MANAMA, Bahrain — The US believes that an alleged sweeping Chinese cyber espionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon targeted and recorded telephone calls of “very senior” American political figures, a White House official said on Saturday.

The comments by Anne Neuberger, the US deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, to reporters at the Manama Dialogue regional security conference in Bahrain’s capital revealed new details of the campaign.

While a large number of Americans’ metadata likely has been stolen, US officials understand that “the purpose of the operation was more focused,” Ms. Neuberger said.

“We believe… the actual number of calls that they took, recorded and took, was really more focused on very senior political individuals,” she continued.

She did not elaborate, including revealing the identities of those who were targeted.

Chinese officials previously have described the allegations as disinformation and said that Beijing “firmly opposes and combats cyber attacks and cyber theft in all forms.”

“We’re still investigating the scope and scale” of the hacking campaign, Ms. Neuberger said.

The New York Times in October reported that members of US President-elect Donald J. Trump’s family and Biden administration officials were among those targeted by China-linked hackers who broke into telecommunications companies.

A senior US official this week said dozens of companies worldwide have been struck by the hackers, including at least eight telecommunications and telecom infrastructure firms in the US. — Reuters

TAIPEI — Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Sunday that China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the island in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect will be a new round of war games.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has been angered by visits by President Lai Ching-te to Hawaii and the US territory of Guam as part of a Pacific tour. Mr.  Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night.

Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year.

In its daily morning report on Chinese military activities, Taiwan’s defense ministry said there were 14 Chinese warships operating nearby, up from the eight it reported the previous day.

The ministry said it had detected four Chinese balloons flying over the Taiwan Strait, one of which had brushed the top of the island.

Weather will likely be a factor in China’s decision on any war games, security sources say. Weather in the strait has been poor this weekend.

China’s defense ministry did not answer calls to its news office seeking comment outside of office hours on Sunday.

But in a strongly worded commentary on its WeChat account on Sunday, China’s Ministry of State Security said Mr. Lai’s efforts to “use arms to seek independence” and cosy up to the United States were doomed to fail.

Taiwan’s government is putting on a “false display of power” while the US government is “acting in cahoots with gangsters and jackals” in supporting Taiwan, it said.

“No country, organization or individual should underestimate the strong determination, firm will and powerful capacity of the Chinese government and people to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said.

No one should presume they can “step out of line on the Taiwan issue without having to pay a price”, the ministry added.

Mr. Lai and his government reject Beijing’s sovereignty claims. — Reuters

HANOI – Vietnam is vulnerable to becoming the new Trump administration’s next target for tariffs as data shows its trade surplus with the United States ballooning, industry executives and analysts said.

The Communist-run country, home to large industrial operations of U.S. multinationals such as Apple, Google, Nike and Intel, has the fourth highest commercial surplus with the United States, topped only by China, the European Union and Mexico.

U.S. trade data released on Thursday showed the country’s deficit with Vietnam reached $102 billion in the first ten months of this year, nearly a 20% increase over the same period in 2023.

“For Trump the main metric is the trade deficit, and the Vietnam number is bad,” said Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Asia-based Hinrich Foundation.

“Vietnam is an ideal candidate for early action because it cannot easily retaliate,” she said.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in January, threatened tariffs of up to 20% on all U.S. imports during his election campaign.

His son Eric, a top adviser, has cited Vietnam among countries that “ripped off” the U.S., according to a video shown last week at a business conference in Hanoi organised by American chambers of commerce.

At the event several businessmen and trade association representatives expressed concern about possible tariffs on Vietnam.

“The new tariffs are one of the biggest concerns for the Korean industry in Vietnam,” Hong Sun, head of South Korea’s chamber of commerce in Vietnam, told the conference. South Korea’s Samsung Electronics is a major exporter of smartphones and electronic devices to the U.S. from Vietnam
Vietnam’s foreign affairs ministry did not reply to a request for comment on potential tariffs, but Vietnamese officials have repeatedly urged Washington to maintain seamless trade.

TRADE ADVISER PICK
In another sign Vietnam could face tariffs, Trump picked Peter Navarro to be his senior counselor for trade and manufacturing.

Navarro has said tariffs on Vietnam would be highly effective in cutting the U.S. trade deficit, writing in the Project 2025 proposals seen by many policymakers in Washington as a blueprint for the new Trump administration.

“Navarro has been a well-known expert under the Trump administration for increasing the size of the American manufacturing sector, imposing high tariffs, and repatriating global supply chains,” said Nguyen Hung, a specialist in supply chains at RMIT University Vietnam.

Vietnam benefited from trade barriers Trump imposed on Beijing in his first term, which spurred manufacturers to shift production out of China.

With nearly one-third of Vietnam’s exports now going to the U.S., the country would need to improve the traceability of goods and components to dispel concerns of being used merely as an assembling site for products made in China, Hung said.

The country could partly offset its large trade surplus by boosting its imports from the U.S., including possibly liquefied natural gas (LNG), drugs and airplanes, officials have said.

However, it is unclear whether Vietnamese authorities support these offsetting measures and how significant they could be.
“I don’t think Vietnam is in a position to buy quickly and enough” to materially reduce its surplus, said Elms of the Hinrich Foundation. — Reuters

TAIPEI – Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te urged China on Friday to “unclench its fists” and not take any unilateral actions, saying ahead of expected Chinese war games around the island that Beijing would not win any respect for military drills.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, is expected to launch another round of exercises in response to Lai’s trip to the Pacific, which has included stopovers in Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam, according to security sources.

Speaking to reporters in the Pacific Islands nation of Palau on the final day of his tour, Lai said he hoped China, which has condemned his visits to the United States, would return to the rules-based international order.

“It’s better to open your hands than to clench your fists. Only by doing so can China win respect from the international community,” Lai said in comments carried live on Taiwanese television.

“No matter how many military drills China stages and how many ships and aircraft they dispatch to intimidate regional countries, China will not win the respect from any country,” he added, urging Beijing to stop “unsettling and regrettable” unilateral actions.

Asked about possible Chinese drills, Lai said Taiwan’s engagement with the world “should not be used by authoritarian countries as an excuse for provocation”.

Taiwan’s government has a full grasp of the security situation in the region and has made the “best preparations” to ensure the security of the Taiwan Strait separating the island from China, he said.

Beijing detests Lai, branding him a “separatist”, and has rejected multiple offers of talks by him.

A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, asked on Friday about the potential for war games, said the Taiwan issue was the “core of China’s core interests”.

“It is the first red line that cannot be crossed in Sino-U.S. relations, and China’s determination to defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering,” Lin Jian told a routine news conference in Beijing.

Lai rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future and that Taiwan has a right to engage with the rest of the world.

Lai reiterated that while Taiwan wants engagement with China, he cannot have any illusions about peace and that Taiwan must continue to strengthen its defenses.

Peace is priceless and there are no winners in a war, he added, repeating comments he made in Hawaii after visiting a memorial to the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

China has staged two rounds of war games around Taiwan so far this year, one in May shortly after Lai’s inauguration and another in October following his national day speech.

In Guam on Thursday, Lai spoke with U.S. congressional leaders, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, ahead of Donald Trump returning to the White House on Jan. 20.

Trump unnerved Taiwan during the U.S. presidential campaign, saying the island “should pay us for defense” and that Taiwan had taken virtually all of the U.S. semiconductor industry’s business.

Lai said Taiwan enjoys strong bipartisan support in the United States and that he was optimistic that he can deepen ties with the incoming U.S. administration.

“Taiwan is confident that we can continue to deepen cooperation with the new U.S. government and resist the expansion of authoritarianism.” — Reuters