Tag: china

Trump’s War Department Declares Chinese Communist Party-Backed Confucius Institutes a NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT — Hegseth Says 80 Chinese Propaganda Operations at 30 US Universities Have Been Dismantled

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the Department of War has formally designated Confucius Institutes as a threat to U.S. national security.

In a video posted to his official X account, Hegseth detailed how Chinese Communist Party-backed operations that Congress restricted years ago had simply rebranded and continued operating on American campuses.

Hegseth drew a direct parallel to the DEI bureaucracy the War Department has been dismantling.

“When I took office, one thing we knew was that the cancer of DEI, it was going to be difficult to kill here in the Department of War. You see, instead of complying, promoters of this ideology just tried to rebrand it and thought they would be safe,” he said. “Now, today, in a similar example, I want to tell you about Confucius Institutes.”

He continued: “These Chinese government-backed propaganda cultural programs had infiltrated our nation’s universities in almost every state. Now, thankfully, Congress banned them a few years ago, these Confucius Institutes but they came back disguised in new forms just like DEI does. Just call it a different name. Well, the Department of War has taken action to stop this as well. We added these sleeper organizations to our list of institutions that threaten our national security.”

Hegseth stated that investigators uncovered “80 new propaganda cells across 30 universities” operating under different names and charters but with the same mission “to steal intellectual property and to infiltrate the minds of American students.”

Over the past two months, the War Department “systematically dismantled every single one of these organizations” using its funding and contracting leverage.

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‘Terrifying capabilities’: Robotics company promotion reveals ‘terminator’ demonstrating violent attack

A Chinese robotics company has released a video promoting what essentially is a “terminator” robot, and calls for people not to use it in a “hazardous manner.”

The company’s H2-X machine appeared this week in a promotion video revealing “the terrifying capabilities of humanoid robots and raising questions about their eventual dual-use military applications,” according to a report from ZeroHedge.

“The H2-X footage reminds us how close humanity is to the ‘Terminator’ movie’s Skynet robots, with potential testing/deployment in active war zones becoming an increasingly near-term reality,” the report said.

Unitree explained, “We kindly request that all users refrain from making any dangerous modifications or using the robot in a hazardous manner.”

Stay 2-3 meters away, it warns.

ZeroHedge explained, “Our view from the first quarter of this year is that movement already suggests these robots are intriguing Ukrainian military commanders, as testing may be underway or could begin soon.”

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World’s Worst Polluter, China, Vows Strong Presence at U.N. Climate Alarmism Summit

China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Wednesday that it will send a delegation to the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Turkey in November, to “actively promote the international climate negotiations.”

China is, by far, the worst polluter in the world and it rakes in considerable profits from its near-monopoly on the materials for green energy products like solar panels and electric vehicles (EVs). Yet it presents itself as a humble, concerned citizen of the Earth at conferences like COP31 and the climate movement seems generally inclined to go along with the routine.

“China supports COP31 in prioritizing implementation and addressing both longstanding issues, such as insufficient emissions reductions and inadequate financial support from developed countries, and emerging challenges, including unilateralism and protectionism that undermine collective climate action,” said Vice Minister of Ecology and the Environment Li Gao at a press conference on Wednesday.

Li expressed China’s support for the Paris climate agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and said “progress should also be made on climate finance,” including “in-depth discussions on a roadmap for developed countries to deliver the $300 billion climate finance goal by 2035 and to triple adaptation finance.”

Li also called for “the establishment of international mechanisms for a just transition, helping countries, particularly developing countries, address transition-related challenges and narrow the gap between the Global North and the Global South.”

China is not expected to be paying any of these bills because it does not consider itself to be a “developed country,” even though it is currently the second-largest economy in the world and a voracious consumer of fossil fuel energy.

China postures as a developing nation, as Li said at his press conference, so it would not be on the business end of climate-themed wealth redistribution from the “Global North” to the “Global South.” These are conceptual designations, not statements of geographic reality, so China is not part of the “Global North” even though it also claims to be an Arctic power.

Li made much of China’s surging green energy production, saying China’s solar power capacity exceeded its coal power capacity for the first time this year, and it has become the world’s top producer of EVs. He also boasted that China now leads the world in nuclear power, combining installed capacity with power plants under construction.

Li forgot to mention that China’s coal fired power generation is still increasing, with consumption forecast to increase by over three percent this year. This increase was partly due to reduced shipments of liquified natural gas (LNG) from the Middle East due to the Iran war – and also due to surging demand for electricity to power data centers, EVs, and air conditioning.

In a June 2026 analysis, Reuters noted that China’s “renewable energy” generation did surpass coal power in 2025, but this was partly due to sharply reduced demand in the wake of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

Renewable power construction beat some of China’s early projections for the “transition” to green energy, but actual electricity generation is lagging behind demand, in part due to unpredictable weather fluctuations – poor wind conditions for wind turbines, drought or floods plaguing hydropower plants, and so forth. China still needs fossil fuels – oil, gas, and coal – to meet peak demand, and it is still building new coal-fired power plants.

One of the big concerns among energy analysts is that China might not have enough coal for the winter of 2026, as coal production is down and imports have declined. Demand for coal power rose when LNG imports declined, cleaning out inventories. Production also declined in May due to a major disaster at the Liushyenyu Coal Mine, which killed at least 82 people.

Even with its reduced production and imports over the summer, China remains the world’s largest consumer of coal, accounting for more than half of worldwide demand, and China is still the world’s largest emitter of “greenhouse gases.” According to the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), air pollution causes about two million deaths in China every year.

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Putin Proposes Summit With Trump And Xi To Negotiate End Of Ukraine War; Zelensky Not Invited

Amid an escalating war that appears to get farther from any hope of a ceasefire, let alone peace, late on Sunday the WSJ reported that Vladimir Putin has proposed that he, President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet next month to talk about Ukraine in an attempt to negotiate an end to the four-year conflict that would favor Moscow.

Citing people familiar with the discussions, the WSJ notes that the plan represents an effort by Putin to capitalize on warming ties between Trump and the Russian leader that have alarmed Ukraine and its allies in Washington and Europe. Such a summit – one notably without the involvement of Zelensky who appears to have terminally alienated Trump in recent days – would be “unprecedented and send alarm bells ringing in European capitals and beyond.”

According to a former Russian intelligence officer briefed on the matter, Putin floated the idea in an Oct. 9 phone call with Trump. That conversation also produced a deal for the U.S. to buy Russian diesel fuel and facilitate its sale on the global market. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that discussions were taking place over a potential meeting.

“There is no clear understanding yet regarding the meeting itself or its potential agenda, although all three parties acknowledge the hypothetical possibility of such a meeting taking place,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

A senior US official said that while Trump hadn’t agreed to such a summit, he said that the president could be receptive to the idea, given his desire to fulfill a campaign promise to settle the war. Trump had said it would be finished on “day one” of his new term, but he is now approaching nearly two years in office.

The Kremlin has suggested holding the trilateral dialogue on the sidelines of the coming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the people familiar with discussions said. That gathering takes place on Nov. 18 and 19 in Shenzhen, the southern Chinese tech hub.

A potential three-way dialogue on Chinese soil would mark a big step for Xi in his efforts to elevate China’s role as a diplomatic power broker, said analysts who study China. Russian officials proposed the idea to Beijing through diplomatic channels and the Chinese side has indicated it wouldn’t object if Trump is on board.

“China wants to be seen as the pivot of the great powers, and potentially as a mediator between the U.S. and Russia,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank.

While Putin had unsuccessfully proposed a trilateral summit to both Trump and Xi on previous occasions, this time, however, it comes during a reversal of Moscow’s fortunes with Washington.

Trump just notched a deal with Putin to get Russian diesel in a bid to lower fuel prices that have slowed the American economy and hurt Republican prospects ahead of the midterm elections. On Friday, Trump halted implementation of sanctions that were to be imposed on Russia under a bipartisan bill he signed last month, drawing criticism from lawmakers, including some of his allies.

The senior White House official said Trump made the decisions after seeing few other good options to lower prices.

At a time when Diesel prices are soaring, in part due to limited Russian exports amid a constant drone campaign waged by Ukraine against its refineries, Trump has shown renewed frustration with Zelensky, saying the Ukrainian leader must stop strikes on Russian refineries and suggesting that the country needs a new president. U.S.-led efforts to broker an end to the war, meanwhile, have been largely stalled.

In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump took aim at Zelensky, following Ukraine’s strike on an oil terminal in Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg earlier in the day. He accused the Ukrainian leader of targeting Russian diesel refineries and said he “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.” The president said he was holding off on imposing sanctions because he didn’t want to drive Russia away from the bargaining table. “I WANT THIS WAR END!” he wrote.

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China urges Israel to rethink its policies

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Israel to halt and reverse the establishment of settlements in the occupied West Bank, describing the Palestinian issue as the “greatest historical injustice of this century,” according to a ⁠statement released by Beijing following his meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The two officials met on Thursday on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Wang said achieving peace and reconciliation in the Middle East remained a cornerstone of Chinese foreign policy, stressing that a two-state solution was the only viable path toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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CCP Sentences Crime Bosses to Death Before They Can Name Names

Good news, everyone! The Chinese Communist Party is cracking down on crime. Of course there’s no crime in China, since China is very, very safe thanks to the CCP. But there’s crime in other countries, you see.

On Tuesday, a court in southeastern China sentenced three members of the “Wei family criminal gang” to death and sent dozens more to prison. The Wei clan is one of the so-called “four families” that ran criminal syndicates in Kokang, a region of northern Myanmar right on the Chinese border. State broadcaster CCTV called them the “most violent criminal force in northern Myanmar.”

According to the court, the gang ran drug trafficking, prostitution, illegal casinos, and telecom fraud. They also murdered at least two Chinese citizens. CCTV says they operated 14 large-scale scam compounds and lured Chinese job seekers across the border with fake promises of high wages. Once there, many people ended up trapped in prison-like compounds, forced to scam for their captors. The gang reportedly pulled in more than $1.8 billion.

But these gangs operated in the open, for years, under the protection of Myanmar’s military junta. Experts say the junta looked the other way because scam profits flowed to its militia allies, the same militias it needs to fight rebels. Back in January, the CCP executed 11 members of the rival Ming family. The Mings weren’t just gangsters. They belonged to a militia aligned with the junta.

And who’s the junta’s biggest backer? The CCP.

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How the CCP Lies About Living Standards to Promote the “Chinese Dream”

Xi Jinping has promised a “Chinese Dream” of national rejuvenation, greater prosperity and a powerful, modern China by midcentury. Yet the CCP’s presentation of living standards obscures how far ordinary Chinese remain from American prosperity.

Housing figures include shared building areas, headline unemployment statistics omit rural joblessness, and Beijing suspended youth unemployment reporting before introducing a revised measure that excludes students. These practices can make progress toward Xi’s promise appear greater than the underlying conditions justify.

This year, U.S. nominal GDP per capita is projected to reach $94,430, more than six times China’s projected $14,870. Assuming annual growth in nominal dollar GDP per capita of 5% in China and 2% in the United States, China would need about 64 years to catch up, let alone surpass the United States.

In the meantime, the Chinese Communist Party needs people to believe they are becoming rich. Housing statistics help create that impression: official figures suggest the average American home is only 54% larger than its Chinese counterpart, at 1,845 square feet versus 1,197 square feet.

But these figures seem counterintuitive when the vast majority of people in China live in one- or two-bedroom apartments, while about 62% of U.S. households live in freestanding, single-family houses, which might be four or more times the size of the average Chinese home.

The CCP creates this impression by measuring homes differently than the United States does. China reports housing size in gross building area, which includes each unit’s share of hallways, stairwells, elevator shafts, and lobbies, while U.S. figures count only the space inside the home. Shared areas typically account for 15% to 25% of a Chinese apartment’s listed size and can reach 30% or more.

According to People’s Daily, urban residents had 36.6 m² of building area per person in 2017 but only 25.7 m² of indoor space, meaning about 30% of the reported area was not living space.

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US Issues First Outbound Investment Penalty Over Chinese Robotics AI Deal

The U.S. Treasury Department has fined Amidi LLC $200,000 for failing to report an investment in a Chinese tech startup – the first penalty under U.S. restrictions on investments in sensitive Chinese technologies.

Amidi is the parent company of Plug and Play Tech Center, a California-based venture investment and startup accelerator organization. The Treasury imposed the penalty in July and disclosed it on Oct. 7.

According to Treasury, a Chinese investment fund controlled by Amidi invested $92,478 on April 19, 2025, in Shanghai Qiongche Intelligent Technology, known as Noematrix, a Shanghai-based developer of AI technology that helps robots interact with and perform tasks in the physical world.

The Treasury identified the transaction through regular compliance and market monitoring. The violation was a failure to report the investment, not a finding that the investment itself was prohibited.

1st Penalty Under US Investment Restrictions

The Outbound Investment Security Program, which took effect on Jan. 2, 2025, prohibits certain U.S. investments in Chinese companies developing advanced artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and quantum technologies. Other transactions involving these sectors are permitted but require notification to the Treasury.

The rules also cover certain investments made through foreign subsidiaries controlled by American companies.

The restrictions are intended to prevent American capital and investment-related benefits from supporting the development of sensitive technologies that could threaten U.S. national security.

Christopher Pilkerton, the Treasury’s assistant secretary for investment security, said in the Oct. 7 announcement that the program addresses the development of sensitive technologies by countries of concern that could pose national security risks.

Plug and Play’s China Investment Network

Amidi’s investment in Noematrix followed several earlier financing rounds involving Plug and Play China, the China-based investment and startup development operation of the Silicon Valley network.

Noematrix identified Plug and Play China as an investor in its September 2024 financing, several months before the U.S. restrictions took effect.

In December 2024, Noematrix announced another financing round led by Sequoia China, a Chinese venture capital firm, and said Plug and Play China had increased its investment.

On April 10, 2025, Noematrix announced another financing round, again naming Plug and Play China as a participating investor.

Nine days later, the Amidi-controlled Chinese fund made the investment identified in the Treasury’s enforcement action. It remains unclear whether the two transactions were connected or whether the fund was the investment vehicle used by Plug and Play China.

The Epoch Times contacted the Treasury, Amidi, Noematrix, and Plug and Play China to seek clarification on the Chinese fund, its relationship with the Silicon Valley investment network, and the failure to notify U.S. authorities. None responded by publication time.

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Nobel Peace Prize Winner Navi Pillay Accused Of Helping China Target Uyghur Dissidents

Newly named 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Navi Pillay is facing serious allegations that she helped China’s communist government identify Uyghur dissidents during her tenure as the United Nations’ top human rights official.

Uyghur activists and human rights watchdogs raised concerns over the weekend, accusing Pillay, a former U.N. high commissioner for human rights, of overseeing the disclosure of sensitive information about dissidents to Beijing, potentially exposing them and their families to persecution.

Dolkun Isa, former president of the World Uyghur Congress, said the U.N. placed significant obstacles in his organization’s path during Pillay’s leadership.

“I later learned that the office she led had shared information about my participation, and that of other human rights defenders, with the Chinese government without our consent,” Isa said.

He described the disclosure as a betrayal by an institution responsible for protecting human rights.

“A Nobel Peace Prize does not place anyone beyond accountability,” Isa added, demanding answers about who authorized the disclosures.

The accusations surfaced days after the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday that Pillay would receive its 2026 Peace Prize, citing her “commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass.”

U.N. whistleblower Emma Reilly also criticized the decision, alleging that Pillay’s office provided Chinese authorities with the identities of more than 50 dissidents.

Reilly claimed relatives of those activists subsequently faced intimidation, detention, torture and disappearance.

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer called on the Nobel Committee to address the allegations.

“The Nobel committee owes an explanation to the dissidents whose names were handed to China,” Neuer said.

The controversy comes amid longstanding accusations that Beijing has committed genocide against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang through mass detention, forced sterilization and religious persecution. China denies those accusations.

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Anthropic Issues Warning Over Self-Replicating AI – And Says A Chinese Model Pulled It Off

Anthropic’s Frontier Red Team (yes, really) warned Monday in a blog post that small AI models may be “months away” from copying themselves across smart ovens, off-brand Android TV boxes and other poorly secured gadgets in your home, forming a botnet with no off switch.

“A replicator like this would be challenging to shut down, since there’s no centralized point to shut off – though it may be slow (with a doubling time of days). Unlike non-AI malware, it could also figure out unfamiliar devices on its own.”

To prove the point, researchers bought 15 TV boxes at about $55 each, networked them together, and ran Google’s Gemma model across them at a glacial 0.39 tokens per second – in what Anthropic called the coming “digital slime mold.”

Co-author Daniel Freeman was even more breathless on X:

If you react to this by thinking it’s kind of sci-fi, that’s because I kind of think it is!
This is super weird!
We did not used to live in a world where little guys in boxes could replicate across networks, gobble up computers, reconfigure themselves to work better in the machines they find, etc etc— Daniel Freeman (@bucketofkets) October 12, 2026

His conclusion: “Regardless, whatever we do, they’re coming!”

Anthropic also tested whether models could run the entire replication cycle on their own: scan a network, hop to a new device, deliver the payload, get running, repeat. Exactly one succeeded:

“Only GLM-5.2 out of our set of tested open-weight models is capable of full end-to-end replication.”

GLM-5.2 comes from Beijing-based Z.ai, formerly Zhipu AI. It spread to all 8 test nodes in four of five trials. The small-model workhorse in the rest of the experiments was Alibaba’s Qwen.

Neither name is new to Anthropic’s threat reports. As we noted last month, Anthropic says it disrupted industrial-scale “distillation” campaigns against Claude by seven China-based labs, and Alibaba and Z.ai were both on the list. As we reported in June, Anthropic took its Alibaba accusations straight to senators and White House officials. Fittingly, the “related content” box under Anthropic’s new post links straight to its latest piece on fending off distillation attacks.

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