China promises to lift certain Covid restrictions
Xi Jinping visits the Middle East
And Hong Kong’s economy is crashing
That and more on this week’s China News Headlines
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Shelley Zhang, filling in for Chris Chappell.
This episode is sponsored by Incogni.
You probably know that companies are collecting your personal data. But you may not realize just
how many. Dozens, maybe hundreds—most of which you’ve never heard of. And you have
no idea what they’re doing with it. Incogni helps stop them. I’ll explain more at the end.
So, people in China have been living under a Zero Covid policy for nearly three years now. They’ve
faced severe restrictions on personal freedom—more than pretty much anywhere else in the world.
That includes constant mandatory Covid testing...
and scanning QR health codes just to buy things from a store or get on a bus—and that’s if they’re
lucky enough to not have your entire apartment block or city locked down for weeks at a time.
Basically, living in China has been like being in a prison. And I mean for everyone this time,
not just Tibetans, Uyghurs, Falun Gong, Christians, Jews, human rights lawyers,
labor activists, migrant workers, and so on.
But now, the Chinese government has announced it will be scrapping some
of its most controversial Covid rules, in a significant step toward reopening.
Well, the Communist Party is not calling it a reopening.
They’re calling it “optimizing.”
Now if you’re living in China, you might be really
excited about this. Wow! China is reopening! I mean, optimizing!
But don’t put too much faith in your communist overlords yet.
Here are some examples of the changes. They’ve announced they’ll be:
- Scrapping QR health codes for certain things, like grocery stores. But not necessarily for
other places, like hospitals, or transportation. - Allowing people to quarantine at home if they
have mild symptoms, except if the government decides cases are too severe. And then off
to quarantine camp you go! And... - Reduced lockdowns, which will
now only be implemented in so-called “high risk areas”,
meaning the government will still get to decide what places get locked town
In other words, these all sound like positive changes. But they also give
local authorities the power to arbitrarily implement any of those same restrictions,
if they decide things get too “high risk.”
But don’t worry, you’re a lot less likely to be labeled “high
risk” if you shut up and stop protesting the Communist Party.
Speaking of protests, this easing of Covid restrictions
*officially* has nothing to do with the massive,
nationwide protests against Xi Jinping and the Communist Party over the past couple weeks.
Sure, Western media may draw *inferences*,
like “China eases restrictions in major move away from ‘zero-Covid’ after protests”...
but it’s just a coincidence things happened in that order.
And when others say “Xi’s Swift Covid Retreat Shows China Masses They Have Real Power”...
that’s totally wrong, as well. The masses have *always* had the power in China. That’s
why state-run media keeps telling us China is a democracy. It’s all about the people.
These people. Because the Communist Party represents the masses.
And these same very democratic people have announced they’re
lifting Covid restrictions because that’s what’s best for the masses.
The Chinese Communist Party is walking a very fine
line with these moves toward reopening. Sorry, optimizing.
To be fair to the Party, they had started some of the “optimizing” before the protests.
But now the loosening of the Covid restrictions is being called a victory for the protesters.
Are the protests the real reason the Party is loosening restrictions? It almost doesn’t matter.
If the Chinese people believe it’s the reason, that alone could be dangerous for
the CCP. Because then Chinese people might get ideas like, protests work.
But the Communist Party could also be using the protests to their advantage.
The Party had to back away from Zero Covidat some
point. It’s been completely wrecking China’s economy.
But they also put themselves into a tough spot because as soon as they start reopening,
there’s going to be a Covid wave in China. There’s pretty much no way to prevent that.
So now, if Chinese people get upset at getting Covid,
the Chinese Communist Party can redirect that blame. It’s not
the Party’s fault! It’s the protesters’ fault! They’re the ones who wanted this!
And while most Chinese people have seemed supportive of the protesters,
if the CCP can make them angry at the protesters, how dare they demand freedom instead of safety,
then the Party once again wins by dividing the Chinese people.
It’s how the CCP always stays on top.
Communist Party officials also met this week to talk about their plans for next year.
And according to a Xinhua report on Wednesday, “In 2023, China will focus on stabilizing growth,
employment and prices while preventing and defusing major systemic risks.”
So, basically boost the economy and maintain stability. That’s
the same plan they’ve had for decades now.
And if you have any nagging concerns about whether that’s going to work this time,
stuff those feelings deep down inside,
and join the smart-brained Wall Street types, like Ray Dalio and Larry Fink.
Because “Damn The Torpedoes, America’s Billionaire Investors Go Full Speed Ahead On China”
I see no possible downside.
Except losing all your money while funding a communist regime that
puts ethnic minorities in concentration camps. Other than that, full speed ahead!
And after the break, Xi Jinping is jet-setting once again!
Welcome back.
Chinese presitator Xi Jinping is now feeling secure enough in his position to leave China.
And this week, Xi Jinping landed in Saudi Arabia, where they really rolled out the...purple carpet?
Anyway, lots of fanfare.
President Biden had met with Saudi Arabia in July,
with a similar amount of fanfare and purple carpeting.
Why do both China and the US want to make friends with a powerful authoritarian regime
like Saudi Arabia? The answer is obvious. Both administrations are seeking advice
on how to get rid of journalists.
Also, they want more oil. Okay, it’s mostly about the oil.
China is facing an energy shortage. I mean,
welcome to 2022, amirite? And China’s energy shortage is made worse by a water shortage,
which makes it harder for China to produce hydroelectric power.
So China needs that sweet, sweet Middle Eastern oil as much as anyone.
“Saudi Arabia has...traditionally been China’s top oil supplier,
with Saudi barrels making up around 17% of total Chinese oil imports as of last year.”
And China is Saudi Arabia’s biggest trade partner,
with about $80 billion dollars of bilateral trade between the two countries each year.
And what makes Saudi Arabia a truly great trade partner is that they
support the Communist Party locking up muslims in Concentration camps.
What else are friends for?
And the trip comes as China’s trade plunges to its lowest level since 2020.
Imports fell more than 10 percent, and exports fell more than 8 percent.
This mostly has to do with China’s insane Covid rules. Those rules have
directly shut down manufacturing, and closed shipping ports during lockdowns.
But they’ve also indirectly prompted foreign companies to move their manufacturing out
of China, to more “open” countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, and India.
So a lot of foreign companies are fleeing China for friendlier shores—and that’s going
to have an irreversible effect on China’s economy.
Of course, I’m not saying Wall Street is wrong to invest in China right now. After all,
you got to get in on the ground floor—like the rock bottom ground floor, right?
And after the break, it’s a great time to not live in Hong Kong!
Welcome back.
Hong Kong’s economy is not doing so hot.
Hong Kong stocks have fallen considerably over the past two years.
Once again, a lot of this has to do with severe Covid restrictions in Hong Kong
and mainland China. I’m seeing a pattern here.
The Hong Kong government announced this week that it will be easing some of those restrictions.
But lifting a few rules won’t fix what’s fundamentally broken.
For example, Hong Kong’s home prices have dropped
to the lowest level in nearly five years—and the worst is yet to come.
And that’s because “Hong Kong’s residents have left the city in droves since 2021.”
There are lots of reasons for that. On the surface,
it seems like Covid restrictions have been driving out residents,
and that’s true. But there are deeper reasons that aren’t so easily resolved.
“While there is pressure from the deteriorating fertility rate and the rapidly aging population,
the collapse of immigration and the heated emigration wave have added fuel to the fire.”
Which is to say, after the Chinese regime passed the Hong Kong national security law in 2020,
a lot of people want to leave and never come back.
But some people can’t leave. Like media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
He was arrested more than a year ago,
and charged with violating the Hong Kong National Security Law.
He was the owner of Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper. The newspaper has been shut down,
and Lai has been sitting in a Hong Kong prison awaiting trial.
That trial was supposed to begin last week, but it got delayed. Jimmy Lai wanted a
British lawyer to represent him, but the Hong Kong government withheld his lawyer’s visa.
Which sounds bad. But this is Hong Kong, which means it gets worse.
Because now a Chinese official has said that perhaps Jimmy Lai’s case
can be moved to Mainland China for trial.
He said that if difficulties arise finding a lawyer,
people like Jimmy Lai can just be sent back to the mainland for trial.
Which makes sense. Because if you’re on trial in mainland China,
there’s really no point in even having a lawyer.
And this episode has been sponsored by Incogni.
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And if any of those companies get hacked, you could be in big trouble.
For example, earlier this year, a hacker stole user data from 5.4
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Once again, I’m Shelley Zhang. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.