Congo Is Battling Coronavirus, Measles and a New Ebola Outbreak

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Health officials have confirmed a second Ebola outbreak in Congo, the World Health Organization said Monday, adding yet another health crisis for a country already battling COVID-19 and the world’s largest measles outbreak.

Congo also has yet to declare an official end to Ebola in its troubled east, where at least 2,243 people have died since an epidemic began there in August 2018.

Now Congolese health authorities have identified six cases including four fatalities in the north near Mbandaka, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. . .

This announcement marks the 11th time that Ebola has hit the province since the virus was first discovered in Congo in 1976. Just two years ago an outbreak killed 33 people before the disease was brought under control in a matter of months. . .

While Ebola and COVID-19 have drawn far more international attention, measles has killed more Congolese than those diseases combined. WHO said there have been 369,520 measles cases and 6,779 deaths since 2019. (Read more from “Congo Is Battling Coronavirus, Measles and a New Ebola Outbreak” HERE)

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Forget Israel — Americans Should Start a ‘BDS’ Movement Against China ASAP

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. . .So what would a BDS movement against China look like?

First would be a leveling of sanctions against all companies with ties to China’s military, to weapons of mass destruction, and to its persecution of Uyghurs and other minorities. . .

Sanctioning alone is not enough, however. Divestment must follow. We must ensure that America’s pension funds, college endowments and personal savings are not used by China’s proliferators and human-rights violators to continue doing business.

Here I have some good news to report. Forty percent of Americans now say they will never again buy a product “Made in China.” Like me, they would prefer to “use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without,” rather than fatten the coffers of the regime that has unleashed so much havoc across the world.

The other half of America needs to join in as well. Do it for the millions imprisoned in re-education camps by the CCP, for the tens of millions it murdered over its 71-year history, or for the hundreds of millions of women it forcibly aborted in the one-child policy. (Read more from “Forget Israel — Americans Should Start a ‘BDS’ Movement Against China ASAP” HERE)

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Chinese Scientists Say Wuhan Market Isn’t Where Coronavirus Began

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Chinese scientists say the coronavirus didn’t originate at a live animal market or a laboratory in Wuhan, pushing back against US officials over where the pandemic began, according to a report.

China’s top epidemiologist, Gao Fu, said samples taken from the wholesale market — where the deadly virus was reportedly first passed to humans — failed to show links between animals sold there and the pathogen, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“It now turns out that the market is one of the victims,” Gao told state-run media Tuesday.

The director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Wang Yanyi, also shot down accusations that the facility had unleashed the virus during a lab accident. (Read more from “Chinese Scientists Say Wuhan Market Isn’t Where Coronavirus Began” HERE)

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What U.S. Leaving Open Skies Treaty Means for U.S.-Russia Relations

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When making foreign policy decisions, one must be careful not to view the world prescriptively (the way we want it to be), but rather to view it descriptively (the harsh reality of what is).

That’s easier said than done.

After President Donald Trump announced May 21 that the United States would withdraw from the 1992 Treaty on Open Skies, many jumped to accuse the president of taking another step to dismantle a stable world order where relationships with U.S. adversaries are fine and dandy, and any international security agreement has independent value.

Fortunately, the Trump administration identified the harsh reality: While Open Skies can indeed benefit the United States by enabling imagery intelligence collection on relatively short order and by easing information-sharing with allies, regrettably, years of Russian violations and abuse of the treaty have become too grave to continue turning a blind eye.

Russia has denied the United States and its allies observation flights over key military sites, which not only violates the treaty, but also defeats its very purpose of instilling confidence and security among parties to the treaty.

Russia has also exploited the treaty for its own hostile and revisionist purposes, including to collect information to target U.S. civilian infrastructure and to justify its regional aggression against the sovereign states of Ukraine and Georgia.

After years of Russian violations of not only Open Skies, but nearly every other international agreement to which Russia has been a party, such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the Trump administration is correct to finally take a stand and show Russia and the world that such behavior will have consequences.

So, what does this mean for U.S.-Russian relations?

Far from the notion that withdrawing from Open Skies begins a retreat to a spiraling arms race, the decision can place the United States on stronger footing for future arms control negotiations.

It’s first worth noting that the administration has made clear that should Russia return to full compliance with the Open Skies Treaty, the United States might reconsider withdrawal. After all, trust- and confidence-building agreements like Open Skies can indeed be stabilizing—when all parties comply.

But more significantly, withdrawing from Open Skies can strengthen the U.S. position in renegotiating the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia, an agreement that limits U.S. and Russian deployed nuclear warheads and delivery systems and which is set to expire in February 2021.

In initial discussions with his Russian counterpart, special presidential envoy Marshall Billingslea has begun to highlight U.S. concerns with New START.

Russia has taken advantage of New START’s flaws by developing a robust capacity to upload more nuclear warheads to its missile arsenal, growing its unconstrained stockpile of nuclear weapons to use on the battlefield, and developing new delivery systems not covered by New START.

While the State Department has reported Russian compliance with New START, its exploitation of weak treaty rules is no different from its exploitation of Open Skies.

Trump has also made it clear that the next arms control agreement must include China, which has been pursuing freely an unconstrained nuclear triad and warhead arsenal.

Withdrawing from Open Skies in response to Russian noncompliance and abuse demonstrates the very real fact that the United States will walk away from New START negotiations if we do not get what we want, which includes help from the Russians in bringing China into a trilateral arms control agreement.

Considering that the Russians have repeatedly offered to extend New START, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the United States can gain the upper hand in negotiations.

But to reap the benefits of a strengthened negotiating posture, the United States needs to do two things.

First, we can expect Russia to ramp up anti-U.S. propaganda in the coming weeks that blames the United States for the demise of Open Skies, but the U.S. government, the American public, and our NATO allies and partners cannot buy into it.

Russia has become adept at rampantly spreading misinformation that accuses the United States of breaking down arms control agreements, even though viewing the world descriptively reveals Russia’s penchant to cheat and exploit.

Republicans and Democrats alike should unite around the correct narrative depicting that behavior.

Second, the United States must stick to its nuclear modernization plan.

Any cuts to nuclear recapitalization programs such as the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent or plutonium pit production would hinder U.S. leverage and help ease Russian and Chinese worries about U.S. capabilities that induce them to negotiate in the first place.

By taking real action against Russian violations and abuse of international security agreements, the Trump administration has demonstrated that it does not view the world through rose-colored glasses.

All can agree on the goal of forming verifiable confidence-building agreements, but doing so requires negotiating from a position of strength.

Hopefully, an exit from Open Skies, if necessary, will prove to Russia, China, and the rest of the world that when it comes to effective arms control and other security agreements, the United States means business. (For more from the author of “What U.S. Leaving Open Skies Treaty Means for U.S.-Russia Relations” please click HERE)

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Secretary of State Pompeo Officially Declares That Hong Kong Is No Longer Autonomous

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday that Hong Kong is officially no longer autonomous from China following Beijing’s decision to impose a new national security law that outlaws “foreign interference” and pro-democracy demonstrations in the city.

“Beijing’s disastrous decision [to impose the law] is only the latest in a series of actions that fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms and China’s own promises to the Hong Kong people under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a U.N.-filed international treaty,” Pompeo said in a statement.

“No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground,” he added.

Pompeo noted that it is the State Department’s responsibility under the Hong Kong Policy Act to assess the territory’s autonomy and that, given the latest developments, he certified to Congress the department’s position.

(Read more from “Secretary of State Pompeo Officially Declares That Hong Kong Is No Longer Autonomous” HERE)

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“Fundamentally Dishonest” China Deploys Two Aircraft Carriers to Threaten Taiwan, Other Countries; Xi Tells Military to Get Ready for “Worst Case”; A Chinese Attack on India Would be Beyond Stupid

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By Ryan Morgan. Two Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) aircraft carriers are preparing to conduct a set of provocative war games in the contested South China Sea, near the Taiwan-claimed Pratas Islands, also known as the Dongsha Islands.

The Chinese aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong were finishing up combat readiness training in the Bohai Bay of the Yellow Sea ahead of a planned deployment near the Taiwanese territorial claims, The Daily Mail reported. The Pratas or Dongsha Islands are a series of three atolls off the coast of China and lying to the southwest of Taiwan.

The reports of China’s planned aggressive moves near Taiwan come shortly after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi claimed, “political forces in the US are taking China-US relations hostage and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War.”

The war games near the Pratas Islands also come amid Chinese calls to reunify with Taiwan, raising concerns among some observers that the war games are a ploy to capture the islands.

The Japan-based Kyodo News reported on May 12, that the PLA is also planning to hold massive beach landing drills on the Chinese island province of Hainan in August, which could be used to simulate a beach landing on Taiwan’s Pratas Islands. (Read more about China’s attempt to threaten Taiwan HERE)

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Xi Tells Military: Prepare for Worst-Case Scenarios

Edited by Divyanshu Dutta Roy. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday ordered the military to scale up the battle preparedness, visualising the worst-case scenarios and asked them to resolutely defend the country’s sovereignty. Though he did no mention any specific threat, his comments came amid a face-off between soldiers of India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Xi, 66 who is also the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and head of the two-million-strong military with prospects of lifelong tenure in power, made the remarks while attending a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and People’s Armed Police Force during the current parliament session being held in Beijing.

Xi ordered the military to think about worst-case scenarios, scale up training and battle preparedness, promptly and effectively deal with all sorts of complex situations and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, without mentioning any specific issues that posed a threat to the country. (Read more about China’s efforts to threaten Taiwan, India and other nations HERE)

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If Xi Attacks India, it May be His Last Mistake

By Michael Rubin. There have been at least four ‘incidents’ across the India-China line-of-control in recent weeks. While there were nearly 500 incidents in eastern Ladakh in 2019, the recent incidents are larger scale and better coordinated than what occurred in 2019 and before. The People’s Liberation Army has reinforced its positions in the Galwan Valley and Demochok in Ladakh. Lieutenant General (retired) Deependra Singh Hooda, India’s former Northern Army commander, wrote on May 24, 2020 that the decision and direction of China’s most recent aggressions appear originate in Beijing rather than with local commanders. China appears angered that India is developing its roads and logistical capabilities in the region. An analysis in India’s Economic Times theorizes that Chinese authorities seem to be repeating their 1962 playbook, not recognizing how much India has changed.

India is today ascendant. It does not face the same demographic nightmare that China now confronts due to decades of Beijing’s previous one-child policy. India’s conventional military has advanced substantially over the last half-century and it has, since 1974, also been a nuclear power. Despite all of India’s internal inefficiencies, bloated bureaucracy, and protectionism, its economy is in far greater shape than it was a half-century ago. The world has also changed. When China initially invaded Indian territory, President John F. Kennedy offered some arms, but it was too little too late, and his official neutrality likely encouraged Indian leaders to tilt even more toward the Soviet Union. Today, however, belief in a strong U.S.-India partnership is one of the few topics which still unites Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill and across administrations. It is not the stuff of hushed backroom diplomatic negotiations, but openly embraced.

China may believe intimidation and the sort of ‘salami-slicing’ in which it engages in the South China Sea will enable it to act without consequence against India, but India is not the Philippines, willing to roll over for a few yuan.

Or consider another analogy: When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, the world wrung its hands and issued harsh condemnations, but did little more. When Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces into Ukraine, however, he found himself mired in a conflict which still continues both to send Russian soldiers and ‘contractors’ home in body bags and to drain Russian finances, both propping up annexed territories and proxy states, and subsidizing their war efforts. Xi may believe he can digest Hong Kong and crush its freedom spirit, but he will be wrong to believe that India is weak or that the United States—even under the Trump administration—would simply ignore his aggression. Instead, the United States would likely open the floodgates to provide any intelligence and weaponry which India would need to defend itself and bog down China in a morass of Xi’s own making. (Read more about the implications of China’s efforts to threaten Taiwan, India and other nations HERE)

European Politicians Blaming Each Other for Insane Lockdown Idea

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As American politicians double down on locking down our lives, not only are European countries moving away from lockdowns, but some of their political leaders are engaging in a blame game over who thought of such a maniacal idea to begin with.

The Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper reported on Friday that contrary to the assertion of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen that it was the “authorities” and “the government’s recommendation that we shut down all unnecessary activity,” it appears that the National Board of Health never advised a lockdown. The controversy in Danish media stems from her use of the Danish word “myndighederne,” which means “authorities,” during the March 11 press conference announcing the lockdown.

But the Jyllands-Posten charges that no such authority gave consent to or recommended these measures. “As late as the day before the March 11 press conference, the board drew up a list of ‘possible actions’ against covid-19.”

“There were no shutdowns and forced interventions here. In addition, on February 28, Søren Brostrøm [director of National Board of Health] signed a recommendation which, according to jurists, meant that general encroachments on Danes’ freedom were excluded — e.g. forced treatment and barring of areas. Only in certain ‘specific situations’ did Brostrøm give green light for intervention. Kjeld Møller Pedersen, professor of health policy at SDU, states that ‘the government has abused health-care advice.’” (Translated from Danish by Google translate.)

It’s fascinating to watch politicians and the mainstream media in Europe trade barbs about who was responsible for the lockdown, as if it were the plague itself, while American politicians and media figures continue to embrace it. This comes on the heels of a blockbuster BBC report lacing into U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson for ordering the lockdown and ignoring science. There is now anticipation of major reprisal against him for going along with the lockdown.

The European media is now going after those who induced the panic as well. Yesterday, BILD, the widest circulated newspaper in Europe, ran a headline: “Drosten study on infectious children grossly wrong.” On April 29, German virologist Christian Drosten published a paper claiming, contrary to nearly every other study, that children can transmit COVID-19 just as much as adults. In turns out that, instead, his own data show that children carry an 86 percent lower mean viral load than adults. Imagine media in the U.S. going back to all of the assertions made by the purveyors of panic in recent weeks and debunking them.

Denmark has seen nothing but declines in its infection rates after opening schools and malls several weeks ago. Given that Denmark has enjoyed the lowest death rate per capita of any continental European country among the Western countries, one would expect it to champion the lockdown strategy rather than repudiate it. However, as the Danes dig through the colossal damage done by the lockdown and realize that the models and premises undergirding the lockdown to begin with were wrong, they are rightly asking questions and pointing fingers.

Belgium had the opposite experience from Denmark’s and suffered the most deaths per capita of any country in Europe. One would think Belgium’s leadership would be traumatized by the virus and strongly push the lockdown narrative as well, just like the politicians in New York. Instead, Interior Minister Pieter De Crem said on Sunday that Belgium’s hospitals were never in danger of being overrun as in Italy and Spain and implied that the lockdown was unnecessary. “If there was a second wave, then I think we will find ourselves in a different situation, namely with testing and tracing. But I think we can rule out that we will have to go back to the tough measures,” De Crem said.

The head of Norway’s Institute of Public Health also believes the lockdown was unnecessary.

Beaches are set to open even in Italy, while Spain, which has the second-highest COVID-19 deaths per capita rate in Europe, plans to open its soccer league on June 8. Meanwhile, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is still keeping the beaches closed with no science to back up his assertion that there is any danger in the open air and sunlight. Meanwhile, though France, which is not a country known for valuing religious liberty, is opening up all religious services, numerous states and cities in the U.S. are still banning church services.

Sadly, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, only a handful of states have learned their lesson from the disastrous lockdowns and the flat-earth science undergirding them. According to an analysis by the University of Maryland, states that reopened their economies two weeks ago or earlier have seen, on average, day-to-day declines in new cases of -0.4%. Contrast that to states that have not yet opened their economies or that opened them much later, where daily cases are nearly unchanged. Georgia and Florida have especially enjoyed successful results despite predictions of rampant death and disease.

On Friday, Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, expressed her surprise that lockdown cities like Chicago, D.C., and Los Angeles were not experiencing the same steady decline as some other areas, including the freer states and cities. Maybe she ought to ask the Europeans to solve her riddle with science and freedom. They seem to value truth and liberty a lot more than American government officials. Who would have thunk it?! (For more from the author of “European Politicians Blaming Each Other for Insane Lockdown Idea” please click HERE)

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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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