After decades of abuse
Chinese people are finally saying
CCP Step Down
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
So today I’m going to talk about the recent protests in China. This is
something YouTube and Google hate. In fact, when I did a search for protests in China,
Google autocomplete tried to send me anywhere other than China.
This is ridiculous. Because it *also* didn’t show me results for protests in
Chipotle. $2 bucks just for a spoonful of mediocre guac? It’s time we rise up!
And of course YouTube has been demonetizing and age restricting our videos on the protests,
making sure people can’t find our videos and cutting off the ad revenue we need to operate.
So please, support our efforts to get this content out there by one—liking the
video and sharing it with people, since YouTube sure won’t do that.
And if you can, support us with as little as a dollar over on Patreon. Viewer support really is
the difference between China Uncensored carrying on or going out of business.
That’s pateron.com/chinauncensored.
Now one thing you’ll notice in any communist society is that the Communist Party always
tries to divide people. Make people afraid or distrustful of each other.
Boy, I’m sure glad politicians here in the United States don’t do that.
But that can’t even compare to what’s happened in China. The Communist Party
launched large scale political campaigns to get people to struggle against each other.
That fear and distrust then got solidified by an Orwelllian surveillance state and mass censorship.
Because if people could get together and talk,
they’d realize their real enemy isn’t each other, it’s the Chinese Communist Party.
And Chipotle.
But inside a culture of fear and distrust, even if you have misgivings about the Party,
you won’t dare share those feelings with anyone, not even your own family members.
So instead you talk about how much you love the Party. And everyone does
that and you wind up thinking there’s a cult of nationalism.
Even if under the surface, a lot of people hated the Party.
The CCP is basically the exact opposite of
Nickelback. Everyone says they hate them,
but in private, we all know that “Photograph” is a total banger.
But now, the word is out. And a lot of people are realizing, they aren’t alone.
I’ll tell you more, after this quick black screen which is where an ad is supposed to go.
Welcome back.
The word is out—people don’t like the Chinese Communist Party. Coincidentally, that was
almost the name of this channel.
I decided it was a little too long.
Here’s a clip of the recent protests with people shouting “CCP, Step down!”
That was a chant that came up in multiple protests around China recently.
The Chinese Communist Party doesn’t know what to say about that. Literally. Here’s Chinese
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijiang responding to a question from Reuters.
Given the widespread display of anger and frustration at the zero Covid policies
in recent days across China, is China thinking about ending it and if so when?
Oh, I’m sorry. You’re out of time. The
answer we were looking for was *literally any answer at all!*
But while the Party may be responding with silence, Chinese people throughout
the world have heard the message loud and clear—it’s not just me who’s angry.
Around the world, Chinese people have been joining in solidarity with protesters in China.
There have been protests in Australia,
Universities and cities across America.
And even in London, Paris, and Tokyo.
Yet funny enough, no protests in China, according to Google. Hmmmmm.
“Anti-government protests in China are stirring sympathetic activity
near Chinese diplomatic missions and on university campuses around the world,
adding an international dimension to a sensitive political moment.”
At the White House, protesters called for a Free China.
One professor at Columbia University told the Wall Street Journal,
“[Demonstrations] and posters on American campuses are not a deviation from public
opinion in China but an expression of a repressed public opinion.”
And that’s very important. This isn’t the opinion of a small number of people.
This is widespread throughout Chinese society, even in the Chinese diaspora.
This opinion is even more repressed and widespread than
the fact that Nickelback actually rocks. 50 million albums sold and
*everyone* hates them? I don’t think so.
And what’s especially interesting about the demonstrations by overseas Chinese students
is that these students are typically the ones who have benefited from Communist rule. Their
families profited from the regime, which is why they could afford to send their
children to American universities. It was always kind of thought they
had the greatest buy-in to the Chinese regime. These protests show otherwise.
It’s kind of like how if you grew up in an abusive home,
you don’t realize anything is wrong until you get out and see how horrified everyone
is when you tell what you think is a cute story from your childhood.
“What? Your parents didn’t also hang up pictures just
to cover the holes they punched in the drywall?”
And just because these students aren’t in China, doesn’t mean they aren’t taking a risk.
“Numerous studies have documented how Beijing’s intelligence gathering
and influence efforts followed them abroad.”
Turns out the monster from It Follows was based on an even scarier monster.
But it might be a bit easier to stand up knowing you’re not alone.
And this trend didn’t just begin with the recent protests.
Back in October, one man staged a lone protest in Beijing,
where he hung banners on a bridge calling for freedom and democracy.
And calling to remove Xi Jinping from office.
He’s become known as Bridge Man,
a reference to Tank Man.
And throughout China, people have been scrawling his message in bathrooms,
basically the only place in China without surveillance.
For now.
Then Chinese people abroad began doing it too.
Social media accounts have been set up documenting this global resistance
movement to the Chinese Communist Party. An organizer for one of them,
Citizens Daily CN, told the New York Times that it “made me feel, for the first time,
hopeful. In this era of oppressive silence, there’s anger in silence, hope in despair.”
You can tell how crappy the CCP is when
public bathrooms are seen as signs of hope instead of hypochondriac’s nightmares.
A Chinese student studying in London told the Times she cried
for hours after seeing the protest banners spread around the world.
“I thought to myself that there are many Chinese who also want freedom and democracy. But where
are you? Where can I find you? If we meet on the street, how can we recognize each other?”
Even if the Party does manage to squash the recent protest movement,
the cat is out of the bag. And now Chinese people know, it doesn’t matter if it's a
black cat or a white cat, if it hates the Chinese Communist Party, it’s a good cat.
And this cat’s obviously got their tongue.
And China Uncensored would not be possible without support from viewers like you—either
by liking and subscribing, sharing the show with friends and family,
or buying one of these awesome new West Taiwan travel posters from our merch
store. It makes a perfect Christmas gift. Buy them with the link below.
And of course, a special thanks to everyone who gives direct support on the crowd funding website
Patreon. Those are the fans I call the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army, who join us in the
fight against the Chinese Communist Party. As a thank you to them, I responded to their questions.
Today’s question comes from Mark E, “I keep seeing stories here and from the ADV guys
about the imminent collapse of the Chinese economy. Yesterday I saw a story that the
Russian economy is also on the brink. The EU is cutting food production and will likely
freeze this winter. The US economy is also in deep trouble. Is there anywhere safe? I don't see it.
I do like those guys over at ADV China. So yeah Mark, it is kind of crazy what we’re seeing. The
global economy seems to be in a big mess, after decades of what seemed like stability. Ultimately,
though, I think this is a long overdue course correction. Things are reverting back to 1999.
That’s the year the US and China signed a bilateral agreement to
get China into the World Trade Organization.
Essentially, China agreed to open its markets to
US companies in exchange for the US supporting their entry into the WTO.
It was part of a big push the Clinton administration was
making to normalize trade relations with China.
The following year, President Clinton asked Congress to pass a law granting China permanent
normal trade relations. You see, Congress had to vote on US trade relations with China every year,
because of China’s human rights issues. That was put in place after the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Granting China permanent normal trade relations meant that the US
would always give trade benefits to China, regardless of their human rights issues.
It was presented at the time as being “strongly in the US national interest.”
People were warned that the failure to grant this would undermine “reformers” in China.
After all, the Chinese leadership promised to liberalize the flow of information and provide
greater protection to intellectual property. Would they lie about that?
So Congress agreed to grant permanent normal trade relations with China and Bill Clinton
signed it into law, permanently delinking human rights from trade.
Then in 2001, with the help of the US, China got into the WTO.
This cascade of events was the start to a horrible trend in globalization. The West essentially sold
out its values in order to do business with authoritarian regimes like Russia and China.
And in the short term it was hugely profitable. Not for Detroit auto
workers of course. That’s part of the reason why Detroit today
looks worse than the dystopian future version of it in RoboCop.
The problems of being in bed with authoritarian regimes are coming to the forefront, though.
Covid showed us that maybe having America’s
medical supply chain be dependent on China wasn’t such a good idea.
And Europe’s dependence on Russian energy has certainly come back to bite it.
Who would have thought that murderous, corrupt,
pathological liars wouldn’t be the most reliable business partners.
This globalist world order is collapsing and that won’t be comfortable. But it was never
sustainable in the first place. What we’re seeing now is Western companies pulling out of China.
Europe is looking for energy alternatives that don’t rely on Putin. In a way,
I guess you could say we’re having a Great Reset. Hopefully this time we’ll make better decisions.
If you’d like to learn more about globalization,
check out the recent episode of our new gaming channel, How Street Fighter
Explains Globalization. Yes, that’s a real thing I’ve made. I’ll put a link below.
Thanks for your question and your support, Mark.
And thank you for watching.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.