The China Now special program informs about this country's news, culture and technological advances. This episode features an interview with Kojo-Amoo Gottfried, former Ghanaian ambassador to China and currently the president of Ghana-China friendship association. The theme of the second segment is the indictment of Trump and his allies. teleSUR
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00:00 Hello, Televisión Inglés presents a new episode of China Now, a webmedia production
00:12 that showcases the culture, technology and politics of the Asian giant.
00:16 This first segment has an interesting conversation with a former Ghanaian ambassador to China
00:21 and currently the president of China-Ghana Friendship Association, His Excellency Koyo
00:27 Omod Godfried, talking about Ghana's independence in 1960s and how was the relation of China
00:35 and Ghana back those days, among other topics.
00:37 Let's see.
00:39 Hello, welcome to this special episode brought to you by Wave Media.
00:43 I'm Chris.
00:44 Today, I'm going to have an interesting conversation with an old friend of China's, a former Ghanaian
00:49 ambassador to China and currently the president of Ghana-China Friendship Association, His
00:54 Excellency Koyo Omod Godfried.
00:57 So without further ado, let's get it started.
01:03 Your Excellency, I read from one web page that you were in China in 1959 when you were
01:09 part of the Western African Student Union.
01:12 That's correct.
01:13 Right.
01:14 And also you came to China in 1961.
01:16 In 1961, there was a very interesting thing happening.
01:21 That was when our first president, President Kwame Nkrumah came to the Treaty of Friendship
01:29 was in that year.
01:30 So I participated in it, but I was not part of the delegation of the President Kwame Nkrumah.
01:38 I was on a different assignment.
01:39 I was going to Vietnam to see Ho Chi Minh.
01:45 And that's, so they said, why don't you stay with us for a bit?
01:50 So it was a great event when Shoe and Light played table tennis with President Nkrumah.
01:59 So you were the sort of, you witnessed those figures, those prominent figures in the global
02:06 stage that was so long ago, yet their name resonates to this day.
02:12 We want to go back to the beginning, to when Ghana first become independent and when the
02:19 nationalist movement and the leaders like Nkrumah become first president.
02:26 How was Ghana like in those years?
02:30 How did Ghana and China become friends with each other?
02:33 Yes, I think Nkrumah was a good friend of China.
02:41 But maybe if I go a little further, when the Red Army moved into China in 1949, I was just
02:51 a young boy in boarding school.
02:54 And that was a phenomenal experience for us to hear of this kind of the Red Army marching
03:01 into Beijing in 1949.
03:04 And it was also the same time when President Kwame Nkrumah did the positive action for
03:10 which he was arrested in his campaign for Ghana.
03:14 I find those things very significant for my own political upliftment and understanding.
03:24 It happened that for me, because my older brother was a personal assistant of Kwame
03:31 Nkrumah.
03:32 This was the basis on which, even though we may have been thought of as being a bourgeois
03:38 family, which was a contradiction.
03:44 He was arrested by the colonial government.
03:47 There was a lot of people protesting right in front of the prison and he got elected
03:52 in the prison.
03:53 That was a miracle.
03:55 And were you part of the protest movement?
03:58 Yeah, sure.
03:59 As I said, my brother was also in prison.
04:06 When they came out, they established something which was quite unique.
04:11 I think people don't talk too much about it.
04:14 They were known as PG, prison graduates.
04:19 Okay, in China we call it "Longchang Wudao".
04:28 You start, I mean, there's mental clarity, you start to think about the big things.
04:35 And Ghana became a republic in 1960.
04:40 So after that, there was a period of, relatively speaking, a period of honeymoon with both
04:47 camps, with the capitalist camp and also the socialist camp.
04:52 Everybody wants to, because it's the first African, Sub-Saharan African nation to achieve
04:58 sovereignty and independence.
05:00 So everybody was a friend of Ghana's.
05:03 And how did Ghana move forward?
05:06 And why Ghana became friends with the socialist camp, with China?
05:13 Because I think Kwame Nkrumah realized that socialist countries supported us during our
05:19 independent campaign.
05:22 There was an element that here we are taking power and these people have been supporting
05:30 us all the way.
05:32 And as I say, in 1961, in which they also established the Ghana-China Friendship Society,
05:40 it tells you the story of how it felt.
05:45 When we came to China in 1959, which was the anniversary of the Red Army marching into
05:52 Beijing, and they treated us very well.
05:57 And we saw a lot of things.
05:59 But also some of the things I recollect is at that time, what China was, if they said
06:09 somebody was rich, he owned a bicycle.
06:13 That was the rich man.
06:14 And that was quite fascinating for us to see that, oh, China as it was.
06:21 That had a deep impression on me as someone growing up that this is a country which we
06:29 have heard of.
06:30 And the fact, as I said before, is the march into Beijing, the great march we came in,
06:42 was a fascinating thing for all of us.
06:46 And for me, it's lasted throughout my life, that this phenomenon inspired some of us to
06:53 really become international rather than even concentrating only on our own country.
07:00 But of course, it felt that in the development of our struggle for independence, our struggle
07:08 for internationalism, and a whole lot of things, which will develop into something else later.
07:15 The association which I was linked with was called the West African Students Union.
07:21 And the West African Students Union has had a very long period of struggle.
07:28 Many of our political leaders, including Kwame Nkrumah, passed through this place.
07:34 I mean, I think he was General Secretary of West African Students Union.
07:39 I became General Secretary of West African Students in 1959.
07:44 And that was the reason why the Chinese invited us and I had the opportunity as my first,
07:51 my first visit to China.
07:52 What I saw of China then was, as I said, that somebody on the bicycle was seen as a rich
08:00 man at that time.
08:04 And for me to see from that level to much later, what China had become, and for me also
08:11 actually working, being ambassador in China, was for me, interesting.
08:20 And also, because of working in the West African Students Union, as the General Secretary,
08:26 I attended many conferences, like the IUS conference, International Students Union conference.
08:33 And one of my great friends at that time representing China was Ho Chi Li.
08:38 Ho Chi Li and I remained very good friends.
08:43 When I was in China, he was then a minister and I used to see him.
08:47 So that's the background.
08:50 So when I came to China, okay, 1961, as I mentioned, I was on my way to Vietnam to see
08:59 Ho Chi Minh.
09:01 That was a lot of other students also were going.
09:05 And that's when I got to China and our first president had come on his first visit.
09:11 So they said, "Why don't you join us, wait for us before you go on your assignment."
09:15 So that's what I did and experienced a little bit more of how China was going to come up.
09:24 Wow.
09:25 Wow.
09:26 Okay.
09:27 That was an interesting story.
09:28 And also, there was a very interesting episode in Ghana-China relation, the history.
09:34 In 1964, Premier Joe and I visited a number of African countries and Ghana was one of
09:42 them and that was a very, how should I put it, special timing in Nkrumah's government
09:50 because it was a failed assassination attempt and he was wounded.
09:57 And Premier Joe, some people suggested to Premier Joe, "Let's just keep Ghana."
10:02 And he insisted, "No, we must show support to our friend."
10:07 So he went anyway.
10:09 Were you there in Ghana?
10:10 Yes, I was there in Ghana when Premier Joe Nkrumah came to visit Ghana.
10:18 How did the public, the Ghanaian public react to that event?
10:24 Was it a well-known event?
10:26 I believe so.
10:27 It was a very well-known event.
10:30 I met Premier Joe Nkrumah in 1961 when he was playing, he played table tennis with Nkrumah
10:38 in Beijing.
10:40 And it was very well received visit.
10:45 And well, it's 1966 that you had the coup d'etat.
10:54 I'm also curious about your later experience.
10:57 When did you become ambassador to China from which year to which year?
11:02 I think in 1982.
11:05 Okay, in the 80s.
11:09 So that was after about 20, 20 odd years since you first came to China.
11:16 So how China has changed during that two decades?
11:20 Quite a lot.
11:23 I remember visiting Shenyang.
11:27 It was a small fishing village.
11:30 Now it's a replica of Hong Kong.
11:35 How would the local people see the Chinese?
11:38 Are they affected by all those negativity in Western press about so-called neoclones
11:44 and China's committing in Africa?
11:47 Were they affected?
11:49 From the ordinary person, I can't see any reaction that they know the Chinese and so
11:54 on.
11:55 It's like also the Africans being in China.
11:58 I remember I had a young man, very interesting young boy who went to China in his own regard.
12:07 And then he learned Chinese from the markets.
12:11 He didn't learn it from school, but he could speak Chinese.
12:15 The Chinese were fascinated by him.
12:17 So every time my friend would say, "Where's the young Ganyan who was staying with you?"
12:23 And he spoke Chinese.
12:24 I'm sure that the Chinese would probably be able to learn the African language or the
12:29 Ganyan, but there are many African languages.
12:32 Learn the Ganyan language.
12:35 I see if I can learn some Akan language if I go to Ghana.
12:45 The person would say, "Wuhootsein."
12:49 That means, "How are you?"
12:51 Oh, okay.
12:52 I thought you were speaking Chinese, but it sounds similar.
12:58 Anyway, I think that's about all of today's interview.
13:05 I really appreciate your time, sir.
13:08 You woke up so early in the morning.
13:10 Thank you, really.
13:12 And I wish we can continue this kind of conversation in the future to foster the greater bond between
13:20 two peoples.
13:21 I thank you also very much for having me and making this exchange, which I think will continue
13:30 and be improved to see what the developments have been since we talked.
13:35 Maybe 10 years later, when I'm 100 years.
13:40 You can come and-
13:41 Look forward to that.
13:42 Yes, definitely.
13:43 Definitely.
13:44 Yeah.
13:45 Thank you.
13:46 Thank you so much.
13:47 All right.
13:48 Thanks a lot.
13:49 And have a good day.
13:50 My salute.
13:51 Thank you.
13:52 Bye.
13:53 Bye-bye.
13:54 We will go for a short break now, but we'll be right back.
14:02 Stay with us.
14:18 Welcome back to China Now.
14:20 In this second segment, we have Overlap, together with Seifried, a content creator of YouTube,
14:25 talking of how it was found that Chad Yipiti brought a political campaign for the former
14:30 US President Donald Trump, police corruption, Trump presidential candidacy, Joe Biden, and
14:36 Donald Trump's differences, and more.
14:38 Let's have a look.
14:39 Welcome to Overlap, brought to you by Breakthrough News and Wave Media.
14:58 My name's Lee Camp.
15:00 I'm the former host of the TV show Redacted Tonight, and the current host of Dangerous
15:06 Ideas and the Most Censored Comedian in America.
15:10 Overlap is a global conversation show with rotating hosts that is based on a simple concept.
15:16 While US elites are working to build a new Cold War with China, this show seeks to do
15:20 the opposite and show how much we all have in common.
15:23 So I'm excited to be joined by Zephyr, a content creator on YouTube and the popular Chinese
15:29 social media site Bilibili.
15:31 Welcome to the show, Zeph.
15:32 Thanks, Lee.
15:33 Hello, audience in US.
15:34 Yes, it's exciting to do this.
15:38 I know a unique aspect of this show is that it kind of has no host or it has two hosts.
15:43 So, you know, we'll just go back and forth chatting with each other about the topic at
15:49 hand, which is the indictment of Trump and his allies, his co-conspirators.
15:58 Former President Donald Trump is among the indicted, marking his fourth indictment.
16:02 You know, if he gets another one, I think he gets something free, you know, free, free
16:06 car or something.
16:07 He and 18 others are charged under Georgia's racketeer influenced and corrupt organization
16:12 act, RICO, asserting that they worked together towards a common criminal goal.
16:17 And for those of us here in the United States, when we hear RICO, we usually think of the
16:20 mafia.
16:21 That's usually what was used to charge many mafia members.
16:25 The indictment outlines various attempts to reverse the election results, including spreading
16:29 false claims of election fraud and submitting fake pro-Trump electors to Congress.
16:37 So to get started, I'll throw a question to you, Zeph.
16:43 How was the Trump presidency, how did it change China's views on America or your average Chinese
16:49 citizens views of America?
16:51 Well, interesting question, because a lot of Chinese possibly they think Trump is the
16:56 most interesting U.S. president throughout history.
17:01 Frankly, the four indictment, possibly Georgia is the least interesting one, the most interesting
17:06 FBI secret file, right?
17:10 The hush money for the prostitute was more interesting?
17:13 Oh, well, possibly.
17:15 But to Chinese audience, they're very shocked to learn that they put the secret, actually
17:21 top secret U.S. National Defense file next to bathtub or toilet or stage next to his
17:29 bed.
17:30 So everybody was like, what?
17:33 And learning that actually from the Times, right?
17:36 His fans visiting in Mar-a-Lago and Trump was like, come on and see some top secret
17:41 file.
17:42 And people were like, come check out what I got in my bathroom.
17:48 Everything is appalling, right?
17:49 But in a good way, it's entertaining for foreigners.
17:52 So it's the first time people learn that a government U.S. president actually hide
17:58 top secret files in bathtub.
18:00 You rarely see this, right?
18:02 So it's interesting and entertaining.
18:04 Yeah, that's fascinating.
18:05 You say this latest indictment is the least interesting, which I understand.
18:10 But it's also, in my view and a lot of legal scholars view, the most significant because
18:15 the other ones, the top secret documents.
18:18 I mean, the thing is, the U.S. marks everything top secret.
18:21 So they later found documents in Biden's residence, documents in Pence's residence.
18:27 So apparently this is quite common that these presidents and vice presidents don't know
18:32 what they're doing and they're taking home classified documents.
18:34 Now, Trump took it to a new level because he was actively trying to hide them, which
18:39 is a different thing.
18:41 But then the hush money for the prostitute or for the porn star or whatever you want
18:47 to call her, that, yeah, it's fascinating to learn about.
18:51 But it's most people believe it's not actually illegal.
18:54 Like you can pay someone not to talk.
18:56 It's generally not considered illegal.
18:58 So they had to do all kinds of legal gymnastics to make that illegal.
19:04 So this latest one, though, seems to be actually legitimate, where he and several others worked
19:10 very hard to put forward a competing group of electors.
19:15 Now, the system in the U.S. is very complicated.
19:18 The whole elector system is anti-democratic.
19:21 I mean, it was put in place by the rich white guys who founded the United States so that
19:27 they could make sure the American people didn't always get what they want.
19:30 You know, if the American people voted for something they didn't like, they could undo
19:34 it.
19:35 So the elector system is so complicated.
19:37 But legally, it seems you cannot create a fake group of electors, say that they count
19:44 as real, and then put forward documents saying they're real.
19:48 And so this one actually seems more legit than the others.
19:53 But I will also throw in here that something our media won't talk to Americans about, which
19:58 is that our democratic process is rigged and corrupt throughout the process in many ways.
20:06 The number one way being money.
20:09 You can buy an election in the United States, and $16 billion was spent on the last midterm
20:15 election to buy all of these elections.
20:18 Money is important.
20:19 Media is a huge factor of it.
20:22 Trump gets loads of free media, which is why he got elected in the first place.
20:28 So there's a lot of ways it's rigged.
20:30 There's many others as well, gerrymandering and all this complicated stuff.
20:36 So yes, Trump did this, but I think people are ignoring the fact of how our elections
20:41 are rigged throughout the election process, which to me kind of dilutes how evil this
20:49 makes Trump.
20:50 I mean, I find the man detestable, but you're right that a lot of this is pretty funny.
20:55 Well, to me, a lot of fragmented issues are funny.
21:01 For example, the Georgia case, the prosecutor sent how much?
21:06 I think it's 11.5 million pages of files to the Trump law team.
21:11 Do you know that?
21:12 Yeah, I don't know the number.
21:14 I think they possibly run through a chat GPT or something, and I would assume they actually
21:20 said in chat GPT, "Oh, this is for some law stuff," and make it unreadable for other chat
21:26 GPT software, just so when the Republicans, the Trump law team, trying to use chat GPT,
21:33 speed up their reading, they're going to do it, right?
21:37 That's the other thing, is our legal scholars, our lawyers will use all kinds of tricks like
21:42 that.
21:43 Another one they'll use is they'll keep pretending the trial is going to happen so that all the
21:47 lawyers and everyone has to fly down to Georgia and they all show up, and then they go, "Oh
21:51 no, we're going to postpone it," and then they all have to fly back home.
21:55 It's a gimmick used to just tire people out.
21:58 They spend tons of money.
22:00 It's all ridiculous.
22:02 I wanted to ask you, do you think your average Chinese person viewed the elections in the
22:07 United States as fully legitimate and democratic before Donald Trump, and now they have questions?
22:14 Trump is in a way a very major phenomenon to make the paramount of U.S. as somewhat
22:21 a symbol for democracy in a world less holy, in my mind.
22:28 But if we look at the trend of history going past 10 years, I can say Trump is not the
22:35 big stuff right here.
22:37 There's reason why people don't think U.S. is symbolizing whatever democracy or freedom,
22:43 liberty anymore.
22:44 A lot of people hate Trump, think he broke the rule or whatever, but if you look at the
22:49 trend, people just don't think U.S. is that free anymore.
22:54 Yeah, that's absolutely true, that Trump kind of revealed something that was going on for
22:59 a long time, and the U.S. has been cooing other governments, other nations in a bunch
23:06 of different ways, sometimes outright assassination, but sometimes economically or other ways for
23:13 years and years.
23:15 That didn't start or end during Donald Trump.
23:18 I think you're right that he kind of revealed something that's been going on a long time.
23:22 In terms of corruption of officials, if an official is corrupt in China, are there methods
23:31 to stop them from being a government official, and how good are those methods?
23:38 Well, I think most commonly it will be public reporting to somewhat committees, and they'll
23:45 do a fully very strict and formal inquiry to find out whether he is corrupted or not.
23:53 This is very common right now, because a lot of these people got money, and due to the
23:58 party principle, they cannot use their money to exchange foreign currencies or go to U.S.,
24:04 go to Europe, go to casinos.
24:08 So they have to use their money in China.
24:11 At that time, when they use the money that much, his income or her income does not pair
24:17 with their buying, then people will report to somewhat committees saying, "This guy seems
24:24 suspicious," or "She looks suspicious."
24:26 Yeah, it's funny you mentioned the income, because in the U.S., when officials get into
24:32 the U.S. government, they suddenly become far richer.
24:36 Someone was pointing out that Nancy Pelosi is worth like $100 million, but if you were
24:42 to take the amount she makes from government, she would only have like $8 million over her
24:48 entire career.
24:50 So we've seen this again and again, that being a government official in the United States
24:54 allows you access to stock information so that you can then basically do insider trading
25:01 on Wall Street, whether it's always called that or not.
25:05 That's some public secret, but my audience are shocked to learn that Nancy Pelosi's husband
25:11 called DUI and rode in a car crash and showed a permanent police friendship card.
25:21 This kind of stuff is very popular on Twitter.
25:23 I checked, for 1,200-something posting, they have inferior or superior friendship cards
25:29 than their friends.
25:30 It's some party showmaker showcase.
25:37 I have a superior friendship card with some policeman, a higher-ranked policeman in the
25:42 neighborhood.
25:43 Adams, the New York mayor, friend, is saying to a senior officer that someone's showing
25:52 a friendship card with him.
25:54 You must let him pass.
25:55 The DUI, whatever, I don't care.
25:58 The guy was like, there is this thing called integrity.
26:01 He went on New York Times and said there is this thing called integrity.
26:05 Not because he's that much of integrity, but in the weekend, say, neighborhood, everybody
26:10 got a friendship card.
26:12 All kinds of friendship cards with this policeman, with that policewoman.
26:15 Does those superior got the captain saying you must let them pass?
26:21 The guy was like, no, one day, he was nodding, that's temporary, whatever.
26:24 No, I'm not letting him pass.
26:26 The captain was like, okay, you're moving to the night patrol.
26:31 But police VIP, right?
26:33 I hadn't heard of the friendship cards, but I know that a lot of people that are part
26:39 of the police fraternity or connected to it, they'll put the stickers on the back of their
26:43 cars and that type of thing.
26:45 And then police generally won't pull over someone with the police fraternity sticker
26:50 on their car and things like that.
26:51 So there's a lot of favoritism, absolutely.
26:55 Do you think people in China think that Trump will end up in prison or that he could win
27:01 the presidency again?
27:03 So I look into all these four cases deeply, and I do shows, explanatory shows to my audience
27:11 explaining why he can still get elected, even in prison.
27:15 CPUSA, actually not CPUSA, but the Society, Social Party of America got elected in prison.
27:23 And that time my audience was like, okay, so this guy can still get elected in prison.
27:28 And people in China or in the majority in the world countries, jail or other facilities
27:34 is somewhat judicial and very formal, right?
27:37 But they're very shocking to learn that in the US, some prisons are listed companies
27:43 and government would go to some prison like, oh, we're hosting less prisoners, inmates
27:48 than before.
27:49 We need more prisoners.
27:50 Yeah, corporate.
27:51 California government, right?
27:54 One dollar per hour and you go fire extinguishing out there.
27:58 So yeah, that's somewhere very shocking to learn.
28:01 Yeah, there definitely are different types of prisons in the US.
28:06 You're talking about the for-profit prisons where the states are obligated to have a certain
28:10 number of people in prison and by the contract.
28:14 But also there can be favoritism in terms of prison sentences.
28:18 One of the best examples is Jeffrey Epstein that everyone now knows about when he was
28:23 first convicted of pedophilia or whatever the charge actually was.
28:29 They ultimately sentenced him to a certain to like a year or something, but he was allowed
28:34 to leave prison to go to his office.
28:36 So he was showing up for prison for a few hours, then going to go to work and then go
28:41 back.
28:42 Like, it's just ridiculous.
28:43 So in the United States, you can run for office if you've even if you've been convicted.
28:50 Some states, they're saying some states may stop him, may try and pass something to stop
28:55 him from getting on the ballot if he has been convicted.
29:00 But constitutionally, it's seen in legal scholars debate on some of this, but it seems there's
29:06 nothing that could stop that that would necessarily stop him from being elected president in prison.
29:13 Or from prison.
29:14 So or even while his trial is going on or something like that.
29:18 So it's a big question mark as to even if this goes through as to whether it would stop
29:23 Trump from winning.
29:24 Well, the important problem here is I went through several articles from Harvard University
29:30 professors talking on WAPO, arguing whether it's possible the Georgia, because it's state
29:37 felony, right?
29:39 Let's say Trump got sentenced to the Georgia state prison and stayed in prison, he got
29:45 elected.
29:46 Is that possible that those foreign leaders go to that prison and meet Trump?
29:50 Or is it possible, like Epstein, he can make his home like a prison, right?
29:59 So how about make White House a prison and make all the USSS, the security services in
30:08 the prison and there's a state police, whatever, looking at him signing whatever files, medals,
30:16 make press conference all in the cell, right?
30:19 Just make a big cell.
30:20 Think about that.
30:21 What kind of freak show is that?
30:23 Will he be allowed to have the classified documents in his prison cell?
30:26 Do people in the Chinese people think there's like a huge difference between the way Joe
30:33 Biden leads the United States versus Donald Trump, or do they feel a lot of it is fairly
30:39 similar except Trump maybe is funnier?
30:41 So we actually went through article by article how much Trump was making sure to hurt China,
30:50 those sanctions and stuff.
30:52 A question raised is if Joe Biden was elected, before he was elected, right?
30:57 So he actually withdrew those stupid sanctions, like 45, 75, whatever punishable sanctions.
31:04 My conclusion was very clear.
31:05 He would not withdraw anything.
31:08 And since Joe Biden got elected, actually the truth went out.
31:10 He didn't withdraw anything.
31:12 So to me, it seems like, okay, before Joe Biden got elected, every Democratic Party
31:18 was like, "Oh, Trump is out of his mind.
31:20 He's sanctioning his stupid whatever, drinking bleach."
31:23 But when Joe Biden got in office, he didn't withdraw anything.
31:26 So what's the difference between you and Trump?
31:29 You're yelling Trump is stupidly anti-China, but you were doing the same thing, right?
31:33 You didn't withdraw anything.
31:34 Orally, okay, you're being nice with China, more wise, more sanity, but actually on hand,
31:41 I don't see any stuff, right?
31:43 No, I think you're absolutely right.
31:45 And it's a lot of Americans though, they believe the words.
31:49 So they think that Joe Biden is being more rational or more logical with China, but it's
31:55 the same stuff.
31:57 It's the same Cold War against China.
32:00 It's the same economic war.
32:02 And yeah, and it was Nancy Pelosi that flew to Taiwan just to try and make things even
32:10 more heated.
32:11 So yeah, the idea that Trump is worse for China, they're both horrible in terms of having
32:20 diplomacy and friendship and working together, which is what this world desperately needs.
32:26 And it's just that the Democrats say nicer things.
32:30 Frankly, I don't think the Democrat Party is representing democracy in any way in the
32:35 US, frankly, because those like AOC or Bernie Sanders, they talk a little bit about socialism
32:42 and they got really stomped in the US.
32:45 Nobody was caring what they're saying, like you're an Omar, nobody care what they say
32:49 and everybody's isolating them, saying they're freaks and stuff.
32:54 They're not even that socialist.
32:56 They're not even that socialism, right?
32:57 They're just raising this term and got demonized.
33:02 Like you're a communist.
33:03 They don't even know the difference between communism and socialism.
33:07 Like what freak is that?
33:09 That's true, like Trump telling people to drink bleach, everybody's mocking Trump.
33:13 But why are you not mocking the Democratic Party?
33:16 They don't even know the difference between communism and socialism, right?
33:20 Stupid.
33:21 Yeah.
33:22 And it's by design.
33:23 They want people confused because they don't want people to actually know what these things
33:27 are and what they stand for.
33:30 But Bernie Sanders was hugely popular before they, again, anti-democratically rigged the
33:37 primaries against Bernie Sanders.
33:41 They did everything they could from confusing people about polling locations.
33:46 The computers had a lot of question marks around them, changing the ballots, telling
33:51 everyone in California to fill out what's called a provisional ballot, which is kind
33:55 of like a fake ballot.
33:57 So they did everything they could to rig the primaries against Bernie and ultimately they
34:02 stopped them.
34:03 But they were very nervous.
34:05 I think they suppressed the report on Bernie Sanders, frankly, because you see Bernie as
34:10 a telling the truth about everything and he had to go to a guardian.
34:15 Not any US media, he had to go to a guardian.
34:18 So possibly US mainstream media, CNN or whatever, that some Chinese, they worship CNN a lot
34:24 10 years ago.
34:25 Not anymore now because Trump, because Trump, because of Trump.
34:28 Trump is yelling fake news every day.
34:31 So right now CNN in China, everybody says CNN, even the, I don't know, like farmers
34:36 in rural areas say CNN.
34:38 Oh, fake news.
34:39 I know that fake news.
34:40 I never believed, right?
34:41 He made some contribution at least exposing CNN or BBC as fake news.
34:46 That's a good thing, right?
34:48 We need to recognize that as a good side.
34:51 But I think the mainstream media is basically just wasting huge amount of tremendous public
34:59 attention, just circulating useless information all day long about something that doesn't
35:08 matter and to audience that don't care at all.
35:11 For example, the Florida building collapse, right?
35:15 That case.
35:16 And everybody is reporting how they rescue a small kitten and how the kitten is clean,
35:21 how the kitten was meowing and everything, lovely, adorable, but nobody cares.
35:26 The rescue team didn't rescue even a single human being and everybody's like, oh, they
35:31 rescued a cat.
35:32 Hooray.
35:33 And then this time, the Hawaii, Maui fire, everybody's like, oh, they rescued the other
35:38 pets.
35:39 How we help the pets.
35:40 What about those human beings?
35:41 What are you guys doing?
35:42 Right?
35:43 It's circulating all day how to help pets.
35:45 What about the men?
35:46 We carry the men and women living there.
35:49 What about rebuilding?
35:50 Joe Biden was like, oh, Zelensky, do you need more money?
35:54 Yeah.
35:55 Yeah.
35:56 It's a freak show.
35:57 I don't get it.
35:58 The grand circus.
36:00 That's how we view everything going on right now.
36:03 OK, well, you're not wrong.
36:05 The United States sends hundreds of billion dollars to Ukraine for a proxy war with Russia.
36:11 And meanwhile, we can't take care of our own citizens.
36:14 We can't help people in Maui.
36:15 We can't fix the bridges that are collapsing across the United States.
36:19 We can't do anything for average citizens.
36:23 Sixty four percent, I think, of Americans say they live paycheck to paycheck, never
36:28 sure where their next paycheck is going to come from.
36:32 And meanwhile, we're sending hundreds of billions to Zelensky in Ukraine.
36:36 So yeah, you're you're absolutely right.
36:39 That's true.
36:40 And it's the trending compared to 50 years ago.
36:43 A lot of US citizens, when they're doing the polls, they don't think in the future they
36:48 can get this much income compared to 50 years ago.
36:52 And for their children, they think the future will be worse.
36:55 So American dream, possibly that's why a lot of, I mean, legal or illegal immigrants, they
37:02 went to America for.
37:03 But now, since even the Americans, they don't think they have a future in America.
37:08 So that's possibly one reason why they think Trump is something they need to make America
37:14 great again and stuff.
37:16 If they think America was ever great in whatever historical area.
37:20 To go back to the main topic here for a moment, Donald Trump, do you think that the Republicans,
37:28 the other Republicans that are running, are they going to and Republicans, I guess, across
37:32 America, are they going to back Donald Trump considering the the multiple indictments of
37:37 everything and and does it does it matter in your view?
37:41 Man, that's good question.
37:42 That's a splendid question.
37:43 I want to ask you.
37:44 I went through a lot of articles talking who else can people elect, Ron DeSantis or in
37:51 Trump's way, Ron DeSacamonius.
37:54 He only got like 10 or whatever, 15 percent support.
37:59 He himself think he represents conservatives, but banning abortion is not conservative.
38:05 It's anti-human, right?
38:07 If you're not electing Trump, how about Ron DeSantis?
38:11 In a way, I think Ron DeSantis, those slavery makes some slave good, right?
38:17 This argument and not allowing any sexual teaching before primary school, third grade
38:25 is anti-human in my point.
38:27 So if you're not electing Trump, are you guys actually going to elect Ron DeSantis?
38:32 If in CNN opinion, they anti-Trump this much, possibly they want people to elect Ron DeSantis.
38:37 So my explanation is possible they think Ron DeSantis cannot win the campaign against
38:42 Joe Biden.
38:43 So they want Ron DeSantis to win the primary against Trump and Joe Biden can easily beat
38:48 Ron DeSantis when final campaign comes.
38:52 In that way, possibly I think other Republicans will support Trump anyways, because if it's
38:58 Trump, there's still hope.
39:00 If it's Ron DeSantis, people in Seattle, people in, I don't know, Nebraska, in Maine, they
39:05 possibly don't even know who Ron DeSantis is.
39:08 There is a guy went on a wild poll saying like, okay, I'm not a Trump fan, I'm not
39:12 a MAGA, whatever.
39:13 I vote for Trump just because I know the guy.
39:16 Are the guys Mike Pence?
39:17 Who even know who Mike Pence did in his vice presidency without if you know him from Indiana,
39:24 he was a state governor, right?
39:26 So if you're not voting for Trump, who else, the Republican, the conservatives will vote?
39:31 That's the real question.
39:33 So I'm interested in, and my audience are interested if not voting for Trump, who will
39:37 the conservatives vote if considered Ron DeSantis too conservative?
39:42 I mean, yeah, some people are talking about DeSantis.
39:45 I guess the only other one you hear much about recently is Rama Swami, but I don't know that
39:50 much about him.
39:51 But these people all seem like monsters to me.
39:53 I mean, they're all, they're all a horror show.
39:57 But a lot of it is this kind of culture war crap where it's like, we don't like the gender
40:05 sign on the bathroom.
40:07 It's just like meaningless, dumb stuff that they can bicker over.
40:11 And they act like that's everything, when in fact, they should be talking much more
40:15 about the larger issues of the world.
40:17 But you know, I guess there's a chance that DeSantis, by the way, DeSantis also oversaw
40:21 US torture at I think Guantanamo as a lawyer in the army.
40:26 So this is, you know, he's a horror show, but he's not nearly as entertaining as Donald
40:31 Trump.
40:32 Donald Trump is a far better entertainer.
40:34 Well, his new opinion is very entertaining, saying the US should send troops to Mexico
40:39 and exterminate the drug mafia and stuff.
40:44 You want to start a war with Mexico or whatever?
40:48 That's out of the mind.
40:49 It's not even like right or left.
40:52 This guy was a lawyer even, like, how did you get your degree?
40:55 Like a mall university, you just pay the money and get a degree.
40:58 Nobody get like, dude, come on.
41:01 Right.
41:02 I think I think each one of them is looking for the most insane position to take so that
41:07 people will talk about them, you know, so to win some media report, I guess.
41:12 Yeah.
41:13 It's the Kanye West strategy.
41:14 If you seem insane enough, people will talk about you.
41:18 But one thing you mentioned, though, is if that the Democrats or the Democratic Party
41:22 might be kind of pushing for DeSantis because they think that Biden can beat DeSantis.
41:28 I don't know what Biden can do.
41:30 I mean, he can barely speak.
41:31 He can barely walk.
41:33 So I don't know.
41:34 Like like you put him in a debate.
41:37 They'll be lucky if he faces the right direction.
41:40 So getting him to actually speak full sentences, I think, would be very difficult.
41:46 And I don't know what the Democratic Party's plan is.
41:48 I mean, some people believe they're going to switch out Joe Biden and put in Gavin Newsom
41:53 or something later in the in the campaign season.
41:56 But I don't actually know.
41:58 I know they're scared to death of RFK Jr., who some things he says I like, some things
42:03 he says he's out of his mind.
42:05 But it's all pure insanity.
42:08 It's a it's a circus.
42:09 You're right.
42:10 It's a circus.
42:11 From what I learned, Harvard Poll last month, 70 percent don't like Biden and 65 percent
42:18 don't like Trump.
42:19 So basically, they don't like either Trump or Biden.
42:24 But there is no third choice.
42:26 That's why possibly Andrew Yang, they get a forward party, I guess, and I think the
42:32 majority, the middle section, they'll possibly vote for the forward party.
42:37 But that's not in a way realistic.
42:41 Yeah.
42:42 So that's what I see.
42:44 I conclude that is the well-educated middle class.
42:49 They elevated to the higher class and they deny or disregard those people living middle
42:55 class and sweaty mass.
42:58 Well, and something your audience may be interested in is the part of the reason there's no well-known
43:04 third party in the United States is because they do exist.
43:08 It's just made incredibly difficult for them to get on ballots and to get any media coverage
43:14 on the Cornell West is a very well-known professor who's running for the Green Party, a third
43:20 party.
43:21 But a getting media coverage is nearly impossible.
43:25 But beyond that, just getting on the ballot in each state is incredibly difficult.
43:28 You need tens of thousands of signatures.
43:31 You need to spend all this money that a lot of third parties don't have.
43:36 So the American system is designed to make it nearly impossible for third parties to
43:41 get any traction.
43:43 And that really is by design.
43:45 So what I learned from CNN is their viewing rate actually dropped 50 percent, their target
43:50 audience after Trump left the office.
43:54 So to me, it seems like CNN is whatever vampire sucking blood from all kinds of MAGA ideology
44:00 and reporting on Trump.
44:02 So in a way, their enemy, but business wise, possibly their partners.
44:06 Do you see the primary of Fox, right?
44:10 The same, the same.
44:12 That is an excellent point.
44:13 And I've made that point before, where CNN and MSNBC and many of the U.S. news networks
44:19 act like Trump is the devil and Trump's a detestable human being.
44:24 But at the same time, they're the ones that actually get Trump elected because they gave
44:29 in the last election, the one he won, they gave him 10 times as much coverage as Hillary
44:34 Clinton and 16 times as much coverage as Bernie Sanders when Bernie was still in the race.
44:40 So they give Trump all of this media coverage, just insane amounts of media coverage.
44:45 And then they go, how did he get elected?
44:47 How did this happen?
44:49 All we did was talk about him every minute.
44:52 So they have themselves to blame, even as they run around and blame people like me and
44:56 censor me and delete my YouTube channel and stuff like that.
45:00 They really have themselves to blame if they're upset that Donald Trump got elected.
45:04 And it's still going on like yesterday or the day before he went back to the X, right?
45:10 Twitter and posted his criminal photo on Twitter and got like, whatever, two point two hundred
45:18 and fifty million views on Twitter.
45:21 And the Elon Musk was like, well, next level.
45:24 Everybody reporting, WAPL and WSJ be like, oh, there's a phenomenon.
45:28 And this this guy is still sucking his blood, right?
45:31 Still media coverage for Trump.
45:33 And nobody cares about Joe Biden.
45:35 Joe Biden sent a whatever campaign post of like five million views comparing to Trump
45:41 like two hundred fifty million.
45:43 So when they are arguing, demonizing Trump or MAGA, actually, they are helping him to
45:49 build bigger and earn more money.
45:52 In two days, he got like seven million, comparing to what Cendis got in hand, only like twelve
45:59 million.
46:00 Trump actually made 70 percent of his election money in just two days.
46:06 Think about that.
46:07 Also, Trump sells, Trump sells NFTs where he's dressed in a superhero outfit.
46:12 So I'm the MAGA king, right?
46:17 Actually in China, my audience and a lot of netizens, they have this called "Chuan Huang",
46:23 which means Trump the king.
46:26 He himself said I'm the king, right?
46:27 MAGA king.
46:28 So I would say it's baby Trump, because I really think he's hurt by a Democratic Party,
46:34 by CNN.
46:35 He is kind of a hero fighting CNN, exposing how CNN is fake news to the world.
46:42 Not only in Chinese, I met a lot of Indian friends.
46:45 They really worship CNN as whatever paramount of the media.
46:49 And they want to learn from CNN, BBC.
46:51 And after Trump's presidency, everybody's like, oh, forget about that.
46:55 That's great.
46:57 You know, I think that's a real positive.
46:59 Maybe that's the only positive of Donald Trump.
47:02 So did Trump also, did he make people in China kind of more supportive of Chinese foreign
47:12 policy and nationalism?
47:15 Did Trump have that impact?
47:16 So I think attention doesn't necessarily mean support.
47:19 I think a lot of Chinese audience, they learned more about international affairs, how the
47:26 state is run after Trump's presidency, especially after learning about the foreign indictment.
47:32 Before that, people were like, oh, managing the government, how my daily routine is helping
47:37 the country to be a better place.
47:39 Everybody was like, OK, some big figures problem.
47:42 It's not my problem.
47:43 But seeing Trump is stirring everything up in the US, and people were like, OK, it's
47:48 my duty to do something for my country.
47:51 Everybody make together, probably make our country a better place.
47:54 So in a way, Trump did make a lot of Chinese audience more patriotic in a good way.
48:01 The other way, possibly they got more hatred from Trump presidency, because I think reporting
48:09 what the freak show in the US, like telling people to drink bleach, is somewhat damaging
48:15 their perfect, fake US homeland fantasy that they have.
48:23 But possibly these people never been to US, and they just fantasize US as somewhat democracy
48:29 heaven, that everybody got honey and milk everywhere.
48:33 So reporting anything bad in US is damaging their perfect wet dream.
48:40 Well, so to sum all this up, the US may be a mess, but our leaders are more entertaining
48:48 than Chinese leaders.
48:49 So we're funnier.
48:51 So it looks like we're out of time, but Zef, it's been a pleasure to chat with you.
48:56 Thank you for doing this with me.
48:57 Thank you, Lee.
48:58 Thank you, guys.
49:01 And this was another episode of Shine On Now, a show that opens a window to the present
49:05 and the future of the Asian giant.
49:07 Hope you enjoy it.
49:08 See you next time.
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