Congratulations and thank you for joining us today. Your book, we will cover a lot of ground talking about communist chinas fight for global supremacy. So first of all why did you decide to write the book quick. This is my eighth book and in 2000 and i wrote a book called the china threat which is a play on the china threat theory and it was amazing that it really predicted the emergence of a major threat posed by communist china. Ever since i wrote that book , i have tried to do another china book and every publisher i approached said we will not write a single topic china book you can have chapters but not a single topic. Why is that quick. I dont know i dont know if it was concerns if they would sell that finally i dug in my heels and said its time to do another book on the threat from china as it is becoming greater than it was way back when the china threat was published in 2000. Your book is very timely. But let me ask about this title and then you go on inside communist chinas drive for global supremacy the second half is understandable. The communist are steeped in ancient strategy many people know of the famous strategist who comes from the warring states era 200 bc. Theres also a book called the 36 strategies the author isnt clear but it is military strategies over weaker power to defeat a stronger power which is beijings main goal today. The first is called to see this guy across the ocean and the meaning goes back to the legend of the emperor one of the generals wanted him to go to war with the neighboring province and the emperor was reluctant so the general arrange for dinner at the home of a wealthy peasant and when he arrived and stepped into the house he felt that move realized it was not a house now he was sailing with the general to the province and had to decide do i go to war or return home and he decided to go to war. So you have even deceived the sky chinese legend he is considered a godlike figure so to deceive god to achieve your objectives to me this is the strategy that the Chinese Communist party in beijing are using today specifically against the United States. I was struck by the fact you dedicated the book to the Chinese People. Before we go into the content and us policy, tell us why you dedicated the people of china. They need to be liberated on the horrors of the communist regime. I remember doing a debate many years ago in new york city whether china was a threat the one that said that wasnt a threat afterward said doing business in china for 20 years ive never met a communist and i was shocked and said you should visit the Peoples Liberation army in beijing and there you will see all the Founding Fathers of communism with stalin and marx and mao. So it is important to understand this aspect that this regime is truly going after global supremacy in a way it has not done in the past. If you were in beijing today in front of a bit audience what would you say to them quick. There is a big myth in china that the Chinese Party is one with the people a chinese colonel came to visit many years ago and said my beef is not with the Chinese People but the communist party of china and he said no no no there is no difference between the communist party and the Chinese People. That is a huge lie. One. 4billion people are enslaved into the system. As many as 93 million communist party members. But for the most part they do not with that system. They have tasted prosperity living in the main cities and have tasted a little bit of freedom they have traveled to the United States i really felt i wanted to dedicate the book to free the people from the communist party of china. At the beginning you go into how we got it wrong and in particular you cite 1999 the Defense IntelligenceAgency Issued a report and basically that minimize that china was a threat. But then 20 years later you basically indicate army and Lieutenant General ashley had in fact indicated communist ideology had not changed as a motivating force for chinas ruler and basically the report issued then documented how and why china is a threat. In fact one data point that struck me was the 600 billion annually in stolen technology and intellectual property that is rather substantial. How did we get it wrong . And then 20 years later it changed quick. I like to tell the story back in the late nineties i was writing a story on the pla and the pentagon would give background briefings it was pretty vanilla with what they had to say but at the end of the briefing a kernel said the general would like to see you. That was the director of dia and sat at the end of the table and told me that china was not a threat. I was very surprised. I would expect that so my question is why do you think that . Basically because of their statement and this was astounding to me i can understand that for our policy officials for a reporter or civilian intelligence but for the top military to say the Nuclear Armed communist dictatorship who has missiles capable of hitting our cities is not a threat i felt there was a deception operation underway. Fastforward a couple years later i revealed in my earlier book one of the top analyst at dia was a chinese spy passing information. I believe chinas penetration at that time was giving false information. The current dia director obviously has taken a major shift as the reflection of policy with a tectonic shift to identify that as a strategic competitor filtering its way throughout the democracy right now. Let me pick up on that back in december 2017 when the National Security strategy was released, it does state russia and china are strategic competitors but also a threat and you document that in the book. So my view the first step in finding solutions for policies or anything else is to identify the threat without understanding that we can never solve the problem of china. So i said what makes up the threat from china . Looking at chinese ideology, Weapon System systems, influence operations, financial warfar warfare, and it is an one impressive array. It is the existential threat faced by anyone in history. But with the Trump Administration the link has been made between american National Security and Economic Security. And that is the centerpiece that has been developed to some extent that has been there but with the approach is having a Significant Impact particularly at the time when china itself to be confronted with its own economic woes. So not only the military component or the Digital Power influence but also the economic dimension that is absolutely essential. Absolutely. I have an entire chapter on chinese economic warfare. But to point out this idea of the multifaceted threat from china the reason the threat has become worse the United States has been engaged in a 30 or 40 or gamble that began with Henry Kissinger under the cold war. It was designed to basically help to defeat the soviet union in the us at that time was struggling with Us Communist Party of china. So the engagement policy went on autopilot and was never reevaluated it became a great legacy policy we have to continue and really that has been enormously damaging. For example one is the most concrete is engagement carried through several Administration Democratic and republican but through clinton we reached a high point and at that point he allowed the National Weapons laboratories to have exchanges with china and within a few short years the cia issued a conclusion through espionage through the entire arsenal that loss of secrets has not been fully resolved but it is clear it happened. What is compounded when the chinese spread to pakistan now through the ache yukon Nuclear Supplier network proliferated that technology to north korea and iran and syria and libya. We found this out in 2003 with the libyan program among those documents turned over was chinese language how to design a small warhead missile i cannot think of greater damage to Global Security of those that didnt understand the nature of the threat from china. Rather substantial points you are making. Dive into the economic lane as i was asking, develop that a bit he made very clear that economic instrument wielded in advancing chinas own agenda. The chinese economic threat derives from the fact to use that economic power to diminish the United States for let me first touch on the shift of policy lot President Trump has done more than any other president has aligned us National Security with Economic Security filtering throughout the entire government whether Law Enforcement intelligence or pentagon everybody looks at the chinese economic threat and the white house was successful in highlighting this threat and they issued a report called chinas economic aggression there is a huge policy fight with bureaucrats to say we cannot say economic aggression but if you read the report you understand why and thats where they determined based on the estimates between 250 and 600 billion annually of American Intellectual property and energy no nation can survive especially reliant on innovation with that type of theft. So getting back to the soviet cold war analogy, as you remember with the Reagan Administration they did something unique with the soviet union and basically said we will block western technology to moscow it was a major contributing factor in the demise of the soviet union. Trump is doing a similar thing toward china. He has said lets see how great the chinese economic miracle is once American Technology is blocked off. On these policies designed to god its launch in early 2017 with the newly elected president in trump tower meeting with the top executives from Silicon Valley their main concern is how do we stop the flow of american knowhow to china so that is where it began. Do you feel chinas predatory economic policies will be afforded as a result of this policy . Do you see it having the impact that it should quick. Very much so. In the financial warfare chapter i point out in addition to the tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration which are having an impact, china has taken a different now going after the Capital Markets to raise money as well as influence policy. So investments by the california personnel are Retirement Fund those funds could say dont sanction china because our Retirement Funds are invested in all this is happening on a large scale im happy to say the administration within the past week has announced they will take steps to try to curb this unregulated Capital Market which again the United States is the unprecedented leader in all Capital Markets. The administration has been quite vigilant on this issue and that negotiators also have those goals and objectives to correct the predatory actions as part of the negotiations. Robert light heiser and steve nguyen are at the forefront who is chinas leader president xi . He is the new. Up before his ascension of power around 2013 the chinese strategy for the world they watch closely and saw the collapse of the soviet union so their idea was lets be friends with the United States so that main deception is the dia director tells me in 99 there not a threat because president xi polish epolicy was by time and build capabilities now the policy with president xi is the chinese dream in my view it is a communist party of china nightmare where china seeks to take its rightful place as the sole superpower in the world so not that they are spreading their own power in a communist system with the predatory lending practices, but also that in order for them to achieve that, and i have to go after the United States and weaken the main enemy. So there we see the unfettered policies of china to send opioids into the United States to exacerbate the tens of thousands of deaths into the opioid crisis. Is in a true president xi himself is driving successfully to solidify his own power base through the vote which basically says he is leader for life, also he has done that to articulate the power of the communist party talking about the revitalization of the communist party. Do you see him in any capacity to be vulnerable . He has consolidated power through 2012 carried out under anticorruption in fact it is a cover for consolidation he has instituted unprecedented the approach not just middle or lowlevel officials but senior officials of the communist party anybody perceived as a rival potentially is illuminated. This has created great instability within china because the way the communist party a structured, its like a group of mafia families for each don has a network so by purging these families it is creating internal opposition to him. That said he has strengthened the internal Security Apparatus in china which is the ministry of Public Security there are numerous Chinese Security organizations all of them modeled after the soviet kgb which is a Political Service to have a dual function in intelligence as well as internal security. One chapter is entitled the cummings space war with china. To even discuss the process of war itself and speculate this cannot be ruled out with china. Please talk about that and then with the path that were on it is likely. The military threat from china on what the chinese calls asymmetric warfare or a weapon going back to the warring states. A weaker power does not try to confront the enemy head on but to find his vulnerabilities with special capabilities. States warfare is one but space warfare is a real vulnerability for the United States because it is so dependent on the multitude of satellites communications, finance, intelly , navigation and china has understood that and developed an array of weapons. This is a Nonfiction Book but i included a fictional scenario how china could launch a worldwide pearl harbor in the first phase would be knocking out key Missile Warning satellites because the us operates with very good eyes in the sky to pick up heat signatures anywhere on earth through attacking those to destroy as many to dozens satellites the us military could be crippled and the ability to function. We are the sole superpower right now that china is working to diminish that capability. What about Graham Allison . I dont mention it in the book because i dont think it is a valid assessment. I dont think war with china is inevitable. The notion that in the past going back to ancient times of a decline of rising power will automatically go to war, first of all this is a Major Chinese propaganda theme that china is the rising power in the world but that the United States must diminish but we dont hear how china is trying to diminish the United States. But i see the United States will be the sole superpower and i agree with President Trumps strategy which goes back to the Reagan Administration where they basically said to prevent a war, make sure the other side does not miscalculate thats why i disagree with the Graham Allison strategies to make you have a number of very interesting quotations each chapter has a quote. Like the assassins name in space you have the chinese kernel saying to meet the requirements of deceiving the United States in the war the pla should have weapons with space attack capability. China has that capability today. That is what you said a fictional scenario but you do talk about the fact it does have that capability today. This is an area where china is ahead of the United States the military recently set up a brandnew space command. Guess what . They have no weapons at least that we know of that china has an array of very lethal and capable anti satellite weapons. We learn this in 2007 when china tested the ground launch missile called direct dissent which targeted a chinese Weather Satellite the impact from that satellite i spent an entire chapter explaining their lie it created tens of thousands of pieces of floating debris which will threaten manned and unmanned spacecraft between 50 and 100 years what they learned from that lesson they took some heat from the International Community so now the second thing they developed as a laser now the best way to attack is to use a groundbased laser now all you have to do to disable or destroy an orbiting satellite is to warm up the electronic