ExclusiveLegal Fights Cast Uncertainty Over US Tariffs

Welcome to China In Focus, I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. The Trump administration is back in court. Locked in another legal battle over tariffs. Could a judge put the sweeping duties on hold? China's factory output just saw its sharpest drop in years. Meanwhile. U.S. steel and aluminum prices are spiking after Trump moved to double tariffs on both. Two men facing up to 40 years behind bars for allegedly smuggling U.S. missiles and drones to China and spying on overseas Chinese dissidents. More on the case. Harvard has been a training ground for rising Chinese Communist Party officials and sometimes their family members for decades. Now U.S. leaders are sounding alarms over national security risks. And French President Emmanuel Macron issuing a stern warning to China. North Korea's backing of Russia and Ukraine could draw NATO into Asia. Before we dive into today's headlines, a special announcement. This Wednesday, June 4th, China In Focus brings you an exclusive look at the U.S.-China trade dispute 36 years after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. How did that bloody clampdown shape today's global economy? And what does it signal for the future of U.S.-China relations? Here's a quick preview. As world markets watch the current trade truce between the U.S. and China, talks of China opening up are cropping up again. It's a phrase with echoes in the past. What happened the last time major calls for economic reform, even government reform, rang out inside China? What took place that fateful day that is still remembered around the world but silenced inside China? Join us to see if global trade is under the shadow of 1989 only on NTD. New developments on the U.S.-China trade front. The Trump administration is asking a federal appeals court to pause a ruling blocking its emergency tariffs. This follows a lawsuit by two U.S. toymakers who say the tariffs would cause them serious damage. And a low-record judge agreed last week. NTD's Dana Monahan has the latest on the legal fight and where U.S.-China trade talks stand. The Monday filing argued that halting the tariffs would harm trade talks with other nations and make the tariffs seem like less of a serious threat. Last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that two American family-owned toy companies, learning resources and hand-to-mind, would be irreparably harmed by President Trump's tariffs. The judge also said the law Trump used to put most of the tariffs in place, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, doesn't actually include anything about allowing tariffs. In another case, a specialized trade court ruled last week that Trump went too far when he used emergency powers to impose broad tariffs. A federal appeals court put that decision on hold, temporarily giving Trump back the power to use those tariffs under the law. Tensions between the U.S. and China are heating up again. President Trump says China totally violated a 90-day trade deal made last month, mainly over Beijing's export controls on critical minerals, materials key to the auto and defense industries. China pushed back, accusing the U.S. of breaking the deal instead. White House officials say Trump and Chinese Communist leader Xi could speak this week. China corners the market on critical minerals processing, and the controls mean that rare earth magnets needed for critical automotive components could slow or stop. Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Falkender reacted to the export issues on CNBC's Squawk Box. They are slow-walking the exporting of the critical minerals of magnets in particular that are supposed to be unlocked by that agreement. And so, unfortunately, we are getting back to exactly the non-tariff barriers that we have been working with China on for years. Falkender says accusations by the Chinese regime that the U.S. has violated the terms of the Geneva trade agreement due to semiconductor exports are not grounded in reality. Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that the Trump administration wants countries to give them their best offer on trade negotiations by Wednesday. It says a draft letter from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative suggests an urgency within the administration to complete deals before the July 9th 90-day time frame established in April. Officials have said that several agreements are nearing completion. Washington has been engaged in such talks with the European Union, Japan, Vietnam, and India, among others. Daniel Monaghan, NTD News. The president has warned of major economic consequences if courts drag down his tariff policies. He posted on social media saying other countries could take advantage of the U.S., calling the potential outcome economic ruination. Trump posed tariffs on several countries, including China, to reduce the trade deficit and bring manufacturing jobs back home. Among all U.S. trade partners, China accounts for the largest U.S. trade deficit. The White House says that from 2001 to 2018, the U.S.-China trade deficit contributed to the loss of over 3 million American jobs. Zooming out, the U.S. trade deficit topped $1 trillion last year. The White House says this gap has hollowed out U.S. manufacturing and forced reliance on foreign adversaries for defense and medical supplies. Factory activity in China is slowing down and fast. The latest figures show a sharp drop in May, marking the steepest decline since September 2022. A new report out Tuesday highlights a steep fall in new export orders as U.S. terrorists continue to weigh heavily on China's manufacturing sector. Chinese export orders fell to their lowest level since July of last year, dragging down overall factory output. Industrial production in China grew 6.1 percent in April compared to last year. But that's slower than the growth in March. To try to turn things around, Chinese officials rolled out a series of stimulus measures. In May, the Bank of China cut key interest rates and lowered the reserve requirement ratio. These moves are meant to free up more cash for banks to lend, hoping to inject new life into the economy. U.S. steel and aluminum prices spiked Monday after President Trump announced plans to double tariffs on both to 50 percent. At the same time, shares of foreign steelmakers tumbled. Here's the story. U.S. steel and aluminum prices soared on Monday after President Donald Trump said he would double tariffs on the two metals to 50 percent, intensifying the global trade war. Trump's announcement came late Friday, just hours after he accused China of violating an agreement to mutually roll back tariffs and trade restrictions for critical minerals. The new steel and aluminum tariffs are set to take effect on June 4. Traders reacted Monday by sending aluminum prices skyrocketing 54 percent, while U.S. hot-rolled coil steel climbed about 7.5 percent. Meanwhile, the tariff shift was applauded by U.S. producers of aluminum, who saw their shares spike on the hope that duties would stop a flood of imports. Shares of steel manufacturer Cleveland Cliffs surged as much as 24 percent, while Steel Dynamics and Nucor each climbed more than 10 percent. On the flip side, shares of Asian and European steel firms slumped, with Salzgitter, Germany's second biggest steelmaker, warning that Trump's tariff policy would deal a severe blow to the European industry. The U.S. is the world's largest steel importer, excluding the European Union, with more than 26 million tons of steel imported in 2024, according to the Department of Commerce. President Trump's 50 percent import duties on steel and aluminum are likely to stick through the entire Trump administration. That's according to Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. He says these duties aren't just bargaining chips. They're part of Trump's long-term push to strengthen U.S. production. I think the 50 percent tariff placed on steel and aluminum is not just rhetoric, it's reality. It is something that is going to last, possibly through the entire Trump administration. Our Washington analysis political strategy arm believes that what the administration is trying to do is to drive new capacity within the U.S. for both steel and aluminum production, rather than simply trying to use this as a negotiating ploy. Sure, you might see some leeway with individual countries where there would be quotas that are set up, and we also don't think that we'll have big changes made with either Canada or Mexico, but we do believe it'll be a big contention with the EU. Some industry experts cast doubt on whether the tariffs will stick, given Trump's past reversals, but they do agree that higher metal prices and uncertainty could slow U.S. industrial activity. U.S. federal juries have charged a Chinese national and a British citizen with helping Beijing suppress Chinese dissidents abroad and smuggling U.S. military technology to China. Here's more. According to last Friday's indictment, Chinese national Cui Guanghai and British citizen John Miller both faced multiple criminal charges. They were arrested in Serbia in April. The FBI is now working to extradite them to the U.S. So what are they accused of? Court documents show that since November 2023, they've illegally exported missiles, radars, drones, and other U.S. defense tech to Hong Kong and mainland China. Also in November, they allegedly tried to stop a Chinese dissident from protesting during China's regime leader Xi Jinping's visit to Los Angeles. Media reports say the dissident is an artist living legally in the U.S. He's known for creating statues depicting he and his wife kneeling. Authorities say Cui and Miller put a tracking device on the dissident's car, slashed its tires, and destroyed his artworks. They even tried to do it again this spring. This isn't an isolated case. In 2022, the DOJ indicted five people accused of acting as illegal foreign agents for China and harassing another dissident artist critical of the communist regime. Back to the current case. Cui and Miller reportedly hired four people in the U.S. to help carry out their harassment plot. But all four were actually working undercover with the FBI. If convicted, the two face up to 40 years in prison. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called the case a blatant assault on both our national security and American democratic values, saying the DOJ has zero tolerance for foreign suppression on U.S. soil. For years, Harvard has welcomed top Chinese Communist Party officials into its programs. But now U.S. officials are raising red flags, sounding alarms over national security risks, and rising foreign influence on American soil. Let's zoom in. For decades, Harvard University has been training officials from China and sometimes even their family members. According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, alumni include a former party vice chairman and former vice premier, and most recently in the spotlight, Chinese leader Xi Jinping's daughter. Some U.S. lawmakers say that the Chinese Communist Party is using American schools to gain knowledge and skills to ultimately use against America and American interests. Some Harvard alumni include Li Yongqiao, former vice president of the CCP, Liu He, former vice premier and trade negotiator, and Li Hongzhong, current senior legislator. In the early 2000s, Harvard launched a short-term program called China's Leaders in Development, which included training split between Harvard and Tsinghua University in Beijing. Harvard said this program was to, quote, help prepare senior local and central Chinese government officials to more effectively address the ongoing challenges of China's national reforms. On Wednesday, the State Department said that the U.S. is clamping down on its screening of visa applications from China and will, quote, aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. The State Department is determined to protect Americans' right to free speech and to counter the malign influence and actions of the Chinese Communist Party. The bottom line, we are using and will continue to use every tool in our tool chest to make sure that we know who it is who wants to come into this country and if they should be allowed to come in. The department hasn't revealed any details on the criteria the Trump administration will use in making decisions. And on May 22, the Trump administration said it will revoke Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students, alleging that the university is working with the Communist Party. Harvard was given 30 days to contest the move, and Harvard has since filed a lawsuit in response. Harvard isn't the only school to teach Communist Party leaders. Other universities have offered training to CCP officials, including Stanford, Syracuse, Rutgers, and the University of Maryland. Reporting in Washington, D.C., Jason Blair, NTD News. Among the notable members of the Chinese Communist Party who received training in the U.S., Leo He stands out. He was a close aide to Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Leo studied at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in the mid-1990s. His education was part of China's broader effort to adopt Western practices. He later became China's vice premier and Xi Jinping's top economic advisor. Notably, Leo also served as China's chief trade negotiator, leading trade talks with President Trump during his first term. Coming up, Nebraska passing a bill combating covert influence by any foreign adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party. A closer look at what this new law means for U.S. security. And French President Macron is issuing a stark warning to China, saying North Korea's support for Russia could trigger NATO involvement in Asia. That and more in just a minute here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Nebraska has passed a new law targeting covert operations by foreign adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party. The bill approved by the governor would create two new acts in state law. They ban foreign adversaries from cultural or business activities in Nebraska unless they register as foreign agents. And if they don't, they could face hefty fines or even criminal charges. In recent years, the Chinese regime has ramped up its control and repression against Chinese dissidents living overseas, including in the U.S. That's on top of exporting pro-Beijing propaganda through facilities like Confucius Institutes. According to the Heritage Foundation, a D.C.-based think tank, China runs over a hundred police stations in more than 50 countries, including in major U.S. cities like New York, Los Angeles, Houston and San Francisco. Even some smaller towns in Nebraska and Minnesota are also on that list. Meanwhile, Texas passed a similar law in May aimed at stopping foreign repression. That one goes into effect this September. French President Emmanuel Macron is sending a clear warning to China. Stop North Korea from supporting Russia or NATO could get more involved in Asia. He made the statement Friday at a major defense summit in Singapore. Macron said he didn't want NATO involved in Asia, at least not yet. He argued the alliance shouldn't get pulled into the growing tensions between the U.S. and China in the region. But Macron warned that could change if countries like North Korea keep supporting Russia's war in Ukraine. Reports say North Korean troops are helping Russia under a military pact, part of what the West sees as a growing alliance among authoritarian states. He made these remarks during the Shangri-La dialogue. It's a major security conference where global defense leaders gather to discuss security issues in the Indo-Pacific. Among those attending are U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and top EU diplomat Kayak Halas. Macron's comments come as China continues to flex military muscle near Taiwan and the South China Sea. He emphasized that France stands firm for sovereignty and will defend that principle across the Indo-Pacific. President Donald Trump and Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping are expected to have a phone call this week about trade. The president said on Friday that China is violating its recent trade agreement with the U.S. In response, China expressed displeasure of the Trump administration's move to revoke visas from students linked to the Chinese Communist Party. To discuss where this call could lead, NTV's Kevin Hogan spoke with Armin Kurdian, retired Navy captain and foreign policy analyst. Armin, good to have you with us. How confident are you that this phone call will actually happen given the back and forth between the U.S. and China? Good afternoon. I'm 100% confident it will happen whether it's this week or very soon thereafter. Donald Trump will talk to anybody. He's not afraid to talk to anybody. The question is whether anything of substance will actually come out of it. I think China has found themselves strengthened and emboldened over the last several years, and we learned a lot of lessons during COVID regarding the vulnerability of our supply chain, both in raw materials and supplies and some of those precursor chemicals and precursor materials that we need in order for manufacturing here in the U.S., and five years later, we're still not at the same boat that we were in before. So there is definitely a lot to talk about. China is going to – they're still in a little bit more of a vulnerable position than the United States is, but the question is, are they willing to accept a lot more pain to try to impose their will on this relationship? Armin, I understand what you're saying, and at the same time, the U.S. has taken action directed at China recently, such as limiting Chinese student visas. What impact might this have on the U.S.-China trade talks? It'll probably have some impact. I'm concerned more actually about a lot of the young, military-age Chinese young men that came across our southern border over the last four years from nowhere and supposedly seeking asylum and what they're actually doing. The visa issue is a broader issue when it comes to a lot of our elite universities and restricting their ability to enroll these folks because they're violating civil rights and they're violating the freedom of speech rights of a lot of their students. So that's a little bit more of a complex, deeper issue. Granted, there are a lot of very smart and bright Chinese students that come to the U.S., and their money is also very vital to a lot of our universities, but at the same time, the question is whether we're educating a lot of these Chinese nationals and they're going back to their home country to perhaps work against us. And if they have association with the Chinese Communist Party, I think that's fair, but that's actually happening. So do we want the short-term benefit of money or the long-term risk of potential strengthening our greatest geopolitical adversary? And give us more insight as to how we can interpret this. What should we be watching for leading up to this call and after? Donald Trump will do or say, well, he will say a lot of things to make his counterpart on the opposite side of the table off balance. He'll say one thing one day, oh, everything's great, we're looking at doing a great deal with China. I think it's very positive. And the next day he'll say China has violated their agreements and they're not playing fair. So he's going to leave them completely off balance because, frankly, when it comes to trade policy and going forward, he might be getting some advice from his team, but ultimately only Donald Trump knows what Donald Trump is going to say during that phone call. And holding his cards close to his chest is a way that he has performed over the last several decades in business and in government to try to get a lot of what he actually wants. I would say I'm hopeful, but we also really need some kind of a rapprochement with China, but it can't really be, again, capitulating to their economic power. This is a really serious issue, and over the last several decades, you want to go back all the way to the 90s, this country's been very, very soft on China. I think under this administration, Trump is finally getting tough with China the way that he needs to be, the way that even I wasn't satisfied with him during his first term. And let's not forget there's also issues with cyber security, cyber attacks, theft of intellectual property, how many tens of billions of dollars have they stolen, especially from our primary defense contractors, only to put it into their own military. So there's a lot at stake. A wide-ranging talk this afternoon. Foreign Policy Analyst Armin Kurdian, thank you. Have a great day. That's all for today's China In Focus. I'm 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 ChinaInFocusNTD.com. We'd love to hear from you. For on-the-clock original news coverage, visit us at NTD.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.