Chinese Nuclear Submarine Sinks; Rising Homicides of CCP Officials | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, a blow for Beijing revealed by satellite images. The Pentagon saying China's latest nuclear-powered submarine sank near a shipyard. A senior U.S. defense official is warning about the increasing military operations from Russia and China in the region near Alaska. How is the Pentagon reacting? Peaceful demonstrations outside the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York. Participants told us what brings them back for the event every year. And what's at stake if China were to outpace the U.S. in the AI race? A sci-fi novel warns about the looming threat. We spoke to the author about what inspires him. I view this as a key really important topic that could really change the balance of global power if China catches up and starts using AI for nefarious reasons. A setback for Beijing's ambition to catch up to the U.S. military. The Pentagon confirmed China's newest nuclear-powered attack submarine sank earlier this year. A satellite image from late May shows the sub docking near a pier. In an image captured a month later, the sub was gone. And large cranes appear to be salvaging something from the riverbed. It's unclear what caused the submarine to sink or whether it had nuclear fuel on board at the time. The U.S. officials say the incident raises deeper questions about the Chinese army's accountability, which has long been plagued by corruption. China has 12 nuclear-powered submarines. The U.S. has 67, though that number is going to shrink as some of the subs are scheduled to retire. Nuclear-powered submarines are more stealthy, can stay submerged for a longer time and are less noisy. And moving to waters around Alaska, a U.S. senior commander warned today that the U.S. Coast Guard has detected an uptick in military activity from China and Russia. The update comes from Vice Admiral Andrew Tiongson, the U.S. Coast Guard's Pacific Area Commander. He said the encounters to date have been very professional. The U.S. and Russia share a maritime boundary line between Alaska and the Russian Far East, including the Tiongson said the Chinese and Russian navies have been working together in that region, occasionally crossing into the U.S. exclusive economic zone. He said the U.S. is closely monitoring these foreign vessels. Over the past month, the U.S. military has strengthened its defense capabilities along the Alaskan coast after seeing a series of Russian air activities and joint naval drills between Russia and China. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting the Chinese foreign minister in New York City. Their meeting comes amid a clash on tariffs, Taiwan and human rights. NTD's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley has the details. Secretary Blinken's meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi comes amid a clash of both ideology and policy over the past week at the U.N. General Assembly, specifically over controversy regarding China's military aggression in the South China Sea, the Chinese regime's extensive human rights abuses and supplying Russia's war machine. Roughly 70% of the machine tools that Russia's importing coming from China, Hong Kong, 90% of the microelectronics from China, Hong Kong. And this is materially helping the Russians produce the missiles, the rockets, the armored vehicles, the munitions that they need to perpetuate the war. Today, the U.S. has new tariffs going into effect on China. It's a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, 60% on solar panel parts and 25% on EV batteries, critical minerals, steel, aluminum, face masks. Now, these tariffs are used by the Biden administration in part to discourage China's unfair business practices. The Chinese regime heavily subsidizes its industries so it can flood the market with cheap products. Another issue is China's Belt and Road Initiative, which builds infrastructure projects in third world countries to gain economic and military dominance. But it leaves those countries saddled with billions in debt and failed projects. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres has praised China's Belt and Road, but U.S. officials, on the other hand, have condemned it for its high interest rates. The U.S. and China have been keeping in contact in recent months, and a scheduled phone call is set to take place sometime in the near future between President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to the White House. Reporting from the White House, Jack Bradley, NTD News. Next, a spotlight on human rights issues. Practitioners of the meditation school Falun Gong are gathering in New York, calling for the end to the persecution against the faith group, happening for the past quarter century. The peaceful demonstrators gather on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly every year and say that as long as the persecution continues, they will be there to expose the truth about the Chinese Communist Party. At the U.N. General Assembly in New York this week, world leaders gathered together to speak on global issues. At the same time, hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners staged a peaceful petition outside the U.N. headquarters. Many of us here are refugees from China who have fled to the United States to escape the persecution. While many Dafa practitioners are still being severely persecuted in China and are even being subjected to organ harvesting. I hope that the United Nations will pay special attention to the persecution of Falun Gong. They are the main group of victims who have been subjected to live organ harvesting. Falun Gong practitioners have been calling on the international community to help rescue those who are still being persecuted in China today. Freedom in Hong Kong continues to decline. A Hong Kong judge on Thursday sentenced two former editors to jail time. They were previously found guilty of sedition in a landmark case that sparked international outcry. Here's more. Two former news editors in Hong Kong have received jail sentences for sedition on Thursday in a landmark case concerning press freedom. It marks the first time journalists have been found guilty of sedition since the city's handover from Britain to China in 1997. Trung Pui Kun and Patrick Lam, who had pleaded not guilty, were the editors of Stand News. The media outlet shut down after a police raid in 2021. It was known for hard-hitting coverage of the city's 2019 pro-democracy protests and later security crackdown. Prosecutors argued that Stand News acted as a political platform to promote, quote, illegal ideologies. They also said the outlet incited readers' hatred against the Chinese and Hong Kong governments. The judge ruled that 11 articles published by Stand News are deemed seditious, and the pair were found guilty last month. On Thursday, Trung was sentenced to 21 months in prison. Local media reported that Lam, who had already spent 10 months in pretrial detention, was immediately released on health grounds. The case has prompted an international outcry. The UN Human Rights Office called on authorities to review the court's decision. Countries including the US, UK and Canada signed a statement, urging authorities to, quote, respect freedom of the press and freedom of speech in Hong Kong. However, Hong Kong and Chinese officials said the security clampdown has been needed to maintain stability. What would the world look like if China wins the artificial intelligence race in the future? A sci-fi novel lays it out. NTD spoke to Nolan Lee, author of Quantum Peril. He explains what's at stake if the US doesn't dominate the technology of the future. Let's dive in. Nolan Lee, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you on the show. Hey, great to be here. Now, of course, we've been seeing a lot about AI with ChatGPT and such in the headlines, but there's also talks about the, say, tech race between the US and especially China when it comes to things like quantum and supercomputers. Now, you actually have a sci-fi novel out called Quantum Peril that kind of talks about what would happen if China wins this race in the future. Tell us about your book, but what inspired you to write this? Yeah, so Quantum Peril takes place more than 30 years in the future, and I basically wanted to explore what the world would look like if projecting out trends that we see today, 30 plus years with China investing heavily in AI and starting to really outpace a lot of our investments in terms of dollars and resources, what that looks like in the global stage. And I work in AI. I've been studying AI for the last decade, so I've been thinking a lot about AI as a competitive edge in the United States, and I view this as a key important topic that could really change the balance of global power if China catches up and starts using AI for nefarious reasons. Speaking of nefarious reasons, we did just see the news last week about the exploding pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon targeting the terror group Hezbollah. Many are saying that's a low-tech weaponization. When it comes to high-tech, we just saw the Biden administration coming out by basically banning the Chinese software that's in electric vehicles or just Chinese cars that are on American roads in the future. There does seem to be this growing awareness of the threats that could be posed by technology like this. But lay it out for us a little bit here in terms of what you kind of touch on in your novel. What is the big threat here? In the book, there are a lot of scenes where China has a high level of sophistication in using these technologies and is able to base a lot of our military assets and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Even if it is a work of fiction, it does seem to be a good tool, if you will, in terms of foreshadowing the threats that we could be facing in the almost near future here. What would you like viewers or audiences to walk away with? What's the main message you would like them to take away from your book? Personally, as a Chinese-American, I wanted to write this novel to raise awareness about potential threats to not only the United States but the rest of the world coming from China and the CCP. I think it's important to distinguish between the CCP and the Chinese people. I'd want people to really think about how we're conducting the United States, how we're governing it, and look at the risks to our country if we mismanage our country over the next couple of decades. Because every misstep that we make provides an opportunity for the CCP to essentially catch up to us technologically and militarily. If you read the novel, you'll see that the world looks like a very different place if the USA falls into number two or number three. We really need a strong United States at the front in order to not only continue our own way of life but to make sure that freedom and democracy have a place in the world. Nolan Lee, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Coming up, Chinese software built into cars driving across America's roads. But what does the technology's access to U.S. soil mean for the nation? And why are experts calling it a threat to the safety of the American people? This is an adversary trying to put highly monitored and controlled vehicles into the driveways of Americans all over the country. The results are in. A former defense minister in Japan will take up the post of the country's prime minister, set to take office in just a few days. A closer look at the challenges he'll likely face after being sworn in. And a growing number of deaths among Chinese officials. What's the dark trend signaling about the problems brewing inside Chinese society? More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Washington is doubling down on rooting out a Chinese threat. Earlier this week, the Commerce Department proposed a new rule. It looks to ban Chinese technology in smart cars or connected vehicles on U.S. soil. Beijing can use that technology to collect data on American drivers, like where they live and even their health details. And even more dangerous, Chinese manufacturers could remotely control vehicles while they are on the road. The push to oust the Chinese tech comes as fears about remote tech control rise after pagers and walkie-talkies exploded last week across Lebanon. To help us break down the stakes, we're joined by John Pelson, author of Wireless Wars. So this was a very clever electronic attack where they knew that this terrorist group would be carrying these electronic devices right up against their body. They knew it would only be going to members of Hezbollah for a private pager network. Very well done by the Israeli, assuming it was Israel that did this. Now, why should we assume that a very clever, electronically sophisticated adversary wouldn't do the same against us? And it doesn't have to be a kinetic attack. It doesn't have to be exploding. Really, the way China tends to operate is they want to be able to control and influence and learn and monitor what's happening with who they consider their adversaries or their enemies. And when it comes to banning this software when it's connected to cars on American roads, how successful do you see that in combating China's, say, unfair trade practices, but also ensuring America's national security? Yeah, I see a bright line here. So you have the trade issue and you have the national security issue. A lot of people would say, well, we have to keep out these cars if they're cheaper and better and someone else is making them. My view, I tend to be a free trader in terms of economics, which is let them bring those cars in. If they're selling them at below cost, that's just a tax on Chinese citizens and a gift to Americans. But that's not what's going on here. They're not selling us cheap T-shirts. My view is take them. But these are vehicles that really control the activities of America and can be used strategically to harm us. And my argument for this ban on software and then eventually hardware from Chinese cars, it's not an economic one to protect the American auto industry. When Japan came in with better cars, we just upped our game. Korea came in with great cars. We had to do the same thing. This is not that case. This is an adversary trying to put highly monitored and controlled vehicles into the driveways of Americans all over the country, which would really compromise us as much as telecom networks that China has been able to deploy throughout much of the world. In that sense, when it comes to manufacturing, how do you see this move fitting into what we could see in the future when it comes to impacting China? Will it hurt China? Politics brings out the worst in so many ways. Whether it was Trump or Biden, they each had their own reasons for cracking down on China, whether you call it protecting American workers or managing the trade balance. I think a lot of the reasons aren't really valid, but the impact can be good. If it's protecting us against Chinese influence, I don't care if we're catering to trade unions in Detroit, or if we're taking a populist approach and saying America first. I don't even care what the politics are. The end result is actually good with both sides of the American political debate, which is to block an adversary who wants to do us harm from getting that much more control over us by putting these monitored and controlled vehicles into Americans' homes. John Pelson, thank you so much for your time. Thanks, Tiffany. Next, former Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba is selected as the next prime minister of the country. He will be sworn into office next Tuesday after Prime Minister Kishida resigns. Ishiba was today elected to lead Japan's ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, which is also the majority party in parliament. A Japanese politics professor says he's not expecting major changes in terms of foreign policy. I think China will carefully assess the situation. I don't think it will immediately escalate to a significant level of alarm. I don't think there will be a significant change in Japan's foreign policy from the Kishida administration. Growing threats from China, uncertainties around what a new U.S. president could mean for bilateral relations, as well as deflation issues to address at home. Japan has seen rapidly rising tensions with China. In recent weeks, a Chinese warplane incurred Japanese airspace. A Chinese carrier approached the country closer than ever, and a Japanese national was killed in a knife attack in China. China and Russia have held two naval drills over the past few weeks near Japan. China also launched a nuclear-capable missile into the Pacific Ocean this week. Despite these, Washington doesn't wish to provoke Beijing ahead of its November elections, and its key ally, Tokyo, is aware of this. Kishida earlier told lawmakers after his win, he will devote all his body and soul to making Japan a safe and secure country. He served as Japan's defense minister from 2007 to 2008. For many inside the country, China's worsening economy has become a struggle for survival. And those tensions appear to be erupting, with reports showing a troubling rise in violent incidents, especially targeting state officials. Let's dive in. In the past three months, at least six Chinese officials have died from attacks. Most recently, a young female official in a village was killed on Monday. The attacker was reportedly a low-income man in the area. Other victims include the finance bureau director of a province-level government under the communist regime, plus a judge in a local court, and a deputy mayor. The editor of China Spring Magazine said he believes social hostility is rising due to public grievances fueled by the deteriorating economy and the hardships Chinese citizens are facing in their daily lives. Now, even many of the middle class are in heavy debt. In reality, people across all social classes are struggling financially and lack opportunities for getting a better life. Aside from a few high-ranking officials and the authorities responsible for maintaining control, most are finding it hard to get by. It's clear that these societal issues will eventually reach a breaking point. Chinese activist Zhi Lijian believes the violence stems from years of oppression and exploitation under the regime's rule. Many officials are excessively greedy, which could ignite the anger of citizens and entrepreneurs. Feeling trapped with no way out, people may resort to desperate measures, potentially resulting in violent incidents. Lijian says the tough situation in the country will soon reach higher-class citizens as well, like communist party officials. The background, motivations, causes, and consequences of these attacks on officials vary. It's not just the people who are struggling to survive. Soon, officials will also find themselves in a tough spot. Activist Zhi added that many people in China are feeling increasingly agitated, anxious, and angry. Some are even resorting to violence against vulnerable groups, including children. He believes the oppression and exploitation by communist officials are directly connected to the incidents. More foreign businesses are rethinking their strategies in China. A new study shows nearly 60 percent of Taiwanese companies are considering or already moving from China. Similar data reveals that Taiwanese firms are much more inclined to leave China than their counterparts from the United States, Europe, and Japan. But what's driving Taiwanese companies to leave the world's second-largest economy? Lack of policy transparency, poor protections for intellectual property, internet censorship, and human rights concerns. Alongside those fears, arbitrary detention by the Chinese Communist Party is also a concern for many Taiwanese people. A report by Amnesty International reveals that 857 Taiwanese people have been detained in China over the past 10 years. The locations of many of them remain unknown. The latest case is a senior executive from a Taiwanese company who has been blocked from leaving China for unknown reasons since September 1st. A college graduate from Taiwan has also gone missing since his arrival in Shanghai at the end of August. 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 ChinaInFocusNTD.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. As Ukraine fights to defend itself from Russia, the 1,000-year-old Ukrainian Orthodox Church is battling to keep its doors open. Coming up, Kelly Wright discusses the church's plight, which is under siege from the Ukrainian government, despite President Volodymyr Zelensky's efforts to secure U.S. support against Russia. Kelly also welcomed George Gilder to a discussion about Israel's technological advancements, which benefit America and the world, despite ongoing conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah. Watch America's Hope tonight at 10 p.m. after China In Focus. Thanks for watching. See you soon.