The Mystery Woman, the Provocative Music and the Ominous Pandas

Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's talk. I hope everyone had a great full-moon day. I hope many of you had a full moon yesterday. Lots of sweets. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about Xi Jinping's state visit. It's completely different. It's supposed to be fun and entertaining. So, over the past couple of days, Washington staged one of the, I think, the biggest diplomatic calls in years to welcome Xi Jinping. The red carpet, the honor guard, the 21-gun salute, a B-2 bomber and four F-22s flying overhead, the state dinner, the private tea, Trump and Xi Jinping smiling, raising glasses and exchanging gifts. Trump gave Xi a bald eagle statue, and Xi Jinping announced that two giant pandas will be sent to America. On the surface, everything looked perfect. As they say, the devil is in the details. And some of the details from this state visit are so ominous. It's the White House state dinner. They revealed some names and titles. They gave us a rare glimpse into the people surrounding Xi Jinping and his wife, and even triggered speculation over whether one mysterious woman traveling with them might be more important than she appears to be. She's what I call the most mysterious woman in China, a woman who is a household name but whose face has never appeared in public. Then there was music. Some of the musical choices during this extraordinary diplomatic production may offer clues or at least raise some very interesting questions about the latest political changes inside China, between Washington and Beijing, behind the cameras. Audio is awkward. Uh-oh. Hold on, let me see. Can you guys hear me? Yeah? Same microphone, same setting. I tested the audio. Choppy sound. Can you still hear me? Flickers when you speak. Terrible. The audio is not good. Your audio is bad. How is that? What's happening? Uh, breaking up? Okay, I don't know what else. Maybe the internet? Maybe the internet is good. Uh, changing microphone. I think the microphone is restart. How do I restart? Uh, it's getting better, whatever you did. Lose cable? Same thing. Try restarting the stream. How do I restart? Just exit and come back. All right, so let me do that. Let's reset the audio. Reset the audio. As you can tell, I'm technically challenged. I don't know how to do this. Um, okay, let me just switch to a different studio. Okay. Okay, can you guys hear me better? Is that better? I mean, okay. Is this better now? Is this audio much better? A little better? A lot better? Should I continue? That's better. It sounds like you're talking way better, no? What do you mean? Okay, so I can't use this. I think it's this setup. Let me switch to a different one. I think this microphone has an issue. All right. Studio. Studio phone. I'm going to use my studio display microphone. Is this better now? I'm going to use this microphone. Oh, it's very nice of you. Someone says, don't worry. I think it's the mic. Perfect? Okay. Well, thank you so much, whoever you are. You're very nice of you to tell me. Okay, louder. Sound was reverberating. Studio display. I have an Apple studio display. It's normal now. Okay, we can hear you. It's okay. One. All right. It's what it should be. Restart. Okay, let's just go. Let's just continue. Okay. So, yeah, I want to talk to you about the guest list, and then I want to talk about the music. I know by now you've heard about the Les Mis production at the state dinner, but there are more. There are more interesting musical choices during this state visit that I want to share with you. And then I want to tell you about the two pandas that Xi Jinping is sending to Atlanta. They came with a strange little twist. And beneath all the ceremonial pageantry, there were moments when it almost seemed as if someone was playing tricks on Xi Jinping. That was my conclusion, but I'll share that with you. So the question is, was Trump doing it, or were some of these strange messages coming from Xi Jinping's own side? All right, let's solve the mystery together. Okay, mic not good? Still not good? Can someone tell me if the mic is okay or is it acceptable to you? Better. Okay, better. All right, let me exit and reenter. I'm just very, very annoyed. Let me see. I don't like terrible audio quality. Let me see what I can do. Same problem. Restarting didn't help. Switching microphone helped. So I'm using the studio display microphone. All right. All right, let's do that. Let's talk about the name list. Okay. So, oh, no audio visual support. I need to give you guys the, yeah. Okay. All right, let's keep talking. So according to the list released by the White House, there were 19 guests from the Chinese delegation at the state dinner. Together they represented virtually every major component of Xi Jinping's political and economic team. At the center, unsurprisingly, was Cai Qi, Xi Jinping's chief of staff and the guy who runs party affairs for him. There he is. And then there is He Lifeng, vice premier, who is in charge of the economy and also trade negotiations with the U.S. And he is sitting next to Jeff Bezos' wife. And by the way, did you notice that all Chinese men wore Mao-style suits, just like Xi Jinping? And this is the first time we're seeing something like this. Sometimes Xi Jinping likes to wear the Mao suit, but his lieutenants wear Western suits. But this time, all of them went back to the Mao uniform. Now, okay, so those are just the ones who attended. The names, or the names that really caught my attention, were not the ones that you already know. They are, or they were the ones that you probably have not heard of. The first one is Zhou Hongxu. Well, you have heard his name before because I told you about him. He is the director of the Central Security Bureau. There he is, sitting, wearing his Mao uniform. He is responsible for protecting China's top leaders, and most importantly, Xi Jinping himself. So he is Xi Jinping's chief bodyguard. He had already made an unusual public appearance earlier this month. I told you that on September the 12th, when Xi Jinping met Indian Prime Minister Modi, CCTV footage showed Zhou, Major General Zhou, seated. Maybe he's a lieutenant general now. I don't know about his military rank, but he was spotted sitting at the bilateral meeting table. At the time, his presence immediately raised questions. Why was the head of Xi Jinping's security apparatus sitting inside such a high-level diplomatic meeting? Then, two weeks later, at the White House state dinner, he is seated. He was one of the 19 people that the White House received as guests. And his title was identified by the White House as Deputy Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee. Now, that's significant because it means General Zhou is not simply a military security official responsible for protecting Xi Jinping. He also holds a senior position inside the general office, the nerve center of China's top leadership. Now, holding those two titles is not necessarily a big deal because some of Zhou's predecessors also held those positions simultaneously. What is surprising is who Zhou Hongxu is. He is widely seen as Zhang Youxia's man. Both men had ties to the old 14th Group Army. And there are claims that Zhang Youxia played a key role in placing Zhou Hongxu in the Central Security Bureau as its chief. Now, given Zhang Youxia's downfall, Zhou's continued prominence is therefore very interesting. Why is he not only still standing, but apparently holding a position at the very heart of the party apparatus? Does that tell us something about Zhang Youxia's remaining influence? Does it tell us something about Zhou's relationship with Xi Jinping? Or has Zhou simply proved himself indispensable to Xi? Okay, and then there's another name that's even more intriguing. And this time it's a woman. Her name is Zhang Quan. Who is Zhang Quan? Well, do I have a picture of her? There she is. The official White House guest list identifies her as Secretary to Madame Pan, Madame Peng, sorry, Xi Jinping's wife. That may sound completely unremarkable, but here's the but. Her behavior during the visit immediately attracted attention. She first caught people's attention during Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan's visit to the Smithsonian, where a young woman dressed in black, apparently in her 30s, in early 30s, appeared repeatedly in the photograph next to the first two ladies. Here you see the one, this one is circled in red. The girl in the white shirt was the translator. So the woman in the black is supposedly, there she is again. And Melania is seen on the far right. The picture didn't quite capture her, but you could see her. So she appeared frequently in those photos and videos. Then at the state dinner, the same woman could be seen sitting extremely close to Peng Liyuan. There she is. Let me make this bigger for you. She's circled in green. And look at the difference between her position and that of Xi Jinping and Trump's interpreters. The two men who I circled in green as well, they sat behind the two leaders. And that's normal protocol. But the woman, believed to be Peng Liyuan's secretary, was seated almost shoulder to shoulder with Madame Peng. And we watched the video. She does not appear, I mean, this secretary, she did not appear to behave like someone waiting for instructions. She looked very relaxed. She watched the performance, she applauded. She appeared completely comfortable being there, as if she was a guest. Of course, none of that proves anything about her identity. But then there was another interesting scene. Let me play you a video clip, which I need to find, because we restarted everything. Okay, here we go. Sorry. Is it playing? Do you guys see the video? It's still loading. I think it's still loading, right? Oh, here we go. See the woman? I mean, take a look at this picture first, before I play the video. There are two world leaders with their wives, and there are two translators. The man on Xi Jinping's side is his translator, the woman next to Trump, behind Trump, is Trump's translator. And there you have that woman in black, in the frame, on the red carpet. Okay, so let me play you this clip. It looks like she wants to engage them. And take a look at, there's no one around them. Look at Chinese bodyguards. They were far away. And there you have this woman on the red carpet. And then she disappeared. Oh, by the way, Xi Jinping's walking down the stairs looked very shaky. People say that. And then Trump helped him by stopping him. I think if he walked a few more steps, he may need a break. Okay, and then I'm going to show you another clip after this one. So this is the end. This is how they parted. Here's another clip. Again, this is at the National Archive. Again, you have two world leaders with their spouse, two translators. The woman with long hair is Trump's translator. And you have that woman in black again with them. So, again, who is she? You can actually talk to them. They're talking about the 258 years of the Americans. Okay, so let me stop this. By the way, this is a clip that Chinese did showing Xi Jinping's poor health and when he climbed the steps. Look how easy it is for Trump. I think they slowed down the speed a little bit, but Xi Jinping struggled. And then Trump noticed and stopped him and he was talking. I think if Trump didn't stop Xi Jinping, he looked like he needed some help. Oh, this is the famous clip that the Chinese are circulating. People claim this is the clip that Xi Jinping wants to erase from the Internet because it shows how insecure he is in front of Trump. This was from 2017 when Trump visited China and Xi Jinping and his wife were showing President Trump and his wife the Forbidden Palace. And Trump just turned his head to the left and glanced at Xi Jinping. And Xi Jinping immediately took out his hands as if he was a student. He was being caught. Hold on, let me just play that clip. Take a look. Anyway, this clip went viral in China. Anyways, okay. So let me come back. Let me show you this. Yeah. Okay, so you saw the video. Did you see what people are saying? So who is this woman, right? Now, Xi Jinping and his wife are known for being very stiff when it comes to status and protocol. And they're not like someone who are super friendly and say, hey, join us on the red carpet. Let's take a picture together. They're not individuals like that. So who is this woman? Who was brave enough to intrude herself, to plant herself on the red carpet right there? So this is unusual enough to raise a reasonable question. Who exactly is she? Do I have another picture of her? Oh, there she is. Yeah. So, okay. So let me come back. So who exactly is she? And that produced one particularly provocative theory online. People are saying, is she Xi Jinping's daughter, Xi Minzi, the most mysterious woman who is a household name, but whose face has never been shown in public? The White House identifies Zhang Quan only as Madame Pan's secretary. So people are asking, could Zhang Quan be an alias for Xi Jinping's daughter? Well, reliable, authenticated photos or recent photos of Xi Minzi are essentially nonexistent. Still, viewers have pointed out that this young woman appears to resemble both Xi Jinping and Madame Pan. Hold on, let me show you a picture of this one. So now there's also the question of why the first daughter might be there at all. For heads of state, traveling with adult children is not unusual. Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have had family members accompany them on major foreign trips. But in China's political system, that would be much more sensitive. Xi Jinping's family is kept largely out of public view and openly bringing his daughter along on such a high-profile visit could create political complications at home. If Xi Minzi were traveling with her parents, using an alias and appearing under an official staff title would certainly be one way to keep her presence discreet. And then there's also the question of trust. Xi Jinping is known for keeping an extremely tight circle around him. And on a trip as important as this one, it would not be surprising if he and his wife preferred to have their daughter nearby, someone they trusted completely. Because Xi Minzi graduated from Harvard and has lived in the U.S. for many years. So she could also be very, very helpful to her parents on such an important U.S. trip. Again, I will not present any of this as a conclusion. I'm only saying that the theory is understandable, especially because of the unusual behavior and access of this young woman. She appeared unusually close to Xi Jinping and his wife. She seemed remarkably relaxed in the highly controlled environment surrounding China's top leaders. And she displayed a level of confidence that's unusual in the CCP's rigid political culture. And she moved comfortably through extremely restricted diplomatic spaces. Now, her name was suddenly appeared on an official American guest list during one of Xi's most important overseas visits. So naturally, people are asking, who is she? Is Zhang Quan really Xi Jinping's daughter? Okay, tell me what you think. Type 1, if you think she is Xi Minzi. Type 2, if you think she is not. Type 3, if you're not sure. Let me see what people say. All right, now the guest list was only the beginning. Because once you start listening carefully to the music played during Xi Jinping's visit, the story becomes even more interesting. And the most fascinating detail of the entire visit, in my opinion, was the music. And it wasn't just the Le Miz. I know by now you probably have all heard about or read about the song from Le Miz. Because here's the thing. When you put the music inside the White House together with the protests outside, the two scenes created an almost surreal commentary on Xi Jinping's visit. Before the dinner, as Xi Jinping's Hongxi limousine approached the White House South Portico, large groups of protesters could be heard outside. And they were loud. A VOA reporter actually went to the scene to test how clearly the protests could be heard from inside the White House grounds. And his conclusion was rather pointed. Guests arriving for the state dinner could hear them. In other words, protesters, he was basically telling the protesters, don't worry, your voices were getting through. And we watched the footage as Xi Jinping's car arrives. You could actually see the facial expression on President Trump's face. Obviously, they could hear the protests. Now, the ceremony itself was quiet. And in the background, you could clearly hear protesters shouting, keep Taiwan free, free Hong Kong, free Tibet. And there were also those who chanted, CCP, you're not welcome. And Xi Jinping, you're not welcome. And the chanting continued as Xi Jinping's car reached the red carpet. And then even when the military band began playing, you could still hear the protesters. Now, Xi Jinping may not understand every English word, but he certainly understands the word Xi Jinping and CCP. So he almost certainly knew who those protesters were there for. And that was outside the White House. Inside, the messaging was much subtler. Let me show you a picture. This one. This one was in the morning during the formal welcome on the morning of the September 24th. As guests were taking their seats, White House musicians played background music. And one of the songs was, The Moon Represents My Heart. It was performed beautifully on the harp and giving the room a soft, elegant, almost a romantic atmosphere. Maybe because it was the day before the Moon Festival, so they picked the song, but this isn't just any other, this isn't another Chinese love song. This is one of the songs most closely associated with Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng. And Teresa Teng was enormously popular in mainland China since the 1980s. Even though her music had once been condemned by Beijing as spiritual pollution, her songs circulated everywhere throughout China. And there was a famous saying in China, By day, listen to old Teng. By night, listen to little Teng. Old Teng meant Deng Xiaoping. Little Teng meant Deng Lijun or Teresa Teng. And the joke captured just how powerful her cultural influence had become. Now, she never performed in mainland China despite repeated invitations. And there's a reason. She loved Taiwan. And in 1989, she publicly supported the Tiananmen protesters and condemned the crackdown. And she said that she would never perform, go to mainland China to perform, if the crackdown was not properly redressed. So imagine the symbolism. Xi Jinping arrives at the White House and one of the melodies welcoming him is the most famous song of one of Taiwan's most iconic singers who were serious about opposing the CCP, who refused to perform in mainland China. And that was still not the most interesting music choice of the evening. For me, I think for many China watchers, the real climax came during the state dinner. The group of male and female singers, perhaps seven or eight of them, performed one of the most powerful numbers from Les Mis. And the performance began with One Day More. By the way, it's my favorite. It's my favorite Broadway musical. Yeah, Les Mis. I watched it a couple of times. So anyone familiar with Les Mis understands why this is interesting. One Day More comes at the end of the musical's first act. Every major character is preparing for what will happen the next day. And for the revolutionary students, that means the barricades. An uprising is coming. A confrontation is coming. Tomorrow may change everything. But then towards the end of the White House performance, something even more striking happened. The arrangement incorporated Do You Hear the People Sing, the song that later became an international protest anthem and was prominently sung during Hong Kong's 2014 Umbrella Movement and the 2019 protests. And the song did not remain in Hong Kong. It also circulated in mainland China as a language of protest. Chinese activists adapted it for many different movements. And we saw that during the White Paper Movement. Chinese streaming platforms eventually removed the individual song and even scrubbed it from some Les Mis soundtrack listings. So look at the scene inside and outside the White House. Inside, performers are singing Do You Hear the People Sing. Outside, protesters were literally shouting at Xi Jinping. You almost could script the symbolism but... Hold on, let me just make myself return to the screen. The symbolism couldn't be more clearer. Couldn't be clearer. For anyone who knows the history of Les Mis and the French Revolution and the role that this piece of music played, during the Hong Kong protests and later during China's White Paper Movement, it's significant. So here's the question. Would Xi Jinping understand any of this? Judging from the video, he seemed perfectly happy. When the performance ended, Xi Jinping applauded and smiled broadly. Maybe he simply enjoyed the music and didn't know the significance of it. But some of the Chinese officials around him would certainly know. Cai Qi, who oversees much of the party's propaganda apparatus, would certainly know the song's sensitivity in China. Wang Yi, the foreign minister, would also be familiar with it. And then his wife, Xi's wife. Xi is a professional singer who even has an advanced degree in vocal music. It would be difficult to imagine that Xi had never encountered one of the world's most famous musicals. So the question is, did anyone explain the symbolism to Xi Jinping afterward? Well, we can only speculate. But I can't help but imagine his wife quietly telling him later, you know what they were singing about, right? Okay, all right. Well, speaking of Madame Peng, that brings us to another musical detail. And this one, I'm sure not a lot of people are talking about it. Then came Song and Smile. And I'm not talking about some generic song about singing and smiling. I'm talking about a very specific Chinese song called Ge Shen Yu Wei Xiao. It's literally translated as Song and Smile. And there they are. Oh, there they were. So earlier that afternoon on the 24th, Melania Trump accompanied Peng Liyuan to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art. There, American schoolchildren performed this Chinese song for her. And incredibly, it was the song called Song and Smile. Most Western viewers had probably never heard of it. But many Chinese immediately understood the reference. And their reaction was basically, what, this song again? Because Xi Jinping had heard exactly the same, or Xi Jinping and his wife, I should say his wife. Here's their photo with the children. China's first couple had heard exactly the same song during another recent overseas visit. And that's where this is becoming very interesting. Okay, so first let me tell you about the song. So this song, which is called Song and Smile, they became widely known in China in 1988 and became even more famous after it was performed in the beginning of 1989 at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Now, the timing matters. The late 1980s were a very particular period in modern Chinese history. China was opening to the outside world. Political freedom was allowed at its peak during that time. Economic reforms were moving forward. Society felt more energetic and intellectually open. And this song, with its bright melody and optimistic lyrics, came to embody some of that mood in the late 1980s. Then came the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. Reformist party leader Zhao Ziyang was removed from power and eventually placed under house arrest. China's political atmosphere changed dramatically. The government launched campaigns against what it called bourgeois liberalization. And people associated with the 1989 movement faced investigations, arrests, and punishment. So for many Chinese who lived through that period, this song became connected in memory with an era that had suddenly ended. It was never formally banned in the way some political songs were. But over time, it was not a song endorsed by Beijing. And people began treating it almost nostalgically, I don't know how to say it, nostalgically, as a reminder of the more optimistic atmosphere of the reform era. And then came Xi Jinping. Under him, the song acquired another layer of political sensitivity. Why? Well, because the final line in the lyrics says, tomorrow, tomorrow, this smile will become spring flowers everywhere. Now in Chinese, spring flowers, chun hua, sounds exactly like the name of a former Politburo member, Hu Chunhua. That coincidence has produced a running joke among Chinese political observers. You know, Hu Chunhua was once widely discussed as a possible successor in the leadership pipeline associated with Hu Jintao. Hu Jintao picked Hu Chunhua as Xi Jinping's successor. But under Xi Jinping, Hu's political trajectory changed dramatically and was eventually kicked out of the Politburo in 2022. So in some Chinese online circles, people began hearing chun hua in the song, not simply as spring flowers, but as Hu Chunhua. So that's why the song became kind of sensitive. In fact, if you search the song on Baidu, the Chinese Google, you may even see Hu Chunhua, I mean, I'm sorry, you may see Hu Jintao appearing among related search terms, because this song has become a subtle way to expressing nostalgia for a different political direction, especially the relatively more relaxed atmosphere associated with the Hu Jintao era. So if you search this song on Baidu, you will see Hu Jintao appear, you know, among the related search terms. Of course, the interpretation is a political folklore. It's not the original meaning of the song. But in Chinese politics, symbolism matters precisely because people often cannot say openly what they think. And because of that sensitivity, you don't hear this song publicly nearly as often anymore, which brings us back to Xi Jinping's recent trips. Now, two weeks before Washington, Xi Jinping and Peng Yiyuan traveled to Kyrgyzstan for the SCO Summit, Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit, there they were. There, they were welcomed by a group of young performers who also sang this song. Video of that performance attracted attention because Xi Jinping appeared uncomfortable and began looking around before the song had finished. At the time, some analysts wondered why the Kyrgyz side, simply why they picked the song. Did they understand the political association or the political implication of this song? One appearance could easily be dismissed as coincidence. But now, within roughly a month, Xi Jinping has encountered, or Xi Jinping's wife has encountered the same politically suggestive song. For the second time. And that makes the question much more interesting. So how did two foreign governments end up choosing the same Chinese song within such a short period of time? And there is also a practical point. Now, a children's choir cannot simply be handed a Chinese song that morning and told to perform it for the Chinese president. They have to learn the words, they have to rehearse the pronunciation, they have to practice the music. So these performances were almost certainly planned well in advance. And that raises another question. Who chose the song? Was it entirely the decision of the host countries? Or was it suggested by the Chinese side? Well, after seeing the same song appear twice in such a short period of time, I think it becomes reasonable to believe that the Chinese side might have played a role in the selection. Because, first of all, this is not a very popular Chinese song in recent years. And then how do you have two foreign governments that are not allies, that are not close allies, that have picked the same song within one month for Xi Jinping and his wife? I mean, the only explanation to me is the Chinese suggested the song to them. But if that's the case, then that's terrible for Xi Jinping. That means his diplomats, those who are handling foreign relations, those who are handling his visits, are making fun of him. Right? So let me ask you, what do you think? Type A if you think the Americans picked the song. Type B if you think the Chinese offered the song to the Americans. Type C if you're unaware. All right, so now you see during the visit, the musical choices were unusually rich in historical and political associations. You have Taiwan's Teresa Teng. You have One Day More. Do You Hear the People Sing? Les Mis. And then you have this Song and Smile from the late 1980s. Meanwhile, outside the White House, protesters were shouting Xi Jinping's name. Taken together, they made the soundtrack of Xi's grand American visit much stranger and much more interesting. Now there's one more interesting detail I want to offer you, and this has to do with the pandas. On that morning, the 24th, Xi Jinping announced that two giant pandas would soon be sent to the Atlanta Zoo. And what really caught people's attention were their names. The two pandas, one is called Ping Ping. Now, the moment Chinese speakers hear that name, they naturally connect it with Xi Jinping. This is how Chinese people often form affectionate nicknames like Ping Ping, Ling Ling, Mei Mei. You simply repeat one character of the person's name. And since these pandas are being presented by Xi Jinping himself, Ping Ping can very easily sound like a symbolic reference to Xi Jinping. In other words, remember, this is President Xi's panda. But the name of the second panda is even more interesting. It's called Fu Shuang. And this is where the Chinese wordplay gets strange. Now, if you reverse the two characters and called it Shuang Fu, it would sound better. It would sound perfectly auspicious because it means double blessing, or double happiness, Shuang Fu. But they didn't call it Shuang Fu. They reversed it. They called it Fu Shuang. And for a Chinese speaker, that immediately brings to mind a very familiar saying, Chinese Chengyu, Fu Wu Shuang Zhi, Huo Bu Dan Xing. Or, good fortune never comes in pairs. Misfortune never comes alone. It is one of the most common Chinese idioms. So if you put the names of these two pandas together, the joke almost writes itself. Ping Ping, good fortune does not come twice, but misfortune never comes alone. Does that sound auspicious to you? Does that sound like the kind of blessing you would normally give to the Chinese leader? And so that immediately raised the question, did someone inside the CCP system set Xi Jinping up again? Because if you interpret the names this way, the symbolism is certainly not flattering. Because Ping Ping, you know, last year when a bird in Beijing called Ping Ping died, it went viral. Because the bird had a white feather. So when a white feather bird called Ping Ping died, people immediately thought of Xi Jinping. Because his name, Xi, is white feather. And then Ping Ping. So the Chinese have already associated the name Ping Ping with Xi Jinping. So how could you have that kind of combination? Maybe Xi Jinping simply never noticed the word play. Or maybe he did notice it, but it was already too late at that point. Either way, it's hard not to find the whole thing strange. And maybe you'll say, this is maybe just coincidence, but I don't think so. Because the Chinese are very, very sensitive about this symbolism. And when you put everything together, you put everything that we've discussed together, the repeated appearance of song and smile, that song, a song that many Chinese associate with the reform era. When you put the names of the pandas together with that song, at some point you begin asking how many coincidences can still be called coincidences? One strange detail could be accidental, two might be still coincidental. When we begin seeing the same kind of symbolism again and again, it becomes harder to dismiss all of it so easily. Because you have to understand just how sensitive the political environment around Xi Jinping has become. In China, even seemingly harmless words, nicknames, songs, and images, like Winnie the Pooh, which is an adorable cartoon character, totally harmless, is politically sensitive because it's being associated with Xi Jinping. Even jokes about steamed buns have taken on a political meaning. So when you understand that environment, how sensitive words can be, then these little details no longer look quite so little. Would you agree? So you have the guest list, the mysterious woman beside Peng Liyuan, you have Theresa Teng, you have Lameis, you have song and smile, and finally two pandas named Pingping and Fushuang. None of these details by itself proves anything, but together they gave us a very different view of Xi Jinping's state visit. On the surface, Washington gave him all of the grandeur of a major state visit, but underneath the carefully choreographed spectacle was another story. Political signals, cultural references, awkward symbolisms, and moments that Xi Jinping himself may or may not have fully understood. Some online commentators even joke that Xi Jinping sometimes looked less like the director of the show and more like a character placed inside someone else's production. And perhaps that's what made this visit so revealing. The grandest diplomatic theater is often designed to show us power, but sometimes it's the smallest details that tell us much more. All right. I hope my audio has been holding, has been holding everything together so far. I want to tell you about the video we released in the Looking Glass channel this week. It's about the August 26th Jirun Port, I should say August 26th disaster in the Himalayas affecting Tibet and Nepal. I looked at the disaster from a spiritual and cultural perspective. And so that's the video we released today in the other channel. All right. Did you find this entertaining? I found it interesting. All right, let's see. What do people say? Let me see, how do people vote it? First of all, do you believe that woman is Xi Jinping's daughter? What do people say? One, two, three. Audio. Okay. People are commenting on my audio. Any votes? Do I see the votes coming in? Someone said, Lei, your analysis is valuable. Maybe she's Madame Xi's personal translator. No. Madame Xi actually speaks English. From what I saw, she has been serving as translator for Xi Jinping sometimes because Madame Xi actually once gave a speech in English. So Madame Xi speaks English. And then Xi Jinping has a translator there. And Trump also has a translator. They don't need a second translator. And Madame Xi speaks English. So she is somebody. Would you agree? All right, let me see. What do people say? One, two, or three. I'm curious to find out what you guys think. A doctor? I think a doctor would stay in the background. If a doctor is so conspicuously planted on the red carpet, it's not looking good for Xi Jinping. Someone said, Lei, this is not their daughter. They've kept her a secret this very long. They will not break her anonymity by showing her face to the world. Fair. That's why I think it's hard to say who she is. Okay, so I see the vote. One, some two, some threes. A lot of threes, a lot of ones. A lot of threes, some twos, mostly ones and threes. And there are fours. What do you mean fours? Four. What does four mean? All right, so we have a lot of three, a lot of ones, some twos. All right, now let's take a look. I want to see the vote on the selection of that song. What do you think? Do you think the Americans selected the song or the Chinese gave them the song? But if the Chinese gave them the song, that means Xi Jinping needed to take a look at the people working in the foreign ministry. Okay, Cs. So we have a lot of Cs. We have Bs. Okay, we have some As, some As, one. Okay. Yeah, the song, I really don't know how they got selected. But it's entertaining. I mean, we don't have to decide on who selects the song, but it's just very entertaining to watch it. All right, Bs, some Bs, some Ds. A, someone say X. All right, I reached the bottom. So how did I do audio-wise? Am I coming through okay? Yeah, you guys can hear me? A live animal. Thank you. It's like taking your wife to watch a movie about divorce on your wedding anniversary and then casually take her to a luxurious dinner. That's a very good analogy. Yeah, that's a perfect way to put it. Yep. And you wonder who planned the dinner. Someone said, Lei, you should create a vote for such a kind of question, easier for you. Yeah. Next time, I'll do a vote. All right. That's all for tonight. Since my audio isn't 100%, I'll end the program early tonight. How's that? Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I'll be back with more information. I hope this is informative. I mean, it's just, I think, more entertaining, less serious, but equally significant. I think, you know, if, yeah, I think it's important. If that woman is indeed, I mean, if that woman is not Xi Jinping's daughter, she is somebody playing an important role in Xi Jinping and Madam Xi's political affairs. She's somebody extremely important to them. So at least we could confirm that. We may be interested in finding out who she really is, you know, her background, her education and all of that. Because she's not just any secretary. She's very special. All right. That's all for tonight. I thank you for joining me. I'm sorry for the poor audio quality. I need to figure out what has happened. But I'll see you next week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Bye.