Chinese companies make a fortune from Covid.
Protests erupt against “traitor” Xi Jinping
And Elon Musk solves all the problems between China and Taiwan.
That and more on this week’s China News Headlines.
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
This episode is sponsored by Surfshark. You should be using a VPN like Surfshark to protect
yourself whenever you go online.
A rare protest happened in Beijing this week.
Just days before the Communist Party’s 20th Party Congress, someone unfurled two banners
and lit a fire on a bridge overpass in China’s capital.
Something that wouldn’t be a big deal in other countries where protests are legal.
But in China, this was huge. Especially since Beijing really clamps down on security ahead
of a big Communist Party meeting.
The last time this meeting was held, Beijing banned knife sales, and ordered people not
to open their windows.
So the fact that someone was able to do any kind of protesting is pretty remarkable.
This banner says: “No to Covid tests, yes to food. No to lockdowns, yes to freedom.
No to lies, yes to dignity. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to leaders,
yes to votes. Don’t be a slave, be a citizen.”
But it’s the second banner that’s even more explosive.
It says: “Students, strike. Workers, strike. Remove the traitor and dictator Xi Jinping.”
Here’s a photo of someone dressed like a construction worker putting up the banner.
In this video, you can see police taking down the banners and it looks like arresting the
person who put them up.
Needless to say, all of the photos and videos of this incident are being scrubbed from the
Chinese internet and social media.
Words like “warrior” and “a courageous person” have been censored.
People had their WeChat accounts suspended for sharing photos of the incident.
And this is how crazy censorship can get in China:
“A song named ‘Sitong Bridge,’ the name of the [overpass] where the incident reportedly
happened, was removed from online music platforms.”
Imagine if a protest happened in Manhattan and every song about New York was removed
from the Internet.
This week, Chinese authorities have been rushing to control new Covid cases across the country.
How bad is it? Well, “Mainland China reported 427 new symptomatic Covid cases for Monday”
nationwide. And if you add asymptomatic cases, there’s
more than 2,000 new Covid cases per day in China.
Which, ok, that still doesn’t sound like a lot in a country of 1.4 billion people.
But these are the official numbers, which could be an undercount. And remember, the
Chinese Communist Party has a *Zero* Covid policy. Even 2,000 cases is still more than
zero.
And the only tool the Communist Party has is to treat the virus like a Chinese dissent—
and lock it up.
Across China this week, “Nearly two hundred million people are in some form of lockdown.”
And that comes at a cost. Not the human cost—the Party doesn’t care about that. I mean the
financial cost.
Analysts estimate that “regular mass testing would cost nearly $100 billion a year if 900
million people were tested every three days.” Which in the cities, a lot of people are required
to do.
In fact, police have even detained people just for skipping Covid tests, “sometimes
locking them up for more than a week.”
But there’s a silver lining to all this government spending.
See, even though testing measures are not very effective at actually stopping the spread
of Covid, the testing industry “continues to make huge profits.”
Which means that as long as China’s Zero Covid policy continues, certain big corporations
and special interest groups will be a-ok.
And don’t think that the Chinese Communist Party will be loosening its Covid rules anytime
soon.
State-run People’s Daily wrote on Wednesday that Covid policies will continue.
They wrote that “Lying flat is not advisable, and to win (the COVID battle) while lying
flat is not possible.”
“Lying flat” refers to doing nothing. Which itself is a new trend in China, as a
lot of young people are fed up with not just Covid policy, but all sorts of things.
Well, you’d better get up off the floor and fight, ya lazy millennials! Fight that...microscopic
virus. By not leaving your apartment.
And to encourage that fighting spirit of not going outside, but also definitely not lying
flat, one city in Yunnan Province has “offered cash rewards to residents who report on individuals
attempting to conceal their travel histories.”
See? You can win the battle against Covid by reporting on your friends and neighbors!
Yes, do it in the spirit of communism. But also in the spirit of capitalism. Because
“Residents who single out close contacts of such travelers will receive 2,000 yuan.”
That’s worth about 280 US dollars.
So if you do live in China, and plan to go on vacation, keep it quiet and don’t post
your thirsty travel pics on Instagram.
Actually, you can’t because Instagram is banned in China. Fun fact: China’s version
of Instagram is called Xiaohongshu, which literally means…Little Red Book.
And after the break, Elon Musk solves the China-Taiwan problem.
Welcome back.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from the madness of the past two years, it’s
that billionaires can solve all our problems.
Case in point, Elon Musk.
He’s been trying to buy Twitter, suggesting he’ll restore certain banned speech on the
platform—especially political speech.
And last week, in an interview with Financial Times, he gave his very important billionaire
opinion on how to handle China wanting to take over Taiwan.
He said, “My recommendation... would be to figure out a special administrative zone
for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable, probably won’t make everyone happy. And it’s possible,
and I think probably, in fact, that they could have an arrangement that’s more lenient
than Hong Kong.”
So under his arrangement, it’s possible and maybe even probable that Taiwan under
China’s rule wouldn’t have *no* free speech like Hong Kong—but could at least keep *some*
of their free speech. As long as the Taiwanese are well behaved. And as long as their free
speech doesn’t get political.
And I’m sure the Chinese Communist Party will keep their promises. Just ask Hong Kong.
Sure, Elon Musk’s comments made a lot of people unhappy. Like everyone in Taiwan.
But my favorite State-run media the Global Times was super happy! They wrote a whole
article about it, and quoted a Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson praising Elon Musk.
“We hope and are happy to see more and more people understand and support peaceful reunification
and ‘one country, two systems.’” That’s good news for Elon Musk. At least
financially. Remember, his company Tesla is heavily invested in China.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Tesla hit a China sales record, right as Beijing
praised Elon Musk’s Taiwan proposal.
Anyway, Tesla has poured tons of money into China. It was reported last year that Tesla
would invest more than a hundred million just to expand its Shanghai factory.
And on top of that, Tesla relies on Chinese companies overseas to acquire the rare earth
elements Tesla needs for their massive car batteries.
That cobalt won’t mine itself! Get back to work, kids!
So let’s say Elon Musk buys Twitter. And then Chinese authorities threaten Tesla unless
Twitter promises to, for example, censor dissidents, or expose what location they’re Tweeting
from. What do you think would happen?
Obviously, Elon Musk would put his billions of dollars at risk and stand up for free speech.
Because that’s what billionaires do: They speak truth to power.
And after the break, you can learn a lot from Chinese police.
Welcome back.
Despite Russia’s war in Ukraine, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin remain BFFs.
And now, according to a panel of experts organized by the Hudson Institute, China and Russia
are quietly expanding their Arctic partnership. Here’s what that means.
China wants control of the Arctic shipping lanes.
As you can see on this map, where the north pole is in the center, those polar routes
are a much faster way to move containers from China to the US East Coast, and to Western
Europe.
But the partnership with Russia is about more than just shipping.
“China is subtly installing a larger presence in the Arctic through an extensive partnership
with Russia in areas ranging from multi-use ports and airfields to energy extraction.”
And the partnership will also include sharing intelligence and surveillance data. It’s
always good when authoritarian regimes get better at those things.
Now officially, China has not established a military or naval base in Russia. And that’s
probably never going to happen.
Because why risk the backlash of making it official!? If China really needs to dock its
Destroyers at some Russian port,
I’m sure these two besties can work something out.
Speaking of countries where China is definitely, positively, for sure *not* going to build
a naval base: The Solomon Islands. It’s way out in the Pacific Ocean, between Australia
and Hawaii.
It happens to be run by a Prime Minister who’s been taking money from China, and using it
to secure his own grip on power.
He recently signed a security deal with China.
And now he’s sending 32 police officers to China for training.
Because China has the best training for police officers. These Solomon Islanders will learn
China’s techniques for...
effective community policing...
protecting the rights of minorities...
and ensuring suspects are treated with dignity and fairness.
The World Bank this week said China needs $17 trillion in investments to meet its climate
goals.
The World Bank is a giant global institution that makes loans and grants to developing
countries. It’s all about figuring out the best way to finance important projects.
That’s why their latest report says that to help stop climate change, China “would
need private investment to cover the immense price tag and unleash the needed innovations.”
In other words, Western companies really need to invest in Chinese green energy projects.
And I agree! If they do, we’re bound to see more innovations. Like...
China stealing American wind turbine technology,
using ethnic forced labor to make solar panels,
and building more coal-fired power plants than the rest of the world combined.
Which is why the World Bank says “private-sector participation [is] ‘crucial’ to ensure
China's path to carbon neutrality.” Because if Western companies pump money into
China, the Chinese Communist Party will definitely use it to meet the West’s climate goals.
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Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.