Hello, viewers, welcome to “Good News Time.” I am Jia Yin.
Today’s focus: More Taxes! Trump imposes additional tariffs on China. Global market battle? DeepSeek drops prices by 75%, sparking a price war. Fake academic papers for promotion, alarming amount of academic fraud in Chinese local hospitals.
On February 27, U.S. President Trump proposed that the 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada and an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports will take effect on March 4. The reason cited is the continued flow of lethal drugs from these countries into the United States.
Trump announced that the new tariffs on Chinese goods will be layered on top of the existing 10% tariffs implemented on February 4 due to the fentanyl crisis, bringing the accumulated tariffs to 20%.
The decision to impose additional tariffs on China and insist on tariffs against Mexico and Canada by the Trump administration is due to the belief that these countries still have a significant amount of fentanyl entering the U.S., leading to no progress in combating drug issues.
A White House official disclosed to Reuters that the U.S. is currently in negotiations with Mexico, Canada, and China. He stated, “We have a good handle on immigration issues, but there are still concerns regarding fentanyl.”
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2023, 72,776 people in the U.S. died due to synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl.
It has been reported that notorious Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who murdered a U.S. DEA agent in 1985, was convicted in the U.S. and later extradited back to Mexico. Following his release in 2013, Quintero resumed drug trafficking, which sparked discontent in the U.S.
In January 2025, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 991 pounds of fentanyl at the U.S.-Mexico border, marking a 50.5% decrease compared to previous incidents. However, the White House officials emphasized that this amount is still enough to kill millions of Americans.
Currently, officials from Canada and Mexico are set to meet with Trump’s administration officials in Washington this week, attempting to halt these tariffs.
As of now, there has been no response from Beijing. Reuters stated that Trump’s decision to raise tariffs on China is similar to his trade war strategy against Beijing during his first term, aiming to escalate tariffs pressure to force Beijing into negotiations.
However, Xi Jinping has not engaged in negotiations with the U.S. on the fentanyl issue but imposed a 10% limited retaliatory tariff on U.S. energy and agricultural equipment.
Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the total amount of goods imported from China in 2024 reached $439 billion, with many of these goods facing tariffs as high as 25%.
If Trump indeed imposes an additional 20% tariff on Chinese goods, it remains to be seen how Beijing will respond. Let’s wait and see!
Moving on to the next news piece:
Last month, the Hangzhou startup DeepSeek caused a global tech stocks downturn and subsequent scandals. Following bans issued in multiple countries, DeepSeek accelerated the release of its latest AI model and announced significant discounts during off-peak hours, with reductions of up to 75%. DeepSeek’s price strategy has once again shaken the global market, igniting a price war.
As per information on DeepSeek’s official website, they launched a promotion starting from February 26, with significant AI price reductions during 00:30 to 08:30 daily (Beijing time). DeepSeek-V3 prices reduced by 50%, while DeepSeek-R1 saw a 75% cut.
Reuters reported that the discount window created by DeepSeek coincides with daytime in Europe and the U.S., aiming to disrupt the Western tech market and trigger a price war.
Influenced by DeepSeek’s price war, OpenAI has lowered ChatGPT prices, and Google’s Gemini has introduced discounted subscription services.
Citing a report from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Radio Free Asia noted that Beijing is technologically advanced in AI and data collection, with companies like DeepSeek aiding the Chinese government in societal monitoring.
DeepSeek initially gained popularity but subsequently faced a wave of negative news. Evidence confirmed that DeepSeek “plagiarized” technology from the U.S.’s OpenAI, with alleged support from the CCP, creating security risks and leading to bans by several Western countries.
On February 17, South Korea became the second country after Italy to comprehensively ban the download of the DeepSeek application. Furthermore, U.S. Navy and Texas governmental agencies, Taiwanese governmental agencies, and Australian governmental agencies all prohibited the use of DeepSeek. France and Ireland requested explanations from DeepSeek regarding data processing issues.
Regarding DeepSeek’s brief surge, Taiwan University’s Professor Lin Zongnan believes the CCP strategically released DeepSeek during Trump’s presidency. While it seems to promote a private enterprise, it essentially praises the Communist Party. He views DeepSeek as China’s version of Huawei in AI, backed by the Chinese government.
Zeng Yishuo, Deputy Researcher at the Institute of Cyber Security at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, notes that the massive use of AI by the CCP will inevitably lead to structural unemployment. Despite this, the CCP vigorously promotes AI because “AI affects the entire strategic layout of the CCP, so it cannot fall behind, thus vigorously promoting it.”
Independent writer Zhu Ge Mingyang remarked that leveraging DeepSeek, the CCP aims to popularize AI across various domains, implementing an “AI Great Leap Forward,” which will significantly impact China’s industrial structure and bring significant disruptions to the job market.
Numerous reports indicate that many hospitals in Guangxi, Guangdong, and elsewhere in China have begun deploying DeepSeek applications to replace medical personnel.
On February 17, the Internet Hospital of Guangdong Women and Children’s Health Institute introduced the DeepSeek intelligent consultation. Acknowledged as “AI Little Xue Doctor,” it can handle common symptom inquiries, provide triage recommendations, and alleviate outpatient pressures. Many people expressed concern that the next disappearing profession might be doctors.
For instance, a leaked screenshot from a group chat within Shanghai’s Shangmei Cosmetics Co., Ltd. in early February revealed directives from Chairman and CEO Lu Yixiong to significantly downsize staff across departments due to AI replacing human workers. Departments such as customer service faced a 95% reduction in staff, while content innovation saw an 80% cut and legal departments faced a 50% reduction.
Chinese media reported that among the top 10 professions most affected by AI in China are customer service representatives, data entry clerks, warehouse and logistics workers, manufacturing workers, financial analysts, medical diagnosticians, legal assistants and attorneys, marketing and advertising professionals, translators and interpreters, taxi and truck drivers.
Despite heavy promotion by the CCP, external observers remain skeptical about DeepSeek’s future.
Akio Yaita, Executive Director of the Indo-Pacific Strategic Think Tank and a veteran Japanese journalist, expressed that a dictatorship like the CCP lacking in intellectual and academic freedom struggles to innovate in cutting-edge technology and often resorts to deception. He stated that DeepSeek falls under this category, coupled with its limited functionality, making it challenging to gain trust. Geopolitically, the increasing U.S.-China confrontation has evolved into structural opposition, with the U.S. imposing strict restrictions on high-tech products from China. Consequently, artificial intelligence involving personal privacy, national secrets, etc., has extremely limited space for survival.
Continuing with DeepSeek, let’s now delve into the news related to academic fraud:
Recently, the internationally renowned academic journal “Nature” released an analysis report stating that academic fraud in Chinese local hospitals is rampant. Over the past decade, nearly 60% of fraudulent academic papers globally have authors from China, with a retraction rate three times higher than the global average.
Data reveals that from 2014 to 2024, over twenty thousand papers from China were retracted, with a retraction rate soaring to 0.3%, three times the global average. Ji’ning First People’s Hospital in Shandong topped the list globally for retraction rate, with over 100 retractions of papers published by the hospital in the past decade, surpassing 5%, 50 times the global average.
Among the top ten institutions globally with high retraction rates, seven are from China, including Ji’ning First People’s Hospital. The remaining six are Cangzhou Central Hospital, Huaihe Hospital of Henan University, Weifang People’s Hospital, Linyi People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical College, and Qiqihar Medical College. Additionally, three institutions from India, Pakistan, and Ethiopia’s universities are listed.
In response to this phenomenon, many international “academic fraud detectives” have joined investigations. Tiger, a fraud expert, questioned why the fraudulent hospitals are all local institutions. He explained that many hospitals have strict requirements for papers, essential for promotions. Yet, doctors in local hospitals are busy with work, lacking time for research, let alone publications in English. Additionally, many hospitals lack research facilities and cannot publish cytology papers, indicating all cytology papers from these hospitals are fake.
Tiger noted that most of the revealed fraud issues in “Nature” exist in the field of biomedical research. He suggested that this might be due to more image usage in medical research, making fraud easier to detect. Moreover, material science fraud is also severe, particularly in advanced materials like nanomaterials. He estimated about half of the research papers combining nanotechnology with medicine are fraudulent. While there are genuine papers, the prevalence of fake ones tarnishes the sector’s reputation significantly.
Simultaneously, lax editorial policies in academic journals fuel the culture of fraud. Some lower-tier journals, aiming for profits, have lax manuscript review processes and even retract hundreds or thousands of papers in a single scandal expose.
Tiger emphasized, “Most fraudulent papers mainly come from those second-rate journals. These magazines first do not maintain high quality, and in recent years, money rules. Publishing articles mostly aim at profit rather than scientific truth and breakthroughs, leading to compromised review mechanisms, and sometimes no review at all. When exposed frequently, they might overcompensate. Retracting hundreds of papers at once, even over two thousand at times. Some journals eventually decided not to accept submissions from Chinese hospitals at all.”
Many people are unaware of the harm caused by academic fraud, impacting fields like medicine and pharmaceuticals across various sectors. Referencing the highly publicized 2024 incident involving a new drug for Alzheimer’s disease, once touted as a potential game-changer in Alzheimer’s treatment. Still, after the exposed data falsification, the stock price plummeted, ultimately halting drug development, causing significant repercussions for investors, the scientific community, and patients.
Tiger analysis indicated, “Biomedical research relies on basic experimental data, from cells to animals, then human trials. If fraud proliferates, it not only wastes substantial funds but also misleads many researchers into pursuing incorrect paths. For young individuals aspiring towards a Ph.D., after reading numerous studies to select a research area, if they trust falsified research results, they may embark on a wrong scientific path. Discovering the issue four to five years later could make many abandon their research dreams, incurring immeasurable losses!”
That’s all for now on “Good News Time.”