Epoch INSIGHT Issue 15 (2022)

CRIES FROM SHANGHAI Beijing's crippling lockdowns push 25 million city residents to the brink

By Eva Fu

Editor’s Note

Cries From Shanghai millions of shanghai residents are being forced to stay in their homes, locked in, without the ability to go out and buy food.

They’re required to rely on official channels to order food and essential items, but in many cases, these never arrive.

They’re arrested if they leave their homes, and in some cases beaten, before being sent back inside.

There are reports of people leaping from their apartment building balconies, in the ultimate act of desperation.

This is how the Chinese communist regime is dealing with what appears to be a severe outbreak of COVID-19 in the city, as well as in other parts of the country.

Those infected are taken forcibly to so-called mass quarantine centers.

The full scale of the crisis in Shanghai and other cities remains difficult to ascertain, as official numbers can't be trusted.

To make matters worse, footage and reports have emerged showing donated food going to waste, in some cases by the truckload, due to official mismanagement.

This week’s cover story provides insight into the realities on the ground in Shanghai and its people’s suffering.

Jasper Fakkert Editor-in-chief

2 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

JASPER FAKKERT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHANNALY PHILIPP LIFE & TRADITION, TRAVEL EDITOR

ON THE COVER Extreme lockdown measures in Shanghai have driven many city residents to desperation.

HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

CHRISY TRUDEAU MIND & BODY EDITOR CRYSTAL SHI HOME, FOOD EDITOR SHARON KILARSKI ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR BILL LINDSEY LUXURY EDITOR BIBA KAJEVICH ILLUSTRATORS SHANSHAN HU PRODUCTION CONTACT US THE EPOCH TIMES ASSOCIATION INC. 229 W.28TH ST., FL.7 NEW YORK, NY 10001 ADVERTISING ADVERTISENOW@EPOCHTIMES.COM SUBSCRIPTIONS, GENERAL INQUIRIES, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR HELP.THEEPOCHTIMES.COM (USPS21-800)IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE EPOCH MEDIA GROUP, 9550 FLAIR DR. SUITE 411, EL MONTE, CA 91731-2922.

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vol. 2 | no. 15 | april 15–21, 2022

22 | Joe Knopp’s

50 | Giving 100

26 | School Board

52| COVID Lockdowns

Decision A political outsider’s entry shakes up a gubernatorial race.

Percent Effort Be the best at whatever you do and contentment is sure to follow.

Change Conservatives win seats in Waukesha as parents shake up education.

Governments use subliminal methods to manipulate the public.

56 | The Beach House An amazing villa on Phuket Island’s spectacular beach.

44 | Elon Musk

The Tesla CEO could be a peacemaker between Washington and Silicon Valley.

58 | George

Features

45 | AUKUS

The alliance is strengthening its electronic warfare capabilities.

46 | US Recovery

U.S. inflation shows no signs of abating, despite a slowdown in the economy.

47 | Dollar Hegemony Can pressure from the new Russia–China alliance dethrone the U.S. dollar?

48 | Russia Sanctions How the Russian ruble bounced back despite sanctions.

49 | ESG Investments

The Ukraine war is sparking debate about sustainable investing in Russia and China.

12 | The Disney Controversy Mothers say Disney has “severely underestimated” parents in Florida.

16 | Cost of Zero-COVID Accounts of suffering escape from locked-down Shanghai.

THE LEAD

30 | FBI Informants Memos suggest the agency had moles in the media.

38 | Organ Transplant Crimes Efforts to end China’s forced organ harvesting led to a unanimous resolution in the Virginia House.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk in Gruenheide, Germany, on March 22. Musk has made an offer to buy “100 percent of Twitter” for around $43 billion, according to a regulatory filing, with the tech mogul saying he wants to actualize the company’s “extraordinary potential” to become a true platform for free speech.

Washington’s Hometown Take a walk back in history on the streets of Fredericksburg.

60 | Driving

Adventures Instead of yet another preplanned vacation, consider a road trip.

63 | Cool Shades

Protect your eyes with these made-in-the-USA sunglasses.

66 | BBQ, Cowboy Style In Texas, BBQ is a revered art, and Adrian Davila is a master.

67 | Your Brother’s

Keeper A brief primer on making your siblings your best friends.

PATRICK PLEUL/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 3

T H G IL T O P S Extraordinary Dining CUSTOMERS DINE IN A FISH-THEMED restaurant, where diners can enjoy watching and feeding colorful koi fish while they eat, in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on April 12. This unique restaurant is built inside a carp fish pond.

PHOTO BY JACK TAYLOR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

4 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 5

SHEN YUN SHOP

Great Culture Revived.

Fine Jewelry | Italian Scarves | Home Decor

ShenYunShop.com

Tel: 1.80 0.208.2384

NAT ION • WOR L D • W H AT H A P P E N E D T H I S W E E K

The Week

No.15

Virginia state Capitol in Richmond, Va. PHOTO BY BRUCE YUANYUE BI/GETTY IMAGES

Virginia House Takes Stand Against Forced Organ Harvesting in China 38 Moms for Liberty Vows to Boycott Disney

Joe Knopp’s Decision

FBI Had Moles in Media, Memos Suggest

Parents in Florida want to reclaim their rights in public education. 12

An outsider shakes up a Republican gubernatorial primary. 22

Memos show the agency obtained information from within NBC and ABC. 30

INSIDE I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 7

The Week in Short US

i t u i t s n o C e h T“ se vig set atS det inU a r e b o t h g i r e h [t .t nemnre v o g eht on

5.25% After years of mortgage interest rates in the 2 to 4 percent range, March has witnessed a slow rise, with some rates creeping up to as high as 5.25 percent for low-finance loans.

— Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, on signing into law a bill that allows permitless handgun carry for residents in the state

“Inflation is a tax and today’s historic inflation data tells another chilling story about how these taxes on Americans are completely out of control.”

— Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)

At least 20 FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives “assets” were embedded around the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a defense attorney wrote in a court filing.

The U.S. annual inflation rate surged to 8.5 percent in March, topping the market estimate of 8.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

1,634 CASES

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has referred 1,634 cases of noncitizens attempting to register to vote for investigation and potential prosecution.

$9.5 BILLION – Alphabet Inc.’s Google says it plans to invest about $9.5 billion across its U.S. offices and data centers this year, up from $7 billion last year.

8 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

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20 ASSETS

8.5%

The Week in Short US ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

First Texas Bus Drops Off Illegal Immigrants Near US Capitol

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to testify at a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 11, 2018.

ELECTION INTEGRITY

Zuckerberg Ends Controversial Grants to Election Offices FACEBOOK FOUNDER MARK ZUCKERBERG , who in the 2020 election cycle

flooded election offices across the United States with hundreds of millions of dollars in grants, won’t be participating in such grantmaking this year, according to a spokesman.

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, made $419.5 million in donations— “Zuckerbucks” or “Zuckbucks,” as some have called the money—to nonprofits, of which $350 million went to the “safe elections” project of the left-wing Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). The other $69.5 million went to the Center for Election Innovation and Research. The CTCL reportedly distributed grants to upward of 2,500 election offices.

Zuckerberg spokesman Ben LaBolt, who was previously spokesman for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, said the donations were a one-time deal.

TREATMENTS

2 COVID-19 Treatments Show Promise in Trials TWO COVID-19 TREATMENTS that have not yet been authorized for

administration were successful in clinical trials, the companies behind the drugs announced.

A pill developed to attack cancer was successful in curbing deaths among COVID-19 patients in hospitals deemed high risk for acute respiratory distress syndrome, according to U.S.-based Veru Inc., the maker of the drug.

The interim results from a phase three double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, conducted in the United States and five other countries, showed a 55 percent relative reduction in deaths, the company said.

Also, Israel-based RedHill Biopharma said in vitro testing of its experimental COVID-19 pill showed efficacy against Omicron, which became the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant that causes COVID-19 in many countries in late 2021.

A previous phase two/phase three study of the pill, opaganib, showed it reduced mortality, according to RedHill.

THE FIRST BUS carrying illegal immigrants from Texas arrived in Washington on April 13.

The illegal aliens were dropped off between Union Station and the U.S. Capitol, according to the office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management earlier this month to begin coordinating “voluntary transportation” to Washington and other locations outside Texas of immigrants released from federal custody.

The bus that arrived was filled with immigrants who came from Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, Abbott’s office said.

MANDATES

CDC Extends Federal Mask Mandate THE CENTERS FOR Disease Control and Prevention has extended the federal mask mandate for transportation for two more weeks, citing a small recent increase in COVID-19 cases.

The order will remain in place another 15 days, until May 3, to let officials at the agency assess whether the BA.2 virus subvariant will drive a fresh wave of cases.

A flight passenger waits at the Houston International Airport on March 14, 2020.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 9

The Week in Short World UK

UK’s Johnson Apologizes for ‘Partygate’ Scandal but Refuses to Resign BRITISH PRIME MINISTER

A NSO Group branch in the southern Israeli Arava valley on Feb. 8.

CYBERSECURITY

Israeli Spyware Maker NSO Group Asks SCOTUS for Sovereign Immunity ISR AELI SPYWARE DEVELOPER NSO Group is urging the U.S. Supreme

Court to recognize it as a foreign government agent, a move it says would give it immunity under U.S. laws restricting lawsuits against foreign countries.

NSO’s leading software product, Pegasus, allows operators to clandestinely surveil a suspect’s mobile phone, with access to their contacts and messages, as well as the built-in camera, microphone, and location history. NSO says it deals only with government law enforcement agencies and that all sales are approved by the Israeli Defense Ministry. It refuses to identify its clients.

Both WhatsApp and Apple have sued NSO, wanting to prevent NSO from hacking the platform and products.

FINLAND

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a press conference at 10 Downing Street in London on April 8.

US–UKRAINE

FINNISH PRIME MINISTER Sanna

US Gives Ukraine $800 Million More in Military Aid

Marin said Helsinki is moving toward a decision on applying to join the NATO military alliance “within weeks” and “not within months.”

“I won’t give any kind of timetable when we will make our decisions, but I think it will happen quite fast, within weeks, not within months,” Marin said during a joint news conference with her Swedish Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin (R) counterpart in Stockholm. and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Marin made the announcement while Andersson meet in Stockholm on April 13. meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in the country’s capital. The two leaders discussed how to strengthen the security of both Nordic countries in the changing security environment.

The ongoing war in Ukraine has triggered a surge in support for joining NATO in the two traditionally militarily non-aligned Nordic countries.

administration has announced an additional $800 million in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, expanding the scope of the systems provided, ahead of a wider Russian assault expected in eastern Ukraine.

The latest package, which brings the total military aid tally since Russian forces invaded in February to more than $2.5 billion, includes artillery systems, artillery rounds, armored personnel carriers, and unmanned coastal defense vessels, Biden said in a statement after a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

10 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN’S

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Finland Moves Toward NATO Membership Decision ‘Within Weeks’

Boris Johnson has apologized for breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules but has refused to resign.

Johnson, his wife, Carrie, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were all fined by the Metropolitan Police for attending a birthday gathering for the prime minister at 10 Downing Street in June 2020.

The prime minister said that he had already paid the fine and once again offered a “full apology” for the breach, which took place on his 56th birthday.

World in Photos

1.

1. Competitors in the Betway Handicap Chase race during the Aintree Races in Liverpool, England, on April 9.

2. A rocket partially submerged in a puddle near grazing cows in the village of Lukashivka, Ukraine, on April 10. 3. Rows of tulips and hyacinths in the Bollenstreek (or flower-bulb region) at Lisse, Netherlands, on April 8.

4. Raphael Marchou, director of development at Histovery, demonstrates how to use an augmented reality touchscreen tablet at the “Notre-Dame de Paris: The Augmented Exhibition,” during a press preview at the National Building Museum in Washington on April 14.

2.

3.

4.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 11

PARENTAL RIGHTS

MOMS FOR LIBERTY VOWS TO

BOYCOTT DISNEY Parents in Florida want to reclaim their rights in public education

By Patricia Tolson

People watch a show on stage in front of Cinderella’s castle at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, in Orlando, Fla. PHOTO BY JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

12 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

AS THE BATTLE BET WEEN The Walt Disney Co. and Florida rages on, the co-founders of Moms for Liberty are calling for a boycott, saying “Disney has severely underestimated Florida parents.”

On March 28, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education measure into law. House Bill 1557, inaccurately branded by liberal opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, prohibits Florida educators from teaching anything about sexual orientation or gender identity to children in kindergarten through third grade. The law goes further, enabling parents to sue if they believe schools or instructors have violated it.

A week prior, after facing pressure

from LGBT communities and staff for his silence, Disney CEO Bob Chapek issued a statement apologizing for not being a “stronger ally” to them, calling the legislation “yet another challenge to basic human rights.” Chapek then announced that Disney would immediately halt all political donations in Florida.

In a March 28 statement, Disney’s corporate office said its new goal was “for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts” and vowed to support organizations working to make such a thing happen.

Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice told Fox News Digital in a March 30 interview that she found that to be

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 13

The Disney Controversy

14 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

(Above) A member of Moms for Liberty.

The organization has more than 80,000 members in 181 chapters in 34 states across the country.

(Right) Moms for Liberty members from the Williamson, Tenn., chapter. The moms work to keep leftist ideology out of schools.

sponsored the measure, announced that he’s returning the $3,126 he received in political donations associated with Disney. Other Florida lawmakers followed suit.

As DeSantis wrapped up a March 30 press conference in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, he hinted that state lawmakers might repeal the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act, which provides Disney with what DeSantis called many “special privileges.”

“We have some amazing elected leaders in Florida, and they are standing up for parents and for kids,” Justice said. “I am incredibly thankful.

America needs strong elected leaders. We don’t need followers who beg at the feet of woke corporations. If you’re an elected official and you’re accepting money from Disney, you are selling out parents.”

To honor DeSantis for his dedication to standing up for families and children, Descovich said Moms for Liberty created a hashtag referring to DeSantis as #TheParentsGovernor long before the Disney battle began.

“I think Disney has severely underestimated Florida parents because they live in a California bubble, not in reality,” Justice said. “But it’s not surprising to me that a company that plays make-believe for a living would be out of touch with the average American parent.”

It’s a sentiment shared wholeheartedly by Florida state Rep. Spencer Roach, a Republican.

“Here in Florida, the two issues that have really galvanized voters and will continue to resonate all the way to 2024 are the woke corporations

CLOCKWISE FROM L: COURTESY OF MOMS FOR LIBERTY, COURTESY OF MOMS FOR LIBERTY, COURTESY OF TIFFANY JUSTICE

“striking language” coming from a company with a target audience of children.

“Parents are not going to put up with this nonsense,” Justice told Insight. “We are watching woke corporations chip away at our parental rights.

So we’re not just going to stand out on the street with our ‘Boycott Disney’ signs. We’re going to do what we need to do as parents across the country and make sure we spend our money with companies that align with our values, and sexualizing children is not a value we hold. We do not believe that’s an appropriate thing for any adult to be doing.”

Tina Descovich, the group’s other co-founder, said Moms for Liberty’s Florida chapters worked hard for months in support of the Parental Rights in Education legislation.

“We are in a war, and our moms are going to do what they’re going to do when it comes to organizations and businesses that support the grooming of children,” Descovich told Insight.

“We brought 200 moms to Tallahassee to rally in support of this bill so parents can reclaim their rights in public education in the state of Florida.

The bill has now been signed, and we think it’s unacceptable that an organization like Disney wants to get involved with destroying the work we’ve been doing.”

But Descovich insists their war isn’t against Disney.

“Our war is for the security and safety of our children,” she said. “So our strategy is the same as it was when we launched our organization in January of last year, and that’s to empower moms and dads and families to stand up for parental rights at all levels of government.”

According to Justice, not only is Moms for Liberty organizing to boycott Disney to fight back against leftist ideology, but they plan to secure every school board position they can in the Sunshine State to keep the ideology out of Florida’s schools. Considering their pool of more than 80,000 members in 181 chapters in 34 states across the country, these parents could prove to be a formidable financial and political foe for “the happiest place on earth.”

“We just added Hawaii, and we’re not leaving any of the states behind,” she said. “We’re coming for California. We hear from parents in California all the time who are tired of the woke politics. We are the United States of America, and American parents are paying attention. We invited Disney into our homes, and these corporations are turning their backs on us and our children. We believe the innocence of children is sacred, and adults must work to protect that.”

In response to Disney’s threats, Florida state Rep. Joe Harding, the Republican lawmaker who

The Disney Controversy

and woke school boards,” he told Insight. “I think when we’re looking at both of these issues, the fundamental issue is the same.”

According to Roach, the question that keeps arising is one of instilling values.

“Who is responsible with inculcating values systems in children? Should it be government, acting through these woke school boards and corporations, or should it be parents?” he said.

“What we’re coming down with every time is ‘parents.’ Parents want to ensure that they are the ones having these conversations with their children and teaching their children the values they hold dear. Not the government and not these corporations.

“We can’t overstate that that is such a fundamental, critical issue that school boards are missing. Terry McAuliffe missed it in Virginia and now Bob Chapek of Disney. That’s the theme they keep missing. These government actors, school boards, and corporate CEOs have awakened a sleeping giant of an interest group here in the United States called ‘parents.’ What’s more about Florida is Bob Chapek doesn’t understand a majority of Republicans and Democrats in Florida support the ‘Parents Rights in Education’ law.”

Descovich included Roach in a list of Florida leaders who have stood in defense of parental rights in Florida.

“We have some great leaders in the state of Florida who really recognize the role of parents and families and really respect that role and are willing to stand up and fight for it,” she said,

We believe the innocence of children is sacred, and adults must work to protect that.”

Tiffany Justice, co-founder, Moms for Liberty

“Our war is for the security and safety of our children.”

Tina Descovich, co-founder, Moms for Liberty

citing Roach, Harding—who sponsored House Bill 1557—and Florida state Rep. Erin Grall, who sponsored the Parents’ Bill of Rights. “We have some real champions in Florida for parental rights, and we are thankful that they are in the great state of Florida.”

On June 9, 2021, Insight reported that Florida was the No. 1 relocation destination for Americans in 2020. New York and California, both heavily Democratic, had the most people choosing to leave. In 2021, Florida took second place as the most popular relocation state, behind Texas.

In September, satirical news site The Babylon Bee named California Gov. Gavin Newsom the “U-Haul Salesperson of the Year.” On March 12, Newsom told Disney through social media that “the door is open to bring those jobs back to California—the state that actually represents the values of your workers.” DeSantis’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw, noted with a laughing emoji how Newsom “had kept Disneyland closed for 13 months straight.”

On April 1, The Epoch Times reported that Florida had reached a historic milestone. Republicans overtook Democrats in registered voters by a margin of 100,000.

“We’re just getting started,” Justice said.

In the meantime, asked what advice she would offer to parents who want to let Disney know how they feel, she suggested they “find another place to vacation this summer.”

Joshua Phillip contributed to this report.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 15

SUFFERING MOUNTS IN LOCKED-DOWN SHANGHAI PANDEMIC RESPONSE

China’s hardline ‘zero-COVID’ policy has pushed the country's wealthiest city to the brink

By Eva Fu

Residents stand on the rooftop of a building during the lockdown in the Jing'an district of Shanghai on April 3.

PHOTO BY HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

16 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

S

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 17

The Lead China’s Draconian Lockdowns

A

F T E R F OU R DAY S OF

trying to order food online to no avail, a man of about 30 from Shanghai’s Yangpu district called the police. The sealed-in resident wanted to know if he would get fed if he charged out of his residential compound and got arrested for breaking quarantine rules.

His food purchase placed through the local neighborhood committee six days earlier had never arrived, and the hunger was giving him stomach cramps, he said.

“The neighborhood committee told me to ‘endure.’ I have endured four days. All that’s edible is gone except for water,” he told the police in a call, the recording of which he later posted online. “Every evening, when I tune in to the news at 7 p.m., all is portrayed as peaceful and well and brimming with a sense of security. I don’t know about this security.”

But the police’s answer dashed any hopes for a food source. Even if he got arrested, they would just send him right back home, the officer said, noting that the police station couldn’t accommodate him either.

The man’s desperate attempt to fend off starvation represents a microcosm of the suffering experienced by many residents in Shanghai amid a lockdown that the communist regime has imposed, insisting that it’s the key to containing a surging Omicron outbreak. Residents in some districts have been sealed inside their homes for more than a month.

City authorities only started easing lockdowns on April 11, under mounting pressure. But the hardline policies have crippled the city’s economy and wreaked havoc. In the Chinese financial hub that’s home to 26 million people, feelings of hunger, frustration, and desperation are taking hold.

Starving locals have taken to banging pots and pans from their balconies while screaming out demands for food.

From the quarantine centers, disturbing videos have emerged of people being locked in half-finished facilities with poor sanitary conditions. One person complained about dozens of people having to share a single clogged toilet.

Despite these restrictive measures, the outbreak appears nowhere close to being under control. Virus cases in the city

18 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

hovered at above 20,000—more than five times the number reported in late March, when the lockdown first went into effect—for six days straight ending on April 12. However, experts and locals have consistently questioned whether the official figures can be trusted.

As Beijing rushes to defend its zero-tolerance COVID-19 strategy, piling accounts posted on the Chinese internet and interviews conducted by Insight reveal that the regime’s hardline approach is testing the limits of the Chinese populace.

“The neighborhood committee told me to ‘endure,’ I have endured four days. All that’s edible is gone except for water.”

30-year-old resident of Shanghai’s Yangpu district

No One Spared Food is a top question plaguing the minds of Shanghai’s sealed-in residents. Empty grocery shelves, scant provisions from authorities, and unreliable delivery have kept residents on edge, despite the city government’s repeated assurances that supplies are bountiful.

“Officials, please put down your script.

Show us now how you order vegetables with your phones,” a local resident said in a post on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media similar to Twitter, in response to a news report on a recent Shanghai press conference.

The user hasn’t been alone in feeling the vexation. Many in Shanghai have been staying up until midnight or rising before 6 a.m. to load their online shopping carts with produce—often at exorbitant prices—only to find their orders canceled at the moment of hitting the purchase button. Even for those who were successful, some found their items’ delivery date pushed back time and again, with their orders at times not arriving until several weeks later.

Nor have the rich been spared from the sting. Billionaire Cathy Xu Xin, dubbed

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The Lead China’s Draconian Lockdowns

Workers from a public service organization in Shanghai's Jing'an district on March 29.

In the Chinese financial hub home to 26 million, at least 15 million residents were still locked in their homes as of April 13.

queen of China’s venture capital, has stakes in multiple food shopping apps now essential for Chinese residents under lockdown.

Xu recently asked neighbors to add her to an online bulk buying group for milk and bread to supply a large household, she said in a social media post.

In a chat group for Tomson Riviera, an upscale housing complex of 220 people with apartments valued at tens of millions of dollars, one user told others to try their luck in the afternoon if their morning efforts at buying weren’t fruitful. There may be “surprises” if they spend more time on the shopping apps, the user said.

Another in the same chat group, noting how they had been reduced to partaking in online food fights day in and day out, said in an online post, “I don’t know where my dignity is.”

Amid their struggles to obtain food, footage has emerged showing truckloads of donated produce going straight to landfills, further inflaming public anger.

The truckers haven’t been able to find a home for these goods. In videos circulating on Chinese social media, exasperated truck drivers from other provinces shouted at authorities over the phone after finding themselves—and the donated food they had hauled from hundreds of miles away—stranded on the streets.

“Forget about how expensive the goods are, I’m using my life to support Shanghai, but now I’m left with no water nor food,” one of the truckers from the port city Qingdao in eastern Shandong Province said from a parking lot where he had waited for more than a day after his arrival, his voice raised, one viral video shows.

Deaths and Quarantine

(Left) Photos of a quarantine center in the Pudong district in Shanghai, in early April 2022. (Above) Children who tested positive for COVID-19 and were separated from their parents, at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, in a photo circulated on the Chinese internet in early April.

Avoiding starvation isn’t the only thing Shanghai residents have had to worry about. Children have been separated from their parents if they showed different COVID-19 test results. Seniors have struggled in medical facilities infested with COVID-19, and an unknown number of elderly people have died in such places after contracting the virus or because of lack of care.

Chen, the son of an 86-year-old in Xuhui Elderly Care Center, said half of the 200 people in the center were sick, including virtually all care workers.

His mother had a fever of 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit for four days, but was I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 19

The Lead China’s Draconian Lockdowns

(Above) Health workers stand at a check point next to a neighborhood in the Jing’an district of Shanghai on April 8.

(Right) Police and officials work in an area where barriers are being placed to close off streets around a locked-down neighborhood in Shanghai on March 15. (Far Right) Daily cases in Shanghai hovered at above 20,000—more than five times the number reported in late March when the lockdown first went into effect—for the six days ending April 12. unable to obtain care at the facility. After a round of calls to all public hotlines available, Chen got a call back on April 12 from 120, the emergency medical hotline, telling him and his mother to “wait,” he told Insight. The city hasn’t reported any deaths in relation to COVID-19 since two years ago.

As for those who test positive for COVID-19, they and their close contacts are sent to centralized quarantine centers, regardless of the sanitary conditions in those facilities.

In early April, dozens of vans carried locals to Wenjiadang, an apparently half-constructed makeshift hospital located in the Pudong district on the eastern side of Shanghai, where they waited while wearing white hazmat suits for hours in front of the metal entrance gate. Behind the gate were dozens of trash bags piled up.

The woman who filmed the video said plastic-wrapped meals were stacked on the dust-covered ground for people to take, and the whole facility had only one toilet— which didn’t flush—despite the center’s purported capacity to house 1,000 people.

Her post and any mention of the facility have been wiped from Weibo.

Another woman, who’s nearly 80 years old, described a similar situation after being sent to a makeshift quarantine center in Pudong. There was no bedding and no water, she told her son, who retold her ex20 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

perience in a Weibo post that attracted 107,000 likes. More than 90 people had to share two or three restrooms, where trash and cardboard lined the damp floor, which was smudged with muddy stains, photos the son shared online show.

“It’s so hard to access the restroom, but as an elderly person, I need to go to the restrooms several more times than young people,” she said, noting that she had gotten only three to four hours of sleep each day since coming to the facility.

Avoidable Tragedies Medical attention has continued to be an issue for the frail and sick.

Guo, a 65-year-old confined to his second-floor apartment in Shanghai, recently jumped from his balcony in a desperate bid to seek medical help for his 90-yearold mother, who was suffering from inflammatory lung disease, high blood pressure, and heart problems. Authorities had sealed off the building with a metal lock for days. The ambulance wouldn’t come, and calls to every public hotline went unanswered, he said.

“This government is completely dysfunctional,” he told Insight. “From top to bottom ... everyone is passing the buck.”

Asked by Insight about Guo’s plight, a local neighborhood committee worker said all regular officers have gone under quarantine. It’s currently manned by a group

of volunteers, including herself, she said.

However, officials reacted quickly after Guo called for help online—but not to offer assistance. They called Guo’s nephew asking that the post be deleted, an irony that Guo noted bitterly.

“No one was around earlier, and they are back to life now,” he said.

Larry Hsien Ping Lang, a prominent Chinese economist, recently lost his mother after COVID-19 curbs in Shanghai delayed her medical treatment.

The 98-year-old, suffering from kidney failure, was kept outside of the hospital emergency room for four hours while waiting for a negative COVID-19 test result. She died during the wait.

“The tragedy could have been avoided,” wrote Lang, who earlier this month had touted Shanghai’s virus response as a demonstration of “the power of China,” in a social media post. “Based on the past diagnosis, she just needed one dose of injection [for her kidney] to be alright.”

Lang was only allowed to leave his own neighborhood to go to the hospital after lengthy arguments with authorities, by which time his ailing mother had already died.

Anger Building At least 15 million residents are still locked in their homes as of April 13.

To vent their anger, residents in some

ALL PHOTOS BY HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The Lead China’s Draconian Lockdowns

neighborhoods have taken to banging on their cookware and screaming at the top of their lungs from the balconies of high-rise apartment buildings.

Videos shared with Insight also show locals shouting in unison “give us supplies” and at one point engaging in a scuffle with a pandemic worker clad in white.

Neither the city chief nor a senior regime official were kindly received when they recently made visits to residential neighborhoods.

Vice Premier Sun Chunlan was greeted by residents shouting from their apartment windows that they were “starving to death” and demanding that food be sent over.

Li Qiang, the Chinese Communist Party secretary of Shanghai, was cornered by several women airing similar complaints.

“You have committed a crime to the country,” said a woman walking a dog, a video circulating online shows. “You should be ashamed to face ancestors and heaven and earth.”

A woman from the compound, which has been sealed off since a month ago, said they were handed some rice and spoiled oranges just before and after Li’s visit. The rice would sustain her for five days, but she had no greens to go with it.

“I didn’t know Li Qiang was coming,” she told Insight. “Otherwise, I’d definitely have come down to have a good talk with him.

“The officials only answer to their bosses and never to the ordinary people.”

Enthusiasm among local officials re-

sponsible for frontline pandemic control seems to be waning as well.

In a letter dated April 9, the Hancheng neighborhood committee in Pudong stated that their staff have had enough after 24 days of being sealed in the office.

“We have tried our best to cooperate with different government policies. Everyone and every department want our understanding and cooperation, but no one cares about how we feel,” they wrote in the letter that was posted online.

“We are humans, too, not unfeeling machines. There’s also a time when we can’t bear it anymore.”

An officer from the nearby Renwen neighborhood committee, when called, confirmed their resignation.

“The pressure is quite considerable,” she told Insight.

Another neighboring office official said they’ll “hold on for as long as [they] are able.”

“We also don’t know if we will not be able to keep going one day,” she told Insight.

Wu Yingchuan, who became the village committee secretary for Changli Garden in November, also posted a resignation letter on social media, saying that they had done their best to help the residents, but were caught between government policies and the needs of 4,000 residents.

For more than two weeks, they haven’t had a shower. Wu’s workers are falling ill due to physical exhaustion and the virus.

The volumes of calls requesting help each day have been emotionally crushing. But they’ve had neither the manpower nor

When Vice Premier Sun Chunlan visited Shanghai, she was greeted by residents shouting from their apartment windows that they were ‘starving to death’ and demanding that food be sent over. capacity to offer tangible help.

“Orders from above are final. But those who give these irrevocable orders have never been to the nucleic testing site,” he wrote. “They probably have no idea ... because of such an order, how many frontline workers and volunteers would get infected and how many people lost their sleep.”

Wu is currently still at work, according to a committee officer who confirmed the letter’s veracity when called by Insight.

“Every word and sentence in this letter is real,” the officer said.

Luo Ya and Hong Ning contributed to this report.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 21

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OHIO

Joe Knopp’s Decision

Outsider shakes up Republican gubernatorial primary

GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci (R) introduces his running mate, filmmaker Joe Knopp, at an event in West Chester, Ohio, in 2021.

By Jeff Louderback s a financial planner-turnedfilm producer, Joe Knopp never envisioned going into politics.

That changed last December, when the Air Force veteran became former U.S. congressman Jim Renacci’s running mate as the duo seeks to unseat Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted in the May 3 GOP gubernatorial primary.

Knopp made that decision after turning down an offer from former Ohio state Rep. Ron Hood, another candidate challenging DeWine.

Knopp gained acclaim as the producer of 22 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

films such as “Unplanned,” “I Can Only Imagine,” and “The Trump I Know.” He said he was approached by Hood and Candice Keller, who is also a former Ohio state representative, about “either running for governor or joining the ticket as lieutenant governor.”

Hood, who served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021, ran in a special Congressional election to represent Ohio’s 15th District last year and finished a distant third in a race won by Trump-endorsed Mike Carey.

KELLER COMPLETED TWO terms in the Ohio

Joe Knopp was homeless at a young age, grew up in an orphange, and became a financial planner turned film producer before entering the political arena.

House from 2017 through 2020 before an unsuccessful bid for Ohio’s state Senate in 2020.

She’s the founder of an advocacy group called Patriot America.

While Hood and Keller are known for their anti-abortion and pro-gun rights stances, Keller has a record of being a political lightning rod.

The southwest Ohio native has found herself at the center of multiple political skirmishes—often because of her own inflammatory statements.

When she was a state legislator, Keller faced

Nation Midterms

backlash for a Facebook message she posted in the immediate aftermath of a mass shooting in Dayton that left nine people dead on Aug. 9, 2019.

“After every mass shooting, the liberals start the blame game,” she wrote. “Why not place the blame where it belongs?”

She went on to blame the tragedy on transgender individuals, homosexual marriage, drag queen advocates, children raised without a father, relaxed laws on illegal aliens, “snowflakes who can’t accept a fully-elected president,” professional athletes “who hate our flag and National Anthem,” and former President Barack Obama for promoting a “disrespect of law enforcement,” among other factors.

“Did I forget anybody?” Keller said. “The list is long. And the fury will continue.”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP L: JEFF LOUDERBACK/THE EPOCH TIMES, COURTESY OF JOE KNOPP, COURTESY OF JOE KNOPP, COURTESY OF JOE KNOPP

KELLER WAS ADMONISHED by Democrats and

Republicans for the post. Jane Timken, who is vying to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman in the Ohio GOP U.S. Senate race, was Ohio Republican Party chair at the time and called for Keller to resign.

“Some want to politicize these events, and I cannot condone such comment and behavior.” Butler County Republican Party executive committee Chairman Todd Hall said after the post by Keller, whose district included Butler County, which is located between Cincinnati and Dayton.

Knopp said he felt uncomfortable with Hood and Keller, and that led to him declining their invitation to be part of a gubernatorial ticket.

“Ron said that felt like he was called by God to be governor or lieutenant governor. After he lost the congressional race to a candidate who was supported by former President Donald Trump, he said, ‘You can’t win without a Trump endorsement.’

“He perceived I could bring that,” Knopp said.

“He said he didn’t care if I ran for governor or lieutenant governor. He told me, ‘I can bring the money if you get the endorsement.’

“After a period of time, I concluded that Ron and Candice were not the people I wanted to partner with,” Knopp said. “I felt like we were not aligned in character and faith.”

Renacci, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2019, announced his gubernatorial candidacy in June 2021. Then he started vetting potential lieutenant governor candidates, and among them were Hood and Knopp.

“During an early conversation with Joe, I told him how Candice Keller kept saying there is someone from southwest Ohio who is conservative and will enter the governor’s race. Joe told

Knopp was introduced to the political scene while serving as the producer of “Unplanned,” a 2019 documentary that chronicles the life of an abortion clinic directorturned-pro-life activist.

me, ‘Jim, that’s me,’” Renacci said with a grin.

The lieutenant governor’s search was narrowed to Hood and Knopp, and the latter was Renacci’s choice.

“I was looking for an outsider as my lieutenant governor, somebody who started with nothing and understands what it is to work hard, to not be handed anything,” Renacci said. “Joe is no ordinary Joe. His movies are inspirational and his life is inspirational.”

Knopp’s personal story is what intrigued Hood, Keller, and Renacci, and it relates to how his journey led to the Ohio gubernatorial race.

Homeless on the streets of Philadelphia, Knopp and his two sisters stole food to eat and slept in abandoned homes for refuge from the frigid winter.

He was 5, and it’s a memory that’s never faded.

“My early childhood was surrounded by a lot of abuse and addiction. It was common for the police to be at our house. When I was 5, the police arrived and separated my mom, my two sisters, and I from my father, and we have not seen him since,” Knopp said.

“My mom was not in a position to raise us, and we lived on the street. That is when we had no choice but to steal food to eat, and many times we had to find abandoned homes for shelter.”

One Sunday, Knopp recalled, he and his sisters saw a sign at a church describing how free donuts and orange juice were served at Sunday School.

WES WHITEHEAD, A Philadelphia architect, saw

In 2018, Knopp and Daryl Lefever released “I Can Only Imagine,” which is among the top 10 highest-grossing faith-based films of all time.

Knopp and his sisters at church and took notice of the three children who weren’t accompanied by parents and wore dirty clothes. He took the siblings to an orphanage.

Most children lived there for a year or two until their parents “got it together,” Knopp said. The Knopps saw a different outcome. Their mother never was able to take care of them and they lived at the orphanage through high school graduation.

After high school, Knopp enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in suburban Dayton. He remained there for six years, earned a finance degree at night, and eventually opened a financial planning firm. That’s when a film-producing friend called from Hollywood.

Daryl Lefever, a feature film controller whose studio credits include “X-Men” and “The Polar Express,” decided to focus on producing Christian-themed films.

“He needed help securing financing for Christian films. I was the only finance guy that he knew,” Knopp said. “He called me I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 23

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Voters arrive to cast their ballots early at the Franklin County Board of Elections in Columbus, Ohio, on April 11.

THAT FILM INTRODUCED Knopp to the political

scene. He was invited to the White House by Vice President Mike Pence and met Lara Trump, who is Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law.

Lara Trump is a TV producer, and Knopp saw 24 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

“I was looking for an outsider as my lieutenant governor, somebody who started with nothing and understands what it is to work hard, to not be handed anything.”

Jim Renacci, Ohio gubernatorial candidate

her from time to time at events.

“She would tell me stories about their family and about women President Trump hired on his campaign team and in his businesses. They were stories media would not share,” Knopp said. “One common saying I kept hearing is ‘I wish people knew the Trump I know.’”

That sparked an idea for the next story Knopp would tell. The result was “The Trump I Know,” a documentary that depicts President Donald Trump from the perspective of Lara Trump and other women in the Trump family, administration, campaign, and business world.

Knopp included a one-on-one interview with Trump, who he said became the first sitting president to appear in a documentary.

Knopp traveled the country speaking at “America First” and pro-life events. The calendar turned from 2020 to 2021, and like many Ohioans, Knopp was displeased with DeWine’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

The governor followed then-Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton’s projections about the virus, leading to economic devastation for many Ohio businesses and communi-

CLOCKWISE FORM L: GAELEN MORSE/GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY OF JIM RENACCI, SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES

to help figure out how to get inspirational movies made.”

Knopp and Lefever teamed to create “Woodlawn,” a movie released in 2015 that tells the story of a gifted high school football player who experiences racial tension on and off the field. In 2018, they released “I Can Only Imagine,” which follows the life of MercyMe lead singer Bart Millard and is among the top 10 highest-grossing faith-based films of all time.

Knopp explored ideas for his next project. At the time, the abortion issue was in the news after New York passed a progressive abortion law and Virginia approved a late-term abortion law.

He served as the producer of “Unplanned,” a 2019 documentary that chronicles the life of Abby Johnson, who converted to being a pro-life activist after having been an abortion clinic director.

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ties. That motivated Knopp to enter the political arena, appearing at events with Keller and, a few times, Hood.

Before Renacci made a decision about his running mate, he says Keller and Hood often praised him publicly and on social media. That changed, he said, when a press conference was held in early December introducing Knopp as the lieutenant governor candidate.

“I was shocked they jumped in the race not long after I chose Joe, because they were so supportive of both of us before that point,” Renacci said.

On Feb. 1, Hood and Keller announced that they had gathered the required number of signatures and were entering the gubernatorial race.

Hood has been a no-show at many campaign events, although Keller has been more visible.

When the Ohio Debate Commission reached out to Hood to participate in a GOP gubernatorial debate scheduled for March 29, he never returned emails or calls, according to Jill Zimon, the organization’s executive director.

“We’ve never had a candidate not at least return an email or a phone call,” Zimon said.

A March poll showed Renacci leading DeWine by double digits.

Out of the 1,342 likely Republican primary voters surveyed, 46 percent selected Renacci while 30 percent supported DeWine and 20 percent backed farmer and restaurant owner Joe Blystone; 4 percent picked Hood.

AFTER ANNOUNCING THEIR candidacy, Keller

told reporters, “Ron Hood and I look forward to stopping all mandatory vaccinations, mandatory face masks, and all lockdowns and shutdowns in Ohio.”

“Our president, Donald Trump, showed us what constitutional conservative leadership can produce in a nation. We need more of that.”

A March 28 poll from the Committee for a Better Ohio showed Renacci leading DeWine by double digits. Out of the 1,342 likely Republican primary voters surveyed, 46 percent selected Renacci, while 30 percent supported DeWine, and 20 percent backed farmer and restaurant owner Joe Blystone; 4 percent picked Hood.

Many supporters of the three challengers believe that two of the candidates should drop out so they don’t split the vote to DeWine’s benefit.

Blystone, Hood, and Renacci have similar platforms when it comes to protecting gun rights, opposing COVID-19 mandates and abortion, and keeping critical race theory and similar ideologies out of Ohio schools.

A Yellow Springs native, DeWine was hired out of law school as the assistant prosecuting attorney in his native Greene County. Four years later, he was elected as Greene County prosecutor. He has since served in the state Senate from 1980 to 1982, as a U.S. representative from 1982 to 1990, as lieutenant governor

Jim Renacci, GOP gubernatorial candidate.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

from 1990 to 1994, as a U.S. senator from 1994 to 2006, and as the’s state attorney general from 2011 to January 2019, when he was inaugurated as governor.

Hood’s political experience centers around his time as a state representative, while Renacci is an entrepreneur who served as a city councilman and then mayor of Wadsworth, which is 33 miles south of Cleveland, before running for Congress.

He was motivated to seek election in Ohio’s 16th Congressional District in 2009, when the Obama administration assumed control of General Motors and shuttered dealerships nationwide, including Renacci’s business in northeast Ohio. He served in Congress from 2011 to 2019.

RENACCI INITIALLY CAMPAIGNED for governor

in 2018 but eventually, at the request of President Trump, decided to run for U.S. Senate. He won the Republican primary but lost to Sherrod Brown in the general election.

Blystone, who has never held or pursued elected office, was born in East Liverpool, Ohio. He operated an automotive equipment business before transitioning to farming in Canal Winchester, building one of the largest sheep farms in Ohio before eventually switching to cattle.

The current Blystone Farm property, which started as a packing house, now features a restaurant, bakery, general store, and special events venue. It remains a working cattle farm and packing house.

In 2020, Blystone emerged as an outspoken opponent of DeWine’s COVID-19 mandates.

DeWine declined an invitation by the Ohio Debate Commission to take the stage with Blystone, Hood, and Renacci on March 29. He told reporters that Ohioans already know where he stands on issues. Renacci said he would only appear if DeWine did, claiming that “a gubernatorial debate without the governor is not a gubernatorial debate.” Blystone accepted the offer, while Hood was the lone candidate to not respond.

While the primary for congressional seats and state legislative districts is delayed because of disagreements surrounding redistricting maps, Ohioans will head to the polls on May 3 to vote in gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races.

The winner among Blystone, DeWine, Hood, and Renacci will face former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley or former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, the Democratic Party candidates.

Brookville pastor Niel Petersen is gathering signatures to get his name added to the ballot as an independent.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 25

Nation School Boards

EDUCATION

F

CONSERVATIVES WIN IN WAUKESHA

ED UP WITH CRITICAL R ACE

theory, sexually explicit textbooks, and forced masking in public schools, dissatisfied parents have been recalling school board members and vowing to replace others with people who will stand up for parental rights. Now, in what seems to be a growing trend, parents are fighting back and winning in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where conservative candidates have ousted three incumbent school board members.

On April 5, Waukesha voters elected Marquell Moorer, Mark Borowski, and Karrie Kozlowski as members of the Waukesha County School Board.

Insight reached out to each of the winners to find out what motivated them to run, what they believe needs to be fixed, and how they propose to make improvements in their school district.

3 new members elected as parents become more involved in shaping public education

By Patricia Tolson

Why They Ran As the first and only black candidate to run for a school board position in Waukesha, Marquelle Moorer was tired of watching liberals use the life challenges of minorities, people of color, and even poor white children as an excuse to lower standards and expectations, and how they used a feigned a desire to “help them” as a means of forcing liberal ideology into the curriculum.

“I want to reject the bigotry of low expectations,” Moorer told Insight.

“That’s not going to move us forward in our district. It’s not going to move us forward in our city or in our state or the nation. I wanted to take a stand and 26 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

55–60% OF THE CHILDREN

in Waukesha weren’t proficient in the fundamental subjects of math, science, language arts, and social studies.

say there are children who look like me, who come from the same circumstances of poverty and homelessness. However, what made a difference in my life was the people who believed in me and had high expectations for what I could do.

We need those same high expectations for every single child, regardless of their circumstances or identity.”

Mark Borowski, the father of two daughters, has always been involved in his community. After spending time on the board of directors at three different companies and 14 years of fundraising for various organizations, he was looking for the next way to make a difference. That’s when he met with a colleague who was a county supervisor who connected him with a very passionate parenting group. One thing led to another, and that’s when his campaign began.

“The whole COVID thing was a hard learning situation for everyone,” Borowski told Insight, describing how the lockdowns led to virtual learning, then back to classroom instruction, before backpedaling to a hybrid learning system. “They did it without good information on whether or not kids were learning anything in virtual. I thought that was a poor decision, to make a choice without researching the facts.”

While Borowski noted on his website that he opposes critical race theory (CRT), it was primarily so parents knew where he stood. While he did see it “seeping into the district,” he didn’t want to make it a major focus of his campaign.

“I tried to focus on local issues, student

FROM TOP: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY OF MARQUELL MOORER

Protesters rally against critical race theory instruction in schools, at the Loudoun County Government Center in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021.

achievement, and transparency that allows parents to make decisions that are best for their own children,” he said.

“Then there is the budget. We need to look at the budget through the lens of, ‘Is it going to improve student achievement?’ If not, we need to think twice.”

Karrie Kozlowski, the mother of three daughters, was part of the grassroots effort in Waukesha that elected conservative candidates Kelly Piacsek and Anthony Zenobia to the school board in 2021.

Knowing that campaigns can be brutal, Kozlowski had absolutely no intention of running—until she started digging into data regarding the drop in academic achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic. While she initially thought the decline was due to the lockdowns, Kozlowski—a self-described “data geek”—discovered that the trend had existed for a 6-to-10year period.

Discovering that 55 to 60 percent of the children in Waukesha weren’t proficient in the fundamental subjects of math, science, language arts, and social studies was unacceptable to her. While only one of her daughters is still in the Waukesha public school system, Kozlo-

wski said she was compelled by divine inspiration to get involved.

Problems to Be Solved

“We need those same high expectations for every single child, regardless of their circumstances or identity.”

Marquelle Moorer, member-elect, Waukesha County School Board

For Moorer, addressing the decline in academic standards is a priority. He also believes that the prevalence of CRT and sexually inappropriate content in textbooks and library books needs to be addressed.

While his predecessors chose to focus on liberal ideology and indoctrination rather than student achievement, Moorer wants to put kids “back on track with academics.”

“They said critical race theory wasn’t in our schools. But it definitely is in our schools,” he said. “It was just packaged under a different name. COVID really opened the eyes of parents over the past two years, and they got to see what children were really being taught in schools.

When they saw that, they took a stand, and we saw that at the polls.”

Moorer also finds it “very ironic” that, due to their explicit content, some books that school boards have approved for children to read aren’t allowed to be read aloud at school board meetings.

“They don’t want us to read this at school board meetings, but they’re I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 27

Nation School Boards

teaching this stuff to our kids in classrooms,” he said. “A child can just pick up a book that has sexually explicit content in it without any parents knowing. That is not acceptable. It is very inappropriate, especially at the kindergarten and middle-school level. Our children should never be exposed to that. We should preserve our children’s innocence.”

Borowski believes that the biggest problems that need to be addressed in the Waukesha County School District are academics and the budget.

“First focus [on] student achievement,” he said. “To make improvements, we need to get back to the basics.

It should go without saying, but we are not getting the results. Something is wrong. We have too many teachers and administrators in our schools who care and are very good at what they do for us to not be getting the results we should be getting.”

Then there’s the budget deficit.

“We have state funding that will not be increasing,” Borowski said. “Then we have increased expenses due to record inflation. So that’s a tough situation to come into and say we’re going to make improvements. But we have to do it. We have to prioritize and figure out how to get the best resources to the most students in the most efficient ways.”

Kozlowski believes the shift to CRT and other liberal social ideologies and away from the fundamentals is direct-

“We’re teaching kids to hate each other. We’re teaching parents and teachers to become divided.

It’s backwards and wrong on every level.”

Karrie Kozlowski, member-elect, Waukesha County School Boar

A crowd of parents protests against the teaching of critical race theory, at a Loudoun County School Board meeting in Ashburn, Va., on June 22, 2021.

ly responsible for the lower scholastic levels of achievement for Waukesha’s public school students. While studying the trending drop in academic achievement, Kozlowski simultaneously observed how the district actively expanded subjects such as social-emotional learning—a rebranded version of critical race theory that was being slipped into the curriculum—which has been vigorously opposed by parents at school boards across the country. While touted as a way to improve academic scores, She believes the new curriculum was making matters worse.

“All of that is happening in Waukesha, 100 percent,” she told Insight. “The tell-tale of critical race theory, equity and diversity, white privilege, social reformative justice, and social-emotional learning, all of these are spinoffs of CRT. It’s all CRT. It’s in our face. It’s right there.”

While some school officials insisted CRT wasn’t in the schools and demanded that complaining parents provide evidence that it existed, Kozlowski said: “It’s not a subject. It’s not a textbook or a chapter in a book.” She said it’s the lens they make kids look through.

“We’re teaching kids to hate each other. We’re teaching parents and teachers to become divided,” she said. “It’s backward and wrong on every level. We need strong school boards that are holding the administration and those responsible for curriculum and library books accountable.”

How to Fix the Problems The first thing Moorer wants to focus on is lifting student achievement.

“Academic recovery is number one, getting these kids on grade-level and supporting our teachers to make sure our kids have the fundamental skills to be successful. That starts with a foundation of reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies,” he said.

During his campaign, Moorer spoke to admissions counselors at a two-year and a four-year college. They told him that Waukesha graduates aren’t college-ready.

“Most don’t even know how to use a ruler,” he said. “How is that possible?

We are setting these kids up for failure.

If we do not step up now and change 28 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

Nation School Boards

“I thought that [switching to virtual learning] was a poor decision, to make a choice without researching the facts.”

Mark Borowski, member-elect, Waukesha County School Board

A family attend the Kentucky Freedom Rally, a protest against a number of issues including the teaching of critical race theory in schools, at the state Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., on Aug. 28, 2021.

pushing students further behind. We’re not holding the kids accountable. One half believes they are victims and are owed something, and the others are made to feel guilty and that they are responsible for the failures of minorities. It’s disgusting.”

Borowski believes recovery starts with accountability.

“Not pointing fingers, but getting answers,” he said. “Let’s get some answers and make some corrections.”

The budget deficit is due to declining enrollment, according to Borowski.

Enrollment is dropping because parents are pulling their kids from public schools. It’s a “self-inflicted wound” that he believes can be corrected “by making some improvements.”

“I think we can turn this around,” he said. “If we start showing some progress and some success, we could get those kids back. But we have to have something to show them.”

Ultimately, Borowski has vowed that he’s going to listen to parents and “do the best” he can for the next three years to improve the school district and improve student outcomes for their futures.

“That’s the task at hand. That’s why I ran, and it’s not for political reasons,” he said. “I still have a child in the district. It’s about that. It’s not about anything else.”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP L: COURTESY OF KARRIE KOZLOWSKI, COURTESY OF MARK BOROWSKI, JON CHERRY/GETTY IMAGES, EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/REUTERS

course, their futures will be severely impacted. We need to make sure we are piloting and implementing college readiness programs.”

For Moorer, it’s time to shift the focus in Waukesha’s public schools away from the destructive negativity of CRT and back toward the empowering strength that can only come from academic excellence.

It’s a sentiment shared by Kozlowski.

As a hiring manager, her interviews with college graduates made her acutely aware of how “absolutely unprepared” they are to join the labor market or expand their careers. Not only are they lacking in verbal and written communication skills, but they’re lacking in the most basic abilities, such as knowing how to use a calculator.

Because of this, she believes the focus on education must be brought back to the fundamentals, because today’s graduates “will not thrive in the world without it.” A more disturbing trend for her is how educators are lowering standards to accommodate the lack of academic skills.

“They recognize that our students are not proficient,” Kozlowski said.

“But rather than fix the root cause of the deficiencies, they’re lowering the standards and expectations and creating a one-size-fits-all approach that is

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 29

FBI MEMOS

FBI HAD

MOLES IN MEDIA,

Memos Suggest Memos show the agency obtained information from within NBC, ABC

BY KEN SILVA INVESTIGATOR ROGER CHARLES WAS

30 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

Timothy McVeigh (C) is led from the Noble County Courthouse in Perry, Okla., by FBI agents after being convicted for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

‘We would never do that because that would be illegal and unconstitutional,’” he said. “Instead, they came back and said, ‘Yeah, we do that. We have manuals on that, but you can’t have them because of national security.’”

The FBI fought against Trentadue for years in federal court to keep its manuals secret, and it was ultimately successful.

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2015.

However, Trentadue said the litigation helped him piece together what he calls the FBI’s “sensitive informant program.”

According to his lawsuit, this program is used to place informants in the national media, among other institutions.

The FBI hasn’t responded to questions

from The Epoch Times for this story, including about Trentadue’s description of the sensitive informant program. The bureau has defended the use of informants in sensitive institutions as necessary to root out corruption and other crime, while former director J. Edgar Hoover deemed such tactics necessary to fight communism.

But in the wake of a recently released, scathing internal FBI audit—which found special agents breaking their own rules more than twice per reviewed case when investigating sensitive institutions—some lawmakers are beginning to question the bureau’s sweeping investigatory powers.

“It has been nearly two weeks since

BOB DAEMMERICH/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

combing through records of the FBI’s Oklahoma City bombing investigation more than a decade ago, when he discovered a memo suggesting that someone working at ABC News provided a tip to the bureau a day after the deadly April 19, 1995, domestic terrorist attack.

It appeared that a senior ABC News journalist had been doubling as an FBI informant. The memo made a few headlines in 2011, but quickly passed through the news cycle with little effect and hardly any coverage by major outlets.

However, Charles’s discovery stoked the curiosity of his friend, attorney Jesse Trentadue. At that time, Trentadue, a Utah resident, was suing the FBI for records related to his brother’s murder, and he began filing requests in 2012 to see if the bureau had other informants in the media, or in places such as congressional offices, courts, churches, other government agencies, and the White House.

Trentadue said the government’s response shocked him.

“I thought they’d come back and say,

The FBI fought Jesse Trentadue for years in federal court to keep its manuals secret, and was ultimately successful. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2015.

PHOTO BY MANDEL NGAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

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this information was revealed, and the FBI has thus far declined to comment or provide additional transparency,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wrote in a March 31 letter. “I believe the Senate would benefit from hearing directly from Inspector General [Michael] Horowitz, FBI Director [Christopher] Wray, as well as any division directors with knowledge of the audit or the errors detailed in it.”

Trentadue’s Records

32 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

(Top) The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which Timothy McVeigh bombed on April 19, 1995, during its demolition, in Oklahoma City, Okla., on May 23, 1995.

(Above) Federal law enforcement agents look at the rubble of the Albert P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, one day after the bombing on April 19, 1995.

CLOCKWISE FROM L: POOL PHOTO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, RICK BOWMER/ AP/SHUTTERSTOCK, BOB DAEMMRICH/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

According to Trentadue, the redacted FBI audit only begins to scratch the surface of the bureau’s purported wrongdoing.

He would know. His litigation against the U.S. government, spanning four decades, has unearthed numerous revelations about the FBI, including details about undercover right-wing infiltration operations and previously hidden databases.

One of Trentadue’s findings that hasn’t received media coverage—until now— pertains to sensitive informants.

Documents Trentadue provided to The Epoch Times included the initial FBI memo Charles discovered about the informant within ABC, as well as previously unpublicized memos written by special agents receiving information from ABC and NBC. Among those is a September 1996 FBI memo reporting that a “confidential source who works for a news agency [learned] that ABC News was going to air an expose in the next few days concerning the OKC [Oklahoma City] bombing.”

“ABC will be interviewing a rescue worker who is going to state that ATF had stored a large amount of explosives in the MURRAH BUILDING, which contributed to the explosion. The rescue worker is also going to advise that evidence of these explosives was found by rescue workers, and this particular rescue worker had contacted the FBI with this information, and was told by the FBI to keep quiet,” the FBI memo reads.

“This rescue worker is currently upset because nothing has been done with this information and he feels the FBI has attempted to cover up the information.”

The September 1996 memo identifies the person at the news agency as a “confidential source,” rather than referring to the person by a serial number—suggesting that this source may be different than

Informants In The Media

the aforementioned informant. Trentadue said he didn’t know for sure, nor did he know whether the ABC report referenced in the memo was ever published.

Then there’s a series of FBI memos that also serve as the subject of controversy in another Trentadue lawsuit. These memos describe FBI agents who were allegedly trying to sell surveillance footage of the Oklahoma City bombing to NBC. No arrests resulted from the matter, and the government says the surveillance footage discussed in the memos doesn’t exist. Trentadue is seeking to prove the existence of the footage in a separate, ongoing lawsuit against the FBI that has been sealed for the past seven years.

Putting aside the surveillance footage controversy, the memos show that the FBI was receiving information from within NBC. The first tip from NBC came on Oct. 27, 1995, when a confidential source, whose identity is redacted, said the NBC show

“Dateline” had been contacted by an attorney. According to the FBI memo, the attorney represented an FBI agent in Los Angeles who was seeking to sell surveillance footage for more than $1 million.

“It was represented that the video tape would contain lapse photography of the arrival and then departure of a UPS truck. Then a Ryder truck pulls up and a male resembling Timothy McVeigh is seen exiting the driver’s side of the Ryder truck and then walking away,” the FBI memo reads. “Next, a second male is seen exiting the passenger side of the Ryder truck and walking to the back of the truck. The second male then walks away in the same direction as the first male.”

The FBI received five more tips through Nov. 7, 1995, about the matter—including someone offering to provide a prepublication copy of a story about “negotiations between an unknown Los Angeles Agent of the FBI and ‘Dateline,’” according to the memo.

Other records suggest that the FBI used reporters as sources of information—whether the reporter knew it or not. For instance, an April 25, 1995, FBI memo states that reporter Bob Norman, of The News-Press, a daily newspaper in Florida, called the bureau to provide information.

The FBI memo says Norman “advised” a special agent that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh had connections to Florida’s militia. But Norman, currently an active reporter who has recently written for the Florida Bulldog, said he was simply calling for comment on a story he was writing at the time.

“I’m sure the agent wanted me to share my source material and, as his own report shows, I correctly refused to do so,” Norman told The Epoch Times in a statement.

The FBI memo indeed reflects that Norman declined to provide the bureau with a videotape—telling the special agent that “he was not convinced his superiors will approve of sharing this information with the FBI, and therefore he cannot provide a copy of the tapes or further information.”

“While I disagree with the agent’s characterization of the reason for the call, this is what journalists do,” Norman said.

“We present our found information to authorities in order to get confirmation,

additional information, context, denials, etc. It is, in fact, an essential part of the fact-gathering process.”

Along with the FBI memos about reporters, Trentadue provided a memo that suggests the FBI had advanced knowledge of a new member joining McVeigh’s defense team. A special agent reported at the time that he received information from a confidential witness.

Confidential witnesses differ from typical informants in that they often testify at trials. This particular confidential witness identified in the May 1995 memo provided information about a loan shark scam and a “special forces national convention” set to take place in Nevada that year.

“It is not a case of someone coming to the FBI offering to expose corruption.

The bureau is recruiting spies.”

Jesse Trentadue, attorney

The confidential witness (CW) also provided information about McVeigh’s defense team, telling the FBI that a woman named Wilma Sparks was joining the team.

“The CW advised that WILMA SPARKS is a close associate of the CW and that SPARKS is taking on the responsibility of investigating certain aspects of the investigation,” the memo reads. “SPARKS advised the CW that although this was a distasteful assignment, she was willing to accept the assignment to ensure that the case against MCVEIGH will not be overturned due to incompetent counsel.”

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McVeigh’s lead defense counsel, Stephen Jones, declined to comment on the memo.

Trentadue’s Court Case

34 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

The initial FBI memo Roger Charles discovered shows that special agents received information from NBC.

Documents Trentadue provided included the initial FBI memo Charles discovered about the informant within ABC, as well as previously unpublicized memos written by special agents receiving information from ABC and NBC. emptions advanced by the FBI for withholding portions of the Manual apply and, even if they do apply, can those exemptions be lawfully asserted to conceal FBI activities that are unconstitutional and/or otherwise illegal?

“Plaintiff submits that the answers to this two-part question are, ‘NO.’” However, federal Judge Dale Kimball ruled in favor of the FBI in July 2013, writing in his decision that discovery is generally unavailable in FOIA litigation

and that he found no reason to deviate from that rule.

In April 2014, the FBI moved for a summary judgment to end the lawsuit once and for all. FBI agents provided written declarations in support of the motion, articulating the bureau’s reasons for withholding information about sensitive informants.

Eric Vélez-Villar, then-assistant director of the FBI’s Directorate of Intelligence, said revealing information in the

FROM TOP L: DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES, SPENCER PLATT/ GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY OF U.S. DISTRICT COURT

Trentadue used the FBI memos and other documents as evidence to support his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in 2012.

At the time, Trentadue was seeking fully unredacted copies of the FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG), the FBI Confidential Human Source Validation Standards Manual, the FBI Confidential Human Source Policy Manual, and the FBI Confidential Human Source Policy Implementation Guide. The Utah attorney had received a few pages from those manuals that contained references to sensitive informants, but they offered few details due to the heavy redactions.

As part of his effort, Trentadue was seeking to conduct discovery. He wanted to know whether the FBI had informants in the courts, Congress, media, and other government agencies at any point since January 1995. He also sought information about how many sensitive informants the FBI had in each institution.

The government resisted Trentadue’s efforts to conduct discovery at every turn. In email correspondence, prosecutors told him he had no legal standing.

“This case is not one where you have asked the Court to declare an alleged ‘secret surveillance program’ illegal on any ground ... nor have you sought to enjoin any activity that you allege any such program might be conducting,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) told him.

“Instead, this case, like the numerous other FOIA cases that you have filed in this Court, is about nothing except for whether the FBI performed an adequate search for records responsive to your FOIA requests.”

In a January 2013 motion for a Salt Lake City federal judge to order the FBI to answer his questions, Trentadue argued against the DOJ’s explanation.

“The issue in this dispute between the parties is not the adequacy of the FBI’s search for the Manual. The FBI found the Manual,” Trentadue said in his motion, referring to an FBI book on using sensitive informants. “The issue for the Court to decide is whether the FOIA ex-

Informants In The Media

manuals would compromise sources and methods for how the bureau handles informants.

“The effectiveness of techniques involving undisclosed participation [by informants] is directly contingent upon the FBI keeping its involvement in such activities undisclosed,” Vélez-Villar said.

“The information was intended for an audience of FBI employees only.”

As for information specific to sensitive investigations and informants, Vélez-Villar said disclosing such policies would “disclose critical tools utilized by the FBI in its investigations and intelligence gathering efforts.”

“Releasing the policies governing these sensitive investigative techniques and strategies would compound the harm of such a disclosure by also revealing how and when the FBI can/will utilize these tools,” he said.

The FBI’s motion also included sworn statements from officials at the State Department and the CIA, both agreeing that the sensitive informant manuals should be kept secret.

The head of the CIA’s litigation support unit, Martha Lutz, said disclosing the FBI manuals could compromise CIA sources.

“In this case, the FBI manual indicates certain traits or characteristics of FBI confidential human sources that should give rise to notification or coordination with CIA. By doing so, the manuals reveal the particular traits or characteristics that may be associated with CIA human sources, such as an individual’s national origin or travel habits,” Lutz said.

“Publicly disclosing this information creates the risk that adversaries of the United States may gain insight into the traits and characteristics that CIA values in human sources.”

Trentadue opposed the FBI’s motion for summary judgment and the two parties duked it out at a November 2014 hearing over the matter. But after reviewing the unredacted manuals in private, Judge Kimball granted the FBI’s national security exemptions in June 2015.

Kimball noted that government agencies are “entitled to considerable deference” when they exercise national security or law enforcement exemptions. Unless there’s evidence of bad faith by government actors, then the courts

Trentadue’s Findings

Judge Dale Kimball ruled in favor of the FBI, saying that he found no evidence of bad faith on the part of the U.S. government, and therefore the courts didn’t have the power to make government agencies disclose secret information. have no power to make government agencies disclose secret information, he said.

In this case—unlike in another ongoing FOIA lawsuit between Trentadue and the FBI, where there’s an ongoing witness tampering investigation taking place—Kimball said he found no evidence of bad faith on the part of the U.S. government.

“Having conducted a thorough in camera review of the documents (or portions thereof) withheld by the agency, in conjunction with the agency’s claimed reasons for so withholding the information, the court concludes that the claimed exemptions are valid,” he said. “The FBI has demonstrated ... that it has withheld sensitive information because that information logically falls within the scope of the claimed exemption.”

Kimball ordered the case closed on June 9, 2015.

The FBI has a natural tendency to push its spying powers to the legal limits— and sometimes beyond, an expert says.

Trentadue argues that his FOIA litigation, coupled with the FBI memos he’s procured, demonstrates that the FBI has much to hide about its use of sensitive informants.

“Yes, the FBI does need sensitive informants to, as you say, investigate corruption and potential violent groups. Yes, the FBI should have manuals to make sure that these are done legally. But the key is that I asked for manuals governing ‘recruitment/management’ of specific informants, which FBI produced but redacted,” he said.

“It is not a case of someone coming to the FBI offering to expose corruption. The bureau is recruiting spies.”

Other FOIA and legal experts tend to agree.

“My guess is that he’s probably right,” said Sean Dunagan, senior investigator at the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch. “It’s just very difficult to reach any conclusions with moral certitude, based on what the FBI didn’t hand over.”

Attorney and author Alexander Charns, who chronicled how J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI infiltrated the federal judiciary in his book, “Cloak and Gavel: FBI Wiretaps, Bugs, Informers, and the Supreme Court,” said history supports Trentadue’s claims, and that Congress should look into the matter.

Charns’s book, which covers thousands of Supreme Court and FBI records obtained by the author, details the many tactics Hoover used to influence the Supreme Court—from wiretaps to PR campaigns, and including the use of informants.

“It is disturbing, but not surprising, to find that at least three Court employees reported directly to the FBI,” he wrote.

Offering the qualifier that his expertise on FBI informants is limited to the Hoover era, Charns said the bureau has a natural tendency to push its spying powers to the legal limits—and sometimes beyond.

“I don’t have evidence that this is occurring now, but it seems like law enforcement is opportunistic. So if they have an opportunity to place an informant in an organization that raises constitutional questions, they often tend to look at it as: they’re not going to refuse information,” he said.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 35

T H G IL T O P S DEVASTATED MARIUPOL A RUSSIAN SOLDIER PATROLS AT the bombed out Donetsk Regional Drama Theatre in Mariupol on April 12. Russian shelling trapped tens of thousands of people in the besieged city with scant access to food and water while evacuation efforts were made.

PHOTO BY ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

36 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 37

The Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Va., on April 16, 2020.

PHOTO BY ZACH GIBSON/GETTY IMAGES

HUMAN RIGHTS

V IRGINI A HOUSE TA K E S S TA

FORCED ORG AN H A IN CHINA

Efforts to end China’s murder of priso of conscience for their organs result unanimous resolution in Virginia

BY TERRI WU

38 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

A ND AG A INS T

ARVES TING A

oners ts in a

China Organ Transplant Crimes

F

A I R FA X C O U N T Y, VA . — When the TV screen inside the Virginia General Assembly showed the vote of 82–0 on Feb. 11, Wang Chunyan, a 66-year-old Chinese refugee who just became a U.S. citizen a year ago, stood in silence.

The vote in question was a House resolution condemning the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) more than two-decades-long persecution of adherents of the spiritual group Falun Gong.

“The House of Delegates strongly condemns the imprisonment, torture, slave labor, and state-sponsored forced organ harvesting used against Falun Gong practitioners in China and demands an immediate end to the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party,” the resolution states.

“All Virginians stand in solidarity with Falun Gong practitioners in their pursuit of freedom of belief.”

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice composed of moral teachings centered around the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, and a set of meditative exercises. It expanded in popularity in China in the 1990s, resulting in 70 million to 100 million people practicing by the end of the decade. Deeming such popularity to be a threat to its authoritarian rule, the CCP in 1999 launched an expansive persecution campaign targeting the practice and its adherents.

Since then, millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained in prisons, labor camps, detention centers, and other facilities, where they have been subjected to torture, forced labor, and forced organ harvesting.

Before fleeing to the United States, Wang was one of the victims of the persecution.

From late 2020 to 2021, the retired businesswoman and her friends collected over 5,000 signatures in support of local resolutions on the issue in more than 20 Virginian counties.

“The unanimous passing [of the resolution] exceeded my expectations,” Wang told Insight.

“In the face of a brutal Chinese communist regime, 82 delegates said ‘no.’

“I was overwhelmed by the kindness.”

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 39

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Recollections

40 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

“It was like my almost-healed wounds were torn open again,” she said. Her world had been turned upside down when she lost her husband of 21 years.

In January 2002, 2 1/2 years into the regime’s persecution, Wang left home in an effort to evade local police who were bent on arresting her for persisting in her faith. As a result, Wang’s husband, Yu Yefu, who was not a practitioner, was often harassed by police looking to track down Wang.

One day, a policeman visited Yu at his workplace to find out Wang’s whereabouts. The officer hit Yu, who fought back. Before leaving, the policeman said he would take revenge.

Several days later, Yu’s body was found at home with the gas turned on. The official cause of death was determined to be gas poisoning, but the family suspected foul play given that he was found with a head wound. He was 49.

Traditionally in China, the eldest son occupies a special position in the family,

bearing primary responsibility for the welfare of the parents and other family members. Yu was the eldest son and someone the entire family looked up to and relied on. Upon learning of his death, his 37-year-old younger sister suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized. Within weeks, his mother became paralyzed out of grief and remained in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Unable to cope with the loss, his father killed himself a year later, saying, “I am joining my son.”

Ten days after her husband’s death, Wang was arrested.

A lawyer said she could be released if she gave up her practice of Falun Gong.

She refused, and was sentenced to two years in prison. The judge also ordered that her two cars and office space for her business be confiscated. She also lost her qualification to be a business owner because of her prison sentence. As a result, she lost her business selling chemical production equipment.

CLOCKWISE FROM L: LISA FAN/THE EPOCH TIMES, SCREENSHOT OF VIRGINIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY LIVESTREAM VIA THE EPOCH TIMES, SCREENSHOT OF VIRGINIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY LIVESTREAM VIA THE EPOCH TIMES

Despite it being a moment of triumph, the House votes also triggered some painful memories for Wang.

An overwhelming moment from November 2020 flashed in her mind.

Wang was at a Frederick County Board of Supervisors meeting in Winchester on Nov. 12, 2020. A resolution on the meeting agenda alerted county residents and the medical community to the existence of state-sponsored forced organ harvesting.

Due to her limited English, she often relied on her friends and fellow Falun Gong practitioners to speak about the CCP’s expansive suppression of the spiritual practice. At this meeting, her friend Tiny Tang informed the board members about various abuses suffered by practitioners at the hands of the communist regime.

As Tang spoke about how the persecution tore millions of Chinese families apart, Wang couldn’t help but think of her own husband, who died almost 20 years ago.

China Organ Transplant Crimes

(Far Left) Wang Chunyan participates in a candle light vigil outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington on July 17, 2020.

(Left) Wang Chunyan (C) showcases a slave labor jacket she smuggled from Liaoning Women's Prison in northeast China at the Virginia General Assembly.

(Bottom Left) Del. Kaye Kory (D-Fairfax) introduces Wang Chunyan to the members of the General Assembly. expansive disinformation campaign against Falun Gong, which had turned many in China against the practice.

Before her first arrest, Wang owned a successful sales business with an annual revenue of more than a million yuan (over $150,000). After she was released in 2004, she realized that she had lost a lot of friends. Her acquaintances would avoid eye contact if they bumped into her on the street. Her socioeconomic status dropped to the bottom of society.

Organ Harvesting

Detention Because she refused to renounce her faith, Wang was arrested and sentenced twice in China, spending a total of seven years in prison.

While in detention, she suffered a range of torture aimed at forcing her to give up her belief. During the first month of imprisonment in the Dalian Detention Center in northeast China’s Liaoning Province in 2002, three prisoners took turns beating her with a three-foot-long club made with two iron rods of about one-inch diameter twisted together. The beating lasted for about three hours until she ran and hit her head against the wall in desperation. The torture session left her back soaked with blood.

At the detention center, Wang was forced to perform slave labor, producing toilet seat covers for eight months, then Christmas ornaments for the remaining four months at the facility.

Wang’s second year in detention was at the Liaoning Women’s Prison, where she

Wang’s husband, who passed away almost 20 years ago, died of suspected foul play

by CCP police after retaliating against harrassment from an officer. was forced to make clothes destined for export to Europe. Slave labor days were long, from 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., seven days a week.

Sometimes the detainees had to work even longer to meet production quotas.

Even outside detention, Wang wasn’t free from the regime’s oppression. Discrimination and humiliation followed her wherever she went as a result of the CCP’s

At the November 2020 Board of Supervisors meeting in Virginia’s Frederick County, Wang’s friend Tang turned to the subject of forced organ harvesting—a grisly state-sanctioned practice in which detained Falun Gong practitioners are killed for their organs for sale on the transplant market. A 2019 independent people’s tribunal found that organ harvesting had taken place for years on a substantial scale, and continues today.

As her friend was speaking about the untold number of Falun Gong practitioners killed as a result of organ harvesting, Wang thought of the blood test she was given while in Liaoning Women’s Prison in January 2003.

She didn’t know the reason for the blood test at the time. It didn’t make sense to her to receive physical examinations alongside torture sessions. However, when reports about forced organ harvesting first broke in 2006, she realized what it was for—her captors were checking for organ compatibility.

At that 2020 meeting, these traumatic memories hit Wang in waves, and she tried her best to hold back her tears.

But the words of Robert Wells, vicechair of the Frederick County board of supervisors, after the meeting lifted Wang out of sorrow. She recalled I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 41

China Organ Transplant Crimes

him saying that her presence was the best evidence of the CCP’s abuses because she was a survivor of the persecution. In January 2021, the board unanimously passed a county resolution condemning the CCP’s organ transplant abuses.

Wang told herself then that her anguish was now helping to serve a good cause.

‘Second Home’

42 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

Falun Gong practitioners meditate prior to a rally calling for an end to the persecution of practitioners in China, on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 20, 2018.

“In the face of a brutal Chinese communist regime, 82 delegates said ‘no.’ I was overwhelmed by the kindness.”

Wang Chunyan, Falun Gong adherent had gone through.

To Wang’s surprise, many people expressed their sympathy and signed right away to support a local resolution in support of Falun Gong. She said people welcomed her with open arms as a fellow Virginian. Backed by signatures from over 5,000 Virginia residents, over 20 local resolutions were passed in 2021.

Awareness On Jan. 25, Wang experienced another warm welcome from her adopted home—this time by legislators in Virginia’s lower house.

That day, Del. Kaye Kory (D-Fairfax) introduced Wang to all House delegates present during the regular session:

THIS PAGE: SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES

Coming to the United States felt like a second life for Wang.

After serving her first two-year prison term, Wang was arrested again in August 2007 for raising awareness about the persecution in China. After her release five years later, she knew she had to leave China.

By that time, more than 20 of her close friends had died due to the persecution. To avoid the same thing happening to her, Wang fled to Thailand in May 2013. On her first day of arrival, she applied for U.N. refugee status.

While she was waiting for her application to be processed in Thailand, Reps.

Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) wrote letters to the U.N. refugee program to help her, urging the program to fast-track her case.

Wang was resettled in the United States two years later.

“America is a second home to me,” said Wang, who now lives in Fairfax County in Virginia.

“I feel an obligation to return the favor to my fellow Americans, to inform them of the evil of the CCP so they won’t be fooled by it.”

Driven by her newfound mission, she traveled to more than 20 counties across the state in 2021. She would visit local officials in the mornings and go to shopping centers in the afternoons to collect signatures in support of the passing of resolutions condemning the persecution and state-sponsored forced organ harvesting.

“I need some support,” she would say as she reached out to strangers in shopping malls.

The 66-year-old would then show people print materials describing her story, or give people flyers about Beijing’s suppression. She used written materials since her English wasn’t advanced enough to adequately describe what she

“Chunyan Wang, a Falun Gong practitioner, who was imprisoned in China for seven years, tortured, and forced to labor making jackets to be sold in the U.S. and Europe.”

Kory was aware of the plight of Falun Gong practitioners in China before she heard Wang’s story. “Four years ago, I had an intern, a student from VCU [Virginia Commonwealth University], who was a Falun Gong member. He had escaped, and the rest of his family was still imprisoned and died while he was working for me,” she told Insight.

Del. John Avoli (R-Staunton), who sponsored the resolution, told Insight that he was proud of its unanimous passing and described the Chinese regime’s forced organ harvesting as “deplorable and needs to be addressed.”

Dr. Tatiana Denning, a family physician in Virginia and a health columnist for The Epoch Times, spoke to the House Rules Committee on Feb. 8 in support of the resolution.

She first heard of forced organ harvesting from two of her patients in 2017, a couple who practice Falun Gong. “Surely it can’t be that bad, or I would have heard about it in the news,” she thought at the time. She later researched the issue and concluded that organ harvesting was indeed happening, and occurring on a large scale.

“Can you imagine if, after the fact, you learned that someone else was probably killed so that you could have your organ?” she told Insight, referring to those who receive organ transplants in China.

“I don’t know how you could live with yourself. It would just be devastating.”

The House resolution urges Virginia residents and the medical community to be “fully informed” about the risks associated with transplant tourism to China, to prevent Americans from “unwittingly becoming accomplices” to Beijing’s state-sponsored organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience.

Denning underscored this point.

“For the sake of, not just the person that’s losing their life, but the person that has to live with what they’ve been a part of and what they’ve been complicit unknowingly with, I think it’s important to let Americans know.”

P OL I T IC S • E C ONOM Y • OPI N ION T H AT M AT T E R S

Perspectives

No.15

Employees walk past a Twitter logo on their way out of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco on Aug. 13, 2019.

PHOTO BY GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

OWNERSHIP VERSUS OPINION Elon Musk forestalls the free market versus free speech war. 44

THE US RECOVERY Two key indicators show slowing growth and intractable inflation. 46

IS THE US DOLLAR UNDER ATTACK? China and Russia seek to wean the global economy off the greenback. 47

INSIDE I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 43

THOMAS MCARDLE was a White House speechwriter for President George W. Bush and writes for IssuesInsights.com.

Thomas McArdle

Ownership Versus Opinion Musk forestalls the free market versus free speech war

E

lon musk, the world’s richest entrepreneur and a Renaissance man who builds and flies spacecraft, brought electric cars closer to practicality than anyone had before, and skewers the left with the immunity of someone who can’t be pigeonholed as a right-winger, just spent nearly $3 billion making himself Twitter’s largest shareholder.

Musk has been both an ardent user and a harsh critic of Twitter, and he means to lessen the platform’s shameless “wokeness,” which has extended as far as kicking President Donald Trump off the platform despite his close to 34 million followers during the final weeks of his presidency, and suppressing a New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s corruption that could have turned the 2020 election.

The odds are that Musk will succeed, at least to some extent. But if he does, it will do much more than improve Twitter. He’ll have become the great peacemaker, preventing, for the time being, war between the U.S. government and Silicon Valley.

Republicans and Democrats alike are spoiling to foist the heavy regulatory hand of the state on social media’s irresponsible speech restrictions, either through imposing federal rules or forcing the massive tech companies to split into pieces. Musk may defuse what would be a First Amendment disaster.

As powerful as monster firms such as Facebook and Google have become, they’re still private businesses; no one has to agree to, for example, Instagram’s terms of service and become a member. Life can actually be lived without these cyberspace platforms, most of which didn’t exist a generation ago.

As outrageous as Twitter’s ideologically driven ban of Trump was, it’s tantamount to a prominent newspaper

44 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

deciding not to run an elected leader’s op-ed column or letter to the editor.

For the government to require that private electronic venues not exercise censorship of ideas, as disgracefully unhealthy for public discourse as that policy may be, is for it to trample on private property rights in an era when private ownership has never been under greater attack from ever-expanding government.

Private property rights pitted against free speech rights, with the federal government poised to interfere in both areas, is a predicament in which the American people should never have found themselves.

Compare what social media firms do with a private citizen or business loaning or renting someone a pen and paper or a bullhorn or a computer. If he decides to take back his property because he doesn’t like what his client is using his property to write or say, can that really be construed as a violation of the Constitution? Or say you let people take to a soapbox on your land, with cameras transmitting the content far and wide; would you be trampling the First Amendment if you showed someone off the acreage that you own because you found their expressed opinions to be odious?

Obviously not. But the Supreme Court has declared the internet to be a public square.

In the unanimously decided Packingham v. North Carolina in 2017, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, “While in the past there may have been difficulty in identifying the most important places (in a spatial sense)

for the exchange of views, today the answer is clear. It is cyberspace—the ‘vast democratic forums of the Internet’ in general, and social media in particular.”

In reality, the computer user is relying on the cooperation of others, many of them located far away. The internet is really a global free market.

Madeleine Burnette-McGrath, writing in the Ohio Northern University Law Review in 2019, pointed out that “most restrictions on speech on the Internet do not emanate from the government, but from private corporations that own and regulate users of their social media sites.” She wrote that the Packingham ruling “adopts a new avenue for government regulation” in the realm of speech.

In the landmark, unanimous 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which pertained to the libel of public officials, liberal Justice William Brennan might have been talking about the suppression of the Post’s Hunter Biden story based on Twitter’s contention that it was misinformation.

“A rule compelling the critic of official conduct to guarantee the truth of all his factual assertions ... leads to a comparable ‘self-censorship,’” he said.

Brennan noted that such a government rule “dampens the vigor and limits the variety of public debate.” Today, instead of a critic, whether a media outlet or an individual citizen, fearing a libel suit, he fears being canceled by social media platforms, and he may self-censor to avoid that.

Private property rights pitted against free speech rights, with the federal government poised to interfere in both areas, is a predicament in which the American people should never have found themselves.

Elon Musk changing Twitter from the inside may only delay a conflict that, no matter which side wins, ends with free citizens losing.

ANDERS CORR is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the Journal of Political Risk. He is an expert in political science and government.

Anders Corr

New Hypersonic Missile Versus China

Australian, UK, US ally on hypersonic and electronic warfare development

u k us , t h e def ense partnership of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, is expanding from its original focus on nuclear submarine propulsion technology to cooperation on hypersonic and electronic warfare capabilities.

The trilateral cooperation also will improve counter-hypersonics, information sharing, and defense innovation.

According to British officials cited in The Times of London, “hiding key targets” and “laser weapons that could disrupt a missile’s flight path” could be developed as anti-hypersonic weapons.

AUKUS released a statement and fact sheet on April 5, stressing that its defense cooperation will strengthen the world’s nuclear and other weapons nonproliferation agreements.

The “nuclear” in AUKUS is for submarine propulsion, not weapons.

AUKUS’s defense cooperation now will include the following: undersea drones planned for 2023; quantum technologies for “positioning, navigation, and timing”; artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomy that improve “the speed and precision of decision-making processes ... in contested environments”; advanced cyber, “including protecting critical communications and operations systems”; and innovation, including the integration of commercial technologies for military use.

On nuclear submarines, AUKUS seeks to transfer the technology and knowledge necessary for Australia to maintain and build these vehicles indefinitely through advanced science and technology education. This will prepare an Australian workforce with nuclear science and engineering skills “to build, operate, and sustain a conventionally-armed nuclear-powered submarine capability.”

Australia will add an eastern submarine base and nuclear submarine

construction yard in South Australia to complement its already-existing western submarine base.

Australians are already getting hands-on planning, training, and access to nuclear submarine technology, including a Land-class submarine tender visit to Brisbane and Sydney: the USS Frank Cable, designed to support Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarines with weapons, repairs, and provisioning.

While AUKUS was originally conceived to deter China’s increasing belligerence in Asia, the Russian invasion of Ukraine also makes it essential for the defense of Europe.

AUKUS’s joint steering group teams are traveling to Australia to assist with planning for the submarines. They are base-lining Australia’s “nuclear stewardship, infrastructure, workforce, and industrial capabilities and requirements.”

While AUKUS was initially conceived to deter China’s increasing belligerence in Asia, the Russian invasion of Ukraine makes it essential for the defense of Europe, too. The United Kingdom is leading Europe in providing weapons to the Ukrainian military, for example, and so must improve its defenses against Russia’s hypersonic missiles.

For Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the deepening AUKUS coordination raised questions from the press about whether Australia would join in a fight against China if Beijing decided to invade Taiwan.

Russia and China are currently ahead in developing hypersonic missiles,

with China testing hundreds of such missiles since 2014, and Russia testing that started in 2018. Russia was the first to deploy hypersonics in combat, against Ukraine.

China recently conducted a successful test of a hypersonic missile that flew 25,000 miles to circumnavigate the globe and fired a projectile from the missile once it arrived over the South China Sea. This seemingly insuperable technical feat surprised Pentagon officials who thought it wasn’t yet possible.

The three most recent U.S. flight tests of hypersonic missiles have all failed.

Unfortunately, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are punching above their countries’ weight because they can ignore voter preferences for social spending and coerce businesses and government agencies to steal and provide dual-use technology to their defense industries. Their leadership thrives on an aggressively militaristic approach to politics that, while alien to democracies, is nevertheless ascribed by their propaganda departments to all three AUKUS allies.

Other countries, seeing the strength, cohesion, and technological benefits of AUKUS, will surely seek to join. Loyal countries solidly in support of democratic values, such as Japan, should be allowed to do so.

The latest AUKUS statement holds hope for such expansion, noting, “As we mature trilateral lines of effort within these and other critical defense and security capabilities, we will seek to engage allies and close partners as appropriate.”

Through strengthening AUKUS and other democratic defense alliances, perhaps to include an Asian version of the NATO alliance, Russia and China can be contained, or better yet, rolled back from their territorial conquests in Ukraine, Georgia, and the South China Sea. I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 45

MILTON EZRATI is chief economist for Vested, a contributing editor at The National Interest, and author of "Thirty Tomorrows" and "Bite-Sized Investing.”

Milton Ezrati

Slowing Growth and Inflation

2 key indicators show slowing growth and intractable inflation

T

wo i m p orta n t economic indicators that were released recently tell the same three-part story: The post-pandemic recovery continues to proceed nicely; the pace of growth is slowing, but that is to be expected; inflation shows no sign of abating.

The first of these indicators is the Labor Department’s employment report. It shows that unemployment has continued to decline.

The number of Americans unable to find work dropped in March by some 318,000 to 5.95 million, a 5.1 percent drop from February and a 9.0 percent drop from January.

As a percent of the available workforce, the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, down from 3.8 percent in February and way below the 6.0 percent rate recorded this time last year. Unemployment has finally approached the pre-pandemic and near-record low of 3.5 percent.

Especially encouraging is the widespread nature of the gains.

Adult male unemployment fell to 3.4 percent in March from 3.5 percent in February. Adult women were doing even better, showing a rate of 3.3 percent in March.

Teen unemployment, at 10.0 percent, was down from 10.3 percent in February and down from the 12.7 percent a year ago.

Black unemployment came in at 6.2 percent of that workforce, a striking one-month improvement from February’s 6.6 percent rate and 9.5 percent a year ago.

The Hispanic unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in March, down slightly from 4.4 percent in February and more from 7.7 percent a year ago.

Asian unemployment at 2.8 percent was striking, down from 3.6 percent in February and 5.9 percent a year ago.

46 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

Less encouraging is Labor Department’s employer survey. It shows that the country created some 431,000 new jobs in March, a good showing compared with the long historical sweep but considerably less impressive when compared to the past 12 months, which showed an average monthly job gain of almost 600,000.

Wages continued to grow, which would have been encouraging, except that the increase failed to keep up with inflation.

That the country is leaving the post-pandemic boom behind is still more evident in the industry detail.

Half the jobs slowdown between February and March occurred in retail trade and the leisure and hospitality sector. These two areas have been leaders in the recovery.

It’s also noteworthy that temporary help showed a significant slowdown in growth, while transportation and warehousing suffered small outright declines in employment between February and March.

Wages continued to grow, which would have been encouraging, except that the increase failed to keep up with inflation. Hourly wages rose 3.7 percent from a year ago, and the weekly figure, which accounts for overtime, rose 4.6 percent.

Though strong by the standards of the past decade, either falls far short of the nation’s 7 percent to 8 percent inflation. Working men and women are running to catch up, and neither has a surplus with which to propel additional real spending and economic activity.

The other revealing release comes from the Institute of Supply Management (ISM), a private industry group. The ISM weighs firms reporting gains against those reporting losses, and so an index measure of 50 marks the difference between growth and decline.

The ISM’s overall index for economic activity stood at 57.1 for March.

That is well above 50, indicating continued recovery, but it is nonetheless down sharply from February’s index of 59.0 and the 60 that the index registered late last year.

The developing slowdown has eased some supply chain problems.

Inventories in March were more robust, and backlogs were much less troublesome.

Otherwise, the news points to a more constrained economic environment. That is especially evident in the forward-looking index for new orders, which came in at 53.8 in March, down sharply from February’s index of 61.7. The same could be said about production, which at 54.5 for March is well below February’s 58.5.

Most troubling is the inflation news. The index for prices to manufacturers stood at a very high 87.1 in March, up from an also high 68.2 last December.

None of this should be a surprise.

Inflation has been building steadily for months. As for the slowing in the recovery, economies typically rebound sharply from artificial constraints, as the lockdowns and quarantines were, but once they catch up to their past trends, they almost always slow. That’s what is happening in the United States now.

When that catch-up is complete, likely in the second half of this year, the pace of growth in output and employment should resume their much slower trend rate.

EMEL AKAN is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times in Washington, D.C. Previously she worked in the financial sector as an investment banker at JPMorgan.

Emel Akan

Is the US Dollar Under Attack?

China and Russia seek to wean the global economy off the greenback

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

P

otential efforts to assist Russia to sell its oil and dodge Western sanctions have prompted fears about the survival of the global economic order.

Some wonder if China and Russia’s continuous de-dollarization drive will expand, putting the U.S. dollar’s hegemony in the global financial system in jeopardy.

For more than a decade, China and Russia have been trying to diversify away from the U.S. dollar mainly to shield their economies from Western sanctions and claim global economic leadership.

The U.S. dollar has been the world’s primary reserve currency since World War II. The greenback accounted for 59 percent of worldwide central bank foreign exchange reserves in 2021.

The U.S. dollar is also the most extensively used currency for international trade and investments.

China has a large amount of dollar reserves and does not allow its currency, the yuan, to be freely traded on foreign exchange markets. The yuan, also known as the renminbi (RMB), accounts for only 2.7 percent of global foreign exchange reserves.

While Beijing relies substantially on the dollar, it has been trying to promote the yuan in its bilateral trade deals. China pushes for the usage of yuan in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive trade and infrastructure project.

Beijing also introduced yuan-priced oil contracts in 2018 to make it possible for crude exporting countries to sell their oil in the Chinese currency.

But the U.S. dollar’s dominance in the oil market is holding firm. Close to 80 percent of global oil sales are still priced in dollars.

“China theoretically has the ability to snap its fingers tomorrow and provide a solid counterweight to the

Chinese officials hope that working with Russia will help them build a yuan-based financial infrastructure.

U.S. dollar,” according to Christopher Balding, an expert on the Chinese economy.

But Beijing won’t allow that, and the reason is very simple, Balding says.

“To be a global currency, there has to be a global price,” he said. “There has to be global flows of the currency. China will not let that happen. They will not allow a global price to be set with free flows of the RMB. So, until China takes that political decision to allow that, there’s really nothing to discuss.”

Before the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow spent years attempting to shield itself from the effects of sanctions. After annexing Crimea in 2014, Russia dramatically curtailed its use of U.S. dollars.

In 2019, Russia and China inked a deal to broaden the use of the yuan and the ruble in their bilateral trade. The same year, Russia’s central bank increased the yuan’s share in its foreign exchange reserves to 15 percent from 5 percent.

The Western sanctions on Russia are giving Beijing a unique opportunity to boost the yuan’s status in international markets. Chinese officials hope that working with Russia will help them build a yuan-based financial infrastructure.

Russian crude is being sold at a significant discount to global benchmarks. And Chinese oil refiners are quietly snapping up cheap crude from Russia. Some Chinese buyers are reportedly given the option to pay in yuan.

And it’s not just Russia that wants to embrace the yuan. Saudi Arabia, whose relationship with Washington has cooled since President Joe Biden took office, is reportedly considering accepting the yuan instead of dollars for oil sales to China.

“It’s just another event or stress test that’s proving that globalization is over,” according to Michael O’Sullivan, author of the book “The Levelling: What’s Next After Globalization.”

People are getting excited about this because they perceive it as a moment when the West’s financial dominance may come to an end, which is unlikely to happen, O’Sullivan said.

“It’s very hard to see how the Chinese are really going to deepen the usage of their currency, particularly at a time when they’re alienating the Western world,” he said.

Economist and Insight columnist Milton Ezrati echoes similar views.

He believes that the de-dollarization movement could weaken U.S. global leadership in the long term.

But the question, he says, is how far it can go.

The U.S. dollar is no longer what it was decades ago, Ezrati concedes, but it remains the best option and is unlikely to lose its status anytime soon.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 47

DANIEL LACALLE is chief economist at hedge fund Tressis and author of “Freedom or Equality,” “Escape from the Central Bank Trap,” and “Life in the Financial Markets.”

Daniel Lacalle

The Russian Ruble’s ‘Strength’

The central bank of Russia is averting collapse through two channels

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48 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

What this basically shows is that there's virtually no way to financially isolate a nation completely, let alone one that remains such an important trading partner for so many others. liquidity and avoid default.

Russia has recently threatened to cut gas supplies to Europe if the euro area customers don’t buy their gas in rubles. This would force European nations to sell euros and buy rubles at the abovementioned debatable official rate, which would pump up the Russian domestic currency. This measure is easier said than done, as take-or-pay contracts can’t be redenominated at one party’s will, and the Russian energy suppliers such as Gazprom require the inflow of international reserves nonetheless.

Forcing importing customers to buy the local currency is much more difficult than we may believe.

If it was that easy, countries such as Venezuela, Iran, and Argentina wouldn’t have such poor global

demand for their domestic currency. Russia is a stronger economy, but not that massive to enforce such a measure successfully.

Digital currencies, on the other hand, have been a modest relief for Russian citizens to preserve the purchasing power of their savings and the ability to make a living, but it’s very small. I find it amazing to read that European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde is saying that cryptocurrencies are being used by Russian oligarchs to avoid sanctions when the reality is that inflows from European imports in euros and the support of the Chinese financial system are the real drivers of the small lifeline against sanctions.

China is a channel for international reserves into the Russian central bank through exports and the use of Hong Kong and mainland China trading platforms to maintain the financial inflows and avoid a total collapse of the Russian system. India is taking advantage of the unprecedented discounts offered for Russian Ural oil to purchase more cheap crude in a difficult inflationary environment. The strong foothold of Chinese financial entities in Africa and emerging markets is also generating a lifeline for the inflow of reserves into Russia from Venezuela, Syria, and other nations.

This doesn’t mean that the sanctions aren’t hurting the Russian financial system or the real economy. They are, and very much. What this basically shows is that there’s virtually no way to financially isolate a nation completely, let alone one that remains such an important trading partner for so many others.

We have entered a very dangerous currency war with unexpected consequences. The winners are unlikely to be fiat currencies managed by governments, but rather alternative and decentralized systems.

ROZA IBRAGIMOVA/SHUTTERSTOCK

here are numerous headlines showing the surprising recovery of the Russian ruble against the U.S. dollar and the euro. By the first week of April, the Russian currency had recovered all the losses against the greenback and the euro area currency.

Obviously, there’s an important difference that needs to be considered.

Massive capital controls were implemented in Russia after the heavy sanctions of the West and no Russian citizen or business can sell rubles to buy dollars, euros, pounds, or yen. It’s impossible to know what would have happened to the Russian currency if capital controls hadn’t been implemented, but we know that no Russian citizen can exchange local currency for international ones and very unlikely at the official rate.

In essence, the Russian ruble “traded” price doesn’t reflect an abrupt change in demand, just the effect of capital controls.

We don’t know what exchange rate is used in the underground market, but we can safely assume that the free-market exchange rate of the ruble is significantly lower than the official rate. According to Business Insider, there’s an underground market using Telegram and other social media chats where citizens can buy or sell foreign currency, with some messages showing prices for rubles that are 30 to 50 percent lower than the official rate.

Apart from the reality of the exchange rate, there are two channels with which the Russian central bank is avoiding collapse: China and the export of energy to Europe.

Russia continues to export natural gas to Europe, which means hundreds of millions of euros of inflows of international reserves. The Russian central bank is conducting daily auctions with energy exporters to channel

Fan Yu

FAN YU is an expert in finance and economics and has contributed analyses on China’s economy since 2015.

The Irresponsibility of ‘Responsible Investing’ Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is sparking debates about ESG practices

SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES

T

he e sg -fo cused investing sector has once again called its standards into question.

The $2.7 trillion global market for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) funds invests in the debt and equity of companies purported to be socially responsible.

There’s an entire cottage industry formed around ESG, including ratings agencies, auditors, and investment consultants. The industry has become increasingly mainstream, and many publicly traded companies are altering their corporate strategies to qualify.

Today, Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has prompted debates about the industry’s practices.

International investment funds, including those managed by UBS’s own so-called “green bonds”—debt whose proceeds are supposed to fund initiatives considered sustainable and environmentally friendly—are issued by Russian Railways JSC and Russian bank Sovcombank PJSC. Both Kremlin-affiliated firms are now sanctioned by the United States and its Western European allies, forcing ESG-aligned investors to divest their holdings of green bonds from these issuers.

Suffice it to say, securities issued by many more Russian companies— locked out of global capital markets, with some being cut off from the SWIFT dollar network—no longer qualify for ESG investments.

This brings us to China, Russia’s closest ally.

China presents a similar set of issues for ESG investors. China’s ruling regime, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is closely aligned with Moscow and thus far has refrained from condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some political experts

In a country where political and business lines are often blurred and all companies— public and private—must swear allegiance to the CCP, assigning high ESG ratings to Chinese companies appears nonsensical. even believe Beijing views Russia’s aggression as a “dress rehearsal” ahead of its own ambitions to reclaim Taiwan.

Yet many ESG investment funds own Chinese stocks and bonds. More than 1,000 Chinese A-share firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen publish ESG reports. MSCI, the global investment indexation firm, assigns ESG ratings to more than 700 Chinese companies. A plurality of Chinese firms is AAA-rated in ESG by MSCI. In a country where political and business lines are often blurred and all companies—public and private—must swear allegiance to the CCP, assigning high ESG ratings to Chinese companies appears nonsensical.

Paul Clements-Hunt, a founding father of ESG investing who helped

coin the term, is one expert who has been warning investors about the watering down of ESG qualifications.

“If you don’t factor in autocracy and a malevolent government, then you have failed in your ESG assessment,” Clements-Hunt said in a recent interview with Bloomberg.

Yet the ESG investing industry seems to overlook such issues while assessing China’s vast capital markets. China owns the world’s second-largest economy, and investors have been eager to invest there. Chinese companies happily churn out ESG reports while ignoring the elephant in the room—the fact that most Chinese firms would fail the S (social) and G (governance) aspects of ESG. Many such reports are copied from one another and have similar language and qualifications. Yet ESG rating firms happily assign positive ratings to them, carrying on a foregone conclusion that Chinese companies should qualify for ESG inclusion.

This process makes a mockery of investors who truly care about ethical conduct, transparent governance, and sustainable business practices.

The fact that China is the world’s No. 2 economy and a key component of the global supply chain means it’s even more critical to apply ESG properly to Chinese constituents. If done correctly, real impact is achievable.

I’ve heard from institutional investors who acknowledge the double standards, yet caution that blacklisting Chinese firms could upend the ESG investing industry.

That’s no excuse for losing sight of ESG’s original purpose. If industry participants are resigned to this, then the ESG industry has failed its mission.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 49

JEFF MINICK lives and writes in Front Royal, Va. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.”

Jeff Minick

Take Pride in What You Do

Success is directly related to how much knowledge and attitude we apply

I

n “the speckled beauty: A Dog and His People,” Rick Bragg recounts a conversation he has with his brother Sam, who is battling cancer. Thinking of his possible death, Sam says with regret, “The one thing I hate is that I ain’t got no legacy. I mean, you’ve got the books, when you die.”

Rick assures Sam that he will indeed leave behind a fine legacy, telling him that friends and neighbors will mourn his passing and say, “Sam Bragg was a good man.” He says he’s heard a woman or two say Sam used to be good-looking once.

Rick then says, “You’re the guy they depend on when things go bad, when they need someone to pull them out of the ditch or clear the road with your chainsaw or jump them off in the middle of the night.”

As we read about Sam in this memoir, we realize he’s a man with a good heart who has that native intelligence so common in our rural communities.

We also come to admire him for his competence, his skill at fishing and hunting, fixing machinery, and caring for dogs.

Most of us applaud competence in others, particularly in those areas where we ourselves lack certain skills.

That pot-bellied, bearded guy who arrives in a battered pickup truck to fix a broken water pipe won’t win any beauty contests, but what counts is whether he can repair the break.

That brusque neurosurgeon who meets with family members before performing surgery on Aunt Jessica may lack bedside manner, but what’s important is whether she can save a beloved relative’s life.

Depending on the job, many ingredients go into that stew we identify as competence. The most basic of these are training, practice, and commitment.

50 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

Depending on the job, many ingredients go into that stew we identify as competence.

Let’s take as an example a waitress I once knew in Charlottesville, Virginia. When Rebecca joined the wait staff of the restaurant, she approached her training seriously.

She paid attention, made mental notes, and asked questions.

For a few days, she shadowed another employee during the lunch rush, absorbing the routine of the cafe and watching how her guide handled special problems. At night, she studied a menu at home, familiarizing herself with all the various food combinations and memorizing the numbers of the more popular dishes so that she could more quickly punch them into the cash register.

Practice came next. Rebecca started with three tables as her station, and in a few months, she found herself with two more. In the beginning, when she made mistakes, she explained to her customers that she was new on the

job and hurried to rectify her errors.

And as time passed, she left work after each shift with an abundance of tips in her purse.

In large part, that money derived from her commitment to her job.

Rebecca dressed sharp, greeted customers with a smile that was real, remembered the names of the regulars, and did her best to make everyone’s dining experience relaxed and pleasant. She understood that for many of these patrons, the meal was one of the highlights of the day, an escape from their homes or offices, and she intended to do all in her power to make it so. As a result, customers were soon asking to be seated in her station, confident that the young server would make the meal an event.

By this point, of course, Rebecca had moved beyond competence to excellence, which should be the goal for all of us in our work and, for that matter, in all that we do. Her skillset had become second nature to her, and her kindness to those who sat at her tables was the special gift that set her apart.

Knowledge, skill, and attitude: Mix ‘em together, and you’ll soon be in the winner’s circle.

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THOUGHT LEADERS

How Governments Weaponize Fear Most people don’t realize the behavioral psychology techniques being used on them

O

ur most sacred rights were interfered with,” Laura Dodsworth says of the COVID-19 lockdowns.

In a recent episode of “American Thought Leaders,” host Jan Jekielek speaks with writer and filmmaker Laura Dodsworth about the ways governments in the UK and beyond have used subliminal methods to secretly manipulate the public, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dodsworth is the author of “A State of Fear: How the UK Government Weaponised Fear During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

JAN JEKIELEK: “A State

of Fear” focuses on how the UK government used fear to incentivize the population.

LAUR A DODSWORTH:

The lockdown was a tough, 52 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

authoritarian, and unprecedented measure, and you could smell the fear in the air. The 23rd of March, when Boris Johnson made his stern address to the nation that we must stay at home, is what put the fear into me.

And then in May 2020, some minutes were published that offered extraordinary insights into the decision-making within government. Essentially, these psychologists and behavioral scientists suggested that people needed to be frightened to follow the lockdown rules. That sent me off on a journey to understand how fear was weaponized. I now think that nudge and behavioral science have become an integral part of government.

And that’s not just here in the UK. It’s in the United States as well, and in countries all around the world. Behavioral science

Laura Dodsworth, writer and filmmaker.

PHOTO BY PAULA BEETLESTONE

Nation Profile

is a way to avoid regulation and debate. It’s a way to nudge people into being model citizens.

MR . JEKIELEK: Define

nudge, because this is not a common term in the U.S. MS. DODSWORTH: It’s

about nudging you into a different form of behavior.

Essentially, the premise is that human beings don’t make rational decisions.

Policymakers and the behavioral scientists advising them decide what a model citizen is. They decide what being good is, and they nudge you. They encourage collective behavior and groupthink.

Most of the public don’t understand the behavioral psychology techniques being used on them and how much of their taxpayer money is spent on it.

MR . JEKIELEK: And a

lot of people aren’t aware that lockdowns are a gross departure from normal pandemic policy.

MS. DODSWORTH: I think

of this as a house on fire.

The self-destruction of society has been horrific to watch, but you don’t know what’s caused a fire until the embers have cooled. What worries me is that people can be persuaded to follow such draconian rules and become frightened to such a degree that they’ll do almost anything.

Fear of a pandemic is natural, but it was put on steroids by the government’s handling of it. Now, if they can do that for lockdown, what else can happen? For

me, this fear was the big and enduring story. COVID will become an endemic disease, but we can always be frightened, and that can be leveraged against us.

There are countries now where you can’t work or use public transport, let alone go to a restaurant, a concert, or a sporting event unless you’re vaccinated. There’s this division between the clean and the unclean, the obedient and the noncompliant.

Personally, I see it as blackmail, and I think it’s a really gross way for governments to treat citizens.

MR . JEKIELEK: As I was

reading your book, I kept thinking about informed consent when it comes to medical interventions, the idea that you have to know the risks. I don’t mean just the vaccines, but that’s the obvious example. When you’re doing this nudging, it’s almost like informed consent gets totally thrown out. Do you see it that way?

MS. DODSWORTH: Yes,

you’ve gone straight to the heart of it. As soon as a government starts employing subliminal methods to change your behavior, that relationship has changed.

That leaves you as a citizen feeling disenfranchised and deceived, and it’s fundamentally anti-democratic.

It’s the politician’s job to put forward good ideas, and then you vote for them and then they enact them. It isn’t their job to get voted in, make plans in rooms behind closed doors, and work out covert ways to make you go along.

“Essentially, the premise is that human beings don’t make rational decisions. Policy makers and the behavioral scientists advising them decide what a model citizen is.”

I think the best way to persuade people to have a vaccine is to give them the information and let them decide. Allow free speech and debate and openness.

MR . JEKIELEK: This is

really important right now because we’re in the midst of this Russia–Ukraine war, where Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is best in the class in disinformation, and they’re using a lot of it. At the same time, when I look at a lot of the information coming from the West, it’s hard for me to regard it as anything other than war propaganda.

MS. DODSWORTH: There’s

propaganda on both sides, and it leaves consumers of the news a little bit adrift.

But I think COVID redpilled people. Some people are now very aware of the propaganda, the behavioral science techniques, the appeals to emotion, specifically fear, and they feel cautious and don’t know what’s true and what isn’t. So we have to do extra

research and go to different sources.

When we’re talking about the Russia–Ukraine conflict, Russia is the aggressor. It’s destroying buildings and killing people. That’s clearly wrong, but there’s still propaganda on both sides. As you said, you get wartime propaganda, which doesn’t make understanding the situation simple.

MR . JEKIELEK: I’ve been

following various types of people who have been impacted by COVID and the lockdowns. In Canada, for instance, a man died in a car accident, but because of the rules, his wife basically couldn’t have a normal funeral for him. And she said, “I’m never going to forgive the government for this.”

MS. DODSWORTH:

Partners should always be present at the birth of children, and we need funerals for grieving and for closure.

I interviewed a veteran disaster and recovery planner, professor Lucy Easthope, for the book. She told me I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 53

Nation Profile

“Fear of a pandemic is natural, but it was put on steroids by the government’s handling of it.” that the trauma from the lockdowns will live on for many, many years.

People want to be with their sick loved ones and hold their hand when they die and attend the funeral.

To have cut people off from that is heartbreaking. There was a video that went viral on social media in the UK. It showed a funeral where everyone is seated two meters apart. At one point, her two adult sons go up to the woman whose husband has died and put their arms around her. The funeral

director stopped the funeral and made them return to their seats. He’s following the rules, you see.

Our most sacred human rights were interfered with. And we’ve changed.

Take masks, for example.

There’s no good evidence that using masks stops a virus, especially not cloth or surgical masks.

But masks weren’t really about stopping transmission.

They were signals. When you wear a mask, you’re a walking billboard for danger. They have, over time, also become

imbued with morality and virtue. Good people wear masks, good people who put others first.

Now, there’s a reason why we were told that a mask protects others. That’s not because it does protect others, it’s because the behavioral scientists know that appeals to help others work better than appeals for your own safety. There are numerous interviews in my book where we talk about masks as signals and symbols. And some people will need a soft landing. They’re not going to rip their masks off and be immediately comfortable with that because they’re like a comfort blanket. They’re a crutch.

Masks are now the vestiture of the faithful. They sacralized virtue.

MR . JEKIELEK: What do

you think is the best way forward? You’ve suggested serious inquiries.

MS. DODSWORTH: I don’t

think there will be serious calls for inquiry into the behavioral science approach, not unless people clamor for it, because behavioral science is incredibly useful to governments. It avoids the awkward debate, the persuasion that’s needed. It avoids enacting legislation.

You just nudge people subtly into doing what you want. It’s a cheap, effective, and sneaky way to get people to do what you want.

Yet citizens have to take action. You have to write to your representatives and ask them about it. We have to push back on governments that are doing it.

Every citizen has power.

We have to remember that we invest governments with authority.

And ultimately, we all have to find peaceable agreement with each other. As I’ve said, as the pandemic comes to an end, some people will need a soft landing. It’ll take them time to remove their masks and revert back to normal life, because some people have been left terrorized with what some call COVID anxiety syndrome. About 20 percent of them are hanging onto obsessive hygiene measures and watching the news and aren’t ready to live normal lives again. So I think we need to be tolerant.

Members of the public walk past a government poster reminding people to follow social distancing guidelines and abide by the lockdown restrictions in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Jan. 26, 2021.

54 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

THIS PAGE: JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

T R AV E L • F O O D • L U X U R Y L I V I N G

Unwind

No.15

In virtually every direction you gaze, Fredericksburg is a living museum, full of examples from the early days of our nation.

CHARLEY CARTER/SHUTTERSTOCK

Walking in Washington’s Footsteps LOCATED ON THAILAND’S largest island, Phuket combines pristine beaches, crystal-clear water, lush vegetation, and a nightlife that rivals Las Vegas. 56

THERE IS NO BETTER WAY TO explore and experience the true America than by picking a spot on map far from the interstate and hopping in the car to take a road trip. 60

58

CHEF DAVILA SERVES UP a hearty helping of mouth-watering Texas BBQ while adding a unique touch that pays homage to his Mexican heritage. 66

INSIDE I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 55

A Beguiling Tropical Gem Located in one of the most exotic and inviting places on earth, this spacious villa is perfect for large families

By Phil Butler

Outside, there’s an open-air pavilion for relaxing and taking in the spellbinding panorama overlooking some of Phuket’s most impressive nature.

56 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

Lifestyle Real Estate

S

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF VILLA OWNERS AND ROSEMONT'S

et on an overlook above the Andaman Sea on Phuket Island’s remarkable west coast, Villa Hale Malia is a contemporary dream vision brought to life. The villa’s concepts, skillfully created by the architects at Original Vision, take full advantage of the landscape overlooking the Patong coastline, the pristine beaches below, and its lush garden surroundings.

Villa Hale Malia is a luxurious two-level ocean-front villa located inside the luxurious Samsara Estate just outside Naka Thani Village and only a seven-minute drive to downtown Patong. The 500-square-meter (5,382-squarefoot), six-bedroom, six-bath main house is listed for $5 million, but offers its owners priceless sunrises and sunsets.

Designed with family living and entertaining in mind, Villa Hale Malia has a light and airy flow. At the home’s center is a fantastic living room featuring six-meter-high teak ceilings and wrap-around floor-to-ceiling bifold anodized aluminum doors that open out onto a glorious outdoor terrace. A second living area downstairs is a more cozy affair with an openplan professional kitchen, dining room, and sitting areas. The villa’s six bedrooms can easily

be expanded to eight, given the unique spaces of the main house. There’s a fantastic master suite that includes its own outdoor jacuzzi, and each of the home’s bedrooms features its own private terrace.

Outside, a 15-meter (50-foot) infinity pool is surrounded by sunbeds, an outdoor barbeque area, and a large dining spot that can easily seat 20. There’s also a dining and relaxing sala/living room affording the owners and their guests 270-degree panoramic ocean views. There’s also direct access to Nakalay and Blue Coral beaches from 1,000 square meters of manicured lawns and 4,000 square meters of gardens. Villa Hale Malia enjoys a premium location inside the private estate community and has the largest landscaped gardens anywhere in Phuket.

Extensive staff quarters at the rear of the villa include a second full western kitchen, staff bedrooms, a common area, and a large laundry room. These quarters connect to the main villa levels through private doorways that allow for ultimate guest privacy.

Phil Butler is a publisher, editor, author, and analyst who is a widely cited expert on subjects ranging from digital and social media to travel technology.

PHUKET, THAILAND $5 MILLION • 6 BEDROOMS • PRIVATE COMMUNITY • STUNNING VIEWS KEY FEATURES • IDEAL LOCATION • BEACH ACCESS • STUNNING CONTEMPORARY DESIGN AGENT RICHMONT’S EMAIL: INFO@RICHMONTS.COM PHONE OR WHATSAPP +66 (0)86 533 6789

The main living room was designed to take advantage of the uncompromising views from this part of the Samsara Estate. Massive glass windows, with hightech, wrap-around aluminum doors, put owners and guests in the center of nature, but in total comfort.

The open kitchen has casual and formal dining spaces, and every modern convenience.

Located on a promontory covered in lush tropical vegetation, Villa Hale Malia is unique for its architecture and its stunning position overlooking the Andaman Sea. I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 57

Travel Virginia

Waving from the Rising Sun Tavern.

Journey Back in Time George Washington would still recognize his old hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia

By Fred J. Eckert

F

58 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

MARYLAND Washington, D.C Fredericksburg

Richmond

VIGINIA

Fredericksburg is located halfway between Washington, D.C., and Richmond.

PETER HERMES FURIAN/SHUTTERSTOCK

ew self-proclaimed “historic” towns around the country actually offer up much or even any truly significant history. Mostly, they’re about obscure local history.

But little Fredericksburg, Virginia, is genuinely historic. When it comes to American history, nowhere else in small-town America will you find anything that compares.

A lot of other places may boast that “George Washington Slept Here,” but a T-shirt you can find for sale in Fredericksburg is inscribed with a message that pretty well sums up the town’s special edge: “George Washington Slept Many Places, But He Lived in Fredericksburg.”

“If you like American history, you’ve come to the right town,” Bill Beck told me as we stood chatting on the sidewalk in front of his store, “Beck’s Antiques & Books,” on Caroline Street.

“Most Americans don’t realize it, but George

Washington grew up right over there.”

Beck gestured toward the nearby Rappahannock River, the narrow river that young George Washington crossed to come to town from Ferry Farm, the home and farm where he spent much of his early life.

Beck loves Fredericksburg and knows it well.

He’s a former mayor of the town.

“Just up the street here, where Weedon’s Tavern once stood, that’s where, in 1777 a committee of Virginians, notably Thomas Jefferson and George Mason, drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom,” he said. “That’s the work that established the American principle of religious liberty and eventually evolved into our First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion.

“Ferry Farm was where George Washington spent his formative years. He lived there from age 6 to 16. This is where his roots are. This is a place he always enjoyed coming home to—and he did so often.”

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG TOURISM UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Travel Virginia

The streets in Fredericksburg that were named for British Crown Prince Frederick, son of George II and father of George III (best remembered as the last king of the American colonies) still stand where they stood in Washington’s time. They still bear their original names honoring Frederick’s royal family.

Washington sometimes headed down Caroline Street to the spot at the corner of Amelia Street where one of his best friends, Dr. Hugh Mercer, the man to whom he sold Ferry Farm, had his doctor’s office and an apothecary shop. Mercer closed shop to go off to help his friend in the Revolutionary War. He became a general and a war hero, as his great-great-greatgrandson, George S. Patton, later would as well.

Mercer died at the Battle of Princeton.

The Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop, a small, green-shuttered clapboard Colonial, houses a fascinating museum that convincingly demonstrates just how primitive the practice of medicine was in the late 18th century and early 19th century.

Fredericksburg was also home to another president—James Monroe. He moved there at age 28 to open his law office. He began his political career as a member of the Fredericksburg City Council.

The James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library on Charles Street contains the nation’s largest collection of remembrances of Monroe’s extraordinary career, including the Louis XVI desk on which he signed the message to Congress that has come to be known as the Monroe Doctrine.

Shops in town are filled with Civil War memorabilia. Fredericksburg and its surrounding area saw more Civil War fighting than any other

comparable area in the nation, as well as some of the bloodiest.

Control of the city of Fredericksburg itself changed hands repeatedly. It was battered, beaten, bruised, bombarded, shelled, looted, plundered, and pounded. It was devastated— but never destroyed.

It’s a wonder the town still stood when the war ended.

Take a closer look at some of the buildings in town, and images of fierce Civil War fighting come to mind, as you realize that, yes, those are cannonballs embedded there.

Look at the front steps of the building that over the past few years has been home to both Foode’s and Mercantile’s restaurants and for the preceding 200 years had housed the National Bank of Fredericksburg, and you can imagine what it was like on May 22, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln stood there and addressed the Union troops and the citizens of what even today is still a very Southern town.

Robert E. Lee also did some courting in Fredericksburg. Like Washington and Madison and Monroe, he was born and raised not far from the town. But when you envision him, it’s more likely to be astride his horse Traveler, leading a column of Confederate soldiers through these streets with his friend Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson riding along next to him.

It was at the Battle of Fredericksburg that Lee, looking out at the grand pageantry of war, uttered his famous observation: “It is well that we know how terrible war really is, else we would grow too fond of it.”

Kenmore Plantation was built for Washington’s only sister, Betty.

Fredericksburg’s Historic District.

Fred J. Eckert is a retired U.S. ambassador and former member of Congress.

40

BLOCKS

in the Historic District encompass history from the colonial, revolutionary, and the Civil War eras.

If You Go Getting There: The closest aiport is Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, just over an hour’s drive away.

The Richmond airport is about 1 hour 15 minutes away. Both I-95 and Route 1 pass directly through Fredericksburg.

Springtime Fun: If you go this season, head to Braehead Farm for strawberry picking. Don’t miss the town’s First Fridays, where you can sip on the go and view the art galleries.

Old Towne carriage tours offer a fun way to visit the town with informed guides.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 59

WANDERLUST You’ll get the best views of the most unique parts of our country from behind the wheel

By Bill Lindsey

Throw away the map; a proper road trip is guided by your imagination, following your heart.

PHOTO BY ONDREJ MACHART/UNSPLASH

60 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

Lifestyle Road Tripping

In addition to choosing an exciting destination, picking your travel companions can be a great part of planning for your trip.

THIS PAGE: TONI TAN/UNSPLASH

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A C AT I O N S S H O U L D B E A L L

about fun and adventure, but all too often they can become more like a military campaign, with every stop preplanned and every minute already accounted for.

If you find yourself exhausted after a preplanned vacation, it might be time to take a road trip. In the book “Blue Highways,” William Least Heat-Moon captured the essence of an archetypical road trip, planting a seed of wanderlust in all who read it.

But while he was prompted to make his trip in response to a series of personal setbacks, ideally a road trip should be a rolling celebration that allows you to find yourself in the process.

Pick a spot on the map: The first step is to decide where you want to go. The amount of time you have available will play a large role in planning the trip. The entire idea of a road trip is to spend time relaxing as you visit places that you’ve previously only flown over.

If you can find one, using a paper map that you can spread open on a table provides a better perspective than an online map and lets you make notes directly on the map as you examine it to find potential side trips. The map adds another dimension to the planning process and, together with photos taken on the road, makes for a cool way to remember the trip afterward.

When you choose a destination, use your phone or computer to access an app such as Waze to determine the drive time based on going there di-

rectly. Add time to make spontaneous, unplanned side trips. If you only have time to go straight to the destination and back, it’s not going to be as much fun and defeats the purpose of a rolling adventure. Road trip destinations can be subject to change; if you plan to visit Dahlonega, Georgia, the site of a gold rush in the early 1800s, but end up in Nashville, Tennessee, home of mouth-watering barbecue since forever, that’s OK. Dahlonega will still be there when you do the next trip.

For your first road trip, start slow. Pick a place you can get to and come back from in a day, using two-lane roads rather than interstates, and pack the car with a cooler full of snacks and drinks.

Make sure the car is in tip-top shape for a long drive, with good tires and no lingering mechanical issues that could have you doing the trip behind a tow truck.

Wear comfortable clothes and walking shoes so you’re ready to experience unique opportunities such as the Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo, Texas, with vintage Cadillacs planted hood-first into the ground, or Sliding Rock, a 60-foot-long joyride down glass-smooth rock into 60-degree water located off the side of the road in the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina that most passers-by don’t realize is there. Many two-lane roads have memorable sights and adventures for you to discover, so don’t be shy to ask the locals and use the internet to add them to your itinerary.

A short road trip teaches you what to bring, ramping you up for longer, multi-day highway

A road trip doesn’t have to be an overnight or longer experience; a spontaneous day trip qualifies, too.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 61

Lifestyle Road Tripping

LIFESTYLE

GET LOST

Maximize the fun by being spontaneous

1

There’s nothing wrong with picking a new destination halfway through a road trip.

You control the itinerary, so follow that side road to see where it goes.

62 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

many scenic towns to explore along the way. Richard Branson’s Brightline in South Florida currently runs from Miami to Palm Beach, with plans underway to extend to Orlando, making its many theme parks viable day trip destinations. Most trains allow you to get off along the way, catching another later to return home.

Regardless of how you choose to travel, be open to adventure, taking that interesting side road to see where it leads.

As you make your way down the blacktop, keep your eyes peeled for unexpected adventures along the way, stopping to explore quaint towns and roadside attractions.

2

Rails or Roads In addition to cars, RVs, and motorcycles, traveling by train is another option that allows you to fully relax and take in the passing scenery.

3

Pack Light

Road trips are bonding experiences that create lifelong memories with family and friends.

Road trips are about spontaneity, so bring just the essentials: a camera with spare batteries, snacks, and drinks. You can buy T-shirts along the way for a wardrobe change and souvenirs.

THIS PAGE FROM TOP: PARKER GIBBONS/ UNSPLASH, JORGE SAAVEDRA/UNSPLASH

adventures. Speaking of multiday trips, Waze and websites such as Pinterest, Roadtrippers, Rand McNally TripMaker, and Google My Maps make it easy to find overnight accommodations. These may range from five-star resorts to scary motels, so do your research before you get there. Mapping apps and Waze can be very helpful for finding rest stops and restaurants along the way.

It’s likely that most road trips are done in a car, but an SUV offers more room for coolers and supplies while also allowing you to stretch out and take the occasional nap. Those seeking a bit more adventure might choose a motorcycle. Harley Davidson and Indian both have cruising models that provide the best view of passing scenery; riding a motorcycle, you also smell freshly mown grass and the aromas from roadside barbecue spots. Planning your route in advance means there’s a hotel or motel with a hot shower at the end of each day’s ride. Alternatively, you can do the road trip in an RV, bringing a bed and all the other comforts of home with you.

In addition to road-tripping via car, RV, or motorcycle, you can also ride the rails. The Adirondack Scenic Railroad in New York runs from Utica to Lake Placid along the Hudson River, with

Pick a Flexible Route

Luxury Living See Clearly

SUNGLASS ROUNDUP: THE EYES HAVE IT We only get two eyes, so consider these madein-the-USA sunglasses to protect them from UV exposure, errant bugs, and other flying debris.

By Bill Lindsey

These ‘Wood’ Look Great

Recycled Style

SHWOOD CANBY WOOD

SMITH SHOUTOUT CORE

$149

$139

These unique sunglasses blend technology with a timeless design that makes everyone look like a movie star. Crafted using 13 layers of premium-grade hardwood and aluminum stringers, the frames are as durable as they are eye-catching, paired with lenses providing 100 percent UVA/UVB protection.

Founded in 1965 by orthodontist and snow skier Bob Smith to provide maximum eye protection, the firm has developed a reputation for providing cutting-edge technology that also looks good. Featuring frames crafted from recycled water bottles, the polarized bio-based lenses provide 100 percent UV protection.

THIS PAGE FROM TOP L: COURTESY OF SHWOOD, SMITH, GATORZ, AMERICAN OPTICAL, OAKLEY

Gator Tough Eyewear

GATORZ DELTA $220

The sleek design utilizes a lightweight, aerospace-grade aluminum frame covered by a lifetime warranty that, along with the nosepiece, can be adjusted for a perfect fit. A variety of polycarbonate lenses provide UV and impact protection.

Discounts are available for members of the military, veterans, and first responders.

To the Moon and Back

AMERICAN OPTICAL ORIGINAL PILOT $194

Created for U.S. military pilots, these glasses went to the moon with the crew of Apollo 11. The proprietary True Tone glass lenses provide greatly enhanced color perception, making them also ideal for drivers.

Motorcyclists will like how the bayonet temples allow easy on and off when wearing a helmet.

Classic Shades

OAKLEY HOLBROOK $197

Inspired by iconic sunglasses worn by movie stars from the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, these classically styled sunglasses look equally good on men and women. Available with polarized, Iridium, Prizm, and prescription lenses. The high-tech, lightweight O Matter frames allow all-day comfort.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 63

Epoch Booklist

RECOMMENDED READING FICTION

‘The Book Woman’s Daughter’

By Kim Michele Richardson

Librarian’s Legacy Lives On Young and on her own, Honey Mary-Angeline Lovett is forced to earn her independence. She picks up where her mother left off, following the path of a Pack Horse Librarian. Traversing the hills and hollers, she makes friends and learns about the power of books.

SOURCEBOOKS LANDMARK, 2022, 364 PAGES

‘About Time’

By Jack Finney

Back to the Past Best known for his novel on time travel, “Time and Again,” Finney returned to this theme in this collection of 12 stories, “About Time.” In “Where the Cluetts Are,” for example, Ellie and Sam build a house from

This week’s selection of books includes a history of world power based on grain production, and a children’s tale that speaks to the heart.

19th-century plans that carry them happily into the past. In “The Third Level,” a hidden part of Grand Central Station whisks visitors back to 1894. In “Home Alone,” we learn why Charley absolutely must go up in his homemade balloon.

Looking for history, charm, and amusement?

Read Jack Finney.

ATRIA, 1998, 224 PAGES

HISTORY

‘Plumes’

By Sarah Abrevaya Stein

Feathers Worth More Than Diamonds Imagine selling a luxury good more valuable by weight than diamonds and that historically held its value better than precious stones.

It sounds ideal—until demand for your product suddenly evaporates and never comes back, and the job becomes a euphemism for a con man. The commodity was ostrich feathers.

The rise and fall and rise and fall of this global industry is the subject of this book. Written with solid scholarship, “Plumes” is a fascinating book aimed at the general reader.

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2010, 256 PAGES

64 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

Are there books you’d recommend?

We’d love to hear from you. Let us know at features@epochtimes.com

‘Oceans of Grain’

By Scott Reynolds Nelson

Wheat in the World Economy Do empires build trade routes or do trade routes build empires? Have the United States and Russia been locked in an economic rivalry since the 1860s? Was World War I triggered by international grain trade and Russia’s desire to control Constantinople? Nelson’s fascinating book examines these questions and more. It’s a study of grain, its trade routes, and grain trading’s impact on world power from prehistory to the present.

BASIC BOOKS, 2022, 368 PAGES

‘Paris 1919’

By Margaret MacMillan

Devastating Peace After World War I Are you interested in a thorough analysis of what led to the Treaty of Versailles, how the

world was broken up into what we know now, and how the peace agreement ultimately led to World War II? Then “Paris 1919” is a must-read. It covers all the countries involved and how the Big Three led the world on a collision course to war.

FOR KIDS

RANDOM HOUSE, 2003, 624 PAGES

‘Imogene’s Antlers’

By David Small

CLASSIC

‘Don Quixote’

By Miguel de Cervantes

The Lord of La Mancha This great Spanish literary work features an aged knight errant and a satire on chivalry. In our own age, because of the 1965 musical “Man of La Mancha,” it became a tale “to dream the impossible dream.”

Often deemed the first modern novel, “Don Quixote” gave us expressions such as “quixotic,” meaning to take on impracticable quests, and “tilting at windmills,” because at one point the knight believes windmills are giants that he must attack. We read this book today both for amusement and perhaps to discover lost chivalric ideals.

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, 2018, 992 PAGES

Imagine Awaking With Antlers Originally published in 1985, “Imogene’s Antlers” is a comical tale of a girl who awakens with an outrageous dilemma—she’s grown antlers! The book’s dry humor makes for an enjoyable read for children and the adults reading to them.

KNOPF BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS, 2020, 32 PAGES

‘The Little Prince’

By Antoine de SaintExupéry

Reflections on Human Nature A downed pilot meets the Little Prince, who tells of his travels in outer space and shares his wisdom with the pilot, including this gem: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT, 2000, 96 PAGES

Ian Kane is a U.S. Army veteran, filmmaker, and author.

He enjoys the great outdoors and volunteering.

MOVIE REVIEWS

Epoch Watchlist

This week, we look at an inspiring dramedy about a man fighting cancer, as well as a classic about a man who regains his noble purpose in life.

NEW RELEASE

INDIE PICK

‘50/50’ (2011)

‘The Tale of King Crab’ (2022) In a rural 19th-century Italian village, a drunkard named Luciano (Gabriele Silli) falls afoul of the region’s local prince. The two quarrel over who has the right to pass through an ancient gateway, which results in Luciano being exiled. However, this leads to an epic journey of redemption.

This is beautiful cinematic storytelling— truly aural and visual poetry in motion that transmutes a seemingly simple story into a work that rouses the emotions of the beholder.

It’s a brave, multi-genre experience that will stay with you.

ADVENTURE | DR AMA

Release Date: April 15, 2022 Director: Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis Starring: Gabriele Silli, Maria Alexandra Lungu, Ercole Colnago Running Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes MPAA Rating: R Where to Watch: Theaters

A CLASSIC AMONG CLASSICS cinematography, and bravura performances by its stellar cast. A mustsee for film buffs and casual viewers alike.

DRAMA | ROMANCE | WAR

‘Casablanca’ (1943) During World War II, expatriate Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) operates a popular café in Vichycontrolled Morocco,

but refuses to help refugees escape the country—until a couple enters his life.

A masterpiece of filmmaking, with incredible directing, outstanding

Release Date: Jan. 23, 1943 Director: Michael Curtiz Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid Running Time: 1 hours, 42 minutes MPAA Rating: PG Where to Watch: Redbox, DirecTV, HBO Max

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a radio show writer who learns that he has a rare form of spinal cancer and has a 5050 chance of living.

But together with his network of friends and family, he faces the disease head-on.

I never thought that the words “comedy” and “cancer” would be a good pairing— let alone make for an enjoyable film.

But the tender handling of the disease, coupled with outstanding dramatic and comedic performances,

elevates this dramedy to a higher cinematic level. The film also has the message of never giving up hope.

COMEDY | DRAMA | ROMANCE

Release Date: Sept. 30, 2011 Director: Jonathan Levine Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick Running Time: 1 hours, 40 minutes MPAA Rating: R Where to Watch: Vudu, Redbox, Peacock

THRILLING DRAMA WITH TWISTS AND TURNS

‘After the Wedding’ (2007) Jacob Pederson (Mads Mikkelsen) manages an orphanage in India and adopts a local boy one day. When the orphanage begins to run out of funding, a wealthy Danish man steps in to help. But, there’s a catch—Jacob must travel to Denmark to meet him, and all isn’t what it seems.

This drama has some very realistic acting and an intricate plotline that will keep viewers guessing. It drives home the point that if something

seems too good to be true, it often is. But life can also hold some good surprises.

DR AMA

Release Date: May 11, 2007 Creators: Susanne Bier Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Rolf Lassgard Running Time: 2 hours MPAA Rating: R Where to Watch: AMC, Amazon Prime, DirecTV

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Food Chefs

COWBOY COOKING: ADRIAN DAVILA SERVES UP SOUTH TEXAS BARBECUE, VAQUERO-STYLE At Davila’s BBQ in Seguin, Texas, the 3rd-generation pitmaster carries on a family legacy of mesquite-smoked meats with a Latin twist

By Eric Lucas

Chef, author, and TV personality Adrian Davila has succeeded his father as pitmaster at Davila’s BBQ in Seguin, Texas.

S

ADRIAN DAVILA

66 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022

personal heritage, which stretches from his family’s south Texas ranch back many generations to an aristocratic forebear in Ávila, Spain (that’s why morcilla, Spanish blood sausage, is in his cookbook).

Add to these culinary influences the indigenous flavors of Mexico, the hardcore carnivore focus of Texas barbecue—practically a religion in the Lone Star state—and the region’s unique cultural confluence today, and the resulting cuisine is as complex as a rainbow.

Witness Davila’s Frito pie, with his family’s famous spicy beef sausage and brisket. Texas sausage derives from the 19th-century wave of German immigration, and Fritos were born and bred in San Antonio by a Kansas-born confectioner of Irish background.

The lamb ribs are another Davila

family specialty, and unusual in Texas. Lengua—tongue—is foreign to most U.S. menus, but found in Davila’s cookbook, along with pork stomach and beef tripe. On occasion, he prepares traditional barbacoa, slow-cooking a cow head or an entire lamb in an underground pit, wrapped in maguey leaves, just as his family did on their ranch and the vaqueros did centuries ago.

“We use the whole animal, vaquero-style, from head to tail,” Davila said. “Cowboys on the range didn’t have the luxury to waste anything.”

Now, “nose-to-tail” is one of the trendy ideas of today’s food scene— but Davila would say there’s really nothing new under the Texas sun.

Eric Lucas is a retired associate editor at Alaska Beyond Magazine and lives on a small farm on a remote island north of Seattle.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAVILA'S BBQ

ince 1959, san antonio-area barbecue joint Davila’s BBQ Adrian Davila has served loyal fans a distincwith his father, tive, Latino variety of the Lone Edward Davila.

Star State’s favorite food, honoring the Mexican heritage of both barbecue and cattle farming—lending a deeper layer of tradition to those two icons of Texas culture.

Classic Texas For instance, Adrian Davila, who barbecue offerings are has succeeded his father Edward infused with and grandfather Raul as pitmasDavila’s Mexicanter, adds cayenne chile to the usual American salt-and-pepper rub used by pitheritage. masters elsewhere in Texas.

“Gives it a spicy kick to go with the smoky foundation,” he said.

That smoky foundation derives The Davila from mesquite, but unlike most Texfamily’s housemade as pitmasters, Davila cooks his meat beef sausages next to the fire, not separated from it. are a local The salsa that customers receive favorite. with their meals is made with fire-roasted tomatoes.

“That’s how the vaqueros would have done it on their campfire more than 200 years ago,” Davila said, harking back to the dawn of cattle raising in Texas.

Mexican cowboys—vaqueros— herded Spanish longhorns through No-Holdsthe grasslands and scrub of south Barred Texas, and their heritage isn’t only Comfort Food: the cows, but also the cowboying— Frito pie, with spicy beef including the cow-camp food. sausages and Popularizing that heritage is brisket why Davila published a cookbook in 2018: “Cowboy Barbecue: Fire Secret Technique: and Smoke From the Original Rub half an Texas Vaqueros.” Based on three onion on the grill, generations of cookery at the fam- and it will keep ily restaurant, the book illustrates the meat from both Latino barbecue and the cen- sticking turies-old history of Latino culture Davila’s BBQ in south-central Texas. It reclaims 418 West the true history of the beef indus- Kingsbury Street, try in Texas, which began long be- Seguin, Texas fore Charles Goodnight.

DavilasBBQ.com Davila’s book digs deep into his

How to Be a Great Sibling The bond between siblings can last a lifetime, but only if we make the effort

Because our siblings were always around when we were growing up, it’s easy to assume they will always be there if we need them to take our side or lend a hand. The reality is that they have their own lives, so we must work to be part of them.

By Bill Lindsey

1 Be There

4 Stay in Touch

Our siblings have witnessed most of the important events of our lives; in many cases they know us better than anyone else. As children, they were there when you needed help building a model or learning to play baseball. Now that we’re adults, the games may have changed, but the need for an occasional hand hasn’t. Be the person they can turn to in times of need, grief, and happiness.

CSA IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

2 Let Go of the Past

Growing up, from childhood to adulthood, can be tumultuous, and sometimes words or actions can cause a rift. Conflicts left to fester may only get worse with the passage of time, as one person decides the other simply doesn’t care. Rather than waiting for them to reach out, be the bigger person and try to mend fences and hopefully start anew; it won’t always work, but at least you’ll know you tried.

Our lives get busier and more complicated as we grow up and become engrossed in our families and careers, making it too easy to wake up one day and realize we’ve lost touch with our siblings. This can happen whether we now live many states away or are still in the same city or town. Send an occasional text or surprise them with a call to let them know you’re thinking of them; it just might make their day brighter.

3 Respect Them As adults, it can be hard for older siblings to respect their younger brothers or sisters, as they still see them the way they were as children.

If you’re older, acknowledge your younger siblings and their successes, even if it seems they’ve outshined yours. Whether they’ve become astronauts, brain surgeons, or Fortune 500 CEOs, you’re the hero they worshipped when they were kids. Your continued support even now, years later, still means the world.

5 Be Honest Trust must be earned and maintained, making honesty the best policy for a strong relationship. Sometimes it may be difficult to accept a sibling’s choices, so be open with them about your feelings to prevent a rift from forming. You don’t necessarily have to agree, but you do need to know why they feel the way they do. This is especially important if one of you is caring for your parents or you’re involved in a family business.

I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022 67

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