Elaine Chao’s -- Mitch’s wife -- family has made a fortune in shipping, primarily off the People’s Republic of China. McConnell and Chao, per Peter Schweizer, have both played key roles in furthering the Foremost Group’s interests. That’s James Chao’s -- Elaine’s dad’s -- company. Since 2004, the McConnells’ fortune has ballooned to as much as $36.5 million. How do two D.C. lifers get that rich?
Even President Donald Trump, who initiated a trade war with China and tried to block the CCP's inroads into America, found his efforts thwarted. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, his wife Elaine Choi (secretary of transportation), Wilbur Ross (commerce secretary), Steve Mnuchin (Treasury secretary), Gary Cohn (director of the National Economic Council), White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, and Trump's daughter Ivanka — all had strong business interests in China.
Mitch McConnell Wins Reelection as Senate GOP Leader, 10 Defectors Vote for Rick Scott
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Wednesday won reelection as Senate GOP leader with ten defectors voting for challenger Sen. Rick Scott
McConnell received 37 “yes” votes and ten votes against, with one senator voting present.
he has received a “no” vote as leader, a sign the Republican Party has begun to turn against his establishment agenda.
“I don’t own this job,” McConnell told reporters after the vote. “Anybody who wants to run for it can feel free to do so. So I’m not in any way offended by having an opponent or having a few votes in opposition.”
First elected as GOP leader in 2006, with McConnell’s reelection he will likely become the longest serving Senate party leader in history.
Under McConnell’s leadership, the nation has struggled.
The national debt has increased more than $20 trillion, illegal immigration has persisted, real wages for American workers have remained stagnant, Obamacare was enacted in 2010, big banks were bailed out in 2008, social media companies have silenced individuals without repercussions, and Dr. Anthony Fauci remains unaccountable for allegedly twice lying to Congress.
Just seven percent of voters view McConnell favorably, while 81 percent view him unfavorably, Wednesday polling revealed.
McConnell’s reelection was challenged on Tuesday by Scott, who argued against the status quo and for a plan to advance conservative principles. His challenge gained considerable support, considering that McConnell holds significant power over the conference.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) (C) speaks to members of the press as Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (R) and Senate Minority Whip Sen. John Thune (R-SD) (L) listen. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“Despite what the armchair quarterbacks on TV will tell you, there is no one person responsible for our party’s performance across the country,” Scott blamed McConnell for the midterm election failures. “If you simply want to stick with the status quo, don’t vote for me.”
After Scott announced his bid, McConnell appeared unfazed. “I have the votes. I will be elected,” McConnell told reporters.
The GOP Senate leadership election also included additional races. McConnell’s leadership team will now be Sen. John Thune (R-SD) as Minority Whip, John Barrasso (R-WY) as Conference Chair, Joni Ernst (R-IA) as Senate Republican Policy Committee Chair, Steve Daines (R-MT) as NRSC Chair, and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) as Conference Vice Chair.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Sen. Hawley Criticizes 'Washington Republicanism'
(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) says it's time for a change in the Republican Party -- not only its Senate leader, but also the party's focus:
"Well, we need good, strong, independent leadership that actually listens to voters and doesn't just listen to the Washington lobbyists," Hawley told Fox News Monday night.
"And I'll just tell you, when it comes to the GOP, the Washington Republicanism that cares more about Wall Street than it does about working people, it's time for that to come to an end.
"The Washington Republicanism that's all about adventures abroad and the neoconservatism of these global wars, not focused on working people in this country, it needs to come to an end.
"I think what voters are asking us to do is pretty clear. Secure our streets. You know, let's put new cops on the street, 100,000 of them. Secure the border. Stop the indoctrination of our children, and bring jobs back to this country.
"It used to be you could support a family on one good wage. You can't do that anymore in this country because of the ruinous trade policies that, unfortunately, both parties have supported.
"That has got to come to an end. Republicans have got to be the party of working people and working class culture. That that's what we're fighting for."
Hawley said he will not support Mitch McConnell for Republican leader. "We need new leadership, but we also need real convictions. That's what we've got to be about going forward."
In a speech on the Senate floor Monday, McConnell noted that the nation remains "closely divided," and he called it an "outstanding thing" that Republicans appear poised to take control of the House of Representatives.
"If Washington Democrats do not want to pivot to sanity and common sense; if they will not help us address the ways their policies are hurting families, they will encounter stiff resistance from the sizeable Senate Republican Conference that half the country has elected to be their voice, to be their champions, to fight for them.
“We’re going to fight hard for the American families this administration is leaving behind,” McConnell said.
Biden pledges to “manage” economic war with China
US President Joe Biden had his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping since his inauguration, pledging to “manage” the United States’ trade war with China, which he referred to as “competition.”
Biden, in the words of the White House readout of the discussion, “reiterated that this competition should not veer into conflict and underscored that the United States and China must manage the competition responsibly and maintain open lines of communication.”
The readout continued, “President Biden explained that the United States will continue to compete vigorously with [China], including by investing in sources of strength at home and aligning efforts with allies and partners around the world.”
Speaking after the meeting with Xi, Biden declared, “We’re going to compete vigorously. But I’m not looking for conflict, I’m looking to manage this competition responsibly.”
Biden’s emphasis on “managing” tensions and keeping open lines of communication may indicate a tactical shift by Washington and a temporary deescalation of sharp tensions with Beijing.
Over the past several months, the Biden administration has relentlessly escalated pressure on Beijing. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi staged a visit to Taiwan in a deliberate provocation against the Beijing’s claims of sovereignty. Biden declared that the US would commit troops to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion by mainland China.
Washington placed a ban on trade in advanced microchips with China, a measure of economic warfare targeting China’s core interests. China is isolated in a world in which every other country, led by Washington, has abandoned all public health measures to deal with the pandemic.
China’s Zero-COVID policy is also under intense attack. With its war games and military deployments, Washington has brought the Korean Peninsula, vital to China’s own interests, to the brink of the resumption of armed conflict. Biden has repeatedly and baselessly accused China of “genocide.” The war in Ukraine, provoked by the US and NATO, has profoundly destabilized the Eurasian landmass and ruptured China’s trade and political connections throughout the region. And all this in less than a year.
The meeting between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit witnessed a stepping back by Washington from this year of unrelenting incendiary rhetoric and military provocation. In his remarks to the press after a three and a half hour meeting with Xi, Biden characterized Xi as “direct and straightforward” and “willing to compromise.”
There would be no “new cold war” between the US and China, Biden declared, and added that he believed that China had no imminent plans to invade Taiwan. This is a reversal of numerous earlier warmongering statements issued by the Biden administration, the legislature and the Pentagon.
The term “New Cold War” was used to describe the 2018 speech by Vice President Mike Pence that raised the prospect of economic “decoupling” between the United States and China in order to prevent China from seizing the “commanding heights of the 21st century economy.” While denying he is seeking such a “New Cold War,” Biden has in fact embraced the doctrine of “strategic competition” with China pioneered under the Trump administration.
Biden said that Washington would “oppose unilateral change in the status quo” of relations between mainland China and Taiwan “by either side.” This was the first time that the US president had spoken against a growing Taiwanese separatist movement to which he had until now been giving open encouragement.
Biden announced that as a means of “managing” the “competition,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken would travel to China to meet with his counterpart, and various US and Chinese teams would meet to set in place mechanisms for meetings to discuss the resolution of differences.
The Global Times quoted Xi as responding that he “looks forward to working with the US president to push bilateral relations back on the track of healthy and stable development.”
The United States is committed to a strategic course that leads inescapably to war with China. China’s economic growth directly threatens US hegemony and Washington will use trade war measures and open military conflict to hold onto its world dominance.
The changed rhetoric at Bali may express Washington’s attempt to drive a wedge between Russia and China as it pursues the imperialist breakup of Russia coming out of the war in Ukraine. The tactical deceleration of its drive to open war against Beijing is being coupled with the institutionalization and normalization as “competition” of its trade war measures taken against China.
These trade war policies were initiated by former US President Donald Trump, and are expressed in the doctrines of economic “decoupling” and deglobalization that have been embraced by the entire US political establishment.
An editorial in the Financial Times explained the meaning of Biden’s efforts to “manage” its “competition” with China:
Washington’s determination to restrain Beijing’s ambitions to surpass it as the world’s leading military and economic power means further decoupling from China is inevitable. But Washington must at the same time manage relations with Beijing with care. It should be guided by three principles: that decoupling should not crash the global economy; that war must be avoided; and that China’s co-operation is still needed on a range of global issues.
The newspaper continued:
Washington’s drive to slow Beijing’s acquisition of leading-edge military technologies should be combined with co-operation in areas of mutual concern. These extend not just to the green transition, but also nuclear proliferation, pandemic prevention and debt restructuring for emerging markets.
In other words, the economic doctrines of free trade and globalization, in which the flourishing of global economic activity would “lift all boats,” has been entirely rejected by the political establishment, replaced with two alternatives: mercantilist trade war aimed at achieving military supremacy without the use of force, or open military conflict.
The line between the two, however, is entirely fluid. For all of Biden’s declarations that he is merely seeking a trade war and not a military conflict, his statements are openly contradicted by his own policy documents. While its tactics may shift, the explicitly stated strategy of Washington is preparation for military conflict with China.
Just one month before the meeting of Biden and Xi, Biden penned an introduction to the new US National Security Strategy in which he declared the United States will “seize this decisive decade to advance America’s vital interests” and “position the United States to out maneuver our geopolitical competitors.”
Biden declared, “We are in the midst of a strategic competition to shape the future of the international order.”
He added, “In the contest for the future of our world, my Administration is clear-eyed about the scope and seriousness of this challenge. The People’s Republic of China harbors the intention and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order in favor of one that tilts the global playing field to its benefit, even as the United States remains committed to managing the competition between our countries responsibly.”
In other words, Biden’s declarations about “managing” its economic war with China are fundamentally consistent with his administration’s plans for military conflict with China in what he called the “decisive decade.”
There are growing signs that in an effort to deescalate tensions with the United States, China is making moves to adopt the mass infection COVID-19 policies championed by the US and other imperialist powers.
In an editorial, the Economist declared that Chinese “officials released 20 measures adjusting zero-covid policies to make them a little less onerous and costly to administer.” It called these moves “the biggest relaxation of the country’s pandemic stance since covid began to spread,” while likewise hailing the abandonment of measures to reduce real estate speculation.
There can be no doubt that the United States, the world’s leading imperialist power, has the skill and shrewdness to provide Chinese officials rewards in exchange for sacrificing the lives of tens of thousands of Chinese workers, in the process boosting the profits of American corporations—all the while continuing their long-term plans to economically and militarily subjugate China.
There also appear to be quiet moves by China to distance itself from Russia amid the US-led proxy war.
Reuters wrote, “Chinese Premier Li Keqiang emphasized the ‘irresponsibility’ of nuclear threats during a summit in Cambodia, suggesting Beijing is uncomfortable with strategic partner Russia’s nuclear rhetoric, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.”
Hailing these statements, US proxy and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared, “In particular, it is important that the United States and China jointly highlighted that the threats of using nuclear weapons were unacceptable. Everyone understands to whom these words are addressed.”
The US, Russia and China are each facing massive social and domestic crises. Despite the talk of “decoupling” and “deglobalization,” the inflationary surge and looming economic recession are threatening every single country of the world. The upsurge of the class struggle in the United States, exemplified by a looming rail strike, will weigh heavily on the White House’s plans.
Under these conditions, the United States may be seeking to make tactical reorientations, including accepting concessions from China or even Russia, in order to temporarily stabilize surging prices and head off an economic collapse.
The overall policy of the United States remains, however, the militarist and war-mongering strategy expressed in last month’s National Security Strategy, pledging to “win the competition for the 21st century” through trade war, military threats and the massive buildup of military spending.
Elaine Chao’s -- Mitch’s wife -- family has made a fortune in shipping, primarily off the People’s Republic of China. McConnell and Chao, per Peter Schweizer, have both played key roles in furthering the Foremost Group’s interests. That’s James Chao’s -- Elaine’s dad’s -- company. Since 2004, the McConnells’ fortune has ballooned to as much as $36.5 million. How do two D.C. lifers get that rich?
But no stink on Mitch and Elaine for -- as Schweizer terms it -- “corruption by proxy.”
2022 Midterms: No Stink on the Republican Establishment?
Attacks on Donald Trump have begun in the aftermath of the midterm elections. We should have set our watches. Washington’s Republican establishment is pushing the line that the GOP’s underperformance in the midterms is “100%” Trump’s fault. Of course, there’s no stink on D.C. Republicans -- not Kevin McCarthy, not Mitch McConnell, not Ronna McDaniel, not Tom Emmer (chairman, RNCC), not GOP consultants and pollsters… Not on any Republican who hangs out at the Capitol Hill Club.
Conservatives shouldn’t be goaded into a Trump versus DeSantis fight. Trump and DeSantis shouldn’t permit themselves to be baited, either. It’s so transparent, it’s laughable. That’s exactly what the establishment is trying. Washington Republicans don’t intend to just knock out Trump, but split conservatives. Is that rank odor wafting through the air from Karl Rove and Jeb! lurking behind the curtains?
No stink on the insiders. Nope. Just Trump. Washington’s favorite game is in full swing: The Blame Game. Republicans play it as viciously as Democrats. It’s one of D.C.’s charms.
The long knives are aimed at Trump because he remains the Republican establishment’s nemesis. The aforementioned “players,” among many others, don’t like their apple carts upset. Why, they get all touchy about that. Trump the disrupter, Trump the change agent -- not good for business. And make no mistake, in D.C., it’s all about business. Show me the money, baby!
Why do you think parades of unrich politicians who go to D.C. leave -- if they ever do -- worth millions of dollars? You think Nancy Pelosi is the only member of Congress -- Ds and Rs -- who’s alleged to profit from insider trading?
Enriched, these “representatives of the people,” while producing absolutely nothing of real value… who retire from Congress or lose their seats to then get fat off defense contractor board appointments, consulting gigs with whatever special interest thinks their “ins” can be leveraged, and fat off consulting fees just because someone owed them a favor. Give me a guy making widgets in Paducah, Kentucky over these scammers any day.
And who -- somehow, mysteriously -- get rich off their family’s and friends’ connections.
Case in point, the august Mitch McConnell, who, in fact, has become the poster boy for everything cynical, smarmy, and loathsome about the Swamp. At least, on the Republican side of the aisle. R or D, Mitch isn’t alone.
Elaine Chao’s -- Mitch’s wife -- family has made a fortune in shipping, primarily off the People’s Republic of China. McConnell and Chao, per Peter Schweizer, have both played key roles in furthering the Foremost Group’s interests. That’s James Chao’s -- Elaine’s dad’s -- company. Since 2004, the McConnells’ fortune has ballooned to as much as $36.5 million. How do two D.C. lifers get that rich?
But no stink on Mitch and Elaine for -- as Schweizer terms it -- “corruption by proxy.”
And no stink on Mitch for publicly remarking during the midterms that “candidate quality” among Republican Senate hopefuls was lacking, which meant don’t expect the GOP to win the Senate. But Mitch wasn’t done. Caring more about retaining his Senate leadership position (even if that meant minority status), McConnell’s PAC pulled badly needed money from Blake Masters’ race in Arizona and Don Bolduc’s New Hampshire contest.
Worse -- if there is a worse -- well, yes, there is -- Mitch has poured money into propping up Lisa Murkowski’s campaign in Alaska. Murkowski, who just radiates political whore. But, hey, that’s the ilk Mitch runs with.
No stink on Mitch, but, per Daily Wire, “GOP’s Midterm Losses were 100% Trump’s Fault.”
The dunce who penned the Daily Wire piece actually claims that had Trump not pushed Mehmet Oz, Dave McCormick would have been Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate nominee… “And McCormick most likely would’ve crushed the bumbling John Fetterman.”
That Dave McCormick, who made “$22 million last year [2021] as CEO of the world's largest hedge fund,” Bridgewater Associates? Bridgewater Associates that made truckloads of yen off the PRC, a communist regime that oppresses Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Hongkongers? Dave McCormick’s Bridgewater Associates, which knows it’s more lucrative to help create jobs in China than the U.S.A.?
Does the Daily Wire dunce not appreciate that Democrats would have fricasseed McCormick for all of the above plus more? That Pennsylvania’s “No Questions” mail-in balloting would have done in Abraham “Mr. Freed the Slaves” Lincoln?
Details, details. Just get Trump.
Trump, who did more for the nation in 48 months as president than D.C. lifers have done in their careers. Trump, who kept the nation at peace, who had the economy humming, who stood up to Xi and Putin and Kim and the mullahs. Trump, who, against Democrat and Republican opposition, effectively closed the U.S.-Mexican border… who fought the drug scourge and child trafficking coming from Mexico.
Donald Trump who, this election season, made dozens of endorsements and took to the hustings to support Republican candidates via rallies in key states, while most establishment Republicans hung out in their nicely appointed D.C. offices, sitting on their fat rears, spinning whatever intrigues they believed advanced their petty interests.
In 24 months of the Biden administration and Democrat control of Congress, along with the passivity of Kevin McCarthy and conniving compliance of Mitch McConnell, what has happened to the nation? It’s become an awful mess. It’s tumbled into deep troubles -- thanks to utter incompetence, ideological blinkeredness, and greed -- that appear only to have begun. A potential Perfect Storm of crises, domestic and foreign, is brewing.
And yet no stink on the elites, whose conceit is their most outsized feature. Elites, who aren’t just Democrats but quisling establishment Republicans and pay-for-hire “conservatives,” whose devotion to liberty and nation are distant seconds to devotion to themselves.
All of them are miserably failing the country -- the honest, decent, hardworking Joes and Janes who comprise the real backbone of America. They’re being failed -- we’re all being failed -- by crimped minds whose reflex is to shift blame from themselves to Trump. Good Lord, deliver us from these fools.
Lastly and not least, Newt Gingrich has weighed in. I’ve long respected and appreciated Newt, starting when he was a firebrand backbencher in the U.S. House in the late 70s and early 80s. His contributions have been historic. But he, too, has decided to pin the blame on Trump for the GOP’s underperformance -- or was it more on the order of inflated expectations now being spun as underperformance?
Said the former speaker, per Just the News, November 10:
"I was pretty shaken because that was not the election I expected," he admitted. "And I don't have as much confidence in my own judgment as I would have had yesterday morning."
Well, Mr. Speaker, perhaps you shouldn’t. Perhaps most of us misread developments. Maybe we need the humility to admit we were wrong. But lackluster Kevin McCarthy, whom you mentored, and along with House Republicans, concocted the tepid “Commitment to America,” receives not a single word of criticism from you? And what about your role in counseling McCarthy and having direct input into the “Commitment?” Perhaps introspection and further reflection would help you arrive at a deeper, wiser understanding of your responsibility?
I’m decades past an infatuation with any politician. Donald Trump is no more perfect than the rest of us. He has his good and bad attributes. But we should all be damned if we allow feckless, self-absorbed, and incompetent Republican D.C. lifers to get away with evading their ample share of responsibility for the midterm outcomes. Yep, stink is on them, thick and pungent.
Conservatives, don’t take the bait. The lifers want us to form a circular firing squad. If we let them blame Trump “100%,” shame on us.
J. Robert Smith can be found regularly at Gab @JRobertSmith. He also blogs at Flyover.
A Close Look at the CCP's Hidden Hand
The comforting belief that democratic freedoms have history on their side and will eventually prevail everywhere has always been tinged with wishful thinking. World events of the past two or three decades have shown that we can no longer take these things for granted. Universal human rights, democratic practice and the rule of law have powerful enemies, and China under the Chinese Communist Party is arguably the most formidable.
It is with these words — direct, forceful, and ominous — that Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg's well researched book Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party Is Reshaping the World begins. In an earlier work, Silent Invasion, Hamilton had warned of the deep reach China had gained in Australia by routing huge donations to political parties through Chinese businessmen, and of how Australian institutions had been "penetrated and shaped by a complex system of influence and control overseen by agencies serving the Chinese Communist Party." In Hidden Hand, Hamilton and Ohlberg show how China is deploying that insidious strategy worldwide to shape the world in its own image.
In 1989, CCP leaders were shocked by the Tiananmen Square protests and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the latter leading to the breakdown of the Soviet Union. So they gave razor-sharp focus to ideological security, imposing political education (or indoctrination at school) and preventing the entry of hostile ideas. The U.S. was painted as a formidable enemy with nefarious plans to dominate China. Ordinary Chinese came to believe they are in a life-or-death struggle. The home front thus secured, over the next few decades, the CCP embarked aggressively on achieving tianxia, or world domination.
Culturally, the Chinese think and communicate in imagery; embrace subjectivity; and prize skill in allusion, subterfuge, doing by not doing, and winning without fighting. So it is not surprising that CCP strategists, well versed in Sun Tzu and weiqi, have worked indirectly to win Western countries from within rather than through direct aggression from outside. Their well planned campaign of influence, backed by substantial economic resources and technological advances, has masterfully manipulated the Western elite, media, entertainment, universities, NGOs, and think-tanks to control the narrative on China. Businesses and politicians have been won over with deals, creating dependencies that China has expertly exploited.
Hidden Hand is outstanding because it gives a detailed map of China's tactics. A sampling: Wai yuang nei fang (round outside, square within, or flexible in strategy, firm in principles); xiao ma da bangmang (big help with a little badmouth, or allowing some criticism by friendly forces so they gain credibility); yi shang bi zheng (using business to pressure governments); nongcun baowei chengshi (using the countryside to surround cities); and difang baowei zhongyang (from the periphery to the center). With numerous examples of how such tactics have been used, the authors hope to shake the West out of its complacency.
They warn that China isn't the Chinese people; it is the CCP, for the people have been indoctrinated or forced into submission. Foreigners fail to recognize the many incarnations of the party, which is segmented into work groups for different spheres of influence. For example, the United Front Work Department (UFWD) is responsible for guiding overseas Chinese and suppressing dissident voices. The International Liaison Department (ILD) is charged with influencing political parties and developing links to NGOs in target nations. Chinese friendship associations, and even businesses, focus on building influence networks at the local level. Behind them all, always exerting control, is the party, its officials double-hatting and double-plating to fool the West.
Beijing, the authors write, has made an art form of studying the centers of influence and power in each country. Elites in business, academia, politics, think-tanks, media, and politics are carefully targeted. This has ensnared successive U.S. administrations. Even President Donald Trump, who initiated a trade war with China and tried to block the CCP's inroads into America, found his efforts thwarted. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, his wife Elaine Choi (secretary of transportation), Wilbur Ross (commerce secretary), Steve Mnuchin (Treasury secretary), Gary Cohn (director of the National Economic Council), White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, and Trump's daughter Ivanka — all had strong business interests in China.
In Europe, the CCP has insinuated itself into the highest levels of decision-making. Hamilton believes that the 48 Club, founded in 1954 by British communists, has been "grooming" leaders in the U.K. They are so entrenched in the influence network that there's no extricating Britain from Beijing's orbit. Such networks have long thrived in other European countries, too, so they look past China's human rights violations and territorial aggression.
China has also co-opted Big Business, Wall Street, and financial institutions in America and Europe. Big Business sees China as a market. Finance firms often hire the red aristocracy — children of CCP leaders — in the hope of gaining business but leaving themselves open to espionage and influence. They have invested billions of dollars from pension funds in Chinese companies, compounding China's leverage. When President Trump took on China, the globalist billionaires of Wall Street pressured the White House, prompting trade adviser Peter Navarro to call them "unregistered foreign agents."
Beijing devotes significant resources to industrial and state espionage, tapping into overseas Chinese communities — professionals, business people, students, and even tourists — to recruit agents of influence and spies. Under the Thousand Talents program, initiated in 2008, China sent its brightest to obtain Ph.D.s from American universities and either bring back knowhow or take on top jobs to gather intelligence for China's agencies. Today, China leads in A.I.
The authors quote a National Endowment for Democracy report that says that when China speaks of soft power, it always means sharp power that furthers its worldview. To this end, China has been spending $10 billion yearly to create its own CNN — a "flagship media [outlet] with strong international influence." Meanwhile, the CCP partners with foreign media to place its own content, using persuasive techniques, incentives, and threats. But it's a one-way street: China remains closed to foreign media. Similarly, China has gained unidirectional influence in academia through the notorious Confucius Institutes and by funding programs at cash-strapped foreign universities in the spirit of "academic exchange." Of course, the three Ts — Taiwan, Tibet, and Tiananmen — are censored.
The list of China's successes through coercion — soft and hard — runs long. Most Western countries now treat Taiwan as a part of China. As the second largest contributor to the U.N., China has managed to keep Taiwan out of the U.N. since 1971. The WHO excluded Taiwan from meetings during the pandemic, and the International Red Cross has not admitted Taiwan's Red Cross Society. Many Western democracies now have extradition treaties with authoritarian China, so dissidents abroad are sent home to be punished. Some are kidnapped or return after their families are threatened. So the world doesn't often hear of China's human rights violations.
Hamilton and Ohlberg say that China's most ambitious Trojan horse is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project. The project draws on a phrase popularized by Xi Jinping — "new type of international relations," ostensibly a cooperative, win-win approach. In fact, it has robbed poorer nations of sovereignty and resources and pushed them into debt traps. The plan always was, in the words of the PLA Navy, to "meticulously select the location, deploy discreetly, prioritize cooperation and slowly infiltrate." As of 2019, over 60 countries, including 18 E.U. countries — two thirds of the world population — had signed on. Driven by a debt crisis, Italy, the third largest economy in the E.U., too joined the project. With CCP-linked companies investing in roads, ports, dams, airports, railways, energy networks, and other infrastructure across the globe, the vulnerability is obvious.
Even so, the authors believe it's not too late. Despite short-term costs, open societies can end unrestrained engagement with China. But politicians, businesses, and influence groups must first break free of the Chinese net in which they have entangled themselves over three decades.
Image: tookapic via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
Scheduled Vote for Mitch McConnell as Leader Remains Despite GOP Opposition
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) on Friday shut down attempts to remove Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) from his leadership position in the Senate by writing a letter Friday to Republican senators denying their request to delay Wednesday’s leadership vote.
Barrasso, one of McConnell’s top lieutenants, wrote a letter Friday to GOP senators denying their request to delay Wednesday’s leadership vote until after all Senate votes had been counted.
“We look forward to meeting next week with our new and returning members. I expect a full and open discussion beginning at Tuesday’s policy lunch on our path forward,” he wrote in a letter obtained by CNN. “On Wednesday we will meet again for our scheduled conference for elections.”
“I welcome the questions and points made in the letter circulated by Senators Rick Scott, Lee and Johnson,” Barrasso, who is in charge of leadership elections, wrote.
Barrasso’s letter comes after Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Mike Lee (R-UT) have voiced opposition to leadership elections until candidates’ dedication to conservative ideas are vetted.
In a second letter circulated Friday among Republican senators, those senators impressed upon their colleagues that “serious discussions” must occur about why the red wave did not materialize.
“We are all disappointed that a Red Wave failed to materialize, and there are multiple reasons it did not,” the letter reads. “We need to have serious discussions within our conference as to why and what we can do to improve our chances in 2024.”
Hawley has been particularly vocal in opposing McConnell’s reelection as the Republican leader. “[I]t’s pretty hard to convince folks, particularly independent-minded ones who don’t tend to trust the process much, to vote for you, if you don’t have something affirmative to say and offer,” Hawley told RealClearPolitics.
“I lay that at the feet of the Washington establishment that set the tone for these races,” he added. “They failed to offer that kind of vision.”
Senate Republicans are scheduled to vote on McConnell as leader on Wednesday. Only eight percent of voters view McConnell favorably, while 80 percent view him unfavorably.
Under McConnell’s tenure, the national debt has soared more than $20 trillion, illegal immigration has continued, real wages for American workers have remained stagnant, Obamacare was enacted in 2010, big banks were bailed out in 2008, and social media companies have silenced individuals without repercussions. Dr. Anthony Fauci remains unaccountable for allegedly twice lying to Congress.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
New Hunter Biden revelation undermines president's comments: Turley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCk4RlPkFSQ
Bidens of all sorts are under federal investigation for tax evasion, money-laundering, and unregistered agent foreign ties, as this Politico report citing
Hunter notes.
Biden lied when he denied knowledge of Hunter’s businesses deals: Devine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=680-KEfZuT8
Joe Concha blasts media over Hunter Biden diamond scandal: 'He is untouchable'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L80nVRtiUoc
New details further link Hunter Biden to China’s payroll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgVOirLNWpw
I'm Going To Highlight A New Hunter Biden Record...': Grassley Goes After POTUS Son On Senate Floor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY_UrM8TvGE
This is Biden's biggest problem: Steve Moore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqP7hPQACFA
HUNTER AND JOE BIDEN: CHINA'S RENT BOYS!
Hunter Biden will be a top priority for Republicans: Rep. Comer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AumMMgIGNs'
'The Five' knock Biden for reassuring Dems he's running for reelection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0zYoaV9VOs
America sees two weak leaders in the White House: Mercedes Schlapp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVL-8P82_20
Naïve American people had no idea what they were getting with Biden: A senile, corrupt, debauched old man with a son who was a conduit for his dirty dealings and who has a personal life so disgusting it’s hard to write about it. That’s what the American media and the tech tyrants have done to America. ANDREA WIDBURG
New Hunter Biden revelation undermines president's comments: Turley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCk4RlPkFSQ
Bidens of all sorts are under federal investigation for tax evasion, money-laundering, and unregistered agent foreign ties, as this Politico report citing Hunter notes.
China Working To Undermine Midterm Elections, Cybersecurity Group Says
China, Russia, Iran sowing dissent ahead of midterm elections
Communist China is behind a massive online disinformation campaign aimed at undermining the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, according to findings by a cybersecurity group.
China is using a network of social media accounts and altered news articles to "sow division both between the U.S. and its allies and within the U.S. political system itself," according to a threat assessment by Mandiant, a cybersecurity and intelligence organization that works with governments and the public sector. China’s latest efforts to undermine the American democratic process come amid parallel attempts by Russia and Iran to interfere with the upcoming elections.
The CCP influence operation, dubbed Dragonbridge, is attracting concern in the cybersecurity sector for its "aggressive attempts to discredit the U.S. democratic process, including attempts to discourage Americans from voting in the 2022 U.S. midterm elections," according to Mandiant’s research. The organization assesses "with high confidence" that the online campaign is "operating in support of the political interests of the People’s Republic of China."
Efforts by foreign actors to meddle in the upcoming elections have fueled concerns among federal authorities, including the FBI, which recently warned that an Iranian government-backed hacking collective is working to target U.S. entities. Russia also "is working to amplify doubts about the integrity of U.S. elections" as voters head to the polls next week, according to the Associated Press.
The CCP’s Dragonbridge operation has similar hallmarks to those of other foreign actors, according to Mandiant. Dragonbridge, through a network of online social media accounts that obfuscate their true identity, is promoting "narratives that appeared intended to discredit and undermine the U.S. political system."
In September, for instance, Dragonbridge-affiliated accounts posted an English-language video on online platforms that included "content attempting to discourage Americans from voting in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections." Like the efforts helmed by Russia and Iran, China wants to sow doubts about "the efficacy of voting and of U.S. government institutions more broadly," according to Mandiant.
The video, portions of which were captured by Mandiant, claimed "the solution to America's ills is not to vote for someone," but to "root out this ineffective and incapacitated system"—a narrative that mirrors those promoted by U.S.-based radical groups on the left and right.
Chinese operators also promoted rhetoric meant to divide Americans and reinforce the impression that the country is irrevocably broken.
Dragonbridge content collected by Mandiant promotes the narrative "that political infighting, partisanship, polarization, and division had become fundamental aspects of American democracy. The campaign also pointed to frequent mentions of ‘civil war’ on social media and incidents of politically motivated violence, including confrontations between individuals supporting opposing parties and acts against the FBI, as evidence of the deterioration of the political process and its impending demise."
The group also has been observed altering actual news articles and pushing content that appears to be legitimate but is actually the product of CCP manipulation.
Throughout the 2022 election cycle, the CCP-orchestrated campaign has exhibited "aggressiveness through both the content of its narratives and its willingness to experiment with new tactics to accomplish its aims," according to Mandiant. This includes attempts to mobilize American protesters to take to the streets and potentially commit violent acts.
"Such persistence, combined with clear intent and scale, renders the campaign a priority for monitoring," the security group warned.
John Hultquist, head of threat intelligence for Mandiant, said in a statement that while Russia and Iran are more aggressive in their efforts to undermine U.S. elections, "what’s troubling [about the CCP groups is] their aggressive growth."
A Bay Area post office box and a shadowy online war.
In May 2022, Mary Trump tweeted, “Hundreds of voter subversion laws are only a governor’s signature away from going into effect. Please join the Democracy Defense Fund in supporting these gubernatorial candidates who are committed to protecting our #VotingRights.”
Mary Trump, the former president’s niece, has become an anti-Trump figure specializing in deranged rhetoric like calling him “mass murderer criminal Donald Trump”. DDF is a PAC that is intervening in races across the country, including in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Ohio.
The Democracy Defense Fund, a nationwide PAC, was supposedly created by Mary Trump, who has no apparent background or ability to create or manage such an organization. After an extensive search, I was unable to locate any other employees or personnel involved with it.
Who’s really behind DDF which claims to have a nationwide reach for the midterms?
Aside from Mary’s name out front, the DDF PAC has been a black box. The site only mentions her name and no other employees, advisers or board members. And yet DDF has sent out fundraising emails urging donations to Stacey Abrams, Beto O’Rourke and Raphael Warnock. It bombarded mailboxes with a plea from Mandela Barnes, running against Senator Ron Johnson: something that the Democrat Senate candidate and DDF could do because it’s a hybrid PAC.
The only address listed by DDF is a post office box at a Bay Area post office. But this particular post office is also used by the Hold the House PAC fronted by former Democratic Rep. Mike Honda and run by a Silicon Valley strategy firm. The former congressman was a controversial figure who was accused of a pay-to-play scheme with donors.
An Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) report stated that there is “substantial reason to believe … Honda improperly tied official activities to past or potential political support.”
Honda’s “1,000 Cranes” list served as an index of special favors that appeared to be performed for top donors. And Honda was one of the politicians targeted by Fang Fang, a Chinese spy. Honda can be seen posing with the foreign agent at the Chinese Embassy in D.C.
The existing questions about who is really behind the Democracy Defense Fund took on a new urgency with the release of the Dragonbridge or the Spamouflage Dragon influence operation running out of China. The latest Chinese operation in which operatives pretended to be Americans made waves because for the first time they appeared to be directly interfering in an election by adopting American personas and promoting American political organizations.
While the Chinese Communist operatives pretended to be Americans from across the spectrum, the Left and the Right, one tweet was notable. It read, “Hundreds of voter subversion laws are only a governor’s signature away from going into effect. Please join the Democracy Defense Fund in supporting these gubernatorial candidates.”
Dragonbridge was amplifying Mary Trump’s tweet and promoting the Democracy Defense Fund. There is no record of the Chinese influence operation promoting any other PACs.
DDF claims that “our democracy is in danger”, but it’s being promoted by one of the world’s most brutal totalitarian dictatorships which is at war with the United States. It alleges that Republicans are “planning the next coup”, but DDF’s amplification by Communist China raises questions about where the real backing for the next coup is coming from.
The account in question has since been suspended but it raises troubling questions about not only Communist China’s involvement in the midterms, but its support for a Democrat PAC.
And it makes it more urgent than ever to answer the question of who’s really behind DDF.
While the Democracy Defense Fund seeks to intervene in battleground elections, its only listed address is in the Bay Area. That is also where China’s espionage and influence operations are strongest. It’s also the wellspring of money pouring into American elections.
California is the only state where the PRC’s Ministry of State Security has a unit. Chinese operatives were able to recruit a staff member working for Senator Dianne Feinstein. Fang Fang pursued primarily California Democrats like Rep. Eric Swalwell and Rep. Ro Khanna.
Chinese-owned firms have already been caught donating to PACs. Others, like Huawei, TikTok and Hikvision have invested a fortune in lobbying Congress. But beyond the millions of dollars being spent by companies with links to the Communist Party, and with lobbyists formally registered as foreign agents, there is a hidden underworld of spies and political operatives.
It may be entirely a coincidence that a Chinese influence operation promoted a Democrat PAC, just a question of random algorithms and 50-cent party ignorance, but it is dangerous to assume that China has no interest in our political system and no plans for calculatedly disrupting it.
The Biden administration and the Democrats have dismantled many of the safeguards and preventative measures put into place to deter China by the Trump administration.
The destruction of the China Initiative by the Biden administration in particular has given the Communist enemy regime a green light to resume its mass theft of our technologies and secrets. Would Beijing like this state of affairs to continue? The answer is all too obvious.
A shadowy PAC with a post office box is out to influence midterm elections in Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania among other places. An even more shadowy Chinese influence operation has promoted it. While the media has eagerly talked up Mary Trump, it’s shown no interest in the question of who is behind the Democracy Defense Fund. That lack of accountability is a cloak under which foreign interests and enemy states can operate safely while knowing that they won’t be exposed. The media would rather attack Republicans than defend America.
And Communist China knows it.
Who is behind the Democracy Defense Fund? The answer likely lurks in the Bay Area, but who is to say that it may not have an echo thousands of miles away in the corridors of Beijing?
Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
Antony Blinken Checks in with Chinese Foreign Minister for Routine Scolding
Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday in which the latter chided Blinken to “stop trying to put up new obstacles to bilateral relations.”
The State Department readout of the call, published on Sunday (the call appears to have taken place on Monday Beijing time), does not mention anything that Wang said, instead focusing on Blinken, who allegedly “raised Russia’s war against Ukraine” and the “security situation in Haiti.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry and the government, through state propaganda outlet Global Times, offered much more specificity, depicting a frustrated Wang hectoring Blinken to urge the administration of left-wing President Joe Biden to stop trying “to contain and suppress China.”
The tone echoed that of multiple past encounters between the two, as well as discussions held between Blinken and other Chinese Communist Party envoys, in which aggressive Chinese representatives badgered Blinken over his government not acting sufficiently in the best interests of China. The pattern began after a disastrous meeting between Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Wang and senior Politburo member Yang Jiechi in Alaska last year during which Yang ranted for 16 minutes about alleged racism and “Black Lives Matter” in America.
“On human rights, we hope the United States will do better on human rights. China has made steady progress in human rights, and the fact is that there are many problems within the United States regarding human rights, which is admitted by the U.S. itself as well,” Yang protested in Alaska. “The challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated. They did not just emerge over the past four years, such as ‘Black Lives Matter.’ It did not come up only recently.”
The Biden representatives notably did not mention the fact that China is currently engaging in genocide against majority-Muslims groups in occupied East Turkistan, among other Communist Party atrocities.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi L meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a day after the Group of 20 G20 foreign ministers’ meeting, in Bali, Indonesia, July 9, 2022. (Xu Qin/Xinhua via Getty Images)
According to the State Department, Blinken “discussed the need to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the U.S.-PRC [China] relationship” with Wang, adding no more detail on what would presumably be the most important issue between the top diplomats of the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China.
“The Secretary raised Russia’s war against Ukraine and the threats it poses to global security and economic stability,” the readout continued. “The Secretary also noted the deteriorating humanitarian and security situation in Haiti and the need for continued coordinated action in support of the Haitian people.”
In contrast, the Chinese Foreign Ministry depicted a fuming Wang berating Blinken on American foreign policy.
“The US side should stop its efforts to contain and suppress China, and not create new obstacles to the relationship between the two countries,” the ministry paraphrased Wang as saying. “Wang Yi pointed out that bringing China-US relations back to the track of stable development is not only in the common interests of China and the US, but also the general expectation of the international community.”
The Global Times claimed that Wang spent much of the call pressuring Blinken to closely study the 2022 Communist Party Congress, which concluded last month and cemented dictator Xi Jinping’s stranglehold on power. The Congress, which occurs every five years, determines who remains or gets promoted to the Politburo, the highest authority in the Party. This year, Xi removed several top officials on the basis of their advanced age, replacing them with a host of loyalists that are unlikely to question controversial policies such as an endless wave of city lockdowns to fight Chinese coronavirus.
The Congress was also the site of a bizarre scene in which elderly former President Hu Jintao, who preceded Xi Jinping in power, appeared to be hauled off violently by security while pleading with Xi for mercy. Hu has not been seen in public since his apparent purge was caught on camera.
Wang, the Global Times said, essentially assigned Blinken to read Xi Jinping’s report to the Congress as homework.
“If the US truly wants to know about China, it should carefully read the report, Wang said, noting that China’s domestic and diplomatic policies are open and transparent and its strategic intention is frank and forthright,” the state newspaper relayed, “and the US should not make subjective conjectures, nor be blinded by its ideological prejudice.”
It also repeated Wang’s lecture on respecting the genocidal communist Chinese government.
“When talking with Blinken, Wang pointed out that bringing bilateral relation back on track is not only in accordance with the two countries’ mutual interests, but also what the international community expects,” the Global Times reported. “The US should stop cracking down on China, and also stop trying to put up new obstacles to bilateral relations, Wang urged.”
The state newspaper nonetheless described the phone call as “positive” and potentially an avenue for future high-level talks, including a possible meeting between Biden and Xi. Biden and Xi are both expected to attend the G20 summit in Indonesia this month, but have not made any official announcements on meeting. As of Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied having any information on a potential in-person discussion between the two leaders.
The G20 is expected to be an explosive meeting this year due to its invite list, which not only includes Biden and Xi but both Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose nations are currently at war. Biden has publicly demanded Indonesia disinvite Putin to no avail.
Also expected to attend is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose relationship with Biden is arguably the world’s most deteriorated. The White House has denied any plans for Biden to meet with the crown prince amid a growing diplomatic crisis triggered by Washington accusing Riyadh of supporting OPEC oil production cuts to support Putin. The Saudi government has reacted to the accusation with outrage and received support from Zelensky. Saudi officials have also taken Biden’s strident stance as an indication to enhance diplomatic ties with China.
At least year’s G20 summit, Blinken and Wang repeated their regular scolding sessions on the issue of Taiwan, which did not reportedly come up during this week’s call. Taiwan is a sovereign, democratic nation off the coast of China that has long sought relations with America. Beijing falsely claims Taiwan as a province of China and regularly pressures America to cut economic and strategic ties with Taipei, even though Washington does not recognize Taiwan as a country.
“We urge the United States to realize the serious harm of the ‘Taiwan independence,’ to pursue a real one-China policy, instead of a fake one, to fulfill its commitments to China faithfully rather than treacherously,” Wang demanded last year.
Wang also complained about specific legislation in the American Congress at the time, meddling in domestic affairs.
“The United States has wantonly interfered with China’s internal affairs, Wang stressed, noting that the current U.S. Congress has introduced more than 300 anti-China bills,” Xinhua reported, “and the United States has included more than 900 Chinese entities and individuals in various unilateral sanctions lists, which severely disrupted the normal bilateral exchanges.”
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
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