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America’s Companies Keep Flirting With Security Nightmare That’s ’100 Times’ Worse Than TikTok

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A rising San Francisco human resources startup’s use of a blacklisted Chinese AI lab’s model is setting off alarm bells as Beijing continues to reel in American companies.

Rippling touts itself as a one-stop-shop AI platform for human resources, information technology and finance that services over 20,000 U.S. companies, per its website. The model’s maker, Z.ai, also known as Zhipu, had already made it on to a U.S. government entity list months earlier over its ties to the Chinese military.

“Any data that transits an API through servers based in China is at risk of deliberate data exfiltration and intelligence collection. This is the same problem we’ve had with TikTok, but scaled up to be 100 times worse as people are uploading sensitive personal information. They’re not making fun videos of kids dancing, but asking for pretty sensitive advice about every aspect of their lives as they’re using AI systems,” Ryan Fedusiak, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) who focuses on China and AI-related issues, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Open models “can be tampered with in ways that are very difficult to detect, and we haven’t seen a huge number of attacks like this yet. But I do worry that the potential is certainly there,” Fedusiak warned.

Rippling is not the only company to take Chinese AI for a test drive. Giants like DoorDash and small startups are increasingly adopting Chinese AI models because they provide nearly-frontier level performance at far less cost than Anthropic and OpenAI, Fortune reported. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said in 2025 the company used Alibaba’s Qwen AI model, referring to it as “fast and cheap,” per NPR. (Read more from “America’s Companies Keep Flirting With Security Nightmare That’s ’100 Times’ Worse Than TikTok” HERE)

WATCH: Tensions Escalate in South China Sea as Ships Collide

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Tensions are heating up in the South China Sea, as Chinese and Philippine ships once again collide in the long disputed waters.

Chinese vessels collided with Philippine coast guard ships near the disputed atoll of Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands. The Chinese were quick to accuse the Philippines of crashing their vessel into them deliberately.

Chinese Coast Guard spokesperson Gan Yu said in a statement the Philippines ignored several warnings, and caused the collision by dangerously ramming Chinese law enforcement.

“The Philippine side is entirely responsible for the collision. We warn the Philippine side to immediately stop its infringement and provocation, otherwise it will bear all the consequences arising from that,” Gan said.

China Daily reported the Philippines then engaged in a second incident a few hours later, the CCG further accused the Philippines of seriously infringing on China’s sovereignty, and undermining regional peace in a separate statement. (Read more from “WATCH: Tensions Escalate in South China Sea as Ships Collide” HERE)

‘Blood Money’: Two of the Biggest Funders of the Radical Transgender Movement in the U.S. Are China-Linked Billionaires

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Pro-Beijing groups financially backed by two China-linked billionaires are pushing the radical transgender movement as a means of advancing a Marxist agenda in the United States, seven-time New York Times bestselling author Peter Schweizer reveals in his new book Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans.

In Blood Money, Schweizer, who is a Breitbart News senior contributor and the president of the Government Accountability Institute, reveals China’s multi-pronged, covert attack on America. In Chapter 6, called “Destabilizing Democracy,” Schweizer explores how two billionaires, China-based American Neville Roy Singham and Alibaba co-founder Joseph Tsai, prop up radical activists groups that use transgenderism as a weapon against the “capitalist order.”

Schweizer first focuses on Singham, who grew up in Jamaica and Detroit, Michigan, and as a young man adopted communist ideological views, joining the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW). Singham ended up creating a software business named Thoughtworks, while also serving as a “strategic technical consultant” for Huawei, the Chinese military-linked tech company.

Thoughtworks eventually opened an office in Beijing; and in 2010, it held its Software Development Conference in China’s capital city. However, Singham ended up selling the company in 2017, a sale which was a “financial boon” for him and enabled him to dump money into various companies in China, where he now lives, according to Blood Money.

“While enjoying his affluent life and connections in Beijing, Singham has poured more than $100 million into organizations driving the protest movement in the United States,” Schweizer details. “According to the chief scientist at Thoughtworks, Martin Fowler, Singham sold the company so he could fund his ‘activist work’: radical pro–Communist Chinese causes.” (Read more from “‘Blood Money’: Two of the Biggest Funders of the Radical Transgender Movement in the U.S. Are China-Linked Billionaires” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Taiwan’s Fighting Spirit: ‘Rational Assessment Does Not Favor Beijing’

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Taiwan’s indomitable fighting spirit would pose a serious challenge to Beijing’s military ambitions in the event of an invasion, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“The starting position of any substantive and rational assessment does not favor Beijing if its goal is to invade, occupy, and sustain control over Taiwan,” Steve Yates, senior fellow and chair of the China Policy Initiative, told the DCNF.

Taiwan’s military preparedness and will to fight has received renewed attention, following what some outlets, such as The New York Times, have called Ukraine’s “tenacious” defense against Russian aggression.

“Support for sovereign Taiwan has grown and shifted over the last three or four decades, mostly as a function of the fact that the people who support unification with China are older people with a stronger, more direct connection with the Chinese people that came over with Chiang Kai-shek in the late 1940s when the Civil War was coming to an end,” Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, told the DCNF. “Now you’ve got a younger base who passionately support and believe in a sovereign Taiwan and that speaks to the view that they would fight for their country.”

Yates also believes the Taiwanese possess a formidable fighting spirit, citing the island nation’s unique history as a source. (Read more from “Taiwan’s Fighting Spirit: ‘Rational Assessment Does Not Favor Beijing'” HERE)

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Skier Suffers Frozen Penis in Olympics Mass Start Race

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The men’s 50km mass start race at the Beijing Games was shortened to 30km but that did little to help Finland’s Remi Lindholm, who needed a heat pack at the end of the race to thaw out a particularly sensitive body part.

Lindholm spent just under an hour and 16 minutes traversing the course in howling, freezing winds, leading to his penis becoming frozen for the second time in a cross-country skiing race following a similar incident in Ruka, Finland last year.

“You can guess which body part was a little bit frozen when I finished (the men’s Olympic 50km race) … it was one of the worst competitions I’ve been in. It was just about battling through,” he told Finnish media. (Read more from “Skier Suffers Frozen Penis in Olympics Mass Start Race” HERE)

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Ratings for Beijing Olympics Tank; 2022 Opening Ceremony Hit All-Time Low in TV Viewership

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Thus far, the 2022 Beijing Olympics have been an absolute flop. The ratings for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics hit all-time lows.

On Saturday, NBC Sports revealed that Friday’s full-day opening ceremony coverage averaged “nearly 14 million TV-only viewers.”

The viewership plunged 43% from the opening ceremony for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, which had 23.8 million people watching the international sporting event.

“The previous low over the last three decades was the 1992 Barcelona games, which had 21.6 million viewers,” noted The Wrap which added, “The high watermark for an opening ceremony was the London Games in 2012, when more than 40 million tuned into NBC’s tape-delayed coverage.”

Deadline reported, “A paltry 8.7 million tuned in on NBC in primetime see the pre-taped Mike Tirico and Savannah Guthrie-led coverage of the propaganda-heavy spectacle put on by Chinese President Xi Jinping and filmmaker Zhang Yimou.” (Read more from “Ratings for Beijing Olympics Tank; 2022 Opening Ceremony Hit All-Time Low in TV Viewership” HERE)

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US Navy Scrambling to Get Advanced Fighter Jet From Bottom of Ocean Before China Does

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The U.S. Navy is attempting to find a downed fighter jet in the South China Sea before Beijing does, BBC News reported.

The $100 million F-35C plane, which is the Navy’s newest and contains classified equipment, went down on Monday after what was described as a “mishap” during takeoff, BBC News reported.

It is the Navy’s first “low observable” carrier-based, which makes its operations undetectable in enemy airspace, and has the most powerful fighter engine in the world, BBC News reported. Since the vehicle is in international waters, capturing it is fair game.

The jet was taking off from the USS Carl Vinson when it went down and injured seven sailors as it struck the deck, BBC News reported. It is now at the bottom of the sea, and the Navy is not providing details on how long retrieval might take. (Read more from “US Navy Scrambling to Get Advanced Fighter Jet From Bottom of Ocean Before China Does” HERE)

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British, U.S. Embassies Warn of Threats Against Westerners in Beijing

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The British and the American embassies in China say they have received information of possible threats against Westerners visiting a popular shopping district in Beijing around Christmas.

Both embassies sent out warnings to their citizens and staff, urging extra vigilance if they are in the Sanlitun district.

The district is home to a popular open-plan mall that boasts high-end brands like Mango, Reiss, and Lacoste, and some of Beijing’s best Western dining.

In August, a woman was stabbed to death in broad daylight by a sword-wielding man there. The attacker also injured a French man. Beijing police said the man stabbed the two passerby “without cause or reason.” (Read more from “British, U.S. Embassies Warn of Threats Against Westerners in Beijing” HERE)

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Man in Wheelchair Sets Off Bomb at Beijing Airport (+video)

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Photo Credit: APA man in a wheelchair set off a homemade bomb in Terminal 3 of the Beijing International Airport on Saturday evening, injuring himself but no one else, Chinese state media reported.

Order was quickly restored and no flights were affected by the explosion, state-run China Central Television said on its microblog.

The official Xinhua News Agency said a wheel-chaired Chinese man set off the device outside the arrivals exit of Terminal 3 at around 6:24 p.m. It said the man was being treated for injuries, but that no one else was injured in the explosion.


A reporter for Sky News tweeted a photo originally posted on the Chinese site Weibo that was said to capture the moment the blast happened.
Photo Credit: Mark Stone/Twitter @Stone_SkyNews
CCTV, which also reported that no one else was hurt, identified the man as Ji Zhongxing, born in 1979 and from the eastern province of Shandong.

Read more from this story HERE.

American Factory Boss Says He’s Being Held Hostage by Scores of Workers in Beijing

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

An American executive said Monday he has been held hostage for four days at his medical supply plant in Beijing by scores of workers demanding severance packages like those given to 30 co-workers in a phased-out department.

Chip Starnes, 42, a co-owner of Coral Springs, Florida-based Specialty Medical Supplies, said local officials had visited the 10-year-old plant on the capital’s outskirts and coerced him into signing agreements Saturday to meet the workers’ demands even though he sought to make clear that the remaining 100 workers weren’t being laid off.

The workers were expecting wire transfers by Tuesday, he said, adding that about 80 of them had been blocking every exit around the clock and depriving him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office. He declined to clarify the amount, saying he wanted to keep it confidential.

“I feel like a trapped animal,” Starnes told The Associated Press on Monday from his first-floor office window, while holding onto the window’s bars. “I think it’s inhumane what is going on right now. I have been in this area for 10 years and created a lot of jobs and I would never have thought in my wildest imagination something like this would happen.”

Workers inside the compound, a pair of two-story buildings behind gates and hedges in the Huairou district of the northeastern Beijing suburbs, repeatedly declined requests for comment, saying they did not want to talk to foreign media.

Read more from this story HERE.