On this episode of China Uncensored,
Chinese warships love the US Navy.
That’s why they’re getting so close, right?
You can’t spell re-education
without education!
And tasers.
And finally, the latest way China’s elite
are showing off their wealth.
This is China Uncensored.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
The United States Navy sent a message to China this week.
Two US warships sailed through the Strait of Taiwan.
According to defense officials speaking to CNN,
they were shadowed by multiple Chinese warships.
I’m not sure how many multiple means.
The US Navy said it was a routine drill,
but the real message was clear.
The US Navy was demonstrating that
the Taiwan Strait is international waters.
It’s just like the Navy does with
its freedom of navigation operations
in the South China Sea.
The Chinese Communist Party considers Taiwan a province
and has vowed to retake it by force if necessary.
So needless to say, the Communist Party
was not happy about the US actions.
“The Taiwan issue concerns
China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,
and is the most important,
most sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations.”
It’s an even more important issue than the trade war?
Wow.
The US Navy did the same thing back in July.
But lately, China has become more aggressive
in dealing with US freedom of navigation operations.
Earlier in October,
the US and Chinese navies played a game of chicken
in disputed waters of the South China Sea.
“The pictures tell the story.
A dangerously close encounter between a US navy ship
and Chinese warship in the South China Sea.
So close, the US navy says,
just 45 yards,
or 41 meters apart.”
To give the Chinese side the benefit of the doubt,
those warships are also made in China,
so maybe the steering just broke.
Meanwhile, Taiwan intelligence officials say
the Chinese Communist Party has been interfering
in their elections.
Which is one thing they have in common
with the Trump administration.
But I mean, if Taiwan really is just
a province of the People’s Republic of China,
as the Communist Party claims,
then really,
aren’t Chinese authorities just interfering
with their own democratic elections?
See?
There is democracy in China.
Case closed.
Now over to China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region,
where more than a million ethnic Uighurs
are happily enjoying the totally voluntary,
vocational training centers that are absolutely in no way
political re-education camps.
The editor of my favorite Chinese state run media,
the Global Times,
even snuck onto Twitter,
which is banned in China,
to show us some of the fun,
which is definitely not staged.
Obviously there’s a lot that goes into making
one of these vocational training centers a success.
So a reporter for the AFP
had a look at police requisition forms
to see just what was needed
to make the magic happen.
Turns out, it’s a lot of tear gas, tasers,
stun guns and spiked clubs.
And also police batons, electric cattle prods,
handcuffs, and pepper spray.
Wow, sounds like my elementary school.
You know, suddenly that ping-pong game
looks a lot less fun.
And in a sign that Malaysia is moving
further away from Chinese Communist Party’s influence,
the government released 11 ethnic Uighurs to Turkey,
instead of giving them to China.
The 11 people were part of a group of 200 Uighurs
that escaped China,
but were caught and detained in Thailand in 2014.
The Thai government sent most of them back to China.
To which the rest of the world was like,
ooohhh, not cool Thailand.
But these 11 broke out of Thai prison and snuck into Malaysia.
The Malaysian government decided to
release the Uighurs to Turkey,
instead of to China.
And it follows just a few months after Malaysia
canceled two major Chinese backed projects.
So needless to say,
China-Malaysian relations are not getting a high score.
Of course, no one in China is going to be getting
a high score for a while.
Because the government has pressed pause
on approving any new video games.
This “pause” started in March
and is expected to go on until 2019.
China is the biggest video game market in the world—
mostly cell phone games.
And the March shutdown has cost gaming companies
about 1.4 billion dollars.
Video games in China are regulated by
the State Administration of Press and Publication,
which itself is under the Propaganda Department.
So the video game ban is
a real shame for the Propaganda Department.
Since video games can be such great propaganda.
But maybe the Propaganda Department just wanted kids
to spend less time on propaganda videos
and more time on good old fashioned propaganda posters.
Yes, children, enjoy those space crystals.
With your space dog.
Speaking of creepy,
according to China’s State Council,
the head of China's liaison office to Macau
was very depressed,
and also just leapt to his death.
The political environment in China is a bit tense right now.
Top officials often find themselves being purged
in Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign.
And sometimes they kill themselves.
Not that that’s necessarily what happened here.
Sometimes people simply...slip and fall.
Like that politically well connected Chinese businessman
who accidentally fell to his death
while on a trip with his family this summer.
Speaking of falling, there’s a new viral trend in China
called falling stars, or flaunt your wealth.
It’s a chance for China’s nouveau riche to show off
just how much better they are than you.
They pretend to fall out of their luxury sports cars,
and all their luxury goods fall from their pockets
into perfectly placed positions for the camera.
It became so popular,
the Chinese Communist Party decided to get involved as well!
By making government employees do the same,
but to show off how hard they work.
State-run People’s Daily even collected them all
and praised the government employees
for “flaunting their wealth” with what really matters.
“These pictures may seem posed,
but they show that the young generation
dare to express themselves...
they flaunt their love and commitment for work.
If everyone is hardworking at the work at hand,
it will be the biggest wealth for the society.”
Why if only all government employees felt that way,
then maybe fewer of them would be getting depressed
and falling from buildings.
So what do you think?
Leave your comments below.
And now is the moment you’ve all been waiting for!
When I answer questions from a member of
the China Uncensored 50 cent army—
the fans who make this show possible
by contributing through the crowd funding website Patreon.
Daphne asks,
“Why do you think other countries have largely
turned a blind eye to China's mischiefs?
Haven't they learned from the Nazi's that this kind of attitude
will lead to more problems down the road?”
Good questions.
It’s actually interesting to look at what happened
when the Nazis first first took power in Germany, in 1933.
There were mixed reactions from other countries.
For example, these pictures are from...New Jersey.
And many Western companies were initially
pretty okay with the Nazis as well.
I mean, we can engage the Nazis so much better
if we’re involved in the German market
and all the money there, right?
But there were also people early on
who saw some of the not-so-great stuff
happening in Germany,
thanks to newspapers.
And tens of thousands of Americans
did protest the Nazis,
boycott German-made goods,
and sign petitions asking the US president
to speak out against the persecution of the Jews.
But President Roosevelt didn’t say anything,
partly because the US didn’t want to
interfere in a foreign country.
Also, Germany owed US banks billions of dollars
and the US government was afraid Hitler
would just cancel his debts.
Remember, this is also during the Great Depression,
so America’s own domestic problems seemed more pressing
than what was happening in Europe.
And unfortunately, these are many of the same reasons
why other countries are not speaking up about
the Chinese Communist Party now:
Countries are facing political influence from China,
or they don’t want to get involved in
what’s happening in another country,
or they have their own domestic issues to deal with,
and there’s definitely and especially money involved.
Now I’m not saying the Chinese regime today is like the Nazis.
I mean, it’s not like they’re rounding people up
based on their ethnicity
and putting them into camps.
And then producing propaganda videos
showing how great life is in those camps.
OK, fine.
But there’s so much money to be made in China!
Like by helping the Chinese regime
build its internet monitoring and censorship infrastructure.
The same kind of stuff being used right now in Xinjiang.
But Daphne, as you pointed out,
history has shown that ignoring authoritarian regimes
can lead to bigger problems down the road.
And with the Chinese Communist Party’s
growing attempts to influence other countries,
people are starting to see that.
That’s why we need to stay aware of
what the Chinese Communist Party is doing,
and to share that with others,
so countries can’t keep turning a blind eye.
And if you’d me to answer your question,
join up in the China Uncensored 50-army.
We have a very low mortality rate.
And for only a dollar or more per episode,
we’ll give you some cool perks
and you’ll have the chance to send me questions
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So head over to Pateron.com/chinauncensored to learn more.
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
Once again I’m your host Chris Chappell,
see you next time.