Amy continues telling stories about her mother. She recalls that her generation all wanted to be “Mao’s Children”, not traditional nurturing people like her mother. Her father had produced teaching equipment before being denounced by the Red Guard.
He had health problems which required medical attention. However, there was an “unbelievable” circumstance wherein the surgeons had been forced to be janitors and the janitors surgeons. By some luck, there happened to be an actual formal surgeon on duty the evening Amy’s dad required surgery, because he was recently discharged from being a surgeon in the military. Still, “class enemy’s” could not receive blood. So, Amy’s family had to find “type O” blood for her father.
Amy’s mother made an appeal to the revolution committee to make an exception for her father or to find someone with the right blood type who would help. Amy’s mother did not cry or beg, she simply made an honest case to request a letter to allow blood to be used from the hospital blood bank. The committee chair decided to “take a chance” and write the letter.
Amy comments that, the reason why she thinks the CCP is evil, is that it forced people to “go against humanity”, causing conflict and strife between everyone. She considers it very lucky to have had a real surgeon and to have gained the letter. In that moment the evil was not there. Perhaps it was a miracle.
After undergoing a major surgery in which 2/3rds of his stomach was removed, Amy’s father survived till age 91. Amy comments that her mother was resilient throughout. Amy comments that her father was very nice to people and that may have contributed to their willingness to help him.
Nan comments that the situation with the janitors acting as surgeons would quickly reverse as soon as a party official needed a surgery.
Billy describes the video in which John Cena “grovels” to his Weibo followers. Billy also mentions that the Taiwanese flag was removed from the Top Gun main characters jacket in the remake of the film. Nan mentions that Mission Impossible had a scene in Shanghai was removed at the request of the CCP.
Nan describes various business interests, including the NBA, who have major interests in China. He also talks about Taiwan’s access to the WHA.
Nan introduces Justin Chen, Vice President of San Jose Taiwanese Community Care Network. Billy asks him what his impression was of John Cena’s apology. Mr. Chen describes a k-pop singer making a similar apology. He also recalls the NBA’s recent behavior. Mr. Chen believes that John Cena’s behavior and the behavior of others is “ludicrous”.
Mr. Chen suggests that all the evidence shows that Taiwan is its own country, citing all the factors that make a country autonomous. Billy compares Taiwan’s independence to property rights based on use.
Amy points out that Taiwan’s government is independent and democratic. Mr. Chen suggests that a better question to ask is, what evidence is there than Taiwan is not a country? He describes how Taiwan transformed from authoritarian to democratic rule. He suggests that a “street poll” in Taiwan would show “a minority that would think otherwise”, but the majority does consider Taiwan an independent country. He suggests that the diplomatic suppression has effected the Taiwanese peoples psychology. He believes it would be a “great joy” for Taiwan to be internationally recognized, but points out that, regardless Taiwan will continue to thrive.
Amy asks about a CCP identification system for Taiwanese to operate and invest in Main Land China. Mr. Chen describes some details in cross channel investment. He suggests there is “risk and reward” and questions whether all the risks are accounted for. Nan suggests that it is very difficult for Taiwanese to get their money out of Main Land China. Mr. Chen suggests that it is like a “casino”.
Billy asks what we can do to get Taiwan recognized as a country. Mr. Chen suggests that when recognizing Taiwan is in the national interest of other countries, the situation will improve.
Mr. Chen thinks the bully of China has been around for a long time, but we are starting to take notice now. “We all know what happens when we condone it for two long.” He makes the comparison to appeasement of Nazi Germany in the late 1930’s and suggests that “aggression needs to be dealt with aggressively and forcefully”.
Mike asks how much China benefits from economically from Taiwan. Nan describes various economic relations, which have been very good until the last 5 years or so. He also asks about backdoors in Chinese routers. Billy answers that that was the reason why Huawei was banned.
Billy asks the audience if China has made the United States into a nation of grovelers? Nan and Billy discuss various benefits to the United States, calling it “a free speech zone”. Nan suggests that the treatment given to the US by China has already been tested on Taiwan.
Dawn suggests the the apology by John Cena is even worse than it looks. He says the video does not actually feature Johns voice, but rather a Chinese voice. Billy considers how he knows how to edit a voice. The team considers the possibility that the apology video could be a deep fake.
The team discusses vaccine and pharmaceutical supply chains, mentioning that much of it is manufactured in China.
When Billy says that we have freedom in the US, Nan says that we are freed, but we just can not live without grovelers. He suggests that we’ve been free for so long that we don’t remember where we come from.
Dick mentions the comparison between the Russian Army recruiting video compared to the US Army recruiting video.