Witness Describes Purged Chinese General’s U.S. Trip (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: China just purged its most powerful General Jiang Yuesha, accusing him of corruption and leaking state secrets to the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal. We dug up this old video of Jiang actually visiting the U.S. in 2012, meeting with top military brass, touring army bases. This kind of meeting happened during the Obama years, when U.S.-China relations were stronger during President Xi Jinping's first term. That's General Jiang looking at a transport vehicle. Here he is trying out various weapons. I interviewed a former defense official who was on that trip and spent a lot of time with General Jiang. Did he ever talk about China's nuclear weapons program, or did you hear any chatter that he was sharing any sensitive information?

[00:00:36] Speaker 2: No, of course not. Quite frankly, I was very surprised that he was purged. Jiang Yuesha was close to Xi Jinping. They grew up together. Their fathers were connected. He was very smart.

[00:00:49] Speaker 3: He was confident. He had combat experience. What stood out to you the most about his personality?

[00:00:55] Speaker 2: He was self-confident and very capable, and that's what showed through. He was very animated. He was very stimulated as well by what he was seeing, and that was apparent. He was willing to talk to people. He wasn't shy. He wasn't worried about saying the wrong things. He was outgoing, and I think his intellect showed through in those conversations on the margins of that week-long trip.