China Uses Anti-Israel Protests to Push Propaganda | China In Focus

Welcome to China in Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, Beijing exploiting the anti-Israel protests to sling mud on the U.S. and its democratic system. A deep dive into how state media are doing it. A letter from lawmakers revealing that a child called a congressional office and threatened suicide if TikTok is ousted. They point to the Chinese-owned app's decision to Chinese telecom giant Huawei is back in the spotlight despite Washington's blacklist. A lawmaker is outing the company for funding the latest in American innovation at top universities. The house's top China hawk weighs in. And the U.S. and China are facing off on multiple fronts. Besides TikTok, popular online shopping app TiMu is raising data collection and safety concerns in the U.S. Is the Chinese app sending American info into Beijing's hands? Plus, a political movement in China makes a return. An expert breaks down how it could impact the Chinese Communist Party. Adding fuel to the fire as police arrest over 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters on U.S. college campuses nationwide, Beijing is seizing the chance to push its anti-U.S. propaganda. State-controlled media zeroed in on those arrests, accusing American police of, quote, violently suppressing students and crushing dissent against the U.S. government and claiming the U.S. is displaying totalitarianism. So how does the Chinese Communist Party treat its own protesters? In 1989, Beijing deployed tanks that ran over student protesters who had gathered to ask for democracy and better access to education. A survivor of the event now in exile in the U.S., NTD spoke to Li Hongqing, a witness of Beijing's massacre. During the 1989 student protests in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party sent over 200,000 troops to surround Beijing. They sent in tanks and fired at unarmed students and citizens. Back to the growing anti-Israel protests sweeping U.S. college campuses, President Biden addressed the protests Wednesday. He defended students' right to protest peacefully while also condemning the violence and disruption to campus life. We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent. The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But neither are we a lawless country. Anti-Israel protests started at Columbia University in late April. Protesters set up encampments demanding the school divest from Israel due to its war with Hamas. Demonstrations later spread to college campuses nationwide. They are largely peaceful, though turned violent at At Columbia University, protesters took over a building and smashed windows in Hamilton Hall. NYPD moved in to clear them out at the school's request. Violence broke out at UCLA Wednesday, where protesters clashed with counter-protesters. The two sides fought over metal barriers. Meanwhile, China, Russia and Iran are doubling down to paint the U.S. as a country in chaos and turmoil. Their state media churned out almost 400 English articles about the protests over the last two weeks. Sean Haynes is a former reporter with Chinese state-controlled Xinhua News Agency. He told VOA that it's Xinhua's policy to extensively cover Western demonstrations. He said at Xinhua, when we chose the running order for news, foreign protests were always promoted, especially if it was around election times. Look how scary foreign democracies are. Aren't you glad China doesn't have this? Members of Congress are asking if TikTok violated child protection laws in its efforts to stop its removal from U.S. app stores. A letter reveals that at least one child called an office of Congress and threatened suicide if TikTok is ousted. The app sent users pop-up messages asking for personal information and urging them to contact Congress. Members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party say the message was sent to young children. A letter the committee sent out says TikTok's actions resulted in at least one case of a child calling an office of Congress and threatening suicide. TikTok sent out the messages right before the passage of a law that sets a deadline for the app. By January 19th, TikTok's Chinese parent must either sell the app or the law will make it illegal for web hosting services to support TikTok, meaning all U.S. app stores will have to remove it. In the committee's letter, members of Congress expressed concern that the app appears to have the ability to manipulate the American public, including children, and is largely under the Chinese Communist Party's control through its Chinese parent company. TikTok responded that it only sent the message to users over the age of 18 who could dismiss the message notification. A company that Washington calls a national security risk found to be sponsoring the latest in U.S. innovation. A Bloomberg Thursday reports that Chinese tech giant Huawei is secretly funding U.S. universities, including Harvard. Congressman Willa Nair is the new chairman of the House China panel. He says the U.S. needs to suspend all export licenses to Huawei and consider further steps like placing Huawei on the specifically designated national list. The list singled out individuals and entities for special sanctions by the U.S. government. Washington has already sounded alarms over the Chinese company's close ties to the Chinese communist regime and its military. Back to the report, it says Huawei poured millions of dollars into a research contest back in 2022. Since then, the contest has drawn hundreds of participants from around the world, including students from top U.S. institutions. Some of those schools are even banned from working with Huawei. The report also disclosed that the Chinese funds went through a Washington-based foundation called Optica. Calls to raise tariffs on Chinese goods coming from both sides of the aisle, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Senate Democrats are asking President Biden to hike tariffs on China. They explained why in a letter to Biden earlier this week. The group of senators says that hiking tariffs would protect American workers and address China's continued actions to undermine U.S. national security. The letter goes on to say, quote, China has continued to cheat, circumvent and manipulate to artificially strengthen its economy and harm the United States. This letter comes as the Biden administration reviews Section 301 tariffs first imposed by the Trump administration in 2018. The Democrat senators are asking Biden to maintain the same level of tariffs or raise them. These lawmakers represent Rust Belt states with large populations of factory workers, some of those in swing states, and are considered vulnerable in the November election. A multi-front battle between the U.S. and China. Chinese online shopping platforms operating in the U.S. posing threats to American data safety. American sentiment towards the Chinese regime and its leader hitting its lowest point in years. And inside China, a political movement appears to be making a return. Similar movements in the last century known to have killed millions of people in the country. We sat down with Casey Fleming, CEO of Black Ops Partners, for his take on where China is really going under the Chinese Communist Party. Casey Fleming, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. Thank you for having me. Now, this report is noting how Beijing's propaganda engine is pulling data from Chinese tech firms, including popular shopping and gaming, ones that are very popular in the U.S. They have hundreds of millions of users in America. How concerning is this? What does that mean for Americans? Well, it's extremely concerning. It's, first of all, it's your privacy, your data that's being used. And it's not just being used for marketing purposes. It's being used for control purposes. We always say, always understand and you always have to consider anything to do with technology and China. You must be aware that it's being used and weaponized against the free world. So when a report like this comes out showing that the Chinese propaganda engine is pulling all of this from American users using these Chinese apps, what kind of leverage does that give the Chinese regime to have that type of information? Well, the Chinese Communist Party, when they have the information on each American and then all Americans as a whole, they know how to target their narrative and their influence operations, if you will. So it's more of very much of a pinpoint target to the audience so they can be swayed and controlled. I want to go into China now. China's Minister of State Security or MSS has announced a new five antis movement. This is very similar to the purge that was launched under Mao soon after the Communist seized control. Now, these five new evils, as they call them, are anti-subversion, anti-hegemony, anti-septicism, anti-terrorism and anti-espionage. How do you understand this? What does this all mean? Well, that was a very successful campaign back in the fifties that helped the Chinese Communist Party purge anybody who was against their totalitarian regime. So in a way, all they've done is rebrand that same success that they had in the fifties and apply it. And by the way, the success of the campaign in the fifties drove the dark period and the darkness that we're seeing today. So they were rewarded. The CCP was rewarded with some very, very nefarious activity. And so they're doubling down with the strategy today. So it's something that's going to also have roots in the United States and the free world. But it's a way to establish and keep control over a population. They do that through espionage and subversion. So when you look at all those things combined, it's an inflection point in China where the CCP has to grind down on their totalitarian control to be able to move forward. And what we suspect is going after the free world, potentially Taiwan in the very near future and South China Sea, as well as the rest of the free world. And given all that's at stake here, especially with what you just laid out, for those Americans who are concerned, what can they do? Stay informed. Pick your news sources that are going to give you the correct news and information. Be experts on the CCP strategy, which is called unrestricted warfare, and understand how your family, your businesses, your companies, employees, your country, as well as our free world allies, how we all play into that. And really amp up your critical thinking, because what you're seeing in mainstream media is not the truth. So always question the truth and find those news sources that you can trust. Casey Fleming, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for having me. A loyalty pledge to the South China Sea. Speaking at a press conference in Hawaii, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines could be on the horizon. That's if China continues its aggression in the region. The sailors have been injured and in property damage. That's irresponsible behavior and it disregards international law. Our commitment to the treaty is ironclad, and we stand with the Philippines. Austin's comments came after a recent flare up in the South China Sea, where Chinese Coast Guard shot water cannons at two Philippine vessels. A similar attack happened in March, which injured four crew members. In the face of China's territorial assertions, the Philippines Defense Secretary said the island nation is committed to bolstering military capacity with the U.S. and the end goal is to avoid situations that would bring the treaty to the table. The South China Sea is not just a flashpoint between Beijing and the Philippines. It is also a vital trade route that carries more Beijing claims almost the entire waterway as part of its own territory. The regime has even militarized a number of atolls and reefs there. That's despite a 2016 International Tribunal ruling that the claim has no legal basis. Aggression from the Chinese Communist Party appears to be pushing democratic countries closer to the U.S. Three key allies are vowing to deepen cooperation with Washington. In the wake of Beijing's aggression in the South China Sea, defense ministers from the U.S., Australia, Japan, and the Philippines gathered in Hawaii on Thursday. This is what the Japanese defense ministers said during a joint news conference. Watch. We, the four countries strongly oppose any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force in the South China Sea and any action that could escalate tensions. The meeting follows the four countries' first joint naval exercises in the South China Sea last month. The U.S. defense chief stressed the importance of the drills, and the Australian defense chief said the four talked about drilling more frequently. That's all for today's China In Focus on YouTube. We're now sharing a shortened version of our program here after being demonetized for three years. If you'd like to support us, consider donating. Find us at donorbox.org slash China dash in dash focus, or subscribe to our partner platform, Epic TV, where you can watch our full episodes. Just click the link down below. Here's what to look out for in our second half. President Joe Biden describing two major U.S. allies as xenophobic. The White House explains. Foreigners are fleeing China and Hong Kong. That's as the city is still struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. A shop owner tells his story. That's after the break. Thanks for watching China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. See you soon.