China Has Up To 6 Warships In Mideast Waters As US Carrier Group Moves Closer To Israel
Israel’s military has announced Saturday that it drastically stepped up airstrikes in preparation for its “next stage” of the operation against Gaza, in a statement many see as portending an imminent ground invasion.
“We need to enter under the best possible conditions and this is what we are doing now, as the next stage of war approaches,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari explained after confirming, “from today, we are increasing the strikes and minimizing the danger.”
“We will narrow the risks to our forces over the next stages. This is why we have once again urged residents of Gaza to keep moving south,” he added, in words that Israeli media also took to mean a ground assault is about to happen.
One big development from earlier in day was that 20 large trucks loaded with humanitarian aid were for the first time allowed to pass into Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt.
Controversy was then sparked by a New York Times report which claimed the aid convoy was not checked by inspectors before it went into the strip, amid allegations that weapons or ammo could be hidden in the convoy. Israel has denied the report, however:
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories denies that aid entering the Gaza Strip was not checked before going in.
“All of the equipment was checked before going into Gaza,” it says in a statement, noting that the shipment included “only water, food and medical equipment.”
“We emphasize that Israel is able to make sure that nothing goes in or out except the aforementioned,” it adds.
Fears are now growing that Hezbollah could fully enter the conflict, with widespread speculation that the well-armed Shia paramilitary group backed by Iran is ready to mount a full attack on northern Israel if the IDF launches a ground assault on the Gaza Strip. So far there has only been sporadic by intensifying rocket and mortar fire from south Lebanon.
US warships and at least one carrier are in the region (with a second carrier headed that way),as part of “support” operations – but the whole region is on edge given the possibility of a Middle East-wide bigger conflagration.
The USS Gerald Ford Carrier Strike Group’s maneuvers in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea from October 10 to 21. pic.twitter.com/0gH7D63uJU
Worrisomely other major global powers are bolstering their presence, particularly ones which have of late issued severe criticisms of Israel’s largescale aerial assault on Gaza (namely Russia and China), which has killed thousands of civilians – many women and children among them. Russia has been operating jet patrols over Syria, and importantly China now has additional warships in the Mideast region.
Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post has confirmed that up to six Chinese warships have been in Middle East waters over the last week.
“The 44th naval escort task force has been involved in routine operations in the area since May and last week spent several days on a visit to Oman, including a joint exercise with the country’s navy, according to the Chinese defense ministry website,” the report says.
The Chief of General Staff for the Israeli Defense Force, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi met with Commanders of Golani Brigade today in Southern Lebanon near the Border with the Gaza Strip where he stated, “We will soon enter the Gaza Strip. We will embark on an Operational and… pic.twitter.com/ItguR0tKjk
While the warships’ presence off Oman is being presented as “routine” – it seems clear the Chinese PLA Navy is going to stick around, given fast-moving events in Israel-Gaza. Days ago, Beijing’s foreign ministry urged all Chinese citizens to make plans to depart Israel while international flights are still available. Are Chinese warships now headed to the Mediterranean?
The Biden White House has reportedly been urging Netanyahu to hold off on the invasion to give more time to negotiate for hostages, after two Americans were released Friday…
Washington Post: “One U.S. official said it was clear that Netanyahu was not going to wait until the hostage crisis was resolved to initiate a ground offensive and that there was little Washington could do to change that calculus.”
This weekend, all eyes will remain on both Gaza and south Lebanon, as the major powers of the US, Russia, and China keep their military assets on the ready. Iran is also no doubt watching events closely, with Iranian officials having in the last days made key visits to regional capitals Baghdad, Damascus, and Beirut. There’s also fear in Tehran of the potential for an Israeli preemptive attack on Iranian nuclear and military facilities, which Israeli leaders have threatened before.
Israel’s attack on the fifth-century Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza has turned the spotlight on the besieged Palestinian enclave’s Christian population.
At least 18 people were killed in the bombing on a social services annex in the church’s complex of buildings. Both Muslims and Christians took shelter within its walls hoping that its historical and religious importance would spare it the carnage that has affected other areas of Gaza.
As part of historic Palestine it is impossible to disconnect the history of Palestinian Christians in Gaza from those who share their faith in the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and within the Palestinian community in Israel. The region is the birthplace of Christianity and the location of many of the events of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
Palestinian Christians in Gaza, like other Palestinians there, do not see themselves as detached from the wider Palestinian nation. Nevertheless, there is a unique Christian history specific to Gaza. While just over a thousand Christians remain in Gaza, the territory holds a special significance in the development of the faith.
The region is referred to by name in the New Testament in Acts 8, which refers to Philip the Evangelist baptizing a man from Ethiopia on the road between Jerusalem and Gaza. “Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, ‘Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is a desert,” the verse reads.
There are also several historic Christian sites that are not only important locally but carry importance for Christians generally. The site of the Israeli attack on Thursday evening, the Saint Porphyrius Church, is one of the most important religious sites in Palestine.
Named after a fifth-century bishop, the site is one of the oldest surviving places of worship in the region and one of the oldest churches in the world.
The church was initially built in 425A.D. and then later reconstructed by Crusaders in the 12th century, with much of the present structure dating back to that period. Another major Christian site in Gaza is the nearby and even older Tell Umm Amer monastery.
The fourth-century structure, which now lies mainly in ruins, once included churches, a baptism hall, a cemetery and crypt. It served as a place of worship for those travelling between Egypt and the lands of the Levant, including Palestine and Syria.
The site is notable for being the birthplace of Saint Hilarion, a fourth-century Palestinian monk, who helped pioneer monasticism. The presence of these early churches and monasteries, as well as the Biblical reference, indicate that Christianity in Gaza took root in tandem with the development of the faith in the region. But widespread adoption of the faith did not take place until the fifth century.
According to the scholar Nicole Belayche, the strength of pagan cults in Gaza before the fifth century is “indisputable”. In her essay in the book Christian Gaza in Late Antiquity, she writes that when Porphyrius was ordained bishop of Gaza, the Christian population stood at “less than three hundred in a population estimated at between 20,000 and 25,000”.
Gaza’s mass conversion to Christianity started in the fifth century under the auspices of the Byzantine Empire, the successor to the Eastern Roman Empire. “It was a hard process, one requiring recourse to imperial intervention,” she writes.
Initial reluctance was overcome by the efforts of holy men, such as Porphyrius, and incorporation of indigenous ritual into church rites, Belayche explains. While Christianity was widely adopted by the end of the sixth century, it was not long before there was a new dominant religion.
In his book History of the City of Gaza, the late 19th century Jewish-American scholar Martin A Meyer writes: “The new faith had barely sufficient time to establish itself before Islam swept it away from this part of the world forever.”
Meyer’s statement is hyperbolic but touches on the truth that over the centuries that followed the Arab conquest, much of the region’s population converted to Islam.
There still remained a small Christian minority in the area of Gaza, which survived for centuries and enjoyed a brief flourishing under Crusader rule in the 12th century. Like their fellow Palestinians, many of the region’s Christians were forced from their homes during the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
The last few remaining Christians slaughtered in the land their faith was founded. So incredibly sad https://t.co/zlWY8SmgJB
As a result, the Christian population of Gaza has dwindled further over the decades, a trend that has continued after the Nakba. According to the Guardian, there were 6,000 Palestinian Christians in Gaza in the mid-1960s and that number has fallen to 1,100 today.
Most Christians in the besieged region today follow the Greek Orthodox Church, while minorities follow the Baptist and Catholic churches. Since the Israeli siege of Gaza began in 2007, Christians have faced similar restrictions on movement as their Muslim neighbors have to live under.
Cut off from larger Christian communities in the West Bank and Jerusalem, members of the faith require Israeli permits to travel to those areas for religious occasions. In 2021, Israel issued permits for around half of the Palestinian Christian population in Gaza to attend Christmas services.
Such rights to attend rituals are by no means guaranteed, as evidenced by Israel’s decision to cancel 700 permits for Christians in Gaza to attend Easter services in Jerusalem. Israel similarly rejected permit applications for 260 Palestinians in Gaza wanting to spend Christmas outside of the territory, either in the occupied West Bank or elsewhere.
Despite their small number, Churches in Gaza have regularly opened their doors to adherents of any faith to seek shelter during times of conflict, in the hope that houses of worship will not be attacked by Israel. Such hopes may fade fast after the most recent Israeli attack on the Church of Saint Porphyrius.
Bloomberg, the news media company named after and owned by prominent anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is terrified of a worldwide gun culture.
In a recent series of articles, Bloomberg journalists detail how firearms companies are “fueling violence across the world” through sales to other countries. While the articles certainly attempt to frame gun ownership in other countries as the cause of violence, two key points are left out.
First, many firearms exports worldwide are specifically for law enforcement and military contracts, not civilian sales. So, while Sig Sauer (the target of a Bloomberg hit piece on firearms exports) does export firearms overseas, many of these are for arming police officers and soldiers in foreign militaries.
Second is that violence isn’t caused by firearms. Violence is a human problem. An article in the series asserts that Sig Sauer is somehow responsible for the black-market firearms trade in Thailand and violent acts committed by those who used Sig products. It’s very likely that if Sig Sauer was not able to sell their firearms in Thailand, the purported acts of violence would still have occurred with a different brand that Bloomberg journalists may not have been as interested in.
A newer article in the series highlighted Brazil as being a major importer of US-made firearms, but failed to mention the fact that after former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro made firearms permits easier and cheaper for law-abiding citizens to acquire, homicides fell 34%, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Brazil, one of the most violent nations on earth (with cities like Salvador and Fortaleza having homicide numbers in the thousands), is plagued by crime and gang violence. Firearms are routinely stolen from police armories and sometimes even manufactured right in the favela. Why not mention that American-style civilian firearm ownership helped to decrease homicides?
Interestingly, this detail is left out of the Bloomberg reporting, and maybe it doesn’t fit the anti-gun progressive narrative by corporate media.
Lastly, a question that must be posed in the face of this reporting is why Bloomberg fears an American-style gun culture in other countries.
An American style of gun ownership allows citizens to defend themselves without reliance on government entities like the police or military. It will enable citizens to be truly independent. For a billionaire like Michael Bloomberg, who can afford private security 24/7, this can be hard to understand. Still, for someone living in a Brazilian favela or a cartel-controlled territory in Mexico, firearm ownership could be the determining factor between life and death.
It’s very telling that at the end of the Bloomberg article, a disclaimer reads: Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates gun-safety measures, is backed by Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
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Xi Jinping’s visit to Ürümchi, the capital of the Uyghur region, in August has sent a chill through the human rights and Uyghur diaspora communities. During his trip, Xi called on local officials to preserve “hard won social stability” and enhance measures to manage “illegal religious activities.” Xi personally put in place the policies for ongoing crimes against humanity and genocide in East Turkistan, premised on combatting “religious extremism.” And now he is saying that the ongoing repression targeting Uyghurs isn’t harsh enough. This ominous declaration should be seen as a dire warning, signaling darker days ahead for the Uyghur population.
Xi is slated to visit San Francisco in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum Leaders Summit. When he meets with the leaders of the 21 APEC economies, which account for nearly 40% of the global population and nearly 50% of global trade, his public declaration that China will deepen its current Xinjiang policies cannot go unchallenged.
Since 2016, the world has witnessed the systematic persecution of Uyghurs in East Turkistan. Reports of mass detentions, forced labor, cultural suppression, and genocidal birth control policies have cast an even longer shadow over China’s human rights record. Despite mounting evidence, the international response has been disturbingly inadequate.
Xi Jinping’s remarks in Ürümchi should serve as a wake-up call: The policies of total surveillance, total assimilation, and universal placement in government jobs are ongoing. Nobody should be taken in by external propaganda purporting to show that everything is normal, saying journalists and tourists are welcome in “Beautiful Xinjiang.” The happy, dancing Uyghurs in the “I’m from Xinjiang” videos in 2023 were preceded by the “new Uyghurs” in the 2021 “Amazing Xinjiang” campaign. But when AFP News tried to inquire about the families of overseas Uyghurs during a recent reporting trip, they were warned away by dozens of plainclothes security officers, toting shovels and hoes.
Visits to the Uyghur region by genocide enablers, such as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League, should not surprise anyone. However, it is the turn toward engagement with China from staunch supporters of Uyghur rights like the United States and the United Kingdom that is alarming. As the shock of revelations about internment camps and forced labor has waned, sanctions and condemnations have petered out. Bilateral diplomacy has shifted towards improving “lines of communication” with China.
The shift toward engagement plays right into the hands of the Chinese government, which prefers to operate with its dialogue partners turning a blind eye to its human rights abuses. Even more effective is China’s leveraging of its economic largesse and political power to divide any unified response that would exert meaningful pressure on Beijing.
Moreover, the United Nations, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, have been glacially slow to take meaningful action. Despite mounting evidence and OHCHR’s own findings of China’s human rights crimes in the Uyghur region, these bodies have been unable to enact diplomatic protest, let alone bring those responsible to justice.
Indeed, I argue that inaction is normalizing genocide. To address this retrenchment in world attention, the international community must take immediate and coordinated action. This includes:
Increased sanctions: Countries should expand and strengthen sanctions against Chinese officials and entities involved in the Uyghur genocide. This not only holds individuals accountable but also sends a clear message to Beijing.
Mobilization of international human rights mechanisms: UN High Commissioner’s Office needs to act on its 2022 report on “interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions on a wide range of human rights.” For Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples, a critical window is closing on turning the findings into multilateral pressure on China.
Pressure on corporations: Companies that benefit from forced Uyghur labor or operate in East Turkistan should face scrutiny and pressure to ensure they are not complicit in crimes against humanity.
Cessation of trade in Uyghur forced labor goods: China’s massive program of state-imposed forced labor for Uyghurs, an integral component of the ongoing genocide, must be addressed in every trade forum, including the APEC Leaders’ Summit in San Francisco in November.
Xi Jinping’s ominous words in Ürümchi serve as a stark reminder that the Uyghur crisis is far from over. When Xi travels to San Francisco on November 12 for the APEC Summit, APEC leaders must address the elephant in the room. Economic “cooperation” is morally bankrupt if it does nothing to stop genocidal forced labor products in global trade.
The international community must rise to the occasion and act to end economic complicity and moral complacency. Failure to do so will only embolden the Chinese government and ensure that the Uyghur people continue to suffer in silence. The time for action on genocide is always now.
Omer Kanat is executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
“Cardboard Box Recession” An Ominous Sign Of Faltering Consumer, Schwab Warns
Earlier this year, Charles Schwab analyst Jeffrey Kleintop said the US was sliding into a “cardboard box” recession as consumers and small businesses were pressured by soaring interest rates and elevated inflation.
On Tuesday, Kleintop joined Morningstar’s The Long View podcast to warn, yet again, that slowing demand for cardboard boxes is an ominous sign of a coming recession. The reason behind this view is that cardboard boxes are used to transport nearly every good in modern society. So when box demand falls, it’s reflective of slowing purchases by consumers and businesses.
“Often, I find, in maybe nontraditional measures, I find more comfort in things that just make sense to me. Like the downturn that’s currently indicated in official manufacturing and trade data. Some of that’s kind of abstract. I find comfort looking at the plunging demand for cardboard boxes,” Kleintop told the podcast hosts.
The analyst said, “I’ve been referring to this as a cardboard box recession because things that are manufactured and shipped tend to go in a box and because demand for corrugated fiberboard, which is what most cardboard boxes are made from, has fallen just like it did in past recession. So, literally, cardboard boxes are in a recession.”
Last week, former Walmart CEO Bill Simon, who now serves on the Board of Directors for Darden Restaurants and Hanesbrands Inc., told CNBC that headwinds are mounting for consumers as inflation, high interest rates, and global tensions make consumers wary. He said, “For the first time in a long time, there’s a reason for the consumer to pause.”
If Simon is correct, this could spell disaster for Biden’s economy. Consumers are a significant driver in the US economy, accounting for about two-thirds of US GDP.
It appears the music has already stopped, and the party for consumers is grinding to a halt.
Last month, we laid out the various reasons why – according to JPMorgan and Goldman – sentiment on US consumer stocks had cratered and would continue to worsen in the months ahead.
A recent Citi note (full report available to pro subs) revealed consumer card spending is downright recessionary.
Also, a recent Barclay’s Global Rates Weekly note showed card spending has taken another leg lower as consumers falter.
And back to the cardboard boxes, FreightWaves has been warning all year about this alarming development:
Ending it with Kleintop, he told The Long View podcast: “So, I think all these signs are indicating that we’re seeing a bit of a slowdown in the services sector. And that’s important because there are 10 times as many services jobs as manufacturing jobs in the US So, if we start to see the service sector reflect more signs of this slowdown in demand, well, we might see a weakening labor market and then that could feed into the retail space and construction and so many other areas.”
Census Data Shows 871,000 Californians Left The Imploding State In 2022
California has sustained massive population declines since the Covid pandemic. Residents have been fed up with radical authoritarian progressive politicians, as well as shit-covered streets, imploding metro areas, out-of-control homelessness, open-air drug markets, soaring violent crime and thefts, high inflation, out-of-reach home prices, and much much more.
AP News, citing new Census figures, highlighted that a staggering 817,000 individuals left the Golden State in 2022. However, with the addition of 475,000 people moving into California that year, the state saw a net loss of approximately 342,000 residents.
Texas continues to be the biggest beneficiary of the California exodus. About 102,000 ex-Californians moved to the Lone Star State last year for cheaper cost of living, lower crime, and a friendlier tax environment.
“We are losing younger folks, and I think we will see people continuing to migrate where housing costs are lower,” Manuel Pastor, a professor of sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, said in an interview with AP.
Pastor said, “There are good jobs in California, but housing is incredibly expensive. It hurts young families, and it hurts immigrant families.”
Besides seeking cheaper shelter elsewhere, many folks are leaving the state because of violent crime. The latest FBI data shows Gov. Gavin Newsom’s progressive playground is erupting in violent crime following disastrous ‘defund the police’ policies. Meanwhile, crime is sharply falling in Florida, where ‘law and order’ is embraced.
Violent Crime trends, a tale of two states: California vs. Florida (WSJ chart)
Under Newsom’s leadership every city in California looks worse than the 3rd world. What exactly does he bring to the table other than homeless encampments? pic.twitter.com/y35UfyNn75
The discovery of a black market Chinese biolab operating in California, and the subsequent investigation into it, has exposed a tangled web of shell companies obscuring ownership and loopholes that caused delays in cleanup and informing the public.
The public found out in March about a secret biolab operating in a warehouse in Reedley, California, about 25 miles southeast of Fresno.
But the warehouse and its biological hazards were discovered months earlier, on Dec. 19, 2022, by Jesalyn Harper, a code enforcement officer with the City of Reedley Fire Department.
Responding to an anonymous tip about the supposedly vacant warehouse, Ms. Harper discovered thousands of vials of bacterial and viral agents, including coronavirus, chlamydia, E. coli, streptococcus pneumonia, HIV, hepatitis, herpes, rubella, and malaria.
The business, operated by Prestige Biotech Inc., was also packaging and mailing out COVID-19 and pregnancy test kits, as well as housing nearly 1,000 lab mice.
Ms. Harper reported her findings to the City of Reedley, which contacted the FBI on the same day. But there was no single authority that could deal with all of the pathogens, chemicals, and biological hazards.
Eventually, a maze of agencies got involved in the investigation and cleanup, including city, county, and state authorities, as well as federal agencies such as the FBI, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The Biolab Discovery
The warehouse, located at 850 I Street in Reedley, was built in the 1950s mainly as a food packing plant. Trucks would drive up to the alcove area in front of the roll-up doors to load up.
After Ms. Harper received the anonymous complaint about vehicles parked in the alcove, she went to investigate and also noticed a garden hose going into the building via a door being propped open—a potential plumbing violation.
Ms. Harper told The Epoch Times that she knocked at the door and saw three people boxing up pregnancy tests. One of them spoke no English, while the other two spoke very broken English.
At the beginning, Ms. Harper said the trio were very cooperative, but as she walked to the southern part of the building they became deflective.
“What do you do with the mice?” she recalled asking.
“We use the mice for experiments,” they replied.
“What kind of experiments?”
“Oh, I don’t know, we just give them water.”
“What’s in the refrigerators?”
“Just stuff for making the tests.“
As Ms. Harper asked more specific questions, she said the staff answered less and less, pushing for her to leave. Once she saw labels on the fridges such as “blood,” “HIV,” she realized it was a potentially hazardous environment and left the building.
She reported her discovery to City of Reedley officials, who contacted the FBI immediately and met with them two days later, on Dec. 21, 2022.
The FBI took all of January 2023 to investigate and finally deemed the warehouse safe for city employees in early February.
When Reedley city officials returned to the warehouse on March 3 with an inspection warrant, they reported that no items had been removed from the lab, although some additional items had been stored since December.
Who’s in Charge?
For Ms. Harper, the process was just beginning. She began to work with the state and county to determine which organizations needed to be involved.
“We had to look at these labs and break them down component by component and see who had the authority for each component,” Ms. Harper told The Epoch Times.
“For example, the California Department of Public Health would have authority over medical devices like pregnancy tests; DTSC [the Department of Toxic Substance Control] would have oversight over some of the chemicals, possibly how they were being used.”
Experts in medical waste and environmental health were brought in to address the items in the refrigerators, medical waste, human waste, blood, and used pregnancy tests.
The EPA and FDA were also involved, and both agencies retained some of the documentation and paperwork found in the lab.
Each item had to be dealt with separately—each drawer, each box, each container, each refrigerator, and each pallet had to be looked at by various departments depending on what was found.
Meanwhile, Ms. Harper had been feeding and watering the lab mice found onsite while she and other city officials were figuring out who had authority.
They discovered on March 16 that no one in the U.S. government clearly has regulatory authority over lab mice, so Ms. Harper used the California Health and Safety Code that references animal cruelty to obtain a warrant. A veterinarian then recommended to have the mice humanely euthanized, which took place after obtaining the requisite permit on April 12.
All other biologicals were removed by July 8, after an abatement warrant was authorized by the Superior Court of California–Fresno County. All other assets were moved during the first two weeks of August.
An emergency ordinance, No. 2023-008, passed at the Reedley City Council meeting on Sept. 12 temporarily placed a ban on the establishment of warehousing and laboratories with biosafety levels 2 through 4 within the city limits. The City of San Carlos in the Bay Area has a similar ban.
“I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights knowing there is no one out there looking for these labs. This could be happening all over the United States,” Ms. Harper said.
“It’s been an eye-opening experience, realizing the many cracks in our government for these types of organizations to fall through, and also realizing that the government is not our first line of defense.”
Ms. Harper said these types of under-the-radar entities can purchase “a lot of chemicals and a lot of biologicals easily and no one is watching over them to make sure they know what they are doing.”
“We have to make sure these labs are not able to come here until there is oversight,” she said.
Who Owns the Secret Lab?
The biolab in Reedley is owned by Prestige Biotech Inc., but a closer look into a complex network of companies and employees, including Prestige, all ultimately lead back to Jia Bei “Jesse” Zhu, a Chinese national with a Canadian passport.
Just hours after this article was published on Oct. 19, Mr. Zhu was arrested in California and charged with manufacturing and distributing misbranded medical devices and for making false statements to the FDA. A sealed indictment had been filed on Oct. 18.
Mr. Zhu faces a maximum of three years in prison for the misbranding charge and five years for the false statements charge according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of California.
According to court documents, between December 2020 and March 2023, Mr. Zhu and others allegedly manufactured, imported, sold, and distributed hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 and other test kits in the United States and China. They did so through the companies Universal Meditech Inc. and Prestige Biotech Inc. without proper authorization.
“As part of his scheme, the defendant changed his name, the names of his companies, and their locations,” said U.S. Attorney Philip A. Talbert.
The criminal complaint alleges that during the investigation, Mr. Zhu made several false statements to FDA officials, including using a false name and falsely representing his knowledge about the company’s activities.
City of Reedley staff were told by Prestige Biotech president Yao Xiuqin that his company had taken over the warehouse—including the biological materials, samples, and lab mice—from Universal Meditech Inc. after the latter claimed bankruptcy, according to a court document filed on June 15.
Prestige Biotech is the main creditor of Universal Meditech.
Public records show that Prestige Biotech was first registered in Nevada to Wang Zhaolin (also known as Lynn Warner) on April 3, 2019, before current company president Mr. Yao, who’s based in China, took over on May 28, 2021.
Universal Meditech was established in Tulare, California, on Nov. 25, 2015, naming Mr. Zhu as CEO. The company obtained a California business license on March 20, 2019.
“Universal Meditech was started by a group of Canadian and Chinese investors and specializes in research, development and assembly of diagnostic test kits used in dairy cattle reproduction,” said Paul Saldana, who was president and CEO of the Tulare County Economic and Development Center in 2015, according to Visalia Times Delta.
Shortly after the pandemic started in March 2020, Universal Meditech switched from a cattle reproduction-related business to producing pregnancy test kits and COVID-19 test kits.
In August 2020, a fire broke out at the company’s Fresno location and a subsequent environmental health inspector’s visit found that Universal Meditech didn’t have a hazardous materials plan for storing ethanol in the warehouse.
Current documents filed with the California secretary of state don’t show Mr. Zhu as CEO of Universal Meditech anymore, instead naming Wang Xiaoxiao as CEO, chief financial officer, and secretary, with an address in south central Fresno.
Another name connected to Universal Meditech and many other similar companies is Wang Zhaoyan, who’s also known as Wang Yan.
Ms. Wang is listed as president of Universal Meditech in an online business directory, and The Epoch Times obtained a plumbing permit issued to Ms. Wang of Universal Meditech from the City of Tulare in 2016. An FDA filings report for Universal Meditech also lists Ms. Wang as the “official correspondent.”
Ms. Wang is also a principal in another California-based company, Superior Meditech Investments LLC, and an officer or managing member for three other related companies based in Nevada—PBI Diagnostic Laboratory LLC, Medi-Source LLC, and David Destiny Discovery LLC.
She’s also listed as executive director and general manager for a company in Qingdao, China, called Ai De Biopharmaceutical Industry (Qingdao) Co. Ltd.
The general manager for Ai De Biopharmaceutical is also the president for Prestige Biotech (the secret biolab in Reedley that bailed out Universal Meditech), according to California and Nevada business filings and a Chinese company directory.
All of the executives and all the companies eventually lead back to Mr. Zhu, the Chinese man with a Canadian passport.
Mr. Zhu and several of his companies have been mired in legal battles stretching from Canada to Hong Kong to the United States since 2008.
In September 2010, Mr. Zhu filed a proof of claim as “the owner” of Ai De Biopharmaceutical in a bankruptcy proceeding for yet another of his companies, JingJing Genetics Inc.
“The sole shareholder of Ai De is a British Virgin Island company (Unique Way Technology Limited) which, in turn, is owned by IND, which is owned by Zhu,” according to a 2016 ruling by the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Canada.
Ai De Biopharmaceutical’s street address in Qingdao is the same as other Chinese medical firms such as Qingdao Guangdi Packaging Material and Ai De Diagnostic. According to import records, most of these firms have shipped medical supplies to Universal Meditech and Prestige Biotech.
Mr. Zhu resigned from his positions of chairman of the board and general manager at Ai De Biopharmaceutical in November 2018, according to Chinese documents.
The Epoch Times called several numbers for Ai De Biopharmaceutical’s headquarters in China, but the numbers have been disconnected or are no longer in service.
Jessie Zhu’s Operations
Mr. Zhu was born in China in 1961 and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the Beijing University Medical Department in 1984 and a master’s degree from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital in 1988. He went on to conduct bio research at the University of British Columbia in Canada, according to Sina Finance.
In 1991, Mr. Zhu established IND Dairytech Ltd in Vancouver and became chairman of the board.
In the late 1990s, Mr. Zhu flew a dozen Holstein cattle (a breed known for high milk production) from Quebec to Beijing to enhance milk production in China, where it was in great need.
A decade later, Mr. Zhu’s focus switched to breeding technologies. Rather than transporting cattle to China, IND Dairytech began sending Holstein semen and embryos in an effort to develop cattle herds.
Primarily serving customers in Canada, IND Dairytech was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2008, delisted in 2011, and acquired shortly afterward by IND Lifetech, another company controlled by Mr. Zhu.
The Chinese characters of “Ai De” are also in the upper left corner of IND Lifetech’s logo.
Not long after IND Lifetech acquired IND Dairytech, it changed its name to JingJing Genetics, still based in Canada and controlled by Mr. Zhu.
In 2008, JingJing Genetics was sued by XY LLC, a Colorado-based company that claimed damages for “conspiracy, deceit, breach of confidence, breach of contract, and inducing breach of contract.”
XY had developed the technology to “choose the sex of the offspring using sexed semen or sexed embryos” for “non-human mammals, including cattle, horses, pigs, and endangered species,” according to an online statement.
The company was “the master licensee in control of all sperm sorting in non-human mammals worldwide.”
JingJing Genetics was allegedly stealing XY’s technology to manufacture and sell bovine sexed semen, but without the strict controls required from a licensee.
The case was decided in 2012, with the judge ruling against JingJing Genetics for violating intellectual property agreements.
Poll Finds Lackluster Desire To Arm, Supply Israel – Even Among GOP
Bad news for the Israel lobby and the warfare state: On the same evening that President Biden delivered an address from the Oval Office to build support for sending $100 billion in weapons and other aid to Israel and Ukraine, CBS News published a poll showing surprisingly lackluster American support for arming and supplying Israel — even among Republicans.
By a spread of 52% to 48%, a majority of all Americans oppose giving weapons and supplies to Israel. While that’s close to an even split, Americans are very much united in seeing the latest developments as a cause for concern: 85% are concerned about a wider war in the Middle East, while 79% are concerned that the Hamas-Israel conflict could lead to terrorism in the United States, according to the CBS News/YouGov poll, which was conducted before, during and after Biden’s Wednesday visit to Israel.
When it comes to the Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas war, Americans are split. 44% say Biden has shown the right amount of support for Israel, while 32% say he hasn’t shown enough support and 24% say he’s given too much support.
In recent years, the long-standing bipartisan backing of Israel has been cracking, creating a dynamic where Republicans reliably back the Israel government while Democrats increasingly empathize with the Palestinians. However, in the most striking finding of the new poll, a hefty 43% of Republicans say the United States should NOT send weapons and supplies to Israel.
Among all Americans, the poll found opposition to arming Israel is strongest in the 30- to 44-year-old cohort, with 64% opposing it. Among those under 30, 59% are against it. At the other end of the age spectrum, 64% of those 65 and older want more weapons shipped to the Zionist state.
There isn’t much difference among races: 54% of Hispanics oppose sending weapons and supplies to Israel, compared to 52% of blacks and 51% of whites.
When it comes to humanitarian aid, 76% of Americans say the US government should send it to Israel and 57% say aid should be sent to Palestinians in Gaza. There’s a notable difference across party affiliations, but note even 41% of Republicans support sending humanitarian aid to Gaza:
Looks like the Israeli propaganda machine will be putting in some overtime.Tie yourselves to the masts, lads — Israel’s hasbara machine has already unleashed the IDF sirens:
When they start posting TikTok dancers, you know you’re been fooled…
Former US Rep. Justin Amash (L-MI), who was the only US House Member representing the Libertarian Party, announced Friday on Twitter/X that several of his relatives were killed when Israel bombed Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza. Amash’s relatives, along with many others, were seeking shelter in the Church as Israel continues to flatten Gaza.
According to The Wall Street Journal, “The Israeli military said that a blast Thursday night on the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church campus in Gaza City was the result of its airstrike.” The Israeli military said, “The incident is under review.”
I was really worried about this. 😔 With great sadness, I have now confirmed that several of my relatives (including Viola and Yara pictured here) were killed at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they had been sheltering, when part of the complex was destroyed as… pic.twitter.com/w5k1xEeTgF
As one commenter on Amash’s thread pointed out, Saint Porphyrius Church “symbolized coexistence. It’s worth noting that this church is located near the Jewish Quarter in Gaza as well.” Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church is the third oldest existing Christian church in the world, standing very nearly since the time of Christ.
Another commenter on Twitter added that “Gaza’s oldest church the Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius”…was a refuge for at least 380 civilians. At least 40 have been reported dead and more searches continue among the rubble.” [Officials sources later revised the death toll to 18 people killed and at least 20 injured.]
Earlier this week Israel is accused of bombing al-Shifa hospital in Gaza – the only Christian hospital in the Palestinian enclave – and hundreds have been reported killed in that attack.
While Israel has denied responsibility for that bombing, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told the BBC that Israel was “determined” to destroy the hospital.
Additionally, Israel today demanded the evacuation of yet another hospital in Gaza, the Al-Quds Hospital, claiming that it was also on the bombing list. As The Cradle reports, an evacuation is nearly impossible as “the hospital is treating over 400 patients and sheltering 12,000 displaced civilians.”
“First In The Nation”: Arkansas Forces Chinese Company To Sell Its Farmland
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that Arkansas will require a Chinese-owned company to sell its farmland in Arkansas, saying it will be a first in the nation move that bans foreign parties from “owning agricultural land” in the state, THV11 reported.
Sanders, along with Attorney General Tim Griffin and other Republican leaders, said that the company Syngenta will have to sell around 160 acres of land in Craighead County, Arkansas. The company has headquarters based in Switzerland and owned by ChemChina, which is a Chinese state-owned business that primarily deals with seeds and pesticides.
ChemChina is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as one of many “Chinese military companies” that operate directly or indirectly in the country.
Sanders claimed Chinese companies operating in the U.S. send back information and technology, “stealing American research and telling our enemies how to target American farms.”
“That is a clear threat to our national security and to our great farmers, especially since the Chinese government enacted a law in 2017, requiring Chinese citizens abroad to collaborate with their country’s security officials on intelligence work with no questions asked,” the governor said.
That law states “any organization” must assist or cooperate with state intelligence work. Another Chinese law said “relevant organizations” can’t refuse to collect evidence for an investigation.
“We will make sure that every company operating in Arkansas is a friend to Arkansas and good to hardworking Arkansans,” Sanders said.
Syngenta has been notified of the decision and if they refuse, AG Griffin will move forward with legal proceedings to “force” them out of Arkansas.
“There is nothing that is off limits for [China] if they think that it will strengthen them strategically,” Griffin explained at the press conference. “Whether it be related to engineering or the ability to feed their people, which is a challenge for them.”
Griffin said Northrup King Seed Co., a subsidiary of Syngenta, will have to divest itself of the land in Craighead County within in two years. If the company fails to do that, Arkansas can have a civil penalty fine of up to 25% of the value of the property.
The attorney general said the property is worth around $1.12 million, so the fine would be a maximum of $280,000.
