The 52-page report, released on Sept. 12, was a joint venture between the Republican-controlled House Homeland Security Committee and the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

It follows questions from congressional and Senate leaders in the spring surrounding the use of communication equipment discovered on Chinese-manufactured cranes.

The report detailed the rising threat to the U.S. maritime supply chain and national security posed by Chinese-made equipment that could be accessed by Beijing’s military.

The CCP mandates that Chinese companies cooperate with state intelligence agencies.

A joint statement about the report from Reps. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), Mark Green (R-Tenn.), and Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) said the United States was risking its economic security for short-term financial gain by purchasing Chinese equipment for U.S. infrastructure.

“We have given the CCP the ability to track the movement of goods through our ports or even halt port activity at the drop of a hat,” they stated.

“Amid China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific, our greatest geopolitical adversary could wield this power to influence global military and commercial activity in the event of escalation.”

The U.S. maritime sector is “dangerously reliant” on equipment and technology that has been manufactured and assembled in China, such as ship-to-shore cranes and container handling equipment, according to the report.

With financial support from Beijing, state-controlled Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co. (ZPMC) dominates the global maritime equipment and technology market, the report said.

Retired Army Col. John Mills previously told The Epoch Times that the cranes are believed to be an extension of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) global cybercrime operation, which could be used to disrupt U.S. ports during an invasion of Taiwan.

“Those container cranes are not cranes,” Col. Mills said. “They’re IP endpoints on a worldwide intelligence collection system.”

The report also noted that Chinese state-owned enterprises, including ZPMC, have made concerted efforts to increase their influence through underpricing equipment and technology, making it more attractive than their competitors.

ZPMC equipment company accounts for nearly 80 percent of the ship-to-shore cranes used by U.S. ports.

Cargo cranes are necessary for the U.S. maritime sector to conduct international trade and military logistical operations during a military conflict.
The report found concerns with ZPMC, which has publicly denied being a cybersecurity threat to the United States.

One problem noted in the document was that ZPMC or its contractors installed cellular modems onto cranes that are currently operational at certain U.S. ports. No contract to install these modems exists.

ZPMC has repeatedly requested remote access to its cranes operating at U.S. ports, with a particular focus on those located on the West Coast, the report said.

That could give China’s military access to the cranes.

Another issue is that ZPMC’s contract requires that all non-ZPMC crane components be shipped to “Changxing Base” in China by third-party companies, such as Sweden, Germany, and Japan.

There, they are installed by ZPMC engineers without oversight from the original manufacturer, raising red flags, according to the report.

The installation of components takes place at or near the Jiangnan Shipyard, where the People’s Liberation Army Navy builds its most advanced warships and houses its intelligence agencies, it noted.

Another potential problem was that contracts between ZPMC and U.S. ports do not contain provisions prohibiting or limiting unauthorized modifications or access to equipment and technology bound for U.S. ports.

The report recommended quick action on removing or disassembling any connection to cellular modems on Chinese-made cranes.

It called for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to issue guidance to all U.S. ports using ZPMC cranes to install operational technology monitoring software.

The report also stated that the United States should help provide cybersecurity and port security to Guam, a strategic U.S. ally in the Pacific.

Midterm goals outlined in the report include congressional action to allocate grant money to ports to offset the cost of buying more expensive cranes made by non-adversarial nations.

The United States does not manufacture its own maritime cranes and container equipment, leaving it vulnerable. Manufacturing cranes in America should be a long-term goal, the report stated.

Potential military threats to U.S. seaports stemming from China came to light in February 2021.

The report, citing media accounts, noted that the FBI discovered intelligence-gathering equipment on Chinese cargo cranes that arrived at the Port of Baltimore.

That same year, the Defense Intelligence Agency reportedly conducted a classified assessment, finding that Beijing could potentially throttle port traffic or gather intelligence on military equipment being shipped.

In February 2023, the FBI’s Office of the Private Sector issued an advisory highlighting indicators of malicious Chinese activity in the U.S. maritime sector, including unusual visits and unusually low bids or quotes to supply port equipment and services.

In January, FBI Director Christopher Wray said during a congressional hearing that Chinese Volt Typhoon malware embedded in critical infrastructure throughout the United States had been removed.

Wray said the malware was designed to disrupt and destroy U.S. infrastructure, which would likely be coordinated should a conflict break out between the two nations.

In February, President Joe Biden issued an executive order allowing DHS to address maritime cyber threats and establish cybersecurity standards to secure the networks and systems of U.S. ports.

Aaron Pan contributed to this report.

Analysts say the case serves as a warning to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its agents hiding within the U.S. government.

In its indictment, the Department of Justice (DOJ), says Sun violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and is charged with 10 counts, including visa fraud, money laundering, and accepting benefits to engage in activities that benefit China and the CCP. Her businessman husband, Christopher Hu, 40, was also charged with multiple crimes, including money laundering.

Sun acted at the request of CCP officials and “engaged in numerous political activities in the interests of the PRC and the CCP, including blocking representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to high-level New York State officers,” the DOJ said in a press release.

The charges against Sun also include “changing high-level New York State officers’ messaging regarding issues of importance to the PRC and the CCP; obtaining official New York State proclamations for PRC government representatives without proper authorization,” and “arranging meetings for visiting delegations from the PRC government with New York State government officials” among others.

The DOJ said Sun received “substantial economic and other benefits” from the CCP for these activities. PRC is the acronym for China’s official name: the People’s Republic of China.

Sun, 41, also known as Wen Sun, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Nanjing, China, and moved to the United States with her parents at the age of 5.

She worked in the New York state government for about 15 years. In 2009, Sun served as chief of staff to New York State Assembly representative Grace Meng, a Democrat, who is currently a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2012, Sun joined the New York state government of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and later served as deputy chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, now the governor.

Infiltrating US Government

Wang Juntao, chairman of the National Committee of the China Democratic Party, said the case is especially important to people like himself—overseas Chinese activists who publicly protest against the CCP’s tyranny—because “those in the U.S. government who speak for and act on behalf of the CCP are the ones who should be the main focus of U.S. law enforcement’s crackdown.”

Wang said that the United States started the crackdown on CCP agents in the United States through FARA under former President Donald Trump, and then, “President Biden systematized it, since then the Western world has formed a unified containment of the CCP’s overseas spying operations.”

U.S.-based current affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan told The Epoch Times that Sun’s case is somewhat special because, in the past, most of the CCP spies arrested by the FBI were overseas Chinese community leaders or those posing as democracy activists.

“They were mainly engaged in transnational repression or collecting intelligence on Chinese dissidents in the United States, mostly in the field of human rights,” he said.

Sun’s case is different, Tang said, “mainly because she holds a high position in the U.S. government system, which affects many policies in New York State and even involves U.S. diplomatic relations.”

Tony Hu, a former U.S. Department of Defense official, told The Epoch Times that any U.S. civil servant must understand that, whether in the federal, state, or local government, “as long as you are a civil servant, you cannot use the convenience of your job to help foreign government. This will definitely be punished by U.S. law.”

Hu emphasized that civil servants “are supposed to help their country, state, and city—not foreign countries.”

Chinese Consulate Middleman

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press conference on Sept. 4 that New York Chinese consul general Huang Ping left his post, but “was not expelled.”

“Our understanding is that the consul general reached the end of a regular scheduled rotation in August,” Miller said.

Huang had served as the consul general in New York since November 2018. According to the CCP’s “Regulations on the Tenure, Seniority and Vacations of Permanent Personnel in Embassies and Consulates Abroad,” the general term of a consul general is three years, so Huang’s term should end in November this year.

Taiwanese retired Maj. Gen. Yu Tsung-chi, an adviser to the Formosa Republican Association, said the United States chose to accept the expiration of Huang’s term instead of demanding expulsion “to avoid enraging China to take the same expulsion measures to retaliate.”

“Then it would become a mutual revenge between democratic and totalitarian countries, which will blur the focus of the case. Therefore, the United States obviously wants to downplay such a serious intelligence infiltration incident in a low-key manner,” Yu told The Epoch Times.

Wang said that the CCP has deployed secret agents all over the United States.

Wang said that based on his knowledge and his connections in the CCP’s top political and military circles, for the CCP’s overseas agents “the Chinese consulate’s role is less significant [in the CCP’s espionage activities], and Beijing is directly controlling the overseas agents through the United Front Work Department from behind the scenes. Therefore, despite that the FBI has put a lot of effort, sometimes it is difficult to find evidence.”

The United Front Work Department is the Chinese regime’s spy and propaganda agency that also controls the regime’s transnational repression campaigns against overseas dissidents.

“The center of the CCP’s spy network is in Beijing. They mostly have exclusive contacts and will not let others know. The Chinese consulate itself also knows that they are actually under [the U.S. government’s] surveillance,” Wang said.

“The Chinese consulate also does deals with some American entrepreneurs, but the Chinese consulate is too conspicuous. The consulate will attend some activities of overseas Chinese groups, but they are not the ones who make the real arrangements.”

A CCP overseas agent who defected and fled to Australia, said that he directly took orders from the CCP’s secret police in Beijing.

Luo Ya, Ning Haizhong, and Fei Zhen contributed to this report.

Billionaire Chen Tianqiao, founder, chairman and CEO of Shanda Group, owns around 200,000 acres of land in Oregon, according to Land Report. His involvement with the CCP ranges from membership to executive roles in CCP-linked organizations, the DCNF reports following a review of Chinese-language media reports.

In 2015, Chen acquired 198,000 acres in Oregon,according to Land Report. The $85 million purchase made the Chinese national the 82nd-largest property owner in the U.S. and the second-largest foreign U.S. land owner, Bloomberg reported, second only to a Canadian family who owns over 1 million acres of Maine.

Oregon’s Bull Springs Skyline Forest accounts for approximately 33,000 of Chen’s acreage, according to Land Report. The forest is located west of Bend, Oregon, and is home to springs, creeks, timberland and wildlife, according to the Bull Springs Skyline Forest website.

Oregon Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer said she was “deeply concerned that individuals tied to the  Chinese Communist Party are buying up timberland, which is one of our most precious and finite resources.” -Daily Caller

“Foreign ownership of United States lands is a serious problem that has rightfully sparked unease among farmers, ranchers and foresters across the country,” said Chavez-DeRemer.

In addition to the farmland, Chen also owns various urban properties throughout America, including the Vanderbilt mansion in Manhattan and the Seely Mudd Estate near Los Angeles. He also owns a 150,000 sqft. research facility at Caltech – the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience.

“One of the Chinese Communist Party’s goals is to undermine and weaken America,” Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) told the Caller. “This includes instances where our greatest adversary continues to buy land — whether its farmland or near our installations.”

According to a translation of a 2005 press release from Chen’s alma mater, Fudan University in Shanghai, “In 1990, Chen enrolled in Fudan University to major in economics, the following year he joined the Chinese Communist Party, and, in 1993, he won the title of ‘Shanghai Municipal Outstanding Model Cadre Student.”

According to a 2007 article from Communist Youth Daily, Chen was 18-years-old when he joined the CCP, and has since been identified repeatedly as a CCP member by various Chinese media outlets.

A 2016 Sohu.com article identified Chen and several other Chinese CEOs as CCP members. Likewise, Chen’s profile on the Chinese financial portal Sina, which was last updated in November 2023, identifies him as a CCP member.

The state-run Beijing Review describes Chen as an admirer of Mao Zedong, first chairman of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Several Chinese-language outlets have also reported that Chen’s corporate office prominently displays Mao’s written works.

Chen even has a favorite Mao Zedong quote, according to state-run media outlet China News Service: “Strategically we should despise all our enemies, but tactically we should take them all seriously.”

Mao delivered the remarks in a speech denouncing American imperialism during a visit to Moscow in November 1957, according to the University of Dayton Review. -Daily Caller

“The increase in PRC-affiliated U.S. land purchases in recent years is a growing cause for concern,” a House Select Committee on the CCP aide told the DCNF. “We can start with adding a presumption of denial for entities affiliated with the PRC when it comes to land acquisitions near national security sites such as military bases that the CCP could use for intelligence collection or worse.”

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published a blueprint document back in November, saying that the robots would be as “disruptive” as smartphones and would “reshape the world.” According to the paper, the strategy aims to make the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) the global leader in the field of robotics by building a “humanoid robot innovation system,” developing artificial brains and limbs by 2025.

Being the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, CCP aims to achieve breakthroughs in environment sensing, motion control and machine-to-human interaction capabilities in the next two years, which is why it is striving to compete with the United States in the field of chips and hardware. In recent years, billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla and Boston Dynamics have been leading the said industry.

The document also said that by using a whole-of-nation system, the communist regime could harness technologies to “profoundly change human production and lifestyle and reshape the global industrial development pattern.” However, according to several reports, this move carries national security implications and will help the CCP maintain an economic advantage, even though its population is nosediving due to years of severe restrictions on childbirth. In 2022, after six consecutive years of declining birth rates, China recorded its first annual population decline since the early 1960s. According to a forecast by the United Nations, the East Asian country’s population is set to fall from 1.42 billion in 2022 to 1.31 billion in 2050 and drop below 800 million by 2100. (Related: China’s humanoid robot factories to go online in 2025, HALF of human labor force to be eliminated.)

And so, China’s government is effectively replacing people with robots to maintain a competitive edge in labor-intensive manufacturing industries as per a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In fact, a draft proposal by the regime’s internet regulator suggested back in April that all content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) should be mandated to “reflect the socialist core values” espoused by the CCP. According to the new document, all new robots and AI-powered artificial brains should be “guided by People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.”

Director of the China Policy Initiative at the America First Policy Institute Adam Savit confirmed with the Epoch Times that the regime could use robots to spread communist ideology throughout the global marketplace. “They will certainly try,” he said. “The CCP takes advantage of any means available, especially innovative new technologies, to spread its ideology and expand its influence.” He also pointed to social media giant TikTok, which is owned by the CCP-affiliated ByteDance, as “the most successful and disturbing example” of Beijing’s s use of technology to spread its idealisms.

END GAME: CCP robots to dominate the world

According to reports, China installed 290,000 non-humanoid industrial robots in 2022, whereas the United States, by comparison, only installed 39,000. The former is now dominating in terms of robot density, as it has deployed more robots relative to workers. The communist nation now operates the largest operational stock of robots in the world.

This is something to worry about as the nation already can use automation to gain economic advantage in the years to come, a report by the International Federation of Robotics pointed out. “Robot density is a key indicator of automation adoption in the manufacturing industry around the world,” International Federation of Robotics President Marina Bill said. “China’s rapid growth shows the power of its investment so far, but it still has much opportunity to automate.”

Moreover, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) reported that the CCP seeks to earn a long-term advantage by establishing and controlling the supply chains required to create advanced robotics. “Beijing aims both to achieve a high degree of self-sufficiency and to capture a significant share of the global market for a wide array of advanced products and components,” the paper suggested. The report further noted that if the nation can gain an edge in what has been described as a fourth industrial revolution in manufacturing while reducing its dependence on high-tech imports, China may be able to boost its own prospects for long-term growth while diminishing those of its competitors.

“The really scary thing is,” Arthur Herman, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute said, “is that it could lead to the CCP gaining more influence in establishing international standards and rules over AI and robotics. China’s robotics industry becomes the global standard, pushing aside any competition, including setting the moral standard.” The expert said that is not a good sign if people want to have sensible and responsible standards for the future development of a potentially disruptive technology that everyone can live with.

Head over to CommunistChina.news to read stories related to this.

Sources for this article include:

• TheEpochTimes.com
• IndianExpress.com
• BigDataChina.csis.org
• IISS.org

According to reports, the Communist Party of China’s military has burrowed into more than 20 major utilities suppliers in the last year including a water utility in Hawaii, a major West Coast port and at least one oil and gas pipeline. They reportedly also bypassed elaborate cyber security systems by intercepting passwords and log-ins unguarded by junior employees.

This project they are conducting amid growing tension over Taiwan was codenamed Volt Typhoon. Analysts commented this could unplug U.S. efforts to protect its interests in the South China Sea. “It is very clear that Chinese attempts to compromise critical infrastructure are in part to pre-position themselves to be able to disrupt or destroy that critical infrastructure in the event of a conflict,” said Brandon Wales of the Department of Homeland Security‘s (DHS’) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Reports reveal that hackers often cover their tracks by using unsuspicious devices such as home or office routers in a bid to steal employee credentials. Once inside the systems, they can pose as legitimate users, in a technique known as “living off the land.”

Moreover, the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines also alerted back in February that China is already almost certainly capable of launching cyberattacks to disable oil and gas pipelines and rail systems. “If Beijing feared that a major conflict with the United States was imminent, it almost certainly would consider undertaking aggressive cyber operations against U.S. homeland critical infrastructure and military assets worldwide,” the annual assessment included. In August, the Chinese hackers were allegedly caught trying to penetrate systems run by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas which provide the state’s power. But Hawaii is thought to be the biggest target given the crucial role it would play for the U.S. if conflict broke out over Taiwan.

Chinese military planners were said to have intended network warfare to play a crucial role in amphibious assaults with air and missile strikes coordinated alongside cyber-attacks on command networks, critical infrastructure, satellite networks and military logistics, according to Jamestown Foundation’s China expert Joe McReynolds. “This is stuff they pretty clearly see as relevant to a Taiwan scenario though they don’t explicitly say this is how we’re going to take over Taiwan.” It has been fairly easy to get operatives in place with through the open borders.

Volt Typhoon was also reported to target communications, manufacturing, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology and education organizations. Biden was expected to raise the concerns during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last month at the APEC summit in San Francisco but the topic was avoided. “Security experts” have warned that this is a battle the U.S. cannot afford to lose. The Trump administration had taken steps to fortify U.S. infrastructure by requiring the removal of Chinese technology from key components. However, these polices were among those canceled by executive order on Biden’s first day in office.

Meanwhile, critics have raised a significant concern. Are these hacking warnings just false flag claims to invite China to war with the United States? Worse, mainstream media outlets, even the independent ones, are just parroting these warnings without question.

U.S. insists China has been accelerating military buildup to encroach on Western allies in the Indo-Pacific

Sticking to the narrative that the United States should be ready any time to “war” with China – which would mean massive defense budget allocation – Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall back in September warned that the Asian country was already beefing up its military. He also urged that America must optimize its forces to counter the rising threat. “Our job is to deter that war and to be ready to win if it occurs,” Kendall said. “We’re all talking about the fact that the Air and Space Forces must change, or we could fail to prevent and might even lose a war.”

He also said that it was vital to prepare for war because China has already created two new military branches: a force designed to counter aircraft carriers, airfields and other critical assets, and a strategic support service that works to achieve information dominance in the space and cyber domains. “China has been reoptimizing its forces for great power competition and to prevail against the U.S. in the Western Pacific for over 20 years,” he added. “China has been building a military capability specifically designed to achieve their national goals and to do so if opposed by the United States,” he added.

U.S.-China relations have reached a low point amid rising tensions over the self-governing island nation of Taiwan, which Beijing sees as historically part of the mainland. According to Andrew Krepinevich, Jr., a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, China has become increasingly assertive across a wide swath of the Pacific, advancing its expansionist maritime claims and encroaching on the waters of key U.S. allies and important security partners, including Japan, the Philippines, and of course, Taiwan. (Related: Another PROXY WAR in the works? U.S. shaping the Philippines into the next Ukraine.)

Given that both China and the United States possess nuclear arsenals, many strategists are concerned about a more catastrophic outcome. People see a direct war between the two countries that could lead to uncontrolled escalation, a possibility that Biden’s regime has been trying to instill in the public’s perception as a from of mind conditioning. For critics, a scenario like this should be taken seriously by U.S. policymakers. But then again, what if this is what the government would intend to happen?

WWIII.news has more stories related to wars the United States is waging against other nations.

Sources for this article include:

• DailyMail.co.uk
• WashingtonPost.com
• TheHill.com
• ForeignAffairs.com

The report, released ahead of the UN climate summit’s conclusion, calls on policymakers to substantially alter agricultural markets in order to fight climate change and align the agricultural system with the climate agenda. The FAO is led by Qu Dongyu, the CCP’s former vice minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, who has been accused of using his post at a global institution to advance Beijing’s specific interests, according to Politico.

“Providing healthy food for all, today and tomorrow, is crucial; as is aligning agrifood systems transformation with climate actions,” the FAO report states. “Agrifood systems should address food security and nutrition needs, but they host a large number of actions aligned with mitigation, adaptation and resilience objectives. Simultaneously, the climate agenda could mobilize climate finance to unlock the potential of these systems and drive their transformation.”

New:

Wagyu Burgers, Asian-French Fusion And More: Here’s What’s On The Menu At The UN Climate Confab

via @dailycaller News Foundation https://t.co/eOIJYFODJC

— Nick Pope (@realnickpope) December 5, 2023

The report asserts that individuals in wealthier nations can gain from reduced meat consumption by improving their health and helping fight climate change, poorer countries would benefit from increasing their protein consumption. One way to better align agriculture with climate goals is “increasing productivity and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of product through better livestock genetics well adapted to existing and future climate conditions,” according to the report.

“Nobody actually takes him seriously: It’s not him; it’s China,” a former UN official told Politico of Dongyu and his relationship with CCP officials. “I’m not convinced he would make a single decision without first checking it with the capital.”

The report urges policymakers to “change the livestock population to match not only nutritional needs but also environmental opportunities and constraints” and to shift away from large livestock animals, like cows, in favor of smaller ones, like sheep or chicken, for meat production. The report also calls for policy to “change consumer behavior regarding portion size and nudge towards responsible decisions by food sellers and consumers” and to “change food and beverages taxes and subsidies to provide consumers with an economic and rational decision-making justification for change.”

The FAO concludes that livestock production accounts directly for 26% of all emissions caused by agricultural activity, a figure which can jump up to about 50% when considering upstream and downstream emissions. In the absence of sweeping government action, the FAO estimates that global livestock production could see its emissions increase by 40% by 2050.

The new FAO report is the first of three papers to be released by the body, with the next two to come at the next UN climate summits, known as COP29 and COP30, according to its text. The COP29 report will focus on laying out regional roadmaps for transforming the global agricultural system, and the COP30 report will set out plans for specific countries, as well as systems for emissions monitoring and “accountability.”

Representatives for the UN and the FAO did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

While prominent Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates have supported banning TikTok, which is linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through its parent company ByteDance, Scott has opted for a less aggressive approach and has not called for fully banning the app. At the same time, one of the main investors in ByteDance, as well as the executive chairman and founder of Oracle, which stores TikTok’s American data, both contributed large sums to organizations supporting Scott.

Jeffrey Yass contributed $600,000 to Opportunity Matters Fund Action, a political organization that is aligned with and supports Scott, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data. Yass’ investment firm Susquehanna International Group bought a significant stake in ByteDance in 2012, while his personal stake of 7% is valued at around $21 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“I’ve supported libertarian and free market principles my entire adult life,” Yass told the WSJ. “TikTok is about free speech and innovation, the epitome of libertarian and free market ideals. The idea of banning TikTok is an anathema to everything I believe.”

Yass is a major contributor to the Club for Growth, a conservative organization that mobilized Republican resistance to banning TikTok, according to the WSJ. He has given $61 million to the organization’s political spending division since 2010, which accounts for nearly one-fourth of its overall funding.

Opportunity Matters Fund, Inc., a PAC that also backs Scott, has received over $30 million in contributions since 2020 from Oracle Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison, according to FEC data. Oracle has a contract with TikTok to store the company’s American data. Scott called Ellison one of his “mentors” in May when he launched his presidential campaign.

In response to questions by the Daily Caller News Foundation on whether Scott would support a TikTok ban, his campaign declined to call for one. Instead, it shared Scott’s comment that he has “no problem whatsoever” with a TikTok ban, which he stated in an August Fox News interview.

Though Scott did not call for banning TikTok in the interview, or promise to do so if elected, Scott advocated for a plan to separate American children’s data from the CCP.

“We have to separate or segregate the communist Chinese party from our kids’ data,” Scott said in the interview. “We have to stop them from spying on our kids.”

However, China hawks have criticized Scott for his stance on TikTok when compared to other top Republican presidential candidates, according to Politico.

Other candidates, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, have all indicated support of a nationwide ban. However, Ramaswamy recently appeared to walk back his hard-line stance on TikTok.

“In retrospect, it was a little bit of an old-fashioned decision to say that there’s an entire mode of communicating with young people that I was going to turn off,” Ramaswamy said.

Former President Donald Trump also attempted to ban TikTok, but was stymied by federal courts. Scott cited such legal difficulties in his August Fox interview as evidence that “we can’t ban TikTok.”

DeSantis also received $2.5 million from Yass in February, according to data from his Florida PAC, which was named Friends of Ron DeSantis at the time. Yass has not contributed to Never Back Down, a federal PAC supporting DeSantis’ 2024 presidential bid.

Scott has backed more moderate solutions to potential national security concerns raised by TikTok, including voting to ban TikTok on government devices, and introducing a bill called the Know Your App Act to require applications to disclose what country they originate from.

China is using TikTok to spy on our children and invade their privacy. My Know Your App Act gives parents the tools they need to keep the CCP out of their homes and protect their kids.

— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) July 20, 2023

The Biden administration plans to resume negotiations with TikTok despite its previous ultimatum that ByteDance must sell its stake in the company or face a potential ban, The Washington Post reported. The Beijing-based company maintains an internal CCP committee, and the U.S. Department of Justice characterized ByteDance as a “mouthpiece” for the CCP.

A former ByteDance executive has alleged that CCP members within the company had a “superuser” credential or “god credential” that enabled them to view all of the data the company obtained, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company also had a “backdoor channel” to gain U.S. user data, the former executive asserted.

ByteDance employees also used TikTok data to spy on American journalists who were covering the company in 2022, Forbes reported. Additionally, TikTok stored American TikTok creators’ and businesses’ financial information such as Social Security numbers and tax IDs in China, according to records obtained by Forbes.

Oracle, Susquehanna, TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

(Daily Caller)—Residents of Manteno, Illinois were outraged when they found out local and state officials had finalized a deal with a Chinese Communist Party-linked company to construct an electric vehicle battery “gigafactory” in their town.

The multi-billion dollar deal, which Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced on Sept. 8, was hashed out behind closed doors and without any public input, according to over a dozen Manteno residents who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“There was absolutely no public participation or notification that this was going [on],” Darrel Bruck Jr., a longtime resident of Manteno who runs an informational group called “Outrage of Kankakee County,” told the DCNF. “There were probably 200 people [at the announcement], but the public was not invited. It was strictly for local politicians, the mayor, some local people who owned land who will make a lot of money off strip malls and such.”

Manteno Mayor Tim Nugent had been involved in discussions with Gotion Inc. and the Illinois government from at least December 2022, he said in an Aug. 23 Kankakee County meeting. Nugent also said he spoke with individual council members about the deal behind closed doors despite the project receiving massive tax incentives from the county, which he referred to as an “intergovernmental agreement between certain Kankakee County taxing districts and officials,” according to a recording of an Aug. 7 meeting.

“When I heard of it, I stopped, because it was the first I’d heard about it, and I immediately texted all of the trustees for our city,” Annette LaMore, a longtime resident of the area and a former Manteno council board member, told the DCNF. “I wondered why money would be so important that we’d overlook all of the safety issues. Not one of the trustees — we have six — got back to me.”

“I asked the mayor if there was an informational meeting that was open for the public,” LaMore continued. “He answered me and said, ‘There are no information meetings that I am aware of.’ I feel like, ‘Did he forget that he’s working for us, for the community?’ I think people need to be able to ask questions and know about what’s going on before decisions are being made.”

When residents of Manteno had the opportunity to speak at a town hall meeting on Sept. 18 — the first official public meeting on the issue — Nugent limited the discussion to a comment period and refused to answer the locals’ questions.

“You can tell us we need this battery plant. But you don’t know! Look at the people that are here tonight. This is exactly why you didn’t publicize it,” Bob Forsythe, a Manteno local, said at the meeting. “It’s not good for us. If it was, you’d be ranting all over the place.”

Residents told the DCNF that they felt concerned about the plant’s placement, which will be across the street from a residential neighborhood, next to a large blasting quarry and within a mile of the the village’s elementary, middle and high schools.

“My concern is that it’s close to the elementary school, less than five minutes away,” Dorian Black Reynolds, a resident of Manteno and the mother of a child who currently attends the village’s elementary school, told the DCNF. “The pollution and the possibility of disasters are not something the town is prepared for.”

“The town seems to want to be having discussions of what is being done, and most people didn’t seem to have a clue that something was going on until they knew Pritzker was coming into town,” she added.

Gotion, Inc. is a subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech, which is based out of Hefei, China and employs 923 CCP members, including the CEO. Former U.S. ambassadors have called on the Treasury Department to launch a review into Gotion’s operations because of its CCP connections.

Gotion has also announced a plan to create a battery plant near Big Rapids, Michigan, and purchased 270 acres near the area in August to build its new plant. Michigan locals have heavily protested the battery plant for months, and succeeded in blocking the company from purchasing several additional plots of farm land near Big Rapids.

ICYMI: Key takeaways on Gotion’s historic investment:

2,600 new good-paying jobs
$2 billion company investment in IL
Gigafactory will supercharge the growth of IL’s EV ecosystemhttps://t.co/6GjEoVw9aZ pic.twitter.com/4smmDY23vV

— . (@puffer_flnance) September 12, 2023

Gotion received a $536 million incentive package from state and local governments to move to the Manteno area, as well as a property tax abatement from Kankakee County over the next 30 years, the government agreements show.

“The whole of Kankakee county is going to be impacted by this,” a longtime resident of Manteno, who asked for anonymity, told the DCNF. “Taxes are definitely going to go up. The elderly, who are just making it, and the families who are still trying to make it … Our sales taxes, our local taxes. . . everything will go up.”

Bringing Gotion into Manteno would invest $2 billion and bring more than 2,600 jobs to the area, according to the press release.

“The workforce is a mess right now,” Reynolds told the DCNF. “Yes, this should help the community. [But] again, at what risk? To themselves, by working in the factory? The pay is going to be about $55,000 a year, but for what the job is and what the risk entails, it’s not worth it … I would not work there. If they quadrupled the pay, I still would not work there. Why would you want to put yourself in close proximity to [carcinogens]?”

One resident told the DCNF that although she is concerned about the deal, she hopes local officials have acted for the benefit of the community.

“As residents, we have to hope that our government is looking out for us, that they have a plan, that they know that this is going to be safe,” Crystal Wolfe, a Manteno local, told the DCNF. “But working off of hopes and dreams … I don’t think lithium-ion batteries are the way that we should go. There’s a danger in moving too fast. I guess that’s what really scares me, health-wise, is that the danger here is that it’s moving so fast. The true unknown is what are the long-term effects going to be, if any? I hope … I hope our government is looking out for our best interest.”

Pritzker, Gotion, Inc. and Nugent did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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It’s easier for them to just infiltrate and compromise them.

A report from The Daily Mail says British Intelligence is warning Congress about a surge in threats from the CCP. They went so far as to single out Congressman Eric Swalwell who is a notoriously easy target for the CCP. According to the article:

• A British parliamentary researcher with links to MPs with classified information was arrested for ‘spying for China’
• Congress has been infiltrated by Chinese spies attempting to get access to classified information in recent years
• Rep. Eric Swalwell had ties to a suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang and Senator  Diane Feinstein employed a spy as her driver in California for 20 years

Rep. Mike Gallagher, who chairs the House Select Committee on the Communist Party, told DailyMail.com that educating members of Congress about the threat of infiltration is critical – especially in light of the recent UK incident.

‘One thing we’re trying to do here on the Select Committee is to educate people -members and staff- about the nature of not only traditional CCP espionage but United Front work,’ he said.

‘I think United Front work is a poorly understood phenomenon. I don’t think your average member understands what it is. The more we can educate members about this phenomenon, the better they can defend themselves.’

The United Front is the political strategy utilized by the CCP to advance China’s influence and power globally through a variety of methods, including by deploying spies to try to change policies of foreign nations to be more pro-China or gain sensitive information.

Congress has be infiltrated by Chinese spies attempting to get access to classified information in recent years.

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell’s ties to a suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang, known as ‘Fang Fang,’ sparked an Ethics Committee investigation into his conduct.

The committee ended up not taking any disciplinary action against Swalwell, but issued a letter warning lawmakers about the threat of foreign infiltration.

‘Members should be conscious of the possibility that foreign governments may attempt to secure improper influence through gifts and other interactions,’ the letter stated.

It’s bad enough that the UniParty Swamp works to keep America down as low as possible. If more of them are compromised by the CCP or other foreign entities, our nation may not be able to survive into the next decade.

Sound off on The Liberty Daily Substack.

Is there a fourth invasion happening as well? We’ve known there are tens of thousands of Chinese illegal aliens coming across; over 13,000 have been apprehended since October. But what if these aren’t just illegal aliens among the other masses from other nations? What if this is part of a planned infiltration?

Michael Yon noted that the Chinese Communist Party had recently given instructions to Chinese citizens coming into America through “irregular channels”:

China openly invading USA: This is published today by LA Consulate General. It called Chinese people who lost passports entering U.S. “in abnormal ways” to apply for new passports in the LA Consulate General.

Very suspicious. Why does CCP help people get passports to leave China? They escape China with new passports, arrive in places like Istanbul, Amsterdam, Quito, Cancun, then ditch passports before crossing into USA. Now getting new passports from their government. CCP famously never is so helpful.

China openly invading USA:

This is published today by LA Consulate General. It called Chinese people who lost passports entering U.S. “in abnormal ways” to apply for new passports in the LA Consulate General.
Very suspicious. Why does CCP help people get passports to leave…

— Michael Yon: Callsign BIG HONEY 6 (@Michael_Yon) June 11, 2023

The recent posting from the Chinese consulate that Yon linked to instructs Chinese citizens on how to get their passports or emergency travel documents. But here’s the thing. For them to have left China, they would have had to have their passports initially. Unlike the United States, China takes their border security very seriously in both directions and it’s extremely difficult for people to leave the country without permission.

The only reason it would behoove Chinese citizens to use their passports to leave China, then lose their passports en route to the United States is if they were intentionally taking advantage of the Biden-Harris regime’s border policies. If they enter legally, they can be easily expelled. If they “lose” their passports and enter through “irregular channels,” they are treated by a completely different set of rules.

Most importantly, they get to stay under the Biden-Harris regime’s policies.

Is this all an elaborate scheme to plant as many Chinese nationals loyal to the CCP on American soil, spread across American cities through the disbursement plans of the White House and state governors? Reports have indicated these groups are almost entirely made up of military-aged males. If the Chinese Communist Party wanted to infiltrate America at this time, that type of scheme seems like the most obvious.

Stay frosty, folks.  Something’s not right. In fact, very little seems to be right in America lately.