ExclusiveWhy Lawmakers Urge Americans to Ditch This Chinese Wi-Fi Router

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Alice Tang, in for Tiffany Meyer, our top story. Lawmakers and experts are calling on Americans to ditch Wi-Fi routers made by a Chinese brand called TP-Link. Warn why they say this top-selling router is a threat the U.S. cannot ignore. By having these routers in your home, you are exposing the attack surface of the U.S. critical infrastructure. A push to cut American reliance on China has cleared the house. The chamber just passed a bill aiming to block DHS from buying Chinese batteries. Is a former MEDA employee blowing the whistle on the social media giant? Xi alleged MEDA considered sharing user data with communist China in order to win Beijing's approval and enter the Chinese market. And Missouri's Attorney General is sending a signal to China. He plans to go after all Chinese assets in the U.S. in order to collect a $24 billion debt. That amount awarded to the state by a recent lawsuit victory. More on the details. Before we dive into today's top story, we'd like to share an important update. You can now catch China In Focus on Ganjing World every Tuesday instead of YouTube. To watch, simply click the link in the description box below, or search China In Focus at ganjingworld.com. Have you ever used a Wi-Fi router from a Chinese brand called TP-Link? The company makes some of the best-selling Wi-Fi routers at Best Buy. Now, experts and lawmakers are calling on Americans to ditch these routers, saying they could give China backdoor access to data and even allow it to cripple U.S. communications. NTD's Juliet Song has more on that. Rob Joyce is the former director of cybersecurity at the National Security Agency, the intelligence arm of the Pentagon. He testified that TP-Link routers provide the backdoor for China to hack U.S. critical infrastructure. The concern is the Chinese cyber operations need to come all the way from China out to their victims in the U.S., the critical infrastructure inside the U.S. And most of our cyber defenders know that when something knocks on their front digital door from China, they need to look at it very closely. But by hacking these Wi-Fi routers, they can come through the Internet, emerge in our homes and our businesses, and then move onward to those targets and have a much better reputation, because it looks like work from home or it looks like the connections they would expect from their customers. So they can't block those. Joyce noted it's a threat that Americans cannot ignore. So by having these routers in your home, you are exposing the attack surface of the U.S. critical infrastructure. He added these routers can become seeds for sowing panic in American society. The FBI has warned state-backed Chinese hackers have been planting malware inside U.S. power grids, pipelines and water treatment plants, waiting to deal a devastating blow to the U.S. when time is right. Right now, TP-Link routers have cornered over 60 percent of the U.S. market. The Defense Department and other federal government agencies also use it. Chinese hackers have used compromised TP-Link routers to launch cyber attacks in the U.S. Imagine these routers in the homes and businesses across America as a PRC platform to launch society panicking cyber attacks during the invasion of Taiwan. TP-Link denies posing a risk to U.S. national security. The House-elect China Committee has pushed the Commerce Department to investigate TP-Link. Juliet Song, NTD News. It's not just about Wi-Fi routers. Chinese-made batteries are also in the spotlight. A new House bill just passed Monday, aiming to cut reliance on these batteries. Congressman Carlos Gimenez introduced the measure. As it stands, Communist China produces approximately 80 percent of the world's batteries and roughly 70 percent of the world's lithium-ion batteries. This dependence puts U.S. supply chains at risk and threatens our national security. Our government should not be spending tax dollars to produce batteries, to procure batteries from companies that profit from slave labor or provide another avenue for the CCP to expand their surveillance apparatus here in the United States. The bill is titled Decoupling from Foreign Adversarial Battery Dependence Act. It restricts the Department of Homeland Security from purchasing batteries linked to the Chinese Communist Party-controlled companies. The bill passed the House on a bipartisan basis. The measure targets companies like CATL, BYD, and others accused of human rights abuses and security risks. Lawmakers described it as a crucial step in reducing U.S. reliance on China. They say it will help protect national security. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it's expected to gain bipartisan support. Also in the House, the Chinese regime's persecution of faith, specifically the meditation practice Falun Gong, took center stage on Monday. Senator Rick Scott joined colleagues in announcing the reintroduction of the Falun Gong Protection Act. The measure seeks to impose sanctions on individuals involved in forced organ harvesting, especially those targeting Falun Gong practitioners. This bill requires the Secretary of State to report to Congress on organ transplant policies and practices of the Chinese Communist Party. It also prohibits U.S. collaboration with the CCP on organ transplants while China's communist regime remains in power. Senators Ted Cruz, Roger Marshall, Ron Johnson, Mike Rounds, and Tom Tillis are co-sponsors in the Senate. Senator Rick Scott called the Communist Party one of the worst human rights abusers in the world. Senator Ted Cruz called the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners an attack on religious freedom and human rights. A former META employee is releasing a book. The title claims to be an inside look at the workings of the company formerly known as Facebook. The former employee, Sarah Wynn Williams, shared a Security and Exchange Commission filing with the Washington Post. It alleged that Facebook went to great lengths to win the approval of the Chinese Communist Party in order to gain a foothold in the Chinese market. She claimed the company was willing to censor content, share user data, and more. NTD's Sean Marshall has more details. A former executive at Facebook's parent company META Platforms has accused the company and CEO Mark Zuckerberg of a major effort to grow Facebook's presence in China. She alleges that the company was willing to censor user content and offer the regime access to user data in an attempt to curry favor with the Chinese Communist Party. That's just part of a 78-page whistleblower complaint by Sarah Wynn Williams, META's former Global Policy Director for China. She filed the complaint with the SEC in April and shared it with the Washington Post. The Post reports that according to Wynn Williams, Facebook developed a China-specific censorship system in 2015 and proposed installing a chief editor to manage and potentially shut down the content during periods of social unrest. The Post reports that Wynn Williams also claims that Facebook was prepared to give the Chinese Communist Party oversight of all Facebook content in China and store user data locally, making it more accessible to surveillance by the Chinese regime. META is defending itself publicly. Andy Stone, communications director at META says that the Washington Post failed to publish META's response in its entirety. It reads in full, this is all pushed by an employee terminated eight years ago for poor performance. We do not operate our services in China today. It is no secret we were once interested in doing so as part of Facebook's effort to connect the world. This was widely reported beginning a decade ago. We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we'd explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019. Wynn Williams is releasing a book, Careless People, A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism on Tuesday. The book's overview, published on the Barnes & Noble website, says the book gives you a front row seat to Facebook and is an eye-opening memoir that reveals what really goes on among the global elite. The book alleges that the plan to develop a version of Facebook specifically for China was called Project Aldrin, after astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the first to land a manned spacecraft on the moon. Sean Marshall, NTD News. Something to note, NTD has been demonetized by META for years. Missouri says it will collect every penny from China to recoup the 24 billion dollars it's owed after a lawsuit win. The state's Attorney General Andrew Bailey said on Monday that he's eyeing any China-owned assets, not just the ones on Missouri's soil. Some experts raise concerns that Bailey's plan could face legal actions and challenges. Missouri won a landmark case suing China over its mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic last week, after the China side failed to show up in court. The lawsuit targets the regime's failure to share critical information, which worsened the spread of the pandemic. China also obstructed exports of preventative goods like medical masks and stockpiled them for itself. When the outbreak emerged, Attorney General Andrew Bailey warned that he will move to seize China-owned assets, including farmland, and that his office will seek help from the Trump administration if necessary. He also said in a statement on Monday that those assets are not required to be located within Missouri. They can be anywhere in the U.S. He also encouraged other states to take legal action if they believe the Chinese regime has undermined their interests. Two analysts say the chance of Missouri claiming Chinese assets are slim. They voiced doubts whether a state has authority to hold foreign countries accountable. China's foreign ministry dismissed the ruling this week and threatened retaliation. Whether Missouri succeeds collecting the China money or not, the case has already sent a strong signal to other states. Over $3 million worth of fake designer jewelry seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. The package was en route from China to Puerto Rico. It contains over 600 pieces of counterfeit jewelry made to resemble those from luxury brands Van Cleef and Arpels. The CBP official said even though buying counterfeit goods from China may seem like a bargain, it often fuels criminal enterprises involved in money laundering. CBP calls on Americans to recognize the red flags, one of them being, if a price seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Coming up, ties are growing between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. We tap an expert from one concrete step this administration can take to counter the growing partnership and defend against top adversaries. First prerequisite is that the U.S. fix its defense supply chain manufacturing delays and expense overruns. Beijing says its third highest communist party leader is infected with a respiratory disease. That's in response to the official's absence from key political meetings. We have the details. And bad news for China's economy. Consumer prices in the country plunging to their lowest level in over a year. More on the country's deflation problems in just a minute, here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Alice Tang, in for Tiffany Meyer. From communist regimes to authoritarian countries in the Middle East, the U.S. is working to counter the emergence of a How should President Trump strategize to dismantle the alliance between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea? To discuss, NTD's Malina Weisskopf spoke with Steve Yates, Senior Research Fellow on China and National Security at the Heritage Foundation. He's also a former Deputy National Security Advisor at the White House. All right, Steve, thanks for joining us today. Great to have you on the show, as always. We've heard from President Trump's envoy, Keith Kellogg, about a growing bond between Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea, which caused a global problem. From your perspective, Steve, how coordinated is this alliance? Well, with regard to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it's been very coordinated. There's been sanctions busting activities from the very beginning. There's been material assistance, and there's been personnel that have gone from places like We're going to cross the Eurasian landmass to be involved in combat operations in that theater. So it's definitely something that has taken notice, and it's a concern. I think that the anecdote to it, though, is positive things being done among true, responsible stakeholders, and we've got some work to do on that front, especially with our European allies. Now, a key part of Trump's strategy here is trying to unlink these countries. How much do you see that succeeding based on the progress that you've seen so far? So far, I don't think there's been very much progress on that front. In part, there hasn't really been any kind of penalty paid by, say, China for giving significant material assistance to Russia throughout this entire war. So that's part of a whole toolbox full of things that the President needs to take up with Xi Jinping when they have their dialogue that will come in the not-too-distant future. So I think that's more of a long-term project to try to pull apart the axis that's there, especially Russia and China. But I think in the near term, it's much, much more important that we bolster deterrence among our allies and their independent capabilities in all these theaters. Some progress in the Middle East, some progress in East Asia. I think, as I said, Europe is more of the work in progress. So like you just mentioned, it's important to display deterrence. So with that, based on your experience, what's one concrete step this administration could take to counter the axis? Well, absolutely first prerequisite is that the U.S. fix its defense supply chain manufacturing delays and expense overruns. So we have allies in real need who are ready to pay for deterrent capability that they would use independently that would ease America's burden in many ways and stimulate our economy in some ways, but it would be good for these deterrence equations. And I think first and foremost, that's what Doge and the new leadership have to work on. And I think that would make a tremendous positive contribution to our allies. And today, the South Korean and U.S. militaries began an annual joint training called Freedom Shield with North Korea responding by firing missiles into the sea. Now with China looming large in that region, how significant is this message sent by the U.S. commitment to these drills? Well, especially with the political turbulence going on in South Korea, I think it's really important to send a strong positive message that the U.S.-South Korean alliance remains stable, strong, and forward-looking. The North Korean missile launches and other kinds of acting out activities, unfortunately, that is part of a pattern that has happened over the years. Whenever we've had joint military exercises, there'll be things that are kind of burps and giggles that come out of North Korea. Of course, we should take it seriously, not as I just intimated, but at the same time, this is just part of the noise that comes in the system. And I think that we have to continue to work to reassure our allies and show that we're going to continue these bolstering activities. Otherwise, China sees real advantage to push. Now, just for a moment, Steve, I want to talk about Chinese espionage. The FBI last week arrested two U.S. soldiers accused of selling military secrets to buyers in China. What do the details about this case tell us about China's espionage strategy targeting our military? Well, number one, it just proves that that effort is alive and well. It is comprehensive, that they seek and have succeeded in compromising a lot of our institutions, including military and national security elements of our government. Many decades ago, it was looked at as nuclear research and design plans for weapons systems, but the human intelligence compromise is significant. Fundamentally, I think the U.S. government has to begin spending much more resources surveilling those who have security clearances to make sure that we're protecting our national secrets, instead of overspending on background checks before people get in. It's much more damaging to us what they do when they have the access than it is to spend so much to comb over what the people did from high school through college. That's the mismatch we've had. Now, Steve, as for cybersecurity, thousands of accounts with suspected links to the Chinese Communist Party have been removed by the social media platform X over the past month. What should everyday Americans know about the CCP's influence efforts in the West? Well, we were talking about the human intelligence challenge with these folks that have been rolled up in a defense controversy, but the cyber attacks on the United States and the information warfare that they've engaged in on platforms like X, but not limited to X, are very, very significant. So I think that's a positive move that the management of X has found ways to find these dummy and Tencent Army kind of accounts and pull them back. That's been something that's been a long time coming. It's allowed an open door for those who actually hate free speech and don't practice it on their own to pollute and manipulate free speech and free societies. And so I think we've got to step in the right direction, but a long way to go for these systemic challenges we have. Now, the Trump administration is actively negotiating with four parties to buy TikTok. How can officials make sure the transition of ownership addresses the original national security concerns that Congress was trying to address when they wrote that law? Well, I see some incremental moves to try to deal with the ownership issue of the ByteDance's relationship with TikTok operating in the United States. Of course, that ownership issue is only one part of the problem. You know, where the algorithm goes, having airtight, verifiable data security is very important. Not having an algorithm manipulating a generation of American youth that should be employable, active recruits for a military or innovators in private sector economy. The challenge of what TikTok is doing is broader than what I think these measures will address. But the ownership issue, I think, is the first step. Deadline is approaching. I have no way to see whether they're going to meet the deadline. I'm actually troubled that there might be some wobbliness as that deadline approaches. But we'll just have to wait and see what comes out. President Trump is a dealmaker. We'll see whether a deal is to be had. All right. We're going to be watching that closely. Thank you so much for joining us today, Steve, as always. Great to have you on the show. My pleasure. Thank you. And the Chinese regime just wrapped up its most important annual conference, the two sessions. The Chinese Communist Party's third highest ranking official, Zhao Leji, was absent from its conclusion ceremony. A deputy official under him said Zhao couldn't make the meetings because of respiratory infections. Zhao reportedly missed multiple meetings during the two sessions, prompting questions about whether his absence is linked to internal struggles within the Communist Party. The news also comes as eyewitnesses report from residents across China detail rising infections and deaths. Frontline doctors are warning about several viruses surging inside the country, including the influenza A, H1N1 virus, monkeypox, HMPV and H5N1 bird flu in humans, a highly lethal flu strain. Recently, Chinese official accounts, eyewitnesses and whistleblowers working inside China's medical supply chains have all pointed to a rising number of bird flu infections in humans. Deflation pressure is deepening in China. The economy continues to get weighed down by weak consumer spending, uncertain employment and a prolonged property sector downturn. Let's dive in. Now, its consumer prices have plunged to their lowest in more than a year. The Consumer Price Index, a benchmark for measuring inflation, dipped 0.7% last month from the previous year. The drop is partially because the Lunar New Year holiday, which boosts fell in January this year. The country's core CPI, which excludes volatile prices like food and fuel, also declined. The economy is also being squeezed internationally as the U.S. escalates a trade war on China, which has long relied on exports to drive growth. That's all for today's China In Focus. I'm Alice Tang, in for Tiffany Meyer. If you have any feedback on the show or have something you'd like to see us cover, send us an email at chinainfocus at ntd.com. We love to hear from you. For round-the-clock original news coverage, visit us at ntd.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you soon.