Recent downfalls of Chinese top military officials have prompted the question: is Xi Jinping still wielding absolute power in China?
Miao Hua, a member of the prestigious Party Central Military Commission (CMC), was the latest high-ranking official sacked. Xi worked with Miao for a decade in the southern Fujian province and promoted Miao to admiral. Miao is widely seen as Xi’s protégé.
Miao’s demise could be Xi’s doing because of disloyalty or an action of the anti-Xi faction, experts say. Regardless, it is a sign that Xi may be facing a power crisis.
When high-ranking Chinese officials are under investigation, the crime is usually corruption. And being caught is not necessarily an issue of legal violation; it’s often the result of a lack of political cover.
The ultimate patrons in the Chinese military are Xi and Zhang Youxia, the vice chair of the CMC. Zhang rose to the international political stage in August when U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with him in Beijing.
The two military chiefs’ differences in their approach to managing the military and whether to seize Taiwan by force drove these two childhood friends apart. Previously a staunch supporter of Xi, Zhang has turned into a major force restraining Xi’s power in the military.
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On the economic front, Xi’s industry policy to transition China’s economy to advanced manufacturing has largely failed. Experts believe that Xi made power concessions in July due to his poor economic results.
However, the problem is such concessions are bottomless in a communist system. Xi may strike a deal to relinquish his power and live comfortably, but his underlings won’t have the same luck. Therefore, Xi may spend the next three years trying to regain power, especially in the military.
The infighting within the Party will only grow more intense; Donald Trump’s return to the White House will only make the situation more challenging for the communists in China.
The Middle Kingdom may be at the cusp of significant changes or entering a “violent storm,” in Xi’s own words.
—Terri Wu
GOP SENATORS ON KASH PATEL
President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of political ally Kash Patel to head up the FBI sent shockwaves through the capital, but it’s in the Capitol that his fate will be decided.
Several Republican senators aren’t making any commitments yet, but Patel has already had a warmer reception than previous nominees.
Like other high-level executive nominees, Patel will need to win majority approval in the upper chamber to take the post. Republicans enter the 119th Congress with 53 seats.
That means Patel, a longtime ally to Trump who’s promised sweeping reforms to the FBI, will likely need the support of all but three crucial Republicans to get over the finish line.
A handful of names—Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and John Cornyn (R-Texas), among others—have come up again and again during discussions of Trump’s nominees, as each has been known to break with their party on key votes.
Each of the three declined to give an immediate answer when asked by reporters about Patel’s nomination.
“I don’t know much about him at all, so I’ve got a lot of homework to do,” Collins told The Epoch Times.
However, Patel did get a boost from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another lawmaker who’s joined Democrats on some key votes in the past.
Tillis said he’s “a presumptive yes.”
“He and I happen to have a number of mutual acquaintances who say positive things,” Tillis said. “I’m going into it with a positive predisposition.”
But even some of the more party-line Senate Republicans say that they’re waiting to learn more.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) seemed friendly to the nomination but still wants to test Patel’s bona fides.
In an X post, Grassley criticized FBI Director Christopher Wray as having “failed at fundamental duties” including compliance with congressional oversight.
“Kash Patel must prove to Congress he will reform & restore public trust in [the] FBI,” Grassley wrote.
Several of the chamber’s most conservative members—including Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.)—have already signaled support.
—Joseph Lord and Arjun Singh
BOOKMARKS
Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has been ordered to turn over all communications between her office, special counsel Jack Smith, and the House Jan. 6 subcommittee. The order, issued by a judge in response to a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, follows assertions by Willis that she did not coordinate with Smith on her election case against President-elect Donald Trump.
The House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has concluded that the virus most likely did come from a lab leak, and was developed through gain-of-function research through the U.S. National Institutes of Health funded at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The committee’s 520-page report also detailed an attempted coverup of these facts by individuals in Communist China and U.S. government agencies, and some members of the international scientific community.
Charges in Hunter Biden’s federal gun case were halted by U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, one day after his father, President Joe Biden, announced he would pardon him. Hunter Biden had been convicted of lying about his drug use on a firearm purchase application in June, and was facing up to 25 years in prison.
Vivek Ramaswamy wants to axe a planned $7.5 billion loan to StarPlus Energy by the U.S. Department of Energy. The loan was set to fund battery cell and module manufacturing plants in Kokomo, Indiana, but Ramaswamy referred to this, and other last-minute initiatives of the outgoing Biden administration, as “illegitimate.”
A small town in Alberta, Canada, has passed a neutrality law banning rainbow flags—and other political expressions—on public sidewalks and flagpoles. Barrhead, Alberta’s Neutrality Bylaw, which passed 57 percent to 43 percent, is aimed at reducing divisiveness, but will not apply to personal or business property.
The state of Washington won a $35 million judgement against Meta Platforms over campaign finance law violations, and on Monday an appeals court upheld that judgment.
Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, was sued by the state in 2020 for selling political ads but not retaining full, detailed records of those sales as required by law.
Correction: The Dec. 2 newsletter misspelled the name of Devin Nunes. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
