Peter Schweizer joined Breitbart News Daily host Alex Marlow on Wednesday to discuss the corruption rampant among America’s imperial political families, especially those bought off by an increasingly brazen and aggressive China.
Judging from the reactions by Chinese ministers and state-run media organs, Beijing is wary of former CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s appointment to Secretary of State, preferring his predecessor Rex Tillerson.
Contents: Trump blocks Broadcom acquisition of Qualcomm over national security; Government urges not doing business with China’s Huawei and ZTE
U.S. Seventh Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Phillip G. Sawyer told reporters on Tuesday that China’s construction of enhanced islands and military bases in the South China Sea, coupled with its aggressive rhetoric and opaque strategic objectives, are threatening the stability of the region.
China’s state media downplayed a $175 billion increase in defense spending proposed for 2018 on Tuesday, claiming the spending spike is “not much” and not intended to launch an “arms race” with the United States.
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson docked in Danang on Monday, marking the first visit by an American aircraft carrier to Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War. The port call is seen as both a landmark in evolving U.S.-Vietnam relations and a strong message to China, which is taking aggressive action to seize control over the entire South China Sea.
Contents: India and Vietnam sign security agreements for the South China Sea; India’s relationship with Southeast Asian nations overshadowed by China
China has mastered the ability to design and build “larger” aircraft carriers, reports a state-run newspaper, days after the massive nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson, an American carrier, sailed across the South China Sea.
The USS Carl Vinson, a massive nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, reportedly sailed deep in the South China Sea amid U.S.-China tensions over Beijing’s territorial disputes with several American allies in the region.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s appearance at the Chinese-Filipino Business Club on Monday is proving to be a bottomless well of provocative comments. Not only did Duterte suggest, in a fit of bizarre black humor, that Beijing should consider annexing his country and turning it into a province of China, but he also proposed sending his troops to China for training instead of the United States.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took his rapprochement with China to a new level on Monday by joking that China should consider absorbing his country and turning it into a province of the People’s Republic.
China’s state-run People’s Daily published a defense of expansive maritime military plans on Tuesday grounded in the need to protect the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) program, which uses infrastructure to grant Beijing a foothold in nearly every region of the world.
U.S. Pacific Commander Admiral Harry Harris has been picked as the new U.S. Ambassador to Australia in a move that has been warmly welcomed Down Under.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday published photos showing the breathtaking extent of Chinese military construction on disputed reefs in the Spratly Islands area of the South China Sea. The Inquirer presents the aerial photography as evidence that China is almost finished transforming the reefs into “island fortress” for the purpose of controlling the entire region.
Contents: Syria’s Bashar al-Assad steps up use of chemical weapons on his own people; UN Security Council is worthless as Syria uses chemical weapons with impunity
Australia has announced an ambitious plan to fund the development and manufacture of a range of military weapons as part of a push to become a major arms exporter.
Contents: China’s Mekong River dams criticized for affecting other countries’ livelihoods; In policy shift, US sides with Indonesia in South China Sea over Natuna Sea
The latest American freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea provoked an angry response from China, delivered through editorials in state-run media that blamed the United States for escalating tensions in the region.
India reportedly tested a long-range ballistic missile last week, the subcontinent’s fifth such test, which traveled 3,000 miles and is capable of reaching China.
Contents: US, Canada sponsor international North Korea meeting to send signal to China, Russia; North Korea’s Olympics publicity stunt gains widespread media adoration
Contents: US-Pakistan relations continue as before, despite US aid cutoff; US requests Pakistan’s permission to ship Afghan supplies through Gwadar seaport
The government of the Philippines announced on Tuesday that it would lodge a formal diplomatic protest with China over its construction of an airbase on the disputed Fiery Cross Reef, part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn described China as an “important ally” of the United States in an interview with Mike Allen of Axios on Wednesday — just days after President Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy described China as an adversarial “revisionist power” that steals hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. intellectual property each year and is working to “shape a world antithetical to U.S. values and interests.”
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted air force exercises around Taiwan this weekend, as well as near South Korea and Japan, releasing a video of the drills.
Contents: China-Australia relations plummet over China’s illegal militarization of South China Sea; China reacts contemptuously to Australia’s foreign policy white paper; China continues aggressive military buildup in the South China Sea; Trump to target China’s unfair trade policies in National Security Strategy
A report published Thursday indicates that China has continued developing military and surveillance facilities on illegally constructed artificial islands in the South China Sea more than a year after an international tribunal ruled these constructions illegal.
Australian Senator Sam Dastyari, a Labor Party deputy whip and committee chairman, resigned from his leadership positions on Thursday after an influence-buying scandal that stoked Australian concerns about China’s growing power in their political system.
China’s state-run Global Times announced on Tuesday that experts see potential for the illegally-constructed floating nuclear power plants in the South China Sea to provide technology that “could be applied to military nuclear vessels.”
The latest issue of the National Interest asks if we are looking at “war in Asia” within the next decade or so. The question asked collectively by the headline articles is whether the multi-sided contest between China, the Koreas, and Japan can be resolved without someone, somewhere, pulling a trigger. The urgent question for U.S. policymakers is whether America can do anything to make overt hostilities less likely.
China has a plan for your future, and it’s called One Belt One Road.
In an interesting footnote to a story from last week, Kirsty Needham of the Sydney Morning Herald noticed that China’s state-run media edited a little detail from the international version of its massive hagiography of President Xi Jinping.
In his 12-day trip to Asia, U.S. President Donald Trump largely focused on North Korea and trade, all but avoiding the simmering disputes in the South China Sea and steering clear of sharp criticism of Beijing’s increasingly aggressive activities there.
The Chinese government’s media arm has reacted with outrage to President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate talks between the various claimants in the South China Sea, where Beijing has dedicated years to constructing sophisticated military outposts in Philippine and Vietnamese waters.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte joined in a performance of a Philippine love song during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gala on Sunday night, then claimed President Donald Trump “ordered” him to sing.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told reporters on Sunday that he had kept his promise to challenge Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on his nation’s illegal military constructions in the South China Sea. According to the Philippine Star, Duterte said Xi responded to his concerns by saying, “No, it’s nothing.”
President Donald Trump said he would be happy to negotiate with China over conflicts in the South China Sea during a meeting with Vietnam president Trần Đại Quang.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters that American and Chinese officials “had a frank exchange” on China’s illegal colonization of the South China Sea on Thursday.
At a press conference about President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to China, Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang on Friday asserted Chinese sovereignty over the South China Sea and expressed hope that the United States would “help and not cause problems” with China’s conquest.
While much of the world is focused on the ballistic missile and nuclear threat from North Korea, the U.S. military in the Pacific region is also concentrating on another potential foe: China.
In an in-person meeting in Tokyo on Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced a mammoth cooperation package that will infuse the Philippine economy with billions in infrastructure, business, and public safety initiatives.
