China's High Risk of 'Hostage Diplomacy'; China Mocks Trump’s Taiwan Policy | China in Focus

A word of caution for Americans. A high-ranking diplomat warns travelers to China risks being held hostage and used as a bargaining chip. We're on the four other nations with the same risk. Our citizens are not human bargaining chips. They are not political pawns. Just days before the U.S. election, China implies that Taiwan could lose U.S. safeguards if former President Trump gets re-elected. An expert breaks down Trump's stance on Taiwan for us. The U.S. Coast Guard has drafted a plan designed to strengthen our allies' combat skills in the Indo-Pacific. That's as cooperation grows between Washington and its allies. And the European Union just okayed steep tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. Beijing now taking the fight to the World Trade Organization. A travel alert for all Westerners, including Americans. The State Department says traveling to five countries, China, Russia, Syria, Venezuela and Iran, poses a high risk of being held hostage and used as human bargaining chips in diplomacy. The warning comes from Roger Carstens, America's top hostage negotiator. His official title is the U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department. Carstens has been working to help American hostages since 2020, held by Russia, Hamas and Venezuela. He recently told an Australian Senate committee that these five countries pose a high threat of hostage diplomacy. The U.S. has been building an international coalition to counter that risk. Our citizens are not human bargaining chips. They are not political pawns. If any country wrongfully holds any of our people, we will hold them accountable. In September, China released American pastor David Lin after keeping him in custody for 17 years. Lin was originally handed a life sentence for allegedly helping build an unapproved church building. Still, according to a rights group estimates, there are about 200 U.S. citizens still detained in China, including Texas businessman Mark Swiden and U.S. citizen Kylie. Kylie was detained during a 2016 visit to see relatives in Shanghai. He's now serving a 10-year prison sentence. Mark Swiden is a businessman from Texas. Last year, a Chinese court upheld his death sentence with a two-year reprieve. Swiden was first arrested on drug-related charges. His mother said she's afraid Swiden might try to take his life after spending over a decade behind bars. The State Department recommends that Americans reconsider travel to mainland China as they could be arbitrarily detained. But the U.S. presidential election almost upon us, China is casting doubt on former President Trump's commitment to safeguarding Taiwan if he gets re-elected. Beijing is pointing to Trump's America First policy and his proposal to ask Taiwan to pay for U.S. defense aids. Grant Newsham, retired Marine Colonel and author of When China Attacks, sheds light on Trump's Taiwan policy. Mr. Trump understands the threat from China. He also understands Taiwan's importance. It is important for Taiwan to do everything it possibly can defense-wise to show that it's pulling its weight, it's done everything it can, and thus it's going to get the American help. And so it's two-part. There's a two-part deal here, and the Taiwanese do have to do a lot more than they have been doing, and I think they will. A spokesperson from China's Taiwan Affairs Office implied on Wednesday that Taiwan could find itself as a discarded child in the eyes of Washington. In response, she was asked to comment on two of Trump's recent remarks. One, that he would impose massive tariffs on China if Beijing were to invade Taiwan. And two, that Trump would ask Taiwan to pay for U.S. protection. Trump has said he sees the U.S. as an insurance company. South Korea and Japan both pay for American defense prisons. There are U.S. forces stationed there. Analysts say that's to better counter the regional threats in the Indo-Pacific, mainly posed by Russia, China, and North Korea. Taiwan's government declined to comment on Trump's remarks. The U.S. is bound by law to provide Taiwan with weapons to defend itself. Taiwan recently received wet, moldy gear from the Pentagon. U.S. fighter jet packages also experienced delays during the Biden administration. The U.S. Coast Guard is planning to up its presence in the Indo-Pacific to help uphold peace in the region. A 2024 operational report released last week detailed its plan. That includes sending special forces, training teams, and other assets to help U.S. allies in bolstering their combat capabilities. It also emphasized that the region remains a top regional priority for the U.S. The Coast Guard plans to deploy two vessels to the Western Pacific and Indo-Pacific, respectively. Beijing and Moscow have conducted multiple drills in the Indo-Pacific recently, even reaching into the Western Pacific. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned about China's, quote, increasingly coercive behavior in the region. The EU has announced a major tariff hike on Chinese electric vehicles. That's on top of the current 10 percent currently levied on car imports. Here are the details on the new tariffs that take effect Wednesday. In a move sure to rile Beijing, the EU plans to raise tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars. The new duties will range from 7.8 percent for Tesla to over 35 percent for state-backed firm SAIC. That's on top of a standard 10 percent import levy. The extra tariffs were officially approved Tuesday and will take effect on Wednesday. The EU says the move is needed to counter China's unfair state support for its firms, including special loans and cheap materials. It says millions of extra Chinese EVs are likely headed to Europe otherwise, with the U.S. and Canada having already imposed their own steep duties. The China Chamber of Commerce and the EU expressed deep disappointment over what it called an unfair measure and criticized slow progress on talks over the issue. Beijing has responded with investigations into EU brandy, dairy and pork, and has challenged the EU's actions at the World Trade Organization. European carmakers are dealing with an influx of cheaper electric cars from China, which now hold 8 percent of the EU market, up from less than 1 percent in 2019. That could reach 15 percent by 2025, with prices for Chinese cars typically 20 percent lower than European-made vehicles. Some EU member states are unhappy with the EU move. Germany, the region's largest carmaker, was among countries opposed, fearing its big auto exporters could face retaliation. The country's economy ministry has called for a diplomatic solution to reduce trade tensions and protect EU industry. People in France are welcoming a new round of European sanctions on Chinese-made electric vehicles. Here's what one man outside a Renault showroom in Paris had to say. Tax the Chinese, yes. Tax them more. Because us in Europe, we defend ourselves badly. China called Europe's high tariffs on its electric vehicles, quote, Beijing also filed a lawsuit over Europe's decision with the World Trade Organization. The European Union said Chinese EVs benefit from excessive subsidies, which artificially lower car prices and lead to unfair competition against European cars. Foreign President Trump also favors high tariffs on China, having proposed a 60 percent duty on all Chinese imports. So how does it work? To discuss, entities evidently spoke to Antonio Graceffo, a China economic analyst and the author of Red Alert, China's Global Power and How It Threatens U.S. National Security. Coming up, the U.S. and South Korean army troops are conducting live fire drills near the border with North Korea. They aim to boost defense cooperation amid tensions there. The purpose of today's exercise is to test the combat readiness, not only of U.S. aviation, but also the ROK aviation and how we partner together. Japan's Sunday election results are sparking concerns from Tokyo all the way to Washington. How will America's security plan in Asia evolve in the wake of Tokyo's internal chaos? And a medical student is dead one month after reporting that a hospital and its doctors were profiting from organ harvesting in China. His parents are seeking speaking out online and demanding an investigation. More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Army aviation units from the U.S. and South Korea kicked off a joint live fire drill Wednesday. The two militaries aim to push their defense alliance to the next level. That's amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula and growing challenges from Russia and China. Here's the story. The purpose of today's exercise is to test the combat readiness, not only of U.S. aviation, but also the ROK aviation and how we partner together. The joint exercise took place less than 19 miles from South Korea's border with North Korea. The drill came as the U.S. and South Korea both confirmed that North Korea has sent troops to Russia. A South Korea presidential official said at least 11,000 soldiers have left for Russia and nearly a third are positioned close to the front lines. The move could signal a significant escalation in the conflict. Meanwhile, the South Korean government said earlier Wednesday that it's considering sending a group of military personnel to Ukraine's front lines. That's to assess whether North Korean soldiers are indeed participating in combat. Also today, China's foreign minister reassured Moscow of the strong ties between the two countries. Australia is boosting its missile defenses amid rising concerns over China. Australia's minister for defense industry said Wednesday that the country is increasing long-range strike capability, adding that the Indo-Pacific is on the cusp of a new missile age. This comes after China tested a missile that is capable of flying across continents. It landed in waters northeast of Australia. Australia is said to spend over four billion dollars to acquire long-range missiles from the U.S. It plans to spend almost 50 billion dollars on missile acquisition over the next decade. Zooming in on Japan, analysts say the country's Sunday election result could instill chaos in Tokyo. Japanese politics is closely linked to both Washington's and Beijing's defense plans in the Indo-Pacific. Analysts suggest a weakened Japanese government could raise concerns in Washington, in particular about the continuity of the U.S.-Japan security plan. Japan is crucial to Washington's security strategy in Asia. The country hosts the largest overseas deployment of U.S. military troops right on the front line of deterring the China-Russia-North Alliance. But critics say Japan's political instability could embolden China to increase its aggression in the Asia-Pacific region, including intrusions into Japanese territory and threats toward Taiwan. Meanwhile, China has been deepening defense coordination with Russia and North Korea. And in less than a week, Americans will choose the next U.S. president. If Trump returns to the Oval Office, he might bring back his previous strategy to pressure Japan to pay more to support U.S. forces stationed in the country. But let's zoom out. What exactly happened during Japan's Sunday election? Over the weekend, the ruling party and its coalition lost the majority position in the lower house, putting the nation's new prime minister under significant pressure. The loss means he may now have to negotiate and compromise with opposition parties to gain their support in the legislature. The U.S. just finalized a new rule, and it's designed to block the Chinese military from getting a leg up on advanced technology. Starting in January, China will have limited access to American money for chips, A.I. and other tech sectors. To break down the new rule, NTD's Kerry Dunst sat down with retired Colonel John Mills, senior fellow with the Center for Security Policy and the former director of cybersecurity policy at the Defense Department. It's an intentional chilling effect to make sure the advanced capabilities that are resident inside of American technology do not migrate to China. So it's a constricting, a continuation of a constricting campaign to prevent these technologies from going to China and the it's during the Cold War, we essentially ensured that the best things were not getting to the Soviet Union, such as stealth or long range precision fires, anything along those lines. And same thing here. And so this is just the next iteration of the campaign to cut the investments and the technologies off from China. And John, aside from espionage and theft, can you explain how the Chinese regime has been able to acquire U.S. sensitive technologies by using our open and free market systems to their advantage? Well, many of these technologies are dual use. You could use them for civilian applications. You could use them for military applications. And this is a further closing the door to make sure that those that are potentially ambiguous and could have civilian applications do not also flow. They could be used for their long range missiles for targeting. With the quantum computing, the concern is always they could break our encryption. And this is our U.S. government encryption, such as what we would use in our highest sensitive communications that National Security Agency would be responsible for. So we want to make sure they do not have any capabilities where they could crack our codes or create things that are uncrackable by American government agency. So this is just the next step in a long term campaign to cut these, ensure these technologies and investments do not flow to China. John, can you offer some examples of U.S. technology and or other industry companies that would no longer be able to engage in the type of business that they've been doing over the last 10 to 20 years? Well, I think it would be companies like NVIDIA, Microsoft, Oracle. There's a number of big tech companies that this really is a message to them. Essentially, this is the end of the runway. The door has closed on relationships with China. Now, many of these big tech companies were already aware of that. But this is a codification that the door is closed and we don't want advanced artificial intelligence that could be used for targeting, that could be used for mission analysis, that could be used for a variety of military applications. That is no longer allowed. And so it's a clear legal codification to big tech. Well, we always appreciate your analysis. Retired Colonel John Mills, thanks for joining us. Gary, thank you very much. China's business environment is being described as challenging and troubled. Global companies navigate a slowed economy and diminished consumer confidence. Here's more. Some of the biggest names have warned that Chinese consumers have curbed their spending across all categories. So they include Coca-Cola, United, Mercedes and more. And as a result, companies have cut prices and costs and scaled back activity in China. Despite the downturn, some companies like handbag maker Hermes are still investing in the world's second largest economy. Beijing has promised more assistance, but further stimulus is uncertain, and investors are not convinced that it's going to be enough. A medical graduate student in China is dead after tragically falling from a building. His parents are demanding an investigation. They say his death wasn't suicide. They say it happened just after their son discovered evidence of horrifying clandestine industry, live organ harvesting and transplant trade. Here's the story. Lo Shuaiyu was a medical grad student studying in China's Central South University and working in a hospital affiliated with the university. This May, Lo was found dead after falling from a building just one month after he reported a hospital and its doctors were harvesting organs from live patients and selling them. He said even students are involved. Because of his discovery, Lo's parents suspect their son's death could be linked to a cover-up or retaliation. That's after they found audio recordings and videos exposing the secret on Lo's computer. Liu Xiangfeng, deputy director of the emergency center at Shengya Second Hospital in Hunan, instructed healthy individuals to undergo chemotherapy. Even a slight abnormality was treated as a tumor. If no tumor was found during surgery, healthy organs were removed directly. Back in 2007, the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong blacklisted the same hospital and dozens of its doctors for conducting forced live organ harvesting on Falun Gong practitioners. Wang Zhiruan, the head of the organization, said the crime is rooted in the Chinese Communist Party. In recent years, these hospitals or transplant centers have been involved in the Chinese Communist Party's criminal campaign of forced live organ harvesting, openly engaging in the murder of innocent people for profit. Several U.S. states, including Texas and Idaho, have introduced or issued legislation to restrict their residents from sourcing organ transplants from China. 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. Coming up on NTD, stay tuned for America's Hope with Kelly Wright. Tonight, author and restaurant owner Peter DeMoss discusses the upcoming presidential election and the role of Christians in civil disobedience. Plus, Jim McCann, founder of 1-800-Flowers, discusses his new book, Lodestar, which emphasizes success through helping others. Watch America's Hope tonight at 10 p.m. after China In Focus. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.