China Reportedly Targeted Trump’s, Vance’s Phones; Trump Talks China Tariffs | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, the FBI investigating a Chinese hack into U.S. commercial telecom infrastructure. Plus, who are the politicians that have been targeted by Chinese hackers? Trump courts voters in Swing State, Michigan. Details on his China proposal to bring manufacturing back to the Wolverine State. Are U.S. sanctions on Russia and China effective? An expert talks about loopholes that enable totalitarian regimes to get their hands on U.S. technology. And Halloween celebrations are keeping Chinese police on their toes as young citizens use spooky costumes to take jabs at Beijing's censorship. Chinese hacking efforts intensifying as the U.S. enters the final stretch before Election Day. The FBI said Friday that it's investigating a breach into U.S. commercial telecommunications infrastructure. Hours after the announcement, news reports surfaced saying Chinese hackers reportedly targeted the phones of former President Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance. It's unclear if the FBI statement was referring to the alleged smartphone breach. The agency said they notified affected companies and bolstered cyber defenses. NTD reached out to the FBI for comment but did not hear back before airtime. The Trump campaign did not confirm the report. The Justice Department previously charged three Iranians for trying to hack into the accounts of Trump campaign aides. Moving over to Congress, a few China hawks have found themselves in Chinese hackers' crosshairs. A Microsoft report said China targeted down-ballot Republicans, including Senator Marsha Blackburn and Congress members Michael McCaul and Barry Moore. All three are running for re-election. Senator Marco Rubio was also targeted. This ex-post is an example of the Chinese influence operation targeting Blackburn. The report said the operation promoted her opponent in the 2024 Senate race, State Representative Gloria Johnson. On top of that, the Chinese online campaign also criticized Congressman Barry Moore's support of Israel. It also spread claims about Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Michael McCaul. What's more, federal authorities are investigating a Chinese breach into three top U.S. Internet service providers, AT&T, Verizon and Lumen Technologies. Former President Donald Trump was in Michigan over the weekend. He talked about tariffs on Chinese products and bringing jobs back to the U.S. NTD's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley has the details. The former president also emphasized how tariffs on China will help bring back manufacturing here in the U.S. You got to vote for Trump and you will see a mass exodus of manufacturing jobs from Mexico to Michigan, from Shanghai to Sterling Heights and from Beijing to right here in Traverse City. This is a nice place. One of the speakers on stage here was Tudor Dixon, a former gubernatorial candidate back in 2022. I spoke to her before she went up on stage and she told me that Trump is going to bring back manufacturing and jobs to the economy if elected. Take a look. As far as Trump, he talked about eliminating or raising tariffs on China, helping bring back manufacturing here in Michigan. What do you think of that position? That's absolutely what we need. We know that the auto industry is moving factories out of the state of Michigan right now. We certainly don't want to see them go to Mexico. We want to see them stay right here in the state of Michigan and we want to make sure that our auto workers are employed for the long term. Michigan is a battleground state with 16 electoral votes and Trump said up on stage here behind me that if he wins Michigan, he wins the whole thing. Reporting from Traverse City, Michigan, Jack Bradley, NTD News. The U.S. has put sanctions on a number of totalitarian countries like China and Russia, but there seem to be some loopholes. Even a company from a major democratic country is involved in helping Russia obtain drones used against Ukraine. We tapped Grant Newsham, retired Marine colonel and author of When China Attacks, for his take. Grant Newsham, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. I'm glad to be here. And Grant, given the conflicts in the Middle East, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, we've been seeing the U.S. crack down on Chinese firms and China entities that are helping Russia skirt these sanctions. Now, one such sanctioned Chinese firm actually has ties to Germany. This is Xiamen Limbach. That's according to the U.S. Treasury. This relationship began back when China was seen as a financial partner. How do you view this, though, say the collaborations that started years ago, where now we're seeing this geopolitical controversy, if you will, where Germany is helping to arm Ukraine, but then a German entity is also seen through China to be helping fire on Ukrainians. How do you view that? This is the outcome of 30 plus years of believing or convincing ourselves that China wasn't an enemy. There was nothing wrong with selling our technology, selling our companies to China. They just wanted to be like a big Canada. That was the idea. And so this is a logical outcome. And as a result, they have now got access to all sorts of technology and high-tech components that they can use for anything they want. And you're seeing this play out. The Germans were particularly egregious about this and allowed many of their smaller, really world-class companies to be sold to the PRC. And the PRC took them, took them to China and is making good use of this technology now. And now trying to unravel all this is very, very difficult. But keep in mind, the United States has performed in a similar fashion, and we have still a lot of so-called dual-use technology going to China. And that means it's just as usable for military purposes. And the Chinese do that. So this is really the payback for having been negligent for so many years. And one should expect the Chinese to make full use of the opportunities that we've given them. So it's going to take quite an effort for the Germans, for us, the free nations, to close off these pipelines that the Chinese have. It shouldn't surprise anybody what has happened. Speaking of skirting sanctions or getting access to things otherwise not supposed to, reports note that there's a drug maker based in Mumbai that's been helping Russia get Nvidia AI chips. So these are chips that both Russia, China, other sanction entities shouldn't get because it's on the entity list. When it comes to skirting these loopholes and trade restrictions, is there a way to stop that, or is there always going to be loopholes? There will always be loopholes. There's people who try to get around everything. And when it comes to sanctions busting, countries that are the subject of sanctions go to great lengths to try and figure out ways to get sanctioned or ban technology, ban products, and get around the rules. South Africans did it. The Rhodesians did it. North Korea does it. Cuba does it. Everyone does it. But it really requires a concerted effort with a lot of resources, and particularly the willingness to punish people when they're caught. For example, if you catch a country's company doing something like this, well, don't just close that company down, but rather make the country itself pay a price for this. You just have to do this. Because as long as people see that the benefit outweighs any risks, they're going to keep doing it. So you really have to play rough. We need a lot more people tracking down this stuff and particularly enforcing it. But if you're seen as someone who just gives a slap on the wrist, then you're just going to have more of this thing. But nobody should be surprised by this. A lot at stake here as well. Grant Newsham, thank you so much for your time. Pleasure. Always glad to be here. With the U.S. presidential election around the corner, foreign countries may be anticipating major changes in U.S. foreign policy. That's as a new leader will soon take over the most powerful country in the world. But the Philippines says there won't be any change in support from Washington when it comes to countering communist China. Watch. Because our support for our initiatives bilaterally and multilaterally with the squad, for example, is bipartisan. The Philippine defense secretary says China's aggressive actions have driven the U.S. and the Philippines together and led them to build a military alliance. Everybody's going together because they don't like what China's doing. Simply put, I mean, that China has given the Philippines some prominence that in normal terms, if everybody followed the rules of the road, if they didn't do bad things, then this prominence of the Philippines would not be there. Tensions are running high in the South China Sea. Conflicting territorial claims between China and several Southeast Asian countries have led to a number of confrontations in the waterway. These conflicts mainly pop up between China and the Philippines. China claims almost the entire South China Sea. An international court rejected Beijing's claim in 2016. Chinese police tightened their clamp down on Halloween celebrations over the weekend in some southern cities, including Shanghai, China's most international city. Here's what's Local authorities are trying to prevent a repeat of last year when Halloween revelers poked fun at the Chinese stock market, youth unemployment, strict COVID-19 policies and censorship. Over the weekend, two men dressed as Batman were seen getting arrested. One bystander shouted freedom while onlookers cheered. As for other costumes, a person dressed as Jesus was also taken away by the police, as well as someone wearing a Buddha costume. A man dressed as the former U.S. President Donald Trump was sent away by police. A Chinese artist told the BBC about details he got from his friend and network in Shanghai. According to him, their galleries, bookshops and bars were given instructions from local authorities earlier this month forbidding them from holding Halloween celebration events. What's more, a popular park in Shanghai closed for the weekend before Halloween with no reopening date given. Another park issued an announcement saying it would not accept cross-dressing visitors. A college student told the BBC that his school forbids students from participating in Halloween parties. One teacher went so far as to call on students one by one to ensure they would not attend related events. A knife attack in China's capital, Beijing. Five were injured on Monday, including three minors. And a warning, some viewers may find this footage disturbing. The suspect has been arrested and an investigation is ongoing. The wounded were rushed to the hospital. None of their injuries are life-threatening. China has seen an increase in knife attacks. In September, a Japanese boy was stabbed on his way to school in China. He later died from his injuries. Before that, four American college instructors were stabbed in a park in northeastern China. Coming up, Beijing accusing Australia of being plagued by hate crimes after an Australian diplomat criticized human rights in China. More on the Australian leader's response. A prominent Chinese pro-democracy activist finding freedom in the U.S. after 16 years of torture. He looks back on the darkest moments inside Chinese prison. And Russian and China are calling for de-dollarization. In other words, replacing the U.S. dollar as the default international currency. More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Racism and hate crimes. Do critical comments on human rights violations fall into this category? The Chinese Communist Party says yes, while Australia says no. When it comes to China, we've said we'll cooperate where we can, we'll disagree where we must, and we'll engage in our national interest. And we've raised issues of human rights with China. We've done that in a consistent and clear way. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked about Beijing's accusations that Australia is plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes. Albanese rejected the claims and said that Australia would always stand up for Australia's interests. This came after an Australian diplomat led a group of Western nations in raising concerns about human rights abuses in China. Fifteen nations made a statement to the UN General Assembly this week expressing ongoing concern about serious human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet. The Chinese regime denounced the statement. What does life inside a Chinese prison look like? A veteran of the Chinese democracy movement looks back on the three prison sentences he endured for his activism and shares the most harrowing and unforgettable moments from his time behind bars. Zhu Yifu was locked up for 16 years in total, all for speaking up against the Chinese communist regime. This summer, Zhu managed to leave China. He settled in Los Angeles to start his new life. Zhu began his democratic activism four decades ago. Since then, he has endured repeated arrests, had his home raided, and faced imprisonment. In 1998, he co-founded the China Democracy Party. The following year, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for so-called subverting state power. When I was first released from Zhejiang Province's sixth prison, I said that life inside was worse than death. For years, I couldn't see the sun and I was isolated. While in prison, he was not allowed to read anything or speak to anyone for 15 months. When police later tried to speak to him, he opened his mouth, but no words came out. Standing and sitting still turned out to be several torture methods. This wasn't ordinary standing. Your face was pressed against the wall, unable to move. If you moved, they'd beat you from behind with punches and kicks. You'd have to stand for two hours. He was thrown into prison for the second time in 2007. There, he met a Falun Gong practitioner named Li, who was sentenced to 15 years simply for hanging a banner that read, Falun Dafa is good, at a local tourist site. The torture he endured drove him insane. He completely lost it. At that time, some violent criminals, including a habitual thief, targeted him. Practitioners of Falun Gong are generally very honest and kind-hearted because they follow the principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. He simply didn't know how to deal with such devious and wicked individuals. In 2012, Zhu was again sentenced to another seven years for actions supporting democracy. He was released from jail in 2018, but remained under police surveillance. Last year, Zhu was diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer. He blamed it on being forced to eat moldy foods in the prison. Despite those hardships, 16 years in prison hasn't made him lose hope. He says he believes that the darker it gets, the closer is the daybreak. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for an alternative international payment system to replace the U.S. dollar. He made the comment at the BRICS summit, a large gathering of developing countries, including Russia and China. Putin said that 95 percent of trade between Russia and China is now conducted in their own currencies. Russia, now heavily sanctioned, blames the U.S. for using the dollar as a weapon. What would de-dollarization mean for the U.S.? Evelyn Li with NTD Good Morning spoke to Jeffrey Tucker about good and bad impacts of de-dollarization. He's the founder and president at Brownstone Institute, as well as a senior economic columnist at The Epoch Times. Let's talk about your opinion piece recently in The Epoch Times. You say that the U.S. would be better off if the dollar was not the world reserve currency. Why? Well, that was the conclusion of the article. I know it sounds a little bit shocking, but it really has. The strength of the dollar has harmed U.S. manufacturing over many, many decades. And my argument is that we can't continue to defend the dollar as the world reserve currency and rebuild the U.S. industrial base at the same time. We're going to have to choose one or the other. And what I suggested in light of this BRICS declaration, which I thought was interesting, never mentions the word dollar anywhere in it, is that the U.S. should have a neutral position on the rise of BRICS and worry more about the value of the dollar in terms of its domestic relationship to goods and services made in America and bought by Americans. And that should be the primary concern. Before we delve into the bigger picture here, can I just follow up on one thing that you said? Why is the goal to rebuild manufacturing and the goal to maintain the dollar as a reserve currency creating this tension? How do they contradict each other? Well, it's just a simple matter of math. So long as the U.S. is the world reserve currency and the top valued currency in the world, the imports are always going to be cheap and affordable and the U.S. exports are always going to be very expensive. So just as a matter of economics, economic reality and the mathematics of the situation, U.S. exports are always going to suffer because of the strength of the dollar and imports to the U.S. are always going to be at a great advantage because of the strength of the dollar. There's one additional problem that bears mentioning here. So long as the U.S. dollar is the world reserve currency, as it has been really since 1944, in effect, that enables world central banks to hold it as an asset and then to use that asset in the central bank as collateral against which governments and central banks can expand credit to fuel competitive manufacturing that eats in a kind of a mercenary way into the U.S. industrial base. That is essentially the story of what's happened to U.S. manufacturing since the 1970s. And then China continued to accumulate dollar-based assets, build on top of those to fund direct competition to U.S. manufacturing. So let me ask you this, since you say the domestic relationship should be the primary concern, which makes sense so that Americans have better conditions in the economy. But since it plays a political role as well globally, if the de-dollarization should actually happen, wouldn't that mean that, let's say, sanctions that are currently in place become less effective or ineffective? How much would countries' adversaries like Russia, Iran and China benefit from that? Well, they certainly would benefit from that. I mean, and your point is, I think, accurate. But we're talking about a very long trend here. The decline of the dollar on international exchange has been very slow. And I don't think there's any chance that this that the dollar will somehow be unseated from foreign exchange as a dominant player for the next five or 10 years, really. But it is a gradual change. And you're right that that makes the U.S. less of a, I guess you would say, a sort of power player on the global stage. But what I'm saying is that the U.S. is really in a position, it's going to have to choose between maybe its hegemonic, any sort of hegemonic global aspirations to be the world's superpower, and taking care of its own domestic needs. What your listeners need to understand is that the subject of the value of the dollar has two elements to it. One is its value on international exchange, which is very high. And the other is its value in terms of goods and services domestically. And there it's at a historic low. And I'm saying that if you have to choose to fight for one or the other, we should always fight for a strong dollar at home to protect the American people from the ravages of inflation we've seen over the last four years. Got it. I think that's a very interesting topic, and certainly we can dive very deep on that. Unfortunately, we're running out of time. Jeffrey Tucker, thank you so much for your insights. It's such a pleasure. Thank you. 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 around-the-clock original news coverage, visit us at ntd.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.