Forbidden News with Gary Bai

We're in times of war, and war is a time when nations reflect. We think about the implications of our choices and the opportunity costs that could mean lives saved or lost at the front line.  This is especially true when talking about disruptive military technologies.  Joining us today to discuss the high-tech race between the United States and China is Dr. Arthur Herman, Senior Fellow at the Hudson's Institute and Director of the Quantum Alliance Initiative. We will also talk about his book "Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II" and how it applies to what some would call "Cold War 2.0" fast-forward 80 years to today.

In the eyes of a long-time environmental expert, how did the green movement's Net Zero policies affect European countries' strategic position in the Ukraine war? What are the factors within the West stifling its energy competitiveness against aggressors? And how is the CCP weaponizing this movement? Joining us tonight to talk about these topics is Patricia Adams, economist, and President of Energy Probe Research Foundation and one of the earliest environmental advocates against the Chinese Communist Party's abuses of the environment.

Talking about opportunism, what one would call a disaster in Ukraine presents opportunities that some regimes worldwide would want to leverage, particularly those with predatory schemes. Yet, perhaps the same can be said for Western powers, and one opportunity in the world of money may be presenting itself. In our story today, we talk about an unprecedented moment in the world of finances, the consequences of which have a great deal of significance on the Chinese Communist Party's ambitions to dominate the global financial market. Today, Dr. Christopher Balding, economist and former Professor at the Peking University HSBC Business School, joins us on “Forbidden News.”

While carefully studying the Ukraine War, how will the Chinese Communist Party military optimize its attack against Taiwan? And what should America do to help equip this front-line nation to defend against the biggest threat to America's existence? In this second part of our two-part interview, Colonel Grant Newsham and I talk about what the United States and its allies should do to break Taiwan out of isolation and how Taiwan can better defend against the prospective attack from the Chinese Communist Party. Newsham is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Security Policy (centerforsecuritypolicy.org), Director at One Korea Network (onekoreanetwork.com), and the Yorktown Institute (yorktowninstitute.org).

In recent days, news came out that China has fully militarized three islands it built in the disputed South China Sea. What is the significance of this? Why is the Western Pacific vital to American interests? What is concerning in the relationship between the United States and some Asia Pacific countries? And What is the missing puzzle from the United States Asia-Pacific strategy? Today we sit down with Grant Newsham, a Senior Fellow with the Center for Security Policy (centerforsecuritypolicy.org) and Director at One Korea Network (onekoreanetwork.com) and the Yorktown Institute (yorktowninstitute.org) to talk about these questions. In tomorrow's episode, we'll release the second part of the interview, where we zoom in on Taiwan and talk about the ways it could improve its defense against potential aggression from China and how it can better work with the United States.

In the eyes of Brandon Weichert, author of “Winning Space, How America Remains a Superpower” and an expert in military technologies, what lessons can the United States learn from the Ukraine-Russian war?  In this episode, Mr. Weichert and I talk about technological competition and supply chain security on strategically important technologies, in the context of the threat of the Chinese Communist Party. We also talk about the significance of Russia's deployment of a hypersonic missile in actual combat, and how the United States, in his view, may be falling behind in “Latent Industrial Capacity” in the new Quasi-war with the Eurasian authoritarian bloc.

How will China and Russia's economies be affected by the war? What makes the segregated economies of the authoritarian axis resilient to Western sanctions? And how will the symbiotic relationship between Russia and China look? Today we sit down with Gregory Copley, president of the International Strategic Studies Association and author of the New Total War of the 21st Century, to talk about the possibility of China benefiting from the Ukraine War and how, in his view, Russia might be able to handle Western sanctions better than we imagine.

“Where is Peng Shuai?” This question has been plaguing the media outside of the Great Firewall of China ever since the Olympian went missing after speaking up on her case of sexual assault. Today, we sit down with Laura Harth, Campaign Director at Safeguard Defenders and human rights advocate, to discuss Peng's recent interview with L'Equipe. We talk about the merits of Peng's statements and how they might fall into a paradigm of forced confessions - an abusive tactic used by the CCP on sensitive political matters. We also talk about Safeguard's research with CCP's reach overseas and how people outside of China may be targeted by the CCP's co-opt operation, even if they're foreign citizens.

Will China help Russia through sanctions? Can China afford to help Russia? Is China's new digital yuan or similar workarounds capable of empowering Russia to evade global sanctions? What are their possible limitations? Today we sit down with Dr. Antonio Graceffo, China analyst, author, and professor of Economics, to talk about the economic impacts of the sanctions on Russia and to what extent China can help Russia through the global siege. We also talk about the prospect of China and Russia becoming evermore isolated, politically and economically, as the Ukraine crisis drags on, and how now might just be the right time to decouple from the authoritarian powers.

What is China learning from the Ukraine-Russian war? What are the parallels between the Russian invasion and a hypothetical invasion of Taiwan by China's People's Liberation Army? And what should the United States do to prepare Taiwan for an attack from China? Today we sit down with Lieutenant Colonel Guermantes Lailari, retired United States Air Force Foreign Area Officer specializing in irregular warfare and missile defense, to talk about the parallels between Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the hypothetical scenario of an invasion of Taiwan by the People's Liberation Army. We also talk about the case for the United States and its allies building a multi-layer missile defense system in Taiwan, which Lieutenant Colonel spoke to based on his experience working with missile defense systems in Israel.

How does a former Brigadier General of the United States Air Force see Russia's invasion of Ukraine? Why haven't nations around the world sanctioned China yet, despite the apparent complicity? How does this war map on to China's threat to Taiwan? And what is the prospect of a nuclear war in the future with Russia or China? Today we sit down with Robert Spalding, former one-star General Officer in the USAF and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, to talk about China's roles and interests in the war and how they are connected to the reactions of Western nations we're witnessing today. We also discuss the war's implications for the current world order and the forthcoming choice facing nations under the military protection of the United States, yet maintain an economic partnership with China.

As of Monday night, Russia has not declared victory over a single Ukrainian city, defying expectations of defense analysts around the world. Germany called for an increase in military spending, reversing a longstanding policy. Ukraine and Russia held talks in Belarus, with no apparent breakthrough as of this time. What makes this war different than every other war? How will the world order as we know change after this crisis? How has social media pressured countries and alliances to act? And, what are the repercussions for Putin and Russia if their plan goes sideways? Joining us tonight is Joe Micallef, best-selling author on military history and world affairs. We discuss the implications of what he calls “a humiliation for the Russian military” unfolding in Eastern Europe. We talk about the anticipated shifts in the power distribution after the crisis and how this war might turn out to be a deterring lesson for the Chinese Communist Party.

On Saturday, shots were fired in Kyiv, at least 3000 Russian soldiers have been killed, and Ukrainians living in the capital are picking up arms. What does Putin ultimately want? What are the complications in the China-Russia union? What is in the minds of Putin and Xi Jinping? And what can the United States do, and did do, back in the Trump administration, to leverage these complications? Joining us tonight, Brandon Weichert, geopolitical expert and author of the book “Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower,” was one of the few who accurately predicted Russia's invasion of Ukraine back in January 2022. We talk about the latest updates on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the shared and conflicting interests among China, Russia, and NATO, and a comparison between China and Russia regarding the strategic threat to America. We also discuss a case of further military engagement between Russia and the rest of the world, the tactical areas that America should be most concerned about, and how it should act.

On Monday afternoon, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian Defense Ministry to deploy troops in two pro-Moscow territories in Ukraine, escalating what could evolve into the bloodiest military conflict since the second world war. As the United States and its European allies put forth sanctions on Russia, China's geopolitical threat is looming in the background. What is Beijing thinking, seeing the Moscow-Ukraine crisis unfold? Will supporting Ukraine distract the United States's military presence in the Indo-Pacific? Is Putin talking to Xi Jinping? And how does the Feb. 4 joint statement by Russia and China play into this? Today we sit down with Anders Corr, geopolitical expert, and publisher of the Journal of Political Risk. We talk about the crisis unfolding in Eastern Europe and how this might change the United States, China, and Ukraine landscape.