Hello everyone, welcome to “News Perspectives,” I’m Li Xin.
Today’s focus: Key members of the Trump cabinet, the toughest anti-Communist figure selected! Reorganizing the Department of Defense, abolishing the Department of Education? Returning to tradition; will the “border czar” deport 20 million people? Reports of Xi’s confidant Miao Hua being arrested, has Xi lost control of the military?
Trump is expected to take office in January 2025, and so far, the appointments or considerations for key cabinet positions have been gradually confirmed.
The most important member of the US government cabinet, the 5th presidential successor, Secretary of State, is reportedly to be held by senior Senator Marco Rubio. This is the most influential position in the new US government framework, representing the direction and actions of the US government in global affairs. If Rubio is confirmed as Secretary of State, a profound adjustment in the international order is undoubtedly going to happen.
He is known as a hardliner against China in the US Senate, having supported various bills related to China, such as strongly advocating for the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Rubio has also called on Biden to ban the development of Chinese TikTok in the US. He has been sanctioned twice by China for his concerns regarding Xinjiang and Hong Kong issues, being banned from entering China. He views China as a major threat to US interests.
How will the unwelcome figure banned from entering China deal with if he becomes US Secretary of State? An article published on June 20, 2019, by the People’s Daily Online had the headline: “Mr. Rubio, You Are Refreshing Shamelessness.” It criticized Rubio for his political tactics and misrepresentations. Let’s see when People’s Daily will take down this article. The imposing sanctions on others, only to end up embarrassed.
Trump has also invited Florida Representative Mike Waltz to serve as the White House National Security Advisor. Waltz is considered one of the most hawkish members in Congress towards China, and he asserted in 2021: “We are in a Cold War with China.” He served alongside 13 other Republicans on the China Task Force in the House. He has strongly criticized China and stated that the US needs to be prepared for potential conflicts in the Indo-Pacific region.
Additionally, US media such as CNN reported that Trump has chosen South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to be the next Secretary of Homeland Security. The department has a budget of $60 billion and hundreds of thousands of employees. It oversees all affairs from US Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the US Secret Service. Two key immigration hardliners under this department, Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, will take senior positions to address immigration issues. These appointments indicate Trump’s serious commitment to fulfill his promise of combating immigration.
During his previous term, the Department of Homeland Security experienced significant chaos. At that time, there were five different leaders in the department, with only two confirmed by the Senate.
Trump also told the New York Post that he has invited Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik to serve as the US Ambassador to the United Nations.
Another key figure sanctioned by China, Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, recently declined to join Trump’s cabinet, but it is now rumored that he will become the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
This is one of the critical national security positions in the US Congress. Cotton had previously asserted that the “coronavirus is artificially leaked” and explicitly demanded compensation from China for the pandemic. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian once said, “Everyone knows what kind of person Cotton is, his words are like waste paper.”
Cotton claimed in an interview with Fox News that the US should restrict Chinese students from studying high-tech and technical professions in America, stating, “We can let them study Shakespeare and the Federalist Papers in the US without needing to learn quantum computing and artificial intelligence.” Cotton and another US Senator Blackburn proposed a bill to ban student visas for Chinese nationals engaged in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research in the US, a proposal that Trump indeed implemented.
In addition to personnel appointments, Trump has been actively releasing videos outlining a series of policy measures. He stated his intention to restore America’s dominance in the energy sector and revitalize the automobile industry. He appointed former New York congressman Lee Zeldin as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, stating, “Zeldin is an absolute fighter, and he will eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse rampant within the EPA.”
“We will restore America’s dominance in the energy sector, revitalize our automotive industry, create job opportunities for Americans, and make the US a global leader in artificial intelligence. We will accomplish this while protecting clean air and water resources,” he emphasized.
Furthermore, during the election campaign, Trump made it clear that he aimed to shut down the Department of Education, which has a profound impact on the US education system.
Trump introduced ten major education reform measures that have been welcomed by parents, including: empowering parents with educational authority, rewarding outstanding teachers, ensuring classrooms focus on useful knowledge rather than political indoctrination, patriotic education for students, supporting schools to bring prayer back to classrooms, ensuring school safety, granting parents the right to choose schools, guaranteeing students acquire knowledge and skills that help them succeed in society, providing internships for college students, and ensuring all high schools and universities offer job counseling.
If Trump follows through with ending the Department of Education like the Argentine military government, he will break the left’s ideological hijacking of American youth, rebuild a conservative small government, and return to the soul of the true American republican system. Letting the federal government only responsible for national defense, diplomacy, and human rights, while returning other affairs to the individual states and regions. This can be seen as a fundamental restoration of tradition.
Moreover, under Trump’s leadership, the Department of Defense will undergo a major overhaul. During his campaign, Trump pledged to remove “woke” generals from the military. In recent years, the Pentagon has become increasingly extreme, where personnel decisions are based not on competence but factors like transgenderism and minorities’ skin color.
During his previous term, he had banned transgender individuals from serving in the military. In this election, he released campaign ads portraying them as weak and vowed, “We will not have a woke military! I will fire them. You can’t wake up the military.”
Regarding addressing the illegal immigration issue in the US, Trump recently posted on his social media platform Truth Social, announcing that Tom Homan, a staunch supporter of border control and former Acting Director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will join the Trump administration as the “The Border Czar,” responsible for our nation’s border affairs. Homan will lead a massive deportation plan for all illegal foreign nationals to return to their home countries.
Homan, who led the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency within the US, appeared at the Republican National Convention in July, where he told Trump supporters: “I want to tell the millions of illegal immigrants pardoned by US President Biden (Joe Biden), you better start packing now.”
It is estimated that there are around 20 million illegal immigrants in the US. Homan expressed that he would lead an unprecedented plan where every illegal resident in the US could potentially be deported, including illegal immigrants and those overstaying. Among them, young Chinese men who are of military age and have entered the US in large numbers are considered a national security risk, and they will be among the first to be deported.
Homan stated in a speech earlier this year that “57,000 Chinese men of military age have entered the country illegally; it is impossible without the backing of the Chinese Communist government.”
Homan also told The Times that he would take action to completely close the southern border of the US, build a wall, and restart Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program. According to this plan, immigrants will wait on the other side of the border for their asylum applications to be processed.
Amidst internal struggles within the CCP, there is new information. Independent commentator Cai Shunkun recently disclosed on X platform that Miao Hua, a member of the Central Military Commission, Director of the Political Work Department of the Military Commission, and Vice Admiral of the Navy, was taken into custody by the Central Military Commission’s Discipline Inspection Commission the day before yesterday. This signifies that Xi’s vested interest group controlling propaganda and personnel in the military has been purged, and a large number of senior officers promoted by Miao Hua, including the new Minister of Defense and Vice Admiral Dong Jun will be affected.
Cai Shunkun said that Miao Hua’s incident signifies a significant blow to the Fujian clique favored by Xi.
On the 11th, former Colonel Yao Cheng of the Chinese Navy Command also stated on X platform that the internal strife within the Central Military Commission of the CCP has escalated and become public, with Miao Hua being taken away for investigation.
Currently, this disclosure has not been officially confirmed by the CCP, but Cai Shunkun and Yao Cheng, who currently reside in the US, still have connections within the CCP system and often provide relatively accurate information.
Previous negative news about Miao Hua emerged earlier. In February of this year, freelance writer Du Zheng published an article in the Shanghai newspaper stating that Miao Hua was a “silent giant” in the military. In charge of political affairs, he placed his own people throughout the entire military, and all political commissars in the military were his minions and spies. All military promotions required his approval before being reported to Xi. The generals all had to curry favor with Miao Hua. When it comes to corruption, Miao Hua may be the “most corrupt” figure in the military.
68-year-old Miao Hua, served long term in the 31st Army of the Nanjing Military Region stationed in Fujian, closely related to Xi Jinping who served in Fujian in his early years. He became the Director of the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission in August 2017 and joined the Central Military Commission in October of the same year, starting to manage personnel decisions within the entire military.
The exposure of the rumors surrounding Miao Hua’s trouble comes at a time when the Central Military Commission of the CCP is rife with internal conflict, with reports of discord between the Shaanxi clique led by First Vice-Chairman of the Military Commission Zhang Youxia and the Fujian clique led by Vice Chairman of the Military Commission He Waidong. Although He Waidong and Miao Hua are not originally from Fujian, having come from the former 31 Group Army stationed in Fujian, they are considered members of Xi’s vested interest group in the military.
In October of this year, Yao Cheng disclosed on X that signs indicated Zhang Youxia was targeting the Navy, with former Political Commissar Qin Shengxiang and current Political Commissar Yuan Huazhi under investigation. Both were promoted during Miao Hua’s tenure as Political Commissar of the Chinese Navy from 2014 to 2017, and both are considered to be close to Xi Jinping.
Yao Cheng stated that if the Political Work Department Director of the Military Commission, Miao Hua, runs into problems, Xi would have lost basic control over the military.