China threatens the US over more spy balloons
China and Iran forge a new partnership
And China blocks the WHO from investigating Covid
That and more on this week’s China news headlines.
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
This episode is sponsored by Incogni.
You probably know that companies are collecting your personal data. But you may not realize just
how many. Dozens, maybe hundreds—most of which you’ve never heard of. And you have
no idea what they’re doing with it. Incogni helps stop them. I’ll explain more at the end.
After the Chinese spy balloon flew across the US earlier this month, the US military
has shot down three more unidentified flying objects over the past week: One over Alaska,
one over Canada, and another one over Lake Huron, which spans the US-Canadian border.
What’s going on? Is the sky just littered with spy balloons we’ve never noticed before?
The White House says...don’t worry about it. They were probably commercial or benign. Probably.
How does the White House know they were commercial or benign?
Well, they don’t for sure. The military has not actually recovered any of the
debris after shooting them down, explaining that “They are in very difficult terrain.”
Well that makes me feel better.
Meanwhile, the US *has* retrieved “significant” debris from that original Chinese spy balloon.
That debris includes “all of the priority sensor and
electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure.”
This past Tuesday, US Senators were briefed in a classified meeting about that balloon
plus other recent sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects.
What was discussed in the meeting? I don’t know. It was classified. But one
US senator told reporters, “I think the public needs and deserves to know more.”
I agree. Plus, any classified briefing about UFOs has strong “Aliens killed JFK on 9/11” vibes,
so the sooner that gets unclassified, the better.
But while the US has said this was a Chinese spy balloon, and China claims it was a weather
balloon that got blown off course, now it turns out there could be a third explanation:
It was a Chinese spy balloon that got blown off course.
Apparently, the US had been tracking the balloon for nearly a week before
the US military shot it down off the coast of South Carolina.
The US had been tracking the balloon from China’s Hainan
Island—which has major PLA military installations.
It looked on track to fly over Guam, which has a big US military base.
China has sent spy balloons over Guam and Hawaii before, according to US officials.
But the balloon suddenly veered away from Guam and up towards Alaska.
US intelligence isn’t clear whether that was accidental or on purpose. But they
believe the balloon was originally supposed to spy on US military bases in the Pacific.
The balloon could have been blown off course by unusual high-altitude winds near Japan.
But when the balloon appeared again over Montana,
the Chinese Communist Party apparently decided to spy on US military bases anyway.
US officials said the balloon hovering over
sensitive nuclear sites in Montana was “no accident.”
So even if the CCP didn’t intend to fly their spy balloon over the continental US,
they still used it to spy on US military bases.
Why let a good opportunity go to waste?
And now that the rest of the world knows about Chinese spy balloons,
the Chinese Communist Party is doing what it does best: going on the offensive.
You see, the CCP has only one damage-control mode: blame everyone else for their problems.
Because they want everyone to remember who the real victim here is. The real victim is the CCP.
Now that I think about it, the CCP could definitely use some therapy.
Anyway, they’ve now accused the US of illegally flying high-altitude
balloons over Chinese airspace more than 10 times since last year,
calling the US the “world’s largest surveillance empire.”
Yes, yes it is truly America that’s the world’s largest surveillance empire.
This is an example of the number one rule in the Communist Party’s playbook:
accuse others of doing what you’re actually doing yourself.
The US, by the way, has denied flying balloons into Chinese airspace.
And the CCP haven’t actually backed up their accusation with any evidence.
Still, their claims are very believable...if you also believe their balloon was just a
weather monitor that accidentally went off course,
and then accidentally hovered over several US military bases.
But that’s not the only thing the CCP is upset about. They’re also upset that
Congress passed a resolution condemning the spy balloon.
And they’re also upset the US government sanctioned Chinese
companies that supported spy balloon programs.
Because the CCP hates getting called out, but they especially hate getting called out economically.
So in response, the CCP sanctioned two US
defense contractors that don’t actually do business with China.
And they also threatened to take other unspecified actions against the US.
Well, so much for the CCP’s diplomatic charm offensive.
You see, the fundamental problem is that the Chinese Communist Party can’t
accept responsibility for their actions. Which is something they could learn about
if they went to therapy.
But clearly, China is obsessed with balloons.
Which is why UK comedy duo Josh & Archie decided it would be apropos to send
their own spy balloon over their local Chinese Embassy, and post it on TikTok..
“Our balloon had scaled the embassy,
and was in Chinese airspace. Our spycam was staring into the windows of China.”
The Chinese Embassy responded by agreeing it was a funny prank, and everyone had a good laugh.
That is not what happened.
What did happen is, the London police came and told them to take it down.
At least they learned their lesson.
“We know nothing about global politics, but we do know that if the world’s largest
country invades your nation’s airspace with a giant spy balloon, it’s not that
hard to send your own giant spy balloon back into theirs. Just try not to get arrested.”
Which just goes to show, when it comes to harassing the CCP,
even trolls have their own special part to play.
And after the break, China screws over the World Health Organization, again.
Welcome back.
It’s not easy persecuting people. Which is why authoritarian regimes have to stick together.
And to ensure lasting friendship, Iran’s leader visited Beijing this week to meet with Xi Jinping.
The meeting went well. They signed 20 agreements on a range of topics, from technology to tourism.
Iran also used to trip to formally ratify their participation in the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Which is like NATO, but for dictators.
My favorite state-run media, The Global Times, said that China and Iran have made a lot of
achievements together... “by overcoming interference and sabotage by the US side.”
Some of that “interference and sabotage” includes the US sanctioning Iran for, you know,
building nuclear weapons and threatening to wipe a smaller country off the face of the earth.
Fortunately, Iran has figured out how to keep funding its nuclear program.
And one way is, by building partnerships with other authoritarians, like China.
Iranian oil sales to China have more than doubled over the last year.
And in 2021, the two countries signed a massive security agreement.
It included things like nuclear energy, military technology, and railroads.
Although after two years, “little has materialized so far.”
I’m sure that’s because of US “interference and sabotage”,
and not because the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t keep its promises.
Speaking of authoritarians sticking together,
China’s new top diplomat will also be visiting Russia this month.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said China and Russia will use the visit to “defend the
legitimate rights and interests of both sides, and play an active role for world peace”.
Ahh, world peace.
With Chinese characteristics.
Meanwhile, the new president of the Philippines
summoned the Chinese ambassador this week over a laser incident.
A Chinese coast guard ship had directed a military-grade
laser at a Philippine coast guard ship. It briefly blinded some of the Filipino crew.
The incident took place here, near the Second Thomas Shoal. It’s 120 miles off the coast of
the Philippines, and more than 700 miles from the nearest part of mainland China.
Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos Jr was big mad over this,
plus a whole bunch of other incidents in Filipino waters,
where the Chinese military seems to be getting more and more aggressive.
A Philippines spokesperson called China’s aggression “disturbing and disappointing.”
Meanwhile, China’s ambassador said he discussed with Marcos “how to
implement the consensus reached by the two countries on managing maritime differences.”
Yep, invading another country’s waters and then shining a laser at them—those
are really just differences that need to be worked out.
In response, the US has said it would defend the Philippines.
A State Department spokesperson said that in the event of a Chinese armed
attack on the Philippines, the US would invoke its 1951 mutual defense treaty,
and come to the Philippines’ aid. And the US demonstrated its commitment
to defending freedom in the South China Sea by holding drills there this week.
The US sent its 7th Fleet based in Japan and its 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit
based in California to conduct “integrated expeditionary strike force operations”.
A lot of the details were not made public. Although it was clearly planned in advance,
and was not directly related to the laser incident.
But it’s a signal from Washington to Beijing that
the US is definitely in the region, should the PLA do anything fishy.
And finally today, China is blocking the World
Health Organization from continuing its investigation into the origins of Covid.
Which is shocking news to absolutely no one who watches this show.
The WHO is abandoning phase two of its plan to
investigate Covid origins by conducting studies in China.
Honestly, if the WHO thought that the Chinese Communist Party was actually going to let them
conduct studies there, they probably also believe that Lucy is going to let Charlie
Brown kick the football any day now, too. Of course, after the story came out,
the WHO backtracked and said they were not abandoning their investigation.
They were just changing their plans, instead. Riiiight.
Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
was asked about the WHO saying they needed more cooperation from China.
And they basically said that maybe the WHO should
look into whether Covid came from the US biolab at Fort Detrick, instead.
Ah, CCP. Never change.
And this episode is sponsored by Incogni.
Whenever you do anything online, or use apps on your phone,
there’s a huge number of companies that collect your personal data.
When I signed up for Incogni 12 months ago, I discovered there were dozens
of data brokers that potentially had my private information—without my permission.
And these companies can get hacked, spreading my private information even more widely.
For example, a couple months ago, thousands of Norton LifeLock customers got hacked.
Which is ironic, since the whole point of LifeLock is identity theft protection.
But this just goes to show, even the biggest companies can get hacked.
So what can you do? Get as many companies as possible to delete
your data off the internet. And that’s what Incogni does for you.
Incogni has already gotten my details removed from 99 of these data brokers, with a lot more
in progress. And I didn’t have to do anything after signing up. Incogni just handles it.
So I recommend you get Incogni for yourself. Click the link below, or go to incogni.com/uncensored.
The first 100 people to use the code UNCENSORED will get 20% off.
Get your personal data off the market with Incogni.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.