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China Tag

While I was on my family vacation, I was following the events in Hong Kong through my step-daughter (who is fluent in Chinese, works in Beijing, and holds several degrees in Chinese language and culture).  She noted that the Hong Kong protests were likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Secret Service arrested a Chinese national identified as Yujing Zhang after she managed to get past past initial security at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend with President Donald Trump in town. Zhang had four cell phones, laptop, external hard drive, and a thumb drive. The complaint against her stated the thumb drive had "malicious software."

Communities across the nation have promoted the virtues of recycling, and millions of Americans have dutifully segregated their wastes to "save the planet." However, now many of those programs have started to end because of escalating costs.
Philadelphia is now burning about half of its 1.5 million residents’ recycling material in an incinerator that converts waste to energy. In Memphis, the international airport still has recycling bins around the terminals, but every collected can, bottle and newspaper is sent to a landfill. And last month, officials in the central Florida city of Deltona faced the reality that, despite their best efforts to recycle, their curbside program was not working and suspended it.

We have been following the developments related to Canada's arrest of China’s Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who faces extradition to the United States on suspicion she violated U.S. trade sanctions against Iran. The Department of Justice officially unsealed charges against the tech giant, the executive, and several subsidiaries, alleging the company stole trade secrets and misled banks about its business...as well as violating U.S. sanctions.

Chinese officials are currently planning to send their top trade negotiator to Washington, D.C., next month for trade talks designed to end the tariff battle between the two nations. Ahead of the meetings, the Chinese are appearing to leverage their influence with North Korea to optimum benefit. North Korea's Chairman Kim Jong-un was in Beijing this week, and made significant statements related to promises made during June's Singapore Summit.

Chinese authorities are cracking down on Christmas celebrations. Several Chinese cities have banned Christmas decorations, with government officials ordering the removal of Christmas trees, lights and bells from shopping malls and offices.

During talks with President Trump on Saturday, China reportedly agreed to label the synthetic opioid fentanyl a controlled substance. The White House is calling this move a "wonderful humanitarian gesture." The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported that "a research letter published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) concluded that nearly half of opioid-related deaths in 2016 involved fentanyl."