Is China About to Invade Taiwan? [TEASER]
Gaslit Nation
Gaslit Nation
4.7 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2024
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Coming soon for our Patreon community! Look out for a group chat feature for supporters to more easily connect with each other, and also a pinned post of recommended books from our listeners! Thank you to everyone who supports the show!
There was a crucial presidential election in Taiwan today as the fairly young democracy elected Vice President Lai Ching-te of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party to stand up to China's threats. (Check our show notes: The Guardian has a colorful overview of the most consequential election since Taiwan's first in 1996). No matter who won, China will continue to seek to annex Taiwan, dictator Xi having told Biden in their meeting in September that China and Taiwan will unify.
A troubling sign backs up his threat: Xi discovered that his military is as comically corrupt as Russia's, with reports of missiles in China full of water instead of fuel. Xi is clearly learning from Putin's mistakes in Ukraine. China may be preparing to take advantage of a West stretched thin by conflicts in Ukraine, Israel, and with Iran-backed Houthis. Olga Lautman, a Russian mafia researcher and co-host of the Kremlin Files podcast, joins Andrea to discuss whether China is about to invade Taiwan.
The conversation includes the grievance politics of authoritarian movements, featuring a look at MAGA lapdog Elise Stefanik's dangerous appearance on Meet the Press. In that clip, featured in our show notes, Stefanik refers to the violent white supremacist terrorists who attempted to overthrow our democracy on January 6th as "hostages." Andrea and Olga discuss the dangers of this and the history of a Nazi camp on Stefanik's Long Island. If Trump regains power, expect over 1,000 violent traitors to be pardoned on day one as he launches Project 2025 (his carefully planned mass purge of our government), making the world, not just our country, even more dangerous.
This week's bonus show includes Andrea answering questions from our listeners at the Democracy Defender level and higher. That discussion includes novels to read right now, how art by school children can help Ukraine, and more! If you didn't hear your question answered this week, look out for it next week, as our Q&A continues. Thank you to everyone who supports the show – we could not make Gaslit Nation without you!
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Show Notes:
Clip: Elise Stefanik refers to the "January 6 hostages" on Meet the Press: https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1744014556416905223
Nazis on Long Island: The Story of Camp Siegfried https://mjhnyc.org/events/nazis-on-long-island-the-story-of-camp-siegfried/
The Guardian: Inflatables, hip-hop rallies, and a missile alarm: Taiwan to vote in election that's too close to call https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/12/taiwan-general-presidential-election-2024-voting-polls-results-dpp-kmt-tpp
In a Setback for Beijing, Taiwan Elects Lai Ching-te as President Taiwan's vice president, whose party has emphasized the island's sovereignty, defeated an opposition party that favors reviving engagement with China. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/13/world/asia/taiwan-election-china-us.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20240113&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta®i_id=48614702&segment_id=155235&user_id=097a378032011d6e8be1570cdce0a176
Xi told Biden at summit that China plans to reunify with Taiwan https://abcnews.go.com/International/xi-warns-biden-china-plans-back-taiwan/story?id=105815520
Why Taiwan is 2024's first big election to watch https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2024/1/6/24026992/taiwan-china-president-war-xi-jinping-asia-semiconductors-chips
US Intelligence Shows Flawed China Missiles Led Xi to Purge Army China missiles filled with water, not fuel: US intelligence Xi seeking to root out corruption, prepare military for combat https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-06/us-intelligence-shows-flawed-china-missiles-led-xi-jinping-to-purge-military?utm_source=website&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=twitter
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone, welcome to this week's bonus episode exclusively for our Patreon subscribers at the |
| 0:11.6 | truth teller level or higher on Patreon. If you want to hear the full thing or submit your |
| 0:18.2 | questions for our regular Q&A's or get invites to virtual events and so much |
| 0:22.5 | more, make sure you're subscribed to the show at patreon.com forward slash gaslit. That's |
| 0:29.1 | patreon.com forward slash gaslit. And thank you to everyone who makes Gaslit Nation possible. |
| 0:36.3 | We could not make this show without you. |
| 0:38.3 | So this week's discussion with the world's foremost Russian mafia expert, Olga Lottman, |
| 0:44.2 | who was a refugee of the Soviet Union. |
| 0:47.9 | She was born in Italy of the child of a Russian and Ukrainian refugee leaving the Soviet Union, |
| 1:31.0 | and she was raised in Brighton Beach, very Russian. It's the Crimea of New York. And she came up in the world as a researcher for best-selling books like Craig Unger, Vanity Fair contributor, Craig Unger, his books, House of Trump, House of Putin. And I believe the more recent one he did confirming that Trump was indeed a Kremlin asset. That was a relationship that was developed by the Kremlin for many decades. And Malcolm Nance's books. She's a tenacious, researcher, analyst, human rights activist. And she's just extraordinary and a dear friend of mine. And our conversations always go long, whether they're on the show or privately. And so this |
| 1:38.2 | week's bonus show is going to include an excerpt that I didn't run on the public show this week. That is a discussion |
| 1:45.9 | Olga and I have looking at very disturbing signs out of China that China has, that she, the |
| 1:52.3 | dictator there, is actively studying, looking at Russia's mistakes in Ukraine and trying to |
| 1:58.1 | prevent the same banana peel slipping on the banana peel embarrassment |
| 2:02.9 | that Putin has experience in Ukraine, she seems to be getting ready, cleaning house to avoid |
| 2:08.3 | the same thing happening to him. |
| 2:10.6 | Should he invade Taiwan? |
| 2:12.3 | So does this mean that an invasion is imminent, like in the next year or so? |
| 2:19.5 | So that's what the continuation of our discussion is about. That will be played later in this bonus show. And it's going to |
| 2:24.9 | include as well reading our mailbag, opening up the mailbag messages, questions, comments |
| 2:30.2 | from listeners, ideas. I love our community so much. It sustains the show. It sustains me. |
| 2:36.0 | I learned so much from you. Our dear listeners, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who |
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