China has warned the U.S. that it is making "dangerous moves" by providing Taiwan with an additional $571 million in defense materials, which was authorized by President Biden on Saturday.
In addition to the $571 million approved by Biden, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Friday that $295 million in military sales had been approved for the self-ruled island of Taiwan.
The sales and assistance from the U.S. are intended to help Taiwan defend itself, and possibly deter China from launching an attack.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry released a statement urging the U.S. to stop arming Taiwan and to cease what it referred to as "dangerous moves that undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," according to a report from The Associated Press.
Biden’s approved $571 million in military assistance includes DoD materials and services along with military education and training for Taiwan. The funds are in addition to another $567 million that the president approved for the same purposes in September.
The $295 million in military sales includes about $265 million for about 300 tactical radio systems and $30 million for 16 gun mounts.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a post on X that the two sales reaffirmed the U.S. government’s "commitment to our defense."
Earlier this month, Taiwan defense officials raised concerns about a substantial deployment of Chinese naval ships and military planes, saying the build-up could eventually lead to war as tensions continue to rise in the region.
Officials said China had sent about a dozen ships and 47 military planes to regional waters around the Taiwan Strait, as the nation braced for military drills following Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s recent overseas trip that included visits to Hawaii and Guam, an American territory.
Lai, who has been in office since May, spoke with U.S. congressional leaders by phone while in Guam.
Lai’s visit came weeks after the U.S. approved a potential $2 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, including the delivery of an advanced air defense missile system battle tested in Ukraine and radar systems. The potential package included three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and related equipment valued at up to $1.16 billion, according to the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
The Chinese communist government has pledged to annex Taiwan, through military force if necessary, and sends ships and military planes near the island almost daily.
The U.S. has repeatedly signaled its support for Taiwan through military deals, operations and diplomatic interactions with Taiwanese officials.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Cybersecurity has been a major subject of discussion in recent years, with purported Chinese spy balloons floating overhead, a major Appalachian oil pipeline hacked with ransomware and questions about mysterious drones over New Jersey skies.
But one overlooked area of focus in this regard is agriculture, several prominent figures have said — especially with America’s ag states primed to lend their top political leaders to Washington in the new year.
Dakota State University President Jose-Marie Griffiths told Fox News Digital how important the heartland has become geopolitically, with several Dakotans gaining leadership or cabinet roles in the new year — including Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., chairing the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Cybersecurity.
"I said quite a lot in the past and in [congressional] testimony about my concerns about agriculture and food production’s critical infrastructure, which came rather late to the cybersecurity critical infrastructure table," Griffiths said.
"People [will] start to realize the agricultural vehicles they're using increasingly are autonomous and connecting to broadband [via] satellite — and other ways that these become vulnerable. And for people who wish to do us harm, they're exploiting vulnerabilities as much as they can."
Residents across the heartland pay much more attention to the threats China and other rivals pose to the U.S. agriculture sector, she said.
With advancements in technology, hackers can now find their way into harvesters, granaries and the nation’s freight-train network, Griffiths and Rounds said separately.
Whether the cash crop is Pennsylvania potatoes, Florida oranges or Dakotan wheat, all are crucial to the U.S. economy and supply chain, and all can be subject to cyberthreats, Griffiths suggested.
Rounds told Fox News Digital he has studied for some time the potential vulnerabilities of the American agriculture sector when it comes to foreign actors and cybersecurity.
"It’s more than just the vehicles and so forth," he said.
"A lot of it has to do with the infrastructure that we rely on. A good example is your water systems; your electrical systems... All of those right now are connected and they all have cyber-points-of-entry.
"And so, we have been, for an extended period of time, looking at threats that could come from overseas by adversaries that would like to infiltrate not only the water supplies, but also the electrical systems… and in some cases, sewer systems."
Rounds said he and other lawmakers have been focused on where malign actors can proverbially "shoot the arrows at us," and figure out who they are and how to stop them.
He said the Chinese firm Huawei had been selling cheap hardware to rural telecom entities and could be able to infiltrate communications systems.
"Once we found out that that was in there… that they could be putting in latent materials that could be activated at a later date, we've gotten most of them pulled out. But that's just one example of the ways in which rural areas can be a way into the rest of our communication systems," he said.
Rounds said drones are becoming increasingly used in agriculture, and they, too, have the danger of being hacked.
Vehicles like harvesters and tractors have also greatly advanced technologically in the near term and face similar challenges.
"A lot of that right now is done with GPS. You get into your tractor, you plug it in and basically it'll drive it for you. We leave people in those tractors, but at some stage of the game, some of those might very well become autonomous as well — and they're subject to cyber-intervention…" he said.
Grain elevators also can be interfered with, which stymies marketing and transportation, and endangers the greater supply chain and the ability for a farmer to sell on the open market, Rounds said.
Asked if he preferred today’s agriculture sector to the era before automation, Rounds said it’s not about what he thinks, but what is going to happen in the future.
"We will have more and more autonomous vehicles being used in farming. And the reason is we don't have the manpower — and we replace it with machinery. The machinery is going to get bigger. It's going to become more sophisticated, and we're going to be expected to do more things with fewer people actually operating them.," he said.
"The supply chain is so critical. We rely on autonomy in many cases for a lot of the delivery of our resources, both to the farmer, but also back out from the farmer in terms of a commodity that he wants to market."
If that new technologically-advanced system malfunctions or is hacked, it will greatly disrupt the ability to provide the raw materials to the people and companies "actually making the bread" and such.
Amit Yoran, CEO of exposure management firm Tenable, recently testified before the House Homeland Security Committee and spoke at length about cyber threats to critical U.S. infrastructure.
Asked about cybersecurity in the agriculture realm, Yoran told Fox News Digital recently that there is "no singular defense paradigm that could effectively be applied across all sectors."
"Some critical infrastructure providers have a high degree of cybersecurity preparedness, strong risk understanding and risk management practices, and very strong security programs. Others are woefully ill-prepared," said Yoran, whose company is based in Howard County, Maryland.
FIRST ON FOX: A pro-tech advocacy group has released a new report warning of the growing threat posed by China’s artificial intelligence technology and its open-source approach that could threaten the national and economic security of the United States.
The report, published by American Edge Project, states that "China is rapidly advancing its own open-source ecosystem as an alternative to American technology and using it as a Trojan horse to implant its CCP values into global infrastructure."
"Their progress is both significant and concerning: Chinese-developed open-source AI tools are already outperforming Western models on key benchmarks, while operating at dramatically lower costs, accelerating global adoption. Through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which spans more than 155 countries on four continents, and its Digital Silk Road (DSR), China is exporting its technology worldwide, fostering increased global dependence, undermining democratic norms, and threatening U.S. leadership and global security."
The report outlines how Chinese AI models censor historical events that could paint China in a bad light, deny or minimize human rights abuses, and filter criticism of Chinese political leaders.
"China is executing an ambitious $1.4 trillion plan to dominate global technology by 2030, with open-source systems as the cornerstone of its AI strategy," the report states. "While many Western companies focus on paid, proprietary AI models, China is aggressively promoting free and low-cost alternatives to drive rapid global adoption."
The report continues, "By making much of its AI technology freely accessible, Beijing aims to ensure its systems and standards become embedded in the world’s financial, manufacturing and communications backbone. Through coordinated action between government and industry, China is working to reshape the global technology landscape while programming CCP values and control mechanisms into critical systems worldwide."
The report explains that China is "racing" to deploy AI while the United States is bogged down on prioritizing AI regulation.
"While American and European governments focus on regulating AI, China is aggressively pushing its AI systems into global markets," the report states, adding that, "This playbook mirrors China’s successful strategy with 5G technology, where Huawei gained dominant market share through aggressive pricing and rapid deployment before Western nations could respond effectively. Now in AI, one Chinese firm alone, Alibaba Cloud, has released over 100 open-source models in 29 different languages, flooding global markets while Western companies must navigate increasingly complex regulatory requirements."
The report lays out the differences between China and U.S. AI model responses and provides policy recommendations to "preserve U.S. AI leadership," which includes seizing the "historic opportunity to secure lasting American AI leadership" and avoiding "unilateral restrictions on exporting and access to U.S. AI systems.
"If America loses the global race to dominate both open-source and closed-source AI technology, authoritarian Chinese systems will write the future, and Washington policymakers can't let that happen," Doug Kelly, CEO of the American Edge Project, told Fox News Digital.
The report concludes that "the implications of Chinese leadership in global AI development are profound."
"A world of unchecked, Beijing-built AI ecosystems would be a major blow to the U.S. and to humanity writ large," the Center for New American Security says in the report. "If Chinese AI goes global, so too will brazen non-compliance with international agreements on the technology."
Congress is set to pass legislation to avert a government shutdown that will reauthorize the government’s ability to intercept and track unauthorized drones and crack down on U.S. investment in China.
The 1,500+ page continuing resolution (CR), which will fund the government until March 14, includes a provision reauthorizing a Department of Homeland Security program allowing agencies to coordinate and counter threats from drones. That authority, passed in 2018, was set to expire Friday – at a time when concerns about drone incursions are at an all-time high.
However, it is a simple reauthorization of a program many drone experts say is outdated. Congress has not hashed out legislation that would grant the government greater detection capabilities and give state and local law enforcement authorities to deal with unauthorized drones.
"The security industry wants folks to know the technology is out there to identify and socially mitigate these drones," Brett Fedderson, chair of the Security Industry Association’s Counter-UAS Working Group, told Fox News Digital.
"Congress is not enabling state and local law enforcement to actually do the work that is needed on the front lines, regardless of the fact that the FBI, DHS, DOJ have all come to Congress several times and said they cannot do the job effectively, that they need to be able to be supported by state and local law enforcement."
"We are worried that a drone catastrophe is going to be the motivation for them to sit down at the table and actually vote on something to push the authorities out."
A drone phenomenon that started in New Jersey a month ago has since led to 6,000 tips being called in to the FBI. Umanned aerial systems (UAS) have since been reported flying near military bases like Picatinny Arsenal.
"The idea of drone detection needs to be reformed," said Ryan Gury, CEO of military drone manufacturer PDW. "We need radar instead of listening to radio waves… an active approach where we have radar stations and camera stations set up like cell towers to detect things like drones."
"There’s no stopping the power of small drones. We need to be ready. This is just a small glimpse into our future."
Also included in the CR is a provision that was left out of the NDAA and would prevent the U.S. from investing in the development of military technologies.
It restricts and monitors U.S. investments in artificial intelligence, computer chips and quantum computing, all of which have a dual use in the defense and commercial sectors.
The rule seeks to limit the access "countries of concern," like China, including the Hong Kong and Macao regions, have to U.S. dollars to fund the development of high-level technologies like next-generation missile systems and fighter jets they could then use for their own military. It is set to take effect Jan. 2.
Lawmakers have criticized financial institutions for pouring billions of dollars from U.S. investors into Chinese stocks of companies the U.S. believes the CCP is using to build up China’s military.
The legislation codifies a recent Treasury Department rule restricting outbound investment in China and expands on it, including a requirement to investigate the national security risks posed by Chinese-made consumer routers and modems and implement reviews of Chinese real estate purchases near sensitive sites like military installations.
It would also require the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to publish every company that holds an FCC license and is owned or partially owned by adversarial governments like China.
The CR, released Tuesday night, is a short-term extension of government funding at 2024 levels intended to give lawmakers more time to agree on funding for the rest of 2025. It is the second such extension since FY 2024 ended on Sept. 30.
It must pass the GOP-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate by Friday and hit President Biden’s desk by midnight that day to avoid a partial government shutdown. It is expected to pass both chambers, despite grumblings from both chambers, particularly among conservatives who want to cut costs in the 2025 budget.
Fox News' Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said China is the "greatest threat" to the United States and that President-elect Donald Trump will bring "peace through strength, not peace through appeasement."
Gimenez, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital the CCP is the "adversary we have to watch, both militarily and economically."
"China is making great strides around the world," Gimenez said, pointing to its capacity in production, specifically with defense materials and weapons. "It surpasses that of the United States’ and we have seen that we are lacking."
Gimenez said the Russian-Ukraine war has "demonstrated to us that our defense capacity has been degraded over the decades."
"It shows we could run out of munitions fairly quickly if we had a prolonged fight with China," he said, warning that China also "has the ability to produce many more ships than we do."
Gimenez said the U.S. is "trying to do catch-up."
"We have to update how we do things at the Pentagon, we have to be more nimble, we have to get the private sector involved, and we have to eliminate bureaucracy that has hampered our ability to protect ourselves," he said.
But as for the approach to the China threat, Gimenez blasted the Biden administration, specifically President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"I think China, with Biden and Blinken, thought they could do just about anything they wanted or thought they could fool them," he said. "The Biden administration was always exhibiting weakness and trying to appease our enemies, whereas Trump knows exactly who our friends are, who our enemies are and is going to put the security of America first."
Gimenez added, "He understands that the security of America lies in peace through strength, not peace through appeasement."
As for confronting the threat in the coming months, Gimenez pointed to the importance of the U.S. being energy independent.
Gimenez said he wants to "make America the energy spigot of the world, where the world goes to get energy is America."
"It would help our financial situation, our balance sheet, and give us the ability to help our friends and weaken our enemies," he said.
"We could use our energy dominance as an economic weapon against our enemies, helping our friends and hurting our enemies," he continued. "We can substitute Iranian and Venezuelan oil with American oil, Russian oil with American oil, and then starve those countries which are allied with China of their greatest source of revenue and then impede their ability to help China."
"If China finds itself isolated in the world, I think that’s the best way we can contain this threat," he said. "But we have to project strength and the willingness to confront aggression by the CCP."
As for the House Select Committee on the CCP, he said they have "much more work to do."
"The China threat is increasing," he said, noting that the committee is bipartisan in its nature and that members on both sides of the aisle have "bought into that China is the threat and that China will be the threat."
"It’s not climate change, it’s China," he said. "And we have to confront that threat or live in a world that is dominated by the Chinese Communist Party."
"And Trump is going to project strength and back those words with action."
President-elect Trump took China by surprise when he invited President Xi Jinping to his upcoming inauguration, a friendly gesture ahead of a widely expected trade war.
The move left everyone wondering what Trump was up to — a Chinese head of state has not attended a U.S. inauguration in all of history.
"We have a good relationship with China. I have a good relationship," Trump told CNBC on Friday. "We've been talking and discussing with President Xi some things."
But the invitation comes as the U.S. intelligence community disclosed a massive hack of eight U.S. telecom companies, finding that Chinese hackers had accessed the data of millions of Americans, including Vice President-elect JD Vance.
The hack, nicknamed Salt Typhoon and one of the most far-reaching in history, affected mostly people in the Washington, D.C., area, and was targeted at government-linked people. Information about their phone calls and texts was intercepted.
Meanwhile, a Chinese national was arrested on suspicion of flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Force base in Northern California, the Department of Justice said Wednesday.
"Many people were disappointed by this invitation," said China expert Gordon Chang.
"A man who is responsible for spreading COVID beyond China borders, for being behind the fentanyl program, which kills 70,000 Americans a year, that was not a good look for the United States," he went on. "And it betrayed weakness."
"The Chinese president looks at that and believes that Trump is not serious," said Chang.
"Xi Jinping has made it clear that the United States is China's enemy. He's done that in many ways. And for an American president to show friendship is not a gesture in Xi's mind, it's a display of weakness, and Chinese leaders always take advantage of weakness."
It's not clear if the invitation means that Trump is looking to take a more diplomatic approach to the relationship with China after a campaign marked by threats of hiking tariffs.
Trump has floated the idea of a 60% across-the-board levy on all goods imported from China, which would cover some $400 billion worth of products.
Free trade supporters have worried this would break a top campaign promise for Trump: to rein in and prevent the record inflation figures seen under the Biden administration.
And the threat of a trade war comes as military tensions rise in the Indo-Pacific. China has been putting on displays of force in the waters off the shores of U.S. allies like the Philippines and Japan, and increasingly threatening Taiwan, an island democracy it views as its rightful territory.
Lyle Goldstein, Director of Asia Engagement at Defense Priorities think tank, welcomed the news of the invitation, reading it as a sign of being willing to engage.
"Nothing like that has happened under the Biden administration," he said. "Trump is a dealmaker, and I think China is eager to make deals.
"The Biden approach was very ideological, you know, the world is black and white."
"If we go into a new Cold War, the results, I think, will be devastating for both the United States and China," Goldstein added. "I think there is some understanding in the Trump team that the stakes are enormous here."
China, meanwhile, is considering devaluing its currency further in anticipation of Trump's tariffs, according to a Reuters report.
"People have got to realize that trading with China generally is a good thing. But yeah, we have to. There are some key readjustments that need to take place," said Goldstein.
"I would like to see that take place from readjusting China's currency."
Two Chinese spies and a Chinese national who was charged for disseminating child pornography were part of a White House prisoner swap as Biden's presidency nears the end.
On Nov. 22, Biden granted clemency to Yanjun Xu, Ji Chaoqun and Shanlin Jin.
Their releases were part of a prisoner swap that returned three wrongfully detained Americans from Chinese custody: Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung.
The three Americans returned to the U.S. before Thanksgiving.
Xu and Chaoqun were both Chinese nationals who were convicted of espionage in the U.S.
Xu, according to a release from the Department of Justice, was the first Chinese government intelligence officer ever to be extradited to the United States to stand trial and was sentenced to 20 years.
According to court documents, Xu targeted American aviation companies, recruited employees to travel to China, and solicited their proprietary information, all on behalf of the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
In one example, noted in court documents, Xu attempted to steal technology related to GE Aviation’s exclusive composite aircraft engine fan module – which no other company in the world has been able to duplicate – to benefit the Chinese state.
The Department of Justice said that Xu openly discussed his effort to steal U.S. military information in addition to commercial aviation trade secrets.
Chaoqun was arrested and convicted after working with Xu on behalf of the CCP.
The federal agency said that Xu recruited and "handled" Chaoqun, who was stationed in Chicago during the duration of the scheme.
The DOJ said that Xu directed Chaoqun to collect "biographical information on people to potentially recruit to work with them."
"Xu’s handling and placement of a spy within the United States to obtain information regarding aviation technology and employees is yet another facet of Xu’s egregious crimes towards the United States and further justifies the significant sentence of imprisonment he received today," said U.S. Attorney Parker at the time of the pair's conviction.
Jin was serving his sentence after being convicted of possessing more than 47,000 images of child pornography while a doctoral student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 2021.
Biden commuted on Thursday the sentences of 1,499 people. He is also pardoning 39 individuals who were convicted of non-violent crimes.
President-elect Trump is set to take office in a little over a month, on January 20. He has said that he will immediately pardon people convicted of participating in the January 6, 2021, riot in the U.S. Capitol.
China is denying a new report linking it to four bases in Cuba that a think tank says allows the CCP to spy on the U.S.
The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a report last week detailing facilities in Cuba that it claims China may be using to gather signal intelligence (SIGINT) on the U.S.
"The cooperation between China and Cuba is aboveboard, not targeting any third party, and does not allow any malicious slander from third parties," Chinese foreign minister Mao Ning told reporters on Wednesday.
Cuban foreign minister Carlos de Cossio claimed reports of Chinese spying hubs in Cuba originate from "Cuba’s enemies" in the U.S. "as a way of justifying the criminal policy of economic aggression. It is absolutely false."
CSIS analyzed over a dozen "sites of interest" in Cuba and four stuck out as most likely to be supporting China and its spying ambitions.
"These sites have undergone observable upgrades in recent years, even as Cuba has faced increasingly dire economic prospects that have drawn it closer to China," the report's authors said.
Each of the four sites had "observable SIGINT instrumentation," clear physical security infrastructure and other signs of intelligence collection.
One such station located on a hill overlooking Havana, Bejucal, has been suspected of ties to Chinese intelligence for years. The complex gained notoriety for housing Soviet missiles during the Cuban missile crisis.
During the 2016 presidential debates, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called on Cuba to "[kick] out this Chinese listening station in Bejucal."
According to CSIS findings, satellite imagery shows that the site was active as of March 2024 and had been for some time. There are at least five entrances to underground facilities at the base, but what the facilities contain could not be discerned by satellite imagery. Antennas dot the ground, including satellite antennas used for intercepting satellite communications.
With Havana situated just 100 miles off the coast of Florida, the site could potentially be used to collect data on U.S. rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The U.S. and China are locked in a space race and rocket launches that deliver U.S. satellites to space will likely garner a high level of interest within the CCP.
On another site on the opposite side of the island, east of the city of Santiago de Cuba, a large radio signal finding technology project is under construction, one capable of detecting signals between 3,000 and 8,000 nautical miles away.
Cuba has a history of allowing U.S. adversaries to use its soil to snoop on U.S. communications. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union operated a SIGINT facility at the Lourdes Signals Intelligence Complex near Havana. That site monitored U.S. satellites and intercepted sensitive military and commercial telecommunications.
In recent decades, the alliance between China and Cuba has grown – and China has provided around $7.8 billion in development financing to the island nation.
After a number of key legislative priorities related to cracking down on China failed to make it into the yearly defense bill, Republicans are working on ways to get them signed into law before the end of the year.
On Wednesday, the House will vote on the sprawling 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets policy plans for the Pentagon’s $895 billion budget. That legislation was negotiated between Republican and Democratic leadership in both the House and Senate and typically enjoys wide bipartisan support.
And while the package will not advance legislation aimed at cracking down on U.S. dollars flowing toward Chinese Communist Party-affiliated companies, Republicans will push to include those provisions, which are a key priority for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in other must-pass legislation.
With a government funding deadline in 10 days, those measures could be included in a continuing resolution (CR), which would punt the funding deadline down the road and keep budgets at FY 2024 levels, multiple sources familiar with negotiations confirmed to Fox News Digital.
"During the course of negotiations on the annual defense bill, significant progress was made towards achieving consensus on provisions to counter China and strengthen our economic security. That momentum remains and more time is needed to get that important work done with the goal of passage before the end of the year," Johnson said in a statement.
One provision that was left out would prevent the U.S. from investing in the development of military technologies, a way to codify a rule put forward by President Biden’s Treasury Department.
The rule prohibits U.S. financing of some China-based ventures and requires Americans to notify the government of their involvement in others.
It restricts and monitors U.S. investments in artificial intelligence, computer chips and quantum computing, all of which have a dual use in the defense and commercial sectors.
The rule seeks to limit the access "countries of concern," like China, including Hong Kong and Macao, have to U.S. dollars to fund the development of high-level technologies like next-generation missile systems and fighter jets they could then utilize for their own military. It's set to take effect Jan. 2.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., demanded that outbound investments piece not be included in the negotiated NDAA, three sources familiar with the negotiations confirmed.
Some mused that Democrats put up a fight over China provisions because they were frustrated with another provision Republicans insisted on including: a ban on military health care providers from paying for transgender operations like sex changes for dependent minors if it would leave them sterile.
Politico was first to report about the back-and-forth.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he would not vote for the legislation – which includes big pay raises for junior troops – over the transgender provision.
And in a relief for Chinese biotechnology companies, the Biosecure Act, which prohibits the U.S. government from contracting with companies that do business with a "biotechnology company of concern," has been left out of the NDAA.
Three sources familiar with the negotiations told Fox News Digital that Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., stood in the way of the legislation’s inclusion in the negotiated defense bill.
Raskin could not be reached for comment on his opposition.
McGovern opposed the bill when it came up for a stand-alone vote in the House.
"The Biosecure Act, is a weak bill, and as written, it could actually make the problem even worse," he said in a statement.
"First, naming specific companies will create a ‘whack-a-mole’ situation where entities can change their name and reincorporate to evade sanctions," he went on. "Second, it’s totally wrong to call out specific companies without any formal investigation or interagency process – that might be how they do things in the [People's Republic of China], but this is the United States of America where we ought to have a thorough, independent investigation."
In September, Fox News Digital reported that lawmakers were aware of a machine operated by a Chinese military company in use at the nation’s most secretive government laboratories.
BGI, among other companies, is included in a ban in the Biosecure Act.
Also among them is WuXi Biologics, a company that planned to build a $300 million biomedical plant in McGovern’s district.
Attaching the China outbound investment provision and the Biosecure Act to must-pass legislation would ensure it doesn’t die in the Democratic-led Senate the way House GOP-led bills often do.
China is the most active and persistent cyberthreat to American critical infrastructure, but that threat has changed over the last two decades, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says.
"I do not think it is possible to design a foolproof system, but I do not think that should be the goal. The goal should be to make it very difficult to get in," Cris Thomas, sometimes known as Space Rogue, a member of L0pht Heavy Industries, said during testimony before the Governmental Affairs Committee May 19, 1998.
L0pht Heavy Industries was part of one of the first congressional hearings on cybersecurity threats. Members of the group warned it was possible to take down the internet in 30 minutes and that it was nearly impossible to make a defense system that was 100% foolproof. It also had difficulties when it came to tracking where threats came from.
"Backtracking and reverse hacking is a relatively tricky area. Based upon the relatively antiquated protocols that you are dealing with, there is not a tremendous amount of information as to where things came from, just that they came," said another member of the group, Peiter Zatko, who testified under his codename, "Mudge."
By the time the hearing took place, China was likely already at work. In the early 2000s, the U.S. government became aware of Chinese espionage targeting government entities. One string of operations known as Titan Rain started as early as 2003 and included hacks on the U.S. departments of State, Homeland Security and Energy. The public became aware of the attacks several years later.
Around that time, the current CISA Director, Jen Easterly, was deployed to Iraq to investigate how terrorists were using new technology.
"I actually started in the world of counterterrorism, and I was deployed to Iraq and saw how terrorists were using communications technologies for recruitment and radicalization and operationalizing improvised explosive devices," Easterly said.
At that time the U.S. government was investing in cyberwarfare. The Bush administration had ordered studies on computer network attacks, but officials eventually expressed concern over the amount of damage those attacks could cause. Instead, the U.S. moved to a more defensive posture that focused on defending against attacks.
"When I stood at the Army's first cyber Battalion and was involved in the stand-up of U.S. Cyber Command, we were very focused on nation-state adversaries," Easterly said. "Back then, China was really an espionage threat that we were focused on."
Threats from China would eventually intensify. According to the Council on Foreign Relations’ cyber operations tracker, in the early 2000s, China’s cyber campaigns mostly focused on spying on government agencies.
"Officials have rated China's aggressive and wide-ranging espionage as the leading threat to U.S. technology," Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., warned in 2007.
By then, China had a history of spying on U.S. innovation and using it to replicate its own infrastructure. In 2009, Chinese hackers were suspected of stealing information from Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter Program. Over the years, China has debuted fighter jets that look and operate like U.S. planes.
"China is the preeminent threat to the U.S.," Easterly said. "We are laser-focused on doing everything we can to identify Chinese activity, to eradicate it and to make sure we can defend our critical infrastructure from Chinese cyber actors."
In 2010, China shifted its targets to the public sector and began targeting telecommunications companies. Operation Aurora was a series of cyberattacks in which actors conducted phishing campaigns and compromised the networks of companies like Yahoo, Morgan Stanley, Google and dozens more. Google left China after the hacks and has yet to return its operations to the country. By the turn of a new decade, evidence showed China was also spying on critical infrastructure in the U.S. and abroad.
"Now we are looking at them as a threat to do disruptive and destructive operations here in the U.S. That is really an evolution that, frankly, I was not tracking and was pretty surprised when we saw this campaign," Easterly said.
The Council on Foreign Relations Cyber Operation Tracker reveals China has frequently targeted trade operations and military operations in the South China Sea, and one of its favorite targets in the past decade has been Taiwan.
"We have seen these actors burrowing deep into our critical infrastructure," Easterly said. "It's not for espionage, it's not for data theft. It's specifically so that they can launch disruptive or destructive attacks in the event of a crisis in the Taiwan Strait."
Taiwan is the world’s largest producer of semiconductors, and data shows how China has spied on all companies involved in all parts of that supply chain from mining to semiconductor producers.
"A war in Asia could have very real impacts on the lives of Americans. You could see pipelines blowing up, trains getting derailed, water getting polluted. It really is part of China's plan to ensure they can incite societal panic and deter our ability to marshal military might and citizen will. This is the most serious threat that I have seen in my career," Easterly said.
China’s public and private sector are closely intertwined by regulation, unlike in the U.S., where partnerships are key for defense.
"At the end of the day, it is a team sport. We work very closely with our intelligence community and our military partners at U.S. Cyber Command. And we have to work together to ensure that we are leveraging the full tools across the U.S. government and, of course, working with our private sector partners," Easterly said.
"They own the vast majority of our critical infrastructure. They are on the front lines of it. And, so, ensuring that we have very robust operational collaboration with the private sector is critical to our success in ensuring the safety and security of cyberspace."
It has been five years since the controversy sparked by Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey led to Chinese broadcasters not airing games in the country. Morey posted on social media that he supported anti-government protests in Hong Kong.
Chinese officials wanted Morey fired in 2019 after he showed his support for the anti-government protests, leading to a disagreement with China on this issue.
In turn, Chinese broadcasts reacted by not airing two preseason games played in the country after the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets traveled to play there.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver revealed that the league had suffered "dramatic" financial losses due to corporate sponsors fleeing and other factors.
However, back in October, Silver said he felt a return was possible. NBA players have made numerous appearances in China over the years, despite the fractured relationship between the league and country.
The league has been under fire for its business partnerships with China for years, in part because of league-backed training camps in Xinjiang, where the government represses the Uyghur population. The United States government has deemed it genocide by China.
That was recently brought up to Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban, who posted on X that he is against "Chinese and all human rights violations." However, he does agree with the NBA exporting its content to China because the league gets "paid for it."
Enes Kanter Freedom, a former NBA center, testified before Congress in 2023, arguing his criticism of China’s treatment of the Uyghur people affected his NBA career. Kanter Freedom has even suggested the NBA is run by "the Chinese dictatorship."
Fox News' Scott Thompson and Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
President-elect Trump has tapped former Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., to serve as U.S. Ambassador to China.
In his announcement, Trump said Perdue "brings valuable expertise to help build our relationship with China," citing his decades-long career in business.
"He will be instrumental in implementing my strategy to maintain Peace in the region, and a productive working relationship with China’s leaders," Trump said on Truth Social.
The appointment comes amid threats by Trump to impose additional tariffs on Chinese goods unless Beijing does more to stop the trafficking of the highly addictive narcotic fentanyl.
"Brandon helped me develop and implement the most effective Border Security policies in our Nation’s History," Trump said. "I have also watched as Brandon tirelessly and honorably represented the Border Patrol Agents who elected him as their voice in all matters, especially in their efforts to secure our Great Country’s Borders, and keep all Americans safe."
"I am confident Brandon will represent the United States in the same manner as he represented all rank-and-file Border Patrol Agents as the President of the National Border Patrol Council. Brandon will do our Country proud!" Trump added.
China's foreign ministry lashed out at the U.S. and Taiwan on Sunday after the U.S. State Department approved a $385 million arms sale to the island.
Chinese officials also criticized the U.S. for approving Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to visit Hawaii and Guam, a U.S. territory. China considers Taiwan to be its sovereign territory and routinely objects to any validation of the island's democratically-elected government.
The arms deal approved late last week sees Taiwan purchasing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of spare parts for F-16 fighter jets as well as components for radars.
Chinese officials said the deal sent the "wrong signal" about relations in the Indo-Pacific. A separate statement said China "strongly condemns" Lai's travel to the U.S.
The U.S. has repeatedly signaled its support for Taiwan through military deals, operations and diplomatic interactions with Taiwanese officials.
Recent years have found a cadence of U.S. officials, such as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meeting with Taiwanese officials only for Beijing to react with saber-rattling.
Pelosi made a rare trip to the island in 2021, and China reacted by holding live-fire military drills surrounding Taiwan. Those drills occurred again in 2023 when then-Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
President-elect Trump has signaled that his administration will continue America's strong relationship with Taiwan. Trump’s nominees to serve as United Nations ambassador, national security adviser, and most importantly, secretary of state are regarded by many as "China Hawks."
Trump nominated Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to be secretary of state last month. Rubio has been a leading voice in the Senate for cracking down on China and imposing sanctions.
Rubio has said he will work with Trump to "continue to support Taiwan." He is also allied with Trump on insisting Taiwan increase defense spending, a view shared by security experts, but not necessarily the majority of Taiwanese people.
Being a federal official in any country would naturally open oneself up to the possibility of foreign threats. Threats against heads of state generally get the most attention, but even being a member of Congress has its risks – for some more than others.
"The FBI came in and gave me a defensive briefing, and told me that there were just a couple members that were going to be targets in a disinformation campaign," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. "And, you know, to sort of be aware of it."
That threat was specifically coming from China, which had been watching McCaul since he was a federal prosecutor in 1997, according to the Texas Republican. China sanctioned him in 2023 after his first visit to Taiwan during the 118th Congress.
The New York Times reported last month that several lawmakers, including McCaul, Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., were targeted by a disinformation campaign over their anti-China policies.
"I think every one of us, certainly on the China committee, is aware of the fact that China knows exactly who we are. And they don't like the committee," Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a member of the House select committee on countering the Chinese Communist Party, told Fox News Digital. "It’s something that's an example of something that we have to be careful of."
Asked what it was like living with the day-to-day knowledge that a hostile foreign power was trying to surveil him and his colleagues, Moulton said, "I’m a Marine. Feels fine."
Other senior lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital, like Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., acknowledged they have faced foreign threats but declined to go into detail.
But it’s not just China that’s targeting U.S. lawmakers – McCaul also recounted overt surveillance efforts from Russia during past congressional delegations. And he also mentioned another FBI defensive briefing he received, this time about threats from Iran.
"The FBI brought me in, in a classified space, and they said, ‘We just want to let you know that you're now under indictment in Iran… we want to let you know for your own self-awareness,’" McCaul said.
The reason, McCaul said he was told, was because he had been one of the people who advised then-President Trump to move forward with his successful operation to kill top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
"It’s interesting because, you know, the discussion at that time was, ‘My God, we killed Soleimani. Just think of the blowback and the backlash.’ And it was kind of radio silence from Iran. They were just stunned," he said.
McCaul said living under threat from multiple foreign governments was "a little unsettling," adding, "You’ve gotta have a little more self-awareness" in his situation.
He also did not expect those threats to let up despite his tenure as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee ending, nor did he expect his diplomatic work to stop.
"I think if anything, you know, as I step down… I see a greater role in being a bit of an emissary, you know, just kind of going back and forth with the administration," McCaul said.
House lawmakers were briefed Wednesday about the potential outcome if the U.S. were to find itself at war with China over Taiwan within the next two years, as the global superpower increasingly encroaches on U.S. allies.
The Chinese defense industrial base is operating at a "wartime footing," and now has a shipbuilding capacity 230 times greater than the U.S.’s, making a potential invasion of Taiwan a not-unlikely outcome.
U.S. military analysts have projected 2027 as the year by which China would be fully equipped for a military invasion of Taiwan. And the U.S. has long followed a policy of refusing to say whether it would come to the island’s defense under such a scenario.
But under war exercises gamed out by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) 25 times and presented to members of the House China Select Committee, the alliance of the U.S., Taiwan and Japan defeated an amphibious invasion by China and maintained an autonomous Taiwan, but not without suffering heavy losses.
During the simulation, the cost for all sides was high — there were more than 10,000 casualties — and the U.S. lost 10-20 warships, two aircraft carriers, 200-400 warplanes and more than 3,000 troops were killed over the first three weeks of fighting.
China loses 90% of its amphibious fleet, 52 major surface warships and 160 warplanes.
"In our tabletop exercise today, we walked through one simulation of what might happen in a worst-case scenario conflict with China and learned ways we can work together in a bipartisan manner to ensure that America is prepared to be the arsenal of democracy once more if called upon. No matter where or when, the United States and our allies must have the military means to defeat our adversaries," Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman of the committee, told Fox News Digital.
The report emphasized four key points: 1) Taiwan must "hold the line" of the ground invasion, 2) there is no "Ukraine" model where the U.S. can slowly escalate — it must decide immediately whether it will come to Taiwan's defense, 3) military operations would need to be conducted through Japan and 4) the U.S. needs to immediately increase its supply of anti-ship missiles.
The bottom line of the report is that China chooses "D-Day," but Taiwan and its defenders must be ready at any moment. The war game assumed a 2026 launch date for China’s invasion.
The scenario operates under the assumption that the U.S. under President-elect Trump would come to Taiwan’s defense, though no such promise has been made. It’s unclear what Trump would do under such a scenario — he has mused about Taiwan needing to pay the U.S. for giving it defensive aid.
Japan would be the U.S. and Taiwan’s key ally in such a fight because South Korea has not authorized the U.S. to launch combat missions from its territory. CSIS recommends deepening U.S.-Japan diplomatic relations immediately.
"It certainly would be very helpful if South Korea stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us," said Matthew Cancian, researcher at the Naval War College and lead author of the project. The U.S. would likely move two of the four squadrons it has stationed in South Korea to help with the fight against China over Taiwan.
But, as the presenters warned, North Korea may try to take advantage of the situation and invade the south, especially after gaining operational experience from their fight with Russia against Ukraine.
The exercise also claimed that unlike U.S. aid to Ukraine, which passes over NATO territory to arrive there, the U.S. would not be able to arm Taiwan without sending in U.S. forces — China’s anti-tank or anti-air missiles would threaten any shipments making their way to the island.
"U.S. forces would have to be directly involved," said Cancian. "There is no way to achieve denying a takeover of Taiwan while also keeping U.S. forces safe."
And if the U.S. were to come to Taiwan's defense, there would be no time to waste since China is much closer geographically than U.S. forces. "If the U.S. were not to join the fight for two weeks [after an invasion], it would be too late. China would already have too strong a footing," said Cancian.
Chinese land attack missiles and anti-ship missiles would pose the greatest threat in the theater. Harpoons and coastal defense cruise missiles would be "absolutely critical" to Taiwan’s defense, according to the wargame exercise.
China is outproducing the U.S. on airplanes, ships and missiles, the exercise found, and in order to deter them from provoking war over Taiwan, the U.S. needs to immediately ramp up its production of key munitions, per the war games.
The U.S.’s current stockpile of anti-ship missiles, around 440, would run out in less than seven days in a war with China.
China would not be keen to give up easily, as a loss in Taiwan could be "very destabilizing" to the government’s legitimacy back at home.
The war games also underscored the need for the Taiwanese defense budget to stop focusing on expensive, large ships that China will easily destroy and focus on smaller, more survivable ships and submarines.
The U.S., too, must focus on arming Taiwan with smaller ships and cheaper munitions, with most iterations of the war games finding the U.S. losing two aircraft carriers and 10 to 20 large surface combatants.
"We need to make them fire their exquisite stuff at our non-exquisite stuff," said Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla. "They’re going to out-produce us… we need to wake up."
The U.S. and Taiwan must not attack the Chinese mainland, both to avoid risking escalation with a nuclear power and because Chinese air defense on the mainland is "too strong."
Ultimately, such an invasion could happen sooner, or not at all.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) head, Adm. Samuel Paparo, said recently he believes the U.S. would make it "exceedingly difficult" for China to mount a cross-strait invasion.
For years, the U.S. military has been pivoting its focus from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific, "the most stressing theater," as Paparo describes it, given that China is the most capable potential adversary in the world.
According to Chinese policy, the CCP will invade only if Taiwan declares its independence from China, if a third power intervenes in the dispute or Beijing determines that "unification was irrevocably beyond its reach by any other means."
While the U.S. has no formal alliance with Taiwan, China has been encroaching on the air and sea territory of U.S. allies in the Pacific — Japan and the Philippines.
Paparo said he'd seen "the most rehearsal and the most joint exercises" from China over the summer that "I'd seen over an entire career of being an observer."
"This included on one particular day 152 vessels at sea," Paparo added.
China’s navy is the largest in the world, with more than 370 ships and submarines. The U.S.' battle force includes 295 vessels, including 11 active aircraft carriers.
"This was the largest rehearsal we've seen on an upward trajectory of PLA [People's Liberation Army] modernization," Paparo said, referring to the Chinese military’s name.
A federal China commission released its sprawling yearly report to Congress on Tuesday, for the first time recommending lawmakers end China’s favored trade status and the provision that allows goods under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, established by Congress as a bipartisan entity to investigate and provide policy recommendations on China, is now directly advocating for Congress to end the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) China has enjoyed since 2004.
The committee will pitch its 83 policy recommendations to lawmakers on Tuesday, along with a report on China's military capabilities, its threats to U.S. allies in the region and how it is exploiting U.S. policy for its own advancement.
"For decades we have engaged in whack-a-mole policy working within international organizations and guidelines to address the increasing and ambitious efforts by China to skirt laws or take advantage of trade loopholes," commission chair Robin Cleveland said.
"In our hearing on the threats to American consumers this year we heard from administration and expert witnesses who were starkly clear: U.S. agencies do not know if the majority of packages coming from China include a baby toy painted with a toxic chemical—a counterfeit piece of clothing made with slave labor—or a pin head amount of fentanyl which is enough to kill the average citizen."
"While the administration has existing authority to shut down this flood of troubling products, we have a strong recommendation on legislative action that should strengthen safety and legal protections for consumers and manufacturers."
The commission also identified an urgent need for AI advancement in the U.S., calling on Congress to establish and fund a "Manhattan Project-like program" to acquire Artificial General Intelligence (AG) capability, defined as systems that would "surpass the sharpest human minds at every task."
The prospect of eliminating PNTR, which allowed low-cost Chinese goods to flood U.S. markets throughout the 2000s by giving the CCP the same trade benefits as U.S. allies, faces increasingly likely odds with Republican control of the House and Senate.
Eliminating it would grant the president authority to assess and review whether greater tariffs are needed. President-elect Trump has vowed to drastically increase tariffs on Chinese-made goods.
The report found that Chinese goods increasingly evade regulatory inspection and tariffs by coming in shipments valued under $800, taking advantage of the "de minimis" exemption in tariff law.
Eliminating "de minimis" on e-commerce shipments would require Customs and Border Patrol to institute far greater oversight over small-dollar shipments, prompting a request for more resources in Congress. But the report found these shipments are often used to sneak fentanyl into the U.S.
The U.S. has brought in around four million shipments of Chinese origin under "de minimis" per day this year, up from 3 million last year.
Congress should also consider legislation to eliminate federal tax expenditures for investments in Chinese companies that are on the Commerce Department’s trade blacklist known as the Entity List, per the report.
Such legislation could eliminate the preferential capital gains tax rate, the carried interest loophole or capital loss carry-forward provisions for companies that are believed to run afoul of U.S. interests or suspected to be stealing intellectual property.
The report also recommended the U.S. bolster its export controls to deny China access to critical dual-use goods and technologies and ban imports of certain technologies controlled by Chinese entities, like autonomous humanoid robots and energy infrastructure products.
It urged Congress to direct the administration to create an outbound investment office to oversee dollars flowing to investments in countries of concern and to amend laws to allow the Consumer Product Safety Commission mandatory recall authority over Chinese products.
Throughout the year, China has increasingly tried to crack down on dissent and "sanctions proof" its economy, in preparation for a future of potential military or economic warfare with the West, the report noted. It conducted violent attacks on Philippine personnel operating within their own exclusive zone, tried to influence Taiwan's democratic elections and incurred into Taiwanese air space over 2,300 times.
It launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile test into the South Pacific in more than 40 years.
Trump has begun to fill out his Cabinet with China hawks. On the campaign trail this year, Trump has proposed a 10% tariff on all U.S. imports and 60% on Chinese-made products.
If Trump successfully raises tariffs to 60%, it could reduce China’s exports by $200 billion and cause a one percentage point drag on GDP, said Zhu Baoliang, a former chief economist at China’s economic planning agency, at a Citigroup conference.
Last year, China exported about $500 billion worth of goods to the U.S., about 15% of all of its exports.
