Voice of America Chinese Broadcast (July 2, 2026)

The program reported on the indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran held in Doha, search and rescue operations following the strong earthquake in Venezuela, and the demand by U.S. members of Congress for Secretary of State Rubio to condemn the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress in China after its implementation. The program also covered the 30-year prison sentence for Guo Wengui, Taiwan's investigation into the transshipment of high-end AI chips to China, U.S. biotechnology reviews concerning China, exchanges between U.S. and Taiwanese female state legislators, U.S. stock market trends, and litigation regarding birthright citizenship, while also airing an analysis of U.S.-China relations by a military historian.

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President Trump said on Wednesday that U.S. and Iranian negotiators held very good talks. The two countries are currently conducting technical-level indirect talks in Doha, mediated by Qatar and Pakistan. Trump sent his peace envoy Witkoff and advisor Kushner to Qatar, where they met on Tuesday with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Al Thani. U.S. and Iranian officials met separately with the mediators to discuss the memorandum of understanding reached with Iran on June 18.

The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Tuesday saying that Al Thani discussed with the two U.S. envoys the ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran within the framework of the memorandum of understanding, as well as regional security and the recent Lebanon ceasefire agreement. Speaking about these talks, President Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews that the denuclearization process with Iran is progressing well.

Trump addressed the U.S. military response to the attacks by Iranian drones on ships last Friday and Saturday. He said that the two sides had very good talks, and that despite the fact that we hit them hard for three consecutive nights, the two sides are getting along well. He called it denuclearization and stated that it is all happening smoothly.

On Wednesday, one week after two strong earthquakes struck areas near the Venezuelan capital, citizens and international rescue teams were still searching through the rubble, although hopes of finding survivors were fading. Authorities reported that one survivor was found on Tuesday, and the officially confirmed death toll has risen to nearly 2,000.

Rodriguez, President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, stated that the number of injured in the earthquake exceeded 10,500, and nearly 16,000 people are homeless. He noted that the government has set up 14 shelters in La Guaira state. That state was hit hard by consecutive 7.5 and 7.2 magnitude earthquakes, and 55 shelters have also been set up in Caracas and other regions.

The earthquake caused hundreds of buildings to collapse and many others to be damaged, forcing people to sleep in schools, shelters, or on the streets. U.S. Chargé d'Affaires to Venezuela Barrett inspected La Guaira on Tuesday and met with members of the U.S. search and rescue team involved in searching for people trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings. The U.S. has pledged more than $300 million for earthquake relief efforts and has sent hundreds of U.S. military personnel to assist in transporting supplies, personnel, and equipment within Venezuela.

The Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress of the People's Republic of China will take effect on July 1, 2026. On Tuesday, 14 U.S. Representatives from both the Republican and Democratic parties jointly wrote to Secretary of State Rubio, demanding that he condemn the People's Republic of China's Unity Law. The lawmakers pointed out that this law is a tool for forced assimilation, ideological control, and transnational repression.

The letter was led by Democratic Representatives Jim McGovern and Ro Khanna, and Republican Representative Chris Smith. The letter states that instead of promoting genuine equality among ethnic groups, the Unity Law codifies and expands the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) forced assimilation campaigns targeting Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, and other non-Han ethnic groups.

The lawmakers urged the State Department to respond publicly and forcefully to the act and to make it clear that the United States rejects the CCP's attempt to disguise forced assimilation as ethnic unity. The lawmakers specifically presented five requests to Rubio and the State Department: publicly condemn the Unity Law; raise questions directly with China regarding the Unity Law; and coordinate with like-minded governments to take action on this issue in bilateral dialogues, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and relevant UN treaty bodies and special procedures.

The lawmakers also demanded that U.S. policies and programs prioritize the protection of language education, religious freedom, and cultural heritage for Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, and other ethnic minorities; strengthen U.S. efforts to counter China's transnational repression; and reinforce the enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, while working with U.S. allies to expand its scope.

The Unity Law was passed by the National People's Congress of China in March 2026, consisting of a preamble and 65 articles across 7 chapters. Beijing claims that the law establishes basic norms and legal responsibilities for the cause of ethnic unity and progress in China, and will build a sense of national identity and enhance cohesion within China.

Article 63 of the Unity Law, which concerns extraterritorial accountability, is a focal point that has drawn significant international concern. According to this provision, organizations and individuals outside of China who engage in acts that undermine ethnic unity and progress or incite ethnic separatism against China will be held legally accountable.

The joint letter from the 14 Representatives specifically mentions this provision, stating that the relevant language provides a so-called legal basis for Chinese authorities to target Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, Hong Kongers, democracy advocates, and others residing abroad, including in the United States. The letter emphasizes that this should be viewed as part of the broader transnational repression by the government of the People's Republic of China and as a direct threat to the rights and safety of overseas communities and human rights advocates, including civil society organizations and legislators in the United States.

Other Representatives participating in the joint letter include 10 Democrats and 1 Republican. Meanwhile, Representatives Smith and McGovern jointly submitted a bipartisan resolution to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, condemning the Unity Law and the CCP's forced assimilation campaigns against ethnic and religious minorities.

The resolution also urges Beijing to engage in substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama without preconditions, release political prisoners detained for exercising their fundamental rights, and urges the U.S. President, Secretary of State, and the Treasury Department to impose sanctions on officials and entities implementing the Unity Law and related forced assimilation policies.

Since Chinese leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, the CCP has been committed to pushing for Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other ethnic minorities to first identify themselves as patriotic citizens. Human rights organizations and activists say the formulation and implementation of the Unity Law marks the legalization of this assimilation campaign by China. Amnesty International issued a press release on Tuesday, criticizing the law for providing a state-level legal framework for policies that have already severely infringed upon the rights of Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other non-Han groups.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York announced on Tuesday that exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui was sentenced on Monday to 30 years in prison for orchestrating a fraud scheme that swindled over $1 billion from thousands of followers worldwide.

U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres handed down the sentence at a federal court in Manhattan. In July 2024, after a seven-week trial, a jury found Guo Wengui guilty of conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.

Shawn Buckley, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement that Guo Wengui orchestrated a massive scam, stealing over $1 billion from thousands of victims in the United States and around the world through lies and deception. Buckley added that after immigrating to this country, Guo Wengui could have been satisfied with the many legitimate opportunities the country offered him, but instead, out of his own greed, he betrayed the trust that thousands of people had placed in him.

According to court documents and trial evidence, Guo Wengui's fraudulent activities began in 2018. At that time, he announced the establishment of two so-called charitable organizations—the Rule of Law Foundation and the Rule of Law Society—and falsely claimed that he would be the first to donate $100 million. Subsequently, he leveraged the credibility accumulated by these two organizations to launch an unregistered stock offering for his media company, GTV.

Prosecutors stated that Guo Wengui used companies under his actual control to install puppet executives, personally guaranteed investors that their funds would not be lost, and continuously spread lies, including the claim that a non-existent gold reserve backed his digital currency. This chain of scams lasted for approximately five years. Guo Wengui has been in custody since his arrest in March 2023 and was convicted on July 16, 2024, on charges including other counts. The FBI was responsible for the investigation of this case, and prosecutors noted that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which had filed a parallel civil lawsuit against Guo Wengui, also provided assistance.

Taiwanese law enforcement officers raided the Taiwan office of the U.S. company Supermicro and two other companies on Monday, expanding an investigation into whether high-end AI chips from Nvidia were sold to China in violation of U.S. export control regulations.

A press release issued by the Keelung District Prosecutors Office in Taiwan stated that the office directed personnel from the Investigation Bureau, the Coast Guard Administration, the task force, and the police to search a total of 12 locations, including the Taiwan office of Supermicro and two other companies, and summoned 6 relevant individuals for questioning. On Tuesday, the Keelung District Prosecutors Office detained the individuals involved on suspicion of forgery and breach of trust.

A press release issued by the Keelung District Prosecutors Office on May 21 stated that the high-end AI servers produced by Supermicro are equipped with Nvidia's high-end AI chips and are subject to strict U.S. controls, with a total ban on sales to China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Prosecutors pointed out that the three defendants were suspected of attempting to sell the relevant servers to China, Hong Kong, and Macau for profit, and after purchasing the servers in Taiwan, they forged documents to declare them for export.

After searching and seizing relevant evidence, the prosecutors confirmed that the three individuals were involved in crimes such as forgery, and therefore applied for their detention and incommunicado status. The servers in question were manufactured by the California-based company Supermicro and contain chips produced by Nvidia. According to relevant U.S. regulations, high-end artificial intelligence products from both companies are prohibited from being sold to mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.

AFP reported that the U.S. restricts the export of its most cutting-edge AI chips to China, with the U.S. particularly concerned about these technologies being used by the Chinese military. However, in Taiwan, such behavior does not constitute a crime. Some Taiwanese legislators have stated that this situation must be changed through legislative amendments.

In March 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice filed charges against three individuals associated with Supermicro, including a co-founder of the company, accusing them of assisting in smuggling at least $2.5 billion worth of U.S. artificial intelligence technology to China in violation of federal export control laws.

The U.S. and its allies have recently taken a series of measures to restrict the flow of advanced AI chips and hardware equipment into China. In March 2026, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a bipartisan chip security bill aimed at curbing the smuggling of U.S. semiconductors to so-called foreign adversaries such as China. High-end chips designed by Nvidia are used to train and run AI systems. In response to U.S. export controls, China is also accelerating the research and development of its own AI chips to reduce its reliance on U.S. hardware.

Approximately 50 female state legislators from 50 U.S. state legislatures attended a welcome event on Sunday held by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. for the Washington training program commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. The two sides exchanged views on issues such as U.S.-Taiwan relations and female political leadership.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. posted on its social media that Taiwan's Representative to the U.S. Alexander Yui and his wife, along with Deputy Representative Robin Yang, welcomed a delegation of approximately 50 female state legislators from the Leadership Institute in Washington. They are members of the institute's women's leadership program. The delegation included program director Heather Sellers, deputy director Julie Harris, and legislative leadership program director Holly Horn. They formed a group to go to Washington for the "50 For 250" training for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

Also attending the event were three Republican state legislators: Maryland Delegate April Miller, Virginia Delegate Ann Ferrell Tata, and Virginia Senator Patricia Rucker. The post also stated that during the event, the representative office screened the trailer for the film "Invisible Nation," directed by American director Vanessa Hope. This film describes Taiwan's democratic development, U.S.-Taiwan relations, and the Chinese threat during the tenure of former Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, and also highlights the political leadership of Taiwanese women.

The website of the Leadership Institute, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., states that the Women's Leadership Program aims to train conservative women—including leaders, activists, concerned citizens, and potential candidates—in the skills needed to turn their principles into action and achieve victory. This program provides participants with access to training and professional development networks, and partners annually with major conservative women's organizations to provide their members and leaders with training in action, communication, and fundraising.

U.S. stocks closed slightly lower on Wednesday, dragged down by weakness in technology stocks. However, gains in Meta Platforms shares and comments from Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh, who indicated that recent inflation risks have eased, provided some support to the market. Warsh also stated that he would firmly adhere to the Fed's 2% inflation target and would disappoint those expecting loose monetary policy.

Meta shares rose following a Bloomberg report that the company is building a cloud computing business to sell its excess artificial intelligence computing capacity. The S&P 500 index fell 16.13 points, or 0.22%; the Nasdaq Composite index fell 173.69 points, or 0.66%; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 13.96 points, or 0.03%.

A U.S. Congressional committee recently launched an investigation into five well-known pharmaceutical companies, demanding that these firms explain their past clinical trials conducted in China, particularly research involving the Xinjiang region and Chinese military hospitals. The committee is concerned that these clinical trials may involve ethical risks and could inadvertently contribute to the development of China's military biotechnology capabilities.

Representative John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, sent letters on Monday to the CEOs of five pharmaceutical companies—Pfizer, Merck, Eli Lilly, AbbVie, and Bristol Myers Squibb—demanding that they provide detailed information by July 17 regarding clinical trials conducted in China, including due diligence, data protection measures, and relevant compliance procedures for projects involving the Xinjiang region and Chinese military hospitals.

The committee stated at the beginning of the letters that the United States is engaged in intense biotechnology competition with China. In the letters, Moolenaar cited public information stating that these pharmaceutical companies have funded or participated in multiple clinical trials involving hospitals in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, including several studies involving hospitals affiliated with the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

The committee pointed out that Xinjiang is the core region where Beijing implements its genocide policy against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups. Chinese researchers have also documented serious problems in obtaining informed consent from subjects in clinical trials. Moolenaar wrote in the letters that these and other findings indicate that it is necessary for U.S. companies to strengthen due diligence when conducting clinical trials in China to ensure that their trials comply with Good Clinical Practice and do not profit from a system that fails to protect the rights and interests of subjects.

As U.S.-China biotechnology competition intensifies, the U.S. Congress is strengthening its scrutiny of U.S. pharmaceutical companies' operations in China. In recent years, the number of clinical trials in China has surpassed that of the United States. One study shows that by 2024, the U.S. share of global early-stage drug development projects had fallen from 48% in 2015 to approximately 37%, while China's share had risen from 8% to over 32%.

The committee cited a report released by consulting firm McKinsey in January 2026, stating that clinical trial centers in China advance research two to five times faster than those in the United States. In a letter to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Moolenaar stated that there is currently no evidence that Pfizer has engaged in any illegal activities or misconduct, but the committee still wishes to learn more about their clinical trials conducted in China.

Moolenaar also stated that Pfizer's conduct of clinical trials at Chinese People's Liberation Army hospitals raises significant questions, namely that the data generated by these trials could facilitate the Chinese Communist Party's research, development, experimentation, and capability building in the field of military biotechnology. This investigation is the latest move by the U.S. Congress in recent years to push for restrictions on U.S.-China biotechnology cooperation.

Representative Moolenaar is currently pushing for the Biosecure Act, which plans to include biotechnology in the scope of U.S. national security reviews for investments in China, requiring U.S. biotechnology licensing deals, joint ventures, and equity investments involving China to undergo review.

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, Voice of America interviewed Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, to review 250 years of U.S.-China relations. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, U.S.-China relations have gone through hostility during the Cold War, Nixon's opening of engagement with China, followed by decades of interaction and cooperation, and have now entered a stage of strategic competition.

Hanson believes that the key turning point in shaping today's U.S.-China relations was the 1989 June 4th Tiananmen Square incident. He said that at the time, people expected that with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, and the collapse of the Soviet Union two years later, this oppressive system would eventually crumble. After the Tiananmen incident, many believed China would be the next domino to fall, and hoped that after China underwent change, the U.S. could re-establish a relationship as good as the one that existed before the communists took power.

Hanson argues that people underestimated the cruelty inherent in the Maoist tradition. At the time, there were still people in the Chinese government who had participated in the killings, their hands stained with blood. In their view, killing 10,000 or 12,000 people was nothing. He said the ultimate goal of these people was to establish a form of authoritarian capitalism, by acquiring foreign technology, manipulating exchange rates, dumping products overseas at below-cost prices, accumulating massive trade surpluses, suppressing the interests of their own citizens as consumers, and then investing those funds into military buildup or projects like the Belt and Road to establish a kind of imperialist system.

Hanson said this is a very cruel regime, and as everyone knows, they have placed approximately one million Uyghurs in a state of near-serfdom.

As the U.S. celebrates its 250th anniversary of independence, Hanson discussed how the U.S. should respond to China. He believes the U.S. actually has a good model, which is the relationship it had with the Soviet Union back then—the model of detente. We must maintain communication with China at all times while pointing out areas where there are serious disagreements. The Taiwan issue is one of them, human rights is another, and there is also the issue of China providing support to our adversaries, such as North Korea, Iran, and previously Venezuela.

We must define how to avoid escalation into nuclear war while these disagreements exist. China also understands this. The U.S. currently has about 7,000 deployable nuclear weapons, while China has about 600, but they are adding two or three every month. Their most important military goal right now is to build a nuclear deterrent capability sufficient to rival the U.S. In this way, if the U.S. still attempts to defend Taiwan, they could potentially prevent it through nuclear brinkmanship.

Hanson believes that the best model at present is still detente, which can emulate the strategy used against Russia back then. We were in a standoff with them for nearly 50 years, during which neither a nuclear conflict nor a large-scale war broke out, and eventually, the Soviet Union collapsed.

Hanson said that as long as the U.S. can get its domestic affairs in order, achieve fair trade rather than just free trade, remain strong as a nation, and usher in a revival—I think our prospects in fields like food production, oil extraction, technology, artificial intelligence, bioengineering, and robotics are very promising, and we have even gained a leading advantage—then China will not pose a threat. He said that only those who naively think today's China is the China of the past would believe the Chinese government harbors goodwill toward the U.S.; such a view is utterly absurd.

The Supreme Court has rejected President Donald Trump's executive order to restrict birthright citizenship and upheld the long-standing principle that the Constitution guarantees citizenship to children born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court justices ruled on Tuesday that, with very few exceptions, anyone born in this country is a citizen. They cited a long-standing interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was passed after the Civil War and has also been supported by recent federal law.

President Trump's restrictive measures had already been blocked by several lower courts and were not in effect anywhere in the U.S. During oral arguments in a key case in April, both conservative and liberal justices questioned the legality of the order. Due to the president's unprecedented appearance in court, the case attracted widespread attention.

The justices ruled on an appeal filed by the president against a lower court ruling in New Hampshire, which had previously overturned the restrictive provisions on citizenship. President Trump signed the executive order on birthright citizenship on the first day of his second term as part of his administration's broad crackdown on immigration. Birthright citizenship is the first immigration-related policy to be submitted to the Supreme Court for a final ruling. The justices had previously overturned Trump's comprehensive global tariff measures implemented under emergency powers in February 2026.

The president said on Truth Social on Tuesday that the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, which is terrible for our country. But with the president's support, this point has been confirmed in the process. We can make up for it through congressional legislation, without the need for a lengthy and difficult constitutional amendment. Congress should immediately set about abolishing this birthright citizenship, which is both expensive and unfair to our country, and he will give his full support.

President Trump's order would have overturned the notion that the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to everyone born in the United States, with the exception of children of foreign diplomats and children of members of foreign occupying forces. Lower courts, in a series of rulings, cited the Supreme Court's 1898 decision in the Wong Kim Ark case to reject the president's executive order, deeming it unlawful. That ruling established that children born in the United States to Chinese citizens possess U.S. citizenship.

Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts drafted the ruling and cited the 1898 decision. The Trump administration argued that the prevailing view on citizenship was incorrect, claiming that children of non-citizens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and therefore are not entitled to citizenship.