Tag: china

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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Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Tighten US Ban on Chinese Vehicles

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation aimed at strengthening a U.S. government ban on Chinese automakers accessing the U.S. market, citing national security concerns.

Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) introduced the Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 on April 29, which would codify a Commerce Department rule that effectively bars all Chinese automakers from selling passenger vehicles in the United States and take other measures to block China from entering the U.S. light-duty market.

“The American auto industry is the backbone of the American industrial economy, we cannot afford to make the same mistakes globalists have made for decades and see these great American companies devastated by predatory and massively subsidized Chinese state enterprises hellbent on the destruction of our economy,” Moreno said in a statement.

“As Europe, Mexico, and others allow their markets to be overrun by Chinese predators, the U.S. must act before it’s too late. The answer is simple: Chinese vehicles can never be allowed into the U.S. market—the fate of the American auto industry and countless autoworkers depends on it.”

The legislation would ban internet-connected vehicles and related hardware and software tied to the Chinese regime or other foreign adversaries from being imported, manufactured, sold, or resold in the United States.

It would empower the Commerce Department to identify and block technologies or parts deemed national security threats from entering the U.S. market.

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US Has No Leverage Against China in Rare Earths Market – Expert

China holds all the cards when it comes to rare earth elements (REE) extraction, processing, and supply, Jeff J. Brown, China expert and founder of the Seek Truth From Facts Foundation, tells Sputnik.

Ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China, the nation’s Ministry of Natural Resources released data underscoring China’s achievements in the REE sector.

“China long ago did its homework and knew the value of REEs, across all sectors of science, technology, the space race, industry, manufacturing and military applictions,” Brown says. “They allocated huge resources to perfect not only extraction, but processing and downstream, discovering new sources underground.”

Presently, China controls 90% of the world’s REE processing and thus global supply chains and logisitcs. Moreover, the Chinese spent decades mastering techniques to achieve high-purity output at the lowest cost.

Why are REEs Important?

“REEs make the world go round,” Brown notes. “Without them, countries can’t build weapons, send astronauts into space, manufacture mobile phones, all kinds of electronic gadgetry, medical equipment, and thousands of other mundane to high-tech applications.”

The Chinese bet on the REE research – and it paid off, according to the pundit.

The West “sat on its hubristic laurels and did almost none of this,” using China as a reliable supplier.

Now the US is signing contracts worldwide to mine REE ore, but it’s struggling to catch up — the West remains far from becoming a high-volume processor on a par with China.

“The US has no real leverage at all, except the tired old playbook of boycotts, blockades, sanctions and tariffs,” Brown concludes.

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US Supreme Court weighs claims Cisco aided Chinese human rights abuses

The U.S. Supreme Court confronted a case on Tuesday with broad implications for human rights litigation in American courts, a long-running lawsuit brought by members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement who have accused Cisco Systems of facilitating religious persecution in China.

The justices heard arguments in Cisco’s appeal of a lower court’s 2023 ruling that breathed new life into the 2011 lawsuit, brought under the Alien Tort Statute of 1789, that accused the company of knowingly developing technology that allowed China’s government to surveil and persecute Falun Gong members.

The court has a 6-3 conservative majority, and some of its conservative justices signaled agreement with the stance taken by Kannon Shanmugam, the lawyer for Cisco, during the arguments.

San Jose, California-based Cisco urged the Supreme Court to further limit the scope of the Alien Tort Statute, which lets non-U.S. citizens seek damages in American courts for violations of international law. The court in a series of decisions since 2013 has restricted the law’s reach, making it more difficult to hold U.S. corporations legally liable for human rights abuses.

President Donald Trump’s administration sided with Cisco in the case.

Paul Hoffman, a lawyer for the Falun Gong plaintiffs, argued strenuously against Cisco’s views.

“Under Cisco’s theory, even the corporate actors who provided the poison gas for Nazi crematoria would not be liable” under the Alien Tort Statute, Hoffman told the justices.

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Report: Iran Using Russian and Chinese Technology to Improve Drone Accuracy

Defense analysts and security officials told The National on Monday that Iran is “relying on Chinese and Russian-made guidance chips” to improve the accuracy of its drone and missile attacks.

“Key to the advance is special computer chips designed for sophisticated navigation systems placed in Iran’s Shahed drones and its ballistic missiles,” the report said.

These chips allow Iran’s drones and ballistic missiles to employ Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) communications, which protect the attack vehicle from electronic jamming.

CRPA is an antenna system that skips rapidly between different frequencies and signal sources to defeat jamming attempts. Combined with refinements to the navigational software of a drone or missile, CRPA antennas help remotely-guided vehicles to operate in dense electronic warfare environments that would be overwhelming for less sophisticated communications systems.

CRPA only works if the remote vehicle has been equipped with very sophisticated electronics to handle inputs from multiple onboard antennas and external transmitters, adjusting on the fly to spoofing and jamming attacks.

According to The National’s report, the Iranians acquired such chips recently from its patrons in Russia and China and rapidly began upgrading its weapons, which allowed them to perform much better than the missiles and drones Iran launched at Israel in 2024. It also seems likely that Iran enjoyed targeting assistance from Russian satellites and ground stations this time around.

“CRPA allows drones and missiles to filter out jamming signals and lock onto genuine satellite data. That means they can stay on target even in heavily defended airspace. It’s a capability that, until recently, was largely confined to more advanced military powers,” a Western official told The National.

Other analysts pointed to Iran’s lucrative exchange of drone technology with Russia, during which Iran initially supplied Russia with huge numbers of its inexpensive Shahed kamikaze drones to overcome Ukraine’s advantage in drone warfare. The Russians later began building their own versions of the Shahed, with technological improvements, and sent some of the knockoffs back to Iran.

Durham University astrophysics professor Bleddyn Bowen noted that China may also be supplying Iran with access to the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), China’s version of the Global Positioning System (GPS). China’s version of GPS is much more accurate than Russia’s, which is known as Glonass.

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Did Biden Send the Bahamas Straight to Beijing?

Let’s take a little trip to the Bahamas and explore what a little Joe Biden-era neglect will get you.  

A little over a week ago, officials from the island nation broke ground for a new speciality hospital, calling it a “new era for healthcare.”  It’s supposed to take 30 to 36 months to complete. 

The project will sit on 50 acres on New Providence Highway in Nassau. The hospital will have 200 beds with “emergency and intensive care services, modern diagnostic labs, and even the country’s first national reference morgue,” which will ease pressure on nearby overcrowded facilities. It will also have have access to state-of-the-art technology and equipment that Health Minister Dr. Michael Darville says “will reduce the need for patients to seek care abroad, and it will allow our healthcare professionals to operate in an environment that supports the level of care that they’re trained to deliver.” 

Sounds like a good thing for the Bahamas, right?  

Maybe it would be if China wasn’t footing most of the bill. Because when China foots the bill, there are always more strings attached than last year’s tangled Christmas tree lights. The reality is that it’s more of the textbook debt-trap Chicom diplomacy that plagues the Western Hemisphere, only this time it’s happening in a nation that’s closest point is literally just 50 miles from Florida. Oh, and the Biden administration apparently just handed it over on a silver platter.   

The healthcare system in the Bahamas isn’t awful compared to some other similar nations, but it is no longer adequate enough for the aging population, and there is plenty of room to improve it. It’s overcrowded, people are often faced with long wait times, and it’s outdated with crumbling infrastructure and various equipment shortages. The Princess Margaret Hospital, which is currently the main facility in Nassau, was built in the 1950s. Patients often come to the United States for specific procedures, and nurses and other trained medical staff often move abroad to take better-paying jobs. 

So, back to this New Providence Specialty Hospital. The framework for a deal between the Bahamas and China was signed last summer, and in January of this year the loan was locked in. But, as China does, this wasn’t just a loan. 

It was a concessional loan, meaning the terms were soft: a 2% interest rate over a 20-year period, after a 5-year grace period with no interest. Often managed by the Export–Import Bank of China, these loans are handed out as an act of “goodwill” and diplomacy, but the reality is that China uses them to build its own infrastructure, exploit natural resources, and expand its geopolitical influence.   

And the Bahamas had to agree to more than just cash. First, the loan and any other financing is governed by Chinese law. That means any disputes must go to Beijing, not the Bahamas and not an international court. The country is essentially welcoming Chinese law onto its own soil, which could end up having a negative effect on its sovereignty down the line. 

Second, there’s a clause that says the state-owned China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd. must be the main contractor on the project. That company is currently on the United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)’s restricted investment list due its links to China’s military-industrial complex.    

Third, there’s a 50-50 labor clause, meaning that half of the workers on the project must be Chinese. 

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China Blocks Meta’s $2 Billion Acquisition of AI Startup Manus

The Chinese government has officially blocked Meta’s planned $2 billion acquisition of Manus, a Chinese-founded AI startup, marking a significant escalation in the ongoing technological rivalry between the United States and China.

CNBC reports that China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) foreign investment review arm issued a decision on Monday to block the sale of Manus to Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta. The regulatory body ordered all parties involved in the transaction to unwind the acquisition, effectively terminating the deal that was announced in late December.

Manus emerged as a prominent player in the AI sector when it launched in March of last year with an AI agent designed to autonomously perform complex tasks. These capabilities include writing research reports, preparing presentation slides, and building websites. The launch garnered significant attention from Chinese state media, which celebrated it as the country’s latest breakthrough AI product. This recognition came on the heels of Deepseek’s AI model launch, which had previously caused substantial fluctuations in major United States technology stocks.

Early versions of Manus were developed by Beijing Butterfly Effect Technology, a Chinese startup founded in 2022, according to the Wall Street Journal. Following its launch, the AI company made a strategic decision to relocate its headquarters and top engineers from Beijing to Singapore. This move aligned with a broader trend among Chinese AI firms seeking to navigate the complex geopolitical landscape between the United States and China. By establishing operations in Singapore, these companies believe they can circumvent some of the tensions between the two superpowers while gaining access to Western AI models and potential investors.

According to the Financial Times, the NDRC had initially approved Manus’ relocation to Singapore. However, complications arose when Meta and the startup failed to inform Chinese authorities before finalizing their acquisition agreement in December. This appears to have triggered the subsequent regulatory scrutiny and ultimate rejection of the deal.

The Chinese government’s response to the Meta-Manus transaction was swift and decisive. In January, mere days after the two companies publicly announced the acquisition, Chinese officials launched an investigation into potential national security concerns and possible export control violations. The probe intensified last month when the NDRC reportedly summoned the startup’s co-founders, Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao, to meet with its officials to discuss the acquisition details. Both co-founders were subsequently instructed not to leave China until the regulatory review concluded.

In a statement to Breitbart News, a Meta spokesperson wrote: “The transaction complied fully with applicable law. We anticipate an appropriate resolution to the inquiry.”

This regulatory intervention occurs against a backdrop of heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over advanced AI technologies. The timing is particularly notable as it comes just weeks before President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing for a summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The upcoming meeting takes place amid an ongoing trade war and escalating geopolitical tensions between the world’s two largest economies, with artificial intelligence emerging as a central battleground.

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Canada Joins US-Led Anti-China War Games

As the US blockades Iranian ships from sending oil to China, Canada’s military has sent a large force to join Washington’s effort to threaten that country. As Mark Carney calls US ties a “weakness”, Canada’s armed forces are quadrupling down on their US orientation.

Exercise BALIKATAN began Monday. Beijing views the massive US-led 19-day live-fire exercise across the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait as a threat. “Unilateralism and military bullying have already brought profound disasters to the world,” noted China’s foreign ministry spokesperson in response. Guo Jiakun added, “What the Asia-Pacific region most needs is peace and tranquillity. What it least needs is the introduction of external forces to create division and confrontation.”

This is the first time Canada has participated directly in the annual exercise. According to Canada’s ambassador in Manila, this country has dispatched the third largest deployment to the six-country exercise, which includes 10,000 US troops. According to the Canadian forces release, “Led by the United States and the Philippines, Exercise BALIKATAN will involve a broad range of CAF personnel and capabilities, including contributions from the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Air Force, the CAF Cyber Command, and the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command.”

HMCS Charlottetown is part of the exercise while 500 or more Canadian soldiers have traveled 10,000 kilometres to participate in this event.

As part of militaristic 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy, Canada has deepened ‘defense’ ties with the Philippines. Six months ago, the two countries signed a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement. A year before that they established a Defence Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding and Canada gave the Philippines access to its Dark Vessel Detection System, which employs satellite technology to track ships in the South China Sea.

These efforts are designed to assist the US in its military buildup. The Bongbong Marcos led Philippines has taken a sharp turn back towards the US and against China. According to China Military Online, “Since the Marcos administration resumed defense cooperation with the US in 2022, the US military has been systematically shaping the Philippines into a forward operational hub. This includes the addition of four new military sites, the deployment of the Typhon mid-range missile system, the construction of large, prepositioned ammunition depots, and the frequent conduct of joint military exercises. Taken together, these developments indicate that the US is seeking to turn the Philippines into a forward stronghold for containing its strategic competitors.”

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GOP-led Farm Bill Amendments Target Animal Tests in US, China, and Russia

New bipartisan amendments led by Republican lawmakers for the 2026 Farm Bill target USDA funding for animal tests in the U.S. and in adversarial nations, first uncovered by watchdog White Coat Waste.

The House Rules Committee is reviewing amendments now, and the full Farm Bill is expected to be voted on by the House during the week of April 27.

Two proposals submitted by Rep. Paul Gosar and cosponsored by Reps. Nancy Mace, Scott Perry, and Dina Titus would cut USDA funding for painful testing on dogs and cats, and prohibit the USDA from funding any animal tests “being conducted in, or performed in collaboration with” China, Russia, or other “countries of concern.”

The amendments result from White Coat Waste investigations in recent years that uncovered USDA funding for these kinds of animal tests and drew criticism and action from lawmakers and Trump Administration officials.

In 2024, White Coat Waste exposed USDA and National Institutes of Health funding for experiments at Cornell University that infected kittens with COVID and then killed them.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Senator Rand Paul featured the project in his Festivus waste report in 2024, citing White Coat’s work.

The USDA funding for Cornell’s COVID cat lab is set to run until May 31, 2026.

The group also uncovered USDA funding for deadly kitten testing at Auburn University.

The proposed Farm Bill amendment to defund foreign adversaries’ animal labs also follows a White Coat Waste investigation exposing how the Biden USDA funded a $1 million bird flu gain-of-function collaboration with Chinese researchers affiliated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its CCP-controlled parent organization.

The grant drew scrutiny from Senator Joni Ernst and Rep. Ben Cline, and, as Gateway Pundit previously reported, last year, Trump’s Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins cut funding for this dangerous animal research project and ended it early.

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