China just set strict new regulations
On young gamers in China
But there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
It’s game over for China’s youth. If you’re under 18,
now you can’t play online video games for more than three hours. A week.
The new restrictions come from China’s National Press and Publication Administration,
or NPPA . It oversees China’s video game market.
The new rules apply to any online gaming device, including phones.
And you don’t get to choose when your three hours are.
You get a max one hour a day, from 8-9pm, only on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays.
Obviously, many of China’s youth are upset.
“‘This policy presumes that gaming is bad,’ wrote one user on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform.”
“Some also pointed out the drawbacks of imposing a blanket ban,
suggesting that there should be rules that apply for different kinds of games
and minors of different ages. “Are [the ages of] 7 and 17 the same?’ asked another Weibo user.”
Yes, many of China’s youth are now suddenly realizing that
living under an authoritarian regime might affect them too.
These aren’t the first restrictions to gaming either. Back in 2019, China put a
90-minute limit on gaming, with a 10pm cut off, though you could play on any day of the week.
Plus “three hours on weekends and holidays.”
But obviously that wasn’t strict enough.
So now there are new rules. And according to state-run Xinhua,
they’re just following parents' wishes.
“Many parents said that teenagers’ addiction to online games seriously affected their studies, and
physical and mental health, leading to a series of social problems, making many parents suffer.”
Right. Because obviously parents can’t discipline
their own children. Children can only be raised by the state. Makes total sense.
Now you might be wondering, how can the Communist Party possibly enforce this?
Well, a few years ago, China began requiring real name registration for online posts.
That also applied to people who play online games. So gaming companies are
being ordered to restrict access outside of the allowed times for young gamers.
The NPPA said, “Online game enterprises shall not provide game services in any form...
to users who have not registered or logged in with their real names.”
But what’s to stop kids from using their parents' accounts?
Or any other way to get around the new restrictions.
Well, China is a surveillance state. Monitoring and restricting people is what they do.
Tencent , a major Chinese tech company that makes a lot of games, said, “Since 2017, Tencent has
explored and applied various new technologies and functions for the protection of minors.”
“That will continue, as Tencent strictly abides by and actively implements the
latest requirements from the Chinese authorities.”
Recently, Martin Lau, the president of Tencent, said “There are a lot of new
regulations that will be coming, but we are pretty confident that we can be compliant.”
And that’s because the Communist Party is getting very interested in monitoring China’s youth.
You know, for their own good.
After all, it was Chinese students who violently tried to overthrow the Party in the 1989 Tiananmen
pro-democracy protests. Forcing poor, heavily armed soldiers to fight back to save the country.
After that, the Communist Party made a big push for what they call patriotic education.
And lately that’s been going into overdrive.
The philosophy of Chinese presitator Xi Jinping is being added to school textbooks.
High School and university students get mandatory military training.
There’s been a huge crackdown on private online tutoring with teachers in foreign countries.
The Communist Party does not want China’s youth engaging with the outside world—except
on the Party’s terms. And online games were a way Chinese youth could interact
with the outside world. There are like, a million memes about how you can get
Chinese players booted from the server by typing Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Of course, there’s another major reason the Party is pushing these new gaming
regulations. I’ll tell you what it is right after this short commercial break.
Welcome back.
So obviously, the Communist Party is pushing these gaming
restrictions because it deeply cares about the wellbeing of China’s youth.
And by “cares about their wellbeing,” I mean the Party cares about ramping up ways
to put surveillance on a potentially politically active group of people.
But in addition to that, it’s also about an ongoing crackdown on big tech in China.
Half a trillion dollars was wiped out in a week.
Like China’s youth, the Party wants to make sure these megacorporations are loyal to the Party.
“The restrictions...are a body blow to a global gaming industry
that caters to tens of millions of young players in the world’s most lucrative market.
Well, not so much a body blow as it is a Forward, Down, Forward, Y. True gamers will know.
“Gaming companies have been on edge in recent weeks as
state media criticised gaming addiction among young people.”
They were on edge because this is how things are done in China.
State run media will begin to criticize a person or thing,
and everyone knows that means sooner or later, that person or thing will be officially attacked.
In this case, the state media attacks began last month. A paper owned by Xinhua
said, “Society has come to recognize the harm
caused by online gaming and it is often referred to as ‘opium for the mind’ or ‘electronic drugs.’”
It specifically called out Tencent and one of their most popular online games,
Honor of Kings. That was not good for Tencent.
Because everyone knew what was coming.
Tencent tried to get ahead of the crackdown announcing
their own screen time limits earlier this month.
It applied specifically to Honor of Kings.
“[Tencent’s] president also said it was working with regulators to explore ways in which the total
amount of time minors spent on gaming could be capped across all titles in the industry.”
Obviously that did nothing to shield Tencent from the regulatory crackdown.
But thanks to all the encouragement from investment firms like Blackrock,
many Western companies and people are now invested heavily in China and Chinese companies.
So regulatory crackdowns in China hit investors around the world.
“Shares in Amsterdam-listed tech investment company Prosus,
which holds a 29% stake in Chinese social media and video games group Tencent, were down 1.45%.”
“European online video gaming stocks Ubisoft and Embracer Group each fell over 2%.”
Hmmm... I wonder if this is part of a larger plan
by the Chinese Communist Party to screw foreign investors.
No, they would never do that. I mean, according to Blackrock,
now’s the time to triple your investments in China!
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from a member of the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army,
fans who support us and our efforts to expose the truth about the Chinese Communist Party,
by contributing through the crowdfunding website
Patreon and through our new subscription platform Locals.
Adam Billman asks, “There are two islands off the coast of mainland China called Kinmen and Matsu
which are currently considered to be under the control of Taiwan. However, there is dispute about
whether these should remain in control of Taiwan should Taiwan decide to become independent. What
has led to this dispute and does it make sense for Taiwan to give up this land for independence.
Interesting question Adam! So yes, the country of Taiwan isn’t just the main
island of Taiwan. There’s also the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, and Penghu, too.
We actually visited Kinmen Island a few years ago.
And met a blacksmith that makes knives out of old bombshells China attacked the island with.
Now these islands are close to China. And we found out when we were in Kinmen
that Chinese tourists frequent the island a lot. It’s only a 30-minute ferry ride from China.
There’s a whole industry there catering to Chinese tourists. There was even talk
of building a bridge to mainland China. And this is part of China’s strategy.
The Communist Party actually tried to invade
Kinmen and Matsu. Twice. That was the first and second Taiwan Strait Crisis.
But thanks to US support, and also to their own incompetence, the Communist Party failed.
So instead, the Chinese regime is using economic invasion.
Making China seem like the place to get money from,
rather than the faraway seat of government in Taiwan. And there are signs it's working.
If Taiwan were to officially declare independence, the people living here might prefer to avoid the
inevitable conflict with China and surrender. But there’s also a lot of people we met there
that hate the Chinese Communist Party and would hate to be under its brutal regime.
But Taiwan’s official stance is that it is already independent
so it doesn’t need to officially declare independence. So there’s
no real situation where it would give up these islands “for independence.”
Thanks for your question Adam, and thank you for your support.
And a big thank you to everyone who supports China Uncensored on Patreon
and on Locals. We could not do this show without you. So thank you for joining us in
the fight to expose the Chinese Communist Party to the world. If you’re interested in joining,
head over to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored or Chinauncensored.Locals.com. You’ll get
a bunch of cool perks, including the chance to have me answer your question on the show!
Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.