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DOJ: Chinese State-Sponsored Hackers Breached Senate, Federal Reserve, Multiple Agencies

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The DOJ said Wednesday it had seized internet domains tied to two hacking platforms that Chinese state-sponsored operatives used to break into the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Senate, NASA and several other federal agencies.

CNBC reports that the DOJ said the platforms, known as QScan and QTRouter, were built and run by a Chinese state-sponsored group it calls QTFY. Court documents unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California identify QTFY as operating out of Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Co., a China-based firm. The DOJ said QTFY’s paying customers included the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of State Security and the People’s Liberation Army.

Beyond the Federal Reserve, the Senate, and NASA, the DOJ named the Department of Justice itself, the Energy Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health as victims of the intrusion campaign. A court filing describing additional targets stated: “Other targeted networks include those operated by hospitals, telecommunications providers, power companies, financial institutions, and defense contractors.”

Both pieces of malware had the seized domains hard-coded into them, and officials said removing the domains rendered QScan and QTRouter inoperable. The department said the platforms were “used to target U.S. critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks.” It did not disclose the extent of any damage caused by the intrusions at the agencies or other targets.

Attorney General Todd Blanche framed the seizure as part of a broader campaign against Chinese hacking operations. “State-sponsored malicious hackers preying on America’s critical infrastructure will be stopped and prosecuted. We are here to ensure security for the American people and will use every tool we have to keep that promise,” Blanche said in a statement issued Wednesday. He added that “Federal law enforcement investigated and disabled the PRC’s malicious software, the latest in a series of technical operations to dismantle indiscriminate hacking activities sponsored by the People’s Republic of China.” (Read more from “DOJ: Chinese State-Sponsored Hackers Breached Senate, Federal Reserve, Multiple Agencies” HERE)

How US Military Funding Propelled China’s Robot Dogs

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China’s Unitree Robotics — among the world’s biggest producers of humanoid and quadruped robots — based designs for its most successful robot dogs on innovations funded by the U.S. military, according to a former U.S. defense technology official and three top researchers involved in the project.

Unitree’s $1,600 Go2 model, launched in 2023, helped the company rapidly dominate the global quadruped robot market — its Shanghai IPO has drawn frenzied demand. Another Unitree robot has been shown on Chinese state television, armed and accompanying People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops on an exercise.

These robots draw on breakthroughs in quadruped movement financed by the U.S. DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and other military programs, the researchers and the former official told Reuters.

The Army-funded project turned into, “basically, the first Unitree robot that had any kind of scale,” said Gavin Kenneally, a former University of Pennsylvania researcher involved in the program.

Ben Katz, who worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Biomimetic Robotics Lab, among a consortium of universities financed by the military programs, said the dimensions of Unitree’s popular Go series were “to the millimeter” almost identical to a groundbreaking robot he helped develop called Mini Cheetah. (Read more from “How US Military Funding Propelled China’s Robot Dogs” HERE)

Researchers Crack Open ‘Garlic-Shaped Bottle’ Hiding Rare Surprise from 2,200 Years Ago

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Researchers in China recently uncovered a very unusual find: a large bottle containing an alcoholic drink buried for more than 2,200 years.

The ancient alcohol was found sealed in a bronze vessel in a Qin tomb at the Shanjiabao cemetery in China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The findings were published in the June issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

The tomb dates to the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.), a turbulent era of rival kingdoms before China’s first unification.

The preserved liquid was determined to be an ancient cereal-based alcoholic beverage, a fermented grain drink sometimes loosely described as “beer.”

Unlike other recent discoveries in which archaeologists found only residue from ancient drinks, the bottle contained an impressive 3,740 milliliters, or 3.74 liters, of preserved liquid.

The researchers were surprised when they encountered the liquid, said Ruru Chen, a researcher at Northwest University’s School of Cultural Heritage in Xi’an, China. (Read more from “Researchers Crack Open ‘Garlic-Shaped Bottle’ Hiding Rare Surprise from 2,200 Years Ago” HERE)

This University Received More Foreign Money than Any Other U.S. College

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Harvard University, which has ties to Communist China, has apparently outpaced other American universities in receiving foreign funding.

Now, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who also chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, wants government officials to investigate China’s flow of money into colleges, Fox News reported Monday.

The outlet noted the U.S. Department of Education has kept a list of federally funded universities that received foreign money, and “The Trump administration sought to revamp the agency’s online reporting portal, and, in doing so, it has shown that one institution, Harvard University, has scored more foreign funding than any other college in the country.”

Cotton wants answers regarding the issue, saying he was concerned that transactions with sanctioned Chinese entities may not have been reported.

“Therefore, I encourage additional scrutiny of financial ties between American universities and Communist China,” he said. (Read more from “This University Received More Foreign Money than Any Other U.S. College” HERE)

Trump Reveals China Stole Voter Registration Data from 220M Americans

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President Trump revealed that China stole the voter registration data of 220 million Americans as part of his primetime speech on Thursday.

“This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare,” Trump said.

Some government officials reportedly knew China stole at least some voter registration data — ranging from names and addresses to party affiliations and Social Security numbers — as early as 2020, but didn’t tell Trump about it before the election that year.

There have been multiple reports of Beijing accessing US voter registration data, and an intelligence report declassified in 2022 found that “Chinese officials analyzed multiple US states’ election voter registration data,” but the number of affected Americans has never before been reported.

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) earlier confirmed Thursday that Trump’s speech would have to do with election security and China in a post to X. (Read more from “Trump Reveals China Stole Voter Registration Data from 220M Americans” HERE)

Pastor Freed from Chinese Prison after Trump Raised His Case with Xi Jinping

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The pastor of a prominent underground church in China who was imprisoned by Chinese authorities last year has been released and reunited with his family in the U.S., according to reports.

Ezra Jin, founder of Zion Church, was one of nearly 30 Zion Church pastors and staff members detained in October during one of China’s largest crackdowns on evangelical churches in decades, according to the nonprofit advocacy group Luke Alliance.

Jin was released from detention and arrived in Los Angeles on Friday, ChinaAid reported. According to the Christian human rights organization, Chinese authorities told Jin he was being released due to negotiations between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

During a high-profile state visit to Beijing in May, Trump raised Jin’s case directly with the Chinese leader. On his flight back to the U.S., Trump told reporters that Xi promised to “strongly consider” the pastor’s release.

“We are feeling so overwhelmed with joy. We thank God for this tremendous miracle,” his daughter Grace Jin Drexel said in a family statement to CNN. (Read more from “Pastor Freed from Chinese Prison after Trump Raised His Case with Xi Jinping” HERE)

US Reveals Concern That China Now Has Top Chip Making Tools

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The Trump administration is reportedly concerned that a cutting-edge European chipmaking tool may have ended up in Beijing’s hands.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told semiconductor company ASML in a recent meeting that he worried one of their chip-printing machines was sold to China, sources familiar with the discussions told Bloomberg. ASML has never been allowed to ship the extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines to China due to export controls enacted during President Donald Trump’s first term.

ASML has denied reports that it shipped any EUV machinery to China, Reuters reported on Friday.

“ASML has never ​shipped an EUV machine to China nor have we shipped to China any component, ​module or equipment specially designed to be used in an EUV machine,” the ⁠company told Reuters in a statement.

An ASML spokesperson and the Commerce Department each did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. (Read more from “US Reveals Concern That China Now Has Top Chip Making Tools” HERE)

Communist Country Arrests US Citizen For Alleged Espionage

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China arrested a U.S. citizen and scholar for alleged espionage, a Chinese government spokesman confirmed Friday in a briefing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said U Min Zin, an Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar (ISP-M) founder, faces “criminal compulsory measures,” according to CBS News. Min Zin is being held on allegations “of engaging in espionage and endangering China’s national security,” Lin added.

Min Zin was reportedly apprehended June 3 in Kunming, a city in Yunnan province near Myanmar, according to The New York Times (NYT). An individual with professional ties to the ISP-M told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Min Zin was arrested June 3 at the Kunming airport, CBS News reported.

Another individual with a close relationship to the man in custody anonymously told AFP that Min Zin had traveled to participate in a meeting, according to the outlet. “His family and colleagues are following up with the consulate office there. I know his family is worried,” the individual said.

Min Zin was a student activist when a movement pushed for democracy in Myanmar in 1988, according to the BBC. He reportedly went to Thailand to escape arrest and later studied in the U.S. before returning to Myanmar in 2010. Min Zin had most recently resided in Thailand, according to the NYT. He has produced essays on Myanmar politics for the outlet’s opinion section. (Read more from “Communist Country Arrests US Citizen For Alleged Espionage” HERE)

Taiwan Fires Himars Missiles Towards China

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Taiwan has fired dozens of rockets from an American missile system in China’s direction for the first time.

The US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars) was fired on Wednesday as part of a two-day drill held around Taiwan’s central Taichung city.

The drill took place along a 12-mile front of “red beaches”, coastal areas across the country considered the most likely landing spots for a Chinese invasion.

The Himars is one of the most important systems in Taiwan’s arsenal and would be critical in defending against a Chinese attack. The military also fired its domestically produced Thunderbolt-2000 rocket system, US-made Paladin howitzers and anti-tank guided missiles.

“The live-fire exercise was based on a scenario simulating an enemy amphibious force attempting to invade the central region,” according to a readout from Taiwan’s ministry of national defense. (Read more from “Taiwan Fires Himars Missiles Towards China” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Mayor Admits Acting as Chinese Spy, Running Fake News Website with Ex-Lover in Shocking Plea Deal

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The mayor of Arcadia admitted to acting as an illegal foreign agent of China, resigning from her position in a shocking federal plea deal unsealed on Monday.

Eileen Wang agreed with prosecutors that she worked with the People’s Republic of China to boost propaganda with a fake news website on US soil between 2020 and 2022. She was elected to Arcadia City Council in November 2022 — the city is located in the San Gabriel Valley within LA County.

Wang, 58, worked with her then fiancé, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, on a web site called “U.S. News Center,” which claimed to be news source for Chinese Americans, according to court documents.

But in reality the pair were carrying out Beijing’s orders through the site.

Wang and Sun “executed directives” from the Chinese government, posting propaganda designed to boost China, all while reporting back to their masters with screenshots showing how many people viewed the stories, according to the plea agreement. (Read more from “Mayor Admits Acting as Chinese Spy, Running Fake News Website with Ex-Lover in Shocking Plea Deal” HERE)

Photo credit: X/Eileen1282