Wes Beyer:The Center for Human Rights is hosting a student essay contest with a grand prize of $4,000. To learn more, please visit our website at humanrights.catholic.edu.
Will Deatherage: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Barefoot Lawyer Reports on China. My name is Will Dethridge, the producer, and joining me, as always, is Chen Guangcheng.
Chen Guangcheng: Hi, Will. Hi, everyone. I’m glad to see you here again.
W: Yeah. And today we’re gonna talk about a very relevant issue, both to American politics and Chinese politics. In early April of 2025, the United States instated a series of tariffs against other countries. But most notably, throughout the month, it raised tariffs significantly on communist China. And that’s what we’ll be talking about today, right, Guangcheng?
G: Yes, yes, we are talking about this. A few years ago, a lot of people looked like they lived in the US but they come from mainland China. They always criticize Donald Trump, and they support Biden. They said, “We support the Biden administration because Donald Trump always says Xi Jinping is his ‘good friend.’ That proves he never cared about human rights.”
W: Gotcha. Okay.
G: Yeah. Now, Trump added the highest tariffs to the CCP.
W: Okay.
G: Now the same people who criticized Trump for being too friendly to Xi Jinping are criticizing him for being too harsh against Xi Jinping.
W: Right. What do you think their goal is, Guangcheng? Because, like you said before, they were criticizing Trump for being too friendly. Now they’re criticizing him for being too harsh. What do you think their goal is?
G Yeah, they just want to give the US trouble. They just want to transfer some information to mainland China to let people lose hope. “Don’t think democracy is good. Don’t think the rule of law is good. Don’t think the Constitution is good. Look at the US, the left and the right, they fight each other. They always fight each other. They never care about the people’s rights.”
W: Gotcha.
G: Yeah. They tried to use that way to say, “Look at the US situations, they’re not good. Maybe compare the two situations between the US and China. Looks like the CCP is okay, right? The CCP’s policy is not very bad, it looks like!” Yeah, that is the CCP’s falling propaganda goal.
W: So, Guangcheng, are they people from China? Are they influencers? Are they important people, famous people, or…?
G: I think [they’re] not very important. But some people are little famous, because before, [it] looks like they are activists; looks like they did some small things. But after some time, they found a way to come to foreign countries. They live in Europe, they live in the US and Canada, [places] like that. But since they came here, they changed their mind and stand up against US values. If the CCP needs them to help, they will use their mouthpiece to help them.
W: So are you saying they’re disguising themselves as activists?
G: I think they are not real activists. Yeah, maybe the CCP sent them out, led them to do that in the foreign countries. So even [if] they become US citizens, they still work for CCP.
W: Gotcha.
G: Yeah, but in fact they are infiltrating American political parties to do the CCP’s bidding.
W: So Guangxing, let’s just shift to the tariffs in general. What do you think about them? Do you think they’re a good thing?
G: I think that is very good. If they have a good relationship —CCP and the US — that is very, very bad for Chinese people.
W: Okay, why is that?
G: Since 30 years, even 40 years ago, the CCP work with US companies to do some new technology to develop facial recognition and movement recognition to do surveillance against Chinese people. If the US makes a treaty with Communist Party, it’s not good for Chinese people. If the US can stand with Chinese people, I think that is good for China. Yeah. So I support the US stand with the Chinese people and fight the CCP. So this is why I support tariffs to the CCP.
W: Right. I know in previous podcasts we’ve covered that, when we make trade deals with the Communist Party, it only benefits the people in the party. Right, Guangcheng?
G: Yeah, yeah. For the US people, I think they don’t understand if that is good or not. I think I can be sure on the fees. The CCP said, “Oh, we should fight back, we should…” Blah, blah, like that. But in fact the CCP worries about this. Now, the CCP tries to find a way to talk, to discuss with the U.S. government.
W: Yeah, I was going to ask. There’s a lot of people in the American media that say that China is in a stronger position than we are.
G: Ah, no, I think that’s not true. Yeah. I believe the US has a lot of cards to use, but for CCP, [they have] no cards to use.
W: What makes you think that, Guangcheng? Can you explain to some of the listeners who might think that we’re in a weaker position?
G: Yeah, usually the CCP… Before, they had a lot of cheap workers. They had a lot of companies manufacturing to sell to the U.S. right? So the CCP uses that to get the money.
W: Okay.
G: And now, because mainland China, there are not enough people to do that.
W: Right, because of the population crisis.
G: Yeah, because the population lost more and more. If the US added the tariffs, that will give the CCP trouble. The US is the number one customer for the CCP. But you know, the CCP is only interested in buying things from the US if they can steal the technology. The CCP uses — the same way — tariffs against the U.S. That doesn’t work! If the CCP cannot get the new technology, all their companies will close because they don’t have the chips, the new chips to use it. So of course compare the two situations. The US is much, much more important than the CCP.
W: Yeah, that makes sense. And we’ll continue to cover this as this tariff war progresses, and encourage all of our listeners to subscribe to us on whichever platform you’re listening to. Whether that be on YouTube, follow us on Facebook, and check out our website at humanrights.catholic.edu. Thank you so much, Guangcheng, for all the information.
G: Yeah, thank you everyone. We will continue to talk about this. See you next time.
W: The Catholic University of America’s Center for Human Rights has published a documentary on the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The documentary features world class human rights experts from former State Department officials to ambassadors and human rights activists. It can be found on our website at humanrights.catholic.edu.