United Front groups in Canada helped Beijing stockpile coronavirus safety supplies

Ellanjay

Council Member
Apr 11, 2020
1,722
250
83
https://youtu.be/NzBLps_gk3Q
United Front groups in Canada helped Beijing stockpile coronavirus safety supplies

By Sam Cooper Global News Canada
April 30th, 2020

In mid-January, Chinese consulates in Canada and worldwide issued an urgent call. China was concerned that the new coronavirus raging in Wuhan was so deadly and infectious that its nurses and doctors would run out of safety supplies.

It needed personal protective equipment (PPE).

In just six weeks, China imported 2.5 billion pieces of epidemic safety equipment, including over two billion safety masks, Chinese government data shows.

And this raises big concerns on a number of fronts, say critics, including Conservative MP Erin O’Toole.

China was evidently hiding the extent of a pandemic that endangered the world while covertly securing PPE at low prices. This “surreptitious” operation left “the world naked with no supply of PPE,” Jorge Guajardo, Mexico’s former ambassador to Beijing, told Global News.

The result: starting in March, after COVID-19 had circled the globe, countries that provided masks to China in January and February were forced to compete for China’s supply.

By late January, sources in manufacturing and military circles were warning western governments that China seemed to be covertly seizing global PPE supply, O’Toole and Guajardo said.

But leaders in Canada didn’t act, according to O’Toole.

“One source told me in January it became well-known amongst military and emergency services that China was stockpiling masks and basically buying out as many quantities as it could,” he said in an interview with Global News. “And we know, … that senior officials, in the end of January and the early days of February, are equally aware at Public Works Canada, with respect to a run on PPEs.”

An investigation by Global News examines the troubling methods and underground actors used by Beijing to quietly corner the world’s supply of PPE in a state-level operation.

China used diplomatic channels, state-owned businesses and Chinese diaspora community associations that are thought to be increasingly under the influence of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s powerful United Front Work Department (UFWD).

And through clandestine United Front networks run out of Chinese consulates in cities from Vancouver to Toronto to New York to Melbourne to Tokyo, the Communist Party urged millions of “overseas Chinese” to bulk-buy N95 masks in order to ship “back batches of scarce supplies for the motherland.”

As troubling as China’s methods were, the operation looks even worse under a magnifying glass because some organizations seemingly involved in the United Front’s efforts in Canada include members that have previously been monitored or investigated by the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), according to RCMP and CSIS sources.

Under the radar

[​IMG]

Some United Front group members in Vancouver have caught the attention of Canadian law enforcement.

China’s PPE import operation was portrayed by its state media as a warlike effort. And it was a dramatic success.

According to a U.S. congressional report released in April, from Jan. 24 to Feb. 29, China ramped up its production of masks and slapped export restrictions on China-based foreign companies such as Canadian mask maker Medicom and U.S. mask maker 3M.
At the same time, China imported 2.02 billion safety masks, according to Beijing’s March 2020 customs records.

“To ensure sufficient domestic supplies to counter COVID-19 (Beijing directed) regional offices in China and overseas to work with PRC industry associations to prioritize securing supplies from global sources,” the report says.

The global callout for masks was posted to UFWD websites and sent to Chinese consulates where United Front officials are embedded.

The requests occurred around Jan. 14 and 15, when Chinese officials received confidential instructions from Xi, and all regions were warned to “prepare for and respond to a pandemic,” according to leaked documents cited in an Associated Press investigation. Hospital staff were ordered to don protective gear.

Guajardo, Mexico’s former ambassador to Beijing, told Global News that by Jan. 23, when China locked down Wuhan, he had recognized Beijing was involved in massive PPE imports.

Guajardo, who now works in a Washington, D.C., consultancy, said in mid-January, he was contacted by a source in Mexican supply chain logistics.

“They said, you know a funny thing, I’m being swamped by orders to send all the N95 I can find to China.”

He said he completed some checks in the United States and judged PPE stock was vanishing from retail locations through “under the radar” methods.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, they are buying all the N95 supply in the world,’” Guajardo told Global News.

He was so convinced that he sent an ominous tweet on Jan. 27 forecasting an impending shortage of PPE in North America.

In March, the masks sold to China in January and February were being sold back to Mexico at 20 to 30 times the price, according to Guajardo.



And the Washington Post and CNN reported in April that PPE is sometimes costing more than 1,000 percent the prices seen in early January.



“This pandemic got complicated because of China’s coverup at the start,” Guajardo said. “And now it is further complicated by China leaving the world naked with no supply of PPE.

“They started the pandemic and now they are profiting from it.”

Guajardo added that in his experience with China, the masks being sold back now will not only come at exorbitant prices and with potential quality defects but with longer-term political demands.

The U.S. congressional report released in April similarly concludes: “The Chinese government may selectively release some medical supplies for overseas delivery, with designated countries selected, according to political calculations.”

China ramped up PPE production while barring exports and increasing imports, U.S. congressional report finds.

In an interview, O’Toole, the Conservative MP, said that in Canada, he was hearing the same PPE warnings from his sources in January that Guajardo was getting from sources in Mexico and the United States.

O’Toole said he knows “for a fact” that senior Canadian bureaucrats in January were alerted that China was hoarding PPE. But instead of responding to the threat, Canada’s government shipped 16 tonnes of PPE to China.

O’Toole says he believes the methods Beijing used to secure PPE and Canada’s response need to be investigated in a broad national inquiry when coronavirus health risks finally recede.

“The Communist Party of China willfully withheld information on an outbreak for at least weeks, if not months,” O’Toole said. “It not only gave the world less time to respond, it downplayed the potential severity of the threat. Countries did not make decisions with respect to flight bans and (protecting) PPE stores.”

Asked by Global News to respond to O’Toole’s assertion, a spokesperson for Public Health Canada said that in January, officials started to monitor the coronavirus in China and “initiated work with Public Services and Procurement Canada to procure supplies needed to respond to a possible outbreak in Canada.”

Internal Public Health Canada emails indicate that on Jan. 31 Minister Patty Hajdu approved a donation of PPE to China from Canada’s emergency stockpile including “stuff that (would be) expiring in Feb. and March.” The ministry believed this donation would not compromise Canada’s PPE supply, the emails say.

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged that two planes from Canada sent to purchase PPE in China have now returned empty.

Trudeau cited congestion at Chinese airports and restrictions that only allow planes to wait for cargo for short periods. But China called Trudeau’s claim “inaccurate.”

After this story was published Global News asked Trudeau whether he was aware in January that China was engaged in a global operation to secure PPE, and if his government was aware, why no action was taken to protect Canada’s supply.

“As of Jan. 2 our chief public health officer convened a group of provincial public health officers to advise that there were reports of a new virus present in China,” Trudeau said Thursday. “Our intelligence services were tracking and aware of the issues and we got regular updates through the month of January. Further than that, I don’t have anything to add.”

Chinese consulates and community associations named in this story have not yet responded to questions from Global News.

‘Every overseas Chinese is a warrior’

A review of official reports from state media such as Xinhua as well as UFWD web pages in China and reports from associated Chinese-Canadian community groups, record massive PPE shipments of at least 100 tonnes from Canada to China in January and February.

The efforts were organized through consulates in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. In Vancouver and Toronto, business associations officially tied to the UFWD appear to have taken the lead in the global drive for N95 masks, also securing and shipping PPE from other countries into China.[read more in PDF(7.22MB)]

https://globalnews.ca/news/6858818/coronavirus-china-united-front-canada-protective-equipment-shortage/
 

Ellanjay

Council Member
Apr 11, 2020
1,722
250
83
https://youtu.be/dMrT1PbTlBk
Social Elites With Ties to the Chinese Regime

Tian Yun
May 4, 2020. Updated May 4, 2020
Commentary


Since the pandemic spread from the Chinese city of Wuhan to countries around the world, some prominent figures have contracted the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus.

From politicians to high-power executives, the virus has infected well-known individuals from different facets of society.

Some of them have close ties with the Chinese regime.

Political Sphere

Prince Albert II of Monaco contracted the CCP virus on March 19, making him the first head of state to confirm a COVID-19 diagnosis. The monarch visited China ten times. During his tenth visit in September 2018, Prince Albert signed a series of cooperative agreements with Beijing, including the “Nation 5G” contract between Monaco Telecom and Huawei, making Monaco the first country in Europe to use a Huawei-built 5G network.

Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, tested positive for the CCP virus on March 27. At one point he was isolated at home and then moved to an ICU for treatment. After recovering from the virus, he returned to work in late April.

Johnson’s support for the Chinese regime became evident when he gave Huawei Technologies Co. the green light to help develop Britain’s next-generation 5G broadband networks. With this decision, Johnson defied the UK’s Western allies, in particular the United States and Australia, who warned of national security risks in using Huawei technology.

As reported by The Epoch Times, Huawei plays a key role in the CCP’s mass surveillance technology. The Chinese tech giant is also accused of providing censorship and mobile phone tracking technology to Iran.

Eshaq Jahangiri, Iran’s first vice president, tested positive for the virus, alongside more than 20 other Iranian officials, according to a report by Belt and Road News. As of March 16, at least 12 Iranian politicians and officials, both sitting and former, have died from COVID-19.

In 2019, Jahangiri congratulated Beijing on the 70th anniversary of the CCP’s takeover of China. He wrote to premier Li Keqiang, assuring that “strategic economic relations” between Iran and China would materialize through cooperation, according to Iranian news reports.

China is Iran’s top trading partner and a major importer of Iranian oil. From January to November 2018, bilateral trade between China and Iran stood at $33.39 billion, according to data released by China’s Ministry of Commerce in January 2019.

Financial Arena

A number of senior financial executives in the United States have also contracted the CCP virus. Top U.S. bankers and the Chinese communist regime have maintained close ties for years, as Beijing turned to big banks to help lobby for Chinese interests in Washington.

James Gorman, Morgan Stanley’s CEO, revealed in a video released on April 9 that he had contracted the CCP virus and was recovering.

Peg Broadbent, CFO of Jefferies Group, died of COVID-19 complications on March 29. Broadbent joined Jefferies in 2007 after working at Morgan Stanley for 16 years.

Bill Pike, executive vice president at JPMorgan & Company from 1986 to 1989, died on March 21 after contracting the CCP virus.

In the midst of the China-U.S. trade war, the global MSCI index announced on Feb. 28, 2018 that it would quadruple the weighting of Chinese mainland shares in its global benchmarks later that year, Reuters reported. This activity could potentially draw more than $80 billion of fresh foreign inflows to China.

According to Roger Robinson, a former member of President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council and president and CEO of RWR Advisory Group, Beijing has taken advantage of the proliferation of the MSCI All Country World Ex-U.S. Investable Market Index. Robinson said there has been no screening mechanism over U.S. capital markets in the past 20 years. As a consequence, Beijing has moved in aggressively with their stocks and bonds, pulling out as much as $3 trillion thus far from U.S. investors, both institutional and individual, Robinson said in an interview with Zooming In, a news program on The Epoch Times’ sister media NTD.

In November 2016, JPMorgan agreed to pay a $264 million fine to settle claims over its hiring practices that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Between 2006 and 2013, the bank hired about a hundred interns and full-time employees at the request of government officials in China and Asia, as part of its efforts to build banking relationships in the fast-growing region, Forbes reported. The hiring, dubbed internally as the “Sons & Daughters Program,” enabled JPMorgan to win business that generated $100 million in revenues for the bank.

Higher Education

Lawrence Bacow, president of Harvard University since July 2018, announced on March 24 that he and his wife, Adele Fleet Bacow, tested positive for the virus.

Bacow served as president of Tufts from 2001 to 2011, and before that he spent 24 years on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he taught environmental studies and also served as chancellor. As Harvard University president, he chose Beijing as the first stop on his Asia trip in 2019. He also met CCP leader Xi Jinping, and the two discussed educational exchanges between the United States and China.

As far back as January 1948, the Chicago Tribune called Harvard a “hotbed of communism,” and in 2001 Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun wrote that Harvard has become a training base for Chinese communist leaders. According to China expert Lin Chun, Chinese officials jokingly refer to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government as China’s “second party school,” as senior officials are regularly sent there to learn modern thinking.

A review by Washington-based think tank Clarion Project found that since 2012, 87 U.S. universities were given $680,273,016 in the form of gifts and contracts by the Chinese communist regime. Harvard received the most funds from Beijing, totaling $79,272,834.

On Jan. 28, Charles M. Lieber, a nanoscientist and chair of Harvard’s chemistry and chemical biology department, was charged by federal prosecutors with making false statements about his participation in a Chinese recruitment program and his affiliation with a Chinese university. According to the court complaint, Lieber lied to both the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health about his affiliation with Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) and his involvement with China’s “Thousand Talents Plan,” a program designed to recruit Chinese expats and foreign scientists to work in China.

According to prosecutors, Lieber allegedly failed to disclose his work contract with WUT, including more than $1.5 million to start a lab at WUT and a salary of up to $50,000 per month, plus a stipend for living expenses.

The Media

Maria Mercader, a CBS News producer and executive, was the first American journalist who died of the CCP virus on March 29.

Headquartered in New York City, CBS is one of the three largest broadcasters in the United States. In recent years, CBS has continuously expanded its market in China and launched various online media businesses.

A Dec. 18, 2010 article by Chinese media YiMagazine titled “CBS’s Chinese business” stated, “Although the TV business is difficult to land in China, CBS has not missed this huge market, but silently became China’s largest vertical interactive media company.”

In May 2019, CBS censored an episode of “The Good Fight” television show, over a scene that mentioned the Chinese regime’s censorship tactics.

Jeff Shell, the CEO of NBCUniversal, tested positive for the CCP virus on March 26.

NBCUniversal is one of the United States’ largest media corporations. In recent years, its business dealings in China have spanned news, sports, film, entertainment, parks, and resorts.

On Nov. 23, 2010, Chinese state-run media Xinhua and NBC signed a memorandum of cooperation in New York, confirming that the two sides established a business cooperation in international broadcast news.

In September 2014, Beijing agreed to build the Universal Beijing Resort. Construction began in 2019 and is expected to be completed in May 2021. It will be the world’s largest Universal Studios resort.

On March 30, Vint Cerf, vice president of research at Google, tweeted that he tested positive for the CCP virus.

In the spring of 2017, Google started a secret project to launch a Chinese search engine called “Project Dragonfly,” which would filter out websites and search results that the Chinese regime deems too sensitive, such as topics pertaining to human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protests, the investigative news site The Intercept reported in 2018.

Arts and Entertainment

Lucian Grainge, chief executive officer of Universal Music Group Inc. (UMG), was hospitalized on March 15 after testing positive for the CCP virus.

UMG is the largest record company in the world. In May 2017, UMG and China’s Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) signed a strategic agreement to expand the Chinese music market. Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, TME is UMG’s partner in distributing and licensing content to third-party music service providers in China.

Famed tenor Plácido Domingo announced that he was diagnosed with the CCP virus on March 22.

Domingo has previously performed in Beijing with Song Zuying, then-mistress of former Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin, including a duet at the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Hong Kong tenor Warren Mok Wah-yeun tested positive for the virus. Mok was treated at a hospital in Thailand before returning to Hong Kong. After his return, he tested positive again on April 12.

Mok has been a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference since 2015, an advisory body to the Party’s rubber-stamp legislature.

In 2007, Mok performed a concert at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. On Oct. 31, 2010, he performed at the closing ceremony of the Shanghai World Expo. During the 2019 mass protests against a proposed extradition bill in Hong Kong, Mok participated in a pro-police rally and the recording of a video vilifying the protests. In January 2020, Mok sang “Dear China” on the Lunar New Year gala that aired on state-run broadcaster CCTV. After the pandemic, he filmed “Cheers to Wuhan,” another CCP propaganda video praising the authorities’ response to the virus.
Conclusion

People must realize that when they collaborate with the CCP, they are aiding and abetting an authoritarian regime that is involved in the most egregious human rights abuses.

Perhaps people and organizations should reconsider their choices made in the name of economic interests.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/social-elites-with-ties-to-the-chinese-regime_3331743.html
 

Ellanjay

Council Member
Apr 11, 2020
1,722
250
83
https://youtu.be/GAEAdW3iGJA
Secret Speech By Comrade Chi Haotian,
Vice-Chairman Of China's Military Commission
December, 2005
The following is the actual text of a speech delivered in December, 2005 by Comrade Chi Haotian the Vice-Chairman of China's Military Commission to top officers and generals. Keep in mind that China has for many years advocated deceitful and covert warfare against its enemies. This is their Modus Operandi.
"Comrades, I'm very excited today, because the large-scale online survey sina.com that was done for us showed that our next generation is quite promising and our Party's cause will be carried on. In answering the question, "Will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war," more than 80 per cent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, exceeding by far our expectations. Today I'd like to focus on why we asked sina.com to conduct this online survey among our people. My speech today is a sequel to my speech last time, during which I started with a discussion of the issue of the three islands [Taiwan, Diaoyu Islands and the Spratley Islands --- Ott] and mentioned that 20 years of the idyllic theme of 'peace and development' had come to an end, and concluded that modernization under the saber is the only option for China's next phase. I also mentioned we have a vital stake overseas. The central issue of this survey appears to be whether one should shoot at women, children and prisoners of war, but its real significance goes far beyond that. Ostensibly, our intention is mainly to figure out what the Chinese people's attitude towards war is: If these future soldiers do not hesitate to kill even noncombatants, they'll naturally be doubly ready and ruthless in killing combatants. Therefore, the responses to the survey questions may reflect the general attitude people have towards war..We wanted to know: If China's global development will necessitate massive deaths in enemy countries; will our people endorse that scenario? Will they be for or against it?
The fact is, our 'development' refers to the great revitalization of the Chinese nation, which, of course, is not limited to the land we have now but also includes the whole world. As everybody knows, according to the views propagated by the Western scholars, humanity as a whole originated from one single mother in Africa. Therefore no race can claim racial superiority. However, according to the research conducted by most Chinese scholars, the Chinese are different from other races on earth. We did not originate in Africa. Instead, we originated independently in the land of China. Therefore, we can rightfully assert that we are the product of cultural roots of more than a million years, civilization and progress of more than ten thousand years, an ancient nation of five thousand years, and a single Chinese entity of two thousand years. This is the Chinese nation that calls itself 'descendants of Yan and Huang.'
During our long history, our people have disseminated throughout the Americas and the regions along the Pacific Rim, and they became Indians in the Americas and the East Asian ethnic groups in the South Pacific. We all know that on account of our national superiority, during the thriving and prosperous Tang Dynasty our civilization was at the peak of the world. We were the centre of the world civilization, and no other civilization in the world was comparable to ours. Later on, because of our complacency, narrow-mindedness, and the self-enclosure of our own country, we were surpassed by Western civilization, and the centre of the world shifted to the West.
In reviewing history, one may ask: Will the centre of the world civilization shift back to China? Actually, Comrade Liu Huaqing made similar points in early 1980's Based on an historical analysis, he pointed out that the centre of world civilization is shifting. It shifted from the East to Western Europe and later to the United States; now it is shifting back to the East. Therefore, if we refer to the 19th Century as the British Century and the 20th century as the American Century, then the 21st Century will be the Chinese Century! (Wild applause fills the auditorium.)
Our Chinese people are wiser than the Germans because, fundamentally, our race is superior to theirs. As a result, we have a longer history, more people, and larger land area. On this basis, our ancestors left us with the two most essential heritages, which are atheism and great unity. It was Confucius, the founder of our Chinese culture, who gave us these heritages. These two heritages determined that we have a stronger ability to survive than the West. That is why the Chinese race has been able to prosper for so long. We are destined 'not to be buried by either heaven or earth' no matter how severe the natural, man-made, and national disasters. This is our advantage. Take response to war as an example. The reason that the United States remains today is that it has never seen war on its mainland. Once its enemies aim at the mainland, the enemies would have already reached Washington before its congress finishes debating and authorizes the president to declare war. But for us, we don't waste time on these trivial things. Maybe you have now come to understand why we recently decided to further promulgate atheism. If we let theology from the West into China and empty us from the inside, if we let all Chinese people listen to God and follow God, who will obediently listen to us and follow us? If the common people don't believe Comrade Hu Jintao is a qualified leader, begin to question his authority, and want to monitor him, if the religious followers in our society question why we are leading God in churches, can our Party continue to rule China??
The first pressing issue facing us is living space. This is the biggest focus of the revitalization of the Chinese race. In my last speech, I said that the fight over basic living resources (including land and ocean) is the source of the vast majority of wars in history. This may change in the information age, but not fundamentally. Our per capita resources are much less than those of Germany's back then. In addition, economic development in the last twenty-plus years had a negative impact, and climates are rapidly changing for the worse. Our resources are in very short supply. The environment is severely polluted, especially that of soil, water, and air. Not only our ability to sustain and develop our race, but even its survival is gravely threatened, to a degree much greater than faced Germany back then. Anybody who has been to Western countries knows that their living space is much better than ours. They have forests alongside the highways, while we hardly have any trees by our streets. Their sky is often blue with white clouds, while our sky is covered with a layer of dark haze. Their tap water is clean enough for drinking, while even our ground water is so polluted that it can't be drunk without filtering. They have few people in the streets, and two or three people can occupy a small residential building; in contrast our streets are always crawling with people, and several people have to share one room.
Many years ago, there was a book titled Yellow Catastrophes. It said that, due to our following the American style of consumption, our limited resources would no longer support the population and society would collapse once our population reaches 1.3 billion. Now our population has already exceeded this limit, and we are now relying on imports to sustain our nation. It's not that we haven't paid attention to this issue. The Ministry of Land Resources is specialized in this issue. But we must understand that the term 'living space' (lebenstraum) is too closely related to Nazi Germany.
The reason we don't want to discuss this too openly is to avoid the West's association of us with Nazi Germany, which could in turn reinforce the view that China is a threat. Therefore, in our emphasis on He Xin's new theory, 'Human Rights are just living rights' we only talk about 'living' but not 'space' so as to avoid using the term 'living space.' From the perspective of history, the reason that China is faced with the issue of living space is because Western countries have developed ahead of Eastern countries. Western countries established colonies all around the world, therefore giving themselves an advantage on the issue of living space. To solve this problem, we must lead the Chinese people outside of China, so that they can develop outside of China.
Would the United States allow us to go out to gain new living space? First, if the United States is firm in blocking us, it is hard for us to do anything significant to Taiwan and some other countries! Second, even if we could snatch some land from Taiwan, Vietnam, India, or even Japan, how much more living space can we get? Very trivial! Only countries like the United States, Canada and Australia have the vast land to serve our need for mass colonization.
Therefore, solving the 'issue of America' is the key to solving all other issues. First, this makes it possible for us to have many people migrate there and even establish another Chinaunder the same leadership of the CCP. America was originally discovered by the ancestors of the yellow race, but Columbus gave credit to the White race. We the descendants of the Chinese nation are ENTITLED to the possession of the land! It is historical destiny that China and United States will come into unavoidable confrontation on a narrow path and fight. In the long run, the relationship of China and the United States is one of a life-and-death struggle. Of course, right now it is not the time to openly break up with them yet. Our reform and opening to the outside world still rely on their capital and technology. We still need America. Therefore, we must do everything we can to promote our relationship with America, learn from America in all aspects and use America as an example to reconstruct our country. Only by using special means to 'clean up' America will we be able to lead the Chinese people there. Only by using non-destructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves.
There has been rapid development of modern biological technology, and new bio weapons have been invented one after another. Of course we have not been idle; in the past years we have seized the opportunity to master weapons of this kind. We are capable of achieving our purpose of 'cleaning up' America all of a sudden. When Comrade Xiaoping was still with us, the Party Central Committee had the perspicacity to make the right decision not to develop aircraft carrier groups and focused instead on developing lethal weapons that can eliminate mass populations of the enemy country. Biological weapons are unprecedented in their ruthlessness, but if the Americans do not die then the Chinese have to die. If the Chinese people are strapped to the present land, a total societal collapse is bound to take place. According to the computations of the author of Yellow Peril, more than half of the Chinese will die, and that figure would be more than 800 million people! Just after the liberation, our yellow land supported nearly 500 million people, while today the official figure of the population is more than 1.3 billion. This yellow land has reached the limit of its capacity. One day, who know how soon it will come, the great collapse will occur any time and more than half of the population will have to go.
It is indeed brutal to kill one or two hundred million Americans. But that is the only path that will secure a Chinese century, a century in which the CCP leads the world. We, as revolutionary humanitarians, do not want deaths, But if history confronts us with a choice between deaths of Chinese and those of Americans, we'd have to pick the latter, as, for us, it is more important to safeguard the lives of the Chinese people and the life of our Party. The last problem I want to talk about is of firmly seizing the preparations for military battle. The central committee believes, as long as we resolve the United States problem at one blow, our domestic problems will all be readily solved. Therefore, our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan, but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites. Marxism pointed out that violence is the midwife for the birth of the new society. Therefore war is the midwife for the birth of China's century."
https://robinwestenra.blogspot.com/2020/02/comrade-chi-haotians-secret-speech.html

Podcast

MediaPlayers
 

spilledthebeer

Executive Branch Member
Jan 26, 2017
9,296
4
36
United Front groups in Canada helped Beijing stockpile coronavirus safety supplies

By Sam Cooper Global News Canada
April 30th, 2020

In mid-January, Chinese consulates in Canada and worldwide issued an urgent call. China was concerned that the new coronavirus raging in Wuhan was so deadly and infectious that its nurses and doctors would run out of safety supplies.

It needed personal protective equipment (PPE).

In just six weeks, China imported 2.5 billion pieces of epidemic safety equipment, including over two billion safety masks, Chinese government data shows.

And this raises big concerns on a number of fronts, say critics, including Conservative MP Erin O’Toole.

China was evidently hiding the extent of a pandemic that endangered the world while covertly securing PPE at low prices. This “surreptitious” operation left “the world naked with no supply of PPE,” Jorge Guajardo, Mexico’s former ambassador to Beijing, told Global News.

The result: starting in March, after COVID-19 had circled the globe, countries that provided masks to China in January and February were forced to compete for China’s supply.

By late January, sources in manufacturing and military circles were warning western governments that China seemed to be covertly seizing global PPE supply, O’Toole and Guajardo said.

But leaders in Canada didn’t act, according to O’Toole.

“One source told me in January it became well-known amongst military and emergency services that China was stockpiling masks and basically buying out as many quantities as it could,” he said in an interview with Global News. “And we know, … that senior officials, in the end of January and the early days of February, are equally aware at Public Works Canada, with respect to a run on PPEs.”

An investigation by Global News examines the troubling methods and underground actors used by Beijing to quietly corner the world’s supply of PPE in a state-level operation.

China used diplomatic channels, state-owned businesses and Chinese diaspora community associations that are thought to be increasingly under the influence of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s powerful United Front Work Department (UFWD).

And through clandestine United Front networks run out of Chinese consulates in cities from Vancouver to Toronto to New York to Melbourne to Tokyo, the Communist Party urged millions of “overseas Chinese” to bulk-buy N95 masks in order to ship “back batches of scarce supplies for the motherland.”

As troubling as China’s methods were, the operation looks even worse under a magnifying glass because some organizations seemingly involved in the United Front’s efforts in Canada include members that have previously been monitored or investigated by the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), according to RCMP and CSIS sources.

Under the radar

[​IMG]

Some United Front group members in Vancouver have caught the attention of Canadian law enforcement.

China’s PPE import operation was portrayed by its state media as a warlike effort. And it was a dramatic success.

According to a U.S. congressional report released in April, from Jan. 24 to Feb. 29, China ramped up its production of masks and slapped export restrictions on China-based foreign companies such as Canadian mask maker Medicom and U.S. mask maker 3M.
At the same time, China imported 2.02 billion safety masks, according to Beijing’s March 2020 customs records.

“To ensure sufficient domestic supplies to counter COVID-19 (Beijing directed) regional offices in China and overseas to work with PRC industry associations to prioritize securing supplies from global sources,” the report says.

The global callout for masks was posted to UFWD websites and sent to Chinese consulates where United Front officials are embedded.

The requests occurred around Jan. 14 and 15, when Chinese officials received confidential instructions from Xi, and all regions were warned to “prepare for and respond to a pandemic,” according to leaked documents cited in an Associated Press investigation. Hospital staff were ordered to don protective gear.

Guajardo, Mexico’s former ambassador to Beijing, told Global News that by Jan. 23, when China locked down Wuhan, he had recognized Beijing was involved in massive PPE imports.

Guajardo, who now works in a Washington, D.C., consultancy, said in mid-January, he was contacted by a source in Mexican supply chain logistics.

“They said, you know a funny thing, I’m being swamped by orders to send all the N95 I can find to China.”

He said he completed some checks in the United States and judged PPE stock was vanishing from retail locations through “under the radar” methods.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, they are buying all the N95 supply in the world,’” Guajardo told Global News.

He was so convinced that he sent an ominous tweet on Jan. 27 forecasting an impending shortage of PPE in North America.

In March, the masks sold to China in January and February were being sold back to Mexico at 20 to 30 times the price, according to Guajardo.



And the Washington Post and CNN reported in April that PPE is sometimes costing more than 1,000 percent the prices seen in early January.



“This pandemic got complicated because of China’s coverup at the start,” Guajardo said. “And now it is further complicated by China leaving the world naked with no supply of PPE.

“They started the pandemic and now they are profiting from it.”

Guajardo added that in his experience with China, the masks being sold back now will not only come at exorbitant prices and with potential quality defects but with longer-term political demands.

The U.S. congressional report released in April similarly concludes: “The Chinese government may selectively release some medical supplies for overseas delivery, with designated countries selected, according to political calculations.”

China ramped up PPE production while barring exports and increasing imports, U.S. congressional report finds.

In an interview, O’Toole, the Conservative MP, said that in Canada, he was hearing the same PPE warnings from his sources in January that Guajardo was getting from sources in Mexico and the United States.

O’Toole said he knows “for a fact” that senior Canadian bureaucrats in January were alerted that China was hoarding PPE. But instead of responding to the threat, Canada’s government shipped 16 tonnes of PPE to China.

O’Toole says he believes the methods Beijing used to secure PPE and Canada’s response need to be investigated in a broad national inquiry when coronavirus health risks finally recede.

“The Communist Party of China willfully withheld information on an outbreak for at least weeks, if not months,” O’Toole said. “It not only gave the world less time to respond, it downplayed the potential severity of the threat. Countries did not make decisions with respect to flight bans and (protecting) PPE stores.”

Asked by Global News to respond to O’Toole’s assertion, a spokesperson for Public Health Canada said that in January, officials started to monitor the coronavirus in China and “initiated work with Public Services and Procurement Canada to procure supplies needed to respond to a possible outbreak in Canada.”

Internal Public Health Canada emails indicate that on Jan. 31 Minister Patty Hajdu approved a donation of PPE to China from Canada’s emergency stockpile including “stuff that (would be) expiring in Feb. and March.” The ministry believed this donation would not compromise Canada’s PPE supply, the emails say.

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged that two planes from Canada sent to purchase PPE in China have now returned empty.

Trudeau cited congestion at Chinese airports and restrictions that only allow planes to wait for cargo for short periods. But China called Trudeau’s claim “inaccurate.”

After this story was published Global News asked Trudeau whether he was aware in January that China was engaged in a global operation to secure PPE, and if his government was aware, why no action was taken to protect Canada’s supply.

“As of Jan. 2 our chief public health officer convened a group of provincial public health officers to advise that there were reports of a new virus present in China,” Trudeau said Thursday. “Our intelligence services were tracking and aware of the issues and we got regular updates through the month of January. Further than that, I don’t have anything to add.”

Chinese consulates and community associations named in this story have not yet responded to questions from Global News.

‘Every overseas Chinese is a warrior’

A review of official reports from state media such as Xinhua as well as UFWD web pages in China and reports from associated Chinese-Canadian community groups, record massive PPE shipments of at least 100 tonnes from Canada to China in January and February.

The efforts were organized through consulates in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. In Vancouver and Toronto, business associations officially tied to the UFWD appear to have taken the lead in the global drive for N95 masks, also securing and shipping PPE from other countries into China.[read more in PDF(7.22MB)]

https://globalnews.ca/news/6858818/...d-front-canada-protective-equipment-shortage/






Surely you are NOT SURPRISED that Red China has played us all for FOOLS?
 

NZDoug

Council Member
Jul 18, 2017
1,894
31
48
Big Bay, Awhitu, New Zealand
https://youtu.be/GAEAdW3iGJA
Secret Speech By Comrade Chi Haotian,
Vice-Chairman Of China's Military Commission
December, 2005
The following is the actual text of a speech delivered in December, 2005 by Comrade Chi Haotian the Vice-Chairman of China's Military Commission to top officers and generals. Keep in mind that China has for many years advocated deceitful and covert warfare against its enemies. This is their Modus Operandi.
"Comrades, I'm very excited today, because the large-scale online survey sina.com that was done for us showed that our next generation is quite promising and our Party's cause will be carried on. In answering the question, "Will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war," more than 80 per cent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, exceeding by far our expectations. Today I'd like to focus on why we asked sina.com to conduct this online survey among our people. My speech today is a sequel to my speech last time, during which I started with a discussion of the issue of the three islands [Taiwan, Diaoyu Islands and the Spratley Islands --- Ott] and mentioned that 20 years of the idyllic theme of 'peace and development' had come to an end, and concluded that modernization under the saber is the only option for China's next phase. I also mentioned we have a vital stake overseas. The central issue of this survey appears to be whether one should shoot at women, children and prisoners of war, but its real significance goes far beyond that. Ostensibly, our intention is mainly to figure out what the Chinese people's attitude towards war is: If these future soldiers do not hesitate to kill even noncombatants, they'll naturally be doubly ready and ruthless in killing combatants. Therefore, the responses to the survey questions may reflect the general attitude people have towards war..We wanted to know: If China's global development will necessitate massive deaths in enemy countries; will our people endorse that scenario? Will they be for or against it?
The fact is, our 'development' refers to the great revitalization of the Chinese nation, which, of course, is not limited to the land we have now but also includes the whole world. As everybody knows, according to the views propagated by the Western scholars, humanity as a whole originated from one single mother in Africa. Therefore no race can claim racial superiority. However, according to the research conducted by most Chinese scholars, the Chinese are different from other races on earth. We did not originate in Africa. Instead, we originated independently in the land of China. Therefore, we can rightfully assert that we are the product of cultural roots of more than a million years, civilization and progress of more than ten thousand years, an ancient nation of five thousand years, and a single Chinese entity of two thousand years. This is the Chinese nation that calls itself 'descendants of Yan and Huang.'
During our long history, our people have disseminated throughout the Americas and the regions along the Pacific Rim, and they became Indians in the Americas and the East Asian ethnic groups in the South Pacific. We all know that on account of our national superiority, during the thriving and prosperous Tang Dynasty our civilization was at the peak of the world. We were the centre of the world civilization, and no other civilization in the world was comparable to ours. Later on, because of our complacency, narrow-mindedness, and the self-enclosure of our own country, we were surpassed by Western civilization, and the centre of the world shifted to the West.
In reviewing history, one may ask: Will the centre of the world civilization shift back to China? Actually, Comrade Liu Huaqing made similar points in early 1980's Based on an historical analysis, he pointed out that the centre of world civilization is shifting. It shifted from the East to Western Europe and later to the United States; now it is shifting back to the East. Therefore, if we refer to the 19th Century as the British Century and the 20th century as the American Century, then the 21st Century will be the Chinese Century! (Wild applause fills the auditorium.)
Our Chinese people are wiser than the Germans because, fundamentally, our race is superior to theirs. As a result, we have a longer history, more people, and larger land area. On this basis, our ancestors left us with the two most essential heritages, which are atheism and great unity. It was Confucius, the founder of our Chinese culture, who gave us these heritages. These two heritages determined that we have a stronger ability to survive than the West. That is why the Chinese race has been able to prosper for so long. We are destined 'not to be buried by either heaven or earth' no matter how severe the natural, man-made, and national disasters. This is our advantage. Take response to war as an example. The reason that the United States remains today is that it has never seen war on its mainland. Once its enemies aim at the mainland, the enemies would have already reached Washington before its congress finishes debating and authorizes the president to declare war. But for us, we don't waste time on these trivial things. Maybe you have now come to understand why we recently decided to further promulgate atheism. If we let theology from the West into China and empty us from the inside, if we let all Chinese people listen to God and follow God, who will obediently listen to us and follow us? If the common people don't believe Comrade Hu Jintao is a qualified leader, begin to question his authority, and want to monitor him, if the religious followers in our society question why we are leading God in churches, can our Party continue to rule China??
The first pressing issue facing us is living space. This is the biggest focus of the revitalization of the Chinese race. In my last speech, I said that the fight over basic living resources (including land and ocean) is the source of the vast majority of wars in history. This may change in the information age, but not fundamentally. Our per capita resources are much less than those of Germany's back then. In addition, economic development in the last twenty-plus years had a negative impact, and climates are rapidly changing for the worse. Our resources are in very short supply. The environment is severely polluted, especially that of soil, water, and air. Not only our ability to sustain and develop our race, but even its survival is gravely threatened, to a degree much greater than faced Germany back then. Anybody who has been to Western countries knows that their living space is much better than ours. They have forests alongside the highways, while we hardly have any trees by our streets. Their sky is often blue with white clouds, while our sky is covered with a layer of dark haze. Their tap water is clean enough for drinking, while even our ground water is so polluted that it can't be drunk without filtering. They have few people in the streets, and two or three people can occupy a small residential building; in contrast our streets are always crawling with people, and several people have to share one room.
Many years ago, there was a book titled Yellow Catastrophes. It said that, due to our following the American style of consumption, our limited resources would no longer support the population and society would collapse once our population reaches 1.3 billion. Now our population has already exceeded this limit, and we are now relying on imports to sustain our nation. It's not that we haven't paid attention to this issue. The Ministry of Land Resources is specialized in this issue. But we must understand that the term 'living space' (lebenstraum) is too closely related to Nazi Germany.
The reason we don't want to discuss this too openly is to avoid the West's association of us with Nazi Germany, which could in turn reinforce the view that China is a threat. Therefore, in our emphasis on He Xin's new theory, 'Human Rights are just living rights' we only talk about 'living' but not 'space' so as to avoid using the term 'living space.' From the perspective of history, the reason that China is faced with the issue of living space is because Western countries have developed ahead of Eastern countries. Western countries established colonies all around the world, therefore giving themselves an advantage on the issue of living space. To solve this problem, we must lead the Chinese people outside of China, so that they can develop outside of China.
Would the United States allow us to go out to gain new living space? First, if the United States is firm in blocking us, it is hard for us to do anything significant to Taiwan and some other countries! Second, even if we could snatch some land from Taiwan, Vietnam, India, or even Japan, how much more living space can we get? Very trivial! Only countries like the United States, Canada and Australia have the vast land to serve our need for mass colonization.
Therefore, solving the 'issue of America' is the key to solving all other issues. First, this makes it possible for us to have many people migrate there and even establish another Chinaunder the same leadership of the CCP. America was originally discovered by the ancestors of the yellow race, but Columbus gave credit to the White race. We the descendants of the Chinese nation are ENTITLED to the possession of the land! It is historical destiny that China and United States will come into unavoidable confrontation on a narrow path and fight. In the long run, the relationship of China and the United States is one of a life-and-death struggle. Of course, right now it is not the time to openly break up with them yet. Our reform and opening to the outside world still rely on their capital and technology. We still need America. Therefore, we must do everything we can to promote our relationship with America, learn from America in all aspects and use America as an example to reconstruct our country. Only by using special means to 'clean up' America will we be able to lead the Chinese people there. Only by using non-destructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves.
There has been rapid development of modern biological technology, and new bio weapons have been invented one after another. Of course we have not been idle; in the past years we have seized the opportunity to master weapons of this kind. We are capable of achieving our purpose of 'cleaning up' America all of a sudden. When Comrade Xiaoping was still with us, the Party Central Committee had the perspicacity to make the right decision not to develop aircraft carrier groups and focused instead on developing lethal weapons that can eliminate mass populations of the enemy country. Biological weapons are unprecedented in their ruthlessness, but if the Americans do not die then the Chinese have to die. If the Chinese people are strapped to the present land, a total societal collapse is bound to take place. According to the computations of the author of Yellow Peril, more than half of the Chinese will die, and that figure would be more than 800 million people! Just after the liberation, our yellow land supported nearly 500 million people, while today the official figure of the population is more than 1.3 billion. This yellow land has reached the limit of its capacity. One day, who know how soon it will come, the great collapse will occur any time and more than half of the population will have to go.
It is indeed brutal to kill one or two hundred million Americans. But that is the only path that will secure a Chinese century, a century in which the CCP leads the world. We, as revolutionary humanitarians, do not want deaths, But if history confronts us with a choice between deaths of Chinese and those of Americans, we'd have to pick the latter, as, for us, it is more important to safeguard the lives of the Chinese people and the life of our Party. The last problem I want to talk about is of firmly seizing the preparations for military battle. The central committee believes, as long as we resolve the United States problem at one blow, our domestic problems will all be readily solved. Therefore, our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan, but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites. Marxism pointed out that violence is the midwife for the birth of the new society. Therefore war is the midwife for the birth of China's century."
https://robinwestenra.blogspot.com/2020/02/comrade-chi-haotians-secret-speech.html
Podcast
MediaPlayers
Imagine,
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
All this blow up sh*t will f*ck the planet so enjoy your Rapture.
 

spilledthebeer

Executive Branch Member
Jan 26, 2017
9,296
4
36
Imagine,
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
All this blow up sh*t will f*ck the planet so enjoy your Rapture.








Nut Zone Doug talking MORE SILLY CRAP!


Soviet leader Lenin told us "The West will sell us the rope we need to HANG the West"!


Not too much peaceful co-existence in that!


Later Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev told the United Nations "We will BURY YOU"!


Very little cooperation in that!


Chinese Soviet leader Chairman Mao told us "China has only to march to defeat the West! Chinese soldiers will march till the West



runs out of ammunition and then China will overwhelm you"!


Sounds pretty cold blooded and callous - even to the deaths of millions of Chinese!


In fact - during the Korean War - Chinese military DID REPEATEDLY try out those "human wave" tactics to try to overwhelm



Western forces AND FAILED! Chairman Mao became uneasy about the IMMENSE Chinese casualty lists and the result was



the current Korean Stalemate MASQUERADING AS PEACE!


In every country where Soviet Socialist govt has grabbed power - the result has been wholesale MURDER



of citizens holding beliefs that Soviet Socialists FIND awkward and ANNOYING!


Cuban citizens referred to the first year of rule by Soviet Dictator Castro as "The Year of the Firing Squad"!


Or we could mention Khymer Rouge leader Pol Pot who murdered 1/3 of the entire Cambodian national population!



In every country where a SOCIALIST ORIENTED GOVT has taken power - the result has been MASS URBAN SLAUGHTER!


WE have only to look at the "dirty war" in Socialist Argentina with over 30,000 people deliberately TORTURED AND EXECUTED


by the govt!


We could refer to Chile and the Death Squads of both sides who tortured and murdered untold numbers - and things GOT SO BAD



in Socialist Pest Hole Chile that people who fled that country were eligible to be accepted in Canada as refugees!


Until democratic and capitalist forces managed to gain the upper hand and restore Chile to some sense of order!


We can look at the ONGOING DISASTER that is Venezuela - that country SHOULD BE a very fine place to live - thanks to its benign



climate and MASSIVE OIL REVENUES!


TOO BAD that Socialist dogma and the usual Socialist fiscal madness have reduced the entire country to Socialist PRISON CAMP STATUS!


We could look at BANKRUPT GREECE - with its riots and decaying economy - courtesy of Socialist govt!


We could also look to Socialist Spain with its 25 percent unemployment rate - PRE Wuhan Virus!



Portugal is in a similar Socialist status - with BOTH Portuguese and Spanish workers SNEAKING INTO places like Canada


to find REAL JOBS that pay a living wage!


Yet in spite of all this - or perhaps to COVER UP THE UGLY BLOOD SOAKED REALITY



Nut Zone Doug speaks in warm fuzzy terms ABOUT THE BEIJING BUTCHERS!


Too bad for Nut Zone Doug that the Beijing Butchers DID NOT UNDERSTAND the power of the internet



when they allowed the world to watch most of the Tiananmen Square MASSACRE 20 years back!


Beijing Butchers are now MUCH MORE CAREFUL about what the world is ALLOWED to see!


But Nut Zone Doug and his ilk still tell the same old LIES about Soviet Socialist Dictators!



And the Beijing Butchers have added a new wrinkle to their old PROPAGANDA - the Beijing Butchers are now



TRYING TO HIDE HOW MUCH THEY KNEW ABOUT WUHAN VIRUS!!



China has MUCH TO HIDE - related to how many cases they have had and when those cases were first identified and etc!


So PROFOUND AND COMPLETE is the Beijing BUTCHER SILENCE regarding the origins of Wuhan VIrus and their handling



of it - that we should view Chinese travellers WITH PROFOUND DISTRUST FOR MANY YEARS TO COME!


All the available evidence suggests there will be pools of Wuhan infection lurking in various places around the world!


Thus WE SHOULD NOT RUSH to restore air travel across the planet!


And we should also automatically RESUME the assumption that whatever values are espoused by a Soviet Socialist



ARE AUTOMATICALLY DECEITFUL AND SELF SERVING! Just like during the Cold War!


As Beijing Butchers have PROVED - the Cold War NEVER REALLY ENDED - it just changed tactics and time zones!
 

Ellanjay

Council Member
Apr 11, 2020
1,722
250
83
Italy’s Communist Recipe for Disaster
Giacomino Nicolazzo
Giacomino Nicolazzo is one of Italy’s most beloved writers. Born and raised in Central Pennsylvania, today he lives in a small village in Lombardy where he writes his books. TIA received this article from one of our readers, who asked us to disseminate it.

Montecalvo, Lombardy, Italy - March 24, 2020 - As I sit here in my involuntary isolation, it was just reported that overnight 743 more people died and 5,249 new cases have been reported. This brings the total cases of infection to 69,176 and the body count to 6,820. We take relief in knowing that 8,326 people have recovered so far. (Numbers as of 3/24, 8:30 pm in Italy.)

Most towns here in Italy, from the upper reaches of the Alps to the ancient shores of Sicilia and Sardenia, while not deserted, are closer to being ghost towns than the bustling centers of tourism, business and daily life they were just a few weeks ago.

Stores and shops have been shuttered. Restaurants and coffee shops no longer serve customers. Schools, universities, sporting arenas… even our museums and theaters…all closed. Even the Vatican City has closed its gates and armed patrols monitor the 20-foot-tall walls that protect it!

Streets and roads are now empty for as far as the eye can see. Normally they would be filled with crazed Italian drivers in tiny cars and scooters (the ones that sound like demonic insects) darting here and there, reaching the limits of centrifugal force on our roundabouts. In the plazas of our towns and cities, there are now officially more pigeons than people.

Many of us know someone who has been infected and recovered. Some of us know someone who did not recover…now they are dead. But everyone knows someone who has been affected by this microscopic monster in one way or another.

Sixty million of us are in lockdown… it is like a war zone here. We are being held prisoner in our own homes by an unseen enemy that sneaked in unnoticed…by most of us. As you will read in just a few more minutes, there were those who knew something like this was coming… or at least they should have.

So, who is to blame? With all this craziness swirling like a whirlpool at our feet, I just had to find the blame answer. And so I have spent my free time (of which I have a lot in these days) digging and researching. I was literally shocked to discover how this has come to be.

I am not going to bore you with talk of Patient ‘0’ who spread it to Patient ‘1’ and how mathematics efficiently explains the rapid expansion of infection. No… I am going to tell you how (as I see it) the virus came to Italy.

It has everything to do with communists. Allow me to explain.


Matteo Renzi sold Florence & Italy
to Communist China

Beginning in about 2014, Matteo Renzi, the imbecile ex-mayor of Firenze (Florence) acting as the leader of the Partito Democratico (synonymous with the Italian Communist party), somehow managed to get himself elected as Italy’s Prime Minister. To give you a proper frame of reference, Matteo Renzi was so far left, he would make Barack Obama look like Barry Goldwater!

At the same time that Renzi was leading Italy into oblivion, strange things were happening in Italy’s economy. Banks were failing… but not closing. Retirement ages were being extended… for some reason the pension funds were dwindling or disappearing. The national sales tax we call IVA (Value Added Tax) rose from 18% to 20%, then to 21% and again to 22%.

And in the midst of all this financial chicanery, the Chinese began furiously buying up Italian real estate and businesses in the North.

Now the reason I mention Renzi and the Chinese together is that strange things were also going on between the governments of Italy and China. A blind eye was being turned to the way the Chinese were buying businesses in the financial, telecommunication, industrial and fashion sectors of Italy’s economy, all of which take place in Milan.

To be brief… China was getting away with purchases and acquisitions in violation of Italian law and EU Trade Agreements with the US and the UK… and no one in either of those countries (not Obama in the US or Cameron in the UK) said a thing in their country’s defense. As a matter of fact, much of it was hidden from the public in all three countries.

In 2014, China infused the Italian economy with €5 billion through purchases of companies costing less than €100 million each. By the time Renzi left office (in disgrace) in 2016, Chinese acquisitions had exceeded €52 billion. When the dust settled, China owned more than 300 companies… representing 27% of the major Italian corporations.

Chinese investments in Italy
China increases its presence in Italy: from the top, Huawei buys Leonardo; Inter Milan soccer team becomes Chinese; year of the dragon celebrated in Milan by a large population of immigrants

The Bank of China now owns five major banks in Italy… all of which had been secretly (and illegally) propped up by Renzi using pilfered pension funds! Soon after, the China Milano Equity Exchange was opened and much of Italy’s wealth was being funneled back to the Chinese mainland.

Chinese state entities own Italy’s major telecommunication corporation (Telecom) as well as its major utilities (ENI and ENEL). Upon entry into the telecommunication market, Huawei established a facility in Segrate, a suburb of Milan. It launched is first research center there and worked on the study of microwaves that has resulted in the possibly-dangerous technology we call 5G.

China also now owns controlling interest in Fiat-Chrysler, Prysmian and Terna. You will be surprised to know that when you put a set of Pirelli tires on your car, the profits are going to China. Yep… the Chinese colossus of ChemChina, a chemical industry titan, bought that company too!

Last but not least is Ferretti yachts… the most prestigious yacht builder in Europe. Incredibly, it is no longer owned by the Ferretti family.

But the sector in which Chinese companies invested most was Italy’s profitable fashion industry. The Pinco Pallino, Miss Sixty, Sergio Tacchini, Roberta di Camerino and Mariella Burani brands have been acquired by 100%.

Designer Salvatore Ferragamo sold 16% and Caruso sold 35%. The most famous case is Krizia, purchased in 2014 by Shenzhen Marisfrolg Fashion Company, one of the leaders of high-priced, ready-to-wear fashions in Asia.

Throughout all of these purchases and acquisitions, Renzi’s government afforded the Chinese unrestricted and unfettered access to Italy and its financial markets, many coming through without customs inspections.

Quite literally, tens of thousands of Chinese came in through Milan (illegally) and went back out carrying money, technology and corporate secrets.

Thousands more were allowed to enter and disappeared into the shadows of Milan and other manufacturing cities of Lombardy, only to surface in illegal sewing shops, producing knock-off designer clothes and slapping ‘Made In Italy’ labels on them. All with the tacit approval of the Renzi government.

It was not until there was a change in the governing party in Italy that the sweatshops and the illegal entry and departure of Chinese nationals was stopped. Matteo Salvini, representing the Lega Nord party, closed Italy’s ports to immigrants and systematically began disassembling the sweatshops and deporting those who were in Italy illegally.

But his rise to power was short-lived. Italy is a communist country… Socialism is in the national DNA. Ways were found to remove Salvini, after which the communist party, under the direction of Giuseppe Conte, reopened the ports. Immediately, thousands of unvetted, undocumented refugees from the Middle East and East Africa began pouring in again.

Access was again provided to the Chinese, under the old terms, and as a consequence thousands of Chinese, the majority from Wuhan, began arriving in Milan.


Chinese brought the coronavirus to Northern Italy; today Milan is deserted & patrolled by the police

In December of last year, the first inklings of a coronavirus were noticed in Lombardy…in the Chinese neighborhoods. There is no doubt amongst senior medical officials that the virus was brought here from China.

By the end of January 2020 cases were being reported left and right. By mid-February the virus was beginning to seriously overload the Lombardy hospitals and medical clinics. They are now in a state of collapse.

The Far-Left politicians sold out and betrayed the Italian people with open border policies and social justice programs. One of the reasons the health care system collapsed so quickly is because the Renzi government (and now continued under the Conte government) redirected funds meant to sustain the medical system to pay for the tens of thousands of immigrants brought in to Italy against the will of the Italian people.

If you remember the horrible earthquake that decimated the villages around Amatricia in the mountains east of Rome in 2015, you would also remember how the world responded by sending millions of dollars to help those affected.

But there is a law in Italy that prevents private donations to charitable Italian organizations. All money and donations received must be turned over to a government agency, who in turn is to appropriate the funds as needed. But that agency is corrupt just as are all the others.

Most of the money never reached a single victim in the mountains. The Renzi government redirected the vast majority of those funds to pay for the growing immigrant and refugee costs.

Italian Police hired Chinese to deal with immigrants
With so many Chinese in Italy the Italian Police opened a special Chinese corps to deal with them

As the economy worsened under the burden of illegal immigration, compounded by gross government spending and incompetence, unemployment rose quickly… especially among young people. The unemployment rate for men and women under age 35 is close to 40%.

So more money was diverted from the health care system and used to pay what is known here as guaranteed income. Whether you work or not you are paid here, especially if you belong to the PD! The government simply raises taxes on those who do work.

Let me give you a quick example of the height of insanity to which Italian taxation has risen. If you live in a building that has a balcony or balconies… and any of those balconies cast a shadow on the ground, you must pay a public shadow tax! I will say no more!

The point I am trying to make here is that not only did the Chinese bring the virus to Italy (and the rest of the world) it was far-Left politics and policies that facilitated it.

This should hopefully be a warning to Americans that while they work to rid themselves of the China Virus, they should just as vehemently endeavor to rid their government of any politician that circumvents the Constitution and ignores the laws of the land… plain and simple.

[Ellanjay:]Most would believe this virus is blind in its path of spread, infection and killing. However, looking closely, one may be shocked at the evidence suggesting that, on one hand, pro-communist entities, be it a person or a state, seem more prone to get the virus, and on the other hand, the virus seems to avoid anti-communist entities[Taiwan, HK]. Does He have His own agenda, perhaps?
 

spilledthebeer

Executive Branch Member
Jan 26, 2017
9,296
4
36
New York must be the most commie state of them all!










Here is an article illustrating hold boldly LIE-berals TALK about offering aid and yet how many people GET LEFT OUT as LIE-beral aid is NEVER as generous as it sounds! LIE-berals irrationally beive they are ENTITLED to every one of THEIR entitlements but the rest of us can make do with whatever CRUMBS LIE-berals feel like offering!

With some comments of my own in brackets):

EI claimants are going weeks without income as federal call system slows to a crawl

Karina Roman, CBC News. Published May 1, 2020

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Can$27 billion in direct aid on March 18, 2020 to help workers and businesses cope with the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. He said tax payments worth an estimated Can$55 billion could be deferred until August.

(Yes - LIE-berals PREFER to offer tax DEFERRALS rather than actual AID to ordinary Cdns - but they do offer real aid to THEIR FRIENDS - meaning Teachers and other HOGS who are Loyal to LIE-berals and who are now home ON FULL PAY! While ordinary people scrape along with whatever LIE-berals dole out when it suits them!)

Workers who are rehired may have to cancel and repay CERB payments

(And WHO is getting re-hired? Why - we KNOW that a bunch of UNION airline workers got re-hired - thanks to LIE-beral wage subsidies sent to HOGS! UNIFOR - the union representing Cdn news media workers - which has in the past used its union dues to attack Conservatives - is also seeking more of those wonderful wage subsidies - along with a MASSIVE and continuous financial boost to the entire Cdn media! And LIE-berals believe it is important to aid their media pals so they will continue to spread KIND propaganda on behalf of LIE-berals!)

(The MAJOR HOLE in the LIE-beral aid plan is that those most likely to have to PAY BACK aid - are people who are called back to reduced hours at WORK! They will not make enough to live on - but will make more than LIE-berals choose to ALLOW so the pay back mode will be TRIGGERED! Ordinary Cdns will be forced to either refuse ANY partial return to work - or face that NASTY NEED TO PAY LIE-berals BACK from INADEQUATE part time income!)

EI - these claimants denied benefits due to bureaucratic snafus are still waiting weeks to get help from the federal government.

(Yes - ordinary people are apparently being short changed because they have NO ENTITLEMENTS! They are not unionized and were not working before Wuhan Mess appeared and as such LIE-berals have set them a VERY LOW aid priority as such people are already POOR, often ill educated and unemployed! LIE-berals are FAR MORE CLASS CONSCIOUS and judgmental than they let on!)

There were times this month when Miranda Petrossi and her boyfriend were working four phones at once — calling Service Canada's employment insurance information line over and over, for hours on end, desperately trying to find someone who could tell her why her EI application had been denied after she lost her job due to the pandemic.

Petrossi is one of many Canadians who have gone weeks without benefits because of problems with their EI applications — problems they're struggling to sort out now because they can't get anyone on the phone.

"I haven't had a paycheque since March 15," said Petrossi, who worked as an early childhood educator for the YMCA in Oakville, Ont., until COVID-19 shut it down. "I potentially may not have a job until September and I don't know how much longer I can continue going like this."

Most of the Canadians caught in this situation applied for EI because they were laid off before the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was announced on March 25, or because they were under the impression that EI applications would be shifted over to the CERB program anyway.

And they've been told they can't simply drop their EI applications now and apply for CERB instead.

(LIE-berals LOVE that Catch 22 - so you cannot get there from here - due to LIE-beral mandated CONVOLUTED RULES!)

The government did not answer CBC's questions about how widespread the problem of EI snafus is — or how jammed-up phone lines are making the situation worse. But social media sites are full of posts from people voicing similar complaints and CBC itself has received dozens of emails about the problem.

Many of those reports are from people complaining of constant busy signals on the EI line, which is getting swamped by thousands of calls from anxious, unemployed Canadians. Others describe getting past a marathon of menu options and inputting their social insurance numbers — only to be told to call back later because call volumes are too high.

"I can't believe that they're only open regular business hours … from 8:30 to 4:30. It was shocking to me," said Jason Shewchuk, who works in film production in Vancouver.

(Shocking? Does this person not KNOW about EASY HOG working conditions?)

Since the online EI application did not mention the pandemic, Shewchuk listed "other" as the reason he was out of work. His application generated an automated reply from Service Canada telling him to call a 1-800 number and provide more information.

(Ah yes- the favorite LIE-beral DERAILMENT of an unwanted application!)

Ten days and more than 1,700 calls later (his phone kept a tally), he finally got through around 2 p.m. late last week.

"It kicked me through and I stared hearing the elevator music," he said. "And I was like, 'I'm in. This is awesome.'"

Then he heard an automated message telling him the wait would be more than two hours. He ended up staying on the line until the call centre shut down for the day.
One step forward, two weeks back

He got through again the next day (57 redials, two and a half hours on hold). The agent he spoke to was able to figure out the problem with his application — and told him the revised application would have to be processed all over again.

Service Canada is telling him he should get his first payment roughly within two weeks. If not, it's back to phone queue hell.

Jessica Moniere is an aspiring actress in Toronto who was making ends meet as a barista when the pandemic shut the economy down. She said she thought she had applied successfully for EI when her promised access code for her account came in the mail.

But then weeks passed with no payment — while she watched friends get their CERB payments within days of that program's launch.

"I'm getting by solely based on savings at this point because there is no income at all coming in," she said.
'I had been waiting so long to talk to someone'

She spent hours every day getting busy signals and hitting redial. She did get through one day last week after spending four hours on hold.

"And once you get someone, you shoot out of your chair ... I couldn't even speak English when he answered because I had been waiting so long to talk to someone," she said.

She was told her money would be coming soon because it takes 28 days for EI applications to be processed, even when they're related to the pandemic.

Joe Halls' attempts to get EI — and later CERB — have been thwarted because, according to the system, his SIN number doesn't match his address. As he tries to sort the situation out, he's feeling the financial pressure of living in an expensive city like Toronto without a reliable income.

"If not for the good fortune of having an excellent friend, I would probably be on the street," he said.

Petrossi eventually got through to an agent, only to be told that a glitch in the system disqualified her because of a previous job she quit more than seven months ago. That glitch means the system is discounting the fact that she lost her most recent job because of the pandemic.

(Oh NICE! LIE-berals now PUNISH her for getting a BETTER JOB!)

Now, she has had to send off a request for reconsideration via snail mail. She's been told it could take up to three weeks just to get a response.

"I'm very fortunate that I have a roof over my head … that I have the support of my family," she said. "But I know that there are other people in similar situations … that don't have that support."

(I do not know why anybody would be surprised at this LIE-beral BAIT AND SWITCH? After all - we have seen many previous LIE-beral examples of aid WITH STRINGS! Such as the Ontari-owe LIE-beral “health levy” that was supposed to save our health care system and instead became just another civil service union HOG ENTITLEMENT as NO HOG pays the levy since they are privileged to have their “employer” - meaning us - pay for them!)

(Or we could look at the $100 million dollars that Ontari-owe LIE-berals offered for re-training Cdn auto workers after the 2008 mortgage meltdown and then put so many strings on the money that only 5% of it was ever used!)

(Or we could look at the LIE-beral promise to reduce Ontari-owe auto insurance by 15% - which they DID MANAGE - but in the process they REDUCED BENEFITS TO SERIOUS ACCIDENT VICTIMS BY FIFTY PERCENT!)

(Yes- LIE-berals “saved us” 15% and yet Ontari-owe drivers PAY THE HIGHEST RATES in all of Canada IN SPITE of having LOWER ACCIDENT RATES than any other province! Such bargains are UNAFFORDABLE!)

(LIE-berals tell us that our insurance rates are so high because of all the fraud in the system - yet LIE-berals DO NOTHING about that for fear of losing votes! We should recall the 4 Afghan brothers arrested on 1500 CAR THEFT CHARGES - for helping MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS dispose of “lemon” cars and collecting the insurance on those allegedly stolen cars - that actually ended up at the wrecking yard the brothers were running - and they were profiting nicely - selling off the salvaged parts from those “stolen” cars!)

(LIE-berals KNOW we are being colonized by criminal gangs from around the world but buying votes and showing political correctness is far more important to LIE-berals than doing what is right or fair or logical!)

(The major holes in the CERB program are merely the latest LIE-beral effort to save pennies by using their “rob Peter to pay Paul” program! LIE-berals DELIGHT in making grand offers -that RARELY COME THROUGH FULLY!)
 

Ellanjay

Council Member
Apr 11, 2020
1,722
250
83
https://youtu.be/Qs6z6D_OV2I
Epoch Times Commentary:

With Myriad Links to Chinese Regime, New York Is Now America’s CCP Virus Epicenter

Tian Yun
April 3, 2020 Updated: April 7, 2020


Outbreaks of the CCP virus around the world have been strongly correlated with the affected regions’ ties to the Chinese communist regime.

In the United States, epidemic figures in Washington state—known for being the first port of entry for trade goods coming from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) following the United States’ establishment of diplomatic relations with Beijing in the late 1970s—were the highest nationwide as late as March 16, when it had more than 900 out of roughly 4,300 confirmed U.S. cases.

On Jan. 21, Washington saw America’s first confirmed case of the CCP virus—often known as the novel coronavirus—a man living near Seattle who had contracted the disease while on a trip to Wuhan, where the pandemic started.

Since mid-March, however, Washington has been overtaken and far eclipsed by New York state in terms of confirmed cases. On March 20, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a 10-point plan to put “New York State on PAUSE.”

At the time of writing, more than 102,000 New Yorkers have been sickened, making up almost 40 percent of the 260,000 cases across the country. The in-state death toll passed 1,000 on March 29 and has since tripled.
Reddening the Big Apple

Early outbreaks of the CCP virus outside China were most pronounced in countries with extensive economic or strategic relations with the PRC, such as South Korea, Italy, and Iran. Lured by trade benefits or caving in to Beijing’s pressure, governments and officials in many regions have taken accommodating or even supportive stances on the Chinese regime.

Such attitudes likely fuelled acceptance of CCP propaganda regarding the virus, and made local authorities reluctant to take protective measures, increasing those countries’ and regions’ vulnerability during the critical first stages in the epidemic.

In recent decades, the CCP has established a formidable nexus of “soft power” in New York. China is the state’s biggest trade partner outside North America, and the PRC (including Hong Kong) forms New York’s largest export market. Bilateral investments are similarly large, with New York being one of the prime destinations for Chinese capital.

The significant volume of trade and investment has had wide-ranging effects in New York politics and society, from PRC-friendly attitudes among elected officials to Beijing’s incremental subversion of the local Chinese-American community. By extension, New York’s economic and cultural importance means that the PRC’s influence there is felt throughout the rest of the United States.

Making Capital Serve the Communist Party

Wall Street is one of the major conduits through which the PRC exercises its soft power abroad, and has long played the “dove” in influencing Washington’s China policy.

In 1999, then-PRC premier Zhu Rongji visited New York, where he met with a number of Wall Street executives to discuss China’s potential membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). President Bill Clinton thereafter supported Beijing’s entry into the WTO, which it joined in December 2001. Economic relations continued to strengthen as the United States became embroiled in the War on Terror.

Robert Kuhn, a financial executive and public intellectual, has had his writings appear in many Chinese state-run media. In 2005, Kuhn published a fawning biography of former PRC leader Jiang Zemin, despite the latter’s enormous crimes against humanity and “make a fortune while keeping a low profile” policies that encouraged corruption on an unprecedented scale.

In later years, pressure by Wall Street lobbyists influenced the decisions of presidents George Bush and Barack Obama to remove China from the list of currency manipulators. In August 2019, following an escalation in the Sino-U.S. trade war, the Trump administration re-designated the PRC a currency manipulator.

On April 25, 2019, Prague Security Studies Institute chairman Roger W. Robinson Jr. warned of the worrying degree to which the CCP had penetrated the U.S. financial market in a speech made to the Committee on the Present Danger: China.

Robinson noted that more than 1,000 Chinese companies were listed in the three major American stock exchanges, with more than 650 PRC-based firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange alone. These include Chinese state-run companies, many of which play roles in the CCP’s human rights abuses, mass surveillance, and military industry. Being listed in U.S. stock indices means these companies receive investment via the stock portfolios of millions of Americans.

Many Wall Street investors’ affinity with Beijing have become especially apparent following the start of the U.S.-China trade war in June 2018.

The month that the U.S.-China trade war began, Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) officially included A shares of Chinese corporations in its “Emerging Market Index” at a 2.5 percent inclusion ratio. This means that 2.5 percent of MSCI’s index consisted of Chinese A-share companies.

That September, FTSE Russell, the world’s second-largest index company, announced that it would include A shares in its global stock index system and classify them as secondary emerging markets. According to statistics from securities companies, this move was theoretically expected to bring incremental capital of more than $500 billion to A shares.

Last April 1, Bloomberg announced the official inclusion of Chinese bonds in the Bloomberg Barclays Global Composite Index.

He Qinglian, a U.S.-based Chinese economist, wrote that the recognition of A shares by these three major financial institutions was equivalent to endorsing the Chinese regime’s unfavorable bonds. Thanks to Wall Street, the resulting influx of foreign capital thus helped allay the PRC’s domestic economic troubles and the recent pressures brought about by the trade war.

Bribing CCP Companies

New York-based financial institutions have been investigated for illegally hiring the children of powerful Chinese families, whose fortunes are inextricably linked with the CCP regime.

In 2013, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Justice Department began probing JP Morgan Chase Bank for suspected bribery of foreign companies. The case is of particular note because it represents the first major investigation into Wall Street under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

According to investigators, in the seven years between 2006 to 2013, Chase employed about 100 people under its “Sons and Daughters” recruitment program, which ran from 2003 to 2013. The plan hired those with close ties to Chinese and other Asian officials as full-time employees or interns, which resulted in the bank gaining $100 million in business profit.

The SEC investigation noted that Chase knew that doing so violated the FCPA, but continued the Sons and Daughters scheme anyway due to the generous returns and business opportunities it brought. According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. authorities have opened similar investigations into other financial institutions.
Buying Political Power

Chinese economic inroads gave the CCP many opportunities to win political allies across the United States, particularly in salient regions like New York.

On April 11, 2016, New York lieutenant governor Kathy Hochul and Zhang Xiangchen, the PRC commerce ministry’s deputy representative of international trade, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to formally establish the China Provinces-US State of New York Trade and Investment Cooperation. The agreement linked New York with six Chinese provinces on various forms of economic and industrial exchange.

“It speaks to the possibility of building on where we are today,” Hochul described the agreement, according to PRC mouthpiece China Daily. “Businesses from China come to our state; businesses from our state are looking for export opportunities.”

Zhang Qiyue, then-consul general of the PRC Consulate in New York, named the state as the “bright spot” for Sino-U.S. cooperation. “As we continue to grow stronger bilateral ties, there is growing awareness and increasing cooperation at the sub-national level.”

On July 18, 2017, the China Provinces-US New York State Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum was held in Buffalo. The event was co-sponsored by the Foreign Trade Development Bureau of the PRC Ministry of Commerce, the New York State Economic Development Agency, the PRC consulate in New York, and the state government.

That November, Gov. Cuomo was awarded the Blue Cloud Award by the PRC-leaning China Institute, which is headquartered in Manhattan. Hochul, who accepted the award on Cuomo’s behalf at the Blue Cloud Gala, noted that the “governor has truly made this [China-New York] relationship one of his high priorities, we have had our three trade missions and the fourth is being planned,” as reported by the CCP-run Xinhua.

“We have trade offices and tourism offices in China, and we have people on the ground to make sure there is a wide opening doorway between our two countries, and our cities as well,” Hochul said.

The CCP appears to have seen the event as a way to deepen commercial links and foster closer relations with the governor. According to reports at the time, Hainan Airlines Group, a Chinese company with strong state ties, was the sponsor of the Blue Cloud Gala. Moreover, the award ceremony featured a performance by the Snow Lotus trio, consisting of three ethnic Tibetan singers from the Chinese province of Sichuan. Then-PRC Consul-General Zhang was also present at the gala.

In June 2019, the New York State Senate passed a resolution naming Oct. 1—the founding date of the communist regime in 1949—the state’s “China Day,” so as to commemorate the contributions of ethnic Chinese to New York. A PRC foreign ministry spokesperson praised the move as a “positive” development.

At an evening reception hosted that Sept. 16 by the New York Chinese Consulate to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the PRC’s founding, Consul-General Huang Ping delivered remarks praising “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and condemned the ongoing trade war for hurting the economic prospects of both countries. Many New York politicians, entrepreneurs, and representatives from the local Chinese diaspora were in attendance.
Reshaping the Media Environment and Society

As late as the mid-1980s, the most prominent Chinese-American organizations in New York were those aligned with Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China (ROC). But as mainland China came to dominate the economic and diplomatic landscape, the ROC’s Blue Sky with a White Sun flag began to disappear from the local Chinatowns, replaced by the five-starred red flag of the PRC.

Beijing’s growing influence was felt across the Chinese-American community as the CCP deployed its propaganda machine to sway overseas Chinese worldwide. PRC-funded organizations like the Confucius Institute were set up in U.S. colleges and schools, helping the Party cement its preferred take on Chinese identity, culture, and language in the minds of many young Americans.

CCP organizations in New York have established links with the local triad gangs, and sometimes even allow the Party to project its political repression into the United States.

In 1999, the CCP launched an all-out persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice and its tens of millions of adherents. The deadly campaign continues to this day.

Groups linked to the extralegal Communist Party commission tasked with overseeing the persecution of Falun Gong have been peddling hate speech against the practice in New York’s Chinatowns for over a decade. Individual members of these groups have been prosecuted for physically assaulting local Falun Gong practitioners.

Since the early 1990s, when the state-linked Chinese-language daily China Press was founded to serve overseas Chinese audiences, the CCP’s international propaganda efforts have ballooned into a multi-billion-dollar operation, officially termed the “Great External Propaganda Plan.”

In 2010, Xinhua News Agency launched a round-the-clock English-language TV channel, CNC World. In August 2011, Xinhua ran an advertisement worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in Times Square. Brian Turner, the president of Sherwood Outdoor Advertising Co., said at the time that he hoped leasing the screen space to Xinhua would encourage other Chinese brands to advertise in Times Square.

Since 2011, both Xinhua and the People’s Daily Online, another CCP mouthpiece, have had offices in Manhattan, with the latter operating out of the 30th floor of the Empire State Building.

This February, the U.S. State Department designated Xinhua and four other PRC-controlled media in the United States as “foreign missions” to reflect their role in Beijing’s external propaganda strategy.

Taken In by the Party Line

The effectiveness of the CCP’s propaganda offensives among overseas Chinese is readily observed. Thousands of Chinese residing abroad have purchased plane tickets back to China, convinced by the Party’s latest narrative that the United States, not the Chinese “motherland,” is the new epicenter of the virus.

Having long served as the gateway to America for immigrants and shipping, New York seems uniquely susceptible to the spread of the pandemic. On March 25, Gov. Cuomo said that New York “has more cases than other U.S. states … because we welcome people from across the globe, and we live; move; commune, and do so many other things close to one another.”

But in the CCP virus pandemic, globalization isn’t the only factor to blame.

Due vigilance and realistic views of the mainland Chinese regime, as demonstrated by the people of Taiwan and Hong Kong, provide no small measure of inoculation against the medical crisis. Despite their proximity to, and extensive trade ties with, mainland China, these two regions did not delay measures to stop the virus. As of April 3, the number of infections in either territory has remained in the hundreds.

In South Korea, the authorities were slow to cut down on trade and travel with China. However, knowledge of the epidemic and its seriousness rapidly spread among the public. In January, videos exposing the bleak situation in the virus epicenter of Wuhan were widely viewed and shared by Koreans. Millions of people criticized President Moon Jae-in for placing business above national health.

While South Korea had one of the worst early outbreaks outside China, the combination of public awareness, popular pressure, and civic cooperation seems to have brought the virus under control.

Yet the same vigilance appears sorely lacking in the Empire State, even as the CCP promotes its supposed success in controlling the disease in China, and painting the U.S. response as the epitome of administrative incompetence. The narrative is reinforced by many foreign media outlets, in large part because they tend to report the PRC’s official numbers of confirmed cases and deaths at face value.

On March 18, the New York Times published an article titled “Its Coronavirus Cases Dwindling, China Turns Focus Outward.”

The article’s subhead echoes the CCP’s propaganda: “Beijing is mounting a humanitarian aid blitz in countries struggling with their own outbreaks. In doing so, it’s stepping into a role the West once dominated.”

A March 19 editorial by the Washington Examiner criticized the Times report as perhaps “the most shameful piece of Chinese disinformation published by any newsroom in the United States since the COVID-19 outbreak first became a story.”

“The article parrots China’s claim that its daily coronavirus cases have dwindled ‘into the single digits,’” the Examiner notes. “No attempt is made to verify these numbers. … With the media acting like this, who even needs the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China?”

Leo Timm contributed to this article.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/with-...now-americas-ccp-virus-epicenter_3297320.html