Gary Sands

Senior Analyst (China, Taiwan) at Wikistrat. Former U.S. diplomat. Op-eds: Forbes, National Interest, Newsweek, SCMP. Lived in China 2006-12, Vietnam 2013-18.

[Select Committee on China @ChinaSelect]

Alysa Liu’s gold medal-winning skating captured the hearts of the world at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Behind the skating lies an amazing backstory: Alysa’s father, Arthur Liu, fled China at the age of 25 in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. Arthur was at the Tiananmen Square protests and will join the Select Committee for a bipartisan press conference TOMORROW June 4 at 8:00AM at the House Triangle.

[UnveiledChina @Unveiled_ChinaX]

Beijing thought it could hold the entire global tech industry hostage by locking down rare earth minerals, but Western innovators just broke the CCP’s chokehold. A Wall Street Journal report highlights a massive wave of optimism as industries successfully eliminate their reliance on Chinese critical minerals. For decades, Beijing controlled up to 90% of global rare earth processing, using that monopoly as political leverage. However, its recent aggressive export restrictions backfired completely, triggering an unprecedented boom in non-Chinese processing and substitution technologies that cannot be undone.

Leading this technological rebellion is Minnesota-based startup Niron Magnetics, which has engineered the world’s first high-performance, rare-earth-free permanent magnets using iron nitride. By utilizing iron and nitrogen, which are abundant, cheap, and entirely domestic raw materials, Niron completely bypasses the dirty refining loops controlled by China. This breakthrough has attracted massive backing from automotive giants like GM Ventures, Stellantis, and Volvo, alongside defense partnerships to build military hardware. Demand is already outstripping supply, forcing Niron to expand from a pilot facility to a massive 190,000-square-foot production plant to fulfill its contracts.

At the same time, startups like Conifer are transforming electric motors by swapping out rare earths for standard, abundant ferrite magnets. Conifer’s proprietary design slashes motor size and weight by up to 50% while boosting vehicle range and operating efficiency by up to 30%. These clean motors seamlessly drop into everything from delivery vehicles and robotics to data center cooling systems. By trying to weaponize its mineral monopoly, the CCP has accidentally forced the West to build a resilient, localized supply chain that leaves authoritarian chokeholds in the past.

#RareEarths #SupplyChain #NationalSecurity #CleanTech #ChinaDecoupling #Innovation #Geopolitics #NironMagnetics

https://t.co/7oWP1U6Jek

[Jonathan Cheng @JChengWSJ]

.@abrownepek: “Japan-bashing has become the core of a strident Chinese nationalism, with disastrous consequences…Beijing’s nonstop demonization…and regular harassment of Japan, its people, and its institutions have created the monster it most fears.”
https://t.co/9TnyREMUKZ

[UnveiledChina @Unveiled_ChinaX]

Beijing is trying to bully democratically elected lawmakers into submission, blacklisting four New Zealand MPs just for stepping foot in Taiwan.

The Chinese Government has slapped a one-year travel ban on a cross-party delegation of Kiwi politicians, completely blocking them from entering China, Hong Kong, and Macau. The targeted lawmakers include National’s Maureen Pugh, Labour’s Duncan Webb, ACT’s Laura McClure, and NZ First’s David Wilson, who traveled to Taiwan to discuss economic, trade, and cultural partnerships. In a quiet attempt at coercion, the Chinese Embassy delivered a message to parliamentary officials stating that these sanctions could be lifted, but only if the targeted MPs issue a formal apology.

This sudden retaliation has blindsided the politicians, who note that New Zealand lawmakers frequently visit the self-governing island without facing travel bans. While New Zealand recognizes Beijing's "one China policy," it actively maintains a strong, independent economic relationship with Taiwan. As MP Laura McClure firmly pointed out, democratically elected representatives must remain free to travel and build economic partnerships without having to ask Beijing for permission.

#NewZealand #China #Taiwan #Geopolitics #ForeignPolicy #CCP #Diplomacy

https://t.co/mV7DiSFPhm

[Joseph Wu @josephwutw]

8964，是中共永远无法抹去的历史记忆；人民追求自由与尊严的火种，也绝不会熄灭。

期盼中国人民真正享有自由的那一天，早日到来。

#天安门
#永不遗忘

[Terence Shen @Terenceshen]

Anti-Communist protesters on Jeju Island, South Korea, were attacked by three Chinese Communist Party thugs. One of the attackers shouted, “Put your things away” and threatened to report it to the Chinese embassy.

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

@ReubenJones1 @margbrennan Pulte v. Bessent, UFC cage, White House?

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

The prevailing market assumption is that both sides have stepped back from confrontation and entered a more stable phase of the relationship.
https://t.co/vwzyEZMjXT.

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

In Taipei's view, the Japan-Philippines negotiations could give China a pretext to try to change the status quo.
https://t.co/OQZHED3oRR.

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

Taiwan is primarily connected to the outside world by 15 undersea cables. From 2022 to 2025, Taiwan suffered a total of 28 human-caused subsea cable incidents. https://t.co/qEN3p3Dlp1

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

"Mao described U.S. military bases as the nooses that would eventually strangle the American empire. But as Beijing presses outward, it may discover that its global interests tighten into a snare of its own making." https://t.co/OPCL38PrCD

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

"The many opportunities Beijing perceives in the structural weakening of the United States are counterbalanced by the immediate dangers presented by the Trump administration’s use of force abroad, threats of tariff escalation, and sweeping claims to critical strategic territories and assets." https://t.co/cV4EuBnWUd

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

In the bulletin, the Five Eyes agencies said Chinese spies ‌were ⁠particularly targeting those who specialised in defence, foreign affairs and intelligence, and military personnel, including those stationed in the Indo-Pacific region. https://t.co/VRhHJOMHSs

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

Currently, Taiwan's Industrial Development Administration has helped more than 10 Taiwanese companies to secure trial or mass production orders from Anduril for UAV airframe structures, payload equipment and power systems. https://t.co/3d15kK6kbV

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

Public employees receive points for reposting content, publishing comments and making social media posts. Completion rates for government units are publicly displayed, while individual rankings are compiled into a “leaderboard.” https://t.co/AaSMlBoRuM

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

Lai reportedly mailed a copy of the autobiography of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.'s founder to Trump in an attempt to capture his attention on how critical Taiwan is to the global economy. (under the questionable assumption Trump will read it?)
https://t.co/QkEkFkiOtN.

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

"For Taiwan, that likely means a more distant U.S. foreign policy stance publicly."
https://t.co/ljYsGbiJPU

[UnveiledChina @Unveiled_ChinaX]

Stanford University is actively studying Chinese influence operations while pocketing millions from the exact CCP operatives running them. A whistleblower leak published by the Stanford Review has exposed this massive national security blind spot, revealing a restricted $3 million gift to the prestigious Hoover Institution from Chen Yuan, chairman of a CCP political warfare organization.

This 2025 donation was uniquely routed through a San Francisco law firm to obscure its true source, directly overlapping with Hoover’s sensitive, taxpayer-funded research security programs. Chen Yuan’s organization is subordinate to a Chinese military intelligence body. Stanford insisted it performs rigorous due diligence on international gifts but completely declined to comment on the specifics of this transaction.

The leaked documents expose a sprawling network of Chinese funding flowing into Stanford's critical tech and engineering departments. Major contributors include NetEase CEO William Ding, who gave $25.1 million, and United Front affiliate Diana Chen, who gave $6.2 million. The university also accepted $1.5 million from the State Grid Corporation of China, along with hundreds of thousands from blacklisted entities like Huawei and PLA subcontractor BOE Technology.

Many of these funded projects intersect directly with critical technologies targeted by Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy. By cashing checks from the very elites executing global sharp power campaigns, elite American academia has created a dangerous contradiction that allows foreign adversaries to buy unparalleled access to the heart of Western innovation.

#StanfordLeak #CCPInfluence #NationalSecurity #HooverInstitution #TechWar #AcademicFreedom #ChinaFunding #UnitedFront

https://t.co/YKNOZ221Yt

[Gary Sands @ForeignDevil666]

"the current incentive structure runs against major escalation." https://t.co/0vx9S7pb4W