The US Navy warns
China could invade Taiwan soon.
And the Chinese Communist Party wants the US
To be afraid.
Very afraid.
Welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
This episode has been sponsored by Surfshark—because you should be protecting your identity whenever
you go online by using a VPN like Surfshark.
There’s been a lot of attention on Taiwan recently.
And not because of its delicious pineapples.
Ok, some of the attention has been because of its delicious pineapples.
But there’s more and more concern over whether the Chinese Communist Party will try to take
Taiwan by force.
That’s why the Taiwan Strait, the body of water that separates Taiwan from China, has
been called a powder keg that could set off a world war.
I know what you’re thinking.
Yet another light, uplifting China Uncensored episode.
And it gets better.
Earlier this year, a US Admiral warned that China could invade Taiwan in the next six
years.
That was Admiral Philip Davidson, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command.
He made that assessment back in March and then...retired from the Navy.
Good timing.
The new commander of the Indo-Pacific Command is also concerned about Taiwan.
He says that China’s threat to Taiwan is “closer to us than most think.”
And that a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan is the biggest threat in the Pacific.
And a bigger threat than North Korea or Russia.
Look, there’s a reason that I started China Uncensored, and not North Korea UnJuched,
or Russia UnPutined.
And that reason is...I don’t want to get poisoned.
Anyway, the point is that it’s good news that the US military is concerned about the
Chinese regime’s threat to Taiwan.
Now the question is, what are we going to do about it?
The answer is: Absolutely nothing.
We don’t want to get involved at all!
Because, according to my favorite state-run media, the Global Times, the US will lose
a war with China over Taiwan...island.
Now, at first glance, this seems like a pretty standard Global Times article.
It blames the US and its Taiwan Relations Act for giving birth to “Taiwan’s renegade
secessionists.”
It calls Congress’s support of Taiwan corrupt.
And it compares Taiwan’s situation to the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
Just a reminder that Taiwan is a self-governing country that was never controlled by the People’s
Republic of China at any point in history.
So, yeah, totally the same thing as the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
But what does the Global Times article say that the US should do, if it doesn’t want
to fight over Taiwan?
Tell Taiwan to accept “one country, two systems” rule under the Chinese Communist
Party.
I mean, it worked out so well for Hong Kong.
And if that doesn’t work, the US president could just rescind the Taiwan Relations Act...which
he can’t do because it’s a US law, and only Congress can change laws.
But if Congress gets in the way, then the US president should just order the US government
to not get involved in a China-Taiwan conflict.
And why would the US do this, again?
Well, it’s because China has a decisive advantage in a fight with the US: casualty
tolerance.
Meaning, that to get what it wants, the Chinese Communist Party is way more willing to let
its own people die than the US is.
Here’s the kicker, though.
The whole point of this article is this sentence: “Taiwan’s fate poses no existential threat
to the US, and the US should not fall into the trap of paying for their hubris with American
blood.”
They’re saying, Taiwan’s not important, so it’s definitely not worth shedding American
blood over, so we should encourage them to “reunify” with an authoritarian regime
that they were never a part of in the first place.
What a great idea!
Like I said, it sounds like a standard Global Times article.
But it turns out, it wasn’t written by a Global Times editor.
It was written by a retired Marine Corps infantry officer who now serves as a US civil servant
in the Pentagon.
Wait, is the Pentagon ok with its employees writing opinion articles in a Chinese propaganda
outlet that’s been designated a foreign mission by the US government?
Well, apparently the author didn’t ask for approval before publishing this piece.
Which means he could be facing disciplinary action.
Now, I don’t know why this author chose to write this article for a Chinese propaganda
outlet.
Maybe he really thinks he’s preventing war between China and the US.
Regardless, for the Global Times, this is a propaganda jackpot.
I’ll tell you more after the break.
Welcome back.
This Global Times article is a perfect example of the Chinese Communist Party’s political
warfare.
As Professor Kerry Gershaneck says, political warfare is the Communist Party’s plan to
win without fighting.
Part of political warfare is media warfare.
That “involves using public opinion as a weapon by propagandizing through various forms
of media in order to weaken the adversary’s ‘will to fight.’”
Here’s an example: This China Daily article warns that Taiwan should abandon its independence
stance to avoid war.
The Communist Party might call it Taiwan’s independence stance.
Normal people would call it acknowledging reality.
Unlike Chinese state-run media, which has to call Taiwan’s presidential elections
the Taiwan regional leadership elections.
Because they can’t admit that Taiwan is in fact already independent.
But the point is, the Communist Party is using media warfare to intimidate Taiwan.
And that’s what they’re doing to the US, too.
Their message is, Taiwan isn’t worth fighting for, so we should encourage them to give in
to the Chinese Communist Party.
What’s interesting is that the Communist Party’s media warfare messaging is showing
up in American media outlets, too.
More after the break.
Welcome back
Messages from the Communist Party’s media warfare are showing up in US media outlets.
Like in this article, which calls a war over Taiwan foolish and costly for the US.
It says the best case scenario is that the US will “suffer egregious losses in ships,
aircraft, and troops.”
While in a worst-case scenario, American cities are turned into nuclear wastelands, killing
millions.
And all over an issue that doesn’t directly affect our national security.
That is bullpucky.
Excuse my French.
I’ve talked before on the show about why Taiwan is an important national security issue
for the US, and especially US allies in Asia.
Including Taiwan’s strategic position in the first island chain.
And the fact that Taiwan manufactures the most advanced semiconductors in the world.
And how losing Taiwan would put US security in the Pacific at a huge risk.
Oh yeah, plus the moral issue that we shouldn’t just hand over a democratic country of 24
million people to an authoritarian regime that’s committing genocide.
When people talk about appeasing the Chinese Communist Party by letting them take Taiwan,
it’s like they assume that the Party is going to stop with Taiwan.
No, the Party never stops.
There are other examples of the Party’s media warfare messaging popping up in US media.
Like this New York Times opinion article that calls President Biden’s Taiwan policy reckless.
Because it’s increasing the risk of world war.
Yeah, that sounds bad.
But the article conflates showing more support for Taiwan with trying to establish official
diplomatic relations with Taiwan, something the Biden administration is definitely not
doing right now.
And it assumes the reason we’ve been able to avoid war over Taiwan for 40 years is because
everyone just pretends that Taiwan is not officially a country.
That’s wrong.
The reason we’ve been able to avoid war for 40 years is because the Chinese Communist
Party’s military isn’t able to invade Taiwan yet.
But the message here is that we shouldn’t do anything to anger China, because that could
lead to war.
It’s straight out of the media warfare playbook!
So what’s the point of this media warfare messaging?
It’s not going to intimidate the Pentagon, but it still could have a huge effect.
First, it plants the idea in US media that the US shouldn’t support Taiwan, because
that might anger China, which could lead to war.
That leads to more and more articles about how the US shouldn’t support Taiwan.
And that influences US business and political elites to also say that the US shouldn’t
support Taiwan, because that might anger China, which could lead to war.
That especially works for those elites who have business interests in China.
Which is...all of them.
It’s like the Chinese Communist Party is...winning the war without fighting.
And this could also affect US policy, too.
Support for Taiwan is a popular, bipartisan issue among US officials.
But most Americans don’t know much about Taiwan, or why it’s important.
So this type of media warfare can be used to demoralize average Americans.
If you turn Americans against the idea of fighting for Taiwan, then that puts even more
pressure on US politicians to stop supporting Taiwan.
Look, no one wants to see an actual boots-on-the-ground war with China.
But the way to avoid war is not to appease the Chinese Communist Party.
We should know by now that appeasement doesn’t work.
The way to avoid war is deterrence: not letting it get to that point in the first place.
And there are many ways the US can deter a war with China over Taiwan...which I can talk
about in another episode.
See?
This was uplifting.
I’m ending it on a note of hope!
And this episode is sponsored by Surfshark.
Whenever you go online, you should be using a VPN like Surfshark to protect your identity.
Surfshark’s VPN encryption helps make sure no one steals your private data.
Ahem, Chinese military.
And Surfshark also has a great new feature called Surfshark Search.
It’s like using Incognito Mode in your browser, but even more incognito.
Surfshark Search doesn’t collect or store any of your data.
And search results won’t be connected to your browsing history.
That’s especially important if you’re using a browser like, say Opera, which is
now owned by a Chinese company!
And with one Surfshark account, you can connect as many devices as you want.
Try it out with a 30-day money back guarantee.
And Surfshark has a special discount for China Uncensored fans.
Go to surfshark.com/uncensored and use the code UNCENSORED to get our special deal.
It lets you save 83% off a 2-year plan.
Click the link below.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.