Following the massacre that suppressed the student-led protests, Wang become the most wanted man in China. After being arrested, he was incarcerated in Beijing’s notorious Qincheng Prison on and off for more than seven years. Finally, he was permanently exiled from China and came to live in the United States. Here he earned master’s and doctorate degrees in history from Harvard and began a teaching career in Chinese political history.

Several years ago, Wang launched a think tank in Washington called “Dialog China.” He has written more than 20 monographs about his experiences dealing with Chinese authorities and recently published a new book, his first in English, titled “The Fifty Questions on China.”

To introduce Wang to the college community, William & Mary’s Global Research Institute is organizing a talk by him at 5 p.m. on Sept. 26 at the Tucker Hall theater. The free talk will be followed by a reception and book signing and is open to the public.

Wang, who also visited William & Mary in 2019, is known not just as a very level-headed scholar of Chinese history, but also as someone who lived through the various upheavals of Communist China’s political landscape.

“I want to tell students at William & Mary who are interested in China that China is a very complex country, where seemingly contradictory phenomena coexist,” he said in an interview with The Gazette. “This makes it difficult to understand China correctly. It is important to listen to the voices of ordinary Chinese people. If you visit China, you should know that not only is the government’s narrative unreliable, but ordinary people often have to tell lies.”

Wang casts a skeptical eye on how the U.S.-China relationship is viewed.

“Currently the situation is that the U.S. hopes to treat China as a competitor, but the Chinese government continually tells its people that the U.S. is China’s enemy,” he said. “More importantly, the Chinese Communist Party is trying to export its political governance model worldwide, including the U.S.

“In this context, saying that the U.S. and China can compete is self-deception. The premise of competition is that both sides must follow the rules, but the CCP does not abide by the rules.”

I asked Wang, what changes would have taken place in China if Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader, had not approved the military intervention and the massacre at Tiananmen?

“If the CCP had not suppressed the protests and had accepted the students’ demands, China would likely have begun political reforms in 1989,” he said. “If that had happened, not only would society be more stable, but economic development would be healthier. The former because the abuse of power by officials would have been curbed, and the latter because less corruption would result in a fairer distribution of wealth.”

I asked him, what does the reaction of the United States — and the West — to the Tiananmen Square massacre tell him about how democracies respond to actions by dictatorial regimes?

“In 1989, when the Tiananmen Square massacre happened the whole world condemned and sanctioned China,” he responded. “However Deng Xiaoping’s CCP group kept spreading the narrative that China’s reforms would not stop. Western countries were deceived into lifting the sanctions. Today, not only has China not continued the reforms, but actually regressed. This is a big lesson, showing (you can) never believe the promises of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Although the Chinese Communist Party’s rule is often described as pervasive, there are lapses.

According to Wang, after the Tiananmen Square massacre, the government issued a nationwide warrant for the arrest of 21 student leaders. Wang was listed as the No. 1 most wanted. However, the warrant was riddled with errors. His personal information was full of inaccuracies. He was 20 years old at the time, but listed as 24 years old. The warrant said he was from Shandong, but he was from Jilin.

When arrested, Wang firmly denied that he was the person listed on the warrant. Nevertheless, he spent seven years in prison.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

Ryan A. Musto, director of forums and research initiatives at William & Mary’s Global Research Institute, informed the college community that the GRI is hosting the launch of the book, “The Assault on the State: How the Global Attack on Modern Government Endangers our Future.”

W&M professor Stephen Hanson and University of California, Irvine professor Jeffrey Kopstein authored the book and, according to Musto, “offer an impassioned plea to defend modern government against those who seek to destroy it.”

Quoting the authors, Musto poses the question: “What if the state as we know it didn’t exist? Our air would be poisonous, our votes uncounted and our markets dysfunctional. Yet across the world, in countries as diverse as Hungary, Israel, the UK, and the U.S., attacks on the modern state and its workforce are intensifying. The dangers of state erosion imperil every aspect of our lives.”

Both authors will join the Global Research Institute on Thursday for a conversation about the book. The event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the the Hive Event Space on the ground floor of the library.

I asked professors Hanson and Kopstein, what is the message they would like to convey to their audience at William & Mary?

“There has been a great deal of attention paid to the decline of democracy around the world,” they replied together. “We share this concern, but taking a broader historical perspective shows that an even graver political threat now faces us, the global erosion of the modern state institutions governed by the rule of law and the reestablishment of a much older form of personalistic government.”

They quoted the great German sociologist Max Weber, who called it patrimonialism: rule by traditional father figures who run the state as a kind of “family business.” Promoting their family members and loyalists over professionals and experts.

“We show how this threat emerged from Russia and has since diffused around the world,” Hanson said.

The motivating force for writing their book was, the authors said, that our state institutions are under attack and that without them there wouldn’t be effective safeguards.

Significantly, it was the “canary in the coal mine,” that triggered the authors’ interest in the subject of the importance of the role of experts in governance.

“Everyone remembers well the attack on public health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic,” they said. “All of us watched President Trump sideline his own professionals and issue wild and unsound advice. But this is only the tip of the iceberg: attacks on climate science and the EPA are well known. Less well known are attacks on food science, financial regulatory agencies, the judiciary, intelligence agencies and the military.”

The authors continued: “These attacks have occurred on not only in the U.S., but also all over the world where personalistic rulers come to power. The result is decaying infrastructure and inattention to problems that could threaten not only our democracy but the survival of the species.”

Hansen and Kopstein maintain that the modern, impersonal state is a gigantic achievement in human affairs, but a new brand of rulers — both democratic and undemocratic — has questioned its value.

The attacks, the authors say, are morphing into power grabs by self-aggrandizing politicians who attempt to seize control of the state for themselves and their cronies.

“The dangers of state erosion imperil every aspect of our lives,” the authors argue. “We outline a strategy that can reverse this destructive trend before humanity is plunged back into the pathological personalistic politics of pre-modern times.”

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

Lynch and his family settled in Williamsburg after his 30-year career in government service, mostly overseas. His expertise was in public health care, biosecurity and emergency planning. He holds a post-graduate degree in physician assistant studies and is a doctor of medical science.

I asked Lynch, what made him choose Williamsburg as a place for retirement?

“I have deep interest in history,” Lynch said in an interview with The Gazette. “I value education and enjoy learning. The combination of Virginia’s significant history, the presence of Colonial Williamsburg, and the opportunities offered by the College of William & Mary, made retiring to Williamsburg an easy choice.”

In addition, accepting the position of president of the Williamsburg chapter of the SAR provided him with an opportunity to make a difference in the Williamsburg-James City County community.

“The Williamsburg chapter is the perfect vehicle to accomplish this goal,” he said. “It is one of the largest in Virginia, with membership roster approaching 180 members.”

Lynch pointed out that the chapter has an excellent relationship with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the Historic Virginia Land Conservancy. This cooperation enables SAR to commemorate the July 6, 1781, Battle of Green Spring, as well as the commemoration of the Battle of Spencer’s Ordinary, which took place on June 26, 1781. The commemoration is held in Freedom Park in cooperation with James City County.

I asked Lynch, what does SAR represent that resonates with him and made him become a member?

“Continuity,” he said. “It represents the continuity of our American ideals. Like the United States Military Academy’s Long Grey Line, the SAR has its own long variegated line. Each member of SAR is a descendant of someone who supported the patriot cause during the Revolutionary War. Also one of SAR’s functions is educating people about the Revolutionary War and the formulation of the idea leading to the foundation of the United States.”

Lynch believes that the educational component is a vital part of SAR’s mission. He is determined to lead the way.

The Williamsburg chapter of SAR has established working relationships with other chapters, including the Thomas Nelson Jr. and Richmond chapters of SAR, the Ann Wager and Williamsburg chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the George Wythe Society of the Children of the American Revolution.

“My intention,” Lynch said, “is to increase public awareness of the Battle of Green Spring and tell the story of the Virginia militiamen who fought there. Too often these men, members of units raised in numerous Virginia counties are ignored or swept to the side in the histories of the cattle. The VA250 celebrations provide an opportunity to tell their stories.”

According to Lynch, so far, the Williamsburg chapter of SAR had identified 161 men confirmed or with highly probable presence at the battle. In addition, the local SAR chapter has identified 68 State Line or Virginia Continental Line physicians, as well as 51 doctors in the Virginia Navy.

“We will soon begin writing their stories. They won’t be forgotten,” Lynch said.

Although Lynch‘s main interest is the study of American history, he cherishes the opportunity to have lived overseas and be exposed to different cultures.

“I believe my family and I am the better for it,” he said.

In fact, at family reunions, Lynch is never short of amusing stories from his overseas stays. One of them describes his family’s visit to an old castle in Germany.

“One of my young children was wearing plastic knight armor. He ran up to a man and demanded to know if he had seen any bad knights. The man, who spoke broken English, paused and then solemnly acknowledged, “I indeed had some bad nights.”

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

At the age of 90, she parachuted from an airplane in West Point. Now, at age of 95, she is thinking about some other adventure.

I asked Ru, the name everyone calls her, having been a polio victim as a child, how did the experience shape her outlook on life?

“Having polio taught me patience and resilience,” she said in an interview with the Gazette.

“I contacted it at age 7 and spent the next 12 years undergoing treatment that included a full body cast, two back surgeries, a year and a half in home for crippled children, and wearing a back brace until I was 19.”

She continued, “I learned it was better to laugh than to cry. And I realized that I was more fortunate than many of the children in the home who would never leave and live a normal life. I try to maintain a positive outlook and count my blessings.”

By all indications, she turned that positive outlook into action.

“I become an office manager for an all-female OB/GYN office in Pittsburgh that enjoyed a wonderful reputation and delivered quality and friendly care to patients,” Ru said.

She served there for 25 years. Got married and had two daughters. Her husband died of heart disease. She brought up her two daughters alone and put them through college.

Volunteering for community services became part of Ru’s life.

“Helping others was always something I enjoyed. My father was active in the local Lions Club, and being part of service organizations and helping others  was what we did in the small western  Pennsylvania town where I grew up. I was always active in leadership positions in my church.”

Following her retirement, Ru answered the call for help from her daughter, who married to Dr. Jim Barton, an emergency room physician in Williamsburg. She needed Ru’s help bringing up her children.

“When I came to Williamsburg, not knowing the area,” she said, “I decided to volunteer at the Sentara Hospital gift shop, and with Faith in Action, whose mission is consistent with my own belief.”

Ru, now 95 years “young,” is still active. She is often asked what the secret of her longevity.

“My answer is, ‘I’m still here because the Lord isn’t ready for me yet. He must think I can continue to help someone in some way. I also believe that my love for my family keeps me going. I wanted to see my girls grow up, and I have seen them both become loving mothers to their own families. I have six beautiful grandchildren and four beautiful great grandchildren. Family and faith are what’s important.”

By all indication, Ru is not adverse to trying new things.

I asked, what made her parachute out from an airplane at age 90?

“After seeing former President George H. W. Bush skydive at age 90, I decided I wanted to try it.” she said.

“It was amazing! It seemed like you could see forever up there, and it was made even better because my granddaughter joined me, and jumped out right after me. I would do it again, but I think I will try something else instead.”

Ru’s good deeds, like her fundraising effort for Dreamcatchers, a therapeutic riding center in Toano, landed her behind bars.

Little did she know that she would be asked to don a cowboy hat and pose in a “jail cell” for a publicity mugshot.

It was part of winning the Dreamcatchers “Most Wanted” award.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

But she was motivated to return to school and earn an MBA. She chose William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business.

“I chose William & Mary primarily based on the strong recommendation from Fulbright” Amaia said in an interview with the Gazette. “I wanted to study in the United States, known for its world-class higher education. When I received the Fulbright Scholarship, the committee highlighted the prestige of William & Mary.”

She continued: “I’m passionate about making a positive impact, especially by enhancing athlete performance through sustainable innovation. My goal is to connect groundbreaking research with real-world applications. I have seen that while engineers create amazing innovations, the culture of risk-taking, curiosity and collaboration to bring these ideas to life is missing. I aspire to be a leader who champions sustainable and innovative discoveries and ensures they truly benefit society and our planet.”

I asked Amaia what aspects of the Mason School of Business MBA program stood out to her.

“Two key aspects that stood out to me were the executive partner program and sprint weeks,” she said. “The executive partner program is remarkable, providing students with access to accomplished leaders who volunteer their time to mentor us. Reading the bios, I was impressed by their diverse and successful careers. Additionally, the concept of sprint weeks, where students immerse themselves in solving real business problems with their teams, was incredible appealing to me.”

Amaia noted that her high expectations have been surpassed.

“The executive partners are not only outstanding professionals but also generous and warm individuals,” she said. “I am especially grateful to Maria de los Angeles Cinta and Nancy Turner, who have been instrumental in my personal and professional development.”

Amaia pointed out that the MBA at William & Mary has significantly boosted her confidence in leading teams and tackling more ambitious roles.

“I now have a deep understanding of business models and team dynamics, which I believe will enable me to lead teams effectively and drive successful outcomes,” she said.

By all indications, Amaia is passionate about sports. She runs half-marathons and practices yoga. In addition, she plays pickleball and likes trekking and surfing.

To apply what she has learned at William & Mary, during the summer, Amaia interned at the Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News. The museum is designated by Congress as America’s National Maritime Museum.

“As a strategy and marketing intern, I have two main projects,” she said. “I’m working with the management team implementing a new planning computer system.

“Second, I am creating a multimedia video on our research to make scientific material treatments exciting and educational. The communication skills from my MBA have been crucial here. Overall, the MBA has helped me lead those projects successfully and made me a more confident professional, aware of my strengths and how to leverage them.”

All this will come in handy to Amaia while pursuing her goal of becoming a manager in the field of innovation and sustainability in the sports arena.

The dream began to take shape when she studied in the industrial design and product development engineering degree program in Catalonia’s Polytechnic University in Spain. After some detours into management jobs in manufacturing, spanning four continents, Amaia’s enthusiasm for sports and interest in athletic products inspired her to redirect her career.

Amaia, who fluently speaks five languages, earned a master’s degree in new materials and focused on sustainability and innovation applied into sports product materials. She also created a new material from recycled sports clothing.

The William & Mary MBA program is preparing her to become a decision maker in the sport industry. It will provide her with analytical and managerial skills and open the door to a bright future in the business world.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

The appointment is part of a long-term effort to reimagine the university’s government and external affairs team, according to the university. “Aligned with Vision 2026’s goal to expand William & Mary’s reach, the university is enhancing efforts to build partnerships and connections across the region,” a news release said.

According to several donors and friends of William & Mary, the university could hardly have made a better choice than Mason.

After graduating as a government major at W&M in 1989, Mason served in senior roles at VISA and LandAmerica Financial Group and was chair of the Williamsburg Economic Development Authority. He also served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2014 to 2016 and the Virginia Senate from 2018 to 2024.

I asked Mason, what part of his education at William & Mary he considers having the greatest impact on his career in business and politics?

“The Government and History focus had a big impact on my understanding of the political world and its relationship with communities and people,” Mason said in an interview with the Gazette. “It continued to build my love of the process and the intricate workings of government at all levels. What William & Mary really did was show me how much there was to learn and how to do it at a very high level.”

Now that Mason is in charge of William & Mary’s community affairs and partnership programs, I wanted to learn what his goals were.

“We are working to expand existing relationships across the region and state,” he said. “To develop new partnerships that will be beneficial to businesses, government and community organizations while adding to the work done at the university. We are looking for ways to collaborate with new partners. For example, our new School of Computing, Data Sciences, and Physics, the first new school at William & Mary in 50 years, will open many new doors for new partnerships.”

Mason pointed out that mutually beneficial partnerships are good for everyone but they have to be just that. “We are looking for new ways to share our incredible expertise to the benefit of the community and organizations that can also open the door to new opportunities for our students, faculty and staff. In many ways, this is a renewed commitment for William & Mary to build new partnerships and the new and innovative relationships that develop will further advance the university’s mission.”

Mason’s portfolio also includes William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which recently became the beneficiary of a $100 million donation.

I asked Mason how he intends to handle the impact of the donation.

“ President Katherine Rowe, Dean Derek Aday and Vice President Matthew Lambert have said the incredible generous gift to William & Mary from Jane Batten will position W&M and its Virginia Institute of Marine Science as the destination to study, research and develop solutions to the existential threats we face due to global change,” Mason said.

He continued, “It allows us to advance to new levels the advice and research we already provide the Commonwealth of Virginia and it fulfills our mission of being the global leader in coastal and marine science.

“William & Mary’s Batten School of Coastal & Marine Science at VIMS will pave the path for those new opportunities, public and private partnerships and collaborative efforts across the Commonwealth, the nation and the world.”

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

Kelly Shinners, a rising senior at William & Mary, interning with the Air University Innovation Accelerator project, developed CHUCKGPT, a customized version of ChatGPT that is designed to assist players of wargames.

According to William & Mary, this innovation has gathered attention from the Air Force, including from Secretary Frank Kendall, to whom Shinners presented her work.

Jeremy VanEgmond, chief of the educational lab at AUiX, is quoted in W&M’s news release saying: “She has taken on various projects that are making waves at Air University, including a customized wargame GPT that’s backed by impressive dataset and is getting attention from several leaders within the organization. Her work will be featured at the AU Symposium for AI in the showcase.”

I asked Shinners, an international relations major and economics minor, what made her choose a career path in national defense?

“My interest in national security and defense seems to be from growing up as a military child,” she said in an interview with the Gazette. “My dad’s career in the Army and DoD security cooperations post-retirement always intrigued me and ultimately led to choose a degree in international relations and pursue a career in the Department of Defense.”

As it turned out, Shinners’ interest widened, and she began an internship with Air University’s Innovation Accelerator Program under the supervision of Jeremy VanEgmond.

“When Jeremy introduced the idea of integrating Air University’s wargaming agenda, I had no idea where to begin,” she said. “My background was in international relations, not computer science or machine learning. I had heard of ChatGPT before but had never fully experimented with it and did not quite understand its capabilities. After some research on small and large language models, I chose to create a custom GPT because of how user friendly the ChatGPT program is to those without coding background.”

Shinners explained that her CHUCKGPT, short for Comprehensive Heuristic Utility for Combat Knowledge, is different from ChatGPT and other GPT chats in what constitutes its knowledge background and how it is programmed to interact with other users. GPT stands for generative pre-trained transformer, a type of AI model.

“CHUCKGPT’s knowledge base has been uploaded with specifically chosen documents such as Air Force doctrine, international law/agreements and wargame specific information. Overall, CHUCKGPT acts as a powerful tool for military training and strategy development, fostering a more dynamic and effective approach to wargaming,” she said.

Although GPT and different versions of it are considered very “smart,” according to Shinners, its advice can be very pedestrian.

“In the early stages of developing the GPT, I remember a particularly amusing incident,” she recalled. “When we were testing its ability to give military-style advice, we had a test scenario where the GPT was supposed to recommend a strategic move for a fictional wargame situation. Instead of suggesting a traditional military tactic, the GPT recommended setting up a coffee and donut stand to ‘boost troop morale.’”

“It was a reminder that while AI can be incredible intelligent, it sometimes throws a curveball that keeps us on our toes and adds a bit of humor to the process. It highlighted the importance of continuous tweaking and fine-tuning so that the GPT stays on mission — quite literally,” Shinners concluded.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

The paintings appeared on social media in 2020 in support of leftist and rightist causes, and now two years later, they’ve become ubiquitous on social platforms.

The four paintings by Rockwell were inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of Union address. In his speech, the president argued that what was at stake was the defense of four universal freedoms that Americans take for granted: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

Although Roosevelt’s words and thoughts were inspirational, they were too abstract to a large segment of the population. Rockwell, a well-known illustrator for magazines, proposed to transform them into images that a large populace could understand.

First, he offered to undertake the task in collaboration with two government agencies but was rejected. Finally, the editor of The Saturday Evening Post was the one who saw the potential of the paintings and commissioned Rockwell to create them.

Rockwell’s interpretation of Roosevelt’s’ speech appeared on the magazine covers, and the images soon were everywhere.

According to contemporary press reports, “The government put them on postage stamps, displayed them in an exhibition as part of its nationwide war-bond drive and printed them on posters that helped raise $133 million for the war effort.”

Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, the deputy director and chief curator of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, home of the “Four Freedoms” paintings, is quoted saying: “Rockwell’s oeuvre was intended to distill and quickly spread a mass message. Many Americans did not register what the meaning of those freedoms truly were and found Roosevelt’s speech abstract. What Rockwell wanted to do was to envision them in a way that a large populace could understand.”

In fact, Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” had an extraordinary appeal on a mass of people living behind the Iron Curtain. Even during the darkest days of the Cold War and Stalinist terror, the images of the painting surfaced.

Significantly, many of the history books used in schools in Eastern Europe featured Rockwell’s images, although they were interpreted according to the Communist doctrine.

Thus, I was familiar with the “Four Freedoms” paintings long before my arrival to America in 1958 as a refugee from Communist Czechoslovakia.

Once my wife and I settled in Lake Placid, New York, visiting the Norman Rockwell Museum was high on our list.

Always on the look-out for a good story, we checked into the iconic Red Lion Inn. I was told Rockwell often dined there and used the features of local residents in his illustrations.

A local man informed me, confidentially, that some of the people portrayed in the “Four Freedoms” paintings were actually Stockbridge residents, although Rockwell moved and settled in Stockbridge decades after the paintings were created.

During my several visits to Stockbridge and the Rockwell Museum, I failed to stumble into an “exclusive” story that would have added to the Rockwell legend.

However, the “Four Freedoms” paintings remain the images to me that best describe America as the “Shining City on the Hill.”

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

The money from criminal activity is considered dirty, and the process “launders” it to look clean. However, contrary to public perception, it is not just drug or terrorism related crimes that require money laundering.

Every second federal criminal indictment seems to include at least one charge on money laundering. People think it involves the clandestine exchange of bags full of cash and numbered Swiss bank accounts.

This is not the case.

“Technically, under U.S. law, the crime of money laundering means engaging in a transaction that involves the proceeds of an earlier crime with an intent to either carry on further criminal activity, or hide the nature, location, source, ownership or control of the proceeds of the earlier crime, or avoid a federal reporting requirement,” Jacob Thiessen, of Williamsburg, said in an interview with the Gazette.

Thiessen, a lawyer by training, has dealt with money laundering cases for 25 years.

He also holds a doctorate degree in comparative world history from Johns Hopkins University. In the fall of each year, Thiessen teaches a course at the William & Mary Law School.

“Most crimes, except crimes of passion, are committed for profit and therefore involve proceeds,” he explained. “Most criminals want to hide their crimes and therefore try to draw attention away from the proceeds they’ve made. So, most people who commit crimes will do something that can be characterized as money laundering. This isn’t just a phenomena of drug cartels and international arms traffickers; money laundering is ubiquitous because crime for profit is ubiquitous.”

Thiessen explained that criminals need to do three things with the proceeds of crime, if they really want to enjoy those proceeds. First, they need to place those proceeds somehow in a non-criminal commercial world. Sell the stolen goods, deposit stolen currency or checks. Then they need to layer transactions — move money from one account to another, buy something valuable and resell it. Finally, once they’ve successfully covered their tracks, they need to integrate the proceeds into the legitimate financial system. This layering integration allows the authorities to focus their attention on the process and instruct third parties such as banks to watch for suspicious financial transactions, a thing they are good at.

Although money laundering is usually associated with converting “dirty money” to legitimate money, terrorist financing makes legitimate money available for illegitimate purposes. Thus, guarding against money laundering involves scrutinizing transactions to see where the money comes from and where it goes.

The Bank Secrecy Act passed in 1970 intended to guard the U.S. financial system against being used to launder money. It requires financial institutions, including banks, to have anti-money laundering programs, keep records and report certain kinds of transactions to the federal government.

In the wake of 9/11, a new law, popularly known as the “USA Patriot Act,” was passed in October 2001. It gave the federal government more power to crack down on terrorist financing.

It is well-remembered how easily the 19 hijackers could open bank accounts, get money wired to them and navigate life in the United States while plotting their attack. Since then, one of the provisions is a requirement that financial institutions identify their customers before opening accounts for them.

According to Thiessen, a new twist in the anti-money laundering world is the rise of cryptocurrency. It is some sort of private electronic money, on which you can speculate the price rising and falling. Some people passionately support cryptocurrencies, others hate them. However, millions of people around the world use them. This presents a challenge to traditional ways of protecting against the use of financial transactions to launder money or finance terrorism.

To illustrate the volatility of cryptocurrency, Thiessen described the first-ever Bitcoin transaction. It was the purchase of two pizzas on May 22, 2010, for 10,000 bitcoins, which worked out to $41. The exchange value of one bitcoin was $0.0028. Earlier this year, one bitcoin was worth $58,685.10.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

Being fluent in Czech and Slovak languages as well as Hungarian, and speaking a smattering of Russian, I was appointed as the translator to a Soviet general commanding a combat division fighting German SS troops in the street of Budapest.

My position enabled me to move freely in the Soviet-occupied city. This was a special privilege because the Soviet military police set up dragnets in the streets of Budapest to replace the thousands of escaped Hungarian prisoners of war by capturing new men. They were shipped to the Soviet Union to do forced labor to help rebuild the country. Thousands of those Hungarian prisoners of war died in captivity.

No Hungarian man walking the streets of Budapest was safe from being shipped to the Soviet Union unless he had a “bumashka” (an official document). I had one, testifying that I was serving as a translator for the Red Army Division Headquarters. The document was signed by the general and bore a large official stamp.

This also gave me free access into the newly opened Czechoslovak Embassy in Budapest.

Dozens of people, former Czechoslovak citizens, lined up daily in front of the embassy to obtain certificates of Czechoslovak citizenship. These certificates would protect them from being shipped to the Soviet Union as replacements for escaped Hungarian prisoners of war.

During one of my visits to the Czechoslovak Embassy, I spotted a young man waiting in line, looking totally forlorn. I asked him what was troubling him?

“I had just escaped by a hairline, a Soviet dragnet,” he said. “I need a certificate of my Czechoslovak citizenship, desperately.”

I took him into the embassy and asked an official to assist him. We parted ways.

Fast forward.

Two years later, I went to the Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry in Prague to present my credentials as a foreign correspondent for Hungarian newspapers. The official in charge, the head of the department, was Victor Rybar — the man whom I had helped in war-torn Budapest to obtain his certificate of Czechoslovak citizenship.

Once again, fast forward to 50 years later.

Following the 1989 Velvet Revolution in Communist Czechoslovakia and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the U.S. Information Agency invited 12 Czechoslovak editors and top journalists to America to participate in its project, “Journalism in the United States.”

The program was designed to allow the visitors to explore the relationship between the media and politics and the concept of an independent press.

The monthlong tour included a seminar at William & Mary’s School of Law on how to protect press freedom. I was recruited by William & Mary to serve as a translator.

During a lunch break, I was seated next to one of the leading members of the group. He was the editor-in-chief of the Czechoslovak Television’s educational department. His nametag identified him as Stefan Rybar.

I asked him whether, by any chance, he was related to Victor Rybar, a former Czech government official?

“He is my father,” Stefan Rybar replied.

He then shared with me his father’s odyssey through decades of communist rule.

As a young, idealistic man, Stefan recalled, his father joined the Communist Party. After Nazi Germany’s occupation of the Czech lands, Victor was high on the Gestapo’s list of wanted men. He fled to Hungary, living there under an assumed name.  Following the liberation of his homeland, Victor returned to Prague. He became an official in the foreign ministry. Following the 1948 communist coup d’état, as a pre-war Communist Party member, he was entrusted with increasingly higher positions. By the time my wife and I escaped from Communist Czechoslovakia in 1954, Victor Rybar was Czechoslovakia’s consul general in Istanbul, Turkey.

“In 1968, my father, always an idealistic communist, became a supporter of the newly elected first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubcek,” Stefan said. “Dubcek launched a reform movement called the Prague Spring, or ‘Socialism with a Human Face.’ However, the effort to reform the regime ended abruptly when the Soviet Union and several Warsaw Pact members invaded Czechoslovakia. The hardline communists took over.”

Victor Rybar was dismissed from his job and prevented from obtaining any meaningful work. He eked out a living by standing on street corners selling maps of Prague to tourists.

The 1989 Velvet Revolution that reversed history found Victor Rybar too old and sick to do more than observe how his son, Stefan, became a leading champion of free speech and independent press in the now democratic Czech Republic.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.