Gordon G. Chang On The Brett Winterble SHow

Tune in here to this Tuesday's edition of the Brett Winterble Show! 

We're joined by Gordon G. Chang from Gatestone Institute and a leading voice on U.S.–China relations to talk about escalating tensions with China and instability in the Asia-Pacific region. Brett kicks off the conversation with questions about whether former President Trump should travel to China to meet Xi Jinping. Chang strongly advises against it, explaining how Chinese diplomacy views such visits as a show of submission — a dangerous precedent.

They also dive into the troubling political shift in South Korea, where newly elected President Yi Moon is showing clear favoritism toward China and North Korea, undermining democratic institutions and straining U.S. relations. Chang warns that Yi could drag South Korea into Beijing's orbit, threatening the U.S. defense posture in the region. Finally, they discuss the growing flashpoint at Scarborough Shoal, where China is using aggression to expand its control in the South China Sea, directly challenging U.S. treaty obligations with the Philippines.

Listen here for all of this and more on The Brett Winterble Show!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Our efforting Gordon G. Chang, expecting him to give us
a ring and ding here coming up here soon. We've
we are Look, there's a lot of stuff that's going
on out here. There's a ton of this and one
of the things that we want to do is, you know,
one of the things that we want to do is,

(00:32):
you know, have a have a great conversation all that
good stuff right there. Uh, you know what, I know
it it's it's it's all about it. Seven four five,
seven eleven ten is the telephon number. So one of
the questions that I have for Gordon, and there's a
decision that was made in the last couple of moments,

(00:53):
in the last couple of hours, I should say about
whether or not Donald Trump is going to go over
to China. And the fact of the matter is, we
don't know how this is going to go. And I'm
very curious to hear to hear his thoughts. Welcome to

(01:14):
the program, Gordon G. Chang, Donks, thanks so much for
making time for us today, Sir Gordon, good to have you.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Thank you. Brett.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
I have a question for you, and it's something that
I think the audience will benefit from. In your analysis
and it's this the President was hot to go and
maybe meet up with She Jinping in China. It sounds
like maybe that's not going to happen for a longer
period of time. Can you explain to the audience why

(01:48):
it would be a mistake to go to meet with
she before she comes to the United States? Can you
break that down for me?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah. For too millennia, the Chinese diplomacy has been to
get everyone to go to the Grand Chinese capital to
show that Chinese superiority, so they view people who go
to their capital first as vassals. Now President Trump obviously
doesn't think that he's a vassal. President Trump doesn't think

(02:19):
the Chinese are in a superior position, but the Chinese will.
And there are a couple of implications here. One of
them is that the Chinese will propagate this narrative around
the world and people will buy into it, and that'll
make it much more difficult for President Trump to accomplish
his goals because everyone will think that Chinese are on top.

(02:40):
And the second thing is just flows from that, and
that it emboldens the Chinese, it makes them more arrogant.
So it feeds into this Chinese narrative, and so it's
not good for the United States. Yeah, it's okay for
President Trump to talk to seging Thing, but have him
talk to us, have him come here first before we go.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
There is there a likelihood or a possibility that he
would actually make the trip first coming into the United States.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, certainly China needs us much more than we need them,
So if this were just a pure power issue, yeah,
he should be coming here first. President Trump is a
really generous streak. I mean, we've seen this with Vladimir
Putin so and we're now seeing it with Sejum Thing.
And Trump is doing his best to give both of

(03:28):
those guys off ramps. Now, Unfortunately, neither Putin nor see
are willing to take them. So at some point President
Trump's got to lose his patients with both of them.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
I have another question for you about this area of
contention here, and it goes to what's going on in
South Korea. We saw, obviously we heard now that Charlie
Kirk was assassinated. He was doing good work there in
in South Korea. What does that government look like? And

(04:04):
are are we at the risk of something terrible coming
out of South Korea? In the way of being in
turning away from the United States.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
We're certainly at risk of that. EJ. Mung, who was
elected on president on June three, is very pro China,
very pro North Korea, and he either abhors or absolutely
hates the United States. In twenty twenty one, when he
was running for the nomination of the Democratic Party at Korea,
which is the leftist party, he called us our troops

(04:39):
and occupying force, and then he said something even more
explosive in that the United States was responsible for the
continuation of Japanese colonialization of Korea. Oh god, So he
doesn't like us. He's been doing his best as president
to take down the democratic institutions of South Korea. For instance,

(05:00):
he's been attacking the churches. He's been trying to outlaw
the main opposition party. He has been trying to jail protesters.
This is a really bad dude. And the other thing
is that he could easily take South Korea and make
it a vassal state of China. So uh and and

(05:20):
and Ye is very much in favor of that. So
we could end up losing our treaty. And remember, South
Korea anchors the northern part of our western defense perimeter.
So this has implications not just for the Koreans but
for US. And by the way, the only thing that's
preventing Ye from doing all the things he wants are

(05:40):
the people of South Korea because they're very much in
our camp. They like the United States, They're very pro American.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Is he is?

Speaker 2 (05:50):
He?

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Is he a for lack of a better word, Is
he a stooge relative to UH, to North Korea and
and and China and that in that regard.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, you could call him a stooge. He certainly wants
to achieve help Pianyang and Beijing achieve their goals. He
is you know, South Korea right now is has the
rotating presidency of the UN Security Council. He's been using
that to help Iran avoid sanctions. So this is across

(06:20):
the board. This is somebody who is very much trying
to accomplish foreign policy goals that undermine the US and
the free world for that matter.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Visiting with Gordon G. Chang, follow him on on X
and follow all the great stuff he does at Gordon G. Chang.
A final question for you. I know you've been looking
very closely at what's going on at Scarborough shale. This
this does seem to be like it's going to be
a flashpoint. What is the latest in that regard in

(06:50):
that in that moment.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
The latest incident was last Tuesday where there was a
collision between Philippine and Chinese vessels and two Chinese Coast
Guard cutters for almost a half hour use their water
cannons on a small Philippine craft. They damaged the craft.
They injured a Philippine sailor. This comes after the August
eleventh collision where a Chinese destroyer sliced off the bow

(07:17):
of a Chinese Coast Guard cutter, killing at least four
Chinese Coast guardsmen. China intends to take over Scarborough Shaw,
which is in the South China Sea, and control the
upper portion of the South China Sea. We can't let
them do this. We have a treaty obligation to defend
the Philippines and China is not stopping. Putin's not stopping,

(07:37):
Siegemping's not stopping.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Wow, dictators are in high cotton at this stage of
the game. I guess Gordon Chang, thank you so much
for spending time with us. We really appreciate all you
bring to us.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Oh Thank you, Brett. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
It's my pleasure.