Is Beijing going under lockdown?
The US won’t rule out military action in the Pacific
And a terrorist attack targets Chinese nationals
That and more on this week’s China news headlines
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
Each day that passes makes it look more and more likely that Beijing is headed into some
kind of Covid lockdown.
Tonight, Chinese authorities ordering mass Covid testing in Beijing.
Nearly 20 million people.
3 rounds of mass testing this week.
To contain an outbreak of what officials say is roughly 140 cases.
As authorities in the Chinese capital raced to stamp out the latest outbreak.
And avert the debilitating city-wide lockdown that has shrouded Shanghai for over a month.
People in Beijing were stocking up on food supplies after seeing residents in Shanghai
struggling to meet their basic needs.
That didn’t really work in Shanghai.
Although the message the Chinese Communist Party is putting out is that Shanghai just
didn’t lock down fast enough.
If only they had done that sooner, they could have stamped out Omicron and quickly gone
back to normal.
That’s why Beijing is going to be the true test of China’s zero Covid policy.
Shanghai messed up, so they don’t count.
I see what the Chinese regime is doing here.
They’re playing the “favorite child” card.
You see, Beijing is so much better than Shanghai.
They’re going to do things the right way.
Shanghai might have food shortages because they’re incompetent.
But Beijing isn’t going to have any problems with *their* lockdown.
It’s not clear whether the people of Beijing believe this.
Already videos are surfacing of panic buying in Beijing.
Shanghai made it quite clear that authorities don’t care if you have access to food under
lockdown.
Actually, most of the Communist Party’s history has shown authorities don’t care
if you have access to food.
But I’ve got to give credit where credit is due.
A reporter for Chinese state-run media actually made a candid tweet showing her stocking up
on food in case there’s a lockdown, and showing empty shelves.
Which she deleted and replaced the next day with a photo of loads of food on the shelves.
No need to overthink!
Why even think at all?
Thinking too hard builds up an appetite, and
they’re not going to want to do that right now.
This is a major failure of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda.
The Chinese regime, “pushed a triumphalist narrative of their Covid response, which says
that only the Chinese government had the will to confront, and hold back, the virus.”
If they could really hold back the virus, they probably should have done that in 2019.
For more on just how bad the situation in Shanghai has been, check out this week’s
episode, the Shanghai Lockdown Video China Does NOT Want You to See.
Besides the human toll of China’s zero Covid policy, it’s also crushing China’s economy.
It’s also revealing just how bad China’s vaccination campaign was.
Many of China’s elderly remain unvaccinated.
And others are using the Chinese vaccine that’s not very effective to begin with.
As so many other countries that used them found out.
The hard way.
This is what happens when you buy from China, instead of doing what every patriotic American
should be doing:
buying things from Mexico.
And now there’s the mass testing campaign in Beijing
that’s redirected staff from the vaccine booster campaign.
All this is bad news for Chinese leader Xi Jinping . Well, I mean it’s bad news for
everybody.
But Xi has staked his legitimacy on a Zero Covid policy.
And this year, Xi will try to convince the rest of the Party to give him another 5 years
as the leader of China.
Those hopes might be shelved.
And thanks to him,
there’s plenty of room on those shelves.
For more on the lockdowns, be sure to follow China Uncensored on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
and yes, even Truth Social.
Links are below.
And coming up after the break, the US considers military action in the Pacific to fight China.
Welcome back.
We’ve been covering how the Chinese Communist Party signed a security agreement with the
Solomon Islands.
That’s essentially on the doorstep of Australia and New Zealand.
And China also secretly wants to build a military base there.
Although, to be fair, China probably wants to build military bases everywhere.
Check under your seat right now.
Yup,
Chinese military base.
And now the US says it won’t rule out military action if China does establish a base there.
That’s according to the most senior US official in the Pacific.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also called a Chinese military base on the
Solomon Islands a “red line.”
Now while it's good to hear the threat of a Chinese military base in the Solomon Islands
being taken seriously, I can’t help but feel disappointed.
We all know how important the Pacific Island Nations are.
And by “we all,” I mean everyone who
crushes the history portion on trivia night.
Many crucial battles were fought there in World War 2.
And yet for decades, the United States all but ignored these countries.
They ignored them harder than
a guy ignores red flags on a date with a girl who’s insanely hot.
“Oh, you think the moon is flat?
That’s, uh… cool.”
In response to the Chinese security agreement with the Solomon Islands, the US recently
decided to reopen its embassy there after 29 years.
But had the US been more proactive in the first place, there never would have been an
opportunity for the Chinese Communist Party to expand its influence there.
We shouldn’t have to be talking about taking military action against a Chinese base.
But now everyone is freaking out about it.
Even Japan has dispatched an envoy to the Solomon Islands.
But at least the US is taking action now.
It sort of began under the Trump Administration.
His administration sent more high level diplomatic visits to the Pacific Island nations, culminating
in a meeting with 3 leaders of Microneasian Nations:
The Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.
However, the Lowy Institute says, “US commitments to the region have been slow to eventuate
with momentum from the Trump administration seeming to stall altogether in Joe Biden’s
first year.”
But now the Biden Administration finally seems to be making the Pacific a priority once again.
The US is working on strengthening security ties with Papua New Guinea.
Which as you can see is in a very strategic location.
But the US has a long way to go.
The Chinese Communist Party has spent years expanding their influence in the Pacific islands.
If the US and its allies want to successfully counter that, it’s going to take some actual
follow through.
Something we’re really great at.
And coming up after the break, terrorists target Chinese nationals.
Welcome back.
Three Chinese tutors and a Pakistani driver were killed in a suicide bombing in Pakistan.
The three Chinese nationals were teachers at a local Confucius Institute.
The terrorist group who killed them “opposes Chinese investment in the country, saying
locals do not benefit”.
China is heavily invested in Pakistan.
In fact, in the wake of the terrorist bombing, the Pakistani Prime Minister “made a personal
visit to the Chinese embassy in Islamabad...to meet officials.
In a rare move, He also presented them with a handwritten letter, reaffirming his government's
commitment ‘to eliminating all militants and terrorists from Pakistani soil.’”
Also, if you look closely in that soil… yup.
Another Chinese military base.
They’re popping up everywhere!
China is once again reaffirming its relationship with Russia, saying it has no limit.
Man, I miss the old days when No Limit was a rap label, and not someone saying, “We’re
cool with your war crimes.”
Although Western sanctions on Russia do have
the Chinese Communist Party concerned.
They’ve already affected how China buys oil from Russia.
A statement by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said China will ‘as always’ strengthen
strategic cooperation with Russia, safeguard the ‘common interests’ of both parties,
and promote the construction of a ‘new type of international relations,’ and a ‘community
with a shared future for mankind.’”
Russia and China’s “shared future for mankind?”
This is like
being on a date with an insanely hot girl and being *into* her red flags.
China is slamming the top Czech diplomat for meeting with the leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Now, I don’t mean he physically slammed the Czech diplomat.
That’s just a turn of phrase the media sometimes likes to use to make stories more interesting.
Like when China slams the US for sending warships through the Taiwan Strait.
Why does every headline have “slammed” in it?
Maybe news sites should stop hiring former wrestlers as journalists.
Or at least get them a thesaurus.
Either way, don’t take that at face value.
Just like you shouldn’t take anything the Chinese Communist Party says at face value.
You know how China has promised to honor its climate pledges?
This was written by the Chinese ambassador to the UK.
That’s why honor is spelled wrong.
But that’s not the only thing wrong with it.
More importantly, it avoids mentioning China’s reliance on coal—which of course it wouldn’t,
because China is now *promoting* coal.
In fact, “China continues to build coal-fired power plants at a rate that outpaces the rest
of the world combined.”
Basically China’s economy has taken a hit from their insane Covid policies.
That’s why China’s Central Bank is manipulating its currency again.
And why the regime is trying to boost the economy by pushing cheap coal energy.
So whether it’s Covid or coal, China really doesn’t want us to breathe easier.
Now that’s what I call black humor.
FBI Director Christopher Wray went on 60 Minutes and warned that despite the invasion of Ukraine,
there’s a bigger threat than Russia.
In counterintelligence, does anything worry you more than Russia?
The biggest threat we face as a country from a counterintelligence perspective is from
the People's Republic of China and especially the Chinese Communist Party.
In particular, Wray singled out the Chinese Communist Party’s comprehensive efforts
to steal American intellectual property and personal data.
They have a bigger hacking program than that of every other major nation combined.
They have stolen more of America's personal information and corporate data than every
nation combined.
Wray has said similar things before.
And this is valuable.
We need US officials loudly sounding the alarm about the Chinese Communist Party.
That’s how your average American will know there’s a problem.
And there are signs that message is getting out.
According to a new poll by global data firm Morning Consult,
the majority of Americans “believe imposing tariffs on China are an effective way to protect
U.S. industries and American workers”.
This belief was pretty consistent across party lines.
76 percent of Republicans, 71 percent of Democrats, and 70 percent of independents.
The poll also found that a majority of Americans would vote for candidates who favor tough
on China policies.
So with any luck, we’re going to be seeing a major shift away from the kind of China
policy that has plagued American politics for decades.
Let’s just hope that these tough on China politicians don’t get their bumper stickers
made in China.
A UN team has arrived in China in preparation for the UN human rights chief to visit Xinjiang.
Yes, this is a visit to prepare for a visit.
Well, first they have to quarantine of course.
But after their quarantine, I’m sure they’ll be able to work things out so the UN human
rights chief can conduct a meaningful examination of all the vocational training schools for
all the happy Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Slave labor cotton, what’s that?
Uyghurs love picking cotton.
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By the way, an episode on Elon Musk buying Twitter, and how that relates to China, coming
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Once again, I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.