John Hayward - Page 141

While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) confidently boasts that the security law it intends to impose on Hong Kong will stabilize the city and win applause from business leaders, some corporations are making plans to flee before the last shred of Hong Kong’s autonomy is destroyed.

Chinese propagandists quickly jumped on the Minneapolis riots to score political points against the United States, comparing the riots to the Hong Kong protests and behaving as if China has a lighter touch when dealing with civil unrest than President Donald Trump because Trump said in a tweet that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday announced he is “ending the sanctions waiver for JCPOA-related projects in Iran, effective in 60 days.” JCPOA stands for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the nuclear deal struck by former President Barack Obama. 

Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, commonly known as LegCo, on Thursday suspended debate on a controversial bill that would criminalize disrespect of the Chinese Communist national anthem after pro-democracy legislator Ted Hui threw a rotten plant at the seat of LegCo President Andrew Leung.

In an address to Chinese military officers at the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), Communist China’s rubber-stamp legislature, dictator Xi Jinping said it was important to “step up preparations for armed combat” against various threats, specifically mentioning “Taiwan independence forces.”

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Wednesday that the Democrat governor of Washington state, Jay Inslee, wrote a personal letter to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping in early April asking China to use its “enormous productive capacity” to provide “critically needed medical supplies” including masks, gloves, and gowns.

24-year-old Tian Yuxi of Wuhan, China, was killed by the coronavirus in early February. According to the Epoch Times, her mother Yang Min was arrested two weeks ago for accusing the Chinese government of being responsible for her death.

China’s state-run Global Times went to bat for the heavy-handed “national security law” Beijing is preparing to impose on Hong Kong with a slew of editorials on Monday and Tuesday, denouncing criticism as fear-mongering and predicting Hong Kong would welcome the stability provided by a massive crackdown on protesters.

The Chinese city of Hangzhou is considering proposals to make the smartphone-based coronavirus health tracking system permanent, expanding it to include factors such as how much sleep citizens are getting, how much alcohol they drink, and how frequently they exercise.

Up to 5,000 Chinese troops are now massed along the disputed Ladakh border with India, and according to Indian officials, not all of them are staying on China’s side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Officials from China’s province of Guangdong said on Monday they are planning to build dozens of high-level biosafety laboratories that should be able to safely handle infectious diseases, including at least one capable of handling Ebola.

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday issued a statement that he will respond to a ceasefire “gesture of goodwill” from the Taliban by expediting the release of 2,000 Taliban prisoners.

Reports from across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia this weekend described Muslims ignoring coronavirus lockdown bans on large gatherings to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Ramadan holiday season, usually celebrated in a highly social manner.

Thousands of protesters filled the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday to denounce Beijing’s plan to impose a draconian national security law, neutralizing the Hong Kong legislature and potentially setting up a brutal crackdown on all future dissent.

World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that his organization “worked day and night to coordinate the global response” to the coronavirus pandemic, “providing technical advice, catalysing political solidarity, mobilising resources, coordinating resources and much more.”

The National People’s Congress (NPC), the rubber-stamp legislature of the Chinese Communist Party, received a draft copy on Friday of the security law Beijing is planning to impose on Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong stock market was rocked by a massive sell-off on Friday after the Chinese Communist government in Beijing declared its intention to bypass the Hong Kong legislature and impose a draconian security law to shut down the protest movement. That single act effectively ended the island’s limited autonomy in the eyes of many residents and concerned international observers.

The Ministry of the Interior of Saudi Arabia on Friday announced a 24-hour coronavirus lockdown and nationwide curfew for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which is scheduled for May 23 to 27 in the kingdom.

Lee Cheuk-yan of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democrat Movements of China, organizer of an annual June 4 vigil to remember the victims of Communist China’s murderous crackdown on Tiananmen Square in 1989, said on Wednesday that this year’s event will be held in a socially distant manner due to extended coronavirus bans on large public gatherings. Lee said the coronavirus restrictions are “disproportionate” to the state of the pandemic in Hong Kong and accused the Beijing-controlled government of using the emergency to suppress dissent.

The Chinese Communist Party’s sham legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), is reportedly preparing to bypass the Hong Kong legislature (which is looking more than a little shamtastic these days itself) and impose a set of national security laws that could crush the Hong Kong protest movement and hollow out what remains of the island’s limited autonomy.

In his address for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada – supreme leader of the Taliban as well as one of its top clerics – promised equal rights for men and women under fundamentalist Taliban rule after the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan. He also offered a general amnesty to the Taliban’s enemies, provided they “end their opposition” to the “establishment of an Islamic government.”

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Wednesday that despite copious promises by the Chinese government to crack down on scammers and con artists, they are still preying upon foreign governments and private citizens desperate to buy masks and other protective equipment to combat the Wuhan coronavirus.

The U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) announced on Tuesday that American B-1B Lancer bombers recently “conducted a mission over the South China Sea, just days after training with the U.S. Navy near Hawaii, demonstrating the credibility of U.S. Air Force forces to address a diverse and uncertain security environment.”

The new coronavirus outbreak in northeastern China, originally dismissed as a minor spate of mostly foreign infections that should not distract from China’s total victory over the Wuhan virus, has grown until 108 million people are under lockdown in the region.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) media celebrated this week’s World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting as a big win for China, projecting confidence that the CCP has stymied the worldwide movement to investigate the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus and retains commanding influence in the World Health Organization (WHO). State media claimed China’s nemeses – including the United States, Australia, and Taiwan – were the “largest losers” at the WHA.

Chinese state media on Tuesday took a dig at President Donald Trump by touting research that suggests Trump probably has diarrhea because he takes hydroxychloroquine as protection from the Wuhan coronavirus.

After weeks of howling that calls for an international investigation of the Wuhan coronavirus were nothing but political dirty tricks intended to scapegoat China for the failure of other governments to manage the pandemic effectively, and effectively declaring economic war on Australia for daring to demand such an investigation, the Chinese delegation to the World Health Assembly (WHA) suddenly decided on Tuesday to co-sponsor a resolution calling for an independent review.

The office of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen announced on Monday that information security services are investigating a suspected cyberattack.

World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a meeting of his agency’s governing body, the World Health Assembly (W.H.A.), on Monday that the coronavirus pandemic should teach the nations of the world “humility.”

Chinese state media seized upon a rumor that U.S. President Donald Trump could restore partial funding to the World Health Organization as proof the U.S. is “calculating and stingy.”

A brawl erupted in the Hong Kong legislature, commonly known as LegCo, on Monday when pro-Beijing lawmakers installed one of their own as House Committee chair.

The World Health Assembly (W.H.A.), governing body of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), convened via teleconferencing on Monday to discuss the global coronavirus pandemic.

Chinese state media ridiculed U.S. allegations of wrongdoing in the coronavirus pandemic in a spate of editorials on Thursday and Friday, mocking U.S. President Donald Trump as a baby throwing a temper tantrum and repeating the Communist Party’s standard line that all questions about China’s conduct are merely attempts by other nations to distract from their own purportedly inferior responses to the coronavirus.

Chinese National Health Commission official Liu Dengfeng admitted on Friday that his government did indeed destroy early samples of the Wuhan coronavirus, as has long been alleged by skeptics.

Nigerian Health Minister Osagie Ehanire told reporters on Thursday to stop asking where visiting Chinese medical experts are or what they are doing. Many Nigerians are suspicious of the 15-member Chinese team, which ostensibly came to help combat the Wuhan coronavirus.

The FBI announced on Thursday that it has arrested Dr. Qing Wang, a longtime employee of the famed Cleveland Clinic, on charges of fraud for accepting grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) without disclosing that he was simultaneously working for a Chinese university.