Flooding Drenches Northeastern, Southern China | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus, I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, mountain landslides, submerged houses and flooded farmlands. A look at the aftermath in China's flood-hit regions. Senators are taking action against the Chinese regime's state-sanctioned organ harvesting. The Falun Gong Protection Act is introduced in the Senate, after its companion bill passed in the House. Despite censorship and travel warnings against China, the country still sees a lot of foreign tourism, and some of those visitors have posted travel vlogs praising their trips. But some of them disclosed their trips were covered by China, while others were monitored by Chinese police. When these foreign vloggers go to Xinjiang or Tibet, they're not going to see the monks or the prisoners in concentration camps. What they're going to see is a carefully staged process where people are welcoming them and they show the beauty of the Xinjiang countryside. And China is blaming Australian burger patties, after two of its swimmers tested positive for steroids. More on the regime's ongoing Olympic doping scandals. Massive flooding is plaguing China. Officials have recorded 25 record floodings nationwide, the highest number in over two decades. Northeast Heilongjiang province and southern Hunan are among the hardest-hit regions. In Heilongjiang, footage shows utility poles steep in floodwaters, with only the upper sections visible above the water. Scenes from submerged farmlands to drifting cars have been caught on video. Media reports say all residents have been evacuated. Another video clip shows water reaching the windows of a house, and wooden boxes carried away by turbulent water. A local resident described the situation to NTD. To protect his identity, we have distorted his voice. Moving to southern China, locals in Hunan province are reeling from the floods. Pressure from swelling rivers damaged three local dams. Only one has been sealed. Torrential rain also triggered landslides in the mountains. In one video, rampant flood currents flushed uprooted trees downstream. Communication and phone lines are also down in some Hunan villages. A local dam is still releasing excess water today. The flooding has wiped out many things. A house has been completely destroyed. It's worse than what you can imagine. The situation is pretty bad. Heilongjiang province is still on high alert. Weather forecasters say local rivers are expected to swell well above their overflow warning levels in the coming three days. Senator Marco Rubio has introduced the Falun Gong Protection Act in the Senate. The bill aims to deter the Chinese regime's state-sanctioned organ harvesting. NTD's Melina Weiskopf has more. Senator Marco Rubio has introduced three bills countering the Chinese Communist Party, stating, "...Communist China has been able to get away with a campaign of widespread evil. One of the bills is the Falun Gong Protection Act, to create a U.S. policy to sanction CCP officials who have knowingly and directly engaged in or facilitated the involuntary harvesting of organs, a crime which Falun Gong practitioners are reported to be one and probably the main source of organ supply. One Falun Gong practitioner previously told NTD her father was one of those victims. The incision was all the way down, which clearly indicated that my father's organ had been harvested. Luckily, he was still alive. There's a ready supply of organs of any kind, of any type, what have you, because they're taking them from living people. I mean, it's the most horrific thing you can imagine. The State Department recently told NTD that the Chinese regime should, quote, cease its The electrical batons to beat me, I lost my consciousness. This persecution has been going on for 25 years, and several resolutions condemning the CCP's persecution and organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners have passed the House, but they've all stalled in the Senate. So far, Senator Rubio's bill has three co-sponsors, and it passed the House in June with full support. This has to be a national and a global movement to raise awareness and then to take action to hold the CCP accountable, and every human around the world needs to see this and open their eyes. Hope should be alive, hope needs to be alive. It's not happening fast enough. Now it's up to Senate Leader Chuck Schumer to bring this bill up for a vote in the Senate. He could bring it up as a standalone bill or perhaps attach it to a broader piece of If it does pass the Senate and is signed into law by President Biden, it would be the first federal law to counter the Chinese Communist Party's decades-long persecution against Falun Gong, as well as counter the regime's illicit organ trade. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Melina Weiskopf, NTD News. Censorship, strict visa policies, and potential exit bans. China is widely believed to be one of the most difficult destinations to visit, but it seems to become a popular challenge for many foreign visitors. Tons of videos posted by travelers on YouTube and TikTok portray how amazing their China trips were. This includes in regions where Western media have accused China of repressing ethnic minorities like Xinjiang or Tibet. How do we look at these travel videos? David Zhang, host of China Insider, breaks it down for us. When these foreign bloggers go to Xinjiang or Tibet, they're not going to see the monks or the prisoners in concentration camps. What they're going to see is a carefully staged process where people are welcoming them and they show the beauty of the Xinjiang countryside. If you search This is China or China travel vlog on YouTube, you'd see a lot of videos with tons of views and comments. The bloggers often start with how bad they assumed traveling to China would be before they came. But to their surprise, they described their experience in China as rich, convenient and safe. Some of them even turned around and accused Western media of lying about China. In fact, traveling to China is not easy. The U.S. State Department updated its travel advisory on China less than four months ago. The agency labels mainland China and Hong Kong as reconsidered travel, the second highest warning level. The U.S. and other foreign citizens could face exit bans or even arbitrary arrest by On top of that, the websites and software common in the Western world, including WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, are blocked in mainland China. Prominent Australian journalist Chen Lei was jailed in China. She recently wrote quote, If you are a visitor, you can have a great time biking around alleys, trying the food, talking to locals, taking the high speed train. But she added that you forget that you are on a massive movie set, seeing a facade of freedom. Back to the Western bloggers. Some of them disclosed they were under Chinese authority surveillance while traveling in the country. The CCP knows that through cultural and language barriers that they can hide away problems like social pressure or the floodings or any other issues because these people, they're touring the place, the destination for a week or so. They're not looking for a long term stay. A recent New York Times article reported that a Chinese state owned tour company paid for an Australian YouTuber's recent trip to Tibet. Another foreign traveler said she was tailed by police cars while traveling in Xinjiang. She was later visited by a police officer at her hotel. A potential meeting between China and Ukraine this week. Ukraine has invited the Chinese foreign minister for talks. The invitation comes after the Ukrainian foreign minister's visit to China while there. He said Ukraine supports Beijing's stance on Taiwan. Rick Fisher, senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, joins us to discuss the future of China-Ukraine and Ukraine-Taiwan relations. Rick Fisher, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. Tiffany, thank you for having me back. Ukraine's foreign defense minister was just in China and now Ukraine is inviting China's foreign minister to visit there. How do you see Ukraine-China relations going from here? Well, during the 1990s and for most of the 2000s, Ukraine was a provider of advanced military technology to the Chinese People's Liberation Army. China received rocket technology, advanced radar technology, turbofan engine technology from Ukraine. So there is this history. Unfortunately, China was thought to have sacrificed any goodwill that it had in Ukraine when it started assisting Russia's war against the Ukrainian democracy. It's really not clear what the Ukrainians think the Chinese can accomplish, but they're taking this chance in part because they don't have much time. Also, I think the Ukrainians are responding to the possible weakening of support from the United States. I would expect that a Trump administration would return to its previous fulsome support for Ukraine. So I don't see what Ukraine is going to get from China. China is simply not in a position to sacrifice any of its interests in Russia's success in Ukraine simply to gain political points on the global stage. I mean, it gains those points anyway by simply having this dance, this diplomatic dance with the Ukrainians. But I don't see the Chinese sacrificing any real interest to advance any cause for real peace in Ukraine, which means ultimately Russia returns to its territory and gives Ukraine back its territory. Taiwan has been standing with and supportive of Ukraine throughout this conflict. Given what we just saw, the statements from Ukraine, where do you see Ukraine-Taiwan relations going from here? Well, this is a common position for Taiwan to find itself in. Taiwan has been disappointed by most of the countries that it has dealt with. It was disappointed fantastically by the United States in 1979 when the United States, under Jimmy Carter, abandoned its formal diplomatic relationship with Taiwan, and the United States instead established formal diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. But the United States has continued a very strong de facto relationship with Taiwan, and in fact is Taiwan's main supporter, main defender on the global stage. Taiwan will of course weather this disappointment from Ukraine, and it is very likely that once Ukraine achieves a certain level of disappointment from China, that it can be convinced to return to its previous support for Taiwan's freedom. Craig Fisher, thank you so much for your time. Tiffany, thank you. Turning grief into strength, families from across the United States gathered for the annual Lost Voices of Fentanyl Rally. Bonded by sorrow, they're hoping to raise awareness about the opioid epidemic and prevent others from losing their loved ones. NDD's Sam Wong was there to hear their stories. Across the street from the White House stood pictures of those who have fallen victim to the fentanyl epidemic. Under the sweltering heat, families from across the country gather at the nation's capital, raising awareness about the dangers of the deadly synthetic opioid. None of us should be here. This is so wrong. This is not how the world should be. For some, it's a tragedy that scars them forever. Michigan mother Rebecca Kiesling lost her two adult sons to fentanyl overdose in 2020. She said she hasn't gone through a day without battling grief ever since. My sons Caleb and Kyler did not deserve to die, and I would much rather be talking about their lives, how they lived, than remembering them for how they died. Kiesling's story made headlines last year after she gave an emotional testimony before Congress. When her older son Caleb was born in 2000, Kiesling said there were roughly 20,000 drug-related deaths in the U.S. That number skyrocketed by the time of Caleb's passing, reaching a staggering 100,000 in 2020. Among the many victims' families, some have turned to activism to help weather the storm. April Backhock founded Lost Voices of Fentanyl in the wake of her son's death. It's a non-profit organization aimed at raising awareness and turning sorrow into strength. In January of 2019, I lost my son to illicit fentanyl poisoning. I actually grieved my son for 18 months and I prayed. And I prayed, God, show me what to do with my grief. And he did. And this is it. This is what I do. Today, fentanyl claims the lives of tens of thousands of Americans every year. With most of the precursor chemicals coming from mainland China, the deadly narcotic has long been a flashpoint in U.S.-China relations. Earlier this year, an investigation by the House Light Committee on the Chinese Communist Party found Beijing has been subsidizing the exports of fentanyl precursors with grants and tax rebates. Those raw materials are then shipped to Mexican cartels for further polishing before making their way into the United States. Experts said the flow of synthetic opioids from China has been decades in the making. And as you can see, our first rally was in front of the Chinese embassy in 2021. And these are the collages that I've been making over the years to try to get the awareness out. So that's what we're doing. It's not just fentanyl. It's the xylosine coming out of the labs in China. It's the nitazines, the etanitazines, the metanitazines, the protonitazines. They're more powerful than opioids. Last November, China agreed to resume cooperation with the U.S. to curtail the flow of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. But officials said there's little indication that the communist regime is willing to live up to its promise. I went through some training a while back at the Army War College, and they talked about China's 100-year plan to surpass the United States as a world superpower. And I think that this is part of that plan. Lost Voices of Fentanyl has called on the U.S. to declare the synthetic opioid a weapon of mass destruction. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Sam Wang, NTD News. Another plot twist tied to China's doping scandals. The regime is now blaming Australian beef for failed drug tests, counting against two of its elite swimmers. The two athletes, Tom Wuhan and He Junyi, tested positive for steroid use back in 2022. They were secretly barred by the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA, for 12 months, but were later cleared by Chinese authorities. Beijing said the positive result traces back to contaminated burger patties, a claim accepted by WADA. Worth noting, the agency has been facing criticism over its handling of China's doping scandals. In the months leading up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, there were reportedly 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for steroids. Chinese sports regulators once again pointed to food contamination. WADA then agreed to let the athletes compete in Tokyo. 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 dash in dash 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. Absurd. That's the word one US lawmaker used to describe Beijing's latest move. This after Beijing imposed sanctions on him for so-called interference. Money meant for American firms ended up in the hands of a Chinese company. A new bill aims to put a stop to it. Rushing delivery workers on bustling Beijing streets. But one of them is about to trade his delivery route for the Olympic marathon track. We're on a Chinese courier's Olympic running dream after the break here on China In Focus. Thanks for watching China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. See you tomorrow.