Tag: china

China shuts down AI tools during nationwide college exams

Chinese AI companies have temporarily paused some of their chatbot features to prevent students from using them to cheat during nationwide college exams, Bloomberg reports. Popular AI apps, including Alibaba’s Qwen and ByteDance’s Doubao, have stopped picture recognition features from responding to questions about test papers, while Tencent’s Yuanbao, Moonshot’s Kimi have suspended photo-recognition services entirely during exam hours.

The increasing availability of chatbots has made it easier than ever for students around the world to cheat their way through education. Schools in the US are trying to address the issue by reintroducing paper tests, with the Wall Street Journal reporting in May that sales of blue books have boomed in universities across the country over the last two years.

The rigorous multi-day “gaokao” exams are sat by more than 13.3 million Chinese students between June 7-10th, each fighting to secure one of the limited spots at universities across the country. Students are already banned from using devices like phones and laptops during the hours-long tests, so the disabling of AI chatbots serves as an additional safety net to prevent cheating during exam season.

When asked to explain the suspension, Bloomberg reports the Yuanbao and Kimi chatbots responded that functions had been disabled “to ensure the fairness of the college entrance examinations.” Similarly, the DeepSeek AI tool that went viral earlier this year is also blocking its service during specific hours “to ensure fairness in the college entrance examination,” according to The Guardian.

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China Strikes Hard: Chinese Satellite Pulverizes Starlink With a 2-Watt Laser 36,000 KM From Earth

In a stunning leap forward for space technology, Chinese scientists have achieved an unprecedented breakthrough in satellite communication, using a laser as weak as a nightlight to outpace the speeds of Starlink. Operating from an altitude of 36,000 kilometers—more than 60 times higher than SpaceX’s Starlink network—this Chinese satellite has demonstrated a level of data transmission far superior to what Starlink can offer, pushing the boundaries of what many thought possible.

An Astonishing Achievement

At the heart of this success is a 2-watt laser, which was able to transmit data at an astounding 1 Gbps. This speed is five times faster than Starlink’s capabilities, which are limited to a few megabits per second despite operating at a lower altitude of around 550 kilometers. According to InterestingEngineering, the laser, though faint as a candle’s glow, managed to push data through Earth’s turbulent atmosphere, overcoming a challenge that has long plagued satellite communications: atmospheric turbulence.

The team behind this achievement, led by Professor Wu Jian from Peking University and Liu Chao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed an innovative method to address the interference caused by atmospheric turbulence. Their solution, known as AO-MDR synergy, combines Adaptive Optics (AO) and Mode Diversity Reception (MDR) to sharpen and stabilize the laser signal, ensuring that even through highly turbulent conditions, the transmission remained clear and reliable.

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FDA halts Biden-era program of sending Americans’ DNA to China for genetic engineering

The Trump administration is halting companies from conducting clinical trials in China using Americans’ DNA samples in a program authorized by the Biden administration, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA said an immediate review has begun on new clinical trials that involve sending living cells of U.S. citizens to China and other hostile states for “genetic engineering and subsequent infusion back into U.S. patients — sometimes without their knowledge or consent.”

The agency moved to halt the program based on what it said is mounting evidence that some of the trials were conducted without informing people involved that their biological material was being transferred and manipulated.

The activity “may have exposed Americans’ sensitive genetic data to misuse by foreign governments including adversaries,” the FDA said in a statement Wednesday.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the unacknowledged transfer of DNA samples has raised questions about the integrity of U.S. biomedical research.

“We are taking action to protect patients, restore public trust and safeguard U.S. biomedical leadership,” Dr. Makary said. “The previous administration turned a blind eye and allowed American DNA to be sent abroad — often without the knowledge or understanding of trial participants,” he said.

The FDA said the suspect transfer of Americans’ biomedical samples was the result of a December 2024 policy by the Biden administration that was put in place by the Justice Department in April.

The Biden rule imposed export controls that limited the transfer of sensitive data to countries of concern. But the Biden administration specifically approved a “sweeping exemption” that allowed U.S. companies to send trial participants’ biological samples, including DNA, for processing overseas in FDA-regulated clinical trials.

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Chinese Lab Creates Mosquito-Sized Spy Drones

Chinese state media reported on Friday that the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) in Hunan has created a surveillance “microdrone” the size of a mosquito.

“Here in my hand is a mosquito-like type of robot. Miniature bionic robots like this one are especially suited to information reconnaissance and special missions on the battlefield,” NUDT student Liang Hexiang told the state-run China Central Television (CCTV).

The device Liang showed off had a stick-thin body, three hairlike “legs,” and tiny leaf-shaped wings. The report did not go into details about its range, endurance, control systems, or surveillance capabilities.

Drones that could be mistaken for insects are a holy grail for the fast-growing surveillance robot industry. The Wyss Institute at Harvard University unveiled its “RoboBee,” a microdrone with superficial similarities to China’s mosquito drone, in 2019.

RoboBee is allegedly about half the size of a paper clip, weighs a tenth of a gram, and flies by contracting tiny artificial “muscles “ with jolts of electricity. At present, the microdrone can only operate within the carefully controlled confines of its laboratory, but its developers hope it will someday be capable of navigating in the outside world with senses comparable to a real bee.

The designers of RoboBee hope the fully independent version of their creation could assist with environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and even pollination of crops, much as real bees do. Of course, it requires little imagination to see how microdrones could be weaponized for surveillance or assassination.

According to Chinese state media, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) already has some drones that weigh less than a kilogram, fly in AI-controlled swarms, and can carry small explosives.

Under current definitions, a “microdrone” is any unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that weighs less than 250 grams (a little under 9 ounces).

Most existing microdrone designs are fairly slow because their tiny frames cannot carry engines that generate much thrust, but in May a student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Shenzhen set a world speed record with a palm-sized drone that flew at over 211 miles per hour.

The smallest drone currently employed by Western armed forces is the Black Hornet 4, a Norwegian design that looks like a palm-sized toy helicopter. The Black Hornet 4 boasts thermal imaging and low-light optics. It comes in a travel case that is small enough for soldiers to carry on their belts.

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How China Is Censoring Scientific Research Across The Globe

We all know how serious environmental degradation is in China. Its emissions have skyrocketed, air and water quality have plummeted, and critical habitat and ecosystems have disappeared. That’s why unadulterated research on the topic is critical to better informed policy. But my recent experience shows that China’s censorship model is spreading to the West, hindering that research from taking place.

In 2012 I published an academic paper in the journal Environmental Politics coining the term “authoritarian environmentalism” to describe the way that environmental policy is made in China. This year, I was approached by Lu Liao, a professor of urban planning at Renmin University in Beijing, to submit a paper to a special issue on China in Environmental Policy and Governance, a respected journal published by the major academic publisher Wiley, based in New Jersey.

I suggested reviewing what we have learned about “authoritarian environmentalism” since 2012. “The idea of revisiting the 2012 paper sounds very timely and meaningful,” replied Liao, who sits on the editorial board of Environmental Policy and Governance.

That’s when things went awry. The proposal I sent her included a new research question about whether the policy model in China is flawed by design, a form of greenwashing intended to legitimate one-party rule rather than improve the environment.

After a few days, Liao wrote back to report some “intriguing context from my own position,” as she called it. “Due to current sensitivities around ideology and international relations in China, many Chinese universities are quite cautious about discussions involving certain terms, and faculty are prohibited from publish[ing] work on some sensitive topics.”

I was “invited” to withdraw my submission and seek publication elsewhere. China’s censorship regime was being extended to a Western scholar and to a Western academic journal.

I reached out to the journal’s editor, Andy Gouldson, professor of environmental policy at Leeds University, who has done work in China, seeking clarification. He confirmed that “there are sensitivities for the guest editors of the special issue” and invited me to submit the paper as a regular contribution. I’ll decline. I won’t publish in a journal that bends to China’s censorship regime.

Put aside the irony that my research on authoritarianism in China was sidelined by authoritarianism in China. The bigger scandal here is how Western academics and publishers are willing to allow PRC censorship to dictate the terms of their trade.

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Florida AG Subpoenas Medical Firms Over ‘Backdoor’ on China-Made Devices

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has subpoenaed two medical companies selling Chinese-made patient monitors over concerns that the devices could send patient data to China.

Uthmeier’s office stated in a press release that they had taken legal action against Contec Medical Systems, a China-based company known for making patient monitors, and Epsimed, a Miami-based company that resells Contec-made monitors under its own brand name.

The office alleged that Contec “concealed serious security problems” in its products, including a built-in “backdoor” that could “allow bad actors to manipulate data” on the devices without knowledge of either the patient or the provider, and programming that automatically sends patient information to an IP address that belongs to a university in China.

“Some of the most private, personal information” is going to China “without the consent, and in most cases, the awareness of the patient,” Uthmeier told The Epoch Times. “I think there’s a major consumer protection issue for Floridians, for Americans as a whole, and we’re not going to stand for it.”

Uthmeier’s office alleged that Contec and Epsimed may have violated a state law, the Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, in their assurances on product quality when the products appear to fall far short of standards given their security vulnerabilities. He threatened to pursue damages, civil penalties, and injunctive relief to protect consumers.

Contec Medical Systems is headquartered in Qinhuangdao, a port city located in northern China’s Hebei Province. It has an affiliate called Contec Medical Systems USA Inc. in Illinois to handle the U.S. market.

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How Much of Trump’s ‘Built in America’ Phone Is Actually Built in America?

The Trump Organization unveiled Trump Mobile, “a next-generation wireless provider with bold ambitions and a customer-first mission,” on Monday. The organization also teased the T1 Phone—which is slated for an August release and available for preorder—as a “gold smartphone engineered for performance and proudly designed and built in the United States.” The origins of the phone seem to be more of an aspiration than a reality.

Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that “eventually, all the phones can be built in the United States of America” (emphasis added), per The Wall Street Journal. Given the phone’s hardware and $499 price, the Journal determined that the phones will likely be imported from China because “only Chinese makers like Xiaomi and Oppo have hardware to match.” (President Donald Trump threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on foreign-made phones just last month.)

Max Weinbach, an analyst at market research firm Creative Strategies, also believes that the T1 Phones are Chinese in origin. Based on its hardware, Weinbach says the T1 Phone is a custom variant of the Wingtech REVVL 7 Pro 5G (the T-Mobile version retails for about $170). Wingtech itself is a Chinese semiconductor designer and manufacturer partially owned by the Chinese Communist Party that is listed in the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List, which “identifies persons or addresses of persons reasonably believed to be involved…in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”

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Former Intel Officer Drops Truth Bomb – CIA and ODNI Covered Up 2020 CCP Election Interference, Fired Him for Speaking Out

A former National Intelligence Officer for Cyber under President Trump and Joe Biden has come forward with explosive allegations: the CIA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) deliberately buried evidence of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interference in the 2020 presidential election—and fired him when he refused to play along.

The whistleblower’s damning post came in response to General Mike Flynn’s tweet Monday questioning why foreign election interference by the CCP wasn’t exposed back in 2020:

“So there was foreign interference by the CCP in the 2020 presidential election. Who was running the USIC at that time and why didn’t this get exposed back then? @CIADirector.

Can we get four years of our lives back!?” Flynn asked, tagging President Trump and former DNI Tulsi Gabbard.”

Former intel officer Christopher Porter didn’t mince words in his reply:

“Sir, I WAS in charge of election analysis and DID call it out. CIA and ODNI tried to cover up the evidence and when I wouldn’t go along with it, terminated me.”

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LA mayor once joined pro-Cuba communist group, now it’s part of CCP-linked network behind protests

The far-left “brigade” of pro-Communist Cuba activists which Karen Bass was a key member of years ago is currently embedded in the Chinese Communist Party-linked financial network that is behind the Los Angeles protests — some of which have turned violent — in the city where she is now mayor.

Decades ago, Bass was a member of — and was repeatedly identified as a leader in — the Venceremos Brigade (VB), a far-left activist group sympathetic to the Communist revolution in Cuba and which U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies as well as Cuban defectors have identified as being co-opted by Cuban intelligence services. The VB was also linked to violent groups such as the Weather Underground.

Nowadays, the VB is fiscally sponsored by a Manhattan-based Communist organization known as The People’s Forum, which is part of wealthy Marxist businessman Neville Singham’s broad financial network. The VB is also tied to other Singham-linked endeavors such as the far-left BreakThrough News as well as the radical revolutionary Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).

The Marxist PSL has also been a key organizer of the protests in Los Angeles and elsewhere, which have sought to oppose the efforts by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) to crack down on illegal immigration.

The VB’s website says that it “is an entirely volunteer-run grassroots organization and we need the support of our friends, comrades, and supporters to continue this critical anti-imperialist work” and that “the People’s Forum (‘TPF’), a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is the Venceremos Brigade’s fiscal sponsor.”

The brigade’s website touts that “in the last 50 years, approximately 10,000 people from the US have traveled to Cuba with the VB, including elected officials, labor leaders, artists and entertainers, academics, activists, and social movement leaders.” In the 1970s, Bass — the activist turned congresswoman turned mayor — was one of them.

David Atlee Phillips, the chief of the Latin America Division of the CIA until 1975, penned an article in 1982 where he assessed that Communist Cuba’s Intelligence Directorate — Dirección General de Inteligencia or DGI — had a strong level of control over the VB.

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Flight Tracker Allegedly Spies Mysterious Chinese Transport Planes Heading for Iran

At least three transport planes from China reportedly flew to Iran in the three days after Israel began attacking Iran’s nuclear program and military command structure, their cargoes and missions unknown.

The UK Telegraph reported on Tuesday that all three of the cargo planes “flew westward along northern China, crossing into Kazakhstan, then south into Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan,” and then dropped off radar screens as they approached Iran.

All three of the planes apparently filed false flight plans that showed their destination as Luxembourg, but none of them flew anywhere near Europe. Later flights from the same region did head toward Luxembourg, which is the home base of the company that operates the aircraft, Cargolux.

Cargolux, which is partially owned by a Chinese company, on Tuesday denied its planes entered Iranian airspace. The company blamed “faulty public tracking data” for creating the appearance of the planes surreptitiously flying into Iranian airspace.

All three of the planes were Boeing 747 cargo planes, which the Telegraph noted are “commonly used for transporting military equipment and weapons, and hired to fly government contract orders.”

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