China’s richest man is a Communist!
A top executive from Huawei gets arrested in Canada.
And finally,
the Pope’s deal with the devil has gone sour.
Who would’ve thought?
This is China Uncensored.
Welcome back to China Uncensored,
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
You know, as I always say,
just because you’re a communist,
doesn’t mean ya can’t make a little profit.
And that’s why I applaud Jack Ma.
The billionaire founder of Alibaba Jack Ma
was accidentally outed as a Communist Party member
by Party mouthpiece People’s Daily
in a list it published of “100 Chinese people
who had made extraordinary contributions
to the country’s development over the last 40 years.”
Now Ma had always been a bit vague about
his relationship with the Communist Party.
In fact, Ma even gave the advice to his employees
that when dealing with the government,
“Love them, don’t marry them.”
Easier said than done.
I’d be his Christopher Robin any day.
Now as a Party member,
Jack Ma would be required to put
the Party’s interests above all else.
And of the Party’s interest, is interest!
Party members have to pay Party dues—2%.
And since Ma is worth over 35 billion dollars,
that’s a lot Party interest.
Ma isn’t alone.
“A recent survey found that one-third
of China’s private-sector entrepreneurs
are party members.”
The question is, why did Jack Ma get outed now?
Earlier this year,
Jack Ma announced he was retiring as Alibaba CEO,
leading many to speculate he was being forced out by the Party.
Which I get.
The only thing more common than a rich Communist,
is a purged Communist.
And in Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign,
a lot of people who used to be untouchable have been taken down.
Though typically the way it works is
you don’t go for the big guy,
you go for smaller people and work your way up.
So I wouldn’t worry too much about Ma.
Unless lower level guys in Alibaba were getting arrested and...
Oh.
Well, stay tuned to China Uncensored for updates.
Speaking of rich Chinese people,
the CFO of Chinese tech giant Huawei has been arrested in Canada.
Her name is Meng Wanzhou.
She’s the daughter of Huawei’s founder.
The US wants to extradite her to face charges in New York.
She’s suspected of violating US trade sanctions
by shipping US-made items to Iran.
Canadian authorities apparently nabbed her
while she was transferring flights at the Vancouver airport.
Which is why you should always fly nonstop.
Meanwhile, in Australia,
a well placed member of parliament
turned out to have some pretty shady connections
to the Chinese Communist Party.
This is West Australia’s Labor MP Pierre Yang.
He said that when he was filling out
his parliamentary register of interests—
he “overlooked” declaring his memberships
in the Northeast China Federation Inc
and the Association of Great China.
He even was a legal adviser
for those groups until August 2017,
several months after his parliamentary term
started in May of 2017.
The problem is,
both of those organizations
are linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
And this follows a disturbingly similar pattern of the Party
getting people who share its interests into
the Australian government and society.
And not everyone in the Australian government
believes that Yang merely overlooked his membership.
“I find Mr Yang's excuse that he ‘overlooked’ his membership
of two associations which promote the foreign policy interests
of the Chinese Government to be highly improbable.
All incoming members of Parliament are briefed
by the clerks about their disclosure responsibilities.”
It’s even less likely since he was
the Government’s whip in the Legislative Council.
So he should have known the laws.
Now, West Australia’s Premier Mark McGowan
has says he vouches for Yang’s character.
But recently, two other Australian government officials
were revealed to have connections to the same group.
Over the last two years,
more and more evidence has come out that
the Chinese Communist Party is trying to influence
politics in Australia.
But I mean, I understand.
Chinese money is very tempting.
And no one knows that better
than Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
While the rest of the European Union
is scrutinizing Chinese investment,
China’s Belt and Road initiative has found support in Portugal.
And when Chinese leader Xi Jinping came to visit this week,
president de Sousa was literally drooling over Chinese money.
Let’s see that again.
But it’s not just Australia and Europe
the Chinese Communist Party is trying to influence.
According to this new report
from top China experts in the United States,
Beijing is trying to do the same in the US.
The report says, “While Americans are well acquainted with
China’s quest for influence through the projection of diplomatic,
economic, and military power,
we are less aware of the myriad ways Beijing
has more recently been seeking cultural and informational influence,
some of which could undermine our democratic processes.”
The goal is to not only
“redefine China’s place in the world as a global player,
but they also have put forward the notion of a ‘China option’
that is claimed to be a more efficient developmental model
than liberal democracy”
I mean, I’ve only been saying that for the past six years.
And they didn’t cite me at all.
But hey, it’s cool.
But even as China tries to influence America,
it’s still the US that brings home the bacon.
China is suffering from a severe case of swine flu.
This little piggy went to market,
this little piggy stayed home,
and this little piggy became patient zero and had to be shot.
Now even though China has put tariffs on US pork
as retaliation for the trade war,
China is dealing with a major shortage of pork.
And Chinese people love pork.
The written character for family is literally a pig in a home.
China imported almost 10 thousand tons of American pork
just for the week of November 22.
“This represents a 72 percent share of all
U.S. pork export deals during that week.”
Although it makes sense when you realize the pork shortage
could also be due to the large number of Uighur Muslims
under surveillance who now love eating pork.
Twitter is banned in China,
but that hasn’t stopped some Chinese netizens
from having personal Twitter accounts.
But recently,
Chinese Twitter users have been invited to tea with police,
and then forced to close their accounts.
The good news is, this ban does not include
the Twitter accounts belonging state-run media,
like China Daily, People’s Daily,
Xinhua, Global Times, and CGTN.
And finally, hey Vatican,
you know how you made that deal with the Chinese Communist Party
that has been persecuting Christians since, like the beginning?
It might have been a bad idea.
In September, Pope Francis agreed to recognize 7 bishops
appointed by the officially atheist Chinese Communist Party.
In exchange,
the Party said it would recognize the authority of the Vatican.
Well, guess what?
The Party lied.
And now one of the bishops the Pope appointed
has been “disappeared.”
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal.
You know I feel like I get to use that clip a lot on this show.
Look, I know the Pope is a Liberation Theologist,
which is sort of a synthesis between
Christian theology and Marxism.
But it seems the Vatican is learning the hard way
that a deal with the Communist Party
might just be a deal with the devil.
What do you think?
Leave your comments below.
And before you go,
now is the time when I answer questions from fans
who support China Uncensored
on the crowd funding website Pateron..
Evan Rillera Marsh asks,
“Hey Chris, Is china uncensored biased?
Are there any rules you guys use
when making videos to try and minimize bias?”
Of course I’m biased!
I’m biased in favor of freedom,
and against authoritarian regimes
lying and killing their own citizens.
But this is a good question, Evan.
Even when you’re biased like me,
it’s important to look at all the facts.
But that doesn’t mean giving equal weight
to the side that always lies.
The Chinese Communist Party says
there is no human rights problem in China.
That’s a lie.
The Chinese Communist Party says it lifted
millions of people out of poverty.
That’s another lie.
And I prefer to directly tell you when someone is lying,
rather than hide behind language
that gives equal weight to both sides.
That being said, on China Uncensored,
we strive to be rigorous with our facts.
We can back up any claim we make.
And when some other media get things wrong,
like the reporting on China’s social credit system,
we do our best to make sure we tell the whole story.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re infallible
and we never make mistakes.
But we do our best.
Also, if you ever see a mistake on China Uncensored,
just know that the person who made the mistake was not me.
It was my producer, Matt.
And we’re able to keep doing what we do
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So thanks for your question, Evan.
And if you’d like to support China Uncensored,
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Link is below or on the endscreen.
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
Once again I’m your host Chris Chappell.
See you next time.