Number of U.S. Students in China Plummets | China in Focus

Welcome to China in Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. The U.S. Commerce Department blacklisting four companies for helping train Chinese military pilots. The companies did it using the resources of U.S. allies. More on the new restrictions. The number of American students in China has dropped dramatically. We look at why that may be. And towns in southern China struck by heavy rainfall and flooding. Small business owners are facing devastating losses. They say nobody warned them. Welcome to China in Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Before we turn to today's top story, we'd like to share an announcement. NTD's original documentary, Hollywood Takeover, China's control in the film industry is available online. Is it really just about money? Are there other parts at stake? Chinese influence was playing into what we see in U.S. films. China said you can't have that in Hollywood. Listen, this is insane. And we all know that their goal is global domination. People have been brainwashed without knowing it. To watch the full documentary, please click the link down below at Hollywood Takeover.com. The Chinese regime's systematic forced harvesting of organs from living prisoners of conscience. There are many victims, but there have been no known survivors until now. NTD's Jack Bradley has the story from Washington, D.C. Likely the only known survivor of the Chinese regime's forced organ harvesting recounts his experiences right here in Washington, D.C. Today is about a brave man, Mr. C. Chen Peiming. Peiming Cheng says Chinese authorities attempted to forcibly remove his organs in an operation once in 2004 and again in 2006. Without his consent, they took parts of his lung and liver, which can be used for transplants in pediatric patients. I have been arbitrarily arrested and persecuted by the CCP five times. In December 2001, I was sentenced to eight years in prison in a show trial. Afterwards, I have endured more tortures, including my organs being forcefully removed. Cheng is an adherent of the spiritual practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa. But because of the practice's popularity, the Chinese regime launched a brutal persecution against it in 1999, which continues to this day. Falun Gong practitioners have been imprisoned, tortured, and killed. In March 2020, London's China Tribunal found that, quote, forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale, and that Falun Gong practitioners have been one and probably the main source of organ supply. Next, the Biden administration is blacklisting another four companies for helping the Chinese military. The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday added two China-based and two UK-based companies to its trade restriction list. That means without first obtaining a license, American companies cannot sell anything to these blacklisted companies. It also means the U.S. government will more strictly scrutinize any business dealings with these companies. The Commerce Department said the four companies have links to South Africa's Test Flying Academy. That's where some Chinese pilots get trained by Western pilots. It added that the goal of the new trade restrictions is to prevent American know-how from training Chinese military pilots. On top of that, the department also added another eight Chinese companies to its unverified list. That means the U.S. is not convinced these companies can be trusted with U.S. technology and other goods. The number of American students studying in China has dropped dramatically. Before the pandemic, there was an estimated 11,000. Now numbers like 800 are being used. Before COVID hit, China was the most popular study abroad destination for U.S. students outside of Europe. But after China lifted its pandemic restrictions, students were slow to return. Relations between China and the U.S. have also soured since then. The State Department even urging Americans to reconsider travel to China because they could be blocked from leaving the country. Last year, one advocacy organization put the number of U.S. citizens in wrongful detention in China at over 200. Chinese leader Xi Jinping says the country is ready to invite 50,000 young Americans to visit over the next five years. The remark came after his meeting with President Biden in California last November. This past January, Beijing gave 24 Iowa high school students an all-expense-paid trip to China. Tensions are still high between the two countries. Over the weekend, the U.S. deported 116 Chinese nationals. And in June, four American college instructors were stabbed in a park in northeast China. Small business owners in one southern Chinese county are facing devastating losses after their towns were struck by heavy rainfall and flooding. They say nobody warned them. This shop owner in southern China's Hunan province is busy cleaning up debris on Wednesday after heavy rainfall and flooding devastated her stationary store. She says she didn't receive any notice to move her goods and asked, how can a family survive in this situation? Heavy rainfall pounded parts of Hunan earlier this week, causing the water level of a local river to reach its highest level in 70 years. Local authorities have activated the maximum emergency response level. This restaurant owner said she had to flee before it became impossible to get herself out. Now, with her business flooded, she says she is heartbroken and doesn't know how she will provide for her children. In Changsha, the capital of Hunan, the Xiang and Laoda rivers are expected to hit peak dangerous levels Thursday morning, state media reported. And in other parts of China, the Meteorological Bureau declared on Thursday Shanghai's first orange heatwave alert this year. The commercial hub is experiencing temperatures above 38 Celsius, that's over 100 Fahrenheit. Tourists in the city center could be seen shading themselves with umbrellas and cooling off next to a machine spraying mist. The heatwave is expected to continue to bake the city throughout the weekend. Coming up, China is ramping up its transnational suppression of anti-Beijing activists living overseas, physically bullying them, bribing them and attempting to bring them back to mainland China. We look at the latest incidents. A Washington think tank says Beijing could use a new radar site in Cuba to spy on the U.S. It could allow the CCP to monitor the entire country. Retired Colonel John Mills breaks it down after the break.