TikToker Backs Political Assassination After Charlie Kirk’s Death | China in Focus

Welcome to China in Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. A U.S. college student is going viral online for endorsing political assassination. She says her professor asked the class to give a hot take on Charlie Kirk's death and she shared hers. I've been saying we need to bring back political assassinations. I don't feel bad and I don't think that everyone deserves the right to free speech. Congress probing the Chinese Communist Party's role in North American crime from illegal marijuana to money laundering. Chinese-selling criminal networks are under the spotlight. President Trump and China's Xi Jinping set to speak Friday. Could TikTok's future be decided in one phone call? U.S. China hawks warning about continued CCP influence through the app's algorithm. And what's in the TikTok framework that the U.S. and China have reportedly reached? What does the app keeping the Chinese characteristics mean for national security? An expert breaks it down. Would we allow Nazi Germany to have an app inside the United States? That's exactly what we're talking about here. Before we dive into today's news, don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter using the link down below. In tomorrow's newsletter, we revisit Charlie Kirk's warning to America about the threats from the Chinese Communist Party. It drops Friday morning straight to your inbox. Don't miss A college student's remarks in class have gone viral and are raising eyebrows. Julia Xie, a student at Oberlin College, posted a video online about comments she made in class the day after conservative leader Charlie Kirk was killed. The remarks came during a discussion in her class called Revolution, Socialism and Reform in China. Let's take a look at what she said. My teacher said, I'll give you five minutes for hot takes about Charlie Kirk. I was the only person who raised their hand. I said, I've been saying we need to bring back political assassinations. I don't feel bad and I don't think that everyone deserves the right to free speech. I think some people should be afraid to express their opinion in public. Xie is facing heavy criticism for her remarks after posting the video last week. On Thursday, a New York Post article said she apologized for, in her words, tactless comments. She's TikTok handle on the video is Comrade Julia. Her post has drawn calls for investigation from many conservative leaders and Chinese pro-democracy activists. Here are some details point to Xie's identity, though it's not confirmed. On her school's blog, she says she's from Cheshire, a small town in Connecticut with fewer than 30,000 residents. Back in 2018, a letter was sent to Cheshire's Education Committee by someone with the same first and last name. The author, reportedly a seventh grader at the time, said she was American. Xie's education timeline matches that of the student who made the controversial comments on Kirk's death. However, NTD has not been able to verify whether they are the same person. Gordon Chang, a veteran China analyst and author, told NTD that if she is a U.S. citizen, the Justice Department should prosecute her for, quote, using an instrumentality of interstate commerce to incite murder. So this class is literally about revolution in China. All of our readings for this month have been talking about how violent revolution liberated millions of people and liberated women. And then our reading for that day was specifically about democratic dictatorship, where Mao writes about, yes, people deserve free speech, but there should not be free speech for reactionaries and imperialists and like capitalists and all these people who are enemies of the revolution, because that would reverse the progress that was made. After the video spread online, she and her school removed many of her works and digital footprints from public view. Screenshots from her blog show the Oberlin student is involved in organizations supporting free Palestine and radical gender theories. Other Chinese nationals living in the U.S. are also under scrutiny for making inappropriate comments on Kirk's death. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vowed to revoke visas for foreigners who endorse ideologies against American values. Take a listen. We shouldn't be bringing people into this country. We should not be giving visas to people who are going to come to the United States and do things like celebrate the murder, the execution, the assassination of a political figure. We should not. And if they're already here, we should be revoking their visa. Our investigation shows that inside China, state run media are reporting on Kirk's death in ways that highlight division, chaos and violence in the U.S. We've also seen a flood of hateful comments on major Chinese social media platforms. We'll continue tracking these online trends and how the Chinese Communist Party is shaping public opinion at home amid tensions with the U.S. Congress examined on Thursday the influence the Chinese Communist Party may have over criminal networks in North America. Our Washington correspondent Luis Adoro-Martinez has the details. Criminal organizations, the best ones are the hardest to catch. They have a proficiency of layering in camouflage. It becomes so successful as exactly what you said, because they're being controlled by the top echelon of Chinese organized crimes. The illegal market of marijuana in the United States produces approximately $153 billion worth of profits for transnational criminal organizations. And CCP linked Chinese nationals have taken over the money laundering and production aspect of this criminal enterprise in the U.S. Let's paint the picture together. A group of Chinese nationals affiliated with a foreign criminal organization crosses the southern border, makes their way into rural Oklahoma. With them are workers who have been lured under the false promise of good jobs in the United States. In a matter of days, this newly purchased land becomes the site of a large scale illegal marijuana grow operation. It is estimated that during the previous administration, some 200,000 Chinese nationals entered the United States illegally. And CCP linked Chinese nationals use WeChat, which is beyond the reach of the U.S. authorities, to create sophisticated criminal networks. Being the Chinese suppliers of precursor chemicals used in fentanyl production in Mexico, becoming the primary money launderers for the Mexican cartels, which have been recently designated as FTOs. Human trafficking networks, global operations that corrupt government authorities, wildlife trafficking networks. Of course, Chinese controlled marijuana cultivation. CCP linked criminal networks have reduced the cost of money laundering for Mexican cartels from 10% of profits to 2% of profits. Despite the success rate in border protection and law enforcement of the Trump administration, house Democrats have blamed the president for the proliferation of this criminal networks. Trump's occupation of America's largest city is reducing the federal government's ability to pursue serious, complex crimes. It's important to know that the Trump administration has designated Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, unleashing the use of the Department of War and its assets to tackle these criminal networks. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Luis Eduardo Martinez, NTD News. President Trump and Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping are set to hold a phone call Friday. The call is expected to finalize a controversial TikTok deal. Treasury Secretary Besant confirmed the proposed agreement earlier this week, but it has already raised concerns in Washington about potential ongoing Chinese influence, especially through TikTok's algorithm. Here's a closer look. President Trump will speak with Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping on a call Friday at 9 a.m. Eastern time. Trump confirmed Thursday that TikTok would be owned by so-called all-American investors. Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant announced that a framework deal for TikTok had been reached and said President Trump and Xi would finalize the deal during Friday's talks. Yeah, we're pretty close to a deal. We may do an extension with China, but it's an extension based on the same terms that we have right now, which are pretty good terms. Trump did not directly answer questions about the Chinese-controlled algorithm. The spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce responded in a different tone, saying, quote, China will never seek to reach any agreement at the expense of a principled stance. U.S. House China Committee Chair John Muellner is raising concerns about the reported reliance on an algorithm that could allow continued control or influence by the Chinese Communist Party. The Washington, D.C.-based think tank Heritage Foundation issued a statement on the TikTok deal urging President Trump not to accept a halfway deal with China. Wes Hodges, acting director of technology and the human person at Heritage, called TikTok a weapon of the Chinese Communist Party. Meanwhile, Beijing is dropping an antitrust probe into Google. The Financial Times reported that the move signals China now concentrates its regulatory fire power on NVIDIA. Earlier this week, Chinese authorities said NVIDIA had violated China's antitrust law and banned Chinese technology companies from buying NVIDIA's A.I. chips. On rare earths, Bloomberg reports China exported about 7,300 tons of rare earth magnets last month, the largest monthly total since early 2012. The United States is receiving, you know, rare earths much better than they were before. However, there's still work to be done there. President Trump also raised concerns about Chinese nuclear weapons one day ahead of the talks with Xi. We're going to keep Bagram, the big air base, that one of the biggest air bases in the world. We gave it to him for nothing. We're trying to get it back, by the way. OK, that could be a little breaking news. We're trying to get it back because they need things from us. We want that base back. But one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it's an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. Previously, Trump tried to push China into trilateral nuclear arms control negotiations with the U.S. and Russia, but Beijing refused. Besides key concerns and issues, the Friday phone call between the two leaders could be a watershed moment for a potential one-on-one meeting. The Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing insisted on Trump visiting China, while Washington preferred the meeting take place at the Korea APEC summit. And with TikTok back in the headlines after Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says the U.S. and China reached a framework, with President Trump expected to discuss the deal Friday with China's Xi Jinping on a call. What are the national security concerns around this? We bring on CEO of business warfare and counterintelligence company Black Ops Partners, Casey Fleming, for insight. Casey Fleming, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. Thanks for having me. Now, reports are saying the U.S. has reached a framework deal with China over TikTok, with Treasury Secretary Scott Besson telling multiple media outlets that certain Chinese characteristics of the app will remain. First, what's your reaction to this framework? Fake, false. If you understand the Chinese Communist Party, it is everything they need and want and nothing we need and we want. Remember, this application is a communist-built application, and it will always be a communist-built application. Trying to masquerade with U.S. ownership and saying that they'll create a separate algorithm, keep the data in the U.S. and all that is something that just cannot happen. In other words, it won't happen. You can never be sure with the millions of lines of code that there aren't rerouting mechanisms, all these types of things that are in there. I want to dig into that because China has its own version of TikTok called Douyin with a separate algorithm and separate feed, separate app completely, and then the rest of the world gets what we call TikTok. But in digging into this Chinese characteristics part, Scott Besson is telling Reuters and Bloomberg that Beijing thinks this is soft power. We don't care about that. We care about national security. How is there a difference, though? Having an app, an enemy's app on your children's and young adults' phones is a Trojan horse. And it is 100 percent a weaponized military application for both espionage and infiltration, propaganda, mainly cognitive warfare. So why would we ever allow that? Would we allow Nazi Germany to have an app inside the United States? That's exactly what we're talking about here. So all the arm-waving and all the great press releases and politics needs to understand it's national security that is absolutely at stake. And by the way, TikTok is built on stolen U.S. innovation. Okay, let that sink in. So the revenue from TikTok is going to fund a Chinese communist regime and their national security to kill our children, to be very blunt. So it just does not add up from any angle, regardless of what the tech and business want. And how likely are we to see an American-made TikTok? We just need an investment into technology. We can go back to the gentleman who had the intellectual property, still does, and go back to that gentleman, put some funding behind him, and have it created. Remember this TikTok, TikTok and then the app in China are extremely different apps. In China, it's all about doing well. It's about achieving STEM, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, being a good citizen, doing great for your country, country nationalism, all that. In the U.S., it's absolutely meant to be silly, stupid, tearing down values, family values, rebelling against your parents, doing very dangerous TikTok challenges. And by the way, it kills the critical thinking. It's just all you do is go to TikTok for your news. I think the last report was over 55% of Gen Z gets their news from TikTok. Now, how can that be trusted? And how do we have those minds ready to think critically to say, hey, what's real and what's not real? So the critical thinking is out the window. In fact, Chinese generals have made that comment years ago. We will make your children basically zombies. And then on the other side, a lot are pointing out to the advantages of technology, right? We can do interviews like this remotely. So how do we balance out where there are those real risks and that could lead to deadly consequences? And on the other hand, people are saying, oh, this is a great way to get more information or connect with people. How do we balance that? Well, I always say that technology always has two sides. It has the side that was meant for, which is productivity, fun, games, all that type of thing. But every bit of technology can be, and most of it is weaponized against you. And what that means is it's taking your freedom away from you piece by piece. And eventually you're going to wake up in the very near future that freedom's no longer there. So we've got to get behind this. We are in World War III. This is what it looks like because it's at the speed of technology and the stealth of unrestricted warfare with no rules. So this is what World War III looks like. If we're waiting for ships, troops, guns and bombs and drones to attack, it is way too late because we are squarely in the umbrella of national security. It needs to be regulated. Our technology sector and technology titans need to stop partnering with a Chinese communist regime, a very dark regime that is sworn to eliminate and destroy and take over the U.S. and the rest of the free world. Casey Fleming, as always, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Coming up, American chipmaker NVIDIA caught between the U.S. and China. Beijing reportedly told its top tech firms to stop buying NVIDIA AI chips. CEO Jensen Huang calls it disappointing. And House Speaker Mike Johnson lays in. China has been working for a long time now to become a peer-to-peer adversary with the United States. And Beijing stepping up military pressure on Taiwan. Taiwan responding with higher defense spending and its largest arms exhibition is drawing foreign investors. That and more in just a minute here on China In Focus. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. China has reportedly told its top tech firms to stop buying AI chips from U.S. chipmaker NVIDIA. The move is escalating tensions in the U.S.-China trade war. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and House Speaker Mike Johnson have weighed in. Let's zoom in. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that the Cyberspace Administration of China, or CAC, has directed companies like ByteDance and Alibaba to halt testing and cancel orders of NVIDIA's RTX Pro 6000D chip. The report comes just days after Beijing accused NVIDIA of violating its anti-monopoly law and after U.S. officials voiced national security concerns at trade talks with China. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang on Wednesday responded by saying he was disappointed with what he saw and that the U.S. and Beijing have, quote, larger agendas to work out, adding that the chipmaker can only be in service of a market if a country wants us to be. Successive U.S. administrations have restricted China's access to advanced semiconductors, prompting Beijing to push domestic firms away from American suppliers. House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke Wednesday night on CNBC about the issue. Watch. China has been working for a long time now to become a peer-to-peer adversary with the United States, and we're in a race with them, frankly, in so many areas. China is not a fair trading partner. I mean, they're a communist regime. They steal our intellectual property. Johnson said it is not the U.S. but China that's straining relations between the two countries. In other NVIDIA news, the chip giant announced Thursday it will invest $5 billion in Intel, backing the struggling tech veteran. The move comes just weeks after the White House helped engineer a deal for the U.S. government to take a major stake in Intel. Here's more. The stake instantly will make NVIDIA one of Intel's largest shareholders. NVIDIA's support represents a new opening for Intel after years of turnaround efforts failed to pay off. The investment news sent shares soaring 30% in pre-market action. Intel appointed a new CEO, Lip Butan, in March. He came under fire due to concerns about his connections with China. That led to a swiftly arranged meeting in Washington that ended with Intel agreeing to give the United States a 10% stake in the company. The European Union is overtaking China in U.S. trade. A study from the German Economic Institute shows the United States now relies more on imports from the EU than previously thought. The data reveals the bloc surpassing China in both total value and the number of goods. Here are the details. According to the study, the number of product groups in which at least half of imports came from the EU rose to over 3,000 last year. That's a jump from more than 2,600 in 2010. The total import value of those goods reached $287 billion, nearly 2.5 times more than in 2010. Imports included chemical products, electrical goods, machinery and equipment. By comparison, China last year accounted for 2,900 of those product groups, with a total value of $247 billion. Taiwan's largest arms exhibition is drawing a surge of foreign investors. The event comes as Beijing steps up pressure on the island. Here's a closer look. Taiwan's largest arms fair opened on Thursday, drawing crowds of foreign investors, eyeing up the island's increasing defense budget. The Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition features 490 exhibitors, nearly double 2023's number. Taiwan has set a goal of spending 5% of its GDP on defense by 2030, up from 3.3% for next year. This comes as China has increased pressure on the island through growing military presence in the form of war games and regularly sending warplanes and warships into nearby areas. At the Beijing Xiangshan Defense Forum on Thursday, China's defense minister pledged to prevent any push for Taiwan's independence. Taiwan's current defense strategy against a Chinese invasion relies on support from the U.S., but the island has also focused its efforts on strengthening its independent capabilities. On Wednesday, it revealed its first missile made with a U.S. company, a big step in the two countries' partnership. National Changshan Institute of Science and Technology President Li Xiqiang praised the collaboration. This is a new attempt, and we hope to build our defense forces more quickly and effectively while introducing the latest technology. And at the same time, on the basis of cooperation between the two sides, I think this is mutually beneficial for both sides. Rupert Hammond Chambers, the head of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, said Taiwan's defense spending could see up to $60 billion in purchases in the coming years. He said about two-thirds of that would go to international suppliers, mostly in the U.S. Two flying cars colliding in northeastern China during a rehearsal for an air show on Tuesday. One of the vehicles plunged to the ground and burst into flames. One pilot was injured. The air show is meant to spotlight China's latest high-tech advances. It's scheduled to kick off this Friday. The flying cars were made by Chinese EV giant Xpeng. In a statement to CNN, the company blamed the crash on insufficient spacing. They added everyone on the ground is safe and an investigation is underway. 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 app. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.