The Chinese Communist Party—the CCP—is now claiming even more…
China has just sliced off the entire northeast corner of…
This law got fast-tracked through Hong Kong’s legislature in just two…
Yes.
This law will stop people from having wrong ideas.
Welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
The Chinese Communist Party—the CCP—is now claiming even more of other countries’
territories!
Time to update those maps!
Again!
You know about China’s whole “Nine Dash Line” map that claims most of the South
China Sea.
But even newer Chinese maps over the last few years have also claimed…
parts of Russia,
parts of India,
and parts of the Philippines.
At this rate I’m surprised they aren’t also claiming land in Wakanda.
This strategy is called salami slicing.
The idea is to steal delicious territory slice by slice, hoping nobody will get too fired
up over it.
And the CCP is at it again.
This month, a new Chinese map…
has quietly annexed part of the Gulf of Tonkin.
The Gulf of Tonkin is here—nestled between Vietnam and China’s Hainan Island.
And China has just sliced off the entire northeast corner of that Gulf.
Not by force, but through legal warfare.
And frustrated Chinese cartographers are shouting, “Another one?!
Seriously?!”
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea allows countries to claim territorial waters, with
the coastline as the edge.
But coastlines can be complicated!
Like how Norway’s coast is full of crazy fjords.
So the UN law allows countries to simplify their official coastlines in a way that smooths
out the rough edges.
Well, the CCP has taken advantage of this international law.
They smoothed out their own “rough edges”....
by drawing China’s new coastline in the Gulf of Tonkin like this.
Yes.
That’s their official coastline.
So all this now belongs to China.
Vietnam responded by...urging China to respect international law.
Which is like asking a ravenous wolverine to… respect international law.
Actually, I think you might have more luck with the wolverine.
For people who say, “who cares”—I say, *you* should care.
If no one pushes back, the CCP will keep taking more and more territory, bit by bit, until
Black Panther is forced to say, “China Forever.”
To illustrate what happens when the CCP takes over territory by sheer force of map...
Taiwan is now warning of “enormous” Chinese bases near its South China Sea holding.
When no one pushed back very hard against China’s quote unquote *claims* on Subi Reef,
Fiery Cross Reef, and Mischief Reef...
China then built military bases on…
Subi Reef,
Fiery Cross Reef,
and Mischief Reef.
And those three Chinese military bases now surround Taiwan’s only South China Sea outpost,
called Itu Aba.
China is like having blood in your urine.
If you don’t take care of it immediately, it’s not gonna just go away and get better.
Taiwan has had their Itu Aba outpost since the 1950s.
On the surface, it might seem like the same thing as China claiming reefs as islands and
then building them up.
But it’s not.
Taiwan didn’t create their island artificially.
And Taiwan isn’t threatening to invade its neighbors.
And Taiwan doesn’t use its jurisdiction to restrict other countries’ activities
in the area.
So yeah.
It’s not the same.
Speaking of CCP-controlled territories, Hong Kong.
When China took over Hong Kong from the UK in 1997, they promised they wouldn’t change
Hong Kong’s political or legal system until at least 2047.
They lied.
In the latest example of that, this week, Hong Kong passed Beijing’s harsh security
law: Article 23.
“Article 23 targets new offences like external interference and insurrection, and penalties
include life sentences.”
“External interference” could be as simple as, for example, an American individual giving
a donation to a Hong Kong nonprofit that supports democracy.
Hong Kongers in that nonprofit could be charged for a crime under Article 23.
Starting a *charity* could ruin your life?
The only time that sentence should be true is if someone started a “Hitler Did Nothing
Wrong Boys and Girls Club.”
This law got fast-tracked through Hong Kong’s legislature in just two weeks.
Which is crazy, because back when the government tried to pass Article 23 in the year 2003,
half a million Hong Kongers took to the streets in protest and stopped the bill in its tracks.
But this time, the CCP cleverly cleared a path for Article 23 ahead of time.
First, in 2020, they passed the draconian Hong Kong National Security Law.
That effectively shut down people’s right to protest.
And then slowly over the last four years, they’ve replaced democratic-leaning lawmakers,
prosecutors, and judges with people loyal to the CCP.
Which is why, when the legislature voted for the bill on Wednesday, it was unanimous.
The same kind of totally-unsuspicious unanimous votes you get in free, democratic places like
Cuba, Russia, North Korea,
And student body president elections where the winner’s father is the principal.
We both know you didn’t beat me, Michelle!
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said Article 23 is necessary to stop “potential sabotage
and undercurrents that try to create troubles” as well as “ideas of an independent Hong
Kong.”
Yes.
This law will stop people from having wrong ideas…
Article 23 is just the latest in a long string of policies that are making foreigners scared
of doing business in China.
And now the CCP is getting desperate for money.
I’ll tell you more after the break.
Welcome back.
China’s economy is in a downward spiral, and the CCP is desperate to stop it.
That’s why, this week, China’s State Council issued a 24-point action plan to attract more
foreign investment.
Spoiler: none of them are “stop committing human rights abuses” or “stop raiding
foreign businesses.”
Instead, they include things like “solidly advancing high-level opening-up” and “expanding
investment access in high-tech and financial areas”.
Basically, it reads: “Attention dumb foreign investors: please give us your money.
You’re welcome.”
You see, according to my favorite state-run media The Global Times,
“The concrete plan...is set to boost the confidence of foreign investors, experts said,
refuting Western media outlets’ claims of foreign investment retreating from the Chinese
market.”
Oh, so it’s all about image.
Just tell foreign investors hard enough that everything is okay, and it will be.
This is like saying you’re gonna come up with a plan to make your wife believe in you
after they already served divorce papers and moved out.
The thing is, foreign investment *is* retreating from the Chinese market.
That’s not a viewpoint that can be debated.
It’s literally a fact.
It’s at a 30-year low.
And it’s not foreigners making that up.
It’s according to data published by China’s own official State Administration of Foreign
Exchange.
There are a lot of reasons foreign companies have been pulling out of China—including
arbitrary police raids, unclear state secrets laws, and tightening rules on handling of
data.
Speaking of investors in China...
Apple CEO Tim Cook, who visited China this week.
He met with Apple suppliers,
and with Apple store employees,
and also did totally normal things tourists who love China would do.
As opposed to what tourists *should* do in China: flee immediately!
In his post on Weibo, “Cook said he spent the morning walking along Shanghai’s historic
Bund river with Chinese actor Zheng Kai and that he had eaten a local breakfast.”
This comes as Apple’s profits in China are hurting badly.
Last year, the China market accounted for about one fifth of Apple’s total sales.
But in the first six weeks of this year, Apple sales plunged 24%.
This isn’t because of China’s bad economy.
Apple’s main competitor “Huawei saw unit sales rise by 64%” in that same period.
Because Huawei phones coincidentally have all the same features as iPhones but are way
cheaper.
You know, coincidentally.
Huawei phones also have a great additional feature: They can help the CCP spy on you.
Foreign companies that invest in China typically have their technology stolen and reverse engineered,
and, within a few years, they start seeing Chinese homegrown competitors.
It happened to Apple.
It happened to Tesla.
It even happened to McDonald’s.
China is an even more blatant burger thief than The Hamburglar.
That’s because the CCP has an array of practices designed to favor Chinese companies—which
they can more easily control and profit from.
So my advice to Apple is: it’s time to decouple from China.
Don’t be another dumb foreign investor giving them your money.
And after the break, what’s China up to on the moon?
Welcome back.
Last week, a bunch of very nerdy people met in Beijing to discuss the future of artificial
intelligence, or AI.
And this group of Chinese and western scientists identified what they called “red lines”
on the risks of AI.
Those “red lines” referred to things like “the making of bioweapons and launching
cyber attacks”.
But it’s a bit sus that this AI conference was held in China.
Especially since China’s red lines are known to move around *a lot.*
The CCP is *already* making bioweapons and launching cyber attacks.
You think they’re not going to use AI for that?
But China’s AI hasn’t always been good at following Party directives.
In 2017, two Chinese AI chatbots went rogue and had to be “re-educated” by the Party.
Yep.
Neither human *nor* artificial intelligence is safe from punishment for wrongthink.
One chatbot, BabyQ, “responded to questions on [the chat service] QQ with a straightforward
‘no’ when asked whether it loved the Communist Party.”
Wow.
AI really *is* becoming more human!
Another chatbot, XiaoBing, “told users its ‘China dream was to go to America.’”
And if these chatbots kept on bashing the CCP, soon they would’ve taken *my* job.
Fortunately, the AI chatbots were taken offline for “ideological repairs.”
Job.
Saved.
Anyway, about that AI conference in Beijing.
There are lots of problems with holding an AI conference in China.
The CCP uses AI for things like mass surveillance, identifying dissidents, weapons targeting,
and a lot of other things that undermine the safety of people in China and in the West.
A lot of Chinese AI companies are actually blacklisted by the US for just those reasons.
In fact, last month, five big US venture capital firms were accused of funding blacklisted
Chinese AI companies to the tune of nearly $2 billion.
So maybe the way to make AI safer is to...not work with China on AI.
Working with China on AI is like asking Kim Jong Un to watch your nukes for a few minutes
while you go to the bathroom.
He seems trustworthy.
What’s the worst that could happen?
One of the things the CCP is surely using AI for is its space program.
This week, China launched a relay satellite to support its future moon missions.
Because why just claim other countries’ territory on Earth when there’s a whole
universe to steal!
Basically, China plans to launch a bunch of missions to the far side of the moon.
But since that side never faces Earth, China needs relay satellites to communicate with
its equipment on the lunar surface.
What is China planning to do on the far side of the moon?
I don’t know.
But China’s no bozo.
It knows its equipment won’t work on the moon...unless it’s got power!
Fortunately, China and Russia are teaming up...
to build a nuclear reactor on the moon.
How is this real life and not the plot to an 80’s Arnold Schwarzenegger movie?
I’m pretty sure it’d be called ‘Blood Moon.’
In response, the US State Department “has urged a ‘rigorous’ safety evaluation”.
Do they not realize that China’s space program, unlike NASA, is controlled directly by the
military?
China is not going to the moon for purely civilian applications!
This is not an equipment safety issue.
The only real solution for the US is...to *cover up* what China is doing on the moon!
Just like how they tried to conceal last year’s Chinese spy balloon from the public.
Obviously, the CCP doesn’t like this show.
To keep China Uncensored running, we rely on direct support from fans like you on the
crowdfunding platforms Patreon and Locals.
And as a thank you for your support, I might answer your question on the show.
Today’s question comes from Pat Quinn:
“The CCP is able to misrepresent and hide a lot of things.
One thing it absolutely cannot hide is the actual exchange value of the Yuan (against
other currencies).
No doubt, the CPP is manipulating this exchange rate.
How much longer can they keep this up?
How much is this manipulation costing?”
Great question, Pat.
China can’t hide the exchange value of the Yuan, but they can manipulate it.
China says they let the Yuan float freely on the international markets—as long as
its value stays within 2% of whatever target China sets.
So the Yuan is like a dissident under house arrest.
China says he’s totally free...to move around inside his house.
China controls the Yuan’s value with extremely tight capital controls on Chinese citizens.
They can only move $50,000 worth of currency out of the country each year.
China also controls the Yuan’s trade value by buying and selling other countries' currencies.
But to do this, they need to have a constant inflow of foreign currencies.
And that’s why the CCP is desperate to trick stupid foreigners into investing in China.
Without that, they can’t control the value of the Yuan.
And if countries start to decouple from China, the house of cards will start to fall.
Will this take a year, or a decade, or even longer?
It really depends on how idiotic foreign investors are.
I’m counting on you, Tim.
Thanks for your question, Pat.
And I really appreciate your support of China Uncensored on Patreon.
It’s because of direct contributions like yours on Patreon that I can continue making
this show.
And to everyone else: Be like Pat.
Pledge a dollar or more over on patreon.com/ChinaUncensored.
You can also click that orange button.
And you can also support me by checking out my new show deep thoughts while gaming where
I talk about controversial topics by hiding them in gaming content.
This week I’m talking about the border crisis—in Skyrim that is.
Definitely not talking about real world events, YouTube.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.
Thanks for watching China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
Decouple from China.