U.S. Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX) said Sunday the odds of a conflict with China by 2025 &#8220;are very high&#8221; after a four-star Air Force General warned officers that he sees a war on the horizon over Taiwan.
McCaul, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told &#8220;<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rep-mccaul-air-force-generals-prediction-2025-war-china-hope-wrong-think-right">Fox News Sunday&#8221;</a> he agreed with the recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-general-predicts-war-with-china-by-2025-i-hope-i-am-wrong">statement</a> made by Air Force General Mike Minihan, which noted the military official believes U.S. forces &#8220;will fight in 2025.&#8221;
&#8220;I hope he&#8217;s wrong . . .&#8221; McCaul said. &#8220;I think he&#8217;s right, though, unfortunately.&#8221;
The top GOP lawmaker said China could look at a military invasion of Taiwan if President Xi Jinping of the Chinese Communist Party fails to influence Taiwan&#8217;s presidential election in 2024, which takes place a year from today, and further China&#8217;s efforts on its so-called &#8220;reunification&#8221; with the island.
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, has been independently governed by China since 1949. China holds a “One China” policy, asserting that Taiwan is a part of China.
&#8220;We have to be prepared for this,&#8221; McCaul said. &#8220;And it could happen &#8230; as long as Biden is in office — projecting weakness as he did with Afghanistan that led to Putin invading Ukraine — that the odds are very high we could see a conflict with China and Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.&#8221;
Seth Jones of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published a report last week, which follows a CSIS wargame scenario that pointed out that in a conflict with China, U.S. arms, including long-range, precision-guided munitions, could run empty in one week.
Jones explained his assessment to The Wall Street Journal, which noted the U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia had drained the U.S. stockpile of weapons. As a result, Pentagon officials reassessed its quantity of munitions in December, illustrating the underinvestment in munitions that had been going on for years.
&#8220;The bottom line is the defense industrial base, in my judgment, is not prepared for the security environment that now exists,&#8221; Jones told Journal, adding that the defense industry is currently &#8220;better suited to a peacetime environment.&#8221;
&#8220;How do you effectively deter if you don&#8217;t have sufficient stockpiles of the kinds of munitions you&#8217;re going to need for a China-Taiwan Strait kind of scenario?&#8221; Jones said.
Rep. McCaul agreed the CSIS scenario had left him feeling &#8220;very&#8221; worried.
&#8220;Our defense industrial base is broken,&#8221; he said, adding he signed off on all foreign military weapons sales three years ago that have yet to go into Taiwan.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) countered his colleague&#8217;s possible war with China narrative on &#8220;Fox News Sunday,&#8221; saying the conflict is &#8220;highly unlikely.&#8221;
Smith further suggested that generals take caution by not signaling to the world &#8220;the U.S. is going to war with China.&#8221;
&#8220;Anything is possible,&#8221; Smith said. &#8220;I&#8217;m really worried when anyone starts talking about war with China being inevitable.&#8221;
Smith agreed with McCaul that the U.S. military stockpile of supplies puts the military forces in a vulnerable position in the face of a possible conflict with China.
&#8220;This is a huge problem,&#8221; Smith said. &#8220;We don&#8217;t have the industrial base, and we don&#8217;t have the ability to ramp up that industrial base.&#8221;
U.S. Department of Defense officials told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-air-force-general-predicts-war-china-2025-memo-rcna67967?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma">NBC</a>, who first published the memo from the Air Force General, that such comments &#8220;are not representative of the department&#8217;s view on China.&#8221;
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin disregarded speculation that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan was imminent.
&#8220;What we&#8217;re seeing recently, is some very provocative behavior on the part of China&#8217;s forces and their attempt to re-establish a new normal,&#8221; Austin said. &#8220;But whether or not that means that an invasion is imminent — I seriously doubt that.&#8221;
Virginia Kruta and Hank Berrien contributed to this report.

Key Speakers At The Texas Tribune Festival

‘I Think He’s Right’: Top House Foreign Affairs Republican Agrees With U.S. General’s War With China Prediction

Top House Foreign Affairs Republican Agrees With U.S. General's War With China Prediction

China

Congress

Politics

Taiwan

Xi Jinping

The following is the opening satirical monologue of &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1112-happy-new-year-we-re-doomed-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show.</a>&#8220;
Happy New Year everyone. It’s time for me to reveal my predictions for 2023.
To begin with, I believe the pandemic will return with a vengeance. This time, it will kill everyone on earth who thinks differently than I do, and also all the men except me, and also the unattractive women, so that only beautiful women who agree with me will remain, and they’ll be desperate to have children to replace all the dead people who disagreed with me and so will have to line up to have sex with the last man on earth&#8230;
Okay, maybe that’s not actually a prediction. It’s more like a daydream. It would probably never happen. Forget I said anything. I was just kidding around. That’s not my daydream. Really.
Where was I?
Oh yeah. Predictions for 2023.
As the new Republican majority takes over the House, the boisterous GOP conservative minority will band together to form one gigantic moron, making it impossible to get a winning vote so that absolutely nothing will be accomplished until the conservatives cave in and vote along with the moderates so that absolutely nothing will be accomplished.
Climate change will ensure that there are more violent storms in the heavily populated news media, although there will remain the exact same number of storms in reality, where no one lives. The catastrophic rise of temperatures in Democrats’ imaginations will leave their minds in chaos and ruin, so there won’t be much of a change there. But this disaster will finally make it clear even to deniers that if we do not act quickly to hobble western civilization for no reason, the world will come to an end five years ago, exactly as Al Gore predicted. Even now as 2023 begins, it is obvious that climate change represents an existential threat to both polar bears and journalistic integrity, although not to polar bears. Fortunately, we can depend on global leaders to respond to the danger by vigorously giving billions of our dollars in subsidies to those of their relatives and friends who make electric vehicles, solar panels, bird-shaped whirligigs and other attractive lawn decorations.
In medical news, doctors will develop a pill to reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s. President Biden will take the pill and suddenly leap to his feet and shout, “What the hell am I doing? I’ve spent trillions of dollars we don’t have, left the border unguarded and allowed crime to skyrocket! I must have had Alzheimer’s.” Then the drug will wear off, and he&#8217;ll lapse into a state of delusional dementia, namely California.
Elsewhere around the country, new laws will go into effect raising the minimum wage for fast food workers so that each and every worker will finally be able to get some rest as they’re replaced by machines. This will be a big improvement as customers will no longer have to deal with some annoying worker at the drive through window, and in fact won’t even see a worker until they drive past the window and the worker hijacks their car, hoping to sell it so he can buy something to eat at the automated fast food place.
In foreign news, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping will change his name to He Jinping because he’s tired of sounding like a girl. Western leaders and journalists will celebrate the Chinese President’s change of pronouns and cheer him on as the first transgender leader to conquer Taiwan. The global welcome to He&#8217;s territorial aggression will encourage Russian Leader Vladimir Putin to send a new battalion of tanks into Ukraine to pull the last battalion of tanks out of the mud. Russian journalists will then declare Putin a great man or fall off the top of a building.
Finally, in cultural news, Hollywood creatives will produce a new Marvel film in which each and every superhero represents one of the letters in LGBTQIA. Thus the creatives will finally realize their dream of developing an enormous franchise movie that literally no one watches. This amazing cultural feat will be celebrated at an Oscar ceremony that no one watches before being adapted into a streaming series that no one watches. Then, when Hollywood creatives are absolutely sure no one is watching, they can finally get back to screwing their interns.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1663776358757000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2lHm_ZdswXr4ZRFDBRYWtn">Andrew Klavan</a> is the host of The Andrew Klavan Show at The Daily Wire. A popular political satirist and Hollywood screenwriter, Klavan is also an award-winning novelist. Be sure to order his new novel today: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Habit-Mind-Cameron-Mysteries/dp/1613163517/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Habit-Mind-Cameron-Mysteries/dp/1613163517/ref%3Dtmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding%3DUTF8%26qid%3D%26sr%3D&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1663776358757000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2A-PHu0ZqsrknbrIeJJFOp">A Strange Habit of Mind</a>, book two in the Cameron Winter Mystery series.
The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Andrew Klavan

Happy New Year! We’re Doomed!

Climate Change

Marvel

New Year's

Readers Pass

Satire

Former Secretary of State <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-pompeo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Pompeo</a> suggested that the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/united-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United States</a> and the rest of the world should cut off travel from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> to prevent another global outbreak of a COVID variant.
The former Trump administration official appeared on <a href="https://catsroundtable.com/former-sec-of-state-mike-pompeo-report-from-around-the-world-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cats Roundtable</a>, a local New York radio show hosted by John Catsimatidis, on Sunday and warned that a mass outbreak in China could cause a second COVID pandemic nearly three years after the first.
“We’re about to do the same thing again. The data is no good, but it sounds like we might have as many as one million – one million, John – Chinese people infected, fifty percent of their population traveling,” Pompeo said.
“There is no reason we should allow the Chinese to do this again, to send Chinese-infected persons around the world knowingly infecting people all across the globe. [Chinese President Xi Jinping] got away with this once. I regret that he wasn&#8217;t held accountable, he hasn’t been held accountable,” he continued. “But he’s doing it again, so, John, just as in the spring of 2020 when he sent people around the world he knew were infected, he’s doing the same darn thing again. He’s going to infect millions more. We shouldn’t let that happen.”
Catsimatidis agreed with Pompeo, saying, “We’ve been through hell.”
“The whole world has. The American business community has,” Pompeo responded. “And here we are, Xi Jinping doing it all over again. The virus came from a lab in Wuhan, and now it’s going to come from people inside of China traveling the world. The world should not permit this to happen again.”
China is facing an outbreak of COVID after the government lifted some of its draconian lockdown measures following mass nationwide protests of the policies that were initially put in place in 2020 to stop the spread of the malady. The failure of the lockdown policies to eradicate the disease in China has raised questions about whether Xi’s “zero COVID” approach was worth the dramatic toll it took on the nation’s economy.
Official Chinese data on the disease is unreliable, but signs across the country <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/25/world/asia/covid-spreading-china.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggest</a> that the illness is on the rise in China after it lifted lockdown policies last month.
The streets of Guangzhou, China’s southern economic hub, are lined with businesses advertising “for sale” or “help wanted” signs. Many industries have hit bottlenecks as workers have fallen ill. Hospitals and funeral homes are being overrun with the sick and dead, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/02/business/china-economy-covid.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a>.
COVID originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Experts disagree on the illness&#8217;s precise beginnings, with two leading theories being a wet market or the product of coronavirus research and a lab leak. One reason the precise origin of the disease has been difficult to pin down is the Chinese government&#8217;s lack of cooperation with other world health officials and researchers.
Xi recognized the “tough challenges” that China still has to face regarding COVID in an address on Saturday. He stood by his administration’s “zero COVID” policies and handling of the pandemic so far.
“Since COVID-19 struck, we have put the people first and put life first all along,” the Chinese president said, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-31/xi-says-tough-challenges-remain-in-new-phase-of-covid-response" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg</a>. “With extraordinary efforts, we have prevailed over unprecedented difficulties and challenges, and it has not been an easy journey for anyone. We have now entered a new phase of COVID response where tough challenges remain.”

Mike Pompeo

China’s Xi Is ‘Doing It Again’: Pompeo Suggests Cutting Off China Travel As COVID Surges

COVID

COVID-19

United States

World

Gordon Chang, a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and author of &#8220;The Great U.S. China Tech War,&#8221; said during an interview this week that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/communist-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">communist China</a> is using <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tiktok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok</a> to promote social disruption in the U.S. in an attempt to weaken America&#8217;s system of government.
Chang initially responded to comments from Fox News host Jason Chaffetz about China&#8217;s claims that it has legitimate concerns that it wants the U.S. to take seriously.
&#8220;Well, first of all, China doesn&#8217;t have legitimate concerns. It&#8217;s not a legitimate state,&#8221; Chang said. &#8220;And we should stop treating it as such, because as you say, it is committing genocide, crimes against humanity, it deliberately spread COVID-19 beyond its borders — that 6.7 million people outside of China who have died from a disease that should have never left the central part of that country. You know, we can go on and on. But clearly, China is engaging in a series of acts which are destructive not only toward the United States, but the international community as a whole.&#8221;
A couple of minutes later, Chaffetz responded to a report this week that ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, spied on several U.S. journalists.
&#8220;President Trump banned TikTok along with WeChat,&#8221; Chang said. &#8220;President Biden, one of the first things he did was he reversed that ban. We know that over a course of years, about three or four of them, TikTok has been making representations to the U.S. about how it doesn&#8217;t allow data to be sent to China. And it&#8217;s violated every single assurance it&#8217;s given to the U.S. But it&#8217;s not just stealing data.&#8221;
&#8220;It is actually more serious that it is using the TikTok algorithm to disseminate Chinese propaganda, glorifying drug use, promoting violence on American streets, and this year, disseminating Russian narratives about the Ukraine war,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;So this really is an attempt to undermine and actually even overthrow the U.S. government. And why we permit it? I don&#8217;t know. India banned TikTok, we should do the same thing.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="China doesn&#039;t have legitimate concerns: Gordon Chang" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FYAuvdtBFAQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>JASON CHAFFETZ, FOX NEWS: All right, my next grievance is China. Why do we continue to do any business with them? They lied to us on COVID, they&#8217;re committing genocide. President Xi is practically best friends with Vladimir Putin. We learned yesterday that ByteDance, the Chinese-owned parent company of TikTok, is spying on us journalists. And today, the CCP issued a warning to the United States about bullying them. The Chinese foreign minister reportedly telling the Secretary of State Blinken in a phone call that the United States must not continue the old routine of unilateral bullying. And we must pay attention to Chinese legitimate concerns, stop curbing and suppressing its development, and not constantly challenge China&#8217;s red line in a quote “salami slicing way.” Here now is Gordon Chang, he&#8217;s a Gatestone Institute senior fellow and author of “The Great U.S. China Tech War.” Gordon, you&#8217;re so good on China. Tell me, give me your impression, your thoughts on this latest revelation in these, this rhetoric coming out of China.
GORDON CHANG, CHINA EXPERT: Well, first of all, China doesn&#8217;t have legitimate concerns. It&#8217;s not a legitimate state. And we should stop treating it as such, because as you say, it is committing genocide, crimes against humanity, it deliberately spread COVID-19 beyond its borders — that 6.7 million people outside of China who have died from a disease that should have never left the central part of that country. You know, we can go on and on. But clearly China is engaging in a series of acts which are destructive not only toward the United States, but the international community as a whole. And oh, by the way, Chinese leader Xi Jinping thinks he&#8217;s the world&#8217;s only legitimate ruler, and that moon and Mars are part of the People&#8217;s Republic of China. I don&#8217;t know, you know, just it&#8217;s just inconceivable that we&#8217;re dealing with China in a way that we have.
CHAFFETZ: But it doesn&#8217;t appear as if President Biden is taking a tough stance, is it? Is it enough? Are they are we speaking the right language, so to speak, to China to try to have them say, “Hey, wait, we better not mess with the United States,” because it was certainly that way under President Donald Trump. The waters were calm because they understood where Donald Trump stood.
CHANG: Yes. And what Biden is trying to do is he&#8217;s trying, as he says, to find areas of cooperation with China. And because of that, we are not promoting our own interests. We&#8217;re not defending our own country. You know, you pointed out that Biden has had these five phone and video conferences with Xi Jinping and one in person chat last month at the G-20. And he has never raised the issue of the origins of COVID-19. That&#8217;s 1.1 million Americans almost that have been killed by this disease. That&#8217;s an abrogation of his most solemn and fundamental constitutional duty, which is to defend the United States from foreign attack. So, you&#8217;re absolutely right. Biden just uses the wrong language. He&#8217;s not raising and not defending the United States, it&#8217;s an abomination.
CHAFFETZ: Well, and what are we to make of TikTok? I mean, we hear a lot about it. They make fun videos, you watch them, they’re pretty entertaining. But, you know, they&#8217;re used as a spying mechanism. That&#8217;s the allegation. And yet there has been almost, been more action in the States than there has been in the federal government.
CHANG: Yes, well, President Trump banned TikTok along with WeChat. President Biden, one of the first things he did was he reversed that ban. We know that over a course of years, about three or four of them, TikTok has been making representations to the U.S. about how it doesn&#8217;t allow data to be sent to China. And it&#8217;s violated every single assurance it&#8217;s given to the U.S. But it&#8217;s not just stealing data. It is actually more serious that it is using the TikTok algorithm to disseminate Chinese propaganda, glorifying drug use, promoting violence on American streets, and this year, disseminating Russian narratives about the Ukraine war. So this really is an attempt to undermine and actually even overthrow the U.S. government. And why we permit it? I don&#8217;t know. India banned TikTok, we should do the same thing.</blockquote>

In this photo illustration the Chinese video-sharing social

China Expert: Communist China Using TikTok To Promote Drug Use, Violence In America In Attempt To Ruin Country

Communist China

Global Politics

TikTok

One of the most noteworthy geopolitical and <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economic</a> developments in modern history has been the emergence of <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> as a superpower. The miraculous rise of the once-ascendent communist nation, however, could lose tremendous momentum as the strength of its manufacturing sector rapidly dissipates.
China’s gross domestic product has expanded at an average of 9% since the country opened and reformed its economy more than four decades ago, according to <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the World Bank, enabling more than 800 million residents to escape poverty. Over the past two years, however, the Chinese government has been among the most zealous enforcers of COVID lockdown policies on the planet.
Quarantines mandated under the nation’s zero-COVID policy have fostered unpredictable <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/supply-chain" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supply chain</a> shocks for foreign companies in recent months, causing a push to build manufacturing and logistics capabilities elsewhere. American manufacturing orders from China have plummeted as much as 40%, according to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/04/manufacturing-orders-from-china-down-40percent-in-demand-collapse.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map.
“The fall in demand is a combination of persistent COVID-19 related shutdowns in China leading to bottlenecks in the export of products out of China, lower American consumer spending on merchandise goods, and supply chains gradually moving out of or diversifying away from China,” Hudson Institute senior fellow John Lee told The Daily Wire. “The latter reason will be a major cause of lower American demand for Chinese goods in structural terms as more goods into America will come from other markets.”
<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://get.dailywire.com/readers-pass/read-only-v2?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/readers-pass/read-only-v2?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-35350">TIRED OF THE LEGACY MEDIA’S BIAS CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE AND OBSCURING THE TRUTH? JOIN US.</a>
In one high-profile example, an iPhone manufacturing facility in Zhengzhou was rocked by protests over zero-COVID restrictions, severely disrupting operations and leading Apple to accelerate production shifts to economies such as India and Vietnam, according to a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-china-factory-protests-foxconn-manufacturing-production-supply-chain-11670023099" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The Wall Street Journal. The world’s most valuable technology company had already <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/apple-shifts-ipad-manufacturing-away-from-china-due-to-harsh-covid-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moved</a> some iPad production earlier this year to Vietnam, where the AirPod earbud series is manufactured, in reaction to lockdowns in Shanghai.
Lee, who formerly worked as senior national security adviser to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, remarked that “permanent geopolitical tensions” are another factor behind the “deliberate decoupling” of manufacturing deals between the United States and China. The trend is especially apparent in the technology sector, which has been the subject of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-makes-historic-move-to-block-certain-chinese-tech-after-national-security-concerns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased scrutiny</a> over American regulators’ unease regarding Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft.
“In most merchandise goods which are not high-tech products, the supply chains moving out of China due to firms hedging against geopolitical tensions will continue to be a cause for lower American demand of Chinese goods into the future,” Lee commented. “Hence, it is geopolitical tensions leading to lower American demand for Chinese goods rather than lower American demand being the cause of geopolitical tensions.”
Staunch geopolitical aggression will likely be a central tenet of the nation’s foreign policy in the foreseeable future. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently began an unprecedented third term, lauded the defeat of democratic aspirations in Hong Kong and forecasted the imminent conquest of Taiwan in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinas-xi-issues-dark-warning-on-taiwan-as-he-consolidates-power-over-ccp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a> at the Chinese Communist Party’s twice-per-decade meeting of senior legislators. The executive has largely staked his reputation as a leader on the zero-COVID policy over the past two years.

Made in China. Cardboard boxes with text made in China and chinese flag on the roller conveyor.

Chinese Manufacturing Is Quickly Collapsing

Chinese Manufacturing Is Collapsing As Other Nations Rise In Prominence

Economy

Lockdowns

Supply Chain

Two cities in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/china?_gl=1*tmvfx5*_ga*MTkxMzA0ODkzMS4xNjQ0MDIxMjI4*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTY2OTg0MzI4NC45MjYuMS4xNjY5ODQ2OTI5LjQwLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> have loosened some COVID restrictions after massive protests rocked the country in recent days. 
The cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/covid-protests-escalate-guangzhou-china-lockdown-anger-boils-2022-11-30/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> they will cut back on COVID restrictions following the outcry of citizens across the country. Chongqing will now permit close contacts of those who are infected with COVID to stay at home while they quarantine if they meet certain requirements, according to a city official. Guangzhou also said it will let up on the restrictions, but officials did not discuss the demonstrations. The area where violence broke out on Tuesday was still under strict rule. On Monday, protesters <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/video-chinese-protesters-destroy-covid-testing-site-as-police-in-hazmat-suits-deploy-to-city-streets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demolished</a> a COVID testing site in Guangzhou, leading police to take action to scatter the groups of people.
China’s “zero-COVID” policy has been a key strategy in President Xi Jinping’s attempt to control the virus, but the intense restrictions and crackdowns on citizens appeared to be reaching a breaking point in recent days.
Health authorities in China also <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-officials-soften-tone-on-covid-curbs-amid-protests-11669759134" target="_blank" rel="noopener">toned</a> down their discussions of COVID, reportedly telling local governments not to take part in lockdowns that are long and unnecessary.
“International and domestic monitoring data confirmed that the pathogenicity and virulence of the Omicron mutant strains … are significantly weaker than the original strain and variant strains such as Delta,” Chang Zhaorui, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the press.
On Wednesday, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan also said that with a declining variant and increasing vaccination numbers, the government’s COVID maintenance “is facing new situations.”
Last week, however, health authorities were pushing the messaging that Omicron was highly infectious.
The country’s citizens have been protesting in cities around China, beginning on Friday in Urumqi, where a fire killed 10 people.
On Wednesday, former President Jiang Zemin <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-chinese-president-dead-at-96-amid-nationwide-protests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">died</a>, and some experts and protesters reportedly believe his death might lead to a newfound commitment by the protesters to continue speaking out against the government’s strict lockdown measures. Jiang was a leader who propelled economic growth for decades in the country and rose to power after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 when military members killed students as they protested.
“So as for Jiang Zemin&#8217;s death, we feel a sense of tragedy towards the future of China&#8217;s leadership,&#8221; protester Ray Lei said.
The death of the former leader could also give some residents a rightful reason to come together in groups, as some noted on Telegram, which protesters have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/dating-apps-telegram-how-china-protesters-are-defying-authorities-2022-11-29/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">used</a> to organize demonstrations.
&#8220;We can all go onto the streets today and lay chrysanthemums,&#8221; one user said.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/zach-jewell" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zach Jewell</a> contributed to this report.

DFB614F9-0334-449E-8D74-5C8B81A5F53F_1_201_a

Chinese Cities Cut Back COVID Restrictions After Protests

Chinese Cities Guangzhou And Chongqing Cut Back COVID Restrictions After Protests

Anti-government <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-protesters-in-china-are-cleverly-defying-their-communist-government">protesters in communist China</a> flipped over and destroyed a COVID testing tent in the city of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Guangzhou</a> on Monday, prompting police in hazmat suits to flood the streets and disperse the crowds. 
Videos on Twitter — <a href="https://twitter.com/WilliamYang120/status/1597376001126072322" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> by journalist William Yang of the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club — showed protesters flipping over a COVID testing center while others looked on and recorded the show of defiance. The demonstrators also <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/11/29/chinese-protesters-overturn-vehicle-and-trash-covid-site/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> flipped over a vehicle before dozens of police officers swarmed the scene in riot gear and hazmat suits.
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视频补充 <a href="https://t.co/Gf9dDqzmP4">pic.twitter.com/Gf9dDqzmP4</a>
&mdash; 李老师不是你老师 (@whyyoutouzhele) <a href="https://twitter.com/whyyoutouzhele/status/1597327687005007872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Witnesses said police forcefully checked people’s phones, looking for footage of protests to stop the videos from spreading on social media, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/11/29/chinese-protesters-overturn-vehicle-and-trash-covid-site/">reported</a>. Authorities have also reportedly used cell phone videos as proof to take people into custody for attending a demonstration. 
Most of the protests remained quiet as protesters held up white sheets of paper, a subtle but symbolic challenge that has taken hold among dissidents throughout the country, but some protesters have become bolder in their anti-government demonstrations. In Shanghai, some have openly shouted for President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/xi-jinping" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Xi Jinping</a> to step down, while others have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/28/china/china-lockdown-protests-covid-explainer-intl-hnk">chanted</a> “Need human rights, need freedom.” In 2018, China’s puppet legislature eliminated the president’s term limits, and Xi began his third term in October. 
Police hit the streets in full force in Shanghai and Beijing on Monday and Tuesday, attempting to prevent people from gathering again. Universities in the cities sent students home amid the unrest. While the schools said students were being sent away due to COVID precautions, fewer students in the cities also reduces the number of possible protesters, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-beijing-xi-jinping-shanghai-covid-5e6340710ba8b273b3be88d8844feed0">reported</a>. 
The protests that have spread to at least 16 cities across China began after 10 people died in an apartment fire in China’s western Xinjiang province. Many blame the communist regime’s draconian “zero COVID” lockdown policy for why first responders did not reach the blaze in time to save those who perished. Nearly three years since the onset of the COVID pandemic, the Chinese people are still subjected to extreme restrictions that lock them in their homes for as long as 100 days at a time.

China Protests

Video: Chinese Protesters Destroy COVID Testing Site As Police In Hazmat Suits Deploy To City Streets

Chinese Protesters Destroy COVID Testing Site As Police In Hazmat Suits Deploy To City Streets

Protests

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released a statement condemning the Chinese Communist Party&#8217;s COVID policies &#8212; and the White House&#8217;s weak response.
The Texas lawmaker, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement Monday after reports of the Biden administration&#8217;s tepid words regarding the unrest in China over its strict lockdown policies.
“The Chinese Communist Party has since the beginning been desperate to cover up the origins, nature, and consequences of COVID-19. They lied and continue to lie to the world, and as a result millions of lives were lost and immense suffering was caused,&#8221; Cruz <a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-issues-statement-on-ccp-crackdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
&#8220;The people of China are not to blame for the CCP&#8217;s actions. In fact, many of them were already protesting the CCP’s handling of the pandemic, and now those protests have escalated into open criticism of the regime. They are bravely standing up for their rights,&#8221; he continued.
The senator went on to lash out at the Biden administration over its failure to show strong support for the protesters speaking out against the oppressive CCP. The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-releases-tepid-statement-on-protests-in-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the White House released a statement on Monday that focused on the difficulty of a “zero COVID” approach rather than offering support to back the freedoms of the Chinese people.
“The Biden administration’s response has been worse than expected. The CCP should know that one way or another, in the coming months or in the coming years, the United States will hold accountable each and every CCP official responsible for atrocities against these protesters.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), another Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also released a <a href="https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Press-Releases&amp;id=8F83E260-9D38-4BEE-AF33-2325C1CDADAE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> with Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) on Monday to address China&#8217;s actions.
“The CCP’s ‘zero-Covid’ policy is outrageous. In addition, the CCP restricts all human rights and freedoms in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and across China. It has robbed the Chinese people of their human dignity,&#8221; Rubio and Smith wrote.
“The Biden Administration&#8217;s weak rejection of the CCP’s zero-Covid policy and refusal to call out General Secretary Xi’s totalitarian grip is nothing short of cowardly. Just weeks after shaking hands with Xi in Bali, President Biden and his administration have once again demonstrated that they are unwilling to stand up to the CCP and stand in solidarity with the Chinese people,&#8221; they added.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and other Democrats on the committee have remained relatively silent regarding the recent Chinese protests.
None of the Democrats on the committee have released a statement regarding China&#8217;s lockdown abuses since a high-rise fire last Thursday that killed 10 Chinese residents that many have blamed on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/protesters-call-for-xi-jinping-to-step-down-over-chinas-extreme-covid-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID restrictions</a>.

Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz Unloads On White House Over Biden Admin’s Weak China Statement

Protest

China&#8217;s oppressive COVID lockdown measures continue to fuel protests as news of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-world-reacts-to-chinese-dictator-xi-jinping-purging-former-leader-on-camera-chilling-and-orwellian/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Xi Jinping</a>&#8216;s extreme approach shocks the world.
The growing conflict between the government and the Chinese people has accelerated in recent weeks. Some cities have endured more than 100 days of entire cities under severe lockdowns, despite just <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=china+covid+numbers&amp;oq=china+covid+numbers&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j0i512j0i22i30.6017j0j7&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">38,000 people</a> testing positive for the coronavirus among a population of over 1.4 billion.
Residents of major cities across China have been fenced in with limited opportunities to travel. Some provinces have implemented such lockdowns for more than three straight months as the pandemic extends into its third year in the Chinese Communist Party-controlled country.
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In Guangzhou, the current epicentre of China’s Covid surge, large parts of Haizhu district are still locked down.
In one area we were able to walk right up to the barrier. 
This is not like the Shanghai lockdown, people are allowed out to buy food, but many are weary <a href="https://t.co/Leo1l3EhdP">pic.twitter.com/Leo1l3EhdP</a>
&mdash; Helen-Ann Smith (@HelenAnnSmith0) <a href="https://twitter.com/HelenAnnSmith0/status/1594706336532643844?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Recent measures include roadblocks, mall closures, schools returning to online learning, and park shutdowns.
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This Is What China’s Renewed War on Covid Looks Like<a href="https://t.co/KqONnb0JQu">https://t.co/KqONnb0JQu</a>
現在、中国でのCOVID-19感染者拡大に伴い実施されている対策は、パンデミック初年に各国で見られた風景に似ている <a href="https://t.co/znWngmlPeM">pic.twitter.com/znWngmlPeM</a>
&mdash; Mugen UJIIE (氏家 無限) (@carpe_diem0820) <a href="https://twitter.com/carpe_diem0820/status/1595553846046388224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The lockdown policies have included forced vaccinations, masking, and mandatory COVID testing to travel outside restricted areas. Bars and many restaurants have also been closed or prohibited indoor dining, with claims of patients in need of medical treatment being denied.
Lockdown-breakers have been arrested, while government censorship blocks those speaking out against the government&#8217;s oppressive rules.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/world/asia/china-zero-covid-policy-videos.html?action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;state=default&amp;module=styln-china-zero-covid&amp;variant=show&amp;region=BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT&amp;block=storyline_flex_guide_recirc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> last week that family members had been separated over COVID, including children removed from their parents. One boarding school would not allow students to leave campus due to a reported COVID outbreak.
The nation is also reportedly building &#8220;quarantine centers,&#8221; including one currently under construction that will reportedly house up to 80,000 people.
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For the second day in a row, China has recorded an explosive increase in coronavirus infections.
In the city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, which has the largest number of cases, the construction of a quarantine center for 80,000 people has begun. <a href="https://t.co/LnOZdVdVjO">pic.twitter.com/LnOZdVdVjO</a>
&mdash; NEXTA (@nexta_tv) <a href="https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1596060739282010113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Earlier this month, The Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-china-social-media-beijing-94dee24454984179f79b493cf0589d62" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the city of Guangzhou announced plans to build quarantine facilities for nearly 250,000 people.
The restrictions are also widespread, impacting around 340 million people across 37 cities in China, approximately a quarter of the population, according to the Times. Strict mitigation policies sparked protests after a fire in a Urumqi high-rise building killed ten people last week, with residents blaming the lockdown for the deaths.
A Saturday <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/protests-against-covid-lockdowns-erupt-across-china-some-turn-violent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demonstration</a> in Shanghai over the deaths led to police deploying pepper spray into a crowd of about 300 protesters. A witness <a href="https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-health-china-fires-covid-4ffc00e5f6761be48f5887d57d66c708" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Associated Press that one of his friends was beaten, and two others were pepper sprayed. He added that police stepped on his feet while he tried to prevent them from taking his friend away; he also lost his shoes in the chaos and was left barefoot.
China&#8217;s tyranny against its people also holds significant consequences for the U.S. and other nations. The supply chain shortage that arose in early 2021 could soon return as factories and other export businesses shutter across the country.
Despite President Xi Jinping winning a third term in October, a significant number of Chinese citizens are calling for the leader to step down, demanding his resignation over his restrictions on freedom during the pandemic.

China protest

Protesters Call For Xi Jinping To Step Down Over China’s Extreme COVID Lockdowns

Protesters Call For Xi Jinping To Step Down Over China's Extreme COVID Lockdowns 

The International Monetary Fund urged the government of <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> to move toward a &#8220;recalibration&#8221; its zero-<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID</a> policies under which officials have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shuttered</a> entire cities for the past two years.
After representatives from the international financial institution met virtually with Chinese policymakers over the span of two weeks, IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said that the current approach to slowing the spread of the virus has harmed the nation’s economy.
“Under the zero-COVID strategy, China weathered the initial impact of the pandemic well, allowing the economy to recover swiftly from the early-2020 lockdowns and to expand the global supply of medical goods and durable goods significantly at a critical time for the global economy,” she said in a <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2022/11/21/pr22401-imf-staff-completes-2022-article-iv-mission-to-the-peoples-republic-of-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>. “However, China’s growth has since slowed and remains under pressure amid recurring COVID outbreaks, deep challenges in the property sector, and slowing global demand.”
Gopinath added that the country should move towards a &#8220;recalibration&#8221; of its zero-COVID policy, and transition away from it in the second half of 2023.
The Chinese economy is expected to grow 3.2% this year and 4.4% for the next two years. The nation averaged nearly 10% annual output growth over the past four decades since free market reforms were implemented, according to <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview#1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the World Bank. A number of manufacturers have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/apple-shifts-ipad-manufacturing-away-from-china-due-to-harsh-covid-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moved operations</a> away from China even as longer-term factors such as low labor force growth and slowing productivity continue to dampen the Chinese economy.
China has also witnessed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinese-real-estate-collapse-throws-economy-into-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">real estate crisis</a> amid declining home prices over the past year. Developers have defaulted on their obligations, leading many to stop work on unfinished housing, which has sparked mass outrage since the majority of Chinese homebuyers begin paying mortgages even before their prospective homes are completed.
“Although the zero-COVID strategy has become nimbler over time, the combination of more contagious COVID variants and persistent gaps in vaccinations have led to the need for more frequent lockdowns, weighing on consumption and private investment, including in housing,” Gopinath continued. “The regulatory tightening in the property sector, while well-intended to rein in high leverage, has added to severe financial strains for developers, leading to a rapid slowdown in housing sales and investment, along with a sharp decline in local government land sale revenues.”
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus issued a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-faces-economic-slowdown-amidst-covid-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">similar warning</a> earlier this year. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has staked his reputation on the zero-COVID approach, nevertheless insisted that the strategy is “scientific and effective.” New Zealand and other countries which had <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-zealand-pm-announces-end-to-zero-covid-strategy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pursued</a> zero-COVID policies have long since abandoned the efforts.
At the most recent Communist Party Congress, Xi established a vision to grow his country’s middle class in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/xi-jinping-vows-to-grow-chinas-middle-class-at-key-communist-party-meeting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a> that opened with a discussion of his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinas-xi-issues-dark-warning-on-taiwan-as-he-consolidates-power-over-ccp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">geopolitical ambitions</a>, including the defeat of democratic aspirations in Hong Kong and the imminent conquest of Taiwan.
“We will steadfastly push for common prosperity. We will improve the system of income distribution,” he remarked. “We will ensure more pay for more work and encourage people to achieve prosperity through hard work. We will promote equality of opportunity, increase the income of low income earners and expand the size of the middle income group. We will keep income distribution and the means of accumulating wealth well regulated.”
The speech also favorably mentioned the zero-COVID policy. “We have protected the people’s health and safety to the greatest extent possible and made tremendously encouraging achievements in both epidemic response and economic and social development,” Xi continued.

CHINA-WUHAN-XI JINPING-COVID-19-EPIDEMIC PREVENTION AND CONTROL-INSPECTION (CN)

IMF To China: Drop Outdated Zero-COVID Policy

IMF Urges China To Drop Zero-COVID Policy

The following is the opening satirical monologue from &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1106-make-america-hilarious-again">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.&#8221;
President and venal houseplant Joe Biden met with make-believe-president-but-really-murderous-dictator Xi Jinping this week in an effort to improve relations between China and the part of China that used to be the United States.
Before the meeting, Houseplant Biden told reporters he planned to ask Dictator Xi some hard questions, like, “What is the capital of Indonesia?” and “How do you get the fortune inside the cookie without breaking the cookie? Or do you roll the fortune into the raw dough? But then why doesn’t the fortune catch fire when you cook the dough? And is it really a fortune if it doesn’t tell the future? And if it does tell the future, how do Chinese people know what the future is?” Also, “What does moo goo gai pan mean?” Biden said if Xi could answer any four of these questions correctly, he would win the Risk home game, so he could play at taking over the world as a relaxing break from taking over the world.
President Xi said he would be asking tough questions of President Biden as well, like “What’s that behind you?” Then, when Biden turned around to look, he would steal his watch.
The meeting between Xi and Biden lasted three hours, although that included Biden’s two hour nap, during which Xi had a listening device surgically implanted in one of the president’s liver spots so he could record Biden’s conversations in the Oval Office, and play the results on Chinese TV as a hilarious situation comedy entitled, “Tsi Tai Pao,” which roughly translates as “silly old man says meaningless things to administration underlings who nod with serious looks on their faces and then run the country however they want while media lickspittles pretend everything’s fine, after which the price of gas goes up another dollar.” The show will be aired Tuesdays at 8PM, followed by old reruns of “Three’s Company,” or as it’s called in Chinese, Tsi Tai Pao.
After the meeting, President Biden strode confidently from the conference room into a broom closet where he addressed a collection of mops he mistook for American journalists, until they reported the story accurately whereupon he realized they must’ve been somebody else.
Biden said [quote] “You know, it’s only when you look in a man’s eyes and speak to him directly that you can start to understand his point of view. For instance, I always thought torturing Uighurs was a bad thing, but now that I’ve had a chance to discuss it with President Xi, the next time I meet a Uighur, well, watch out. I also had a chance to ask the president for assurances that he would not invade Taiwan, and he guaranteed me he would no more invade Taiwan than he would implant a listening device in one of my liver spots. Plus he says he’ll continue to send TikTok to America to convince gullible young girls to cut off their breasts and confused boys to have themselves castrated — so we’re both on the same page there. All in all, I was glad to extend the hand of friendship to President Xi though I do wonder what the hell happened to my watch.” [unquote]
Meanwhile, as the Secret Service debated whether to get President Biden out of the broom closet or just leave him there where he’d be safe, President-Not-to-Mention-Murderous-Dictator-for-Life Xi addressed a group of American journalists whom he mistook for mops, until they swabbed the floor with soapy water and then squeezed the dirt out into a bucket, whereupon he realized they were actually American journalists.
Xi said, [quote] “It was a great honor to sit down for a talk with your blithering idiot. Future Vassal Biden had many things to say and I look forward to having them translated into English so I can understand them. Clearly, you have wisely elected a man we Chinese can work with, given that our work is to destroy your economy, enslave your people, and invade your Chinese restaurants so we can find out what the hell Moo Goo Gai Pan is. I was also pleased to be able to present the President with the most sacred symbol of Chinese friendship, a highly communicable respiratory infection. We all very much look forward to hearing more from President Biden Tuesdays at 8PM, followed by reruns of &#8216;Three’s Company.&#8217;” [unquote]
Xi said he hoped the leaders could build on the progress of this first meeting, and then meet next time on Chinese soil, assuming Biden can find his way to Taiwan.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1663776358757000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2lHm_ZdswXr4ZRFDBRYWtn">Andrew Klavan</a> Is the host of The Andrew Klavan Show at The Daily Wire. A popular political satirist and Hollywood screenwriter, Klavan is also an award-winning novelist. Be sure to order his new novel today: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Habit-Mind-Cameron-Mysteries/dp/1613163517/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Habit-Mind-Cameron-Mysteries/dp/1613163517/ref%3Dtmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding%3DUTF8%26qid%3D%26sr%3D&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1663776358757000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2A-PHu0ZqsrknbrIeJJFOp">A Strange Habit of Mind</a>, book two in the Cameron Winter Mystery series.
The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Klavan

When Joey Met Xi

Joe Biden

U.S.

A ticked-off <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-world-reacts-to-chinese-dictator-xi-jinping-purging-former-leader-on-camera-chilling-and-orwellian/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese President Xi Jinping</a> dressed down his Canadian counterpart Wednesday at the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/klaus-schwab-the-world-economic-forum-and-the-atheists-paving-the-road-to-absolute-power/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">G20 summit</a> over leaks of their private meeting a day earlier in a dramatic moment caught on video.
Xi and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/justin-trudeau-celebrates-drag-queens-on-television/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau</a> were speaking through a translator at the global confab on the Indonesian island of Bali when the Chinese leader smiled as he delivered the scolding. Xi was apparently steamed about media reports that Trudeau had raised “serious concerns” about alleged espionage and alleged Chinese interference in Canadian elections when the pair met on Tuesday.
“Everything we discussed was leaked to the paper(s), that’s not appropriate,” Xi said through the interpreter. “That is not appropriate, and that’s not the way the conversation was conducted.
“If there is sincerity, we can communicate well with mutual respect, otherwise the outcome will not be easy to tell,” Xi, speaking Mandarin, added.
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The Cdn Pool cam captured a tough talk between Chinese President Xi &amp; PM Trudeau at the G20 today. In it, Xi express his displeasure that everything discussed yesterday “has been leaked to the paper(s), that’s not appropriate… &amp; that’s not the way the conversation was conducted” <a href="https://t.co/Hres3vwf4Q">pic.twitter.com/Hres3vwf4Q</a>
&mdash; Annie Bergeron-Oliver (@AnnieClaireBO) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnieClaireBO/status/1592784639474929665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Trudeau’s office did not release a readout of the Tuesday conversation, but his version of the discussion was widely reported in Canada and characterized him as being tough with Xi. Chinese state media did not report on their closed-door talks, although the Chinese foreign ministry said that Xi held nine formal bilateral meetings with other heads of state while at the summit.
Trudeau responded to Xi’s complaint about leaks with a pledge to continue their dialogue.
“In Canada we believe in free and open and frank dialogue and that is what we will continue to have,” Trudeau said. “We will continue to look to work constructively together, but there will be things we disagree on – ”
An exasperated Xi cut Trudeau off, saying, “Create the conditions, create the conditions, OK?”
He shook Trudeau’s hand and walked away.
Tensions between Canada and China hit a boiling point in 2018 when Canada detained Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou, and China responded by arresting two Canadians on spying charges. All three were later released.
On Monday, Canadian police said an employee at Hydro-Quebec, Canada’s largest electricity producer, was charged with espionage for allegedly trying to steal trade secrets.

Xi Jinping/Justin Trudeau

HEAR IT: Hot Mic Catches China’s Xi Berating Justin Trudeau Over Leaks At G20

HEAR IT: Hot Mic Catches China's Xi Scolding Justin Trudeau Over Leaks At G20

Justin Trudeau

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