Tensions between Taiwan and China
are at an all time high.
But Taiwan has extended an olive branch.
How’d that turn out?
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
Boy, tensions between China and Taiwan have been getting really bad lately.
All of China’s thinly veiled threats after the US sold weapons to Taiwan.
All those Chinese warplanes flying over Taiwan.
I mean this is getting nuts. Even Japanese anime celebrities can’t escape China’s campaign over
Taiwan. Uhh, Shelley, are we playing mad libs with the script? Oh, no, it’s a real thing.
This has all been in the lead up to Taiwan's National Day, which was October 10.
National Day really upsets the Chinese Communist Party, because it kind of gives
the impression that Taiwan is its own country with its own national holiday.
That’s why the Chinese Communist Party does things that look crazy to normal countries,
like telling Indian media how to cover Taiwan’s National Day. By not calling Taiwan a country.
That kind of attitude leaves the Party wide open to trolling.
And India really delivered. Indian politicians wished Taiwan a happy national day.
And Taiwan National Day started trending in India.
One local Indian politician put up a Happy National Day sign outside the Chinese embassy.
And someone even commissioned this Taiwan is not China cake.
Meanwhile the President of Taiwan
Tsai Ing-wen tweeted her thanks to all of Taiwan’s dear friends in India.
And started talking about her favorite Indian food.
So, the Chinese Communist Party tried to control Indian media,
leading to a national backlash in India and an India-Taiwan lovefest.
Once again, the Chinese Communist Party scores! Against itself.
Speaking of India, we just did an episode on our other show, America Uncovered, about the Quad, an
alliance to counter China. And India is a big part of that. I’ll put a link to that episode below.
But back to Taiwan’s National Day. In her National Day speech, President Tsai extended
an olive branch to the Communist Party. She called for meaningful dialogue with China.
That’s great! Authoritarian regimes always respond well to talking things out. So
what was China’s response?
Well, just hours after her speech, Chinese state-run CCTV
aired this video of China’s military launching a simulated invasion of Taiwan.
Well, I guess that’s a form of dialogue. But perhaps they could make themselves clearer.
“Taiwan denounced China for releasing a forced TV confession of a Taiwanese businessman. The man has
been missing in China for over a year due to his support of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.”
Huh, so they’ve kidnapped a Taiwanese citizen. But I think the Communist
Party’s actions could still really be open to interpretation. Can they be a little clearer?
“In its annual work report this year, the Chinese government
removed the word ‘peaceful’ from long-standing references to ‘reunification’ with Taiwan.”
Okay, let me see if I can understand this dialogue coming from communist China. They’re saying:
They are highly militarized, they kidnap other countries’ citizens,
and they’re planning invade a democratic country to murder their people.
Okay, the message is crystal clear. There’s only one way to take that.
China’s bond market is incredible! Buy buy buy!!!
But surely the Chinese Communist Party can at least appreciate the effort
by President Tsai Ing-wen to deescalate the situation.
Recently Taiwan’s Foreign Minister told NPR that Taiwan would not
seek formal ties with the US right now.
That’s got to make the CCP happy. So surely, they’re willing to back down a bit, right?
Well, here’s Hu Xijin the editor in chief of my favorite Chinese state run media,
the Global Times.
“The change of tone indicated the Tsai administration
has fathomed the severity of a possible military conflict with Beijing over its provocations.”
Hu added, “Beijing must not ‘be fooled into believing the gesture of goodwill
of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan’”
and that “continued military muscle-flexing is the only answer to cross-strait stability.”
So...if Taiwan makes a move like it’s going to seek formal ties with the US,
China will threaten to invade. If Taiwan backs down and says we can resolve things
through dialogue, China will threaten to invade. Well at least they have options.
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from one of you,
who supports China Uncensored through the crowdfunding website Patreon.
Ronny Ager-Wick asks, “Is there any way that a country who has been tricked by
China's debt trap diplomacy can get out of it without paying? What would happen if they just
stopped paying and defaulted on the loan? Could they declare the "investment" illegal
and thus reject China's demands? Or could they have a revolution, a new constitution,
and thus be regarded as a new country, leaving China to collect from the old regime?”
Ohh, great question. This in fact has happened.
In Malaysia. Malaysia was hugely in debt to China. To the tune of 34 billion dollars.
That was thanks to Najib Razak, who was Malaysia’s prime minister for nearly a decade.
Turns out he was very corrupt.
And a lot of that corruption had to do with China. But before he got a 12 year jail term,
he lost the 2018 election to this guy, Mahathir Mohamad.
Part of his campaign was about standing up to China, which gets more and more popular with time.
He was openly critical of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
“None of our people are employed as workers. None of our companies
are used for designing and planning and supervising, et cetera. We gain nothing.”
And after being elected,
he suspended four Chinese linked projects worth about a total of 23 billion dollars.
That was worth about two-thirds of all Malaysia’s Belt and Road projects.
Mahathir then began renegotiating those deals.
And it seemed to work. Some of those belt and road projects restarted in 2019 after hiccups.
It follow[ed] “a rare agreement to cut its cost by nearly a third to about $11 billion”
Great deal. Well, until those hiccups became a gasping death wheeze because of the coronavirus.
Thanks for your question Ronny.
And if you’d like to have me respond to your question or comment on the show for
hundreds of thousands of people to hear, join what I call the China Uncensored 50 Army...
and support us in the battle against the Chinese Communist Party. You can join for as little as a
dollar per episode on the crowd funding website Patreon. You’ll also get some other cool perks
as well. Head over to Patreon.com/China Uncensored to learn more. Link is below.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. See you next time.