Report: China's Mass Campaign to Hire Former U.S. Spies, AI Talents

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. Switching payrolls from the U.S. to communist China. American think tank warns that China is recruiting fired government workers plus AI researchers with a clever strategy around the potential loophole for U.S. national security. ICE agents arrest a Chinese national in New Jersey. Plus, from laundering 60 million for drug cartels to transporting illegal aliens. A look at the recent arrests of Chinese citizens. President Trump unveiling a 25 percent tariff on imported cars and parts. Meanwhile, he says he's willing to reduce tariffs for China if Beijing agrees to a deal on TikTok. And lawsuits, bomb hoaxes, even death threats. A New York-based dance company details the challenges they face and why the Chinese Communist Party targets them. This is a playbook. This is the ability for the Chinese regime to weaponize American institutions against America. Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Before we dive into today's news, make sure to use the link down below to subscribe to our newsletter. Each week, we round up the highlights and controversies happening around China and the and share an exclusive behind-the-scenes snapshot with our readers. Keep an eye out. The newsletter will land in your inbox Friday morning. A Beijing recruitment campaign appears to be targeting former U.S. government staff. China is busy sending job offers to former governmental workers amid waves of layoffs. Intelligence officials and AI researchers who recently lost their jobs are among Beijing's targets. That's according to Max Lesser, a senior researcher with a Washington-based think tank. In his latest interview with Reuters, Lesser uncovered a mass-sophisticated Chinese campaign behind numerous work ads. According to research results by Lesser and Reuters, this massive China trap is made up of four consultancies and recruitment companies. Although they have different names, these companies run websites with links that funnel users to the same webpage. More interestingly, they all share the same IP address, which is also used by Chinese IT service firm Smiao. Reuters said the IT company's website became unaccessible during a U.S. investigation. Max Lesser pointed out that the Chinese headhunting scheme appears identical to some old tricks used by Chinese spies. He warns that once recruited, former U.S. government workers could be asked to share sensitive information or asked to recruit other targets. How much attention are these help-wanted ads getting? One of them advertised a job for a geopolitical consulting advisor. As of the time of this report, a LinkedIn post revealed that more than 200 people have applied for the job. Worth noting, the job listing says applicants must have experience with government agencies plus international or multinational organizations. The recruitment ads are running through top U.S. hiring sites like LinkedIn plus other platforms like Craigslist. While there is no obvious proof that the Chinese regime is behind the scheme, under Chinese law, all firms operating in China are required to hand over data and intelligence if Beijing asks for it. CNN reported last month that China and Russia are targeting disgruntled U.S. government employees. Lesser says his current findings could be concrete evidence of such operations. Max Lesser is a senior analyst at the Think Tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies specializing in emerging threats. ICE agents arrested a Chinese national Monday. His name is Mingxi Zhang. He was apprehended in New York, New Jersey and remains in ICE custody. U.S. prosecutors previously convicted the man of He was sentenced to three years of probation in 2024. Zhang entered the U.S. in 2000 at the Los Angeles International Airport. Authorities say he violated the terms of his lawful admission into American soil. An ICE official noted that any foreign national conducting illegal activities related to espionage against the U.S. is subject to deportation. The news comes amid a flurry of arrests and sentencing of Chinese nationals recently. Earlier this month, a federal judge sentenced Chen Zong'an to 20 months in prison and is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from China. His crime? Pressuring a Chinese expat to return home at Beijing's request. This February, U.S. authorities sentenced another Chinese citizen, Kangbo Jiang, to 30 days in prison. Jiang was sentenced for conspiracy to transfer illegal aliens to the U.S. and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. A DOJ said at least four people in Jiang's group were found in the vicinity of a military installation around the time of a missile test on Guam. Over in Los Angeles, two Chinese nationals living in Los Angeles were recently arrested. Officials say they allegedly smuggled counterfeit goods into the country from China. And last December, authorities in Illinois sentenced a Chinese national to 10 years in prison. That was for laundering 62 million dollars in illegal drug money for Mexican cartels, totaling as much as three million dollars a month. President Donald Trump unveiled a 25 percent tariff on imported cars on Wednesday. The levy will take effect next week. Auto industry experts predict the move could drive up car prices. U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that a 25 percent tariff for imported cars is coming April 3rd, a trade war escalation he's been threatening for weeks. Auto industry experts say the move will drive up prices and stymie production. Nearly half of all cars sold in the U.S. last year were imported, according to research firm GlobalData. Trump, who sees tariffs as a way to raise revenue to offset his promised tax cuts and to revive a long declining U.S. industrial base, spoke about his plan at the White House. This will continue to spur growth like you haven't seen. Before I was elected, we were losing all of our plants that were being built in Mexico and Canada and other places. Now those plants largely have stopped and they're moving them to our country. Meanwhile, Trump said in a proclamation he'll grant a reprieve of up to a month for imports of auto parts. They'll be subject to tariffs on a later specified date, but no later than May 3rd. Trump's announcement drew swift condemnation from the European Union, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called it a direct attack on Canadian workers. We will defend our workers, we'll defend our companies, we'll defend our country, and we'll defend it together. The U.S. imported $474 billion worth of automotive products in 2024, including $220 billion in passenger cars. The biggest suppliers were all close U.S. allies, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Germany. The Center for Automotive Research says the new vehicle levies are likely to drive costs of cars higher for consumers by thousands of dollars. They say it will hit new vehicle sales and result in job losses, since the U.S. automotive industry relies heavily on imported parts. The auto tariffs will follow the day after April 2nd, when Trump is also expected to announce global reciprocal tariffs. Those are aimed at the responsible for the bulk of the U.S. trade deficit. However, the U.S. president said on Wednesday the measures may not be the like-for-like levies he has been pledging to impose. No, we're going to make it all countries, and we're going to make it very lenient. I think people are going to be very surprised. It'll be in many cases less than the tariff that they've been charging us for decades. Since taking office on January 20th, Trump has announced and delayed tariffs on Canada and Mexico for what he alleges is their role in allowing the opioid fentanyl into the U.S. He also set tariffs on goods from China for the same reason. Right now, the U.S. imposes generally a 2.5% tariff on imported cars. The European Union imposes 10% tariffs on cars imported from the U.S., four times the U.S. rate. While Canada imposed 6.1% tariffs on imported cars from the U.S., more than twice as high as America's 2.5%. Under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, USMCA, vehicles made with a high percentage of North American-made parts can enter duty-free. President Trump says China could get a discount on tariffs if it agrees to a U.S. buyout of TikTok. Maybe I'll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done, you know, because every point in tariff is worth more money than TikTok. TikTok parent firm ByteDance has an April 5th deadline to find a non-Chinese buyer for the short video app. Otherwise, it will face a U.S. ban over national security concerns. That had been due to kick in just before Trump took office, but the new president delayed enforcement until April. With some 170 million users in the U.S., TikTok's fate is a big concern for many Americans. But getting Beijing's approval for any deal has always looked like a sticking point. Trump has repeatedly used tariffs as a bargaining chip, and has imposed a new 20% levy on Chinese exports since returning to power. Now he thinks China might find a discount offer tempting. Vice President J.D. Vance has said he expects the general terms of an agreement to be in place by April 5th. There was no immediate comment on Trump's incentive offer from TikTok. Over 1,500 artists and their family members have signed a petition calling on the U.S. to investigate Beijing's weaponization of American institutions against their company and community. They work for Xinyun, a premier classical Chinese dance company based in upstate New York. The call comes after the company received a string of threats, from bomb threats to slash tires. Xinyun held a press conference at Lincoln Center Wednesday detailing the challenges it faces at theaters around the world for speaking out against human rights abuses. NTD is a media sponsor of Xinyun. NTD's Fiona Ji tells the story. I'm here at the Lincoln Center, where premier Chinese classical dance company Xinyun Performing Arts is said to have 14 shows in the heart of Manhattan. Now, despite having a mission of reviving true traditional Chinese culture and bringing uplifting stories to its audience, the company faces an unprecedented international repression campaign from the Chinese Communist Party. Why is that? I had a chance to speak with Xinyun emcee Lishai Lemesh. Here's what he had to say. So I've been with Xinyun since day one. In late 2006, when we first started, and the entire time, the Chinese Communist Party had tried to stop us. The most common tactics we saw in the beginning was the ambassadors and consul generals writing letters to theaters, calling, knocking on doors, saying cancel the show or else. Xinyun Performing Arts was founded by practitioners of Falun Gong, a traditional spiritual practice persecuted by the Chinese regime. According to the company, the Chinese Communist Party or CCP employs a variety of tactics to target Xinyun. These include physical attacks, fake bomb threats, groundless lawsuits, and spreading misleading claims on social media and major news outlets, especially the New York Times. Its aim is to discredit and sabotage the company as well as Falun Gong. Levi Browdy, director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, said the issue goes even further. This is really not just about the Falun Gong community or Xinyun. This is a playbook. This is the ability for the Chinese regime to weaponize American institutions against America. And if they succeed at doing this against Xinyun, against the Falun Gong community, it will not stop there. But the threats have sometimes gone beyond words. One member of the Xinyun community was beaten unconscious by CCP-hired thugs. Xinyun's tour buses also had their tires slashed. This cut was done with a knife. It's very deep, but it was done in such a way that a tire would not deflate, but would only explode at high speeds on the highway. Bomb threats and death threats are enough to put mental and emotional pressure on anyone. But when asked how they felt, performers with Xinyun were not phased. I think whenever we get these bomb threats, you know, we're not actually scared because that proves that the CCP is scared of us. That's why they're trying to stop us. It will not stop us. It will not deter us. And then we'll just keep pushing forward. It gives me more motivation to give the best to our audience members, even when we're being attacked in the most hurtful way. It truly is a story of hope and perseverance in the face of adversity. Fiona Ji, NTD News. Meanwhile, that same night, Xinyun took the stage for its opening night at Lincoln Center in the heart of the Big Apple. Theatergoers shared their reflections after going on a journey through ancient China. Let's take a look. I think it was powerful. I was very impressed by the dancing. I really enjoy with the big screen in the back and coming from the stage to the screen. That gives it a really, it gives it a lot more depth. You know, the spectacle of it, the scale of it, you know, the sheer number of performers, the synchronicity of the performances, it's unbelievable. Xinyun is scheduled to perform in New York City through April 12th. Coming up, a hearing on Capitol Hills as Beijing is moving aggressively into the Western Hemisphere. We have the highlights. U.S. Secretary of State Pete Headseth boosting alliances in the Indo-Pacific region. More on his message to China. But we also stand with our allies to defend against that encroachment and defend American interests. And reciprocal action against China from one of its neighbors. South Korea has set up an observation platform in a disputed area of the sea they both border. More on that after the break. Here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. A battle is brewing between China and democratic nations in the Americas. A Senate subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere looks at what the Chinese Communist Party has been doing in North and South America to counter Taiwan. NTD correspondent Jason Blair reports from Washington. The Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee examined China's influence in the Western Hemisphere with a focus on Taiwan's allies. Subcommittee Chair Senator John Curtis says that it's in the United States' best interest to push back against Beijing's coercion in the area and to continue to support the nations that continue to stand with Taiwan. State Department officials have rightfully likened China's approach in our region to 19th century imperialism, bribing local leaders with investments in ways that lead to debt dependency. Ranking member Senator John Kaine says that China is aggressively moving into the region. Not only is the PRC trying to box us into a corner in our own neighborhood, they're also really coming hard after Taiwan's diplomatic partners, often at the cost of prosperity and good governance. The PRC's tactics in the region bring significant corruption, economic degradation, environmental challenge, and we've seen that again and again. Senator Kaine says the Chinese Communist Party has been disrupting commercial exchanges with countries like Guatemala as a means to coerce them into complying with their policies with Taiwan, which the CCP claims to be their own territory. So there can be short-term gains for some nations in doing this, but often at the cost of long-term stability and prosperity. And the distinction between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people also came up more than once during the hearing. Oftentimes when we have these conversations, it feels like we're talking about the Chinese people, and I want to be really clear. I think Americans love the Chinese people, love the Chinese culture. That's not where our problem is. It's an authoritarian government that's more oppressive on its own people than anyone else. I just think that's really important to designate. One witness detailed some ways the CCP supports other authoritarian governments in the Western Hemisphere. China also props up authoritarian regimes such as Venezuela, not only through loans, but also through systems that support repression, including riot control vehicles and facial recognition cameras for tracking down protesters. Reporting in Washington, D.C., Jason Blair, NTD News. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke to U.S. service members and veterans in Guam earlier Thursday. Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance gave a pep talk to troops at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia. NTD's Daniel Monahan has the key takeaways. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the stop en route to his first visit to Asia. He addressed the elimination of DEI policies under the Trump administration. It's not where we come from. It's not what we look like. It's not what race we are or what gender we are. What unites us is who we are in shared purpose as Americans. Hegseth says America doesn't seek war or confrontation, but believes by being strong, it will deter it. And our allies in this neighborhood see the encroachment of communist China with very different intentions. The defense secretary says the U.S. hopes to have a peaceful relationship with China. But we also stand with our allies to defend against that encroachment and defend American interests. In Hawaii on Wednesday, Hegseth said President Trump's focus in the Indo-Pacific is deterrence. Making sure we're properly focusing and prioritizing where we should on peer adversaries to stand strong and reflect deterrent. The defense secretary is scheduled to visit the Philippines and Japan during the trip for talks on China's assertive actions in the South China Sea and wider Indo-Pacific. Hegseth also addressed the Signal Chat mishap on Wednesday, repeating that nobody is texting war plans speaking on Fox News. They even changed the title to attack plans because they know it's not war plans. There's no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information. The defense secretary says his job was to update members of the national security team. General updates in real time, keep everybody informed. That's what I did. That's my job. Vice President J.D. Vance was met by loud cheers from Marines during his visit to Quantico on Wednesday. Vance says under President Trump's leadership, a very simple principle is followed. We don't care who you are, where you came from. We don't care what skin color you are. We care about excellence and we care about patriotism. Vance says gone are the days of quotas and diversity trainings. We believe the real strength and the real diversity in the United States Marine Corps is that you all come from every walk of life, come from every corner of America, and you have got the strength and the purpose to win the nation's wars. Vance says the U.S. is going to invest in the entire United States military like it never has before. Over a trillion dollars we're going to invest in building up the manufacturing base of this country so that you guys, when you do go to war, when you have to go to war, you've got the best weapons anywhere in the world. The vice president even had a chance to try out a weapon for himself, firing a machine gun. Vance also said that during the past two months, all the nation's service branches have met their recruitment goals and looked ahead to the fall when the Marine Corps will be celebrating its 250th anniversary. Daniel Monaghan, NTD News. And now to the Indo-Pacific region, South Korea taking reciprocal action against China. Seoul has set up an observation platform in a disputed area of the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean Peninsula. China has increasingly built structures in the area. The Chinese regime claims their fish farming equipment. They have raised alarm bells in Seoul that Beijing could be seeking to stake territorial claims like it has done in the disputed South China Sea. Lawmakers from South Korea's ruling party called the Chinese presence a direct challenge to marine security and urged a more forceful response. In February, South Korean media reported that a South Korean research vessel and the Coast Guard were involved in a two-hour standoff with Chinese vessels. 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 on the clock original news coverage, visit us at ntd.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.