Gen. Robert Spalding: On the Hong Kong Protest, US-China Trade War & ‘Parasitic’ China Economy

Just how will the Hong Kong protests likely play out? How are the Chinese Communist Party’s economic and political systems fundamentally at odds with those of the West, and why is it so intent on controlling Hong Kong? What is the Chinese regime’s strategy in the US-China trade war? And how would a decoupling of the US and Chinese economies impact America and the world? This is American Thought Leaders 🇺🇸, and I’m Jan Jekielek. Today we sit down with Gen. Robert Spalding, who was a brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force, the chief China strategist for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, and a senior strategic planner for the White House on the National Security Council. Now, he’s a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. We discuss how the Chinese communist regime manages to control the narrative about itself and Hong Kong, and conceal its egregious human rights abuses. We also explore what Robert Spalding describes as the “parasitic” nature of the Chinese economy, which grew by exploiting the openness of the Western values and economic systems.