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If China’s Yuan Usurps The Dollar, The World Economy Will Be At Communists’ Whims

In July 1944, 44 delegates from Allied countries came together during World War II in Bretton Wood, New Hampshire. The goal? Devise an international currency system to manage foreign exchange that would disadvantage no country and effectively facilitate post-war rebuilding and commerce. The outcome: The U.S. greenback would be the world’s reserve currency.

It has been almost 80 years since, and all nations have been better off with a United States dollar-dominated world. World gross domestic product (GDP) in 1940 was $7.81 trillion. For 2023, the world GDP is expected to be $112.6 trillion. That is an increase of 1,441 percent. Billions of people have been lifted out of poverty because of this.

China is working overtime to disrupt the dollar-dominated world economy. The significance of the dollar losing its premier position cannot be overstated. The Biden administration should not overlook this.

Most Americans may be unaware of crucial transactions occurring around the globe recently. And who could blame them? All the corporate media’s main headlines have been over the now-public indictment of former President Donald Trump, over factually weak allegations involving hush-money payments to a porn star.

The indictment of a former president is a crossing-of-the-Rubicon moment in American history. But displacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, as China and Russia have both made known is their objective, has analogous ramifications for the world. But while the world watches Trump’s indictment, they are missing China’s transactions with some of our major allies and trading partners in the yuan. Notably, China is doing this with nations that need better stewards. (Read more from “If China’s Yuan Usurps the Dollar, the World Economy Will Be at Communists’ Whims” HERE)

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Military Leaders in Hawaii Look to Strengthen Forces in Alaska

As U.S. relations fray with China and Russia, American military leaders in Hawaii are increasingly giving attention to their forces in Alaska.

Recently, U.S. Army Pacific’s Oahu-based commander, Gen. Charles Flynn, visited Alaska to observe training at the Alaska portions of the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center—a series of training ranges in Hawaii and Alaska the Army is using to train troops for potential combat operations amid rising geopolitical tensions in the Pacific.

The training also takes place amid increasing concern by some American policymakers about China’s aspirations in the Arctic. . .

Chinese military forces aren’t strangers to the Aleutians. In 2021 the U.S. Coast Guard encountered Chinese warships moving near the island chain, and in September the Coast Guard again saw Chinese vessels near the Aleutians—this time joined by Russian warships. Though American forces watched them closely, U.S. officials stressed they did not violate any rules.

The U.S. military also regularly conducts operations near China, including the South China Sea—a critical trade route that more than a third of all international trade travels through. Beijing claims nearly the entire waterway as its exclusive territory and is locked in a series of disputes with neighboring countries over territorial and navigation rights. (Read more from “Military Leaders in Hawaii Look to Strengthen Forces in Alaska” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Chinese Bank Voluntarily Turns Over Hunter’s Bank Records in Sign That China Owns Joe Biden

China fired a warning shot at President Biden when a Chinese-American bank supplied Senate Republicans with records showing millions of dollars flowing from Chinese companies to Mr. Biden’s son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden, said a lawmaker spearheading an investigation of the first family.

Cathay Bank, which is based in Los Angeles but has offices in China, voluntarily turned over bank records requested by Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa. Every other American bank denied the two Republicans’ requests for financial records.

“In my mind, it’s the Chinese government telling Joe Biden, ‘We got the goods on you, buddy, and we’re willing to dish it up,’” Mr. Johnson told The Washington Times. . .

The records the bank handed over showed deep financial ties between the president’s son and brother and the now-defunct CEFC China Energy, which had ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The energy giant wired $1 million to Hudson West III, a joint venture owned by Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, a business associate of CEFC’s founder and chairman, Ye Jianming.

A second Chinese energy company, Northern International Capital Holdings, which is associated with the communist-backed CEFC, wired $5 million to Hudson West III, the Cathay Bank records show. The money sent from the two companies funded a $4.8 million wire transfer from Hudson West III to Hunter Biden’s companies Owasco P.C. and Owasco LLC, and Lion Hall Group, owned by the president’s brother James Biden. (Read more from “Chinese Bank Voluntarily Turns Over Hunter’s Bank Records in Sign That China Owns Joe Biden” HERE)

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China Touts ‘Partnership’ With France as Macron Charts Path Separate From U.S.

French President Emmanuel Macron renewed his call for “strategic autonomy” from the United States in the Indo-Pacific, forcing U.S. officials to downplay an apparent rift while China touts a “comprehensive strategic partner” with the oldest American ally.

“NATO has recognized the PRC’s stated ambitions and policies,” State Department deputy spokesman Vedanta Patel told reporters Monday. “They challenge our interests, they challenge our security, and they challenge our values. And allies, including France, have committed to work together to address these systemic challenges.”

Macron went to Beijing last week with the stated purpose of urging Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping to undercut Russia’s war in Ukraine, a trip that European Union leaders hoped would show that the EU “stands united, and our trans-Atlantic community remains also united,” as EU High Representative Josep Borrell put it. Yet Macron punctuated his visit with a renewal of his call for “strategic autonomy” from the U.S. — particularly concerning China and the tensions around Taiwan.

“The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” Macron told reporters in his traveling party. (Read more from “China Touts ‘Partnership’ With France as Macron Charts Path Separate From U.S.” HERE)

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Top House Republican Warns: U.S. Needs to Arm Taiwan Fast, Beef up U.S. Military Presence to Avoid War

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) warned during an interview over the weekend that China is using all means of warfare available to try to take over Taiwan.

Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that the Chinese Communist Party was trying to intimidate the U.S. with their recent military exercises near Taiwan.

Chinese dictator “Xi Jinping would love to achieve that reunification without force if possible,” Gallagher said. “And the way to do that is through psychological warfare. It’s through economic coercion. It’s through political warfare. And that’s really what President Tsai of Taiwan has been warning us about.”

“It’s what she calls cognitive warfare. So it’s important for the American people not to be intimidated,” he continued. “And the fact that the Chinese were throwing a temper tantrum about the speaker of the House meeting with the democratically elected leader of Taiwan on American soil just shows you how sensitive they are.” (Read more from “Top House Republican Warns: U.S. Needs to Arm Taiwan Fast, Beef up U.S. Military Presence to Avoid War” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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U.S. Needs More Air Power to Avoid ‘Bloodbath’ With China, General Says

U.S. Air Force officials lack the air power needed to prevent a potential war with China from settling into “the kind of bloodbath” on display in Ukraine.

“We’ve got to get to the ability, maybe not all times in all places … to attain and maintain air superiority,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard G. Moore, the deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, said Thursday. “We don’t want the kind of bloodbath that’s going on in Ukraine right now. And so therefore, we have to get to the advanced capabilities that it takes to change the battlefield.”

Air Force planners have budgeted to purchase 72 new fighter jets in the upcoming fiscal year, comprised of a mix of vaunted fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighters and the F-15EX. Yet the Air Force’s ability to continue acquiring six dozen warplanes per year could be tested by defense manufacturing constraints.

“The defense industrial base can only support so much procurement and the ability right now to go beyond 72 — there are some challenges,” Moor said. “You know that it’s great to think that COVID is over, but supply chain and workforce issues are not over at all.” (Read more from “U.S. Needs More Air Power to Avoid ‘Bloodbath’ With China, General Says” HERE)

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Chinese Regime-Approved Social Media Says Trump Arrest Could Lead to U.S. ‘Civil War’

Chinese Communist Party censors allowed users on its state-controlled site Weibo to comment extensively on the arrest of American former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, resulting in many cheering on the decline of the United States and predicting a civil war.

Trump was arrested and arraigned in Manhattan on Tuesday, indicted on 34 charges of fabricating business documents. The charges stem from alleged money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. During remarks late Tuesday, Bragg claimed that the alleged fabrications were related to attempts to “cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election.” . . .

Weibo, the most popular Chinese regime-approved social media site in the country, had the news of Trump’s arrest on its front page as of Wednesday morning Eastern time, flooded with thousands of user comments. As the Chinese government strictly censors any content it considers contrary to Communist Party ideology or the interests of dictator Xi Jinping, observers can consider the thousands of reactions to Trump’s arrest still publicly available to be consistent with Beijing’s stance. Many of the comments furthermore echoed propaganda in the pages of the Global Times and Xinhua News Agency, two of China’s biggest government-run propaganda sites. . .

Other comments on the Weibo page included users joking that America would not exist after 136 years and mocking Trump with the nickname “Comrade Jianguo,” which emerged during Trump’s presidency. The nickname, which means “build the country,” is meant to mock Trump by claiming that his American policies are hurting the United States and thus helping China progress.

Yet other users claimed that Trump’s arrest was a sign of the “Koreanization” of American politics, an apparent reference to the fact that South Korea has prosecuted multiple recent presidents, most prominently conservative ex-President Park Geun-hye. Park was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2018 for, among other allegations, allowing a high-ranking member of a cult access to sensitive national security addresses. Leftist President Moon Jae-in pardoned Park in 2021. (Read more from “Chinese Propaganda Says Trump Arrest Could Lead to U.S. ‘Civil War’” HERE)

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China Reportedly Breaks Agreement With Vatican Again

Bishop Shen Bin has become the new bishop of Shanghai, AsiaNews and other news websites in China reported April 4. He is the head of the Chinese Council of Bishops, which is not recognized by the Holy See. His appointment to Shanghai by this body did not reportedly come with the the endorsement of Rome, which means that once again the agreement established between China and the Holy See in 2018 has been ignored.

“The Holy See was informed a few days ago of the decision of the Chinese authorities to transfer Bishop Shen Bin of Haimen to the Diocese of Shanghai and learned this morning through the media of this transfer,” said the director of the Vatican press office, Matteo Bruni, when questioned by journalists on April 4. He did not give further details.

According to Asia News, Bishop Shen Bin, until then bishop of Haimen, a diocese north of Shanghai in Jiangsu province, was installed without the approval of Rome. “Sources told AsiaNews that the appointment is ‘unilateral,’ without papal approval,” the agency said.

This would be the second violation in just over four months of the agreement on the appointment of bishops established between Rome and Beijing. Signed in 2018 and subsequently renewed in October 2020 and 2022, this agreement stipulates that the choice of new Chinese bishops must be validated by the Holy See and the Chinese authorities. (Read more from “China Reportedly Breaks Agreement With Vatican Again” HERE)

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China Expert Predicts Where U.S. Will ‘See the Next War Start’

China is ready for war and America is ill-prepared for it, according to one foreign policy expert who also warned it could happen on U.S. soil.

“The one thing that we know is that China is making fast preparations for war now,” Gatestone Institute senior fellow and “The Great U.S.-China Tech War” author Gordon Chang said on “Mornings with Maria” Monday.

“Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, just about 24 hours ago said all of this was overheated rhetoric, the way he put it. But the point is, China is preparing to kill Americans and we’ve got to prepare to defend ourselves,” Chang continued. “And the Defense Department is making slow, really slow, molasses-slow preparations to oppose China.”

Chang’s comments were made just before an NBC News report revealed the Chinese spy balloon which traversed the continental U.S. earlier this year gathered sensitive information as it flew over American military sites, despite the White House’s efforts to block it, according to two senior officials and one former Biden administration official. . .

“The real risk here is at the Darién Gap,” the expert said referring to the peninsula which connects North to South America. “Michael Yon, a war correspondent, is saying that he is seeing [Chinese] males of military age who are unattached to family groups. Those, I believe, are saboteurs. And on the first day of a war in Asia, that will be fought on American soil as these saboteurs try to take down our grid, poison our water, detonate bombs in shopping centers.” (Read more from “China Expert Predicts Where U.S. Will ‘See the Next War Start'” HERE)

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China War Preparations Go Into Overdrive

It is surely time to get real. A conflict is now brewing in Asia as a revanchist China – led by its Communist Party (CCP) – seems fully committed to unite with the island democracy of Taiwan, separated from the mainland by just over 100 miles of water. The CCP cannot realistically back down, having marched its people all the way to the top of the hill, the loss of face of marching them all the way back down would be excruciating.

For those who think the Russo-Ukraine war will have put the CCP off, consider not only that the West has thrown the kitchen sink at that conflict – able to hold Russia back but also now having run down many of its own inventories – but Chinese state media has never stopped telling the Chinese people that Russia is both justified and victorious, adding yet more pressure on Beijing to make a move on Taiwan.

Yes, the CCP wants to eliminate the embarrassment of a Han Chinese democracy on its doorstep. Yes, it wants to ‘make China whole again’.

Yes, it wants to get hold of Taiwan’s all-important semiconductor industry, especially after the US semiconductor export ban on China (although how much countries would cooperate with a CCP-controlled Taiwan electronics sector is up for debate).

But the biggest driver is to dominate the deep waters of the Pacific. Put simply, China cannot possibly have peer competitor status with the US – something the CCP desperately wants and needs – without dominating its own maritime backyard, and the sea lanes upon which US allies like Japan depend. (Read more from “China War Preparations Go Into Overdrive” HERE)

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