Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Saturday took aim at Beijing over an increase in &#8220;destabilising actions&#8221; in the South China Sea and committed to support Southeast Asian countries with technology to help them respond jointly to Chinese threats.
On a second day in Kuala Lumpur packed with meetings that included multilateral talks with allies Australia, Japan and the Philippines, Hegseth proposed to ASEAN defence ministers the building of shared maritime domain awareness and said China had shown a lack of respect and threatened their territorial sovereignty.
&#8220;You live it on the threats we all face from China&#8217;s aggression and course of actions in the South China Sea and elsewhere,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;We need to develop our joint capabilities to respond, and this includes being able to monitor maritime conduct and develop the tools that allow us to respond quickly &#8230; ensuring that whoever is on the receiving end of aggression and provocation is then, therefore, by definition, not alone.&#8221;
&#8220;No one can innovate and scale like the United States of America, and we&#8217;re eager to share those capabilities with allies and partners,&#8221; Hegseth added.
Hegseth&#8217;s remarks came a day after the armed forces of Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and the U.S. held a drill in the South China Sea, a patrol that a Chinese military spokesperson said &#8220;seriously undermined peace and stability.&#8221;
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea via a line on its maps that overlaps with parts of the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
China has deployed an armada of coast guard vessels hundreds of kilometers off its mainland that has repeatedly clashed with vessels of the Philippines and been accused of disrupting energy activities of Malaysia and Vietnam.
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Beijing denies acting aggressively and says its coast guard has operated professionally in defending Chinese territory from incursions.
On Friday, its Defense Minister Dong Jun said it was necessary for China and ASEAN to work together to &#8220;pool Eastern strength&#8221; and safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea.
Hegseth&#8217;s visit to Southeast Asia came soon after U.S. President Donald Trump announced on social media that he had asked the U.S. military to &#8220;start testing our Nuclear Weapons,&#8221; after a halt for 33 years, a move that appeared to be a message to rival nuclear powers China and Russia.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump meant nuclear-explosive testing, which would be carried out by the National Nuclear Security Administration, or flight testing of nuclear-capable missiles.
Asked by reporters what kind of testing Trump was referring to, Hegseth said his department would comment later, adding: &#8220;We have very capable nuclear capabilities, and testing them is only prudent.&#8221;
In addressing the defense ministers&#8217; forum, Hegseth touted Washington&#8217;s peace credentials and said the U.S. was dedicated to building a military &#8220;unmatched in global power,&#8221; while stressing its commitment to allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific.
He said U.S. dialogue with China was important and the opportunity to talk to his Chinese counterpart on Friday was of value, but warned Beijing&#8217;s actions must be watched closely.
&#8220;We seek peace. We do not seek conflict, but we must ensure that China is not seeking to dominate you or anybody else,&#8221; Hegseth told ASEAN counterparts.
(Reporting by Danial Azhar and Mandy Leong. Writing by Martin Petty. Editing by Mark Potter)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Testifies In Senate Hearing

Hegseth Says U.S. Ready To Share Tools To Help Allies Counter ‘Aggressive’ China

Communist China

Global Politics

Nuclear Weapons

Pete Hegseth

World

Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in the five-part series “American Maoists: Warnings From The Cultural Revolution.”
In Part II, Xi Van Fleet and Sasha Gong — both activists, scholars, and survivors of Mao’s communist uprising — broke down the endless cycle of victimization that fuels perpetual revolution, and has been embraced by the American Left.
Today, the authors take up the question of women. The American Left, it turns out, is not the first revolutionary movement to encourage androgyny and shame women for being traditionally feminine. Indeed, as our authors, show, destroying womanhood is essential to the revolutionary project.
*** 
The story of women under radical Marxist ideology is the story of beauty turned to beast.
Mao Zedong’s wife, Jiang Qing — known in the West as Madame Mao — was once celebrated as a symbol of feminine beauty. In 1930s Shanghai, the so-called “Hollywood of the East,” she gained fame as a rising movie star, embodying the glamour and grace traditionally associated with Chinese womanhood.
But Shanghai was also a hub for progressives, Communist sympathizers, and fellow travelers — and Jiang Qing was soon drawn into their orbit.
In 1937, at the age of 23, Jiang Qing — like tens of thousands of other progressive youths — traveled to Yan’an, the Communist stronghold in the loess hills of northwestern China, to join the revolution. There she quickly caught Mao Zedong’s attention, leading him to set aside his guerrilla fighter wife and marry the former movie star. 
As Jiang Qing bound herself to Mao and the Communist revolution, she began to shed her feminine image: cutting her long hair short, trading dresses for shapeless military uniforms, and abandoning the aura of a glamorous actress.
This transformation was not simply personal; it reflected a broader ideological demand. In Yan’an, and later in Beijing, the revolution required individuals to dissolve their identity into the collective. As Mao’s political power grew, Jiang’s own image moved ever further from the ideals of Chinese traditional femininity.
By 1966, when Mao launched the Cultural Revolution, Jiang’s metamorphosis was complete. Elevated to unprecedented authority as “Chairman Mao’s greatest standard-bearer,” she emerged as a hardened, gender-neutral revolutionary warrior, wearing a distinctly masculine haircut and clad only in a Mao suit or military uniform.
Jiang Qing became the model for all Chinese women to emulate. Feminine qualities were denounced as toxic, bourgeois, and reactionary, and women were expected to abandon not only the ornaments of beauty but the very essence of femininity itself — as lovers, wives, and mothers. Mao himself praised this new ideal in verse: “China’s daughters hold uncommon resolve; they love not splendid ornaments, but the arms of revolution.”
Nowhere was this more stark than in the Red Guard movement: thousands of teenage girls, who might once have sung, studied, or courted love, instead shouted slogans, wielded clubs, and became torturers and killers.
The Red Guard was responsible for the first murder of the Cultural Revolution — the brutal beating to death of their principal at a Beijing girls’ high school — an act that unleashed the nationwide violence which would claim tens of millions of lives.
It was in that era that both of us passed through girlhood, adolescence, and the bloom of youth, devoid of all femininity.
We were told, and we believed, that women could hold up half the sky, and that whatever men could do, we could do even better. We strove to become Iron Girls — the Chinese version of the superwoman — taking on the hardest tasks while training ourselves to look, speak, and act like men. Family, children, and motherhood were pushed from our minds; all that mattered was proving ourselves as revolutionaries.
Sadly, defeminization left deep scars on the women of our generation, eroding many of the traditional Chinese virtues of womanhood: tenderness, modesty, nurturing, grace, and devotion to family. Our generation, unlike our Western counterparts, grew up without dreams of a fairytale love story or a perfect wedding. 
When some of us later came to the West, we shattered the stereotype of what an Asian woman was expected to be in the eyes of Westerners.
As survivors of Mao’s defeminization, we are horrified to see history repeating itself here in America. Although the process began decades ago with the rise of second-wave feminism in the 1960s, its pace has accelerated dramatically in recent years.
Radicalized young women — especially white female youth in search of identity — have taken defeminization to new extremes. The body itself becomes a canvas of protest against convention and traditional feminine beauty: blue hair, tattoos, piercings, and harsh attire announce open rebellion. One needs to look no further than the Antifa girls on the streets for living proof.
As in Mao’s China, defeminization is more than an outward transformation; in today’s woke culture it is a proud declaration of being the opposite of what family, culture, or faith once revered as good, beautiful, or sacred. In this sense, it is a total reordering of values, inscribed visibly on the body. 
What is even worse is that the defeminization of women is accompanied by the feminization of men — a topic for another time. Both trends aim to shake the very foundation of a functioning society.
READ MORE:
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/license-to-kill-what-turns-normal-people-to-political-violence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Maoists, Part I: License To Kill: What Turns Normal People To Political Violence?</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-wheel-of-misfortune-victims-victimhood-and-victimization?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Xi+Van+Fleet+and+Sasha+Gong&amp;category=Opinion&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=The+Wheel+Of+Misfortune%3A+Victims%2C+Victimhood%2C+And+Victimization">American Maoists, Part II: The Wheel Of Misfortune: Victims, Victimhood, And Victimization</a>
Xi Van Fleet is a survivor of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, activist, and author of “Mao’s America: A Survivor’s Warning.”
Sasha Gong is a writer, scholar, journalist, and filmmaker. A dissident in Mao’s China, she holds a PhD from Harvard University and was previously Director of the China Branch at Voice of America.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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From Red Guard To Blue Hair: Why Leftists Destroy Womanhood

Leftism

Revolution

Transgender

Women

Republicans on Monday introduced a bill that would sanction Chinese entities linked to Beijing’s persecution of Christians.
The “Combating the Persecution of Religious Groups in China Act” aims to “strengthen America’s response to combat the CCP’s ongoing acts of religious persecution targeting Christians and other religious minorities,” a copy of the bill reviewed by The Daily Wire reads. If passed, the United States will sanction any official of the People’s Republic of China who is responsible for or has directly carried out “abuses of religious freedom.”
Abuses include “Arbitrary detention, forced sterilization, torture, forced labor, and serious restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, expression, and movement.”
Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) introduced the bill on October 27, International Religious Freedom Day. Congressman Mark Alford (R-MO) introduced the bill in the House.
The legislation comes just weeks after the Chinese Communist Party detained more than 30 pastors and staff from Zion Church, a well-known Christian house church in China. Zion Church was shut down in 2018 but re-emerged in multiple locations, NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/10/12/nx-s1-5571936/zion-church-ezra-jin-arrest-china-christian">reported</a>. In response, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement condemning the detentions and calling for the immediate release of the church members.
Rubio said the incident <a href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/10/detention-of-zion-house-church-leaders-in-china">shows</a> how the CCP “exercises hostility towards Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship at unregistered house churches.”
Co-sponsors of the bill in the Senate include Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn (TN), Ashley Moody (FL), Thom Tillis (NC), and Todd Young (IN), while co-sponsors in the House include Republican Reps. Greg Steube (FL), Dan Crenshaw (TX), and Michael McCaul (TX).
In a statement, Budd said China’s “disdain for religious freedom is not new,” noting it is an “ongoing and brutal pattern of abuse that must be met with steadfast American strength.”
“As the leader of the free world, the United States must promote religious freedom around the world and hold China’s authoritarian regime responsible for decades of persecution targeting Christians and other religious minorities. The CCP’s restrictions on freedom of religion and cruelty toward religious minorities in China must come to an end,” Budd said.
Alford said the CCP “has perpetrated heinous abuses against religious groups for decades.”
He said he believes it’s time for the United States to “stand up for religious freedom in China as we have in other parts of the world.”
The bill would also bolster State Department efforts to combat the ongoing persecution of Protestant Christians, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, and other religious minorities.
A 2024 report said that the CCP “tortured, physically abused, arrested, disappeared, detained, sentenced to prison, subjected to forced indoctrination in CCP ideology, and harassed adherents of both registered and unregistered religious groups.”
On October 23, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a resolution calling on the CCP to release the members of Zion Church and all other wrongfully detained religious leaders.

Bahrain’s King Hamad Al Khalifa Visits China

Lawmakers Push To End Christian Persecution In China As Underground Church Pastors Face Detention

China

Persecution

Religious Liberty

Top Chinese and U.S. economic officials on Sunday hashed out the framework of a trade deal for U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to decide on later this week that would pause steeper American tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls, U.S. officials said.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said talks on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur had eliminated the threat of Trump&#8217;s 100% tariffs on Chinese imports starting November 1. Bessent also said he expects China to delay implementation of its rare earth minerals and magnets licensing regime by a year while the policy is reconsidered.
Chinese officials were more circumspect about the talks and offered no details about the outcome of the meetings.
Trump and Xi are due to meet on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, to sign off on the terms. While the White House has officially announced the highly anticipated Trump-Xi talks, China has yet to confirm that the two leaders will meet.
&#8220;I think we have a very successful framework for the leaders to discuss on Thursday,&#8221; Bessent told reporters after he and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and top trade negotiator Li Chenggang for their fifth round of in-person discussions since May.
Bessent said he anticipates that a tariff truce with China will be extended beyond its November 10 expiration date, and that China will revive substantial purchases of U.S. soybeans after buying none in September while favoring soybeans from Brazil and Argentina.
U.S. soybean farmers &#8220;will feel very good about what&#8217;s going on both for this season and the coming seasons for several years&#8221; once the deal&#8217;s terms are announced, Bessent told the ABC program &#8220;This Week.&#8221;
Greer told the &#8220;Fox News Sunday&#8221; program that both sides agreed to pause some punitive actions and found &#8220;a path forward where we can have more access to rare earths from China, we can try to balance out our trade deficit with sales from the United States.&#8221;
China&#8217;s Li Chenggang said the two sides reached a &#8220;preliminary consensus&#8221; and will next go through their respective internal approval processes.
&#8220;The U.S. position has been tough, whereas China has been firm in defending its own interests and rights,&#8221; Li said through an interpreter. &#8220;We have experienced very intense consultations and engaged in constructive exchanges in exploring solutions and arrangements to address these concerns.&#8221;
Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, his first stop in a five-day Asia tour that is expected to culminate in Thursday&#8217;s face-to-face with Xi in South Korea.
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After the weekend talks, Trump struck a positive tone, saying: &#8220;I think we&#8217;re going to have a deal with China.&#8221;
Trump had threatened new 100% tariffs on Chinese goods and other trade curbs starting on November 1, in retaliation for China&#8217;s expanded export controls on rare earth magnets and minerals.
China controls more than 90% of the world&#8217;s supply of the materials, which are essential for high-tech manufacturing from electric vehicles to semiconductors and missiles. The export controls and Trump&#8217;s threatened retaliation would disrupt a delicate six-month truce under which China and the U.S. reduced tariffs that had quickly escalated to triple-digit rates on each side.
The U.S. and Chinese officials said that, in addition to rare earths, they discussed trade expansion, the U.S. fentanyl crisis, U.S. port entrance fees and the transfer of TikTok to U.S. ownership control.
Bessent told NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Meet the Press&#8221; program that the two sides have to iron out details of the TikTok deal, allowing Trump and Xi to &#8220;consummate the transaction&#8221; in South Korea.
On the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, Trump hinted at possible meetings with Xi in China and the United States.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve agreed to meet. We&#8217;re going to meet them later in China, and we&#8217;re going to meet in the U.S., in either Washington or at Mar-a-Lago,&#8221; Trump said.
Among Trump&#8217;s talking points with Xi are Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans, concerns around democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, and the release of jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
The detention of the founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily has become the most high-profile example of China&#8217;s crackdown on rights in Hong Kong.
Trump also said he will seek China&#8217;s help in U.S. dealings with Moscow, as Russia&#8217;s war in Ukraine grinds on.
Tensions between the world&#8217;s two largest economies flared in the past few weeks as a delicate trade truce, reached after a first round of trade talks in Geneva in May and extended in August, failed to prevent the United States and China from hitting each other with more sanctions, export curbs and threats of stronger retaliatory measures.
China&#8217;s expanded controls of rare earths exports have caused a global shortage. That has prompted the United States to consider a block on software-powered exports to China, from laptops to jet engines, according to a Reuters report.
(Reporting by Xinghui Kok and David Lawder; Writing by David Lawder, Mei Mei Chu, Yukun Zhang and John Mair; Editing by Tom Hogue, Will Dunham, Ros Russell and Edmund Klamann)

Donald Trump

U.S. And China Sketch Out Rare Earths, Tariff Pause For Trump And Xi To Consider

Free Trade

Tariffs

Xi Jinping

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave an optimistic update on the fate of the TikTok deal on Sunday, saying that a framework of a deal has been reached.
“We reached a final deal on TikTok, we reached one in Madrid. I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction on Thursday in Korea,” Bessent said during an appearance on Face The Nation.
“Has China agreed to give up control of the algorithm that determines what users see?” host Margaret Brennan asked Bessent, noting President Trump’s September executive order on TikTok. Bessent wouldn’t give details on what the final deal will look like.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A deal on the future of TikTok is set to be finalized, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says, telling <a href="https://twitter.com/margbrennan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@margbrennan</a> a final deal was reached during U.S.-China talks last month in Madrid.
“I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two… <a href="https://t.co/psJNoiGYRN">pic.twitter.com/psJNoiGYRN</a>
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1982458297786462593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The discussions to reach a deal with China on the massively popular ByteDance-owned social media platform TikTok have been ongoing since before Trump took office.
Shortly after Trump was inaugurated, he <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/01/20/nx-s1-5268701/trump-executive-order-tiktok-ban">postponed</a> the law signed by former President Joe Biden in April 2024 that would force ByteDance to divest or have TikTok banned in the United States. As recently as September, the president further <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/further-extending-the-tiktok-enforcement-delay-9dde/">extended</a> the enforcement delay to provide time for an agreement to be reached with China.
“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-tiktok-will-be-american-operated-all-the-way-under-new-deal?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Says+TikTok+Will+Be+%E2%80%98American-Operated+All+The+Way%E2%80%99+Under+New+Deal">said</a> as he signed the executive order. “I have great respect for President Xi, and I very much appreciate that he approved the deal, because to get it done properly, we really needed the support of China and the approval of China.”
According to the text of the executive order, the framework resolves the national security concerns by removing “the TikTok application and certain other applications from the ‘control’ of a foreign adversary and precludes any ‘operational relationship’ between a formerly affiliated entity controlled by a foreign adversary and the new joint venture.”
It also “prohibits the storage of sensitive United States user data in a manner that would place such data under the control of a foreign adversary and requires such data to be stored in a cloud environment run by an American company.”
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.

President Trump Signs Executive Order In The Oval Office

Bessent Says ‘Final Deal On TikTok’ Has Been Reached, Trump And Xi Will ‘Consummate’ It In Korea

Social Media

Technology

TikTok

U.S. President Donald Trump will test his deal-making capabilities on a trip next week to Asia, a region battered by his hardball trade policies, while doubts hang over his highly anticipated meeting with China&#8217;s Xi Jinping.
Trump, who leaves Washington on Friday night, is set for a five-day trip spanning Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, his first to the region and his longest journey abroad since taking office in January.
The Republican leader hopes to pile up trade, critical mineral and ceasefire deals before turning to the toughest challenge, a face-to-face with Xi on Thursday in South Korea.
Trump is also working to maintain the signature foreign policy achievement of his second term, a ceasefire he helped to strike in the Israel-Gaza conflict, while the Russian war in Ukraine rages and a trade war with China shows little sign of ending.
Washington and Beijing have hiked tariffs on each other&#8217;s exports and threatened to cut off trade in critical minerals and technologies altogether.
The trip was formally announced by the White House on Thursday. Details remain in flux, including the meeting between leaders of the world&#8217;s two largest economies.
Neither side expects a breakthrough that would restore terms of trade that existed before Trump&#8217;s second-term inauguration in January, according to a person familiar with the conversations. Instead, talks between the two sides to prepare for the meeting focused on managing disagreements and modest improvements.
An interim agreement could include limited relief on tariffs, an extension of current rates, or China committing to buy U.S.-made soybeans and Boeing airplanes. Beijing reneged on similar promises in a 2020 deal with Trump.
Washington could let more high-end computer chips flow to Beijing, which in turn could loosen controls on rare earth magnets that have angered Trump.
On Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump-Xi talk would be a &#8220;pull-aside,&#8221; suggesting nothing formal. Trump later told reporters the two would have &#8220;a pretty long meeting,&#8221; allowing them to &#8220;work out a lot of our questions and our doubts and our tremendous assets together.&#8221;
China has not confirmed a meeting is planned.
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Mira Rapp-Hooper, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Biden administration official, said Trump&#8217;s Asia policy has been defined by intense pressure on countries&#8217; trade policies and defense spending.
&#8220;The high-level question on this trip is really, who does the United States stand with, and what does it stand for,&#8221; she said.
Trump is expected at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, which starts Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
There, he could oversee the signing of a ceasefire deal between Thailand and Cambodia. The deal would formalize an agreement that ended the worst fighting in years between the two countries in July, though it falls short of a comprehensive peace deal. During his second term in office, Trump has branded himself as a global peacemaker.
After that stop, Trump will head to Japan to meet Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected prime minister. Takaichi is expected to affirm plans by her predecessor to hike military spending and to make $550 billion in Trump-directed investments in the U.S.
Then, in Busan, South Korea, Trump plans to meet Xi ahead of an international trade summit. Trump is set to return to Washington before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders&#8217; forum gets under way, according to the schedule announced by the White House on Thursday.
Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese imports to a total of some 155% from November 1 if they cannot strike a deal. That would almost certainly provoke a reaction from Beijing and end a truce that paused tit-for-tat hikes.
Beyond trade, the two leaders are expected to discuss Taiwan, a long-running U.S.-China irritant, and Russia, a Chinese ally now subject to expanded U.S. sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
&#8220;There&#8217;s no intent from the U.S. side to discuss other issues,&#8221; aside from China&#8217;s trade, export controls and its purchases of Russian oil, according to a U.S. official, who said Trump would be prepared to reiterate previous responses if Xi raised other topics.
Trump is also trying to close trade deals with Malaysia and India, while shoring up a deal that has already been struck with South Korea.
U.S. and South Korean relations have been strained by Seoul&#8217;s concerns over the $350 billion investment in U.S. companies sought by Trump and deportations of the country&#8217;s foreign workers.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung wants Trump to pursue peace with North Korea&#8217;s Kim Jong Un. U.S. officials considered, but never confirmed, a trip to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, according to another person familiar with the discussions. Another U.S. official said on Friday that no Kim-Trump meeting was on the schedule for the trip.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Lincoln Feast and Edmund Klamann)

Xi Jinping, Donald Trump

Trump Aims To Clinch Deal With China’s Xi During Asia Trip

A senior State Department adviser who had repeatedly met with Chinese government officials was arrested after investigators discovered more than a thousand pages of classified documents at his home, according to the FBI.
The Justice Department announced Tuesday that 64-year-old Ashley Tellis was arrested by the FBI over the weekend and charged with the unlawful retention of national defense information under the Espionage Act. Tellis has worked for the State Department since 2001 and has a Top Secret security clearance.
An FBI raid of his Vienna, Virginia, home on October 11 found more than 1,000 pages of documents marked “Top Secret” or “Secret,” according to an FBI <a href="https://ecf.vaed.uscourts.gov/doc1/189114572546">affidavit</a>. The document also said that Tellis had met with Chinese government officials to discuss international affairs and received a red gift bag at one such meeting. 
“We are fully focused on protecting the American people from all threats, foreign and domestic. The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan. “The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
Tellis, an expert on India and South Asian affairs, is a naturalized American citizen who was born and raised in India. He had been a contractor for the Office of Net Assessment at the Pentagon and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
&#8220;Ashley J. Tellis is a widely respected scholar and senior policy advisor. At the next court hearing in the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday and in our related filings on Monday, we will be vigorously contesting the allegations brought against him, specifically any insinuation of his operating on behalf of a foreign adversary,&#8221; lawyers for Tellis said in a statement to The Daily Wire. 
On September 12, the affidavit says that surveillance footage captured Tellis arriving at a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility at a Pentagon building in Alexandria, Virginia, where he “had a co-worker print multiple classified documents for him that day.” Later, after he had left, investigators found a document marked “TOP SECRET” in a file folder at a cubicle used by Tellis, the FBI said. He returned on October 10, allegedly putting the documents into his briefcase before leaving the building. 
In a different instance, Tellis entered a State Department building on September 25 and printed hundreds of pages of secret information on Air Force techniques and procedures, the affidavit says. He also printed additional information on military aircraft capabilities, according to the FBI. 
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“The documents were generally found in four locations: (1) a four-drawer locked filing cabinet in a closet in the basement home office area; (2) a two-drawer locked filing cabinet in the basement home office area; (3) in the vicinity of a desk in the basement home office area; and (4) in three large black trash bags in an unfinished storage room in the basement,” the affidavit says. 
The FBI also said that Tellis had multiple meetings with Chinese officials at Northern Virginia restaurants from September 15, 2022, to September 2, 2025. 
The first meeting occurred at a restaurant in Fairfax when Tellis allegedly arrived with a manila envelope, and Chinese officials arrived with a “gift bag,” according to the affidavit. Tellis left without the manila envelope, the FBI said.
During a different meeting in Fairfax on April 11, 2023, Tellis allegedly discussed Iran-China relations and artificial intelligence. On March 19, 2024, Tellis was overheard talking about America’s relationship with Pakistan with Chinese officials, according to the affidavit. 
At the most recent meeting, Tellis was given a red gift bag by Chinese officials on September 2 in Fairfax, according to the FBI.
If convicted, Tellis could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Profile Shoot Of Ashley Tellis, Senior Associate With Carnegie Endowment For International Peace

State Dept Insider Charged Under Espionage Act After Mishandling Secret Docs, Meetings With China

Crime

Pentagon

Politics

State Department

Virginia

The daughter of a Christian pastor detained by the Chinese Communist Party alongside nearly two dozen church leaders is warning of a coming “wave” of Christian persecution in China, she told The Daily Wire. 
Last week, the Chinese government rounded up prominent pastor Mingri “Ezra” Jin and at least 22 other church leaders and locked them up in a detention center in Guangxi, a region in southern China. Jin and the others detained are connected to the Zion Church, one of the largest underground church networks in China.
Grace, Jin’s daughter, told The Daily Wire that she fears that these detentions are only the beginning of a nationwide crackdown on Christianity. 
The detained Christians were from all across the country, including cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, she said. All of the detained pastors have been taken to a central location in Beihai, Guangxi — approximately 1,200 miles south of Shanghai and 1,500 miles from Beijing. 
The pastors have been clothed in prison garb and handcuffed, according to Grace.
Their crime? They are accused of illegally disseminating information online. Grace believes additional charges could follow because government officials have been probing the church&#8217;s structure and finances. 
“This is definitely orchestrated by a high-up central government level” because “they were rounding up people from all across China, and they were all bringing them to one location,” she told The Daily Wire. 
“It was almost simultaneous, it was orderly, and it was orchestrated all together at the same time,” she added, noting that the government appeared to be tracking the pastors&#8217; movements in order to track them down and detain them. 
On Monday morning, Grace said her grandmother attempted to bring her father a Bible and his diabetes medicine, but authorities would not allow her or other family members to visit their detained loved ones. She also said her father and many others weren&#8217;t allowed to speak to a lawyer. 
”We don&#8217;t really know how they are doing,” Grace said. 
She added it was tough to see men who only wanted to spread God’s love treated like criminals. 
“The fact that these folks who are just generally always so gentle, so peaceful, so happy to serve others, are seen as this criminal, and treated as criminals, and put into these shameful prison garments, and put into handcuffs and shackles [doesn’t make sense],&#8221; Grace said. 
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Her father first became a Christian after the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
“When the country betrayed them in such a brutal way, it really was shocking, and they lost a sense of direction for my dad,” Grace said. “He then found the sense of purpose and direction in Christianity, and he turned to Christ, and he realized that was the firm foundation that he needed in order to build his life upon.”
After his conversion, Jin initially pastored one of the government-sanctioned churches approved by China, but he soon left after feeling his ministry was being held “hostage” to the whims of the government, Grace said. 
The government wanted Jin to use the pulpit to promote communism and the Chinese Communist Party. It prohibited discussions of fundamental Christian beliefs, including the second coming of Jesus, because officials declared that China was already a utopia. 
In 2017, Jin started Zion after years of theological training in the United States. By 2018, the government had cracked down on Zion by closing its physical location and freezing the church’s assets. 
Grace said that her father has been detained multiple times over the past few years, but never formally charged. Sometimes he has been taken to hotels and harassed, she said. This time, she believes the detention is more serious and they will face a lengthy prosecution. 
Jin’s detention last week captured the attention of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called for him to be immediately released. 
“This crackdown further demonstrates how the CCP exercises hostility towards Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship at unregistered house churches,” Rubio said. “We call on the CCP to immediately release the detained church leaders and to allow all people of faith, including members of house churches, to engage in religious activities without fear of retribution.”
Grace, who is an American, was grateful for Rubio’s swift condemnation and wants to spread awareness about her father’s detention. She said Rubio’s message had already been blocked in China. 
China, which is home to nearly 100 million Christians, is regularly ranked as one of the worst offenders when it comes to Christian persecution. Open Doors, a watchdog organization that advocates for persecuted Christians, <a href="https://www.opendoorsuk.org/persecution/world-watch-list/china/">listed</a> China as the 15th worst country in the world for persecution, according to its most recent standings.
Grace believes that the persecution could get worse, and that her father&#8217;s arrest is only the beginning. 
“We think that this is just the beginning and that there is a wave of persecution that is coming.”

CHINA-RELIGION-RIGHTS

Daughter Of Detained Pastor Warns Of A Coming ‘Wave’ Of Christian Persecution In Communist China

Daughter Of Detained Pastor Fears 'Wave' Of Persecution From Communist China

Christianity

Jesus Christ

Marco Rubio

The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Friday he will introduce legislation to deter aggression against Taiwan by identifying targets for economic measures that could be deployed rapidly if China acts against the island.
Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho said his &#8220;Deter PRC Aggression Against Taiwan Act&#8221; would create a State and Treasury Department-led task force that would identify Chinese military and non-military targets for sanctions, export controls and other economic measures to use against Beijing in case of Chinese aggression against Taiwan.
&#8220;Using lessons learned from the challenges in U.S. and partner country sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, this legislation will ensure America is prepared to hit China where it hurts should China follow through on its threats to use violent force against Taiwan,&#8221; Risch said in a statement.
An aide said he planned to introduce the measure on Monday.
The Chinese foreign ministry, in a statement in response to Reuters questions, said the United States should strictly abide by the one-China principle &#8211; under which China claims the democratically governed Taiwan as its own &#8211; and stop undermining bilateral relations and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
&#8220;The Taiwan issue is China&#8217;s internal affair,&#8221; the ministry said. &#8220;How to resolve it is solely China&#8217;s own business and does not tolerate any external interference.&#8221;
News of the proposed bill comes ahead of an expected meeting this month between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, with the U.S. leader seeking to conclude a major trade deal with Washington&#8217;s biggest economic and geopolitical rival.
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China has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Beijing has stepped up military and political pressure against Taiwan in recent years.
The U.S. State Department says the U.S. position on Taiwan has not changed and that Washington opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side.
Analysts say China would particularly like the Trump administration to state explicitly that it opposes Taiwan&#8217;s independence rather than say, as did the Biden administration, that it did not support it.
Risch&#8217;s bill is one of several legislative initiatives in the Senate and House of Representatives that supporters say underscore support in Congress for continuing to take a hard line against any Chinese moves on Taiwan.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

The two sides clashed with missiles. trade war. Flag of the People’s Republic of China. Flag of the United States. Taiwan flag

Senior Republican Senator Wants To Boost Pressure On China Over Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan&#8217;s message to the international community is that it is determined to defend itself and that people should not believe any claim it has surrendered in the event of invasion, President Lai Ching-te said on Saturday, capping a week of defense events.
Democratically-governed Taiwan has faced stepped up military pressure from China, which views the island as its own territory. Taiwan&#8217;s government rejects those claims, saying only the island&#8217;s people can decide their future.
Addressing a forum on Taiwan&#8217;s efforts to boost its preparations for natural disaster or war, Lai referenced the government&#8217;s new civil defence handbook, which was launched on Tuesday as part of efforts to get people ready for a possible Chinese attack.
The handbook gives vital information on how to stay safe, he said to an audience that included Western envoys to Taipei.
&#8220;More importantly, we tell everyone, &#8216;In the event of a military invasion of Taiwan, any claim that the government has surrendered or that the nation has been defeated is false,'&#8221; Lai said, quoting one of the key messages in the handbook.
&#8220;As commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Republic of China, I want to tell my fellow citizens and the international community that this is Taiwan&#8217;s position,&#8221; he said, using Taiwan&#8217;s formal name.
&#8220;We are determined to defend freedom and democracy and a sustainable Taiwan.&#8221;
China&#8217;s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
Taiwan this week hosted its largest ever arms show, drawing a host of international companies looking to win a share of the island&#8217;s rapidly increasing defense spending.
Taiwan is also actively courting global defense companies for closer collaboration, such as joint production of weapons.
Speaking separately on Saturday at the opening of a branch office in Taipei, Brandon Tseng, president of U.S. company Shield AI, said his company could have hundreds of employees in Taiwan over the next three to five years.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a region that Shield AI is deeply investing in and deeply committed to,&#8221; said Tseng, who chatted with Lai on Friday as he visited the arms show, where the company was showcasing its V-BAT drones that have been combat-tested in Ukraine.
Shield AI this month signed a &#8220;teaming agreement&#8221; with Taiwan government defense contractor Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, although Tseng declined to give details on possible sales to the island.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Tom Hogue)

Taiwan President

Taiwan Determined To Defend Itself, President Says After Defense Events

Military

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping&#8217;s progress on a TikTok deal this week could help bolster talks to allow parent ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of the short video app, experts said.
The move forward, albeit a small one, comes eight months after a legal deadline passed for Chinese ownership of TikTok in the United States to end, and follows lengthy discussions about a sale.
Trump said on Truth Social on Friday that he appreciated &#8220;the approval of the TikTok Deal&#8221; from Xi, after a call between the leaders of the world&#8217;s two biggest economies.
Xi&#8217;s statement did not mention an approval. It said &#8220;the Chinese government respects the will of firms and welcomes companies to conduct business negotiations on the basis of market rules to reach a solution consistent with Chinese laws and regulations while balancing interests,&#8221; according to the meeting summary in Xinhua state media.
China blocked a similar agreement on the app used by 170 million Americans in April during a trade dispute.
&#8220;Readouts from Washington and Beijing suggest the call between Trump and Xi went well, with words like &#8216;positive&#8217; and &#8216;constructive&#8217; being used by both sides to characterize the important bilateral conversation,&#8221; said Wendy Cutler, senior vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. &#8220;While the leaders apparently blessed the TikTok deal, important details surrounding such matters as who would own and control the algorithm remain unclear.&#8221;
Either way, months of work, at the very least, lie ahead. Trump this week extended the deadline to complete the divestiture to December 19. And lawmakers have raised concerns about reported details on the preliminary framework agreement reached earlier in the week in Madrid.
Congress had ordered the app shut down for U.S. users by January 2025 if its U.S. assets were not sold by Chinese owner ByteDance.
Trump has declined to enforce the law while his administration looks for a new owner, which Democrats say is illegal. He has said he is worried a ban on the app would anger TikTok&#8217;s huge user base and disrupt political communications. He has largely downplayed national security concerns that motivated Congress to demand a Chinese divestiture.
&#8220;I like TikTok; it helped get me elected,&#8221; Trump said during a press conference on Thursday. &#8220;TikTok has tremendous value. The United States has that value in its hand because we&#8217;re the ones that have to approve it.&#8221;
Scott Kennedy, head of the Chinese Business and Economics program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, &#8220;the contours of the conversation today and over the last few months better align with China&#8217;s interests than U.S. interests.&#8221;
He added, &#8220;we&#8217;re talking about individual business deals. We&#8217;re not talking about Chinese structural reforms.&#8221;
Key questions about the deal remain. The precise ownership structure of the company is unclear, as is the amount of control China will retain, or whether Congress will approve.
The deal would transfer TikTok&#8217;s U.S. assets to U.S. owners from ByteDance, Reuters has reported. Sources familiar with the deal said U.S. TikTok would still make use of ByteDance&#8217;s algorithm.
That arrangement worries lawmakers concerned that Beijing could spy on Americans or conduct influence operations through the app. China has said there is no evidence of a national security threat posed by the app.
(Reporting by Chris Sanders, David Shepardson and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

TikTok Logo With US Flag

Sale Of TikTok’s U.S. Assets May Get Boost After Recent Trump-Xi Call

Big Tech

MADRID (Reuters) &#8211; The United States and China have reached a framework agreement to switch short-video app TikTok to U.S.-controlled ownership, top U.S. officials said on Monday, with President Donald Trump set to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced the agreement after a meeting between senior U.S. and Chinese officials in Madrid, but declined to give any of the commercial terms of the agreement.
Bessent told reporters that further details would wait to be determined in a call on Friday between Trump and Xi.
Trump said on Monday that trade talks with China had gone very well and hinted that a deal had been reached to resolve issues the U.S. has over TikTok ownership.
&#8220;The big Trade Meeting in Europe between The United States of America, and China, has gone VERY WELL! It will be concluding shortly,&#8221; Trump wrote on his TruthSocial platform.
&#8220;A deal was also reached on a “certain” company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save. They will be very happy! I will be speaking to President Xi on Friday. The relationship remains a very strong one!!!&#8221;
Earlier on Monday a U.S. official with knowledge of the negotiations had said that the U.S. would press ahead with a ban on TikTok if China didn&#8217;t drop its demands for reduced tariffs and technological restrictions as part of a divestiture deal.
U.S. and China delegations met to discuss the divestment from TikTok by Chinese owner Bytedance as part of a round of broader talks on tariffs and economic policy taking place in Madrid. TikTok faces being shut down as early as September 17 in the U.S. unless it moves to U.S. ownership.
Speaking to reporters earlier, Bessent and Greer said China wanted concessions on trade and technology in exchange for agreeing to divest from the popular social media app.
&#8220;Our Chinese counterparts have come with a very aggressive ask,&#8221; Bessent said, adding: &#8220;We are not willing to sacrifice national security for a social media app.&#8221;
POOR TIMING
The U.S.-China negotiations at the Spanish foreign ministry&#8217;s baroque Palacio de Santa Cruz, which began on Sunday, were the fourth round of talks in four months to address strained trade ties and a looming divestiture deadline for TikTok.
They took place as Washington demands that its allies place tariffs on imports from China over Chinese purchases of Russian oil, which Beijing on Monday said was an attempt at coercion.
Beijing separately announced on Monday that a preliminary investigation of Nvidia had found the U.S. chip giant had violated its anti-monopoly law. Bessent said the announcement on Nvidia was poor timing.
The probe is widely seen as a retaliatory shot against Washington&#8217;s curbs on the Chinese chip sector.
(Reporting by David Lawder, Pietro Lombardi and Ethan Wang,; Additional reporting by Brendan O&#8217;Brien and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Clarence Fernandez and Susan Fenton)

U.S. and China delegations visit Spain

Trump, Xi To Speak Friday After U.S.–China Reach Framework On TikTok

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