Free Republic

Many experts are panicking about Trump's economic punishments against China.  They fear an economic downturn, a global depression, or even the worst case of open war.  For the libertarians, it's depriving entrepreneurs of the world's largest market.  For so-called realist and globalist foreign policy experts, it is irrational nationalism that unnecessarily endangers global prosperity and is best dealt with by trying to integrate China into the international system.  These cries of panic are crescendoing now that tariffs are coming into effect, CFIUS is being expanded, and Trump is increasing security controls throughout the economy. Now these pro-China critics are trying to actively undermine...

The US and South Korea decided Friday to suspend another major joint military exercise to give the diplomatic process with North Korea "every opportunity to continue." "Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis and Minister of National Defense Jeong Kyeong-doo decided to suspend Exercise Vigilant Ace to give the diplomatic process every opportunity to continue," chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said in a statement. The decision was made during Mattis' meeting with his counterpart in Singapore. The exercise was due to take place in December. Last year's iteration of the Vigilant Ace involved 12,000 US troops and some 230 military aircraft...

link only: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-17/trump-is-said-to-plan-withdrawal-from-china-shipping-treaty?srnd=premium

The Marcoses are making waves again in the Philippines. Congresswoman Imelda Marcos, 89, the shopaholic, shoe-obsessed wife of deposed President Ferdinand Marcos, is running for governor of the Ilocos Norte province, according to The Straits Times. Her running mate will be her grandson Matthew Marcos Manotoc, 28, a member of Ilocos Norte’s provincial government. And her eldest daughter, Imee Marcos, 62, on Tuesday launched her Senate run to solidify her family’s political resurgence after her parents were forced into exile after a popular revolt more than 30 years ago.

SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea and the United States on Tuesday started talks on how to share the defense costs of U.S. forces stationed in South Korea, according to Seoul's foreign ministry. The two-day negotiations were launched in central Seoul to reach a new deal on South Korea's financial contribution to the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK). The negotiation period can be extended, if necessary, as the current deal was set to expire by the end of this year, the Seoul ministry said. In consideration of the time needed for the parliamentary approval, the talks are required to be...

US President Donald Trump’s statement that Seoul would not lift sanctions on Pyongyang without America’s “approval” did not go down well in South Korea, prompting criticism from activists and politicians from across the political spectrum. A group of student activists climbed up the Statue of King Sejong in central Seoul on Friday afternoon in a protest against Trump’s speech as they flew a banner that read, “South Korea is not a US colony” and chanted, “Trump needs to apologize.” The protest, which saw six people arrested, comes after Trump said Wednesday, “They won’t do it without our approval. They do...

WASHINGTON: Something should have been done by previous administrations, but they ignored it. The problem of plastic in our oceans has been left to fester to unmanageable effect. Saying that over eight millions tons of garbage, plastic, is dumped into our oceans, the President says Save our Seas is an effort to clean the plastic out. No other political leader, not in the U.S. or any other country, is willing to stand up for the oceans. The Save Our Seas Act, an important bill which reauthorizes and amends the Marine Debris Act, will act to promote international action to reduce...

By Monica Showalter In what was hailed as a rare espionage victory against China, U.S. officials successfully extradited a Chinese intelligence official lured to Belgium back to the U.S. on charges of economic espionage. According to the New York Times: The extradition on Tuesday of the officer, Yanjun Xu, a deputy division director in China’s main spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, is the first time that a Chinese intelligence official has been brought to the United States to be prosecuted and tried in open court. Law enforcement officials said that Mr. Xu tried to steal trade secrets from...

Kim Jong-un has said he expects “great progress would surely be made” on issues between North Korea and the US after secretary of state Mike Pompeo visited Pyonyang for “productive and wonderful talks”. Kim “explained in detail the proposals for solving the denuclearization issue”, according to paraphrased remarks reported by the official Korean Central News Agency, but neither side has revealed those plans. Kim also said he was confident relations between the two countries would “continue to develop favorably in the future” and expected a second summit with Donald Trump to be held “sooner or later”. The two countries will...

As trade tensions escalate between the U.S. and China, Washington is sending a warning to U.S. companies: Think twice about doing business with China. “If I were a business, I would basically just stay away from China right now. Their misbehavior is so terrible.” Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers said on Yahoo Finance’s Market Mover Friday.

Seoul (AFP) - Kim Jong Un has agreed to hold a second summit with US President Donald Trump as soon as possible, Seoul said Sunday, after Washington's top diplomat held "productive" talks on denuclearisation with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim on Sunday morning for around two hours of talks followed by a lunch in the North's capital, before flying to Seoul on a whirlwind diplomatic visit to the region. Pompeo said "he agreed with Chairman Kim to hold the second US-North Korea summit at the earliest date possible", South Korea's...

FULL TITLE: Pompeo has 'very successful morning' with Kim Jong Un, as talks for second major summit with Trump continue Just hours after President Trump touted his efforts to denuclearize North Korea at a boisterous rally Saturday night, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters he had a "very productive" meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Sunday. Although there were no immediate indications the secretary of state had arranged for a second major summit between Trump and Kim, both leaders have publicly voiced support for another meeting. The jovial feeling during Pompeo's fourth trip to...

The Pentagon intends to invest in domestic manufacturing to reduce its over-reliance on Chinese and other foreign-made parts in American weapons, top defense officials said Thursday. The U.S. reliance on China is one of many areas discussed in a 146-page report about the health of the defense industrial base that President Trump is scheduled to release on Friday during an event at the White House. Other areas include “accelerating workforce development efforts to grow domestic science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and critical trade skills.” ***** The report says China is the only producer of various chemicals needed in missiles and bombs,...

Orville Schell, the director of the Centre on US-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York, also noted that China’s forceful campaign had stoked suspicions about visiting academics. “It is China’s United Front Work Department which views overseas Chinese as sons of the yellow emperors, ethnic Chinese somehow belong to China. Overseas Chinese are caught in the crossfire.” Schell said he was working with a group of about 20 prominent China specialists in the US on a broad-ranging research project about China’s influence operations. “The effect on American think tanks so far has been limited, but as Chinese philanthropy...

The two are Mgr John Baptist Yang Xiaoting, bishop of Yan'an, and Mgr Joseph Guo Jincai, bishop of Chengde. The latter is one of the seven excommunicated bishops who reconciled with the Pope following the Sino-Vatican agreement, which Beijing leaked a few days ago.Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Two bishops from the People's Republic of China will take part in the Synod on Youth, which begins on 3 October. Speaking at a press conference today, the general secretary of the Synod, Card Lorenzo Baldisseri, said that the two “were invited by the Pope, as a result of the [Sino-Vatican] agreement, and...

With China still running a record trade surplus with the US, it seems premature — to say the least — to say that Trump has won his long-overdue trade war with China. But it is not too early to conclude that, despite their threat of retaliatory tariffs, China’s Communist authorities know that they have lost. The increased tariffs to date, combined with the threat of more, have already clipped the wings of China’s economic rise. Its stock market is down 21 percent year over year, industrial output is slowing and its currency is weakening. Looking beyond the bluff and bluster...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday plans to accuse China of trying to undermine President Donald Trump as the administration deploys tough new rhetoric over Chinese trade, economic, and foreign policies. Please see link, for full article.

HUIZHOU, China — They were exactly what China’s best universities were supposed to produce: young men and women steeped in the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. They read Marx, Lenin and Mao and formed student groups to discuss the progress of socialism. They investigated the treatment of the campus proletariat, including janitors, cooks and construction workers. They volunteered to help struggling rural families and dutifully recited the slogans of President Xi Jinping. Then, after graduation, they attempted to put the party’s stated ideals into action, converging from across China last month on Huizhou, a city in the south, to...

A U.S. warship sailed Sunday near two contested Chinese man-made islands in the South China Sea, the location where Beijing has built up military fortifications despite a pledge not to do so, a U.S. defense official told Fox News.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday hailed the "dawn of a new day" with North Korea as the U.S. pushes diplomacy to denuclearize the regime. Chairing a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, Pompeo sounded a hopeful note on the diplomatic negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang. But he also called for strict enforcement of all U.N. Security Council sanctions on Pyongyang until denuclearization is achieved. "Past diplomatic attempts to halt North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile development were unsuccessful," Pompeo said. "But now we're at the dawn of a new day." Pompeo credited U.S....