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Hoover Daily Report | September 23, 2026 · Hoover Daily Report

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  Welcome to the Hoover Daily Report. "Ideas Advancing
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  Freedom." It's Wednesday, September 23rd, twenty twenty six.
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  Today, H.R. McMaster speaks with Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza
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  about the war in Ukraine, increasing political repression within Russia, and
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  Kara-Murza’s hopes for a democratic Russian future. The GoodFellows discuss
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  the US-China rivalry with guest Eyck Frymin and move on to talk about the
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  continued Russian invasion of Ukraine. And Rowena He and Paul Wolfowitz each
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  spotlight the plight of Hong Kong’s activists, now imprisoned or awaiting
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  sentencing, pointing out the folly of their charges and how the United States
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  can lean on Beijing to do better.
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  Russia: Repression, War, and Prospects for Freedom.
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  Join Russian opposition leader, historian, and journalist Vladimir
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  Kara-Murza and Hoover Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster as they discuss the state of the
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  war in Ukraine, the prospects and perils facing Russia’s opposition movement, the
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  shifting currents of Russian domestic politics, the effort to organize the
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  Russian diaspora into a coherent political force, and prospects for a
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  post-Putin Russia. Reflecting on his experience imprisoned by the Putin regime
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  in a Siberian labor colony, Kara-Murza discusses the lack of political freedom
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  in today’s Russia, the difficulty of measuring public opinion under
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  authoritarian rule, and the West’s repeated efforts to accommodate Putin’s
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  regime. He also considers how Western governments can support Russian civil
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  society through targeted sanctions and access to independent information, and
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  what a democratic future for Russia could mean for European security and lasting
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  peace.
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  GoodFellows: Taiwan’s Slow Squeeze, Ukraine’s Long War.
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  America’s complicated relationship with China doesn’t lack for subplots—tariffs,
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  territorial designs, human rights, and espionage. But does the superpowers’ Cold
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  War–like competition over artificial intelligence supersede all other US-Cyno
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  concerns? On the eve of the year’s second Trump-Xi summit, Hoover Fellow Eyck
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  Freymann discusses the state of the great-power rivalry and the possibility
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  of a Chinese move on Taiwan in the near future. (Freymann, author of 2026’s
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  Defending Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War with China, envisions an “all-domain
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  pressure campaign” that slowly strangles the island nation.) After that: Senior
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  Fellow Niall Ferguson recounts his recent visit to Kyiv (his fifth time in Ukraine
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  since Russia’s invasion) and the odds of Vladimir Putin’s finding an “off-ramp”
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  after a 55-month war of attrition (or, with his back to the wall, will Russia’s
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  leader opt instead for a modern-day Ludendorff offensive?). Finally, the
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  fellows weigh in on the Fed’s recent rate increase and President Trump’s stepping
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  up America’s strategic footprints in Greenland and Poland.
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  This Slogan Infuriates Beijing. So Judges Have Turned It into a Crime.
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  In The Washington Post, Research Fellow Rowena He, writes of the looming
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  sentencing this Friday of three Tiananmen Square vigil organizers in Hong Kong.
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  “The conviction rests on a slogan used in Victoria Park for three decades: ‘End
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  one-party dictatorship,’” He writes. It doesn’t specify whose dictatorship needs
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  to end, but that doesn’t matter to Beijing; He says the judges are betraying
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  the meaning of those words, as well as the early rallying cries of Mao Zedong,
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  by equating the slogan with calling for the overthrow of the Chinese Communist
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  Party. “The idea of ending one-party dictatorship to build a democratic China
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  was Mao Zedong’s promise during the civil war—his rallying cry against the
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  Nationalist Party,” she writes. “China’s constitution doesn’t describe its
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  political system as ‘one-party dictatorship’—instead defining it as a
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  ‘people’s democratic dictatorship’ featuring ‘multi-party cooperation’ under
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  CCP leadership.”.
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  In the Name of Trust, Free Jimmy Lai.
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  In The Wall Street Journal, Distinguished Visiting Fellow Paul Wolfowitz argues
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  that Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington presents a perfect opportunity for the
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  Trump administration to ask him to release imprisoned Hong Kong newspaper
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  publisher and activist Jimmy Lai. Now 78, Lai was jailed and his newspaper Apple
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  Daily shuttered in 2020. He has spent much of the time since in solitary
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  confinement. Wolfowitz says releasing him could rebuild trust between the two
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  nations that has eroded as Beijing slowly undid its commitments to Hong Kong’s
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  political autonomy in recent years. “Compassion can be an expression of
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  confidence and not an admission of error. Releasing Mr. Lye wouldn’t require China
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  to admit that his imprisonment was wrong. There are large disagreements that divide
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  the U.S. and China, and managing them peacefully requires a foundation of
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  trust.”.
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  How Should the Fed Respond to Supply Shocks?
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  On the latest episode of Economics, Applied, Senior Fellow Steven J. Davis
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  speaks with Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee about his recent speech on how
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  central banks should respond to supply shocks. Goolsbee argues that the Fed
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  should not simply “look through” supply shocks but should instead treat them as
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  persistent or recurring and, hence, as a call for tightening by the Fed. The
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  discussion ranges widely from oil shocks and inflation in the 1970s to
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  supply-chain disruptions and tariffs in the 2020s. They also discuss wage
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  stickiness and its implications for monetary policy.
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  Brazil’s Institutional Crisis: When Courts Become Rulers.
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  In a new video, former Hoover History Lab student research analyst Felipe Jafette
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  details how Brazil’s Supreme Court has accumulated powers that extend beyond
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  traditional judicial authority, raising concerns about institutional checks,
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  individual rulings, censorship, and democratic accountability. He says that
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  restoring constitutional balance will require the National Congress to reassert
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  its authority and establish durable limits on the Court’s power. He breaks
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  down his plans for reform in a new paper.
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  Featured Hoover Publication.
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  Strateejika.
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  Strateejika is an online journal that analyzes ongoing issues of national
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  security in light of conflicts of the past—the efforts of the Military History
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  Working Group of historians, analysts, and military personnel focusing on
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  military history and contemporary conflict.
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  That’s your Hoover Daily Report for Wednesday, September 23rd, twenty twenty
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  six.
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  Each weekday, we bring you research, analysis, and commentary focused on
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  public policy, national security, and the ideas shaping American society and
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  government.
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  The Hoover Institution at Stanford University is grounded in constitutional
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  principles with a commitment to sustaining the safeguards of the American
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  way of life.
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  Thank you for listening.
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  For links to all the articles and interviews mentioned today, visit
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  hoover.org slash, HDR.