Top US News App Spreads False Info, Developed in China | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story news break. A U.S. news app said to have 50 million monthly users caught spreading AI-generated fiction under the guise of news reporting. Several dozen cases now exposed. Former employees revealed that the app's algorithm was mainly developed in China. What we do want to do is get the foreign content out, particularly content from China as it's designed to erode the social fabric of our society. Several U.S. lawmakers urging the Department of Homeland Security to ban imports from two Chinese battery makers. Officials at the company's supply chains are polluted with forced labor. The U.S. and its intelligence allies say China is recruiting Western pilots to train its own military. What's the end goal? And how is the regime trying to cover its tracks? And a group of victims are reportedly getting punished for seeking justice in China. Chinese citizens who lost their life savings to bank fraud in a recent fraud incident now facing months-long stints in detention after protesting and demanding justice. The most downloaded news app in the U.S. appearing to produce more fiction than headlines. While popular app Newsbreak regularly publishes licensed content from major media outlets, reports say it occasionally slips in false information with the help of AI. Though it presents itself as U.S.-based, about half of its 200 employees are based in China. The company started as a subsidiary of a popular Chinese news app, partially owned by a Chinese state-linked media entity. Police in Cumberland County warning about the risk of artificial intelligence after they say a viral news article written entirely by AI turns out to be completely fake. The article posted on Newsbreak details a gruesome Christmas Day murder in Bridgeton. The police said nothing even similar to this story occurred around that time. Newsbreak told Reuters it removed the article four days after publication, but many local residents say by then they were already impacted by the false news. Court documents show that in 2021 alone, the app had published at least 40 false stories generated with help from AI. Many local media and U.S. businesses say they've also been impacted by other fake reports from Newsbreak. In one example, a Pennsylvania charity called Harvest 912 emailed the app, saying AI-generated inaccurate stories lied to homeless people. The stories claimed the charity had opened a clinic with services for the homeless, which was entirely made up. Newsbreak is headquartered in a city called Mountain View, located about 50 miles from San Francisco, California. It also has offices in Beijing and Shanghai. Five of its former employees told Reuters that most of the engineering work tied to the app's algorithm is performed in China. The former employees asked Reuters to hide their identities, citing they had signed confidentiality agreements with the news app. Newsbreak says it has over 50 million monthly users and only operates in the U.S. General Robert Spalding, retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General and author of War Without Rules, shed light on the matter. We don't want to necessarily censor domestic people who are posting on the internet, but what we do want to do is get the foreign content out, particularly content from China, as it's designed to erode the social fabric of our society. And those that say that free speech extends to that type of things is just not thinking rationally. You know, we would not let Chinese marines invade our borders without putting up a fight. And we shouldn't allow, you know, information that's designed to sow discord in our society to do the same thing. Border security is border security, whether it has to do with the physical border or a digital one. Here's a closer look at Newsbreak's China ties. One of the company's current investors, IDG Capital, was blacklisted by the U.S. government this February for allegedly working with China's military. The five former Newsbreak employees said the app's CEO, Jeff Zeng, divides his time between China and the U.S. Zeng created another Chinese news agency, Lidian, in 2011. The company received compliments from the Chinese Communist Party for its efficiency in spreading Beijing's propaganda. Four years later, Zeng created Newsbreak in Silicon Valley. EDN had described Newsbreak as its U.S. branch until 2021. A group of U.S. lawmakers is urging the Department of Homeland Security to blacklist two Chinese battery firms, Goshen Hitech and CATL. Officials allege these companies are connected to organizations involved in state-sponsored forced labor programs in the Xinjiang region. NTD's Sam Wong has more. The latest effort is spearheaded by Chairman of the House Elect Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, John Mueller, along with four other Republicans from both chambers of Congress. In two separate letters to the DHS, lawmakers said both Goshen and CATL are seeking access to the U.S. market. That's while their supply chains are linked to Beijing's human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. For instance, both companies are connected to Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a Chinese paramilitary entity blacklisted by the U.S. According to experts, the CCP uses the XPCC to control, intimidate, disperse, and ultimately break down the Uyghur people until there is nothing left of their culture. With the help of federal and state incentives, Goshen's subsidiary is planning to build two facilities in the U.S. One of its targeted locations sits right in Congressman Molinar's district in Michigan. Meanwhile, CATL is on a licensing agreement with American car manufacturer Ford. Last year, the automotive giant halted plans to build a battery plant in the U.S. using CATL's technologies. This came after the Select Committee pressured Ford with an investigation. Ford later proceeded with a smaller factory in Michigan. Worst noting, U.S. federal laws prohibit products made with forced labor from entering the country. Sam Wong, NTD News. Washington and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance have a warning from the West. They say Beijing is recruiting Western pilots to train its own troops. The intel network is comprised of the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. According to the joint notice from the five countries, the Chinese military is trying to obtain know-how on warplanes and combat tactics through the training. Military talents are reportedly offered lucrative pay to work in places like China and South Africa. Officials say the regime is finding ways to cover its tracks, including using private firms under different names in different locations. Over the years, Washington and its allies have taken a number of actions against China's recruitment of Western pilots. The U.S. Commerce Department last year sanctioned more than a dozen entities in China, Singapore, South Africa, the U.K., and several other countries for their roles in the recruitment. Is quantum computing the next frontier of modern technology? Some say it will change the world, but others are wary of the risks. A single quantum computer could break all modern encryption systems. Given the rising cyber threat posed by China, how can the U.S. safeguard its data? To discuss, we sat down with Rex Lee, Cybersecurity Advisor at MySmartPrivacy. Rex Lee, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. Thank you, Tiffany, for having me on the show. Now, AI has been dominating headlines a bunch. It used to be one of the emerging technologies, and now a new emerging technology is called quantum computing. Tell us how groundbreaking this could be. Well, quantum computing is huge. It's the new frontier beyond AI. And as a matter of fact, regarding quantum security and cyber security threats, the NSA, NIST, and CISA in the United States are going to be requiring businesses and government agencies, especially businesses within critical infrastructure, to adopt quantum security resistant technology by the year 2026 as the technology is expanding. On that note, how significant is the threat posed by advancements in quantum computing when it comes to, say, our current encryption methods? Are there any things set up to mitigate those risks, or how is this going to play out? Well, Chinese researchers recently have claimed that they broke RSA encryption standards. These are encryption standards that were developed at MIT back in the 1970s. And these encryption standards are adopted by over 90% of all businesses within critical infrastructure and governments and everything. The claim has been since challenged. However, MIT researchers actually claimed or validated that RSA encryption standards can be cracked within hours using quantum computers. Now, this is highly significant, because if Chinese researchers are claiming that they can break them, then you know that the quantum computers that are being developed in China are going to be weaponized and used by the military, which then becomes a huge threat. Now, you have to stop and think about that. If you compare that to, like, fentanyl that's being exported through criminal cartels from China into Mexico, then exported into the United States from Mexico, you can also make that same comparison when it comes to hacking, or when global threat actors such as nation-state hackers work on behalf of adversarial governments so that there's this wall. These groups tend to be nebulous. We don't know who they are. But the fact is, these groups are populated with military-trained hackers who either were in the military in Russia and China, and then have since moved on to criminal organizations. So when you make that comparison, and you see that most of the cyber attacks today are coming out of China and Russia, this becomes hugely significant, because you can bet on the fact that quantum computing technology developed in China and Russia today, these same nation-state hackers and criminal organizations are going to have access to that quantum computing power to conduct tech-based hybrid warfare, which is linked to hybrid warfare, which is a subject matter that we've talked about quite extensively on the show. Rex Lee, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. The State Department has just greenlit a $300 million sale of warplane parts to Taiwan. That's according to the Pentagon Wednesday. President Biden recently said he would not rule out using U.S. military force to defend Taiwan if Beijing decides to invade the island. That was in an interview with Time magazine just a day before. The package mainly includes spare parts and repair pieces for the F-16 fighter jet and other technical support services. The Pentagon said the sale will help Taiwan boost its defense abilities and maintain political stability in the Indo-Pacific. The Chinese regime claims Taiwan as its own despite never having ruled the island. This is the 14th U.S. arms sale to Taiwan since President Biden was sworn in. He told Time magazine that the reason that the U.S. invests heavily in the region is to ensure China is, quote, not able to change the status quo. Taiwan's defense ministry thanked the United States and disclosed that the sale would be finalized next month. China has repeatedly urged the U.S. to halt arms sales to Taiwan in the past. Beijing has yet to comment on the latest sale. A group of people are detained in China and have been for months. They had taken to the streets to protest after being victimized in a bank fraud incident and losing their savings. NTD's Business Matters host John Ma has the details. According to a Reuters report, three people who were protesting one of China's biggest bank scandals have been incarcerated since February. Some 600,000 people lost their savings in a $4 billion fraud that involved four banks in Henan. Sources say that the trio was part of a group demanding their money back in Zhengzhou when the group was taken to a police station. And according to sources, most of them were released several days after the detention, during which, however, they say they were given moldy food and were woken up in the middle of the night to be interrogated. Sources are saying three people still are being held by police in Zhengzhou. 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 three years. If you'd like to support us, consider donating. Find us at donorbox.org slash china-in-focus. Or subscribe to our partner platform, Epic TV, where you can watch our full episodes. Just click the link down below. Here's what to look out for in our second half. Australia's foreign minister is calling to make the Pacific Islands a place where decisions are made without fear, while the Chinese regime continues pushing for influence in the Solomon Islands. Violent threats from the Chinese Communist Party reportedly used to intimidate dissidents abroad. One activist says she's even received death threats right here in America. I saw a tweet that says the death time of you is May 31st of 2024. And President Biden honoring the 80th anniversary of D-Day in France. What ripple effects can we expect from the visit on U.S.-France relations? And how could they play into rising global tensions? More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Thanks for watching China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. See you tomorrow.