Four-star Air Force General Mike Minihan sent a memo on Friday, warning the officers he commands that he sees war on the horizon — with <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/china-send-71-warplanes-around-taiwan-in-strike-drill/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> — in less than two years.
Minihan, who reportedly sent the memo out to all of the air wing commanders in Air Mobility Command and other Air Force operational commanders, is in charge of some 50,000 service members and 500 planes in the Air Mobility Command.
According to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-air-force-general-predicts-war-china-2025-memo-rcna67967?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC News</a>, which obtained a copy of the memo, Minihan warned that upcoming elections in 2024 — both in the United States and Taiwan — could provide enough cover that China might feel emboldened to make a <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/taiwan-extends-compulsory-military-service-amid-rising-china-threat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">move against Taiwan</a> while the rest of the world was distracted.
&#8220;I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;Xi secured his third term and set his war council in October 2022. Taiwan’s presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a reason. United States’ presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a distracted America. Xi’s team, reason, and opportunity are all aligned for 2025.&#8221;
Minihan <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/01/27/us-general-minihan-china-war-2025/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">directed his officers</a> to lay out a plan to prepare for potential war with China. He instructed them to report back to him with their plans — and any efforts they may have already made — no later than February 28.
Minihan also laid out a series of steps that officers should be taking in their efforts to prepare, saying that his ultimate goal was to build &#8220;a fortified, ready, integrated, and agile Joint Force Maneuver Team ready to fight and win inside the first island chain.&#8221;
He went on to lay out what they should be doing in the coming months, beginning with February: &#8220;Fire a clip into a 7-meter target with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality matters most. Aim for the head.&#8221;
In March, he suggested that they make sure their legal affairs were handled in case of a deployment, saying that they should &#8220;consider their personal affairs and whether a visit should be scheduled with their servicing base legal office to ensure they are legally ready and prepared.&#8221;
A spokesperson for the Air Mobility Command confirmed that the memo was real and had been sent to ensure that Minihan&#8217;s officers were ready to act if all efforts at deterrence should fail.
&#8220;This is an authentic internal memo from General Minihan addressed to his subordinate command teams. His order builds on last year’s foundational efforts by Air Mobility Command to ready the Mobility Air Forces for future conflict, should deterrence fail,&#8221; the spokesperson told NBC News on Friday.
After NBC News went public with the contents of the memo, the Defense Department issued a statement, saying, &#8220;These comments are not representative of the department’s view on China.&#8221;

Military Training

U.S. General Predicts War With China By 2025: ‘I Hope I Am Wrong’

U.S. Air Force General Predicts War With China By 2025: 'I Hope I Am Wrong'

China

Communist China

Military

U.S. Air Force

World

A new study whose data was obtained from senior military and defense officials as well as congressional and defense industry leaders, warns that if the United States and China engage in hostilities, the U.S. weapons cache is woefully lacking.
Seth Jones of the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote the report, which follows a CSIS wargame scenario that pointed out that in a conflict with China, U.S. arms including long-range, precision-guided munitions, could run empty in one week.
“The bottom line is the defense industrial base, in my judgment, is not prepared for the security environment that now exists,” Jones told <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-weapons-industry-unprepared-for-a-china-conflict-report-says-11674479916?mod=hp_trending_now_article_pos5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wall Street Journal</a>, adding that the defense industry is currently “better suited to a peacetime environment. &#8230; How do you effectively deter if you don’t have sufficient stockpiles of the kinds of munitions you’re going to need for a China-Taiwan Strait kind of scenario?”
“These shortfalls would make it extremely difficult for the United States to sustain a protracted conflict,” Jones’ report asserted. “They also highlight that the U.S. defense industrial base lacks adequate surge capacity for a major war.”
“The history of industrial mobilization suggests that it will take years for the defense industrial base to produce and deliver sufficient quantities of critical weapons systems and munitions and recapitalize stocks that have been used up,” the study added.
Adm. Daryl Caudle, the head of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, has expressed his frustration with the defense industry, snapping, “I am not forgiving of the fact they’re not delivering the ordnance we need. &#8230; All this stuff about Covid this, parts, supply chain — I just don’t really care. We’ve all got tough jobs.”
The U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, which has drained the U.S. stockpile of weapons, caused the Pentagon to reassess its quantity of munitions in December, illustrating the underinvestment in munitions that had been going on for years; e.g. investing in new weapons systems instead of shells or ammunition, the Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/pentagon-reviews-munitions-needs-as-ukraine-drains-stocks-11670591163?mod=article_inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>.
Bill LaPlante, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, acknowledged, “You have to have almost a political environment like we have now, where people see the urgency for it. Because in times of peace and times of prosperity, it’s one of the first things that falls off the budget.”
As recently as late December, 71 Chinese warplanes were detected flying around Taiwan, performing military exercises, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry.
According to the People&#8217;s Liberation Army, China was conducting a “strike drill” in response to “provocations” and “collusion” between Taiwan and the United States.
“71 PLA aircraft and 7 PLAN vessels around Taiwan were detected in our surrounding region by 6 a.m.(UTC+8) today,” the Taiwan Defense Ministry tweeted. “R.O.C. Armed Forces have monitored the situation and tasked CAP aircraft, Navy vessels, and land-based missile systems to respond these activities.”

America / Pentagon-US Department of Defense.River Entrance.Sign.

U.S. Weapons Cache ‘Not Prepared’ For Protracted War With China, Study Says

Military Weapons

Taiwan

U.S. Military

A pig in a <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-east-asia/pig-about-to-get-slaughtered-kills-butcher-in-hong-kong-554874" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slaughterhouse</a> in Hong Kong apparently attacked a butcher who was about to slaughter him last week, resulting in the man’s death. 
The incident involved a 61-year-old worker who was employed at the Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse. Local law enforcement said that he was getting ready to kill the pig after shooting it with an electric stun device, but then the pig woke up and unfortunately knocked him down, CNN <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/21/asia/hong-kong-pig-kills-butcher-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. 
He was <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/feature/after-being-shot-by-electric-gun-struggling-pig-kills-butcher-at-hong-kong-slaughterhouse-3713900" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discovered</a> unconscious by a coworker and he was also holding a 15-inch meat cleaver and had a foot injury, according to the police. The man was transported to the hospital and later pronounced deceased. The police have also pointed out that the cause of death has not been established. 
Local press has identified the deceased butcher as Cai, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/01/23/pig-kills-butcher-in-hong-kong-slaughterhouse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a>. It is also unclear what happened to the pig. The animal&#8217;s fate has reportedly not been advertised or discussed in accounts about the incident.
In a press <a href="https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202301/20/P2023012000463.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">release</a>, the Labour Department said, it “is investigating a fatal work accident that happened in Sheung Shui this afternoon (January 20) in which a man died.”
“The [Labour Department] immediately deployed staff to the scene upon receiving a report of the accident, and is now conducting an investigation to look into its cause,” it added.
“The Labour Department is saddened by the death of the person and expresses its deepest sympathy to his family,” the local Labour Department said in a statement, per CNN.
“We will complete the investigation as soon as possible to identify the cause of the accident, ascertain the liability of the duty holders and recommend improvement measures. We will take actions pursuant to the law if there is any violation of the work safety legislation,” a department spokesman stated, according to the outlet.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) <a href="https://www.fehd.gov.hk/english/news/details/20230120_10114.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> it was &#8220;deeply saddened&#8221; about the passing of the outsourced worker.
In a press release, it noted that it is “very concerned about the work accident.”
“Saddened by the death of a staff member of its outsourced contractor in the accident, the department expressed its deepest condolences to the deceased&#8217;s family and has requested the contractor to provide all necessary assistance to his family,” the release noted.
It also said that the slaughtering production is working as usual and the fresh meat provision is not impacted.
It also stated that the FEHD has requested that the contractor “fully co-operate with the investigation” and &#8220;has also reminded the contractor to strictly abide by the relevant occupational safety and health requirements in accordance with the contractual terms” in order to make sure that workers are carrying out their tasks in a safe environment.
According to a 2021 <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34106425/#:~:text=Domestic%20pigs%20are%20usually%20placid,to%20trampling%2C%20kicking%20and%20biting.">report</a>, domestic pigs are usually calm but if they are bothered, they can become fierce and forceful. They can cause serious harm to humans by biting, kicking, and running over them. Sometimes mother pigs are also more <a href="https://familyfarmlivestock.com/are-pigs-dangerous-to-raise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">protective</a> of piglets and can act in a more combative manner.
Several other workplace <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3198917/2-hong-kong-men-die-separate-workplace-accidents-due-falling-heavy-equipment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tragedies</a> took place in Hong Kong last year. 
Last year, a man died while working on a Hong Kong construction site when around 30 steel beams fell on him. He was the main source of income for his family and was survived by a teenage daughter and a wife, according to Fay Siu Sin-man, head of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims.
“I feel angry and disappointed to see such industrial accidents occur one after another. There must have been safety loopholes involved,” Siu said.
In an unrelated incident, another man died when he was worked at a construction equipment storage location. He was working to fix a road roller when a section of it hit him. Law enforcement was looking into what led to the incident. 
In June, two employees <a href="https://www.hcamag.com/asia/specialisation/employment-law/two-workers-dead-in-workplace-accident-in-hong-kong/409565" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> away after they fell from a platform that was hanging in the air. In a tragedy, the structure that the platform was hanging on fell down. The LD said it was going to look into the incident to see if the contractor the workers were employed by was responsible.

45A60B83-8429-4072-8EA2-A345CFB3B3E9_1_105_c

Pig In Slaughterhouse Attacks Butcher, Who Dies

Animals

This article is a companion piece to today’s Morning Wire Afternoon Update. To listen to the podcast version, click <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
Russia And China To Conduct Indian Ocean Naval Drills
Russia and China will <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russia-china-to-hold-naval-drills-off-south-africa/2023/01/19/667c4d4e-97fa-11ed-a173-61e055ec24ef_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conduct naval drills</a> in the Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa next month. The naval exercises — which will take place on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — highlight the push by Russia and China to gain more global influence. South Africa, which will also take part in the drills, has been vocal in its refusal to side with the West in condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine, claiming neutrality.
James Clyburn Warns 2024 Challengers To Stay Out Of Race
Influential senior Democrat James Clyburn of South Carolina <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11654473/James-Clyburn-Democrats-considering-challenging-Biden-2024-BOW-OUT.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> this week that he believes President Biden will run in 2024 and warned would-be-challengers to stay out of the race.
Texas And Oklahoma Sue Biden Administration
The states of Texas and Oklahoma have <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2023/01/18/biden-administration-stephen-miller-world-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> the Biden administration, saying they have illegally given authority to the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency in the U.S. The states claim this infringes on U.S. sovereignty.
Boeing Executives To Appear In Court
Executives of Boeing will <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/19/business/boeing-court-appearance/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appear</a> in court next week to be arraigned on felony charges related to the deadly crashes of two 737 Boeing jets. The executives had been given immunity as part of a plea deal, but the families of the crash victims urged a judge to bring the criminal charges.
 New Study Shows Impact Virtual Interaction Has On Children
A new study that compared children’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virtual-communication-could-impair-childhood-brain-development-study-suggests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">brain activity</a> between in-person and virtual interaction between 62 mother and children pairings found that electrical activity in the brain is significantly reduced during virtual social interaction, suggesting that in-person interactions are physiologically different for children than online interactions.
San Francisco Art Gallery Owner Arrested For Hosing Down Homeless Person
A man who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/san-francisco-art-gallery-owner-arrested-after-hosing-down-homeless-woman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">owns</a> an art gallery in San Francisco was arrested and charged with battery after using a water hose on a homeless woman, who he said was “screaming belligerent things, spitting, [and] yelling” at him.
Boy Meets Congress?
And, actor Ben Savage, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boy-meets-world-star-files-paperwork-to-run-for-congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">best known for starring</a> on the hit ABC sitcom “Boy Meets World,” is set to make a bid for Congress. According to paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission Wednesday, Savage’s run as a Democrat will be in California’s 30th District seat, currently held by Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff. Schiff is rumored to throw his hat in the ring for U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein’s seat. Feinstein has not yet said whether she will seek re-election.
To listen to the audio version of this podcast, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/morning-wire/id1576594336" target="_blank" rel="noopener">click here</a>. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.

Friday

Friday Afternoon Update: Childhood TV Star Running For Congress, Russia And China Naval Drills, Top Dem Has Message For Biden’s 2024 Primary Challengers

Friday Afternoon Update: Childhood TV Star Running For Congress, Russia And China Naval Drills, Top Dem Has Message For Biden's 2024 Primary Challengers

General

Joe Biden

Morning Wire

Podcast

Russia

U.S.

Joe Biden ran for president three times before he finally won the White House. And 2020 was simply the perfect time for him to give it another go.
As he neared 80, Biden had slowed down considerably from his rambunctious days as a senator and vice president. But with the emergence of COVID, Biden barely hit the campaign trail, running his operation out of the basement of his Delaware mansion.
And let&#8217;s be frank: many Americans had tired of President Donald Trump&#8217;s act. Many independents who decided to give the outsider a shot in 2016 broke hard for Biden in 2020.
But Biden&#8217;s usefulness may have expired. While the president has declared he plans to run again in 2024, at least one lawmaker thinks Democrats are planning to jettison him for a better candidate.
They may have just the right formula. The discovery of classified documents in Biden&#8217;s garage and the U.S. attorney general&#8217;s recent appointment of a special counsel to probe the matter gives Democrats a vehicle to weaken Biden.
&#8220;I mean, there&#8217;s an element of this where it&#8217;s Joe Biden&#8217;s lawyer who turns this information over, it&#8217;s Joe Biden&#8217;s own Justice Department that&#8217;s appointed a special counsel to investigate him,&#8221; Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/matt-gaetz-classified-docs-scandal-feels-like-democrats-taking-out-joe-biden">told</a> Fox News Digital.
&#8220;There&#8217;s an element to this that feels like the Democrats are taking out Joe Biden,&#8221; Gaetz said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know that that&#8217;s the case, but I don&#8217;t know that it&#8217;s not.&#8221;
&#8220;Maybe the Democrats have realized that Joe Biden is not useful to them anymore, and they just assume toss him out and get a younger crop of candidates engaged in the next presidential race,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But just as Joe Biden is hardening the cement around his decision to run for president again, they start looking for what classified documents might have been tucked away eight years ago.&#8221;
In the last couple of months, three batches of Obama administration-era classified documents have been found on Biden&#8217;s properties: one batch at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and two at his Wilmington, Delaware, home.
The first batch was found just days before the 2022 midterm elections, but the Department of Justice didn&#8217;t release the info until this month.
&#8220;We have a lot to learn about the content and substance of those documents, and if they relate to China, and if they were at that Biden Center at UPenn funded by China. That&#8217;s going to be a far more grave concern,&#8221; Gaetz said.
&#8220;What if the documents relate to our economy?&#8221; he said. &#8220;What if Joe Biden was hustling information to his CCP [Chinese Communist Party] funders at the Biden Center for UPenn and that gave China economic advantage over Americans? That would create a nexus between those documents and our economic woes at the hands of rising China.&#8221;
Gaetz acknowledged that everything is speculative until the contents of the recovered documents are revealed.
&#8220;I haven&#8217;t been frothing at the mouth over the mere existence of some documents in a garage in Delaware,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You know, I believe Americans are more worried about the weaponization of government against them than they are, you know, what papers Joe Biden stuffed in [the] glove box of his Corvette.&#8221;
&#8220;If they are mementos or, you know, documents that have far outlived any sort of functional relevance quite some time ago, then I think that’s different,&#8221; Gaetz said.
After 68 days of silence, Biden on Thursday finally commented on the fiasco.
&#8220;We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place. We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department. We&#8217;re fully cooperating, looking forward to getting this resolved quickly,&#8221; Biden said.
&#8220;I think you&#8217;re gonna&#8217; find there&#8217;s nothing there. I have no regrets. I&#8217;m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. That&#8217;s exactly what we&#8217;re doing. There&#8217;s no there there.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

MEXICO-US-BIDEN-VISIT

Are Democrats Trying To Take Biden Out Before 2024?

Are Democrats Trying To Take President Joe Biden Out Before 2024?

Executive

Matt Gaetz

Politics

A fashion designer who lived for 16 years in Communist China, where she raised her two daughters, celebrated her children being “co-parented by the Chinese government.”
Heather Kaye offered her sanguine opinion of communist China in an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/opinion/china-education-parenting-culture.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opinion piece</a> in The New York Times.
Kaye chortled that she “laughed out loud” when viewing a picture online of an American woman wearing a T-shirt emblazoned, “I refuse to co-parent with the government.”
“In China, government co-parenting begins in the womb,” Kaye declared, noting the limits China had for years placed on the number of children parents could have and Chinese citizens are still forbidden from determining the “gender of their unborn babies.”
“I had to accept that my growing belly had become community property &#8230; restaurants would refuse to serve me cold beverages,” she recalled.
“In 2008 and 2010 we delivered two healthy daughters in Shanghai and faced the choice of all expatriate parents in China: between pricey international schools and enrollment in local schools, overseen by the government and with an immersion in Chinese culture and values,” she wrote, adding that after considering that their daughters would learn “fluent Mandarin and, hopefully, a broadened worldview” but also be exposed to “Communist Party propaganda and potential social isolation of being foreigners in a group of Chinese students &#8230; we took the plunge.”
“Our stringent government co-parent quickly made its presence felt,” Kaye wrote, including “how many hours our daughters should sleep, what they should eat and their optimal weight. Each morning all of the students performed calisthenics in straight rows and raised China’s red flag while singing the national anthem.”
Kaye celebrated the benefits of her girls attending the Chinese communist school: “self-discipline, integrity and respect for elders.”
“At times, our girls would repeat propaganda,” she acknowledged, lauding the “heavy censorship, which results in a kid-friendly internet, and national limits on how many hours young people can spend playing online video games.”
Kaye praised the “tight control of the Communist Party surveillance state” for allowing her daughters to ride the subway by the age of 11. “The sense of civic pride was palpable,” she opined.
“We’ve returned to a divided America where many feel government has no place in our lives,” Kaye wrote despairingly. “In these times, I find myself missing my Chinese co-parent.”
“Attention to the common good is a fundamental value I seek in an American government co-parent,” Kaye concluded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
After 16 years in Shanghai, American expat Heather Kaye and her family are part of an exodus of both foreigners and locals driven out by China&#39;s unshifting COVID zero policy that’s seen two years of strict curbs and a crushing two-month lockdown <a href="https://t.co/9IEeG1nkOc">https://t.co/9IEeG1nkOc</a> <a href="https://t.co/Iy26BvnQNo">pic.twitter.com/Iy26BvnQNo</a>
&mdash; Reuters (@Reuters) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1544999676251815942?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Soldiers Marching Past Queen Elizabeth II In Peking

‘Missing My Chinese Co-Parent’: American Mom Celebrates Raising Kids In Repressive Communist State

American Mom Celebrates Raising Kids In Repressive Communist State

Children

Education

Repression

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/republican-governor-glenn-youngkin-brushes-off-criticism-after-trump-swipe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin</a> told Ford thanks, but no thanks to a potential $3.5 billion battery plant over the car maker’s partnership with China.
The plant, under consideration for Pittsylvania County in the southwestern part of Old Dominion, would have made lithium iron phosphate batteries for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-misadventure-of-electric-vehicles-wyoming-lawmakers-introduce-resolution-to-ban-new-electric-car-sales/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">electric vehicles</a> and employed as many as 2,500 workers. The company, which had not made a final decision, was believed to be considering building the plant in partnership with Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology before the Republican governor scuttled the deal last month.
“The consortium of Ford and CATL were hoping to build a plant, as reported and confirmed by Ford, where Ford would build the building, but a company that is majorly influenced by the Chinese Communist Party was going to operate the plant, and the employees were going to work for the Chinese Communist Party controlled company,&#8221; Youngkin said Friday. &#8220;They were going to use that in order to try to tap into taxpayer benefits at state level as well as the federal level that were specifically designated for non-Chinese communist party entities.&#8221; Youngkin told reporters he was uncomfortable with a CCP-connected company benefiting from Virginia tax dollars, adding that he felt the deal&#8217;s structure was &#8220;a bit deceptive.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Youngkin stands against communist China but Whitmer is “vying” for the business.
Whitmer has never understood economic development which has led to massive job losses and an exodus from Michigan. She courts the CCP out of desperation. <a href="https://t.co/yp3eJL0LTb">https://t.co/yp3eJL0LTb</a>
&mdash; Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) <a href="https://twitter.com/TudorDixon/status/1615812284940488743?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Democratic state lawmakers blasted Youngkin for spurning the deal and accused the first-term governor of bashing China to further his potential White House ambitions. Youngkin has not indicated he is contemplating a 2024 White House bid, but his stunning 2021 victory in the key blue state drew national attention.
“To deny [people in the community] jobs because you’re in last place in Republican presidential primaries [is] gubernatorial malpractice,” Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) <a href="https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/ford-plant-halted-by-youngkin-would-have-created-2-500-jobs-in-southside/article_9edc230a-95dc-11ed-bdd8-2301b6df2e06.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the Richmond Times-Dispatch</a>. “I mean, this is clearly just obvious to me that the governor’s in some kind of out-China-bashing-contest with [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis and Governor Greg Abbott out of Texas.”
Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said Ford’s partner is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, and was therefore not welcome in the state.
“While Ford is an iconic American company, it became clear that this proposal would serve as a front for the Chinese Communist party, which could compromise our economic security and Virginians’ personal privacy,” Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter <a href="https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/ford-plant-halted-by-youngkin-would-have-created-2-500-jobs-in-southside/article_9edc230a-95dc-11ed-bdd8-2301b6df2e06.html">told the Richmond Times-Dispatch</a>. “Virginians can be confident that companies with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party won’t receive a leg up from the Commonwealth’s economic incentive packages. When the potentially damaging effects of the deal were realized, the plant proposal never reached a final discussion stage.”
Ford is now believed to be considering building the plant in Michigan.
Editor&#8217;s note: This story has been updated with fresh comments from Governor Youngkin

Glenn Youngkin

Youngkin Spurns Ford’s Proposed $3.5B Virginia Plant Over China Concerns

Youngkin Spurns Ford's Proposed $3.5B Virginia Plant Over China Concerns

Ford Motor Co.

Virginia

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY) is calling on the University of Pennsylvania to provide information about anonymous Chinese donations to the university affiliated with the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
He wrote a letter to university President Liz Magill on Wednesday over concerns of foreign influence after the recent discovery of classified documents in President Joe Biden&#8217;s former office at the center, which is part of the Ivy League institution.
“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating President Biden’s possible illegal handling of sensitive, highly classified documents. Recent reports reveal President Biden’s attorneys discovered Obama-Biden Administration documents in an unsecured closet at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement—a Washington, D.C.-based think tank affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania,” Comer <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2023-01-18-Letter-UPenn-Penn-Biden-Center.pdf">wrote</a>.
Comer blasted the president&#8217;s lax security over classified documents, arguing that the committee needs information on China&#8217;s donors to determine if there are national security threats.
“President Biden’s pattern of mishandling classified documents is alarming. The Committee is concerned about who had access to these documents given the Biden family’s financial connections to foreign actors and companies. The American people deserve to know whether the Chinese Communist Party, through Chinese companies, influenced potential Biden Administration policies with large, anonymous donations to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center,” he wrote.
In a <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-anonymous-chinese-donations-to-upenn-potentially-influenced-biden-administration-policies%EF%BF%BC/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>, the Oversight Committee expressed concern that UPenn reportedly received millions of dollars in donations from anonymous Chinese sources. These donations allegedly tripled following the establishment of the Penn Biden Center, continuing as Biden explored a 2020 run for president.
“The Penn Biden Center appears to have acted as a foreign-sponsored source of income for much of a Biden Administration in-waiting,” Comer continued in the letter. “Between 2017 and 2019, UPenn paid President Biden more than $900,000, and the university employed at least 10 people at the Penn Biden Center who later became senior Biden administration officials.&#8221;
Comer argued that the evidence points to the need to determine who had access to the classified documents recently found in Biden&#8217;s former office at the university&#8217;s center in Washington, D.C.
&#8220;This level of access and opportunity raises questions about who had access to the classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center. It is imperative to understand whether any Biden family members or associates gained access to the classified documents while stored at the Penn Biden Center,&#8221; he added.
Connections between Penn Biden Center staff members and the Biden administration are also a concern. Secretary of State Antony Blinken served as the center&#8217;s director from 2017 to 2019 and received more than $79,000 in salary. The Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/watchdog-calls-on-biden-center-to-disclose-foreign-donations-as-doj-investigates-classified-docs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cited</a> at least two additional former center staff members who later received positions in the Biden administration, along with the university&#8217;s former president, Amy Gutmann, who was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany last year.
The Oversight Committee is not the only group seeking details on the connections between Biden and UPenn&#8217;s foreign donations.
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) has also called for the university to disclose foreign contributions. NLPC filed a complaint against the university and the Biden Center in 2020 for failing to disclose the source of anonymous Chinese donations.
The watchdog group also recently <a href="https://www.nlpc.org/government-integrity-project/nlpc-files-foias-to-find-out-how-classified-documents-ended-up-at-biden-center/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed</a> Freedom of Information Act requests with the Department of Justice and National Archives to determine how classified documents ended up in Biden&#8217;s former office.

Oversight Committee Calls On University Of Pennsylvania To Provide Information On Anonymous Chinese Donations

James Comer

Scandals

University of Pennsylvania

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/population" target="_blank" rel="noopener">population</a> of <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> witnessed a year-over-year decline for the first time in six decades.
The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics revealed on Tuesday that the country’s population dropped to 1.412 billion in 2022 from 1.413 billion in 2021, according to a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-population-declined-in-2022-for-first-time-in-decades-11673921036" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Wall Street Journal, marking the first decline since the nation was devastated by famine in the early 1960s under the leadership of Chinese Communist Party founder Mao Zedong.
The number of births fell to 9.56 million from 10.62 million over the same period, while birth rates dropped to 6.77 per thousand people from 7.52 per thousand people.
The news follows a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/world-population-surpasses-8-billion-people-india-to-overtake-china-next-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> by the United Nations forecasting that India would pass China this year as the world’s most populous nation. India presently has a fertility rate of 2.2 children per woman. In comparison, China has a fertility rate of 1.7 children per woman, according to <a href="https://data.oecd.org/pop/fertility-rates.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
China had spent decades championing the infamous one-child policy, under which couples were only permitted to bear a single child out of fear that the nation would not have sufficient resources to support a growing population. Even as couples are now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-now-says-it-will-allow-families-to-have-three-children-amid-fears-of-population-crash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">permitted</a> to have up to three children, the cultural value of having small families might now be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/civilization-is-going-to-crumble-musk-on-chinas-plummeting-birth-rate-and-the-need-to-repopulate-the-planet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">embedded</a> into Chinese society after decades under the one-child policy, despite efforts from officials to increase fertility.
The Chinese government has therefore sanctioned several industries to create markets that promote affordability for larger families. Before a ban on private tutoring was introduced two years ago, China <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-cracks-down-on-120-billion-private-tutoring-industry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">maintained</a> a supplementary education sector worth $120 billion, with roughly 70% of parents in Beijing and Shanghai paying for their children to receive additional instruction. Officials also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-cracks-down-on-real-estate-industry-so-that-families-can-afford-housing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prohibited speculation</a> in residential real estate to decrease property prices.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently began his unprecedented third term as head of state, told Chinese Communist Party officials <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/xi-jinping-vows-to-grow-chinas-middle-class-at-key-communist-party-meeting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assembled</a> last year that he desires to move more residents out of poverty.
“We will ensure more pay for more work and encourage people to achieve prosperity through hard work,” he said. “We will promote equality of opportunity, increase the income of low income earners and expand the size of the middle income group. We will keep income distribution and the means of accumulating wealth well regulated.”
China is among several world powers facing a demographic crisis marked by a higher number of elderly citizens relative to younger residents who are still economically productive. Western European countries, as well as Japan and the United States, are among the major economies witnessing a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/huge-problem-for-society-new-study-finds-sperm-concentration-has-halved-worldwide-problem-accelerating" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collapse</a> in birth rates, exerting pressure on government pension programs.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is among the most vocal opponents of conventional wisdom, which posits that global population expansion is harmful to the climate. He often <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-predicts-chinese-population-collapse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asserts</a> that the world is facing a demographic crisis, noting last year that China would lose some 40% of its population every generation under current birth rate conditions.
“I think one of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birthrate and the rapidly declining birthrate,” Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-warns-civilization-will-crumble-without-people-having-more-kids" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a> at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit two years ago. “And yet, so many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control. It’s completely the opposite.”

Opening Ceremony Of The 20th National Congress Of The Communist Party Of China

China Announces Its Population Has Dropped For The First Time In Six Decades

China Says Population Has Dropped For First Time Since Mao

Elon Musk

Population

United Nations

Governor <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/greg-abbott" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Greg Abbott</a> (R-TX) vowed to back legislation prohibiting <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese</a>, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean citizens and entities from purchasing land in <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/texas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas</a>.
The <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&amp;Bill=SB147" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a>, submitted two months ago by Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, states that citizens, corporations, and government agencies of the four nations “may not purchase or otherwise acquire title to real property” in the state. Abbott <a href="https://twitter.com/gregabbott_tx/status/1614686215676084226?s=46&amp;t=5pnr5c_q-1wYl27TgiOaWw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> on Sunday that he would endorse the legislation, which has not yet been voted upon by lawmakers.
“The past several years have seen more Texans alarmed by the increased acquisition of land by primarily Chinese interests,” Kolkhorst remarked in a <a href="https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/new-bill-would-ban-certain-foreign-entities-from-purchasing-land-in-texas/article_d1604e42-94eb-11ed-a16d-57b52d89086c.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> provided to the Center Square. “The growing ownership of Texas land by some foreign entities is highly disturbing and raises red flags for many Texans. By comparison, as an American, go try to buy land near a Chinese military base and see how it works out for you. It would never happen there and it shouldn&#8217;t happen here. Passing this law delivers some basic safeguards to ensure Texans remain in control of Texas land.&#8221;
The potential ban on certain overseas entities from owning land in Texas follows legislation <a href="https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB2116/id/2408342/Texas-2021-SB2116-Enrolled.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> two years ago which barred contracts with foreign companies related to critical infrastructure such as cybersecurity systems and electric grids.
Texas currently has the largest amount of foreign-held agricultural land of any other state, according to a <a href="https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/EPAS/PDF/2020_afida_annual_report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Department of Agriculture. The more than 4.7 million acres of agricultural land held by foreigners constituted 3.1% of the total land area in the Lone Star State. Between 2019 and 2020, the amount of land controlled by foreigners increased by 6%.
Chinese entities own slightly less than 1% of foreign-held acres in the United States. Canadian investors own roughly 32% of agricultural and non-agricultural land, while citizens of other allies, such as the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, represent 31% of land holdings by foreigners.
Officials have frequently cited national security risks arising from the Chinese purchase of agricultural land. Lawmakers in South Dakota, who also recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/south-dakota-to-restrict-purchases-of-farmland-by-china-and-other-nations-who-hate-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moved</a> to prevent Chinese entities from purchasing land in the state, are particularly concerned about the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pompeo-warns-communist-chinese-entities-buying-farmland-near-u-s-military-bases" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquisition</a> of farmland near Ellsworth Air Force Base. The purchase of 300 acres near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, where some of the nation’s secure drone technology is located, last year by Chinese food company Fufeng Group raised concerns of espionage among authorities.
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/desantis-vows-to-bar-chinese-communist-party-operatives-from-buying-up-florida-property" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promised</a> to prevent Chinese entities from purchasing land in the Sunshine State.
The Biden administration opened an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-quietly-probes-chinese-tech-firm-for-possibly-harvesting-data-from-military-bases-missile-silos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigation</a> into Chinese telecommunications conglomerate Huawei last year over concerns that cell towers utilizing the company’s devices are transmitting data on military bases and missile silos to the communist nation. A final rule <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-makes-historic-move-to-block-certain-chinese-tech-after-national-security-concerns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued</a> two months ago by the Federal Communications Commission will block Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, and Dahua from importing certain technology considered a threat to national security.
Beyond commercial and agricultural property, Chinese entities composed 6% of foreign residential real estate purchases between April 2021 and March 2022, according to an <a href="https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2022-international-transactions-in-us-residential-real-estate-07-18-2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from the National Association of Realtors. As much as 8% of residential properties acquired by foreigners were in Texas.

Texas Governor Abbott Holds Fentanyl Crisis Roundtable And Press Conference

Bill Banning Texas Land Purchases By Certain Adversarial Nations Gains Support Of Abbott

Agriculture

Greg Abbott

Iran

North Korea

Texas

Federal law enforcement officials reportedly raided a building in New York’s Chinatown late last year as part of the FBI&#8217;s efforts to rein in a secretive Chinese police force accused of collecting intelligence on Chinese diaspora and harrassing dissidents.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/world/europe/china-outpost-new-york.html">reported</a> that on the third floor of the six-story office building was a Chinese outpost that the feds say was conducting police operations without jurisdiction or diplomatic approval from U.S. officials.
The raid by FBI counterintelligence agents was conducted in conjunction with the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn as part of the U.S. government&#8217;s crackdown on communist China&#8217;s notorious effort to surveil their citizens and hunt down dissidents overseas and force them to return back to China.
The global effort by China, which is present in numerous countries around the world, is known as &#8220;Operation Fox Hunt.&#8221;
China, which is known for making blatantly false statements, attempted to downplay what these police centers do and suggested that it was just some volunteers who helped people obtain things like a driver&#8217;s license.
The Times reviewed numerous reports from inside China that showed that Chinese officials bragged about the effectiveness of the &#8220;overseas police service centers,” which collect intelligence for the Chinese government. Many of the reports were subsequently deleted from China&#8217;s internet.
“It’s extremely worrying from the human rights perspective. We’re essentially allowing the Chinese diaspora to be controlled by [communist China] rather than subject to our national laws,” said Igor Merheim-Eyre, an adviser to a Slovakian member of the European Parliament. “That obviously has a huge impact — not only for our relations with the Chinese diaspora across Europe, but also has huge implications for national sovereignty.”
One example of the Chinese taking efforts to hide their actions came in Europe when a Hungarian lawmaker said he visited a Chinese police center that was clearly marked as &#8220;Qingtian Police Overseas Service Station.&#8221; After the lawmaker talked about what he saw, the signs instantly vanished.
“The Chinese government wants to have more influence and to extend their transnational policing,” said Chen Yen-ting, a Taiwan-based researcher. “It’s a long-arm power to show their own citizens inside China that their government is so strong. We have the power to reach globally, and even if you go out, you’re still under our control.”
A Chinese dissident in Europe told The Times that he was &#8220;extremely anxious&#8221; about what China was doing with their secret police offices because &#8220;there’s nothing we can do about it.&#8221;

Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade

FBI Raids NYC Building Where Communist China Is Accused Of ‘Conducting’ Secret ‘Police Operations’: Report

Global Politics

Police

The Republican-led House passed on Thursday legislation banning the United States from selling and exporting crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/communist-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a>.
More than 100 Democrats joined their GOP counterparts, who raised concerns last year about the Biden administration selling <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-mace-bidens-sale-of-u-s-oil-reserves-to-china-may-support-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nearly a million barrels</a> from the reserve to a Chinese state-controlled crude giant.
The final tally for the &#8220;Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act&#8221; was 331-97. Six members did not vote, <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202331" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the House clerk</a>. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who introduced the bill, <a href="https://mcmorris.house.gov/posts/mcmorris-rodgers-leads-passage-of-h-r-22-to-prevent-the-sale-of-spr-oil-to-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called it</a> &#8220;one of the most bipartisan votes on an energy bill in many years and multiple congresses.&#8221;
Despite receiving support from both sides of the aisle, the bill is not expected to be taken up by the Senate under the leadership of the Democrats, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-votes-ban-sales-strategic-petroleum-reserve-china/story?id=96397178" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to ABC News</a>. Still, the vote Thursday was one of two bipartisan acts focused on Beijing during this fledgling session of Congress under the leadership of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), following a vote Tuesday in which <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202326" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nearly 150 Democrats joined Republicans</a> to establish the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/22/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Under the legislation</a> passed Thursday, the energy secretary, &#8220;[n]otwithstanding any other provision of law,&#8221; is prohibited from drawing down or selling petroleum products from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve &#8220;to any entity that is under the ownership, control, or influence of&#8221; China&#8217;s Communist Party &#8220;except on the condition that such petroleum products will not be exported to the People’s Republic of China.&#8221;
According to the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/ceser/strategic-petroleum-reserve" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Energy Department website</a>, the SPR is &#8220;the world&#8217;s largest supply of emergency crude oil … established primarily to reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products and to carry out obligations of the United States under the international energy program.&#8221;
As part of a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/18/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-new-actions-to-strengthen-u-s-energy-security-encourage-production-and-bring-down-costs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">180-million-barrell drawdown</a> through which the government sought to stabilize global oil markets and <a href="https://rollcall.com/2022/10/19/biden-to-announce-more-oil-reserve-sales-to-reduce-gas-prices/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">combat rising gasoline prices</a>, the Biden administration announced in July 2022 a number of contracts for the purchase of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Among those contracts to 14 companies was one for about 950,000 barrels awarded to Unipec America, a subsidiary of Communist Party-owned Sinopec Corp.
<a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-announces-contract-awards-additional-crude-oil-sales-strategic-petroleum-reserve" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Energy Department said</a> these sales were meant to &#8220;address the significant global supply disruption caused by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war on Ukraine, act as a bridge for domestic production to increase, and help stabilize volatile energy costs for American families.&#8221; But in a letter sent a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, House Republicans <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-mace-bidens-sale-of-u-s-oil-reserves-to-china-may-support-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raised concerns</a> about U.S. oil possibly being used by China to support Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine and warned of the potential for Hunter Biden, the president&#8217;s adult son, receiving money from the deal because of the <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/how-chinese-companies-linked-to-hunter-biden-could-bail-out-putin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">financial links</a> between his private equity firm and the Chinese energy sector.
The Energy Department <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-announces-repurchase-oil-strategic-petroleum-reserve" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced in December 2022</a> an effort to repurchase crude oil for the SPR, but Republicans remained distressed by Biden&#8217;s strategy.
“To cover up his failed policies driving our energy and inflation crisis, President Biden is draining our nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves at an alarming rate,&#8221; McMorris Rodgers said in her statement Thursday. &#8220;America’s SPR — once the world’s largest stockpile — have been depleted to the lowest levels since 1983. To date, President Biden has released more from the SPR than all U.S. presidents in history combined. Millions of barrels of that oil have gone to China, which now has the world’s largest government-controlled stockpile of oil. Draining our strategic reserves for political purposes and selling it to China is a significant threat to our national and energy security.&#8221;
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, voted against the bill. &#8220;If Republicans were serious about addressing the issue they would have brought forward a bill that banned all exports of oil — crude oil to China,&#8221; <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?525320-1/house-session" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pallone said on the House floor</a> Thursday. He added: &#8220;If we truly want to address China using American oil to build its reserves, let’s actually take a serious look at that, rather than skirt around the issue because Republicans are scared of Big Oil’s wrath.&#8221;

Menu