Tag: china

Sec. Burgum on Economy-Crushing Bureaucratic Creep: ‘80% of What People Were Being Held Accountable for’ Not Original Law

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum argued while speaking at a Breitbart News policy event that the vast majority of the legal hoops the American energy industry has to jump through are setting the U.S. back, while China skips over bureaucracy in the race for AI dominance.

Burgum, the chairman of President Donald Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council, told Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle that the “Silicon Valley Titans” who do not necessarily see eye-to-eye with Trump understand the issue, which is why they largely supported his 2024 campaign. 

“In November ’24, who was standing on stage at the inauguration? Tim Cook, Elon Musk, [and] Mark Zuckerberg,” the secretary said. “I mean, you know, Silicon Valley Titans were all standing there within 20 feet of the president. Think, why?”

“Because,” Burgum said, “They all got behind electing a president that understood that we needed more energy, and that we could not win the AI arms race without more electricity, and that the policies that the competition was offering was going to end up with energy subtraction.”

In its own words, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has stated that their AI theories, technologies, and applications should “achieve world-leading levels” and make China “the world’s primary AI innovation center” by 2030. 

As Breitbart News’s Wynton Hall noted in his latest book, Code Red, “Nearly half of the world’s top AI researchers are Chinese,” and the country produces “nearly twice as many AI-relevant PhDs as the United States does.”

Burgum stated that Trump’s mission to beat China in the AI race is what caused a “giant shift” to occur, with major technology companies throwing their support behind the president in order to achieve this goal. 

“It was important that it was happening because if we were going down a path, which was continuing to do energy subtraction, we have no chance,” the Interior secretary argued. “Now, we have a chance.”

According to Burgum, the Chinese “are not spending years caught up in court, in litigation over a bunch of, say, bureaucratic rules — not even laws.”

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Arcadia mayor Eileen Wang admits acting as Chinese spy, running fake news website with ex-lover in shocking plea deal

The former mayor of Arcadia resigned after admitting to acting as an illegal foreign agent of China in a federal plea deal unsealed on Monday.

Eileen Wang agreed with prosecutors that she worked with the People’s Republic of China to boost propaganda with a fake news website on US soil between 2020 and 2022. She was elected to Arcadia City Council in November 2022 — the city is within LA County.

Wang worked with her then fiancé, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, on a web site called “U.S. News Center,” which claimed to be news source for Chinese Americans, according to court documents.

But in reality the pair were carrying out Beijing’s orders through the site.

Wang and Sun “executed directives” from the Chinese government, posting propaganda designed to boost China, all while reporting back to their masters with screenshots showing how many people viewed the stories, according to the plea agreement.

In one case, Wang’s spymaster ordered her to post a PRC-authored essay denying the existence of genocide and forced labor in the Xinjiang region, the plea deal states.

“There is no genocide in Xinjiang; there is no such thing as ‘forced labor’ in any production activity, including cotton production. Spreading such rumor is to defame China, destroy Xinjiang’s safety and stability,” wrote Wang’s master, according to the plea agreement.

Wang complied and her handler wrote back, “So fast, thank you everyone.”

In another case, Wang’s PRC boss commended her on page views received by a certain piece of propaganda. Wang wrote back, “Thank you leader”.

Wang pled guilty to the federal charge at her arraignment in downtown Los Angeles on Monday afternoon. She faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

LA’s top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, said this is not the first time China has been caught trying to exert its influence in the United States.

“Ms. Wang is just the latest to act as an agent for the PRC and it should terrify Americans that she was able to rise to the highest levels of local office in her city,” Essayli said.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Wang admitted that that she acted under the control of Chinese officials to promote propaganda in the U.S.

Prosecutors in 2024 charged Sun with conspiracy and acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.

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Biden-Appointed Federal Judge Tosses Lawsuit That Would Have Forced Hunter Biden to Register as Foreign Agent Over Burisma and China Deals

A Biden-appointed federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to compel Hunter Biden to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for his work with Ukrainian energy giant Burisma and a Chinese Communist Party-linked energy fund.

U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb issued the ruling Tuesday in Washington, D.C., shutting down the case brought by the America First Legal Foundation, the conservative legal group founded by former Trump advisor Stephen Miller.

The lawsuit, filed in 2023, argued that Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including his board seat at Burisma Holdings and payments from the China Energy Fund Committee, required him to register as a foreign agent with the Department of Justice.

In a press release at the time of filing, America First Legal Vice President and General Counsel Gene Hamilton wrote:

“As a result of AFL’s dedicated investigation and litigation against the National Archives, it is now crystal clear that Hunter Biden should have registered as a foreign agent while his father served as Vice President. This is just another example of influence peddling and politicians and their families exploiting their positions of power for personal gain and wealth. It is crucial that the DOJ examine this new evidence and take appropriate action based on what appears to be a clear violation of FARA. We’ve only just scratched the surface of the Biden family’s influence peddling and corruption and will continue to conduct rigorous oversight to ensure no one is above the law – not even the President’s son.”

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OOPS: Iranians Strike Cargo Ship Owned by Their Chinese Allies in the Strait of Hormuz

Not a very friendly move by Tehran.

Just yesterday (6), the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Beijing, meeting with his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The two ministers reportedly discussed bilateral ties, the Iran-U.S. conflict, the Strait of Hormuz, and regional issues.

But today, as Araghchi is already back in Tehran, the unpredictable happened, with the Iranians reportedly striking a Chinese-owned cargo ship in the Hormuz waterways.

The attack was confirmed by US Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz.

Newsmax reported:

“A Chinese-owned oil products tanker was attacked near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported, as President Donald Trump launched a U.S. plan that day to help stranded vessels but suspended it a day ‌later.

This was the first time a Chinese oil tanker has been attacked, a ​person with knowledge of the matter told Caixin on Thursday. The unnamed vessel’s deck caught fire and the ship was marked ‘CHINA OWNER & CREW’, according to ⁠Caixin.”

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Man Accused of Running Chinese Police Station in NYC Admits Working for CCP

A Chinese-American who allegedly operated an overseas Chinese police station in New York City admitted to opening the police station and to his link to Chinese state security in interviews with the FBI in the fall of 2022, Assistant United States Attorney Lindsey Oken said in opening statements at his trial Wednesday.

Lu Jianwan, 64, an American citizen, also known as Harry Lu and the former head of the American ChangLe Association, admitted he had a handler in China’s main security and law enforcement organization, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), in interviews with the FBI in October and December of 2022, prosecutors said.

Lu is charged with conspiring to act as an agent of the Chinese government, and with failing to register as a foreign agent. He is also charged with obstruction of justice for deleting his communications with China’s MPS.

Oken said Lu also admitted to the FBI that he communicated via Chinese messaging app WeChat with the MPS. After meeting with the FBI, Lu allegedly deleted messages from those communications. Oken said the FBI was able to recover some of these messages from other devices, and the government will present them at trial.

Appearing in a black suit and a light blue tie, Lu seemed calm and at ease as his trial started Wednesday in the Brooklyn borough of New York City in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), anyone acting on behalf of a foreign government is required to declare their association by filing documentation with the FARA office at the Department of Justice.

In his opening statement, Lu’s attorney, John Carman, said, “Harry Lu was arrested for failing to file a form,” and belittled the obstruction charge as being about a missing WeChat message. Carman said the case is one of “guilt by association,” arguing that Lu did nothing wrong, but merely associated and communicated with officials of the Chinese government, which the Department of Commerce has officially designated as an adversary.

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Passengers Left in Middle of Busy Traffic After Over 100 Self-Driving Taxis Stop Running in ‘System Malfunction’ 

Passengers in Wuhan, China, were left stranded in the middle of busy streets after a large group of self-driving taxis stopped working at the same time.

A mass outage involving at least 100 robotaxis caused the vehicles to halt mid-traffic on Tuesday evening, with authorities later attributing the disruption to a “system malfunction.” Officials did not provide further details, and no injuries were reported, per the Associated Press.

Videos circulating on social media showed driverless cars sitting motionless in active roadways, some blocking lanes and intersections. In one clip, a crash involving a stopped vehicle could be seen, though the BBC reported there were no injuries and that passengers were able to exit the vehicles safely.

The vehicles are operated by Apollo Go, an autonomous ride-hailing service run by Chinese tech company Baidu. The company has been expanding its robotaxi operations across China and has plans to grow internationally, according to CNBC.

For passengers inside the cars, the experience was both confusing and unsettling.

According to the Associated Press, one passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped shortly after turning a corner. A message displayed on the vehicle’s screen read, “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” When no one arrived, the passenger pressed an SOS button and was again told that help was on the way. The rider was ultimately able to open the door and exit the vehicle on their own.

The Wuhan incident comes amid a series of recent issues involving self-driving vehicles, both in the United States and abroad.

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Chinese engineer stole US military and NASA software for years

International espionage isn’t always about sophisticated malware and zero-day bugs. Sometimes it’s as simple as pretending to be someone else asking for a favor.

For four years, a Chinese aerospace engineer did just that. Dozens of researchers at NASA, the US military, and major universities handed him exactly what he asked for, and possibly violated US laws in the process.

His name is Song Wu. He’s been on the FBI’s wanted list since September 2024, charged with 14 counts of wire fraud and 14 counts of aggravated identity theft, and he’s still at large.

Wu’s day job was as an engineer at the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a Beijing-headquartered state-owned aerospace and defense conglomerate with over 400,000 employees. The US has AVIC and several subsidiaries on a sanctions list.

His side hustle was simpler. From January 2017 through December 2021, Wu set up email accounts impersonating real US researchers and engineers, then emailed their colleagues asking for source code and proprietary software. He targeted employees at NASA, the Air Force, Navy, Army, and FAA, and faculty at universities across the US.

When software is a weapon

The applications Wu was after handle aerospace engineering and computational fluid dynamics. It’s the kind of intellectual property that helps develop advanced tactical missiles and evaluate weapons performance, and it sits squarely inside US export controls, according to NASA’s Office of the Inspector General. Sharing it with the wrong person, even by accident, is a federal problem.

Some victims did transmit the requested code. They were, in the OIG’s careful phrasing, “unwittingly” violating export control law.

How a four-year campaign finally broke

It wasn’t a firewall that caught Wu. It was a tip.

NASA’s Cyber Crimes Division got a report that someone had set up a Gmail account claiming to be an established aerospace professor who frequently collaborated with NASA. From that single thread, investigators unwound a campaign that had quietly targeted dozens of researchers across the federal government and academia.

The OIG also noted the giveaways: Wu asked for the same software multiple times and never explained why he needed it. Those are tells that anyone could have spotted on a slow afternoon if they’d been looking.

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Report: Pro-China Billionaire Funded NYC’s May Day Events Where Zohran Mamdani Pushed Taxing the Rich

Two leftist groups that have directly or indirectly received funding from a pro-Chinese Communist Party tech-billionaire reportedly helped organize protesters in New York City’s Union Square for communist and socialist May Day events on Friday.

The groups called The People’s Forum (TPF) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) have in some form received money from Neville Roy Singham, according to Fox News.

“A self-identified speaker from PSL announced a People’s Forum spokesperson who was the second to speak into a microphone. The speaker rallied the crowd of demonstrators, asking them to repeat chants and later bashed capitalism. Shortly before remarks, PSL arrived with dozens of pre-made anti-Trump signs and equipment, unloading them from a van parked next to Union Sq. Park,” the outlet said, noting pro-Communism advocates handed out newspapers and encouraged people to attend future events.

“Teamsters and unions gathered downtown at Washington Square Park while TPF and PSL marched from Union Square several blocks up. The union workers’ rally ended shortly after the Singham-connected groups arrived,” the report continued.

Breitbart News Foundation (BNF) reported that Singham’s wife is left-wing Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans. Chinese government records reviewed by the BNF also showed “Singham’s deep, extensive ties with the Chinese regime.”

“Both the People’s Forum and Code Pink have received millions of dollars’ worth of funding for years. These organizations were at the forefront of the anti-Israel and pro-Hamas wave of protests across U.S. university campuses in the months following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel,” the article stated.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a self-described Democratic Socialist, spoke to attendees at the rally in Washington Square Park on Friday and said he was “working to tax the wealthiest and the most profitable corporations in New York City”.

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Convicted Harvard Scientist Could Help China Make Super Soldiers

We’re living in the dumbest timeline. This week we learned that former chair of Harvard’s Chemistry Department Charles Lieber has defected to China. Now he could be helping the PLA make super soldiers. Cool cool cool.

Charles Lieber is a brilliant scientist. Fifteen years ago, Reuters named him the world’s top chemist.

But at some point he started working with China’s “thousand talents” program, the idea of which is to lull the big brains of the West into collaborative research that ultimately helps the CCP’s interests.

In 2021, Charles Lieber was convicted in the US for lying about his ties to China and hiding payments linked to the thousand talents program. His punishment was…just two days in prison, six months of house arrest, and a $50,000 fine.

Now, Lieber has resurfaced in Shenzhen, where he leads a state-backed high tech science lab.

This lab comes with cutting-edge nanofabrication tools, generous Chinese government funding, and even access to primate testing facilities. Harvard closed its primate testing facility a decade ago, due to ethical concerns. That’s why China is such an attractive place for scientists to work. No rules, baby! (Except to obey the CCP, obviously.)

The technology he’s working on in Shenzhen is brain-computer interfaces. My optimistic spin: These devices could help patients with ALS. My dystopian spin: The CCP will use this to create cognitively enhanced super soldiers.

This is the problem with collaborating with China on any research. All research becomes part of the CCP’s “military-civil fusion” strategy, where civilian breakthroughs can be used by the military. Your intentions don’t matter. The CCP is using you.

An example of this would be the NIH-funded gain-of-function research on coronaviruses in Wuhan. American scientists may have at first believed their research would help prevent the next global pandemic. Ha. Ha. Ha.

As for Charles Lieber, he may think that by defecting to China he can have a better life, and maybe he can even help make the world a better place. (We’re all the heroes of our own story.) But eventually, the CCP will use him, and toss him out with the trash. And it’ll be his own fault.

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US: Open shipping for me but not for thee (looking at you China)

During a recent meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Chairwoman Maria Salazar (R-Fla.) laid out an eyebrow-raising vision of the U.S. role in Latin America’s affairs under the so-called Donroe Doctrine.

Salazar praised President Donald Trump for strong-arming Colombian President Gustavo Petro into temporarily re-initiating Colombia’s failed drug war against Clan de Golfo. She fawned over a deadly American oil embargo of Cuba, urging Trump to “pull the plug” on Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s government. And she framed the illegal capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a bold move that “spread freedom and democracy” across Latin America.

But most important, and least remarked upon, were the congresswoman’s comments about ports. Praising the Trump administration’s successful effort to kick Chinese-linked port operator CK Hutchison from sites near the Panama Canal, Salazar turned her attention to the Port of Chancay in Peru — the State Department’s latest target in its effort to root out Chinese influence in Latin America.

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