Under President Donald Trump, the DOJ arrested former senior Federal Reserve advisor John Harold Rogers, 63, for allegedly stealing trade secrets from the U.S. agency that controlled China’s access to U.S. markets. He took those trade secrets and gave them to his CCP handlers.
Former Federal Reserve Adviser Arrested for Allegedly Passing US Trade Secrets to China – NTD Source Link Excerpt:
Prosecutors on Jan. 31 arrested a former senior Federal Reserve advisor, accusing him of stealing trade secrets from the agency that could allow China to manipulate the U.S. market.
John Harold Rogers, 63, worked for 11 years as a senior advisor for the international finance division of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the main governing body for the U.S. central bank.
A federal indictment alleged that Rogers began working with Chinese conspirators since at least 2018. The Chinese handlers worked for the Chinese intelligence and security apparatus and posed as graduate students at a Chinese university, according to the filing.
Rogers, in the collaboration, allegedly solicited trade-secret information that included proprietary economic data sets, China tariff deliberations, and briefing books for specific board governors. He also allegedly solicited internal discussions and forthcoming announcements from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a 12-member body consisting of the seven Federal Reserve board of governors, the New York Federal Reserve Bank president, and four of the remaining 11 Reserve Bank presidents that rotate on an annual basis.
With the inclusion of Elon Musk to President Donald Trump’s cabinet, it is no surprise to this writer that Trump appears to be softening his position on China. Musk, whose company Tesla recently lobbied the EU to protect China’s EV industry from tariffs, has a vested interest in U.S.-China relations remaining good. The one fly in the ointment might be Trump’s aggressive push to get China out of the Panama canal.
So far, Trump has softened his position on tariffs, though he continues to threaten China if they fail to stop delivering fentanyl to Mexico they will face daunting tariffs. China sent their VP, Han Zheng, to the inauguration, but the VP also met with Elon Musk to work out a deal between the CCP and Musk’s EV company, Tesla, which operates factories in China and hopes to sell to the China market.
China’s official meets with Elon Musk as Trump begins second term · TechNode– technode.com Source Link Excerpt:
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Jan. 19 called on US businesses to help boost trade relations between the rival countries in a meeting with Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and a member of Trump’s incoming administration, in Washington.
Why it matters: The meeting came just a day before Donald Trump took office for his second term as President of the United States on Monday at the US Capitol.
Han, who represented China at Trump’s inauguration, used the visit to also meet with new US Vice President JD Vance, as well as business leaders from US companies such as FedEx and Visa, according to a Bloomberg report.
President-elect Donald Trump has petitioned the Supreme Court, asking them to delay a hearing on the potential TikTok ban from America should it not be sold to an American company. The President submitted an amicus curae, or “friend of the court” brief. He only requested a delay in the hearing, nothing more.
Trump asks Supreme Court to delay hearing on TikTok injunction – The Desk Source Link Excerpt:
President-elect Donald Trump has weighed in on a forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court hearing that could decide the fate of short-form social video service TikTok in the coming weeks.
Last Friday, Trump invoked a legal doctrine known as “amicus curae” to file a so-called “friend of the court” brief, during which he took no position on the case at hand but encouraged the Supreme Court to delay its hearing on whether to approve an injunction that prevents TikTok from being banned in U.S. app stores.
The banishment is rooted in a law passed earlier this summer that forces TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest its U.S.-based business to a stateside entity. The law was rolled into a federal appropriations bill that was mainly intended to green-light financial funding for the wars in Ukraine and Israel. President Joe Biden signed the measure into law in April, and ByteDance filed its legal challenge soon after.
The law requires ByteDance to divest its U.S.-based business by January 19; if it doesn’t, the measure requires U.S. app stores run by Google, Apple, Samsung, Amazon, Microsoft and others to pull the TikTok app, making it unavailable for download to computers, phones, tablets and smart TVs.
The law doesn’t ban Americans from using the service, and the TikTok app currently installed on devices will continue to work as long as ByteDance and the manufacturers of those devices support it. But it makes TikTok much harder to access when users buy new devices or switch from one platform to another, or if they delete the app and decide they want to reinstall it at a later time, because it won’t be available in app stores. (Android and Microsoft users will still be able to download the app beyond app stores, but Apple device users cannot download apps that aren’t available whiten the Apple App Store).
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) appears to be accelerating its military build-up and investing in weapons and munitions that make it clear it is preparing to engage in a major world war with major world powers like the United States of America. The 2024 Department of Defense’s Report on Chinese Military Power raises even more alarms.
Some of the noted expansions include 50 new ICBM, 300 medium-range ballistic missiles, 600+ operational nuclear warheads, and 370 new ships and submarines, expanding the world’s largest navy. The report suggests China is planning on conquering Taiwan, the first necessary step in world conquest, before becoming the dominant power by 2035.
China Is Rapidly Building Up Weapons And Warfare Operations– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is undertaking an unprecedented military buildup aimed at challenging America and its allies, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. And, like Nazi Germany’s buildup in the 1930s, the militarization program ordered by the Chinese Communist Party isn’t simply a great power buildup — it’s a weapon in service of a deadly ideology.
The 2024 Department of Defense China Military Power Report and recent analysis by Bill Gertz in the Washington Times reveal this buildup as part of a broader strategy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to position itself as a global superpower. Meanwhile, the U.S., having spent $5.4 trillion on the global war on terror and attendant, futile nation-building, has left itself strategically vulnerable by diverting critical resources while underestimating the threat from China.
President Joe Biden has declared numerous times that he knew nothing about Hunter Biden’s foreign businesses, nor did he ever meet with his business partners. Now, photographs obtained by American First Legal (AFL) have revealed the truth, Joe Biden is lying.
Photographs show the then-Vice-President Joe Biden on a visit to China introducing Hunter to Chairman Xi and other top-ranked CCP party members, which include Hunter Biden’s future business partners. The meetings and the photos happened during Biden’s 2013 official Beijing, China trip.
Bombshell Leaks Blow Biden Family’s China Scandal Wide Open– trendingpoliticsnews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Newly released photographs obtained by America First Legal (AFL) have reignited scrutiny over President Joe Biden’s connections to Hunter Biden’s Chinese business dealings. The images, obtained through AFL’s lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), appear to show then-Vice President Joe Biden meeting with Hunter’s Chinese business associates, including key figures tied to the Chinese government.
The photos, which AFL shared on social media today, include Joe Biden introducing Hunter and his associate to Chinese President Xi Jinping during an official 2013 trip to Beijing. This trip, initially billed as a diplomatic mission, is now under a magnifying glass as questions swirl about whether Joe Biden leveraged his political position to benefit Hunter’s business ventures.
/1🚨 BREAKING 🚨
AFL has obtained new photos of Joe Biden meeting with Hunter Biden’s Chinese business associates and introducing Hunter to China’s President Xi Jinping. pic.twitter.com/SB13yaXiXv
The images reportedly capture meetings between Joe Biden and executives from BHR Partners, a private equity firm co-founded by Hunter Biden. According to AFL, the photographs also corroborate findings from the House Oversight Committee, which earlier this year revealed that Hunter Biden facilitated introductions between his father and BHR executives, including CEO Jonathan Li and Managing Partner Ming Xue.
Chinese national Chen Jinping, 60, of New York City, pled guilty to running a “clandestine police station” in the city. He was arrested in April of this same year.
DOJ and FBI representatives said of the plea, “The Department of Justice will continue to pursue anyone who attempts to aid the PRC’s efforts to extend their repressive reach into the United States… These blatant violations will not be tolerated on U.S. soil. The FBI remains committed to preserving the rights and freedoms of all people in our country and will defend against transnational repression at every front.”
New York man pleads guilty to running secret police station for communist China above noodle restaurant in Manhattan– www.theblaze.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Department of Justice said in a press release that a man pleaded guilty to running a secret police station for communist China above a noodle restaurant in New York City.
The secret police stations have been reported to be hidden across the world in order to further the aims of the communist government of China. Their agents harass, threaten, and spy on “wanted” Chinese nationals residing in the U.S. and identified as a threat to China.
‘A human rights organization report found that there were likely as many as 100 secret police stations operated by the Chinese Community Part across the world.’
60-year-old Chen Jinping of New York City was arrested in April 2023 and accused of running a “clandestine police station” on U.S. soil, according to the DOJ. The secret police station “occupied an entire floor in an office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown” and was shut down in the fall of 2022.
… China understands that aircraft carriers and destroyers would be crucial for the U.S. Navy to puncture the blockade. This has prompted Beijing to develop and test some lethal weapons that could thwart the U.S. Navy, coming to Taiwan’s aid.
China has a powerful stockpile of anti-ship missiles, and its strategy to prevent U.S. forces from entering the Western Pacific is centered on these weapons.
China’s arsenal of anti-ship ballistic missiles, also known as “carrier killers,” has grown dramatically. China’s primary anti-ship missiles include the DF-21, DF-26, YJ-12, YJ-18, and YJ-83. Moreover, it also has YJ-21 and DF-27 hypersonic missiles that have the potential to penetrate air defenses and destroy U.S. Navy ships. Some of these weapons have been used in simulated strikes on U.S. carriers.
The U.S., on its part, has excellent machinery to detect incoming hostile targets and shoot them down just in time. It has reportedly been mulling the deployment of combat-proven Patriot interceptors to thwart a potential Chinese missile attack, in addition to other air defense assets.
While President-Elect Donald Trump has expressed interest in saving TikTok from the pending ban should it fail to be sold to an American interest, a Federal Appeals Court has denied TikTok’s latest attempt to appeal the ban. The case is sure to reach the Supreme Court unless Trump can save TikTok.
It should be noted that TikTok exploded in America AFTER the CCP-controlled company was allowed to purchase an American app, music.ly, a fact that in and of itself warrants investigation into possible acts of treason and sedition being committed by whoever approved such sale in the first place.
Federal appeals court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok in the US- AP News Source Link Excerpt:
A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok as soon as next month, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok’s petition to overturn the law — which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January — and rebuffed the company’s challenge of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Amendment.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” said the court’s opinion, which was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
The Pentagon has acknowledged officially that U.S. troops are serving alongside Philippine troops, engaging in mutual maritime operations in the South China Sea. The operation is called “Task Force Ayungin,” named after the Ayungin Shoel that the task force is patrolling.
Anti-American Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin posted on X “I visited the Command and Control Fusion Center in Palawan today. I also met with some American service members deployed to U.S. Task Force Ayungin, and I thanked them for their hard work on behalf of the American people and our alliances and partnerships in this region.”
US Reveals New South China Sea ‘Task Force’ – newsweek Source Link Excerpt:
The Pentagon has confirmed that American troops are quietly assisting Philippine maritime operations in the South China Sea, in a sign of the United States’ growing support for its ally amid flaring tensions with China.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin referenced the collaboration in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, highlighting “Task Force Ayungin,” which involves U.S. military personnel working alongside the Philippines military’s Western Command.
“I visited the Command and Control Fusion Center in Palawan today,” Austin wrote. “I also met with some American service members deployed to U.S. Task Force Ayungin, and I thanked them for their hard work on behalf of the American people and our alliances and partnerships in this region.”
Pentagon spokesperson Pete Nguyen told the Philippine news outlet Inquirer that the task force focuses on planning, training, and systems provided through U.S. security assistance. “This support includes unmanned surface vessels that Secretary Austin observed during his stop in Palawan,” he said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, center, visits the Command and Control Fusion Center on the Philippine island of Palawan along with Philippines’ defense chief Gilberto Teodoro. During his visit, he signed a bilateral intelligence-sharing agreement…. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, center, visits the Command and Control Fusion Center on the Philippine island of Palawan along with Philippines’ defense chief Gilberto Teodoro. During his visit, he signed a bilateral intelligence-sharing agreement.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and U.S. Department of Defense with written requests for comment.
Nguyen stressed that the task force reflects a continuation of decades of close U.S.-Philippine cooperation. Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano told the news agency that U.S. involvement is limited to “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, [and] maritime domain awareness,” with no “direct participation” in Philippine operations.
Washington and Manila share a Mutual Defense Treaty, which Austin and President Joe Biden have stressed is “ironclad.” The treaty has sparked discussions in light of clashes between Philippine maritime forces and their Chinese counterparts.
I visited the Command and Control Fusion Centerin Palawan today. I also met with some American service members deployed to U.S. Task Force Ayungin, and I thanked them for their hard work on behalf of the American people and our alliances and partnerships in this region. pic.twitter.com/baqgo72r1T
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) November 19, 2024
During Austin’s two days in the Philippines, he met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., visited the unified command center in Palawan, and inked an intelligence-sharing agreement.
“No military agreement, or defense and security cooperation, in whatever form, should target any third party or harm the interests of any third party,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during Monday’s regular press conference.
“Nor should it undermine regional peace or exacerbate regional tensions,” he went on, adding that the only way to maintain regional piece is to “uphold good-neighborliness and friendship and maintain strategic independence.”
The deployment of U.S. personnel to Task Force Ayungin comes amid increased tensions in the South China Sea, where Philippine and Chinese forces have repeatedly clashed over contested waters.
China claims nearly the entire sea, using its controversial “dashed line” to assert control over resource-rich areas despite international rejection of those claims.
An independent tribunal at The Hague ruled in 2016 that China’s territorial claims, represented by the nine-dash line, were incompatible with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Beijing, however, has dismissed the decision as invalid.
The state of Texas is at war with CCP operatives within its state who have been committing numerous crimes, putting our national security at risk. Governor Greg Abbot (R-TX) has issued an executive order “to protect Texans from coordinated harassment and coercion by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
Worldwide, the CCP has been engaging in kidnapping Chinese national dissidents in other countries in an operation called “Fox Hunt.” Abbot specifically hopes to protect Chinese nationals from that operation. He declared, “The Chinese Communist Party has engaged in a worldwide harassment campaign against Chinese dissidents in attempts to forcibly return them to China. Texas will not tolerate the harassment or coercion of the more than 250,000 individuals of Chinese descent who legally call Texas home by the Chinese Communist Party or its heinous proxies.”
Abbott issues executive order to arrest CCP operatives in Texas– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order “to protect Texans from the coordinated harassment and coercion by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
The order directs the Texas Department of Public Safety to target and arrest anyone implementing CCP influence operations like “Operation Fox Hunt,” an initiative of the PRC to forcibly return people to China it’s identified as so-called dissidents living in the U.S.
“The Chinese Communist Party has engaged in a worldwide harassment campaign against Chinese dissidents in attempts to forcibly return them to China,” Abbott said. “Texas will not tolerate the harassment or coercion of the more than 250,000 individuals of Chinese descent who legally call Texas home by the Chinese Communist Party or its heinous proxies.”
Abbott issued the order ahead of the legislature convening in January to consider bills related to national security and China. This is after in the last legislative session he said he would sign a bill banning foreign nationals from countries, including the PRC, that pose national security threats to the U.S. from purchasing land in Texas. The bill was blocked by a Republican state House committee chair after the CCP spearheaded a campaign against it, The Center Square reported.
He also issued the order after the FBI criminally charging CCP-linked individuals who were allegedly involved in Operation Fox Hunt to “harass, stalk, and coerce U.S. residents” to return to the PRC. Those targeted “are often ‘guilty’ of nothing more than opposing the PRC government or CCP actions, including by exposing corruption,” the order states.