Former Prince Andrew Agreed to Broker $8 Billion China–UAE Deal | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. Former Prince Andrew has been released but remains under investigation following his arrest. And new details from the Epstein files reveal a billion-dollar deal and private meetings with Xi Jinping, shedding light on his dealings in China. Texas is suing baby monitor company Lorex for hiding its ties to China. What the Texas Attorney General is saying about the risks behind the company's products. Germany's Chancellor heads to China next week backed by a 30-member delegation. What's his mission? And President Trump is outlining a timeline for a deal with Iran as the world's largest aircraft carrier heads to the Persian Gulf. All unfolding during the first border peace summit in Washington. Today's focus is on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, also known as former Prince Andrew. Back in 2010 he agreed to help negotiate an $8 billion potential deal between China and the United Emirates. That's according to the Epstein files released by the DOJ. The Financial Times was the first to report on this. The UAE banker proposed the deal to ease the pressure on the financing of Dubai caused by the 2008 financial crisis. The plan was for China to loan $8 billion to the UAE with the Arab country repaying the loan through oil exports. Andrew agreed to help broker the deal during a trip to China. At the time he was serving as the UK's special trade representative to the country. In an email he wrote quote we could work on this in September whilst there I have some private days prior to the official program starting. It's unclear whether the deal was approved by UAE officials. Also in the spotlight Andrew's rapport with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. In another email Epstein sent to billionaire investor Reid Hoffman in 2015 he said that Prince Andrew was heading to China and had spent a great deal of time with Xi. A former aide of Andrew's said the prince sent birthday cards to Chinese leader Xi Jinping every year. That's according to British court documents. The aide also said Andrew had a direct channel to Xi to promote his business startup in China with his letters to Xi drafted by Yang Tenbo. The UK accused Yang of being a spy and banned him from entering because he carried out covert activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. British authorities said Yang developed an unusually close level of trust with Prince Andrew. They added that Yang obscured his ties to the Chinese regime and its influence armed the United Front Work Department. Yang helped Andrew launch a Chinese branch of his business venture and the two met at least three times. Yang also visited Buckingham Palace twice at Andrew's invitation. British authorities said Andrew could have been vulnerable to Yang's influence. Yang has denied any wrongdoing. Andrew said he had cut off contact with Yang and that they never discussed any sensitive matters. And more on former Prince Andrew who was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. It relates to allegations that he sent confidential government documents to Jeffrey Epstein. He was questioned all day by detectives from Thames Valley Police and later released from custody but he will remain under investigation. The arrest of a senior royal eighth in line to throne is unprecedented in modern times. Following the arrest Britain's King Charles said the law must take its course. Britain's King Charles arriving at an event in London Thursday declining to answer questions about his brother Andrew's arrest. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested Thursday morning on suspicion of misconduct in public office according to the Thames Valley Police. It comes on the heels of the U.S. Justice Department's release of documents detailing the former prince's ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Thames Valley Police previously said it was assessing whether Andrew shared confidential material with Epstein during his time as a UK trade envoy. It's a common law offense and it requires a really high level of proof because the potential penalty the total potential penalty the maximum penalty is life imprisonment. The former prince has denied all accusations against him and has not commented on the more recent allegations of misconduct in public office. In a statement King Charles said the law must take its course and pledged full support for the investigation. The arrest with the potential to send more shock waves through the British monarchy and government. The first dramatic fallout that seems to be happening from the publication of these Epstein files seems to be more than anything else in the United Kingdom rather than in the United States where the crisis began. Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill calling for similar accountability here in the U.S. Great Britain is holding its powerful and privileged to account. The United States of America should do the same. And the king is actually saying we need to follow the law here. I wish our government were doing the same. Bill Gates will not deliver a keynote address at the AI summit in Delhi. The cancellation comes amid controversies over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Bill Gates pulled out of India's AI impact summit on Thursday, hours before he was scheduled to deliver a keynote address. That adds to a difficult opening for a summit billed as the first major AI forum in the global south. Organizational lapses, a robot row and complaints of traffic chaos have marred the flagship event. And it's suffered another high profile absence after Nvidia said earlier this week that CEO Jensen Hwan would not be attending. The Gates cancellation comes after the U.S. Department of Justice released emails last month including communication between the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the Gates Foundation staff. Gates Foundation India said in a post on X that the decision was to ensure the focus remains on the AI summit's key priorities. The documents Gates and Epstein met repeatedly after Epstein's prison term to discuss expanding Gates's philanthropic efforts. Gates has said the relationship was confined to philanthropy related discussions and that it was a mistake for him to meet with Epstein. Just days ago the foundation had dismissed rumors of his absence and insisted he was on track to attend. Texas is suing baby monitor company Lorex for hiding its ties to China. This is the third such lawsuit by Texas this week targeting companies tied to the Chinese Communist Party. Texas attorney general Ken Paxton says Lorex baby monitor cameras and other products contain components provided by Dahua. It's a Chinese company tied to the Chinese regime's military and its products are designated a national security risk by the U.S. Paxton says such technology could potentially allow the Chinese regime to exploit the home security systems of Texans at any time. His statement reads quote any company that allows the Chinese Communist Party to threaten American safety and security will face the full force of the law. The lawsuit comes after Texas also sued network equipment company TP-Link and drone company Anzu robotics over China ties this week. Michael Lucci founder and CEO of state armor sits down with us to dive deep into the scope and impact of the Chinese Communist Party's influence groups operating in the U.S. and Canada. Take a look. A new report from the Jamestown Foundation found over 2,000 groups across the U.S., Canada, Germany and the U.K. helping to advance the CCP's agenda. First what was your reaction to this report? Were you surprised by the number? I wasn't surprised by the overall number which is about 2,000 political warfare units across those four countries nearly a thousand of them within the United States. We run into these groups all the time. They try to interfere in state politics. They try to interfere in local politics. They try to interfere in federal politics. There was just a Chinese national indicted in the last couple weeks for actually working to get a specific person elected mayor in Chino Hills, California. But what was surprising is the outsized influence in Canada. If you look at the numbers proportionate to population, Canada has eight times as many really Chinese Communist Party political warfare units in Canada compared to how many there are in the United States. So China sees Canada as really the soft underbelly of North America. They're making political inroads there in various obvious ways. They're trying to make supply chain inroads there as well. And they're very much deploying huge amounts of political warfare in Canada to interfere in their politics and influence their policymaking. And the report notes that this number is just the tip of the iceberg. And Communist China has touted the United Front since Mao's time. He called it a secret weapon of the Chinese Communist Party. How should Americans understand what the United Front Work Department is? The United Front Work Department is Communist China's way to infiltrate across society. This is how they lift their diplomatic message. This is how they raise Beijing's voice and suppress the voices of those who oppose Beijing. So you'll see these organizations in states like Florida that's actually working on this problem. You'll see these organizations say that it's racist to actually crack down on crimes committed by the Chinese Communist Party. That it's somehow racist to crack down on those crimes, even though the victims of those crimes are Asian Americans themselves. So they'll suppress the messaging against Beijing and they'll raise Beijing's voice within state and local politics, within federal politics, in order to shape overall policymaking. They also leach intellectual property, economic know-how, research at the universities. They even actually pull diseases and other pathogens out of university systems. There's one example. The president of the Chinese Student Scholars Association at the University of Florida was, this is a United Front organization, she was helping agents of the Chinese Communist Party send pathogens from the lab in Florida back to China. She got kicked off campus for doing that. Some of her compatriots got indicted. So it's an all-weather, all-ways political war machine within the United States to suppress our strength and sap our strength to China, and then sow weakness and sow chaos in our country. Michael, when we look at Chinese-influenced operations more broadly, one aspect that's been getting more attention is transnational repression. One example of this on U.S. soil is the targeting of Shen Yun, an American dance company that showcases China before communism. As a result, it's been slandered, even attacked by the Chinese regime and those sympathetic to it. Do you see these operations as a direct attack on American values and our way of life? It's a direct attack on American values. It's a direct attack on our way in life. But I think even more important than that, it's a direct attack on American sovereignty. What you see the Chinese Communist Party attempt to do is actual policing operations on Shen Yun, on other groups within the United States. So they cloak themselves in the power of the state within the United States. They make the argument that they can enforce Chinese law here on our soil. That's why you see a number of jurisdictions, Florida's one, Texas is another, actually making it a felony for a foreign regime like China to try to enforce their laws here. That's what they do to Shen Yun. That's what they do to these other organizations. One of the things that's interesting of what Shen Yun highlights is the forced organ harvesting. The most heinous crime committed in communist China is when they take organs out of just innocent people who are political dissidents, they take them and they kill them by taking their organs. That's one of the things that's highlighted. China doesn't want that highlighted. So I've heard of them slashing tires of these people, trying to get them physically hurt in trying to enforce communist laws here in the United States of America. So it's a direct attack on our sovereignty. Expanding on that, this reach by the CCP has been getting more attention like that Chinese police station above a noodle shop in the heart of New York City a few years ago. When it comes to action being done to counter it, though, state armor has been at the forefront. Talk to us about some of the states that now have legislation countering the CCP's influence. A lot of states have legislation countering the CCP on the issue of influence operations. Right now, I would point to the state of Florida, where there's legislation advancing that really chops up a lot of what they try to do through their influence operations. And to the point of this new research about the Unite Front, the people who created that research came down and gave some of the most powerful testimony I've ever seen about the problem within the state of Florida. There's over 30 Unite Front organizations there, and what needs to be done in the solution, that's what lawmakers are doing there. They're banning any gifts or any money coming from these Unite Front organizations into politics. They're making them all register as foreign agents of communist China operating within the state of Florida. They're increasing criminal penalties for any crimes that these people would commit against dissidents, whether it's Shen Yun, whether it's other groups of dissidents within the United States. So they're enhancing penalties for crimes. They're actually creating training for Florida state employees on how to recognize what the Unite Front influence operations look like and how to crack down on them. There's a lot more that the state of Florida is doing. Tennessee, Nebraska, Texas, Louisiana, so many states are taking action on this. But I would point to the state of Florida that very soon, I think, could be enacting one of the most important laws in the country, taking care of those problems I just described to you. Michael Lucci, as always, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Menaceo Mark Zuckerberg took the stand Wednesday in a landmark trial over youth social media addiction. During the trial, he testified that Facebook and Instagram don't allow users under 13. That's despite evidence suggesting children in that age group were a key part of the platform's audience. The case involves a California woman who started using Instagram and YouTube as a child. She alleges the company sought to profit by hooking kids on their services and claims the apps fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts. Meta and Google have denied the allegations and pointed to their work to add features that keep users safe. Meanwhile, Meta's rival Snap and TikTok settled with the plaintiff before the trial kicked off last week. On Wednesday, Mark Lanier, a lawyer for the woman suing, confronted Zuckerberg with internal Meta documents. He showed jurors emails from 2014 and 2015 in which Zuckerberg laid out aims to increase time spent on Instagram by double digit percentage points. Zuckerberg said that while Meta previously had goals related to the amount of time users spent on the app, it has since changed its approach. Meta faces potential damages at the jury trial in Los Angeles, part of a wave of litigation against social media companies in the U.S. Cases there are beginning to go to trial amid a broader global backlash over the platform's War Secretary Pete Hegseth making a stop at the Boeing company in St. Louis, Missouri on his Arsenal of Freedom tour. On Wednesday, he outlined how the Trump administration wants to revamp America's defense industry. Here's more. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth brought his Arsenal of Freedom tour to St. Louis yesterday, a city known in aviation circles as Fighterland USA because of the high number of military aircraft produced in the area. Hegseth spoke to roughly 500 employees at Boeing, telling them the Trump administration was focused on making American manufacturing competitive. When we unleash competitive spirit, America comes out on top. The visit comes the same day Boeing announced it is relocating its defense, space and security division back to St. Louis from Arlington, Virginia. The stop is part of a nationwide effort aimed at revitalizing the defense industrial base and accelerating manufacturing. Hegseth outlining President Trump's defense priorities. At the War Department, we are the strength department. Our job is to be the hammer when necessary and hopefully not have to use it. But if we do, we'll fight to win. And according to Hegseth, that means making sure American warfighters are never in a fair fight. No more political correctness, overwhelming deterrence. And from us to you on your front, as it applies to peace through strength, that means less red tape, more incentives and more speed on the factory floor. Hegseth highlighted the EA-18 Growler produced by Boeing in St. Louis as an example of the facility's role in national defense. He said the aircraft played a role in Operation Absolute Resolve, the January 3rd mission that led to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife. After visiting Boeing, Hegseth stopped at the St. Louis Military Entrance Processing Station to administer the oath of enlistment to 32 future service members. His swearing-in ceremonies have been standard practice since the tour began January 5th. What will President Trump address in this year's State of the Union, and how does America now differ from his first term? Join me, NTD's Steve Lance and Mario Tsu on February 23rd at 6 p.m. Eastern for a preview of the Coming up, Germany's chancellor heads to China next week backed by a 30-member delegation. What's his mission? More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer, the leader of Europe's biggest economy, planning a trip to China next week. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will be traveling with a large delegation of business leaders. It's a delicate balancing act. On one side is China, Germany's major trading partner. On the other side is the United States, locked in trade tensions with Beijing and threatening Europe with high tariffs. Merz wants to coordinate with the U.S. while keeping Germany engaged with China. Foreign policy and economic policy belong together just as much as defense policy and domestic policy. We can no longer separate them today. That's why I will be traveling to China next week. Merz will be joined by 30 German CEOs, including leaders from major automakers like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen, as well as from Siemens, Adidas and Commerzbank. The executive director of Berlin's Mercator Institute for China Studies said Merz must address the unfair market conditions for Europeans in China. In Paris, they are considering imposing punitive tariffs of over 30 percent or forcing an appreciation of the Chinese currency. These are all issues that Germany must also address because we too are suffering from these unfair market conditions. The International Monetary Fund issued a statement Wednesday accusing China's economic policies for causing waste at home and damage abroad. In Brussels, consideration is being given to the cyber security of critical infrastructure, particularly in the IT sector. Here too, we would be well advised to take a very careful look and also to take a hard line in determining where our long-term national security interests lie. Germany saw a drop in exports to China last year, especially with car exports falling 44 percent compared to their peak in 2022. Dear shareholders, we have all been following the performance of our share price closely and I would like to make it clear to you that we are not satisfied with this performance. German cars are everywhere in China with about one in every five new vehicles bearing a German logo. BMW CEO says German car makers need China to stay competitive globally. He's part of Merz's delegation to China. German automotive manufacturers and suppliers have 350 locations in China, making it the foreign country where Germany is represented most heavily. China's importance as a sales market has surged in recent decades. Today, nearly one in three cars sold worldwide is sold in China. With a growing middle class, rising demand for mobility and relatively low car density, China still offers significant growth potential. President Trump laying out a timeline for negotiations with Iran as the USS Gerald R. Ford heads to the Middle East and the president announcing billions of dollars of pledges to rebuild Gaza at his inaugural Board of Peace meeting in Washington. NTD's Washington correspondent Mari Otsu brings us more. President Trump is now suggesting that Iran has 10 days to make a deal with the U.S. as he says that they cannot continue to stabilize to threaten the stability of the entire Middle East. He also says that the U.S. has just ordered 22 more B-2 bombers and he reminds those present that it was those B-2 bombers responsible for Operation Midnight Hammer over the summer, that's the demolition of Iran's nuclear facilities. And this is coming as the U.S. sends its largest, the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford to the Gulf. It's joining the USS Lincoln there and it's expected to arrive in the eastern Mediterranean in about three days now. And this is happening also as a Russian warship is conducting drills, Navy drills in the Sea of Oman just a few days after Iran's Revolutionary Guards conducted drills in the Strait of Hormuz. The White House is repeating to Tehran that it would be very wise to make a deal and here's the latest from President Trump. Let's take a look. We do have some work to do with Iran. They can't have a nuclear weapon, it's very simple. They can't have, you can't have peace in the Middle East if they have a nuclear weapon and they can't have a nuclear weapon and they've been told that very strongly. Maybe we're going to make a deal where you're going to be, you're going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days. President Trump is giving this warning for Iran at his inaugural Board of Peace meeting here in Washington where 59 countries are in attendance and the President is announcing that the U.S. is committing a $10 billion to the Board of Peace and to rebuilding Gaza and other allies, ally countries present are committing $7 billion. Let's take a look. More impossible problems can be solved as we go along this very beautiful path. I think it's a beautiful path. I think it's such an important day. Everything's beautiful, but the ancient wounds can be healed and they are indeed ancient. This has been going on for so many centuries that our entire planet will be a better, safer, more beautiful and more peaceful place for us all. We're going to be working with the United Nations very closely. We're going to bring them back. Meanwhile, a federal arts panel appointed by President Trump is signing off on the President's plan to construct a 90,000 square foot ballroom in the east wing of the White House here. President Trump is praising that decision on Truth Social, thanking the members of the Fine Arts Commission and this White House ballroom is expected to be completed by summer 2028 and is funded entirely by President Trump and private donors. 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 chinainfocus at ntd.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.