Photo: Cattle branding 1888
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast; Steve Herman, VoA bureau chief at the White House; Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes. 
 
Hour One
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 1, Block A: Sung-Yoon Lee, professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, in re: North Korea in the National Security Strategy.
. . . [Moon Jae-in] went overboard to cozy up to Xi Jinping; South Korea got nothing in the end.  China is not respectful of South Korea. Need some information on ________.  Also crimes against humanity committed by the North Korean state over decades.  Even more money for radio transmissions  into DPRK. . . . Pres Trump invites criticism with his unconventional statecraft. China is content. Situation today is no better than it was six months, or a year or two ago.  Pres Obama accomplished nothing in this. 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-northkorea/u-s-blames-north-korea-for-wannacry-cyber-attack-idUSKBN1ED00Q
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 1, Block B: Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research in Hong Kong &  author of Shadow Banking and the Rise of Capitalism in China, in re: Chinese debt bomb. Economic security is national security, and China now represents a threat to the US. Robert Lighthizer’s Section 301 investigation into Chinese  . .  . US automakers are making billions in China.
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2124756/chinas-campaign-cut-debt-enters-new-stage-says-stock-exchange
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 1, Block C: Ganbat Chuluunkhuu, Mongolian activist, in re: 
http://www.eurasiareview.com/09032017-the-dragon-dalai-lama-and-mongolia-what-diplomatic-role-should-india-play-analysis/
https://www.economist.com/news/china/21722853-chinese-mongolians-are-still-asserting-their-identity-inner-mongolia-has-become-chinas-model
https://thewire.in/133670/india-china-buddhist/
https://asia.nikkei.com/magazine/20170202/On-the-Cover/Mongolia-s-bumpy-journey-to-independence
https://thediplomat.com/2017/07/12-regions-of-china-inner-mongolia/
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 1, Block D:  Ganbat Chuluunkhuu, Mongolian activist, in re: Bilateral trade agreement between US and Mongolia, esp for textile sector; would create jobs, incl for women, in Mongolia.  How do Mongolian people think of the US? As the epicenter of democracy and human rights, and as a global power could do a lot of good; but they feel that the US is too far away; Mongolia needs first to have friendly relations with its two neighbors, Russia and China. In Tajikistan, one-third of the Tajik govt [?] has been assimilated into China because of nonpayment of loans. Similar event in Kazakhstan last year. Concern that China will try to [eat] Mongolia?  Chinese weaponization of history and religion, and it has coined “Buddhist globalization” to use as a weapon. China is officially atheist; is trying to highjack Buddhism There are 450 million Buddhist, of whom 225 million in China.   Tibetan Buddhism becoming a threat in China.    China in soft power has a budget that overwhelms that of any other country; to coopt Buddhism would come naturally to the Chinese Communist Party.
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 2, Block A:   Josh Rogin, Washington Post, in re: Montana Sen Steve Daines, who lived in China, went to Tibet in April – no one else is allowed in!  - and has a long history of cousining up to China; then encouraged a hostile Chinese delegation to have meetings on the Hill to counter the serious mtg of Lobsang ______ who was there to discuss enormous Chinese brutality and human rights abuses in Tibet. Danes is probably the most-educated US Senator on China; $200 million deal.   United Front Work Department in China serves to create fifth columns overseas and poison international opinion, esp in Hollywood, Silicon Valle, pressure on publishers, predatory investing, cyberespionage. Also in Australia and New Zealand. Existential threat to the systems that permit a democracy to function, “Scholars” and “think tanks”, and threats to academics worldwide A huge, clear pattern.
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 2, Block B:   Stephen Yates, D.C. International Advisory and candidate for governor of Idaho, in re:  
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 2, Block C:   Rick Fisher,   , in re: Chinese weapons
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 3, Block D:  Chuck Blahous, Hoover, in re:
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 3, Block A:  Monica Crowley, London Center for Research, in re: 
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 3, Block B: Lara M Brown, George Washington University, and Salena Zito,  CNN, in re:  Happy 2017
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 3, Block C: Kohler and Smith  wealth disparities among early humans
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 3, Block D:  
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 4, Block A:  Bill McGurn, WSJ, in re:   Tax bills
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 4, Block B:  Gregory Zuckerman, WSJ, in re:  Bitcoin
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 4, Block C:  An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science,   by  Edward J. Larson
Wednesday 20 December 2017  / Hour 4, Block D:  An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science, by Edward J. Larson