Wednesday, September 8, 2021

China's celebrities are warned they must 'oppose the decadent ideas of money worship, hedonism and extreme individualism'

 

China's celebrities are warned they must 'oppose the decadent ideas of money worship, hedonism and extreme individualism' by country's Communist rulers

  • Meeting in Beijing Tuesday attended by party officials and showbusiness bosses 
  • It ran the slogan: 'Love the party, love the country, advocate morality and art'
  • Entertainers were told they must conform to social ethics and personal morality
  • Comes amid broader crackdown on scandal-hit celebrities and wealthy elite

The meeting in Beijing on Tuesday ran with the slogan: 'Love the party, love the country, advocate morality and art.'

It was attended by senior party officials and showbusiness bosses who were told they must conform to social ethics, personal morality and family values.

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Beijing has been cracking down on celebrities as part of a broader attack on China's wealthy elite, which some have likened to the Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution - a purge of political opponents in the 1960s.  

Actress Zheng Shuang was fined $46 million for tax evasion last month

Actress Zheng Shuang was fined $46 million for tax evasion last month

Actress Zhao Wei, who is the face of Fendi in China, was wiped from the internet last month, with films and TV shows she starred in being removed from streaming services, without the government providing any reason.

Actress Zhao Wei, who is the face of Fendi in China, was wiped from the internet last month, with films and TV shows she starred in being removed from streaming services, without the government providing any reason.

Movie star Zhao Wei was wiped from the internet, actress Zheng Shuang was fined $46 million, while outspoken Jack Ma, the billionaire owner of Alibaba, disappeared for three months. 

China sees celebrity culture and the pursuit of wealth as a dangerous Western import which threatens Communism because it promotes individualism rather than collectivism. 

President Xi Jinping has also rolled out a raft of social changes, including banning children from playing video games, barring private tutoring and investing in more affordable housing.

Attendees of Tuesday's conference were told they must 'consciously abandon vulgar and kitsch inferior tastes, and consciously oppose the decadent ideas of money worship, hedonism, and extreme individualism,' according to state media. 

Actress Zhang Tong spoke to the guests to pledge her support to the party's cause.

'As a Chinese in the new era, a Chinese actor, and a Chinese literary and art worker, it is very necessary to understand one's own direction, determine the meaning of one's responsibilities, manage well one's words and deeds, and improve one's personal morality,' she said.

'It is our creators' duty to do every work simply and unadornedly, and to pass positive energy silently to the audience.' 

In recent weeks, the authorities have banned reality shows, purged K-pop megastars from social media and ordered broadcasters not to pander to tastes for 'sissy' men.  

A list of 'misbehaving celebrities' who have allegedly been blacklisted by Beijing was circulated on social media last week.

Zhao, 45, and Zheng, 30, were both on the list, along with Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu, who was arrested on suspicion of rape in August. 

He has been thoroughly censored on the Chinese internet.    

It comes after Jack Ma, the billionaire owner of Alibaba, disappeared for three months and had his firms restructured.

Jack Ma disappeared for three months and was hit with investigations that have wiped more than $100billion off the value of his empire after he criticised China's financial sector

Jack Ma disappeared for three months and was hit with investigations that have wiped more than $100billion off the value of his empire after he criticised China's financial sector

A list of 'misbehaving celebrities' who are allegedly blacklisted by the Communist Party was circulated on social media last month. Zhao and Zheng were both on the list, along with Chinese Canadian pop star Kris Wu (pictured), who was arrested on suspicion of rape in August

A list of 'misbehaving celebrities' who are allegedly blacklisted by the Communist Party was circulated on social media last month. Zhao and Zheng were both on the list, along with Chinese Canadian pop star Kris Wu (pictured), who was arrested on suspicion of rape in August

His latest venture, Ant Group, had been trying to revolutionise Chinese banking and Ma had criticised the country's traditional financial system.

In addition to Alibaba, DiDi ('Chinese Uber') was pulled from app stores for courting foreign investment, while video game developer Tencent was accused of poisoning children with 'spiritual opium.' 

The tech sector accounts for almost a third of China's economy - but the government crackdown on big tech has wiped an estimated $1.2trillion off the market. 

China claims to be tackling wealth inequality and abuse of workers and data by big tech, but observers believe Xi has other motives

China claims to be tackling wealth inequality and abuse of workers and data by big tech, but observers believe Xi has other motives

Children were last month banned from playing online games for more than three hours a week, in a further blow to the colossal video game companies which dominate China's tech sector. 

The dramatic shift by Beijing - prepared even to wipe billions off its own economy - has raised fears of a new Cultural Revolution, a decade of political turmoil from 1966 to 1976 under Chairman Mao.

The tyrant launched a vicious campaign to cement his rule, purging any capitalist or 'bourgeois' elements from within the party, schools, factories and government institutions.

It's not clear exactly how many people were killed during the purge, with estimates ranging from 400,000 to as many as 20 million. 

In addition to its crackdown on the tech world and celebrities, Beijing has banned private tutoring and ordered public schools to improve.

On Wednesday, the government pledged to stabilise house prices and make homes affordable for young people.

These policies are part of Xi's goal of 'common prosperity' through which a more socialist country can be achieved.

George Soros says BlackRock’s China investments ‘tragic mistake’

BlackRock is the world’s largest money manager; last month it began offering investment products to Chinese individuals.

In recent weeks George Soros (pictured) has warned against closer economic ties to President Xi Jinping’s China [File: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg]
In recent weeks George Soros (pictured) has warned against closer economic ties to President Xi Jinping’s China [File: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg]

George Soros criticized BlackRock Inc.’s China push as a risk to clients’ money and U.S. security interests, in the billionaire financier and philanthropist’s latest broadside against investment in the world’s second-largest economy.

“Pouring billions of dollars into China now is a tragic mistake,” Soros wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. “It is likely to lose money for BlackRock’s clients and, more important, will damage the national security interests of the U.S. and other democracies.”

BlackRock is leading a global foray into China’s asset management industry. The world’s largest money manager last month began offering investment products to Chinese individuals, two months after winning approval to become the nation’s first wholly foreign-owned mutual fund firm.

The commentary was one several that Soros has written in recent weeks to warn against closer economic ties to Xi Jinping’s China amid a wave of market-roiling crackdowns. Soros denounced Xi in another Journal op-ed last month as “the most dangerous enemy of open societies in the world” and subsequently argued in the Financial Times that Congress should pass legislation limiting asset managers’ investments to “companies where actual governance structures are both transparent and aligned with stakeholders.”

In the latest piece, Soros said BlackRock appeared to misunderstand Xi, whose administration he said regarded all Chinese companies as “instruments of the one-party state.”

The divergent views from two of the world’s most influential money managers underscore the increasingly fraught environment confronting financial firms in Asia’s largest economy. While Xi has made it easier for foreign investors to participate in domestic markets, his government is also tightening its grip on the private sector and clashing with the U.S. on everything from cybersecurity to human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Soros said the curbs that began with the sudden cancellation of Ant Group Co.’s initial public offering last year have since “reached a crescendo.” He cited the actions against ride-hailing company Didi Global Inc. days after its New York listing, and the crackdown on “U.S.-financed” Chinese tutoring companies. Soros also said BlackRock managers must be aware of an “enormous crisis brewing in China’s real estate market.”

Although Soros remains an influential backer of U.S. President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, he no longer manages outside money and is a minority voice for now on Wall Street. BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and most of their major peers in money management and banking have decided the opportunities in China outweigh the risks.

“Today, the U.S. and China are engaged in a life and death conflict between two systems of governance: repressive and democratic,” Soros said.

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Deadly bat caves & humanized mice tests: Released docs describe ‘HIGHEST RISK’ involved in US-funded coronavirus research in Wuhan

 

Deadly bat caves & humanized mice tests: Released docs describe ‘HIGHEST RISK’ involved in US-funded coronavirus research in Wuhan

Deadly bat caves & humanized mice tests: Released docs describe ‘HIGHEST RISK’ involved in US-funded coronavirus research in Wuhan

More than 900 pages of material related to this research were published on the non-profit media company’s website on Tuesday. The documents were acquired as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation by The Intercept against the National Institutes of Health.

The documents detail the work of EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based organization specializing in protection against infectious diseases, and its work with Chinese partners on coronaviruses, specifically those originating in bats.

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The papers detail that EcoHealth Alliance was granted a total of $3.1 million by the federal government, with $599,000 of that going to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The funding received in Wuhan was used in part to identify and genetically alter bat coronaviruses that might infect humans.

EcoHealth Alliance president Peter Daszak led one of the studies, titled ‘Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence’, which screened thousands of bats for novel coronaviruses. The research also involved the screening of people who work with live animals.

However, the released documents include a recognition of the potential risks posed by the project. “Fieldwork involves the highest risk of exposure to SARS or other CoVs while working in caves with high bat density overhead and the potential for fecal dust to be inhaled,” the grant application reads.

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“In this proposal, they actually point out that they know how risky this work is. They keep talking about people potentially getting bitten – and they kept records of everyone who got bitten,” Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute, in the US, told The Intercept in response to the release.

Another revelation was that experimental work with humanized mice (that is, with functioning human genes, cells, tissues, and/or organs) was conducted at the Wuhan University Center for Animal Experiment, a biosafety level-three lab, and not at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, mainland China’s first biosafety level-four lab, as originally thought.

The program ran from 2014 to 2019, and was renewed in 2019, only for former US president Donald Trump to cancel it. Robert Kessler, communications manager at EcoHealth Alliance, maintained there wasn’t a lot to say on the matter. “We applied for grants to conduct research. The relevant agencies deemed that to be important research, and thus funded it,” he noted.

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While the US has blasted China for not releasing all the relevant information on Covid-19, The Intercept said it had requested the recently released documents back in September 2020.

Although they don’t provide conclusive evidence to support the theory that Covid-19 was leaked from a Chinese lab, it does highlight the fact that risky research into bat coronaviruses was being undertaken in the years leading up the pandemic, and the US was not only well aware of that, but also funded it. Bats have been identified as a possible zoonotic source for the virus. 

World Health Organization experts spent around a month in China from January this year. Their report suggested that cases identified in Wuhan in 2019 were believed to have been acquired from “a zoonotic source, as many [of those initially infected] reported visiting or working in the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market.”

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Beijing has refused to take part in a second probe, rejecting the lab leak theory while, in turn, calling for an investigation into US-based laboratories.

Wuhan Lab Caught Deleting Files Proving Fauci Funding

Wuhan Lab Caught Deleting Files Proving Fauci Funding

Editor’s Note: The various paths that connect Dr. Anthony Fauci and the origins of Covid-19 are so numerous, it can be challenging to appropriately document them all. But what’s making it much harder is the fact that everyone from the Chinese Communist Party to the World Health Organization to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to Fauci himself are busy erasing as many connections as possible.

Internet archives offer us a way to not only find the connections, but discover the ways in which these connections are being systematically removed. The cover-up is just as important as the various crimes themselves because it demonstrates knowledge and intent. Fauci, the CCP, the WHO, the NIAID, and the CDC all know what they’ve done and are furiously attempting to keep it all under wraps.

Dr. Joseph Mercola’s article below is already being suppressed. Shortly after initial publication, we noticed it appeared and then was removed from search engines. It is imperative that Fauci and his cohorts are exposed for what they did to bring the pandemic into being as well as what they’re currently doing to suppress the facts. I hope you’ll read and share Dr. Mercola’s informative article:

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

  • The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) — a division of the National Institute of Health (NIH) headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci since 1984 — has, for years, provided grants to the EcoHealth Alliance and others to conduct gain-of-function (GoF) research on coronaviruses
  • In a May 11, 2021, Senate hearing, Fauci denied ever having funded GoF research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). This despite clear documentation proving otherwise
  • In March 2021 the WIV deleted mentions of its collaboration with the NIAID/NIH and other American research partners from its website. It also deleted descriptions of GoF on the SARS virus
  • The NIH/NIAID has funded GoF research to the tune of at least $41.7 million. Up until 2014, this research was conducted by Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina (UNC). After 2014, when federal funding of GoF was banned, such research was funneled to the WIV via the EcoHealth Alliance
  • In August 2020, the NIAID announced a five-year, $82-million investment in a new global network of Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases that will conduct GoF experiments to “determine what genetic or other changes make [animal] pathogens capable of infecting humans”

As reported in several previous articles, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) — a division of the National Institute of Health (NIH) headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci since 1984 — has, for years, provided grants to the EcoHealth Alliance and others to conduct gain-of-function (GoF) research on coronaviruses.

EcoHealth Alliance, in turn, farmed out some of this research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), from whence SARS-CoV-2 appears to have emerged. In a May 11, 2021, Senate hearing, Sen. Rand Paul questioned Fauci on the NIAID’s funding of GoF research on bat coronaviruses, some of which was conducted at the WIV.

Fauci denied the charge, saying “The NIH has not ever, and does not now, fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute.”1 It’s a curious denial, considering the NIH’s funding of such research has been thoroughly documented and can be easily double-checked.

Fauci is clearly and provably lying … to Congress, which is a crime … and he’s lying to the American public. ~ Ben Swann

When Paul asks Fauci if the NIAID funded Dr. Ralph Baric’s GoF research, Fauci claims Baric “does not do gain-of-function research, and if it is, it is according to the guidelines and is being conducted in North Carolina.” Paul shoots back, saying:

“You don’t think him turning a bat virus spike protein, that he got from the Wuhan Institute into the SARS virus, is gain-of-function? You’d be in a minority, because at least 200 scientists have signed a statement from the Cambridge Working Group that it is gain-of-function.”

Mike Lindell Cloud

In the video above, Jimmy Dore reviews the apparent lies dished out by Fauci during the Senate hearing. In the Truth in Media report below, investigative journalist Ben Swann lays out some of the proof, showing Fauci’s dishonesty.

“What’s insane about this exchange is that Fauci is clearly and provably lying … to Congress, which is a crime … and he’s lying to the American public,” Swann says.

NIH/NIAID Has Funded Gain-of-Function Research

As reported by Swann, the NIH/NIAID has funded GoF research to the tune of at least $41.7 million. Up until 2014, this research was conducted by Baric at the University of North Carolina (UNC). In 2014, the U.S. government issued a moratorium on federal gain-of-function research funding due to safety, ethical and moral concerns raised within the scientific community.

It was at this point, in 2014, that funding for GoF research started being funneled through the EcoHealth Alliance to the WIV. Swann reviews documents proving Fauci lied to Congress, including a paper2 titled “SARS-Like WIV1-CoV Poised for Human Emergence,” submitted to PNAS in 2015 and subsequently published in 2016. In this paper, the authors state that:Ads by Revcontent

“Overall, the results from these studies highlight the utility of a platform that leverages metagenomics findings and reverse genetics to identify prepandemic threats.

For SARS-like WIV1-CoV, the data can inform surveillance programs, improve diagnostic reagents, and facilitate effective treatments to mitigate future emergence events. However, building new and chimeric reagents must be carefully weighed against potential gain-of-function (GoF) concerns.”

At the end of that paper, the authors thank “Dr. Zhengli-Li Shi of the Wuhan Institute of Virology for access to bat CoV sequences and plasmid of WIV1-CoV spike protein.” They also specify that the research was supported by the NIAID under the grant awards U19AI109761 and U19AI107810, which together total $41.7 million.

As noted by Swann, this paper clearly spells out that the NIAID spent $41.7 million on GoF research, with the aim of determining how bat coronaviruses can be made more pathogenic to humans, and that this research continued after the 2014 moratorium on such funding was implemented.

NIAID Viewed Baric’s Research as GoF

What’s more, a letter3,4 from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to the director of proposals at UNC Chapel Hill, discussing grant U19AI107810, also spells this out in black and white. The October 21, 2014, letter states, in part:

“NIAID has determined that the above referenced grant may include Gain of Function (GoF) research that is subject to the recently-announced U.S. Government funding pause … The following specific aims appear to involve research covered under the pause: Project 1: Role of Uncharacterized Genes in High Pathogenic Human Coronavirus Infect — Ralph S. Baric, PhD — Project Leader.

Specific Aim 1. Novel Functions in virus replication in vitro. Specific Aim 3. Novel functions in virus pathogenesis in vivo … As your grant is currently funded, this pause is voluntary.”

In other words, the NIAID authorized the continuation of what it admitted was gain-of-function research — simply because the grant had already been funded — and it did so after the ban on such funding was put into place.