Important Takeaways:
- The upcoming House Farm Bill will contain measures to restrict foreign entities like China from scooping up American farmland in a big win for national security, a Republican who helped secure the provisions told DailyMail.com.
- Foreign entities own a total of 40 million acres of U.S. farmland and China has bought up nearly 347,000 acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
- Now lawmakers are working to further restrict China and other adversaries from snatching up coveted land in the fiscal year 2024 ‘Farm Bill.’
- The Chinese land purchases near important U.S. military instillations have been a particular concern for lawmakers and government officials.
- In 2022, for example, the China-based food producer, Fufeng Group, acquired 300 acres of land in Grand Forks, just 20 minutes down the road from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, where some of the nation’s most sensitive drone technology is based.
- Chairman of the committee, Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., celebrated the bill’s passage through committee with bipartisan support, saying in a statement last week, ‘Great things can be accomplished when you don’t surround yourself with redlines, and I am eager to continue our work with whomever wants to come to the table.’
- Hinson also celebrated the bill’s committee approval.
- ‘I was proud to work with Chairman Thompson to ensure initiatives to reshore our food supply chain and prevent Communist China from buying our land were included in the House Farm Bill.’
- ‘Food security is national security, and this Farm Bill bolsters both.’
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Important Takeaways:
- A top US official has described China’s recent military exercises around Taiwan as “a rehearsal” for an invasion.
- US Indo-Pacific Commander Samuel Paparo said his command monitored China’s drills last Thursday and Friday.
- “We watched it. We took note. We learned from it,” he told Nikkei, adding that it “looked like a rehearsal.”
- China said its two-day exercises were punishment for separatist forces seeking independence. Beijing claims the island is part of China’s national territory.
- The drills came days after President Lai Ching-te was inaugurated. He called on Beijing to stop threatening the island and pledged to “neither yield nor provoke” the mainland Communist Party leadership.
- Admiral Paparo warned China continues to “build capability at an alarming rate.”
- The US does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is bound by its own laws to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
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Important Takeaways:
- Victor Davis Hanson points out Western culture shouldn’t be so nonchalant about nuclear threats from autocratic nuclear nations. The Idea of “It can’t happen here” can prove fatal
- After a recent summit between new partners China and Russia, General Secretary Xi Jinping and Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin issued an odd one-sentence communique: “There can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should never be fought.”
- No one would disagree, even though several officials of both hypocritical governments have previously threatened their neighbors with nuclear attacks.
- But still, why did the two feel the need to issue such a terse statement — and why now?
- [In particular China, and Russia] both believe that the only impediment to their victories would be an intervention from the U.S. and the NATO alliance, a conflict that could descend into mutual threats to resort to nuclear weapons.
- Thus, the recent warnings of Xi and Putin.
- Almost monthly, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un continues his weary threats to use his nuclear arsenal to destroy South Korea or Japan.
- A similarly monotonous, pro-Hamas Turkish President Recep Erdogan…
- Iran’s theocrats simultaneously claim they are about ready to produce nuclear weapons. And, of course, since 1979, Iran has periodically promised to wipe Israel off the map and half the world’s Jews with it.
- Oddly, the global reaction to the promise of Armageddon remains one of nonchalance. Most feel that such strongmen rant wildly but would never unleash weapons of civilizational destruction
- Only Israel has an effective anti-ballistic missile dome. And the more the conventional power of the West declines, the more in extremis it will have to rely on a nuclear deterrent — at a time when it has no effective missile defense of its homelands.
- In a just-released book, “The End of Everything,” I wrote about four examples of annihilation — the classical city-state of Thebes, ancient Carthage, Byzantine Constantinople and Aztec Tenochtitlan — in which the unimaginable became all too real.
- In all these erasures, the targeted, naïve states believed that their illustrious pasts, rather than a realistic appraisal of their present inadequate defenses, would ensure their survival.
- If the past is any guide to the present, we should take heed that what almost never happens in war can certainly still occur.
- When killers issue wild, even lunatic, threats, we should nonetheless take them seriously.
- We should not count on friends or neutrals to save our civilization. Instead, Americans should build defense systems over the skies of our homeland, secure our borders, ensure our military operates on meritocracy, cease wild deficit spending and borrowing, and rebuild both our conventional and nuclear forces.
- Otherwise, we will naïvely — and fatally — believe that we are magically exempt when the inconceivable becomes all too real.
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Important Takeaways:
- China has issued elaborate media statements showing Taiwan being surrounded by forces from its military, the People’s Liberation Army. A new video on Friday showed animated Chinese forces approaching from all sides and Taiwan being enclosed within a circular target area while simulated missiles hit key population and military targets.
- Despite that, there was little sign of concern among Taiwan’s 23 million people, who have lived under threat of Chinese invasion since the two sides split during a civil war in 1949.
- The defense ministry said it tracked 49 Chinese warplanes and 19 navy vessels, as well as coast guard vessels, and that 35 of the planes flew across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, the de facto boundary between the two sides, over a 24-hour period from Thursday to Friday.
- The Pentagon said the United States was “monitoring very closely” the joint Chinese drills. It said Beijing’s actions “are reckless, risk escalation, and erode longstanding norms that have maintained regional peace and stability for decades.”
- Washington is legally bound to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and considers all threats to the island a matter of “grave concern.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Cyberattacks on U.S. Water Facilities Are Increasing. Why?
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a critical enforcement alert on Monday, warning water utilities nationwide to bolster cybersecurity measures immediately due to an increase in the frequency and severity of cyberattacks. According to the EPA, 70 percent of inspected water utilities violated standards designed to prevent security breaches, highlighting the urgent need for improved defenses. The alert comes as smaller communities become prime targets for attacks by groups linked to hostile actors in Russia, Iran, and China.
- In recent assessments, federal officials found water systems failing to implement basic security protocols, such as changing default passwords and revoking access from former employees. With many utilities relying heavily on computer software for operations, the EPA emphasized the importance of safeguarding both information technology and process controls to ensure uninterrupted water supply and safety.
- “In many cases, systems are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, which is to have completed a risk assessment of their vulnerabilities that includes cybersecurity and to make sure that plan is available and informing the way they do business,” said EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe. She added: “China, Russia, and Iran are actively seeking the capability to disable U.S. critical infrastructure, including water and wastewater systems.”
- Recent incidents include the Iranian-affiliated Cyber Av3ngers hacking a small Pennsylvania town’s water utility and a Russian-linked group targeting Texas utilities. In the past, most cyber attacks on utilities have been spearheaded by private actors looking to ransom back access to the owners in the hopes of receiving a cash payment. However, hostile state-aligned actors have also stepped up attacks in recent years. U.S. officials have acknowledged that ‘Volt Typhoon,’ a Chinese-affiliated cyber group, has carried out multiple attacks on U.S. infrastructure.
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Important Takeaways:
- President Biden has made his “biggest blunder” yet by driving China and Russia into a closer strategic partnership through his faulty foreign policy
- Heritage Foundation senior fellow Michael Pillsbury argued on “Fox & Friends” that the “shocking” relationship the two nuclear world powers have fostered never would have happened under the Trump administration
- Putin visited Xi in Beijing to strengthen bilateral relations and garner additional support for the war in Ukraine
- China has vowed “resolute measures” against the U.S. in retaliation for Biden’s newly announced tariffs on $18 billion worth of Chinese imports
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Important Takeaways:
- Iowa high schoolers thank ‘Grandpa Xi’ for ‘fully funding’ field trips to China: Emails expose how Beijing is infiltrating American public classrooms
- The Chinese Communist Party paid for multiple trips to China for small-town Iowa high schoolers who exchanged letters with President Xi Jinping and praised the country and its leader.
- Shocking correspondence exclusively reviewed by DailyMail.com reveals lengthy emails between public school officials in Muscatine, Iowa, and Chinese government officials to coordinate several field trips to the Asian country.
- One Chinese language teacher who helped organize a previously reported January 2024 trip to China informed the Muscatine Community School District officials that the journey for 24 students would be fully paid for by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
- Further, email correspondence between Muscatine administrators reviewed by DailyMail.com indicates that a third trip to China is tentatively scheduled for Muscatine students in October.
- ‘In the past few days, the Chinese consulate has been in contact with me regarding the upcoming China trip,’ the Chinese language teacher wrote to fellow administrators.
- ‘We have been invited by the Ministry of Education of China to visit at the end of January.’
- ‘You’re all invited and China will cover all of the costs,’ the note continued.
- Days later, two dozen Muscatine High School students were flown to China for a eight day trip flush with visits to the Great Wall of China and the Chinese Ministry of Education.
- In February, Chinese state-run TV outlet CCTV visited Muscatine High School to interview students about their trip.
- Students heaped praise on the country, with a group of them telling the outlet ‘I love you, China.’
- The students also sang a song celebrating Chinese President Xi Jinping for helping them visit the country.
- ‘Thank you Grandpa Xi,’ one student said in mandarin, before adding ‘China is vast and beautiful.’
- ‘The Chinese Communist Party wants the next generation of American leaders to be amenable to its political aims and willing to dismiss the plethora of atrocities it’s committed, including genocide,’ investigative fellow at Parents Defending Education Alex Nester told DailyMail.com.
- ‘American schools are playing right into the CCP’s hands,’ she continued. ”All expenses paid’ does not mean ‘free’ when we’re talking about the communist regime in China.’
- ‘The CCP has openly stated that infiltrating the American education system is a top priority,’ Nester told DailyMail.com. ‘Adults need to wake up and realize what’s really happening under their watch.’
- The Chinese president said at the time he aims to bring 50,000 American students to Asian country in the next five years.
- The elderly Iowan has a longstanding relationship with the Chinese leader dating back to 1985 when she hosted him and other Chinese officials visiting the midwest.
- They toured farms and manufacturing facilities during their research into American food production systems.
- Previously, Parents Defending Education published a report indicating that the Chinese government was investing millions in public schools across the country.
- The report said that the close coordination between the CCP and U.S. schools to establish Confucius Classrooms has historically included 143 school districts in 34 states and Washington, D.C.
- In addition, at least seven contracts are still active in Texas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington.
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Important Takeaways:
- MPs will be told of a massive data breach involving the Ministry of Defense later today, targeting service personnel.
- The government will not name the country involved, but Sky News understands this to be China.
- The Chinese state is to be accused of two or three attempts at hacking MoD employees – including personnel.
- The cyberattack was on a payroll system with current service personnel and some veterans. It is largely names and bank details that have been exposed.
- All salaries will be paid this month.
- China’s foreign ministry said it “firmly opposes and fights all forms of cyber attacks” and “rejects the use of this issue politically to smear other countries”.
- Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative MP and former soldier, told Sky News that China “was probably looking at the financially vulnerable with a view that they may be coerced in exchange for cash”.
- Defense Secretary Grant Shapps will make a statement to the Commons today, with the BBC reporting he will set out a “multi-point plan” which will include action to protect affected service men and women.
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Important Takeaways:
- A year ago, Tesla held the No. 1 ranking in China’s new-energy vehicle retail segment. In the first quarter of this year, the company had fallen to third place…. It is not clear that Tesla can compete in China, where the regime does just about everything it can to favor Chinese competitors.
- Musk has made Tesla reliant on China, and China’s rulers know that.
- “What is there to stop them [Chinese officials] from going to Musk directly and saying, ‘We’ll call your line of credit early, unless you give us X, Y, or Z?'” — Congressional Republican aide, Washington Examiner, August 26, 2020.
- “Musk should expect China to make demands for technology and data transfers to include Starlink and SpaceX heavy-lift rockets.” — Blaine Holt, retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier general and technology entrepreneur, to Gatestone Institute, May 3, 2024.
- “Will Congress now look the other way while the often-used CCP playbook of corporate blackmail plays out, compromising our security?” — Blaine Holt to Gatestone Institute, May 3, 2024.
- “You have me, and I have you.” — Chinese Premier Li Qiang to Elon Musk, CNN, April 28, 2024.
- The words, ostensibly meant to show U.S.-China friendship, are in reality a warning. It is now clear that one person so beholden to China should not be so central to America’s effort to stay in space.
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Important Takeaways:
- China attack on Taiwan ‘imminent’ as island warned invasion coming ‘before end of 2024’
- China won’t listen to the US’ demands and will stop at nothing to take Taiwan back by force, a defense expert has told Daily Express US.
- …according to Brandon Weichert, a National Security Analyst from The National Interest, who says China is dead set on its goal of retaking Taiwan.
- He said: “China will not listen [to the US], especially because I remain convinced that Beijing is readying to strike Taiwan soon–possibly as early as this fall.
- “They don’t care what the Americans say anymore.”
- According to Mr. Weichert, China refuses to listen as it is obsessed with controlling the region.
- He said: “China under Xi Jinping is deeply committed to reshaping the world system away from the maritime democracies of the US-led Western order and toward the continental autocracies of the China-led Eurasian order.”
- But Beijing Xi appeared to take a friendly tone as he sat down with Blinken amid the surging tensions.
- The Chinese President reportedly called for mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation, describing these as the “three major principles” for US-China relations.
- He reportedly said: “[The two countries] should make achievements for each other, not do harm to each other.”
- But Beijing has not responded well to US’ stance on Taiwan, calling the issue “the first insurmountable red line” in relations between the two powers.
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