A powerful earthquake hit off the coast of eastern Taiwan on Wednesday morning, leading officials to say at least <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/03/taiwan-japan-earthquake-tsunami-warning-74/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">at least nine</a> people were killed and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/03/world/asia/taiwan-earthquake.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hundreds</a> of others were injured due to the natural disaster.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us7000m9g4/executive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">measured</a> the earthquake at 7.4 magnitude, while Taiwan&#8217;s monitoring agency pegged it at 7.2, which would make it the strongest tremor to rock the island in 25 years, according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-earthquake-tsunami-f086aac0c3082036d1ca77c01828fb28" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Associated Press</a>.
News reports said buildings suffered damage, and dozens of people became stuck or lost in places such as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-earthquake-tsunami-f086aac0c3082036d1ca77c01828fb28" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quarries</a> and national parks. Search-and-rescue teams have been deployed to reach people who are trapped or stranded.
Multiple aftershocks followed the original quake, which led to tsunami warnings in places such as Japan and the Philippines. As reported by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/03/taiwan-japan-earthquake-tsunami-warning-74/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Post</a>, Shanghai and China&#8217;s southeastern provinces even felt the earthquake.
&#8220;Disaster response is underway following this morning’s 7.2 earthquake and aftershocks,&#8221; Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen <a href="https://twitter.com/iingwen/status/1775424526404538734" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post to X. &#8220;I’m deeply grateful for the messages of support we have received from around the world, and to our first responders for their life-saving work.&#8221;
Tsai added, &#8220;My heart is with everyone affected. Please keep in touch with loved ones, and stay safe.&#8221;
Images and videos posted to social media showed bridges shaking, debris falling, and even water from swimming pools raining down from towers.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Taiwan was struck by its strongest earthquake in 25 years on Wednesday.
Scenes of water cascading down the side of buildings and debris falling onto the streets below were captured. ⁣ <a href="https://t.co/my5Rkn16uB">pic.twitter.com/my5Rkn16uB</a>
&mdash; AccuWeather (@accuweather) <a href="https://twitter.com/accuweather/status/1775517766373589447?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson released a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/03/statement-from-national-security-council-spokesperson-adrienne-watson-on-the-earthquake-impacting-taiwan/">statement</a> that said officials at the White House are &#8220;monitoring reports of the earthquake impacting Taiwan and continue to monitor its potential impact on Japan.&#8221;
She went on, &#8220;The United States stands ready to provide any necessary assistance. All those affected are in our prayers.&#8221;
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/03/world/asia/taiwan-earthquake.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> Taiwan has been working to improve its early warning system and roll out new building codes to reinforce buildings over the years.
The island is regularly shaken by tremors given that it is situated in the <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/ring-fire/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pacific &#8220;Ring of Fire&#8221;</a> known for active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes.
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CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/02/asia/taiwan-earthquake-tsunami-warning-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that hit in 2018 near the same area where the tremor happened on Wednesday, Hualien County, killing at least 17 people and injuring more than 300 others.
In September of 1999, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan that killed more than 2,400 people, injured 100,000 more, and caused <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/earthquake-kills-thousands-in-taiwan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">billions of dollars</a> in damage.
USGS <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/today/index.php?month=4&amp;day=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> one of the world&#8217;s deadliest earthquakes shook Taiwan in April of 1935, leading to 3,270 deaths, 12,000 injuries, and 39,000 rooms destroyed or severely damaged.

Taiwan’s largest earthquake in 25 years leaves 4 dead, hundreds injured

Strong Earthquake Hits Taiwan, Killing At Least 9 People

earthquake

Japan

Natural Disaster

Taiwan

World

On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping — whose country has been accused of stoking the fentanyl trade with Mexican drug cartels that has killed tens of thousands of Americans — reportedly told President Biden that their two nations “should prioritize stability, not provoke troubles, not cross lines but maintain the overall stability of China-U.S. relations.”
The White House called the phone call between the two leaders “candid and constructive,” according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-xi-china-yellen-ai-taiwan-fentanyl-c3317fae3e45b04cffcda5bb63adee56?taid=660c2585f117680001e24287&amp;utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&amp;utm_medium=AP&amp;utm_source=Twitter">Associated Press</a>, which added, “Xi told Biden that the two countries should adhere to the bottom line of ‘no clash, no confrontation’ as one of the principles for this year.”
Next month, Taiwan will inaugurate Lai Ching-te as its president. He has promised to protect Taiwan’s independence from Communist China. Biden reportedly told Xi that he supported the United States “One China” policy. <a href="https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-taiwan/">According</a> to the U.S. State Department, the policy means that the U.S. opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side,” but does not support Taiwan&#8217;s independence and expects cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.
Xi threatened that Taiwan remains the “first red line not to be crossed” and Beijing wouldn’t tolerate any actions from Taiwanese independence supporters, AP reported.
According to investigative journalist and author Peter Schweizer, China is the main driver behind fentanyl being smuggled into the United States by Mexican drug cartels.
Schweizer, author of “Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans,” discussed the crisis on “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/fentanyl-america-s-silent-epidemic">Fentanyl: America’s Silent Epidemic</a>,” part of a DailyWire+ series by Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro on The Divided States of Biden. The author said the fentanyl trade that contributes to tens of thousands of American deaths every year begins in China.
“They’re the senior partner. The drug cartels are really the junior partner in the fentanyl trade,” Schweizer told Shapiro, speaking of the Chinese regime led by President Xi Jinping.
Ninety percent of fentanyl precursor chemicals shipped from China to Mexico arrive via Mexico’s Port of Manzanillo. The port is run by a Chinese company, according to Schweizer. From the port, the chemicals are taken to a town in northern Mexico close to the U.S. border. About 2,000 Chinese workers work in cartel labs to craft the precursor chemicals into fentanyl and then the fentanyl into pills resembling common drugs such as Vicodin or Adderall.
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Money from the drug trade is then laundered through the Chinese financial system.
Tim Pearce contributed to this article.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-is-the-senior-partner-directing-the-fentanyl-crisis-killing-americans-author-peter-schweizer-says">Related: China Is The ‘Senior Partner’ Directing The Fentanyl Crisis Killing Americans, Author Peter Schweizer Says</a>

TOPSHOT-US-CHINA-DIPLOMACY-APEC-SUMMIT

As Chinese-Backed Fentanyl Infiltrates America, Xi Tells Biden Not To ‘Provoke Troubles’

Communist China

Fentanyl

Joe Biden

Xi Jinping

Here’s how World War III could happen.
To understand how, we should look historically at the closest that the world has gotten to World War III since the end of World War II.
The world came closest to World War III during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the Soviet Union attempted to ship nuclear-tipped missiles into Cuba and the United States put a blockade around Cuba to prevent that from happening.
The United States and the USSR stood eyeball-to-eyeball and eventually the USSR backed down. But — that was very, very close.
To understand why we came so close to the brink of nuclear war in 1962, you actually have to reverse field for a few years.
The reality is that the USSR started to challenge the United States so strenuously around the world because of roughly a decade of weakness in American foreign policy.
This is how world wars break out — miscalculation. They break out because one side believes that the other side is likely to cave in the face of its aggression.
It&#8217;s particularly true when the United States shows its neck to its enemies. So to really understand what was happening in the lead-up to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, you have to return to 1956, when Dwight Eisenhower was president and there was a crisis that emerged in the Middle East.
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That crisis involved the Suez Canal. Nasser, the nationalist, pan-Arab nationalist leader of Egypt, decided that he was going to unite all the Arab countries by flexing muscle in the face of the West. And so he decided that despite the fact that he had nothing to do with the building of the Suez Canal, he would nationalize the Suez Canal.
The French and the British both had an interest in the Suez Canal. And they said to Nasser, you can&#8217;t do that. The United States stood on the sidelines and vacillated for a couple of reasons: They believed that if they were kind enough to Nasser, then Nasser would not align himself with the Soviet Union and that Nasser might, in fact, become the tip of the spear in some sort of American overture to the Arab world; if they were just kind and nice to Nasser, then everything would work out just fine. They were supposedly afraid that the USSR was going to get directly involved in the Suez Canal crisis.
Meanwhile, the British were no longer an international power of the sort of vintage they had been historically. The British and the French, who had historically not worked particularly well together, decided to work with the Israelis in order to liberate the Suez Canal, which the British had built.
They went to the Israelis, who were worried about the Egyptian militarization of the Sinai Desert, and Israel decided that it would work with the British and the French in order to free the Suez Canal and possibly overthrow Nasser and put in place somebody who was not going to be an enemy of the West.
The Israelis ended up moving into the Sinai desert, which they quickly overran, and then they were on the march to Cairo.
The plan was for the British and the French to intervene, tell the Israelis to stop, and take over the Suez Canal.
And then — Eisenhower stepped in and rapped everyone on the knuckles. The United States actually stepped in on Egypt’s side and said to the British and the French that this was a violation of international law, hoping Nasser would then align himself with the West. The United States was basically saying to the British and the French that they were no longer world powers.
Again, the Egyptian government didn&#8217;t build the Suez Canal. The British government did it. None of that mattered; the bottom line was that the United States decided to play non-aligned. And in playing non-aligned, Nikita Khrushchev, the new premier of the Soviet Union, decided now was the time to move.
The next thing that happened, just a few months later, was that there was an uprising in Hungary, a state in the Soviet sphere of influence. Suddenly there was a Hungarian revolution, an attempt to actually substitute the puppet government that had been installed by the Soviets with a new government, a better government that was going to essentially remain non-aligned.
The Soviets immediately invaded Hungary and crushed everything and killed everyone involved in the Hungarian revolution of 1956. By 1957, Sputnik was launched and the space race was on. By 1958, Nikita Khrushchev, believing that he had the impetus, felt he had the power to challenge the United States globally.
In 1958, he demanded the withdrawal of American troops and Western troops from Berlin, beginning what was known as the Berlin crisis. For three long years, the Soviet Union and the United States stood toe-to-toe over Berlin.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union facilitated a Cuban revolution that ended with Fidel Castro in charge of Cuba. In 1961, Khrushchev stepped in and solved the Berlin crisis by building the Berlin Wall, which lasted until 1989.
All of this led to the Cuban Missile crisis.
There is one rule when it comes to World War: Lack of clarity in your intention, vacillation, failure to make clear to your enemies what exactly your lines are.
Fake bluffs, empty threats. These things lead to war. Very often the open threat of war actually deters war. Very often, the willingness to actually flex muscle leads the other side to believe, “Hey, maybe I shouldn’t actually go and have this firefight with somebody. They&#8217;re ready to have the firefight.”
Miscalculation is the most likely way the great powers end up in war. That&#8217;s precisely what happened during World War I and happened during World War II. The Germans miscalculated because they thought that since the West had caved at Munich and because they&#8217;d been able to occupy the Sudetenland, they would then be able to then occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia. The aftermath of that was that they thought they could then occupy the Danzig corridor.
Failure of willingness to convey your intention, failure to act as an iron wall against the aggression of your enemies, leads to escalation. And then you actually do get dragged into hot wars that involve extraordinary numbers of casualties.
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Today there is a story out of the <a href="https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/131715/taiwan-usa-troops-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Express</a> that American troops are to be permanently stationed in Taiwan, according to Taipei.
Meanwhile, the Chinese are buzzing the borders of the Taiwan Strait, which is divided between Taiwan and China in terms of offshore control. Chinese jets have been busing the Taiwan Straits. The Chinese are again pursuing hypersonic missile tests.
Now, why would they be doing all of this? The reason they are doing that is because Joe Biden has demonstrated he&#8217;s showing his neck while China has been busily facilitating the creation of an anti-American, anti-Western alliance predominantly staffed by China, Russia and Iran.
Those are countries that are very obviously working together, so much so that the Houthis, an Iranian-backed terror group that is currently attacking shipping in the Red Sea, announced that they would not attack any Chinese or Russian shipping in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.
What the Biden administration should be doing is taking the position that it is going to destroy any Houthi attempts to harass shipping in the Red Sea. What the United States should be doing in Ukraine is holding the line; the United States does have an interest in holding the line against Russia. The United States, when it comes to Israel, should be saying that Israel has the full capacity to go in to strike Hamas, which is an Iranian proxy group.
The reason that China is getting aggressive with Taiwan, the reason that a war could possibly break out is because China is thinking, “We just don&#8217;t believe that Joe Biden is going to do anything about that. Not only that, you guys look so divided internally in the United States on foreign policy that if we make a move, we think that probably you will just let it go.&#8221;
The single most effective method of upgrading Chinese military capacity is to take or blockade Taiwan. It&#8217;s not about the money for the Chinese military; it is about the microchips. Taiwan is the largest manufacturer of microchips, sophisticated microchips on the planet.
Those microchips are the single greatest advantage the United States has in terms of military tech, because we design all the software here and then the hardware is then printed off and created in Taiwan, but we&#8217;re not even able to ramp up our microchip facilities in the United States fast enough to make up for Taiwan being lost.
But mostly, this is about will.
After the abandonment of Hong Kong, after the abandonment of Afghanistan, after the internal pressures in the United States over Ukraine and Israel, the Chinese are hoping that Taiwan is going to get the message and elect a government that is friendlier to China and then just give them the microchips. Suddenly their military would go from a very large but second-rate military to a first-class military.
It is a game of perception. How does the world perceive Joe Biden right now? They perceive him as weak. How does the world perceive the United States? They perceive the United States as divided. When you have a weak president and a divided United States, that seems like a really good time to march.
And that&#8217;s precisely why it matters.

Russia Holds 75th Anniversary Victory Parade Over The Nazis In WWII

Here’s How World War III Could Happen

Ben Shapiro

Biden Administration

China

Communism

Cuba

Egypt

Opinion

Readers Pass

Russia

The Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill early Tuesday morning that allocates money for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The bill passed on a 70-29 vote, with over half of Senate Republicans voting against the measure. 
The aid package allocates $61 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $4.83 billion to U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific, and over $9 billion in global humanitarian aid. The bill passed with support from nearly all Democrats and 22 Republicans. 

“It&#8217;s certainly been years, perhaps decades, since the Senate has passed a bill that so greatly impacts not just our national security, not just the security of our allies, but the security of western democracy,&#8221; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-heads-toward-final-passage-ukraine-aid-bill-2024-02-13/#:~:text=WASHINGTON%2C%20Feb%2013%20(Reuters),Republican%2Dcontrolled%20House%20of%20Representatives." target="_blank" rel="noopener"> said</a>, according to Reuters. 
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel (R-KY) also pushed the bill forward. 
“The Senate understands the responsibilities of America’s national security and will not neglect them,” McConnell <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/us/politics/senate-ukraine-aid.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> after the vote. “History settles every account. And today, on the value of American leadership and strength, history will record that the Senate did not blink.”
Sens. John Boozman (R-AR), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Cornyn (R-TX), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Hoeven (R-ND), John Kennedy (R-LA), McConnell (R-KY), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), James Risch (R-ID), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), John Thune (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Todd Young (R-IN) joined Democrats in passing the measure. 
The bill was opposed by conservative senators who have pushed for funding to prioritize the border crisis and the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States. 
&#8220;Americans are going to hold people accountable that chose to move on from border security and fund foreign nations before we took care of our own homes,&#8221; Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) <a href="https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1757191475572457941" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> during debate on the bill.
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“This morning the America last caucus got a $61 billion aid package out of the Senate. But they paid dearly for this small win. The House won’t pass the current bill. We must fix our country before devoting more resources to Ukraine. That’s our message, and the fight goes on,” Sen. J.D. Vance <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance1/status/1757357710905872637">said</a>. 
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) criticized McConnell for backing the aid package. 
“Most Senate Republicans vote no. McConnell of course votes with the Democrats. He is Biden’s chief foreign policy supporter these days. That position is an island — and the gulf between it &amp; the rest of America is only getting wider,” he said. 
“Nearly every Republican senator under the age of 55 voted NO on this America Last bill. 15 out of 17 elected since 2018 voted NO. Things are changing just  not fast enough,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) said. 
The foreign aid package followed up an attempt to pair it with some border security measures earlier this month in a proposal negotiated between Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and top Democrats. That measure failed after conservative senators said that the bill would do nothing to stop the flood of people illegally crossing the border.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has been critical of the Senate&#8217;s foreign aid bill, saying on Monday that it was &#8220;silent on the most pressing issues facing our country.&#8221;
&#8220;The mandate of national security supplemental legislation was to secure America&#8217;s own border before sending sending additional foreign aid around the world,&#8221; Johnson said.

Menorah Lighting Dec 12

Senate Passes $95 Billion Foreign Aid Bill Despite Opposition From Over Half Of Republican Senators

Border Crisis

Chuck Schumer

Congress

Foreign Policy

Israel

JD Vance

Josh Hawley

Mitch McConnell

Politics

A number of factors seemingly converging at the same time are increasing the likelihood that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/taiwan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Taiwan</a> could soon be invaded.
For starters, Taiwan elected Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as their next president last week, who has vowed to keep the island nation independent from communist China. This comes despite China&#8217;s warnings that Taiwan will be reunited with it either through elections or through the Chinese military invading the country.
Combine the election results with China&#8217;s economy being in bad shape and the possibility that Joe Biden&#8217;s presidency could soon come to an end — which has been hallmarked with projecting weakness when it comes to dealing with foreign adversaries — and the likelihood increases that China could view the near future as their best opportunity to invade Taiwan.
Those fears are like to surge even further given a new report from The Wall Street Journal this week that warns that billions of dollars worth of American weapons that Taiwan needs to defend itself from Chinese invasion have not been delivered and could still be years away from arriving.
&#8220;Most contracts for defense equipment signed under both the Trump and Biden administrations have been stalled by bureaucratic delays and capacity limits at defense manufacturers, creating a $19 billion backlog of uncompleted orders&#8221; the report said.
Former Taiwanese defense minister Andrew Yang said that Taiwan has asked to receive at least limited quantities of the weapons so they can begin training with the weapons systems, and they have received no response.
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&#8220;One of the largest deals—a $2.37 billion contract for 400 Harpoon antiship missiles and related equipment—was signed in 2020 without a delivery date specified at the time,&#8221; the report added. &#8220;The Pentagon issued an order for the production of the same number of missiles last year, with completion of the project slated for March 2029. It didn’t name the buyer, but a Taiwan government official said Taipei understands it is the same order.&#8221;
Taiwan is also waiting to receive dozens of High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers, MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones, tanks, torpedoes and other missiles.

TOPSHOT-TAIWAN-MILITARY-DRILL

Weapons Problem Increases Likelihood Taiwan Could Soon Be Invaded By China

General

Lai Ching-te

Military Weapons

Communist China conducted its largest military drills around Taiwan in weeks on Wednesday, which comes just days after Taiwan once again elected a president that has vowed to confront China.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said that China&#8217;s military conducted air and naval operations near the island nation last night with 24 planes and five ships.
&#8220;The security and prosperity of the Taiwan Strait region are closely related to global development and stability, and are obligations and responsibilities that all parties in the region must share,&#8221; Taiwan <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taiwan-reports-first-major-post-election-chinese-military-activity-2024-01-17/">said</a> in a statement. &#8220;The military will continue to strengthen its self-defence capabilities by enemy threats and self-defence needs, and respond to regional threats.&#8221;
The military exercises come after Taiwan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/taiwanese-voters-snub-china-by-electing-pro-independence-party-to-third-term">elected</a> Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) last week to become the island nation’s next president. His victory marks the first time that a political party in Taiwan has won a third straight presidential election, Bloomberg News reported. The DPP has vowed political independence from China and views Taiwan as its own sovereign nation.
“This is a night that belongs to Taiwan. We managed to keep Taiwan on the map of the world,” Lai <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/13/asia/taiwan-presidential-election-results-intl-hnk/index.html">told</a> supporters after winning. “The election has shown the world the commitment of the Taiwanese people to democracy, which I hope China can understand.”
His election victory came despite warnings from China that Taiwan will be reunited with it either through elections or through the Chinese military invading the country.
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A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs lashed out after the election, saying that it does not matter “whatever changes take place in Taiwan, the basic fact that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China will not change.”
“The one-China principle is the solid anchor for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the spokesperson added. “We believe that the international community will continue to adhere to the one-China principle and understand and support the Chinese people’s just cause of opposing ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities and striving to achieve national reunification.”
Fears of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan have increased significantly in recent years due to a variety of reasons, including but not limited to: China making serious investments in its military, China&#8217;s economy not being in good shape, and weakness from the Biden administration.
The Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/if-bidens-polls-get-worse-this-summer-look-out-taiwan">warned</a> in an op-ed this week that if President Joe Biden is not polling well against whoever becomes the Republican Party&#8217;s presidential nominee, China could view their window for launching an invasion as closing and thus launch an invasion in the coming months.

Sea Cup Competition Of IAG 2022 In Qingdao

China Conducts Large Military Maneuvers Around Taiwan As Fears Of Invasion Loom

Global Politics

There’s a serious major crisis on the foreign policy front, and it’s going to get worse if Joe Biden is trailing in the polls come the summer.
China is looking at a low reproduction rate of close to one birth per woman, and the government is blowing up empty hotel buildings. The Chinese government has sunk all their money. They have borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars, and they plowed money into building empty skyscrapers, ghost cities in the middle of nowhere. And then they “convinced” people in China to take their life savings and put them in these empty apartments. And the empty apartments are worth zero dollars.
China built them; now they’re blowing them up to create artificial scarcity. China&#8217;s economy is not in good shape.
China has serious systemic problems. One of those big systemic problems is that the less access they have to the modern military technology available in Taiwan, for example, the less competitive they are with the United States. So they are falling further behind.
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But — the one thing they have going for them is a perception of Biden&#8217;s weakness. If we get to June, July, and August, and Biden is seriously trailing in the polls, we could see China decide their window is closing, knowing that if they don&#8217;t go after Taiwan they would be in trouble because a GOP president would not treat the situation the same way as Biden would.
Biden has been extremely conciliatory towards Xi Jinping, so China may think to themselves, “We better do this now before Joe Biden is out of office.”
But if they invade Taiwan, the American election will turn into a blowout win for the GOP. If we&#8217;re in the middle of a war with China, or at least a standoff over a blockade of Taiwan, things would get even more dicey for Biden&#8217;s reelection efforts.
The voters of Taiwan have made it clear to China that they have no intention of appeasing them. Good for them. NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taiwan-election-vice-president-lai-wins-vote-defying-china-rcna133597" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported:</a>
<blockquote>Voters in Taiwan elected Vice President Lai Ching-te as their next president on Saturday, defying warnings from Beijing not to support a candidate it has called a separatist and a ‘troublemaker.’ The election, which China has described as ‘a choice between war and peace,’ could test recent efforts by Beijing and Washington to repair relations that in recent years have fallen to their lowest point in decades. …
Lai’s victory extends the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is considered the least friendly party to Beijing. Relations between Taiwan and China have deteriorated under President Tsai Ing-wen, who was first elected in 2016 and is limited to two terms. Voters in Taiwan, especially younger ones, were concerned not just with China policy but with economic issues like unemployment, housing costs and income inequality. Lai won with 40% of the vote, compared with 33% for Hou Yu-ih of the main opposition party, the Kuomintang, and 26% for Ko Wen-je, founder of the populist Taiwan People’s Party. Hou and Ko, who both favor closer ties with Beijing, had argued that the DPP’s policies toward China were too confrontational.</blockquote>
So if you&#8217;re China, you&#8217;re looking at a more confrontational Taiwan.
And if you&#8217;re China and you are looking at a conciliatory Biden administration that may be losing to Donald Trump, that may be a time you start thinking very seriously about accelerating whatever military plans you have for Taiwan.
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Taiwan Holds Presidential Election

If Biden’s Polls Get Worse This Summer, Look Out Taiwan

2024 Election

Donald Trump

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/taiwan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Taiwanese</a> voters sent a clear political message to communist China late last week by electing Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to become the island nation&#8217;s next president.
This marks the first time that a political party in Taiwan has won a third straight presidential election, Bloomberg News <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-taiwan-election/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The DPP has vowed political independence from China and views Taiwan as its own sovereign nation.
“This is a night that belongs to Taiwan. We managed to keep Taiwan on the map of the world,” Lai told supporters after winning. “The election has shown the world the commitment of the Taiwanese people to democracy, which I hope China can understand.”
His election victory came despite warnings from China that Taiwan will be reunited with it either through elections or through the Chinese Military invading the country.
A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs lashed out after the election, saying that it does not matter &#8220;whatever changes take place in Taiwan, the basic fact that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China will not change.&#8221;
&#8220;The one-China principle is the solid anchor for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,&#8221; the spokesperson added. &#8220;We believe that the international community will continue to adhere to the one-China principle and understand and support the Chinese people’s just cause of opposing ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities and striving to achieve national reunification.&#8221;
The DPP secured just over 40 percent of the vote while the Kuomintang political party secured one-third of the vote and the Taiwan People’s Party secured just over a quarter of the vote. Kuomintang and the Taiwan People’s Party are friendlier toward China than the DPP.
However, the DPP lost control of the legislature after losing 10 seats which means that no one party will have control over the legislature or over the island&#8217;s government.
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Lai called his win a “victory for the community of democracies” against authoritarian governments, like China.
“I will act in accordance with our democratic and free constitutional order in a manner that is balanced and maintains the cross-strait status quo,” he said. “At the same time, we are also determined to safeguard Taiwan from continuing threats and intimidation from China. In the future, we hope that China will recognize the new situation, and understand that only peace benefits both sides of the strait.”
President Joe Biden responded to Taiwan&#8217;s election results with weakness, saying: &#8220;We do not support independence.&#8221;

2024 Presidential voting in Taiwan

Taiwanese Voters Snub China By Electing Pro-Independence Party To Third Term

Elections

Historian Niall Ferguson <a href="https://twitter.com/nfergus/status/1741547164529291327">says</a>, “It will seem obvious that by 2033, if not sooner, that the pax americana—” the idea of an American hegemony dominating the globe — “faced a well-coordinated challenge from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea in the early 2020s.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Future historians will marvel at all this. It will seem obvious by 2033, if not sooner, that the pax americana faced a well-coordinated challenge from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea in the early 2020s. The first move was the invasion of Ukraine. The second was the war of…
&mdash; Niall Ferguson (@nfergus) <a href="https://twitter.com/nfergus/status/1741547164529291327?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 31, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He continues: 
<blockquote>The first move was the invasion of Ukraine. The second was the war of Iran&#8217;s proxies against Israel. The third will most likely be a Chinese challenge to American primacy in the Indo-Pacific, perhaps — if Xi Jinping is bold — a blockade of Taiwan.
<a href="https://twitter.com/nfergus/status/1741547168509665751" target="_blank" rel="noopener">If, in the course of 2024,</a> Ukraine&#8217;s position becomes so vulnerable that its forces must withdraw from some contested territory, three immediate consequences will follow. First, more refugees will flow from Ukraine to Europe. … Second, private investors will be even less likely to risk their money on Ukraine. Third, European governments will have to get a lot more serious about their own defense spending, with all the obvious political headaches that implies.
<a href="https://twitter.com/nfergus/status/1741547172338991531" target="_blank" rel="noopener">For NATO</a> as a whole, at 3.5% of GDP on defense spending would require $431 billion more per year — nearly twice the amount all countries have pledged to Ukraine since last year.
<a href="https://twitter.com/nfergus/status/1741547176273313976" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The pax americana </a>seems to be ending. The fate of Ukraine — of Israel and Taiwan, too — hangs in the balance. I cannot say I am surprised. It was always very likely the overreach of the Global War on Terror would be requited in this way: with a resurgence of isolationism.</blockquote>
And that&#8217;s what&#8217;s happening inside the Biden administration now. The realist foreign policy that Donald Trump pursued was not, in fact, an appeasement-oriented foreign policy. The idea that Europe should pay its own way when it comes to military spending and that the United States would still be a muscular player in the world was not a bad idea from Trump. The idea of getting rid of NATO entirely was a bad idea, but the idea that NATO should actually be paid for by many of our allies was, of course, entirely true. They were relying on us for years to pay the freight when it came to their military spending.
The problem is Joe Biden came into office and his strategy has basically been to make broad statements that don&#8217;t materialize in the way he would like them to.
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For example, the Ukraine war: Joe Biden never made clear what the exact interest was in the Ukraine war. Let&#8217;s say, at the very outset, Biden had said, “Listen, the interest in Ukraine is not to reverse the gains Russia made in 2014 because those are not reversible at this point given the state of the war. The purpose here is to repel any future Russian invasion of Ukraine, and we will provide military support necessary to do that.”
Right now, the broad scale perception in Russia would be that Russia was losing the war — because they did. They tried to invade Ukraine. They lost. It didn&#8217;t work. The United States, through its proxy in Ukraine, was able to completely degrade the Russian ability to make large scale war in Ukraine. That is a victory for the United States, and yet somehow it has turned into a loss.
Why?
Because Biden never anticipated nor articulated what exactly his goal was. Instead, he basically said Volodymyr Zelenskyy will establish the goal over in Ukraine, and Zelenskyy&#8217;s goal is not the United States&#8217; goal. Zelenskyy&#8217;s goal is to repel Russia from the Donbas region, from Crimea. Push them out of all of those areas.
But that was never realistic. That was never going to happen, no matter how much military aid America provides—unless the United States is willing to start sending over F-16s. If that&#8217;s not going to happen, there is no way to break the stranglehold Russia has on those areas.
So right now, Vladimir Putin is just waiting out Joe Biden because Republicans have correctly said we need to know what the plan is here. And Biden is not articulating a plan.
Over the course of last week, Putin said Russia would increase the strikes on Ukraine. Putin&#8217;s bet all the way along has been very simple, which is that he is going to outlast the United States. The history of Russian war-making is to expend way too much material and way too many men in pursuit of a military goal. The history of Russian military conquest says, “We don&#8217;t really care very much about our own citizens, and we are willing to throw hundreds of thousands and millions of people at a problem.”
In World War I, the Russians were perfectly willing to sacrifice millions of people charging frontally blocked positions, charging machine gun positions with no weaponry. That&#8217;s actually part of the Russian military mentality. The notion that their mentality is going to be pushed off the ball by Biden basically saying Zelenskyy can make the case is not going to do it. So Putin is going to continue to ratchet up the pressure.
Basically, Putin is betting the West is simply going to give up on this. And the reality is that because of failures to articulate the goals and strategies, the West may, in fact, give up on Ukraine.
Now, if that happens, it is much more likely that China is going to become ever more militant.
China is watching a West in retreat around the globe from powers that should not have the West in retreat. Forget about Russia, which is a nuclear-armed power. When you look at the Middle East, the fact that the West is being challenged by a bunch of ragtag pirates in the Red Sea is totally insane. The West is somehow hand-wringing over a democratic ally, Israel, trying to destroy a terrorist group, Hamas, that just committed the worst act of murdering Jews since World War II. “What do we do? What do we do? How far should the Israelis go?”
China&#8217;s watching all that, and they can see it: That is a West in retreat.
ABC News <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/us-navy-sinks-3-houthi-boats-attacking-merchant/story?id=106016731">reported</a> on Sunday:
<blockquote>U.S. Navy helicopters returned fire and sank three small boats carrying Houthi militants in the Red Sea on Sunday, after U.S. warships responded to a distress call from a merchant vessel, military officials said. A Maersk container ship, the Singapore-flagged Hangzhou, issued a distress call at about 6:30 a.m. local time, U.S. Central Command said in a <a href="https://x.com/CENTCOM/status/1741381969936834951?s=20">statement</a> on Sunday. The merchant vessel said four small boats were attacking it. … Helicopters from two U.S. ships &#8212; the USS Eisenhower and the USS Gravely &#8212; responded and issued verbal calls to the small boats, U.S. officials said.</blockquote>
Remember, the Biden administration delisted the Houthis as a terrorist group when they came into power.
And right now, U.S. military assets are basically sitting out there having to wait to blow up these tiny inflatables being driven by illiterate morons with badly programmed drones. It&#8217;s insane.
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Meanwhile, Iran is upping the game. Iran&#8217;s Alborz warship has now entered the Red Sea.
What is the Biden administration doing? According to the Jerusalem Post, a U.S. aircraft carrier was being removed from this area.
As the challenges are being upped against shipping in the Red Sea, the U.S. is removing the USS Gerald Ford. Instead, it&#8217;s heading out of the Mediterranean Sea. To go where exactly? Where else is there? A massive sea problem that requires the help of this U.S. battleship? Why is the Ford leaving? No one exactly knows. So Iran is upping its aggressiveness in this area.
China is looking on and thinking to itself, Man, we&#8217;re fools if given our current economic situation, we don&#8217;t make a move for Taiwan again. All of this could easily be the predicate to the idea that the Chinese window is closing and they need to move—and they need to move right now.
With Joe Biden as president, don&#8217;t be surprised if a lot of the hot spots around the globe start to heat up even more.

US-POLITICS-BIDEN-ARRIVAL

Biden Fiddles While The World Burns 

Iran

NATO

Niall Ferguson

Ukraine-Russia War

Chinese communist dictator <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/xi-jinping" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Xi Jinping</a> told President Joe Biden to his face last month that China is going to take over Taiwan and that there was nothing the U.S. could do to stop it.
The way that his private remarks were delivered to Biden was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/xi-warned-biden-summit-beijing-will-reunify-taiwan-china-rcna130087" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> by NBC News as &#8220;blunt and candid,&#8221; as he said that China preferred that the process happened peacefully, although warned that China would use its military if any foreign power tried to stop China from achieving its goal.
While U.S. Military officials believed that Xi intends to take over Taiwan as soon as 2025, he said that no official timeline has been decided upon at this point. U.S. officials were concerned about the timing of his remarks as Taiwan prepares to conduct elections and China has shown increased belligerence toward the island nation.
The report said that the Biden administration was &#8220;aggressively trying to avoid a military conflict with China,&#8221; a move likely to embolden Chinese military action as Biden&#8217;s weakness on foreign policy issues around the world have led to countless examples of increased aggression from America&#8217;s adversaries.
Biden himself said after the meeting that what he was &#8220;all about&#8221; was making sure the U.S.-China relationship &#8220;doesn&#8217;t result in conflict,&#8221; which comes as the communist nation steals billions of dollars of intellectual property per year from the U.S. and floods America&#8217;s streets with fentanyl by giving the Mexican drug cartels the precursor chemicals that it needs to make the lethal drug.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) responded to the report by calling on Democrats and Republicans to come together to defeat the Chinese threat to Taiwan.
“This story as reported is beyond unnerving,” Graham said. “I will be working with Democratic and Republican Senators to do two things quickly. First, create a robust defense supplemental for Taiwan and second, draft pre-invasion sanctions from hell to impose on China if they take action to seize Taiwan.”

Xi Jinping Tells Biden China Will Retake Taiwan, Biden Signals He’s ‘Aggressively Trying To Avoid Conflict’

Xi Jinping Tells Biden China Will Retake Taiwan, Biden Signals He's 'Aggressively Trying To Avoid Conflict'

According to a report, Chinese President Xi Jinping lectured President Joe Biden when they met in San Francisco that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with Communist China and derided claims by American military officials that he has set a date for the unification of the two countries.
Those comments were reportedly made during a meeting between Chinese and American officials. Xi claimed that his preference would be to unite with Taiwan peacefully and not use force, NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/xi-warned-biden-summit-beijing-will-reunify-taiwan-china-rcna130087" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported.</a> Xi mentioned the pronouncements by American military leaders that Xi would attempt to conquer Taiwan sometime in the next four years and said the predictions were incorrect because he had not set a date for when the two countries would be unified.
“His language was no different than what he has always said. He is always tough on Taiwan. He’s always had a tough line,” a U.S. official said of Xi.
Chinese officials allegedly asked before the two leaders met that Biden publicly state that the U.S. supports Communist China unifying with Taiwan and also aver that the U.S. does not support Taiwanese independence. That statement was not made.
In October 2022, at the Chinese Communist Party Congress, Xi <a href="https://english.news.cn/20221016/29113f9cbf3247978534dd1f4aee299e/c.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>, “Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese, a matter that must be resolved by the Chinese. We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort, but we will never promise to renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary.”
Last February, the U.S. military used an F-22 Raptor to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean after it had crossed over Montana, where several defense assets and missile silos are situated, then <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinese-spy-balloon-flies-out-of-montana-and-over-new-u-s-state" target="_blank" rel="noopener">traveled</a> over midwestern states such as Kansas and Missouri.
Biden later claimed during his “State of the Union” speech that he had protected U.S. sovereignty, saying, “Before I came to office, the story was about how the People’s Republic of China was increasing its power and America was falling in the world, Not anymore. I’ve made clear with President Xi that we seek competition, not conflict. &#8230; make no mistake: as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did.”

U.S.-CALIFORNIA-XI JINPING-BIDEN-MEETING

Xi Told Biden He Would Prefer Not To Use Force To Unify With Taiwan: Report

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/communist-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> is expanding its nuclear arsenal unexpectedly quickly while it continues to threaten Taiwan, warned a new Pentagon report on Thursday.
China has built up its nuclear arsenal to over 500 warheads, an increase of roughly 100 over the past year and more than U.S. security officials had predicted a year ago, according to the Defense Department’s annual <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2023/Oct/19/2003323409/-1/-1/1/2023-MILITARY-AND-SECURITY-DEVELOPMENTS-INVOLVING-THE-PEOPLES-REPUBLIC-OF-CHINA.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China Military Power Report</a>. The Department of Defense (DOD) estimates that China’s nuclear stockpile will double to roughly 1,000 warheads by 2030.
“In 2022, Beijing continued its rapid nuclear expansion, and DoD estimates that the PRC possessed more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023 — on track to exceed previous projections,” the report says.
China’s stockpile of nuclear warheads is “on track to exceed previous projections,” a senior DOD official told <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/19/major-expansion-china-now-has-more-than-500-nukes-pentagon-says-00122440" target="_blank" rel="noopener">POLITICO</a>. “What they’re doing now, if you compare it to what they were doing about a decade ago, it really far exceeds that in terms of scale and complexity.”
“They’re expanding and investing in their land, sea and air-based nuclear delivery platforms, as well as the infrastructure that’s required to support this quite major expansion of their nuclear forces,” the official said.
China has taken aggressive steps in recent years to threaten Taiwan, which China claims is part of the Chinese state. Taiwan maintains it is independent.
“In 2022, the PRC amplified diplomatic, political, and military pressure against Taiwan. The PLA’s increased provocative and destabilizing actions in and around the Taiwan Strait included ballistic missile overflights of Taiwan, sharply increased flights into Taiwan’s self-declared ADIZ and a series of major military exercises near Taiwan,” the report states.
The report says that Chinese leader Xi Jinping, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, has made clear his desire to subsume Taiwan under the Chinese regime through “peaceful unification,” but “would never renounce the use of force as an option.”
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Ying-yu Lin, a military expert at Tamkang University in Taipei, said that China’s military buildup and its aggressive posture toward Taiwan are linked.
“I don’t think that China has a timetable for unification, but they have a timetable for upgrading the military strength of the People’s Liberation Army,” Ying-yu said, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/world/asia/china-military-nuclear-weapons.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a>. “We cannot say that as the People’s Liberation Army’s strength grows, it will certainly take on Taiwan. The two must be clearly distinguished.”

China Expanding Nuclear Arsenal Faster Than Expected: Pentagon

Department of Defense

Washington D.C.

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