Staff for President Donald Trump made sure that no items from China — from delegation pins to burner phones — were taken aboard Air Force One on Friday as the plane departed the communist country. 
The move was part of precautionary measures taken by Trump’s delegation to ward off Chinese spying and hacking during the high-stakes trip. Trump and other American officials <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/15/us-news/trump-bare-knuckles-his-way-through-china-summit-without-his-trusty-cell-phone/">made the trip</a> without their personal electronic devices to protect sensitive government and personal information. 
“American staff took everything Chinese officials handed out — credentials, burner phones from WH staff, pins for delegation — collected them before we got on AF1 and threw them in a bin at [the bottom of the] stairs. Nothing from China allowed on the plane,” New York Post reporter Emily Goodin <a href="https://x.com/Emilylgoodin/status/2055174015816474724">noted</a>. “We’re taking off shortly for America.”
Trump referenced the digital lockdown while speaking to reporters on Air Force One, when he noticed he was being filmed. 
“I heard you didn&#8217;t have cameras back here. In fact, I loved it,” Trump said. “I heard that you were shut out for two hours until we leave the airspace. But he&#8217;s got a camera. This guy never misses a trip. You better make me look good with that camera.”
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The State Department advises Americans to keep a low profile when traveling to China and not to take any photos of protests or police activity without permission. 
“Foreigners in the [People’s Republic of China], including but not limited to businesspeople, former foreign-government personnel, academics, relatives of PRC citizens involved in legal disputes, and journalists have been interrogated and detained by PRC officials for alleged violations of PRC national security laws,” the State Department said in a travel advisory. “The PRC has also interrogated, detained, and expelled U.S. citizens living and working in the PRC.”
China’s hacking efforts have become notorious in recent years, including a recent operation launching the first autonomous AI cyberattack against dozens of U.S. companies and government agencies earlier this fall, with artificial intelligence executing “80-90%” of operations at “physically impossible” speeds.
American officials said in December 2024 that they believe China successfully hacked the Treasury Department in what officials described as a “major cybersecurity incident.”

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A Chinese computer hacker who stole research from the United States on COVID has been arrested, FBI Director Kash Patel has announced.
Patel said in a social media post early Tuesday morning that 34-year-old Chinese national Xu Zewei had been extradited to the United States to face charges for stealing research from American scientists and participating in a hacking campaign targeting thousands of United States organizations.
“The FBI and our great partners have arrested Xu Zewei — a PRC national and state-sponsored hacker — allegedly responsible for a massive cyber intrusion campaign in 2020 and 2021 stealing COVID-19 research from American institutions,” Patel posted on X.
“During 2020 and 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Xu and his co-conspirators allegedly targeted and hacked U.S. based universities, immunologists, and virologists conducting COVID-19 research &#8211; including key treatment and vaccines — accessing email accounts and more,” Patel added.
One example of the COVID hacking occurred before the United States and most of the rest of the world conducted shutdowns. Reports from American officials have concluded that COVID likely escaped from a Chinese lab.
Xu confirmed on February 19, 2020, to a Chinese intelligence officer that he had compromised the network of a research university in Texas, according to the indictment. On February 22, 2020, he was directed “to target and access specific email accounts (mailboxes) belonging to virologists and immunologists engaged in COVID-19 research for the university,” according to the Justice Department.
Other targets of the hacking scheme included another university in Texas, a university in North Carolina, and a law firm with offices in Washington, D.C.
Xu was arrested in Milan, Italy, on April 27, according to court documents, years after a bench warrant was first issued for him on November 2, 2023. Patel thanked Italian law enforcement for helping to locate and extradite Xu.
Patel said that Xu was also a contractor for the Hafnium cyber espionage group directed by Chinese officials that has “compromised nearly 13,000” American organizations.
“This case is a historic win for our cybersecurity efforts under President Trump, bringing bad actors who target American infrastructure to justice no matter where they try to hide,” Patel said.
The Justice Department alleges that Xu was directed to conduct the hacking by China’s Ministry of State Security’s Shanghai State Security Bureau.
Dan Cogdell, a lawyer representing Xu, told The Daily Wire that his team was still preparing their case.
&#8220;My team was only recently hired to represent Xu, so of necessity I don&#8217;t have a lot of information to share at this point. Xu entered a plea of ‘Not Guilty’ to all charges and we will return to Magistrate Bennett’s Ct on Thursday for the bond hearing,&#8221; he told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Until that time, we will prepare in earnest to try and obtain a bond on our client’s behalf.&#8221;
He added that he wouldn&#8217;t elaborate more on what their defense strategy would be.
&#8220;In terms of the defense of the charges themselves, I tend not to share what our defenses are to the media-or anyone else. I’m no Nick Saban-but as far as I know, he never told the press what his game plans were for an upcoming football game. I think I will follow that lead here,&#8221; he said. 
Xu faces decades in prison after being charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to cause damage to and obtain information by unauthorized access to protected computers, two counts of obtaining information by unauthorized access to protected computers, two counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, and aggravated identity theft.
The Justice Department said that Zhang Yu, another Chinese national suspected of aiding in the hacking scheme, remains at large. A detention hearing for Xu is set for April 30.

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Someone is impersonating President Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, in texts and phone calls — and the FBI is investigating.
Wiles, who is the first female chief of staff  in U.S. history, has revealed contacts were hacked from her personal, not her government, cellphone, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/federal-authorities-probe-effort-to-impersonate-white-house-chief-of-staff-65da0d59" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported. Other top officials in the Trump administration were contacted via the fake identity.
“The FBI takes all threats against the president, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness,” FBI Director Kash Patel stated. “Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority.”
Government officials believe that artificial intelligence was used in the fake messages.
“It became clear to some of the lawmakers that the requests were suspicious when the impersonator began asking questions about Trump that Wiles should have known the answers to—and in one case, when the impersonator asked for a cash transfer, some of the people said,” the Journal wrote. Another clue leading to suspicion was the broken grammar used by the impersonator.
On May 15, the FBI issued a <a href="https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA250515" target="_blank" rel="noopener">public service announcement</a> regarding attempts to impersonate U.S. officials, stating:
<blockquote>
Since April 2025, malicious actors have impersonated senior US officials to target individuals, many of whom are current or former senior US federal or state government officials and their contacts. If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic. The malicious actors have sent text messages and AI-generated voice messages — techniques known as smishing and vishing, respectively — that claim to come from a senior US official in an effort to establish rapport before gaining access to personal accounts.
One way the actors gain such access is by sending targeted individuals a malicious link under the guise of transitioning to a separate messaging platform. Access to personal or official accounts operated by US officials could be used to target other government officials, or their associates and contacts, by using trusted contact information they obtain. Contact information acquired through social engineering schemes could also be used to impersonate contacts to elicit information or funds.
</blockquote>
In 2024, Iranian agents <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/08/15/susie-wiles-trump-iran-hack/">attempted hacking</a> into Wiles’ email account.
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Wiles served as Trump’s 2016 Florida campaign director, later rising to become the CEO of his “Save America” PAC in 2021 and then senior adviser to his 2024 campaign. “There is nobody, I think, that has the wealth of information that she does. Nobody in our orbit. Nobody,” Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio told <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/26/susie-wiles-trump-desantis-profile-00149654" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Politico</a>. “She touches everything.”

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The Chinese Gifts Tossed Before Boarding Air Force One

He Hacked America At Its Weakest Moment, And Now He’s Finally Facing The Consequences

FBI Investigating Attempt To Impersonate Trump Chief Of Staff In Texts, Phone Calls