Tag Archives: China

Let’s Pass This Bill In The House Of Representatives

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On Thursday, The Epoch Times posted an article about Senate Bill S.4009, the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act.

The article reports:

A bill tackling systematic forced organ harvesting in China is now headed to the House after getting the Senate green light on Sept. 28.

S.4009, with support from 12 bipartisan sponsors, passed the Senate with unanimous consent.

Dubbed the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act, the bill addresses an issue that is gaining growing attention in the United States.

In the past, I have written three articles about China’s practice of taking organs from unwilling donors (here, here, and here). The practice has been going on for some time, and it is encouraging that the American Congress may actually take a stand against it.

The article notes:

As early as 2006, whistleblowers raised the alarm about the abuses taking place in China under Beijing’s auspices.

In 2019, the London-based China Tribunal concluded a year-long investigation into the issue. Forced organ harvesting, it found, had taken place in the country for years “on a significant scale.” A major victim group is practitioners of Falun Gong, according to the tribunal ruling.

The tribunal also said Uyghur Muslims were at risk while being detained in “re-education camps” in China’s Xinjiang. More than 1 million Muslims have been held in internment camps in the region, the U.S. government said.

Falun Gong, a spiritual practice with meditative exercises based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, drew an estimated following of 70 million to 100 million people in China during the 1990s. It has faced harsh suppression since 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party initiated a nationwide persecution in 1999 to wipe it out.

Survivors from both campaigns have recounted arbitrary arrests, forced labor, and grueling torture in prison.

Meanwhile, China’s organ transplant industry continues to grow, drawing patients from all over the world with waiting times as short as days—compared with possibly years in the West.

The article explains what the bill does:

The bill would sanction foreign individuals for carrying out or facilitating the abuse, barring them from entering the United States and blocking them from having U.S. transactions. Those violating the sanctions risk facing up to $250,000 for a civil offense, or $1 million and 20 years in prison in criminal penalties.

It also directs the State Department to conduct an investigation with input from the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, the director of the National Institutes of Health, and the relevant heads of the intelligence community.

Within a year of the bill’s passage, the secretary of state would report to Congress about China’s organ transplantation practices and policies. The report would assess whether the Chinese regime conducts systematic forced organ harvesting and look into where the organs are from, how fast they are obtained, and whether that timetable is practical in the country.

This is a bill that needs to be passed quickly.

One Positive Consequence Of The Greenland Treaty

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On Thursday, The Epoch Times posted an article about one impact of America’s treaty with Denmark regarding Greenland.

The article reports:

Days after President Donald Trump announced a security agreement with Greenland and Denmark, Greenland Mines applied on Sept. 21 to double the size of its rare earth mine to supply magnet metals needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines, and defense systems on the island.

The North Carolina-based company’s Sarfartoq rare earth district in southwest Greenland would expand from 74 square miles to about 175 square miles if approved.

“This application is about building Sarfartoq at district scale,” said Bo Moller Stensgaard, president of Greenland Mines in a statement.

Greenland Mines is developing a rare earth neodymium and praseodymium project that could reduce the Western Hemisphere’s dependence on China for the magnet rare earth minerals. China-based processors control at least 75 percent of the global market for all rare earth elements.

The Greenland Mines project is expected to produce about one-third of the world’s neodymium-praseodymium oxide refined outside of China, serving as a key source of the rare earth ingredients needed for energy, transportation, and defense technologies.

China’s export restrictions on rare earths have driven prices up in the past year. The Trump administration has focused on supporting and investing in domestic rare earth operations, but a supply of ore is still needed, according to Greenland Mines.

The article concludes:

Greenland Energy, a privately owned Texas company, has an agreement to drill on the Jameson oil and gas project in the Jameson Land Basin on the eastern coast of Greenland. The company, founded in 2025, began shipping drilling equipment to Greenland in late July.

Critical Metals Corp. is developing the Tanbreez Rare Earth Project in southern Greenland—one of the world’s largest deposits with a high concentration of heavy rare-earth elements.

The company’s Romanian refinery is also expected to process about 28,000 tons per year of rare earth and critical metal products, including 26,000 tons of high-purity silicon dioxide powder, or silica, used in food, pharmaceuticals, paints, plastics, rubber, ceramics, tech, and electronics.

Our dependence on China for critical supplies during the past few decades was not smart. Moving our sourcing of critical rare earth and metal products to countries that share our values is a really good idea.

Behind The Panic About Artificial Intelligence

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After a while, you have to be sleeping not to recognize when a campaign is mounted to influence how you view something. Recently we have seen a campaign whose goal is to force Congress to regulate Artificial Intelligence (AI). Who is behind this campaign and why do they want government regulation?

On Tuesday, Issues & Insights posted an article about the AI panic that is currently being fed by the mainstream media.

The article asks the question:

Twelve years ago, Stephen Hawking said that “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

Heck, Frank Herbert warned in his 1965 sci-fi classic, “Dune,” that “Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” Countless other sci-fi plots involved intelligent machines killing off or enslaving humans.

So, why is this latest warning getting so much traction? And why did Jacob Coxon, a relatively low-level former employee at Anthropic, become an instant media celebrity?

Sunday, the New York Times home page prominently featured four articles — all free to read — about AI. (See screenshot at right.)

Also over the weekend, the four biggest AI labs called for the industry to slow down development.

The article notes:

Reporters pressed Trump for his take on “concerns about AI leading to human extinction.” His response was that “We’re leading China in AI, we’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins.”

So, again, we ask, who is driving this narrative?

The media don’t seem to care. But there are clues. First is the fact that Democrats are playing it up for political reasons before the midterm elections. They want to win votes. Second is China, which would benefit from the U.S. putting itself into an AI straitjacket.

But there’s another clue. The urgent calls for regulations are coming from the leading AI companies.

Obviously China will benefit if America slows down AI and research into it, but there is another reason the companies involved want regulation. Regulation can create barriers for new companies in the industry. Making it harder for new companies to break into the industry will eventually create a monopoly formed by the companies already there.

Nothing reported in the media happens by accident.

Becoming Supply Chain Independent In The Modern World

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On Tuesday, David Blackmon posted an article at Substack about America expanding its production of rare earth metals.

The article reports:

The United States is finally starting to dig itself out of a rare earth metals hole it spent decades digging. The effort got a boost on July 29, when Energy Fuels announced that construction has begun on a commercial-scale expansion at its White Mesa Mill in Utah. The expansion of the only fully licensed and operating conventional uranium processing facility in the United States, will enable the plant to produce heavy rare earth oxides at meaningful volumes. This key event, along with other developments in the U.S. and allied nations like Australia, represent concrete steps toward breaking China’s chokehold on the materials that power everything from electric vehicle motors and humanoid robots to advanced weapons systems and data centers.

Heavy rare earths are the severe pinch point in current Western permanent magnet supply chains. These elements give high-performance magnets the coercivity and heat resistance needed for smaller, lighter, and more powerful motors. Energy Fuels already has commercial capacity for up to 1,000 tons per year of separated neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, the lighter rare earths that form the bulk of most magnets. The new circuits will add roughly 20 tons of terbium, 120 tons of dysprosium, 140 tons of samarium, 20 tons of europium, and 140 tons of gadolinium annually, with terbium and dysprosium online by the end of 2027 and the rest by the end of 2028.

This is one of those articles I don’t claim to understand. However, I remember what it was like trying to buy a car in 2022. Because Covid had so totally disrupted the supply chain, the wait time for some cars was ridiculous, and there were surcharges on the purchase of almost all cars. America not only needs to be energy independent, we need to be rare earth independent, drug independent, and self sufficient in every way possible. Trade with other countries is fine–depending on other countries that may not have our best interests at heart for things that are essential to our survival is not fine.

Sometimes The Double Standard Is Amazing

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Last week, President Trump made a speech about Chinese interference in the 2020 election and provided links to the evidence. Two networks refused to air the speech and one network only aired the criticism. It was as if it was no big deal to have another country interfere in our elections. The mainstream media worked hard to play down the importance of the interference. Just for the record, it wasn’t always this way.

On Monday, Just the News reported:

When the Biden Justice Department announced that Chinese hackers had gotten their hands on Great Britain’s publicly available voter files in 2024, American news media clamored with stories claiming it was a “dangerous” breach. The same, too, when U.S. officials announced Russia and Iran had hacked small numbers of U.S. voter files in 2020 and 2021.

The reason was simple: U.S. intelligence agencies believe the targeting and acquisition of voter registration files is an act of election interference. “Election interference is a subset of election influence targeted at the technical aspects of the election, including voter registration, casting and counting of ballots and reporting of results,” an October 2020 National intelligence Council report on election interference explains.

In other words, the compromising of election voter registration data, is, by the definition of intelligence agencies, an act of election interference.

When President Donald Trump presented confirmed evidence last Thursday night that China had compromised and obtained 220 million American voter registration files, the news media swung 180 degrees in the opposite direction. They argued it was old news (it was not) and not a big deal because you can buy limited data in America related to voter registration commercially. According to security experts, that limited data accessibility is not the same thing.

…In 2021, the Biden Justice Department indicted two Iranian hackers for accessing just 100,000 voter files from a single state where it is also commercially available. They were charged with criminally interfering in the 2020 election even though voter files are commercially available in limited form.

Hopefully the people who actually see the double standard outnumber the people who still either have their eyes closed or suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Will The Facts Matter?

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Last night President Trump gave a speech about the problem of election fraud in America. Many of us who follow the non-mainstream media were familiar with most of the examples he cited about election fraud.

This is the chart of which networks carried the speech:

Somehow I don’t trust CBS’s fact-checking.

On Thursday, Just the News posted an article about the dangers of China hacking into our voter data base.

The article notes:

President Donald Trump announced in a speech on Thursday that China has compromised more than 200 million voter registration entries affecting 18 states, citing newly declassified U.S. Intelligence Community records compiled by the Government Transparency Task Force created in May. 

The findings triggered a review by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of voter registration systems. In that review, the agencies outlined exactly how this exposed data could be exploited. 

The report warned that foreign countries, specifically China and Russia, have consistently targeted these state voter registration databases over the last decade.

“The impact of the breaches is not limited to ‘undermining confidence’ or ‘spreading false claims’ but the data itself could be used months or years after the breach to alter voter registration information,” the agencies wrote. “​​The real threat is what can be done with the stolen data.”

On Thursday, Townhall also posted an article detailing some of the information in the newly declassified documents. I strongly suggest following the link to read the documents.

The most disturbing thing to me is that the information about the data breach and possible fraudulent activities by China was left out of the daily Presidential briefing by people who decided their decisions on national security issues were more important than those of a duly-elected President.

People who dislike the President will ignore this information. The only way that exposing this fraud will be useful is if the people responsible for the fraud and the people responsible for keeping the information from the President go to jail.

Less Than

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As people, it is very easy to fall into the trap of ‘less than.’ No matter how poor you are, you can always find someone poorer. No matter how little education you have, you can always find someone with less. The problem comes when you begin to see someone with a different education,  economic level, or different set of beliefs as ‘less than.’ It’s easy to overvalue yourself and consider others as somehow inferior.  Slavery is an example of the outcome of a ‘less than’ mentality. Slavery still exists in cultures with a ‘less than’ mentality. The atrocities committed by the Muslims against the Israelis on October 7th were the result of a ‘less than’ mentality. If you don’t see your fellow humans as having the same value you have, you have no problem mistreating them or doing horrific things to them. That is one of the concerning things about the number of Islamists that have come into America in recent years. In Islam, infidels (anyone who is not Muslim) are ‘less than.’ Infidel women can be sexually assaulted, people can be made slaves, and people can be killed for being infidels. The concept of ‘less than’ is also relevant to our relationship with China.

Tyrannical governments sometimes encourage the ‘less than’ mentality. When people are taught to look at certain groups as ‘less than,’ they can be trained not to care what happens to the people in those groups. We saw that principle in Nazi Germany. We are currently seeing that principle in China.

In China, first the Falun Gong and then the Uyghurs began to be considered ‘less than’ by the Chinese government and eventually the Chinese people. People who practiced Falun Gong or were Uyghurs were put in prisons. According to author Jan Jekielek in his book KILLED TO ORDER, published this year, many of those prisoners are used as involuntary organ donors. The fees charged to the recipients of these organs are paying for China’s healthcare program. A cornea transplant costs about $30,000 and a liver-kidney transplant costs about $180,000. The book gives one example of a person waiting for a heart transplant (years of waiting in America because of the unique circumstances of obtaining a donated heart) who was able to get a heart transplant in China in two weeks. Because the person was more focused on getting a new heart than the details, he did not totally research the procedure beforehand. I can’t imagine how he felt when he realized how the heart was obtained. Many of the people receiving the organs are told that the organs come from prisoners who have received the death penalty. The numbers do not bear that out. THE SLAUGHTER written by Ethan Gutmann after interviews with refugees, medical staff, and officials, estimates 65,000 deaths of Falun Gong members for organ transplants between 2000 and 2008.

Israel has blocked its medical insurance programs from funding Chinese organ transplants for Israelis. I think America needs to block American health insurance companies from paying for Chinese organ transplants.

In March 2025, H.R.2114 – Block Organ Transplant Purchases from China Act of 2025 was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. It was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned. It has been there ever since. This is one bill that I think all Americans could probably agree on—harvesting organs from live humans is barbaric.

Where are the Human Rights Commissions of the United Nations and the World Court on this matter? Where is the World Health Organization? Why is H.R. 2114 still in committee after more than a year?

The only way to put these barbarians out of business is for every country in the world to ban their citizens from receiving organ transplants in China. Otherwise, the practice will continue. This is worse than anything the Nazis in Germany ever imagined.

Most of the information for this article came from KILLED TO ORDER by Jan Jekielek.

In What World Is This Acceptable Behavior?

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Mark 3:25 in the New King James Version says, “And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Some of the people who work for the American government need to learn that principle.

On Tuesday, Just the News, reported the following:

Analysts inside the U.S. intelligence community sought to conceal evidence of Chinese influence efforts from President Donald Trump during the 2020 election, with analysts saying they didn’t want their intel used by “that vulgarian in the Oval Office” to pursue policies toward China they personally disagreed with.

The revelation is found within a January 2021 report written by — and never before reported upon comments by — analytic ombudsman Barry Zulauf, who conducted a review of the spy community’s handling of Russian versus Chinese meddling efforts during the 2020 election. Among his conclusions was that intelligence analysts downplayed China’s actions because they had disdain for the “vulgarian” Trump and did not want to support the policies and priorities of the Trump administration toward China with which they “personally disagree.”

Just the News reported this week that the U.S. intelligence community has known since early 2020 that Beijing also gained access to American voter registration data and used that information to conduct opinion analysis related to the presidential election between Trump and then-former Vice President Joe Biden.

That is totally unacceptable behavior. They were hired to do a job–inform the President of terrorist threats and activities–not to act on their own political views.

The article notes:

The Justice Department, FBI, DHS, and CISA put out a “joint report” in March 2021 which argued there was “no evidence that any foreign government-affiliated actor manipulated election results or otherwise compromised the integrity of the 2020 federal elections.”

The report downplayed or dismissed the impact that Chinese meddling may have had.

“We identified several incidents when Russian, Chinese, and Iranian government-affiliated actors materially impacted the security of networks associated with or pertaining to U.S. political organizations, candidates, and campaigns during 2020 federal elections,” the joint report said. “In most cases, the IC has assessed that it is unclear if those actors sought these accesses to inform broader foreign policy interests or election-specific operations. Several such actors gathered at least some information they could have released in influence operations, but ultimately we did not see any such materials deployed, modified, or destroyed.”

The people responsible for holding back the information should be fired and barred from ever working for the government again. I don’t know if any criminal charges would be applicable, but this is borderline treason.

The Global Impact Of The Iran War

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According to brics.br:

The BRICS is a group formed by eleven countries: Brasil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran. It serves as a political and diplomatic coordination forum for countries from the Global South and for coordination in the most diverse areas.

Basically, this is Russia and China’s attempt to move oil trade away from the U.S. dollar, and some of our ‘friends’ are playing both sides. Well, the war on Iran has had a serious negative impact on BRICS.

On Tuesday, The Conservative Treehouse reported:

Consider the severe economic body blows to China in the past 14 months.

♦ First blow, the Trump tariffs hit Beijing hardest. ♦ Second blow, the Beijing tentacle on the Panama Canal is severed.  ♦ Third blow, global tariff threats changed the risk dynamic for southeast Asia countries who acted as transnational shippers for China. ♦ Fourth blow, cheap sanctioned oil from Venezuela was cut-off. ♦ Now, the fifth blow; cheap, sanctioned Iranian oil is disrupted.

As noted by Politico: Following USA military strikes, “ships have begun to avoid the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Iran — a critical shipping lane for Gulf nations to export oil to Asia. China in 2025 received about half of its imported oil from the six Gulf countries that rely on the strait. Other large crude oil producers in the region — including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates — transport almost all their crude exports through the geographic bottleneck.”

The article includes this chart from Politico:

The article notes:

With Iranian oil removed from the non-petro supply chain, the only remaining non-petro oil producer is Russia – who is simultaneously hit with a loss in military hardware support.  China may end up as a larger oil customer to Russia, but at what price and in what payment structure.

With global oil supplies in a state of flux, and with the USA in control of the oil flow from Venezuela, North America is certainly in the best position for minimal energy disruption.

Asia is heavily dependent on oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, and the majority of Europe has already shut themselves off from Russian oil production, putting themselves in a position of dependency to the global markets.  The short-term ramifications of this oil disruption hit China, Southeast Asia, Japan and Europe particularly hard.

“OPEC+ countries affirmed on Sunday that they would boost oil production starting in April by 206,000 barrels daily — a modest increase intended to dampen the war’s effect on prices down the road. The majority of the increase would come from Saudi Arabia and Russia.” {SOURCE}

As usual, President Trump is playing chess while much of the world is playing checkers.

Looking At The Big Picture

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Despite what his enemies tell us, President Trump is a very smart man. The backing of the Israeli attack on Iran is a major step toward American national security because of its impact on China’s fuel supply. President Trump may have just prevented an Chinese attack on Taiwan.

On March 3, Red State reported:

President Donald Trump’s latest attack on Iran takes a big economic bite out of one of America’s chief rivals: China.

Over the span of two months, the Trump administration has removed the leaders of two countries that both shared China as their most important crude oil customer. Although China buys oil from nations all across the Middle East, Iran was second only to Saudi Arabia as its supplier last year, according to a POLITICO analysis of data provided by market research firm Kpler.

Almost all of Iran’s exported oil, and more than half of Venezuela’s, went last year to China, which remained one of the only purchasers of goods from the two heavily sanctioned nations. The two countries combined represented some 17 percent of China’s overall oil purchases — a meaningful share for the world’s largest importer of crude oil.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Saturday said it was “highly concerned” by the attacks on Iran and called for an end to the war. The squeeze on China’s energy supply also comes just weeks before Trump is slated to hold a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

…Iran has a single use beyond supplying cut-rate oil to China’s economy, that is to provide a distraction to the U.S. Iranian operations effectively handed us defeats in two wars. Iranian explosive-formed penetrators killed hundreds of American soldiers and Marines. Iran’s sponsorship of Lebanese Hezbollah and the Houthis has created conflict and disrupted international trade. In case of a real war, a nuclear-armed Iran could create a massive distraction to any U.S. effort in the Indo-Pacific and put the Suez Canal as well as Gulf oil fields at risk.

We are in the early stage of a rollback of Chinese influence. From an oil perspective, Venezuela and Iran account for 17 percent of China’s oil imports. Not much you say. Making up that oil volume at below-market rates is difficult. Add to that the fact that the supply of Russian oil smuggled by “dark fleet” tankers is also coming to an end. President Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi have agreed that India will stop buying bootleg Russian oil. In fact, only three weeks ago, India seized a tanker carrying Russian oil; Indian Coast Guard Seizes Three Sanctioned ‘Dark Fleet’ Tankers Carrying Illegal Iranian Oil…to India – RedState. This has caused a significant disruption in the supply of Russian oil to China.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. The implications of the fall of the current government of Iran are wide-ranging.

Getting Into The Weeds About The Tanker Seizure

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This is a warning that the following information is definitely in the weeds. On Saturday, Zero Hedge posted an article about the taking of the Venezuelan tanker and the possible strategy behind it. It’s a long article. I suggest you follow the link and read the entire article. I will post some of the highlights. The taking of the tanker is another example of the ability of the Trump administration to wage economic war rather than kinetic war.

The article reports:

During President Trump’s first term, there was a brief moment in which the Maduro regime appeared close to being overthrown, but it was countered by support from Cuba. According to The New York Times reporters Michael Crowley and Edward Wong, that failure frustrated Trump, his advisers, and then Senator Rubio, who had backed regime change.

“Their theory of change involves cutting off all support to Cuba,” said Juan S. Gonzalez, who was President Joe Biden’s top White House aide for Western Hemisphere affairs. “Under this approach, once Venezuela goes, Cuba will follow.”

In a separate NYT report, journalists Anatoly Kurmanaev, Nicholas Nehamas, and Farnaz Fassihi explained that the seized tanker Skipper, which was carrying crude contracted by Cubametales, Cuba’s state-run oil trading firm, is a critical part of how Cuba benefits from its oil trade with Venezuela.

The article quotes The New York Times:

Two days after its departure, Skipper offloaded a small fraction of its oil, an estimated 50,000 barrels, to another ship, called Neptune 6, which then headed north toward Cuba, according to the shipping data firm Kpler. After the transfer, Skipper headed east, toward Asia, with the vast majority of its oil on board, according to a U.S. official briefed on the matter.

President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, have for decades sent oil to Cuba at highly subsidized prices, providing a crucial resource at low cost to the impoverished island.

In return, the Cuban government over the years has sent tens of thousands of medics, sports instructors, and, increasingly, security professionals on assignments to Venezuela. That exchange has assumed special importance as Mr. Maduro has leaned on Cuban bodyguards and counterintelligence officers to protect himself against the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean.

In recent years, however, only a fraction of Venezuelan oil set aside for Cuba has actually reached the island, according to PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela) documents and tanker tracking data. Most of the oil allocated for Cuba has instead been resold to China, with the money providing badly needed hard currency for the Cuban government, according to multiple people close to the Venezuelan government.

The article concludes:

What’s likely happening is that the Trump administration is in the early innings of disrupting large volumes of crude that flow from Venezuela to Cuba to China. That strategy could trigger falling dominoes across the region, pushing Cuba’s economy deeper into collapse while also meaningfully weakening Venezuela and tipping the balance of power away from Maduro.

So far, Beijing has yet to lash out over the Skipper seizure and the resulting disruptions to crude flows to Asia. One has to wonder whether Bessent worked out a secret deal with Beijing; otherwise, this type of maneuvering by the Trump administration risks triggering turmoil that could derail any upcoming Trump-Xi talks.

Stay tuned.

American Ingenuity At Work

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China has worked for years to obtain a monopoly on the rare earth minerals used in our technological society. They have been pretty successful in reaching a monopoly, but American ingenuity has thrown a wrench in their plans.

On Monday, Red State posted an article quoting Fox News:

In April, China imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements, crippling American manufacturing across dozens of critical sectors. Ford temporarily shuttered production lines while European suppliers closed entire factories. In one calculated move, Beijing demonstrated its power to hobble the West. 

This economic warfare represents decades of strategic planning. While America slept, China cornered the market on materials essential to modern civilization. By controlling 90% of rare-earth processing capacity, it dictates prices and decides who receives supplies. The periodic table became their ultimate economic weapon. 

But weapons can be rendered obsolete through superior innovation. American scientists discovered that combining iron, the planet’s fourth-most abundant element, with atmospheric nitrogen makes a compound more magnetic than anything produced by China. This breakthrough doesn’t just match Chinese materials; it surpasses them. 

Red State reports:

That’s a great way to stick a metaphorical thumb in the eye of not only Chairman Xi, but in the eyes of all of the members of the Chinese Communist Party.

The key? Magnets. This whole thing started in the 1980s. China was producing cheap magnets and exporting them around the world, shutting down a lot of domestic manufacturing in its customer nations. Magnets have countless industrial applications, used in everything from electric motors to windmills to electronics. 

On Monday, Fox News reported:

Yet, while China was tightening its grip, American researchers at the University of Minnesota had been solving a puzzle that had frustrated scientists since the 1950s. Professor Jian-Ping Wang spent nearly a decade perfecting techniques to synthesize iron nitride magnets from the most abundant elements on Earth. His breakthrough, published in 2010, finally explained how combining iron with nitrogen can create a material with magnetization exceeding anything China produces from rare earths. 

The physics is remarkable. Iron nitride retains full magnetization at 200 degrees Celsius, exceeding the temperature capability of all magnet compounds except those made from the scarcest and most expensive critical elements. Most importantly, the raw materials come from sources no nation can monopolize: Minnesota’s iron ore deposits and atmospheric nitrogen. Iron nitride represents something China cannot replicate — American innovation driven by scientific curiosity rather than state industrial policy — and reduces our national security and economic vulnerabilities while strengthening domestic manufacturing capacity. 

Please realize that I understand none of the physics involved in this. What I do know is that American scientists have learned how to overcome the Chinese monopoly.

The Need To Be Self-Sustaining

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On August 26th, Yahoo Finance posted an article about the sudden spike in the price of rare earth elements. These are the elements that are necessary for the high-tech batteries, weapons, and necessary parts for our electronics. America is beginning to mine rare earth elements–we have them here, but we are late to the game.

The article reports:

Prices of two rare earth elements needed for super-strong magnets have surged to their highest in more than two years after U.S. miner MP Materials (MP) stopped raw material exports to leading magnet maker China amid rising demand.

China dominates the global supply chain for rare earths, accounting for 90% of refining capacity and around 70% of mined output, but the U.S. has pushed back, signing a deal with its biggest producer MP in July to refine its output domestically.

MP’s shipments had in the past three years fed 7%-9% of China’s oxide production from mine output of rare earths neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) – vital to magnets that power electric vehicles, wind turbines and defence equipment – consultancy Adamas said.

The article notes:

Its 40% rally after several years of weakness will boost prospects for mine projects seeking investment outside China as the West seeks to wean off reliance on Beijing.

Boosting the West’s rare earth output became more urgent after China clamped down on exports in April amid a trade war with the U.S., prompting some auto plants to shut.

The U.S. government announced a ground-breaking deal with MP last month stipulating the company halt shipments to China. It also offered price support to MP for the NdPr it produces based on $110 per kg, at the time about twice the Chinese price.

China has been working hard in recent years to corner the rare-earth market. We need to consider the fact that China thinks in decades and centuries while America generally thinks in strategies of ten years or less. America needs to up its game.

If The Strait Of Hormuz Is Closed, Who Loses?

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On Monday, CNBC posted an article about Iran’s Parliament voting to block the Strait of Hormuz. Twenty percent of the world’s oil is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz.

The article reports:

  • Should Iran follow through on its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, it could alienate its neighbors and trade partners.
  • But the possibility of a closure of the strait is low, experts said, despite Tehran’s rhetoric around closing the strait.
  • A closure would provoke Iran’s markets in Asia, particularly China, which accounts for a majority of Iranian oil exports.

The article continues:

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration revealed that Iran had shipped 1.5 million barrels per day via the Strait of Hormuz in the first quarter of 2025.

Furthermore, a closure would also provoke Iran’s market in Asia, particularly China, which accounts for a majority of Iranian oil exports.

“So very, very little to be achieved, and a lot of self inflicted harm that Iran could do” Hari said.

Her view is supported by Andrew Bishop, senior partner and global head of policy research at advisory firm Signum Global Advisors.

Iran will not want to antagonize China, he said, adding that disrupting supplies will also “put a target” on the country’s own oil production, export infrastructure, and regime “at a time when there is little reason to doubt U.S. and Israeli resolve in being ‘trigger-happy.’”

Clayton Seigle, senior fellow for Energy Security and Climate Change at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said that as China is “very dependent” on oil flows from the Gulf, not just Iran, “its national security interest really would value stabilization of the situation and a de-escalation enabling safe flows of oil and gas through the strait.”

Iran does not need to alienate anyone right now. I am sure many of the Middle Eastern countries are breathing a sigh of relief knowing that Iran at the moment does not have nuclear capability.

The Results Of Failing To Prepare

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President Trump has been in office for about five months. He has cleaned up some of the mess he inherited, but there are going to be things that are going to take a while. Our government has not always done a good job of predicting and dealing with future problems. The problem of obtaining rare earth minerals is one that could be very serious in the coming months.

On Tuesday, Victor Davis Hanson posted an article in The Asia Times. The article reported:

America usually has other countries over a barrel. Not the other way around – unless you’re old enough to remember when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cracked the whip and Washington and the West usually fell in line.

But last week China forced President Trump to back down on tough tariffs that were hurting the PRC.

Rare earth minerals. They’re nearly all sourced from China and Beijing choked off exports.

Major American companies – car makers for example – warned Trump they’d have to curtail or shut down operations in a matter of weeks.

…The Trump administration reduced tariffs in exchange for Beijing’s sort-of agreement to allow rare earth exports to US customers.   

How much and how fast is unknown – but expect the PRC to slow-roll this and squeeze all it can – such as sensitive business data – from its customers.

At best, this is a temporary reprieve.

The US side also agreed to drop plans to ban Chinese students from US universities. 

It’s not that they are rare. The US has plenty of rare earths. It’s just much cheaper to source from China, and US environmental laws make domestic mining and processing difficult and expensive.

They are essential for commercial manufacturing – cars, electronics, computers, etc.

And more ominously they’re needed for military production – to include aircraft, ships, submarines, radars, missiles, lasers, satellites, guidance systems, night vision devices and more. 

It’s not Trump’s fault. He got caught holding the hot potato.

China’s chokehold on rare earths was known a long time ago.

American business and the US military knew. And Congress knew as well.

And they knew the Chinese might use their dominant position to squeeze other countries.

In 2010 after Japan detained a Chinese fishing boat that rammed a Coast Guard ship near Japan’s Senkaku islands, China banned rare earth exports to Japan.

 Japanese industry squirmed. The boat and its skipper were returned.

And Japan set about finding alternate sources of rare earths. 

The United States?

Apparently it did nothing.

It was 15 years of idiocy by the business class, officialdom and the military’s perfumed princes.

Please follow the link for further information. We need to be mining our own rare earth elements.

If We Can Hide The Evidence, It Didn’t Happen

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On Tuesday, PJ Media posted an article about China’s meddling in the 2020 election.

The article reports:

There’s been a new, disturbing development in the case of the Chinese plot to interfere in the 2020 election. 

As PJ Media previously reported, on Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel handed Congress an intelligence report exposing a Chinese plot to interfere in the 2020 election. The report details how Chinese operatives mass-produced fake U.S. driver’s licenses to flood the system with fraudulent mail-in ballots, which helped Joe Biden in the process. However, the intel wasn’t investigated, corroborated, or acted on. In fact, it was quietly pulled from intelligence agencies even as then-FBI Director Chris Wray told Congress there were “no known plots” of foreign interference. 

Why hasn’t former FBI Director Chris Wray arrested for lying to Congress? Where is the S.W.A.T. team that was used to arrest Roger Stone?

The article continues:

The report was sent out on Aug. 24, 2020, but was abruptly recalled by the FBI with a vague excuse about needing to “re-interview” the source. But it didn’t stop there. The bureau didn’t just recall the report; it ordered its destruction.

According to the recall notice, intelligence agencies weren’t just asked to disregard the report — they were ordered to “destroy all copies” and “remove the original report from all computer holdings.” This wasn’t routine bureaucratic cleanup. It was a deliberate effort to wipe damning evidence from existence. The FBI didn’t just bury credible intelligence about Chinese election interference; it tried to scrub it from history. And now, years later, the truth is finally surfacing: the fix was in, and so was the cover-up. Deliberate. Coordinated. And chilling.

The article concludes:

This wasn’t some careless screw-up. This was a deliberate, calculated cover-up. The FBI didn’t just drop the ball — it went out of its way to bury explosive evidence of a foreign power trying to rig a U.S. presidential election. Instead of doing its job and protecting America’s election integrity, it chose to protect Biden’s campaign by destroying the very documents that exposed the truth. It lied to Congress, scrubbed the report, and tried to erase one of the biggest national security threats of our time from the record.

This isn’t just a scandal — it’s a betrayal of the highest order. And everyone involved in this disgraceful cover-up needs to be held accountable. The American people were cheated, not just at the ballot box, but by the very FBI that swore to safeguard our democracy. It’s time to stop pretending that this was anything less than a full-blown political operation disguised as law enforcement.

Is anyone ever going to be held accountable for the scandals that are being uncovered?

Just the News posted a copy of the FBI memo about the investigation.

The View From The Lair

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Sweating Blood

A few weeks ago, I commented on the effects that PDJT’s tariffs would have on the world’s economy, especially China’s. Like most everyone, I underestimated our esteemed President Trump. Chairman Xi started out by putting up a strong face. That is very important to many cultures, especially in the orient. Keeping “face” is essential to maintain dignity, to present strength and composure, to display courage and conviction. To do less than this is to invite shame. In some instances, death is preferable to shame.

Shaming is a tool used by our Marxist enemies to generate a reaction to their taunts and abuses. It is effective only against those with a conscience and who can hold shame. Alas, they are invulnerable to the same tactics used against them because they have neither shame nor conscience.

I projected that the tariffs might take over 60 days to show some effect. The Chinese stated that they would “fight to the end” to oppose the US tariffs. Apparently, the end is nearer than they thought. Now, the Chinese are lowering their retaliatory tariffs on some microchips as well as other products. There are as many as 16 million Chinese factory jobs at risk of being lost due to the tariffs. Container ships are reportedly being turned around. Which means a LOT of already manufactured products will not be paid for. Note: there is no unemployment in China. No work, no pay. No pay, no food. Things go downhill from there. Think of 1932 USA but with over a billion people.

Chairman Xi is presently chairman for life. That position does not state how long the term actually is. With the economy beginning to collapse his term may not be as long as he had expected.

Sending out the military against factory workers in cities all across China will be…problematic. Tiananmen Square situations in multiple cities would certainly be bad optics. Mao had no problem with killing millions of his people, but they mostly succumbed to starvation, primarily due to ignorance and central planning. Bad central planning…which it almost always is.  There were no cell phones, no way to document the tragedy.  Seeing the army slaughter civilians because they are rioting for pay and food might be a different situation.

A government coup in China will likely be different from what the Marxists pulled off with Biden. Regardless of what they wished they could do, putting a bullet in Biden’s brain (not that he or anyone else would notice) would not be as acceptable to the news vultures as doing the same to PDJT.

It has been said that war is a result of poor diplomacy. But diplomacy takes different forms. Chairman Xi wants to take Tiawan. Tiawan isn’t interested. The Chinese have already embarked on a very aggressive program to build an enormous army, navy and air force. They have constructed new islands with military bases on them. The invasion of Tiawan wouldn’t require this…but to fight us as well certainly would. With his economy faltering and civilian unrest, how does he pay for the military buildup? Buy guns or butter? Can he afford both? His population growth has also stalled. Who will support both the economy and the military?

POTUS is using economic warfare to replace military warfare. He can starve the military buildup and prevent a shooting war. And in doing so, return basic manufacturing capacity to the US. He’s still playing 5D chess; everyone else is playing tiddlywinks.

ciao,

The Snark

Why Some Imported Products Are Cheaper

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There are a lot of reasons for the decline of manufacturing in America. Many of those reasons are related to trade deficits and the desire for cheap goods, but some are related to the cost of doing business in America. For better or worse, corporations in America who choose to operate within the law are required to pay their employees a minimum wage. We can debate over what that wage should be, but the fact of the matter is that a minimum wage exists. Some other countries have no qualms about employing slave labor or paying people very low wages. The Chinese have used Muslims as slave labor for years. So why would a manufacturing company want to locate in America? There are a number of incentives (in addition to the lowering of the corporate tax rate). America has dependable energy and is moving toward lowering the cost of energy. America protects property rights–the state cannot come in and simply take your business away. Innovation is also protected by patent and copyright laws. America represents a stable environment in which to do business. Changing the structure of tariffs also has moral component.

On May 12, The Federalist reported:

…But Trump’s tariffs were not just economic, they were moral. Rather than relying on foreign countries, particularly China, that benefit from abusive labor practices, Trump put America first by deciding the U.S. must stop pretending inexpensive products come with no human cost. 

…During Trump’s first term, his administration repeatedly highlighted human rights abuses abroad, especially in regions like China’s Xinjiang province, where the Chinese Communist Party is running forced labor camps filled with Uyghur Muslims. More than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims have been detained by China and sent to reeducation camps in what is called the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Zone” for a range of reasons, including attending religious services, having more than three kids, or texting verses from the Quran. 

China forced many of its religiously and ethnically targeted workforce to toil away in factories, making products distributed and sold across the globe. Muslim slaves in China produce countless store shelves worth of goods, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, such as textiles, hair products, and aluminum, among many other things. They get extremely low pay, can’t contact or visit their families (unless, in some circumstances, they are heavily surveilled by the government), and they can’t leave. 

The article concludes:

Yes, U.S. prices may go up a bit in the short term. Maybe American girls will find two dolls under the Christmas tree instead of 30, as President Trump suggested Sunday on Meet the Press. Maybe U.S. students will sharpen five pencils instead of hoarding 250 like mini office supply tycoons. But maybe underpaid workers in China won’t have to literally slave away making those dolls or pencils for someone else’s kid in a distant Land of the Free. 

President Trump believes temporary price fluctuations are a trade-off worth making in the interim, and he is doing what no other president had the guts to do. There is short-lived pain before lasting progress, and Trump is willing to take the heat now to put human rights and American prosperity over easy profits. 

Why We Need To Secure All Points Of Entry Into Our Country

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On Thursday, The Epoch Times posted an article about a drug seizure at a Chicago air cargo facility.

The article reports:

Federal agents at a Chicago air cargo facility have seized shipments from China containing 18 pounds of xylazine, which is increasingly found in the U.S. illicit drug market.

The three shipments arrived on April 12 and were headed to residences in Cleveland and Philadelphia, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced in a statement on April 16.

“Drug traffickers are persistent in their attempts to smuggle sedatives such as xylazine into the United States, however, through our hard work and vigilance we will continue to intercept these dangerous substances at our port of entry before they can harm our communities,” LaFonda Sutton-Burke, director of field operation at the Chicago field office, said in a statement.

Xylazine, also known as “tranq” and the “zombie drug,” is a veterinary medication that acts as a sedative when administered to animals such as cattle, sheep, and horses during diagnostic and surgical procedures. Xylazine is not a controlled substance in the United States, but it is not approved for use on people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Because of increased border security at America’s southern border, cartels and other drug smugglers are having to look for other ways to bring illegal drugs into America. We need to have drug-sniffing dogs at all points of entry.

The article notes:

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has warned that xylazine is making the deadly fentanyl crisis in the United States “even deadlier,” as fentanyl adulterated with xylazine has a longer-lasting psychoactive effect than fentanyl alone, increasing the risk of overdose death.

The Mexico-based Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are known to be sourcing chemical precursors from China before these chemicals are manufactured into fentanyl. Last year, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party warned in a report that China-produced xylazines “are rapidly proliferating across the United States.”

The article concludes:

In recent years, some states have enacted laws to regulate the use of xylazine, including South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Combating Illicit Xylazine Act in both the House and the Senate in February. The legislation would make xylazine a Schedule III controlled substance while enabling the DEA to track its manufacturing to prevent any diversion to the illegal market.

“Illicit xylazine is contributing to the national drug epidemic and driving up overdose deaths in communities across the country,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who led the Senate bill with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), said in a statement at the time.

“This bipartisan bill recognizes the lethal threat of xylazine and provides law enforcement new tools to combat its spread, while ensuring veterinarians, ranchers and cattlemen can continue to access the drug for legitimate animal treatment,” Grassley said.

Things Are Changing Very Quickly

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On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about one of the changes the Trump administration has made regarding the Panama Canal.

The article reports:

… Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had one mission on his trip to Panama — to secure a deal to get “first and free” passage for U.S. ships in the Panama Canal, a critical waterway for the United States’ economy and military that was at risk of falling under China’s control.

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

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

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s mission was a success:

On Wednesday, Hegseth delivered opening remarks at the conference, which was co-hosted by the U.S. and Panama.

It was there that Hegseth announced that the U.S. and Panama would sign a declaration providing a framework for U.S. warships and auxiliary ships to travel “first and free” through the canal, in a huge win for the U.S.

Hegseth and Abrego also agreed to an expanded partnership to secure the canal and signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperative security activities between the U.S. and Panamanian militaries, which will see the increase of U.S. troops in Panama.

Asked by Breitbart News if he had accomplished everything he wanted to on the trip, a triumphant Hegseth responded, “This trip not only met but exceeded our expectations. A warm welcome from Panama. Great partnership. Spent a lot of time with their troops. I want to thank Panama for what they’ve done in the Darien Gap as well.”

This is a much needed move by the Trump administration.

Solving An Obvious Problem In North Carolina

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On Tuesday, The Carolina Journal reported that the Senate Agriculture, Energy, and Environmental Committee approved a bill prohibiting the foreign acquisition of land by adversarial nations. This should probably be done on the national level, but a number of states have passed similar laws. I know it’s just a coincidence that much of the farmland that China is buying up is very close to America’s major military installations.

The article reports:

Prohibit Foreign Ownership of NC Land (SB 394) is sponsored by Sens. Bob Brinson, R-Craven, Timothy Moffitt, R-Henderson, and Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck. The bill was voted on favorably by the committee.

“The key purpose of this bill is to both safeguard our agriculture integrity and to protect our national security,” explained Brinson. “This is a state effort to protect national security because food security is national security. This will ensure that North Carolina farmland does not come under international adversarial control and also prevent adversarial nations from acquiring land near sensitive military installations.”

The bill prohibits land acquisition by adversarial nations outlined in the bill: China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia, or entities they control. It blocks these foreign entities from owning agricultural lands and lands within 25 miles of a military installation or areas designated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as special-use airspace.

Entities currently owning restricted land before the bill’s effective date must register their holdings with the secretary of state and the attorney general. Foreign entities that acquire restricted land after the bill takes effect are required to divest the property within three years.

The article notes:

The bill also introduces a new deed requirement that mandates an affidavit affirming that the buyer is in compliance and is not affiliated with any prohibited foreign entities. The affidavit is already a standard practice for mortgage loans.

The article concludes:

Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake, expressed concerns about how this bill would impact Smithfield Foods, now an independent subsidiary of the Chinese conglomerate the WH Group. The bill would have minimal impact on the company because existing land holdings are provided for within the bill, and they only have to be registered with the secretary of state and attorney general. Additional land acquisitions would be prohibited. It was pointed out that many of Smithfield’s growers are North Carolinians, so this has not been an issue yet. 

Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, addressed concerns about a provision in the bill requiring the Registers of Deeds office to document the citizenship of both parties to any property transaction, not just transactions addressed by the legislation. It was clarified that while this is, in fact, correct, it is not an enforcement mechanism but a public record transaction mechanism. 

The bill will “protect North Carolina’s farmland, strengthen our national security, and ensure that our critical resources remain in trusted hands,” according to Brinson.

SB 394 received a favorable report and advanced to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

This bill needs to pass.

Leveling The Playing Field

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On Wednesday, Townhall posted an article about one result of President Trump’s tariffs.

The article reports:

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Wednesday suggested that Canada would drop its tariffs on U.S. goods if President Donald Trump eased up on his tariffs on Canadian goods.

During an appearance with CNBC’s Ross Sorkin, he stated that the impending tariff war is “just going to hurt American jobs” and that Trump “said he was going to create jobs, create wealth, reduce inflation.”

Sorkin asked whether Ford believed it was fair that Canada has “tariffs on a whole number of products.”

Ford replied, “And we’d be willing to take those off tomorrow if he took all the tariffs off” and suggested that “China is the problem.”

The host asked why Canada wouldn’t have these negotiations before Trump imposed his tariffs.

The premier responded:

Well, we’ve had this conversation for over the last month. We don’t want tariffs. We have another $65 billion dollars with a tariff to launch today. That’s the last thing we want to do because it’s just, again, it’s going to hurt both countries. It’s going to hurt American workers. That’s the last thing I want.

That statement is a very diplomatic way of saying nothing.

America has been paying tariffs on its exports to other countries for years. It is not unreasonable to expect that at some point the playing field would be made more level. It is not up to us to bankroll the rest of the world by letting other countries impose tariffs on us without imposing tariffs on them. I suspect that President Trump’s tariffs are not yet set in stone and are still in the negotiating stage. We do need to put tariffs on other countries, but the final details may be different from what we are currently hearing.

When Common Sense Takes A Vacation

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On Friday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about the fake news posted by The New York Times about Elon Musk receiving a security briefing on top secret war plans. He did not  receive such a briefing. First of all, Elon Musk is seriously involved in America’s space program (some might argue that he is America’s space program). What kind of clearances might he have because of that involvement? I realize that classified information should be given out on a ‘need to know’ basis, and there might not be a case for Elon Musk to know about China policy, but I do believe this is much ado about nothing.

The article reports:

The deep state was has been in full meltdown since Thursday night’s leaked report by the New York Times that DOGE chief Elon Musk would be visiting the Pentagon on Friday for an alleged briefing on top secret U.S. war plans for communist China.

Notice it was a leaked report. Who leaked it? We can guess why–anything to make the Trump administration look bad. The person who leaked it needs to face consequences. That is how you stop the leaks.

The article notes:

Trump addressed the controversy with reporters in the Oval Office midday Friday with Hegseth by his side, saying he would not authorize such a briefing for Musk given his business ties with China. The purpose of the Oval Office meeting with Hegseth was to announce the selection of Boeing to build the military’s new Next Generation Air Dominance fighter jet, the F-47.

The article includes the following quote by President Trump:

““Elon Musk will be briefed by the Pentagon about the USA’s top secret plans against China should there be a War,” according to the Failing New York Times, one of the worst and most purposely inaccurate newspapers anywhere in the World. Their FAKE concept for this story is that because Elon does some business in China, that he is very conflicted and would immediately go to top Chinese officials and “spill the beans.” RATINGS CHALLENGED FAKE NEWS CNN immediately picked up on this absolutely ridiculous and false story, which is probably libelous, and went heavy with it. Fortunately, nobody was watching! Maggot Hagerman, the really dumb “scammer” who constantly writes about me for the Times, using anonymous, made up (nonexistent!) sources, and who I haven’t spoken to in ages, is a big part of the Scam. She lead the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, only to realize that she was duped and got it wrong. She owes me a totally discredited Pulitzer Prize for her bad reporting. The Fake News is the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE…And Elon is NOT BEING BRIEFED ON ANYTHING CHINA BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR!!!”

How many Americans still believe the fake story? That is the scary part.

U.S. vs Chinese Navy

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, PhD.

Many military experts believe that if there is a conflict between the U.S. and China, the outcome will be settled by naval forces. Given the location of China, this makes sense, and it may be a repeat of World War II, where our overwhelming naval forces defeated Japan.

Assuming that this analysis is correct, a comparative assessment of the status of the navies of each country is appropriate. Most authorities believe that the U.S. Navy is still superior to the Chinese navy, but that superiority is shrinking. The Chinese have been rapidly increasing their number of ships over the past ten years. They currently have 340 naval ships compared to 280 in the US Navy. We still have a superiority in large aircraft carriers– eleven compared with China, which now has three. Similarly, we have a greater number of submarines. One area of concern is the rapidly increasing lethality of missiles, especially supersonic types. These missiles will make large aircraft carriers difficult, if not impossible, to defend adequately. In many ways, the aircraft carrier fleet was what allowed us to defeat Japan; whereas, the battleship which was dominant in an earlier era was no longer effective. Could this be the case for aircraft carriers in future conflicts?

The rate of increase in the Chinese navy should be of concern. Last year, China built 30 new naval vessels while the US built 2. Construction capacity is always a concerning factor. During WWII, the industrial capacity of the United States far exceeded any other country. The US was truly the arsenal of democracy. For example, at the beginning of WWII with the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941, both the US and Japan had eight aircraft carriers each. In the next four years, Japan built 18 new carriers (of various sizes) while the US built an astounding 144. China currently has 20 large shipyards that build both naval and merchant craft. The US has only 4 similar shipyards.

Another area of significant Chinese expansion is their merchant marine fleet. They now own over 50% of merchant shipping in the world, far exceeding the size of the merchant fleets of Japan and South Korea, which are their closest competitors. A large merchant fleet of container ships and tankers not only allows China to ship needed supplies and fuel to combat areas, but provides a large resource of trained seaman if needed for their navy.

China has also been making a concerted effort to operate and control seaports around the globe. They invest in existing ports and thereby obtain control of those vital stations. For example, the Chinese just made a large financial deal with Belgium which will allow them to dominate the port of Zeebrugge, the second largest port in that country. They are doing this around the world, including the east and west entrances to the Panama Canal, which President Trump recently targeted as an unacceptable threat to the security of the US. Also, even US ports are now using Chinese ship loading and unloading equipment.

China clearly has plans to dominate the world’s oceans and trade. Finally, we have a President who is willing to recognize and deal with this realty before it is too late.

Bringing Back The Monroe Doctrine

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History.com describes the Monroe Doctrine as folllows:

The Monroe Doctrine, first outlined in a speech to Congress in 1823, had President James Monroe warning European powers to not attempt further colonization, military intervention or other interference in the Western Hemisphere, stating that the United States would view any such interference as a potentially hostile act. Over the centuries, the Monroe Doctrine policy has become a cornerstone of U.S. diplomatic and military policies.

In recent years, that policy has been somewhat ignored. That changed on January 20th of this year.

On Sunday, Legal Insurrection reported:

Panama has decided not to renew its memorandum of understanding with China on the Belt and Road Initiative, marking a significant shift in its foreign policy. The move follows increased U.S. pressure, as Washington works to curb Beijing’s growing influence in Latin America.

This decision came as Senator Marco Rubio visited Panama to discuss key issues like the Panama Canal’s operations and migration through the Darien Gap, a critical transit point for migrants heading to the U.S.

This is definitely a move in the right direction. I would like to say that the article is incorrect in describing Marco Rubio as a Senator–he has been confirmed as Secretary of State.