China and Russia are performing live fire military drills
right next to Japan
as the Party sets its sights on Taiwan
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
So here’s a fun thing. Russia and China have started war games.
Russia this month is hosting the Vostok 2022 military exercises in the east of the
country. 15 countries are taking part, and China is Russia's guest of honor.
Yes, Russia and China are conducting live-fire military war games.
And when they say in the east of Russia, they mean really far east. Like next to Japan.
Japan was obviously not thrilled. So not thrilled that it lodged a formal complaint.
Yes, a formal complaint. Because if there’s one thing that Russia
and China fear more than military retaliation,
it’s a Karen.
China must have loved this. You see,
Japan and Russia are also in a territorial dispute over islands in these waters.
These islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, have been under
Russian control since they were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.
In fact, according to the Washington Post, “The dispute has prevented the two countries
from signing a peace treaty formally ending their World War II hostilities.”
Which means World War II is still going on! So… does that mean the US is on Russia’s
side of this fight with Japan? And does this mean since he’s Italian
Mario is a fascist? Either way,
we probably shouldn’t trust the showers at the German airport? Fool me once, Germany.
China also has a territorial dispute with Japan, so they must have loved
that Russia was using those islands for war games.
While it’s not clear if China was involved in the exercises on those
islands, Russia and Chinese warships were firing machine guns into the Sea of Japan.
Forget the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. After all
the military exercises between China and Russia, I’m worried about the
Great Pacific Bullet Patch.
These drills have a lot of people concerned. Russia obviously has shown it’s willing to use its
military for aggressive purposes, and China would really like to do the same and invade Taiwan.
Are Putin and Xi looking to form a new military alliance?
More after the break.
Welcome back.
The latest live-fire drills with Russia and China are just the latest
in a long string of growing military ties between the two authoritarian countries.
And at the end of the day, the question is, would they fight together against the West?
How could they? After all, World War II is apparently going on,
and they’re supposed to be our allies!
According to a new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has boosted its military ties to China.
It says, “China’s decision to tacitly side with Russia despite its February
2022 invasion of Ukraine renewed fears of a China-Russia military alliance.”
These drills are intended to present a strong, and unified, military front to the West.
Russia in particular is using the drills to boost the idea that “Moscow has sufficient military
might for massive drills even as its troops are engaged in military action in Ukraine.”
You know, the invasion that has gone so well for Russia.
Russia claims the drills involve “more than 50,000 troops and over 5,000 weapons units,
including 140 aircraft and 60 warships”.
Now you might be thinking—wait, they have that many troops to spare while
the invasion of Ukraine is still going on? Well, they probably don’t.
“The British government has cast doubt on those figures
and said the true number of military personnel taking part is closer to 15,000.” Not 50,000.
What a bummer. That’s like going to see an airshow that says they
have all the latest military fighter jets, then you show up and it’s just
a handgun tied to a goose. The goose is scarier than the gun.
Despite the impression Russia and China want to give with these military exercises,
the cracks in their propaganda are already showing through.
Russia, supposedly one of the most powerful militaries in the world, has been completely
stymied by a much smaller, but highly motivated, group of resistance fighters in Ukraine.
According to an intelligence assessment from the U.K. Ministry of Defense,
“Russia’s military performance in Ukraine has highlighted that Russia’s military strategic
exercises, such as Vostok, have failed to sustain the military’s ability to conduct
large scale, complex operations. Such events are heavily scripted, do not encourage initiative,
and primarily aim to impress Russian leaders and international audiences.”
This is like a dude who constantly brags about being a blackbelt in karate getting completely
wrecked when he gets in a fist fight with a puppy.
Your katas aren’t gonna help you against Taekwon-doggo.
In other words, these drills don’t prove combat readiness. Not for Russia. And not for China.
Chinese state-run media have been playing up the exercises
as a sign of growing Sino-Russian cooperation.
My favorite Chinese state-run media, the Global Times, says together
China and Russia can counter US hegemony.
This sounds like the most terrifying meet cute of all time.
“How’d you two get together?” “Well, we started talking about how much we
both wanted to end US hegemony, and we’ve been together ever since.”
The Global Times describes China and Russia as “comprehensive strategic
partners of coordination for a new era”.
Aside from how clunky that is, a new era?
Well the new era line comes from Xi Jinping.
This new era belongs to Xi Jinping and China.
I wonder how Putin feels about that? It’s Xi’s era. We’re all just living in it.
You see it turns out China and Russia, despite the propaganda,
have a shall we say…contentious relationship?
That report I mentioned earlier from the Center for Strategic and International Studies
calls into question how deep their military ties really are.
The report says China's military capabilities are catching up with, or surpassing those of Russia.
The Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine has stalled. The report authors say a Russian failure there
could lead Beijing to reevaluate its military relationship with Moscow.
China’s military capabilities might surpass Russia’s? What,
do they have a *two* handguns tied to a goose or something?
Russia might also be doing some reevaluating. The report says,
“China’s repeated theft of Russian technology is a major sore spot.”
A lot of China’s military growth is because China is just stealing Russian tech.
China copied the Russian Su-27 to create its J-11 fighter.
It reverse engineered Russia’s S-300 SAM system to make its HQ-9.
And I’m pretty sure Xi’s poison tea recipe was lifted straight from a Putin how-to video.
How does Putin feel again about living in Xi’s new era?
Now China has helped Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
For instance, China continues to buy Russian oil, despite sanctions,
even changing from buying with US dollars to buying with rubles and yuan.
But China is not putting boots on the ground in Ukraine. When
China tries to invade Taiwan, I imagine the situation with Russia will be the same.
Russia will help China fight any Western sanctions, maybe share intelligence,
but I don’t think we’ll see Russian troops fighting alongside Chinese troops.
The goal of these training drills is to give an image of a united front that doesn’t exist,
to scare the West into being too afraid to stand up to Russia or China.
Essentially, Russia and China are a couple on Facebook saying they’re “so
happy and blessed,” when everyone knows their marriage is crumbling.
The reality is quite different. No matter what era we may be living in.
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from a member of the China Uncensored 50-Cent Army.
These are the fans who support us directly—through contributing on either Patreon or Locals.
Today’s question comes from...
Ian Pendleton “Do you think the shooting down of the drones will become the
casus belli that China wants? If they want an excuse that they think will keep the rest of
the world from coming to aid Taiwan, then they can point to this incident and claim that Taiwan
shot first. It won't work, but the CCP might try it anyway, especially depending
on how desperate they become to distract the people from the mainland's problems. A war
of "reunification" to inspire pride in the nation would be at the top of their minds.”
Ah, very interesting question.
So last week, Taiwan shot down a Chinese drone.
I know. Isn’t it nice to hear a story about people murdering a drone for a change?
The drone flew over Kinmen Island, which is right next to Mainland China.
Now keep in mind, this was an unidentified civilian drone.
Not that the Chinese Commmunist Party doesn’t talk about civil-military fusion all the time.
But that’s the thing with China’s short of war tactics.
They want to push things right up to the brink of war, without triggering an actual war.
As I’ve said before, their entire military strategy
is “I’m not touching you! I’m not touching you!”
China is not ready for a war with Taiwan, especially one that would bring in the US.
So since it was a civilian drone, that gives the Party an out.
They don’t have to go to war over that.
While the Communist Party would love it if the rest of the world would abandon Taiwan,
it knows that Taiwan has such strategic value,
that it probably wouldn’t happen over something like a drone getting shot down.
Keep in mind, Chinese fighter jets have a long history of harassing other countries.
In fact in 2001, a Chinese jet performed dangerous maneuvers
and crashed into a US surveillance plane, killing the Chinese pilot.
And China did not go to war with the US. Again, the Chinese Communist Party does not want to
be pressured into a war it’s not ready to fight. But the day is getting closer and closer when the
Party will feel it’s ready for a war over Taiwan. The key is to stop them before that happens.
Thanks for your question, Ian.
And thank you to everyone else as well who supports us directly through Patreon or Locals.
Patreon is a way for you to contribute a dollar or more per episode, and interact with us.
Locals is a social media platform that has monthly
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The links are below. We really do rely mainly on viewer support for this show.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.