It’s been a year of protests,
human rights abuses
and military madness.
These are the biggest China stories of 2019.
This is China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
2019 has been a big year for China.
The Chinese Communist Party is facing
unprecedented crises on all sides.
And the rest of the world is finally becoming aware of
the threat of the Chinese Communist Party...
or, at least some of the rest of the world is.
In other words, it’s been a good year for China Uncensored.
So join me as we take a look back at the 10 biggest China stories of 2019.
Number 10
The Chinese Communist Party celebrated
70 years of bloody rule over China
in the only way they knew how!
A massive military parade.
But it wasn’t just about terrifying Chinese people.
It was also about terrifying Americans.
For example, the H-6N Long-Range Bomber.
It can fire nuclear missiles that can hit the United States.
Worst birthday party ever.
Number 9
2019 was also the 30th anniversary...of nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Stop asking questions.
Actually, this was the year of a lot of anniversaries.
Besides the 30-year anniversary of the Tiananmen Square...
oopsie daisy,
it was the 60-year anniversary of the Communist Party’s
“liberation” of Tibet...
where they liberated people from their culture,
their religion, and their lives.
and it was the 20-year anniversary of when Falun Gong practitioners
went from quietly meditating,
To getting tortured for meditating.
And the 10-year anniversary of a crackdown on the Uyghurs in Xinjiang
after protests there.
It seems like the Communist Party
constantly needs a new group to persecute.
Who will win the coveted position in the next decade?!
Number 8
China’s Belt and Road is expanding.
No, I’m not talking about Xi Jinping’s waistline.
I’m talking about China’s allegedly trillion dollar investment plan,
also known as One Belt, One Road.
Mostly China invests in developing countries,
including lots of authoritarian regimes.
But this year the Chinese Communist Party
made inroads in the West.
Italy joined up.
So did New Zealand.
But will 2020 be the year that these countries discover
it was all One Belt, One Big Mistake?
Number 7
For decades US companies have been doing business with China.
This year, they got called out for it.
Big US tech companies have been the backbone
of the Chinese Communist Party’s Orwellian surveillance state.
Google, Apple, Hewlett Packard, IBM.
You name it.
“Microsoft has worked with a Chinese military-run university
on artificial intelligence research that could be used
for surveillance and censorship.”
Even MIT University was working with a Chinese company
specializing in AI facial recognition technology.
Thermo Fisher was selling DNA sequencers
directly to Chinese authorities in Xinjiang.
And worst of all, China seized control of gay dating app Grindr.
But now they have to give it back.
Number 6
The US China trade war enters its second year.
How shall I describe it?
"We're having a little spat with China."
Perfect.
The US has been hitting China with heavy tariffs.
The Chinese Communist Party has been trying to fight back,
by putting tariffs on American goods.
And while China can’t hit the US
with nearly as much as the US can hit China with,
China has targeted American farmers
in the hopes that will swing the 2020 US presidential elections.
In December, the US and China agreed to
a “Phase One” deal to reduce US tariffs,
and get China to buy agricultural goods.
But something tells me the trade war isn’t over yet.
What with China’s rampant intellectual property theft,
state-owned industries, and massive subsidies,
it’s hard to get the Communist Party to reform everything
it needs to reform to be on a level playing field with the US.
Some experts think this is all headed towards
the US economy decoupling from China.
Maybe we’ll have the answer in 2020.
Number 5
The US doubled down on its fight with Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
At the beginning of 2019,
the US charged Huawei with violating US sanctions on Iran.
As well as being in general a national security threat.
“It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information,
and it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage.”
Did I mention accusations Huawei is funded by the Chinese military?
At least according to the CIA.
And I trust the CIA.
This has served as the driving force for the US
encouraging countries around the world ditch Huawei.
There was also a US ban on certain Huawei products,
but it’s been delayed several times,
now until 2020.
So it looks like I’ll still have a job next year.
Number 4
With the trade war and attacks on Chinese state-backed companies,
it’s no wonder the Chinese economy isn’t doing so hot.
The Chinese regime has taken extreme measures to try to cope.
But a failing economy threatens the Chinese Communist Party’s
grip on power more than anything else.
The regime has managed to get away with insane human rights abuses,
mass surveillance, and ethnic cleansing by promising people,
hey, at least you have a shot at making some money, right?
When that’s no longer true, watch out.
Number 3
Speaking of human rights abuses,
an international tribunal ruled this year that yes,
China is killing innocent people for their organs.
“Some of the more than 1.5 million detainees in Chinese prison camps a
re being killed for their organs to serve a booming transplant trade
that is worth some $1 billion a year.”
According to the tribunal, the primary victims are Falun Gong practitioners.
Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual practice,
but the Chinese regime sees Falun Gong as an ideological threat—
just like anything else that people believe in.
Like I said earlier, the Party has been
persecuting Falun Gong practitioners since 1999.
That’s 20 years worth of organs.
And now it looks like the Uighurs might become
a big chunk of the unwilling organ “donors” as well.
Which brings us to...
Number 2
China has built concentration camps to ethnically cleanse the Uighurs.
Now the Chinese regime says these camps
are actually vocational training schools.
To help teach the mostly Muslim Uighurs
not to be religious extremists.
Which is why leaked internal memos about
these camps say to use the “organs of dictatorship,”
and show “absolutely no mercy.”
But if you ask Chinese authorities,
they’ll show you some Uighurs who seem
very happy with these camps.
“If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.”
That’s why so many Uighurs are lining up to go!
Escorted by police.
With shaved heads.
Handcuffed and blindfolded.
But after facing international condemnation,
the Chinese regime has good news.
All the Uighurs have graduated!
So no need to look into this anymore everyone.
Nothing to see here.
And finally Number 1
I’m sure you can guess.
The protests in Hong Kong.
The people of Hong Kong are revolting against
Chinese rule strangling their freedoms.
While the police of Hong Kong are simply revolting.
Six months of protests and the Hong Kong government
has failed to meet protesters’ demands.
But millions of Hongkongers have refused to back down.
And best of all, the Chinese regime is really, really worried
these protests will spill over to the rest of Mainland China.
Of course, most Americans didn’t hear much about it
until Houston Rockets manager Daryl Morey
tweeted his support for Hong Kong.
And then the NBA pressured him to delete it,
and then tried to distance itself from Hong Kong,
to avoid upsetting their Chinese partnerships—
which are worth about 4 billion dollars a year.
It ended up just making everyone mad at the NBA.
On the plus side,
now more Americans know about the protests in Hong Kong.
And the craziest part?
All the attention on Hong Kong has gotten Democrats,
Republicans and President Trump to all agree on something:
passing a law to support the Hong Kong protesters.
Now that’s a Christmas miracle to end the year on.
So those are the biggest China stories of the year!
Thank you for being with me through all of it.
Especially because YouTube is trying to run this show out of business.
All year long, almost every single episode we’ve done about Hong Kong,
and about half of all our other episodes,
have been instantly demonetized.
That means it’s really hard for us to make enough money
to pay our staff and studio costs.
Fortunately, thanks to viewers who contributed to China Uncensored
on the crowd funding website Patreon,
we’ve been able to continue to expose what
the Chinese Communist Party is doing.
So as a thank you to those fans,
the ones I call my 50-cent army,
I answer their questions at the end of these episodes.
The last question of the year comes from Benjamin Jull.
“What is the popular opinion of ordinary Chinese people
towards these proto-Orwellian surveillance systems?
Are they afraid of them or does it simply not have any effect on their lives.
As bad as it seems it could turn out to be a complete white elephant.”
That’s a good question.
There are so many surveillance cameras,
you might think people would just get used to them.
In one major Chinese city,
there’s a camera for every six people.
Many Chinese people have gotten used to it.
What choice do they have?
And this ties into a bigger question:
How do Chinese people feel about the CCP?
We recently spoke to a Chinese dissident living in America
who still has a network of connections inside Mainland China.
And he told us that inside China,
there’s widespread hatred of the Chinese Communist Party.
So maybe in 2020 or soon after,
we’ll really see some Hong Kong style protests
erupting in Mainland China.
Thanks for your question.
And thanks for watching.
If you’d like to give China Uncensored a belated Christmas gift,
join the China Uncensored 50 cent army
and contribute on patreon.
Have a blessed and safe new year.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you in 2020.