Three revised regulations that dictate everything from the Chinese military’s broad mandate to soldiers’ day-to-day life are slated to take effect on April 1. The revisions have placed an emphasis on the PLA’s combat readiness and wartime conduct, the latter of which appears 49 times. Analysts say the revised regulations show the priority of the PLA’s future reform and its challenges.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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Foreign bloggers who praise China rapidly gain popularity and millions of followers on Chinese social media platforms. VOA examined the facts and spoke with experts to shed light on the government’s efforts behind the phenomenon.
“It is a long-standing tradition of the Chinese Communist Party to use foreigners to voice its propaganda for added credibility,” said Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund.
Foreign influencers cooperate with the Chinese government, the media and third parties to create and boost content that supports government narratives, Ohlberg said. One of the most common topics that foreign influencers focus on is whitewashing human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The U.N. Human Rights Office and groups like Amnesty International estimate that more than 1 million people – mostly Uyghurs – have been confined in internment camps in Xinjiang.
One of the most recent and maybe most popular foreign characters in China is a French national, Marcus Detrez, who became a media sensation in 2024.
Japanese occupation photos
Last year, Detrez posted a series of historic photographs on the Chinese social media platform Douyin that depicted life under the Japanese occupation in the early 20th century. He claimed the images were taken by his grandfather and said he wanted to donate them to China.
Detrez enjoyed a year of celebrity treatment from Chinese authorities, including touring across China, while state media outlets profiled him as a hero. In February, however, historians exposed Detrez as a fraud. The photographs he claimed were unique family heirlooms turned out to be publicly available online in various museums around the world.
But the thread of glorified foreign bloggers started much earlier.
One of the pioneers on Chinese social media is a Russian internet celebrity, Vladislav Kokolevskiy, known in China as Fulafu. He amassed 12.89 million followers on Douyin, where he posts short video clips praising life in China.
In November 2023, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute wrote that in China, Fulafu has “become a household name through his ostentatious displays of affection for China,” identifying him as a Chinese government propagandist.
Kokolevskiy does not make commercial ad disclaimers. However, CMGM, an outlet covering China news, reported in January 2021 that he received advertisement contracts within 15 days for NetEase’s “Heavenly Oracle” mobile game and online retailers Pinduoduo and Tmall.
The companies paid about $11,000 for each ad, bringing Fulafu’s advertising revenue up to about $33,000 for January 2021 alone, according to the report.
Like Fulafu, dozens of foreigners grew to stardom on the Chinese internet during the last decade, Ohlberg said.
Among them is Gerald Kowal, known also as Jerry Guo, an American who has risen to popularity in China after an interview with state-owned CCTV in 2020. At the time, Kowal had been posting series of short videos critical of New York City authorities’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also repeated debunked conspiracy theories, claiming, for example, that the U.S. military brought the coronavirus to China. CCTV broadcasted his interview from New York live.
The China Newsweek magazine profiled Kowal in May 2020 as “one of the most influential internet celebrities,” calling him a “war correspondent” for his videos from pandemic-stricken New York.
Third-party promoters
The success of a large number of foreign influencers is closely tied to multichannel networks or MCNs, which are third-party organizations that promote the growth of certain content creators, operating behind the scenes.
One of the MCN industry leaders is YChina, founded in 2016 by Israeli businessman Amir Gal-Or and his Chinese partner and former classmate, Fang Yedun, as part of Gal-Or’s “Crooked Nuts Research Institute,” which focuses on documenting the lives of foreigners in China.
YChina started with the cross-platform sharing of short video interviews with Western expats living in China. It initially focused on cultural topics and soon accumulated more than 100 million followers among its internet influencers from over 30 countries, including Israel, the United States, Australia, Spain, Argentina, Japan and Thailand.
Chinese democracy activists in exile have accused YChina of supporting Chinese government propaganda about Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
In July 2024, the China Public Diplomacy Association, which is under the supervision of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gathered more than 30 foreign influencers from 25 countries to participate in a training camp and visit various cities in China. The bloggers were asked to record their experiences on video and share them online.
China’s state-controlled media outlets boost such bloggers, presenting them to domestic audiences within the narrative of a prosperous nation under the Communist Party.
For example, the Xinhua News Agency’s series in 2024 on foreign internet celebrities in China showed videos of influencers from all over the world walking the streets of China’s major cities praising their “cleanest streets in the world” and “efficient garbage disposal system.”
In using these foreign bloggers, the Chinese Communist Party wants to show that life in China is not what rights groups and China’s critics abroad say it is. The government exploits the idea that unless “you come and see, you have no right to judge,” the German Marshall Fund’s Ohlberg said.
The core of this idea is “very hypocritical,” Ohlberg added, because “the Communist Party allows these people to go only where it wants them to go and see only what it wants them to see. And if you’re critical, you certainly won’t get the opportunity to go on a field trip.”
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BEIJING — China’s embassy in New Zealand on Thursday accused Wellington’s top spy of lying after the intelligence chief warned of security risks posed by Beijing’s growing influence in the Pacific.
In a speech in Wellington last week, New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service Director-General Andrew Hampton said the focus of Pacific nations on economic and transnational crime issues had opened the door for China to sign strategic deals with them that linked economic and security cooperation.
“The relevant remarks are totally baseless, all fabrication, and amount to spreading false information,” the Chinese Embassy in Wellington said.
“For someone holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
In recent years, Beijing has struck deals with a number of Pacific nations, worrying New Zealand, a member of the Five Eye intelligence alliance along with Britain, the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
Hampton said last week that China wanted to “create competing regional architectures, and expand its influence with Pacific Island countries,” which posed foreign interference and espionage risks.
The Cook Islands, a self-governing Pacific nation in free-association with New Zealand, is at the heart of recent tensions between China and New Zealand.
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown travelled to China in February, signing a comprehensive strategic partnership deal with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. That angered Wellington, which complained about the lack of consultation and transparency around Brown’s visit.
Relevant cooperation documents have been made public, the Chinese statement said, adding that there is no “secret agenda” in China’s relations with the Cook Islands.
China’s embassy in Wellington also handles the country’s diplomatic relations with the island nations of Niue and the Cook Islands.
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WASHINGTON — The son of imprisoned pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai this week brought the campaign to secure his father’s release to the Trump administration in Washington.
Nearly two months into President Donald Trump’s second term, Lai’s son Sebastien and their international legal team were in Washington this week to meet with Trump administration officials and lawmakers in hopes that the United States can help push for Lai’s release.
Lai, a businessman and founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper in Hong Kong, stands accused of collusion with foreign forces and sedition under a Beijing-imposed national security law. He rejects the charges, but if convicted in an ongoing trial, he could face life in prison.
“We were incredibly grateful that President Trump said that he will help release my father. It’s given us as a family a lot of hope,” the younger Lai said at a Wednesday event at the Cato Institute think tank in Washington.
In October 2024, Trump said he would “100%” be able to secure Lai’s release if he were reelected.
“I’ll get him out. He’ll be easy to get out. But we don’t have people that even talk about it,” Trump said in an interview with conservative podcast host Hugh Hewitt.
The White House did not reply to VOA’s email requesting comment on whether the Trump administration had any specific plans to help secure Lai’s release.
But a State Department spokesperson reaffirmed that the United States calls for Lai’s immediate release.
“Lai’s lengthy trial and unjust detention are an example of how China uses vague national security laws to suppress fundamental freedoms and political discourse,” the spokesperson added in a statement emailed to VOA on Wednesday.
Lai, a 77-year-old British national, has been held in solitary confinement in Hong Kong since late 2020. His trial, which was originally estimated to last about 80 days, has been ongoing since December 2023 and is widely viewed as politically motivated.
Hong Kong authorities have rejected accusations that Lai’s trial is unfair and maintain that press freedom and the rule of law are intact.
Speaking at the Cato Institute event, Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong, suggested that the U.S. government should use sanctions against Hong Kong officials as a way to push for Lai’s release.
Clifford, who previously served on the board of Apple Daily’s parent company, also suggested the United States could shutter the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices in Washington, New York and San Francisco.
“There’s a pretty good tool kit that the administration has,” Clifford said.
Even though the government-appointed judges are likely to find Lai guilty, Mark Simon, who worked with Lai for decades in Hong Kong, argued that releasing Lai may be in Beijing’s interest.
“Your influence as a dissident is at the height when you’re in prison. The world is campaigning for you. If you’re China and you release him, his influence goes down,” Simon said at the Cato Institute. “If he dies in prison, then you don’t control anything.”
Jimmy Lai’s international legal team has expressed concern about the conditions in which the publisher is being held, including prolonged solitary confinement and no access to specialized medical care for diabetes. Hong Kong authorities have rejected those claims.
“Everybody realizes that the clock is ticking, and time is running out for my father,” Sebastien Lai said.
But even though his father’s physical health has become fragile, Sebastien Lai said his mind has stayed strong.
“He’s still strong mentally, and he’s still fighting,” the younger Lai said. “That’s something that should inspire all of us.”
Before concluding his cross-examination in Lai’s national security trial last week, Hong Kong prosecutor Anthony Chau read out the charges, alleged conspiracies and co-conspirators, and asked the elder Lai if he agreed with them.
“Of course I disagree. Totally rubbish,” Lai said.
After 52 days in the witness box, Lai completed his testimony in the trial last week. Lawyers from both sides aren’t expected to return to court to deliver their closing statements until August, marking the trial’s latest months-long delay.
Lai’s plight has received bipartisan support in Washington, according to Caoilfhionn Gallagher, the attorney leading Lai’s international legal team.
She told VOA she hopes the United States and the United Kingdom can coordinate their efforts and work together to secure Lai’s release.
“We’re extremely worried for his health and well-being, and indeed, his life,” Gallagher said. “It’s in no one’s interest for this brilliant man to die in prison.”
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China’s Commerce Ministry reportedly held talks with Walmart on Tuesday after the U.S. retail giant had requested a 10% price cut from its Chinese suppliers to offset U.S. tariff costs, state media CCTV said. The report added that the ministry is believed to have expressed concern over Walmart’s “unfair” practice, which it believes may create the risk of supply chain disruption and harm the interests of Chinese and American companies and American consumers.”
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed two bills involving China. One will restrict the Department of Homeland Security from purchasing batteries made by Chinese companies. The other will set up a working group in the Department of Homeland Security to monitor and respond to threats from China. The bills will now await consideration by the Senate.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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NEW DELHI — The Dalai Lama’s successor will be born outside China, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism says in a new book, raising the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of the Himalayan region he fled more than six decades ago.

Tibetans worldwide want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue after the 89-year-old’s death, he writes in “Voice for the Voiceless,” which was reviewed by Reuters and is being released on Tuesday.

He had previously said the line of spiritual leaders might end with him.

His book marks the first time the Dalai Lama has specified that his successor would be born in the “free world,” which he describes as outside China. He has previously said only that he could reincarnate outside Tibet, possibly in India where he lives in exile.

“Since the purpose of a reincarnation is to carry on the work of the predecessor, the new Dalai Lama will be born in the free world so that the traditional mission of the Dalai Lama – that is, to be the voice for universal compassion, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and the symbol of Tibet embodying the aspirations of the Tibetan people – will continue,” the Dalai Lama writes.

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled at the age of 23 to India with thousands of other Tibetans in 1959 after a failed uprising against the rule of Mao Zedong’s Communists.

Beijing insists it will choose his successor, but the Dalai Lama has said any successor named by China would not be respected.

China brands the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping alive the Tibetan cause, as a “separatist.”

When asked about the book at a press briefing on Monday, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said the Dalai Lama “is a political exile who is engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion.

“On the Tibet issue, China’s position is consistent and clear. What the Dalai Lama says and does, cannot change the objective fact of Tibet’s prosperity and development.”

Beijing said last month it hoped the Dalai Lama would “return to the right path” and that it was open to discussing his future if he met such conditions as recognizing that Tibet and Taiwan are inalienable parts of China, whose sole legal government is that of the People’s Republic of China. That proposal has been rejected by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile in India.

Supporters of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause include Richard Gere, a follower of Tibetan Buddhism, and Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

His followers have been worried about his health, especially after knee surgery last year. He told Reuters in December that he might live to be 110.

In his book, the Dalai Lama says he has received numerous petitions for more than a decade from a wide spectrum of Tibetan people, including senior monks and Tibetans living in Tibet and outside, “uniformly asking me to ensure that the Dalai Lama lineage be continued.”

Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death. The current Dalai Lama was identified as the reincarnation of his predecessor when he was two.

The book, which the Dalai Lama calls an account of his dealings with Chinese leaders over seven decades, is being published on Tuesday in the U.S. by William Morrow and in Britain by HarperNonFiction, with HarperCollins publications to follow in India and other countries.

The Dalai Lama, who has said he will release details about his succession around his 90th birthday in July, writes that his homeland remains “in the grip of repressive Communist Chinese rule” and that the campaign for the freedom of the Tibetan people will continue “no matter what,” even after his death.

He expressed faith in the Tibetan government and parliament-in-exile, based with him in India’s Himalayan city of Dharamshala, to carry on the political work for the Tibetan cause.

“The right of the Tibetan people to be the custodians of their own homeland cannot be indefinitely denied, nor can their aspiration for freedom be crushed forever through oppression,” he writes. “One clear lesson we know from history is this: if you keep people permanently unhappy, you cannot have a stable society.”

Given his advanced age, he writes, his hopes of going back to Tibet look “increasingly unlikely.”
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NEW DELHI — Dozens of Tibetan protesters clashed with police outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on Monday as Tibetans living in exile marked the 66th anniversary of their uprising against China that was crushed by Chinese forces.

As in past years, police blocked the protesters from entering the embassy and briefly detained some of them after wrestling them to the ground. Hundreds also marched in the north Indian town of Dharamshala, the seat of the exiled Tibetan government and home of Dalai Lama, their 89-year-old spiritual leader.

Separately, about a hundred Tibetan women gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, an area designated for protests close to Parliament. The protesters shouted anti-China slogans, carried Tibetan flags and played the national anthems of Tibet and India.

India considers Tibet to be part of China, although it hosts the Tibetan exiles. The 1959 independence uprising was quelled by the Chinese army, forcing Dalai Lama and his followers into exile in India.

Many had their faces painted in colors of the Tibetan national flag. The demonstrators observed a minute of silence to remember Tibetans who lost their lives in the struggle against China. Monks, activists, nuns and schoolchildren marched across the town with banners reading, “Free Tibet” and “Remember, Resist, Return.”

Penpa Tsering — the president of the Central Tibetan Administration, as the exiled Tibetan government calls itself — accused China’s leadership of carrying out a “deliberate and dangerous strategy to eliminate the very identity of the Tibetan people.”

“This marks the darkest and most critical period in the history of Tibet,” Tsering told the gathering. “As we commemorate the Tibetan National Uprising Day, we honor our brave martyrs, and express solidarity with our brothers and sisters inside Tibet who continue to languish under the oppressive Chinese government.”

The Tibetan government-in-exile in India accuses China of denying the most fundamental human rights to people in Tibet and trying to expunge the Tibetan identity.

China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, but the Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent until China occupied it in 1950.

The Dalai Lama denies China’s claim that he is a separatist and says he only advocates substantial autonomy and protection of Tibet’s native Buddhist culture.
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BEIJING — China will exert utmost efforts to realize “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan, but will take all necessary steps to safeguard China’s territorial integrity, its foreign ministry said on Monday.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory despite the objection of the government in Taipei. Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

Last week, on the sidelines of China’s annual meeting of parliament, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters that Taiwan would never be a “country,” and to support “Taiwan independence” was to interfere in China’s internal affairs.

China is “willing to do our utmost to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity,” said Mao Ning, spokesperson at the foreign ministry, when asked about Wang’s remarks on Taiwan.

“At the same time, China will take all necessary measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity and resolutely oppose Taiwan independence and external interference,” Mao said.

In recent years, Beijing has ramped up its military pressure against the island, including holding several rounds of war games, keeping alive the prospect of the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

The United States is Taiwan’s key arms supplier even in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, but there is no defense treaty, unlike in the case of Japan and South Korea.

The United States must cease its arms sales to Taiwan and stop all military contacts with the island, Mao told reporters.

“The Taiwan issue is the core of China’s core interests and the first insurmountable red line in Sino-U.S. relations,” she warned.
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U.S. President Donald Trump is keeping new tariffs in place on Mexico, Canada and China to pressure them to block the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States, top White House economic officials said Sunday.

“If fentanyl ends, I think these [tariffs] will come off,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC’s “Meet the Press” show.

“But if fentanyl does not end, or he’s uncertain about it, he will stay this way until he is comfortable,” he said. “This is black and white. You got to save American lives.”

Trump last week issued a string of whip-sawing tariff decisions that plunged the three major U.S. stock market indexes and roiled relations with Canada and Mexico, which are long-time U.S. allies and its closest neighbors, as well as its two biggest trading partners.

Trump at first imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican exports to the U.S., then exempted the duties on Mexican- and Canadian-made vehicles being transported into the U.S. and later by week’s end delayed the tariffs on almost all items for four weeks until April 2.

But Lutnick said 25% U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports will take effect Wednesday as scheduled. Canada and Mexico are both top exporters of the metals to U.S. markets, with Canada accounting for most aluminum imports.

The Commerce chief also rebuffed fears that Trump’s global tariffs would cause a recession in the United States.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “There’s going to be no recession in America.”

But Lutnick acknowledged that the tariffs would lead to higher prices for U.S. consumers on foreign-made goods.

“Some products that are made foreign might be more expensive, but American products will get cheaper, and that’s the point,” Lutnick said. It was not clear how U.S.-produced goods would become cheaper, except in comparison to foreign-manufactured products.

Trump, in a taped interview with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” show, dodged a question about a possible recession because of his tariff boosts, but said, “There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big.”

“There could be a little disruption,” he said about stock market losses last week. “Look, what I have to do is build a strong country. You can’t really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective. We go by quarters. And you can’t go by that.”

Trump has at various times said his new tariffs are aimed at raising government revenue, protecting U.S. jobs and pressuring foreign manufacturers to relocate their operations to the U.S., and to curb the flow of fentanyl.

Like Lutnick, Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, emphasized the fentanyl issue in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” program. He said Trump’s tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico, along with doubling a previous 10% duty on Chinese exports to 20%, are aimed at cutting the tens thousands of fentanyl deaths that have occurred in recent years.

“We launched a drug war, not a trade war,” he said. “We hope we’ll round up the cartels” while there is a pause in the tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

“It is a big problem,” he said. “Get the drug cartels out of Canada and Mexico.”

Both Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Trump in phone conversations last week they have made strides in curbing the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. Sheinbaum sent 10,000 troops to Mexico’s northern border with the U.S. to try to curb the flow of drugs and undocumented migrants while Trudeau also ramped up border enforcement.

But it is unclear whether Trump will be satisfied enough with the Mexican and Canadian efforts to drop the tariff increases next month.

Even with the White House effort targeting fentanyl, Hassett said Trump’s economic concerns remain as important.

“He’s trying to make it so when we produce something, we produce it at home,” not in another country, Hassett said. “Bring the jobs home, bring the wealth home. If you want to increase the welfare of Americans, then produce the jobs here.”
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When President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he had created a new White House office to “resurrect” American military and commercial shipbuilding, he elevated long-standing calls to fix the struggling industry that he said is vital to national security. His clarion call to build more ships “very fast and very soon” comes at a time of rising strategic competition with China.

“Our shipbuilding industry is shrunk down to bare minimum right now,” Marine Corps Commandant General Eric Smith told VOA in an exclusive interview at the Pentagon late last year.

The anemic state of American shipbuilding and ship maintenance, and the risks they raise for the military, was shared with VOA through more than a dozen interviews with U.S. military and industry officials spanning several months and conducted ahead of Trump’s announcement.

The U.S. Navy is still considered the most powerful in the world when it comes to firepower and tonnage, but the number of Navy ships has fallen behind China’s. The United States has 296 ships in its fleet, while China’s is on pace to surpass 400 ships this year.

Shrinking fleet

Despite the U.S. Navy’s goal of increasing the size of its fleet, in recent years the number of ships has been shrinking. Last year’s budget funded just six new Navy ships, while decommissioning 15 from the fleet, for a net loss of nine. The fiscal 2025 budget plan funds six new ships while decommissioning 19, for a net loss of 13.

The lifeblood for maritime industry titans like British-based BAE, U.S.-based Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and Fairbanks Morse Defense runs almost exclusively through the U.S. military. Industry leaders say they have the space to build and repair more ships but that Navy contracts have been scarce.

“We’re operating at half-capacity,” said Brad Moyer, vice president of BAE Systems Ship Repair. Although the company is one of the largest for ship repair in the United States, when VOA toured BAE’s Norfolk yard in Virginia in November, most of the docking spaces for ships were empty.

Shipbuilding demand has fluctuated wildly based on Navy budgeting strategies, creating an industry atmosphere of feast or famine that is shrinking the supply chain.

“There’s thousands and thousands of suppliers that have gone out of business, and it’s a real risk,” George Whittier, the CEO of Fairbanks Morse Defense, told VOA. The company is the largest engine manufacturer in North and South America and the sole company supplying the biggest engines used in the military’s amphibious warfare ships. Each engine is about the size of a small school bus.

“We should have two engine suppliers. But the reality is, if the Navy is only going to build six ships a year, it’s a struggle to keep one engine supplier in business, let alone two. We’re going to have to grow our way out of this, and that’s the only way we’re going to do it,” Whittier said.

He is not alone. VOA found multiple examples of companies that were the only supplier of specific ship parts. The U.S. military and other industry leaders say they are worried there will not be a backup for parts should more industry businesses go under. And those suppliers who have survived say when business is not steady, it takes longer to provide the parts, and it costs more to procure the materials.

Acting Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jim Kilby, while advocating for a bigger fleet, says he has not had the budget to replace all of his aging ships and submarines, much less grow the force.

“When we get a new ship, we’ll replace an old ship, because that old ship is more expensive and harder to maintain,” he said in a recent interview.

Maintenance delays, layoffs

Military contracting delays and project cancellations have led to layoffs. Even though BAE is one the largest companies in the industry, its West Coast shipyard laid off nearly 300 employees in 2023 due to a shortage of work.

In the city of Norfolk, on America’s East Coast, the number of Navy ships available for repair work dropped from 44 ships about a decade ago to fewer than 30 today. About 60% of the workforce was furloughed in that time, officials said.

The result, General Smith says, is a hollowed-out workforce that is not centered on shipbuilding.

“There’s no one who grew up as a shipbuilder. There’s welders and steam fitters and electricians, but if there’s not steady work for them, they’ll go to work for Harley-Davidson or Ford Motor Company or Chevy or whoever,” he said.

Whittier and Moyer blame the budgeting process in Congress, along with the way the Navy structures its ship maintenance.

“The system is broken,” Whittier says.

Congress has not passed a budget on time since 2019. When continuing resolutions (CRs) are used to fund the government, new projects cannot be started. In the case of the fiscal 2024 budget, Congress funded government with CRs for half a year, which Whittier says gave companies six months to do 12 months of work.

“It ends up being not just a big challenge in how to run a company, but it’s a big challenge for the Navy in trying to figure out how are they getting their maintenance done. … It’s frustrating all around for everybody,” the Fairbanks Morse Defense CEO told VOA.

Senator Mark Kelly, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, agrees that CRs are bad, adding that the only thing worse would be shutting down the government.

“People are always going to try to blame somebody else, but I’d just say collectively, we’ve taken our eye off the ball here,” he added.

Shipbuilding struggles

There is also a shortage of skilled workers needed to keep the shipbuilding industry afloat.

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, along the coast of the Gulf of America is the only yard in the United States that builds the Navy’s two types of amphibious warfare ships: Landing Helicopter Assault ships (LHAs) that look like mini-aircraft carriers, and smaller landing platform docks (LPDs).

HII also builds Navy destroyers and Coast Guard cutters.

Kari Wilkinson, executive vice president at HII, says that keeping staffing levels around the more than 11,000 workers needed to build cutters, destroyers and amphibious ships is getting more difficult, particularly in the post-pandemic economy.

Just a few years ago, the shipyard was able to offer wages much higher than other jobs in the area that do not require a college degree. Now, Wilkinson says they are competing with everyone from coffee providers to fast food restaurants.

“The wage circumstance has changed. There is not that big gap anymore,” she told VOA.

As a result, Wilkinson says, HII now loses workers at roughly double the rate of its pre-pandemic levels.

To save money on materials, Congress authorized the military to buy four amphibs from HII at once, a move known as a multi-ship block buy. Buying them in bulk saved the Pentagon $900 million.

“That was a huge win for us,” General Smith said.

Now, HII must figure out how to better retain its workforce. To make the worksite more attractive, HII has invested in air conditioning and giant shades to shield workers from the elements like the hot Mississippi sun. The Pascagoula shipyard hired 7,000 people in the last two years, Wilkinson says, but it will need about 1,000-2,000 more hires each year to complete the new ship orders.

“We’ve got to find ways to pay people competitive wages that are in accordance with the type of work they’re doing,” Kelly told VOA.

Commercial shipping

Congress is expected to increase the military’s budget to surge resources for its shipbuilding shortfalls.

But Kelly tells VOA the U.S. commercial shipping is also in need of saving.

“We went from 10,000 ships during World War II to 85 today. So, in case of an emergency, in case of a conflict with a near peer adversary, we’re quite limited to getting all those supplies and equipment and troops across the ocean,” he said.

The United States builds about five commercial ships each year. China builds more than 1,000.

“They have one shipyard, just one shipyard, that’s bigger than all of our shipyards put together,” the senator told VOA.

Kelly in December introduced bipartisan legislation called the Ships for America Act. The bill aims to increase the U.S. commercial fleet by 250 ships in 10 years, which will also increase the supply chain for military ships.

“You wouldn’t really think those two things are connected. But they are very closely connected,” he said. “A lot of the parts that go into a U.S. aircraft carrier, some of those same parts for those systems go in merchant ships.”

The bill calls for tax incentives, along with fees on cargo coming into the country, to help shipbuilders increase their capacity.

The provisions of the bill are “fully paid for,” Kelly said, without adding to the annual deficit.
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Frenchman Marcus Detrez once became a social media sensation in China after donating what he claimed to be his family’s treasured photographs of Japan’s invasion of China, earning widespread praise.

However, just six months later, his story was exposed as a carefully orchestrated hoax. As the truth emerged, people began to reflect on the kind of public opinion environment and commercial operations that allowed him to rise to fame so quickly in China — and how he managed to deceive the public for so long. 

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a press conference on Friday where he called the U.S. “double-faced” and its Indo-Pacific strategy “a failure.” Analysts, however, said that thus far, China has been put in a disfavored position in dealing with the tariff war that the Trump administration began.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.

 
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Beijing’s next moves may be cautious, though, analysts say
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Chinese Premier Li Qiang told the National People’s Congress on Wednesday that the Chinese government will provide child care subsidies and expand free preschool day care available to young couples to boost the country’s declining population. Li’s pledges were welcomed by Chinese netizens.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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WASHINGTON — A recent crackdown on online scam operations, launched earlier this year, has left more than 7,000 people from various countries stranded in a Myanmar border town awaiting repatriation.

The operation, coordinated by Thailand, Myanmar and China, began after Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s visit to Beijing in February, where she assured Chinese leader Xi Jinping that Thailand would take action against scam syndicates.

While China’s pressure has accelerated the repatriation of Chinese nationals, critics argue that its primary focus is protecting its own citizens rather than dismantling the entire criminal network.

In an exclusive interview with VOA, lawmaker Rangsiman Rome, who chairs the Thai House Committee on National Security and is deputy leader of the opposition People’s Party, casts doubt on the effectiveness of the crackdown, calling it more symbolic than structural.

Rome said that without deeper reforms, intelligence-sharing, and global cooperation, these syndicates will continue adapting and operating in different locations, making the current efforts a short-term fix rather than a lasting solution.

While thousands have been rescued during the ongoing crackdown, the United Nations has previously estimated that more than 200,000 have been forced to work in scam centers.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: In your opinion, what should Thailand do differently to make the crackdown more effective and ensure these operations are truly dismantled?

Rangsiman Rome: I think this crackdown is just for show. It’s not really solving the problem. We have found evidence that construction is still ongoing in some areas, particularly in Shwe Kokko, where scam compounds continue to expand. It seems like the authorities are only making small, visible efforts to create the impression that they are addressing the issue. In reality, the scale of these crackdowns is very limited, and no significant progress has been made in truly dismantling these networks

Once public attention fades, I believe these scam operations will resume as before, because the root causes have not been addressed. Without continued pressure, the same criminal networks will simply rebuild and operate as they did before.

VOA: How much pressure is China putting on Thailand, and is that pressure actually leading to real changes in the crackdown on scam networks?

Rangsiman Rome: I believe China plays a crucial role in this situation. With the Chinese government’s initiative, Thailand has aligned with China on the shared goal of stopping border crimes. While I understand that China is acting to protect its own interests, Thailand must also prioritize its own national security and stability.

The cooperation between Thailand and China has led to progress, particularly in repatriating Chinese nationals from Myawaddy back to China. However, this is not enough. China has largely achieved its goal by bringing its citizens home, but Thailand’s objective goes beyond that — we need to ensure that these scam operations do not return.

To truly dismantle these networks, we must identify and target the key figures behind them. These may include Chinese nationals, Thai mafia, corrupt officials or other powerful individuals involved in sustaining these operations. Thailand must continue its crackdown and expand its focus beyond Myawaddy. We should also pay attention to Cambodia, where large-scale scam operations continue to thrive. Stopping these networks requires ongoing efforts and regional cooperation to prevent them from simply relocating and rebuilding elsewhere.

VOA: How can Thailand and the international community work together to prevent these networks from simply shifting locations and continuing their operations elsewhere?

Rangsiman Rome: The scam crisis is not just Thailand’s problem — it is an international issue that affects people worldwide. Many victims not only lose large sums of money, but also face severe human rights abuses, including forced labor and even organ trafficking. This is a serious criminal enterprise that requires global action.

I see Thailand as a key partner in a global initiative to dismantle scam networks. Thailand has the potential to take the lead in the region to combat these crimes, but we cannot do this alone.

We need support from multiple countries, not just China. We must work closely with Japan, the U.K., the EU and others to share intelligence and track the financial assets of these organized crime syndicates. Many victims are waiting to recover their lost money, and we must locate the hidden assets of Chinese mafia groups and other criminals. It is essential to ensure that no country provides a safe haven for these syndicates — they must be held accountable for their human rights violations.

There is still much work to be done, and Thailand cannot fight this alone. If we work together with international partners, Thailand can take the lead in the region, but we need global cooperation to bring real change.

VOA: Right now, many people are facing difficulties with the repatriation process which involves multiple countries. As a result, some are stuck in Myawaddy or experiencing delays in immigration procedures. How do you think this problem can be resolved to ensure a smoother and faster repatriation process for those affected?

Rangsiman Rome: First and foremost, many countries need to work together to rescue more victims. Based on what I’ve heard, over 7,000 people are currently trapped in Myawaddy, and they need urgent assistance. They should not be left there any longer.

In Thailand, we have a system called NIM, which helps us separate victims from those actively involved in scam operations. It is important to conduct thorough interviews and gather detailed information to identify key figures — the individuals running and operating these scam compounds. By doing this, we can target the leaders behind these crimes and, hopefully, bring them to justice in the future. Our goal is to ensure that these criminal operations do not return.

However, Thailand cannot handle this problem alone. It is extremely difficult for us to combat these syndicates without international support. We need cooperation from many countries, including nations in Africa where some victims originate. By working together, we can respond more quickly, gather information more effectively, and provide translators who can communicate with victims in their native languages. This level of coordination is essential to fully dismantle these networks and ensure that they do not return in the future.
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The third session of the 14th National People’s Congress of China opened on March 5, and Chinese Premier Li Qiang delivered the government work report, setting the 2025 economic growth target at about 5%, mirroring last year’s goal. However, analysts express skepticism over the country ability to reach the goal because of domestic economic challenges and external pressures from ongoing U.S.-China tariff disputes.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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The U.S. Justice Department announced indictments Wednesday against 12 Chinese nationals accused in a global hacking campaign targeting U.S.-based dissidents, news organizations, government agencies and a large religious organization. 

According to court documents, China’s Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security used a network of private companies and hackers-for-hire to steal information and help locate dissidents and critics throughout the world.  

“Today’s announcements reveal that the Chinese Ministry of Public Security has been paying hackers-for-hire to inflict digital harm on Americans who criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division in a statement. 

The suspects include two officers in China’s Ministry of Public Security, eight employees of a company known as i-Soon, and two members of a group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 27 (APT27). 

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, told The Associated Press Wednesday that the allegations were a “smear” and said, “We hope that relevant parties will adopt a professional and responsible attitude and base their characterization of cyber incidents on sufficient evidence rather than groundless speculation and accusations.” 

All of those indicted are at large, and the Justice Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information about the MPS officers and i-Soon, the Chinese company that employed most of the hackers.  

The company is accused of selling stolen information “to China’s intelligence and security services to suppress free speech and democratic processes worldwide, and target groups deemed a threat to the Chinese government,” according to a news release from the FBI. 

i-Soon also conducted computer intrusions on its own initiative, charging “the MSS and MPS equivalent to between approximately $10,000 and $75,000 for each email inbox it successfully hacked,” the indictment said.  

The company also provided training in hacking skills to the government agencies. 

Among the group’s targets were a large religious organization critical of the Chinese government that previously sent missionaries to China, and a group that promoted human rights and religious freedom in China. 

The New York Assembly and multiple news organizations in the United States were targeted, including those that have opposed the Communist Party of China or delivered uncensored news to China. 

Foreign targets included a religious leader, a Hong Kong newspaper and the foreign ministries of Taiwan, India, South Korea, and Indonesia, according to the Justice Department release. 

Separate indictments were issued against the two men connected to APT27, Zhou Shuai and Yin Kecheng, “for their involvement in the multi-year, for-profit computer intrusion campaigns dating back, in the case of Yin, to 2013,” the Justice Department release stated. 

The State Department announced a reward of up to $2 million for information leading to the arrest of Zhou and Yin. They are accused of hacking numerous “U.S.-based technology companies, think tanks, law firms, defense contractors, local governments, health care systems, and universities, leaving behind them a wake of millions of dollars in damages,” the release stated. 

Yin is accused in a U.S. Treasury Department hack between September and December 2024. 

The two face several charges that include computer network conspiracy, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.  

“As evidenced by today’s and previous announcements, China offers safe harbor for private sector companies that conduct malicious cyber activity against the United States and its partners,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement. 

The indictments were the result of a joint investigation by the Justice Department, FBI, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Departments of State and the Treasury. 

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. 
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President Donald Trump delivered a major speech Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress. He said, “America is back” and listed the measures and achievements he had made in the first six weeks of his second term. Trump’s speech mainly focused on U.S. domestic issues, but many of the topics he spoke about were closely related to China.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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Taipei, Taiwan — China set the economic growth target for 2025 at 5% on Wednesday, vowing to “rise to the challenge and strive for success” amid a lack of domestic demand and a challenging external environment.

Delivering the government work report at the start of China’s biggest political meetings of the year, Chinese Premier Li Qiang acknowledged that China’s trade and tech sectors face mounting external pressure caused by the intensification of protectionism around the world, the obstruction of the multilateral trading system, the increase of tariff barriers and rising geopolitical tensions.

“Domestically, the foundation for economic recovery is not yet solid, and there is insufficient demand, especially the sluggish consumption,” Li said during a speech delivered in front of thousands of members of the Chinese Communist Party, including Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In light of these challenges, Li said the Chinese government aims to achieve the 5% economic growth target by “vigorously boosting consumption, improving the efficiency of investment and expanding domestic demand on all fronts,” according to a readout released by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

“Achieving these goals won’t be easy, and it will require hard work,” he said.

Analysts say the economic growth target shows China is prioritizing “stability” over “major economic progress” in 2025. “A large part of China’s economic growth last year was supported by exports, but the looming trade war with the United States has brought unpredictable risks to Chinese exports in 2025,” said Wang Kuo-chen, an economist at the Chung-Hua Institute for Economic Research in Taiwan.

“Since China’s domestic demand remains insufficient, they can only rely on boosting consumption to drive economic growth in 2025,” he told VOA by phone.

To boost domestic consumption and demand, Li said Beijing will introduce some bold stimulus measures, including implementing more vigorous fiscal policies, lowering interest rates at the right time, and implementing economic policies aimed at “improving people’s livelihoods and boosting domestic consumption.”

The Chinese government will aim to direct more resources and capital to “support the expansion of employment, help people increase their income, and strengthen consumption incentives,” Li said during the speech.

Wang in Taiwan said while the Chinese government has repeatedly vowed to boost domestic consumption since last year, the exodus of foreign businesses and the overall trend of income reduction across the country will make it difficult for China to achieve this goal in 2025.

“As long as more capitals are poured into emerging industries such as electric vehicles and artificial intelligence, which are key sectors highlighted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the private sector as a whole will remain weak, and there won’t be sufficient domestic demand,” Wang said.

To maintain China’s competitiveness in emerging industries, Li said China in 2025 will focus on stimulating innovation and the digital economy.

Relevant measures include better combining digital technology with manufacturing and market advantages and “vigorously developing new-generation intelligent terminals such as intelligent network-connected new-energy vehicles and intelligent manufacturing equipment.”

In addition to artificial intelligence, other emerging industries that Li said China also aims to further develop in 2025 include quantum technology, embodied technology, and 6G.

Before the annual legislative meetings, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a symposium with leaders from several Chinese tech giants on February 17, urging “efforts to promote the healthy and high-quality development of the country’s private sector.”

Some experts say that while the Chinese government wants to provide more state-led support to private companies in the AI and semiconductor industries, they will also ensure these companies “align themselves with China’s national priorities.”

“The government knows it needs the private sector for innovation and job creation, but it also wants to maintain control at the same time,” Lizzi Lee, a fellow on the Chinese economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told VOA in an e-mail.

China’s week-long legislative meetings come as Beijing and Washington gear up for a potential trade war. On Tuesday, the United States enhanced tariffs against all Chinese imports to 20%, prompting China to retaliate by imposing tariffs ranging between 10% to 15% on a wide range of agricultural products from the U.S. 

During his speech on Wednesday, Li said China will “stick to the path of peaceful development, oppose all forms of unilateralism and protectionism, and uphold international justice.”

“China is willing to work with the international community to call for an equal and orderly multipolar world and an inclusive economic globalization,” he said during the hour-long remarks.

In light of the U.S. government’s tariff hikes against several countries, including allies such as Canada and Mexico, some analysts say Beijing is trying to present itself as a “more responsible” global power.

“China might actually see an opportunity to show that it can act more responsibly on certain global issues,” Dali Yang, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Chicago, told VOA by phone.

VOA Mandarin’s Chuang Chih-wei and Yang Meng-li contributed reporting to the story.
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China’s 2025 National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference sessions, known as the “Two Sessions,” began on March 4 and 5, respectively. Key topics of focus this year include slowing economic growth, support for private enterprises and the resolution of local government debt.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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The Hong Kong-based conglomerate that operates ports near the Panama Canal has agreed to sell shares of its units that operate the ports to a consortium including BlackRock Inc., after President Donald Trump alleged Chinese interference with the operations of the critical shipping lane.

In a filing, CK Hutchison Holding said Tuesday that it would sell all shares in Hutchison Port Holdings and all shares in Hutchison Port Group Holdings. The two units hold 80% of the Hutchison Ports group that operates 43 ports in 23 countries.

The consortium, comprised of BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment Limited will acquire 90% interests in Panama Ports Company, which owns and operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal in Panama, according to the filing.

In January, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, the Republican chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, raised concerns that China could exploit or block passage through the canal and that the ports “give China ready observation posts” to take action.

“This situation, I believe, posts acute risks for U.S. national security,” Cruz said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama in early February and told President Jose Raul Mulino that Panama had to reduce Chinese influence over the canal or face potential retaliation from the United States. Mulino rejected the idea that China had any control over canal operations.

Panama quit China’s Belt and Road Initiative following Rubio’s visit, drawing condemnation from Beijing.

But while much attention was focused on Trump’s threat to retake control of the canal, his administration trained its sights on Hutchison Ports, the Hong Kong-based consortium that manages the ports key ports at either end of the canal.

Hutchison Ports had recently been awarded a 25-year no-bid extension to run the ports, but an audit looking at that extension was already underway. Observers believed the audit was a preliminary step toward eventually rebidding the contract, but rumors had swirled in recent weeks that a U.S. firm close to the White House was being lined up to take over.
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Chinese tech firms and state media have spotlighted humanoid robots, which have grown in popularity since the Unitree G1 appeared to run, jump, dance and perform martial arts-like movements in a recent demonstration.

Both the United States and China are leaders in humanoid robot technology. But industry analysts believe that the United States is superior in AI technology, which is responsible for the robot’s “brain,” while Chinese technology companies have flourished in the hardware manufacturing capabilities of the robot’s “body.”

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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State Department    — The United States is drawing a clear distinction between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese people, setting the tone that Washington views Beijing’s government — not the general public — as an adversary in strategic competition, according to an internal document obtained by VOA.

This approach largely aligns with the State Department’s public messaging in the later years of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first administration.

In recent guidance on China-related terminology, Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructs U.S. embassies and consular posts to use more specific descriptors and avoid “Chinese” as an adjective when its use could imply a negative connotation of the Chinese people, culture or language more broadly.

This latest directive follows the removal of references to the Beijing government as the “People’s Republic of China” on the State Department’s website, which now refers to the country simply as “China” in a fact sheet.

The internal document instructs the State Department to use “CCP” in public speeches or press releases when discussing government actions, recognizing that the CCP holds ultimate authority over political, economic, military and many other decisions in the country.

But when describing China’s malign actions, the document advises against using “Chinese” as an adjective to prevent the perception that the U.S. government attributes those actions to the Chinese people, according to the memo.

The U.S. is also advised to avoid using language that reflects the ideology of China’s leader Xi Jinping.

Under this directive, Xi should be referred to as “General Secretary” of the Communist Party, rather than “President,” reflecting the supremacy of the party over the state — a practice largely in line with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s approach.

In the internal guidance, Rubio reaffirmed the emphasis in the State Department’s fact sheet on U.S. policy toward China, which said the U.S. will address its relationship with China under the principles of “reciprocity and fairness.”

Additionally, the State Department should avoid characterizations previously used by former President Joe Biden’s administration, such as “invest-align-compete” and “responsibly managing the relationship” between the U.S. and China.

In Beijing, Chinese officials have “strongly deplored and firmly opposed” the changes in the State Department’s factsheet, accusing it of “peddling the so-called China-U.S. strategic competition.”

At a briefing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China has “lodged serious protests with the U.S.” following Rubio’s recent media interviews, which Beijing deemed as “steeped in the Cold War mentality.”

In Washington, analysts say the changes in the State Department’s policy description on its website are not unusual and often occur when a new administration takes office.

“We’re still waiting to see exactly how the [Trump] administration” casts its broader China strategy, said Brian Hart, deputy director of the China Power Project at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. However, during a Monday discussion on China hosted by CSIS, he noted that updates to official websites are common during transitions between administrations. 
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