>> helen raleigh is the epitome of the american dream. born and raised in, communist china helen came to the u.s. as a college college student she didn't know anybody and she had less than $100 in herd pocket to like millions of immigrants fighting for freedom helen's pockets were light but her dreams were rich. her combination of hard work and scholarship talent earned her master's degree in economics from the university of nygaard and an nba from the university of wyoming. she's the author of several books including her first book confucius never said which if you haven't read it i highly recommend it describes a family struggle to survive under china's socialist regime. she's a contributor to the federalist and her writers -- writings of it. no "wall street journal" "fox news" "newsweek" and other national media. helen has served onio several words and commissions in metro denver where she lives with her

husband mike. those include the colorado state advisory committee and several others. what impresses me the most about helen ismo her courage and her love of america and our precious freedoms. helen became a u.s. citizen in 2013 and she placed her oath to defend the united states of america. by publishing her latest book which is for sale in the lobby signing itbe afterwards her book "backlash" nhow china's aggression has backfired. helen is shining a spotlight on the chinese communist party and its providing a wake-up call to americans to embrace socialist ideology like those she and her family endured in china. for this display of courage helen has been ruthlessly attacked on social media and regularly receives mail in her

inbox including death threats. helen says in "backlash" i simply can't remain silent on things that matter because of art with the king, m jr. once sd our lives begin to end the day we becomend silent. let's give a warm welcome to helen raleigh. [applause] >> with that -- good evening everyone. are you feeling okay? is so nice to be back and thank you jennifer. i'm integrated meyer of the work you have done overer the years d for those of you who are here and are a supporter of this

great institute, thank you and for those of you who are not yet in those of you who are going to watch this sunday on the internet are social media i encourage you to check this great institution out and give them support and help them continue with event for the freedom of all americans. i want to keep my remarks short because steamboat institute attracts the most agitated audience so every time i spoke here there were so many questions. especially after we have all been cooped up in our homes for more than a year. i want to get directions how we spring to action so i want to keep my remarks brief but i want to get to questions and i know -- i want to know what is on your mind about the policies and what you think we should do. i'm going to focus on three questions.

the three questions will be why did i write this book and the second question would be this book talks about aggression so what are the aggressions i'm talking about and also the title ofof the book is called "backla" so i get a lot of questions, are you back lashing because i don't see it so i'll explain where the backlash comes from. this first question why did i write this. the short answer is like you i had tons of time. i couldn't go anywhere for more thani a year. but the serious question is i wrote this book mostly out of frustration. i was frustrated because for four decades since nixon, president nixon visited china, for fours decades the u.s. foreign policy with china was largely a failure. it's based on delusion and based

on this misunderstanding of what the communist party really is. i'm going to explain that. the misunderstanding is, as long as the economically engage in the party based on this theory that maimed if you go to mcdonald's the regime will change. for the longest time almost all western democracy had the solution that as long as we engage in the communist party economically eventually it will become more like us. it will be more open and they'll embrace democracy. now we realize that it's an illusion. not all of us realize that that's part of my frustration.

not all of our their decision-makers and politicians recognize that the sum of them continue. i'm not saying economic engagement was a bad idea because i myself was the beneficiary of economic engagement. i grew up with fooden rations ad everything was rationed and there was limited supply. my parents had to get up at 4:00 inin the morning to stand in lie outside of the grocery store to get cooking oil or sugar. the first time i went to mcdonald's it was the hamburger theory. the first mcdonald's opened in beijing the first thing i got was an apple pie. it took 10 minutes to eat and apple pie. the reason it took me 20 minutes as i savored every. now i stay away from them because i want to stay fit that

back then i didn't care and to me it was not freedom of liberty, it was apple pie. someday wanted to go to the places where you can eat as much sugar as you want. so i'm the beneficiary of that economic engagement. economic engagement itself is not a wrong policy. what we did wrong and by we i mean the larger government what we did wrong we assumed unconditional economic engagement would somehow change behaviors. we b forgot the true character f the communist party. let mepl explain to you about te true character of the communist party. the communist party is the party that believes in raw power. to obtain power and would do

anything to remain in power. power is only justification. that's why the communist party is deeply to the democratic values. this started in 1949 because the latter what you believe such as free and open elections opposition parties open debate of ideas these are all democratic values but the party's ability to take power and to stay in power. that's where the communist party will never change. it will never embrace democracy. so we need to treat them like who they really are not who we wish them to be. i wrote this book not meaning

for policymakers although they are welcome to read it but i keep all of you in mind because i think we as the people need to become agitated. politicians incentive is how to be effective. we need to be smart so when we look at the candidate and check out their policies don't make rule of law andol policy decisis so i think we need to educate ourselves. here are the issues that we should care about when it comes to the platform in china than and then we evaluate the candidate at the time of election. can we say okay we can pass the rhetoric, what is your policy

that you advocate? is that the right policy for america? we need to do that because for the last four decades we had unconditional economic engagement at the same time we didn't take national security and consideration and also we are too willing to compromise our democratic values because we think we could make a compromise and eventually things will change. that was obvious after 1989 at the tnn square massacre. in 1989 china was a communist state. the per-capita was about $4 per person. a lot of political leverage to press for political change from the communist party. we didn't do that.

instead western allies would pretend we don't see them and efhopefully something will chan. guess what? wfour decades later because of our unconditional engagement now we are dealing with an authoritarian state that take our investment in our technology at decline. the challenge is on every front and they are seeking not just regional power in asia and in china but also world domination alternative with order. that different people that are w guaranteed peace and prosperity. that's why even though there's a lot of content of the book it was easy to understand. so that's the first question,

why did i write this book and the second question what aggressions we are talking about with china. when i approached this book are like to describe it is peeling an onion. they are different layers but the first layer of aggression i focused on the domestic aggression. i focused on the human rights violations against the muslims and the and the mass surveillance systems. i called it a digital prison that the communist party's building was surveillance. that player one and layer one in my book there's a lot of historical content about why did the communist party to cite took target the population and how

did they build this digital fortune? i want to focus on the soft patch fixed because too often we focus on the hard tactics. things likeut imprisonment forcd abortion or organ harvesting in some instances. the focus on the soft tactics when i say soft tab it's about the social contact -- social contract. today's party as long as i can guarantee if your standard of living will go up you can have material things and then you should not demand for -- so is that really enough?

this businessman told a foreign journalist he said yes my standard of living has improved. i have two cars and several houses and i do not lacking anything material wise. here's the challenge. i cannot worship whoever want and i'm not allowed to openly display a picture of the dalai lama. my children don't know about the culture and he said i applied for a passport and i've been rejected multiple times. he basically concludes i have everything except freedom. that's what i'm saying it's very important that we in the west need to care about what's going on and we should focus on what's good with what's going on with soft tactics.

they sedate you to think you should be happy you have a roof over your head and food on the table. that's not who we are as human beings. we want more. we want to have agency to make a decision. we need to focus on hard tactics as well as soft tactics when it comes to repression. that's layer one. layer two is mainland china for the second layer is about what's happening in hong kong and happening in taiwan and what happening in the south china sea. i will be glad to talk about answering questions about hong kong and taiwan. there's a lot of contrasts in the book that i want to direct your attention to the south china sea because we don't pay enough attention to what's going on and it's extremely important. it also reflects a new tactic.

that's the thing with the communist party. what's happening at the south china sea? it's a trial run of what we call the gray zone tactic or the gray zone tactic means it's about -- about using the military. it enables the country to expand its territory without having to find a traditional war. this is how the war expanded to the south china sea but the south china sea is unique body of water in south asia with a major trade routes and 90% of the trade going to china goes through water and china in several countries including malaysia the philippines and

vietnam share claim that this body of water. sometimes it overlaps. there are disputes as to what gary is yours and what is mine. this is an area with huge mineral oil and gas deposits. it's a huge deposits of national resources he can understand why the country shares this body of water. there's an economic and national security interest to maintain the claim or to extend it. what china did was under the first album administration he came up with this ingenious idea in the south china sea there's a wreath and the united states did not object. they weren't sure what china was

doing in china just said oh we want to make sure we can have a station here so we can help when fishermen get in trouble for there is bad weather so they said okay that's fine. within three years china reclaimed 3000 acres of land by building artificial islands. once they built this island and this island has runway hangars andth radar and china declared t could establish a new administration. not only china because they built it but also the surrounding waters. by doing that china claimed 90%.

so that shared body of water is now china's and now any fishermen from other countries want toy access it china will send it coast guard. sometimes they drive them out in the name of protecting china's territory. so if i built that it's mine. that's the tack. now based on its success in the south china sea we are using the same strategy on the land to have thehe land border dispute with other countries of foreign-policy.

basicallyy china -- inside the border is more british country shared orders with china. even though it's a disputed order for theor longest time china's claim those lands. once they have told that it spares. the reason china did that is basically the economy is adjacent to india and china and

india have in fighting order wars for the last several decades so china was playing the long game. basically they want to use the three villages in the area that is close to a land. china wanted to use this to make a land exchange. with her own land basically saying ied will give up these three villages if you give me these other areas next to india. china is vying for that of the area so so far it's a small country and all they could do is pretend it didn't know it was happening. foreign policies and atinvestigation report it was jt totally shocking and the fact that china continues to expand this -- these tactics and have

so far not received any rejections not even from the united states. that's shocking so these are the things we need to know. we don't currently have a good strategy to push back. so that's the second layer. the third layer is closer to all of us. stop china's global expansion and this is a big area. there are an economic standpoint in chino launch this huge massive infrastructure plan. some of you may heard about it. china will finance it infrastructure like airports in other countries using china's own suppliers and many time china's own workers but the hosting country just borrows

moneyus from the chinese bank vy cheaply but for many of them if you don't pay it back it's a death trap. if you can't pay it back you'll have to lease their land or let china use your resources. it's a really genius idea and this idea the obama administration thought about it. like so many other things we thoughtt about it and we came up with the idea and we shifted our attention and put our huge resources behind it. so that's the economic front and there's an education front. some that you are less familiar about is a program which is china's actively recruiting foreign scientists as well as

researchers in leading edge technology areas. basically china says hey a view funny and tenure and universities. all you have to do is bring your research that you are currently doing and share it with us to keep it quiet from your employers. last year if you read the "washington journal" last year for the first time the u.s. justice charged a harvard chemistry professor for sharing his leading edge technology with china with the chinese university secretly. without letting his employer now. his research united states was not founded by harvard at the department of defense so he is basically using our tax dollars to do his research and share the results with china universities and got paid that way too.

that's something we don't know very well. there is the information wars. it happens in the media and on social media and oxford university research shows about 50% of those are re-tweets as well as china's diplomats tweaked spreading information that is favorable for china about the coronavirus. 50% of their re-tweets came from accounts originating from china. our technology company has been very slow to respond to that so even though they are gradually finding those accounts add m

enclosing them, before they close them all these re-tweets and lies give the impression to unknown foreigners have hey this may be something legitimate. you are influenced by misinformation that you'd don't even know. the account owners are affiliateded with the state with the chinese state. the information we see in misinformation in the pandemic and that's huge in terms of the information wars in china. that's the third layer. and that's a side play. obviously you can't read a book without a chapter on the pandemic. there's a chapter on the pandemic and i think the pandemic really is a wake-up call for a lot of us not for all

of us but for a lot of us. it's really more so the icing on the cake type two these aggressions together to explain why we should care about china's aggression especially in the domestic audience. if you look at how to weep -- help the chinese parties reacted to the pandemic. now we knew they suppress the scientists and the doctors and the whistleblowers and it prevented the media fromor reporting about it in the citizen journalist interviewed citizens to talk about what's really going on. the university came out with a study last year that shows first of all for a pandemic in the early days of the pandemic was

the most crucial time. the sooner you can take action to those early days the sooner you can prevent the spread. basically according to a university study have put the chinese to government disclosed all the information we knew they knew about six weeks earlier. the scope of the pandemic would be reduced by 90% not 19, 90%. that is why when people ask me why should we care about what did they shame due to the leaders and why should we care about what they did? i said while the pandemic. now you realize your government

doesn't care about the well-being of its own people. we need to do anything to stay in party. the pandemic shows you it's going to impact you and not us. that's why we should care about it. so that's about the aggressions and now let's talk about the backlash. is there backlash? i believe there is but i finish writing this book last year around september. i see more backlash now compared to the time when i was writing about it. even back then i have seen several sources of backlash. first was the public opinion. pew research did research last fall and public opinion of china as well as china's communist leader xi jinping dropped 75%.

china because of the pandemic is also china to two hong kong the communist party is facing unprecedented political isolation because of what's happened with the pandemic because it impacts so many of us. to me that's the biggest backlash. there's also other backlash. under the trump administration i assume this is very friendly to the trump administration but for those who are not friendly with the trump administration especially as the president we have to give him credit. i think foreign policy was one of his brightest spots the fact he didn't think about it as often was a failure of his campaign for re-election. i mentioned in my book his administration was the first

american administration, you had secretary pompeo to talk at this freedom conference but he's my favorite fromni the trump administration but the trump administration was the first american administration that understood the true nature of the communist party. you heard secretary pompeo talk about many times that the trump administration treated the communist party with who it really is and not who we wish it to be. for the first time they brought foreign policy and not only that the trump administration was the worst administration not afraid to bear costs to challenge china for its aggressions. today china has one of the most powerful armies in the second largest economy. the cost of anything in china is

very high. so there are too many administrations as well as our allies that are afraid to confront china. the trump administration was the first one. they made it known they are ready to bear that cost. they did the things that i don't think any other administration would do. they signed the humans right at her hong kong and for the uyghurs and for our chinese companies. and they sanctioned senior communist party officials. that is never happened before. it's never happened before. i would call that backlash and not only backlash from the u.s. administration standpoint, you probably heard last year the trump foreign-policy was always about going alone.

nobody followed him. that's not entirely true. let me give you an example. many of you have heard of 5g network. there's this big chinese company called huawei. even though they claim it's a private company it's not really private. they have deep ties with the chinese military. anyway so huawei is a national -- supported by the chinese government and they wanted to see huawei told 5g networks around the world. the trump administration were warning our allies do not use the 5g network visit. present a huge security rest and by the way the security rest -- frist has been proven by several

allies especially in australia. the trump administration has been telling her allies not to use 5g. one of our closest allies ass united kingdom and under the conservative administration boris johnson last january said we are going to use huawei because it's it really is because they were subsidized by the government and as a business person i can tell you the bidding price was unreasonable. no business could really sustain that and survive their business. doris johnson was hamstrung. we are going to go with huawei to do this because they are even though pompeo visited the country last year and said if you do this sharing intelligence with you because we don't feel comfortable. johnson was like nope we are going to do this because it's.

and guess what? the pandemic happened in the chinese increased its crackdown on hong kong. what is happening in hong kong is really tragic. anyway by may the trumptr administration announced it will not use huawei to build its 5g network. again the pandemic became a wake-up call and the backlash continue to this year. the biden administration as well as the eu the united kingdom and canada joined together to launch targeted dissension against chinese officials over their human rights violations. so you see the backlash continue. it has not become a big wave yet. that's where you come in.

because the administration let me make a few comments about the biden administration. the biden administration as the biden administration came and their general approach was anything making the trump administration paul baer against. they contributed to targeted sanctions against communist party officials and companies affiliated with the chinese military. the biden administration my biggest concern is as the biden administration demonstrated their two things i'm concerned about the most. one is just like the previous administration the biden administration there's a gap between what they say versus what they do.

trump had the same problem. with trump he made us cringe when he spoke about the dictator that she is my friend and putin is great. it made us, no they are not great. because he surrounded himself with hawks and people who are really strong on national security trump policy was rushed -- tough on russia in really tough on china. the biden administration is tackled the opposite. the biden administration. our policies are exactly the opposite. our policies are soft so even though the biden administration continued with policy on china we are very -- a very revealing about was what happened in the diplomatic meetings between

chinese diplomats and american diplomats in alaska. keepe in mind alaska was on our soil. the chinese diplomats came at our vacation and i don't know if you've read any reports about what happened at that meeting. basically the chinese diplomat used h the talking points out of viniar times in school that our diplomats on universal soil like we were children and talking about the markets have no rights no positions to talk to china about any values because your own failures and racial injustice. that's not surprising for china's diplomat to use our media as a talking point. what is disappointing and surprising, not surprising that disappointing.

he used the same language because art diplomats had the same doubts of america's founding values. they could have mounted a powerful defense. we couldn't do that on the diplomatic front. how could we do it on any other front? that's what really troubles me the most. i don't quite believe you're depressed. so i'm going to end with a "from winston churchill. i love winston churchill. winston churchill said americans will always do the right thing after they have tried everything else.

so we are at the stage where we are trying everything else but i hope we will go back to doing the right thing so thank you. [applause] >> we have received some good questions so let's dive right in. earlier this year the chinese foreign ministry announced that china's providing savings to 69 countries and commercially exporting 20 or for china's competitors are concerned for china's covid-19 vaccines insulin will follow. what are your thoughts on china's vaccine diplomacy efforts? >> that's a really good question using a vaccine to rebuild.

i can tell you the good news diplomats say it's not very successful. the chinese vaccines efficiency is only about 60% and we don't even know if that's accurate. china's own cdc use the american vaccine like pfizer or moderna as a booster shot. so far vaccine diplomacy is not successful but it doesn't show the relentless miss of the comments party that it's waiting to do anything to help in the

geopolitical influence. and i do think it's accurate to say china would use the covid crisis to gain influence across the globe? >> i think china tried. the communist party definitely tried to do that. that's the misinformation especially from chinese diplomats asal well because chia controls that. this whole fact-finding the origins of the coronavirus was not very successful. so china tried to claim it's the frozen food at the u.s. military that are out it and we destroyed all the evidence and.

because now it's become a credible scenario now because thanksre to research by individuals around the world to truly amazing story. our media are established media the scientific extent which meant rejected the whole theory because they thought if trump said it must be a lie. they censor anyone any scientist or researcher who wants to talk about the guess what it's a free market. they are a group of individuals and a wonderful piece by "newsweek." it's open source information and none of them have pacified

access. the research resource information and postcc it on li. they ripple to find credible evidence to show it's very likely. to condense the scientific establishment which basically brought us full thing back to life. he was sentenced to death with but but this group of individuas brought to life in because of that china's winning the pr war. countries hesitate to challenge china. even he says we need to do more investigations of the coronavirus.

so china did not win the pr war on that. >> would the think the u.s. should be doing p diplomatically on the distribution to reinforce our allies and china? >> i think the donation program is it really good way. i'm so glad president biden decided to use the donations that is forcing her drug companies to share the patent. not only it violates rights but the thing is it's very difficult to make a vaccine. many countries simply do not have the facilities to make the vaccines. we force a drug companies to share. they have it for free and they'll use it to advance their vaccines. i think it's a muchh better

option. hopefully someone talks him out of it and now these amounts we are going to make a big donation. if we have extra we should donate to accommodate india who is our ally and it's a very importantur ally and that the conflict especially in asia. india is facing a serious challenge from covid so we should v help our allies and mae them available to other countries. >> as you know the chinese communist party is made up of a number of factions. the pain has two major factions was between 2,002,012. each faction had a different agenda. what group now controls the party today and why?

>> i would not call it a faction because again going back to the true nature of the communist party even the liberal wing of the party their ultimate goal is still power. how to remain in power by anything it takes. they may be more liberal on the economic front. they there may be more tolerant with the press but the bottom line is even the liberal way they want -- democracy again because democracy presents a serious challenge to the communist party survival to hold power. i do have to say before the current president xi xi jinping before he came to power in 2012 the previous two leaders of the

communist party they were relatively tolerant. they were less ambitious, let me put it that way. they followed this guidance. he was pragmatic. he basically said we need western money and technology to help us. wait for your time and do not be aggressive. that's what- followed the

guidance. that gave t china time not only economic weight but the chinese people experienced a more open. back politically in china. but that has all changed when the current leader came to power. he modeled himself after mao. if you go to china now we'll see his portraits everywhere and whatever he says he's the best. he was the chairman of everything because he controlled everything. china is going back to more totalitarian and a honeymoon at that shortor trade of political openness is gone.

because xi the current leaders relatively young he's going to be there and he will be their president for life so he will be there long time. china is not going back to openness and it's actually going the other way. it's much more totalitarian. >> that segues to my next question. their 92 million communist party members out of 1.5 billion in china. is their backlash against any of these government programs? >> if there is it's not being reported that there was an unofficial news during the pandemic. there was lot of anger about.

basically the communist party members even though there are more in terms of population they are considered elite. the party will not just take anyone. they first have to be selected in the program. you have to have really good grades and come from a good family and then you move from their together program for teenagers and for young people. once you're in that program then you have to demonstrate communism and you have to get good grades. you have to be smart to come from a good family so it's very elitist.

andth you will be put in a key position in economy education defense. so you are really groomed to be the leaders and the successors took care he communism forward. there's some backlash against certain communist party members during the pandemic. there was a story about a hospital in shanghai. the chief doctors talked about the communist party member that didn't show up. it's very rare for anybody to speak up in press coverage and china. he spoke up at a press conference and saying where the communist party members?

anybody whoni can treat patients are needed on the frontline and of course the story was taken down. nobody else talk about it anymore. i believe there are some people are afraid especially if you are a journalist in china. it's difficult to get first-hand information out of china. >> have come to expect to control the ambitions of china if they control the world material for renewable energy and we don't want that supply to stop? that's a really good question i'm so glad somebody askedy tha. the short answer is they can be done except we don't have the will. let me give you an example.

how many of you heard about rare earth animal -- and minerals. rare earth minerals or group of 17 minerals. they are crucial. they are widely used in building batteries and electronic cars in their crucial. and we the united states have huge deposits of rare earth minerals. back in the 1980s we were the ones who knew how to get the minerals out of the ground because we have the technology. when china opened up so many businesses many said we should go to china because it would a cheaper. basically our businessmen went

to china and taught the chinese how to process rare earth minerals. then here back home because of environmental laws it would be very expensive. so we opted out of that industry. china now has control 90% in recent years china controlled 90% of the world wide rare earth minerals supply. china has the biggest deposits. china hasas a monopoly the technology of how to extract the minerals. so china has been using its control. those minerals play such an important role for energy. china has used it to coerce other countries.

australia and japan have all kinds of natural resources. i wrote this article for the national review. what japan did was when china accused the rarest or mineral and japan, japan realized it could not depend on china to supply a rare earth minerals. so they did two things. one, the japanese government and japanese industry formed a task force. they their supplies from china but many other countries have other rare earth minerals, they don't have the technology or the money to distract -- extract it.

so that's one thing they did. then they diversify their suppliers and another thing they did was pure innovation by car companies through innovation they would -- their dependents and a rare earth mineral. it's not painless, believe me. it's painful. because of the japanese effort now china control 75% of the rights to rare earth mineral markets. and it's still a lot but it's not 90. this shows you what can be done. our businesses are so

short-sighted including our government they are so short sighted there is simply a lack of will to say we need to do this. we need to root make a change in our environmental laws or do whatever it takes to adjust a national security issue. it's ideologically so different. we are not there. it takes all of us to put our foot down and say we don't worry about backlash. >> would the thing has to happen to have corporations like the nba and the media and the backlash and cannot even happen?

>> i don't know. we understand the hypocrisies of our companies. on the one hand they are all for social justice. for example today commiseration made juneteenth a federal holiday and that's great and all companies came out and said we should celebrate the freedom of. at the same time they use the supply chain from china. it was by labor of the uyghurs so there's a huge fakir see. the people say how can we influence the chinese people that it's good but we don't even want to support it.

it will only have done two things. one is to empower regime who soughtim to dominate us. that's one thing another thing is the communist party would say look we don't even need the things they try to sell us. so it is frustrating. i don't know the answer to it. i think consumers that's where we come in. because our communities are dominated by woke companies so for me to ask you let's just break up all of them. we can't break up all of them.

but i think it's important that we talk about their hypocrisies. we can use alternative products to try not to support them. vote with our dollars and that's the only thing i can think of to use the power for what's to let them know about their hypocrisies. >> describe if you can how the chinese communist party directly monitors and controls the average chinese citizen by monitoring essentially all of their activities while literally applying a personal score. >> i talked about the digital prison in china watching over

1.4 billion people. one of them as facial recognition technology. china has 600 million cameras throughout the country. they can't tell who you are when you wear a mask suthers no way to hide. they know where you are and they know who you are. another component is what they call the social credit system but the social t credit system when you think about credit here it's about did i pay my bill on time next this is just part of the system. the social party system gives points to each chinese citizen.

it measures your shopping activity and heavier. crossed a red light because they have cameras everywhere and the internet companies can look into this credit system so there's a lot of data about you. some are innocent enough. some say it's not so bad. if you cross a red light at time you shouldn't. but many of them are not. if you complain about the chinese communist party or if you say something about the coronavirus that is different from the government's narrative then points will be deducted. what it comes down to if your behavior is good and what the government likes you can probably get a promotion and you

may get a raise and your kids may be able to go to a better school. if your behavior is bad by the government's definition someday you may find out you won't get thatst promotion or somehow your kids were rejected from that school or when you go to the bank to get a loan if they are going to give it to you. the worst part is you won't be able to travel anywhere. you can't buy airline tickets and you will be stopped. you lose the ability to travel. that happened to many chinese dissidents. they couldn't attend a conference or meeting because they weren't allowed to travel. so the social credit system is

this orwellian description being brought to reality. the really sad part is a lot of the technology was provided by our technology companies. our technology companies help china in its digital surveillance system. coming back to what have we done just like the coronavirus. we funded the wuhan lab to do research. and where's the accountability? when you look at all these

problems. we need to educate ourselves. we need ton do band transparency and accountability from our own politicians. the final question this to be a good one to wrap up on. you were a looting to our own culpability's as we were after touching the funding. it appears there has been a cover-up. do you believe the world country the united states our allies and other countries will eventually come together for some type of response are backlash against china and where do you see the ultimate endgame once all the

this finally come out? >> i'm pessimistic that the truth will come out especially related to the origins of the coronavirus. the investigation continued in china so they were in china for two weeks. all they did was read the report. they didn't even get into the database or walk around the lab. the longer time-lapse between when this has happened versus her research and investigation.

the longer it goes on the heart is his to find out what happened -- the harder it is for us to find out what happened. i do think this is a wake-up call and if have to follow it. if we go back to business as usual then we deserve it. our government, it's going to happen all over again. so this is a wake-up call for all of us and keeping pressure under politicians could to continue to investigate and hold china accountable for what happened with the coronavirus because very few people can claim to walk out of this

unscarred. there's a public pressure to keep this in the news and to keep the vaccinations going. we need to keep that w going. you mean politicians are country? what they want most is for this to gour away. when you investigate with the public have to keep the pressure andn demand. as the g7 -- they didn't make an announcement about the coronavirus. the problem is g7 and the gap between what they say versus what they do. the actiono put behind those demands. it will only happen if all of us demand it. my take away from the

coronavirus in writing this book is our biggest take away from the coronavirus is we should never surrender our liberties our freedoms to demand the truth and seeking answers. one of the founding fathers i forgot who said you can't exchange your liberty for -- you don't deserve either. it's not a fair trade. we have learned a painful lesson in the past 12 months and a difficult experience was brought back to life. it shows the power of the individual and it shows how long will the emperor walk around with no clothing on. they to us so never surrender

our freedoms again. we have to take responsibility and keep our focus on our politicians. >> a great note to end on. can we have a big round of applause for helen? [applause] i would like to remind all of you that helen's book "backlash" is for sale in the foyer. she'll be signing copies of her book. please also watch for announcements about the airing at tonights presentation on c-span's booktv series in the coming days and weeks. if you enjoyed tonight presentation of course we appreciate you going to steam. steamboat.org. we depend on your support to reach people all across colorado and throughout the country with import messages like helen's here tonight in promoting liberty and free enterprise.

for sure to follow steamboat on instagram twitter facebook. where promoting great things like helen's work and thank you and now please go w out and enjy the reception and book signing. thank you for coming. [applause]

>> seem to democracy. >> think you for joining us, first question is going to decide to tell you