CCP-Linked Billionaire Behind Funding of Anti-ICE Protests

Welcome to China In Focus, I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. Lawmakers and the F-B-I are chasing the money trail behind the unrest in Los Angeles. They've uncovered one billionaire with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party. What's his full story? President Donald Trump saying the trade truce with China is sealed and more deals are on the way. Meanwhile, China announces it will remove all tariffs on African exports. We made a great deal with China. We're very happy with it. China is reaffirming the trade deal saying it is always keeping its word. But U.S. lawmakers are pushing back, questioning the Chinese Communist Party's credibility in business. And the U.S. is charging three Chinese nationals this month for smuggling biological research materials. We spoke to an expert for insight. They are the head of the snake behind everything that's evil across this globe. 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 world. And share an exclusive behind-the-scenes snapshot with our readers. Keep an eye out. The newsletter will land in your inbox Friday morning. U.S. lawmakers and the F-B-I are digging deep into the Chinese Communist Party's alleged role in this week's Los Angeles riots. One individual coming into the spotlight, Shanghai-based American billionaire Neville Singham. The F-B-I is investigating him. Before we get into who Neville Singham is and his ties to China, let's first look at one group deeply involved in the anti-ICE protests, the Party for Socialism and Liberation. It's a communist political party based in the U.S. that openly supports the Chinese regime. Over the years, Neville Singham has reportedly funneled more than 20 million dollars to the justice and education fund, a non-profit with leadership ties to the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The fund has also supported several other U.S.-based pro-Marxist groups. So who is Neville Singham? He's a pro-China tech mogul, an American living in Shanghai with his wife, Jody Evans. Singham once worked as a consultant for Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant blacklisted by the U.S. as linked to the Chinese military. Beyond that, he also shares office space in Shanghai with a Chinese propaganda firm. A 2023 New York Times investigation revealed a photo from Singham's office showing young people gathered beneath a red banner that read, Always Follow the Party. Hanging nearby was a portrait of China's communist leader, Xi Jinping. What's more, Singham's wife is a socialist activist. She co-authored a book called China is Not Our Enemy, with a researcher connected to Beijing-linked entities. She has also described Uyghurs as terrorists and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong as rioters. In an interview with the New York Times, both Singham and his wife denied taking orders from the Chinese Communist Party. They said their actions reflect their own personal beliefs. This is the couple behind funding radical movements in the U.S. Congresswoman Anna Luna says lawmakers will demand Singham testify about his funding and ties to the CCP. FBI Director Kash Patel told the Epoch Times the bureau is investigating any and all the monetary support behind the recent riots in Los Angeles. The U.S.-China trade deal is still waiting on final approval from both leaders. So far, no word from Chinese Communist Party head Xi Jinping, even after top officials reached a framework in London Tuesday. Meanwhile, on Thursday, China's foreign ministry announced it will remove all tariffs on African exports to boost trade. President Donald Trump said Wednesday the trade truce with China is secured. He also said he's open to extending the July 8th deadline for talks with other countries. Here's more. Speaking to reporters on a trip to the theater, he said the U.S. was rocking on lots more agreements, too. The president added he would be willing to extend the deadline for talks with other countries, but didn't think he'd have to. I don't think we're going to have that necessity. We made a great deal with China. We're very happy with it. Trump didn't offer more details, and said some countries would simply be told what their deal was. We're dealing with about 15 countries, but as you know, we have about 150 plus, and you can't do that. So we're going to be sending letters out in about a week and a half, two weeks. The agreement with China came after two days of intense talks in London. That deal confirms an earlier agreement hammered out in May, which had seemed under threat over Beijing's curbs on the export of critical rare earth minerals. Those restrictions will now be lifted, with some U.S. measures also eased. But many details remain unclear, and Washington is still imposing a 55% tariff on Chinese goods. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that rate was fixed and unalterable. Speaking earlier in Congress, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said Beijing needed to show it was open to fundamental change. They're in the midst of a real estate downturn. Some may cause a crisis, and they are trying to export their way out of it, rather than take domestic measures such as increasing consumption, dealing with banking problems, or dealing with the real estate crisis. Besant said the London deal did not mean Washington would lift curbs on the export of cutting-edge chips in return for the supply of rare earths. Market reaction to the agreement was muted, with many investors saying they wanted to see more detail. President Trump says he is open to pushing back the July 8th deadline for trade talks with other countries, that is the cutoff before higher U.S. tariffs start, but he doubts an extension will be necessary. He adds that some countries will simply be told what their trade deal is. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson affirmed the trade deal with the U.S. on Thursday. He said both sides must abide by the consensus, and emphasized that China always keeps its word. But some U.S. lawmakers are questioning China's track record on keeping its promises. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant echoed those concerns Wednesday, telling House lawmakers the U.S. needs a reliable partner. Here's the story. The country needs to be a reliable partner. Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant called the U.S.-China negotiations successful, as both sides agreed to a trade framework. If China will course correct by upholding its end of the initial trade agreement we outlined in Geneva, and I believe after our talks in London they will, then the rebalancing of the world's largest, two largest economies is possible. He says the U.S. is giving the CCP a chance to correct its course, and that China has one path forward. Stop what it's been doing for decades, stop overproducing goods with government subsidies, and then dumping those goods onto the world market, and thereby undercutting global trade. And he says that they need to start consuming, and making products for their own domestic market. Besant says that if the CCP keeps increasing exports in the way that it has, it will cause substantial decreases to the standard of living for Americans, and those around the world. Now, some House Democrats raised concerns at this hearing that the CCP has not made good on their previous promises in trading with the U.S., and that trade deals with the communist regime going forward should be given greater oversight through Congress. And although it committed to increasing its imports from the U.S. by $200 billion from 20 to 21, it only followed through with 58% of its promised purchases. China has failed to meet these purchase commitments. Those were purchase commitments that were negotiated by Trump in his first administration. They met their agreements under President Trump in 2020, and President Biden did not enforce them, and the Chinese delegation told me that they did not believe they needed to adhere to them. No, I'm reclaiming my time. Also, what came up is the danger of the U.S. relying on China for pharmaceuticals, and how vulnerable the U.S. would be to relying on the CCP, its greatest adversary for this life-saving medicine. That actually gives them negotiating leverage. I think it would be a tragic, tragic mistake if they were ever to flip off that switch, but it's always there. They could. Besson also said that the Chinese regime has been an unreliable trading partner in the past, and that during this time around, the U.S. tariffs on China and other countries are meant to increase domestic manufacturing, and that will give the U.S. a better position in the event that China once again breaches its contract. Reporting by Jack Bradley, NTD News. U.S. authorities have charged three Chinese nationals in just this month alone for attempting to smuggle materials used in biological research. The most recent case happened this Monday. To discuss these developments and the broader security risks posed by the CCP, we spoke to Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor. Michael, thank you so much for joining us. Great to see you again. Now, this is the third recent arrest involving biological material. This latest one making headlines as the researcher came from Wuhan, bringing up memories of the pandemic. First, what are your thoughts on this latest case? This is one step in the Chinese Communist Party's asymmetric warfare, or gray zone warfare, against the United States. What they do is they extract value from the United States, and they sow poison. They sow chaos. The academic example that you bring up with the University of Michigan, they have researchers that extract value. They steal intellectual property sometimes. And then what do we catch them doing? Allegedly, directly sowing poison to our agriculture system to wipe out our wheat crops, wipe out other crops. We're seeing this across the board because, as the previous mentioned, this is gray zone warfare. Now, to your point, FBI Director Kash Batal issuing a statement saying, in part, this case is part of a broader effort from the FBI and our federal partners to heavily crack down on similar pathogen smuggling operations as the CCP works relentlessly to undermine America's research institutions. What other actions are you anticipating this administration will take to counter Chinese infiltration? I would expect them to start sending Communist Party-associated students and professors home. There are military researchers on our campuses. They need to go home. There are students who are spies. The actual legitimate Chinese students know that they're being spied upon. We need to send the spies home. Across the board, though, we need to crack down. We open up with trade. What do they do? They send us fentanyl. We open up on academics. What do they do? They steal intellectual property, and then they prepare, as we're seeing here, to sow diseases across our country. I think that there needs to be a full-of-government, full-of-society response to the Chinese Communist Party's gray zone warfare upon the United States. And expanding on that, Michael, what kind of consequences do you think Chinese nationals convicted of these pathogen-related crimes should face to prevent Beijing from exploiting this issue? I'm really glad you asked that question, because I think that that doesn't get asked often enough. They need to go to jail for such a long period of time that no other Chinese spies are going to want to touch this. One of the failures of the American side has been to underpunish these acts of warfare from a foreign aggressor, from the Chinese Communist Party. We need to be raising all penalties for crimes associated with the Chinese Communist Party or other hostile regimes. State governments are beginning to raise those penalties, as is needed, when the Communist Party's involved in a crime. The federal government, if someone gets caught in spying, sometimes we just send them to jail for six months, send them home to China. They get a parade when they get back there. They need to be going to jail for six years, 16 years, 26 years, so they will never imagine doing this again. On that note, a day after the arrest of the Wuhan researcher, another Chinese national, this one not a student, but a 42-year-old pled guilty to federal crimes for exporting military items to North Korea. What does this case tell us about cooperation and collaboration among authoritarian regimes? Is this part of a broader campaign against democratic nations? There's a broad campaign led by the Communist Party. They are the head of the snake behind every global problem. North Korea, Ukraine and Russia, Hamas and Israel, Pakistan and India. The Chinese Communist Party is the head of the snake behind every bad guy across the globe. They cause problems in Latin America, all the theaters I just mentioned. Anywhere they could get the Americans distracted and they could get us burning resources against some proxy warfare, that's exactly what they want to do. That's why they are the number one supplier of the Russia war machine. That's why they are a big backer of Pakistan. That's why they have all sorts of insidious relationships with Hamas, these terrorists. That's why they have relationships with the cartels in Mexico that sow poison across our streets. They are the head of the snake behind everything that's evil across this globe. A lot at stake for sure. Michael Lucci, as always, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Coming up, several major global brands could be linked to forced labor through their Chinese suppliers tied to critical minerals from China's Xinjiang region. The U.S. and U.K. are teaming up to help Australia build a submarine to counter China. But now the Trump administration is hitting pause for a formal review. How are Australia and the U.K. responding? And a Chinese fighter jet flying within 150 feet of a Japanese patrol plane, the latest in a series of tense aerial encounters over sensitive waters near Japan. That and more in just a minute here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Several global brands are now at risk of using forced labor in their Chinese supply chains. An international rights group says these companies source minerals from China's Xinjiang region, a known hotspot for forced labor concerns. Here's more. A report from Netherlands-based Global Rights Compliance says companies including Avon, Walmart, Nescafe, Coca-Cola, and paint supplier Sherwin-Williams may be linked to titanium sourced from Xinjiang. Rights groups say that's where the Chinese regime runs forced labor operations using predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other minorities. The report said commercial paints, thermos cups, and components for the aerospace, auto, and defense industries are among the products sold internationally that can trace their supply chains to minerals from Xinjiang. It said companies must review their supply chains. In 2021, then-President Joe Biden signed a law to block imports from Xinjiang unless businesses can prove the items were made without forced labor. A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators is pushing a new bill. The legislation aims to boost space cooperation among the Quad nations, the U.S., Australia, India, and Japan. The bill is backed by Senator Michael Bennett from the Intelligence Committee and Senator Kevin Cramer from Armed Services. In a statement, Bennett warns that China and Russia are racing ahead with what he calls dangerous space capabilities. Yet the U.S. must strengthen cooperation with Quad partners to keep the Indo-Pacific region free and secure. The bill is now headed to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for further review. A Pentagon official said Wednesday that the U.S. is reviewing a deal to help Australia build submarines alongside the U.K. The official added they want to ensure the pact aligns with President Trump's America First agenda. Australia's Defense Minister Richard Morales says he's confident the submarine pact will move forward. The agreement is part of AUKUS, a security partnership between the U.S., Australia, and the U.K. Here are the details. Australia in 2023 committed to spending $239 billion over three decades on AUKUS to acquire and build nuclear-powered submarines. The agreement is believed to be about pushing back against China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific. China has played a role in rising tensions in places like the South China Sea. The countries involved haven't directly named China as the reason, but they say security concerns in the region have grown a lot in recent years. We should understand that our defense and our security depends on our network of alliances. And as far as AUKUS is concerned, it's the strongest one and the most important one we've struck in 70 years. And it's the one that I've noticed that the Chinese in particular have really reacted to probably more than any other I've seen. So that tells you something I think about its strategic merit.Albanese is expected to meet Trump for the first time next week at the G7 meeting in Canada. They'll talk about a U.S. request that Australia raise its defense spending. Australia was scheduled to make a $2 billion payment in 2025 to the U.S. under AUKUS. This would boost U.S. submarine shipyards and speed up lagging production. The goal is to allow the sale of up to three submarines to Australia from 2032. The U.K. said Thursday it understands the Trump administration's decision to launch a formal review of the AUKUS submarine pact, emphasizing that the project is vital for peace and security. Beijing is stepping up provocations in the Indo-Pacific. A Chinese fighter jet came dangerously close, just 150 feet from a Japanese patrol plane over the weekend. The U.S. ambassador to Tokyo condemned the maneuver, calling it dangerous and reckless. Japanese officials said Thursday that Chinese fighter jets have been tailing their patrol planes in a series of tense encounters over waters near Japan. On Saturday, a Chinese J-15 fighter jet followed a Japanese patrol aircraft for about 40 minutes, at one point closing in to just 150 feet. The following day, another Chinese J-15 shadowed a Japanese patrol plane for over an hour, this time keeping a distance of about half a mile. Japan's defense ministry says these aggressive moves could easily lead to an accidental collision, and is calling on China to halt such actions. Officials say the Chinese jets took off from the Shandong aircraft carrier. No damage was reported, but the close calls are fueling growing concerns about stability in the Indo-Pacific. Besides rising tensions in the skies, Japan is also keeping a close eye on increased Chinese naval activity in the region. This week, Japan spotted two Chinese aircraft carriers nearby. Both were actively launching and landing fighter jets. This marks China's first deployment of multiple carriers together in the Pacific. It's also the first time one has reached the second island chain, bringing China closer to the U.S. territory of Guam. The carriers were spotted near Japan's region, with the Liaoning carrier seen sailing inside Japan's exclusive economic zone. It's an area off Japan's coast where it controls resources like fishing, though it's not part of its sovereign territory. In response, Japanese officials said Thursday they will continue communicating with China about the incidents while increasing surveillance to protect their territory. China currently operates three aircraft carriers, with its third still undergoing testing. Additionally, a fourth nuclear-powered carrier is currently under construction. Now moving on to Taiwan. A Taiwanese court has sentenced the captain of a Chinese cargo ship to three years in prison. He was found guilty of intentionally damaging undersea cables near the island back in February. Prosecutors said the man was captain of a ship with a Chinese crew registered in Togo. Taiwanese authorities detained it after suspecting it dropped anchor near an undersea cable, resulting in damage. The court found the captain allowed the ship's anchor to pull on the cables, causing them to break. He admitted that he told the crew to drop anchor, but denied he was guilty of damaging the cables. The court said Taiwan's Changhua Telecom suffered losses of more than $570,000 in repair costs. Seven other crew members were deported after prosecutors determined there was insufficient evidence against them. That's all for today's China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. If you have any feedback on this 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.