MrBeast goes East—to get some of that sweet, sweet Chinese money.
A Hong Kong court rules that Chinese property giant Evergrande is finished.
And China’s Ministry of State Security is warning people to
be wary of attractive foreigners. Obviously, they’re talking about me.
That and more on this week’s China news headlines. Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
This episode is sponsored by Surfshark. Whenever you go online,
you should be using a VPN like Surfshark to cover your tracks and protect your
identity. I’ll tell you more at the end. So if you’re watching this on YouTube right now,
there’s a good chance you’ve heard of the biggest YouTuber of all—
Me . You may have also heard of the second biggest YouTuber,
MrBeast.
According to VIDIQ, he’s got the second highest number of subscribers on all
of YouTube, and he’s in the top 100 channels for overall number of views.
But apparently that wasn’t enough for him, because now he wants to break into the China market.
Which is what they all say before waking up one day to find themselves morally bankrupt – and,
often, literally bankrupt, as well . MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson,
said: “We have an audience basically all over the world except China…I thought it would be cool
to start getting the content over to China.” Yeah, it would be cool. The only problem is,
what’s standing between you and a Chinese audience
is China’s Great Firewall . YouTube is banned in China.
To jump this hurdle, he uploaded his first video
to the Chinese video platform Billibili on January 22nd .
And apparently he didn’t realize what exactly he was dealing with,
because in his first video, he offered to give $25,000 to 10 people who follow him on Twitter .
Uh, did no one tell him Twitter’s banned in China? Of course, you can jump the firewall with a VPN,
but that’s technically illegal. So the first thing Mr. Beast did was something
that could get his Chinese viewers in big trouble with the Chinese Communist Party.
MrBeast is known for challenges, but I think he might have bitten off a
bit more than he can chew with the China market. I would like to think he’s just naive about China,
but it’s also possible he knows what he’s in for, and he’s willing to go all the way.
According to Fergus Ryan of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute,
“the map he uses of China [in his video] includes Taiwan”.
I wonder which tastes worse: the flavor of all those Chinese boots he’s licking,
Or his Mr. Beast Burgers. Mr. Beast should listen to Elon Musk,
since the whole China market thing really isn’t
working out for him right now . Nikkei Asia reported this week that
his electric car company, Tesla ,is facing even more entry bans in China than before.
“Sources told Nikkei Asia that a growing number of government affiliates,
local authority agencies, highway operators and even cultural and
exhibition centers have restricted Tesla cars from entering their premises since last year.”
And it’s not just because they’re more likely to burn to the ground than the Chinese economy.
The concern seems to be about the data that the cars can record, especially through
their cameras. The government is worried that that data is going to be used for espionage.
Or that’s just an excuse they’re using to
take down an American carmaker and boost its Chinese rivals.
Or hey, maybe a little of both. I’m sure China wouldn’t mind killing two birds with one stone.
And since Tesla isn’t doing so hot right now, and China makes up about 20% of its revenue,
I bet Elon is starting to regret putting so many of his eggs in the China basket right now.
Starting this year, Taiwan is extending its conscription time from 4 months to one year.
That means all eligible men will have to spend an entire year in the military.
This is actually going back to how it was before 2017,
when the KMT government started moving the military to an all-volunteer force.
A poll taken last year showed that over 70% of Taiwanese people supported
expanding the conscription time to one year. Probably because being forced into the army
for a year isn’t as bad as being forced into a Chinese labor camp for the rest of your life.
Now that’s all well and good, but I say Taiwan just needs to
pass a good ol’ 2nd amendment right to bear arms.
If it worked for Texas, it should work for Taiwan, too. You don’t see China trying to invade Houston,
do ya? Didn’t think so. Or do you?!
And after the break, China’s stock market is so bad, the government is taking over. The solution
to Communism is clearly more communism! Welcome back.
After Chinese stocks lost $6 trillion in 3 years, the Chinese government is stepping in.
Due to the massive loss, the government is trying to crack down on short-selling.
Short selling is when traders bet on the price of stock dropping.
Which seems like free money, since betting on the price of Chinese stock dropping is like betting
on the sun setting in the West or me coming up with a flawless analogy. It’s inevitable, baby.
They borrow shares at high prices, sell them to someone else at that price,
then wait for the price of the stock to drop, buy the same number of shares back,
and return them to the lender while pocketing the difference.
So will it work?
Well, according to Bloomberg, “If history is any guide,
these curbs are unlikely to give stocks a sustainable boost.”
The Chinese government tried doing something similar in 2015,
but it failed to actually keep stock prices from sliding long term.
I guess if you’re the CCP, though, doubling down on failed policies at
least makes it look like you’re doing something. Even though the sun is more
likely to set in the East before the CCP *stops* doubling down on
failed policies. Ohhhh, nailed it. And speaking of failed policies,
the government’s attempts to reign in the housing market just blew up in its face.
A Hong Kong court ordered arguably
China’s largest property developer, Evergrande, to liquidate its assets.
Evergrande couldn’t reach a deal with its overseas creditors,
and so a High Court in Hong Kong has decided the company should be dissolved.
However, this isn’t the end of the story.
Most of Evergrande’s assets are in mainland China.
And even though Hong Kong and China are a lot closer politically now,
it’s not clear if liquidators will have access to the company’s assets in mainland China.
Evergrande’s fall started at the end of 2021 when it failed to make payments to its creditors.
That came after the government limited lending to property developers to force
a correction in the housing market, which had been ballooning for years.
That set off a chain reaction of Chinese property developers defaulting on their loans.
As of last June, Evergrande had over $330 billion in liabilities, the largest
liability of any Chinese property developer. Ya hear that Mr. Beast?!That’s the China market!
And after the break, China warns people to be wary of very attractive spies.
Welcome back. If you meet a pretty girl
at a bar or a nightclub, you better think twice about making a move, because she may be a spy.
That’s what China’s Ministry of State Security is warning Chinese citizens,
saying foreign spies may be laying “exotic beauty traps”.
That’s why I haven’t been on a date in seven years. It’s not because I have no
game. It’s because I’m no sucker who’s gonna be tricked by a spy!
The MSS said on WeChat that a Chinese man named Li S,
who worked for a state-run company in China, was invited by a local tour guide…
…to an adult entertainment venue while overseas .
As he was *enjoying* himself, shall we say, men in uniform broke into the room and photographed
him.Then, they supposedly used that as blackmail to get him to turn over state secrets.
The MSS says he continued to send back state secrets even after he
got back to China—that is, until he was arrested.
You see, this is why state-run companies should only hire people with exhibition
fetishes. Then what would they have been able to threaten him with? A good time?
Is this a true story? Who knows!
I’m sure other countries use honey traps, just like China does.
But is there a greater threat now than before?
That’s hard to say. But what seems clear is that
Chinese leaders are getting more and more paranoid about foreign spies.
You know, like those foreign spies that drive around in Teslas vacuuming up China’s state
secrets? Odds are if someone’s in a Tesla, they’re not a spy… they’re just a pretentious douche.
China is also warning its citizens studying overseas about ‘interrogating and harassing’
treatment at Dulles airport near Washington, D.C..
“[China’s] embassy in Washington accused US authorities of ‘unwarrantedly’ interrogating,
harassing, canceling the visas of, and even deporting several students from China with
valid travel permits upon their arrival.” You know, it’s usually the case that whenever
China does shady stuff, it accuses its adversaries of doing it first.
So I wouldn’t be surprised if China has been trying to flood the US with spies,
and the US is starting to catch on.
Although there are a lot of holes in this story. Namely
considering how much of a mess the US’ immigration system is,
I doubt they’re capable of quickly deporting anyone.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for US-China relations.
The US and China held high-level talks in Thailand this week.
National Security advisor Jake Sullivan and Chinese Foreign minister Wang Yi discussed
Biden and Xi having another phone call meeting. You know,
at some point in the future . Which has to be the most high-paid
secretarial work there is. Going all the way to Thailand just to set up a phone call?
Let’s hope they got a good deal on airfare at least for this middle school-level relationship
building. What next? Are they gonna pass a note to their respective leaders that say
Do you like me? Yes or no?
Speaking of US China relations, though, China is finally helping the US with
its fentanyl problem. Awww, things are really looking up for US-China relations.
After Biden and Xi met in San Francisco last year ,
China agreed to resume working with the US
on controlling illegal fentanyl precursors coming into the US.
Reuters reported that since that agreement,
“The U.S. has already made fewer seizures of illicit chemicals used to make fentanyl
at U.S. airports after China moved to shut down companies that make them.”
Oh, so if it was that easy,
why didn’t China do that years ago when the opioid epidemic first started?
Normally I’d say better late than never, but when over 70,000 people
a year die of fentanyl overdoses in the US when China could have just turned off the tap,
this is one of those cases of better never than never.
So why the delay? Well that’s because China is doing this on purpose.
China likes to claim that the main problem is a demand issue in the US.
That’s why it says China doesn’t have the same problem—there’s just no market for fentanyl there.
But it’s become clear through this and other actions that China does
have control over the flow of fentanyl, and it’s just chosen not to stop it.
So I say we need to hold China’s feet to the fire —
Specifically Tesla fires —
rather than removing sanctions over China’s treatment of Uyghurs
just to get China’s pseudo help on stopping illegal fentanyl shipments.
Letting them get away with atrocities just so they *might* help with a drug epidemic they’re
actively causing? That kind of a deal would leave a worse taste in your mouth
than Mr. Beast Burgers.
Now there’s a video I want to show you about our old friend Karl Marx,
but first this episode is sponsored by Surfshark.
When you go online, everything you do is potentially compromised—unless
you’re taking active steps to protect yourself. No matter where you live, no matter what you do
online, you should always be keeping your internet activity private with a VPN like Surfshark.
Especially when you’re doing things like logging into your bank account
or credit card online. If you ever use shared wi-fi, you’re in danger.
Even low-rent hackers can steal your password, without you even knowing it.
And when you travel, especially overseas, you might need a VPN that makes it look like you’re
in your home country, just to log into your accounts. So it saves a huge potential hassle.
And you can install it on as many devices as you want—even on your Amazon Fire Stick. You know,
if you want it to appear like you’re logged in from a different country,
so you can access all the good Netflix shows that are geo-blocked.
So seriously, check out Surfshark.
Go to Surfshark dot com slash UNCENSORED to get up to 3 additional months for
free. That’s surfshark dot com slash UNCENSORED and use the code UNCENSORED.
The link is in the description.
And here’s that video I want to show you. It’s about what Marx got wrong about religion,
a controversial topic YouTube wouldn’t like, which is why I hid it in a video about Mass Effect.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.