China's Northern Shaanxi Devastated by Flooding | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. Massive flooding devastates a province in northern China. Over 20,000 have been evacuated while others trudged through floodwaters covered in mud. The disaster so far destroying bridges and damaging roads. With decades of hardship come decades of resilience. After enduring 25 years of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party, a spiritual group is commemorating the anniversary by raising public awareness. Taiwan must rely on itself for defense. That statement comes from Taiwan's foreign minister following a comment from former President Trump as Beijing's threat looms over the island. Ever since Taiwan began to democratize over the past 30 years, we have often faced the threat of China alone. And high-ranking officials from China and Belarus monitoring a joint defense drill right at NATO's doorstep. This as both countries continue to support Russia's war in Ukraine. Before we get to today's top story, we have an announcement to share about a special report coming this Saturday. The most unthinkable torture and abuse. What does it take to heal, transcend, and transform it? Saturday marks the 25th year since the Chinese Communist Party launched a nationwide persecution campaign against the spiritual group Falun Gong. Entity's Steve Lance sits down with survivors and witnesses for a roundtable discussion. The special entity and the Epoch Times co-production will air Saturday on Epoch TV and Entity's website as well as on our cable and YouTube channels. Here's a look at the trailer. I started with, hey, dad, how's your physical condition? Maybe you're so unhappy inside being, you know, in the labor camp. Let me tell you a joke. And I told him a very, very stupid joke. What was it like for you as a foreigner sitting in a Chinese prison cell? They brought out massive cameras and they said, eight, you can eat. So turn the cameras off. My mom was being tied up to a chair and there was this very thick plastic tube inserted into her nose. They brought me into that room to witness that. If you want to understand China, you have to understand the Falun Gong issue. How could people be the torturer? Because that's what I think it's hard to accept from an American perspective. They have a record book. They record every movement the Falun Gong practitioner made, every single word the Falun Gong practitioner said. I would always see someone else with their dad and I would feel a hole in my heart. I can't imagine trying to, it's like playing yourself in a movie and you're reliving that painful story. How did you do that? When I held her hand, I felt that I was her. 25 years of persecution. We cannot forget that this is not over. Back to today's headlines. A province in northeastern China devastated by extensive flooding. A video clip captured the scene as floodwaters swept away cars. Look, another vehicle was swept away. Look, it's a car. Video captured some residents covered with mud as they trudged through the murky waters. Days of heavy rain has seen rivers in the area rise above their overflow warning levels. The flood even uprooted trees and washed them downstream. Over 20,000 have been evacuated. Victims of the flooding totaling 900,000. Authorities say five people have been killed, entity can't independently verify that number due to the regime's history of covering up death casualties. Local train service has been suspended. Floods also damaged dozens of local bridges and roads. A caged tiger and a bear were even seen soaking in floodwaters at a nearby zoo. Our town has been inundated. Flooding has soaked our garage. You can't go anywhere. The roads have been blocked. Mudslide has closed the local highway. Geez, there's no way out. Just look at the traffic jam. In central Henan, tens of dozens of local dams are all releasing water in an effort to cope with the overflow. Local farmers are in crisis mode as large swaths of their crops are now underwater. Farmers are miserable this year. Roads are covered with water. Houses and garages also have been submerged. Moving to southern China, the Three Gorges Dam is opening seven spillways to let out the excess water. Weather forecasts say the massive dam could see its water level rise this Saturday as downpours continue to fill rivers upstream. Tomorrow will mark the 25th anniversary of Communist China's brutal persecution against the spiritual practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa. Practitioners from around the world are marking the occasion by raising awareness. NTD's Sam Wong has the story. With decades of hardships come decades of resilience. Just days away from July 20th, Falun Gong practitioners from across the globe have been commemorating this somber occasion. It was on this day 25 years ago, the Chinese Communist Party ordered a nationwide persecution against the spiritual practice, seeking to eradicate the tens of millions who live by the principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. The State Department said it's an issue that demands action. We have seen the PRC take a number of steps over the past many years that we view as a crackdown on basic human rights. One, it is something that we will continue to raise with PRC officials directly and two, we won't hesitate to take appropriate actions from the U.S. government and you've seen us done so. With the persecution, our practitioners of Falun Gong should not be tolerated. Over the past week, Falun Gong practitioners have held rallies in different parts of the world to raise the public's awareness, from local towns and large cities like Tokyo, Sydney and Washington, D.C. But in China, the story is quite different. Authorities track practitioners and send them to labor camps. Some are left bedridden due to severe abuse and torture and others have died in custody. State Department reports suggest an untold number of Falun Gong practitioners have had their organs harvested on demand to supply China's transplant industry. The persecution of Falun Gong is criminal. The arbitrary detention, torture, forced labor, propaganda and organ harvesting associated with this campaign are not only violations of international human rights standards but also constitutes criminal acts that demands global condemnation. Today, getting the truth out remains a top priority for Falun Gong practitioners. In many instances, their voices are being heard. In June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Falun Gong Protection Act, a bill aimed at sanctioning foreign nationals who are complicit in China's state-sponsored organ harvesting. Despite facing adversity inside communist China, Falun Gong is now practiced by people from all walks of life in over 100 countries. Sam Wang, NTD News. Taiwan's foreign minister said Friday that the island must rely on itself for defense. This follows former President Trump's comment that Taiwan should pay the U.S. for its defense. Trump told Bloomberg that the U.S. is, quote, no different than an insurance company, adding that Taiwan is able to pay because the island is immensely wealthy. Ever since Taiwan began to democratize over the past 30 years, we have often faced the threat of China alone. Lin added that Taiwan's defense spending has reached historic highs, standing at 2.5 percent of its GDP, adding that he expects this figure to continue to rise. The Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan as its own, despite never having ruled the island. Washington maintains a vague public stance on whether it would defend the island in the case of a Chinese invasion, which is called strategic ambiguity. U.S.-Taiwan relations are conspicuously missing from the GOP's foreign policy platform this year, unlike in 2016, when the party called the island a loyal friend and promised support. What's behind the apparent Taiwan snub? Plus, Trump's running mate J.D. Vance has labeled China the biggest threat to America. How might he and Trump tackle this challenge together? We tap General Robert Spalding, retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General and author of War Without Rules for Insight. General Spalding, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. Thanks. Great to be back. In the GOP platform for the first time since 1980, Taiwan didn't actually make a mention. What do you make of that and what that means for how the U.S. will deal with Taiwan if Trump does get back in office? Well, I think that the policy itself is probably not going to change, but certainly how the administration approaches the problem may be a little bit different. I mean, I'm not reading anything into it in terms of a change of policy because U.S. policy has been pretty consistent. But I do think that President Trump had a tendency to be a little bit more nuanced in terms of his approach. And certainly one of the things that I think that if there is a new administration, and it is the Trump administration, he had a tendency to really throw the Chinese Communist Party off guard. And that's because they really didn't know what to expect from it. So almost not mentioning Taiwan in the platform, I think, is better because it forces them to really consider what to expect. Trump told Bloomberg that Taiwan should pay the U.S. for its defense services, adding that Taiwan took over the semiconductor industry from the U.S. That's in contrast with what J.D. Vance said recently on Fox & Friends, where he was saying that the U.S. could see another Great Depression if China invades and takes control of Taiwan, also on the semiconductor part. Given that this would be a Trump-Vance administration if they enter, how do you see the two of them working together when it comes to this issue? Well, the thing about President Trump is he at least tried to do something about the unfair trade practices of the Chinese Communist Party. And I think what Vance brings just in terms of a perspective is the social calamity caused by the destruction of the American industrial base, and just a real visceral belief that that's something that the administration should be working on. So I think it's a net positive to have J.D. Vance as the vice president, because he really looks at this from a more personal perspective, having seen the destruction and the communities that he rose up from. And not just from the lack of manufacturing jobs that went away because they went to China, but also what replaced those jobs, which was the drug crisis from fentanyl. So I think he sees both sides of it. General Spalding, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. A Boston man charged with acting as an agent for the Chinese regime had his motion to dismiss thrown out by a federal judge this week. He was indicted in 2023 for acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. According to court records, Liang Litang is accused of providing information to an officer at the Chinese consulate in New York in July of 2018. The information was about someone who was allegedly removing Chinese flags from Boston's Chinatown. The indictment says Liang was contacted by an associate at the Chinese consulate with a blacklist of Chinese dissidents. The charges also accuse him of organizing a counter-protest against pro-democracy dissidents and traveling to China to meet with Chinese Communist Party leaders. Defense lawyers argue the charges violate their clients' freedom of speech and association rights. The judge in the case disagreed, saying the communication between Liang and the Chinese consulate clearly indicates that he received directions from CCP leaders. Liang's trial is scheduled for early next year. Two significant military drills going on in Europe and Australia. Military maneuvers in Europe's backyard. High-ranking officials from China and Belarus were monitoring a joint defense drill. The drill kicked off last week and wrapped up on Friday. The action took place in Belarus, just miles away from the Polish border. It also marks the divide between the NATO military alliance and other countries. Belarus remains a staunch supporter of Russia's war in Ukraine. What's more, NATO recently expressed concerns about deepening ties between Russia and China. The bloc said the communist regime is a, quote, decisive enabler of Moscow's war. And in Australia, a large-scale military drill named Pitch Black is about to start. This year is the largest in four decades. Twenty countries will participate, including the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Japan and South Korea. But as preparations commence, Indo-Pacific stability appears to be top focus. The Philippines is joining the drill for the first time this year, as tensions between Manila and Beijing continue to escalate. Italy is also taking part for the first time and is set to bring on its own aircraft carrier. After the drill, that carrier will sail to Japan. 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. Canada's foreign minister is in Beijing at China's invitation. A look at her first visit to the country in nearly seven years. Many young Chinese are embracing a new social movement, rejecting the pressures of career grinding. And it's led some of them to retirement 60 years early. And China's economy appears to have a bumpy road ahead. Chinese officials say a list of economic goals from a key Communist Party meeting had, quote, many complex contradictions. More on that after the break, here on China in Focus. Thanks for watching China in Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. See you soon.