Chinese threatens US over McCarthy meeting Taiwan President.

0:00 Speaker 1 Rita. I understand we have our good friend Gordon chang Lin yep.

0:03 Speaker 2 Indeed, we have a great Asia expert and great foreign policy Gordon Chang is Twitter handle is Gordon g chang Gordon. Let’s just hop right to this amazing clip that we just heard from John. The full interview is going to be on the Cats Roundtable Sunday, as you just heard, but it dovetails on the other big news today that

0:22 Russia has formally charged the Wall Street Journal reporter. How complex does it make it, you know, with what’s going on with Russia now China. Give us your sense of all this, Gordon.

0:34 Speaker 3 Chang, Well, letibird. Putin is taking hostages, and when the United States devotes a lot of effort to try to free one, he just takes another. So we’ve got to stop this cycle. You know, as much as we would like to have seen Britney Griner freed, what she did, what Biden did by freeing her is paving the way

0:55 for the taking of other Americans. We need to get all Americans out of Russia. We probably should do the same thing with China, because China’s been taking hostages as well, and they are now holding Americans which is basically the same as what the ex Soviets are doing in Russia.

1:13 Speaker 2 Wait, how many Americans is China having out holding.

1:17 Speaker 3 There’s about three or four who’ve been taken under very suspicious circumstances. And of course the most famous hostage situation were the two Michaels who were taken in December twenty eighteen, just after Canada detained Munglong Joe, the chief financial officer of Huawei, at the request of the Trump administration, because she was involved apparently in busting American sanctions on Iran.

1:43 So really, China has no compunction in all of this. They don’t agree, they don’t adhere to their obligations under diplomatic treaties. So it’s not safe for Americans in China. Just it’s like it’s not safe for Americans in Russia.

2:00 Speaker 4 Ordinate’s Richard Winberg. Good to have you back on the show. As I read the articles about this and listening to you, seems to me what we’ve done is we’ve created a cottage industry for hostage taking, and we’re negotiating against ourselves on a constant basis. All they have to is grab an American and then they have something to trade for

2:19 to be eased up on sanctions, sort of let one of their spies loose. In fact, in today’s Wall Street Journal, gordon first paid story is as an office just dealing with hostage taking led by an ambassador the United States.

2:35 What do you think about this?

2:37 Speaker 3 I mean, this is just wrong. I mean we know that this dynamic occurs, and yet we continued to try to free Americans in circumstances where they should not have been going to Russia in the first place. And so really what we’re at the point that we just need to get Americans out of some of these extremely dangerous

2:57 countries because we should not the undermining American national security to free Americans who went to countries where they know they shouldn’t have gone in the first place.

3:08 Speaker 2 You know, Gordon, what do you make of all the rhetoric that’s coming from China. They are, of course upset that we have members of Congress, including the House Speaker, who met with Taiwan’s president. We also know McCall is over there now in Taiwan. Where do you see all of this going? Because they sent the ships, the Chinese

3:27 ships around Taiwan, they say they are furious.

3:31 Speaker 3 Yeah, well, they’ve sanctioned a couple of institutions, Huston Institute, the Reagan Library, and that’s kabuki. But the Fujian Provincial Maritime Administration has announced a three day exercise in which they will board ships on the high seas. Now, if the United States has had any consistent foreign policy over two and a half centuries, it’s been the defense of

3:56 freedom of navigation. So what China is doing in the Taiwan straight right now is a direct challenge not only to the United States but to this whole concept of an open world. So it is critical to see what Biden will do if indeed they aboard a ship.

4:14 Speaker 1 Is it getting a critical time or they’re just playing with each other.

4:19 Speaker 3 You know a lot of people in America think that the Chinese are just playing, including for instance, Mark Milly, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And clearly that’s the attitude of the State Department in the Oval Office.

4:32 But one of these incidents could go very wrong, and so even if the Chinese were just playing, this is extremely dangerous. Now, I don’t think the Chinese are just playing. You’ve got to go back and look at patterns in history.

4:47 I mean, how many times in history has a militant regime embarked on a fast militarization and not launched a war of aggression. I can’t think of any That’s exactly what the Chinese are doing right now. So we need to be prepared for what is evidently coming. But we’ve got a political class and a Pentagon that doesn’t seem

5:07 to think that this is such a big deal.

5:09 Speaker 4 Court And it’s even worse than that because you had the White House, yes say, taking a victory bow bragging about what a great job they did in leaving Afghanistan. I mean, I thought I was one of the most shameful performances I’ve ever seen.

5:22 Speaker 1 What do you think?

5:23 Speaker 2 And by the way, I also think it emboldens it was such a sign that whole withdrawal was such a disaster. Kirby’s actually said it wasn’t chaotic and he was proud of the way they handled it.

5:33 Speaker 4 What say you, Gordon?

5:35 Speaker 3 Yeah, this is bag dad, Bob. This is the worst propaganda that we have seen because the Biden administration I think would have done itself and credit if it just acknowledged what was obvious that they made a mistake. Now Obviously they don’t think they made a mistake, which is even worse. But clearly this was a chaotic withdrawal. Clearly

5:55 this was not in the interest of anybody except for the Taliban, and we haven’t adminished that will not say. What is clear this is the Emperor has no clothes and it has real consequences.

6:09 Speaker 1 Well, Gordon, have a happy week to weekend and you do you celebrate Easter?

6:17 Speaker 3 I celebrate Easter. I’m a Protestant in a family of Catholics, so I actually observed blint this year. I gave up my favorite food and I am so looking forward to the end of today.

6:31 Speaker 1 Friday. We love you, thank you so much, and we’ll catch up with you again real soon.

6:37 Speaker 3 Happy Easter, guys, and thank you so much. I really appreciate it.