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I'm John Batchel with my good colleagues, Ernesto Arrujo and Joseph Umar. Ernesto, former foreign

minister to the Republic of Brazil, Joseph Umar, executive director, secure free society.

Joseph, there is a report in Paraguay, which is one of the nations that has held an election

within memory, short memory, and is said to be not only right of center,

but sympathetic to the United States and a bastion of liberty. And this report from the capital,

San Sioux, Paraguay said, did cancel a low-level Chinese diplomats visa and ordered him to leave

after the envoy appeared to encourage lawmakers to

reconsider paraguay's friendly relationship with Taiwan. Introducing a subject I don't remember

we've touched on much, China's bullying in Latin America. It bullies in Europe. It bullied

Lithuania, for example, over the same issue. It bullies in Asia and bullies

all the time, the Philippines, and many of the sovereign islands across the Pacific. But bullying in

Latin America is new to me. Is this happened before? Bullying Paraguay or bullying Argentina

about the Taiwan issue? It's their influence peddling. They use money.

They use intimidation. They use promises. What is China's role in these capitals that are fragile?

So in this case in Paraguay was very interesting because China's been, you know, a commercial

partner with Paraguay for a long time,

but they're not a political partner. And obviously, Paraguay is the largest country in the world

that recognizes Taiwan as a legitimate government, and which is something that's becoming

less and less throughout Latin America, and particularly in Central America. And so China's

always kind of played a role behind the scenes in

...