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Tesla Wins Tax Breaks From China After Elon Musk’s Taiwan Comments: Report

Elon Musk’s electric car maker Tesla has been granted tax exemptions from China just days after the tech mogul was praised by Beijing for saying that Taiwan should become a “special administrative zone” ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.

The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology unveiled its latest list of electric vehicles that are eligible for purchase tax exemption.

The list includes the latest Tesla Model S and Model X units with 100 kWh battery packs, according to the Teslarati news site. The site reported that two Model S variants — the MSP2P and the MSP2LR — as well as the Model X variants MXP2P and MXP2LR were on the list of exempt vehicles.

Their inclusion on the list suggests that Tesla could soon begin delivering the cars to China soon, according to Teslarati.

Last Friday, Musk generated headlines and controversy after he told Financial Times that he thought Taiwan, the self-ruling island and US ally which China sees as a part of its country, should cede control to Beijing to avoid a broader conflict that would have global economic ramifications. (Read more from “Tesla Wins Tax Breaks From China After Elon Musk’s Taiwan Comments: Report” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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China’s Xi Issues Dark Warning on Taiwan as He Prepares to Consolidate Power Over CCP

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, poised to seize a third term in full control of his nation, signaled a pending move on Taiwan, did a victory lap over Bejing’s defeat of Hong Kong’s democracy aspirations and vowed to defeat COVID in a Sunday speech.

The 69-year-old Xi, who became the head of the Chinese Communist Party 10 years ago, struck a stridently nationalistic tone at the opening of the 20th Party Congress, which appears set to affirm him as its leader for life. He seemed to embrace that his muscular government is on a collision course with the West and intends to take over Taiwan.

Xi referred to “rapid changes in the international situation,” which experts inferred meant China’s increasing alienation from the West and burgeoning alliance with Russia.

Xi claimed victory over both Hong Kong’s stalled independence movement and COVID, crediting his government with having “protected people’s lives and health.” Mentioning Taiwan as the third of three major challenges met by his regime was deemed a signal that Beijing may be closer than ever to make a move on Taiwan, a self-governing democracy Beijing claims as its own.

The speech was delivered inside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People to 2,300 of the CCP’s most powerful members. They cheered wildly when the president mentioned “reunification” with Taiwan. Although he pledged to try to achieve the goal peacefully, he issued a dark warning. (Read more from “China’s Xi Issues Dark Warning on Taiwan as He Prepares to Consolidate Power Over CCP” HERE)

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Is the US Real Estate Industry Infiltrated and Being Used to Facilitate Chinese Espionage?

China’s global intelligence-gathering and subversive activities occur at multiple levels, but all of those activities have been facilitated by the massive Chinese migration to the United States and other Western nations, which began with the “Opening” of China under the Nixon Administration and accelerated thereafter.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, Chinese immigration to the United States increased nearly seven-fold since 1980, reaching almost 2.5 million in 2018, an unknown number of which remain loyal to the Chinese Communist Party.

Chinese espionage networks are often managed out of Chinese consulates in major U.S. cities, but those allegedly diplomatic facilities are insufficiently staffed to exploit the wide range of targets deemed essential by China’s state security apparatus.

There is a need, then, for non-official cover (NOC) Chinese intelligence agents, without diplomatic immunity, who are usually “sanitized” at intermediate locations outside or inside the U.S. before arriving at their target area of operation in the United States.

Chinese NOC intelligence networks consist of deep controller agents, perhaps “husband and wife” teams that monitor each other, as well as a host of facilitators within local Chinese communities, who otherwise appear to conduct normal lives as U.S. citizens, but are indispensable to the success of China’s intelligence-gathering and subversive activities.

Evidence indicates that the U.S. real estate industry is infiltrated by Chinese intelligence for the purpose of moving agents and money to support espionage activities, including the acquisition of residential properties near vital U.S. military installations, not just large land purchases which have been reported for U.S. Air Forces bases in Texas and North Dakota.

One such vital location, not amenable to large land purchases, is the Hawaiian Islands, home of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Headquarters and the naval base at Pearl Harbor.

The following image is the view from a residential property suspected of being purchased for its proximity to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Headquarters and its unobstructed view above the Pearl Harbor naval base.

The real estate activities practiced by Chinese immigrants in Hawaii are often convoluted and complex, involving multiple companies, sometimes embedded in each other and connected to companies from other U.S. states or offshore entities, all of which are eventually linked back to China.

The following scheme was constructed from publicly-available sources illustrating the actual purchase of property like the one shown above. The names of the individuals involved and the companies they represent have been changed, but all the evidence from Hawaii indicates what appears to be an effort to hide the details of real estate transactions and the flow of money.


Acquisition by China of property strategically located near vital U.S. military installations provides an opportunity for surveillance and possible sabotage. Based on County of Oahu records, the property has also been purchased by newly-arrived Chinese within a half mile of Fort Shafter, the Headquarters of the United States Army Pacific and the 25th Infantry Division.

There may also be an attempt underway by China to create a critical mass of Chinese property owners in the Hawaiian Islands that are loyal to the Chinese Communist Party with the strategic goal of separating the islands from U.S. sovereignty.

The scenario described above is being repeated throughout the United States and represents a threat to our national security and, at a minimum, should be investigated more vigorously, especially by U.S. military commands that may be directly affected.

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Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. He had a civilian career in international business and medical research. Dr. Sellin is the author of Restoring the Republic: Arguments for a Second American Revolution. His email address is [email protected].

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China, Russia Could Launch ‘Space Pearl Harbor’ on Aging US Satellites: Expert

The United States is not prepared for strategic space competition against a united China and Russia, according to one expert.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is nearing technological parity with the United States in key space domains, according to Brandon Weichert, an independent geopolitical analy
st. That means that it will soon threaten the United States’ ability to project power in space.

“You’re already seeing China being able to catch up to us in certain areas,” Weichert said during an Oct. 13 interview with NTD, a sister media outlet of the Epoch Times.

“They are still able to do things that we were not anticipating that they would be able to do, such as getting this new space station of theirs in orbit as quickly as they did and getting many of our key allies to sign on in support of the new China space station. And that’s just the beginning.”

Weichert said that the United States was not ready to face the combined aggression of the CCP and Vladimir Putin’s Russia simultaneously because the nation had failed to capitalize on its dominance in space following the end of the Cold War. (Read more from “China, Russia Could Launch ‘Space Pearl Harbor’ on Aging US Satellites: Expert” HERE)

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China Trashes Biden National Security Strategy as ‘Outdated’

China’s state-run Global Times did not think highly of the Biden administration’s latest National Security Strategy (NSS) document, hyperbolically claiming the entire world was immediately gripped by “a strong sense of unease and concern” because American national security will “come at the expense of the security of other countries.”

The Global Times accused the document of strengthening “the camp confrontation and binary opposition mindset that led to the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.” This seems like a cheeky observation coming from the state media of a brutal authoritarian regime that has yet to condemn Russia for invading Ukraine.

Most of the Global Times’ critique boiled down to the latest repetition of the Chinese Communist Party’s favorite geopolitical talking point: the U.S. allegedly adopting a “Cold War mentality” by treating China as a menace to be contained, as the Western world confronted the Soviet Union.

The Global Times lost its marbles when the NSS described China and Russia as “powers that layer authoritarian governance with a revisionist foreign policy,” combining a taste for “wars of aggression” with “actively undermining the democratic political processes of other countries, leveraging technology and supply chains for coercion and repression, and exporting an illiberal model of international order.”

That is a very accurate description of Chinese and Russian policy so, of course, the Chinese state editorialists did not like it one little bit, not even after the White House gave them a break by describing Russia as more of an “immediate threat to the free and open international system” and emphasizing “competition” with China over confrontation. (Read more from “China Trashes Biden National Security Strategy as ‘Outdated’” HERE)

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Entrepreneur: Same Companies That Pulled Out of Russia ‘Will Not Say a Peep’ When China Invades Taiwan

Strive Asset Management Executive Chairman Vivek Ramaswamy argued on Wednesday that the same American companies which left Russia after the invasion of Ukraine are too financially dependent on China to do the same if the nation attacks Taiwan.

More than 1,000 companies in the Western world have decreased operations within Russia beyond the extent required by international sanctions, according to an analysis from the Yale School of Management. During an interview with Fox Business, Ramaswamy predicted that economic conditions will bar companies from leaving China in the way that did not apply to firms leaving Russia.

“It’s easy for multinational corporations to shun Russia. Multinational corporations are not going to shun China in the same way,” Ramaswamy commented. “Many of them depend on China for their growth. So I think the same multinational corporations that condemned Russia for taking action against Ukraine will not say a peep — I think you can mark my words on this — will not say a peep as China makes its move on Taiwan.”

China has heightened aggression toward Taiwan in recent months. As the United States pursued trade talks with the island nation, the Chinese military sent a “readiness patrol” near Taiwanese sea and airspace. As Russia began the invasion of Ukraine, China likewise sent squadrons of jets into Taiwanese airspace following a similar incursion one month earlier. (Read more from “Entrepreneur: Same Companies That Pulled Out of Russia ‘Will Not Say a Peep’ When China Invades Taiwan” HERE)

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U.S. Singles Out China, Russia in New National Security Strategy Statement

. . .On Wednesday, the White House drew attention to Biden’s worldview by releasing an official national security blueprint that singled out Russia as a dangerous foe and China as the United States’ chief competitor.

The three-page “National Security Strategy” contains few surprises, but it does effectively lay out what amounts to a Biden doctrine on foreign affairs at a time of heightened tension over a global economic slowdown and the war in Ukraine.

“The most pressing strategic challenge we face as we pursue a free, open, prosperous, and secure world are from powers that layer authoritarian governance with a revisionist foreign policy,” the memo says. (Read more from “U.S. Singles Out China, Russia in New National Security Strategy Statement” HERE)

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U.S. Sensors Unable to Track Chinese, Russian Hypersonic Missiles: Report

U.S. radars are unable to track Chinese and Russian high-speed missiles until late in their flight, even as new systems are being developed as part of the Pentagon’s accelerated hypersonic missile defense program, according to a congressional report.

The Congressional Research Service report said that the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency and Space Development Agency are working on parts of a hypersonic missile defense systems that could be used to stop the missiles, in part because current systems are inadequate for the job.

“U.S. defense officials have stated that both existing terrestrial- and space-based sensor architectures are insufficient to detect and track hypersonic weapons,” the Oct. 3 report states.

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For geostationary satellite sensors, hypersonic targets are 10 to 20 times harder to detect than conventional ballistic missiles, which travel in more predictable trajectories, the report said.

Hypersonic missiles travel at speeds greater than 1 mile per second. Current U.S. space and ground radar systems are unable to detect the missiles until late in flight, making interception with anti-missile systems difficult. (Read more from “U.S. Sensors Unable to Track Chinese, Russian Hypersonic Missiles: Report” HERE)

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Gov. Whitmer-Appointed Board Approves $715 Million Contract for CCP-Affiliated Company

The Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) board, appointed by Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, approved $715 million in grants and tax exemptions on Wednesday for a battery manufacturer with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The SMF board, chaired by Quentin Messer and comprised of 11 members appointed by Whitmer, reportedly approved the Renaissance Zone tax exemption request and handed $175 million in state grants to a China-based company named Gotion Inc, and its billionaire chairman, who has deep ties to the CCP, in order to build a $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery parts facility in the outer part of Big Rapids.

In total, as the Detroit News reported, the $715 million in grants and tax exemptions include:

The property tax exemption granted by the board for the Michigan Economic Development Corp. will save the company $540 million over a 30-year period, according to estimates. The approval comes after three local government boards last week unanimously approved the Renaissance Zone request for the project that’s expected to create 2,350 jobs over the next decade [Emphasis added].

The $175 million in grant funding is made possible through new programs the state Legislature created at the end of 2021 to spur economic development in the state.

(Read more from “Gov. Whitmer-Appointed Board Approves $715 Million Contract for CCP-Affiliated Company” HERE)

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China, Russia ‘Enabling North Korea’ and Kim’s Missile Tests: U.S. Envoy

The top American envoy to the United Nations accused China and Russia of “enabling North Korea,” after Kim Jung Un oversaw his sixth missile test in 12 days without political reprisal on Wednesday.

“As the Security Council wrapped up a meeting on North Korea’s dangerous ballistic missile launches, we learned that Pyongyang launched two more missiles,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said in a tweet.

“Make no mistake: the two Council members that are blocking us from taking action are enabling North Korea,” she said, referring to the Chinese and Russian delegations, which have vetoed efforts to toughen U.N. sanctions on the regime.

(Read more from “China, Russia ‘Enabling North Korea’ and Kim’s Missile Tests: U.S. Envoy” HERE)

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