On this episode of China Uncensored,
we look back at the year
that made China great again.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m your host, Chris Chappell.
Congratulations!
We’ve made it through 2017
without a single nuclear war.
You can breathe a sigh of relief.
Although, there’s still a couple days left...
Hope I didn’t just jinx it for everyone.
Anyway, so many things happened in 2017,
that we constantly forgot what happened last week,
let alone last January.
But don’t worry,
I’m here to help.
Together, we shall relive
the ten biggest China stories of the year
in all of their glory.
Starting with...
Number 10
The China-India border conflict
Back in June, India and China came close to war
over a border dispute...
again.
The Chinese regime loves
a good old-fashioned border conflict.
After all,
so much of the world has been a part of China
since ancient times,
that border disputes just
come with the territory.
This conflict was over this piece of land in Bhutan,
the Doklam Plateau.
China was building a road through it,
roads that India is afraid could be used
to move Chinese troops into India someday.
So India was only too happy to send troops in,
you know, to help their friends in Bhutan.
That led to a military standoff with China that lasted 74 days.
Ultimately the status quo prevailed.
But there was plenty of time for Indian media
to make some pretty cool animations.
Number 9
Guo Wengui
The mysterious Chinese billionaire
stormed onto the scene earlier this year,
with an 82 million dollar Manhattan condo,
his own YouTube channel
and an endless stream of thirsty workout videos on Twitter.
Guo began revealing all the secrets of China’s elite—
using confusing conspiracy-
type diagrams on Twitter.
Wow, that is...convincing.
And so helpful.
The Chinese regime even tried to extradite Guo,
and got Interpol to post a red notice for him.
Now far be it for me to criticize someone
for using the internet to criticize CCP members.
But, surprise!
It’s more complicated than that.
Guo has been exposing officials linked to Xi Jinping.
But there are indications that Guo is actually
closely linked to China’s spy network,
and that he’s mainly interested in destabilizing
cronies of Xi, like Wang Qishan.
Guo may be connected to a political faction
within the CCP that’s tied to former Chinese leader
and mass murderer Jiang Zemin.
As Guo said once:
“Over the past 20-30 years,
without Jiang Zemin,
China couldn’t achieve today’s accomplishments...
In China today,
Jiang Zemin holds 80% of the power.”
So it’s unclear whether Guo Wengui is a dissident
trying to expose real problems inside China,
or whether he’s mainly interested in
taking down political rivals.
But one thing’s for sure:
We’re going to be seeing a lot more of Guo in 2018.
And probably still in vertical video.
Number 8
Hong Kong goes Wrong
2017 marked the 20th anniversary
of the British handover of Hong Kong
to the Chinese Communist Party.
Part of that agreement was that Hong Kong
gets to keep the freedoms it enjoyed
under British rule,
freedoms denied in Mainland China
for at least 50 years.
Well 20 years is almost 50 years, right?
Because those freedoms are on the way out!
A British citizen was denied entry.
Democratically elected lawmakers
critical of the Chinese Communist Party
were purged.
And student activists were jailed.
And let’s not forget that in mainland China,
you can now be sent to prison for three years
for disrespecting the national anthem.
That law is coming soon to a Hong Kong near you.
Wow that was depressing.
Moving on to...
Number 7
A bad year for dissidents
To be fair,
every year is a bad year for dissidents in China.
But this year there were a lot of cases
that got media attention.
Taiwanese rights activist Lee Ming-che
was abducted by Chinese police
while visiting mainland China
earlier in the year
and was just sentenced to five years in jail.
Also hit for subversion,
Chinese rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong.
Another Chinese lawyer,
Gao Zhisheng, disappeared...
Only to finally reappear again…
in police custody.
And international headlines were made
when Chinese dissident
and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Liu Xiaobo was released from prison—
and then almost immediately died.
It was from cancer.
Totally unrelated to all the years of abuse in prison.
You see, “Rights groups say
a pattern has emerged in recent years
where China releases activists from prison
in poor health,
or only weeks before they pass away.”
When really,
we should be thanking the CCP
for allowing dissidents to be tortured in prison
instead of just getting shot,
like in the old days.
See?
That’s...more cheerful.
Number 6
Forced evictions
The poor migrant workers
who flocked to Beijing over the last decade
helped fuel China’s economic growth.
And the Communist Party is looking out for them.
After a fire broke out in a shoddy building
in a migrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Beijing,
Chinese police were quickly on the scene...
throwing everyone out into the sub zero weather
with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
You know,
In the name of fire safety.
It absolutely had nothing to do with
Beijing’s population control plan
that was announced just a few months before.
Or that the land is worth big bucks
to real estate developers.
The forced evictions caused a huge outcry within China,
despite the Chinese regime’s desperate attempts
to censor all news about it.
And for some reason,
Chinese authorities also felt it was necessary
to shut down donations and charity people
were trying to give to the evicted migrants.
And this was just the tip of the iceberg.
Which brings us to…
Number 5
Kindergarten Abuse
RYB kindergarten has been accused of
stabbing kids as young as three with needles,
feeding them mysterious pills,
even sexual abuse.
Now some of those accusations may be false.
At least according to Chinese police
and state-run media.
But the Chinese regime also decided
this was another scandal
worthy of massive censorship.
This, combined with the migrant evictions
happening at the same time,
made this the most censored couple of weeks
in the whole year.
The kindergarten abuse scandal was different
in that it affected China’s upper middle class.
The ones who are supposed to be safe
from all the corruption under the Chinese regime
because they keep their heads down,
don’t talk about politics,
and stick to making money.
Cleaning up this mess won’t be as easy
as bulldozing a bunch of migrant homes.
Ok, how about something happy...ish.
Number 4
US-China Bromance
It’s hard to believe,
but Donald Trump has only been president
for less than a year.
And in that time,
he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping
have created a great relationship.
It all began with a meeting
at Trump’s pleasure palace in Xanadu back in April.
And yes, the cake was amazing.
“I was at the table, we had finished dinner,
we were now having dessert,
and we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake
that you have ever seen.”
Since then the relationship has only blossomed.
“A relationship with you and China
is a very important one to me.”
Especially when Trump visited China in November.
He got the star treatment.
They watched home movies together,
perused ancient artifacts,
and politely sat through a Peking opera.
President Trump even became the first foreign leader
to dine in the Forbidden City.
But are they really the best of friends,
or is there maybe something more to relationship?
That brings us to…
Number 3
Nuking it out with North Korea
The Chinese regime is none too happy with
its nuclear neighbor to the northeast.
For years, China acted as the go-between
for the Kim Dynasty and the rest of the world.
It worked great!
Until
North Korea decided it didn’t want to play
by Beijing’s rules.
Not only North Korea do its
largest-ever nuclear test in September,
along with 16 ballistic missile tests this year alone,
Kim Jong-un also sent assassins to kill
his half brother Kim Jong-Nam.
He was the guy the Chinese regime
ultimately wanted in charge of North Korea.
And each Communist regime used their state-run media
to slam the other.
Of course the Chinese Communist Party
isn’t the only one upset at Kim Jong-un.
“Rocket man is on a suicide mission
for himself and his regime.”
Which is exactly what the Chinese regime is afraid of:
US military action on the Korean peninsula.
Not only would that mean US troops
get a little too close for comfort;
that would also mean a collapse of the Kim dynasty
and a flood of North Korean refugees into China.
So President Trump has been pressuring China
in the best way he knows how...
with Twitter!
And maybe if China helps
by putting more sanctions on North Korea,
Trump will look the other way with that whole
“labeling China a currency manipulator” thing.
And it seems Trump’s plan to use
his bromance with Xi Jinping
has worked to an extent.
The Chinese regime,
North Korea’s largest trading ally,
has placed tougher sanctions on North Korea.
But the Chinese regime
doesn’t want to push too hard.
Or else it could lead to the collapse of North Korea,
and the very same refugee problem.
But at least we’ve averted nuclear war!
So far!
Number 2
The Land Down Under
The Chinese regime has been buying influence
in political and social circles around the world,
and this year,
Australia became the Foster’s-drinking
canary in the coal mine.
This is from June.
“A joint investigation by a team of journalists
from Four Corners and Fairfax Media
has exposed a concerted campaign
by the Chinese government and its proxies,
to infiltrate the Australian political process
to promote its own interests.”
The Chinese regime sent people
to infiltrate universities,
local community groups,
media,
and political leaders.
Yeah, how dare a country
send criminals to Australia!
In response,
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
announced an overhaul to espionage
and intelligence laws.
And finally, Number 1
The Era of Xi Jinping Thought
The United States Constitution is all about
basic human rights
and checks and balances on government power.
The Chinese Communist Party’s constitution
is pretty much the same.
Only instead of basic human rights,
it guarantees the right of the Communist Party
to rule over all.
And instead of checks and balances,
it’s more about which leader
has checked their opponent
and knocked them off balance.
At this year’s 19th Party Congress,
Xi Jinping got himself written into
the Communist Party’s Constitution.
It’s this bit:
the “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism
with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.”
Notice Xi’s political opponent Jiang Zemin
doesn’t have his name in there.
Yes, it’s been a year of Xi Jinping
rising to even greater heights of power,
while dominating his political opponents.
And in the real world that translates
to state-run media making sure Xi Jinping
blocks out Jiang Zemin.
At this point,
challenging Xi is tantamount
to challenging the Communist Party itself.
But while that means Xi’s got the power,
it also means he’ll be the fall guy
if anything goes wrong.
And there’s a lot of things that could go wrong.
An unbalanced economy,
bad debt,
apocalyptic pollution,
and a public that’s starting to wise up
to the fact that there might not be
much of a new China
with the Communist Party.
But all that can wait for 2018.
Thanks for spending an incredible year
with us here at China Uncensored.
Once again, I’m your host Chris Chappell.
See you in 2018!
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