Report: China Targeting Down-Ballot Races; Vance: China Is Bigger Threat Than Iran | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story, China taking aim at down-ballot races as the 2024 election comes close. More on who experts and lawmakers say have been targeted. Taiwan's president, Lai Ching-de, says Beijing has no right to represent Taipei. He made the remarks as the Taiwanese government celebrates its 113th birthday. On this land of Taiwan, democracy and freedom are growing and thriving. The People's Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan. Beijing says it will add more U.S. defense companies and executives to its sanction list for doing business with Taiwan. And Australian lobster could soon be back on Chinese menus. Canberra announces a breakthrough with Beijing, an agreement to lift the last major trade ban on Australian goods. China reportedly quickening its efforts to influence down-ballot races just days before the election. The latest trend using social media to circulate anti-Semitic claims. According to the Washington Post, one of China's targets is Congressman Barry Moore. The report says a Chinese-influenced campaign on X claimed Moore won his primary race because of, quote, the bloody Jewish consortium. In a statement to the Washington Post, Moore said China has made it clear they will use every weapon to try to destroy democracy across the world. Moore is not Jewish. He voted in support of a bill aiming to sanction Chinese Communist Party officials. In a statement to NTD, Representative John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select China Committee, said it's no surprise that the Chinese Communist Party is using fraudulent social media accounts to target the upcoming elections, given it sought to manipulate Taiwan's presidential elections earlier this year. A senior U.S. intelligence official said Monday that China has tried to target tens of down-ballot races, spreading propaganda using social media accounts and online influencers. Zooming out, Beijing has been trying to influence U.S. policy and public opinion for a long time. China spends more money on efforts to sway American public opinion than any other country. The amount stands at over $440 million from 2016 to 2022. And AI has made it even easier for Beijing to churn out content. Take a look at this clip. Spiking inflation has heavily squeezed workers' incomes, but the rich are still cashing in and the wealth gap widens. Chinese propaganda often focuses on amplifying division and chaos in the U.S. The clip comes from CGTN, a U.S.-based arm of one of Beijing's mouthpieces. Other influence efforts are more subtle, like this ad insert published on USA Today. It's designed to look like a news article and paints a positive image of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, saying his visit to an American school left an indelible mark on students. And it's not just USA Today. China has run similar ads in some of the most influential American outlets, like Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times, as of 2023. China has no right to represent Taiwan, but the island is willing to work with Beijing to combat global challenges. That's the message from Taiwanese President Lai Qingde during a national day address on Thursday. The holiday marks the founding of Taiwan's government. How are the U.S. and China responding? NTD Taiwan correspondent Zhou Qiu has more. October 10th marks an important anniversary of the Republic of China, but we know as the Government of Taiwan. It's called National Day. It marks the founding of the ROC. Because of suppression of the Chinese Communist Party, this day is now getting international attention. Outside the presidential office in Taipei, Taiwan's leader Lai Qingde said Taiwan is not under the control of China. On this land of Taiwan, democracy and freedom are growing and thriving. The People's Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan. The People's Republic of China is the official name of Communist China. On Thursday, Lai also said that Taiwan and Beijing should work together to address climate change, fighting facial diseases, and maintain regional security. And we hope that it will take up its international responsibilities and, along with Taiwan, contribute to the peace, security, and prosperity of the region and the globe. Taiwan's defense ministry said on Wednesday that China carried out another combat readiness patrol around the island. Taiwan calls it regular military harassment. Zhou Qiu, NTD News, Taiwan. Beijing responded to Lai's speech on Thursday, saying Taiwan has no sovereignty. The Chinese Communist Party sees Taiwan as its own territory, despite never having ruled it. Taiwan rejects Beijing's claim. Beijing is laying out another round of sanctions, this time targeting U.S. defense manufacturers, along with some company executives. That's in response to the U.S. sale of weapons to Taiwan. Three U.S. firms that produce defense equipment and arms, as well as 10 high-profile managers, were hit by this new round of Beijing's sanctions. That's by freezing their assets or properties in China, preventing them from doing business with Chinese companies, and banning them from entering the country. Beijing imposed the sanctions on the Taiwanese government's 113th birthday. And they take effect immediately. Last month, Beijing also sanctioned nine U.S. defense firms for the same reason. Taiwan is China's core interest, of course. The Chinese Communist Party has vowed to take the island by force if necessary. The U.S. is bound by its own laws to help Taiwan defend itself and provide it with weapons. Chinese police arrested four Taiwanese workers, employed by one of Apple's main device assembly partners. The Taiwanese Council on Mainland China Affairs released the details on Wednesday. But the arrests may have taken place far earlier. Reports allege that some of the workers have been detained for over nine months. The company told their families that Beijing arrested them without sufficient evidence or legitimate reasons. A Taiwanese official said the incident violated the workers' freedom. The official also urged the public to avoid non-essential travel to China. What is the biggest threat to the U.S. in the eyes of Washington's future leaders? J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee's answer is China. It differs from Vice President Harris, who recently identified Iran as the greatest adversary. Here's Vance in Michigan. Look, I think Iran's a big threat, but Iran is nothing compared to China. China is the biggest threat confronting this country. But I think, I think, man, it revealed that Kamala Harris seems to be totally fine with starting or escalating a conflict in every continent all over the world. Vance made his judgment on China shortly after joining the Republican ticket as Trump's VP pick. His stance on China has long been a firm one. He hasn't changed his China hawk position since getting elected to Congress. Since then, he's introduced legislation to restrict China's access to U.S. financial markets and to protect U.S. institutions from Beijing's influence. He also supports Trump's strong tariffs on China. If elected, Vance says he hopes to assist Trump in resolving the Ukraine war as soon as possible. That way, America can focus on the China threat. On the other hand, Trump's opponent Harris said one of her top priorities, if elected, would be ensuring that Iran never achieves nuclear power. And moving to Southeastern Asia, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met today with China's second highest official, Premier Li Qiang. The two met on the sidelines of a summit of regional leaders held in the country of Laos. During the talks, Albanese zeroed in on the last element of China's trade restrictions on his country. Take a listen. We've restored Australian trade with our largest export market. And today, we discussed restarting exports of Australian live rock lobsters. Albanese said China will resume importing Australian live lobsters by the end of the year. The ban on lobsters was the last of a series of trade barriers that China slapped on Australian goods when bilateral ties soured. The restriction costs Australian exporters more than 13 billion dollars every year. Turning now to a summit in Southeast Asia, where leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, are meeting. The Philippine president pressed his counterparts on Thursday to speed up negotiations on a code of conduct for the South China Sea. ASEAN is an international body representing countries in Southeast Asia, from Thailand to Malaysia. The summit comes two days after China again fired water cannons at a Filipino vessel. Rising tensions there have some wondering whether the U.S. could be dragged into a conflict. The U.S. and Philippines are defense treaty allies, meaning Washington must defend the Philippines if it's attacked. Meanwhile, the Chinese premier was defiant in response, accusing external forces of creating conflicts. U.S. top diplomat Antony Blinken arrived at the summit Thursday. He is expected to discuss China's rising aggression in the South China Sea. The Philippines has been critical of ASEAN for not doing more to force China to back down. China is the bloc's top trading partner and one of its largest sources of foreign investment. China is also deepening economic ties with ASEAN. Both sides have upgraded a free trade agreement at the summit. The newest supercarrier, the USS John F. Kennedy, is set to make waves in the U.S. Pacific Fleet by 2025. The second forward-class aircraft carrier was initially set to be delivered in 2024. Construction was delayed in order to equip the carrier with advanced capabilities, including F-35C Lightning II fighter jets and the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar. As tensions rise with China, this $13 billion supercarrier, which features advanced technology systems like the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, will enhance U.S. naval presence in the Pacific. Coming up, Beijing's financial stimulus gave Chinese stocks a quick boost, but the rally wasn't here to stay. What we know so far. People are looking at this, Chinese business people are looking at this and saying, I don't need to invest. In a sweep of anti-graft movements in China's financial sector, a former high-profile official has found himself in the crosshairs. He's been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. And NTD's seventh international piano competition is coming to Manhattan, New York, as competitors prepare to compete for the top spot. This year's competition also adds a new category. More on the details after the break, here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. After a week of big gains, the Chinese stock market took a sharp turn on Wednesday. All three major indexes dropped significantly. Nearly 40 companies saw their major shareholders cashing out. Some of them even sold all of their Chinese shares. The market closed with the East Shanghai Composite. Isn't it weird if we say Manhattan, New York? It's fine. It's okay. People say New York, New York. We'll just be repetitive. Sorry, I can't do this video. Composite index. The market closed with the Shanghai Composite Index down 6.6 percent. The CSA 300 index fell over 7 percent. And the Shenzhen Component Index declined 8.1 percent. One shareholder also announced a plan to pull out about 20 million dollars. And over 250 companies have announced they will cut back on their holdings as of Tuesday. The fall marks a sharp contrast. Tuesday began with a strong rally for Chinese shares, but it quickly lost momentum. Wednesday, key stock market indexes in China recorded the largest daily losses since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Market analysts said Beijing failed to provide additional details about its major stimulus measures during a highly anticipated press conference on Tuesday, leaving investors disappointed. All eyes are on China's economy as it faces an economic storm, an aging population, soaring youth unemployment and a real estate crisis. Beijing is trying to turn the tide with stimulus measures. But can China pull itself out of this economic downturn? To break it down, we spoke to Christopher Balding, Senior Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. Christopher Balding, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. Thanks for having me. Now, to your point, we are also seeing China having a demographic crisis. They're not, you know, they have a much older population, dwindling workforce. They have the real estate crisis, youth unemployment, record highs to the point they weren't releasing those numbers for a while. Given all of the things we are seeing in China's economic state, how do you see those different things either responding or not to these stimulus measures? I think that there's going to be really no impact on these measures. The real types of stimulus that we've seen, for instance, is a lowering of the bank reserve ratio, and that's going to free up a small amount of money for them to lend over into the economy. We've also seen a slight lowering of interest rates and things like that. But that's going to have very little impact on stimulating the economy. One of the problems, I think, that is very fundamental to the economic buying that China finds itself in is China's economy has existed on boosting supply, more plants, more robots, being able to make more things. Well, the problem now is that there's such a glut of oversupply. People are looking at this, Chinese business people are looking at this and saying, I don't need to invest. I can already produce everything that I need from my existing number of plants, my existing number of workers, robots. And so that push to increase investment just isn't seeing the adoption in the business place of people or local governments going out and investing. And how do you see global markets reacting to this? I think global markets basically got excited for a little while. And then as they started sorting through the details of what happened, they began to become a little more blasé about the longer term impact. I think it's fair to say that global investors are very interested in China stimulating its economy. In many raw input sectors, commodities, China accounts for anywhere from 60 to 90 percent of marginal demand growth. And so a lot of global investors are hoping that China resumes that position. But I think that that just isn't happening. And I think a lot of investors are realizing that that just isn't happening. And we're probably going to see more disappointment in the data. Expanding on that, we have seen this trend, if you will, of foreign investment pulling out of China, with many seeing it too risky. We heard from Secretary of Commerce last year Gina Raimondo saying China was becoming too risky and uninvestable. Now, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock Monday were taking a more rosy stance on Chinese stocks. How do you see foreign investment in China? More, less? I think, first of all, I think Goldman is always the China optimist. So to hear them say that is not much of a surprise. I don't think there's going to be, I think there is a basically a slow leaving of that. And when we talk about risk, political risk is absolutely part of that risk package. But companies will do business in many dangerous places around the world, not just China, if there is an economic case for them to be there. The problem is that Chinese car sales, as a simple example, they're probably on par with where they were in about 2015. So China simply doesn't have a growing consumer market to purchase cars. And we could we could do the same thing with many other products. And so companies are leaving China first and foremost, not because of the dangers of Xi Jinping's thought, but because there just is not a business case for them to be there. Christopher Balding, thank you so much for your time. Next, a closer look at the Chinese Communist regime's latest clampdown on formerly high-level officials abandoned by the party. Fang Yifei is the country's former deputy central bank governor, but now he's been sentenced to death for bribery with a two-year reprieve. According to court records, he had accepted property worth more than 54 million dollars. Since Chinese leader Xi Jinping took office in 2013, he has often used anti-graft movements to punish and remove forces within the party, driven by questions about their loyalty. Some China experts say Beijing sees the actions as a tool to collect wealth for the Chinese state. Japanese companies are pulling back from China. Starting this year, investments have been lower than those in Europe. One analyst says the risks are just too high to keep investing. Here's more. According to Japan's Ministry of Economy, as of June, sales for Japanese companies in China have been in a persistent decline since September 2022. In another July survey by the Japan Chamber of Commerce in China, 60 percent of respondents said this year's economy is worse than last year's. Akio Yada, a prominent Japanese journalist, says he believes the high risks, tough stance from authorities and lack of profitability are pushing away Japanese investors. In a Facebook post, he wrote, in June and September, Japanese schools in Suzhou and Shenzhen were attacked by anti-Japanese protesters. Last year, a Japanese drug company executive was arrested in Beijing as a spy. China has not shared any details about this case with Japan. These events have raised worries for Japanese companies about the safety of their people in China. He went on to say that many businesses are now shifting their focuses to other parts of Asia and beyond. For Japanese exporters, China is no longer as important as it once was. Last year, China's share of Japan's exports dropped below 18 percent, the lowest level since 2015. The seventh NTD International Piano Competition is coming to New York City next week, bringing in international piano masters from around the world. While in the Big Apple, they'll showcase their skills and compete for a shot at the top award. Let's take a look. The NTD International Piano Competition is one in a series of international cultural and arts events sponsored by NTD Television. The mission of the competition is to showcase the glory of piano music from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras, and to promote traditional arts of pure authenticity, goodness and beauty. Not long ago, it was COVID-19, and now the war hasn't stopped yet, so everyone is looking for a kind of hope. Music is wise, powerful and healing, especially good music. For our contestants, the first thing they should think about is how to be a good person, to be humble before the gods. And then they can be a good pianist and bring classical music to the world. The competition will feature a designated piece adapted from the work of the Artistic Director of Shen Yun Performing Arts. The piece combines the essence of Eastern and Western classical music. It draws inspiration from ancient Chinese melodies and is brought to life with Western instruments. Semi-final competitors will have a chance to compete for the best rendition award. The contestants come from many countries around the world, and they are of a very high standard. They come from Europe, Asia, the United States and Canada, and we're looking forward to seeing them perform very well here. There will be six days of competition, from October 14 through the 19th. Winners will be selected in a total of six award categories. The semi-final and final rounds of the competition will be broadcast live from the Kauffman Music Center in New York City. NTD News, New York. 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.