China Unscripted

China has been threatening war over Taiwan and has grown increasingly aggressive towards its neighbors and adversaries around the world. There has been a lot of speculation about how an authoritarian state like China would fare against a Western democracy like the United States. We discuss that plus India's relationship with Taiwan, the US-India alliance, and the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region. Joining us in this episode is Professor M.D. Nalapat, the director of the department of geopolitics and international relations at India’s Manipal University.

Japan is facing an existential crisis over Taiwan and with its elections in the lower house later this month, how Japan faces the Taiwan issue could change dramatically. Joining us in this episode of China Unscripted is Dr. Robert D. Eldridge, an expert on Japan’s security and diplomacy and a senior researcher at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies.

Got a dictator? Looking to overthrow him/her? In this episode, we talk with a man who’s been training activists to do just that. From his start as young activist raging against the machine of Slobodan Milošević in Serbia, he's become an internationally recognized organizer. He steps us through the essentials of a successful movement, shares inspiring and humorous stories from his background, and gives his opinion on what went right and what went wrong in Hong Kong. His name is Srdja Popovic, and he's the cofounder of the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), as well as the author of Blueprint for Revolution.

The US, UK, and Australia are teaming up against China in a new alliance called AUKUS. Of course, the leaders of these countries won't outright say that's the reason, but that's the reason. In this episode of China Unscripted, we talk about the US leading the world on China messaging, what could happen if China takes Taiwan, and former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's trip to Taiwan, among other things. Joining us in this episode is Lincoln Parker, the chair of Australia's Liberal Party defence policy branch.

The Chinese Communist Party has for years been suppressing its ethnic Uyghur minority, many of whom are Muslim. It has put over a million of them in internment camps, forced Uyghur women to get abortions and undergo sterilization, and killed them for their organs, among other atrocities. A people's tribunal in the UK is probing whether what China is doing to the Uyghur people is genocide. On this episode of China Unscripted, we look at what this tribunal could accomplish, how power politics affect human rights in China, and why the secret ingredient in your lipstick might be genocide. Joining us in this episode is Ethan Gutmann, an investigative journalist and author of “The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem” and “Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire, and Betrayal”.

Desmond Shum, who was raised in Hong Kong, said he didn't understand how to play China's business game until he met his wife, Whitney Duan. They made a fortune together, and as a result she became China's wealthiest female entrepreneur. But when Xi Jinping came to power, Shum saw the writing on the wall for business in China. He and Duan divorced and Shum moved to the UK. In 2017, Duan disappeared. After she went missing, Shum wanted to leave their son his account of what had happened, which led to his tell-all book about doing business in China called "Red Roulette: An Insider's Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today's China".

China has 5 bases in the Antarctic, but no one except China really knows what takes place on them. The U.S. and other countries that are supposed to be monitoring the bases have been lax about checking, and there is evidence to suggest China's doing more than just scientific research down there. Joining us on this episode of China Unscripted is Alex Gray, a senior fellow in national security affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council. He served on the U.S. National Security Council staff from 2018 to 2021, including as director for Oceania and Indo-Pacific Security. 

When China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the U.S. thought China's membership in the international organization would encourage it to liberalize. Thought leaders and US policymakers believed, or wanted to believe, that it would not only help decrease the trade deficit the US had with China, but would encourage China to become a responsible global citizen. However that didn’t happen, and in fact, the opposite happened. What went wrong and why were the policymakers in Washington so naive? Joining us in this episode of China Unscripted is Clyde Prestowitz, the author of “The World Turned Upside Down: America, China, and the Struggle for Global Leadership”. He was also a leader of the first U.S. trade mission to China in 1982 and is a veteran U.S. trade negotiator and presidential advisor.

China has been closely watching the U.S. pullout of Afghanistan and is using it to make the case to Taiwan that the U.S. won’t come to its aid when ( not “if”) China invades it. It's also looking at what it can do to replace the U.S. in the region. Joining us in this episode of China Unscripted is Jim Fanell, a retired U.S. Naval Intelligence officer who specialized in Indo-Asia Pacific security affairs, with an emphasis on the Chinese navy and its operations.

China has made it no secret that it wants to control the world. It's been using political warfare to achieve that goal, and it's seen some success. What is political warfare and what can we do to stop China from becoming a global hegemon? We discuss that and more in this episode of China Unscripted. Joining us is Professor Kerry Gershaneck, the author of the book "Political Warfare: Strategies for Combating China’s Plan to 'Win Without Fighting.'"