Free Republic

The U.S. military will help Japan monitor “unprecedented” Chinese incursions around East China Sea islands controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing as Chinese boats prepare to begin fishing in nearby waters, the commander of U.S. Forces Japan said on Wednesday. “The United States is 100 percent absolutely steadfast in its commitment to help the government of Japan with the situation,” Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider said during an online press conference. “They (Chinese ships) would go in and out a couple of times a month and now we are seeing them basically park and truly challenge Japan’s administration,” he added.

The guided-missile frigate Yulin (Hull 569) attached to a destroyer flotilla with the navy under the PLA Southern Theater Command fires its main-gun against mock ashore targets during a maritime training exercise in waters of the South China Sea in late March, 2020. The guided-missile frigates Xuchang (536) and Yulin (Hull 569) jointly execute maritime tasks on subjects including formation maneuver, live-fire operation, anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operation, joint salvage, etc.Photo:China Military The increasing tensions between China and the US, the worsening COVID-19 epidemic situation, as well as the declining approval ratings of US President Donald Trump have raised concerns, among...

India is preparing to position an additional 35,000 troops along its disputed Himalayan border with China as the possibility of an early resolution to the deadly tensions between the two neighbours fades. The move would change the status quo along the contested 3,488 km Line of Actual Control and stretch the nations already tight military budget, senior Indian officials said, asking not to be identified citing rules on speaking to the media. Twenty Indian soldiers and unknown number of Chinese troops were killed in an ugly skirmish on June 15 and since then, both sides have rushed thousands of soldiers,...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched missiles Tuesday targeting a mock aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a drill that included such a barrage of fire the U.S. military temporarily put two regional bases in the Mideast on alert amid tensions between the two countries. The drill — and the American response to it — underlined the lingering threat of military conflict between Iran and the U.S. after a series of escalating incidents last year led to an American drone strike killing a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Tehran responded to that strike...

Author and China expert Gordon Chang warned on Fox Business Network's “Varney & Co.” Monday that the Beijing government has undertaken "very dangerous activities, especially against the U.S. Navy and the Air Force" in recent years. "When a militant power wants to kill in great numbers, it usually succeeds," Chang told host Stuart Varney in reference to a 2018 incident in which two U.S. airmen piloting a C-130 aircraft were injured by a "military grade" laser. “When you try to blind the pilots of an American plane, you’re trying to bring it down and kill the crew," said Chang, adding,...

Many Indians thought former BBC journalist Humphrey Hawksley was being overly alarmist when he wrote the thriller Dragon Fire two decades ago about a war pitting China and Pakistan against India that ended apocalyptically with nuclear devastation. Hawksley, a veteran Asia hand, said his fiction was meant not just to entertain but also be a warning that China was expansionist and was a one-party state whose government had to prove itself to survive. Since then, though, we’ve seen China offering a different narrative in which global economic diplomacy was its choice weapon. The Chinese have been busy proving they’re responsible...

The Western Fleet of Indonesia's Navy is holding a series of major military exercises in the Java Sea and the South China Sea amid rising tensions between China and the United States in the international waterway. In what could be seen as sending a clear message to China, the series of drills began July 18 and will conclude Sunday, July 26. The drills will include an amphibious exercise on a beach at Singkep, part of the Riau archipelago where the two seas meet. On the agenda are sea battle simulations and 2,000 military personnel with 26 warships, 19 aircraft, 18...

The Revolutionary War had Benedict Arnold, the Cleveland Cavaliers had Lebron James and currently, America has the NBA. During the Revolutionary War, Continental Army hero Benedict Arnold went from hero to zero when he betrayed his countrymen for a lump of cash -- 20,000.00 pounds to be exact. Arnold’s opinion about the Continental Army soured because he believed he wasn’t treated fairly and deserved more recognition and pay. Hence, he switched sides and was eventually caught and hanged. Ironically, word of his treason reenergized American troops to push forward and win. In 2010, Cleveland Cavaliers fans had their own kind...

It's always ominous when a diplomatic mission destroys documents. Whatever the reason behind China's frantic purge at its Houston consulate, it isn't good. A dramatic scene unveiled Tuesday night when it was reported that personnel at the Consulate General of China in Houston were burning documents in its courtyard. Nearby residents reported seeing and smelling smoke in the air. Houston police and firemen rushed to the building but weren’t allowed to go inside.It is always an ominous sign when a diplomatic mission starts destroying documents. This scene is reminiscent of a similar event that took place on December 7, 1941,...

The all-encompassing geopolitical, military, diplomatic, cultural and economic threat posed by the thuggish Chinese Communist Party represents America's generational challenge. Decades from now, historians will assess the rising generation based, in no small part, upon how we do in mitigating, confronting and ultimately thwarting the ambitions of a CCP that aspires to nothing less than nonpareil global hegemony. It is the one issue that ought to permeate every policy discussion and lurk in the background of every national-level decision. The idiosyncratic backdrop for this necessary reprioritization is, of course, a pandemic that likely represents the single-most disruptive global event since...

China is stepping up military preparedness to overtake Taiwan, the island’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said on Wednesday, following a recent spike of Chinese drills near the island which Beijing considers its own. Taiwan has complained that China has stepped up threatening military activities near Taiwan in recent months. Beijing has not renounced the use of force to bring the democratic island under its control. “Looking on the long-term trend, China appears to be gradually stepping up its military preparedness, especially in air or on the waters near Taiwan,” Wu told reporters. “What China is doing now is continuing to...

The U.S. and China are both escalating their military presence in the South China Sea. While the U.S. calls China's action "illegal," China says the United States' move is "provocative." The Global Times, a Chinese state-run daily news tabloid, reported Monday, July 20, of warnings by Beijing over what China calls provocative military escalations by the U.S. in the South China Sea. The tabloid, while not an official "mouthpiece" of the Chinese Communist government, is aligned with their viewpoints. The Global Times said, "If U.S. military provocations in the South China Sea persist, China could be left with no choice...

In an announcement on July 13, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo proclaimed, “Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them.”Pompeo remarked this policy shift, from the initial stance of neutrality to directly calling out Beijing’s intrusive behaviors, was necessary to uphold international law.The specific law in question stems from a 2016 UN tribunal ruling preventing China from bullying its neighbors and treating the South China Sea as its maritime empire. Beijing claims it owns the majority of the South China Sea, a...

CHINA ON MONDAY WARNED the U.S. not to conduct any further military escalation in the South China Sea as both countries dramatically ramp up the presence of their armed forces in the increasingly contested region. Days after the U.S. redeployed two aircraft carriers to the region in move seen as highly rare – and, to China, provocative – Chinese state media on Monday confirmed it had sent a brigade of aviation forces to two islands it administers in the contested Paracel Archipelago along with a series of warships. They plan to conduct "live-fire maritime target attack drills" in response to...

On July 16, 2020, Attorney General Bill Barr took Hollywood to task for its cozy relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. During a speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan Thursday, Attorney General Bill Barr went after Hollywood for capitulation to the Chinese Communist Party.... “Hollywood actors, producers, and directors pride themselves on celebrating freedom and the human spirit. And every year at the Academy Awards, Americans are lectured about how this country falls short of Hollywood’s ideals of social justice. But Hollywood now regularly censors its own movies to appease the Chinese Communist Party, the world’s most powerful violator of human...

China’s Ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, said America must make a “fundamental choice” about whether it can live peacefully with a “modernized, strong, prosperous” China. Earlier this week, it emerged that the White House is reportedly considering banning members of the Chinese Communist Party from entering the US, and on Thursday the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused America of oppressing and bullying China. In response to claims by some in the West that under President Xi Jinping, China has become more assertive, expansionist and repressive power, Cui said “people have to fully recognize the realities of today’s...

Editor's Note: This piece was co-authored by Ned Mamula.China unleashed COVID-19 on an unsuspecting world. It knew by early January 2020 (if not by December 2019 or earlier) that it was dealing with a vicious, fast-spreading disease in Wuhan, a city with more people than Chicago and New York City combined. But first it said nothing. Then it lied repeatedly, expelled foreign journalists, and threatened, silenced or “disappeared” Wuhan doctors who tried to warn the world. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) used its influence with the World Health Organization (WHO) to advance its false claims about the origins of the...

The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed new visa restrictions on employees of Chinese state-controlled tech firms, including tech giant Huawei, which the United States accuses of serving as a spy tool for the communist regime. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the restrictions would impact employees of Chinese technology firms that "provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights abuses globally." The measure will prevent certain employees of the company from traveling to the United States. "Telecommunications companies around the world should consider themselves on notice: If they are doing business with Huawei, they are doing business with human...

The governors of Texas and California, the nation’s two most populous states, recently reimposed coronavirus lockdowns despite falling death rates and health-care capacity far beyond hospitalization rates. Numerous other governors have delayed reopenings or reversed them in similar situations.Lockdowns are not necessary to prevent coronavirus deaths, since the current capacity for treating cases is far above what is needed and people are going to get this disease until there’s a cure. Further, lockdowns accelerate systemic weaknesses such as our national debt, poor education, large numbers of working-age men who do not work, failure to pay for decades of overspending at...

Amazon India will reportedly abide by new government requirements that all its products indicate where they were manufactured, reports indicated on Wednesday, a policy implemented following the surge of a national movement to boycott Chinese products.Indian activists organized boycott campaigns, protests, and burnings of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping in effigy after a clash last month in which Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers attacked Indian troops with rocks and sticks wrapped in barbed wire. The Indian soldiers had confronted the Chinese about their illegal presence in Chinese territory. Indian authorities confirmed the deaths of 20 soldiers, while the Chinese Communist...