TAIPEI: The two Chinese aircraft carriers spotted conducting simultaneous operations in the Pacific for the first time send a political message about the country’s “expansionist” aims, Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Wednesday (Jun 11).
Koo said the armed forces had a “full grasp” of the carriers’ movements.
“Crossing from the first island chain into the second island chain sends a definite political message and their expansionist nature can be seen,” he told reporters in Taipei.
The first island chain refers to an area that runs from Japan down to Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo, while the second island chain spreads further out into the Pacific to include places like the US territory of Guam.
A Chinese researcher allegedly tried to smuggle biological materials into the US from Wuhan and lied to the feds about the secretive scheme.
Chengxuan Han was arrested Sunday after landing at the Detroit Metropolitan airport on a flight from Shanghai, according to charging documents. She was charged with smuggling goods into the US and making false statements.
Han is the third Chinese scientist to be charged with smuggling illegal biological materials into Michigan in recent weeks.
Yunqing Jian, 33, and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu, 34, were caught last year allegedly trying to smuggle samples of a dangerous crop-killing fungus into the US, the FBI said. Jian, a Communist Party loyalist and lab researcher at the University of Michigan who received Chinese government funding for her work, was charged last week in a ploat the national security insiders called “an attack on US food supply.”
Upon Han’s arrival to the US, border officers discovered Han sent four packages that “contained biological material related to round worms” from China, according to court documents
The packages, which were sent in both 2024 and 2025, were addressed to individuals associated with a laboratory at the University of Michigan.
Is the Defense Department still preparing to fight biological warfare as if it’s 1970?
When preparing for biological warfare, most nations picture scenarios in which an enemy openly sprays traditional agents over wide areas to kill their adversaries. However, revolutionary capabilities in the life sciences and biotechnology have transformed the threat. China’s approach to warfare, combined with these emerging technologies, reveals new vulnerabilities among Western forces that, to date, have not been fully acknowledged. In no small measure, this is due to the U.S. government’s continued reliance on a 20th-century strategy for countering weapons of mass destruction. In particular, as China is a major nuclear power, it cannot be threatened after it uses biological weapons as easily as a non-nuclear state. Given these points, can China be deterred from using such advanced biological weapons during a regional crisis in the Indo-Pacific, especially an invasion of Taiwan? And if not, is it possible to mitigate the damage from such a scenario?
Although Western attention has focused on the rapid expansion of China’s nuclear and conventional warfighting capabilities, one ought to expect equal analysis of China’s biological warfare potential. By examining China’s most recent efforts at biological research, we put forward that it has bypassed 20th-century Western concepts of biological warfare and has new capabilities that could be effective across the entire conflict spectrum. Given China’s new capabilities and nuclear arsenal, we assess that standard strategies of deterrence and protection likely will not work in the future. New approaches and new concepts will be necessary if the United States is to prepare itself for potentially new forms of biological warfare in the 21st century.
The talks have been led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, with the Chinese contingent helmed by Vice Premier He Lifeng.
The talks ran for almost seven hours on Monday and resumed just before 10am local time on Tuesday, with both sides expected to issue updates later in the day.
The inclusion of Lutnick, whose agency oversees export controls for the US, is one indication of how central rare earths have become. He did not attend the Geneva talks, when the countries struck a 90-day deal to roll back some of the triple-digit tariffs they had placed on each other.
China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth magnets, a crucial component in electric vehicle motors, and its decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets upended global supply chains and sparked alarm in boardrooms and factory floors around the world.
This is the third Chinese national accused of smuggling biological materials into Michigan. Despite last week’s arrest of Chinese agroterrorists, China continues to wage bio-war on the United States.
Authorities say Chengxuan Han is a doctoral student at the College of Life Science and Technology in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China.
Agroterrorist Han is from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, which works closely with China’s military and defense industry.
On June 8, Chengxuan Han was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after arriving on a J1 visa. Officers inspected Han, who, during that time, reportedly lied to officials about the packages and the biological materials she is accused of previously sending to the U.S. Officers say Han related content from an electronic device three days before arriving in the U.S.
For the second time this month, federal officials have announced the arrest of a Chinese researcher who sought to bring biological material into Michigan.
Chengxuan Han has been charged with smuggling goods into the United States and false statements, United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. said Monday, according to a Department of Justice news release.
The news release noted that Han is based in Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, where she is a researcher at the College of Life Science and Technology in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
On Sunday, Customs and Border Protection officers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport detained Han, who allegedly lied about shipments of biological material she had earlier sent to a laboratory at the University of Michigan.
Beijing has also launched an anti-dumping investigation into Canadian canola that is set to conclude in September.
Canola, also known as rapeseed, was one of Canada’s top exports to China, the world’s number 1 agricultural importer, prior to Beijing’s investigation.
“The two governments should listen to and respond to the people’s calls and do more to deepen the friendly cooperation and enhance mutual understanding and trust,” Li told Carney.
China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner, trailing far behind the US. Canada exported US$47 billion worth of goods to the world’s second-largest economy in 2024, according to Chinese customs data.
Beijing is also willing to work with Canada to safeguard multilateralism and free trade, Li added.
Beijing’s olive branch to Ottawa also comes ahead of a Group of Seven summit of leaders in Canada in mid-June.
Two Chinese researchers were allegedly involved in what could have developed into an attack on America’s food supply.
Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements, and visa fraud, according to a Department of Justice news release.
The release said they are accused of “smuggling into America a fungus called Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon.”
According to the release, China’s communist government funded Jian’s research in China. The complaint said that when law enforcement scanned her electronic devices, they found documentation of her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. Liu, who has claimed he was Jian’s boyfriend, also conducted research on the same pathogen.
Liu has admitted to authorities that he smuggled Fusarium graminearum into America to conduct research with Jian.
New… I can confirm that the FBI arrested a Chinese national within the United States who allegedly smuggled a dangerous biological pathogen into the country.
The individual, Yunqing Jian, is alleged to have smuggled a dangerous fungus called “Fusarium graminearum,” which is an…
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) June 3, 2025
National security authorities and members of Congress are raising alarm over the alleged plot by two romantically involved Chinese researchers to smuggle samples of a dangerous crop-killing fungus into the US.
Yunquing Jian, 33, a Communist Party loyalist and lab researcher at the University of Michigan who received Chinese government funding for her work, plotted the illicit transport of the pathogen with her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, the FBI alleged.
Liu was was caught at Detroit Metropolitan Airport last July after allegedly attempting to sneak packages of Fusarium graminearum into the country, the feds said.
“This is an attack on the American food supply,” one senior Trump administration official told The Post.
Yunqing Jian (pictured) initially denied that she was aware of her boyfriend’s intent to smuggle the pathogen. University of Michigan
WASHINGTON: Two Chinese scientists have been charged with allegedly smuggling a toxic fungus into the United States that they planned to research at an American university, the Justice Department said on Tuesday (Jun 4).
Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, are charged with conspiracy, smuggling, false statements, and visa fraud, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said in a statement.
Jian is in US custody while Liu’s whereabouts are unknown.
The Justice Department said the pair conspired to smuggle a fungus called Fusarium graminearum into the US that causes “head blight”, a disease of wheat, barley, maize and rice.
This Wednesday, June 4 marks the 36th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. Hongkongers had for decades commemorated the date with a large-scale vigil at Victoria Park, until the 2020 National Security Law made such public demonstrations subject to harsh judicial punishment. In the lead-up to this year’s anniversary, much like last year, Hong Kong authorities continued to restrict opportunities for publicly observing the date.
On Tuesday, reporters asked Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee whether on June 4 residents could legally light candles or even show up to Causeway Bay, the area in which Victoria Park is located. Lee made no direct comment but stated, “Any activities held on any date must comply with the law.” Local media reported that people who were stopped outside Victoria Park on June 4 last year were called by the city’s police ahead of this year’s anniversary and asked about their plans. On Tuesday, performance artist Chan Mei-tung was stopped and searched by planclothes police in Causeway Bay while standing in front of a store chewing gum, and was later released. On that same date in 2022 and 2023, she was arrested outside the same store while peeling potatoes. Between 2020 and 2024, 82 people in Hong Kong were arrested for commemorating the Tiananmen Massacre around its anniversary, and among them 43 people were convicted and sentenced to a total of over 20 years in prison, according to a tally by Brian Kern.
South Korea’s new President Lee Jae-myung vowed Wednesday to restart dormant talks with North Korea and bolster a trilateral partnership with the U.S. and Japan, as he laid out key policy goals for his single, five-year term.
Lee, who rose from childhood poverty to become South Korea’s leading liberal politician vowing to fight inequality and corruption, began his term earlier Wednesday, hours after winning a snap election that was triggered in April by the removal of then-President Yoon Suk Yeol over his ill-fated imposition of martial law late last year.
In his inaugural address at the National Assembly, Lee said that his government will deal with North Korean nuclear threats and its potential military aggressions with “strong deterrence” based on the South Korea-U.S. military alliance. But he said he would “open a communication channel with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula through talks and cooperation.”
He said he’ll pursue pragmatic diplomacy with neighbouring countries and boost trilateral Seoul-Washington-Tokyo cooperation.
“Through pragmatic diplomacy based on national interests, we will turn the crisis posed by the major shift in global economic and security landscapes into an opportunity to maximize our national interests,” Lee said.
For decades, the [Chinese Communist] party has sent thousands of mid-career and senior bureaucrats to pursue executive training and postgraduate studies on U.S. campuses, with Harvard University a coveted destination described by some in China as the top “party school” outside the country.
Alumni of such programs include a former vice president and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s top negotiator in trade talks with the first Trump administration.
Foreign governments, including Greenland, are currently considering investment alternatives to the U.S., such as China. This comes as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned that President Donald Trump’s foreign policy could isolate the U.S. under what he characterized as an “America alone” doctrine.
Dimon has stressed the need to keep in place strong economic and military ties, indicating that the CEO is frustrated with U.S. diplomacy as Trump’s foreign policy has prompted concerns at home and abroad.
Renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and making threats of annexing Canada and Greenland are just some of the issues that have created consternation. The tariffs put in place by the Trump administration on allies and foes alike
Has Beijing found a new “assassin’s mace” to keep the U.S. military out of a fight over Taiwan?
Ongoing debates over how China’s military would counter U.S. intervention often focus on precision strikes against U.S. forces in the Western Pacific. Indeed, some wargames assume that the People’s Liberation Army would throw the first punch. But such a move is not the only option available to China’s decision-makers. Other options include mounting a surprise invasion of Taiwan before the United States can mobilize, pressuring America’s allies to deny U.S. forces access to forward bases, or using strategic deterrence, which seeks to discourage Washington from defending Taiwan in the first place.
Of these options, pursuing strategic deterrence could prove most alluring for Beijing. The logic would be to convince the U.S. government that risks to the U.S. homeland, such as cyber attacks on power grids and telecommunications networks and even the specter of nuclear escalation, are too severe to contemplate. This strategy would leverage China’s expanding nuclear arsenal (and attendant nuclear signals), new intercontinental conventional missiles, space and cyber capabilities, and the belief that Beijing is inherently more resolved than Washington. Chinese leaders who embrace this thinking might conclude that a war could be limited, and thus, they might be more likely to opt for aggression.
In the 1950s and 1960s, professor Paul Samuelson was arguably America’s preeminent economist. His textbook for introductory economics was used at colleges and universities across the United States. He was a close adviser to President John F. Kennedy.
In 1961, Samuelson predicted that the then Soviet Union would overtake the United States in economic size somewhere between 1984 and 1997. By 1980, he continued to suggest that the Soviet Union would become the world’s largest economy within a few decades.
Obviously, Samuelson was wrong. He did not understand that extreme authoritarianism and the rejection of free market capitalism would consign the Soviet Union to the dustbin of history.
Today, however, other respected academics are making Samuelson’s mistake in their assessments of Communist China. They opine that in the current century, China will become the dominant global economic power. One researcher from Princeton University wrote recently in the New York Times that the battle for global economic superiority is being “decisively” won by China and that the U.S. is becoming economically irrelevant.
Sharing the costs of hosting U.S. troops in allied countries has been a favorite topic of U.S. President Donald Trump since his first term in the White House.
But as more countries try to eke out a deal to escape the spectre of tariffs in his second term, Trump is making his own moves: bundling negotiations on trade, tariffs, and defense cost-sharing into a single comprehensive deal, which he called “one-stop shopping.”
One such country in his sights is South Korea, which is home to about 28,500 U.S. troops known as U.S. Forces Korea. On April 8, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he had discussed “payment for the big time Military Protection we provide to South Korea,” among other issues, with then-acting president Han Duck-soo.
“We are bringing up other subjects that are not covered by Trade and Tariffs, and getting them negotiated also. “ONE STOP SHOPPING” is a beautiful and efficient process!!!” Trump wrote.