Among the multiple stories over the last few weeks about Chinese intelligence and hackers either attempting to, or outright gaining access, to U.S. cell phone networks (with reports stating President Trump and his team were targeted), comes news of a hack of T-Mobile’s network.

T-Mobile’s network was reportedly breached in a Chinese cyber-espionage campaign targeting multiple U.S. and international telecom companies, according to the NY Post, citing the Wall Street Journal.

Hackers tied to a Chinese intelligence agency accessed the network to spy on high-value intelligence targets, though the timing of the attack was not disclosed.

The NY Post, citing WSJ, wrote that the extent of data taken from T-Mobile customers remains unclear.

The FBI and CISA recently revealed that China-linked hackers intercepted surveillance data meant for U.S. law enforcement after breaching several telecom firms.

Earlier reports indicated that Chinese hackers accessed networks of broadband providers, including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen, extracting data from systems used for court-approved wiretapping.

“T-Mobile is closely monitoring this industry-wide attack,” a spokesperson for the company said. “At this time, T-Mobile systems and data have not been impacted in any significant way, and we have no evidence of impacts to customer information.”

Sure.

At this moment, most Americans have no idea that a war between the United States and China is coming.

Just a few days ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping boldly talked about “preparation for war” as he was dressed in military fatigues…

On Thursday Chinese Communist Dictator Xi Jinping commanded troops to strengthen their preparedness for war while visiting his People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force following last week’s drills of surrounding the sovereign country of Taiwan.

“Xi said the military should ‘comprehensively strengthen training and preparation for war, (and) ensure troops have solid combat capabilities,’ CCTV reported,” according to the AFP and reported on Barrons Saturday.

Why would China need to prepare for war? Needless to say, nobody is planning to attack China.

The truth is that the only reason that China would need to prepare for war is if it was planning to invade Taiwan.

Because the moment that China invades Taiwan, the U.S. and China will be at war.

In recent days, the Chinese have been getting very aggressive with Taiwan…

On Monday, Beijing had deployed fighter jets, drones, warships and coast guard vessels to encircle Taiwan — its fourth round of large-scale war games around the democratic island in just over two years.

China’s communist leaders have insisted they will not rule out using force to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control.

Meanwhile, western leaders continue to publicly discuss sending NATO troops to Ukraine. The latest example of this came from the foreign minister of Lithuania…

The Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said in a statement to Politico on Monday that European Union countries should return to the idea of putting boots-on-the-ground in Ukraine to fight Russia.

The idea comes after French President Emmanuel Macron said in February that sending Western troops to Ukraine is not ‘ruled out’ for the future plans in war against Russia, according to the AP. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz shut down that plan for the time being however.

“If information about Russia’s killing squads being equipped with North Korean ammunition and military personnel is confirmed, we have to get back to ‘boots on the ground’ and other ideas proposed by [French President] Emmanuel Macron,” he said in written comments, Politico reported on Monday.

One of the reasons why this has came up again is because there are reports that soldiers from North Korea are being equipped and sent to fight for Russia on the front lines of eastern Ukraine…

North Korean soldiers have been filmed receiving uniforms and equipment at a training ground in Russia’s far east, appearing to confirm reports from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) that 1,500 soldiers have been shipped over for military training to be deployed in Ukraine.

The North Korean troops are thought to be receiving training before being sent to the front line in Ukraine, in what is thought to be a clear sign of the ever-warming relations between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Both sides just continue to escalate matters.

It appears to be just a matter of time before we find ourselves in a direct conflict with the Russians, and that is a really, really bad idea.

North Korea has been making all sorts of noise lately.  In addition to sending troops to fight in Ukraine, the North Koreans are also threatening to invade South Korea…

North Korea has said it had found the remnants of a South Korean military drone and that any further “violation” of its territory would result in a “declaration of war.”

Tensions between the two sides of the peninsula have escalated since May when the North began flying balloons carrying garbage across the border to the South, prompting Seoul to respond by restarting loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts.

This week, North Korea accused South Korea of flying drones over Pyongyang on three occasions this month and threatened to respond with force if it happened again.

The North Korean military is vastly superior to the South Korean military. If North Korea invades, the only way that South Korea will survive is if we intervene.

But right now the U.S. military is focused on the Middle East, because that conflict could spiral completely out of control at any moment.

On Sunday night, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari warned that Israel would soon begin targeting any financial institutions that aid Hezbollah…

“In the past 24 hours, dozens of projectiles have been fired at northern Israel,” he began. “In the next minutes, we will issue an advance evacuation warning to residents of Beirut and other areas in Lebanon to evacuate locations being used to finance Hezbollah’s terror activities. I emphasize here: Anyone located near sites used to fund Hezbollah’s terror activities must move away from these locations immediately.”

“We will strike several targets in the coming hours and additional targets throughout the night.

“In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran funds Hezbollah’s terror activities by using civilian institutions, associations, and NGOs that act as fronts for terrorism.”

And it certainly did not take long for that to start happening.

Last night, branches of Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association Bank were hit by Israeli airstrikes…

Israeli fighter jets struck dozens of targets in Beirut and other areas of southern Lebanon overnight, including branches of a bank accused of holding funds used by Hezbollah.

The military’s Arabic spokesman, Avichay Adraee, had earlier in the night issued several evacuation orders for buildings throughout southern Lebanon he said were in the vicinity of facilities belonging to the U.S.-sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association Bank.

Most people in the western world have absolutely no idea how chaotic things have become over there.

It is being reported that there is “widespread panic” in Beirut at this moment…

Jeanine Hennis, the United Nations’ special coordinator for Lebanon, said that after the IDF issued its evacuations, said there was “widespread panic” in Beirut.

“A brief window to escape to safety. Intense blasts reverberate across the night sky. With each day, Lebanon suffers more. But even amid the escalating violence, solutions remain available. If only opportunities would be seized,” she said.

Could the U.S. soon find itself involved in 4 major global wars?

Let’s hope not, because we are not even prepared to fight one…

The US Army’s outgoing top commander in the Pacific region has warned that the US can “ill afford” another war because its military is vastly overstretched.

According to Defense One, Gen. Charles Flynn said that the US’ authoritarian rivals — Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea — had been placing increasing pressure on American military resources.

Speaking at the AUSA conference in Washington DC last week, Flynn described the technology and military alliances between the authoritarian states as a “very dangerous combination.”

The U.S. military is not the overwhelming global force that it once was.

While other major powers have been feverishly preparing to fight World War III, our military has been rapidly becoming a politically correct joke.

Now a day of reckoning is upon us, and we are not ready.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Suppliers suspected of having ties to China’s military-industrial complex pose a key risk due to the potential for built-in wireless components in EVs to be “weaponized,” which could even be used to gridlock British streets, according to the report by the China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI) and the Coalition on Secure Technology.

The so-called Cellular IoT Modules (CIMs) are wireless components embedded in all-electric vehicles and act as a gateway for data to flow in either direction. (Related: Can China remotely control and detonate electric vehicles?)

The report said it was concerned that data generated by Chinese-manufactured EVs operated in the U.K. could end up in the hands of the Chinese state and could be used for surveillance purposes.

This adds to concerns that the British government’s open-door policy to EVs from China threatens to undercut domestic manufacturing. The U.K.’s domestic car industry is responsible for 198,000 manufacturing jobs, representing 2.5 percent of the country’s entire GDP.

CSRI warned that China’s heavy involvement and subsidization of its EV manufacturing sector, allowing the country to produce an excess of five to 10 million EVs per year, along with the British government’s failure to impose restrictions on Chinese EV imports raises the possibility of China posing a threat to British national security and to the country’s car manufacturing industry.

The study comes amid a rapid influx of Chinese automakers into the U.K. market, with the CSRI claiming that Chinese-made EVs have increased their U.K. market share from just two percent in 2019 to 33.4 percent in the first half of 2023.

British government rapidly procuring EVs for the public sector

The U.K. government is rapidly procuring EVs for the public sector. It confirmed last year that some EV units used by the Ministry of Defense had been supplied by MG, a motoring brand owned by Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturing giant SAIC Motor.

Chinese EV giant BYD has also made significant inroads in the British public sector, with at least 1,800 electric buses delivered to local authorities across the country in the past few years.

CSRI warned that London’s refusal to impose restrictions on Chinese EVs, unlike its neighbors in the European Union, could result in Britain becoming a “dumping ground and a potential backdoor into the European market” for Beijing.

The report further warned that Chinese-made CIMs used in EVs could be used to send data back the Beijing about British users. The paper noted that the totalitarian government mandates that all firms within the country provide data access to the state, which was one of the motivating factors for the U.K.’s previous decision to phase out components manufactured by Chinese tech giant Huawei from its 5G networks by 2027.

The CSRI suggested that the U.K. mandate foreign suppliers of EVs to agree to not transmit data overseas under any circumstances, introduce a legal requirement to share their source code with the British government, and allow for regular inspections of data storage centers globally to ensure that sensitive data is not being sent covertly to other servers.

Watch this video warning that new cars, including EVs, could be remote-controlled by governments.

This video is from PureTrauma357 on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

• Chinese EV hatchback threatening to disrupt U.S. auto sales with very low price and claims of efficiency.
• China continues to rely on coal while pushing expensive renewable energy and EVs on America.
• Low-cost, China-made Volvo EV to be sold in the U.S., threatening Tesla and other EV makers.
• Experts: Biden’s push for China-made EVs poses NATIONAL SECURITY risk.
• STUPID: In order to meet demand for “clean” electric vehicles, China will be forced to burn more COAL.

The proposed change to the tax code is meant to dissuade American businesses and funds from supporting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which lawmakers and the intelligence community have increasingly warned is a national security risk in recent years.

“For too long, Americans investing in China’s military-industrial complex have been given unfair tax breaks that allow them to profit from funding our adversary,“ Moolenaar stated in the announcement. ”Our nation’s tax code should be incentivizing investment in the United States, not collaboration with the CCP.”

Capital gains tax policy allows for the deferment of paying taxes for profit on an investment. It’s meant to encourage investment, and currently has no location-based restriction. The bill, titled the Patriotic Investment Act, targets investments with ties to the CCP, and specifically notes it doesn’t apply to Taiwan.

Chinese investments would instead be taxed at the highest income rate. If the bill is passed into law, companies would have six months to divest from China before the new rate kicks in, and can pay in three installments.

“The Capital gains tax rate was meant to encourage investment in American innovation, not fund an oppressive communist regime,“ Rubio stated. ”But Wall Street continues to give money to our adversaries and reap rewards from the American tax system. Enough is enough.”

In addition to national security concerns, the lawmakers noted that the CCP pours “hundreds of billions of dollars” into enterprises to maintain its military, which aids its persecution of ethnic and religious minority groups via torture and slave labor, and violates international trade rules in a way that has “dismantled” American industries, businesses, and jobs.

The bill comes a day after Moolenaar previewed the action at a talk at the American Enterprise Institute, calling divestment from the CCP a “No. 1 priority.”

China, the world’s second largest economy, is currently facing an economic crisis, with record levels of foreign investment pulling out.

Still, its economy is deeply intertwined with international supply chains, and Chinese companies, most of which have CCP ties, still supply critical components to American companies, even in competitive industries.

When the White House earlier this week proposed a ban on Chinese software and firmware for connected vehicles, the Commerce Department noted that implementation would need to be delayed until 2027 because American manufacturers have said that they do not know where all of their parts components originate and the new due diligence processes will be complex.

In the chip industry, the United States has taken many steps to block China’s access to advanced semiconductors, but China is still a top exporter of larger chips, and American companies still depend on them.

It directs the Navy to develop “readiness for the possibility of war with the People’s Republic of China by 2027,” pointing to China’s preparations for a possible invasion of Taiwan in the same year.

“The Navy emphatically acknowledges the need for a larger, more lethal force,” the document, titled “Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy,” states.

“By 2027, the Navy will be more ready for sustained combat as part of a Joint and Combined force, prioritizing the People’s Republic of China as the pacing challenge and focusing on enabling the joint warfighting ecosystem.”

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, claims that Taiwan is a part of its territory that must be united with the mainland through any means necessary.

However, Taiwan is self-governed by a democratically elected government and has never been controlled by the CCP.

CCP leader Xi Jinping has nevertheless ordered the communist regime’s military wing to prepare for war and to develop the capabilities required to invade Taiwan.

The regime has since engaged in a more than decade-long shipbuilding spree, massively expanding its fleet, drone capabilities, and nuclear arsenal.

Most importantly, for a Taiwan invasion scenario, it has also launched its own advanced aircraft carriers and destroyers.

That poses a problem for the United States, as the U.S. Navy floats far fewer ships than the Chinese, and must spread them more widely to maintain its global military presence.

China, meanwhile, can position the vast majority of its naval and coast guard units close to home, where they can receive cover from land-based units and where it is easier to maintain their supply lines.

A congressional report published in July found that “the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat” against China.

The July report also said that China is likely to increase its hostile behavior in the coming years to “normalize unlawful behavior” around Taiwan as it seeks to take advantage of the United States’ lack of ability to deter conflict.

Key to the new Navy document’s goals, therefore, is the fulfillment of Project 33, a naval initiative aiming to ready the force by eliminating delays in maintenance, scaling the use of autonomous and robotic systems, and increasing navy recruitment, among other things.

“We cannot manifest a bigger traditional Navy in a few short years, nor will we rely on mass without the right capabilities to win the sea control contest,” the document reads.

“Nearer-term operational challenges demand that we integrate proven robotic and autonomous capabilities as soon as possible.

“We must do so with a focus on how we will use these systems in war. By 2027, we will integrate proven robotic and autonomous systems for routine use by the commanders who will employ them.”

Scaling the deployment of autonomous systems is just part of the puzzle, with the document underscoring that the United States’ grim position in the Indo-Pacific “goes well beyond just the size of the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] Navy fleet.”

The document notes that China’s joint forces are developing into an integrated fighting force “specifically designed to defeat ours” and are backed by China’s massive industrial base.

The document also calls on the Navy to work with Congress to secure critical supply chains and lays out a vision in which all fleet headquarters in the service will field their own maritime operations centers.

The goal of the latter directive is to ensure that the U.S. Navy can continue to maintain superiority in command and control, military intelligence, and maneuvers, even against a numerically superior foe in a vast and distributed region.

“We must meet all the objectives in this Navigation Plan to field the people and capabilities needed to fight and win today, in 2027, and beyond,” the document states.

The 52-page report, released on Sept. 12, was a joint venture between the Republican-controlled House Homeland Security Committee and the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

It follows questions from congressional and Senate leaders in the spring surrounding the use of communication equipment discovered on Chinese-manufactured cranes.

The report detailed the rising threat to the U.S. maritime supply chain and national security posed by Chinese-made equipment that could be accessed by Beijing’s military.

The CCP mandates that Chinese companies cooperate with state intelligence agencies.

A joint statement about the report from Reps. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), Mark Green (R-Tenn.), and Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) said the United States was risking its economic security for short-term financial gain by purchasing Chinese equipment for U.S. infrastructure.

“We have given the CCP the ability to track the movement of goods through our ports or even halt port activity at the drop of a hat,” they stated.

“Amid China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific, our greatest geopolitical adversary could wield this power to influence global military and commercial activity in the event of escalation.”

The U.S. maritime sector is “dangerously reliant” on equipment and technology that has been manufactured and assembled in China, such as ship-to-shore cranes and container handling equipment, according to the report.

With financial support from Beijing, state-controlled Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co. (ZPMC) dominates the global maritime equipment and technology market, the report said.

Retired Army Col. John Mills previously told The Epoch Times that the cranes are believed to be an extension of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) global cybercrime operation, which could be used to disrupt U.S. ports during an invasion of Taiwan.

“Those container cranes are not cranes,” Col. Mills said. “They’re IP endpoints on a worldwide intelligence collection system.”

The report also noted that Chinese state-owned enterprises, including ZPMC, have made concerted efforts to increase their influence through underpricing equipment and technology, making it more attractive than their competitors.

ZPMC equipment company accounts for nearly 80 percent of the ship-to-shore cranes used by U.S. ports.

Cargo cranes are necessary for the U.S. maritime sector to conduct international trade and military logistical operations during a military conflict.
The report found concerns with ZPMC, which has publicly denied being a cybersecurity threat to the United States.

One problem noted in the document was that ZPMC or its contractors installed cellular modems onto cranes that are currently operational at certain U.S. ports. No contract to install these modems exists.

ZPMC has repeatedly requested remote access to its cranes operating at U.S. ports, with a particular focus on those located on the West Coast, the report said.

That could give China’s military access to the cranes.

Another issue is that ZPMC’s contract requires that all non-ZPMC crane components be shipped to “Changxing Base” in China by third-party companies, such as Sweden, Germany, and Japan.

There, they are installed by ZPMC engineers without oversight from the original manufacturer, raising red flags, according to the report.

The installation of components takes place at or near the Jiangnan Shipyard, where the People’s Liberation Army Navy builds its most advanced warships and houses its intelligence agencies, it noted.

Another potential problem was that contracts between ZPMC and U.S. ports do not contain provisions prohibiting or limiting unauthorized modifications or access to equipment and technology bound for U.S. ports.

The report recommended quick action on removing or disassembling any connection to cellular modems on Chinese-made cranes.

It called for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to issue guidance to all U.S. ports using ZPMC cranes to install operational technology monitoring software.

The report also stated that the United States should help provide cybersecurity and port security to Guam, a strategic U.S. ally in the Pacific.

Midterm goals outlined in the report include congressional action to allocate grant money to ports to offset the cost of buying more expensive cranes made by non-adversarial nations.

The United States does not manufacture its own maritime cranes and container equipment, leaving it vulnerable. Manufacturing cranes in America should be a long-term goal, the report stated.

Potential military threats to U.S. seaports stemming from China came to light in February 2021.

The report, citing media accounts, noted that the FBI discovered intelligence-gathering equipment on Chinese cargo cranes that arrived at the Port of Baltimore.

That same year, the Defense Intelligence Agency reportedly conducted a classified assessment, finding that Beijing could potentially throttle port traffic or gather intelligence on military equipment being shipped.

In February 2023, the FBI’s Office of the Private Sector issued an advisory highlighting indicators of malicious Chinese activity in the U.S. maritime sector, including unusual visits and unusually low bids or quotes to supply port equipment and services.

In January, FBI Director Christopher Wray said during a congressional hearing that Chinese Volt Typhoon malware embedded in critical infrastructure throughout the United States had been removed.

Wray said the malware was designed to disrupt and destroy U.S. infrastructure, which would likely be coordinated should a conflict break out between the two nations.

In February, President Joe Biden issued an executive order allowing DHS to address maritime cyber threats and establish cybersecurity standards to secure the networks and systems of U.S. ports.

Aaron Pan contributed to this report.

Analysts say the case serves as a warning to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its agents hiding within the U.S. government.

In its indictment, the Department of Justice (DOJ), says Sun violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and is charged with 10 counts, including visa fraud, money laundering, and accepting benefits to engage in activities that benefit China and the CCP. Her businessman husband, Christopher Hu, 40, was also charged with multiple crimes, including money laundering.

Sun acted at the request of CCP officials and “engaged in numerous political activities in the interests of the PRC and the CCP, including blocking representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to high-level New York State officers,” the DOJ said in a press release.

The charges against Sun also include “changing high-level New York State officers’ messaging regarding issues of importance to the PRC and the CCP; obtaining official New York State proclamations for PRC government representatives without proper authorization,” and “arranging meetings for visiting delegations from the PRC government with New York State government officials” among others.

The DOJ said Sun received “substantial economic and other benefits” from the CCP for these activities. PRC is the acronym for China’s official name: the People’s Republic of China.

Sun, 41, also known as Wen Sun, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Nanjing, China, and moved to the United States with her parents at the age of 5.

She worked in the New York state government for about 15 years. In 2009, Sun served as chief of staff to New York State Assembly representative Grace Meng, a Democrat, who is currently a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2012, Sun joined the New York state government of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and later served as deputy chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, now the governor.

Infiltrating US Government

Wang Juntao, chairman of the National Committee of the China Democratic Party, said the case is especially important to people like himself—overseas Chinese activists who publicly protest against the CCP’s tyranny—because “those in the U.S. government who speak for and act on behalf of the CCP are the ones who should be the main focus of U.S. law enforcement’s crackdown.”

Wang said that the United States started the crackdown on CCP agents in the United States through FARA under former President Donald Trump, and then, “President Biden systematized it, since then the Western world has formed a unified containment of the CCP’s overseas spying operations.”

U.S.-based current affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan told The Epoch Times that Sun’s case is somewhat special because, in the past, most of the CCP spies arrested by the FBI were overseas Chinese community leaders or those posing as democracy activists.

“They were mainly engaged in transnational repression or collecting intelligence on Chinese dissidents in the United States, mostly in the field of human rights,” he said.

Sun’s case is different, Tang said, “mainly because she holds a high position in the U.S. government system, which affects many policies in New York State and even involves U.S. diplomatic relations.”

Tony Hu, a former U.S. Department of Defense official, told The Epoch Times that any U.S. civil servant must understand that, whether in the federal, state, or local government, “as long as you are a civil servant, you cannot use the convenience of your job to help foreign government. This will definitely be punished by U.S. law.”

Hu emphasized that civil servants “are supposed to help their country, state, and city—not foreign countries.”

Chinese Consulate Middleman

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press conference on Sept. 4 that New York Chinese consul general Huang Ping left his post, but “was not expelled.”

“Our understanding is that the consul general reached the end of a regular scheduled rotation in August,” Miller said.

Huang had served as the consul general in New York since November 2018. According to the CCP’s “Regulations on the Tenure, Seniority and Vacations of Permanent Personnel in Embassies and Consulates Abroad,” the general term of a consul general is three years, so Huang’s term should end in November this year.

Taiwanese retired Maj. Gen. Yu Tsung-chi, an adviser to the Formosa Republican Association, said the United States chose to accept the expiration of Huang’s term instead of demanding expulsion “to avoid enraging China to take the same expulsion measures to retaliate.”

“Then it would become a mutual revenge between democratic and totalitarian countries, which will blur the focus of the case. Therefore, the United States obviously wants to downplay such a serious intelligence infiltration incident in a low-key manner,” Yu told The Epoch Times.

Wang said that the CCP has deployed secret agents all over the United States.

Wang said that based on his knowledge and his connections in the CCP’s top political and military circles, for the CCP’s overseas agents “the Chinese consulate’s role is less significant [in the CCP’s espionage activities], and Beijing is directly controlling the overseas agents through the United Front Work Department from behind the scenes. Therefore, despite that the FBI has put a lot of effort, sometimes it is difficult to find evidence.”

The United Front Work Department is the Chinese regime’s spy and propaganda agency that also controls the regime’s transnational repression campaigns against overseas dissidents.

“The center of the CCP’s spy network is in Beijing. They mostly have exclusive contacts and will not let others know. The Chinese consulate itself also knows that they are actually under [the U.S. government’s] surveillance,” Wang said.

“The Chinese consulate also does deals with some American entrepreneurs, but the Chinese consulate is too conspicuous. The consulate will attend some activities of overseas Chinese groups, but they are not the ones who make the real arrangements.”

A CCP overseas agent who defected and fled to Australia, said that he directly took orders from the CCP’s secret police in Beijing.

Luo Ya, Ning Haizhong, and Fei Zhen contributed to this report.

One has to wonder about the true motives behind this blatant interference. When pretending to be Trump supporters, they’re obnoxious. When engaging with real Trump supporters, they’re threatening.

According to research reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, these Beijing-backed trolls are pushing divisive narratives on critical issues such as gun control, racial inequality, and the Israel-Hamas conflict. This is not just a casual online campaign; it’s a calculated effort to manipulate public opinion and sway the upcoming election in favor of their agenda.

Breitbart News has previously reported on TikTok’s troubling practices, revealing that the platform has sent sensitive user data about Americans—data that includes their opinions on gun control and abortion—straight to their Chinese overlords. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has now confirmed that TikTok employees communicate internally using a tool called Lark, claiming that “significant amounts of restricted US user data (including but not limited to personally identifiable information)” was shared on this platform. The DOJ further elaborates, stating, “This resulted in certain sensitive U.S. person data being contained in Lark channels and, therefore, stored on Chinese servers and accessible to ByteDance employees located in China.”

This raises a critical question: how can we trust a platform that so blatantly compromises American privacy and security? The Chinese propaganda machine is not just targeting former President Donald Trump; it has also set its sights on Vice President Kamala Harris and even President Joe Biden before he was ousted from his reelection campaign. The initiative is attributed to the notorious Chinese disinformation group, Spamouflage, as reported by the Associated Press.

Jack Stubbs, the chief intelligence officer at Graphika, stated, “One of the world’s largest covert online influence operations, an operation run by Chinese state-linked actors, has become more aggressive in its efforts to infiltrate and sway U.S. political conversations ahead of the election.” This is not just a minor issue; it’s a full-scale assault on our democratic processes.

The trolls are adopting fake identities to masquerade as U.S. voters, engaging in political debates online to control the narrative. One TikTok account, known as the “Harlan Report,” racked up an astonishing 1.5 million views on a single post. When pressed for their identity, the individual behind the account cryptically stated, “In your world, I am a clown. Sorry, You cannot know my identity, nobody ensure my safety.” This level of secrecy is deeply concerning and raises further questions about the integrity of the information being disseminated.

Following inquiries from the Wall Street Journal, TikTok took action and banned the Harlan Report account. However, a review of the account’s X profile revealed it had amassed 11,000 followers before being suspended from Elon Musk’s platform as well. The Harlan Report account posed as a 31-year-old conservative, complete with hashtags like #Patriotsunited, #MAGA, and Trump2024 in its bio.

Moreover, the Wall Street Journal uncovered that TikTok has been promoting “thousands of videos with political lies and hyperbole to its users.” One particular network of anti-Trump videos was traced back to a web of overseas accounts operating from China, Iran, and Vietnam.

While China, Russia, and Iran have denied any involvement in targeting U.S. voters through clandestine internet activities, it’s widely understood that foreign nations engage in online propaganda campaigns every election cycle. Earlier this summer, American spy agencies reported that Iran is actively seeking to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential race to prevent a second Trump term.

As we approach the 2024 election, it’s imperative that we remain vigilant against these politically motivated ploys. The integrity of our democracy is at stake, and we must question the motives behind these foreign interventions. Will we allow our political discourse to be hijacked by foreign actors, or will we stand up for the truth? The choice is ours.

Most Americans could not even pick out Taiwan on a blank map of the world, but for the Chinese the island of Taiwan is of the utmost importance.

On Thursday, a Chinese general told Jake Sullivan to his face that Taiwan is “the first red line that must not be crossed”…

A top Chinese general on Thursday told White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan that the U.S. must stop its “collusion” with Taiwan, during a high-stakes meeting in Beijing.

Gen. Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, told Sullivan that Taiwan “is at the very core of China’s core interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-US relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed,” according to a readout from the Chinese Ministry of National Defense.

“The PLA will definitely take countermeasures against the provocations of the Taiwan independence forces,” the readout said Zhang had told Sullivan, using an acronym for China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army. “China urges the US side to stop military collusion with Taiwan, stop arming Taiwan, and stop spreading false narratives on Taiwan.”

The Chinese are very angry.

And they have been preparing to take military action against Taiwan for a very long time.

When that finally happens, we will be at war with China, and everything will change.

Meanwhile, the Russians continue to gobble up even more territory in eastern Ukraine…

Russian troops continue to make significant advances toward Pokrovsk, the city in Donetsk that is a key logistics hub, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) whose map shows the latest state of play in the region.

The Washington, D.C., think tank cited geolocated footage from Wednesday it said showed Russian advances into Memryk, a town around 18 miles southeast of Pokrovsk, which some military bloggers claimed Moscow had completely seized.

Other geolocated footage showed advances by Russian forces in other areas southeast of Pokrovsk, near the city of Novohrodivka, which has been corroborated by Russian military bloggers.

At this point, western leaders are so desperate to achieve “victory” that they are throwing everything except the kitchen sink at the Russians.

In fact, the British have even sent robotic “war dogs” to Ukraine…

The United Kingdom has provided Ukraine with robotic “war dogs” that have started assisting troops on the battlefield and terrifying Russian troops who see them, according to reports.

“The robot dog demonstrated its capabilities in delivering a range of critical equipment, showcasing its potential as an invaluable asset to military units,” manufacturer Brit Alliance said of the units.

“The robot dog exhibited exceptional mobility and agility, crucial for traversing complex and hostile environments,” the company added. “Whether navigating through debris, climbing over obstacles, or moving stealthily across open ground, the robot dog has proven itself capable of maintaining a high level of operational effectiveness.”

Both sides are just going to keep escalating matters until a line is crossed that will never be able to be uncrossed.

The Russians are preparing for that inevitability by constructing shiny new bomb shelters for their population…

The Kremlin yesterday released a bizarre video glamorising its newly built bomb shelters, as Ukraine continued its incursion into Russian territory.

Filmed in the popular Black Sea resort of Sochi, the clip features two young women smiling as they walk into a shelter – as if this is just another part of everyday life.

Unfortunately for us, when bombs start falling on our soil we will be out of luck because we don’t have any bomb shelters.

Interestingly, a YouGov poll that was conducted last year discovered that 66 percent of Americans are concerned that humanity could be wiped out by nuclear weapons…

According to a 2023 YouGov poll of a thousand respondents, sixty-six per cent are worried that the human race will be wiped out by nuclear weapons; roughly the same number worry that we will be killed off by a world war; fifty-three per cent think the next pandemic could do us in; fifty-two per cent bet on climate change; forty-six per cent on A.I.; forty-two per cent on an act of God; thirty-seven per cent on an asteroid; thirty-one per cent global inability to have children; twenty-five per cent an alien invasion.

We should be very thankful that nuclear weapons have not been used in combat since the end of World War II.

Unfortunately, it won’t be too long before that streak ends.

The war that I am watching more closely than any other right now is the current conflict in the Middle East.

This week, Israel launched the largest military operation in the West Bank that we have seen “in at least two decades”…

Thursday marks day two of the Israeli military and security forces’ large-scale raid into the West Bank, the biggest seen in at least two decades. Fierce fighting overnight focused on a mosque in the city of Tulkarem, resulting in five Palestinian gunmen being killed.

The first day of the major assault involving hundreds of IDF troops and Shin Bet security personnel left at least nine Palestinians dead. Fighter jets, drones, and bulldozers have been seen focusing counter-terror efforts in the towns of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas – each which also contains sprawling refugee camps.

Amid international criticism over the apparent expansion of the Gaza war into the PA-administered West Bank, Israeli leadership says it has intelligence showing that if it didn’t act, another Oct.7-style terror attack might have been launched from operatives in the West Bank.

Needless to say, this has caused tensions in the region to soar even higher.

At one point, Israeli troops actually fired “shoulder-launched missiles” at a mosque in Tulkarem…

In Tulkarem, troops of Border Police’s elite Yamam counterterrorism unit were dispatched to a mosque in the city following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet of a group of gunmen holed up there.

The Yamam officers carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker” that involves escalating the volume of fire directed at a building to force suspects to come out.

The Israeli forces had fired shoulder-launched missiles at the mosque as part of the tactic, and two gunmen were killed.

As you can imagine, many in the Islamic world are working themselves up into a frenzy over this.

I have never seen more anger and more frustration in the region, and it is only a matter of time before it fully explodes. In fact, even the mainstream media is now admitting that an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah “is inevitable”…

Furthermore, after the complete failure of UNSCR 1701 that concluded the Second Lebanon War and that was supposed to make sure Hezbollah would not rearm in south Lebanon — it did so anyway — many Israelis lost all trust in the efficacy of diplomacy to stop Hezbollah.

The brutal truth is that war between Israel and Hezbollah is inevitable, even if it won’t happen this week or next week, or even in the next few months. Hezbollah has proven to Israelis and Israeli decision-makers that it is a considerable threat that cannot be dealt with only by trying to stop its rearmament.

I think that it is quite likely that we could see all-out war in the Middle East by the end of this calendar year.

Sadly, most people have absolutely no idea what that is going to look like.

It is going to be more horrible than most people would dare to imagine.

Of course the same thing could be said about the other cataclysmic conflicts that are coming too.

I have been writing about these approaching conflicts for many years, and now we are just about there.

If people really understood the death and destruction that these wars will cause, there would be enormous anti-war movements all over the planet.

But instead, billions of people seem to have come down with a really bad case of “war fever”, and that is extremely unfortunate.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

The patents were granted in fields such as semiconductors, chemical engineering, nanotechnology and biotechnology, and all were funded at least in part by the U.S. and one China-based investor, according to Reuters. The revelations come alongside debates over whether the U.S. should withdraw from the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, a bilateral research deal between the two countries that has fallen under some criticism for allegedly giving too much benefit to China.

“It’s alarming that U.S. taxpayers have unwittingly funded over 1,000 patents claimed by Chinese entities, with the Department of Defense accounting for nearly 100 of these patents,” Michigan Republican Rep. John Moolenar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told Reuters.

Americans Now Losing To China On Most Critical Issue Yethttps://t.co/ZzS5fixwOM

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 10, 2024

Among the patents listed were 197 in the pharmaceutical sector and 154 in biotechnologies, which are both highly strategic fields for both the U.S. and China, according to patent data reviewed by Reuters. It wasn’t clear whether the patents were shared by U.S. entities or other individuals.

The funding was provided by agencies including the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE) and four agencies receiving financial backing from NASA, which itself cannot directly cooperate with Chinese entities under U.S. law, according to Reuters. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also provided funding to help create 356 patents, more than any other agency.

It wasn’t clear what specific projects were protected under the patents, according to Reuters. There wasn’t an indication that the patents were funded by the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, which is the framework deal penned in 1979 to jointly conduct research between the two countries.

The U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement has fallen under scrutiny for allowing China to collaborate and glean from research that could help upgrade its military capabilities, according to Reuters. The deal expired in August but has been given multiple extensions, with the latest extension having ended on Tuesday.

DOD, DOE and HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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