China is dumping near the Philippines.
Protests in Cuba are freaking out the Chinese Communist Party
And the US issues a warning to companies in Hong Kong.
That and more on this week’s China news headlines.
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
This episode is sponsored by Surfshark.
You should be using a VPN like Surfshark to protect yourself whenever you go online.
So, China is involved in territorial disputes with all its neighbors in the South China
Sea.
Particularly the Philippines.
But to show who’s number 1, China is taking a number 2.
That’s right, Chinese ships are dumping human waste in disputed territorial waters.
That’s according to Simularity, , an AI-based satellite image analysis firm.
Satellite images captured hundreds of Chinese ships off the Spratly Islands—which are
near the Philippines.
And those Chinese ships left behind, uhh, refuse.
Yes, Chinese ships have dumped so much poop in the South China Sea, you can see it from
space.
Over 200 Chinese ships were spotted here in a single day.
But Simularity found over the past 5 years, the untreated sewage from all these Chinese
ships has caused “algae blooms that have damaged coral reefs and threatened fish in
an unfolding catastrophe”.
According to Liz Derr , the head of Simularity, “When the ships don’t move, the poop piles
up.
The hundreds of ships that are anchored in the Spratlys are dumping raw sewage onto the
reefs they are occupying.”
These ships are likely part of China’s maritime militia.
Technically civilian ships, but in practice, an extension of the People’s Liberation
Army.
Clearly waging war by other means.
The Philippines has launched a...probe...into China’s sewage-dumping.
I feel pretty bad for anyone on the investigation team.
Again, “It is so intense you can see it from space.”
I guess you could say China is literally dumping on other countries’ territorial claims.
Speaking of territorial disputes, 5 years ago, a ruling by an international tribunal
in the Hague rejected China’s claims in the South China Sea.
Which of course Beijing has completely ignored and the international community has done nothing
about.
But for the five year anniversary, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is, well doing more
of the same nothing.
He said in a statement, “We call on the PRC to abide by its obligations under international
law, cease its provocative behavior, and take steps to reassure the international community
that it is committed to the rules-based maritime order that respects the rights of all countries,
big and small.”
Yeah, that’ll show ‘em!
That’s basically been the driving force of the Biden Administration’s China policy—get
the Chinese Communist Party to play by the international rules.
But the Party has never done that.
The Party will never do that.
But maybe if Canada calls for it too, then the Party will cave!
Well it was a nice ocean while we had it.
A Chinese spy ship appears to be positioning itself to spy on US-Australian war games.
The war games are called Exercise Talisman Saber.
It’s the largest bilateral military training exercise between the US and Australia.
It happens every two years.
Australia’s Defence Minister doesn’t seem too worried about the Chinese Spy ship, since
there’s always a Chinese spy ship.
He told ABC, “The presence of similar vessels did not detract from Talisman Sabre 2017 or
Talisman Sabre 2019, and we are confident that it will not impede this year.”
But I got to say, I actually don’t blame China for spying this time.
I also want to know how Australia trained all those kangaroos to sail a ship.
And after the break, China responds to the massive protests in Cuba.
Welcome back.
Cuba has erupted in protests of the Cuban Communist Party’s authoritarian rule.
And the regimes of Russia, China, and Iran are warning the US not to intervene.
I mean, it would be tragic to lose another country to freedom.
China is, of course, one of Cuba’s biggest allies.
US Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, accused China of building Cuba’s internet
censorship system.
Which couldn’t have been too hard to do considering people were only legally allowed
to have internet at home starting in 2019.
That’s right, the Cuban Communist Party didn’t let its citizens have private WiFi
networks until 2019.
And even today, the internet is censored and you have to get a permit.
And it’s all because of...US sanctions of course.
Yes, the Cuban government is saying all the problems people are protesting are a result
of US sanctions.
Definitely not, “the country’s Soviet-style, centrally planned economy and its hesitation
to adopt market-oriented reforms”.
Or the way the Cuban regime arrests, beats, and kills protesters.
No, you see, when the Cuban protesters shout “down with communism”, what they actually
mean is “down with the US.”
My favorite Chinese state-run media, the Global Times , said “These actions of social violence
are part of the unconventional war scheme that US governments have been applying against
Cuba to provoke the long-awaited ‘regime change.’”
Again, the Communist Party has done nothing wrong.
I feel like that’s a message the Global Times is mainly trying to get Chinese people
to listen to.
So they don’t get any ideas.
The US has blacklisted 23 more Chinese companies over abuses in Xinjiang
“Of the 23 companies added to the blacklist, the Commerce Department accused 14 of direct
involvement in human rights abuses in Xinjiang, five of ‘directly supporting’ the Chinese
military’s ‘modernization programs,’ and four of violating previous US sanctions
by doing business with blacklisted companies.”
I’m happy to say this is one tradition the Biden Administration has carried over from
the previous administration.
China has of course said it will retaliate.
No details were given.
Because of course, there’s nothing the Chinese Communist Party can do about it.
China can’t sanction the US.
Well, it has sanctioned US officials.
But that was pretty meaningless.
It’s not like Mike Pompeo has a lot of assets in Chinese banks.
Speaking of ganging up on the Chinese Communist Party, 21 countries have formed
the “Media Freedom Coalition” and are specifically criticizing the Hong Kong government
for shutting down the pro democracy newspaper Apple Daily.
Apple Daily was forced to shut down after the Hong Kong government froze its assets
and arrested a bunch of people.
You know, normal stuff.
Hong Kong authorities have also arrested 5 more people in an alleged bomb plot.
Last week they arrested 9.
Police accused them of “planning to manufacture and plant explosives around the city, including
in courts, cross-harbor tunnels and trash cans.”
There’s definitely no way the Hong Kong government would be using alleged terrorism
as an excuse to crush individual civil liberties in the city.
No regime has ever done something like that.
China is also slamming the sinister US, for several reasons, including Hong Kong.
“The Chinese Foreign Ministry denounced a planned White House warning to American
businesses in Hong Kong.”
He said, “The US side has confounded black and white by smearing the National Security
Law for [Hong Kong] and Hong Kong’s business environment in a bid to mislead American and
other international enterprises in Hong Kong.”
Yeah, just because American businesses in Hong Kong will be completely at the mercy
of the Chinese Communist Party, that’s no reason to warn them about it.
They might get scared and leave.
But China is also concerned about a Digital Trade Deal the US is pushing with countries
in the Indo Pacific.
Imagine if those countries had alternatives to working with the Chinese Communist Party.
As China Daily says, “These deals invariably serve the US’ bid to defend its hegemony.”
“To the signatory countries, these US-dominated agreements are more like shackles restricting
trade and their freedom of cooperation.”
Yeah, no country has the right to put shackles on anyone or restrict their freedom.
Except China.
And this episode is sponsored by Surfshark.
When you go online, you need to be using a VPN like Surfshark to protect your identity.
Everything you do online is being tracked and logged—by the websites you visit and
your internet service provider.
And in many cases, by the government.
And if you’re in an authoritarian country—like China or Cuba, or really most countries—you
should take this seriously.
Even innocent things you do online can be tracked, and put you at risk of surveillance
and even arrest.
So I recommend you use Surfshark to protect yourself online.
When you use Surfshark’s CleanWeb mode, you’ll be protected from trackers, plus
a lot of ads and malware.
With one account, you can connect as many devices as you want.
Try it out with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
And Surfshark has a special discount for China Uncensored fans.
Go to surfshark.com/uncensored and use the code UNCENSORED to get our special deal that
includes 3 extra months for FREE.
Click the link below.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.