- 2 months ago
From media moguls to TikTok investors? President Donald Trump says Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan could be part of the proposed U.S. deal with China to keep TikTok running.
A bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers has met with top Chinese officials. In a rare move, they also sat down with China’s defense minister.
The Chinese Communist Party is trying to expand its presence in the United States—and some Chinese students are helping make that happen. An investigative reporter who uncovered the matter joins us to break it down.
Philip Lenczycki, senior investigative reporter at the Daily Caller, said: “They may maintain contact with their Chinese host institutions and carry out their wishes, which included spreading propaganda and participating in political and ideological training sessions, and all manner of things.”
A Chinese journalist has been handed more jail time. She had already been jailed years ago for documenting the early phases of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, exposing Beijing’s cover-up.
And two women in their seventies are facing more than two years in prison in southern China, all for reading a book together.
00:00 Intro01:16 Trump: Murdochs Could Join U.S. TikTok Deal
03:29 U.S. Lawmakers Meet With China’s Defense Minister
04:38 Reporter Uncovers CCP Branches on U.S. Campuses
05:56 What CCP-Member Students Are Doing in U.S. Colleges
07:38 Links Between Chinese Students, Consulates, and Intel Orgs
10:10 Taliban Rejects Trump’s Call to Return Bagram Air Base
10:49 China Extends Jail Time for COVID Whistleblower
12:36 Women in 70s Sentenced for Reading Falun Gong Book
14:04 Transportation Sec. Warns on Chinese Airbag Inflator
14:55 Lawmakers Push for Taiwan in U.N. Aviation Body
15:47 Dutch Parliament Support Taiwan Join UN Events
16:48 China Spy Case in Germany Tied to Persecution of Falun Gong
18:56 China’s DeepSeek AI Denies ‘Sensitive’ Groups Help
🔵Tiffany Meier’s documentary Hollywood Takeover - how Beijing is rewriting the script in America’s film industry: hollywoodtakeover.com
🇺🇸 Stay updated with breaking news, special reports, and LIVE COVERAGE on NTD: https://ept.ms/NTDlive_
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https://donorbox.org/china-in-focus
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https://www.ntdgiftshop.com/product-page/the-final-war-documentary-dvd-a-100-year-plot-to-defeat-america
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© All Rights Reserved.
A bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers has met with top Chinese officials. In a rare move, they also sat down with China’s defense minister.
The Chinese Communist Party is trying to expand its presence in the United States—and some Chinese students are helping make that happen. An investigative reporter who uncovered the matter joins us to break it down.
Philip Lenczycki, senior investigative reporter at the Daily Caller, said: “They may maintain contact with their Chinese host institutions and carry out their wishes, which included spreading propaganda and participating in political and ideological training sessions, and all manner of things.”
A Chinese journalist has been handed more jail time. She had already been jailed years ago for documenting the early phases of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, exposing Beijing’s cover-up.
And two women in their seventies are facing more than two years in prison in southern China, all for reading a book together.
00:00 Intro01:16 Trump: Murdochs Could Join U.S. TikTok Deal
03:29 U.S. Lawmakers Meet With China’s Defense Minister
04:38 Reporter Uncovers CCP Branches on U.S. Campuses
05:56 What CCP-Member Students Are Doing in U.S. Colleges
07:38 Links Between Chinese Students, Consulates, and Intel Orgs
10:10 Taliban Rejects Trump’s Call to Return Bagram Air Base
10:49 China Extends Jail Time for COVID Whistleblower
12:36 Women in 70s Sentenced for Reading Falun Gong Book
14:04 Transportation Sec. Warns on Chinese Airbag Inflator
14:55 Lawmakers Push for Taiwan in U.N. Aviation Body
15:47 Dutch Parliament Support Taiwan Join UN Events
16:48 China Spy Case in Germany Tied to Persecution of Falun Gong
18:56 China’s DeepSeek AI Denies ‘Sensitive’ Groups Help
🔵Tiffany Meier’s documentary Hollywood Takeover - how Beijing is rewriting the script in America’s film industry: hollywoodtakeover.com
🇺🇸 Stay updated with breaking news, special reports, and LIVE COVERAGE on NTD: https://ept.ms/NTDlive_
💛 Support us to fight for the truth:
https://donorbox.org/china-in-focus
🔵 Sign up for our NEWSLETTER and stay in touch:
https://www.ntd.com/newsletter.htm
🧶 'The Final War' Documentary DVD:
https://www.ntdgiftshop.com/product-page/the-final-war-documentary-dvd-a-100-year-plot-to-defeat-america
-
© All Rights Reserved.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Stefania Cox, in for Tiffany Meyer.
00:06Our top story, from media moguls to TikTok investors.
00:11President Trump says Rupert Murdoch and his son Laughlin could be part of the proposed U.S. deal to keep TikTok running.
00:19A bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers meeting with top Chinese officials.
00:25In a rare move, they also sat down with China's defense minister.
00:30The Chinese Communist Party is trying to expand its presence in the U.S.
00:35And some Chinese students are helping make that happen.
00:39An investigative reporter who uncovered the matter joins us to break it down.
00:44A Chinese journalist facing more jail time.
00:48She had reported on the early COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, exposing Beijing's cover-up.
00:53And two women in their 70s facing more than two years in prison in southern China, all for reading a book together.
01:03President Trump says media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son Laughlin, along with tech leaders Larry Ellison and Michael Dell,
01:23could step in as U.S. investors to keep TikTok running in the United States.
01:29He made the claim Sunday on Fox News' Sunday briefing.
01:33Let's zoom in.
01:34Hate to tell you this, but a man named Laughlin is involved.
01:38Media mogul Laughlin Murdoch, who leads Fox Corp, would be involved in the proposed deal to keep TikTok operating in the United States.
01:46That's according to U.S. President Donald Trump on Fox News Channel's The Sunday Briefing.
01:51It's the latest in efforts to transfer TikTok's U.S. assets away from China's ByteDance.
01:57The move lets Trump allies in corporate America gain influence on the social media app,
02:02which has 170 million U.S. users, and shapes public discourse on politics and culture.
02:09Other proposed investors Trump named Sunday were business leaders Larry Ellison and Michael Dell,
02:14and Trump said the Murdoch family's 94-year-old patriarch, Rupert, may be involved too.
02:21Really great people, very prominent people, and they're also American patriots, you know,
02:26they love this country, so I think they're going to do a really good job.
02:30I'm a little prejudiced with TikTok because, you know, I won the—I did so well with the young voter.
02:35Trump has included negotiations over TikTok as part of wide-ranging economic talks with China.
02:40On Friday, he said China's Xi Jinping had approved the deal with TikTok.
02:45Reuters reported Saturday the expected deal sees U.S. investors owning the majority of TikTok's U.S. assets,
02:52and there will be a board of directors with national security and cybersecurity credentials.
02:57Sources tell Reuters any investment in TikTok U.S. would come through Fox Corp.
03:02Its CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, recently cemented long-term control of his family's media empire
03:08that includes Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, after settling a years-long legal battle with his siblings.
03:14Though known for their conservative views, the Murdochs have clashed with Trump before.
03:19Trump sued The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for defamation
03:22after a report in July linked him to a controversial birthday message for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
03:29A group of bipartisan lawmakers recently met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Vice Premier He Liefeng.
03:37In a rare move, they also met with China's defense minister on Monday,
03:41marking the first visit to Beijing by House lawmakers in six years.
03:45Here's Congressman Adam Smith.
03:47It feels strongly that there should be more frequent visits and more robust conversation.
03:54It might open up the lines of communication.
03:56Congressman Smith led the bipartisan delegation.
03:59He's the top Democrat in the House Armed Services Committee.
04:03It oversees the U.S. Defense Department and Armed Forces.
04:06We'll focus on the middle-to-middle relationship.
04:10China's defense minister, Dong Jian, said the visit marked a good phase in efforts to boost U.S.-China communications.
04:17The trip follows a call between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping last Friday.
04:21They reached a deal to sell TikTok's U.S.-based operations and let the U.S. control the app's algorithm.
04:28The delegation also met with Vice Premier He Liefeng and discussed trade relations.
04:33They met with China's Premier Li Qiang on Sunday.
04:36Li called the visit an ice-breaking trip.
04:37Next, we take a closer look at a concerning development.
04:42A media report found that some Chinese students affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party are setting up party branches on U.S. campuses.
04:51To break it down, NTD's Tiffany Meyer spoke with Philip Lenzeki, senior investigative reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation and the author of the report.
05:00Let's dive in.
05:01We found, you know, dozens, over two dozen Chinese Communist Party members that have come to study in the United States.
05:09And these students came through joint programs between three universities in the United States and two universities in China.
05:17United States schools were University of Colorado, Denver, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Oklahoma State University.
05:25And what we found is that the students from China, among them, were Chinese Communist Party members and that they were more or less directed to establish Chinese Communist Party branches here in the United States.
05:38And while studying the United States, they maintained contact with their Chinese host, you know, institutions and would carry out their wishes, which included spreading propaganda and, you know, participating in political and ideological training sessions and all manner of things.
05:57I want to dig into that last part a bit.
05:59What exactly are these overseas party branches trying to do on these American campuses?
06:04When we look at these schools, for starters, they are training all their students, whether they're members of the Chinese Communist Party or not, before they go to China.
06:14It is a requirement for them to undergo political and ideological training before they go.
06:20Then once they're here, the students that are members of the Chinese Communist Party then have to, you know, engage in webinars and things like that back with their party branch headquarters back in China.
06:31And that might be that they're participating in, you know, seminars or that might be that they participate in some type of, you know, observances for certain events.
06:40There was one instance where one of the members was taking part in the 200th birthday of Karl Marx.
06:48So it comes up in different ways.
06:51And they're being directed both when they're in China and overseas to do things that, you know, we've seen in other stories.
06:59So, for instance, they're being told to, quote unquote, tell China's story well, and they're being told to do that to their U.S. colleagues at school.
07:11So this is something that's just directed at their classmates.
07:16There's also other examples.
07:17You have the Confucius Institutes, which used to be in the headlines.
07:20Now they're under different names, kind of hard to track those down.
07:22You have the CSSAs.
07:23There's all of this coming out, right?
07:25There's a history of Chinese espionage, some of those being students in the country with these overseas party branches.
07:32How does that fit in and what are the concerns with that?
07:35That's interesting that you mentioned the Chinese Students and Scholars Association.
07:38One of the individuals that we found at the University of Colorado Denver also happened to be the number two at that school's Chinese Students and Scholars Association.
07:49So there does appear to be, you know, an overlap between the party branch members and those student groups that are actually official on campus.
07:56And these Chinese Students and Scholars Associations are, number one, explicitly in contact and under the local Chinese consulates.
08:07In this case, for Colorado, they were in contact with and meeting with the Chicago Chinese consulate.
08:13And secondly, more broadly, it's been reported by, you know, the State Department and others that the entire system of these Chinese Students and Scholars Associations are under the control of a Chinese intelligence service called the United Front Work Department.
08:27So, again, this raises serious questions and concerns about what all these students could be up to, especially given that some of them are, as we found, members of the Chinese Communist Party themselves.
08:37We do know, you know, Michael Lucci with State Armor, he works a lot at the state level to try and implement or get legislation moving on that.
08:44Have you seen anything on the state or even federal level to counter some of what we're talking about here, the concerns here, especially these overseas party branches?
08:52Specifically, what occurred is that Michael Lucci and his organization, they went to, in one example, Nebraska, and they worked with a state's representative, Elliot Bostar, and they were able to pass LB644, a bill that the governor signed recently.
09:14And it's going to try to fight back against Chinese Communist Party influence operations in their state and would require, essentially, at the state level, you know, some type of registration for those that are operating at the behest of a foreign power.
09:29So it would be something that it would be a state solution akin to what we have at the federal level with the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
09:37This will go into effect on October 1st, I'm told, and at that time, you know, what I'm led to believe was that these individuals who are members of these party branches would then potentially be required to register as being a part of, you know, the Chinese Communist Party, if nothing else, and that failure to do so would potentially result in civil, if not criminal, penalties.
10:03Well, Philip Lenzicki, as always, thank you so much for joining us.
10:09Thanks so much for having me, Tiffany.
10:10The Taliban has rejected President Donald Trump's call for the United States to regain control of the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
10:18The site was the main base for U.S. forces before the 2021 withdrawal under then-President Joe Biden.
10:24In response, Trump issued a warning on Truth Social, writing, quote,
10:29Bad things are going to happen if the Taliban refuses to return control of the base to the U.S.
10:36Last week, Trump suggested the Taliban might be open to a deal in exchange for government aid.
10:41He also stressed the strategic significance of a renewed American presence in Afghanistan to counter China's nuclear ambitions in the region.
10:49A Chinese journalist, already jailed for four years in prison, was sentenced to four more on Friday.
10:57That's according to the international press watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
11:02The journalist had reported on the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, exposing cover-ups by the Chinese Communist Party.
11:10Here's more.
11:11Zhang Zhan had already served a four-year prison sentence after she posted accounts of the early spread of the coronavirus from the epicenter of Wuhan.
11:20The citizen journalist was first arrested in 2020.
11:24It followed months of her reporting on crowded hospitals and empty streets that painted a more dire picture of the disease than the official narrative.
11:32Zhang went on a hunger strike after her arrest and was force-fed with a tube, her lawyers at the time said.
11:38A Shanghai court sent her to prison in December 2020 on a charge of
11:43picking quarrels and provoking trouble, the International Press Freedom Group, known by its French initials RSF, said.
11:50Her health declined seriously and she was admitted to a prison hospital in mid-2023, rights groups had said.
11:57Her imprisonment had sparked protests in Hong Kong, with the U.S. State Department calling it a sham prosecution.
12:03Zhang was released in May 2024 and detained again three months later, according to RSF.
12:10It's said Zhang's Friday sentencing, again for provoking trouble, follows her reporting on China's human rights abuses.
12:17The group is urging the international community to push Beijing to free her.
12:22A former lawyer of hers posted on X that the new case was based on Zhang's comments made on overseas websites and she should not be deemed guilty.
12:30China's authorities have never made public what specific activities led to any of Zhang's charges.
12:37Two elderly women in southern China have been sentenced to prison.
12:42Chu Fen, 76, was taken by police while reading a book at her home in Guangdong province.
12:48Shortly after, police took Xie Liping, 78, from her home.
12:53Authorities say Xie was targeted because she often visited Chu's home to read Juan Falun together.
13:00That's the main book of the Falun Gong meditation practice.
13:04The report comes from Minghui, a U.S.-based website run by Falun Gong practitioners that tracks cases of the group's persecution in China.
13:14Chu is sentenced last month to two years and eight months in prison, and Xie to two years and six months.
13:21Coming up, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy calling out airbag inflators made by a Chinese company, saying installing them could put American families at risk.
13:35U.S. lawmakers pushing for Taiwan to join U.N.-affiliated meetings, something long blocked by the Chinese Communist Party.
13:43And China's deep-seek AI is refusing some requests and producing unsafe code.
13:51We break down what that means for users and for U.S. national security.
13:56More on that after the break here on China in Focus.
14:01Welcome back to China in Focus.
14:03I'm Stephanie Acox, in for Tiffany Meyer.
14:06Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is calling airbag inflators made by a Chinese company dangerous.
14:12The manufacturer, DTN, makes devices that inflate airbags to protect drivers during crashes.
14:20Duffy is urging the auto repair industry to check for any DTN products installed in vehicles.
14:25Let's take a closer look.
14:27Duffy said whoever is bringing this faulty Chinese equipment into the country and installing them is putting American families in danger and committing a serious crime.
14:36This comes as U.S. authorities are investigating seven incidents where airbag parts exploded during collisions.
14:42Authorities say they think the airbags in those incidents have parts made by DTN.
14:47Five people were killed in those incidents.
14:50It's unclear how many Chinese-made airbag components have been installed in cars in the U.S.
14:55Members of the U.S. Congress say it's a matter of national interest.
14:59They want the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, to formally invite Taiwan to participate in its upcoming assembly.
15:08The ICAO is a U.N. agency that coordinates international air travel.
15:13Taiwan's exclusion from the agency is part of the Chinese Communist Party's longstanding effort to block the island from international organizations.
15:21In a letter, the bipartisan group of lawmakers highlighted Taiwan's key role in global aviation, noting it's a hub for dozens of airlines.
15:31They pointed out that Taiwan's largest airport ranks high worldwide for passenger and cargo traffic.
15:38Lawmakers say Taiwan's exclusion from the ICAO leaves it without access to critical safety information and undermines international aviation standards.
15:48Ahead of the United Nations General Assembly this week, the Netherlands Parliament overwhelmingly passed a motion supporting Taiwan's participation in U.N. events.
15:59Taiwan has been excluded from the U.N. system for more than half a century.
16:03Last week, the Netherlands House of Representatives passed a motion by a vote of 147 to 3.
16:09It requests the Dutch government advocate for Taiwan's participation during the U.N. General Assembly and in annual meetings of U.N. organizations.
16:19The motion stated that U.N. Resolution 2758 does not grant China sovereignty over Taiwan, nor address Taiwan's participation in the U.N. or other international organizations.
16:31The motion also states that the Netherlands, along with other democracies, has a duty to stand up against threats targeting free and democratic societies.
16:41Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it sincerely welcomes and expresses its gratitude for the move.
16:49In Germany, the trial of two alleged Chinese spies is nearing its conclusion.
16:54The suspects are accused of leaking hundreds of sensitive documents about the European Union.
17:00They also compiled personal data on 25,000 Chinese dissidents in Europe.
17:06Prosecutors linked the case to the persecution of tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
17:12NTD International correspondent David Vives has the details.
17:16The federal prosecutor's office presented its closing statement in the case of Jiang Zhe, a German citizen of Chinese origin, and Jiaqi X, a Chinese national, both accused of working for Beijing's intelligence services.
17:29While serving as an aide to AFD politician Maximilian Krah, Jiang Zhe allegedly leaked more than 500 sensitive EU and party documents to China and compiled personal data on over 25,000 Chinese dissidents in Europe.
17:42In our view, Jiang Zhe is involved in an especially serious case of intelligence activity.
17:52This is particularly true because he concentrated his espionage efforts on many different targets.
17:58He pursued a broad range of interests on behalf of the intelligence service, military surveillance objectives, namely Leipzig Ali Airport, Chinese dissidents in Germany,
18:07as well as developments in the European Parliament and in the party of the Member of Parliament to whom he was assigned.
18:14The court also discussed on Wednesday a potential violation of an EU resolution protecting Falun Gong practitioners and sanctioning perpetrators in China.
18:23Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice combining meditation with moral teachings centered on truthfulness, compassion and forbearance.
18:31That was practiced by tens of millions in the 1990s.
18:35In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched a campaign to eradicate the practice leading to widespread persecution,
18:41imprisonment, torture and forced organ harvesting.
18:45A 2024 EU resolution mentions surveillance of Falun Gong practitioners inside and outside China,
18:52which includes the collection of personal data.
18:54David Vives, NTD News, Paris.
18:56Refusing requests or sending risky code.
19:01Chinese AI DeepSeq is in the spotlight.
19:04New research shows the system often refuses to help programmers or it delivers flawed, insecure code
19:10when requests involve groups Beijing considers sensitive.
19:15Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike shared the findings with The Washington Post last Tuesday.
19:21Researchers say programs for industrial control systems are the riskiest type of request.
19:26About 23 percent of answers contain flaws.
19:30Requests mentioning Tibet, Taiwan or Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline persecuted in China,
19:36are more likely to produce low-quality code.
19:40But what's behind DeepSeq's unsafe responses?
19:43And why does it matter?
19:45We spoke with Rex Lee, cybersecurity advisor at MySmartPrivacy, for his insights.
19:50Don't go out and read everything on the internet.
19:55If it regurgitates something back to the trainer and the trainer wants to manipulate that,
20:01they can add that into the algorithm and say, hey, Tiananmen Square, the way it was reported by the West,
20:07really wasn't how it happened in real life.
20:11A lot of these atrocities never occurred.
20:13That's propaganda from the West.
20:15So we're going to write that out.
20:17So you have to get down to understand how these algorithms are being developed and how they're being trained.
20:25One of the other things that lawmakers can do is write a new law that states that there needs to be algorithm transparency.
20:37And when it comes to Falun Gong, DeepSeq AI not only produces lower-quality results,
20:45it also outright refused requests 45 percent of the time.
20:50Cybersecurity experts, including CrowdStrike's Adam Mayers, say there could be a few reasons.
20:56DeepSeq may be following Beijing's directives.
20:59And it may also be forming its own assumptions about regions and groups Beijing is biased against.
21:04These findings are raising questions about how DeepSeq AI is being trained.
21:10How they're training their AI is they all develop scrapers that go out and scrape everything off the Internet,
21:16which is illegal.
21:17That's data theft.
21:18But again, that's not being enforced.
21:21And then they train it from there and then they further massage it with their own biases.
21:25After it's read everything off the Internet, now that has to be framed.
21:30And it all boils down to how and who's training these algorithms.
21:37Without clear transparency rules, DeepSeq users often have no way of knowing what's shaping the answers they receive.
21:45That's all for today's China In Focus.
21:47I'm Stefania Cox.
21:49If you have any feedback on the show or have something you'd like to see us cover,
21:52send us an email at ChinaInFocus at NTD.com.
21:56We'd love to hear from you.
21:58For around-the-clock original news coverage, visit us at NTD.com or download our NTD app.
22:03Thanks so much for watching.
22:04See you soon.
22:04One more time.
22:21Bye.
22:22Bye.
22:23Bye.
22:23Bye.
22:23Bye.
22:24Bye.
22:24Bye.
22:24Bye.
22:24Bye.
22:25Bye.
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