Free Republic

The United States does not have a coherent strategy to deal with a rising People's Republic of China in the Western Pacific. Nor do foreign policy experts specializing in the Asia-Pacific region have a concrete set of ideas to coax an increasingly assertive Beijing into accepting the U.S.-led post-Second World War liberal-institutional world order or to reassert Washington's dominance in the region. It is becoming increasingly clear that China hopes to chart its own course independent of the existing Western frameworks as Beijing reaffirms its claims to the South China Sea and continues to build artificial islands in the region,...

BEIJING --- Photos about the progress of China's first home-made aircraft carrier were revealed online again lately. Britain's Jane's Defence Weekly claimed that the carrier island is already lifted in place, a milestone before China's second aircraft carrier enters water. Military expert Cao Weidong said in an interview that China's first home-made aircraft carrier is likely to have Active Phased Array Radar (APAR) and can carry 40-50 aircraft of various types at most. Laser weapon will probably find its way to future carriers and large vessels too. According to Cao, carrier island installation is the last step of building the...

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte plunged one of the United States' most important Asian alliances deeper into uncertainty on Wednesday by declaring upcoming U.S.-Philippines military exercises "the last," and ruling out any joint navy patrols.

Full Title: Frank Gaffney on Obama’s Attempt to Slip Irreversible Internet Surrender Under the Radar: ‘We’ve Got THREE DAYS to Fix This" Center President and founder Frank Gaffney joined Breitbart News Daily with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Tuesday to offer his thoughts on the first presidential debate and a vitally important topic that was not addressed, the impending surrender of U.S. control of Internet registration. Registration. Hillary Clinton made the case – I think pretty well, actually – for more of the same, and if you really want more of the same, whether it’s in immigration, whether it’s in...

The White House has barred Pentagon leaders from a key talking point when it comes to publicly describing the military challenges posed by China. In February, Defense Secretary Ash Carter cited the "return to great power of competition" in the Asia-Pacific, "where China is rising." Similarly, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson characterized China and Russia as rivals in this "great power competition" in his maritime strategy. But a recent directive from the National Security Council ordered Pentagon leaders to strike out that phrase and find something less inflammatory, according to four officials familiar with the classified document, revealed...

Cruz and Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., introduced the Protecting Internet Freedom Act in June to prevent the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an agency of the Commerce Department, from allowing an ICANN-related contract to expire at the end of this month. The internet, an “oasis of freedom,” could become much less free if the United States doesn’t keep guardianship over it, Sen. Ted Cruz said Wednesday during a hearing on Capitol Hill. “The internet is one of the most revolutionary forces ever unleashed on the world,” Cruz, R-Texas, said during the Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing. “People even meet and get...

The rooms where ruddy-faced Chinese men and women once assembled to pray in Hebrew and Mandarin are silent. Signs and exhibits that celebrated centuries of Jewish life have disappeared. An ancient well, believed to be the last visible remnant of a long-demolished synagogue, was recently buried under concrete and a pile of earth.. After locking down Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and tearing down church crosses in eastern China, President Xi Jinping’s campaign against unapproved religion and foreign influence has turned to an unlikely adversary: a small group of Jews whose ancestors settled in this now faded imperial city near the...

Please brace for just one thick sentence: ICANN's power is mainly legal, and a contract with ICANN could trigger a violent dispute over international law. ~ ~ ~ Bluntly stated: giving away ICANN could ultimately trigger a cyber war or worse. ~ ~ ~ Raw Power and International Law When you face a super power like the USA it helps to have raw power. China probably assumes it will not come to that, but just like nuclear deterence, they need the war-making capability. And the Chinese already enjoy raw power. Their encryption is superior, their nuclear capability suffices, and they...

North Korea's new rocket engine too powerful for ICBMs, analyst says By Elizabeth Shim Contact the Author | Sept. 23, 2016 at 11:41 AM SEOUL, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- A North Korean rocket engine Pyongyang tested earlier this week may be too powerful for the country's intercontinental ballistic missiles, raising speculations it could be used for space development. Writing on 38 North, a Johns Hopkins University website dedicated to North Korea issues, analyst John Schilling said, "Given the size of the engine, they probably aren't going to build an intercontinental ballistic missile with it." /snip "China's space launch vehicles, and...

Bruce Stokes of the Pew Research Center based in Washington, DC, was in Delhi for a series of talks. He presented results of opinion polls that offer an interesting insight into the contemporary American mind Every leap year, the United States presidential election becomes the most watched such event in the world. The quantum of coverage only grows with each successive election, as media and social media capacities expand worldwide. Yet, this year the election has acquired a special significance due to a mix of factors. First, there are the compelling personalities -- in their own ways, Donald Trump and...

A key player of the Obama administration’s internet giveaway was unable to offer a straight answer about how the organization that handles the system’s road map would be run, or whether or not it would be moved outside of the United States. At a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing about the proposed internet giveaway at the end of the month, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas (A, 97%) confronted Goran Marby, president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is responsible for maintaining the internet’s address systems. In a particularly tense exchange with Marby, the ICANN chief...

The 28-year-old only son of China’s richest man, Wang Jianlin who is worth £23 billion, has just set the internet on fire after he bought his dog, Coco – an Alaskan Malamute, eight iPhone 7 handsets. According to a Dailymail, pictures emerged on China’s social media showing the lucky canine posing next to a stack of eight boxes believed to contain a £800 phone in each which its eccentric owner, Wang Sicong, who was educated at Winchester College in UK bought for her. The new photos were uploaded by Wang Sicong who is already worth £430 million to the dog’s...

They were two powerful, ancient empires separated by more than 5,000 miles of imposing mountain ranges, barren desert and exposed steppe grasslands. Yet a collection of seemingly unremarkable bones discovered in a Roman cemetery in London has provided new insights into the links between the Roman Empire and Imperial China. Analysis has revealed that two skeletons dating from between the 2nd and 4th Century AD unearthed at the site in the city's Southwark area may have been Chinese.

[A number of hard-hitting snippets] ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé stated in his opening remarks, “China is going to be a central part of where the Internet community, as we know it, is heading. [snip] In addition, ICANN announced during the meeting that it would open its first global engagement office in Beijing [snip] Honorary Chairman of CNNIC’s Steering Committee stated that the “ICANN Engagement Center-Beijing would be not only a new link for ICANN to better develop and promote China's Internet community, but also a new platform for China's Internet community to better contribute to the development of the global...

"The girl's parents had become increasingly concerned about her behavior after she dropped out of school. On the suggestion of an aunt, they decided to send their daughter to the camp, which claims to have cured 7,000 children of Internet addiction in the past two decades."

Chinese “depreciation” and all its ensuing hysteria occurred just about a year ago. It has also been a about a year since I co-wrote a book on China with Worth Wray titled A Great Leap Forward? The title was meant to be ironic. The original Great Leap Forward was imposed by Mao in the 1960s. It was one of the most economically disastrous times in Chinese history. Food production increased, yet 30 million people starved. China underwent a true financial and economic crisis due to the insanity of central control of markets. China now attempts something that is as powerful...

There are real limits on the amount of AI acceptable to navy commanders.With rising security challenges in the global commons, there is growing interest in the subject of “intelligent” weapons systems. This is especially so in the maritime realm, where recent studies have shown that precision-guided weaponry and networked systems are likely to play an increasingly important role. Even while accepting autonomous systems as the future of maritime warfare, however, many find the subject of “intelligent weapon systems” to be deeply contentious. A good point of departure for the discussion on autonomous combat systems is a recent report in the...

US President Barack Obama was told of the alleged murder of British businessman Neil Heywood before foreign secretary William Hague. The president was briefed about the 41-year-old's suspected poisoning within hours of Chinese police chief Wang Lijun walking into a US consulate to tell officials he was murdered. The decision to inform the President so soon after the killing of a British citizen overseas so soon after it happened was described as 'almost unprecedented'. John Tkacik, who worked for the US state department in China for 20 years told The Sunday Telegraph: 'This was a very high official with extraordinary...

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who was allowed to travel to the U.S. after escaping from house arrest, said Monday that New York University is forcing him and his family to leave at the end of this month because of pressure from the Chinese government. The university denied Chen’s allegations. Chen said in a statement that China’s Communist Party had been applying “great, unrelenting pressure” on NYU to ask him to leave, though he did not provide details or evidence to back his claim. Chen said Beijing’s authoritarian government has more influence on the American academic community than is perceived. “The...

Fearful Final Hours for Briton in China The day before his death in the fog-shrouded Chinese city of Chongqing, Neil Heywood sensed that something was amiss. The British businessman had been summoned on short notice to a meeting in Chongqing in early November with representatives of the family of Bo Xilai, the local Communist Party chief, according to an account by a friend whom Mr. Heywood contacted at the time. Mr. Heywood told the friend he was "in trouble." After he flew to Chongqing, he tried to telephone his usual contacts but couldn't get through to any of them, according...