Voice of America Chinese Broadcast (September 17, 2026) Ukrainian officials say Russian drones struck a passenger bus and a train in southern Ukraine on September 16; Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched a new round of airstrikes against each other on September 16.
This episode reports on Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian transport infrastructure, Saudi-Houthi airstrikes, US Treasury Secretary Bessent's upcoming talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, Macau's first national security trial, US visa restrictions on South Africa, US F-15EX deployment in Japan, new Chinese entry-exit regulations, arms sales to Taiwan before the US-China summit, and an EU report on foreign interference.
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Hello listeners, welcome to the Voice of America Chinese broadcast. I am Wang Yuhe, reporting to you from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Today's main stories include: Ukrainian officials stating that Russian drones struck a passenger bus and a train in southern Ukraine on September 16. Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched a new round of mutual airstrikes on September 16. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed that he will hold talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng this weekend. The US State Department announced new visa restrictions on certain South African citizens, citing land expropriation and racial discrimination against the minority white Afrikaner population in South Africa.
Ukrainian officials said that Russian drones struck a passenger bus and a train in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, September 16. Police stated that the drone struck the bus near Nikopol, a frontline city in the Dnipropetrovsk region, on Wednesday morning, killing four men and one woman. Regional Governor Serhiy Lysak stated on Telegram that seven others were injured. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media that there was no military logic to this, calling it another act of brutality. He urged the US and Europe to strengthen sanctions against Russia. In the Mykolaiv region, acting governor Heorhiy Reshetilov stated on Telegram that a drone attacked a passenger train. He said all 168 passengers and crew members were evacuated, and no one was injured. He added that the train was struck twice more after the initial attack. Zelenskyy said a train depot was also hit in Kovel, near the Polish border. The Ukrainian state railway company told Reuters that since the beginning of this year, Russia has attacked 1,700 railway facilities, exceeding the 1,206 facilities targeted throughout 2025. The department stated that 120 passenger carriages, 304 locomotives, and 43 stations have been damaged this year. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X that this is not collateral damage, but a systematic hunt for the public and an attempt to paralyze civilian life. Russia has not yet commented, and both sides deny intentionally attacking civilians.
In an interview aired on CBS News on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said that there is currently no agreement to stop attacks on energy infrastructure. Prior to this, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday that the two countries had agreed to stop such attacks. Zelenskyy said that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had proposed this idea during a recent visit to Kyiv, and he told them that if there were to be a truce, it would mean absolutely no attacks on energy infrastructure. In Lithuania, President Gitanas Nauseda said that the drone shot down by an Italian NATO fighter jet on Tuesday was an Orlan, a type of drone used by Russia. He said it was highly unlikely to be a deliberate act against Lithuania. He told reporters on Wednesday that the drone was likely targeting Ukraine but was diverted off course by Ukrainian electronic warfare. Polish prosecutors said on Wednesday that a drone washed up on a Baltic Sea beach was a Russian Orlan-10 drone carrying a warhead, which had been disarmed. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that Russian air defense systems intercepted 71 Ukrainian drones overnight. In Belgorod Oblast, acting governor Alexander Shuvayev said that 1 person was killed and 4 were injured in a 24-hour period.
Saudi Arabia and the pro-Iranian Houthi rebels in Yemen launched a new round of airstrikes against each other on Wednesday. Meanwhile, in war-torn Yemen, frontline fighting remains intense in many provinces. The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia has warned U.S. citizens not to travel to the Yemen border region due to the threat of terrorism. The U.S. State Department maintains its travel advisory, stating that due to risks including terrorism, civil unrest, crime, health risks, kidnapping, and landmines, U.S. citizens should not travel to Yemen for any reason. Recent Houthi rebel offensives in Yemen have led to the occupation of large areas along the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which are vital global trade routes. The U.S. has warned the Houthis against disrupting maritime shipping and urged the group to stop attacks within Yemen and on Saudi territory. On Wednesday, the Saudi-backed Yemeni authorities reported airstrikes against Houthi forces in Taiz and Marib provinces. Official media stated that the Yemeni army attacked Houthi militia strongholds, barracks, and personnel on the front lines of Kuda in western Taiz. The government also stated that intense clashes occurred on the southern front of Marib and claimed to have inflicted losses on the Houthi forces. The Houthis, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., stated on Wednesday that they had launched two new airstrikes against Saudi Arabia, firing dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco facilities in Yanbu and ballistic missiles at the Khamis Mushait airbase. The Houthis claimed that Saudi Arabia had launched more than 450 airstrikes this week using F-15 and Typhoon fighter jets taking off from Khamis Mushait and Taif airbases, targeting the provinces of Taiz, Lahij, Al Jawf, Hajjah, Marib, Saada, and Al Bayda, and claimed to have shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet, though this claim has not been independently verified. The Houthis vowed to continue launching attacks deep into Saudi territory, targeting what they called Saudi military concentrations. The Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen's internationally recognized government, which includes countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Malaysia, reported on Wednesday that it had intercepted a drone attempting to enter the airspace of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam, which drew strong condemnation from Muslim countries and leaders. Coalition spokesman Major General Turki Al-Maliki stated that Saudi air defense systems intercepted the hostile drone late Tuesday. Al-Maliki said in a statement that the safety of the two holy sites and pilgrims is a red line, and the Joint Forces Command of the Coalition will not hesitate to take necessary and deterrent measures against the terrorist Houthi militia and their hostile and terrorist acts. The United Nations stated that as many as 125,000 people have been displaced in Yemen this month.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed that he will hold talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng this weekend. This is expected to be the last high-level negotiation window for both sides to reach economic and trade achievements before the scheduled meeting next week between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Bessent stated during a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, September 15, that the US and China have already held some very good private discussions on the Iran issue, and he looks forward to continuing these discussions during his meeting with He Lifeng over the weekend. Bessent said, "I believe that related discussions will also continue during President Xi Jinping's state visit." Although Treasury Secretary Bessent clearly confirmed this weekend's talks, the US Treasury Department has not released specific dates and locations. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing a US official, that Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will host He Lifeng and the Chinese delegation in New York on Sunday to hold the final round of consultations ahead of the summit regarding unresolved economic and trade issues between the US and China. VOA is still awaiting a request for comment from the US Treasury Department regarding the weekend US-China talks. As of Wednesday, the Chinese government has not officially announced He Lifeng's visit and talk arrangements, nor has it confirmed the complete agenda of the talks. The Financial Times reported that the two sides will discuss artificial intelligence competition, Chinese rare earth export restrictions, and how to extend the US-China trade and technology truce arrangement that is set to expire in November. This truce was reached when Trump and Xi met in South Korea last October, at which time both sides agreed to suspend further escalations of tariffs and export restrictions in order to continue negotiations on trade, investment, and critical mineral supplies. According to multiple informed sources, Beijing hopes to extend the truce arrangement until the end of Trump's current term, while Washington prefers an extension of only six months. The US side believes that China has not yet fully fulfilled its commitments regarding the restoration of rare earth and rare earth magnet supplies.
Macau held its first closed-door trial for a national security case on September 16 regarding the subversion of state power charge against former pro-democracy lawmaker Au Kam-san. Michael Polak, the London-based lawyer representing Au Kam-san overseas, stated that holding the hearing in a closed-door manner is tantamount to a sham trial. His family is certainly worried about this trial, and from an international law perspective, various signs indicate that this is a sham trial. We submitted a filing to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention last week, pointing out that his current detention, as well as his detention following what will inevitably be a conviction in Macau, will constitute arbitrary detention. The grounds we raised include that he has been subjected to discriminatory prosecution for persisting in his democratic beliefs, and his right to a fair trial has not been guaranteed.
The U.S. Department of State has announced new visa restrictions on certain South African citizens, citing land expropriation and racial discrimination against the Afrikaner white minority in South Africa. These measures were announced on September 15 by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also cited alleged discriminatory practices that concern Washington, including discriminatory legislation based on race, threats of uncompensated land expropriation, and the incitement of racial violence through inhumane slogans and rhetoric. South Africa has denied what it calls a misrepresentation of its domestic policies, while acknowledging that there are indeed challenges in its bilateral relationship with the United States. President Donald Trump, during a meeting at the White House on May 21 last year with visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, expressed the U.S. government's concern over the alleged discrimination against white farmers. President Trump played videos that he claimed corroborated the alleged persecution of white South African farmers. Ramaphosa denied the accusation, stating that he had not seen the videos and insisting that the farmers were not a policy of his government. The Trump administration subsequently offered refugee status to those South African whites deemed to be facing persecution in their home country. Rubio stated on Tuesday that South African leaders had failed to adequately address the concerns previously raised by the U.S. side. He noted that this was what prompted the U.S. decision to announce the new restrictive measures, in accordance with the authority granted to the Secretary of State by immigration and international law. In a statement, Rubio said the United States remains deeply concerned about racially motivated crimes and government-led discrimination against South Africans, Afrikaners, and other minority groups. Rubio posted on X that the new visa restrictions target foreign citizens who develop or facilitate policies in South Africa that foster racial discrimination, incite violence, or lead to uncompensated land confiscation. South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola rejected the so-called unilateral visa restrictions announced by Rubio, stating that South Africa, as a sovereign nation, is committed to addressing past injustices and contemporary challenges. In a statement, he said that it is our sovereign right to enact laws to address the country's concerns regarding centuries of racial injustice. Lamola emphasized that South Africa has enacted laws aimed at preventing and combating hate crimes and hate speech, noting that these laws are binding on both state and non-state actors. He stated that it is necessary to seek solutions to problems between the two countries, while acknowledging the challenges facing the bilateral relationship.
Kadena Air Base, located just 600 kilometers from Taiwan, is the major U.S. Air Force base closest to Taiwan. The U.S. Air Force plans to replace the retired F-15C/D fighter jets with 36 new F-15EX Eagle II fighter jets in the future. The U.S. Air Force recently completed live-fire testing of the F-15EX, and the first F-15EX designated for deployment to Kadena Air Base rolled out in the United States at the end of August, marking two important milestones for maintaining stability in the Western Pacific. After the F-15C/D fleet stationed at Kadena Air Base is fully retired in 2025, the base's regional air defense and deterrence missions are currently being handled by rotating squadrons of F-22 Raptors and F-35A Lightning IIs. Kadena Air Base issued a press release stating that the first F-15EX Eagle II designated for permanent stationing at Kadena Air Base left the Boeing factory in St. Louis at the end of August and flew to the 142nd Wing of the Oregon Air National Guard for follow-up preparations, marking an important milestone toward permanent deployment to Japan. Brigadier General John Gallemore, commander of the 18th Wing of the U.S. Forces Japan, stated in a press release that the wing is ready to welcome the F-15EX. The 142nd Wing of the Oregon Air National Guard is the first combat unit to be equipped with the F-15EX Eagle II. The unit conducted its first live-fire testing at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada from late August to early September to verify its air-to-ground strike effectiveness. Previously, the F-15EX had completed a series of tests to verify its guided missile and live-fire loading and bombing performance, but this was the first time such tests were completed by a frontline combat unit. The F-15EX is the most advanced fighter jet in the U.S. Air Force, equipped with advanced avionics, a payload capacity of 29,500 pounds, and the ability to carry up to 12 air-to-air missiles. The U.S. Air Force plans to deploy the F-15EX to Kadena Base in fiscal year 2027 and plans to expand the F-15EX fleet to 267 aircraft.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.21%, the S&P 500 fell 0.44%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.01%.
On September 15, China began enforcing new entry and exit regulations, further strengthening control over the entry and exit of its own citizens and foreigners. Since their promulgation on July 31, these new regulations have continued to attract widespread attention. Human rights organizations and scholars say that China is turning border controls into a normalized governance tool, and China's borders have effectively become a prison affecting millions of people. Entitled regulations on entry and exit management, the content consists of 19 articles covering aspects such as the prevention of security risks for Chinese citizens leaving the country, application requirements for the entry and exit of personnel including foreigners, numerous restrictive measures, and the management of intermediary services. The Beijing government claims that these new regulations aim to safeguard national security and regulate border management, but observers generally believe that these clauses have significantly expanded the government's power to implement exit bans. Teng Biao, a human rights scholar at the City University of New York, said in an interview with Voice of America on Thursday that China has actually had many restrictions on entry and exit for a long time, and this new regulation actually details some of the previous rules further. Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University, told Voice of America in an interview on August 5 that the new regulations are a major restriction on citizens' personal freedom and right to leave the country. Gao said that these regulations have actually transferred the power to decide on restricting citizens' freedom to leave the country from what should have been judicial organs to administrative organs, without providing adequate and effective judicial relief channels. After the implementation of the new entry and exit regulations, the targets of exit restrictions will expand from the original specific groups to all personnel leaving China through Chinese ports, especially artificial intelligence researchers and entrepreneurs. Analysts say that the vague and broad definitions used in the new regulations, such as posing a potential threat to national technological safety, may have a huge impact not only on experts and entrepreneurs in sensitive fields including AI, but also on Chinese citizens at home and abroad, and even ordinary foreign nationals. The practice of China's entry and exit regulations turning border control management power into a black hole has triggered widespread attention and discussion on social media inside and outside China, and many netizens have expressed their concerns and even panic. In response to this, on September 10, Chinese official media successively published relevant refutations stating that the new regulations are mainly aimed at illegal activities such as cross-border gambling, telecom fraud, and illegal transfer of technology overseas, rather than restricting the normal travel of ordinary people. Chinese officials also stated that normal travel, family visits, studying abroad, and doing business will not be affected. Shen You-chung, deputy minister of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, said on Monday at a seminar discussing China's new entry and exit regulations that although the official Chinese Communist Party claims the new regulations aim to safeguard national sovereignty and security, they essentially institutionalize the CCP's existing strict border control culture. Shen You-chung reminded Taiwanese citizens to face the political environment of the Chinese mainland prudently and carefully evaluate the necessity of traveling to the Chinese mainland. Human rights scholar Teng Biao told Voice of America that since Xi Jinping came to power, the restrictions on entry and exit from China for not only Taiwanese citizens but also overseas visitors from Western countries and elsewhere are much greater than those in the eras of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. The human rights organization Safeguard Defenders released an investigative report on the day the new regulations came into effect entitled Lockdown China: Expanding the Rapid Growth of Exit Bans, pointing out that China's use of exit restrictions has experienced explosive growth in recent years, with nearly 200,000 mentions of exit bans in the Supreme People's Court's adjudication document database alone in 2025.
President Trump said he is not worried that Chinese President Xi Jinping will cancel their scheduled meeting later this month in Washington over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Japanese media previously reported that Beijing had warned Washington that if the U.S. approved a new batch of arms sales to Taiwan before the summit, the Chinese side would cancel the meeting. Speaking to reporters on Sunday at a golf course in Ireland during the Irish Open, when asked if he was worried the summit might be derailed by U.S. approval of arms sales to Taiwan, Trump responded that he was not worried about it. He said we have a very good relationship, he wants to get along and so do we, and also stated that the two sides will get along well. Trump plans to host Xi Jinping at the White House on September 24, but the Chinese side has not yet officially announced Xi's itinerary to the U.S. Kyodo News of Japan cited multiple sources familiar with U.S.-China relations on Saturday, reporting that the Chinese side has informed the U.S. that if Washington approves any new arms sales to Taiwan before the leaders' meeting later this month, Beijing will cancel the meeting. The report also claimed that the Trump administration is eager to showcase diplomatic achievements before the November midterm congressional elections and therefore attaches special importance to this summit. Trump met with Xi Jinping in Beijing this May, during which Xi emphasized that the Taiwan issue is the most important issue in U.S.-China relations, urging the U.S. to handle the Taiwan issue with utmost caution. Trump stated that he had discussed the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with Xi Jinping, but had not made any commitments. He also claimed that arms sales are an important bargaining chip in negotiations with the Chinese side, and therefore he would temporarily delay the approval of a USD 14 billion arms sales package to Taiwan. Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-long refuted reports in Taipei on Tuesday that Beijing attempted to threaten the U.S. not to approve arms sales to Taiwan by threatening to cancel the U.S.-China presidential summit. In an exclusive interview on Tuesday with Taipei Pop Radio's Hit News program, Lin Chia-long said that the so-called claim that China requested the U.S. not to approve arms sales to Taiwan before the Trump-Xi meeting is actually a habitual cognitive warfare tactic used by the Beijing authorities. He believes China is merely justifying itself. Lin Chia-long said China actually wants to manage Trump, it wants to create a situation where the U.S. and China jointly manage Taiwan, but in reality, that is not the case; communication between Taiwan and the U.S. is very good, and it is us who are going to manage China. He said Taiwan naturally supports the U.S. in properly stabilizing its relations with China, but this has nothing to do with harming Taiwan's interests, because Taiwan's interests are American interests, including Taiwan's location in the Indo-Pacific first island chain, the non-red supply chain, and the global democratic value chain—these three chains are precisely the common interests of Taiwan and the U.S. Diplomacy is built on the foundation of national interests, and when Taiwan and the U.S. have common interests, how could the U.S. sacrifice Taiwan to harm its own interests.
On Tuesday, the European Parliament adopted the recommendation report of the Special Committee on the European Democratic Shield, demanding that the EU strengthen its defenses against foreign interference and reduce its reliance on foreign technology in critical sectors. The report adopted by the European Parliament on Tuesday lists Russia as the primary external threat to European democracy, while also calling for vigilance against malicious cyber and hybrid operations from countries such as China, Iran, and North Korea, and demanding a crackdown on the use of artificial intelligence to generate disinformation that interferes with elections. Regarding technology supply, the report proposes reducing dependence on Chinese hardware and American tech companies. The European Commission stated in June this year that the EU relies on non-EU suppliers for over 80 percent of its digital products, services, infrastructure, and intellectual property. Artificial intelligence in particular requires massive computing resources. Speaking in Vienna on September 14, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde cited research showing that Europe possesses about 5 percent of the world's AI computing power, while the U.S. accounts for about 75 percent. She advocated for increasing Europe's computing resources and developing models that can run on European infrastructure. The previous day, U.S. President Donald Trump stated in Ireland that the United States leads China in the field of artificial intelligence and that he hopes to maintain this advantage. The use of American services in Europe is already quite widespread; a Dutch public broadcaster investigation in January this year of approximately 16,500 web domains used by governments, hospitals, schools, and critical enterprises found that 67 percent of them used at least one American cloud service, including websites and email services. Hans Hoogenboom, a strategic analyst at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies in the Netherlands, told Voice of America that some enterprises he has contacted are worried that switching to European services would reduce work efficiency. He said that as long as efficiency and existing production levels can be maintained, they are willing to overlook certain security concerns. He clarified that this refers to the trade-offs regarding American services made by the enterprises he has interacted with. Croatian and European Parliament member Stephen Nikola Bartulica told Voice of America that the EU must cooperate with the U.S. but also support its own companies so they can take the lead in this evolving field. Hoogenboom said that the enterprises he has contacted are more wary of Chinese suppliers, consulting him about the security risks of using products from DeepSeek, Huawei, and SMIC. Taking DeepSeek as an example, its privacy policy states that online services process and store users' personal data within mainland China. The company also states that it takes technical, administrative, and physical measures to protect data, but using the company's online services differs from running models on local computers or servers. Rogier Creemers, an assistant professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said that risk assessments should also be based on specific applications. This concludes the Chinese broadcast from Voice of America. Thank you for listening.