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HOMELAND SECURITY

The Chinese Communist Party Takes Up Residence in America CCP officers are getting arrested within our borders. What’s next? by Michael Letts

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-chinese-communist-party-takes-up-residence-in-america/

So you might have already known about the U.S. shooting down a Chinese surveillance balloon over U.S. shores just a few weeks ago – an act, by the way, that China wasn’t exactly too crazy about. But little did I realize just what kind of occupancy they would be taking up here.

I’ve read two different reports now involving the Chinese Communist Party (or CCP for short) and how they’re taking part in actions right here on our shores. And, honestly, it’s very bothersome to me. And what’s even more bothersome is how little President Joe Biden is doing about it.

The first of these stories revolves around a “secret” police station in New York City, which has since led to two arrests. Apparently, China set them up in an effort to “track down and silence Chinese dissidents living in the United States.”

I’ve heard stories about this police station before, but I find it absolutely shocking that the Federal Bureau of Investigation took so long to crack down on this Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, as it was called. You would have thought they’d notice sooner. Alas, not the case.

The second story is much bigger news. The Department of Justice recently charged 40 CCP officers with reportedly targeting residents of the United States.

The group, dubbed the 912 Special Project Working Group (or “the Group” as the DOJ calls them more simply), were set up as “a troll farm to attack Chinese dissidents in our country for exercising free speech that the (Chinese communist) government disfavors.” Not only that, but they were given the task of spreading “disinformation and propaganda to sow divisions within the United States.”

But, as I noted above, they went after U.S. citizens with this particular task. This was mostly done through fake social media accounts across a number of U.S.-owned platforms, where they would “harass and intimidate dissidents and advocates for democratic processes in China,” according to The Epoch Times.

The Chinese Communist Party’s Secret Projects in the US: What Is Going On? by Pete Hoekstra

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19607/communist-china-michigan

Two Chinese companies, Gotion and CATL, are on the verge of building two new battery manufacturing facilities in Michigan. These companies were lured by billions in state and local tax incentives and infrastructure investments, and the environmental requirements buried in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

[T]he state of Michigan is making a big bet on electric vehicle (EV) technology in concert with the Chinese Communist Party. What could go wrong?

The answer to that is simple: Plenty. At a time when bipartisan members of Congress on the Select Committee on the CCP are conducting war games simulating a U.S. response to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, one has to ask is this the right moment to seek more Chinese investment in the state. Especially when one of those projects is just 100 miles from where the U.S. is training Taiwanese troops to defend against a Chinese Communist invasion.

Already, Virginia, home to numerous military and intelligence facilities, has rejected one of the two projects out of national security concerns.

As… outlined in the unprecedented joint news conference by the FBI and MI-5, the threat from the Chinese Communist Party is real, dangerous and pervasive.

Another red flag is the secrecy shrouding the projects. Although the state is in the process of providing substantial sums in taxpayer money to private entities, many of the details have been covered by Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). Members of Congress, state legislators, local elected officials, and state and congressional staff have been forced to sign NDAs so they can access information taxpayers and the media have been prevented from seeing. What is so secret that it requires taxpayers to be shielded from information about the projects that their dollars will fund? Local newspapers have requested information through Freedom of Information Act requests, but they have been denied.

Not only are the projects shrouded in a veil of secrecy, there are legitimate concerns about various organizations actually adhering to the Foreign Agents Reporting Act (FARA). This act requires individuals working on behalf of a foreign entity to register their activities with the Justice…. Former Ambassador Joe Cella and I have… have jointly submitted a request to the Justice Department to review specific individuals and their compliance with federal disclosure laws.

[N]ow is the time for both battery projects to be paused. It is time for legislators to engage in their fiduciary responsibility, recognize the changed environment, and reevaluate plans to spend taxpayer dollars to fund two Chinese companies, the CCP, and potentially even the Taliban and the re-emerging Islamic State. It is a new day and US taxpayer money should not be backing potential adversaries.

The Pentagon Tilts at Windmills Interior’s offshore wind leases could interfere with military training.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pentagon-tilts-at-windmills-7acd2c73?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

We know climate change tops the White House agenda, but it’s still depressing to see it supersede even national defense. Witness how the Department of the Interior rolled over Pentagon warnings that offshore wind installations in the mid-Atlantic could interfere with military training.

President Biden has set a goal of generating 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030. Waters off the coasts of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware are prime real estate for wind farms because they are relatively shallow. But they are also training grounds for the Navy and Air Force, including North Carolina’s Dare County bombing range.

Offshore wind turbines three times the height of the Statue of Liberty could interfere with training and radar. As the Energy Department explains, “if not mitigated, such wind development can cause potential interference for radar systems involved in air traffic control, weather forecasting, homeland security, and national defense missions.”

National defense appears to have been a fifth or sixth thought for Interior, which is in charge of offshore wind leases in federal waters. Interior last November identified six potential leasing areas after consulting with the fishing industries, environmental groups, shippers, the wind lobby and states in the region.

Interior said it considered input from these “stakeholders” as well as state and local renewable energy mandates and “information on domestic and global offshore wind market and technological trends.” Notice who was missing: the Pentagon. Four of the six potential lease areas were flagged by the Defense Department as “highly problematic” on a map dated last Oct. 6 that was published by Bloomberg News.

Leak of Classified Documents on Ukraine, China, and the Middle East a ‘Nightmare’ Says Pentagon By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/04/08/leak-of-classified-documents-on-ukraine-china-and-the-middle-east-a-nightmare-says-pentagon-n1685557

Pentagon sources are telling the media that more than 100 classified documents including Ukrainian war plans have been leaked to several social media sites. The leak first came to light on Thursday when the New York Times published details of Ukraine’s military buildup and plans for an offensive.

The Pentagon says some of the figures in the documents appear to have been altered, overstating American estimates of Ukrainian war dead and understating estimates of Russian troops killed. Experts say this is common practice when using documents to spread disinformation.

Then on Friday, dozens of more documents were also posted to the social media site 4chan.

The documents on Ukraine’s military appear as photographs of charts of anticipated weapons deliveries, troop and battalion strengths, and other plans. Pentagon officials acknowledge that they are legitimate Defense Department documents, but the copies appear to have been altered in certain parts from their original format. The modified versions, for example, overstate American estimates of Ukrainian war dead and underestimate estimates of Russian troops killed.

On Friday, Ukrainian officials and pro-war Russian bloggers suggested the leak was part of a disinformation effort by the other side, timed to influence Ukraine’s possible spring offensive to reclaim territory in the east and the south of the country.

The notion that this is a Western disinformation campaign designed to mislead Russia was being advanced by Russian war bloggers. It’s also possible that Moscow leaked the documents to try and drive a wedge between Ukraine and the U.S.

China’s Race to Dominate the Military and Emerging Technologies by Lawrence A. Franklin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19563/china-emerging-technologies

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) openly says it wants to establish dominance in emerging critical technologies as part of its strategy to supplant the United States as the world’s dominant power, establish a new world order and replace the US-led international system established after WWII.

The US has only a little time left in this race. Reports indicate that deep cuts to the military made by several administrations have severely impaired its ability to catch up. Remaining talent and resources will possibly be reallocated in a new administration, if it is not too late by then. China has been supercharging its military for years while the U.S. has sat back, watched, and argued about unrelated social issues.

Communist China is currently preparing its people for war. America is not. The American people, who take their magical lives — when compared to so many people in the world — for granted, may be in for a tormenting shock.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) openly says it wants to establish dominance in emerging critical technologies as part of its strategy to supplant the United States as the world’s dominant power, establish a new world order and replace the US-led international system established after WWII.

The US has only a little time left in this race. Reports indicate that deep cuts to the military made by several administrations have severely impaired its ability to catch up. Remaining talent and resources will possibly be reallocated in a new administration, if it is not too late by then. China has been supercharging its military for years while the U.S. has sat back, watched, and argued about unrelated social issues.

Our Military Is in a Dangerous Decline and This Is the Reason Why By Michael Waltz (R-FL-District )

https://www.heritage.org/defense/commentary/our-military-dangerous-decline-and-the-reason-why

Our warriors’ ability to do their job is being undermined by leaders more interested in woke indoctrination and partisan politics than warfighting readiness.

Politicized initiatives like DEI always spawn enormous bureaucracies that distract the rank-and-file from their real jobs. The military is not immune.

The American people need patriots to step up, to meet our rivals, and defend our country and values….those on Capitol Hill need to do their part.

The U.S. Armed Forces have one mission: to protect our nation from foreign enemies. Our troops are as committed to that mission as ever before. But according to a bracing new report, our warriors’ ability to do their job is being undermined by civilian leaders more interested in woke indoctrination and partisan politics than warfighting readiness.

“The Report of the National Independent Panel on Military Service and Readiness” is an urgent warning about creeping politicization at the Pentagon and its corrosive impact on America’s national defense. As the report details, the Biden administration’s whole-of-government embrace of woke politics is becoming a dangerous distraction for servicemen and women who signed up to protect and defend, not virtue-signal. 

The top-line statistics compiled in the report are jarring.

Biden’s Hot Air About Spy Balloons It turns out the blimp was transmitting information to Beijing in real time.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-spy-balloon-intelligence-biden-administration-pentagon-beijing-27d5a9f8?mod=hp_opin_pos_6#cxrecs_s

Remember when a Chinese spy balloon flew across the entire continental United States? The Administration is hoping the public has forgotten about the February fiasco, so it’s all the more important to note that the Biden narrative about this spectacle is losing altitude as more details emerge.

Press reports on Monday suggest that the Chinese spy balloon that entered U.S. air space near Alaska on Jan. 28 was able to collect intelligence on American military sites. The balloon was spotted flying in Montana, home to intercontinental ballistic-missile fields. U.S. officials told NBC News that the Beijing blimp could fly in figure-eight pirouettes, lingering over areas of interest. The balloon could pick up electronic signals and transmit information to Beijing in real-time, NBC reports.

This is a Sidewinder missile through the White House-Pentagon talking points at the time, namely that the balloon didn’t present a big intelligence risk and couldn’t suck up better information than Chinese satellites in low-earth orbit. Americans were supposed to believe that China would go through the trouble of building a global balloon flotilla, spotted all over Europe and Asia, for no spying benefit.

The Administration repeated this claim all over town. The Pentagon told reporters on Feb. 2 “that whatever the surveillance payload is on this balloon, it does not create significant value added” over satellites. After President Biden ordered the balloon shot down off the U.S. East Coast, defense officials said on Feb. 4 that the action “further neutralized any intelligence value it could have produced, preventing it from returning” to Beijing.

TikTok: America’s Do-Or-Die Moment with China by Gordon G. Chang

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19551/tiktok-america-do-or-die

Congress is now considering the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats That Risk Information and Communications Technology Act, sponsored by Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and John Thune (R-S.D.). The RESTRICT Act, as the proposed legislation is known, creates a framework for the secretary of commerce to review foreign-linked social media platforms and to take action if necessary.

The legislation, intended to target TikTok, is controversial and being criticized as overbroad.

Xi is swiftly erecting totalitarian controls inside China, which he undoubtedly will extend to America and the rest of the world if he gets the opportunity. In short, the threat to the U.S. is existential.

The threat is also urgent because China’s ambitious ruler is making preparations for war. His regime in fact declared a “people’s war” on America, which is the Communist Party’s way of justifying a strike on the U.S.

There are, consequently, critical factors that legitimize curbs that would otherwise infringe First Amendment protections.

TikTok, after all, is one of Xi’s tools to take down the United States. Radio Free Asia reported in August 2020 that a People’s Liberation Army intelligence unit, working out of the now-closed Houston consulate, was using big data to identify Americans likely to participate in Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests and then created and sent them “tailor-made” videos on how to organize riots. Related reporting reveals the videos were distributed by TikTok.

China’s app can access each keystroke of every user and even their location at any moment. “It is very much like giving them the keys to the kingdom,” said Evan Greer of Fight for the Future, a privacy group, to Fox Business.

“Everything is seen in China,” a member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety Department said. A “Beijing-based engineer” known as “Master Admin” had “access to everything.”

TikTok had said it never shared user data with the Chinese government and would not do so. The BuzzFeed reporting revealed this assurance and similar ones to the federal government were false.

The Communist Party has used TikTok to, among other things, glorify drug use, push critical race theory, and amplify Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine. The CCP does not allow the Chinese people to use the app. TikTok’s twin site in China, Douyin, promotes patriotic themes.

China’s regime has a dagger, in the form of TikTok, pointed at the heart of the United States, and Americans have to figure out a way to make sure the Communist Party can no longer use it, First Amendment or no First Amendment. “The Constitution,” as is often said, “is not a suicide pact.”

Adi Robertson, The Verge’s senior tech and policy editor, makes an impassioned plea to not ban TikTok, China’s popular video-sharing app, on free speech grounds. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), speaking on the floor of the Senate on March 29, also raised First Amendment objections to a proposed TikTok prohibition.

North Korea Unveils New Nukes as U.S. Argues about ‘Misgendering’ By Catherine Salgado

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/03/28/north-korea-unveils-new-nukes-as-us-argues-about-misgendering-n1682402

As a U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea for military drills, North Korea responded by unveiling new nuclear warheads. I guess that’s what you call an explosive statement.

Photos of the  smaller nuclear warheads, called Hwasan-31s, were released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Reuters reported.

Nuclear experts reportedly said that, based on the photos, North Korea has made progress “in miniaturising warheads that are powerful yet small enough to mount on intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the United States.” 

Meanwhile, back in America, mainstream media outlets, including New York Times, USA Today, and CNN, are apologizing for referring to a female murderer as a woman because she called herself “he/him,” and President Joe Biden cracks jokes about ice cream before discussing the shooting of six people, including three young children. Somehow, that’s not encouraging.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un visited the Nuclear Weapons Institute to inspect the nukes, nuclear counterattack operation plans, and ballistic missile warhead mounting tech. Kim was further reportedly briefed on an “IT-based integrated nuclear weapon management system called Haekbangashoe,” which Reuters reported means “nuclear trigger.”

As China War Looms, Navy’s Priority is Going ‘Green’ “As Secretary of the Navy, I have made climate one of my top priorities.” by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/as-china-war-looms-navys-priority-is-going-green/

The “age of American naval dominance is over”, Jerry Hendix, a former Navy Captain warned in a high-profile article in The Atlantic.

Hendrix’s article imagines a scenario in which China or other enemy nations seize control of what are now international waters and the cargo that moves across them. “The great container ships and tankers of today would disappear, replaced by smaller, faster cargo vessels capable of moving rare and valuable goods past pirates and corrupt officials.” A handful of nations would end up controlling the chokepoints of international trade and America would not be one of them.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro has already conceded China’s naval supremacy.

Last month, the Biden appointee stated that China has “got a larger fleet now so they’re deploying that fleet globally.”

The People’s Liberation Army Navy topped the US Navy in 2020. By 2025, it will have an estimated 400 ships. We’re still below 300.

Biden’s current defense plan is to have 350 by 2045. And by then we will have lost.

“They have 13 shipyards, in some cases their shipyard has more capacity — one shipyard has more capacity than all of our shipyards combined. That presents a real threat,” Del Toro conceded. “They’re a communist country, they don’t have rules by which they abide by.”