Schedium

Xi Jinping (AI-generated image) ______ On June 20, US President Joe Biden called People's Republic of China (PRC) leader Xi Jinping a “dictator” during a speech at a fundraiser in California.  Referring to the PRC spy balloon shot down on February 4 of this year, Biden said that Xi Jinping "got very upset" because "he didn’t know it was there", adding that it is "a great embarrassment for dictators" when they don't know that something as important as this has happened.  PRC foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that Biden’s comments were "extremely absurd" and a "political provocation" which "seriously violated China’s political dignity". The US ambassador to the PRC was reportedly reprimanded over the comments. Several media organisations immediately rushed to give voice to Beijing's complaints about that characterisation.  "Biden calling Xi a dictator is his latest ad-lib to anger a foreign capital,

  Germany's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius meets with his PRC counterpart General Li Shangfu at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 3rd 2023. Photo by Germany's Defence Ministry via Twitter . ______ Former officers of Germany's armed forces (Bundeswehr) have been working for years as trainers for the air force of the People's Republic of China (PRC), according to a joint media report by German public-service broadcaster ZDF and the magazine Der Spiegel.  Several former German air force officers are allegedly employed as trainers for the PRC military. These include two Eurofighter instructors and a Tornado pilot, only identified as Peter S., Alexander H., and Dirk J. All three know NATO's secret deployment tactics, the report states. The Intelligence Services Oversight Committee of the German Parliament (PKGr) has been monitoring the possible employment of former German military officers in the PRC army with alarm.  “We are concerned that after being empl

Shortly after the First World War, a British media tycoon launched a campaign to pressure the UK government to end what he described as an "orgy of spending" and "appalling taxation." He urged drastic cuts in public spending, the privatisation of state-owned shipyards and factories, the abolition of regulations, and lower taxes. The press magnate was Lord Rothermere. He and his brother, Lord Northcliffe, owned some of the most popular British newspapers of the time, such as the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Pictorial, the Sunday Mail, The Times and the Daily Mail (Curran et al. 1991, pp. 50-51; Olmsted 2022, p. 21). They used their media empires to shape public opinion in order to reinforce conservative values, oppose the rise of the Labour Party, and lambaste the Liberal-Conservative government's brief post-war support for investments in housing, education and welfare. But they also tapped into an emerging middle class resentment towards progressive policies and rap

In an interview with the Lincoln Project published on January 13, political commentator David Rothkopf said: "I think, at some point, Taiwan will become part of China again" (see video clip below). Rothkopf endorsed the policy of territorial expansionism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and misled the public by repeating some of its talking points.  For example, Rothkopf falsely stated that Taiwan has been part of China for a long time.  In fact, the People's Republic of China (PRC), which was founded in 1949, never ruled Taiwan . Claiming that Taiwan was part of the PRC is as absurd as claiming that Ukraine was part of the Russian Federation, or that South Korea was part of North Korea.  David Rothkopf echoed the CCP's ethnonationalist agenda , which denies Taiwan's statehood on the basis of the arbitrary dogma of national identity and territorial irredentism defined by the Politburo and radical nationalists. Again, it's reminiscent of Putin's denial

Miles Guo, a Chinese businessman and internet media personality with close ties to former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, has been arrested on various charges of wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering.  According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, Miles Guo was arrested in the morning of March 15 for allegedly orchestrating an over US$1 billion fraud conspiracy. Over US$630 million of alleged fraud proceeds were seized by the U.S. Government.  Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced the unsealing of a twelve-count Indictment charging Guo as well as his financier Kin Ming Je with various wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering charges.   The defendants allegedly solicited "investme

Jamie Dimon, the chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, loves Florida.  In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Dimon was asked about the political situation in Florida and its impact on business. The billionaire businessman brushed all concerns aside.  "We love Florida, we’re growing in Florida left and right," he said.  Under its far right Republican leadership, Florida's government has launched an assault on "leftist ideology" . It has stripped Disney of its self-governing district in retaliation for the company's criticism of the "Don't say gay" bill. Instead of fighting back, the mighty corporation has surrendered to the state authorities' bullying tactics.  Recently, Florida's Republican Senator Jason Brodeur introduced a bill that would require bloggers to register with the state government and file periodic reports with the state if they are paid to write posts about the state’s governor, lieutenant governor, cab

In my previous post I wrote about far right activist Xi Van Fleet (弗里特), whose crusade against critical race theory has been covered by media outlets such as the Washington Examiner and "Fox News". Born in the People's Republic of China (PRC), she experienced Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution and fled to the United States at the age of 26. In the summer of 2021, Fox reported on Xi Van Fleet's tirade against critical race theory at a Loudoun County School Board meeting.  "I’ve been very alarmed by what’s going on in our schools," she said.  "You are now teaching, training our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history ... The Communist regime used the same critical theory to divide people ... The only difference is they used class instead of race ... This is indeed the American version of the Chinese Cultural Revolution ... The critical race theory has its roots in cultural Marxism. It should have no place in our