ExclusiveFBI Refocuses on CCP-Related Threats

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. FBI Director Kash Patel says President Trump is backing the return of the China Initiative, the program which ended under the Biden administration, targeted criminal activity tied to the Chinese Communist Party. A major shift in Japan's political landscape. Prime Minister Takaichi secured a sweeping super-majority victory. Reactions from President Trump and China's Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in the city's most severe national security case. World leaders condemned the ruling. The White House is supporting Taiwan's $40 billion push to boost its defense spending. Details on the island's political parties infighting over the big move. And appearance violations. That's the official reason why a Chinese singer has been repeatedly banned on Chinese social media. He bears a striking resemblance to Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. FBI Director Kash Patel says President Trump supports reviving the China Initiative, the program which discontinued under the Biden administration, targeted criminal activity linked to the Chinese Communist Party. This is just another disastrous example of failing to protect national security by the Biden administration. Who takes down an initiative against our number one adversary, the CCP, when they are not only conducting counter-espionage activities here in the homeland against Americans, but also overseas, and importing illegal biopathogens to harm our way of life. That is an intentional, poor decision to the detriment of our national security. President Trump came in and said, we're reversing course. We don't necessarily need a new initiative. We just need the FBI all in against the CCP. The FBI has heavily reprioritized its counterintelligence efforts to combat the threat from the Chinese regime. Patel says the renewed efforts have already led to a 40% increase in Chinese espionage arrests during the first year of Trump's second term. According to 2020 statistics, CCP-related cases account for roughly half of the FBI's nearly 5,000 active counterintelligence cases. The Bureau is employing enhanced, multi-layered strategies to disrupt economic espionage and cyber attacks, including operations like Bolt Typhoon. Last month, officials uncovered an illegal biological lab in Las Vegas, Nevada. And in late 2023, a similar setup was found in Reedley, California. In this case, investigators reportedly discovered materials possibly associated with infectious diseases, including hepatitis, COVID-19, HIV, malaria, and other potentially dangerous pathogens. Both cases are tied to a Chinese national who's currently awaiting trial. The FBI is now investigating links to biological labs in Las Vegas and California. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi achieved a landslide victory on Sunday, securing a super majority in parliament. Japanese media reports her ruling coalition has won more than two-thirds of the lower house, the more powerful of the country's two chamber parliament. The big win will pave the way for Takaichi's agenda, which aims to boost Japan's economy and military capabilities to counter China. After the votes were counted, President Trump and China responded to the election results. NTD's Flora Hua has the story. Japan's ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi secured a landslide election victory on Sunday. Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party secured 316 of 465 seats by the end of the count. With a coalition partner, Takaichi now has a super majority in Japan's lower house, meaning her legislative agenda can override the upper chamber, which she does not control. After the results were reported, President Trump congratulated Takaichi after her coalition secured a decisive election victory. In a true social post, Trump wished Takaichi great success, praising what he called her conservative, peace-through-strength agenda. Takaichi called the early election only after three months in office. Washington is closely watching Japan's election. Last Friday, Trump gave Takaichi his total endorsement and says he plans to host her at the White House in March. Takaichi thanked President Trump via her social media on Sunday, saying she's looking forward to the visit and hopes to continue to boost the U.S.-Japan alliance. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson called Takaichi a great ally on Fox News' Sunday Futures Watch. The U.S. ambassador to Japan, George Glass, also congratulated the prime minister, calling the result a magnificent victory. The following day, Takaichi held a press conference where she spoke about strengthening Japan's national security and defending its territory against threats from China. China's foreign ministry also responded to her landslide victory. A spokesperson again urged Takaichi to retract her statement that Japan could aid Taiwan militarily if China launched an attack. Tensions between Japan and China have grown since last November when Takaichi made the remark. Since then, China has cut off seafood imports and tourism to Japan in an effort to pressure Tokyo to distance itself from Taiwan. Flora Hua, NTD News. Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. It's the city's most severe national security case to date. The ruling drew swift international condemnation. Hong Kong media tycoon and prominent China critic Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday, marking the most severe punishment yet under the city's national security law. The 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily was convicted of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and publishing seditious materials. That ended a legal saga that began with his arrest in 2020. Judges ruled Lai was the mastermind behind what they call persistent collusion efforts that sought sanctions and other hostile acts from the U.S. and its allies. Eight others, including former Apple Daily executives, an activist and a paralegal, were handed sentences ranging from six to ten years. International criticism was swift. Britain called for Lai's immediate release, describing the punishment as tantamount to a life sentence. Human Rights Watch labeled it cruel and unjust. But Beijing and Hong Kong officials defended the ruling. Saying Lai received a fair trial and that no one is above the national security law. Lai, who is in fragile health, maintains he is a political prisoner. His family says the sentence is devastating and life-threatening, and supporters camped outside a courthouse for days to witness the verdict. I really wish he would apply for medical parole, because even one day of imprisonment like this is an injustice. It is harmful to his mind and health. I do wish his family would apply for medical parole for him. Lai's legal team says it has 28 days to file an appeal. Washington is urging Taiwan to resolve its defense spending dispute, the White House told The Hill. It strongly supports Taiwan's push to increase defense funding. This comes after the president's $40 billion proposal was blocked 10 times by opposition lawmakers. It's raising questions internationally about Taiwan's resolve to defend itself. President Trump has urged Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The U.S. has long been Taiwan's main source of weapons supply. Just last week, Trump signed an executive order to prioritize arms sales to partners that invest in their own self-defense. China hawks on Capitol Hill also weighed in. Senator Dan Sullivan warned on X that withholding Taiwan's defense funds to Sullivan also noted the recent trip to China by the vice president of Taiwan's opposition party. During the visit, he met with a top advisor to Xi Jinping and expressed support for Beijing's claims over Taiwan. Senator Roger Wicker, Jeanne Shaheen and Jim Risch also expressed disappointment in Taiwan's political deadlock. The new president of Honduras says he is considering switching the country's ties from China back to Taiwan. President Nasr al-Asfora spoke on the issue following a meeting with President Trump. NTD's Joy Chu has the story from Taiwan. President Trump met with Honduran President Nasr al-Asfora in Mar-a-Lago on Saturday. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the two leaders share America's first values and maintain a close partnership on security issues. Following the meeting, al-Asfora said he may restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan and cut relations with Beijing. In 2023, Honduras dropped its 82-year relationship with Taiwan and recognized China instead. That decision hit the shrimp industry hard, after Chinese buyers failed to make up for the roughly 40 percent of exports once bought by Taiwan, despite earlier promises. About 60 percent of shrimp farms shut down, leaving tens of thousands out of work. As Beijing ramps up pressure on governments to pick sides, 21 countries have switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China since 2000. Today, Taiwan is left with just 12 diplomatic allies worldwide. What happens when a singer in China looks like the country's top leader? This is not a hypothetical. One singer bears a striking resemblance to Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, and he has shared his unusual experiences on social media. Chinese singer and actor Liu Keqing has reportedly been banned on Chinese social media platforms. The stated reason behind this was over so-called appearance violations. The only thing he or his parents did wrong was having a face that strongly resembles Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping. In 2019, Liu opened a Douyin account, the Chinese version of TikTok, and racked up 370,000 likes in just two days. He later wrote, it's not really because I sing well, but because I look like a national leader. As users began mentioning Xi Jinping by name in the comments, Liu's videos and posts were deemed sensitive, and his Douyin account was taken down. After that, he tried opening another account. In a 2025 post, Liu said his Douyin accounts were repeatedly suspended over the past five years simply because of how he looks. Protests continue in China, most over money as the economy slows. Farmers in a village in Wuhan say authorities took their land 10 years ago, but they have yet to receive any compensation. They began petitioning for their rights in late January, but with no results. Workers at an oil company in eastern China say the company has failed to pay their wages. On February 6th, they gathered outside the company's offices to fight for their unpaid salaries. Migrant workers are accusing a maintenance company in northern China's Shenzhen province of owning several months of wages. On February 5th, they hung banners at the company's premises demanding payment. Coming up, an expert on Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi, who won a landslide on Sunday's lower house vote, also weighed in on U.S. claims that China conducted secret nuclear tests. More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. With Japan's Takaichi securing a supermajority, what could this mean for the region and for U.S.-Japan relations? And as the nuclear treaty between the U.S. and Russia expires, will the next nuclear arms control agreement include China? Last week, the U.S. accused China of conducting secret nuclear tests in 2020, allegedly using decoupling techniques to mask seismic signals and evade global monitoring systems. Beijing has to dismiss the allegations as hype. To unpack all these developments, we spoke Sunday with former diplomat and retired Marine Colonel Grant Youshim. He's a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and the author of When China Attacks. Grant, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you. Now, Takaichi thanking President Trump for his warm words regarding the election, adding, quote, our alliance and friendship with the United States of America are built on deep trust and close, strong cooperation. The potential of our alliance is limitless. Now that Takaichi's coalition has secured a supermajority, what does that mean for U.S.-Japan relations and the region? Well, for U.S.-Japan relations, we'll get out of it what we put into it. But you have a Japan that is now willing to really make its defense useful. The Japanese military is not even the sum of its parts, but it has the potential to be a good, solid military. It also, except for the two navies, doesn't work very well with U.S. forces. So Japan can improve its own defense. At the same time, the Americans and the Japanese can have a really joint, a really force that combines the two. And that gives you sort of an exponential sort of improvement in U.S.-Japanese free world capabilities in the Pacific. Regionally, you just might get a solidly linked U.S. and a very capable military and also political and economic alignment that actually bolsters the free world in a lot of ways. And the Chinese don't like this. They don't like it when their intended victims actually link up and are actually able to defend themselves. So the only people who really don't like what happened today are in Beijing, but for the U.S. and the region. And most of the region does like Japan and wants to see it play a more assertive role militarily. I think they like what they saw. And inside Japan, reports are saying this paves the way for tax cuts. What can we expect on the financial front in Japan? And does that create a buffer for China or against China? Well, the Japanese really do need to do something about their tax system. They can't figure out why the economy really hasn't thrived, why people don't have families and children. Well, the Japanese citizens, if you live there for a while, it seems like they exist to be fleeced by the elite class. They have incredibly high taxes and very low salaries. So they're left with almost no money to spend. So the first prime minister who comes along and says, I'm going to cut taxes and actually does it so that people have more money, you're going to see a knock on psychological effect that's going to benefit the economy. So in Japan, which has a decent economy, a strong economy, that translates into the ability to build a stronger military as well, and also more confidence. So Japan does need to do something, and Takahashi does need to do something on the economic front, because the Japanese citizens, the people who voted for her in huge numbers, who voted for her party, they actually expect something, and she's going to have to deliver on that. I want to switch gears now to nuclear threats, because there's been a lot of focus since the New START treaty expired between the US and Russia this week. One of the big revelations of that was the US accusing China of conducting secret nuclear tests in 2020. First, what's your reaction to the tests? I'm not surprised. I think the Americans knew about it a lot sooner, but I don't think they wanted to reveal it for whatever reason until now. But it just doesn't surprise me. There isn't a treaty or an agreement that the Chinese have ever signed that they haven't violated. But also, it demonstrates, as well, China's objective, which is to have a nuclear arsenal that is so powerful that nobody will challenge them. That's their objective, and that's where they aim to get. On that note, there is also reports that China wants to expand its arsenal to 1,000 warheads by 2030. Secretary of State Marco Rubio actually saying this marks a new era for nuclear arms control, one that must confront both Russia and China. How likely are we to see a broader arms control treaty that would bring in China as well as Russia? I don't think we're very likely to see that. I think the Chinese would not have much interest in signing it, the Russians as well. I don't think they're particularly keen to do that as well. The American administration has to thread a needle here, because it's trying to point out just how threatening the Chinese and the Russian nuclear arsenals are and what those two countries are doing. At the same time, it has to act like it wants a treaty. Here's the problem, is that if they do push really strongly for a treaty, you're undercutting the argument that you need to make on Capitol Hill for the spending to build up our own nuclear arsenals, which need to be improved and quickly. Because the argument will be, well, if you're going to have a treaty where everyone reduces their nuclear weapons, why are we going to build more of them? So the administration is talking about this, but I think they have no illusions as to the willingness of the Chinese or the Russians to join in. And with the Chinese, Henry Kissinger said, he figured it out 50 years too late, but he said, we see fixable problems and solving one of them actually is, for us, that's a solution. To the Chinese, that's just an admission ticket to other problems that they're going to raise and to solve. So it really would solve nothing if you got the Chinese to agree to something like a nuclear arms treaty here. They're just not interested in it and their objective is very different than what we would expect. And Grant, looking ahead, what are you watching for in terms of where U.S.-China relations are headed, given there's no trade deal signed yet and regional tensions around Japan, Philippines and Taiwan? I'm waiting to see if America really does what it needs to do to stand up to China, and that includes rebuilding the military, getting our industrial base in order, getting our finances in order, and also getting our allies to actually do more as we tell them to do. And there's some room for optimism on the side with the Japanese. I'm a little concerned that we might try too hard to make a sort of a trade agreement, reach some sort of an agreement with the Chinese that maybe gives up a little too much and lets them get away with too much. I think, though, that Mr. Trump probably understands the threat from the PRC. And he's, I think, hamstrung because of the way they have played their rare earth dominance against us. That really stopped him in his tracks. But I think he knows what the threat is. And in some ways, you wonder if he's like a man saying to an angry dog, good doggy, while he's looking around for a big stick to hit them with. That comes from Richard Armitage. But I hope that that's what Mr. Trump is thinking. But the Chinese are not letting up. Their objectives are very clear. And we either stand up to them, along with our friends, that includes Japan and Takaichi and others that want to join in, or else we're going to find ourselves in a very dangerous position before long. Well, Grant Newsham, as always, thank you so much for joining us. Well, thank you. Glad to be here. That's all for today's China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. If you have any feedback on the show or have something you'd like to see us cover, send us an email at chinainfocusintd.com. We'd love to hear from you. For on-the-clock original news coverage, visit us at ntd.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.