Shadow War: China and the West

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The rise of China is a defining challenge for the West. How far should it co-operate, compete or confront Beijing? And were Western countries slow to respond to China’s growing assertiveness?

The BBC’s Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera, delves into the worlds of espionage, surveillance, technology, the theft of commercial secrets, free speech at universities and political interference to explore the points of friction. In this documentary, he speaks to spy chiefs, former prime ministers and dissidents as well as those on the frontline of this Shadow War.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. This is Shadow War, China and the West.
0:07.0	April 1st 2001, somewhere over the South China Sea.
0:13.0	A spy plane, an American EP3 propeller aircraft with a crew of 24,
0:20.0	was heading back to base on the Japanese island of Okinawa after an intelligence gathering mission.
0:26.1	There was a converted airliner, four engine prop. Nothing too fancy but the gear was pretty cool inside.
0:31.7	Shane Osbourne, the pilot was just 26 to be at the
0:33.6	young to be at the center of a crisis which engulfed both
0:39.2	Washington and Beijing.
0:41.7	Chinese Navy jets had been regularly buzzing the EP3 flights.
0:45.4	One's the ones right there.
0:47.2	Oh, who are right in front of us.
0:50.7	One Chinese pilot was getting uncomfortably close.
0:54.0	That's too close.
0:55.0	Agree.
0:56.0	And he's very, very clear.
0:58.0	Probably 20 deep from our wing tip.
1:00.0	Then disaster struck.
1:02.0	He came in and approached us too fast.
1:05.0	Okay, he was underneath us and that's when he came and rammed into our left wing.
1:10.0	My far left engine cut his fuselage of half, his tail broke apart, then his nose broke apart,
1:17.0	then his nose broke apart and impacted the nose of my aircraft as we flipped inverted tearing the nose off.
1:24.0	So next thing I know I'm staring up at the South China Sea and we're in an inverted dive of no nose,
	...

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