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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley, Daily Wire's editor-in-chief. It's March 26th, and we're here to bring you the latest news and analysis.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. Today, we're going to cover a new report that reveals the extent to which U.S. corporations are partnering with the Chinese Communist Party.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right. And we'll also have a COVID news roundup with Johns Hopkins' Dr. Marty McCary. Plus, California community colleges have proposed adding diversity, equity, and inclusion competencies to their teacher evaluations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And we'll take a closer look at that proposal. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. If you like this episode, subscribe and tell a friend about us.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: A new report details the role U.S. corporations played in building China's military and surveillance state. Here to break down its findings is Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So how closely intertwined are U.S. corporations and Chinese government agencies?
--:-- Ben Johnson: Too closely, and critics say they don't draw appropriate lines where human rights are at stake.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Eight major corporations were covered in the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation's first-ever Corporate Complicity Scorecard. Those corporations are Amazon, Apple, Dell, Facebook, GE, Google, Intel, and Microsoft.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Of those eight corporations, half of them got an F, and another two scored a D based on their cooperation with the Chinese government.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What are some of the offenses the report catalogs?
--:-- Ben Johnson: They basically break down into a few categories. Some corporations help develop technology that the Chinese Communist Party uses to spy on its population.
--:-- Georgia Howe: For instance, Dell runs an artificial intelligence lab in partnership with the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Automation, or CASIA.
--:-- Ben Johnson: That group creates facial recognition technology, biometric monitoring, and voice recognition that enables the CCP's surveillance.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In fact, four companies, Amazon, Dell, GE, and Microsoft, all facilitated China's creation of the so-called smart cities, cities that are run by artificial intelligence where every public space is monitored 24-7.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Some troubling stuff. And it's only the tip of the iceberg.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Other U.S. corporations are also involved in producing dual-use technology, which are innovations that have a military application, or they partner with companies that are tied to the Chinese military.
--:-- Ben Johnson: GE, for example, partners with the Harbin Electric Group, a state-owned entity, on the development of turbine technologies.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But Harbin is also part of the Chinese government's military fusion program through a dedicated department that draws on turbine technologies.
--:-- Ben Johnson: That's particularly troubling because GE is also a major partner of the U.S. Defense Department.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So there's the potential of technology transfer.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Some are also involved in the persecution of Uyghur Muslims.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Dell and Ziyi both maintain offices in China Xinjiang province where government officials hurt approximately a million Uyghurs into an open prison.
--:-- Ben Johnson: In addition to claims of forced labor, there have been credible allegations that China engages in systematic rape and torture.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But none have identified 11 separate companies in Apple's supply chain as potentially linked to that slave labor program.
--:-- Ben Johnson: The report also says that corporations have used their clout to advocate for Chinese causes, some of them in the United States.
--:-- Georgia Howe: For example, Dell supports China's imperialist Belt and Road Initiative, but Apple lobbied Congress against certain provisions of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
--:-- Ben Johnson: U.S. corporations that do business with China now have a vested interest in opposing any U.S. sanctions that would improve human rights.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, big tech obviously has a major financial incentive to invest in China.
--:-- Ben Johnson: How does the U.S. government play into this?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, the U.S. government actually encouraged this kind of investment for most of the last four decades.
--:-- Ben Johnson: In the late 1990s, there was a bipartisan consensus that global engagement with China would eventually cause the country to adopt democracy, capitalism, and respect human rights.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Instead, the CCP has become more repressive of its Uyghur Muslim, Tibetan Buddhist, and unauthorized Christian communities.
--:-- Ben Johnson: It's monitoring its own population to a degree the average American would find incomprehensible, and it's saber-rattling against U.S. allies, often with technology that was made by U.S. corporations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right, Ben, that's a lot to process. Thanks for the overview.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson. Coming up, a new study shows COVID survivors have a higher risk of developing diabetes.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: The number of COVID cases in the U.S. has dramatically decreased over the last few weeks, even amid reports of a new variant abroad. Meanwhile, we continue to learn more about the long-term impact of the virus.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining us to discuss the latest on COVID is Johns Hopkins' Dr. Marty McCary.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: Thanks for coming on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, it's March of 2022. What is the state of COVID in the United States right now?
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: Well, we're at record low levels across the board in terms of case numbers. We're at nine for 100,000.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And in terms of hospitalizations and ICU utilization, the issue that we're following is that Europe just had a bit of an uptick.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: I wouldn't call it a true wave, but it was an increase in cases, not really an increase in hospitalizations or severe illness.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And we've been bracing for that here for about three weeks because Europe has been a pretty reliable preview of what we can expect in the United States.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: And for some reason, we have not seen this uptick. It may happen in the next few weeks, or for some reason, it may not happen here at all.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, what can you tell us about the new subvariant BA2?
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: So it's generally believed that BA2, which is sort of the second Omicron variant, also known as the stealth variant by some people, it's about 30 to 50 percent more contagious, not more dangerous.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But when you have something that's more contagious, you're more likely to pick it up a lot with asymptomatic screening, that is, testing people who feel fine.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: You're more likely to detect it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Do you expect that we're going to have another surge?
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: I can almost guarantee that we going to see an increase in cases this fall.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And it because COVID is going to fold into the group of respiratory pathogens that goes up every winter every viral season.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: Now, it will probably join the four other coronaviruses that we've learned to accept year to year that cause about 25 percent of the cases of the common cold.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, can you explain what's happening in South Korea?
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: So South Korea never really got hit hard with COVID.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And when you don't get hit hard with a virus, you sort of pen up some vulnerability.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: By the way, we're going to see that with influenza. We've had a couple of mild flu seasons. At some point, we're going to get hit hard.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, with COVID, South Korea is now getting hit hard.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: One of the mysteries of COVID is how it sort of lingers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We thought when New York got hit early in the pandemic that the rest of the country was going to quickly also get hit badly.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: But it was staggered. India got hit very late, almost a year and a half later.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And out of India came the Delta variant.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: So we're seeing it finally cause a real wave in South Korea.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But to put things in context, they're still doing much better than other countries.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: Their total death count is 13,000 in a country of 51 million.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So yes, their hospitalizations are a bit full right now, but they also just approved Paxlovid, the antiviral therapy, and they're just now sort of gearing up.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: Now, tell me about this new study by the St. Louis VA healthcare system that is seeming to show that COVID-19 survivors are 40% more likely to develop diabetes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That sounds really high.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: Can you explain that?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Sure, yeah. So we know that diabetes is in part a mystery when it comes to type 1 diabetes.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: And it's been known that viruses may trigger type 1 diabetes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It may trigger an autoimmune response.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: The study out of the VA really looked at type 2 diabetes, which means people, they already had risk factors.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The risk factors might have included obesity.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: And that people who had COVID had a 40% increased likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So it's concerning.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: Initially, people thought, well, these are veterans at the VA hospital. They're already at risk of diabetes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But the study was done with a good control group, and it was clear that type 2 diabetes was more common after the infection in every group, young people, healthy people, people older, and people at risk.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right. Well, Dr. McCary, thank you so much for coming on.
--:-- Dr. Marty McCary: This is great. Good to be with you.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Dr. Marty McCary from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: California community colleges have proposed a new rubric for faculty evaluations that measure competencies in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The new evaluations would require college professors to demonstrate an understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion principles.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They would also have to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to established anti-racist goals in their professional work.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Elordi is here to tell us what's going on.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So Maraid, tell us about this new proposal.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, so on March 11th, the California Community College's chancellor's office issued a formal proposal to embed DEI competencies as part of the evaluation process for employees.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So this would be system wide in California.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The idea is to make DEI competencies a formal condition for faculty to get promoted or receive tenure or otherwise advance their careers.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: I also want to note this proposal adds an A for accessibility to DEI, so they called it DEIA or DIA.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So it would be mandatory to include DEIA as part of teacher evaluations, which would affect things like employment and tenure.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Yes, and not just teachers. This would apply to administrators and other employees too.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So what would that look like in practice exactly?
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Well, as of now, only the proposal has been released, so we don't have specific rubric items yet.
--:-- Georgia Howe: However, here are some things mentioned in the proposal.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Employees would be required to submit a self-reflection relating to diversity and inclusion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Employees must also demonstrate their understanding of anti-racist principles and show how they have operationalized those principles in their jobs.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: The proposal also says employees would be provided with professional development opportunities for creating, quote, inclusive campus and classroom culture and equitable student outcomes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's not clear whether those opportunities would be professional development trainings or personalized plans based on performance.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So these DEI competency criteria would be a baseline for all districts and colleges, but it looks like individual schools will have some flexibility with how they choose to incorporate them into their own local processes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Presumably, schools would be free to go above and beyond these recommendations as well.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Now, I think some people will hear this and they'll think this sounds like an ideological litmus test.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Has that concern been addressed?
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Well, the plan says employees will have a group of evaluators with a, quote, range of perspectives, but it's unclear how that would be enforced or how wide the range of perspectives would be.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Obviously, it would be very hard to include perspectives that oppose the initiative itself or the equity agenda that it's promoting.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Now, how many students is this going to affect?
--:-- Georgia Howe: So the California Community College's education system is massive.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: The system includes 116 community colleges, more than 2.1 million students, and nearly 58,000 academic staff members.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's the biggest community college system in the country.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: But right now, this is only a proposal.
--:-- Georgia Howe: How likely is it that this will go into effect?
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Well, back in 2019, California's community college system adopted a DEI plan that included a laundry list of ideas for how to incorporate DEI.
--:-- Georgia Howe: One of the ideas was encourage diversity-focused criteria in employee evaluations and tenure review.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So decision makers at the state level already approved a plan that included this as a suggestion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You know, this is the nation's largest community college system, and it's a really big step they're taking.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: It's amazing this isn't making more headlines.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I agree.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Maraid, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Elordi.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Another story we're tracking this week. Idaho Governor Brad Little signed a pro-life bill into law this week that bans abortions after about six weeks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. If you like this episode, subscribe and tell a friend about us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you like this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire newsletter, available exclusively to Daily Wire members.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe.
