U.S. to Ask G20 to Rethink Trade Terms With China | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson taking aim at China's trade surplus, calling on major economies around the world to join Washington in pushing Beijing to rebalance its trade. Leaders from China, Russia, Iran, and India are gathering for a summit in Kyrgyzstan. What's topping the agenda? A major vulnerability in American elections, Chinese-made parts are found inside many voting machines across the U.S. What are the risks? Drill after drill around China, the U.S. and Indonesia kick off annual joint military exercises, joined by more than 10 countries. And next week, the U.S., South Korea, and Japan will hold their own drills, testing how ready they are to respond to North Korea's missile and nuclear threats. And Taiwan returning to a key Pacific regional summit. Last year, Taiwan was barred from meetings due to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party. But this year, Palau's president is resisting threats from Beijing. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson is putting China's massive trade surplus at the center of the discussion. He says China's weak domestic demand is driving an export push, and he wants other major economies to review their terms of trade with China. The comments come as Washington and Beijing prepare for a summit between President Trump and his Chinese counterpart, with a fragile tariff truce set to expire in November unless extended. Besson says China's economy is quite weak, and Beijing is trying to export its way out of that weakness. He warns that China's export model is unsustainable, putting severe pressure on American and global markets. He emphasized, quote, the world cannot have a China with a $1.2 trillion trade surplus. Besson says other economies should examine their trade terms with China, and give Beijing an incentive to shift away from exports and strengthen domestic demand. He also points to China's heavy industrial subsidies as a core driver of global trade imbalances. China's foreign ministry spokesman says Monday that China does not seek trade surpluses and opposes unilateral tariffs in any form. Analysts say the Trump administration's strategy is shifting from bilateral tariff negotiations to broader multilateral pressure. Meanwhile, when questioned about whether new U.S. sanctions on Iran can succeed without Beijing's cooperation, Besson defended the administration's approach. Somehow the media has jumped on this, oh, you can't do it without China, that, well, you can, because one of the things is there's only the 30 million barrels of Iranian oil left on the water because of the blockade. So even if they were to get remittances from China, that's going to run out. And we have more in common with the Chinese on Iran that we disagree on. The Chinese agree that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. The Chinese agree that the strait must be open to free and fair ship transit. Besson confirmed that he has already met with China's central bank governor, but did not disclose details. For more insight into China's trade entities, Arlene Now, Daniel, I want to shift gears a little bit here for the final question. For the upcoming G20, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says the world needs to address China's enormous trade surplus, which he puts at roughly $1.2 trillion. Now, can the global economy sustainably have China selling so much more than it buys? One thing is that China may have a trade surplus, and whether that trade surplus, such an enormous trade surplus, is acceptable. And I think that this is the point that Secretary Besson is mentioning, is that it does not make any sense that China is passing to the rest of the world its enormous level of overcapacity and selling at prices that are diminishing the ability of many nations to conduct their activities and services and manufacturing, et cetera. So it's something that all of us need to understand, that when we talk about open and free trade, it also needs to be fair trade. We cannot talk about, for example, tariffs, open systems, et cetera, and not acknowledge the fact that the Chinese economies have some of the aggressive non-tariff barriers, including obviously legal and investor security, theft of private property and intellectual property and all these things, and not understand that the level of trade surplus of China has not delivered a benefit for the rest of the world. It was supposed to be something that was going to generate a lot of very cheap and affordable products and better products for the rest of the world, and at the same time benefit the Chinese economy. It has not benefited the Chinese economy. Let's start with that, because we have seen how most of that excess capacity does not go to improve wages in China, rather the opposite. And it also has damaged the manufacturing sectors all over the world. So China cannot bake the cake and eat it. China cannot have enormous trade barriers hidden under legislation, policy and regulation, and at the same time demand complete free market elsewhere. So what we need to do basically is just think about things from a more logical perspective. It is either cooperation, which is what open and free trade is supposed to be, or it needs to include some level of, let's say, compliance with the way in which the rest of the world operates. We cannot have a trade system in which China operates in one way and the rest of the world in a completely different way. Everybody is cooperating with similar systems except China, and the benefit is entirely for the trade surplus of China, which continues to increase its enormous excess capacity and at the same time damage the manufacturing and the industry and all of the ability to compete of others. You cannot have a system of competition in which the cost of capital and the level of weighted average cost of capital of companies, let alone the enormous cost of maintaining the excess capacity, are not taken into account of the final price. And I think that that is quite significant and needs to be addressed. Chinese leader Xi Jinping telling Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday that their bilateral ties will be stronger with brighter prospects. The two met on the sidelines of a summit held in Kyrgyzstan known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It's a security grouping billed as a counterweight to U.S. global influence. Leaders of India, Iran and Pakistan will also attend this year. Putin said Chinese and Russian cooperation is going well. He said the two sides are executing large-scale projects in energy, industry, aerospace and logistics. Putin added that Russia is willing to make visa-free travel with China permanent. Worth noting, there's no word yet on the progress of the Power of Siberia 2 project, a natural gas pipeline designed to send 1.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas every year from Russia to China. Moscow said Putin reached an agreement with China on the pipeline last year, while Beijing did not make an announcement on the deal. Now, Russia is eager to push the project forward, but China is looking to secure better pricing. Other topics on the agenda this year, the Iran war, Russia's war on Ukraine and the economic situation in Afghanistan. The summit comes as both Iran and Russia are deeply caught up in wars. Russia is facing fuel shortages in some regions following drone attacks on refineries, while Washington has vowed to expand sanctions against Iran to cripple its economy. U.S. authorities are flagging a major vulnerability in American elections. Chinese-made parts are inside many U.S. voting machines. Secretary of Homeland Security Mark Wayne Mullen says that could be a way in for hackers. NTD's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley reports. Parts of many voting machines used in the U.S. are actually made in China, and Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen says that poses an election security risk. He says companies that make more than 80 percent of U.S. voting systems use Chinese-made components, writing in a recent letter to the White House Transparency Task Force, If a component is tampered with during the manufacturing, it could serve as a point of entry for hackers, allowing for the possibility of synchronized attacks across multiple machines and jurisdictions. The vendors told Congress that they use these Chinese parts because they have no alternatives. Last month, Mullen went even further, saying what foreign adversaries could do once they hack into these machines. We know that they can access what they consider the key to the back of these machines. We know that they can change voter registration and your vote. Intelligence files declassified last month claimed the Chinese Communist Party worked to produce thousands of fake driver's licenses to let non-citizens vote for Biden, along with China's stealing, buying and hacking of voter data belonging to more than 200 million Americans. The People's Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history. The DHS is now requiring states to implement stricter voting security measures in order to receive federal grants from the Homeland Security Grant Program. That includes dropping systems that count votes off of barcodes and QR codes, moving to equipment that takes hand-marked paper ballots, and running a random manual audit of at least 5 percent of ballots after every federal election. Analysts say this one is the most significant. That's never happened before in the United States. It's a big deal. It requires every jurisdiction to go to their paper and do a 5 percent sample, which, by the way, is way more larger than any pollster uses. So if these states want to be reimbursed for the November midterms, they need to implement these security measures. Jack Bradley, NTD News, Washington. Beijing unveiled a revised national defense mobilization law on Friday, putting China's neighboring countries under greater pressure. The law expands war preparedness beyond the military to the entire society, from industrial capacity and civilian resources to advanced technologies. Two major points. First, the old version only mentioned national sovereignty, unification, territorial integrity and security. The new law adds development interests, bringing an economic dimension into the law for the first time. It further says that if any of these interests are threatened, authorities will rapidly transition from peacetime to wartime. If we go back to World War Two, that could mean car factories being converted to produce tanks, clothing factories making military uniforms, civilian trucks transporting military equipment and even civilian ships being converted for military use. The tricky part is that the law does not define what falls under development interests or what circumstances would be considered a threat. On top of that, the new law says China should use advanced technology to prepare for war. It does not specifically mention AI, data or drones. However, analysts say it provides a legal framework for China to mobilize these emerging technologies for national defense purposes in the future. The U.S. and Indonesia are holding their annual joint military exercises with disaster response training added this year. The drill called Super Garuda Shield got underway Monday and will last nearly two weeks. About 5,000 troops from 15 countries are taking part, including Japan, South Korea and Canada. The exercise began in 2006 with only the U.S. and Indonesia taking part. Over the years, it has grown into a multinational exercise. The U.S., South Korea and Japan will hold joint military drills for two days next week. The annual exercise will take place in international waters near South Korea. The drills are designed to test how ready the three countries are to respond to North Korea's missile and nuclear threats. The exercise comes after President Trump scaled back a major U.S.-South Korea drill and canceled another joint exercise. Trump cited South Korea's refusal to offer help in the Iran war. Over to the Western Pacific Ocean, Palau's president is defending Taiwan's participation in a key Pacific regional summit. That's despite pressure from China to exclude Taiwan from the Pacific Islands Forum. China continues to say that we need to follow the one China principle, but we have to respect that we are all sovereign nations that make up the forum. One thing that should be understood is that Taiwan not only is a development partner, they also fund the forum. Taiwan has been an active participant of the forum since 1992. So we are just following what has always been practiced. Palau has invited Taiwan to take part in the summit. That's after last year's host, the Solomon Islands, excluded Taipei and others despite Taiwan's taking part in the forum since 1993. This year, several Pacific leaders, including leaders from Kiribati and the Solomon Islands, are expected to be absent from the meeting. Forum members Australia and New Zealand say the absences will not derail the forum, but both countries are concerned about possible Chinese influence. The meeting is taking place in Palau this week. Palau's president, Serango Whips Jr., says China threatened retaliation after he rejected Beijing's demand to block Taiwan from participating in the Pacific Islands Forum meeting. The president says China then issued a travel warning for Palau. The move prompted Washington to accuse Beijing of weaponizing tourism to pressure the Pacific Island nation. Coming up, roughly 940 people have died, with nearly 4,000 people still missing. The death toll from catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-China border is still rising. More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. The death toll from catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-China border has climbed to almost 940, with nearly 4,000 people still missing. Rescue crews are battling debris, rising water, and difficult terrain. Here's the latest. The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Nepal continues to rise. Rescuers now focusing on hydropower facilities where workers may still be trapped inside tunnels. The U.S. says about 85 Americans remain unaccounted for. Our priority is the safety and security of the American people. As you mentioned, the remoteness of this location makes getting reliable information difficult, but our dedication remains. Our commitment remains. Every time we hear one of these devastating stories, we are reinvigorated in our commitment to getting the answers that are possible, to getting that assistance in, to standing with those that have been devastated and affected by this flood. The State Department says the U.S. has activated emergency humanitarian assistance, including food and support for hard-to-reach areas. We have activated from the State Department $3.6 million in emergency humanitarian assistance. That includes up to three months of emergency food for up to 10,000 flood-affected households. So we have immediately activated that. We actually have the first U.S. assistance on the ground already to address this humanitarian disaster. Survivors in Nepal describe the flood as a wall of water that swept away buildings, vehicles, and people. So the way it came, it came just like a tsunami. It just came going all the way up, and just like a tsunami, how it sweeps going like a roll, it just took the buses, the vans, houses, people, everything. We saw people just getting sucked in the water. Nepal says it now needs specialized international help with tunnel rescues, forensic identification, and the storage of recovered bodies. Across the border in Tibet, families are also searching for missing relatives, but access to the disaster zone remains tightly restricted, the Chinese Communist Party suspending travel permits to the affected area. Tibet remains heavily restricted under rule by the Chinese regime. Dissent is tightly controlled, and foreign journalists are required to obtain special permits to enter the region. Those restrictions have made independent reporting of the floods difficult, news agencies largely relying on Chinese state media for information about the disaster. Next, we'll hear from an international human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee who has uncovered mass atrocities. David Matis has exposed trafficking and exploitation globally, including China's state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting. This interview is part of the International Heroes Wanted campaign. It honors courageous leaders, survivors, and organizations working to prevent and end human trafficking. NTD Television and The Epoch Times are proud partners of the campaign. Take a look. There's a lot of disbelief when it comes to mass atrocities, simply because they're so out of sync with what people know in their everyday life. And, I mean, this was true of the Holocaust, and it's been true of other mass atrocities since. I'm David Matis. I'm an international human rights lawyer. I'm based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. There was a woman with the pseudonym Annie who made a public statement in Washington, D.C. in 2006 that her ex-husband had been harvesting corneas from Pelican practitioners. Other doctors had been harvesting other organs. The Pelican practitioners were killed through organ extraction. Their bodies were cremated. Their organs were sold to Chinese and transplant tourists. The government of China denied this. There was an NGO, the Coalition to End Prosecution Against the Pelican, that developed a list of 20 human rights people who could maybe investigate. David Kilgore was on the list. He was a former member of parliament and former cabinet minister. He says, yeah, I will. I know David Matis. Myself, I'm a refugee lawyer. I have been since the 70s. I'm also used to dealing with the sort of situation that was presented here, which was that there was no evidence. Nobody to say this had happened to them. No bodies to autopsy. No witnesses other than perpetrators. But transplant volumes shot way up after the persecution of Pelican began. We had investigators calling into hospitals, pretending to be relatives of patients who needed transplants and asking the hospitals if they had organs of Pelican for sale on the basis that Pelican were healthy. We had admissions throughout China, tape transcribed, translated, which you can hear today saying, yeah, sure, come on down. Once we did our report, which came out in July 2006, we basically carried on trying to deal with the issue. We produced a subsequent report, 2007, a third version in 2009 in book form under the title Bloody Harvest. There was a journalist, Ethan Gutman, who interviewed us and then wrote his own book called The Slaughter. And we formed an NGO together, the three of us, called the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, which is still functioning today. It's quite active. The Chinese government, they really have nothing to say in response. That it's basically just a cover-up rather than a refutation. I've been talking about the issue and writing about the issue, and also I've been making a lot of parliamentary submissions. Now there's a Conservative Treaty Against Trafficking in Human Organs. About 20 countries that have legislation now about cross-border transplant abuse, whereas when we started there was none. It's sort of, I would say, taken a long time, but I think there's a lot more awareness of the abuse now and willingness to do something about it. The relative lack of attention to the abuse, given the seriousness of the abuse, can be explained by a number of factors. One of them is people were not familiar with Falun Gong, and many of them still are not. There's a lot of Chinese, of course, counter-propaganda against Falun Gong. I would say there's a lot of disbelief when it comes to mass atrocities, simply because they're so out of sync with what people know in their everyday life. And there's also the factor of China being geopolitically, economically very important, and a lot of people have other agendas with China besides this. And what we've seen now, a couple of decades, is the spread of the abuse. I mean, we did our report, it was primarily Falun Gong with Uyghurs, Tibetans, and house Christians in smaller numbers. The numbers of Uyghurs shot way up after 2017. It's going to other countries, it's going to other populations, there's people disappearing off the streets in China, there's infants being sourced for organs now. It's like any other human rights violation, you don't stop it, it spreads. I mean, you can't wait for someone to come and try to kill you for your organs to start objecting. They're not just crimes against those groups, they're crimes against humanity, and crimes against humanity are crimes against us all. My name is Rocio Rosco, a former congresswoman from Mexico who fought against the cartels and human trafficking. This year, we are launching the Heroes Wanted campaign, shining a light on extraordinary people fighting in the front lines. So go to collado.charity slash heroeswanted, watch their stories to help amplify their impact, and vote for the hero who inspires you the most. 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 chinainfocusandtd.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.