Prosecutions filed against Chinese chemical manufacturers

 The US is moving to charge Chinese companies behind the crisis in painkiller overdoses.

Chris Taylor for RFA
2023.07.03

Plastic bags of Fentanyl are displayed on a table at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection area at the International Mail Facility at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. November 29, 2017. Picture taken November 29, 2017

The United States is muscling up to turn around what might be described as the Opium Wars Part II, even if it was Britain, not the U.S., that was perpetrator of the first two in the 19th century.

In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Drug Enforcement Administration administrator Anne Milgram called for further cooperation from China and Mexico to battle the U.S.’s synthetic opioid crisis.

Milgram said that even though the D.E.A. was “ready to work with anyone who will work with us,” China has not been cooperative, adding that the Mexican government also “needs to do more.”

Fentanyl, an extremely heavy-duty painkiller, is behind what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls an “opioid overdose epidemic.” The drug is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths each year – and the numbers are continuing to rise.

Just over a week ago, the U.S. for the first time filed prosecutions against Chinese companies and individuals involved in manufacturing the precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, which has flooded the country via Mexico.

The Department of Justice filed criminal charges in New York on June 23 against four Chinese companies and eight individuals, alleging that they “knowingly manufactured, marketed, sold, and supplied precursor chemicals” for illegal fentanyl production in the U.S.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said that Chinese companies openly advertised the chemicals on social media platforms and stealth shipped them to buyers.  

“We are targeting every step of the movement and manufacturing sale of fentanyl, from start to finish,” Garland said, according to reports.

“Just one of these China-based chemical companies shipped more than 200 kilograms [441 pounds] of fentanyl-related precursor chemicals to the U.S. for the purpose of making 50 kilograms of fentanyl, a quantity that could contain enough deadly doses of fentanyl to kill 25 million Americans,” Garland said.

A federal court in New York charged Hubei Amarvel Biotech, Anhui Rencheng Technology, Anhui Moker New Material Technology and Hefei GSK Trade in three separate cases.

The eight individuals charged included executives and employees of the four companies.

The two people arrested, both employees of Hubei Amarvel, were expelled from Fiji and taken into custody by U.S. officials and held in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Diplomacy on the rocks

The announcement of the prosecutions came shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing, where he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Blinken raised the issue of stemming the flow of chemical components for fentanyl to laboratories in Mexico, where the finished substance is believed to be made before being shipped and smuggled to the U.S., but no progress was made.

It is a contentious issue that has yet to gain traction with Beijing, despite it being raised repeatedly.

Speaking on the Biden-Harris Administration’s approach to foreign policy, in New York, in a public discussion moderated by the Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass on June 28, Blinken said that the Fentanyl issue was an issue “worth pausing on.”

Blinken added: “The No. 1 Killer – the No. 1 killer – of Americans aged 18 to 49 is fentanyl.

“So, if you start with that premise, it makes sense that you’d want to be focusing a lot of your time and resources and effort on that. And we are. And indeed, as I just mentioned, in a couple of weeks’ time, we’ll be moving forward with a broader international coalition to deal with this.”

This photo provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Phoenix Division shows some of the 30,000 fentanyl pills the agency seized in one of its bigger busts, in Tempe, Arizona, in August, 2017. Credit: U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency via AP

China’s Ministry of Commerce condemned the most recent moves by the U.S.

“China has always enforced rigorous anti-drug measures and, guided by humanitarianism principles, has taken the lead in globally controlling substances like fentanyl,” Chinese state media reported the ministry’s website as saying last week.

The foreign ministry, meanwhile, demanded the immediate release of Chinese citizens who were “illegally arrested.”

“China urges the U.S. side to stop dumping blame and to stop smear attacks on China,” the ministry said in a statement.

‘Down payment on a pledge’

Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, said in a statement: “Today’s announcement is a down payment on our pledge to use every tool in the government’s arsenal, in every corner of the globe, to protect American communities. 

“The Justice Department will not rest or relent in investigating and prosecuting every link of the fentanyl supply chain, including the PRC companies and executives who produce and export vast quantities of the precursor chemicals the drug cartels need to peddle their poison. There can be no safe haven.”

Strips showing positive for fentanyl over a heroin doses are seen at La Sala, a safe space for women using drugs at Verter Community Center in Mexicali, Baja California State, Mexico, on May 9, 2023. Credit: Guillermo Arias/AFP

In late May the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced new sanctions against seven entities and six individuals based in China, as well as one entity in Mexico.

China has long countered that the U.S. needs to control its apparently insatiable appetite for illicit drugs.

As nationalist state tabloid, The Global Times, editorialized on Monday, “The U.S. has never been able to solve its drug problem. The U.S. drug epidemic’s root cause lies within the country itself … The opioid epidemic in the U.S. is mainly due to the long-term and widespread abuse of prescription painkillers. The U.S. government continues to push for the legalization of marijuana, playing a role in condoning and exacerbating the problem.”

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said last week. “These are common commodities, which are not controlled both at home or abroad …  “The importer is responsible for preventing related equipment from flowing into drug production channels.

“If someone commits a crime with a knife, it is very clear whether the person who wields the knife or the manufacturer of the knife should be sanctioned and punished,” she added.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Chinese social platform WeChat is being used to facilitate payments for chemicals, according to Robert Zachariasiewicz, a former senior supervisory agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Once payments have been made, Chinese suppliers send chemical components to laboratories in Mexico. It is then illegally shipped to the U.S. where it is “sold to end users for cash by networks that are often controlled by Chinese nationals or the Chinese diaspora,” the report said.

Edited by Mike Firn.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/us-china-fentanyl-07032023220545.html

Beijing Steals American Technology, Claims US Response is Attack on China's Economy

June 30, 2023 3:36 PM

Polygraph.info

A customer looks at the products displayed at a Huawei flagship store in Beijing, China, March 23, 2023. in 2020, the U.S. accuses Huawei of stealing trade secret from six U.S. companies. (AP/Ng Han Guan 

Xinhua News Agency

“The IPR rhetoric is just one of the many disguises that the U.S. employs to conceal its real intention to crack down on emerging economies like China, whom it perceives as a potential threat to its economic hegemony.”

Source: Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2023

MISLEADING

Protection of intellectual property remains a sticking point between the U.S. and China as the world’s two largest economies compete to develop next-generation technologies

On June 28, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency accused the U.S. of using the subject of intellectual property rights, more specifically, its part on protection of industrial property, as a way to hinder China’s economic growth.

In a commentary, authored by agency’s writer Shi Yang, Xinhua claimed:

“The IPR rhetoric is just one of the many disguises that the U.S. employs to conceal its real intention to crack down on emerging economies like China, whom it perceives as a potential threat to its economic hegemony.”

That is misleading.

U.S. legal action against China for economic espionage is a response to Beijing’s large-scale theft of intellectual property.

In fact, 80% of all economic espionage cases by the U.S. Justice Department pursued as of 2021 involved China’s illegal economic activities.

The FBI estimates that Chinese theft of trade secrets, counterfeit goods and pirated software costs the U.S. economy between $225 billion and $600 billion annually.

The FBI estimates Chinese theft of trade secrets, counterfeit goods and pirated software costs the U.S. economy up to $600 billion annually.

The FBI says China uses its vast market to attract foreign firms and then reverse engineer foreign technology, saving Chinese firms time and money on research and development.

“As in its military strategy, China’s economic strategy is ‘asymmetric,’ taking advantage of a U.S. system founded on openness and wealth creation. In contrast, China protects large firms at home, coerces technology transfer, then seeks to eliminate leading foreign competitors,” the American Enterprise Institute, or AEI, a Washington, D.C., think tank, concluded in its June 8 report “China’s Technology Strategy: Leverage Before Growth”.

Criticizing the U.S. response to Beijing’s “predation,” AEI’s leading China analysts Dan Blumenthal and Derek Scissors, who co-authored the report, stated: “The U.S. has done little to blunt Chinese predation, indirectly supporting it with money and technology. If the most innovative American companies lose intellectual property and market share without consequence, China will control more sectors of the global economy.”

Below are recent examples of how Chinese state actors use fraud and deception to steal valuable intellectual property from U.S. companies.

GE Aviation case (2022)

In November 2021, a U.S. federal jury convicted Xu Yanjun, a Chinese government intelligence officer, of conspiracy to commit economic espionage and attempted trade secret theft. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022.

Xu, a career Chinese Ministry of State Security intelligence officer, approached a GE Aviation employee in Cincinnati in March 2017. He then requested that employee to obtain “system specification, design process” data for GE Aviation’s exclusive composite aircraft engine fan module.

GE is the only company in the world that is able to produce this light fan module.

The FBI managed to flip the GE Aviation employee, which led to Xu’s subsequent arrest in Brussels, where he brought cash as a payoff for the trade secret.

Then assistant U.S. Attorney General John Demers said: "[T]his case is not an isolated incident. It is part of an overall economic policy of developing China at America’s expense.”

APT 41 (2022)

In 2022, Boston-based cybersecurity firm Cybereason uncovered a yearlong operation by APT 41, a Chinese state-sponsored espionage group. The operation successfully siphoned hundreds of gigabytes of intellectual property and sensitive data from 30 multinational companies.

According to Cybereason, the APT 41 operation, which had been going on undetected since at least 2019, was aimed at “stealing sensitive proprietary information from technology and manufacturing companies mainly in East Asia, Western Europe, and North America.”

Cybereason CEO Lior Div noted that the cybercriminals were focused on obtaining blueprints “for cutting-edge technologies, the majority of which were not yet patented.”

These included blueprint diagrams for fighter jets, helicopters, and missiles, intellectual property related to drugs treating diabetes, obesity and depression, and designs for solar panel and edge vacuum system technology.

Huawei case (2020)

In 2020, the U.S. Justice Department charged Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei with stealing trade secrets from six U.S. companies over two decades.

According to the indictment, Huawei grew its telecoms empire “by using fraud and deception to misappropriate sophisticated technology from U.S. counterparts.”

The indictment said Huawei would enter into confidentiality agreements with U.S. firms that owned the intellectual property, and then violate the terms by misappropriating the intellectual property. It also used proxies, such as professors working at research institutions, to obtain and provide the technology needed for its own use.

Using such methods, Huawei has successfully obtained nonpublic intellectual property relating to router source code, cellular antenna technology and robotics.

Huawei then sold these products in the U.S. as lower cost versions of U.S. products, giving the Chinese telecoms giant a significant and unfair competitive advantage

https://www.voanews.com/a/fact-check-beijing-steals-american-technology-accuses-us-of-cracking-down-for-protecting-intellectual-property/7162323.html

US warns new Chinese counterespionage law puts companies at risk

By Michael Martina

July 1, 2023 4:14 AM GMT+7 

U.S. and Chinese flags are seen in this illustration taken, January 30, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

WASHINGTON, June 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. on Friday warned about a new Chinese counterespionage law, saying American and other foreign companies in the country could face penalties from Chinese authorities for regular business activities.

Chinese lawmakers this year passed a wide-ranging update to Beijing's anti-espionage legislation that goes into effect on July 1, banning the transfer of any information related to national security and broadening the definition of spying.

China this year has also cracked down on U.S. consultancy and due diligence firms, a move business lobbies have said unnerved foreign investors in the world's second-largest economy.

The U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) said in a bulletin that China viewed outbound flow of data as a national security risk, and that the new and existing laws could compel companies' locally employed Chinese nationals to assist in Chinese intelligence efforts.

"These laws provide the PRC (People's Republic of China) government with expanded legal grounds for accessing and controlling data held by U.S. firms in China," the NCSC said.

"U.S. companies and individuals in China could also face penalties for traditional business activities that Beijing deems acts of espionage or for actions that Beijing believes assist foreign sanctions against China," it said.

It said the ambiguities of the law meant that "any documents, data, materials or items" could be deemed relevant to Chinese national security, also putting journalists, academics and researchers at risk.

China's embassy in Washington said Beijing had a right to safeguard national security through domestic legislation.

"China will continue to promote high-level opening-up and provide a more law-based and international business environment for companies from all countries, including the United States," embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has emphasized national security since taking office in 2012. Suspicion in China of the U.S. and its allies has grown as the U.S.-China rivalry has intensified, yet Beijing has insisted it is opening up to overseas investment.

U.S. officials have told Reuters that since the enactment of the Chinese law in April they have received a flood of questions from businesses and other groups about the risks of traveling to China.

The U.S. State Department also updated its travel advisory for China on Friday, upgrading the "risk of wrongful detentions" among its warnings for Americans to reconsider travel to the country.

U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns has said Beijing's targeting of U.S. firms was politically motivated and that Washington would push back.

Reporting by Michael Martina in Washington Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

https://www.reuters.com/business/us-warns-new-chinese-counterespionage-law-puts-companies-risk-2023-06-30/ 

U.S. nuclear-powered submarine arrives at South Korea's Busan port

Reuters

June 16, 202310:45 AM GMT+7 

 Ohio-class U.S. nuclear-powered submarine USS Michigan (SSGN 727) arrives at a port in Busan, South Korea, June 16, 2023. Yonhap via REUTERS

SEOUL, June 16 (Reuters) - A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine has arrived at a port in the South Korean city of Busan, the South Korean military said on Friday.

It is the first time in nearly six years that a submarine classified as "SSGN" by the U.S. Navy, or a cruise-missile submarine, has stopped off in South Korea.

The arrival comes after North Korea fired two short-range missiles off its east coast on Thursday and follows a failed attempt by Pyongyang to launch a spy satellite last month.

In April, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed in Washington to "further enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets" on the Korean Peninsula.

The leaders also agreed that a U.S. Navy nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) will visit South Korea for the first time since the 1980s to help demonstrate Washington's resolve to protect the country from a North Korean attack. There was no timetable given for such a visit.

Reporting by Hyunsu Yim Editing by Ed Davies

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-nuclear-powered-submarine-arrives-south-koreas-busan-port-2023-06-16/

US Senate panel approves measure to strip China of 'developing' status

By Patricia Zengerle

June 9, 20233:55 AM GMT+7Updated 3 hours ago

U.S. and Chinese flags are seen through broken glass in this illustration taken, January 30, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) - Legislation to strip China of its status as a "developing nation" at some international organizations was passed by a U.S. Senate committee on Thursday, as members of the U.S. focus on competing with the Asian power.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the "Ending China's Developing Nation Status Act" without dissent. The bill would require the Secretary of State to pursue changing China's status as a developing nation in international organizations.

Proponents of the bill say that status can allow special privileges in some organizations or treaties.

The committee's approval paves the way for the measure to be considered by the full Senate, although there was no immediate indication of when that might take place.

A similar measure passed the House of Representatives in March by 415-0.

The desire for a hard line on China is one of the few truly bipartisan sentiments in the perennially divided U.S. Congress, and members of Congress have introduced dozens of bills seeking to address competition with China's communist government.

The Foreign Relations panel also approved the "Taiwan Protection and National Resilience Act," which would require reports from government agencies on U.S. options to prepare for and respond to a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has increased military, political and economic pressure to assert those claims.

Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.

Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Daniel Wallis

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-panel-approves-measure-strip-china-developing-status-2023-06-08/ 

China seeking to spy on the U.S. from a base in Cuba

The move would allow Beijing to surveil the southeastern United States, home to many military facilities and sensitive industries.

The Biden administration is not confirming China’s interest in securing access to a military facility in Cuba. | Thibault Camus/AP Photo

By ALEXANDER WARD and JOE GOULD

06/08/2023 09:55 AM EDT

Updated: 06/08/2023 05:55 PM EDT

 

China is in talks with Cuba to establish a foothold there to spy on the United States, two senior U.S. officials said, a provocative move that already has lawmakers warning about parallels to the Cold War.

The officials, granted anonymity to discuss an extremely sensitive intelligence matter, said that China was in direct conversations with Cuba to set up a base on the island nation just 100 miles from the United States. It would allow Beijing to collect signals intelligence on southeastern portions of America, home to many military facilities and major industries. Evidence of the negotiations came to light in recent weeks, the officials said.

Such a pact between China and Cuba could threaten to derail the Biden administration’s efforts to “thaw” its frosty relations with Beijing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit China in the coming weeks, a trip that was postponed in February after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon after it traversed North America. Diplomacy with China continues mainly at the economic and trade level, while military-to-military discussions are practically nonexistent.

The Wall Street Journal, which was first to report on the discussions, said Beijing and Havana reached a “secret agreement” whereby China pays Cuba billions of dollars for a facility. The two officials told POLITICO they couldn’t confirm that there was a finalized deal, only that China was in discussions with Cuba about spying on the United States.

On Thursday morning, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby didn’t confirm any negotiations between China and Cuba but said the administration was watching China’s movements in the region closely. After publication, Kirby told POLITICO the reports were “not accurate” without specifying which details were wrong. He added: “We remain confident that we are able to meet all our security commitments at home and in the region.”

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the top two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a Thursday afternoon statement that they were “deeply disturbed” by the reports. “It would be unacceptable for China to establish an intelligence facility within 100 miles of Florida and the United States.”

“We urge the Biden administration to take steps to prevent this serious threat to our national security and sovereignty,” they continued.

Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio said in a statement that the WSJ story was full of “totally false and unfounded information” and that Cuba rejects the presence of a foreign military throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The Cuban Embassy did not respond to a question about any talks with China about a deal to spy on the United States.

The report comes as the U.S. is trying to restore more regular military contacts with Beijing. CIA Director William Burns made a secret trip to China last month to keep the lines of communication between Washington and Beijing open. President Joe Biden dispatched the spy chief in hopes of reviving higher-level conversations between the two powers.

A Defense Department official said the Pentagon was aware of China’s attempts to invest in infrastructure around the world, including in the Western hemisphere, that may have military purposes and will continue to monitor the efforts.

The CIA declined a request to comment on the talks. The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Chinese embassy in Washington declined to comment on the issue, saying in a statement “we are not aware of the case.”

The revelation already has members of Congress worried about the echoes of America’s last great power rivalry.

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select China Committee, said in a statement the Biden administration should consider retaliatory actions including “ending Huawei export licenses, restricting outbound investment in crucial sectors of the PRC…and preventing Chinese Communist Party land purchases near military bases.”

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) said Blinken should not travel to China following the revelation and the recent harassment of American ships and aircraft in the Indo-Pacific region.

“The Chinese Communist Party is executing the Soviet Union’s playbook,” said Waltz, a member of the House Intelligence and Armed Services committees.

The Soviet Union operated its largest signals intelligence site in Lourdes, just outside of Havana, a facility that closed after 2001. “If it’s China’s intent to reopen it, this will be the largest spy base once again,” Waltz said. “If that’s not evidence enough that we’re in a new Cold War, I don’t know what is.”

In 1962, the United States discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba, leading to an infamous crisis that brought the world to the nuclear brink.

Lawmakers from both parties were alarmed at the news on Thursday.

“If true, it just goes to show where the Cuban regime is all along. They are an adversary to the United States, and to allow the Chinese to construct a signals intelligence facility in their country is a direct assault upon the United States,” said Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). “I hope the administration will think about how they will react if it’s true.”

Some Republicans said the development was a sign that Biden’s efforts to cool tensions with China are failing.

“It is a disaster for the Biden administration. It shows that what they’re trying, their policies are not working at all, the aggression of China continues,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “Here they’re flying over to China, maybe as we speak, to grovel to Beijing. Meanwhile, Beijing is basically giving us the middle finger.”

Hawley said it’s a sign that Congress has misplaced its priorities by supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russia.

“I’m sure we’ll soon be voting on yet another supplemental aid package to Ukraine. Meanwhile, China is literally in our backyard now,” Hawley said. “I don’t know when people on the Hill will wake up to this, but maybe it’ll take the fall of Taiwan, which I’m sure will be next.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) demanded swift congressional action against the “grave threats” posed by a potential Chinese spy base in Cuba. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) should “set dates for security briefings and public hearings in the Senate” about those dangers, Scott said in a statement.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican candidate for president in 2024, said the news is “staggering.”

“The real threat is now staring us in the face, not just in the Eastern hemisphere, but now in the West. This is a big deal,” he continued, “and the alarm bells are blaring.”

China’s only official foreign military base is in Djibouti. But Beijing has worked for years to establish a stronger presence in the Western hemisphere.

In March, Gen. Laura Richardson, head of U.S. Southern Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that China was on a “relentless march” to replace the United States as the preeminent regional power. The country, for example, has a military-run space station in Argentina.

“This is a risk we can’t ignore,” Richardson said at the hearing.

Nahal Toosi, Phelim Kine and Lara Seligman contributed to this report.

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/08/china-spy-on-us-cuba-00100990 

U.S. Sen. Rubio introduces bill to beef up air bases that would defend Taiwan

Bill is latest attempt to counter potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan

By Eugene Whong for RFA
2023.05.11

Washington 

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., April 19, 2023

U.S. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has introduced a bill that seeks to strengthen American air bases in the Indo-Pacific region to better respond to mainland Chinese aggression against Taiwan.

The Deterring Chinese Preemptive Strikes Act “direct[s] the U.S. Department of Defense to harden U.S. facilities in the Indo-Pacific to help further deter a preemptive strike against U.S. forces and assets in the region by China ahead of an invasion of Taiwan.”

War games conducted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies showed that Beijing’s strategy if it were to mount such an invasion would be to attack U.S. bases in the region with missiles, a statement by Rubio’s office said. 

The bill, introduced Thursday, will have to be approved by both houses of Congress and then signed by the Democratic President Joe Biden to become law. 

It calls for a survey of aviation assets in the region to determine if any that would be needed to respond to an invasion of Taiwan lack improvements that would “mitigate damage to aircraft in the event of a missile, aerial drone, or other form of attack by the People’s Republic of China.”

When the survey is complete, the secretary of defense would then deliver the results of the survey to the appropriate congressional committees, which would then enact plans to make the improvements.

“Senator Rubio has been clear on the importance of defending Taiwan,” a representative from Rubio’s office told RFA’s Mandarin Service, citing the Taiwan Protection and National Resilience Act, a bill that Rubio and colleagues introduced in March that seeks to create a plan for dealing with a potential invasion. 

When asked if U.S. lawmakers were working with President Biden to prevent threats to U.S. airspace, Rubio’s office was critical of the administration, saying it “appears to be more concerned about not antagonizing China instead of taking the steps needed to protect American servicemembers from future attacks.”

Mainland communist China considers democratic Taiwan to be a rogue province. Beijing insists that its diplomatic partners accept its claim on the island of Taiwan, which it calls the "one China" policy, effectively forcing them to cut ties with the democratic island. 

Beijing last month conducted military exercises in waters around the island of Taiwan, prompting Taipei’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu to say, “They seem to be trying to get ready to launch a war against Taiwan.”

In February, CIA Director William Burns said that Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to be able to invade Taiwan within the next four years.

Additional reporting by Bing Xiao for RFA Mandarin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/rubio-05112023174532.html

Video shows China ship’s ‘unsafe’ maneuver with US destroyer in Taiwan Strait

By 

Caitlin Doornbos

June 5, 2023 

A video released by the US Navy shows a Chinese ship cutting across the path of the USS Chung-Hoon in the Taiwan Strait.

Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Andre T. Richard/U.S. Navy via AP

WASHINGTON – The US Navy released a damning video Monday of a Chinese warship deliberately cutting across the path of a US guided-missile destroyer in the Taiwan Strait in a move Washington deemed “unsafe.”

In the 30-second clip, a Chinese guided-missile destroyer cuts ahead of the USS Chung-Hoon and Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal as they were sailing through the 100-mile-wide channel, which separates mainland China from the island of Taiwan.

The Chinese ship then cuts diagonally from the American ship’s port side, roughly 150 yards away from the Chung-Hoon’s bow, US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) said in a statement.

The US ship maintained its course, but was forced to slow down to roughly 10 knots “to avoid a collision,” according to the military.

America and its allies consider the contentious Taiwan Strait to be international waters, while China views it – like Taiwan itself – as part of its own territory.

Beijing has made absorption of the democratic, self-governed island its No. 1 priority. While the United States acknowledges that China considers Taiwan its own territory, Washington considers the island’s sovereignty status unsettled.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the maneuver was was done “in accordance with the law.”

via REUTERS

“Chung-Hoon and Montreal’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the combined U.S.-Canadian commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” INDOPACOM said. “The U.S. military flies, sails, and operates safely and responsibly anywhere international law allows.”

While the US side called the Chinese ship’s maneuver “unsafe,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin defended the action, claiming that it was done “in accordance with the law.”

“China’s military actions are completely justified, lawful, safe and professional,” Wang told reporters during a regular press briefing in Beijing on Monday. “It is the U.S. that should deeply reflect upon itself and correct the wrongdoings.”

USS Chung-Hoon sailing alongside the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Montreal during a drill in the South China Sea on May 30, 2023.

U.S. Navy/Naval Air Crewman (Helicopter) 1st Class Dalton Cooper/Handout via REUTERS

But National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Monday said the action was “part of a growing aggressiveness” shown by the People’s Liberation Army Navy in both the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.

“When you have pieces of metal that are operating that close together, it wouldn’t take much for an error in judgement or a mistake to get made and somebody could get hurt,” said Kirby, a retired admiral. “150 yards – speaking as an old sailor myself, that’s pretty close.”

https://nypost.com/2023/06/05/video-shows-china-ships-unsafe-maneuver-with-us-destroyer/