Judging Freedom - AMB. Chas Freeman : Is China A Friend?

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

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That's audible.ca. slash wondering. Hi. Hi everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judge Freedom. Today is Tuesday, October 28, 2025. Ambassador Chas Freeman will be here with us in just a moment. Is China friend or foe? But first, this. History tells us every market eventually falls. Currencies collapse. And look at where we are now. 37 trillion in national debt. Stocks at record highs defying gravity. So what happens next? Groceries, gas, gas,

housing everything's going up and this dollar it buys less every day when the system breaks your stocks won't save you and your dollars won't either but one thing will gold i've set it on my show for years gold survives collapse central bankers know this and billionaires know it that's why they're buying more is it too late to buy or is it just the right time call my friends at lear capital find out. Ask questions. Get the free information. There's no pressure, and that's why I buy my gold and silver from Lear. And right now, you can get up to $20,000 in bonus medals with a qualified purchase. Call 800, 511, 4620 or go to Learjudgeonap.com today. Ambassador, welcome here, my dear friend. Good to see you. Thank you for accommodating my schedule. Before we get to

China and President Trump's efforts to untie a knot that he tied rather tightly. I want to ask you a few questions about the Israelis and Gaza. Do the Israelis consider the Gaza war to be over? No, very much not. And there are voices within Israel, within the cabinet, insisting on the resumption of the genocide, pretty much on the basis that it was. being conducted before this so-called ceasefire. Was the ceasefire just a ruse,

perpetrated by the Trump administration and the Netanyahu regime to extract the hostages from Hamas, which was really their last leverage? Well, I think the American focus was very definitely like the focus of the hostage families in Israel on the hostages at the expense of everything else. There's a common pattern here in the Trump administration's approach to diplomacy,

and that is to deny the existence or the reasons for long-term problems and to come up with a quick fix of a superficial nature that typically is It's just a transactional one-off thing. We've seen this with repeated ceasefires in Gaza. We've seen it with the focus on a ceasefire in Ukraine. We've seen it with various other issues.

And so you get a brief period of relief. The mainstream media, which are now pretty much reliable scribes for the government point review, applaud all this, and claim that there's something major that's happened. But in the end, it turns out that this was a flash and a pan. And I think, I'm sorry to say, I think that's what the Gaza ceasefire is. And I know that the Israelis and others are not holding to it at all. MS does appear to be earnestly attempting to recover the bodies of the dead hostages. But Israel has denied it the heavy equipment that it needs to dig down.

To do that, Israel has not ceased to murder Palestinians. There have been over 100 in Gaza murdered since the ceasefire. Israel has got a full court press going on against Palestinians in the West Bank, with dozens of new settlements and displacements, hundreds of homes being made, uninhabitable, people being expelled from places where their ancestors have lived for many centuries. So nothing really has changed. This is a pause, and I don't think it's anything more than that. Israel has not given up its ambition to drive all the Palestinians, or as many

as they can, out of Palestine, and if necessary, kill them to reduce their numbers. or consternation amongst the Israeli public because the United States negotiated directly face-to-face with Hamas? Because Donald Trump said he may order the release of Mr. Bargudi. I think there is an underlying sense in Israel that they've lost the plot, that the United States is no longer reliably doing what they say

but pursuing its own agenda on occasion. In other words that their sovereignty and independence has been compromised. Yes, I think there is that sense and there's therefore a sense of threat and we see this

with desperate measures including the vote in the Knesset to annex the West Bank which was basically a political stunt named at Prime Minister Netany know, successfully showed he didn't have the support that he thought he did, and aimed at the United States to cock a snoot at us, to give us the bird, as it were.

You know, the president commented on this last week to a reporter. It's a rather flippant response, but I think the bottom line is we're not going to allow. I don't know how we could stop this because de facto. I'm not being sure right de facto they haven't the West Bank. Well, I'll let you hear what he had to say. It's a little irritating, as usual. Chris, cut number five. Can you say that latter, please? Yes, yesterday there was a vote at the Gnisset in Israel on annexing the West Bank.

Do you see it as a challenge to your peace efforts? Will you answer that, please? Because I cannot understand the words you say. Where are you from? Where are you from? Where are you from France, beautiful accent? but we can't understand what you're saying. The West Bank is, don't worry about the West Bank.

Israel's not going to do anything with the West Bank, okay? Don't worry about it. Is that your question? They're not going to do anything with the West Bank. Don't worry about it. Israel's doing very well. They're not going to do anything with it. I'm not sure what that means.

What that means is he's out of touch with reality. I'm sorry to say, and he also apparently has a hearing. problem. So anyway, Israel is doing everything it wants to do in the West Bank, except it is not proclaiming that it is doing it. That is the only difference. The vote in the Knesset was a proclamation, a realistic proclamation of what Israel is actually doing. So perhaps our president thinks he can stop the Israelis. Indeed, he could. But to do that, he'd have to cut off their support from us, which he's not prepared to do. So they will do what they always do, which is cheat on whatever agreement. They appear to have reached with the Palestinians

or others and move forward. Is Hamas alive and well? It's not very well. It suffered tremendous losses during the two years of active warfare. against it in Gaza, but it has 20,000 fighters left, and it has no trouble recruiting new people to join it. It is the embodiment of Palestinian nationalism now. Remember that it came into power through an election. The only election that was held in Palestine in this century in 2006,

produced a Hamas government. The United States and Israel then overthrew that government in the West Bank. but proved unable to do that in Gaza. So this is a movement that has popular backing and that is providing services to the people of Gaza, restoring order, culling the criminal gangs that Israel had employed to attack it and to steal food

in order to enforce the starvation policy in Gaza. And it has largely restored order in the air. that is not directly occupied by Israel. Israel is not directly supporting the Alistinian gangs that had funded and supplied with weapons earlier. And therefore, Hamas is basically, if not well, very much alive. Do we, or do you have an understanding as to why President Trump canceled his planned meeting in Budapest with Russian President Putin?

Oh, I think it represents a bit of realism on his part. Basically, that war in Ukraine has come down to two very different strategies. On the Russian side, the strategy is the war of attrition, aimed at eventually causing a collapse of the Ukrainian armed forces. and they're proceeding methodically on that basis. They've declared what their war aims are, which include the taking of all of the oblast of Donetsk, and they already have Lugansk in their hands. They appear to be willing to compromise on the line of control

in the two other oblasts, Zablerija and Erzl. But they are continuing the war. They don't see any merit in a ceasefire, short of achieving their objectives. At that point, they will negotiate a ceasefire. On the Ukrainian side, the strategy has shifted. There's no more talk of retaking all of the land that they've lost to the Russians, Crimea, the Donbos, the region, and so forth.

Now they're hunkered down trying to hold a line of defense and failing. So they've switched to a policy of which is very consistent with what we set out to do with this war in the beginning, namely to strike strategically at Russia, particularly at oil facilities, in the hope that eventually they can inflict enough pain for, because the Russians to agree to a ceasefire, pretty much on the existing lines. And you see the United States supporting this strategy with our sanctions on Russian oil, which we just put in. The market is saying that these sanctions are not going to be effective. There's not been a major jump in oil prices. There will be workarounds. This will not bring Russia to its knees. So we really don't have an effective strategy for ending this war.

The Russians do. And as time goes on, unfortunately, Ukraine will lose more people, more men, more women, more land, and it will shrink. And it runs the risk of losing its entire Black Sea coast. If at some point it does not come to terms with the Russians. The Reuters is reporting this morning that Russian soldiers are reporting to their superiors, that they're hearing foreign voices at the front line, languages that are not Ukrainian and not Russian. Who are they?

Well, I don't know. I mean, both sides have actually recruited foreigners to assist them. The North Koreans did intervene in Kuzk during the brief period when Ukraine had still had some military initiative, which is now lost, there are mercenaries, but there are also volunteers who have gone to Ukraine to help the Ukrainians defend themselves. And Ukraine, unlike Russia, does not have abundant manpower that it can throw into the fight. So I don't know who they are, but probably on the front line, probably volunteers from other places, including the United States. We know that there are some

Americans there. There's also in the background, of course, a very large and destined American support force, supporting Ukraine with intelligence and with weaponry firing weapons that Ukrainians get on their own fire because they lack the coordinates for the targets. Well, switching gears, Ambassador. What kind of an economic morass? has the President of the United States caused vis-a-vis the U.S. and China with his imposition of a 100% tariff? Well, as usual, he's created a crisis and then tried to profit from it. That hasn't worked.

What seems to have happened is yet another transactional short-term pause in the ongoing economic warfare, kicking the Canada. down the road, no long-term solution in sight, no process for arriving at a solution. In the meantime, China is repositioning itself economically. It is reducing the importance of its American market. It is growing at over 5% economically, which was its target, and it's doing so with an increase in exports to other parts of the world,

including Latin America in our backyard, but Africa as well and somewhat of an impact in Chinese relations with Europe, but then the same could be said of American relations with Europe. So what is coming out of this is yet another pseudo event in Guangzhou in South Korea with very little prospect of any long-term reconciliation between the United States China. We've seen

this pattern before particularly, correct me if I'm wrong ambassador, particularly with respect to Trump's tariffs as shaky as they are with respect to law and the Constitution. He keeps imposing

them. He imposes them they cause a crisis and then he tries to take credit for the solution of the crisis. Well, the pattern here is with the Chinese at least is we put on tariffs, they put on counter tariffs. That's why soybeans aren't being bought.

Presumably, we're going to drop tariffs to some level in reciprocation for the apparent willingness of the Chinese to drop their tariffs on soybean purchases. We have adopted a global extraterritorial extension of our export controls so that, you know, if you, if you, If you, let's say you're a Brazilian and you purchase a medical kit that contains a Q-tip with cotton ground in Arkansas, the fact that the cotton comes from Arkansas, in our view, gives us the ability to prevent you from reselling that medical kit to an avowed enemy

of the United States, let's say Venezuela. So this is an incredible extension of extraterritoriality and invasion of other countries' sovereignty. And when we did this for chips, the Chinese reciprocated by doing it for rare earths. And then we screamed bloody murder, this is unfair. And so how can you do that? And apparently there's now not a rollback, but some kind of deferral of this. the Chinese imposition of these controls, mirroring ours. And I suspect that the Chinese bureaucracy is rather happy about that, if that's true,

because they need time to work out enforcement mechanisms. They will give them a year to do that. Is China a friend or a foe? Neither. It's China. It's in its own interest. It is not an active enemy of the United States. It does not patrol our coasts with air, or ships as we do. It does not contest our sovereignty over any territory, which we do, both in our intervention in the Chinese Civil War, which keeps Taiwan separated from the rest of China

and in the South China Sea, where we back every claim in a confused situation where multiple claimants, none of whom have a really convincing case in my view. That includes the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Filipinos, Malaysians, and arguably Brunei. And by the way, Taipei, which is the formerly recognized government of China, the Republic of China, has exactly the same claims as the People's Republic of China in Beijing. So this is a confused situation. We are in China's face. They are not in ours.

Wow. You mentioned Venezuela, defense news. dot com just reported, quote, heavy Russian cargo plane lands in Caracas amid U.S. Venezuela tensions. What do you think the contents of that Russian cargo plane were? Weapons of some sort, I imagine, probably air defense since we seem to be contemplating direct strikes on Venezuela, something that is against international law, also unconstitutional, but That doesn't seem to bother us these days. We murder people at will, not on Fifth Avenue, as President Trump claimed in his first term campaign,

but in the Caribbean and on the high seas. And we are alienating all of Latin America, which is strategically extremely unwise. But there is apparently a refocus in the Pentagon on the Western Hemisphere as our sphere of influence and the focus of our defense efforts, that makes sense. Many of our problems, whether they're illegal immigration or drug trafficking, originate in the Western Hemisphere. So far, there is no foreign military presence in the Western Hemisphere, as there was during the Cold War. with the Soviets in Cuba and arguably in Nicaragua.

But that's coming if we alienate people enough. Here's President Maduro yesterday, obviously with a translator, saying that the CIA is planning a false flag on a U.S. ship docked in Trinidad, Chris cut number two. Between Saturday night and yesterday, Sunday at dawn. A number of arrests were made of what could be a group of mercenaries prepared and financed by the CIA. And all that led us to uncover the plan for a self-attack that the CIA was going to carry out against its military vessels that they have positioned off

Venezuela, in Trinidad and Tobago. That is what was intended with that ship. They brought into Trinidad and Tobago. where unfortunately the Prime Minister Trinidad and Tobago is an enabler and promoter war because of her own personal, physical, mental, and moral weaknesses. Not impossible to imagine. There have been examples in the Gulf of Tonkin, for example, where, or for that matter, the 1848 war with Mexico.

Again, you know, we have a history of false flag attacks on our forces, which then justify our intervention. Not impossible to imagine at all. One more clip for you, Ambassador. This is the Venezuelan Interior Minister saying that they have captured CIA people in Venezuela. Cut number one. I was on my way here just a moment ago.

And they informed me about three people they captured at another location. with CIA manuals, and they have no shame. So they arrive and delete things from their phones because they think that by deleting their phone, everything disappears, but no, those phones talk. They talk. And what we've discovered is truly pure gold.

The CIA is connected to those sectors that hate Venezuela. We live in peace and security in this country, so please just leave us alone. It is undoubtedly an act of aggression. These military exercises, which they are currently conducting together with Trinidad, are clear provocations. These actions have been denounced in the official statement that you are referring to. Could you imagine if a foreign country, a Latin American country sent agents into New Mexico or Arizona, or Texas to foment disruption and threaten the stability of the government, how we would react?

Well, I think we would react very forcefully. The Osteo Cabello, who we just saw, the Interior Minister, is many people imagine the eminous gris behind Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. A very bright and manipulative person very closely connected to Cuba. And in the end, what this is all about is Cuba. Venezuela's relationship with Cuba has been an annoyance. It props the Cubans up. Venezuelans provide oil that the Soviet Union used to provide to Cuba.

They keep the Cuban economy afloat. And of course, they have a close relationship. with the Cuban security forces in Venezuela and a cooperative relationship with them in Cuba. So there have been in the past some rather bizarre bungled efforts by people apparently connected to the CIA to foment rebellion in Venezuela or a mutiny in the armed forces. That hasn't worked. Apparently those efforts which President Trump is confirmed, confirmed or approved by him are now going on still. I guess, Ambassador, and you know this better than I, Cuba is a bad word in the State Department today.

Well, our Secretary of State is, of course, a Cuban American, not a refugee from Castro. His parents came during the Batista era, but he's very much part of the Andy Castro, anti-Cuban, Cuban community in South Florida, and he's been trying to overthrow the government of Venezuela for years, so you're right. This is consistent with that particular political special interest in the United States. Ambassador Chas Freeman, thank you, my dear friend. Thank you for letting me go across the board on all these topics and pick your brain. Very instructive to the audience and to me and deeply appreciated.

We'll look forward to seeing you next week, Ambassador. Thank you so much. And thank you. Of course. And coming up later today at 11 o'clock this morning, Colonel Douglas McGregor at 1 this afternoon, Colonel Bill Astori, at 2 this afternoon, Matt Ho, at 3 this afternoon, Colonel Karen Kutkowski, Justin La Paule Tano for judging.

History tells us every month. Thank you.