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Will Deatherage: Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Barefoot Lawyer Reports on China. My name is Will Deatherage. Joining me as always is Chen Guangcheng.
Chen Guangcheng: Hello everyone. Hello Will, I’m glad to see you here today.
W: Yeah, and you know, when many people think about the conflict going on in Iran, a lot of people might not think China, but that’s on the top of Guangcheng’s mind today, right, Guangcheng?
G: Yes, yes. You know, the war between Iran and the US, a lot of people in mainland China are focused on it, right?
W: And why is that Guangcheng?
G: Yeah, because Chinese people hope the US will do the same thing in mainland China like the US did in Iran. So, you know, in mainland China, sometimes Chinese people call, “Let the leader go first.” Yeah. And that comes from 30 years ago in mainland China, in Kolomaygi, in Xinjiang.
You know, they had a big meeting, more than 3,000 children were there. And the CCP officials went there to give a speech. The problem is, that building burned. And unfortunately, one leader said, “Let the leader go first.”
W: Oh, wow. Before the children?
G: Yeah. And of course, the CCP officials ran out, but the fire killed thousands of children.
W: Oh my gosh.
G: So this is why a lot of Chinese people use that “let the leader go first” to describe the CCP’s evil.
W: Yeah, that’s interesting and horrifying about the story with the children. Oh my gosh.
G: Yeah, yeah. So this is why after the US did this in Iraq, a lot of Chinese people [were] so excited. I have to mention about the background. In 2003, the internet became popular very quickly. At that time, the CCP didn’t have the new technology to control the internet, to do the censorship.
At that time, the Chinese netizens used the internet to fight back against the CCP. At that time, the CCP was so worried about that. But later, the CCP said, “Oh, we can use the internet to control the people.” So then the CCP stole the new technology from the Western countries, and they used it to create the “eyes in the sky” to control the people.
They created the movement and facial recognition to control the people. So it became very difficult to share the information online. Yeah. So because the eyes in the sky need a lot of cameras, the CCP installed more than 200 million cameras in the whole country to do surveillance.
And some news said the US used the cameras in Iran to know the location of the leader.
W: Interesting. Like he used Iran’s own cameras?
G: Yes.
W: Interesting.
G: So then after that happened, the CCP got so worried about that because the CCP installed more than 200 million cameras in the whole country.
W: Interesting.
G: Yeah. If the US wants to do that, like Iran, [they] can use all the cameras to know where the CCP’s leaders are going.
W: Ah, okay, gotcha.
G: Yeah, so CCP is so worried that some news said, “Oh, now the CCP tried to take the cameras away.”
W: Wow.
G: So yeah, you can see, you know, the technology; that is a big tool, a very useful tool to fight against the CCP.
W: So, Guangcheng, I think that’s very interesting because a lot of people wouldn’t have thought about the effect that our strike in Iran would have had in China. How else is that affecting, you know, China as well, like in the economy and things like that?
G: Before, the CCP bought a lot of oil from Iran, right? And they use their strait to transfer oil to mainland China.
W: Right. Like a water strait, right?
G: Yeah. Yeah. Water strait. And now the US controls that strait. If the CCP wants to get oil, [it’s] much more difficult than before.
W: Interesting.
G: So yeah, look at the whole world. Before, the CCP got the oil from Venezuela. And now the US stopped it, right? And now [they’ve] stopped the way from Iran too. So in the future, maybe the CCP only can buy the oil from Russia.
W: Interesting.
G: But Russia will make the price very high.
W: Right. Yeah.
G: So a little later, I think maybe the CCP won’t have the oil to use it in mainland China. You know, usually that should make the people angry in mainland China, right? Because they don’t have the oil to use, because of the economy situation getting worse. But A lot of people support that happening.
W: Interesting.
G: They hope the Western countries can tear down [the] CCP. If the CCP don’t have money, they cannot continue to do surveillance. They don’t have the money to persecute the Chinese people. So that gives [an] opportunity for Chinese people to change the party-state system. Yeah, that is [a] very, very good example for China in the future.
New system. New situation, new opportunity.
W: Yeah, yeah. And we’ll keep track of this because the Iran conflict and war is ongoing, and definitely we’ll see more and more long-term effects come from it, especially in countries like Communist China, right, Guangcheng?
G: Yes, yes.
W: And we encourage you to check our website at humanrights.catholic.edu for more follow-up episodes to come in the future about how this might impact Communist China, Thank you very much, Guangcheng, for all the information as always.
Thank you, Will.
The Center for Human Rights has published countless articles and reports on issues facing China, the U.S., and the world. In a 2023 report, Emily Burton examines the continuing influence of Confucius Institutes in American universities, exposing how many have rebranded rather than truly severing ties with the Chinese Communist Party.
To read her report, go to our Research and Analysis page on humanrights.catholic.edu.