Trump Team Tosses All 'Items Received in China' into Trash Before Boarding Private Jet

Strict Protocols Applied for Visits to China and Russia
Government Delegation Disposes of Gifts, Entry Badges, and Temporary Phones

It has been reported that U.S. President Donald Trump, who visited Beijing, China for a U.S.-China summit, disposed of all items received from the Chinese side, including souvenirs, before boarding his private aircraft.

U.S. President Donald Trump is seen boarding his private plane (Air Force One) on the 15th before leaving Beijing Capital International Airport, greeting the Chinese farewell officials. Photo by AFP Yonhap News

On the 15th, Emily Goodin, White House correspondent for the New York Post, posted on her social networking service X (formerly Twitter) just before the plane's departure. Goodin wrote, "The U.S. working-level team collected all items distributed by Chinese officials, such as access badges, temporary cell phones issued to White House staff, and delegation badges, before boarding Air Force One, and discarded them in a trash can at the bottom of the stairs," adding, "No items from China were allowed to be brought onto the plane."

This measure is interpreted as a way to completely prevent information leaks and wiretapping. This is not the first time the U.S. government has collected all items received abroad and disposed of them before entering U.S. airspace. In fact, it is reported to be almost a "standard procedure" when visiting countries such as China or Russia. During this visit to China, the White House also issued so-called "burner phones" (disposable phones providing untraceable temporary numbers), and collected even minor items such as temporary entry badges and commemorative pins, disposing of them before the private plane took off.

The delegation of U.S. President Donald Trump is seen discarding gifts into a trash can under the private plane (Air Force One). Screenshot from Saudi Expat Instagram.

In particular, while on Chinese territory, the use of personal smartphones or laptops is restricted, and only "clean devices" (security-initialized devices not linked to personal information or cloud accounts) can be used. The use of public Wi-Fi or charging ports is also strictly limited depending on the situation. Due to concerns that a hacking chip could be embedded in a USB charging cable, only pre-verified power banks and dedicated cables are used.

The New York Post reported, "Even President Trump did not use his personal mobile phone during his visit to China." The number of posts on President Trump's social media accounts noticeably decreased during his stay in China, which is presumed to be the reason for this.

White House staff stored their personal devices in Faraday bags, which block all signals including GPS (Global Positioning System), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification), and kept them on Air Force One. Key information was also shared in the form of paper documents instead of digital files. According to Fox News, there were even comments within the delegation that "it feels like we've gone back to the analog era."

Intelligence agencies have long used the method of hiding tracking or eavesdropping devices in gifts or items received from the host country to monitor opposing nations. A representative example is "The Thing" incident during the Cold War. In 1945, a Soviet youth organization presented the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union with a wooden carving of the American eagle as a "symbol of friendship," which turned out to be an elaborate, battery-free listening device—this fact was only discovered seven years later. More recently, in 2023, there was a report that a bugging device was found in a teapot given as a gift to a staff member at the British Embassy in Beijing by a Chinese official.

Notably, last year the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed that the Chinese-affiliated hacker group "Salt Typhoon" was active in more than 80 countries worldwide. In addition, during his return to the U.S., President Trump was asked by reporters, "Did you discuss China's cyberattacks on the U.S. or the Ministry of State Security (MSS) of China?" He replied, "President Xi Jinping talked about the attacks we (the U.S.) carried out in China. As you know, their intelligence activities are also ones that we undertake ourselves."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.