After reading the details of this arrest involving the smuggling of biological Roundworms, parasitic nematodes that can infect humans and animals, I am definitely adding Ivermectin and fenbendazole to the crisis kit.
Last week, two Chinese nationals were charged with allegedly smuggling into the U.S. a fungus called “Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon. This week another Chinese national was arrested for smuggling in biological material containing Roundworms. Both the fungi and the Roundworm material can target and impact the U.S. agriculture sector, i.e. food supply.
DETROIT – Chengxuan HAN, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), was arrested and charged in a criminal complaint with smuggling goods into the United States and false statements, announced United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr.
Gorgon was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge Cheyvoryea Gibson, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division, Acting Director of Field Operations John Nowak, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Jared Murphey, acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Detroit field office.
After President Trump had a direct telephone call with Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping, President Trump announced from the Oval Office that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would meet with their counterparts from China again, only this time Bessent and Greer will be accompanied by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
President Trump repeated the same announcement via Truth Social: “I am pleased to announce that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, will be meeting in London on Monday, June 9, 2025, with Representatives of China, with reference to the Trade Deal. The meeting should go very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
While each of the trade Wolverines have teeth, Howard Lutnick is the enforcer. The issue surrounds prior promises made in Geneva to Bessent and Greer on the continuation of mined and refined rare earth minerals from China needed in batteries.
The addition of Lutnick is akin to President Trump saying, go ahead and make the promise again – only this time Lutnick will be there to spell out the consequences of inaction.
President Trump was traveling from Washington, DC to New Jersey aboard Airforce One and took the time to walk back in the plane to the assembled press pool. President Trump took numerous questions on the topics of Kilmar Garcia, the Chinese trade negotiations, Elon Musk and current economic conditions.
President Trump also notes the Big Beautiful Bill is gaining support in the Senate and he is optimistic it will pass without too much issue. Additionally, President Trump responded to a question about Ukraine by noting the drone attack against the bomber installations ends up giving President Putin the motive to continue more aggressive bombing of Ukraine, “here we go”… WATCH:
President Trump and the trade team have made specific requests of Vietnam in order to negotiate a trade agreement. Unfortunately, just like Canada, Vietnam’s problem is not an unwillingness to comply, it’s their inability.
CTH was in the manufacturing base of Vietnam in January; their factories are loaded with component parts from China used to produce finished goods sent to the USA (and globally). President Trump is telling Vietnam they need to reduce their reliance on Chinese imported component goods, but China has spent billions in advanced positioning and contracts, influencing Vietnam.
Vietnam is a very poor country, and their population cannot afford to purchase the products they manufacture. They do not have a domestic consumption base. They are reliant on exports to more wealthy nations to keep their manufacturing base afloat. Practically, it is easy to have sympathy for Vietnam due to their economic dependence on both China (for imported raw materials) and the USA (for exported finished goods).
VIETNAM – The US has sent a “long” list of “tough” requests to Vietnam in its tariff negotiations, including demands that could force the country to cut its reliance on Chinese industrial goods imports, two people briefed about the matter told Reuters.
Washington wants Vietnam-based factories to reduce their use of materials and components from China and is asking the country to control more carefully its production and supply chains, one of the people briefed on the talks said, without elaborating on whether quantitative targets were included.
The list is part of an “annex” to a framework text prepared by US negotiators, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The sense that this is not good expands when you consider the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the current conflict between the United States and China. Two Chinese researchers in Michigan have been charged with smuggling into the U.S. a fungus that devastates agricultural crops.
Was this an ‘agroterrorism’ operation intended to unleash a serious problem in the U.S. farming system? That intent cannot be dismissed easily.
MICHIGAN – Two Chinese nationals have been charged with allegedly smuggling into the U.S. a fungus called “Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon,” the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were allegedly receiving Chinese government funding for their research, some of it at the University of Michigan, officials said.
“The complaint also alleges that Jian’s electronics contain information describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party,” a DOJ press release said.
“It is further alleged that Jian’s boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen and that he first lied but then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America — through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport — so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked,” according to the press release.
If we cut through all the polite pretending, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appears on Fox News to tell the bobble head the nation specific tariffs are going to hit regardless of what approaches need to be taken. President Trump is going to remain focused on structural changes to the global economic system of trade, manufacturing and USA commerce despite all of the grandiose efforts of the multinationals and their Lawfare foot soldiers.
As Lutnick again repeats, there are a variety of legal mechanisms that can be used to enforce the tariff program triggered by President Trump. Adhering to them is not optional for trade partners who wish to have access to the USA market. If the exporting nation wants to play games, try and delay or delay tactics, the end result will be even more against their interests. There is no alternative other than to acquiesce. WATCH:
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is going to find this out on Thursday when he shows up in full Blackrock mode and only creates a worse scenario for himself and the EU Commission he represents. If Merz wants ‘ugly’, no problem – President Trump has an endless supply of big ugly tools.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on CBS News to counter the false information being spread by Margaret Brennan on behalf of Wall Street corporations. The topics of interest surround China and tariffs.
Let me clarify for the audience that does not follow closely. Tariffs are paid by the importer based on the wholesale price of the product as delivered by the exporting country depending on the exporters’ tariff rate. Tariffs are NOT LEVIED/PAID based on the retail price of the product as sold to the consumer.
Example: A pair of Denim Jeans made in China for Guess Brand. The Chinese manufacturer sells the jeans to Guess Brand for $10 a pair manufactured. Guess sells the jeans at retail in the USA for $100 (a $90 gross profit).
A 50% tariff on China means the jeans cost Guess Brand $15 instead of $10 (an $85 gross profit). A 50% tariff on Guess brand jeans, that retail for $100, changes the cost to the retail brand by $5.
Multinational corporations who have off shored their production and manufacturing to China are the ones screaming about tariffs. Ultimately in the final analysis, President Trump is exposing corporatism, multinational corporate vultures; he is not necessarily just exposing China.
In the example above the company makes $85 gross profit as opposed to $90 gross profit on the pair of jeans if they do not raise the retail price. They don’t raise the price because their profit margins are already ridiculous, and that’s why consumer prices do not go up. A 50% direct tariff on Chinese goods only marginally hits the multinational corporation. American consumers need to understand this dynamic better. WATCH:
[TRANSCRIPT] – MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning and welcome to ‘Face the Nation.’ We begin today with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Good morning and thank you for being here.
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s so much to get to. I want to start with China, because the Defense Secretary just said there’s an imminent military threat from China to Taiwan. Days earlier, Secretary Rubio said he’d aggressively revoked Chinese student visas. On top of that, you have curbing exports to China. Trade talks you said with Beijing are stalled, and President Trump just accused China of violating an agreement, and now says no more, ‘Mr. Nice Guy.’ Are you intentionally escalating this standoff with Beijing?
Next week on Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is scheduled to travel to Washington DC and meet with President Donald Trump in the White House. Considering the importance of Germany to the EU economy and subsequent trade relationship with the U.S, this meeting with Merz will likely be the most important discussion toward a possible U.S-E.U. trade agreement.
Germany is the largest economy within the EU and the core industrial base of the European Union. The number one issue for the German people is their economic status: everything else circles around this priority.
Having spent time in Hamburg, Bremen, Dresden and Frankfurt, it is very clear to me the German people are very focused on work and their vocations. Germans overall, take their economic standing very personally and seriously.
Inasmuch as Merz may have to represent the interests of the larger EU in his approach, he will undoubtedly be focused on what is in Germany’s best interest, with all else second.
For President Trump this specific German interest creates a unique facet of leverage within the larger EU trade discussion. Because the German economy is so vital, whatever terms Germany decides are the core terms the EU will manifest in their trade and tariff negotiations.
I predict we will hear a talking point from Merz, in generally German snark, something akin to a proposal for a zero-tariff base on the import and export of heavy industrial goods (machinery) for both Germany and the USA. I say in general German snark because passive-aggressive Chancellor Merz knows the U.S. is currently not in a position to sell Germany heavy industrial goods, and that’s entirely what President Trump is trying to recreate with the trade/tariff policy.
WASHINGTON DC – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will travel to Washington next week to meet United States President Donald Trump for the first time since taking office earlier this month.
The leaders will meet in the White House on Thursday and are expected to discuss the war in Ukraine, the Middle East and trade policy, German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said in an emailed statement.
United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is the guy who has to navigate all the legal and detailed structures around all of the trade agreements. As USTR there is a lot of responsibility upon Mr Greer to navigate the way through the impediments thrown at him and President Trump by the multinational corporations and banks who are impacted by the America-First trade policy.
USTR Greer appears on CNBC to discuss some of the current issues and challenges, as well as the solutions and motivations behind them. If you are interested in the legal dynamics behind the larger trade policy issues, these appearances by USTR Greer are important. WATCH:
Not surprisingly, it appears the Chinese trade delegation that previously made commitments in Geneva, Switzerland, were wearing a panda mask at the time of the negotiations with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
According to a Truth Social post shared by President Trump, the panda mask was recently removed and the true Beijing dragon behind it appeared. This is not a shock to anyone who has followed the dynamic of Chinese trade promises and practices for a while.
PRESIDENT TRUMP – “Two weeks ago China was in grave economic danger! The very high Tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to TRADE into the United States marketplace which is, by far, number one in the World. We went, in effect, COLD TURKEY with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, “civil unrest.” I saw what was happening and didn’t like it, for them, not for us. I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn’t want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized, and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
China was moving slowly on promises to issue export licenses for rare earths minerals. The Geneva deal called for China to lift trade countermeasures that restrict its exports of the critical metals needed for U.S. semiconductor, electronics and defense production.
“The Chinese are slow-rolling their compliance, which is completely unacceptable, and it has to be addressed,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC, without specifying how that would happen.
Last week, two Chinese nationals were charged with allegedly smuggling into the U.S. a fungus called “Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon. This week another Chinese national was arrested for smuggling in biological material containing Roundworms. Both the fungi and the Roundworm material can target and impact the U.S. agriculture sector, i.e. food supply.
