Tag: china

US War Department To Shift Focus From China To ‘Threats’ In Latin America

US War Department officials are proposing to shift the US military posture away from a focus on China, instead prioritizing alleged threats in Latin America and the Caribbean, Politicoreported on 6 Saturday.

A draft of the newest National Defense Strategy places “domestic and regional missions above countering adversaries such as Beijing and Moscow,” Politico revealed, citing three people briefed on early versions of the report.

The news comes one day after Trump signed an executive order for the Department of Defense to be renamed the “War Department” to better reflect its mission.

Politico notes that the move, if implemented, would anger politicians in both the Republican and Democratic parties who have long been hostile to China and called for aggressive policies to counter its rise.

“This is going to be a major shift for the US and its allies on multiple continents,” said one person briefed on the draft document. “The old, trusted US promises are being questioned.”

The document was prepared by Elbridge Colby, the War Department’s policy chief. Politico reports that the shift away from China and toward the Western Hemisphere appears to be already underway.  

The War Department deployed thousands of National Guard troops to support police in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, and has established a militarized zone across the southern border with Mexico that allows troops to detain civilians.

The policy shift may also result in the US withdrawing some troops from Europe and cutting military assistance programs for fellow NATO members.

“NATO allies increasingly expect some of the roughly 80,000 U.S. troops in Europe to leave over the next several years,” Politico added.

The proposed policy shift comes amid escalating tensions between the US and Venezuela.

This week, Trump authorized the US military to shoot down Venezuelan warplanes if commanders judge them a threat to US naval and air forces in the Caribbean. “If they do put us in a dangerous position, we’ll shoot them down,” Trump told reporters Friday.

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US Credibility At Stake In The Senkakus

On May 3, Japanese Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets scrambled from Okinawa in response to a helicopter that took off from a Chinese Coast Guard vessel in an apparent territorial defense posture. The helicopter wasn’t near a port or any of Japan’s 430 inhabited islands. It was flying near the Senkaku Islands.

Long administered by Japan, and recognized by the U.S. as Japanese territory, the Senkakus have emerged as a flash point in the increasingly confrontational Japan-China relationship and the broader U.S.-China competition.

Far from a quarrel over empty rocks, the Senkaku Islands dispute resides at the volatile intersection of China’s rising nationalism, Japan’s strategic vulnerability, and, critically, America’s alliance credibility.

What’s Really at Stake for China

While control of the islands could marginally strengthen China’s anti-access/area-denial (A2AD) posture and expand its Exclusive Economic Zone, the real driver of China’s policy is rooted in its broader goal of undermining the U.S.-led alliance system in Asia. This effort is a critical step in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) pursuit of a grand strategy bent on achieving regional hegemony and ultimately displacing the United States as the world’s leading superpower.

Despite a long and bitter history between Japan and China, the Senkaku Islands, named the Diaoyu Islands in China, were a peripheral issue until 2012. That year, Japan nationalized three of the Senkaku islands by purchasing them from a private owner in an attempt to prevent their development by a hardline Japanese governor. Instead of diffusing tensions, the move led to anti-Japanese protests across China and elevated the islands to a matter of national pride.

But the protests were not a spontaneous outpouring of long simmering anti-Japanese sentiment triggered by the nationalization of three barren rocks; they were state enabled. In a country where public demonstrations are suppressed, the CCP allowed and encouraged widespread displays of outrage. By letting nationalism flare, Beijing cloaked its ensuing policy shift towards the islands it defines as “inalienable“ parts of its territory as a reaction to public sentiment rather than a calculated assertion of power and a component of their strategic ambitions.

That China’s policy shift towards the islands occurred in 2012 was no coincidence. An increasingly self-assured China perceived the U.S. as weakened, viewing the post-2008 Global Financial Crisis shock to U.S. economic power as a strategic opening. And with rising confidence in their military and economic power, the CCP, under the new leadership of Xi Jinping, began shedding its decades long “hide and bide“ strategy in favor of a more aggressive foreign policy with a mandate to “actively accomplish something.”

For China, the Senkaku dispute is less about the intrinsic value of eight uninhabited rocks than about the future of the regional order. China knows that if it can erode Japan’s ability to control the islands without triggering a U.S. response, America’s security guarantees would appear flimsy and negotiable. Beijing’s ultimate Senkaku Islands objective, then, is to expose the vulnerabilities of the U.S.-Japan alliance and thus weaken a cornerstone of American power in Asia. For China to achieve national rejuvenation, it must erode the system of U.S. alliances that stands in its way.

How China Applies Pressure: A Campaign of Attrition

Since 2012, China has transformed the Senkaku Islands dispute from a dormant issue into a calibrated campaign of coercion. China’s incremental pressure strategy aims at weakening Japan’s control and eroding confidence in the U.S.-Japan alliance.

At sea, China relies on constant presence operations. In 2023, Chinese government vessels entered the contiguous zone around the Senkaku Islands on 352 out of 365 days—the highest number since record-keeping began in 2008, according to data from the Japan Coast Guard. Additionally, Chinese Maritime Militia boats often harass Japanese fishermen and shadow Japan Coast Guard patrols.

The PLA Navy (PLAN) has also ramped up its footprint. China’s destroyers, cruisers, and surveillance ships conduct regular patrols near the islands, mapping the battlespace and normalizing their presence. Now the world’s largest navy, PLAN operations are becoming more frequent and more complex.

In the air, Beijing declared an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea in 2013, encompassing the Senkakus. While ignored by the U.S. and Japan, the ADIZ signaled China’s intent to claim the airspace as its own. The PLA Air Force (PLAAF) now regularly flies J-11 fighters, H-6K bombers, and UAVs near the islands, prompting Japan to scramble jets hundreds of times per year.

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Sanctuary Rescuing 47 Beagles from Chinese Testing Lab

In a daring and costly mission dubbed Operation Freedom Fetchers, Wyoming’s Kindness Ranch Animal Sanctuary has begun the process of rescuing 47 beagles from a research facility in China — dogs believed to be connected to American-owned or funded experiments.

The first group of ten beagles touched down in Los Angeles on August 25, after a grueling flight from Shanghai, a night at a Centers for Disease Control quarantine facility, and a 20-hour van ride to the sanctuary in Hartville, Wyoming.

For sanctuary director John Ramer, the moment was bittersweet.

“This isn’t just about ten dogs. It’s about exposing the secrecy and cruelty of billion-dollar institutions that profit off the suffering of man’s best friend,” he said in a Facebook post.

Ramer first learned of the beagles in May, when a contact at the group White Coat Waste alerted him to their plight and connected him with others involved in the rescue attempt. After securing video proof and documentation, Kindness Ranch agreed to take on the challenging and costly rescue.

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Fentanyl Financiers: Treasury Links Mexican Banks and Chinese Networks to Cartel Money Laundering

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is stepping up its efforts to identify the ways that drug cartels move their funds. Most recently, Treasury officials identified the presence of Chinese money laundering networks that are working with Mexican drug cartels and other criminal entities to move large sums of cash.

In a series of notices from the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, authorities warned financial institutions about the methods that criminal organizations are using to launder money. According to FinCEN, investigators reviewed 137,153 Bank Secrecy Act reports from 2020 to 2024, identifying $312 billion in suspicious transactions tied to Chinese money laundering networks.

Of significant concern to FinCEN is the apparent ties between Mexican drug cartels and Chinese money laundering groups. The report comes just weeks after FinCEN and the U.S. Treasury sanctioned two Mexican banks and one brokerage firm that they alleged had been laundering money for various drug cartels and had also been helping funnel money into China to pay for fentanyl precursors, Breitbart Texas reported at the time.

The ties between drug cartels and Chinese groups are fueled in part by currency laws in both Mexico and China, which limit the amount of U.S. dollars that can be deposited and moved in Mexico, as well as China’s control of international currency within its country. Treasury officials claim that money laundering groups from China buy U.S. dollars from drug cartels and then sell them further ahead to Chinese individuals or businesses who are trying to evade China’s cash control laws.

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China Capitalism Myth: CCP Controls Companies, Capital, and Stock Market

China apologists often claim that China is no longer communist, but such claims are complete nonsense, reflecting an incredibly selective and superficial analysis of what the reality is in China. For one thing, the ruling party is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). And the name was not chosen arbitrarily. It is a communist country.

Apart from the CCP, there are 8 minor parties, but these parties have to concede to the ruling role of the CCP, meaning it would technically be illegal for one of them to plan or even suggest that they should replace the CCP as the ruling party. So politically, China is 100% communist.

As for the economic system, with the state controlling more than half of all companies, it can hardly be considered capitalist.

Most media and many economists mistakenly claim that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls only a limited share of the economy, citing the percentage of firms directly owned by the state. But focusing narrowly on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) hides the much broader reality: state control extends through multiple layers of ownership, networks, and connections, reaching the majority of China’s corporate sector.

Of 40 million registered firms in China, about 391,000 are 100% state-owned (SOEs), 629,000 are at least 30 percent state-owned, and nearly 867,000 have some level of state ownership. Altogether, the capital of firms with state stakes accounted for about 68 percent of the economy in 2017.

State owned firms can own significant shares in other firms, extending the states reach. Scholars have identified 978,609 firms within three degrees of separation from an SOE and more than 3.5 million firms indirectly tied through joint ventures. Among the top 1,000 private owners in China, 78 percent are state-connected, 63 percent directly and 14 percent indirectly.

If mixed-ownership models are included, where SOEs hold a 30 percent stake or maintain indirect equity ties, the total number of state-connected firms ranges from 600,000 to 3.5 million. SOEs also use enterprise groups to spin off subsidiaries, list them on stock exchanges, and bring in private capital while retaining state control.

This state dominance has accelerated. Between 2000 and 2019, the number of private owners directly connected to the state nearly tripled, while indirect connections grew even faster. By 2022, 71 percent of Chinese companies on the Fortune 500 list were state-owned, rising to 84 percent by asset size. By 2021, 54% of China’s largest firms were state owned.

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Reuters Withdraws Xi, Putin Longevity Video After China State TV Pulls Legal Permission to Use It

Reuters News on Friday withdrew a four-minute video containing an exchange between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese lead Xi Jinping discussing the possibility that humans can live to 150 years old, after China state TV demanded its removal and withdrew the legal permission to use it.

The footage, which included the open mic exchange from the military parade in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, was licensed by the China state television network, China Central Television (CCTV).

The clips were edited by Reuters into a four-minute video and distributed to more than 1,000 global media clients including major international news broadcasters and TV stations around the world. Other news agency licensees of CCTV also distributed edits of the footage.

Reuters removed the video from its website and issued a “kill” order to its clients on Friday after receiving a written request from CCTV’s lawyer. The letter said the news agency exceeded usage terms of its agreement. The letter further criticized Reuters “editorial treatment applied to this material” but did not specify details.

Reuters said in a statement that it withdrew the videos because it no longer held the legal permission to publish this copyrighted material.

Representatives of CCTV and CCTV’s global arm, China Global Television Network, did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The video and story of the Xi and Putin exchange were widely shared by broadcasters and on social media globally.

“The editorial treatment applied to this material has resulted in a clear misrepresentation of the facts and statements contained within the licensed feed,” wrote HE Danning, legal supervisor of CCTV News Agency, in the letter to Reuters on Friday.

“We stand by the accuracy of what we published,” Reuters said in its statement. “We have carefully reviewed the published footage, and we have found no reason to believe Reuters longstanding commitment to accurate, unbiased journalism has been compromised.”

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Pentagon-Funded Research Supported Chinese Military Projects, House Report Finds

A congressional investigation has revealed the Chinese regime exploited U.S. universities to collaborate on hundreds of defense projects funded by American taxpayers, including some blacklisted by the U.S. government due to ties to the Chinese military.

The report, released on Sept. 5 by House Republicans on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), builds on a 2024 investigation by Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and former House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.).

It found that hundreds of millions in U.S. federal research funding over the past decade have aided China’s technological and military advancements.

“American taxpayer dollars should be used to defend the nation—not strengthen its foremost strategic competitor,” the report said.

The report identified over 1,400 research publications linked to Department of Defense (DOD)-funded projects with Chinese partners, valued at more than $2.5 billion in taxpayer funds. Approximately 800—over half—involved direct collaboration with defense entities of the Chinese state.

It urges limiting U.S. research collaboration with China and supports new legislation by Moolenaar to block DOD funding for projects involving Chinese entities flagged as security risks by the U.S. government.

The report highlighted several case studies posing significant national security risks.

One project—funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Army Research Office (ARO), and NASA—involved researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Beihang University.

Shanghai Jiao Tong is overseen by China’s State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), the agency managing the defense industry. Beihang, part of China’s “Seven Sons of National Defence” linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), was added to the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List in 2001 for its involvement in rocket systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, deemed a threat to U.S. national security.

Another project on thin film research, funded by the DOD’s Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, involved Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of Arkansas, the University of Science and Technology of China, and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). HIT, also a “Seven Sons of National Defence” university, operates a SASTIND-overseen lab researching advanced materials and welding for military applications, including spaceflight, aircraft carriers, and nuclear submarines, in collaboration with the state-owned Ansteel Group.

The Select Committee’s report reveals major issues with DOD Research & Engineering (R&E). For example, it failed to update its risk framework or enforcement, listing only a few of China’s known talent programs and defense labs on the 1286 List, despite many more being identified. Additionally, there have been no follow-ups to ensure that grants comply with safety rules, even when risks are flagged.

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US State Dept employee sentenced to 4 years for selling defense information

A U.S. State Department employee was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday for conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information to individuals he believed to be working for China’s government, the Justice Department said.

Michael Schena, 42, of Alexandria, Virginia, worked at State Department headquarters in Washington. He held a top secret security clearance and had access to information up to the secret level, the Justice Department said.

Beginning in April 2022, Schena communicated with people he met online through various platforms and provided them sensitive U.S. government information in exchange for money, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Two of these individuals represented themselves as employees of international consulting companies, the Justice Department said. Believing that they were working on behalf of China’s government, Schena continued his relationship with them, the Justice Department said.

In August 2024, Schena met an individual at a hotel in Peru who provided Schena $10,000 and a cellphone that was intended to be used for Schena to receive tasks and transmit information, prosecutors said.

In October 2024, while at work, Schena used the cellphone he received in Peru to photograph and transmit at least four classified documents that contained national defense information and which were classified as secret,according to prosecutors.

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FBI, DEA and others target international drug conspiracy affecting the Tri-State

They say it was enough fentanyl to kill 70 million people.

The feds announced in Cincinnati on Wednesday the breakup of an international drug ring. FBI Director Kash Patel was in Cincinnati for the announcement.

Operation Box Cutter yielded three arrests and the indictments of 22 foreign nationals and four companies in China. The particulars of the operation were disclosed at the FBI’s Cincinnati field office.

“We’re done playing whack-a-mole,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.

He stood with the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and the DEA, describing how the team unraveled a complex web that was an international drug ring.

“We didn’t just arrest a couple of people,” said Patel. “We charged an enterprise-wide system in mainland China to include dozens of individuals in banks and companies that are responsible for making these lethal precursors and shipping them here. And you should ask yourself this: what other country in the world has a fentanyl crisis? None. Just us.”

Because of that, Patel says the feds focused on the companies that make the drugs used to cut fentanyl. They are based in Hebei and Guangzhou, China, shipping the drugs via U.S. Mail and other standard carriers to Tipp City, just north of Dayton. The drugs are used to mix with fentanyl, increasing the yield multiple times, without losing the potency of the drugs.

“Two were arrested recently in Dayton by our FBI SWAT team. And the third is in another state, and we are coordinating their arrest. So through the investigations, we have seized multiple kilograms of cocaine, methamphetamine, metatomidine, and other drugs,” said Elena Iatarola, the Special Agent in Charge at the FBI Cincinnati Field Office.

Local 12 went to the websites of a couple of the companies indicted. They are still online selling the same drugs to anyone who will buy them. The U.S. Attorney was asked how he expected this to dent the drug distribution network if there is no way to extradite those responsible in China.

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Bipartisan bill targets nitazenes: Synthetic opioids 40 times stronger than fentanyl

A new bipartisan bill is aiming to stop the spread of nitazenes, a deadly synthetic opioid that’s 40 times stronger than fentanyl and already causing a new wave of overdose deaths.

The two lawmakers spearheading the bill, Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., and Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash., both of whom took to social media to lobby for the legislation.

These drugs are the next fentanyl: cheap to make, easy to traffic, and devastating families across America,” Vindman wrote on ‘X.’ “This threat won’t wait, neither can we,” Baumgartner also posted.

While speaking with Dr. Shravani Durbhakula about nitazenes last fall, she told The National News Desk the synthetic opioids were first detected in the U.S. over five years ago. The most common form, five to nine times stronger than fentanyl. But others could be up to 40 times more potent. All are resistant to Narcan.

They were developed in the 1950s and the 1960s but they were not approved by the FDA because of how potent they actually are. They quickly make people stop breathing. Sedate them,” said Durbhakula.

This year, the U.S. is seeing a rise in nitazene overdose deaths. A map put together by the New York Post showed the areas most affected, which span from New Mexico to Virginia. Drug Enforcement Administration Houston Division Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Pullen recently told the Post, just as authorities in the U.S. and China increased efforts to tackle the surge in fentanyl, drug manufacturers shifted production to nitazenes.

I do think we are behind the curve. But that’s been the case with these synthetic opioids — that they shift,” Pullen said.

According to Pullen, nitazenes are produced in China, often with the help of Mexican cartels who then move north across the border. But although the federal government is making headway to tackle the threat, including President Trump’s border crackdown, more work needs to be done.

It’s very very difficult to stay ahead of it, so we’ve got to continue to step up our enforcement along the border,” said Pullen.

In addition to increased border security, the Trump administration has also hit China and Mexico with sanctions and tariffs to force foreign governments to act against illicit drug producers.

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