Day: November 17, 2025

Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang joins ‘Mornings with Maria’ to discuss China’s rare earth export restrictions, Beijing’s broken trade promises, and why he says the U.S. can’t afford to trust the Chinese Communist Party again.

“On November 4, Starbucks, the global coffee giant, announced it would sell 60% of its business in mainland China to the local private equity firm Boyu Capital. Surprisingly, just a few days later, the stores had completely transformed! The usual Western light music was replaced with high-energy Chinese pop songs, cranked up to the max. It’s a clear ‘get in, get out’ strategy—drink up and leave quickly! The topic ‘What happened to Starbucks’ new playlist?’ even trended on November 11. Many longtime customers said the vibe was gone, and the café now feels like a small-town milk tea shop! Those who used to hang out in Starbucks pretending to work, well, they might not find this ‘high-end’ refuge anymore.”

Operation Honey Pot: Paste this emoji 🍯 in your comment below.Chinese operatives are using shell companies to slip within range of US military bases. This could put America’s most powerful weapons at risk.

China has declined a proposed G20 meeting with the Japanese prime minister, urging Tokyo to retract its recent remarks on Taiwan. Beijing says Japan must correct its “wrong political signals” before talks can resume.#china #japan #g20 #taiwan #diplomacy #beijing #tokyo #geopolitics #breakingnews

Greg Sheridan worried about China’s aggressive posturing towards Japan and highlighted Australia’s ineffectiveness in drone capabilities due to defence budget allocations.“The absolute hopeless position of the Australian defence force in terms of drone capabilities,” Mr Sheridan told Sky News host Andrew Bolt. “We have almost no missiles and almost no drones. Certainly, nothing that could counter the Chinese.“We’re just dependent entirely on the Americans.”