White House staffers and reporters who traveled alongside President Trump to China this past week were reportedly asked to discard their badges issued by China and any burner phones they used abroad before boarding Air Force One.
Shortly before departing from Beijing, American staffers collected everything Chinese officials gave out and tossed them in a bin at the bottom of the airplane’s stairs, Emily Goodin, the New York Post’s White House Correspondent, said on X Friday.
“Nothing from China allowed on the plane,” Goodin wrote.
That includes burner phones used by White House staff, pins used to identify people in the American delegation and Chinese press credentials.
Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt said Friday sources told her that all Americans had to use burner phones and later discard them to prevent any possibility of spying.
“I have sources that were on the plane too, and they had to leave their American phones, turn them off, they did not take them into China – or if they did, they left them on the planes, they turned them off. They didn’t use them,” Earhardt said on “Fox and Friends.”
She added: “All the Americans were using burner phones and they had to destroy them and leave them in China. They don’t want anything that belongs to the Chinese left on that plane because they could be bugged, there could be spies.”
Press were also asked to hand over red lapel badges that Chinese officials gave the press pool because China wanted them back, Friday’s designated White House pooler said in an email.
The Independent has asked the White House for comment.
The U.S. and China historically have an up-and-down relationship marked by economic and technological competitiveness as well as skepticism over foreign intervention, particularly regarding Taiwan.
U.S. national security and intelligence agencies have accused China of trying to undermine America through clandestine work and cyber attacks – such as Salt Typhoon, the group that has conducted attacks on U.S. infrastructure, believed to be Chinese state-sponsored actors.
Yet despite any longstanding tensions, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared to strike a friendly tone, publicly celebrating each other’s successes while discussing touchy topics.
Trump even openly admitted that the U.S. and China spy on one another, telling reporters on Air Force One, “It’s one of those things because we spy like hell on them too.”
The U.S. president said he and the Chinese president even discussed “attacks” the U.S. has conducted on China and vice versa.
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