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China Ties Raise Questions for Biden’s Pick for Top Defense Post

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Joe Biden’s pick for a top Pentagon post works at a research center partnered with China’s Peking University, a school that has long been eyed as a security risk by western intelligence.

Colin Kahl, whom Biden tapped for undersecretary of defense for policy, has served as a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University since the beginning of 2018. The institute oversees the Stanford Center at Peking University in northern Beijing, which opened in 2012.

Peking University, which is run by former Beijing spy chief Qiu Shuiping and has been linked to multiple espionage cases in the United States, recently updated its charter to require loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, according to an NPR report. The school has also been ramping up its student and faculty surveillance system in what China watchers see as part of the government’s broader crackdown on independent scholarship.

Kahl is not the first Biden nominee whose employer has business entanglements in China. Biden’s pick for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, cofounded the consulting firm WestExec, which helped U.S. universities raise money from China without running afoul of Pentagon grant requirements, the Washington Free Beacon reported last month. WestExec scrubbed the details of this work from its website over the summer. (Read more from “China Ties Raise Questions for Biden’s Pick for Top Defense Post” HERE)

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DNI: China ‘Sought To Influence’ 2020 US Election

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Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe assessed that China interfered in the 2020 federal elections, according to a letter transmitted to Congress.

In the letter (pdf), Ratcliffe alleges that intelligence about China’s election interference was suppressed by management at the CIA, which pressured analysts to withdraw their support for the view.

Citing a report by the Intelligence Community’s analytic ombudsman Barry Zulauf, the director of national intelligence said that some analysts were reluctant to describe China’s actions as election interference because they disagreed with the policies of President Donald Trump.

The Washington Examiner published Ratcliffe’s letter and the ombudsman report on Jan. 17, 10 days after publishing an original report on the documents. The ODNI didn’t immediately respond to requests from The Epoch Times to authenticate the documents.

“Based on all available sources of intelligence, with definitions consistently applied, and reached independent of political considerations or undue pressure—that the People’s Republic of China sought to influence the 2020 U.S. federal elections,” Ratcliffe wrote. (Read more from “DNI: China ‘Sought To Influence’ 2020 US Election” HERE)

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Organizations Linked To Chinese Military Are a Cash Cow for American Colleges

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Chinese military-linked entities, including those behind extensive cyber attacks and espionage, funneled at least $88 million into U.S. universities over the course of six years, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of federal records.

Some of America’s most prestigious universities have cashed lucrative checks from Chinese institutions that directly threatened national security. Duke University operates a joint-campus in China with Wuhan University, a public university that repeatedly carried out cyber attacks on behalf of the Chinese military. Northwestern University and the University of California Irvine have together received more than $4 million in research funding from an entity controlled by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, a Chinese defense contractor that used stolen designs of American F-35 fighters to build planes for the Chinese military.

Institutions controlled by the Chinese government—state-owned enterprises, state-controlled public universities, government-controlled nonprofits, and other sources—collectively donated at least $315 million to American colleges between 2014 and 2019. More than a quarter of the contributions—27 percent—came from either state-owned defense contractors or public universities that closely partner with the Chinese military to conduct defense research.

The expenditures indicate that the Chinese government is a much bigger player in U.S. academia than previously thought. State-backed entities often avoid scrutiny as their government ties are not immediately obvious. The $315 million sum, based on federal disclosures, is likely a conservative estimate of Chinese influence peddling on campus. A Department of Education audit found that U.S. universities failed to disclose more than $6.5 billion in foreign funding from China and other countries in recent years. (Read more from “Organizations Linked To Chinese Military Are a Cash Cow for American Colleges” HERE)

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Xi Jinping Orders Chinese Army To Prepare for War ‘at Any Second’

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Chinese dictator Xi Jinping on Monday issued orders to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to prepare to “act at any second” and maintain “full-time combat readiness,” the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Tuesday.

Xi previously tightened his personal control of the PLA, using his position as chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) to appoint loyal officers and clean out suspect personnel under the guise of an anti-corruption campaign.

State news agency Xinhua described the orders as part of an effort to tighten Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control of the nation’s military and to prepare it for future conflicts:

Upholding the Party’s absolute leadership over the armed forces and focusing on combat capabilities, the regulations stipulated the guiding principles, leadership, responsibilities and structures of the committees in detail. At the same time, it sets requirements for its members.

The regulations will enhance the role of Party organizations in the armed forces and help with the Party’s goal of strengthening the military in the new era and building world-class armed forces.

(Read more from “Xi Jinping Orders Chinese Army To Prepare for War ‘at Any Second’” HERE)

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China Calls Biden ‘New Window of Hope’ for Its Agenda; Report: Mystery Chinese Company Suggested Charity Donation To Hunter Biden

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By Fox News. China believes President-elect Joe Biden represents a “new window of hope” for the country’s relationship with the United States, according to state media.

Biden’s critics have expressed concern that he will take a friendlier stance toward China than President Trump as tensions between the two rivals have risen after a trade battle and the spread of COVID-19.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told state media outlet CGTN last week that “a new window of hope is opening” with the incoming administration.

The Biden administration will “return to a sensible approach, resume dialogue with China, restore normalcy to the bilateral relations and restart cooperation,” Wang said.

(Read more from “China Calls Biden ‘New Window of Hope’ for Its Agenda” HERE)

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Report: Mystery Chinese Company Suggested Charity Donation To Hunter Biden

By Daily Caller. In October 2015, a consultant working on behalf of the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC made an intriguing pitch to Hunter Biden, the son of the then-vice president.

The consultant said that CEFC, one of China’s largest private energy firms, wanted to make a contribution to a nonprofit organization that Biden chaired, according to emails obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. What’s more, CEFC also wanted to explore investing up to $100 million with an asset management firm with links to Biden.

While Biden’s relationship with CEFC has been widely explored in the media amid revelations that he is the target of a federal investigation, little is known about how the son of the future president first started his partnership with the company. . .

Senate investigators have said that Biden’s work with CEFC raises potential “counterintelligence” and “criminal financial” concerns, in part because of CEFC’s alleged links to Chinese military intelligence. A report from Senate Republicans also said that U.S. banking regulators flagged millions of dollars in wire payments from CEFC to Biden in 2017 as suspicious.

Emails from Biden’s laptop obtained by the DCNF help fill in some of the gaps of the origins of the CEFC partnership, as does an interview with the consultant who pitched Biden in October 2015. (Read more from “Report: Mystery Chinese Company Suggested Charity Donation To Hunter Biden” HERE)

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Overstock Founder: China Is Taking Us Out From Within

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Patrick Byrne, founder and former CEO of Overstock, said that China is “taking us out from within” during an interview with Dr. Jerome Corsi on Monday.

“The greatest way to fight a war, in the Chinese way of thinking, is not to have to fight at all. That’s what they’ve done here,” Byrne said. . .

“Though we spend a trillion dollars a year between our military and our intelligence, national security circles … that trillion dollars we have and we’ve built, you know, things that can stop all their planes and their missiles and all kinds of things. But we missed the one they use, which is not a fight at all, not firing a bullet or missile at all, but taking us out from within. And that’s what’s going on.”

Byrne pointed out that the Chinese regime is engaged in “a slow coup.”

“It’s a revolution. The stages of such a revolution are very well mapped out. We understand this. It’s demoralization, disorientation, crisis, then normalization: those four steps.” (Read more from “Overstock Founder: China Is Taking Us Out From Within” HERE)

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Communist China Arrests Catholics Nuns in Hong Kong

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In May, two Chinese nuns at the Vatican mission in Hong Kong were arrested by Beijing authorities on a visit home to the Hebei province, Reuters reported, citing interviews with three Catholic clerics.

The nuns, each in their mid-40s, were released into house arrest after being held for three weeks. None faced charges but are prohibited from leaving mainland China. According to Reuters, China has ramped up its surveillance of the unofficial Hong Kong Vatican mission this year, as Beijing strengthens its grip on the once-free, flourishing city.

One cleric reportedly told Reuters that “it is highly unusual for nuns to be detained,” noting that while priests are sometimes arrested in mainland China, nuns are “normally” left alone.

“Senior members of the clergy in Hong Kong told Reuters that Beijing is trying to expand its control over the diocese, in part by influencing the choice of the city’s next bishop, a position that’s been open since the last bishop’s death two years ago,” Reuters reported. “Beijing, they said, is seeking to apply to Hong Kong a two-year-old agreement with the Holy See that gives the Chinese government a significant say in the appointment of prelates on the mainland.” (Read more from “Communist China Arrests Catholics Nuns in Hong Kong” HERE)

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CNN Sucked up to Communist China and Russia to Own Trump, and the Lies Backfired

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CNN celebrated the triumphant successes of the United States’s largest adversaries evidently controlling the pandemic virus, relying on self-reported data from the oppressive regimes in the early days of the pandemic.

In March, CNN opened a report on the Kremlin’s coronavirus response, lauding the Russian president’s accomplishments in keeping the nation safe. . .

On testing, the network praised Russia and admonished American progress. “According to CDC figures, the United States only picked up the pace in testing at the beginning of March, while Russia says it has been testing en masse since early February.” . . .

Several months later, Russian officials have now admitted on Monday that the nation’s death toll is, in reality, three times higher than previously claimed, with more than 186,000 Russians having succumbed to the Wuhan virus. More than 3 million Russians have been infected, giving Russia the fourth-highest caseload in the world, according to the Guardian.

(Read more from “CNN Sucked up to Communist China and Russia to Own Trump, and the Lies Backfired” HERE)

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China Formally Punishes Journalist for Exposing COVID

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. . .[B]ecause of China’s lies, the world is grappling with a pandemic.

Fast forward nine months later and China is punishing citizen journalists who warned about the deadly virus.

On Monday, 37-year-old Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer and YouTuber who frequently uploaded videos about her first-hand experiences of crowded hospitals and empty streets, was sentenced to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” Her videos included interviews and commentary with residents as well as footage from hospitals and train stations. Zhang also posted videos of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the majority of the United States’ 17 intelligence agencies believe that the coronavirus originated. Obviously, Zhang’s videos were something that ran counter to the Chinese Community Party’s narrative, that the coronavirus was under control thanks to President Xi Jinping’s leadership, Reuters reported.

“I don’t understand. All she did was say a few true words, and for that she got four years,” Zhang’s mother, Shao Wenxia, said following the verdict.

To make matters even worse, Chinese officials are accused of purposefully holding the hearings between Christmas and New Year’s so there would be less media coverage from those in the Western Hemisphere, including the United States. Police in Shanghai also prevented foreign journalists from entering the court building, citing “the epidemic” as the reason. (Read more from “China Formally Punishes Journalist for Exposing COVID” HERE)

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Lockdowns Were Inspired by Communist China, Admits Professor Pantsdown

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Professor Neil Ferguson, the discredited Imperial College computer modeller behind Britain’s draconian lockdown policies, has come clean about his inspiration: none of it would have been possible without the shining example of the Chinese Communist Party.

In an extraordinary interview with the Times (of London), Ferguson admits that if it hadn’t been for China’s example, no Western country would ever have dreamed of putting its populace under house arrest.

Back in 2019, about the time someone was getting infected by a bat, no European country’s pandemic plans seriously entertained the prospect of putting a country on pause.

Then, that’s what China did. “I think people’s sense of what is possible in terms of control changed quite dramatically between January and March,” Professor Ferguson says.

Ferguson appears to find the idea of emulating a totalitarian state exciting rather than embarrassing or shaming because he boasts about it again later in the interview. (Read more from “Lockdowns Were Inspired by Communist China, Admits Professor Pantsdown” HERE)

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