#736: A Strategic Deep Dive on TikTok, The Boiling Moat of Taiwan, and China’s Next-Gen Statecraft — Matt Pottinger, Former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor

Matt Pottinger is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and chairman of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Matt served as U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor from 2019 to 2021. Before his White House service, Matt spent the late 1990s and early 2000s in China as a reporter for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. He then fought in Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine during three combat deployments between 2007 and 2010. Matt’s new book is The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan. Sponsors: Wealthfront high-yield savings account: https://wealthfront.com/tim (Start earning 5% interest on your savings. And when you open an account today, you’ll get an extra fifty-dollar bonus with a deposit of five hundred dollars or more.) Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business: https://shopify.com/tim (one-dollar-per-month trial period) Helix Sleep premium mattresses: https://helixsleep.com/tim (between 25% and 30% off all mattress orders and two free pillows) Timestamps: [00:00] Start [05:55] Bao Tong’s calligraphy. [08:20] Matt’s decision to study East Asian languages. [10:13] Studying with Perry Link and the challenges of learning Chinese. [12:19] Tips for learning Chinese and other languages. [17:17] How TikTok has been weaponized by the Chinese Communist Party. [20:58] The origins of TikTok and its obfuscatory ownership structure. [26:30] How sowing chaos in the West serves the CCP’s aims. [31:37] “Politics stops at the water’s edge.” [33:11] How should the US rein in TikTok’s influence over its population? [40:23] The significance of Taiwan geographically, ideologically, and economically. [49:59] The semiconductor industry in Taiwan and its global importance. [52:07] Deterring China from attacking or coercing Taiwan. [58:51] Cultivating social depth in Taiwan. [1:01:09] Guessing at Xi Jinping’s timeline. [1:05:33] Demonstrating the wil