Chinese-owned Cargo Ship Hit by Iran | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. President Trump is not giving up. His administration is launching new trade probes on China, which could result in new tariffs. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz dropped sharply. Some ships claim to be China-owned to avoid Iranian missiles, but it's not guaranteed. A Chinese-owned cargo ship was hit on Thursday. Mandating language, incentivizing cross-ethnic marriage, and rewriting the rule of faith among ethnic groups. China's new law even requires parents to guide their children toward the Communist Party, raising alarms among human rights groups. And a powerful AI tool whose name is a nut to lobsters is going viral in China. But it's also raising major concerns why Beijing is now scrambling to regulate it, even as it pushes for global AI dominance. New tariffs for China may be possible. The Trump administration has launched new trade investigations under the Trade Act of 1974. U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer says the probes will examine excess industrial capacity in 16 major trading partners. The countries include China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, and Mexico. The investigations will determine whether foreign policies and practices are unfairly pushing out U.S. manufacturing and limiting trade. A second investigation will focus on imports produced with forced labor, targeting roughly 60 countries. These inquiries could lead to new tariffs or import restrictions. Greer says the administration wants to wrap up investigations quickly and will hold hearings for public comments in the coming months. Trading partners have been notified and will be consulted as part of the process. Iran has sharply reduced shipping through the Strait of Hormuz as it pushes back against the United States and Israel. Traffic through the waterway has plunged since the war began two weeks ago. The Strait normally carries about 20 percent of the world's seaborne oil. Since the conflict started, at least 19 commercial ships have been damaged in attacks in the region. Only a handful of non-Iranian vessels have managed to pass through. Some ships have even declared themselves Chinese-owned or Chinese-crewed, real or fake, in an attempt to avoid being targeted. But one of the latest targets was a Chinese-owned cargo ship named Source Blessings. It was hit in the early hours of Thursday close to the Strait. In other words, saying a ship is China-owned doesn't guarantee it's fully secure. China is the largest buyer of Iranian crude oil, and analysts say that may be one reason some vessels are trying to signal ties to Beijing. Questions remain over whether Iran may be allowing Chinese-linked ships safer passage. China has passed a new ethnic unity promotion law on Thursday by its so-called National People's Congress. On the surface, it sounds like a push for harmony. But human rights groups warn the move could further erode the cultural identity of non-Han ethnic groups. They say it could also lead to harsher government crackdowns on minorities, including Tibetans and Uyghurs. There are also growing concerns that anyone who questions the push for a unified national identity could be labeled a separatist and face legal punishment. The new law mandates the use of Mandarin, Chinese, and simplified characters in ethnic regions, which effectively stipulates at the national level that minority languages may not be used as the primary language of instruction in schools. This follows years of reports that authorities in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia have already been slashing local language education. What's more, the law even encourages parents to stop using their native dialects at home. It goes further. The law requires parents to guide their children to identify with The law also pushes for the so-called ethnic integration, moving minority groups into Han Chinese areas and vice versa. The authorities are incentivizing to reshape the population by offering benefits like better housing and good jobs to families who marry across ethnic lines. Analysts say the measures could lead to the breakup of communities where ethnic minorities have traditionally lived together. And then there's religion. The law demands that all faiths follow the direction of synthesization of religion, which means that believers must put the party above their God. Analysts say we are witnessing a massive paradigm shift in how Beijing handles its diverse population. China has 56 ethnic groups. Before Xi Jinping took power, the ethnic policy was roughly autonomous, where different cultures, traditions, and languages were recognized. But under Xi, he has been pushing a one China identity. He wants every citizen to see themselves as part of the Chinese nation first and their ethnic group second. The new law puts Xi's ideology into a legal mandate. Observers warn the law may provide the government with a pretext for a range of human rights abuses, including forcing minority groups to assimilate and crushing dissent. And the ripples of this law are reaching far beyond mainland China. It explicitly says it's the legal duty of citizens in Hong Kong and Macau to uphold this ethnic unity. It also takes aim at Taiwan, calling for deepened integration to make people on the island feel more Chinese. There is also the possibility that it will be taken as a legal basis and then extended outward to become a legal foundation for handling cross-strait issues. Therefore, based on the principle of preparing for the worst, we still believe that many of the CCP's actions, which nominally are declared to be for maintaining stability domestically, in fact may also be transformed into long-arm jurisdiction or tools for cross-border suppression and could even become a possible means of undermining cross-strait relations. Observers call this a new front in Beijing's legal warfare against Taiwan. It gives Beijing a lot of room to interpret the law as it sees fit and the number of people it could affect is huge. Beijing's latest craze is creating a dilemma for the Chinese regime. Push for AI dominance or maintain control. The artificial intelligence agent called OpenClaw, which was recently acquired by OpenAI, has exploded in popularity across China. But officials are concerned the tool could expose sensitive data, create cybersecurity risks and damage an already weak job market. Across China, users have begun installing this AI agent onto their personal and work computers. OpenClaw can handle tasks without much instruction, like clearing email inboxes, managing personal schedules or replying to text messages. Its popularity in China has earned a nickname, Raising Lobsters. That's because the original name, OpenClaw, was inspired by the founders' love of lobsters. Using the AI tool has even been compared to Raising One. But OpenClaw also started raising concerns for the Chinese regime. Authorities have already restricted some state-owned firms from installing it on sensitive computers, citing potential data security risks. Cybersecurity experts warn the tool needs high-level access to personal data and can communicate with outside systems, opening the door to cyber attacks. It can even act on its own, sometimes deleting important files after being given permission. Despite those concerns, China's tech giants, including Tencent and Alibaba, are building around OpenClaw. And several Chinese cities are offering millions of dollars in subsidies for startups developing new tools around it. For the Chinese regime, the ability to regulate and maintain control over the AI's actions are becoming more difficult. There are also broader economic worries. A study from Peking University found job postings are already declining in areas where AI is being heavily used, including in accounting and programming. And in a country where youth unemployment remains high, the rise of AI tools can put more pressure on the already strained labor market. Congress is targeting human rights violations of the Chinese Communist Party. A bipartisan pair of senators unveiling a new bill aimed at protecting Falun Gong practitioners encountering forced organ harvesting in China. The bill is sponsored by Senators Ted Cruz and Jeff Merkley and is called the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act. It targets foreign nationals deemed complicit in forced organ harvesting. Those individuals would be blocked from entering the United States or conducting U.S.-based transactions. Violating those sanctions could lead to significant financial penalties or prison time. It would also require the U.S. government to report on China's organ transplant system and restrict cooperation with Chinese institutions in the transplant field. Senator Ted Cruz says the Chinese Communist Party runs a brutal state-backed organ harvesting system targeting people for their faith. He says Falun Gong practitioners are among those most heavily persecuted, calling the actions a serious violation of religious freedom and human rights. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation practice with teachings focused on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It's faced more than 26 years of deadly persecution in China, including constant police harassment, arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, and torture. In 2019, the China Tribunal, held in the U.K., concluded that forced organ harvesting is happening on a large scale in China, with Falun Gong practitioners being the main group targeted. Coming up, China controls ingredients in much of the medicine Americans take every day. Senators warn of national security risks and the push to make drug labels clearer. And the U.S. lead strikes on Iran and the death of its regime leader have rattled Beijing because that could spur uprising in China. Insiders from China told the Epoch Times he spoke with two experts. If you look at the communist regime and Iranian regime, there are a lot of similarities. More on that after the break, here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. The U.S. relies heavily on China for generic drug ingredients, and lawmakers say that's a growing national security concern. On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Aging held a hearing to discuss the risks and possible solutions. NTD's Chris Bobb has the latest from Washington. What if I told you that communist China, an adversary of the United States, has sole control of the building blocks of many of the medicines seniors Americans rely on? Lawmakers on the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing Wednesday examining America's dependence on foreign drug manufacturing. China's regime believes it's at war with us. China, to win this war, has a doctrine of unrestricted warfare. A hundred of America's most used pharmaceuticals, they require ingredients that are made in only one Chinese factory. Experts say even drugs produced outside China often rely on Chinese ingredients. India, the other heavyweight production center for generics, they get 80% of their active pharmaceutical ingredients from China. The United States has become reliant on China and India for key ingredients to manufacture generic drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and key starting materials. Congress must empower the FDA to conduct rigorous oversight to make sure foreign manufacturers comply with our safety standards. Witnesses told senators U.S. drug companies have been gradually pushed out of the market. China enticed U.S. manufacturers to their shores. Drug makers soon realized they were subject to Chinese rules, laws, patent agreements. They were required to have Chinese Communist Party members on their boards and relinquish up to 51% of their companies to state-owned enterprises. Corporations must give up their drug formula for approval. If not surrendered freely, they're stolen. Chinese companies then spring up, creating the exact same drug and selling it below cost. Committee Chairman Senator Rick Scott is pushing legislation aimed at increasing transparency about where medicines are made. In an exclusive interview with me last year, When you put a generic drug in your body, you really actually don't know what's in it, right? 80% of the generic drugs that you put into your body come from India and China, right? 90% of the ingredients come from China. On the label, it should say, where are the ingredients from and where was it manufactured? He said our supply chain is vulnerable during a geopolitical crisis. You know, if we go to war, which none of us want to go to war, but the logic of the country that we'll go to war with is the same country we're dependent on, China, which is foolish, right? Witnesses also discussed economic tools that could help rebuild U.S. production. Can we use tariffs to help us out with China? Section 232 tariffs, I think, are very important in that regard. And if the president were to invoke the Defense Production Act, these are things that could stimulate domestic production immediately. But we don't have time to play around with this. This is imperative that we get this done within the next year and a half, two years, period. Senator Scott and colleagues have introduced the Bipartisan Clear Labels Act, which would require drug labels to disclose where ingredients and finished products are made and give patients more transparency about what they're taking. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Chris Bobb, NDD News. The U.S.-led strikes on Iran and the death of the Iranian leader have rattled Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party worries that a chain reaction could threaten the regime's own stability. That's according to a new report from The Epoch Times, citing sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. China hasn't said much about the Iran strikes, aside from messaging similar to what we saw last summer after the 12-day war. But reports note that internally, it's a different story. Several sources told The Epoch Times that top Chinese officials have been holding multiple secret meetings, even drawing lessons from the Soviet Union's collapse. We spoke with Nathan Su, investigative reporter at The Epoch Times, and Bart Markois, a foreign policy analyst and former career diplomat. Nathan, starting with you, your thoughts on the CCP's reaction to the war and its internal push to even draw lessons from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thank you for having me. For years, the Chinese Communist regime has spent tremendous time and money to learn how all these major regimes collapsed. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Chinese Communist regime tries to make a lot of effort to study how and what happened in the Soviet Union. The purpose, of course, is to prevent a similar situation happen in the future, so that it will collapse the Communist regime in China. Now, if you look at the Communist regime and Iranian regime, there are a lot of similarities, because under the Iranian regime, in every part of the government and military operation, they have a religious element over there to oversee and to control the operation, while in China, it's similar. In the military, from the company level up, in the society, from the community level up, every level, there is a Communist official that's there to control, pretty much control, the entire operation. So, if we can finally collapse the whole Iranian regime, that's going to mean a lot of how we're going to deal with China in the future, really to focus on the Communist Party officials and their military officials. Bart, digging into China, the regime is reportedly censoring searches on regime change online as concerns of an uprising spread among the party. How powerful can real change be, like what we're seeing in Iran, enough to spark a movement elsewhere? Oh, absolutely. You know that every Chinese patriot sees the situation in Iran the same way that Mr. Su just described it. They're looking at it, they see the similarities between the religious police and the party commissars, and they see the absolute control. And they are looking to see whether they could—they being the Chinese citizens—are looking to see whether this is the time. I think that they probably are going to be very cautious before they do that. But you know that they're looking at it, and you know that they, too, are learning lessons from what they see. And, Nathan, one source told The Epoch Times the CCP views the killing of Iran's Ali Khamenei as one of the most significant geopolitical upheavals of the past two decades. Do you see it that way? Yeah, of course. If you look at this newly rise in your nation's continental power, this new continental power has several strongholds around the outside boundary. That's China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. However, inside of these outside boundaries, those countries that are influenced and controlled by China and Russia, they are much weaker. I'm talking about Afghanistan, and also I'm talking about the other five countries in Asia. I'm talking about Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. All these countries are much weaker. Now, if the Iranian regime collapses, then that pretty much means the western and southern corner of this continental power total collapse. And then the weaker part of this continental power will be exposed directly to the outside influence. And those weaker countries are much harder for China and Russia to control. And far ahead of the strikes, many Chinese media and mouthpieces said that the U.S. didn't have the backbone to strike Iran, given that China miscalculated President Trump's capabilities. More broadly, does this hurt China's image in the eyes of its partners? Oh, everything that has happened in the past year has hurt China's image in the eyes of its partners. First of all, its hardware has been shown to be complete junk. It's useless against American air power, and it's useless against American special operations capabilities. Not just the air power, the much-vaunted hypersonic anti-ship missiles. I've seen a report that China sent 50 of them to Iran. All 50 of them failed to reach their target. They all missed, and the vessels that fired them were all sunk. They have been shown to be an unreliable, weak partner. I think we spoke recently about the fact that Iran was turning to China, asking it for assistance, and all it got from China was a gentle clap and some words of encouragement. But nothing that really matters. And on that note, Bart, what does all of this mean for Taiwan? Some headlines highlight how this could be a blow to U.S. munitions stockpiles that could damage the deterrence against a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Others believe that this strengthens America's hand, as China now knows that the U.S. is serious about striking back. Your thoughts on that? Let me first repeat what I said earlier. There is no weapon, no munition that is as important as the willpower of the leadership. And nobody doubts the willpower of President Trump or his administration or of the American military. As far as the munition supplies are concerned, we have the supplies. We have the supplies available. We have the manufacturing capability available to replace them. President Trump has been working on that since his second inauguration. He's been working feverishly on it. He's been working to replace the rare earth minerals and the other precursors to gunpowder and high explosive manufacturing that we traditionally, not traditionally, but for the past 20 years have been getting from China. He's already moved to replace that from other countries, from other allies. And I remember reading about two months ago that the Pentagon had a $500 billion surplus in their budget that was not obligated. The money is there. And when you have that kind of money, you can buy what you need to manufacture what's necessary. That's all for today's China In Focus. 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 NDD app. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.