ExclusiveTrump Jr.: Don’t Invest in China; American Journalist Spies for China | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus, I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, President Trump's eldest son said he wouldn't consider investing in China. He also warns others about the risks. An American journalist pleading guilty to acting as a foreign agent of the Chinese Communist Party. President Trump asked if he's worried China is funding the anti-data center movement in the U.S. We unpack the controversy. The head of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, will visit North Korea next week. What message is the trip sending? A key Pacific island nation is moving closer to the West. The Solomon Islands' new leader seeking to reset relations with Australia and reviewing a security pact with China. What does this mean for U.S.-China wrangling in the Pacific? This is a very significant move and something that I think not only will be good for the Solomon Islands and Australia, but also for the United States. On Thursday, President Trump's eldest son warned against investing in China. During an event for investors in Zurich, Don Jr. was asked if he would consider investing in China. He quickly responded, quote, I wouldn't. I don't think we can pretend they're an ally. That would be, I think, foolish. Trump Jr. serves as executive vice president of the Trump Organization, alongside his brother Eric. Trump Jr. went on to explain that he believes the Chinese legal framework is biased against foreign companies. He said, quote, I can't name someone who is not Chinese who has done business in China who ever won a lawsuit. China's legal system operates within the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party. That means disputes against state-backed Chinese entities are often very difficult to win. One of the most high-profile corporate battles is between French food giant Danone and Chinese beverage manufacturer Wahaha. The two companies formed a joint venture, but Danone later discovered that its Chinese partner was allegedly running a parallel production chain and selling identical products outside the terms of their agreement. Danone filed a lawsuit and lost. It was then forced to sell its stake to its Chinese partner at a heavy discount and exit the market. Another example is the American company Mint Group. It's a due diligence firm specialized in vetting Chinese companies to ensure they aren't engaged in fraud or forced labor. However, Chinese authorities raided the firm's Beijing office, detained its local staff, and slapped the company with a $1.5 million penalty under the guise of conducting, quote, unapproved statistical investigations. Foreign businesses are investing less and less in China. That's despite Beijing's efforts to keep them there. Also on Thursday, an American journalist pleaded guilty to acting as a foreign agent of China. The news comes as intelligence agencies from the United States and its allies warn that Beijing is increasingly using online recruitment tactics to obtain sensitive information. Entity's Arlene Richards has more. According to reports from a Virginia courtroom, American journalist Thomas Paulkin II pleaded guilty Thursday to acting as an unregistered foreign agent of China. Prosecutors alleged Paulkin operated under the direction and control of individuals linked to China's Ministry of State Security without notifying the U.S. government as required by law. The guilty plea comes as intelligence agencies from the United States and its closest allies warn that Chinese intelligence services are increasingly using fake recruiters and online job offers to target people with access to sensitive information. The Chinese Communist Party is the number one national security threat to the United States. When individuals either leave the military or leave the different intelligence agencies, they're looking for opportunities to try to either recruit these individuals or gain some type of intelligence. Targets include military personnel, government employees, think tank researchers, academics, and journalists. According to court documents, Paulkin sought to obtain information from a U.S. government employee. Paulkin had been living in China for more than a decade. He was stopped by U.S. Border Patrol agents six months ago as he entered the country. FBI Special Agent Timothy J. Healy stated in an affidavit that Paulkin admitted during voluntary FBI interviews that he was working at the direction of individuals he knew were associated with the Chinese Communist Party and that his work was part of a conspiracy to obtain classified information from the U.S. The Chinese Communist Party's growing threat inside America. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are sounding the alarm. It ranges from silencing critics on American soil to flooding our streets with fentanyl. NTD's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley has more. Even though I was on the land of the free, I am not free. On the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, lawmakers on Capitol Hill examining the threats the Chinese regime poses inside America today. China is the world's worst perpetrator of transnational repression. Stealing from U.S. citizens, fentanyl poisoning of our cities and our young people, PRC-linked land purchases near military installations, effort to corrupt politicians and elections. The bipartisan Congressional Executive Commission on China looking at the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to silence its critics in the U.S. As a father, I was terrified for the safety of Alisa when she goes to Beijing to compete for the United States of America. Arthur Liu, the father of Olympic gold medalist Alisa Liu, came to the U.S. as a political refugee in 1989, just after the Tiananmen Square massacre. While living in San Francisco, his family was targeted by agents working for the Chinese regime. That's after his daughter Alisa posted news on social media about China's human rights violations. I guess the Chinese government never forgot about that. This led him to take extra precautions when his daughter went to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Additional security for Alisa when she was in Beijing. She was accompanied at all times by two adults from venues to venues throughout the Olympic Games. The Hong Kong government, which is handpicked by the Chinese Communist Party, placed a bounty on dissident Anna Kwok after she testified in Congress in 2023 on the fall of democracy in Hong Kong, freezing her assets, revoking her passport, and just last month, arresting her 70-year-old father. The CCP weaponized my love for my family in an attempt to silence me forever. Over at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, lawmakers examining China's role in the fentanyl crisis. The deadly supply chain starts and is engineered in China. China's the world's primary source of fentanyl precursor chemicals, which are mainly sent to Mexican cartels to process them into the U.S. Drug overdoses mainly caused by fentanyl is the number one cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45, killing around 70,000 every year. And many of the victims are unaware that the drug they're taking is laced with a lethal dose of fentanyl. Never did I imagine that one of these policy challenges would strike my own family so directly. Steve Yates is a father of a fentanyl poisoning victim. Our daughter, Christina Marie, was just shy of her 25th birthday when she ingested an off-market Xanax laced with fentanyl. Saying that China, being an authoritarian state, will be able to crack down on this, but chooses not to. That's as the House Select Committee on the CCP found in a recent report that the CCP was subsidizing the manufacture and export of these fentanyl chemicals. When you have the actual government writing code that gives tax rebates to the companies that are involved in something that is illegal in China and illegal to export, it gets back to that fundamental question. Are you negotiating with a government counterpart in good faith? And my answer is no. These hearings highlight bipartisan concern over the Chinese regime's activities in the U.S. From silencing dissents to causing the deadliest drug epidemic in American history. For NTD News Washington, I'm Jack Bradley. President Trump on Thursday said he's not worried about whether China is funding an anti-data center movement here in the U.S. No, I'm not worried about it. We had a great meeting with China. And, you know, they do things to us and we do things to them. I say it all the time. They say, are you worried about China tapping your phones? I said, well, they're worried about the same thing. No, we're very highly sophisticated. We've become very highly sophisticated. We had four years. I rebuilt the military. We had a military that was not good and we rebuilt it. Trump's comments come as resistance to AI data centers is building. And some House Republicans say Chinese influence campaigns could be adding fuel to the fire. Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are urging the administration to investigate alleged Chinese efforts to slow AI development in the U.S. Lawmakers cited news reports that Chinese and Russian propaganda outlets have been pushing messages in the U.S. that AI data centers are harmful. They also pointed to a report from the Bitcoin Policy Institute. It says foreign influence campaigns, including many from China, are trying to shaping U.S. policy and public opinion on artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, AI data center development is meeting with resistance. On Thursday, New York lawmakers passed a bill banning AI data center construction in the state for one year. It's now on Governor Kathy Hochul's desk for signing. Over in Utah, celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary also agreed to scale back his data center project by almost 20,000 acres. Utah's top lawmaker demanded it. An NGO at the center of the push for data center moratoriums spoke with Politico. It says people are against the centers because they lead to skyrocketing energy bills and alarming water consumption. But data center developers question if they're really to blame for rising electricity bills. A slew of major tech companies have agreed to build, bring, or buy all of the energy needed for the sites. That includes Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Zooming out, AI is a major area of competition between the U.S. and China. It's a race the U.S. doesn't want to fall behind in. But there are still real concerns over the technology and the danger it poses to humanity. OpenAI's rival, Anthropic, wants AI labs around the world to consider slowing down development of the technology. It says artificial intelligence models are improving so quickly that they may soon be able to improve themselves without human intervention. That runs the risk of humans losing control over AI systems. After recently hosting President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing, Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping will visit North Korea on Monday. It's his first overseas visit this year. That's an indication of just how important this relationship is to China. Why is it happening now? Here's more. Beijing has worked to draw Pyongyang, its only formal treaty ally, back into its fold after the COVID-19 pandemic froze exchanges. At the symbolic level, it's important for Xi Jinping to sort of keep taps on what's going on in Pyongyang. John Delury is a senior fellow of the Asia Society. I think the message implicit from the Chinese side is Xi Jinping is saying, look, we are still the principal actor when it comes to North Korea. Last September, Kim was a guest of the massive military parade in Beijing. And in March this year, passenger train services between Beijing and Pyongyang resumed after a six-year suspension. Ahead of the visit, Kim called for an exponential expansion of Pyongyang's atomic arsenal during a visit to a nuclear material production factory, state media said. Before his September visit to Beijing last year, Kim inspected plans for a new intercontinental ballistic missile. The announcement of the visit follows Xi's summits in Beijing last month, with US President Donald Trump and Russia President Vladimir Putin. I do think that one of the audiences is Russia, is Vladimir Putin, just to say, what you're doing with North Korea is fine, but let's not go too far with this. Kim deepened ties with Moscow by sending troops and weapons to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A major setback for Beijing's ambitions in the Pacific, a key Pacific island nation is shifting toward the West, seeking to reset its relationship with Australia and review its security path with China. Here's what the prime ministers of Australia and the Solomon Islands had to say. We've committed to elevate our bilateral relationship. At the request of the Solomon Islands, this will be agreed in a new comprehensive treaty underpinned by mutual trust, respect and open dialogue. Solomon Islands is Australia's friend, has always been and always will be. This is a very significant move and something that I think not only will be good for the Solomon Islands and Australia, but also for the United States. Andrew Harding is a policy analyst of national security and Indo-Pacific affairs at the Heritage Foundation. He also served as special assistant for Asia on the National Security Council. Harding says the move could help strengthen stability in the Pacific. So I think by having the new prime minister being willing to work with Australia here, to see a potential new agreement to reevaluate its current, the Solomon's relationship with China is an excellent step forward for developing a peaceful, more safer Pacific region that ultimately the United States should also get behind as well. What has concerned the U.S. is a security pact signed between China and the Solomon Islands under a former prime minister. Washington's is the pact could open the door to the deployment of Chinese military forces in the Solomon Islands. Harding noted that allowing China to establish a military base in the heart of the Pacific would create a major security concern. Having the Chinese ability to be there allows them to jump past the first island chain, maintain a security defense presence in the Solomon Islands. And should there ever be some type of conflict, whether it's with the U.S. and China or other countries, it allows China to have a foothold in a region behind say the first island chain, respond accordingly, cut off trade or threaten other countries as well. The first island chain is a crucial line of defense that contains the Chinese military. Harding added that the U.S. does not want a Chinese military presence anywhere in the Pacific islands. The United States, given it's a Pacific country, but it has territories and obligations throughout the entire Pacific. On top of having states bordering the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. is also obligated to defend Pacific island nations, including Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands. We have security alliances with these countries that grant us exclusive military privileges and access points. Then, of course, we have Guam and the Mariana Islands. So this is an area which the U.S., not to mention American Samoa down in Polynesia as well. This is where the United States has citizens, has territories, has countries it's obligated to protect. So we want to ensure from an American perspective, the Chinese cannot fracture that defense architecture. We don't want China behind our lines of defense. We want to ensure China cannot disrupt trade or threaten Australia, which is a U.S. defense ally, New Zealand as well, a very close U.S. defense partner, and Papua New Guinea, which the U.S. has a defense cooperation agreement with as well. So there's a lot at play here when it comes to geopolitical competition, but primarily it's to ensure that China cannot access the geography that's important for American security. The new prime minister of the Solomon Islands called for the pact with China to be made public before being elected. There is a non-disclosure clause in it, so I couldn't show it to you right away. But we are going to be reviewing, as we are reviewing other security agreements that we have with many other countries. Responding to the Solomon Islands reset with Australia, China said it is willing to expand practical cooperation with the new government. Australia made it clear that Pacific countries, rather than China, should dictate regional security. We have said very clearly we want Australia to be the security partner of choice in our region, and we want the Pacific family to look after our security in this region. So I think for Australia here, this would be pulling the Solomon Islands closer, but it's also in their interest to do so. Then, it is so possible, of course, that the Solomon Islands new prime minister has also indicated that he recognizes there is an economic component with Beijing. I think this is a constant, an ongoing tension that many countries, not only in the Pacific, have to wrestle with. But there is an acknowledgement of a Solomon Island-China relationship that could be beneficial on an economic ground. But make no mistake, that doesn't mean the Solomon Islands is going to be sacrificing or giving up its security if the Chinese agreement is going to hurt it. Australia has been boosting ties with Pacific partners and has signed treaties with Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Nauru. Some agreements allow Australia to veto security deals these nations make with countries like China. Coming up, Chinese and Taiwanese coastguards facing off in the South China Sea as a Chinese vessel moves into Taiwan-controlled waters. And how has the U.S. been countering China from the Panama Canal to Iran to the Western Hemisphere? Colonel Rob Maness joins us to unpack the geopolitical puzzle pieces. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Chinese and Taiwanese coastguards facing off in the South China Sea on Friday. Here's a Taiwanese coastguard issuing a warning to a Chinese ship nearing Taiwanese waters. You have entered our waters without permission. Your actions have already affected the order and safety of our national waters. Please immediately change course and leave our waters as soon as possible. The situation escalated after the Chinese coastguard ship ignored the warning, sped up and forced its way into waters off Prata Islands. In a statement, Taiwan's coastguards at the Chinese coastguard ship is challenging Taiwan's sovereignty, adding both sides engaged in intense verbal exchanges and were still in a standoff when the statement came out. Just two days ago, four Chinese coastguard ships entered waters near Kinmen, an island controlled by Taiwan. The Chinese coastguard ships were later expelled. The Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan as its own territory, but Taiwan rejects that claim. Beijing also makes maritime claims to the waters around Taiwan. Japan has agreed to begin talks with Indonesia on exporting its Asagiri-class destroyer. The ships are built for defense operations and can be used in anti-submarine warfare. Japan's defense minister had a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart in Tokyo Friday. Indonesia was also interested in importing second-hand Japanese submarines. This comes as Tokyo is looking to expand military cooperation across Southeast Asia amid tensions with China. Japan is also considering transferring destroyers and aircraft to the Philippines. And from a focus on the Western Hemisphere, to the conflict in Iran, to the Philippines and Japan boosting their ties, how has the US been countering China? Joining us now to unpack the geopolitical puzzle pieces falling into place is Rob Maness, retired US Air Force colonel and former wing and squadron commander. He's also the author of What You Can Do About It. It seems there's been a lot of different moves. I know the Philippines and Japan were just bolstering their ties, which also impacts the US. We're all allies in that region, of course. And then on the flip side, you have China over the years getting quite close to Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Russia, of course, North Korea. It does seem right now the Trump administration has lessened some of that, at least with Venezuela, Cuba, perhaps Iran's ongoing. Do you see kind of global shifts happening right now? Yes, I do. And it's in a positive direction towards the vital national interests of the United States and our Western allies. Any weakening of China's Belt and Road Initiative, as one example, is a step in the right direction. Because when we put the number one priority under the new National Defense Strategy of strengthening the defense of the Western Hemisphere, it wasn't just about the Western Hemisphere. A lot of that is about China and deterring China and reducing their strength amongst countries that are supposed to be allies of ours under organizations like the Organization of American States, where we look to each other to help defend ourselves. Well, if China is coming in and giving free stuff to countries that are supposed to be part of that defensive nature of the organization, that's a problem for us. But that's not the worst problem. The worst problem is that China was about to get control over the most critically important choke point for the United States, if, God forbid, we ever had to go to war in the Indo-Pacific area again with a major peer or near peer adversary like the People's Republic of China, they were going to get control of both ends of the Panama Canal. That's why the very first steps that this administration took was to disrupt that and stop it so that the United States of America has control over that. Because we built it, number one. But number two, and more importantly, it is the most important critical choke point for us to control if we ever had to, God forbid, go to war with the PRC. With the emphasis on the Western Hemisphere, I know part of that was to root out the drug cartels, a lot of drugs coming into the U.S., but also Chinese influence. There's a lot of, of course, economic interests in that region. When it comes to looking for partners, though, the story coming out of a lot of these countries is they're not really getting what they were promised from the Chinese side. So some of them are looking to alternative markets, perhaps the United States. Of course, we're coming up on our 250th. How do you see perhaps the two systems playing out, especially on the global scale, where people are looking at these two different systems? Sure, the United States, perhaps, is still working towards that more perfect union. But compared to those totalitarian systems, what can the United States offer that communist China can't? Well, what communist China offers is, hey, we'll give you a loan and come in and build all this great infrastructure for you. But if you default on the loan, we take ownership of that infrastructure, which is designed to support large scale military operations, by the way. But what the United States can offer is we can help you restore your infrastructure, but you get the income and your people and your society gets the majority of the prosperity out of that as long as you are in a friendly relationship of doing business with the United States, which is what one of the things that we've always been about since our inception from George Washington on every president has emphasized that we want to do business with other countries because it helps our society become more prosperous, and it helps them become more prosperous. And it establishes a friendship, as opposed to an adversarial relationship, which is what the Chinese concept is. Colonel Rob Maness, thank you so much for your time. Thank you very much. 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.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 soon.