Free Republic

Four years ago, one of China’s largest agricultural importers sent representatives to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., hoping that meetings with elite party officials might yield business opportunities. The company, the Dandong Port Group, was particularly focused on the governors in attendance, according to an interview with Dandong’s general counsel broadcast by Chinese state television. But now, the company’s widening influence is coming under scrutiny by federal prosecutors, who are examining the relationship between Dandong’s wealthy and connected chairman, Wang Wenliang, and Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, a Democrat who was elected in 2013. A federal law enforcement...

Scientists conducted tests on ancient pottery jars and funnels found at the Mijiaya archaeological site in China’s Shaanxi province. The analyses revealed traces of oxalate — a beer-making byproduct that forms a scale called “beerstone” in brewing equipment — as well as residues from a variety of ancient grains and plants. These grains included broomcorn millets, an Asian wild grain known as “Job’s tears,” tubers from plant roots, and barley. Barley is used to make beer because it has high levels of amylase enzymes that promote the conversion of starches into sugars during the fermenting process. It was first cultivated...

Chinese banks sitting on $1.7 trillion debt time bomb by business reporter Stephen Letts Chinese banks are looking down the barrel of a staggering RMB 8 trillion - or $1.7 trillion - worth of losses according to the French investment bank Societe Generale. Put another way, 60 per cent of capital in China's banks is at risk as authorities start the delicate and dangerous process of reining in the debt-bloated and unprofitable state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector. Disturbingly though, debt is not only not shrinking, it is accelerating, making the eventual reckoning far worse. China's overall non-financial debt grew by 15.2...

If China begins to reclaim and militarize Scarborough Shoal, says Philippines President Benigno S. Aquino III, America must fight. Should we back down, says Aquino, the United States will lose "its moral ascendancy, and also the confidence of one of its allies." And what is Scarborough Shoal? A cluster of rocks and reefs, 123 miles west of Subic Bay, that sits astride the passageway out of the South China Sea into the Pacific, and is well within Manila's 200-mile exclusive economic zone. Beijing and Manila both claim Scarborough Shoal. But, in June 2013, Chinese ships swarmed and chased off a...

Close Clinton operative Terry McAuliffe is under federal investigation for campaign contributions from a Chinese billionaire who has also donated $2 million to the Clinton Foundation. From CNN: Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and prosecutors from the Justice Department’s public integrity unit, U.S. officials briefed on the probe say. As part of the probe, the officials said, investigators have scrutinized McAuliffe’s time as a board member of the Clinton Global Initiative, a vehicle of the charitable foundation set up by former President Bill Clinton. There’s no allegation that the foundation...

Explanation: Why is there more matter than antimatter in the Universe? To better understand this facet of basic physics, energy departments in China and the USA led in the creation of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. Located under thick rock about 50 kilometers northeast of Hong Kong, China, eight Daya Bay detectors monitor antineutrinos emitted by six nearby nuclear reactors. Featured here, a camera looks along one of the Daya Bay detectors, imaging photon sensors that pick up faint light emitted by antineutrinos interacting with fluids in the detector. Early results indicate an unexpectedly high rate of one type...

President Obama is visiting Vietnam today and paused for a picture with communist party President Tran Dai Quang in front of a bust of Ho Chi Minh. Perhaps it’s just me, but given the nature of the diplomatic relationship this specific optic seems rather inappropriate.

....Obama has announced that the United States is fully lifting the ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam, which has been in place for decades. In a joint news conference with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, Obama said that the removal of the ban on lethal weapons w

Despite China signaling moves to cut its excess steel production capacity, industry chiefs say the country has declared a metals "war" that has had a "devastating" impact for the rest of the world's industry.

In a move that is raising concerns among some Vietnam War veterans, President Obama will discuss selling more U.S. arms to Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam that began Sunday night. Top White House advisers said Mr. Obama hasn’t made a decision whether to lift the partial U.S. embargo on sending military equipment to Vietnam, where more than 58,200 U.S. soldiers were killed before the fall of Saigon in 1975. But the administration sees advantages in easing the embargo, both as a warning to expansionist China and as leverage to compel the communist regime in Hanoi to improve its record...

China produces more than 820 million tons of steel per year, of which about 100 million tons are exported and sold at a discount overseas. Only about 3 percent of those exports go to the United States, but American steel producers bristle at the competition. So in keeping with the time-honored practice of the US steel industry — "the backbone of American manufacturing," as it proudly calls itself — domestic producers are rising to the challenge.Are they doing so by making their operations more efficient? By improving the quality of the steel they sell? By cutting their prices to maintain market...

N.Koreans Toil for Global Clothing Labels in China North Korean workers are toiling for Chinese factories that make clothes for global labels like Ralph Lauren and Burberry, Radio Free Asia reported Wednesday. One of their employers is Mei Dao Garment in Hebei Province, a source told the radio station. Mei Dao first employed 54 North Korean workers via a North Korean trading company from January to July 2012. In April last year it also established another firm in Dandong, Miryong Garment, as a joint venture with another North Korean company. Mei Dao now employs hundreds of North Koreans, according to...

The Pentagon’s latest annual report on Chinese military developments mainly deals with non-nuclear issues, but it also contains important new information about developments in China’s nuclear forces. This includes: The size of China’s ICBM force has been relatively stable over the past five years China has deployed a new version of a medium-range ballistic missile A new intermediate-range ballistic missile is not yet deployed China’s SSBN fleet has yet to conduct its first deterrent patrol The possibility of nuclear capability for Chinese bombers Changes (or not) to Chinese nuclear policy ICBM Developments The future development of China’s ICBM force has...

China's foreign ministry has denied reports that Chinese food companies are canning human flesh and selling it in Africa as corned beef. The country's state-run Xinhua news agency said one tabloid newspaper in Zambia was falsely quoting an unnamed woman living in China. She said Chinese firms were collecting dead human bodies, marinating them and packing them in tins. Chinese spokesman Hong Lei said the reports were "irresponsible".

China’s financial system The coming debt bust It is a question of when, not if, real trouble will hit in China May 7th 2016 | From the print edition Timekeeper CHINA was right to turn on the credit taps to prop up growth after the global financial crisis. It was wrong not to turn them off again. The country’s debt has increased just as quickly over the past two years as in the two years after the 2008 crunch. Its debt-to-GDP ratio has soared from 150% to nearly 260% over a decade, the kind of surge that is usually followed...

In 2013, China Labor Watch (CLW) began investigating the labor conditions of workers at Pegatron Corporation factories in China making products for Apple... This year, CLW collected 1,261 pay stubs from Pegatron Shanghai workers, 13 times as many as stubs as last year. The documents were gathered with the assistance of 18 Pegatron workers coming from 12 departments... 1) Workers are paid at a rate of 1.82 USD/hour. 2) On average, overtime pay as a percentage of workers’ gross wages is 42.4%. 3) Workers work more than 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. 83.8% workers’ monthly overtime hours...

US House blocks aid to duplicitous Pakistan The US House of Representatives' decision to incorporate stringent requirements for the release of American aid to Pakistan, even in the face of opposition from the White House, is indicative of a gradual change of heart in Washington, DC, towards what was once its frontline ally in the war on terror. It comes days after the US Congress objected to the sale of American F-16s, which have little value in fighting insurgents but help Pakistan build parity with India. This is not to suggest that the US is anywhere close to changing its...

There "IS" movement in My rest, Though you are at peace you wear My Best, The fullness of My Spirit moving in you, Accomplishing The Father's will in all you say and do, Step by step each jot and tittle performed, For in "My rest" you are Re-born, Into My peace bearing the fruit of Tranquility, For each step you now take is an image of Me in the shape of My Kingdom and Majesty, So all others see is me in you , For no other shape has the ability of My will to say and do, The form...

Chinese officials have issued an angry denial following claims the country has been marinating human cadavers, putting them in cans and then selling them in African supermarkets. The outlandish rumour appears to have been started on Facebook, where a post featuring grisly images, supposedly of human meat being processed, went viral earlier this month. The post was picked up by Zambia’s Daily Post, among others, which published a report saying: “One cannot deny the possibilities (sic) of this being true since we all know that the Asians are among the largest population in the entire world. “Since China is so...

Are American diplomats trying to subvert the Chinese government by answering questions on how to set up a food truck in the U.S. or buy cheap Broadway tickets? An online public outreach effort by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing was abruptly shut down this week in a case that analysts said highlights Beijing’s anxieties over “Western values” – as well as the suggestion that Washington may be a bit too skilled at soft power for its own good. “The U.S. considers this as a cultural outreach or promoting cultural understanding,” he said. “But Beijing sees this, I think, as an...