Episode Transcript
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out at patreon.com/the Team House. Hello
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everyone. Welcome to another episode of
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Eyes On. Before we go introducing
1:00
ourselves, I'm Andy Millman, by the
1:02
way. But before we
1:05
go on to introduce my
1:07
other Orgast co-hosts, I want
1:10
to reveal today's guest,
1:12
Matt Brazile, who is
1:14
bottom line is if there
1:16
is anything to know about
1:18
China that Matt doesn't know,
1:20
I would be very surprised. How's
1:23
that for a for a mini
1:25
intro and his why. Okay, Matt
1:27
some, Matt's throughout his
1:30
career has been a senior analyst with
1:33
a focus on China right now. He's
1:35
with Blue Path Labs. He's
1:37
also a senior fellow at the Jamestown
1:40
Foundation. He did China
1:42
studies as an undergraduate way back in
1:44
UC Berkeley. Matt, that wasn't in the
1:46
60s though, was it? But
1:49
still, you know, not still not known
1:51
as necessarily as being a staunch pillar
1:53
of the establishment. So good on you.
1:56
But that's UC Berkeley,
1:58
not Matt. Matt Went on. To
2:00
be a solid pillar of the establishment
2:02
and army officer or intelligence. Also served
2:05
tours in Korea as well as we
2:07
thought the an essay. Arm.
2:10
And. That is it. Yes, so you
2:12
know in the wake of that
2:14
Jason Indeed. Please introduce yourself. Hey,
2:18
I'm ready. I'm Jason Lions. I am
2:20
a former Marine, stammers, Cia officer. Ah,
2:22
I'm now working with these Scally Ways
2:24
is that's the term overusing. Hey guys,
2:27
I'm the I'm the producer, the team
2:29
house and eyes on ads on the
2:31
guy puts it all together. Semi.
2:34
Puts it all together. Now. I'm just. Excited
2:37
about this conversation today. Match.
2:40
So. To to kick
2:42
this off. An answer for the. Sake!
2:45
Of our own, he has met
2:47
Feals. Feel free to contradict me
2:49
here, but you know, mess specialization.
2:51
It's an espionage counterespionage ah or
2:53
new. Rather he writes about that
2:55
met them. Please. Elaborate
2:58
on that and and Die and little bit
3:00
about your i didn't cover your written works
3:02
and you have an upcoming book I believe
3:04
to read. Every
3:06
choose. So I'm I'm
3:09
the Kloser Us Chinese
3:11
Communist espionage and intelligence
3:13
primer I caught. It
3:15
was Peter Maddest who
3:17
is a former Cia,
3:19
a Counter Intelligence analysts
3:21
and. Is now the President
3:23
of the Jamestown Sunday Son. And.
3:28
And so I'm still. There is a book coming
3:31
up. I'm trying
3:33
to finish it up Now I've I've read
3:35
some to Cede excerpts. By the way, And
3:38
and hopefully we'll get into those
3:41
know I'm as shit is literally
3:43
expert at in advance of the
3:45
the first one was was intended
3:47
for and for law enforcement and
3:49
intelligence professionals as a handbook as
3:51
a reference work I just next
3:53
one is intended to the general
3:55
public to try to explain and
3:57
and normal everyday terms what's going.
4:00
on with the
4:03
Chinese security apparatus.
4:05
Specifically how they go about
4:08
recruiting in the West. And
4:13
then I think you uncovered some
4:16
very key differences between what they do
4:18
and what we do. And I'd love
4:20
to hear your thoughts about effectiveness. Sure.
4:25
Would you like me to just launch right into
4:27
it? Launch right in. Yep. Streamer consciousness. What will
4:29
be tell? What will be say? Yeah,
4:33
so the acronym
4:35
MICE, Money Ideology Compromise Ego,
4:38
is often used to describe
4:41
how foreign intelligence services
4:43
go after people. And
4:46
in the Chinese case, the
4:48
documented cases that we can read on
4:51
the DOJ, the Department of Justice website.
4:53
And by the way, DOJ.gov
4:55
is like a great resource to
4:57
this kind of thing. Because
4:59
the Americans, to my knowledge, are
5:01
the only country that
5:04
publishes in detail
5:07
what happened in espionage
5:09
cases. And you read the
5:11
indictments. And there's
5:14
an awful lot of detail there for
5:16
the espionage nerd. Matt, I
5:18
got a quick question for you that
5:20
had us, even Jason stumped the
5:22
other day. So
5:26
the government, DOJ is very open in
5:28
some cases about, most cases,
5:30
about naming the country for which the
5:33
alleged spy was spying. But
5:35
in some cases, it doesn't. Now, what reasons
5:37
might there be for not outing
5:43
a foreign government? If
5:46
we are prosecuting someone for working for
5:48
them. Yeah, I think
5:50
it has to do, this is only speculation on my
5:52
part, but I think it has to do with
5:55
the content of the case.
5:58
In previous times. The
6:00
US was reticent
6:03
to name China in cases
6:06
like this because
6:09
they didn't want to upset bilateral relations.
6:11
There was a lot at stake, not
6:14
only on the commercial side, but
6:17
also before 1989 and a
6:21
little bit afterwards, there was a lot of intelligence
6:23
cooperation to spy
6:26
on the Soviet Union. After
6:31
the Nixon visit, the US began
6:33
providing intelligence to China about the
6:35
Soviet Union in a
6:37
trade relationship. Then
6:42
after 1979, when the
6:45
US and China established formal diplomatic
6:48
relations, the Chinese side agreed to
6:50
set up a SIGINT
6:53
and E-Lint station in the Xinjiang
6:55
Uyghur Autonomous Region to spy on
6:57
Soviet missile tests. That
7:00
kind of thing was considered, of course,
7:02
by the Americans to be of high
7:05
value. Nowadays, I think
7:07
it probably has to do with
7:10
the details of the case and how
7:12
people who are
7:15
in the press or more
7:17
importantly in foreign intelligence services
7:19
might be able to dig into
7:22
sources and methods on the US
7:25
side. Yeah,
7:27
understood. Sorry, go ahead
7:29
with this room of consciousness. Okay,
7:32
so you
7:35
asked earlier about how the Chinese
7:37
work in the United
7:39
States and in other countries. By the way, they
7:41
are all over the place. I
7:45
like to call it their worldwide
7:47
espionage and influence offensive nowadays,
7:51
which began to
7:53
really expand Under Xi
7:55
Jinping when he came to power in 2012.
8:00
As I was saying, we like to talk
8:02
about mice money, ideology, compromise you go. On.
8:06
On the Chinese side, they seem
8:08
to. according to the D J
8:10
indictments, they seem to put stress
8:13
on money. As the preferred
8:15
method which tracks with I'm Marxist
8:17
ideology I was very important on
8:20
their side because if there's one
8:22
thing that the ministers say security
8:24
is known for, it's just says
8:26
a haven of true believers in
8:29
marxism. Hum. So the idea that
8:31
capitalist nations are on the decline,
8:33
that terms that people are motivated
8:36
entirely by money which shown seems
8:38
to be kind of on the
8:40
market just just assist someone sold
8:42
out. That said, recently. Was
8:44
at forty two thousand dollars and then
8:47
previously was like and twelve thousand dollar
8:49
case. In the last few
8:51
weeks, Both Earth Navy guys? that's
8:53
almost irrelevant, that's you Know that.
8:55
But. He has no money.
8:58
small, small beer or is the actual
9:00
information lot of money that. To.
9:03
Betray your country? I mean, that's very
9:05
little money to betray your country, right?
9:07
I mean, Lung. Unbelievable. Yeah
9:09
and ended in one of the
9:11
cases These were these were to
9:13
Chinese Americans on both of which
9:15
I think it been born in
9:18
China and in one case the
9:20
mother of the sailor was encouraging
9:22
him to go ahead and remember.
9:25
Remember where he's from et cetera, et cetera. And
9:28
she was in the States while
9:30
doing this. Upon the smith, Yes,
9:33
yes yes This is something. I
9:35
have a say. It's first of
9:37
all that a very small percentage
9:39
I'm sure it's under one percent
9:41
of Chinese people would would really
9:43
be subject to that kind of
9:45
influence and pressure by just ethnic
9:48
Chinese people in United States as
9:50
very important for us to keep
9:52
se Chinese people on side. We
9:54
the. United States because
9:56
not only are they.
10:00
American citizens and sense for permanent
10:02
residents who just want to settle
10:04
down here, work in and be
10:06
ignored and be ignored by the
10:08
Chinese government. but splitter. Very valuable
10:10
resource As matter of fact I've
10:12
heard people I've I've lived in
10:15
China for eight years and during
10:17
that time I was It says
10:19
in this topic in that house
10:21
or for the years I was
10:23
I was completing my. Doctoral.
10:25
Dissertation on this topic stand or the
10:28
Chinese side. New at and they were
10:30
actually cooperating with means giving me seats,
10:32
eating me. Their side of the story
10:34
introduced me, introducing me to a revolutionary
10:37
hero. that sort of things. But
10:40
but. But. Even then,
10:43
On people were quietly chinese yeah
10:45
know all we really want do.
10:48
Is. Live our lives and try
10:50
to stay out of the cross
10:52
hairs of state security and public
10:55
security. Hum And this is one
10:57
of the strengths of seen as
10:59
the Americans have in China or
11:01
but that's course the other side
11:03
the coin. Bullets. Won a
11:06
d or with. Particularly. Interested
11:08
of course in some of the the weaknesses
11:10
that the. The.
11:13
Chinese. It's it's big in we
11:15
janeiro to use the term and as
11:17
has says right and the says but
11:19
it's be is it the Mss or
11:21
is it a subdivision than what what
11:23
sort of things you mentioned that gonna
11:25
bomb over the place. but it seems
11:27
as though once they hit pay dirt
11:30
on one particular methodology they'll take that
11:32
handler and he'll use it again. maybe
11:34
in a different country. Is sad that
11:36
on target I know I'm throwing couple
11:38
questions you at once since his yeah
11:40
if you don't mind talking about their
11:42
methodology really are. So. I'm.
11:46
In the book published year
11:48
and a half ago, Spies
11:51
and Lies That spies analyzed
11:53
by how it's just the
11:55
and stealing scholar homs see.
11:59
gave some really interesting cases
12:02
of state
12:05
security officers, some very senior,
12:08
engaged in influence operations.
12:11
That is trying to convince
12:15
politicians in Australia and
12:18
others to support Chinese
12:21
foreign policy objectives. And
12:24
there's a history behind that, going back
12:27
to the revolution of intelligence
12:29
officers engaged in influence operations
12:31
sort of on the side.
12:36
There are some scholars who
12:38
criticize what Jawski wrote,
12:40
saying that he's conflating the
12:42
two, espionage and influence. But
12:45
I think the jury is out on that
12:48
particular question. So that's one methodology
12:50
of interest where we
12:53
have intelligence officers
12:55
or agents engaged in
12:57
influence operations. And
13:00
a recent example here in the San Francisco Bay Area
13:06
is a woman named Fang Fang,
13:08
that is Christine Fang, F-A-N-G,
13:12
who was being run by
13:15
a state security officer out of
13:17
the Chinese consulate in
13:19
San Francisco. She was a
13:22
student at Cal State East
13:24
Bay in Hayward, and
13:27
she was engaged in
13:29
influence operations, including some
13:35
honey operations where she had
13:39
relationships with some American
13:41
politicians, which
13:44
is outlined in
13:47
a recent book
13:50
by somebody whose name all of a
13:52
sudden – Bethany Allen, Abrahamian. Her
13:56
recent book outlines that in detail. She
13:58
has probably published the best. account,
14:02
Bethany Allen, Abrahamian, of
14:05
Fang Fang's operations.
14:08
That was the name, Fang Fang.
14:10
Okay. That is likely to be
14:12
a movie. No, I was just
14:15
wondering, because Jack and Jason always
14:17
tell us this rather lame story
14:19
of Honeypot, who they
14:22
suspect who worked for a Chinese foreign
14:24
service place and pursued them
14:27
relentlessly. But my point is, it's
14:29
kind of this urban
14:31
myth almost, isn't it? A lot of
14:34
people think they're being pursued, but it
14:36
is something that the Chinese, it's among
14:38
their many methods
14:40
of getting people, of coercing
14:43
people into giving up information, right?
14:46
It is. And Christine
14:48
Fang's modus operandi, not
14:50
to get
14:52
stuck on her, but her modus operandi
14:54
was to get
14:56
to know and be
14:58
friendly with not only for sexual
15:02
entrapment, but with politicians
15:04
whom she judged were
15:06
up and coming, or maybe the
15:08
San Francisco Consulate judge were up
15:11
and coming, people who
15:13
were on local board
15:18
of supervisors, et cetera. But
15:23
the money aspect
15:27
has certainly been very prominent
15:29
in these different cases,
15:32
and it probably makes up a very
15:34
large percentage of how
15:37
these cases are pursued. So
15:40
Matt, let me ask, stepping
15:42
back a little bit, and
15:45
to kind of dispel the boogeyman concept
15:49
is, I'm going to
15:51
venture to guess that the answer is
15:54
no, but is the average person who
15:57
Gets on a plane in Beijing, flies to the
15:59
US, You know they're moving here.
16:01
not just businesses in our lives
16:03
here are they approached beforehand? Normally
16:05
in sold Hey we're going to
16:07
be knocking on your door to
16:10
do some You now some work
16:12
for us or is it someone
16:14
who has specific access to say.
16:16
At. Judge or politicians So what
16:18
I met a basically we're brother.
16:20
What I'm asking is is every
16:23
Chinese that comes to this country.
16:25
Ah, Told. That
16:28
they're expected to do this or is
16:30
it just have a few. I.
16:33
Suspect it's just a few,
16:35
but that's just my hypothesis.
16:37
There's a lot of controversy
16:39
over this and their cases
16:41
that have been documented. Were
16:45
a local state security
16:47
bureau will learn that
16:49
because that young people
16:51
have to apply for
16:53
passports to the Ministry
16:55
of Public Security that's
16:57
the National Police and
16:59
Mps and Mps Mss
17:01
trade information. They
17:03
have databases that say. That.
17:06
They share that they can both meets
17:09
away. I take
17:11
a look at and so
17:13
when somebody is leaving. China
17:16
to go to the United States
17:18
and the going to studied physics
17:20
at at M I T then
17:23
there's a high risk to say
17:25
will be approached him fast not
17:27
to get in contact with as
17:29
a security officer in Chicago or
17:32
anything like that necessarily But when
17:34
you come home for Chinese New
17:36
Year. You're.
17:38
Expected to come see us and tell us what's
17:41
going on. the contacts
17:43
you making and and such but
17:45
i think come again this controversial
17:47
my friend or nicholas as to
17:49
me ah does for example who
17:52
studies this stuff science or he's
17:54
he's put together a compendium of
17:56
cases it is now it's about
17:58
nine hundred where
18:01
he is analyzing how
18:04
they were done, and he's written
18:06
a book which I think is
18:08
called Chinese Espionage Operations and Tactics,
18:12
which you can find on Amazon. So
18:14
in his opinion, nearly a very
18:17
large percentage of people are approached.
18:21
In my opinion, the
18:24
Chinese Communist Party has always considered
18:26
their society to be full of
18:28
enemies, and
18:32
I think this probably causes
18:34
them to be more careful about
18:36
whom they approach. But
18:48
they do operate – I
18:51
think one indication that they're selective
18:54
is the case that came
18:57
out three or four years ago now of
19:00
Xu Yanjun, the state
19:02
security officer who was arrested
19:05
in Belgium after being lured into a trap
19:07
by the FBI and the Belgian authorities, and
19:09
he was extradited to the United States, put
19:11
on trial, and convicted and sentenced
19:13
to 20 years in prison, a
19:16
very interesting case. But one of the people who
19:18
was in his network was
19:22
a young man named Ji Ciao-Chun, and
19:25
Ji Ciao-Chun had
19:28
immigrated to the United States.
19:30
Ostensibly, he was a graduate
19:33
student in Chicago, and he
19:35
had joined the U.S. Army
19:39
under a program that the U.S. Army
19:41
has to bring in people with hard
19:43
languages, even
19:46
if they're not citizens. And so
19:49
he raised his right hand and swore to defend the Constitution
19:51
of the United States and all that jazz, just like the
19:53
rest of us, but he
19:56
Was an agent in the network of Xu
19:58
Yanjun, and his – Job.
20:00
Was to spot Chinese people
20:03
in the Chicago area who
20:05
were graduate students and who
20:07
were engaged in high stem
20:10
science and technology, engineering or
20:12
occupations that might be of
20:14
interest to Chinese military developments
20:17
so that would indicate that.
20:19
Certainly they don't after everybody
20:21
as they please and probably
20:24
means selective but again you
20:26
I think. That's.
20:31
My. Idea. Even Next ideas about says
20:33
star or at the level of hypothesis
20:36
were not. It's a scary level quite
20:38
yet. And the still. it makes sense
20:40
though, isn't it? I mean they to.
20:43
Why would they ignore this incredible potential
20:45
asset? And when you look at the
20:47
way they think about everything else is
20:49
you know from our from integrating a
20:52
marketed Khomeini you with the Chinese Communist
20:54
Party to how they controlled coded. It's.
20:57
Some kind of done in a very. And
20:59
the same way isn't it with his
21:01
family or mirror image to you know they
21:04
they cigarettes. Hey look at what we're
21:06
doing you know we're going after week
21:08
for using everybody we possibly can. We're going
21:10
after all these different people were and
21:12
so on. The Cia must be Do
21:14
ever see I is Dana and this
21:16
is why they're going around their anti spy
21:18
campaigns and warning children to watch out
21:20
what their parents are doing and stuff
21:22
like that crazy. Say if only we were
21:25
Yeah, if only we were that efficient.
21:27
A Guys it's Jack I just wanted
21:29
to talk you today about a way
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out at patreon.com/the Team House. So
22:23
I'm intrigued too about, because
22:25
you talk about the recruitment of
22:27
their own people going
22:30
overseas, and you mentioned, and
22:32
this is
22:34
being a topic that's recurring in
22:37
the last
22:40
two years, but recruiting ethnic
22:42
Chinese of dual national
22:45
or who have joined the
22:47
military. I'm not dual national, no, they
22:49
would, but who are, yeah,
22:51
in some cases dual national, in
22:53
some cases first generation immigrants, in
22:55
some cases pending citizenship, but they
22:58
also of course target people with
23:00
no such connections. And you,
23:02
you know, you mentioned that with a different
23:04
kind of different approach. I
23:07
thought it was very
23:10
interesting. When we think
23:12
of approaches, we think of kind of
23:14
a more affertive bump, you
23:16
know, perhaps not in a dark alley, but
23:18
in a bar or this and that. But
23:21
I was just looking at what it was
23:23
like Kevin Mallory, I was just, you know,
23:26
when I was doing some background reading on
23:28
for this Kevin Mallory
23:30
is a CIA, you know,
23:32
agency guy, Chinese turned him.
23:35
And they made him, he was he
23:37
was contacted on LinkedIn. The
23:40
guy, the guy who contacted him was
23:42
very obvious from his profile that he
23:44
was, you know, he was had
23:47
something to do with background in Chinese
23:49
intelligence. That's,
23:51
you know, at least what the FBI reported.
23:53
That's how the initial bump took place, you
23:55
know, and then they hooked
23:57
him with the $25,000. payment
24:01
in Shanghai and he was you
24:03
know he was done. Yeah
24:06
you know I would like to point
24:08
out to everybody that LinkedIn when you
24:10
when you get in an
24:13
in mail from somebody if
24:15
you look for those three
24:18
dots on the top right hand of the
24:20
of the mail you
24:22
click on it you have
24:24
an option to report and block
24:27
somebody and that should always be done
24:29
when you get these in and I
24:31
get them every day. I
24:33
bet you do. Yeah sure. Well
24:35
it's really kind of goofy the
24:37
way they're doing it and and
24:40
I hope they continue to be goofy about
24:43
you know coming up with these pictures
24:45
that show a woman
24:48
from her nose down you
24:50
know in the photograph. Your
24:57
profile is so interesting I would like
24:59
to know you. I have the background
25:01
in Bitcoin. Yeah it's just ridiculous and
25:04
I hope they stick to that approach
25:06
because it's so obvious and ridiculous but
25:11
but they won't you know they if
25:13
there's one thing that that I
25:15
think they do it's learned from experience
25:20
and and these approaches
25:22
will probably improve over time
25:24
and more sophisticated artificial
25:26
intelligence will change everything quite
25:29
certainly and just give it
25:31
a few months a few years. Do you
25:34
have any question? Sorry?
25:37
Yeah I was asking D if he
25:39
had anything. Nothing specific I mean more
25:42
at a broader point like what's
25:44
the MSS's
25:46
goal? Is it IP mostly? Is
25:49
it how the US
25:51
goes about it like protecting our interests across
25:53
the globe and stuff like that? Like what's
25:55
their main aim I
25:58
guess? Yeah,
26:00
they used to go after a
26:03
lot of different things. In
26:06
2017, 2018, there was a reorganization.
26:12
And without getting too political sciencey about
26:14
it, it seems
26:16
to have been an effort to get
26:19
MSS and the
26:21
military to define their
26:23
turf and go after what they're
26:25
supposed to go after. That
26:29
may or may not be working well, it's kind
26:31
of hard to say. But
26:34
now we have four
26:36
different bodies doing this kind of work.
26:40
We have state security, which is
26:43
going after, it seems, both
26:46
military and civilian
26:48
technology, and of
26:50
course political intelligence
26:55
and possibly – probably not economic intelligence, because that's all
26:57
there. And
26:59
then you
27:03
have the Joint Intelligence Bureau,
27:06
which used to be known as the second department
27:08
of the PLA, and the
27:10
Joint Intelligence Bureau of the People's
27:13
Liberation Army goes after
27:16
military technology. And
27:18
they're – or at least
27:20
in theory they do. Their actual
27:24
activities are a little bit unclear so
27:26
far. And
27:28
then you have the PLA
27:31
Strategic Support Force, which is like
27:33
their NSA. So
27:35
they do signal intelligence. They also
27:37
do web-based hacking and other type
27:40
of intelligence, too. But
27:43
the state security –
27:46
administrative state security and the
27:48
Ministry of Public Security, according
27:50
to recent revelations out
27:54
of a hacking contractor from
27:56
Shanghai called ISUN, They're
28:00
doing hacking too overseas and
28:03
they're going after dissidents,
28:07
political enemies overseas and
28:09
they're going after political secrets
28:13
in countries all over the
28:15
world, the usual sort of regular spy
28:17
stuff, but they're
28:19
employing these hacking
28:21
firms at
28:23
the State Security
28:26
Bureau level in the provinces to
28:29
go after these secrets. And
28:31
sometimes because in the Xinjiang Uyghur
28:34
Autonomous Region, for example, they're
28:36
worried about dissidents
28:38
overseas who are
28:40
either training to be terrorists in their
28:42
minds or who
28:45
are talking too much about what's going on in Xinjiang.
28:47
And so they pressure relatives
28:49
and then they find out names of
28:51
people and then they go after them
28:53
using hacking. And
28:56
then there's the United Front Work Department, which is a
28:59
department of the party, a major
29:01
department of the Chinese Communist Party
29:04
and they're the influence handlers.
29:08
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? So
29:10
the Russian, in a sense, that
29:12
the Russian cyber activity
29:14
both cyber in the sense of OCO,
29:18
offensive cyber operations turning ones
29:20
to zeros, that's my right
29:23
description of this, but
29:25
also disinformation using cyber
29:27
as a domain. And the Russians
29:30
get a lot of publicity about this, but I'm
29:32
intrigued when you talk about the Chinese because
29:35
when we talk about Chinese
29:37
espionage, and this is anecdotal,
29:40
I'm told by friends in the FBI
29:42
that 90% of the
29:44
cases they're handling are Chinese and that
29:46
they are way more, they
29:48
regard China as a threat exponentially
29:51
more dangerous than Russia or Iran.
29:54
And yet again, we just keep hearing about
29:56
Russia on the side of peace. Do you
29:58
think we should also be... equally,
30:00
this sounds kind of a dumb question, but more
30:03
worried about China? They're
30:05
only dumb answers, and I'm
30:08
good at them. But
30:13
yeah, I would agree with what your
30:16
friends at the Bureau are saying, if
30:20
only because of the
30:22
developing sophistication and
30:25
the quantity the
30:29
sheer quantity of operations
30:32
that are going on.
30:35
And the way they're doing it is
30:38
through these hacking
30:40
contractors like Isun, a Shanghai-based company
30:42
that's been around for about 10
30:45
years, that has
30:47
offices in four other
30:50
Chinese cities. And
30:53
the data dump that was put on
30:55
GitHub of
31:00
their stuff probably by an insider of
31:02
some sort, or who
31:05
is being run by a competitor, it
31:07
seems, indicates
31:10
that they
31:13
were going all over the place.
31:16
They were running hacking
31:18
jobs in India, Malaysia,
31:22
Japan, Korea,
31:25
Indonesia, the UK,
31:29
and other places that are not immediately coming to
31:31
mind. And
31:34
it also indicates that they weren't
31:36
being paid all that much, that
31:40
typical, unfortunately, to a Chinese
31:42
company that the management was
31:45
making all the money, and
31:48
the worker bees were not
31:52
making very much money, and were miserable and being
31:54
overworked. Now,
31:56
I... This is a counterintelligence opportunity.
32:00
One would think we, um yes but
32:02
one of the one of the. Axioms
32:05
have this problem. Is
32:08
that? Is running as
32:10
me eyes and China has always
32:12
been difficult since are going back
32:14
to the revolution was hard for
32:16
the nationalist to run has been
32:18
ice in the the red areas
32:21
because they were so locked down.
32:24
And indeed, and my lips
32:26
language. Same language. same code
32:28
from the Phillies, even same
32:30
language to god Home Font
32:32
Chinese Yeah. Yeah,
32:35
so it's it's said that the
32:38
counterespionage, Sam's, a. Counterintelligence.
32:41
Ah, Ah environment.
32:43
there is. Is
32:46
the hardest of targets. And
32:49
so. Finding. Somebody to
32:52
want to approach. Has
32:55
saw. It seems like it's a lot
32:57
of is being done over the web
32:59
just like they're doing lot of stuff
33:02
and web against us or the the
33:04
the as counterpoints seems to be going
33:06
on as well. Breathing.
33:09
Apparatus Sorry. go ahead, it's not
33:11
as sorry I've given the the
33:13
It seems that the Chinese Intelligence
33:16
focuses on as you said, Are
33:20
taxed? You know I t those
33:22
sorts of things meet probably political
33:24
as well and and seen, Publicly.
33:27
At least that it seems
33:29
like Iran is not above
33:31
renderings someone who they consider
33:33
a threat. Ah, assassinations does
33:35
seem it's a the Russians
33:38
as well. I don't see.
33:40
I personally don't seem to
33:42
see that in the Chinese.
33:44
Is am I wrong in
33:46
that? Are they above? You
33:48
know. I
33:50
and doesn't fascinating someone or rendering
33:52
someone that they see as eight
33:54
an issue. I.
33:57
have no i've asked that question of
34:00
assassinations to a
34:02
number of my contacts and so far
34:04
I'm not getting any positive responses. So
34:07
it does not seem that way and that's
34:10
related to another problem that I'll get into
34:12
after finishing answering
34:15
your point. But when
34:17
it comes to renditions, in
34:20
the countries along China's
34:22
periphery, the land border
34:25
countries, specifically Laos and
34:28
Thailand, there
34:30
have been kidnappings of
34:34
dissidents taken
34:36
back to China to face trial. And
34:40
this also includes people
34:42
who, in Hong Kong
34:44
before the recent crackdown, made
34:47
Hong Kong basically totally
34:49
a mainland city now almost anyway,
34:52
much more of a mainland city than it used
34:54
to be of
34:56
people being just abducted and
34:59
taken back to China. And they do this,
35:02
it seems, when it's operationally
35:07
convenient to get
35:09
somebody across the land border and back
35:12
into China. So that's why Laos, Thailand,
35:16
Hong Kong, Macau, going
35:19
back decades Macau. It
35:22
used to be, by the way, before 1997, and
35:25
the 1999 handover of Hong
35:27
Kong and Macau, respectively, that
35:30
people with security clearances could travel,
35:33
Americans could travel to Hong Kong,
35:35
no problem, but not to Macau.
35:38
Wow. Yeah. Yeah.
35:46
So in countries that are more
35:48
far afield, the United
35:50
States and in Europe and
35:54
other places, the
35:56
emphasis seems to be there
35:59
are people. who come over here
36:01
from state security and try to
36:03
convince somebody to go
36:06
back to China to face trial because if
36:08
you don't, we've got your family. And
36:12
indeed, public
36:15
security people have actually told
36:18
me that
36:20
somebody, a Chinese person living overseas is
36:22
like a kite. We
36:25
have the string here on the ground. They can fly
36:27
around all they want, but we have the string, and
36:29
that string is their family. Wow. Thank
36:32
you. Appreciate that. That's a powerful
36:35
analogy. Yeah,
36:37
definitely is. But
36:40
this sort of thing goes back. You know, it's got
36:43
a long history. Having
36:46
the revolution the same sort of ideas
36:50
were in play, where
36:54
espionage and influence
36:59
operations were commingled at times,
37:03
where families were used as
37:06
pressure, where
37:08
money was
37:10
used to recruit
37:12
people to work for the
37:15
revolution. But also during that time, it
37:17
was a very different time. Ideology
37:20
was and appeals to patriotism
37:24
and appeals to fight against Japan
37:27
during that long period of Japanese
37:30
occupation and the exploitation of
37:32
China and foreign
37:34
exploitation of China were
37:38
used to appeal to people to spy
37:40
for the communist cause. And they were
37:43
extremely successful
37:46
during that time. And
37:51
the efforts of Chinese communist
37:53
intelligence during the revolution were very key to
37:55
the victory. And
37:57
so from that, they learned. and
38:01
lessons from before that,
38:04
that espionage was
38:06
a core business of the party. During
38:09
those times, intelligence
38:12
operations had a seat at
38:14
the table at this party
38:16
central committee that was at
38:19
the same table, if not equal, to
38:21
the propaganda and military and organization
38:24
departments, which are the
38:26
three key departments of
38:29
the party. Now
38:32
the nomenclature is a little bit different because
38:34
it's all been moved over to the government
38:36
side rather than on the party side. It's
38:40
still important, but
38:45
interestingly, the party doesn't like
38:47
to admit that they do foreign
38:49
intelligence operations at all. They
38:53
will talk about doing
38:56
stuff in Taiwan, certainly, and Taiwan
38:58
is, along with the United States,
39:00
those two are the main enemies
39:03
where most of the attention, I
39:06
have to say, is focused and
39:08
historically has been focused on both
39:10
Taiwan and the US. But
39:13
they don't do spy trades at all, in spite
39:15
of the fact that the US has at least
39:19
one of their officers in a
39:22
federal penitentiary. Only
39:26
one right now. It used to be two.
39:28
There used to be Chi Mok. Was they
39:31
smart enough to use diplomats as case
39:33
handlers or just smart
39:35
not to get caught? Yeah,
39:38
that's true. Well, you know, the ones
39:40
that were caught, the really prominent
39:43
ones were Larry Wu Tai Jin from
39:45
1984-85, who was a long-term
39:47
non-official officer,
40:00
he was actually an officer of
40:03
Chinese intelligence, and he was not
40:05
a traitor. He was infiltrated into
40:08
the US by
40:11
the Chinese services, and
40:14
so the US
40:16
begrudgingly acknowledges that, you know,
40:18
when he talked to people about
40:21
that case. But
40:23
they let him, they did not acknowledge him, they
40:26
did not try to trade him, they let him
40:28
kill himself in jail after
40:30
he was sentenced, or
40:32
before he was sentenced after he was convicted. And
40:35
then there's Chi Mok, who was
40:38
also a military intelligence officer,
40:41
who went
40:43
first to Hong Kong and then emigrated to
40:45
the United States and set
40:48
up himself as
40:50
an employee of a
40:53
Navy systems contractor called
40:55
Power Paragon, and
40:58
he was engaged in sending export
41:00
controlled technology relevant
41:03
to naval
41:05
operations, including
41:07
quiet propulsion systems
41:09
to to
41:12
China for 20 years until
41:15
he was caught, and I think it was 2006 or 2005. There
41:21
was a really good article in The
41:23
New Yorker that came out about
41:25
a year and a half ago
41:27
that outlined that case in retrospect,
41:31
but they let Chi Mok
41:34
rot in prison and die there at the age of
41:36
82 or 83. In October of 2022, he passed away
41:39
at Lompoc
41:43
Federal Penitentiary. So
41:46
it's really, it's
41:48
a very odd sort of
41:50
thing. Yeah, one way, one
41:52
way. It's
41:55
one way loyalty, right? Loyalty to the party,
41:59
to buy in you get the party is not
42:01
going to help you out. You're on your own. If
42:03
you were caught, the secretary will not
42:05
– will disavow knowledge of your actions.
42:07
Just a black chair. Madam,
42:11
as we – you know, so
42:14
just rounding up, oh, guys, before I do anything
42:17
more for Matt, I had a
42:19
question that's – No, you
42:21
answered – I was actually going to ask
42:23
you about Taiwan, but I guess a branch
42:25
off of that would be given the tensions
42:28
between the two, so
42:32
would anyone – I'm assuming that there
42:34
are already some of these intelligence working
42:37
on the – you know, on Taiwan, but
42:40
given the tensions, are those
42:43
coming into Taiwan from the
42:45
mainland automatically suspect? And
42:48
does the – Taiwan have
42:50
the intelligence apparatus, the
42:52
numbers to be able to keep up with that? It's
42:57
a tough problem. So
43:01
there – when I was
43:03
in Taiwan last April doing reporting
43:05
for this upcoming book,
43:11
you know, usually as a former commercial
43:13
officer, I'm
43:15
able to approach a U.S. diplomatic post
43:17
and talk to the
43:20
RSO, the regional security office, and
43:23
certainly talk to the commercial section and ask
43:25
them questions about the local scene and all
43:28
that, but not in Taiwan.
43:30
They did not want to speak to me, and
43:32
I understand why. I understand why. The
43:38
relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan right
43:40
now and the military assistance, which is
43:42
very well documented, by the way, if
43:44
you've ever heard of a guy named
43:47
Wendell Minnick, M-I-N-N-I-C-K,
43:51
you can find him on the web. Wendell
43:53
– I like
43:57
to call him. I tell him, Wendell, you're the
43:59
perfect person. of doom. I'm
44:01
gonna look him up. Yeah
44:03
you should definitely look him
44:06
up. He just published a
44:09
really interesting summary of how
44:11
China has locked down the
44:13
South China Sea with E-Lint
44:16
and other capabilities. Very
44:20
detailed and very interesting but when
44:24
I was in Taiwan, I, IIT wouldn't
44:27
touch me even though I'm personal
44:29
friends with one of their former senior officers
44:31
who tried to get me in to talk
44:33
with them. But former
44:36
and current Taiwan intelligence and
44:38
military officials did talk to
44:40
me and
44:42
their outlook was not
44:44
rosy. They talked
44:47
about how there are mainland organizations
44:49
set up in Taiwan. For
44:52
example to introduce Taiwan
44:54
men to mainland women. There
44:57
are organizations that are Buddhist
45:00
based organizations that go back and
45:03
forth between the two parts
45:05
of greater China there.
45:10
And, and also
45:12
one of the things that was said to me
45:14
by more than one person is
45:16
that they're not dumb enough to use electronic
45:19
means of communication to do their reporting
45:21
back to Beijing. They
45:24
use couriers and
45:26
and that's really interesting because
45:29
it underlines the uneven nature
45:32
of state security operations where
45:35
you have some really
45:37
sophisticated officers who
45:39
are language capable and know
45:41
what they're doing and follow
45:43
careful tradecraft and you have
45:45
others like Sri Anjun, the
45:49
the State Security Bureau officer who
45:51
was arrested in Belgium who
45:54
brought his cell phone with him that was full
45:56
of all this information and the
45:58
FBI got a hold of it and that's why we know
46:00
all about him because of what
46:02
was in his cell phone. He
46:04
was carrying. Like this is like
46:06
we tell him. Don't take your cell phone for
46:09
God's sake. Don't take your laptop. It's going to
46:11
be compromised as soon as you check into your
46:13
hotel or as soon as you get off the
46:15
plane. But he did
46:18
that. So very uneven. But in
46:20
Taiwan, they seem to have a
46:22
tighter operation where they don't
46:25
do dumb things and they use better
46:27
trained people. That's just a hypothesis. That's
46:29
good. Thank you. So
46:32
Matt, kind of a concluding question.
46:34
And it's
46:37
quite a broad one. And basically it comes to this.
46:39
All of these efforts are
46:42
cases of China making sense of the
46:45
world for its own game. And
46:47
yet, and we talked a
46:49
little bit about Li Ming
46:51
and Fu Fu, the appearances
46:53
on the rather amateur approaches
46:55
that we see on LinkedIn.
47:00
But this all brings to mind, I
47:02
think a concern. I'd be interested to
47:04
hear what your thoughts are. So we
47:06
have on one hand now with the
47:08
internet combined with AI, the potential for
47:11
Chinese type approaches to be
47:13
successful, just to just increase
47:15
exponentially. Right. I mean, especially
47:17
with integration of AI, you
47:19
can see potential for coercion
47:23
for blackmail. On the
47:25
other hand, as
47:27
we see Xi's
47:30
party or his
47:32
administration become increasingly isolated. Right. I
47:34
mean, so they're making all these
47:36
efforts to learn about the world,
47:38
but culturally arguably they're learning, they're
47:42
understanding less and less. And
47:44
you're going to get a new generation, kind of the
47:47
wolf generation, right, of
47:51
spies who've grown up in
47:54
this very kind of muscular vision
47:58
of China, aggressive China. but
48:02
not necessarily one, but
48:05
arguably one that understands the
48:07
Western world less. So you
48:09
see this divergence and
48:12
on issues like Taiwan that
48:15
kind of lack of understanding but
48:17
that aggressive desire to get ahead
48:19
and learn more is
48:22
concerning. I'm not asking for
48:24
a solution. I'm just saying that to
48:26
me is a
48:28
real problem here. It's not that China
48:31
or the United States are
48:33
going to be irrational enough to go to
48:35
war. It's as that understanding
48:40
diverges more and more
48:42
and as China gets
48:45
increasingly kind of xenophobic,
48:47
aggressive, cracks in the
48:50
facade, this kind of increasing existential
48:52
fear of enemies, the
48:55
potential for a misnap that
48:57
causes escalation grows. I
49:01
think one of the main problems is
49:04
that Xi Jinping, according to people
49:07
who know more about Chinese politics, elite politics
49:09
than I do, seems
49:13
to be people
49:15
like David Shambaugh, for example, the
49:18
scholar from George Washington University who's now out
49:21
here at Hoover, and
49:24
others seem
49:26
to have concluded, and they have a
49:29
lot of contact with people on the Chinese side, seem
49:32
to have concluded that Xi Jinping
49:34
has surrounded himself with yes
49:36
men and
49:39
that his view of the
49:41
United States is one of
49:45
disrespect and hubris.
49:50
So that's certainly a problem. Although
49:53
it doesn't seem
49:55
like he is about to
49:57
just go to war with the US
50:00
Taiwan in the near
50:02
future, there are too
50:04
many disadvantages
50:07
there, too many problems
50:09
that could result. It
50:13
seems like we're kind of
50:15
in a space in between
50:17
the two possibilities
50:20
when it comes to that. I
50:23
think that China no longer feels that
50:25
time is on their side, nor
50:29
do they really feel overly
50:31
threatened by the current situation to the point,
50:34
like in 1989 when they felt that
50:37
the party was in danger, they
50:41
decided against
50:44
the instincts of everybody in the West who
50:46
thought that China would never
50:48
shoot itself in the foot by
50:52
cracking down. To
50:58
many people in the West, the crackdown on June
51:00
4th, 1989 was a big surprise. It
51:04
wasn't much of a surprise to people who
51:08
knew that the party was always interested in
51:10
maintaining its power and was always felt threatened,
51:12
and still today feels threatened by
51:16
even the slightest organizing against
51:19
it. So
51:22
we're in between those two poles
51:24
where China feels threatened enough to
51:26
do something drastic or feels that
51:29
time is on its side, and
51:31
that's the dangerous part of that.
51:37
So remind me if I'm answering a
51:39
question. You
51:43
are, and I realize my question
51:47
kind of answers itself as we talk
51:49
through this. Yes, absolutely. There's
51:51
reason to concern. I said that
51:54
was my last question, but you brought
51:56
up a Blythe-Yutinaman Square. My
52:01
brother-in-law was actually arrested there. He
52:03
was a correspondent. In
52:06
any case, total
52:09
divergence. How
52:13
many people were killed in
52:15
Tinnemann Square? Because I know
52:17
there's true
52:19
numbers of – well, we in the West
52:21
probably don't know the real numbers. And I
52:23
only asked that question not at a prurient
52:25
interest, but it
52:28
was indeed. I mean, it was – yes,
52:30
it wasn't the Cultural Revolution, but it
52:32
was a tectonic event
52:36
in Chinese society. Yes,
52:39
it was. Were
52:42
the state proved to everybody who was
52:44
paying any attention that if
52:46
you oppose us, you're dead meat? Yeah,
52:50
you know, in the aftermath,
52:55
the embassy sent people around.
52:57
I heard
52:59
these stories because I arrived in 1991 as
53:02
a commercial officer. So I heard these stories
53:04
about how embassy officers went around the hospitals
53:06
looking for dead Americans, but while they were
53:08
doing that, they were also counting the dead.
53:12
And the official number that
53:15
the U.S. came up with was relatively low,
53:17
as I recall. I don't recall the number.
53:21
The number that I actually trust was
53:26
in a book by
53:29
my friend Jan Wong,
53:31
W-O-N-G-J-A-N, who
53:33
was the Toronto Globe and Mail correspondent
53:36
in Beijing at that time and
53:39
who I met when I moved there. And
53:43
she cited the Chinese Red Cross
53:45
figure that was initially issued
53:47
of 3,000 dead, which
53:50
they later retracted, and
53:54
her reporting indicated that that
53:57
was the most reliable number. Yeah,
54:01
phenomenal amount when you think a
54:03
relatively short period of time
54:06
that the actual shooting took
54:08
place, but it gives you some
54:12
indication that... Well, civilians came out onto
54:14
the streets because they were mortified
54:17
and outraged at what was going on,
54:19
and they were mowed down with automatic
54:21
weapons. A very
54:25
difficult situation. Same
54:27
understatement. Just
54:30
to close out quickly, like, how does
54:32
the U.S. respond? What do we do
54:34
to counter what China is trying
54:36
to do to us? Great
54:39
question. Well, we have a
54:41
problem, a very
54:44
– there's a real imbalance between
54:47
China and the U.S. when it comes to one
54:50
understanding the other. In
54:53
China, English
54:56
is available and often
54:58
required as
55:00
a subject beginning in the fourth
55:02
grade, primary four. In
55:06
the United States, people typically begin
55:08
studying Chinese if they're interested in that topic
55:10
at the age of 18. I
55:14
got to jump on that at the age of 17, but
55:19
it was too late, in my
55:22
opinion, to begin learning the
55:24
language, which I've struggled
55:26
with for decades, and I can use,
55:29
but I'm only of
55:31
average competence when it comes to learning languages.
55:35
I think what we need to do,
55:37
not only language but also area studies,
55:39
we need to redouble our efforts there.
55:44
It's possible nowadays to get
55:47
a scholarship to study the Chinese
55:49
language and major
55:52
in East Asian studies or
55:54
Russian studies, et cetera, but
55:58
the amount of money that's pledged to the Chinese language, to
56:00
that effort should probably be
56:02
increased. We
56:06
should probably have more programs at
56:08
the high school and younger
56:11
levels to study the language.
56:15
And one place to look for this as
56:18
a model is DOD
56:21
and the Department of State. So
56:23
when they identify somebody to work on
56:26
China or Russia or Saudi Arabia, the
56:28
Arab world or whatever, somebody
56:31
who's already cleared, already
56:34
professionally trained, they
56:36
send them off for one or two
56:38
years for intensive language study.
56:40
And then they send them to a
56:43
graduate school for a year to do
56:45
an area studies degree. So
56:48
that's a three-year investment.
56:52
And then we pass them over for promotion then.
56:55
Maybe we do, yeah. But
56:58
the point is that the
57:00
FBI doesn't do that. They
57:03
rely on linguists who
57:05
are not field agents, and therefore you
57:07
have field agents who do not have
57:09
a field. They do
57:11
not speak the language, but they are required
57:14
to go out and recruit sources
57:16
of information in the community. And
57:19
they – there are
57:21
some. I've met one
57:24
in particular who went
57:26
to Taiwan, was really interested in China,
57:28
got the language, married a
57:31
local gal, came back, and he was recruited
57:33
by the FBI, and immediately he was put
57:35
on organized crime. But
57:38
eventually he was put
57:41
onto counterintelligence and
57:44
foreign counterintelligence squad and
57:48
did great things. But
57:52
he was an exception. Yeah.
57:54
All right. I mean, you think that – I'm
57:57
sure it's happening that the FBI would make
57:59
a good deal. Certain recruiting drive.
58:02
Now they are other trying to trying
58:04
to recruit people already have the language
58:07
mess great the land but I really
58:09
think that they have been under law
58:11
enforcement on can we have other law
58:13
enforcement other to we have the Commerce
58:16
Department of Labor Department et cetera the
58:18
I'm that Department of Energy's. Come
58:20
as you point out, a lot more
58:22
than the is more than the language
58:25
and putting right. As you point out
58:27
the A it's a cultural understanding, it's
58:29
on. It's an understanding of on of.
58:31
of what he you know what factors
58:34
are. I played to enough the people
58:36
to do certain things. I think one
58:38
a means. To. Promise that wants
58:40
the saw going through us education system which
58:42
I never did by the way but. Once
58:45
people do and they become. It's.
58:48
Hard for them then to imagine. I.
58:51
Didn't wear that for a while but you
58:54
know a bet it's in the it's a
58:56
whole problem As human yeah you can learn
58:58
the language but it's just the it the
59:00
even if you if you learn it picture
59:03
perfect the that pronunciation and speak it like
59:05
a native, That's only part of the puzzle.
59:08
I think that's correct.
59:11
And ah, and because
59:13
we are such a
59:15
cultural, a powerful nation,
59:17
or an economically powerful
59:19
nation, harm. Americans
59:22
do not steal and in general
59:24
do not sell the same compulsion to
59:26
learn about foreign countries that foreign countries
59:29
learn. People on countries
59:31
are compelled to learn about than I'd say. It's. And
59:35
has room for I think it under the
59:37
be said about like you know our second
59:39
generation kids. Were. At the
59:42
you know they do get. Targeted probably
59:44
because they have family in China
59:46
still. but. It's gotta be.
59:48
Someone. In that generation where.
59:51
They'll. Be our biggest asset in terms of working
59:54
at the F B I working at See I.
59:56
Am so I guess at near as
59:59
be overcome. Yeah, that's that's
1:00:01
exactly yeah, understanding that fair and then
1:00:03
overcoming it and being able
1:00:05
to balance aspects of American life culture
1:00:08
against that. Along with that too,
1:00:10
I think we also need to tap into working,
1:00:13
which I've done working with local law
1:00:15
enforcement and not just local law enforcement,
1:00:18
but also ethnic law enforcement officers. We
1:00:20
need to get to the point where
1:00:22
we're not going to stick out like
1:00:24
a sore thumb. If
1:00:27
you send that FBI agent into that neighborhood where he's he
1:00:29
or she is not known, you have that local law enforcement.
1:00:35
It's like, oh, that's, you know, Officer X or Y. You
1:00:39
know, I see them patrolling every day. We need to
1:00:41
start using those folks a little bit better
1:00:43
as well. Yeah, good. Fair
1:00:45
point. Great. It's always, you
1:00:49
know, we always try and end these episodes on a little
1:00:52
bit of a constructive positive point. So that was brilliant.
1:00:54
Right. The whole, I have my moment.
1:00:56
Yeah, well, I'm sorry we went over it,
1:00:58
but we went over it because this
1:01:00
is, you know, we've got you. I mean,
1:01:02
this is a nugget that we're going to.
1:01:06
I'm not going to be able to finish this metaphor, but
1:01:08
clean all of that. Anyway, thank
1:01:10
you so much. Matt, please
1:01:13
plug your book when it's coming out. Any
1:01:15
other previous works you've done, feel free. The
1:01:18
floor is yours. Okay. Well,
1:01:21
please take a look. If you're interested
1:01:23
in this kind of thing, my website is mattbrazil.net,
1:01:25
m-a-t-t-b-r-a-z-i-l.net, where I try to plug in the
1:01:28
book. If you're interested
1:01:30
in this kind of thing, my website is
1:01:33
mattbrazil.net,
1:01:35
m-a-t-t-b-r-a-z-i-l.net,
1:01:38
where I try to post as much as
1:01:40
I can. There's
1:01:42
a, I have a newsletter.
1:01:45
If you go to the website that I
1:01:47
just named, you can sign up for the
1:01:49
newsletter. And
1:01:53
I also write for the Jamestown China Brief.
1:01:56
There's stuff available there. jamestown.org.
1:02:01
as well as
1:02:03
SpyTalk.co, which
1:02:05
is an interesting little online newsletter
1:02:07
run by a veteran journalist named Jeff
1:02:09
Stein. Yeah, we've had Jeff on the
1:02:12
team house before. Oh, have you? Yeah.
1:02:15
Very good. So,
1:02:17
I do my best to cover China
1:02:20
angles for his
1:02:23
audience. And it's
1:02:28
also good to
1:02:31
just try to do
1:02:34
ordinary web searches that
1:02:37
will bring you to a lot of this
1:02:39
stuff. But the one thing
1:02:41
I would caution everybody when they look at
1:02:43
Wikipedia, Wikipedia can
1:02:45
be very useful, but
1:02:47
you should always check out the
1:02:50
footnotes because quite often the
1:02:52
footnotes lead to absolutely nowhere. As
1:02:54
many frustrated thesis write-up line. And
1:03:01
I'll put all of Matt's links in the description and in
1:03:03
the show notes, so you guys can just go down there
1:03:06
and click it and find your way to Matthew and his
1:03:08
work. Thank you very much.
1:03:10
You've all been very kind. Thank you. Thank
1:03:12
you, Matt. Awesome. So,
1:03:15
everyone, I don't know
1:03:18
if you had a chance to see the
1:03:21
team house kind of – what was
1:03:23
it called? The interval, the intermission, but
1:03:26
it's a very short video that was
1:03:28
released by Jack and CrowdD was on it.
1:03:30
But anyway, bottom line is this. Please
1:03:34
subscribe. Jack made the point that
1:03:36
a lot of people will
1:03:39
click subscribe, but they don't get
1:03:41
sent reminders. And for
1:03:43
Eyes On, that's particularly important because we know
1:03:45
when the next episode is coming out kind
1:03:47
of the day before, but
1:03:50
generally twice a week, either when news hits
1:03:52
or we have a great
1:03:54
guest. So please do.
1:03:57
Anyway, support the team house. Please do.
1:04:00
click on subscribe even better consider
1:04:02
joining patreon
1:04:05
which is five dollars a month which
1:04:07
is poultry you know I mean that's
1:04:09
a tip right yeah you get even
1:04:12
add free episodes yeah that's that's
1:04:14
a tip D drops that every time he
1:04:16
spends over a hundred bucks on a meal
1:04:19
that's a bad tip but yeah wait a wait a
1:04:22
not to spend it all
1:04:25
at one but yeah my point
1:04:27
is it's it's a d-tip
1:04:29
you know per month that's nothing okay
1:04:31
all right anyway hey great see everyone
1:04:34
in in a couple of days all
1:04:36
the best you take thanks everybody thank
1:04:39
you thank you man that was brilliant
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