Suspected Gas Leak Causes Deadly Blast in China | China In Focus

welcome to China in Focus I'm Tiffany Meyer our top story a deadly suspected gas explosion Roxy City near Beijing leaving a building in ruins more on the casualties plus footage from the horrific moment I heard a slam at the door and the bed was shaking trouble for tick tock the house passing a bill to crack down on the app more about how lawmakers voted and what's in store for the video platform American performance artists targeted with hate propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party wielded by none other than a Chinese speaking US Customs officer a lawmaker now calling for a thorough investigation Hearts broken families ripped apart a film screening held at Harvard University shines a light on a massive crime still happening in today's [Music] China [Music] a deadly explosion ripping through buildings in northern China Wednesday the explosion site just one hour from China's capital city Beijing official data from the Chinese regime says the powerful blast killed two and injured 26 taking into account the regime's history of covering up disaster casualties the true death toll remains un clear here's the story This Is The Moment a restaurant in northern China exploded caught on dash cam video by a car driving nearby footage online shows a large Fireball exploding from the site and debris blowing out onto the street seen hitting this woman and knocking her over it was not immediately clear if she was injured from the impact the deadly blast ripped facad off buildings and damaged cars near nearby local residents said they heard a loud ban at around 8:00 a.m. I heard a slam at the door and the bed was shaking I thought it was an earthquake and then I found out it was a blast who would dare come up to take a look the smoke was extremely heavy very quickly the firefighters came the fire was pretty huge another explosion took place at around 9:00 a.m. the explosion happened at a shop selling Fred chicken an official say a suspected gas leak triggered the incident the fire was put out and local residents were evacuated a reporter with China State Control television was interrupted by authorities while doing a live shot at the scene another three reporters were seen getting pushed around by a dozen police officers the deadly blast marks the third explosion in the region in the last 3 years the blasts killed at least four and injured ured dozens more China has seen multiple fire accidents and explosions in recent years reports hinted that corruption and poor State supervision are to blame this January dozens died after a fire broke out in southern jangi a school dorm in Northern Hunan also caught fire killing 13 and just last month a residential compound in southern ning went up in Flames killing 15 what's more a number of explosions inside mines factories have hit regions like enu seni hubbe and Hunan the total death tolls from those accidents remain unclear A bill that could see Tik Tok banned in the US getting the seal of approval from lawmakers in the house the measure offers the chinese-owned social media platform a choice separate from its Beijing based parent in the next half year or be ousted from us app stores on this vote the yays are 352 the Nays are 65 one present 2/3 being in the affirmative the rules are suspended the bill is passed and without the objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table the bill is called the protecting Americans from foreign adversary controlled applications app it gives Tik tok's Chinese parent company bite dance roughly five months to divest from the app otherwise Tik Tok would be banned from us app stores the the bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support just 15 Republicans and 50 Democrats voted against it those who did span the whole political Spectrum from Representatives Marjorie Taylor green and Thomas Massie to Alexandria okano Cortez and prila jao President Biden said he will sign the bill if it makes it to his desk but first it faces an uncertain future in the senate senate majority leader Chuck Schumer hasn't committed to holding a vote on it Tik Tock reacted to the passage of the bill saying quote we are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts listen to their constituents and realize the impact on the economy the Chinese Communist Party lashed out at Washington over the bill saying that banning Tik Tok will quote inevitably come back to bite the United States Beijing released the statement just a few hours ahead of the House vote to discuss more about the House's quick passage of the Tik Tok Bill ntid's Steve Lance sat down with Steve coonan former senior Foreign Affairs adviser at the defense technology Security Administration Steve Coan thank you so much for joining Steve thanks for having me I appreciate it of course Steve uh the House of Representatives voting today 352 to 65 on legislation uh that could lead to a Nationwide ban on Tick Tock uh if it does not separate from its parent company bite dance which it won't uh Tik Tok blasted uh the house and said that it will turn its focus now onto the Senate uh lucky Senators here uh China's foreign Ministry called it an act of bullying uh ahead of the vote how much pressure would you say now is on uh Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and minority leader Mitch McConnell I'm not certain how much pressure would actually be on them or or perhaps I should say how much pressure should be on them because I think the house realizes it's a it's a obvious National Security risk and that hence the the leg ation I find it ironic that the China's foreign Ministry would talk about uh both that the United States is bullying we're simply asking uh bite dance to divest itself or tiktock to divest itself of bite dance which is ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist party I mean we know they they have the national laws National Intelligence laws National Security laws so essentially make bite dance a tool of the Chinese Communist party but for the foreign minister to suggest that that's somehow bullying when they're the one when it's China that's actually or the pla that's out in the South China SE uh using their Coast Guard and water cannons to stop the provisioning of Philippine uh military outposts or ramming uh other nations smaller Nations ships out there I just find that somewhat ironic could you sort of break it down and describe to us how Tik Tock actually poses this national security threat to the United States I mean we already we've heard uh chairman Gallagher refer to Tik Tock as digital Fentanyl and that it's rotting the minds of our youth but it's not limited to America's youth it's also uh any Americans of any age but there's also documents from the in the Chinese military where they've described how they can weaponize these social media platforms uh to increase anxiety and depression and essentially it's a it's an intentional it would be an intentional attack on their opponent's Minds there's uh key logging uh Technologies or capability that would be at their disposal that would track a user every you the the the the keystroke or every keystroke of the user so potentially giving Tick Tock and bite dance and hence the Chinese Communist Party access to the financial resources of all of its 170 million users we hear director r talking about the threat from uh the the People's Republic of China the government of this Chinese commun party controls that so that they've embedded code into our infrastructure our energy infrastructure our ports our airports our telecommunications infrastructure a us-based performance company's return from a global tour taking a chilling turn at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport returning dancers and musicians greeted by Chinese communist party propaganda from an unexpected Source nd's White House correspondent Iris ta has more two days ago at the o' International Airport performers of the us-based shenu Performing Arts were coming back from a successful performance tour in Europe but when they were going through the Customs an officer with a Chinese accent targeted the performers with the same hate propaganda that a Chinese Communist Party would use to Target religious Believers it just sounded like he was trying to put words into my mouth like are you being sponsored by Falling gong and it just so I just said I don't think I have to answer that question because we escaped from China but this feels like as if we were being talked to by Chinese government this is the US like I'm coming home and this is something that should never happen in the US many of shingan performers practice Fallen gong a spiritual discipline severely persecuted in communist China and the officer allegedly also told other officers shingin dancers were illegal because of their faith that questioning came despite all of the performers holding either US citizenship or legal visas in a statement a CBP spokesperson says CBP strictly prohibits profiling on the basis of race or religion and that CBP does not tolerate actions that are inconsistent with our core values en counsman Ryan Babin meanwhile calling for a thorough investigation saying in a statement that we should never allow the PRC one of the most repressive countries on the planet to have influence over our federal government an immigration lawyer told NTD that a US Government needs to shrink and background checks of his officers because you can imagine lots of examples where the government of China would would do well for itself to plant people within the US government Asylum officers USCIS officers uh any position within the government the Fon gong is one group that certainly has been targeted over the years within the United States and and it's important for the US government to be aware about that and to try to uh actively prevent such uh threats just last year the FBI arrested two suspected Chinese agents and charged them with attempting to bribe a public official in the scheme targeting Fallen gong in the United States reporting in Chicago Illinois Aris how NTD news a film screening at Harvard shining a spotlight on a brutal crime happening in today's China called State organs the award-winning documentary Zooms in on China forced organ harvesting the practice of harvesting organs from victims while they are still alive here's a clip of the [Music] trailer [Music] co my sister loved singing and danced well my sister was kidnapped by police my brother and many practitioners benefited from the practice that made them healthier and better people he said that he would contact me again but I never received any call from him the screening was held by three student organizations at Harvard one attendees said more people need to watch the film be because it touches on the issue of humanity I think this really has to be stopped it's a genocide this is not just a a a one single occasion maybe the film showed a specific families that been persecuted but it's the personal story that tells about a a larger population the film's producers song said learning about the victims and their stories kept her up at night and drove her to Kickstart the project it's like a haunting scar on Humanity's conscience we can we must let their suffering their voice be heard by this world she said despite the family's suffering there's still hope for the future the film is available in Select theaters across the us or to stream online at ganging world.com more than a dozen Chinese graduate students are on the next flight home to China right after they arrived at a US airport some of them banned from returning to the United States for the next 5 years that's despite holding valid us visas why the deportations and what impact could the move have let's dive in in the past 3 months more than 10 Chinese doctoral students in the science Fields have been denied re-entry into the US that's after they traveled to visit their families in China some of of them are studying at renowned American universities like Yale and Johns Hopkins several of them describe their unexpected experiences on social media Lee is a student at the University of Maryland in the process of earning her PhD but when she arrived at Dallas International Airport in January authorities interrogated her checked her electronic devices and questioned whether she was a member of the Chinese Communist party it's unclear why she and others were sent home the US Customs and Border Patrol declined to give details saying the agency is simply doing its job General Robert Spalding is the former senior director for strategic planning at the White House he says the deportations are linked to the way the Chinese Communist Party functions a lot of their citizens because of their laws on the books are spies not because maybe they want to be but because the Chinese Communist Party makes them be so you know it's going to be a factor of life if you're coming to the United States and you're a Chinese citizen expect that you're going to be looked at differently because of the way the Chinese Communist Party acts earlier this year the Chinese Embassy in the US warned students to be wary of entering the us through Dulles International Airport General Spalding says he sees the send offs as a part of a bigger picture when when I was the defense atache in Beijing we had service members who were basically transiting China to go to Japan for their Duty station and they were taken off the plane and harassed by the Beijing Authority so really I have no sympathy for China or their students I mean they've been harassing our citizens for a long time the issue ties into a trump era policy it bans Chinese students with military ties from getting student visas over concerns that Beijing could use them to steal sensitive technology under the directive about 2,000 Chinese Scholars were denied entry in 2021 that number jumped to more than 1,700 in 2022 that that's all for today's China InFocus on YouTube point now sharing a shorten version of our program here after being demonetized for 3 years if you'd like to support us consider donating find us at donorbox.org chin in-focus or subscribe to our partner platform epic TV where you can watch our full episodes here's what to look out for in our second half is China playing fair in global trade a group of us labor unions says no and they want President Biden to do something about it that's as the regime offers up huge incentives to its own ship Builders the US Army is joining the Philippines on a new project soon they'll break ground on a vital Port facility on a Philippine Island near Taiwan the announcement comes as Beijing watches closely and Morgan Stanley is letting go of about 9% of its staff in China more on the American Investment bank's Workforce decision after the break you're on China in Focus thanks for watching China in Focus I'm to Meer see you [Music] tomorrow