War Room Media
Ryan Ray and I take a trip to China on the War Room Media pod. I’m pretty sure I should listen to Ron Burgandy and lay low for a while (the Chinese might arrest me for saying not nice things about their Supreme Leader). We also discuss aliens.
About Ryan Ray
Ryan Ray is the CEO of R-Squared Global and War Room Media and is an internationally recognized media personality and geopolitical strategist. Mr. Ray has worked for R-Squared Global since 2005 and became the owner and CEO of R-Squared Global in 2019. In 2016, he founded War Room Media in hopes of bringing a fresh perspective to the media landscape. Since 2014, Mr. Ray has traveled to multiple countries and consulted with industry leaders, ambassadors and other government officials. He was honored to be an advisor to the chief operating officer of the Department of Energy for South Africa from 2015 to 2017. He sits on the Board of Advisors of the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations and the Foundation’s U.S.-China Coronavirus Action Network.
Post-Show Notes
On Political Ideology & War: Does neo-conservatism produce war? Donald Trump (R) is the first President since I've been alive to avoid starting a new war. He achieved this despite doing what decades of presidents before him were too afraid to do (locating an embassy in Jerusalem), standing up to China, and calling a spade a spade when it came to Iran. That is an incredible accomplishment that we should all celebrate.
On China's One-Child Policy: I was directionally correct on the pod. "Powerful Leaders? For example, Mao was undoubtedly an extraordinarily powerful figure whose actions had direct consequences for 1 billion people. Most often when I show the low birth numbers in Asia, someone says “That must be because of Mao’s one-child policy.” But the infamous one-child policy had less influence than is commonly thought. The huge, fast drop from six to three babies per woman in China, happened in the ten years preceding the one-child policy. During the 36 years the policy was in place, the number never fell below 1.5, though it did in many other countries without enforcement, like Ukraine, Thailand, and South Korea. In Hong Kong, where again the one-child policy didn’t apply, the number dropped even below one baby per woman. All this suggests that there were other factors at play here than the decisive command of a powerful man. And it wasn't even Mao's policy. It was introduced after his death." Rosling, Hans. Factfulness (pp. 216-217). Flatiron Books. Kindle Edition.
It took until 1992 for the Chinese birth rate to fall below that of the United States; 1.98 and 2.05 respectively. As of 2018, China’s birth rate remains 1.69 births per woman (source: World Bank). Wealth, not the one-child policy, led to the drop in the birth rate in China which still never fell below 1.6 children per woman through present.
On Chinese Communism (a blurb from The Economist): "The Chinese Communist Party has been able to maintain its grip on power for three reasons. First, it is ruthless. Yes, it dithered before crushing the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But eventually it answered bullhorns with bullets, terrorising the country into submission. China’s present leaders show no signs at all of having any misgivings about the massacre. On the contrary, President Xi Jinping laments that the Soviet Union collapsed because its leaders were not “man enough to stand up and resist” at the critical moment. For which read: unlike us, they did not have the guts to slaughter unarmed protesters with machineguns." The Economist
The CCP Celebrates 100 Years: Xi received the most prolonged applause when he said that China would not be bullied, in a clear reference to the United States and other Western powers' accusations that Beijing has been abusing its power from Xinjiang to Hong Kong. "Chinese people will never allow foreign bullying, oppressing, or subjugating. Anyone who dares try to do that will have their heads bashed bloody against the great wall of steel, forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people," he said. (NBC)
The Economist June 26th Issue: The Chinese Communist Party: a hundred years of evolution The Economist