The Origins of Modern China; Is Trump “Lost”? America, Home of the . . . Squatters? | GoodFellows | Hoover Institution

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4.6 • 717 Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Unlike the romanticized tale the Chinese Communist Party tells of itself—long marches and a long game of outlasting and outwitting its foes—the early years of the CCP were ones of unrepentant violence and a rise to power made possible only with external help. Frank Dikötter, the Hoover Institution’s Milias Senior Fellow and author of the forthcoming book, Red Dawn over China: How Communism Conquered a Quarter of Humanity, joins GoodFellows regulars Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane and H.R. McMaster to discuss what shaped the CCP from the years 1921–1949, plus parallels between Xi Jinping and Mao Zedong in terms of amassing power, purging rivals, and practicing economics and geopolitics. After that: the fellows debate the assertion by a New York Times columnist that Donald Trump has “lost the country,” as well as how much faith to put in economic indicators, plus songstress Billie Eilish’s belief that “no one is illegal on stolen land.” Subscribe to GoodFellows for clarity on today’s biggest social, economic, and geostrategic shifts — only on GoodFellows.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Go home, Jake.
0:02.0	I'm doing your favor.
0:05.0	Come out, Jay.
0:08.0	Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.
0:14.0	It's Chinatown.
0:15.0	Friday, February 13th, 2026, and welcome back to Goodfellows, a Hoover Institution broadcast, examining history, economics, and geopolitics.
0:32.6	I'm Bill Whalen. I'm a Hoover Distinguished Policy Fellow. I'll be your moderator today. Looking forward to a conversation featuring three of my colleagues we refer to as the Good Fellows. That will, of course, be the historian, Sir Neil Ferguson, the economist John Cochran, and the historian, geostratist, Lieutenant General, HR McMaster, Neil, John, and HR are Hoover Senior Fellows. Guys, good to see you. Do we have any Triske decafobiacs in the crowd here?
0:55.1	Is anybody here afraid of the number 13? I take that as a no. The 2026 is a trained year, by the way,
1:02.3	three Friday the 13th is coming up for you this year. Two segments today, gentlemen, and the B block
1:07.8	will get into all sorts of various things including one columnist
1:11.7	assertion that Donald Trump has quote lost the country and also want to get the historian's thoughts
1:16.2	on one Grammy Award winner's thoughts that we all live on stolen land but first we're going to
1:21.4	turn our attention to China joining us today is returning to Goodfellows is our colleague Frank
1:25.7	Dakota Frank Dakota is the Millie
1:27.7	senior fellow here at the Hoover Institution and chair professor of humanities at the University of
1:32.0	Hong Kong. He is the most widely read living historian on modern China. You can add to that
1:37.1	collection Frank's latest book, which comes out later this month. It's title Red Dawn Over China,
1:42.1	how communism conquered a quarter of humanity. Frank, welcome
1:44.9	back to Goodfellows. Thank you for having me. Before we get into your book, which really is
1:49.7	terrific, Frank, last time we had joined the show, you were new to California, having just moved
1:54.3	here from Hong Kong. You've now had about a year to acclimate. Are you at California now?
1:58.9	I am getting there.
	...

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