Zooming in on Kamala Harris' China Stance | China in Focus

Welcome to China in Focus, I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, Vice President Kamala Harris catapulted into a run for U.S. President in place of Biden. What we know about her stance on China. The most powerful post in the world, the next U.S. President is still up in the air, but now the White House says it won't be President Biden. Leaders in countries from around the globe are responding after Biden made the historic announcement. The Philippines holding on to a harder stance against China, as Beijing holds firm to its claims in the South China Sea. The Philippines cannot yield. The Philippines cannot waver. And at least 12 are dead after a six-year-old bridge collapsed into a river in northwest China. Dozens are still missing. A decision sending shockwaves around the world, President Biden pulled out of the 2024 race Sunday following mounting pressure from his own party. We'll get to China's reaction later, but first some important updates. Biden went on to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party's nominee. Harris praised him in her first public speech following the endorsement. Joe Biden's legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history. Time is tight. The Democratic National Convention is just four weeks away. So far, over 200 Democrats have pledged to support her, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Former President Bill Clinton and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also endorsed Harris. How would Harris handle China? She's likely to continue Biden's China policy, though it remains to be seen whether she will be nominated. And if she is, whether she could beat Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. With faith and devotion, I proudly accept your nomination for President of the United States. Last year, she told CBS that U.S. policy is not about decoupling with China, but de-risking and understanding. When asked if the U.S.-China relations were still a little tense, Harris said there is tension when you're in a competition of any sort, but that doesn't mean that the U.S. is seeking conflict. As for China's economy, she said there is increasingly an understanding that China may not be the best bet when investors are looking for stability. And speaking about Taiwan, Harris said the U.S. would continue to support Taiwan's self-defense in 2022. Harris has been a supporter of human rights in China. She joined Senator Marco Rubio to push bills that sanction individuals tied to harming freedom in Hong Kong and human rights in Xinjiang. President Biden largely inherited former President Trump's China policy. On trade, Biden described Trump's China tariffs as, quote, short-sighted in 2019, but he largely kept them in place. In 2018, Trump imposed tariffs on over $360 billion worth of Chinese goods. The move was to pressure China into buying more U.S. goods. Fast forward to 2024, Biden said he would quadruple tariffs on Chinese electric cars to 100 percent and double tariffs on semiconductors to 50 percent. On the investment front, Trump banned American companies from investing in companies linked to the Chinese military. That's out of concern that they could raise capital by selling securities to U.S. investors and use that money to support China's military development. This June, the Biden administration proposed a rule that would restrict U.S. investments in China for several sectors. Artificial intelligence, computer chips and quantum computing all are areas critical for Chinese military power. On the technology front, Biden at first dropped Trump's orders to ban Chinese app TikTok and WeChat and ordered a security review into those apps. This April, Congress passed a bill to oust TikTok from U.S. app stores. That's unless its Chinese owner sells the app by January. As for semiconductors, the Biden administration tightened expert controls of artificial intelligence microchips to China last October. Biden also signed the Chips and Science Act into law. It offers over $50 billion in federal subsidies to boost domestic chip manufacturing. Under Biden, the U.S. continued approving arms sales to Taiwan. Beijing's aggressions toward the island have been rising. President Biden's announcement has occupied news headlines across the globe. Messages from world leaders have been pouring into Washington since Biden stated he would not accept the 2024 Democratic nomination. A spokesperson from China's foreign ministry said she has nothing to comment on because the election only involves U.S. internal affairs. The news rapidly climbed to the top of trending topics on Chinese social media. As the November election nears, some Chinese internet users have voiced concerns that former President Donald Trump might start a trade war with China again or slap more sanctions on the country. That's if he wins back the White House. It's worth noting the news also caught the attention of Chinese internet regulators. An article titled, Urge Him to Step Down, has been scrubbed from the internet. The story focuses on Biden, but some see the title and the writing as a metaphor for China's top leader, Xi Jinping. Moscow said it wasn't surprised about Biden's withdrawal, but noted that it is looking out for who will become the next U.S. leader. That's because U.S.-Russia relations have experienced their, quote, worst period in history. Top leaders from the U.K., Canada, Japan, Germany, and Australia all praised President Biden for his achievements and voiced respect for his decision. Taiwan has yet to comment on the matter. The presidents of Ukraine and the Philippines thanked Biden for his, quote, unwavering support to their countries. And the Israeli prime minister said his country will remain a, quote, irreplaceable ally for Washington, no matter who sits in the White House. As most of the world woke up Friday to a global IT outage, China breezed into the weekend with little disruption. Experts say this is partly because the very threats the cybersecurity giant is fending off often come from China. We spoke with Rex Lee, security advisor at MySmartPrivacy, about what and where most cyber attacks are targeting. Rex Lee, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. Tiffany, thank you for having me on the show. AT&T is saying that hackers stole almost six months of everyone's phone records during 2022. That's around 95 million AT&T customers. First, what's your reaction to this and how serious is this? Okay, this is a very serious matter because when you look at the information that these hackers took, first of all, AT&T is not being very transparent about it. Secondly, it's associated with your wireless phone services. And again, as we spoke about in the past, these companies like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile all have apps that support your smartphone. So it's not just your phone records that they're collecting information on. Their apps are enabling them to collect your location information, plus highly sensitive user data associated with your personal information, your business information, your medical information, your health information, biometric information, and other highly sensitive user data. Well, zooming out a bit here, where are most cyber attacks targeting? The other day, there was a big cyber attack in Australia by APT40. And APT40 is a nation state hacking group associated with China. Now, you can't say they're Chinese and run, or in particular, part of the Chinese military, but they're aligned with these oppressive governments. The same with whenever you hear of a Russian hacking group, like Sandworm, it's the same thing, or Fancy Bear. These are independent hacking groups, more or less aligned with criminal organizations worldwide, including cartels, and they're targeting information to exploit for financial gain. And typically, what they're looking to do in a lot of cases, aside from targeting these companies to collect your information, they're also launching ransomware through the operating systems that support these end point devices, because they figured out the vulnerabilities within the Android OS, Apple iOS, or Microsoft Windows operating system. Now, this could be relevant to the AT&T hacks, because a lot of these groups do not hack through firewalls anymore. They're able to circumvent the firewalls through the supply chains. These are considered insider attacks, and they're able to then get in behind the firewall, either through the operating system and or the actual apps, because the hackers know today that they can get to you and get behind your network and circumvent your firewalls through compromising the operating system and the apps that support our smartphones, tablet PCs, connected products and servers. Rexley, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Moving to the Indo-Pacific, the Philippines holding onto a hard stance against China. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said this about the South China Sea on Monday. We continuously try to find ways to de-escalate tensions in contested areas with our counterparts without compromising our position and our principles. The Philippines cannot yield. The Philippines cannot waver. The West Philippine Sea is not our imagination. It is ours. In his speech, Marcos Jr. referred to China, but without citing the country by name. Over the Philippines' foreign ministry said it had reached an arrangement with China for resupply missions to a beached Filipino naval ship in the South China Sea, but no details have been revealed. China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, including parts of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. An international court rejected Beijing's claim in 2016. Moving to the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan kicked off its five-day annual naval drills on Monday. This year's exercises underscore how the Taiwanese military will operate if communication lines were to get cut off in a conflict. That's on top of firepower displays and nighttime exercises. The goal is to make the combat exercises as realistic as possible and stimulate what would happen if the island's biggest threat, China, launched an invasion. Besides the military practice, civil defense drills are also happening on the island. The preparation helps train Taiwan's major cities on how to best evacuate residents within half an hour. The scenario mirrors what could happen if Beijing fired a missile at the island. Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China and has been touting plans to take control of it by force if necessary. The Chinese regime has never governed Taiwan. Staying in the region, a joint air force drill is happening in and around Japanese airspace this week. Japan's air self-defense force will train with the German, Spanish and French air forces. The three European countries have formed a joint air exercise called Pacific Skies 24. The exercise spans four continents to demonstrate Europe's commitment to the security of the Indo-Pacific region and to boost deterrence against China and Russia. The United States is calling upon the Chinese communist regime to end its persecution of Falun Gong and release those still detained for their beliefs. The statement was made on July 20th, the 25th anniversary of the regime's sweeping suppression of the spiritual practice. An untold number of practitioners have been detained, tortured and killed for their faith. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the communist regime has targeted Falun Gong practitioners and their families in a campaign of abuses and rights violations. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice rooted in traditional Chinese beliefs in the divine. The practice includes moral teachings centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance and a set of meditative exercises. Hong Kong remains a key hub for shipping semiconductors to Russia as it continues its war in Ukraine. A C4ADS security report revealed that 200 plus Hong Kong firms shipped nearly two billion dollars in goods to Russia last year. China and Hong Kong accounted for nearly 90 percent of chips exported to China in 2022. NATO and the U.S. say China has been aiding Russia's war in Ukraine by exporting parts and equipment for Moscow's weapons. The ease of starting new firms in Hong Kong has caused a rise in shipping and logistics companies. That's enabling restricted trade and financial flows with Iran and North Korea. A deadly highway bridge collapse in China's Shanxi province has claimed at least 12 lives. 31 others are still missing. Authorities said the collapse happened Friday evening when torrential rain caused flash floods. At least 25 vehicles fell into the river below the bridge. The structure has been in use for less than six years since its opening in 2018. More stories to look out for. The U.S. is eyeing the dangers of the Chinese communist regime's great firewall. The digital fortress keeps Chinese citizens in the dark by blocking all outside information and preventing any news inside China from getting out. The House Select Committee on the CCP is gearing up for a hearing on how to dismantle this barrier and reveal the truth to the Chinese people. Curious about what would happen if Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube were available in China? Catch the full scoop tomorrow on China In Focus. 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-in-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. July 20th marked 25 years of the Chinese regime's persecution of Falun Gong. Peaceful rallies and marches were held worldwide to commemorate the lives lost and raise global awareness about China's human rights violations. I think it's so important to stand with the Falun Gong community here today because their struggle in a sense represents all similar struggles against authoritarian regimes around the world. The European Union ridding itself of reliance on Chinese lithium. What a new deal with Serbia could mean for the bloc. And Canada's head swimming coach questioning how Chinese Olympic doping cases were reviewed. What he says about a new investigation. More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Thanks for watching China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. See you tomorrow.