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international affairs

This Week @ StoptheChinazis.org

Keeping track of the threat from the Chinese Communist Party and its hegemony over the Chinese (and other) peoples:

A Two-day Trip, A Four-year Trap

A two-day business trip to became a four-year trap for
Taiwanese businessman. . . . [Monkton, Nov. 3]

Pro-democracy Parties “Failed to Field” Candidates in Rubble of Hong Kong’s Democracy

Failed to field. That’s one way of putting it. . . . [Scribbler, Nov. 1]

Spy for Us!

If you’re a former or current member of the
U.S. military, the CCP wants you to spy on
your country! [Scribbler, Nov. 1]

To Victims, the Premier Was No Good Guy

Many of Li Keqiang’s mourners are doubtless sincere
and are not, like some. . . . [Scribbler, Nov. 1]

COVID 2050

Why did the world go so crazy in its reactions
to COVID? [Anders Chydenius, Nov. 1]

The Staycation Is Mandatory

International travel is being more strictly limited for
Chinese government bureaucrats, public school
teachers, and even . . . [Monkton, Oct. 31]

China’s “Planned Capitalism” Kills Wealth

Sometimes, prosperity is an illusion. The massive
building boom in the People’s Republic of China
is creating outer signs of affluence, but there
isn’t enough demand. . . . [Sandy Ikeda, Oct. 29]

Categories
international affairs

Read/Watch: Taiwan History

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 is China and there is Taiwan.”

— William C. Fox, Exploring History


  1. Pre-history
  2. Japanese Colonial Period (1895-1945)
  3. World War II
  4. Post-War: 228 Incident, White Terror, Martial Law
  5. The Historical Divide between China & Taiwan
  6. Nixon Goes to China
  7. Taiwan Relations Act
  8. Democracy Arrives
  9. The Sunflower Movement
  10. China Threatens War
  11. Taiwan Means Business

“Our experience is one of resilience. It is an experience of upholding democratic and progressive values, the existence of which is being constantly challenged. The vibrant democracy Taiwan is today, bears testament to what a determined practitioner of democracy, characterized by good governance, can achieve.”

— Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen
Categories
international affairs Internet controversy media and media people

Stop the Chinazis

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 IDF’s response, which our Secretary of State says carry “a likelihood of escalation.”

And I’ve yet to mention the most serious threat the people of this planet face: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

In the throes of the largest military expansion in modern history, China now wields the world’s biggest army and navy. Along with the second largest economy on the planet. By comparison, Russia’s economy holds 11th place, roughly 10 percent of China’s, and Iran ranks 42nd, one-fiftieth of China’s.

Historically, the CCP is the “greatest” killing machine of all time. And now dictator-for-life Xi Jinping seems intent on bringing back those gloriously murderous Mao days — only with greater technological efficiency.

There is:

  • The ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjing. 
  • The long-running and viscous pogrom against Falun Gong. 
  • Organ harvesting from political prisoners.
  • The totalitarian surveillance state crushing of peaceful political dissent.
  • The breaking of an international agreement in order to kill civil liberties in Hong Kong early and block the push for democracy.
  • Brutal repression continues in Tibet.
  • Constant harassment and threat of military invasion against free, democratic and peaceful Taiwan.
  • Killing Indian soldiers in border clashes in recent years. 
  • Sinking Vietnamese fishing boats.
  • Harassing Philippine vessels. 

After building islands in the South China Sea against international law and then militarizing those islands (after telling the world they were not doing so), the CCP is today increasingly aggressive and belligerent in this essential waterway, which carries one-third of the world’s total shipping. China claims 90 percent of this international waterway — even swaths of the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and other countries, long recognized by international treaties.

The CCP position is ridiculous . . . but don’t laugh, because these Chinazis (as Hongkongers call them) must be taken seriously

And by preparing to meet their threat, by demonstrating our ability to mount a credible defense of Taiwan, the Philippines, and other allies in the region, hopefully we can prevent hostilities. 

As individuals, we can help as well. To better “know” this enemy and to track their Chinazi aggression against their own people and those of other countries, we have launched a new website whose name says it all: StopTheChinazis.org.

As if to drive home the Nazi-esque nature of today’s CCP, most of the people writing for the site have chosen to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by the CCP . . . even against Americans . . . even here in America. 

But we won’t be silenced. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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First Amendment rights international affairs too much government

The $145,000 Virtual Fine

A Chinese programmer who worked remotely for a foreign company between 2019 and 2022 has been fined his entire earnings from that work, 1.058 million yuan or almost 145,000 USD.

We know only the surname, Ma, of the robbed developer. Ma’s crime was using a virtual private network to evade China’s great firewall, a censorship net used to keep people from seeing anything too politically thought-provoking.

Many others in China also use VPNs to circumvent the great firewall, and many China-based companies couldn’t function without using VPNs.

Authorities first noticed Ma because of a Twitter account that was not even his, and which authorities agreed was not his. But now they were looking at him.

He says that he explained that while his remote work could be done without bypassing the wall and that the company’s support site could be reached without doing so, he needed to use a VPN only to access Zoom for meetings. 

These details fell on deaf ears.

Whatever Ma’s exact alleged violation, something in what passes for law in China could be found to rationalize punishing him for it. He seems to be a victim of bad luck. A mix-up about a Twitter account. He ticked a few boxes. He had money. Money the local officials wanted.

The message to other Chinese: “You may think you’re getting away with X [“X” being one of the many peaceful activities that the Chinese government arbitrarily outlaws]. But we can get you any time.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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general freedom ideological culture international affairs

America’s Mayor Celebrates Communism

The American political tradition is not communist. It is anti-totalitarian. So we don’t expect our political leaders to cozy up to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

One would never want the mayor of Podunk, let alone New York City, to attend a flag-raising ceremony to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, a brutal totalitarian dictatorship.

But that’s just what New York City Mayor Eric Adams did on October 1.

Now, Adams didn’t tell the Chinese Communist Party officials and others attending what a fan he is of the Chinese government’s wide-scale and unrelenting repression and murder, but his very presence implied acceptance of the Chinazi regime: Hey, you made it. Seventy-four years! Good for you guys.

A CCP-PRC ceremony conducted to commemorate the CCP founding of the PRC is not about being nice to Chinese people or celebrating a vague diversity. If you go there in an official capacity to glad hand Chinazi officials and wave the U.S. flag along with the Chinese flag, you are sanctioning the Chinazi regime. You’re telling everybody — everybody too busy to read news or history or investigative reports — that these rulers aren’t so bad.

“That flag is a flag of repression,” says Chinese dissident Zhou Fengsuo. “It’s the CCP flag of China. The day when they killed many of my compatriots on Tiananmen Square . . . that’s the flag they raised there to show their victory over peaceful people.”

Adams has provided another propaganda coup for the CCP, which enjoys racking them up.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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government transparency insider corruption international affairs

Northern Disclosure

Oh, Canada. 

My wife and I visited our northern neighbor just a week ago, while its Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was stuck in India . . . with plane trouble.

“Trudeau’s presence at the G20 summit . . . came against a backdrop of tensions between his government and host India over Ottawa’s handling of rightwing Sikh separatists,” U.K.’s Guardian reported. “New Delhi accuses Ottawa of turning a blind eye to the activities of radical Sikh nationalists who seek a separate Sikh homeland in northern India.”

Meanwhile, in Vancouver, British Columbia, I served as a member of the Punjab Referendum Commission, an international group with some know-how about direct democracy. We’re advising and monitoring the referendums being organized around the world by U.S.-based Sikhs for Justice. Nearly a million Sikhs live in Canada.

Mr. Trudeau should wear the Indian government’s scorn as a badge of honor, of course, for upholding the Sikhs’ basic rights to speak out in his putative free society. 

But that’s not the only billion-being nation-state brouhaha this scion faces; Trudeau’s Liberal Party controls the Parliament but “after months of demands from opposition parties” just finally agreed to an official public inquiry into foreign (read: Chinese) interference in their political affairs. 

“Canadian news reports earlier this year, citing anonymous Canadian intelligence officials and leaked classified documents, alleged that Chinese intelligence officials had funneled donations to its preferred candidates,” explains Axios, “all members of Canada’s Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.”

Worse than plane trouble.

I hope Canadians will get to the bottom of it and hold their politicians accountable in ways that we in the U.S. did not 30 years ago when Washington was first awash with Chinese cash.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob. 


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