China’s shadow war: The Americans | Episode Two
The Slow Newscast
Alice Sandelson
4.6 • 894 Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
American citizens are recruited to carry out Beijing’s dirty work on home soil. A Florida correctional officer poses as an art dealer, exposing the murky world of transnational repression and China’s shadow war.
This is part two of a three part series. To listen to all episodes today, and enjoy the Slow Newscast ad-free, subscribe to The Observer and use the code AUDIO50 to get 50% off your annual subscription.
You’ll get access to:
This series and all our podcasts before anyone else
Ad-free listening
Premium newsletters
Puzzles from the inventors of the cryptic crossword
Exclusive offers from our partners
Tickets to join Observer events in our newsroom or online
Or subscribe to Observer+ on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to listen to all our podcasts, including this one, without any ads.
Reporters - Alexi Mostrous and Frankie Vetch
Producer - Jonathan Lewis
Additional production - Amalie Sortland
Sound design - Dominic Delargy
Podcast illustration - Shonagh Rae
Editor - Jasper Corbett
Credits - CNBC
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is episode two of a three-part series. |
| 0:11.5 | Subscribe to the Observer to get early access to episode three. |
| 0:15.2 | Use the code Audio 50 to get 50% off. |
| 0:21.2 | This is my first day of work, so I was dressed really nice in a suit and very high heels, |
| 0:26.0 | you know, the TV version of an FBI agent. |
| 0:29.6 | And, yeah, I ended up with two bloody feet. |
| 0:33.8 | Dawn Norris Stoke always wanted to work in federal law enforcement. |
| 0:38.5 | She applied twice in the late 90s and early noughties, but was rejected both times. |
| 0:44.1 | Then came September the 11th, 2001. |
| 0:47.8 | The FBI expands its recruitment, and Dawn gets an invite to join the Bureau. |
| 0:53.0 | I didn't know when you become an agent, you get trained to be kind of a jack-of-all-trades, |
| 0:59.4 | master of none, and then they place you where there's needs. |
| 1:04.1 | And I showed up my first day after I had finished the training. |
| 1:07.2 | I said, welcome to the New York field office of the FBI. |
| 1:10.3 | Congratulations. You're going to work |
| 1:11.8 | Chinese counterintelligence. Dawn spends the next 22 years fighting China's shadow war. In that time, |
| 1:19.0 | she witnesses a sharp rise in transnational repression. That's when countries like Russia and China |
| 1:25.1 | intimidate and target dissidents abroad. |
| 1:28.2 | Xi Jinping has made this a priority. It is seen as a personal affront to speak out against |
| 1:33.9 | anything to do with the Chinese government. I think Xi Jinping takes that extra seriously. |
| 1:40.3 | According to a report last year by the international consortium of investigative journalists, |
| 1:45.8 | Chinese transnational repression is now omnipresent in at least 23 countries. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Alice Sandelson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Alice Sandelson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.