China is essentially quarantining Wuhan, a city of more than 11 million people, in response to up to 4,000 people that have been exposed to a mutating Coronavirus that has killed at least 17 people.
&#8220;To combat the spread of the virus, which first appeared at the end of December and has killed at least 17 people and sickened more than 500, the Chinese government said it would cancel planes and trains leaving Wuhan beginning Thursday, and suspend buses, subways and ferries within it,&#8221; The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/world/asia/coronavirus-quarantines-history.html">reported</a>. &#8220;In Beijing, at least 4,000 residents who had been exposed to the virus were kept in isolation, and 300 college students who had had contact with infected people were sequestered in a military camp for two weeks.&#8221;
Experts told The New York Times that a shut down of this scale was unprecedented in human history.
Several cases have been reported outside of China in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand.
&#8220;Chinese health officials said they had ascertained that the virus started in an unsanitary food market that was selling wild and exotic animals for consumption,&#8221; The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/nine-dead-as-chinese-coronavirus-spreads-despite-efforts-to-contain-it/2020/01/22/1eaade72-3c6d-11ea-afe2-090eb37b60b1_story.html">reported</a>. &#8220;Snakes were the most likely cause of the virus, five Chinese scientists concluded in a paper published Wednesday in the Journal of Medical Virology.&#8221;
Tom Inglesby, ­director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins, said, “In past outbreaks, we haven’t seen evidence that large-scale quarantine diminishes spread of disease. It runs the risk of people losing confidence in government. And it places enormous responsibilities on government to make sure that people can continue to get food, basic necessities, medicines.”
This is a breaking news story, refresh the page for updates.

Concern In China As Mystery Virus Spreads

China Quarantines Millions After Thousands Exposed To Mutating Virus That Has Killed Many

China

President Donald Trump responded Wednesday to a radical speech from teen climate alarmist Greta Thunberg, suggesting the activist &#8220;focus&#8221; on nations with rising emissions instead of spending her time bashing the United States.
Trump said at a presser on Wednesday that he did not watch Thunberg&#8217;s speech, though he would have &#8220;loved to,&#8221; while challenging the teen to focus on entire continents and countries producing dramatically rising emissions.
&#8220;Some people put it at a level that is unrealistic, to a point that you can&#8217;t live your lives,&#8221; Trump explained. &#8220;We want to have the cleanest water on earth, we wanna have the cleanest air on earth. Our numbers, as you saw, we had record numbers come out very recently. Our [environmental] numbers are very, very good.&#8221;
&#8220;We have to do something about other continents, we have to do something about other countries,&#8221; POTUS continued. &#8220;When we&#8217;re clean and beautiful and everything is good, but you have another continent where the fumes are rising at levels that you can&#8217;t believe. I think Greta oughta focus on those places.&#8221;
&#8220;We are doing better right now than we&#8217;ve ever done in terms of cleanliness, in terms of numbers,&#8221; Trump emphasized.
&#8220;We have a beautiful ocean called the Pacific Ocean with thousands and thousands of tons of garbage flowing toward us, and that&#8217;s put there by other countries. And I think Greta has to focus on those other countries,&#8221; the president concluded.
As noted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/greta-attacks-u-s-admonishes-world-leaders-i-said-i-wanted-you-to-panic">The Daily Wire</a> on Tuesday, Thunberg ripped President Trump&#8217;s decision to leave the Paris Climate Accord, despite the United States leading the world in CO2 emissions reductions, during her speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“One year ago I came to Davos and told you that our house is on fire,” Thunberg started her radical address. “I said I wanted you to panic. I’ve been warned that telling people to panic about the climate crisis is a very dangerous thing to do. But don’t worry. It’s fine. Trust me, I’ve done this before, and I can assure you it doesn’t lead to anything.&#8221;
“The fact that the U.S.A. is leaving the Paris accord seems to outrage and worry everyone, and it should,” the teen continued. “But the fact that we’re all about to fail the commitments you signed up for in the Paris Agreement doesn’t seem to bother the people in power even the least.”
As noted by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/06/greta-thunberg-says-school-strikes-have-achieved-nothing?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco">The Guardian</a>, “greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 4%” since the Paris Accords were signed, while the U.S.&#8217;s emissions have dropped.
Thunberg typically avoids mentioning China when offering her screeds against world leaders on climate change, despite the nation leading in carbon emissions. Notably, the activist has also yet to visit China to give one of her lectures.
“With the world’s largest population and for decades one of the fastest growing economies, China is far and away the world’s top CO2 emitter,” <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/07/14/china-us-countries-that-produce-the-most-co-2-emissions/39548763/">USA Today</a> reported this summer, using data collecting in 2017. “Close to 10,000 million metric tons of CO2 from burning fossil fuel were emitted by the superpower in 2017. On a per capita basis, China’s CO2 emissions of 7.1 metric tons per person trail that of most countries on this list but still rank in the top 50 worldwide.”
“Driving China’s CO2 emissions is the nation’s massive coal production,” the reported added. “China’s generation of electricity from coal has dropped slightly from 75% in 1992 to 70% in 2015. Still, overall coal production has tripled since 2000 to nearly 4,000 million metric tons – approximately half of all global coal production.”
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Trump responds: “Greta should focus on those places” with bad pollution, rising emissions <a href="https://t.co/Jq5bTxEXcw">pic.twitter.com/Jq5bTxEXcw</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1219951746178568194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facebook-glitch-reveals-father-activist-behind-greta-thunbergs-facebook-page-greta-responds">Facebook Glitch Reveals Father, Activist Behind Greta Thunberg’s Facebook Page. Greta Responds.</a>

Greta Thunberg And President Donald Trump

WATCH: Trump Responds To Greta’s Speech Ripping U.S., Advising Leaders To ‘Panic’

Climate Change

Donald Trump

Global Warming

Greta Thunberg

China is facing another deadly epidemic of the virus that lead to the SARS panic in the early 2000s.
The new version of the coronavirus, a type of pathogen that causes a range of illness including the common cold and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has claimed its sixth life in the communist nation, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/21/asia/china-china-coronavirus-sars-intl-hnk/index.html">reported</a>. China now has more than 300 confirmed cases of the virus as of Monday, and The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-coronavirus-kills-third-person-spreads-to-more-cities-11579494221">reported</a> that it has “spread quickly around the country and across Asia, infecting 156 new patients in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other densely-populated cities, and reaching South Korea for the first time—a major escalation in the pneumonia-like disease’s transmission.”
On Monday, China’s state-run media outlet Xinhua News Agency reported that China President Xi Jinping called on authorities to “release outbreak information in a timely manner and deepen international cooperation,” in order to stop the spread of the virus. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, said at a press briefing on Monday that the country has “formulated prevention and control plans, treated patients, monitored their close contacts, conducted epidemiological research and released information in a timely matter,” the Journal reported.
More from the Journal:
<blockquote>Beijing, Shanghai and the southern metropolis of Shenzhen—three of the country’s biggest and most prosperous cities—confirmed a total of 14 patients infected with the pneumonia-causing virus, all of them on Monday, according to state media and local authorities.
South Korean authorities, meantime, said Monday that a 35-year-old Chinese woman who had flown into the country from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak first occurred, had contracted the coronavirus.</blockquote>
Further, the epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, has seen a massive jump in cases – from 62 on Sunday to 198 on Monday. Authorities in the region said 35 of the cases were severe and nine were critical.
On Tuesday, that number increased again by 77, CNN reported, and the country has confirmed that the virus can spread between humans.
“Tour agencies have been banned from taking groups out of Wuhan and the number of thermal monitors and screening areas in public spaces will be increased. Traffic police will also conduct spot checks on private vehicles coming in and out of the city to look for live poultry or wild animals, after the virus was linked to a seafood and live animal market, according to a report by state media outlet the People&#8217;s Daily, citing Wuhan&#8217;s Municipal Health Commission,” the outlet reported.
CNN reported that many now fear it is too late to contain the virus. “Though infections were first detected in Wuhan in mid-December, infrared temperature screening areas were not installed in the city&#8217;s airports and stations until January 14, according to state media.”
Other provinces, including Zhejiang, Tianjin, and Shanghai have also reported an increase in cases as of Tuesday. More from CNN:
<blockquote>The death toll rose to six Tuesday evening, after the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission confirmed that a 66-year-old male and a 48-year-old female died on January 20.
It added that 60 new cases were confirmed by the end of Monday in Wuhan city, where a 15-year-old is the youngest to be infected.</blockquote>

China virus

Remember SARS? New Virus Spreading In China Kills Sixth Person

Health

For years, Google executive Ross LaJeunesse tried to get the mega company to commit to protecting human rights in China.
He was actually tasked with doing just that, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/01/02/top-google-exec-pushed-company-commit-human-rights-then-google-pushed-him-out-he-says/">reported</a> on Thursday. Nearly a decade ago, Google announced that “it would stop censoring search results there to safeguard security and free speech,” the outlet reported. The Post continued:
<blockquote>LaJeunesse took the mission to heart: He later devised a human rights program to formalize Google’s principles supporting free expression and privacy. He began lobbying for it internally in 2017 — around the time when the tech giant was exploring a return to China, in a stark reversal of its 2010 move that made its search engine unavailable there.
Now, the 50-year-old is alleging that Google pushed him out for it in April.</blockquote>
“I didn’t change. Google changed,” LaJeunesse told The Washington Post. “Now when I think about ‘Don’t be evil,’ it’s been relegated to a footnote in the company’s statements.”
Recall that Google’s unofficial motto for years was “Don’t be evil,” but the company removed it from the code of conduct in early 2018.
More from the Post:
<blockquote>Within Google, China was seen as a booming market that represented concerns about the ways technology could be used to suppress free expression or enable surveillance. LaJeunesse modeled his human rights program on the way Google approached privacy and security issues, designing the team of employees, in functions such as supply chain, policy, and ethics and compliance, to help Google integrate, coordinate and prioritize human rights risk assessment.
But his mentor Kent Walker, Google’s powerful chief lawyer and head of policy, bristled at the idea, according to interviews with LaJeunesse and emails and documents viewed by The Post. Walker raised the concern that a formal commitment to human rights could increase Google’s liability, LaJeunesse said.</blockquote>
A spokeswoman for Google told the Post that the company has “an unwavering commitment to supporting human rights organizations and efforts.”
Despite such an alleged commitment, Google worked with the Chinese government to develop a search engine that censored content for citizens and tracked their searches.
The Intercept <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/08/01/google-china-search-engine-censorship/">reported</a> in 2018 that “The search engine, codenamed Dragonfly, was designed for Android devices, and would remove content deemed sensitive by China’s ruling Communist Party regime, such as information about political dissidents, free speech, democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest.”
Search terms like “human rights,” “Nobel prize,” and “student protest” have been censored by the tech company for China.
In addition to censorship concerns, China is also dealing with a massive human rights scandal as the communist nation was forced to admit that it was placing Uyghurs and other Muslim-minorities in concentration camps. China claims they are “educational facilities,” but those who have escaped have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-prisoner-in-one-of-chinas-re-education-camps-speaks-out-torture-and-rape-were-common">told stories</a> of torture, sexual abuse, and human experimentation. One woman said that a prisoner was raped in front of others, and any that responded to the scene were severely punished. She also said prisoners were kept in small rooms with just one pot for a toilet.
Leaked internal Chinese documents <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/internal-chinese-documents-reveal-how-the-country-implemented-its-mass-internment-of-muslims">have also explained</a> how the country interns Muslims.

Google China

A Google Executive Tried To Protect Human Rights In China. He Now Says Google Pushed Him Out For It.

Google

human rights

Communist China, which currently has millions of people locked away in concentration camps, said in state-controlled media this week that the Second Amendment is a &#8220;serious problem&#8221; and that there needs to be &#8220;change&#8221; in how the American public views &#8220;private ownership of guns.&#8221;
The Global Times, which is Chinese state-run media, published the op-ed after a good guy with a gun in Texas <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-footage-emerges-of-good-guy-with-gun-taking-down-attacker-in-seconds">stopped a shooting</a> in a church.
China <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1175147.shtml">mocked</a> the United States, saying that &#8220;shootings are shocking in a US allegedly governed by law&#8221;:
<blockquote>Private gun ownership is a tradition from the early days at the founding of the US. In a modern society, the problems created by this tradition have already exceeded the benefits. &#8230;
American society has already seen serious problems caused by the private ownership of guns, but their massive number has contributed to an enormous inertia. Many interest groups have benefited from it and some ordinary people have truly gained a sense of safety. To change this habit which has lasted hundreds of years, tremendous political courage and a rearrangement of interests is required.
Facts have proved that the US system is unable to handle the intricacies of countless issues around guns including politics, economics, law and order and public psychology. The country can neither manage the safe storage and use of so many guns owned by ordinary people, nor can it establish a new national system that bans or strictly restricts guns. It cannot even form an overwhelming opinion regarding gun issues.</blockquote>
China&#8217;s attack on the Second Amendment comes after Hong Kong protesters have <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/08/hong-kong-protesters-extradition-china-second-amendment-video/">requested</a> to have their own Second Amendment so they can defend themselves from the oppressive communist Chinese government.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-chinas-troubles-mushroom-xi-collects-a-special-title-11577525539">reported</a> on Saturday that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping had received a title that was normally reserved for Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong, who is the most prolific mass murderer in human history:
<blockquote>During a two-day meeting that ended Friday, chaired by Mr. Xi, the party’s 25-member Politburo hailed his policies as visionary and described him as the renmin lingxiu, or “people’s leader,” a designation that directly echoes an accolade most closely associated with Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong.</blockquote>
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) fired back at Xi in a statement that highlighted just a few of the horrifying human rights abuses that communist China is inflicting on its citizens. Sasse <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinese-dictator-xi-jinping-gets-new-title-senator-ben-sasse-responds-with-fiery-statement">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>If Chairman Xi is the “people’s leader,” who are the people? When Chairman Xi talks about “the people,” he doesn’t mean the Uyghurs in torture camps. When Chairman Xi talks about “the people,’ he doesn’t mean the Falun Gong prisoners whose organs are harvested. When Chairman Xi talks about “the people,” he doesn’t mean the baby girls who were left to die under China’s one-child policy. When Chairman Xi talks about “the people,” he means what every communist hack before him has meant: not the people but the communist party.</blockquote>
As The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinese-dictator-xi-jinping-gets-new-title-senator-ben-sasse-responds-with-fiery-statement">highlighted</a>, &#8220;China has been under intense scrutiny as the communist nation has millions of Muslims <a href="https://apnews.com/62097e9dd2844aab8d64a2be2ebaa972">locked</a> in concentration camps, is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-forcefully-harvests-organs-detainees-tribunal-concludes-n1018646">harvesting</a> organs from detainees, and has created a massive surveillance state that it is reportedly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/technology/ecuador-surveillance-cameras-police-government.html">exporting</a> to countries around the world.&#8221;

Communist China: ‘Private Ownership Of Guns’ In U.S. ‘Serious Problem,’ Must ‘Change’

Communism

Gun Control

Guns

Second Amendment

Earlier this year, the people of Hong Kong began protesting China’s interference in their country.
As Adin Blumofe <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/full-story-behind-hong-kong-protests-adin-blumofe">wrote</a> this summer, the “protestors have seen their rights and liberties slowly chipped away by the Chinese government.” When the Chinese Communist Party enacted new legislation that would allow residents of Hong Kong to be extradited to China and tried in mainland courts, citizens could no longer sit idly by.
The protests have been going on ever since. At times, violent clashes between Chinese police and protesters have broken out.
Now, residents of Hong Kong are taking their protest online in the popular video game “Grand Theft Auto V.” CNN Business <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/27/tech/grand-theft-auto-hong-kong-intl-hnk/index.html">reported</a> that players in Hong Kong realized they could dress their characters as protesters, “wearing black clothing, gas masks and yellow safety helmets.” The players who discovered this shared it on a popular Hong Kong forum known as LIHKG. More from CNN:
<blockquote>“While most video games keep the player busy on a predetermined course of action, open-world games allow greater freedom to explore. And it didn&#8217;t take long for Hong Kong gamers to begin mimicking the real-life actions of hardcore protesters by throwing petrol bombs, vandalizing train stations and attacking police within the open world of GTA V.
Mainland Chinese gamers were quick to notice, and several of them subsequently took to the Twitter-like social media platform Weibo to call on other players to defeat their Hong Kong rivals.
Using a<a href="https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/12/asia/hong-kong-6-months-intl-hnk/"> derogatory term</a> adopted by <a href="https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1499200-20191223.htm?spTabChangeable=0">some police officers</a> to refer to protesters, one Weibo user posted: &#8220;Cockroaches expressed their desire to kill GTA and beat us, the war in this game may become more fierce and fierce. Are you ready?&#8221;
Other Weibo users responded by posting screenshots of their characters dressed as riot police and wielding guns, with the posts captioned: &#8220;Ready!&#8221;</blockquote>
Mickey Chang, a Hong Kong player who live-streams on Youtube, told CNN that battles mimicking the real-life protests commenced online, with players acting as protesters throwing petrol bombs at mainland gamers who were acting as riot police. The mainland gamers responded with water cannons and tear gas. Chang told the outlet that the mainland gamers were victorious because they overwhelmed protest players.
Chang also said he enjoyed playing as a protester to “raise awareness” of what was going on between Hong Kong and China.
&#8220;(GTA) is a fun way of engaging people with different viewpoints to discuss, since you can have up to 30 strangers on a server that may not know much about Hong Kong,&#8221; he told CNN.
So far, no one acting as police or protesters have received any sort of punishment from the game’s makers, likely due to the fact that Grand Theft Auto is a game where players can engage in criminal activity without repercussions.
Other gamers have not had such an outlet. In October, Blizzard Entertainment experienced an intense backlash after a Hearthstone player was suspended for publicly supporting Hong Kong protesters after winning a match. He was initially banned from esports competitions for one year and lost his prize money. That punishment was lessened after the backlash and he was able to keep his winnings but was banned for six months.

‘Grand Theft Auto V’ Players In Hong Kong Are Taking Their Protests Online

Hong Kong

video games

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) issued a blistering statement attacking Chinese communist dictator Xi Jinping over a new title that he received that hearkens back to former Chinese communist dictator Mao Zedong – the most murderous human being in history.
&#8220;During a two-day meeting that ended Friday, chaired by Mr. Xi, the party’s 25-member Politburo hailed his policies as visionary and described him as the renmin lingxiu, or &#8216;people’s leader,&#8217; a designation that directly echoes an accolade most closely associated with Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong,&#8221; The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-chinas-troubles-mushroom-xi-collects-a-special-title-11577525539">reported</a>. &#8220;The title doesn’t give Mr. Xi any more authority than he already wields as the party’s general secretary, his most powerful post. But the reverential tones in the Politburo’s pronouncement—issued late Friday by state media—projects an aura of party unity behind Mr. Xi as he confronts wide-ranging economic and political challenges at home and abroad.&#8221;
Sasse issued a statement on Xi&#8217;s new title, writing:
<blockquote>If Chairman Xi is the “people’s leader,” who are the people? When Chairman Xi talks about “the people,” he doesn’t mean the Uyghurs in torture camps. When Chairman Xi talks about “the people,’ he doesn’t mean the Falun Gong prisoners whose organs are harvested. When Chairman Xi talks about “the people,” he doesn’t mean the baby girls who were left to die under China’s one-child policy. When Chairman Xi talks about “the people,” he means what every communist hack before him has meant: not the people but the communist party.</blockquote>
The statement from Sasse also mentioned that the title was &#8220;previously reserved for Mao Zedong.&#8221;
A 2016 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/08/03/giving-historys-greatest-mass-murderer-his-due/">report</a> from The Washington Post highlighted Zedong&#8217;s cemented place in history as the largest mass murderer in world history:
<blockquote>Who was the biggest mass murderer in the history of the world? Most people probably assume that the answer is Adolf Hitler, architect of the Holocaust. Others might guess Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who may indeed have managed to kill even more innocent people than Hitler did, many of them as part of a terror famine that likely took more lives than the Holocaust. But both Hitler and Stalin were outdone by Mao Zedong. From 1958 to 1962, his Great Leap Forward policy led to the deaths of up to 45 million people – easily making it the biggest episode of mass murder ever recorded.</blockquote>
China has been under intense scrutiny as the communist nation has millions of Muslims <a href="https://apnews.com/62097e9dd2844aab8d64a2be2ebaa972">locked</a> in concentration camps, is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-forcefully-harvests-organs-detainees-tribunal-concludes-n1018646">harvesting</a> organs from detainees, and has created a massive surveillance state that it is reportedly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/technology/ecuador-surveillance-cameras-police-government.html">exporting</a> to countries around the world.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a statement on Saturday, tweeting, &#8220;From #Tibet to #Xinjiang, the Chinese Communist Party&#8217;s repressive campaigns are not about combating terrorism. The #CCP is attempting to erase its own citizens’ faiths and cultures. All societies must respect and protect religious freedom.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
From <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tibet?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Tibet</a> to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Xinjiang?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Xinjiang</a>, the Chinese Communist Party&#39;s repressive campaigns are not about combating terrorism. The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CCP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CCP</a> is attempting to erase its own citizens’ faiths and cultures. All societies must respect and protect religious freedom.
&mdash; Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1211037954971512832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Pompeo&#8217;s tweet comes at approximately the same time that a New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/world/asia/china-xinjiang-children-boarding-schools.html">report</a> was published that highlighted how China is targeting children whose parents have been away to concentration camps.
&#8220;Nearly a half million children have been separated from their families and placed in boarding schools so far,&#8221; the Times reported, adding, &#8220;The schools are off limits to outsiders and tightly guarded, and it is difficult to interview residents in Xinjiang without putting them at risk of arrest. But a troubling picture of these institutions emerges from interviews with Uighur parents living in exile and a review of documents published online, including procurement records, government notices, state media reports and the blogs of teachers in the schools.&#8221;

Xi Jinping Ben Sasse

Chinese Dictator Xi Jinping Gets New Title. Senator Ben Sasse Responds With Fiery Statement.

Ben Sasse

Xi Jinping

It turns out that Hollywood&#8217;s catering to China is not exactly paying out the dividends the industry had hoped, with the latest numbers revealing a dismal year in the Chinese box office for Tinseltown.
According to <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/asia/hollywood-2019-setback-china-box-office-1203451505/">Variety</a>, just two Hollywood titles earned slots among the 10 highest-grossing films of 2019, compared to last year&#8217;s five out of 10 titles. Chris Fenton, senior advisor to IDW Media Holdings and a trustee of the U.S.-Asia Institute, bluntly said that Hollywood had its worst year in China in over a decade.
“This has to be the worst performance for Hollywood in <a id="related_article_link_china" href="https://variety.com/2019/film/asia/tencent-maoyan-internet-streaming-1203450745/" data-tag="china">China</a> since 2008,” said Fenton.
Only &#8220;Avengers: Endgame&#8221; and &#8220;Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw&#8221; made the top 10 list in a market that is increasingly slanting toward more homegrown products. Raymond Zhou, a China-based industry consultant, attributed the trend to the “growing maturity of Chinese audiences.”
&#8220;Artisan Gateway data already show the market share of Chinese films rising from 62% in 2018 to 65% in 2019,&#8221; reported Variety. &#8220;That has come largely at the expense of Hollywood titles, which are down to 31% so far this year, compared to 34% last year. The figure could drop below 30% in the final calculation. China can no longer be expected to lap up American duds and act as a box-office safety net for tired franchises, which had been the case in recent years.&#8221;
China has increasingly expanded its creativity into a variety of genres, essentially making the American blockbuster nearly obsolete.
The locally made hits are now coming in a variety of genres, reflecting growing Chinese creativity. Also, as China continues to build more movie theaters beyond the cities, expanding into rural areas where moviegoers are less affluent, foreign titles won&#8217;t have the same market pull as do Chinese titles.
“Forecasts at the beginning of 2019 did not take into account the dark horses such as ‘Nezha,’ which is arguably the best Chinese animation film ever; ‘<a id="related_article_link_the-wandering-earth" href="https://variety.com/2019/film/asia/china-box-office-breaks-all-time-record-cinema-ne-zha-wandering-earth-1203447147/" data-tag="the-wandering-earth">The Wandering Earth</a>,’ which is a milestone for Chinese sci-fi; ‘Better Days,’ the best teenage movie in a long, long time; and even ‘My People, My Country,’ the best anthology film and a government-encouraged [patriotic] film that most resonated with the public,&#8221; said Zhou. &#8220;There is not a single Chinese franchise movie in the year’s top 10 box-office list.&#8221;
“The more screens China builds, the more the public taste will be skewed towards domestic fare, percentage-wise,” he added.
Movie studios have gone to great lengths to appeal to Chinese audiences by presenting the country as a technologically advanced superpower, as in the cases of “The Martian,” “2012,” “Gravity,” and “Looper.” Beyond that, some movies have been subjected to self-censorship, sometimes changing whole plotlines in order to break into the Chinese market.
“When the creators of ‘Pixels’ wanted to show aliens blasting a hole in the Great Wall of China, Sony executives worried that the scene might prevent the 2015 movie’s release in China, leaked studio emails show. They blew up the Taj Mahal instead,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/18/world/asia/china-movies.html">reported</a> The New York Times. “In the 2016 movie ‘Doctor Strange,’ the Ancient One is Celtic, played by the white actress Tilda Swinton. Moviemakers decided to change the character’s ethnicity early in the process, reportedly to avoid offending the Chinese government.”
Controversy over Hollywood&#8217;s capitulation to China <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ted-cruz-lindsey-graham-blast-top-gun-seemingly-paul-bois">reached a fever pitch</a> this year, when it appeared that the movie &#8220;Top Gun: Maverick&#8221; might have edited Tom Cruise&#8217;s iconic patch-laden flight jacket to exclude the Japanese and Taiwanese flags.

CHINA-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-STAR WARS

Hollywood Had A Dismal Year In China, Proving The Chinese Market May Not Be A Cash Cow

Hollywood

On Friday, Iran joined China and Russia to conduct joint naval drills. Iranian flotilla admiral Gholamreza Tahani stated, “The message of this exercise is peace, friendship and lasting security through cooperation and unity&#8230; and its result will be to show that Iran cannot be isolated,” according to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7829979/Russia-China-Iran-begin-unprecedented-joint-naval-exercise-Middle-East.html">The Daily Mail</a>. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/27/asia/china-russia-iran-military-drills-intl-hnk/index.html">CNN</a> reported he also stated that the exercise would cover 17,000 square kilometers and consist of &#8220;various tactical exercises,&#8221; which included target practice and rescuing ships from assaults and fires … Among the objectives of this exercise are improving the security of international maritime trade, countering maritime piracy and terrorism, exchanging information regarding rescue operations and operational and tactical experience.”
The Daily Mail added, “China said on Thursday it was sending a guided missile destroyer to the four-day drills, which it called a &#8216;normal military exchange&#8217; between the three armed forces … Russia&#8217;s Defense Ministry said on Friday it had sent three ships from its Baltic Fleet — a frigate, a tanker and a rescue tug boat — to take part in the drills, Red Star, the official newspaper of Russia&#8217;s armed forces, reported.”
Beijing&#8217;s defense spokesman Wu Qian said, &#8220;The upcoming naval drills are aimed at deepening exchange and cooperation among the navies of the three countries, and displaying the three sides&#8217; strong will and capabilities to jointly maintain world peace and maritime security, while actively building a maritime community with a shared future.”
In August, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation&#8217;s Maritime Administration, Iran upped the ante in its confrontation with the West, tricking oil tankers into thinking Iranian vessels were U.S. and British warships and prompting them to enter Iranian waters, where they could be seized.
The <a href="https://www.maritime.dot.gov/content/2019-012-persian-gulf-strait-hormuz-gulf-oman-arabian-sea-red-sea-threats-commercial-vessels">Maritime Administration’s website</a> stated:
<blockquote>Vessels operating in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, and Gulf of Oman may also encounter GPS interference, bridge-to-bridge communications spoofing, and/or other communications jamming with little to no warning.
Since May 2019, the following maritime incidents have occurred in this region:
Six attacks against commercial vessels; Shoot-down of U.S. Navy remotely piloted aircraft over international waters; Attempted at-sea interdiction of Isle of Man-flagged M/V BRITISH HERITAGE; Seizure of ex-Panama-flagged M/V RIAH; Seizure of U.K.-flagged M/V STENA IMPERO; and Detention and subsequent release of Liberian-flagged M/V MESDAR.
In at least two of these incidents, vessels reported GPS interference. One vessel reportedly shut off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) before it was seized, complicating response efforts. Vessels have also reported spoofed bridge-to-bridge communications from unknown entities falsely claiming to be U.S. or coalition warships.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/07/politics/us-warns-of-iranian-threats-to-shipping/index.html">CNN</a> reported, “A U.S. defense official told CNN that Iran has placed GPS jammers on Iran-controlled Abu Musa Island, which lies in the Persian Gulf close to the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz. The official said that Iran had placed the jammers at that location in an attempt to disrupt civilian aircraft and ship navigation systems, hoping ships or planes will mistakenly wander into Iranian waters or airspace while their GPS systems were not functioning properly, giving Iranian forces the pretext needed to seize them.”

Iran &#8211; Military drills in in the Strait of Hormuz

China, Russia Join Iran To Conduct Naval Drills

Iran

Russia

Amid an ongoing trade war with the Trump administration, China&#8217;s Ministry of Finance made a significant announcement this week that prompted some proud retweets from the president.
&#8220;China will lower import tariffs on over 850 products from January 1,&#8221; reported Reuters in a post Trump promoted Sunday evening.
&#8220;China says it will cut import tariffs for goods including frozen pork, pharmaceuticals, paper products and some high-tech components starting from Jan. 1, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance,&#8221; Bloomberg Economics reported Sunday evening in another post tweeted out by Trump.
&#8220;U.S. president Donald Trump says a &#8216;breakthrough&#8217; has been achieved in trade talks with China and he expects a deal to be signed &#8216;very shortly,'&#8221; reported Sky News in another Trump retweet.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: China says it will cut import tariffs for goods including frozen pork, pharmaceuticals, paper products and some high-tech components starting from Jan. 1, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance <a href="https://t.co/D0cIcHVda1">https://t.co/D0cIcHVda1</a> <a href="https://t.co/ODlcciZjuV">pic.twitter.com/ODlcciZjuV</a>
&mdash; Bloomberg Economics (@economics) <a href="https://twitter.com/economics/status/1208923079734439936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
U.S. president Donald Trump says a &quot;breakthrough&quot; has been achieved in trade talks with China and he expects a deal to be signed &quot;very shortly&quot;
&mdash; Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) <a href="https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak/status/1208520592569372680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
China will lower import tariffs on over 850 products from January 1 <a href="https://t.co/rOyxOnY9QF">https://t.co/rOyxOnY9QF</a> <a href="https://t.co/8xmiyGmiW6">pic.twitter.com/8xmiyGmiW6</a>
&mdash; Reuters (@Reuters) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1208925331446489089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-imports-idUSKBN1YR02Z?taid=5e001b1130ffb60001e67417&amp;utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&amp;utm_medium=trueAnthem&amp;utm_source=twitter">Reuters</a> report highlighted by Trump provides some of the big takeaways from China&#8217;s announcement, which comes amid cooling tensions in the U.S.-China trade war after the two countries announced a &#8220;Phase 1 agreement that would reduce some U.S. tariffs in exchange for more Chinese purchases of American farm products and other goods&#8221;:
<blockquote>Next year, China will implement temporary import tariffs, which are lower than the most-favored-nation tariffs, on more than 850 products, the finance ministry said on Monday. That compared with 706 products that were taxed at temporary rates in 2019.
The tariff changes were made to “increase imports of products facing a relative domestic shortage, or foreign specialty goods for everyday consumption,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-23/china-to-cut-tariffs-on-goods-including-pork-tech-items?utm_content=economics&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&amp;cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-economics">Bloomberg</a> calculates the total value of the <a href="http://gss.mof.gov.cn/gzdt/zhengcefabu/201912/P020191220564315355326.pdf">list of 859 product types</a> for which China is reducing tariffs to be worth &#8220;some $389 billion, or about 18% of China’s total imports of $2.14 trillion.&#8221;
&#8220;China cut import tariffs on a wide range of goods including food and parts for manufacturing smart-phones, continuing Beijing’s drive to spur domestic demand and demonstrating its desire to open its economy as it pursues a trade deal with President Donald Trump,&#8221; Bloomberg reports.
Among the products that will enjoy lower tariffs this year is frozen pork, which Bloomberg notes is intended to help China alleviate shortages after an outbreak of African swine fever.
Bloomberg notes that the reduction of tariffs on the hundreds of products is not directly related to China&#8217;s trade war with the U.S., but &#8220;it suggests the government is willing to embrace commerce more,&#8221; particularly because of its slowing economic  growth.
With its growth predicted to drop to 6% or less next year, China is demonstrating to the world that it is willing to embrace &#8220;freer trade,&#8221; economist Gary Ng told Bloomberg. &#8220;The move in lowering import tariffs reflects that the government wants to reaffirm its stance to the world on freer trade amid the trade war,” said Ng. “Domestically, lowering import tariffs are helpful in reducing business and consumer costs.&#8221;
China&#8217;s announcement comes less than a week after Trump enjoyed another economic win. Within hours of being impeached by the Democrats on entirely partisan lines, apart from a few Democrats joining Republicans in opposition, the House overwhelmingly passed the new Trump-promoted United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) by a vote of 385-41.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-gets-massive-post-impeachment-victory-as-usmca-passes-house">Trump Gets Massive Post-Impeachment Victory As USMCA Passes House</a>

Amid Trump Trade War, China Lowers Import Tariffs On Over 850 Products

Trump Administration

A six-year-old London schoolgirl, opening a box of charity Christmas cards to send them to friends, got a surprise when one of them had a desperate message from a Chinese prison inside it.
As Peter Humphrey of the London Times <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/tesco-charity-cards-packed-by-chinas-prison-slaves-v9psp9fqx">reports</a>, Florence Widdicombe opened a box of Tesco charity Christmas cards only to find a message written inside one that read, “We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organization.”
Humphrey continued:
<blockquote>Florence’s father Ben googled the name, and found a story about a former British journalist who had spent two years in jail in China — at the same Qingpu prison. <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sawdust-burgers-and-borscht-peter-humphreys-christmas-in-a-chinese-prison-7q0rnsrnk">That journalist was me</a>.
On Monday I received a startling message through the LinkedIn business network. It was from Mr Widdicombe, a civil servant specialising in criminal justice, who explained about the card from Qingpu. I was suddenly plunged back to a painful two-year period of my life when I was working in Shanghai as a corporate fraud investigator. My activities upset the Chinese government, which jailed both me and my American wife, Yu Yingzeng, on bogus charges that were never heard in court.</blockquote>
Humphrey noted that he no idea which of any of the prisoners in the prison wrote the note, but he was certain they knew him from his 23-month stint in the prison.
Humphrey wrote that when he discussed the issue with several ex-prisoners from Qingpu prison, some confirmed that prisoners indeed were involved in the manual assembly or packaging tasks dealing with cards. One told Humphrey, “They have been packing Christmas cards for Tesco, and also Tesco gift tags, for at least two years … The foreign prisoners just package the cards. They pick different designs, put them into boxes, seal them and pack them into shipping cartons.”
Ben Widdicombe said it would have been “wrong not to pass it on to its intended recipient. It must have been very risky for those prisoners.&#8221;
Tesco commented, “We abhor the use of prison charity Christmas cards labour and would never allow it in our supply chain. We were shocked by these allegations and immediately suspended the factory where these cards are produced and launched an investigation. We have also withdrawn these cards from sale whilst we investigate. We have a comprehensive auditing system in place and this supplier was independently audited as recently as last month and no evidence was found to suggest they had broken our rule banning the use of prison labor. If a supplier breaches these rules, we will immediately and permanently de-list them.”
Humphrey noted, “In 2012 an American charity worker opened a box of Chinese-made Halloween decorations to find an unsigned letter from an inmate at the Masanjia labour camp in Shenyang, China … In 2017 another Chinese message surfaced in a Christmas charity card sold by Sainsbury’s to Jessica Rigby of Braintree, Essex. Rigby had the Chinese characters translated and was told they read: “Wishing you luck and happiness. Third product Shop, Guangzhou Prison, Number 6 District.”
Kenneth Kennedy, a senior policy adviser for forced labor programs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told Humphrey, “This is an enormous industry in China.”
H/T <a href="https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/12/help-im-being-held-prisoner.php">Powerline</a>

Tesco Christmas card

6-Year-Old British Girl Opens Box Of Christmas Cards. One Has Desperate Message Inside From Chinese Prison.

Border patrol agents seized three shipments of fake NFL, MLB, and NHL, championship rings that were being delivered from China.
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/china-fake-nfl-mlb-nhl-championship-rings-seized">reported</a> that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers intercepted the shipments and seized a total of 631 replica rings between October 2018 and 2019. The fake rings included replicas of New England Patriots Super Bowl rings and fake World Series rings for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals.
(Note: The ring pictured above is not fake.)
“If authentic, the total rings would have been valued at more than $6,300,000,” Fox reported. “All the packages containing the fake sports memorabilia had been shipped from China and were heading to various U.S. addresses, according to the CBP. The poor packaging and craftsmanship of the merchandise tipped off the officers, who later determined the rings were fakes.”
Michael Neipert, Port Director for CBP Memphis, told the outlet that seizing counterfeit goods is another aspect of the CBP’s responsibilities.
“One of CBP’s responsibilities is to protect Intellectual Property Rights. Our officers do a great job of detecting and seizing counterfeit goods,” he said.
As Fox reported, these are simply the most recent seizures of counterfeit sports memorabilia intercepted from China.
In November, the Philadelphia CBP <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/cbp-seizes-counterfeit-super-bowl-world-series-rings">seized 11 counterfeit championship rings</a>, including nine New England Patriots Super Bowl rings, one New York Yankees World Series ring, and a Houston Astros World Series ring. If the rings had been real, they would have been worth a total of $526,000.
CBP told Fox News at the time that the rings were being shipped in a $14 “box” to Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, “of all places.”
“Scammers and transnational criminal organizations take advantage of collectors and sports fans who desire to obtain a piece of sports history to line their pockets with illicit financial gains,” Casey Durst, CBP’s Baltimore field office director of field operations, told Fox.
“Customs and Border Protection will continue to work closely with our trade and consumer safety partners to intercept counterfeit consumer goods that can harm American consumers and our nation’s economy, and steal revenue and brand integrity from U.S. businesses and trademark holders,&#8221; Durst added.
Fox reported that “officers worked with the agency&#8217;s trade experts, the CBP&#8217;s Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Centers for Excellence and Expertise, along with league and team trademark holders in order to verify that the rings were fake, CPB said.&#8221;
The biggest shipment of fake sports memorabilia in recent memory came in March, when CBP officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York seized 177 fake championship rings that would have been worth a whopping $11.7 million if they had been real.
“The seized rings were infringing on the Major League Baseball (MLB), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) trademarks,” CBP <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/fake-sports-rings-seized-cbp">told Fox</a> at the time.

Superbowl ring

Border Patrol Seizes Hundreds Of Fake NFL, MLB, NHL Championship Rings From China

Sports

The much-coveted Chinese box office, the cash cow so rich that movie studios would rather censor their own products than risk alienating, will be no deus ex machina for &#8220;Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker&#8221; this weekend.
According to <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-flops-debut-china-1203449672/">Variety</a>, the latest Disney installment in the mega-franchise is now on course to have its weakest opening weekend in China despite an expected global box office haul of $170 million to $200 million in North America.
&#8220;On Friday, in its first official sessions in Chinese theaters, the film was barely crawling,&#8221; reported the outlet. &#8220;By 8.00 p.m. local time, &#8216;The Rise of Skywalker&#8217; had earned just $2.2 million (RMB15.4 million), according to multiple data tracking services. It stood in fourth place behind three Chinese titles.&#8221;
The number one opening slot in the Chinese box office will go to “Ip Man 4: The Finale” with a strong showing of $10.3 million, followed by the crime thriller “Sheep Without A Shepherd” and the New Zealand romance “Only Cloud Knows.&#8221;
&#8220;The 5.30pm figure for &#8216;Rise of Skywalker&#8217; produces a running total of $5.85 million that includes a full day of previews on Wednesday, and midnight screenings on Thursday evening,&#8221; continued Variety. &#8220;That wimpish performance gives online ticketing agency Maoyan reason to forecast a lifetime <a id="auto-tag_box-office" href="https://variety.com/t/box-office/" data-tag="box-office">box office</a> of just $18 million (RMB125 million) for &#8216;Rise of Skywalker.'&#8221;
Compare those numbers with 2016&#8217;s &#8220;The Force Awakens,&#8221; which pulled $52.3 million on its opening weekend and a box office total of $126 million. From there, the franchise only declined in value, with &#8220;Rogue One&#8221; pulling in a box office total of $69.4 million and &#8220;The Last Jedi&#8221; petering out with just $42.6 million. No matter how one slices it, the &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; franchise has completely lost traction in the Chinese market.
According to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/star-wars-first-night-box-office">Fox News</a>, however, current tracking shows that &#8220;The Rise of Skywalker&#8221; is already performing below its predecessors in the North American box office.
&#8220;&#8216;The Rise of Skywalker&#8217; brought in an estimated $40 million in North America in its Thursday night previews, the fifth-biggest Thursday opening ever,&#8221; the outlet reported. The first film, &#8216;Star Wars: The Force Awakens,&#8217; earned $57 million its Thursday night previews in 2015, at the time the biggest of all time. The second film in the trilogy, &#8216;Star Wars: The Last Jedi,&#8217; had a $45 million tally on its opening Thursday night in 2017.&#8221;
Currently, the film holds a tepid rating of <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_the_rise_of_skywalker/">58% on Rotten Tomatoes</a> with <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527338/">an IMDB score of 6.9</a>. The big question on everyone&#8217;s mind is if the negative reviews mean this is just another case of the critics being out of touch with fans since the current RT audience score stands at a solid 86%.
While some critics, such as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/12/18/review-disney-and-lucasfilms-star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-is-a-terrible-end-to-the-skywalker-saga/#3f92c1d2113c">Scott Mendelson of Forbes</a>, clearly showed some level of political bias by knocking the movie for undoing the more politically-correct parts of &#8220;The Last Jedi&#8221; in the name of fan service, other critics, such as <a href="http://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker">James Berardinelli of Reviews</a>, just straight up found the movie to be an incoherent mess &#8212; the kind of unfortunate event that occurs when a corporation values money over great storytelling.
&#8220;Taken together, &#8216;<a href="http://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/star-wars-the-force-awakens">The Force Awakens</a>,&#8217; &#8216;<a href="http://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/star-wars-the-last-jedi">The Last Jedi</a>, and &#8216;The Rise of Skywalker&#8217; are representative of what happens when money – not a creative impulse – becomes paramount in franchise-building. Rather than extend and expand a universe, these movies have diminished it,&#8221; wrote Berardinelli.

‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’ Flops In China

Star Wars

A second Chinese national, again a woman, was arrested trying to trespass on President Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;southern White House,&#8221; his Mar-a-Lago estate and social club, <a href="https://apnews.com/0916e9ddb93cb50d9366bcfc545a1bc2">according to the Associated Press</a>.
&#8220;Jing Lu, 56, was confronted by the private club’s security officers and told to leave, but she returned to take photos, Palm Beach police spokesman Michael Ogrodnick said in an email. Palm Beach officers were called and arrested her. It was determined she had an expired visa, Ogrodnick said,&#8221; the AP reported.
Lu spent the night in the Palm Beach County jail, the AP adds, before being charged with a host of crimes including &#8220;loitering and prowling.&#8221; The outlet did not specify whether Lu&#8217;s camera and photos were confiscated, but photos are allowed inside Mar-a-Lago.
The Trumps are planning to spend Christmas at Mar-a-Lago, but won&#8217;t leave the White House in Washington, D.C. until early Christmas morning, according to the president&#8217;s official calendar.
This is at least the second time this year that a Chinese national has been caught trying to sneak into Mar-a-Lago, though this time the Chinese national in question wasn&#8217;t nearly as prepared. Back in March, Mar-a-Lago security intercepted a Chinese woman, later identified as 33-year-old Yujing Zhang, as she tried to make her way through the club to the pool area, carrying a laptop and several phones and flash drives.
At the time, the Secret Service was present on the estate because the Trump family was spending a holiday in Florida. And although Zhang was clearly outfitted with the right equipment to spy on the American President, she was, the AP says, a tourist and fan of the president who ducked off an organized tour to seek out the President.
&#8220;Zhang was found guilty in September of trespassing and lying to Secret Service agents and was sentenced last month to time served. She is being held for deportation,&#8221; AP says.
It&#8217;s clearly too early to say whether Wednesday&#8217;s incident involved espionage, but this week, reports did surface indicating that the government believes there has been an uptick in Chinese spying, perhaps because of President Donald Trump&#8217;s more aggressive tone towards the Chinese government on economic and trade matters and, more recently, in support of pro-democracy (and anti-Chinese) protests in Hong Kong.
The report also indicated that the U.S. government recently arrested a group of four Chinese nationals who claimed to be diplomats, trying to sneak onto a secure government facility in Virginia. In that case, the group, which did include two known envoys, said they were trying to see a lighthouse located on a beach near the military installation, but when promoted by military vehicles to stop, ran, leading base security on chase that ended only when the Chinese group was blocked by a fire truck.
Mar-a-Lago, the AP says, makes for an interesting target for foreign nationals looking to gain intelligence on the President. &#8220;Federal agencies spent about $3.4 million per Trump visit, much of it on security, according to an analysis of four 2017 trips by the U.S. Government Accountability Office,&#8221; the outlet reports. &#8220;The Secret Service doesn’t decide who is invited or welcome at the resort; that responsibility belongs to the club. Agents do screen guests outside the perimeter before they’re screened again inside.&#8221;
&nbsp;

Mar-a-Lago

Another Chinese National Arrested For Sneaking Into To Trump&#8217;s Mar-A-Lago Estate

Government officials in China’s Xinjiang province have been destroying documents and data related to its treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities after classified information was leaked and published by The New York Times and other outlets.
The Independent <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-muslim-detention-camps-information-leaks-documents-a9246646.html">reported</a> that “four people in contact with government employees” in Xinjiang told the outlet that in addition to destroying the documents, regional officials also have tightened security around classified information and have been holding “high-level meetings following the leaks.”
“Top officials deliberated how to respond in meetings at the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/chinese-communist-party">Chinese Communist Party</a>&#8216;s regional headquarters in Urumqi, Xinjiang&#8217;s capital, some of the people said,” the outlet reported. “They spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of retribution against themselves, family members and the government workers. The meetings began days after <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html">The New York Times</a> published last month <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/muslim-uighurs-china-detention-leaked-documents-new-york-times-unhealthy-thoughts-a9206216.html">a cache of internal speeches on Xinjiang</a> by top leaders including <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/xi-jinping">Xi Jinping</a>, China&#8217;s president.”
The information leaked to The New York Times <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/internal-chinese-documents-reveal-how-the-country-implemented-its-mass-internment-of-muslims">revealed</a> how China oppresses Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. As The Daily Wire previously reported:
<blockquote>One document obtained by the Times showed a script for Xinjiang authorities to use to answer student questions.
“They’re in a training school set up by the government,” was to be the answer to students asking what had happened to their families. If the student continued to ask questions, authorities were to tell them that while their relatives were not criminals, they couldn’t leave the “schools.”
Authorities would then threaten the students by saying their relatives could be detained longer or shorter depending on the student’s actions.
“I’m sure that you will support them, because this is for their own good and also for your own good,” authorities would say.</blockquote>
The Chinese government neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the documents, but called them a “smear.” The Chinese Communist Party had long denied the mass detention of Muslims in the country, but earlier this year finally acknowledged them, though it claimed they were not “internment camps” but “educational facilities.”
The leaked documents <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/more-leaked-documents-from-china-how-the-country-brainwashes-muslims-in-labor-camps">showed</a>, however, that the camps are anything but “educational facilities,” as a memo sent in 2017 contained the demand that those overseeing the camps must “never allow escapes.” The documents also revealed how “students” see every minute of their lives controlled:
<blockquote>The students should have a fixed bed position, fixed queue position, fixed classroom seat, and fixed station during skills work, and it is strictly forbidden for this to be changed.
Implement behavioural norms and discipline requirements for getting up, roll call, washing, going to the toilet, organising and housekeeping, eating, studying, sleeping, closing the door and so forth.</blockquote>
Those who have escaped the internment camps <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-prisoner-in-one-of-chinas-re-education-camps-speaks-out-torture-and-rape-were-common">have said</a> detainees are routinely raped, tortured, and are even subject to human experimentation. Inmates who react – as any human would – to watching someone raped right in front of them are punished.
Further, China has been accused of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-stages-towns-for-visiting-journalists-and-diplomats-using-stand-ins-with-prepared-answers-to-questions-report-says">staging towns</a> for journalists and diplomats who visit the Xinjiang region, going so far as to pay Muslims to pray at their local mosques. Most Muslims have stopped visiting local mosques for fear they would be detained. Recently, an expert on China <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/expert-china-touts-its-poverty-alleviation-policies-but-theyre-actually-cover-for-forced-labor">explained</a> that much of the internment is done under the guise of “poverty alleviation,” but the communist nation is actually taking people from skilled or well-paying jobs and forcing them into essentially slave labor.

Tiananmen Gate, with portrait of Mao Zedong

Chinese Government Destroying Documents After Leaks Detailed Mass Detention Of Muslims

The United States expelled at least two Chinese diplomats for spying on a U.S. military base, <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-secretly-expelled-chinese-officials-suspected-of-spying-after-breach-of-military-base/ar-AAK8JgO">according to a report from The New York Times</a>, marking the first time the U.S. has taken action to prevent and punish Chinese spying in at least three decades.
The Times reports that the expulsions stem from an incident that took place in September &#8212; an incident that neither the United States nor the Chinese government made public at the time.
Two Chinese officials, one of whom may have been an intelligence expert &#8220;operating under diplomatic cover&#8221; drove onto a military base in Virginia, according to reports, only to be intercepted by military vehicles. The two &#8220;diplomats&#8221; then tried to evade capture, leading military officials on a chase and stopping &#8220;only when fire trucks blocked their path.&#8221;
&#8220;The Chinese officials and their wives drove up to a checkpoint for entry to the base, said people briefed on the episode. A guard, realizing that they did not have permission to enter, told them to go through the gate, turn around and exit the base, which is common procedure in such situations,&#8221; the Times reported. &#8220;But the Chinese officials instead continued on to the base, according to those familiar with the incident. After the fire trucks blocked them, the Chinese officials indicated that they had not understood the guard’s English instructions, and had simply gotten lost, according to people briefed on the matter.&#8221;
The Chinese, it seems, have ramped up efforts to spy on the U.S. military &#8212; or, at least, the Trump Administration seems to believe the Chinese have intensified their intelligence gathering, perhaps in response to President Donald Trump&#8217;s tougher political and economic stances with regard to the Chinese government. The president has been locked in tough trade talks with the Asian powerhouse and, most recently, indicated that he supports pro-democracy (and anti-Chinese interference) efforts in Hong Kong.
&#8220;In recent months, Chinese officials with diplomatic passports have become bolder about showing up unannounced at research or government facilities, American officials said, with the infiltration of the military base only the most remarkable instance,&#8221; according to the Times.
At least one incident did make headlines. In March, a Chinese national was captured by security officers at the president&#8217;s &#8220;southern White House,&#8221; Mar-a-Lago. She told law enforcement she&#8217;d simply gotten lost, but she had a purse full of electronic devices, some of which could have been used to spy on the president or other VIPs visiting the Florida estate. She was sentenced to eight months in prison in November.
In response to the perceived uptick in Chinese intelligence gathering, Trump Administration officials announced stricter rules for Chinese diplomats in October, &#8220;requiring them to provide notice before meeting with local or state officials or visiting educational and research institutions.&#8221;
The United States last booted Chinese officials back in 1987, when a pair of Chinese diplomats serving at the Chinese embassy were discovered to be information gatherers. Others, though, have been punished under the U.S. justice system. &#8220;Last month, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former C.I.A. officer, was sentenced to 19 years in prison, one of several former American intelligence officials sentenced this year for spying for Beijing,&#8221; according to the NYT.
&nbsp;

Chinese flag

Report: U.S. &#8216;Secretly Expelled&#8217; Chinese Diplomats After They Breached A Military Base

One of the United States’ most respected experts on China’s oppression of Muslim minorities says the communist nation’s touted “poverty alleviation” is nothing more than forced labor.
Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington, D.C., recently wrote <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/12/11/cotton-china-uighur-labor-xinjiang-new-slavery/">an article</a> for Foreign Policy detailing how China lies to the international community about how it treats Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, particularly Uyghurs:
<blockquote>Since spring 2017, the Chinese government has placed vast numbers of Turkic minorities into internment camps, which it refers to as “reeducation camps,” in the northwestern Xinjiang region. This March, it claimed that these supposed students would gradually be released into work placements. Data such as this supports this claim, but not in the way that the government is trying to sell it. Rather, it is part of a rapidly growing set of evidence for how Beijing’s long-term strategy to subdue its northwestern minorities is predicated upon a perverse and intrusive combination of coercive labor, intergenerational separation, and complete social control.</blockquote>
As Zenz explains, under China’s poverty alleviation, minority populations are simply taken from their families and their current jobs and placed in “labor-intensive sweatshops,” and labeling this “job training.” More from Zenz:
<blockquote>The irony of placing interned Uighurs into labor-intensive sweatshops is that many of them were extremely skilled businesspeople, intellectuals, or scientists. Several years ago, flourishing Uighur businesses abroad were severely impacted by seizures of passports, and Uighurs have been progressively forced out of eastern Chinese labor markets. While there are many Uighurs living marginal economic existences, this group are not people who need unskilled labor jobs paid at around 85 cents per hour.
But for Beijing, the real aim is not to improve Uighurs’ lives. It is to achieve so-called social stability in its most extreme form imaginable: the state controlling the educational, work, and care placement of every family member, however old they are.</blockquote>
Zenz goes on to write that the “first layer of the scheme is the most blatantly coercive.” China’s Xinjiang region is using the claim that it is providing “vocational education and training” to get businesses to “train and employ internment camp detainees.” He wrote that these companies receive thousands of Ren Min Bi (RBI) for the companies per detainee. They receive 1,800 for each detainee they train and an additional 5,000 for each one they employ.
China, however, spins this as a positive, Zenz wrote, claiming this forced labor scheme “has attracted a large number of coastal enterprises from the mainland to invest and build factories, which has powerfully expanded employment and promoted increased incomes.”
Remember that those forced into this kind of labor have come from China’s internment camps. Survivors of the camps have told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-prisoner-in-one-of-chinas-re-education-camps-speaks-out-torture-and-rape-were-common">horror stories</a> of rape, torture, and human experimentation. International organizations have also noted that the camps appear to be, at least in part, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/reports-shed-light-on-chinas-organ-harvesting-practices">scheme to collect organs</a> to feed China’s “transplant tourism” trade, where wealthy people from around the world pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to get an organ transplant with little to no wait time.

Uyghur supporters

Expert: China Touts Its ‘Poverty Alleviation’ Policies, But They’re Actually Cover For Forced Labor

Ratings for NBA games are down across the three major networks that show the games – ESPN, TNT, and NBA TV, and the National Basketball Association isn’t totally sure why. Here’s a theory: China.
Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/tv-ratings-nba-1203427688/">reported</a> that viewership for basketball is “down 15% year-to-year overall, according to Nielsen figures.”
“<a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/ava-duvernay-kat-candler-tnt-texas-1203395256/">TNT</a>’s coverage is averaging 1.3 million viewers through 14 telecasts, down 21% versus last year’s comparable coverage, while on <a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/espn-outside-the-lines-sports-investigation-1203379767/">ESPN</a> the picture isn’t much prettier. The Disney-owned network is down 19%, averaging 1.5 million viewers versus just under 1.9 million viewers at the same stage last year,” the outlet added.
As to why viewership is down, the outlet reported what “sources at all three organizations” told them: It’s because of the injuries.
“So far this season, 63% of games on ESPN and TNT (or 22 games out of 35) were missing one or more stars missing due to injury. Eleven of the 14 games broadcast on TNT have had one or more stars missing due to injury, and 11 of the 21 ESPN games have had the same problem, per the league,” the outlet reported.
Nowhere in its article does Variety mention another possibility; that people are sick of getting a dose of politics with their sports and may have been turned off this season by the NBA’s kowtowing to China.
In early October, just weeks before the 2019-2020 NBA season began, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for Hong Kong protesters. He was swiftly rebuked by the Association and deleted the tweet with an apology. The Chinese government and the Chinese Basketball Association threatened to cut ties with the Rockets, which would have been a huge monetary loss for the team and the NBA. Fears that China would pull funding and support for the NBA led the Association’s chief communications officer Mike Bass to release a statement on the issue:
<blockquote>We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable. While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them. We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.</blockquote>
Soon after, while NBA stars were in China to drum up support, the Association <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-nba-team-takes-microphone-away-from-cnn-reporter-asking-about-chinese-censorship">grabbed the microphone</a> from a CNN reporter who was asking about Chinese censorship of the league.
The NBA then <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nba-bans-media-access-while-in-china-because-it-puts-players-in-a-complicated-and-unfair-position">banned media access</a> to its players while they were in China because it put them in a “complicated” and “unfair” position.
Basketball megastar LeBron James received more criticism for other players because, though he regularly espouses liberal political positions, he declined to talk about the China-censorship issue and instead tried to claim he and his teammates <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disaster-lebron-tries-to-explain-china-remarks-digs-deeper-hole">were the real victims</a> in the scandal.
There are probably many reasons why NBA viewership is down. Injuries are probably part of that, so is the ability for viewers to watch the games in ways other than the three networks mentioned above. But just as ESPN and the NFL had to grapple with politics affecting viewership (though they refused to admit that was the case), one can’t ignore the idea that politics may be hurting the NBA as well.

LeBron James

NBA Ratings Are Down This Year And The Association Can’t Figure Out Why. Here’s A Theory.

On Friday, far-left activist Greta Thunberg struck a somber, defeatist tone while speaking to fellow climate activists gathered at the United Nations climate talks in Madrid, Spain.
The Swedish teen complained that school climate strikes have &#8220;achieved nothing&#8221; and claimed that opponents of her radical agenda are trying to &#8220;silence&#8221; her and her supporters. Thunberg also claimed people are currently &#8220;suffering and dying&#8221; due to effects of supposed man-made climate change.
&#8220;The global wave of school strikes for the climate over the past year has &#8216;achieved nothing&#8217; because greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise,&#8221; Thunberg reportedly told fellow activists, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/06/greta-thunberg-says-school-strikes-have-achieved-nothing?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco">The Guardian</a>.
“I’m just an activist and we need more activists,” the 16-year-old said. “Some people are afraid to change – they try so desperately to silence us.”
“We can’t go on like this; it is not sustainable that children skip school and we don’t want to continue – we would love some action from the people in power. People are suffering and dying today. We can’t wait any longer,” Thunberg warned.
The climate extremist expressed little hope in governments across the globe acting in a manner she sees fit to save the world from apparent destruction.
“I sincerely hope COP25 will reach something concrete and increase awareness among people,&#8221; Thunberg said, &#8220;and that world leaders and people in power grasp the urgency of the climate crisis, because right now it does not seem that they are.&#8221;
Since 2017, Thunberg has been pushed by politicos on the far-left and their allies in the media to lead the climate change agenda, which conveniently promotes socialist policies as solutions. In September, the teen cemented her role as climate leader with a radical, doomsday speech at the UN.
“My message is that we’ll be watching you,&#8221; Thunberg warned during the speech, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/greta-snaps-we-are-beginning-mass-extinction-how-ryan-saavedra">The Daily Wire</a> reported. &#8220;This is all wrong, I shouldn’t be up here, I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet, you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, and yet I’m one of the lucky ones.&#8221;
&#8220;People are suffering; people are dying,&#8221; the teen claimed. &#8220;Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth.”
As noted by The Guardian, &#8220;greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 4%&#8221; since the Paris Accords were signed.
Oddly, Thunberg did not mention China during the infamous U.N. speech, nor during her latest address to climate activists, despite the nation leading in carbon emissions. Notably, Thunberg has also yet to visit China to give one of her most important lectures.
&#8220;With the world&#8217;s largest population and for decades one of the fastest growing economies, China is far and away the world&#8217;s top CO2 emitter,&#8221; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/07/14/china-us-countries-that-produce-the-most-co-2-emissions/39548763/">USA Today</a> reported this summer, using data collecting in 2017. &#8220;Close to 10,000 million metric tons of CO2 from burning fossil fuel were emitted by the superpower in 2017. On a per capita basis, China&#8217;s CO2 emissions of 7.1 metric tons per person trail that of most countries on this list but still rank in the top 50 worldwide.&#8221;
&#8220;Driving China&#8217;s CO2 emissions is the nation&#8217;s massive coal production,&#8221; the reported noted. &#8220;China&#8217;s generation of electricity from coal has dropped slightly from 75% in 1992 to 70% in 2015. Still, overall coal production has tripled since 2000 to nearly 4,000 million metric tons – approximately half of all global coal production.&#8221;

Defeated Greta Whines Climate Strikes Have ‘Achieved Nothing,’ Claims People Are ‘Dying Today’

British GQ has officially joined the ranks of the NBA and Blizzard Entertainment in publicly acting out of fear of &#8220;offending&#8221; the human rights-violating Chinese government.
One of the most significant stories of 2019 has been influential western entities caving to China amid the ongoing pro-Democracy protests in Hong Kong against the authoritarian communist regime. The NBA, following the leads of commissioner Adam Silver and Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, infamously cowered to China after one team executive dared to express support for the pro-Democracy protesters on social media. The backlash was swift and severe, as it was for gaming company Blizzard after it punished a popular professional player for likewise showing support for the pro-freedom demonstrators.
Now, as reported by <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/gq-worst-dressed-removal">BuzzFeed News</a>, British GQ has gotten in on the caving to China action, quietly pulling two international leaders from their &#8220;World&#8217;s Top 10 Worst Dressers&#8221; list — leaving the list conspicuously two names short — out of what a spokesperson later admitted was fear of causing &#8220;unintended offense.&#8221;
&#8220;During the course of this week, other news websites, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7757029/Boris-Johnsons-adviser-Dominic-Cummings-crowned-worlds-WORST-dressed-man-GQ.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">like the Mail Online</a>, picked up on the list, spreading the word about whom British GQ thought were the world’s 10 worst dressers,&#8221; BuzzFeed reports. &#8220;But on GQ’s own website, something was different. The &#8216;top 10&#8217; list had become a &#8216;top 8&#8217;. Missing were two individuals: China’s president Xi Jinping and king of Thailand Maha Vajiralongkorn.&#8221;
&#8220;It is not Hong Kong&#8217;s courageous freedom fighters that Xi Jinping should have a problem with. It&#8217;s his tailor,&#8221; the entry for the Chinese president pulled from the digital version of the article read. &#8220;Xi gets totalitarian style cues from his hero, the mass murderer Chairman Mao, who enforced a dour and plain dress code for the Communist Party.&#8221;
The likewise deleted critique of Vajiralongkorn read: &#8220;How many others living deities do you know with a penchant for really tight crop tops, hipster jeans and fake tattoos? The answer is none. And that&#8217;s because no other exist.&#8221;
While it pulled the entries for those two international figures, British GQ chose to leave on its list U.S. President Donald Trump, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson&#8217;s chief adviser Dominic Cummings, among others.
So what motivated the glaring removal of the two world leaders? A spokesperson at Condé Nast, the mass media company that owns GQ, told BuzzFeed that management ordered the two leaders pulled from the unflattering list out of fear of causing &#8220;unintended offense.&#8221;
Sources at GQ&#8217;s parent company told BuzzFeed that if the piece had been a &#8220;hard-hitting piece of journalism,&#8221; management would have stood by the inclusion of critical references to the two leaders. But since the worst dressed list was intended to be a &#8220;light-hearted list meant for a UK audience,&#8221; management ordered the two figures to be digitally disappeared, maintaining that the potential fallout simply wasn&#8217;t worth it.
With local editions of some of its magazines in both China and Thailand, Condé Nast decided that it was wiser to just delete the entries than to open up the possibility that the unenviable list would stir up unnecessary problems globally.
&#8220;We are conscious that digitally published stories travel globally and can gain traction where they lack the necessary context and can cause unintended offense,&#8221; a spokesperson for the media company told BuzzFeed, noting that the full story still remains in the printed edition of the magazine.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lebrons-lakers-lose-amid-pro-hong-protests-china-state-tv-blackout">LeBron’s Opening Game Hit With Protests; China State TV Blacks Out NBA</a>

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