Our Taiwan road is “a road of democracy, a road of freedom, a road of human rights, and a road of peace for Taiwan.” Taiwan is our country. Our country should not be bullied, dwarfed, marginalized, and localized.Speech (August 5, 2002), by Chen Shui-bian, former president of Taiwan (2000-2008).
Paul’s weekend podcast has been discontinued. But he still has something to say — from the streets of Taipei: https://soundcloud.com/thisweekincommonsense/keep-taiwan-free
Paul Jacob is in Taiwan right now, so the question is on his mind. He has a few answers. And you have a few options: Listen to his talk on SoundCloud (where his podcasts were hosted). Watch the talk on StoptheChinazis.org. Go to Facebook to watch the video or chat…
“Two words from Taiwan’s leader threaten to upend U.S.-China ties,” headlined The Japan Times’ story. Weeks ago, China’s totalitarian leader Xi Jinping mentioned his itch for peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan.* Or else. No pause in his warplanes crossing into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, nor withdrawal of the continual threat…
Paul Jacob is on something like a diplomatic mission in London. He explains all, and covers the biggest story of last week in this latest episode of This Week in Common Sense. We are presenting the video first — on Rumble, of course — because of, well, technical difficulties. (Most…
On Wednesday, Paul Jacob introduced his new project, StopTheChinazis.org. Yesterday, Paul provided, on that site, a special feature, an extensive guide to Taiwanese history. Here is an outline of it: “It might be time for the rest of us — like Nixon did in 1971 — to recognize reality: there…
“Yes,” President Joe Biden stated unequivocally in answer to an October 2021 CNN townhall question on whether he would “vow to protect Taiwan.” Biden repeated that “yes” three more times in his full reply. Months earlier, this president spoke of democratic Taiwan as one of our key allies that we…
Is Taiwan, the island democracy of 24 million, really caught in the nation-state equivalent of a lovers’ triangle? “Taiwan is caught in the middle of escalating tensions between the U.S. and China,” is how National Public Radio headlined its recent story about Communist Party-ruled China “speeding up its plans to…
“The passengers later told local media they feared for their lives,” Newsweek reported. Those 23 tourists, along with 11 crew members, were traveling from Taiwan’s Kinmen islands, located just six miles off the Chinese mainland, back to the big island of Taiwan, when a Chinese Coast Guard vessel stopped and…
Last week, when I heard about a power outage across Taiwan, my first thought was the possibility of a Chinese cyberattack which might precede a military attack. It was not that. Thank goodness. But what if it had been? Many have speculated that the Russian invasion of Ukraine might distract…
“China vows ‘peaceful reunification’ with Taiwan,” was The New York Post’s takeaway from Chinese ruler Xi Jinping’s speech at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing over the weekend. What fantabulous news! Peace for our time . . . in Asia. That same message was echoed by The Washington…
“You may not like Donald Trump,” argues Dr34mLucid in his latest video on YouTube and Facebook, “but he is the most vocal and has taken the most action in containing China. That is a fact.” Dr34mLucid is Christopher Raymond Hall, who claims to be “made in Britain, schooled in the…
Be strong or be gone. America must choose one of these two options in East Asia. China insists. Let’s note at the outset that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not “directly” threaten to shoot down House Speaker Pelosi’s plane on her possible upcoming visit to democratic and free Taiwan.…
“America just needs to sit back,” insists Joseph Solis-Mullen, author of The Fake China Threat and Its Very Real Dangers. This, he says, is the best reaction to an admittedly aggressive China. On his podcast, Tom Woods asserted that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be “a net-negative for the…
“Are you a journalist?” asked the woman in an overflow crowd of thousands, who, like me, couldn’t fit into the packed stadium for a Democratic Progressive Party rally on the eve of Taiwan’s election. “Or do you just love Taiwan?” With a broad smile, I told her: “I love Taiwan.”…
With Joe Biden now in the White House, will the U.S. continue former President Trump’s hardline toward China? Especially regarding Taiwan, regularly threatened with invasion by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Or will President Joe Biden — dubbed “Beijing Biden” by some Trump supporters during the campaign — return to the…
What’s more provocative: visiting friends or threatening a military invasion? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is rumored to be visiting Taiwan in August, to see our friends who have made the most miraculous political advances of the last half century, from a repressive authoritarian society through four decades of martial law…
“You are living proof of this nation’s democracy,” former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently told his hosts in Taipei, Taiwan, accepting an award honoring his work to strengthen relations between our two countries. He was referring to a small group of protesters outside his hotel. “And,” Pompeo added,…
No sooner had President Biden shared his somewhat soothing takeaway from a three-hour meeting with Chinese ruler Xi Jinping — Joe doesn’t think there is an “imminent” threat of China invading Taiwan — then here comes a report that Russian missiles have killed two people. Not in Ukraine, where Russia…
https://soundcloud.com/thisweekincommonsense/london-punjab-and-taiwan-podcast?si=d9a9d8281c7541e8bfb0b7cac838f198
Just seven years ago today — March 18, 2014 — Taiwanese students began a 23-day occupation of the country’s legislature, in what became known as the Sunflower Student Movement. They were protesting the rushed and opaque passage of a Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement with China. Trade deals usually aren’t so…
“WARNING,” it began, “THIS VIDEO MAY BE UPSETTING TO SOME VIEWERS.” Just the all-caps was upsetting, I thought to myself. Still, I was all ears and eyes for Johnny Harris’s “Here’s What Happens If China Invades Taiwan,” which garnered seven million views since February. Harris was “a little bit conflicted…
March 18 marks the 8th anniversary of the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement, wherein students occupied the Taiwanese legislature to block a trade agreement between Taiwan and China, which the public came to believe gave too much economic leverage to China, a power that regularly threatens to invade the free and…
Which country has handled this worldwide pandemic best? The question was asked on Facebook, by one friend, and answered this way by another: “Government: South Korea; People: Japan.” My response? “Combo of people and government: Taiwan.” There is a lot in the Taiwanese response to explore. “The first cause of…
March 18 marks the 7th anniversary of the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement, wherein students occupied the Taiwanese legislature to block a trade agreement between Taiwan and China, which the public came to believe gave too much economic leverage to China, a power that regularly threatens to invade the free and…
March 18 marks the ninth anniversary of the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement, wherein students occupied the Taiwanese legislature to block a trade agreement between Taiwan and China, which the public came to believe gave too much economic leverage to China, a power that regularly threatens to invade the free and…
March 18 marks the ninth anniversary of the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement, wherein students occupied the Taiwanese legislature to block a trade agreement between Taiwan and China, which the public came to believe gave too much economic leverage to China, a power that regularly threatens to invade the free and…
In merely the last month . . . Belligerently attempting to enforce China’s illegal claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, a People’s Liberation Army jet intercepted a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft over international waters, coming within 20 feet, forcing the U.S. pilot to take evasive action to…
Paul Jacob talks about the biggest political issue: real democracy, where politicians aren't allowed to manhandle and tyrannize citizens. Watch this weekend’s episode of This Week in Common Sense on Rumble: https://rumble.com/embed/vtccaq/?pub=rnuf4 Or watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jqM4SnTaTJA Because Paul is on the road this weekend, the main feature of this…
How much longer does the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have to put up with freedom-loving loudmouths? Thoughtful Party rulers can’t even entertain their subjects with NBA basketball or English Premier League soccer without fear that Chinese fans will then discover the tweet of some busybody droning on against Chinese repression…
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has often been lauded in this commentary — regarding SpaceX and the growth of private space travel, and recently for providing crucial internet access through his company’s Starlink satellites first to Ukraine and now for Iranian protesters. I like that. But the Chinese Communist…
The term “Shanghaied” dates back to the 1850s, referring to Americans being kidnapped, sneaked onto ships, and transported across the Pacific Ocean, often to Shanghai, China. Doesn’t happen so much anymore. Unless you’re Taiwanese. The subject came up on a just released Common Sense podcast featuring Joseph [last name withheld…
“Today, I confess, I am proud — proud of my profession.” Sky News host Andrew Bolt was referencing the tough questions posed to Xiao Qian, China’s ambassador to Australia, following the ambassador’s speech last week to journalists at the nation’s Press Club. After Xiao talked about “a possible opportunity to…
Weeks ago, the U.S. military confirmed that China tested a hypersonic missile last summer capable of speeding around the globe with a nuclear payload. Top generals called it “a Sputnik moment.” Speaking of Sputnik, on Monday the Russians blew up one of their own orbiting satellites with a missile test…
Legislation introduced last April to allow the extradition of criminal suspects from Hong Kong to mainland China motivated millions into the streets in protests that have not yet ended . . . . . . including a major pro-democracy rally scheduled for tomorrow in Causeway Bay. Traveling to Hong Kong…
When times get tough, you learn who your friends are. Take the United States’ relationships with Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China. The island nation sports a population roughly the size of Australia’s, about 24 million; just across the Taiwan Strait, what we used to call “Red China” holds…
Paul is on the road, so it is time to reminisce — about a previous trek of his, to Hong Kong and Taiwan. https://rumble.com/embed/v14nofn/?pub=rnuf4
“Do not mess with Taiwan before 2028,” Vivek Ramaswamy instructed translators to tell Chinese ruler Xi Jinping, “before the end of my first term, okay?” Responding to a question from Hugh Hewitt on his radio program, Ramaswamy — the entrepreneur, author, and GOP presidential candidate — urged a “move from…
Paul defends Taiwan. Won’t you? https://rumble.com/embed/v1bm3g9/?pub=rnuf4
Has DEI “killed the CHIPS Act”? The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 created a giant package of subsidies that shouldn’t exist to begin with and is made even worse by all the strings attached. The Act authorizes giving $52 billion of taxpayer money to microchip manufacturers to make chips…
“China warns US Has Crossed Red Line” began Newsweek’s headline to a report that the Chinese state-run Global Times threatens a “brewing and imminent storm of lethal consequences for Taiwan” in retribution for the U.S. recently providing $80 million in military assistance to the island nation. China claims Taiwan and…
Paul Jacob is on the road, so this week he speaks from . . . the past! The year 2019, to be exact, and from Taiwan, to be geographical about it: https://soundcloud.com/thisweekincommonsense/citizens-in-charge
The China problem is “not just a distant ‘over there’ problem,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) recently argued. “As the spy balloon incident as well as the illegal CCP police stations on American soil illustrate, it’s a ‘right here at home’ problem.” It’s also a just-north-of-us problem. Canada is currently expelling…
Alex Ko is “exactly the kind of person China is worried about,” informs the BBC. Described as “soft-spoken” and “bespectacled,” the 23-year-old Ko lives in Taiwan, hundreds of ocean miles away from Hong Kong, where for months the streets have been consumed in protests demanding simple but difficult things: freedom,…
Anyone knowledgeable about medicine — or history, for that matter — is taking very, very seriously the coronavirus outbreak in China, and its subsequent spread across the globe, including to the U.S. More than 70,000 Chinese have been diagnosed and over 1,700 have died, along with one death in each…
Yesterday marked the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Not in China, where the Communist Party (CCP) has always clubbed down any public remembrance of the thousands murdered on that day by the bullets from the so-called People’s Liberation Army. While Hong Kong long witnessed massive June 4 vigils…
China and its lapdog, the World Health Organization (WHO), face increasing global anger over having initially hid the person-to-person spread of coronavirus, which has killed a staggering 126,000 people worldwide. So far. Still unrepentant, Beijing and the WHO have continued to butcher the truth — even in petty ways. Late…
“Gentlemen may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace.” — Patrick Henry The 2023 Chicago Council Survey shows 58 percent of us view China as “a critical threat” and a “plurality of Americans (46%) say that US leaders are not paying enough attention to the issue of US competition…
Why so many things are made in China, or Taiwan, Singapore . . . or Mexico? I have no beef with foreign trade, mind you. Just as I don't want government to favor one business over another here in the U.S., I don't really want that to happen across borders,…
Looks like our presidential candidates keep flunking their foreign policy exams. Question is, how much do we care? Weeks ago, Governor George Bush failed a reporter's pop quiz. He could name the leader of Taiwan but not the leaders of Chechnya, India, or Pakistan. More recently, a reporter tripped up…
Ours is a warring world. Long into the second year of Russia’s major incursion into Ukraine, there are not unreasonable fears in Poland and the Baltic countries that the hostilities might cross their borders as well. Now the Middle East erupts following the bloody Hamas attack on Israel, and the…
“The hawks will generally talk in terms of ‘the technology will fall into China’s hands,’” says political scientist Joseph Silos-Mullen, referring to a threatened Chinese invasion of Taiwan, where 90 percent of the world’s high-end computer chips are fabricated. “That would never happen,” the author of The Fake China Threat…
Going into the lockdowns and bailouts, a consensus of politicians and their court wizards, the economists, had belittled the specter of inflation. Nowadays, when folks use the term “inflation,” they really mean upward movement on the consumer price index (CPI). Some economists, who have a sense of history,* reserve the…
Should the U.S. Government let soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) enter these United States through the southern border so that they’re in place if and when the Chinese government directs them to undertake sabotage against the United States (perhaps during a Chinese invasion of Taiwan)? We are not…
Enthusiasts for prohibiting political dissent must know that the First Amendment protects the right to utter controversial speech. They must know that there’s no constitutional loophole for speech that they disagree with. Another “must know”? That calling the public statements of political opponents “misinformation,” “disinformation,” “hate speech,” etc. is no…
I AM . . . somebody! . . . with an officially “restricted” Facebook account. I’d like to thank my family and friends for always believing in me — even many decades ago when it was unclear if I had what it takes to even get arrested. And now, after…
It’s nice to be invited. Either former NBA basketball player Yao Ming or a Chinese Communist Party handler standing just behind him had the idea of inviting Enes Kanter Freedom to visit China, where Yao Ming would be his tour guide. Mr. Freedom, a current NBA player, is a sharp…
“China censors Olympic gold medalist’s defense of China’s internet censorship . . .” informed Mashable.com’s ironic headline. The medalist in question? Eileen Gu, the 18-year-old phenom who just became the youngest ever Olympic freestyle skiing champion. Born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother, Gu is…
Without freedom of speech, the jester’s art can be perilous. Chinese comedian Li Haoshi, who performs under the name House, recently did stand-up comedy at a Beijing club, after which, reports Reuters, “an audience member posted online a description of a joke he had made . . . describing it…
“Beijing is trying to convince the incoming Biden administration that the U.S.-China relationship can be smooth and positive,” writes Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, “but only if Washington dumps the Trump administration’s policies, ignores China’s worst behaviors and pretends everything is fine.” It is more than a little scary because…
Xi Jinping’s “charm offensive” had hardly begun — punctuated by the standing ovation from a roomful of American CEOs even before the leader of this recognized genocidal regime offered his fervent desire for peace and friendship — when, over the weekend, as NBC News reported, “China Confronts U.S. Warship as…
This weekend, at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a unanimous vote of elite communist party officials gave President Xi Jinping his third five-year term. But the story that made the headlines focused on the physical removal from the main chamber of Hu Jintao, the previous…
A recent Senate hearing addressed a big problem facing America’s All-Volunteer Force (AVF): recruitment. The Army fell 25 percent short of its 2022 goal; the Air Force is 10 percent below; the Navy met its target for enlisted folks but not officers; and the Marines hit their mark but said…
Aren’t Norwegians the good guys? Yet, somehow, this bastion of human rights (and “best democracy in the world”) has, since 2010, “forcibly registered the nationality of Taiwanese residing in Norway as ‘Chinese’”? “The action is considered an act of appeasement,” The News Lens paraphrases Joseph Liu, a Taiwanese lawyer based…
Whence came this pandemic? Now that we can investigate the lab leak theory without being smeared as conspiracy nuts or buried in an avalanche of disinformation from China, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. scientific community — all protected in their deceit by Big Tech and our mainstream media…
“‘One country two systems’ has been tested and proved time and again,” Chinese ruler Xi Jinping told his hand-picked Hong Kong audience last week, “and there is no reason to change such a good system.” Twenty-five years into that “good system” — created when the United Kingdom signed it over…
In this frightening time marked by actual violence — five dead in the attack on the U.S. capitol and many more killed during last summer’s unrest* — last week’s very scariest news was this admission by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY): Several members of Congress, in some of my discussions, have…
Once again, TIME is skipping right over you and me for consideration as the magazine’s “Person of the Year for 2020.” What am I saying, YOU were named back in 2006! TIME’s choice can be important recognition for someone working against all odds to make a very positive difference in…
The day following Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s “successful” visit to China, wherein the Chinese rulers agreed to start talking to U.S. officials again — well, except on trivial military-to-military stuff like the PLA playing chicken with our fighter jets and naval ships in international waters — President Joe Biden…
“Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs, okay,” Chamath Palihapitiya stated emphatically on the All-In Podcast. “I’m telling you a very hard, ugly truth.” Concern that the totalitarian Chinese regime has locked more than a million Muslim Uyghurs in concentration camps is “a luxury belief,” according to Mr. Palihapitiya,…
“Over the course of April and throughout May,” writes Timothy McLaughlin in The Atlantic, “Beijing was undertaking aggressive actions across Asia.” These include: The ramming — and sinking — of a Vietnamese vessel in the South China Sea.Intrusive surveying by a Chinese research vessel (plus coast-guard and other ships) near…
For weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services told us not to wear face masks. The Surgeon General even warned that mass use of masks could “increase the spread of the coronavirus.” “My nose tells me,” I posted on Facebook weeks…
“[A]t a time of rising tensions with China” is “the objectivity of news” . . . dead? Wounded? So wonders Arthur Bloom, lamenting for The American Conservative, in “China’s Long Tentacles Extend Deep Into American Media.” “We’ve got this tremendous disconnect between what the American people actually think about China…
Retired Chinese soccer superstar Hao Haidong “stunned his country,” The Washington Post reported last week, “after he called for the downfall of the ruling Communist Party and the formation of a new government.” Certainly, Hao — “the Chinese national team’s all-time top goal scorer and an idol in the 1990s…
Last Friday, Daryl Morey, the general manager of the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets, tweeted a graphic repeating the Hong Kong protesters’ chant, “Fight for freedom! “Stand with Hong Kong!” But before I could hit “like,” he deleted it amid the massive backlash from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and…
Are you going to make a big fuss? I mean, about China — dominated by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Because some people get all bent out of shape over their totalitarian government placing a million or two Muslim Uighurs into re-education camps surrounded by high walls and razor…
I got my first taste of tear gas yesterday. Minding my own business — well, maybe not so much . . . except that “mankind is my business” — I joined Hong Kong’s Global Anti-Totalitarianism Rally. Is there a more important cause than preventing totalitarian regimes from crushing more lives?…
https://rumble.com/embed/v196ao1/?pub=rnuf4 This Week in Common Sense for the week starting July 4, 2022.
Paul focuses on the realpolitik and deeper lack of meaning in a popular statement of America First sentiment. https://rumble.com/embed/v36gi4l/?pub=rnuf4
Paul no longer produces his weekly “weekend wrap-up” podcast, This Week in Common Sense. But he still has something to say. This is the video of the talk shared on audio yesterday: https://rumble.com/embed/v4568lw/?pub=rnuf4 Please go to StopTheChinazis.org for more information.
https://youtu.be/_r1zMmD2orM Paul's weekend update for the last week of September, 2019.
https://youtu.be/nEwcwF2yGL8
This weekend’s podcast has Paul Jacob reminiscing about his time spent in Hong Kong as the Chinazis cracked down. It’s our way of honoring the fallen at Tiananmen 33 years ago. For yes, yesterday marked the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Which the Chinese Government really, really, really…
Time sure flies when you’re having fun. Today is my birthday. I am 60, and thus begin my 61st year on this planet. For the last four decades — my entire adult life — I’ve worked in politics. That might not seem like much fun. Politics is a constant struggle,…
. . . recently published on this site. . . . Date (links to PDFs) — Title (links to articles) — Topic: May 14 — A Done Decision — Paul Jacob hazards a guess about a court’s conclusion. May 13 — Pander, Please — Paul Jacob on the media’s worst,…