Podcasts about Hong Kong

Frailty, once thought to be irreversible, is now recognized as a condition that can be improved through consistent outdoor movement, restoring strength, balance, and independence in older adults Research from Canada's GO-OUT studies shows that even simple walking programs — whether guided park walks or weekly reminders — measurably reduce frailty and boost mobility in as little as 10 weeks Confidence, not just time spent walking, proved to be the strongest predictor of improvement, as older adults who practiced in supportive outdoor groups felt safer and more capable continuing on their own A Hong Kong trial found that pairing a smartphone app with outdoor fitness equipment helped older adults stay active, build exercise confidence, and improve mental well-being far beyond structured classes You don't need a gym to rebuild vitality — start with short, daily walks outdoors, add small balance or strength challenges, and work toward one hour a day to strengthen muscles, circulation, and confidence naturally

Outplacement firm Challenger reported over 150,000 job cuts in October – the highest for the month of October in more than 20 years. US Treasury yields fell sharply, raising expectations of a December Fed rate cut, although some officials remain cautious. AI-related stocks dragged markets lower, but the selling was selective. In Europe, German industrial output beat forecasts but remains weak; while the Euro Stoxx 50 fell on disappointing earnings. In Asia, China's exports unexpectedly declined for the first time in eight months. Richard Tang, Head of Research in Hong Kong, discusses the lack of short-term catalysts for China's equity markets and our outlook on the AI investment theme, which is key to markets in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.(00:00) - Introduction: Helen Freer, Investment Writing (00:31) - Markets wrap-up: Mike Rauber, Product & Investment Content (07:19) - Asia update – Japan, Korea and China: Richard Tang, Head of Research Hong Kong (13:50) - Closing remarks: Helen Freer, Investment Writing Would you like to support this show? Please leave us a review and star rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Charlotte Greenway in for Nick and joined by Jane Mangan first off to continue to look back on the international action that we've enjoyed over the last few days starting at the Breeders' Cup and the European achievements before moving onto Melbourne on where we hear from Melbourne Cup winning jockey Jamie Melham who Nick called up with the day after her big success. Next attentions turn to the jumps as Rebecca Curtis weighs up the pros and cons of the Betfair Chase at Haydock over the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury for Cheltenham Festival and Irish National winner Haiti Couleur. Olly Murphy, who has Resplendent Grey in both races, shares his likely plans for the recent Carlisle winner as well as discussing some of his other brightest stars, including Jonbon and Douvan's half brother. Jane takes a look at the Clonmel Oil Chase tomorrow featuring three high class horses including Il Etait Temps who could be set for a big season and also an intriguing mares contest on the same card. We also hear from one of the latest jockeys to join the training ranks Nick Schofield, who sends out his first runner tomorrow, before wrapping up the show with our regular Wednesday update from Hong Kong with JA McGrath.

John is joined by Leslie Zhang Weihua, Vice President and General Counsel of United Energy Group, China, one of the largest independent oil and gas companies in the world.  They discuss Leslie's extensive experience in international legal affairs, including his experience as general counsel for both large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private companies in China.   They discuss the differences between providing legal services for SOEs and private companies, including the additional procedures SOEs must follow in making business decisions, the strategic issues in addition to return on investment that SOEs must consider and how rate sensitive SOE's procurement procedures are and how that applies to hiring counsel.  They also discuss the expectations that Chinese clients have with respect to counsel finding creative solutions to regulatory issues, the rates paid for unsuccessful legal projects, and responsiveness in providing legal analysis. They also compare Chinese and Western law firms with respect to training, expertise, and specialization while noting the ongoing expansion of Chinese firms into international work and the Chinese government's policy of encouraging the continued development of international arbitration centers in Hong Kong and Singapore.  Finally, they discuss the role lawyers can play in improving relations between the United States and China including the importance of recognizing the risks and costs of decoupling.Podcast Link: Law-disrupted.fmHost: John B. Quinn Producer: Alexis HydeMusic and Editing by: Alexander Rossi

Depuis quelques années, un phénomène surprend les observateurs : dans des manifestations aux quatre coins du monde, des pancartes, drapeaux et costumes inspirés de One Piece apparaissent. Le manga culte d'Eiichirō Oda, publié depuis 1997, est devenu bien plus qu'une œuvre de divertissement : il incarne aujourd'hui un symbole universel de résistance et de liberté.Au cœur de One Piece, on trouve l'histoire de Monkey D. Luffy, un jeune pirate au chapeau de paille qui rêve de trouver le trésor légendaire, le “One Piece”, pour devenir le roi des pirates. Mais ce rêve n'est pas motivé par la cupidité : Luffy cherche avant tout la liberté absolue, dans un monde dominé par un gouvernement mondial autoritaire et corrompu. Cette quête de liberté, associée à un profond rejet de l'injustice, a trouvé un écho dans les mouvements sociaux contemporains.Dans de nombreuses manifestations – à Hong Kong en 2019, en France lors des grèves contre la réforme des retraites, ou encore au Chili et en Iran – le drapeau à tête de mort du chapeau de paille est apparu comme un emblème de résistance populaire. Les manifestants y voient une métaphore claire : comme Luffy et son équipage, ils défient un pouvoir jugé oppressif, au nom de valeurs d'amitié, de solidarité et de courage.Le message de One Piece est d'autant plus puissant qu'il dépasse les frontières culturelles. Eiichirō Oda a toujours ancré son récit dans une critique subtile du pouvoir et de la censure. Dans l'univers du manga, le “Gouvernement mondial” contrôle l'information, efface les pages gênantes de l'Histoire et pourchasse ceux qui osent révéler la vérité — des thèmes qui résonnent fortement dans les sociétés où la liberté d'expression est menacée.De plus, les personnages de One Piece incarnent la diversité et l'inclusion : l'équipage de Luffy réunit des êtres aux origines, races et histoires radicalement différentes, unis par le seul idéal de vivre libres. Cette dimension universelle explique pourquoi le manga touche aussi bien les jeunes manifestants que les militants plus aguerris.En somme, One Piece est devenu un langage commun de la rébellion moderne. Derrière ses pirates colorés, il porte un message profondément humaniste : la liberté ne se quémande pas, elle se conquiert. En brandissant le drapeau de Luffy, les manifestants ne citent pas seulement un héros de fiction — ils rappellent que, face à l'oppression, chacun peut devenir le capitaine de sa propre révolution. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Welcome to Heroes Three podcast! This week we're keeping the Halloween decorations up as we discuss Tsui Hark's We're Going to Eat You starring Norman Chui and Eddy Ko!Check out some H3 art and merch! - https://www.teepublic.com/user/kf_carlito Full cast and credits - HKMDBFind us online - https://linktr.ee/Heroes3PodcastEmail us! - heroes3podcast@gmail.comTimestamps(0:00) Intro(1:16) Why this movie(3:26) Carlos and Marty initial thoughts(6:19) Tsui Hark style and influences(10:36) Hong Kong character actors!(16:06) The music(17:28) Horror and Action(19:33) Back of the VHS(20:09) Movie Recap(53:32) Final thoughts(1:01:56) Plugs and training for next week

learn how to say "a" which is hidden in Cantonese sentences

Having to “Go” has long been the enemy of runners everywhere, but might it hold the key to unlocking higher performance? While any runner can attest to how critical a well placed porta potty can be to performance, few realize the powerful science backing it up. Today on The Shakeout Podcast we're joined by Dr. Chia Hua Kuo,  professor in the department of health and physical education at the Education University of Hong Kong, to explore how defecation could play a powerful role in endurance sport. From fatigue delay to enhanced cognition, you'll never look at your pre-race ritual the same way again.This episode of The Shakeout Podcast is part one in a special two part series on Taming the Tummy: How runners of all ability levels can take control of the Gastrointestinal health to feel better in training and maximize performance on race day. Stay tuned for part two, where we'll connect with Registered Dietitian Jessalyn O'Donnell to learn how we can apply the science behind GI distress to training, racing, and everyday life.Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts.Huge thank you to this week's sponsor Smartwool. Join the Smartwool mailing list to receive updates and 15% off your first purchase. https://bit.ly/4hCway5 Conditions apply: Valid on regular-priced items. Can., 16+. Initial registration only. See terms for details.

Selamat datang di Ngobrol Sore Semaunya Special Episode: Follow Me Sydney & Hongkong!Ikutin Putri Tanjung Get Ready With Me sebelum menghadiri dua event spesialnya: SXSW di Sydney dan Nikkei Business of Luxury Summit di Hong Kong.Follow Us!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ngobrolsoresemaunyaTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ngobrolsoresemaunyaNgobrol Sore Semaunya hadir setiap Kamis jam 18.00 WIB hanya di cxomedia.id & YouTube CXO Media#NgobrolSoreSemaunya #PutriTanjung #FollowMe #Sydney #HongKong

El magazine de hoy lo empezamos desde el Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, con Jaime García Cantero y Nuño Domínguez, que se encuentra en Hong Kong y hablamos sobre como China pretende convertirse en la primera potencia del mundo, La Cumbre del Clima, la COP30, empieza el lunes en la Amazonía brasileña (sin el menor interés por parte de Estados Unidos) y con Federico Sainz de Robles, uno de los galardonados en los Premios Nacionales de Innovación y Diseño, por la fundación de Sepiia 2080, una empresa de ropa que no se arruga, no se mancha, y no acumula olores. Abrimos de nuevo el club de Amigos Alegres, donde Luis Alegre recibe a Fran Perea. En Vida y Cine, nuestro profesor Javier Ocaña, nos hace una crítica sobre nuevos estrenos como son "Bugonia", "Los tigres" y "Una casa llena de dinamita". Y por último, Ainhoa Aguirregoitia, nos cuenta el manifiesto futurista de cocina en 1930 que fue capaz de predecir muchas de las formas con las que ahora cocinamos.

Tenemos al ministro de ciencia del Hoy por Hoy en Hong Kong, donde ha sido invitado a la entrega de unos premios a avances en ciencia y tecnología que quieren ser la respuesta china a los nóbel. Nuño nos cuenta cómo se está viviendo desde el gigante asiático su carrera para convertirse en primera potencia y polo fundamental de poder tanto duro como blando.    Aquí en España, nuestro ministro de tecnología ha sido jurado en los premios nacionales de innovación. Charlamos con uno de los premiados, Federico Sáinz de Robles, fundador y CEO de Apiia, la marca de ropa que no se arruga, no se mancha y no acumula olor. Le preguntamos si va a recibir el premio con una de sus camisas (por supuesto) y de si, en ese siglo XXI, dejaremos de planchar (ojalá).

In deze aflevering Pieter Kamp, samen met Michel van Staveren mede-eigenaar van vintage speelgoedwinkel De Toy Boys in Haarlem.Pieter vertelt hoe de winkel, na een carrière inde film- en televisiewereld, is ontstaan uit pure liefhebberij. Van een 'leuk vitrinekastje' naar een winkel met magazijn, wat ooit begon als hobby werd op een gegeven moment handel. En toen belde speelgoedfabrikant Hasbro - dit nieuwtjeis een primeur, want Pieter en Michel hadden jarenlang zwijgplicht - met de mededeling dat zij gingen verhuizen. Of de mannen van De Toy Boys niet de zolder wilden leeghalen, want weggooien was zonde. Uiteraard werd een busje gehuurd en deze fantastische partij ingeladen.De Toy Boys opereren inmiddels vanuit en winkelpand in de Haarlemse Gierstraat en reizen de wereld over, op zoek naar vintage speelgoed. Pieter zegt het mooi: 'En opeens denk je dan: dit is wat ik wilde worden, kennelijk'. Maar het is ook gewoon ondernemen en hard werken. Op de dag van de opname is Pieter de hele dag in de weer geweest om items te catalogiseren en te fotograferen voor de website. Speelgoed wordt ook uit elkaar gehaald voor de onderdelen om andere sets compleet te maken. Dit jaar staan er nog een reis naar Hong Kong en Japan op het programma waar Pieter weer een aantal parels hoopt te scoren. Want in vintage speelgoed-land doen veel verhalen de ronde over de heilige graal, Pieter vertelt over een aantal zeldzame items die hij is tegengekomen de laatste tien jaar. Een aflevering over per ongeluk je passie vinden en een inkijkje in de fascinerende wereld van het (vintage) speelgoed verzamelen.

Reprezentanții a două mari bănci de investiții americane au tras un semnal de alarmă. Prezenți la un eveniment al liderilor financiari din întreaga lume, desfășurat la Hong Kong, directorii generali ai Morgan Stanley și Goldman Sachs au avertizat asupra posibilității ca piețele bursiere să înregistreze o scădere. Motivul ar fi acela al unei supraevaluări a domeniului tehnologic. Directorul Morgan Stanley a spus chiar că o scădere a prețurilor cu 10% sau 15% ar fi o corecție moderată și binevenită chiar, după ce indicii bursieri înregistrează maxime istorice. De altfel, o scădere a prețului acțiunilor este considerată chiar benefică însemnând o revenire la niveluri mai sustenabile. Nu este prima dată când analiștii atrag atenția asupra sectorului tehnologic. Cel mai des s-a făcut comparația între momentul de astăzi și bula „dot com” din anii 2000, atunci când companiile legate de internet s-au devalorizat puternic. David Solomon, CEO al Goldman Sachs, vorbește despre ciclurile de creștere, despre schimbarea traiectoriei și despre faptul că niciunul dintre bancherii de pe Wall Street nu poate vedea momentul scăderii până nu se întâmplă. În același timp, trebuie spus că recomandările sau opiniile liderilor din sectorul financiar au influențat piața, în sensul că a fost suficient ca bancherii de investiții să afirme, după o analiză a indicatorilor economici ai unei companii, că acțiunile nu sunt recomandate pentru cumpărare pentru ca prețul să scadă. Deci, în multe cazuri, prognozele managerilor de pe Wall Street ajung să fie profeții auto-împlinite. Piața americană de capital are și un așa-numit indicator al fricii care a urcat la un nivel maxim, în timp ce indicii bursieri au scăzut ușor. Bancherii văd că multiplii de evaluare ai companiilor de tehnologie (indicatori pe baza cărora se calculează valoarea unei firme) sunt întinși puternic. Este un sector supraîncălzit despre care analiștii financiari cred că se va corecta, adică prețul acțiunilor va scădea. Cu cât prețul acțiunilor companiilor de tehnologie crește, cu cât entuziasmul pentru inteligența artificială este mai mare, cu atât crește îngrijorarea în rândul directorilor din finanțele americane. În octombrie a.c., Jamie Dimon, șeful J.P. Morgan a avertizat asupra riscului unei corecții semnificative a prețurilor pe Bursa de la New York în următorii doi ani. Există multe zone de incertitudine la nivel mondial, precum tensiunile geopolitice, cheltuielile guvernamentale, deficitul, gradul de îndatorare al SUA, dar și noul val de remilitarizare la nivel global. Evident, cu această ocazie apar și o serie de specialiști care de-a lungul timpului au prezis diverse crize, precum cea financiară din anul 2008. Entuziasmul pentru inteligența artificială generativă a alimentat creșterea unor companii implicate în această industrie, precum Nvidia sau Microsoft. De exemplu, Nvidia a ajuns la o valoare de piață amețitoare, de 5.000 de miliarde de dolari. De asemenea, sunt analize care arată că nivelul cheltuielilor cu infrastructura legată de inteligența artificială va crește în următorii ani până la 2.800 miliarde de dolari. Recent, Open AI și Amazon au semnat un acord pe șapte ani pentru servicii de cloud în valoare de 38 miliarde de dolari. Ce ne arată aceste cifre? Că există o frenezie a finanțărilor pentru companii care au legătură cu noile tehnologii, fie că este vorba despre inteligență artificială, infrastructură tehnologică, microprocesoare sau cloud. Sunt investiții enorme care se vor derula în următorii ani. Întrebarea este: există riscul spargerii bulei companiilor de tehnologie? Părerile sunt împărțite, dar analiștii financiari observă că spre deosebire de anii 2000, companiile au profituri solide și operațiuni comerciale profitabile. Ceea ce le pune la adăpost de crize majore.

Singapore shares moved higher today, tracking gains seen in the region. The Straits Times Index was up 1.4% at 4,478.76 points at 2.02pm Singapore time, with a value turnover of S$1.75B seen in the broader market. In terms of counters to watch, we have DBS. The Singapore lender posted today a net profit for the third quarter ended Sep 30, 2025, that declined 2 per cent to S$2.95 billion, compared with S$3.03 billion in the same year-ago period. Elsewhere, from what a jump in US private payrolls and scepticism over the legality of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs mean for investors, to how shares of Chinese self-driving startups Pony.AI and WeRide tumbled on their Hong Kong debuts, more international and corporate headlines remained in focus. On Market View, Money Matters’ finance presenter Chua Tian Tian dived into the details with David Chow, Director, Azure Capital. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jimmy and Brett check in to talk some late season tennis on a brand new episode of Advantage Connors. Coco Gauff struggled in her first match in Riyadh against fellow American Jessica Pegula. She then bounced back and won in straight sets against Jasmine Paolini continuing the trend of inconsistency with her season. Can she clean up some of the double faults and unforced errors going forward? Jannik Sinner picked up his 5th title of the year at the Paris Masters and recaptured the #1 ranking. FAA continued his good play since US Open in a bid to make the ATP Finals. Victoria Mboko won in Hong Kong picking up her second career title and making her top 20 debut in the WTA rankings. She started the year at #333. All this plus more on the latest Advantage Connors podcast. Follow us on - Twitter - @AdvConnors @JimmyConnors @Brett_Connors Instagram - @AdvConnors @Bretterz @GolddoodIsabella Facebook - Jimmy Connors official Facebook page Leave your questions/topics/or links to stories you want us to talk about next week on Jimmy's official Facebook page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With over 40 years of managing some of the top names in wine (Opus One, Mondavi, Baron Philippe de Rothschild), David Pearson, President of Joseph Phelps, has developed a distinct point of view on how to build a globally iconic brand. Ultimately, it comes down to relationships and the effort required to maintain them. From focus and prioritization to spending upwards of 65% of time on the road, David hopes more wineries will follow in his footsteps to build the category of Napa and American wines globally. Detailed Show Notes: David's background: started as a winemaker (Europe, SoCal), sensory evaluation for Hublein (now Diageo), post-MBA marketing job with Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Mondavi in France (see Mondovino movie), managed Byron, then CEO of Opus One, now President of Joseph PhelpsThe goal is to create personal relationships and care about mutual success and partnership with accounts“Focus is the hard part” - at Opus, initially London, Hong Kong, Japan; then emerging markets, Mainland China, Dubai; Phelps also prioritized KoreaSingapore distributor told him, “We'll see you in 5 years, the French come every year.”Track people who buy wine and meet w/ them - 80/20 rule, focus on the top 20% of trade accountsAfter the top 20%, do second tier of accounts, then collectorsTravelled ~65% at Opus OneBudgets ~20-30% of marketing expenses for building relationshipsOpus One 1st 10 years - went to Asia, Canada, Europe every year, then put someone in Tokyo and Hong KongSends ~400-500 handwritten holiday cards to partners with specifics about their last visitTravel team includes a winemaker if they like it and are good at communicating, and a marketing team to better understand the marketPlease don't make it feel anonymous, but give the meetings and message personalityAt Phelps, focused on Insignia and current vintage, show older wines to show aging potentialThe goal is to expand export to ~30-40% in 10 years vs. 12-13% of Insignia todayBrands need to think deeper about what's unique and also where they are goingGet alignment between the story, the wine in the market, and where you're goingThe winery owner had three objections to export: sell all the wine to US customers, don't want to take any away from them don't know who to sell to don't want to spend the time and money to go thereLarger volume wines have different commercial relationships, same elements (knowing your partners, need to build), but margins tend to get squeezedBelieves that if the category is successful (e.g., Napa), everyone will be more successfulNegociants (La Place) respond to existing market demand well and are efficient distributors, but it is not in their DNA to build brandsPhelps uses the LVMH distribution network to build the brand and deliver directly to the core accountsMeasures quality of relationships w/ initial feeling, but then seeing the wines go to the market, need to see forward momentumTracks Liv-ex pricing a lot, seen upticks in InsigniaOther marketing elements: relationships happen over multiple channels now, need to do more social media, and be part of the discussionThe pricing goal is to have trade and consumer connect the innate value of the wine to the priceThe current neo-prohibitionist environment recalls the 80s and the “Mondavi defense” of wine as a potential solution Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charlotte Greenway in for Nick and joined by Jane Mangan first off to continue to look back on the international action that we've enjoyed over the last few days starting at the Breeders' Cup and the European achievements before moving onto Melbourne on where we hear from Melbourne Cup winning jockey Jamie Melham who Nick called up with the day after her big success. Next attentions turn to the jumps as Rebecca Curtis weighs up the pros and cons of the Betfair Chase at Haydock over the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury for Cheltenham Festival and Irish National winner Haiti Couleur. Olly Murphy, who has Resplendent Grey in both races, shares his likely plans for the recent Carlisle winner as well as discussing some of his other brightest stars, including Jonbon and Douvan's half brother. Jane takes a look at the Clonmel Oil Chase tomorrow featuring three high class horses including Il Etait Temps who could be set for a big season and also an intriguing mares contest on the same card. We also hear from one of the latest jockeys to join the training ranks Nick Schofield, who sends out his first runner tomorrow, before wrapping up the show with our regular Wednesday update from Hong Kong with JA McGrath.

The Transformation Ground Control podcast covers a number of topics important to digital and business transformation. This episode covers the following topics and interviews:   OpenAI's Atlas Browser, Q&A (Darian Chwialkowski, Third Stage Consulting) What's New in the World of Infor CloudSuite? (Soma Somasundaram, CTO, & Kevin Samuelson, CEO from Infor) Long Live ECC   We also cover a number of other relevant topics related to digital and business transformation throughout the show.   During Velocity Day Orlando, Kevin, Soma, and the Infor team shared more details on Infor Industry AI Agents and introduced Infor Leap, a new program that helps customers move to the cloud and land with confidence. Hear all the great insights firsthand, including the perspective of Infor customer, CIO of Victaulic Mario D'Ambrosio, by visiting the Infor Product Digital Event 2025. https://www.infor.com/events/infor-product-digital-event-2025?utm_campaign=27834-026-027&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=organic-social&utm_content=thirdstageconsu&utm_type=webinar  

The new Rumps & Bumps jersey just dropped! Check out afterpartyinc.com. We are live from the HQ the Lounge on Cincy Nasty Street! GDollaSign joins us as he brings some of his bartenders on and we ask them some tuff horny questions and we find out which one of them is the most toxic. Follow us on social media @AaronScenesAfterParty

On this episode of #TheShot of #DigitalHealth Therapy, Jim Joyce and I had the pleasure of chatting with the globally minded and endlessly curious Alette Ramos Hunt, PhD, Global Director, Digital Innovation & AI for Drug Discovery at Novartis. From being a third culture kid (Danish dad, Filipino mom, born in Japan, raised in Hong Kong) to becoming one of the sharpest voices connecting biotech, digital health, and AI, Alette brings perspective that's as international as it is insightful. We explored her fascinating path from studying proteins in Glasgow to driving AI innovation in pharma, and how she's bridging the gap between molecules, humans, and machines. She reminded us that practical AI and game-changing AI both have a place - one makes us efficient, the other makes us dream bigger. It's an episode filled with humility, humor, and yes.. human intelligence - proving that even in a world of algorithms, empathy still leads the way. Fun mentions as always: Chandana Fitzgerald Jeff Weness Milind Kamkolkar [00:00-02:00] Bloopers, sunshine, and background banter. [00:03-05:00] Alette's third-culture upbringing — Japan, Hong Kong, Denmark. [00:05-07:00] Boarding school, biochemistry, and falling in love with proteins. [00:10-12:00] From academia to Pfizer — bringing science to life. [00:13-15:00] Leap to HealthXL — discovering digital health beyond the lab. [00:18-21:00] Entering Novartis — pre-ChatGPT AI strategy and innovation cycles. [00:22-25:00] Practical AI vs. game-changing AI — redefining productivity. [00:24-28:00] AI and drug discovery — startups, partnerships, and collaboration. [00:29-34:00] Lessons on open-minded leadership and partnering with purpose. [00:36-39:00] Jim's classic closing story and Alette's advice: Value your strengths, cherish your partners.

Chinese takers of the International English Language Testing System test obtained an average score of 5.9 during the 2024-25 academic year, placing the mainland 35th among all participating countries and regions globally, according to the British Council.英国文化教育协会数据显示，在2024-2025学年，中国大陆地区国际英语语言测试系统考生的平均分为5.9分，在全球所有参与的国家和地区中位列第35名。Score distribution remained relatively stable, with nearly 60 percent of test takers falling into the 5.5 to 6.5 score band—a slight decrease of 1.7 percent compared with the previous year, the British Council said in a recent report on IELTS test takers' performance on the Chinese mainland.英国文化教育协会在近期一份关于中国大陆地区雅思考生表现的报告中指出，分数分布保持相对稳定，近60%的考生分数集中在5.5至6.5分区间——较上年同期小幅下降1.7%。In terms of individual skills, reading continued to be the strongest area for Chinese candidates, with an average score of 6.2.Speaking and writing, though still challenging, showed the most improvement compared with 2018-2019 levels, indicating notable progress inproductive language skills.在单项技能方面，阅读仍是中国考生的强项，平均分为6.2分。口语和写作尽管仍有挑战，但与2018-2019年的水平相比显示出最大进步，这表明学生在语言输出能力方面取得了显著进展。The report also highlighted performance trends across different education stages. Compared with 2018-2019, test takers at the secondary, vocational, undergraduate and postgraduate levels all demonstrated improvement, especially in writing and speaking.报告还强调了不同教育阶段考生的表现趋势。与2018-2019年相比，中学、职业院校、本科及研究生阶段的考生均显示出进步，尤其在写作和口语方面。Middle school students showed steady overall progress, with significant gains in speaking and writing. Vocational college candidates improved across all skills, particularly in reading and writing. Undergraduate students performed well in reading, though listening emerged as anarea requiring attention. Postgraduate candidates maintained consistently high performance in reading and writing.中学生总体稳步提升，口语和写作成绩进步显著。职业学院考生各项技能均有提高，阅读和写作尤为明显。本科生阅读表现良好，但听力成为需关注领域。研究生考生在阅读和写作上持续保持高水平表现。Regionally, Shanghai led in average scores, though gaps among regions are gradually narrowing.从地区来看，上海平均分领先，但各地区之间的差距正在逐步缩小。Among top institutions, 38 universities achieved an average academic IELTS score of 6.5 or above, with Fudan University reaching band 7 for the secondconsecutive year.在顶尖院校中，有38所大学的学术类雅思平均分达到6.5分及以上，其中复旦大学连续第二年达到7分。According to a survey by the British Council conducted in August, which collected online responses from 1,120 IELTS test takers on the Chinese mainland, study destination choices are becoming increasingly diverse.根据英国文化教育协会于8月进行的一项调查，该调查在线收集了1120名中国大陆地区雅思考生的反馈，留学目的地选择正日趋多元化。While the United Kingdom remains the most popular choice, Hong Kong has seen a significant rise in popularity, moving into second place, followed closely by Australia. Interest in various Asian and European destinations is also growing.虽然英国仍是最热门选择，但中国香港地区的热度显著上升，跃居第二位，澳大利亚紧随其后。对亚洲及欧洲各类目的地的兴趣也在增长。When it comes to decision-making, prospective students consider multiple factors, including the academic and research strength of institutions, the overall influence and reputation of the country or region, as well as employment recognition and safety upon returning to China, the survey said.调查显示，在决策时，准留学生们会综合考虑多重因素，包括院校的学术与研究实力、国家或地区的整体影响力与声誉，以及回国后的就业认可度和安全性。Applying to institutions in multiple countries continues to be a common strategy, with more than half of the surveyed respondents planning to submit applications to universities in more than one country or region, often with the UK as their primary choice, it said.申请多国院校仍是常见策略，超过半数的受访者计划向一个以上的国家或地区提交申请，且通常以英国为首选目标。The value of IELTS in the professional sphere is also becoming more evident. Among working professionals surveyed, 55 percent reported encountering IELTS scores as a mandatory requirement for job applications or promotions. About 86 percent of respondents said preparing for the test effectively improved their workplace English skills, and 85 percent agreed that the competencies assessed by IELTSalign well with real-world professional demands, the survey said.雅思在职业领域的价值也日益凸显。在接受调查的在职专业人士中，55%的人表示在求职或晋升时遇到过要求提供雅思成绩的情况。约86%的受访者称备考有效提升了其职场英语技能，85%的受访者认同雅思所考查的能力与实际职业需求契合度高。Nie Xi zi, a 21-year-old undergraduate student from the Renmin University of China, has taken the IELTS test twice to support her academic goals.来自中国人民大学的21岁本科生聂惜子（音译）为了支持她的学业目标，已经参加了两次雅思考试。Her first attempt was in February 2024, primarily to apply for a spot in an overseas exchange program. The second test took place in September this year, aimed at preparing for studying abroad at a postgraduate level. She achieved an overall band score of 8 in both exams.她第一次考试是在2024年2月，主要是为了申请海外交流项目名额。第二次考试则在今年9月，旨在为研究生阶段出国留学做准备。她在两次考试中均取得了总分8分的成绩。Through the two test preparations, Nie said she gained a deep understanding that IELTS is not only a language proficiency assessment, but also a comprehensive exercise of overall abilities.通过这两次备考，聂惜子（音译）表示她深刻体会到雅思不仅是一项语言能力评估，更是对综合能力的全面锻炼。During the process, she became more aware of her strengths and weaknesses: despite having a solid English foundation and performing excellently in listening and reading, she still faces the common issue among Chinese students of emphasizing input over output.在此过程中，她更清楚地认识到自己的优势与不足：尽管英语基础扎实，听力和阅读表现出色，但她仍面临着中国学生普遍存在的重输入、轻输出的问题。"My speaking and writing scores lag significantly behind the other two sections and remain unstable, which is an area I plan to focus on improving in the future," she said.她表示：“我的口语和写作成绩远落后于另外两项，并且仍不稳定，这是我计划未来重点提升的方面。”Score distribution分数分布productive language skills语言输出能力area requiring attention需关注领域consecutive year连续第二年align well with 与……契合度高

Formado en la cantera del Puentecastro, charlamos con el futbolista leonés Sergio Bardanca, todo un trotamundos del deporte que esta temporada milita en la que ya es su octava liga extranjera, la de Tailandia. Se trata de un nuevo ciclo para este jugador del Kanchanaburi Power FC, que, tras militar en varios equipos españoles, también ha pasado por conjuntos de Finlandia, Polonia (dos etapas), Serbia, Eslovenia, Uzbekistán, Tailandia (dos etapas), Indonesia y Hong Kong.

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Marilyn Minter (b. 1948, USA) is an artist based in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Marilyn Minter, Lehmann Maupin, Seoul, South Korea (2024). Marilyn Minter, LGDR, New York, NY (2023); Marilyn Minter, Lehmann Maupin, Hong Kong, China (2021); All Wet, Montpellier Contemporary (Mo.Co), Montpellier, France (2021); Smash, MoCA Westport, Westport, CT (2021); Fierce Women, The Cube, Moss Arts Center, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA (2020); Nasty Woman, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah GA (2020); among others. From 2015 through 2017, her retrospective, Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty, traveled to the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (TX); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (CO); the Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach (CA); and the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn (NY). Her video Green Pink Caviar was on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York from 2010-2011.Minter is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant (2006) and the Guggenheim Fellowship (1998). Minter's work is in the collections of many museums globally, including the the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (CA); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (CA); (MA); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (NY); the Perez Art Museum, Miami (FL); the Tate Modern, London (U.K); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (NY); and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (NY), among many others.She and Zuckerman discussed shaming young and beautiful women, trust, how we take care of ourselves, making things her own, progress, the ability to copy anything, getting rid of narrative, finding out who we are, identifying people's gifts, seeing joy and the love of making, making bad things, the reality of self-doubt, looking for things that bother you, piggy backing, and how hard it is to be alive!

The extraordinary life story of the billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a leading Hong Kong democracy activist fighting for freedom of speech who became China's most famous political prisoner. Jimmy Lai escaped mainland China when he was twelve years old, at the height of a famine that killed tens of millions. In Hong Kong, he hustled and often slept overnight on a table in a clothing factory where he did odd jobs. At twenty-one, he was running a factory. By his mid-twenties, he owned one and was supplying sweaters and shirts to some of the biggest brands in the United States, from Polo to The Limited. His ideas about retail led him to create Giordano in 1981, and with it “fast fashion.” But then came the 1989 democracy spring protests and the June 4th Tiananmen massacre. His reaction to the violence was to enter the media industry to push China toward more freedoms. He started a magazine, Next, to advocate for democracy in Hong Kong. Then, just two years before the city was to return to Chinese control, he founded the Apple Daily newspaper. Its mix of bold graphics, gossip, local news, and opposition to the Chinese Communist Party was an immediate hit. For more than two decades, Lai used Appleand Next as part of a personal push for democracy. A draconian new security law came into effect in Hong Kong in mid-2020, effectively making human rights advocacy and free speech a crime and censorship a fact. Lai was arrested and held without bail before being convicted on trumped-up charges. At the end of 2023, a lengthy national security trial, that could see him jailed for life, alleged “collusion with foreign forces” and printing seditious materials. China's most famous political prisoner has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020, while his supporters and family continue the fight to have him freed. Mark L. Clifford, former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post and the Standard and President of The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, draws on his three-decade friendship with Lai to tell the inside story of Lai's activism and his bravery in standing up to China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Hey guys before you listen to this one, do realize this is part 3 on a series about General Kanji Ishiwara, so if you have not already done so I would recommend listening to Part 1 & 2.    This episode is General Kanji Ishiwara part 3: The gradual fall into War with China   I tried so hard this time to finish this up neatly in part 3 and utterly failed. I wrote pages and even deleted them to keep squeezing, but theres simply too much to the story. Part 3 will be focusing on the insane politics of the 1930's and how Ishiwara tried to prevent war with China.   Its rather ironic that the man who was the chief instigator that ushering in the conquest of Manchuria was unable to impose his will when it came to molding Manchukuo. Now while Ishiwara Kanji was the operations officer given official responsibility over the planning and conduct of military operations to seize Manchuria, the arrangements for that new state, being political in nature, were not in his sphere of influence. Regardless, Ishiwara was extremely vocal about his opinions on how Manchukuo should develop and he heavily emphasized racial harmony. He continuously hammered his colleagues that the economic development of Manchukuo should reflect the spirit of racial cooperation. Ishiwara assumed the economic interests of Manchukuo would simply coincide with that of the Kwantung army, by definition both's ultimate goals would be unity of Asia against the west. He was very wrong. Ishiwara was consumed by his theory of final war, everything he did was to prepare for it, thus his obsession of racial harmony was another part of the plan.    In 1932 the self government guidance board was abolished in march, leaving its functions and regional organizations to be tossed into brand new bureaus of the new government of Manchukuo. An organization emerged in April called the (Kyowakai / Concordia Association). It was brought together by Yamaguchi Juji and Ozawa Kaisaku, and its purpose was to promote racial harmony and it was backed by members of the Kwantung army, notably Ishiwara, Itagaki and Katakura. The Kwantung army flooded money into the organization and it grew rapidly…well amongst the Japanese anyways. General Honjo was a bit weary about how much the organization might have in the political sphere of Manchukuo, he did not want to see it become an official political party, he preferred it remain in a educative role. By educative role, I of course mean, to be a propaganda arm of the Kwantung army to exert influence over Manchukuo without having real skin in the game.    But to Ishiwara the Concordia Association was the logical means to unify the new nation, guiding its political destiny, to be blunt Ishiwara really saw it should have much more authority than his colleagues believed it should. Ishiwara complained in August of 1932, that Manchuria was a conglomerate of conflicting power centers such as the Kwantung army, the new Manchukuo government, the Kwantung government, the Mantetsu, consular office and so on. Under so many hats he believed Manchukuo would never become a truly unified modern state, and of course he was one of the few people that actually wanted it to be so. He began arguing the Kwantung army should turn over its political authority as soon as possible so “Japanese of high resolve should hasten to the great work of the Manchurian Concordia Association, for I am sure that we Japanese will be its leaders. In this way Manchukuo will not depend on political control from Japan, but will be an independent state, based on Japanese Manchurian cooperation. Guided by Japanese, it will be a mode of Sino-Japanese friendship, an indicator of the present trends of world civilization” Needless to say the Concordia Association made little headway with the Chinese and it began to annoy Japanese leaders. The association gradually was bent into a spiritless propaganda and intelligence arm of the IJA, staffed largely by elite Japanese working in the Manchukuo government.    Ishiwara began using the Concordia Association to promote things such as: returning leased territories like the Railway zone, abolition of extraterritoriality, equalizing payment between the races working in Manchukuo, the kind of stuff that would promote racial harmony. Such advocacy as you can imagine deviated heavily with the Japanese military, and Ishiwara's reputation would be hurt by this. The Kwantung Army staff began shifting dramatically, seeing Ishiwara isolated, aside from Itagaki and a few other followers being around. The upper brass as they say had had enough of the nuisance Concordia Association's and gradually took control of it and made sure to stop the talk of concessions. In August of 1932 Ishiwara received a new assignment and it seems he was only too happy to leave Manchuria.   Ishiwara returned to Japan, disgusted with the turn of direction Manchuria was going, and believing he would be blamed for its future failures he submitted his resignation. But the IJA knew how popular Ishiwara was and how dangerous he could become so they rejected his resignation. Instead they gave him a military decoration. He was in a very strange spot now, for the youthful officers of the Kodoha faction loved Ishiwara, but the senior top brass of the IJA were extremely suspicious of him and lets just say he was kept under close watch.   Now with Ishiwara back in Japan he would get himself involved in a bit of a war between two factions. As many of you probably already know, the Japanese military of the late 1920s and early 1930's saw the emergence of two factions: the Kodoha “imperial way” and Tosei “control” factions. The Kodoha sought what they called a “showa restoration” to give the emperor absolute power like the good olds days as they say. They were willing to even form a coup if necessary to make this happen. Another thing they believed was in the Hokushin-ron “northern strike” war plan. The idea behind this was that the USSR and communism as a whole was Japans largest threat and the IJA needed to invade the USSR. Now the Tosei faction believed in most of what the Kodoha did, but they differed on some issues. Number 1) they were not willing to perform a coup to usher in a showa restoration, no they thought they could work with the existing Zaibatsu elites and politicians to get things done. THe Kodoha hated the politicians and Zaibatsu to the point they wanted to murder them, so differing opinions. The Tosei also believed the next world war would require a total war strategy, to build up Japan to fight the USSR, but probably the US as well. They favored Nanshin-ron “the southern strike” policy, to target the resources of south east asia necessary to give Japan what it needed to be self sufficient. Another thing that separated these two factions, the Kodoha typically were younger officers.   Despite their differences, everyone in the Japanese military understood forceful expansion into Asia was going to happen and this meant collison with the USSR, America and Britain. Ishiwara's first assignment back in Japan was a temporary duty with the foreign ministry, he was a member of the Japanese legation to the league of nations under Matsuoka Yosuke. The league of nations at this time was performing the Lytton Commission which was investigating the Macnhurian problem, ie: Japan invading Manchuria. Upon returning to Japan in summer of 1933, Ishiwara sought a regimental command, but found it difficult to acquire because of his troublemaker like history. Then General Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko who commanded the 2nd sendai division gave him command over the 4th infantry regiment. Ishiwara went to work training the men under him to counter the latest soviet infantry tactics and of course he lectured extensively about his final war theories. During this time rumors emerged that Ishiwara supported the Nanshin-ron strategy. Many of his old colleagues who supported Hokushin-ron demanded he explain himself and Ishiwara did. These rumors were actually false, it was not that Ishiwara favored the Nanshin-ron strategy, it was simply that he did not back all aspects of the Hokushin-ron strategy.   Ishiwara believed to challenge the USSR, first Japan needed an Asian union, which he thought would take probably 30 years to create. But to usher such an Asian union, first Manchukuo needed to be hammered out properly, something Ishiwara thought Japan was failing to do. Also Japan's military strength was insufficient to overwhelm the multiple enemies before her, the war she would enter would be a protracted one. To win such a war she needed resources and allies, notably Manchukuo and China. To confront the USSR, Japan would need to subvert outer mongolia, but to confront the USA and Britain she would have to seize the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong and Guam. It was going to be a global clash.   Ishiwara was gravely concerned with how powerful the USSR was becoming in the early 1930s. In the 3 years since he had left Manchuria, the Soviet divisions in east asia had jumped from 8 to 14 by the end of 1935, while Japanese divisions in Manchuria were only 3. For aircraft the Soviets had 950 vs 220 for Japan. On top of that the Soviets had TB-5 long range bombers, capable of hitting Japan, but the Japanese had no comparable aircraft. A large reason for such build up's were literally because Kodoha leaders were publicly threatening the Soviets such as Generals Sadao Araki. The Kodoha faction faced a lot of challenges as to how they could hope to face off against the USSR. They figured out three main principles needed to be overcome: 1) Japan had to prevent the USSR from being able to defeat its enemies to the west and east one at a time, Japan should seek diplomatic aims in this like allying with Germany. 2) A devastating blow was necessary to the USSR far east, perhaps against the Trans-siberian railway and air bases in the maritime provinces. 3) If Japan was able to demolish Soviet resistance in the far east, Japan would need to take forward positions on the Manchurian border for a protracted war. Ishiwara tried to figure out ways to get by these principles. First he advocated for Japanese troops strength in Manchuria and Korea to be 80% equivalent to that of the Soviets east of Lake Baikal at the offset of hostilities. He also urged cooperation with Germany and to preserve friendly neutral relations with Britain and the US, that is until the soviets were dealt with of course. Ishiwara vigorously felt the Nanshin ron strategy to push into southeast asia and the pacific was far too ambitious for the time being and that all efforts should be made to consolidate Manchuria for resources. Ishiwara tried to win over some Naval support for his plans, but none would be found. When Ishiwara showed his formal plans for Asia to the war ministry, they told him his projections in Manchuria would cost at least 1 billion 300 million yen. They also notified Ishiwara the navy were asking for about the same amount for their programs. Now while Ishiwara spent years trying to produce a 6 year plan to build up Manchuria, other significant things were going on in Japan.   The Kodoha faction as I said had a lot of younger officer support and a lot of these were men who came from rural parts of Japan. A lot of these men came from poor families suffering, and it looked to them that Japan was a nation full of social injustice and spiritual disintegration. These young officers were becoming more and more vocal in the early 1930's about wanting a showa restoration. They thought Japan would be better off as a military state with the emperor on top. Ishiwara empathized with the desire for a showa restoration, and many of the young officers calling for it claimed he was one of their champions. He made some fiery speeches in 1935 linking the evils of capitalism to the destitution of rural japan. He argued farmers were bearing crushing burdens because of economic privation. In his words “if the clash between the exploiters (landlords and capitalists) and the exploited continues much longer the exploited will be ground to bits. The present system of free economic competition has produced a situation where there is a small number of fabulously rich and limitless number of desperately poor. The national has indeed reached a national crisis. Liberal capitalism must inevitably give way to a newer system". What that “newer system was” however differed from what the youthful officers saw as their Showa restoration. Ishiwara wanted the Japanese government to create plans and policy, the Kodoha hardliners wanted to form a violent coup.    Kodoha officers began to push Ishiwara to champion their cause more and more. However by late 1935 Ishiwara's name would actually begin to be connected to the Tosei faction. While Ishiwara supported much of the Kodoha ideology, he simply did not share their beliefs in the same Showa restoration, he was more akin to the Tosei in that regard. Now after the manchurian incident the two factions kind of went to war with another to dominate the military. The Kodoha faction was early on the most powerful, but in 1934 their leader Araki resigned from the army due to failing health and he was replaced by General Senjuro Hayashi who favored the Tosei. In November of 1934, a plot was discovered that involved Kodoha officers seeking to murder some top ranking politicians. The result of this saw the Tosei faction force the resignation of the Kodoha leader General Jinzaburo Masaki, who was serving as the inspector general of military education. In retaliation to this, the Kodoha officer Saburo Aizawa murdered the Toseiha leader General Tetsuzen Nagata. This caused a frenzy, things began to really escalate, and many looked at Ishiwara Kanji to prove which side he favored. While in prison awaiting trial, Aizawa asked Ishiwara to be his defense counsel, to which he promised he would consider it. At the same time other Kodoha officers began pressing Ishiwara to support their cause openly. It is really hard to see where exactly Ishiwara was in all of this as all of his speeches prior were purposely ambiguous. He looked like a fence sitter and after what will be the February coup of 1936, there was testimony that Ishiwara was a middle-echelon member involved in the coup, other testimony literally had him on the list of people to be assassinated. A few weeks before Aizawa's trial, Ishiwara refused his request.   On February 26th, Ishiwara was awakened at his Tokyo home by a telephone call from Colonel Suzuki Teiichi informing him a rebellion was underway. Ishiwara, though ill at the time rushed over to the Military police HQ in Kudan. There he was informed of what was going on and how the officers were now taking the side of the showa restorationists or to quell the rebellion. From there he rushed to meet War Minister Kawashima Yoshiyuki where he demanded a proclamation of martial law to cope with the rebellion. He then urged Vice Chief of staff Sugiyama to order units from garrisons around Tokyo to overwhelm the rebels. Within 24 hours of the event, Ishiwara was then named operations officer of the Martial Law headquarters and he began coordinating plans to deal with the crisis. Thus Ishiwara occupied a crucial position in quelling the coup. On the night of the 27th a bunch of officers who sympathized with the rebels came to the HQ to argue for delaying actions against them. To this Ishiwara rose up and announced “we shall immediately carry forward plans for an assault. All units will assemble for that purpose. The army will wait until noon of the 28th; then it will begin its assault and crush the rebellion”. The next day,  Ishiwara went to the main entrance of the War Ministers office, where a large number of the rebels occupied and he demanded to talk to their leaders face to face. He hoped the youthful officers who looked up to him would see reason. They let him in, after they had shot Captain Katakura Tadashi for trying to do the same thing. Ishiwara then told them he shared many of their goals, but condemned their use of force. With a pistol pointed at him Ishiwara declared this “If you don't listen to reason you will be crushed by the severest measures”. He delivered his ultimatum and just walked out the door.    By the 28th the tides turned on the rebels. Emperor Hirohito put his foot down, demanding an end to the mutiny, many of the top Kodoha leaders walked away because of this. The Navy brought all of its power to Tokyo bay including its SNLF marines, all guns were on the rebels. Some of the rebels held out, still hoping the Emperor would change his mind and order a showa restoration, but by the 29th it fell apart. The rebels surrendered, aided by Colonel Tomoyuki Yamashita (one of my favorite generals of WW2, fascinating character). In the words of Matsumura Shuitsu a member of the Martial law HQ “In the midst of all the confusion and commotion, Ishiwara never lost sight of his objective and dealt with the criss with cool efficiency. If ever there was a case of the right man in the right place it was Ishiwara at that time. No doubt, what brought about the ultimate surrender of the rebel forces, was, of course, the Imperial command. But I believe that in a large part the collapse of the rebellion was due to the decisiveness of Ishwara, who never swerved, never hesitated. In short, Tokyo was saved by Ishiwara's courage”. It is rather ironic, many would point out it was Ishiwara who instigated the insurrection, but when it came time for it, he was the largest one to stamp down upon it. One could argue, by suppressing the rebellion, Ishawara had exploited the crisis in order to earn the political power necessary to bring about his version of a Showa Restoration.   During the mutiny, after meeting the rebels, Ishiwara actually had a secret meeting with two Kodoha officers at the Imperial Hotel. They were Colonel Hashimoto Kingoro and Colonel Mitsui Sakichi. He spoke to them about the possibility of forming a new government. The 3 of them came to these conclusions to actually perform a real Showa restoration. The rebels needed to go back to their barracks; the emperor needed to endorse the showa restoration; and members of the cabinet and top military leaders had to support it. Ishiwara then went to the Martial Law HQ and demanded Army vice chief of staff Sugiyama that he submit to the emperor a petition “to establish a restoration which would make clear the spirit of the nation, realize the national defense, and stabilize the peoples livelihood”. Sugiyama wanted nothing to do with this and told him “its simply impossible to relay such a request from the army” Ishiwara knew Sugiyama's position was too strong to challenge directly so he backed off, this was his last attempt to alter the nation's course through confrontation. Because of his actions during the quelling of the rebellion, this little scene was forgotten, his reputation was not tarnished…well it was amongst the Kodoha hardliners who saw him as a traitor, but other than that. Yet again he seems to be a man of many contradictions.  After the February coup the Kodoha faction ceased to exist and the Toseiha's ideology grabbed most of the military, though they also faded heavily.     Ishiwara went back to planning and lecturing taking a heavy notice of how Germany and Italy's totalitarian models were looking like the most efficient ones that Japan should emulate. He pushed heavily for a national defense state. He kept advocating for a 5 year plan he had to push Japan into a total war economy, but the industrialists and economists kept telling him it was far too much. I could write pages on all the ideas he had, he covered every aspect of Japanese society. He wanted the whole of Japan to devote itself to becoming the hegemonic power in Asia and this required self-sufficiency, more territory, alliances, an overhaul of Japan's politics, economy, etc etc he worked on this for years. One thing I find amusing to note, Ishiwara's plans had the national defense state not run directly by the military. No instead the military would only focus on military affairs to maximize their efficiency, thus civilians would lead the government. In his words “the tactics and strategy of national defense in the narrow sense are unquestionably the responsibility of the military. But national defense in the widest sense, industry, economy, transportation, communications are clearly related to the field of politics. Of course, the military can naturally express their opinion on these matters in order to counsel some minister whose duties are political, but to go before the general public and discuss the detailed industrial and economic is an arrogation of authority”. So ye, Ishiwara actually sought to remove military officers from political positions.    In 1937 Ishiwara was promoted to the rank of major general and his duties were of the operations division of the general staff. Because of his popularity and now his rank, some began to see him almost as that of a rising dictator. In January of 1937, the government of Hirota Koki who had come to power largely because of the february coup were having problems. Politicians were unable to deal with the rising military budgets. Ishiwara was eager to press forward his national defense state idea. Alongside this Captain Fukutome Shigeru, his naval counterpart was angry at the cabinet for hindering funding and called for their dissolution. In one meeting Ishiwara blurted out “if there's any disturbance the military should proclaim martial law throughout the country until things were straightened out”. Well within days the cabinet fell on its own and now everyone looked to a successor.    The Army and Navy fought for their candidate. The Nazi favored Ugaki Kazushige, but the Army held grudges against him. Ishiwara also did not like his appointment stating he had a bad political past, by bad that meant he had advocated for military budget cuts. Ugaki refused the job because of the pressure and made a note about Ishiwara's remarks towards him. Seeing Ugaki pushed aside, Ishiwara and his followers pushed for 3 other candidates; Hayashi Senjuro, House President Konoe Fumumaro and President of the privy council Hiranuma Kiichiro. Ishiwara sent to each man his 5 year plan to test their enthusiasm for it. Hiranuma didn't like it, Konoe was neutral and Hayashi liked it. So Ishiwara backed Hayashi go figure. All of his Manchurian oriented followers pushed to get him into office. When Hayashi was given Imperial command to head a new government, Ishiwara met with his Manchurian faction friends to draw a list of people to put in the cabinet. Itagaki Seishiro was chosen as war minister; Admiral Suetsugu Nobumasa known to have radical reformist leanings for navy minister; Matsuoka Yosuke or SHiratori Toshio for foreign minister, industrialist Ikeda Seihin for finance, Tsuda Shingo for commerce and industry, Sogo Shinji as chief cabinet secretary and Miyazaki as chairman. Ishiwara himself stayed carefully in the background to make it seem like he was only attending military duties.    But rivals to Ishiwara began working against him, especially some of those Kodoha hardliners who felt he betrayed them. They pressed Hayashi to not accept many of Ishiwara's cabinet candidates such as Itagaki and Hayashi backed off the majority of them as a result. The effort to form a Macnhurian cabal failed and this further led to a lack of enthusiasm for Ishiwara's national defense plans. Hayashi's government which Ishiwara had placed his hopes upon became antagonistic towards him and his followers.    Now over in Manchuria, the Kwantung army was looking to seize territory in northern China and inner mongolia. This was something Ishiwara was flip floppy about. At first he began speaking about the need to simply develop Manchukuo so that China and Inner mongolia would follow suite, but gradually he began to warm up to schemes to invade. Though when he heard his former Kwantun colleagues were basically going to perform the exact same plan he had done with the Mukden incident he traveled back to Manchuria to dissuade them. Ishiwara landed at Dairen and within days of his arrival he learned that 15,000 troops under Prince Demchugdongrub, known also as Prince Teh of Mongolia, backed by Kwantung arms and aircraft were launching a full scale invasion of Suiyuan province. Ishiwara was furious and he screamed at the General staff “the next time I visit the Kwantung Army I'm going to piss on the floor of the commanders office!”    Within a month, the Warlord Yan Xishan, now fighting for the NRA turned back Prince Teh's forces. This angered the Kwantung army, fueling what Ishiwara always feared, a war between China and Japan. Ishiwara began lecturing left right and center about how Japan needed to curb her imperialist aggression against China. He advocated as always racial harmonization, about the East Asian League idea, cooperation between China and Japan. He thought perhaps China could be induced by joined a federation with Japan and to do all of this Japan should help develop Manchukuo as a positive model. Ishiwara warned any aggressive actions against China would waste valuable resources needed dearly to be directed against the USSR. In his words “China was an endless bog that would swallow men and materiel without prospect of victory and it would cripple the possibility of East Asian Union” Prophetic words to be sure.   Ishiwara was still influential and many in Hayashi's cabinet headed him, trying to push for more diplomacy with China. But by spring of 1937 Tokyo HQ had split over the issue. On one side were Ishiwara and those seeking to obtain a sort of treaty with China to form an alliance against the USSR. On the other hand the Nationalists and Communists were on the verge of forming a united front allied to the USSR, thus the invading China faction was gaining steam. This faction simply sought to get China out of the way, then focus on the USSR. As much as Ishiwara fought it, the China War would come nonetheless.   In June of 1937, a report from a Japanese civilian visiting China reached Colonel Kawabe Torashiro. The report stated that the China Garrison Army in the Peking area were planning an incident similar to what had occurred in Mukden in 1931. Kawabe took the report to Ishiwara who said he would investigate the matter. Ishiwara pressed the war ministry to send Colonel Okamoto Kiyotomi to the military administration section to north china to warn Generals Hashimoto Gun of the China Garrison Army and Kwabe Msakazu commander the brigade station in the Peking area that Tokyo would not tolerate provocation actions. Okamoto came back and stated they reassured him it was just rumors and nothing was occurring.   Two weeks later on July 7th, the infamous Marco Polo Bridge incident began WW2. When it began, Tokyo took it as a minor incident, just some skirmishes between minor forces, but the fighting grew and grew. The two factions in Tokyo who we can call the “expansionists and non expansionists” began arguing on what to do. The expansionists argued this was the time to deliver a quick and decisive blow, which meant mobilizing and dispatching divisions into northern China to overwhelm them. The non expansionists argued they needed to terminate hostilities immediately and seek diplomacy before the conflict got out of hand. From the offset of the conflict, Ishiwara led the doomed non expansionists. Ishiwara tried to localize the conflict to prevent more Japanese from getting involved. To do this he urged Prince Kan'in to send a cable on July 8th to the local Japanese forces to settle the issue locally. But they reported back that the Nanjing government was tossing 4 divisions of reinforcements to the area, prompting the Japanese to mobilize 3 divisions in response. For 3 days Ishiwara tried to halt the reinforcements, but the Nanjing report came true, the Chinese reinforcements arrived to the scene, pushing the Japanese to do the same. General Kawabe Masakazu argued 12,000 Japanese civilians were in the area and now under threat, thus Ishiwara had to stand down.   The conflict at the Marco Polo Bridge quickly got out of hand. Ishiwara was very indecisive, he tried to thwart the spread of the conflict, but he was continuously forced to stand down when reports false or true poured in about Chinese offensives. In fact, Ishiwara's efforts were getting him in a ton of trouble as his colleagues began to point out they were hindering the military operations which at the time were trying to end the conflict quickly. Ishiwara did not go down without a fight tossing one last attempt to stop the conflict. He urged Prime Minister Konoe to fly to Nanjing to speak directly with Chiang Kai Shek, it was a last ditch effort before the Japanese reinforcements arrived. When Konoe received requests to do this from multiple Japanese military leaders on urged on by Ishiwara, he was initially favorable to the idea and had a plane prepared for the trip. But within hours of the idea leaked out raising a storm of protests from the expansionists. Sugiyama then told Konoe it was Ishiwara pushing the idea and that his views represented a small minority in the military. Konoe ultimately back down and chose not to do it. Ishiwara was outraged when he found out screaming “tell the Prime minister that in 2000 years of our history no man will have done more to destroy Japan than he has by his indecisiveness in this crisis”.   Ishiwara began fighting with his colleagues as the situation worsened. He tabled a motion to press Nanjing to support Manchukuo in order for the Japanese to withdraw, but his colleagues blocked it. By August the conflict had spread as far as Shanghai and now even the IJN were getting involved. To this Ishiwara argued they should just evacuate Japanese civilians in Shanghai and pay them several hundred million yen in compensation as it would be cheaper than a war. He was quickly overruled. Thus the North China Incident simply became the China incident. In early september Ishiwara tried one last attempt to negotiate a settlement, trying to get Germany to mediate, but by mid september Ishiwara's influence had dropped considerably. By late september Ishiwara was removed from the General staff by General Tada. The remnants of Ishiwara's followers in the central army were defeated, particularly when Konoe declared in January of 1938 that Japan would not treat with Chiang Kai-shek. Ironically Konoe would quickly come around to believe Japan had made a grave mistake. By 1938 24 IJA divisions were tossed into China, the next year this became 34. 

The extraordinary life story of the billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a leading Hong Kong democracy activist fighting for freedom of speech who became China's most famous political prisoner. Jimmy Lai escaped mainland China when he was twelve years old, at the height of a famine that killed tens of millions. In Hong Kong, he hustled and often slept overnight on a table in a clothing factory where he did odd jobs. At twenty-one, he was running a factory. By his mid-twenties, he owned one and was supplying sweaters and shirts to some of the biggest brands in the United States, from Polo to The Limited. His ideas about retail led him to create Giordano in 1981, and with it “fast fashion.” But then came the 1989 democracy spring protests and the June 4th Tiananmen massacre. His reaction to the violence was to enter the media industry to push China toward more freedoms. He started a magazine, Next, to advocate for democracy in Hong Kong. Then, just two years before the city was to return to Chinese control, he founded the Apple Daily newspaper. Its mix of bold graphics, gossip, local news, and opposition to the Chinese Communist Party was an immediate hit. For more than two decades, Lai used Appleand Next as part of a personal push for democracy. A draconian new security law came into effect in Hong Kong in mid-2020, effectively making human rights advocacy and free speech a crime and censorship a fact. Lai was arrested and held without bail before being convicted on trumped-up charges. At the end of 2023, a lengthy national security trial, that could see him jailed for life, alleged “collusion with foreign forces” and printing seditious materials. China's most famous political prisoner has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020, while his supporters and family continue the fight to have him freed. Mark L. Clifford, former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post and the Standard and President of The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, draws on his three-decade friendship with Lai to tell the inside story of Lai's activism and his bravery in standing up to China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

The extraordinary life story of the billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a leading Hong Kong democracy activist fighting for freedom of speech who became China's most famous political prisoner. Jimmy Lai escaped mainland China when he was twelve years old, at the height of a famine that killed tens of millions. In Hong Kong, he hustled and often slept overnight on a table in a clothing factory where he did odd jobs. At twenty-one, he was running a factory. By his mid-twenties, he owned one and was supplying sweaters and shirts to some of the biggest brands in the United States, from Polo to The Limited. His ideas about retail led him to create Giordano in 1981, and with it “fast fashion.” But then came the 1989 democracy spring protests and the June 4th Tiananmen massacre. His reaction to the violence was to enter the media industry to push China toward more freedoms. He started a magazine, Next, to advocate for democracy in Hong Kong. Then, just two years before the city was to return to Chinese control, he founded the Apple Daily newspaper. Its mix of bold graphics, gossip, local news, and opposition to the Chinese Communist Party was an immediate hit. For more than two decades, Lai used Appleand Next as part of a personal push for democracy. A draconian new security law came into effect in Hong Kong in mid-2020, effectively making human rights advocacy and free speech a crime and censorship a fact. Lai was arrested and held without bail before being convicted on trumped-up charges. At the end of 2023, a lengthy national security trial, that could see him jailed for life, alleged “collusion with foreign forces” and printing seditious materials. China's most famous political prisoner has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020, while his supporters and family continue the fight to have him freed. Mark L. Clifford, former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post and the Standard and President of The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, draws on his three-decade friendship with Lai to tell the inside story of Lai's activism and his bravery in standing up to China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

US equities were lower in Tuesday trading as stocks ended just off worst levels. Some of today's weakness seemed to be pinned on valuation concerns, flagging comments from Wall Street CEOs at a summit in Hong Kong.

Novo Nordisk's unsolicited $8.5 billion bid for Metsera has thrown a wrench into Pfizer's plans to return to the obesity race via its acquisition of the New York-based start-up. On the latest BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury's analysts discuss the details of the competing bids and what's at stake for the pair of suitors.The analysts also assess the reasons behind the abrupt departure of Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Director George Tidmarsh from FDA and a surge in activity on the Hong Kong stock exchange. This episode of the BioCentury This Week podcast is brought to you by Voyager Therapeutics.View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/657475#Biotech #PharmaDeals #ObesityDrugs #MergersAndAcquisitions #FDA #LifeSciences #GlobalBiotech #HongKongMarket00:01 - Sponsor Message: Voyager Therapeutics01:53 - Metsera M&A15:23 - Tidmarsh Ouster25:12 - Hong Kong IPOsTo submit a question to BioCentury's editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at podcasts@biocentury.com.Reach us by sending a text

Kristen Loesch joins in the guest seat to talk about her latest novel, The Hong Kong Widow. With Trevor, she takes a deep dive into the book's major ideas, like hauntings, meaning-making, and fate without destiny.You can find Kirsten Loesch online at kristenloesch.com, and you can get The Hong Kong Widow today from Berkley Publishing at your favorite book retailer or your local library. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Human rights advocate and author Benedict Rogers joins Steve Yates to discuss 30 years confronting the Chinese Communist Party's repression—from Tiananmen to Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Rogers shares insights on China's growing global influence, Xi Jinping's authoritarian turn, and the moral cost of Western complacency. A powerful discussion on truth, courage, and defending freedom in the modern world. Watch Full-Length Interviews: https://www.youtube.com/@ChinaDeskFNW

The extraordinary life story of the billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a leading Hong Kong democracy activist fighting for freedom of speech who became China's most famous political prisoner. Jimmy Lai escaped mainland China when he was twelve years old, at the height of a famine that killed tens of millions. In Hong Kong, he hustled and often slept overnight on a table in a clothing factory where he did odd jobs. At twenty-one, he was running a factory. By his mid-twenties, he owned one and was supplying sweaters and shirts to some of the biggest brands in the United States, from Polo to The Limited. His ideas about retail led him to create Giordano in 1981, and with it “fast fashion.” But then came the 1989 democracy spring protests and the June 4th Tiananmen massacre. His reaction to the violence was to enter the media industry to push China toward more freedoms. He started a magazine, Next, to advocate for democracy in Hong Kong. Then, just two years before the city was to return to Chinese control, he founded the Apple Daily newspaper. Its mix of bold graphics, gossip, local news, and opposition to the Chinese Communist Party was an immediate hit. For more than two decades, Lai used Appleand Next as part of a personal push for democracy. A draconian new security law came into effect in Hong Kong in mid-2020, effectively making human rights advocacy and free speech a crime and censorship a fact. Lai was arrested and held without bail before being convicted on trumped-up charges. At the end of 2023, a lengthy national security trial, that could see him jailed for life, alleged “collusion with foreign forces” and printing seditious materials. China's most famous political prisoner has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020, while his supporters and family continue the fight to have him freed. Mark L. Clifford, former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post and the Standard and President of The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, draws on his three-decade friendship with Lai to tell the inside story of Lai's activism and his bravery in standing up to China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

The extraordinary life story of the billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a leading Hong Kong democracy activist fighting for freedom of speech who became China's most famous political prisoner. Jimmy Lai escaped mainland China when he was twelve years old, at the height of a famine that killed tens of millions. In Hong Kong, he hustled and often slept overnight on a table in a clothing factory where he did odd jobs. At twenty-one, he was running a factory. By his mid-twenties, he owned one and was supplying sweaters and shirts to some of the biggest brands in the United States, from Polo to The Limited. His ideas about retail led him to create Giordano in 1981, and with it “fast fashion.” But then came the 1989 democracy spring protests and the June 4th Tiananmen massacre. His reaction to the violence was to enter the media industry to push China toward more freedoms. He started a magazine, Next, to advocate for democracy in Hong Kong. Then, just two years before the city was to return to Chinese control, he founded the Apple Daily newspaper. Its mix of bold graphics, gossip, local news, and opposition to the Chinese Communist Party was an immediate hit. For more than two decades, Lai used Appleand Next as part of a personal push for democracy. A draconian new security law came into effect in Hong Kong in mid-2020, effectively making human rights advocacy and free speech a crime and censorship a fact. Lai was arrested and held without bail before being convicted on trumped-up charges. At the end of 2023, a lengthy national security trial, that could see him jailed for life, alleged “collusion with foreign forces” and printing seditious materials. China's most famous political prisoner has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020, while his supporters and family continue the fight to have him freed. Mark L. Clifford, former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post and the Standard and President of The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, draws on his three-decade friendship with Lai to tell the inside story of Lai's activism and his bravery in standing up to China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

Palantir kwam met 'buitenaards' goede kwartaalcijfers. Omzet en winst gingen enorm omhoog, maar toch ging het aandeel hard naar beneden. Had dat te maken met het feit dat het aandeel wel erg duur was geworden of het feit dat een beroemde shortseller zich meldt?Deze aflevering hebben we het over Michael Burry. De man waar de legendarische film Big Short op is gebaseerd. De man die de financiële crisis aan zag komen. Die man gaat nu short op Palantir (en op Nvidia). Tot woede van de baas van Palantir, die zit te schuimbekken op analisten én shortsellers. Ook hebben we het over iets bijzonders. Philips dat met goed nieuws komt! Het aandeel Philips is zelfs dé grote winnaar op de AEX. We kijken waar aandeelhouders zo blij van worden.Kijken we ook naar een concurrent van Shell, naar BP. Dat maakte een draai. Minder inzetten op duurzame energie en meer op het ouderwetse olie en gas. En dat zorgt voor kwartaalcijfers die boven de verwachting uitkomen. De cijfers van Uber en Spotify hoor je ook, net als die van Nintendo. En we moeten het over de megabonus van Elon Musk hebben. Je weet wel, die 1000 miljard dollar die hij bij Tesla kan krijgen. Die lijkt nu steeds meer uit beeld...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sexual predator and Hong Kong film historian Bey Logan

On this episode Scott talks to Espen Aarseth, Dean of Game Studies at City University of Hong Kong, about how his groundbreaking work “Cybertext” contributed to thefounding of video games studies in academia.  

It was a big week for Canadian tennis! Victoria Mboko captured her second career singles title of 2025 and of her young career, winning the trophy in Hong Kong. Felix Auger-Aliassime made the finals of the Paris Masters and is now in the conversation to qualify for the ATP Finals in Turin. Guest Stephen Boughton of The Slice joins Ben to break down all the latest. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tanzania's President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, begins her second term in office following hundreds of reported deaths in violence linked to a contested election. Also, as the tentative ceasefire in Gaza continues, plans are being made to rebuild the devastated territory. Valencia's provincial leader resigns after criticism over his response to devastating floods last year. Three people will stand trial in Hong Kong accused of organising events to commemorate the anniversary of the Tiananmen killings. And the actor Anthony Hopkins reflects on a life of highs and lows at age eighty-seven. He said it had been a laugh.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

It's "Draft Week" here at The Shotgun Start! Andy and Brendan went LIVE on YouTube for this Monday episode, kicking things off with an NFL Minute celebrating a miraculous win by the Bears on Sunday afternoon. Andy is riding high while Brendan is down in the dumps about his Commies and the latest Jayden Daniels injury. Having just re-signed with Smash GC, Graeme McDowell is NOT down in the dumps and instead is positioning himself for a run as the European Ryder Cup captain in 2027. Speaking to Bunkered, McDowell said that he'd like to be the "olive branch" that brings European golf back together and that the divisiveness in the game has come from the top players and not guys like him trying to "eke out a living." Andy and Brendan go off on these quotes, citing McDowell's LIV earnings and reported signing bonus and wondering why he's no longer a DP World Tour member, which seems to be a disqualifying factor in being the next captain. In other LIV/DP World Tour news, Tom McKibbin went wire-to-wire in Hong Kong to secure an invite to the 2026 Masters and an exemption into the Open Championship. Brendan suggests LIV should prop McKibbin up as the prime example of playing a worldwide schedule that still allows pathways into the major championships that do not involve OWGR points. Andy then debuts the much-anticipated 2026 TGL Power Rankings as the league approaches season two. Who does he have ranked first? You'll have to listen to find out! "Draft Week" then gets underway as Andy, Brendan, and PJ draft players as if they were handing out sponsor exemptions to their own tournaments. This popularity-focused draft goes for more rounds than expected, allowing for some insane picks to come into play by the end. To close things out, the "Internet Invitational" is briefly discussed after Andy watched the first week's episodes on Halloween night.

Today's blockchain and cryptocurrency news  Bitcoin slides Elizabeth Warren rebuffs defamation allegations from CZ DeFi protocol Balancer potentially exploited as onchain data shows millions in outflows Polymarket activity rebounds to new highs while Kalshi dominates in volume Hong Kong to allow crypto exchanges to access global liquidity pools ### Gemini Card Disclosure: The Gemini Credit Card is issued by WebBank. In order to qualify for the $200 crypto intro onus, you must spend $3,000 in your first 90 days. Terms Apply. Some exclusions apply to instant rewards in which rewards are deposited when the transaction posts. This content is not investment advice and trading crypto involves risk. For more details on rates, fees, and other cost information, see Rates & Fees. The Gemini Credit Card may not be used to make gambling-related purchases.  ### For 40% off your order, head to Udacity.com/DCR and use code DCR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last time we spoke about the fall of Wuhan. In a country frayed by war, the Yangtze became a pulsing artery, carrying both hunger and hope. Chiang Kai-shek faced a brutal choice: defend Wuhan to the last man, or flood the rivers to buy time. He chose both, setting sullen floodwaters loose along the Yellow River to slow the invaders, a temporary mercy that spared some lives while ripping many from their homes. On the river's banks, a plethora of Chinese forces struggled to unite. The NRA, fractured into rival zones, clung to lines with stubborn grit as Japanese forces poured through Anqing, Jiujiang, and beyond, turning the Yangtze into a deadly corridor. Madang's fortifications withstood bombardment and gas, yet the price was paid in troops and civilians drowned or displaced. Commanders like Xue Yue wrestled stubbornly for every foothold, every bend in the river. The Battle of Wanjialing became a symbol: a desperate, months-long pincer where Chinese divisions finally tightened their cordon and halted the enemy's flow. By autumn, the Japanese pressed onward to seize Tianjiazhen and cut supply lines, while Guangzhou fell to a ruthless blockade. The Fall of Wuhan loomed inevitable, yet the story remained one of fierce endurance against overwhelming odds.   #174 The Changsha Fire Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. In the summer of 1938, amid the upheaval surrounding Chiang Kai-shek, one of his most important alliances came to an end. On June 22, all German advisers to the Nationalist government were summoned back; any who refused would be deemed guilty of high treason. Since World War I, a peculiar bond had tied the German Weimar Republic and China: two fledgling states, both weak and only partially sovereign. Under the Versailles Treaty of 1919, Germany had lost extraterritorial rights on Chinese soil, which paradoxically allowed Berlin to engage with China as an equal partner rather than a traditional colonizer. This made German interests more welcome in business and politics than those of other Western powers. Chiang's military reorganization depended on German officers such as von Seeckt and von Falkenhausen, and Hitler's rise in 1933 had not immediately severed the connection between the two countries. Chiang did not share Nazi ideology with Germany, but he viewed Berlin as a potential ally and pressed to persuade it to side with China rather than Japan as China's principal East Asian, anti-Communist partner. In June 1937, H. H. Kung led a delegation to Berlin, met Hitler, and argued for an alliance with China. Yet the outbreak of war and the Nationalists' retreat to Wuhan convinced Hitler's government to align with Japan, resulting in the recall of all German advisers. Chiang responded with a speech praising von Falkenhausen, insisting that "our friend's enemy is our enemy too," and lauding the German Army's loyalty and ethics as a model for the Chinese forces. He added, "After we have won the War of Resistance, I believe you'll want to come back to the Far East and advise our country again." Von Falkenhausen would later become the governor of Nazi-occupied Belgium, then be lauded after the war for secretly saving many Jewish lives. As the Germans departed, the roof of the train transporting them bore a prominent German flag with a swastika, a prudent precaution given Wuhan's vulnerability to air bombardment. The Japanese were tightening their grip on the city, even as Chinese forces, numbering around 800,000, made a stubborn stand. The Yellow River floods blocked northern access, so the Japanese chose to advance via the Yangtze, aided by roughly nine divisions and the might of the Imperial Navy. The Chinese fought bravely, but their defenses could not withstand the superior technology of the Japanese fleet. The only substantial external aid came from Soviet pilots flying aircraft bought from the USSR as part of Stalin's effort to keep China in the war; between 1938 and 1940, some 2,000 pilots offered their services. From June 24 to 27, Japanese bombers relentlessly pounded the Madang fortress along the Yangtze until it fell. A month later, on July 26, Chinese defenders abandoned Jiujiang, southeast of Wuhan, and its civilian population endured a wave of atrocities at the hands of the invaders. News of Jiujiang's fate stiffened resolve. Chiang delivered a pointed address to his troops on July 31, arguing that Wuhan's defense was essential and that losing the city would split the country into hostile halves, complicating logistics and movement. He warned that Wuhan's defense would also be a spiritual test: "the place has deep revolutionary ties," and public sympathy for China's plight was growing as Japanese atrocities became known. Yet Chiang worried about the behavior of Chinese soldiers. He condemned looting as a suicidal act that would destroy the citizens' trust in the military. Commanders, he warned, must stay at their posts; the memory of the Madang debacle underscored the consequences of cowardice. Unlike Shanghai, Wuhan had shelters, but he cautioned against retreating into them and leaving soldiers exposed. Officers who failed in loyalty could expect no support in return. This pep talk, combined with the belief that the army was making a last stand, may have slowed the Japanese advance along the Yangtze in August. Under General Xue Yue, about 100,000 Chinese troops pushed back the invaders at Huangmei. At Tianjiazhen, thousands fought until the end of September, with poison gas finally forcing Japanese victory. Yet even then, Chinese generals struggled to coordinate. In Xinyang, Li Zongren's Guangxi troops were exhausted; they expected relief from Hu Zongnan's forces, but Hu instead withdrew, allowing Japan to capture the city without a fight. The fall of Xinyang enabled Japanese control of the Ping-Han railway, signaling Wuhan's doom. Chiang again spoke to Wuhan's defenders, balancing encouragement with a grim realism about possible loss. Although Wuhan's international connections were substantial, foreign aid would be unlikely. If evacuation became necessary, the army should have a clear plan, including designated routes. He recalled the disastrous December retreat from Nanjing, where "foreigners and Chinese alike turned it into an empty city." Troops had been tired and outnumbered; Chiang defended the decision to defend Nanjing, insisting the army had sacrificed itself for the capital and Sun Yat-sen's tomb. Were the army to retreat again, he warned, it would be the greatest shame in five thousand years of Chinese history. The loss of Madang was another humiliation. By defending Wuhan, he argued, China could avenge its fallen comrades and cleanse its conscience; otherwise, it could not honor its martyrs. Mao Zedong, observing the situation from his far-off base at Yan'an, agreed strongly that Chiang should not defend Wuhan to the death. He warned in mid-October that if Wuhan could not be defended, the war's trajectory would shift, potentially strengthening the Nationalists–Communists cooperation, deepening popular mobilization, and expanding guerrilla warfare. The defense of Wuhan, Mao argued, should drain the enemy and buy time to advance the broader struggle, not become a doomed stalemate. In a protracted war, some strongholds might be abandoned temporarily to sustain the longer fight. The Japanese Army captured Wuchang and Hankou on 26 October and captured Hanyang on the 27th, which concluded the campaign in Wuhan. The battle had lasted four and a half months and ended with the Nationalist army's voluntary withdrawal. In the battle itself, the Japanese army captured Wuhan's three towns and held the heartland of China, achieving a tactical victory. Yet strategically, Japan failed to meet its objectives. Imperial Headquarters believed that "capturing Hankou and Guangzhou would allow them to dominate China." Consequently, the Imperial Conference planned the Battle of Wuhan to seize Wuhan quickly and compel the Chinese government to surrender. It also decreed that "national forces should be concentrated to achieve the war objectives within a year and end the war against China." According to Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, Hirohito authorized the use of chemical weapons against China by specific orders known as rinsanmei. During the Battle of Wuhan, Prince Kan'in Kotohito transmitted the emperor's orders to deploy toxic gas 375 times between August and October 1938. Another memorandum uncovered by Yoshimi indicates that Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni authorized the use of poison gas against the Chinese on 16 August 1938. A League of Nations resolution adopted on 14 May condemned the Imperial Japanese Army's use of toxic gas. Japan's heavy use of chemical weapons against China was driven by manpower shortages and China's lack of poison gas stockpiles to retaliate. Poison gas was employed at Hankou in the Battle of Wuhan to break Chinese resistance after conventional assaults had failed. Rana Mitter notes that, under General Xue Yue, approximately 100,000 Chinese troops halted Japanese advances at Huangmei, and at the fortress of Tianjiazhen, thousands fought until the end of September, with Japanese victory secured only through the use of poison gas. Chinese generals also struggled with coordination at Xinyang; Li Zongren's Guangxi troops were exhausted, and Hu Zongnan's forces, believed to be coming to relieve them, instead withdrew. Japan subsequently used poison gas against Chinese Muslim forces at the Battle of Wuyuan and the Battle of West Suiyuan. However, the Chinese government did not surrender with the loss of Wuhan and Guangzhou, nor did Japan's invasion end with Wuhan and Guangzhou's capture. After Wuhan fell, the government issued a reaffirmation: "Temporary changes of advance and retreat will not shake our resolve to resist the Japanese invasion," and "the gain or loss of any city will not affect the overall situation of the war." It pledged to "fight with even greater sorrow, greater perseverance, greater steadfastness, greater diligence, and greater courage," dedicating itself to a long, comprehensive war of resistance. In the Japanese-occupied rear areas, large armed anti-Japanese forces grew, and substantial tracts of territory were recovered. As the Japanese army themselves acknowledged, "the restoration of public security in the occupied areas was actually limited to a few kilometers on both sides of the main transportation lines." Thus, the Battle of Wuhan did not merely inflict a further strategic defeat on Japan; it also marked a turning point in Japan's strategic posture, from offense to defense. Due to the Nationalist Army's resolute resistance, Japan mobilized its largest force to date for the attack, about 250,000 personnel, who were replenished four to five times over the battle, for a total of roughly 300,000. The invaders held clear advantages in land, sea, and air power and fought for four and a half months. Yet they failed to annihilate the Nationalist main force, nor did they break the will to resist or the army's combat effectiveness. Instead, the campaign dealt a severe blow to the Japanese Army's vitality. Japanese-cited casualties totaled 4,506 dead and 17,380 wounded for the 11th Army; the 2nd Army suffered 2,300 killed in action, 7,600 wounded, and 900 died of disease. Including casualties across the navy and the air force, the overall toll was about 35,500. By contrast, the Nationalist Government Military Commission's General Staff Department, drawing on unit-level reports, calculated Japanese casualties at 256,000. The discrepancy between Japanese and Nationalist tallies illustrates the inflationary tendencies of each side's reporting. Following Wuhan, a weakened Japanese force confronted an extended front. Unable to mount large-scale strategic offensives, unlike Shanghai, Xuzhou, or Wuhan itself, the Japanese to a greater extent adopted a defensive posture. This transition shifted China's War of Resistance from a strategic defensive phase into a strategic stalemate, while the invaders found themselves caught in a protracted war—a development they most disliked. Consequently, Japan's invasion strategy pivoted: away from primary frontal offensives toward a greater reliance on political inducements with secondary military action, and toward diverting forces to "security" operations behind enemy lines rather than pushing decisive frontal campaigns. Japan, an island nation with limited strategic resources, depended heavily on imports. By the time of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japan's gold reserves,including reserves for issuing banknotes, amounted to only about 1.35 billion yen. In effect, Japan's currency reserves constrained the scale of the war from the outset. The country launched its aggression while seeking an early solution to the conflict. To sustain its war of aggression against China, the total value of military supplies imported from overseas in 1937 reached approximately 960 million yen. By June of the following year, for the Battle of Wuhan, even rifles used in training were recalled to outfit the expanding army. The sustained increase in troops also strained domestic labor, food, and energy supplies. By 1939, after Wuhan, Japan's military expenditure had climbed to about 6.156 billion yen, far exceeding national reserves. This stark reality exposed Japan's economic fragility and its inability to guarantee a steady supply of military materiel, increasing pressure on the leadership at the Central Command. The Chief of Staff and the Minister of War lamented the mismatch between outward strength and underlying weakness: "Outwardly strong but weak is a reflection of our country today, and this will not last long." In sum, the Wuhan campaign coincided with a decline in the organization, equipment, and combat effectiveness of the Japanese army compared with before the battle. This erosion of capability helped drive Japan to alter its political and military strategy, shifting toward a method of inflicting pressure on China and attempting to "use China to control China", that is, fighting in ways designed to sustain the broader war effort. Tragically a major element of Chiang Kai-shek's retreat strategy was the age-old "scorched earth" policy. In fact, China originated the phrase and the practice. Shanghai escaped the last-minute torching because of foreigners whose property rights were protected. But in Nanjing, the burning and destruction began with increasing zeal. What could not be moved inland, such as remaining rice stocks, oil in tanks, and other facilities, was to be blown up or devastated. Civilians were told to follow the army inland, to rebuild later behind the natural barrier of Sichuan terrain. Many urban residents complied, but the peasantry did not embrace the plan. The scorched-earth policy served as powerful propaganda for the occupying Japanese army and, even more so, for the Reds. Yet they could hardly have foreseen the propaganda that Changsha would soon supply them. In June, the Changsha Evacuation Guidance Office was established to coordinate land and water evacuation routes. By the end of October, Wuhan's three towns had fallen, and on November 10 the Japanese army captured Yueyang, turning Changsha into the next primary invasion target. Beginning on October 9, Japanese aircraft intensified from sporadic raids on Changsha to large-scale bombing. On October 27, the Changsha Municipal Government urgently evacuated all residents, exempting only able-bodied men, the elderly, the weak, women, and children. The baojia system was mobilized to go door-to-door, enforcing compliance. On November 7, Chiang Kai-shek convened a military meeting at Rongyuan Garden to review the war plan and finalize a "scorched earth war of resistance." Xu Quan, Chief of Staff of the Security Command, drafted the detailed implementation plan. On November 10, Shi Guoji, Chief of Staff of the Security Command, presided over a joint meeting of Changsha's party, government, military, police, and civilian organizations to devise a strategy. The Changsha Destruction Command was immediately established, bringing together district commanders and several arson squads. The command actively prepared arson equipment and stacked flammable materials along major traffic arteries. Chiang decided that the city of Changsha was vulnerable and either gave the impression or the direct order, honestly really depends on the source your reading, to burn the city to the ground to prevent it falling to the enemy. At 9:00 AM on November 12, Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed Zhang Zhizhong: "One hour to arrive, Chairman Zhang, Changsha, confidential. If Changsha falls, the entire city must be burned. Please make thorough preparations in advance and do not delay." And here it seems a game of broken telephone sort of resulted in one of the worst fire disasters of all time. If your asking pro Chiang sources, the message was clearly, put up a defense, once thats fallen, burn the city down before the Japanese enter. Obviously this was to account for getting civilians out safely and so forth. If you read lets call it more modern CPP aligned sources, its the opposite. Chiang intentionally ordering the city to burn down as fast as possible, but in through my research, I think it was a colossal miscommunication. Regardless Zhongzheng Wen, Minister of the Interior, echoed the message. Simultaneously, Lin Wei, Deputy Director of Chiang Kai-shek's Secretariat, instructed Zhang Zhizhong by long-distance telephone: "If Changsha falls, the entire city must be burned." Zhang summoned Feng Ti, Commander of the Provincial Capital Garrison, and Xu Quan, Director of the Provincial Security Bureau, to outline arson procedures. He designated the Garrison Command to shoulder the preparations, with the Security Bureau assisting. At 4:00 PM, Zhang appointed Xu Kun, Commander of the Second Garrison Regiment, as chief commander of the arson operation, with Wang Weining, Captain of the Social Training Corps, and Xu Quan, Chief of Staff of the Garrison Command, as deputies. At 6:00 PM, the Garrison Command held an emergency meeting ordering all government agencies and organizations in the city to be ready for evacuation at any moment. By around 10:15 PM, all urban police posts had withdrawn. Around 2:00 AM (November 13), a false report circulated that "Japanese troops have reached Xinhe" . Firefighters stationed at various locations rushed out with kerosene-fueled devices, burning everything in sight, shops and houses alike. In an instant, Changsha became a sea of flames. The blaze raged for 72 hours. The Hunan Province Anti-Japanese War Loss Statistics, compiled by the Hunan Provincial Government Statistics Office of the Kuomintang, report that the fire inflicted economic losses of more than 1 billion yuan, a sum equivalent to about 1.7 trillion yuan after the victory in the war. This figure represented roughly 43% of Changsha's total economic value at the time. Regarding casualties, contemporary sources provide varying figures. A Xinhua Daily report from November 20, 1938 noted that authorities mobilized manpower to bury more than 600 bodies, though the total number of burned remains could not be precisely counted. A Central News Agency reporter on November 19 stated that in the Xiangyuan fire, more than 2,000 residents could not escape, and most of the bodies had already been buried. There are further claims that in the Changsha Fire, more than 20,000 residents were burned to death. In terms of displacement, Changsha's population before the fire was about 300,000, and by November 12, 90% had been evacuated. After the fire, authorities registered 124,000 victims, including 815 orphans sheltered in Lito and Maosgang.  Building damage constituted the other major dimension of the catastrophe, with the greatest losses occurring to residential houses, shops, schools, factories, government offices, banks, hospitals, newspaper offices, warehouses, and cultural and entertainment venues, as well as numerous historic buildings such as palaces, temples, private gardens, and the former residences of notable figures; among these, residential and commercial structures suffered the most, followed by factories and schools. Inspector Gao Yihan, who conducted a post-fire investigation, observed that the prosperous areas within Changsha's ring road, including Nanzheng Street and Bajiaoting, were almost completely destroyed, and in other major markets only a handful of shops remained, leading to an overall estimate that surviving or stalemated houses were likely less than 20%. Housing and street data from the early post-liberation period reveal that Changsha had more than 1,100 streets and alleys; of these, more than 690 were completely burned and more than 330 had fewer than five surviving houses, accounting for about 29%, with nearly 90% of the city's streets severely damaged. More than 440 streets were not completely destroyed, but among these, over 190 had only one or two houses remaining and over 130 had only three or four houses remaining; about 60 streets, roughly 6% had 30 to 40 surviving houses, around 30 streets, 3% had 11 to 20 houses, 10 streets, 1% had 21 to 30 houses, and three streets ) had more than 30 houses remaining. Housing statistics from 1952 show that 2,538 houses survived the fire, about 6.57% of the city's total housing stock, with private houses totaling 305,800 square meters and public houses 537,900 square meters. By 1956, the surviving area of both private and public housing totaled 843,700 square meters, roughly 12.3% of the city's total housing area at that time. Alongside these losses, all equipment, materials, funds, goods, books, archives, antiques, and cultural relics that had not been moved were also destroyed.  At the time of the Changsha Fire, Zhou Enlai, then Deputy Minister of the Political Department of the Nationalist Government's Military Commission, was in Changsha alongside Ye Jianying, Guo Moruo, and others. On November 12, 1938, Zhou Enlai attended a meeting held by Changsha cultural groups at Changsha Normal School to commemorate Sun Yat-sen's 72nd birthday. Guo Moruo later recalled that Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying were awakened by the blaze that night; they each carried a suitcase and evacuated to Xiangtan, with Zhou reportedly displaying considerable indignation at the sudden, unprovoked fire. On the 16th, Zhou Enlai rushed back to Changsha and, together with Chen Cheng, Zhang Zhizhong, and others, inspected the disaster. He mobilized personnel from three departments, with Tian Han and Guo Moruo at the forefront, to form the Changsha Fire Aftermath Task Force, which began debris clearance, care for the injured, and the establishment of soup kitchens. A few days later, on the 22nd, the Hunan Provincial Government established the Changsha Fire Temporary Relief Committee to coordinate relief efforts.  On the night of November 16, 1938, Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Changsha and, the next day, ascended Tianxin Pavilion. Sha Wei, head of the Cultural Relics Section of the Changsha Tianxin Pavilion Park Management Office, and a long-time researcher of the pavilion, explained that documentation indicates Chiang Kai-shek, upon seeing the city largely reduced to scorched earth with little left intact, grew visibly angry. After descending from Tianxin Pavilion, Chiang immediately ordered the arrest of Changsha Garrison Commander Feng Ti, Changsha Police Chief Wen Chongfu, and Commander of the Second Garrison Regiment Xu Kun, and arranged a military trial with a two-day deadline. The interrogation began at 7:00 a.m. on November 18. Liang Xiaojin records that Xu Kun and Wen Chongfu insisted their actions followed orders from the Security Command, while Feng Ti admitted negligence and violations of procedure, calling his acts unforgivable. The trial found Feng Ti to be the principal offender, with Wen Chongfu and Xu Kun as accomplices, and sentenced all three to prison terms of varying lengths. The verdict was sent to Chiang Kai-shek for approval, who was deeply dissatisfied and personally annotated the drafts: he asserted that Feng Ti, as the city's security head, was negligent and must be shot immediately; Wen Chongfu, as police chief, disobeyed orders and fled, and must be shot immediately; Xu Kun, for neglect of duty, must be shot immediately. The court then altered the arson charge in the verdict to "insulting his duty and harming the people" in line with Chiang's instructions. Chiang Kai-shek, citing "failure to supervise personnel and precautions," dismissed Zhang from his post, though he remained in office to oversee aftermath operations. Zhang Zhizhong later recalled Chiang Kai-shek's response after addressing the Changsha fire: a pointed admission that the fundamental cause lay not with a single individual but with the collective leadership's mistakes, and that the error must be acknowledged as a collective failure. All eyes now shifted to the new center of resistance, Chongqing, the temporary capital. Chiang's "Free China" no longer meant the whole country; it now encompassed Sichuan, Hunan, and Henan, but not Jiangsu or Zhejiang. The eastern provinces were effectively lost, along with China's major customs revenues, the country's most fertile regions, and its most advanced infrastructure. The center of political gravity moved far to the west, into a country the Nationalists had never controlled, where everything was unfamiliar and unpredictable, from topography and dialects to diets. On the map, it might have seemed that Chiang still ruled much of China, but vast swaths of the north and northwest were sparsely populated; most of China's population lay in the east and south, where Nationalist control was either gone or held only precariously. The combined pressures of events and returning travelers were gradually shifting American attitudes toward the Japanese incident. Europe remained largely indifferent, with Hitler absorbing most attention, but the United States began to worry about developments in the Pacific. Roosevelt initiated a January 1939 appeal to raise a million dollars for Chinese civilians in distress, and the response quickly materialized. While the Chinese did not expect direct intervention, they hoped to deter further American economic cooperation with Japan and to halt Japan's purchases of scrap iron, oil, gasoline, shipping, and, above all, weapons from the United States. Public opinion in America was sufficiently stirred to sustain a campaign against silk stockings, a symbolic gesture of boycott that achieved limited effect; Japan nonetheless continued to procure strategic materials. Within this chorus, the left remained a persistent but often discordant ally to the Nationalists. The Institute of Pacific Relations, sympathetic to communist aims, urged America to act, pressuring policymakers and sounding alarms about China. Yet the party line remained firmly pro-Chiang Kai-shek: the Japanese advance seemed too rapid and threatening to the Reds' interests. Most oil and iron debates stalled; American businessmen resented British trade ties with Japan, and Britain refused to join any mutual cutoff, arguing that the Western powers were not at war with Japan. What occurred in China was still commonly referred to in Western diplomatic circles as "the Incident." Wang Jingwei's would make his final defection, yes in a long ass history of defections. Mr Wang Jingwei had been very busy traveling to Guangzhou, then Northwest to speak with Feng Yuxiang, many telegrams went back and forth. He returned to the Nationalist government showing his face to foreign presses and so forth. While other prominent rivals of Chiang, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and others, rallied when they perceived Japan as a real threat; all did so except Wang Jingwei. Wang, who had long believed himself the natural heir to Sun Yat-sen and who had repeatedly sought to ascend to power, seemed willing to cooperate with Japan if it served his own aims. I will just say it, Wang Jingwei was a rat. He had always been a rat, never changed. Opinions on Chiang Kai-Shek vary, but I think almost everyone can agree Wang Jingwei was one of the worst characters of this time period. Now Wang Jingwei could not distinguish between allies and enemies and was prepared to accept help from whomever offered it, believing he could outmaneuver Tokyo when necessary. Friends in Shanghai and abroad whispered that it was not too late to influence events, arguing that the broader struggle was not merely China versus Japan but a clash between principled leaders and a tyrannical, self-serving clique, Western imperialism's apologists who needed Chiang removed. For a time Wang drifted within the Kuomintang, moving between Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, and Chongqing, maintaining discreet lines of communication with his confidants. The Japanese faced a governance problem typical of conquerors who possess conquered territory: how to rule effectively while continuing the war. They imagined Asia under Japanese-led leadership, an East Asia united by a shared Co-Prosperity Sphere but divided by traditional borders. To sustain this vision, they sought local leaders who could cooperate. The search yielded few viable options; would-be collaborators were soon assassinated, proved incompetent, or proved corrupt. The Japanese concluded it would require more time and education. In the end, Wang Jingwei emerged as a preferred figure. Chongqing, meanwhile, seemed surprised by Wang's ascent. He had moved west to Chengde, then to Kunming, attempted, and failed to win over Yunnan's warlords, and eventually proceeded to Hanoi in Indochina, arriving in Hong Kong by year's end. He sent Chiang Kai-shek a telegram suggesting acceptance of Konoe's terms for peace, which Chungking rejected. In time, Wang would establish his own Kuomintang faction in Shanghai, combining rigorous administration with pervasive secret-police activity characteristic of occupied regimes. By 1940, he would be formally installed as "Chairman of China." But that is a story for another episode.  In the north, the Japanese and the CCP were locked in an uneasy stalemate. Mao's army could make it impossible for the Japanese to hold deep countryside far from the railway lines that enabled mass troop movement into China's interior. Yet the Communists could not defeat the occupiers. In the dark days of October 1938—fifteen months after the war began—one constant remained. Observers (Chinese businessmen, British diplomats, Japanese generals) repeatedly predicted that each new disaster would signal the end of Chinese resistance and force a swift surrender, or at least a negotiated settlement in which the government would accept harsher terms from Tokyo. But even after defenders were expelled from Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan, despite the terrifying might Japan had brought to bear on Chinese resistance, and despite the invader's manpower, technology, and resources, China continued to fight. Yet it fought alone. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. In a land shredded by war, Wuhan burned under brutal sieges, then Changsha followed, a cruel blaze born of orders and miscommunications. Leaders wrestled with retreat, scorched-earth vows, and moral debts as Japanese force and Chinese resilience clashed for months. Mao urged strategy over martyrdom, Wang Jingwei's scheming shadow loomed, and Chongqing rose as the westward beacon. Yet China endured, a stubborn flame refusing to surrender to the coming storm. The war stretched on, unfinished and unyielding.

Once a stalwart of Hong Kong's journalism scene, Wang Jian has found a new audience on YouTube, dissecting global politics and US-China relations since the pandemic. To his fans, he's part newscaster, part professor, part friend By Lauren Hilgers. Read by G Cheng. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Episode 402 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Aaron Sekhri, CEO & Co-Founder of Le Walk. Most apps are trying to get you to stare at your phone and create a stickiness factor for doomscrolling. Yet, Le Walk wants you to look up and take in the world. If you have ever experienced a group tour for a museum or some other historical location, it can be a crap shoot and for me, even with the best tour guide, I have a hard time focusing and taking it all in. This is where Le Walk comes to the rescue. It is your personal tour guide, right in your headphones. The company uses AI to enhance, not replace, human creativity. Every tour still relies on real guides, editors, and storytellers — AI just helps amplify their reach. Le Walk recently announced a $4.1M seed co-led by Adverb Ventures and Lerer Hippeau, with participation from Origins Fund and Point72 Ventures. In beta, Le Walk has reached 110k downloads, 160k+ social followers, and 20k+ tours taken. In this interview, we cover: * Aaron's experience growing up in Hong Kong and how he landed at Stanford to study Symbolic Systems. * Getting his career started in Product Management while at Uber. * His experience at TikTok and what he learned there. * All the details about Le Walk and the plans ahead. * Their content playbook for customer acquisition and why content is king when it comes to building traction for a startup and their strategy around content. * And so much more.

The episode is sponsored by TenzingMEMO — the AI-powered market intelligence platform I use daily for smarter stock analysis. Code BILLIONS gets you an extended trial + 10% off.Daniel Rupp is the founder and chief investment officer of Parkway Capital based in Hong Kong, bringing nearly two decades of Asian value investing expertise developed during his 17-year tenure at a leading Asia-focused funds, Overlook Investments, where he honed his contrarian "farm approach" for identifying undervalued compounders across 11 Asian markets. He counts founder Richard Lawrence and longtime CIO James Squire as mentors and supporters.3:00 - Dan shares his unconventional background growing up in Boone, North Carolina, son of an English professor father and real estate agent mother.6:00 - The Blue Ridge Parkway origin story.9:30 - Core philosophy revealed.12:00 - April 2025 crisis moment.15:30 - Value with growth framework,21:00 - Asia's shocking statistic.24:00 - The farm approach.30:00 - Buyback obsession.36:00 - Portfolio composition.42:00 - China contrarian stance.45:00 - Dollar weakness as catalyst.54:00 - Three reasons to sell.57:00 - Marathon mindset.Podcast Program – Disclosure StatementBlue Infinitas Capital, LLC is a registered investment adviser and the opinions expressed by the Firm's employees and podcast guests on this show are their own and do not reflect the opinions of Blue Infinitas Capital, LLC. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice.Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed.Information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives, and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for any individual. Listeners are encouraged to seek advice from a qualified tax, legal, or investment adviser to determine whether any information presented may be suitable for their specific situation. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

"AI was not going to take my job. People who use AI are going to take my job." -Carl Holden   Carl Holden is a marketing innovator, AI strategist, and author with over 15 years of experience helping businesses grow through creativity, strategy, and technology. As the CMO of Zellus Marketing, Carl leads a team specializing in SEO, web design, automation, and digital strategy for clients across industries—from startups to established brands like HudsonAlpha, LawLers Barbecue, and the Athens Gas Department. He's also the CEO of RankBot, an AI-powered SEO platform designed to automate optimization with humor and efficiency, earning him recognition as a Top LinkedIn Voice in AI for 2024. Carl is the author of the Amazon Best Seller The INVEST Method, a modern framework that reimagines marketing principles for the digital era. A world semifinalist in Toastmasters and a sought-after public speaker, he brings energy, insight, and a touch of humor to every stage. Whether he's guiding businesses to the top of Google rankings or inspiring professionals to embrace AI, Carl's mission is simple: to make modern marketing smarter, faster, and more human. Website: https://rankbot.ai/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlholdenmarketing/   Scott Desgrosseilliers is the founder and CEO of Wicked Reports, a leading first-party marketing attribution platform for high-growth eCommerce brands. With over a decade of experience analyzing billions in ad spend, Scott helps marketers cut through the noise to find what's really driving ROI. He's the creator of the 5 Forces System, a proven framework that turns messy marketing data into clear, confident decisions.   Before Wicked Reports, Scott led and consulted on database and process management applications at Motorola, Quest Diagnostics, Breck Shampoo, Ovaltine, the Hong Kong 911 department, and Apartments.com.  When not leading Wicked Reports, Scott can be found in Marblehead Massachusetts playing pickleball, meditating, or on the boat with the family. Website: https://www.wickedreports.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottd71/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WickedReports Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wickedreports/   In this episode, Scott and Carl share how data-driven insights and AI innovation are reshaping the future of marketing. They discuss how to uncover true ROI, streamline strategy through automation, and balance the precision of analytics with the creativity that drives human connection and business growth.   Apply to join our marketing mastermind group: https://notypicalmoments.typeform.com/to/hWLDNgjz Follow No Typical Moments at: Website: https://notypicalmoments.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/no-typical-moments-llc/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4G7csw9j7zpjdASvpMzqUA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notypicalmoments Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NTMoments

OOPS, ALL ROGUELIKES! Aaron and Gerry team-up to talk about what games got them into roguelikes, ones they're currently playing or want to revisit, and chatting about how old they're getting. You're welcome in advance for the absence of hentai.

Norbert Heuser is a German born and raised inventor, entrepreneur, public speaker, life & health coach, a management consultant, and authorJoin my PodFather Podcast Coaching Community https://www.skool.com/podfather/about Start Your Own SKOOL Communityhttps://www.skool.com/signup?ref=c72a37fe832f49c584d7984db9e54b71  #NorbertHeuser #addiction #coffeedangers About my Guest Norbert Heuser:My name is Norbert Heuser. I am a German born and raised inventor, entrepreneur, public speaker, life & health coach, a management consultant, and author. I spent most of my time in the past 45 years between my own companies in Germany, Taiwan, Mainland China and Hong Kong. Nowadays my HQ is still in Germany while my co-office is in Florida where I dwell with my family. So far I have visited and worked in 39 countries. I have given more than 200 interviews, podcasts, webinars, and seminars. Mainly on health topics which are typically not covered by a MD or the big media. ---Awakening Podcast Social Media / Coaching My Other Podcasts   ⁠⁠⁠https://roycoughlan.com/⁠⁠ ------------------What we Discussed: 00:00 Who is Nobert Heuser 01:20 What happen in his life to get into health care04:40 What addiction is08:08 A Strong is Craving is a Proof of Addiction10:44 How he proved Coffee was Addictive15:30 Be aware of the Problem is half of the Solutions16:19 Caffine is lots of drinks and products16:55 Coffee can be moldy and my Lemmon Coffee18:20 We are a Coffee Addicted Society21:00 Gray Drinking22:00 What has stress got to do with Caffine28:30 Caffine creates an unhealthy body30:30 Caffines Concentration including decaf33:30 Cancer Thrives on Acidity34:30 Caffeine is a Psychoactive Drug36:15 NASA Test on how Caffines Works37:08 The Caffeine dangers with Expecting Mothers39:57 The increase in Coffee intake41:18 The Olympic Committee put caffeine in the Doping list in 198442:50 95% of Dr's are a disgrace43:45 Caffeine is hidden in products46:00 An Alternative of Coffee47:50 Which Teas do not have Caffeine50:00 His Definition of Health51:40 His Book 'Coffee Addiction & Caffeinism'54:30 The Price of Coffee has doubled in Poland How to Contact Norbert Heuser: https://improveyourlifewithnorbert.com/https://www.facebook.com/improveyourlife.ushttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqFx3ER2XYEOWZP619Sq68ghttps://www.instagram.com/improveyourlife_with_norberthttps://www.linkedin.com/company/improveyourlifewithnorbert/ ------------------------------More about the Awakening Podcast:All Episodes can be found at www.awakeningpodcast.org Join his Brain Fitness SKOOL Grouphttps://www.skool.com/brainfitness/about Awakening Podcast Social Media / Coaching My Other Podcasts  ⁠⁠⁠https://roycoughlan.com/⁠⁠ Our Facebook Group can be found at https://www.facebook.com/royawakening #coffee #awakening #toxicfood #toxicdrink #health 

Alan Rozenshtein, Senior Editor at Lawfare, speaks with Brett Goldstein, Special Advisor to the Chancellor on National Security and Strategic Initiatives at Vanderbilt University; Brett Benson, Associate Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University; and Renée DiResta, Lawfare Contributing Editor and Associate Research Professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy.The conversation covers the evolution of influence operations from crude Russian troll farms to sophisticated AI systems using large language models; the discovery of GoLaxy documents revealing a "Smart Propaganda System" that collects millions of data points daily, builds psychological profiles, and generates resilient personas; operations targeting Hong Kong's 2020 protests and Taiwan's 2024 election; the fundamental challenges of measuring effectiveness; GoLaxy's ties to Chinese intelligence agencies; why detection has become harder as platform integrity teams have been rolled back and multi-stakeholder collaboration has broken down; and whether the United States can get ahead of this threat or will continue the reactive pattern that has characterized cybersecurity for decades.Mentioned in this episode:"The Era of A.I. Propaganda Has Arrived, and America Must Act,” by Brett J. Goldstein and Brett V. Benson (New York Times, August 5, 2025)"China Turns to A.I. in Information Warfare" by Julian E. Barnes (New York Times, August 6, 2025)"The GoLaxy Papers: Inside China's AI Persona Army,” by Dina Temple-Raston and Erika Gajda (The Record, September 19, 2025)"The supply of disinformation will soon be infinite,” by Renée DiResta (The Atlantic, September 2020)Find Scaling Laws on the Lawfare website, and subscribe to never miss an episode.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.