China’s ‘Space Aircraft Carriers’: Nantianmen Project Could Mean Drone Mothership and a U.S. Military Scrambling to Respond 19FortyFive
from news.google.com
China Watch
CHINA has been accused of a massive nuclear expansion as well as carrying out secret tests by the US.
The latest accusations come as the United States bids to force Beijing to join a future arms control treaty.
China restricts exports to 40 Japanese entities with ties to military Alton Telegraph
from news.google.com
China on Monday urged the United States to cancel unilateral tariffs announced by President Donald Trump after the US Supreme Court struck down many of his measures, ruling he lacked authority under a 1977 law. Trump responded by unveiling new global import duties of up to 15% under different powers.
from www.france24.com
Drones are increasingly violating American airspace. We know that tens of thousands of drone sightings on our southern border are connected with the Mexican drug and human trafficking cartels. But dozens of other drone sightings at sensitive military installations suggest hostile nation-state actors, most likely China.
As drone operations in Russia’s war on Ukraine show, the threat is no longer hypothetical — it is active and escalating. Unfortunately, a dangerous combination of bureaucratic inertia and misplaced priorities has left our borders and military installations vulnerable.
Xi Jinping’s Generals Are Hiding in Their Barracks, Afraid They Could Be Purged Next Vision Times
from news.google.com
China’s AI War Machine Exposed: 9,000 PLA RFPs Reveal Space And Undersea Ambitions Orbital Today
from news.google.com
Signs within China point to instability continuing in the wake of Chairman Xi’s recent purge of an attempted coup that appears to have been led by the-then second most powerful man in China, Zhang Youxia. Zhang was well-respected by the military, and they appear willing to send public signals they continue to support him.
That signal came through their newspaper, the Liberation Army Daily, which featured an article signaling support for an historic figure like Zhang Youxia, Zhang Guotao, who broke with Mao Zedong in the 30s. This was the first of six similar articles released following the reported arrest of Zhang Youxia.
Xi Jinping Has Turned China’s Military Against Him, and the Party’s Own Newspaper Proves It Vision Times
from news.google.com
On Feb. 11, the Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of China’s military, published yet another article invoking Zhang Guotao, a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party who broke with Mao Zedong in the 1930s and is remembered in Party mythology as the archetype of treachery and “splitting the Party and the army.” The article accused Zhang Guotao of “carrying out activities to split the Party and the Red Army,” language that transparently targets two recently purged military leaders: Zhang Youxia, the former vice chairman of China’s top military command body (the Central Military Commission), and Liu Zhenli, the former chief of the Joint Staff Department, China’s most senior operational military commander.
This was the sixth such article since Jan.16, the date that online sources say Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli were physically detained, eight days before their purge was officially announced on Jan. 24. All six articles share a revealing pattern: every one of them invokes the historical villain Zhang Guotao, and every one of them avoids mentioning Zhang Youxia or Liu Zhenli by name. The gap between the fury of the rhetoric and the absence of the actual targets’ names speaks volumes about how politically explosive these purges remain.
The six articles, with their dates and titles, are:
Jan. 18: “Courage Is Measured by What You Fear and What You Don’t”
Feb. 2: “Political Army-Building Special: Strong Organizations Make a Strong Army”
After it was revealed that Peru’s President, Jose Jeri, had secret meetings with members of the Chinese Communist Party, the congress moved quickly to remove the President, who had only been in power for four months. He is the eighth President in eight years and the third President in the time-period to be removed by the congress.
Peruvian President Jose Jeri ousted over China-linked secret meetings – channelnewsasia.com
Peru’s Congress on Tuesday (Feb 18) ousted President Jose Jeri just four months into his term over a scandal involving undisclosed meetings with a Chinese businessman, extending a cycle of political upheaval that has gripped the Andean nation for much of the past decade.
There were 75 lawmakers who voted in favour of removing Jeri, while 24 voted against and three abstained….
The scandal that was dubbed “Chifagate” – after a local name for Chinese restaurants – began last month when Jeri was filmed arriving at a restaurant late at night wearing a hood to meet with Chinese businessman Zhihua Yang, who owns stores and a concession for an energy project. The meeting was not publicly disclosed.
Jeri became president in October after Peru’s unpopular Congress voted unanimously to remove his predecessor Dina Boluarte, as the right-wing parties that had backed her dropped their support amid corruption scandals and growing anger over rising crime.
Peru’s Congress on Tuesday voted to remove interim President José Jerí from office, triggering a fresh wave of political instability just weeks before the nation’s April presidential election.
Jerí was Peru’s seventh president in less than a decade, and will now be replaced by a member of Congress, who will be expected to lead the country during the election and until the nation’s newly elected president is sworn in on July 28.
Japanese exports climbed 16.8% year on year in January, sharply beating market expectations and growing at their fastest rate since November 2022 as shipments to Asia and Western Europe surged, government data on Wednesday showed.
Growth was higher than December’s 5.1%, and beat Reuters-polled economists’ estimates of 12%.
Value of exports to China, Japan’s largest trading partner, jumped 32%, after rising 5.6% in December at a time when the two countries are locked in a diplomatic standoff over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments over Taiwan.
Chinese Officials Purged for ‘Improper Discussion’ as Xi Tightens Political Discipline Vision Times
from news.google.com
Canada can’t be ‘naive’ to China’s transnational repression threat: report – National– globalnews.ca
Researchers behind a new report on transnational repression are warning Canada must not be “naïve” as it seeks better relations with China, which remains a top perpetrator in intimidating and harassing dissidents abroad.
The report by the Montreal Institute for Global Security (MIGS) called transnational repression “one of the most serious yet least understood threats to security and democracy in Canada,” and said China remains a leader in such efforts.
It cited several examples, including so-called “police stations” and online influence campaigns targeting Chinese Canadian diaspora communities. Families still living in China have been threatened, the report adds, and women have been targeted with sexual AI deepfakes.
After reports of Iranian missile fire in the most strategically important shipping lane in the Persian Gulf, Tehran announced that the Strait of Hormuz would be closed to all maritime traffic for several hours due to a “Smart Control” exercise conducted by the naval arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps…. At the same time, Russia, China and Iran deployed naval vessels to the Strait of Hormuz for joint maneuvers, Russian presidential aide Nikolai Patrushev said Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether the Russian and Chinese ships had already joined the ongoing Iranian drill or were expected to participate in the coming days (Israel Hayom).
Chairman Xi of China has finally publicly addressed the purge of most of his military leaders and political “allies” in response to what appears to have been a coup attempt by his second-in-command, Zhang Youxia. He addressed the military, stating, “The past year has been unusual and extraordinary, The People’s Army has deepened its political education, effectively addressed various risks and challenges and undergone revolutionary forging in the fight against corruption.”
While Xi has survived the coup, mobilizations within China suggest he has yet to fully restoyre stability. So far, none of the top spots have been replaced by anyone else. The purge leaves the military without seasoned Generals, and one of the few who has experienced combat, Youxia, is among the Generals that have been purged. As of right now, the conditions in China are still fluid by our assessment.
Chinese President Xi Jinping makes rare public reference to recent military purges The Straits Times
from news.google.com
China’s military has grown stronger in the past year in its fight against corruption, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the Chinese armed forces on Feb 11, making a rare public reference to the graft probes linked to the country’s top generals.
China’s two highest-ranked generals have been ensnared in disciplinary probes, with
Mr He Weidong expelled in October 2025
and Mr Zhang Youxia placed under investigation in January, marking one of the most high-profile purges of the Chinese military in decades.
“The past year has been unusual and extraordinary,” Mr Xi told the military in a virtual address.
Spotlight China Why Xi Jinping’s upheaval within the Chinese military is just the beginning Intelligence Online
from news.google.com
Xi’s purges could mean more instability along the border The Indian Express
from news.google.com
DHAKA: The United States is concerned about China’s expanding presence in South Asia and is planning to offer Bangladesh’s next government US and allied defence systems as alternatives to Chinese hardware, Washington’s ambassador to Dhaka told Reuters.
Bangladesh votes in a general election on Thursday (Feb 12) after a Gen Z-led uprising toppled India-allied premier Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. She has since taken refuge in New Delhi, allowing China to deepen its influence in Bangladesh as India’s presence wanes.
China recently signed a defence agreement with Bangladesh to build a drone factory near the India border, worrying foreign diplomats. Bangladesh is also in talks with Pakistan to buy JF-17 Thunder fighter jets, a multi-role combat aircraft jointly developed with China.
China has made it clear to the people of Hong Kong that the CCP is fully in charge and any hint of democratic freedom is officially dead. The CCP has sentenced the freedom fighter and newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison. Lai is 78 years old so the sentence is seen as a de facto death sentence. The judge gave him the harsh sentence because he accused Lai of being the mastermind behind the resistance to the CCP’s infiltration of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Court Sentences Pro-Democracy Publisher Jimmy Lai to 20 Years in Prison – legalinsurrection.com
A Hong Kong Court sentenced pro-democracy, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) critic media mogul Jimmy Lai, 78, to 20 years in prison.
Six of Lai’s former employees received sentences of up to 10 years.
Lai’s daughter Claire described it as a “heartbreakingly cruel sentence,” claiming, “he will die a martyr behind bars.”
The judges determined that Lai deserved the harsh sentence “because he was ‘no doubt the mastermind’ of the conspiracies he was convicted of orchestrating.”
They cut the sentence down by 25 months due to Lai’s “health issues, which include diabetes and hypertension.”
In December, The Associated Press reported that “[T]hree government-vetted judges found Lai, 78, guilty of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to publish seditious articles.”
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. However, the Communists have tightened their grip on the region, especially in 2020, with a national security law:
The stringent national security law and its 66 articles were kept secret from the public until 11pm local time, when the law officially went into effect. It dramatically broadens Beijing’s powers to investigate, prosecute and punish suspected criminals in Hong Kong.
Taiwan has told Washington that its proposal to move 40% of the island’s semiconductor supply chain to the U.S. was “impossible,” the country’s top tariff trade negotiator said in an interview.
Speaking on a local television broadcast Sunday, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun said she had made it clear to Washington that the country’s semiconductor ecosystem, built over decades, could not simply be relocated.
Taiwan’s international expansion, including its investments in the U.S., is predicated on the notion that the industry remains’ rooted in Taiwan and continues to expand domestic investments, she said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.
In a further erosion of freedom in Hong Kong, the city’s Chinese-backed government sentenced media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison on Monday.
“Having stepped back and taking a global view of the total sentence for Lai’s serious and grave criminal conduct … we are satisfied that the total sentence for Lai in the present case should be 20 years’ imprisonment,” Hong Kong’s High Court reportedly wrote in its ruling.
As The Federalist previously reported, Lai — a pro-freedom activist and founder of the city’s now-shuttered largest pro-democracy newspaper (Apple Daily) — was previously convicted by the city’s pro-China government in December “on charges of alleged collusion with foreign powers and sedition.” Most of the charges were brought under Hong Kong’s national security law, which was implemented as a means of further criminalizing dissent and solidifying the Chinese Communist Party and its allies’ control of the city.
According to CNBC, Lai’s 20-year sentence “was the longest handed out under the national security law introduced in 2020, surpassing the 10-year term given to activist Benny Tai, a former law professor who was convicted of conspiring to subvert state power, in November 2024.” Barring any shortening of his sentence or an immediate release, it’s likely the 78-year-old media tycoon — whose health is reportedly declining — will spend the remainder of his life in prison.
The DNC criminal media have chosen to ignore a story about another CCP Biolab discovered in the U.S. The biolab was discovered in Reno, Nevada. It had CCP-related documents in it. The only corporate news outlet that covered the story was ABC News, who omitted any references to the CCP in their report.
They summarized their report, claiming “A law enforcement source has told ABC News they took 1,000 items from the home, including vials of unknown substances, some labeled in Mandarin Chinese. The property manager, Ori Solomon, now under arrest facing both federal and state charges, including disposing of hazardous waste consistent with biological agents. The homeowner is a Chinese national arrested in 2023 after authorities in Reedley, California said he operated an illegal biological lab that was funded by Chinese banks. He’s pleaded not guilty. David, records show that homeowner has two dozen properties that ABC News sources say are now being searched.”
CBS, NBC Nightly Newscasts Still Not Covering Busted Chinese Biolab – newsbusters.org
If an illegal Chinese-adjacent biolab was discovered in a major American city and most of the broadcast network evening news refused to cover it, was there ever really a clandestine biolab to begin with? This is the strategy appearing to be deployed by CBS and NBC so far., as they continue to hide a story with huge national security.
Watch ABC’s report as aired on World News Tonight on Wednesday, February 4th, 2026:
WATCH: @ABCWorldNews is still the only one of the broadcast network nightly newscasts reporting on the clandestine Chinese biolab found in Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/dd7zasXCb8
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 5, 2026
As Chairman Xi holds on to power at home, abroad he’s flexing his economic muscle, making a call for the Chinese Yuan to join the U.S. dollar as becoming a global reserve currency. The comments were from 2024, but were just released now, in conjunction with China’s European campaign, which includes the UK, where Xi won major concessions and territory in central London to build a massive spy center.
Xi pushes for yuan to become global currency reserve as dollar weakens – washingtonexaminer.com
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for the Chinese yuan to become a global reserve currency, perhaps capitalizing on the dollar’s decline over the past year.
Over the weekend, the ruling Communist Party quoted Xi as saying Beijing needed to build a “powerful currency” that could be “widely used in international trade, investment and foreign exchange markets, and attain reserve currency status.”
Xi also stressed the need for a “powerful” central bank and strong financial institutions that can attract capital. The remarks were originally made in a speech to officials back in 2024, but were only made public this week.
The timing is notable given recent declines in the dollar, but the idea of the yuan quickly becoming a major reserve currency, or even supplanting the dollar as the world’s biggest reserve currency, is not close to happening right now.
“I think he’s benefiting from all the chaos in American policy,” Ryan Young, a senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Examiner.
Young said that it is easiest to look at Xi’s push in absolute and in relative terms. In absolute terms, China is not seen as the most trustworthy place to do business — there are human rights abuses, intellectual property theft, government expropriation, and more.
“But on a relative basis, what we’re seeing is a lot of America’s traditional allies and trading partners seeing the instability here, not just with tariffs, but also potential dollar devaluations here and all the other shenanigans,” Young said. “And in relative terms, China is looking a little more stable than America, and the more that continues here in America, the more that President Xi’s wish might come true.”
Dollar troubles
Notably, the U.S. dollar has posted declines. The dollar index dropped as low as 96.2 last week, down from recent highs above 99 the week before, though it has since popped a bit after President Donald Trump announced he would pick former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to lead the central bank.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index reached nearly 110 in January 2025. The relative value of the greenback has fallen by more than 11% since that time in January of last year.
While there are some short-term pressures on the dollar, in the longer term, experts contend the dollar’s slide is being fueled by uncertainty in the U.S. economy, mounting concerns about the Fed’s independence, and questions about what might come next for federal tariff policy.
“If I had to summarize the dollar declining in one word, it would be uncertainty,” Steve Swedberg, finance and monetary policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Examiner.
While the dollar has fallen directionally over the past year, it is still at levels that haven’t historically set off alarm bells. For instance, it was in the 70s and 80s for years following the 2008 financial crisis.
Trump himself recently drew headlines by brushing aside concerns about the greenback’s decline.
“No, I think it’s great,” Trump told reporters last week when asked about the drop. “I think the value of the dollar — look at the business we’re doing. The dollar’s doing great.”
The White House told the Washington Examiner last week that Trump remains committed to a strong dollar.
“President Trump remains committed to the strength and power of the U.S. Dollar as the world’s reserve currency,” spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. “Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries reaching an all-time high and trillions in investment commitments to make and hire in America are all proof that the Trump administration’s policies are cementing America’s economic might.”
David Sacco, an instructor in finance and economics at the University of New Haven’s Pompea College of Business, said that it makes sense that Xi is pushing for the yuan to become a major reserve currency.
“Having your currency be the global reserve currency imparts a lot of power into your regime and your economy,” he told the Washington Examiner.
But China would have a long way to go.
The U.S. dollar makes up just under 60% of the currency composition of combined official foreign exchange reserves. When combined with the euro, that rises to just under 80% of all reserves. The Chinese yuan makes up a mere 2.1% of reserves.
There are also fundamental problems at play with the yuan becoming a reserve currency, according to Stephen Kates, a financial analyst at Bankrate.
“If they’re wanting to be the reserve currency, they’re doing a pretty terrible job about it,” Kates told the Washington Examiner.
He said that China has devalued its currency in the past. That is because a cheaper yuan is good for Chinese exporters and allows the country to export more to other countries.
“And that’s obviously a huge engine of growth for China, is major exports to other currencies,” Kates said.
COMMODITIES SELL-OFF CONTINUES IN MARKETS FOLLOWING WARSH FED PICK
For the yuan to become a global reserve currency, there would need to be large international holdings of the yuan to make it a strong currency, which would make Chinese exports more difficult.
“That would go against a lot of the actions that they’re doing, I mean, they’re saying, yes, we want to be reserve currency, but they’re not really acting like they would want to do that, and they’ve got a long way to go,” Kates added.
from www.washingtonexaminer.com
China expels defence officials from legislature amid corruption crackdown – South China Morning Post
China expels defence officials from legislature amid corruption crackdown South China Morning Post
from news.google.com
BEIJING: China’s President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin hailed their countries’ “stabilising” economic, political and security alliance in the face of “turbulent” times globally, as they spoke via video call on Wednesday (Feb 4).
Moscow and Beijing have sought to present a united front against the West, with ties deepening since Russia’s 2022 Ukraine offensive.
The call comes days after top officials from both countries agreed ties could “break new ground” this year as Moscow and Beijing ramp up economic cooperation.
Las Vegas Police and the FBI raided a illegal Chinese biological lab running out of a Las Vegas home on January 31, collecting more than 1,000 samples. Several people allegedly became sick after being exposed to the laboratory in the home’s garage, 8 News Now reported.
“Initial search of the residence on Sugar Springs identified a bio-safety hood, a bio-safety sticker, a centrifuge, multiple refrigerators, red-brown unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids,” said Christopher Delzotto, FBI Special Agent in Charge at the Las Vegas office.
On Monday, the samples were reportedly loaded onto an FBI aircraft to be transported to the National Bioforensic Analysis Center in Maryland for testing.
Police raided a house in northeast Las Vegas on Saturday managed by Ori Solomon, an Israeli national currently in the U.S. on an E-2 visa, and owned by Jia Bei Zhu, the criminally charged Chinese national linked to a secret biolab discovered in Reedley, California, in late 2022.
Inside Zhu’s Vegas property on Sugar Springs Drive, law enforcement agents found a “possible biological laboratory” complete with a “bio-safety hood, a bio-safety sticker, a centrifuge, multiple refrigerators, red-brown unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers, and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids,” according to Christopher Delzotto, FBI special agent in charge at the bureau’s Las Vegas office.
According to China’s own numbers, the country’s birth rate hit 5.63 births per 1,000 people, a rate not seen since 1949. On the opposite side of the scale, China’s death rate hit 8.04 per people, which is up from 2024’s 7.76 deaths per 1000.
The death rate in 2025 exceeds the WORTS death rates during the pandemic years, with 2024 ALSO exceeding those numbers. One major factor pushing the death rate up is simply China’s aging population. Over 23% of Chinese citizens are over the age of 60. Remember, these are China’s own reported numbers. There is growing skepticism about the population size of China, as well as to the extent of the unexplained deaths that have been happening in China (none which can be fully substantiated).
China is facing a deepening demographic crisis as birth rates collapse and deaths continue to climb, pushing the country into its fourth straight year of population decline.
Just 7.9 million babies were born in China in 2025, the lowest number recorded in more than 70 years.
The figure represents a 17 percent drop from the previous year, when births totaled 9.5 million.
According to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s birth rate fell to 5.63 births per 1,000 people in 2025.
The rate is the lowest level since 1949, the year the Chinese Communist Party seized power.
How the Chinese Communist Party Destroys Its Own: The Falls of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli Vision Times
from news.google.com