The Final Struggle: Inside China’s Global Strategy with Ian Easton

Professional Military Education

On this episode of the PME podcast, I welcome back Ian Easton. Ian recently published a book called The Final Struggle: Inside China’s Global Strategy. Topics of discussion include:

• The prospect of China invading Taiwan and an update from Ian’s first book, The Chinese Invasion Threat
• Is Xi Jinping on drugs? Hard to tell. But Ian does mention that his dad and sister were purged. He also spent seven years living in a cave.
• We discuss “Xi Jinping Thought” which is Marxism infused with Xi Jinping’s worldview and his political philosophy.
• How China and Xi Jinping use euphemisms to promote dark ideas. For example, the idea of constructing “A Community of Common Destiny for all Mankind.”
• U.S. policies toward China and how previous administrations have and have not recognized threats from the PRC
• How TikTok poses a direct threat to U.S. national security
• China’s social credit system which uses big data analytics and mass surveillance
• How China uses predatory economic policies to its benefit while hurting the U.S.

Biography: Ian Easton is a Senior Director at the Project 2049 Institute, where he studies defense and security issues involving the People's Republic of China. Previously, he was a visiting fellow at the Japan Institute for International Affairs, a China analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses, and a researcher for the Asia Bureau of Defense News. Ian holds an M.A. in China Studies from National Chengchi University in Taiwan and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He studied Mandarin at Fudan University in Shanghai and National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei.

Buy the book: The Final Struggle

Ian’s first book: The Chinese Invasion Threat

Follow him on Twitter @Ian_M_Easton and at the Project 2049 Institute

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