In a recent press conference, President Donald Trump suggests Russia, China, and the U.S. could get together and come to some form of agreement that will all three nations to lower their overall military budget.
Trump proposes US, Russia, China scale back nuclear weapons and military budgets– www.lifesitenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
(LifeSiteNews) — As the Trump administration’s foreign policy begins to take shape, political observers are looking for clues as to what the next four years will look like. Remarks Donald Trump made while in the Oval Office this week about Russia and China are helpful in this regard.
While seated behind the Resolute Desk — with a portrait of Ronald Reagan hanging over his left shoulder — Trump encouragingly told reporters that “one of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, and I want to say, ‘let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that.”
Trump exuberantly added, “President Putin and I agreed that we were going to be (de-nuclearizing) in a very big way … we already have so many you could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over.”
Trump: “One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, and I want to say, ‘let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that.” pic.twitter.com/Z8osuKnHVg
The analysts suggest that China’s quantum advances could shift the balance of cybersecurity, particularly through the potential to break conventional encryption and the export of quantum-secured communication systems. The implications of this extends beyond espionage and state surveillance to corporate data security, financial transactions, and democratic resilience in an era of accelerating technological competition.
Data Security Under Threat
China has dedicated substantial resources to quantum research, arguably outpacing U.S. government funding in key areas of quantum computing and cryptography. The NED report states that China’s investment in quantum technology is times greater than the U.S. planned government spending as of 2023. Researchers at China’s Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences, alongside firms such as Origin Quantum and QuantumCTek, are leading efforts to build quantum processors and secure communication networks.
Google complied with censorship requests from China, Russia, authoritarian regimes | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com Source Link Excerpt:
Since 2011, Google has engaged with 150 different governments that have requested content be scrubbed from public domains.
Google has cooperated with authoritarian regimes, including Russia and China, by complying with censorship requests and removing content critical of governments, according to an investigation by the Observer.
Since 2011, Google has engaged with 150 different governments that have requested content be scrubbed from public domains. These requests have come not only from democratic administrations but also from dictatorships and sanctioned regimes, including the police in Afghanistan.
The investigation found that Google has removed content, including YouTube videos, at the request of the Chinese and Russian governments. The removed content included videos of anti-government protests and material accusing politicians of corruption.
Google’s own data shows that 5.6 million items of content have been “named for removal” due to government requests. According to the cybersecurity firm Surfshark, global content removal requests submitted to Google have more than doubled since 2020.
Brazil to host next BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro in July– abcnews.go.com Source Link Excerpt:
SAO PAULO — The Brazilian government announced Saturday that the next BRICS summit will take place in Rio de Janeiro on July 6-7.
Brazil will chair the bloc of developing economies through 2025 and said it will focus on promoting global governance reform and cooperation among Global South countries, according to a statement from the federal government.
BRICS was established in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2010 as a counterbalance to the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
Last year, the bloc expanded by adding Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has also been invited to join. Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Malaysia have formally applied for membership, and several other countries have expressed interest.
US-China dispute over Afghanistan resolutions intensifies at UNSC – News.Az Source Link Excerpt:
The US-China dispute over Afghanistan resolutions has intensified at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
The disagreement, which has been simmering since late 2024, has intensified in recent weeks following the return of the Trump administration, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
The dispute could shape not only the U.N.’s engagement with the Taliban-led government in Kabul but also Beijing’s growing influence in the Security Council.
“While the Trump administration has made headlines by pulling out of U.N. mechanisms like the Paris climate pact and the World Health Organization, this argument in the council could be a harbinger of more Sino-American tensions over multilateral security,” the report stated.
At the center of the dispute is which country should serve as the Security Council’s “penholder” on Afghanistan. In U.N. terminology, the penholder is responsible for drafting resolutions, initiating negotiations, and shaping key mandates related to the country in question.
Rare earths, controlled by China, are increasingly driving US geo-strategy – Agencia EFE Source Link Excerpt:
United States mediation in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine highlights Washington’s concern about the scarcity of rare earths, which have multiple applications in electronic and industrial materials and processes.
In the past five years, the market for critical minerals has doubled to 320 billion dollars and will likely double again by the end of the decade, according to a Goldman Sachs report.
Supply remains concentrated in China, which the same analysts estimate refines 85-90% of rare earths and produces 92% of rare earth magnets.
Enrique Feas, a researcher at the Real Instituto El Cano, told EFE that these materials are crucial for industrial production and that China has used its supply as a “warning” in the face of trade tensions.
Under President Donald Trump, the DOJ arrested former senior Federal Reserve advisor John Harold Rogers, 63, for allegedly stealing trade secrets from the U.S. agency that controlled China’s access to U.S. markets. He took those trade secrets and gave them to his CCP handlers.
Former Federal Reserve Adviser Arrested for Allegedly Passing US Trade Secrets to China – NTD Source Link Excerpt:
Prosecutors on Jan. 31 arrested a former senior Federal Reserve advisor, accusing him of stealing trade secrets from the agency that could allow China to manipulate the U.S. market.
John Harold Rogers, 63, worked for 11 years as a senior advisor for the international finance division of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the main governing body for the U.S. central bank.
A federal indictment alleged that Rogers began working with Chinese conspirators since at least 2018. The Chinese handlers worked for the Chinese intelligence and security apparatus and posed as graduate students at a Chinese university, according to the filing.
Rogers, in the collaboration, allegedly solicited trade-secret information that included proprietary economic data sets, China tariff deliberations, and briefing books for specific board governors. He also allegedly solicited internal discussions and forthcoming announcements from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a 12-member body consisting of the seven Federal Reserve board of governors, the New York Federal Reserve Bank president, and four of the remaining 11 Reserve Bank presidents that rotate on an annual basis.
With the inclusion of Elon Musk to President Donald Trump’s cabinet, it is no surprise to this writer that Trump appears to be softening his position on China. Musk, whose company Tesla recently lobbied the EU to protect China’s EV industry from tariffs, has a vested interest in U.S.-China relations remaining good. The one fly in the ointment might be Trump’s aggressive push to get China out of the Panama canal.
So far, Trump has softened his position on tariffs, though he continues to threaten China if they fail to stop delivering fentanyl to Mexico they will face daunting tariffs. China sent their VP, Han Zheng, to the inauguration, but the VP also met with Elon Musk to work out a deal between the CCP and Musk’s EV company, Tesla, which operates factories in China and hopes to sell to the China market.
China’s official meets with Elon Musk as Trump begins second term · TechNode– technode.com Source Link Excerpt:
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Jan. 19 called on US businesses to help boost trade relations between the rival countries in a meeting with Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and a member of Trump’s incoming administration, in Washington.
Why it matters: The meeting came just a day before Donald Trump took office for his second term as President of the United States on Monday at the US Capitol.
Han, who represented China at Trump’s inauguration, used the visit to also meet with new US Vice President JD Vance, as well as business leaders from US companies such as FedEx and Visa, according to a Bloomberg report.
President-elect Donald Trump has petitioned the Supreme Court, asking them to delay a hearing on the potential TikTok ban from America should it not be sold to an American company. The President submitted an amicus curae, or “friend of the court” brief. He only requested a delay in the hearing, nothing more.
Trump asks Supreme Court to delay hearing on TikTok injunction – The Desk Source Link Excerpt:
President-elect Donald Trump has weighed in on a forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court hearing that could decide the fate of short-form social video service TikTok in the coming weeks.
Last Friday, Trump invoked a legal doctrine known as “amicus curae” to file a so-called “friend of the court” brief, during which he took no position on the case at hand but encouraged the Supreme Court to delay its hearing on whether to approve an injunction that prevents TikTok from being banned in U.S. app stores.
The banishment is rooted in a law passed earlier this summer that forces TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest its U.S.-based business to a stateside entity. The law was rolled into a federal appropriations bill that was mainly intended to green-light financial funding for the wars in Ukraine and Israel. President Joe Biden signed the measure into law in April, and ByteDance filed its legal challenge soon after.
The law requires ByteDance to divest its U.S.-based business by January 19; if it doesn’t, the measure requires U.S. app stores run by Google, Apple, Samsung, Amazon, Microsoft and others to pull the TikTok app, making it unavailable for download to computers, phones, tablets and smart TVs.
The law doesn’t ban Americans from using the service, and the TikTok app currently installed on devices will continue to work as long as ByteDance and the manufacturers of those devices support it. But it makes TikTok much harder to access when users buy new devices or switch from one platform to another, or if they delete the app and decide they want to reinstall it at a later time, because it won’t be available in app stores. (Android and Microsoft users will still be able to download the app beyond app stores, but Apple device users cannot download apps that aren’t available whiten the Apple App Store).
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) appears to be accelerating its military build-up and investing in weapons and munitions that make it clear it is preparing to engage in a major world war with major world powers like the United States of America. The 2024 Department of Defense’s Report on Chinese Military Power raises even more alarms.
Some of the noted expansions include 50 new ICBM, 300 medium-range ballistic missiles, 600+ operational nuclear warheads, and 370 new ships and submarines, expanding the world’s largest navy. The report suggests China is planning on conquering Taiwan, the first necessary step in world conquest, before becoming the dominant power by 2035.
China Is Rapidly Building Up Weapons And Warfare Operations– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is undertaking an unprecedented military buildup aimed at challenging America and its allies, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. And, like Nazi Germany’s buildup in the 1930s, the militarization program ordered by the Chinese Communist Party isn’t simply a great power buildup — it’s a weapon in service of a deadly ideology.
The 2024 Department of Defense China Military Power Report and recent analysis by Bill Gertz in the Washington Times reveal this buildup as part of a broader strategy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to position itself as a global superpower. Meanwhile, the U.S., having spent $5.4 trillion on the global war on terror and attendant, futile nation-building, has left itself strategically vulnerable by diverting critical resources while underestimating the threat from China.
President Joe Biden has declared numerous times that he knew nothing about Hunter Biden’s foreign businesses, nor did he ever meet with his business partners. Now, photographs obtained by American First Legal (AFL) have revealed the truth, Joe Biden is lying.
Photographs show the then-Vice-President Joe Biden on a visit to China introducing Hunter to Chairman Xi and other top-ranked CCP party members, which include Hunter Biden’s future business partners. The meetings and the photos happened during Biden’s 2013 official Beijing, China trip.
Bombshell Leaks Blow Biden Family’s China Scandal Wide Open– trendingpoliticsnews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Newly released photographs obtained by America First Legal (AFL) have reignited scrutiny over President Joe Biden’s connections to Hunter Biden’s Chinese business dealings. The images, obtained through AFL’s lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), appear to show then-Vice President Joe Biden meeting with Hunter’s Chinese business associates, including key figures tied to the Chinese government.
The photos, which AFL shared on social media today, include Joe Biden introducing Hunter and his associate to Chinese President Xi Jinping during an official 2013 trip to Beijing. This trip, initially billed as a diplomatic mission, is now under a magnifying glass as questions swirl about whether Joe Biden leveraged his political position to benefit Hunter’s business ventures.
/1🚨 BREAKING 🚨
AFL has obtained new photos of Joe Biden meeting with Hunter Biden’s Chinese business associates and introducing Hunter to China’s President Xi Jinping. pic.twitter.com/SB13yaXiXv
The images reportedly capture meetings between Joe Biden and executives from BHR Partners, a private equity firm co-founded by Hunter Biden. According to AFL, the photographs also corroborate findings from the House Oversight Committee, which earlier this year revealed that Hunter Biden facilitated introductions between his father and BHR executives, including CEO Jonathan Li and Managing Partner Ming Xue.
Chinese national Chen Jinping, 60, of New York City, pled guilty to running a “clandestine police station” in the city. He was arrested in April of this same year.
DOJ and FBI representatives said of the plea, “The Department of Justice will continue to pursue anyone who attempts to aid the PRC’s efforts to extend their repressive reach into the United States… These blatant violations will not be tolerated on U.S. soil. The FBI remains committed to preserving the rights and freedoms of all people in our country and will defend against transnational repression at every front.”
New York man pleads guilty to running secret police station for communist China above noodle restaurant in Manhattan– www.theblaze.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Department of Justice said in a press release that a man pleaded guilty to running a secret police station for communist China above a noodle restaurant in New York City.
The secret police stations have been reported to be hidden across the world in order to further the aims of the communist government of China. Their agents harass, threaten, and spy on “wanted” Chinese nationals residing in the U.S. and identified as a threat to China.
‘A human rights organization report found that there were likely as many as 100 secret police stations operated by the Chinese Community Part across the world.’
60-year-old Chen Jinping of New York City was arrested in April 2023 and accused of running a “clandestine police station” on U.S. soil, according to the DOJ. The secret police station “occupied an entire floor in an office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown” and was shut down in the fall of 2022.
… China understands that aircraft carriers and destroyers would be crucial for the U.S. Navy to puncture the blockade. This has prompted Beijing to develop and test some lethal weapons that could thwart the U.S. Navy, coming to Taiwan’s aid.
China has a powerful stockpile of anti-ship missiles, and its strategy to prevent U.S. forces from entering the Western Pacific is centered on these weapons.
China’s arsenal of anti-ship ballistic missiles, also known as “carrier killers,” has grown dramatically. China’s primary anti-ship missiles include the DF-21, DF-26, YJ-12, YJ-18, and YJ-83. Moreover, it also has YJ-21 and DF-27 hypersonic missiles that have the potential to penetrate air defenses and destroy U.S. Navy ships. Some of these weapons have been used in simulated strikes on U.S. carriers.
The U.S., on its part, has excellent machinery to detect incoming hostile targets and shoot them down just in time. It has reportedly been mulling the deployment of combat-proven Patriot interceptors to thwart a potential Chinese missile attack, in addition to other air defense assets.
While President-Elect Donald Trump has expressed interest in saving TikTok from the pending ban should it fail to be sold to an American interest, a Federal Appeals Court has denied TikTok’s latest attempt to appeal the ban. The case is sure to reach the Supreme Court unless Trump can save TikTok.
It should be noted that TikTok exploded in America AFTER the CCP-controlled company was allowed to purchase an American app, music.ly, a fact that in and of itself warrants investigation into possible acts of treason and sedition being committed by whoever approved such sale in the first place.
Federal appeals court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok in the US- AP News Source Link Excerpt:
A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok as soon as next month, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok’s petition to overturn the law — which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January — and rebuffed the company’s challenge of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Amendment.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” said the court’s opinion, which was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
The Pentagon has acknowledged officially that U.S. troops are serving alongside Philippine troops, engaging in mutual maritime operations in the South China Sea. The operation is called “Task Force Ayungin,” named after the Ayungin Shoel that the task force is patrolling.
Anti-American Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin posted on X “I visited the Command and Control Fusion Center in Palawan today. I also met with some American service members deployed to U.S. Task Force Ayungin, and I thanked them for their hard work on behalf of the American people and our alliances and partnerships in this region.”
US Reveals New South China Sea ‘Task Force’ – newsweek Source Link Excerpt:
The Pentagon has confirmed that American troops are quietly assisting Philippine maritime operations in the South China Sea, in a sign of the United States’ growing support for its ally amid flaring tensions with China.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin referenced the collaboration in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, highlighting “Task Force Ayungin,” which involves U.S. military personnel working alongside the Philippines military’s Western Command.
“I visited the Command and Control Fusion Center in Palawan today,” Austin wrote. “I also met with some American service members deployed to U.S. Task Force Ayungin, and I thanked them for their hard work on behalf of the American people and our alliances and partnerships in this region.”
Pentagon spokesperson Pete Nguyen told the Philippine news outlet Inquirer that the task force focuses on planning, training, and systems provided through U.S. security assistance. “This support includes unmanned surface vessels that Secretary Austin observed during his stop in Palawan,” he said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, center, visits the Command and Control Fusion Center on the Philippine island of Palawan along with Philippines’ defense chief Gilberto Teodoro. During his visit, he signed a bilateral intelligence-sharing agreement…. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, center, visits the Command and Control Fusion Center on the Philippine island of Palawan along with Philippines’ defense chief Gilberto Teodoro. During his visit, he signed a bilateral intelligence-sharing agreement.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and U.S. Department of Defense with written requests for comment.
Nguyen stressed that the task force reflects a continuation of decades of close U.S.-Philippine cooperation. Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano told the news agency that U.S. involvement is limited to “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, [and] maritime domain awareness,” with no “direct participation” in Philippine operations.
Washington and Manila share a Mutual Defense Treaty, which Austin and President Joe Biden have stressed is “ironclad.” The treaty has sparked discussions in light of clashes between Philippine maritime forces and their Chinese counterparts.
I visited the Command and Control Fusion Centerin Palawan today. I also met with some American service members deployed to U.S. Task Force Ayungin, and I thanked them for their hard work on behalf of the American people and our alliances and partnerships in this region. pic.twitter.com/baqgo72r1T
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) November 19, 2024
During Austin’s two days in the Philippines, he met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., visited the unified command center in Palawan, and inked an intelligence-sharing agreement.
“No military agreement, or defense and security cooperation, in whatever form, should target any third party or harm the interests of any third party,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during Monday’s regular press conference.
“Nor should it undermine regional peace or exacerbate regional tensions,” he went on, adding that the only way to maintain regional piece is to “uphold good-neighborliness and friendship and maintain strategic independence.”
The deployment of U.S. personnel to Task Force Ayungin comes amid increased tensions in the South China Sea, where Philippine and Chinese forces have repeatedly clashed over contested waters.
China claims nearly the entire sea, using its controversial “dashed line” to assert control over resource-rich areas despite international rejection of those claims.
An independent tribunal at The Hague ruled in 2016 that China’s territorial claims, represented by the nine-dash line, were incompatible with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Beijing, however, has dismissed the decision as invalid.
The state of Texas is at war with CCP operatives within its state who have been committing numerous crimes, putting our national security at risk. Governor Greg Abbot (R-TX) has issued an executive order “to protect Texans from coordinated harassment and coercion by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
Worldwide, the CCP has been engaging in kidnapping Chinese national dissidents in other countries in an operation called “Fox Hunt.” Abbot specifically hopes to protect Chinese nationals from that operation. He declared, “The Chinese Communist Party has engaged in a worldwide harassment campaign against Chinese dissidents in attempts to forcibly return them to China. Texas will not tolerate the harassment or coercion of the more than 250,000 individuals of Chinese descent who legally call Texas home by the Chinese Communist Party or its heinous proxies.”
Abbott issues executive order to arrest CCP operatives in Texas– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order “to protect Texans from the coordinated harassment and coercion by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
The order directs the Texas Department of Public Safety to target and arrest anyone implementing CCP influence operations like “Operation Fox Hunt,” an initiative of the PRC to forcibly return people to China it’s identified as so-called dissidents living in the U.S.
“The Chinese Communist Party has engaged in a worldwide harassment campaign against Chinese dissidents in attempts to forcibly return them to China,” Abbott said. “Texas will not tolerate the harassment or coercion of the more than 250,000 individuals of Chinese descent who legally call Texas home by the Chinese Communist Party or its heinous proxies.”
Abbott issued the order ahead of the legislature convening in January to consider bills related to national security and China. This is after in the last legislative session he said he would sign a bill banning foreign nationals from countries, including the PRC, that pose national security threats to the U.S. from purchasing land in Texas. The bill was blocked by a Republican state House committee chair after the CCP spearheaded a campaign against it, The Center Square reported.
He also issued the order after the FBI criminally charging CCP-linked individuals who were allegedly involved in Operation Fox Hunt to “harass, stalk, and coerce U.S. residents” to return to the PRC. Those targeted “are often ‘guilty’ of nothing more than opposing the PRC government or CCP actions, including by exposing corruption,” the order states.
An anonymous UK official told Eurasia Times that British war games pitting their carrier task force groups against China’s long-range ballistic missiles called “aircraft killers” show “the carriers get sunk” most of the time. The key to their threat lies both in their new class of long-range ballistic missiles and its use of Over the Horizon (OTHR) sites, a cold-war technology that gives it the ability to locate and target carriers well off their shores.
China’s Anti-Ship Missiles ‘Sink’ British $7.8B Aircraft Carriers In Wargames; Are Flattops Getting Obsolete? – Eurasiatimes.com Source Link Excerpt:
Wargames have shown that the constant technological evolution has made aircraft carriers vulnerable to modern missiles.
An official familiar with the wargames has been quoted in the media that “the carriers get sunk” in most of the iterations.
China’s long-range ballistic missiles, which have earned the sobriquet “aircraft carrier killers,” have challenged the naval power projection of Western countries, and the UK is no exception.
Royal Navy strategists are seized with the huge progress in the Chinese anti-ship missile arsenal. The missile technology has made it capable of locating and tracking Britain’s naval fleet.
China has also been reviving Cold War-era technology by building large Over the Horizon Radar (OTHR) sites, which can be used to locate the sites of its adversary’s fleet from a great distance. Two types of OTHR can be deployed: a skywave and a surface wave. Both systems were used during the Cold War era but lost their importance to modern-day radars.
The OTHR is set to make a comeback as it can address the range limitations of current radars. OTHRs’ range can extend into thousands of miles as they consist of an extensive array of antennae spread out over an area, with the transmission and receiving equipment placed geographically away from each other.
China’s latest missile in the arsenal is the DF-17, which is equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle. The missile is fast and long-range, with a high-precision strike capability, leaving enemies with little time to react. The hypersonic glide vehicles have higher maneuverability and lower altitudes, making them harder to track and predict their flight path.
During the wargames, the Royal Navy’s ‘ability to survive’ is ‘stretched to the limit,’ with a scenario eventually arising whereby a carrier would be sunk.
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