The Trump administration is documenting a pattern of Chinese activity on American soil and in American systems that ranges from border facility tampering to artificial intelligence misuse and pathogen research. The incidents are being disclosed at an accelerating pace as President Donald Trump prepares to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this month. National security is expected to dominate that conversation, and the list of concerns gives a sense of why.

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From Just the News:

In one of the latest cases, a Chinese citizen was accused of tampering with computers at several border facilities in Maine.

According to The Maine Wire, Terry “Jiajia” Liu removed computer components from devices used by Customs and Border Protection agents and replaced them with older models or models with fewer capabilities.

Artificial intelligence has been another source of controversy. Anthropic, the company behind Claude, has said Chinese-connected individuals attempted to use the AI program for military technology development, intelligence gathering and biological weapons research that could pose a threat to public health.

The cases span multiple domains and agencies. Prosecutors did not allege that Liu installed malicious software on the computers or transmitted classified information back to China, but the incident prompted questions over security at federal computer facilities. Ohio State University agreed to pay $2.1 million to resolve federal allegations that it failed to disclose affiliations with China related to university researchers, Just the News reported. The school did not admit any liability. A Chinese-born American journalist was sentenced to two years in prison last week after pleading guilty to serving as an unregistered agent of China. He had provided confidential reports to Chinese officials and received about $100,000 from 2018 to 2022, prosecutors said.

Officials also raised concerns regarding Chinese activities within the shipping industry. U.S. authorities accused Chinese state-owned shipping giant COSCO of using equipment aboard its ships to track military communications, which Just the News first reported. Beijing has denied the allegations. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that U.S. officials believed Iran used Chinese-provided satellite imagery to plan an attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan. Officials did not allege that China was aware of the attack in advance, but said Iran used commercial satellite imagery obtained from Chinese companies to identify and validate the target. China has denied any wrongdoing, according to the report.

Anthropic said one group connected to China had used Claude to help with electronic warfare and military system assessments. The company called the incidents evidence that the malicious use of advanced artificial intelligence was evolving rapidly. In addition, the XSafety team on the X social media platform investigated inauthentic accounts linked to China that were part of an anti-data center influence operation. X’s Global Government Affairs reported in late August that the team identified a bot farm operating about 200,000 accounts, with roughly 200 of those accounts posting anti-data center content. The collection of incidents linked to China demonstrates the range of issues that U.S. officials have been scrutinizing more closely in recent months. Trump is expected to meet with Xi later this month to discuss trade and technology, including topics such as the artificial intelligence race.

Scripture commands the people of God to be sober and watchful, and that instruction applies to threats against the nation just as it does to spiritual dangers. The incidents tied to China are not isolated. They form a pattern that touches border security, academic research, shipping, military intelligence, artificial intelligence and social media influence operations. Christians should neither panic nor ignore the evidence, but they should expect their government to take seriously what is being laid out in case after case. That includes holding accountable anyone, citizen or foreign national, who compromises American security for money or ideology. It also includes praying for the president and his advisors as they prepare to meet with a leader whose government is responsible for much of what is being disclosed.

Let us pray for President Trump and his team as they prepare to meet with Xi Jinping, for wisdom in protecting our nation from foreign threats, and for the exposure and end of every scheme meant to harm the United States.

How are you praying about this issue? Share your prayers and scriptures in the comments below.

(Excerpt from Just the News. Photo Credit: Hao Liang/Pexels via Canva Teams).