Tag: China

Chinese Scientists Create System to Care For Embryos in Artificial Womb

Tony Tran – February 1, 2022

Parents of the future rejoice! Scientists in China have developed an AI nanny that they say could one day take care of human fetuses in a lab.

Researchers in Suzhou, China, claim to have created a system that can monitor and care for embryos as they grow into fetuses while growing inside an artificial womb, The South China Morning Post reports.

The robotic nanny is already reportedly caring for a number of animal embryos. Experimentation on human embryos, however, is still forbidden under international law, as the newspaper points out.

The team published their findings in the Journal of Biomedical Engineering last month. In the paper, they detail an “online monitoring system” designed for the “long-term culture of embryos.”

The system could theoretically allow parents to grow a baby in a lab, thereby eliminating the need for a human to carry a child. The researchers go as far as to say that this system would be safer than traditional childbearing.

Beyond those claims, though, it remains unclear whether the system could actually bring an embryo, mouse or otherwise, to term.

As it exists right now, the artificial womb is a container that grows a number of mouse embryos in a row of cubes filled with nutritious fluids, according to the paper.

The AI nanny is reportedly able to monitor the embryos, detect changes, and adjust their artificial environment accordingly. It can even alert a technician in case an embryo develops a defect or dies.

The technology is still very much in its nascent stages, but a looming population crisis in China is only serving to accelerate its development.

“I don’t think technology would be a problem,” one anonymous researcher at the Capital Institute of Pediatrics in Beijing, told the SCMP, adding that the tech could risk turning hospitals into factories that churn out babies — and no hospital “would want to bear this responsibility.”

https://futurism.com

China: U.S. Troops in Taiwan ‘Could Trigger a War’

Frances Martel – October 28, 2021

China’s government-run media have responded to President Tsai Ing-wen’s revelation of an American military presence in Taiwan explosively, warning on Thursday that those troops could “trigger a war.”

An alleged political “expert” quoted in the state propaganda outlet Global Times urged the Communist Party to attack both Taiwan and the United States, making moves “like ‘slamming nails into the hands of the U.S. and Taiwan to make them hurt.’”

The Global Times itself, in an editorial, described democratically elected Taiwanese officials as “quenching their thirst with poison” by relying on American support.

Taiwan is a sovereign nation and free society run through a democratic system. China falsely claims Taiwan as a “province” despite Beijing historically never having control over the island. The Communist Party forces all countries, including the United States, seeking diplomatic relations with Taiwan to disavow Taiwan’s sovereignty. Washington has traditionally supported Taiwan by allowing it “representative offices” it cannot refer to as consulates or embassies on U.S. soil, as well as selling weapons to the Taiwanese military.

Last week, President Joe Biden said America would become involved militarily in any Taiwan-China clash, prompting the White House to rapidly issue a statement walking back his claim.

Tsai, who became Taiwan’s first president on a wave of anti-communist sentiment, told CNN in an interview published Wednesday that American forces are present on the island. She asserted that these troops were “not as many as people thought.” America does not have any official military presence in Taiwan.

“We have a wide range of cooperation with the US aiming at increasing our defense capability,” she continued.

https://www.breitbart.com

Russia and China Hold Joint Naval Drills in Sea of Japan

Newsmax – October 15, 2021

Russia and China held joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan on Friday and practiced how to operate together and destroy floating enemy mines with artillery fire, the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.

The war games are part of naval cooperation drills between the two countries which run from Oct. 14-17 and involve warships and support vessels from Russia’s Pacific Fleet, including mine-sweepers and a submarine.

Moscow and Beijing have cultivated closer military and diplomatic ties in recent years at a time when their relations with the West have soured.

Two Chinese destroyers, a submarine and two corvettes were among the vessels Beijing had sent to take part in the drills, the Russian defense ministry said, saying they had dropped anchor in the Russian far east the previous day.

The combined force would practice shooting at targets designed to imitate enemy surface ships and hold air-defense drills involving Russian SU-30SM multi-functional fighter jets and helicopters, the ministry said.

https://www.newsmax.com

WAR DRUMS: China outraged over reports of U.S. military presence in Taiwan, Threatens to launch air strike to “Eliminate U.S. invaders”

ETH – October 7. 2021

Leaders in China almost immediately expressed outrage Thursday at a new report indicating the U.S. has secretly stationed forces on Taiwan in an attempt to bolster the island nation’s defenses against the increasing likelihood of an attack from the mainland.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that a small unit of special operations forces have been based in Taiwan for at least a year to train local military forces – a move China has previously said would violate contentious agreements between Washington and Beijing that have maintained a fragile security understanding regarding Taiwan for decades.

Asian outlets first reported last year the possible presence of Marines there. “Why just two dozen members? Why secretly? The US should send 240 servicemen publicly, in US military uniform, and make public where they are stationed,” Hu Xijin, the editor in chief of China’s English language Global Times, considered a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, wrote in a tweet accompanying the Journal’s article. He added of China’s military, “See whether the PLA will launch a targeted airstrike to eliminate those US invaders!” China has previously indicated it would retaliate swiftly and immediately to any indication the U.S. had deployed military forces to Taiwan.

When Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, claimed without explanation in August that the U.S. had roughly 30,000 forces on Taiwan, state news in Beijing fired back that, if true, the Chinese military would “crush them by force.” What has previously been downplayed as idle threats have taken on new potency in recent days, following China’s steady deployment of aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense zone on an unprecedented scale.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

China’s Xi warns of ‘grim’ situation with Taiwan

AFP – September 26, 2021

Beijing — Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that relations between Beijing and Taipei were “grim” on Sunday, urging the island’s main opposition party to help seek “unification of the country.”

China views self-ruled democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and vows to retake it one day, by force if necessary.

Xi has become the most bellicose leader since Mao Zedong, describing the seizure of the island as “inevitable.”

In a congratulatory letter to Eric Chu — the newly elected leader of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) party — Xi said the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT should collaborate under a “shared political basis.”

“In the past our two parties insisted on ‘1992 consensus’ and opposing ‘Taiwan independence’ … to promote peaceful developments in cross- strait relations,” Xi said in the letter released by the KMT.

“At present the situation in the Taiwan Strait is complex and grim,” he said, urging the parties to jointly seek peace and “the unification of the country.”

Ties between Taiwan and China improved markedly under former president Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT between 2008 and 2016, culminating with a landmark meeting between Xi and him in Singapore in 2015.

The KMT has sidestepped frictions with China by accepting the so-called 1992 consensus — a tacit agreement that there is only “one China” without specifying whether Beijing or Taipei is its rightful representative.

In response, Chu said in a letter to Xi that the two sides should “seek common ground and respect their differences” to promote peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing has stepped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who views the island as a sovereign nation and not part of “one China.”

Last year, Chinese military jets made a record 380 incursions into Taiwan’s defense zone, with some analysts warning that tensions between the two sides were at their highest since the mid-1990s.

https://thelibertyloft.com

Taiwan mounts urgent response after 19 Chinese PLA jets, including two nuclear-capable bombers, enter its air defense zone

RT – September 23, 2021

Taiwan’s air force rushed to warn off a fleet of jets belonging to China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that entered its air defense identification zone, including two nuclear-capable planes, Taipei has said.

On Thursday, the Ministry of National Defence announced that 19 Chinese aircraft had entered into the southwest of the island’s air defense zone, prompting Taiwan to dispatch patrol troops to respond, as well as to activate anti-aircraft missile tracking and monitoring.

The fleet comprised 12 J-16 fighters, two Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, a pair of H-6 nuclear-capable bombers, two J-11 jets, and one Y-8 EW.

The government reported a smaller incursion last week in the same area comprising 10 PLA aircraft, among them six J-16 and two J-11 fighters. The day before the flyby, Taipei had pledged an extra $8.69 billion to be spent over the next five years to boost its arsenal against threats from China, citing concerns that Beijing’s military strength had recently been significantly beefed up.

Beijing, which views Taiwan as part of its territory under its ‘One China’ policy, has frequently expressed a grievance over US involvement with Taipei – a relationship it describes as ruining the “status quo.”

Last month, the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command conducted assault drills in response to “provocations,” citing the heightened US military and political ties with the island, which Beijing deems “collusion.” The exercises were intended to test its troops’ capability and to “further safeguard China’s sovereignty,” according to a senior PLA colonel.

https://www.rt.com

Africa Swine Fever: Is China downplaying another disease outbreak?

DW – September 17, 2021

During a teleconference more than two years ago, Chinese Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua urged health authorities to step up efforts to rein in a growing outbreak despite initial “positive results,” and suggested that “enhancing quarantine and monitoring” measures would help prevent the spread of the virus.

Hu’s comments came before the discovery of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Instead, he was referring to a different, far deadlier disease: African Swine Fever (ASF) — an illness that affects pigs.

Chinese officials first identified ASF in 2018 in Liaoning, a coastal province in China’s northeast. Unlike SARS-CoV-2, ASF does not threaten human health. The disease, however, is highly virulent in pigs and mortality rates approach 100%.

ASF is of particular concern in China, the world’s top pork consumer and home to roughly half of the world’s pigs. Given the country’s enormous pig population, ASF could turn China into a significant reservoir of disease and pose a threat to China’s neighbors in the region if it becomes endemic.

This year, China reported 12 ASF cases to the OIE, the intergovernmental body that tracks animal diseases, down from a high of 105 in 2018. Except for a small bump in cases earlier this year, ASF numbers have consistently declined, according to official figures.

Some industry experts, however, believe that China may be obfuscating African Swine Fever’s actual toll on hog herds by under-reporting infection numbers, and painting an artificially rosy picture.

The cost of pork in China is an economic bellwether. Tapping into China’s strategic pork stockpile allowed Beijing to stabilize pork prices from a high last year, but ASF could still cause headaches of epic proportions.

https://www.dw.com

Human-animal hybrids: Senate approves billions of dollars for their chilling creation

Jose Hermosa – June 15, 2021

After a long debate, The Senate approved with 68–32 votes a budget of $250 billion to continue with the controversial creation of hybrid beings by mixing human and animal genetic material.

The bill called the “Endless Frontier Act,” was introduced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, according to Life Site on June 14.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) referred to the ethical incompatibility and the need to establish clear definitions on the matter in an attitude of submission to international competition.

“We shouldn’t need to clarify in law that creating animal-human hybrids or ‘chimeras’ is ethically unthinkable, but sadly the need for that very clear distinction has arrived,” said Lankford, who, along with Sens. Mike Braun R-Ind.), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) sought to criminalize the creation of such creatures.

He added: “There’s a real difference in taking human cells and injecting them into a mouse for cancer research and for other research. That’s been done, and it’s been done for a very long time, and we’ve had time to be able to process that, but trying to be able to create life is a very different threshold for me.”

Senator Daines noted, “In trying to compete with China, we shouldn’t become like them, It’s critical that we draw a bright line against unethical forms of research that fail to recognize the distinct value of humans over animals.”

Although the 2019 Trump Administration had shut down the procurement of human fetal tissue from elective abortions for research and created an ethics board to review any such research in laboratories and universities, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reversed these provisions in April 2021.

On the other hand, private research at U.S. universities continues its experiments.

https://m.thebl.tv

The Collapse Of Afghanistan Has Brought Us A Lot Closer To A Chinese Invasion Of Taiwan

– August 17, 2021

The way that the Biden administration has handled the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is not going to bring peace.  Instead, I believe that it is going to result in more war.  For decades, the overwhelming strength of the United States restrained other major powers from becoming too adventurous.  But now the stunning defeat in Afghanistan has exposed how weak we have become.  At this point, the U.S. is like a rapidly aging boxer that is becoming even more feeble with each passing day.  At one time we may have been able to take on anyone, but now we are in an advanced state of decline and we have utterly incompetent leadership in the White House, in Congress and in the Pentagon.

As I discussed yesterday, the debacle that is currently playing out in Kabul is going to greatly embolden the enemies of the United States.

In particular, Chinese leaders are absolutely loving what they are seeing, and they can’t help but express their delight…

Chinese state media, meanwhile, reported on America’s “humiliation” in Afghanistan with relish, using scenes of the chaotic US evacuation and swift resurgence of the Taliban as proof of the superiority of China’s hands-off approach to other countries’ internal affairs.

“The drastic change in Afghanistan’s situation is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the US. It declared the complete failure of US intent to reshape Afghanistan,” the state-run tabloid Global Times said in an editorial published late on Sunday night. “This defeat of the US is a clearer demonstration of US impotence than the Vietnam War — the US is indeed like a ‘paper tiger.’”

In this instance, the Chinese are 100 percent correct.

The United States really has become a “paper tiger”.

Our “woke military” has become a pathetic shadow of what it once was, and even if we had a competent military the brass in the Pentagon would have no idea how to use it because they are completely and utterly clueless.

And this is a huge problem for our friends in Taiwan, because the U.S. military has been the only thing holding the Chinese back from invading the island.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

Russia and China hold large-scale joint military drills

Ricky Scaparo – August 10, 2021

(ETH) – Russia and China are holding a large-scale joint military exercise in north-central China involving more than 10,000 troops, Russia’s defense ministry said on Tuesday. According to Reuters, The Sibu/Cooperation-2021 drills in China’s Ningxia region are being watched for signs that China and Russia are expanding military cooperation as they spar with the West.

Russia’s Kommersant newspaper said the drills taking place until Friday marked the first time Russian soldiers would use Chinese weapons. Russia and China have conducted drills since 2005. Moscow sent Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter aircraft, motorized rifle units, and air defense systems to the exercise that was focused on counter-terrorism, the defense ministry said in a statement.

The drills come as the Taliban has gained ground in Afghanistan where security has deteriorated as the United States withdraws its troops after two decades of war, creating a security headache for Moscow. Separately, Russia on Tuesday completed joint drills in Tajikistan with Uzbek and Tajik forces near the Afghan border.

According to Al Jazeera, The exercises aim to “deepen … joint anti-terrorism operations” and “demonstrate the firm determination and strength of the two countries to jointly safeguard international and regional security and stability”, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Chinese and Russian officials.

“It reflects the new height of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era and of the strategic mutual trust, pragmatic exchanges and coordination between the two countries,” Xinhua said.

https://endtimeheadlines.org