The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 18 September 2019

Air Date: 
September 18, 2019

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, and David Livingston, The Space Show
 
Hour One
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 1, Block A: Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, in re:  East Turkestan: see Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization: UNPO  https://unpo.org.  Ben Emmerson, Queen’s representative, calls what China is doing to calls what China is doing to Uyghurs – sterilizing woman, crushing the culture, evident war crimes – plain genocide. Built crematoria in Xinjiang destroying knowledge and memory, to destroy the people entirely. Exactly the same as Tibet. 
        Sun Yat-sen developed the notion that a nation is a geographical area and a genetic/ethnic people; winds up echoing Third Reich theories.  China’s attempt to create a pure race of Chinese*. News today that Chinese hospitals “will find a way to keep Chinese leaders alive to the age of 150.”  A cult falling in on itself; CCP of 80 million.   Take body fluids form newborn infants, and internal organs from young people, to install in the leadership.    This is eugenics, and a direct heir to Hitlerism.
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* . . . Beijing’s “new generation” of policies toward minorities, which is to create a pure Chinese race.  At the same time, Chinese scholars are putting forth the notion that all cultures and languages came from China, the so-called “Out of Hunan” theory. 
       Beijing already claims the Chinese people did not evolve from a common African ancestor but sprang independently from China, a theory aided by the discovery of the controversial Peking Man bones [fossil specimens dated from roughly 750,000 years ago].
       These fascinating narratives are, unfortunately, the theoretical justifications for the Communist Party to rule the world. Sound absurd? Yes, but Xi Jinping has been hinting that China is the world’s only sovereign state
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 1, Block B: Alan Tonelson, independent economic policy analyst who blogs at RealityChek and tweets at @AlanTonelson, in re: China's social credit system for companies.  on.wsj.com/2lZDufb.  Social credit – that’s obeisance to the CCP – is being extended to businesses. Soon, will also include US businesses in China!  Recently, a US firm that mentioned the name of Taiwan on its website got a bad social credit score. This now includes Cathay Pacific, where 250 employees were fired for having participated in Hong Kong protests. As this system extends into US firms, Beijing will weaponize social credit and use US companies to fight Washington’s policies.  United Airlines, serving Taiwan, has been threatened.  US companies historically have turned cartwheels to stay in China on the theory that the Chinese market is so wonderful that it's worth doing anything to stay in it. Also, the system will be used by Chinese companies in the US. 
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 1, Block C:  Cleo Paskal, visiting Trudeau Fellow, University of Montreal, and associate Fellow, Chatham House; and Michael Yon, veteran war correspondent covering the Hong Kong protests.
Cleo Paskal:  Pence cancels meeting with the PRC's Guadalcanal. @CleoPaskal @GordonGChang @TheDailyBeast 
The globally-relevant matter of the Solomon Islands, with Cleo Paskal, visiting Trudeau Fellow, University of Montreal, and associate Fellow, Chatham House.
       The Solomon Islands accepted China’s wooing and cash, and caused VP Mike Pence’s cancellation of his imminent visit. China has thrown money at retail, infrastructure, educational programs: a broad scale of engagement by China. Further, many Island officials have trained in China, and get free trips there and around the region. The US absolutely should emulate this. Also, perhaps funds go directly to officials . . .  Taiwan's loss of diplomatic recognition in the Pacific.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-diplomacy-pence-exclusive/exclusive-pence-rebuffs-solomon-islands-pm-after-nation-cuts-ties-with-taiwan-idUSKBN1W22WK
Michael Yon:.  . . . Sophisticated Hong Kong protestors change tactics weekly or more often; extremely swiftly. (In Afghanistan, for example, protestors were mostly farmers; changed tactics more or less annually.)
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 1, Block D: Swatick Majumdar, Digital Entertainment Ventures, in re:  India & Kashmir. More geographical and political than religious. After 1947, Kashmir wanted to be an independent country; managed to do that for months until Pakistan moved to take it militarily.  Kashmiri leader in October went to Indian maharaja, asked to be under India’s wing with much autonomy. Pakistan claims that since most of the inhabitants are Muslim, it has the right to seize Kashmir.  Modi says that every Indian citizen enjoys exactly the same rights.  China?  It sides with Pakistan in order to have a foothold there. Economically, China is more aligned with India.  Beijing has committed roughly $60 mil to Pakistan. Of course, Pakistan can't pay that back.
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 2, Block A:  Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research in Hong Kong & author, Shadow Banking and the Rise of Capitalism in China, in re: The Fed cut rates by 25 bps; threaten not to again.  HK hotel occupancy down 30%; jewellery stores down 40%.  Economy is sagging: banks have had to pull IPOs.  Eight hundred mil write-off in real estate. How much pressure can the economy take?  S0 far, doing pretty well.
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 2, Block B:  Bunching Tsering, vice president of the International Campaign for Tibet, in re: A new Tibet bill in Congress, the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2019.  Beijing has decided it may appoint the Panchen Lama (apparently having murdered the previous one), and so kidnapped a six-year-old boy twenty years ago, raised him in CCP propaganda, probably in China; and that it may make pronouncements about HH the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation.  Trying to Sinicize Tibetan Buddhism.  Similar to the wholesale disaster going on in East Turkestan, called Xinjiang. The Party Secretary of Tibet was so successful in his liquidations in Tibet that they put him in charge of Xinjiang. Tibet is training ground for the worst abuses elsewhere in China. https://savetibet.org/new-bill-will-sanction-chinese-officials-for-interfering-in-dalai-lama-reincarnation-update-tibetan-policy-act/
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 2, Block C:  Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover, in re:  American culture
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 2, Block D:  Bill Whalen, Hoover, Area 45; & Forbes, in re: Joe Biden.  In the first Democratic debate, Harris accused Biden of being a racist; in the second, only suggested that he has no clue what it is to be Black.  This time, Julian Castro attacked him as being, in effect, excessively forgetful – a doddering old man – but that backfired against Castro. Biden’s  [astounding –ed.] “Cornpop” tale. Joe Biden’s low bar.    Elizabeth Warren.
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 3, Block A:  Salena Zito, Washington Examiner Pittsburgh-based columnist & reporter; columnist at the New York Post; author, The Great Revolt; in re:     .
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 3, Block B:  Josh Rogin, in re:   Iran and Syria
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 3, Block C: Lou Ann Hammond, DrivingtheNation, in re: GM senior hourly workers on strike (48,000 workers all together) average $90K per year; they’re striking at GM because that’s the manufacturer who’s making the most money. Workers explain: we took huge pay cuts after the 2008 crash; now GM can begin to pay back.  Last night, GM said it would cut off all workers’s health care at the end of this month!  Must assume that UAW will pay for COBRA out of its $750 mil fund, because GM won’t.  Rumor is that GM is losing $50 mil a day. There’s been much misuse of funds at UAW, apparently both top-level and local.  Pay to play?
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 3, Block D:  Gunnar Gregory, Vancery, in re:
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 4, Block A:  Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition That Reshaped Our World, by Larrie D. Ferreiro 
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 4, Block B: Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition That Reshaped Our World, by Larrie D. Ferreiro 
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 4, Block C: Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition That Reshaped Our World, by Larrie D. Ferreiro 
Wednesday 18 September 2019 / Hour 4, Block D:  Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition That Reshaped Our World, by Larrie D. Ferreiro 
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