Feinstein: You Know Who's Growing Increasingly 'Respectable'? China.

When I first saw this headline on Twitter, I assumed someone must have gone back and mined an embarrassing old quote from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that has aged quite poorly. I was curious when she said it, and why she might have felt some optimism at the time. So I clicked on the Washington Free Beacon link, only to discover (ahem) that she issued this assessment on Thursday. As in, yesterday. Yes, really:

The "pulling people out of poverty" accolade can be attributed to China pivoting from starving tens of millions of its own people to death to a far more liberalized, capitalistic system. They eased off on Communist economics because they're a proven disaster, and they wanted to succeed. But their hardcore, deeply disreputable Communist authoritarianism remains firmly in place -- and is getting worse. Here's a short recap of Beijing's conduct over the last six months or so:

The list of what China has done to raise doubts and suspicions is long. Last month, Beijing pursued a deadly border standoff with India, crossing the Line of Actual Control and killing some 20 Indian soldiers. It passed a national-security law that effectively ended Hong Kong’s political freedom, violating internationally agreed-upon commitments. When the Australian government expressed mild support for an international inquiry into COVID-19’s origins, China barred and taxed key agricultural imports. Tokyo says that armed Chinese coast-guard vessels have sailed near the Senkaku Islands every day since April, and Beijing warned its citizens against travel to Canada, citing “frequent violent actions” purportedly carried out by law enforcement. Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu recently reported an “unprecedented” number of sea and air exercises near the island, and the Chinese air force this month conducted live-fire drills in the South China Sea. No perceived transgression seems too small to elicit a hostile Chinese response: When the Dutch renamed its representative office in Taiwan—from the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office to the Netherlands Office Taipei—China threatened to stop sending medical supplies and to boycott Dutch goods. If this is what Chinese global leadership looks like, many governments are quickly concluding, count us out.

And this doesn't even touch on the horrific persecution of religious and ethnic minorities, including ethnic cleansing and concentration camps -- which Chinese officials clumsily deny. A worldwide pandemic that is killing hundreds of thousands of people originated in China. Its regime covered it up, lied about it, and blamed it on America's military. Their intolerance for dissent and geopolitical bellicosity is ramping up. They're 're-educating' Muslims, raping their women, and mandating abortions. And they're stamping out freedom in Hong Kong, in flagrant violation of a treaty they signed, and are even quasi-threatening to not permit newly-repressed citizens to flee. And the repression is real:

#Breaking: Three males and one female, aged 16-21, who claimed to be students, have been arrested for breaching the #NationalSecurityLaw. They were suspected of secession by advocating #HKIndependence. Investigation is underway. #Hongkong
— Hong Kong Police Force (@hkpoliceforce) July 29, 2020

Tony was arrested for "inciting secession" after he wrote a FB post on #China's nationalism. Meanwhile, arrestees' mobile phones were hacked by unknown #Huawei and #Samsung phones soon after their arrests. Tonight's arrest will clearly send a chilling effect on #HK online speech. https://t.co/OtTLziJmOR pic.twitter.com/KGmDJrxzzY
— Joshua Wong ??? ?? (@joshuawongcf) July 29, 2020

Despicable. And note the cameo appearance from Huawei in this crackdown. Feinstein sits on the Senate intelligence committee, so presumably she's aware of at least some of these Chinese actions. Yet she decided that now is the time to hail the Chinese Communist Party's 'growth' toward 'respectability.' Stunning. Allahpundit wryly asks, "did the Chinese spy who used to work for her write this dreck for her?" Or maybe she's just doing a solid for a country that has made her family exceptionally rich. Read this. I'll leave you with most Americans taking a much tougher line on China than a powerful US Senator, her Democratic colleagues who parroted CCP propaganda on Coronavirus, or the House Democrats who abandoned a bipartisan effort to counter Beijing for crudely political reasons:

Pew Survey: Most Americans blame China for spreading coronavirus https://t.co/sWdfK2KDHW
— Jake Novak (@jakejakeny) July 31, 2020

More than three-quarters of Americans — 78 percent — place a “great deal or fair amount of the blame” on China for the virus’ spread around the world, according to the study published Thursday by the Pew Research Center. Another 73 percent of respondents said they had “unfavorable” views of the country — a figure that rose 26 percentage points since 2018, the surveyors found...Americans hold equally chilly views of China’s President Xi Jinping, with 77 percent responding that they either have “not too much confidence” or “no confidence at all” that he would “do the right thing” with regards to world affairs. Pollsters found Americans also seem poised to support strong actions against China in response to the country’s treatment of Uighur Muslims...