Tag: Beijing

NewsBreak, Americans’ Most Downloaded News App, Poses Likely Chinese Communist Threat

Restoration News
Newsbreak App

by Jacob Grandstaff   Chinese-owned NewsBreak provides the Chinese Communist Party the ability to highlight chaos and amplify conspiracies and discord among Americans through its news content and comment sections. The app boasts 50 million monthly users and became the top-ranked app in the News category on Google Play in 2021. NewsBreak claims to fill the gap created by the loss of tens of thousands of newsroom jobs and the closing of most countywide newspapers, but this overnight success comes with shoddy and subversive tactics to gain unfair market advantages and influence in the U.S. The real goal of the CCP-owned app is more subversive. Users can click on a “local” tab in the app that aggregates local news from over 10,000 sources, including national media outlets, local TV stations, local blogs, and independent contributors. Jeff Zheng, former head of Yahoo Labs in Beijing, founded NewsBreak in Mountain View, California in 2015. Zheng is a Chinese citizen with permanent residency in the U.S. He started the company as a subsidiary of the popular Chinese news aggregation app Yidian Zixun, which he co-founded with a former Baidu executive. Yidian accustomed hundreds of millions of Chinese news consumers to follow machine-recommended articles rather than human-curated content, success Zheng sought to replicate in the U.S.…

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Lawmakers Demand Investigation into U.S. Drug Companies Who Reportedly Worked with Chinese Military

Daily Caller News Foundation
Reps. John Moolenar, Neal Dunn, Anna Eshoo, Raja Krishnamoorthi in front of the Chinese Military (composite image)

A group of bipartisan lawmakers are demanding an investigation into U.S. drug companies with reportedly troubling ties to China, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The lawmakers raised alarm to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a Monday letter that they had identified some U.S. pharmaceutical companies as having worked with the Chinese military, raising concerns that U.S. intellectual property is being siphoned off by Beijing. The lawmakers also pointed out that several U.S. pharmaceutical companies also conducted clinical trials in the Xinjiang province of China, a region known for “genocide” against religious minorities, according to a letter sent by the lawmakers to the agency.

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Feds Secretly Knew for Years Joe Biden Met with Son’s Chinese Partners on Official Trip

Just the News

Federal agents gathered evidence during the 2016 election that Hunter Biden had used access to his father on an official government trip to Beijing aboard Air Force Two to connect prospective Chinese business partners with then-Vice President Joe Biden, according to a massive cache of documents recently turned over to Congress and obtained by Just the News.

“They got to meet Dad. All very good. Talk later,” Hunter Biden wrote in a December 2013 email confirming how he connected his Chinese associates with his father in a Beijing hotel after the vice president had met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

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Chinese Spy Ship Stalks US Warships During Military Drills

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Chinese spy ship stalks US Navy Ship

At least two Chinese surveillance ships kept a close eye on U.S. Navy ships conducting military drills just outside of Philippine territorial waters in the South China Sea, according to media reports Monday.

U.S., Philippine and French warships initially set off from Puerto Princesa, the Philippines, on Thursday to complete the maritime component of the Balikatan 2024 military exercises, U.S. Naval Institute News reported. Once they entered international waters of the South China Sea to which Beijing has laid claim on Saturday, two People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships were spotted stalking the multilateral formation within a few nautical miles, multiple outlets reported.

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Hunter Biden, Partners Aided Chinese Bid to Corner Nuclear Energy Market with U.S. Tech, Memos Show

Just the News
Hunter Biden

While his father was still vice president, Hunter Biden and his business partners tried unsuccessfully to help a Chinese energy firm acquire one of the United States’ premier nuclear technology companies in a secret attempt to “control” the global market, according to new evidence turned over to Congress in President Joe Biden’s impeachment inquiry.

The evidence, which includes a detailed strategy memo, shows Hunter Biden was directly involved in emails and correspondence on the project in 2016 and that the goal was to exploit the future first son’s access to power and his family reputation to make Washington and Beijing comfortable with a potentially controversial deal and then to shield the acquisition of Westinghouse by China CEFC Energy behind intermediaries.

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Commentary: Ban TikTok or Let Beijing Control Our Broadcast Networks, Too

RealClearWire
Tiktok User

In the dynamic landscape of global entertainment, the influence of Beijing over Hollywood has long been a topic of heated discussion. While the box office power of the Chinese market has waned, giving a breath of creative freedom back to our filmmakers, there looms a new and more pervasive form of influence on Hollywood and well beyond: TikTok.

Beijing may have lost theatrical market leverage, but it has more than made up for that with an overpowering social media presence that has become an epidemic, not just in Hollywood but throughout the United States. In fact, the Chairman of Congress’s Select Committee on China, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), accurately labels TikTok as “digital fentanyl” and has been aggressively campaigning to ban the social media app.

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China’s Population Continues to Plummet as Beijing Scrambles to Find Solutions

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Chinese crowd

China’s population is continuing to shrink despite Beijing’s thorough attempts to encourage more births, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

The Chinese population sharply declined by 2 million people in 2023, more than double the loss of the prior year, according to official data China’s government released on Wednesday. Beijing has tried to alleviate the crisis by scrapping its one-child policy and encouraging families to have more children, but those efforts have had little effect in stalling or reversing the decline.

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Experts Warn China’s Foray into the Middle East Could Isolate Taiwan from U.S. Forces

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China is expanding its military presence in the Middle East, which could obstruct American forces in the region from mobilizing if Beijing decides to invade Taiwan, leaving the island with reduced defenses, according to foreign policy experts.

President Joe Biden was briefed Tuesday by his advisors on a Chinese plan to build a new military facility in Oman bordering the Arabian Sea, which would advance Beijing’s goal of increasing its Middle East and overseas presence, according to Bloomberg. By establishing military strong points in the Middle East, China can hinder and disrupt American forces in the region from mobilizing effectively and redirecting toward Taiwan if Beijing invades, which could leave the island with lesser defense capabilities, according to foreign policy experts.

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Court Records Confirm Millions Flowed to Biden Family from China

Just the News

In the end, there really was a silk road of money that flowed from China to the Biden family’s coffers, despite Joe Biden’s insistence to the contrary.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Delaware — which charged  Hunter Biden with tax and gun crimes last month — released to a federal court last week a now-scuttled plea deal that affirmed the presidential son got millions himself from Chinese sources in 2017-18 alone. That included money from a Chinese energy firm as well as legal payments from a Chinese executive convicted of bribery.

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Commentary: Hong Kong – at China’s Direction – Offers $1 Million Bounties for Dissidents Abroad

RealClearWire

The government of Hong Kong is offering a bounty of up to $1 million to anyone who can help find eight activists who fled to other countries and continue to fight against its authoritarian government.

I am not one of the eight, but all of us who fight for democracy in Hong Kong are in danger from a Chinese government that is chasing us for showing that it has broken its promises to keep Hong Kong a vibrant and free city-state.

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China Has Operated Spy Facilities in Cuba Since at Least 2019, White House Says

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The White House clarified Saturday that China has operated a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019, according to The Wall Street Journal, following reporting that Beijing reached a tentative agreement to set up a new operation somewhere on the island country.

The White House on Friday had characterized as “inaccurate” the WSJ’s first report of a planned Chinese surveillance outpost in Cuba focused on intercepting electronic communications, including emails and radio transmissions, in the southeast U.S. However, White House officials told the outlet Saturday that the Biden administration has worked to tamp down on China’s repeated attempts to spy on the U.S. since Biden took office, and said China has had a surveillance operation in Cuba since at least 2019.

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Gordon Chang Commentary: It’s Time to Bankrupt China

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“We are probably not going to be able to do anything to stop, slow down, disrupt, interdict, or destroy the Chinese nuclear development program that they have projected out over the next 10 to 20 years,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley on March 29 at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. “They’re going to do that in accordance with their own plan.”

Milley is wrong about China’s nuclear weapons ambitions. He is, unfortunately, expressing the same pessimism that pervaded the Nixon, Ford and Carter years, when the American foreign policy establishment took the Soviet Union as a given and therefore promoted détente.

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China Spy Balloon Gathered Intelligence About Military Sites, Despite U.S. Preventive Efforts: Report

Just the News

by Madeleine Hubbard   The Chinese spy balloon that traversed much of the continental United States in early February was reportedly able to gather intelligence from multiple sensitive military sites, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to foil any espionage activity. China guided the balloon to pass over sensitive sites multiple times, even making figure-eight formations at some points, two senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official told NBC News on Monday. The balloon transmitted the information, which was mostly electronic signals, back to Beijing live, the officials said. The electronic signals likely included base communications or were detected from weapons systems. China could have detected far more intelligence from the sites has the administration not moved potential targets and blocked the balloon’s detection ability, the officials also said. When asked about the report, the Defense Department directed reporters to remarks from February in which senior officials said the balloon’s intelligence-gathering abilities were “limited,” and were similar to what Beijing is likely able to collect through objects such as satellites. The U.S. military shot down the balloon over the Atlantic Ocean on February 4. The debris was fully recovered nearly two weeks later. – – – Madeleine Hubbard joined Just the News as a fast…

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China Enters Artificial Intelligence Arms Race, Flops Disastrously

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by Jason Cohen   China released its main Chat GPT competitor, developed by search engine giant Baidu, Thursday in Beijing, but its debut of the bot was a failure and led to the company’s shares falling, according to CNBC. During the unveiling, the bot named Ernie “summarized a science fiction novel and analyzed a Chinese idiom,” but in the middle of the presentation that Baidu promoted as live, CEO Robin Li, revealed the company prerecorded the presentation for time management purposes, according to The New York Times. Li also made clear that Ernie bot was not flawless and will get better when users provide feedback, according to CNBC. Baidu’s shares then plummeted at least 6.4 percent and as much as 10 percent in Hong Kong, in contrast to a previous rally when the giant announced it had been developing a ChatGPT competitor since 2019, according to the NYT. Baidu said 30,000 corporate clients signed up on the waitlist to access Ernie bot in less than an hour following its announcement, but media and the public did not get access, according to CNBC. Meanwhile, OpenAI announced ChatGPT-4 this week, as the updated version of the AI behind its highly popular and disruptive ChatGPT chatbot that the public has accessed…

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Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher on China Spy Balloon: ‘They’re Mocking Us’

M.D. Kittle

Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher, chair of the House’s new committee on China, warns that a Chinese spy balloon spotted over U.S. airspace this week is the latest proof of the threat the People’s Republic of China poses at home.

And it won’t be the last time the communist nation attempts to mock and embarrass the United States under the Biden administration’s weak foreign policy, says Gallagher (R-WI-08). 

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Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty: State Government Should Ban TikTok

Bradley Vasoli

A Milwaukee-based think tank is weighing in on the Wisconsin state government’s social media policy, urging Governor Tony Evers (D) to ban the video-sharing application’s use by state agencies. 

In a report called “The Mysterious TikTok-ing Noise,” the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) notes that numerous other governors earlier this month signed orders instructing all departments under their control to delete the program from their devices. The piece also observed the unanimous vote taken last week by the U.S. Senate to adopt the same policy for all federal computer hardware. 

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Commentary: Ignoring the Study of War Is a Recipe for Disaster

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Liberal bias in higher education extends to academics’ bias against teaching military history.

There are 299 programs in America that offer the MA and/or PhD in history according to the American Historical Association. But only 37 programs allow for specialization in military topics.

This trend is symptomatic of the left dominating universities. Leftists shun military and traditional political histories for post-modern critique in the discipline.

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China Olympics Viewership Down, Fallen Skater Booed, and Putin ‘Dozes’

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Olympics ring logo in dark in Tokyo

Despite International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach’s calls for peace at the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the reality seems disjointed, including official delegation boycotts, all-time low viewership, and Russian President Vladimir Putin appearing to doze off during the Ukrainian team’s entrance during the opening ceremony.

“In this Olympic spirit of peace, I appeal to all political authorities across the world — observe your commitment to this Olympic truth. Give peace a chance,” Bach said, according to People Magazine, after the Olympic Truce was passed by the United Nations General Assembly in December.

The truce, which has been observed by the UN since 1993, according to Vox, calls for “the cessation of hostilities from seven days before until seven days after the Olympic Games.”

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Chinese Tennis Star Now Denies Ever Making Sexual Assault Allegations

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Tennis star Peng Shuai denied she ever made sexual assault allegations on Sunday, addressing the matter for the first time since her initial post in early November, Reuters reported.

“First, I need to stress one point that is extremely important, I have never said or written that anyone has sexually assaulted me, I have to clearly stress this point,” Peng said from the sidelines of a cross-country skiing event in Shanghai, Reuters reported.

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Blinken Replaces ‘Controversial’ Pro-Hong Kong Tweet with Milder Statement

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Antony Blinken

Secretary of State Antony Blinken took down a tweet he posted Thursday saying the U.S. would “stand with the people of Hong Kong,” the South China Morning Post reported.

“Beijing should let the voices of all Hong Kongers be heard. The PRC’s disqualification of district councillors only weakens Hong Kong’s long-term political and social stability,” Blinken said in the tweet, as shown in screenshots from the South China Morning Post.

“We stand with the people of Hong Kong & continue to support their human rights & fundamental freedoms,” he added. Blinken took down his tweet on Friday, later replacing it with a milder message, South China Morning Post reported.

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Chinese Government Has Bought over 200,000 Acres of American Farmland

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China’s effort to unseat America as the world’s economic superpower has a new tactic: It has bought up more than 200,000 acres of U.S. farmland. And while there is bipartisan support for legislation to slow down Beijing’s acquisitions, Democrats have added a new wrinkle.

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), who is leading the legislative charge, says congressional Democrats have removed all references to the communist government of China in an amendment to an agricultural spending bill that originally prevented the Chinese Communist Party’s purchase of American farmland.

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BOMBSHELL: Vatican Whistleblower Archbishop Viganò Tells Bannon Why Trump’s Leadership Key to Defeated Deep State, Deep Church & Pope Francis’ Alliance with Red China

Neil W. McCabe

The former papal nuncio to the United States, now a retired archbishop, told Stephen K. Bannon that if Joseph R. Biden Jr., becomes the president Jan. 20, it is one more step in the linkage of the so-called Deep State, the Deep Church and the ultimate primacy of the Chinese Communist Party.

“It would be an irreparable disaster if Joe Biden, who is heavily suspected of being complicit with the Chinese dictatorship, would be designated as President of the United States,” said Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who from 2011 to 2016 served at the Holy See’s ambassador to the Washington, a role that also made him the principal liaison between the American bishops and the pope and the Vatican bureaucracy.

The archbishop said he was troubled by the power of the mainstream media to overwhelm legitimate questions about the 2020 presidential election.

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Massive Beirut Blast Kills More Than 60, Injures Thousands

The Associated Press

A massive explosion rocked Beirut on Tuesday, flattening much of the port, damaging buildings across the capital and sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky. More than 60 people were killed and more than 3,000 injured, with bodies buried in the rubble, officials said.

Hours later, ambulances still carried away the wounded as army helicopters helped battle fires raging at the port.

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Trump Team Holds China’s Feet to the Fire on Trade Negotiations

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Donald Trump, Xi Jinping

by Jason Hopkins   As the Trump administration continues trade negotiations with China, the U.S. delegation is taking additional steps to make sure the Communist country follows through on its pledges. U.S. and Chinese officials met Monday in the Commerce Ministry in Beijing to begin their two-day trade negotiations. The meeting marks the first face-to-face talks between the two governments since Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump agreed to a tariff truce when they met during G-20 summit. During that G-20 meeting — which took place in the early days of December in Buenos Aires — Xi agreed to a number of concessions in exchange for Trump agreeing to postpone a round of tariffs on Chinese goods. Among many things, the Communist leader pledged to buy more U.S. agricultural and industrial products, allow increased access to Chinese markets, and abide by more cybersecurity and property theft rules. In return, Trump promised to wait 90 days before hiking tariffs to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports — the three-month timeline is indented to give both breathing room to cement a detailed agreement. However, China has a history of not keeping its word. The Communist country has,…

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Chinese Police Raid Children’s Bible Study, Shut Down Third Prominent Underground Church This Winter

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by Joshua Gill   Chinese police shut down a third prominent underground church this winter Saturday after raiding a children’s bible study and confiscating over 4,000 Christian books. Authorities in Guangzhou raided the Rongguili Church at 10 a.m., announcing to parents and children at the Bible study that all activities at the church were suspended and declaring that the unregistered church had violated China’s Religious Affairs Regulation. Police recorded the identities of all attendees, children included, and dismissed them from the church, warning them not to return. “Halfway through the children’s Bible class, we heard the footsteps of dozens of police and officials stomping up the stairs,” an attendee of the Bible Study said, according to South China Morning Post. “They read out law enforcement notices declaring our venue was an illegal gathering that had engaged in illegal publishing and illegal fundraising and confiscated all Bibles.” “They then verified our identities again and warned us not to return to the church before letting us go,” the church member added. Authorities also arrested one parent who reportedly tried to photograph the incident. La #Chine ferme Rongguili, alias le phare de la foi dans le sud de la Chine, fondé par le…

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China Demands US Cancel Military Sanctions Or ‘Bear The Consequences’

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by Will Racke   China responded Friday to new U.S. sanctions against its military, demanding Washington withdraw the penalties or face retaliatory measures. Beijing’s response came a day after the Trump administration imposed sanctions on China’s arms procurement agency for buying Russian-made fighter jets and missile systems, in violation of a 2017 U.S. sanctions law aimed at Russia. “China expresses strong indignation at these unreasonable actions by the U.S. side and has already lodged stern representations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters in Beijing, according to Reuters. “We strongly urge the U.S. side to immediately correct the mistake and rescind the so-called sanctions, otherwise the U.S. side will necessarily bear responsibility for the consequences,” he added, without elaborating on a potential response. The secondary sanctions against Beijing were imposed under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which was enacted to punish Russia for meddling in the 2016 presidential election. It also targets Russia for its military interventions in Ukraine and Syria. Thursday’s round of sanctions hit China’s Equipment Development Department and its director, Li Shangfu, over purchases of Russian Su-35 fighter jets and an S-400 surface-to-air missile system. The Trump administration called the measures “a significant step” because they marked the…

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China Scrambles To Blunt The Force Of Trump’s Tariffs With Over $100 Billion Injection

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Xi Jinping

by Hannah Bogorowski   China’s central bank announced late Sunday that it is planning to unleash nearly 700 billion yuan ($107.5 billion) into the financial system by cutting the amount of cash some banks must hold as reserves by 50 basis points. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Sunday that the latest reduction in some banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRRs), currently 16 percent for large banks and 14 percent for smaller banks, will take effect on July 5, according to CNBC. “This move will help support the real economy and stabilize financial markets. We’ve seen rising debt defaults and funding strains on small firms, as well as a sharp adjustment in the capital market,” Beijing’s chief economist at Zhongyuan Bank, Wang Jun said. Sunday’s announcement followed the worst weekly loss in the country’s stock market since February, as President Donald Trump’s threatening trade war looms over the country. China’s net exports were already lagging in growth for the first quarter, according to analysts at CNBC, emphasizing the need for strong and stabilized economy before the tariffs hit. This latest RRR cut will take effect a day before the awaited tariffs will be applied, as China and the United States are…

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Here’s What A Top General Had To Say When Asked If The US Could ‘Blow Apart’ China’s Artificial Islands

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American Navy

by Ryan Rickrell   The U.S. military has a talent for “taking down small islands,” a top general reportedly replied Thursday to questions about America’s ability to “blow apart” China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea. “I would just say that the United States military’s had a lot of experience in the Western Pacific taking down small islands,” Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff, told reporters, according to Voice of America. “It’s just a fact.” “We have a lot of experience in the second World War taking down small islands that are isolated. So, that’s a core competency of the US military,” he added, noting that people “shouldn’t read anything more into that than a simple statement of historical fact.” "I would just say that the #UnitedStates military's had a lot of experience in the Western Pacific taking down small islands," per LtGen McKenzie when asked if US could "blow apart" #China's man-made islands — Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) May 31, 2018 Tensions between the U.S. and China have been building in the South China Sea in recent weeks. In response to Chinese militarization of the disputed region, which has included the deployment of anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air…

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