David Zhang: How China Silences Critics in America

David Zhang built a 1.4 million subscriber YouTube channel exposing the Chinese Communist Party — from his base in the US, where he can actually say what he thinks. Born in China, raised in Canada, now in New York, David breaks down how Beijing operates: surveillance, threats to family members back home, and a propaganda machine that's gotten scarily good at targeting Western audiences. We get into TikTok as a weapon, China's economy cratering under Xi Jinping, the comedian who got an entire stand-up competition banned for one joke about the PLA, and the doctrine of "unrestricted warfare" — Beijing's playbook for taking down the US without a single bullet. Plus: the four olds Mao tried to destroy, Chinese tourists at the Louvre, and the Asian gene that means David didn't need deodorant until he was 27. 🔗 David Zhang YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChinaInsiderWithDavidZhang/videos Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU 🍺 Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697 📖 Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r 👕 Rock XX-XY Athletics. Get 20% off with promo code LOU20: https://www.xx-xyathletics.com/?sca_ref=7113152.ifIMaKpCG3ZfUHH4 🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 [email protected] ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez 🎬 Watch my sketch comedy streaming on Red Coral Universe: https://redcoraluniverse.com/title/the-lou-perez-comedy-68501a2fd369683d0f2a2a88?loopData=true&ccId=675bc891f78f658f73eaa46d 0:00 – Intro: David Zhang & China Insider 1:52 – Born in China, moved to Canada at 11, then the US 4:33 – Free speech in China: three different threat levels 7:25 – How the CCP threatens creators outside China 9:31 – Stand-up comedy in China — and the joke that got it banned 13:37 – Is being gay legal in China? 15:10 – 1.4M subscribers and the bot armies in his comments 17:04 – Why David's family left China 18:35 – China's billionaires and the capitalism secret 23:21 – Shanghai's LED light shows vs. actual economic collapse 26:54 – FreedomFest Vegas and dying American small towns 30:03 – Outsourcing, COVID, and what we can't let China control 33:30 – Taiwan, TSMC, and the chip supply nightmare 34:36 – "America Against America": Wang Huning's playbook 38:37 – TikTok data harvesting and information warfare 43:06 – Has David ever been back to China? 44:11 – Chinese tourists, the Louvre, and materialism without morality 46:30 – Mao's "Four Olds" and destroying Chinese culture 50:28 – The Asian gene: David didn't need deodorant until 27 51:59 – Wrap-up #DavidZhang #ChinaInsider #CCP #TikTok #China #FreeSpeech #LouPerezPodcast