The Chinese Communist Party has escalated its persecution of Christians by arresting more prominent church leaders and putting them in detention centers, The Daily Wire has learned.
At least seven Christians affiliated with the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, a city in southwestern China, were arrested on Tuesday, according to the church. The arrests began in the early morning and continued until evening.
Early Rain Covenant Church is a prominent evangelical Presbyterian church that has earned the ire of the Communist Party for being part of China&#8217;s underground church movement. The arrests of the Early Rain members come just a few months after the Chinese government <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daughter-of-detained-pastor-warns-of-a-coming-wave-of-christian-persecution-in-communist-china">rounded up</a> prominent leaders at Zion Church, another well-known underground church.
Those arrested included Li Yingqiang, an elder at the church whose home in Deyang was searched, and preacher Dai Zhichao. Dai was arrested at the church office after being told by authorities he was not allowed to leave his home, according to the church.
“At around 11:00 a.m. on January 6, he was taken under control at the church office, then brought to his home where it was searched, after which he went out of contact. It has now been confirmed that he is at the Jinniu District Case-Handling Center,” a message from Early Rain said.
Others who were taken by authorities included elder Yan Hong, preacher Wu Wuqing, the family of Ye Fenghua, and deacon Zeng Qingtao.
A woman named Shu Qiong was also taken by police and charged with “suspected provocation and police disturbance,” according to a source familiar with the arrests. A photo obtained by The Daily Wire shows the police showing up at her home.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1024205" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2561.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="1280" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2561.jpg 960w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2561-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2561-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2561-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /></div>
One of those arrested was able to return home on Tuesday, according to the church. The church is currently locating lawyers for those arrested.
At the same time, police targeted the Early Rain Academy, a school operated by the church.
“The academy immediately organized teachers and students to evacuate and leave the site. Subsequently, the owner of the teaching site was summoned to the police station and pressured, and was informed that all items must be removed from the site by Friday,” the church said in a release.
The CCP’s targeting of Early Rain stretches back to 2018 when it began arresting prominent leaders, including Pastor Wang Yi. Wang was convicted in 2019 of subverting the government and sentenced to nine years in prison. While still imprisoned, he was just awarded a Democracy Service Medal by the National Endowment for Democracy.
Corey Jackson, who heads up the advocacy organization Luke Alliance, said the arrests were part of a broader pattern of targeting of unregistered churches. He said in recent months that more pastors were being brought into local police offices for “tea times” and told that they must register with the state or face harsh treatment.
“One person reported that they had been told by the domestic security police that churches, ‘house churches,’ are going to face complete prohibition. Participants will face imprisonment, and there&#8217;s going to be less pattern of warning, fines, and leeway,” Jackson told The Daily Wire.
Jackson said that the government really wants to exert more control over the churches, and make them register any online services they have before meeting. He also said the government doesn’t want parents educating kids in their faith if they are below the age of 18.
Jackson added that he would like to see the Trump administration put some pressure on China over their repression of Christianity.
“We need to apply pressure on China with human rights,” he said. “We must continue not to just be transactional in our approach with China, but to also recognize that China is the one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world.&#8221;

MixCollage-06-Jan-2026-07-47-PM-6588

China Escalates Persecution Of Christians With More Shocking Arrests

China

Christianity

Communist China

Global Politics

Religion

Religious Liberty

Trump Administration

World

China&#8217;s foreign ministry announced sanctions on Friday targeting 10 individuals and 20 U.S. defense firms, including Boeing&#8217;s St. Louis branch, over arms sales to Taiwan.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said the United States strongly objected to the Chinese move, which freezes any assets the companies and individuals hold in China and bars domestic organizations and individuals from doing business with them.
Individuals on the Chinese list, including the founder of defense firm Anduril Industries and nine senior executives from the sanctioned firms, are also banned from entering China, it added.
Other companies targeted include Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation and L3Harris Maritime Services, and Boeing&#8217;s St. Louis branch, which focuses on defense work.
The Chinese action appears largely symbolic given China&#8217;s lack of dealings with U.S. defense firms, whereas it has been a major purchaser of Boeing civilian aircraft.
The move follows Washington&#8217;s announcement last week of $11.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, the largest ever U.S. weapons package for the island, drawing Beijing&#8217;s ire.
&#8220;The Taiwan issue is the core of China&#8217;s core interests and the first red line that cannot be crossed in China-U.S. relations,&#8221; a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.
&#8220;Any provocative actions that cross the line on the Taiwan issue will be met with a strong response from China,&#8221; the statement said, urging the U.S. to cease &#8220;dangerous&#8221; efforts to arm the island.
China views democratically-governed Taiwan as part of its own territory, a claim Taipei rejects.
The U.S. is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, though such arms sales are a persistent source of friction with China.
The State Department spokesperson said this policy had &#8220;remained consistent across nine different U.S. administrations and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.&#8221;
&#8220;We strongly object to Beijing’s efforts to retaliate against U.S. companies for their support of U.S. arms sales that support Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities,&#8221; the spokesperson said, while urging Beijing to cease military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taipei.
Boeing has been in talks to sell Chinese carriers up to 500 civilian jets, according to a report in September, which would represent a major breakthrough for the company in the world&#8217;s second-largest aviation market, where orders have stalled amid U.S.-China trade tensions.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Joe Bavier, Peter Graff and Alistair Bell)

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

China Hits U.S. Defense Firms With Sanctions Over Arms Sales To Taiwan

Department of Defense

Taiwan

President Trump announced on Monday that the United States Navy will begin building massive battleships for the first time since 1944, to join the “Golden Fleet.”
Trump announced that the new Trump-class battleships will include two ships to be built immediately, with the first named USS Defiant. He said the vessels will be 100 times more powerful than the Iowa-class battleships from WWII and will be equipped with missiles, hypersonic weapons, railguns, high-powered lasers, nuclear-armed cruise missiles, and AI technology.
“There’s never been anything like these ships,” Trump said. “These are the best in the world. They will be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100x more powerful than any battleship ever built.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: President Trump announces that he approved a plan for the construction of two new battleships.
He says they will be larger than ever and have “100x the power&#8221; of the Iowa-class battleships.
The last battleship (USS Missouri) was built in 1944 decommissioned in 1992. <a href="https://t.co/TDylUGasWK">pic.twitter.com/TDylUGasWK</a>
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyAkiva/status/2003232951228866969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
The Golden Fleet is the Navy’s “bold investment to revitalize America’s maritime industrial base,” according to the initiative’s <a href="https://www.goldenfleet.navy.mil/">newly launched website</a>.
&#8220;America’s next battleship, the USS Defiant, will be part of a new class of large surface combatants with the most destructive fire power of any surface ship to ever sail — having the ability to strike an adversary at 80x the range of the previous class,&#8221; the website states. &#8220;The Trump-class Battleship will be the first-ever guided missile battleship with the ability to deploy with nuclear and hypersonic missiles.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1018777" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1018777" class="size-large wp-image-1018777" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/USS_Defiant_Munitions_v4-2048x1017-1-1024x509.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="509" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/USS_Defiant_Munitions_v4-2048x1017-1-1024x509.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/USS_Defiant_Munitions_v4-2048x1017-1-300x149.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/USS_Defiant_Munitions_v4-2048x1017-1-768x381.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/USS_Defiant_Munitions_v4-2048x1017-1.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Photo: U.S. Navy</div>
The USS Defiant is expected to take 2.5 years to build and is projected to measure 840 to 880 feet long, with a beam of 105 to 115 feet and a draft of 24 to 30 feet, displacing over 30,000 to 40,000 tons. The ship is designed to reach speeds greater than 30 knots and will accommodate 650 to 850 crew members.
While two ships will begin to be built immediately, Trump said the planned class size for the fleet is 20 to 25 ships.
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<a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2025/12/19/us-navy-to-develop-new-class-of-smaller-more-agile-combatant-ships/">According to the Military Times</a>, a Government Accountability Office report detailed two decades of poor performance at U.S. shipyards, citing low production, significant schedule delays, and issues with faulty functionality.
Trump said the new ships will be built with steel in modernized American shipyards, creating thousands of jobs, and that he will personally weigh in on the design as a “very aesthetic person.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
President Trump says he is going to help design the new U.S. Navy Battleships because he is &#8220;a very aesthetic person.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/K78rteOSMp">pic.twitter.com/K78rteOSMp</a>
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyAkiva/status/2003248689587093891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
“The US Navy will lead the design of these ships along with me because I&#8217;m a very aesthetic person alongside our partners in American industry,” Trump said. “The construction will create thousands of American jobs.”
Trump said the new fleet will be a restoration of American naval power, pointing to the great ships of the past, including President Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet to the USS Missouri, which played an important role in WWII, including hosting the Japanese surrender.
“America&#8217;s battleships have always been unmistakable symbols of national power,” Trump said. “We stopped making them for whatever reason, I don&#8217;t know.”
Trump added that 15 submarines are under construction and he plans to order more warships to join the Golden Fleet, including destroyers and a new class of aircraft carriers.
“This is American industrial power returning,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Generations of Americans will be grateful for it.”
The USS Missouri, built in 1944, was the last U.S. battleship to enter service and remained active until its decommissioning in 1992. It is now a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1018779" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/The_Golden_Fleet_Silhouettes-2048x402-1-1024x201.png" alt="" width="1024" height="201" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/The_Golden_Fleet_Silhouettes-2048x402-1-1024x201.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/The_Golden_Fleet_Silhouettes-2048x402-1-300x59.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/The_Golden_Fleet_Silhouettes-2048x402-1-768x151.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/The_Golden_Fleet_Silhouettes-2048x402-1-1536x302.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/The_Golden_Fleet_Silhouettes-2048x402-1.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
<div id="attachment_1018781" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1018781" class="size-large wp-image-1018781" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/The_Golden_Fleet_Silhouettes-2048x402-2-1024x201.png" alt="" width="1024" height="201" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/The_Golden_Fleet_Silhouettes-2048x402-2-1024x201.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/The_Golden_Fleet_Silhouettes-2048x402-2-300x59.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/The_Golden_Fleet_Silhouettes-2048x402-2-768x151.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/The_Golden_Fleet_Silhouettes-2048x402-2.png 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />The Golden Fleet (U.S. Navy)</div>
Battleships were largely abandoned after WWII as aircraft came to increasingly dominate naval warfare. These slow, heavily armored ships were designed to fight other vessels, making them easy targets for air attacks — a weakness made clear at Pearl Harbor, where the USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS California, and USS West Virginia were sunk in 1941.
In the decades since, aircraft carriers, submarines, and missile-armed warships have replaced battleships in the U.S. Navy.
Secretary of the Navy John Phelan said the Trump-class battleships will be essential to the Navy, will have the most modern weapons systems, and serve as a flagship for commanders to oversee naval forces far out at sea.
“Not only is the president’s idea a good one, it’s something the Navy desperately needs and now has a formal requirement for,” he said. “The future Trump-class battleship the USS Defiant will be the largest, deadliest, and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans.”
<div id="attachment_1018783" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1018783" class="size-large wp-image-1018783" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Screenshot-2025-12-22-at-7.17.35-PM-1024x438.png" alt="" width="1024" height="438" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Screenshot-2025-12-22-at-7.17.35-PM-1024x438.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Screenshot-2025-12-22-at-7.17.35-PM-300x128.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Screenshot-2025-12-22-at-7.17.35-PM-768x328.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Screenshot-2025-12-22-at-7.17.35-PM-1536x657.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Screenshot-2025-12-22-at-7.17.35-PM-2048x875.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Specifications for the Trump-class Battleships. (U.S. Navy)</div>
He added that the ships will give the United States a “new leg” in nuclear deterrence for the “first time in generations” because the battleships will carry the nuclear armed sea-launched cruise missile.
“We are going to make battleships great again,” Phelan said. “The USS Defiant battleship will inspire awe and reverence for the American flag whenever it pulls into a foreign port.”
The battleship announcement comes as the Navy <a href="https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/4364538/navy-announces-new-small-surface-combatant/">expands its fleet</a> with a new class of smaller, agile warships. The FF(X) small surface combatant, based on the U.S. Coast Guard’s Legend-class, will be a highly-adaptable vessel, with the first ship expected to enter service in 2028.

Trump Battleships

Trump Announces New ‘Golden Fleet’ Of ‘Trump-Class’ Battleships

Donald Trump

Military

U.S.

U.S. Navy

Federal authorities have accused another Chinese researcher of smuggling biological materials into the United States, as the FBI cautions American universities about growing threats from the communist nation.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced Friday that Chinese national Youhuang Xiang was arrested for allegedly smuggling genetic material from E. coli bacteria into the United States while working as a researcher at Indiana University. According to court documents, Xiang entered the country in 2023 on an educational exchange visa to secure a postdoctoral position at the school.
“This is yet another example of a researcher from China — given the privilege to work at a U.S. university — who then allegedly chose to take part in a scheme to circumvent U.S. laws and receive biological materials hidden in a package originating from China,” Patel posted on X. “The [FBI] and our CBP partners are committed to enforcing U.S. laws put in place to protect against this global threat to our economy and food supply. If not properly controlled, E. coli and other biological materials could inflict devastating disease to U.S. crops and cause significant financial loss to the U.S. economy.”
Xiang has been charged with conspiracy to commit smuggling, smuggling, and making false statements. He could face up to 20 years in prison and fines totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars if convicted. James Tunick, Xiang&#8217;s lawyer, disputed the allegations.
&#8220;Youhuang Xiang was legally working in the United States on a J-1 visa with a professor from the Biology Department at Indiana University to better wheat crop production in the United States,&#8221; Tunick told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The allegation that Youhuang smuggled E. coli into the United States is completely false and is not even charged by the United States Department of Justice.&#8221;
Xiang, whose <a href="https://biology.indiana.edu/about/research-associates/index.html">bio</a> says he specializes in “recognition specificity in host-pathogen interactions and engineering crop resistance to pathogen,” was first arrested on November 25. Information about the case was unsealed this week. 
In March 2024, Xiang requested that a person in China referred to as “Individual A” ship plasmid DNA from E. coli bacteria to his home in Bloomington, Indiana, according to the indictment. The material was shipped to him shortly after, concealed in a package of clothing items that &#8220;Individual A&#8221; declared included a men&#8217;s vest and women&#8217;s underwear, investigators said. The package allegedly came from Guangzhou Sci Tech Innovation Trading.
More than a year later, on November 23, 2025, Xiang landed in Chicago after returning from a trip to London, where agents with Customs and Border Protection questioned him. During that interview, he allegedly lied to them about the package he had sent to his home and about his ties to the Chinese government. 
Xiang was scheduled to remain at Indiana University through 2027 and was leading a research program focused on genome editing in wheat plants to increase resistance to fungal diseases.
The FBI was made aware of the shipment by CBP as part of an investigation into biological materials being smuggled into the United States from China, which is why he was questioned on November 23. 
“Information provided to the FBI by CBP included information about the history of shipments from China to certain individuals at IU conducting research into wheat pathogen Resistance,” the criminal complaint said. “That information indicated that XIANG was associated with that research and that XIANG received a shipment from China at his residence on March 28, 2024.”
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The FBI also thought it was “odd” that Xiang purchased and shipped “women’s underwear from China, and further assessed it as peculiar that a company by the name ‘Guangzhou Sci Tech Innovation Trading’ would sell underwear or clothing,” according to the complaint. 
A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674205219301625">paper</a> written by Xiang also listed his affiliation with the National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics in Shanghai, which raised flags for investigators. 
“I know from my training and experience that the PRC ‘Key Laboratories’ are overseen by the Chinese Government and have a history of concerning actions including technology transfer and theft of intellectual property,” the FBI agent who investigated the case wrote in the criminal complaint. 
Over the last few months, other Chinese researchers at American universities have been arrested for smuggling biological materials into the country. Multiple arrests have been made at the University of Michigan, where <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-makes-more-arrests-as-alarming-pattern-of-chinese-smuggling-continues">investigators said</a> that shipments of concealed biological materials related to roundworms were smuggled into the United States. 
President Donald Trump has faced criticism over the presence of Chinese students at American universities. While some critics have called for reducing the number of Chinese nationals admitted to U.S. schools, Trump has argued that their enrollment helps provide funding for American institutions.

Cornfield and blue sky

Chinese National Accused Of Smuggling E. Coli DNA Into United States

Chinese National Accused of Smuggling E. Coli DNA Into United States

Crime

Department of Justice

Indiana

kash patel

Smuggling

An illegal immigrant given a New York commercial driver&#8217;s license allegedly caused a fatal crash while driving behind the wheel of a tour bus.
Chinese illegal immigrant Yisong Huang, 54, allegedly killed a 31-year-old truck driver and injured several others in Tennessee on December 9 while he was distracted by a video on his phone, <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/12/17/us-news/nyc-bus-driver-charged-in-fatal-highway-wreck-entered-us-illegally-but-was-still-issued-license-feds/?utm_social_post_id=625806205&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_social_handle_id=17469289" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the New York Post. The latest collision is part of a recent, larger string of crashes involving illegal immigrants behind the wheel of heavy trucks and buses.
&#8220;Far too many innocent Americans have been killed by illegal aliens driving semi-trucks and big rigs. And yet, sanctuary states around the country have been issuing illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses. The Trump Administration is ending the chaos,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement regarding the latest crash.
“The brave men and women of ICE are working nonstop to get criminal illegal aliens out of our communities and off our roads.&#8221;
After the crash, Huang failed an English proficiency test, which is required by the federal government in order to obtain a commercial driver&#8217;s license, according to DHS.
Huang crossed the border illegally in 2023, when federal authorities reported a massive surge in Chinese migrants entering through Mexico, DHS said. Border Patrol agents swiftly released him into the country, and he was later granted a work permit and a Social Security card.
The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed that Huang received the license on April 11, 2025, after he presented federal documents, according to the New York Post. The state agency denied that the license was issued unlawfully.
After a series of recent crashes involving illegal immigrants carrying commercial driver&#8217;s licenses, the Trump administration has commenced a nationwide crackdown on states issuing them. The federal government has also instituted new changes to testing requirements, including enforcing a rule that testing must be conducted in English.
A recent federal audit of New York&#8217;s issuance of commercial driver&#8217;s licenses found that more than half were issued unlawfully, <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-uncovers-latest-bombshell-over-50-nys" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Department of Transportation. As a result, the Trump administration has threatened to withhold roughly $73 million in federal funding from the Empire State.
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Experts have told The Daily Wire that the issue metastasized when the Biden administration began handing out work permits &#8220;like candy&#8221; to illegal border crossers while taking a lax approach when it came to commercial driver&#8217;s license testing requirements.
The issue is also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-illegal-immigrant-truck-drivers-ended-up-on-americas-roads?author=Jennie+Taer&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=32&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=How+Illegal+Immigrant+Truck+Drivers+Ended+Up+On+America%E2%80%99s+Roads">attributed</a> to third-party testing sites, which certify new drivers independently.
“There’s no good checks and balances, to be perfectly honest with you,” Lewie Pugh, Executive Vice President of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, previously told The Daily Wire.
“A lot of states allow third party testing to do the CDLs and I would say that’s how most of these people get through,” he said.

Untitled design – 2025-12-18T125543.316

Illegal Immigrant Tour Bus Driver With New York License Accused Of Causing Fatal Wreck

Deportations

Illegal Immigration

New York

iRobot, the American company that created the robotic vacuum Roomba, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, sending the company into the arms of its Chinese manufacturer just three years after regulators blocked a proposed sale to Amazon.
Under the <a href="https://media.irobot.com/2025-12-14-iRobot-Announces-Strategic-Transaction-to-Drive-Long-Term-Growth-Plan?utm_source=chatgpt.com">bankruptcy plan</a>, iRobot’s manufacturer, Picea, will take 100% of the company’s equity, shifting ownership from American to Chinese hands. The filing comes after iRobot cited declining sales, increased competition from lower-priced alternatives, and rising supply chain and manufacturing costs. Initially, the company hoped to merge with Amazon to improve its scale and get more competitive pricing for parts and inventory.
While the Federal Trade Commission has not commented on iRobot’s bankruptcy, the commission welcomed the collapse of the Amazon deal in January 2024. “We are pleased that Amazon and iRobot have abandoned their proposed transaction,” the United States Federal Trade Commission <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/01/statement-regarding-termination-amazons-proposed-acquisition-irobot">said</a>. “The Federal Trade Commission will not hesitate to take action in enforcing the antitrust laws to ensure that competition remains robust.”
Three years later, iRobot’s bankruptcy leaves the United States without a major American-owned competitor in the home robotics industry.
With iRobot’s bankruptcy, shareholders are expected to see their equity wiped out &#8212; an outcome that contrasts sharply with the $61 per share cash payout investors would have received had the Amazon acquisition gone through. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who urged regulators to oppose the deal, said at the time that Amazon should not be allowed to use acquisitions to avoid competition.
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“I have serious concerns about Amazon’s deal to buy iRobot,” <a href="https://x.com/SenWarren/status/1575616208417980417">said</a> Warren. “We’re asking the FTC to oppose this proposed deal to protect competition and consumers. Amazon shouldn’t be allowed to just buy their way out of competing.”
After the deal collapsed, iRobot laid off roughly one-third of its workforce and its stock price plummeted. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy later described the company’s struggle as “a sad story.”
“This American company invented this product, invented the category and built a business that was almost $1 billion in revenue,” Jassy said. He argued that successful businesses naturally attract competition, including from Chinese manufacturers, and that iRobot needed scale to survive.
“They needed to scale because scale lets you buy components at the right price and invest in R&amp;D,” Jassy said.
Jassy also addressed privacy concerns, noting that robotic vacuums must map the inside of customers’ homes to avoid running into furniture.
“What Western regulators were saying is that they trust these two large Chinese companies with maps of the inside of U.S. consumers&#8217; homes more than they do Amazon,” he said. “That can’t be what we were going for. I think we&#8217;ve got to try and find a way to be reasonable with what we are doing.”
At the time the deal was blocked, the Federal Trade Commission was chaired by President Joe Biden appointee Lina Khan, who quickly became known for her aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement, particularly toward large technology companies. Khan now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdanis-transition-team-a-reflection-of-his-leftism">serves</a> as New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team chair.

In this photo illustration, the IRobot logo is seen

Regulators Blocked Amazon-iRobot Deal, Now Bankruptcy Sends Company Back To China

Amazon

Antitrust

Business

Economy

Robots

Imagine if, today, Hong Kong judges declared imprisoned media mogul Jimmy Lai innocent of sedition.
Such a decision would have rehabilitated the reputation of the Chinese Communist Party, which governs Hong Kong. It would have shown that under Xi Jinping, China is capable of rendering justice, a safe place for investors, and a worthy member of the community of nations. 
Of course, none of that happened. On Monday, Lai was declared guilty in a Beijing-controlled Hong Kong court that has long since ceased to behave like a real institution of justice.
This piece could have been written months ago. The verdict was preordained. The performance has been elaborate. And the point could not be more explicit: China intends to demonstrate that even a man of extraordinary achievement, wealth, international attention, and moral courage can be ground down when he refuses to bow.
The question that now confronts us in the West is whether we will continue pretending not to notice.
For nearly four years — over 1,500 days — Jimmy Lai has been held by one of the world’s most powerful states for the “crime” of publishing a newspaper and advocating liberties that were once taken for granted in Hong Kong.
The machinery of repression has been draped in legal garments: national security charges, “collusion with foreign entities,” and a farcical, 140-day trial before three government-approved judges sitting without a jury.
But no one observing this process can confuse it with justice. Lai’s real offense is moral, not legal. He refused to be silent. And more remarkably, he refused to leave Hong Kong, even though he holds British citizenship.
His suffering exposes a larger crisis than Beijing intends. The West’s response — or lack thereof — has revealed a distressing hollowing out of the very values we claim to defend.
It is fashionable in diplomatic circles to speak of Jimmy Lai as a symbol: a symbol of press freedom, a symbol of Hong Kong’s struggle, a symbol of China’s tightening grip. But symbols, by their nature, can be admired at a distance. They do not make demands. They do not interrupt trade deals, unsettle foreign ministries, or challenge ecclesial diplomacy.
Jimmy Lai is not a symbol. He is a man: a husband, father, entrepreneur, Christian convert, and a friend. His imprisonment is not merely a geopolitical incident. It is a moral scandal. And to ignore it is to participate in it.
In a sense, the trial is his. But in a deeper sense, it is ours.
Western democracies often proclaim that human dignity precedes the state, that rights derive not from a party but from a higher moral order. Jimmy Lai believes this too — indeed, he has lived it more courageously than many who declaim it from the safety of parliamentary benches or editorial pages.
What is being tested now is not his resolve, but ours. So far, we are failing.
There have been statements, to be sure. The occasional speech. A scattered diplomatic demarche. But from most governments — and all too often from global institutions that exist to defend human rights — the silence has been strategic. Clear speech about Jimmy Lai would require clear policies toward Beijing. It would impose costs. And modern democracies have grown adept at identifying moral obligations they can safely ignore.
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The Vatican’s silence has been perhaps the most dispiriting. Hong Kong’s elderly cardinal, Joseph Zen, who has stood with Jimmy in the courtroom, sees his Church’s reticence for what it is: a misreading of the Chinese Communist Party by leaders who know persecuted communists but not communist persecutors.
This silence is not neutrality. It is complicity.
The West Kowloon courtroom where Jimmy’s trial unfolded is modern enough: glass boxes, metal detectors, and a gaudy display of armed police meant to intimidate observers. The judges, bewigged in the British manner, give the proceedings the solemn appearance of common law.
But the substance is pure fiat. The prosecution spent 52 days marching the court through subscription lists, emails, tweets, and circulation figures — routine journalism recast as treason.
Apple Daily, the outlet Lai founded, sold a million copies at its height. The state now treats that popularity as evidence of criminal conspiracy. Jimmy steadily denied inciting violence or calling for sanctions, insisting instead that Apple Daily gave voice to Hong Kongers’ desire for freedom.
I watched him from the gallery, sitting behind glass, frail after years in solitary confinement. His wife, Teresa, gripped her rosary. Cardinal Zen, 93 next month and himself under tight state restrictions, sat beside us. When Jimmy caught my eye and nodded, I traced the sign of the cross. His eyes filled with tears.
This is not the behavior of a man plotting insurrection. It is the quiet dignity of conscience under persecution.
The transformation of Hong Kong is part of a wider crisis within China itself. Since the National Security Law took effect in 2020, over 300 people have been arrested for political offenses; 45 pro-democracy activists have received sentences of up to ten years simply for organizing primaries. Beijing recently expanded the NSL to include vague categories like “external interference,” ensuring that any political dissent can be retroactively criminalized.
This is the portrait of a regime tightening control because it has lost the capacity to inspire.
Hong Kong’s extraordinary success was built on precisely the principles Beijing now fears: rule of law, open markets, free expression. Its people created a global entrepôt through ingenuity and liberty.
These habits of freedom do not vanish easily. If mainland Chinese — from tycoons to factory workers — were ever allowed to see that prosperity and liberty are twins, the Party’s foundation would tremble even if the Chinese people (and the world) would prosper.
Perhaps that is why Jimmy Lai is so dangerous.
Now that the official verdict has been handed down, Beijing will claim it is a matter of law. It is not. It is a matter of fear. The CCP — an empire of 1.4 billion — fears a single newspaper publisher because he embodies something they cannot permit: a free man.
Jimmy Lai could have escaped all this. He had the wealth, the passport, and the opportunity. But he stayed because Hong Kong “gave me my freedom,” he said, and he felt obliged to defend it. In this, he resembles other prisoners of conscience: Mandela, Solzhenitsyn, and the unnamed young man who stood before a tank on a Beijing boulevard 36 years ago.
The West has the power to elevate the cost of holding Jimmy Lai. The United Kingdom, of which Lai is a citizen, could apply targeted sanctions. The United States could treat his case with the urgency it affords other political prisoners. The Vatican could speak with the clarity and courage of its own martyrs. And ordinary citizens can demand that their governments act.
Silence, too, is an action.
The British educator Arnold Toynbee once wrote that civilizations do not die from murder but from suicide. The test of our generation is whether we are still willing to defend the principles on which our free societies are built — or whether we will barter them for trade access and diplomatic convenience.
The world will watch Monday’s verdict with predictable outrage. But outrage without action is merely performance. If we abandon Jimmy Lai, we lose more than one man’s liberty. We lose our own moral clarity. We forget what freedom looks like, sounds like, and demands of us.
Jimmy has repeatedly said that the truth will prevail, even if only “in the kingdom of God.” Let us prove that it can prevail in Hong Kong as well — and that the free world still remembers how to act like one.
***
Fr. Robert Sirico is a Catholic priest and co-founder and President Emeritus of the Acton Institute (<a href="https://www.acton.org/">www.acton.org</a>).
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Hong Kong Jimmy Lai National Security Law Court Case

Jimmy Lai’s Guilty Verdict — And The West’s

Christian Persecution

Hong Kong

Jimmy Lai

Two weeks ago, Bloomberg anchor Lisa Abramowicz, discussing the sale of Nvidia H200s to China with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/will-president-trump-sell-advanced-ai-chips-to-china">asked</a>, “Is it more of a national security risk to give China some of these high-powered chips, or is it more of a national security risk to not have United States tech in China?”
Lutnick replied, saying that very question was sitting on the president’s desk. On Monday, President Trump delivered his answer.
“I have informed President Xi, of China, that the United States will allow Nvidia to ship its H200 products to approved customers in China, and other Countries, under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security,” the president announced. “President Xi responded positively! 25% will be paid to the United States of America.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on whether that 25% will be paid by foreign governments, strictly Chinese buyers, or the AI companies themselves. In August, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/morning-brief-trumps-d-c-takeover-a-china-chip-deal-border-wall-2-0">reports</a> surfaced of a separate arrangement in which Nvidia and AMD would share 15% of their profits with the United States government.
President Trump emphasized that Nvidia’s most advanced chips, Blackwell and Rubin, would not be included in H200 export authorization.
The decision drew an immediate rebuke from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). “After his backroom meeting with Donald Trump and his company’s donation to the Trump ballroom, CEO Jensen Huang got his wish to sell the most powerful AI chip we’ve ever sold to China.”
Warren called for Huang to “testify publicly and under oath” in front of Congress.
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Trump defended the move, insisting it would not compromise national security. “We will protect national security, create American jobs, and keep America’s lead in AI,” he stated.
Earlier this month, Samuel Hammond, the chief economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/will-president-trump-sell-advanced-ai-chips-to-china">told</a> The Daily Wire, “Permitting H200 exports to China would be a world-historic mistake. America’s current lead in AI would be radically diminished with very little to show for it.”
AI Czar David Sacks, speaking at the Salesforce Dreamforce conference, described the export policy as a complicated endeavor.
“What we ship to China is complicated,” he said, noting that current policy permits less advanced chips to be sold abroad, but that the fight in Washington is where that line is drawn. “Some people want to draw that line very, very restrictively.”
Sacks has not yet commented on the H200 decision — but earlier on Monday, he weighed in on the president’s forthcoming “One Rule” executive order. “There must be only one rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI,” Trump said, warning that “we are beating all countries at this point in the [AI] race, but that won’t last for long if we are going to have 50 States involved in the rules and approval process.”
Addressing concerns on the AI preemption, Sacks stated that with 50 different AI models for 50 different states, America will end up with a &#8220;regulatory morass worse than Europe.&#8221; The AI czar <a href="https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/1998125180753944985">added</a>, &#8220;If we want America to win the AI race, a confusing patchwork of regulation will not work.&#8221;
Further details on the &#8220;One Rule&#8221; executive order, as well as clarification on the H200 sale to China, are expected later this week.

Moscow, Russia – April 7, 2019: NVIDIA video chip on the motherboard

Trump Answers High-Stakes Question On AI And China

Artificial Intelligence

Elizabeth Warren

National Security

Nvidia

President Donald Trump aims to prevent conflict with China over Taiwan and the South China Sea by building up U.S. and allies&#8217; military power, according to a new U.S. strategy document.
The Trump administration laid out its approach to one of the world&#8217;s most sensitive diplomatic issues in an official National Security Strategy document, released on Friday. It comes as Beijing ratchets up pressure on democratically governed Taiwan and Japan, deploying vessels across East Asian waters this week in its largest maritime show of force to date.
&#8220;Deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,&#8221; said the document, a periodically updated vision statement from the administration to Congress and the first since Trump took office in January.
China views Taiwan as its own, and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. China also has vast regional claims, including almost the entire South China Sea, which are disputed by many of its smaller neighbors.
The United States has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but Washington is the island&#8217;s most important international backer and is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. The issue has been an irritant in U.S.-China relations for years.
The document&#8217;s language on Taiwan is stronger than the national security strategy produced during Trump&#8217;s first term in office. The document in 2017 mentioned Taiwan three times in a single sentence, echoing longstanding diplomatic language.
The updated strategy, however, mentions Taiwan eight times across three paragraphs and concludes that &#8220;there is, rightly, much focus on Taiwan&#8221; because of its strategic location in trade-rich waters and dominance in semiconductor manufacturing.
&#8220;We will build a military capable of denying aggression anywhere,&#8221; in the chain of islands stretching from Japan to Southeast Asia, said the latest document. &#8220;But the American military cannot, and should not have to, do this alone. Our allies must step up and spend &#8211; and more importantly do &#8211; much more for collective defense.&#8221;
That will reinforce &#8220;U.S. and allies&#8217; capacity to deny any attempt to seize Taiwan&#8221; or any other steps that would &#8220;make defending that island impossible,&#8221; the report said.
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Trump, a Republican, has largely avoided directly saying how he would respond to a rise in tensions over the island.
Trump&#8217;s penchant for dealmaking and effort to seek closer ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping have kindled fears in the region of weakening U.S. support for Taiwan and regional allies from Tokyo to Manila. Trump plans to travel to Beijing in April, where the leaders will discuss extending the truce in their trade war.
Last month, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi drew Beijing&#8217;s wrath when she told parliament that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan that threatened Japan could justify a military response. Trump privately asked Takaichi not to escalate the dispute with China, Reuters previously reported.
But Trump also signed a new law requiring his administration to regularly review how it interacts with Taipei. It also approved the sale of fighter jet and other aircraft parts to Taiwan for $330 million. Both were seen as signs of support by Taiwan. Trump has also pressed Japan and South Korea, two key regional allies, to hike defense spending.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; editing by Philippa Fletcher, Don Durfee and Diane Craft)

Donald Trump/Xi Jinping

Trump Unveils Strategy To Deter China From Invading Taiwan

Americans and Europeans are overwhelmingly concerned about China’s vision for a new global order and support investment to stay ahead of Beijing in technology, according to polling exclusively reviewed by The Daily Wire.
The American Edge Project in partnership with Mercury Analytics, surveyed thousands of people across the United States and Europe concerning their views on China, artificial intelligence, and other issues. The poll, reviewed by The Daily Wire, was conducted from October 7-25.
Pollsters asked 4,000 adults spread equally among the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany, and another 500 in Belgium. The margin of error is 3.1% for each country’s sample. The margin of error on sub-samples is greater.
The poll on Westerners&#8217; thoughts on China, its orientation toward the West, and the battle to innovate and develop technology comes as the Trump administration has prioritized winning the race for artificial intelligence. The Trump administration has pushed Europe, as well, to embrace technological growth and avoid burdensome regulations that could unduly hamper AI development.
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At an AI summit in France in February, Vice President JD Vance touted the Trump administration’s ambition to make the United States the world leader in AI, but “just because we&#8217;re the leader doesn&#8217;t mean we want to or need to go it alone,” Vance <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-vice-president-the-artificial-intelligence-action-summit-paris-france">said</a> in an invitation to Europe.
Americans and Europeans are overwhelmingly concerned about the threat China poses to the United States and Europe. The poll results demonstrate repeated concerns on both sides of the Atlantic that respondents are “deeply worried about China’s plans to create a new global order and its technological threat to Western nations,” according to a polling memo reviewed by The Daily Wire.
According to the poll, 79% of Americans believe that China threatens their economic well-being, and 80% say they are concerned about a national security threat. Europeans responded in similar numbers with 78% saying China threatens their economic well-being and 70% concerned about threats to their national security.
Even more Americans, 87%, responded that they are concerned about China building alliances with non-Western countries to build a bloc that could challenge the West. For Europeans, the number who agreed with the American majority ranged from 80% in Belgium to 89% in France.
And 91% of Americans said they are concerned that China is conducting cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. Almost the same percentage of Europeans, 90%, said the same.

China military parade

Poll Shows Americans And Europeans Agree: China’s Plan For A ‘New Global Order’ Is A Big Problem

Poll Shows Americans And Europeans Agree: China's Plan For A ‘New Global Order’ Is A Big Problem

Europe

United States

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday launching a “national effort” to integrate artificial intelligence into research and accelerate innovation and scientific discovery.
The Trump administration has made AI research and innovation a top priority as it seeks to win the AI “race” against China. The White House said the new national effort, named the Genesis Mission, will be one of the largest research and development projects in the history of the United States.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright <a href="https://x.com/ENERGY/status/1993102758812303725">compared</a> the effort that the Trump administration is coordinating for AI advancement to the Manhattan Project that developed the nuclear bomb and the Apollo Program that landed the first humans on the moon.
“In this pivotal moment, the challenges we face require a historic national effort, comparable in urgency and ambition to the Manhattan Project that was instrumental to our victory in World War II and was a critical basis for the foundation of the Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratories,” the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/11/launching-the-genesis-mission/">order</a> states.
The aim of the Genesis Mission is to build an AI model that will learn from and incorporate federal datasets “to train scientific foundation models and create AI agents to test new hypotheses, automate research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs.”
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The project will partner researchers at each of the United States’ 17 national laboratories with businesses and academic research centers to work on AI development and models.
“The Genesis Mission will dramatically accelerate scientific discovery, strengthen national security, secure energy dominance, enhance workforce productivity, and multiply the return on taxpayer investment into research and development, thereby furthering America’s technological dominance and global strategic leadership,” the order states.
The project will largely be run through the Department of Energy and its network of national laboratories that conduct some of the most sensitive research in the United States.
“The Order directs the Department of Energy to create a closed-loop AI experimentation platform that integrates our Nation’s world-class supercomputers and unique data assets to generate scientific foundation models and power robotic laboratories,” a White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/11/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-unveils-the-genesis-missionto-accelerate-ai-for-scientific-discovery/">fact sheet</a> on the order says.

President Trump Signs Executive Order On Energy Production

Trump Signs Order Launching ‘Manhattan Project’ For Artificial Intelligence

Chris Wright

Technology

On Monday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that President Donald Trump faces a high-stakes decision: Where to draw the line on exporting American AI technology to China. 
“Is it more of a national security risk to give China some of these high-powered chips, or is it more of a national security risk to not have US tech in China?” Bloomberg anchor Lisa Abramowicz asked the commerce secretary in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4RfWh-1oNk">interview</a> on Monday.
“Well, that is the question &#8230; in front of the president,” Lutnick replied.  
As the commerce secretary, Lutnick oversees America’s export-control system. These rules regulate which sensitive technologies can be sold abroad. Nvidia’s AI chips have become a contentious part of that system. Lutnick explained that the President “decides whether to sell those chips or not, and then we will execute it however he decides to go forward.” 
Abramowicz pressed Lutnick specifically on whether the administration will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 AI chips to China. The H200 is not as advanced as the new Blackwell chips, which President Trump said <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2025/11/03/trump-says-hell-allow-china-nvidia-deals-except-for-most-advanced-blackwell-chips/">will not be allowed for export</a>, but is more advanced than the H20 chips, which were <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/11/trump-nvidia-amd-china-chip-revenue-deal-implications.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com">approved for export earlier this year</a>. 
Some experts warn that allowing sales of H200 AI chips would go too far. 
Samuel Hammond, chief economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, told The Daily Wire,  “Permitting H200 exports to China would be a world-historic mistake. America’s current lead in AI would be radically diminished with very little show for it.” 
Hammond said the United States has an advantage, but it&#8217;s far from secure. “Our lead is incredibly fragile. China is massively outbuilding us on energy, leaving us vulnerable to being leapfrogged but for export controls,” he said. If export controls were lifted entirely, he warned, America’s <a href="https://ifp.org/the-b30a-decision/">computing advantage</a> would “quickly drop from nearly 30x to just 4x.”
President Trump’s AI Czar, David Sacks, emphasized this at the Salesforce Dreamforce <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzv3GixZL6g">conference</a> last month, stressing that the decision is far from straightforward. 
“What we ship to China is complicated,” Sacks said.
Under the current policy, only less advanced chips are exported. But Sacks noted that the fight in Washington is over where that line should be drawn. He said, “Some people want to draw that line very, very restrictively.&#8221; 
He argued that Washington’s mindset contrasts sharply with Silicon Valley’s, the place where Sacks built his career. 
“What Washington wants is control &#8230; The bureaucracies want to control these decisions. They want you to apply for a license and get their permission to do business,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If we let the bureaucracy win, we are going to kill American competitiveness all over the world.” 
Silicon Valley takes a different view. “Everyone in Silicon Valley understands that the way that you win a technology race is to have the biggest ecosystem &#8230; the most developers &#8230; the most apps in your app store,” he said. “You just want everybody to be building on top of your technology stack. And that&#8217;s what we want for the United States.” 
Sacks believes Trump’s approach to China should be nuanced. 
“I don’t think you want to sell China our latest and greatest chips because it would be too much of an advantage for them. But if you deprive them entirely, there are two issues with that.” 
First, the economies of the United States and China are linked through trade, Sacks said. “We saw that recently with the rare earths, where they cut us off and imposed new requirements on that. So as long as we need some things from China, we are going to have to reciprocate in some way.” 
Second, U.S. companies competing against China can weaken Chinese AI competitors such as Huawei, he continued. 
“China wants Huawei to scale up and dominate the Chinese market and then use that to then dominate the world market,” Sacks said. “And what Huawei would want is for all American chips to be banned in China so they can dominate that huge market for themselves.”
“I wouldn’t give them the latest and greatest,&#8221; he said, “but if we can take share away from Huawei with a less current chip, then that’s something I think we should consider doing.” 
President Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115605897178712132">wrote</a> on Truth Social Monday that he talked to China&#8217;s President Xi Jinping, but did not directly mention Nvidia&#8217;s H200 chips. &#8220;We discussed many topics including Ukraine/Russia, Fentanyl, Soybeans, and other Farm Products, etc.”

Trump Admin Faces Critical AI Decision

To Sell Advanced AI Chips, Or Not To Sell Advanced AI Chips?

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