China sends a record number of warplanes near Taiwan.
Covid is getting really bad
And the Biden administration is getting tougher on China.
That and more in this week’s China News Headlines
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
Since YouTube has been demonetizing us so much, we decided to start a brand new
channel called Gamers Unbeaten. We use video games as cover to talk about controversial,
geopolitical issues. Check out our latest treatise on love, using Minecraft. Link is below.
Earlier this week, China sent 71 warplanes and 7 ships toward Taiwan in a 24 hour-span.
That’s a new record.
Most of those planes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait. That’s the line halfway
between the two countries. Which China is ignoring, because from their perspective,
why respect a border with a province that’s been part of China since ancient times?
Of course, Taiwan is not actually a province of China. Which is why
China feels they need to invade it. And they weren’t subtle about their latest threat.
China is as good at being subtle as Ray Charles was
at being a pilot.) I’d still rather fly with him than Southwest, though.
A People’s Liberation Army spokesman called sending over those fighter
jets “a firm response to the current U.S.-Taiwan escalation and provocation.”
The “escalation and provocation” is the US passing the latest National Defense Authorization Act.
Among many other military provisions,
it allows the US to lend Taiwan up to $2 billion to buy American defense equipment.
The Act also suggests that Taiwan be allowed to join upcoming military exercises, known as RIMPAC.
Those exercises will include the US and around 8 to 10 other countries.
If you think that’s crazy, get this:
As recently as 2016, the US had included China’s People’s Liberation Army in RIMPAC.
That’s right. The US invited the military from a country that sees
itself as actively at war with the US, on joint military exercises.
It’s a sign of how much things have changed,
that in 2018, the US dis-invited China. And now starting in 2023, the US may invite Taiwan.
Speaking of Taiwan and the military...
Taiwan has extended its mandatory military service in response to China’s increasing aggression.
The Chinese military has gotten bolder over the past few years, sending more and more
aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, and making more and more direct threats.
They’ve become more bold than the last broken chips in the bottom of a bag of Doritos Cool
Ranch. You know, the ones covered in all that cool ranch dust. That’s bold!
In response, Taiwan is now increasing the length of mandatory military service:
from four months to one year. It applies to all men, and it’s optional for women.
This military service will also include more rigorous weapons training, among other things.
President Tsai Ing-wen said, “Peace will not fall from the sky,” and that “Only by
preparing for war can we avoid war, and only by being able to fight can we stop war.”
The change doesn’t take effect until 2024. So I guess they’re
counting on that Chinese invasion not happening for a couple more years.
Which is like seeing a leak through a hole in your ceiling and thinking, “Eh,
we can probably wait on fixing that. What are the odds it’ll rain in the next few years?”
Speaking of countering threats from the Chinese regime:
The Biden administration is reversing decades of Chinese trade policy.
It’s what the Biden administration calls the “protect agenda.”
Because some agendas attac, and other protec.
Earlier this year, Biden enacted rules
that restrict China’s access to US microchip technology.
Those rules “will soon be followed by...a new federal authority to
regulate U.S. investments in China.” It’s the first time
the federal government will exert that kind of power over American industry.
Biden may also issue an “an executive order to limit the ability of Chinese
apps like TikTok to collect data from Americans.”
These sound like great moves to counter the Chinese regime. Although the details on the
last two things are still up in the air, so it's not clear how strong they’ll be.
But if you’re thinking, “Is it really *Biden* who’s reversing decades of
Chinese trade policy?” You’re right. It’s not.
I knew something seemed off. That’d be like hearing a plane was landed by
Ray Charles. Are we sure he didn’t just co-pilot?
Starting around 2018, it was *Trump* who really did a U-turn on China trade
policy—shifting from a Bill Clinton era view of putting international trade above all else,
into a new policy of “wait a sec, the Communist Party is actually a serious threat to America.”
Under Trump, tariffs and other restrictions on China were called anti-trade, even racist.
Because everything Trump did was considered racist. Even the Space Force.
You know, since space is black, and Trump wanted to colonize it.
But when Biden takes things in the same direction, there’s a lot less blowback.
“We’re not so different, you and I.”
And after the break...Covid is getting really bad in China. But you won’t know it,
since it’s being covered up. Again.
Welcome back.
I told you last week how the Chinese Communist Party has reversed its Zero Covid policy, and
began to open up the country—telling people they can leave their homes now...and GET BACK TO WORK!
Oh, just because we barricaded you in your homes for so long that people starved,
you think that’s an excuse not to work? Why is this generation so lazy?
This policy reversal also means Chinese people are rushing to book travel as the borders reopen.
International travel from China had been almost banned for most Chinese citizens. And
even if they could travel, there were barely any flights and tickets were outrageously expensive.
Now Chinese citizens who want to travel internationally can apply for passports
again starting January 8. But that doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily get to travel *anywhere*.
Japan is requiring negative Covid tests on arrival for travelers from China.
So is Italy, after they found nearly half of the
passengers on two different planes from China to Milan all had Covid.
Italy’s also going one step further by sequencing those tests to check for new Covid variants.
Italy might have some Covid PTSD, since they were one of the first countries outside China to be hit
hard by Covid in early 2020. They were also one of the first countries to implement lockdowns.
Other countries that have implemented new testing
requirements for travelers from China include India and Taiwan.
And the US is also now requiring travelers from China to show a negative Covid test before flying.
That includes people traveling from Hong Kong,
Macau, and popular transfer points like Seoul, Toronto, and Vancouver.
“American officials say this is due to a lack of transparency
surrounding the virus in China, as cases surge.”
So how is the Chinese Communist Party responding to all of this?
Oh by claiming Covid is under control in China and accusing
Western media of distorting its policy changes.
That’ll reassure people about China’s transparency!
I can understand the US government’s
concerns—especially about lack of transparency in China.
And since, you know… we all lived through 2020. It’s not so much that the Chinese Communist
Party is lying. It’s that they know we all know they’re lying, and they do it anyway.
It’s almost like they don’t respect us.
While Chinese officials continue to claim there have been only a handful
of deaths across the entire country, evidence to the contrary is piling up.
And by piling up, I mean literally *piling up.*
This is a mortuary at Shanghai Oriental Hospital on Tuesday.
And in Shenyang, one funeral home ran out of space and
began using this warehouse to store extra bodies.
There are many, many more videos like this.
So things are probably a bit worse than Chinese officials want to admit.
It’s basically 2020 all over again. Remember, in January 2020, the virus
was already spreading rapidly in China, but officials claimed it was nothing to worry about.
In fact, it was “preventable and controllable”!
When it comes to coverups, at least the Communist Party is consistent.
Consistent at making sure we’re all going to need to cover up. Again.
And even if the mortality rate for Covid is low, a lot of people are getting sick.
Emergency services are 'overwhelmed' as the latest Covid wave sweeps the country.
“Emergency rooms are turning away ambulances,
relatives of sick people are searching for open beds, and patients are slumped
on benches in hospital corridors and lying on floors for lack of beds.”
One doctor in Beijing says the situation is worse than anything he’s seen in decades.
And it’s not just affecting people with Covid. People who need any
kind of emergency services are affected by crowded hospitals.
This is all such a repeat of 2020 I’m expecting to hear that
Andrew Cuomo somehow found a way to murder thousands more grandparents.
And still not face any consequences for it.
Meanwhile, Chinese state-run media insists that everything is fine,
and that China has the necessary conditions for shifting away from its Zero Covid policy.
This article even comes with a clever cartoon of a panda defeating a giant virus,
saying “I am stronger and you are weaker.”
Yes, the strategy of lying worked out really well in 2020, didn’t it?
Although with this being the CCP, I wouldn’t be surprised if this literally ends up with
them infecting pandas with Covid. Great strategy, guys.
And finally, some good news in China. Maybe.
Baidu—which is like China’s Google—is expanding
its driverless taxi service in China to include night time rides.
Which is surprising, because I didn’t know they even had driverless *daytime* rides.
This is like finding out they made a Titanic Part Three. I… think you skipped a step there.
Baidu’s program had started in August this year.
Baidu began offering robotaxi rides at the same price as regular taxi rides.
Which is a good deal for anyone who likes the convenience of taxis,
and hates having to actually talk to a human driver.
I just hope robots never try getting me to listen to their mixtape.
That’s a worse future than one where they just enslave us.
A big reason driverless cars haven’t been rolled out in other countries,
though, is safety concerns. But maybe this program in China could pave the way.
And when has anything from China ever spread around the world and
caused problems? And now it’s time for me to answer a question from a
China Uncensored fan who directly supports us by contributing on Patreon or Locals.
Sharp Farmer on Patreon asks: “To what degree do you think these are investors actually expecting
returns vs. getting cash from new suckers so that they can sell off their own lemons and get out of
the Chinese economy? If I were a slimy investor with any sense, that's exactly what I'd be
doing - so are they just not seeing that the time for playing along with the CCP messaging is over?”
This is in response to a recent episode about how “woke” investors are putting money
into so-called ESG investments. That stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance.
But a lot of that money is going into China,
a country with some of the world’s worst environmental, social, and governance issues.
It’s like someone trying to invest in gun control by donating to the NRA.
And you ask a good question, Sharp Farmer.
The problem is that a lot of people are willing to put their money into something they’re told is
“good”, without doing their own research on where that money is actually going. Yes, we feel good
about ourselves. But it doesn’t mean the money will support the things we intend it to support.
Big investment funds take advantage of this. Maybe not maliciously, but at least carelessly.
“China is making lots of solar panels? Invest!” And it’s easier to just look the other way when
it comes to the environmental footprint of using coal to power the Chinese factories
that are making the solar panels. Or the ethnic slave labor being used to build them.
The greenest thing about these solar panels is the money used to bribe local officials.
Basically, no matter what Chinese industry you put money into, it’s not going to meet what
most people think of as ESG. And even if you only care about profits, really anything could
happen to the Chinese economy at this point, so putting money into China is a big risk.
So why do people keep doing it? I guess it’s because not enough people have been
watching me scream into the void about this for the past ten years.
Thanks for your question.
And thank you to everyone who contributes to
China Uncensored through the crowdfunding website Patreon,
or our exclusive social media platform Locals.
Your contributions are what help us keep making this show.
So at least *that’s* a good use of your money.
I’m Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.