China Insider | Taiwan's Defiant Celebration of its National Day Despite China's Pressure, China's Shadow Over the Nobel Peace Prize Selection Process, and Comparing Russia's Plague Incident to the Wuhan COVID-19 Outbreak
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In this week's episode of China Insider, Miles Yu discusses Taiwan’s National Day celebrations and what Taiwan's steadfastness in the face of the Chinese Communist Party's coercion signals for the island’s future and its ties with the United States. Dr. Yu then weighs in on the controversy surrounding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Navi Pillay despite her own tarnished human rights record and the nomination of other highly qualified candidates, and what it reveals about the CCP’s malign influence on the global human rights conversation. Finally, he examines a troubling lab incident in Russia and draws parallels between the restricted information environment surrounding this event and the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan.
China Insider is a weekly podcast project from Hudson Institute’s China Center, hosted by China Center Director and Senior Fellow, Dr. Miles Yu, who provides weekly news that mainstream American outlets often miss, as well as in-depth commentary and analysis on the China challenge and the free world’s future.
Welcome to China Insider, a podcast from the Hudson Institute's China Center. I'm Miles Yu, Senior Fellow and Director of the China Center. Join me each week for our analysis of the major events concerning China, China threat, and their implications to the U.S. and beyond. Hello everyone, this is Miles Yu from Washington DC and I am so glad today we have a new co-host, Alan, for the show for this week at least, and Alan, thank you very much, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Miles. Hello everyone, this is Alan and I'm very glad to be joining the show. Without further ado, let's move on to the subject of this podcast. For this week, we have three topics. First, we'll cover the recent celebration on October 10th of Taiwan's National Day, all against a backdrop of China's ever-increasing threats to the island. Next, we will go over the recent awarding of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the Navi Palai, and the controversy of China's influence in the selection process and her ties to China. Finally, we will review the recent deaths in a Russian play-glab and the eerie similarities that could be drawn between this case and the 2019 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in China. Let's go back to today's first topic. We'll talk about Taiwan's defined celebration of its 115th National Day in the face of the CCP's pressure against the island democracy. The festivities include a military parade, aerial displays, and other performances in front of the presidential office. Taiwan's president, Li Tingdua, gave an address during the ceremony where he pledged to continue reforming the military, developing domestic defense, and pursuing his administration's vision for a whole of society resilience. He also celebrated Taiwan's supercharged economic growth over the last year. Taiwan's GDP this year is set to grow about 11%, more than double that of mainland China, all despite Beijing's efforts to pressure the island. So, Miles, what do these efforts spell for the future of Taiwan? Do you predict that Beijing's aversion efforts against Taiwan will falter as a result of these programs? In fact, are Beijing's efforts already falling flat? I mean, I was in Taipei just a few days before the double-ten celebration. Nobody in Taiwan pays any attention to China's threat, I mean, which is a good thing, also the bad thing, of course, right? But your China threat is real. So, during this celebration of double-tening, the China just launched close to 2,000 aircraft and some ships over there, remote but still is threatening. Every time Taiwan is happy, China is growing peace. So, that's the problem. Having said that, this year is also very interesting that you mentioned about the 115th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China. That's Taiwan. That is important because it's predated the founding of the People's Republic of China, Communist China. So, there is no way that Chinese Communist Party could claim that somehow the Republic of China in Taiwan is part of PRC because, you know, PRC didn't exist for nearly four decades. And the PRC has never governed one square inch of Taiwan since 1949. Keep that in mind. So, Taiwan's National Day celebration, you know, is an every year's event, which was a lot of celebratory events. This year is also very unique because this marks the 30th anniversary of Taiwan's first ever democratic election that took place in 1996. And what a remarkable 30 years. Since then, in the 30 years, Taiwan has been completely transformed from an authoritarian regime to a full from a democracy and country of the free. And it's becoming an inseparable part of a global economic system. So, Taiwan is a semiconductor. Taiwan is a biomedical research. Taiwan is sort of a models of governance. I mean, it's basically in the very exemplary. So, that's where it definitely is something worth celebrating. There is also something very interesting. You know, in the last 10 years, also, Taiwan and the United States have gone through something very profound. Now, there is not only security cooperation deepened dramatically, but also, importantly, is a Taiwan's economic and trade integration with the United States. I've gone through revolutionary changes. I mean, right now, Taiwan, there are close to 200 countries in the world. United States is a global sort of a giant in consumer market. We occupy something around 40% of global consumption market. So, in other words, every country wants to business with the United States because we simply we can buy stuff. Taiwan is number four largest trade partner of the United
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