 It's five o'clock Pacific time. I'm Marcy Winograd, coordinator of CodePink Congress. So honored to be with you all tonight. I am co-hosting tonight with Cole Harrison of Massachusetts Peace Action and Judy Evans, co-founder of CodePink. And we have our guests from Taiwan who will be with us throughout the show. Retired Judge Julie Tang is with us and we're gonna introduce you to the new coordinator of CodePink Congress. But first we'll do a few updates and then we'll move forward with our agenda. Cole, what have you got for us? Yeah, thanks Marcy. Concern has been rising across the world to reach a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine conflict. A lot of distinguished individuals have been speaking out ranging from 66 countries at the UN General Assembly in September to Pope Francis, Elon Musk and even Donald Trump have all called for peace talks in Ukraine. But now in recent days, the attention has shifted to the threat of nuclear war. And this has been a concern across society. A new coalition has come together to diffuse nuclear war and held actions in almost 50 US cities last Friday. With six points, support congressional action to avert nuclear war, support the treaty on the publish of nuclear weapons and the policy of first use by the United States, take US nuclear weapons off air trigger alert, get rid of ICBMs and move the money to human needs, not war. And we in Massachusetts were able to organize six of those actions. We spoke to staff from members of Congress and five of them and to a member, Jake Ockham class in the sixth. So, but now the concern over nuclear war is also drawing attention to the NATO nuclear drills and Marcy's gonna update us on that. Yes, so NATO, well, 14 members of NATO, the United States being one of them is conducting mock nuclear strikes, practice dress rehearsals right now for the next two weeks in Europe. Some of them are leaving from Belgium. They are not carrying live weapons, we're told, but involves 60 fighter jets, including B-52 bombers that are dual capable. And I believe earlier during the war in Ukraine, this dress rehearsal was canceled, but now it's back on again. So please push back on that right to the White House, tell them how dangerous this is. So that's what I have to say for that. Now I wanna, it's my honor- Just to jump in, Marcy, and there's actually an action page on this, which I will throw into the chat if anyone would like to take action quick on the drills. Thank you, Cole. Jodi Evans is the co-founder of CodePink with Midia Benjamin, who often co-hosts CodePink Congress with us. And I'm gonna introduce Jodi. She has a few announcements and then she's also going to introduce somebody who will update us on what's happening in Okinawa before we go into the main part of our agenda. So Jodi Evans, as I mentioned, the co-founder of CodePink is also the founder of the China Is Not Our Enemy campaign. Since the start of the 2003 Iraq war, Jodi has traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Jordan on peace delegations. On her most recent visit to Jordan, Jodi traveled with the peace coalition to meet with delegates from the Iraqi parliament to institute an action plan for peace and reconciliation. She was one of 30 women activists from 15 countries, excuse me, Chills, who crossed the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea to call for peace and reconciliation between the two countries. Welcome, Jodi Evans. Thanks, Marcy. Thanks, Cole. I love CodePink Congress. Yay. Yay. So thanks all of you for joining this conversation tonight about Taiwan, especially on a day when it's hot and escalating. But we've been watching for almost three years as the US State Department and the Pentagon have been driving a propaganda war on the hearts and minds of progressives. So we can be used as tools as they push for war on China. When I first started to see this and see how very similar it was to the same playbook and the drive to war in Iraq, we started the campaign at CodePink China is not our enemy. I'm sure China is many things, but not only are they not our enemy, but our task at this moment in history is to be working together for people and planet, to be cooperating, to be collaborating. We are in a full-on climate chaos. It's happening around the world and war is the greatest industrial contributor. To be driving war right now is criminal. It's a violation to humanity, but the US military has been doing just this for years. They are already casualties to this war. They're Asian Americans in the United States. And I say Asian Americans because in the United States, we can't tell the difference. There are already prices being paid by the indigenous people in the Asia Pacific Islands where the US is placing bases and destroying pristine ecosystems. And we'll hear from someone there in a minute. We have had many campaigns and China is not our enemy to educate over the last few years. And it has helped to pull back progressive organizations, progressive members of Congress and people from being used by the propaganda. But we know that in the fog of war, which is where we are right now, everyone loses their minds. But those of us grounded in the commitment to peace and diplomacy, it is our task to educate. So tonight you're gonna get a lot of material that you can share. And I'm so excited that we have guests from Taiwan and China. China is a proud country like all countries and they've been violated by the colonizers and they're a billion and a half people compared to our 330 million. So what does that mean for us to disrespect them there? How do we listen to people in China and Taiwan? So I'm happy that you're here. I hope our China is not our enemy community continues to grow tonight. And with this special treat, we have people from China and Taiwan and they don't speak English. So I want you to look at your screen and take your cursor and drag it down to the bottom. And on the right of all the little images, it'll say interpretation. So it's a world in interpretation. If you click your cursor on it, push English. And when you do that, you will be able to hear when our guests are speaking what they're saying simultaneously in English. And that has been organized for us tonight by the team from Dongxiang News and we'll put that in the chat so you can look at it. They've assisted this gift for us and also if you wanna keep up with the news on China, check them out. So as I said, part of this war on China is already happening in the islands in Asia Pacific. And Hideki Yashikawa is the director of the Okinawa Environmental Justice Project and the author of several major articles at the Asia Pacific Journal. Hideki is here to update us on the campaign to stop construction of a US military air base at Haniko, Aurora Bay and Northern Okinawa Island. We're so happy you could join us. Thank you. Okay, hello, can you hear me? Yes. All right, great, good to see you. Okay, hello from Okinawa, Japan. My name is Hideki Yashikawa and I'm the director of Okinawa Environmental Justice Project. And thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to update on what's taking place in Okinawa. At our project, we're trying to protect Okinawa's precious environments from the overwhelming presence of US military bases here. One of the issues we've been working on is the construction of a US military base at Haniko, Aurora Bay, which is one of the most biodiversity-rich areas in the world. We've been trying to stop this construction for almost 25 years, but it's still the construction is still going on. As we are all aware, the political tensions between China and the US and Taiwan are intensifying. And Japan, as a client states to the US government, is taking advantage of this situation, trying to push its militarization and the militarization of Okinawa. And unfortunately, this fear of mongering about the Chinese threats is spreading out through the Japanese government and the Japanese major media outlets. Some people in Okinawa see the militarization of Okinawa as unnecessary, which is very unfortunate. And so our islands are divided and we need to seek ways to counter this situation. But we have a good news as well. In September, we re-elected Danny Tamaki as our governor for Okinawa. It was a landslide victory for him and he learned his campaign on this anti-Henoko-based construction platform. The people of Okinawa opposed this Henoko project. The message was clearly presented to the US government and the Japanese government again. As for our project at the Okinawa Environmental Justice Project, we have been working on a letter-sending campaign. In early September, we sent our letters of request to the 32 US Congress people, most of them in the Senate and House Armed Service Committees. We urged them to take the initiative to stop the Henoko-based construction. And thank you to US civil society organizations, such as the Democratic Socialist of America International Committee. We have 100 organizations and amazingly 32 US elected officials from the state and the local levels have signed onto the letter. We are very much encouraged and we are very much excited. So we are hoping to get more organizations and US elected officials to join the letter. And with that, we are hoping to get or push the US Congress to have a hearing on the Henoko-based issues. So please Google Okinawa Environmental Justice Project and please read our actions and please join the letter-sending campaign. Thank you very much. We will do that, we will do that. Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us and updating us. That is good news that you brought us tonight. And I know I personally will do my utmost to get more people to sign on, more organizational representatives to sign onto that letter and to get it to members of Congress. And please, Hideki, post anything you want in the chat on how people can get in touch with you, learn more on that sort of thing. All right. Okay, thank you. Cole, you're going to introduce our next guest, please. Oh, excuse me. Jody is going to introduce our next guest. Jody, sorry about that. Cole's coming up later. Actually, you're going to introduce Wei, sorry. Okay. Somebody will do the introduction. Here we go. Wei recently joined CodePink as the China is not our enemy campaign coordinator. She was born in Tijian, China and she has lived in the United States since her high school years. Prior to joining CodePink, Wei was a student researcher on neocolonialism and has worked with several nonprofit organizations serving women, racial minorities and other progressive causes. Many thanks to Wei for joining CodePink. And here she is. Wei, tell us about the Taiwan Policy Act. Yeah. So by this time, I'm sure a lot of you have heard what the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken had said yesterday. So he was referencing a speech recently made by Chinese President Xi Jinping and he claimed that Beijing has quote unquote moved to a faster timeline with regards to Taiwan. So that's really just cherry picking and really twisting words from an article in The Guardian that CodePink tweeted out this morning. It actually reported that a lot of analysts didn't find such thing in the speech. Instead of any change in attitude towards Taiwan, there is actually an increase of frustration towards foreign interference. So Secretary Blinken was not just cherry picking the speech. He was also cherry picking what's happened in the Asia Pacific for the past few years. We're all here today because we want to stop a war between the US and China from happening. But we must recognize that the war has already started for people in the Asia Pacific. We heard earlier from Mr. Yoshikawa about Okinawa. For the past year, we at CodePink were also so fortunate to work with activists from Guam as their homeland is disrupted by US militarization as the US is gearing up for war with China. The war with China has also started for Americans working in China and Chinese working in America. The most recent example being President Biden's recent sanction on the semiconductor and related technology that forced so many Americans to quit the jobs and uproot their lives. And then now we also have the Taiwan Policy Act, which we will hear from our panelists to talk about today. Just briefly, the act was co-sponsored by Bob Menendez from New Jersey and also Lindsey Graham from South Carolina. And it was moved forward in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 15. The bill will have to be passed by the Senate, by the House, and also signed by President Biden. So there is still time for us to do something with it. We just fear what the act would mean because it promises $6.5 billion in taxpayers' money for military aid for Taiwan, while that money could be used to create green jobs for health care and all that good stuff that we really care about. The bill will also treat Taiwan as a major non-NATO ally, which, again, changed the diplomacy with Taiwan and all led our panelists to talk more about that. And we are all here because we want peace. Chinese people want peace. The people of Taiwan want peace. And we must hold US politicians accountable for their war mongering. And I thank you all for being here tonight. And thank you all for all you do in safeguarding peace for people and our planet. Thank you, Wei. As I said in the chat, we are so fortunate. And Jody, thank you, Jody, for all the work that you've done on this campaign. And we are so fortunate to have Wei join us, too. There were a few people who voted in committee against the Taiwan Policy Act. And they may be allies we can reach out to. I can think of a few. Murphy, Markey, Reed, Rand Paul, and Schatz. And I think there was one more. But those are the ones that come to mind. OK, thank you, Wei. So next, I want to introduce our next speaker, who is retired judge, Julie Tang. She's one of the co-founders of Pivot to Peace and has been one of our partners for peace since we launched China's Not Our Enemy. Julie is a brilliant organizer and speaker who has been an activist with passion for all people and peace. I love being in action with her because her voice is clear, it's knowledgeable, it's deep, and it's full of love. Her community adores her. And they'll show up for anything when she calls. Just recently, she was leading a couple of actions against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan and said it was reckless and unreasonable and useless. So she also is never afraid to call out power. I also want to say that she helped to co-found the Comfort Women Justice Coalition that built the Comfort Women Memorial in remembrance of the girls and women sexually enslaved by the Imperial Japanese Army. We forget what these costs of war are. And they are more borne by women. And the fact that war is being talked about so frivolously, Julie knows there's nothing frivolous about it. So Julie, I turn it over to you. You're my hero. Thank you so much. Can you all hear me? Great. OK, Jody, the admiration is totally mutual. When you started the program, China is not our enemy. You have earned my utmost admiration. And every single person you brought on this program has been brilliant, smart, and a leader in their own rights. So I'm happy to also welcome Wei to join us in our endeavor to forge peace between US and China. I am very happy to come and talk to you about the Taiwan Policy Act because it is truly a very important thing that we need to work on. Because if passed, it would upend a longstanding commitment made by the United States to China. The commitments are collectively known as the Joint Shanghai Communicate. I was very surprised. A lot of people in the Progressive Left do not know about this. And when I explained to them that in that communicate, the United States and China agreed that one, there is one China. And the People's Republic of China is the one China. And two, Taiwan is part of China. And three, any issues between China and Taiwan will be resolved by the Chinese on both sides of the string. Now, this is very fundamental. And a lot of people are not even aware that America has made such a commitment to China and to the world. These three treaties jointly are reached to between US and China in 1972, 1979, and 1982, were signed into a binding agreement by three presidents, Nixon, Carter, and Reagan. And it became the bedrock foundation for a peaceful and normalized relationship between US and China for the next 40 years. It guaranteed the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait a peaceful coexistence. And since signing the Joint Communicate, China and Taiwan have actually enjoyed a very robust economic and cultural relationship. China became Taiwan's number one trading partner and still is. And they have made attempts to work out the political differences with each other. In 1992, under the Kuomintang government, which is the opposition government to the current one, China and Taiwan, through their respective representatives, entered into an informal but binding agreement known as the 92 Consensus. And this 92 Consensus basically affirmed that there is one China and both sides will promote an economic relationship peacefully pending reunification between Taiwan and China. And with this consensus, Taiwan and China have enjoyed a peaceful relationship and their trade relationship flourished. The Taiwan government leaders visited China and were warmly received. But since the Kuomintang government lost its power to the current leadership of the Democratic Progressive Party, the 92 Consensus has been bastardized and openly repudiated by the current Taiwanese government. And this has been a very unfortunate thing where meanwhile the current government has been asserting a very passive aggressive stance on independence and leaning closer to Japan is former colonizer and the United States. And now we have the Taiwan Policy Act in which the United States grants itself extensive involvement in the government and military of Taiwan. The core element of the acrovised Taiwan with a 6.5 million aid in weapon acquisition. But yesterday I read that they're adding another $10 billion to it. I'm sorry, $6.5 billion, not million, $6.5 billion. And now they're adding another $10 billion. And with this money, the United States bestowed upon itself the power and right to govern and direct Taiwan's military and embedded itself in the Taiwan government for the next five years. The United States also appoints itself to determine and implement a wide range of Taiwan's policies. These policies cover the recruitment and military training for Taiwan's defense and the management and stop piling of weaponary related resources. With Taiwan's military and the civil government firmly in the grip of America, Taiwan looks to me more like a colonial state than the sovereignty which it hopes to become. Unfortunately, after 50 years of colonization by Japan, Taiwan is walking into another type of colonization instead of a reunification with its motherland. And what I see is the United States is engulfing itself more and more in the war in the Pacific. A war that the people in both Taiwan and China do not want. Just as Wei said, they wanted the status quo. For China's part, Taiwan is on its side and it would wait out for reunification as long as the Taiwanese government does not push its red line and declare its independence. And even American people agreed in the recent poll conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, notwithstanding the negative views help of China those who were poached because of all the brainwashing and demonization that has been going on against China. 60% of those poached agree that the United States needs to learn to live with China, even though China would wield greater influence in the Asia region. And excuse me, China is part of that Asia region. And if they were to wield greater influences than the United States, that's the way it should be. And United States should really respect the terms and conditions of the Shanghai Communique is not to assert hegemony and also to respect the sovereignty of China as a nation and the land that belongs to it and pushes Taiwan. A war in the Pacific will have horrendous consequences to Asia and the world and not one easy for the United States to win. The Taiwan Policy Act will push us closer to it. And just a little thing on the side, I wanted to share with everybody if I have a little bit more time, that there's so much corruption and madness that accompanies this Taiwan Policy Act in a wheeler dealer type of fashion in April. Shortly after I think, well, in April, the two sponsors of this act, Menendez and Graham had visited Taiwan. And there, who were they pushing for? Not the American people. They were pushing for the interests of the Boeing company, airplane Boeing company and pushing to have Taiwan by 16 Boeing airplanes after China rejected them. And so of course, Taiwan couldn't say no. So they agreed to that and now they have struck a deal. And then so Menendez and Lindsay came home with the good news for Boeing. And three months later, they introduced the Taiwan Policy Act. And if you just check the website, it's all open. This kind of money that Boeing has given to lobbying all the politicians is gross and embarrassing. And so I just wanted to put this in so that we know the perspective of the Taiwan Policy Act and why we should go against it is to defy these politicians attempt to sell out America for these kind of interests and also to push us closer to war irrespective of the consequences to Americans. And with that, I would turn it back over to you, Jody and Wei, thank you so much for this opportunity to share a few comments with you. I hope to discuss these issues more in depth later through our questions and answers. Thank you. Thank you, Judge Tang. And now I'd like to introduce Mr. Wang Wulan. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Taiwan Labor Party. He's Director General of the Taiwan Labor Human Rights Association and Executive Secretary of the Cross-Strait Peace Development Forum. The Taiwan Labor Party calls for peace talks and peaceful reunification with the People's Republic of China. Their slogan is, one China on both sides of the Taiwan Strait for Peaceful Development, one China, one Taiwan for Eternity. With cross-strait reunification, the Taiwan Labor Party believes Taiwan will no longer be a new colony under U.S. control. Mr. Wang Wulan. Thanks, Cole. Wei was gonna show us some images of him in action before he starts to speak. And while she's showing those images, I wanna just make sure that everyone has had a chance to go to the bottom of their screen, to interpretation the little Earth symbol, click on it and take English so that you'll be able to hear what he has to say to us. If you're on a phone, you take it down and there's three dots to the right, open up those three dots, and then go to interpretation and pick English. It's a real treat that we have someone from Taiwan to be able to share with us today. So sorry to disrupt. I turned the time over to you, Mr. Wang. Thank you. In short, Taiwan is a part of China. Taiwan is a part of China. Currently, it's a completely different region. Taiwan has never been a country in history and law. At least over 9% of the Taiwanese ancestors are from mainland China. At least over 9% of the Taiwanese ancestors are from mainland China. Today, the language that the Taiwanese are talking about is still a Chinese language. Last year, Taiwan surpassed 1,000 billion US dollars in mainland China. Therefore, the use of the language in this case has been limited to a period when the American evil will be aroused and the American deception of deceit is made. That's why Taiwan's policy is to ban the United States from being able to interfere. Let's talk about how Taiwan will become a new place in the U.S. In the third century, the U.S. war against the American and the anti-communist strategy was implemented in the 1950s to support the anti-communist regime in the Chinese internal war. 侵占控制台湾,美国资本帝国主义干涉的结果造成台湾问题长期化。 台湾成为二战后被美国支配控制的新殖民主义体系的一部分。 台湾不是现在才成为美国新殖民地的控制下,是从1950年开始的。 从历史来看,新殖民地后建日本主义社会实际上就是作为日本帝国主义维系全球性的主控体系的一种严密手段。 这也是目前美国帝国主义经济危机升重,又有单级霸权衰落的焦虑,面对中国发展快速,加上中美之间再增制制度。 实际上文化,意识形态等多个方面具有明显的差异,乃至处于对立线上,美国便是中国为全面性的战略竞争对手,加以对抗。 因此更要看到,美国军工负荷体华尔街集团在多地测动转换政权的所谓颜色革命,制造地区分针,煽动战争,从中获得巨大的超而利益。 因此,美国帝国主义贪婪政策把台湾视为主党中国的棋子,这样势必带来严重的危险性,让人不安,是我们这一次关切讨论的重点。 什么是台湾政策法? 台湾政策法是美国自身战略利益的需要,以台湾知名的作业,用来刺激中国,挑战中国的和平统一方针。 它的目的在政治上,想要通过提升对台湾的关系,意图制造一中一台,破坏国际上普遍承认的一个中国原则。 军事上则赋予台湾当局主要非北约盟友地位,设立所谓的台湾安全协助倡议,未来4年还要提供45亿美元的外国军事资金援助者。 但这其实只是为了要更多的受台武器,意图打造台湾成为巨大军火户,成为前线战场。 这明显的是为军火工业美国死亡商人赚取利益。 我们要看到2019年2020年,这两年每年台湾都有超过100亿美元的对美军购,在经济上则要协破台积电等重要的企业到美国社场。 企图割断两万之间自然的经济合作需要,更为恶劣的是,最近从美国媒体传出多则消息,美国有意在暂时, 破坏台湾早上的半到底产业的消息,所谓的毁台之中的阴谋,这是非常让人分开生气的。 美国与海峽两岸的合而不同,分而不離现状,组合其国家利益,更宣称反对单方面破坏两岸现状。 但是,美国在中美竞争下不断升级强化所谓台湾牌的应用,使得台湾的台独分立主义越走越远。 近年来,美方陆续出台国防授权法,台湾履行法,再加上这部台湾政策法,难道美国不是正在改变台海现状,制造地区紧张情势吗? 如今,台湾被工具化的处境,带自战争危险的道路,受到服务暗示的台湾分立主义当局的以美磨毒策略, 甚至厚境资本主义新殖民地政权的一重现象,所谓的民主价值,只不过是资本利益的演示。 我们应该看到,遭受挑释的中国道路方面,必定会加强维护零土主权的措施。 日前针对培洛西来台的环台军演,就是一个信号,因为解决台湾问题,实现法理与事实一致的同一中国, 就中国来说,属于主权防卫的最高责任城市,是核心利益所在,开展干涉斗争反分裂, 其属于正当的国家滋味行为。 维护本地区善获的方法,不是来自美国的干涉,而是要鼓励台湾海峽两岸, 在一个中国原则下,通过两岸交流,通过内部平等协商的方式,朝向完成国家的统一的道路就可以。 因此,劳动党的口号是,两岸一中,和平发展,一中一台,永无明日。 面对当前台湾海峽严峻紧张的情势,我们劳动党站在台湾人民的爱乡爱国立场,主张应该促合谈促合意促合同。 站在世界人民主义反对日本帝国主义的立场,我们反对美国霸前主义干涉中国内政台湾问题, 反对美国调动海峽两岸战争,反对美国对台军售,反对台湾政策法,应该废止与台湾关系法。 我们认为,两岸统一后,台湾不再是美日外部势力霸权主义控制干涉下的薪水力促进。 回到中华民族共同体的台湾人民,才是真正的主人。 与此同时,台海地区的持久和平稳定,才能真正实现, 没有美国外部的干涉,以军售台湾等方式对台湾财政的压榨。 台湾的预算支援,将可以用于基层大众增加民生福利。 因此,我们呼吁,台湾海峽两岸的中国人,还有世界上爱好和平的既顾人士, 应该团结起来,反对美国,日本帝国主义,霸权主义干涉中国台湾问题。 有看到有琉球冲省的朋友, 我们在当年反对极业承受,我们也去参加过。 因为我们认识到,美日帝国主义,美日军事同盟, 也是对于,才是真正对台湾地区一个不安定的因素。 以上。 Thank you very much, Mr. Lan Wang. We are so pleased that you could join us from Taiwan. And what you said is just so important, you know, to remind us of the call for reunification. So we're going to have a question and answer period in a minute. But first, we're going to take action on Codepin Congress. We always like to incorporate some actions for our audience, rather than just telling us, you know, the dire situation, we want to do something about it. So, Maha Khan, who's so graciously navigating the tech for us tonight, has posted in the chat. The first action, we're just going to take a few minutes right now. It's a one-click action that Codepin has sponsored urged the Senate to not be used as a tool for war, to vote no on the Taiwan Policy Act. That's, that was referred to as TPA, that's S4428. Specifically, that, as Wei mentioned earlier, that would give Taiwan or sell Taiwan six and a half billion dollars worth of weaponry to prepare basically for a war with China, another US proxy war. So I don't know what your experience is, but when I sign these one clicks, I often do get a response from my senator on the topic. I can't always what I want to hear or want to read, but I know that they have gotten the message. And so I ask that you take a moment. It's here in the chat, you just click on the link and fill it out. And you'll help send the message to your own US senator. Okay, we're going to have a Q&A right now. So perhaps we could have Judge Julie Tang on the screen, along with Wayne Mulan, Mr. Wayne Mulan, as well as Wei, our coordinator for the China's Not Our Enemy campaign and Jody Evans, the founder of the China's Not Our Enemy campaign. Well, and we can, we can ask Mr. Hadiki to join us too. We can all sit in the same room, and then we can open up the chat for questions. All of this is related. I'll start off with the first question for the judge. When, if you were going to trace back to when US policy on Taiwan really subverted this idea of the one China policy. When did it, what was the embryonic stage, when did this start and of course we've seen this escalate ever since but if you could trace back when would it be. It would not be possible for me to pinpoint an event or the start of a trend. I think it's always been there. Always been there to use Taiwan as a pawn, a leverage against China. Despite of the Shanghai Communicate, I think that America has never really seen China as a total friend, just like it's never seen Russia as a total friend nor accepted it. The simmering Cold War has always existed. You know, China and the United States has also had the Cold War shortly after 1949. But I would say that it was during the Trump administration that it was, you know, it all came to a head with the start of the trade war, and it was like it's a flooding that that couldn't be stopped. It's so unfortunate that right now that both, it is a bipartisan thing to be against China, and it is serious. It's about elites, their consensus that this has to happen, and part of the military industrial complex issues. It's fortunate forward almost like a faucet that couldn't be stopped. But this trend has always been there, I think. And it's almost just, but when China has stopped becoming strong, and also especially with the advances in the semiconductor chips industry, that's when I think the United States is starting to get worried. And the New York cons really jumped into it. They jumped into the fray. And we are a forever war country. After Afghanistan, this war has terminated and what is next. They're looking at China right away and putting them, putting China right there on the block. But this is something that we have to be very concerned about what I'm saying is that I don't think this is going to be short-lived. I think we're looking at a long haul right now, given the long animosities between the countries and the simmering discontents that the United States has with China and always the fear that China will take over the Asia region. And as it got bigger and bigger, they got more and more worried. So I hope I answer your question, and it's a very good question. I think it takes us to what we're going to be looking at ahead of us. You know, it will be a long haul. Yes. Thank you so much. Can I add something to that? Sure. So I think, you know, there was a time with Kissinger where China and the United States had a friendlier relationship. And that was when the US was using China for its needs. And, you know, as long as China was going to do what the US wanted and help, you know, like, the US was using China and its money and its capacities and, you know, and, and, and it was really during Obama that the pivot to Asia happened. And it's been growing, it's been catapulting since then. I think by the US's concerns of losing its hegemony as Mr. Wing said. And I mean, I would actually love to hear from Mr. Wing the answer to that question because it took me a while to recognize it as a person in the US. I wonder what it felt like. You know, if there's the same way where we felt, oh, shit, there's a war coming. We can see the patterns of propaganda. What did that feel like in Taiwan? I'm not sure. Mr. Wing. So this was a question, Jody is posing to you. Was there a time in Taiwan where everybody said, whoa, what's going on? The US has now is now determined to take on China. The Taiwan people are more and more worried about the war. Now, under the recommendation of the United States, the young people of Taiwan are going to be sick. Taiwan's financial budget is going to increase and more of the weapons of the United States are going to be produced by the Taiwanese people. The Taiwan people are worried about the possibility of a war. But under the propaganda of the US media in the public media, the thoughts of the Taiwanese people have come to mind. I believe that, including the American people, there are many thoughts of the world. The influence of the US media has been on the rise. For example, a few days ago, the United States also said that it does not support Taiwan independence. But why does Taiwan want to propose a Taiwan policy plan to interfere with Taiwan? Why are they not? Of course, we oppose the American policy on the Taiwan issue. But why don't they propose a policy plan that does not support Taiwan? I believe that the Taiwanese people will not fight against the US policy on the Taiwan issue. They will not fight against the US policy on the Taiwan issue. Then there will be more ways to go to peace and think. How to communicate with the mainland to the peace and talk about the peace of the future. In fact, I should add that the US and the Taiwanese people are worried about the possibility of a war. With the news of the World War II, the crisis of the Taiwan Strait is getting more and more Taiwanese to realize that the Taiwan Strait may have a chance of a conflict. Under the American movement, there may be a war in Taiwan Strait. Such a war crisis is slowly in the hearts of the people. Thank you. Yeah, well, my question is, so when the Taiwan Policy Act came up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, five senators voted no. 17 I guess voted yes. So my question to any of the panelists is what does this difference mean? How deep is this difference? There are five who are against the Taiwan Policy Act. What is their view of what Taiwan Policy should be? And how does it differ from the mainstream policy in Washington? I can kind of answer that because we had a camp because we've had campaigns and we've been educating members. I mean, you know, both from the beginning of this campaign and getting to members and to their staffs to talk about what this means that it is not something like the Taiwan Strait, that it is an act of war, that those acts of war are already affecting the people in the United States. I would say a couple of them get that the hate on China is being born by Asian Americans. And they understand that. And they understand the escalation. There's also, you know, even people in the business world get that this is not a good thing to have happened. Some of them have that kind of a point of view. So I wouldn't say it's a unified point of view that has them pulling back on this, but enough of them understand that this has been moving forward for a couple of years. And that, you know, there's actually a few senators that understand diplomacy doesn't happen with a vote in Congress or the Senate. It actually happens between two countries. There's a few people that actually know that who have power in the United States. So I would say for each of them, it's different, but those are some of the things we've been working on, including with you. I think that's a really good question. I also read some of the comments that these five senators made after they voted no. They were not very, you know, knowing, you know, where things are going. I don't think they were ready to jump in and be the leader, but they were very right on it with the comments that they made that they understood that why are we rattling this situation China to war. What do we get out of it? What is there in for Americans with all these money being spent? They raised some very, very good questions. Unfortunately, their responses were kind of weak. I think they didn't want to be the leader. And one was hedging a little bit. And I forgot which one it was. I think it's Holton. He said that I think it may be him who said that I'm voting no, but I wanted to make sure that that perhaps there would be some changes, you know, to the policy act. So we really, before I vote, you know, at the, at the at the final with the final voting. So I think we need to follow up with them also to make sure that you continue to stick with that no vote and then convince some others. I'm hoping that there will be enough also pressure from the White House, because I think I know the White House understands how big an implication this is. This is serious. I mean, this is really serious to allow Taiwan to use his flag to allow Taiwan to change the office from economic and cultural representative to just Taiwan representative office to allow them to participate in the United Nations. And as, as what I mean they're not even part of the country that belong to the United Nations, the United Nations has passed by resolution, the National Assembly declaring that there's only one China. So to give them that kind of presence is very, very dangerous. And I think that China is taking it very much in stride and more power to them very, very, very, they are resilient they're not jumping and, and, you know, trying to catch the bait, but they're, they're planning I mean, and Xi Jinping also said, and this last Congress meeting he said, we are very respectfully, you know, waiting to work on this issue, but at the same time, we will, you know, follow our resolutions to follow the peaceful reunification, if, if not, then we will be ready to use force. And I think they mean it. I mean, I've never seen China so wrestling on any issue. You know, they always wrestling on a lot of issues actually sorry about anti poverty and things like that but with respect to Taiwan. They have always been in that position that Taiwan is part of China. And I think that all of the people in China. And yes, I am making a generalization but I think it is with some foundation that is true that people in China really wanted reunification they're waiting for it. And that would be the same day that they celebrate the victory, you know, of the war over Japan. That leads us to the next question that was posed in the chat. And that is, isn't the only way forward for Taiwan to hold a Democratic referendum. I guess this is for Mr Wang Luan for Taiwan to hold a Democratic referendum. If the people vote to remain independent and so be it so long as they have a non aggression pact with China, and no foreign bases, I guess, conversely if the people voted in a referendum to be reunified that would perhaps settle it. The question is, should there be a referendum on Taiwan's reunification with China or independence and I guess, also this would be a question for Hadiki, should there be a referendum on Okinawa about the future of that military base. So, first, Wang Luan, please. This so-called commune, because this has already been designed, the Taiwan issue is a continuation of China's internal war. We can't simply use the so-called commune as a way of thinking about this issue. Taiwan is part of China. The current population of Taiwan is 2,300 million. China has a population of 1,400 million. The name of the two sides is obviously a population of 1,400 million. We can't ignore this. This is the first point. It should be the two sides, the two sides of the people's peace of mind, the peace of business, the international community. One of the principles of China is the principles of the international community. Taiwan is part of China. The same principles of the international community. We should think about this. And according to the current law in the Taiwan region, knowing the danger of the two sides of the problem is unacceptable. Okay, thank you. What about you, Hadiki? Sorry, Marcy, could I just quickly add to that? I think especially the idea of a referendum is that everyone gets a vote, so everyone has a voice on this issue. But then a referendum within Taiwan will be dangerous because it's essentially giving the idea that Taiwan is treating this as its internal matter, whereas on the international level, this is actually a matter for China, for mainland China and also Taiwan. So if we really want to hear the voice for everyone on this matter, then there should be a referendum for not just all the people in Taiwan, but also all the people in China. And then with that population difference, we can see where the bias will lay. And so that's why the idea of a referendum is not really the solution for the problem. Thank you. Hadiki, at the same question, referendum on Okinawa about the military base, what do you think? All right. Good. The word or the concept of a referendum is very, very critical concepts in Okinawa, actually. So we can talk about the idea about two different levels. Actually, we held the referendum in 2019, three years ago, against whether we accept the construction of the military base at Henukouro Bay. And in that referendum, we expressed again the oppositions to the construction. So in that referendum, yeah, so we expressed again. But then the Japanese government just keep ignoring all the democratic voice of Okinawan people against the construction base. So that's one thing. But also that we have a question of a referendum with regard to whether Okinawa becomes independent or not from Japan. That's a tricky issue. But the fact that I think more people are talking about before the past, more people are talking about this idea of a referendum regarding the independence of Japan itself indicates that how frustrated we are as Okinawans. Because again, we keep saying the no to the base, the overwhelming presence of the military bases. But it's just Japanese government and the US government just keep ignoring. Well, we want to support you as much as we possibly can. So do share that letter with us and we'll get people to sign on. At this point, we're almost, well, we are at the top of the hour and we have one other action that we want to take to mobilize opposition to the Taiwan Policy Act. So I'm going to ask Maha if you would kindly unmute and we can all thank our guests for joining us tonight. Some of you from Taiwan, Asia, so thank you so much. And I also want to thank the interpreters. Thank you so much. I know that was really hard and we deeply appreciate it. We thank you so much from China and Taiwan for joining us and sharing your. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. And I ask everybody to stay on the participants for Code Pin Congress. Maha is posting in the chat. There we go. Action two. If you scroll up a little in the chat, you'll see tell your US Senator to vote no on the Taiwan Policy Act because it would dismantle the one China policy to escalate a war with Taiwan, between Taiwan and China, a proxy war, US proxy war. So right now, I'm going to ask that you please take your phone in your hand. We're going to give our senators a call and tell them what we want. We want them to vote no on the Taiwan Policy Act and that is, excuse me, S4428 is the bill number. Okay, it's, it has left the committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee to head to the Senate floor. So Maha, if you have any music you want to play, be my guest. And we'll make a few calls. All right, I think we will bring our time together to a close. It's about seven minutes past the hour. Thank you so much. All of you who stayed with us for this second action. And again, thank our guests. Cole, if you want to say goodbye or any announcements that you have, and now it would be the time to share. It's a good piece. I hope. Thank you to our guests. Thank you, Marcy. Thank you, Jodi for a great program. This is such an important issue and we have much more education to do. This was a great start. Yes. And I do want to invite everybody who's interested in peace and Ukraine to join us. We do have a coalition piece. It's www I'll put it in the chat. Peace and Ukraine.org. We will be meeting one tomorrow actually Wednesday at 130 Pacific time for 30 Eastern time, and we are all about investing in climate, not weapons and calling for a ceasefire and negotiated peace. Jodi how about you you want to say good night. Yeah, I just I want to thank you and Julie and way and, you know, just Marcy and cool things for bringing us together to learn and engage just such a gift. And thanks for everyone for listening and learning with us and so thank you very much Mr Wang it's been lovely to have you. Thank you for sharing from your passion you know from your passion we're passionate activists was refreshing to fill your passion and your activism. And I second that. And way, do you want to let people know how they can get involved. Well, okay, absolutely. So our campaigns webpage, it's just coping dot org slash China. You can also find us on Twitter at what is our Twitter handle actually. It's China, not enemy, which is different from our campaign name and I'll put both of them in a chat as well. Thank you so much Marcy. You're welcome to do it. Here I'm also going to chat the website or our coalition, which Maha maintains this website is such an amazing job. And it looks like he wants to say goodbye. Okay, thank you for inviting me Jodi I really appreciate it you're such an inspiration, you know, we've stolen your slogan China's not on me everywhere and, and it just shuts people up, you know we're talking I we went we were in Washington DC last week. There was some liaison to the White House, and she was going on and on and so finally said China's not our enemy and she looked at us like, like what are you talking about she's not. She can see back to us yet China's not China is our enemy because China really is not. So thank you so much for your leadership. And I hope I did the best I could. So well, I really appreciate that. I think I think you're right it was pivot, you know that Biden's pivot. No, I mean, Obama's pivot to peace but unfortunately, but fortunately for China is it got stalled, because of the financial situation in in in America, and after China rescued us, then we started covering China. I didn't bring this up earlier but that's what I've never understood you know China owns owns over a trillion dollars of the US debt so what are people thinking. Yeah, really I mean they they they rescued us Obama called China and said, would you help us out in China sure you know we'll buy your, you know your Treasury bills or bonds or whatever to the tune of, I think I was billion dollars. Yeah, billion dollars whatever amount of money that it took, and they bailed us out. And then now we right after that then we turn around and said okay now you know we're out of the out of the red and we're going to go after them so that's what what it comes down to. But thank you so much I you guys are my inspiration to keep working on what I need to do here in San Francisco. Thank you so much I know it's super early. Thank you so much for being with us and we hope you'll feel free to share with us again. You know we'll connect you to ways so that you can keep us informed and smarter over here. Yeah, can I just say something to Mr. Wang Mr Weng. I was just saying Mr Wang for what he has done and what he's doing in Taiwan is just not easy for him to do what he does because he's doing in Taiwan it's just not easy for him to do what he does because the people there are so bad so so rough you know and and and they're just violent and they're they're just they they would tear him apart but he's still there and then doing what he's doing so thank you Mr Wang thank you all thank you Mr Wang thank you good night good night