Putin made a major mistake in his interview with Tucker Carlson. And now China is at his throat.
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
Tucker Carlson interviewed Vladmir Putin
and it backfired bigtime. Because China was watching.
“The hashtag ‘Putin gave the first interview to an American journalist
in two years’ trended on Weibo, reaching sixth spot and being viewed over 36 million times.”
And China wasn't too impressed with Putin’s view of history. And it will
drive a terrible wedge between China and Russia.
I’ll tell you why in a moment so keep watching, but first, big picture,
The Carlson Putin Interview
was largely about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Officially, China doesn’t support or condemn the invasion.
But we do know China has been funneling enough gear to Russia to equip an army.
“China, despite Beijing’s calls for peace, is pushing right up
to a red line in delivering enough nonlethal, but militarily useful,
equipment to Russia to have a material impact on President Vladimir Putin’s…war on Ukraine.”
China even asked Russia to delay the invasion till it was done hosting the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In fact right before the invasion, both countries issued a statement saying,
“Friendship between the two States has no limits, there are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation.”
But despite all the talk,
Russia and China relations are a powder keg.
And Putin’s interview may have been the spark that sets it off.
I’ll tell you how in a moment.
But you know, there are a lot of different perspectives on Russia. And when it comes
to the news, you want to make sure you’re getting all sides of the story.
And I used Ground News, our long time sponsor,
to do this. For example, when I search Vladimir Putin,
I instantly have access to over 10,000 articles
from all over the world—including sources right out of Russia itself.
You can check it out at ground dot news slash China. The link is in the description.
This story caught my attention: Putin told Tucker Carlson that Bill Clinton agreed that Russia could
join NATO, but then changed his mind. And it’s actually what Ground News calls a “blindspot.”
As you can see, that story is being covered only by the right.
And even right wing media narratives differ depending on where they’re coming from. Most
of these article headlines emphasize Clinton’s claim, while Russia’s TASS seems to blame the US.
And this kind of thing is why I use Ground News. It’s on a mission to hold the media accountable
and provide context so we can see how media narratives can easily shape public opinion.
It’s a great place to go if you want to be more informed than the average
newsreader and find multiple perspectives that you might otherwise have missed. And
it’s also just really important to see all the hidden biases in the media.
And that’s why we’re working with Ground News to sponsor this video,
because we believe what they’re doing is important.
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So there is this veneer of friendship between Russia and China.
Xi Jinping even gave Putin, I kid you not, a friendship medal.
And Putin tried to pay lipservice to that friendship by spreading some pro-China lies,
that unfortunately Tucker Carlon didn’t pick up on.
Putin says the US is only hurting itself by limiting cooperation with China.
It is to your own detriment, Mr Tucker,
that you are limiting cooperation with China, you are hurting yourself.
Nope.
China’s unfair trade practices have gutted American manufacturing,
rampant IP theft costs the 600 billion a year
China’s drug war against the US is killing about 70 thousand American a year
Not to mention that when American companies do business with China,
They become implicated in crimes against humanity.
Apple, Nike and Coca-Cola were just a few of the companies
reportedly lobbying Congress to weaken Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Bill,
I don’t think limiting America’s cooperation with China is really hurting the US.
That’s why so many US businesses are fleeing China.
But according to Putin, China’s economy is just too strong to ignore.
Vladimir Putin: The West is afraid of a strong China…its economy is growing
by leaps and bounds — over five percent a year.
Actually China’s economy is worse than it's been in decades.
The real estate market, that makes up about a third of China’s GDP is collapsing.
And they just had a 7 trillion dollar stock market crash.
Yes. Trillion.
And when Tucker does challenge Putin (Corner Box interview) on
the Chinese Communist Party’s aggression, here’s what Putin says.
We have heard those boogeyman stories before. It is a boogeyman story.
Why is it a boogeyman story?
China's foreign policy philosophy is not aggressive,
its idea is to always look for compromise, and we can see that.
China’s foreign policy is highly aggressive. That’s a lie, and what’s more, Putin knows
it. Because despite appearances, things aren’t so rosy between China and Russia.
And one of the examples Putin gives of why China and Russia get along,
is actually the perfect example of why China and Russia do not get along.
Play the clip.
We are neighbors with China. You cannot choose neighbors,
just as you cannot choose close relatives. We share a border of 1000 kilometers with them.
Boy, Putin’s going to regret using that as
an example. I’ll tell you why after this commercial break.
Welcome back.
So Putin says that because China and Russia can share a long border,
it's totally possible to have friendly cooperative relations with China.
Here’s how the Chinese reacted to Putin’s interview.
It has to do with the port city of Vladivostok
It actually used to belong to China. They called it Hǎishēnwǎi.
But they were forced to give it tsarist Russia in 1860,
as part of one of the many unequal treaties China signed with the West.
And since Putin made such a big deal about Russia’s historical claims to Ukraine,
that rose the eyebrows of some Chinese netizens
This Chinese internet, using a VPN to access X said, "According to history,
Russia should return us Vladivostok and vast territory stolen 100-something years ago,"
The debate over Vladivostok is very much alive and well right now.
Despite China and Russia’s so called no limits friendship
earlier this year, China released a new official map, that not only upped the 9
dash line to a 10 dash line, claiming more territory in the south china sea,
But also Vladivostok.
But some netizens went further.
Another use of Weibo, China’s version of, I guess I should say X now, wrote, “Going further afield,
today's Mongolia and Russian Siberia were both territories
of China in the Tang Dynasty with its capital in Xi'an.”
Now the Tang Dynasty dates back to the 7 century, but hey, that’s how history works
according to Putin!
Which is why I loved that a former President of Mongolia
made a very interesting observation about the size of the former Mongolian empire.
Somehow I doubt Putin would approve of that historical reading.
Zichen Wang, a former Chinese state media journalist, said,
“historically some place belongs to somewhere can mean very little. why must we refer to the
8th or 13th century but not 220 BC? we live in the present day with laws, not 8th century.”
Now apply that to China’s claims in the South China Sea.
But with Putin’s historical claims to territory
Russia China troubles are going to boil over.
China is expanding its influence in Central Asia, Russia’s backyard. These are all former Soviet
countries. Independent now. Just like…Ukraine.
These countries are terrified they’re next.
And so China is stepping in to woo Central Asia.
China is now Central Asia’s largest trading partner.
Official data puts Chinese trade at $70 billion in 2022, compared to Russia’s less than $40 billion.
And China is currently involved in more than 90 industrial projects across the region.
Russia sees what China is doing. They’re trying to match China’s
investment but with the Ukraine war dragging out, they can’t keep up.
So with both China and Russia playing the same historical claim to territory,
it's only a matter of time before they butt heads in a very big way.
But if I were Putin, I wouldn’t worry. After all…
China's foreign policy philosophy is not aggressive,
Now I’ve got a video I want to show you about Communist infiltration in the US,
but first, check out this episode’s sponsor, Ground News.
Ground News is a great tool to help you stay well informed about what’s happening
in the world—and how it’s being covered by all sides of the political spectrum.
Check it out at ground dot news slash china or click the link below.
And here’s that video I want to show you. One of the ways Communists takeover a society is by
destroying its culture and history—particularly its heroes. This is happening in the US.
Statues of George Washington have been defaced.
But there’s also a new game out called Kill the Justice League.
What does it mean when Superman, Mr. Truth, Justice, and the American way,
turns evil and criminals have to kill him? I talk about all this in the latest episode
of my new show Deep Thoughts While Gaming. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.