China
September 24, 2022 — John Hinderaker
There are rumors that a military coup is taking place in China, with President Xi Jinping ousted and, in one account, under house arrest. At this point no one is sure what is going on, but this seems like a reasonable place to start: Unsubstantiated speculation swirled Saturday morning that Chinese President Xi Jinping has been locked down in isolation amid a potential coup. Far East expert Gordon Chang said
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September 19, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I would be embarrassed to conduct an interview with the president that was as lame as Scott Pelley’s lovefest with President Biden on 60 Minutes last night. The Biden administration accorded Pelley a substantial amount of time to chat with Biden and Pelley returned the favor with a variety of softballs and dropped balls as well as his own apologetics — to no one’s surprise, of course, but still. It
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August 7, 2022 — John Hinderaker
We have not yet taken the measure of the disaster that is the Democrats’ “Inflation Reduction Act,” perhaps the most absurdly named statute ever. One element of the law that has not gotten enough attention is its imposition of price controls on pharmaceuticals. Price controls are always, and everywhere, a terrible idea. When you apply price controls to a vital product like drugs, the results could be catastrophic. At Real
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August 2, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan today has occasioned Niall Ferguson’s long Bloomberg column on The Four Mysteries of Pelosi’s Troublesome Taiwan Trip.” It’s a learned column with interesting quotes from President Trump. Ferguson postulates that the Biden administration supports the trip because it wants to take a stronger stance against China than Trump did. I find that questionable, to say the least, and the evidence missing. Indeed, the Biden administration’s
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August 1, 2022 — Scott Johnson
According to Senator Tom Cotton, the leak of Nancy Pelosi’s planned trip to Taiwan “came straight from “the White House.” The AP reported yesterday that Taiwan was omitted from the itinerary of her Asian trip, but security concerns must have had something to do with that. Today comes word that Taiwanese and US officials expect her to visit Taiwan. The Wall Street Journal reports that Pelosi is indeed planning to
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July 30, 2022 — Scott Johnson
On Thursday President Biden spoke with China President Xi Jinping by phone. “Biden” tweeted out the photo of himself speaking with Xi from the Oval Office (below). It’s not a good look. It’s a bad look. Today I spoke with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China as part of our efforts to deepen lines of communication, responsibly manage our differences, and address issues of mutual interest. pic.twitter.com/mwIeg35h8j
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July 27, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The ginormous CHIPS Act has grown like Topsy into a $250 billion bill with a little help from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Touted as a benefit to American national security, not just another case of corporate welfare or crony capitalism, the Act is slated to pass the Senate this week. The Free Beacon’s Joe Simonson reports on developments that might affect this assessment: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.,
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July 21, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Before COVID arrived, there were mass protests in Hong Kong over the ChiComms in Beijing repudiating their promise to respect Hong Hong’s democracy for 50 years following the 1997 handover. Dissidents were being arrested and jailed (Jimmy Lai is still in jail), and free elections canceled. Once COVID hit and lockdown started, any chance of mass mobilization dried up. There wouldn’t even be a chance for a Tiananman Square moment.
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July 18, 2022 — John Hinderaker
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western businesses abandoned Russia in droves. There was little pain, since investments in Russia’s economy have generally been modest. But the London Times asks a good question: what if China invades Taiwan? The headline is, “Western companies face ‘existential crisis’ as fears grow of Chinese invasion of Taiwan.” Days after the Ukraine conflict erupted, Apple, BMW, McDonald’s and other Western giants lined
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July 11, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Miranda Devine raises the question whether President Biden is “compromised by the Chinese Communist Party, given all the evidence on Hunter’s laptop about millions of dollars that flowed from China to his son [Hunter Biden] and brother, Jim Biden.” Her current New York Post column is “Amid Hunter’s ongoing scandals, Biden is going soft on China.” In the course of her column Devine discloses two JP Morgan Chase suspicious activity
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July 10, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday I regretted that Tucker Carlson’s interview with Steven Mosher was not included in the FOX News clip of Carlson’s opening Thursday monologue. Today the New York Post delivers the substance of Mosher’s remarks in the illuminating column “China has helped spread four epidemics — and COVID’s not the last.” The column is an excerpt from Mosher’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Pandemics, to be published by Regnery later this month.
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July 9, 2022 — Scott Johnson
In his opening monologue last night Tucker Carlson took a look back at the origin of the Covid pandemic in China. Fox News has posted audio, video, and text of the monologue here along with the usual assaults inflicted by the Fox site. I have embedded the video below. Unfortunately, the segment is cut off at the point where Steven Mosher is introduced for an interview that updates his February
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July 3, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The New York Post continues to mine the contents of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop. Via Miranda Devine’s Twitter feed we are alerted to Jon Levine’s story “Hunter Biden’s laptop had contacts for Google execs, US officials for China policy.” I would have missed it otherwise and want to bring it to the attention of interested readers. It is an excellent story. New bombshells from Hunter Biden’s #laptopfromhell delivered by @nypost
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June 30, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Lawrence Franklin’s Gatestone column discusses recently leaked documents further revealing the enormities committed by China’s regime in its Xinjiang province. It also provides a useful review of the situation to date. What is to be done? Franklin modestly conclude: “Democratic countries should distribute these leaks globally as cautionary warning to all societies that the CCP’s projected panda bear image of China obscures the reality of a quite different animal with
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June 29, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Matt Ridley is the co-author of Viral: The Search For the Origin of Covid-19. It has just been published in an updated paperback edition (in the UK, anyway). He summarizes “The case for the lab-leak theory” in a timely column for Spiked. It seems to me that Ridley makes a powerful case. China has suppressed access to all information bearing on the lab-leak theory. Given that the CCP knows every
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May 24, 2022 — Scott Johnson
In 1930 William Empson elaborated Seven Types of Ambiguity for the literary crowd. The Biden administration is adapting the concept to give us Seven Types of Confusion. We can itemize the confusion that derives from gratuitous fabrication. We also have the confusion related to the persistent assertion of the thing which is not so, as Swift puts it in Book IV of Gulliver’s Travels. We continue with the confusion that
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May 23, 2022 — Scott Johnson
“President” Biden made big news this morning with his announcement that the United States would defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion by China. See the triple-bylined AP story “Biden: US would intervene with military to defend Taiwan.” The AP reports from Tokyo: President Joe Biden said Monday that the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan, saying the burden to protect Taiwan is “even stronger”
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