Massive protests over Covid lockdowns
Vague threats from China at the G20
And the FBI’s national security concerns over TikTok
That and more on this week’s China news headlines.
Welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
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 tell you more at the end.
And you know who really loves tracking people?
The Chinese Communist Party!
They’re especially keeping an eye out for anyone who has Covid, might have Covid, or
lives in the same city as anyone who has Covid.
They even have Big Brother drones flying around to intimidate people.
Please go downstairs for the PCR test immediately Must be done by 5pm
Make your contribution to the anti-Covid of Haizhu District
In the manufacturing hub of Guangzhou, they found 3,700 Covid cases through their mass
testing campaign.
Granted, the vast majority of those people had no symptoms.
And all of those cases are still less than a 20th of 1 percent of the city’s population.
But rules are rules.
So authorities placed the entire city of 13 million people under lockdown last week.
Turns out, that was a stupid thing to do.
Not just because it’s a bazooka-to-kill-a-mosquito type situation.
But because people in Guangzhou revolted.
It started with people singing about loving freedom.
By the way, that song about loving freedom is a popular Hong Kong protest song.
So I bet the Communist Party loved that.
Then people tore down the Covid barricades that had kept them inside their apartment
buildings.
And they destroyed Covid testing centers.
I guess tearing down the tools of oppression looks different in the 2020s.
But protesting Covid restrictions is bad.
You’re supposed to follow the rules!
So authorities came out to teach people a lesson.
You can hear what sounds like some kind of shot being fired.
There are rumors that police may have shot at least one protester.
It’s not clear whether those rumors are true.
There’s also this footage of a protester in Guangzhou getting his neck stepped on.
What makes this a big deal is that people in China have no right to protest.
The consequences of protesting are severe.
And yet the Zero Covid policy is so awful that people are protesting anyway.
Maybe they don’t know how dangerous it is until it’s too late.
If only the Communist Party taught people history instead of covering it up.
And after the break, world leaders play nice with Xi Jinping at the G20.
Welcome back.
This week was the G20—an annual summit of leaders of the world’s biggest economies.
They met in Bali, Indonesia this year—where they planted trees together, because that’s
so en vogue right now.
But what’s even more important than pretending to care about the environment, is that the
G20 is a way for world leaders to meet with each other.
Sometimes in the hallway,
sometimes at parallel tables with flowers in between...because flowers make everything
more festive.
Even a new Cold War.
US President Joe Biden and Chinese presitator Xi Jinping, of course, had a lot to talk about.
They were hoping to “press pause” on the “US-China free fall”.
What does that mean?
Well, the relationship has been getting worse ever since, I don’t know...
the Chinese regime signed a trade deal, but then broke nearly all their promises;
they covered up a deadly pandemic, which has killed more than a million Americans;
and they keep supporting Russia, despite the ongoing attacks on Ukraine.
But on the bright side, Biden and Xi “said they would resume climate cooperation, which
Beijing had cut short after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan earlier this
year.”
Great!
So the Chinese regime has agreed to restart *talks*—despite arbitrarily stopping talks
when they got mad at the US this summer.
And just to prove that they’re absolutely serious...about continuing to lie, China is
keeping plans to build lots more coal-fired power plants.
Of course, there’s one thing the two sides definitely don’t agree on.
The US doesn’t want China to invade Taiwan, and China...still wants to.
At least four times in recent years, President Biden has said the US would defend Taiwan
if China attacks.
In this week’s meeting, Xi Jinping responded by saying things like, “History is the best
textbook, so we should take history as a mirror and let it guide the future.”
What does that mean?
Is it a threat?
Which part of history do you plan to repeat?
Or does the mirror mean you do it backwards?
I’m confused.
It would be a lor clearer if Xi Jinping was just like, “We’re going to invade Taiwan,
so neener neener.”
But can Taiwan defeat an invading China?
Yes!
And I explain how in the latest episode of our new YouTube channel Gamers Unbeaten.
Yes, it’s a real channel.
Check it out.
The link is below.
Speaking of confrontations, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Xi Jinping
informally in the hallway, while cameras from the Canadian press pool were rolling.
It comes shortly after it was revealed that the Chinese Communist Party had repeatedly
influenced Canadian politics,
and Trudeau had accused China of 'aggressive' election interference.
Here’s a snippet of that conversation, in which Xi seems to be accusing Trudeau of leaking
their previous conversation to the press:
“Everything we discussed has been leaked to the papers and that is not appropriate.”
Xi goes on to say this to Trudeau in Mandarin: “If there was sincerity on your part, then
we shall conduct our discussion with an attitude of mutual respect, otherwise there might be
unpredictable consequences.”
Sounds kind of like a threat.
But Trudeau didn’t get the message, because he cut off Xi’s translator.
“In Canada we believe in a free and open and frank dialogue.
We will continue to work constructively together, but there will be things that we will disagree
on.”
“Let’s create the conditions first”
Well at least they shook on it.
While Western media saw this as Xi Jinping
Confronting,
Lecturing,
And scolding Justin Trudeau.
The Chinese regime says it was nothing of the sort.
No criticism here!
But the cherry on top of this whole thing is that as Xi Jinping walks away from Justin
Trudeau, just after Xi walks off camera, you can actually hear him call Trudeau “very
naive” in Mandarin.
Very naive.
I’m sure he meant that as a compliment.
French president Emmanuel Macron also met with Xi Jinping at the G20.
And unlike Trudeau, Macron got a table.
Macron talked to Xi Jinping about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And Macron told the press afterwards that he is “convinced China can play... a more
important mediating role in the coming months.”
Yes, I’m sure China will get Russia to back off on the invasion.
That’s totally something they want to do.
Just like they want to stop using all those coal-fired power plants.
I guess Macron is also very naive.
Also this week,
The UK’s newest prime minister Rishi Sunak has ditched his predecessor’s plan to classify
China as a ‘threat’ to UK security.
I take it back about Macron.
*Sunak* is very naive.
And after the break, how a South Korean rugby match has put relations with China on thin
ice.
Welcome back.
On Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke to Congress during a hearing on Homeland
Security.
And he said the FBI is ‘extremely concerned’ about China’s influence through TikTok.
Remember, TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that—like every big Chinese
company—has close ties with the Chinese Communist Party.
Wray talked about several reasons the FBI is concerned about TikTok’s threats to national
security.
Those include how it can: - compromise software on people’s personal
devices - collect data on millions of American users,
and send that data to China - and conduct influence operations—including
political influence—by using its algorithm to push or hide certain videos
It’s so bad that even *Vox* is saying maybe Trump was right about wanting to ban TikTok.
We are living in the weirdest timeline.
Speaking of China collecting data...
The US Justice Department has charged three Americans with illegally sending military
data to China.
They’ve also been charged with “illegally providing the U.S. Department of Defense with
Chinese-made parts for military equipment”.
If convicted, the three defendants face up to 20 years in prison for illegally sending
data to China, plus additional years for smuggling, wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the
US government.
Meanwhile, things aren’t much better up north.
Canadian police have charged a researcher at Hydro-Québec with spying for China.
Hydro-Québec is Canada’s biggest electric utility.
They not only provide power to Canada, but also to parts of New York and New England.
The defendant is being charged with illegally obtaining trade secrets, and sending them
to China.
He could face up to 10 years in prison.
Now while those crimes are all pretty serious from an American perspective, they’re minor
compared to the enormous crime committed this week in South Korea.
During the Asia Rugby Sevens Series, while the teams were lining up for the Hong Kong
vs South Korea match, organizers attempted to play Hong Kong’s national anthem, as
would be customary for a visiting team.
Only, what South Korea played was “Glory to Hong Kong”.
It sounds like a national anthem, but it was actually written as a protest anthem during
the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
Hong Kong doesn’t actually have its own national anthem.
Because Hong Kong is not a country.
It belongs to the People’s Republic of China.
Forever.
So, ok, the rugby organizers should have played *China’s* national anthem.
Which to be fair, they did after realizing their mistake.
The head of Asia Rugby said the problem was that there were two interns responsible for
the music, and they supposedly pressed play on the wrong file.
But that’s not enough to appease Cthulhu!
Hong Kong’s chief executive now says police are looking into whether the incident was
a violation of the Hong Kong National Security Law.
The way the national security law is written, anyone who violates China’s extremely vague
rules—like subverting state power—can be charged criminally even if they’re not
in Hong Kong.
The national security law applies to the entire world.
For example, that clip I showed you...
I have now violated the national security law.
I guess I won’t be going back to Hong Kong anytime soon.
And this episode is sponsored by Incogni.
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Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
Thanks for watching China Uncensored.