U.S. Sanctions Another Chinese Company Over Iran Oil | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, the U.S. sanctioning China again with Operation Epic Fury in ceasefire. The U.S. continues economic fury on Iran, sanctioning a Chinese firm accused of helping Iran sell billions in sanctioned oil. The U.S. is moving missiles closer to Taiwan, boosting defenses in the Philippines, while China ramps up drills in contested waters. Tensions across the first island chain are rising fast. The high-ranking Pentagon officials says the U.S. can't defend hypersonic weapons from China. How President Trump's Golden Dome project plans to fix that, but will Congress approve the funding? President Trump to meet Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping in two weeks. Officials ramp up talks. What they're saying? A new film, China's stealth invasion collapsing the U.S. from within and explores the Chinese Communist Party's decades-long strategy of America against America. Yeah, the investigation is really based on a book written by a Chinese official called America against America. With Operation Epic Fury currently in a ceasefire, the U.S. continuing with economic fury against the Iranian regime, this time targeting a Chinese company accused of helping Iran sell billions of dollars worth of sanctioned oil. NTD's Jason Perry has The United States targeting Iran's pocketbooks during the ceasefire between the two countries. In Operation Economic Fury, the U.S. says it will continue to intensify economic pressure on the Iranian regime, saying Iran's illicit oil trade is the primary way it makes money to support terrorism and regional destabilization. Analysts suggest that Iran has survived sanctions by selling oil to China. However, the U.S. says it's also targeting the international network that sustains Iran's illicit energy trade. On Friday, the State Department announcing sanctions targeting a Chinese company, which the U.S. accuses of helping Iran sell billions of dollars of sanctioned oil. The Qingdao High Oil Terminal Company runs an oil port in China, and the U.S. says the firm has been using, quote, deceptive shipping practices and sophisticated evasion schemes to help the Iranian regime sell billions worth of sanctioned oil. Also on Friday, as part of Economic Fury, the Treasury Department imposing more sanctions on Iran's financial infrastructure, this time targeting three Iranian currency exchange houses accused of funding the regime's, quote, destabilizing activities, adding that those businesses convert Iran's oil revenues into usable currency for the regime and its network of proxies throughout the region. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson on Friday saying it's difficult for the Iranian leadership to know what's going on in the outside world, as they, quote, literally sit in the dark, adding this about the situation. The United States has complete control of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has a hard currency shortage. Food and gasoline rationing are in place. The entire international community has turned against you. And the blockade on the Hormuz Strait will continue until there is pre-February 27 freedom of navigation. Jason Perry, NTD News. In recent years, China has stepped up its provocative actions in the South China Sea and around Taiwan, with Beijing repeatedly intensifying the scale and aggressiveness of these operations to test the waters. In response to the shifting regional security landscape, defense cooperation between the United States and its partners in the region is becoming more operational and combat ready. Cooperation with the Philippines stand out as a key example. During this year's joint U.S.-Philippines military exercises, American forces deployed a land-based unmanned anti-ship missile system near the Luzon Strait, a strategic choke point located close to Taiwan. The annual U.S.-Philippines joint exercise Balikatan, or shoulder to shoulder, 2026 is now underway. This year, U.S. Marines have deployed the Nemesis anti-ship missile system on Itbiat Island in Luzon Strait, just about 100 miles from southern Taiwan. This system allows Marines to strike ships from land. On Palawan Island, American forces have positioned M-142 HIMARS rocket systems to practice anti-landing operations. This marks the second year in a row for Nemesis in the Philippines, with this year's deployment positioned even closer to Taiwan. Two years ago, the U.S. also deployed the Taifan mid-range missile system to northern Luzon. Overall, American forces are building a multi-layered missile network across the Philippines. Philippines Armed Forces Chief General Romeo Bronner Jr. says the real value of these exercises is demonstrating their resolve to defend the Philippines and uphold the rules-based international order. The Philippines is facing constant pressure in the West Philippine Sea. The area connects the South China Sea to the Western Pacific, including the Luzon Strait and waters around Scarborough Shoal, serving as a key forward outpost for the U.S.-Philippines alliance to stop China from breaking through the first island chain. Scarborough Shoal has been under Chinese control since 2012. The Philippines has sought U.S. military aid since then. Observers say this year's Balikatan exercises show U.S.-Philippines military cooperation evolving beyond joint training into deeper operational integration. In response, China sent warships for combat patrols around Scarborough Shoal. Around April 24th, Chinese forces also conducted live fire drills in waters near Luzon. This strategically sensitive area also lies near Taiwan. U.S. intelligence believes China is preparing for a possible military assault on Taiwan by 2027. Both the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea are critical for freedom of navigation and international trade. This year, Japan, New Zealand, France and Canada joined the U.S.-Philippines drills for the first time. This signals a clear shift toward a broader alliance. Japan's involvement is sharpening the regional security picture into a direct standoff, a U.S.-Japan-Philippines alliance facing off against China. U.S. missile deployments in the area are officially described as helping defend the Philippines. But analysts say the real strategic purpose is to quickly seal off sea routes from the South China Sea into the Pacific in the event of a Taiwan conflict. A big revelation at a Senate hearing, the current U.S. missile defense system can't protect Americans from hypersonic weapons from China. And President Trump's Golden Dome defense system is aiming to fix that. All this while Congress weighs whether to give the project the money the White House asked for. NTD's Juliet Song has the story. Chairman Fischer, ranking member King. A Senate hearing on Monday zeroed in on what the Trump administration is calling one of the most catastrophic threats facing the U.S. Here's a senior official responsible for supervising the Pentagon's policy for space warfighting. We have very limited capability against any other attack with ballistic missiles and we have no defense against hypersonic weapons or cruise missiles today. I'd say advanced cruise missiles. Berkowitz said current systems protecting the homeland are designed against small-scale attacks from North Korea. But China and Russia have been upping their game, with China having nuclear and missile forces that can strike U.S. territory. In 2021, news broke that Beijing tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile. It set off alarm bells in Washington because Beijing could use it to strike the U.S. It means you launch a nuclear weapon or any kind of weapon into space, into orbit, and it stays there. Then you tell it to come in and destroy something. And it can come from any direction. So missile defense or preparations don't work against it. In fact, there's almost no warning time. This is the shock value. It's a shock weapon. This is where Golden Dome comes in. In contrast to the current limited defense system consisting of a single layer of ground-based midcourse defense interceptors, multiple terrestrial and space-based defensive layers will complicate adversary attack planning and provide more engagement opportunities to destroy incoming threats. Golden Dome is set to cost 185 billion dollars. Berkowitz argues that while the cost is significant, the cost of failing to defend our homeland would be infinitely greater. Trump's goal is to have the Golden Dome project finished by the end of his term in 2029. Partial funding for the Golden Dome is part of the administration's 1.5 trillion defense budget request. That's over 40 percent of what the U.S. spends on defense right now. The request still needs approval from Congress as it holds the power of the purse. Juliet Song, NTD News. President Trump's trip to China is coming up in two weeks. Intensive preparations are underway. The Treasury Secretary saying he discussed the president's upcoming visit with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in an online meeting. Following the video call, Besson posted on X that the meeting was both candid and comprehensive. Besson saying, quote, I stressed that Chinese recent provocative extraterritorial regulations have a chilling effect on global supply chains. He said, I look forward to a productive summit between President Trump and President Xi in Beijing. His comments follow new rules from Beijing, measures that pave the way for China to punish foreign companies that shift their sourcing of goods out of the country. In a separate meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio talked with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The phone call marks the first publicly known exchange between the top U.S. and Chinese diplomats since the beginning of the Iran war. President Trump plans to visit China on May 14 and 15 and is expected to meet with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, its minister told his U.S. counterpart that Taiwan issues are, quote, the biggest risk factor in the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China. As President Trump prepares for his summit with Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping, the Department of War is making its case before House and Senate committees for an increased budget, with a strong focus on countering the Chinese Communist Party. Entity's Kerry Dunst spoke with David Zhang, presenter of the new film China Stealth Invasion, Collapsing the U.S. from Within. He warns that the military domain isn't the only arena where the regime is challenging the United States and the West. It's a bit of an ominous title, but it seems quite accurate. Tell us about the documentary. Yeah, the investigation is really based on a book written by a Chinese official called America Against America. And this is something he did while traveling in the United States in the 80s, where he determined that there's many parts of the United States that can be exploited. And we really see this reflected in today's strategy from the Chinese Communist Party against the United States. And it's in a full frontal slash backwards slash sideways, all the wrong assault on the United States systems and culture and society. And so this film is really the overview, but also at the same time, understanding how through America against America, there's a systematic approach from the other side of the Pacific Ocean to target and exploit systems in the United States for the benefit of weakening the United States so that China could potentially rise to the top, particularly in times of war or even during peacetime. Yeah, it's really quite shocking and somewhat darkly ironic when you think about using our freedoms against us. So why did you decide to take on this project and make this film? Yeah, I personally cover news on China and Chinese society daily. And so I see there's a lot of problems arising from people that are facing in China. But then you see where things are not being talked about enough is how exactly is the CCP targeting America, its number one enemy, essentially throughout many iterations of leadership that the CCP has always placed the United States as its top priority. And so for China to be able to rise and for China to be able to dominate, they need the United States to be in a weak position. And so this is where we sort of started to look through the investigation to see what aspects could they exploit through things like fentanyl, through things like cyber warfare, hacking infrastructures, power grids, those sort of things that are fundamental to a society. Can they exploit them in a sense that allows it to be at critical times be turned off or be blocked or be basically, you know, in a sense, restricted during times of war, or even if it's in some degrees going to affect them socially or affect them online or affect maybe the ability for people to carry out their daily tasks, or maybe even during voting election seasons. A lot of these things can be found to sway people's thinkings. And then I think more recently, digitally is how to shape somebody's view and perception of China. Yeah, I think that it's such an important topic, because as a free society, where, you know, except for the very news obsessed, the vast majority of people just take a couple headlines. Maybe they hear a story about TikTok. They hear about a covert bio lab or one thing or the next, but they don't see the thread that connects all of these things. So how did you come to this realization that there is this total invasion of America by the communist regime? Yeah, we actually started by asking people, Americans, in streets of New York City, and many of them, to our surprise, didn't really know things like terms like Operation Salt Typhoon, Vault Typhoon, these type of things. And so that's where we started to ask experts on why is that? Why is there a disconnect? And it turns out, because most Americans are happy to enjoy that they have a comfortable and safe life, provided, you know, with how they live throughout the day. So our goal with this documentary is to really help people understand on a sort of fundamental level of where possibly things could go wrong. And so they're at least prepared to understand that there are these types of scenarios that could happen. I'm not or we're not saying that any of this could happen, but we're saying that we're already seeing signs of it taking place. Yeah, such an important topic. David, as we finish up, where can people watch the film? You can watch it on my YouTube channel, David on China and China Insider with David Zhang. Great conversation. Thank you so much for joining. David Zhang, good to speak with you. Coming up, as the Iran war continues, a new front in the cyber realm is coming to light. Lockheed Martin reportedly hacked. Did Iran-backed hackers act alone? And what did they get? Rex Lee joins us to unpack what this means for modern warfare. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Next, a deal that could help ease pressures on U.S. munitions. Ukraine's ambassador to Japan says Japan's new weapons export rules open doors for future arms sales to Kiev. Beyond that, how could a strengthened defense partnership between Tokyo and Kiev impact Japan's capability to counter China? NTD's Flora Hua brings us the story. Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi announced to ease export controls over weapons, especially if army Ukraine meets with Japan's national security interests. Japan has linked its own security to Ukraine's fate, given the growing threats from the China-Russia military alliance. Beijing's growing aggression toward Taiwan has sparked steep concerns within Takaichi's administration. Zooming out, Japan's new rule has sparked interest, as wars in East Europe and the Middle East are stressing out Western defense suppliers. On top of that, the Ukrainian ambassador is also preparing something for Japan, low-cost combat drones. Takaichi's administration has signaled interest in incorporating drones in its air, sea and land defense strategies. Ukraine's drone manufacturing has been developing rapidly with the war experiences from the combat field against the Russians. And now a major supplier says they're ready to export their products. Flora Hua, NTD News. Cyber attacks are raising global concern. An Iran-linked group is accused of leaking defense data, including those about one of the U.S.'s most advanced fighter jets, the F-35. In response to the report, Lockheed Martin didn't deny it, but said they have procedures in place to mitigate cyber threats. Meanwhile, experts say state-backed hackers from Iran, China and Russia may be working together. Cyber warfare is now targeting people, not just systems. To discuss, we spoke with Rex Lee, cybersecurity advisor at MySmartPrivacy. Rex Lee, thank you so much for joining us. Great having you back on the show. Thank you for having me on the show, Tiffany. Now, there was a hack or an attack on Lockheed Martin about a month ago. There hasn't been much news about it, but talk to us about how significant this was. What did the hackers get? Well, so far, it's been confirmed that they got information. Now, the hackers claim that they hacked 375 terabytes of information and a lot of information associated with the F-35 fighter jet program, which is serious. We're talking about a lot of information that would be classified information. Now, the only confirmed reports of this are the fact that the hackers have been leaking low-level information and they've been actually doxing people associated with the program, whether they're Lockheed Martin employees, scientists, developers, and even their supply chain connected to the program as well. So that confirmed that they do have information to what level of information they have has not yet been confirmed. So right now, it's being linked to an Iranian interest group called APT Iran. Talk to us about right now, of course, there's a lot of focus on the Iran conflict ongoing. There's the Russia-Ukraine conflict ongoing as well. And of course, the new flashpoint or the place a lot of people are watching in Asia is Taiwan and communist China's long interests there. So how does all of this fit into that? The group you're talking about is a front group directly associated with the Iranian Intelligence Agency, MOIS. And the name of the group is Handala. They are a front for the Iranian Intelligence Agency. So this is real serious. And it's not a typical ransomware attack where they block Lockheed Martin's computers down and are demanding money. They're saying they have this terabytes and all this classified information on the F-35 fighter jet program. And they're slow leaking it out to prove that they have this information. But they are actually asking for money for this, for the information not to be released. There are reports saying they're demanding hundreds of millions in ransom, 400 to 600 million plus. Is that normal for something like this? Yes. For this type of information, that would be. But because of the information, the DOD obviously is involved in this and the military is involved in this. This isn't a typical hack of like colonial pipelines or solar winds. You're talking about a military contractor, Lockheed Martin, and a highly classified and sensitive program such as the F-35 fighter jet program, plus other military weaponry. You can imagine, there's no way that there's 375 terabytes of only F-35 information. Who knows what else is involved here? If you want to watch the second part of Rex Lee's interview, tune into China In Focus on Monday. 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 chinainfocusatntd.com. We'd love to hear from you. For around the clock original news coverage, visit us at ntd.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you soon.