President Donald Trump dismissed concerns about instability in China after purges of its military reached inside President Xi Jinping’s inner circle.
“As far as I’m concerned, there’s one boss in China. That’s President Xi. That’s the president I’m dealing with,” the president <a href="https://x.com/RedWave_Press/status/2017942149577224459">told</a> reporters on board Air Force One on Saturday.
In response to a reporter, Trump said he is not concerned about Beijing’s “stability” after the government announced a corruption investigation into its top ranking military official and a close Xi ally.
“I think President Xi is the boss. I watch it very closely, and he’s highly respected in China. He’s the boss,” said Trump.
China’s Ministry of National Defense <a href="https://www.news.cn/legal/20260124/33406074879940878fd3102178790920/c.html">announced</a> on January 24 that General Zhang Youxia, the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission that controls China’s military, is suspected of “grave violations of discipline and the law.” General Liu Zhenli, the head of the military’s Joint Staff Department, is also under investigation, according to the announcement.
Investigations under China’s authoritarian government almost always result in guilty verdicts. Officials that fall under investigation are often never heard from again. Zhang and Liu have both disappeared from the public recently, though their absences alone had not been enough to rouse suspicion that they had become targets in the ongoing shakeup of China’s military, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/world/asia/china-top-general-xi-military-purge.html">The New York Times</a>.
The allegations against Zhang are especially noteworthy because of the vaunted position and deep level of trust Zhang was previously assumed to enjoy in Xi’s inner circle. Zhang and Xi are childhood friends. Each of their fathers were revolutionaries in Mao Zedong’s army. Zhang was second only to Xi in the hierarchy of the Chinese state.
The investigations into Zhang and Liu are just the latest in an ongoing purge of top military officials since 2023. Beijing has characterized the purge as an effort to root out corruption in the military. The campaign has taken down officers and personnel up and down the military hierarchy, as well as civilian executives of military arms manufacturers. Many of those targeted had been handpicked into their positions by Xi.
Zhang and Liu’s forced absences mean that of the six generals Xi appointed to the Central Military Commission in 2022, only one is left: General Zhang Shengmin.
“Xi may have purged them because he saw them as undermining his leadership and military objectives,” says an <a href="https://understandingwar.org/research/china-taiwan/xi-jinpings-military-purges-leave-him-increasingly-powerful-but-isolated/">analysis</a> from the Institute for the Study of War. “The CMC purges consolidate Xi’s control over the military but risk isolating him or surrounding him with sycophants, which in turn risks military miscalculations.”
The military purges have taken place as concerns grow that Beijing may attempt a military takeover of Taiwan, a nation to which Beijing has already made territorial claims.

Donald Trump, Xi Jinping

Trump Dismisses Concerns About China’s ‘Stability’ After Purge Of Top Military Official

China

Donald Trump

Taiwan

Xi Jinping

As tensions rise with China, Russia, and other global rivals, the Department of War has unveiled its 2026 National Defense Strategy, mapping a path for the United States to remain the world’s most formidable fighting force.
The <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/23/2003864773/-1/-1/0/2026-NATIONAL-DEFENSE-STRATEGY.PDF">strategy</a> emphasizes strengthened deterrence, homeland protection, and long-term competitive advantage, noting that “President Trump in his first term and since reentering office in January 2025 has rebuilt the American military to be the world’s absolute best—its most formidable fighting force.”
The strategy frames a world of heightened competition and risk, with major state actors driving instability. China is identified as the primary strategic competitor, pursuing military modernization and regional dominance in the Indo-Pacific. 
“Our goal is simple: To prevent anyone, including China, from being able to dominate us or our allies,” the document states. Russia remains an acute threat through aggression in Europe, while Iran and North Korea are advancing missile and nuclear capabilities, and violent extremist organizations continue to pose global risks.
The strategy highlights three integrated priorities: defend the homeland, deter strategic attacks — particularly nuclear — and deter aggression while preparing to win if conflict occurs. It underscores the recent strikes on Venezuela as a return to the historical foreign policy of the U.S. under the &#8220;Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,&#8221; which is to “actively and fearlessly defend America’s interests throughout the Western Hemisphere… guarantee U.S. military and commercial access to key terrain, especially the Panama Canal, Gulf of America, and Greenland.”
Implementation is guided by four lines of effort, &#8220;prioritizing the missions that matter most for Americans’ security, freedom, and prosperity.&#8221; 
First, strengthening homeland defenses. Protecting the U.S. from multi-domain threats, including drones, cyber intrusions, and attacks on critical infrastructure, is central. The strategy stresses defending “America’s borders and maritime approaches” and countering unmanned aerial threats through initiatives like Golden Dome for America.
Second, deterring China in the Indo-Pacific. The strategy frames deterrence through capability and posture rather than confrontation. “Our goal in doing so is not to dominate China; nor is it to strangle or humiliate them,” it notes.
Third, reinforcing alliances and partnerships. Burden-sharing is emphasized, with allies expected to take the lead against threats less severe to the United States, while the U.S. provides “critical but more limited support” and makes clear the urgent need for allies to do their part.
Fourth, supercharging the defense industrial base. Domestic production and innovation are a priority, and the strategy stresses the need to “return to being the world’s premier arsenal, one that can produce not only for ourselves but also for our allies and partners at scale, rapidly, and at the highest levels of quality.” The document specifies domestic production of semiconductors, rare-earth elements, and munitions.
Over the next 12 months, the U.S. plans to expand its Pacific deterrence efforts, including investments in naval assets in the region, missile systems, and enhanced coordination with allies to counter China&#8217;s activities. 
The strategy also highlights emerging technologies used by our rivals: hypersonics, drones, cyber operations, and space systems. As such, in 2026, homeland security measures will focus on counter-drone technologies, cyber resilience, and border-related defense capabilities.
Allied engagement will push for increased defense spending, particularly contributions from NATO and Indo-Pacific partnerships. Defense industrial initiatives aim to onshore production and streamline acquisition, supporting U.S. manufacturing and job growth. This is paired with a drive for accelerated research and development in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and unmanned systems on American soil. 
Nuclear modernization programs will advance, ensuring that deterrence remains robust. 
The strategy concludes that the U.S. must “defend the homeland, deter aggression abroad, and maintain enduring advantages in the technologies, industries, and forces that make victory certain.” 
Overall, the new National Strategy positions the military for a leaner, more focused posture, prioritizing core warfighting readiness over expansive overseas commitments for the coming years.

Hegseth

‘Most Formidable Fighting Force’: 2026 U.S. National Defense Strategy Eyes China, Emerging Threats

U.S. Sets 2026 Military Priorities, Eyes China And Emerging Threats

Defense Spending

Department of War

Pete Hegseth

Russia

U.S. Military

Longtime Daily Wire readers are no doubt familiar with Xi Van Fleet — an activist, scholar, and survivor of Mao&#8217;s Cultural Revolution. Xi has done more than most to shed light on the horrors of Chinese communism and to sound the alarm about the rising threat of socialism in the United States. We were proud to publish her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-lived-in-the-communist-world-zohran-mamdani-dreams-of-its-worse-than-you-could-imagine">scathing portrait</a> of Zohran Mamdani and her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/erasing-history-the-real-cultural-marxism?author=Xi+Van+Fleet+and+Sasha+Gong&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Erasing+History%3A+The+Real+Cultural+Marxism">five-part series</a> “American Maoists: Warnings From The Cultural Revolution.”
Today, we&#8217;re honored to bring you an exclusive excerpt from her forthcoming book “Made in America: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Enabled Communist China and Created Our Greatest Threat.” Co-authored with Chinese dissident Yu Jie, the book explores how American academics, writers, and politicians helped Communist China become a global superpower.
In the excerpt below, Xi and Yu examine three little-known American journalists who helped sell Mao&#8217;s lies to the world — and warn that Xi Jinping is working to do the same with American journalists today. — Tim Rice
***
Edgar Snow, Agnes Smedley, and Anna Louise Strong — three Americans from the Midwest — were collectively known in China as the “Three S’s,” the leading Western journalists who made an immeasurable contribution to the Chinese communist cause, with Snow regarded as the most influential of the trio.
In 1984, the Smedley-Strong-Snow Society of China was established under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to honor their contributions. The society organizes commemorative events, preserves archives, and promotes research on their roles in advancing the Chinese Communist movement. And all three of the S’s were individually featured on postage stamps issued in China.
Because Smedley and Strong were openly Communist and connected to the Communist International, their work was often dismissed in the West due to its overt ideological slant. Snow, by contrast, was seen as an independent voice. This perceived neutrality gave his work greater credibility in the West, making it arguably more deceptive and dangerous.
Today, the CCP is actively seeking new “Snows” for Xi Jinping’s “new era,” those who can fulfill a similar role as Edgar Snow in promoting China’s narrative on the global stage. In 2021, the CCP media outlet China Daily launched the Edgar Snow Newsroom, aimed at recruiting foreign reporters to engage in propaganda work for the CCP. Evidently, there is no shortage of candidates for the CCP to choose from.
The widespread popularity of the work of the Three S’s can be attributed to the historical context of the 1930s. During this time, the United States was still recovering from the Great Depression, which had deeply shaken confidence in capitalism. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal introduced socialist policies, reflecting a broader leftward shift in American society.
Interestingly, Edgar Snow noted in Red Star Over China that Mao Zedong held a favorable view of President Roosevelt, even expressing interest in learning about FDR’s New Deal. Mao was likely inspired by FDR’s large-scale government initiatives aimed at rapid economic transformation.
In this historic environment, writings that glorified and promoted Chinese Communism unsurprisingly found a receptive audience among American readers, who were increasingly exploring alternative economic and political ideologies.
Later, Edgar Snow’s 1936 visit to China and extensive interviews conducted with Mao Zedong  marked the beginning of the CCP’s campaign to cultivate allies among American influencers, particularly journalists and writers. From there, the party steadily expanded its network of “old friends” to encompass government officials, military leaders, politicians, policymakers, and, eventually, the upper ranks of major corporations and business elites.
One might argue that these influencers were merely deceived by the Chinese Communists. But the truth is far less forgiving: they were deceived because they wanted to be. They saw not what was real but what they longed to see. They heard not the truth but what confirmed their ideals and fed their convictions.
Though they came from diverse backgrounds, they shared one defining trait: a left-leaning political orientation, ranging from liberal sympathizers like Edgar Snow to committed communists like Agnes Smedley and Anna Louise Strong. History has shown, time and again, that the ideological leap from liberalism to communism is often alarmingly short.
These bleeding-heart liberals helped legitimize and elevate a regime that would go on to unleash unimaginable human suffering. Safely removed from the consequences, they never lived under the tyranny they helped glorify. Many never paused to reflect on the reality that every word they wrote in praise of the Communist Party came at the cost of real human lives — millions of them.
Words can kill, and the pen can be as deadly as any bullet. This tragic chapter of history must not be forgotten.
***
Xi Van Fleet and Yu Jie are authors of the forthcoming <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/xi-van-fleet/made-in-america/9781546009368/?lens=center-street__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!1EyvEl-uC7TIK0rLvarrOO6odKbstFnL9S29IBgVjHSqp0YOI8tvg6cjDHu8PbAkTnVdBtVmyN0Y7CGdUt-84os$" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/xi-van-fleet/made-in-america/9781546009368/?lens%3Dcenter-street__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!1EyvEl-uC7TIK0rLvarrOO6odKbstFnL9S29IBgVjHSqp0YOI8tvg6cjDHu8PbAkTnVdBtVmyN0Y7CGdUt-84os$&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1769179679063000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3JTdRuew3QefD102CqMml8">book</a> “Made in America: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Enabled Communist China and Created Our Greatest Threat.”
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Untitled design (100)

The Three American Journalists Who Fueled The CCP’s Rise 

Chinese Communist Party

Journalism

Leftism

Chinese tech giant ByteDance has reached a deal over ownership of TikTok for the social media platform to stay active in the United States.
TikTok <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/announcement-from-the-new-tiktok-usds-joint-venture-llc?lang=en">announced</a> the deal on Thursday evening after a six-year campaign to ban the app under Chinese ownership from the United States. Congress passed legislation over a year ago that could have spelled the end of TikTok in the United States, but President Donald Trump postponed the ban from going into effect beyond the bill’s stated grace period to reach a deal.
Since 2019, a conglomeration of people and entities have sought legal action against TikTok, while a bipartisan group of lawmakers has sought an outright ban over concerns that the platform was being used by China to steal from and spy on Americans.
The effort to ban TikTok was resisted by social media influencers who have used the platform to further their careers, as well as Trump, who prioritized negotiating with ByteDance to sell off the platform to allow it to continue to operate in the United States.
Under the terms of the deal, a new U.S. version of the app will be created, which will be 80% owned by international investors.
TikTok’s Thursday statement listed the new group of international owners. The largest owners outside of ByteDance itself are the software giant Oracle, the Emirati investment firm MGX, and U.S.-based investment firm Silver Lake. ByteDance will retain 19.9% ownership of the U.S. version of the platform while the other big three will each have 15%.
“Completing the full consortium of investors are: Dell Family Office, the investment firm of Michael Dell, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies; Vastmere Strategic Investments, LLC, an affiliate of Susquehanna International Group, LLP; Alpha Wave Partners; Revolution; Merritt Way, LLC controlled and managed by partners of Dragoneer; Via Nova, an affiliate of General Atlantic; Virgo LI, Inc., investment arm of a foundation established by Yuri and Julia Milner in support of science; and NJJ Capital, the family office of Xavier Niel, a French entrepreneur and pioneer in telecommunications,” the statement from TikTok explained.
Oracle will become the manager of all U.S. user data on the platform.
“TikTok USDS Joint Venture&#8217;s mandate is to secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures. It will safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem through robust trust and safety policies and content moderation while ensuring continuous accountability through transparency reporting and third-party certifications,” the announcement stated.

TikTok

TikTok Strikes Deal To Stay Active In U.S., Ending Years-Long Battle Over Chinese Ownership

Big Tech

Communist China

United States

World

My office decorations are mostly standard-issue: pictures of my family, a diploma, a couple of concert posters to trick people into thinking I’m fun. But no one notices them at first, as everyone’s eyes inevitably go to the portrait above my desk.
It’s impossible to miss: a big, professionally-framed picture of a Joey Chestnut, smiling triumphantly behind a pile of hot dogs after reclaiming the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest championship from Takeru Kobayashi on July 4, 2007.
Joey came into my possession courtesy of my first boss in Washington, who in the midst of an office redecorating effort reluctantly decided to part with what he called a symbol of American triumph.
I think about that every time I glance up in the middle of the day and see the champ looking back at me, tongue sticking out and eyes wide with the thrill of victory. So you can imagine my disappointment when I learned China had bought Nathan’s.
On Thursday, Smithfield <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nathans-famous-hot-dogs-smithfield-merger-9927a1f0fde1ff32c2f95dc4949d3dfd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that it would purchase the iconic hot dog franchise for $450 million. Of course, “Smithfield” isn’t really Smithfield anymore. The Virginia-based meat producer was itself purchased in 2013 by the Shuanghui Group, which has since renamed itself the more innocuous sounding WH Group.
The WH Group is a Chinese company through and through, which means it is, for all intents and purposes, an arm of the Chinese Communist Party. Its leadership is full of <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/25/chinese-communist-party-landowner-pork/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CCP bigwigs</a>, who have put the company at the forefront of China’s efforts to purchase American farmland — a major <a href="https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/national-security-threat-of-china-dominated-u.s-agricultural-sectors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">national security threat</a>. At its peak, WH Group owned around 150,000 acres of American land across 29 states.
WH Group has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/07/08/us-china-farmland-ban-national-security/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reduced</a> its American land holdings in response to the Trump administration’s push to ban Chinese companies from buying up American farms. But it still has around 85,000 acres of this country in its possession, a collection to which it can now add Nathan’s original Coney Island location, still standing where it was built in 1916.
It’s fitting that the first Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest of Zohran Mamdani’s mayoralty will be sponsored by the CCP. America’s biggest foe wrapping its tentacles around a symbol of American freedom founded by a Polish Jew. Ms. Rachel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ms-rachel-says-she-liked-free-america-from-the-jews-comment-by-accident?author=Brecca+Stoll&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Ms.+Rachel+Says+She+Liked+%E2%80%98Free+America+From+The+Jews%E2%80%99+Comment+By+Accident" target="_blank" rel="noopener">must be thrilled</a>.
It never ends well when foreigners take over American institutions — just look what happened when the Belgians <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bud-light-tries-to-woo-back-customers-with-new-commercial-starring-shane-gillis?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Bud+Light+Tries+To+Woo+Back+Customers+With+New+Commercial+Starring+Shane+Gillis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bought</a> Anheuser-Busch.
When my old boss called the Joey Chestnut picture a portrait of American triumph, he wasn’t just talking about an American reclaiming the title from a Japanese competitor. He was talking about an American dominating in an extremely American pastime, at a quintessentially American location, on the day we celebrate American independence.
Nathan’s is about as American as it gets. Nathan Handwerker opened his Brooklyn stand in 1916, four years after coming to America. He gained a foothold by selling cheaper products than his competitor and grew his little stand into a global empire. By the time Major League Baseball named Nathan’s its <a href="https://www.mlb.com/news/nathan-s-famous-is-official-hot-dog-of-mlb-c221240194" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official hot dog</a> in 2017, they had already become synonymous with ball games, barbecues, and the American dream.
When at the height of the Second World War E.B. White <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/11/07/164631081/author-e-b-white-on-the-meaning-of-democracy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> that democracy was “the mustard on the hot dog,” he was almost certainly envisioning one of Nathan&#8217;s Famous kosher-style franks.
Even liberalism’s court stenographer, Aaron Sorkin, understands the centrality of Nathan’s to the American image. In a 2002 episode of “The West Wing,” the White House Chief of Staff defends the president’s decision to assassinate a terrorist leader by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOSxwFtBNww" target="_blank" rel="noopener">telling his emissary</a>: “To sweep all fifty states, the President would only need to do two things: blow the sultan&#8217;s brains out in Times Square, then walk across the street to Nathan&#8217;s and buy a hot dog.”
It’s impossible to watch that scene now and not think of President Donald Trump’s now famous declaration that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose voters. It’s also hard to think that our first outer borough president relishes the sight of China taking over a beloved American institution.
The overarching goal of Trump’s political career has been to reverse American decline by any means necessary. He’s touched on this aim in merely every speech he’s ever given, including his <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Second Inaugural Address</a>:
<blockquote>From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first.</blockquote>
Whether striking narcoterrorists or purchasing Greenland, Trump has shown he’ll stop at nothing to revive American greatness. Keeping Nathan’s in American hands seems like an easy way to advance his America First agenda and put the Red Dragon at bay. Surely it doesn’t hurt that Trump once called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nathans-hot-dogs-faces-backlash-over-trump-fundraiser-report-2018-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nathan’s chairman</a> Howard Lorber one of his two best friends.
So come on, Mr. President. What’s one more volley in the trade wars if it means saving an American institution? Imagine that swooping green logo towering over the first American hot dog stand in Nuuk. This is our time for choosing.

Joey Chestnut (L) of San Jose, Californi

American Travesty: A Chinese Company Just Bought Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs.

Greenland

New York City

Zohran Mamdani

On Tuesday, the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection held a hearing titled, “Defense through Offense: Examining U.S. Cyber Capabilities to Deter and Disrupt Malign Foreign Activity Targeting the Homeland.”
Chairman Andy Ogles (R-TN) opened the hearing by declaring that the United States can no longer rely solely on a defensive posture. Citing recent breaches like Salt Typhoon (targeting Congressional staff) and Volt Typhoon (targeting critical infrastructure), Ogles argued that adversaries — primarily China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea — operate with impunity because they face no meaningful consequences.
The consensus among the subcommittee and the witnesses was that the U.S. must shift toward a proactive, &#8220;industrial-scale&#8221; offensive strategy to alter the risk calculus of state-sponsored actors.
Joe Lin, the CEO of Twenty Technologies, Inc., provided a blunt assessment: the United States is currently losing the cyber war because it treats offensive operations as &#8220;bespoke,&#8221; elite activities while adversaries operate at &#8220;machine speed.&#8221;
Lin called for codifying operator tradecraft into automated software systems. He argued that one operator should be able to manage hundreds of targets simultaneously to match the scale of Chinese campaigns. He emphasized that &#8220;patching&#8221; alone will never secure critical infrastructure. Deterrence requires the demonstrated ability to impose asymmetric costs upstream before attacks reach U.S. soil.
Emily Harding, the vice president of the defense and security department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), focused on the &#8220;escalation ladder,&#8221; noting that adversaries currently control it because U.S. responses have been muted.
CSIS war games revealed that senior U.S. officials often freeze during cyber crises due to a lack of a shared framework for what constitutes an &#8220;act of war.&#8221; Harding proposed several key shifts: treating cyber-attacks that imperil life as kinetic attacks, flipping risk tolerance so that the default answer for an operation is &#8220;yes,&#8221; and creating a dedicated Cyber Force to consolidate talent.
Frank Cilluffo, the director of the McCrary Institute, argued that the U.S. has allowed adversaries to define its strategy. He pushed for &#8220;operational collaboration,&#8221; where the private sector — which owns the vast majority of infrastructure — is treated as a partner in active defense rather than a passive victim. He noted that campaigns like Salt and Volt Typhoon are &#8220;pre-positioning&#8221; efforts designed to be triggered during a future kinetic conflict (e.g., a Pacific contingency).
Drew Bagley, the chief privacy officer at CrowdStrike, offered a nuanced view, reinforcing the necessity of defense while supporting targeted offense. While he cautioned against a &#8220;federated&#8221; or &#8220;vigilante&#8221; hack-back regime due to risks of collateral damage, he supported more persistent disruption of malicious infrastructure. He recommended that CISA and the private sector maintain a prioritized list of threat actors to be dismantled systematically through coordinated law enforcement and military action.
The subcommittee discussed the severe workforce shortage. Witnesses noted that while thousands of personnel were lost during recent agency &#8220;right-sizing&#8221; (DOGE-related shifts), the solution isn&#8217;t just &#8220;more bodies.&#8221; AI is being used by the PRC to automate espionage; the U.S. must adopt &#8220;Agentic AI&#8221; to defend and counter-attack at the same speed. Suggestions included a &#8220;Cyber Reserve&#8221; (similar to the National Guard) and a &#8220;Teach for America&#8221; style program for cyber professionals to serve in rural areas in exchange for loan forgiveness.
Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) raised the critical issue of undersea cables, through which 95% of global data flows. There is currently no &#8220;single home&#8221; in the government for undersea cable security. Harding and Bagley called for an increase in repair ships and the use of AI-driven maritime surveillance to identify &#8220;anomalous&#8221; ship patterns (like &#8220;fishing&#8221; vessels lingering over cable lines) before they can sabotage infrastructure.
A major takeaway was the need to move past &#8220;tit-for-tat&#8221; cyber responses. Witnesses argued that if China hits a U.S. water plant, the U.S. shouldn&#8217;t necessarily hit a Chinese water plant; it should use diplomatic, economic, or kinetic tools to hit a &#8220;pain point&#8221; that the adversary actually values.
Ogles concluded by signaling a &#8220;forward-leaning&#8221; posture, emphasizing that the Monroe Doctrine now extends into the digital realm. The subcommittee intends to pursue &#8220;operational collaboration&#8221; between the private sector and government to ensure that any breach of American digital boundaries carries a significant, punishing price.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LZkm35vQv68?si=KYHJSUF6_LaMvLZS" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Faceless hackers and malware hackers use laptops with dangerous digital code on binary code background.

Beyond Defense: Congress Wants To Industrialize U.S. Cyber Offense

Congress

Cybersecurity

Christians in Syria saw the largest increase in persecution among any country in the world last year as regime change and terrorism threw the Islamic nation into chaos, according to the Christian organization Open Doors, which published its annual persecution watch list Wednesday morning.
The Open Doors <a href="https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/persecution/countries/">2026 World Watch List</a> revealed that Syria jumped up to No. 6 in overall Christian persecution, after coming in at No. 18 in last year’s list. Syria is now only behind North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, and Eritrea.
Open Doors CEO Ryan Brown told The Daily Wire that the recent political turmoil in Syria is the main contributing factor to the increase in persecution.
“With the fall of the Assad regime and as HTS [Hay&#8217;at Tahrir al-Sham] came into power, it created a lot of vacuums of control and authority,” Brown said. “The rule of law is weak in a number of areas, and in that, there’s just been a number of extremists that have just stepped into those voids.”
Brown pointed to multiple recent Islamic terror attacks targeting Syrian Christians, such as the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jihadist-suicide-bomber-kills-20-wounds-dozens-more-at-orthodox-church" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suicide bombing</a> in June, when a terrorist opened fire on worshipers and then detonated a suicide vest, killing more than 20 Christians and wounding over 50 more. Christians in Syria are more likely to come under attack from Islamic terrorists who are fighting for control of certain areas in the unstable country, not from the government, which is now led by former HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa.
“The church is coming under attack especially in these areas where the government is not having a strong rule of law as part of this transition,” Brown added. “Traditionally, in some of these areas in Syria where the rule of law has not been strong, the tribalism becomes the ruling force and provides safety. Christian converts from Islam are typically rejected from these tribal infrastructures.”
It remains to be seen if al-Sharaa, a former terrorist leader, will tolerate Christians in Syria if he establishes a firm grip on the country. So far, the new Syrian leader has been actively seeking to take out Islamic terrorists that remain in Syria.
President Donald Trump met with al-Sharaa at the White House as he seeks to broker peace in the Middle East. The meeting marked the first time a Syrian leader and former jihadist met with the President of the United States.
Brown said the 12-spot change in Syria&#8217;s ranking between 2025 and 2026 was the largest year-over-year move for any country on the persecution watch list in more than a decade.
Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Libya, and Iran round out the top 10 of countries where Christians experience the most persecution, meaning that eight out of the top 10 countries on the 2026 World Watch List are majority Muslim nations.
<h3>Nigeria Was The ‘Epicenter’ Of Violence Against Christians In 2025</h3>
More Christians in Nigeria, which came in at No. 7 on the list, were killed for their faith than in any other country. Open Doors reported that 3,490 Nigerian Christians were killed last year, which was an increase from the estimated 3,100 killed in 2024. For comparison, 1,359 Christians are estimated to have been killed for their faith in all other countries combined in 2025.
Brown told The Daily Wire that Nigeria didn’t rank No. 1 on the persecution list because Open Doors considers multiple factors, not just violence, when ranking countries.
“The World Watch List looks at danger, but looks at a number of other factors as well. Nigeria would be the deadliest place to be a Christian, not necessarily the most difficult because there are places in the country where Christians are able to freely worship,” Brown said. “But Nigeria continues to be an epicenter of violence in parts of the country, in parts of the middle belt as well as in the northern parts of the country.”
Recent violence against Christians in Nigeria <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-next-peace-push-focuses-on-nigeria-and-sudan-where-christians-are-killed-by-the-thousands?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump%E2%80%99s+Next+Peace+Push+Focuses+On+Nigeria+And+Sudan%2C+Where+Christians+Are+Killed+By+The+Thousands" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gained the attention</a> of President Trump, who has pressured the Nigerian government to do more to protect Christians and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-threatens-to-completely-wipe-out-the-islamic-terrorists-killing-nigerian-christians?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Threatens+To+%E2%80%98Completely+Wipe+Out+The+Islamic+Terrorists%E2%80%99+Killing+Nigerian+Christians" target="_blank" rel="noopener">threatened</a> to take out terrorists in the country if they continue to target them.
<h3>Iran Increased Pressure On Christians During Internal Turmoil And Conflict With Israel And U.S.</h3>
Iran, which ranks No. 10 on the World Watch List, has ramped up its crackdown on Christians in the country as they are viewed as “enemies of the state” and “agents of the West,” Brown explained.
The Iranian regime has arrested numerous Christians in recent months as it seeks to keep control amid growing tensions. The regime believes that Christians are influenced by the West and, therefore, plotting the overthrow of the government, and recent events have likely made the regime’s crackdown on Christians even harsher. Iran was humiliated in 2025 in its war with Israel and then by the United States, when President Trump ordered the U.S. military to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran is in the midst of massive demonstrations as protesters have taken to the streets, mainly over the regime’s failure to address an economic collapse. Trump has warned that he could take more action against Iran if it massacres protesters. One report indicates that the Iranian government has killed at least 12,000 demonstrators.
<h3>China Continues To Target Christianity</h3>
China dropped from No. 15 on the list in 2025 to No. 17 this year, but the communist country remains brutal toward Christians. In September, the Chinese government began to monitor the online activity of Christians, especially clergymen, more closely.
“This was in continuation to the churches they closed down the previous year — there’s been an increase in that — but now looking to clamp down on some of the online activity of Christians in the area, making it difficult for them to communicate or to worship,” Brown said.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-escalates-persecution-of-christians-with-more-shocking-arrests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> earlier this month that China arrested more prominent church leaders, detaining at least seven Christians affiliated with the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, a city in southwestern China.
Brown said that people in China also face persecution from their local communities when they convert to Christianity, adding that many converts lose out on job or school opportunities, while some get their water or electricity cut off.
See the full list, and read a detailed report on each country in this year&#8217;s list <a href="https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/persecution/countries/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Suicide Bombing Targets Church In Damascus, Leaving 20 Dead And Dozens Injured

2026 Watch List Reveals Biggest Increases In Christian Persecution Across The Globe

Christian Persecution

Christianity

Iran

Islam

Nigeria

Syria

The world today stands at a historical turning point.
Over the past two decades, the West has shown unmistakable signs of decline. Internally, it has lost confidence, been corroded by left-wing Marxist ideology, and been overwhelmed by massive illegal migration. Externally, a new “Axis of Evil” is ascendant, the anti-American alliance of repressive regimes including China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea.
President Donald Trump understands the threat of this alliance — and China in particular — more than his predecessors ever did. And he realizes China cannot be defeated in isolation. It must be strategically surrounded, economically strained, and stripped of its allies.
Armed with this understanding, Trump has moved with speed and clarity so far in his second term. Upon returning to office, Trump reignited the tariff war against China, deliberately targeting Beijing at a moment of extreme vulnerability, after Xi Jinping’s draconian COVID policies had already crippled China’s economy.
Then came decisive blows against China’s key partners.
In late June, Trump authorized the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities. In September, the U.S. military began striking narco-terrorist vessels operating out of Venezuela. This campaign culminated in the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026, shattering China’s and Russia’s primary foothold in Latin America.
The effects were immediate and dramatic. Thousands of Venezuelan political prisoners were released, achieving in days what decades of U.N. resolutions and human-rights advocacy had failed to accomplish. At the same time, widespread anti-regime protests that erupted in Iran in late December began to intensify.
Reports have emerged that Iranian demonstrators openly appealed to Trump for help. Trump publicly expressed support for the protesters, telling them, “help is on the way,” and warning Iranian leaders, “you better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”
Beijing is watching with horror, knowing the same could one day happen in China. What we are witnessing is the rapid unraveling of the New Axis of Evil.
For the Chinese Communist Party, unrest in Iran and regime collapse in Venezuela represent strategic disasters. China is losing key partners, critical energy access, and geopolitical leverage — along with up to $100 billion in Venezuelan investments that are now effectively unrecoverable. Worse, these crises expose Beijing’s inability to protect or stabilize its allied dictatorships.
The dominoes do not stop there. Without Venezuelan oil subsidies, Cuba — the longest-lasting communist regime in the Western Hemisphere — cannot survive. North Korea, effectively a CCP client state, faces an even grimmer future as China’s own economy deteriorates. Russia, the last major pillar of this bloc, is bogged down in its costly war in Ukraine and increasingly dependent on Chinese economic lifelines — lifelines that are themselves fraying.
After the Maduro capture, the American Left condemned Trump for violating international law. They fail to grasp a fundamental reality: international law has already collapsed. The greatest rule-breaker is Communist China, which violated nearly every international rule and norm on its path to superpower status. Trump does not seek to restrain rule-breakers with fantasies. He seeks to dismantle the ecosystems that sustain them.
This is the essence of the Trump Doctrine: sever the links that allow repressive regimes to support one another, clear hostile powers out of America’s strategic backyard, and prevent regional conflicts from metastasizing into global catastrophe. From Latin America to the Arctic, Trump has moved to block Chinese and Russian encroachment — including openly asserting American strategic interests in Greenland, which Beijing and Moscow had already penetrated while Denmark stood idle.
And the president is just getting started. Days into the new year, Trump proposed the creation of a “Dream Military,” calling for a 2027 defense budget of $1.5 trillion — an increase of more than 66%.
By raising the military and technological bar across the board, the United States forces China into an impossible choice: fall further behind, or attempt to keep pace and cripple itself through runaway military spending, technological isolation, and economic slowdown. The Soviet Union faced this very dilemma — and collapsed.
Trump does not need to defeat the CCP in battle. He only needs to force it into a competition it cannot afford.
And that is how empires fall. From within.
Xi Van Fleet and Yu Jie are authors of the forthcoming book “Made in America: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Enabled Communist China and Created Our Greatest Threat.”
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The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
READ MORE:
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-lived-in-the-communist-world-zohran-mamdani-dreams-of-its-worse-than-you-could-imagine?author=Xi+Van+Fleet&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=I+Lived+In+The+Communist+World+Zohran+Mamdani+Dreams+Of.+It%E2%80%99s+Worse+Than+You+Could+Imagine.">I Lived In The Communist World Zohran Mamdani Dreams Of. It’s Worse Than You Could Imagine.</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/license-to-kill-what-turns-normal-people-to-political-violence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Maoists, Part I: License To Kill: What Turns Normal People To Political Violence?</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-wheel-of-misfortune-victims-victimhood-and-victimization?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Xi+Van+Fleet+and+Sasha+Gong&amp;category=Opinion&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=The+Wheel+Of+Misfortune%3A+Victims%2C+Victimhood%2C+And+Victimization" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Maoists, Part II: The Wheel Of Misfortune: Victims, Victimhood, And Victimization</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/from-red-guard-to-blue-hair-why-leftists-destroy-womanhood?author=Xi+Van+Fleet+and+Sasha+Gong&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=From+Red+Guard+To+Blue+Hair%3A+Why+Leftists+Destroy+Womanhood" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Maoists, Part III: From Red Guard To Blue Hair: Why Leftists Destroy Womanhood</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/proletarian-profanity-like-communists-democrats-want-to-trap-voters-in-a-linguistic-ghetto" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Maoists, Part IV: Proletarian Profanity: Why Democrats Want To Trap Voters In A Linguistic Ghetto</a>
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/erasing-history-the-real-cultural-marxism?author=Xi+Van+Fleet+and+Sasha+Gong&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Erasing+History%3A+The+Real+Cultural+Marxism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Maoists, Part V: Erasing History: The Real Cultural Marxism</a></h4>
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Donald Trump/Xi Jinping

How Trump Can Defeat China Without Firing A Single Shot

Venezuela

Europe’s weakness is no longer just Europe’s problem; it is the West’s crisis. For decades, the continent has drifted into complacency, retreating from free markets, hollowing out its militaries, and outsourcing its security to Washington. What began as integration hardened into dependency. The result is a Europe that is economically stagnant, strategically vulnerable, and increasingly unsure of its own identity.
President Trump’s recently released National Security Strategy and the National Defense Authorization Act are the first major American documents in a generation that speak to Europe not as a ward, but as an adult. They state, in effect, that the West cannot survive if its largest democratic bloc insists on remaining structurally weak. America will not abandon Europe, but it will no longer indulge Europe’s illusions. The ball is now in Europe’s court.
Trump’s statecraft is often misdescribed as improvisation. In reality, a Trump Doctrine of strategic sovereignty has emerged. Its core is simple: no nation is entitled to protection from the United States unless it actively contributes to collective security; coalitions are built on shared interests and values, not on inertia; and the West is worth preserving. Once the United States and Europe shared these beliefs, and their alliance was strong on this basis.
This abandons the fantasy of a self-enforcing “rules-based order.” Russia’s attack on Georgia or Ukraine, and other similar powers’ attacks on other weaker countries, have repeatedly shown that there is no universally accepted rules-based order. The simple, stubborn fact is that order is made and maintained by sovereign states that possess power, will, and clarity of purpose. Trump’s approach replaces the old habit of open-ended guarantees with a “balance of sovereigns”: the United States will remain the preeminent Western power, but its allies must become genuine pillars, not permanent dependents, to keep the balance of power in the West and keep at bay geopolitical adversaries that understand solely strength.
Trump has already done more to weaken the Russia-China-Iran-North Korea axis than his predecessor. Trump’s pressure on Moscow has been more consequential than Joe Biden’s. By pushing NATO allies to raise defense spending, by imposing secondary measures that hit Russian oil revenues, and by brokering peace in the Caucasus, Trump has constrained Russia’s maneuvering space.
Iran, once emboldened by Western appeasement, is now reeling. Israeli and American strikes have gutted its nuclear and military infrastructure. Combined with the Abraham Accords and the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement, the Middle East has been reshaped in ways that keep Russia out and leave Tehran increasingly isolated. Iran’s proxies are weakened, its economy strangled, and its strategic depth reduced.
The updated Monroe Doctrine has likewise kept China out of the Western Hemisphere. Beijing’s attempts to buy strategic assets and political influence in Latin America have been blocked or rolled back, while Venezuela’s dictator is now under arrest, with his regime destabilized. Trump’s declarations about the Panama Canal and Greenland should be seen as part of this larger doctrine.
Taken together, these moves have fractured the “unholy alliance” of America’s adversaries. Europe should take note: Trump has shown that strength and clarity can weaken adversaries far more effectively than platitudes and half-measures. The United States is doing its part to reshape the global balance. The question is whether Europe will do its part to reshape itself.
Security begins with production. Europe’s retreat from free-market dynamism has hollowed out its competitiveness. While Trump has pursued reindustrialization, deregulation, near-shoring, and energy abundance in the United States, Europe has doubled down on regulatory maximalism and green utopianism — policies that have driven factories, capital, and talent elsewhere.
A continent that once powered the Industrial Revolution now tries to regulate its way into relevance. High taxes, rigid labor markets, and hostility to conventional and nuclear energy have produced dependence on Russian gas, Chinese supply chains, and American defense spending. There is no single European entity in the top 10 biggest companies, startups, or AI firms, because the European instinct has become “regulate before even creating”. 
Real recovery will not come from new Brussels programs, but from unleashing the energy and initiative of millions of individuals and families who are now trapped under layers of taxation, bureaucracy, and paternalism. Europe does not lack talent; it lacks permission to use it.
Trump’s doctrine treats Europe’s stagnation not as an internal matter, but as a strategic liability. Economic weakness means underfunded militaries, brittle societies, and a politics increasingly tempted by accommodation with authoritarian suppliers of energy and credit. A Europe that cannot sustain industry will not sustain deterrence.
If Europe wants to be something other than a museum of past greatness, it must rediscover growth: lower and simpler taxes, domestic energy, and a serious commitment to frontier technologies. Otherwise, the center of gravity of the democratic world will keep shifting from the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific, not by American design but by European default.
Trump’s strategy does something European elites have avoided for years: it links power to identity. It speaks of restoring the West’s “civilizational self-confidence” and calls on the nations of the free world to defend their histories, cultures, and borders.
This is not nostalgia. It is strategic clarity. A society that doubts its right to exist cannot project power. A civilization that treats its past as a moral burden will not endure the costs of defense, child-rearing, or long-term investment.
For too long, influential European institutions have treated national identity as suspect, the family as optional, borders as administrative details, and free speech as a negotiable privilege. The result is fragmentation: uncontrolled migration, parallel societies, and cultural self-censorship. In such a context, phrases like “strategic autonomy” are empty. Autonomy presupposes cohesion. 
Trump’s message is that the West is not an NGO; it is a civilization. The President does not seek American domination of Europe. He seeks equilibrium. America First does not mean America Alone; it means an America strong enough to lead, partnered with European allies strong enough to matter. For Europe, that means three things: (a) Rearmament as an act of self-respect, not of deference to Washington. A Europe that cannot field serious forces from the Baltic to the Mediterranean is not “pacifist”; it is strategically unserious. (b) Reindustrialization and energy realism. A continent that shuts down reliable power without viable alternatives, and that drives industry offshore, will find its foreign policy constrained by whoever keeps its lights on. (c) Civilizational recovery. Europe must stop apologizing for its existence. Its nations, cultures and Judeo-Christian roots are not obstacles to the future; they are the only basis on which a free future can be built.
Trump has laid out a doctrine that treats Europe not as a client but as a potential equal. The question is whether Europe will seize this moment or shrink from it.  The United States has made its choice: strength, sovereignty, and renewed Western leadership. If Europe fails to rise, the West will fall, not because America abandoned it, but because Europe abandoned itself.
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<div class="p-rich_text_section">Nikola Kedhi is the Executive Director of the Albanian Conservative Institute and a contributor to various media such as the Daily Wire, Fox News, Newsweek, the Daily Signal, Newsmax, and others. Kedhi is also a co-author of the Constitution of Conservative Values, the official Doctrine of the Democratic Party of Albania. He can be reached on Twitter: @nikedhi95 and on his Substack.</div>
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The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

European Leaders Join Ukrainian President Zelensky For White House Meeting With Trump

President Trump Is Right, The West Cannot Survive On European Weakness

Energy

Europe

European Union

Foreign Policy

NATO

President Trump

White House

The Trump administration has officially pulled back the curtain on the staggering amount of foreign influence-buying occurring on American college campuses. This week, the Department of Education launched a new transparency portal — <a href="https://www.foreignfundinghighered.gov/">foreignfundinghighered.gov</a> — revealing that adversarial and &#8220;illiberal&#8221; regimes have funneled billions into the very institutions currently serving as ground zero for anti-American and anti-Israel radicalism.
The data is damning. China, including Hong Kong, has pumped nearly $6 billion into U.S. higher education, targeting elite institutions like Harvard, New York University, and Stanford. <a href="https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/media/press-releases/transfer-portal-news-china-s-money">According</a> to House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, this isn&#8217;t philanthropy — it’s a calculated effort to &#8220;transfer critical research, influence, and academic talent&#8221; to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
While the Trump administration is now prioritizing enforcement, the report highlights a catastrophic lapse under the previous administration. Data has revealed that foreign donations surged during the Biden years, with the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) noting that the &#8220;floodgates opened,&#8221; creating what experts call a &#8220;national security crisis.&#8221;
Furthermore, the scale of the deception is massive. While the portal lists billions in disclosed funds, previous reports suggest that hundreds of universities have illegally withheld information on an estimated $13 billion in additional contributions.
It is no coincidence that the universities receiving the most cash from hostile actors are the same ones currently exploding with antisemitic protests and &#8220;illiberal&#8221; faculty agendas.
<ul style="font-weight: 400;">
<li>Qatar, a nation that harbored Hamas leadership, remains the top contributor with over $6.5 billion in total funding.</li>
<li>Cornell University alone took $2.3 billion from the Qatari regime.</li>
<li>Northwestern and Texas A&amp;M have also raked in hundreds of millions from the Middle Eastern state.</li>
</ul>
President Donald Trump issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/transparency-regarding-foreign-influence-at-american-universities/">executive order</a> in April 2025 that required institutions of higher education to “report significant sources of foreign funding,” while noting, “But, because section 117 has not been robustly enforced, the true amounts, sources, and purposes of foreign money flowing to American campuses are unknown. From 2010 to 2016, according to one study, universities failed to disclose more than half of reportable foreign gifts. Even when foreign funding is reported, its true sources are often hidden.”
Trump pointed out that during his first term, “the Department of Education opened investigations on 19 campuses from 2019-2021, which led universities to report $6.5 billion in previously undisclosed foreign funds. Yet the prior administration undid this work, moving the Department of Education’s specialized investigatory work on foreign funds to a unit ill-equipped to perform it, undermining investigations, and hindering public access to information on foreign gifts and contracts.”

Man hold stack of US dollars.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Trump Administration Exposes Billions In Foreign Funds Going To Woke Universities

American Universities

Qatar

The Chinese Communist Party has escalated its persecution of Christians by arresting more prominent church leaders and putting them in detention centers, The Daily Wire has learned.
At least seven Christians affiliated with the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, a city in southwestern China, were arrested on Tuesday, according to the church. The arrests began in the early morning and continued until evening.
Early Rain Covenant Church is a prominent evangelical Presbyterian church that has earned the ire of the Communist Party for being part of China&#8217;s underground church movement. The arrests of the Early Rain members come just a few months after the Chinese government <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daughter-of-detained-pastor-warns-of-a-coming-wave-of-christian-persecution-in-communist-china">rounded up</a> prominent leaders at Zion Church, another well-known underground church.
Those arrested included Li Yingqiang, an elder at the church whose home in Deyang was searched, and preacher Dai Zhichao. Dai was arrested at the church office after being told by authorities he was not allowed to leave his home, according to the church.
“At around 11:00 a.m. on January 6, he was taken under control at the church office, then brought to his home where it was searched, after which he went out of contact. It has now been confirmed that he is at the Jinniu District Case-Handling Center,” a message from Early Rain said.
Others who were taken by authorities included elder Yan Hong, preacher Wu Wuqing, the family of Ye Fenghua, and deacon Zeng Qingtao.
A woman named Shu Qiong was also taken by police and charged with “suspected provocation and police disturbance,” according to a source familiar with the arrests. A photo obtained by The Daily Wire shows the police showing up at her home.
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One of those arrested was able to return home on Tuesday, according to the church. The church is currently locating lawyers for those arrested.
At the same time, police targeted the Early Rain Academy, a school operated by the church.
“The academy immediately organized teachers and students to evacuate and leave the site. Subsequently, the owner of the teaching site was summoned to the police station and pressured, and was informed that all items must be removed from the site by Friday,” the church said in a release.
The CCP’s targeting of Early Rain stretches back to 2018 when it began arresting prominent leaders, including Pastor Wang Yi. Wang was convicted in 2019 of subverting the government and sentenced to nine years in prison. While still imprisoned, he was just awarded a Democracy Service Medal by the National Endowment for Democracy.
Corey Jackson, who heads up the advocacy organization Luke Alliance, said the arrests were part of a broader pattern of targeting of unregistered churches. He said in recent months that more pastors were being brought into local police offices for “tea times” and told that they must register with the state or face harsh treatment.
“One person reported that they had been told by the domestic security police that churches, ‘house churches,’ are going to face complete prohibition. Participants will face imprisonment, and there&#8217;s going to be less pattern of warning, fines, and leeway,” Jackson told The Daily Wire.
Jackson said that the government really wants to exert more control over the churches, and make them register any online services they have before meeting. He also said the government doesn’t want parents educating kids in their faith if they are below the age of 18.
Jackson added that he would like to see the Trump administration put some pressure on China over their repression of Christianity.
“We need to apply pressure on China with human rights,” he said. “We must continue not to just be transactional in our approach with China, but to also recognize that China is the one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world.&#8221;

MixCollage-06-Jan-2026-07-47-PM-6588

China Escalates Persecution Of Christians With More Shocking Arrests

Global Politics

Religion

Religious Liberty

Trump Administration

2026 is the year of clarity. All the veils are going to fall. People are going to show you who they are.
That can be frightening. Sometimes it&#8217;s difficult to deal with the realities of life, the realities of people you once trusted, showing themselves to be something else. It can also be surprising and heartening because sometimes people show themselves to be a lot better than you thought they were.
But this year, events in the United States and the world more broadly are going to unmask nearly everyone.
Why?
Because we are on the precipice of something pretty big. And when big things happen, when the world becomes more chaotic, people reveal themselves. Adversity reveals character.
And we&#8217;re about to experience some adversity as Americans.
Where will that adversity come from? It could come from the international sphere. Adversity may spring from China&#8217;s authoritarian ambitions against Taiwan, or its global desire to expand power bases from Africa to Latin America. Already, we&#8217;ve seen some politicians and commentators shying away from revealing the realities about China, fearful that doing so could undercut their delusional vision of a world in which America in retreat is somehow good rather than harmful.
Adversity could arise from the continued conflict between Russia and Ukraine, or from Russia&#8217;s growing ambitions in the region as well as globally. Many figures are already revealing themselves in their views of Russia, often evidencing shocking blindness toward what Russia is, what Russia wants, up to and including full-scale propagandizing on behalf of a tyrannical regime steeped in hatred toward the values of the United States.
Adversity could come from Iran&#8217;s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons and international terrorism, or its desperate desire to stave off internal regime change, or from its propaganda arms in Qatar and elsewhere, pushing anti-Western, anti-American bull****.
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Many politicians and commentators are already showing themselves willing to do anything and everything on behalf of such regimes, up to and including flying cover for radical Islam.
Adversity might emanate from chaos in our southern hemisphere — where rogue states like Venezuela were pursuing deeper relations with our enemies until President Trump acted — or from Europe, where unchecked immigration combined with regulatory overreach threatens to doom an entire continent to stagnation and disarray.
It could come from any other variety of sources on the foreign front.
The world is a chaotic place. It&#8217;s a more chaotic place when America is weak, as many on the Left and the Right wish to make it.
Adversity could arise domestically, too. Adversity may come in the form of economic turmoil. While the economy right now appears to be in pretty good shape, no one knows how the current AI investment cycle will play out in the short term.
And economic turmoil brings with it political vultures. Already, we&#8217;ve seen some conservatives turning away from the defense of free markets in favor of statism. That seems more familiar from the Left, and we see leftists embracing the most extreme versions of wealth seizure and collectivist centralization.
Adversity will certainly originate in the size and scope of our massive and bureaucratic government, which provides extraordinary obstacles to American achievement and overwhelming support to people who are willing to steal from their fellow Americans.
Adversity will certainly come, too, in the form of reactionary posturing. Lies told by the Left will be mirrored in lies told by the Right and vice versa, resulting in a continued spiral of conspiratorial polarization, totally disconnected from the actual lives of most Americans. Already, we&#8217;ve seen cynical politicians and morally corrupt commentators spew untruths in pursuit of algorithmic momentum, and that is definitely going to accelerate this year.
Politicians and commentators reveal themselves in how they react to adversity. Do they react by telling you the truth, no matter how much their audience might dislike it? Or do they lie to you by telling you the things they think you want to hear? Do they react out of principle or out of convenience? Do they recommend coalition solidarity at the expense of basic decency, integrity, and truth?
In other words, do they treat you like a sucker or do they treat you like a citizen?
Of course, it&#8217;s an election year, and that means that we&#8217;re going to be swamped by lies and prevarication, by a lot of politicians who promise the moon and deliver nothing. We&#8217;ll be swamped, too, by commentators who suggest that political failure results from a general lack of Nietzschean will, rather than the complicated give and take of normal day-to-day politics. And they will argue that if you get more outraged, conspiratorial, and angry, somehow our politics will improve.
How will we Americans react to that adversity, that onslaught of cultivated resentment and Machiavellian manipulation?
The American republic is founded, on the one hand, in a fundamental supposition that human beings are capable of discernment, of acting morally when faced with adversity, of preferring truth to comforting falsehood, and of recognizing our own fallibility.
On the other hand, the American republic is also founded on the reality of the darker side of human nature — our tribalism, our venality, our selfishness.
All of which, when put together, is why our Founders preferred a republic of checks and balances rather than a Francoist dictatorship or a purer democracy.
It&#8217;s why James Madison wrote in Federalist 51:
<blockquote>Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? 
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.</blockquote>
In the end, it&#8217;s up to us. We have to become better at discernment. We have to act with humility.
We, the American people, must discern who is telling us the truth, even when we don&#8217;t want to hear it, and who is lying to us out of audience capture or political expediency or sycophancy. We have to work to preserve the checks and balances of our system, even checks and balances that might seem to deprive us of temporary power.
If we don&#8217;t, we risk an authoritarian centralization that turns against basic freedom. What&#8217;s more, we risk an arrogance about our own nature that surely turns to disaster, even if our side seems to have that temporary upper hand.
Most of all, we have to remember this: People who promise utopia, an end to adversity, an end to the chaos and turmoil of life, so long as you give them your trust and your power, are providing you a Faustian bargain in which you receive neither utopia nor freedom.
Those who tell you that your future is not in your hands, and who encourage you to surrender whatever is left of that future to a demoralizing conspiracism, are lying to you, and they are lying to you for their own gain.
You deserve better than that. We all deserve better than that.
So let 2026 be a year of clarity.
Let people reveal themselves for who they are and believe them when they show you.
And may we all approach the adversities of whatever comes our way with the courage, conviction, and decency that make America truly great.

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2026: The Year Of Clarity

Nicolas Maduro

Opinion

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