Free Republic

snip "In a first-ever joint appearance Wednesday with the director of Britain’s MI5, the U.K.’s domestic intelligence agency, Wray raised the possibility that China might be inching closer to invading Taiwan, noting that Beijing has been taking steps to shield its economy from sanctions that would come after such a move." snip “The widespread Western assumption that growing prosperity within China and increasing connectivity with the West would automatically lead to greater political freedom has been shown to be plain wrong,” McCallum said. “But the Chinese Communist Party is interested in our democratic, media and legal systems. Not to emulate...

Why can't I find a supporting video of "Uncle Joe" telling us to "Gird Our Loins?" Is "loins" now censored? Trying to research this and hit a brick wall. Thanks to anyone that can reply and help.

Two Chinese J-10 fighter jets with air-to-air missiles under its wings flew within 200 yards of a U.S. Navy P-3 surveillance plane approximately 150 miles southeast of Hong Kong this week, a U.S. defense official told Fox News on Friday. The official said the Chinese fighter jets were “unsafe” in their actions toward the U.S. reconnaissance plane in international airspace Wednesday. One of the Chinese jets flew out in front of the Navy plane before conducting a series of slow turns which the American crew considered unsafe, the official added.

Third Eye Blind taunted Republicans Tuesday night in a charity concert at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland during the party's convention, and a frustrated audience responded with persistent boos. "@ThirdEyeBlind I have never been more disappointed," Twitter user Liza White tweeted. And in a single tweet the band indicated that they didn't care, tweeting, "good." Jenkins wrote an op-ed in the Huffington Post in 2012 titled, "Why We Aren't Playing at the RNC," announcing that the band declined an offer to perform a private party at the GOP convention in Tampa that year, because, "They are...

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...

Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan due to pressure from China. Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. However it is a member of the Asian Development Bank under the name of Taipei, China. China views Taiwan as a renegade province and has not ruled out the use of force to bring it under its control. However, since Taiwan's current president Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, enmity has declined considerably and the two sides have signed a number of trade and investment deals. The AIIB...

...“As in every movement, the more mistakes the government makes, the more chances we have to get support from the general public,” Wong said in an interview during his week-long visit to Los Angeles. He was invited here by UCLA to take part in a seminar on democracy movements. Wong, a co-founder of the student protest group Scholarism, became possibly the best-known face of the so-called umbrella protests that brought parts of Hong Kong to a standstill for nearly three months last year. For Wong, the election protests were only the latest chapter in a youth spent organizing on Hong...

A couple have told Sky News how they were physically forced into an abortion by the Chinese authorities, three months before their child was due to be born... ...The officials kicked down the door of the family's home. Mr Zhou was held down while his wife was pulled from her bed and taken away... ...We found his wife lying in the bed she had been taken from a week earlier. She was sobbing quietly. "I miss him." she said.

WACO (September 16, 2013)--A man who tried to eat a family’s dog after a bad trip on a synthetic marijuana drug pleaded guilty Monday to animal cruelty charges. Michael Terron Daniel, 22, elected to have his punishment decided by a jury and panel selection is set to begin Tuesday morning in 19th District Court. Daniel pleaded guilty Monday to cruelty to a non-livestock animal in a bizarre incident on June 14, 2012, when a man who claimed to be on the synthetic drug K-2 chased a neighbor while barking and growling like a dog and then attacked the dog, which...

One of the more controversial schemes of the Rumsfeld-era Pentagon was the Prompt Global Strike: equipping ICMSs with conventional warheads, and using the missiles to strike any target around the world -- such as terrorists fleeing the scene of an attack -- within an hour; there was only one problem with the plan: the missile launch could start a Third World War because, as a congressional; study said: "For many minutes during their flight patterns, these missiles might appear to be headed towards targets in [Russia and China}" The Obama administration is about to take up one of the more...

Obama urges Burma to free Suu Kyi US President Barack Obama has urged Burma's prime minister to release the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Mr Obama delivered the message as he met leaders of the Asean grouping of south-east Asian nations in Singapore.

BEIJING, March 2 – A Chinese art collector identified himself on Monday as the winning bidder in last week’s Paris auction for two sculptures looted from Beijing in the 1800s but said that, as a patriot, he had no intention of paying. Christie’s, which had triggered Chinese anger by holding the sale, would not say what action it would take against the bidder, only that the bronze sculptures of the heads of a rat and a rabbit would not be released until it had been paid. Cai Mingchao, a collector and adviser to a private foundation in China that seeks...

Chinese security forces are putting pressure on angry parents to abandon demands for a full investigation into why so many schools collapsed in the May earthquake in Sichuan province and have rounded up human rights workers in the earthquake-ravaged region. In tent cities that have sprung up throughout the region, soldiers carrying batons patrol the streets and security agents and police have stepped up efforts to muzzle any sign of “social instability”. An atmosphere of anxiety reigns among the parents of children killed in school collapses in the towns of Mianzhu and Dujiangyan as government and security officials apply increasing...

Christian Dior, the French fashion brand, has become the latest global company to learn a hard lesson about the danger of offending Chinese sensitivities. Facing the possibility of a boycott of its products, the luxury company said Thursday that it had dropped the American actress Sharon Stone from its advertising in China after she suggested last week that the recent earthquakes in Sichuan Province were karmic retribution for Beijing’s treatment of Tibet.

Taiwan will make yet another attempt to become a member of the United Nations on Wednesday. A key UN committee will decide whether to even allow a debate on Taiwan's application to take place. But the request is likely to be defeated, just as the island's 14 previous attempts have been. Taiwan has long sought recognition as a UN member in its own right but China, which still claims Taiwan as a province, is fiercely opposed to this. The dispute goes back to 1949 when Taiwan and China split amid civil war. Demonstrations Taiwan became the stronghold of the nationalists,...

English language experts say that, with the 2008 Olympics less than 500 days away, there is still a long way to go before standard English translations of the names of dishes and drinks sold in Beijing restaurants can be finalized. Garbled and misleading English signs in tourist spots have long confused English speakers in Beijing. Problems range from obscure abbreviations, word-for-word translations of Chinese characters into English, improper omissions and misspellings. But what confuses them even more are English menus in Beijing restaurants. However, not everyone agrees with the need to standardize everything. "Weird and wonderful English on Beijing menus...

Changfeng Motor Company, China’s largest maker of SUVs, in 2007 becomes the country's first automaker to exhibit throughout the entire auto show. (Compatriot firm Geely showed its car only on press days last year.) To mark this milestone, journalists were invited to what turned out to the auto show’s most unusual press event. Auto show Joint Chairman Robert Thibodeau and local dignitaries exchanged gifts with Changfeng Chairman Li Jianxin in the type ceremony more usually seen at diplomatic events. Chairman Li then made a speech explaining Changfeng’s 5-year plan: Expand production to 300,000 units, seek out foreign partners whose “advanced...

The sale of organs taken from executed prisoners appears to be thriving in China, an undercover investigation by the BBC has found. Organs from death row inmates are sold to foreigners who need transplants. One hospital said it could provide a liver at a cost of £50,000 ($94,400), with the chief surgeon confirming an executed prisoner could be the donor. China's health ministry did not deny the practice, but said it was reviewing the system and regulations. 'Present to society' The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes visited No 1 Central Hospital in Tianjin, ostensibly seeking a liver for his sick father. Officials...

Lang Xianping, professor of economics at Chinese University of Hong Kong, had his finance and economics talk show, "Larry Lang Live" on Shanghai Cable TV 1, suspended this past February. He now reveals that his show was suspended on account of his mentioning several times that the social security fund should not be diverted; this drew the attention of the corrupt forces in Shanghai. Chinese officials claim the reason for the show's suspension is that Lang's Mandarin is not standard. Before it was suspended, it had been on the air for one and a half years. Lang's sharp comments, along...

Burma's military rulers have extended the detention under house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, government officials have said. Ms Suu Kyi's latest period under house arrest expired on Saturday, raising hopes that she would be released. The pro-democracy leader has been held since May 2003, and has spent 10 of the last 16 years under house arrest. On Friday UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed to the head of Burma's military junta to free Ms Suu Kyi. "I am relying on you, General Than Shwe, to do the right thing," Mr Annan said, addressing the head of...