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Biden’s First Defense Budget Would Emphasize Taking on China

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Defense Department leadership told lawmakers Thursday the Pentagon’s first budget request under President Joe Biden will emphasize taking on China, with a proposal to increase research funding sharply.

The White House is slated to roll out its first federal spending blueprint on Friday, meaning lawmakers are still waiting to get hard numbers from the administration. Still, members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense worried the Chinese military would grow faster than the United States’s. They also made clear they see no clear direction from the Defense Department for divesting from expensive, older systems that often benefit political interests over strategic ones.

“It funds the right mix of capabilities that we need most to defend this nation now and in the future,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Austin highlighted proposed investments in hypersonic weapons, long-range fires, artificial intelligence, microelectronics, 5G technology, cyber capabilities, shipbuilding, and nuclear modernization. (Read more from “Biden’s First Defense Budget Would Emphasize Taking on China” HERE)

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WATCH: WWE Star Slammed for Pathetic Apology to China Over Taiwan Remark

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​John Cena was on the receiving end of a piledriver Tuesday from American Twitter users after his “pathetic” apology to China for referring to Taiwan as a country during a promotional spot for his new movie “F9.” . . .

Cena, speaking Mandarin, went on Chinese social media site Weibo Tuesday to apologize for calling Taiwan a country during a promotional interview for “F9,” the latest installment for the “Fast and Furious” franchise, earlier this month.

The Chinese, who consider Taiwan a rogue province that is part of their territory, erupted in outrage at his blunder. . .

The apology set off its own firestorm in the US that hit Cena like a flying suplex.

(Read more from “WATCH: WWE Star Slammed for Pathetic Apology to China Over Taiwan Remark” HERE)

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Massive COVID Origin Coverup Campaign Has Begun; WATCH: Fauci Does 180 on China’s COVID Origins; 3 Wuhan Lab Workers Had COVID in 2019?

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By The Federalist. The Atlantic’s David Frum appears to be first out of the gate in what will likely become a coordinated, aggressive media campaign to defend the people and institutions that got the COVID-19 origin story wrong — and absolve them of all responsibility, however complicit they might be — and instead blame it all on Trump and his supporters.

It sounds stupid, I know, but it’s true. Frum thinks Trump and his tens of millions of supporters “are not interested in weighing the evidence” of the virus’s origins, and only want “payback for the political and cultural injuries inflicted on them by the scientists.” The whole thing, for them, is just “a weapon in a culture war here at home.” . . .

The need for such a campaign has become apparent in recent days because the question of COVID’s origins isn’t going away. There are two main theories: either the virus naturally jumped from animal to humans, or it was being studied — and perhaps manipulated or enhanced — in a lab and accidentally escaped. . .

Then last week, a group of prominent scientists published a letter in the journal Science calling for a deeper investigation, including the possibility that the virus escaped from a lab by accident. The letter’s signatories include some of the world’s leading coronavirus researchers. One of them is Dr. Ralph Baric, who collaborated with Dr. Shi Zheng-li, China’s foremost expert on bat viruses, at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, located in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began. They were trying to enhance the ability of bat viruses to infect humans. . .

So why did the entire corporate media dismiss the lab leak theory as some crazy conspiracy theory last year? Well, because Trump and his supporters suggested it. When Sen. Tom Cotton last February had the temerity to note on Fox News that the virus emerged not far from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, The New York Times ran with the headline: “Senator Tom Cotton Repeats Fringe Theory of Coronavirus Origins.” (Read more from “The Media’s COVID Origin Coverup Campaign Has Begun” HERE)

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Three Wuhan Researchers Hospitalized in 2019

By Samuel Chamberlain. Three researchers at a Chinese lab that has been scrutinized as the possible origin point of the coronavirus pandemic went to the hospital due to an illness in November 2019, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal, which cited current and former US officials, reported that the intelligence gathered by “an international partner” expands on a State Department document confirming that workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill with symptoms “consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness” in fall 2019. . .

The theory that the coronavirus accidentally leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology into the wider population has gained credence as a viable explanation in recent weeks, following a World Health Organization-led investigation and report — compiled with the help of the Chinese government — that left many other nations dissatisfied.

China has contributed to the suspicion, with the lab not releasing records related to its work on coronaviruses in bats. Meanwhile, Beijing has pushed a series of wild theories, including that the coronavirus spread through imported frozen food packaging and originated at a biomedical research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland. . .

Meanwhile, Republicans are pressing federal health officials to detail what the Wuhan Institute of Virology did with grant money from the National Institutes of Health NIH. (Read more about COVID origins HERE)
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WATCH: In Surprising Reversal, Fauci Calls for Investigation Into China’s COVID Origins

By The Blaze. Dr. Anthony Fauci is now calling for more investigation into China to uncover the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, a dramatic reversal from his earlier position in which he dismissed theories that COVID-19 emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. . .

In a recent interview that received little attention, Fauci was asked by PolitiFact editor Katie Sanders whether he is “still confident that [COVID-19] developed naturally?” . . .

“No, actually,” Fauci said. “No, I’m not convinced about that. I think that we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we find out to the best of our ability exactly what happened.”

“Certainly, the people who’ve investigated it say it likely was the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could’ve been something else, and we need to find that out,” he continued. “So, you know, that’s the reason why I said I’m perfectly in favor of any investigation that looks into the origin of the virus.”

(Read more from “Fauci Calls for Investigation Into China’s COVID Origins” HERE)

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Report: Apple Compromises Privacy and Security to Cater to Communist China’s Wishes

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Apple willingly compromises certain privacy and security business practices to build a partnership with the Chinese government, a new report from the New York Times explains.

Not only does the Big Tech company store personal data of Chinese users on servers that are managed and serviced by a firm owned by the communist regime, but Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has spent years “making frequent, statesmanlike visits and meeting with top leaders” in the Asian country and caving to its wishes.

Apple often boasts that it believes “privacy is a fundamental human right,” but the company’s relationship with China seems to discard that “core value” in exchange for doing China’s bidding such as removing certain encryption technology and digital key that the communist regime disagreed with.

“We have never compromised the security of our users or their data in China or anywhere we operate,” the company said. (Read more from “Report: Apple Compromises Privacy and Security to Cater to Communist China’s Wishes” HERE)

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Chinese Communists Clamp Down On Christian Social Media

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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has added further restrictions on Christian content on the social media platform WeChat, the Barnabas Fund reported Monday.

WeChat has blocked Christian search words such as “Christ,” “Bible,” and “Gospel,” the Barnabas Fund noted, and searches for these terms offer no results on the platform.

The Christian persecution watchdog also reported that WeChat removed a number of Christian accounts in late April and efforts to access these pages generate a notification that the accounts have been removed from service, stemming from complaints that the account violates the “Internet User Public Account Information Services Management Provisions.”

Christian sites such as “Gospel Times,” “Gospel TV,” “Gospel League,” “WeDevote Bible,” and “Old Gospel” were permanently shut down on WeChat, probably because their names contain sensitive Christian keywords.

Other users have complained that they have been blocked from uploading Christian videos to WeChat, while some Christian playlists have been removed from other music streaming services, all of which are monitored by the CCP. (Read more from “Chinese Communists Clamp Down On Christian Social Media” HERE)

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China’s Digital Currency Could Bring Surveillance State to Wallets at Expense of U.S. Dollar

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China’s emerging digital currency could enhance the yuan’s importance in the international financial system at the expense of the U.S. dollar and extend the Chinese surveillance state into wallets around the world.

A combination of visibility of currency users and technical control is a monetary dream for Chinese communist officials, who have staked their regime on their ability to monitor and curtail private activity within China. The digital yuan’s acceptance beyond mainland China could give the regime a significant geo-economic tool, one that bypasses the network of banks and financial institutions that are subject to U.S. laws and binds client states more directly to Beijing.

Beijing’s moves come amid tensions with the Biden administration as the new government in Washington continues calibrating its China policy after the Asian giant’s tactics led former President Donald Trump to sour on its president, Xi Jinping, after spending years touting their alleged friendship. Before Trump, former President Barack Obama grew equally frustrated with Chinese officials, sources said at the time. Now, it’s Biden’s turn.

“There’s no anonymity, which [means] the central bank and the central government is going to watch you and how you spend your money,” said former Department of Commerce assistant secretary Nazak Nikakhtar. “It’s programmable.” (Read more from “China’s Digital Currency Could Bring Surveillance State to Wallets at Expense of U.S. Dollar” HERE)

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Disturbing Leaked Documents Show China’s Plan to Control the Global Internet; China Acting ‘More Aggressively Abroad’

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By The Epoch Times. Chinese leader Xi Jinping personally directed the communist regime to focus its efforts to control the global internet, displacing the influential role of the United States, according to internal government documents recently obtained by The Epoch Times.

In a January 2017 speech, Xi said the “power to control the internet” had become the “new focal point of [China’s] national strategic contest,” and singled out the United States as a “rival force” standing in the way of the regime’s ambitions.

The ultimate goal was for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to control all content on the global internet, so the regime could wield what Xi described as “discourse power” over communications and discussions on the world stage.

Xi articulated a vision of “using technology to rule the internet” to achieve total control over every part of the online ecosystem—over applications, content, quality, capital, and manpower.

His remarks were made at the fourth leadership meeting of the regime’s top internet regulator, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, in Beijing on Jan. 4, 2017, and detailed in internal documents issued by the Liaoning Provincial Government in China’s southeast. (Read more from “Disturbing Leaked Documents Show China’s Plan to Control the Global Internet” HERE)

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Blinken Says China Acting ‘More Aggressively Abroad’

By Reuters. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview that aired on Sunday that China had recently acted “more aggressively abroad” and was behaving “increasingly in adversarial ways.”

Asked by CBS News’ “60 Minutes” if Washington was heading toward a military confrontation with Beijing, Blinken said: “It’s profoundly against the interests of both China and the United States to, to get to that point, or even to head in that direction.”

He added: “What we’ve witnessed over the last several years is China acting more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad. That is a fact.”

Asked about the reported theft of hundreds of billions of dollars or more in U.S. trade secrets and intellectual property by China, Blinken said the Biden administration had “real concerns” about the IP issue. (Read more from “Blinken Says China Acting ‘More Aggressively Abroad'” HERE)

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More Lies Revealed: Chinese Military Collaborated With Lab Where COVID-19 Pandemic Originated

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The Chinese regime has said its controversial virology institute had no relationship with the military, but the institute worked with military leaders on a government-sponsored project for almost a decade.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) participated in a project, sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)—a regime-funded scientific research institution—from 2012 to 2018. The project was comprised of a team of five military and civil experts, who conducted research at WIV labs, military labs, and other civil labs leading to “the discovery of animal pathogens [biological agents that causes disease] in wild animals.” . . .

In recent months, the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry and Shi Zhengli, the WIV virologist nicknamed “Bat Woman” for her research on coronaviruses of bat origin, denied there is a connection between the WIV and military, and said that no WIV researchers were infected with COVID-19.

However, according to an investigation conducted by the U.S. State Department, “several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses.”

“The WIV has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017,” states a State Department fact sheet. (Read more from “More Lies Revealed: Chinese Military Collaborated With Lab Where COVID-19 Pandemic Originated” HERE)

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Chinese Embassy Tweets Anti-American, Antisemitic Cartoon

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The Chinese Embassy in Japan last Thursday tweeted an antisemitic cartoon and then deleted it at the behest of Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

The cartoon featured an image of the Grim Reaper wearing an American flag and carrying a scythe with the Israeli flag as he goes door to door and leaves a bloody trail behind him. The doors are labeled Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Egypt.

The tweet in Japanese said: “If the United States brought ‘democracy,’ it would be like this.”

The cartoon demonized Israel, Israeli Ambassador to Japan Yaffa Ben-Ari told her Chinese counterpart, Cheng Yonghua, on Friday.

Yonghua said he had not noticed that Israel was part of the image. (Read more from “Chinese Embassy Tweets Anti-American, Antisemitic Cartoon” HERE)

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More Links Between China’s Biowarfare Labs and COVID

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Chapter 78 of the Chinese Communist Party’s Thirteenth Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) describes the fusion of military and civilian research including the area of “synthetic biology.”

From the publications of China’s leading research scientists, “synthetic biology” appears to include biological warfare.

Many also underestimate the potential contributions of Chinese veterinary and agricultural research to such a military program.

Ningyi Jin is a member of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. He is described as a virologist, who studies zoonotic diseases. He is a native of Jilin Province of Korean nationality and is a member of the Communist Party of China.

He is also a senior officer in China’s Peoples’ Liberation Army.

Ningyi Jin is the Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology of the Military Veterinary Research Institute of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, the director of the Military Genetic Engineering Key Laboratory, and the director of the Jilin Province Virus Recombinant Vaccine Research and Development Engineering Center.

He has been a research collaborator with Peking Union Medical College, China’s Centers for Disease Control (CCDC), Model Animal Research Center of Nanjing University, Jilin Agricultural University, Wenzhou University, Yanbian University, Shihezi University, Sichuan University, Foshan University, and other allegedly “civilian” research institutions.

In one scientific publication, Ningyi Jin lists himself as a faculty member of Wenzhou and Guangxi Universities. In another publication, he affiliates himself with Yanbian University.

Ningyi Jin has extensive experience in experimentation with coronaviruses.

In addition to his research connections, some of which can be traced back to the United States, there are two aspects of Ningyi Jin’s research activities that raise red flags.

Not only does he use genetic engineering extensively, but Ningyi Jin is one of a number of scientists in China, who, since 2007, have conducted experiments with a transgenic mouse model containing the human receptor for coronaviruses.

That is, any one of those Chinese laboratories could have quickly pre-adapted a coronavirus for human infection using that mouse model and a technique called “serial passaging.”

More alarming, however, is Ningyi Jin’s attitude toward zoonotic research.

Zoonotic diseases are caused by germs that typically spread from animals to humans. That is, by definition, it is a naturally occurring event.

Ningyi Jin, by contrast, sees zoonotic diseases in terms of biowarfare or bioterrorism, where the use of biotechnology can transform a natural zoonotic pathogen in order to “greatly increase its lethality, offensive power, and toxic effects.”

That opinion is expressed in the preface of a book called “The New Edition of Zoonoses” written by Ningyi Jin in 2007.

Ningyi Jin’s viewpoint is not an isolated one, but a common theme that runs through many Chinese military publications.

The time is long past for the U.S. government to take a far more serious look at the Chinese Communist Party’s biowarfare program, their joint civilian-military research institutions supporting it, the laboratory origin of COVID-19, and the U.S. scientists and federal funding that may have contributed to it.

Preferably, this will be done before another more lethal COVID-19 appears.

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Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is retired from an international career in business and medical research with 29 years of service in the US Army Reserve and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. He is a member of the Citizens Commission on National Security. His email address is [email protected].

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