In late April, Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a top Chinese virologist, fled Hong Kong and defected to the United States. In an exclusive interview, Yan told Fox News that she was among the first Chinese doctors to begin researching the novel coronavirus in late December.

She knew then that there was human-to-human transmission and that the virus presented a serious threat of becoming an uncontrollable pandemic. But her superiors warned her to keep quiet or risk being “disappeared."


As you may recall, Chinese authorities were telling the World Health Organization (WHO) that the coronavirus was not contagious to humans. That was false and they knew it.


As Dr. Yan continued to watch the lies coming out of Beijing and the WHO, she decided to flee Hong Kong in order to tell the truth about what she knew. Her husband refused to leave, warning Yan that Chinese authorities "will kill all of us."


Since this outbreak began, President Trump was quick to lay the blame squarely where it belonged — on the Chinese Communist Party. But Joe Biden and the left made excuses for China and accused the president of trying to deflect responsibility.

We may soon learn that the president was right while Biden and his media allies were wrong. According to former White House adviser Steve Bannon, more Chinese whistleblowers are coming forward, including some from the epicenter of the outbreak — the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

"They are not talking to the media yet, but there are people out of the Wuhan lab and other labs that have come to the West and are turning over evidence of the culpability of the Chinese Communist Party,” Bannon said. “I think people are going to be shocked."


The Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly lied to the world. It tried to corner the market on vital medical supplies and sent defective supplies to other countries. Beijing’s communist bosses have hundreds of thousands of deaths on their hands as a result.



China Sanctions Conservatives


Last week, the Trump administration imposed sanctions against senior Chinese Communist Party officials responsible for the country’s ethnic cleansing and persecution of minority Uighurs in the Xinjiang region. The Chinese regime is holding as many as two million Uighurs in brutal concentration camps and is subjecting them to forced abortions and sterilizations.

For these and other reasons, I and my fellow commissioners on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom are also urging the Trump administration to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.


Yesterday, China responded by imposing sanctions on leading U.S. conservatives, including Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, Rep. Chris Smith, and Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback.

While it’s not immediately clear what the Chinese sanctions entail, presumably Cruz, Rubio, Smith, and Brownback would be denied visas if they attempted to travel to China or Hong Kong.


It’s telling that no progressive Democrats were targeted by Beijing.



Churches Burned


 
Fires ravaged churches in three states over the weekend.

• In Saint Gabriel, California, a fire gutted the interior of the historic 249-year-old Saint Gabriel Mission Church.

• In Ocala, Florida, a man crashed a minivan through the front door of a conservative Catholic church, then lit the interior ablaze while parishioners prepared for morning Mass.

• And a Pentecostal church outside Huntsville, Alabama, caught fire Friday evening, destroying the sanctuary, bathrooms, and the fellowship hall.

There’s a phenomenon in the news industry called spiking. It’s when a newsworthy story is withheld and not reported, often for political reasons. And predictably, these church fires were barely mentioned by the national media.


What do you think you’d be hearing about if three mosques had burned under suspicious circumstances? It would dominate every newscast and appear on the front page of every national paper.


How do you explain the scant coverage of three churches burning in one weekend?

Investigative reporters should be asking whether the church fires have anything to do with recent protests against Christian monuments in recent weeks. The Saint Gabriel Mission that burned in California was founded by Junipero Serra, a Franciscan priest whose statue was recently torn down by radical activists who claim he was a colonialist.


I hope investigators take each of these cases seriously. But there are two things we all can do in the wake of these fires. We can pray for fellow believers to be safe. And we can approach our religious leaders and ask them what their plans are to defend not only our houses of worship but also our religious freedom in an increasingly hostile society.



The Carnage Continues


It was another bloody weekend of murder and mayhem in Chicago and New York. More than two dozen people were shot in the Big Apple and more than 60 were shot in Chicago. Fifteen people were shot within 15 hours in New York, and a toddler at a barbeque was among those caught in the crossfire.


Meanwhile, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is working hard to make sure "Black Lives Matter” is painted outside of Trump Tower and all large events but BLM protests are banned. How’s that for progressive priorities?!

By the way, more than 500 of the NYPD’s finest have filed for retirement since the end of May — a 175% increase over the same time last year. It’s a similar story in Minneapolis, where approximately 20% of the city’s police force has taken initial steps toward retirement.

As one commentator recently put it, “We don’t have to defund the police. We just have to demoralize them.”

Sadly, two police officers were ambushed and murdered Saturday in McAllen, Texas. When the 18-year-old daughter of Officer Ismael Chavez posted a tribute to her father, she was ambushed online by hate-filled trolls who no doubt consider themselves quite progressive.

Unfortunately, as law and order wanes, it’s low-income minority communities that will suffer the most. Those who refuse to stand with the police are putting black and Hispanic lives at risk.


The Goya “Buycott”


Kudos to Goya CEO Robert Unanue!

Last week, Unanue attended a White House Rose Garden event promoting President Trump's Hispanic Prosperity Initiative. As the CEO of the nation’s largest Hispanic food company, it was only appropriate for him to be there. Unanue has also participated in White House events hosted by President Obama.

But now the left is trying to destroy Goya foods with a massive boycott because Unanue had the audacity to say nice things about President Trump. He’s also refusing to apologize, accusing the left of “suppressing free speech."


In response to the left’s boycott, conservatives are rallying to Goya with a "buycott.” In some cases, they are purchasing Goya products and donating them to local food banks.

By the way, Unanue has donated millions of pounds of food during the pandemic and other natural disasters. But the left’s “cancel culture” wants to destroy this generous American company, no matter who gets hurt in the process, proving yet again what a threat the totalitarian progressive movement truly is.