FEEDING THE KING: A KC-130J tanker refuels a CH-53K King Stallion helicopter over Chesapeake Bay. No, you can’t see the tanker — just its refueling line.

SUSPECTED OF DISTURBING PUBLIC ORDER: Sounds like a charge Adam Schiff would level at Deven Nunes. Or Instapundit. Chinese citizen journalist Li Zehua was actually detained and quarantined for allegedly disturbing public order.

From the BBC:

Li Zehua is a citizen journalist who went to Wuhan in February, after another journalist, Chen Qiushi, went missing. In his first video from Wuhan he explained why we was there.

“Before I entered Wuhan, a friend who worked in the Chinese mainstream media told me… all the bad news about the epidemic has been collected by the central government.

“The local media can only report the good news about the patients’ recovery and so on. Of course, it remains uncertain whether that’s true, because this is just what I heard from my friends.”

His stories included an alleged cover-up of infections, and a busy crematorium. They were watched millions of times on Chinese platforms, YouTube, and Twitter.

Read about his dreadful February 26. Li has reappeared. Other citizen journalists have not, including Chen.

RELATED: The saga of Dr. Li Wenliang, who died of Wuhan virus on February 6, is a revealing and brutal introduction to the CCP’s Public Security Bureau. If you haven’t read it by now (I linked to it yesterday and again this morning), my latest Creators Syndicate column essays the CCP’s Imperial World Order. The sagas of Dr. Li and citizen journalist Li demonstrate the CCP-IWO is just another tyrannical police state. Except it’s got cash and operates a global agitation-propaganda network that can slick Western media sensationalists and other useful idiots.

SEA HAWK AND APACHES IN THE EAST CHINA SEA: A USN MH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter flies alongside two AH-64 Apache helicopters attached to the “Grim Reapers” of U.S. Army’s 2nd Infantry Division. Photo taken April 9, 2020.

RELATED: Here’s a Naval Air update from 2012 discussing the MH-60 Sea Hawk. This Naval Air update from 2014 discusses U.S. Army Apaches “joining the Navy.” A pull quote: “In the last year the U.S. Army has been experimenting with the use of its AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships from navy ships. This is all about being ready to participate more fully in future military operations in the Pacific.”

BEIJING’S IMPERIAL COMMUNIST WORLD ORDER: The Wuhan virus debacle and Beijing’s on-going information war are a preview of the 2049 Imperial World Order envisioned by the Chinese Communist Party.

Hong Kong is a thorn in CCP-Beijing’s gut. On April 18, Beijing’s Hong Kong lackeys arrested 15 renowned pro-democracy activists. The detained included members of Hong Kong’s local government as well as civil rights lawyers. The charge: participating in unauthorized anti-government protests in 2019.

Two to 4 million Hong Kongers participated in those protests. (The city has a population of about 7.5 million.) Why target the 15?

Beijing decided to “decapitate” the pro-democracy leaders, with the goal of terrorizing the rest of the city.

My guess: Beijing bets that global media focus on the pandemic serves as a cover from the dictatorship’s political strike. Following the Hong Kong 15’s arrest, the CCP’s Hong Kong lackeys claimed Beijing does not recognize legal restrictions that bar the CCP government from intruding on the city’s local political matters.

Goodbye Two Chinas, One System. We’ve another preview of the CCP’s disregard for treaties and contracts.

Check it out.

RELATED: Two weeks old but still breaking news. Beijing Exploits Pandemic to Probe the South China Sea.

Read the entire essay.

INDIA SATISFIES THE SNIPERS: The post discusses India’s acquisition of the SIG716 sniper rifle. The post also examines the Indian military’s failed Indian Small Arms System (INSAS) “family” of 5.56mm infantry weapons (rifle, light machine-gun and carbine) design and manufacturing program. (Link fixed.)

VIKING SQUADRON IN THE SNOW: Viking crews and their vehicles from Armoured Support Group Royal Marines conduct snow and ice driver training at Setermoen, which is about 15 miles south of Bardufoss, Norway.

THE GLOBAL WUHAN VIRUS DEBACLE: It’s a preview of the 2049 Imperial World Order run by the Chinese Communist Party.

Beijing’s calculated deceit regarding the COVID-19 pandemic’s November 2019 origin in Wuhan, China, to its ongoing 2020 A.D. global massacre provides Planet Earth’s residents with a preview of the Chinese Communist Party imperial world order that Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised to buy, slap together when no one with a brain is looking or impose via raw military terror by 2049.

Read the entire essay.

B-52 ELEPHANT WALK ON GUAM: Five USAF B-52s and other aircraft from the 36th Wing stationed at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, perform an elephant walk. Photo taken April 13, 2020.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN YEMEN: Numerous diseases plague the war-torn country. Now Wuhan virus has become a weapon.

GLOBAL HAWK INSPECTION: A USAF operations officer conducts a walk-through inspection of an RQ-4 Global Hawk remotely-piloted aircraft (RPV) at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., April 6, 2020. As the photo demonstrates, the Global Hawk is a large aircraft.

AS THE PANDEMIC PERSISTS: Beijing probes the South China Sea. Like they say on Instapundit, don’t trust China, meaning the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship.

MILITARY MASKING: Authorized masks while in uniform.

SPIRIT AND LIGHTNING: A USAF B-2A Spirit bomber and a Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35A Lightning II conduct aerial operations over the North Sea, March 18, 2020.

CHINA’S HUAWEI GAMBIT: Beijing spies on the world using a 5G “virus”?

Here’s the high-risk rub: Does anyone not on the payroll of the Chinese Communist Party trust Beijing’s dictatorship with the power to pervasively monitor communications (spy locally as well as globally), interrupt, deny or corrupt digital services, and possibly take surreptitious control of digital devices, say, the air traffic control computers at Los Angeles International Airport?

Outrageous scenario? No, given Huawei’s baggage is a legitimate worry exacerbated by the regime’s criminal dishonesty (e.g., lying about COVID-19/Wuhan virus). For all practical purposes, Huawei is a Chinese Communist Party tool. In spy lingo, a cutout company can hide an espionage operation. Abundant evidence suggests Huawei serves as a cutout.

My latest Creators Syndicate column (bumped).

CHINA’S HUAWEI GAMBIT: Beijing spies on the world using a 5G “virus”?

Here’s the high-risk rub: Does anyone not on the payroll of the Chinese Communist Party trust Beijing’s dictatorship with the power to pervasively monitor communications (spy locally as well as globally), interrupt, deny or corrupt digital services, and possibly take surreptitious control of digital devices, say, the air traffic control computers at Los Angeles International Airport?

Outrageous scenario? No, given Huawei’s baggage is a legitimate worry exacerbated by the regime’s criminal dishonesty (e.g., lying about COVID-19/Wuhan virus). For all practical purposes, Huawei is a Chinese Communist Party tool. In spy lingo, a cutout company can hide an espionage operation. Abundant evidence suggests Huawei serves as a cutout.

Suggest you read the entire column.

KUROSAWA FILM FESTIVAL STARRING TOSHIRO MIFUNE: Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Toshiro Mifune. Powerline film critic Scott Johnson examines TCM’s Kurosawa with Mifune festival.

CHINA’S HUAWEI GAMBIT: Beijing spies with a 5G virus?

USNS COMFORT ARRIVES IN NEW YORK CITY: The Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort arrives in New York City in support of the nation’s COVID-19/Wuhan virus response efforts. In 2010 the USNS Comfort deployed to Haiti. Here’s a snapshot of the ship anchored off Paita, Peru (taken in 2011).

RELATED: From 2006, a post discussing the USNS Mercy‘s deployment to Indonesia and the diplomatic pay-off. Here’s a photo of the USNS Mercy and one of its “band-aid boats.” The photo was taken in 2008 in Nha Trang, Vietnam.

COMMUNIST CHINA’S VIRAL PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN: My latest Creators Syndicate column.

HIGH ENERGY LASER SYSTEM: A photo of the High Energy Laser System Test Facility at White Sands Missile Range. Has the laser of the future arrived? Maybe. Israel’s Laser Dome is a candidate.

COMMUNIST CHINA’S VIRAL PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN: My latest Creators Syndicate column. Wuhan virus is racist? Gol durn! Why the hell doesn’t the White House press corps treat Old Lyme, Connecticut, with the same smarmy snowflake sensitivity?

DIG this press jerks:

Old Lyme is where Lyme disease was first diagnosed as a unique condition. German measles — hey, CNN, does that slur Germans? West Nile virus — West Nile is a province in Uganda, Washington Post. With regard to West Nile virus, where’s your outrage on behalf of West Nile’s Alur ethnic group? The Ebola virus was identified in 1976 in Yambuku, a village near the Ebola River. (To be fair, it was also identified in what is now South Sudan.) Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a bacterial disease. If you think the name slurs Colorado, seek psychotherapy, not a vaccination.

A little more:

Attention White House press corps: China’s communist dictators think they are propaganda Zen masters. They believe their ability to wage relentless narrative warfare, globally confuse useful media idiots and coerce Chinese citizens gives them a global media edge.

My column also reviews the Stalinist term “useful idiot.”

Definition: “…a Stalinist communist term for dupes in the West whose Bible was Kremlin propaganda…”

Read the whole column. (bumped)

POWERLINE TRIPLE PLAY: Tinker steps on third, fires to Evers at second who relays to Chance at first?. No, but Scott Johnson once again outs his local left-wing rag, The Minneapolis Star Tribune on behalf of a friend.

From Part 1: “Kevin Roche: My Struggle With The Star Tribune: “Kevin Roche was general counsel of UnitedHealth Group in Minneapolis, then founder and CEO of its Ingenix division. Since leaving UnitedHealth he has invested in and sat on the boards of a number of health care companies…”

The issue:

Kevin wrote a column on the current Coronavirus panic that he sought to place as an advertisement in the Star Tribune on Monday. He titled the column STOP THE ECONOMIC SUICIDE. It is consistent with much of what we have written on Power Line and is well within the scope of respectable opinion, yet Kevin has not yet succeeded in placing the ad.

The struggle to understand why his opinion ad was rejected continues in Part 2 and Part 3.

But the kicker, a Part 3 update: “Kevin advises that the Star Tribune accepted his ad this morning (“not sure why”).”

Heh. Read the email exchanges between Roche and the newspaper’s reps and you’ll know why they caved. Now, when will the Star Tribune honestly report on Ilhan Omar’s crimes?

COMMUNIST CHINA’S VIRAL PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN: Like, “China is a face culture, but the CCP’s face culture has Mafia rules.” At one point the column directly confronts the White House press corps, asking the stuffed suits this question: “Is St. Louis encephalitis a slur on the city of St. Louis, the state of Missouri and St. Louis Cardinals baseball fans?” And there are several follow-ups in the same epidemic vein, like this one: “West Nile virus — West Nile is a province in Uganda, Washington Post. With regard to West Nile virus, where’s your outrage on behalf of West Nile’s Alur ethnic group?”

For your own health, I suggest you read the entire column. Full disclosure: I have been to West Nile province. I stayed for a week in an Alur village near the town of Nebbi.

CHINA’S NEW ATTACK HELICOPTERS ARE UNDERPOWERED — LET THEM STAY THAT WAY: According to this post, China thought it could get away with using French or U.S. engine designs in its new Z10 helicopter gunships. In the case of the French WZ16 engine design “the joint [French-Chinese] development agreement specified that the WZ16 would not be used in military helicopters. China thought they could get around that but failed.” Paris to Beijing: Mais non.

China also failed to pinch a U.S.-designed helicopter engine that’s built in Canada.

Excerpt:

Pratt & Whitney Canada was taken to court by the U.S. government because the Chinese seemed intent on building the Z10 with the “civilian use only” PT6C-67C engine. The Canadians did not sell any more engines to China, which meant that the Z-10 had to enter mass production with a one third less powerful Chinese WZ9 engine.

Not only no, but Hell no.

Economic kicker: “China has had no success in finding export customers for the Z10.”

This post is packed with detailed technical info — and the good news that France and the U.S. are enforcing contracts that affect national security.

RELATED: Here’s a rather dramatic photo of a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, which the post linked above calls “currently the most popular such [attack] helicopter in the world with over 2,000 built so far and over a dozen export customers so far.”

LAKOTA ON COVID-19 DUTY: The New Jersey Army National Guard UH-72 Lakota helicopter in the photo has just returned to the National Guard Training Center at Sea Girt, N.J. According to the caption it flew an observation mission “over COVID-19 Community-Based Testing Sites in Paramus and Holmdel.” The caption lists the organizations using the sites. Photo taken March 24, 2020.