Podcasts about Tiananmen

pWotD Episode 2875: 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre Welcome to Popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 374,299 views on Sunday, 16 March 2025 our article of the day is 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between the demonstrators and the Chinese government to find a peaceful resolution, the Chinese government deployed troops to occupy the square on the night of 3 June in what is referred to as the Tiananmen Square massacre. The events are sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement, the Tiananmen Square Incident, or the Tiananmen uprising.The protests were precipitated by the death of pro-reform Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Hu Yaobang in April 1989 amid the backdrop of rapid economic development and social change in post-Mao China, reflecting anxieties among the people and political elite about the country's future. The reforms of the 1980s had led to a nascent market economy that benefited some people but seriously disadvantaged others, and the one-party political system also faced a challenge to its legitimacy. Common grievances at the time included inflation, corruption, limited preparedness of graduates for the new economy, and restrictions on political participation. Although they were highly disorganised and their goals varied, the students called for things like rollback of the removal of "iron rice bowl" jobs, greater accountability, constitutional due process, democracy, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech. Workers' protests were generally focused on inflation and the erosion of welfare. These groups united around anti-corruption demands, adjusting economic policies, and protecting social security. At the height of the protests, about one million people assembled in the square.As the protests developed, the authorities responded with both conciliatory and hardline tactics, exposing deep divisions within the party leadership. By May, a student-led hunger strike galvanised support around the country for the demonstrators, and the protests spread to some 400 cities. On 20 May, the State Council declared martial law, and as many as 300,000 troops were mobilised to Beijing.After several weeks of standoffs and violent confrontations between the army and demonstrators left many on both sides severely injured, a meeting held among the CCP's top leadership on 1 June concluded with a decision to clear the square. The troops advanced into central parts of Beijing on the city's major thoroughfares in the early morning hours of 4 June and engaged in bloody clashes with demonstrators attempting to block them, in which many people – demonstrators, bystanders, and soldiers – were killed. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded.The event had both short and long term consequences. Western countries imposed arms embargoes on China, and various Western media outlets labeled the crackdown a "massacre". In the aftermath of the protests, the Chinese government suppressed other protests around China, carried out mass arrests of protesters which catalysed Operation Yellowbird, strictly controlled coverage of the events in the domestic and foreign affiliated press, and demoted or purged officials it deemed sympathetic to the protests. The government also invested heavily into creating more effective police riot control units. More broadly, the suppression ended the political reforms begun in 1986 as well as the New Enlightenment movement, and halted the policies of liberalisation of the 1980s, which were only partly resumed after Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour in 1992. Considered a watershed event, reaction to the protests set limits on political expression in China that have lasted up to the present day. The events remain one of the most sensitive and most widely censored topics in China.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:39 UTC on Monday, 17 March 2025.For the full current version of the article, see 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Jasmine.

Today, Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, guest hosts Christopher Meyer, a former U.S. official and China expert during the Bush One and Two Administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U.S. Micronesia Council and founded Wide Fountain, a platform for in-depth geopolitical analysis.  In this the second of a two-part episode, Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So, let's get started.  Sam Cooper's The Bureau: https://www.thebureau.news/ Christopher Meyer's Wide Fountain platform: https://widefountain.substack.com/ --- One CA is a product of the civil affairs association a and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on the ground with a partner nation's people and leadership. We aim to inspire anyone interested in working in the "last three feet" of U.S. foreign relations.  To contact the show, email us at CApodcasting@gmail.com  or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www civilaffairsassoc.org --- Great news! Feedspot, the podcast industry ranking system rated One CA Podcast as one of the top 10 shows on foreign policy. Check it out at: https://podcast.feedspot.com/foreign_policy_podcasts/ --- Special thanks to Cozy Ambience for a sample of "February Cafe Jazz - Instrumental Bossa Nova Music for Work, Study and Relax - Background Music" retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmq8Ht-sNwQ --- Today, Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, guest hosts Christopher Meyer, a former U.S. official and China expert during the Bush One and Two Administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U.S. Micronesia Council and founded Wide Fountain, a platform for in-depth geopolitical analysis.  In this the first of a two-part episode, Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So, let's get started.  Sam Cooper's The Bureau: https://www.thebureau.news/ Christopher Meyer's Wide Fountain platform: https://widefountain.substack.com/ --- One CA is a product of the civil affairs association a and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on the ground with a partner nation's people and leadership. We aim to inspire anyone interested in working in the "last three feet" of U.S. foreign relations.  To contact the show, email us at CApodcasting@gmail.com  or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www civilaffairsassoc.org --- Special thanks to Cozy Ambience for a sample of "February Cafe Jazz - Instrumental Bossa Nova Music for Work, Study and Relax - Background Music" retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmq8Ht-sNwQ --- Transcript 00:00:01    Introduction Welcome to the One CA Podcast. This is your host, Jack Gaines. One CA is a product of the Civil Affairs Association and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on ground with the partner nation's people and leadership. Our goal is to inspire anyone interested in working the last three feet of foreign relations. To contact the show, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www.civilaffairsassoc.org. I'll have those in the show notes. Today we welcome Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, as he interviews Christopher Meyer, a former U.S. 00:00:44    SAM COOPER official and China expert during the Bush I and II administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U.S. Micronesia Council and is the founder of Wide Fountain. a platform for in -depth geopolitical analysis. This is the first of a two -part episode. Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So let's get started. 00:01:07    SAM COOPER Today I'm excited to introduce Chris Myers. Chris is a longtime China expert and former U .S. government diplomatic and economic issues officer, and he explains how military intelligence and influence networks embedded deeply with organized crime are a central feature of the global strategy employed by the families that really are running communist China. And when I say that, we're going to discuss your research on the family of Xi Jinping, the Xi family, and you call it the Yezi clique. But first, tell our viewers your background in getting into China and your career. 00:01:46    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Thank you very much, Sam. I started a keen interest in China when I was 16. And I read the history of the opium wars and I was outraged. And I decided I wanted a career to be involved in business and diplomacy between the U .S. and China. And then as an undergrad student, I did research on the special economic zones. This was in the early 80s and the special economic zones were just announced. And my research led me to see the geopolitical aspects. There were some. across from Macau, across from Hong Kong, and across from Taiwan. So I sort of had an eye to that. And then I did business. I was, for five years, I was with a Fortune 500 company. And I had the opportunity to do some business in Xiaomon. And I saw some things that set off alarm bells in my mind. And I kind of filed that. And I had some experiences that informed my research later. I worked in the government in Bush 1 and Bush 2. I was involved in Indo -Pacific affairs. really helping American companies do business in the region, and then became a consultant to part of the government that administered our territories in the Pacific. So I saw some things there that, again, set off alarm bells in my mind. And in 2016, I happened to cross an old colleague who kind of gave me some more information. And basically from 2016 until 2022, I conducted a lot of independent research. I decided I wanted to know exactly what was going on because proxies in the region seemed emboldened to take on the U .S. And they didn't have a government portfolio, but they acted like they did. And so my research sort of started in Micronesia. I had the great opportunity to come across your book. You totally informed. parts of what I was looking at and kind of put the spotlight on what happened in Canada. And I kind of worked the two sides to the middle and conducted most recently research that kind of takes us from Mao Zedong's death until the 90s. And I believe that there was a click. I call it the yes, she click. There were scores to settle. There were powerful families that were on the cusp of greatness or recognition for all their good work, and they were purged. And it led some individuals to become extremely militant in their conduct of political warfare against the U .S. So that sort of sets the table for what we might be talking about. 00:04:28    SAM COOPER Yeah. So to get into this, let's start with the Ye family. They're mysterious, but for experts, they're very clearly a clan that has tremendous kingmaking power in China. So maybe let's start with who they are and then bridge into how they connect with Xi's father. 00:04:46    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So the patriarch, Lie Jianying, was literally the kingmaker of Mao Zedong. He came from Guangdong province, and he was involved in the very earliest movements of the Communist Party in China. And he fled one of those, I think it was the Guangzhou uprising, with Zhou Enlai, and they escaped to Hong Kong. So Ye Jianying is one of the original revolutionaries in China, and he had the title of Marshal Ye. And when he crossed paths with Mao Zedong, he was actually the aide -de -camp to a very powerful Communist Party operator out of Beijing who had an army of tens of thousands. And he rolled up to Mao and his very small group of long marchers and said, follow us, we're going to Sichuan province. And Mao was like, no, I don't think that's a safe bet. The locals are going to tear you up. And Ye Jianying kind of heard a truth in Mao and he deserted this powerful general and with him brought the code books. So Mao gets Ye Jianying and the code books and he's able to communicate with the Comintern. And lo and behold, that general did get wiped out in Sichuan. He returned to Mao's base. With a few thousand troops from then, Mao became the most powerful leader in the communist ecosystem. So Ye Jianying had a very high regard for Mao. Mao called him the savior of the Communist Party and the Communist Revolution. And so fast forward it right through the revolution. Ye gets a very top position as the party secretary for Guangdong province, the largest and economically most powerful province in the country. And Mao wants to conduct his land reform in Guangdong, just as he does everywhere. And it's a violent thing where landowners are hunted down and put to death. Yeah, because he was a native Cantonese, understood that the landowners in Guangdong were not of the same ilk as those throughout China. They actually worked the lands. They had a very cooperative relationship with labor. And he tried to resist. But Mao forced Lin Biao into Guangdong. And Ye lost his government role. And if he hadn't been in the military, he would have been completely out of power. But because he had a military portfolio, he was able to stay on the peripheries. And he was actually part of the small group that brought down the Gang of Four and ended the Cultural Revolution. So Ye Jianying went through the Mao Zedong grinder, but he did it so early in the 50s that he was able to... maintain power and have it going forward. Another Long March hero was Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhong Chun. And his claim to fame in the Communist Party was he maintained security over the area where Mao was camped in Yan 'an. And he was able to provide Mao and his group with enough security that they could camp there through a winter and survive. Not only that, but he negotiated and he conducted diplomacy with the tribesmen in the Northwest, in Qinghai, in Xinjiang, and in Tibet. And he was loved. And he got a lot of rebels and insurgents among these minority populations to join the Communist Party. And Mao gave him great profs for that and referred to him as one of the heroes of the Three Kingdoms period. brilliant statesman who was able to ingratiate with the minorities and make them part of the Chinese nation. Unfortunately, though, Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhongchun, he was purged, but he was purged later. He was purged in 1962. And from Xi Jinping's age nine until he was 25, Xi Jinping's father was under arrest. Without trial, it was just the culture revolution. He was under arrest because his office published a book that was deemed not flattering to Mao Zedong. Basically, he was promoting some thought within the Communist Party that Mao didn't like. So Xi's father is in jail from 62 to 78. And because Ye Senior and Xi Zhongchun had a relationship, Ye Jianying kind of became a godfather of sorts for Xi Jinping. Xi was sent to work in the countryside and he escaped and he tried to get back to Beijing and it wasn't safe for him to be reunited with his family. And Ye intervened. And Ye made sure that Xi joined the Communist Party, even though these tragedies were all around him, and made sure that he got the semblance of an education, although he really never did. He was a guide for Xi Jinping throughout his younger years. in place of his father. 00:10:02    Sam Cooper Before we continue how those families dovetail together, can you describe in China's political economy, what is the power of Marshal Ye? 00:10:13    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So in the 50s, he was jettisoned out of the political arena. His main work was in the PLA. He was a marshal and he became minister of defense in China. And he was responsible for procurement. And to sort of give you a sense, when the Korean War started, the United Nations put a blockade on trade with China because they were arming the North Korean army. Marshal Yeh was responsible for making sure that supplies got to North Korea. And that was a big role that he fulfilled. And his sons kind of brought that along. So it's curious because Marshal Yeh was one of the most powerful stars in the communist lineup, but he was also a minority. He was from Guangdong and he was a Haka Chinese. So some people would say that Haka Chinese within China, there's a lid sometimes on their ability to move up. And so perhaps he was never considered for the echelon, but he did arise very high. But in some ways, and his sons adopted this even more so, they had to become very combative. in their political dealings. But no doubt about it, Marshal Yeh had a chance to handle huge volumes of military supplies, and there was an opportunity to skim and generate great wealth, which probably was the case. The way that Marshal Yeh fulfilled the supply chains for the North Korean army was through organized crime. And it just happened that two of The individuals, Henry Falk and Stanley Ho, were also Hakka Chinese. And they became the kingpins of organized crime in Hong Kong and Macau. Both of them are on record as saying they made their fortunes supplying the Korean War. 00:12:15    SAM COOPER Right. So people that read my book are very familiar with Stanley Ho, according to U .S. government intelligence. the absolute king of Chinese international mafia with connectivity to casinos, banking, political influence operations in Canada, triad leadership in Canada. So I think we've set the table for the 90s in Guangdong, Fujian. Xi Jinping is now starting to come on the scene politically there. The Ye family, who were partners essentially of Xi's father. had a little bit of a godfather eye on Xi's movements within the party. We can say that they're the power behind a throne that they want to see continue to rise. So can you take us into the 90s, the sort of Stanley Ho connectivity to Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and how that combines the Hong Kong tycoons slash triad leaders with the communist powers in Fujian? 00:13:21    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yes. Mao passed away in 78. Deng Xiaoping came to power. And Deng was all about economic reform and catching up to the West. So in southern China, Fujian and Guangdong province, Deng looked to Ye Jenying and his sons. His sons were in their 30s now. And he also looked to Xi Zhongshan. Xi Zhongshan became party secretary for Guangdong province. in the early 80s. And Deng kind of put together this group. The Ye's and the Xi's were family friends. They celebrated Chinese holidays together. The Xi's were northern Chinese, but they kind of encamped in Guangdong province after a certain amount of time. And that's where Xi's father retired. But in Guangdong, the son of Ye, his name was Ye Xuanping. Basically, he was mayor of Guangzhou and the governor of Guangdong. And very quickly, he was referred to as the emperor of the south. So in the 80s, he was running Guangdong province. And he became so powerful that the CCP sought to have him step down. And he actually threatened to withhold tax to Beijing from the province of Guangdong unless they negotiated with him. He wanted a vice chair of the CPPCC, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee. And he wants to be a vice governor of the CPPCC. And he wanted to be allowed to maintain his power base in Guangdong. And this is a rare case where the CCP actually deferred to these wishes. Just to get him out of running the most powerful province in China, they said okay. So he goes over the CPPCC. And he takes with him the kingpins of organized crime in Hong Kong and Macau. Stanley Ho never had a position, but Henry Falk and the other top lieutenants in these organized crime entities all wound up on the CPPCC. And to give you a sense of like, what was some of the magic Stanley Ho had when he won the monopoly on gaming in Macau? He devised this VIP room concept where... He owned the casino, but the VIP rooms were run by basically triads and junkets, powerful friends from mainland China and triads. And the triads conducted all kinds of crime that the Vancouver model got in a very big dose. So it was racketeering and prostitution and all kinds of things, but also collections. So Stanley Ho didn't have to work on collections because his muscle did it for him. But the strongest of these triad operators wound up in the CPPCC, as long as they were effective in what they were doing for the government. And 14K is dominated by Hakka Chinese. Most of the most powerful triads have a very strong Hakka element to it. And I don't mean to suggest that this wonderful race of Chinese called Hakkas is all bad. Lee Kuan Yew, the premier of Singapore, was Hakka Chinese. phenomenal Chinese, but there were also some very nefarious and very effective in their criminal activities that were Haka Chinese. So the Ye's were in the middle of this. And Chinese language social media accounts in Hong Kong will talk about the Ye's dominance over these gaming operators in Macau. 00:17:07    SAM COOPER Let's get into that and explore that more. I just want to ask a side question. As I'm aware of a very important figure, in what we call the Hoag Commission in Canada. I'm just going to leave it at that. This is our inquiry into foreign interference that stemmed from my investigative reporting. And there is a politician at the center of that that my sources close to them said went off to a haka conference in China for weeks or something like that, you know, while being an elected politician in Canada. Knowing what you know, and I'm just coming out of the blue with this question, is there anything good for Canada that they could be doing on that trip? 00:17:45    CHRISTOPHER MEYER There could be a lot of normal cultural activity, but I'll say one thing, that the powers that are doing the kinds of things that I'm concerned with are definitely represented in those groups. There might be a wink and a nod and things look very normal on the surface, but there's no free lunch in China. Everybody has to pay the piper, and the piper is the communist party of China. 00:18:11    SAM COOPER So let me ask you this. Viewers of the Bureau know that I've pressed away in journalism in explaining that the United Front Work Department and international money laundering and organized crime are synonymous. They're one and the same. The CIA says the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is really the core unit of the United Front. So what you're getting at... I think the Ye family, these power brokers that are behind Xi and his power in southern China, you're saying they essentially formed this United Front and organized crime compact as sort of a political tool, a smuggling tool, a military tool? 00:18:55    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yes. And I want to say that the United Front was an early Communist Party creation. And the thing about the Communist Party... They infiltrated the Kuomintang. When the Kuomintang had more power and they were the power base in China, the communists used political warfare to infiltrate them and really become their undoing. And the United Front is basically one way to get all parts of society under the control of the CCP. So within the United Front, the CPPCC is sort of the big leagues. And all the other organizations are the feeder groups. So if you get in a small united front group and you deliver in a big way, you can get promoted all the way to this PCC. And Ong Lapsung is an example of that. So the whole idea of the united front is to harness and control all the resources from academia, the private sector. from all aspects of society and to make them work for the Communist Party. And I feel that any united front operation, and there's so many in Canada and the U .S., they should just be called assets of the Chinese government. That's one way for the Chinese to increase their headcount of diplomatic officers within any given country. 00:20:26    Close Thanks for listening. If you get a chance, please like and subscribe and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you're interested in coming on the show or hosting an episode, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. I'll have the email and CA Association website in the show notes. And now, most importantly, to those currently out in the field working with a partner nation's people or leadership to forward U.S. relations, thank you all for what you're doing. your host. Stay tuned for more great episodes of One CA Podcast.   Episode 2 00:00:01    Introduction Welcome to the 1CA Podcast. This is your host, Jack Gaines. 1CA is a product of the Civil Affairs Association and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on ground with the partner nation's people and leadership. Our goal is to inspire anyone interested in working the last three feet of foreign relations. To contact the show, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www.civilaffairsassoc.org. I'll have those in the show notes. Today we welcome Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, as he interviews Christopher Meyer, a former U .S. 00:00:44    Introduction official and China expert during the Bush 1 and 2 administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U .S. Micronesia Council and is the founder of Wide Fountain. a platform for in -depth geopolitical analysis. This is the second of a two -part episode. Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So let's get started. 00:01:08    SAM COOPER I feel that any United Front operation, and there's so many in Canada and the U .S., they should just be called assets of the Chinese government. That's one way for the Chinese to increase their headcount of diplomatic officers within any given country. And they should be labeled that way and they should be treated that way. And they're conducting operations for China. So to get back to the Ye family, I just want to say very briefly, so Deng Xiaoping taps the older brother, Ye, and he's in the government and he has a nine, 10 -year run in Guangdong. The younger brother, his name is Ye Xuanning. He's the dangerous one. He's a real interesting cat. So, yeah. was in college during the Cultural Revolution. And just to give you an idea of the thin ice that you could be skating on in China, he graduated from college and he was thrown in jail. And he was thrown in jail because, you know, Mao wanted to send a signal to the Ye family, I'm in control here. You're not in control. He got out of jail and he had a job in a radio factory or something like that. And he must have been so distraught, he lost his arm in an accident. throwing boxes into a crusher and he lost his arm. So he became a calligrapher with his left hand. And if you know Chinese, like every time you write calligraphy, your hand is going across what you're writing. If you're left -handed, I don't know how he did it. I'm left -handed. And he became an accomplished calligrapher with his left hand. So it just gives you a sense of the spirit of this guy. He's not your normal. person. I think he was a genius. I think he was extremely hardworking. And one of his first positions, he was involved in a small United Front operation in Beijing. Then he became secretary for Kang Xian, who was sort of the head of the oil faction in China. And he was a very powerful individual. And then he found himself in Guangdong. And when his brother was appointed head of the province and the city of Guangzhou, He got into Espionade, and he became the spymaster for the PLA, working in the GDP. And he really had it. He sort of hit his stride there, and that's how he ended his career. The spymaster for the PLA. I think any other rival couldn't even hold a candle to him. He was totally gifted. And his brother and he were able to leverage all of their... contacts with organized crime because he used them in operations around the world. And I think he's the one who weaponized it to the point where, number one, organized crime figures were making money for the military, a lot of it. And number two, they were almost pre -trained in operations. They were bold. They would go anywhere and do anything. And Aung La Pseung is a good example of that. 00:04:11    CHRISTOPHER MEYER I was going to say, because not everyone knows these names like you and I do, but Enlap Sang, nominally a real estate developer from Macau. My Files, he's a huge international organized crime figure known for the so -called Clinton Gate or White House visits. He's the guy that got next to the Clinton White House or got inside, you know, maybe five to ten times. He ends up getting done, as they say, in a United Nations corruption case, which of course connects to a very important guy in Australia that successfully sued my colleague, John Garneau, and yet is at the top of Chinese organized crime funding Australian politics. He was involved in that FBI case. So to bring it back, what I've picked up in my book and in my repeated reporting efforts at the Bureau is these international Chinese businessmen in real estate and casinos, tech these days, they go around the world, they get next to our politicians, and that's their job. They're being tasked by whoever the Ye family spymaster of today is, is sending them abroad to do that. At some point, Xi Jinping comes into this and says it's okay. 00:05:30    SAM COOPER okay. And it's still evolving. I mean, I came on to this. When I read your book and I saw your story of Lai Changxin, I said, holy shit, I have to get into this. You see the level of danger that it brings to a country like Canada and North America. But I think that Ye Xuen Ning created the mechanism for the CCP to use and leverage organized crime to, 00:05:51    SAM COOPER mechanism for the CCP to use and leverage organized crime to, number one, fund military operations. and other things, and to extend influence operations. Like the United Front is all about influence operations. But if you introduce organized crime elements into parts of the United Front, you can weaponize it and you can get a lot more bang for your buck using these nefarious creatures that you're managing, you're controlling them. And I want to mention something. How does the CCP have control over organized crimes? So I want to say, In the late 90s, Macau No. 1 was about to be returned from Portuguese administration to Chinese. And 2, the kind of monopoly of the casinos license was coming up in 2002. And what happened was these triad operators were starting to push back against Stanley Ho. Stanley Ho's right -hand man was shot in the face in Victoria Park during this period. And the Portuguese sent an official to try to calm down the situation. And that individual was shot when he arrived. And the Communist Party kind of went in and took control. When the monopoly came up, Stanley Ho and his family, they got the coverage. But that's because he's completely loyal to the CCP. And so the CCP has so much leverage over these entities. Completely, he devised the strategy to integrate organized crime. And then he passed away in 2016. And then the institutional steps took place after that. They had to transfer from sort of a control of one man to the government running it. And you can see examples around 2016 of a lot of large -scale Chinese operations having disruption during this period. One of the reasons they were able to do this for so long was that Ye Xuanning was completely secretive. I mean, he managed these operations in a very keen and brilliant way, and he was never identified. Xi Jinping's role is interesting. Ye Xuanning told his brothers to help Xi Jinping. And you can kind of see like an increase in their efforts when Xi's father... He was in Beijing, and he had a very high role. He pulled a bureau standing committee, and he was sent down because of Tiananmen. He was on the reformer side, and he publicly admitted it. He was a very admirable individual, and he said he was supporting Hua Guofeng. So he faced early retirement in 1993, and the Ye brothers were so upset about this, and probably Xi too. They sort of doubled down on their efforts on behalf of this political warfare. It's almost as if they were pissed off at the Communist Party, but they took it out on North America. It's like they had to become more radical in what they were doing because in order to get power in China, you had to outflank Li Peng and the hardliners. So there's an interesting element there. 00:09:13    CHRISTOPHER MEYER You talk about this combination of military intelligence and organized crime. and political warfare and global influence operations. Trade is obviously involved. Explain what you mean by radicalization of that tool in operations. 00:09:31    SAM COOPER So there were about 10 operations in the 1990s that I believe were masterminded by the Yeshi Clay and primarily Yeshi Ning. The most outrageous, there was one and probably several. smuggling of military -grade machine guns into the U .S. from China. And one of the groups that was set up, helped finance the military, was the Poly Group. And the Poly Group, they were on the bill of lading for these. They were labeled as something else, but they came into the port of Oakland. And the interesting thing was the CEO of Poly Group, who was a princeling himself, was meeting in the White House and had his photo taken with President Clinton. At the time, these machine guns were on the water. That's bold. Yes. And when I ponder this, it's like I know how much the Chinese love photographs. That photo shown by Xi Jinping to all the cronies in Beijing would get him a lot of brownie points. And these machine guns were being distributed to gangs in the area. Street gangs in California. So this kind of thing, right? Right. And so that one was uncovered. But how many others slipped by? And there have been cases similar magnitude in Tennessee and Florida. 00:10:57    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yeah, and this is where it gets into the leaked Sidewinder report that I touched on in the book. But yeah, that report refers to Pauley Group laundering 2 ,000 AK -47s into California. You're saying you believe that not only is Xi Jinping supported by this Ye family intelligence, who I have no problem believing are behind the United Front organized crime nexus. You're saying you think Xi Jinping is a mind involved in this kind of thing as well. 00:11:30    SAM COOPER Originally, as I was doing my research, I thought Xi was the mastermind. But as I did a deep dive to what his contemporaries said of him, The big knock on Xi was that he wasn't educated. Like age nine to age 25, his dad has been persecuted and locked up without trial. And he's forced to work in the countryside and he's not happy about it. I mean, he wasn't educated. And that's the biggest knock on Xi Jinping. And when you look at the history of Xi in Fujian, first of all, he goes to the Ministry of Defense and then doesn't do... anything of note there as a young man. But then he goes into Hebei province and he's working in Hebei province as a middle level provincial official. And he's not doing much. I mean, his big contribution was suggesting that they film a TV show in that province and kind of burned out. He wasn't favored by the Communist Party officials there. You know, he's brought to Fujian. Communist Party officials bounce around provinces and each time they have an increasing role. Well, he stays in Fujian for 17 years. And it's almost like he's being babysat by the Yehs. And I mean, the Yeh family compound was a two and a half hour drive from where she was in Fujian. And so I don't think he was the mastermind, but he was definitely the beneficiary. And I think that it was a long term project. And the Yeh brothers. put the pieces on the table to help promote Xi Jinping. And here's an interesting thing. In 1997, there was a big Central Party conclave, the 15th Central Party plenary meeting. And Ye wasn't even named as an alternate delegate. So you've got hundreds of delegates coming from all over the country. And he's a princeling. And he's been in provincial government for 12 years. And he's not even named. Somebody forced him onto the list of alternate delegates. There were 150. He was the 151st alternate delegate. He didn't receive one vote. He was pushed on. And I think somebody in the realm said, you know what? We're running all these operations and we're doing it so secretively. Nobody knows that this is for Xi Jinping. So they started gradually to kind of promote Xi as. the mastermind of this. And the years were okay with that. But Xi Jinping was on his way to becoming the leader of China by 2002. 00:14:08    CHRISTOPHER MEYER And I was over in Taiwan, invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over a year ago with international journalists. And we had kind of a dinner talk where their political intelligence expert was going to talk about some of this Klan details and things like that. And they said, yeah, within the princelings, Xi Jinping was the least likely, the least talented to reach chairman. 00:14:37    CHRISTOPHER MEYER And so, OK, you know, I'm not the expert. If someone from Taiwan is telling me that, you're saying that. So if true, and you're saying the power behind the throne is this Ye family that boosts him. And they're the ones you're saying that are the masterminds of what I'm going to call modern political Chinese communist warfare using proxies, organized crime, dirty tycoons. So this is where we're going. 00:15:06    SAM COOPER Yep, this is where we're going. And let me just touch on a few of the operations in the 1990s, just to give you a sense for what was going on and the fact that the Chinese were never completely called out on the carpet for it. Just let them continue doing it. And one of the themes of my research is it's time to call the Chinese out. And to do that, you have to be very specific. I think there needs to be a large group of countries that has their research done and they call out Xi Jinping for this political warfare that absolutely is hyper -destructive. 00:15:41    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So you're saying this is an intelligence operation? Yeah. For the last 10 minutes or so, In direct relationship to this network you're talking about, the 90s, 2000, aggressive combination of international organized crime, Hong Kong tycoons, Macau tycoons, in Chinese military influence operations, also people smuggling, also drug smuggling, illegal migration and, you know, fentanyl. There is a basis that Chinese triads and Mexican cartels are working together on those things and that Canada is a, you could call it, if this is a company, the controlling minds of a lot of this are in Vancouver and Toronto. Canadian ports are very deeply infiltrated by China, along with some Iranian mafia and intelligence. It's a fact. So where do we go from there? I myself, as a Canadian, the good countries of the world need to get together to combat this approaching, if not already into early stages of the access of China, Iran, Russia, North Korea. We're at loggerheads and they're using Canada, I believe, unfortunately. 00:17:01    SAM COOPER Right. And I do believe that Yeshua Ning is a genius and he looked at North America and he wants to inflict pain on the U .S. When he set up these plans in the early 90s, the Chinese GDP was a fraction of the U .S. So he had a lot of ground to make up. And he chose Vancouver because the resources to combat his efforts were probably deemed to be significantly less than the resources in the U .S. So I feel that the attack on Canada, the Vancouver model. if you will, which spread right across to Toronto and then down into Queens and across to LA and permeates everything. I believe that the US and Canada should try to get on the same page about this and to the extent possible, Mexico as well. And then the UK and Australia haven't been unaffected by this. There should be a big effort to get on the same page with the West because this is a totalitarian regime doing its level best to take us out. 00:18:07    CHRISTOPHER MEYER The controlling mind, I'm saying, of the Mexican cartels, I think it's Chinese triads. That's the real power there. 00:18:15    SAM COOPER I think we're both in agreement. If you want to draw a word picture that says what this is, picture that there's a really bad actor and he's throwing a really illegal party and selling drugs and he's bringing it all in. And the U .S. is going after the people who own the land where all of this took place. You have to go after China. And I believe that China is making 98 % of the precursors for fentanyl, and then they're laundering the money. That's the other piece. They're laundering it. They're operating this massive money laundering operation for the cartels. So I say the gloves do come off, but I would love to see them come off in unison. And all of these, at least in North America, Mexico, Canada, and the U .S., we're all on the same page. And we speak with one voice. And I'll add to this. Xi Jinping has been as painful towards his own population as he has been externally and internationally. So he's inflicted pain on the Chinese and he's about to go down. I mean, he's got his wings clipped in the last few months and he may not be in power very long. There's some serious movement in China. 00:19:30    CHRISTOPHER MEYER You sound like my friend Harry Tsang, the ambassador for Taiwan and Ottawa. He's bearish on Xi Jinping in a big way. 00:19:38    SAM COOPER Yeah. Well, I think it's a good time for the West to approach China and say, look, we got off on the wrong foot. Let's reboot. And by the way, there's some reparations needed here. 70 ,000 people have been dying a year from this, and it's a Chinese operation. You know, the cartels are definitely part of it, but... I think there's good reason for the West to get on the same page. 00:20:02    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Absolutely. So we will end it there for a first great chat. And I think next time we'll get into the juicy story of Lai Cheng Zing, the bigot China's supposed most wanted. Or what was he? So I'll leave it at that and we'll pick it up next time. You have to say, 00:20:21    SAM COOPER have to say, I'm sitting there doing my research. I get your book. And all of a sudden, within 50 pages, the lights are going off because you wrote about Lai Changxin and it just completed some thoughts that I was mulling over. And yeah, we're going to have an interesting conversation about Lai Changxin. 00:20:40    CHRISTOPHER MEYER That touches my heart because I've always been a brother of the United States and I've felt so disheartened that bad people have gotten in between us and we have to stop that. And as you say, we need to get together on this. I've reached some good thinkers in the US and there's now things brewing. So let's keep it going. You got it. 00:21:01    Close Thanks for listening. If you get a chance, please like and subscribe and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you're interested in coming on the show or hosting an episode, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. I'll have the email and CA Association website in the show notes. And now, most importantly, to those currently out in the field, working with a partner nation's people or leadership to forward U .S. relations. Thank you all for what you're doing. This is Jack, your host. Stay tuned for more great episodes, One CA Podcast.

Today, Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, guest hosts Christopher Meyer, a former U.S. official and China expert during the Bush One and Two Administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U.S. Micronesia Council and founded Wide Fountain, a platform for in-depth geopolitical analysis.  In this the first of a two-part episode, Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So, let's get started.  Sam Cooper's The Bureau: https://www.thebureau.news/ Christopher Meyer's Wide Fountain platform: https://widefountain.substack.com/ --- One CA is a product of the civil affairs association a and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on the ground with a partner nation's people and leadership. We aim to inspire anyone interested in working in the "last three feet" of U.S. foreign relations.  To contact the show, email us at CApodcasting@gmail.com  or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www civilaffairsassoc.org --- Special thanks to Cozy Ambience for a sample of "February Cafe Jazz - Instrumental Bossa Nova Music for Work, Study and Relax - Background Music" retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmq8Ht-sNwQ --- Transcript 00:00:01    Introduction Welcome to the One CA Podcast. This is your host, Jack Gaines. One CA is a product of the Civil Affairs Association and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on ground with the partner nation's people and leadership. Our goal is to inspire anyone interested in working the last three feet of foreign relations. To contact the show, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www.civilaffairsassoc.org. I'll have those in the show notes. Today we welcome Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, as he interviews Christopher Meyer, a former U.S. 00:00:44    SAM COOPER official and China expert during the Bush I and II administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U.S. Micronesia Council and is the founder of Wide Fountain. a platform for in -depth geopolitical analysis. This is the first of a two -part episode. Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So let's get started. 00:01:07    SAM COOPER Today I'm excited to introduce Chris Myers. Chris is a longtime China expert and former U .S. government diplomatic and economic issues officer, and he explains how military intelligence and influence networks embedded deeply with organized crime are a central feature of the global strategy employed by the families that really are running communist China. And when I say that, we're going to discuss your research on the family of Xi Jinping, the Xi family, and you call it the Yezi clique. But first, tell our viewers your background in getting into China and your career. 00:01:46    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Thank you very much, Sam. I started a keen interest in China when I was 16. And I read the history of the opium wars and I was outraged. And I decided I wanted a career to be involved in business and diplomacy between the U .S. and China. And then as an undergrad student, I did research on the special economic zones. This was in the early 80s and the special economic zones were just announced. And my research led me to see the geopolitical aspects. There were some. across from Macau, across from Hong Kong, and across from Taiwan. So I sort of had an eye to that. And then I did business. I was, for five years, I was with a Fortune 500 company. And I had the opportunity to do some business in Xiaomon. And I saw some things that set off alarm bells in my mind. And I kind of filed that. And I had some experiences that informed my research later. I worked in the government in Bush 1 and Bush 2. I was involved in Indo -Pacific affairs. really helping American companies do business in the region, and then became a consultant to part of the government that administered our territories in the Pacific. So I saw some things there that, again, set off alarm bells in my mind. And in 2016, I happened to cross an old colleague who kind of gave me some more information. And basically from 2016 until 2022, I conducted a lot of independent research. I decided I wanted to know exactly what was going on because proxies in the region seemed emboldened to take on the U .S. And they didn't have a government portfolio, but they acted like they did. And so my research sort of started in Micronesia. I had the great opportunity to come across your book. You totally informed. parts of what I was looking at and kind of put the spotlight on what happened in Canada. And I kind of worked the two sides to the middle and conducted most recently research that kind of takes us from Mao Zedong's death until the 90s. And I believe that there was a click. I call it the yes, she click. There were scores to settle. There were powerful families that were on the cusp of greatness or recognition for all their good work, and they were purged. And it led some individuals to become extremely militant in their conduct of political warfare against the U .S. So that sort of sets the table for what we might be talking about. 00:04:28    SAM COOPER Yeah. So to get into this, let's start with the Ye family. They're mysterious, but for experts, they're very clearly a clan that has tremendous kingmaking power in China. So maybe let's start with who they are and then bridge into how they connect with Xi's father. 00:04:46    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So the patriarch, Lie Jianying, was literally the kingmaker of Mao Zedong. He came from Guangdong province, and he was involved in the very earliest movements of the Communist Party in China. And he fled one of those, I think it was the Guangzhou uprising, with Zhou Enlai, and they escaped to Hong Kong. So Ye Jianying is one of the original revolutionaries in China, and he had the title of Marshal Ye. And when he crossed paths with Mao Zedong, he was actually the aide -de -camp to a very powerful Communist Party operator out of Beijing who had an army of tens of thousands. And he rolled up to Mao and his very small group of long marchers and said, follow us, we're going to Sichuan province. And Mao was like, no, I don't think that's a safe bet. The locals are going to tear you up. And Ye Jianying kind of heard a truth in Mao and he deserted this powerful general and with him brought the code books. So Mao gets Ye Jianying and the code books and he's able to communicate with the Comintern. And lo and behold, that general did get wiped out in Sichuan. He returned to Mao's base. With a few thousand troops from then, Mao became the most powerful leader in the communist ecosystem. So Ye Jianying had a very high regard for Mao. Mao called him the savior of the Communist Party and the Communist Revolution. And so fast forward it right through the revolution. Ye gets a very top position as the party secretary for Guangdong province, the largest and economically most powerful province in the country. And Mao wants to conduct his land reform in Guangdong, just as he does everywhere. And it's a violent thing where landowners are hunted down and put to death. Yeah, because he was a native Cantonese, understood that the landowners in Guangdong were not of the same ilk as those throughout China. They actually worked the lands. They had a very cooperative relationship with labor. And he tried to resist. But Mao forced Lin Biao into Guangdong. And Ye lost his government role. And if he hadn't been in the military, he would have been completely out of power. But because he had a military portfolio, he was able to stay on the peripheries. And he was actually part of the small group that brought down the Gang of Four and ended the Cultural Revolution. So Ye Jianying went through the Mao Zedong grinder, but he did it so early in the 50s that he was able to... maintain power and have it going forward. Another Long March hero was Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhong Chun. And his claim to fame in the Communist Party was he maintained security over the area where Mao was camped in Yan 'an. And he was able to provide Mao and his group with enough security that they could camp there through a winter and survive. Not only that, but he negotiated and he conducted diplomacy with the tribesmen in the Northwest, in Qinghai, in Xinjiang, and in Tibet. And he was loved. And he got a lot of rebels and insurgents among these minority populations to join the Communist Party. And Mao gave him great profs for that and referred to him as one of the heroes of the Three Kingdoms period. brilliant statesman who was able to ingratiate with the minorities and make them part of the Chinese nation. Unfortunately, though, Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhongchun, he was purged, but he was purged later. He was purged in 1962. And from Xi Jinping's age nine until he was 25, Xi Jinping's father was under arrest. Without trial, it was just the culture revolution. He was under arrest because his office published a book that was deemed not flattering to Mao Zedong. Basically, he was promoting some thought within the Communist Party that Mao didn't like. So Xi's father is in jail from 62 to 78. And because Ye Senior and Xi Zhongchun had a relationship, Ye Jianying kind of became a godfather of sorts for Xi Jinping. Xi was sent to work in the countryside and he escaped and he tried to get back to Beijing and it wasn't safe for him to be reunited with his family. And Ye intervened. And Ye made sure that Xi joined the Communist Party, even though these tragedies were all around him, and made sure that he got the semblance of an education, although he really never did. He was a guide for Xi Jinping throughout his younger years. in place of his father. 00:10:02    Sam Cooper Before we continue how those families dovetail together, can you describe in China's political economy, what is the power of Marshal Ye? 00:10:13    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So in the 50s, he was jettisoned out of the political arena. His main work was in the PLA. He was a marshal and he became minister of defense in China. And he was responsible for procurement. And to sort of give you a sense, when the Korean War started, the United Nations put a blockade on trade with China because they were arming the North Korean army. Marshal Yeh was responsible for making sure that supplies got to North Korea. And that was a big role that he fulfilled. And his sons kind of brought that along. So it's curious because Marshal Yeh was one of the most powerful stars in the communist lineup, but he was also a minority. He was from Guangdong and he was a Haka Chinese. So some people would say that Haka Chinese within China, there's a lid sometimes on their ability to move up. And so perhaps he was never considered for the echelon, but he did arise very high. But in some ways, and his sons adopted this even more so, they had to become very combative. in their political dealings. But no doubt about it, Marshal Yeh had a chance to handle huge volumes of military supplies, and there was an opportunity to skim and generate great wealth, which probably was the case. The way that Marshal Yeh fulfilled the supply chains for the North Korean army was through organized crime. And it just happened that two of The individuals, Henry Falk and Stanley Ho, were also Hakka Chinese. And they became the kingpins of organized crime in Hong Kong and Macau. Both of them are on record as saying they made their fortunes supplying the Korean War. 00:12:15    SAM COOPER Right. So people that read my book are very familiar with Stanley Ho, according to U .S. government intelligence. the absolute king of Chinese international mafia with connectivity to casinos, banking, political influence operations in Canada, triad leadership in Canada. So I think we've set the table for the 90s in Guangdong, Fujian. Xi Jinping is now starting to come on the scene politically there. The Ye family, who were partners essentially of Xi's father. had a little bit of a godfather eye on Xi's movements within the party. We can say that they're the power behind a throne that they want to see continue to rise. So can you take us into the 90s, the sort of Stanley Ho connectivity to Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and how that combines the Hong Kong tycoons slash triad leaders with the communist powers in Fujian? 00:13:21    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yes. Mao passed away in 78. Deng Xiaoping came to power. And Deng was all about economic reform and catching up to the West. So in southern China, Fujian and Guangdong province, Deng looked to Ye Jenying and his sons. His sons were in their 30s now. And he also looked to Xi Zhongshan. Xi Zhongshan became party secretary for Guangdong province. in the early 80s. And Deng kind of put together this group. The Ye's and the Xi's were family friends. They celebrated Chinese holidays together. The Xi's were northern Chinese, but they kind of encamped in Guangdong province after a certain amount of time. And that's where Xi's father retired. But in Guangdong, the son of Ye, his name was Ye Xuanping. Basically, he was mayor of Guangzhou and the governor of Guangdong. And very quickly, he was referred to as the emperor of the south. So in the 80s, he was running Guangdong province. And he became so powerful that the CCP sought to have him step down. And he actually threatened to withhold tax to Beijing from the province of Guangdong unless they negotiated with him. He wanted a vice chair of the CPPCC, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee. And he wants to be a vice governor of the CPPCC. And he wanted to be allowed to maintain his power base in Guangdong. And this is a rare case where the CCP actually deferred to these wishes. Just to get him out of running the most powerful province in China, they said okay. So he goes over the CPPCC. And he takes with him the kingpins of organized crime in Hong Kong and Macau. Stanley Ho never had a position, but Henry Falk and the other top lieutenants in these organized crime entities all wound up on the CPPCC. And to give you a sense of like, what was some of the magic Stanley Ho had when he won the monopoly on gaming in Macau? He devised this VIP room concept where... He owned the casino, but the VIP rooms were run by basically triads and junkets, powerful friends from mainland China and triads. And the triads conducted all kinds of crime that the Vancouver model got in a very big dose. So it was racketeering and prostitution and all kinds of things, but also collections. So Stanley Ho didn't have to work on collections because his muscle did it for him. But the strongest of these triad operators wound up in the CPPCC, as long as they were effective in what they were doing for the government. And 14K is dominated by Hakka Chinese. Most of the most powerful triads have a very strong Hakka element to it. And I don't mean to suggest that this wonderful race of Chinese called Hakkas is all bad. Lee Kuan Yew, the premier of Singapore, was Hakka Chinese. phenomenal Chinese, but there were also some very nefarious and very effective in their criminal activities that were Haka Chinese. So the Ye's were in the middle of this. And Chinese language social media accounts in Hong Kong will talk about the Ye's dominance over these gaming operators in Macau. 00:17:07    SAM COOPER Let's get into that and explore that more. I just want to ask a side question. As I'm aware of a very important figure, in what we call the Hoag Commission in Canada. I'm just going to leave it at that. This is our inquiry into foreign interference that stemmed from my investigative reporting. And there is a politician at the center of that that my sources close to them said went off to a haka conference in China for weeks or something like that, you know, while being an elected politician in Canada. Knowing what you know, and I'm just coming out of the blue with this question, is there anything good for Canada that they could be doing on that trip? 00:17:45    CHRISTOPHER MEYER There could be a lot of normal cultural activity, but I'll say one thing, that the powers that are doing the kinds of things that I'm concerned with are definitely represented in those groups. There might be a wink and a nod and things look very normal on the surface, but there's no free lunch in China. Everybody has to pay the piper, and the piper is the communist party of China. 00:18:11    SAM COOPER So let me ask you this. Viewers of the Bureau know that I've pressed away in journalism in explaining that the United Front Work Department and international money laundering and organized crime are synonymous. They're one and the same. The CIA says the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is really the core unit of the United Front. So what you're getting at... I think the Ye family, these power brokers that are behind Xi and his power in southern China, you're saying they essentially formed this United Front and organized crime compact as sort of a political tool, a smuggling tool, a military tool? 00:18:55    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yes. And I want to say that the United Front was an early Communist Party creation. And the thing about the Communist Party... They infiltrated the Kuomintang. When the Kuomintang had more power and they were the power base in China, the communists used political warfare to infiltrate them and really become their undoing. And the United Front is basically one way to get all parts of society under the control of the CCP. So within the United Front, the CPPCC is sort of the big leagues. And all the other organizations are the feeder groups. So if you get in a small united front group and you deliver in a big way, you can get promoted all the way to this PCC. And Ong Lapsung is an example of that. So the whole idea of the united front is to harness and control all the resources from academia, the private sector. from all aspects of society and to make them work for the Communist Party. And I feel that any united front operation, and there's so many in Canada and the U .S., they should just be called assets of the Chinese government. That's one way for the Chinese to increase their headcount of diplomatic officers within any given country. 00:20:26    Close Thanks for listening. If you get a chance, please like and subscribe and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you're interested in coming on the show or hosting an episode, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. I'll have the email and CA Association website in the show notes. And now, most importantly, to those currently out in the field working with a partner nation's people or leadership to forward U.S. relations, thank you all for what you're doing. your host. Stay tuned for more great episodes of One CA Podcast.   Episode 2 00:00:01    Introduction Welcome to the 1CA Podcast. This is your host, Jack Gaines. 1CA is a product of the Civil Affairs Association and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on ground with the partner nation's people and leadership. Our goal is to inspire anyone interested in working the last three feet of foreign relations. To contact the show, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www.civilaffairsassoc.org. I'll have those in the show notes. Today we welcome Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, as he interviews Christopher Meyer, a former U .S. 00:00:44    Introduction official and China expert during the Bush 1 and 2 administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U .S. Micronesia Council and is the founder of Wide Fountain. a platform for in -depth geopolitical analysis. This is the second of a two -part episode. Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So let's get started. 00:01:08    SAM COOPER I feel that any United Front operation, and there's so many in Canada and the U .S., they should just be called assets of the Chinese government. That's one way for the Chinese to increase their headcount of diplomatic officers within any given country. And they should be labeled that way and they should be treated that way. And they're conducting operations for China. So to get back to the Ye family, I just want to say very briefly, so Deng Xiaoping taps the older brother, Ye, and he's in the government and he has a nine, 10 -year run in Guangdong. The younger brother, his name is Ye Xuanning. He's the dangerous one. He's a real interesting cat. So, yeah. was in college during the Cultural Revolution. And just to give you an idea of the thin ice that you could be skating on in China, he graduated from college and he was thrown in jail. And he was thrown in jail because, you know, Mao wanted to send a signal to the Ye family, I'm in control here. You're not in control. He got out of jail and he had a job in a radio factory or something like that. And he must have been so distraught, he lost his arm in an accident. throwing boxes into a crusher and he lost his arm. So he became a calligrapher with his left hand. And if you know Chinese, like every time you write calligraphy, your hand is going across what you're writing. If you're left -handed, I don't know how he did it. I'm left -handed. And he became an accomplished calligrapher with his left hand. So it just gives you a sense of the spirit of this guy. He's not your normal. person. I think he was a genius. I think he was extremely hardworking. And one of his first positions, he was involved in a small United Front operation in Beijing. Then he became secretary for Kang Xian, who was sort of the head of the oil faction in China. And he was a very powerful individual. And then he found himself in Guangdong. And when his brother was appointed head of the province and the city of Guangzhou, He got into Espionade, and he became the spymaster for the PLA, working in the GDP. And he really had it. He sort of hit his stride there, and that's how he ended his career. The spymaster for the PLA. I think any other rival couldn't even hold a candle to him. He was totally gifted. And his brother and he were able to leverage all of their... contacts with organized crime because he used them in operations around the world. And I think he's the one who weaponized it to the point where, number one, organized crime figures were making money for the military, a lot of it. And number two, they were almost pre -trained in operations. They were bold. They would go anywhere and do anything. And Aung La Pseung is a good example of that. 00:04:11    CHRISTOPHER MEYER I was going to say, because not everyone knows these names like you and I do, but Enlap Sang, nominally a real estate developer from Macau. My Files, he's a huge international organized crime figure known for the so -called Clinton Gate or White House visits. He's the guy that got next to the Clinton White House or got inside, you know, maybe five to ten times. He ends up getting done, as they say, in a United Nations corruption case, which of course connects to a very important guy in Australia that successfully sued my colleague, John Garneau, and yet is at the top of Chinese organized crime funding Australian politics. He was involved in that FBI case. So to bring it back, what I've picked up in my book and in my repeated reporting efforts at the Bureau is these international Chinese businessmen in real estate and casinos, tech these days, they go around the world, they get next to our politicians, and that's their job. They're being tasked by whoever the Ye family spymaster of today is, is sending them abroad to do that. At some point, Xi Jinping comes into this and says it's okay. 00:05:30    SAM COOPER okay. And it's still evolving. I mean, I came on to this. When I read your book and I saw your story of Lai Changxin, I said, holy shit, I have to get into this. You see the level of danger that it brings to a country like Canada and North America. But I think that Ye Xuen Ning created the mechanism for the CCP to use and leverage organized crime to, 00:05:51    SAM COOPER mechanism for the CCP to use and leverage organized crime to, number one, fund military operations. and other things, and to extend influence operations. Like the United Front is all about influence operations. But if you introduce organized crime elements into parts of the United Front, you can weaponize it and you can get a lot more bang for your buck using these nefarious creatures that you're managing, you're controlling them. And I want to mention something. How does the CCP have control over organized crimes? So I want to say, In the late 90s, Macau No. 1 was about to be returned from Portuguese administration to Chinese. And 2, the kind of monopoly of the casinos license was coming up in 2002. And what happened was these triad operators were starting to push back against Stanley Ho. Stanley Ho's right -hand man was shot in the face in Victoria Park during this period. And the Portuguese sent an official to try to calm down the situation. And that individual was shot when he arrived. And the Communist Party kind of went in and took control. When the monopoly came up, Stanley Ho and his family, they got the coverage. But that's because he's completely loyal to the CCP. And so the CCP has so much leverage over these entities. Completely, he devised the strategy to integrate organized crime. And then he passed away in 2016. And then the institutional steps took place after that. They had to transfer from sort of a control of one man to the government running it. And you can see examples around 2016 of a lot of large -scale Chinese operations having disruption during this period. One of the reasons they were able to do this for so long was that Ye Xuanning was completely secretive. I mean, he managed these operations in a very keen and brilliant way, and he was never identified. Xi Jinping's role is interesting. Ye Xuanning told his brothers to help Xi Jinping. And you can kind of see like an increase in their efforts when Xi's father... He was in Beijing, and he had a very high role. He pulled a bureau standing committee, and he was sent down because of Tiananmen. He was on the reformer side, and he publicly admitted it. He was a very admirable individual, and he said he was supporting Hua Guofeng. So he faced early retirement in 1993, and the Ye brothers were so upset about this, and probably Xi too. They sort of doubled down on their efforts on behalf of this political warfare. It's almost as if they were pissed off at the Communist Party, but they took it out on North America. It's like they had to become more radical in what they were doing because in order to get power in China, you had to outflank Li Peng and the hardliners. So there's an interesting element there. 00:09:13    CHRISTOPHER MEYER You talk about this combination of military intelligence and organized crime. and political warfare and global influence operations. Trade is obviously involved. Explain what you mean by radicalization of that tool in operations. 00:09:31    SAM COOPER So there were about 10 operations in the 1990s that I believe were masterminded by the Yeshi Clay and primarily Yeshi Ning. The most outrageous, there was one and probably several. smuggling of military -grade machine guns into the U .S. from China. And one of the groups that was set up, helped finance the military, was the Poly Group. And the Poly Group, they were on the bill of lading for these. They were labeled as something else, but they came into the port of Oakland. And the interesting thing was the CEO of Poly Group, who was a princeling himself, was meeting in the White House and had his photo taken with President Clinton. At the time, these machine guns were on the water. That's bold. Yes. And when I ponder this, it's like I know how much the Chinese love photographs. That photo shown by Xi Jinping to all the cronies in Beijing would get him a lot of brownie points. And these machine guns were being distributed to gangs in the area. Street gangs in California. So this kind of thing, right? Right. And so that one was uncovered. But how many others slipped by? And there have been cases similar magnitude in Tennessee and Florida. 00:10:57    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yeah, and this is where it gets into the leaked Sidewinder report that I touched on in the book. But yeah, that report refers to Pauley Group laundering 2 ,000 AK -47s into California. You're saying you believe that not only is Xi Jinping supported by this Ye family intelligence, who I have no problem believing are behind the United Front organized crime nexus. You're saying you think Xi Jinping is a mind involved in this kind of thing as well. 00:11:30    SAM COOPER Originally, as I was doing my research, I thought Xi was the mastermind. But as I did a deep dive to what his contemporaries said of him, The big knock on Xi was that he wasn't educated. Like age nine to age 25, his dad has been persecuted and locked up without trial. And he's forced to work in the countryside and he's not happy about it. I mean, he wasn't educated. And that's the biggest knock on Xi Jinping. And when you look at the history of Xi in Fujian, first of all, he goes to the Ministry of Defense and then doesn't do... anything of note there as a young man. But then he goes into Hebei province and he's working in Hebei province as a middle level provincial official. And he's not doing much. I mean, his big contribution was suggesting that they film a TV show in that province and kind of burned out. He wasn't favored by the Communist Party officials there. You know, he's brought to Fujian. Communist Party officials bounce around provinces and each time they have an increasing role. Well, he stays in Fujian for 17 years. And it's almost like he's being babysat by the Yehs. And I mean, the Yeh family compound was a two and a half hour drive from where she was in Fujian. And so I don't think he was the mastermind, but he was definitely the beneficiary. And I think that it was a long term project. And the Yeh brothers. put the pieces on the table to help promote Xi Jinping. And here's an interesting thing. In 1997, there was a big Central Party conclave, the 15th Central Party plenary meeting. And Ye wasn't even named as an alternate delegate. So you've got hundreds of delegates coming from all over the country. And he's a princeling. And he's been in provincial government for 12 years. And he's not even named. Somebody forced him onto the list of alternate delegates. There were 150. He was the 151st alternate delegate. He didn't receive one vote. He was pushed on. And I think somebody in the realm said, you know what? We're running all these operations and we're doing it so secretively. Nobody knows that this is for Xi Jinping. So they started gradually to kind of promote Xi as. the mastermind of this. And the years were okay with that. But Xi Jinping was on his way to becoming the leader of China by 2002. 00:14:08    CHRISTOPHER MEYER And I was over in Taiwan, invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over a year ago with international journalists. And we had kind of a dinner talk where their political intelligence expert was going to talk about some of this Klan details and things like that. And they said, yeah, within the princelings, Xi Jinping was the least likely, the least talented to reach chairman. 00:14:37    CHRISTOPHER MEYER And so, OK, you know, I'm not the expert. If someone from Taiwan is telling me that, you're saying that. So if true, and you're saying the power behind the throne is this Ye family that boosts him. And they're the ones you're saying that are the masterminds of what I'm going to call modern political Chinese communist warfare using proxies, organized crime, dirty tycoons. So this is where we're going. 00:15:06    SAM COOPER Yep, this is where we're going. And let me just touch on a few of the operations in the 1990s, just to give you a sense for what was going on and the fact that the Chinese were never completely called out on the carpet for it. Just let them continue doing it. And one of the themes of my research is it's time to call the Chinese out. And to do that, you have to be very specific. I think there needs to be a large group of countries that has their research done and they call out Xi Jinping for this political warfare that absolutely is hyper -destructive. 00:15:41    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So you're saying this is an intelligence operation? Yeah. For the last 10 minutes or so, In direct relationship to this network you're talking about, the 90s, 2000, aggressive combination of international organized crime, Hong Kong tycoons, Macau tycoons, in Chinese military influence operations, also people smuggling, also drug smuggling, illegal migration and, you know, fentanyl. There is a basis that Chinese triads and Mexican cartels are working together on those things and that Canada is a, you could call it, if this is a company, the controlling minds of a lot of this are in Vancouver and Toronto. Canadian ports are very deeply infiltrated by China, along with some Iranian mafia and intelligence. It's a fact. So where do we go from there? I myself, as a Canadian, the good countries of the world need to get together to combat this approaching, if not already into early stages of the access of China, Iran, Russia, North Korea. We're at loggerheads and they're using Canada, I believe, unfortunately. 00:17:01    SAM COOPER Right. And I do believe that Yeshua Ning is a genius and he looked at North America and he wants to inflict pain on the U .S. When he set up these plans in the early 90s, the Chinese GDP was a fraction of the U .S. So he had a lot of ground to make up. And he chose Vancouver because the resources to combat his efforts were probably deemed to be significantly less than the resources in the U .S. So I feel that the attack on Canada, the Vancouver model. if you will, which spread right across to Toronto and then down into Queens and across to LA and permeates everything. I believe that the US and Canada should try to get on the same page about this and to the extent possible, Mexico as well. And then the UK and Australia haven't been unaffected by this. There should be a big effort to get on the same page with the West because this is a totalitarian regime doing its level best to take us out. 00:18:07    CHRISTOPHER MEYER The controlling mind, I'm saying, of the Mexican cartels, I think it's Chinese triads. That's the real power there. 00:18:15    SAM COOPER I think we're both in agreement. If you want to draw a word picture that says what this is, picture that there's a really bad actor and he's throwing a really illegal party and selling drugs and he's bringing it all in. And the U .S. is going after the people who own the land where all of this took place. You have to go after China. And I believe that China is making 98 % of the precursors for fentanyl, and then they're laundering the money. That's the other piece. They're laundering it. They're operating this massive money laundering operation for the cartels. So I say the gloves do come off, but I would love to see them come off in unison. And all of these, at least in North America, Mexico, Canada, and the U .S., we're all on the same page. And we speak with one voice. And I'll add to this. Xi Jinping has been as painful towards his own population as he has been externally and internationally. So he's inflicted pain on the Chinese and he's about to go down. I mean, he's got his wings clipped in the last few months and he may not be in power very long. There's some serious movement in China. 00:19:30    CHRISTOPHER MEYER You sound like my friend Harry Tsang, the ambassador for Taiwan and Ottawa. He's bearish on Xi Jinping in a big way. 00:19:38    SAM COOPER Yeah. Well, I think it's a good time for the West to approach China and say, look, we got off on the wrong foot. Let's reboot. And by the way, there's some reparations needed here. 70 ,000 people have been dying a year from this, and it's a Chinese operation. You know, the cartels are definitely part of it, but... I think there's good reason for the West to get on the same page. 00:20:02    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Absolutely. So we will end it there for a first great chat. And I think next time we'll get into the juicy story of Lai Cheng Zing, the bigot China's supposed most wanted. Or what was he? So I'll leave it at that and we'll pick it up next time. You have to say, 00:20:21    SAM COOPER have to say, I'm sitting there doing my research. I get your book. And all of a sudden, within 50 pages, the lights are going off because you wrote about Lai Changxin and it just completed some thoughts that I was mulling over. And yeah, we're going to have an interesting conversation about Lai Changxin. 00:20:40    CHRISTOPHER MEYER That touches my heart because I've always been a brother of the United States and I've felt so disheartened that bad people have gotten in between us and we have to stop that. And as you say, we need to get together on this. I've reached some good thinkers in the US and there's now things brewing. So let's keep it going. You got it. 00:21:01    Close Thanks for listening. If you get a chance, please like and subscribe and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you're interested in coming on the show or hosting an episode, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. I'll have the email and CA Association website in the show notes. And now, most importantly, to those currently out in the field, working with a partner nation's people or leadership to forward U .S. relations. Thank you all for what you're doing. This is Jack, your host. Stay tuned for more great episodes, One CA Podcast.

Nuacht Mhall. Príomhscéalta na seachtaine, léite go mall. * Inniu an chéad lá de mhí Feabhra. Is mise Niall Ó Cuileagáin. Tharla timpiste eitleáin in Washington oíche Dé Céadaoin nuair a bhuail eitleán paisinéirí le héileacaptar Black Hawk. Bhí an t-eitleán de chuid American Airlines ag teacht anuas chuig an rúidbhealach nuair a tharla an tuairt leis an héileacaptar. Thit an dá aerárthach isteach san abhainn Potomac agus cuireadh tús le misean cuardaigh agus tarrthála ar an bpointe. Mar sin féin, is cosúil nar tháinig duine ar bith de na 60 paisinéirí eitleáin nó den triúr saighdiúirí sa héileacaptar slán ón dtimpiste. Tá sé tagtha chun solais go raibh go leor scátálaithe fíoracha ar an eitleán ag teacht thar n-ais go Washington tar éis craobhchomórtais in Kansas. D'fhógair an Kremlin sa Rúis go raibh na hiarchuraidh domhanda Yevgenia Shishkova agus Vadim Naumov ar bord an eitleáin. Tharla ócáidí comórtha ar fud an domhain dosna daoine a fuair bás agus a mhair tríd an Uileloscadh an tseachtain seo. Bhí an ócáid is mó ar siúl sa champa géibhinn in Auschwitz sa Pholainn. Saoradh an campa sin ar an 27 Eanáir 1945 agus mar gheallair sin, bíonn Lá Comórtha an Uileloiscthe ar siúl ar an lá sin gach bliain. Fuair sé mhilliún Giúdach bás san Uileloscadh, chomh maith le daoine de mhionlaigh eitneacha eile, mar thoradh ar na coireanna in aghaidh na daonnachta déanta ag na Naitsithe le linn an Dara Cogadh Domhanda. D'fhreastail an Taoiseach Micheál Martin ar an ócáid in Auschwitz agus réachtáladh ócáid chuimhneacháin i mBaile Átha Cliath chomh maith inar thug an tUachtarán Michael D. Higgins óráid. Tharraing a óráid conspóid, áfach, nuair a rinne sé tagairt don scrios in Gaza faoi láthair. Baineadh croitheadh as rialtas Mheiriceá agus as na comhlachtaí in Silicon Valley an tseachtain seo nuair a eisíodh samhail Intleachta Saorga nua sa tSín darb ainm DeepSeek. Is bota cómhrá é DeepSeek, cosúil le ChatGPT, agus tá saineolaithe ana-thógtha leis an dteicneolaíocht. Chuaigh an aip go barr na liostaí íoslódála, rud a chuir imní ar cheannairí teicneolaíochta i Meiriceá, toisc gur mhaígh DeepSeek gurchruthaíodar an tsamhail go saor i comparáid le samhlacha Meiriceánacha ar nós OpenAI. Tá DeepSeek níos saoire mar ní úsáideann sé mórán sliseanna agus de bhrí na nuachta san, chaill an comhlacht sliseanna, Nvidia, $600 milliún Dé Luain– an caillteanas margaidh is mó i stair na Stát Aontaithe. Léirigh an tUachtarán Trump a imní faoin dteicneolaíocht bíodh is gur cheiliúir rialtas na Síne an aip nua. Ach is léir nach bhfuil an Intleacht Shaorga so saor ón mbolscaireacht: nuair a chuir an BBC ceist air faoi na heachtraí i gCearnóg Tiananmen sa bhliain 1989, dúirt DeepSeek nach raibh sé ábalta an cheist a fhreagairt. * Léirithe ag Conradh na Gaeilge i Londain. Tá an aip ar fáil i d'aip phodchraolta. * GLUAIS aerárthach - aircraft scátálaithe fíoracha - figure skaters an Uileloscadh - the Holocaust coireanna in aghaidh na daonnachta - crimes against humanity samhail - prototype sliseanna - (computer) chips

Macau assinalava nesta sexta-feira metade do processo de transição de Portugal para a China, 25 anos, de um total de 50, no âmbito de uma região administrativa especial chinesa, como negociado entre Lisboa e Pequim.E isto na semana em que uma lei foi votada em Macau contemplando o despedimento de funcionários públicos caso sejam tidos como desleais para com o território ou com a China.  Para fazer um diagnóstico falámos com Paulo Rêgo, director do semanário Plataforma.Este admite haver pressões no território para que se adopte um registo que não belisque a China, à luz do que Pequim implementou na vizinha Hong Kong, após a repressão dos protestos pró democracia de 2019 e 2020, mas relativiza o peso da nova legislação.Há um juramento e uma declaração de fidelidade à função pública, bem como hà em Portugal, ou como decorre dos próprios contratos de privada. Se um funcionário do Plataforma, do meu jornal, não for fiel ao meu projecto, eu despeço-o. E, portanto, é verdade que há e tem havido, nomeadamente nos anos do COVID e do pós COVID, um recrudescimento claro e visível do discurso securitário e do discurso patriótico.Isso esteve ligado ao que aconteceu em Hong Kong, nomeadamente ?Tudo o que aconteceu em Hong Kong teve uma consequência e efeitos directos do que passou a acontecer em Macau, nomeadamente no discurso securitário e naquilo que aqui hoje se repete em cada esquina que é "Macau, governado pelas suas gentes", desde que sejam patriotas e tenham amor à Pátria.O Gabinete dos Assuntos para Macau e Hong Kong, em Pequim, já diz tudo no seu nome. O grupo de pessoas que toma decisões sobre as Regiões autónomas especiais toma decisões sobre as duas.E, portanto, o que aconteceu em Macau, onde não há sentimento anti-nacionalista, onde não há protestos anti-Pequim, que é uma pequena cidade que vive completamente dependente de Pequim decidir que pode ter dinheiro. Não é porque se Pequim não deixar virem os jogadores para Macau, Macau vai à falência.Portanto estamos no regime de "Um país, dois sistemas". Diz-me que, ao fim ao cabo, não havia problemas em Macau. Eu lembro-me, porém, que no passado chegou a haver protestos para assinalar a repressão em Tiananmen. Estes protestos agora já não existem !Não há protestos de Tiananmen, eles foram proibidos com um parecer jurídico do presidente do Tribunal de última instância, que toma posse como chefe do Executivo. Como aquilo que aconteceu em Hong Kong com os deputados que foram proibidos de se candidatarem, não é?Os chamados dissidentes ou independentistas, aqueles que a China decidiu que não cumpriam os critérios de amor à mãe pátria. Isso também aconteceu em Macau. Também houve deputados nas últimas eleições que foram proibidos de concorrer. Portanto, isso aconteceu. É uma mão dura de Pequim sobre qualquer movimento político dissidente ou contestatário. Mas a minha leitura enquanto jornalista e enquanto cidadão é que para aí. Eu convido qualquer ouvinte vosso a ir à www.Plataforma de Macau, ler os editoriais que eu escrevo sobre a China e sobre Macau, para perceberem que tem o mesmo tom e o mesmo grau de liberdade daqueles que você pode escrever sobre o presidente francês.Não há uma censura óbvia e uma submissão a Pequim ?Há uma pressão, uma pressão óbvia dos poderes nacionais para que toda a gente concorde com eles. Penso que em França também percebemos como é que isso se faz, não é? A questão é quando nós recebemos pressões, o que é que fazemos? Se resistirmos a elas e continuarmos a praticar jornalismo... O meu jornal tem dez anos, ainda cá está e 80% dos seus anunciantes são públicos. Portanto, não posso, eria desonesto da minha parte dizer que não é possível exercer a liberdade de opinião. Há pressões para que a nossa opinião seja concordante como o "mindset" nacional chinês, há !Falou de Sam Hou Fai que tomou posse como novo líder do executivo macaense. Pelo menos a parte lusófona enfatiza o facto de, pela primeira vez, ser um chefe do executivo que até fala português. Ele é um magistrado, como também já referiu. O que acha que poderá vir aí com a Nova Era, a era de Sam Hou Fai ?Eu não lhe chamaria a era de Sam Hou Fai. O Sam Hou Fai não é um político experiente e influente naquilo a que nós poderíamos chamar os "stakeholders" da política de Macau neste momento, não é ? Que são as elites económicas e políticas de Macau e o grau de influência crescente que as elites económicas e políticas chinesas têm na condução da região, por mais autónoma que ela se chame e por mais autónoma que tenha capacidade de ser. A China é, no mínimo, "stakeholder" das decisões. Não é um político influente e experiente. É um magistrado. Sim. Fala português, estudou em Coimbra e, é, portanto, é o primeiro chefe do Executivo bilíngue.Aliás, num governo formado por um chefe do Executivo e cinco secretários, portanto seis altos quadros dirigentes: Um secretário adjunto em Macau seria o equivalente a ministro. Digamos, se encararmos o chefe do Executivo como primeiro ministro, desses, seis, quatro são bilingues.Desses seis, todos são tecnocratas, ou seja, vêm da função pública. E todos eles, e a maioria deles, pelo menos, nem sequer nasceu em Macau.O Sam Hou Fai não é só o primeiro bilingue, também é o primeiro que não nasceu em Macau. Veio para Macau há muitos anos e, portanto, cumpriu os critérios mínimos para que alguém possa ser eleito chefe. Tem que residir em Macau pelo menos há 25 anos, para cumprir aquele preceito de Macau governado pelas suas gentes. Mas foi preparado para isso.Toda esta geração é uma geração com muitas conexões com o Partido Comunista Chinês, com o poder central e que vieram viver para Macau, aprenderam aqui o modo de vida de Macau, a Lei de Macau, o bilinguismo, a segunda língua oficial. Foram para Portugal estudar e voltaram.Portanto, é uma coisa difícil de ler. Repare nas contradições, não é? É o primeiro governo de tecnocratas, ou seja, não tem empresários de sucesso. Não tem as grandes famílias que herdaram as tradições de Macau como tiveram os governos anteriores. Foram todas afastadas pela primeira vez deste Governo.E, portanto, temos um governo mais nacionalista, mais tecnocrático, se quisermos, menos politizado e, contudo, mais bilingue. Qual é a questão curiosa? O bilinguismo, a plataforma com os países de língua portuguesa e Macau, Cidade aberta. No fundo, é um desenho tradicional de Pequim e foi desenhado pela política conservadora de Pequim... Que criou esta lógica para a reunificação, ou seja, para que a reunificação fosse pacífica e aceite pelas populações de Macau, de Hong Kong. E o grande elefante escondido que é Taiwan, não é ?Que é, no fundo, "Um país, dois sistemas": um sistema plural e constitucional em que há um arquétipo nacionalista chinês. Mas depois há graus de abertura elevados para as regiões que aceitem regressar à "mãe pátria", na expressão da política chinesa, portanto, este governo é as duas coisas.É um governo mais tecnocrata, menos politizado, mais nacionalista, mas também mais bilingue, mais plataforma e que se quiser, porque estas instruções são do centro. O plano das grandes famílias em Macau, durante os últimos 26 anos, foi enriquecer brutalmente para não sei quantas gerações, criando um paraíso de jogo e seu submundo que multiplicou por sete, oito, nove vezes as receitas de Las Vegas. Para termos noção, numa aldeia de 33 quilómetros quadrados. Portanto, nós estamos aqui a cumprir um desenho que é conservador, é tradicional, é do poder central.Cada vez mais se fala na necessidade de diversificação económica. Como é que ela é equacionada em Macau? E como  ?Quais são as alavancas possíveis?Ela está completamente definida. Ou seja, esta mistura entre a manutenção de um sistema capitalista que há em Macau e uma economia socialista dirigida, centralizada e com planos centrais. Ela está completamente definida por Pequim, imposta ao poder local e vai ser executada. A primeira questão que aconteceu no jogo é porque grande parte das receitas, uma enorme parte das receitas era do chamado mercado VIP, não era ?De pessoas que vinham jogar 10 milhões, 50 milhões, 100 milhões $ de Macau. Não. Eles vinham da China, muitas vezes sonegados ao Estado. Pequim impôs o fim disso, dos dealers, dos agentes dos "junkets" que dominaram a indústria do jogo durante 20 anos. E hoje Macau está completamente concentrado no "Mass Market" [Mercado de Massas]. Que os turistas vêm aos milhões. Estamos a falar de 33 milhões este ano, contas do dia 7 de Setembro. A recuperar todos os números pré COVID, houve 55.000 espectáculos da indústria "mass" este ano e convenções, concertos, teatros, etc.É turismo no sentido mais lacto da palavra, não necessariamente só receitas de jogo.Eu posso dizer "1+4". O jogo passa a ser uma cidade de turismo e lazer em que a oferta diária é multiplicada para "mass market", e não para mercados VIP. E depois há quatro indústrias onde há pacotes legislativos a nascer para a promoção dessas quatro indústrias, definidas como as indústrias que eles entendem, em que Macau será competitivo na sua integração regional.Ou seja, na Grande Baía, que é uma região económica especial que inclui nove cidades no sul da China: Cantão, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Macau e Hong Kong são integrados nessa grande área...O Delta das Pérolas !O delta do Rio das Pérolas: 85% do PIB da China ! Ou seja, uma região para a qual o mundo inteiro quer vir. E Macau vai por decisão central, vai obrigar-nos a dizer: Quem é que não quer ir para um mercado desses quando está numa aldeia com 33 quilómetros quadrados, não é?Portanto, a diversificação vai ser feita pela integração na Grande Baía, pela multiplicação de contactos com os países de língua portuguesa, mediação entre a China e esses países.E depois tem quatro indústrias, de preferência: mercado MICE (concertos, grandes realizações de desporto e cultura, sobretudo). Portanto, o chamado mercado MICE, mais a alta finança, a biomédica e as novas tecnologias. Estas quatro indústrias estão perfeitamente definidas pelo poder central, aceites pelo poder local. E qualquer empresário hoje em Macau e estrangeiro, que venha a Macau, é para elas que olha. Porque essas vão andar a uma coisa que a gente tem que perceber na China eles não têm que dizer. E quando dizem, fazem. Portanto, estas vão acontecer.Dentro de 25 anos, a priori, Macau deixa de ser uma região administrativa especial para integrar plenamente a China. Passaram já 25 anos. Em que medida é que pode haver ou não alguma apreensão em relação ao respeito desta mini-Constituição, a Lei Básica de Macau, em relação ao respeito das liberdades e garantias ?Eu acho que é avisado todos nós estarmos sempre preocupados com a defesa das liberdades e das garantias individuais e colectivas em Macau. Não me parece que isso seja uma borla garantida, nunca para ninguém ! Muito menos num sítio onde ela é dada por excepção. Ou seja, é uma coisa que a China toda não tem.Na China há censura. Eu na China não poderia estar a dar esta entrevista. Daquilo que eu vejo hoje em Macau, eu diria que estaremos muito próximos do mesmo daqui a 25 anos daquilo que é o interesse da China.Pode haver mais liberdades. Pode haver mais contactos. Pode haver mais interacção com os países de língua portuguesa. Pode ser um canal ainda mais importante para as relações da China com o resto do mundo. Agora, isso depende de como evoluir a China.O que é que nós vemos hoje? Hoje a China tem bloqueios políticos e económicos, não é? Fala-se da Guerra Fria, Nova Guerra Fria, a guerra tecnológica, a guerra económica e os Estados Unidos pressionam a Europa para não ter relações de privilégio com a China. E  portanto, diremos o seguinte "Ah! Então a China está nesse "drive" negativo e, portanto, Macau e Hong Kong estão atrás disso? Não. Quanto mais problemas a China tem na sua economia, quanto mais necessidade tem de se internacionalizar, mais precisa dos canais para o Ocidente.Nós estamos a sentir isso hoje, aqui. As decisões políticas que a China tomar sobre as suas relações com o mundo vão definir as decisões que tomarão sobre estes territórios, sobre estas regiões autónomas, mas no "mindset" político chinês deles, claramente deles ! E eles tomaram as decisões que entenderem daqui a 25 anos. Tudo depende das relações que a China tiver com o resto do mundo.E em termos de população e da demografia, para terminar, eu sei que o COVID foi muito severo aí e que muita gente, após o fim do muito longo confinamento, optou por deixar Macau. Em que medida é que agora há, de facto, se calhar uma população de origem europeia menor? Uma população, se calhar de origem da China popular maior? Houve alguma evolução recente que testemunhou relativamente à demografia do território?Houve claramente alguma retirada de altos quadros estrangeiros e há muita dificuldade na obtenção do chamado "Bilhete de residente". Ou seja, um estrangeiro que queira viver para Macau tem que pedir autorização, como tem em França, como tem em Portugal. E, portanto, essa autorização de trabalho e de vida em Macau hoje é difícil. Porquê? Porque estamos numa cidade muito pequena, com 650.000 habitantes.E qual é o pensamento do poder político local se eles abrem as fronteiras não pode ser só para portugueses, franceses ou brasileiros. Mas se abrem as fronteiras, são engolidos por um monstro, um um mamute de 1.600.000.000 de pessoas. Com enorme competitividade, com enorme capacidade financeira, com enorme know how político. Estudados em Harvard, na Austrália, no Canadá, nos Estados Unidos. E, portanto, Macau é uma bolha muito proteccionista das suas próprias excepções. E, portanto, tem as fronteiras fechadas.É difícil quem não tem esse direito adquirido no passado, adquirir o direito de cá vir, investir, viver, trazer a família. E a grande discussão em Macau, mesmo entre os poderes políticos mais conservadores. é a necessidade de o abrir. Portanto, se me perguntar qual é a minha intenção na próxima década, vai aumentar o número de estrangeiros, nomeadamente lusófonos, porque isso está assumido pelo poder oficial.É preciso promover o bilinguismo, ou seja, a língua portuguesa no ensino básico, no ensino secundário. O Politécnico de Macau, neste momento ajuda 42 universidades na China continental a ministrar aulas de português. Com materiais didáticos, com consultorias e tal. E há uma enorme discussão sobre quais são as excepções a este fecho de fronteiras. Este ambiente protecionista dos direitos das pessoas que já cá vivem.Quais e como se podem criar excepções para aumentar a presença de quadros lusófonos e atrair investimento lusófono? Essa discussão é diária nos bastidores da política de Macau e nas discussões entre os políticos de Macau e os políticos de Pequim.Portanto, eu antevejo nos próximos anos um aumento das comunidades lusófonas, eu não diria de Portugal, mas pelo menos das comunidades lusófonas que queiram vir ou que tragam investimento ou que estejam disponíveis para aprender chinês, não é?Porque o bilinguismo também é uma coisa que é preciso perceber: nós continuamos aqui há 500 anos sem falar chinês. Quer dizer, exigir a um país que imponha o bilinguismo com eles a aprenderem português. É uma conversa que se vai tornando mais difícil e que faz menos sentido.E há muitos chineses que estão a aprender português na China. E, portanto, quando eu digo tem que haver mais bilíngues e há uma concordância estratégica nisso, eu diria que vai haver mais chineses a falar português. Isso vai ser dominante. Vai haver mais desses, do que gente a vir de Portugal ou de Angola para cá. Mas penso que vai haver as duas. Faz parte da estratégia, faz parte da narrativa. Está escrito e eles continuam a dizer que bem, não tem acontecido como queríamos, mas tem que acontecer.

Welcome to China Compass on the Fight Laugh Feast Network! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. You can follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I post daily reminders to pray for China (PrayforChina.us). You can also email me with any questions or comments @ bfwesten at gmail dot com. You can also find easy links to everything we are involved in @ PrayGiveGo.us! Summary In today’s podcast, I begin by discussing how the “Family Guy” is now forbidden on Hong Kong (Chinese) TV, due to its mocking of Tiananmen (1:20). Next we dive into the background of Inner Mongolia (15:14), and I share a bunch of stories (21:45) about my journeys in the region over the past 20 years. Finally, we take a deep dive into the history of missionary efforts in Inner Mongolia (40:57), and the many martyrs who gave their lives there, especially in the year 1900. In the News: “Family Guy” Forbidden on Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific https://viewfromthewing.com/cathay-pacific-scrambles-to-remove-family-guy-episode-over-tiananmen-joke-beijing-wont-allow-in-the-skies/ https://hongkongfp.com/2024/12/04/cathay-pacific-pulls-family-guy-episode-with-tiananmen-crackdown-joke-apologises-and-vows-investigation/ Pray for China Province of the Week: Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia in northern China is matched up with both North and South Dakota for prayer. See which Chinese province your state is praying for @ PrayforChina.us! Inner Mongolia Overview Asia Harvest overview: https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/inner-mongolia Wikipedia profile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Mongolia China Call Substack: Visa Running from Inner to “Outer” Mongolia https://chinacall.substack.com/p/visa-running-from-inner-to-outer SARS Craziness https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/the-pub/podcasts/30293/episodes/2 Ningxia (Hitchhiking w Kids in China): https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/the-pub/podcasts/30293/episodes/11 Inner Mongolia Martyrs https://articles.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/inner-mongolia/1900-protestant-martyrs-in-inner-mongolia https://articles.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/inner-mongolia/1900-martin-anna-nystrom-and-son https://articles.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/inner-mongolia/1933-enkh-bileg https://articles.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/inner-mongolia/2000-wang-zuomei https://www.vomcanada.com/cn-2024-08-01.htm Resource of the Day: Borden of Yale: The Millionaire Missionary No Reserve, No Retreat, No Regrets www.BordenofYale.com

Welcome to China Compass on the Fight Laugh Feast Network! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. You can follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I post daily reminders to pray for China (PrayforChina.us). You can also email me with any questions or comments @ bfwesten at gmail dot com. You can also find easy links to everything we are involved in @ PrayGiveGo.us! Summary In today’s podcast, I begin by discussing how the “Family Guy” is now forbidden on Hong Kong (Chinese) TV, due to its mocking of Tiananmen (1:20). Next we dive into the background of Inner Mongolia (15:14), and I share a bunch of stories (21:45) about my journeys in the region over the past 20 years. Finally, we take a deep dive into the history of missionary efforts in Inner Mongolia (40:57), and the many martyrs who gave their lives there, especially in the year 1900. In the News: “Family Guy” Forbidden on Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific https://viewfromthewing.com/cathay-pacific-scrambles-to-remove-family-guy-episode-over-tiananmen-joke-beijing-wont-allow-in-the-skies/ https://hongkongfp.com/2024/12/04/cathay-pacific-pulls-family-guy-episode-with-tiananmen-crackdown-joke-apologises-and-vows-investigation/ Pray for China Province of the Week: Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia in northern China is matched up with both North and South Dakota for prayer. See which Chinese province your state is praying for @ PrayforChina.us! Inner Mongolia Overview Asia Harvest overview: https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/inner-mongolia Wikipedia profile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Mongolia China Call Substack: Visa Running from Inner to “Outer” Mongolia https://chinacall.substack.com/p/visa-running-from-inner-to-outer SARS Craziness https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/the-pub/podcasts/30293/episodes/2 Ningxia (Hitchhiking w Kids in China): https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/the-pub/podcasts/30293/episodes/11 Inner Mongolia Martyrs https://articles.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/inner-mongolia/1900-protestant-martyrs-in-inner-mongolia https://articles.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/inner-mongolia/1900-martin-anna-nystrom-and-son https://articles.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/inner-mongolia/1933-enkh-bileg https://articles.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/inner-mongolia/2000-wang-zuomei https://www.vomcanada.com/cn-2024-08-01.htm Resource of the Day: Borden of Yale: The Millionaire Missionary No Reserve, No Retreat, No Regrets www.BordenofYale.com

Le 1er décembre 1944 a eu lieu le massacre de Thiaroye. 80 ans plus tard, Emmanuel Macron admet la responsabilité de la France dans cette tuerie dans une lettre au Président sénégalais Bassirou Diomaye Faye.  C'est l'histoire de soldats issus des colonies françaises qui réclamaient leur paye après avoir combattu pour la France. Ils refusent de quitter le camp militaire tant qu'ils ne sont pas payés. Le général Dagnan organise une répression avec l'aval de sa hiérarchie qui se solde par le massacre de ces soldats.  Qui sont les victimes du massacre de Thiaroye ? Quels événements ont mené à ce massacre ? Quel est le bilan humain de ce massacre ?  Écoutez la suite de cet épisode de Maintenant vous savez ! Un podcast Bababam Originals, écrit et réalisé par Hugo de l'Estrac. À écouter ensuite :  Qu'est-ce que le massacre de la place Tiananmen ? Qu'est-ce que la loi du mort-kilomètre ? A quoi servent les drones dans une guerre ? Retrouvez tous les épisodes de "Maintenant vous savez". Suivez Bababam sur Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two days after Denver mayor Mike Johnston compares his city's stand against ICE to Chinese students in Tiananmen Square, news breaks of a Venezuelan illegal alien raping the 14-year-old daughter of his employer in the family's basement.George Brauchler, newly-elected to the newly-formed 23rd judicial district as District Attorney, joins Ryan to give his prosecution perspective on President-elect Donald Trump's mass deportation plan, and Denver mayor Mike Johnston promising a 'Tiananmen Square moment' in using Denver Police to resist such federal efforts.Sheriff Steve Reams of Weld County joins Dan to provide his law enforcement perspective on the matter as well.How Denver's mayor is responding to Trump's threats to defund sanctuary cities

Sheriff Steve Reams of Weld County joins Dan to provide his law enforcement perspective on President-elect Donald Trump's mass deportation plan, and Denver mayor Mike Johnston promising a 'Tiananmen Square moment' in using Denver Police to resist such federal efforts.How Denver's mayor is responding to Trump's threats to defund sanctuary cities

Plusieurs millions de morts, des enseignants tués par leurs propres élèves, un dirigeant qui incite la jeunesse à la révolte afin de reprendre le pouvoir, des cadres de l'État forcés à l'exil : la révolution culturelle a été un moment unique de l'histoire chinoise entre 1966 et 1976, qui a profondément marqué le monde entier, mais aussi la Chine actuelle. Un moment de bascule d'une violence inouïe, insufflé par Mao Zedong, et son bras armé, les gardes rouges. Tania Branigan, ancienne correspondante pour le journal britannique The Guardian s'est plongée dans cette décennie de « révolution idéologique ». Dans son livre Fantômes rouges traduit en français chez Stock (2024), elle retrace les vies brisées par cette décennie et interroge l'héritage ambivalent de cette « révolution » dans la Chine de Xi Jinping.  RFI : Bonjour Tania Branigan. Merci d'avoir accepté l'invitation de RFI.    Tania Branigan : Merci beaucoup de m'avoir invité dans l'émission.    Pourquoi avez-vous choisi d'écrire sur ce sujet, la révolution culturelle ?   Je ne pense vraiment pas que j'ai choisi le sujet, je pense plutôt que le sujet m'a choisi. Et cela s'explique par le fait que la révolution culturelle est partout et nulle part en Chine. Ce n'est pas aussi tabou que par exemple la répression contre les mouvements pro-démocratiques place Tiananmen, mais c'est toujours resté un sujet sensible, de plus en plus surveillé. C'est là juste sous la surface, donc on y est forcément confronté.   Dans mon cas, je déjeunais avec une personne que je connaissais et au moment du café, elle a juste commencé à me dire qu'elle allait chercher le corps de son beau-père, abattu durant la révolution culturelle par des gardes rouges. Et ils ont dit que même s'ils avaient réussi à trouver le village où il avait été détenu, des gens qui le connaissaient à l'époque, quand ils ont demandé où ils pouvaient trouver son corps, les villageois étaient complètement déconcertés. Ils ont dit, « vous savez, il y avait tellement de cadavres à cette époque, comment peut-on savoir lequel est le sien ». Et durant mon travail de correspondante en Chine pour The Guardian, j'ai constaté à plusieurs reprises que les histoires sur lesquelles je travaillais n'avaient du sens que si on les plaçait dans le contexte des années 1960, car c'est une période tellement cruciale.  Vous avez rencontré aussi bien des victimes que des gardes rouges. Comment est-ce que vous avez réagi en rencontrant ces personnes âgées, mais qui étaient adolescents quand ils ont commis ou subi ces crimes ?   Je pense que deux éléments sont vraiment essentiels. Tout d'abord, c'est qu'il est très difficile de penser la révolution culturelle en termes de victimes et de coupables. C'est l'une des choses qui rend ce moment aussi inhabituel. De nombreuses personnes étaient à la fois victimes et coupables. Parfois, certains persécutaient les autres, parce qu'ils avaient peur de ce qui pouvait leur arriver à eux-mêmes ou à leur famille. Ou bien, pour les derniers moments de la révolution culturelle, se vengeaient de la façon dont ils avaient été traités. Et du fait de toutes les campagnes politiques, des évolutions, les gens pouvaient vite se retrouver du mauvais côté de l'histoire.Votre récit se construit avec des personnages clé, notamment celui d'un compositeur, M. Wang. Sa vie montre comment les lignes rouges ne cessent d'évoluer. Parfois, ses prises de position lui valent une forte répression, à d'autres moments, elles sont tolérées. Où sont les lignes rouges dans la Chine d'aujourd'hui ?   Dans les années qui ont suivi la révolution culturelle, au fur et à mesure que les choses s'ouvraient, il y avait un bouillonnement intellectuel et créatif extraordinaire. Évidemment, il n'y a jamais eu de liberté totale : le Parti a toujours cherché à contrôler la culture, la pensée intellectuelle. Et c'est de plus en plus le cas ces dernières années, même avant l'arrivée au pouvoir de Xi Jinping, mais très clairement aux alentours de 2011, 2012, quand il a pris la direction du pays, nous avons vu ces sujets être de plus en plus contrôlés.   L'espace pour discuter des idées, pas seulement politiques, mais aussi les idéaux sociaux, la façon dont les gens interagissent, de la culture, est devenu nettement plus restreint en Chine dans la dernière décennie.Certains cadres actuels du parti, dont la famille de Xi Jinping, ont été victimes de la révolution culturelle, ont vu leurs parents être purgés, ont été eux-mêmes envoyés à la campagne. Pourtant, ils continuent à jouer avec le souvenir de ce moment, font allusion à des slogans de l'époque et parlent de cet imaginaire. Qu'est-ce que ce moment évoque pour les jeunes générations ?Je pense que beaucoup de jeunes n'y connaissent pas grand-chose. Mais comme vous le dites, ce qui est intéressant, c'est que les gens au sein du parti, et certainement Xi Jinping, ont été en mesure de s'emparer de cette expérience de la révolution culturelle et d'une partie de la nostalgie qui l'entoure. Et ils ont utilisé ce récit de façon très efficace politiquement. Comme ils ne parlent pas des raisons qui ont entraîné la révolution culturelle ou des victimes, ce qui reste dans le récit collectif, c'est l'histoire de Xi Jinping qui est envoyé à la campagne travailler aux côtés des gens ordinaires, des fermiers, capable de survivre à une période difficile. Et il parle de cela comme le moment où il est devenu un adulte et un homme.   Le récit dominant pour la majorité des Chinois, qui est en partie vrai et assez fondamental, c'est que contrairement à la plupart des dirigeants occidentaux, ici, vous avez un dirigeant qui a travaillé la terre avec des gens ordinaires. Il sait que la vie est dure. Et c'est aussi quelqu'un qui a la puissance d'affronter les moments difficiles. C'est une histoire évidemment très policée, mais qui, je pense, reste tout de même convaincante pour certains.

The great VP debate has a clear winner, the South is left out to dry,  and the Longshoreman strike is averted despite the incompetence of the Secretary of Commerce.  I'm pretty sure you are going to be gob smacked by our "did they really just say that" moments this week.

Tim Walz is friends with WHO? We break down everything we heard from last night's Vice Presidential debate, and who we think came out on top. Our listeners also give us their take on the performances and answers given.  Also on the show, we give you the big news that the City of Memphis has moved forward with the $30M purchase of the Sheraton in Downtown and we react to viral videos of 100-year-old former President Jimmy Carter and 90-year-old Frankie Valli.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we open with the dockworkers going on strike. I warned everyone yesterday this was going to happen and suggested preparing for the supply chain interruption. This will be part of an ongoing topic interlaced throughout, especially seeing the poor response of the Federal government to people suffering in North Carolina. Tiananmen Tim Walz was just discovered to have lied about being in Hong Kong during the uprising and massacre. He has been telling that story his whole life, including having it in the Congressional record. Maybe that's why Senator Claire McCaskill told the MSNBC audience to temper their expectations for tonight's debate. She gave a few low-blows to both Vance and Trump, but, ultimately, she's worried Tim Walz will not do well tonight. That may also be why Kamala Harris decided to tell a podcast that she was sleep deprived during such a “speedy, speedy time” and that's what led to picking Walz. Is she laying the groundwork for removing him in an effort to reinvigorate a flailing campaign? The next topic relates to the poor response time and action of our Federal government related to the flooding in North Carolina and elsewhere. They really do put Americans last. Maybe we should not be surprised. After all, Harris has said before that when it comes to emergencies, she uses her Marxist view of “equity” to determine who needs the most help and resources. Unfortunately for her, CNN had to admit that of the two camps, Donald Trump is coming across as much more presidential and empathetic for those suffering in the wake of Helene. They were not happy reporting that fact, but it was something they did tell their audience. And the Harris campaign is likely very aware of just how bad their numbers are at this point. Even Major Garrett of CBS, who did a random man-on-the-street segment in various restaurants in Michigan, found that everyone he talked to was supporting Trump. He said he knows the Harris camp is also aware of that fact. Take a moment to rate and review the show and then share the episode on social media. You can find me on Facebook, X, Instagram, GETTR and TRUTH Social by searching for The Alan Sanders Show. You can also support the show by visiting my Patreon page!

Le 1er octobre 1949, sur la place Tiananmen de Pékin, Mao Zedong (1893-1976), chef de file du Parti communiste chinois, proclame la République populaire de Chine. Président de ce régime jusqu'à sa mort, celui que l'on surnommera bientôt le Grand Timonier lance la politique du “Grand Bond en avant” et la Révolution culturelle, entraînant la mort de millions de personnes. Dans un double récit inédit, Virginie Girod relate le parcours d'un dictateur du XXe siècle.Thèmes abordés : communisme, maoïsme, Chine, révolution, dictature Au cœur de l'Histoire est un podcast Europe 1- Présentation et écriture : Virginie Girod- Production : Armelle Thiberge et Morgane Vianey- Réalisation : Nicolas Gaspard- Composition des musiques originales : Julien Tharaud et Sébastien Guidis- Promotion et coordination des partenariats : Marie Corpet- Visuel : Sidonie Mangin Ressources en ligne :"Comment le Parti communiste chinois est-il né ?", Rétronews 1er octobre 1949 : la naissance de la Chine communiste - INA Chi-Hsi Hu, "Mao Tsé-toung, la révolution et la question sexuelle", Revue française de science politique,1973 Tania Angeloff, La société chinoise depuis 1949, La Découverte, coll. Repères, 2018 Qingya Meng, "Le petit livre rouge de Mao, une rhétorique au service de la révolution", TRANS, 28, 2022 Jérôme Doyon, "Que reste-t-il du communisme en Chine ?", Le Monde diplomatique, juil. 2021 À voir : Fabrice Gardel, Leys, l'homme qui a déshabillé Mao, 02B films, 2023Adrian Maben, Mao, une histoire chinoise, Adrian Maben, On Line Productions, 2006.

China's rise has shook the world. It has changed the lives of over a billion people in China. It has flooded humanity with cheap goods, from single-use toys to high-tech solar panels. And it has changed the logic of war and peace in the 21st Century. But how to explain China's dramatic rise? Was it due to the wisdom of China's leaders after Mao? Or was it all about foreign investors searching for cheap labor?  Both and neither, argues MIT professor Yasheng Huang. Yes, the Chinese leaders learned from the mistakes of Mao. And yes, foreign money made a difference. But there is a hidden story behind China's rise - a story which merits our attention. This is a story with deep roots in history, but with the main act being played in the Chinese countryside during 1980's. It is also a drama whose characters have never recovered from the tragedy that took place on the streets around Tiananmen Square during a warm summer night in 1989. This is part 2 of this 3-part mini-series "What About China", hosted by me, Ilari Mäkelä, together with ChinaTalk's Jordan Schneider. Part 1 looked at China's deep history. Part 3 will look at China's present and future. In this part 2, we sketch the story of China's rise, meeting many colorful characters and discussing fascinating themes, such as: How did Mao shape the direction of Chinese history? Why did China become richer than India? Why was 80's a golden era for liberal Chinese? How did the 1989 crackdown at Tiananmen square paved the way for China today? MENTIONS Modern scholars  Meijun Qian | Amartaya Sen | Branko Milanovic (ep. 32) | Zheng Wang (auth. Never Forget National Humiliation) CCP Old Guard Mao Zedong 毛泽东 | Deng Xiaoping 邓小平 | Xi Zhongxun 习仲勋 | Chen Yun 陈云 | Li Xiannian 李先念 CCP liberals of the 1980's  Hu Yaobang 胡耀邦 | Zhao Ziyang 赵紫阳 CCP leaders after 1989 Jiang Zemin 江泽民 | Hu Jintao 胡锦涛 | Xi Jinping 习近平. LINKS You can read my essays and get the On Humans Newsletter at OnHumans.Substack.com. Are you a long-term listener? Join the wonderful group of patrons at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. For other episodes on economic history, see my series on the ⁠⁠⁠Birth of Modern Prosperity⁠⁠⁠, with Daron Acemoglu, Oded Galor, Brad DeLong, and Branko Milanovic.

TV's Dr. Phil discusses his latest interviews with Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as well as the 2024 presidential race. Then Rich welcomes Seamus Bruner, director of research at the Government Accountability Institute, for a look at Gov. Tim Walz's connections to China. Later, we find out how to talk about politics when differing views are involved, with relationship coach Dr. Warren Ferrell, author of "Role Mate to Soul Mate: The Seven Secrets to Lifelong Love." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For this rerun episode, Elia Ayoub is joined by Kavita Krishnan, an Indian Marxist and Feminist who used to be a politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation who resigned over Ukraine. He is also joined by ⁠Promise Li⁠, a US-based Hong Konger organizer and part of the Left diaspora collective ⁠Lausan. Co-hosting this episode is ⁠Romeo Kokriatski⁠, a Ukrainian-American journalist, managing editor of the ⁠New Voice of Ukraine⁠ and co-host of the ⁠Ukraine Without Hype⁠ podcast. The topic: why the idea of multipolarity needs to be understood & critiqued, and why the left cannot abandon anti-authoritarianism and internationalism. Note: Due to Russia's ongoing bombardments of Ukraine, Romeo's power went out towards the end of the episode so we had to continue without him.  The Fire These Times is a proud member of From The Periphery (FTP) Media Collective. How to Support: on Patreon or on Apple Podcasts. You'll get early access to all podcasts, exclusive episodes, an invitation to join our monthly hangouts, and more. Links: - My piece for Lausan Collective: ⁠The periphery has no time for binaries⁠- ⁠Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing India by Angana P. Chatterji, Thomas Blom Hansen and Christophe Jaffrelot ⁠ (recommended by Kavita Krishnan)- ⁠Money Power and Financial Capital in Emerging Markets: Facing the Liquidity Tsunami by Ilias Alami (recommended by Promise Li)- Regular updates on India can be found on ⁠The India Cable⁠ Previous episodes with Romeo Kokriatski: Anti-Imperialism From the Periphery w/ Leila Al Shami & Dana El Kurd When War Gets Normalized, Or What's At Stake in Ukraine w/ Mariam Naiem Ukraine Series: 2. From Ukraine, with Love (and Anger) Russian Imperialism, Cynical Discourse and Life Amidst War w/ Mariam Naiem A View on Ukraine, Hong Kong & Tiananmen, from Taiwan w/ Wen Liu & Brian Hioe Previous episodes with Promise Li: From Hong Kong to Lebanon, Basebuilding Against Authoritarianism Transcriptions: Want to help our with transcribing episodes? ⁠Check out this link⁠. Follow: Follow The Fire These Times on the website, Twitter and Instagram  Follow From The Periphery on Patreon, the website and YouTube Follow Elia Ayoub on Substack, Mastodon, Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky Follow Romeo Kokriatski on Bluesky, Twitter and New Voice of Ukraine. Check out Ukraine Without Hype Follow Promise Li on Twitter and Bluesky Follow Kavita Krishnan on Twitter Credits: Hosts: Elia Ayoub and Romeo Kokriatski | Guests: Kavita Krishnan and Promise Li | Producer: Elia Ayoub | Music: ⁠Rap and Revenge⁠ | Main theme design: ⁠Wenyi Geng⁠ | Sound editor: Elliott Miskovicz | Team profile pics: ⁠⁠⁠Molly Crabapple⁠⁠ | Episode design: Elia Ayoub.

The DNC is a train wreck. The UK has been lost to large-scale immigration and the Brits have had enough and have taken to rioting. Kamala Harris's VP pick, Tim Walz, is a liar and in China's pocket. Why does the left always talk about ending the war in Israel and Gaza, but never in Ukraine and Russia? RFK Jr. is dropping out of the race and endorsing Trump. A Nebraska University study found that cows are net carbon-negative, making them a benefit to the environment.

O 45 Graus está de férias, por isso não há episódios novos. É uma boa altura para re-publicar alguns dos melhores episódios das últimas temporadas (os mais ouvidos e que mais feedback tiveram dos ouvintes). Este, um regresso da Raquel Vaz-Pinto ao podcast, é um belo exemplo disso; e, com este tema, é um episódio que -- feliz ou infelizmente -- vai manter-se actual ainda por muito tempo. A quem não teve oportunidade de ouvir na altura, espero que gostem! Raquel Vaz-Pinto é Investigadora do Instituto Português de Relações Internacionais (IPRI) da Universidade Nova de Lisboa e Prof. Auxiliar Convidada da Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da mesma Universidade, onde lecciona as disciplinas de Estudos Asiáticos e História das Relações Internacionais. Foi consultora do Conselho de Administração da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian de 2020 a 2022 e Presidente da Associação Portuguesa de Ciência Política de 2012 a 2016. Autora de vários artigos e livros entre os quais A Grande Muralha e o Legado de Tiananmen, a China e os Direitos Humanos editado pela Tinta-da-China e Os Portugueses e o Mundo editado pela Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos.  Os seus interesses de investigação são Política Externa e Estratégia Chinesa; os EUA e o Indo-Pacífico; e Liderança e Estratégia. É analista residente de política internacional da SIC e da TSF. Actualmente, está a terminar um livro, que será publicado pela Tinta-da-china, sobre os desafios colocados pela China às democracias liberais europeias, incluindo a portuguesa. -> Apoie este podcast e faça parte da comunidade de mecenas do 45 Graus em: 45grauspodcast.com -> Inscreva-se aqui nas sessões de setembro e outubro dos workshops de Pensamento Crítico, módulo "Desinformação e Números que Enganam. _______________ Índice (com timestamps): (0:00) Introdução ​(9:47) O que mudou na rivalidade CN-EUA desde o nosso episódio de 2018? | Wolf warrior diplomacy | Os diplomatas chineses mal-comportados | Índia | Quad (30:18) A política externa dos EUA em relação à China começou por ser complacente e tornou-se demasiado agressiva? | Artigo de John Mearsheimer | Estratégia dos G7 em relação à CN: do decoupling ao de-risking | Matérias primas críticas e terras raras (e aqui) (42:10) Já podemos falar de uma Guerra Fria entre EUA e CN? | A Armadilha de Tucídides (Livro: História da Guerra do Peloponeso)| Houve uma crença exagerada no Ocidente nos efeitos da abertura económica? | Como os manuais de economia americanos sobrevalorizam a economia da URSS | Frase atribuída a Deng Xiaoping: «Hide your strength, bide your time» (55:26) Comparação China vs URSS | O papel da ideologia na guerra fria vs na nova ‘ordem chinesa' | Aumento do autoritarismo do regime chinês | Digital Dictators | Cimeira da Ásia Central, sem a Rússia | Nova política externa defendida pelo SPD alemão | A nova ambição da China para o Ártico (1:18:37) O que esperar do futuro -- e o que fazer para evitar uma escalada do conflito? | Tese do ‘peak China' | O problema demográfico da china (e os telefonemas aos recém-casados) | Livro: Leftover Women, de Leta Hong Fincher | Episódio com Hu Jintao no congresso do CCP | European Critical Raw Materials Act | A integração económica é um garante de que não ocorre uma guerra ou é, pelo contrário, uma fonte permanente de tensões? _______________ Obrigado aos mecenas do podcast: Francisco Hermenegildo, Ricardo Evangelista, Henrique Pais João Baltazar, Salvador Cunha, Abilio Silva, Tiago Leite, Carlos Martins, Galaró family, Corto Lemos, Miguel Marques, Nuno Costa, Nuno e Ana, João Ribeiro, Helder Miranda, Pedro Lima Ferreira, Cesar Carpinteiro, Luis Fernambuco, Fernando Nunes, Manuel Canelas, Tiago Gonçalves, Carlos Pires, João Domingues, Hélio Bragança da Silva, Sandra Ferreira , Paulo Encarnação , BFDC, António Mexia Santos, Luís Guido, Bruno Heleno Tomás Costa, João Saro, Daniel Correia, Rita Mateus, António Padilha, Tiago Queiroz, Carmen Camacho, João Nelas, Francisco Fonseca, Rafael Santos, Andreia Esteves, Ana Teresa Mota, ARUNE BHURALAL, Mário Lourenço, RB, Maria Pimentel, Luis, Geoffrey Marcelino, Alberto Alcalde, António Rocha Pinto, Ruben de Bragança, João Vieira dos Santos, David Teixeira Alves, Armindo Martins , Carlos Nobre, Bernardo Vidal Pimentel, António Oliveira, Paulo Barros, Nuno Brites, Lígia Violas, Tiago Sequeira, Zé da Radio, João Morais, André Gamito, Diogo Costa, Pedro Ribeiro, Bernardo Cortez Vasco Sá Pinto, David , Tiago Pires, Mafalda Pratas, Joana Margarida Alves Martins, Luis Marques, João Raimundo, Francisco Arantes, Mariana Barosa, Nuno Gonçalves, Pedro Rebelo, Miguel Palhas, Ricardo Duarte, Duarte , Tomás Félix, Vasco Lima, Francisco Vasconcelos, Telmo , José Oliveira Pratas, Jose Pedroso, João Diogo Silva, Joao Diogo, José Proença, João Crispim, João Pinho , Afonso Martins, Robertt Valente, João Barbosa, Renato Mendes, Maria Francisca Couto, Antonio Albuquerque, Ana Sousa Amorim, Francisco Santos, Lara Luís, Manuel Martins, Macaco Quitado, Paulo Ferreira, Diogo Rombo, Francisco Manuel Reis, Bruno Lamas, Daniel Almeida, Patrícia Esquível , Diogo Silva, Luis Gomes, Cesar Correia, Cristiano Tavares, Pedro Gaspar, Gil Batista Marinho, Maria Oliveira, João Pereira, Rui Vilao, João Ferreira, Wedge, José Losa, Hélder Moreira, André Abrantes, Henrique Vieira, João Farinha, Manuel Botelho da Silva, João Diamantino, Ana Rita Laureano, Pedro L, Nuno Malvar, Joel, Rui Antunes7, Tomás Saraiva, Cloé Leal de Magalhães, Joao Barbosa, paulo matos, Fábio Monteiro, Tiago Stock, Beatriz Bagulho, Pedro Bravo, Antonio Loureiro, Hugo Ramos, Inês Inocêncio, Telmo Gomes, Sérgio Nunes, Tiago Pedroso, Teresa Pimentel, Rita Noronha, miguel farracho, José Fangueiro, Zé, Margarida Correia-Neves, Bruno Pinto Vitorino, João Lopes, Joana Pereirinha, Gonçalo Baptista, Dario Rodrigues, tati lima, Pedro On The Road, Catarina Fonseca, JC Pacheco, Sofia Ferreira, Inês Ribeiro, Miguel Jacinto, Tiago Agostinho, Margarida Costa Almeida, Helena Pinheiro, Rui Martins, Fábio Videira Santos, Tomás Lucena, João Freitas, Ricardo Sousa, RJ, Francisco Seabra Guimarães, Carlos Branco, David Palhota, Carlos Castro, Alexandre Alves, Cláudia Gomes Batista, Ana Leal, Ricardo Trindade, Luís Machado, Andrzej Stuart-Thompson, Diego Goulart, Filipa Portela, Paulo Rafael, Paloma Nunes, Marta Mendonca, Teresa Painho, Duarte Cameirão, Rodrigo Silva, José Alberto Gomes, Joao Gama, Cristina Loureiro, Tiago Gama, Tiago Rodrigues, Miguel Duarte, Ana Cantanhede, Artur Castro Freire, Rui Passos Rocha, Pedro Costa Antunes, Sofia Almeida, Ricardo Andrade Guimarães, Daniel Pais, Miguel Bastos, Luís Santos _______________ Esta conversa foi editada por: Hugo Oliveira  

Last time we spoke about the Zhejiang-Fengtian War, part of the Anti-Fengtian War. Sun Chuanfang had rising through the ranks and quickly seized himself a powerbase in southeast China. Zhang Zuolin and his Fengtian commanders meanwhile became quite arrogant and began bullying and seizing as much territory as they could. This led the Fengtian forces to begin encroaching in Sun Chuanfang newfound territory of Zhejiang. Assuming Sun Chuanfang like the rest would not resist them, they were certainly surprised when he did. Sun Chuanfang formed a coalition with the warlords that controlled Jiangasu, Fujian, Jiangxi, Anhui and his own Zhejiang to fight off the Fengtian menace. Sun Chuanfang went straight onto the offensive, surprising the Fengtian who were in a passive phase and ultimately defeating them, pushing them further north to Shandong. Sun Chuandfang's victory in the Zhejiang-Fengtian War marked the peak of his career, but peaks tend to fall.   #109 The Anti-Fengtian War Part 2: The Guominjun-Fengtian War 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 previous episode we spoke about the Zhejiang-Fengtian War. It was part of a larger war known loosely as the anti-fengtian war or third Zhili-fengtian war. To be blunt, if you look up the anti-fengtian war, they barely take notice of the Zhejiang-Fengtian War. Most of the focus is directed north, particularly with the conflict between the Guominjun and Fengtian. Certainly the Guominjun took the spotlight during this war as Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin were clearly fighting for dominance over Beijing. However Zhang Zuolin was simply too powerful and began to bully his way across China. Through Duan Qirui and the Beiyang government, Zhang Zuolin secured vital positions for his subordinates. The 5th Fengtian army commander Kan Chaoxi was ordered to take two Fengtian Mixed Brigades and occupy Rehe province as its governor. Li Jinglin the commander of the Fengtian 2nd army and a Hubei native, became the military inspector of Hubei. Zhang Zongchang was given the title of commander in chief of suppressing banditry in Jiangsu, Shandong and Anhui which further led him to become the governor of Shandong. Yang Yuting was made governor over Jiangsu and Jiang Dengxuan over Anhui.. By 1925 the Fengtian military was 370,000 men strong across land, sea and air. By January of 1925, Fengtian forces began occupying Shanghai, threatening Sun Chuanfang who unleashed the Zhejiang-Fengtian War in retaliation As for Feng Yuxiang, he was unable to exert any real control in Beijing. He had received the title of inspector general over the northwest, effectively a military governorship. This saw him gain direct control over Rehe, Chahar and Suiyuan. In early 1925 he moved his headquarters to Kalgan. Through his subordinates and allies he also exerted control in Hunan, Shanxi and Gansu. Because of his recent acquisition of Soviet aid, his armies were growing in size, though declining in quality. He had gradually distanced himself from Zhang Zuolin. In January of 1925 Feng Yuxiang was being excluded by Duan Qirui and Zhang Zuolin. At this point Feng Yuxiang met Li Dazhao as Soviet military advisors were coming to help train his forces. In the late spring and summer Feng Yuxiang dispatch young officers to study in the Soviet Union. After a very strict examination period, presided over by Feng Yuxiang, 24 out of 300 students were enlisted into the Soviet Officer training corps. Another 24 were sent to Japan. When the May 13th incident broke out, Feng Yuxiang alongside some subordinates sent a telegram to Duan Qirui asking the Beiyang government to "take the external situation seriously and not to worry about it, and expressed his willingness to go to the front for the country". Feng Yuxiang then began supporting student demonstrations and on June 13th had his troops all wear black armbands to mourn the Shanghai martyrs. Feng Yuxiang pushed his men to donate to the Shanghai strike workers and personally donated 10,000 yuan. Feng Yuxiang watched costly the events unfold in the southeast. Upon discovering Sun Chuanfang was gaining the upper hand, Feng Yuxiang finally made his move. He began secretly extending his hand to just about anyone who would join with him to fight the Fengtian forces. Obviously Sun Chuanfang was immediately receptive. Feng Yuxiang then reached out within the Fengtian clique to see if any disgruntled commanders would defect. He flirted with Li Jinglin, the current governor over Hubei province. It seemed Li Jinglin was completely on board for the time being as another Fengtian commander welcomed the invitation. Guo Songling, holding the courtesy name Maochen, was born on December 25th of 1883 in Yuqiaozhai village of Dongling district in Liaoning province. In 1903 Guo Songling began studying under Mr. Dong Hanru in Changwangzhai. However he was soon forced to pull out of school because of the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. In Autumn of 1905, General Zhao Erxun established the Fengtian Army Primary School at Dabeiguan in Fengtian. Guo Songling immediately joined up. The next year he met Fang Shengtao, a member of the Tongmenghui where he became exposed to revolutionary ideology. In 1907 Guo Songling graduated with honors and soon served as a sentry to the Shengjiang General's office. He was soon taken under the wing of commander Zhu Qinglan.  In 1909 Guo Songling was transferred to Chengdu, Sichuan alongside Zhu Qinglan. The next year Guo Songling joined the nationalist army of the Tongmenghui, joining the Tongmenghui as well. In 1911 the Sichuan Railway protection movement broke out and Guo Songling joined the uprising. By this point he was promoted to commander of the 2nd battalion of the 68th regiment, responsible for the defense of northern Chengdu. He persuaded the masses to lift the siege without bloodshed. The governor of Sichuan, Zhao Erfeng dismissed Guo Songlong, suspecting him to be colluding with bandits, but later restored him to his original post at the request of Zhu Qinglan. After the Wuchang uprising, various regions of Sichuan declared independence one after another. In Chengdu a new government formed with Zhu Qinglan as deputy governor. However sichuan generals soon instigated local troops to launch a mutiny, forcing Zhu Qinglan and many Hakka Generals to flee Sichuan. Guo Songling then decided to return to Fengtian province.  Back in Fengtian he joined another uprising movement led by Zhang Rong, but he was quickly arrested by the Qing government and beheaded. At this point one Han Shuxiu risked her life trying to stop the carriage carrying Zhang Rong to his execution. She was caught, but before they seized her, she told the police she was the fiance of Guo Songling, and this led them to let her go. She married Guo Songling shortly after. In 1912 Guo Songling entered the Beijing Officers institute and the next year he entered the army university. After graduating he served as a Beijing military academy instructor. In 1917 after Sun Yat-Sen established his military government in Guangzhou, Guo Songling joined up as the chief of staff to the Guangdong-Jiangxi-Hunan Border defense and became the battalion commander of the Guangdong provincial army. After Sun Yat-Sen saw some major defeats, Guo Songling departed Guangzhou, yet again returning to Fengtian where he took up a position as a tactical instructor for the military academy of Manchuria. It was here he met Zhang Xueliang. Zhang Xueliang soon recommended him to his dad who made him chief of staff and head of the 2nd regiment. By 1921 he was the head of the 8th Brigade.  During the first Zhili-Fengtian war of 1922, the eastern route force led by Zhang Xueliang and Guo Songling shattered Wu Peifu's plan to break through Shanhaiguan. During the second Zhili-Fengtian war of 1924, Zhang Xueliang and Guo Songling were serving as commander and deputy commander of the 3rd army. Alongside Jiang Dengxuan and Han Linchun commanding the 1st army, they soundly defeated the Zhili forces winning the war. Zhang Zuolin then appointed his son as commander of the BEijing-Yulin garrison with Guo Songling as his deputy commander. As Zhang Zuolin dispatched Fengtian commanders into China proper to occupy southern provinces. Guo Songling believed Zhang Zuolin and many of his commanders were becoming war mongers, and proposed a different strategy, emphasizing pulling back forces into China's interior to try and win over rural populations. Other commanders worked to politically exclude Guo Songling from Zhang Zuolin's ear, such as Yang Yuting, thus Guo Songling's proposal was rejected.  In 1925 Guo Songling took his wife to Japan to study military affairs. While in Japan Guo Songling learnt Zhang Zuolin was dispatched his troops south drawing Sun Chuanfang into a war. He also learned the extent of Zhang Zuolin's dealings with the Japanese and became disgusted with how he was seemingly selling out China. Now Guo Songling's wife Han Shuxiu was a graduate of Yenching University and a classmate of Feng Yuxiang's wife, Li Dequan. They had a good relationship and were close contacts. Han Shuxiu learned about Feng Yuxiang's dealings with the Soviets and told Guo Songling who became quite excited. Guo Songling had acquired quite a few grievances under Zhang Zuolin and wanted to overthrow him. Therefore he began to secretly negotiate with Feng Yuxiang. In November Guo Songling was recalled to China for the war effort. Instead of aiding the war effort, On November 22nd, Guo Songling raised an army in Luanzhou and sent a telegram stating he was rebelling against Zhang Zuolin. He called his force the “Northeast National Army”. Jiang Dengxuan rushed over to Luanzhou station to try and reason with Guo Songling, but was arrested upon entering the city. Guo Songling tried to persuade Jiang Dengxuan to join him to oppose Zhang Zuolin, but Jiang simply scolded him. Guo Songling then had him shot on November 26th. Guo Songling raised 70,000 troops who quickly captured Shanhaiguan. In the face of the onslaught, Zhang Zuolin only had 40,000 troops in the vicinity, as he had dispatched the vast majority of his forces into China proper to expand the Fengtian empire. Pretty ironic, the guy who told him to pull back his forces into the interior was now attacking his interior. Guo Songling's forces brushed aside the Fengtian armies, seizing Suizhong, Xingcheng and Jinzhou. The Fengtian forces were taken completely off guard and were quickly pushed towards the east bank of the Liaohe River. Guo Songling's main target was Mukden, which he soon erected a siege against. Guo Songling since November 22nd began repeatedly sending telegrams to Zhang Zuolin demanding he step down and allow his son Zhang Xueliang to take over. If Zhang Zuolin would simply do so, he promised to stop his rebellion. Zhang Zuolin panicked and began frantically placing a bounty over Guo Songling's head, up to 800,000 yuan. With no one to turn to, Zhang Zuolin ran with his tail between his legs to the Japanese asking if their Kwantung Army could stop Guo Songling. Zhang Zuolin knew very well the kind of man Guo Songling was. He knew the mans personality and vigor was a huge threat politically, allegedly Zhang Zuolin began the process of forming his resignation and peace talks. Zhang Zuolin was seen packing 29 cars with furniture and his valuables heading over to Dalian to flee, most likely for Japan. It is also said he had a ton of firewood and gasoline positioned around his mansion, so it could be burned down if Guo Songling got to it. Countless Fengtian civilian and military officials also began fleeing with their families, it was pure chaos. The Japanese were certainly not pleased with the situation. The Kwantung Army certainly did not want Guo Songling to gain power, it most certainly spelt doom over their dominance over Manchuria. Guo Songling was in league with Feng Yuxiang and to the Japanese this meant in one way or another, he was a communist sympathizer. The Japanese view of Guo Songling was “Guo's intention was to expel Zhang himself, clearly implement the Three Principles of the Kuomintang , involve the three northeastern provinces in war, attract Soviet forces into Manchuria, and induce a situation that Japan's national defense and Manchuria-Mongolia policy could not forgive." The president of the Manchuria railway company, Yasuhiro Banichiro believed “if Guo's rebellion was successful, the three northeastern provinces would be ravaged by the communist movement, and there might be a "free zone" without the Manchurian Railway and Kwantung Leased Territory." Consul General Yoshida Shigeru in Tianjin reported that if Guo Songling took over Manchuria, it was sure the Kuomintang would move in and the threat of communism with them. Thus the Japanese believed that Zhang Zuolin needed to stay in power. The Japanese began mediating a peace deal, highlighting how they wished both sides would recognize their empire's rights in Manchuria and Mongolia. They also added, if these demands were not respected they would go to war with either of them. Guo Songling slammed the table to this and shouted "How can this be! This is China's internal affairs! I don't understand what Japan's special rights are!" Then Zhang Zuolin made a secret agreement with the Japanese, caving into all their demands if the Kwantung army would send troops.  On december 8th, the Kwantung Army issued a warning to Guo Songling to stay 20 miles away from the south manchurian railway concession or they would get involved. The Kwantung army was taken measures to halt Guo Songling's advance and give Zhang Zuolin time to get his forces over. On the 9th the Japanese 10th divisional HQ moved from Liaoyang to Fengtian. The 63rd regiment,  1st artillery battalion and 1st Cavalry battalion of Gongzhuling alongside garrison units all converged upon Fengtian trying to intercept Guo Songling. On the 12th Guo Songling's vanguard arrived near Baiqibao. His right wing prepared an assault against Yingkou. On the 14th as they tried to enter Yingkou they were suddenly blocked by Japanese forces and issued another warning to back off. Guo Songling's men were thus banned from the urban area, forced to take the fighting along the Liaohe river. This was a huge obstacle between them at Fengtian, they would have to go 30 km's around the south manchuria railway to get to it. On the 15th the Japanese decided to withdraw part of the IJA 24th division from Korea and part of the 12th Division from Kurume to form a Manchuria expeditionary army that would be deployed in Fengtian to stop Guo Songling. On the 17th the main bulk of Guo Songling's army entered Baiqibao. On the 20th Guo Songling captured Xinmin and his vanguard was now arriving to the west bank of the Juliu river, due southwest of Mukden. Guo Songlings men could see the lights of Fengtian cities as they awaited the rest of the army to ford the river. The next day the main force arrived in Xinmen setting up a new HQ. The Fengtian defenses were led by Zhang Xueliang who deployed along the east bank of the Juliu river from Damintun to Gongzhutun. Wu Junsheng's 6th army, consisting mostly of cavalry were rushing south from Heilongjiang to take up a position on the Fengtian left wing while Zhang Zuoiangs 5th army was coming over from Jilin for the right wing. Zhang Xueliang personally led the 3rd army within the middle. Guo Songling set up his men along the west bank of the Juliu river, arranging them from north to south in the order of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th armies. On the 22nd Guo Songling gave the order for a general attack to take place the next day. The net day his army launched their attack against Zhang Xueliang's middle position, finding he was utilizing heavy Japanese weaponry. Zhang Zuoxiang attack with his right wing, quickly occupying Beigaotaizi, before hooking around to cut off Guo Songlings line of retreat. Then Wu Junsheng's left wing seized Liuhegou and assaulted Baiqibao where he burned Guo Songlings ammunition dumps, weaponry and provisions. Now Guo Songling's supply line was compromised and his rear was threatened. At this point Zhang Xueliang went out of his way to dispatch air forces to drop letters trying to get his friend to stop the rebellion. Without any response from Guo Songling, Zhang Xueliang took his force and began surrounding his army. That night Guo Songling held a meeting where his generals Zou Zuohua and Gao Jiyi advocated for a ceasefire and to go to the peace talks. Other generals such as Liu Wei and Fan Pujiang advocated to keep on fighting. In the end Guo Songling elected to keep the war going and decided to engage in a decisive battle on the 24th.  On the 24th, Guo Songling personally led the battle, launching three fierce attacks against the Fengtian forces. However Zuo Zuohua, his chief of staff defected, withdrawing an artillery brigade as he did so, greatly hampering the war effort. Guo Songling's army was defeated, he gave permission for his subordinates, even his personal guards to try and escape if they could during the night. Guo Songling and his wife Han Shuxiu were both captured by Wang Yongqing, the brigade commander of Wu Junshengs army. They were to be taken to Mukden for trial. On December 25th Wang Yongqing was escorting them when he received orders issued by Yang Yuting, Guo Songling's political rival. The orders were simply to shoot them on the spot. Now depending who you hear this story from, many claim it was actually Zhang Zuolin who sent the order. Historians believe Yang Yuting was worried Zhang Xueliang would rescue Guo Songling so he advised Zhang Zuolin it was best to simply kill him so the ordeal would not be repeated. At 10am Guo Songling and his wife were shot near Laodafang in Liaozhong county. Their bodies were transported to Mukden, which I should be calling Shenyang, I apologize the names change back and forth. Their bodies were left exposed in the Xiaoheyan stadium for three days. Thus ended the month long rebellion of Guo Songling. Now while all of that was breaking out in Manchuria, Feng Yuxiang had unleashed his war as well. In early december Feng Yuxiang led the Guominjun forces east launching a massive attack into Rehe province. Now if you recall, Feng Yuxiang had brokered a deal with Li Jinglin, and these parts of Rehe were his territory. Thus Li Jinglin saw this as a betrayal. He sent a telegram denouncing Feng Yuiang "He fooled his subordinates and used the heresy of communism to destroy the great defense and morality.I carry the sword for the country, not for party disputes or for profit, but only for this humanitarianism, in order to destroy the public enemy of the world and save our morality from the decline of five thousand years.It doesn't matter whether we are enemies or not, but only whether we are red or not.” Li Jinglin fought tenaciously against the Guominjun, however by December 23rd, Feng Yuxiang had seized Tianjin. Meanwhile alongside Sun Chuanfang, Wu Peifu had also joined the Zhili fight against the Fengtian forces, thus he was loosely allied to Feng Yuxiang. When Guo Songling's rebellion crumbled, it seemed clear to all, Feng Yuxiang was about to face the full brunt of Zhang Zuolin's Fengtian armies, who had withdrawn into the interior to meet his threat. While Feng Yuxiang dominated the Beijing area, it was only a matter of time before the Fengtian swarmed him. Wu Peifu had been quietly building up his powerbase in Hunan. While he appeared to be a good ally to the anti-Fengtian cause, he was anything but. The only person, Wu Peifu hated more than Zhang Zuolin, was of course Feng Yuxiang, the man who stabbed him in the back and ruined his Zhili dominated China dream. If Wu Peifu were to join Zhang Zuolin they would effectively surround and isolate Feng Yuxiangs pocket in the north. Wu Peifu knew if he wanted to rejoin the big boys club, he would have to kowtow to Zhang Zuolin and take up a subordinate position. If lets say Wu Peifu and Zhang Zuolin dominated Beijing again, they would be able to squeeze any funding away from Feng Yuxiang, shoving him back into the northwest, whence they could gradually beat him up. Thus Wu Peifu and Zhang Zuolin settled their differences and formed an alliance against the treacherous Feng Yuxiang. Its kind of funny but Feng Yuxiang had betrayed both men at some point so it was sort of the binding glue to their new found relationship. The Zhili and Fengtian cliques had united once again, this time calling themselves the Anti-Red coalition. Their objective was quite simple, they would surround and strangle Feng Yuxiang's army. On January 20th Feng Yuxiang had launched a battle against their new coalition at Shanhaiguan, Shandong and Henan simultaneously. Zhang Xueliang led his army to occupy Luanzhou before advancing towards Tianjin. Zhang Zongchang, whose army had withdrawn into Shandong after Sun Chuanfang had defeated them now attacked from the south. Zhang Zuolin dispatched a special envoy to officially form a alliance with Wu Peifu, asking him to attack Feng Yuxiang from his position and if possible see if Yan Xishan could be lured into the scuffle as well. Wu Peifu took his rather meager forces and marched north from Hubei into Hunan. His relatively weak army was assisted by the Red Spear Society. These were a rural self-defense movement that sprang up in Hebei, Henan and Shandong in the 1920s. They were local small land owners and tenant farmers trying to defend their lands or villages from roaming bandits, warlords, tax collectors and later on in history communists and Japanese. In many ways they were the spiritual successor to the Big Swords Society. This particular group of them had been abused by the Guominjun commander Yueh Weichun who presided over Hunan.  Back in the north, an incident broke out at the Taku forts. Feng Yuxiang having taken control of Tianjin and the Taku forts, seized some minor warships and began mining the seas. This was in violation of the Boxer Protocol and the IJN retaliated by bombarding his ships and even fired upon Feng Yuxiang's forces along the coast. Feng Yuxiang had his artillery fire back upon the IJN warships. In the face of the escalating situation, other foreign powers notified China they must stop what Feng Yuxiang was doing as it threatened to breach the Boxer Protocol. An ultimatum was given, prompting Duan Qirui to persuade Feng Yuxiangs forces to stop mining the waters. Then on March 18th, 1926, KMT and CCP members such as Xu Qian, Li Dazhao, Zhao Shiyan and others initiated a "National Congress against the Eight-Power Ultimatum" in front of Tiananmen, with Xu Qian served as the chairman of the presidium of the Congress. Mass demonstrations broke out in Tiananmen Square. They opposed the foreign ultimatum and called for an end to the unequal treaties, for foreign warships to depart their waters and for Feng Yuxiang to fight their imperial aggression. Li Dazhao took to the stage shouting "Don't be afraid, they dare not do anything to us!" Li Dazhao then led many to rush towards the state council. Duan Qirui panicked and ordered Beijing guards to fire upon them. A reporter at the scene stated stated that the marchers "the demonstrators attacked the State Council, poured oil, threw bombs, and attacked the military and police with pistols and sticks. The military and police were killed and injured in their legitimate defense." 47 demonstrators were killed, 150 more were wounded. Duan Qirui then ordered the arrest of the ring leaders, such as Li Dazho and Xu Qian who all fled. Back in the war for the north the Guominjun commander Lu Zhunglin now faced an offensive from Li Jinglin and Zhang Zongchang from Shandong and the main Fengtian forces coming from Manchuria. Li Jinglin began his advance in February of 1926, fighting Lu Zhunglin for several weeks. Feng Yuxiang realized they would lose the war at this rate and ordered the forces to pull out of Hubei and Henan into the Beijing area. Lu Zhunglin was forced to evacuate 100,000 man army by March 21st. Feng Yuxiang's took positions in the Beijing area where they would fight off the enemy for over a month, the enemy now including Wu Peifu who had advanced north from Hunan. Feng Yuxiang meanwhile arrested Duan Qirui and released Cao Kun on April 9th, trying to sow dissent between Wu Peifu and Zhang Zuolin. His idea was to declare he was once again willing to serve under Cao Kun, and sent word to Wu Peifu that they should join forces to destroy the Fengtian clique. Wu Peifu simply ignored this request. Lu Zhunglin leading the forces from the front knew he could not hope to hold back the onslaught any longer so on April 15th he evacuated the army to the Nankou Pass, roughly 30 miles northwest of Beijing. In the meantime the coalition led by armies under Zhang Zongchang, Zhang Xueliang, Li Jinglin and Wu Peifu occupied Beijing. They installed Yan Huiqing as a temporary figurehead as Duan Qirui was exiled to Tianjin under orders from Zhang Zuolin. The forces also sacked Beijing, so badly it would not recover until 1928. Now at the Nankou Pass, 90,000 Guominjun troops resisted the onslaught of over 450,000 of the enemy until August 16th. The Guominjun looking for another escape route dispatched a force led by Shi Yousan and Han Fuju into Shanxi. They were attacked near Datong by Yan Xishan's army. Despite being sympathetic to the Guominjun, as Yan Xishan was loosely associated with the KMT, his policy of neutrality had to be enforced, it was after all one of the ways he managed to survive this long. Feng Yuxiang's forces were quickly dislodged from Shanxi. Meanwhile Chahar fell to Zhang Xueliang's men as they advanced from Beijing and Suiyuan fell to Yan Xishan as his men advanced from Shanxi. The Guominjun put up a spartan-like resistance, but the Fengtian brought Japanese heavy artillery to the Nankou Pass where they blew away possibly 10,000 Guominjun. The Guominjun were forced to retreat into Gansu by August 15th.  Gansu at this time was being held by a bunch of lesser warlords whose domains were affected by religious divisions. Feng Yuxiang now took this time to go on a trip to the Soviet Union, announcing his resignation. Yet it was not actually a resignation, once in the USSR he began regaining control over his Guominjun army, winning back the favor of two of his best generals who had defected, Han Fuchu and Xu Yusan. Both these men had tossed their lot in with Yan Xishan temporarily. Feng Yuxiangs next goal was to recover his position in Shaanxi, where his forces had been under siege since April of 1926 by Liu Chenhua the previous warlord of Shaanxi. Liu Chenhua had been bolstered by Red Spear units from Hunan. Now Feng Yuxiang had basically united all the northern warlords in their hatred for him, so he pretty much had no one else to look to, except for of course, the Kuomintang.   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. Feng Yuxiang unleashed his Guominjun after securing many sneaky deals with those like Guo Songling, Sun Chuanfang, Li Jinglin and even Wu Peifu sort of. His plans all came to naught as he gradually lost the anti-fengtian war and now Wu Peifu and Zhang Zuolin were back in Beijing together, talk about Deja Vu.      

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Unity in Tiananmen: A Tale of Perseverance and Friendship Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.org/unity-in-tiananmen-a-tale-of-perseverance-and-friendship Story Transcript:Zh: 在天安门广场，夏天的阳光洒满了大地。En: In Tiananmen Square, the summer sunshine bathed the land.Zh: 人群熙熙攘攘，游客和学生们穿梭其中。En: The crowd bustled with activity as tourists and students moved among them.Zh: 李伟和张明站在人群中，望着这个历史悠久的地方，他们心里充满了复杂的情感。En: Li Wei and Zhang Ming stood amidst the throng, looking at the historic site, their hearts filled with complex emotions.Zh: 李伟是一个勤奋的学生，他参加了一个夏季语言学校项目，目的是为了获得出国留学的奖学金。En: Li Wei was a diligent student participating in a summer language school program with the goal of obtaining a scholarship for studying abroad.Zh: 张明是他的同学，也是他的竞争对手。En: Zhang Ming was his classmate and also his competitor.Zh: 虽然二人常常竞争，但也会互相鼓励和帮助。En: Although they often competed, they also encouraged and helped each other.Zh: 每天早晨，李伟都会早早地起床，开始学习英语。En: Every morning, Li Wei would get up early to study English.Zh: 张明也不甘落后，他们俩常常一起复习。En: Zhang Ming was not one to fall behind, and they often reviewed together.Zh: 尽管如此，李伟还是经常感到自我怀疑和压力。En: Despite this, Li Wei frequently felt self-doubt and pressure.Zh: 多次考试不理想的成绩让他有些灰心。En: His repeated unsatisfactory exam results left him somewhat disheartened.Zh: 有一天，张明发现了李伟的疲惫和颓废。En: One day, Zhang Ming noticed Li Wei's exhaustion and discouragement.Zh: 他决定帮助李伟，尽管这可能会影响自己。En: He decided to help Li Wei, even though it might affect his own performance.Zh: 张明和李伟一起制定了更有效的学习计划，他们分工明确，互相支持。En: Together, they formulated a more effective study plan, clearly divided their tasks, and supported each other.Zh: 慢慢地，李伟的成绩开始提高，但压力依旧存在。En: Gradually, Li Wei's grades began to improve, but the pressure remained.Zh: 随着期末演讲的到来，李伟感到前所未有的紧张，他必须在这次演讲中展现过去几个月的学习成果。En: As the final speech event approached, Li Wei felt unprecedented nervousness; he had to showcase the results of his months of study.Zh: 站在一片熙攘的天安门广场，李伟的心情如同这广场的历史一样复杂多样。En: Standing in the bustling Tiananmen Square, his emotions were as complex and varied as the history of the square itself.Zh: 在他准备的那一刻，他感觉到无比的紧张，甚至想要放弃。En: In the moment of preparation, he felt incredibly tense and almost wanted to give up.Zh: 但这时，张明拍了拍他的肩膀，微笑着说：“你做得到的，别怕。”En: But then, Zhang Ming patted him on the shoulder and smiled, saying, “You can do it, don't be afraid.”Zh: 李伟深吸一口气，开始了他的演讲。En: Li Wei took a deep breath and began his speech.Zh: 李伟的声音有些颤抖，但他逐渐找回了自信。En: Li Wei's voice trembled at first, but he gradually regained his confidence.Zh: 他一步一步地展示了他所学到的东西，流畅而自信地讲述着自己的观点。En: Step by step, he presented what he had learned, speaking fluently and confidently about his views.Zh: 会场里安静了下来，所有人都被李伟的努力和毅力感动。En: The venue fell silent, everyone moved by Li Wei's effort and perseverance.Zh: 演讲结束后，李伟赢得了热烈的掌声和评委的认可。En: After the speech, Li Wei received enthusiastic applause and recognition from the judges.Zh: 最终，他成功获得了奖学金。En: In the end, he successfully obtained the scholarship.Zh: 张明也为他感到高兴，并且更加尊重这位努力不懈的同学。En: Zhang Ming was happy for him and had even greater respect for his hard-working classmate.Zh: 在天安门广场的阳光下，李伟和张明互相拥抱，成为了真正的朋友。En: Under the sunlight of Tiananmen Square, Li Wei and Zhang Ming embraced each other, becoming true friends.Zh: 李伟明白了接受帮助的重要性，也变得更加自信。En: Li Wei understood the importance of accepting help and became more confident.Zh: 他知道，未来的路虽然还很长，但他不再孤单，因为他有朋友和支持者。En: He knew that although the road ahead was still long, he was no longer alone because he had friends and supporters.Zh: 这个夏天对李伟来说是一次重要的成长经历。En: This summer was a significant period of growth for Li Wei.Zh: 天安门广场的历史和人群见证了两个年轻人的努力和进步。En: The history and the crowd of Tiananmen Square witnessed the efforts and progress of two young people.Zh: 这是他们人生中一道难忘的风景线，指引着他们走向更广阔的未来。En: This experience became an unforgettable chapter in their lives, guiding them toward a broader future. Vocabulary Words:sunshine: 阳光bustled: 熙熙攘攘amidst: 中historic: 历史悠久的diligent: 勤奋的obtaining: 获得scholarship: 奖学金abroad: 出国competitor: 竞争对手encouraged: 鼓励reviewed: 复习self-doubt: 自我怀疑unsatisfactory: 不理想的disheartened: 灰心exhaustion: 疲惫discouragement: 颓废formulated: 制定effective: 有效的divided: 分工tasks: 任务improve: 提高nervousness: 紧张unprecedented: 前所未有的preparation: 准备trembled: 颤抖perseverance: 毅力enthusiastic: 热烈的recognition: 认可embraced: 拥抱confidence: 自信

Did the “Tiananmen Square never happened” tweets fool you? It wouldn't have if you had seen Shen Yun. America can become even more greater by electing the best rich guy for the job. Our problems aren't so hard to fix when all the answers just seem to keep falling right in our lap.  Topics include: help promote the show, different sources of content online, propaganda from everyone, disinformation, government, narratives, Chinese Twitter posts, Tiananmen Square, Tank Man, Chinese propaganda, Epoch Times, Falun Gong, religious cults, over the top homophobia, CFO money laundering, what people say means nothing, basic corruption, Shen Yun, Russian propaganda ubiquitous, online news sites used as propaganda portals, Russiagate, Intelligence community shared beliefs, Stop the Steal, geopolitics, competition over resources, US spread thin, divided population, minimum wage increase in CA, insane profits, political cults, apparatus behind Trump, Project 2025, Truth Movement roots of MAGA, redirected energies, coming protests over election results, Insurrection Act, Idiocracy in real life, states pitted against one another

Este martes se cumplieron 35 años de la masacre de la plaza de Tiananmen en Pekin. El 4 de junio de 1989, soldados y tanques chinos dispersaron por la fuerza una protesta pacífica y aplastaron brutalmente una enorme manifestación que llevaba varias semanas en demanda de mayores libertades políticas. La represión dejó centenares de muertos, con algunas estimaciones que elevan el balance a más de un millar de fallecidos. Desde entonces y hasta hoy lo ocurrido aquel día es objeto de estricta censura por las autoridades chinas. Esta semana el secretario de Estado estadounidense, Anthony Blinken, emitió un comunicado en el que afirmó que "mientras Pekín intenta borrar la memoria del 4 de junio” su país “se solidariza con aquellos que continúan luchando por los derechos humanos y la libertad individual". En respuesta, la cancillería de China, emitió una declaración en la que instó a Washington a "dejar de provocar enfrentamiento ideológico y dejar de interferir en los asuntos internos chinos bajo el pretexto de los derechos humanos". La Tertulia de los Viernes con Alejandro Abal, Juan Grompone, Gonzalo Pérez del Castillo y Carolina Porley.

Menschenrechtsaktivisten halten die Erinnerung an das Tiananmen-Massaker von 1989 in Peking wach und trotzen damit der Zensur des chinesischen Regimes.

The affordable luxury of personalised car licence plates are proving an enduring and endearing avenue for self-expression in a changing Hong Kong  Synopsis: Every first Friday of the month, The Straits Times chats with ST's correspondents in the Asia-Pacific, the US and Europe, about life as it goes on, amid the screaming headlines and bubbling crises.  HEY YU, DREAMER, ADD OIL. The messages on Hong Kong's vanity car plates can draw nods of appreciation or chuckles for the city's motorists. They can tell you a thing or two about their owners' status, sense of humour and beliefs.  Since the authorities made these special plates possible 20 years ago, Hong Kong has seen a proliferation of such plates on its roads. And along with it, communities have sprung up online devoted to sightings of this phenomenon.  In this episode, ST's foreign editor Li Xueying chats with Hong Kong correspondent Magdalene Fung on the motivations behind this trend and what it reveals about Hong Kongers' deepest desires and obsessions.  Highlights (click/tap above): 0:50 Why vanity plates aren't just for vanity's sake alone  3:20 What Hong Kong's vanity plates reveal about the city and its people  9:55 How a car with a special plate came to be impounded in Hong Kong on the anniversary of China's Tiananmen incident  12:33 The biggest changes in Hong Kong society in recent years  Read Magdalene Fung's article here: https://str.sg/KKxa Produced by: Li Xueying (xueying@sph.com.sg) and Fa'izah Sani Edited by: Fa'izah Sani Follow Letter From The Bureau Podcast every first Friday of the month here: Channel: https://str.sg/JWa7 Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWa8 Spotify: https://str.sg/JWaX SPH Awedio app: https://www.awedio.sg/ Website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg Read Li Xueying's articles: https://str.sg/iqmR  Follow Li Xueying on LinkedIn: https://str.sg/ip4x Read Magdalene Fung's articles: https://str.sg/dbo9   Read ST's Letters From The Bureau: https://str.sg/3xRd Register for Asian Insider newsletter: https://str.sg/stnewsletters --- Discover more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7  The Usual Place: https://str.sg/wEr7u  In Your Opinion: https://str.sg/w7Qt  COE Watch: https://str.sg/iTtE  Asian Insider: https://str.sg/JWa7  Health Check: https://str.sg/JWaN  Green Pulse: https://str.sg/JWaf  Your Money & Career: https://str.sg/wB2m  Hard Tackle: https://str.sg/JWRE  #PopVultures: https://str.sg/JWad  Music Lab: https://str.sg/w9TX  --- ST Podcast website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts  ST Podcasts YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa  --- Special edition series: True Crimes Of Asia (6 eps): https://str.sg/i44T The Unsolved Mysteries of South-east Asia (5 eps): https://str.sg/wuZ2  Invisible Asia (9 eps): https://str.sg/wuZn  Stop Scams (10 eps): https://str.sg/wuZB  Singapore's War On Covid (5 eps): https://str.sg/wuJa  --- Get The Straits Times' app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB  Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX  #STAsianInsiderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The affordable luxury of personalised car licence plates are proving an enduring and endearing avenue for self-expression in a changing Hong Kong  Synopsis: Every first Friday of the month, The Straits Times chats with ST's correspondents in the Asia-Pacific, the US and Europe, about life as it goes on, amid the screaming headlines and bubbling crises.  HEY YU, DREAMER, ADD OIL. The messages on Hong Kong's vanity car plates can draw nods of appreciation or chuckles for the city's motorists. They can tell you a thing or two about their owners' status, sense of humour and beliefs.  Since the authorities made these special plates possible 20 years ago, Hong Kong has seen a proliferation of such plates on its roads. And along with it, communities have sprung up online devoted to sightings of this phenomenon.  In this episode, ST's foreign editor Li Xueying chats with Hong Kong correspondent Magdalene Fung on the motivations behind this trend and what it reveals about Hong Kongers' deepest desires and obsessions.  Highlights (click/tap above): 0:50 Why vanity plates aren't just for vanity's sake alone  3:20 What Hong Kong's vanity plates reveal about the city and its people  9:55 How a car with a special plate came to be impounded in Hong Kong on the anniversary of China's Tiananmen incident  12:33 The biggest changes in Hong Kong society in recent years  Read Magdalene Fung's article here: https://str.sg/KKxa Produced by: Li Xueying (xueying@sph.com.sg) and Fa'izah Sani Edited by: Fa'izah Sani Follow Letter From The Bureau Podcast every first Friday of the month here: Channel: https://str.sg/JWa7 Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWa8 Spotify: https://str.sg/JWaX SPH Awedio app: https://www.awedio.sg/ Website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg Read Li Xueying's articles: https://str.sg/iqmR  Follow Li Xueying on LinkedIn: https://str.sg/ip4x Read Magdalene Fung's articles: https://str.sg/dbo9   Read ST's Letters From The Bureau: https://str.sg/3xRd Register for Asian Insider newsletter: https://str.sg/stnewsletters --- Discover more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7  The Usual Place: https://str.sg/wEr7u  In Your Opinion: https://str.sg/w7Qt  COE Watch: https://str.sg/iTtE  Asian Insider: https://str.sg/JWa7  Health Check: https://str.sg/JWaN  Green Pulse: https://str.sg/JWaf  Your Money & Career: https://str.sg/wB2m  Hard Tackle: https://str.sg/JWRE  #PopVultures: https://str.sg/JWad  Music Lab: https://str.sg/w9TX  --- ST Podcast website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts  ST Podcasts YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa  --- Special edition series: True Crimes Of Asia (6 eps): https://str.sg/i44T The Unsolved Mysteries of South-east Asia (5 eps): https://str.sg/wuZ2  Invisible Asia (9 eps): https://str.sg/wuZn  Stop Scams (10 eps): https://str.sg/wuZB  Singapore's War On Covid (5 eps): https://str.sg/wuJa  --- Get The Straits Times' app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB  Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX  #STAsianInsiderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kurdystan Dziesięć lat temu Państwo Islamskie rozpoczęło ofensywę w Iraku. Jej skutkiem była tragedia milionów ludzi, powstanie kalifatu i ogromne zamieszanie polityczne w regionie Bliskiego Wschodu. Jak po tej dekadzie radzi sobie Kurdystan, region Iraku, którego żołnierze stanęli wówczas na pierwszej linii walki z islamistami z ISIS? Raport dziś w irackim Kurdystanie. Relacja z Kurdystanu: Marcin Żyła Chiny i Tajwan Artysta uliczny w Hong Kongu aresztowany za symboliczną próbę upamiętnienia 35. rocznicy masakry na placu Tiananmen, kiedy chińska armia krwawo zdławiła demokratyczny protest. Czy autonomia Hong Kongu jest dziś już tylko fikcją? Zamieszki również na Tajwanie, gdzie opozycja atakuje prezydenta. Dlaczego jest to na rękę Chinom? gość: Michał Bogusz Rozkład jazdy: (01:30) Marcin Żyła o sytuacji w Kurdystanie (21:53) Michał Bogusz o Hong Kongu i Tajwanie (41:57) Podziękowania --------------------------------------------- Raport o stanie świata to audycja, która istnieje dzięki naszym Patronom, dołącz się do zbiórki ➡️ ⁠https://patronite.pl/DariuszRosiak⁠ Subskrybuj newsletter Raportu o stanie świata ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠➡️ ⁠https://dariuszrosiak.substack.com⁠ Koszulki i kubki Raportu ➡️ ⁠https://patronite-sklep.pl/kolekcja/raport-o-stanie-swiata/⁠ [Autopromocja]

-Nivel de llenado de 210 principales presas del país se ubica en 36%-Blinken conmemora 35 aniversario de la masacre de Tiananmen en China-Denominación de origen, proceso en el que un producto se declara como único-Más información en nuestro podcast

-#HongKong reprime y prohibe toda conmemoración del aniversario de la plaza de #Tiananmen. -Desempleo en #Alemania permanece estable en mayo, pero aumentan solicitudes de ayuda por desempleo. -#Maersk advierte que trafico naviero por Mar Rojo se ha desplomado en 80%, con sus consecuentes efectos negativos.

Tiananmen -- the place, the protests, the crackdown -- reverberates in memories and imaginations around the world, even 35 years after tanks rolled in Beijing's streets, and the Chinese military's crackdown on student demonstrators in the week hours of June 4, 1989, killed at least hundreds and wounded thousands of people. The protesters had been calling for political reforms, for a more open and less corrupt society, after decades of political upheaval under Mao Zedong's leadership. What they got instead from Deng Xiaoping was a brutal ‘no' to the call for political reform, but with a green light to instead focus on making money and growing China's economy. China's Communist Party leaders insist to this day that China's economic rise couldn't have happened without the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations, and the hopes for political reform of many Chinese people. Still, the Party has tried to erase the Tiananmen crackdown from public memory in China, even as many Chinese remember the protests and all they stood for, with some dedicating their lives to working toward those same goals.  The guest for this episode, Xiao Qiang, is one such person. He talks about his life before, during, and after the protests, and recommends books for anyone interested in better understanding what the Tiananmen demonstrations and crackdown meant, and still mean, in China and beyond. Xiao Qiang is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of China Digital Times, a bilingual China news website launched in 2003 to aggregate, organize, and recommend online information from and about China. He is an adjunct professor at the School of Information, University of California at Berkeley, and director of the school's Counter-Power Lab, an interdisciplinary faculty-student research group focusing on the intersection of digital media, counter-censorship technology and cyber-activism.The China Books podcast is hosted and produced by Mary Kay Magistad, a former award-winning China correspondent for NPR and PRI/BBC's The World, now a senior fellow at Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations. This podcast is a companion of the China Books Review, which offers incisive essays, interviews, and reviews on all things China books-related. Co-publishers are Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, headed by Orville Schell, and The Wire China, co-founded by David Barboza, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times China correspondent. The Review's editor is Alec Ash, who can be reached at editor@chinabooksreview.com.

La candidata della piattaforma progressista ha ottenuto una vittoria schiacciante alle elezioni del 2 giugno in Messico e sarà la prima presidente del paese. Il 4 giugno del 1989, 35 anni fa, finiva la protesta di piazza di piazza Tiananmen, una serie di manifestazioni contro il regime cinese culminate nel massacro di centinaia, forse migliaia di manifestanti.CONFederico Mastrogiovanni, giornalista, da Città del MessicoIlaria Maria Sala, giornalista, a Hong KongMessicohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iayAC2sOHwIHong Kong: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8z8kiwArticolo: La guerra nella Striscia di Gaza si combatte anche su TikTok di Catherine Cornethttps://www.internazionale.it/notizie/catherine-cornet/2024/05/21/guerra-gaza-tiktokRaiPlay:  Telepatria Internationalhttps://www.raiplay.it/programmi/telepatriainternationalSe ascolti questo podcast e ti piace, abbonati a Internazionale. È un modo concreto per sostenerci e per aiutarci a garantire ogni giorno un'informazione di qualità. Vai su internazionale.it/podcastScrivi a podcast@internazionale.it o manda un vocale a +39 3347063050Consulenza editoriale di Chiara Nielsen.Produzione di Claudio Balboni e Vincenzo De Simone.Musiche di Tommaso Colliva e Raffaele Scogna.Direzione creativa di Jonathan Zenti.

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports police are guarding entrances to Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports Hong Kong remains quiet with a heavy police presence on this, the 35th Tiananmen anniversary.

Im "Ö1 Mittagsjournal" gesendet am 4.6.24

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports on the Tiananmen anniversary.

Vanessa Hope is the director of Invisible Nation, a documentary film that takes a look at the presidency of Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's first female president and events that happened during her tenure. We talked about what first brought Vanessa to Taiwan which meant that she was there in 1996 during the inauguration of Lee Teng-hui, Taiwan's first directly elected president. Then in 2016 after Vanessa came to Taiwan with an international delegation to observe Taiwan's presidential elections and witnessed the election of Tsai Ing-wen, she came up with the idea for a film about Tsai Ing-wen's presidency.   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/invisible-nation-director-vanessa-hope-discusses-her-documentary-about-tsai-ing-wens-presidency-ep-284/   Vanessa's first feature length documentary, All Eyes And Ears examined relations between the U.S. and China through the stories of U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, his adopted Chinese daughter Gracie Mei, and blind legal advocate Chen Guangcheng.   When I asked Vanessa about her experience making a documentary film in China, she recounted a story that explained why she personally related to the backlash and pressure from China that Chou Tzu-yu, a Taiwanese member of a K-pop band has faced.   We also talked about the challenges in making Invisible Nation over a seven year period, Vanessa's personal motivations for making the film and where Invisible Nation is going to be screened in the near future.   Here's a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode: ·       What brought Vanessa to Taiwan and got her interested in Taiwan ·       What Vanessa observed when she was in Taiwan for the inauguration of Lee Teng-hui, the first directly elected president of Taiwan ·       The first time she dabbled in filmmaking ·       How Vanessa wrote and recorded the podcast, Love Is a Crime, which tells the story of her family's connection to film ·       The state of the film industry which Vanessa's husband Ted Hope writes about on Substack ·       How Vanessa came up with the idea for the film, Invisible Nation ·       Vanessa worked at the Council on Foreign Relations ·       Vanessa came to Taiwan with an international delegation to observe Taiwan's presidential elections in 2016 and witnessed the election of Tsai Ing-wen ·       How Vanessa secured a grant focused on women, peace and security ·       How film producer Sylvia Feng helped Vanessa with submitting a proposal to President Tsai's office regarding her idea for a documentary film ·       How they filmed an interview with Chen Chu before hearing an answer from President Tsai's office about the documentary film proposal ·       How Vanessa originally envisioned working a film about Taiwan's first female president ·       The backlash President Tsai received from China initially ·       The discrimination that Taiwan faces internationally ·       How Taiwan has been excluded from international organizations like the WHO, the United Nations, the Olympics and others ·       How Russia's invasion of Ukraine highlighted concerns about the threat Taiwan faces from China ·       How Xi Jinping has said that he will not renounce the use of force against Taiwan ·       Where the name of the film, Invisible Nation came from ·       The film Vanessa produced, Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, about ·       If President Tsai had any say in the film Invisible Nation ·       What personally motivated Vanessa to make the film, Invisible Nation ·       How the interview and scene with Chen Chu in the film came about ·       How Chen Chu wrote her will when she was in prison and dedicated her life to the people of Taiwan ·       What it was like meeting former President Ma Ying-jeou ·       How Vanessa's mentor at the Council on Foreign Relations, Jerome Cohen had been a professor at Harvard Law School to Ma Ying-jeou and Annette Lu ·       What Vanessa learned from working at the Council on Foreign Relations ·       What fascinated Vanessa about how the singer Chou Tzu-yu was forced to apologize for waving a flag that represented Taiwan ·       Wen Liu's comments about President Tsai that didn't make it into the film Invisible Nation ·       How it was decided that historical facts to keep in the film or not ·       How part of the editing process for the film Invisible Nation was to test it on audiences ·       How Vanessa has had to edit down Invisible Nation from 85 minutes to 55 minutes for television ·       Who is the target audience of the film, Invisible Nation ·       Why some of the Taiwanese who worked on Invisible Nation had to use pseudonyms ·       China's 3 T's that you are not supposed to talk about, Taiwan, Tibet, and Tiananmen ·       The difference in working on documentary films in China vs. Taiwan ·       What happened to Vanessa when she was in Tibet and tried to board a train with U.S.  Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, who she was filming for her first documentary film, All Eyes and Ears ·       Why Vanessa could relate to what happened to the singer Chou Tzu-yu ·       Scenes that had to be cut from the film, Invisible Nation ·       The challenge in making Invisible Nation ·       Feedback that Vanessa has received at screenings of Invisible Nation ·       What Vanessa hopes that people take away from the film Invisible Nation ·       If Vanessa has gotten any negative feedback or threats from pro-China media or parties ·       Where Invisible Nation is going to be screened ·       Vanessa's future film projects   Related Links: https://talkingtaiwan.com/invisible-nation-director-vanessa-hope-discusses-her-documentary-about-tsai-ing-wens-presidency-ep-284/

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Mysteries of the Forbidden City: A Young Explorer's Discovery Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.org/mysteries-of-the-forbidden-city-a-young-explorers-discovery Story Transcript:Zh: 在一个晴朗的早晨，太阳刚刚升起。En: On a bright morning, the sun had just risen.Zh: 小明、丽丽和伟强三个人在学校门口集合。En: Xiao Ming, Lili, and Wei Qiang gathered at the school gate.Zh: 今天，他们要去北京故宫参加一次非常特别的历史文化考察。En: Today, they were going to the Forbidden City in Beijing to participate in a very special historical and cultural excursion.Zh: 大家都很兴奋，因为故宫是一个充满神秘和故事的地方。En: Everyone was excited because the Forbidden City is a place full of mystery and stories.Zh: 他们乘坐大巴出发了，沿途路过许多高楼大厦。En: They took a coach and set off, passing by many skyscrapers along the way.Zh: 伟强指着窗外说：“看，那是天安门！”En: Wei Qiang pointed out the window and said, ""Look, that's Tiananmen!"Zh: 大家纷纷向窗外看去。En: Everyone immediately looked out the window.Zh: 到了故宫门口，导游阿姨已经在那里等候。En: When they arrived at the entrance of the Forbidden City, the tour guide, an auntie, was already waiting there.Zh: 她带领大家进入了这个古老而庄严的皇宫。En: She led everyone into this ancient and solemn imperial palace.Zh: 阿姨开始讲解：“故宫是明清两代皇帝的皇宫，已有近六百年的历史。”En: The tour guide began to explain, ""The Forbidden City was the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it has nearly six hundred years of history."Zh: 走过长长的红色城墙，他们来到了太和殿。En: After walking past long red walls, they arrived at the Hall of Supreme Harmony.Zh: 小明问：“阿姨，这里是干什么的？”En: Xiao Ming asked, “Auntie, what is this place for?”Zh: 导游阿姨笑着回答：“这是皇帝举行大典的地方。”En: The tour guide smiled and replied, “This is where the emperor held grand ceremonies.”Zh: 在整个考察过程中，丽丽一直拿着笔记本认真地记录每一个细节。En: Throughout the excursion, Lili kept taking notes diligently.Zh: 她觉得这里的一切都好神奇。En: She found everything here so fascinating.Zh: 小明则不停地拍照，想把这些美丽的景色记下来。En: Xiao Ming, on the other hand, kept taking photos to capture the beautiful scenery.Zh: 伟强喜欢听导游阿姨讲的故事，他觉得故宫里的每一块砖都有一个故事。En: Wei Qiang enjoyed listening to the stories told by the tour guide; he felt that every brick in the Forbidden City had a story.Zh: 忽然，天上开始飘起了小雨。En: Suddenly, light rain began to fall from the sky.Zh: 导游阿姨说：“我们去乾清宫躲一躲雨吧。”En: The tour guide said, “Let's go to the Palace of Heavenly Purity to take shelter from the rain.”Zh: 大家跑进了乾清宫，发现里面非常宽敞。En: Everyone ran into the Palace of Heavenly Purity and found it very spacious inside.Zh: 小明看到一张金色的龙椅，问：“那是皇帝的座位吗？”En: Xiao Ming saw a golden dragon chair and asked, “Is that the emperor's seat?”Zh: 阿姨点点头。En: The guide nodded.Zh: 雨停了。En: The rain stopped.Zh: 大家继续他们的探索之旅。En: They continued their exploration journey.Zh: 最后，他们来到了御花园。En: Finally, they arrived at the Imperial Garden.Zh: 这里有许多美丽的花草树木，还有一些古老的石狮子。En: There were many beautiful flowers, plants, and trees, as well as some ancient stone lions.Zh: 丽丽站在一棵大树下，感叹道：“真希望这里的树能告诉我们过去的故事。”En: Lili stood under a big tree and sighed, “I really wish the trees here could tell us the stories of the past.”Zh: 一天的考察结束了，大家回到了学校。En: The day's excursion ended, and they returned to school.Zh: 小明、丽丽和伟强都感到非常充实。En: Xiao Ming, Lili, and Wei Qiang felt very fulfilled.Zh: 小明说：“今天真是大开眼界，我们学到了很多。”En: Xiao Ming said, “Today was an eye-opener; we learned a lot.”Zh: 丽丽也点头同意：“我一定要写一篇关于故宫的作文。”En: Lili nodded in agreement, “I am definitely going to write an essay about the Forbidden City.”Zh: 伟强最后说：“这次考察让我更加了解了我们的历史。”En: Wei Qiang added, “This excursion has made me understand our history even better.”Zh: 他们都觉得，这不仅仅是一次考察，更是一次难忘的学习之旅。En: They all felt that this was not just an excursion, but an unforgettable learning journey.Zh: 这一天将在他们的记忆中，久久不忘。En: This day would stay in their memories for a long time. Vocabulary Words:bright: 晴朗gathered: 集合excursion: 考察skyscrapers: 高楼大厦tour guide: 导游ancient: 古老solemn: 庄严imperial: 皇宫dynasties: 两代ceremonies: 大典diligently: 认真地capture: 记下来brick: 砖shelter: 躲spacious: 宽敞dragon chair: 龙椅seat: 座位exploration: 探索imperial garden: 御花园stone lions: 石狮子fulfilled: 充实eye-opener: 大开眼界essay: 作文understand: 了解history: 历史unforgettable: 难忘learning journey: 学习之旅memories: 记忆mystery: 神秘stories: 故事

This week on the Sinica Podcast, Kaiser is joined by old friend Ed Lanfranco, who lived in Beijing from 1988 to 2009. An inveterate packrat, Ed managed to accumulate an incredible trove of documents, maps, photos, and ephemera from his years there and from the decades and even centuries before his arrival. Ed talks about his collection, and invites scholars interested in his material to get in touch!2:46 – Ed's time in China and saving ephemera 11:47 – Ed's favorite old Chinese brands 14:41 – Ed's map collection 19:34 – The Tiananmen incident of 1976, Ed's collection of unpublished photographs from the Panjiayuan Antique Market, and a leaflet from April 7th, 1976 30:40 – Ed's patriotic music record collection 33:28 – Ed's U.S.-China collection 38:00 – The story behind Ed's U.S.-China panda button from 2002 43:18 – Ed's Tiananmen '89 story and collection of leaflets and files 50:56 – The Underground City of Beijing tour 53:50 – Ed's SARS 2003 epidemic experience and artifactsRecommendations:Ed: Roger Garside's Coming Alive: China After Mao; Lin Yutang's works, especially My Country and My People and The Importance of LivingKaiser: The Rochester-based progressive metal trio Haishen's new album, Awaken the Endless Deep See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Unveiling the Secrets of the Forbidden City: A Daylong Expedition Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.org/unveiling-the-secrets-of-the-forbidden-city-a-daylong-expedition Story Transcript:Zh: 光辉的天安门前，有一个富丽堂皇的地方，叫做故宫。En: In front of the magnificent Tiananmen, there is a splendid place called the Forbidden City.Zh: 一天，阳光灿烂，鸟儿在空中飞舞。小明、莉莉和建国决定去故宫游览。En: One sunny day, with birds flying in the sky, Xiaoming, Lili, and Jianguo decided to tour the Forbidden City.Zh: 他们是最好的朋友，从小学就开始一起上学。En: They were the best of friends, having been classmates since elementary school.Zh: 他们对历史很感兴趣，今天他们终于有机会来探索这个神秘的地方。En: They all had a keen interest in history, and today, they finally had the chance to explore this mysterious place.Zh: 故宫的大门高大雄伟，En: The grand gates of the Forbidden City stood tall and majestic.Zh: 小明兴奋地指着大门说：“我们进去吧！这里一定有很多有趣的东西！”En: Excitedly pointing at the gates, Xiaoming said, "Let's go inside! There must be many interesting things here!Zh: 莉莉点点头，微笑着回答：“是的，我听说这里有好多皇帝住过的宫殿。”En: Lili nodded and responded with a smile, "Yes, I heard many emperors lived in these palaces.Zh: 建国也很高兴，他说：“我想看那些珍贵的文物！”En: Jianguo also felt delighted and said, "I want to see the precious relics!Zh: 他们排队买了票，看到了许多游客也在排队进入。En: They queued up to buy tickets, seeing many other tourists lining up to enter as well.Zh: 进入故宫后，他们第一时间看到了太和殿。En: Upon entering the Forbidden City, the first thing they saw was the Hall of Supreme Harmony.Zh: 太和殿的金色屋顶在阳光下闪闪发光，小明惊叹道：“多么壮观的建筑啊！”En: Its golden roof gleamed under the sunlight, prompting Xiaoming to exclaim, "What a magnificent building!Zh: 莉莉拿出相机拍照，她想把这些美丽的景象记录下来。En: Lili took out her camera to capture the beautiful sights.Zh: 他们跟着导游进入了各个宫殿。En: They followed a tour guide as they entered various palaces.Zh: 导游告诉他们，这里曾经住着许多皇帝和皇后。En: The guide told them that many emperors and empresses had lived there.Zh: 小明看着那些古老的家具和装饰，想象着以前的生活。En: Xiaoming, gazing at the ancient furniture and decorations, imagined life in the past.Zh: 他问导游：“他们是不是每天都穿得像电视上的皇帝一样？”En: He asked the guide, "Did they dress like emperors on TV every day?Zh: 导游笑着说：“没错，这里就是他们的家。”En: The guide laughed and said, "That's right, this was their home.Zh: 中午，他们在故宫的一个小花园里吃了午饭。En: At noon, they had lunch in a small garden within the Forbidden City.Zh: 花园里有美丽的花朵和翠绿的树木。En: The garden was filled with beautiful flowers and lush green trees.Zh: 莉莉说：“这里真的是个好地方，En: Lili commented, "This is such a nice place.Zh: 我们可以休息一会儿。”En: We can rest here for a while.Zh: 建国则继续研究着手中的导游图，他说：“下午我们去看看珍宝馆，好吗？”En: Jianguo continued studying the guide map he had and suggested, "Shall we visit the Treasure Gallery this afternoon?Zh: 朋友们都同意了。En: His friends agreed.Zh: 下午，三个人终于来到了珍宝馆。En: In the afternoon, the trio finally reached the Treasure Gallery.Zh: 这里展示着各种稀世珍宝，有玉器、金器和瓷器。En: It displayed a variety of rare treasures, including jade, gold, and porcelain items.Zh: 他们看着那些闪闪发光的宝贝，感到非常奇妙。En: Looking at the glittering treasures, they felt amazed.Zh: 小明说：“这些东西在古代一定非常贵重。”En: Xiaoming said, "These things must have been very valuable in ancient times.Zh: 当他们走出珍宝馆，看到太阳渐渐西沉，天空染上了绚丽的晚霞。En: As they exited the Treasure Gallery, they saw the sun gradually setting and the sky painted with glorious hues of the evening.Zh: 小明感到有些遗憾：“今天一天过得真快。”En: Xiaoming felt a bit regretful, "Today went by so fast.Zh: 莉莉点头同意：“是的，不过我们学到了很多新东西，也拍了很多照片。”En: Lili nodded in agreement, "Yes, but we learned a lot and took many photos.Zh: 建国拍拍小明的肩膀：“别担心，我们还可以再来一次。”En: Patting Xiaoming on the shoulder, Jianguo said, "Don't worry, we can come again.Zh: 朋友们牵着手，走出故宫的大门。En: Holding hands, the friends walked out of the Forbidden City gates.Zh: 他们决定下次还要来这个美丽的地方，探索更多历史的秘密。En: They decided they would visit this beautiful place again to uncover more historical secrets.Zh: 故事到这里结束了。En: The story ends here.Zh: 经过一天的游览，小明、莉莉和建国不仅更加了解了中国的历史，也更加珍惜他们之间的友谊。En: After a day's tour, Xiaoming, Lili, and Jianguo not only gained a deeper understanding of China's history but also cherished their friendship even more.Zh: 故宫的记忆将永远留在他们心中。En: The memories of the Forbidden City would remain in their hearts forever. Vocabulary Words:magnificent: 光辉splendid: 富丽堂皇mysterious: 神秘majestic: 雄伟precious: 珍贵relics: 文物gleamed: 闪闪发光prompting: 促使ancient: 古老decorations: 装饰guide: 导游furniture: 家具imagined: 想象jade: 玉器porcelain: 瓷器glittering: 闪闪发光valuable: 贵重gradually: 渐渐setting: 西沉glorious: 绚丽hues: 晚霞cherished: 珍惜friendship: 友谊explore: 探索queue: 排队tourists: 游客captured: 记录supreme: 太和harmony: 和谐reluctant: 遗憾

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: From Ice Cream Dreams to Stinky Tofu Delights at Tiananmen Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.org/from-ice-cream-dreams-to-stinky-tofu-delights-at-tiananmen Story Transcript:Zh: 在一个晴朗的早晨，蓝天白云，阳光洒满了大地。小明和小华决定去天安门广场玩。En: On a clear morning, with blue skies and white clouds, and sunlight spreading over the earth, Xiao Ming and Xiao Hua decided to go play at Tiananmen Square.Zh: 他们期待着这个特别的日子。En: They were looking forward to this special day.Zh: 当他们走近广场时，闻到了一股香气。En: As they approached the square, they smelled a delightful aroma.Zh: 小明指着远处的小摊说：“小华，你闻到了吗？好香啊！一定是冰激凌！”En: Xiao Ming pointed to a distant stall and said, "Xiao Hua, do you smell that? It smells so good! It must be ice cream!"Zh: 小华舔了舔嘴唇，说：“太好了，我最喜欢冰激凌了。我们快去买吧！”En: Licking his lips, Xiao Hua replied, "Great! I love ice cream the most. Let's go and buy some!"Zh: 他们高高兴兴地跑向那个小摊。En: They happily ran towards the stall.Zh: 靠近时，小明看到摊主在忙碌地翻炒着什么东西。En: As they got closer, Xiao Ming noticed the vendor busily stir-frying something.Zh: 他对小华说：“哦，你看，那个人在做冰激凌呢，一个大锅冰激凌！”En: He said to Xiao Hua, "Oh, look, that person is making ice cream, a big pot of ice cream!"Zh: 他们排队等候着。En: They waited in line.Zh: 轮到他们时，小明对摊主说：“叔叔，两份冰激凌。”En: When it was their turn, Xiao Ming said to the vendor, "Uncle, two ice creams, please."Zh: 摊主露出一个友善的笑容，说：“不好意思，小朋友，这里没有冰激凌，是臭豆腐。”En: The vendor smiled kindly and said, "Sorry, kids, there's no ice cream here. It's stinky tofu."Zh: 小华的脸一下子垮了下来：“什么？臭豆腐？可是我们要冰激凌！”En: Xiao Hua's face fell immediately, "What? Stinky tofu? But we want ice cream!"Zh: 听到这句话，旁边的游客们都笑了起来。En: Hearing this, the nearby tourists all burst into laughter.Zh: 小明和小华看着彼此，不知道该怎么办好。En: Xiao Ming and Xiao Hua looked at each other, not knowing what to do.Zh: 他们失望地转过身，准备离开。En: Disappointed, they turned to leave.Zh: 这时，摊主喊住了他们：“小朋友，你们要不要尝一下臭豆腐？可能会惊喜哦！”En: Just then, the vendor called out to them, "Kids, would you like to try some stinky tofu? It might surprise you!"Zh: 小明犹豫了一下，对小华说：“要不我们试试看，反正也没买到冰激凌。”En: Xiao Ming hesitated for a moment and then said to Xiao Hua, "How about we give it a try? We didn't get ice cream anyway."Zh: 小华点点头。En: Xiao Hua nodded.Zh: 摊主给了他们一小份臭豆腐。En: The vendor handed them a small portion of stinky tofu.Zh: 小明和小华小心地尝了一口。En: Xiao Ming and Xiao Hua cautiously took a bite.Zh: 他们的眼睛一下子亮了起来。En: Their eyes lit up instantly.Zh: 小华惊呼道：“哇，这竟然很好吃！”En: Xiao Hua exclaimed, "Wow, this is actually really delicious!"Zh: 小明也点点头：“叔叔，再给我们一份。”En: Xiao Ming nodded in agreement, "Uncle, we'd like another serving."Zh: 摊主开心地笑了：“好啊好啊！”En: The vendor laughed happily, "Sure, sure!"Zh: 就这样，小明和小华发现了新的美味。En: In this way, Xiao Ming and Xiao Hua discovered a new delicacy.Zh: 虽然他们没有买到冰激凌，但他们收获了意外的惊喜。En: Although they didn't get ice cream, they ended up with an unexpected surprise.Zh: 故事的结尾，太阳依然高挂在天安门广场的上空，小明和小华手里拿着臭豆腐，嘴里满是欢笑。En: In the end, the sun still hung high over Tiananmen Square, and Xiao Ming and Xiao Hua, holding their stinky tofu, were filled with laughter.Zh: 他们并肩走在广场上，快乐地分享着这段意想不到的美好经历。En: They walked side by side in the square, joyfully sharing this unexpectedly delightful experience. Vocabulary Words:clear: 晴朗approached: 走近aroma: 香气delightful: 好香vendor: 摊主busily: 忙碌地stir-frying: 翻炒kindly: 友善地stinky tofu: 臭豆腐face fell: 脸垮了burst into laughter: 笑了起来hesitated: 犹豫cautiously: 小心地bite: 尝一口instantly: 一下子exclaimed: 惊呼nod: 点头discovered: 发现delicacy: 美味unexpected: 意外surprise: 惊喜high over: 高挂holding: 拿着filled with laughter: 嘴里满是欢笑side by side: 并肩joyfully: 快乐地sharing: 分享special day: 特别的日子distant: 远处waited in line: 排队等候

A square, you say? Touring a rectangle seems a little more stimulating, perhaps? This is not just any four-sided box. This is the center of Beijing. A place full of history and full of people. Now it's so big, you may just stumble across it, but we're thinking you might need a little more help. Since you've already learned where Changan Jie is from Pimsleur, let ChinesePod take you the rest of the way, in this Mandarin lesson. Episode link: https://www.chinesepod.com/0909

Embark on a captivating journey with Ralf Ruckus, esteemed author and co-founder of the Gong Chao Collective, as we dissect the complex tapestry of the Chinese Left and its evolution. Ralf's insights challenge conventional perceptions, revealing a shift from revolutionary fervor to a capitalist present, and the intricate dance between grassroots activism and state politics. We navigate through the seismic ripples of the Cultural Revolution, the post-Tiananmen birth of the 'New Left', and the nuanced political battles that have forged China's unique socialist experience.Peeling back the layers of China's tumultuous march toward modernity, we traverse through the ideological maze of the country's left-wing movements. Ralph spotlights the courageous worker strikes, the internal party struggles, and the controversial reforms under Deng Xiaoping. The conversation illuminates the misunderstood goals of these reforms and the colorful spectrum within the democracy movement. By examining the Tiananmen Square protests, we trace the seismic shift from student-led to worker-dominated resistance, setting the stage for the New Left's emergence and its complex ideological identity.As we probe the contemporary landscape of left-wing movements in China, Ralf delves into the contemporary challenges and transformations. We scrutinize the 'common prosperity' reforms and their diverse impact on society, and explore the ongoing class struggles, feminist debates, and the precarious balancing act of critiquing China's politics while remaining vigilant against global narratives and biases. Ralph's expertise offers a treasure trove of knowledge for anyone eager to truly grasp the pulse of left-wing politics in modern China. Discover The Power of Sound!Keeping a consistent sound in how you present your company really is the "hidden gem"...Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the Show.Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @skepoetYou can find the additional streams on Youtube

Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST!  LISTEN to my WIOX broadcast (aired March 26th, 2024) featuring award-winning poet Sam Truitt.   Visit: Sharonisraelpoet.com. Visit:  samtruitt.com, samtsong.com, Station Hill Press Sam Truitt was born in Washington, DC, and raised there and in Tokyo, Japan. He is the author of the ten works in the Vertical Elegies series, among others in print and other media, including most recently TOKYOATOTO and the forthcoming STATE/SHAFT SHAFT/STATE. Among other recognitions, he is the recipient of numerous Fund for Poetry awards, a Contemporary Poetry Award from the University of Georgia, and a Howard Fellowship. He is also the maker of numerous works in mixed media, including the aforementioned STATE/SHAFT SHAFT/STATE and other series like DICTE and numerous works in Intermedia with musicians and filmmakers. Truitt earned a PhD in English from the University at Albany and a MFA in Creative Arts from Brown University. The director of Station Hill Press and president of the Institute for Publishing Arts (including, among other projects, the podcast Baffling Combustions and the Station Hill Intermedia Project), he lives in Woodstock, NY, where he is the co-founder of the non-profit Woodstock Center for Awakening, which will host the second Woodstock Community Festival of Awakening in August, and is a volunteer ambulance driver for the Woodstock Rescue Squad.  On TOKYOATOTO“Sam Truitt has added a wonderful new innovative example of one of my favoirte genres – travel poetry. By way of two ‘T squares' (Times and Tiananmen) on the way to Japan, he generously expands the notational into double accordion-fold expanses; one typed and sculptural, one handwritten, drawn notation condensing sound, thought, perception and time.  The reader is invited into the poet's process alternating between quicksilver caught thought to poems lifted to the next level of line-break shape and form…”---- Lee Ann Brown, author of Philtre: Writing in the Dark 1989-2020 “…the intimacy of writing as note-taking feels palpably present.  We intrude on those personal pages, even in facsimile. By contrast, the public-facing presentation of the typeset texts feels bold, exposed, declaratively blunt in its directness..”----Joanne Drucker, author of Diagrammatic Writing

Usually, the whole idea of being famous is to be, well, famous…you're known by everyone…your face is everywhere…you're a celebrity…and you get invited to the best parties, you get endorsements, you get free stuff… Sure, there's a trade-off…your right to privacy is greatly diminished…your every move is scrutinized…it might become harder to maintain meaningful relationships…and then there's the constant pressure to live up to this thing you've become…this is emotionally draining… After a while, you may start to resent this fame thing…the challenges and pitfalls can overshadow all the perks… But you can also be famous and not famous at the same time…you just have to be very, very careful about revealing who you are… There's the story of Comte de Saint-German…he was some kind of adventurer in the 1700s who popped up throughout Europe…he spoke almost every language on the continent, knew a lot about chemistry, and was quite the musician….he was so mysterious and amazing that he acquired the nickname “the wonderman”… Remember tank man?... He's the guy who held up that row of tanks during the crackdown on Tiananmen square in China…no clue who this dude is… Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?...is he the creator of bitcoin?...he disappeared from the internet around 2014 and stayed hidden…there are theories but nothing concrete… Let's riff on that a little bit more…can you be a famous musician and still be able to walk through the mall without anyone knowing you are?...yes…it's difficult and comes with its own tradeoffs, but it can be done…plus you have to work very hard to maintain the art of hiding in plain site… This is the history of anonymous artists from the world of rock… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last time we spoke about the New Culture Movement. China had seen humiliation after humiliation and her population was fed up. The leaking of secret dealings by foreign powers, Japan and members of the Chinese government alongside a weak stance at the Paris Peace Conference broke the camels back. The New Culture Movement that was brewing under these circumstances saw the Chinese public begin to question their traditions, confucianism and this feeling of always looking into the past, rather than the future. Things simply could not keep going on the way that they were. Numerous intellectuals began demanding major reforms to really modernize China. From vernacular writing systems, to the emancipation of women and egalitarian rights, the Chinese people were angry and they were soon going to demonstrate their anger towards their government. It would all start with youthful students who would change China forever.    #93 The May Fourth Movement of 1919   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. The Xinhai Revolution of 1911 had given rise to the spirit of Chinese nationalism, demanding resistance to foreign encroachment and the elimination of domestic autocracy. While the Manchu's were overthrown, Yuan Shikai was quick to seize the movement hostage. He silenced opposition when the Beiyang Republic was formed. Then WW1 came crashing in like a wrecking ball upon China. The Empire of Japan defeated the Germans and now occupied the Shandong Peninsula. Yuan Shikai protested this of course, but from the publics point of view not too strongly. Taking full advantage of the international situation the Japanese then imposed the twenty-one demands upon China. This was leaked to the world, enraging the Chinese populace. Though Yuan Shikai did negotiate them down into the Thirteen Demands, it was yet again another humiliation and a sign of how weak the Chinese government was. When this occurred Chinese intellectuals, students and workers were beginning to form groups and argue about what should be done. There was a sense of national survival at stake.  In response to the Twenty-One Demands situation a boycott of Japanese goods was organized in Shanghai, and this rapidly began to spread to other cities. Yuan Shikai ordered the boycotts to seize as they spread to Yangtze port cities. Regardless the people of China still had high hopes by joining the Entente during the war, this would see China reverse her misfortunes and regain things like the Shandong Peninsula. When WW1 ended on November 11 of 1918, there was such widespread hope the national disgrace would come to an end. Chinese intellectual leaders, and leading businessmen believed the defeat of Germany had finally brought an end to the disgusting practice of secret diplomacy, foreign encroachment on their nation, militarism and the dictatorship that was pretending to be a republic. It was assumed the Shandong Peninsula lease that originally was given to the Germans, currently held by the Japanese illegally, would simply be handed back over to China. China had done a lot for the Entente war effort, she had provided hundreds of thousands of laborers at critical moments of the war, many believed, and I would say rightfully so, China earned certain demands. Well those hopes were torn to shreds at the Paris Peace Conference. News of the conference reached China, particularly that of Japan being awarded the Shandong Peninsula. The Chinese public found out about the secret Sino-Japanese Treaty deal that Duan Qirui had signed and that of Britain's secret double promising deal to Japan to award her the Shandong Peninsula. There were also the secret Nishihara loans that had first been signed by Yuan Shikai and were then inherited by Duan Qirui. Because of all of this on April 30th, 1919 China lost her entire case at the conference, Japan was awarded the Shandong Peninsula and on top of that, there was zero mention of when the lease would return to China. All of these developments had been followed closely by Chinese intellectuals, political leaders and businessmen who were genuinely concerned about their nation's survival. When the Chinese public found out, the first instinct was to demand those responsible for the terrible outcomes be brought to justice. Because of all the secret dealing and other exchanges between leading Beiyang officials in Beijing and Japan, they were the first culprits cited for the failure of China to regain her lost territories and there was a large suspicion there were Chinese individuals basically selling out their country to Japan. It had now become the general feeling of the people, foreign powers had hurt China, but also traitors within her government. Intellectual leaders and students who had been exposed to foreign ideologies were extremely disappointed.  By the turn of the century, countless Chinese students had gone abroad studying in Japan, the United States and Europe. They encountered new ideas, and they reflected upon them, before proposing how such ideas could be used to solve China's problems. In the last episode I spoke a lot about the intellectuals who brought these ideas to China. Hu Shih studied in the United States, Chen Duxiu studied in Japan, both men would become leaders of what will become known as the May Fourth Movement and other events later on. Both men would go very different paths, but at this point in time they both understood the dangers facing their nation and wanted to save it. It was within this time period the New Culture Movement sprang up. The leaders of the movement believed China's traditional confucian based culture was holding her back from actually modernizing into a modern state. Many of them advocated for western ideas to modernize China. Chen Duxiu returned from Japan in 1915 where he had established the New Youth magazine, basically creating the vehicle for intellectuals to bring new ideas to the Chinese public. He was soon joined by Li Dazhao who also returned from Japan in 1916.  When these intellectuals returned to China, they found her in a highly repressive state. Under Yuan Shikai, there were severe laws governing the press and these laws would survive him until the early 1920s. Yuan Shikai's dictatorship charade of a republic became even worse when he proclaimed himself Emperor. 83 days of that disaster simply proved to the people of China, the same old tyrants that they had apparently overthrown in 1911 were still large and in charge. Laws restricted speech, association and the press, forcing publishers like the New Youth to constantly reiterate they were not creating political criticisms, just simply talking to the youth of the nation. Both Hu Shih and Chen Duxiu knew the most egregious problems facing China was her inability to toss the yoke of 2000 years of Confucianism. Both men believed it was necessary to destroy some of the old traditions to awaken their countrymen, particularly the Chinese youth so they could build a new modern state. Chen Duxiu was perhaps more inclined to want to destroy the confucian ideological bases that held up the monarchy. In 1917 his New Youth began to carry out a program calling for dramatic reforms. At first the New Youth evaluated the pro's and con's of vernacular writing over classical; of western science vs chinese traditional beliefs; the virtues of confucianism and so forth. The New Culture leaders began calling for a rejection of the old traditional values and adoptions of western ideals, something they colloquially called “Sai xiansheng /Mr. Science” and “De Xiansheng / Mr. Democracy” who would replace “Mr. Confucius”. Doing such things they argued would strengthen the new Chinese state. Lu Xun wrote famous essays like the Diary of a Madman and the True Story of Ah Q criticizing classical Chinese writing and confucianism. Lu Xun would soon be regarded as one of modern China's first great writers. The effectiveness of his stories drew from a sort of anger towards Confucianism. For example with the Diary of a Madman, the narrator slowly goes insane, convinced the Chinese people around him are all cannibals. Here is a sort of translated exurb ‘It has only just dawned on me, that all these years I have been living in a place where for four thousand years human flesh has been eaten. They eat human beings, so they may eat me. I look up the history of cannibalism in a book of Chinese history, but all he finds in the book are the two phrases Confucian virtue and morality and eat people. Finally convinced that I may have eaten several pieces of my sister's flesh unwittingly….Perhaps there are still children who haven't eaten men? Save the Children”. Within Chinese history, cannibalism has been a powerful image of when a society has lost all of its values and morality and for Lu Xun he was basically assaulting the entire basis of the Beiyang government and their society using this metaphor. Others like Li Dazhao by 1918 began expressing support of the October Revolution in Russia and in september of 1918, a young Mao Zedong became his assistant at the Peking University Library where they organized the Marxist Research Society.  The Twenty-One Demands had ushered anti-japanese campaigns and the New Cultural movement. Western ideas of science, democracy, criticisms of traditional chinese customs, literature, history, philosophy, religion, social and political issues were all argued over. Political and social ideas like liberalism, pragmatism, utilitarianism, anarchism, socialism, communism all the “isms” were being measured against China's traditional culture like one of them held the answer to solve her problems. The youthful students were caught up in all of this, and they decided to hold mass demonstrations on May 7th of 1919, the fourth anniversary of Japan's ultimatum for the Twenty-One Demands. Events however forced these students to initiate their plans 3 days earlier on the morning of May 4th. Student leaders met at Peking college of Law and Political Science. They came from 13 colleges and universities, including the University of Peking, the heart of them all. During their meetings they came up with 5 resolutions to press upon their government: Number 1) To oppose the granting of Shandong to the Japanese under former German concessions. Number 2) To draw and increase awareness of China's precarious position to the masses in China. Number 3) To recommend a large-scale gathering in Beijing. Number 4) To promote the creation of a Beijing student union. And Number 5) To hold a demonstration that afternoon in protest to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Of the five resolutions, two had special importance: to awaken the Chinese people to the facts of foreign oppression and domestic treachery, and to create a permanent organization of Peking students. At 1:30pm on the 4th, over 3000 students gathered at Tiananmen square. They represented 13 colleges and universities in Beijing. The Beiyang Government tried to prevent their mass meeting by dispatching the Ministry of Education to Peking University at 11am, but he was unsuccessful at stopping the students. By 2pm, the students began to march while distributing leaflets along their way. They carried large placards with slogans written in French, English and Chinese. Slogans read “struggle for the sovereignty externally, get rid of the national traitors at home” “do away with the twenty-one demands” “don't sign the treaty of versailles”. They also demanded the Japanese collaborationists Cao Rulin, Lu Zongyu and Zhang Zongxiang be brought to justice. They made their way to Beijing foreign Legation quarter, but they were blocked at the gates and refused entry. They waited over 2 hours, demanding entry into the quarter until they were told it was never going to happen. The students then headed north towards the residence of Cao Rulin, the Minister of Finance at the time. They considered him the worst of the treacherous bunch. They rushed into his residence hunting him down and the police intervened. Students were beaten up and 32 were arrested. After the arrests, martial law was enacted around the area surrounding the Legation Quarter.  Immediately after everything had gone down, the students began to organize the intellectual leaders to support their cause. They tried to win over the public through more demonstrations, mass meetings,  public lectures and so forth. The established contacts amongst the masses of less educated, illiterate peoples to try and secure support from the business sector to boycott Japanese products. Their ideals began to spread throughout all of China. Chow Tse-tung a harvard graduate had this to say about the feeling of the time. country. "The Movement's aims, soon won sympathy from the new merchants, industrialists, and urban workers, and the Peking Government was forced to compromise in its foreign and domestic policies. This victory of the new coalition facilitated the expansion of the cultural and intellectual reforms it advocated”. Within two months of the incident, a series of student demonstrations and strikes managed to form an alliance between students, businessmen, industrialists and workers. Though on the surface it looked like a purely student movement, the May Fourth Movement was the logical result of the efforts of the intellectual leaders of the New Culture Movement. It was the professors, teachers and writers who had inspired the youthful students to form the mass movement. They were supported wholeheartedly by the intellectual leaders and this formed a de facto alliance between reformists and revolutionaries. The New Culture Movement swelled from this alliance, drawing in people who would have been indifferent to it. Everyone began questioning the old traditional culture, it was like an ideological virus.  Political organizations, such as the Communist Party of China developed during this time. Among the masses caught up in the movement was a young Mao Zedong who became an active member of the New People's Study Society. At the time he was the editor of the Student Union Publication of Hunan province which promoted students cause and was critical of the Beiyang government. The weekly publication was quickly suppressed by the military governor of Hunan. This only further intensified Mao Zedong's anti government activities and drove him further and further towards Marxism. Later in 1939, as the CCP senior leader Mao Zedong would claim the May Fourth Movement was a stage leading toward the fulfillment of the Chinese Communist Revolution “The May Fourth Movement twenty years ago marked a new stage in China's bourgeois-democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism. The cultural reform movement which grew out of the May Fourth Movement was only one of the manifestations of this revolution. With the growth and development of new social forces in that period, a powerful camp made its appearance in the bourgeois-democratic revolution, a camp consisting of the working class, the student masses and the new national bourgeoisie. Around the time of the May Fourth Movement, hundreds of thousands of students courageously took their place in the van. In these respects the May Fourth Movement went a step beyond the Revolution of 1911”.Other prominent CCP figures would be born from the movement. In fall of 1919 at Wuchang, Lin Biao became an organizer for the Social Welfare Society and the Social Benefit Book Store. In September of 1919 a young Zhou Enlai returned from studying in France and joined the Awakening Society in Tientsin. Yet while I just emphasized the communist leaders that emerged, the May Fourth Movement was dominated primarily by western ideas. Liberalism, anarchism, utopian socialism and marxism gradually saw a wedge drive between them forming two competing factions. Mr. Chow Tse-Tung said of this ''The Movement, gradually became involved in politics, and the united front of new intellectuals collapsed. The liberals (reformists) lost their zeal or turned away from political activity, whereas the left wing (the revolutionary intellectuals) of the Movement took the expedient political step of allying itself with the nationalists to overthrow the warlord Peking regime . " Prior to the May Fourth Movement, marxism was not really picking up much speed amongst the intellectuals in China. Li Dazhao just a few months prior to the May fourth movement was the only real Bolshevik in China. Excluding his students, Li Dazhao's views of the Bolshevik revolution that had recently occurred in Russia was not really taken seriously as a tool to reconstruct China, let alone the world. In January of 1919, Li Dazhao called upon the people of Asia “to rise against the European imperialist robbers, only by overthrowing the capitalist classes of the whole world”. With this he argued the oppressed peoples would do away with the injustice of the international order that allowed the great powers to continue humiliating China. In February of 1919, while everyone was anticipating the outcome of the Paris Peace Conference, Li Dazhao called it “the european division of the spoils conference”. Many intellectuals in China still pinned their hopes on Versailles, when the outcome came many were driven to radicalism. Many were driven to socialism and there are many reasons why it was so attractive. Many of the intellectuals saw within socialism many of the same ideals of western democracy. However many of them rejected the existing political and social order of the west…and why wouldn't they, the west was exploiting their nation and others. In many ways they viewed socialism as a sort of marriage between their nationalistic ideals and anti-imperialism. China had suffered greatly due to imperialism from the west and Japan. When they heard about the Bolshevik revolution against their tyrannical Tsarist government it was seen very much as a anti-imperialist movement. In so many ways, the May Fourth Movement of 1919 was akin to a Chinese Renaissance, certainly with its focus upon science and democracy.  Following the May Fourth Movement came the creation of the CCP in 1921, but also the revitalization of the Kuomintang. Now this is also right smack dab in the middle of the Warlord Era. I am choosing to keep these things separated because the podcasts would just go all over the place, but beginning roughly in 1919 major Warlords would commence in this episode Game of Thrones scenario. Wars, propaganda, diplomacy, alliances, its a crazy history with numerous big figures and it will rage all the way until the Japanese invasion of 1931. We will be stuck in this period for…well I have no idea haha. On my personal channel I tried to tackle the warlord Era, it ended up being 7 episodes long, with one long format to encompass it around an hour and 47 minutes long. Even with that, I barely scratched the Warlord Era, I only tackled the most well known battles and figures, I missed countless ones, thus I am hoping in this podcast series to do a much more full job. I will admit its difficult to get good sources as a non Mandarin speaker, but during my experience researching for my youtube channel I luckily came across a lot. Not to toot my own horn, but other than literally CCTV run channels, I think I am the only person on Youtube who even tried to cover the warlord period effectively. I will give credit to a fellow Quebecois Jesse Alexander from the Great War Channel, they did do a large summarization of the Warlord Era. Anyways getting off track, I now want to finish this episode up just explaining the greater influence the May Fourth Movement would have. The emergence of the CCP on the political stage as a form of anti-imperialism was foreshadowed by Li Dazhao. Li Dazhao had been one of the main advocates emphasizing anti-imperialism and political action. His students were pressed to go out and influence the common people of China, from the urban cities to the rural villages. After the May Fourth Movement, Li Dazhao became a major leader and many flocked to him. Li Dazhao's library at the Peking University where Mao Zedong was working as an assistant became the regular meeting place for student leaders. There they came under his influence. The Marxist Research Society organized by Li Dazhao sent its members across China to spread their ideals. I am no fan at all of communism, but like it or not, this is a hell of a grassroots movement that obviously would become successful in the end. Its important to learn how such mechanism came to be, how they operated and so forth. Li Dazhao did not have the firmest understanding of Marxism when he began championing it to China, but he ignited the flame that would turn China ultimately in the Peoples Republic of China. He offered Marxism as a sort of revolutionary ideology that would save China. He did this in a very anti-imperialistic environment, thus it was highly palatable. Chen Duxiu was also drawn to Marxism, a lot so because of the Shandong Problem. He was disgusted with what he saw as treachery on the part of the imperialistic nations and leaders within the Beiyang government. Now Chen Duxiu took up a stance of not getting political involved, that was until the May Fourth Movement. After this he quite literally jumped into the heck of it.  Chen Duxiu was so politically active, he was arrested on June 11th of 1919 after being caught distributing leaflets across Beijing. He spent 83 days in prison, once he got out he resigned from his position as a professor at Peking University and moved to Shanghai which was becoming a Marxist hub. Numerous Chinese intellectuals became radicalized and this gradually broke the unity of the movement apart. Hu Shih for example had studied in the United States and was deeply influenced by John Dewey and thus came to represent the reformist intellectual side. Hu Shih would go on to write countless articles arguing against the adoption of “isms” and doctrines and instead to suggest it be better to study the practical social problems. Doctrines that advocated fundamental solutions to social problems, were not entirely irrelevant, but probably hindrances to their solutions according to Hu Shih. Li Dazhao once wrote a letter to Hu Shih arguing that specific social problems could not be solved without the participation of the masses, thus there was a need to instill a consciousness of society's problems as a whole, so they could relate this to their own individual problems. Li Dazhao asserted “intellectuals need to go out and work in the practical movement, which to him meant the propagation of socialist theory and its advocacy as a tool to eliminate the non-laboring bureaucratic robbers." Li Dazhao furthered this by arguing to his followers like Mao Zedong the necessity for those studying revolutionary ideals to really study the conditions of the world, so they could adapt the theory to said conditions.  So there was kind of a battle between Hu Shih and Li Dazhao. Hu Shih advocated for solving China's problems gradually through social reforms, while Li Dazhao wanted revolution. Now again Hu Shih was deeply influenced at the time by John Dewey, and as American Sinologist Maurice Meisner said about the debates between Hu Shih and Li Dazhao  “"Hu Shih had formulated his ideas in terms of the American philosophical and sociological tradition . . . The philosophy and sociology of John Dewey did not need to be concerned with the structure of society as a whole because in the American social context it could be optimistically assumed that the whole world would take care of itself. Dewey's program was essentially conservative, assuming that reform would take place within the framework of existing institutions; but it was a product of a society that could afford conservatism, a society that could solve particular social problems because there already existed a viable social structure and a general consensus on the direction of social progress . . .As applied to China, Dewey's program was neither conservative nor radical but largely irrelevant. After the Revolution of 1911 China was confronted with a crisis of social, cultural and political disintegration of massive proportions. The extreme poverty and widespread illite:racy of the masses of the Chinese people and the lack of even the rudiments of responsible political authority negated the possibility of the general social consensus that Dewey's program presupposed. Because of the overwhelming social crisis within and the threat of foreign aggression from without, the very existence of the Chinese nation was in doubt at the time . . . To advocate the study of particular social problems and to call for social reform (piecemeal) was to assume that there existed or would soon arise a viable social and political structure within which problems could be and reforms implemented. This assumption was unwarranted either by the existing situation or by any realistic hopes for the immediate future. In view of the total crisis of Chinese society, Dewey's program was doomed to failure."  The debate between the two revealed a crucial issue, the necessity of changing words into action. You can criticize Marxism on multiple grounds and rightfully so, but I don't think anyone would disagree its not effective action wise. By its very nature Marxism enforces real action to take place. By the mid 1920's Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu easily looked like they would assume leadership positions in the CCP, and of course in the background was Li Dazhao's assistant Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong was greatly influenced by the May Fourth Movement and he saw it as a great dividing line between the earlier stage of a bourgeois-democratic revolution in China and for him a later stage, the awakening of the working class in alliance with progressive bourgeoisie. As said by Mao Zedong in his essay on New Democracy:   " China's cultural or ideological front, the period preceding the May fourth Movement and the period following it form two distinct historical periods. Before the Movement, the struggle on China's cultural front was a struggle between the new culture of the bourgeoisie and the old culture of the feudal class ... the ideology of the new learning played the revolutionary role of fighting the Chinese feudal ideology and was in the service of the bourgeois democratic revolution of the old period ... But since the May fourth Movement, things have gone differently. Since then a brand new cultural force of fresh strength has appeared in China, namely, the ideas of Communist culture guided by the Chinese Communists: · the Communist world outlook and the Communist theory of social revolution. The May fourth Movement occurred in 1919, and in 1921 the Chinese Communist Party was founded and China's labor movement actually began . . . Before the May fourth Movement, the new culture of China was a culture of the old-democratic character and a part of the capitalist cultural revolution of the world bourgeoisie. Since the May fourth Movement, it has become a culture of new-democratic character and a part of the socialist cultural revolution of the world proletariat . . . What is called new democratic culture is the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal culture of the broad masses of the people . ·· . New democratic culture is, in a word, the and anti-feudal culture of the broad masses of the people under the leadership of the world proletariat”. Overall the May Fourth Movement had a profound effect on the development of modern China. It convinced many Chinese intellectuals, correctly or incorrectly, the only adequate response to imperialism was revolutionary action seen in form of Communism. Yet something stood in the way of turning China into a communist nation. Warlords. Then after the Warlords were defeated, Chiang Kai-Shek emerged as the leader of the fractured nation, forced to lead the fight for China's survival against the Empire of Japan. Yet the CCP put its head down, they worked, worked very hard and waited for the right moment. When it came, they struck, and they won.  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. The May fourth movement was a watershed moment for modern Chinese history. In many ways it was the great moment where two dividing forces emerged that would be embodied later in Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalists and Mao Zedong's CCP. The fight for the future of China had begun, though it remains in the background as the age of the Warlords has come. 

In Episode 358 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Anne Stevenson-Yang, the founder of J Capital Research, which publishes highly diligenced research reports on over-valued, publicly traded companies, with a particular focus on China. Anne is also the author of several books on China and the Chinese political economy, including “Hello Kitty” and “Wild Ride: A Short History of the Opening and Closing of the Chinese Economy.” The first hour of this episode is a conversation about the history of the Chinese economic miracle, as seen through the eyes of someone who experienced those changes firsthand. Anne recounts the early phases of China's liberalization in the 1980s, the post-Tiananmen political crackdown and subsequent rapid growth of the 1990s, and how the Asian Financial crisis at the end of that decade set the scene for the go-go years of the early 2000s, culminating in the Beijing summer Olympics and the 2008 financial crisis, which was in many ways a crisis enabled by the trade and capital imbalances of China's export-driven growth model and rapid economic integration into the global economy. In the second hour, Anne and Demetri explore the China that has emerged under the leadership of Xi Jinping and why Anne believes that this represents a dark turn for the country. They discuss the enduring impact of COVID-19 on China's economy, on the psychology of its people, and how the communist party's response to the pandemic showcased the country's systems of surveillance, including its social credit system, which has its own analog in the form of Western social media and surveillance companies. You can subscribe to our premium content and access our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you want to join in on the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community, which includes Q&A calls with guests, access to special research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners, you can also do that on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode of Hidden Forces, you can help support the show by doing the following: Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | CastBox | RSS Feed Write us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Subscribe to our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/ Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Subscribe and Support the Podcast at https://hiddenforces.io Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas Episode Recorded on 03/19/2024

A practitioner in China recalls his path of cultivation. After obtaining the Fa in 1998, he and his family follow Falun Dafa principles, and go to Tiananmen to validate and protect the Fa. He then endures years of hardship and persecution under the CCP. He emerges without regret, having helped many guards and prisoners to […]

The Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, China in 1989  is one of the most important, noteworthy tragedies in modern Chinese history. It was the biggest protest against communism rule in over sixty years. But thanks to the consistent suppression and propaganda of the modern Chinese government…  many if not most Chinese citizens today...don't even know it ever happened. Why is the communist regime in charge of China so insistent on erasing the history of this event? What IS the history of this event? I learned so much about communist China's history this week and now really fully understand why the Tiananmen Square  protests occurred, and why they were violently ended. I hope you learn a bunch too and get some laughs in as well. Hail Nimrod! Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camps are ON SALE!  BadMagicMerch.com Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: We will all be donating this month to Teach For America (amount TBD) - a diverse network of leaders who work to confront the injustice of education inequity through teaching. An awesome group of meatsacks doing their best to make sure poor kids - not just middle class and rich kids - also get a good crack and going to a good college to help improve their futures. You can learn more about Teach for America or get involved by going to teachforamerica.org Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1AgOQxbDDcIMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.