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Mara Hvistendahl, a The New York Times reporter who wrote “The Panda Factories”–an extraordinary piece of investigative journalism probing the impact of China's gambit nearly 30 years ago to send pandas to zoos in other countries, hoping the visiting animals would breed, ultimately resulting in pandas that could be returned to the wild–recounts the genesis […] The post Mara Hvistendahl, New York Times reporter: “The Panda Factories” first appeared on Talking Animals.
When Elon Musk set up Tesla's factory in China, he made a bet that brought him cheap parts and capable workers — a bet that made him ultrarich and saved his company.Mara Hvistendahl, an investigative reporter for The Times, explains why, now, that lifeline may have given China the tools to beat Tesla at its own game. Guest: Mara Hvistendahl, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.Background reading: A pivot to China saved Elon Musk. It also bound him to Beijing.Mr. Musk helped create the Chinese electric vehicle industry. But he is now facing challenges there as well as scrutiny in the West over his reliance on China.For more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
In this special insatllment of Futureproof Gold, we take a listen back to our award-winning episode 'Enemies of the State'. Among other guests, Mara Hvistendahl, Contributing Correspondent for Science, National Fellow at New America and author of the Wired article 'Inside China's Vast New Experiment in Social Ranking', joins Jonathan to explore the true potential that technology has in controlling and manipulating the behaviour of entire populations through social credit scores.
The Chinese government forcibly collects biometric markers like fingerprints, facial images, and DNA of Xinjiang residents, where 12 million Uyghurs live. In recent years, the country has expanded and improved its surveillance capabilities. This week on Intercepted: investigative reporter Mara Hvistendahl speaks with Josh Chin and Liza Lin, reporters for the Wall Street Journal, about their new book, “Surveillance State: Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control.” In their book, Chin and Lin break down the international implications of the Chinese government's adoption of surveillance technology. Hvistendahl, Chin, and Lin discuss techno-dystopia in the pandemic era, what happens when there are no checks on algorithms, and how Western companies helped the Chinese government build the surveillance state from day one. join.theintercept.com/donate/now Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi< landed in Taiwan on Tuesday, ending speculation about whether she would visit the island during her tour of east Asia. Political reactions in the U.S. have been divided, particularly among progressives. Tobita Chow of Justice is Global and Matt Duss, foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, join Intercept reporter Mara Hvistendahl to discuss.https://join.theintercept.com/donate/now See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
When people shifted to working from home in 2020, many renovated their homes to add offices. Influencers showed viewers how to easily install vinyl flooring from stores around the U.S., and sales of such flooring surged. But what these influencers didn't know is that much of the vinyl flooring sold in the U.S. is made with PVC or plastic produced with forced Uyghur labor. This week on Intercepted, Mara Hvistendahl, a senior reporter for The Intercept, breaks down the supply chain from the Chinese factories to U.S. stores. She is joined by researchers Laura Murphy and Nyrola Elimä, who recently wrote a report highlighting the working conditions in the factories, their grave environmental impact, and the human consequences for Uyghur people forced to work in the facilities. join.theintercept.com/donate/now See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
In the early days of the pandemic, the theory that Covid-19 may have originated in a virology lab was often dismissed as a xenophobic right-wing conspiracy theory. Over the intervening months and years, new information has cast a different light on the idea. Reporters Katherine Eban, Mara Hvistendahl, and Sharon Lerner join Ryan Grim to discuss the lab-leak theory.https://join.theintercept.com/donate/now See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Bonus Episode: The Intercept's Mara Hvistendahl details her interview with EcoHealth Alliance president Peter Daszak.Where to tune in and follow: https://linktr.ee/risingthehillMore about Rising:Rising is a weekday morning show hosted by Ryan Grim, Kim Iversen, and Robby Soave. It breaks the mold of morning TV by taking viewers inside the halls of Washington power like never before, providing outside-of-the-beltway perspectives. The show leans into the day's political cycle with cutting edge analysis from DC insiders and outsiders alike to provide coverage not provided on cable news. It also sets the day's political agenda by breaking exclusive news with a team of scoop-driven reporters and demanding answers during interviews with the country's most important political newsmakers.
Mara Hvistendahl, investigative reporter and author of "The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage"; Dana Priest, The Washington Post investigative reporter and chair of public affairs journalism at the University of Maryland; and Tim Weiner, author of "The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945-2000," examine key issues in intelligence and espionage with Tim Naftali, NYU professor of history and public service and CNN presidential historian.
In late September, the World Health Organization announced that it had assembled a new team of scientists to revive its investigation into the origins of the virus that causes Covid-19. The new group will be tasked with examining whether the virus could have originated in a lab, months after its predecessor deemed the possibility too unlikely for serious consideration.This week on Intercepted: Intercept investigative reporters Sharon Lerner and Mara Hvistendahl join editor Maia Hibbett to discuss the competing theories on the origins of Covid-19. The Intercept obtained documents that shed new light on controversial lab experiments, raising questions about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. With neither of the main theories -- natural spillover versus a lab leak -- yet proved true, the Intercept is seeking answers as to how much officials knew about proposed behind-the-scenes experiments. As Georgetown virologist Angela Rasmussen, a staunch critic of the lab-leak theory, said after the first WHO investigation, “There are still major stones that need to be unturned.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
In the Scientist and A Spy, Mara Hvistendahl recounts the story of how Robert Mo, a Chinese national with two PhDs and a home in Florida, got into trouble with the FBI. Hoping to find a way to earn more income for his young family, Mr Mo takes a job with DBN, a powerhouse seed producer based in Beijing. Before long, he finds himself conducting recon missions in the cornfields of Iowa. The Economist says her compelling account reads "in part like a spy thriller, replete with car chases, phone-tapping and aerial surveillance as agents track the shovel-carrying suspects across America." The larger question Ms Hvistendahl raises: When does economic espionage and intellectual property theft become a matter of national security? And what to do about it? #WinningInAsia / #ZozoGo https://twitter.com/Dunne_ZoZoGohttps://www.instagram.com/zo.zo.go/?hl=enhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-dunne-a696901a/
Journalist Mara Hvistendahl on her article "Oracle Boasted That Its Software Was Used Against U.S. Protesters. Then It Took the Tech to China." for The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2021/05/25/oracle-social-media-surveillance-protests-endeca/
When you have a really good idea, copycats may try to steal it for themselves — and that’s what investigators assumed was happening when an unfamiliar man was spotted in a cornfield in Iowa in 2011. They knew that companies like Monsanto were using those fields to grow new types of corn seeds, and that the company was notoriously tight-lipped about the trade secrets behind its crops; farmers didn’t even necessarily know what was being grown on their land. That secretiveness was not without good reason, though. The man in the cornfield, Robert Mo, was indeed trying to smuggle corn seed to China, as a form of intellectual property theft. Mara Hvistendahl, investigative reporter for The Intercept, and author of The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage unpacks the story and explores the wide world of international idea-pilfering: from corn seeds to look-alike cars. According to Hvistendahl, in this war of confidential information, countries like China are notorious for creating knockoffs and bootlegs, while countries like the United States are deeply invested in keeping the secrets behind the originals just that — secret.
In her years as a Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent in Hong Kong and Beijing, Te-Ping Chen came across a lifetime of remarkable characters and events. Most of these didn't make her newspaper articles, so she began collecting them in short stories, which were collected in a book published just last month, Land of Big Numbers. Mara Hvistendahl guest hosts an interview with Te-Ping, where we discuss her writing process, journalism versus fiction writing, and some of the stories behind the stories. Outtro Music: Pocketful of Stars - Shanghai Rainbow Chambers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui3z7-1rUYI&t=1s "For those people sometimes cannot be understood well by others but still have strong willingness to be understood. Surely, we can also regard that the song is written for everyone. We truly believe that we all have our own zone where we place our little secrets and childlike thoughts and we wish all the goodliness in hearts can sparkle permanently like twinkling stars in the sky." Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at glow.fm/chinatalk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
In her years as a Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent in Hong Kong and Beijing, Te-Ping Chen came across a lifetime of remarkable characters and events. Most of these didn’t make her newspaper articles, so she began collecting them in short stories, which were collected in a book published just last month, Land of Big Numbers. Mara Hvistendahl guest hosts an interview with Te-Ping, where we discuss her writing process, journalism versus fiction writing, and some of the stories behind the stories. Outtro Music: Pocketful of Stars - Shanghai Rainbow Chambers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui3z7-1rUYI&t=1s "For those people sometimes cannot be understood well by others but still have strong willingness to be understood. Surely, we can also regard that the song is written for everyone. We truly believe that we all have our own zone where we place our little secrets and childlike thoughts and we wish all the goodliness in hearts can sparkle permanently like twinkling stars in the sky." Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at glow.fm/chinatalk
The Scientist and The Spy: Author and journalist Mara Hvistendahl speaks with host Richard Levick of LEVICK about her new book, The Scientist and The Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI and Industrial Espionage (Click here), which The Washington Post calls “a riveting whodunit.” She provides a unique and exceptionally well balanced perspective about the trade secrets war between the U.S. and China and the human and national costs.
Mara Hvistendahl, Investigative reporter with the Intercept and Author of The Scientist and The Spy, joined Sean on the show. Listen and subscribe to Moncrieff on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify. Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App. You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.
Mara Hvistendahl, investigative reporter at The Intercept, joins The Realignment to discuss her book, The Scientist and the Spy (a Realignment best book of 2020), U.S.-China relations under Obama, Trump, and Biden, industrial espionage, and the past, present and future of the FBI. Visit The Realignment’s Bookshop storefront to purchase The Scientist and the Spy: https://bookshop.org/lists/marshall-and-saagar-s-2020-recommendations/edit
Now that Donald Trump is gone from office, what’s next? This week on Intercepted: There are a slew of unanswered questions about the siege of the Capitol. Americans are being asked to believe that the national security apparatus — the same one that charged nearly 200 people en masse, including journalists and observers, with felony rioting when Trump was inaugurated in 2017, and has leveled federal charges including terrorism charges on Black Lives Matter protesters — failed to see the threat to the U.S. Congress posed by right-wing extremists, even as people organized across social media platforms in plain sight.In response to the Capitol siege, Joe Biden and some members of Congress are looking to expand new domestic terrorism laws. They are using the exact same playbook deployed by the Bush-Cheney White House after 9/11 and embraced across the aisles in Congress. This is a dangerous moment where policies with very serious implications could be rushed through in the heat of the moment.The Intercept’s Ryan Devereaux, Ken Klippenstein, Alice Speri, Natasha Lennard, Sam Biddle, Mara Hvistendahl, and Murtaza Hussain share their thoughts on the transition of power from Trump to Biden that is happening today. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Real Fiction RE-AIR. President-elect Biden's Cabinet nomination of Tom Vilsack prompts a question: Why do former Iowa Governors become Secretary of Agriculture (& Ambassador to China)? Mara Hvistendahl's book -"The Scientist and the Spy"explains the connection between food supply and national security.
In Episode #30, we are joined by Sonia Gumpert, managing partner at Monereo Meyer Abogados, Harris Bricken's partner law firm in Spain. We discuss: How Sonia's firm accompanies foreign businesses on their "Spanish adventure." The experience of growing a leading business law firm from the ground up. Issues affecting women in the legal profession in Spain. The impact of COVID-19 on Spain and in particular its tourism sector. What Spain offers to foreign investors. Reading, listening, and watching recommendations from: Sonia Explore Spain! Jonathan Google Translate Fred YouTube Premium "China's Man in Washington", by Mara Hvistendahl and Lee Fang (The Intercept)
Refer your friends ChinaTalk! If you get 10 people to sign up using your referral link, you'll get a free ChinaTalk mug! Mara Hvistendahl is a staff writer at The Intercept. In this bitesize edition of ChinaTalk, we discuss pieces of hers on the US Ambassador to China's son and ZTE (The Intercept) and AI voice recognition giant iFlyTek (Wired). Intro and outtro music liner notes available exclusively to ChinaTalk supporters. Become one here. And more importantly, vote. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Refer your friends ChinaTalk! If you get 10 people to sign up using your referral link, you'll get a free ChinaTalk mug! Mara Hvistendahl is a staff writer at The Intercept. In this bitesize edition of ChinaTalk, we discuss pieces of hers on the US Ambassador to China's son and ZTE (The Intercept) and AI voice recognition giant iFlyTek (Wired). Intro and outtro music liner notes available exclusively to ChinaTalk supporters. Become one here. And more importantly, vote.
When President Trump abruptly reversed an order penalizing the Chinese telecom company ZTE for selling to North Korea and Iran in 2018, it confused almost everyone. Why was the get-tough-on-China-president suddenly caving to their demands? As The Intercept’s Lee Fang and Mara Hvistendahl found out, the story behind Trump’s move on ZTE sheds new light on the role of lobbyists and foreign interests at the highest levels of his administration’s decision-making. And it involves a figure most Americans, even in his home state, have never heard of: Eric Branstad, son of former Iowa governor Terry Branstad. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
On today's Global Exchange Podcast, Colin Robertson talks to Meredith Lilly, Ian Brodie, Peter Donolo, and Peter Van Praagh about the latest Speech from the Throne. Participant Bio: - Meredith Lilly is an Associate Professor at Carleton University, the Simon Reisman Chair in International Affairs, and a member of CGAI's Advisory Council (https://www.cgai.ca/meredith_lilly) - Ian Brodie is an Associate Professor of Political Science and former Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper (https://irpp.org/people/ian-brodie/) - Peter Donolo is Vice Chair at Hill+Knowlton Canada and a CGAI fellow. One of his most notable roles was as a director of communications to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (https://www.cgai.ca/peter_donolo) - Peter Van Praagh is the Founding President of the Halifax International Security Forum. (https://halifaxtheforum.org/peter-van-praagh/) Host Bio: - Colin Robertson (host): Vice President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Recommended Readings: - John Le Carré, Our Kind of Traitor, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/308055/our-kind-of-traitor-by-john-le-carre/ - D.C. Watts, How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, https://www.amazon.com/How-War-Came-Immediate-Origins/dp/039457916X - Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/10461/empire-of-cotton-by-sven-beckert/ - Mara Hvistendahl, Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men: https://www.marahvistendahl.com/unnatural-selection - Robert B. Zoellick, America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy: https://www.amazon.ca/America-World-History-Diplomacy-Foreign-ebook/dp/B082HLQ677 - Frederik Logevall, JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956: https://www.amazon.com/JFK-Coming-American-Century-1917-1956/dp/0812997131 The Global Exchange is part of the CGAI Podcast Network. Subscribe to the CGAI Podcast Network on SoundCloud, iTunes, or wherever else you can find Podcasts! If you like our content and would like to support our podcasts, please check out our donation page www.cgai.ca/support. Recording Date: 24 September 2020. Give 'The Global Exchange' a review on iTunes! Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs), or on Linkedin. Head over to our website www.cgai.ca for more commentary. Produced by Charlotte Duval-Lantoine. Music credits to Drew Phillips.
In this episode of Talk Nerdy, Cara is joined by Mara Hvistendahl, Pulitzer Prize finalist, investigative reporter for the Intercept, and author of “The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage.” Mara tells the thrilling story of a Chinese company’s conspiracy to steal trade secrets from Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer as well as the ethical dangers of America’s counterintelligence efforts.
In September 2011, sheriff’s deputies noticed three ethnic Chinese men near an Iowa cornfield. What started as a trespassing inquiry turned into a two-year FBI operation in which investigators bugged the men’s rental cars, used a warrant intended for foreign terrorists and spies, and flew surveillance planes over corn country – all to protecting Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer trade secrets. In The Scientist and the Spy, Mara Hvistendahl describes the unusually far-reaching investigation, which pitted a veteran FBI special agent assigned to fight a national-security priority against Florida resident Robert Mo, who after his academic career faltered took a questionable job with a Chinese agricultural company as a way to support his family. Industrial espionage by Chinese companies, a real issue, is among the reasons that the Trump administration gives when explaining the genesis of the U.S.-China trade war, and a top counterintelligence target of the FBI. Have efforts to address the problem been successful? With what collateral damage? Author Mara Hvistendahl joined the National Committee on July 30, 2020 for a virtual program to discuss her book and the issues it raises for the United States, Sino-American collaboration in the sciences, and U.S.-China relations. The event was moderated by National Committee board member and Dorsey & Whitney attorney, Mr. Nelson Dong.
What do you get when you take a Chinese national, a rental car, rural Iowa, and a $52 billion seed business hanging in the balance? Said one review, "not since Alfred Hitchcock's in North by Northwest has a cornfield produced so much excitement." Mara Hvistendahl's recent book, "The Scientist and the Spy," delivers a compelling narrative diving deep into the nature of Chinese industrial espionage and America's response. Do consider donating to the ChinaTalk Patreon. I also write a weekly newsletter translating and analyzing Chinese new media. This past week's edition focused on how US anti-Huawei measures are leading to calls to invade Taiwan and take TSMC. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
What do you get when you take a Chinese national, a rental car, rural Iowa, and a $52 billion seed business hanging in the balance? Said one review, "not since Alfred Hitchcock's in North by Northwest has a cornfield produced so much excitement." Mara Hvistendahl's recent book, "The Scientist and the Spy," delivers a compelling narrative diving deep into the nature of Chinese industrial espionage and America's response. Do consider donating to the ChinaTalk Patreon. I also write a weekly newsletter translating and analyzing Chinese new media. This past week's edition focused on how US anti-Huawei measures are leading to calls to invade Taiwan and take TSMC.
Our interview is with Mara Hvistendahl, an investigative journalist at The Intercept and author of a new book, The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage, as well as a deep WIRED article on the least known Chinese AI champion, iFlytek. Mara's book raises questions about the expense and motivations of the FBI's pursuit of commercial spying from China. In the News Roundup, Gus Hurwitz, Nick Weaver, and I wrestle with whether Apple's lawsuit against Corellium is really aimed at the FBI. The answer looks to be affirmative since an Apple victory would make it harder for contractors to find hackable flaws in the iPhone. Germany's top court ruled that German intelligence can no longer freely spy on foreigners – or share intelligence with other western countries. The court seems to be trying to leave the door open to something that looks like intelligence collection, but the hurdles are many. Which reminds me that I somehow missed the 100th anniversary of the Weimar Republic. There's Trouble Right Here in Takedown City. Gus lays out all the screwy and maybe even dangerous takedown decisions that came to light last week. YouTube censored epidemiologist Knut Wittkowski for opposing lockdown. It suspended and then reinstated a popular Android podcast app for the crime of cataloging COVID-19 content. We learned that anyone can engage in a self-help right to be forgotten with a bit of backdating and a plagiarism claim. Classical musicians are taking it on the chin in their battle with aggressive copyright enforcement bots and a sluggish Silicon Valley response. In that climate, who can blame the Supreme Court for ducking cases asking for a ruling on the scope of Section 230? They've dodged one already, and we predict the same outcome in the next one. Finally, Gus unpacks the recent report on the DMCA from the Copyright Lobbying Office – er, the Copyright Office. With relief, we turn to Matthew Heiman for more cyber and less law. It sure looks like Israel launched a disruptive cyberattack on Iranian port facility. It was probably a response to Iranian cybe-rmeddling with Israeli water systems. Nick covers Bizarro-world cybersecurity: It turns out malware authors now can hire their own black-market security pentesters. I ask about open-source security and am met with derisive laughter, which certainly seems fair after flaws were found in dozens of applications. I also cover new developments in AI. And the news from AI speech imitation is that Presidents Trump and Obama have fake-endorsed Lyrebird. Gus reminds us that most of privacy law is about unintended consequences, like telling Grandma she's violating GDPR by posting her grandchildren's photos without their parents' consent. Beerint at last makes its appearance, as it turns out that military and intelligence personnel can be tracked with a beer enthusiast app. Finally, in the wake of Joe Rogan's deal with Spotify, I offer assurances that the Cyberlaw Podcast is not going to sell out for $100 million. Download the 317th Episode (mp3). You can subscribe to The Cyberlaw Podcast using iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or our RSS feed. As always, The Cyberlaw Podcast is open to feedback. Be sure to engage with @stewartbaker on Twitter. Send your questions, comments, and suggestions for topics or interviewees to CyberlawPodcast@steptoe.com. Remember: If your suggested guest appears on the show, we will send you a highly coveted Cyberlaw Podcast mug! The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of their institutions, clients, friends, families, or pets.
A shady story about seeds, China, the FBI, and industrial espionage. Mara Hvistendahl delves into America's pursuit of ethnic Chinese scientists.
A shady story about seeds, China, the FBI, and industrial espionage. Mara Hvistendahl delves into America's pursuit of ethnic Chinese scientists.
No, not that Gordon Chang. The other one: the good one. Gordon H. Chang is a professor of American history at Stanford University, where he is also the Olive H. Palmer Professor in Humanities and the senior associate vice provost for undergraduate education. In this prelapsarian podcast, taped on December 19, Gordon chats with Kaiser about the rising tide of Sinophobia — presaging things to come once Trump really started fanning the flames during the present pandemic. 12:15: American perceptions of China and Chinese people20:54: A legacy of discrimination against Chinese scientists in the U.S.31:43: The role of universities in pushing back against xenophobia35:47: Espionage fears and restrictions against Chinese researchersRecommendations:Gordon: The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future, by Matt Sheehan. Kaiser: The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage, by Mara Hvistendahl.
There are so many stories today about the economic competition between China and the US. Competition in technology, in 5G in AI, and every other trendy high tech endeavor. However, the same competition exists in many other areas of industry, including the staid world of agriculture. In fact, it is this world of genetically modified agriculture that may, more than the trendy tech, shape the future of the peoples of both China and the US. It’s no wonder then that industrial espionage is rampant in this area and its national security implications go way behind missiles and planes and communication. That’s the world that Mara Hvistendahl takes us into in her latest book The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage My conversation with Mara Hvistendahl
S5 E16: In this episode, meet Mara Hvistendahl, Robert Reich, and Charlotte Alter. These authors are each deeply knowledgeable about the urgent economic and political landscapes that are affecting our everyday lives. Listen to their fascinating behind-the-mic insights and hear what it was like for them to record their audiobooks. The Scientist and the Spy by Mara Hvistendahl: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/549962/the-scientist-and-the-spy/ The System by Robert B. Reich: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/634493/the-system/ The Ones We've Been Waiting For by Charlotte Alter: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/598359/the-ones-weve-been-waiting-for/
Mara Hvistendahl is a freelance reporter and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her first book, Unnatural Selection. Her new book is The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage.
Ep. 34 — A Shanghai-based American journalist uncovers a Chinese spy caper that brings her full circle to her midwestern roots / Mara Hvistendahl, Author, The Scientist and the Spy. When journalist Mara Hvistendahl began looking into the FBI’s arrest of a lone Chinese man behaving suspiciously in an Iowa cornfield, she was blown away by what she uncovered. Hvistendahl’s two-year reporting journey led her into the heart of a massive FBI industrial espionage investigation into the theft of genetically modified corn seeds by Chinese agribusinesses, triggered by the arrest of that one individual, Robert Mo. What began as idle curiosity ended in a gripping book, The Scientist and The Spy, in which Hvistendahl documents the extraordinary lengths to which the U.S. government went to make its case against Mo and the implications for other U.S. based Chinese scientists and foreign scientists in general. And it is a microcosm of some of the issues confronting U.S. - China trade relations. Hvistendahl’ s tour de force also offers a disturbing picture of the consolidation of U.S. agriculture in the hands of a few corporate giants, leaving average farmers fighting for survival. And she examines in detail the ethnic discrimination underlying many of these types of criminal investigations and prosecutions.. The story, which Hvistendahl now believes she was meant to write, also had a deep personal twist, bringing her full circle back to her own midwestern roots. I hope you enjoy this saga of one reporter‘s long journey home. Tanscript Download the PDF Chitra: Minnesota native Mara Hvistendahl learned Mandarin because of her mom's history in China. Later as a reporter in Shanghai, Hvistendahl read about a Chinese man found behaving suspiciously in the middle of an Iowa corn field. That odd little story led Hvistendahl on a two year reporting journey that uncovered a massive FBI industrial espionage investigation into the theft of genetically modified corn seeds by Chinese agribusinesses. Hvistendahl's journey also had an unexpected personal twist. Chitra: Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Joining me now is Mara Hvistendahl, author of the book, The Scientist and the Spy. Mara, welcome to the podcast. Mara: Thank you so much for having me here. Chitra: You became a Mandarin speaker because of your mom's amazing story. What was that story? Mara: Sure. My mom was a missionary's daughter. She spent some of her high school years in Asia and then moved back to the Midwest and had kids, got married. After she divorced my father when I was four, she decided to spend a year applying to schools and studying Chinese again. The woman who became her Chinese tutor was also a single mom with a son around the same age as me and my brother. Mara: She's living in the dorm at a St. Olaf College in Southern Minnesota and nobody there knew that she had a child. Her name was Hung-yu, and so my mom thought, let's get her out of the dorm. Hung-yu and my mom ended up moving in together and co-parenting me and my brother and my Chinese brother for a number of years, for five or six years. We became quite close as a kind of blended family. Chitra: You took Mandarin in college and then you decided to move to Shanghai. Why did you move? Mara: I decided in college that I wanted to become a journalist. I took Mandarin, though, more just because of this personal interest and I'd always loved the language and the culture. Then I went to journalism school and I was in New York trying to freelance. I was working as a nanny and a waitress on the side and an editor said to me, "Do you speak some Chinese? You probably should just go to China and see if you can get your start there." Mara: I packed up one or two bags and just moved.
In a live show taped at the Asia Society, in partnership with ChinaFile, Kaiser sat down to chat with prolific author Mara Hvistendahl at the launch event of her latest book, The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage. Written in the style of a thriller, this page-turner is well researched, admirably balanced, and incredibly timely. 12:49: Accusations against the scientists featured in the book21:54: Instances of racial profiling against Chinese scientists28:14: How to promote competitiveness with China42:04: A passage from The Scientist and the SpyRecommendations:Mara: Thread of the Silkworm, by Iris Chang. Kaiser: How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.
International competition for technological resources often leads to intellectual espionage, even over a resource as seemingly mundane as corn. On this episode, Mara Hvistendahl discussed her book, The Scientist and the Spy.
SPY Historian Vince Houghton sat down with writer, speaker, commentator, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Mara Hvistendahl to discuss the rise of economic espionage, the American response to this threat, and her new book, The Scientist and The Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage
It's Friday, so that means it's panel time.On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump "made a theatrical prime-time appeal for the success of his divisive and turbulent stewardship after three years, projecting confidence that a strong economy and a reset of US standing in the world has put the nation on the right path despite the historic impeachment that has marred his term," The Washington Post reported. So, we started with Republican's chanting “four more years” and Trump's refusal to shake House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hand, and we closed with Pelosi ripping up her copy of the address after Trump finished delivering it. Such partisanship in American politics. Who would have thunk it?"After 'Epic Nightmare' in Iowa, Democratic App Built by Secretive Firm Shadow Inc. Comes Under Scrutiny," read a Tuesday headline in Common Dreams. The article elaborates: "The app, according to several news reports, was developed by the secretive for-profit tech firm Shadow Inc., which has ties to and receives funding from ACRONYM, a Democratic digital non-profit organization. Shadow's CEO is Gerard Niemira, who worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign." What's going on here? "An Airbus A320 jet carrying 172 passengers was nearly shot down on its approach to the Syrian capital, Damascus, shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday after Syria fired antiaircraft missiles in response to an alleged Israeli attack," The Washington Post reported Friday.There's a very interesting story in The Intercept, entitled "The FBI's China Obsession: The US Government Secretly Spied on Chinese American Scientists, Upending Lives and Paving the Way for Decades of Discrimination." In it, Mara Hvistendahl opens the story in 1973, talking about Harry Sheng, a mechanical engineer for Sparton Corporation, a defense contractor in Jackson, Michigan. "Sheng was among thousands of ethnic Chinese scientists then living in the United States, the early pioneers in what would become a sizable swath of the American research force," Hvistendahl wrote. He was a native of Jiangsu Province and a naturalized US citizen. He went home to see his sick mother, but after he and his wife returned from their 1973 visit to China, "the US government's scrutiny intensified." What happened next will leave you shocked.We've got all these stories and more!GUESTS:Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. Mara Hvistendahl - An American writer whose book "Unnatural Selection" was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Dr. Gerald Horne — Professor of history at the University of Houston and author of many books, including "Blows Against the Empire: US Imperialism in Crisis." Dr. Jack Rasmus — Professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California and author of "Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression."
Judging by the news headlines China is ramping up its industrial espionage efforts: secret payments to high-profile scientists, massive hacks of foreign universities and clumsy attempts to steal trade secrets the old-fashioned way. Intelligence agencies in the US and Australia have both issued dire warnings about the existential dangers posed by this sort of activity, but how much of a risk does China's espionage even pose? And should the FBI be devoting huge resources to protecting multinational corporations when they can be acquired by Chinese interests through mergers and acquisitions? In this show, Graeme and Louisa talk to Mara Hvistendahl, the author of the newly released book The Scientist and the Spy, as well as Yun Jiang, a former Australian civil servant and now co-editor of the Neican China newsletter about the future of Chinese economic espionage. Image Credit: rabesphoto, FlickrSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Democratic primary update as new polling shows Bernie leading among non-white voters, independents and one-on-one against Trump. Zeke Stokes LIVE on the Kentucky Christian school that expelled one of their students for posting a picture with a rainbow sweater and cake. A new State Dpt rule means CBP officers are going to eyeball whether someone is pregnant and deny them a visa on that very basis. Detained children in a Virginia migrant facility are being restrained to chair with bags over their heads as punishment by staff. Mara Hvistendahl LIVE on the specifics of the US-China trade deal. Meanwhile in...China, the Wuhan coronavirus is spreading quickly and a vaccine might still be months away from being discovered. Meanwhile in...the oceans, seas reach the highest temperatures ever recorded and dead whales & dolphines filled with plastic keep washing ashore. Meanwhile around...the world, half a billion of the world population is mired in inequality, with billionaires now owning more wealth than 60% of the planet.Guests: Zeke Stokes & Mara Hvistendahl See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Nearly thirty years ago, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen wrote an essay in the New York Review of Books entitled “More than 100 Million Women are Missing.” Sen didn't mean “missing” as in “missing person.” He meant that in places like China and his native India there were more than 100 million fewer women than demographic trends suggested there should be. Two decades later, journalist Mara Hvistendahl wrote “Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men.” By the time of the book's publication, the estimate of missing women had grown to 160 million. The “elephant in the room” behind this terrible trend is abortion. Demographers and other researchers first thought that the explanation must be that female infanticide—you know, the kind practiced in the ancient world—had somehow made a comeback. Instead, they discovered that female children were being identified in utero, via amniocentesis or ultrasound, and then they were aborted. The combination of technology, preference for male children, government policies such as China's infamous “One-Child Policy,” and legalized abortion had altered demographics from China to Albania. Still, researchers downplayed this connection between abortion and the 100-million plus missing women. Hvistendahl, for example, placed far more emphasis on cultural attitudes and discrimination against women. While these factors certainly play a role in the gender imbalance, without easy access to abortion this problem wouldn't exist, at least not in its present form. A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences makes the connection between abortion and gender imbalance more explicit. Researchers from Britain concluded that between 1970 and 2017, “sex-selective abortions resulted in about 23.1 million missing baby girls.” According to a demographer from the American Enterprise Institute, that number “seems a bit low.” In China and India alone, men outnumber women by 70 million. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has estimated that by next year, 24 million Chinese men of marriageable age will be unable to find a spouse. Since mortality rates are much higher for men than women, either Chinese and Indian women are exceptionally unlucky, or, as is more likely, the lion's share of that 70-plus million represents women who were killed as the result of sex-selection abortion. That's why both China and India have done what the U. S. has not: outlaw sex-selection abortion. While their laws are honored more in the breach than in the observance, at least China and India have acknowledged the problem. The cultural preference for boys and systemic discrimination against girls is nothing new. But the radical gender imbalance in places like China and India is. Not coincidentally, that imbalance emerged just as abortion became readily available in the 1970s. To put it bluntly, legal abortion made it easier to eliminate unwanted daughters. To put it even more bluntly, gendercide isn't the result of people having abortions for the “wrong reason”—it's the result of abortion itself. And though a sexist act of violence halfway around the world should be just as intolerable to us as if it were happening in our own backyard, make no mistake. Elective abortion leads to sex-selective abortion. It is happening in America, too. Of course, getting abortion-rights advocates to acknowledge this is like trying to swim against the current of the Ganges from the Bay of Bengal to its source in the Himalayas. Good luck with that. Still, the savage truth is hundreds of millions of missing women is the price we've paid for legalized abortion. It's the elephant in the room, and it isn't going anywhere.
It was a hot day in the summer of 2014. Justin Ross Harris was driving down the road with his toddler, Cooper, when the pair stopped at Chick-fil-A for breakfast. Justin was supposed to drop Cooper off at daycare afterward, but instead, he drove straight to his office. Justin got out of his vehicle and walked into work, leaving his little boy in the SUV. Cooper died that day. But did Justin leave Cooper there on purpose? Or was it a terrible accident? Then Kristin tells us about Stephen Allwine. Stephen presented himself as a deeply religious man who loved his wife, Amy. But on his 43rd birthday, Stephen traded $6,000 cash for some bitcoin, ate a late lunch with his mistress, and then got on the dark web. He reached out to a freelance hitman. He wanted his wife dead. And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases. In this episode, Kristin pulled from: “If you want to kill someone, we are the right guys,” by Mara Hvistendahl for Wired.com “Stephen Allwine sentenced to life in prison for wife’s murder,” by Tom Lyden for Fox9 The Stephen and Amy Allwine episode of Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen In this episode, Brandi pulled from: “Leanna Taylor Speaks Out” episode 20/20 “Ross Harris trial: More sexting part of 3 key things to know” by Christian Boone and Bill Rankin, The Atlanta Journal Constitution “Why did the jury convict Justin Ross Harris on all counts?” by Christian Boone and Bill Rankin, The Atlanta Journal Constitution “A timeline of the Justin Ross Harris case” by Christian Boone, The Atlanta Journal Constitution “Day by day: Key moments from the Justin Ross Harris trial” by Mayra Cuevas and Natisha Lance, CNN
In our 197th episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker, Maury Shenk, and Nick Weaver discuss: Spectre/Meltdown: What is the problem? How does it get addressed? What does this mean legally for CPU makers? And for the future of cybersecurity? Customs imposes new limits on border electronics searches and catches flak. No good deed goes unpunished. What the heck is President Macron thinking? Password storage company suffers security failure, sues ArsTechnica for libel. Hal Martin pleads guilty. Our guest interview is with Mara Hvistendahl, National Fellow at New America and a contributing correspondent for Science.
Talking kids' science books with Maria Sosa; predicting happiness in marriage with James McNulty; investigating questionable scholarly publishing practices in China with Mara Hvistendahl.
Talking kids' science books with Maria Sosa; predicting happiness in marriage with James McNulty; investigating questionable scholarly publishing practices in China with Mara Hvistendahl.
The students in my undergraduate class on gender, sexuality, and human rights are a pretty tough bunch. They know they're in for some unpleasant topics: sex trafficking, domestic violence, mass rape in wartime. But when I have them read Amartya Sen's classic article on the effects of son preference – that stops them in their tracks. A hundred million girls and women simply missing from the planet due to sex-selective abortion, infanticide, and neglect of daughters. You can almost see the chill go through the room. Thanks to Mara Hvistendahl, I now need to revise that number upward. 160 million girls and women are missing in Asia alone, she writes in her new book, Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men (Public Affairs, 2011). And the effects are grim. These include sex trafficking and sale of brides to meet the demands of the “surplus men” who can't find mates in their own communities, and they include high rates of violence in societies with a large number of unattached men. And the Western side of the story is equally depressing. Here we see Western population planners suggesting sex selection as a way to curb “Third World” population growth – and exporting the technology to make it possible. And we see pro-choice feminists completely at a loss for how to grapple with the issue. This is not a happy book, but it's an almost unbearably important one. You'll be glad you read it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The students in my undergraduate class on gender, sexuality, and human rights are a pretty tough bunch. They know they’re in for some unpleasant topics: sex trafficking, domestic violence, mass rape in wartime. But when I have them read Amartya Sen’s classic article on the effects of son preference – that stops them in their tracks. A hundred million girls and women simply missing from the planet due to sex-selective abortion, infanticide, and neglect of daughters. You can almost see the chill go through the room. Thanks to Mara Hvistendahl, I now need to revise that number upward. 160 million girls and women are missing in Asia alone, she writes in her new book, Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men (Public Affairs, 2011). And the effects are grim. These include sex trafficking and sale of brides to meet the demands of the “surplus men” who can’t find mates in their own communities, and they include high rates of violence in societies with a large number of unattached men. And the Western side of the story is equally depressing. Here we see Western population planners suggesting sex selection as a way to curb “Third World” population growth – and exporting the technology to make it possible. And we see pro-choice feminists completely at a loss for how to grapple with the issue. This is not a happy book, but it’s an almost unbearably important one. You’ll be glad you read it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The students in my undergraduate class on gender, sexuality, and human rights are a pretty tough bunch. They know they’re in for some unpleasant topics: sex trafficking, domestic violence, mass rape in wartime. But when I have them read Amartya Sen’s classic article on the effects of son preference – that stops them in their tracks. A hundred million girls and women simply missing from the planet due to sex-selective abortion, infanticide, and neglect of daughters. You can almost see the chill go through the room. Thanks to Mara Hvistendahl, I now need to revise that number upward. 160 million girls and women are missing in Asia alone, she writes in her new book, Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men (Public Affairs, 2011). And the effects are grim. These include sex trafficking and sale of brides to meet the demands of the “surplus men” who can’t find mates in their own communities, and they include high rates of violence in societies with a large number of unattached men. And the Western side of the story is equally depressing. Here we see Western population planners suggesting sex selection as a way to curb “Third World” population growth – and exporting the technology to make it possible. And we see pro-choice feminists completely at a loss for how to grapple with the issue. This is not a happy book, but it’s an almost unbearably important one. You’ll be glad you read it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The students in my undergraduate class on gender, sexuality, and human rights are a pretty tough bunch. They know they’re in for some unpleasant topics: sex trafficking, domestic violence, mass rape in wartime. But when I have them read Amartya Sen’s classic article on the effects of son preference – that stops them in their tracks. A hundred million girls and women simply missing from the planet due to sex-selective abortion, infanticide, and neglect of daughters. You can almost see the chill go through the room. Thanks to Mara Hvistendahl, I now need to revise that number upward. 160 million girls and women are missing in Asia alone, she writes in her new book, Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men (Public Affairs, 2011). And the effects are grim. These include sex trafficking and sale of brides to meet the demands of the “surplus men” who can’t find mates in their own communities, and they include high rates of violence in societies with a large number of unattached men. And the Western side of the story is equally depressing. Here we see Western population planners suggesting sex selection as a way to curb “Third World” population growth – and exporting the technology to make it possible. And we see pro-choice feminists completely at a loss for how to grapple with the issue. This is not a happy book, but it’s an almost unbearably important one. You’ll be glad you read it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mara Hvistendahl has written a powerful and provocative book entitled Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men. She demonstrates that in China, India and other nations, there are many more men than women, the result of systematic campaigns against baby girls. In nature, 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. Jonathan Last writes ?this ratio is biologically ironclad. Between 104 and 106 is the normal range, and that?s as far as the natural window goes. Any other number is the result of unnatural events.? However, in India today there are 112 boys for every 100 girls born. In China the number is 121, with some towns in China over 150! Why this incredibly skewed ratio? One reason?abortion.
For years there has been a preference for having male offspring in many parts of the world. Consequently today there are over 160 million women and girls missing from Asia’s population and an unknown number missing from other continents thanks to selective sex abortion. This staggering gender gap is beginning to transform entire nations, leading to everything from a spike in bride-buying to an increase in crime. Join the Council in welcoming Mara Hvistendahl as she addresses the issues surrounding gender selection around the world and how the West bears responsibility for the world’s “missing women.”