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| | ===Xi era=== | | ===Xi era=== |
| | On March 1, 2020, ten days before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the [[CCP virus]] a global [[pandemic]], the international China Tribunal published its Final Report declaring that the CCP had indeed performed hundreds of thousands of involuntary organ harvesting of hearts, lungs, kidneys, and livers from Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience in a budding for-profit organ transplant industry for recipients worldwide.<ref>https://chinatribunal.com/china-tribunal-releases-judgment-2020/</ref> | | On March 1, 2020, ten days before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the [[CCP virus]] a global [[pandemic]], the international China Tribunal published its Final Report declaring that the CCP had indeed performed hundreds of thousands of involuntary organ harvesting of hearts, lungs, kidneys, and livers from Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience in a budding for-profit organ transplant industry for recipients worldwide.<ref>https://chinatribunal.com/china-tribunal-releases-judgment-2020/</ref> |
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| | + | ====Influence operations==== |
| | + | The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses propaganda and influence operations as a means of projecting its power and weakening its enemies. These operations are coordinated and directed by the CCP's [[United Front Work Department]] (UFWD).<ref>https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/China's%20Overseas%20United%20Front%20Work%20-%20Background%20and%20Implications%20for%20US_final_0.pdf</ref> The CCP's United Front system mobilizes the party's “friends” to strike the party's enemies. The system was greatly energized and expanded by Xi Jinping. It operates inside foreign political parties, diaspora communities, colleges and corporations, all with the goal of promoting the party's interests. The express goals of the United Front system include undermining social cohesion, exacerbating racial tension, and influencing politics.<ref>https://www.aspi.org.au/report/party-speaks-you</ref> |
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| | ====Belt and Road Initiative==== | | ====Belt and Road Initiative==== |
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| | other Southeast Asian nations are well-positioned to cut off Chinese supply lines in the event of a major military confrontation by creating a | | other Southeast Asian nations are well-positioned to cut off Chinese supply lines in the event of a major military confrontation by creating a |
| | blockade around the Strait of Malacca. China wants to ensure that its commercial and naval vessels find an alternate route that altogether avoids the Malacca chokepoint while traveling between the Indian and [[Pacific Ocean]]s. This is an overhang of the maritime portion of Xi Jinping's Belt and Road initiative that seeks to connect Southeast Asia with the [[Middle East]] and [[Europe]]. | | blockade around the Strait of Malacca. China wants to ensure that its commercial and naval vessels find an alternate route that altogether avoids the Malacca chokepoint while traveling between the Indian and [[Pacific Ocean]]s. This is an overhang of the maritime portion of Xi Jinping's Belt and Road initiative that seeks to connect Southeast Asia with the [[Middle East]] and [[Europe]]. |
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| | + | ====Influencing international organizations==== |
| | + | [[File:WHO-CCP Wuhan virus.PNG|right|300px|thumb|The WHO, headed by a Marxist [[fellow traveller]], publicly announced that the [[Wuhan]] virus posed no threat of contagious reaction between humans.<ref>https://dailycaller.com/2020/03/18/flashback-who-china-coronavirus-contagious/</ref>]] |
| | + | Jin Canrong, a professor and associate dean of the School of International Studies at Beijing's Renmin University of China, explained the CCP's plan to exert greater influence over global bodies such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the [[World Health Organization]] (WHO), [[Interpol]], the [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF), the International Olympic Committee, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). |
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| | + | The Chinese regime's goal is for “all these international organizations to be controlled by China. We can appoint someone who speaks Chinese [who represents China] to be its leaders,” Jin said. |
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| | + | During his speech, Jin emphasized that Xi Jinping was unlike his predecessors in his ambitions. Previous CCP leaders after Deng Xiaoping worked hard to develop the regime's power but didn't dare to use it. “No matter how much power you have, it’s nothing if you don’t dare to use it,” Jin said. “Chairman Xi dares to use it. [Xi’s authorities] have the power, dare to use that power, and all of its attacks make the other party bleed.” |
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| | + | Xi's ambitions, however, cannot be revealed to the outside world, Jin Canrong said. When Xi took power in 2012, he urged the country to realize the “Chinese dream.” This meant becoming a “moderately well-off” country by 2021, and then a “strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious, and modern socialist country” by 2049. |
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| | + | Jin explained that Xi's target is actually to replace the United States as the world's only superpower by 2049. “[Chinese] Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeps on saying [at press briefings] that China loves peace. But no reporters at the press briefings believe this,” Jin said. |
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| | ====Wuhan coronavirus==== | | ====Wuhan coronavirus==== |
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| | In 2015, Chinese military scientists discussed how to weaponize SARS [[coronavirus]]es to "cause the enemy’s medical system to collapse." In a 263-page document, written by People's Liberation Army scientists and senior Chinese public health officials and obtained by the US State Department during its investigation into the origins of [[COVID-19]], suggests that SARS coronaviruses could herald a "new era of genetic weapons," and noted that they can be "artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponized and unleashed in a way never seen before."<ref>https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/chinese-military-discussed-weaponizing-covid-2015-cause-enemys-medical-system-collapse</ref> | | In 2015, Chinese military scientists discussed how to weaponize SARS [[coronavirus]]es to "cause the enemy’s medical system to collapse." In a 263-page document, written by People's Liberation Army scientists and senior Chinese public health officials and obtained by the US State Department during its investigation into the origins of [[COVID-19]], suggests that SARS coronaviruses could herald a "new era of genetic weapons," and noted that they can be "artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponized and unleashed in a way never seen before."<ref>https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/chinese-military-discussed-weaponizing-covid-2015-cause-enemys-medical-system-collapse</ref> |
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| | + | ====Relations with Taiwan==== |
| | + | [[File:Flag of Taiwan ROC.png|right|225px|thumb|Flag of the independent sovereign republic of Taiwan.]] |
| | + | :{{See also|Quad Alliance}} |
| | + | The Peoples Republic of China has threatened aggression against the sovereign republic of Taiwan since Mao's founding of the PRC in 1949. |
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| | + | In the early 21st century, contact between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait grew significantly. Taiwan relaxed restrictions on unofficial contacts with Communist China, and cross-strait interaction mushroomed. In 2001, Taiwan formally allowed the "three mini-links" (direct trade, travel, and postal links) from Quemoy and Matsu Islands to Fujian Province and permitted direct cross-strait trade in February 2002. Taiwan authorities permitted residents of Penghu Islands starting in 2007, to begin visiting mainland China via Quemoy and Matsu. Cross-strait trade grew rapidly. Communist China became Taiwan's largest trading partner, and Taiwan is the Peoples Republic of China's fifth largest. |
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| | + | Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), told ''[[Al Jazeera]]'' in 2018<ref>https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/23/fake-news-rattles-taiwan-ahead-of-elections/</ref>, "We received propaganda warfare coming from China for years, but this is taking a very different form,. It’s coming in not from newspapers or their propaganda machine but through our [[social media]], online chat groups, [[Facebook]], the zombie accounts set up, somewhere, by the Chinese government....It’s a more serious problem because China is so close to Taiwan, language-wise. They don’t have the cultural or language barrier and can easily fabricate news and they know the mentality of Chinese thinking, so it’s easier for them to orchestrate this misinformation.” Fake news was traced to servers in the PRC, the Chinese Communist Party, and it’s [[50 Cent Army]]. Beijing has reached deep into Taiwan, sowing division and confusion through online disinformation, recruiting business figures, and funnelling cash to pro-Beijing politicians. |
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| | + | In December 2019, Taiwan passed a law to counter Chinese interference in the country's internal politics.<ref>Lee, Yimou; Hamacher, Fabian (December 31, 2019). [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-lawmaking/taiwan-passes-law-to-combat-chinese-influence-on-politics-idUSKBN1YZ0F6 Taiwan passes law to combat Chinese influence on politics]. ''Reuters''. Retrieved December 31, 2019.</ref> |
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| | + | According to ''[[Forbes]]'' magazine,<ref>https://archive.is/4YC4C#selection-3285.0-3443.121</ref> to have any chance of conquering Taiwan, China might need to transport as many as two million troops across the Taiwan Strait. This would be a larger invasion force than the [[Normandy Invasion]]. The invasion force would have to land under fire at the island’s 14 potential invasion beaches or 10 major ports. |
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| | + | That is far more troops than the People’s Liberation Army Navy can haul in its 11 new amphibious ships that can only haul around 25,000 troops. To transport the bulk of the invasion force, Beijing would take into service thousands of civilian ships. To that end, the Chinese Communist Party has created a legal and bureaucratic framework for taking control of thre PRC's commercial shipping, around 2,000 large commercial vessels crewed by around 650,000 mariners. On Jan. 1, 2017, China’s National Defense Transportation Law went into effect. “Among other things, the law mandated that all of China’s basic infrastructure and related transportation platforms would henceforth be treated as military-civil fusion assets,” Ian Easton with the Project 2049 explained. “At the CCP’s discretion, they were now legally required to be designed, built and managed to support future military operations. In the event of conflict, they would be pressed into wartime service. Now they had to prepare accordingly in peacetime.” Meanwhile, naval engineers have begun modifying key vessels to make them better assault ships. Their crews actively are training for a possible assault on Taiwan. |
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| | + | ====Relations with the United States==== |
| | + | Jin Canrong, a professor and associate dean of the School of International Studies at Beijing's Renmin University of China,<ref>https://archive.is/z5RMg</ref> laid out a multi-pronged strategy involving a range of malign actions to subvert the United States while strengthening the Chinese regime.<ref>https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/xi-jinpings-adviser-outlines-plan-for-ccp-to-defeat-us-including-manipulating-elections_3748196.html</ref> They include: |
| | + | *interfering in U.S. elections, |
| | + | *controlling the American market, |
| | + | *cultivating global enemies to challenge the United States, |
| | + | *stealing American technology, |
| | + | *expanding Chinese territory, and |
| | + | *influencing international organizations. |
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| | ====2020 U.S. Presidential election interference==== | | ====2020 U.S. Presidential election interference==== |