On this episode of China Uncensored,
Australia bans Huawei and ZTE from building 5G networks.
Want to strike a deal with China?
Don’t be stupid.
And finally, US-Taiwan relations are over the moon!
This is China Uncensored.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
On Thursday,
the Australian government put a ban on foreign companies
building the next generation of wireless networks: 5G.
Why the ban?
They don’t want companies “likely to be
subject to extrajudicial directions
from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law”
to have control over Australia’s wireless networks.
Now, in that announcement,
Australia didn’t mention which foreign government
they were concerned about.
I guess that’s a mystery.
Incidentally, though, the ban will stop two giant Chinese companies—
Huawei and ZTE—
that had expressed interest in installing Australia’s 5G network.
This is a huge blow to Huawei especially,
since they had made a huge push in Australia
after getting shut out of the US.
Speaking of mysteries...
We’ve just found out that my friend Megha Rajagopalan,
who I was on a panel with at the Oslo Freedom Forum
a couple months ago,
has been denied a renewal of her journalism visa.
That effectively means she’s being kicked out of China.
But Chinese authorities didn’t tell her why.
Hmmm... another mystery!
This is going to be a tough case to crack.
She had been a journalist in Beijing for six years.
And she was good, too.
I can’t figure out what changed!
Why, earlier this year, she even won an award
for this piece she wrote on the Communist Party’s
crackdown on minorities in Xinjiang.
Well, I don’t know why they kicked her out.
If any of you can figure out it out,
please let me know.
And if you think Chinese authorities
are getting good at fooling anyone, well,
they’re also trying their hand at sarcasm.
State-run China Global Television Network created a, haha,
hilarious video called “Thanks Mr Trump, you are GREAT!”
But get this, they’re not actually saying he’s great.
They mean that sarcastically.
I would know.
I’m a sarcasm expert.
Their video is about how Trump’s trade war has actually helped China.
Which they’re not being sarcastic about.
“Thank you for re-instilling in the Chinese a sense of HUMILITY.
How can there be enough gratitude for highlighting
the foibles of overconfidence and self-congratulation,
never a virtue except in your case.”
You see, by taking that swipe at Trump,
they’ll distract viewers from remembering how
Chinese authorities violated WTO rules
and stole trillions of dollars worth of US intellectual property.
And then there’s this hilarious quip.
“On behalf of doctors, thank you for pointing out the need to
wean off American goods like bourbon and bacon.”
Because the danger to Chinese people’s health
is not China’s rampant pollution,
or constant food scandals.
or bad vaccines.
No, no!
It’s bacon and alcohol from America that are the danger.
The South China Morning Post describes CGTN
as “Part of a growing arm of state media designed
to ‘tell China stories’ as it make a global push to improve its soft power.”
In other words, it’s part of China’s information
or propaganda warfare against the West.
They’re banking on some Americans disliking Trump so much,
that they’ll actually side with the Chinese Communist Party.
But CGTN’s attempt at sarcasm is pretty hard to watch.
Seriously, guys.
Leave sarcasm to the professionals.
Strangely, CGTN pulled this video from youtube
only a day after they put it up.
Maybe the fact that they released this video
just as US and Chinese officials
are meeting about the trade war
was seen as a little too sensitive.
Oops.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang this week.
It was Mahathir’s first trip to China
since taking office earlier this year.
And there were a few pieces of Chinese etiquette
that Mahathir clearly didn’t know.
For instance, when dealing with Chinese officials, typically,
they consider it very impolite to repeatedly
SLAM YOUR PREDECESSOR
FOR THEIR STUPIDITY IN DEALING WITH CHINA.
He was concerned about several major construction projects
with Chinese companies,
although he was super vague about
whether they were cancelled or just deferred.
Mahathir is worried about these China deals in Malaysia,
since the deals follow a pattern the Chinese regime
has established with other countries:
Get them deeply into debt and then squeeze.
In other words, when his predecessor made those deals,
well he was being stupid.
The Chinese Communist Party has been ramping up
the pressure on Taiwan
and anyone who’s ever been nice to Taiwan
or even acknowledged its existence.
And now it seems that yet another country
has caved to the pressure—
El Salvador.
This is El Salvador,
which of course is Spanish for “the Salvador.”
It used to diplomatically recognize the Republic of China,
a.k.a. the government of Taiwan,
as the one true government of China.
Not anymore.
That means, in the entire world,
there are only 17 countries left
that recognize the sovereignty of the Republic of China.
And some of them are barely even real countries.
Like...
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
What’s that, Shelley?
Ok, apparently it’s really nice there.
But most of the 17 countries that are still tight with Taiwan
are small island nations that,
let’s be honest,
don’t have much power in the world.
It’s like in high school gym class when they’re picking teams,
only instead of you being the kid no one wants on their team,
there are already two teams, and everyone’s leaving
the small one that’s nice for the big one
that buys you fancy jerseys.
And infrastructure.
Other Latin American countries have also left Taiwan for China.
Panama broke ties with Taiwan in 2017.
The Dominican Republic did it just this May.
And in exchange for their new loyalties,
the Chinese Communist Party will give these countries big gifts...
that come with horrible debt traps
that future leaders will call stupid.
Meanwhile, in China, some genius on social media asked
what law exactly says Taiwan can’t be called a country.
To which the authorities said, obviously no law says that,
we make up the laws as we go.
Here, we’ll demonstrate...by arresting you.
Police said he had “profaned the people’s feelings”.
Hey, which law says you can’t profane the people’s feelings?
Exactly.
You know, it’s a good thing China requires people
to use their real name on social media.
They say the real name law is to help stop terrorists.
Which I guess includes 18 year old kids
who ask too many questions.
However, the Trump administration seemingly
has taken on the mantle of using Taiwan to troll China.
While the United States does recognize mainland China
as the one true China,
the Trump administration has also been friendly to Taiwan.
Like by giving the President of Taiwan a special tour of NASA.
This was a first for a President of Taiwan.
Tsai Ing-wen was on her way back to Taiwan
from a recent trip she made to Paraguay and Belize.
She apparently felt she needed to shore up ties
with her allies in Latin America.
Now, the Chinese Communist Party was not happy
that Tsai even was making a stopover in the US,
let alone getting a tour of NASA.
The reason this was such a troll,
though, is because the US would never allow
a scientist from mainland China to visit NASA.
Seriously.
In 2011,
Congress banned NASA from working with China
because of the risk of espionage.
“Two years later, a group of Chinese scientists was excluded
from attending a conference on NASA’s
Kepler space telescope programme.”
Let’s just say, when Xi Jinping sees this footage...
he won’t exactly be over the moon.
And before you go, did you know China Uncensored
is funded almost entirely by viewers like you?
That’s why every episode,
I say thank you to what I call
the China Uncensored 50-Cent Army—
the folks who contribute to the show
on the crowdfunding website Patreon—
by answering their questions!
Bob buffalo asks,
“Is there a possibility for Hong Kong to get its independence
like Singapore in a probable future?
Well, that would basically only happen in one of those
bizarre, “what if” comic book storylines.
I mean, what if Wolverine was Lord of the Vampires?
In 1965, the Parliament of Malaysia
voted unanimously to expel Singapore.
A few hours later, the Parliament of Singapore passed
the Republic of Singapore Independence Act.
And Singapore became an independent and sovereign republic.
But there is no way ever that China’s National People’s Congress
will ever say, “Hong Kong, we don’t want you.”
In fact, the Communist Party was ready to invade Hong Kong in 1960
if the British ever tried to implement democracy in Hong Kong.
So no matter how much the people of Hong Kong want independence,
or even just a tiny bit more democracy,
they’ll never get it from the Chinese Communist Party.
Thanks for you question, Bob.
And remember,
you too can have your questions answered on the show!
Head over to pateron.com/chinauncensored and become
a member of our 50-Cent Army!
You’ll get some neat stuff,
help out the show,
and have your deepest darkest questions answered.
Well, maybe.
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
Once again I’m your host Chris Chappell.
See you next time.
My beloved fans!
Did you know that Matt, Shelley, and I
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