90 Miles From Tyranny

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Australia probes reports of ex-pilots training Chinese military

The defense minister has ordered checks on whether Australians were recruited by Beijing

The Australian Defense Ministry has launched a probe after a report that some of its retired military pilots may have been hired by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The investigation comes after similar concerns were voiced by the British government.

“I would be deeply shocked and disturbed to hear that there were personnel who were being lured by a paycheck from a foreign state above serving their own country,” Defense Minister Richard Marles said in a statement on Wednesday.

Opposition leader and former defense minister, Peter Dutton said he was also “alarmed” by the prospect and urged Marles to amend the law to prevent such activities.

“If there is a hole in the legislation now, the coalition [of opposition parties] will support a change which will tighten it up,” Dutton said.

He added: “We can't allow our secrets and our methodologies to be handed over to another country and particularly not China under President Xi.”

Concerns were raised after several media outlets reported that up to 30 former British pilots were believed to have been recruited to train PLA personnel. Reuters quoted an unnamed Australian member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) as saying that Beijing has been seeking to attract pilots from the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday it “clearly erodes the UK’s defense advantage” when former pilots provide training to the PLA. The ministry added that it will amend confidentiality agreements in order to add more “contractual levers to prevent individuals breaching security.”

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said in a statement to the media on Wednesday that four of its former pilots were working for the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFSA), which was allegedly involved in the recruitment of instructors for the Chinese military. A spokesman for NZDF explained that retired pilots are free to seek employment elsewhere but must keep in mind that their decision may lead to...

The Biden White House reportedly directed the Democrat mayor of El Paso, Texas, to not declare a state of emergency over the massive influx of illegal immigrants overwhelming the city due to concerns it would make Democrats look bad ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

According to the New York Post, at least three of the El Paso City Council’s eight members have asked Mayor Oscar Leeser to issue an emergency declaration in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the thousands of migrants who have filled city’s shelters and hotels, but he has thus far resisted taking that step. Hundreds of migrants have reportedly been sleeping on the streets without access to toilets or showers, and residents have complained that the “smell of human waste is overwhelming in the area.”

“We’ve never seen anything like this. It’s a scene that you would see in a third-world country, not in the streets of El Paso,” said Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas), in a tweet last month.

Mayor Leeser admitted during a phone conversation in September that the Biden White House had urged him not to declare a state of emergency, Councilmember Claudia Rodriguez told the Post.

“He told me the White House asked him not to,” Rodriguez said, adding that Leeser had repeatedly assured her that he’d declare a state of emergency “if things got worse.” That could happen soon, as thousands of Venezuelans are currently headed to El Paso, according to Gonzales.

The surge of Venezuelans has come as a result of the Biden regime officially extending special protections for Venezuelan migrants, known as Temporary Protected Status, that shield some of them from deportation.

Gonzales said he has also heard from city officials that the Biden regime has pressured the mayor to keep the city’s humanitarian crisis on the down-low.

“It is a sleight of hand what the administration is doing—pressuring the local government to not issue a declaration of emergency, to say as if everything is going OK,” he said.

The congressman told the Post that the White House has done “the same thing in other parts of my district,” which have also seen a huge influx of migrants seeking refuge.

Leeser refused to speak to the Post, but said in a prepared statement: “I don’t bow to pressure from any side.”

He added, “I make decisions based on current circumstances and in the best interest of the citizens of El Paso.” The statement also praised the federal government for providing his city with “critical” assistance.

But during Sept. 27 City Council meeting, Leeser admitted: “The White House has asked, at this point, for us not to do that [declare an emergency] and they’ll continue to work with us and continue to give us … money through...

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Biden's family got 'interest-free,' 'forgivable' loan from China, new evidence reveals

A 2017 business email and new information released by Sen. Chuck Grassley expose Chinese effort to enrich first family.

Joe Biden has made waves this fall with his plan to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars of student loans, shifting the burden to taxpayers. Five years earlier, his family cashed in on a zero-interest, forgivable loan of its own from an energy company in communist China, according to evidence in the possession of the FBI.

The loan arrangement, confirmed in documents obtained by Just the News and also new information released by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), shows the Chinese energy firm CEFC Beijing International Energy Company Limited understood the transaction would benefit Joe Biden's family (referred to as "BD family" in the emails), but it also was creating heartburn with its own compliance/risk management officers.

The Chinese company's leaders "fully support the framework of establishing the JV (joint venture), based on their trust on BD family," stated a July 26, 2017 email from a CEFC official to Tony Bobulinski, a Hunter Biden business partner at the time. The email was written in part to explain why there had been a delay in getting the money to a firm called SinoHawk associated with the future president's son and brother, Hunter Biden and James Biden, respectively.

"The delay of wire is caused by the details on the JV building, as follows: 1) the positioning and strategy of the JV are not made fully clear to CEFC 2) 5 million is lent to BD family in the 10 million charter capital. How will this 5 million be used (or the 10 million as a whole)? This 5 million loan to BD family is interest-free," the email stated.

"But if the 5 M is used up, should CEFC keep lending more to the family?" the email inquired. "If CEFC lends more, they need to know the interest rate for the subsequent loan(s)."

The CEFC official went on to explain the nebulous transaction was raising worries with the company's compliance officers. "Because of the reasons above, the risk management department of CEFC is showing concerns on the operation of SinoHawk, hence the delay of the wire," CEFC's Raymond Zhao wrote.

You can read the full message here.
File 2017-07-26_-_11.49_-_Latest_update_from_DZ.pdf

At the time of the transaction, Joe Biden had already left the White House as vice president, was a private citizen and was planning for his eventual 2020 presidential run. Bobulinski has said in media interviews that Joe Biden was a silent partner in the Chinese transaction, identified in internal documents as "the big guy" who might get 10% of the deal.

Grassley on Monday released a letter he sent to the FBI that contained a summary of an October 2020 interview Bobulinski gave to the FBI concerning the Chinese loan transaction.

According to Grassley, the $5 million Chinese transaction was paid to a Hunter Biden-connected firm in August 2017, one month after the email obtained by Just the News. Bobulinski told the FBI that the money was actually deferred compensation for work Hunter and James Biden had done while Joe Biden was still vice president, Grassley wrote.

"In that interview, Mr. Bobulinski stated that the arrangement Hunter Biden and James Biden created with foreign nationals connected to the communist Chinese government included assisting them with...