Ezra Levant critiques the RCMP’s 2035 Tesla fleet plan, citing operational flaws like limited range in rural Saskatchewan and design issues for prisoner transport, while questioning whether environmental goals under Vision 150 overshadow core law enforcement. Meanwhile, Gordon Chang analyzes China’s Joint Sword 2024A exercises near Taiwan, highlighting Xi Jinping’s internal military tensions—65–85% of Taiwanese reject Chinese identity—and speculates aggression stems from Communist Party divisions rather than U.S. deterrence. Levant contrasts this with modern slavery’s overlooked persistence in China and India, suggesting selective historical condemnation may reflect ideological agendas over evidence-based critique. [Automatically generated summary]
I want to talk to you about the RCMB switching in their police cars for Teslas.
They're serious about it.
I'll show you how serious.
And we also have a very powerful interview with my friend Gordon Shang about what's going on in Taiwan.
Boy, I learned a lot from him.
You're not going to want to miss this.
So please consider getting the video version of it.
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All right.
Here's today's free podcast.
Tonight, do you think it's a good idea for the Mounties to drive Teslas?
It's May 24th, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
Shame on you.
You censorious bug.
One of the craziest things I ever saw, I had to watch it several times to believe it, was a former high-ranking Obama official saying that one of the reasons that Barack Obama, at the time of the U.S. president, did not attack the terrorist group called the Islamic State when it was smuggling oil in tanker trucks to raise money for their terrorism.
Remember, they had an actual terrorist country back then called the Islamic State with big cities like Mosul and Raqqa.
Anyways, Obama said he wouldn't attack these oil tanker convoys that were bringing in tens or maybe hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen oil money because it would impact global warming.
To attack an oil tanker truck would cause carbon emissions.
Take a look.
Here's his former deputy CIA director.
How many times does he say the word environment here?
We've seen attacks on that oil transfer taking place now after Paris that didn't take place before Paris, which is your original question.
Right.
Which wouldn't be doing now.
So this is one of the collateral damage questions, right?
So prior to Paris, there seemed to be a judgment, right?
I don't sit in the sit room anymore, but there seemed to have been a judgment that, look, we don't want to destroy these oil tankers because that's infrastructure that's going to be necessary to support the people when ISIS isn't there anymore.
And it's going to create environmental damage.
And we didn't go after oil wells, actually hitting oil wells that ISIS controls because we didn't want to do environmental damage and we didn't want to destroy that infrastructure, right?
So we had oil and trucks.
So now we're hitting oil and trucks, right?
And maybe you get to the point where you say we have to also hit oil wells.
So those are the kind of tough decisions you have to make.
Can you imagine fighting a terrorist war and deciding not to attack something because of environmental concerns?
By the way, all bombs blow up and emit carbon dioxide.
That's the thing about war.
It's terrible.
What a joke.
Greenwashing is a joke when big corporations do it.
Greenwashing, but it's absolutely nuts when a military does it.
Not just greenwashing, but any other political priority other than the central mission of the military, which is to blow up other militaries.
There's no other purpose for a military.
It's insane when companies focus on political projects other than making money.
Think of, you know, Bud Light.
When a company focuses on DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion, as it's misdescribed, as opposed to actual work, there's always trouble.
It reminds me of what the company Twitter was like when Elon Musk took it over.
You know, he fired 80% of the staff who weren't actually doing anything other than making TikTok videos about how they weren't doing anything.
Hey guys, come to work with me at Twitter in Atlanta.
This was my first time going into the office in such a long time, but it was nice to have a change of scenery from my apartment.
Look at my coworker, Brie.
She's so cute.
For lunch, we decided to go downstairs to Barvegan.
If you haven't tried it before, it's a black-owned restaurant inside of Pond's Market.
We ordered the quesadillas with Todds and then also got a fancy pants cocktail, and they were all really good.
So I'll definitely be back.
After lunch, we came back upstairs to an extremely empty office, but honestly, we were just so proud of our productivity.
After work, we went back downstairs to Monero to reward ourselves with some afterwork margaritas.
We stayed in happy hour until around 7 p.m. and then I finally headed home to enjoy a well-deserved bubble bath.
Bye, guys.
Twitter has rolled out more innovations in the past year than in the previous five years with one-fifth of the staff.
That's a fact.
In a way, though, who cares if a private company wastes money and loses its direction?
It's just a company, their shareholders and the stock market and competitors will eventually take care of the problem.
But when a military does so, there's no ability to say whoopsies.
There's no competitor American military, Canadian military.
If you're putting any collateral purpose ahead of being the most lethal fighting force you can be, your people are going to die and wars will be lost.
Now, Canada doesn't have much of a military anymore, I hate to say.
Trudeau's pushing wokeism in the military pretty hard.
Soldiers are literally using food banks now.
He's given away many of our weapons to Ukraine if he's even delivered them.
He's spending money putting tampon dispensers and military bases, men's bathrooms.
That in itself is not going to cost us the next war, but it shows you what's important in the Canadian Armed Forces these days.
But let's talk about something that's almost as important as the military, something that touches on us much more in real life, sometimes even on a daily basis, something that could make a difference between life and death.
And by that, I mean the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada's largest police force.
There's 30,000 employees total at the RCMP.
Not all of them, of course, are uniformed officers.
The Mounties were once the pride of Canada.
In fact, Mounties are an international symbol of Canada.
Upstanding, honest, fair, adventurous, outdoorsy.
That's the old RCMP.
The new RCMP, of course, is one of political corruption at the hands of Trudeau's hand-picked commissioners.
Remember the disgraceful Brenda Lucky?
And the new, even more atrocious RCMP commissioner, Mike Duem, who made his big debut by calling for new laws to stop citizens from being mean to politicians online.
So they're being politicized and policing has become corroded more and more by these collateral purposes.
Or as someone more accurately suggested, DEI stands for didn't earn it.
But if didn't earn it applies to people, maybe it applies to other parts of policing too.
Especially if we're being critical Marxists about it, if we're being woke about it, if we're trying to decolonize policing.
How about getting rid of cars that burn fossil fuels and replace them with fashionable political cars?
How about replacing police vehicles which are strong, sturdy, reliable?
How about replacing them with electric vehicles?
Oh, yes.
Look at this press release by the RCMP just a couple months ago.
This was published by them, as you can see.
I'll read most of it to you.
RCMP shifts to zero-emission vehicles.
That's the headline.
And here's the photo caption.
The RCMP showcased the zero-emission Tesla at the 2023 Glen Garry Highland Games last summer.
Of course, it's not zero emissions.
A lot of Canadian electricity comes from burning fossil fuels, and you can't make steel without burning coal.
It's a bit of a shell game.
It feels like this is a novelty item, that photo.
I mean, I get it, though Teslas aren't really a novelty like they were 10 years ago.
I guess that's things moving at the speed of government.
But let me read the story here.
Judge for yourself.
The RCMP is driving change by shifting its on-road light-duty fleet to zero-emission vehicles where operationally feasible by 2035.
Oh, driving change.
I thought their job was arresting bad guys, upholding the law.
Yeah, no, it hasn't been for a while.
I'll read some more.
Officers at two RCMP detachments took to the road early in 2023 to start using the Tesla Model Y, one of several different models to be tested.
British Columbia's West Shore Detachment and Ontario's Rideau Hall Response Unit were the first to test the new vehicles in daily operations.
The upfit mid-size SUVs have been on the road since January 23, and officers are getting a feel for how they perform as police vehicles in the field for their day-to-day operations.
Yeah, did you just call the Tesla Model Y an SUV?
Yeah, I'm not sure.
Not sure about that.
I mean, there's a picture of it.
Now, it's true, Tesla has released a true novelty item, their Tesla truck called the Cyber Truck.
Those start at about $150,000 Canadian a pop, but the RCMP is still testing the Model Y from years ago.
Let me read some more.
The Tesla seems to be very well liked by the officers, says Corporal Didier Thibault, team lead of the Rideau Hall Response Team in Ottawa.
It's always the first car selected when members sign in.
They even come in earlier to get the car.
That's a touching anecdote.
So they think the car is fun.
I'm not sure that's the most important thing when selecting police cars, but that's what the RCMP have led with in this press release.
Officers on the response team patrol the Rideau Hall grounds, spending much of the day in the vehicle at various posts on the property.
Even though there isn't extensive driving involved, ergonomics is a key consideration due to the long hours spent in idling vehicles.
The ergonomics are better compared to our standard police vehicle, but for taller and larger members, there's still not as much room as a larger SUV, says Thibault.
All right, so it's not a real police car in terms of its use.
It's for puttering around the grounds of Rideau Hall in Ottawa, but just for the shorter officers.
So it's like a golf cart, almost, you know, driving around short distances, no chases, no races, no bad guys put in the back.
Like I say, it's a novelty item.
I'm not going to read the whole thing, but here's a bit more.
Speeding up availability.
The field testing has brought attention to several factors that will help the RCMP move forward with greening its fleet.
One challenge the RCMP has faced in testing is equipping or upfitting retail vehicles with policing equipment that were not designed for police operations.
Quote, zero-emission, purpose-built police vehicles are only now becoming available to the Canadian market, says Andres Kasimiri, manager of the RCMP's National Fleet Program.
That means we had to buy retail vehicles and contract the upfitting to a vendor.
Translation, a Tesla really isn't built to do police work, from the sirens to the lights to, you know, putting a handcuffed criminal in the back when half the roof is a window that could be kicked out, I'm guessing.
I'll keep reading.
The Teslas were the first vehicles delivered for testing and were upfitted with policing equipment by a vendor.
They were ready for the road within nine months.
Oh, that fast, eh?
Working at the speed of government.
The National Fleet Program is waiting for the two other testing vehicles, the Ford Mach E and the Ford 150 Lightning.
The RCMP has also ordered the Chevy Blazer EVPPV, a purpose-built policing vehicle.
The new vehicles are expected to be equipped and ready for testing in 2024.
Have you ever met anyone who has bought one of those other vehicles?
Have you ever heard of a Ford F-150 Lightning?
That's the electric version of the F-150, very, very popular truck.
Now, a few people have bought them.
I googled, I don't know anyone who has a F-150 Lightning.
Here are some headlines that I saw when I Googled F-150 Lightning.
Here's a story that came up.
Family ditches electric truck on drive from Winnipeg to Chicago after charging troubles.
That's not a very long drive, by the way.
Road trip completed with rented gas-powered vehicle.
While Ford says charging infrastructure is improving.
Okay, I'll tell the RCMP and I'll tell the criminals.
I wonder if that little story there is why I saw this headline too.
I just googled F-150 Lightning because I really didn't know much about it.
I saw this headline.
Ford F-150 Lightning sales tanked, forcing Ford to lay off workers at Rouge EV Center.
You know, Ford is losing $30,000 per vehicle when they sell these F-150 Lightnings.
But the RCMP think it's a winner.
They're very interested.
I'll read some more.
Facing challenges head on.
While the team leading the zero-emission vehicle migration is confident the market will be able to produce purpose-built policing vehicles well suited for urban areas, there are potential challenges for remote detachments given the vast areas officers cover.
Oh, you think, you think, eh?
The team is still exploring charging systems to ensure proper infrastructure is in place to support detachments and collecting data on vehicles operating in northern and remote locations to evaluate the challenges those areas encounter and ensure zero-emission vehicle suitability.
Electric Vehicles and Challenges00:07:39
They keep saying team.
How big is this team at the RCMP that instead of fighting crime is working on the question of electric cars?
If you can call what they're doing work.
I'll keep reading.
As the RCMP moves forward, guided by its Vision 150 and beyond priorities and the Treasury Board Secretary's greening government strategy, there's still a lot to consider.
A technology shift of this magnitude can redefine how we approach patrol operations, says Yves Mador, project lead for the Fleet Modernization Project.
That's why we're talking to every facet of RCMP operations to identify areas of improvement that are fundamental to advanced technology zero-emission vehicles.
Okay, so hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.
Okay, how many team members are we at so far, by the way?
But but they're going to transform, they're going to change how they patrol to fit electric vehicles.
They're not going to buy a vehicle that fits them, they're going to change policing to fit the Teslas.
Yeah, don't you get it?
That's what that Vision 150 is all about.
Non-policing priorities.
Don't even think about the letter P in the RCMP.
That's not the emphasis anymore.
If police patrols have to change so that electric vehicle team can report a great success to the Liberal Party, that's what they're going to do.
You know, it's so bad that even the CBC has written about how stupid this all is.
Just a few months after that foolish press release, here's what the CBC published.
Actually, this was just yesterday.
CBC said, RCMP warns push to switch to electric vehicles faces significant challenges.
Range is one problem.
Another is the kind of work police vehicles perform.
Someone in the RCMP is still thinking about policing.
Otherwise, the RCMP wouldn't be critical.
Here, let me read a little bit.
Can the RCMP turn North America's largest law enforcement vehicle fleet green?
They're about to find out.
So the CBC is still pretty excited about this, but obviously at least one cop is worried.
As Canada's national police service, the RCMP falls under Ottawa's greening government strategy, a commitment to lower the environmental footprint of the federal government and get it to net zero emissions by 2050.
The strategy calls on the RCMP to replace as many of their approximately 12,000 cars and trucks with zero-emission vehicles as operationally possible by 2035.
So if you were to believe this, you'd think that they're just going to do it.
I mean, damn the torpedoes, just do it.
Just buy the electric vehicle.
That's more important than working or being able to do the policing part of their job.
Imagine having an electric vehicle in, say, rural Saskatchewan in the winter when it's like minus 40.
What a joke.
Let me keep reading.
But those tasked with meeting that goal are predicting speed bumps along the way.
We do fully anticipate that there are significant challenges with electric vehicle range for a lot of our units, said Sergeant Sean Victorine, who works in the RCMP's National Traffic Programs and Operational Technologies Unit.
We don't want to put them into a situation where they will fail and put a member at risk or the public at risk because if a piece of equipment didn't do what it was supposed to do.
Whoa, watch out!
You'll get fired if you keep talking sense like that.
Don't let Stephen Gilbo hear you.
I mean, Gilbo said, remember, that he doesn't want to fund any more roads at all.
So why would he care about funding cars on roads, especially for the hated police part of the RCMP?
I'm surprised he's not pushing police bicycles in our far north.
Let me read some more.
As the boots on the ground police in eight provinces, all three territories, and 150 municipalities, the RCMP covers vast portions of the country, including many remote and rural areas with limited charging infrastructure and strained power grids.
Quote, I think it poses significant challenges to our organization in terms of operations and being able to respond, said Vickery.
I do think that there are a lot of locations where we can fit these vehicles into operations, and they will do quite well.
However, when you head out into the prairies and the northern part of Canada, we cover a lot of ground and our detachment area is quite large.
Imagine driving a Tesla in Canada's far north.
I just got to read some more.
Just give me a little more.
The early field testing is also assessing how electric vehicles can handle a police officer behind the wheel.
Responding to a call may require driving at a higher speed, which is going to consume more battery and decrease your range, said Vickery.
Oh, but that's not important.
We have to help Stephen Gilbo, virtue signal at the UN.
And while the two Teslas with their panoramic glass sunroofs are popular with some of the Mountis testing them out, Vickery said they likely won't be used in general duty.
It's probably not for widespread general duty usage where we're going to be putting prisoners and such in the back because the glass roof and stuff like that pose a bit of a challenge, he said.
A bit of a challenge.
I like that wording.
Well, look, a bit of a challenge.
That's a price public safety has to pay, so be it.
We have new priorities at the RCMP under their new commissioner, didn't you know?
Too early to talk gas savings.
Outfitting the vehicles with policing equipment has also turned up to be a challenge.
Andres Kazimiri, manager of the Maori's National Fleet Program, said the force basically had to gut the insides of the Teslas to make them into usable police cars.
And there's a picture of them there.
I bet there's no fewer than a dozen cops working full-time on this electric vehicles thing.
No time to fight real crime.
We have to fight climate criminals.
That's what Stephen Gabo would say.
Quote, you basically have to tear the interior of the car apart so that you can run the wiring.
You're talking the lights, siren, light controller, the light bar, the radio.
Casimiri said it's still too early in the electric vehicle field testing phase to get a sense of how much the RCMP could save on gas.
He said they'll have more data as the field testing ramps up.
Oh, you're pretending this is going to be cheaper?
You're pretending you're doing taxpayers a favor?
That's precious.
That's so cute.
I'm going to make a prediction.
They're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on this.
They'll probably get some friends to make an app for $60 million.
They'll probably hire those ArrivCan guys.
And in the end, of course, it's not going to work, other than that little golf cart thing at Rideau Hall.
It'll be like those electric buses in Edmonton that didn't work because they forgot that Edmonton gets down to minus 40 in the winter.
Quote, a spokesman for the Treasury Board of Canada, which is implementing the government's greening strategy, said the department will work with the RCMP where necessary if an all-electric fleet is not feasible.
Okay, got it.
Got it.
The only thing that's surprising here is that Trudeau hasn't yet insisted on electric vehicles in the army, like electric tanks or electric fighter jets.
But I think that's only because we really don't have an army anymore.
Stay with us.
China And The United States00:14:44
Well, the world of foreign affairs and military aggression, well, it's rarely been as violent as it is now.
We see Israel entering Rafa, the last holdout of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
This has elicited condemnation from the International Criminal Court.
At the same time, Vladimir Putin continues his advances in Ukraine.
Today, Reuters reports that Putin says he's open to a ceasefire negotiation along current battlefront lines.
While the West looks at these two places, China makes a move.
It has encircled Taiwan in a military exercise that is terrifying in that it shows pretty much precisely how they would invade Taiwan if and when that moment comes.
Take a look at this video, a simulation published by Chinese state TV.
This is not actual footage.
This is their simulation of what an invasion would look like.
Absolutely terrifying.
Designed to terrify Taiwan, designed to whip up anti-Taiwan sentiment in China.
Of course, they regard Taiwan as a separatist part of China proper.
How do we make sense of all this?
Well, there's only one man I trust to help us figure out what's going on and America and Canada's place in that, if there is a place for us.
You know who I'm talking about, Gordon Chang.
You can follow him on Twitter at Gordon G. Chang.
He joins us now vice capital.
Gordon, great to see you again.
Thank you for making time for us.
While the world is looking at Gaza and Ukraine, China has encircled Taiwan.
Tell us what's going on.
Yeah, this is a two-day exercise, Joint Sword 2024A.
And really, what they're doing is they're practicing a blockade.
Now, they did this in 2022 after Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, visited Taiwan.
But this time, they're blockading or they are surrounding not only the main island of Taiwan, but also Taiwan's outlying islands, which are very close to the Chinese mainland.
So this is more comprehensive than what we've seen before.
You know, I'm sure we're going to see more provocative Chinese exercises in the coming months.
And they're doing this, they say, because of the inauguration of William Lai on Monday as Taiwan's new president.
In his inaugural address, he was more explicit about sovereignty, but the substance was the same as his predecessors.
And he did say he would keep the status quo.
I haven't been to Taiwan in more than 15 years, and there's a lot of push and pull.
There's some ethnic harmony between Taiwan and China.
There's linguistic harmony.
Many people from Taiwan evacuated the mainland during the communist revolution.
There are now great commercial ties.
There are family ties.
So there are natural reasons to pull these two countries together.
On the other hand, Taiwan has become a truly liberal democracy.
And it's proved that freedom can work.
And I think they look at what's happening in Hong Kong and realize that China is not going liberal.
How does this tension play out?
Because I can only imagine, just like North and South Korea, there's family ties, there's cultural ties.
What part of Taiwan wants to have a homecoming, and what part thinks that's just impossible as long as the communists are in charge?
Well, as Taiwan is democratized, people in Taiwan say, well, look, you know, we want good relations with Beijing, but we're not Chinese.
And in self-identification surveys, no less than two-thirds, and usually about 85% or so, say they're Taiwanese only.
Now, the people who say they're Chinese only is never more than 7% in these surveys.
And usually it's about three or four.
And this has actually, I think, been the main dynamic because, you know, China says, well, Taiwan's China.
And Taiwan says, no, we're not.
Isn't that interesting?
So they have, I mean, even though they're made, and they may have originally come from mainland China, of course, there are an indigenous Taiwanese people as well, so to speak.
Isn't that interesting?
What are the ties commercially between the mainland and Taiwan?
Because I think in so many cases, money can be a corrupting force on political independence.
I think of what's happened in Europe.
Germany, for economic reasons, decided to make a deal with Russia for natural gas.
And that has hampered its ability to push back on Vladimir Putin.
When you have massive trade ties, it's tougher to take principled stands because your prosperity depends on it.
How dependent is Taiwan on mainland China compared to its economic trade with Korea, Japan, and the United States?
There's a lot of trade between China and Taiwan, but Taiwan is now reorienting its trade toward the United States.
And so those trade ties are becoming less importance, at least on a relative basis.
And also it's because China's been threatening Taiwan.
So we have seen, especially in presidents of the Democratic Progressive Party, and William Lai, the current president, is DPP, as is his predecessor.
You know, we're seeing very much a move to try to move away.
And by the way, this election that took place in January of this year, this was historic because this is the first time that the people of Taiwan chose a person from the same party, from the same party in three straight presidential elections.
Tsai Ing-wen for two and William Lai for one.
And that shows you the drift away from China.
That's right, because there was the party, help me out if I'm getting my facts wrong, the Kuomintang, which wanted closer relations.
And they actually were sort of a mirror image of the language on the Chinese mainland side, weren't they?
Each one was regarding the other as a rogue province, let's say.
They both believed in an eventual reunification.
Is that an accurate description of the Kuomintang party?
Yeah, that is accurate.
Both the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintong both basically have the same Leninist roots, and they both competed for influence and power on the mainland.
1949, Chiang Kai-shek, he fled to Taiwan and he imposed Chinese rule.
And that was extremely unpopular, especially because it was brutal and murderous.
And so today in a democratic Taiwan, people remember that.
It's called the white terror.
And that's why the Chinese, ethnic Chinese, are losing political power.
You know, it's just sort of natural that as time progresses, the political parties start to indigenize.
And that's what's happened to the Kuomintong a little bit.
It's still very pro-China, but it is losing influence.
And so therefore, it is a significant shift in the political landscape of Taiwan.
You know, one of the greatest natural defenses the United Kingdom has had for centuries, of course, has been the English Channel.
It has likely saved that country from invasion many times.
And for centuries, it compelled the British to be the masters of the sea.
They were the greatest navy all around the world.
That's no longer the case.
And I think the era of American naval dominance, if it's not over, it's at least hit its apogee.
China now has the world's largest navy in terms of the number of ships.
And although they are not practiced with their aircraft carriers, they have them.
They're developing fifth generation fighters.
They are experts in drones.
They haven't actually fought a hot war in decades, but I think they've narrowed the qualitative gap with America and certainly the quantitative gap.
And so I wonder, God forbid, if this weren't just a drill, if this was for real, how would Taiwan fare in a battle over the Taiwan Strait?
Great question.
It's not just the United States.
It also would be Japan, Australia, and perhaps others.
But yeah, the Chinese military is engaged in the most rapid and fast and largest buildup, military buildup since the Second World War.
As you point out, the Chinese Navy has more ships.
The Chinese Air Force is moving towards the point where it'll have more planes than the U.S. Air Force.
Now, there are qualitative problems.
The biggest problem for the Chinese military, though, is political, in the sense that it is, it reports to the Communist Party of China.
It's not a state army, it's a party army.
And because of that, it has been riven by politics.
And last year, especially the last half of the year, there were some very disturbing developments in terms of political purges and whatnot with the Chinese military.
Tell me a little bit more about that.
Does that suggest that they may have a different ambition than the leader?
I mean, Xi Jinping strikes terror, I think, around the world because he has moved China towards militarism and authoritarianism.
He has basically stopped liberalization.
He's undone Hong Kong's freedoms.
If he's not the boss of the People's Liberation Army in de facto terms, who is?
And what are the differences between him and the military?
Is it just an internal difference?
Is it a difference in terms of how bellicose they are towards the West?
What's the daylight, so to speak, between the People's Liberation Army and the Communist and the government?
Help me out here.
I don't know anything about this, but I'm terrified by what you've just said.
Yeah, there is a lot of stuff that we learned at the last part of last year.
And we're not exactly sure what it means, but I can run through some of it.
So, for instance, the Rocket Force, which controls almost all the country's nuclear weapons, the top two officers, the commander and the political commissar, were sacked and replaced by officers from other branches, the Navy and the Air Force.
There are reports, unconfirmed, that some 70 Rocket Force personnel were purged last year.
And then we have the really interesting case of China's defense minister.
The defense minister is not as important as the Secretary of Defense in my country and your Minister of Defense, but it shows you what happened.
General Li Shang Fu, who was appointed in March of last year, his last day, what he was seen in public, was August 29th.
He was not formally relieved of his position until August, tint till October 24.
And his successor was not named until December 29.
We don't know what happened during those large intervals, Ezra, but the point is something's not right there because that is so unusual.
So this is extraordinary.
Wow.
You know, I remember the term during the Cold War, Kremlinology, where people would try and read the tea leaves of who is standing next to whom at the military parades at the Kremlin.
And it feels like that same sort of thing again, trying to understand who's up, who's down in a very opaque system.
I find it scary.
And I guess my last question to you would be: Canada will really have very little to do with this.
We don't have much of a navy to speak of.
I think we have had a ship sail through the Taiwan Strait, and I'm glad that happened, but I don't think we'll be a deciding factor.
The other countries you mentioned, Australia, Japan, perhaps Korea, I don't know.
But it really comes down to the United States.
They're fairly occupied by both the other conflicts right now, Ukraine-Russia, and Israel and its neighboring countries.
Is America paying attention to Taiwan?
Does it have the resources to be a credible deterrent in Taiwan?
Has Joe Biden maintained the rhetorical support for Taiwan?
Great questions.
And I don't think we have two hours to answer them, but just to look at it in brief terms.
The thing is, is not so much the United States.
I think it's the problems inside China and what Xi Jinping has decided to do.
We know that he's made the decision to risk war in East Asia.
And we can see this in the South China Sea in his attempts to grab islands and shoals from the Philippines.
But whether he has actually made the decision to go to war, we don't know.
And, you know, it very well may be that it has nothing to do with the United States.
It may have everything to do with internal strife inside the Communist Party.
Now, the United States is a credible deterrent if you look at it sort of military to military and in objective terms, but we just don't know what is happening inside Beijing.
And that is the determining factor.
I think to some degree, we don't quite know what's going on in the White House either.
And I don't say that to be flippant.
I think the true decision makers may not just be the president.
I think there are likely other forces who have a more senior role, given, I think, what we can fairly say are the limitations of the president.
I'm not casting aspersions.
I'm just saying it's not just Joe Biden making these decisions.
I think it's fair to say.
Yeah, I think that that is correct assessment.
Condemning China and India00:03:48
Well, listen, it's always great to talk to you.
And folks, if you're not already doing so, may I invite you to follow Gordon on Twitter at Gordon G Chang.
As you can see, you will get a briefing just by following him on Twitter that you will get nowhere else.
Gordon, we're so grateful for your time that you spend with us.
We always learn a lot.
I sure do.
And frankly, you're making me want to go to Taiwan.
I haven't been there in more than 15 years.
I want to see what it's like.
I want to see the spirit of the people.
When I was there before, I found it a very pro, the most pro-Western country in the region by far.
It was wonderful.
It was enthusiastic.
It was hopeful.
It was freedom-loving.
I want to see what it's like again.
Maybe it's time that the rebel went into a little mission to Taiwan just to see what it's like.
Hey, Ezra, just a few hours ago, there were about 100,000 people in Taipei in a pro-democracy demonstration because the Guomindong of the pro-China party wants to change legislative rules, and it just brought people out spontaneously.
100,000 people on the streets on Friday night.
Wow.
I'm so glad you told me that.
I wish 100,000 Canadians would come out to support freedom.
And it sounds like maybe we should go and check it out because they're a wonderful country.
And I have a tremendous sympathy for a small democracy trying to stand firm next to a big dictatorship.
So you've encouraged me and you're telling me about this large rally.
I'm very glad you did.
Gordon, take care of yourself, my friend.
And thank you, as always, for spending time with us.
Well, thank you, Ezra.
I really appreciate it.
Right on.
There you have it, Gordon G. Chang.
Stay with us.
More ahead.
Hey, welcome back.
Your letters to me.
Shane Woolsey has a letter about my chat with Mark Milke.
He says, utopia, from the Greek meaning no place or nowhere, utopia is an unattainable fantasy.
You're talking about the utopian dreams of young revolutionaries.
You are so right.
And that's the whole point of so many of these communist revolutions, just to smash everything.
But as we talked about Chesterton's fence, you better know what something is before you want, is for, before you destroy it.
Before you destroy a fence, understand why it was built and what it's protecting you from.
And that goes a millionfold in life.
What are the rules that we've built up over hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of years of experience?
And before we tear down civilization, understand why we do certain things certain ways.
And don't just tear it down for the sake of tearing down.
Our FastCat says, what about the slavery that still exists in some parts of the world?
When she finished lecturing, Canadians, she should go to some of those nations and lecture them.
You are right.
There is still slavery in China, in India, in Africa, in the Middle East.
Those places have millions of slaves.
I've never heard anyone speak out against it.
Never a world leader.
Yeah, you have some UN conferences about trafficked people.
I'm not saying no one cares at all.
But the amount of talk at these slavery studies programs about existing slavery compared to historic slavery, well, they don't really actually care because there's no money in it.
You make a lot of money by condemning John A. MacDonald as a slaver, even though he wasn't.
You won't make a lot of money condemning China, India, Africa, or the Middle East now, will you?