Category: Security

A man from China Grove, North Carolina, was mistakenly thought to be a Halloween yard decoration after his dead body was discovered by a lawn care worker.

According to Queen City News, the body of Robert Owens, age 34, was discovered lying face-down with only partial clothing on in front of an abandoned house. Owens’ body had reportedly been in front of the abandoned house for days before the discovery was made that the body was real.

One day before the body was identified, a lawn care worker reportedly mowed around Owens’ body, believing it was merely a Halloween decoration.

“Don’t know how you can do that,” Haley Shue, Owens’ sister, told Queen City News. “Mow right beside someone and assume that they’re Halloween decorations at a house no one lives at.”

Owens’ mother, Brenda Bostian, also expressed her disbelief at someone mistaking Owens’ body for a decoration. She told WCCB Charlotte, “I don’t know how he was mistaken for a Halloween decoration or a mannequin. He’s clearly a human.”

According to The Daily Wire, Owens had last been seen by his family on Oct. 1, before his body was discovered on Oct. 10. The family claimed that the house Owens was found in had been empty for a considerable length of time.

“My grandmother has lived off of Shue Road for 40+ years,” Shue said, “and he’s never been to this house. He’s never known of this house this far off the road. He’s never been back here. He’s never been known to come here.”

READ MORE: Dead body recovered near Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard estate

Owens’ family has been attempting to find out more information regarding his mysterious death. Although the family has acknowledged Owens’ reputation for using drugs, they still are demanding answers for how Owens ended up dead in front of the abandoned house.

Local police notified Owens’ family that Owens was not shot; however, the family was forced to press for additional answers from a construction worker on the property.

“Construction worker told us that he had cuts and scrapes on his arms like defensive wounds, his words,” Shue told Queen City News.

In the aftermath of the troubling discovery, Owens’ family has continued to demand answers while processing his unexpected death.

“His nieces and nephews love him, and he had just gotten my son a jacket, and he didn’t even have the chance to give it to him,” Shue said through tears. “We want answers.”

A GoFundMe page for Owens’ funeral expenses states, “Robert, we all love you and miss you dearly. Gone too soon but you will never be forgotten. Your demon you battled here on Earth is over, may you rest in peace bubby I love you.”

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

Submarine experts and observers are casting doubt on reports by British media, citing leaked intelligence, that a Chinese nuclear submarine had an accident in late August, resulting in the deaths of 55 sailors. 

The tabloid Daily Mail reported last Tuesday that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy submarine ‘093-417’ “apparently got caught in a trap intended to ensnare British sub-surface vessels in the Yellow Sea.”

The incident is understood to have happened on Aug. 21. ‘093-417’ indicates a Chinese Navy Type 093, or Shang-class, nuclear-powered attack submarine with hull number 417.

The Shang-class submarine is typically 107-meters long, 11-meters wide, and 7.5-meters high. It has a submerged displacement of more than 6,000 tons, and can accommodate a crew of 100. China currently has six of them in its submarine force.

“According to a secret UK report the seamen died following a catastrophic failure of the submarine’s oxygen systems which poisoned the crew,” the Mail said.

The Times picked the story up a day later, saying that the Chinese vessel “was said to have run out of oxygen near Shandong province, north of Shanghai.”

“Our understanding is death caused by hypoxia (lack of oxygen) due to a system fault on the submarine,” both papers quoted the leaked report as saying.

“The submarine hit a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese navy to trap US and allied submarines. This resulted in systems failures that took six hours to repair and surface the vessel. The on-board oxygen system poisoned the crew after a catastrophic failure.”

It is unclear whether both the Daily Mail and the Times saw the same report, believed to be “held in high classification” but leaked to the media. The British Defence Ministry declined to comment on the reports.

The 55 crew members who are feared dead included 22 officers, seven officer cadets, nine petty officers and 17 sailors. The captain – Col. Xue Yong-Peng – is believed to be among the dead.

The media reports left submarine experts and military observers perplexed. 

“I’ve never heard of submarine nets being used on the high seas, and I don’t understand why snagging one would cause a failure of atmosphere control equipment,” said Thomas Shugart, a retired submariner and adjunct senior fellow at the think tank Center for a New American Security in Washington D.C.

“However, China has had atmosphere control problems on its submarines before, so maybe there is something there but the details are off,” he added.

“Six hours is not enough to result in hypoxia without something else consuming the oxygen first, like a fire or explosion,” Shugart told Radio Free Asia.

Torpedo explosion

Two days after the Daily Mail’s report, a Chinese-language media outlet based in Taiwan – UP Media – quoted anonymous sources in Beijing as saying that the real cause of the accident was “serious problems” of the Yu-3C torpedoes on the submarine.

The submarine was on a mission from Aug. 19 to 27 to conduct “underwater weapons tests” near Dalian Port in the Liaodong Peninsula, Liaoning province, UP Media said. 

“However, not long after the mission began, a torpedo exploded in the launch tube,” it said, causing the crash that killed “all the people on board.”

The media outlet said an investigation was launched after the Central Military Commission determined that “the accident was directly caused by serious problems in the fire control design of the Yu-3C improved torpedo.”

Investigators are looking into allegations of “procurement fraud and corruption” involving not only officials in the submarine force but also at much higher levels, it said.

Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who has been missing from public view since late August, and Vice Admiral Wang Dazhong, commander of the PLAN North Sea Fleet, are believed to be involved, according to Shen Ming-Shih, Acting Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR) in Taiwan. 

Shen said he understood from his sources that “Wang was sacked over the August submarine incident as it happened in the area within his command.”

“Li meanwhile is being investigated for responsibilities in the armament procurement, including for the submarine force, and personal graft,” he said.

‘Wait and see’

Some other experts remain more cautious.

“I’m taking a wait-and-see approach as several of the articles have now provided data that should be able to be verified,” Chris Carlson, a retired submariner and U.S. naval intelligence analyst, told RFA. 

“Is Col. Xue Yong-Peng the commanding officer of Type 093A hull 417? Is that the right hull number for a Type 093A? Is he dead? Did the Northern Theater Commander, Vice Admiral Wang Dazhong get relieved for cause?”

“If these claims are found to be truthful, that would be sufficient evidence to say an accident on a PLAN Type 093A submarine occurred,” Carlson said. 

Rumors of the alleged accident first emerged on Aug. 21 on an anti-Chinese Communist Party activist social media account called Lude Media. Its original post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, said “a Type 093 nuclear-powered attack submarine of the Communist Party of China had an accident while performing a mission in the Taiwan Strait.”

Lude Media is a YouTube channel broadcast from the United States run by activist Wang Dinggang, who has in the past been accused of spreading unsubstantiated right-wing messages.

“The problem is the vast majority of the reporting [on the alleged incident] is from Taiwanese sources that have some credibility issues,” said Chris Carlson.

“It would be really helpful to get an official announcement,” he said.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said on Aug. 22 that military intelligence and surveillance “did not detect any evidence of a Chinese submarine crash” in or near the Taiwan Strait.

The Chinese Defense Ministry on Aug. 31 also rejected the reports, which it called “completely false.” The ministry has so far not reacted to the claims in the British media nor acted to prove them wrong.

“China can easily show this submarine to the world and stop the speculations,” said Shen Ming-Shih from INDSR in Taipei.

“Why don’t they do that?”

In April 2003, a Chinese Ming-class diesel submarine experienced a mechanical failure during a training exercise in the Yellow Sea, resulting in the deaths of all 70 crew members aboard.

Chinese state media did not cover the incident, believed to be the country’s worst known peacetime military disaster, until the following month.

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

North Korea appears to have a military connection to Hamas, and weapons and tactics used in the Palestinian militant group’s attacks this month on Israel are likely North Korean in origin, the South Korean military said Tuesday.

“Hamas is believed to be directly or indirectly linked to North Korea in various areas, such as the weapons trade, tactical guidance and training,” a senior member of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, who did not want to be named, told reporters at a special press briefing in Seoul.

The official further suggested that North Korea could use similar tactics to Hamas in an attack on the South.

“There is a possibility that North Korea could use Hamas’ attack methods [in the event of] a surprise invasion of South Korea,” he said.

Radio Free Asia reported last week that a video shared on social media showed a Hamas fighter holding what appeared to be a North Korean F-7 rocket propelled grenade launcher or RPG.

 The military official confirmed that the F-7 is another name for the North Korean RPG-7 high-explosive fragmentation rocket, but did not elaborate on whether the weapon reached Hamas in direct trade with North Korea or via a third party.

The official said that spent 122-millimeter artillery shells discovered near Gaza’s border with Israel are likely North Korean exports, because they were marked in Korean letters “Bang-122,” and shells with this marking have been used in North Korean artillery attacks of the South.  

North Korean state media last week denied that Hamas was using North Korean weapons, calling the idea a ”groundless and false rumor” spread by “reptile press bodies and quasi-experts” in the United States.

Invasion tactics

Hamas’ attack on Israel used paragliders and drones, a tactic that has been employed by North Korea, leading to speculation that Pyongyang could have given tactical information to Hamas, he said.

In 2020, North Korea practiced an attack on a replica of the Blue House, South Korea’s former presidential office and residence. Commandos rode paragliders to a landing point near the replica and staged an assault. 

Speaking at a different press briefing on Tuesday, Lee Sung Joon, the spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was not the official who spoke at the special press briefing, said that the military was analyzing and evaluating weapons and tactics used by Hamas.

“In addition, we are closely monitoring North Korea using joint ROK-US surveillance and reconnaissance assets and are maintaining a thorough readiness posture for North Korean provocations,” he said.

‘No surprise’

A military connection between North Korea and Hamas is very likely, Bruce Bennett, a Senior Fellow at the U.S.-based RAND Corporation think tank, told RFA Korean.

“For many years, North Korea has sent its military personnel overseas to help train foreign military personnel in many countries, so it should be no surprise to find North Korean military trainers in Gaza supporting Hamas,” said Bennett. 

“North Korea almost always denies its involvement in other countries, so North Korean denial of its weapons being used by Hamas is exactly what we would expect,” he said.

Bennett said that North Korean trainers would be most comfortable with North Korean weapons.

“So why would anyone be surprised that North Korea has provided Hamas with some of the weapons that Hamas used to attack Israel, including everything from small arms to artillery munitions?” he said, adding that the weapons could have first been sold to parties in Iran and then transferred into Gaza through tunnels from Egypt.

Cooperation with North Korea by buying weapons or military training is a violation of U.S. and U.N. sanctions, Anthony Ruggiero of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told RFA.

“The Biden administration should increase its enforcement of North Korea sanctions to reduce Pyongyang’s revenue generation,” he said.

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

Russian President Vladimir Putin touched down in Beijing to a red-carpet welcome by a military honor guard on Tuesday for China’s third Belt and Road Forum, or BRF, which got underway Wednesday.

Speaking to nearly 30 national leaders and more than 100 delegations, directly after Chinese President Xi Jinping on Oct. 18 in Beijing’s palatial Great Hall of the People, Putin said that China and Russia share an “aspiration for equal and mutually beneficial cooperation.”

The event marks the 10th anniversary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a worldwide sprawling network of economic deals that some say has turned China into the world’s biggest debt collector, and others argue is bringing hope to the Global South. 

The Russian president, who is accused by the International Criminal Court of committing war crimes in Ukraine, spoke of “respecting civilization diversity and the right of every state for their own development model.”

Some observers interpreted the message as push-back against calls for authoritarian leaders to respect human rights and embrace political freedoms, if not democracy.

Xi may not be cut of the same cloth as Mao Zedong but he’s certainly the most assertive leader since Mao – clearly bent on projecting China as an alternative leader to the U.S., and aims to expand China’s global influence with Russia at its side for as long as the deal is convenient.

“This BRF is a big deal I think,” said George Magnus, research associate at the China Centre, Oxford University, and the School of African and Oriental Studies in London.

“It’s the 10th anniversary of Xi’s signature foreign policy statement, and even though the BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] isn’t doing anything like the financing it did in 2014-17, it’s still a key vehicle for Xi, specifically to trade commerce for political favors, and to attract member states to his three Initiatives – development, security and civilization.”

He also noted the role of Putin in this framework cannot be understated. 

“Putin is very much in on this moment, and China is clearly pro anything that challenges or drains American power and influence. I imagine they’ve got a lot to talk about.” Magnus added.

Such a view is echoed by Brian Hart, a fellow at the China Power Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

“During this meeting, I think Xi and Putin will be discussing how they can continue to support each other going forward, and how they work together to jointly push back against the United States and its allies.”

‘Junior partner’

Xi and Putin spoke to each after the event at the Great Hall of the People, with Xi hailing Putin as “my old friend,” and speaking of the two nation’s “close, effective strategic coordination,” China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The reality, however, is that Putin is now roped to the Chinese agenda and Xi Jinping’s “vision” of a new mode of global governance best described as autocracy.

Putin was singing Xi’s praises even before he boarded the flight to Beijing.

“President Xi Jinping is a different kind of person,” he told Chinese media in Moscow. “He is a firm, calm, pragmatic, and reliable partner … [and] Russia highly appreciates China’s proposals to end the Ukraine crisis.”

Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, a former political adviser at the European parliament and now with National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan, told RFA that, under Putin, Russia had become both politically and economically dependent on China.

She suggested “in the long-run, [it] might prove to be yet another of Putin’s miscalculations” insofar as it has made Russia the junior partner for China.

“For now, by providing political support to advance a shared goal [for example] to discredit liberal democracy, and by ensuring that Russia has the economic means to sustain the aggression [in Ukraine] despite international sanctions, Xi has skillfully turned himself into an indispensable friend to Putin,” said Ferenczy.

“Ironically, this happened under Xi’s favorite mantra of win-win, mutual respect and equal partnership, which are also core elements of Xi’s alternative governance model.”

Separately, Hart from Center for Strategic and International Studies said there is a clear strategic calculus behind Xi’s moves to court closer ties with Putin.

“Heightened tensions between the U.S. and China has pushed Beijing to seek partners to push back against Washington and its allies. Russia is by far the most powerful country on the world stage willing to cooperate with China on important issues,” Hart added. 

“The Sino-Russia relationship is certainly not based on trust and friendship as we would understand, say, alliances. But for all of that,I think the mutual interest to distract or challenge the U.S. and NATO etc is for the time being pretty solid,” Oxford’s Magnus said.

But Ferenczy suggested that the relationship’s frailty resides in the fact that it’s an unequal alliance based on a common fear.

“While Putin’s reliance or dependence on Xi can still mean win-win, theirs is not a partnership of equals, nor is it based on mutual trust,” said Ferenczy. “It is, however, based on a shared fear of liberal democracy, transparency and rule of law, and a common embrace of control … For now, Xi has the upper hand and they both know it.”

On social media, Andreas Fulda, associate professor at Nottingham University, offers a more foreboding perspective. 

“The vision of a ‘multipolar world’ led by dictators Xi and Putin is the dream of every autocrat (and a worst-case scenario for all those of us who still believe in the value of open societies based on democracy, human rights and the rule of law),” said Fulda, who is also author of “The Struggle for Democracy in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong,” on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

China has agreed to fund the last steps of construction for the New Yalu River Bridge that would vastly improve commerce between the two countries, residents in both countries told Radio Free Asia.

Construction on the structure of the bridge, which connects the Chinese city of Dandong with North Korea’s Sinuiju, was finished nine years ago, but it has not gone into service because the project has stalled on the North Korean side.

The new bridge is just downstream from the much older Sino-Korean Friendship bridge which it is intended to replace. That bridge is so old that it predates North Korea itself, having been built by the Japanese army during World War II.

The old bridge has a single rail track and a single lane for cars and trucks, and is unable to carry trucks heavier than 20 tons, but the new bridge will not enter service until new customs facilities are built on the North Korean side. 

“All import and export logistics between North Korea and China travel through the old Friendship Bridge which was built before liberation,” a resident of North Pyongan province told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons. 

“If the new Yalu River Bridge is opened [imports and exports] will increase several times, strengthening the country’s economy,” he said.

The resident said that North Korea sent a formal request to China for more funding.

“Earlier this month, a Pyongyang trade delegation met with Dandong city government officials to request [more] Chinese investment,” he said. “The request is to send customs clearance equipment to open the New Yalu River Bridge.”

Still needs work

Everything is ready to go on the Chinese side, but in North Korea, it is essentially empty, although a building that is supposed to be the customs clearance office has been built.

“In order for the New Yalu River Bridge to open, customs clearance facilities must be installed at the Sinuiju Customs Office,” the resident said. “China said last year that it would invest, but they still haven’t yet, so the Pyongyang delegation came forward.”

Beijing originally agreed that it would pay for the entire cost of the bridge and North Korea is only trying to hold China to their word, a North Korean trade official stationed in China told RFA on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. 

“But China is saying that since the main structure of the New Yalu River Bridge was completed in 2014, we should bear the cost of auxiliary facilities,” he said. “So, construction of the road from the end of the New Yalu River Bridge to Sinuiju was delayed for several years, but began again in 2018.”

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 delayed road construction even further, so the roads were not completed until last fall, the official said. Still, without customs clearance offices the bridge will not be opened.

“However, a trade agency official informed me that early this month, the Pyongyang delegation directly actively sought to attract Chinese investment to expedite the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge, and China agreed.”

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

As China’s economic miracle has unraveled over the past several years, property giant Country Garden Holdings appeared to be an unassailable fortress redoubt.

Rival Evergrande tried to restructure its debt, failed, and now its founder, Hui Ka Yan, once the richest man in China, is under house arrest. But Country Garden, until very recently, was considered safe as houses.

On Tuesday the walls of the Country Garden redoubt crumbled, as the property giant missed a HK$470 million (US$60 million) loan repayment and issued a statement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange warning that it wasn’t going to be able to repay all of its creditors – not even those that had extended it a grace period.

The company has about US$200 billion in liabilities and close to US$10 billion in debt, it said in the Tuesday statement.

“I think it’s not so much ‘final straw’ as ‘high profile symbol’ of the structural reversal in China’s property market bust. But it’s also possible that because of that, confidence in this fragile market will be further undermined,” said George Magnus, research associate at the China Centre, Oxford University, and the School of African and Oriental Studies in London.

“The knock-on effects of a property bust in a market that’s as big as China’s are going to be remarkable,” added Magnus.

“There simply isn’t anything that can compensate [for the problem] because nothing – least of all Xi’s new productive forces – is sufficiently big. It’ll keep the Chinese economy on a low-growth path with all the attendant consequences for unemployment, absent a major program of market reforms, which Xi is opposed to.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping is famously opposed to “welfarism,” which he reportedly equates with laziness.

Markets have found some solace in announcements emanating out of Beijing, suggesting that stimulus is on the way, but analysts are skeptical even though Hong Kong and Shanghai stocks rallied on Thursday, after China’s investment fund had bought a stake in the country’s banking giants.

Bill Bishop of the widely read Sinocism newsletter commented, “The relatively small investment by Huijin in the four banks – 477 million RMB, about USD $65 million – is not meaningful financially,” adding that the investment fund Huijin had bought similar stakes in the past with the probable aim of achieving a short-term boost to stock values.

‘All the money in the world’

“They’ll respond with some stimulus but there isn’t enough money in the world to make a difference,” said Anne Stevenson-Yang, founder and research director at J Capital Research,

“Consider,” she said: “If they lend an extra 1 trillion yuan (US$137 billion) – and bank lending is around 90% of financing in this economy – you get less than a 1% boost in credit.

“Basically, so what?”

Oxford’s Magnus agreed.

“The speculation is that the central government will use its own balance sheet to announce a stimulus program of about 1 trillion yuan or about 0.7% GDP to breathe new life into the economy,” he said.

“If it goes, as in the past, towards infrastructure and real estate projects, it’ll spur activity in the short term but leave China’s structural malaise worse.

“What China needs is household demand and income stimulus, but this has been studiously avoided so far – and it’s not the CCP’s way.”

Stevenson-Yang said, “We’re not going to see a bank failure, because they [the Communist Party] can control that. But the whole shadow sector has collapsed or is collapsing, and that erases a lot of personal wealth.

“And local services are going away,” she added in a reference to the belt-tightening forced on local governments, which have even been reducing civil service salaries to make ends meet.

Michael Pettis, Carnegie Endowment economist, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, pointed out that there may be hidden liabilities for the banking sector with as-yet unknown consequences.

“Mounting damage to banks’ balance sheets from the property meltdown could also make stabilizing other parts of the economy more difficult,” Pettis said.

“This is likely to be what causes the most long-term damage to the economy … There is likely to be a lot more exposure in less direct forms. That’s because after three decades of soaring prices, it would be astonishing if Chinese banks didn’t have a lot of indirect exposure to the property market, partly reflected for example in the RMB 3.4 trillion in supplier trade payables estimated by Gavekal,” he wrote referring to research by Gavekal Research.

The firm predicted that China’s property sector owes 3.4 trillion yuan in trade payables to their suppliers.

“The major damage to the economy caused by a property sector collapse usually occurs not directly through the property sector but indirectly, through wealth effects and, above all, the impact on the banking system,” said Pettis.

“With one of the biggest property sectors in history, and perhaps the most expensive real estate bubble since Japan in the 1980s, I’d be really surprised if we were near the end of the adjustment process.”

Stability above all

In its Tuesday statement Country Garden admitted, referring to its inability to meet debt commitments, “Such non-payment may lead to relevant creditors of the group demanding acceleration of payment of the relevant indebtedness owed to them or pursuing enforcement action.”

Property developer Evergrande’s collapse led to widespread “mortgage strikes” and protests China-wide in 2021 and 2022. The fear in Beijing is that Country Garden, which is heavily invested in third- and fourth-tier cities, where the economic crisis is at its worst, will lead to yet more protests.

“The first and utmost priority of Xi and the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] is to maintain power, which means maintaining order and stability,” said Australia-based political commentator and former Chinese diplomat Han Yang.

“Xi can’t afford to let disgruntled home buyers and contractors go out on the streets to protest.”

As to whether Country Garden and other property developers can deliver on their commitments and maintain social stability, Magnus said, “Well, it and its peers might be able to deliver if the government keeps them liquid and able to function.

“[But] they’ve got to have the working capital to complete construction and deliver.

“I’m pretty sure that Beijing won’t want to risk hacking off the fabled middle class whose savings and aspirations are now at risk. Then again, Evergrande proposed a restructuring that the government has now blocked.”

He added, “It all looks very messy right now.”

Yang is equally ambivalent about how the situation will play out.

“I guess theoretically Beijing could bail out Evergrande and Country Garden, but then what’s next? What about the other over-leveraged developers and banks?” he said.

“The long-term outlook of the asset bubble is grim.”

Said Magnus, “The government can of course try to spread the pain – and its relaxation of housing regulations plus rumored stimulus could provide temporary relief – but what we are now seeing is a mirror image of all the things that propelled a 20-year boom.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) started crying in front of a pro-Palestinian protest Wednesday, while blaming Israeli Defense Forces for an explosion at a Gaza hospital that resulted in many civilian deaths, despite U.S. and Israeli intelligence indicating that the explosion was caused by a rocket that was fired at Israel by terrorists.

Collin Rugg, co-owner of Trending Politics, tweeted a video of the Michigan representative crying in front of the pro-Palestinian protest Wednesday. Rugg highlighted the difference between her reaction to the brutal beheading of babies in Israel and her reaction to the death of Palestinians in Gaza.

“Rep. Rashida Tlaib starts ‘crying’ in front of a crowd after accusing Israel of bombing the hospital in Gaza. The outburst from Tlaib was much different than her ‘response’ when she was asked by a reporter about the people who Hamas brutally killed in Israel,” Rugg stated. “Instead of showing emotion like she just did, Tlaib avoided the reporter and ignored the question completely.”

NEW: Rep. Rashida Tlaib starts ‘crying’ in front of a crowd after accusing Israel of bombing the hospital in Gaza.

The outburst from Tlaib was much different than her ‘response’ when she was asked by a reporter about the people who Hamas brutally killed in Israel.

Instead of… pic.twitter.com/YH1I9F1ex8

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 18, 2023

During Wednesday’s protest, Tlaib told the crowd, “That’s what’s been really painful — just continue to watch people think it’s okay to bomb a hospital with children. You know what’s so hard sometimes is watching those videos, and the people telling the kids ‘Don’t cry,’ and like let them cry.”

READ MORE: Biden sending $100 million in aid to Gaza, West Bank, home of Hamas terrorists

According to The New York Post, Tlaib, who is the only Palestinian American in Congress, previously refused to answer multiple questions from a Fox Business reporter regarding the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.

A video, shown on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Fox News, featured reporter Hillary Vaughn following Tlaib through a House office building hall and questioning the congresswoman multiple times about the decapitation of babies by Hamas.

“Congresswoman, Hamas terrorists have cut off babies’ heads and burned children alive,” Vaughn stated. “Do you support Israel’s rights to defend themselves against this brutality?”

Throughout the interaction, Tlaib repeatedly ignored the Fox Business reporter’s questions, marking a very different reaction compared to her tears during the pro-Palestinian rally in support of Gaza.

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

The United States predicts that China will have over 1,000 operational nuclear warheads in seven years, developing militarily at a pace that surpasses the Pentagon’s projections, according to its annual assessment report of Chinese military prowess in 2022.

The Congress-mandated 2023 China Military Power Report said that last year, China’s capability building exceeded previous U.S. projections in some areas.

The Department of Defense (DoD) “estimates that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] possessed more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023,” up from 400 last year and more than was predicted by U.S. military planners. 

“DoD estimates that the PRC will probably have over 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030,” the 200-page report said.

The pace is striking even if China’s nuclear stockpile is still much smaller than those of Russia or the United States.

Moreover, the PRC “may be exploring development of conventionally armed intercontinental range missile systems that would allow the PRC to threaten conventional strikes against targets in the continental United States.”

“What we would highlight about that is it would give them a conventional capability to strike the U.S. for the first time … to threaten targets in the continental U.S. and Hawaii and Alaska,” said a senior U.S. defense official speaking on background, hence remaining anonymous.

American strategists already identified China as their number one challenge.

The 2022 U.S. National Security Strategy named Beijing as “the only competitor with the intent and increasingly the capability to reshape the international order.” The Pentagon also identified the PRC “as the department’s top pacing challenge.”

Coercion in the Indo-Pacific

“In 2022, the PRC turned to the PLA as an increasingly capable instrument of statecraft, adopting more coercive actions in the Indo-Pacific region against the United States and U.S. allies and partners,” the report said.

“PLA coercive and risky operational activities targeting foreign aircraft and maritime vessels throughout 2022 included: lasing; reckless maneuvers; close approaches in the air or at sea; high rates of closure; discharging chaff or flares in close proximity to aircraft; and ballistic missile overflights of Taiwan,” it added.

One day before the launch of the report, the DoD also released photos and video clips documenting 15 of more than 180 cases of what it calls China’s “coercive and risky operational behavior” against U.S. aircraft in the East China and South China seas in the last two years.

Beijing is believed to aim “to restrict the U.S. from having a presence in China’s immediate periphery and limit U.S. access in the broader Indo-Pacific region.”

Throughout 2022, the PRC conducted large-scale joint military exercises focused on training to deter further U.S. and allied operations in the region.

It also amplified diplomatic, political, and military pressure against Taiwan, the report said, adding that the PLA is continuing to prepare for “a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC.” 

The findings of the report were accurate, said a Taiwanese senior analyst, but should be seen in the context of China’s domestic politics.

“In 2022 the Communist Party of China held its 20th Congress in which Xi Jinping needed to reassert his power and ensure a third term as China’s paramount leader,” said Shen Ming-Shih, acting deputy chief executive officer at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), a government think-tank.

“I expect the PLA’s approach for 2023 will be less vocal but more realistic in terms of military maneuvers around Taiwan,” he added.

Looking ahead

China already has numerically the largest navy in the world with an overall battle force of over 370 ships and submarines, compared to the U.S.’s 293 ships and submarines. It also has the largest coast guard fleet in the world, besides a powerful maritime militia.

The report was compiled over the last year, before the latest Israel-Hamas war.

Analysts say ongoing developments in Ukraine and the Middle East may embolden China’s actions in the Indo-Pacific region.

“I think they are watching to see what the U.S. is doing in both Ukraine and now the Middle East, and from Beijing’s perspective, they are hoping that the U.S. support for both Israel and Ukraine will leave them weakened and unable to support allies in the Indo-Pacific,” said Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

“So I’d see Beijing continue to employ provocations, and potentially ramp those up if the U.S. becomes more and more committed to supporting a fast developing war in the Middle East, which could become quite large in geographic scope – well beyond the Gaza strip – quite quickly,” he said.

“I suspect that Beijing will be disappointed though, as the U.S. is very cognizant of its responsibilities and the risks posed by Chinese actions, so I don’t see the U.S. de-prioritizing Indo-Pacific issues in favor of Europe and Middle East challenges,” the analyst said.

At a press briefing this week, the Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Navy Adm. John Aquilino said, despite the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, “as it applies to the Indo-Pacific and my responsibilities … I haven’t had one piece of equipment or force structure depart.”

“The United States is a global power. That means we can deliver effects and execute our deterrence responsibilities across the globe,” he said. 

The Indo-Pacific Command has two aircraft carriers at sea at the moment – the forward-deployed USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Carl Vinson which left for a deployment last week.

They are, “along with a large portion of the Joint Force, executing deterrence missions in my theater,” said Adm. Aquilino. 

The admiral also said that his requests to speak with Chinese counterparts in the last two and a half years have been refused. 

There are unconfirmed reports that Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden may meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco next month.

This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.

As fighting intensifies between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel, Iran has been increasingly vocal about the prospect of additional firepower entering the fray to score a victory for what Tehran calls the “axis of resistance” against Israel.

The axis, refined by the Islamic republic over the last four decades, is a loose-knit network of proxies, Tehran-backed militant groups, and allied state actors who play an important role in Iran’s strategy to oppose the West, Arab foes, and, primarily, Israel.

Active in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere, the network allows Iran to create chaos in enemy territory, while allowing it to maintain a position of plausible deniability.

In the case of the latest conflict involving Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza, the stronger the Israeli response and the greater the blowback by Israel’s Shi’ite and Sunni enemies in the region, the better it is for Iran, experts say.

It is a strategy that dates back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to experts, but was honed and rebranded as the axis of resistance by the Quds Force, the elite overseas arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

“Although a new term, ‘axis of resistance’ describes an old phenomenon: any individual or group willing to fight Iran’s wars in return for funding, arms, military training, and intelligence support,” Ali Alfoneh, senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told RFE/RL in written comments.

But while Iran openly positions itself as the leading voice of the network as it calls for global resistance against Israel and the West, “the Quds Force avoids micromanagement and provides the proxies with some maneuvering room,” Alfoneh said.

This relative autonomy, which at times has even seen proxies and partners work against Tehran’s regional interests, makes it difficult to pin blame directly on Iran.

“If there is any kind of kinetic retaliation, your proxy, your partner absorbs the retaliation, and if your adversary wants to widen the scope, they have a hard time politically connecting the dots to do that,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, told RFE/RL.

‘Successful Proxy Strategy’

The October 7 assault on Israel carried out by the Sunni militant group Hamas was a case in point, with Iran lauding the attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and triggered retaliatory Israeli strikes on Gaza that have so far killed more than 3,700 people and unleashed a devastating humanitarian crisis.

But despite Iran’s longstanding support of Hamas — which Alfoneh said is historically closer to Sunni Arab states and is for the most part funded by Qatar — Israel and the West have not been able to directly tie the assault to Iran.

“When assessing the connective tissue between Iran and Hamas, we can’t forget that the desire for Iran to disguise its own hand plays into the Islamic republic’s own successful proxy strategy,” Taleblu said. “The fact that some folks are having a hard time finding an immediate go order, or a very clear green light, is the success of the proxy strategy.”

The axis of resistance is part of Iran’s attempts to export the Twelver Jafari School of Shi’a Islam, which was named as Iran’s official religion after 1979, and “it’s kind of messianic vision for what the Middle East would look like,” Taleblu explained.

“This ideology only has resonance when the Middle East is in chaos, and the Islamic republic is an expert in managing chaos,” he added.

The U.S. assassination in 2020 of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, who was seen as the architect of the axis of resistance and held great influence over its members, injected an element of chaos within the ranks of the network itself.

But while it presented challenges, it was not enough to disrupt the Quds Force or break up the axis.

“The Quds Force is a highly institutionalized military organization and the assassination of Major-General Soleimani had no impact on the performance of the organization,” Alfoneh said.

The axis has continued its operations through Hamas and the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, sworn Israel enemy and Iranian proxy Lebanese Hizballah, and Iran-backed Shi’ite militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Force.

In Syria, the IRGC has deployed troops to aid government forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war, and in Yemen Iran has championed the Huthis, which has been battling a military alliance led by Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia.

At times, some of these groups have flexed their independence from Iran and acted against Tehran’s interest.

Alfoneh recalled Hizballah’s kidnapping of Israeli border guards in 2006, which he said, “resulted in a devastating war that was much more problematic, since it was contrary to Iran’s overall strategy of using Hizballah as a deterrent against Israel.”

Major Differences

Major differences were observed between Hamas and Iran during the Syrian conflict as the Palestinian militants refused to come to the aid of Assad, a key Tehran ally.

And the political rise of some groups, including in Iraq and Hamas in Gaza, has led some to distance themselves from Iran, at least rhetorically, to retain their domestic legitimacy.

Hamas has insisted that it alone was behind its multipronged assault on Israel, and that Iran and Hizballah had no role. Hizballah has in recent days exchanged fire with Israel across the border in the biggest escalation of violence since their 2006 war. Israel has accused Hizballah of carrying out the attacks “under Iranian instruction.”

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which also has a presence in Lebanon, is also believed to have mounted a cross-border attack on Israel on October 10.

In Iraq, sources told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that Iranian officials met with the heads of pro-Iranian Shi’ite militias after the October 7 attack on Israel.

Radio Farda has since reported that Shi’ite militias in Iraq have created a joint operational headquarters aimed at supporting the operation of Palestinian militant groups against Israel.

While Iran did engage different proxies in joint operations in Syria, Alfoneh of the Arab Gulf States Institute told RFE/RL: “In general, Iran prefers to preserve a degree of compartmentalization so intelligence leaks from one proxy do not compromise the entire proxy network.”

A Strategic Victory?

In turn, Israel’s military reaction and the United States’ diplomatic and military support for Israel following the Hamas assault and the threat of the involvement of other members of the axis of resistance, can be seen as a strategic victory for Iran.

“The fact that the U.S. has to send such overt conventional military hardware [to Israel] is being seen as a win in Tehran, for them to have to deter a nonstate actor like Lebanese Hizballah,” said Taleblu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“This goes to show you how much Iran’s proxies and their hybrid and conventional and asymmetric military capabilities [have grown] over the past few decades.”

For its part, Hizballah claimed on October 18 that it was “thousands of times stronger” than it was during its last war with Israel, highlighting the possibility that the axis overall is more formidable in terms of firepower and recruitment than ever.

But Alfoneh said the strength of the axis, coming as Iran has called for an expanded alliance against Israel, is “not important.”

“As long as the smaller and more expendable proxies such as Hamas can poke a hole in Israel’s Iron Dome and demonstrate Israel’s vulnerability, and as long as the more valuable proxies such as Hizballah can stay out of the war and provide Iran with an effective deterrence against Israeli bombardment of Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran is perfectly happy,” Alfoneh said.

Taleblu said, despite Iran’s effort to distance itself from a possible broader conflict involving its proxies and the militant groups that make up the axis of resistance, it is important to not let Tehran hide behind a shield of plausible deniability.

“It’s imperative to constantly hold the patron accountable, and not just the proxy,” Taleblu said. “Every time you hold only the proxy accountable, the patron will fight to live another day.”

A man punched a 29-year-old Jewish woman in a Manhattan subway station in an antisemitic attack Saturday, according to police.

According to The New York Post, police noted that the unidentified male attacker punched the 29-year-old victim in the face around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday at the 32nd Street and Lexington Avenue subway station 7-train passageway. Asked why he attacked her unprovoked, the man said, “You are Jewish.”

According to the New York Daily News, the man fled the scene, leaving the victim with minor injuries from the antisemitic attack. The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Unit is currently investigating Saturday’s attack.

A man punched a woman in the face in a Midtown Manhattan subway station in an unprovoked, antisemitic attack, cops said.

When she asked why he attacked her he spat, “You are Jewish.”https://t.co/9WZGpuzUVk

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) October 19, 2023

The unprovoked subway station attack comes after the recent devastating Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel have sparked a major conflict in the Middle East that has resulted in increased antisemitic threats and attacks against Jewish people across the world.

READ MORE: Jewish kids told to hide identity in U.K. as antisemitic incidents skyrocket: Report

Last week, Community Security Trust, a United Kingdom group dedicated to Jewish security, released a report showing that between October 7 and 10, over 89 antisemitic incidents occurred, representing a 324% spike from the 21 incidents recorded during the same period in 2022.

NBC Boston reported that Molotov cocktails were used Wednesday to attack a Jewish synagogue in Berlin, Germany. Like the U.K., antisemitic incidents have been rising in the German capital since the outbreak of the war between Hamas and Israel.

The United States has been increasing security for Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities in light of the rising hate crime threats.

“The entire Justice Department remains vigilant in our efforts to identify and respond to hate crimes, threats of violence or related incidents with particular attention to threats to faith communities,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a Thursday press conference.