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China Bioengineers Deadlier Coronavirus

Researchers associated with the Chinese military have bioengineered a COVID-related coronavirus (GX_P2V) that “can cause 100% mortality” in lab mice modified with human DNA, according to a “preprint” — a not-yet-reviewed paper — posted online on January 4. The development “is sure to remind many of the Wuhan lab incident,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins warned on “Washington Watch,” as the Chinese research team underscored the “spillover risk of GX_P2V into humans.”

After modifying a coronavirus found in a Malaysian pangolin, researchers were surprised that “all the mice that were infected with the live virus succumbed to the infection within 7-8 days post-inoculation, rendering a mortality rate of 100%.”

The laboratory test was designed and conducted by “researchers from the Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering and the Research Center for Clinical Medicine of the Fifth Medical Center of PLA (the People’s Liberation Army) General Hospital,” according to The New American.

The researchers “detected significant amounts of viral RNA in the brain, lung, turbinate [nose], eye, and trachea [throat],” with a “severe brain infection during the later stages of infection” being the most likely cause of death, in their opinion. By Day Seven, “the mice displayed symptoms such as piloerection, hunched posture, and sluggish movements, and their eyes turned white.”

“It is possible,” they admitted, that the modified coronavirus strain “has undergone a ‘virulence-enhancing mutation.’”

“This paper demonstrates that gain-of-function research on SARS-related viruses continues,” declared Dr. Robert Malone, chief medical and regulatory officer for The Unity Project, who emphasized “the risks of such research” and “the need for robust and verifiable restrictions.”

Rutgers University chemist Richard Ebright observed that “The preprint does not specify the biosafety level and biosafety precautions used for the research.” The absence of this information concerned him that “part or all of this research, like the research in Wuhan in 2016-2019 that likely caused the Covid-19 pandemic, recklessly was performed without the minimal biosafety containment and practices essential for research with a potential pandemic pathogens [sic].”

Malone called the research “alarming” and “deeply troubling” during an appearance on “Washington Watch,” lamenting that Chinese researchers “seem to have learned nothing” after the COVID-19 pandemic likelyoriginated from a lab leak. “This is quite alarming,” Perkins agreed, “given the fact that we know what happened last time.”

“Why would we be doing these types of research, especially given what happened with COVID-19?” Perkins asked.

Researchers rationalize their gain-of-function research with “contrived logic,” Malone responded. “‘Dual function research’ is what it’s technically called because it can be used for weapon purposes or for research and discovery purposes,” he said. Scientists believe that, if they “meddle about with these viruses and demonstrate ways that they can become more lethal, then they can anticipate that happening in nature,” he described.

However, Malone added, “clearly, what we’ve learned over the last four years is that that’s not sufficient to justify the risk to the global population.”

“I would think that, at some place, ethics would come into this,” Perkins responded. “Maybe there might be a remote chance that we … get ahead of [the next pandemic].” But he suggested that possibility seems insignificant “when you weigh the risk with … the fact that people will die if it leaks, like many suspect it did last time.”

Malone responded that, for some researchers, the ethic is a lack of any. “I can’t get into the minds of the people that are doing this,” he said. “But there is an ethic that if things can be done, they should be done. It is rampant in this research environment, in this research culture, that these scientists often believe that they’re the best and the brightest, and they’re entitled to do this.” Perhaps we can call it, “the Fauci Affect.”

Of course, not every virologist is so irresponsible. “It’s a terrible study, scientifically totally pointless,” asserted University College London infectious disease expert Professor Francois Balloux. “I can see nothing of vague interest that could be learned from force-infecting a weird breed of humanized mice with a random virus. Conversely, I could see how such stuff might go wrong.”

It’s relevant to note here that the communist Chinese research team’s study was not entirely devoid of an ethical framework. Their paper even included this “Ethics Statement:”

“All animals involved in this study were housed and cared for in an AAALAC (Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care) accredited facilities. The procedure for animal experiments (IACUC-2019-0027) was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Fifth Medical Center, General Hospital of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, and complied with IACUC standards.”

They weren’t very concerned about the possibility that their genetically mutated virus will escape the lab and kill millions of human beings. But they were very eager to inform their audience that their mutated lab mice were imprisoned humanely — before they infected them with a disease that caused the subjects to die slow and painful deaths. How comforting to the conscience.

“There needs to be a global ban on this type of research and development activity. It’s clearly not safe, and those that are performing it clearly have few, if any, ethical boundaries,” said Malone. Retired Stanford professor of medicine Dr. Gennadi Glinsky concurred. “This madness must be stopped before [it is] too late.”

One problem is, “we’re talking about the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]. So, their ideas of what is justified are not aligned, let’s say, with classical Western thought,” Malone said wryly. University of Michigan molecular biologist Dr. Christina Parks described the Chinese study as “classic gain-of-function, whether they tell you it is or not.”

As one more exhibit in a fistful of reasons not to trust the Chinse Communist Party, congressional investigators recently learned that Beijing had largely mapped out COVID-19’s genetic sequence two weeks before sharing it with the rest of the world. Dr. Lili Ren of the CCP-affiliated Institute of Pathogen Biology submitted the virus sequence to a U.S.-run genetic database on December 28, 2019; China did not share the virus sequence with the WHO until January 11, 2020. However, the NIH deleted it from the database after Ren failed to respond to questions about technical details. Reading between the lines, we can guess the reason why a scientist in China would suddenly become quiet about information inconvenient to the state.

However, another problem is, our own government is too often complicit in China’s unethical research. For the Chinese Communist Party, who seem to have little to no regard for human life, to engage in such monstrous research is one thing. “But we, as Americans, by and through our government, should be nowhere in the neighborhood,” insisted Perkins. If “we’re funding [gain-of-function research], … we bear responsibility as a nation.” We can’t change the evil nature of the CCP; we can change our participation with it.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) were deeply involved, through an American research consortium called EcoHealth Alliance, in funding research projects at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), including gain-of-function research with coronaviruses similar to Sars-Cov-2, the viral strain which sparked the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIH’s parent agency, debarred the WIV in 2023 due to its poor safety practices, but NIH still contract with EcoHealth Alliance, which is currently pursuing research related to Ebola-like viruses and noroviruses.

For Dr. Malone, the only explanation for this behavior was moral, not scientific. “We’re in a post-truth environment,” he said. “We seem to also be in a post-ethical environment for a large segment of our government. It’s driven by other considerations — you know, ‘realpolitik,’ — Henry Kissinger’s world rather than the logic of the United States as the ‘shining city on the hill’ and the ethical beacon for the world.”

For Perkins, Malone’s analysis explained more problems than just some foolish funding on virus research. Rather, it penetrated to the heart of the blight infecting politics across the board. “We live in a post-truth culture,” Perkins reiterated. “I mean, how else can you come up with the failure to recognize what science and biology tells us [about gender]? … [Y]ou talk about ‘deniers.’ These folks are deniers. They’re deniers of truth.” The same theme carries through the intellectual dishonesty recently exposed at the highest levels of academia and the media.

Paul warned his mentee Timothy of a coming time “when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:4). He could have been describing our own time and place.

“We have to stand firm for truth,” said Perkins, “lest our children be carried away in this ungodly culture, this godless culture that is being advanced.”

Meanwhile, global elites have gathered this week in Davos, Switzerland, where World Health Organization (WHO) Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus led a panel on “Preparing for Disease X.” But, instead of suggesting foolish scientists abandon their useless and risky research, WHO is pushing for a global pandemic treaty that would vastly expand their power at the expense of national sovereignty, free speech, and the right to life.

“It’s almost as if the WHO’s working in concert with the CCP,” suggested Perkins. “They’ve got a hand grenade with their finger on the pin saying, ‘Approve this treaty,’ because this [potential deadly virus] is out there.”

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED VIDEO: Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green Holds Hearing on Injuries Caused by Covid-19 Vaccines

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

As Taiwan Reaffirms Independence, Biden’s Weakness Emboldens China, Experts Say

On Saturday, current vice president and independence advocate Lai Ching-te (also known as William Lai) was elected the next president of Taiwan, winning over 40% of the popular vote. The election drew a series of strong rebukes from China, as experts noted that Lai’s victory signaled the continued resolve of the Taiwanese people to maintain their independence from the increasingly hostile communist regime.

The election marked the third consecutive time that Taiwanese citizens installed the country’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has maintained a consistent stance for Taiwanese independence from China. The DPP victory was quickly dismissed by Chinese officials, with the communist regime condemning the U.S. and the Philippines, among others, for congratulating Taiwan’s new president. “Taiwan is China’s Taiwan,” one state official declared. The Chinese Embassy in London was similarly dismissive, stating, “No matter how the situation in Taiwan changes, the basic fact that Taiwan is part of China will not change.”

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that four Chinese military vessels were detected near Taiwan following the election, and “a high-altitude Chinese balloon floated off the northwest coast near the capital.”

On Tuesday, Gordon Chang, distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, joined “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” to discuss the implications of Taiwan’s election.

“Freedom had a great day, which means that Xi Jinping and the Communist Party had a horrible day,” he observed. “[William Lai] said throughout the campaign that his motto was going to be ‘continuity’ — continuity with Tsai Ing-wen, the current president. … Taiwan’s on a collision course with China, but it’s not because of the Democratic Progressive Party or William Lai or anything like that. They’re on a collision course with China because of China. And even if one of the pro-China candidates had been elected on Saturday, there still would be a collision, because Xi Jinping would be demanding that they surrender to China. And that’s just not possible in a democratic society where people believe that they are not Chinese.”

As Perkins further noted, Biden administration officials have repeatedly stated their desire to maintain the “status quo” with China in order to keep the peace. “We might want peace, but I’m not so sure that’s what’s on China’s agenda,” he remarked.

“No, it certainly isn’t,” Chang agreed. “You know, we’ve heard a lot of bland statements from the Biden administration. They sound good to the ear. But during the [last] three years, we have witnessed the failure and catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia’s attack on Ukraine, China and Russia fueling insurgencies across North Africa that look like wars, and of course the October 7 attack on Israel, which now has spread to the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. So really what has occurred is a failure of the international system under Biden. Yeah, they can tell us nice sounding words, but they don’t mean anything because they’re not backed up.”

Chang went on to express alarm about the consequences that perceived weakness on the part of the Biden administration will have on the world stage.

“I’m really concerned because the Chinese can see the feeble responses of the Biden administration to all these crises, and then believe that they can do what they want,” he said. “… I think they’re getting the message that they have a free hand to greenlight all sorts of invasions around the world. You know, Tony, in 1939, there were crises across the world. There were wars across the world, and they merged into what we now know as World War II. And unfortunately, the same dynamic is occurring today. And I hope to God it doesn’t have the same result. But we are on a momentum toward global conflict.”

On Monday, Britain’s Defence Secretary Grant Shapps echoed Chang’s concerns in a major speech in London, in which he urged Britain and its allies to increase defense spending in the face of an array of global threats.

“The era of the peace dividend is over,” he declared. “In five years’ time, we could be looking at multiple theatres involving Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Ask yourself, looking at today’s conflicts across the world, is it more likely that that number grows or reduces? I suspect we all know the answer: it’s likely to grow.”

Another factor to keep in mind is China’s current domestic situation, Chang pointed out. “I think their go/no-go decision [to invade Taiwan] is going to be based on domestic Chinese considerations,” he contended. “… [W]e do see symptoms of distress in Chinese society. … [China’s economy is] basically at 0% growth, maybe negative one, maybe plus one. It’s nowhere near the 5.2% that the premier of China mentioned at Davos, because we see a lot of indicators pointing to negative growth, and we see deflation tightening its grip over the Chinese economy.”

Invading Taiwan would likely help China’s economy, Chang concluded. “It certainly helps Xi Jinping, perhaps because he needs to have something to distract the Chinese people from his failing domestic policies.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Liberal Foundations Poured Tens Of Millions Of Dollars Into Influential Environmental Org Tied To Chinese Government

Major U.S.-based liberal charitable foundations have donated millions of dollars to Energy Foundation China (EFC), a San Francisco-based environmental nonprofit with deep ties to the Chinese government.

U.S.-based liberal charities, such as the Hewlett Foundation and nonprofits managed by left-wing dark money consultancy Arabella Advisors, have poured over $100 million into EFC since 2020, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of tax filings and foundation grant databases. EFC uses those funds to bankroll U.S.-based climate activists and to support the development of clean energy in China.

EFC has close ties to the Chinese state; at least nine members of the organization’s leadership and senior staff have previously held positions in China’s government, with one described in a Tsinghua University press release as an “outstanding [Chinese] Communist Party member.”

EFC spent more than $52 million funding green projects and organizations in the United States and China in 2022, according to tax forms.

EFC funds several of the U.S.-based organizations that have played a role in influencing the Biden administration’s climate agenda. American groups funded by EFC have, among other things, opposed the development of new oil drilling sites and promoted renewable energy technologies, like solar panels.

Green Cash

Liberal foundations have poured millions into EFC over the last four years, specifically for climate and energy programs in China, tax documents and grant databases show.

EFC had been a program under the Energy Foundation before breaking off and becoming an independent legal entity in 2019, according to its website. Prior to 2019, grants from charitable foundations to EFC were made out to the Energy Foundation and earmarked for EFC.

The Packard Foundation, Hewlett Foundation and MacArthur Foundation, all major players in American environmental activism, were some of EFC’s largest donors, representing almost 40% of the over $217.1 million the group raised between 2020 and 2022.

The MacArthur Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation donated at least $6 million and $67 million to EFC, respectively, between 2020 and 2023. The Packard Foundation, meanwhile, has donated about $19.3 million to the organization since 2020, according to its grant database.

Likewise, senior employees of the MacArthur Foundation, the Packard Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation hold seats on EFC’s board of directors.

The MacArthur Foundation gave EFC $2 million between 2020 and 2021 to help “China transition to a sustainable energy future,” according to its tax filings.

The Hewlett Foundation, meanwhile, paid out grants explicitly to fund EFC’s pro-Chinese government activities.

The Energy Foundation, which housed EFC at the time, received $8.4 million from the Hewlett Foundation in 2016 in part to fund EFC’s efforts to support the “climate implementation goals for China’s 13th Five-Year Plan.”

China’s Five-Year plan is formulated by the CCP and “sets forth China’s strategic intentions and defines its major objectives” for a five year period, according to the Chinese government.

Furthermore, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund gave EFC $200,000 in 2021 to support “low carbon transportation planning in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao greater bay area.” Rockefeller Brothers spent $200,000 bankrolling a similar project in 2019.

EFC’s donors, while funding the organization’s China-based activities, also served as major backers of domestic liberal activists. The Packard, Hewlett and MacArthur foundations, for instance, have poured millions of dollars into Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups, according to tax filings.

The Energy Foundation’s activities in China also attracted significant support from entities tied to the Democratic Party.

The Heising-Simons Foundation, a California-based family charity founded by Democratic megadonors Liz Simons and Mark Heising. The foundation gave $925,000 to the Energy Foundation for its Chinese operations in 2017 and about $2.3 million in 2018, when EFC was still part of the Energy Foundation, according to tax forms.

Simons and Heising have donated nearly $10 million to Democrats and members of Congress who caucus with the Democrats since 2020, campaign finance records show.

Windward Fund and Hopewell Fund, nonprofits managed by the Democrat-aligned consultancy Arabella Advisors, supported EFC to the tune of nearly $2.5 million between 2020 and 2022, according to tax filings.

Several of the funds managed by Arabella Advisors are “dark money” organizations that are not required to disclose their donors and direct the bulk of their grants to left-wing and Democrat-aligned groups. Hopewell and Windward disclose their donors, however Hopewll received funds from Sixteen Thirty Fund, an organization in Arabella’s network that does not disclose donors, according to tax forms.

“Windward Fund recognizes that the climate crisis is a global challenge,” the organization said in a statement to the DCNF.

The Packard Foundation, Heising Simons Foundation, Hopewell Fund, MacArthur Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Hewlett Foundation did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

The China Connection

Former Chinese government officials have an outsized presence among EFC’s leadership and senior staff.

Zhang Hongjun, who is on EFC’s board of directors, was an official in China’s National Environmental Protection Agency and a legislative director in China’s National People’s Congress, focusing on environmental laws, according to EFC’s website.

The National People’s Congress (NPC) is “the highest organ of State power in China,” according to its website. The NPC operates under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and leaders of the NPC’s standing committee, a powerful subset of the NPC, are “invariably influential members of the CCP and leaders of major mass organizations,” according to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

He Kebin, another board member, was a representative in the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress in 2018, according to Sina, a Chinese-language media outlet. The Beijing Municipal People’s Congress works under the direct leadership of the CCP in implementing policy and providing services in China’s capital city, according to a report published by the mayor of Beijing in January 2023.

A group of universities in Beijing awarded Kebin the title of “outstanding member of the [Chinese] communist party” at a celebration marking the 99th anniversary of the CCP, according to a press release from Tsinghua University.

Several board members, including Kebin and Hongjun, are listed as council members on the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development’s (CCICED) website. CCICED was founded in 1992 with the approval of the Chinese government and advises the Chinese government on environmental policy and development, according to the organization’s website.

CCICED reports to the Chinese government’s State Council and its executive committee is staffed by several high-ranking Chinese government officials, according to the organization’s website.

CCICED Chairman Ding Xuexiang is the top-ranking vice premier of the People’s Republic of China and a member of the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee, a seven-person Chinese government body headed by General Secretary Xi Jinping.

Other EFC board members are listed as special advisors for CCICED, including Shenyu BelskyHongpeng Lei and EFC President Zou Ji.

Zou Ji formerly served as deputy director general of China’s state-run National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, and he was a key player in China’s delegation to the Paris Climate Accords in 2015, according to his bio on EFC’s website.

EFC paid Ji almost $500,000 in 2021 for his work as the group’s president and CEO, according to the organization’s 2021 tax filing. Board members Kebin and Hongjun drew compensation of $6,000 and $4,500, respectively, according to the 2021 filing.

EFC’s Senior Program Director of Strategic Communications Hui Jing formerly worked at the state-run National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Lan Yu, a program officer for EFC’s Low Carbon Economic Growth initiative, previously served in China’s finance and environmental ministries, according to their respective bios on EFC’s website.

Xin Liu, who leads EFC’s environmental management division, formerly served as a senior official in the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, and Ping He, who is the program director of EFC’s industry program, worked at the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences for almost a decade, according to EFC’s website.

While the organization’s tax forms say it’s based in San Francisco, EFC also has an office in Beijing, which, according to the group’s website, is “registered with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and supervised by the National Development and Reform Commission of China.”

The National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC) is a Chinese government agency that exists to “formulate and implement strategies on national economic and social development” and create “strategies, plans and policies for utilizing foreign capital,” according to the NDRC’s website. The commission also is involved with the Chinese military as it “undertake[s] specific tasks of the National Defense Mobilization Committee,” according to its website.

Additionally, EFC disclosed a payment of nearly $400,000 for “consulting services” to the state-run China News Service on its 2020 tax forms.

The State Department designated China News Service as a foreign mission in 2020, meaning that it was found to be effectively controlled by the Chinese government.

‘China’s Ambitious Climate Vision’

Among other things, EFC says its goals are to improve China’s transportation system, to help the communist country achieve clean economic growth and to promote “China’s ambitious climate vision.” EFC aimed to assist China in becoming “the world leader in clean energy production, consumption, and investment, by 2030,” according to an archived version of the organization’s webpage

“Communist China is our enemy, and their ‘green energy’ policies are based on slave and child labor, government subsidies and trade abuses,” Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott told the DCNF.

EFC has also funneled large sums of money into influential, left-of-center environmental groups in the U.S.

Domestic climate groups, like the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), received millions from EFC between 2020 and 2022.

RMI, a nonprofit dedicated to “working to accelerate the clean energy transition,” was behind a study cited by Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr.’s decision to consider a ban on gas stoves, which attracted significant controversy.

The Colorado-based organization also partnered with the Chinese government to produce a report advising a transition away from oil and gas. EFC was also involved in producing that report.

White House officials have met privately with leaders of RMI, Fox News Digital reported.

EFC gave about $1.8 million to RMI between 2020 and 2022, tax forms show.

NRDC, meanwhile, received about $700,000 from EFC between 2020 and 2022, according to tax forms.

NRDC describes itself as the “first national environmental advocacy group to focus on legal action.” NRDC has opposed expanded oil drilling in the United States, power plants that run on coalmining projects and the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

NRDC also has close ties to the Biden administration.

Gina McCarthy, NRDC’s former president, served as the White House’s national climate advisor from 2021 to 2022, Fox reported. The organization’s current president, Manish Bapna, has attended at least two White House meetings and the NRDC regularly communicates with Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s office, Fox reported.

“There are those, foremost among them, John Kerry, but there are many others who believe the existential challenge of our time … is climate change, and therefore we must have a more cooperative relationship with China,” House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher told the DCNF.

“That’s nonsense. We need to get realistic before it’s too late. Thinking that Xi Jinping cares about the documents that are signed at [the United Nations Climate Change Conference] is naïve, utopian nonsense. It reflects a profound misunderstanding of how the geopolitical world works.”

NRDC and RMI both have offices in China.

EFC has provided funding to RMI and NRDC’s Chinese programs, though grants to those organizations on EFC’s most recent publicly-available tax forms are earmarked for “education and analysis” operations with no mention of China.

RMI employs a number of former Chinese government officials through its China program. Ting LiMinhui GaoKaidi GuoQiyu Liu and Qian Sun are among the RMI staffers who formerly held posts in the Chinese government.

EFC did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHORS

ROBERT SCHMAD AND PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Contributors.

RELATED ARTICLE: Biden Admin Doubles Down On Climate Cooperation With China As Xi’s Economy Goes On Coal Binge

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Second-Largest Foreign Owner Of U.S. Land Is A Chinese Communist Party Member

The second-largest foreign landowner in the U.S. is a Chinese billionaire who it has been determined is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese-language news reports.

Chen Tianqiao, the founder, chairman and CEO of global investment firm Shanda Group, owns approximately 200,000 acres of land in Oregon, according to Land Report. Chen also has extensive ties to the Chinese government, ranging from CCP membership to executive roles in CCP-affiliated organizations, according to a DCNF review of Chinese-language media reports.

In 2015, Chen acquired 198,000 acres in Oregon, according to Land Report. The $85 million purchase made the Chinese national the 82nd-largest property owner in the U.S. and the second-largest foreign U.S. land owner, Bloomberg reported, second only to a Canadian family who owns over 1 million acres of Maine.

Oregon’s Bull Springs Skyline Forest accounts for approximately 33,000 of Chen’s acreage, according to Land Report. The forest is located west of Bend, Oregon, and is home to springs, creeks, timberland and wildlife, according to the Bull Springs Skyline Forest website.

Oregon Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer said she was “deeply concerned that individuals tied to the Chinese Communist Party are buying up timberland, which is one of our most precious and finite resources.”

“Foreign ownership of United States lands is a serious problem that has rightfully sparked unease among farmers, ranchers and foresters across the country,” Chavez-DeRemer told the DCNF.

Chen also owns several urban properties in the U.S., including the Vanderbilt Mansion in Manhattan, the Seeley Mudd Estate near Los Angeles and a 150,000 square-foot research facility at Caltech called the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience — each worth tens of millions of dollars, according to Land Report.

Chinese ownership of U.S. land, in particular agricultural land, has come under increased scrutiny from GOP governors, who see it as a potential national security threat. Several states, including Florida, have taken legislative and executive action to ban Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland, the most recent being Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s January 2024 executive order banning such purchases near military installations.

“One of the Chinese Communist Party’s goals is to undermine and weaken America,” Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio told the DCNF. “This includes instances where our greatest adversary continues to buy land — whether its farmland or near our installations.”

‘Despise All Our Enemies’

Born in 1973, Chen served as a student cadre from an early age, state-run media outlet China News Service reported.

“In 1990, Chen enrolled in Fudan University to major in economics, the following year he joined the Chinese Communist Party, and, in 1993, he won the title of ‘Shanghai Municipal Outstanding Model Cadre Student,’” according to a DCNF translation of an archived 2005 press release from Chen’s alma mater, Fudan University in Shanghai.

Chen was just 18 when he joined the Communist Party, according to a 2007 article from Communist Youth Daily, the official newspaper for the Communist Youth League.

Since joining the Party, Chinese media outlets and business filings have repeatedly identified Chen as a CCP member.

A 2016 Sohu.com article identified Chen and several other Chinese CEOs as CCP members. Likewise, Chen’s profile on the Chinese financial portal Sina, which was last updated in November 2023, identifies him as a CCP member.

The state-run Beijing Review describes Chen as an admirer of Mao Zedong, first chairman of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Several Chinese-language outlets have also reported that Chen’s corporate office prominently displays Mao’s written works.

Chen even has a favorite Mao Zedong quote, according to state-run media outlet China News Service: “Strategically we should despise all our enemies, but tactically we should take them all seriously.”

Mao delivered the remarks in a speech denouncing American imperialism during a visit to Moscow in November 1957, according to the University of Dayton Review.

Above and beyond his CCP membership, Chinese government records show that Chen served as a representative to the 11th and 12th councils of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which ran between 2008 and 2018.

The CPPCC is a Chinese government agency where “all the relevant united front actors inside and outside the party come together: party elders, intelligence officers, diplomats, propagandists, military officers and political commissars, united front workers, academics and businesspeople,” former CIA officer Peter Mattis testified to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2019.

“CPPCC delegates attend a high-profile annual meeting to receive direction from the CCP regarding the ways its policies should be characterized to both domestic and foreign audiences,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. “Delegates to the CPPCC serve as proxies for CCP interests by virtue of their participation in this forum, and they frequently act as interlocutors with foreign government officials, businesses, and academic institutions.”

Chinese media reports include photos of Chen attending CPPCC meetings while wearing the government agency’s distinctive red, clip-on delegate’s badge.

‘Growing Cause For Concern’

Chen has also held executive positions with the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), including with the group’s Shanghai branch, according to the Chinese-language news outlet Sohu.com.

ACFIC describes itself as an organization “led by the Communist Party of China” that “contributes greatly to the Party’s united front and economy related work as well as the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

John Dotson, deputy director of Global Taiwan Institute, told the DCNF that ACFIC is subordinate to the United Front Work Department (UFWD), which is a CCP agency whose operations are a “blend of engagement, influence activities and intelligence operations,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

“In regards to the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, it’s definitely a subordinate agency of the UFWD — that’s not even a matter for analysis or interpretation,” Dotson told the DCNF. “In public Chinese sources, ACFIC is openly listed as a subordinate branch of the UFWD.”

ACFIC could not be reached for comment.

“The increase in PRC-affiliated U.S. land purchases in recent years is a growing cause for concern,” a House Select Committee on the CCP aide told the DCNF. “We can start with adding a presumption of denial for entities affiliated with the PRC when it comes to land acquisitions near national security sites such as military bases that the CCP could use for intelligence collection or worse.”

Chen and Shanda Group did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Daily Caller News Foundation investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Hot Mic Catches Journalists Joking About Trump Assassination

Many a truth is said in jest. The media is the enemy of the people.

Journalists watched Hamas lynchings, kidnappings, rapings and urged civilians to join the slaughter. So is this surprising?

Bernard Kerik: “[N]o one should be surprised.”

Venezuela, Iran, Russia, China, Cuba, and many others. That’s the way it’s done.

Oppose politically, impeach, use state media to destroy, use your criminal justice system, military, and when all else fails.

By: Tommy Christopher

A hot mic caught journalists joking about former President Donald Trump being assassinated as they awaited his appearance at the federal courthouse where his criminal immunity appeal will be held.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear oral arguments on Tuesday, January 9, on the issue of presidential immunity after Judge Tanya Chutkan denied two motions to dismiss based on First Amendment and presidential immunity claims.

The appeal will be heard by a three-judge panel consisting of Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was nominated by President Joe Biden in January 2022 and confirmed in July 2022; Judge Florence Pan, nominated by Biden in May 2022 and confirmed in September 2022; and Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was appointed by then-President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

On Tuesday morning, news cameras were set up at locations between the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia and the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in anticipation of Trump’s arrival for the proceedings.

One such live feed caught some banter between journalists grousing about the difficulty of getting a good shot of Trump from their vantage point — banter which veered into gallows humor with some references to the late President John F. Kennedy and a convertible:

JOURNO 1: You know what the worst part is? Even if he has his window open and he’s hanging out of it, he will be on the other side of the street.
JOURNO 2: I mean, if he’s driving, we’ve got a good shot!
JOURNO 1: Yeah, if he’s driving with the front window open?
JOURNO 2: Yeah, or if it’s a convertible?
JOURNO 1: Yeah. I wasn’t thinking about that.
JOURNO 2: Yeah. Like if he just pulls up–
JOURNO 1: Like JFK?
JOURNO 2: (laughs)
JOURNO 1: Maybe someone, just like they told JFK. You know what you should do? You should take a convertible! It’s so nice out!

Watch above via AP [Journalists’ comments are at the 53:00 minute mark].

AUTHOR

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Left-Wing Attempt To Tie Trump To Foreign Influence Money Doesn’t Add Up, Records Show

House Oversight Committee Democrats released a report Thursday attempting to connect former President Donald Trump to a pay-for-play foreign influence scheme, but the evidence fell far short of a smoking gun.

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, released a report revealing that Trump’s business entities raked in at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments and their subsidiaries during the first two years of his presidency, including from China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Malaysia. A majority of that money, however, came from one business that began renting office space from Trump Tower in 2008 and concluded its partnership in 2019, during his administration, the report shows.

“The difference between Trump’s foreign income and Biden’s foreign income is that Trump had legitimate goods and services to sell and was tough on China while the Bidens did not have any legitimate business and Joe has been weak on China,” Seamus Bruner, director of research at the Government Accountability Institute, told the Daily Caller in a statement.

Of the $7.8 million Trump’s businesses made from foreign governments during the two years in question, $5.5 million that was paid to Trump-owned properties was from the Chinese government and state-owned enterprises, the records show. Of that, the committee estimates that the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, a Chinese state-owned business, paid Trump-owned properties $5.3 million between February 2017 and October 2019.

The Chinese company had entered a contract with Trump Tower for commercial office space in 2008, the report shows. The contract was concluded on Oct. 31, 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began and with nearly a year-and-a-half still remaining in Trump’s first term in office.

Throughout his presidency, Trump made being harsh on China a key part of his foreign policy and took steps to do that by instituting unprecedented tariffs, including an additional 15% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese goods. The tariff was originally set at 10% and compelled China to increase American imports.

Additionally, nine of the countries cited in the report paid less than $10,000 to Trump businesses, according to the report. Cyprus, one of the countries listed, paid just $590.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, India and Malaysia each spent more than $200,000 at Trump’s businesses, the report shows, but a spokesperson for the Trump Organization noted to NPR that all profits from foreign governments were given away.

Profits for Trump’s businesses from foreign governments “were donated in full to the United States Treasury for patronage at our properties while President Trump was in office,” Kimberly Benza told NPR. Benza made note of a $450,000 donation Trump made.

Raskin accused House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of colluding with Trump’s attorneys to try to block the committee from gaining additional records about the former president’s foreign payments.

“While the figures and constitutional violations in this report are shocking, we still don’t know the extent of the foreign payments that Donald Trump received —or even the total number of countries that paid him and his businesses while he was President—because Committee Chairman James Comer and House Republicans buried any further evidence of the Trump family’s staggering corruption,” Raskin said in a statement.

The House Democrats’ report comes as Republicans move forward with an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over his family’s foreign business dealings. From 2014-2019, Biden’s family and its business associates collected more than $24 million from Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania and Kazakhstan, according to a September memo from House Republicans. The figure is nearly 15 million more than Trump is reported to have received by House Democrats.

“It’s beyond parody that Democrats continue their obsession with former President Trump. Former President Trump has legitimate businesses but the Bidens do not. The Bidens and their associates made over $24 million by cashing in on the Biden name in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania. No goods or services were provided other than access to Joe Biden and the Biden network,” Comer told the Daily Caller.

Biden’s son Hunter played a large role in obtaining the funds. Throughout the Trump presidency, after his father left office, Hunter Biden made numerous business deals with foreign entities. CEFC, a Chinese firm, sent a business associate of Hunter’s $3 million through its State Energy HK account, bank records previously released by the Oversight Committee show.

Hunter Biden’s federal tax indictment in California clarified that he received about $1 million of the funds sent to the State Energy HK account. He made additional income in 2017 and 2018 from Hudson West III, a business entity he formed with CEFC associates. Hunter Biden’s relationship began in 2015 when his father was still vice president, his California indictment shows.

In November, Comer detailed through a series of bank records how the funds from China made it through multiple Biden family accounts, ending in a $40,000 check to Joe Biden in September 2017.

“Democrats like Jamie Raskin are trying to deflect from the fact that the Biden family bagged at least $30 million from foreign individuals linked to the highest levels of the Chinese military and intelligence apparatus—perhaps the greatest presidential scandal in American history,” Bruner told the Daily Caller.

AUTHOR

REAGAN REESE

White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

OAN VIDEO: Xi Allegedly Told Biden He Plans To Take Taiwan ‘Peacefully’

We have been reporting on how “Beijing” Biden and his foreign policies have lead to war in Europe between Russian and Ukraine, in the Middle East between Israel and Iran’s proxies Hamas and Hezbollah and in South America with the invasion of Guyana by Communist Venezuela.

Now we have this breaking news about yet another potential war in the far East between China and Taiwan.

One America News reports, “During President Biden’s meeting with China’s Xi Xinping last month, the Chinese leader allegedly told him China still intends on taking Taiwan.”

One America’s Chief White House Correspondent Monica Paige breaks down the details in the below video.

WATCH: Xi Allegedly Told Biden He Plans To Take Taiwan ‘Peacefully’

©2023. One America News. All rights reserved.

Biden Admin Doubles Down On Climate Cooperation With China As Xi’s Economy Goes On Coal Binge

The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it is doubling down on efforts to work with China on climate change.

The State Department unveiled a comprehensive strategy reaffirming the administration’s commitment to taking on climate change as a global problem alongside China, even during a time of rocky relations between the two nations and clear signs that China may not be inclined to ditch fossil fuels anytime soon. The countries are on the same page regarding emissions reduction targets and strategies, cooperation through international institutions, subnational agreements and numerous other specific topics, according to the State Department.

China permitted an average of two coal-fired power plants per week in 2022, according to NPR, and their climate envoy said in September that the complete elimination of fossil fuel energy is an “unrealistic” goal. Nevertheless, the Biden administration is committed to working with China to reduce numerous classes of emissions, including methane and nitrogen oxides, both of which are associated with coal.

Both countries welcome subnational agreements focused on climate, such as those reached by Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and representatives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to the State Department. Additionally, the countries are jointly committed to turning back forest loss, reducing plastic pollution and rapidly developing green energy generation sources.

Tuesday’s agreement on climate stands as one of several tentative deals reached this week between the two countries. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to halt the production of illicit fentanyl and resume inter-military communications in California during their first meeting in a year.

Notably, the State Department announcement also alludes to a joint plan to hold “a high-level event on subnational climate action” at some point in the first half of next year.

The two countries also committed to working together to keep United Nations average temperature targets in reach in ways that “[reflect] equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances,” according to the announcement. China is technically a developing nation in the eyes of the United Nations, despite being by far the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases and its status as the world’s second-largest economy, and it appears unwilling to pay into the so-called “loss and damages” fund, a de facto international climate reparations program by which rich countries would pay developing, poorer countries for the impacts of climate change.

The “loss and damages” program is poised to be a major topic of discussion at the upcoming United Nations climate conference, which itself is another point of collaboration between Washington and Beijing, according to the announcement.

The State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

NICK POPE

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Ukraine, Israel, and the American World Order

An emerging stream of thought in American politics questions America’s longstanding international commitments because it doesn’t remember why we made them in the first place. Why is America supplying Ukraine with weapons in its war against Russia? What is America’s interest — as distinct from a Jew’s or Christian’s interest — in securing Israel’s victory over Hamas? Would America really put its own blood and treasure on the line to defend the sovereignty of faraway Taiwan?

When taken in isolation, these commitments may seem arbitrary. But understanding the history of American foreign policy can put them into their proper context.

America and Freedom

Perhaps the most fundamental aspect of American foreign policy is the character of the American people. America is founded on free ideals. These include ironclad protections for free markets and free enterprise, a primary source of American strength. America’s strong and open economy means American producers can often supply goods to new markets — when they can find them.

Enabling American merchants to freely buy and sell in overseas markets has remained a core objective of American foreign policy throughout most of American history. This was true when Boston merchants loaded bales of tobacco and cotton onto wooden sailing ships bound for Europe. It remains true as Coca-Cola and Apple market soft drinks and iPhones to the interior parts of Africa. The Washington administration and the Truman administration had drastically different foreign policies, but they shared this in common.

In fact, the young federal republic fought its first wars to defend the freedom of American merchant shipping. In the 1790s, America’s first post-revolution naval actions were to defend American sailors being pressed into service in the British and French navies. In 1801, American marines assaulted “the shores of Tripoli” to end Mediterranean piracy against American vessels. Later, an American squadron in 1853 threatened military action against Japan to force that hermit kingdom to open its ports to American trade.

Non-Intervention

Throughout most of the 1800s, America was able to achieve its goal of protecting international trade while largely avoiding foreign entanglements because a more powerful nation had the same goal. Great Britain, a banking powerhouse, also pursued a merchant-focused foreign policy — mostly by trading with colonies it established around the globe — and it had the world’s most powerful navy to enforce its will. This left America largely free to settle the giant continent that lay before it.

The main exception to American non-intervention in the 1800s — after the foolish war of 1812, that is — was the Monroe Doctrine. As South and Central American colonies declared independence from European powers in the 1810s and 1820s, U.S. President James Monroe announced that the U.S. would oppose any effort by European powers to establish or re-establish a colony in the Americas. This policy was designed to keep the world’s most powerful militaries from establishing a base on America’s doorstep, but it also allowed the fledgling new nations to learn how to govern themselves without fear of imminent invasion (admittedly, many of them performed poorly). In other words, it was America’s first attempt at creating other nations like ourself.

From the 1890s through the 1910s (the Progressive Era), American presidents embraced a more muscular foreign policy. They fought and won a war against a European power (Spain), created the nation of Panama to build a canal, and elbowed America into World War I to influence the post-war settlement. The war elevated America to an international status close to that of the great powers, mostly because these were exhausted and devastated from years of hard fighting. However, the American people ultimately rejected the post-war League of Nations negotiated by President Wilson, and once again withdrew from foreign concerns during the Great Depression.

World War II

Then came World War II, which profoundly changed America’s relationship with the rest of the world. America was reluctant to interfere in foreign affairs and did not join in the war until we were attacked. But, once America was roused, our economy demonstrated just how powerful it was, as we basically outproduced our way to victory against Japan and Germany.

America emerged from World War II with only one close rival, the Soviet Union. Previous powers, such as Great Britain, France, and Germany, were devastated by the war. This role forced the U.S. to engage more actively in foreign relations. In particular, a war-weakened Britain no longer stabilized world finances or patrolled the world’s oceans; now America’s central bank and Navy would have to perform these functions if we were to protect our own trading interests.

America deployed the Marshall Plan to rapidly rehabilitate Western Europe, and even our recent enemies, Germany and Japan. Partly, this investment corrected the mistakes made after World War I, which left Germany humiliated, weakened, and eager to avenge itself in another war. Partly, this investment helped to fortify a bulwark against the Soviet Union, which was rapidly gobbling up eastern Europe. But partly, this investment helped to stimulate America’s own economy, because we needed trading partners wealthy enough to buy our goods.

America and other nations also sought to prevent a repeat of World War II, which began with a strongman and his military machine gobbling up smaller, weaker neighbors one after another, while other nations were reluctant to take responsibility to stop him. To that end, America and other nations formed the United Nations in 1945, with a resolve “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”

The U.N. Charter’s very first article defined its purposes: “To maintain international peace and security … To develop friendly relations among nations … To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems … To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.”

Article 2 of the U.N. Charter set forth additional principles to govern international behavior. It affirmed “the sovereign equality of all its Members,” required member nations to “settle their international disputes by peaceful means,” forbade “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,” and required member nations to make sure that non-member nations acted according to these principles.

This Charter is worth noticing carefully. Granted, the U.N. has many shortcomings and outright failures. It seethes with anti-Semitism, overextends its authority into the affairs of sovereign nations, is often taken captive by the worst human rights abusers, and often fails to have any positive effect when actual crises arrive. Granted, too, the Charter exudes an overly optimistic view of international relations that lacks realism.

But notice the Charter’s goals: maintaining international peace, acknowledging national sovereignty, and preserving the territorial integrity of nation states against aggression by stronger, more powerful neighbors. These principles create conditions where international trade can flourish. They also enable a nation to handle its own affairs without undue interference by outsiders. These are the conditions American foreign policy has sought to achieve throughout its entire history. This is the Monroe Doctrine made global.

Also significantly, the principles set forth in this Charter were emphatically not those of the Soviet Union or other warmongering dictators. Before World War II, Joseph Stalin had eagerly partnered with Hitler to divide Poland between them. After World War II, the Soviet Union continued to dominate all the nations in its sphere of influence — nations behind what came to be known as the Iron Curtain. It took decades before East Germany, Czechoslovakia, or Romania saw political freedom again. Additionally, the Soviet Union was constantly trying to export its toxic ideology — to Nicaragua or Cuba, for instance — or invade other countries — but more on that shortly.

In other words, although the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were the two global superpowers, the international union they formed reflected American values far more than Soviet ones. Partly, this was because communists are willing to say nice things and then do terrible things. But partly, this represented a moral victory for the United States. The world order that took shape after World War II was an American one.

The post-World War II American World Order has endured for nearly a lifetime. America has profitable and sophisticated trade relationships with countries in Europe, eastern and southern Asia, South America, Africa, and the Pacific. America has developed and deepened security relationships with more than 50 nations on every continent. After roughly 45 years, America’s only peer rival, the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving the U.S. in the rare position of a global hegemon. This has been the American World Order, and America has, on average, benefited by it.

Sometimes, the U.N. has positively helped confront challenges to the American World Order. Soviet- and Chinese-backed communists attempted to invade Korea in the 1950s, but a U.N. coalition fought them to a draw. Thus illegally annexed, the northern part of Korea remains an international pariah, while the southern part of Korea flourishes among the world’s most developed economies. In 1990, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein overran his smaller neighbor Kuwait. Again, a U.N. coalition forced him to relinquish the territory he conquered.

At other times, the U.S. has had to confront the challenge on its own or with a smaller group of allies — with varying degrees of success. It countered the U.S.S.R.’s invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s by arming local fighters. It has confronted various coups at various times, and it responded to the growing threat of international terrorism by experimenting with regime change of its own. Perhaps its greatest blunder was the failed attempt to prevent a communist takeover of Vietnam, which thrust the nation down into a decade of despair and retreat. Nevertheless, the fundamental structure of the world order remained favorable to American interests, even at the moments when America did not seem to benefit thereby.

Over the past 15 years, a fundamental principle of the American World Order has come under increasing scrutiny — the notion that every nation has a fundamental right of sovereignty over its territory — all its territory. In 2008, Russia, the largest successor to the Soviet Union, invaded its smaller neighbor Georgia; to this day, Russian troops occupy two breakaway regions of Georgia, which only Russia recognizes as a sovereign nation. In 2014, Russia invaded another neighbor, Ukraine, and claimed to “annex” the southern, oil-rich Crimean peninsula and eastern, industrialized Donbas region — a blatant violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. In 2015, an Islamist insurgency dubbing itself the “Islamic State” captured and controlled large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria that had been destabilized by civil war and the withdrawal of U.S. troops — although its territorial gains were largely wiped out by 2019.

That brings us up to recent history, which has seen further challenges to the American world order and to American world supremacy. In 2022, Russia extended its invasion of Ukraine, first attempting to conquer the entire country, and then revising its goals towards solidifying additional territorial gains in the south and east. In 2023, Islamist militants sponsored by Iran launched a war against Israel, publicly declaring their intention to wipe it off the world map.

On the other edge of Asia, communist China continues its aggressive expansion across the South China Sea and its provocative behavior towards Taiwan, which it falsely claims is not an independent nation but rather a breakaway province. While China has not actually launched an invasion, foreign policy observers widely agree that it seems prepared to do so and is closely watching America’s response to other global hotspots.

So, how do these various conflicts relate to America’s core interests? America benefits from a peaceful world order that allows international trade to flourish. Ever since World War II, America has sought to enforce a global norm of national sovereignty and territorial integrity as a means to prevent global conflicts, which could disrupt America’s trade interest — not to mention upset nations’ self-determination. America’s authoritarian rivals are increasingly testing those norms.

If America backs away from its commitment to the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of all nations, our global adversaries will interpret this as a license to further acts of aggression, which will further undermine the (relatively) peaceful world order that is structured in America’s interest. This is the context for conflicts in both Ukraine and Israel, the nervous stalemate in Taiwan, and in other global hotspots that could quickly unravel if America retreats from its commitment to its own interests.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Comer Unveils Bank Records Showing Joe Biden Received $40,000 Of ‘Laundered’ Chinese Money

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer released bank records Wednesday showing President Joe Biden previously took a $40,000 check from his family members soon after they received the money from Chinese business associates.

Comer posted a video on X outlining bank records which show how various Biden family members took money from Chinese business associates and wired it to Joe Biden shortly thereafter.

“Well, not only did he lie about his son Hunter making money in China, but it also turns out that $40,000 in laundered China money landed in Joe Biden’s bank account in the form of a personal check,” Comer says in the video. “First, Northern International Capital, a Chinese company associated with CEFC, wired $5,000,000 to Hudson West III, a joint venture established by Hunter Biden and a CEFC associate.”

“Then, Hudson West III sent $400,000 to an entity owned and controlled by Hunter Biden. Next, Hunter Biden wired $150,000 to Lion Hall Group, a company owned by Joe Biden’s brother James and sister-in-law Sara Biden. Sara Biden then withdrew $50,000 in cash from Lion Hall Group,” Comer continues.

“Later the same day, she deposited it into her and James Biden’s personal checking account. A few days later, Sara Biden cut a check to Joe Biden for $40,000. The memo line of the check said, ‘loan repayment.’”

The Oversight Committee released a memo containing bank records of the transactions between the Biden family and its Chinese business associates which resulted in Joe Biden taking $40,000 of Chinese money in September 2017. Hunter Biden told his office manager he was “office mates” with Joe Biden and CEFC in late September 2017, around the time Joe Biden received a $40,000 check from money originating in China.

READ THE MEMO:

The bank records indicate Hunter Biden wired $400,000 to his Owasco account on Aug. 8, 2017, the same day Hudson West III was sent $5 million. He sent $130,000 from Owasco to his Rosemont Seneca Advisors LLC account, an LLC he previously used to purchase his Porsche.

Hunter Biden wired $150,000 from Owasco to James and Sara Biden’s Lion Hall Group on Aug. 17, 2017, the bank records show. Lion Hall’s balance was reduced to $115,822 because of purchases made between Aug. 14 and Aug. 25, 2017, after the funds came in from Hunter Biden.

Sara Biden wired $50,000 from Lion Hall on Aug. 28, 2017, and $50,000 was deposited into her personal account with her husband on the same day. Sara and James Biden’s personal account had a $46.88 balance prior to the $50,000 deposit, bank records show. She sent the check to Joe Biden on Sept. 3, 2017, for a “loan repayment” less than a month after James Biden’s business relationship with Hudson West III began.

James Biden’s Lion Hall Group took payments directly from Hudson West III throughout 2018 for a total of more than $76,000, the bank records show.

The memo lays out the Biden family’s relationship with CEFC, which began when Joe Biden was vice president, according to an FBI FD-302 summarizing an interview with Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Tony Bobulinski.

“CEFC had used its relationship with HUNTER BIDEN and JAMES BIDEN – and the influence attached to the BIDEN name – to advance CEFC’s interests abroad. HUNTER BIDEN and JAMES BIDEN did not receive any monetary compensation for their assistance in these projects. HUNTER BIDEN and JAMES BIDEN did not receive any compensation because JOSEPH BIDEN was still VPOTUS during this time period,” the document reads.

Bobulinski provided the FBI with a hard drive full of communications with Hunter Biden, and told the FBI the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop reporting was real, the FD-302 form states.

The New York Post first reported on the contents of Biden’s abandoned laptop in October 2020, ahead of the presidential election. One email thread shared by the New York Post included an email from Hunter Biden’s business associate James Gilliar in which he floated giving Joe Biden a 10% equity stake in a business deal.

“10 held by H for the big guy?” Gilliar asked Hunter Biden, Bobulinski and former business associate Rob Walker. The $40,000 Joe Biden received appears to be a 10% cut of the $400,000 Hunter Biden wired to himself from the Hudson West III business in August 2017.

In the email thread, Gilliar appeared to be referring to a proposed $10 million joint venture with CEFC called “sinohawk,” and Bobulinski said he spoke about the deal with Joe Biden at a Beverly Hills, California, hotel in May 2017.

“BOBULINSKI stated that he was in possession of multiple texts from HUNTER BIDEN and JAMES BIDEN asking BOBULINSKI to leave JOSEPH BIDEN out of any written communications,” the FD-302 form reads. The texts Bobulinski spoke about were shared by the Oversight Committee.

“Further, BOBULINSKI met with JOSEPH BIDEN inperson on May 2, 2017 at approximately 10:30 PM at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel bar in Beverly Hills, California where they discussed SINOHAWK. On the following day, May 3, 2017, BOBULINSKI was JOSEPH BIDEN’s guest at the Milken Institute conference, where JOSEPH BIDEN was a speaker. After his speech, BOBULINSKI met with JOSEPH BIDEN for about fifteen minutes backstage,” the form adds.

A page on the Milken Institute’s website confirms Joe Biden’s speech delivered in May 2017 after his vice presidency had concluded. Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace went through the details of Bobulinski’s FD-302 form at the first impeachment hearing into President Biden. (RELATED: FBI, DOJ Officials Were ‘Openly Mocking’ Congressional Inquiries Into Hunter Biden Investigation, Memo Alleges)

In addition, the bank records memo cites an FBI interview with Walker in which he described a meeting Joe Biden allegedly attended with CEFC associates after his vice presidency. Walker agreed with his FBI interviewer who characterized Joe Biden’s presence as a move by Hunter Biden to secure a deal with CEFC, according to a transcript of his interview.

Walker also indicated that he golfed with Joe Biden up to a dozen times, typically at Hunter Biden’s invitation, the transcript shows. Walker recalled a golf outing with then-Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and the late Beau Biden at the Bulle Rock golf course in Havre de Grace, Maryland, which an email from Hunter Biden’s laptop archive appears to confirm.

Walker received $3 million from Chinese firm State Energy HK, an account described by the FBI as a CEFC cutout on an FBI FD-302 summarizing Walker’s interview. Bank records released in March by the Oversight Committee show Walker sent roughly $1 million of the State Energy HK money to the Biden family. The Oversight Committee has requested Walker appear for an interview before the Committee.

Hunter Biden and James Biden entered into a business arrangement with CEFC called Hudson West III in August 2017, according to the Oversight Committee. Hunter Biden admitted in court to the business arrangement with CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked businessman who was arrested by Chinese authorities on bribery charges.

James Biden told FBI and IRS investigators during an interview that Hunter Biden compared Jianming to CCP leader Xi Jinping to promote CEFC, according to an internal memo released by the Ways and Means Committee. He also told investigators he was only paid by Hudson West through Hunter Biden’s Owasco account, a claim contradicted by the Oversight Committee’s bank records, according to the bank records memo. (RELATED: FBI Received ‘Criminal Information’ On Joe And Hunter Biden From Over 40 Confidential Sources, Sen Grassley Finds)

Hunter Biden’s failed guilty plea with the Department of Justice (DOJ) says he made just under $1 million in 2017 from Hudson West III. He also made more than $600,000 from CEFC in the same year, including and a $100,000 payment Hunter Biden received a day after he sent a boastful text to a CEFC associate.

“The Biden’s [sic] are the best I know at doing exactly what the Chairman wants,” Hunter Biden wrote Aug. 3, 2017, the Oversight Committee revealed in June. The next day, CEFC sent $100,000 to Hunter Biden’s Owasco P.C. shell company.

A few days earlier, Hunter Biden sent a Chinese business associate a threatening text invoking his father’s presence in the room, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley disclosed when he testified to the Ways and Means Committee in May. The transcript of Shapley’s testimony was publicized in late June.

“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Hunter Biden texted, according to Shapley.

“And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father,” Biden added, Shapley testified.

Images from Hunter Biden’s laptop archive show he was with his father on the day he allegedly sent the threatening text, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

Hunter Biden received two payments from Chinese business associates with Joe Biden’s Delaware residence listed as the beneficiary address, the Oversight Committee disclosed in September.

One of those payments was a $250,000 loan in August 2019 from Chinese business associate Jonathan Li, who Joe Biden got coffee with in Beijing and whose daughter secured a college recommendation letter from then-Vice President Biden, Hunter Biden’s former business associate Devon Archer testified to the Oversight Committee in July.

Hunter Biden was living in California and recovering from addiction at the time of the payments from China featuring Joe Biden’s residence as the beneficiary address, his failed guilty plea indicates. Hunter Biden’s purported financial benefactor, Kevin Morris, later assumed the loan debt, according to the Oversight Committee. Morris was previously identified as the donor who paid roughly $2 million of Hunter Biden’s overdue taxes.

James Biden told investigators he thanked Morris “on behalf of the family” for assisting Hunter Biden, while denying any knowledge of Morris’ relationship with the younger Biden, the IRS memo shows. Morris is reportedly helping Hunter Biden pay his mounting legal bills and advising him to take an aggressive legal stance against his political opponents.

Joe Biden was running for the Democratic presidential nomination at the time of Li’s payment. Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden falsely claimed his son did not make any money from China during a debate against then-incumbent President Donald Trump.

The White House responded to the payments by downplaying the significance of Chinese business associates using Joe Biden’s residence as the beneficiary address.

The Oversight Committee subpoenaed Hunter Biden and James Biden’s bank records in September, after the first impeachment inquiry hearing. Comer previously revealed on X a $200,000 payment James Biden sent to Joe Biden on the same day James Biden took on a $200,000 loan from distressed healthcare firm Americore.

James Biden signaled to Americore his last name would “open doors” and promised the company a significant investment from the Middle East, bankruptcy court filings show. The White House defended James Biden’s payment by pointing out that his check classifies the $200,000 as a “loan repayment,” a claim Comer says was not substantiated by the bank records in his possession.

“We previously exposed a $200,000 payment James made to his brother Joe that came from funds provided by a now bankrupt health care company called Americore. Like the payment to Joe from Americore funds, it’s certainly plausible that this payment where James and Sara used funds from China was indeed a loan repayment to Joe,” Comer says in his latest X video.

“But even if this $40,000 check was a loan repayment from James Biden, it still shows how Joe benefited from his family cashing in on his name – with money from China no less. Without his family peddling his name and his son threatening a CEFC associate with consequences that he said Joe Biden knew about, James wouldn’t have had the money to write the $40,000 check to his brother Joe,” he adds.

The House Ways and Means Committee released the FBI documents in September alongside a trove of documents supporting the testimony of IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler. Both whistleblowers have accused the DOJ of giving Hunter Biden special treatment during its ongoing investigation into his taxes and firearms possession.

Ziegler confirmed the payments from State Energy HK when he testified publicly in July. He also said the Hudson West III business arrangement brought in $3.7 million for all parties involved.

Hunter Biden is suing the IRS because of what his legal team believes are illegal disclosures by the whistleblowers in their testimony and media appearances. He was indicted in September on three federal gun charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

The Biden family and its business associates brought in more than $24 million from Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania and Kazakhstan from 2014-19, according to a House memo publicized prior to the first impeachment inquiry hearing.

The $24 million figure came from suspicious activity reports sent to the Treasury Department by financial services providers, Comer said during the hearing.

The White House in June said Joe Biden was “not in business” with his son upon the release of Shapley’s testimony.

“Comer’s lies and conspiracy theories are getting more desperate by the day,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said on X when the bank records were released. “This has been widely debunked for more than a week now.”

Henry Rodgers contributed to this report.

AUTHOR

JAMES LYNCH

Investigative reporter. James Lynch can be reached on Twitter @jameslynch32.

RELATED TWEETS ON X:

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Chinese Parent Of U.S. Battery Maker Has Business Ties With Blacklisted CCP Paramilitary Group

Gotion High-Tech, the Chinese parent company of Gotion Inc., which intends to build electric battery plants in Michigan and Illinois, operates a joint venture in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that contracts with a U.S.-sanctioned entity, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese-language news reports and business filings.

In May 2017, Gotion High-Tech Co. Ltd. established a joint venture with Shanghai Electric Co. Ltd. called “Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology Co. Ltd.,” according to Chinese news website Sohu.com.

“On the evening of May 12, Gotion High-Tech Co., Ltd. announced that it would jointly invest funds with Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ‘Shanghai Electric’) to establish Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.,” Sohu.com reported.

In July 2023, Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology’s social media account reported that the firm has been operating a battery energy storage system for a Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) power station located in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

“In days past, Shanghai Electric Gotion won the bid for the 60-megawatt / 180-megawatt per hour battery energy storage system for XPCC 1st Division 10th Regiment and State Power Investment Corporation’s 400-megawatt photovoltaic power generation project,” Shanghai Electric Gotion’s social media account stated.

XPCC signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement in 2020 with the state-run State Power Investment Corporation to “jointly promote the development of new energy projects, develop smart energy ecosystem and electricity support industries, cultivate talent, jointly build expertise and cooperate extensively in various other fields,” according to Sohu.com.

“The 400-megawatt photovoltaic power station of XPCC 1st Division’s 10th Regiment and State Power Investment Corporation is complemented by the 60 megawatt / 180-megawatt per hour battery energy storage system project located in XPCC 1st Division’s city of Aral, Xinjiang,” Shanghai Electric Gotion’s social media post continued. “This project’s energy storage system uses Shanghai Electric Gotion’s most advanced, standardized, modular, large battery core, liquid-cooling collection box, which by means of excellent system integration programs, will ensure the smooth connection of the project to the grid.”

In July 2020, the Treasury Department sanctioned XPCC for its human rights abuses, according to a press release.

“The XPCC is a paramilitary organization in the XUAR that is subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” the Treasury Department’s 2020 press release stated.

“The entity and officials are being designated for their connection to serious human rights abuse against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, which reportedly include mass arbitrary detention and severe physical abuse, among other serious abuses targeting Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim population indigenous to Xinjiang, and other ethnic minorities in the region,” said the Treasury Department. As a result of the sanctions, federal regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within the U.S. that involve any property or interests in property of XPCC.

In June 2021, the Commerce Department added XPCC to the “Entity List” for “accepting or utilizing forced labor in the implementation of the People’s Republic of China’s campaign of repression against Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).”

In January 2021, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo determined that the PRC is committing genocide against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.

“After careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that since at least March 2017, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), under the direction and control of the CCP, has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” Pompeo said in a 2021 press statement.

In 2022, the State Department’s Country Report on Human Rights detailed the extent of the PRC’s ongoing genocide and other crimes against humanity.

“Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” the State Department’s 2022 report reads. “These crimes were continuing and included: the arbitrary imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty of more than one million civilians; forced sterilization, coerced abortions and more restrictive application of the country’s birth control policies; rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence; torture of a large number of those arbitrarily detained; and persecution including forced labor and draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression and freedom of movement.”

In August, Fox News reported that Gotion Inc. — which is “wholly owned and controlled” by Gotion High-Tech, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing — had received a greenlight from Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Biden administration to “invest $2.4 billion to construct two 550,000-square-foot production plants” for electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Big Rapids, Michigan.

On Sept. 8, an Illinois government press release announced that Gotion Inc. also intended to build a “state-of-the-art $2 billion” EV battery plant in Manteno, Illinois, “bolstered” by state incentives.

The DCNF recently reported that Gotion High-Tech employs 923 CCP members. Additionally, the DCNF found that Gotion High-Tech launched a joint venture company with a “Communist Chinese Military Company Subsidiary” in 2016.

In August, Politico reported that Chuck Thelen, the vice president of North American manufacturing at Gotion Inc., claimed that “the Chinese Communist Party has no presence in the North American company.”

“The rumors that you’ve heard about us bringing communism to North America are just flat-out fear-mongering and really have nothing based in reality,” Thelen said, according to Politico’s report.

On May 12, 2017, Gotion High-Tech’s CEO Li Zhen — whom the DCNF recently reported serves as the party secretary for the firm’s CCP committee — met in Shanghai with Shanghai Electric’s then-CEO and party secretaryZheng Jianhua, for Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology’s signing ceremony, according to Sohu.com.

During the meeting, Li and Zheng signed an agreement stating that the joint venture’s main products would be “special vehicle batteries, smart energy storage products, including home energy storage, distributed micro-grid energy storage and power grid-grade energy storage,” Sohu.com reported.

A 2022 Gotion High-Tech business filing states the firm holds 45.4% of Shanghai Electric Gotion’s shares while Shanghai Electric holds 47.4%. Two other firms — Shanghai Xuneng New Energy Science And Technology and Shanghai Haohao New Energy Science And Technology — both hold another 3.6% of Shanghai Electric Gotion’s shares apiece.

While Shanghai Electric Gotion’s battery energy storage system in Xinjiang may be the first instance of Gotion High-Tech cooperating with XPCC, Shanghai Electric has been working on various projects with XPCC since at least 2012, according to a report on the website of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of China’s State Council.

“Shanghai Electric and XPCC’s 8th Agricultural Division signed a general contract for phase one of the Tianfu Power Plant 2×660-megawatt project,” the Chinese government’s report 2012 states.

Several years later, Shanghai Electric’s chairman, Zheng Jianhua, traveled to Xinjiang in 2018 to meet with the autonomous region’s party secretary, Zhang Chunlin, to discuss how Shanghai Electric could help XPCC develop energy storage products for Xinjiang, according to Shanghai Electric’s periodical.

“Zheng Jianhua said that Shanghai Electric would marshal the might of the entire corporation to develop Xinjiang’s energy storage products,” Shanghai Electric’s periodical reported.

More recently, a delegation from Shanghai Electric met with the commander of XPCC’s 13th Division on August 10, 2023, according to XPCC 13th Division’s social media account. During the meeting, Shanghai Electric’s senior development manager announced his firm’s plans to invest in and cooperate with XPCC 13th Division as well as Shanghai Electric’s intention to enter into discussions with enterprises related to XPCC, according to XPCC 13th Division’s social media account.

Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told the DCNF that “the CCP does not share American values and virtues — including freedom of speech, the rule of law and basic human rights.”

“Yet, the Biden Administration continues to use government mandates and green light EV tax credits to benefit CCP-linked companies, like Gotion and CATL,” McMorris Rodgers said. “We cannot continue to hand China the keys to our auto future, which threatens American jobs and our national security.”

Gotion High-Tech, Gotion Inc., Shanghai Electric and Shanghai Electric Gotion New Energy Technology did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Investigative reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Nonprofit Head Bragged About Hosting Chinese Police Station Right In Front Of NYC Mayor Eric Adams

The chairman of a New York City nonprofit bragged about housing an allegedly illegal Chinese police station in front of Mayor Eric Adams during a 2022 gala, video footage shows.

At the America ChangLe Association’s 24th anniversary banquet, its chairman, Lu Jianshun, took the stage and said the organization had established a “Fuzhou Police Department” within its headquarters, footage from the Sept. 26, 2022 event shows. The video also shows Adams was sitting in the front row.

“In 2020, we collaborated with the Changle District Court to establish a so-called Changle Overseas Chinese Dispute Litigation Center for Foreign Affairs and to help our fellow Changlenese to fight for judicial rights and interests,” Lu Jianshun said during his 2022 banquet speech, which was translated into English as he spoke, footage shows.

“At the very beginning of the year of 2022, in order to better implement the motherland government’s policy of benefitting the Overseas Chinese, our councilor of our association — which part of the — our councilor of our association, Mr. Lu Jianwang was invited to participate in the opening of ‘The World End Of The World,’ which is Overseas 110 network platform founded by the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau, and was also entrusted to set up the Fuzhou Police Department in the Changle Association of America,” Lu Jianshun said.

The United States District Court in the Eastern District of New York unsealed a complaint in April 2023 charging two members of America Changle Association — one of whom was Lu Jianshun’s brother, Lu Jianwang — with conspiring to act as agents of the People’s Republic of China and crimes related to opening and operating an illegal overseas police station.

The Eastern District of New York’s unsealed complaint states that “Lu Jianwang and others” operated an “unofficial police station” on behalf of the Fuzhou branch of China’s “primary domestic law enforcement agency,” the Ministry of Public Security. By January 2022, the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau had opened 30 such international police stations, dubbed “110 overseas stations,” according to the complaint.

The Ministry of Public Security ordered Lu Jianwang to “identify the locations of Chinese persons of interests in the United States,” including a dissident living in California, the complaint alleges.

The New York Post has reported that sources close to the mayor claim Adams was unaware of America Changle Association’s police station at the time of the nonprofit’s banquet. However, video footage shows Lu Jianshun discussing the police station and its operations during the gala, with Adams sitting front and center.

“We started a new division in our association, which is helping everybody to collect their driver’s license, to register and to get their ID card from their hometown,” Lu Jianshun said during the 2022 gala.

Later in the evening, Adams was welcomed on stage and delivered a speech praising America Changle Association, footage from the event shows. Adams was joined on stage by Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping, both of whom would later face federal charges, according to photos posted in an article by overseas.fjsen.com.

“This is such an important organization to empower our Chinese American community, particularly those from the Changle district in Fujian province,” Adams said during his speech at the 2022 banquet, footage from the event shows. “As a city, this is an important businessmen and women, you are the foundation of this community in general, but throughout this entire city.”

“Your organization has been instrumental in our efforts to provide life-sustaining support to our newest New Yorkers and their descendants,” Adams continued. “And, so, I celebrate you on this 24th anniversary for the cultural contributions and how you continue to make this city a great place to raise children and families.”

Adams also acknowledged the presence of several other New York Democratic politicians, footage from the event shows.

“I’m especially happy to share the table with our amazing councilwoman, Sandra Ung, and our great senator in the state of New York, Senator John Liu, who have strong voices speaking on behalf of your community,” Adams said.

After his speech, Adams presented Lu Jianshun with a “Certificate of Recognition,” according to event footage.

In addition to Adams, several of the other New York Democratic politicians or their representatives also took the stage during the banquet, footage shows. This included New York City Council member Sandra Ung, New York State Sen. John Liu and U.S. Rep. Grace Meng’s “community liaison,” Sydney Li, all of whom delivered speeches in Mandarin.

Winnie Greco, special assistant to Adams, also delivered a speech in Mandarin, footage from the event shows.

During her speech, Greco welcomed several staff members of Adams’ office as well as two New York Police Department officers to the stage, telling the audience to reach out to the mayor’s office for help with operating a small business or immigration matters, according to event footage.

In April 2023, the DCNF reported that Adams and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer attended an apparent 2022 fundraiser for Meng with Lu Jianwang at Crown One Restaurant in New York City.

Meng has attended multiple events alongside Lu Jianwang, including the September 2016 opening of America Changle Association’s Manhattan headquarters, the DCNF reported. During the event, Meng stood beside Lu Jianwang during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, photos from the event showed.

Adams, Greco, Meng, Li, Liu and Ung did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

America Changle Association, Chen and the Lu brothers could not be reached for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Daily Caller News Foundation investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The Killing of Western Civilization

The Hamas terrorist attack on Israel was just a recent atrocious assault against Western civilization, a war that started a hundred years ago. In fact, I have been writing about that global cabal, which was waging WWIII against Western civilization for forty-two years.  “This global cabal is capable of anything. They are already responsible for the deaths of millions. They use lies as easily as they breathe. Everywhere they have gone, there is death and destruction.” If you read my column: Putin’s Socialist Revolution in America published October 6, 2023, one day prior to the Hamas attack, you will learn about this global cabal—I called them a new “Axis of Evil” under the Russian umbrella.

Yes, this global cabal is the new” Axis of Evil,” under the Russian umbrella: Cuba, China, North Korea, Syria, Iran and Venezuela. But only people who read my columns or books know that. Iran is a Russian proxy and to know Iran you have to know Russia and its Intel. Because there are the patterns of Soviet Socialism, Russia implements into all its proxies, including the terror groups, especially in the Mideast: ISIS, Taliban, al-Qaeda, Hezb’allah, Hamas, and others. That was the essence of Stalin’s legacy: brainwashing Muslims groups, and marring Islam with Communist ideology. That way we got a Fascist-Jihad of Stalinist era in the 20th century. A misleading system of disinformation, an instrument designed by Stalin was executed by all his devoted disciples after his death. To educate America, I have been writing about that system of Stalinist Soviet Socialism, which I called Soviet Fascism, for the last forty-two years…

The new “Axis of Evil—the Evil Doer” has not been known to the vast majority of Americans. Yes, all mentioned above terror groups have the same parents–the Russian Intel. The KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov 1967-1982 has designed two-states solution in the Mideast, when the KGB has begun controlling Hamas—anti-Semitism has united them. The same unity had been achieved for all terror groups in the 20th century. We have dealt with strategic partnerships against Western civilization. Russian expansion of Soviet Socialism, which I called Soviet fascism was the goal for the Mideast region. I have been writing this story of the people’s suffering, griefs, and killings to make you familiar with the KGB’s Mafia/Army—the Evil Doer for forty-two years. You can find the details in my columns…

Forty-two years is a pretty long-time and I am tired, very tired of being alone writing to educate and convince the American people with my poor English. Nobody helped me. I was writing about terrorist Russia and its expansion of terrorism throughout the globe. A devoted disciple of Stalin/Andropov Vladimir Putin was doing that for the last thirty years… I couldn’t believe a word, listening from the actively-destructive Biden’s team, I don’t trust them… Can you imagine how excited I’ve become reading the column with the warning, I was yelling for forty-two years:

“People living in modern civilization—especially in the West—play by the rules, live within their means, love their families, and cherish their children’s future. We get up in the morning, go to our jobs, or to our tasks, not thinking about any threats that may be formulating to destroy our lives. And yet, the threats are there, and they persist. For those of us who do our research and read what these enemies are plotting against us—and we do have enemies—we start to understand how dangerous they really are, these globalist elites. They have told us numerous times, both in print and in speech, what they are planning. And yet they are ignored when all we have to do is take them seriously and act accordingly.” War Is Upon You, By Ray DiLorenzo, Canada Free Press, October 8, 2023 

The author described the current events in the world, as if he came from the society of Soviet Socialism. But he didn’t indicate any specific country, only a new foreign predicament in America. He loves America, and is suffering watching how America loses its moral compass. I felt an alarm and pain in his every word. I believe, he read my columns or books and now expressing his sincere warning to Americans and the world:

“Anyone can see that society is changing, and not for the better. The Greatest Generation is long gone. The self-image and desire generation of fifty years ago, especially in government, is hanging on by threads, unwilling to give in to time and poor decisions. We are now witnesses to a society and a generation no longer American, heavily influenced by social media, with narcissism transformed into amorality, hysteria, self-indulgence, and violence.” By Ray DiLorenzo– Friday, October 6, 2023

Meanwhile the killing in Israel is going on… I’d like to remind you of the Vietnam war, because the Russian military Doctrine is active here in the Hamas assaults of Israel. Do you remember the Vietnam War? The North Vietnamese used the tunnels for unexpected access and assaults against the South Vietnamese. You can see exact the same Russian Doctrine used against Israel by Hamas. History is the mother of all sciences and I know who helped the North Vietnamese. I had a client, a Soviet pilot, who participated in the Vietnam War. You can find this story in my books and articles. There is another Stalinist Doctrine: “No lives matter.” Have you heard Hamas tell Palestinians to stay in Gaza and not evacuate: for Hamas “No lives matter,” Stalinist Doctrine is alive and well in the 21st century Mideast. The Russian tentacles are all over the region and the globe.

“No lives matter” under Soviet Fascism!

The picture of Stalin, the greatest mass murderer of the 20th century is here.

The Republican Ignorance

“Those who don’t know Stalinist legacy of the 20th century will pay a dear price for their ignorance. “I wrote that one day prior to the Hamas invasion: Putin’s Socialist Revolution in America: The Stalinist Mexican Cartels, October 6, 2023. I had in mind Fox News and the firing of two talented men: Dan Bongino and Tucker Carlson. I knew that Putin was preparing something bad. I wrote it purposely to alert the ignorant and remind them about Holocaust of Jews by German-Nazis. It is for a reason I have been writing about Soviet Fascism for decades. Russia is a terrorist, anti-Semitic country with close and long-term relations to all Middle Eastern countries through its KGB, which was implementing Soviet Fascism there, while the FBI didn’t know Russia and the KGB’s Mafia/Army—the Evil Doer, I’ve been writing about for decades. I had to write it–the FBI has not protected us!

Moreover, “According to a White House pool report, President Biden told the two dozen who were in attendance why he decided to run for president in 2020. He mentioned Charlottesville and the events that transpired there in 2017 as his reason for running.” Joe Biden has a meltdown that leaves Democrats sick with worry, The Federalist Wire, September 26, 2023. Reading this information my antenna went up. As a matter of fact, I was writing about Charlottesville in many columns: like Jan.6, on Capitol Hill, Charlottesville was the KGB’s Mafia/Army—Evil Doer operation to build a fascist movement in America.    

A Controlled Opposition  

Charlottesville happened in August 2017, in Unite the Right, the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. In fact, it was the KGB operation in cahoots with the Democrat Party to establish and built a fascist movement in America. The designers and organizers were the Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe and the FBI deputy Director Andrew McCabe. I wrote this in my column: Origin of the Washington Spy Ring and the Swamp, March 31, 2018:

“Yes, firing Andrew McCabe was the beginning of a huge international case of conspiracy against the U.S.A, because those two are the accomplices of the crime or even crimes. To investigate the case, you have to know the KGB well and I’ll try to give you some tips. It was Andropov’s idea to invent a “controlled opposition.” The KGB had practiced it in Russia for many years. It is very simple to achieve, just infiltrate the opposition with a couple of people, promote them to the leadership and act in a way that is beneficial for your initial design. That exact move was realized and implanted in America. The result you see in August 2017, in Unite the Right, the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.’’

It was the time for the FBI to do their job. But as we found out today the FBI didn’t want to do the job and the Democrat Party had been left not being exposed… I don’t want to impose my opinion and conclusion, I rely on each of you to make your own decision, watching Biden/Obama and their team for many years. We are living in the predicament of global disinformation where truth is hard to find. By the way, the House of Representatives, the only Republican power, has no Speaker for 12 days, because of the same dysfunctional FBI. I hope, sooner or later the truth will shine to disinfect the globe, I hope…You can read my columns for free now.

Don’t be surprised by the large-scale rally at the U.S. Colleges and Universities in defense of Hamas. Just watch TV. Have you heard about the group Students for Justice in Palestine? They are sponsored by Hamas and Iran.  And they are not alone, there are a hundred of these organizations around the world. Please, read about one of them:

National Students for JUSTICE IN PALESTINE

Supporting over hundred Palestine solidarity organizations across occupied Turtle Island, we aim to develop a student movement that is connected, disciplined, and equipped with the tools necessary achieve Palestinian liberation

Please, pay attention to the last two words—Palestinian liberation. These words should bring your memory back to Yasser Arafat, President of Palestinian Liberation Organization–PLO. Arafat’s lieutenant Abbas is still there. To make a long story short, read my columns and learn that Yasser Arafat was recruited by the KGB’s Mafia/Army in 1957. The cycle of War Crimes committed by the Russian Government and its KGB’s Mafia/Army—the Evil Doer is in front of the world. Now, as usual I rely on people’s imagination and knowledge…

Today I receive an email from Rep. Chip Roy–This is existential.

The Biden administration is allowing over 10,000+ illegal crossings a day – mostly adult males from 150+ countries, including these latest numbers from CBP:

  • Syria: 538
  • Yemen: 139
  • Iran: 659
  • Iraq: 123
  • Afghanistan: 6,386
  • Lebanon: 164
  • Egypt: 3,153
  • Pakistan: 1,613
  • Mauritania: 15,594
  • Uzbekistan: 13,624
  • Turkey: 30,830

As we watch what is going on in Israel right now, how can we be safe in America without securing our border?

My fellow Americans!

The U.S.A. is under an existential threat—we have Hamas and the KGB’s Mafia/Army—the Evil Doer with their deadly activities on our soil! The Killing of Western Civilization is on a progress, before your eyes!

Equip yourselves with knowledge and act decisively! Save the American Constitutional Republic for our children, grandchildren, and the world!

To be continued www.simonapipko.com and atwww.drrichswier.com/author/spipko/

©2023. Simona Pipko. All rights reserved.

China on the Verge of Collapse?

Marxism is a material philosophy that denies the existence of anything but the physically substantial. Thus, communism’s hatred of religion, which proposes that there is an unseen world and that life beyond the grave should concern mortal men and women.

Additionally, Marxism sees itself as a comprehensive, as an anti-theistic religion demanding not only entire allegiance but unquestioning acceptance of its dogmas.

So, it is natural that the world’s largest communist state, China, should oppress religious believers of all faiths and deny the Chinese people even a hint of self-government. In the absence of religion and civic self-determination, China’s leaders have promised their subjects (an appropriate characterization of those living under the Maoist thumb) growing economic prosperity in place of religious and political liberty.

Not only does Marxism reduce man to a strictly economic creature for whom beauty and creativity must comport with strict, state-approved standards.

In recent decades, China has become economically stronger and stronger. Its standing among the family of nations has grown exponentially as its business and military sectors, integrated closely with one another, have led to skyscraper-laden cities and potency in the world’s economic forums.

China is expanding its global influence through loaning money to developing nations for infrastructure (the “Belt and Road Initiative,” or BRI) and membership in the “BRICS” bloc. Composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (and, recently, six new smaller nations), BRICS members seek to thumb their nose at developed and republican-oriented nations. Aggravated by calls that they observe respect for human rights and, in some cases, stop their military adventurism, the BRICS countries see themselves as an alternative to the industrialized powers of Europe, North America, Japan and Australia.

But economies can change rapidly. No one anticipated the COVID down-turn of 2020 and its effects on a booming U.S. private sector. And it looks like the uber-Maoist Xi Jinping has been caught rather by surprise by the slump that is hitting Red China.

Characterized by financial journalist Milton Ezrati as “always something of a Mafia-like enterprise,” the BRI would invite poorer countries to borrow money from China in return for construction of dams, roads, rail lines, and so forth. The problem for China is that these poor countries remain poor — and cannot repay their loans. Ezrati notes that “economists at the World Bank estimate that now some 60 percent of all BRI loans involve countries in financial distress.”

Then there’s China’s relentless assault on U.S. firms. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, on her recent trip to Beijing, told her hosts that China’s “raids on (American) firms” with office in China and its vast intellectual property theft enterprise. Raimondo also noted that along with “unexplained fines and unpredictable official behavior,” China is on the verge of becoming anathema for U.S. companies. “U.S. business needs to see some action taken to address these issues,” Raimondo said. “Otherwise, they will deem it as just too risky and … uninvestable.”

The federal government is also taking action against China’s theft of critical American technologies and even such things as copyrighted agricultural products. The FBI “has designated Chinese espionage as its ‘top counterintelligence priority,’ considering it a substantial threat to the nation’s core economic assets and technological innovations.” China has “targeted a broad range of sectors, including government, businesses, academic institutions, researchers, and even the general public.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray reports that “China’s hacking program is more extensive than the combined efforts of all other nations, making it a significant challenge for U.S. cybersecurity.” The Biden White House restricting American investment in “Chinese military–connected firms operating within certain critical technology sectors — semiconductors, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.” But there’s much more to do.

The notorious and now thankfully defunct “one-child” policy also cost China tens of millions of men and women who would now be in the workforce. The grotesque immorality of this policy is now compounded by its economic impact: “With China’s population aging rapidly, there are fewer working-age people to support retirees,” writes my friend Jeanne Mancini. “The one-child policy, which lasted for more than three decades before ending in 2016, worsened the situation and threatens long-term economic prospects.”

Put altogether, China’s prospects for economic power are dimming significantly. “Consumer prices are falling, a real estate crisis is deepening ,and exports are in a slump. Unemployment among youth has gotten so bad the government has stopped publishing the data,” writes journalist Lauren He.

So, China’s promised prosperity is shriveling, and its oppression of Christians, Muslims, and others is increasing. Long a land of frequent revolutions, it’s not unrealistic to wonder what the next 10 years bode for the Middle Kingdom.

AUTHOR

Rob Schwarzwalder

Rob Schwarzwalder is Senior Lecturer in Regent University’s Honors College.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

U.S. Authorities On Alert After Discovering New Chinese Migrant Smuggling Route in Florida

Federal authorities are growing increasingly concerned about a route Chinese migrants are utilizing to make their way to Florida illegally, according to an internal federal intelligence report obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The report states that law enforcement lacks information regarding who is coordinating the smuggling between the Bahamas and Florida, where the migrants are being staged in the Bahamas and why Chinese migrants are choosing the Caribbean island. It also references recent incidents of Chinese nationals entering Florida illegally via the Bahamas.

There have been five such incidents of Chinese migrants attempting to “self-smuggle” from the Bahamas, according to the report. One incident took place on July 16 and involved a group of six Chinese migrants.

View Document #1 obtained by Jennie Taer//Daily Caller News Foundation

“The Chinese purchased a Bahamian registered vessel in GBI and tested the capabilities before leaving and being interdicted in Palm Beach. All 6 Chinese migrants were repatriated to the Bahamas,” the report stated of the latest interdiction.

Document #2 obtained by Jennie Taer//Daily Caller News Foundation

Border Patrol agents stationed in Florida have seen a spike in arrests of illegal migrants from China, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

Agents apprehended 27 illegal migrants from China in Florida between October 2022 and June, up from 5 in all of fiscal year 2022 and 7 in fiscal year 2021, according to the data. It is unclear, however, how many of the total number of Chinese migrants caught by Florida authorities used the Bahamian smuggling route.

Federal authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border also recorded a recent uptick in encounters of Chinese migrants crossing illegally. Between October 2022 and June, Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 14,000 illegal migrants from China at the southern border, compared to roughly 1,900 in all of fiscal year 2022, according to federal data.

“Right now in China there’s extreme pessimism, especially among people in their 20s about the future of their country, so it’s understandable that they’re leaving and they’re trying to get into the United States. And, you know, these are people who are relatively middle class, so it shows you the problems in Chinese society are severe,” China expert Gordon Chang previously told the DCNF of the surge in Chinese migrants crossing the southern border.

“When I first saw that the surge in Chinese migrants, that’s the thought that came to my mind that these are either Ministry of State Security agents or Chinese military, who are coming to this country to commit acts of sabotage against the US,” Chang added.

AUTHOR

JENNIE TAER

Investigative reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Illegal Immigration Surges After Biden Admin Takes Victory Lap Over Border Numbers

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