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China’s New Wave of ‘Zero COVID’ Madness Is a Reminder to Never Follow Tyrants in an Emergency

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In most of the United States, post-covid normalcy is asserting itself. But in deep blue enclaves, mask virtue signalers illustrate continued commitment in some quarters to unnecessary precautions originating from early pandemic hysteria. . .

Indeed, we now know what happens when Americans exchange liberty for the perception of safety. To see this transaction taken to its extreme, one need look no further than China’s continuation of extreme covid restrictions.

As The New York Times reported, Chinese President Xi Jinping says the country must achieve “zero covid,” a feckless and increasingly delusional quest to eradicate the mutating virus that is almost certainly doomed to failure.

The result of this obsession is that China is still enduring widespread lockdowns, according to reports from the propaganda-heavy country. It is estimated that in the last week, as many as 291 million Chinese — approximately 21 percent of the country’s 1.4 billion people — are trapped in their homes, often with limited access to supplies.

In much of the country, people are required to be tested daily by rapid methods that may be far more inaccurate than the ones used in the United States. Furthermore, information about China’s containment strategy is clearly manipulated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its propaganda apparatus. (Read more from “China’s New Wave of ‘Zero COVID’ Madness Is a Reminder to Never Follow Tyrants in an Emergency” HERE)

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Biden’s New Green Energy Adviser Has Ties to Chinese Communist Party Front Group

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President Joe Biden’s new senior adviser has maintained ties with a Chinese government influence operative for over 10 years, the Daily Caller News Foundation found.

Since at least 2009, Democratic powerbroker John Podesta, former chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, has cooperated with Tung Chee-hwa and his Chinese Communist Party-backed organization, the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), according to CUSEF’s annual reports. Podesta sits on CUSEF’s “U.S.-China 2022 Steering Committee” and has written at least three articles for its website since 2011 — the same year in which he appeared on the front cover of the group’s annual report.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz characterized CUSEF as a “pseudo-philanthropic foundation” in 2018, writing that “CUSEF’s ties to the CCP are an issue of grave concern.” CUSEF is registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as a Chinese foreign principal controlled by Tung, the vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) — an organization which directs China’s influence operations, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Including Tung, eight of CUSEF’s core leaders have served in the CPPCC, while Chinese military personnel, members of the CCP and former government officials are also listed among the group’s advisers, according to its website.

Tung is “clearly associated” with the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The UFWD engages in propaganda, espionage and physical violence, according to the State Department. (Read more from “Biden’s New Green Energy Adviser Has Ties to Chinese Communist Party Front Group” HERE)

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Division of US Military Branch That Faces Down China Orders End of Gender Pronouns; Leaders Claim Move Will Improve Fighting Force’s ‘Lethality’

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A division of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces, which faces down China, ordered the end of gender pronouns in written formats, insisting the move to more neutral language will improve the force’s “lethality,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. . .

“In accordance with the Diverse PACAF priority, ‘We must embrace, promote and unleash the potential of diversity and inclusion,” reads a partial copy of a May email to senior leaders and commanders at the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, which is part of the Pacific Air Forces. The Free Beacon said it obtained the email.

Base leaders were ordered to not use “pronouns, age, race, etc.” in written performance reviews or other materials, such as recommendations for awards, the outlet said, adding that the directive also said “welcoming and employing varied perspectives from a foundation of mutual respect will improve our interoperability, efficiency, creativity, and lethality.”

“Unauthorized” words and phrases include “He/She did” and “Best male/female,” the Free Beacon said.

A base spokesman confirmed the email’s authenticity, the outlet said, adding that the ban on “pronouns, age, race” is “intended to eliminate any information that could identify the nominee’s name, gender, age, or race so that all members had a fair and equal chance at winning.” (Read more from “Division of US Military Branch That Faces Down China Orders End of Gender Pronouns; Leaders Claim Move Will Improve Fighting Force’s ‘Lethality'” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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China Admits Endless Coronavirus Lockdowns Are Crushing Already Critical Birth Rate

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China’s National Health Commission (NHC) told Reuters this week that ongoing Chinese coronavirus lockdowns nationwide have had a “clear impact on the marriage and childbirth arrangements of some people” within the country and have contributed to the nation’s plummeting fertility rate and shrinking population, the news agency reported Tuesday.

“COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] has contributed to the decline in the country’s marriage and birth rates that has accelerated in recent years due to the high costs of education and child-rearing,” the NHC told Reuters in faxed statements on August 22.

“The coronavirus has also had a clear impact on the marriage and childbirth arrangements of some people,” the commission added.

Reuters on August 8 cited a U.N. China report which found that Beijing’s relentless zero-tolerance policy toward the Chinese coronavirus throughout the pandemic, including stringent lockdowns and forced quarantines, had effected “a long-term impact on first births [in China].”

“Couples that may have been thinking about having a child in the next year, definitely postponed those. Couples that really weren’t sure, have postponed indefinitely,” U.N. Population Fund Representative to China Justine Coulson said as quoted by Reuters on August 8. (Read more from “China Admits Endless Coronavirus Lockdowns Are Crushing Already Critical Birth Rate” HERE)

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US Likely to Go to War With China in the Next Decade, Experts Say

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The U.S. and Chinese militaries will clash over a Chinese campaign to take over Taiwan in the near future, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

China’s unequivocal determination to fully integrate Taiwan with the mainland is compounding U.S. fears of growing Chinese threats to itself and key East Asian allies, setting both sides on a risky path to kinetic conflict, according to experts on defense and China/Taiwan issues. A majority of Americans expect war within the next decade, one that experts said could widen beyond repelling a Taiwanese invasion and test the limits of each side’s naval and aerial capabilities.

“Washington and Beijing are caught in a downward spiral of each believing the other side is bent on changing the status quo and each trying to dissuade further movement with shows of force and determination. There’s a moderate risk of war, even though neither side wants it,” Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center, told the DCNF.

China has not put forth clear conditions for invading Taiwan, although a Taiwanese declaration of independence would almost certainly trigger the move, according to David Sacks, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

In 2005, China promulgated the Anti-Secession Law that laid out plans for “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan but also provisioned “vague” circumstances that would justify use of force. (Read more from “US Likely to Go to War With China in the Next Decade, Experts Say” HERE)

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After Aborting Nearly a Half-Billion Children, Communist China Seeks to Boost Birth Rate

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Owing to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) one-child policy, implemented in 1980, as well as to other correlated factors such as a decrease in the number of women of childbearing age and declining fertility, China faces a demographic crisis. The CCP is now, as a result, trying to reverse the damage its past policies have done.

Whereas in 1950, a year after the communists formally took power, China’s fertility rate was 5.29, it now stands at 1.16. In other words, as of 2021, there were only 7.5 births per 1,000 people. Fewer than 10 million births are expected in 2022, down from an already historic low of 10.62 million last year.

Reuters reported that this fertility rate is far below the 2.1 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development standard for a stable population and constitutes one of the lowest in the world. The 2.1 figure is considered the standard because it reflects the average number of children required per woman for each generation to replace itself without a considerable influx of immigrants. The fertility rate for the U.S. in 2021 was 1.78.

In addition to discouraging abortion, the communist regime is now introducing financial and institutional support measures for prospective parents. These measures involve tax, housing, employment, and education aids as well as lowered kindergarten enrollment ages. (Read more from “After Aborting Nearly a Half-Billion Children, Communist China Seeks to Boost Birth Rate” HERE)

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At Least 300 TikTok Employees Worked for Chinese State Media: Report

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A new report found some overlap between hundreds of employees at TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and Chinese state media outlets.

Forbes surveyed hundreds of LinkedIn profiles for the tech firm’s employees, finding at least 300 workers had previously held positions in Chinese state media – and 15 of them currently work for both.

“Fifteen indicate that current ByteDance employees are also concurrently employed by Chinese state media entities, including Xinhua News Agency, China Radio International and China Central/China Global Television,” the report said. The U.S. State department has labeled these organization as “foreign government functionaries.”

TikTok has come under increased scrutiny as U.S. officials continue to warn of the national security threat the app poses: FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr in June called on the CEOs of Google and Apple to remove the app from their stores, citing reports that suggest the app harvests “swaths of sensitive data.”

“TikTok is not what it appears to be on the surface. It is not just an app for sharing funning videos or memes. That’s the sheep’s clothing,” Carr wrote. “At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data.” (Read more from “At Least 300 TikTok Employees Worked for Chinese State Media: Report” HERE)

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To Avoid Sanctions, Countries Are Ditching the US Dollar

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Russia, China and other countries have escalated efforts to ditch transactions made with U.S. dollars in 2022, helping them bypass Western sanctions and keep their economies afloat.

Since Western countries levied heavy sanctions on Russia in punishment for its invasion of Ukraine, India has increased its imports of Russian coal and natural gas, paying in Chinese yuan, United Arab Emirates dirham, Hong Kong dollar, and euro, Reuters reported Wednesday. Turkey and Iran have also forged agreements with Russia to base bilateral commerce on the Russian ruble, an effort to divest from dependence on the “toxic” U.S. dollar while easing the effect of sanctions on the Russian economy.

“The current round of turbulence is likely to increase … momentum in the creation of a rival reserve currency or currencies to help supplant the oversized role of the dollar,” Anthony Kim, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation specializing in international economic issues, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The dollar comprised 60% of countries’ foreign exchange reserves, used to trade with one another, in 2021, and dominates international transactions, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve Board. U.S. sanctions cut off countries from accessing dollars for international trade. (Read more from “To Avoid Sanctions, Countries Are Ditching the US Dollar” HERE)

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Not Again: China Detects First Human Cases of Another Novel Virus

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Scientists from China and Singapore recently announced the detection of a novel animal-derived virus known as Langya henipavirus (LayV) in at least 35 humans across China’s eastern provinces of Henan and Shandong, China’s state-run Global Times reported on Tuesday, noting that the zoonotic virus is often found in shrews.

The scientists first announced their discovery in a letter to the editor published by the New England Journal of Medicine on August 4.

The document read, in part:

During sentinel surveillance of febrile patients with a recent history of animal exposure in eastern China, a phylogenetically distinct henipavirus, named Langya henipavirus (LayV), was identified in a throat swab sample from one patient […].

Subsequent investigation identified 35 patients with acute LayV infection in the Shandong and Henan provinces of China, among whom 26 were infected with LayV only (no other pathogens were present).

These 26 patients presented with fever (100% of the patients), fatigue (54%), cough (50%), anorexia (50%), myalgia [muscle pain] (46%), nausea (38%), headache (35%), and vomiting (35%), accompanied by abnormalities of thrombocytopenia [low blood platelet count] (35%), leukopenia [low white blood cell count] (54%), and impaired liver (35%) and kidney (8%) function.

(Read more from “Not Again: China Detects First Human Cases of Another Novel Virus” HERE)

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Joe Biden Met Chinese Energy Execs With Ties to Hunter at White House in 2014

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Joe Biden hosted a White House meeting with two Chinese energy executives with ties to his son Hunter back when he was vice president in 2014, records show.

The president, who still insists he never spoke to Hunter about his son’s overseas business dealings, met the two executives from Wanxiang — a major Chinese company — in the West Wing on July 25, 2014, according to White House visitor logs.

Wanxiang America president, Pin Ni, and Wanxiang Resources Co. president, Youhong Han, were at the White House for just over an hour — after the last-minute meeting was scheduled a day earlier, the records, first reported by the Daily Mail, show.

A client of Hunter’s Seneca Global Advisors company, GreatPoint Energy, had previously partnered with Wanxiang in 2012 for a $1.25 billion natural gas plant in China.

Hunter was also linked to the Chinese company via his investment in the Fisker car business, which was bought by Wanxiang in February 2014. Biden’s son had previously purchased one of Fisker’s electric sports cars for more than $100,000. (Read more from “Joe Biden Met Chinese Energy Execs With Ties to Hunter at White House in 2014” HERE)

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