China retreats on the Indian border
The WHO’s latest scandal
And Estonia is kicking butt!
That and more on this week’s China news headlines
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell. YouTube is demonetizing us all the time.
But thanks to the support of viewers like you on the crowdfunding website Patreon,
I can still bring you these episodes. Head over to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored,
and for as little as a dollar an episode, you can help me continue to make the show.
And now, this week’s China news headlines.
For a long time, China has been secretly building up military camps
along the Indian border. Well, not so secretly that they can't be seen with satellites.
Here’s a bend in the river on May 22 last year, and here’s that same spot on June 23.
Here’s another Chinese military camp in the same region.
And here’s yet another Chinese military camp.
Meanwhile, this satellite image shows Chinese-built villages along a different
section of the Indian border, made at some point between August 2019 and November 2020.
But the latest satellite images show China is actually emptying some of these camps.
These images from Maxar Technologies
show the banks of Pangong Tso, a glacial lake in the Ladakh region.
Last week, China and India agreed to withdraw troops. Wait, China is actually
keeping its promise? Is that because India is successfully staring down China? Or is the
People’s Liberation Army pulling back because they have some other plan up their sleeves?
Last week, I told you about the World Health Organization investigation into the origin
of the coronavirus. Yes, in January the Chinese Communist Party let the WHO
into Wuhan to investigate—only a year late!
But that’s not a complaint from the WHO. No! WHO investigators praised Chinese officials.
Even though China refused to hand over important data.
Get this. Apparently the WHO team said their Chinese counterparts “were
frustrated by the team’s persistent questioning and demands for data.”
I know, you probably think that asking questions and looking for data is
a normal part of an investigation. But not in China it isn’t. In China,
the government tells you upfront what the result of your investigation will be.
Which is what they tried to do to the WHO team.
“Chinese officials urged the W.H.O. team to embrace the government’s narrative about the
source of the virus, including the unproven notion that it might have spread to China from abroad.”
Meanwhile, it’s not surprising the US says it still hasn't ruled out a lab accident
origin for the coronavirus. Because China hasn’t been transparent.
Which is frankly an understatement. Saying China hasn’t been transparent
is like saying it’s a little hard to breathe in the vacuum of space.
Meanwhile, more countries are voicing support for a global “pandemic treaty.”
It would require all countries to share data about disease outbreaks.
Which sounds great. Until you remember how well China honors its treaties.
But I wouldn’t want to be too hard on Chinese officials.
Or else they might be too hard on American officials.
What I mean is, “In China, some U.S. personnel have complained about being subjected to
an anal swab test for the coronavirus by Chinese authorities.”
You know, the Biden Administration has talked about reciprocity in US China relations, so,
maybe Xi Jinping will have something to look forward to on his next state visit to Washington.
FYI, the Chinese artist who made that image has been arrested.
And coming up after the break, key members of President Biden’s cabinet
had Chinese business connections.
Welcome back.
This week, the Republican Study Committee
released a report criticizing members of Biden’s cabinet for Chinese business connections.
For example, Secretary of State Antony Blinken co-founded a company called
WestExec Advisors, which “helped U.S. universities raise money from China
without running afoul of Pentagon grant requirements.”
Other Biden cabinet members who worked for the firm include Director of National Intelligence
Avril Haines, and Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
Now working for WestExec is not evidence of any wrongdoing.
A lot of people have had Chinese business connections, including the previous president.
What doesn’t look great is,
when WestExec recently scrubbed all their China work from their website. Why would they do that?
However, Secretary of State Blinken said something this week that I’ve actually been
saying on the show for a while now—that upholding American values is the way to counter the Chinese
Communist Party. In an interview with NPR he said, “We’re in a position of strength when
we actually stand up for our values, when we don’t say it’s okay for China to create
concentration camps for Uyghurs in Xinjiang or to trample on democracy in Hong Kong.”
And you know, values are nice. But it’s also nice when values are backed up with warships.
The Biden Administration has conducted its second
freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea.
The Biden Administration has talked about working with US allies to counter the Chinese Communist
Party. Which sounds great. But the challenge is, the Communist Party’s influence over those allies
may be growing. China has for the first time overtaken the US as Europe’s main trading partner.
And as we’ve seen from a recent China EU trade deal,
there are times when the EU puts profits before human rights.
But there is some good news. Last week
I mentioned the UK would no longer broadcast Chinese state-run CGTN.
Well now, CGTN is going to have to stop broadcasting in 32 countries across Europe.
What happened is, as a spillover from old broadcast rules from the 1980s,
CGTN’s UK license had also allowed it to broadcast across Europe. But now
with its UK license revoked, CGTN can’t broadcast in any European country—unless
one of them decides to be stupid and give CGTN a new license.
And unsurprisingly, this week the Chinese regime decided to retaliate.
By banning the BBC in China.
Which gave my favorite state-run media the Global
Times the inspiration for this really funny political cartoon.
The broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong also blocked the BBC.
Because Hong Kong is fully part of China now.
But don’t worry, most people in China won’t even notice.
“In China [the BBC] is largely restricted and appears only in international hotels
and some diplomatic compounds, meaning most Chinese people cannot view it.”
And while Chinese state-run TV had been broadcast in Europe for nearly two decades—most
people in Europe won’t even notice it’s gone, because they never bothered to watch it.
There is a growing awareness about the threat of the Chinese Communist Party.
Particularly when it comes to espionage.
“In the past week, intelligence agencies in the Netherlands, Finland and Canada expressed deep
concern about China's espionage and political influence in democracies.”
And Estonia warns of a "silenced world dominated by Beijing".
Wow, good on Estonia. Estonia used to be a major front in the Chinese Communist Party’s attempt
to invade Europe. But as I mentioned in a recent episode,
China’s Eastern European strategy is failing.
And you may remember the ethnically Tibetan NYPD officer who was accused of
spying on Tibetans for the Chinese Communist Party. Well, there’s been an update.
“The New York City police officer accused of being a spy for China,
has been granted a release on $2 million bail. But Baimadajie Angwang tested
positive for COVID-19 last week and may have to wait for a negative test before he's released.”
My heart breaks for him.
And now I’ll answer a question from a member of the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army.
Those are the fans who support the show on the crowd funding website Patreon.
Phil Morais Jr says, “I work in Fiji and the Chinese government have part of the contract
to build new roads. They build the new road and then in 12 - 18 months they have to repave the
whole thing again. Australia has the other contract and those roads are fantastic.”
Ah, Phil is responding to an episode about China’s Tofu Construction.
Basically, that’s when things get built on the cheap, officials skim money off the top,
and the construction projects collapse. Often with some devastating results.
And since China is building things around the world, that’s not good.
But Phil, don’t complain about the Chinese built roads that need to be repaved after only a year.
It’s not as bad as how in Kenya, a 12 million dollar bridge collapsed before it even opened.
You might want to watch out for those new Chinese built bridges in Fiji though.
Thanks for writing Phil.
And thank you for watching. Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.