China the aggressor in the South Sea.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is today is Gordon G. Chang and you could find him on Twitter at Gordon J. Chang and he is our expert in the Far East, China, Taiwan and Gordon’s Sunday Morning. What’s going on?

0:18 Speaker 2 Well, China has pressured Taiwan with thirty airplanes intruding into Taiwan airspace along with nine naval vessels. This occurred immediately after President Biden had a phone call with Sijenping on Tuesday, where Biden talked about stable relations. Unfortunately, I don’t think the Chinese leader saw the phone call in the same way.

0:42 We now have China acting even more belligerently around Taiwan, and this is getting serious. The Chinese are actually even threatening World War three over the Philippines. China has been trying to take Second Tamas Shol and other features away from Vanilla. The US has reasserted that will defend Taiwan Philippines according to our Mutual Defense Treaty. The Chinese are

1:06 very upset about that as well. So we see China probing all along its periphery.

1:13 Speaker 1 Wow, that’s you know. In Taiwan, the earthquake, what the heck is going on?

1:22 Speaker 2 There was an earthquake on the east coast of Taiwan seven point two or seven point four magnitude seven point two according to the Tiwees authorities, seven point four according to the US Geological Survey. Fortunately, there were very few deaths.

1:39 There’s about twelve reported. There probably will be a few more. But that really is a testament to the new building codes in Taiwan. They had a horrible earthquake twenty five years ago, they learned their lessons and since then buildings have been built to stricter standards, and that has prevented this earthquake, which is quite large on the Richter scale,

2:03 from being much worse than it than it was, So that’s good news.

2:09 Speaker 1 We’ve all seen some of the buildings tilt over, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, where they almost buildings or new buildings under the new uh if you know, if you don’t, you.

2:24 Speaker 2 Don’t, Yeah, I think some of them were new. They did not withstand a very big earthquake, which is understandable. But clearly we have seen, I mean throughout the island of Taiwan, the buildings have been constructed to much higher standards, and that is because the Taiwanese learned a lesson the quarter century ago with that horrible clake.

2:50 Speaker 1 What have you heard about that phone call between President Biden and President c.

3:00 Speaker 2 The readouts from Beijing and Washington are quite different, as to be expected. That China emphasized what Sijen Pink said to Biden about Taiwan as is traditional. Washington’s readouts have been blanned talking about cooperation. But clearly right now there are problems because as the Biden administration continues to talk to China, the Chinese just continue to delay. They do

3:31 not think that the Biden administration will impose the severe costs that are necessary, so they’re continuing with belligerent action. This is not going in the right direction by any means. And also it occurs against the backdrop of China fueling proxy wars in Ukraine, North Africa, and of course in Israel.

3:51 So Beijing is disrupting the international system and the US is not taking adequate measures to contain this.

4:01 Speaker 1 I understand a Guam are the Chinese present Yan?

4:07 Speaker 2 Now well, there always been a lot of Chinese present. They come in through the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, which is just north of Guam. Guam is a sovereign US territory, but the Chinese can come in through Saipan and Sipan they basically enter visa free and that gives them a greater access to Guam, which is part of

4:31 the United States. And we know that throughout the Pacific, the Chinese migrants have been bringing crime with them. And it’s not just normal crime. This is crime that the Communist Party likes because it destabilizes those societies which have generally been friendly to the US. So China believes that it can take over the Pacific and the United States.

4:55 And this is not just the criticism of Biden, but also of his predecessors that we’ve had a series presidents who have ignored this important strategic area and the Chinese have taken advantage of our being oblivious.

5:08 Speaker 1 Well that’s something, and well, we talked about China, we talked about the discussions. What other topic do we have left?

5:20 Speaker 2 That would be North Korea? In the Security Council, Russia vetoed a continuation of UN’s monitoring of sanctions against North Korea. There’s something called the Panel of Experts which twice a year reports on sanctions compliance Russia. And this is the first time this has occurred. That a panel of experts report or continuation, but the panel was stopped. And this

5:46 is because Russia has been sending a lot of important weapons technology to North Korea. This is the result of the September meeting last year when Putin met Kim jong un near a lot of Astok and they made a deal North Korea to supply weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine and the Russians providing ballistic missile and perhaps

6:10 other technology to the North Koreans.

6:14 Speaker 1 Now, there was another report that there were Chinese weapons found in the Gaza area. Have you heard that at all?

6:22 Speaker 2 Well, certainly because China has been supplying Hamas Hezbula and the Hufi militia with substantial quantities of weapons. So China is deeply involved in the conflict. Is supporting Iran to the HILP. So, for instance, Iran would not be able to afford its attack on Israel were it not for elevated purchases of Iranian oil. Last year, China purchased ninety

6:47 percent of Iran’s exports of crude oil, which gives you the extent of the support. And of course China has been providing diplomatic and propaganda support. But as you point out, it’s also weapons.

7:02 Speaker 1 Nine is quite a lot. I mean, would you then call Iran it’s China, is it’s protectorate because they need the oil?

7:16 Speaker 2 I think it’s they’d like the oil, of course, but they also want to remove the US from the Middle East. They’d like to destroy Israel because it’s democracy and because it’s a US friend, so Russia. I mean, China has gone all in on this. Another oil statistic which is important is that last year China’s volume of purchases of

7:37 Iranian oil was sixty percent above its volume of purchases in twenty seventeen. Twenty seventeen’s relevant because that was the last year before the Trump administration reimpose sanctions on the purchase of Iranian oil. So you can see the depth of China’s support for Iran. And then of course there was the announcement of a twenty five year, four hundred

7:58 billion dollars strategic partnersh between Tran and Beijing. And so China is making investments in Iran that are supporting the regime and making sure that it is able to attack Israel and American friends.

8:14 Speaker 1 Well, Gordon ge Chang, thank you for giving the American people, an update of what’s going on in the East. And thank you for everything you do. And you’re a member at the Gatestone Institute. Nina Rosenwald does a great job, and thank you again.

8:31 Speaker 2 Thank you so much, John, I really appreciate it.