On this episode of China Uncensored,
A US Senator had a Chinese spy on her staff.
For decades.
The Chinese military tests a new hypersonic waverider.
That’s a missile, not a surfboard.
And finally, Chinese police are fearless.
When it comes to arresting dissidents.
This is China Uncensored.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored,
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
Our top story, turns out a former staffer
of California Senator Dianne Feinstein...
was a Chinese spy!
This happened five years ago,
when she was the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
You’d think she should have known, right?
But she had to learn about it from the FBI.
Then she fired the staffer.
A spokesperson for Feinstein said, don’t worry,
no staffer in California had security clearance.
However, Feinstein’s connections with China go deeper than that.
And it ties into a much larger story
about how the Chinese Communist Party uses what’s known as
“elite capture” to influence American government officials.
We’ll have more on that in an upcoming episode.
The Chinese military has just tested a new hypersonic aircraft,
called Starry Sky 2.
Which sounds like either a Japanese anime
or a lesser Van Gogh painting.
But no, Starry Sky 2 is China’s first hypersonic waverider vehicle.
Chinese state-run media called the test a success.
That may or may not be an actual photo of the Starry Sky 2—
since according to the article,
it has a wedge-shaped fuselage.
It supposedly uses its unique shape
to ride the shock waves
generated by its own hypersonic flight.
Basically, it’s like a missile on a surfboard.
That can carry a nuclear warhead.
Gnarly, dude!
Oh, and US missile defense systems have no way to defend against it.
Speaking of war with China, Trade War!
As you know, many US companies,
particularly tech companies, have been doing
anything and everything to get into the China market.
And the Chinese Communist Party takes full advantage of that.
Apple recently hit a market cap of over 1 trillion dollars.
Yayy!!
Except that’s largely thanks to China.
And according to state-run People’s Daily,
that means companies like Apple are now
a bargaining chip in the trade war.
I mean, Apple is doing so well in China,
and some Chinese businesses are really hurting from the trade war.
Does that sound fair?
It would be a shame, if, er, oh I don’t know,
“Chinese people make it a target of anger and nationalist sentiment.”
Yes, Chinese people—
with absolutely no prompting
from the Chinese government or state-run media—
might target Apple with anger and nationalist sentiment.
All by themselves.
But the joke’s on the Chinese regime.
Because somehow I can’t imagine President Trump
losing sleep over the fortunes of Apple.
He only loses sleep over what he’s going to Tweet at 3 am.
And speaking of Trump’s 3 am tweets...
ok, 5:30 am tweets,
the US has imposed sanctions on Iran once again.
And President Trump’s Twitter message is clear.
You either trade with the US or Iran, but not both.
But it seems the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t care.
I mean, I get it.
China and Iran have so much more in common.
The people of both countries love eating rice,
drinking tea,
and being locked up in prison for having opinions.
And the Chinese regime loves Iranian oil.
And since they currently buy a quarter of Iran’s oil exports,
they’re not going to stop because of US sanctions.
In fact, they’re probably going to buy even more oil.
Not to mention all the new business China is doing with Iran
as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Speaking of Chinese businesses,
Chinese telecom giant Huawei has surpassed Apple
as the world’s number two smartphone maker.
Korean Samsung is still number one, though.
How did Huawei make it to number two?
Thanks to its close relationship with the Chinese government.
As well as the Chinese military.
And the fact Huawei spies on its competitors,
and has been stealing intellectual property for a long time.
Yes, this article is from 15 years ago.
So with all the stealing intellectual property
and support from the Chinese regime,
no wonder Huawei has surpassed Apple.
Speaking of a Chinese company getting a few extra perks
to beat its Western counterpart,
this is Baidu,
the Chinese search engine with a...
familiar looking homepage.
Baidu says they’re going to beat Google if Google’s
new censored search engine comes back to China.
Which really is just perfect.
Google is going to give in to Chinese censorship demands
to get back into the China market.
And then a homegrown Chinese search engine
will outcompete Google,
because of course.
It reminds me of that ad Baidu ran in 2009,
where Google was the arrogant white guy who spoke bad Chinese,
and Baidu steals his girl and Google spits blood.
That was probably the most truthful thing ever
to be put on Chinese state-run television.
Meanwhile Google has been taking a beating
both inside the company and outside—
after its plans for a censored Chinese search engine were leaked.
Google has responded by...saying nothing at all.
Sounds like a winning strategy.
And finally,
Chinese police just don’t care anymore.
This is Sun Wenguang, an 80-year-old academic
living in the Chinese city of Jinan.
During a recent interview with Radio Free Asia,
a group of policemen showed up and, well, take a listen.
What are you doing?
Let me tell you, it’s illegal for you to come to my home.
I have my freedom of speech!
Did you hear the live audio?
Now, I’m no authoritarian leader, but if I were,
I’d probably know that arresting an elderly professor
during a live interview would be really bad
for my international image!
I would wait until after the interview.
Duh.
Then again, with almost every major company
and many countries begging to do business with China,
what the heck?!
Chinese police can do whatever they want!
Who’s going to say anything?
Journalists?
Who listens to them?
So what do you think?
Leave your comments below.
And before you go,
it’s once again time to answer questions
from fans who support China Uncensored
on the crowdfunding website Patreon.
Fiona asks,
“What are the best places to visit in China
that still have much of ancient Chinese civilization/history
preserved that wasn't destroyed in the Cultural Revolution?”
That’s a tough question.
China has thousands of years of history.
Before the Cultural Revolution,
even a brick wall might have been around for hundreds of years.
It’s hard to imagine just how full China was with cultural relics.
But during the Cultural Revolution,
Mao sought to destroy what he called the Four Olds—
Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas.
A huge number of irreplaceably temples
and artifacts were lost forever.
There are still some that have survived, though.
For example, the Jokhang Temple in Tibet.
But the problem is, the Jokhang Temple—
like a lot of cultural sites—
has been subverted by the Communist Party,
and turned into a propaganda tool to show
how the Party is so good at preserving Chinese—
or in this case, Tibetan—culture.
I wish I could say go visit such and such temple.
But the truth is,
a lot of temples are controlled by the Communist Party.
When my producer Matt visited the Jokhang Temple in 2002,
people warned him not to have conversations
with any of the monks there,
because a lot of them were spies,
and were trying to catch foreigners
who might support a free Tibet.
And after taking this photo,
the monks asked him for money.
Obviously, there are still a number of cultural relics
left from ancient China.
Like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City,
and the Terracotta Warriors.
There are also places with beautiful scenery and history,
like Hangzhou, Suzhou,
and that one place with the mountains from Avatar.
So those are some places you could visit.
But sadly, the spirit of ancient Chinese civilization
has been severely damaged by the Communist Party.
Over the last 40 years of economic reform,
as China has been opening more and more to tourists,
they’ve restored a lot of the old historical sites.
But they certainly don’t want to restore traditional values
like compassion and honesty, or traditional ideas
like if a government doesn’t serve the people,
it has lost the mandate to rule.
What nonsense!
But there is one part of China you can go to
to experience authentic Chinese culture:
Taiwan!
When I was in a Taiwan a couple years ago,
I was pleased to see that even as the country
is covered with high-speed trains and modern hotels,
the people and government there both have a lot of respect
for preserving traditional culture,
even when foreigners come and goof around.
Also, the food is delicious.
Thanks for your question, Fiona.
And thanks to all the Patreon supporters,
whom I call the China Uncensored 50-cent Army—
the soldiers who help keep this show alive
by contributing a dollar or more per episode.
With Google trying to get back into China,
let’s just say we will probably continue to rely
mainly on viewer support.
So if you can,
head over to patreon.com/chinauncensored.
Anything you can contribute helps keep the lights on.
And that lets us keep the spotlight on China.
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
Once again I’m your host Chris Chappell.
See you next time.
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