June 25, 2025 • 9 mins
Shen Yun spokesman and Chinese histsorian Leishai Lemish joins me to discuss the perils of the CCP, and a general summary of their efforts to destabilize the United States.
But it wasn't always this way. Lee shares why the current Chinese government has made Chinese culture ugly and dark, the antithesis of China's once very spiritual past before it became contaminated by Marxism.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome back to America Today. This is Jim Watkins, and we are
glad to have back on the program.
He's been taking some time off from his work that he does with
his wonderful group, Shen Yun and Lee Limesch is also an
expert on Chinese affairs and hehas a degree in Chinese history
from Pomona College, California.He regularly comes on the air
with us and talks about his experiences with the CCP.
(00:33):
Shenyuan, if you don't know, is a, is a very, oh, you describe
it. I always sort of describe it as
a play, but it's really a musical and a play and a sort of
a spiritual experience. And you've been with him for a
long, long time. How would you describe it?
Well, I think the word you use, experience, is probably the best
one. It's an experience of traveling
to another world, another time, another place that doesn't exist
(00:55):
anywhere else, doesn't even exist in China anymore.
This is the China before communism.
It's the China of 5000 years of civilization.
It's you have demigods, you haveDragons, you have myths and
legends and heroes and good versus evil, and you have very
clear virtues depicted through stories and beautiful costumes
(01:16):
and animated backdrops and the main.
I'm going, I'm going to give yousomething here.
I've got 1 you can take to the team, take to the committee.
I want you guys to start referring to yourselves as write
this down, it'll change everything.
Celestial artisans, that's what you guys.
Celestial artisans. Wow, that's who.
(01:37):
Are we still allowed to like, eat and like, you know, have
parties and stuff like that? Your your artistry is celestial.
That's what I'm trying to say. Well, we, that is, you know,
something that audience members do say that it was heavenly,
divine, celestial, you know, majestic.
They, they leave the performancefeeling inspired because I think
(02:00):
it is about showing that Chinesepeople speak of this concept of
divinely inspired culture and the idea that traditional
Chinese civilization was inspired from the heavens, that
it was brought down to earth andthe knowledge via Chinese
medicine or the language of the script, agriculture, all these
things were brought down from deities.
And so they had this divine origin.
(02:21):
And that's about passing down, transmitting this culture from
one generation to the next. Of course, to your to your
point, when the Chinese Communist Party came over in
1949, they took over China. The first thing they set out to
do was wipe this tradition out and replace it with the Soviet
1. Yeah, you know, people don't
realize, but in around 506 hundred BC, there was a
(02:42):
spiritual revolution in the Middle and Far East when you had
it's almost simultaneously loud,say you had Buddha Zeraster and
all of these were from from Asia.
And they were great spiritual leaders during that that period
of time. And it's interesting that the
CCP, which is a utilitarian humanistic adventure at best,
(03:04):
has made the Chinese culture ugly, dark.
Isn't that true? Isn't that amazing what they've
done? And this should be a red flag to
the rest of the world. Which is why I don't understand
why New Yorkers are about to vote for a socialist to run
their city. Yeah, I mean, if anybody has any
illusions about what happens when you vote for something like
(03:26):
that, the Communist Manifesto speaks of socialism as a
stepping stone to communism. It's part of the process, and
that process is giving more and more of your power to
centralized government that has no accountability and no
transparency and wants to dominate every aspect of your
life. And it's all in the name of this
kind of utopian ideal of equality and fairness.
(03:48):
But sadly, life is not fair. You know, some people just have
a really rough and there's certainly a kind part of our
hearts that wants to help them when we can.
We can help the homeless person on the street, we can set up
systems for that. But the reality is people are
going to be they're going to be different.
And if we're just going to be jealous of that and try to throw
away this world because we thinkit's not fair and try to get
(04:10):
something that's equal, it's never going to happen.
And what you end up with is worse societies and you get a
lot of violence. So in China, if you, if you want
to see what it's like to live under that kind of regime, 60 to
80 million people have been murdered by the Chinese
Communist Party, 40 million alone in a famine that was man
made under Mao. Mao made and, and the people in
China didn't even know what was going on.
(04:32):
And even today, a lot of people don't know what happened during
the Great Leap Forward and how that policy affected all of
that. And they thought it was just a
local famine. Just people around them in their
village were starving. They didn't realize it was the
entire nation. And then during the Cultural
Revolution in the 60s and 70s, burning temples to the ground,
smashing Confucius statues, beating up your parents and
(04:53):
teachers in the square, smashingpeople's heads like watermelons
on the street. That's what the communist
movement there did. And then you go through that in
1989. Then the massacre of the
students, you go to 1999 and thepersecution of people who
meditate and practice Falun Gong, and that continues today.
You go to the persecution of theUyghurs and Tibet.
You can go on and on and on. And this is what's happening
(05:14):
today. Sure, you have skyscrapers and
you have these products and whatever electric vehicles that
are selling around the world, but the essence of that regime
is one of control. And you must toe the line and
you will not have freedom. You cannot have spiritual
freedom. You may have freedom of speech,
but you don't have freedom afterspeech.
That is the joke that the Taiwanese president said.
And and that's the reality there.
(05:36):
And that is, it's scary. And I'll tell you what, my
Chinese friends in America, people who escaped communism in
China, who realized what was going on there and moved to
United States and have been herefor a while, when they see
what's happening with the world culture and the cancel culture
and the socialist movement in the United States, they say it's
just like the culture revolutionin China here all over again.
(05:57):
It really scares them. You know, it's interesting.
I have a friend who lives in Vietnam and he and I asked him,
I said, what do the Vietnamese think of, you know, all these
ICE raids being disrupted by rioters?
And he says to me, he says, I have a hard time explaining to
Vietnamese what's actually goingon here, because if there were
rioters disrupting law enforcement in their country,
(06:17):
there would be no debate that there there would be no rioters.
They would just squash them. And over here we're encouraging
the behavior. And it's very strange what's
going on psychologically in America right now.
And, and frankly, I can't help but to wonder if the Confucius
Institute was a little bit too effective in our in our
(06:38):
colleges, because that's what they've been doing.
They've been instituting this sort of Confucianist ideology
into our college kids. And now we have a generation of
college kids who are unwittinglysocialists or even outright
communists. Yeah, So I think we're we're
we're seeing with these riots, it's really asking the question
who's behind them. And you don't have to dig too
(06:59):
much. And in fact, the FBI is looking
into this now, that behind the LA Riots organization, the Party
for the Socialist Liberation, and behind that is an American
who lives in Shanghai, a man by the name of Neville Roy Singham
was a former high tech guy, soldhis company for around $700
(07:19):
million, moved to Shanghai, married an activist woman by
name of Jody Evans. And they share offices in
Shanghai with the MACU Group, which is the propaganda PR firm
that the CCP used to spread its message internationally.
And he's been a major Chinese Communist Party apologist and
(07:39):
basically believes that this Marxist idea is what should be
the future of the United States.And now there's a money trail
between his organization, which is directly linked to the CCP
and the rice in Lai don't know to the extent of A and are they
the main force behind they're just kind of there for the ride
and supporting it. We don't really know.
But what we are seeing is the Chinese Communist Party, and
(08:01):
this maybe sounds fantastic, although we actually look into
it. They it has a plan for weakening
the United States domestically through a long term war.
We're seeing that through thingslike fentanyl that's killing off
the male military aged males in our country and ruining, of
course, so many families. It's just so tragic.
And we're seeing this through things like TikTok of trying to
(08:22):
make us just stupid and distracted.
And we're seeing this through intellectual property theft.
We're seeing this through buyingagriculture.
And we even saw how they handledCOVID.
They shut down China and sent itto people on planes all over the
world and then insisted we called COVID because so that we
don't call it the China virus. Then through the WHL and what
(08:43):
I'm seeing in my group was showing you performing arts is
they're going after us with primarily 2 main strategies. 1
is law fair, and one is media manipulation of our own media.
So on the law fair side, you have people with ties to Beijing
filing frivolous lawsuits in theUnited States and courts here
targeting our group, targeting, for example, our headquarters on
(09:05):
environmental issues. And these lawsuits keep getting
dismissed because they're baseless.
And the last time they were dismissed with prejudice,
meaning you can't file them again.
And then they take this and takeit to the media and say, look,
there's these lawsuits. And then that's how they try to
get the CCPs narrative against people in the United States.
That's very. Scary Leishai Lemish bringing
all of this to the forefront in a condensed format.
(09:25):
Fortunately, we're out of time, so we'll have to regroup and
reengage. And Shen Yuen.
Look into it. It's coming soon into a
neighborhood near you. We'll see you next time here on
America TODAY.
Welcome back to America Today. This is Jim Watkins, and we are
glad to have back on the program.
He's been taking some time off from his work that he does with
his wonderful group, Shen Yun and Lee Limesch is also an
expert on Chinese affairs and hehas a degree in Chinese history
from Pomona College, California.He regularly comes on the air
with us and talks about his experiences with the CCP.
(00:33):
Shenyuan, if you don't know, is a, is a very, oh, you describe
it. I always sort of describe it as
a play, but it's really a musical and a play and a sort of
a spiritual experience. And you've been with him for a
long, long time. How would you describe it?
Well, I think the word you use, experience, is probably the best
one. It's an experience of traveling
to another world, another time, another place that doesn't exist
(00:55):
anywhere else, doesn't even exist in China anymore.
This is the China before communism.
It's the China of 5000 years of civilization.
It's you have demigods, you haveDragons, you have myths and
legends and heroes and good versus evil, and you have very
clear virtues depicted through stories and beautiful costumes
(01:16):
and animated backdrops and the main.
I'm going, I'm going to give yousomething here.
I've got 1 you can take to the team, take to the committee.
I want you guys to start referring to yourselves as write
this down, it'll change everything.
Celestial artisans, that's what you guys.
Celestial artisans. Wow, that's who.
(01:37):
Are we still allowed to like, eat and like, you know, have
parties and stuff like that? Your your artistry is celestial.
That's what I'm trying to say. Well, we, that is, you know,
something that audience members do say that it was heavenly,
divine, celestial, you know, majestic.
They, they leave the performancefeeling inspired because I think
(02:00):
it is about showing that Chinesepeople speak of this concept of
divinely inspired culture and the idea that traditional
Chinese civilization was inspired from the heavens, that
it was brought down to earth andthe knowledge via Chinese
medicine or the language of the script, agriculture, all these
things were brought down from deities.
And so they had this divine origin.
(02:21):
And that's about passing down, transmitting this culture from
one generation to the next. Of course, to your to your
point, when the Chinese Communist Party came over in
1949, they took over China. The first thing they set out to
do was wipe this tradition out and replace it with the Soviet
1. Yeah, you know, people don't
realize, but in around 506 hundred BC, there was a
(02:42):
spiritual revolution in the Middle and Far East when you had
it's almost simultaneously loud,say you had Buddha Zeraster and
all of these were from from Asia.
And they were great spiritual leaders during that that period
of time. And it's interesting that the
CCP, which is a utilitarian humanistic adventure at best,
(03:04):
has made the Chinese culture ugly, dark.
Isn't that true? Isn't that amazing what they've
done? And this should be a red flag to
the rest of the world. Which is why I don't understand
why New Yorkers are about to vote for a socialist to run
their city. Yeah, I mean, if anybody has any
illusions about what happens when you vote for something like
(03:26):
that, the Communist Manifesto speaks of socialism as a
stepping stone to communism. It's part of the process, and
that process is giving more and more of your power to
centralized government that has no accountability and no
transparency and wants to dominate every aspect of your
life. And it's all in the name of this
kind of utopian ideal of equality and fairness.
(03:48):
But sadly, life is not fair. You know, some people just have
a really rough and there's certainly a kind part of our
hearts that wants to help them when we can.
We can help the homeless person on the street, we can set up
systems for that. But the reality is people are
going to be they're going to be different.
And if we're just going to be jealous of that and try to throw
away this world because we thinkit's not fair and try to get
(04:10):
something that's equal, it's never going to happen.
And what you end up with is worse societies and you get a
lot of violence. So in China, if you, if you want
to see what it's like to live under that kind of regime, 60 to
80 million people have been murdered by the Chinese
Communist Party, 40 million alone in a famine that was man
made under Mao. Mao made and, and the people in
China didn't even know what was going on.
(04:32):
And even today, a lot of people don't know what happened during
the Great Leap Forward and how that policy affected all of
that. And they thought it was just a
local famine. Just people around them in their
village were starving. They didn't realize it was the
entire nation. And then during the Cultural
Revolution in the 60s and 70s, burning temples to the ground,
smashing Confucius statues, beating up your parents and
(04:53):
teachers in the square, smashingpeople's heads like watermelons
on the street. That's what the communist
movement there did. And then you go through that in
1989. Then the massacre of the
students, you go to 1999 and thepersecution of people who
meditate and practice Falun Gong, and that continues today.
You go to the persecution of theUyghurs and Tibet.
You can go on and on and on. And this is what's happening
(05:14):
today. Sure, you have skyscrapers and
you have these products and whatever electric vehicles that
are selling around the world, but the essence of that regime
is one of control. And you must toe the line and
you will not have freedom. You cannot have spiritual
freedom. You may have freedom of speech,
but you don't have freedom afterspeech.
That is the joke that the Taiwanese president said.
And and that's the reality there.
(05:36):
And that is, it's scary. And I'll tell you what, my
Chinese friends in America, people who escaped communism in
China, who realized what was going on there and moved to
United States and have been herefor a while, when they see
what's happening with the world culture and the cancel culture
and the socialist movement in the United States, they say it's
just like the culture revolutionin China here all over again.
(05:57):
It really scares them. You know, it's interesting.
I have a friend who lives in Vietnam and he and I asked him,
I said, what do the Vietnamese think of, you know, all these
ICE raids being disrupted by rioters?
And he says to me, he says, I have a hard time explaining to
Vietnamese what's actually goingon here, because if there were
rioters disrupting law enforcement in their country,
(06:17):
there would be no debate that there there would be no rioters.
They would just squash them. And over here we're encouraging
the behavior. And it's very strange what's
going on psychologically in America right now.
And, and frankly, I can't help but to wonder if the Confucius
Institute was a little bit too effective in our in our
(06:38):
colleges, because that's what they've been doing.
They've been instituting this sort of Confucianist ideology
into our college kids. And now we have a generation of
college kids who are unwittinglysocialists or even outright
communists. Yeah, So I think we're we're
we're seeing with these riots, it's really asking the question
who's behind them. And you don't have to dig too
(06:59):
much. And in fact, the FBI is looking
into this now, that behind the LA Riots organization, the Party
for the Socialist Liberation, and behind that is an American
who lives in Shanghai, a man by the name of Neville Roy Singham
was a former high tech guy, soldhis company for around $700
(07:19):
million, moved to Shanghai, married an activist woman by
name of Jody Evans. And they share offices in
Shanghai with the MACU Group, which is the propaganda PR firm
that the CCP used to spread its message internationally.
And he's been a major Chinese Communist Party apologist and
(07:39):
basically believes that this Marxist idea is what should be
the future of the United States.And now there's a money trail
between his organization, which is directly linked to the CCP
and the rice in Lai don't know to the extent of A and are they
the main force behind they're just kind of there for the ride
and supporting it. We don't really know.
But what we are seeing is the Chinese Communist Party, and
(08:01):
this maybe sounds fantastic, although we actually look into
it. They it has a plan for weakening
the United States domestically through a long term war.
We're seeing that through thingslike fentanyl that's killing off
the male military aged males in our country and ruining, of
course, so many families. It's just so tragic.
And we're seeing this through things like TikTok of trying to
(08:22):
make us just stupid and distracted.
And we're seeing this through intellectual property theft.
We're seeing this through buyingagriculture.
And we even saw how they handledCOVID.
They shut down China and sent itto people on planes all over the
world and then insisted we called COVID because so that we
don't call it the China virus. Then through the WHL and what
(08:43):
I'm seeing in my group was showing you performing arts is
they're going after us with primarily 2 main strategies. 1
is law fair, and one is media manipulation of our own media.
So on the law fair side, you have people with ties to Beijing
filing frivolous lawsuits in theUnited States and courts here
targeting our group, targeting, for example, our headquarters on
(09:05):
environmental issues. And these lawsuits keep getting
dismissed because they're baseless.
And the last time they were dismissed with prejudice,
meaning you can't file them again.
And then they take this and takeit to the media and say, look,
there's these lawsuits. And then that's how they try to
get the CCPs narrative against people in the United States.
That's very. Scary Leishai Lemish bringing
all of this to the forefront in a condensed format.
(09:25):
Fortunately, we're out of time, so we'll have to regroup and
reengage. And Shen Yuen.
Look into it. It's coming soon into a
neighborhood near you. We'll see you next time here on
America TODAY.
Host
JIM WATKINS
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!