China Threatens World, Coronavirus is “Tip of the Iceberg”; Warns U.S. Not to Start New Cold War; Says It Must Continue to Study Dangerous Viruses; CCP Pulls the Race Card

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Deputy Head of Wuhan Lab That Likely Released Chinese Virus Says the World Has Seen Only the “Tip of the Iceberg”

By Kate Sheehy. “If we want to prevent human beings from suffering from the next infectious-disease outbreak, we must go in advance to learn of these unknown viruses carried by wild animals in nature and give early warnings,” Shi Zhengli, a top Chinese scientist specializing in viral transmissions from bats, told CGTN in an interview that aired Monday.

“If we don’t study [the viruses], there will possibly be another outbreak,” warned Shi, whose was dubbed “bat woman” by the press because of her research involving the mammals. . .

The Wuhan lab where Shi is deputy director has been suspected of accidentally unleashing the virus on humans. China also has been accused of not coming clean on the danger soon enough and consistently lying about the virus’s toll on its citizens. (Read more from China Threatens World via “Bat Woman” HERE)

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China Warns Against New Cold War

By Edmund DeMarche. Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, said Sunday that the U.S. should “give up on its wishful thinking of changing China” and avoid bringing the two countries to a “new Cold War.”

“China has no intention to change, still replace, the United States,” he said, according to the Washington Post. “It is time for the United States to give up its wishful thinking of changing China and stopping 1.4 billion people in their historic march toward modernization” . . .

Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong prior to its handover to China, lamented what he called “a new Chinese dictatorship.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called the [CCP’s Hong Kong] proposal “a death knell for the high degree of autonomy” that Beijing promised the former British colony when it was returned to China in 1997. “[A] knockdown fight with China has been thrust upon us,” he said. “The takeover of Hong Kong is the writing on the wall.” (Read more from “China threatens world” HERE)

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Time to Stand Up Against the Race-Card-Pulling Chinese Communists

By James Pinkerton. By now, every American should be familiar with the threat from the CCP’s control of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The CCP’s so-called “hard power” of economic and military might—much of it gained by manipulating and hacking America these past three decades—has surged.

And yet the CCP’s hard power has been joined by “soft power,” which is intangible, but still important, because it affects the human mind and heart. As the philosopher Blaise Pascal once wrote, public opinion is “the queen of the world.” Oftentimes, soft power is thought of as idealism about, say, freedom or democracy, and yet it can be any sort of opinion, including the concern over victimization and racism. Anyone who thinks that these concerns aren’t powerful forces in the world today hasn’t been paying attention. . .

It’s in this media-drenched environment that propagandists in Beijing have proven themselves skilled. Skilled, that is, at claiming victim status for China. Skilled also at playing the racism card.

Specifically, when the totalitarianism of the CCP is criticized by an American or by anyone in the West, Beijing spin doctors often respond by dismissing the criticism as racist. That is, Beijing skips past legitimate criticism of the CCP—for its use of slave labor, its religious persecution, its organ harvesting, its political suppression, its carelessness about the coronavirus—and instead hits back on ethnic grievance.

The goal of this sly strategy is to cloak the odious communist regime in the mantle of the Chinese people as a whole—the billion and more who live in Mainland China, as well as the tens of millions who live around the world, including here in the United States. Beijing’s hope is that the crimes of the communist government will thus be hidden behind the dignity and majesty of the Han people, possessors of a proud civilization stretching back 3,000 years. (Read more from “China threatens world” HERE)

China Overtakes U.S. as No 1 in Buying Power, but Still Clings to Developing Status

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China’s statistics agency acknowledged that as early as 2017 the nation’s economy was larger than that of the United States when measured by purchasing power, but it has insisted it remains a “developing country” as per capita output is still only 85 per cent of the average global level.

The World Bank released its new purchasing power parities (PPPs) report for 2017 this week, which showed that China’s PPP-based gross domestic product (GDP) stood at US$19.617 trillion in 2017, while the United States’ GDP was US$19.519 trillion.

The calculation of GDP by purchasing power, using the price of a common basket of goods and services, instead of using the US dollar, provides a more accurate basis to compare economic development levels. If measured by the US dollar, China’s GDP was about US$12 trillion in 2017 and US$14 trillion in 2019, which was still below the US.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said China’s number one ranking in PPP-based GDP does not change the fact it remains “the world’s largest developing country”.

Xu Xianchun, a former deputy head of the NBS, published an article on the agency’s website on Tuesday saying that the World Bank study had overestimated China’s economic might. (Read more from “China Overtakes U.S. as No 1 in Buying Power, but Still Clings to Developing Status” HERE)

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Secret Chinese Military Data Adds New Terrifying Detail to Coronavirus Reporting

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By Isaac Stone Fish and Maria Krol Sinclair. Beijing claims that since the coronavirus pandemic began at the end of last year, there have been only 82,919 confirmed cases and 4,633 deaths in mainland China. Those numbers could be roughly accurate, and in that case a detailed account would be an important tool in judging the spread of the virus. But it’s also possible that the numbers presented to the rest of the world are vastly understated compared to Beijing’s private figures. The opaqueness and mistrust of outsiders in the Chinese Communist Party’s system makes it hard to judge—but learning more about the coronavirus data used directly by Chinese officials is invaluable for governments elsewhere.

A dataset of coronavirus cases and deaths from the military’s National University of Defense Technology, leaked to 100Reporters, offers insight into how Beijing has gathered coronavirus data on its population. The source of the leak, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of sharing Chinese military data, said that the data came from the university. The school publishes a data tracker for the coronavirus: The online version matches with the leaked information, except it is far less detailed—it shows just the map of cases, not the distinct data.

The dataset, though it contains inconsistencies, is the most extensive dataset proved to exist about coronavirus cases in China. More importantly, it can serve as a valuable trove of information for epidemiologists and public health experts around the globe—and has almost certainly not shared with U.S. officials or doctors. (The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)

While not fully comprehensive, the data is incredibly rich: There are more than 640,000 updates of information, covering at least 230 cities—in other words, 640,000 rows purporting to show the number of cases in a specific location at the time the data was gathered. Each update includes the latitude, longitude, and “confirmed” number of cases at the location, for dates ranging from early February to late April. (Read more from “Secret Chinese Military Data Adds New Terrifying Detail to Coronavirus Reporting” HERE)

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New York Eases Ban, China Reports No New Cases

By Bloomberg. China reported no new coronavirus cases on May 22 and said there are two suspected cases, one local and one that was imported, according to statement posted on website of National Health Commission.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo dropped the state’s ban on gatherings of any size Friday, issuing an executive order saying up to 10 people are now allowed to be together as long as they abide by other social distancing guidelines adopted during the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reported. Hertz Global Holdings Inc. became the latest company to file for bankruptcy amid the pandemic after sweeping travel restrictions destroyed demand for its vehicles.

Singapore’s contact-tracing phone app, “Trace Together,” will remain voluntary for “as long as possible,” Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in an interview with Sky News Australia. (Read more from “New York Eases Ban, China Reports No New Cases” HERE)

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Italy Arrests Sicily’s Coronavirus Tsar on Corruption Charge; Bill Gates Blasted as “Vaccine Criminal” in Italian Parliament (VIDEO)

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By The Blaze. Sicily’s coronavirus emergency coordinator was arrested along with nine other people on Thursday on suspicion of corruption and rigging of health sector tenders while in his previous role, police on the Italian island said.

Antonino Candela was allegedly part of a “power base made up of businessmen and corrupt public officials” the police statement said, referring to activity before he became head of Sicily’s coronavirus response unit.

He was among those responsible for helping to rig public tenders for medical equipment and services worth nearly 600 million euros ($660.30 million) since 2016, in return for promised bribes of around 1.8 million euros, the police alleged.

Candela, who is under house arrest, was not immediately available for comment.

Candela was director of a provincial health authority in the Sicilian capital of Palermo, which issued the tenders along with a regional agency. (Read more from “Italy Arrests Sicily’s Coronavirus Tsar on Corruption Charge” HERE)

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Bill Gates Blasted as “Vaccine Criminal” in Italian Parliament

By The New American. Billionaire “philanthropist” and population-control zealot Bill Gates is a criminal madman who must be arrested and tried for “crimes against humanity” and attempted “genocide” through vaccines, according to a firebrand Italian lawmaker who sent shock waves around the world. The member of Parliament also called for Italians to resist vaccines and Deep State tyranny. Fellow legislators applauded.

In the impassioned speech on the floor of Italy’s Parliament exposing the Microsoft founder, the parliamentarian, Sara Cunial of Veneto, charged Gates with a long list of crimes, many involving his obsession with vaccinations and population reduction. She also argued that Gates and his toadies were instrumental in shaping the Italian government’s disastrous and totalitarian response to the coronavirus outbreak that shredded liberty and left many thousands dead.

Within days, the powerful speech had been seen by millions of people worldwide. Establishment sources tried to ignore it, but some were eventually left attempting to downplay or discredit it. The fake fact-checking site “Snopes” even tried to claim it was “mostly false” by picking up on one phony headline claiming the Italian government wanted Gates arrested, and acting like that was the substance of the criticism.

Apparently MP Cunial’s fury was sparked after Nigerian lawmakers accused Gates, whom she said had numerous conflicts of interest, of trying to bribe them into approving legislation that would force mandatory vaccines on the population there. Opposition parties in Nigeria blasted the “foreign-sponsored bill” and called for the speaker to be impeached if he attempted to force it on members despite the growing resistance.

(Read more from “Bill Gates Blasted as “Vaccine Criminal” in Italian Parliament” HERE)

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Wuhan Bans Consumption of Wild Animals

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The city at the center of the coronavirus crisis has banned the eating of wild animals and Chinese farmers are being offered cash to quit breeding exotic animals. Both moves come amid mounting pressure for China to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade blamed by many for the pandemic that has killed more than 320,000 people.

The local administration in Wuhan, the city of about 11 million people in China’s central Hubei province where cases of the new coronavirus were first recorded late last year, announced Wednesday that the eating of all wild animals was officially banned.

The city also banned virtually all hunting of wild animals within its limits, declaring Wuhan “a wildlife sanctuary,” with the exception of government sanctioned hunting for “scientific research, population regulation, monitoring of epidemic diseases and other special circumstances.”

Wuhan also imposed strict new controls on the breeding of all wild animals, making it clear that none could be reared as food. City officials said the local administration would take part in the wider national scheme to buy wild animal breeders out.

The national plan is the first time Chinese authorities have pledged to buy out breeders in an attempt to curb exotic animal breeding, animal rights activists say. (Read more from “Wuhan Bans Consumption of Wild Animals” HERE)

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U.S. Semiconductor Giant Shuts China Factory Hailed as ‘a Miracle’, in Blow to Beijing’s Chip Plans; WHO Summit Devolves Into U.S.-China Proxy Battle

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By South China Morning Post. US chip giant GlobalFoundries has halted operations at a joint venture factory in China, the company has confirmed, dealing a potential blow to China’s bid to own a bigger slice of the global semiconductor market.

The closure of the firm’s only China facility comes just three years after it announced plans to make chips in the mainland, and comes amid an escalating tech war with the United States.

The winding down, however, has little to do with the fierce superpower rivalry. It comes after two years of speculation as to what was actually happening at the US$100 million facility, which was hailed as “a miracle” by local media when announced to fanfare in 2017, but which never got off the ground.

Nonetheless, the symbolism is rich. China is struggling in its efforts to boost its domestic chip research and production in a bid to counter US efforts to block it from American technology. (Read more from “U.S. Semiconductor Giant Shuts China Factory Hailed as ‘a Miracle’, in Blow to Beijing’s Chip Plans” HERE)

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WHO Summit Devolves Into U.S.-China Proxy Battle

By Politico.The United States and China hijacked the annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization’s governing body, part of an ongoing diplomatic battle over Covid-19 that has left a global leadership vacuum.

Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the summit in Geneva with an announcement of $2 billion in extra funding for the pandemic response. Less than 24 hours later, President Donald Trump countered in a letter to the World Health Organization, giving it 30 days to “commit to major substantive improvements” and threatening to permanently cease U.S. funding to the U.N. public health agency if it fails to do so.

The WHO has real questions to answer about its sluggish coronavirus response — it formally declared the outbreak a pandemic only in mid-March, after the virus was known to have spread to more than 100 countries.

But the dueling carrots and sticks approaches from Beijing and Washington overshadowed global consensus on that front: At least 144 countries co-sponsored a resolution for an independent global pandemic inquiry, and no countries objected to the resolution. (Read more from “WHO Summit Devolves Into U.S.-China Proxy Battle” HERE)

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Iran Starting to Withdraw From Syria: Israel’s Outgoing Defense Minister; Iran’s Supreme Leader Releases Anti-Israel ‘Final Solution’ Poster

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By Al Arabiya. Iran has begun withdrawing its forces from Syria, Israel’s outgoing defense minister said on Monday, without offering any evidence to support his assertion.

Naftali Bennett also urged his successor, Benny Gantz, to maintain pressure on Iran, adding that the trend might otherwise reverse.

Iran, Israel’s archenemy in the Middle East, has been a key supporter, along with Russia, of President Bashar al-Assad during Syria’s civil war, sending military advisers as well as material and regional Shia militias that it backs.

Israel, which monitors neighboring Syria intensively, has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria targeting suspected arms and troop movements by Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas it sponsors.

“Iran is significantly reducing the scope of its forces in Syria and even evacuating a number of bases,” said Bennett in his valedictory address. (Read more from “Iran Starting to Withdraw From Syria: Israel’s Outgoing Defense Minister” HERE)

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Releases Anti-Israel ‘Final Solution’ Poster

By The Jerusalem Post. Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ali Khamenei on Tuesday published an antisemitic poster evoking Nazi Germany’s “final solution” that destroyed European Jewry in order to advance Tehran’s quest to abolish Israel.

The poster’s language reads: “Palestine will be free. The final solution. Resistance is referendum.”

Khamenei displayed the antisemitic poster in English, Farsi and Arabic on his official homepage.

The picture shows a conquered Jerusalem with photos of the late Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani.

(Read more from “Iran’s Supreme Leader Releases Anti-Israel ‘Final Solution’ Poster” HERE)

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Pentagon Sources Warn: U.S. ‘Would Lose a War With China’ in the Pacific, ‘Fears the Guam Military Base Is at Risk Now’; U.S. Increases Military Pressure on China

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By Daily Mail. The US would lose a war with China fought in the Pacific, is unable to defend Taiwan from an invasion and fears the Guam military base is at risk now, US defense sources have warned.

‘Eye-opening’ Pentagon war games have revealed growing fears the US is vulnerable to threats from China and that any attack would lead to the US ‘suffering capital losses’, the sources said.

The worrying analysis is expected to come to light in the Pentagon’s 2020 China military power report this summer.

The stark warning comes as tensions continue to mount between the two nations after US President Donald Trump has blasted China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and repeatedly suggested the nation lied about the extent of its crisis.

US defense sources told The Times that one Pentagon simulation based on the year 2030 when China would have new attack submarines, aircraft carriers and destroyers resulted in the US being overwhelmed by the nation’s force. (Read more from “Pentagon Sources Warn: U.S. ‘Would Lose a War With China’ in the Pacific, ‘Fears the Guam Military Base Is at Risk Now'” HERE)

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U.S. Increases Military Pressure on China as Tensions Rise Over Pandemic

By CNN. The US is upping military pressure on China amid increased tensions over the South China Sea and accusing Beijing of seeking to leverage the coronavirus pandemic to extend its sphere of influence in the region.

Over the last few weeks US Navy ships and Air Force B-1 bombers have undertaken missions aimed at sending a very public message that the US military intends to maintain a presence in the region and reassure allies.

It’s also a top priority for the Pentagon to get the virus-stricken aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt back out to sea in the region by as soon as the end of the month. (Read more from “U.S. Increases Military Pressure on China as Tensions Rise Over Pandemic” HERE)

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Chinese Ambassador to Israel Found Dead at Home; China Emerges as Potential Strain on U.S.-Israel Relationship

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By Fox News. China’s ambassador to Israel was found dead inside his home north of Tel Aviv on Sunday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

Du Wei, 57, arrived in Israel in mid-February amid the coronavirus outbreak and was living in the coastal city of Herzliya on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. He previously served as China’s envoy to Ukraine.

Staff found Du unresponsive in his bed with no signs of violence to his body, the Haaretz daily reported. Initial media reports said Du’s cause of death appeared to be from a cardiac incident. (Read more from “Chinese Ambassador to Israel Found Dead at Home” HERE)

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China Emerges as Potential Strain on U.S.-Israel Relationship

By The Hill. Increasingly close ties between China and Israel risk straining the special relationship Israel has with the U.S., especially as Washington ramps up its feud with Beijing over the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The historic alliance narrowly avoided a diplomatic fallout this week with Israel relenting to U.S. concerns and delaying a Chinese infrastructure project in the country, coinciding with a whirlwind visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Jerusalem.

While the U.S. has long expressed concern to Israel over its ties with China, Israeli officials have signaled they are not stepping back from relations with Beijing entirely.

Pompeo used his latest visit to highlight the risk of doing business with the Communist Party.

“We do not want the Chinese Communist Party to have access to Israeli infrastructure, Israeli communication systems, all of the things that put Israeli citizens at risk,” Pompeo said in an interview Thursday with an Israeli news channel, “and in turn put the capacity for America to work alongside Israel on important projects at risk as well.” (Read more from “China Emerges as Potential Strain on U.S.-Israel Relationship” HERE)

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Iran Calls Israel ‘Rabid, Predatory Dog’ as Jewish State Swears in New Government

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By Newsweek. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ali Khamenei railed against Israel this weekend as the Jewish state’s parliament approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new unity government.

“The Zionist regime & its criminal supporters recognize no bounds in brutality & trampling of moral norms,” Khamenei wrote in a series of tweets on Saturday evening local time. “They consider genocide, destruction, the massacre of children & women, & any oppression permissible in #Palestine. This rabid, predatory dog attacks innocent ppl [sic].”

Khamenei also accused the Zionist regime of failing to abide by any treaty. They do not “understand any language but the language of force,” he wrote. “Israel has proven it only knows force. It cannot be spoken to except with the Palestinian nation’s language of power & the Islamic nation’s global power.”

(Read more from “Iran Calls Israel ‘Rabid, Predatory Dog’ as Jewish State Swears in New Government” HERE)

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Airstrike Attributed to Israel Said to Kill 7 Iran-Backed Fighters in East Syria

By The Times of Israel. Unknown warplanes attacked Iran-backed fighters in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border, killing several of the Iraqi militiamen, Syrian opposition activists said Sunday.

The strikes late Saturday targeted a base near the border town of Boukamal, killing seven fighters, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor.

Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based activist from Syria’s eastern Deir el-Zour province, confirmed that a strike hit Iran-backed Iraqi fighters in the area, but had no exact word on casualties. The strikes came days after reinforcements were brought into the area from Iraq, the Observatory and Abu Laila said.

Abu Laila, who runs Deir Ezzor 24, an activist collective that reports on news in the border area, said Israel was most likely behind the attack, but gave no evidence. (Read more from “Airstrike Attributed to Israel Said to Kill 7 Iran-Backed Fighters in East Syria” HERE)

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