26 Dead From Fire in China Coal Company Office | China In Focus

26 dead after a devastating Blaze erupted at a office building in China a look at a series of deadly incidents is there a covert link between an illegal bolb in California and the Chinese military the owner of the lab shouldn't even been in America The Latest Scoop straight from us officials and investigators a viral hashtag backing 9/11's most infamous terrorist bringing Tik Tok back to the hot seat absolutely it's intent how is the Chinese Communist party involved and a United States Service member spotted holding the flag of the Chinese Communist Regime that has leader xiin ping arrived for a meeting with President [Music] Biden welcome to China in Focus I'm Tiffany Meyer a tragic incident in a Northern Chinese City a fire swept through the office building of a local Coal Company on Thursday killing at least 26 people and injuring nearly 40 The Province s she is a major coal producer for China most of the victims were company employees authorities have detained 13 people in connection with the incident the cause of the fire is still under investigation industrial accidents like fires often occur in China with experts pointing to lacks enforcement of safe standards in April a hospital fire in Beijing killed 29 people backlash against authorities soon sparked online over their alleged withholding of information from patients relatives in July 11 people died after the roof of a school gym collapsed in the country's Northeast and in the month before an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in Northwestern China killed 31 that incident prompted a nationwide campaign in China to promote workplace safety one of the worst such accidents happened in 2015 in tiing where a gigantic explosion at a chemical Warehouse killed at least 165 people the results are in from the probe of an illegal Chinese bolab in California the lab was found in the small town of redley in December last year the report from the committee on the Chinese Communist Party comes after a friendly subpoena to local officials who came back with thousands of pages of documents and evidence including the lab owner's ties to the CCP ntid's Jeremy sanberg has more City officials in Reedley found around a thousand transgenic mice dangerous chemicals and thousands of vials with biological substances in them at the illegal California biolab last year biolab workers said the mice were genetically engineered to catch and carry the co9 virus after 9 months of City officials sounding the alarm the FBI declines to investigate and the CDC refused to act City officials turned to their local representative Congressman Jim Costa for help Costa told NTD there's some lessons to be learned from the example we see how uh easy uh to uh transport infectious diseases around the world is Costa says he thinks the US is very conscious of the challenges of covid and concerned about how it's spread the report says City officials found a freezer labeled Ebola that the CDC did not with sealed bags inside the deadly disease has a 25 to 90% lethality rate when asked by email the CDC said the bags did not Merit testing unless labeled Ebola themselves the public health agency concluded there was no evidence of Select agents or toxins and had a court order state and local authorities to destroy all materials Democratic ranking member Raja Krishna mthi says he's glad the report has established some facts but that more tools are needed to stop it from happening in the first place and that currently anybody including fugitives frauders and terrorists can buy Danger ous pathogens online with little vetting you need an identification uh a driver's license to get Puda fed and a local pharmacy but you don't need even that to get Ebola online the investigation revealed connections between the lab's owner and the CCP that include an ongoing criminal Enterprise and large unexplained money transfers from Chinese bank accounts the individual in question was a criminal with a long criminal record with dubious ties to the PRC this was a massive problem and we're hoping this will spur productive legis ative action going forward to prevent this from happening again Congressman Kevin McCarthy who represents a district next to the lab says the report exposed a few hard truths the owner of the lab shouldn't even been in America he was here illegally he had a judgment as you watched in this report from stealing IP the lab owner jabe Jesse jeu was hit with a $330 million Canadian court judgment for IP theft in 2016 The Fugitive was a former corporate officer in the ccp's military civil Fusion organization the committee established the companies that set up the lab are tied to Chinese companies and Nationals Congressman Gallagher says he hopes future hearings will produce a bipartisan agenda for steps Congress can take to prevent anything like the Rel bolab from happening again Jeremy sanberg NTD news a new blow to the Chinese stock market starting next year Chinese and Hong Kong stocks are no longer getting a type of us investment the pension dollars of almost 7 million federal employees this comes after a major decision from America's largest contribution Pension Plan it's called the federal retirement Thrift investment board the pension fund reserved for US Government staff has decided to exclude investments from Hong Kong and China the agency has over $700 billion dollar in asset under its belt and it manages retirement savings account for almost 7 million federal employees EMP es what's behind the change triggers include investment restrictions on sensitive Chinese Technologies the booting of Chinese companies from us stock exchanges and sanctions on Russian Securities the agency noted that all of these risks could mean losses for investors the agency also said the uncertainty could outweigh the benefits if it were to continue its exposure to Chinese and Hong Kong stocks and there's a new trend the demand is growing among Global Investors for investment funds that don't include China That's says China's economic recovery continues dragging its feet and tensions Mount between the two superpowers plus Chinese equities were underperforming as of October President Joe Biden toasting the power of the Pacific during a Gala dinner in San Francisco Thursday night calling the president an inflection point in history that together we can harness the power of the Pacific to grow our economies to uplift our workers to protect our planet to connect our people to one another and the future of Greater prosperity and dignity for all that we can change and bend the Arc of history for the better if we make up our mind to do it here here welcome the event was part of the asia-pacific economic cooperation Summit known as Apec it came just one day after Biden's highly anticipated meeting with Chinese Communist party leader sh Biden recounted in his speech that she had asked him why the US is so engaged in the Pacific Biden said he answered with quote because we are a Pacific Nation just after that meeting Biden spoke to Business Leaders about Washington's trade stands on China echoing the message that the US is drisking and diversifying economic relations with China not decoupling he also noted that stable relations between the world's two largest economies are good for the world the US focusing its attention to two of its most important Asian allies President Biden met with Japan's prime minister and South Korea's president on Thursday on the sidelines of the ape Summit in San Francisco the leaders did not give remarks after the meeting but the frequency of their talks has drawn attention they met at Camp David just three months ago topping their discussion agenda China's assertiveness in the region and threats from North Korea during the Apex Summit Japanese prime minister fumio kashida voiced his concerns about the Chinese regime I also expressed my serious concern about China's increased military activities around Japan including its cooperation with Russia and stressed that peace and stability in the Taiwan straight is extremely important for the International Community including Japan kashida met with Chinese leader shiin ping the day before kashida said little progress was made on pending issues such as China's Maritime activities around Taiwan and the arrest of a Japanese citizen on spying allegations as the Apex Summit winds down its final day a snapshot from Chinese Communist Party head XI jinping's arrival in California has appeared on social media footage shows President Biden waiting outside to meet him and just outside the building a United States Service member seen holding the flag of commun China visits from foreign leaders are often recognized with the display of their nation's flag according to the state department the foreign flag should be flown on a separate staff from the US flag the US flag is flown in the place of honor to the viewers left the decision to station a US service member to hold a flag comes alongside T us China relations Washington remains highly critical of issues including human rights abuses and Espionage tyed to Beijing next in the shadow of hot war between Israel and Hamas an anti-semitic letter written by Osama Bin Laden has gone viral on Tik Tok it's been circulating among the US users since Monday some Tik Tok users have started lashing out against US foreign policy toward the Middle East accusing the US of suppressing Palestinian people the hash tied to the letter gain nearly 2 million views before the platform took it down 22 years years ago Bin Laden orchestrated the infamous 9911 Terror attacks which killed nearly 3,000 Americans he was killed in Pakistan 12 years ago in a US Special Operation before his death he had openly condemned US military efforts in the Middle Eastern conflicts entities Chris beer spoke to the co-author of the book understanding the China threat for more Tik Tok shows that a bad idea like the bin Laden letter and its support can circulate very rapidly and that shows how um through that dangerous medium uh um uh essentially American values Norms our political culture and our elections can be undermined Tik Tock is owned by Chinese internet company bite dance when asked if the Chinese Communist party is behind the anti-American content on the app they are said absolutely it's intentional well they controlled bite dance bite dance owns Tik Tok and so they control uh the the algorithms they are able to identify what will the content will be uh as well as what content is privileged what content is emphasized and what content is uh suppressed in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday Senator Holly also remarked on the app we should be stopping it Sean we should ban it and listen I think communist China right now is an Espionage tool it's a propaganda machine and we ought to ban it Tik Tok removed the viral hashtag after media started reporting on the story and backlash sparked online top leaders from Europe and China set to meet next month in Beijing the head of the European Union Ursula fion set a key goal for the summit on Thursday to achieve a Level Playing Field in trade setting one example she said there's a clear overc capacity of electric cars in China something she said would be exported to Western countries especially with China's economy slowing she also pointed out that Beijing State subsidies to Chinese companies partially led to it and that they created an uneven playing field China's Trade Surplus with the EU hit its highest on record last year reaching over $400 billion in Her speech funder lion repeated that Europe has to quote get China right and noting that China is not the same country as it was 10 years ago that's all for today's China InFocus on YouTube we're now sharing a shortened version of our program here here after being demonetized for more than 2 years last month YouTube removed our demonetization status but reimposed within days if you'd like to support us subscribe to our partner platform epic TV where you can watch our full episodes or consider donating find us at donorbox.org ch- in-focus here's what to look at for in our second half all eyes are on the high stakes us China talks this week President Biden is seeking to reassure allies of the US is a more reliable trade partner than China how will the message impact the US China rivalry and what are the key takeaways plus details on the $40,000 tickets sold to us business groups to dine at the Chinese regime leaders table how should we read the controversial dinner we sat down with Doug strou director for the center for trade and Innovation for more thanks for watching China in Focus I'm Tiffany Meyer see you [Music] soon