United States. It will also encourage continued Chinese investment in Pakistan while creating an incentive for Pakistan to support Chinese initiatives in Afghanistan.

Antonio Graceffo, Ph.D., has spent over 20 years in Asia. He is a graduate of Shanghai University of Sport and holds a China-MBA from Shanghai Jiaotong University. Antonio works as an economics professor and China economic analyst, writing for various international media. Some of his China books include “Beyond the Belt and Road: China’s Global Economic Expansion” and “A Short Course on the Chinese Economy.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/beijing-and-the-taliban-securing-chinese-investments_3963448.html

Condemning Beijing’s Latest Assault on Freedom of the Press

Editorials

Editorial Board

August 27, 2021 Updated: August 28, 2021

In an escalating campaign to suppress freedom of speech, China’s communist authorities have arrested and charged 11 Chinese citizens for allegedly providing The Epoch Times with information documenting draconian virus lockdown measures.

The 11 citizens face up to life in prison if convicted, according to the Chinese Communist Party’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

The Epoch Times editorial board condemns this suppression of a free press and basic human rights in the strongest terms possible, and calls on Beijing to immediately release the 11 Chinese citizens.

These latest arrests were condemned by the U.S. State Department, which is urging  Beijing to “cease its efforts to silence those who seek to report the truth.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists also condemned the arrests, urging  communist authorities to immediately release and drop charges against the 11 Chinese citizens.

For over 20 years, Chinese citizens have seen The Epoch Times as a trusted voice, and have provided us with story leads, images, video, documents, and other kinds of information. This includes insider information from disillusioned CCP  officials themselves.

This vital source of information has allowed us to inform the world of what’s really happening in China.

But for the CCP, absolute control over the flow of information has been critical to maintaining its rule for the past seven decades.

The Epoch Times was founded in the year 2000 to break through this censorship and propaganda, by Chinese-Americans who saw a need for an independent press that would provide truthful and uncensored news. This same commitment to independent journalism forms the DNA for the English edition of The Epoch Times, which was launched four years later.

But while The Epoch Times has provided tens of millions of Chinese citizens with uncensored news, the CCP has always sought to obstruct this free flow of information.

Our first group of reporters and editors inside China were arrested and some were jailed for up to 10 years—with most of them tortured—for working for The Epoch Times.

Outside of mainland China, we have faced regular harassment and interference from the CCP.

In Hong Kong, our printing press has been attacked several times. It was set on fire  in November 2019, and in April 2021 press equipment was smashed  by intruders with sledgehammers.

Andrew Hamilton in his 1735 speech defending press freedom said: “Power may justly be compared to a great river; while kept within its bounds, it is both beautiful and useful, but when it overflows its banks, it is then too impetuous to be stemmed; it bears down all before it. And brings destruction and desolation wherever it comes.”

In the free world, we understand that freedom of the press  helps keep society open and healthy. In our current greatly connected world, news in one place can be vital for the rest of the world.

What happens in China not only affects China but has the potential to affect the entire world, as we’ve seen with the pandemic.

If the world had known how fast the virus was spreading in Wuhan from the beginning, if we had known how many people died at an early stage (the real number of deaths in China is still covered up), the world would have taken different measures to protect people.

It is no secret that many media organizations in the West have been bought off and infiltrated by the CCP. It is our duty, however, to stand tall in the face of the CCP’s repression and speak the truth. We hope more media organizations can have the courage to report honestly on the CCP—and with that, in fact, save lives—both inside and outside of China.

We are not just defending these courageous Chinese citizens who risked their own safety in letting the world know the truth. We are not here just to defend press freedom. We are here to defend our basic dignity as human beings.

We are grateful for the trust and support from Chinese citizens. Throughout our entire history, they have had the courage to take great risks to pass news to us. We appreciate the support from the State Department and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Editorial Board

https://www.theepochtimes.com/condemning-beijings-latest-assault-on-freedom-of-the-press_3968898.html

China Went to War a Long Time Ago, but the US Didn’t (Want to) Notice

Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping begins a review of troops from a car during a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images)

Grant Newsham

September 17, 2021

Commentary

President Joseph Biden spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping  on the phone last week. Biden’s stated objective: To establish “guardrails” for the U.S.-China relationship in order to ensure the competition between the two nations doesn’t veer into outright conflict or a shooting war.

Sounds good. But it assumes Beijing sees itself as simply being in “competition” with Washington—rather than already prosecuting a multi-front, multi-discipline war against the United States. In fact, Biden’s claim that the United States is just competing with China is a de facto win for Xi on one of the battlefields—psychological warfare.

Go down the list of other battlefields and it sure looks like war. All that’s missing is the shooting.

The Deadly Political Warfare Battlefield

Beijing has a longstanding global political warfare  campaign that subverts governments and elites worldwide. This pays off in nations that are politically aligned with Beijing against the United States—or at least staying neutral—and acts to isolate and punish countries inclined to resist China. Outcomes include political and economic subservience and eventual Chinese military access.

China is prosecuting this war on all geographical fronts. It is active in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, and even has its sights on the Arctic—declaring itself a “Near Arctic Nation” even though the concept doesn’t exist in international law. Antarctica, and its strategic positioning and resources, is similarly in the crosshairs.

The idea is to put the Americans (and its dwindling number of allies) in a position where they cannot move—or at least not at an acceptable cost. If so, the game is over before the Americans figure out the competition is in fact a war. In other words, “winning without fighting.”

Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli (L) is seen inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, capital of China’s Hubei Province, on Feb. 23, 2017. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)

There is a range of battlefields in the larger political warfare assault. These include the following:

Bio-war : We’re two years into it. At a minimum, Beijing opportunistically seeded the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic while pleading innocence and blocking investigations that could have saved lives and competing economies. Next time it will have worked out the kinks.

Civil war : Beijing stokes internal conflict inside the United States in part via mass customized manipulation through social media. Not that it has to try very hard. What’s better than an enemy that is fighting with itself?

Drug war : Most fentanyl originates in China—and over 60,000 Americans died last year from fentanyl overdose. That’s more than the number of American soldiers killed in the entire Vietnam War.

Economic war : China bought up key American companies by the hundreds over the last few decades and obtained critical U.S. technologies by hook and by crook. It also got U.S. businesses (egged on by Wall Street) to move enough manufacturing to China over the last 30 years, leaving large swaths of the United States gutted and the inhabitants stunned, despairing and too often drug addicted—on China-sourced fentanyl.

And in a gradual, preemptive act of surrender, U.S. companies set up supply chains for key materials and products—such as pharmaceuticals—in China.

Beijing is also buttressing its economic defenses—which is standard operating procedures for a country at war—in part by making itself “sanctions proof” (the modern economic equivalent of siege-proof).

Trade war : We’re two decades into this front of the economic war. Washington gave China the go-ahead to attack in 2001 when it let the People’s Republic of China (PRC) into the World Trade Organization (WTO)—despite not meeting qualifications. It didn’t take a strategic genius to know what would happen. Even before that, Beijing was aggressively violating GATT regulations as a matter of national policy.

A billboard promotes China’s membership to the World Trade Organization (WTO) along a street in Beijing on July 17, 2001. (Goh Chai Hin/AFP/Getty Images)

Financial war : The PRC is trying to displace the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The dollar is America’s last solid means of applying pressure against Beijing. Yet the Biden administration and previous administrations have done their best to debase the currency. If the Chinese regime makes enough progress on this front, the United States will not even be able to fund its own defense.

Kinetic War

While forging ahead with weakening the defenses of its opponents through political warfare, Beijing is also preparing and positioning for “traditional” kinetic—or shooting—war.

To the Chinese regime, political warfare and kinetic warfare are part of the same continuum, and it will transition from one to the other as needed to achieve its goals. Just ask Tibet, Vietnam, India, or others it has attacked over the years.

The U.S. military’s top dogs are once again dying to engage with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), even as Chinese officers are dying to engage with the Americans—though in a different way. Some examples include the following:

Military size, capability and reach : The Chinese regime has undertaken the biggest, fastest defense build up since World War Two and probably in history. It is dramatically expanding its size, capabilities, and reach. Already the PLA is a match for U.S. forces in certain circumstances.

The Chinese Navy’s fleet is bigger than the U.S. Navy, and China is producing hypersonic and aircraft carrier killer missiles. It’s rapidly improving undersea warfare capabilities as well.

In terms of power projection, the regime is seizing maritime territory, including building artificial islands in the South China Sea and turning them into military bases to dominate the zone and expand the PLA’s operational reach.

Beijing is also setting up port and airfield access worldwide. It started with with commercial inroads but aims for an eventual military presence. Djibouti was just the beginning. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as “One Belt, One Road”) is essentially the largest potentially dual use infrastructure endeavor the world has ever seen.

Outer space warfare : China is gearing up to be a “galactic hegemon”—to include strategic lunar positioning and anti-satellite weapons to destroy U.S. satellites and blind U.S. forces.

Cyber warfare : The PRC has already gone to work, looting U.S. government and private industry networks of strategic data (including biometrics) and sector-dominating trade secrets. Yet it has escaped almost entirely unscathed, even though the Americans know who did it.

Nuclear war : The PLA is building a nuclear weapons arsenal that will surpass America’s by 2025—and Russia’s too.

Type 001A, China’s second aircraft carrier, is transferred from the dry dock into the water during a launch ceremony at Dalian shipyard in Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning Province, on April 26, 2017. China has launched its first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier, state media said on April 26, as the country seeks to transform its navy into a force capable of projecting power onto the high seas. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Is This Normal?

This is all breathtaking in its scope and one must admire the Chinese regime’s consistent clarity on its objective.

But isn’t China just doing what all “great powers” do?

Only if the “great power” is rapacious and looking to dominate and control its neighborhood and the rest of the globe. And how a government treats its own citizens—repressively in China’s case—gives one a pretty good idea how it will treat everyone else.

And keep in mind that Beijing has done all this—positioning itself to win a shooting war, or a war without shooting—despite facing no enemies. Nobody and no nation anywhere has ever called for attacking China.

Indeed, the United States and the free world bent over backwards to welcome China into civilized society. WTO is a case in point, along with the U.S. military’s decades of eagerness to “engage” with the PLA. Even President Ronald Reagan provided advanced military technologies to the PRC.

Successive presidents—until Donald Trump—all placated Beijing, while overlooking Chinese aggressiveness and misbehavior, and ignoring human rights abuses and the total absence of “rights” of any sort, including the rule of law , in China.

All this was done with the idea that China would liberalize and become a so-called responsible stakeholder.

But while the Americans offered the open hand (and wallet) of friendship, Beijing quietly—but openly—went to war.

Some Americans did notice what China was up to but they were ignored, ridiculed, fired, or ostracized.

Others tried to raise the alarm as well—proximity to China helps one see things better.

Some Indians have been warning the Americans for years—pointing out that India has been at war with China since 1962.

The Japanese military has also tried to warn U.S. counterparts, though they were usually politely ignored or even rudely dismissed in some cases.

But ultimately it was because America’s ruling elite class was too arrogant to see what was going on and even now can’t quite believe it—or simply wants Chinese cash.

To believe that everything the Chinese Communist Party has done is just coincidence, and not malevolent, requires a belief that the Chinese can’t think coherently or plan for the future. Rather, that they just act on impulse and have zero short-term memory.

In spite of all the battlefields described above, some still say that with just a little more talking or engagement, China will come around. One can’t blame the Chinese for playing to American gullibility and corruptibility. It’s political warfare 101.

The Trump administration understood that the “war” was underway and tried to change course. They didn’t have long enough.

One hopes Team Biden figures out that China is at war with the United States—not merely “competing”—and that whatever “guardrails” China agrees to are more likely ones that Beijing thinks will constrain Washington while it forges ahead unimpeded.

Competing is what rival rental car and soft drink companies do. It can even be what democracies do.

But the regime running China is nether a democracy nor a rental car company.

It is out for blood.

Grant Newsham is a retired U.S. Marine officer and a former U.S. diplomat and business executive who lived and worked for many years in the Asia/Pacific region. He served as a reserve head of intelligence for Marine Forces Pacific, and was the U.S. Marine attaché, U.S. Embassy Tokyo on two occasions. He is a senior fellow with the Center for Security Policy.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-went-to-war-a-long-time-ago-but-the-us-didnt-want-to-notice_4002008.html

America Evacuates From Afghanistan, the CCP Evacuates From Hollywood

People walk past a poster of the Disney movie ‘Mulan’ outside a cinema in Beijing on Sept. 10, 2020. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

John Mills

September 26, 2021

Commentary

Lost in the din of the greatest American foreign policy debacle since World War II, a mysterious and very positive dénouement occurred with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence operations. Under concealment from the focus on Afghanistan, the CCP has essentially withdrawn from Hollywood  and the financial infusion of cash that has kept the legacy motion picture production industry alive for almost 20 years.

In true Sun Tzu-ian fashion, the CCP choreographed a complex, disciplined, and orderly Dunkirk-like withdrawal from Hollywood , as opposed to the deadly, shameful, haphazard rout overseen by the Biden administration.

“Unlike the U.S. in Afghanistan, the CCP achieved exactly what it set out to do,” said Lance Crayon , Hollywood writer and documentary filmmaker.

So far, there’s barely been a blip of coverage on this topic. After years of relentless CCP influence operations in the United States , and specifically in the Los Angeles area , the Hollywood beachhead has become well known and part of an overall surge of CCP influence  operations in the United States. Why the sudden withdrawal?

I would suggest three major reasons. First, in accordance with their market sector takedown strategy, the CCP will surge to learn, understand, overwhelm, and supplant the American providers of the goods and services. In this case, it’s the legacy motion picture production facilities in and around Hollywood. I would suggest that market sector flagship CCP influencers such as TenCent  have achieved their strategic end state in motion picture production and have now supplanted their American hosts. They’re consuming the cadaver of legacy Hollywood and have taken over. Just like textiles, electronics, consumer drones, and light and medium manufacturing, TenCent and other Chinese media firms have completed the takeover cycle. Part of the takeover cycle is moving production back to China—which they essentially have. They don’t need Hollywood anymore

There are two other reasons in play. The first is the simple numerics of audience base. The U.S. population is roughly 330 million. The Chinese population is roughly 1.4 billion. If you were going to make China-centric films, which audience would you go after? The choice is intuitive. The second reason: The Chinese are short on cash to deploy for influence operations. If they have achieved their strategic objectives and are retrograding production to China, no need to deploy influence funds to Hollywood any longer. The CCP is showing increased central control of several market sectors and personalities, so the Hollywood situation is just one of the tentacles of CCP civil-military fusion action, and they can downsize the cash flow to support this effort—the mission has been accomplished.

A Bigger Trendline

The CCP Hollywood withdrawal is part of an even bigger trendline—possibly one that’s positive for those of us working to stare down the CCP.

Xi Jinping’s takedown of the Ant Group initial public offering  in November 2020 was a tsunami in several ways. It was a baffling takedown of the leading economic force and personality in China, Jack Ma. For a small, valiant group led by Roger Robinson , it was manna from heaven.

“To our surprise, Xi turned out to be a one-man wrecking ball for Jack Ma and much of China’s tech sector vis-à-vis the capital markets,” Robinson said.

It was stunning—but it was the first of many. Why in the world would Xi conduct a ransacking of his leading flagship companies?

Xi is trashing the house he lives in. He’d rather take out personalities that could possibly challenge his rule than see China thrive.

With the Didi fiasco— largely unobserved by most, BlackRock, led by the unabashed virtue signaler and poster child for Woke executives, Larry Fink , has lost a not insignificant amount of wealth . George Soros has come out aggressively against China , both economically and also as the greatest threat to the liberal, democratic, republics of the world. What an odd comment coming from the worldwide creator of intrigue, but sometimes odd bedfellows are necessary.

Overall, the economic indicators have now turned south  on China. Xi is willing to accept economic pain in return for security and unassailable power. Possibly, after years of irrational exuberance, the Chinese Economic Miracle, foisted upon the world by the CCP, is being revealed for what it is—ruthless totalitarianism.

So How Do We Capitalize Upon This Victory?

As we attempt to make sense out of the Biden administration’s nonsensical foreign policy in the wake of the shameful Kabul episode, the question for the future is what is Biden’s view on Chinese military and civil-military fusion adventurism? The Afghanistan debacle is very reminiscent of the way in which Biden directed an Iraq pull-out  with no negotiated Status of Forces Agreement in 2011, which allowed the rise of violent bloodshed in Iraq and Syria and the unleashing of ISIS.

Hopefully, the current administration focuses on an international alliance to constrain China from lashing out. The new nuclear agreement  with the United Kingdom and Australia is very promising, but we should also expand participation and agreements to include India and Japan. A more formal “Five Eyes Plus” is in order—I advocated strongly for this when I was in office.

The CCP Hollywood withdrawal removes the thin veneer and exposes the dry rot of totalitarian China. In many ways, America and the world gets a “twofer.” CCP-led China is under immense, self-induced duress and exposing its vulnerabilities, and we are also somewhat liberated from the clutches of woke crazed Hollywood and their relentless virtue signaling and lecturing . Hollywood has been pushed out the door and left on the street corner without their primary investor and patron for the last 20 years. Good riddance to both.

Col. (Ret.) John Mills is a national security professional with service in five eras: Cold War, Peace Dividend, War on Terror, World in Chaos, and now—Great Power Competition. He is the former director of cybersecurity policy, strategy, and international affairs at the Department of Defense.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/america-evacuates-from-afghanistan-the-ccp-evacuates-from-hollywood_4002714.html

China Seeks UN Crackdown on Internet Freedom

A person walks past flags outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City on May 20, 2021. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Regular citizens must protect their internet freedoms from China and the UN

Anders Corr

October 6, 2021 Updated: October 7, 2021

News Analysis

Democracies are failing to oppose Beijing’s unprecedented plan to restrict the world’s internet freedom .

Beijing’s proposal to re-write internet rules and re-engineer its plumbing, supposedly to achieve security at 6G speeds, might lead  to more censorship by dictatorships, the BBC told lawmakers in Britain.

“China is currently promoting a new method of managing internet traffic that will, if successful, provide an easy means to inhibit the flow of international media,” according to the BBC.

Those plans also include a requirement  for users around the world to register for internet use. They could then be deregistered according to the will of governments.

The BBC’s warning came in evidence submitted to the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee. The Chinese proposal would radically change internet standards and has a high probability of passing the International Telecommunication Union  (ITU), which is a United Nations agency that regulates information and communication technologies.

Chinese and Russian state media currently have free access to Western markets, but the proposed U.N. internet rules could stifle users’ access to Western media far beyond China’s borders. International media that manage to leap China’s digital firewall is a critical counterweight to the fake news fed to citizens in countries, like China, that have access to few other Western outlets.

The groups proposing internet restrictions include China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Huawei, and other Chinese state-run companies. In promotional materials provided  to the ITU, they label the draconian restrictions with nondescript names such as “New IP” (internet protocol) and “future vertical communication networks.”

Beijing proponents argue that giving governments greater control over internet traffic will build in security, optimizing network speeds and efficiency for technologies like virtual and augmented reality. Current internet protocols, designed for academic and military use, they argue, are outdated.

Huawei representatives proposed  that national governments take control of the internet from its current owners, everybody and anybody with a server. They attempted to wow ITU representatives with images of life-sized holograms and self-driving cars when they first presented the idea, which lacked technical details, in 2019.

China proposes itself, of course, to build this New IP for a brave new world, which is central to the regime’s “digital foreign policy.” The Financial Times in 2020 paraphrased a Huawei representative claiming that it is “leading an ITU group that is focused on future network technology needed by the year 2030, and [the] New IP is being tailored to meet those demands.”

Attendees walk past a display for 5G services from Chinese technology firm Huawei at the PT Expo in Beijing, China, on Oct. 31, 2019. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

Some argue that the unregulated internet is currently controlled  by America’s big tech companies, including Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. So a shift from this unregulated system that Americans dominate, to a regulated system that China might dominate, would be a major loss to democracy and decentralization on a global scale. Even if China does not dominate the internet, the new regulations it proposes could empower governments at the expense of citizens.

“The US, UK and Europe, for example, are interested in adapting the current system to introduce more regulatory power, and give intelligence agencies greater access to users’ personal data,” according to the Financial Times.

This might explain the failure of leading democracies to oppose Beijing’s illiberal ideas for a future internet. They themselves are looking for ways to narrow privacy protections that could help them enforce laws, for example, against terrorism.

Another explanation for the failure of the West to defy Beijing’s plans for the national balkanization of the internet is that Western governments may be powerless against Beijing’s proposal, other than to sanction its proponents economically. The unregulated nature of the global internet makes the web into a power vacuum waiting for authoritarian governments to fill.

According to the Financial Times, sources who were present at ITU meetings in 2019 and 2020 claimed that “Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Russia have previously shown support for Chinese proposals for alternative network technologies.” Furthermore, “the proposals revealed that the blueprints for this new network have already been drawn up, and construction is under way. Any country will be free to adopt it,” the report said.

Ultimately, national capitals control the data pipes through which the internet flows. The West allows free data flow, but China is innovating controls on that data that can be adopted by other countries.

According to experts from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies , “intrinsic security means that individuals must register to use the internet, and authorities can shut off an individual user’s internet access at any time. In short, Huawei is looking to integrate China’s ‘social credit,’ surveillance, and censorship regimes into the internet’s architecture.”

The BBC made the point that many nations, including Britain, were not vocally opposing the measure, which China could get passed through its checkbook diplomacy among most nations at the U.N. Western media sometimes falls into repeating CCP talking points on the issue, which demonstrates the BBC’s concerns.

In 2020, Financial Times reporters wrote , “Governments everywhere seem to agree that today’s model of internet governance—essentially, lawless self-regulation by private, mostly American companies—is broken.”

Really? Then governments everywhere need to get schooled on the importance of freedom of speech and democracy. America currently leads in the defense of these principles, in an admittedly weak fashion, but more thoroughly than most European and Asian democracies.

In sum, the CCP seeks to export its censorship of the internet globally and make money in the process. Democracies are not doing their job, which is to protect the freedoms for which their founders fought and died.

Regular citizens must step up and pressure their governments to more aggressively defend their internet freedoms. Citizens in democracies are lucky enough to have the option today to accelerate the use of the very free speech that they are about to lose tomorrow.

Anders Corr has a bachelor’s/master’s in political science from Yale University (2001) and a doctorate in government from Harvard University (2008). He is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, and has conducted extensive research in North America, Europe, and Asia. He authored “The Concentration of Power” (forthcoming in 2021) and “No Trespassing,” and edited “Great Powers, Grand Strategies.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-seeks-un-crackdown-on-internet-freedom_4030623.html

EpochTV Review: Hostage Diplomacy

Lacy Hall

October 6, 2021

Commentary

In this episode of Kash’s Corner , “A Three Way Deal?–One Huawei  CFO, Two Americans, and Two Canadians,” hosts Kash Patel and Jan Jekielek discuss the deferred prosecution agreement that was given to Huawei’s CFO by the Department of Justice, the events that followed, and the implications of those events.

Huawei is a massive telecom company that provides information and communication technology to Iran and some European countries. Its CFO, Meng Wanzhou , was indicted for breaking several federal statutes for wire and bank fraud. Huawei’s felonious misuse of the banking systems in Iran and Europe brought about the case against it, which started during the Trump administration. Patel explains that a “deferred prosecution agreement is basically, ‘I’m going to temporarily plead guilty to the conduct in the indictment, and then I’m going to get a get-out-of-jail-free card in 6 months time,’ in a year’s time normally.” He said that normally in cases like this, the defendant is monitored in the United States by the Department of Justice, the FBI, and other federal agencies to ensure that the defendant is not committing more crimes and that the agreement is being followed. Meanwhile movement is restricted so that federal authorities are able to contact the perpetrator at all times.

In the case of Wanzhou, she was allowed to return to China, which makes it impossible for any authorities to monitor her or contact her.

Wanzhou was arrested in Canada in 2018 at the request of the United States, which charged her and Huawei with using the U.S. banking system illegally. Her specific crime involved sanctions against Iran to keep U.S. money from moving through the Iranian banking system via transactions that would benefit Iran. Huawei was accused of purchasing a company in Iran, which it originally denied, saying that Huawei had no affiliation with the company that was purchased. In reality, it was a Huawei subsidiary that conducted the purchase. That company was then used by Huawei to funnel U.S. money in and out of Iran to build a 5G network that would ultimately benefit Iran.

Under the agreement, Wanzhou submitted an admission of guilt to the charges, but only did it knowing that she would be released.

Kash’s Corner: A Three Way Deal?-One Huawai CFO, Two Americans and Two Canadians [ Full Episode ]

Watch the full episode here .

Patel explains that he does not agree with the granting of this agreement, because it leads to more illegal activity from financial institutions. Signing a deferred agreement does not mean that prosecution will come at a later time. It means that no prosecution will take place, unless the defendant breaks any of the rules listed in the agreement. Once the monitoring period has concluded, the charge is completely expunged from the record, so the defendant can start over with a clean slate. A fine is also assessed in the agreement, which must be paid before the deferral is granted.

Once Wanzhou was released, two Canadian prisoners were released from China and allowed to return to Canada. China also released two American siblings back to the United States who had been barred from leaving China for more than three years. It was after these releases that the media began using the term hostage diplomacy  to describe the exchange. Wanzhou and her family have ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as does Huawei. Even though the CCP denied having any influence in this matter and claimed the releases were due to “medical reasons,” the speed in which these releases happened after the return of Wanzhou to China suggests otherwise.

In the next segment of the video, Patel goes into detail about Huawei and its operations around the world. Huawei installs 5G networks, which give access to massive amounts of information. A U.S. investigation was launched to monitor the CCP’s global influence and its direct effect on national security. Patel, as a member of the House Intel Committee, was a part of this investigation and traveled to several countries. He found that all of them were involved with the CCP, which was building massive infrastructures in these countries. Many of them do not have the funds to purchase 5G technology, so the CCP pays to have it installed therefore giving them access to all the information on these networks. Most countries cannot repay the CCP for building these infrastructures, so the regime takes ownership and provides a Chinese workforce there to do the labor.

After taking ownership, the CCP can then collect information from the infrastructures they financed and use it to their advantage. Patel explains this is how the CCP infiltrates and takes over countries. One place he visited was Djibouti, which is located in a strategic area in the horn of Africa and is also close to the Middle East. China helped build several infrastructures there, including a port and a military base. The concern for the United States is that American travelers use personal computers and other devices while moving through these countries, so the CCP can access their information. These countries do not do anything to stop China from doing this, because they are relying on the money and structures to improve their nation. Unfortunately, the United States is not placing enough emphasis on monitoring this activity to stop it from happening.

The video concludes with a discussion about reports that the Chinese regime is developing detailed intelligence profiles on every American. China has made this a priority and will continue its pursuits for global infiltration and ultimate domination.

“Kash’s Corner” premiers every Friday at 8 p.m.— exclusive on EpochTV.

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Lacy Hall is a native born Texan and lives in South Texas. She earned a bachelor of science degree in English/Education from Howard Payne University. She enjoys research and has a passion for writing entertaining, informative, and relevant content for her readers.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv-review-hostage-diplomacy_4034096.html

Espionage Is a Fundamental Engine Behind China’s Economic Growth

Chinese military radar equipment on display at a Beijing museum in December 2013. China is developing technology intended to disable or destroy U.S. military communication systems. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

Espionage Is a Fundamental Engine Behind China’s Economic Growth

Theft of foreign secrets powers China’s economy

Stu Cvrk

October 19, 2021; Updated October 20, 2021

News Analysis

The Chinese economy has benefited from decades of purposeful economic espionage focused on acquiring Western technology, intellectual property, and general economic know-how.

Communist China’s long-term economic strategy is aimed at replacing the U.S.-dominated post-World War II order, which was established by the United Nations and the Bretton Woods international monetary framework, with an “ authoritarian capitalist system ” controlled by Beijing. A key characteristic of authoritarian capitalism is defined here  as “the presence of a capitalist economy on one hand along with the absence or erosion of democracy and civil liberties on the other hand.”

The strategy involves penetrating, co-opting, and leveraging international institutions in order to gain access to resources, foreign direct investment, advanced technology, and Western methods so that Chinese industry can leap ahead of all foreign competition in the race for next-generation technologies and production capabilities—in short, to achieve world economic dominance over the long haul. To carry out this strategy, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has devoted enormous resources, including manpower and money, to the conduct of economic espionage.

Economic espionage involves the theft of trade secrets, proprietary information, and/or intellectual property in order to advantage domestic companies while disadvantaging foreign competitors. For China, this meant replacing science and technology investments that were “deferred” due to the liquidation of many scientists, engineers, and innovators during the devastating decade of Mao Zedong’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), given that Chinese industry and technical capabilities were far behind the West before its end.

According to an unclassified report  from the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the Chinese strategic goals of modernizing its military, evolving a technology-driven economic model, and obtaining a comprehensive capability to dominate geopolitics worldwide are heavily dependent upon extensive ongoing economic espionage activities.

Intelligence Services

Operatives, spies, and analysts within and/or controlled by the Ministry for State Security (MSS) and all service elements of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are dedicated to round-the-clock intelligence collection activities. The MSS is answerable to both China’s State Council—the chief administrative authority of the Chinese regime—and the CCP Politburo Standing Committee in conducting worldwide intelligence collection operations. PLA intelligence directorates report to China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) in conducting HUMINT, technical intelligence collection, and cyber operations.

According to Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui , there are over 25,000 Chinese intelligence officers and over 15,000 recruited Americans operating on China’s behalf  in the United States alone.

Cyber espionage is an important mission in gaining economic secrets. According to a report  from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, “Cyberintrusions allow Chinese businesses—in some cases acting at the CCP’s direction or with government assistance—to access information about U.S. firms’ proprietary operations and project-financing information, as well as steal IP and technology.”

This wanted poster is displayed at the U.S. Justice Department in Washington on May 19, 2014. A U.S. grand jury has charged five Chinese hackers with economic espionage and trade secret theft, the first-of-its-kind criminal charges against Chinese military officials in an international cyber espionage case. (AP Photo)

Non-Traditional Collectors

The MSS exploits/coerces Chinese businessmen and scientists to steal and report secrets gained in their business dealings with foreigners. Since 2015, non-traditional collection efforts have increasingly been controlled by the United Front Work Department (UFWD), which reports to the MSS for intelligence collection coordination. Mao labeled the “united front” as one of the “three magic weapons” in the CCP arsenal. Its original domestic mission was to penetrate and control social groups and individuals to “persuade” them to support the CCP and its objectives.

The new additional foreign mission  involves “the co-optation of elites, information management, persuasion, and accessing strategic information and resources … as a means of facilitating espionage,” according to the blog Power 3.0.

The UFWD uses the Chinese Communist (ChiCom) version of Dale Carnegie’s classic book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” including corruption, bribery, spying, and coercion. The UFWD provides cover for intelligence agents (spies) operating under the Ministry of State Security. UFWD tentacles reach into the Confucius Institutes, Thousand Talents program, Chinese news services, Overseas Chinese Affairs Offices, and the Cyberspace Administration of China. All of these are tightly controlled operations aimed at influencing foreign opinion and winning friends for CCP policies.

Legal and Regulatory Exploitation

Chinese laws and regulations frequently facilitate technology theft as a price for foreign company operations in China. The CCP has also been trying to get control of the international standards certification process by replacing the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) with “ China Standards 2035 .” In controlling the standards and the technology, this would make it much easier for the Chinese regime to access foreign-developed technology.

Front Companies

Front companies are set up in foreign countries to obfuscate the direct involvement of the Chinese regime in obtaining export-controlled technologies. “Front companies” could be a misleading term, as virtually all Chinese-owned companies have an obligation to conduct economic espionage on behalf of Beijing.

There is only one degree of separation between many Chinese companies and the PLA, as the CCP has developed and implemented a strategy of “maximizing linkages between the military and the civilian sector to build China’s economic and military strength,” according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Joint Ventures

Joint ventures are used to entice foreign companies to operate in China. Part of the joint venture agreements involve technology transfer to the Chinese partners. In essence, Chinese joint venture regulations ultimately require foreign partners to essentially sign over their IP and technology in order to access the Chinese market.

Research Partnerships

Collaborating with foreign scientists on research projects provides direct access to advanced technologies. One good example was China’s establishment of the Alliance of Industrial Internet for “internet and collaborative manufacturing initiatives,” which is focused on leveraging and integrating domestic and especially foreign technologies in order “to accelerate the development of industrial internet”—not uncoincidentally to lead the world in IPv6 development. The partnerships are “two-fers” when the U.S. government funds the research grants! For example, the collaboration  between Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology used funds provided by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The P4 laboratory (left) on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei Province on May 27, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Academic Collaborations

Reciprocal relationships with foreign universities are encouraged in order to obtain access to foreign technologies. One key aspect is the promotion of international professor and student exchanges, intertwined with the Thousand Talents program , which is aimed at attracting foreign scientists, engineers, and instructors for exploitation by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of State Security for espionage purposes.

Other aspects involve credit transfer and qualifications recognition to encourage deeper academic exchange and scientific cooperation between Chinese and foreign colleges and universities.

Science and Technology Investments

The Chinese regime invests in foreign S&T development as a mechanism to fill technology holes in Chinese technical sectors. S&T targets include the following: information technology, cyber security, advanced manufacturing techniques, defense technologies of all kinds, and energy technologies (especially of the “green” variety). A good summary of Chinese S&T investments and the CCP’s associated strategy can be found in this report .

Mergers and Acquisitions

The Chinese regime uses foreign direct investment funding to invest in and acquire Western companies for the purpose of acquiring cutting-edge technologies and intellectual property. The ChiComs have made strategic acquisitions  in key foreign companies in order to gain market share and access to key technologies, as well as to influence the culture.

Talent Recruitment Programs

Foreign scientists and engineers are offered research scholarships and paid sabbaticals in order to obtain their intellectual capital and technology innovations. The ChiCom objective is to recruit overseas Chinese and foreign experts and entrepreneurs in key economic sectors to teach and work in China.

Conclusion

The CCP has a robust, well-coordinated and ongoing economic espionage effort that targets U.S.-developed intellectual property, technologies, and industries. This campaign is an important element of Beijing’s ongoing pursuit of world economic domination and is the key engine that powers the continuing growth of the Chinese economy–frequently at the direct expense of foreign competition.

Stu Cvrk retired as a captain after serving 30 years in the U.S. Navy in a variety of active and reserve capacities, with considerable operational experience in the Middle East and the Western Pacific. Through education and experience as an oceanographer and systems analyst, Cvrk is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he received a classical liberal education that serves as the key foundation for his political commentary.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/espionage-is-a-fundamental-engine-behind-chinas-economic-growth_4056358.html

General: China Trying to Become the Most Dominant Force in Space

Workers stand near the manned Shenzhou-12 spacecraft from China's Manned Space Agency onboard the Long March-2F rocket before launch with three Chinese astronauts onboard at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on June 17, 2021 in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China.(Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

By Li Hai   October 21, 2021   Updated: October 21, 2021

A Space Force general warned that China’s communist regime might become the most dominant force in space if the United States doesn’t accelerate its pace to field critical new technologies in the warfighting domain.

Vice chief of Space Operations Gen. David Thompson told the Washington Times this week that China has already developed a “tremendous and exquisite capability to look from space to see, hear, track and defend.”

Most important, Beijing is approaching the ability to field new space systems in about half the time it takes the United States to do the same, Thompson suggested.

“Not only do they have the ability to adopt new technology and updated capabilities much more quickly, if they’re almost as good as we are today—and they are almost as good as we are—they can cycle these things in very quickly [and] they become better than we are,” Thompson said.

Last week, China successfully sent a spaceship to its space station, “starting the country’s longest-ever crewed mission for space station construction,” according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Three astronauts, including one female astronaut, are supposed to stay in the space station for six months.

Between June 17 and Sept. 17, another three Chinese astronauts stayed in the space station for three months.

So far Beijing has conducted five space launch missions this year.

China’s communist regime “has devoted significant resources to growing all aspects of its space program, from military space applications to civil applications,” reads the Pentagon’s latest annual report ( pdf ) to Congress.

As early as 2007, China launched a ballistic missile, that destroyed a non-operational Chinese weather satellite.

In September, Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of Space Operations, said China has deployed satellites with a robotic arm that could be used to “grab” other satellites.

The Financial Times reported that China tested its hypersonic missile recently. U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood called it a technology “we just don’t know how we can defend.”

“It’s very critical that we accelerate, not just to keep pace, but to stay ahead of the threat of the capabilities the Chinese are provided,” Thompson said.

Gen. David Thompson (U.S. Air Force photo by Eric Dietrich)

The good thing is, Thompson pointed out, that the Space Force has “put some processes and organizations in place to do that, and they’re demonstrating, early-on, the ability to do so.”

The next conflict between China’s regime and the United States may start in space, Thompson said.

“We absolutely believe that the Chinese thinking would be if it’s coming to crisis and conflict, they’re going to start this conflict in space,” the general said.

Last month, some Democrats in Congress introduced a bill called the “No Militarization of Space Act,” in an attempt to abolish the Space Force , which was established under the Trump administration.

“Since its creation under the former Trump administration, the Space Force has threatened longstanding peace and flagrantly wasted billions of taxpayer dollars,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the bill’s sponsor, said in a statement.

Li Hai is a New York-based reporter for The Epoch Times.

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China Uses ‘Whole-of-Society’ Effort to Steal From US: Former CIA Officer

Chinese paramilitary policemen keep watch at the promenade on the Bund along the Huangpu River in Shanghai on Sept. 24, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

By Frank Fang   October 31, 2021   Updated: October 31, 2021

China is using a whole-of-society approach to steal its way to becoming a military power, and the U.S. government needs to better defend against such an espionage campaign, according to a retired CIA  officer.

“U.S. security officials estimate that the Chinese steal between $300 billion and $600 billion a year in U.S. intellectual property, research and development, information, and technology,” David Sauer told The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet NTD on Oct 29.

The United States hasn’t been the only target of the campaign, Sauer said. China’s efforts have also targeted the European Union, South Korea, and Japan since the push began around 2000 to 2001, he said.

“They’re [China] stealing that information and then integrating [it] into their economy and their state-owned enterprises [and] into their military. Some of their military systems look like a carbon copy of U.S. military systems,” he said. “So it really saves them [China] a lot of time, sweat, and tears in trying to develop that technology.”

Sauer served as chief of station and deputy chief of station in multiple overseas command positions in East Asia and South Asia prior to his retirement.

The Chinese regime targets individuals—who can be students, academics, or business people—seeking their cooperation to obtain certain technologies that the regime in Beijing wants to get its hands on, Sauer said.

“Now, those people, I bet most of them don’t want to cooperate,” Sauer said. “They think it’s a little risky, and that they might get caught and ruin their life or their ability to function in the United States.

“But they really don’t have a choice. They’re dealing with an authoritarian regime. And they’ll risk their future by saying no. So they don’t.”

Christopher Wray , who has been the director of the FBI  since August 2017, said  in 2020 that the bureau was opening one new Chinese counterintelligence investigation about every 10 hours. Wray also said that the bureau had more than 2,000 counterintelligence investigations related to China at that time.

One recent FBI investigation involved Zhang Xiaoming , a former civilian professor at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, who pleaded guilty to making false statements to a federal agent regarding his ties with a Chinese municipal official.

According to the Department of Justice, Zhang developed a relationship with the official during one of his trips to China in 2012. Later, he became aware that the official was attempting to use him to gain access to sensitive information that was in his possession.

On Oct. 22, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) began an outreach campaign  to warn U.S. organizations in five different sectors—artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, bioeconomy, quantum information science and technology, and semiconductors—about how they could be targets for foreign counterintelligence operations.

“To help achieve its strategic goals, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] employs a wide variety of legal, quasi-legal, and illegal methods to acquire technology and know-how from the United States and other nations,” an NCSC factsheet ( pdf ) reads.

These methods include academic collaboration, co-opting insiders, joint ventures, talent recruitment programs, and science and technology investments.

“The reality is that China’s using our technology and innovation to build its rise and to build a military that can defeat ours,” Sauer said.

Frank Fang is a Taiwan-based journalist. He covers news in China and Taiwan. He holds a master's degree in materials science from Tsinghua University in Taiwan.

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Gen. Milley Says China’s Suspected Hypersonic Missile Test Is ‘Very Close’ to a ‘Sputnik Moment’

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testifies during a congressional hearing at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 29, 2021. (Rod Lamkey/Pool/Getty Images)

By Frank Fang   October 28, 2021   Updated: November 4, 2021

Gen. Mark Milley , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called China’s suspected hypersonic missile  test “very concerning” and said it was nearly a “Sputnik moment.”

Milley was alluding to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik , the world’s first artificial satellite, in October 1957, which caused anxiety that the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union in technological advancement. Less than a year later, NASA  was established  to challenge the Soviets in the Cold War-era space race.

“What we saw was a very significant event of a test of a hypersonic weapon system. And it is very concerning,” Milley told Bloomberg  on Oct. 27. “I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that. It has all of our attention.”

The Financial Times newspaper first reported  on the test earlier this month, saying that the Chinese military launched a rocket carrying a glide vehicle in August that flew through low-orbit space before missing its target by “about two-dozen miles,” citing sources it didn’t identify.

On Oct. 18, China’s foreign ministry denied any hypersonic missile test, saying that it was a “routine test of spacecraft” that took place in July.

Milley’s statements are significant as they’re the first acknowledgment by any U.S. official of China’s suspected test.

Hypersonic missiles  can travel at Mach 5, or faster than five times the speed of sound. They could, in theory, be maneuvered to arc over the South Pole to evade U.S. missile defense systems, which are located in the northern hemisphere.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on Milley’s remarks during a briefing  on Oct. 27.

“This is not a technology that is an alien to us that we haven’t been thinking about for a while,” Kirby said. “We have defensive capabilities that we need to continue to hone in to improve.

“Our own pursuit of hypersonic capabilities is real. It’s tangible, and we are absolutely working toward being able to develop that capability.”

A common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB) launches from Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, at approximately 10:30 p.m. local time, on March 19, 2020, during a Department of Defense flight experiment. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)

NASA reported  on its website that its facility in Virginia launched three rockets on Oct. 20 to support a test by the U.S. Navy and Army to study hypersonic weapons technology.

“It reinforces for us the need to continue to treat the PRC [People’s Republic of China] as our number-one pacing challenge,” Kirby said. “A free Indo-Pacific remains a key national security goal of the United States.”

U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall warned about China’s space threats  in September, saying that Beijing could pursue a Cold War-era concept known as the “fractional orbital bombardment system.” Under the system, missiles with nuclear warheads would be launched into low Earth orbits before flying them to hit targets in the United States.

Milley also warned about China’s military expansion in four domains of warfare—air, land, sea, and space.

“They have gone from a peasant army that was very, very large in 1979 to a very capable military that covers all domains and has global ambitions,” he said. “China is very significant on our horizon.

“As we go forward—over the next 10, 20, 25 years—there’s no question in my mind that the biggest geostrategic challenge to the United States is gonna be China.”

China’s suspected hypersonic missile test also serves as a warning about the outflow of U.S. technology to China, as 17 Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee highlighted in their Oct. 22 joint letter ( pdf ) to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) (L) speaks as House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) (R) and House Republican military veterans listen during a news conference at Rayburn Room of the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 31, 2021. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“Reports that the PRC has tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile is a chilling display of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) capabilities and intentions,” the letter reads.

“To make matters worse, it is likely that U.S. software and tools contributed to the creation of this weapons system, because of our country’s permissive export controls and licensing policies with China.”

The lawmakers urged Raimondo to act on their 10 recommendations, which addressed issues of immediate concern. One recommendation suggested that a quarterly report be submitted to Congress on export control licensing outcomes to parties on the Commerce Department’s entity list, which prevents U.S. companies from doing business with blacklisted companies unless they secure a special government license.

Another suggestion urged the Commerce Department to strengthen its export controls on semiconductors to China.

Frank Fang is a Taiwan-based journalist. He covers news in China and Taiwan. He holds a master's degree in materials science from Tsinghua University in Taiwan.

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Chinese Military Plans Foreign Port Destruction

A Chinese military drone is presented during a military parade on Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Sept. 3, 2015. (Rolex Dela Pena/AFP/Getty Images)

Stealthy underwater explosions, drone fighter jets, and military AI reveal the CCP’s technological aggression

Anders Corr

November 2, 2021 Updated: November 3, 2021

News Analysis

The Chinese military  is unveiling a range of sophisticated military technologies, from underwater stealth attacks against foreign ports, to drone fighters and military artificial intelligence ( AI ).

China’s military is testing  stealthy underwater explosions for purposes of the destruction of foreign ports, according to the Global Times , an ultra-nationalist news outlet controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“If we can use stealthy ways, like underwater explosions to destroy the ports, we can kill off the enemy’s war potential,” Captain Zhao Pengduo, the deputy director of the Naval Port Demolition Test Program, said on a China Central Television (CCTV) program.

Just in case the West missed it, the Global Times translated the comments and published them on Oct. 25. The testing and its publication, in English, could be an attempt to prove the credibility of China’s naval threat to the United States as tensions rise over Taiwan, the South China Sea, and Japan’s Senkaku Islands, all of which Beijing claims as its territory. The CCP thus reveals that its intentions are not honorable.

Scientific sensors were placed on the small wharf for the test prior to its destruction. Chinese state media reported that “as the explosion took place, nearly 1,000 pieces of data were gathered, which were then analyzed to accurately evaluate how the wharf was damaged … noting that this will provide scientific support to attack hostile ports in a real war.”

According to a Beijing military expert quoted by the Global Times, “This tactic can play a significant role in many combat scenarios, including countering the US’ naval warfare aimed at China.”

The expert continued, “Since the US now understands its large vessels like aircraft carriers and large military facilities near China are vulnerable to attacks, it is scattering its forces to … smaller locations.”

The expert claimed that the scattering of the U.S. Navy would make logistics, command, and communications more difficult, presumably forcing U.S. ships to rely on numerous regional ports that are vulnerable to China’s stealthy underwater explosions. Beijing’s military strategy is apparently to force the failure of port-based logistics chains upon which the U.S. and allied navies rely.

Stealthy underwater explosions could be facilitated by AI enabled drones. So as concerning is a new report  from Georgetown University that claims the Chinese military could be spending more on AI than the United States.

A truck loaded with the Chinese made drone, the ASN-207, takes part in a military parade in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2009. (Vincent Thian/AP)

Based on publicly-available Chinese military procurement records, the Georgetown researchers conclude that the Chinese military spends between $1.6 billion and $2.7 billion annually on AI; while the United States only spent from $800 million to $1.3 billion last year. The Chinese military’s primary source of AI technology may be the United States, according to the report.

Georgetown researcher Ryan Fedasiuk, who coauthored the report, claims  that the Chinese military bought AI systems “designed to identify undersea vehicles, wargame Taiwan operations, track U.S. Navy ships, and deploy electronic countermeasures.”

AI will be critical to the future of air combat as well. Simulations over the past couple of years have shown that AI-enabled fighter jets often out-compete their human-only cousins.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported  on Oct. 29 that China’s air force could test the world’s first two-seat stealth fighter within the next two weeks. One of the pilots would operate the plane, a variation of the J-20 Weilong Mighty Dragon, and the other will operate AI-enabled “loyal wingman” drones that accompany the J-20 into battle.

“Experts said the variant showed China had beaten the US and other competitors,” according to the SCMP, which is owned by China’s Alibaba Group. Development of the J-20 variant “was an attempt to prove that the US concept of next generation air dominance (NGAD) could be successfully applied in Chinese aircraft technology,” the report said.

Prior news of China’s hypersonic missile development, and installation of hundreds of intercontinental ballistic missile silos in the Xinjiang region, add to more recent concerns of underwater explosion tests, AI progress, and stealth fighter jet development to paint a dim picture of the CCP’s intentions and willingness to execute goals such as the invasion of Taiwan.

U.S. lawmakers and regulators recently responded  to Beijing’s increasingly threatening behavior, including through the essential disruption of China’s theft of American intellectual property that fuels the Chinese military-industrial complex. One effective way to approach this is by clamping down on some of China’s most important technology companies.

On Oct. 26, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appealed to national security considerations in the revocation of a China Telecom subsidiary’s authorization to operate in the United States.

The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Oct. 28 for legislation that prevents U.S. regulators from granting new equipment licenses to five companies designated on the FCC’s “Covered Equipment or Services List.” The companies include Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Zhejiang Dahua, all of which are considered to be security threats.

In a vote of 420 to 4, the House had previously approved the law. The majority is veto proof in both houses, so President Joe Biden will likely sign the bill into law shortly.

But restrictions on Beijing’s ability to steal American technology are entirely inadequate to date. The Georgetown study found that the U.S. Commerce Department only restricts 22 of 273 firms that supply the Chinese military. Fedasiuk wrote in a tweet , “Almost none are subject to financial sanctions.”

The United States must get much more serious about defeating Beijing’s plans to steal American technology and use it to build the CCP’s economic and military strength against democracy and human rights on a global scale. More subsidies of American technology, before stopping the technology leakage problem, could only make it worse. The $250 billion U.S. Innovation and Competition Act , for example, is currently held up in the House. It includes massive technology subsidies geared for the competition with China, and should be revised to ensure that the CCP does not thereby benefit more than America.

Anders Corr has a bachelor’s/master’s in political science from Yale University (2001) and a doctorate in government from Harvard University (2008). He is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, and has conducted extensive research in North America, Europe, and Asia. He authored “The Concentration of Power” (forthcoming in 2021) and “No Trespassing,” and edited “Great Powers, Grand Strategies.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-military-plans-foreign-port-destruction_4077629.html

China’s Control of Global Supply Chains Will Extend to the Sea and Moon

A cargo ship moves toward the Bayonne Bridge as it heads into port in Bayonne, New Jersey, on Oct. 13, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Nearly all electronics depend on China regardless of where it is ‘made’

Antonio Graceffo

November 2, 2021 Updated: November 3, 2021

News Analysis

When it comes to supply chains, all roads lead to China , even if the products are “made” elsewhere.

A laptop sold in the United States, with a “Made in China” sticker, is assembled in China, and many of the components are also sourced from China . This is the easy part of tracing global supply chains, as most consumers know that the large components of many everyday products come from, or are assembled, in China. The part that many people do not know, and the reason why China is able to dominate global supply chains so thoroughly, is that the small things—the metals and elements that are crucial to making electronics work—are also dependent on China.

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 11 th  and 12 th  Five-Year Plans encouraged Chinese companies to invest overseas, while it pledged financing  and support from Chinese state-owned banks. One of the goals stressed in the 12 th  Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) was to strengthen China’s position in metals.

The 13th Five Year Plan, which spanned from 2016 to 2020, was dubbed a “ decisive battle period ” by the CCP, which sought to control the global nonferrous metal industry. This strategy is coupled with “Made in China 2025,” which seeks to dramatically expand China’s strategic industries and national defense, as well as science and technology. To this end, an action plan for China’s metals industry to achieve world power status was announced in October 2016 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The CCP’s Five-Year Plans, Made in China 2025, as well as achieving world status in metals, all included directives for state-owned enterprises—funded by state-owned banks—to purchase and control mines in resource-rich countries  around the globe.

To further ensure the country’s domination of mineral markets, Beijing imposed export restrictions  on those elements that are produced in China. These restrictions have been the subject of World Trade Organization grievances that were filed by the United States and the European Union, as well as Japan and Mexico, citing unfair competition.

Several laptop brands advertise themselves as “not made in China,” but this is a bit of a misnomer, because even these laptops are dependent on inputs from China. The typical laptop contains many, or all, of the following elements that originate from countries spread out across the world, but which are controlled by the Chinese regime: graphite, cobalt, lithium, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, antimony, and copper .

Workers drain away polluted water near the Zijin copper mine in Shanghang, China, on July 13, 2010. Pollution from the mine contaminated the Ting river, a major waterway in southeast China’s Fujian Province. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

China, alone, supplies or controls  half of the raw materials  used across the world. Graphite used in rechargeable batteries is found in China, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, and Madagascar, but 69 percent of it  comes from China. Cobalt originates in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Beijing controls 35 mining companies . China controls 86 percent of the global  supply of magnesium, although this element can be found in the United States, Israel, Brazil, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkey.

Ninety percent of the world’s lithium comes from Chile, Argentina, and Australia. Through investment in local companies, China now controls 59 percent  of the global supply. And it is not just developing countries that are giving up their resources in exchange for Chinese cash. In Australia, China now controls 91 percent of all lithium  mining, as well as 75 percent of the country’s reserves.

Two of the primary sources of vanadium are Kazakhstan and South Africa, both of which are members of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as “One Belt, One Road”). In Kazakhstan, the China Development Bank  (CDB) is heavily funding the mining sector. And in South Africa, Beijing is now planning investments in vanadium mines .

Chinese companies also bought significant stakes in the largest copper mines in the DRC . In total, China owns 30 overseas copper projects in the operating stage, and an additional 38 in the exploration stage.

Zimbabwe has the world’s second-largest chromium  reserve, accounting for about 12 percent of the global total. China is the world’s largest consumer of chrome and chromium, and secures its supplies by investing in extraction in countries such as Cuba  and Zimbabwe. Over the past five years, China has invested billions in Zimbabwe’s metals  sector, and is a major owner in one of the country’s largest chrome-mining companies, Zimbabwe Mining and Alloy Smelting Company ( ZIMASCO ).

Locals describe the China-Zimbabwe relationship as exchanging mining equipment  and technology for ore. This is a pattern and a strategy that China has used in resource-rich countries across the globe. Namely, that China provides construction and technological services to the local mines. In exchange, the mines agree to sell a percentage  of their output to Chinese companies at an agreed upon price. Other tools used by the CCP include mergers and acquisitions , whereby Chinese companies, many of them state-owned and funded by state-owned financial institutions, purchase controlling interest in local mining companies.

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa reviews a military honor guard with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on April 3, 2018. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images)

A traditional leader in Mashonaland Central, a province in Zimbabwe, accused China  of looting the country’s mineral resources. Local miners have complained that the Chinese regime exploits workers . In one incident, a Chinese manager of a mining company shot two Zimbabwean  workers over a wage dispute in June last year.

China controls 90 percent of the world’s  antimony supply and, until one year ago, owned 100 percent of the antimony processing plants. Once antimony is extracted from the ground, it must be processed into ingots in order to be used in the manufacture of other goods. Although antimony is found in Russia, Australia, and Tajikistan, nearly all of it is sent to China for processing. Last year, for the first time in 30 years, an antimony processing plant, called a roster, was built outside of China.

In addition to investing in other countries, the CCP is now scrambling to dominate the newer sector of undersea mining . Approval for seabed mining comes from the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Chinese companies have already filed 30 requests  with the ISA for various undersea mining projects.

After conquering the seas, China plans to mine the moon. Last year, its Chang’e 5 lunar probe landed  on the moon and brought back 2 kilograms of samples. American space analysts suggest that China is building up its lunar research experience in order to support future moon-based mining projects. Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that he believes mining the moon will be possible in this century. Meanwhile, there is evidence and speculation that the moon contains many critical materials. The CCP hopes to have a manned moon landing  by 2030 and to build a lunar research station. Bao Weimin, director of the Science and Technology Commission of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) has proposed creating an “Earth-Moon Special Economic Zone ” by 2050.

At the rate China is expanding its control of laptop inputs, it is likely that 20 years from now, not only will most, or all, of the inputs lead back to Chinese companies, but some will originate from under the sea or the moon.

Antonio Graceffo, Ph.D., has spent over 20 years in Asia. He is a graduate of Shanghai University of Sport and holds a China-MBA from Shanghai Jiaotong University. Antonio works as an economics professor and China economic analyst, writing for various international media. Some of his China books include “Beyond the Belt and Road: China’s Global Economic Expansion” and “A Short Course on the Chinese Economy.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinas-control-of-global-supply-chains-will-extend-to-the-sea-and-moon_4080984.html

China’s ‘Satellite Crusher’: ‘Space Pearl Harbor’ Is Coming

The United States is now behind China in the ability to take down satellites. “The Shijian-21 satellite is a game-changer,” said Weichert, who also produces The Weichert Report. “It is a real-world offensive capability that can hunt and destroy American systems and render the U.S. military on earth deaf, dumb, and blind.” Picture: A Long March-2F carrier rocket, carrying the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft with the second crew of three astronauts to China’s new space station, lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi desert in northwestern China on Oct. 16, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Gordon G. Chang

November 2, 2021 Updated: November 3, 2021

Commentary

On Oct. 24, China  launched its Shijian-21 into orbit. The satellite , according  to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., is “tasked with demonstrating technologies to alleviate and neutralize space debris.”

As Beijing sees it, American satellites constitute “debris.”

Shijian-21 has a robotic arm that can be used to move space junk—there are more than 100 million pieces of it floating around the earth—or capture, disable, destroy, or otherwise render unusable other nations’ satellites. That arm makes Shijian-21 a “satellite crusher.”

Brandon Weichert, author of “Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower,” told the Gatestone Institute that the Chinese satellite was launched into geosynchronous orbit, where many of America’s most sensitive satellite systems—those critical to Nuclear Command, Communications, and Control (NC3); surveillance; and military communications—are located.

“Because the U.S. satellites in geosynchronous orbit are so far away from earth, they are both expensive and hard-to-replace,” Weichert said. “Losing any of these systems, with no replacements on hand, would give China’s military an unprecedented advantage in the event of an outbreak of hostilities.”

China has designed its new space station, as Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center tells me, “to incorporate additional large military modules that can be equipped with lasers, microwave, or missile-based anti-satellite systems.”

In September 2008, China’s Shenzhou-7 manned mission came within 45 kilometers of the International Space Station as the Chinese crew was launching a microsatellite, “an obvious simulated ISS-intercept mission,” Fisher said. One of the veterans of that mission, Fisher told Gatestone, is now the commander onboard the Chinese space station.

“They’re going counterspace in a big way,” Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. John Hyten said  on Oct. 28 at an event sponsored by the Defense Writers Group.

Hyten, previously commander of the U.S. Air Force Space Command and U.S. Strategic Command, said Chinese military officers “are doing all those things because they saw how the United States has used space for dominant advantage.”

“For many years, Washington has taken its space superiority for granted,” Weichert said.

Complacency is not the only American disease, however. American blindness also had a role. At one time, America was dominant in space, and American political leaders decided to go slow on developing anti-satellite weapons for fear of triggering a competition. With the United States having the most assets in orbit, the reasoning went, the U.S. would have the most to lose in such a race.

That view was the product of a fundamental misunderstanding of Chinese and Russian attitudes. The misunderstanding also directly led to America falling behind in another crucial space technology. The United States was the early leader in hypersonic flight with the X-15 reaching Mach 6.7—6.7 times the speed of sound—in 1967. Now, however, America is about a half-decade behind China. The United States is also trailing Russia.

“We had held back from pursuing military applications for this technology,” Ambassador Robert Wood, U.S. representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, told  Yahoo!

Wood, as described by that site, “implied that U.S. officials had tried to avoid spurring a scramble for hypersonic missiles.”

All that American restraint did was to allow the Chinese and Russian militaries to grab commanding leads in the race to deploy these impossible-to-defend-against delivery systems for nuclear weapons. In late July, Beijing shocked the Pentagon with an orbital test of a hypersonic glide vehicle.

Similarly, America is now behind China in the ability to take down satellites.

“The Shijian-21 satellite is a game-changer,” said Weichert, who also produces The Weichert Report. “It is a real-world offensive capability that can hunt and destroy American systems and render the U.S. military on earth deaf, dumb, and blind.”

Space, of course, is the ultimate strategic high ground, conferring control of the earth. Therefore, American leaders should have known that China would try, as Weichert explained, to build the capabilities “to first knock the Americans out of orbit and then to place their own systems there.”

The United States has the ability to catch up, of course, but big course corrections are necessary. For one thing, American satellites are easy pickings for the Chinese military. As Hyten put it, “We actually put the president in a tough spot because we have a handful of fat juicy targets, while the adversary has built hundreds of targets that are difficult to get after.”

The result, the general said, is that America does not have “a resilient space architecture.”

A resilient architecture, Hyten correctly believes, would be composed of lower-cost surveillance satellites that, in the words of SpaceNews, “can be mass-produced and deployed fast.”

Unfortunately, “the Department of Defense is still unbelievably bureaucratic and slow,” Hyten observed . The Pentagon’s bureaucracy “is just brutal.” So don’t count on the U.S. military, which has taken a decade to design a yet-to-be-launched survivable space network.

Fortunately, there is also Elon Musk, a bureaucracy of one. His company, SpaceX, is building the Starlink constellation of telecommunications satellites in low-earth orbit. When complete, there will be some 42,000 satellites that can be used by the satellite-dependent U.S. military when China has crushed, lasered, shot down, or bumped out of orbit America’s military assets in space.

Of course, China will also try to take down the Starlink constellation too.

Beijing, Weichert told Gatestone, is planning a “Space Pearl Harbor.”

From the Gatestone Institute .

Gordon G. Chang is a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a member of its Advisory Board, and the author of “The Coming Collapse of China.” Follow Gordon at GordonChang.com and on Twitter @GordonGChang

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinas-control-of-global-supply-chains-will-extend-to-the-sea-and-moon_4080984.html