Trump’s Defense of Xi Hit by Embarrassing New Bombshell
Donald Trump insisted Beijing was far too smart to back the enemy.
Evan Vucci/REUTERS
President Donald Trump’s public defense of Chinese leader Xi Jinping met a devastating reality check as new intelligence revealed Houthi militants are using Chinese-supplied components to build missiles.
An investigative report by Conflict Armament Research published Oct. 14 revealed that Houthi rebels in Yemen have imported critical missile components directly from a Chinese supplier, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The shipments are being used to manufacture a domestic clone of Iran’s lethal Kheibar Shekan, a precision-guided ballistic missile with a range of up to 1,200 miles, capable of striking targets across all of Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Houthi rebels had been attacking the Red Sea port city of Mocha for weeks before seizing it last week.
Al Joumhouriya TV/Al Joumhouriya TV/Handout via Reuters
The intelligence contradicts the Trump administration’s public assertions regarding Beijing’s neutrality. In a late-night post on Truth Social on Monday, the 80-year-old president brushed aside reports that foreign powers were aiding American adversaries in the seven-and-a-half-month war with Iran.
“I see so many comments from the Radical Left Morons and Lunatics that China and Russia are helping the ‘wonderful’ Islamic Republic of Iran,” the president wrote.
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“If they are, it’s at a very low level, but I don’t believe they are at all. They have too much to lose, and we would know about it, and know about it very fast!”
Yet weapons investigators discovered that Yemeni authorities intercepted two shipments hidden among commercial cargo containing critical missile parts sent from China.
Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Khaled Abdullah/Reuters
The Kheibar Shekan missile features a detachable warhead that fires a small secondary engine to maneuver around air defenses at speeds up to 6,000 miles per hour.
The discovery comes as Chinese companies have emerged as the primary source of seized hardware bound for the terrorist group. United Nations reports indicate Beijing-based firms supply the vast majority of sanctioned drone components reaching Yemen.
Washington, D.C. policy experts say the proxy group is rapidly weaning itself off direct reliance on Tehran and Hezbollah.
“They have developed domestic manufacturing capabilities with artificial intelligence for drone and missile softwares, diversified their supply chains, accumulated operational experience, and established relationships with regional smugglers and international procurement networks,” Mohammed al-Basha, founder of the Washington-based risk firm Basha Report, told the Journal.
The technological leap arrives at a politically precarious moment for the White House. The president promised his military offensive against Iran would last a “few weeks” when it launched in February, but the prolonged conflict has become one of the least popular in U.S. history, driving voter anxiety over rising fuel prices ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
Despite mountain-high evidence of foreign interference, the administration has repeatedly indulged authoritarian leaders.
The president hosted Xi for a lavish White House state visit last month, praising their “truly great friendship” just 24 hours after reporting showed Iranian customs logged roughly 1,300 shipments of dual-use military goods from Chinese companies.
Similarly, after the Washington Post revealed in March that Russia was feeding satellite data on U.S. warships to Iranian forces, the White House struck a deal with Vladimir Putin to release Russian diesel into global markets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted the move, warning that “gifts to Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilized world.”
On Tuesday, as Houthi strikes pushed global crude oil prices higher, the president posted on Truth Social that the militants were behaving “very badly.”
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