Comment on China They Censor So Much by rick

rick · 6/3/2025, 11:08:04 PM · permalink

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Two Chinese nationals have been charged with allegedly smuggling into the U.S. a fungus called "Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon," the Justice Department said Tuesday.

This photo released by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan shows what authorities say are biological pathogens discovered in luggage at the airport in Detroit.

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were allegedly receiving Chinese government funding for their research, some of it at the University of Michigan, officials said.

"The complaint also alleges that Jian’s electronics contain information describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party," a DOJ press release said.

"It is further alleged that Jian’s boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen and that he first lied but then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America -- through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport -- so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked," according to the press release.

This photo released by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan shows what authorities say are biological pathogens discovered in luggage at the airport in Detroit.

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that the Justice Department "“has no higher mission than keeping the American people safe and protecting our nation from hostile foreign actors who would do us harm."

"Thanks to the hard work of our excellent DOJ attorneys, this defendant — who clandestinely attempted to bring a destructive substance into the United States — will face years behind bars," the attorney general said.

The FBI says it causes “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.

“The alleged actions of these Chinese nationals -- including a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party -- are of the gravest national security concerns. These two aliens have been charged with smuggling a fungus that has been described as a ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into in the heartland of America, where they apparently intended to use a University of Michigan laboratory to further their scheme,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgan said.  
  
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2-chinese-nationals-charged-smuggling-potential-agroterrorism-fungus/story?id=122454213

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rick · 6/3/2025, 11:14:26 PM · permalink

The first this a country does when it goes to war id renege on its debt.
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“They should be paying us, not us paying China,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., backing a proposal that the U.S. should cancel its sovereign debt held by China. Chinatopix via AP file

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June 11, 2020, 11:04 AM CDT

By Martha C. White

The recent intensification of President Donald Trump’s hard line on China has included a wide-ranging grab bag of policies and proposals that touch on everything from student visas to soybean purchases. But the most explosive might be the suggestion floated by some right-wing lawmakers and commentators that the country could choose to default on some of the nearly $1.1 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds held by China.

The proposal alarms analysts, who say even entertaining the idea is dangerous in an economic environment characterized by a pandemic-driven recession and a massive increase in the national debt.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close Trump ally, said on Fox News, “They should be paying us, not us paying China,” and expressed support for a suggestion from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., that the U.S. should cancel its sovereign debt held by China.

John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said in an article that the U.S. could “make China pay for COVID-19” by reneging on its commitment to bondholders. “Conceivably, Washington could even cancel Chinese-held treasury debt and us\[e\] the proceeds to create a trust fund that would compensate Americans harmed by the pandemic,” he wrote.

While Yoo allowed that this would roil financial markets, others say even that acknowledgement vastly understates the scope of economic calamity this would trigger.  
  
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/should-u-s-refuse-pay-back-its-1-trillion-debt-n1227351

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rick · 6/3/2025, 11:48:15 PM · permalink

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By Ryan Chan

China News Reporter

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China said on Wednesday that "wanton use of force will not make America great again" as President Donald Trump declared a record high $1 trillion defense budget.

Newsweek has reached out to the White House and the Pentagon for comment by email.

Why It Matters

Trump announced on April 7 that his administration would approve the largest expenditure "we've ever done for the military," which his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, called the first trillion-dollar defense budget, rebuilding the U.S. military on lethality and readiness.

This comes after China, which is viewed by the Pentagon as the "pacing threat" and "pacing challenge" to America's security and power, announced in March that it will spend around $250 billion on its military buildup, an increase of 7.2 percent for a third consecutive year.

What To Know

When asked about the Pentagon's trillion-dollar defense budget, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang claimed that what he called the "bellicose nature" of the U.S., as well as its belief in "might makes right," were exposed by this "sky-high" defense budget.

The Chinese spokesperson also urged Washington to "break away from the obsession with hegemony at an early date" and to recognize that "wanton use of force" will inflict what he described as "painful disasters" upon both Americans and people of the rest of the world.

Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth

President Donald Trump delivers remarks alongside Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 10, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The increase in the defense budget comes after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) instructed the military to propose an 8 percent annual budget cut over the next five years. The Pentagon is reportedly planning to reduce 50,000 to 60,000 civilian workers.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the U.S. is the world's largest defense spender, as it allocated $916 billion in 2023, representing 68 percent of total NATO military spending and accounting for 37 percent of total global military expenditure.

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