Investors are eager to put more money into China.
One US official wants to ban TikTok.
And a protest erupts after a 3 year old dies in lockdown. Not from Covid
That and more in this week’s China News Headlines.
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
Have you ever wanted to be a Lord? I certainly have! And now I am,
thanks to our sponsor, Established Titles. That’s right, I’m officially
Lord Chris Chappell.And you can be a Lord or Lady too. I’ll explain how at the end.
There’s a new era of China investment. And it’s powered by Wishful Thinking.
Yup. China investors have the same strategy as dads who gamble away
their kids’ college funds at the blackjack table.
I suppose that’s not all that different from the
last couple decades. Except now, it’s even more wishful.
Rumors of a reopening in China have sent stocks flying.
Specifically, “Hong Kong and Mainland China ripped higher on rumors that a government
committee has been established to study and plan for a full reopening in China in March 2023.”
In other words, China is not reopening from its Zero Covid policy yet. And it hasn’t
announced that it will open in March, or at any other time, either. There are merely *rumors*
that the Chinese government *established a committee* to look into the *possibility.*
And when has a government committee ever been a disappointment?
This is like celebrating that your parents are gonna take you to Disney
World because you thought you overheard them listening to the Encanto soundtrack.
On top of that, we don’t even know if there is a committee, since “At his daily press conference,
the Foreign Minister’s spokesperson stated he was ‘unaware’ of [such a] committee.”
Which doesn’t matter, because “Whether or not the rumor is true, it shows investors’
desire for such a plan, which is why such a committee will likely be established.”
Yes, because as we all know, the Chinese Communist Party always does what investors want them to do.
Essentially, the market right now is going,
“So you’re saying there’s a chance…”
Wait a second...
I heard a rumor that next year, Elon Musk will form a committee
that will give out a million dollars to everyone who sends me a dollar right now.
And if you find that convincing, you’re smart enough to work on Wall Street.
Or really, at any global investment bank.
Because at a conference in Hong Kong this week, global bankers were very “pro-China.”
Yes, everyone among a totally unbiased sample size of...the rich elite who decided it was
politically safe for them to visit Hong Kong despite the total lack of freedoms there.
“Global bankers are all ‘very pro-China’”—according to the
chair of multinational investment bank UBS. He spoke at a financial forum in Hong Kong,
“where Chinese officials sought to woo rattled international investors.”
And Chinese officials presented their best case for why foreigners
should put money into China despite everything that’s happening there.
I assume it’s the same case the CCP always makes. “Sure, we run a totalitarian regime
that covered up a pandemic and commits ethnic genocide. But on the other hand… money?”
“Well, you’ve convinced us again!”
“The Hong Kong government [even] made a particular point of ensuring the
forum [went] forward as planned, allowing attendees some respite
from certain pandemic restrictions that apply elsewhere in the city.”
Guys, I’ve figured out the formula!
Step 1: Invite rich global investors to a conference about how they should invest in China,
because it’s going to open up very, very soon. Step 2: Put them in a bubble where Covid rules
don’t apply to them. Step 3: Profit.
The only idiots who don’t believe Covid restrictions
will be lifted soon are...literally every person actually living in China.
And there’s a growing backlash over the Zero Covid lockdowns. The latest case
happened this week when a 3-year-old boy in the city of Lanzhou died in lockdown.
He didn’t die of Covid. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning because of
a gas leak in the building where he and his parents had been locked down for a month.
The father posted his story on social media, saying that after his son fell unconscious,
he tried to call an ambulance and the police but failed to get through.
He tried to ask the Covid workers enforcing the lockdown to help, but they refused.
“The workers asked him to show a negative Covid test result, but he could not do
so as no tests had been carried out at the compound in the previous 10 days.”
He finally grabbed his son, broke through the lockdown fence, and ran outside,
where someone helped him flag down a taxi. But it was too late. His son died at the hospital.
This story caused a huge backlash. Videos circulated on social media showing Lanzhou
residents protesting on the streets, calling for accountability for the child’s death.
In this video, a guy is shouting “Give me back my freedom!”
And of course Lanzhou authorities knew exactly what to do: send in the riot police.
But don’t worry. Everything’s fine. Because the
father’s social media posts have now been censored. Problem solved!
And after the break, could the US ban TikTok?
Welcome back.
Have you heard of the city of Zhengzhou? It’s just another
third-tier city that’s been under lockdown for a month.
It has about 12 million residents. And they’ve been getting pretty fed up with being confined
to their tiny apartments, along with the violent quarantine enforcement and lousy medical care.
One star. Would not recommend.
Zhengzhou is also the city where iPhone maker Foxconn locked down a factory with 200,000
people—which I’ll talk about in tomorrow’s episode.
Well now, the people of Zhengzhou are accusing local authorities of
“performative lockdown lifting”. “Residents accused authorities of
lifting restrictions only to reduce scrutiny of the lockdown’s severity.”
They started posting the hashtag “performative lockdown lifting” on
Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. But it seems that hashtag has now been blocked.
Because while Chinese authorities might once in a while lift Covid lockdowns,
they’ll always quarantine dissenting opinions.
“[The public] also shared images appearing to show state-run CCTV news employees
interviewing members of the public” in areas that somehow don’t seem to be under lockdown.
On CCTV’s Weibo account, one resident posted. “It is because of you that our
neighborhoods get unsealed...Zhengzhou welcomes you to do interviews here.”
So...people in China are smart enough to connect the dots.
The lockdowns are still happening. The reports on state-run media are
fake. And no one in China believes the government or state-run media anymore.
That’s tragic! I mean, who are authorities even able to lie to anymore?
Oh wait. Wall Street.
Have you noticed that China Uncensored is not on TikTok?
That’s because my dance moves are too good to give away for free.
Also, it’s because TikTok shares your data more than any other social media
app — and it’s unclear where that data goes.
In fact, TikTok has a “secret operation” that tracks you even if you don’t use it.
TikTok is like Santa Claus. It watches when you’re sleeping and when you’re awake,
and yet people think it’s awesome. No! They’re both creepy. Stop letting them into your home!
And keep in mind that TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Yes, *this* ByteDance.
So forgive me if I’m not interested in being a part of it.
Well, you know who else isn’t? FCC commissioner Brendan Carr . That’s the US government agency
that regulates communications on the radio, television, et cetera.
He says the US ought to ban TikTok.
Unrelated, but Carr also became the first FCC commissioner to visit Taiwan this week.
I think I like this guy so far.
BuzzFeed has reported that China-based engineers
working for TikTok accessed US users’ personal information,
including phone numbers and birthdays. And that parent company ByteDance—that’s right,
*this* ByteDance —told its employees to push pro-CCP messages to American TikTok users.
And that’s probably why Carr told Axios “I don’t
believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban.”
Of course, Carr is only one of five FCC
commissioners. And the FCC itself can’t ban TikTok.
A ban would have to either go through Congress or through the Committee on
Foreign Investment in the US. Both of which are pretty slow to act on anything.
But if the US does ban TikTok, that would put it only about two or three years behind
India—which was smart enough to do that in the summer of 2020.
There’s obviously a quicker solution here: I challenge TikTok
to a dance-off. Prepare to be pulverized by the premium moves, youwannabe Santa Claus.
And after the break, Australia tries to counter China with the gift...of semi-automatic weapons.
Welcome back.
The Chinese regime is trying to influence small Pacific island
nations, with the hope of eventually getting naval bases in the Pacific.
They’ve been pretty successful so far with the Solomon Islands, which is here.
For example, by giving them millions of dollars to build a stadium,
and by training local police in how to fight crime with Chinese characteristics.
Although you could instead just get a magician to train the police,
since the Chinese method of policing is making people disappear.
The prime minister of the Solomon Islands has also been accused of corruption, basically
paying off members of parliament with Chinese funds to support a security pact with China.
Well now Australia is taking a step to counter China’s influence. A stupid step.
Australia is giving the Solomon Islands police, you know,
the ones being trained by China, dozens of semi-automatic rifles and vehicles.
I mean, if Australia doesn’t give them weapons, China will. And that would be...worse? Somehow?
I don’t get it.
Solomon Islands opposition leader Matthew Wale asked, “Obviously,
we do not have external threats, so why the introduction of these high-powered guns?”
Well *obviously*, Mr. Wale, Australia thinks that by giving the Prime Minister a gift,
he’ll side with Australia instead of China.
It’s called Wishful Thinking. Haven’t you heard of it?
And now thanks to Australia’s gift, the corrupt prime minister has a bunch of guns,
which he can give to his China-trained police, to...protect freedom. Riiiight.
50 countries at the United Nations have condemned China’s action against the Uyghurs.
Things like, you know, putting them in concentration camps.
Ambassadors, rights activists and investigators met last week
to discuss a report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
That report had called what’s happening in Xijiang a genocide—without
actually using the word “genocide,” so as not to upset the perpetrators. Because yeah,
they’re systemically wiping out a group of ethnic minorities... but that’s no excuse to be rude.
Still, it wasn’t enough. “China expressed its ‘resolute opposition’ to the meeting and suggested
that [countries] boycott this ‘anti-China event.’”, calling it “disinformation propaganda.”
So what did the UN meeting last week actually accomplish?
“The countries urged China to fully implement the recommendations of
the UN report and to release all those ‘arbitrarily deprived of their liberty.’”
After all, that’s how the Allied Powers defeated Hitler. By politely asking him to knock it off.
And China responded by staying “You know what? You’re right.
All that genocide was just an accident. We’re going to release everyone now.”
Or is that, what’s the phrase? Wishful Thinking.
And this episode is sponsored by Established Titles. Thanks to this certificate,
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I’m Lord Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.