China

COMMENTARY America is shocked to find it's playing catch-up with China on infrastructure, and influence, in the Americas. But little will change until President Trump chooses partnership over punishment.

While visiting Panama this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not mention President Trump's pledge to take back the Panama Canal. Was it just a ploy to make Panama resolve to get tougher on China?

President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Sen. Marco Rubio as his secretary of state is likely to bring far more attention to Latin America and the Caribbean, a region often historically overlooked by U.S. policy makers, two experts on Latin America and the Caribbean told WLRN’s South Florida Roundup.

The University of Florida on Saturday banned a student from its property for three years who the Justice Department accused of being involved in a multi-million dollar scheme to divert biomedical samples of dangerous drugs and toxins from a campus laboratory to China.

Among the students tied to the scheme was the president of UF’s Chinese Students and Scholars Association. The group openly protested a Florida law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year that limits universities from recruiting students and faculty from China — and bans employing such students from working in academic labs without special permission.

The suit filed May 6 claims Gov. Ron DeSantis' measure, which prevents people from a "foreign country of concern" from owning property, is xenophobic.

Two graduate students from China whose studies were put on hold, and a professor who says he is unable to recruit research assistants, are suing Florida education officials.

Florida pension-fund managers are ready to begin the process of dropping investments in China-owned companies, anticipating that Gov. Ron DeSantis will sign a bill directing divestment.

A 2023 law that heavily regulates how Florida’s public universities interact with “countries of concern" like China and Cuba has led to FIU closing its largest international campus and blocked the hiring of foreign talent. “It really pushes us further away from FIU’s historic mission," one professor said.

The SFA Fund said DeSantis "called China ‘Florida’s most important trading partner.’" PolitiFact found no evidence in news reports or statements that he said this about Florida’s biggest trading partner for imported goods.

PolitiFact did not find any government reports or news stories that show Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recruited Chinese companies to the state in the last six months, despite claims made by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley

Vivek Ramaswamy’s claim about Florida’s anti-Chinese land law is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. PolitiFact Florida rates it Half True.