03a China

Taiwan’s Biggest Problem in Steeling Itself for War with China is Cultural– warontherocks.com

pgnewser April 21, 2025 0

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General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly wants to prepare China for a war over Taiwan. The measures he is taking to ready its people, economy, legal system, and especially its military are clear for everyone to see. The best way to dissuade him from actually rolling the iron dice is for Washington and Taipei to work together, because neither can stop Beijing on their own. It would be a fool’s errand for Taiwan to resist a Chinese military onslaught without its chief patron and protector. And the United States needs Taiwan to hold on and hold out long enough for the U.S. military to arrive in decisive force.

Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Many Taiwanese citizens question whether America will actually defend them. Washington’s long standing posture of strategic ambiguity is obviously one source of skepticism. But even strategic clarity toward Taipei will not solve the problem. The fact is that Washington and Taipei have a long and complicated relationship. Taiwanese voters know the United States has a long history of turning its back on them in their moment of need.

Thus, there is no question that the United States should take steps to address Taiwan’s understandable lack of faith in America’s commitment. A sensible first step is to address the backlog in arms deliveries to Taiwan, as two Kuomintang legislative staffers recently argued in these pages. And there are a range of other things Washington can do to demonstrate that it is serious about Taiwan.

The Communist Chinese Have Won. The Largest Opposition Party in Hong Kong Is Disbanding. – PJ Media– pjmedia.com

pgnewser April 21, 2025 0

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The Communist Chinese have accomplished what many people believed was only a matter of time. Beijing has nearly destroyed the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong as the city’s Democratic Party, the largest opposition party, is disbanding.

Sheer brutality and the use of modern instruments of oppression accomplished what many activists in Hong Kong believed couldn’t be done. Perhaps they were naive in thinking that Beijing wanted a “two systems, one China” policy. Maybe they were crazy to think that Beijing meant to keep its promise to maintain Hong Kong’s autonomy for 50 years after Beijing regained control of the city in 1997.

Beijing was always playing the long game. China is an ancient country that is used to thinking in terms of centuries, not decades. It has a plan to reintegrate Hong Kong into the Chinese state, and nothing would happen that interfered with that plan. Using intimidation and draconian “security” laws, Beijing has successfully stymied the movement to maintain Hong Kong’s position as a quasi-independent city and will now complete the process of making Hong Kong just another city in China after the Democratic Party disbands.

It’s difficult to remember that when the British handed over Hong Kong to Beijing, there was hope that the Communists would keep their word and allow Hong Kong to maintain its civil liberties. For a while, Beijing kept its promise. But the noose gradually tightened, choking off any hope for freedom.

“We have not achieved what we set out to do,” Fred Li, a founding member of the party, said in an interview. “Without money or resources, we can’t even survive ourselves.”

Chinese port volume drops by 9.7% as Trump tariffs hammer exports | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com

pgnewser April 15, 2025 0

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Over the course of April 7-13, cargo handled by China has dropped by 9.7 percent.

Cargo going through ports in China has dropped by 9.7 percent in the second week of April, indicating that tariffs implemented by the Trump administration have been hammering the country’s exports to the US.

Over the course of April 7-13, cargo traffic dropped by 9.7 percent to 244 million tons, according to the Wall Street Journal. The week prior, when President Donald Trump implemented his reciprocal tariffs, there was only a drop of 0.88 percent.

Container throughput dropped by 6.1 percent, the Journal reported, reversing an increase of 1.9 percent the week prior. The outlet reports that there has been a steady increase in port volumes since January 2025, and the last couple weeks have seen that reverse.

China Halts Critical Rare Earth Exports as Trade War Intensifies – The New York Times

pgnewser April 15, 2025 0

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China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, threatening to choke off supplies of components central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.

Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors.

The official crackdown is part of China’s retaliation for President Trump’s sharp increase in tariffs that started on April 2.

Jerome Corsi: President Trump Can Snatch a Deep-Water Port in South America that China Covets | The Gateway Pundit– www.thegatewaypundit.com

pgnewser April 14, 2025 0

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… While the focus of the Trump administration has been on seizing control of the Panama Canal from China, another port on the Pacific Ocean side of South America, CopiaPort-E in Chile, billed as the “Rotterdam of the Pacific,” demands President Trump’s attention. The World Bank, UNESCO, and the Chinese Communist Party had long planned for CopiaPort-E’s 8-kilometer-long natural breakwater peninsula to be the landing pad for China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) in South America. If the Trump administration acts fast, President Trump can block the final step in China’s BRI expansion plans in South America before China finalizes the deal.

A group of three holding companies and one operating company (three Chilean and one Panama organized) own approximately 850 square miles (220,000) hectares of real estate on which the port will be developed, including all rights to intellectual property, programs, contracts, use and regulatory licenses, and trade secrets. St. Matthew Assurance Ltd., a part of the Cotswold Group of Companies, has established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Chinese Representatives to purchase equity and the rights to develop the CopiaPort-E Super Port project. St. Matthew Assurance Company, the ultimate owner, is an insurance company owned, organized, and operating under the laws of the Chiricahua Apache (CAMB) Nation and is benefiting from the CAMB Nation’s sovereign Indigenous status and protections provided by the U.S. domestic and international law, including the Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

U.S. Moves into Panama Canal, Kicking China Out

pgnewser April 14, 2025 0

Hegseth Secures ‘First and Free’ Passage for U.S. Ships in Panama Canal– www.breitbart.com
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PANAMA CITY, Panama — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had one mission on his trip to Panama — to secure a deal to get “first and free” passage for U.S. ships in the Panama Canal, a critical waterway for the United States’ economy and military that was at risk of falling under China’s control.

As the secretary and his team flew the down from Washington on Monday evening to meet with Panama’s leaders, such a deal with Panama was far from certain.

While the U.S. had built the canal in the early 1900s and maintained it for decades before handing it over to Panama, China had in recent years poured money into projects and infrastructure attached to it. As a passageway between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans that handles more than 40 percent of U.S. maritime trade, if China were able to close the canal, it would be a catastrophe for the U.S.

President Donald Trump, early on in his administration, made retaking the canal from Chinese influence a top priority. In December, even before he took office for the second time, he posted about it on Truth Social:


 

Trump’s tariffs prompt China to retaliate with 34% levy on U.S. imports, rare earth element export controls– www.cbsnews.com

pgnewser April 4, 2025 0

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Beijing — China announced Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10. The new tariff matches the rate of the U.S. tariff announced by President Trump this week, which he called a “reciprocal” measure, claiming China had tariffs and other measures in place on U.S. goods already that amounted to a 67% trade barrier.

For Mr. Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, the White House used a formula to calculate the sum of all the trade practices it deems unfair from other nations, including currency manipulation, tariffs and other barriers, in reaching its decision on how heavily to tariff almost every other country in the world. Economists have questioned the methodology, and many foreign governments have complained the levies are unfair and misrepresent their trade imbalances with the U.S.

The Commerce Ministry in Beijing also said in a notice that it would impose more export controls on rare earths elements, which are materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries.

The Chinese government said it would add 27 U.S. companies to lists of firms subject to trade sanctions or export controls. According to China’s tightly controlled media, the expanded export controls would cover seven types of rare earth related items, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.

U.S., China hold 1st military talks on maritime risks since Trump’s return – National– globalnews.ca

pgnewser April 4, 2025 0

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U.S. and Chinese military officials have met for their first working-level talks since U.S. President Donald Trump took office for the second time, with the two sides sharing their respective concerns over military safety on the seas.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the talks, held Wednesday and Thursday in the eastern Chinese city of Shanghai, were focused on “decreasing the incidences of unsafe and unprofessional” actions by China’s naval and air forces.

The Chinese defense ministry said it pointed out that U.S. military ships and aircraft have been conducting “reconnaissance, surveys and high-intensity drills in the sea and air spaces around China, which are prone to cause misunderstandings and miscalculations and jeopardize China’s sovereignty and military security.”

China told the U.S. that it would continue to “respond to all dangerous provocative actions” and “resolutely safeguard national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” the ministry statement said.

U.S. Bans American Government Employees From Romantic Or Sexual Relationships With Chinese Citizens– wltreport.com

pgnewser April 4, 2025 0

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The U.S. government has banned American government officials in China from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens.

The new policy was implemented by departing U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns in January.

The policy is the first “non-fraternization” policy issued by a U.S. agency since the Cold War.

3 Ways China Could Strike Taiwan And What It Means For The U.S.– thefederalist.com

pgnewser April 4, 2025 0

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On March 4, in response to President Donald J. Trump’s strategy of using tariffs to bring manufacturing back America and restore fair trade, the Chinese embassy ominously warned that China was ready for any “type of war” with the U.S.

Should war with China extend beyond tariffs, Taiwan is a likely battleground.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wants to take Taiwan. Seizing Taiwan is integral to CCP’s objective of dominating the world.

Taiwan isn’t just an island — it’s a geopolitical tripwire, a small, highly-prized self-ruled island of 23 million with a prominent stone spine. Strategically, it anchors the First Island Chain, a natural barricade from Japan to the Philippines that keeps China’s Pacific dreams in a bottle. For Beijing, cracking Taiwan open means breaking free into blue water and dominating Asia’s rim.

For the U.S., letting it slip is a gut punch. China’s reach would stretch to Guam, and America’s Pacific shield would splinter. Further, its semiconductor plants, led by TSMC, pump out 90 percent of the world’s advanced chips, powering everything from smartphones to stealth fighters. Lose that, and the global economy chokes.

China already ahead of U.S. in humanoid robot race, analysts say– www.cnbc.com

pgnewser March 31, 2025 0

China already ahead of U.S. in humanoid robot race, analysts say– www.cnbc.com
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American tech companies are racing to usher in the development of humanoid robots, stressing their importance to the future economy. But analysts warn they are already at risk of losing out to competitors in China.

So-called humanoid robots — artificial intelligence-powered machines designed to resemble humans in appearance and movement — are expected to provide a range of use cases, such as filling industrial and service sector jobs.

Investor excitement surrounding the robots has been mounting amid increased mentions from tech leaders like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, who ushered in “the age of generalist robotics” earlier this month as he announced a new portfolio of technologies for humanoid robot development.

In the manufacturing of the robots themselves, Tesla‘s humanoid robot project, Optimus, appears to be leading in the U.S., with CEO Elon Musk announcing plans to produce about 5,000 units this year.