The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 15 August 2018

Air Date: 
August 15, 2018

Photo: Flag of the First East Turkestan Republic.
The First East Turkistan Republic (ETR), officially the Islamic Republic of East Turkistan (Шәрқий Түркистан Ислам Җумхурийити, Sherqiy Türkistan Islam Jumhuriyiti), was a short-lived, breakaway, would-be Islamic republic founded on 12 November, 1933. Although primarily the product of an independence movement of the Uyghur population living there, the ETR was Turkish-ethnic in character, including Kyrgyz and other Turkic peoples in its government and its population. With the sacking of Kashgar in 1934 by Hui warlords nominally allied with the Kuomintang government in Nanjing, the first ETR was effectively eliminated
 
In 1916, Russians had begun to slaughter Kazakhs, some of whom escaped to China, where now there’s an Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.  Presumably, Mountain Kazakhs are among the million-odd (two million?) Muslims whom the Chinese Communist Party has shipped off to concentration camps and “re-education” camps. 
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com
 
Hour One
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 1, Block A: Tara O, adjunct Fellow at the Pacific Forum and Fellow at the Institute for Corean-American Studies, in re:  . . .  the main extant trade barriers between North & South Korea by now are just the US sanctions. Today is Unification Day; Moon Jae-in’s goal as ever is unification. “We’ll give the North all these things and eventually they’ll give up their nukes.”  Oops – counter-policy to that of the US. Alliance? Low-level federation? If he latter, North Korea could dominate the entire peninsula: The South administration wants to support the North, planning substantially to reduce its military, as the North has not; looks rather like unilateral disarmament. The South Korean economy:  it’s stagnant, and Moon blames his previous Administration. But he raised the minimum wage — to the dismay and now discordance of small businesses, which can’t afford it. Moon’s approval ratings are dropping, to betw 50-60%.   Moon has no intention of changing his policies – he’s an ideologue; also, he’s in a big rush to connect railroads and do a bunch of other things by the end of this year. IS that the deadline for low-level federation?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/08/15/south-korean-president-moon-jae-calls-closer-ties-north-korea/995622002/
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 1, Block B:  Nury Turkel, former president of the Uyghur American Association and now a lawyer in D.C, in re:   Uyghurs are Muslim, live in Westernmost China, which was militarily stolen by China in the Twentieth Century.   A million Uyghurs interned of disappeared in the last few years? Beijing won't even acknowledge the existence of internment camps, as the UN described them (same as concentration camp in WWII).    Many Uyghur villages have been completely emptied, populations forcibly taken in.  Human catastrophe.
Montana’s population is a little over 1 million; ergo, the entire population of Montana has been put in camps.  Beijing sentences people and stores them in camps; or, “re-training” – for what?; or: daily re-education camps.  Part of Beijing’s long-term program to eradicate Islam from China,, to destroy the cultures, and to take away the land. Beijing uses words like “terrorism” – how does  that connect to president of a university, or musicians or soccer players?  Govt shamelessly puts out bogus concerns that make no sense.  We’re trying to get some of the released Kazakh citizens [Mountain Kazakhs from north-northwestern China?] to come to the US to testify.   Remember: “Never again!”
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17684226/uighur-china-camps-united-nations
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 1, Block C:  Josh Rogin, Washington Post, in re: Confucius Institutes in America: there are 100 on US campuses right now.   US Defense Act: reaching in to shut down parts of the Institutes – which are [undermining US safety]. What they're doing on US campuses is not only teaching Ch. In Arizona, mixed Confucius Inst w Pentagon-funded program – which woke up DOD and shut it down, incl by a law [The John McCain National Defense Act of 2018] that will never let the Pentagon sponsor anything attached to the Confucius Institutes. China uses lots of different tactics.  There are also Confucius classrooms in children’s schools and Scholars Groups that organize demonstrations – which is illegal here.  Broad attempt to influence American thinking on China.  “United Front Works Dept” in China operates stuff like this worldwide – “Strike at the heart of Party enemies”, incl with Confucius Institutes.   Chinese govt demands demos against, for example, HH the Dalai Lama. Anyone who refuses endangers the physical safety of his family on Mainland. 
Most recent closure of Confucius Inst is in Florida: at the head of pressing for closures is Marco Rubio. He told all FL universities with Institutes to get rid of them.  Why is the US got funding a university that also takes funds from China?  Also Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Michael McCall.   Watch for people on the Chinese payroll to push back. We urgently need a national conversation about the depth and extent of influence of the Chinese Communist Party in the US.
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 1, Block D:  Steven V. Mazie, Professor of Political Studies at Bard High School Early College-Manhattan (@StephenMazie), in re: Alex Jones and the Supreme Cpurt.
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 2, Block A:  Stephen Yates, CEO of D.C. International Advisory and former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney; in re: Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, stopped in California, then to Paraguay, Belize, Houston. In LA, she went to a coffee shop, where people came to ask her to autograph memorabilia – and the owners found that Beijing demanded that they pay fealty to Beijing and abjure Taiwan!   Beijing having trouble realizing that Pres Trump will not change,  Meanwhile, it looks as though Xi Jinping’s leadership  is being challenged.  The John McCain National Defense Act of 2018. 
The Obama Adm abandoned East Asia – Taiwanese, Hong Kong people, everybody around China. Why were they so shy? Kissinger policies vis-à-vis China ere/are much different from those to Russia.  Also, O Adm did not respect sovereignty the way the GOP does.  GGC: Hey – bipartisan failure in DC for decades anent East Asia.  China has pushed too far. SY: The more Americans see the teeth behind the smile, natl instincts will emerge. As for trade, many Americans support Trump’s trade policies.  . . .  the contaminated vaccines, and multiple major problems. 
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 2, Block B:  Stephen Yates, CEO of D.C. International Advisory and former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney; in re: Taiwan. . . .  Beijing looks at Taiwan as being Chinese;; Taiwanese people do not. Since 1996, 100% of the times when the KMT wins in TW, the Dems win in the US; when the DPP wins in TW, the GOP wins in the US.  Now we have the DPP under Pres Tsai which is somewhat progressive ; a group of voters has no home in KMT because they’re too much in favor of kowtowing to Beijing, but no home in DPP, which is too progressive. From the younger generation upward, identity is completely Taiwanese, not Chinese.  If they visit Mainland, they’re treated as foreigners.  Pres Tsai is blessed abroad as having relatively low-key relations w Mainland, although many TW youth thinks she’s too mild. 
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 2, Block C: Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research in Hong Kong and author of Shadow Banking and the Rise of Capitalism in China, in re: The Chinese consumer. Peer-to-peer lending platforms (informal; via Internet; at high cost to those who can't get regular govt loans) fail; major losses.  Chinese save fabulously but often throw money at wacko schemes. Govt preventing protests on the matter.  Corp bond defaults.  When the tides go out the rocks are exposed.   https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/13/peer-to-peer-outcry-china-says-will-ban-new-online-lending-platforms.html
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 2, Block D: Monica Crowley, London Center for Policy Studies, in re: Andrew Cuomo
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 3, Block A:  Bill McGurn, WSJ, in re: Russiagate
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 3, Block B:  Salena Zito,  Washingotn Examiner, in re:  Yesterday’s elections
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 3, Block C:  Lara Sorokanich, Popular Mechanics, in re:  School security.  How can we make these buildings a little more secure? And how can we do so without making ... schools feel like prisons?
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 3, Block D:  Abbas Milani, Hoover, in re:  Iran
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 4, Block A:  Greg Grandin, Empire of Necessity
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 4, Block B:  Greg Grandin, Empire of Necessity
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:  Barons of the Sea: And their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship,  by Steven Ujifusa
Wednesday 15 August 2018/ Hour 4, Block D:  Barons of the Sea: And their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship,  by Steven Ujifusa