McCaul warns Xi is plotting to pick Taiwan’s next leader so he can 'win without a shot fired'

Jerry Dunleavy

April 13, 02:26 PM April 13, 02:26 PM

A top House Republican warned that the Chinese government is plotting to pick Taiwan’s next president as Taiwanese leadership also expressed concern about an increasingly belligerent Beijing’s potential election meddling in its 2024 elections.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led a congressional delegation to Taiwan last week, where the House members met with Taiwan’s top political leaders. The trip came as Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen visited the United States at the same time that Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s former president just before Tsai and a leader in the Kuomintang (KMT) rival party, visited China.

RUSSIA'S UKRAINE INVASION A 'WAKE-UP CALL' THAT INCREASED TAIWAN'S WILL TO FIGHT: FOREIGN MINISTER

China has also sought to meddle in elections in Western countries such as the U.S. and Canada, but the threat in Taiwan is most pronounced. McCaul warned the China-KMT meetings were likely part of Beijing’s efforts to help pick the KMT’s next presidential candidate, as Chinese leader Xi Jinping seeks to coerce Taiwan into being absorbed into China.

“They have to have a preferred candidate, and that’s why I think former President Ma is in China right now ... I think they’re probably coordinating who is going to be their candidate, so they can win without a shot fired like in Hong Kong,” McCaul told the Washington Examiner. “I think that is going to be their Plan A. If that fails, they go to Plan B, and that could be a couple things — it could be an outright invasion or a blockade.”

McCaul said he believes if China could “get a preferred candidate” for Taiwan’s elections then Beijing would be “all-in” on trying to influence it, but if Xi’s preferred candidate “doesn’t prevail in these elections, which will buy time, then I think he’s going to move more quickly and get us in a box.”

The House chairman added, “It will be a lot easier for them to influence an election without a shot fired than it would be to go to war.”

Taiwanese Vice President William Lai is the de facto nominee for the DPP, but the KMT is still trying to figure out who their candidate will be.

Ma, who served as president of Taiwan from 2008 to 2016, traveled to China in late March and early April, becoming the first former Taiwan leader to visit China. He was also the first sitting leader of Taiwan to meet with a Chinese leader when he met with Xi in Singapore in 2015.

Ma said at the start of his recent visit to China that “people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese people.” He declared at the end of his visit the Taiwan government led by Tsai and the DPP “continues to lead Taiwan to danger — the future is a choice between peace or war.”

The Chinese state-run CGTN published a piece this week contending that Ma’s visit “provides, at least, an alternative option for people in Taiwan longing for peace and stability in its relationship with the mainland.”

Ma had reasserted in 2006 that the KMT’s goal was eventual unification with China. But in his first inaugural address, he said his goals were "no reunification, no independence, and no war."

The KMT is considered to have factions that are pro-unification with China, but the KMT did pull its pro-unification plank from its platform in 2017.

The DPP is considered much stronger in standing up to China. One of the top KMT members who met with the U.S. House members last week said that the KMT’s current mantra is “Defense and Dialogue.”

McCaul said the KMT was trying to portray the DPP as a “party of war” and “puppets of the United States” while attempting to fashion themselves as “we don’t want to reunify — we think we should talk to China.” But McCaul said that You told him that the KMT “want to become part of China.”

The 2021 Intelligence Community Assessment on the 2020 election had a split on China, with the majority view saying China did not deploy influence efforts in the 2020 election and the minority view assessing China did exactly that — to hurt then-President Donald Trump’s reelection chances.

The FBI then warned ahead of the 2022 midterms that it believed China had increased its efforts to influence U.S. elections, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence warned in March about the Chinese government’s “willingness to meddle” in U.S. elections.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced in March that he would appoint a special rapporteur to investigate a host of allegations that China meddled in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 elections.

McCaul and Taiwan VP link Russian invasion of Ukraine to China’s threats toward island

Jerry Dunleavy

April 06, 07:24 PM April 06, 07:24 PM

TAIPEI, Taiwan —Taiwan’s vice president and a leading House Republican both linked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to China’s ongoing threats against the democratic island nation following a meeting in Taipei aimed at strengthening the U.S.-Taiwan partnership.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led seven other bipartisan members on a multiday trip to Taiwan. The trip commenced Thursday despite the Chinese government warning the U.S. congressmen not to come. The visit began with a meeting in Taipei between the House members and Taiwanese Vice President William Lai. Both McCaul and Lai condemned both Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and Beijing’s attempts to coerce Taiwan, with McCaul promising that the United States would “protect” the democratic island nation.

MCCAUL SLAMS CHINESE 'INTIMIDATION' AS CODEL LANDS IN TAIWAN

McCaul raised last year’s Russian invasion of Ukraine during joint remarks with Lai at the Taiwan presidential building on Thursday, warning of the Chinese-Russian alliance pursued by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, mentioning the "no limits" partnership announced by Xi and Putin ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics in early 2022, and saying that “Communist China” was now closely watching the U.S. delegation’s meetings with Taiwan leaders.

“It is important that we protect you. I know there is a lot of talk of ambiguity, but I want to make it clear that the United States stands by you and will protect you,” McCaul told Lai. “That’s why I believe on my committee … the foreign military sales, we need to get those weapons in here to protect and harden Taiwan from threats from outside.”

President Joe Biden has repeatedly vowed that the U.S. would respond militarily to defend Taiwan if China attacked Taiwan, and each time, the White House has subsequently insisted America’s decadeslong policy toward Taiwan was not shifting.

McCaul spoke of “this great power competition we find ourselves in against dictators, spanning from Russia to China to Iran to North Korea." He said that is why the delegation “has visited our allies in the region,” with visits this week to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii and Guam followed by trips to Japan, South Korea, and now Taiwan, “so that we can stand together against these great adversarial nations that pose such a great threat to the Pacific region.”

“Because you stand for the principles we stand for — democracy and freedom — therefore, you pose a threat to them,” McCaul told Lai of Beijing. “But we stand with you today. … This struggle for the global balance of power we find ourselves in today often reminds me of my father’s generation, often referred to as the Greatest Generation in the United States. Then we had Hitler and Hiroto; today we have Putin and Chairman Xi.”

Lai said, “The people of Taiwan love peace; however, peace cannot be achieved by giving in, and we cannot rely on the aggressor’s charity for peace.”

“We are seeing the rise of authoritarianism. Authoritarian regimes have started to expand and impose aggressions — Russia invaded Ukraine, and the People’s Republic of China started military drills across the Taiwan Strait, threatening us with force and war,” Taiwan’s vice president said. “In the face of complicated international landscapes, Taiwan stands on the front line of combating authoritarian actions. Here I would like to say to congressman McCaul and our friends and allies that Taiwan will be determined to safeguard its national security and defend the values of freedom, democracy, and human rights.”

Lai continued, “We know very clearly what President Reagan said: Peace through strength. As President Tsai said, peace relies on national defense, and national defense depends on the people of Taiwan. It is true that we need to prepare for war in order to avoid one, and we need to be prepared to fight to stop a war.”

McCaul was joined on the Taiwan trip by Rep. Young Kim (R-CA), the chairwoman of the subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific, by Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA), ranking member on the subcommittee, and by Reps. French Hill (R-AR), Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), Michael Lawler (R-NY), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX), and Madeleine Dean (D-PA).

The typical protocol would have been for the U.S. congressmen to first meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, but she was traveling in the U.S. Her itinerary included a meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and more than a dozen other congressmen at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Wednesday. McCaul and his delegation will meet with her when she returns to Taiwan later this week.

The Chinese government responded to Tsai’s trip to the U.S. and to her meeting with McCarthy by ramping up its rhetoric and conducting increased military activity off the coast of Taiwan, with Chinese state-run media warning about “multiple land, naval, and air exercises focusing on amphibious landing missions” underway in the Taiwan Strait.

Congressional Republicans have demanded the White House take more forceful steps to challenge Beijing's rhetorical, economic, and, at minimum, nonlethal military support to Russia.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified in March that the DragonBear alliance between Russia and China is “continuing to deepen” in “every sector” amid “real concern” about Beijing assisting Moscow’s war efforts in Ukraine.

Xi traveled to Moscow last month and told Putin at the Kremlin that “right now there are changes the likes of which we haven’t seen for one hundred years — and we are the ones driving these changes together.” Putin said he agreed, and Xi added, “Take care, please, dear friend.”

The Chinese leader also pointed out that “since last year,” when Russia invaded Ukraine, “the all-round practical cooperation between China and Russia has yielded fruitful outcomes.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang defended the China-Russia alliance in the context of Taiwan last month, asking, “Why does the U.S. ask China not to provide weapons to Russia while it keeps selling arms to Taiwan?”

U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael Minihan warned earlier this year that China may invade Taiwan as early as 2025.

GOP warns of ‘vacuum’ filled by China following Xi-Putin meetings

Jerry Dunleavy

March 24, 03:27 PM March 24, 03:27 PM

Republicans warned about the growing challenge posed by the “DragonBear” alliance between Russia and China, including a global leadership “vacuum” filled by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, following a meeting in Moscow by the leaders of the two nations.

Congressional Republicans say the White House needs to take significant steps to push back on the rhetorical, economic, and nonlethal military support China is already providing.

CHINA'S DEFENSE MINISTER SANCTIONED FOR BUYING WEAPONS FROM RUSSIAN MILITARY

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), a former Army Green Beret, told the Washington Examiner that “we’re seeing a new alignment of authoritarian regimes cementing between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea that threatens our interests.”

“This ‘no limits’ partnership between Russia and China should be taken seriously and has very real military and economic implications,” Waltz said. “Xi especially sees an opportunity to step into a global leadership vacuum left by the Biden administration.”

Xi traveled to Moscow this week and told Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Wednesday that “right now there are changes the likes of which we haven’t seen for one hundred years — and we are the ones driving these changes together.” Putin said he agreed, and Xi added, “Take care, please, dear friend.”

The duo held a joint press conference on Tuesday, where the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Xi remarked that “over the past ten years, he and Putin have forged close relations, maintained strategic communication, and delivered fruitful outcomes through strategic coordination between the two countries.”

China said Xi and Putin “shared the view that this relationship has gone far beyond the bilateral scope and acquired critical importance for the global landscape and the future of humanity” and that “China and Russia have followed the principles of good-neighborliness, friendship, and win-win cooperation.” Xi also “pointed out that since last year” — when Russia invaded Ukraine — “the all-around practical cooperation between China and Russia has yielded fruitful outcomes.”

The Chinese and Russian leaders also signed joint statements on increasing economic cooperation and on “Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for the New Era” at the Kremlin in Moscow on Tuesday.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said this week that “Xi’s visit to Moscow is further proof the Chinese Communist Party has chosen to side with Russia, doubling down on the ‘no limits’ partnership Xi and Putin established before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”

“Make no mistake: Xi wants Putin to win and cannot serve as a neutral peace broker. And the world should expect Xi to call on Putin to return the favor if China invades Taiwan by providing military, economic, and diplomatic support,” McCaul said. “Increased CCP support of Russia should not be tolerated – by the United States or our allies and partners.”

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), who is leading the House select committee on China, said this week that “Xi and Putin just doubled down on their no-limits partnership, and while they claimed to oppose a ‘Cold War mentality,’ their actions make clear that they are already engaged in a New Cold War against the United States, our allies, and our values.”

Gallagher added, “We cannot view Russia and the Chinese Communist Party as separate threats, and we must push back against this de facto alliance with a sense of urgency.”

John Kirby, the White House National Security Council’s Coordinator for Strategic Communications, said on Tuesday that “if China wants to play a constructive role here in this conflict, then they ought to press Russia to pull its troops out of Ukraine and Ukrainian sovereign territory.”

Kirby spoke about the Xi-Putin comments on Ukraine on Wednesday, saying that “we would not describe it as a peace mission” when asked about Xi’s trip to Moscow, adding that “if China really wants to be helpful in that regard, they should be urging President Putin to get out of Ukraine.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate on Wednesday that China and Russia “have a marriage of convenience — I’m not sure if it’s conviction.” Blinken contended that “Russia is very much a junior partner in this relationship.”

Blinken added of China: “I think their diplomatic support, their political, and to some extent their material support for Russia certainly goes against our interests.”

The New York Times reported in March that “China has sold more than $12 million in drones and drone parts” to Russia in the year since the Ukraine invasion, with China’s DJI and roughly 70 other Chinese exporters selling 26 brands of Chinese drones to Russia since early 2022.

The U.S. has also repeatedly warned China against providing the Russians with lethal weaponry for the invasion of Ukraine as the “DragonBear” alliance between Beijing and Moscow strengthens.

China's Xi leaves meeting with Putin without pledging military cooperation

Mike Brest

March 22, 11:29 AM March 22, 11:29 AM

Chinese leader Xi Jinping left Moscow on Wednesday after his multiday visit in which he and Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed support for continued and growing bilateral relations, but neither made any mention of military assistance.

Xi's highly anticipated and choreographed three-day trip projected unity for the growing partnership as both face an increasingly tense outlook with the West. Leaders globally were focused on the two leaders' discussion of Russia's war in Ukraine and whether Beijing would provide Russia with lethal aid, as U.S. officials have warned for about a month.

PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA SUPPORTS 'MANY OF THE PROVISIONS' IN CHINA'S UKRAINE PEACE PLAN

Beijing has repeatedly attempted to position itself as a neutral arbiter. However, it has not condemned the war and has often pushed Russia's account of the war, and a recently published peace plan from China was quickly dismissed as a nonstarter by Ukraine and its allies due to the tenets of the deal that would benefit Russia.

Putin said he supports "many of the provisions of the peace plan put forward by China" on Tuesday, which includes a ceasefire that would freeze the current battlefield positions in place, effectively solidifying Russia's gains, which U.S. officials have explained would provide Russia the opportunity to refit, resupply, and redeploy its troops for a future offensive.

The two leaders did not discuss Ukraine's peace plan, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, according to Russian state media outlet Tass.

U.S. officials have denounced the Chinese peace plan and warned preemptively that Xi may seek to play the role of peacemaker in the war.

"I don't think you can reasonably look at China as impartial in any way," National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said on Tuesday. "They haven't condemned this invasion. They haven't stopped buying Russian oil and Russian energy."

While there was no public mention of military aid, the two leaders affirmed their country's growing partnership. They jointly signed and released the Joint Statement of the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation on Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for the New Era.

“Russia reaffirmed that it was committed to restarting peace talks as soon as possible, and China expressed its approval,” an excerpt from the joint statement said. “Settlement of the Ukraine crisis must respect the reasonable security concerns of every country and prevent the formation of confrontational blocs that add fuel to the flames.”

The White House made a sharp rebuttal to the joint statement, accusing China of parroting Russian propaganda.

“If China wants to play a constructive role in this conflict, then it ought to press Russia to pull troops out of Ukraine,” Kirby added.

U.S. officials reiterated this week that they have not seen intelligence to suggest China has decided to provide Russia with lethal aid.

US and Beijing in talks over Yellen and Raimondo trip to China

Mike Brest

March 20, 04:49 PM March 20, 04:49 PM

The Biden administration and Chinese Communist Party officials are discussing a possible trip by two Cabinet secretaries to China.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo could soon travel to China, National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told reporters on Monday.

XI ARRIVES IN MOSCOW FOR MEETING WITH PUTIN

"We're having discussions with the PRC right now about [a] potential visit by Secretary Yellen and Secretary Raimondo to go over there and talk about economic issues. So there's that that we're still working," he said. "So, all of that, keeping those lines of communication open, are still valuable."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was supposed to travel to China in early February, but the trip was postponed when the public became aware of a Chinese spy balloon traversing across the continental United States, which the military ultimately shot down over the Atlantic Ocean.

"We still want to get Secretary Blinken back to Beijing," Kirby added. "That visit was postponed. It wasn't canceled. And we're still hopeful to get that back on the calendar."

Since then, U.S. officials have begun warning the public and world leaders that Beijing is considering, but hasn't committed to, providing Russia with lethal aid for them to use in Ukraine. Officials have argued that doing so would not be in their best interests.

"We're hoping to get the economic lines open. The military-to-military lines are not open, and that's a problem," he explained. "That was, as you know, one of the things we were hoping Secretary Blinken would get thawed for us because they are frozen."

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in late February that he and his Chinese counterpart, Chinese Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe, have not spoken in “a couple of months,” noting the week before that it fits a pattern of Chinese officials "shut[ting] down their military channels of communication" when "something happens.”

China is increasingly aligning itself with Russia and against the West, and Xi is cementing that relationship with his first trip to Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine more than a year ago. Xi arrived on Monday, and both leaders talked about their shared goals globally in public comments.

Beijing released an extensive peace plan to end the war, though it effectively awards Russia with the land it's occupying in Ukraine, which Kyiv has repeatedly said is a nonstarter in any diplomatic efforts to end the war.

"China's already issued a 12-point plan for the conflict in Ukraine, which includes an essential point, and that's respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries," Kirby added. "We encouraged President Xi to advocate for this exact essential key point, which must include the withdrawal of Russian forces from sovereign Ukrainian territory."

Virginia government tells elite high school to ‘cut ties’ with Chinese government

Jerry Dunleavy

March 16, 11:44 AM March 16, 11:44 AM

The Virginia Education Department directed Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) to “cut ties” with Chinese government-linked entities after it was revealed by the Washington Examiner that one of its elite high schools had collaborated with a Chinese military-linked group for years.

Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera sent a letter to FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid on Wednesday, pressing the school system on revelations that Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) and the TJHSST Partnership Fund have “accepted significant financial contributions from entities known to have connections to the Chinese Communist Party."

VIRGINIA HIGH SCHOOL WORKED WITH CHINESE MILITARY-LINKED ORG

The Virginia-based school partnered with Tsinghua University High School, or TUHS, to assist it and China generally with adopting the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, and advanced lab research. TUHS is closely tied to Tsinghua University, considered by the Pentagon to be a Chinese military university.

Guidera told FCPS on Wednesday to "direct schools within your division to cut ties with CCP-linked partners” and said she had asked her department to “investigate the prevalence of such relationships between CCP-linked partners and local school divisions” across Virginia.

The Virginia education secretary said the revelations that “a Virginia high school accepted contributions from CCP-linked entities” were “concerning, and warrant a response regarding the nature of these funds.” Guidera told FCPS to say exactly how much money the TJ fund had received from the Chinese entities and how those funds were used, and whether any of the Chinese entities “provided any guidance, influence, or instructional materials related to content taught” at TJHSST.

Guidera also asked FCPS whether “any non-public student information” or “any instructional materials, class schedules, and individual performance or evaluation indicators” were provided to the Chinese entities.

The Virginia government inquiry comes following a Washington Examiner investigation into the saga.

The nonprofit organization Parents Defending Education (PDE) helped unearth the Chinese funding for TJHSST and had asked Virginia's Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin to investigate.

“We are grateful that Gov. Youngkin and Secretary Guidera have taken swift steps to investigate the scope of this scandal — not only at TJ, but throughout the Commonwealth,” PDE President Nicole Neily said. “This incident highlights the acute need for federal lawmakers to address this problem going forward, and to mandate disclosure of foreign funding to America’s K-12 schools.”

FCPS recently attempted to defend the arrangement between TJHSST and the Chinese entities. Julie Moult, the media relations manager for FCPS, told the Washington Examiner last week that TJHSST is "world-renowned" and that "it is not unusual for elite public schools, colleges, and universities in the U.S. to benefit from donations and grants from various sources, including international sources.”

FCPS did not respond to a request for comment about the new state-level investigation.

The TJPF received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Tsinghua University as part of its agreement with TUHS. The TJPF also received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Ameson Education and Cultural Exchange Foundation, as well as the Chinese company Shirble, which were all led by men tied to China’s United Front Work Department, which manages Chinese government foreign influence campaigns.

China deepens diplomatic support for Russia at G-20 meeting

Joel Gehrke

March 02, 11:46 AM March 02, 11:46 AM

China helped Russia block a joint G-20 statement that signaled opposition to the war in Ukraine, just a few months after Beijing backed a similar statement at a gathering of world leaders in Indonesia.

“You have virtually everyone in the G-20 signing on to what had already been stated in Bali, and the two holdouts, of course, were Russia and China,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in New Delhi. “So, I think we see broad consensus across the G-20 to work together, to act together, and to make commitments together.”

BLINKEN BRIEFLY MEETS WITH RUSSIAN COUNTERPART FOR FIRST TIME SINCE UKRAINE WAR

China reinforced Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opposition to the censorious language at the G-20 foreign ministers summit in India. Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping allowed the G-20 to memorialize international opposition to the war in November when he met with President Joe Biden on the sidelines of a G-20 leaders meeting that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend.

“Two countries, Russia and China, did not agree,” Indian external affairs ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said. “You need to ask them about why exactly, on how their perspective is, or are they no longer with that text from Bali? You have to ask them.”

The diplomatic shift comes in the context of Western warnings that Beijing may provide Russia with weapons for use in the war — a line of support, Blinken emphasized, that would provoke the U.S. and its allies to impose sanctions.

“I'm not going to detail what they would be, but of course, we have sanctions authorities of various kinds — that would certainly be one of the things that we and others would look at,” Blinken said Thursday. “This concern that China is considering providing lethal military assistance to Russia, this is a shared concern. And many other partners have raised this and not just raised this with us, but it's my understanding have raised it directly with China, including here today in Delhi.”

The Bali statement itself was a compromise document that acknowledged the United Nations General Assembly votes against the war but did not bind China to any specific rebuke.

“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy — constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks,” the statement said. "There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions.”

Putin says he expects Xi to visit Moscow as he meets with China's top diplomat

Mike Brest

February 22, 10:31 AM February 22, 10:31 AM

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Chinese leader Xi Jinping would visit Moscow in the coming months, while the United States and its allies remain concerned about their growing partnership.

Putin met with Wang Yi, China's highest-ranking diplomat, at the Kremlin on Wednesday, describing the relationship between the two countries as "reaching new frontiers."

US HAS 'GROWING CONCERN' OVER CHINA'S RELATIONSHIP WITH RUSSIA

"We await a visit of the President of the People's Republic of China to Russia. We have agreed on this. Everything is progressing, developing. We are reaching new frontiers," Putin told Wang, according to Reuters, while the top Chinese diplomat said their relationship would "not succumb to pressure from third parties," a thinly veiled reference to the U.S. Wang also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Wang's visit gave both sides an opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to one another, and it happened just before the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. China has, throughout the war, sought to remain a neutral party calling for peaceful solutions, while leaders also simultaneously made remarks supporting Russia.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Wednesday that he had no details to share about a possible Xi trip to China.

"China and Russia have maintained close communication at all levels on advancing the development of bilateral relations and contributing to world peace and development. As for interactions between the two presidents, I have nothing to share at the moment," he said.

Days ago, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said China appeared to be "considering" taking a more active role in supporting Russia by providing them with "lethal weapons."

"China’s having — trying to have it both ways," he said in an interview last weekend on Meet The Press. "Publicly, they present themselves as a country striving for peace in Ukraine, but privately, as I said, we’ve seen already over these past months the provision of nonlethal assistance that does go directly to aiding and abetting Russia’s war effort. And some further information that we are sharing today and that, I think, will be out there soon that indicates that they are strongly considering providing lethal assistance to Russia."

He emphasized that they hadn't seen China “cross that line” of providing lethal aid to Russia, though they “see them considering this.”

China and Russia released a communique prior to Moscow's invasion that outlined a wide range of plans for economic and diplomatic cooperation, though the war has stressed their relationship. Now though, Russia is more dependent upon China as it has become a pariah on the international stage, while Russia is also able to cast the war in Ukraine as a West vs. Asia battle.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said last week that the relationship between the Kremlin and the Chinese Communist Party has "no-limits."

“My assessment is the PRC [People's Republic of China] is trying to both increase its standing in the international community by saying that it's willing to mediate and help bring this horrifying invasion to an end. And at the same time, they are committed to their no-limits partnership with Russia,” Sherman added. “And we have, certainly, concern and growing concern about that partnership and the PRC’s support for this invasion.”

Blinken and Wang Yi met last week on the sidelines of the Munich Security Forum, where Blinken "warned about the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia or assistance with systemic sanctions evasion," according to State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a readout of the meeting.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said in response to the claim that the U.S. is not in a position to dictate its relationship with Russia.

As Wang Yi visited Moscow, President Joe Biden was in Europe reaffirming his support for Ukraine. He secretly traveled to Kyiv, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday before meeting with allies in Warsaw, Poland.

Additionally, America's relationship with China has continued to plummet through various incidents over the Biden administration, most recently China's possible increased support for Russia and the spy balloon that traversed the U.S. weeks ago before the military shot it down over the Atlantic Ocean. U.S. officials have also described China's recent actions as more provocative and have argued they're trying to rewrite aspects of the Chinese-U.S. relationship unilaterally.

'It's like a virus': COVID-19 protests test Xi Jinping’s regime

Joel Gehrke

December 04, 04:00 AM December 04, 04:00 AM

An outbreak of student-led protests across China has sent a sharp message to Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping and the broader population, according to analysts and some dissidents.

“We haven't seen that since 1989,” said American Enterprise Institute nonresident fellow Michael Mazza, referring to the Tiananmen Square protests. “The fact that this could happen in an environment in which the tools of government surveillance and control are so much more pervasive and effective than they were in 1989 is a really striking and really interesting development.”

CHINA INTENSIFIES CENSORSHIP IN RESPONSE TO 'ZERO-COVID' PROTESTS, LEAKED DIRECTIVES SHOW

Those surveillance mechanisms also allowed Chinese security forces to identify many of the protesters, easing the regime’s task of deterring additional displays. Yet Xi seems to have recognized the need for a course correction, judging from leaks from his meeting on Friday with European Council President Charles Michel.

“And the response we got from the president was explaining why there was protests, claiming that after three years of COVID he had an issue because people were frustrated,” a senior European Union official told the South China Morning Post. “It was mainly students or teenagers in university.”

Those minimizing remarks were understood as a sign that Xi plans to ease somewhat the coronavirus restrictions, without apparent fear that such a concession will incentivize additional protests. Yet some of the protests have called for more substantial political reforms, while the simple phenomenon of the protests already has begun to embolden Chinese nationals fearful of crossing the regime.

“So now we know,” Hu Guo, a Chinese man studying at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, told Radio Free Asia. “The desire of the Chinese people for freedom and democracy has never gone away. It has just been suppressed by the Communist Party's brutal stability maintenance system and by internet censorship.”

Hu was inspired to begin expressing his displeasure with the Chinese Communist Party by the sight of Peng Lifa, who draped banners that denounced “dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping” and called for an uprising.

"We need food, not COVID tests. We want freedom, not lockdowns," said the now-vanished Peng’s banners, unfurled just before the 20th National Congress extended Xi’s tenure at the top of the regime. "We want dignity, not lies. We need reform, no cultural revolution.”

Xi’s immunity to such outbreaks could face a stiffer test if he does in fact ease coronavirus restrictions, a move that will bring the risk of a surge in coronavirus cases. Yet the triumphalist regime also refused to make use of Western vaccines, while the less-effective Chinese vaccines have not been popular among Chinese people.

“I still think we're far short of anything that threatens his hold on power or the Communist Party's hold on power,” Center for Strategic and International Studies senior adviser Scott Kennedy said this week. “The big challenge for Xi Jinping is he could end 'zero COVID' fast or he could end it safely, but he can't do both. If you do it fast, if you just eliminated the restrictions, you'd have a big rise in cases and serious illness and death.”

Peng’s display prompted Hu to begin his own efforts in Chapel Hill. “His actions made me feel like a coward,” he said. “I was very encouraged by the fact that Peng was able to accomplish this all by himself, in a regulatory environment with strict controls on speech, under the kind of 'stability maintenance' system they have in mainland China.”

Some of Peng’s slogans were echoed by the protesters in China last weekend, Heritage Foundation research fellow Michael Cunningham noted. The remembrance of his example underscores the threat, from the regime’s perspective, of protest contagion.

“It's like a virus. ... It may be highly infectious, but the symptoms are not obvious,” Cunningham said. “And so I would say in talking with overseas Chinese communities and in talking with friends on the ground in China, the sentiment is pretty widespread — not universal, by any means, but it's pretty widespread.”

The death of former Chinese General Secretary Jiang Zemin, who ruled in Beijing from 1989 to 2002, could offer the protesters another opportunity to flare up. Zemin laid a foundation for Xi’s heavy-handedness, Mazza and Cunningham agreed, but his death nonetheless gives Chinese people a chance to compare their prospects now to their expectations two decades ago.

“There is precedent for protests, for demonstrations to arise following the deaths of senior Chinese leaders — the most prominent example of that is 1989. ... That was sort of the spark for the Tiananmen Square protests,” Mazza said. “It was a more optimistic time [under Zemin]. ... The Chinese government is very aware of this, and they’re going to make that difficult.”

Its restrictive tactics are likely to succeed, according to Cunningham, who cited both the preparations the government will be able to make in light of the recent outbreak of protests and also the fading of Zemin's reputation.

"I would say his leadership is too far removed from the people who are most likely to be willing to protest, and he doesn't capture ... their hearts and minds as previous leaders whose deaths led to protests did," he said.

In any case, the fact that Hu, a student in North Carolina, felt anxious even about displaying flyers in Chapel Hill underscores the intensity of the Chinese Communist Party's security measures.

“I'm a little worried about my family and friends back in China, but I'm an adult now,” he said. “If the Communist Party wants to target me, they should deal with me directly, not my family or friends.”

Yet the intensity of those repressive efforts also points to the party’s perceptions of the risk that discontent could surge if it is not controlled.

“We're more likely to see some harsher tactics by the regime if these folks don't go back home and get off the streets,” said Kennedy, the CSIS scholar. “And then really, you could have a more combustible situation, particularly if there's any significant loss of life in those kinds of conflicts. But I still think we're far short of that is an inevitable outcome.”

China’s leader-for-life, and America’s diminished military, raise risk of war over Taiwan

Jamie McIntyre

October 21, 01:00 AM October 21, 01:00 AM

It has been described as "a coronation."

At a weeklong Chinese Communist Party national congress this month, Xi Jinping, 69, secured an unprecedented third five-year term while consolidating enough power so that he can likely secure a fourth or even fifth term, if he wants it.

Speaking on the opening day of the party congress, the putative leader-for-life laid down a marker that was met with thunderous applause by the 2,000 delegates packed into Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People.

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“Taiwan is China’s Taiwan,” the Chinese leader said. “We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort, but we will never promise to renounce the use of force.”

“The wheels of history are rolling on toward China’s reunification,” he continued. “Complete reunification of our country must be realized, and it can, without doubt, be realized!”

China has the world’s second-largest defense budget after the United States, and Xi harbors ambitious plans to build his country’s People’s Liberation Army into a “world-class military” by 2049.

China hasn’t fought a land war in more than four decades, not since it invaded Vietnam in 1979, but Xi is vowing to turn the PLA into a modern fighting force capable of deterring “crises and conflicts” and winning “local wars.”

“We will intensify military training under combat conditions, laying emphasis on joint training, force-on-force training, and high-tech training,” he said.

While not mentioning Ukraine, Xi seemed to confirm that China is learning a lot about how a war against a smaller enemy backed by the U.S. is fought.

“We will study and gain a good grasp of the characteristics of informatized and intelligent warfare and the laws that govern it, provide new military strategic guidance, and develop strategies and tactics for a people’s war,” Xi said. He promised “new-domain forces with new combat capabilities” while speeding up the development of “unmanned, intelligent combat capabilities.”

“China would prefer coerced unification that avoids armed conflict, and it has been stepping up diplomatic, economic, and military pressure on the island for years,” Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in May. She added, “Beijing is prepared to use military force if it decides this is necessary.”

“It's our view that they are working hard to effectively put themselves into a position in which their military is capable of taking Taiwan over our intervention,” Haines testified.

As recently as last month, the Pentagon said it had detected no shift in Beijing’s timeline, and in fact, suggested that Xi may be chastened by Russia’s embarrassing failures in Ukraine — a war effort that Russian President Vladimir Putin expected to be a cakewalk.

"It's no mystery that Xi Jinping has given his military until 2027 to develop the military capabilities to forcefully reunify with Taiwan, but I've seen no indication that he's made that decision to do so," said Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy, at a defense forum.

"I would hope that they would draw the lesson from Russia's experience that 'Hey, maybe ... we shouldn't do that,'" Kahl said.

But two days after Xi’s speech, Secretary of State Antony Blinken seemed to suggest that Xi is getting increasingly impatient, has made a “fundamental decision” that the status quo of Taiwan as a self-governing island is “no longer acceptable," and is "determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline."

At a Hoover Institution event at Stanford University, Blinken said China is “profoundly disrupting the status quo and creating tremendous tensions” as Xi escalates threats to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control.

“If peaceful means didn’t work, then it would employ coercive means, and possibly, if coercive means don’t work, maybe forceful means, to achieve its objectives,” the secretary of state said.

The ramp-up in rhetoric follows President Joe Biden’s repeated assertions, most recently in a CBS 60 Minutes interview, that the U.S. would come to the defense of Taiwan if China invades. That's a muddying of America’s long-standing policy of “strategic ambiguity” designed to keep Beijing guessing about the level of military support America would provide.

Biden told CBS’s Scott Pelley that the U.S. military would defend Taiwan if “there was an unprecedented attack.”

“So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, U.S. forces, U.S. men and women, would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?” Pelley pressed, to which Biden replied, “Yes.”

Biden’s National Security Strategy names China as America’s “only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.” But the just-released document drew sharp criticism from Republicans for listing climate change as “the greatest and potentially existential” threat facing the world.

“The Chinese Communist Party is again making clear that it is the single greatest threat to our national interests,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), a member of the House Intelligence and Armed Services committees.

“We desperately need a sense of urgency to put hard power in Xi’s path before it is too late,” the Republican said in a statement in response to the Chinese leader’s address. “This starts with providing Taiwan with security assistance and moving them to the front of the [Foreign Military Assistance] line, maxing out munitions production, and augmenting and dispersing American hard power forward in the region."

Gallagher also presided over the release of the Heritage Foundation’s latest Index of U.S. Military Strength, which rates the readiness of the U.S. Army as “marginal,” the Navy and Space Force as “weak,” and the Air Force as “very weak.” Those are the lowest grades in the nine-year history of the highly respected index.

Only the Marine Corps and U.S. nuclear forces were rated “strong."

Meanwhile, the chapter on China judges its military as “aggressive” for its level of provocation and “formidable” for its level of capability.

“The American military forces are in a diminished state, as readiness issues, old equipment, and a lack of capacity calls into question its ability to defend the United States and its interests,” the just-released report concludes.

“When it comes to Taiwan, time is not on our side. We have entered the window of maximum danger,” said Gallagher in a speech at Heritage, referring to one U.S. commander’s assessment that China may make a move on Taiwan within the next five years.

“Most of the transformative technology DoD is investing in with its much-hyped 9.5% increase in research and development dollars, from hypersonic weapons to ‘Joint All Domain Command and Control,’ may not be fielded until the 2030s — if at all,” Gallagher said. “Making matters worse, we’re running low on the munitions that are essential to both Ukraine and Taiwan. Two months into the war, we had already sent Ukraine a quarter of our entire Stinger stockpile and more than seven years’ worth of Javelins.”

One early lesson from the war in Ukraine, Gallagher argues, is that despite clear U.S. threats of harsh sanctions and the promise of military assistance to Kyiv, after the fact, Pentagon leaders were forced to concede Putin was simply “not deterrable” due to the ardor of his irredentist ambitions.

“This was an important, if inadvertent, admission about the supremacy of hard power, one that has profound implications for how we deter a war with China over Taiwan,” Gallagher said.