12 MAY 26 SITREP

• President Trump departed Washington, D.C., aboard Air Force One today for a direct flight to Beijing to sit down with Chinese President Xi Jinping in what has been called the Beijing Boardroom summit, bringing along a large delegation of Silicon Valley and corporate leaders including Elon Musk, Tim Cook, heads of Meta, Google, BlackRock, and Blackstone.
• The summit centers on recalibrating the US-China economic relationship, with emphasis on the fact that American technology companies have moved manufacturing to China and Taiwan at the expense of American workers, and President Trump intends to pressure these industry leaders to redirect investment and production back to the United States.
• China’s economy is reported to be in serious distress, with widespread business closures, job losses, young college graduates unable to find employment paying even 3,000 yuan (roughly $600) per month, and the elimination of worker bonuses, placing the Chinese Communist Party in a position of weakness heading into negotiations.
• Senator Josh Hawley emphasized that China should not be permitted to purchase American farmland, real estate near sensitive military installations, or American industry, and credited President Trump as the only president in his lifetime willing to confront China directly, dating back to Trump’s opposition to China’s admission to the World Trade Organization.

• President Trump stated that Iran cannot be permitted to obtain a nuclear weapon, declaring that the United States would either reach a deal with Tehran or Iran would be decimated, and framed the issue as more important than stock market fluctuations, citing polling showing approximately 85 percent of Americans agree Iran must not acquire nuclear capability.
• The Strait of Hormuz remains a critical bottleneck, with oil tankers not flowing at normal capacity, driving up gas and diesel prices for American consumers and creating economic pressure that Iran hopes will force the United States to soften its negotiating position.
• Senator Josh Hawley introduced legislation to suspend the federal gas tax of approximately 20 cents per gallon on gasoline and a slightly higher rate on diesel for 90 days, with authority for the president to extend the suspension for an additional 90 days, a measure President Trump endorsed from the Oval Office.
• The legislation would require 60 votes in the Senate, meaning all Republicans plus seven Democrats, and Hawley argued it could pass both chambers within days if leadership brought it to the floor, noting it would provide immediate relief to working families and farmers while simultaneously undermining Iran’s strategy of using American consumer pain as leverage.

• Eileen Wang, who served as mayor of Arcadia, California, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of acting as an illegal foreign agent of the People’s Republic of China, facing a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, and has resigned from the Arcadia City Council, vacating her seat.
• Wang and her then-fiance, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, operated a website called “US News Center” that posed as a legitimate news source for Chinese Americans but functioned as a propaganda vehicle for the PRC government between 2020 and 2022, working at the direction and control of PRC government officials to promote China’s interests inside the United States.
• Wang’s campaign advisor had already been convicted of spying for China and was sentenced in February to four years in prison, making Wang the latest in a chain of individuals connected to her political circle who were found to be operating covertly on behalf of Beijing.
• First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli stated that Wang’s case should terrify Americans because she was able to rise to the highest levels of local office in Arcadia, and described the plea agreement as part of an ongoing effort to defend the homeland against China’s efforts to corrupt American institutions.