ExclusiveNew Law Lets China Seize Western Business Assets in Wartime | China in Focus

Welcome to China in Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, a change in Chinese law potentially allows Western business assets to be seized during wartime. More on how Beijing is preparing its society to quickly switch to wartime mode if needed. Leaders of the 18th BRICS summit call for local currency trading. What the latest BRICS agreement in New Delhi means for Washington. The controversy over AI continues. Top researchers say super intelligent AI could destroy us. President Trump, however, has China on his mind. We're leading China in AI. I want to keep it that way because whoever wins, AI wins. China is angry again over Taiwan. Panama cut ties with Taiwan nine years ago in favor of Beijing, but now its lawmakers are growing closer to the island. A Taiwanese official citing the shared values that Panama and Taiwan uphold. Is China preparing for war? Amendments to its national defense mobilization law are set to take effect in less than three weeks. The revision allows Beijing to quickly switch to wartime mode, mobilizing civilian resources toward defense during a future conflict. One analyst calling it a wake-up call for defense planners in the Pentagon. The revisions also are sparking concerns for foreign businesses operating in China. An expert says it gives authorities power to seize private property from any company during wartime, including those of Western businesses. The revisions also expand scenarios in which China could invoke the law, one of which is when China's development interests are threatened. But the law is vague on the details. Experts say development interests could range from economy, energy, technology to supply chain, essentially anything the Chinese Communist Party deems sensitive. This could include activities that would be considered ordinary economic or social activities in a Western country. Does the move signal China is preparing for a war with Taiwan? Analysts' views vary. Some think it signals that China is marching toward a war over Taiwan and thinking through practical issues. Others think the revision goes beyond Taiwan. And flashpoints also include China's tension with the Philippines and the South China Seas and China's border disputes with India. One analysis points to China expanding its capacity to support long and large-scale wars as amendments ask for stockpiling strategic assets. Another thinks the goal is to prepare the country to sustain itself in a prolonged war. That's to prevent military failure from threatening the Communist Party's grip on power. Leaders from 11 nations wrapped up the 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi, adopting the New Delhi Declaration. The group launched a new payment task force to boost local currency trading, stopping short of a common currency, but striking against unilateral Western sanctions. The New Delhi Declaration strongly criticizes unilateral economic sanctions and tariffs imposed without United Nations approval. It reaffirms support for a WTO-centered multilateral trading system. On finance, BRICS stopped short of creating a common currency. Instead, leaders agreed to expand the BRICS payment task force. They will increase use of local currencies in trade and investment. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi framed the group as a platform for the global South. He said BRICS is not against any country or bloc. Analysts at the Heritage Foundation and Hudson Institute see a growing challenge to the U.S.-led order, particularly with Putin and Xi playing prominent roles. Carnegie analysts say India and China are moving toward a new normal of managed competition, not restored trust. BRICS includes Russia and Iran, two countries involved in wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as China and India, two major powers in Asia, among others. The controversy over AI continued over the weekend. Top researchers say super intelligent AI could destroy us and that a change in mindset is needed. President Trump, however, has something else on his mind, the race with China and the future of the U.S. The warning from inside the AI industry is stark. Former anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon says leading AI companies are racing towards self-improving super intelligence. He warns that such systems could hack anything, revolutionize any field and acquire real power and resources. I think the concept of building a super intelligence is well, it's been likened to summoning an alien species. So I think thinking about it in terms of an alien mind that we don't fully understand is pretty terrifying, even without any concrete scenario. Anthropic researcher Evan Hoopinger went even further. He says AI could kill all humans and puts the chance in more than 10% within the next decade. Other AI experts are echoing the same concerns, saying the risks are real. But President Trump has repeatedly emphasized the need for America to win the AI race against China. Well, I say this, look, we're leading China in AI. We're the most sophisticated country in the world. And frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins. And we can quit guardrails. We can do this and that. But I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing it up. And they're bringing up things that won't happen. For the Trump administration, China represents a present national security competitor that must not gain control of the world's most powerful technology. On the issue of AI risks, lawmakers from both parties are already sounding the alarm. Senators are warning that the consequences could be catastrophic and are pushing for new rules governing AI research and development. House Speaker Mike Johnson says a meeting with tech leaders is necessary. I think the leaders and the providers of all these platforms, the guys you named and a few others, there's about seven or eight people who are in charge of this. They need to come together in a meeting with us and sit down and figure out what the right balance is. We cannot put a moratorium on this because China will overlap us. And that's the challenge. It's national security balanced with the immediate security of making sure the models are safe. Johnson added that he spoke with President Trump about the issue and suggested that such a meeting should take place at the White House. A new report from Anthropic reveals that foreign malicious actors have used its AI system, Claude, to monitor and target individuals and groups. The report says several of these actors have direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party and have used the platform to gather information on dissidents as part of a transnational repression campaign. Here's NTD's Fiona Ji with details from that report. Anthropic's report covers malicious activities from the last nine months, and it lists actors ranging from suspected financially motivated criminals, politically motivated individuals, and commercial spyware vendors, all the way to state propaganda institutions and state-sponsored groups. The report says that cases range from, quote, a network of fake dating apps designed to defraud users to surveillance systems built to identify and monitor dissidents. A notable section of the findings reveals how users with links to the Chinese Communist Party use Claude to gather information and then build profiles of overseas dissidents. Targeted groups include Tibetan Buddhists, Catholic leadership, and Falun Gong, which is a spiritual practice brutally persecuted by the CCP since 1999. The report says the users instructed Claude to comb through domestic and overseas platforms for birthdates, birthplaces, immigration dates, and social media profiles of individuals. They also use the AI system to conduct reconnaissance on religious or lawful protest venues. In one specific case, the report finds that an instructor working at an American institution that's affiliated with Falun Gong was surveilled as part of the CCP's campaign of repressing Falun Gong overseas. Essentially, malicious actors are using Claude to replace teams of multiple intelligence collection workers. Now, just one single operator can input instructions into Claude, which then aggregates information from all online sources on its own. The report explicitly states that these are concrete acts of transnational repression. Anthropic says it has taken action to ban the threat actors' accounts and track their digital footprints to prevent further misuse. The tech company urges AI developers and governments to understand the risks of AI and to work to create safeguards. The AI race has been at the forefront of many geopolitical discussions, and the findings of this report are particularly pressing considering the Trump-Xi summit in Washington, D.C. is scheduled for September 24th. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Fiona Ji, NTD News. Staying on AI, lawmakers are weighing how to move forward amid the growing call to regulate artificial intelligence. NTD's Malina Weisskopf reports. AI is advancing at an extraordinary pace, and some of the risks are dangerous and frightening. The comments from Senator Ted Cruz come as a group of bipartisan lawmakers are working to craft legislation to curb the catastrophic risks of artificial intelligence. It faces an uncertain future as negotiations are underway. AI that would implicate biological issues or nuclear issues that have the potential to have catastrophic risk, it would require government supervision and approval before they can be implemented. So it is possible, but it ain't easy. This is a very divided time. Over the weekend, Dario Amodi, CEO of Anthropic, released an essay warning about the serious risks associated with AI. He called on other AI companies and the government to address them. If we go too slow, I still believe that the wrong people will be in charge of the technology. And that, again, will bring the probability of things going wrong very high. He writes, quote, a Chinese lead in AI would pose grave danger for the United States and the world. CEOs Elon Musk and Sam Altman both agreed with Amodi. Top lawmakers weighing in. We should take decisive action now so that we can slow down, as the CEOs have recently acknowledged, slow down the pace of development in order to protect the American people. Some calling for a kind of agreement with other countries, even adversarial ones, that resembles the agreements surrounding nuclear weapons. When we create a nuclear weapon, the nuclear weapon did not have the decision-making power to drop a nuclear weapon. AI has the capability and will have the capability to make decisions like that. Lawmakers returned to Washington this week, and negotiations around AI regulations are expected to take center stage. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Melina Weiskopf, NTD News. Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping is expected to visit the U.S. this month. President Trump, over the weekend, responding to a question from a reporter about a recent report that the Chinese regime may have provided Iran with satellite imagery of an airbase in Jordan. Three U.S. service members were later killed in an attack on that base in July. We recently reported that Chinese entities may have provided the Iranians with satellite imagery of the airbases in Jordan. They do what we do. They basically do what we do. Were you going to raise that with Xi when he visits? I think he's behaved reasonably well, and we behave reasonably well. You know, when they say that China spies on us, I say, you're right, and we spy on them, too. We spy on them, too. President Trump also talking about Chinese cars after being asked whether he would ever let them in the U.S. The president saying he's the one who has kept them out, citing the high U.S. tariffs he has imposed. President Trump comparing that to Europe, which he says is being decimated by Chinese cars. The European Automobile Manufacturers Association says over a million vehicles made in China were imported into the EU in 2025. The president was also asked about the status of a Boeing deal and indicated that he will get that deal figured out, saying, I get every deal. China is angry again over Taiwan. On Monday, Beijing warned, quote, anyone who tramples on the red line and oversteps on the Taiwan question must pay the price. This time it's about Panama. The Latin American country cut ties with Taiwan in 2017 and soon after established formal diplomatic relations with China. This is a common way Beijing uses its political power and money to limit Taiwan's role in the international community. But last week, some Panamanian lawmakers formed a Taiwan-friendly group. More than half of the country's lawmakers have joined, including the president of the parliament. On top of that, more than 20 Panamanian lawmakers have visited Taiwan in the past six months, a rare move that shows the two sides may be getting closer. The Panamanian president said that the government does not support the lawmakers. Panama has become increasingly important in the growing competition between the U.S. and China for influence over the Panama Canal. Coming up, Russian President Vladimir Putin says that if Europe were to send troops to Ukraine, they would be targets. Phil McCarthy, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, weighs in. That and more after the break here on China In Focus. Has peace and normalized relations with the U.S. now started to outweigh the benefits of forging forward even with China in Putin's corner to continue the fighting? I'm afraid not. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. During the BRICS conference held in India, Russian President Vladimir Putin made comments that if Europe were to send troops to Ukraine, they would be legitimate targets. To discuss this, entities carried out was joined by Paul McCarthy, senior research fellow for European Affairs at the Heritage Foundation. The analysis starts with his assessment of the current phase of the war. Have a look. Meanwhile, during the BRICS conference held in India, Russian President Vladimir Putin made comments that if Europe were to send troops to Ukraine, they would become legitimate targets. Earlier, I spoke with Paul McCarthy. He's a senior research fellow at the European Affairs Office within the Heritage Foundation. I joined, asked him for his analysis and understanding of the current phase of the war. Have a look at that conversation. Well, let's start with Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin's objectives have always been to divide the NATO alliance. And this is a nice way to do that. The United States, under Donald Trump, has been seeking to get the Europeans to do more with regard to Ukraine. And the Europeans are stepping up, maybe not as quickly as we would like them. And they have put on the table the possibility of deployment of troops on the ground after an agreement is set. And emphasis on after the agreement is set. And Vladimir Putin sees an opening here to split the alliance by trying to scare our European partners off the battlefield, literally. When it comes to diesel fuel, President Trump rightly cares about fuel prices in the United States and their effect on the U.S. economy. What we're going to have to see is the pressure that he has applied on Ukraine by telling Vladimir Zelensky to stop attacks on diesel depots and Russia, whether he reciprocates and also asks Russia for concessions as well, because otherwise it is an unbalanced plan. Yeah. To your point, it seems like the attacks from the Ukraine into Moscow have really changed the dynamic of the war. And I want to get your thoughts on if they don't attack the diesel supply, are they at a bit of a disadvantage? Or as you point out, does that then give them the opportunity to say, hey, stop hitting our civilian targets? What do you expect to happen with President Trump sort of coming in and saying what is and isn't acceptable in terms of how they attack each other? Yeah, taking attacks away from Russian energy supplies from Ukraine really takes the card out of Vladimir Zelensky's hand and weakens his hand, in fact. We need to, as the United States, be asking for Russia to reciprocate. If in fact Ukraine does stop the attacks on the diesel fuel, we are waiting for that to be confirmed. But if that happens, the Russians need to also offer something up with regard to, for example, attacks on civilian sites and energy as the very tough winter approaches. Yeah, and it would seem just obvious that even as valuable as diesel is, civilian targets should just be completely off the table. But it seems as if Putin's incentives for quite some time have been more in line with continuing the war. And I wonder, has peace and normalized relations with the U.S. now started to outweigh the benefits of forging forward, even with China in Putin's corner, to continue the fighting? I'm afraid not. I think Vladimir Putin's calculations are that he can win more territory and solve his problems, so to speak, on the battlefield and not through negotiation. And everything that comes out of the Kremlin appears to be a delaying tactic as he tries to take more and more of the Donbass, which is his major objective in Ukraine. Yeah, and that is somewhat unfortunate to hear. In all of these things, it seems like which way are his incentives? And it just seems like he has that taste for continuing the war. There hasn't really been any major shift that has aligned his incentives. So to that end, do you have any sense for what the average Russian person thinks of the war and Putin as their leader? Is there any hope for any internal challenge to Putin? Russia is not a normal democratic society, so it has long been very hard to ascertain what the Russian people really think about what's going on with regard to the Ukrainian war, with regard to the state of the economy, and relations with other countries, including the U.S. and China, for example. That has been extremely hard to ascertain. So it would be a fool's errand to try to figure that out. Whether there is a challenge within, we shall see. But Vladimir Putin has been very careful to establish a system where challenges to his rule are few and far between. And as you put it, the winter not too far ahead, and that certainly will put a lot of pressures on a variety of elements with this whole situation. Paul McCarthy, thank you for your analysis this morning. 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 NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.