Israeli Embassy Staffer Stabbed in Beijing | China In Focus 2023-10-14 01:43

A brutal attack on a Beijing street. A staffer for the Israeli embassy in China stabbed by a foreign national. Beijing's mouthpiece using the war to paint the U.S. and Israel in a negative light and a closer look at how the Chinese regime pushes different narratives within its borders. Be ready for war. A congressional report warning the U.S. is facing a major risk of military conflict against not one but two nuclear adversaries. And how a Chinese American gangster's money laundering scheme changed the game for drug cartels. A new report exposing how officials say Chinese authorities could be involved. What do you think. Let us know below and subscribe if you haven't already. Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. A staffer at the Israeli embassy in China was stabbed in Beijing on Friday. Jews around the world are being advised to stay vigilant after Hamas issued a call for a quote day of rage. We want to warn you that the following footage is graphic and includes video of the stabbing. Footage shows the diplomat being stabbed multiple times by a man in white on a sidewalk in Beijing. Another video shows the injured staffer lying on the ground with security and onlookers standing near him. One of them could be heard saying he's a lesbian. He's a lesbian. The diplomat was rushed to the hospital and is in a stable condition. The attack didn't happen within the embassy compound itself which is just one over from that of the United States. Chinese police say the attacker has been arrested and an investigation is now underway. Beijing has not condemned Hamas's terrorist attack since it launched. Anti-Israel sentiment is running high on Chinese social media. Is propaganda flowing from Beijing amid the Hamas war. Let's take a closer look at least 27. The West is vowing support for Israel while condemning Hamas the terrorist group that started the war. In this moment of tragedy I want to say to them and to the world and to terrorists everywhere that the United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have her back. But on Chinese social media platforms some Internet users have come out to support Hamas and condemn Israel. One comment reads normal people will support Palestine. It's evident that Palestine is fighting for survival. Another wrote Israel can win the war with the support of the United States but it will never get the support of the world's righteous people. In a social media post an influencer fired a warning toward the U.S. saying if you interfere with our Taiwan street we will interfere with your Israel. A pro-Beijing outlet reposted the message. Analysts say Chinese propaganda could be playing a part in the sentiment. Worth noting China's one point four billion people don't have access to the free Internet. The news reports they're exposed to are heavily censored and often filled with state controlled narratives. The Chinese regime's mouthpieces such as Global Times and China Daily posted graphics and commentaries this week accusing the U.S. of meddling in the war. An expert said it's one of the go to tactics of Beijing's propaganda. The Chinese regime always paints the U.S. as the bad guy in the Middle East conflict. Speaking to VOA senior China researcher Wang Yaqiu said Beijing always tried to shift the blame on the U.S. and its allies with one key goal in mind to defame the U.S. a period unlike even the most dark days of the Cold War. A congressional commission says today's United States must be ready for war and not just on one front but two. Let's take a closer look. The report from the Strategic Posture Commission yesterday said the U.S. must prepare for a possible simultaneous wars with Russia and China. China has certainly been encouraging the worst excessive behavior from its allies not just in Iran but also we've seen the last couple of years with Russia. It's at the U.S. should expand its conventional forces strengthen alliances and modernize its nuclear weapons program. The panel also calls for deploying more nuclear weapons in Asia and Europe and producing more stealth bombers and nuclear submarines. Current U.S. national security strategy calls for winning one conflict while deterring another. The new proposal would require huge defense spending increases and it's uncertain whether Congress will support it. A shadowy drug money laundering scheme linked to the drugs and cartel operations and at the center a Chinese American gangster. A new report is shedding light on how he got Mexico's drug lords to hand over millions for cleaning. According to the Pro Publica report that man is hugely drug enforcement administration agents first learned of him in 2017 while trailing money linked to the drug trade in Tennessee. They soon discovered that he had solved a longtime problem for the cartels. How to turn dirty drug money into clean fortunes. Earlier methods required time middlemen and lots of money and had risks. Lease method skip that using messengers with no criminal records to make drop offs and laundering the cash through transactions across the U.S. Latin America and China using so-called mere transactions. The report described it as cheap fast and efficient. He even guaranteed free replacement of cartel cash lost in transit. In their investigation U.S. agents later found lease operations appear to have links to the Chinese Communist Party authorities. Experts point to Beijing's tight control over its financial system suggesting Lee's ability to move millions through China indicates the green light or at least a blind eye from Beijing. The Chinese regime rejects the accusations. Some officials in Washington believe Chinese authorities seek to foster the U.S. drug trade to destabilize the country. A self-driving truck startup next in line to separate its China business from the West called Plus A.I.. The company has split its Chinese and U.S. operations now to independent companies. The Chinese unit is called GT technology and is working to develop a self-driving truck fleet for the Chinese market. The U.S. entity is still called Plus will expand in the rest of the world. Alongside the split Plus made a deal with one of its key shareholders China's full truck alliance. Going forward it will focus on the company's China unit full truck alliance has become known as China's Uber for trucks. According to Reuters sources both it and Plus are looking to safeguard themselves amid rising U.S. China tensions and Beijing's tightening regulations. The split follows in the footsteps of similar action by U.S. venture capital firms Sequoia and GGB Capital. A message to Beijing on Friday the European Union's chief diplomat urged China to fix its trade imbalances with Europe. Here's what he said. We will have European elections very soon. And this topic of the trade imbalance with China will certainly come up and be one of the most important things that we will be discussing politically in Europe. He added that otherwise the bloc would step up efforts to reduce reliance on Chinese exports. Burrell said that trust between China and the EU has been eroded and restoring it will require both parties to work together. He noted that de-risking with China is not a hostile measure but a way to strengthen Europe's supply chain. Burrell is on a three day trip to China. He's scheduled to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss issues including the Israel Hamas conflict Russia's war in Ukraine and cross-strait relations. Accusations are flying for Chinese smartphone maker Vivo. According to India's financial crime agency at least 30 of the company's employees and staff from its Indian affiliates are now accused of hiding their jobs while trying to get visas. Some of them also allegedly breached rules by visiting a sensitive region in the Himalayas without a government permit. The now public court filing comes just after the tech company saw one of its executives arrested earlier this week. That's as part of a money laundering investigation into Vivo. Authorities say it illegally funneled nearly 13 billion dollars to China through small companies it controls aiming to avoid paying Indian taxes. Vivo is India's second biggest smartphone player. New Delhi tightened curbs on incoming Chinese investment and banned hundreds of Chinese apps following a deadly clash at their disputed border in 2020. Next a roundup of quick updates from inside China. First a new wave of COVID-19 is spreading in China and reports say young people are getting hit hard by the wave. In central China's Zhengzhou a single hospital treated over one thousand seven hundred emergency care patients all of them 18 to 25 years old in September alone. This time I truly understand what it means to lose the sense of smell lose hearing and have a headache so severe it feels like it's going to explode. Besides the health scares bank runs are still in progress. It's happening alongside fears about real estate giant Evergrande and its severe debt woes. Hundreds were seen earlier this week filling up the building of a regional bank in Hubei province. Evergrande's liability tops three hundred and twenty eight billion dollars making it the world's most indebted developer. A possible collapse would send shockwaves through China's banking system. Next Chinese state staffers are going on strike. A picture of a red banner hanging in front of a state complex in southern China is going viral on social media. It reads that 31 staff members are walking out in protest. Their motivation remains unclear. Strikes are rare in China largely because of fear of retaliation from authorities. But China's economic troubles appear to be leaving citizens with few options. Some local governments under the Chinese Communist Party haven't paid their employees for over eight months. Similar protests have broken out in other areas across China and a new record low for births in China. The figure tumbled 10 percent last year to just nine point five million in 2022. It's the lowest figure in over 70 years. An aging demographic has the potential to slow China's economy. That's as revenue drops and state debt increases due to soaring health and welfare costs. Moving to a case of human rights violations an 87 year old woman from China's Gansu province has been sentenced to six years and nine months in prison. She's one of the one hundred and four Falun Gong practitioners who received jail sentences last month. The news comes from the U.S. based Minghui Web site a platform that tracks the Chinese regime's persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline. Due to China's information blockade the real number of arrests and detentions could be much higher. Falun Gong practitioners adhere to three guiding principles truthfulness compassion and tolerance. The Chinese Communist Party has persecuted the faith group for over two decades. Investigations say methods include forced organ harvesting. Are China Australia ties on the mend. China's top international security forum is set to resume in Beijing after three years. Australia confirmed a senior official will attend the talks in a statement to Reuters Friday after a four year pause. Relations between the countries deteriorated after Australia pushed to investigate the origin of Covid-19 and China leveled strict trade limits on critical Australian imports. But the current prime minister appears to be trying to mend Australia's China relations. Worth noting China released an Australian journalist Wednesday after she spent three years in jail. The U.S. and China have stayed radio silent when it comes to military talks since last August. Beijing halted that communication and protest over then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. More from the Indo-Pacific region. The Japanese foreign minister just met her Thai counterpart in Bangkok Thursday. Both countries have territory disputes with China in the South China Sea where Beijing claims almost 90 percent of the waters. Both Japan and the U.S. two strong allies have been looking to expand cooperation with Southeast Asia to counter China's influence. The U.S. Japan and South Korea are launching a joint naval drill this week. Washington has sent a nuclear powered U.S. aircraft carrier to the site. The U.S. has Ronald Reagan's presence stands as a show of force in the face of regional threats from Beijing and Pyongyang. Since last year North Korea has done over 100 ballistic missile tests. We've never seen anything like this before. In other news India has taken China's place as the largest source of international students studying in the U.S. Indian students who've received U.S. visas now top Chinese students by almost 20000. That's all for today's China in focus on YouTube. We're now sharing a shortened version of our program here after being demonetized for two years. Here's what to look out for in our second half. Chinese espionage in the U.S. military. A U.S. Navy sailor pleaded guilty to passing off unclassified information to China in exchange for cash. Those documents include Washington's plan for military exercises in the Indo-Pacific and blueprints for a radar system on a military base in Japan. As Beijing mobilizes its entire state apparatus against the U.S. work in Washington. Find a solution to discuss. We sit down with Nicholas Demiattis senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of Chinese intelligence operations and tactics. The full episode is available on our partner platform Epic TV. To sign up click the link down below. Thanks for watching China in focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. See you soon.