National Insecurity

We discuss the latest updates of the Russia-Ukraine war, including incentives (or lack thereof) for Russia to enter into a ceasefire, danger of the war spilling over to Europe, implications for America and Europe should Ukraine fall, lack of evidence of impending Russian aggression beyond Ukraine, urgent need for the U.S. to enter into peace negotiations with Russia, what Rep. Thomas Massie calls a "psyop" by the intel community to get Speaker Mike Johnson to support Ukraine aid, and much more.

What might President Trump’s China policy look like if he were to return to the White House? Will China invade Taiwan later this decade? How can we avoid armed conflict with China in the Taiwan Straits and in the South China Sea? How should America deal with its most serious strategic adversary? We discuss with Stephen Yates, senior fellow and chair of the China Policy Initiative at the America First Policy Institute.

The House of Representatives recently voted overwhelmingly to ban TikTok unless the company is divested from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, within six months. Lawmakers worry that the Chinese government, through TikTok, could get access to vast troves of American data and spread mass misinformation to the American public. We discuss the national security risks, the proper protections for TikTok's American users, and the irony of the app being popular enough to incur congressional wrath.

The U.S. Senate just passed a bill to provide another $60 billion to Ukraine’s war effort against Russia. Is it in America’s national interest to continue arming Ukraine? Is Washington helping to stop autocracy and safeguard the U.S.-led world order, or is it risking nuclear confrontation with Moscow and an expansion of the war into Europe? And why has the Ukraine issue revealed such deep divisions on the Right?   In the first episode of this new foreign policy podcast, Ying Ma hosts a lively discussion with Stephen Bryen, a leading defense and technology expert; Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the CATO Institute; and Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest.

We speak with Rick Fisher, senior fellow on Asian military affairs at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

Interview with Michelle Easton, president of the Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women

Can Kungfu be used for real fighting, or is it just a series of movements akin to a dance? How do Kungfu practitioners stack up against pro-fighters in mixed martial arts, or street thugs for that matter?  We talk to Coach Marcus Reeves, owner and head coach of the UFC Gym in Sacramento, California. 

An interview with Ward Connerly

Conventional wisdom in foreign policy circles says that constructive engagement with China in decades past has been an unmitigated disaster, but just because lots of people in Washington say the same thing does not make it true. We speak with Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, about what went right and how to shape future bilateral relations. 

An interview with former Chief of Naval Operations, (ret.) Adm. Gary Roughead.

Hong Kong has very much been part of Washington’s policy discussions of late. Throughout 2019, anti-Beijing, pro-democracy protests rocked the city, rebuking China’s encroachment upon the city’s autonomy. Dismayed by the historic mass protests, China is imposing a new national security law on the city. U.S. policymakers and Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activists denounce the move as effectively a ban on opposition political activity in Hong Kong and a death knell for the “one country, two systems” framework under which China had promised to govern the city until 2047. The Trump administration and the U.S. Congress have both vowed to punish China for its repression of civil liberties in Hong Kong and violations of international legal commitments made when Hong Kong reverted from British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. What are the practical implications of recent U.S. legislation and the Trump administration's pronouncements? How effectively can Washington influence China's behavior in Hong Kong? We discuss with Julian Ku, Maurice A. Deane Distinguished Professor at Hofstra Law School.

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic originated in China, the country currently seems to have the virus largely contained. The United States, on the other hand, continues to be hobbled by the disease. At the moment, America has over 2 million cases and over 120,000 deaths, more than any other country.  As a result, Beijing is now displaying a fair amount of triumphalism. Has the coronavirus pandemic actually strengthened China, at least vis-à-vis the United States? We discuss with Richard McGregor, senior fellow at the Lowy Institute in Australia and former Financial Times bureau chief in Beijing and Shanghai. 

Leftwing groups blame Trump for racism.