The latest release of FBI files reveals little evidence that Jeffrey Epstein ran a sex-trafficking ring, Vice President JD Vance becomes the highest-ranking American official to visit Armenia, and a Hong Kong court sentences pro-democracy CCP critic Jimmy Lai to prison.
It’s Tuesday, February 10, 2026, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">FBI’s Epstein Files Findings</h2>
Analysis of newly released Epstein documents shows that the FBI found little evidence that Jeffrey Epstein was running a sex-trafficking ring for powerful individuals. According to an analysis of millions of documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the FBI found insufficient evidence that Epstein was operating a sex-trafficking ring involving other wealthy or influential people. While the files confirm that Epstein sexually abused underage girls, there was not enough evidence to prove that he supplied minors to other powerful men. These conclusions are based on media reports of released DOJ and FBI documents, such as internal memos, and the DOJ has not issued an independent statement confirming these findings. Some politicians and commentators say there are far too many redactions and not enough of the documents have been released. The DOJ says many documents could not be made public for several reasons, including victim privacy.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Vance’s Historic Armenia Trip</h2>
Vice President Vance became the first president or vice president in American history to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-new-beginning-jd-vance-signs-nuclear-deal-in-historic-visit-to-armenia?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98A+New+Beginning%E2%80%99%3A+JD+Vance+Signs+Nuclear+Deal+In+Historic+Visit+To+Armenia">travel</a> to Armenia this week. He met on Monday with Armenia’s Prime Minister, who signed a document reaffirming Armenia’s commitment to peace with Azerbaijan. The peace was negotiated six months ago by President Donald Trump after more than 30 years of conflict. The vice president also announced a deal for the United States to sell Armenia $11 million in drone technology, and that the two countries are working on a civil nuclear agreement. Stepan Sargsyan, a former Armenian governor who works closely with the prime minister, spoke to The Daily Wire about Armenia’s geopolitical importance: “The United States has a strategic interest into region because, both Armenia and Azerbaijan, being in the South Caucasus, represent an important corridor which serves as a bridge between East and West, be it for various oil and gas pipelines or trade between China and Europe.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Jimmy Lai Sentenced</h2>
In what’s being seen as a major blow to the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, British businessman Jimmy Lai was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hong-kong-court-sends-ccp-critic-pro-democracy-publisher-jimmy-lai-to-prison-for-20-years">sentenced</a> to 20 years in prison on Monday. Lai’s newspaper, Apple Daily, was widely seen as the last free press outlet in Hong Kong. Lai is now 78 years old, which means he could very likely spend the rest of his life in prison. His chances of escaping now lie with President Trump, according to Robert Sirico, a Catholic priest and longtime friend of Lai. Trump has previously pushed for Lai’s release, and he has another meeting scheduled with Xi Jinping, head of China&#8217;s ruling Communist Party, in April. That could be where a deal for Lai is negotiated. Sirico told The Daily Wire in December, after Lai was convicted, that Lai’s release should be a top priority, despite the complexity that bargaining over Lai’s life would cause in international relations. “We are being judged by this, the way we react to this man. This man needs to be a Solzhenitsyn. He needs to be a Mandela. He needs to be seen in that light,” said Sirico.

US-POLITICS-JUSTICE-EPSTEIN

Morning Brief: The FBI’s Epstein Findings, JD Vance In Armenia, & Jimmy Lai Sent To Prison

Armenia

China

Hong Kong

JD Vance

Jeffrey Epstein

Jimmy Lai

Morning Wire

Pro-democracy newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong on Monday under a national security law imposed by Beijing and widely used to crack down on critics of the Chinese Communist Party. 
Lai, a 78-year-old Chinese-born British citizen and media tycoon, was convicted in December 2025 of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and to publish seditious material. His newspaper, Apple Daily, was published in Hong Kong from 1995 to 2021, when authorities froze its assets and arrested top executives, forcing it to shut down.  
China governs Hong Kong as a special administrative region, but Beijing has tightened its grip in recent years, imposing the law used to prosecute and sentence Lai.
Lai was accused of supporting the massive pro-democracy protests that broke out in Hong Kong in 2019 and has been detained since his arrest in August 2020, spending more than 1800 days in solitary confinement. He was held under the 2020 National Security Law, which punishes speech or conduct that the government claims threatens its authority. 
“We welcome the court’s heavy sentence of 20 years for Jimmy Lai. It highlights his role as the mastermind and behind-the-scenes manipulator,” Hong Kong police official Steve Li after the sentencing on Monday. 
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02/08/world/jimmy-lai-sentenced-hong-kong">reported</a> that Lai smiled and waved to supporters in the courtroom gallery after his sentencing. Six former Apple Daily employees were also sentenced Monday, receiving prison terms ranging from six to ten years.  
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper <a href="https://x.com/FCDOGovUK/status/2020740332262961171">said</a> Lai’s prosecution was “politically motivated” and that he was punished for expressing his viewpoints. 
&#8220;For the 78-year-old, this is tantamount to a life sentence. I remain deeply concerned for Mr Lai’s health, and I again call on the Hong Kong authorities to end his appalling ordeal and release him on humanitarian grounds, so that he may be reunited with his family,” she said. 
Claire Lai, Jimmy Lai’s daughter, called the sentence “heartbreakingly cruel.” 
“If this sentence is carried out, he will die a martyr behind bars,” she said. 
Sebastian Lai said that his father had &#8220;decided to dedicate his life to defending the freedoms of Hong Kong&#8221;.
&#8220;For that heroism, he&#8217;s being punished, he&#8217;s essentially getting a death sentence for that,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cq5yv581e9yt">told</a> the BBC. &#8220;Surely a man who has given so much for liberty, for freedom, deserves a bit of it himself.&#8221;
The State Department condemned the sentencing and called for Lai&#8217;s release. 
&#8220;The Hong Kong High Court’s decision to sentence Jimmy Lai to 20 years is an unjust and tragic conclusion to this case. It shows the world that Beijing will go to extraordinary lengths to silence those who advocate fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, casting aside the international commitments Beijing made in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration,&#8221; Marco Rubio said. &#8220;After enduring a trial lasting two years, and detention in prison for more than five, Mr. Lai and his family have suffered enough.  The United States urges the authorities to grant Mr. Lai humanitarian parole.&#8221;
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), the chair of the House Select Committee on China, said that the sentencing was the “latest stain on the human rights record of the Chinese Communist Party.” 
“Lai and his Apple Daily colleagues are being punished for exposing the truth about the CCP&#8217;s attacks on the rights of Hong Kongers,” he said. “President Trump made it abundantly clear to General Secretary Xi in October that Lai should be freed and allowed to leave Hong Kong to be with his family.”

China Imposes National Security Law In Hong Kong

Hong Kong Court Sends CCP Critic, Pro-Democracy Publisher Jimmy Lai To Prison For 20 Years

Beijing-Imposed Law Sends 78-Year-Old CCP Critic, Pro-Democracy Publisher To Prison For 20 Years

Chinese Communist Party

Democracy

Media

United Kingdom

World

Imagine if, today, Hong Kong judges declared imprisoned media mogul Jimmy Lai innocent of sedition.
Such a decision would have rehabilitated the reputation of the Chinese Communist Party, which governs Hong Kong. It would have shown that under Xi Jinping, China is capable of rendering justice, a safe place for investors, and a worthy member of the community of nations. 
Of course, none of that happened. On Monday, Lai was declared guilty in a Beijing-controlled Hong Kong court that has long since ceased to behave like a real institution of justice.
This piece could have been written months ago. The verdict was preordained. The performance has been elaborate. And the point could not be more explicit: China intends to demonstrate that even a man of extraordinary achievement, wealth, international attention, and moral courage can be ground down when he refuses to bow.
The question that now confronts us in the West is whether we will continue pretending not to notice.
For nearly four years — over 1,500 days — Jimmy Lai has been held by one of the world’s most powerful states for the “crime” of publishing a newspaper and advocating liberties that were once taken for granted in Hong Kong.
The machinery of repression has been draped in legal garments: national security charges, “collusion with foreign entities,” and a farcical, 140-day trial before three government-approved judges sitting without a jury.
But no one observing this process can confuse it with justice. Lai’s real offense is moral, not legal. He refused to be silent. And more remarkably, he refused to leave Hong Kong, even though he holds British citizenship.
His suffering exposes a larger crisis than Beijing intends. The West’s response — or lack thereof — has revealed a distressing hollowing out of the very values we claim to defend.
It is fashionable in diplomatic circles to speak of Jimmy Lai as a symbol: a symbol of press freedom, a symbol of Hong Kong’s struggle, a symbol of China’s tightening grip. But symbols, by their nature, can be admired at a distance. They do not make demands. They do not interrupt trade deals, unsettle foreign ministries, or challenge ecclesial diplomacy.
Jimmy Lai is not a symbol. He is a man: a husband, father, entrepreneur, Christian convert, and a friend. His imprisonment is not merely a geopolitical incident. It is a moral scandal. And to ignore it is to participate in it.
In a sense, the trial is his. But in a deeper sense, it is ours.
Western democracies often proclaim that human dignity precedes the state, that rights derive not from a party but from a higher moral order. Jimmy Lai believes this too — indeed, he has lived it more courageously than many who declaim it from the safety of parliamentary benches or editorial pages.
What is being tested now is not his resolve, but ours. So far, we are failing.
There have been statements, to be sure. The occasional speech. A scattered diplomatic demarche. But from most governments — and all too often from global institutions that exist to defend human rights — the silence has been strategic. Clear speech about Jimmy Lai would require clear policies toward Beijing. It would impose costs. And modern democracies have grown adept at identifying moral obligations they can safely ignore.
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The Vatican’s silence has been perhaps the most dispiriting. Hong Kong’s elderly cardinal, Joseph Zen, who has stood with Jimmy in the courtroom, sees his Church’s reticence for what it is: a misreading of the Chinese Communist Party by leaders who know persecuted communists but not communist persecutors.
This silence is not neutrality. It is complicity.
The West Kowloon courtroom where Jimmy’s trial unfolded is modern enough: glass boxes, metal detectors, and a gaudy display of armed police meant to intimidate observers. The judges, bewigged in the British manner, give the proceedings the solemn appearance of common law.
But the substance is pure fiat. The prosecution spent 52 days marching the court through subscription lists, emails, tweets, and circulation figures — routine journalism recast as treason.
Apple Daily, the outlet Lai founded, sold a million copies at its height. The state now treats that popularity as evidence of criminal conspiracy. Jimmy steadily denied inciting violence or calling for sanctions, insisting instead that Apple Daily gave voice to Hong Kongers’ desire for freedom.
I watched him from the gallery, sitting behind glass, frail after years in solitary confinement. His wife, Teresa, gripped her rosary. Cardinal Zen, 93 next month and himself under tight state restrictions, sat beside us. When Jimmy caught my eye and nodded, I traced the sign of the cross. His eyes filled with tears.
This is not the behavior of a man plotting insurrection. It is the quiet dignity of conscience under persecution.
The transformation of Hong Kong is part of a wider crisis within China itself. Since the National Security Law took effect in 2020, over 300 people have been arrested for political offenses; 45 pro-democracy activists have received sentences of up to ten years simply for organizing primaries. Beijing recently expanded the NSL to include vague categories like “external interference,” ensuring that any political dissent can be retroactively criminalized.
This is the portrait of a regime tightening control because it has lost the capacity to inspire.
Hong Kong’s extraordinary success was built on precisely the principles Beijing now fears: rule of law, open markets, free expression. Its people created a global entrepôt through ingenuity and liberty.
These habits of freedom do not vanish easily. If mainland Chinese — from tycoons to factory workers — were ever allowed to see that prosperity and liberty are twins, the Party’s foundation would tremble even if the Chinese people (and the world) would prosper.
Perhaps that is why Jimmy Lai is so dangerous.
Now that the official verdict has been handed down, Beijing will claim it is a matter of law. It is not. It is a matter of fear. The CCP — an empire of 1.4 billion — fears a single newspaper publisher because he embodies something they cannot permit: a free man.
Jimmy Lai could have escaped all this. He had the wealth, the passport, and the opportunity. But he stayed because Hong Kong “gave me my freedom,” he said, and he felt obliged to defend it. In this, he resembles other prisoners of conscience: Mandela, Solzhenitsyn, and the unnamed young man who stood before a tank on a Beijing boulevard 36 years ago.
The West has the power to elevate the cost of holding Jimmy Lai. The United Kingdom, of which Lai is a citizen, could apply targeted sanctions. The United States could treat his case with the urgency it affords other political prisoners. The Vatican could speak with the clarity and courage of its own martyrs. And ordinary citizens can demand that their governments act.
Silence, too, is an action.
The British educator Arnold Toynbee once wrote that civilizations do not die from murder but from suicide. The test of our generation is whether we are still willing to defend the principles on which our free societies are built — or whether we will barter them for trade access and diplomatic convenience.
The world will watch Monday’s verdict with predictable outrage. But outrage without action is merely performance. If we abandon Jimmy Lai, we lose more than one man’s liberty. We lose our own moral clarity. We forget what freedom looks like, sounds like, and demands of us.
Jimmy has repeatedly said that the truth will prevail, even if only “in the kingdom of God.” Let us prove that it can prevail in Hong Kong as well — and that the free world still remembers how to act like one.
***
Fr. Robert Sirico is a Catholic priest and co-founder and President Emeritus of the Acton Institute (<a href="https://www.acton.org/">www.acton.org</a>).
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Hong Kong Jimmy Lai National Security Law Court Case

Jimmy Lai’s Guilty Verdict — And The West’s

Christian Persecution

Christianity

Communist China

Closing arguments were finally <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/27/asia/jimmy-lai-hong-kong-trial-intl-hnk">completed</a> at the end of August in the National Security Law trial of Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai. Mr. Lai stands accused of colluding with foreign powers and faces life in prison. In all likelihood, the court will find Jimmy Lai guilty and sentence him to prison. 
While we await the final verdict, the West should make a plan to help free Jimmy Lai.
To say Jimmy Lai has lived a remarkable life is an understatement. Born in mainland China, the now 77-year-old Lai moved to British Hong Kong when he was 12, where he believed he would have a better future. Starting out working in a factory, Lai worked his way up, eventually owning his own factory before starting the world-famous fashion brand, Giordano. As a billionaire with homes in London, Paris, and New York, Lai could have easily rested on his laurels and enjoyed a quiet retirement. However, Lai had a great appreciation for the political and economic system that allowed him to build his wealth.
As a British colony, Hong Kong enjoyed the rule of law and free market economics that allowed it to thrive. However, the handover of the city back to communist China loomed large. In an effort to fight for the values that made Hong Kong great, Jimmy Lai founded the Apple Daily newspaper. Becoming one of the largest pro-democracy newspapers in Hong Kong, Apple Daily and its founder fell in the crosshairs of the communists in mainland China through its pro-liberty content. Lai himself drew attention through his annual commemoration of the Tiananmen Massacre, a huge sore spot for Beijing.
While <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/hong-kong-freedoms-democracy-protests-china-crackdown">promised</a> a degree of autonomy for 50 years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has gradually encroached on the freedoms of Hong Kong, a city of 7.4 million people. The Basic Law, Hong Kong’s constitution, promises freedom of speech and rule of law; the past few decades, however, have seen a gradual erosion of these rights. For example, millions of Hong Kongers took to the streets to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49340717">protest</a> a proposed law that would allow Hong Kongers to be extradited for trials in mainland China. While this law was retracted, it wasn’t long before something similar was implemented to take its place.
That brings us to the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/03/what-is-hong-kongs-article-23-law-10-things-you-need-to-know/">National Security Law</a> (NSL), which came into effect in 2020. Essentially, the NSL criminalizes any speech or behavior that the government sees as threatening its authority. For Jimmy Lai and other pro-democracy activists, this put them in danger. As was feared, the NSL has resulted in the arrest of hundreds of people. In a city once famous for its independent courts, the NSL has seen a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/29/china/hong-kong-47-verdict-intl-hnk">conviction rate</a> near 100%.
It was shortly after the implementation of the NSL that Jimmy Lai found himself in legal trouble. In August 2020, Lai was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/10/900758905/prominent-hong-kong-publisher-arrested-under-new-national-security-law">arrested</a> and paraded through Apple Daily’s office, allegedly for colluding with foreign powers. The truth, however, was that Lai objects to the authoritarianism of the CCP and wants to fight to preserve the freedoms that made Hong Kong great.
<div id="attachment_971739" style="width: 876px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-971739" class="size-large wp-image-971739" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-1227987205-866x576.jpg" alt="HONG KONG, CHINA - AUGUST 10: A handout photo from Apple Daily showing Hong Kong business tycoon Jimmy Lai led by police officers during a search at the headquarters of Apple Daily after Lai, was arrested at his home on August 10, 2020 in Hong Kong, China. Hong Kong police arrested seven people, including business tycoon Jimmy Lai on Monday on charges of violating the territory's new national security law. Police officers raided the pro-democracy newspapers headquarter while leading Mr. Lai and the company's chief executive, Cheung Kim-hung, through the offices in handcuffs. (Photo by Handout/Getty Images)" width="866" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-1227987205-866x576.jpg 866w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-1227987205-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-1227987205-768x511.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-1227987205.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px" />Handout/Getty Images</div>
It isn’t just the cause that makes Jimmy Lai a hero: Lai didn’t need to face the risk of arrest. In addition to his various homes around the world, Lai is a British passport holder. He could have fled Hong Kong at any time after the NSL became law. Many Hong Kongers already have. Running, however, is not in Jimmy Lai’s nature. As he <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/jimmy-lai-and-fight-freedom-hong-kong-1">put it</a>, “I am one of the troublemakers. I cannot cause trouble and then leave.” Lai risked everything by fighting for liberty and again risked it by staying when he could have left.
Even while he waits for a verdict, Lai faces terrible <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2025/09/04/jimmy-lais-life-at-serious-and-immediate-risk-in-detention/">prison conditions</a>. He is being held in solitary confinement, 23 hours a day. He has significant health problems but is being denied proper care. There is a good possibility that Lai could die in prison simply due to the conditions of his imprisonment, which is why the West must act quickly.
What can be done? For starters, political figures across the West should continue calling for Lai’s release. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/13/china/trump-jimmy-lai-closing-arguments-intl-hnk">President Trump</a> has joined the chorus of <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/the-dissident-beijing-cant-break-jimmy-lai-hong-kong">international voices</a> calling for Lai’s freedom. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer needs to fulfill his country’s obligation to stand up for Hong Kong’s autonomy. Lai is a British passport holder and therefore he is Starmer’s responsibility. In addition to public pressure, Starmer must also pause the construction of a new <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c864w2942vdo">Chinese mega embassy</a> in London. China should not be allowed a larger presence in the British capital while it actively persecutes dissidents.
Western governments can also sanction those involved in the administration of NSL trials. The U.S. has already <a href="https://www.state.gov/u-s-sanctions-six-individuals-for-undermining-hong-kongs-autonomy">sanctioned</a> several Hong Kong officials, but it can expand them to include senior HK officials such as Chief Executive John Lee, as well as the judges involved in these trials. The “One Country, Two Systems” framework promises Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, something the NSL interferes with.
Finally, other economic tools can also be applied. Legislatures should consider efforts such as tariffs on Chinese goods as a way to put pressure on Beijing. Restricting the flow of advanced microchips into China would hit the Chinese government where it hurts and impose a cost for its oppression of Hong Kongers like Jimmy Lai.
The Chinese will, of course, counter by saying this is foreign interference in an internal matter. The problem with that argument is that China’s promises to Hong Kong are recorded in a legally binding international treaty, the <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8616/">Sino-British Joint Declaration</a>. Sanctions are an appropriate response to breaking that treaty.
So, why should the West care about what happens to Jimmy Lai? First, what happens in Hong Kong doesn’t necessarily stay there. The Chinese government already has an extensive network set up to threaten dissidents living abroad. The construction of the mega embassy means these efforts will only continue and affect more British citizens. Second, Lai represents a voice for liberty in Hong Kong and China as a whole. If we want freedom to thrive, the world needs people like Jimmy Lai.
The clock is ticking for Jimmy Lai. Any day now, the judges hearing his case could sentence him to life in prison. His health and prison conditions mean his stay behind bars could quickly lead to his death. If the West wants to preserve its own freedom and that of Hong Kong’s, it needs to act to save Jimmy Lai.
* * *
<a href="https://www.joinyv.org/talent/matthew-cookson">Matt Cookson</a> is an alumnus of the Young Voices Contributor Program and was a Middle East History and Policy Fellow with Young Voices. He also works in the supply chain for a U.S. Defense Contractor. His commentary has appeared in the Mises Institute, Real Clear Politics, the National Interest, Providence Magazine, China Source, and the Idaho Freedom Foundation. You can follow him on X @<a href="https://x.com/MattCookson95">MattCookson95</a> and Substack @<a href="https://substack.com/@thewaythecookiecrumbles?utm_source=user-menu">thewaythecookiecrumbles</a>. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

The Clock Is Ticking For Jimmy Lai. Time For The West To Act.

Free Speech

Great Britain

Opinion

A former intelligence officer with the U.S. Army was sentenced on Wednesday to seven years in prison for selling critical military documents to an individual believed to be tied to the Chinese government.
Korbein Schultz, 25, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/army-intelligence-officer-pleads-guilty-to-selling-defense-information-to-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pled guilty</a> last year to conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information, unlawfully exporting controlled information to China, and accepting bribes in exchange for sensitive government information. The sale of the documents, which included information on American military technology, took place over a three-year period from May 2022 to March 2024, according to the Justice Department. 
“This defendant swore an oath to defend the United States — instead, he betrayed it for a payout and put America’s military and service members at risk,” <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-us-army-intelligence-analyst-sentenced-selling-sensitive-military-information">said</a> Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “The Justice Department remains vigilant against China’s efforts to target our military and will ensure that those who leak military secrets spend years behind bars.”
He could have faced 65 years in prison if given the maximum on all counts.
Schultz was paid $42,000 for sending the information to an unidentified foreign national living in Hong Kong believed to be connected to the Chinese government.
The information that he provided included his unit&#8217;s operational order before it was deployed to Eastern Europe, information applying lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war to Taiwan, technical manuals for the Army&#8217;s HH-60 helicopter and F-22A fighter aircraft, manuals on Intercontinental Ballistic Missile systems, American intelligence on the Chinese military and the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, details on American military exercises in South Korea and the Philippines, and documents on American military satellites and missile defense systems.
Schultz was first contacted to sell the secrets over a freelance web-based work platform by an individual pretending to work for a geopolitical consulting firm, according to the Justice Department. The department added that Schultz attempted to recruit a friend who worked for the Department of Defense’s Indo-Pacific Command to take part in the scheme as well.
The FBI&#8217;s Nashville office led the investigation, with assistance from the Department of Defense and the Army Counterintelligence Command.
“This sentencing is a stark warning to those who betray our country: you will pay a steep price for it,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “The People’s Republic of China is relentless in its efforts to steal our national defense information, and service members are a prime target. The FBI and our partners will continue to root out espionage and hold those accountable who abandon their obligation to safeguard defense information from hostile foreign governments.”

ASIAD-2025-CHN-OPENING

Former Army Intel Officer Sentenced After Selling U.S. Military Secrets To China

Crime

Department of Justice

kash patel

Pam Bondi

Politics

Spying

U.S. Army

Seven Chinese nationals on Monday were accused by the Justice Department of targeting American journalists and political figures, including senior members of a 2020 presidential campaign team, in a wide-ranging hacking operation. 
The defendants, Ni Gaobin, Weng Ming, Cheng Feng, Peng Yaow, Sun Xiaohui, Xiong Wang, and Zhao Guangzong, are accused of aiding a Chinese-backed hacking group in support of China&#8217;s Ministry of State Security’s foreign political and business espionage as well as surveillance of Hong Kong democracy activists and the Uyghur people. The seven allegedly worked for the Hubei State Security Department, which surveilled thousands of American politicians, academics, journalists, and businessmen from 2010 to 2024, according to the <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/24-cr-43_indictment_redacted.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indictment</a>. 
“These allegations pull back the curtain on China’s vast illegal hacking operation that targeted sensitive data from U.S. elected and government officials, journalists and academics; valuable information from American companies; and political dissidents in America and abroad. Their sinister scheme victimized thousands of people and entities across the world, and lasted for well over a decade,” <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/seven-hackers-associated-chinese-government-charged-computer-intrusions-targeting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. 
During one operation during the Trump administration that lasted from June to September 2018, hackers targeted Republican and Democrat senators from more than 10 states, White House officials, members of the Departments of Justice, Commerce, Treasury, and State, and members of Congress with malicious emails, the indictment said. These emails were reportedly also sent to the spouses of some of the political figures. 
In a different operation, multiple European politicians were targeted, including members of the European Union and more than three dozen parliamentary accounts in the United Kingdom, as part of surveillance into a group of politicians examining threats from the Chinese Communist Party.  
During the 2020 presidential election cycle, a non-specified campaign was targeted by hackers.
“In or about May 2020, the Conspirators began targeting email accounts belonging to several senior campaign staff members for a presidential campaign,” the indictment says. “In or about November 2020, the Conspirators sent emails containing tracking links to targets associated with additional political campaigns, including a retired senior U.S. government national security official.”
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The DOJ said in a press release that campaign staffers for Republicans and Democrats had been targeted ahead of the 2020 election but did not specify the campaigns or races. 
The indictment also said that millions of Americans were caught up in the hacking scheme, with phone call records, cloud storage accounts, and email accounts all being exposed. 
“America’s sovereignty extends to its cyberspace,” Peace added. “Today’s charges demonstrate my Office’s commitment to upholding and protecting that jurisdiction, and to putting an end to malicious nation state cyber activity.”

US-POLITICS-BIDEN

Chinese Nationals Charged With Hacking Senior Staffers For 2020 Presidential Campaign

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A U.S. Army intelligence analyst was arrested this week on allegations that he sold military secrets to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a>.
Korbein Schultz, a 24-year-old Army soldier stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky and Tennessee, was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-army-intelligence-analyst-arrested-and-charged-conspiracy-obtain-and-disclose-national" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charged</a> on Thursday with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, exporting technical data related to defense articles without a license, conspiracy to export defense articles without a license, and bribery of a public official. Schultz is accused of sending critical military documents, including information on U.S. weapons systems, to an individual in Hong Kong in exchange for $42,000.
“Mr. Schultz, a member of the U.S. Army, stands accused of conspiring to obtain and provide national defense information to an individual overseas. As part of the conspiracy, the defendant provided sensitive government information to his coconspirator in exchange for thousands of dollars, placing personal profit above the security of the American people,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department. 
Schultz <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2024/03/08/korbein-schultz-fort-campbell-us-army-soldier-accused-selling-secrets-china-pleads-not-guilty/72898109007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeared</a> in federal court in Nashville on Friday and pled not guilty to the crimes he is charged with.
According to the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1341561/dl?inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indictment</a>, Schultz’s illegal activity began in June 2022 and continued until his arrest. One of his most recent duties was listed as “Classified Document Custodian,” the indictment noted. 
The individual Schultz allegedly worked with is a foreign national who lives in Hong Kong and works for a geopolitical consulting firm. Schultz is accused of sending that individual documents related to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), information on hypersonic equipment, studies on the future development of U.S. military forces, studies on major countries like China, and summaries of military drills and operations.
The DOJ also said that Schultz sent an Air Force Tactics Techniques and Procedures manual for the HH-60W helicopter, an Air Force Tactics Techniques and Procedures manual for the F22-A fighter aircraft, and an Air Force Tactics Techniques and Procedures manual for intercontinental ballistic missile to the individual in Hong Kong. 
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“The conduct alleged in today&#8217;s indictment represents a grave betrayal of the oath sworn to defend our country,” FBI National Security Official Larissa Knapp said. “Instead of safeguarding national defense information, the defendant conspired with a foreign national to sell it, potentially endangering our national security.”
Earlier this year, Navy Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/navy-service-member-who-sold-secrets-to-china-sentenced-to-just-27-months-in-prison" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was sentenced</a> to just over two years in prison after he pled guilty to being bribed to send sensitive military information to a Chinese intelligence officer. He was paid at least $14,866 by a Chinese intelligence officer for sending information on the U.S. Navy operational security, military trainings and exercises, and critical infrastructure, according to the DOJ.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions Speaks At The 2017 Hate Crimes Summit

‘A Grave Betrayal’: U.S. Intelligence Officer Accused Of Selling Military Secrets To China

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CoCo Lee, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hong-kong" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hong Kong</a>-born singer and actress, died on Wednesday, according to a statement from her family. She was 48.
Lee&#8217;s sisters, Carol and Nancy, said in an Instagram post that CoCo had been suffering from depression for a few years, &#8220;but her condition deteriorated drastically over the last few months.&#8221;
The sisters said that Lee decided to take her life on Sunday and was later rushed to the hospital where doctors tried to save her. She died after being in a coma for three days.
&#8220;2023 marks the 30th anniversary of CoCo’s singing career, in the past 29 years, she’s won countless international acclaims with top selling songs and has left audience w[ith] an astounding impression of her excellent live performances,&#8221; the sisters said. &#8220;CoCo is also known to have worked tirelessly to open up a new world for Chinese singers in the international music scene, and she went all out to shine for the Chinese.&#8221;
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&#8220;We are proud of her! As a family of CoCo, we are very grateful and honored to have such an excellent and outstanding sister,&#8221; they said. &#8220;We are thankful to God for giving us such a kind angel. We know now she has gone to a happier place and no longer suffers from depression; we trust God has her best interest looked after!&#8221;
Lee was an international music star best known for her Oscar-nominated song &#8220;A Love Before Time&#8221; from the movie &#8220;Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2023/07/05/coco-lee-pop-singer-disney-star/">The Washington Post</a>. &#8220;She also voiced the lead character in Disney&#8217;s &#8220;Mulan&#8221; when it was released in China.
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CoCo Lee, ‘Mulan’ And ‘Crouching Tiger’ Singer, Dead At 48

Actress CoCo Lee, 'Mulan' And 'Crouching Tiger' Star, Dead At 48

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The following is an excerpt from U.S. Senator Josh Hawley&#8217;s new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/168451357X/?tag=regnerywebsite-20">Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs</a>, from Regnery Publishing.
<h2>Love and Hope</h2>
The man who makes war on the evil in his life and sacrifices his own pride opens his life, in the end, to something far more powerful. He opens it to love. Love is the burning center of the warrior’s existence and the secret of all true courage. The warrior loves something dearly and passionately more than himself. He loves his wife and children. He loves his nation. He loves God. And that love makes him strong.
Self-regard, by contrast, is a weak affection. It will consume your life, to be sure, as in the story of Narcissus, who loved his image so completely he wasted his life away staring at it. But it cannot inspire. If your life is relentlessly about you, you will never run toward danger. You will never confront the giants that threaten, whether your finances or your boss or an addiction. You won’t risk incurring the wrath of the powers that be by speaking the truth. You will always try to keep yourself safe, undamaged. And you will always have everything to lose. That way ends in despair and self-contempt.
A man’s conscience is a powerful thing. It will condemn the man who constantly avoids struggle and pain as a coward. But if you will abandon your focus on self, you will find the love that gives courage. And love, in turn, gives birth to hope.
Sometimes courage is portrayed these days as the refuge of the hopeless. J. R. R. Tolkien puts something that sounds like this sentiment into the mouth of Gandalf in his Lord of the Rings saga. “There never was much hope,” Gandalf says, as Sauron’s darkness grows and the quest to destroy the Ring seems to falter. “Just a fool’s hope.” Many have interpreted this passage to mean courage is most noble, most true, when the warrior believes he is doomed to fail. But that is not quite Tolkien’s point, and not the Bible’s either. Tolkien’s heroes soldier on not because they are fatalists, content to be mere pawns of chance. Nor because they are nihilists, believing all to be meaningless. They soldier on because they believe right will prevail. And they believe their lives can make a difference in making it so.
I have known men like this, and seen with my own eyes the power of their hope. In the fall of 2019, the Chinese Communist government in Beijing orchestrated a crackdown on the hitherto independent city of Hong Kong. Displeased with Hong Kong’s autonomy, and Hong Kongers’ (as they call themselves) criticism of the Beijing government, Communist leaders threatened to suspend self-government in the city, contrary to China’s own treaty obligations that guaranteed the city’s special status. In response, protestors took to the streets, only to be met in return by violent police repression. The protestors refused to back down, and the clashes turned bloody.
I was in my first year in the Senate at the time, watching these events unfold from afar. I learned from sources in Hong Kong that the protests were being informally led — it was in many ways truly a spontaneous uprising — by a group of young, very young, men and women. When I heard the accounts of their courage and listened to their pleas for help, I knew I had to go.
I traveled to Hong Kong in October of 2019 to meet with them and see the protests firsthand. The U.S. consulate in the city was less than delighted with my visit. Consulate staff advised beforehand against the trip. Once there, they strongly urged me to keep to my hotel. I politely ignored this advice. I wanted to see the protestors myself, see their courage and their stand, and lend whatever support I could.
One member of my staff had extensive contacts with the protestors. As soon as night fell, we left the hotel and headed toward where we believed, based on his information, the latest clashes between the government and the Hong Kongers were underway. We hailed a cab, but the driver refused to take us more than a few blocks. Eventually we walked, finding our way to the Mong Kok district, usually a bustling shopping and commercial hub, but on that night a battleground. The clashes between pro-Beijing police and the protestors had already turned violent by the time we arrived. A car burned in the street. Protestors were spray-painting “Free Hong Kong” on boarded-up windows. There were people running in every which direction. As we watched, a large group of Hong Kongers began to assemble in the middle of the road, peacefully, carrying signs decrying the crackdown. Suddenly a phalanx of pro-Beijing police in riot gear appeared opposite them, heavily armed. They took to loudspeakers and ordered the crowd to disperse. They threatened to disperse them by force if they did not.
The U.S. government often sends military liaisons with members of Congress when they travel abroad. In this case, at this moment, my military liaison leaned into my ear and said, “Sir, we should back away. If they begin firing into the crowd and we are caught up in it, it could cause an international incident.” He was right. But the protestors did not back away. We stayed too. I wanted to see with my own eyes what would happen. The protestors held their ground, and eventually it was the riot police who turned and moved back. All night long the protests continued, with explosions and violent exchanges in many parts of the city.
I met with the leaders of the protest the next morning. It was an honor. They were startlingly young — only in their early twenties, most of them. Several were veterans of earlier protest movements. A few had already spent time in prison. I promised to report what they were doing to people back in the United States, to explain what they were fighting for.
Why are you willing to face prison? I asked them — and though I did not name it, we all knew what else they faced, the other, ever distinct possibility: death. We love Hong Kong, they said, and we want to see it free. We believe we can be a beacon for the world. They had hope.
They were realistic at the same time. They knew the odds were long. They knew the Beijing government could destroy Hong Kong’s freedoms in a moment, if it chose. But they believed their stand was worth making, even if they did not live to see their cause succeed, because they believed their actions would echo and build and — in time — whether in their lifetimes or another’s, prevail.
That is the courage of hope. And even now, they go on hoping. After the events I witnessed, the Beijing authorities intensified the repression. They forcibly put down the protests. Many of the young people I met that October were later imprisoned or exiled. Yet their hope endures. And the light of that hope — in the right, in God — cannot be extinguished.
God made the world with a plan, to be something — an Eden. And even now that plan is advancing. Every man can play a part. We are born to play a part. That is a hope that pain and death cannot destroy. And a man who gives his life to that hope, and to its Author, will not be disappointed.
Josh Hawley serves as Missouri&#8217;s senior U.S. Senator.
This excerpt is taken from <a href="https://www.regnery.com/9781684513574/manhood/">Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs</a>, from Regnery Publishing.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Florida Governor Desantis And Former President Trump Headline Conservative Student Summit In Tampa

What I Learned About Manhood From The Hong Kong Protestors

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A Roman Catholic cardinal was arrested Wednesday by Hong Kong authorities on suspicion that he endangered communist China’s national security by colluding with foreign forces.
Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90 – along with three others – was arrested by Hong Kong’s National Security Police, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-religion-china-arrests-beijing-63d20b3a98288c10f610311b52ecd5a6">reported</a>. 
“Today’s arrests signal beyond a doubt that Beijing intends to intensify its crackdown on basic rights and freedoms in Hong Kong,” said Benedict Rogers, the CEO of U.K. human rights group Hong Kong Watch. “We urge the international community to shine a light on this brutal crackdown and call for the immediate release of these activists,” he added. 
Zen’s arrest was reportedly connected to his involvement with the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, “which provided legal aid to people who took part in 2019 pro-democracy protests that were quashed by security forces, the group said,” according to the AP.
Since 2020, communist China has cracked down on pro-freedom activists in Hong Kong, arresting many under the ill-defined National Security Law imposed by Beijing. 
Zen has criticized the Vatican for its 2018 agreement with the communist country for bishop nominations, the AP noted. The cardinal believes the agreement “was a sellout of underground Christians in China.”
For the Vatican’s part, it expressed concern with “the news of the arrest of Cardinal Zen and is following the evolution of the situation with extreme attention,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. 
The three others arrested in Hong Kong included singer and actress Denise Ho, lawyer Margaret Ng, and scholar Hui Po-kueng, who were all reportedly arrested for their roles with the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund. 
Just hours after Zen was arrested, the cardinal was reportedly released on bail from the Chai Wan Police Station.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NOW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NOW</a> Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, has just been released on bail from Chai Wan Police Station after being arrested by authorities over his links to a fund supporting <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HK?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HK</a> protesters
Zen, an outspoken critic against the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chinese?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chinese</a> Communist Party, waved to the media as he got onto a car <a href="https://t.co/4ggDK4lTnH">https://t.co/4ggDK4lTnH</a> <a href="https://t.co/EBBljqQjwK">pic.twitter.com/EBBljqQjwK</a>
&mdash; Chan Ho-him (@ThomasHHChan) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThomasHHChan/status/1524409203997102080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The arrests come days after Hong Kong selected a pro-Beijing former security chief to be its next leader through a closed voting process. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hong-kongs-next-leader-pledged-to-end-the-ideology-of-hong-kong-independence">reported</a> that John Lee was selected after being the only candidate on the ballot. Lee’s selection is widely viewed as part of communist China’s continued attempts to maintain control over Hong Kong. 
“Choosing [Lee] signals that the Chinese Communist Party is not confident about security in Hong Kong. It also lets us know that the central government continues to distrust the Hong Kong government and people,” John Burns wrote in a column for the Hong Kong Free Press.

Cardinal Joseph Zen

‘Crackdown On Basic Rights And Freedoms’: 90-Year-Old Cardinal Arrested On Suspicion Of Endangering Communist China

Roman Catholic Cardinal Arrested By Hong Kong Authorities On Suspicion That He Endangered Communist China

A pro-Beijing former security chief has been chosen as Hong Kong’s next leader prompting concerns about the future of civil liberties on the island. 
John Lee, who led the crackdown on pro-democracy activists back in 2019, was elected through a closed voting process which the New York Times described as a &#8220;rubber-stamp election.&#8221; He was the only candidate on the ballot and his selection is seen as another move for the Chinese Communist Party to assert its control over the jurisdiction. 
“I look forward to all of us starting a new chapter together, building a Hong Kong that is caring, open and vibrant, and a Hong Kong that is full of opportunities and harmony,” Lee <a href="https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-elections-beijing-hong-kong-f136ce684eaafab980800337dd9ef4c2">said</a> after he had been declared the winner. 
Lee was chosen by a committee of 1,500 people who were subject to screening from the mainland Chinese government. He earned 99% of the committee’s vote and will take over from outgoing leader Carrie Lam. 
The transfer of power comes as dissenting political voices are eliminated from Hong Kong politics, and only “patriots” loyal to the central government are now eligible to hold office, according to the Associated Press. 
Joseph Borrel, the European Union’s foreign policy head, stated that Lee’s victory “violates democratic principles and political pluralism in Hong Kong.”
Lee <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-61267490">supported</a> Hong Kong’s controversial extradition bill in 2019 which opponents said would give China the ability to target government critics and spurred widespread protests on the island. Lee was sanctioned by the U.S. for a sometimes forceful response to protesters while he said he was working “to safeguard security.”
The former Hong Kong security chief has also pledged to purge “the ideology of Hong Kong independence, violence and extremism.”
&#8220;Choosing [Lee] signals that the Chinese Communist Party is not confident about security in Hong Kong. It also lets us know that the central government continues to distrust the Hong Kong government and people,&#8221; John Burns noted in a column for the Hong Kong Free Press. 
Other critics have pointed to fewer “checks and balances” in the Hong Kong government and decreasing political liberties. 
“In the legislature and the election committee, there is almost no political opposition and the political spectrum is concentrated towards the pro-establishment camp,&#8221; said Ivan Choy, a lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
One pro-democracy group, the League of Social Democrats, protested at the polls expressing concern over the future of freedom in Hong Kong. 
“This is what John Lee&#8217;s new chapter looks like, a shrinking of our civil liberties,&#8221; protester Vanessa Chan said, according to the BBC. “We know this action will have no effect, but we don&#8217;t want Hong Kong to be completely silent.”

Hong Kongers Protest Ahead Of The G20 Summit

Hong Kong’s Next Leader Pledged To End ‘The Ideology Of Hong Kong Independence’

Hong Kong's New Leader Is A Pro-Beijing Former Security Chief

Election

In mainland China and Hong Kong, Easter was a private affair again this year for the tens of millions of Christians who would normally attend church services. All churches, temples, and mosques in mainland China have been locked down since COVID began more than two years ago, meaning that Christians and other believers haven’t been able to gather to celebrate religious holidays since 2019.
Hong Kong authorities also re-imposed pandemic lockdowns from early January until this week amid China’s worst COVID outbreak in two years. Many of Hong Kong’s Christian churches offered online Easter services that parishioners and other believers could watch virtually. Still, the future of those alternatives is now in doubt as Beijing continues to tighten its grip over the once semi-autonomous city.
Under President Xi Jinping, all religions have faced persecution. So far, international condemnation has mainly focused on the more than 1 million Uyghur Muslims forced into labor camps, which Beijing cynically calls “vocational training centers” in the country’s western region.
But Chinese Christians also have faced varied forms of suppression during Xi’s time in power. Catholic churches refusing to comply with state mandates <a href="https://bitterwinter.org/xi-jinping-portraits-replace-catholic-symbols/">have been torn down or had their crosses removed</a>, while images of Christ have been replaced with posters of Xi.
The Chinese government controls religious organizations by forcing them to register and submit to the leadership of approved “patriotic religious entities” that follow national guidelines, including teaching that loyalty to the country and communism are integral to their faiths. Those who refuse must operate underground, subject to government punishment.
For several years, the Christian church in Hong Kong was largely spared. But recent actions taken against Hong Kong’s Christian churches are chipping away at the religious freedom the city has enjoyed since the British established it as a colony in the early 1840s.
Reverend L., a visitor to the U.S. from Hong Kong who requested anonymity to speak to RealClearPolitics, said the Chinese government for more than 20 years has been trying to infiltrate and curtail the independence of Hong Kong churches because of their integral place in the city’s society and influence over young minds.
Roughly 60% of schools in Hong Kong are run by Christians – Catholics and Protestants – even though the government fully funds them, a vestige of the British colonial era.
“It was great because Hong Kong citizens could avoid the high tuition fees [for high-quality education], but now it’s actually bad for the church because the CCP is taking advantage of that and tries to control the church by controlling Christian schools,” Rev. L. told RCP. “Once they control Christian schools, they could basically control the church pretty easily.”
The CCP has already successfully compromised some of the principals and administrators of these schools by “wining and dining” them, the pastor said, and persuading church members to join the CCP. Meanwhile, the party is indoctrinating young priests in the Philippines and sending them to Hong Kong to replace aging clergy.
The Hong Kong government is also starting to take steps to curtail Internet freedom. On the mainland, a new law, imposed March 1, makes it illegal to share religious content online without government permission. While Hong Kong authorities haven’t gone that far, its leaders did shut down a handful of websites across the territory devoted to the 2019 citizen uprising against new laws ceding more of their autonomy to Beijing.
Tom Farr, president of the Religious Freedom Institute, based in Washington, D.C., said Xi’s ultimate goal is “Sinicization,” which is the absorption of any autonomous Chinese entities – in this case, religious organizations – into the communist apparatus.
“The reasons are not difficult to discern,” Farr tells RCP. “Despots throughout history, and certainly the totalitarians of the 20th and 21st centuries, have understood then, and understand today, that they will not retain power if substantial numbers of their citizens are faithful to an authority greater than the party and the state.”
Great Britain handed control of Hong Kong back to China nearly 25 years ago, triggering a massive emigration as residents feared an erosion of civil rights. China agreed to accept some conditions, including allowing Hong Kong to continue its “one-country, two systems” form of government for 50 years. Hong Kong, along with Taiwan, maintains its own financial, legal, and legislative operations independent from the mainland. But Xi has vowed to reunify both Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Xi and the CCP view Christians&#8217; strong institutional presence in Hong Kong as a significant hurdle to their goal of reunification. China’s Christians number more than 100 million (out of a population of 1.4 billion), making them the country’s largest religious minority. In Hong Kong, Rev. L. estimates there are approximately 650,000 Christians out of a population of 7.4 million. Despite their minority status, Christians have played an outsized role in resisting the CCP’s reunification efforts.
Christians were instrumental in helping organize the 2019 uprising, when millions of Hong Kong residents took to the streets to protest a proposed extradition law allowing Chinese leaders to arrest dissidents and hand them over to mainland government officials for prosecution. Moreover, many of the protesters attended Christian schools. Pastors and priests also held prayer vigils outside the legislature’s offices and often stood between protesters and police to prevent violent clashes. The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Christian Council, along with leaders from the leading Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist organizations, openly called for the government to respect the rights of citizens to march and assemble legally.
As Hong Kong police escalated the use of force against protesters, Roy Chan, a local preacher, began a hunger strike to call for withdrawal of the extradition bill, among other pro-democracy goals. When police didn’t tamp down the violence, Chan organized a team of pastors, social workers, and other volunteers to stand between advancing riot police and protesters in an attempt to mediate.
In the wake of the protests, China passed a wide-ranging “national security law” for Hong Kong that makes it easier to punish protesters and reduces the city’s autonomy. The law criminalizes any act of subversion, secession, collusion with foreign or external forces, and terrorism, defined as the use of violence or intimidation against people.
Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong billionaire who owns an opposition newspaper, was prosecuted under the new law and is currently serving a 14-month jail sentence for unauthorized assembly for his role in the 2019 protests.
Christian clergy faced less straightforward but still severe punishments for their involvement in the protests. In October, Chan testified to Congress that HSBC, the largest bank in Hong Kong, in 2020 had frozen his accounts and his wife’s, on order from the Hong Kong government. The couple and their children fled to the United Kingdom to escape prosecution.
The day after their departure, Hong Kong police accused the couple of money laundering and fraud and arrested the church’s accounting staff.
“It’s a pity that the Hong Kong government has acted similarly to the Chinese Communist party, using economic crimes to suppress dissidents,” Chan told the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan caucus within the House of Representatives created to promote and defend human rights around the globe.
“As of today, the religious freedom in Hong Kong is being suppressed severely,” Chan added. “Quite a number of pastors who support human rights and freedoms are moving to the UK from Hong Kong due to intimidations that they faced and different political concerns.”
Religious freedom advocates in the U.S. have also recently sounded the alarm over a meeting, held at Beijing’s insistence, between Hong Kong’s Bishop-elect Stephen Chow and 15 senior Catholic priests with the mainland’s state-controlled Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.
Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, in a <a href="https://www.hudson.org/research/17673-china-now-threatens-religious-freedom-in-hong-kong">recent essay</a> called the session “unprecedented,” recounting that while Chinese government officials watched on Zoom, the Hong Kong bishop and priests “were lectured on the fine points of President Xi’s religious policy of ‘Sinicization.’”
“While no directives were issued, priests knowledgeable about the unprecedented conclave reported that Xi was the elephant in the room” and viewed it as “just the first step in what the CCP calls their ‘reeducation,’” Shea wrote. “The clear takeaway was that Hong Kong’s churches, historically independent of the CCP, are having their wings clipped.”
In January, Tak Kung Pao, the Chinese government’s newspaper in Hong Kong, published several articles “angrily blaming the Christian schools for nurturing the movement against the party’s oppressive measures,” Shea noted, adding that all Hong Kong schools are legally required to provide the CCP’s “national security education” with more drastic educational changes “sure to follow.”
Some religious freedom advocates are placing partial blame for Beijing’s encroachment on the Vatican for not resisting China more vigorously. Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, hails from Argentina, which has a strong socialist government and has struck deals with Beijing that legitimize the “patriotic church.”
In 2020, Francis <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/world/europe/vatican-china-bishops.html">agreed with Beijing</a> that in exchange for China formally recognizing the pope’s authority within the church, the Vatican, in turn, would acquiesce to the legitimacy of bishops Beijing had previously appointed. To the dismay of critics, details of the agreement remain largely confidential. (Francis has also refused to meet with the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, a move that would anger Beijing.)
Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to the Vatican in an attempt to sink the deal over human rights and religious liberty concerns but was unsuccessful. The pope lifted an ex-communication of Chinese Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu just two years earlier as a precondition for a prior agreement. After his appointment to head the Mindong diocese, he led 33 diocesan priests to a “formation course” at the Central Institute of Socialism with the CCP’s local United Front, which mainly focuses on suppressing ethnic and religious groups.
Francis’ negotiations with the CCP stand in stark contrast with Pope John Paul II, a former bishop from Poland whose steadfastness helped do away with the Iron Curtain in the late 1980s. Through a series of speeches, John Paul II expressed moral umbrage at the Soviet Union’s efforts to wipe out religion and replace it with state atheism.
When Pope Francis is working with the CCP, it becomes “very, very difficult for priests in Hong Kong to voice any opposition against registration with the government because it sounds like Pope Francis has given implicit approval,” Rev. L. said.
Dissent from Cardinal Joseph Zen, Hong Kong’s widely revered bishop emeritus, prompted CCP threats earlier this year. <a href="http://www.takungpao.com/news/232109/2022/0127/681155.html">Ta Kung Pao accused him</a> of abusing his position to “disrupt Hong Kong” and threatened him with prosecution under the national security law.
With Beijing appearing increasingly emboldened, religious freedom advocates in the U.S. are urging the Biden administration and other international leaders to pressure Xi to stop threatening the church’s independence in Hong Kong.
Instead, Farr said, China is seeing weakness in the U.S. and complicity on the part of the Vatican.
“While the Vatican is not a ‘great power’ like the U.S., it has traditionally been the most effective and powerful moral voice in the international community,” he said. “Unfortunately, its facilitation of the savage designs of Xi Jinping, in the form of its disgraceful accord with his regime and its failure to stand with courageous Catholics like Jimmy Lai and Cardinal Zen, has dramatically reduced the Vatican’s moral influence in the world.”
And, Farr warns, Xi’s ambitions could easily spill over to Taiwan if China decides to emulate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“This is a dangerous moment for democracy, religious freedom, and peace in China and the region,” he said. “American weakness is a serious problem.”
The views expressed in this piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics&#8217; White House/national political correspondent.

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