The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 29 January 2020

Air Date: 
January 29, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, and David Livingston, The Space Show
 
Hour One
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 1, Block A:  Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, on the effect of the epidemic on the Chinese political system. Chinese participants in the Internet keeps demanding, “Where is Trump?”—meaning: Where the heck is Xi?  Xi and the CCP have disgraced themselves in the matter of the Wuhan virus.   Chinese people call the coronavirus: ”Xi’s disease.”
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-01-27/xi-jinping-reputat....
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 1, Block B: Cleo Paskal, non-resident senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in re:  Cleo in Nuku’alofa, capital of Tonga. Tongan athletes stuck in China at present.  Much traffic from Chinese Mainland; concern about virus. Lots of Chinese training of academics and, especially, of sports teams.  Official estimates of Chinese in Tonga is 2-3,000; but, realistically, probably 7,000, in a total population of 100,000.
Three basic ethnic groups:  the overt dipl corps, associated with embassy or on missions; then, a group of very rich Chinese people who own many small local shops manned by overseas Chinese poor people (who either save money to return home, or apply for Tongan citizenship in order to get to Australia); and _____.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/407723/claim-china-spea.... Cleo is in Tonga.
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 1, Block C: Bill Gertz, (@BillGertz),  in re:  The source of the Wuhan coronavirus: now clearly (according to The Lancet) not the wet market, so where?  The Chinese governmental biolab smack in the middle of Wuhan city?  And the first documented sick person seems not to have been in December, but in October. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is the only lab in China that has the capacity to deal with Level 4 [microbes]. A retired Israeli miliitary intell officer says: “Their mil labs are integrally linked to civilian.” Also, a study by 29 Chinese scientists says: the first victim was on 1 Dec, and naught to do with the seafood market. Most of these viruses have originated in Guangdong; why is this one from the middle of the country? The Communist regime is steeped in deception; rumors were circulating on the Chinese Net that the US was the origin! Beijing preparing a battle space.
It’d be good if an inspection team went in to study. The Director-General of WHO had a presser in Geneva today:  “I will not allow any Americans in with the team” [even though US researchers are perhaps the best].  Symptoms appear between seven and fourteen days, a long asymptomatic presentation, meaning a lot of spread. It's now going from Hebei to Xinjiang. God help the million-plus Uyghurs and Kazakhs being held in concentration camps there.  Unknown currently how lethal this is, but said to be at least as lethal as the 1919 pandemic.
Satellite photos of the lab have been posted on twitter.  Even Wuhan officials have criticized the national officials for [malfeasance in information].
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 1, Block D: Michael Yon (@Michael_Yon), Hong Kong reporter, in re:  The Hong Kong protestors are not backing off despite the flu, and the health workers, especially nurses, are continuing their protest  because no one believes Carrie Lam and the HK health profession demands that the border between HK and Mainland be closed.
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 2, Block A:  Stephen Yates, former deputy national security advisor to Vice President Cheney and currently CEO of DC International Advisory, in re:  Taiwan and the epidemic.  Beijing refuses to let Taiwanese citizens leave Wuhan in the midst of the epidemic, presumably according to the CCP theory that Taiwan is part of China. Taipei has asked to evacuate its citizens. Eight confirmed cases in Taiwan, where there are multiple checkpoints and high alert; but the health system there is good. Taipei has offered help to Mainland, which has refused it. Too early to be sure that human-to-human transmission is occurring outside of China.  Beijing has been trying to keep the whole sickness secret for a long time, making detective work hard.   It’s ever more necessary for the WHO to accept Taiwan.
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3865894.  
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 2, Block B:  Rick Fisher, senior Fellow on Asian Military Affairs at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, in re: the PLA's biological weapons programs and the rumors that the Wuhan coronavirus escaped from the P4 Wuhan lab.
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 2, Block D:  Ahmad Obali, Gunaz TV, in re: On Azeris living in Iran—an enormous segment of the Iranian population, 30- t 35 million Azeris living inside Iran. In 1828, the land was divided largely because of Russia; during the Qajar dynasty.
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 3, Block A:  Andrew C McCarthy, author, Ball of Collusion, in re:
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 3, Block B:  Andrew C McCarthy, author, Ball of Collusion, in re:
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  Hotel Mars, episode n, in re: 
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  Simon Constable, UK reporter in Edinburgh, in re: 
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block A: The Crusade Years, 1933–1955: Herbert Hoover's Lost Memoir of the New Deal Era and Its Aftermath (Hoover Institution Press Publication), by George H. Nash 
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block B: The Crusade Years, 1933–1955: Herbert Hoover's Lost Memoir of the New Deal Era and Its Aftermath (Hoover Institution Press Publication), by George H. Nash 
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block C: The Crusade Years, 1933–1955: Herbert Hoover's Lost Memoir of the New Deal Era and Its Aftermath (Hoover Institution Press Publication), by George H. Nash 
Wednesday 29 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block D: The Crusade Years, 1933–1955: Herbert Hoover's Lost Memoir of the New Deal Era and Its Aftermath (Hoover Institution Press Publication), by George H. Nash