Tag: china

Secret UFO Arms Race? US, China And Russia Battle To Unlock Mysterious Technology

The United States, China and Russia could be locked in a secretive new arms race involving unidentified flying objects, raising extraordinary questions about whether America’s biggest adversaries are competing to unlock technology that could transform modern warfare, according to the New York Post.

The possibility of a UFO arms race is drawing renewed attention as lawmakers, former intelligence officials and military veterans warn that Washington could be falling behind its geopolitical rivals in the race to understand mysterious aerial phenomena.

Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) has warned that America’s failure to release promised UFO information could give China and Russia a major propaganda victory, allowing the rival powers to portray themselves as more transparent than Washington.

“I think it would definitely be a misstep because of what we would be demonstrating to our people,” Burlison said in an interview with the New York Post. “We’re supposed to be the most transparent country in the world to its citizenry and if another country is able to be more transparent than the United States on this topic it would be a blemish on our otherwise pristine legacy on transparency.”

Former U.S. intelligence official David Grusch has also claimed, without public evidence, that China and Russia possess crashed UFOs, suggesting that America’s adversaries could be attempting to reverse-engineer technology of unknown origin.

Grusch made headlines in 2023 after testifying before Congress about alleged secret government programs dedicated to recovering and studying mysterious spacecraft.

In 2021, China publicly acknowledged investigating unexplained aerial sightings, including using artificial intelligence to analyze reports of mysterious objects.

The South China Morning Post reported at the time:

According to Wuhan-based researcher Chen Li from the Air Force Early Warning Academy, human analysts have been overwhelmed in recent years by the rapidly mounting sighting reports from a wide range of military and civilian sources across the country.

“The frequent occurrence of unidentified air conditions in recent years … brings severe challenges to air defence security of our country,” said Chen, in a 2019 report to a conference of senior information technology scientists in Beijing in 2019.

Russia’s interest in UFOs reportedly dates back to the Soviet era.

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China used military-linked kindergarten to cultivate ties with Mitch McConnell’s wife and in-laws

A child soldier lies dead in a marsh from starvation.

The Red Army pauses to mourn the little martyr for a moment before the Long March moves on — and the kindergarten play ends.

It is graduation day in Shanghai and Elaine Chao is in attendance.

The date is June 14, 2026 and in several hours Chao’s husband, Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, will be rushed to a hospital on the other side of the globe.

Chao has been returning to this Shanghai kindergarten for decades, where she has repeatedly met with officials from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and an influence and intelligence arm called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), according to Daily Caller News Foundation translations of dozens of Chinese government and state-media reports.

Beijing uses the UFWD to steer foreign policy and “gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Named in honor of Chao’s grandfather, the kindergarten is being used by a United Front arm as a stage to cultivate ties with Chao, documents show.

Chao — whose Chinese name is Zhao Xiaolan — has received at least four Chinese government positions since 2008, including a Wuhan municipal advisory post as well as roles within the China Overseas Friendship Association (COFA) and the All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC) — both of which are UFWD arms, the DCNF recently reported. Chao’s three UFWD arm positions partially overlapped with her tenure as President George W. Bush’s Department of Labor secretary and/or her service as Department of Transportation secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Chao’s spokesperson, Patrick O’Connor, denied she “held a position with a foreign government” and told the DCNF “[w]e are not aware she has met with representatives of UFWD entities” after being sent photos showing Chao meeting with CCP and UFWD officials.

“Such a suggestion disregards her nearly five decades of faithful service to the United States and is both unfounded and deeply insulting, hurtful and racist,” O’Connor added.

“Education has always been a primary focus for the family and its philanthropy. The secretary regularly visits schools in the U.S. and abroad,” O’Connor said in response to questions about why Chao had participated in events at the Shanghai kindergarten that variously featured Chinese military propaganda, CCP and UFWD officials. “This kindergarten is named after Dr. Chao’s father, and he has supported it for nearly four decades. The secretary was there to honor her father’s connection to the school, which is recognized as one of the best kindergartens in the region.”

Chao’s relationship with CCP and UFWD-affiliated organizations underscores how China intends to use political influence operations and information warfare to defeat the U.S. “without ever firing a shot,” Brandon Weichert, a geopolitical analyst and author of The Weichert Brief, told the DCNF.

“After more than 40 years of such operations, which have even influenced educational institutions in the U.S., it is clear that the United States has been completely outmaneuvered and overrun by the Chinese narrative,” Weichert said. “That even people like the wife of former Republican Party Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a former cabinet member herself, has become the face of a quiet campaign to influence the hearts and minds shows you how prolific — and profligate — the Chinese campaign has been.”

“We are on the slow, but steady path of being absorbed in China’s new empire without so much as any understanding that this is underway,” Weichert warned.

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US Seizes 7 Domains Used By China-Linked Hackers To Target Critical Infrastructure

The Justice Department and FBI announced on Oct. 8 that they had seized seven internet domains used by Chinese state-linked hackers to target critical infrastructure and other computer networks in the United States and overseas.

The seizures targeted two hacking tools allegedly operated by cyber actors working for Integrity Technology Group, a Beijing-based cybersecurity company with Chinese regime contracts.

The tools were used to identify security weaknesses, gain unauthorized access to computer networks, and steal information, according to the Justice Department.

In a joint cybersecurity advisory released the same day, U.S. and allied agencies warned that Chinese regime-linked hackers enabled by Integrity Tech had combined automated scanning, large networks of compromised devices, and targeted intrusions to steal sensitive information from organizations worldwide, including U.S. critical infrastructure operators.

A federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania approved the seizure warrant on Oct. 6, authorizing the domains to be redirected to FBI-controlled servers.

The Justice Department has not announced criminal charges against Integrity Tech or identified individual defendants in connection with the seizures.

The operation marks the second public U.S. disruption of Integrity Tech’s hacking infrastructure in two years.

In September 2024, the FBI dismantled a network of more than 200,000 infected internet-connected devices, including home routers and cameras, that investigators said were used to conduct cyber operations.

However, a newly unsealed FBI affidavit indicates that tools linked to Integrity Tech remained accessible afterward.

Investigators found a server hosting one hacking tool in March 2026 and confirmed that a login page for another was still accessible in September.

“The PRC relies on contractor and enabling companies to expand the reach and scale of its malicious cyber activity,” said Brett Leatherman, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

“By exposing and disrupting these enablers, we make it harder for the PRC to target American networks and infrastructure.”

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China Builds a Parallel Global Governance System Ahead of Xiong’an Forum

China is turning its ambition to displace American leadership into an institutional strategy, building a coalition inside the UN while establishing organizations that could expand Beijing’s influence over international rules, mediation, AI, and data. Its promises of equality and cooperation raise questions about whether these institutions will serve their members or advance CCP interests.

A system that places state sovereignty above individual rights could shield authoritarian governments from international condemnation, while Chinese influence over technology standards could promote surveillance and censorship.

CCP officials have announced that China will host the first Xiong’an Global Governance Forum in Hebei Province this autumn and the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Shenzhen on November 18 and 19. Foreign Minister Wang Yi has listed both events among the next steps for implementing Xi Jinping’s Global Governance Initiative (GGI), Beijing’s plan to change how the world is governed.

Xi announced the initiative on September 1, 2025, at the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus” meeting in Tianjin. It followed three earlier Xi frameworks: the Global Development Initiative in 2021, the Global Security Initiative in 2022, and the Global Civilization Initiative in 2023.

These initiatives continue an older CCP ambition. Two decades before the GGI, Hu Jintao called for strengthening global governance as part of building a “harmonious world.”

Wang Yi made the GGI’s target clear when he said “a few countries monopolize global governance” and that this should no longer continue. A concept paper released by the Chinese government on the day of the announcement says the initiative seeks to make existing institutions more responsive to developing countries without overturning the international order or building a framework outside it. Its five core concepts are sovereign equality, international rule of law, multilateralism, a people-centered approach, and “real results.”

The Group of Friends of Global Governance is Beijing’s vehicle for promoting the GGI inside the UN. Nearly 40 founding member states attended its launch meeting in New York on December 9, 2025, chaired by China’s UN ambassador, Fu Cong. The group has since added chapters in Geneva and Vienna. At the group’s May 2026 meeting, Wang Yi proposed nine areas for reforming global governance.

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The EU thinks it “won” in Beijing trade talks. It couldn’t be more wrong.

Big news out of Beijing! On Friday, the EU’s trade chief, Maroš Šefčovič, announced a deal that could cut China’s exports of hybrids and plug-in hybrids to Europe by more than half. That’s several million fewer cars over four years. Diplomacy works!*

Here’s some context:

In October 2024, the EU put tariffs of up to 45% on Chinese battery EVs because of the CCP’s massive subsidies. Hybrids, though, still paid only the standard 10%. So what did Chinese automakers do? They switched to hybrids. Chinese hybrid imports went from 3,800 cars in October 2024 to about 50,000 in July 2026.

So the CCP increased its hybrid exports more than tenfold to get around the EU’s rules. Now it’s “agreeing” to cut them in half. And Brussels is calling that a win. Because the EU is run by a clumsy bureaucracy—and that’s me describing them generously.

Read the fine print, too. It’s a “shared understanding,” and Šefčovič didn’t say how it will actually be enforced. Meanwhile, the CCP got the EU to keep talking about price undertakings on the EV tariffs, which would mean China agrees to raise its own prices, and then the EU would remove the tariffs.

But the whole thing just shows how absolutely useless Europe’s bureaucracy is when it comes to countering the economic threat of the CCP.

The CCP agreed to back off partway on what it got by exploiting a loophole—the hybrids. And in return the CCP gets a shot at undoing the original EV tariffs that started all this.

See you in 2027, Europe, when the CCP finds the next loophole.

And by the way, Europe is wrong about why they should stop Chinese EVs. Bureaucrats think it’s about protecting local industry and manufacturing jobs. But everyone I know who has worked in intelligence agrees: Chinese cars are spy machines. So the optimal number of Chinese cars to have in Europe is zero.

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China Nominates Communist Health Official to Lead World Health Organization

The Chinese government has nominated one of its own, former China National Health Commission director Dr. Song Li, to become the next director-general of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.).

Reuters reported the nomination on Thursday morning and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning confirmed it at a press conference.

Mao said the nomination was part of China’s bid to gain more influence in multinational organizations like W.H.O. after the United States withdrew support – an action taken by President Donald Trump in July 2020, in part because he said China already had far too much sway over the U.N. health agency.

“China has total control over the World Health Organization despite only paying $40 million per year compared to what the United States has been paying, which is approximately $450 million a year,” Trump said when announcing the withdrawal.

The Biden administration retracted Trump’s decision to withdraw in January 2021, but Trump once again signed an executive order to pull out of W.H.O. when he returned to office in January 2025.

“At a time when multilateralism is facing challenges and much remains to be done in advancing global health, the role of the W.H.O. director-general is particularly important in ensuring that the organization continues to develop steadily amid new changes and circumstances,” Mao said at her press conference on Thursday.

“China’s nomination of Dr Song Li demonstrates China’s willingness to work with all parties to build a community of health for all, and reflects China’s firm support for multilateralism and the W.H.O.,” she said.

“We believe that if Dr. Song Li is elected W.H.O. director-general, she will help the organization play a more active role in improving the health and wellbeing of all humanity,” she said.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) noted on Thursday that Song would become “the first person from mainland China to head the United Nations health agency.”

A doctor from Hong Kong named Margaret Chan held the post from 2007 to 2017, to be succeeded by the current director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The director general of W.H.O. is appointed to a five-year term by the World Health Assembly (W.H.A.), and can be reappointed once, so Tedros must leave office in August 2027.

Song is the seventh candidate to be nominated so far to succeed Tedros. The others hail from Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Indonesia, Spain, and Botswana.

Song held the post of Director-General of the Department of Women and Child Health at China’s National Health Commission until last month. She also sits on the secretariat of the All-China Women’s Federation, an organ of the Chinese Communist Party that is directly supervised by Party leadership.

Song was educated at Shandong Medical University and Peking University, and was a “visiting scholar in global health” at Harvard for six months in 2010. She was involved in China’s response to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, helping to create procedures for maternity and newborn care, and she helped to establish networks for treating pregnant women infected with the coronavirus.

Reuters quoted a former senior W.H.O. official who said China might use Song’s candidacy as “leverage to ​gain greater influence in the W.H.O. by making ​sure there are more Chinese senior officials at the organization.”

The U.S. is still the largest single contributor to W.H.O. by assessments, with China in fourth place, but the WHA suspended America’s voting rights in the organization in May because of “unpaid arrears.” 

W.H.O. said it reduced its base budget by about 21 percent after President Trump signed his executive order to withdraw in January. The W.H.A. said that it will not officially recognize U.S. withdrawal until it pays all of its unpaid dues.

Argentina also withdrew from W.H.O. last year, but unlike the United States, it had no legal right to withdraw included with its membership, whether its dues are paid or not. To date, W.H.O. has never formally accepted the withdrawal of a member nation.

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US To Deploy Anti-Ship Missile System To Japanese Island Near Taiwan

The US military will deploy an anti-ship missile system to Japan’s westernmost island of Yonaguni, which lies just 68 miles east of Taiwan, an unprecedented move that will ratchet up tensions with China.

US Marines will deploy with the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, as part of Keen Sword, the largest joint US-Japanese biennial military exercise.

The NMESIS has a range of about 115 miles, putting it within striking range of vessels patrolling the eastern coast of Taiwan. According to The South China Morning Post, China has stepped up coast guard and naval activity in the area in response to maritime boundary talks announced in May between Japan and the Philippines.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, told China’s Global Times that the deployment increases the risk of miscalculation between the US and China and that Beijing may respond by conducting its own military drills in the area.

The Okinawa Defense Bureau first disclosed the deployment on October 1, and it will also include a Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or Maidas, a ground-based air defense system also used by the Marine Corps’ littoral force.

The first Marine Littoral Regiment was established in 2022 as part of the Marine Corps’ Force Design strategy, which is explicitly focused on preparing for a potential conflict with China. The idea was to create mobile Marine units equipped with anti-ship missiles and other weapons that can rapidly deploy along what is known as the First Island Chain, a string of archipelagos stretching from Japan’s southern islands through Taiwan and the Philippines and into the southern South China Sea.

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Warnings of Chinese WHO Takeover Strengthen the Case for US Withdrawal

Warnings that America’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization will expand China’s influence raise a question for European governments: Why must American taxpayers finance the resistance to Beijing? Washington was the WHO’s largest donor, yet its contributions failed to resolve the administration’s concerns about Chinese influence. If European governments believe remaining in the organization can restrain China, they must explain how they intend to accomplish what they expected the United States to do.

The Trump administration refused on September 25, 2026, to back a UN political declaration on pandemic preparedness. By then, President Donald Trump had taken the United States out of the WHO, ended talks on the WHO Pandemic Agreement, and turned down changes to the International Health Regulations. To justify those moves, the administration pointed repeatedly to China’s sway over the organization.

At the September UN meeting, the U.S. representative opposed language in the declaration tied to pathogen access and benefit sharing, a framework still under negotiation, among other concerns. China’s delegate called for progress on the pandemic agreement and urged developed countries to provide financial and technological support to developing nations. The objections prevented adoption by consensus that day, leaving the declaration for further consideration by the General Assembly.

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FBI Arrests Alleged Chinese Foreign Agent at LAX as She Attempts to Board Flight to Shanghai — Accused of Surveilling Taiwanese President’s Son and Family for CCP

Federal agents arrested an alleged Chinese foreign agent at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday as she was preparing to leave the United States for Communist China.

Wanying “Heather” Zhang, 34, of Irvine, California, was taken into custody by the FBI at LAX and charged in a federal criminal complaint with acting as an agent of the People’s Republic of China without notifying the U.S. Attorney General.

Federal prosecutor Bill Essayli announced the arrest on Sunday, saying Zhang was caught attempting to depart for China.

“We just arrested a Chinese foreign agent at LAX attempting to depart for China,” Essayli announced on his official X account. 

According to Essayli, Zhang allegedly traveled to Seattle in 2025 at the direction of PRC officials and conducted surveillance on a close relative of a Taiwanese government official.

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California Man Accused Of Routing More Than $300 Million In Restricted Servers To China

A California man has been arrested on federal charges accusing him of helping route more than $300 million in export-controlled computer servers to China through Malaysia and Singapore.

Greg Lui, 38, also known as Yiu Kong Lui, of San Gabriel, was arrested Oct. 1 after a federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment two days earlier.

Lui was the chief executive officer and owner of Earthmade Computer Inc., a company based in City of Industry, California, and established in November 2023. He was also the registered agent of another company, Coindigger, that did business as Earthmade.

Earthmade has not been charged in the case. The company did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.

Lui is charged with conspiracy to violate U.S. export-control laws, outbound smuggling, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors allege payments from Malaysia flowed into Earthmade’s U.S. bank accounts and were then used to buy restricted servers from American manufacturers.

Prosecutors allege the conspiracy began no later than October 2023 and continued through at least Aug. 12, 2026. The indictment’s detailed transaction examples are concentrated in 2024, when Lui and others allegedly bought high-end computer servers and graphics processing units, or GPUs, from U.S. manufacturers and routed them through Malaysia and Singapore before they ultimately reached China.

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