This is John Batchel, conversation with my colleague Peter Berkowitz of the Hoover Institution

later on tonight about a book by Tom Cotton, Senator from Arkansas, seven things you can't say about China.

The number one thing you can't say is evil empire. And Peter explains who it is that said evil empire

once upon a time in the 20th century.

And what happened afterwards?

And why can't you say it about China?

What is it about China that deserves the word evil?

Peter Berkowitz, Hoover Institution, later tonight, here he is to give us a version of what you can't say about China.

There's six others in the new book by Tom Cotton, recommended highly.

Here's Peter.

Well, exactly right.

And of course, Senator Cotton is deliberately echoing Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher,

arguing that China occupies the position in our age that the Soviet Union occupied in when they were leading the free world.

And what does he mean by an evil empire? He means that they are a one party that China is run by the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Communist Party is a repressive dictatorship, that it targets Christians, Tibetans, the Falun Gong, who are a Chinese spiritual movement, and ethic Mongolians for special persecution, that it is committing genocide against

the Uyghurs in northwest China, that's cracked down on freedom and democracy in Hong Kong,

and that really all Chinese are subject to the most massive social surveillance system

in human history.

The China subordinates the rights of individuals

to the CCP's understanding of the interests of the collectivity.