Is Another Virus Coverup Brewing in China? Reports Detail Actions to Fight Disease

welcome to China in Focus i'm Tiffany Meyer our top story is China covering up bird flu outbreaks across the country local accounts and media reports reflect a stark contrast painting dramatically different pictures of the severity of bird flu inside the country more on the details president Trump says a deal on Tik Tok will be decided before the Saturday deadline here's more on what he says about the app's potential buyers the US must be prepared for war in order to seek peace that's the word from Secretary of Defense Pete Hgse has planned military upgrade with Japan to counter China those who long for peace must prepare for war we must be prepared and Thailand orders an investigation into why a high-rise collapsed during a massive earthquake the skyscraper was built under China's belt and road initiative before we dive into today's top story we'd like to share an important update you can now catch China in focus on Genjing World every Tuesday instead of YouTube we'll publish the link in the description box down below at the time or you can search China infocus at genjingworld.com is China orchestrating another large-scale cover up hiding the spread of a deadly virus and preparing to blame it on other countries last Friday China's top health body announced that human infections of bird flu are sporadically spreading inside the country adding the incidence rate is low is Beijing downplaying the risks of human transmission of the virus some evidence suggests yes for months different levels of China CDC centers have been implementing measures to combat bird flu those include monitoring bird flu cases among Chinese citizens stockpiling preventative products and training medical staff to handle outbreaks but here's the twist reports about bird flu cases stemming from poultry farms are only visible on social media they're fully absent from China's state controlled TV broadcasts and newspapers some Chinese poultry farmers are posting about their sickened birds on social media early this month a farmer said over 900 geese at her farms were killed by bird flu a biotech company in northern China's province stressed that this year's bird flu is significantly more serious among birds it urged people to avoid entering spaces for poultry gather to avoid infection in contrast we couldn't find any recent Chinese media reports on the situation within the past year china's biggest newspaper People's Daily as well as Beijing's media mouthpiece Shinua News Agency only report on bird flu cases in the US Japan and other countries given that how serious is the real situation inside China negative news about China always faces censorship from the Chinese regime as the world has learned during the CO 19 pandemic but actions from Chinese authorities are dropping hints china's most populated city Shanghai recently banned trading live poultry for three years starting early this year new York City implemented a similar yet much shorter term restriction two months later after state authorities found seven bird flu infected stocks in the city's markets on February 7th New York State announced it would close live bird markets for one week although Shanghai's ban is far longer the Chinese city kept silent on the details declining to say where when and how many infected birds there are in the city if any but failing to inform the public on details could prove highly dangerous according to the World Health Organization bird flu carries a severe 54% fatality rate in humans two months later in Shanghai a hospital started requesting information from patients about any contact they may have had with live poultry that's still without telling them why and without disclosing information of human cases now insider sources and local reports are disclosing that the bird flu virus is widely spreading in their cities two weeks ago a province in eastern China had an emergency medical drill in response to an unnamed infectious disease china's military forces and other state level experts participated and in northern China one city published a blueprint for a massive makeshift hospital facilities like this one are designed to isolate patients sickened by infectious diseases what's more one province in southwestern China is looking to source test kits for bird flu in humans we'll keep you posted on the virus situation in China as it develops you can find more related reports on ENTD's China news section president Donald Trump says a Tik Tok deal will happen before a deadline this Saturday the app is owned by Chinese company Bike Dance trump set the deadline back in January for it to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban on national security grounds trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that interest in Tik Tok was high we have a lot of potential buyers there's tremendous interest in Tik Tok the decision is going to be my decision as you know through Congress they've given me the power to make the decision i'd like to see Tik Tok remain alive tik Tok did not immediately comment washington says Tik Tok's ownership by Bite Dance makes it beholden to the Chinese government and that Beijing could use the app to conduct influence operations against the United States and collect data on Americans reuters reported on Friday that private equity firm Blackstone is evaluating making a small minority investment in Tik Tok's US operations according to sources Trump previously said he was willing to extend the April 5th deadline if an agreement over the social media app was not reached tik Tok's future has been up in the air since the 2024 law required by dance to divest Tik Tok by January 19th the White House has been involved to an unprecedented level in the closely watched deal talks effectively playing the role of an investment bank us Defense Secretary Pet Hexath reaffirmed the US commitment to working closely with Japan that's to counter quote aggressive and coercive actions by the communist China on Sunday Hexath met with Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba and Defense Minister Nakatani in Tokyo here's what Hexus had to say america and Japan we seek peace but as my first platoon motto says those who long for peace must prepare for war we must be prepared hickseth explained what America first means for the Indopacifica region and US allies there as you know President Trump has said America will re-establish peace through strength uh President Trump has also made it very clear and we reiterate uh we are going to put America first but America first does not mean America alone america's warriors stand shoulder-to-shoulder every day with their Japan Self-Defense Force counterparts our forces operate and train together across all domains to uphold deterrence america and Japan stand firmly together in the face of aggressive and coercive actions by the communist Chinese hix this said the defense department has started upgrading the US presence in Japan to the level of a joint force headquarters this upgrade will improve our ability to coordinate operations with Japan's own joint operations command or JJ it also increases our readiness to respond to contingency or crisis support US operations and help Japan and US forces defend this territory the United States currently has about 54,000 troops stationed in Japan they report to the US Indoacific Command in Hawaii china's aggression is rising and so are concerns at the Panama Canal to unpack the details we spoke to Alex Gray former chief of staff at the White House National Security Council alex how are US allies in the region as well as China seeing the security there under a new administration well I think what you're saying is this is an administration uh that's main critique of uh President Biden's team was the collapse of deterrence and a lot of this obviously had to do going back to his first year in office with the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan the inability to deter Ukraine and Russia and from invading Ukraine and frankly the mixed signals that were sent throughout that process i think it's hard to overstate the importance of the the collapse of the military balance between the United States and China in the Indo-Pacific as one of the major reasons that we've lost significant deterrent capacity the perception by allies and by the Chinese Communist Party that the United States is losing the capacity to actually deter and if necessary to intervene successfully to resist Chinese aggression um is destabilizing the region and I think this this critique has been one of the central premises of the Trump team going back to shortly after he left office the first time um and I think it's a welcome sign you know you've seen President Marcos the Japanese uh the Australians I think warmly welcome the idea that the United States is going to take deterrence seriously and resource it uh resource it with the seriousness that it deserves and over in the Indo Pacific uh China has been showing more aggression over the past few years whether it's ramming Philippine Coast Guard vessels or blocking them from resupply missions or arresting Taiwanese fishing boats um will China be less intent on invading Taiwan with President Trump in office i think they'll absolutely be less intent and there's a reason why so many of the destabilizing deterrence collapsing actions that occurred under President Biden's watch didn't happen under President Trump because there was an understanding by our adversaries whether it was Putin whether it was she whether it was Kim Jong-un whether it was the Iranian Ayatollas that President Trump would take decisive action if that was necessary to defend our core interests and so I don't think there's any question by the Xiinping and the Chinese Communist Party that President Trump will act decisively if that's what's needed to uphold our core strategic interests uh and I think ultimately that creates deterrence and that's why I don't think you're going to see China getting too far outside their box presuming of course that we do what I think Secretary Hath is very committed to which is to restore a military balance in the Indoacific that's in our favor the death toll of the earthquake in Southeast Asia has surged past 2,000 burma or Myanmar marked the epicenter of Friday's 7.7 magnitude quake neighboring Thailand was also affected over the weekend the Thai government announced a probe of a 33story building that collapsed during the earthquake this skyscraper built by a Chinese company was constructed under China's Belt and Road Initiative ntd's Daniel Monahan reports some glass windows installed as cladding on the building could be seen falling off as the entire structure collapsed within seconds the building was the only high-rise and highland to collapse from the March 28th quake thai Prime Minister Pitang Tan Shinawet says the government has ordered an investigation into what caused the structural failure of the high-rise how the unique core tube plus flat slab design of the structure was approved will also be investigated local Thai media reported that China Railway Engineering Corporation or CRC is the largest shareholder in the $63 million joint Chinese Thai venture crc is heavily involved in China's controversial Belt and Road initiative nations involved in other Belt and Road projects have warned of unsustainable debts incurred as a result of the projects many analysts call them a debt trap which doesn't deliver the advertised economic growth but instead results in national security risks for host countries thai officials on Monday said they were investigating metal and steel parts taken from the quake hit construction site in Bangkok an anti-corruption watchdog had flagged irregularities in the construction of the skyscraper a government official said Monday that signs of life were detected at the site uh a second ago we actually found one of the signal and this is why we trying to cooperate together so that we concentrate on the tactical team how we going to get through to the signal that we actually capture thai senators kept a set of personal protection equipment next to each of their seats in the country's parliament on Monday for their first parliamentary session since the earthquake the senators also held an evacuation drill on Sunday daniel Monahan NTD News coming up citing cases of Chinese students caught snooping on US military bases lawmakers are pushing a bill to block Chinese citizens from getting student visas is an all-out ban the solution three manufacturing giants in Asia are meeting for their first trade talks in 5 years more on a plan between China Japan and South Korea to fend off Trump tariffs and Taiwan is investigating whether China poached talent in the microchip industry the technology is key to the US China competition more on that after the break here on China in Focus welcome back to China in Focus i'm Tiffany Meyer college campus is back in the spotlight this time over student visas getting revoked and international students deported it's not only about Trump administration's crackdown on pro Hamas foreign students but also some Chinese students who did things they shouldn't have done as a student to discuss it we spoke to Jeffrey Bworth professor for modern American political history at Ganon University and Gerard Fily attorney specializing in international law jeffrey zooming out a bit here it's not just the pro Palestine wing that's in focus china is another one we have Congressman Riley Moore he introduced the Stop CCP Visas Act that's following several cases where Chinese students have been caught spying on US military bases or stealing advanced technology from American companies it's co-sponsored by five Republican lawmakers now considering that Chinese students make up around 25% of all international students in the US they're the second largest group after India which means a lot of funding as you're pointing out earlier what do you make of this kind of legislation that targets such a vast group of students well I'm not sure we need any specific legislation uh to deal with this problem we dealt with this during the Cold War so we had all kinds of students from across the world who would tilt towards the Soviet uh side look some surely were engaged in espionage some would engage in protest some would just write an op-ed that's my understanding of what that tough student did um we have decades of experience of dealing with um potential espionage from from students or whoever it might be um I I think the laws we have on the books are kind of up to the task of managing this i mean we managed it in the cold war uh I I believe we can manage manage it in the 21st century and Gerard you and I have spoken about the China threat in general many times but in terms of this legislation it is true that there have been cases of Chinese students buying or stealing IP from companies and military bases but can the US legally just stop handing out student visas to an entire country it it it can especially if there is a national security justification for doing that we're not looking at a protected class we're not looking at discrimination on the basis of religion for example selectively determining that people of a certain religion can't enter the country or predominant religion can't this is a targeted list of of students essentially of countries and we've had this before in our history when we've been more restrictive with visas or the ability of foreigners to enter our country from specific places especially when we had the Cold War from countries that were within the Soviet sphere of influence so this is something that has been supported and sustained by courts before this this is entirely procedurally valid and there shouldn't be any legal impediment to this it is however a political issue and it's hard to see where especially Democrats are going to come down in support of this a lot to watch out for here for sure jeffrey Bworth George Fit thank you both so much for joining us thank you thank you three Asian export powers are bracing ahead of President Donald Trump's April 2nd tariffs over the weekend South Korea China and Japan held their first economic dialogue in 5 years seeking to facilitate regional trade china Japan and South Korea held their first trade talks in five years on Sunday admit concerns over US President Donald Trump's import tariffs the three Asian manufacturing giants agreed to quote closely cooperate for a comprehensive and high level talks to improve free trade in the region that's according to a statement released after the meeting trade ministers from the three nations met ahead of Trump's planned announcement on Wednesday of more tariffs in what he calls quote liberation day last week Trump announced 25% import tariffs on cars and auto parts a move that may hurt companies especially Asian automakers which are among the largest vehicle exporters to the US soul Beijing and Tokyo are major US trading partners although they have been at logger hats among themselves disagreements over issues including territorial disputes have prevented them from making any substantial progress on a trilateral free trade deal since starting talks in 2012 the ministers agreed to hold their next ministerial meeting in Japan japan's finance minister says he'll stay in close contact with the US when it comes to exchange rates earlier this month President Trump said he told leaders of China and Japan not to weaken their currencies to boost their exports japan's finance minister Kazunobkato said on Monday he'll stay in close contact with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on exchange rates earlier this month President Trump said he told the leader of Japan not to reduce the value of their currencies i've called President Xi i've called the leaders of Japan to say you can't continue to reduce and break down your your currency you can't do it because it's unfair to us japan's finance minister says Japan and the US share the consensus that currency rates should be determined by markets and that excessive disorderly currency movements could negatively affect economic and financial stability he says Japan plans to discuss this issue with Secretary Bessent at the G7 reporting from Taiwan Joy Chu Entity News the Chinese Communist Party isn't just luring high-tech talents from the US its search extends to Taiwan as well the island produces 90% of the globe's high-end semiconductors let's take a look at what Beijing is doing competition in the semiconductor space is serious so serious that China's largest chipmaker is accused of creating a shell company to lure tech workers from Taiwan taiwan's justice ministry says SMIC set up a Samoa based subsidiary to illegally poach engineers few details were released except that the company operated next to Taiwan's main semiconductor hub that's where the world's largest contract chip maker TSMC is headquartered given Taiwan's dominance in making advanced semiconductors it has stepped up efforts to stop Chinese firms from stealing knowhow and talent 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 chinafocusent ntd.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