Tea at Trianon: America’s Top Retired Generals In Beijing Conference

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, January 24, 2026

America’s Top Retired Generals In Beijing Conference

From Natalie Winters:

The most consequential name on the participant list was Admiral Mike Mullen, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and once the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military.
From a United Front perspective, Mullen is the ideal validator. He no longer sets policy, but his stature remains intact. His participation in a CUSEF-supported forum allows Beijing to project an image of strategic parity — suggesting that even America’s former top military commander views engagement on CCP-curated terms as legitimate.
This is not about what Mullen said in the room. It’s about what his presence communicates. United Front work operates on symbolism and access. A retired four-star admiral in Beijing signals credibility to Chinese audiences, international partners, and wavering elites abroad. (Read more.)