Free Republic

You do not really know what arrogance is until you have seen tanks come snarling down your street. The sight does something to the heart and the mind that nothing else has the power to do. I know this because tanks did come down my Moscow street with evil intent one bright August morning in 1991, the spearhead of a KGB putsch that nobody then knew would fail. We - my Russian neighbours and I - stood unspeaking in helpless knots at the side of the road as the monsters, barrels slanting romantically in the sun, tore up the road...

LONDON – Defense analysts for the British intelligence service MI6 believe China is preparing for the "eventuality of a nuclear war." The conclusion follows evidence that Beijing has built secretly a major naval base deep inside caverns which even sophisticated satellites cannot penetrate, says a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. In an unusual development, the analysts have provided details to the specialist defense periodical, Jane's Intelligence Review, which published satellite images of the base location which is hidden beneath millions of tons of rock on the South China Sea island of Hainan. The MI6 analysts have confirmed the submarine...

dd India and Belgium to the list of countries worried about attacks coming from China. Officials from both countries warned the public over the past week that online attacks -- appearing to come from the People's Republic of China (PRC) -- have targeted their government networks. Unnamed Indian officials told the Times of India that almost daily probes have focused on mapping and scanning India's official networks over the past 18 months. The Justice Minister of Belgium warned that e-mail attacks, aimed at compromising government computers, appear to be coming from China, according to a United Press International report.

HONG KONG, May 2 (UPI) -- Russia will deliver to China four battalions of 200-kilometer-range S-300PMU2 surface-to-air missiles this summer, the last batch in a series ordered by China. The first batch of four battalions of the same missiles was delivered in July 2007. Starting in 1993, China received 12 battalions of S-300 SAMs, four of them S-300PMUs and eight S-300PMU1s. This means there are a total of 20 battalions of S-300 SAMs deployed in China. These missiles are expected to play a major role in China's core air defense system. These missiles now cover the whole of the Chinese...

Ideology matters again. The big development of recent years is the rise not only of great powers but also of the great-power autocracies of Russia and China. True realism about the international scene begins with understanding how this unanticipated shift will shape our world. Many believe that when Chinese and Russian leaders stopped believing in communism, they stopped believing in anything. They had become pragmatists, pursuing their own and their nation's interests. But Chinese and Russian rulers, like past rulers of autocracies, do have a set of beliefs that guide their domestic and foreign policies. They believe in the virtues...

Chinese nuclear submarines prompt 'new Cold War' warning By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent Last Updated: 5:30PM BST 02/05/2008 Tensions in the Far East could reach "Cold War levels" defence analysts warned, following evidence that China had secretly developed a major nuclear submarine base. Satellite photographs passed to The Daily Telegraph this week showed that the secret base at Sanya on Hainan island will house up to 20 of the latest 094 Jin-class nuclear ballistic submarines that could be capable of firing anti-satellite missiles and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. The construction showed that China was “ramping up its operational capability” and developing...

Some months ago, my contacts in the defense industry had alerted me to a startling development that has escalated to the point of near-panick in nearly all corners of Government security and IT infrastructure. The very-real concern, being investigated by the FBI, is that either the Chinese government or Chinese hackers (or both) have had the benefit of undetectable back-doors into highly secure government and military computer networks for months, perhaps years. The cause: a high-number of counterfeit Cisco routers and switches installed in nearly all government networks that experienced upgrades and/or new units within the past 18 months.

China's last Maoist collective, where villagers held out against capitalism, is to privatise after its prosperity was found to have rested on a mountain of hidden debt. While the rest of the country abandoned the commune, pursued personal fortunes and dismantled state industries, the village of Nanjie in central China renationalised its land, set up factories and paid all residents £20 a month. Villagers in military uniforms practise martial arts in front of a 30ft statue of Mao <><> Advertising was banned and instead, propaganda banners hung in streets which led to a 30ft statue of Mao built in 1993....

China's national offshore oil corporation declared it is willing to finalize talks with Iran on North Pars gas field. The company said it keeps holding talks with Iran's national gas company on a gas deal worth 16 billion dollars to put it into practice. The two companies signed a memorandum last year to expand gas reserves of the North Pars gas field where as the 16-billion dollar agreement was postponed to be signed through what called international sensitivities. Under the initial agreement on North Pars gas field contract, the Chinese company was to buy 10 million tons of Iran's liquefied...

U.S. Urges Kenyan Leaders to Fulfill Power Sharing Commitment Statement by Secretary Condoleezza Rice Washington, DC April 8, 2008 On April 7 I spoke separately by telephone with President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga to urge them to implement real power sharing by agreeing on the composition of their coalition cabinet. Both emphasized to me their strong commitment to do so. It is imperative that they form the cabinet without further delay and address the vitally important work of the nation. The United States and the entire international community stand ready to assist the coalition government and to...

BEIJING (AFP) - China bluntly told the world Olympics chief Thursday to keep out of politics, in a tart exchange on human rights following days of protests that have shadowed the Olympic torch around the world. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the Games were in "crisis" following the demonstrations, and urged China to respect its pledge to improve its rights record before the event begins in August. China fired back that Rogge should keep politics out of the Olympics, which Beijing hoped would showcase its much-touted "peaceful rise" to power -- but which have instead become a public...

A little lesson on the history of the Olympic torch relay: You might think, as I did before Tuesday, that it was a representation of everything that is good in all of us. That its history was lush with goodwill. Maybe you thought the relay dated back to the ancient Greeks, that it was a dramatic tribute to mythology. Prometheus stealing the fire from Zeus. Those of us who watched, as the torch was carried across the Cascades and into a high-school stadium in Wenatchee on the Fourth of July in 1984, felt inspired. Wasn't that what this relay was...

WASHINGTON - Prosecutors called Chi Mak the "perfect sleeper agent," though he hardly looked the part. For two decades, the bespectacled Chinese-born engineer lived quietly with his wife in a Los Angeles suburb, buying a house and holding a steady job with a U.S. defense contractor, which rewarded him with promotions and a security clearance. Colleagues remembered him as a hard worker who often took paperwork home at night. Eventually, Mak's job gave him access to sensitive plans for Navy ships, submarines and weapons. These he secretly copied and sent via courier to China -- fulfilling a mission that U.S....

The Internet must be open during the Beijing Olympics. That was the message a top-ranking International Olympic Committee official delivered Tuesday to Beijing organizers during the first of three days of meetings — the last official sessions between IOC inspectors and the Chinese hosts before the games begin in just over four months.

SECRET CABINET PAPERS How Kenya’s best kept secret became a hotbed of insurgents By John Kamau Dateline: Saturday, December 12, 1964. At around 3 pm, just as Kenya turned into a republic, the newly sworn-in President Jomo Kenyatta’s convoy drove from State House, Nairobi to the flag-decked Thika Road to officially open what he described as "Kenya’s best kept secret" and Jamhuri Day’s "big surprise" – the so-called Lumumba Institute. He didn’t know it was a communist school of politics designed to topple him. Forty years later, questions are still asked about how the new Vice President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga,...

With the Olympic torch relay in China heralding the beginning of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Chinese government faces daunting challenges in the wake of recent events, including ethnic minority independence protests, terrorism, and the international community?s threat to boycott the opening ceremony. With its official slogan for the Olympic Games, “One World, One Dream,” the Chinese government has aimed at emerging as a global powerhouse through the games. But ominous clouds have begun to gather over the Chinese government’s ambitions. Tight Security in Tiananmen Square The Chinese government has increased security in Tiananmen Square where the Olympic flame...

China floods the U.S. market with cheap goods, and we recoil in horror after discovering China's health standards and regulations do not meet what Americans consider are minimum requirements. Yet ours is a mock horror, for we continue to buy goods from a repressive nation that believes an individual is just another apparatus of the state. If an individual has a different view of his or her place in the universe, the state can put a bullet in the person's head and bill the slug to the victim's family. Welcome to the Hypocrisy Games, as set to be staged in...

China on Wednesday expressed its "grave concern and strong displeasure" over what the United States said was an accidental shipment of ballistic missile components to Taiwan. China has asked the United States "to thoroughly investigate this incident, and report their findings to the Chinese side in a timely, truthful and detailed manner," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement on the ministry's Web site. "We once again remind the United States to abide by the Sino-U.S. joint communique of August 17, and cease arm sales to Taiwan and contact with the Taiwanese military, in order to avoid damaging...

In 1936, The International Olympic Committee(IOC) put on one of the saddest propaganda displays in human history. They did this on behalf of a crazy despot who would go on to execute millions of people for not measuring up to the standards of an Aryan Superman master race. The 1936 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, served as a great coming out party for international fascism. It was a form of warfare before the first shots of WW II were ever fired. With Leni Riefenstahl panning the camera, the propaganda film Olympia hit the screens in 1938 to spread the false...

While the leftists in America see fascist and totalitarian boogeymen behind every badge a cop wears, they still call for socialism and communism to take root in America. There is no doubt that the anti-war movement is run by communist sympathizers.

EU parliament Pres. says Olympics boycott should be considered By DPA and Haaretz Service Tags: Hans-Gert Poettering, China A boycott of this summer's Beijing Olympic Games should be considered if China does not re-evaluate its actions in Tibet, the president of the European Parliament said in an interview to be published in a German newspaper on Sunday. "Beijing must decide. It must negotiate with the Dalai Lama immediately," Hans-Gert Poettering told the mass circulation Bild newspaper. Poettering added that boycott measures were justified, if there was no attempt at reconciling the differences. "We should not exclude the possibility of a...

BEIJING (AFP) - China turned its back Saturday on appeals for dialogue with the Dalai Lama, vowing to smash anti-China forces in Tibet, where it said the death toll from recent unrest had risen to 19. A day after Beijing launched a manhunt for monks and others it blamed for violence in Tibet, an editorial in the People's Daily, mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist party, said opposition to Chinese rule in the Himalayan region must be wiped out.

BEIJING (AP) - The communist government's leading newspaper called Saturday to "resolutely crush" Tibetan demonstrations against Chinese rule. The statement came as international criticism against the crackdown on Tibetan protesters swelled. A senior EU official said European countries should not rule out threatening China with an Olympic boycott if violence continues in Tibet. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi also joined the growing chorus of critics. Fighting back against the criticism, Beijing has begun releasing tallies of statements of support from foreign governments and trying to get its version of events before the international...

Following are first-hand accounts from people who spoke to RFA on Tuesday, March 18, through Thursday, March 20, 2008, in which they notably report spreading protests and a sharply increased police and troop presence. For security reasons, we do not identify some of our sources by name in order to protect them from retaliation. "On March 20, Chinese security forces arrived in the town of Kiku in Serthar (Seda, in Chinese) county. There were about 1,000 of them. They tried to pull down the Tibetan flag that had been raised by protestors at the town headquarters building on the 17th,...

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China said it had details of two dozen foreign reporters who were expelled from Lhasa and other Tibetan areas. Some reporters were told they were barred due to police action,

As Tibetans -- led by Buddhist monks -- rioted in the capital city of Lhasa, burning Chinese-owned businesses and attacking Chinese, Beijing clamped down on YouTube and other media outlets depicting the violence. The trouble began a week ago, when Buddhist monks demonstrated peacefully March 10 on the anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 that culminated in the Dalai Lama and most of the leading Buddhist monks in Tibet fleeing into exile. Friday, things went sour, with anti-Chinese violence erupting. Access to YouTube was blocked after about 20 videos of the violence in Tibet were shown...

BEIJING: Chinese officials have declared a 'people's war' of security and propaganda against support for the Dalai Lama in Tibet after riots racked the regional capital Lhasa, and some sources claimed the turmoil killed dozens. Residents of the remote city high in the Himalayas said on Sunday that anti-riot troops controlled the streets and were closely checking Tibetan homes after protests and looting shook the heavily Buddhist region. Two days ago Tibetan protesters, some in Buddhist monks' robes and some yelling pro-independence slogans, trashed shops, attacked banks and government offices and wielded stones and knives against police. China has said...

BEIJING (AP) ― The blocking added to the communist government's efforts to control what the public saw and heard about protests that erupted Friday in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, against Chinese rule. Access to YouTube.com, usually readily available in China, was blocked after videos appeared on the site Saturday showing foreign news reports about the Lhasa demonstrations, montages of photos and scenes from Tibet-related protests abroad. There were no protest scenes posted on China-based video Web sites such as 56.com, youku.com and tudou.com. The Chinese government has not commented on its move to prevent access to YouTube. Internet users trying...

'Eighty killed' in Tibetan unrest Sunday, 16 March 2008 At least 80 people have been killed in unrest following protests by Tibetans against Chinese rule, the Tibetan government in exile says. Indian-based officials said the figure was confirmed by several sources, even though China put the death toll at 10. The Dalai Lama called for an international inquiry into China's crackdown, accusing it of a "rule of terror" and "cultural genocide". Chinese troops were out in force in Lhasa, Tibet's main city, on Sunday. Hong Kong Cable TV reported that about 200 military vehicles, each carrying 40 to 60 armed...

Looking at images of the 1936 Nazi olympics we can't help but ask ourselves what they were thinking. Today we have a similar situation brewing with the 2008 communist Olympics in Beijing. A land where christians are persecuted, democracy protesters are crushed with tanks and tibetans are ethnically cleansed. They have been awarded the olympics what can we do about it? Do you want your kids and grandkids to see pictures like this and ask what you did to oppose it? It's beginning:Britain kow tows to China as athletes are forced to sign no criticism contracts China has no freedom...

SHANGHAI, March 15 (Reuters) - China's carefully controlled media may have remained largely silent on the unrest in Tibet, but a look at Chinese blogs reveals a vitriolic outpouring of anger and nationalism directed against Tibetans and the West. On Saturday, a rash of angry blog posts appeared after China confirmed deaths in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and U.S. actor Richard Gere called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics should the authorities mishandle the protests. Many blamed the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, for inciting the riots. The view was echoed by...

The latest Pentagon report on China is a sobering tale of advancing capability and agression intentions inside Beijing. The report also illustrates newly developed weapons being fielded by the Chinese military based in part on advanced technology exported by the United States. "China has the most active ballistic missile program in the world. It is developing and testing offensive missiles, forming additional missile units, qualitatively upgrading certain missile systems, and developing methods to counter ballistic missile defenses," notes the 2008 Defense Department report. "By November 2007, the PLA had deployed between 990 and 1,070 CSS-6 and CSS-7 short range ballistic...

'100 Dead' In Anti-China Protests In Tibet By Sky News SkyNews - 9 minutes agoChina has locked down the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and set a deadline for rioters to surrender following the worst violence in 20 years. Beijing said that 10 people had been burnt to death during a day of unrest, while Tibet's government-in-exile in India warned that the number could be much higher. In a statement from its northern India base, it said: "We have unconfirmed reports about 100 people had been killed and martial law imposed in Lhasa." The government said it was "deeply concerned" by...

One of the largest markets in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, is in flames and at least one police car has been burnt as angry monks and Tibetans clash with police today. The surge of violence follows almost a week of demonstrations by lamas from monasteries around the Tibetan capital, who have been demanding greater freedom of religion before the Olympic Games as well as independence for the deeply Buddhist Himalayan region.

Inside the Ring March 7, 2008 By Bill Gertz - China missiles One little-noticed intelligence disclosure contained in the Pentagon's annual report on Chinese military power says China now has ballistic missiles designed to hit U.S. aircraft carriers and ships at sea. The missiles are described in the report as part of China's "anti-access/area denial capabilities" that include "anti-ship ballistic missiles designed to strike ships at sea, including aircraft carriers." Using a ballistic missile to target ships requires a degree of sophistication not shown by Chinese missiles in the past, and indicates China's military has mastered precision missile targeting, no...

(BEIJING) — China's official Communist Party mouthpiece on Thursday said a Pentagon report exaggerated Chinese military capabilities to justify US sales of military hardware to Beijing's rival Taiwan. "The report maliciously exaggerates China's ability to wage computer warfare and its space capabilities," said a commentary in the People's Daily news headlined, "An Outmoded Report." "These reports by the US Defence Department have been used in the past as a pretext to justify continued weapons sales to Taiwan," it said. The editorial marked the latest salvo in a verbal tit-for-tat since the Pentagon report earlier this week expressed a range of...

As Communist Party elites hobnob in Beijing this week, the one-child policy has become a dangerous liability for current -- and future -- political leaders. So why not get rid of it? The reasons the policy is still around go to the heart of the government's flawed decision-making process. ... The top brass worry that if they were to relax the policy -- for example by switching to a two-child policy -- the ensuing flood of babies would overwhelm schools and hospitals, threatening the stability on which they have built their rule. Then there's the loss of face, not to...

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2008 – China not only is a rising international economic power, but also is a rising military power with new and developing capabilities that have global implications, according to the 2008 China Military Power Report released today. David Sedney, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, announces the release to Congress of the 2008 Defense Department Report on the Military Power of the People's Republic of China, during a March 3, 2008, Pentagon news conference. Photo by R.D. Ward  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The annual report mandated by Congress analyzes China’s military development...

Chinese Submarine Fleet Is Growing, Analysts Say By DAVID LAGUE BEIJING — Several recent events, from an eagle-eyed spotting of an image on Google Earth to an overt military delivery from Russia, suggest that China is continuing its rapid expansion of a submarine fleet that would be particularly useful in a conflict with the United States over Taiwan, analysts and military officials said. American and other Western military analysts estimate that China has more than 30 advanced and increasingly stealthy submarines, and dozens of older, obsolete types. By the end of the decade, they say, China will have more submarines...

China irate as US shoots down satellite By Demetri Sevastopulo in Honolulu Published: February 21 2008 18:28 | Last updated: February 22 2008 00:21 The US navy destroyed a decaying spy satellite that was falling to earth with potentially hazardous fuel on Thursday, prompting accusations of double standards from China. On Wednesday afternoon in the northwest Pacific, an Aegis warship fired a missile that intercepted the satellite 247km up in space. The USS Lake Erie launched the missile shortly after Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, arrived in Hawaii en route to Australia. Mr Gates said the operation appeared to...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US grocery chain Trader Joe's said Monday it would stop selling food imported from China due to customers' concerns about the products' safety. "Our customers have voiced concerns about products from this region and we have listened," Trader Joe's spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki said in a statement. "All single ingredient food items sourced from mainland China are scheduled to be out of our stores by April 1," she said. "We will continue to source products from other regions until our customers feel as confident as we do about the quality and safety of Chinese products."

And the Chinese government, rattled by the possibility of public criticism from Olympians, has been applying crude pressure to the international community to keep quiet. "If at each Olympics people stood up and used politics to attack the host nation, where does that leave the Olympic spirit?" argued the official newspaper, The People's Daily, last month. This idea that to criticise totalitarianism is a breach of the Olympic spirit is as wretched a perversion of logic as even the Nazis ever attempted.

British Olympic chiefs are to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China's appalling human rights record – or face being banned from travelling to Beijing. The move – which raises the spectre of the order given to the England football team to give a Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938 – immediately provoked a storm of protest. The controversial clause has been inserted into athletes' contracts for the first time and forbids them from making any political comment about countries staging the Olympic Games. It is contained in a 32-page document that will be...

British athletes who want to compete in the summer Olympics will be required to sign a contract promising not to make statements critical of the communist regime's human rights record or they will not be permitted to travel to China, according to a 32-page document prepared by the British Olympic Association. "There are all sorts of organizations who would like athletes to use the Olympic Games as a vehicle to publicize their causes," Simon Clegg, BOA's chief executive, told the London Daily Mail. "I don't believe that is in the interest of the team performance. As a team we are...

British athletes will be banned from competing in this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing if they criticise China's totalitarian regime. The gagging order has been imposed by the British Olympic Association. Competitors who break the rule will not travel to the games or, if they are already in China, will be put on the next plane home. It means sportsmen and women will be unable to raise concerns about China's human rights record or its occupation of Tibet. Critics accused the BOA of bowing to political pressure and said that the move raised the spectre of the 1936 Berlin Olympics,...

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 - The United States is worried that Russia, China and OPEC oil-producing countries could use their growing financial clout to advance political goals, the top U.S. spy chief told Congress on Tuesday. Such economic matters joined terrorism, nuclear proliferation and computer-network vulnerabilities as top U.S. security threats described by National Director of Intelligence Michael McConnell in an annual assessment.

BEIJING — A huge state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company that exports to dozens of countries, including the United States, is at the center of a nationwide drug scandal after nearly 200 Chinese cancer patients were paralyzed or otherwise harmed last summer by contaminated leukemia drugs. Chinese drug regulators have accused the manufacturer of the tainted drugs of a cover-up and have closed the factory that produced them. In December, China’s Food and Drug Administration said that the Shanghai police had begun a criminal investigation and that two officials, including the head of the plant, had been detained. The drug maker, Shanghai...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said Monday it was "troubling" that China's weapons systems capability exceeded the level Beijing defined as necessary for self-defense. The head of the US armed forces in the Asia-Pacific, Admiral Timothy Keating, said he was told by Chinese leaders during a visit to Beijing that its so-called "area denial weapons" were "to protect those things that are ours." But he said, "we find it troubling that the capabilities of some of these weapons systems would tend to exceed our own expectations for protecting those things that are 'ours.'"

WASHINGTON -- China is modernizing its military in ways that give it options for launching surprise attacks, potentially far from its borders, the Pentagon said Friday.

In the last 34 years of his life, in London, Dr. Karl Marx kept scribbling his huge three-volume “Das Kapital” (he had a doctor’s degree in the humanities), and only Friedrich Engels, a businessman working in his father’s textile firm, kept saving Dr. Marx and his family from starvation. “Das Kapital” is huge, but its three volumes can be summed up in two paragraphs: (1) The poor (like Dr. Marx) are poor because the rich (like Engels and his father) rob them of part of their earnings. In the case of Engels and Marx, this was not so, but Dr....