Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan
Hong Kong bans eating at food expo
And Chinese rocket debris comes crashing down That and more on this week’s China News Headlines.
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Matt Gnaizda.
This episode is sponsored by Incogni.
You probably know that companies are collecting your personal data. But you may not realize just
how many. Dozens, maybe hundreds—most of which you’ve never heard of. And you have
no idea what they’re doing with it. Incogni helps stop them. I’ll explain more at the end.
Well, after a week of headlines hyperventilating over whether or not US Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi would go to Taiwan, and whether that would trigger World War III…
She did it. Nancy Pelosi went to Taiwan.
And it did not trigger World War III. At least, as of when I’m recording this. Despite the Chinese
Communist Party firing some missiles into the ocean. Which I’ll talk about in a minute.
But first, what did Pelosi actually do in Taiwan?
Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday night.
Taipei 101, Taiwan’s tallest building, was lit up with words of welcome.
And since Taiwan, unlike China, is a thriving democracy with freedom of speech,
Pelosi was greeted at her hotel by both supporters and protesters.
Although one attempt to call Pelosi a warmonger backfired slightly.
On Wednesday, Speaker Pelosi met with Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen,
who presented her with the Order of Propitious Clouds With Grand Cordon.
Which someone in Pelosi’s office had obviously color-coordinated with her outfit.
But in her meeting with Tsai, Pelosi had one main message: the US supports Taiwan.
"Today, the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy.
America's determination to preserve democracy here in Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad.”
“And now more than ever, America’s solidarity with
Taiwan is crucial, and that is the message we are bringing here today.”
And that is a bipartisan message. Shortly after Pelosi landed, over two dozen Republican Senators
released a statement praising her visit to Taiwan.
Which is amazing, because at this point you can’t get Congress to bipartisanly agree on
what the weather outside is right now.
But regardless of what you think of US domestic politics,
Nancy Pelosi did the right thing in going to Taiwan, not backing out under pressure,
and framing America’s support of Taiwan in terms of freedom and democracy.
Here’s another thing she did that is sure to drive the Chinese Communist Party up the wall:
she visited Taiwan’s National Human Rights Museum.
The museum, which is a former prison, is actually dedicated to remembering Taiwan’s
authoritarian past, including what’s called the White Terror, when Taiwan’s
then one-party dictatorship ruled the island under martial law and persecuted political dissidents.
But the fact that Taiwan is addressing its past is a huge contrast to China,
where the Chinese Communist Party refuses to admit any of its past atrocities,
let alone the ones it’s currently carrying out.
And in addition to meeting with former Taiwanese political prisoners,
Pelosi also met with several activists that had been imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party.
Including a Taiwanese NGO worker who was imprisoned in China, a Hong Kong bookseller
who was kidnapped by Chinese authorities, a Uyghur Tiananmen Square student protest leader,
and a representative of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Just an extra little kick in the pants to the Chinese Communist Party.
Now one thing that Nancy Pelosi emphasized during her trip to Taiwan,
was that it wasn’t that special.
In a Washington Post op-ed, she stated that her visit did not in
any way violate America’s One-China policy, or change the status quo.
That’s because the Chinese Communist Party is trying to frame it like some
huge norm-breaking event, so they’ll have an excuse to increase their pressure on Taiwan.
And you know who’s helping the Chinese regime do this? Mainstream Western media.
Even in how the US media frames Pelosi’s visit as “defying China.”
Or ignoring Chinese threats.
Or the classic, angering China.
This is a huge propaganda win for the Chinese Communist Party. It makes the Party seem more
powerful than it is, and like it should call the shots when it comes to Taiwan.
And look, I know the media loves conflict, but they even hyped up a tweet
from former Global Times editor Hu Xijin that said the PLA should shoot down Pelosi’s plane.
Which was never going to happen. But hey, it doesn’t matter if the mainstream media
is hyping the CCP’s propaganda for them, as long as they get the clicks!
And you know who else bungled Pelosi’s Taiwan trip? The Biden administration.
Biden initially seemed opposed to Pelosi’s trip,
telling reporters that the military thought it wasn’t a good idea.
Then came the leaks from anonymous Biden officials about how the trip could cause a crisis.
Which led to headlines about how Pelosi is not just defying China,
but also Biden by visiting Taiwan.
And then when it was apparent that Pelosi was going to Taiwan anyway,
the Biden administration tried to play it off like no big deal.
The Chinese Communist Party had a field day with all of this.
It’s not clear whether the Chinese regime threw a behind-the-scenes tantrum about Pelosi’s trip,
or whether the Biden administration just anticipated that they would and got freaked out.
The second option is much worse.
So how did the Chinese Communist Party react to Pelosi’s Taiwan trip?
I’ll tell you after the break.
Welcome back.
The Chinese Communist Party welcomed Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan with a few cyberattacks.
Which included weirdly some that targeted 7-11s.
Hey, don’t mess with Taiwan’s 7-11s.
Where else am I going to get watermelon milk the next time I’m in Taipei?
Speaking of fruit, China also banned fruit and fish imports from Taiwan.
And it banned sand exports to Taiwan. Which actually could be a big deal,
since sand is used for a lot of construction.
But the Taiwanese government downplayed the ban, saying that
Chinese imports made up less than 1 percent of Taiwan’s sand usage.
We should expect China’s economic pressure on Taiwan to keep increasing,
since China is Taiwan’s biggest trading partner. That means one
of the best ways countries can help Taiwan is by expanding their own trade with the country.
That’s what happened back in 2021 after China banned imports of Taiwanese pineapples.
Taiwan began a “Freedom Pineapples” campaign.
And Japan ended up replacing China as a major buyer of Taiwanese pineapples.
So Taiwan can do it again. I’m just not sure that Freedom Fish has quite the same ring.
But of course the biggest response the Chinese
Communist Party has made to Pelosi’s visit has been military exercises.
The Chinese regime announced three days of live-fire drills happening around Taiwan.
These aren’t the kind of drills that can get planned in a week,
so the PLA has been preparing for this for a while.
And they’re clearly looking to escalate the military situation around Taiwan.
For example, by having ships and planes cross the median line in the Taiwan Strait.
And by firing ballistic missiles into the sea in areas near Taiwan
and even into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which is a first.
Chinese state-run media claimed that one of the missiles even flew over Taiwan.
If true, that’s another escalation.
Some of the military drills, marked in pink on this map, will be taking
place within Taiwan’s territorial waters. That’s another escalation.
And that’s what we should be prepared to see
more of from the PLA. They’re not going to launch an invasion of Taiwan now. What they’re going
to do is exactly what they are doing in the South China Sea, and the border with India.
The Chinese Communist Party is going to
salami-slice the area around Taiwan. They’re going to use Pelosi’s trip as an excuse
to do a bunch of military escalation that’s part of their gray zone warfare: things that are short
of war, but that normalize an increasing Chinese military presence around Taiwan.
That’s what the world needs to look out for. More after the break.
Welcome back.
For most of the world, Covid has gone the way of fidget spinners . You can still get one,
but most people would rather just think of it all as a bad dream.
Unfortunately for people in China,
the Chinese Communist Party is still highly interested in Covid.
They locked down an entire city of 1.6 million people after finding just one case of Covid-19.
That city is called Yongcheng, and it’s here, in Henan province.
Authorities have shut down all public transit and restaurants there. Only one
person per household is allowed to go out to run errands at a local grocery store or pharmacy.
But don’t go to a pharmacy if you’re sick, because “Pharmacies aren’t allowed to sell
medicines to treat a fever or cough, nor antivirus and antibiotics drugs.”
Because if you’re going to feel sick, you need to do it on the Communist Party’s terms.
The government of Hong Kong has been getting more and more authoritarian since 2020,
when they implemented the National Security Law.
And in their latest authoritarian move, they’ve banned eating at the annual food expo.
Visitors will be allowed to look at food,
and even buy food. But they have to leave before they can eat or drink anything.
This is due to Covid.
Hong Kong has seen 3,000 to 4,000 daily infections over the last few
weeks. That’s about on par with New York City during its worst spikes.
Despite the thousands of cases, though,
Hong Kong never completely locked down like many Chinese cities.
But that doesn’t mean Hong Kong authorities have done nothing.
Earlier this year, “Hong Kong [briefly] banned indoor dining after 6 p.m., closed all bars and
gyms, limited restaurant bookings to two per table, and tightened rules for mask-wearing.”
But because Hong Kong is such an important financial center, and probably because authorities
are worried about protests, their response to Covid has been a lot less restrictive.
You know, many Hongkongers worry their city will end up like the rest of mainland
China. But people should really cheer up—because things could always be worse.
Speaking of food restrictions, there’s another threat facing mainland China:
“Ice-Cream Assassins”, the Chinese Communist Party’s New Public Enemies.
You see, due to all the absurd Covid restrictions disrupting supply chains and so on,
the price of a lot of foods has gone up. That includes the price of ice cream.
“Families are complaining that the price of ice-creams is skyrocketing.
If you want a quality product, you can pay as much as $10.”
Subsequently, Chinese netizens have begun blaming ice-cream sellers—everyone
from street vendors to grocery stores—calling them “ice cream assassins”. The issue became so
big on the social media platform Weibo that the central government had to take action.
“Xi Jinping does not guarantee other human rights, but he promised that the
right of every Chinese to a decently priced ice-cream in the summer will be respected.”
And that’s the point of these onerous new rules from the
State Administration of Market Regulations.
The new regulations include very specific labeling requirements, as well as some vague clauses that
authorities could use to set maximum prices. It applies to all food, not just ice cream.
It’s relatively easy for large supermarkets to comply with complex regulations,
or to simply stop selling certain items. But it’s not so easy for small businesses.
And in July, police started using these regulations to crack down on small
ice cream vendors. Because heavy regulations are never there to help the little guy.
And finally, debris from an uncontrolled Chinese rocket has fallen over Southeast Asia.
The rocket had been used to carry a module up to the Tiangong space station.
That’s China’s version of the International Space Station.
China had to build its own, because NASA doesn’t trust them not to do stupid things in space.
But joke’s on NASA, because stupid happened anyway.
See, usually when a rocket is launched the booster stages are
dropped back to Earth right away, in a controlled trajectory. But in this case,
the core stage of the Long March B5 rocket went all the way into orbit.
And then when the 23-ton chunk of garbage started to drop, “Because
of friction caused by the rocket rubbing against air at the top of the atmosphere,
it soon began losing altitude, making what is called ‘uncontrolled re-entry’ back to Earth.”
Fortunately, it mostly burned up, and the remaining pieces dropped into the
ocean near the Philippines. But there was a chance it could have struck a populated area.
Like that time in 2013 that Chinese rocket debris smashed into people’s houses.
Or that time in 2015. Or that time in 2019.
In other words: Cheer up! Things could always be worse.
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Once again, I’m Matt Gnaizda. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.