And c. E. O. Of t w and associates as well as a regular contributor to china us focus dot com and we have James Bradley in new zealand he is a New York Times number one best selling author of china mirage as well as host of his own pod cast untold pacific right gentlemen across up rose in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate it ok lets go to new zealand 1st james. China is mentioned over and over in this election cycle in the United States both parties like to differentiate themselves it seems like thats the message is the same in following this election and how china is. Objectified i would say what is the biggest misconception about china as its reported by the media. To begin to question it would take too many hours if were going to talk about misconceptions about china no i would make the case that with chinas population number one country in the world its the least understood country by americans fewer americans have been to china over the last 400 years compared to going to europe but in terms of the election if i was president Trumps Campaign advisor this is what i would say to him i would say President Trump there is about 11 swing states there wisconsin michigan ohio pennsylvania i mean you know what they are in those swing states in october november when youre campaigning theres going to be 2 problems for the voters number one vaccine coded disease whatever you want to call it lock down that whole bally weight number one number 2 there broke no jobs no money being a problem regarding maybe even trued so you got these 2 problems disease and no jobs and guess what its chinas fault the disease came from china and joe biden loves china the jobs where your jobs ive got the answer Joe Bidens Administration all short of its chinas fault and joe biden loves china youre going to win those swing states dont worry. Ok well i wish it were that simple ok because. American industry has been hollowed out i would say a number of president s allowed it to happen and watched american c. E. O. s do it ok so i think we need like a Church Commission to investigate how this all happened here tom let me go to you i mean youre an Old China Hand same question to you because i did living in russia for 22 years and i every every single news cycle russia has misunderstood and id have to agree with james chinas even more misunderstood and thats quite remarkable go ahead you know i remember reading i think it was in 2000 or 2000 who wants a National Geographic said that the American People are ignorant about all things asia and especially china and quite honestly it hasnt gotten any better of late this election cycle is not much different than the site create with james that the amplifier is going to be around the blain china strategy the g. O. P. A memo that came out a few weeks about a month ago talks explicitly that when anything comes up blain china issue that to me is that may be a good political strategy the question is whether. Thats really going to set us in a good position as we move forward as james pointed out 1. 4 percent. Of people. A large economy growing all the time how are we going to assure that china doesnt become a nightmare more than a dream where we can find ways in order to Work Together we need to get past this election cycle and whoever is elected is going to have some repair work to do to assure that chinas rise doesnt come that the u. S. Is demise ok well james if this kind of begs the question because. People are talking about a new cold war i dont like that phrase because the cold war that all of us remember was very specific and it was very ideologically driven this is not the case here id so it does does america need china as an enemy it seems that in American Foreign policy always is looking for the next hitler and it looks like china is the next hitler in the minds of the Foreign Policy blocs because id like to point out up until about february this year it was hardly ever mention that chinas a communist country and the communist party of china they constantly pound away at that and thats obviously an echo to the cold war that we all lived through. This is a very old tradition in american politics in American History that the chinese if you listen to pompei on all the spokespeople theres the Chinese People we love the Chinese People all the chinese haters say at 1st the Chinese People are wonderful hardworking people we have nothing against them but if those commies so 200 years ago it was the emperor the Chinese People were great they all want to be just like us christian dinners but its the emperor that stopping them from becoming americanised and then it was my pajamas he was keeping the top people down if we could just get rid of mao the Chinese People are going to rise up demand democracy and now if you listen to it there is no more china in pompei ill speak its the c c p the Chinese Communist party as if thats like 3 guys and if we just move them put them in another room everythings going to be ok theres 90000000 people in the Chinese Communist party this is this is the largest i call it a mandarin you know the old mandarins theres the emperor and the mandarin beijing 90000000 Chinese Communist populations larger than European Countries very i. Competent people who have to rise through a meritocracy to get where they are and were going to push this aside the Chinese People are very happy with their their government relatively nothings perfect but look at the accomplishments of the Chinese Communist party from the chinese side then youll see that pompei is just making this up yet they come to one of the things that. When i when i look at Media Coverage of china. There is this amazing unwillingness to say the obvious of what it is how his china has changed in the last 40 years i mean you always hear theyre building more Nuclear Weapons and theyre building their navy and you know all of their military technology but they dont talk about how many people per pulled out of poverty and how china is on the cutting edge of so many technologies right now because you cant admit that because it will then you have to look in the mirror and look at your own failings and this is what american elites can simply refuse to do is it its not the success of china it you know they dont want to talk about the success of china but they certainly wont admit their all of the neo liberalism how it is really damaged the United States economy and its middle class go ahead if you take a look at whats transpired and then in the peoples republic of china over the last half century clearly theres the good the bad and the out. And if you point out the bad then youre interfering in chinas internal affairs and and you can get banned and pushed aside as its relates to working with the party and others within china but as you pointed out peter there has been you know fact is that chinas more people out of abject poverty then and we have people in the United States of america perhaps double that number as we look at trying to. To hold china back thats not going to happen when to think that somehow or another theyre working out some of our chests and china is going to. Tip to the United States. Wishful thinking and so while we need to define its a strategy to address the issues the real issues which china between the United States china and other democracies we also need an Investment Strategy in the American People when we take a look at what china is doing around Artificial IntelligenceBig Data Technology its not just the factory of the world anymore theyre in the game to win a medal junior going all spocks grew up in the washington d. C. Suburbs and when i got into the ranks you know with my best friend i was there to win and it should come as no surprise to us i mean i find it kind of amazing that people say china is looking to beat us well no candidate. Who strives to be number 2 said china is going to be there so the question has to be whether its dividing their trauma records going to be the leader what are you going to do to invest in infrastructure in america our roads bridges airports train system i mean its a joke compared to what you say the investment of the Chinese People so what are we going to do to invest in an education work or Development Research and research and develop those are the issues that we need to focus on and why we point to the bogeyman of china that isnt doing a darn thing to the people that james talked about in those midwestern states im one im here in michigan we certainly have been hurt not only by globalization and china but Automation Technology which is really wreak havoc and has been similar to the economic tsunami that goes in 1000 is unleashed on the world you know james im really glad that becomes. Engine this because you know the competition we elise all 3 of us im sure brought up competition is good because it brings out the best in you and it brings the best out of your opponent as well but its because china is just different and it must be the must be unfair theyre cheating that theyre not playing until a level Playing Field you know you always hear all these excuses here not just as we just heard the u. S. Just refuses to invest in itself and its people and this is what happens ok its no surprise this is happening and and in toms absent chinese here too out there to weigh in and that makes perfect sense to me and it we need a policy to getting gauges that that avoids conflict obviously and actually competition can find. A profit for both sides if you look at it in a in a rational way if this is history great powers rise and fall maybe in one of these moments now go ahead. You know i agree with you that theres tectonic plates plates changing is bigger than just the u. S. And china a lot of changes taking place but within the china u. S. Situation yes they want to win and in my book it goes back to remember back in the 1990 s. When we had Newt Gingrich shouldn bill clinton and sex scandals and and the New York Times is full of 5 pages of detail about sex and then we moved on to bush and we had to take trillions of dollars and put it in the sand in the middle east well in the 1990 s. When we were. Arguing about nonsense the founders of weiwei were sleeping on cement floor dreaming of 5 g. Theyre worried about their next meal. China was you know right now were surprised you know china i am and all this high tech and weve got to invest and weve got to get garments that i was training china in the early 2 thousands making these speeches weve got to get gold and weve got to stop investing in blowing up sand and start investing in our own country theres a race for the future and i could see it happening in china but we dont you know were going to be heard this in 2016 no one is you did it ok im going to jump in here were going to go to a short break and after that short break well continue our discussion of perceptions of china at stake. I refuse to be on the side of people who want to take up guns and kill each other i want to stand up intellectuals are always there and i think for seeds their hold on no to violence no to bloodshed yes to think. Less be more like. Good news theres a work up of the 1st rule of the border the more the truth is im sure there. Is a move forward for the balls the most powerful from. This war with the. Truth though both of you. Are. Going to use the book with the ghost is going to have those that would use a piece of the. Music but we have them here of course very. Welcome back across top where all things are considered im Peter Lavelle to remind you that were talking about perceptions and misperceptions of china. Ok lets go back was go back to detroit you know tom one of the things that i have been observing here particularly there was a pentagon report on the on the Defense Department about assessing china and it was pretty grim reading and id like to point everyone out theres a wonderful article in the american conservative that all sums it up i think its still there. But it seems to me that theres always this kind of kneejerk response when theres a. The pentagon is you know its a hammer and everything its hes in the world as a nail ok and and weve seen in that weve talked about previously the 1st part of the program is that when Ailes America is not necessarily china threat it is the inability to respond to that threat and i will invoke you know the military Industrial Complex this is a this is another gravy train just like take. Korean peninsula which is the gravy train for it but dont change the status quo straight because everybodys making a lot of money dont take it with nato because everybody is making a lot of money the same thing is going is happening now with china and sitting day 18 china. As the as a peer a power ok which i think we all should do admit it at least on most metrics here but no whats this plan for for military conflict it seems to me that is so counterproductive that really what we really needed for that kind of relationship that we should have china go ahead i really goes back you know and when i reflect on it current up in d. C. In the sixtys in nappanee relationship with china i remember 2 sayings my mom telling me to mikeys the children are starving in china i still have the on local to mail those peas to the children of china and my dad telling me to stop digging in the backyard because im going to let the commies m. And im going to fall into china. But i did in fact african out of a Childrens Book im in the process of getting to publish where i talk about you know that ive fallen into this hole that my dad told me and i look back from 1063 falling into the hole and waking up in china in 2020 and i look back through the hole to america and i see the challenges that we are facing whether its split Food Insecurity unemployment the disaster on the response to the Global Pandemic you can blame china for their slow response but we have to take a look internally of what we did after we know we have Serious Problems in this country to address the last thing that we need to do is be going on some military it better and spending trillions of dollars and that i should imagine if those dollars the james talked about a minute ago. Did invest over the last few decades in the people of the United States of america and in other western democracies and making this world truly safer for us all i think that we would see a different view of america when i look back through that hole that i fell into and so right now china is not just eating our lunch theyre eating our dinner as well if we dont get serious about invest in america and have continue to have these problems but you know what i worry about time is that is that china will be the excuse not to invest you see what im saying this is the same thing the same mines that you know you know the middle east is pretty cheap backwater of no Strategic Value to the United States whatsoever the world is 0 wash with oil theres a theres still. They go by i feature by distrait shouldnt wont were going to get him were going to go back into syria and you know and were not going to pull out troops here i mean this is always an excuse not to invest in the American People you know james i was in beijing i think was 2 summers ago and i was obviously invited to London Bridge presentations and it very i mean it was amazing trip and i as a big talker i always was asking questions and i asked the same question to id say like a dozen people and id say what is the size of the middle class whos in the middle class james you know what i got the same answer each time were all the middle class and that is such a remarkable statement and that shows a level of competence so when i went there and came back i came away with the following they know where theyre going they know how to get there and they know they will get there and that is the sense of confidence that ive never seen before maybe when i was a child in america in the midwest that was an american way of thinking its not it that the case anymore and so when when i look at china you know they need all of this chest beating the chinese just brushed it off you know were going to get were going to get to it and you know and if you want to get in the way fine but were going to get work at where our destination and i think that thats an assault confident society that ive never seen. Since my child go ahead james you know i have never heard anybody say that but thats exactly it was my 1st impression when i 1st went to china it was that these guys are better outro while they know who they are they know where theyre going and in their bodies just hope the way they help themselves talk to you n