Taiwan Detects 130 Chinese Warplanes, More Than 24 Warships | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus, I'm Paul Graney, in for Tiffany Meyer, our top story. The second day of Chinese military drills around Taiwan. The island reporting that China fired about 30 rockets near its territory with over a hundred Chinese warplanes and more than a dozen warships circling the island. President Trump continues his pressure campaign on Venezuela, one of Beijing's key allies. We have the latest on the U.S. operation that took out a dock linked to Venezuelan drug boats. There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp could soon be powered by an AI startup founded in China. Meta has reportedly bought the startup for more than $2 billion. And the Missouri senator facing a lawsuit from China has introduced a bill to protect Americans from Chinese lawfare campaigns. More on his push to nullify China's politically motivated court rulings here in America. The Chinese Communist Party's major military drills around Taiwan have entered their second day. Taiwan has detected 130 Chinese warplanes along with roughly two dozen warships and coast guard vessels during the live fire exercises. It also confirmed that the Chinese military fired long range rockets into the waters around the island. Taiwan's defense ministry saying the island's forces are quote, preparing for the worst and must take every possible scenario into account. Here's a senior Taiwanese defense official. All together, according to our data, there were about 27 rockets launched. The troop strength of the drills may not necessarily have been the largest, but the scale of the exercises grows each time and they are conducted right on our doorstep. Taiwan's president Lai Ching-teh posted on Facebook on Tuesday against sharply criticizing Beijing's drills. He also highlighted the CCP's recent military aggression in areas near Japan, Taiwan and the South China Sea. Lai added that these actions are severely affecting global trade and peace in the Indo-Pacific and he clarified that Taiwan does not seek escalation or confrontation. But would not back down in the face of intimidation. Nikkei Asia reported that Taiwan is significantly bolstering its coast guard fleet and tightening defense of the island's underseas cables. These cables are critical to the island's essential operations. Taiwan's allies and neighbors are also closely monitoring the situation. On Monday evening, President Trump said Washington had not been informed by Beijing ahead of the operation. Well, I have a great relationship with President Xi and he hasn't told me anything about it. I certainly have seen it, but he hasn't told me anything about it and I don't believe he's going to be doing it. No, nothing worries me, nothing. And on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue posted on Ax about meeting with counterparts from the Quad in Beijing. Composed of the U.S., Australia, India and Japan, the Quad aims to ensure an open and secure Indo-Pacific and to deter China's growing threats. That very same day, the U.S. Navy posted a video promoting its military readiness with a caption saying, ready to fight day or night. The U.S. Pacific Fleet posted pictures of its warships fueling in the Philippine Sea close to Taiwan. On Tuesday, South Korea called for peace and cooperation across the Taiwan Strait. Now economically, Taiwan sits along key commercial shipping and aviation routes with about $2.5 trillion in trade moving through the Taiwan Strait each year. And President Trump ramping up pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, a longtime ally of Beijing. He's also a key partner for China's agenda in Latin America. Now on Monday, Trump said the U.S. struck a dock in Venezuela where drugs were allegedly loaded onto boats. Take a look. There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs. They load the boats up with drugs, so we hit all the boats and now we hit the area, it's the implementation area, that's where they implement, and that is no longer around. The Meta is making a bet on artificial intelligence product with Chinese origins. The company says it's acquiring Manus, an AI startup that's been getting a lot of attention recently for its work on so-called AI agents. Financial Times is reporting that the deal is valued at over $2 billion. Founded in China, Manus moved its headquarters to Singapore amid rising U.S.-China tensions. The startup then went viral earlier this year after unveiling what it called the world's first general AI agent. The system is designed to operate with very little prompting, handling complex tasks that usually require multiple steps. That includes things like screening resumes or planning travel. It's worth noting that while the company's products aren't available in China, it does have a strategic partnership with Chinese tech giant Alibaba. This partnership could allow the firms to share resources. Meta is expected to integrate the technology into its Meta AI assistant on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. And the senator who's been sued by China has introduced a bill to protect Americans from China's lawfare campaign. If passed, Senator Eric Schmidt's bill would block politically motivated judgments by Chinese courts from being enforced here in the United States. Schmidt says Chinese lawfare has no place in America. The move comes weeks after China slapped a $50 billion lawsuit against Schmidt and FBI co-deputy director Andrew Bailey. Both had led Missouri's successful lawsuit against China for hoarding masks and other protective gear during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving on, China is allowing the value of its currency, the renminbi, to grow. Official records show the RMB has reached its strongest level against the dollar in 15 months. European and American leaders have accused China of allowing cheap Chinese goods to flood their markets. The weak Chinese currency has been seen as a major factor contributing to China's trade surplus. The annual National Defense Authorization Act includes provisions that crack down on U.S. purchases of Chinese technology. It also limits U.S. investment in adversarial countries like China. But what does the move reveal about vulnerabilities in the Pentagon's supply chain? NTD's Jack Bradley spoke with Joel Thayer, president of the Digital Progress Institute, for insight. A new defense bill, $900 billion, part of that bans Chinese-made technology from the Pentagon supply chains. What kind of technology could they be talking about here and why is it so important to ban it? Well, there's a lot of things that the American government is using that it probably should not be using. I mean, it varies from everything from Chinese-made routers to drones. So I think what this is harkening back to is a lot of different reports that we got from the CCB Select Committee where they identified specific areas of the digital supply chain that the Pentagon is using and ultimately found that these things are national security issues. I mean, there's a lot of information that these different areas of the supply chain collect in terms of data. And one thing that I think is very important here is that the United States government has put their foot down finally, and this is actually a very positive step for a whole host of different reasons. And what kind of technology are we talking about here that the Pentagon's using? You mentioned offline DJI drones. Yeah. So there was a report that came out by the Foundation for American Innovation where they through a bunch of FOIA requests found out that the United States government was purchasing DJI drones. I believe the Department of Defense was one of those agencies. But it really came down, but really even any agency that is using American taxpayer dollars to fund a Chinese outfit that has been linked to the Chinese government and may be used for espionage is wholly inappropriate. So I'm glad that you're seeing leaders in the House and Senate taking a stand. What kind of data are they collecting? How is it happening? Are they just getting the feed directly from the camera? What does that look like? So when it comes to any technology, it depends on the interoperability and also the interactions between the software and the actual hardware. When it comes to DJI drones in particular, it's not just the drone that you're really worried about. It's the camera, and it's also the app that it runs off of, and the app usually runs off of some sort of smart device, either a tablet or even a smartphone. And that, if we learned anything from TikTok, is that it opens the door, or I should rephrase, it opens a back door to everything that you do on that phone. And really, it can do anything from tracking, it can harvest a lot of data. If it's being used by government officials, I can't imagine what sort of sensitive information is getting put from one side to another. I want to take it home for the American viewer. To what extent is the CCP able to access their data? You mentioned TikTok and how they're able to open up certain back doors through that app and access everything that's on that phone? Pretty much, yeah. So there's a few reports out that identify exactly what TikTok can access and what it can't access. It favors what they can access over what they can't, and that is to say that TikTok is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you're actually inviting onto your phone. So it's not just a happy dancing app. I mean, it's doing a lot of things in the background. It's collecting your voice prints, it's collecting your face, it even can track your heartbeat if you use certain apps or you attune their software to a wearable, which I believe they're starting to do now. But there are other Chinese apps that are on both Apple's app store and Google's app store. There was a really good report that was done by the Heat Initiative where they identified hundreds or maybe even thousands of apps that directly say that they're sending American data from your phone over to mainland China, which should terrify everyone because one, it's already bad enough that we have to worry about our own government spying on us potentially through the NSA or other agencies, but can you imagine a foreign adversary, what they're willing to do? I mean, at the very least, we have rights that we can push back against that type of data collection. We don't have any rights when it comes to what the Chinese government can and can't do. And even if we were to cry foul on that, I'm pretty sure they would just laugh in our face. What are they doing with this data? What's the worst case scenario that they could possibly be doing? So the Chinese government is not really known for being very transparent. They operate in almost complete opacity and that already should raise some red flags. But based off of what they have publicly said in terms of how they are thinking about companies, particularly ByteDance was I think listed in a report, they look at that as a net positive in terms of the militarization of their AI machines. And we're seeing them time and time again trying to dominate AI the same way they try to dominate 5G, which had similar motives, which were one, to collect as much data, be basically the data gatherer of the world. But at the same time, do a lot of things, which include spying on government facilities, also collecting data on, like with respect to TikTok, collecting data that could be used down the road. So I mean, look, Gen Z will grow up and they're already growing up. They are probably the most active on social media. They have private conversations on social media. They have interactions that they probably don't want to be publicized. Can you imagine if a foreign adversary had access to that and those particular individuals became government officials? How much data can they leverage against them to essentially get them to do what they want and actually flip them and turn them into agents? And I think that is part and parcel what the issue was with respect to TikTok. I think it's part and parcel what the issue is with all this other data collection that we're seeing from them. And frankly, I think it does start at the government. Going back to the NDAA, the way we got certain companies banned, like Huawei and ZTE, we started at the government level and we said, we're not going to allow our procurement process to be saturated with all these Chinese manufacturers. And then it went to commercial. I think if the same trajectory holds, this is a very positive step to ridding our networks and sanitizing our networks from these very, very harmful devices. It's great that Congress is cracking down on this in a bipartisan way. Joel Thayer, thank you so much for your insights. Thank you. And coming up, China is rolling out nearly $9 billion in subsidies to boost domestic spending. It comes amid a struggling housing market and tensions with the United States. We have more on that after the break here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Paul Graney. The world's second largest economy is ramping up efforts to boost domestic spending. On Tuesday, Chinese state media announced that China will allocate nearly $9 billion in subsidies for its consumer goods trade-in program next year. The move is part of the country's ongoing push to boost consumer spending and support its economy amid trade tensions with the United States. The Chinese regime plans to raise nearly $9 billion through government bonds to fund the first portion of the subsidies. The program, which launched back in mid-2024, has already supported purchases from cars to home appliances. This year, China set aside over $42 billion for its trade-in program to encourage consumer spending. That's twice the amount allocated in 2024. The program plans to include digital and smart products, as well as major home appliances like televisions and refrigerators next year. Chinese officials are signaling a long-term goal of boosting household consumption, which makes up about 40 percent of China's GDP. Beijing aims to offset deflation and its growing housing slump. Hong Kong media tycoon and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai was convicted under Hong Kong's security law earlier this month. Now, most independent observers say the trial was a show trial carried out at the behest of the Chinese regime. To discuss Lai's current situation, NTD's Kerry Dunst spoke with the Honorable Jonathan Stivers. He's the U.S. director at the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Can you first begin with just an overall understanding of Jimmy Lai's current situation? And for those who are unfamiliar with him, what's led up to this point? Sure. Thank you. Thanks for having me this morning. So Jimmy Lai is an entrepreneur, a publisher. He's been in prison in Hong Kong for over five years in solitary confinement in inhumane conditions, especially considering his age. There was a sham trial that just concluded two weeks ago, and it shows the world that free expression will no longer be tolerated in Hong Kong. We know Jimmy Lai's poor health, 78 years old. He has diabetes, other health challenges. He should be released on humanitarian and health grounds at absolute minimum. But he's been in prison for free expression. He's been in prison for his communications with U.S. and U.K. officials, which apparently is a crime in Hong Kong now to even talk to American officials. The United States and the United Kingdom need to take a stronger action here to support the freedom of people in Hong Kong, Jimmy Lai and other Hong Kong political prisoners. And that's why we sent this letter by over 50 global human rights organizations to President Trump and congressional leaders in the United States Congress that they need to take immediate concrete actions following this guilty verdict in the Jimmy Lai case. Yeah, to go a level deeper on that letter, you and your team are advocating for a not just one approach, but sort of a multithreaded approach to ramp up the pressure to get some relief for Lai. How would that work in principle? Well, I mean, first, we appreciate President Trump and the Trump administration bringing up the issue to General Secretary Xi Jinping recently, and they have made it a priority in their discussions. But it's not enough just to talk about this case. There needs to be actions in conjunction with the United Kingdom, of which Jimmy Lai is a citizen, and the United Kingdom has an extra responsibility considering their role in Hong Kong historically. And so we're asking for three things. Number one, to make Jimmy Lai's release a condition for President Trump's upcoming visit in April to Beijing. Second, that the prosecutors and judges in the Jimmy Lai trial need to be subject to Magnitsky-style sanctions, targeted specific sanctions for their roles in prosecuting someone for free expression. And the third thing is there are these Hong Kong economic and trade offices in the United States and around the world. Hong Kong currently has a diplomatic representation of privileges and immunities that are separate from the People's Republic of China. That made sense when Hong Kong was autonomous, but that is no longer. We've seen that the United States and other countries have made the decision that Hong Kong is not an autonomous city like it used to be, and those need to be shut down as soon as possible. Yeah, and if you could give a bit of context on Lai, because he has British citizenship, as you mentioned. He's very wealthy. He could have lived in comfort in London or really anywhere he wanted to. But in the most difficult time, when Beijing took control of Hong Kong in advance of when they were supposed to, he sort of stepped into this role with the Apple Daily. And we'd really appreciate if you could give a little bit of context as to the work that he did that ultimately put him into this predicament. Absolutely. Well, Jimmy Lai just has an extraordinary personal story, and it also is the story of Hong Kong. He left China at a very early age, or really a rags to riches story, building, becoming a very successful entrepreneur. After Tiananmen Square, he opened a publication called Apple Daily, which was a strong pro democracy newspaper and media outlet. And it was a thorn in Beijing's side, in terms of it was very critical of the government. And his work there is why he is prosecuted. He's been outspoken for democracy and freedom and human rights in Hong Kong. And his actions, his connections, is what has put him on Beijing's enemy list and why he has been imprisoned. Again, the trial just ended, and the evidence that they used against him, first of all, he wasn't allowed his own representation. And second of all, the crimes for which he is being persecuted for happened before the national security law was passed. And the national security law specifically states that it is not retroactive. So this thing has been a total sham trial. And he's probably one of the most prominent human rights activists imprisoned in Hong Kong. But there are others. So it's not just Jimmy Lai that we're calling for the release. It's other Hong Kong political prisoners, of which there has been close to 2,000 imprisoned since 2019, many of whom are still there. And as you mentioned this, Lai being the most prominent of many human rights activists, their crime being that they want democracy in Hong Kong, or took some sort of public stance in that regard. What is the current situation in Hong Kong? And what do you expect to happen over the next six to 12 months in terms of freedoms in Hong Kong? Well, I mean, it's been an extraordinary change. In just five years, Hong Kong has transformed from one of the freest cities in Asia, a global financial center, to an authoritarian control where freedom of speech and any kind of dissent people are imprisoned for. And so the situation in Hong Kong is not good. It continues to worsen. And it is absolutely essential for the United States and the international community to say something, to speak up, to push back in order to try to help the Hong Kong people who are living in fear every day. Well, Jonathan Stivers, thank you so much for the work that you're doing and for sharing that with us today. Thank you. Appreciate it. And that's all for today's China In Focus. I'm Paul Graney. If you have any feedback on the show, maybe you'd like to see us cover something in particular, send us an email at ChinaInFocus at NTD.com. We'd love to hear from you. And for round-the-clock original news coverage, visit us at NTD.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you soon.