CIA Expands Recruitment in China, Iran; Witness Says China Detains Thousands of Foreigners

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. A battle of spies between the U.S. and China heating up. The CIA is doubling down on recruiting informants in China, Iran and North Korea. This after seeing success in Russia. Five Chinese nationals have been charged. They lied to the FBI about their trip to a military site in Michigan last year. Two new types of goods from China now banned in the U.S. They're allegedly linked to forced labor inside China. And an eyewitness testifies. He estimates that thousands of foreigners are detained in China and nearly 300 of them are Americans. China's judicial system is a political system of oppression, not a system of justice. The CIA is reaching out to unhappy Chinese citizens with a message. We're open for business. The intelligence agency is doubling down on recruiting informants inside China, Iran and North Korea. The CIA posted videos Wednesday across all the major social media platforms and the dark web with instructions on how to contact the agency securely. A spy agency trying to seize on the growing discontent inside China. David Cohen, CIA deputy director, told Bloomberg that there are plenty of people who have access to information and do not like where Chinese leader Xi is taking the country. Referring to Chinese citizens, Cohen added, quote, there's a path to helping their own country by working with us. This comes as the agency has been trying to rebuild its spy network in China following a major setback. About a decade ago, the CIA rolled up, China rolled up a lot of CIA operations in China. A dozen or more CIA sources were arrested or worse executed. Have you rebuilt? Yeah, we've made progress and we're working very hard over recent years to ensure that we have a strong human intelligence capability to complement what we can acquire through other methods. A month following the remark, Beijing charged a Chinese national for allegedly providing information to the CIA. Back to the CIA's recruitment efforts, driving the push is the need to understand Xi Jinping's decision making. On the military side, the U.S. Navy is preparing for a potential war with China. The deadline for war readiness is within three years. The same timeline Beijing has suggested it might decide to invade Taiwan. Cohen said the CIA is also recruiting Chinese nationals living overseas through methods like walk-ins at U.S. embassies. He noted the agency has a growing body of China experts around the world, which helped to develop relationships with friendly countries and warned them about threats from Beijing. He said it's similar to how the U.S. trained experts on the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Five Chinese nationals charged. That's after they visited a military site in Michigan at midnight last year and reportedly lied to the FBI investigators about their trip. The group is made up of former University of Michigan students. They are accused of deleting photos and conspiring to conceal their actions. The men were confronted near the site during military drills in August last year. They claimed to be media before leaving the area. Investigators discovered they had booked a motel room nearby prior to their visit. A search of one man's external hard drive revealed military vehicle photos from that night. Communication on WeChat indicated discussions about clearing their photos. The FBI stated that all five graduated last spring from the University of Michigan. This is not the first time that Chinese students linked to the University of Michigan got involved with U.S. military sites. In 2020, two Chinese students were sentenced to prison for taking photos of a naval air station in Key West, Florida. German police have arrested a Chinese woman accusing her of spying for Beijing and her airport position. That's according to Berlin's prosecutor general in a statement issued on Tuesday. The suspect, named only as Yaqi X, allegedly obtained the intelligence while working for a logistics company at a German airport. That includes transportation details on German military equipment as well as people associated with a German arms company over the past two years. The statement said she worked under another Chinese national named Jian Ji. Jian was arrested earlier this year. He used to work as an aide to a German member of the European Union's parliament. The Chinese embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. From good deals on coffee creamer to new home improvement tools, could everyday items run the risk of supporting forced labor? The U.S. has banned imports from two Chinese companies over forced labor allegations. The Department of Homeland Security announced the ban on Wednesday. Let's dive in. The companies involved are a steel manufacturer and a maker of artificial sweeteners, both are accused of using forced labor from China's far west region of Xinjiang. The ban was carried out under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The law addresses human rights abuses in Xinjiang. It was signed by President Biden in 2021. The Chinese government denies the allegations. The list of companies accused of using forced labor under the law has grown to a total of 75 since June 2022. Washington making it easier for American firms to ship AI chips to foreign data centers, all while keeping an eye on Beijing. The Commerce Department released a new rule earlier this week. Under it, companies like NVIDIA can directly ship advanced AI chips to data centers in the Middle East. Whereas in the past, companies had to apply for licenses before they could export the tech. But even under the new rule, not just any data center qualifies. They first have to go through a strict vetting process to make sure they don't have ties to China. As Washington fears the Chinese regime can get a hold of AI technology through them. Case in point, Microsoft investment in an AI company based in the UAE. U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns about the deal as that company had historic ties to China. Back to the new rule, officials say there would be safeguards in place. That includes strict reporting requirements, on-site inspection by U.S. officials, and potentially guarantees from host governments. What's driving the U.S. and China to compete for dominance in AI? The technology is critical for the battlefields of the future. AI could help troops make better decisions faster. It could also help the military target enemies more accurately. Turning now to Europe, the European Union is set to vote on higher tariffs on China-made electric vehicles. And French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday that Paris will back the decision. 25 years ago, we thought that China joining WTO, they will comply with the rules. It is not the case. We have to preserve the level playing field. And when you deal on the same market with people competing with you with such a level of subsidies, which completely makes the market unbearable for your own player, you have to correct it. This is why I do support the commission on electrical vehicles with China. Macron also accused the U.S. of not complying with World Trade Organization rules, citing the Inflation Reduction Act. And he urged the EU to focus on its own market and simplify regulations to compete in today's world. As for the new trade rule on China, if passed, Chinese automakers will face tariff hikes of up to 45 percent when exporting to Europe. That's on top of the 10 percent duty already in place. As for Germany, a spokesperson for the German Chancellor said the government is still debating whether it should support this rule. It's worth noting, though, that German automaker Volkswagen's China plants will also be subject to the new tariffs, which will be at least 20 percent. Thousands of foreigners reportedly being held inside Chinese detainment centers, and one witness says nearly 300 of them are American. British journalist Peter Humphrey testified before the Australian parliament last week. He recounted his harrowing experience of unlawful detention by the Chinese communist regime. Here's his story. The most important lesson from all this is that not a single foreign prisoner held in China has had a fair and transparent trial and a proper defense. At this hearing, please always keep this in your minds. China's judicial system is a political system of oppression, not a system of justice. Humphrey has spent decades in China. He and his wife, Yu Yinzhen, operated their consultancy ChinaWise in Shanghai. Yu is a Chinese-born American. Both of them were certified fraud investigators in 2013. ChinaWise was hired by a British pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, to investigate a former employee. Shortly after, the couple was arrested and charged with illegally acquiring personal information on Chinese nationals. They spent two years in Chinese prisons. In his testimony before the Australian parliament, Humphrey estimated that nearly 10,000 foreign prisoners are held in China. This number has doubled under Xi Jinping's rule in the last decade. Two major groups are Africans and foreign citizens born in China. He said the Australian government has disclosed that 55 of its citizens are held in China. Canada reports 92 prisoners, while Japan has 17. In contrast, the US, UK, and others have withheld this information, citing privacy concerns. His research estimates that nearly 300 Americans, including many China-born citizens, are detained or facing exit bans in China. In the testimony, Humphrey also presented Christmas cards packaged by foreign prisoners at Shanghai Qingpu Prison for the Western supermarket chain Tesco. Inside China's prisons, the prisoners, including Australians, are subjected to horrendous daily living conditions. In addition, there is forced labor for the prison's commercial profit. There is the withholding of proper medical treatment, even for cancer. And there is the writing of mandatory thought reports, in other words, brainwashing. In the hearing, Humphrey urged the Australian government to protect its citizens. You need to send out the message that if you touch an Australian, we're going to make you and your friends' life hell. Western democracies should link hands in this approach and put on a united front. After his release, Humphrey successfully campaigned against China's state-owned English-language TV outlet CGTN. The network had put the Humphrey case on full public display and published their alleged confession. This led the UK's top regulator to revoke CGTN's UK broadcast license, the agency also imposing an approximately $125,000 fine. Coming up, a violent stabbing leaves a child seriously injured and two more wounded. A Chinese man allegedly attacked three young children outside of a daycare center in Switzerland. Taiwanese authorities deported two Chinese nationals after they harassed a group of Hong Kongers in public. What we know about what's happening. And Ukraine, the Middle East and Taiwan, the U.S. and its allies are facing off against China and its friends. But how deep does the alliance between China, Russia and Iran go? If there is a war in the Middle East, China is not going to back up Iran. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. The Chinese Communist Party marked the anniversary of its rise to power in China on Tuesday. But as the communist regime celebrates, cases of violence are popping up. Multiple Chinese nationals have reportedly attacked or harassed foreigners overseas. In Switzerland, local police arrested a Chinese man after he attacked several five-year-old children with a sharp weapon near a daycare center. An unknown man was running towards this group. He suddenly attacked the children with a knife, injuring three boys. The suspected perpetrator was held back and handed over to the police. He is now with the police. The children are three boys aged five. One boy is seriously injured and two are moderately injured. They are now in hospital. A daycare center employee on site was able to overpower the suspect and call the police. According to police, the suspect is a 23-year-old Chinese man. They did not give further details about the weapon or his possible motive. A report from Swiss news agency The Local said the suspect is a Chinese international student. The report also speculates that his motives could be linked to some pro-Chinese Communist Party content he posted earlier that day. And moving to Taiwan, the government there says two Chinese nationals have been deported. That's after they were caught harassing a pro-Hong Kong group in the capital city of Taipei earlier this week. Taiwanese officials said the government revoked the entry documents of these two Chinese people and removed them from the island. They were part of a Chinese group that verbally harassed and pushed Hong Kong protesters on October 1st. This year's October 1st marks 75 years since the Chinese Communist Party took power. Many Hong Kong exiles moved to Taiwan after Beijing tightened its control on Hong Kong in 2020 with the new national security law. Typhoon Kraton slammed into Taiwan Thursday, blasting the island with winds up to 85 miles per hour. NTD's Taiwan correspondent Zhou Qiu has more. Typhoon Kraton made landfall on Taiwan on Thursday. Authorities grounded hundreds of flight closed school offices and financial market. Thousands of people were evacuated. Kraton hit land in the major port city of Kaohsiung, bringing torrential rain across Taiwan. Two people died in the city and more than 200 were injured. In a separate incident in another county, nine people died in the hospital electrical fire when the hospital was moving patients to other facilities during the typhoon. The typhoon is blowing down trees and streetlights and sending debris flying. More than 100,000 homes on the island lost electricity. Schools and the stock market closed for the second day. All domestic flights were canceled as well as more than 200 international flights. The typhoon is forecast to weaken by Friday, becoming a tropical depression. Zhou Qiu, NTD News, Taiwan. German naval ships recently sailed through the Taiwan Strait and Berlin says Chinese vessels shadowed its ships but did not infringe on its operation. German officials spoke to the press Wednesday after the ships arrived in Singapore. Obviously they were there, they shadowed us, but they didn't really infringe with the operation. Most of our trade is conducted through this area, I have said that, but I wanted to stress that this is the second Indo-Pacific deployment and it's been done under the previous federal government and under this federal government, so it's important for me to stress that we are here to stay. Germany said its navy and China's navy communicated by radio and that there was no unsafe behavior from China. China's navy claimed the German ships were in its waters, but Germany responded they were in international waters exercising freedom of navigation. That's a similar stance held by the United States and Taiwan. China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its own, including the Taiwan Strait. That's despite the permanent court of arbitration in 2016 saying China's claims had no legal basis. With two wars happening across Ukraine and the Middle East, plus a potential war between China and Taiwan, totalitarian regimes are involved. Russia, China and Iran have been known to work together to an extent, but how far do their ties really go? To dive in, NTD News Washington correspondent Jack Bradley spoke to Shahzad Ghani, the publisher and CEO of the Epoch Times Persian edition. Russia relies mostly on the Chinese regime for its defense industrial supply, its war machine against Ukraine. With these powers, Iran, Russia and China working together, what can the future of all this mean? Visit of prime minister of Russia to Iran is considered, experts say it's more like a gesture of Russia that shows to the United States that amidst all these tensions in Middle East, they still want to support Iran. Because Iran is a country that provides missiles and provides drones to Russia and is supporting Russia in the war with Ukraine. But at the same time, China has a lot of benefits through its relation to Saudi Arabia, especially on oil. Yes, for sure it's buying Iran's oil as well. It's just not considering sanctions and buying Iran's oils. But its relation with Saudi Arabia comes on top priority than in Iran. It also supports Iran because it enjoys having tensions inside the Middle East. And because the tensions inside Middle East distracts Western countries, especially US, from what might come up as a war in the future with China. But at the same time, most analysis says that there probably wouldn't be a big support from China to Islamic Republic. Islamic Republic cannot count on China's support because there are a lot of other elements to consider if there is a war in the Middle East, that China is not going to back up Iran. On the other hand, we can see that right now Russia is busy with a war with Ukraine. And this visit mostly is considered as something that they say they want to support Iran. During the visit, they talked about expansion and cooperation more on economics, on energy, infrastructure. But at the same time, it more had a message. But for sure, we cannot say how much really Russia can afford another war while they are really right now a little bit behind in Ukraine. Thank you very much for that insight here today. Thank you for having me. Now to Britain. A new report is calling on the UK government to ask harder questions about its relationship to China. The new Labour government is planning to audit relations guided by the line to cooperate, compete with and challenge China. But the report says key economic and security risks must be brought into focus. NTD's international correspondent Malcolm Hudson has more for us from London. As part of their election manifesto, the British Labour government promised to audit UK-China relations with work currently underway. Tone has shifted in recent years from the so-called golden era of British-China relations to a greater understanding of the threat posed by Beijing. A new paper is calling on the government to answer key questions in its audits. The report by the China Strategic Risks Institute says the audit needs to be integrated across government departments, not simply the domain of the foreign office. Areas of risk include Chinese investment into critical infrastructure. China's state-owned wealth fund holds over $22 billion of assets in the UK, including Heathrow Airport, the Thames Water Utility Company and a major logistics firm. Another Chinese state-owned firm has a one-third stake in a British nuclear power station. The report highlights how Chinese companies must give information to state intelligence agencies when requested, even involving activities outside China. The report asks, could this information enhance the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance, espionage and cyber attack capabilities? Supply chains are also a point of focus. China controls 75% of global lithium battery production. It extracts 60% of the world's critical minerals and processes 85% of them. These are rare minerals used for applications from mobile phones to military equipment. China has in recent years imposed stricter export controls over rare earth metals and the technology to process them. The report warns this market dominance could give China leverage over Britain if geopolitical tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Seas escalate. And on cyber security risks, the report points to the UK's refusal to impose tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. This means China is likely to gain a sizeable market share in Britain in the coming years. But given some electric vehicles collect terabytes of data every day, including audio-visual recordings and location data, the report warns again the Chinese regime can demand data from private Chinese firms, posing a significant security risk. The report recommends the government pays close attention to the economic security risks that China poses to the UK. It also calls to engage with policy experts and civil society groups to expand the government's pool of knowledge. Additionally, it says that information should be disseminated across the whole of government to have a coherent UK-China policy. And importantly, it calls for an unclassified summary to be published both to parliament and to the wider public. Malcolm Hudson, NTD News, London. That's all for today's China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. If you have any feedback on the show or have something you'd like to see us cover, send us an email at ChinaInFocusNTD.com. We'd love to hear from you. For around the clock original news coverage, visit us at NTD.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.