Guests - Ava Chen, Greg Blackie, Jay Tolkoff
China Watch Wednesday: CCP's Global Strategy and Targeting of Taiwan
China's Three-War Strategy Thwarted by Middle East Peace
The recent peace deal in the Middle East represents a significant setback to Xi Jinping's global strategy, according to Eva Chen of the New Federal State of China. Speaking on China Watch Wednesday, Chen explained how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been orchestrating a three-pronged war strategy to distract the United States.
"The CCP had a plan. They're betting on three wars simultaneously, betting the United States cannot handle all fronts effectively," Chen explained. "They purposely lit fires in three places at once."
This strategy began in 2022 with the Ukraine-Russia conflict, followed by the Hamas-Israel war, with intentions for a third regional conflict. "They want to take that window of opportunity to strike Taiwan," Chen stated. "This has been in their playbook, Xi Jinping's plan."
By achieving peace in the Middle East, resources and personnel are freed up to counter potential CCP aggression toward Taiwan. "Peace is great for the people living there, and it's great for the anti-CCP alliance and the entire world," Chen noted.
CCP's Long-Term Strategy Against the United States
China's ambitions to challenge American global leadership date back decades. "China always wanted to destroy the United States," Chen stated. "But they started thinking, 'I am such an inferior power.' Going back to the 1970s, 1980s, 90s, 'I'm so weak in terms of economic power, I wouldn't be able to challenge the hegemony of the United States.'"
The CCP's approach follows Sun Tzu's Art of War philosophy: "Subjugate my enemy without fighting a single shot. That's what they call the highest form of war," Chen explained.
Hong Kong was a crucial first step in this strategy. "Trillions of investment in Hong Kong. United States investment in Hong Kong is trillion dollars in assets, trusts, everything," Chen said. "That's why there are so many U.S. law firms in Hong Kong. Every penny United States has there is basically leverage for the Chinese Communist Party."
Chen clarified that while the CCP has been present in Hong Kong since the 1950s through United Front organizations, the territory truly fell when the National Security Law was enacted in 2020 following the 2019 anti-extradition bill protests.
"They basically infiltrated the legislatures and coerced and blackmailed all the lawmakers. They took over the government," Chen explained. "Now Hong Kong is no longer Hong Kong. It's no different than a city in mainland China today."
Taiwan: The Next Target
With Hong Kong secured, Taiwan is now in the CCP's crosshairs. "Taiwan provides 90% of the world's largest foreign policy," Chen stated, likely referring to semiconductor manufacturing. The strategic importance extends beyond Taiwan itself.
"Think about Americans' interest in Indo-Pacific," Chen said. "You have Japan, you have South Korea—but South Korea's pretty much gone, it's already fallen."
Control of Taiwan would fundamentally alter the power dynamics of the entire region. "If you allow the CCP to take Taiwan, everything else falls," Chen warned. "The United States will be kicked out of that region. And think about what that will do not only to your naval power, your economic power, but what that's going to do with your money, US dollars."
Chen explained that the CCP has already made territorial claims over the open Indo-Pacific Ocean, ignoring claims from the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. "They said, 'This is all mine.' That's why they patrol it like they own the whole thing."
Xi Jinping's Demands to President Trump
Chen shared intelligence about Xi Jinping's approach to recent discussions with President Trump, particularly regarding Taiwan. "Xi Jinping has been in a very comfortable position," Chen noted. "As a dictator, as a communist dictator, he feels good every day. He feels like he is under fine blessing. He saw all those auspicious signs of the rise of East and Xi family in the Xi dynasty."
According to Chen, Xi Jinping strategically started a rare earth trade dispute before meeting with Trump to exert "maximum pressure" on the U.S. president. Xi has four specific demands related to Taiwan:
No military intervention if the CCP moves on Taiwan
Zero provision of military weapons or support to Taiwan
No granting of political asylum to Taiwanese nationals if conflict starts
The United States must keep silent on the Taiwan issue
"Three nos, one must," Chen summarized. "The United States has to do the three noes and one must, and Xi Jinping will be happy and grant you the rare earth or anything that the Chinese Communist Party has in monopoly."
America's Economic Vulnerability to China
Chen warned that the United States is in a difficult position due to China's monopoly on rare earth minerals. "The CCP has been in monopoly, the world monopoly, unfortunately, in control of pretty much 90% of the processing," Chen explained. "In order to continue building the industries that you have, particularly weapon and defense industries, you would have to enter some sort of agreement with the CCP."
According to Chen, the earliest possible time America could develop alternatives would be 2028, creating a dangerous window of dependency. "During this window of time, you still have to come to some kind of agreement with the CCP."
This vulnerability extends beyond rare earth minerals. "They could at any time flip out a trade block, using BRIC and issue a CCP-backed currency backed in gold," Chen warned. "They have been bought out 12% of the gold of the entire world."
This economic leverage is already visible in American markets. "When Trump is saying something with Xi Jinping, your stock market goes up. When Trump is taking a hard stance with the CCP, your stock market goes down," Chen observed. She also pointed to Chinese influence in cryptocurrency markets, specifically mentioning Binance as "a CCP platform" and "intelligence platform."
"They want you financially coming down, they want economic chaos, they want everyone to lose their jobs," Chen stated. "Once you are occupied by your own people and your own system, they're moving on Taiwan."
The Role of Western Elites in Enabling China
Chen emphasized that China's growing power is not solely due to Xi Jinping's actions but also involves Western complicity. "This will not happen by chance. It's a product of collusion between Beijing and the Western elites who sold out their own nations, including the United States," Chen said. "Greed, arrogance—you handed the CCP control over your lifeline."
Chen connected this to other challenges facing America. "Why do you think that you lose your energy independence, and suddenly you have millions of illegal immigrants coming in? It's planned."
She referenced Chinese billionaire Miles Guo, who warned about these developments in 2017. "Miles Guo told us in October, very clearly. Three-act plan, BGY, how they're going to do it," Chen said. "He alerted the FBI about the bioweapons program, and the FBI validated every single thing and confirmed the documents were real, authentic, but they did nothing. And then what happened in 2019? Bioweapon came, and the virus came."
Chen concluded with a sobering quote from Miles Guo: "The world traded truth for comfort and freedom for convenience, and now humanity is paying the price. One day, history will record that the West defeated evil because we have the blessing of the gods, but only after nearly losing everything."
The Green New Scam: Rising Electricity Rates and Energy Policy Failures in Arizona
Arizona Free Enterprise Club Warns of Energy Crisis
Greg Blackie, Deputy Director of Policy at the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, is bringing an important message to Tucson regarding what the organization calls "the Green New Scam." The club will host an event on October 23rd at Faith Community Church to discuss how green energy policies are affecting Arizona residents.
"I think probably many of your listeners who are in the know are familiar with the Green New Scam and probably think that we're pretty safe at this point," Blackie said. "We've got Trump in the White House and a key tenant of this administration to shut down the Green New Scam. And many people in Arizona probably think we have a 5-0 Republican Commission, so we're pretty safe here. Unfortunately, that's not the case."
A History of Problematic Energy Policies
The issues with Arizona's energy policy go back two decades. "Twenty years ago, we also had a 5-0 Republican Commission in 2006 when the Commission adopted the first renewable mandates in Arizona, requiring 15 percent renewable by 2025," Blackie explained. "That was spearheaded by our now Attorney General Chris Mays, who was then a Republican."
These mandates have cost Arizona ratepayers billions of dollars. While the mandates expire in 2025, their costs are already embedded in current rates. More concerning, according to Blackie, is that "in 2020, all of our utilities, including APS, Tucson Electric Power, voluntarily committed themselves to going what's called net zero by 2050."
This commitment includes shutting down all coal generation by 2031 and building out "exclusively solar, wind, and battery storage for the next 15 to 30 years" – despite Arizona's growing population and increasing energy demands.
The Financial Impact on Ratepayers
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club conducted its own cost analysis after discovering the Corporation Commission had approved resource plans without determining how much they would cost ratepayers.
"We found that accomplishing their net zero plan over the next 15 years would cost ratepayers $42.7 billion, with a B, over the next 15 years," Blackie revealed.
Beyond the financial cost, there are serious concerns about grid reliability. "Our cost analysis also included a reliability study. We found that 15 years from now, when they're running our grid on solar and wind, in the middle of the summer, we're gonna be short 3,500 megawatts of power," Blackie explained.
The practical implications are alarming: "What that translates to is hundreds of thousands of Arizona families without power at 11 o'clock at night when it's still 110 degrees in July, and they're trying to cool down their homes, and they won't have that power backed up until the next morning when the sun starts shining again."
Current Status and Corporate Commitments
Despite the change in federal administration, Arizona utilities have not backed away from their green energy commitments. "Even with Trump in the White House, our utilities have not backed off their clean energy commitments," Blackie noted.
Recent developments include APS's resource procurement process, which yielded 93% from renewables. Additionally, none of the resource plans approved by the Commission last year includes any additional nuclear power for the next 15 years.
The Path Forward
The Arizona Corporation Commission still has the power to address these issues, according to Blackie. "Every step along the way, this could have been stopped in terms of the resource planning process," he explained. The Commission could have "ensured that there was a cost analysis done and told the utilities they need to come back with a lower cost, more reliable portfolio of energy production."
With some Corporation Commission members up for re-election, voters have an opportunity to influence future energy policies. The Arizona Free Enterprise Club encourages citizens to sign up for action alerts to stay informed about opportunities to voice their concerns to the Commission and the legislature.
"This event coming up next week, we'll go into much more detail, bring the receipts of everything that's been going on in the last 20 years and specifically the last five years and provide some action plans of what we can do over the next year to make sure we set ourselves up for success over the next decade," Blackie concluded.
Ward 6 Candidate Jay Tolkoff Offers New Direction for Tucson
Growing Support Across Party Lines
Jay Tolkoff, candidate for Tucson's Ward 6 City Council seat, is seeing unprecedented support from traditionally Democratic constituencies. "I think that there's a lot of people that would typically be considered Democrats that are looking at what's going on and saying what the Democrat-controlled mayor and council have been doing isn't working," Tolkoff explained.
The evidence, according to Tolkoff, is clear: "Look around with the crime and the homelessness and the condition of the streets and the trash. We're losing population, businesses are closing and boarding up, and places like Fry's and Food City are closing down major supermarket locations because they can't handle the shoplifting anymore."
His moderate message has resonated with neighborhood associations. "Lots of neighborhood association presidents have come to me, and there are two major neighborhood coalitions that deal specifically with crime—Fort Lowell Corridor and the Grant Alvernon Initiative groups. They represent many Midtown neighborhoods that are very strong, heavily Democratic, and they've endorsed me."
Other endorsements include the Teamsters, which Tolkoff describes as "unprecedented" for a Republican candidate, and two former Democratic city council candidates who lost in the primary.
Homelessness Crisis and Failed Policies
Tolkoff criticized the city's approach to homelessness, pointing out that despite spending approximately $30,000 per year per homeless person over the last five years, homelessness has increased by 66%, according to County Administrator Jan Lester.
"Homelessness is not the problem. Homelessness is a symptom of the problem that creates homelessness," Tolkoff emphasized. "We are not doing anything significant to address those problems."
He noted that similar homeless encampment programs in San Diego have resulted in legal action, with formerly homeless individuals suing the city because "they weren't provided with safe environments."
Public Safety Concerns
Regarding crime, Tolkoff pointed to the correlation between rising crime rates and the reduction in police staffing. He compared police presence to chaperones at a school dance: "If somebody is watching, people are less apt to do things that can get them arrested."
The current staffing level translates to "one cop per every six square miles around the clock to keep an eye on Tucson," which Tolkoff argues is insufficient. He contrasted Tucson with Mesa, a similarly-sized city that "spend[s] exponentially more on their police and is so much safer."
Middle Housing Zoning Controversy
Tolkoff also highlighted a significant zoning issue facing Tucson. Due to a state statute signed by Governor Hobbs, municipalities with more than 75,000 residents must implement "middle housing zoning" within a one-mile buffer around their central business district.
While most municipalities are minimizing the impact, "Tucson is doing what it can to maximize it," Tolkoff said. This would allow for higher-density zoning, permitting duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes on properties previously zoned for single-family residences.
Tolkoff warns that this change could have far-reaching consequences, particularly because "once you put in a higher density zoning, you can't reduce that zoning without the owner's permission." He noted that Phoenix has limited this to around 16 square miles, while Tucson is proposing around 40 square miles, with discussions about potentially extending it to the entire 240+ square mile city.
"My attitude is that you need to do this on the smallest scale possible and see how it works," Tolkoff advised. "To just jump into it without any guardrails, without any sunset clause, with it never being able to be undone without spending huge amounts of money, is insane."
Tolkoff urged residents to attend the public hearing at City Hall, stating, "We need 400 people to show up and say, 'I don't want a four-plex in my neighbor's backyard looking into my pool.' We need to come out loud and clear just the same way as people came out and protested against Project Blue and shut that down."