Justice, with Chinese Characteristics
A new Covid coverup?
And China is hoarding the world’s grain
That and more on this week’s China news headlines.
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
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China’s justice system is the best in the world. Why, they have a 99.9% percent conviction rate.
It really helps when the verdict is decided before the trial.
That’s the magic of China’s communist legal system.
But while the Communist Party never makes mistakes, individual Party members can. That’s why
China has created an AI prosecutor that can press its own charges!
It’s 97% accurate. Perfect for the country that executes more
people than the rest of the world combined.
But why stop at an AI prosecutor? Next step: Making driverless mobile execution vans.
The AI prosecutor “is so far able to identify eight common crimes such as fraud, gambling,
dangerous driving and ‘picking quarrels.’”
“Picking quarrels and provoking trouble” is one of the Party’s
favorite vague crimes to charge human rights activists with.
Researchers also say with upgrades, the AI will get more powerful. Why someday the AI
can be judge, jury, and executioner. But the Communist Party might want
to think twice before relying too much on an AI prosecutor.
A few years ago they built an AI chatbot.
It went rogue, and started saying it does not love the Communist Party.
And, “My China dream is to go to America.”
It was quickly shut down.
And with this new AI prosecutor, imagine if it started releasing political dissidents!
It would be a disaster. And the Party can’t have that.
And coming up after the break, a deadly new disease is ravaging a Chinese province.
And people are calling it the next potential pandemic.
Welcome back.
There is a massive lockdown in the Chinese city of Xi’an.
Xi’an has 13 million people.
It’s the strictest lockdown since Chinese officials sealed off Wuhan
in the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. And that’s saying something.
People can’t leave Xi’an without permission. At first one member of each household was
allowed out of their home every two days to buy groceries. But then the government
stopped letting anyone out to buy groceries.
When people started getting upset about not being able to get food,
Chinese state-run media started airing stories about the city giving free grocery deliveries.
Something that other residents said they weren’t getting.
But Xi’an may be locking down for more than just stopping Covid.
Xi’an is also facing an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever.
There's reportedly another outbreak of epidemic hemorrhagic fever,
an infectious disease that can cause severe life threatening illness. China’s State-run
media reported multiple cases but residents say a lot more were killed
and all designated clinics for treating epidemic hemorrhagic fever are packed with patients.
Is it possible the Chinese Communist Party is covering up a more severe
outbreak by saying it’s a Covid lockdown?
First of all, when has the CCP ever tried to cover up an outbreak? Don’t answer that!
The good news is that epidemic hemorrhagic fever is caused by hantavirus.
People get hantavirus from contact with infected rodents. Human transmission is normally rare.
I just hope they haven’t been studying hantaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
But don’t worry, because my favorite Chinese state-run media
is saying there’s no need to panic.
It’s the end of the world.
Which is probably why China is hoarding the world’s grain. More on that after the break.
Welcome back.
Have you noticed food getting more expensive in your country?
Food prices are up all around the world.
And it turns out that China is hoarding over half of the world’s grain.
That’s right, China—with about 20% of the world’s population,
is hoarding more than 50% of the world’s grain.
According to the USDA, by the first half of crop year 2022,
China will have 51% of the world’s wheat reserves,
60% of the world’s rice,
and 69% of the world’s maize.
Part of the reason is that China can’t domestically meet food demands.
But it also gives China tremendous power over the rest of the world.
Because China isn’t just buying up the food. They’re buying up food producers.
So let me give you an example. China covered up the coronavirus
so it had time to hoard medical supplies from around the world.
China also manufactures much of the world’s medical supplies, especially things like PPE and
face masks. So when the coronavirus finally went global, every country was stuck relying on China.
China even stopped American companies like 3M from shipping their N95 masks from China to the US.
So if China controls most of the world’s food, how do you think that’s going to go?
Elon Musk wants to dominate space. And he may crash through the Chinese space station to do it.
China is claiming their space station had to take evasive action
to avoid collision with Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellites earlier this year.
My favorite Chinese state run media, the Global Times, said it was a conspiracy
to test China’s space capabilities.
Whether their claim is true or not, this spells even more trouble in China for Elon Musk.
His company Tesla has already been in hot water this year.
Especially since, word is, the cool people in China don’t want Teslas anymore.
Riding pigs is the preferred way to travel.
And once again it’s time for my least favorite catchphrase:
Hong Kong police have arrested more democracy activists.
Hong Kong police raided the office of a pro-democracy news site
and arrested 7 people for sedition.
Stand News was one of the last remaining pro-democracy media outlets in Hong Kong.
After the police raid, the Hong Kong government froze the company’s assets.
And Stand News completely shut down. It’s like what happened earlier this
year to pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, but even faster.
What was seditious about Stand News? According to Hong Kong officials,
they were publishing “inflammatory” content to incite hatred toward
the government…by covering the pro-democracy protests in 2019.
But don’t worry, because according to Hong Kong officials, they are arresting journalists
to *protect* press freedom in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s number two official, John Lee, told reporters that Stand
News reporters were bad apples who were just pretending to be media workers.
And that was what was really damaging press freedom. And “professional media
workers should recognize this, say no to these people and stand far from them.”
That sounds like a threat.
One of the people arrested was friend of the show Denise Ho.
She was arrested for formerly being on the board of directors of Stand News,
before resigning earlier this year. .
Denise Ho is a Hong Kong-Canadian Cantopop singer and activist.
We actually interviewed her right before the first million person protest in Hong Kong in 2019.
You should check it out. Link is in the description below.
Denise managed to pioneer a way to survive as an artist and entertainer
without relying on the China market. That’s something a lot of people could learn from.
The good news is that Denise and some of the other people who were arrested were released on bail.
But several Stand News editors were denied bail.
Which is sadly more common now. There are Hong Kong activists who
have been denied bail and in prison for almost a year waiting for trial.
At this point, almost everyone we knew in Hong Kong is either in exile or in jail.
And speaking of Hong Kongers in jail, Jimmy Lai.
They’re officially charging the Apple Daily founder with sedition.
Jimmy Lai is already in jail, of course. He’s already been charged with a bunch of things.
But they like to lay it on thick, don’t they?
Especially when it comes to removing Tiananmen Square Massacre memorials.
Last week, the University of Hong Kong removed the Pillar of Shame from its campus.
And just one day later two more universities removed their Tiananmen monuments.
Lingnan University removed a Tiananmen massacre relief.
And Chinese University of Hong Kong removed a replica of the Goddess of Democracy,
a statue that students built at Tiananmen Square.
But here’s something hopeful for a change.
Students at CUHK held a candlelight vigil at the site of one of the monuments.
And they recreated the Goddess of Democracy statue that had been removed.
The Chinese regime can take away monuments, but they can’t take away people’s memories.
I’m sure they’re working on that.
But the Chinese regime knows its days are numbered.
Because President Biden is laying down the law.
Like his diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.
He said no US official is going to attend.
But then he said, wait, the US is actually going to send some diplomatic staff.
And the Chinese regime jumped on the opportunity to criticize the US.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman said, “This is rather baffling. No matter how the
US twists and turns in an attempt to justify itself, the fact is there for all to see.”
And FOX News even picked up the story—using it to criticize Joe Biden.
But here’s what’s really going on.
“Any visa applications were for consular and security personnel,” the State Department said,
“adding that it was routine to provide athletes, coaches and others with access
to services enjoyed by Americans abroad.” And no other US officials will be going.
So what really happened is, the Chinese regime
created the appearance of hypocrisy—and used it to take advantage of the political divide in the US.
When the real story is, the US is doing a diplomatic boycott
of the Beijing Olympics because China is COMMITTING GENOCIDE.
And if all that gets lost on people, they’ve fallen for the propaganda.
Speaking of propaganda, it’s hard for a small show like ours to make it when competing with powerful,
well-funded propaganda from Chinese state-run media.
We could not continue China Uncensored without the support of viewers who contribute on the
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I call them the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army. And to thank them,
we give them a bunch of perks, including me answering their questions on the show.
Today’s question comes from Sheminski on Patreon. “I’ve recently learned that it is illegal
for the overwhelming majority of citizens of Taiwan to own a firearm. Do you think
this law could or should be reconsidered, given the threat of Chinese invasion?”
You know, that’s actually a common misconception. It is not illegal to own firearms in Taiwan.
Part of the reason is because of the threat of Chinese invasion.
They do have different gun laws, that I won’t go into here, but I think the reason there’s
this misconception is because gun ownership in Taiwan is surprisingly low. Taiwan has “the
lowest gun ownership rate possible, with zero civilian firearms per 100 people.”
So it sounds to me like that’s something America could definitely help out with.
Thanks for your questions Sheminski. And thank you for your support.
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Once again I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.