Reaction & Commentary
This episode is sponsored by Incogni. You probably know that companies are collecting your personal data. But you may not realize just how many. Dozens, maybe hundreds—most of which you’ve never heard of. And you have no idea what they’re doing with it. Incogni helps stop them. I’ll explain more at the end.
At long last, the tide is turning against China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Italy told China that it is officially leaving, Italy had been the only G7 country in the BRI. They were hoping it would boost trade with China. But Italy’s Foreign ministersaid it “has not produced the desired effects” so far.
And he also pointed out that other EU countries like France and Germany, which have never been part of the BRI, sell more to China than Italy does. Italy’s Prime Minister campaigned on getting Italy out of the BRI, saying it was a mistake. But it took her basically a year to do it.
Which was cutting it close because if Italy hadn’t left the BRI by December, the agreement would have auto-renewed for another 5 years. In her note to Beijing ending the agreement, Meloni said she hoped to “maintain a strategic friendship with China”. I don’t know about that friendship though.
China’s ambassador to Italy ,once warned there would be “negative consequences” if Italy “recklessly decides” to withdraw. An attempt by Montata to ban TikTok has been halted. The judge said a ban would most likely violate the First Amendment. He also said it could take away Congress’ right to control commerce with a foreign country.
Wait, foreign country? Wasn’t TikTok’s whole defense that it wasn’t under the control of the Chinese government? The ban was set to go into effect January 1st. But TikTok asked the judge to block it on the free speech and commerce grounds I mentioned earlier.
If it had gone into effect, the state could have fined TikTok $10,000 for each violation. So does that mean the best way to make TikTok go bankrupt would be to try to use it in Montana once the ban goes into effect? If so, under those circumstances, I might actually sign up!
Did you know that it’s criminal in China to lip-sync while performing? Me neither. A punk band from Taiwan called Mayday is now being investigated for allegedly lip-syncing during a recent concert in China. The controversy started when a Chinese blogger analyzed twelve tracks from their concert in Shanghai.
He claims that the lead singer lip-synced at least five of the songs. And lip syncing is apparently a crime. “According to the Regulations . . . performers are not allowed to deceive the audience by lip-syncing, and performance organizers are not allowed to arrange performers to lip-sync.”
Totally has nothing to do with this being a Taiwanese band. Not at all. But hey, if China’s regulators happen to be watching then, read these lips. And after the break, did you know China has the best human rights? Welcome back.
Now let me preface this next story by saying that China got a score of 9 out of 100 on Freedom House’s political and civil liberties tracker. To be clear, zero is the worst, and China got 9. Out of 100. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human rights.
And to celebrate, China threw a big celebration. China signed on to the declaration in 1948, which was technically under the government that now controls Taiwan. But the Chinese Communist Party wants you to know, it’s got a stellar human rights record, as well. So how exactly does China contribute to human rights?
“China promotes human rights through development, safeguards them through security and advances human rights through cooperation, which contributes to global peace and security.” China safeguards human rights through security. You mean the thing that authoritarian governments use as an excuse to stamp on individual freedoms? Yeah.
That’s probably why there’s nothing about personal freedom in there. Because according to this Chinese legal scholar, honoring individual freedom would be putting human rights above sovereignty. And that’s a dirty tactic only used by Western countries. And ….apparently…China. Yes, hypocrisy truly is China’s super power.
And speaking of China’s stellar human rights record, a Hong Kong journalist has gone missing in China. Minnie Chan, a reporter for South China Morning Post, disappeared after traveling to Beijing at the end of October to cover an event. Reporters Without Borders says “Some friends…publicly expressed concerns that she might be detained
As they hadn’t been able to reach her since late October”. The South China Morning Post has said she’s on personal leave in Beijing and that, according to her family, she needs time to “handle a private matter.” Before she disappeared, Minnie was a defense and diplomacy reporter. Her last article was published Nov. 1.
Al Jazeera reported that this is the second time in recent years an SCMP reporter has disappeared. It said another “reporter dropped out of contact in China for a number of months in 2022, raising concerns among colleagues that they may have been detained.”
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, China was the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists last year. As of last December, it reported at least 43 journalists were behind bars. Wow, China just keeps winning on human rights. And in a delicious case of irony,One Weibo user saw this video by the People’s Court
Of Wenchuan county about reporting illegal VPNs. It tells netizens that “If you use software to circumvent the firewall in China, no matter what your purpose is, it is considered an illegal act.” The Weibo user, whose username is “Common Sense,” reposted the video and said he was
Officially reporting Hu Xijin for jumping the firewall. Hu Xijin, or course, is the former editor in Chief of my favorite state-run media, the Global Times. Despite living in China, he has an active Twitter account, which means he must be regularly jumping China’s Great Firewall with a VPN.
After his hypocrisy was exposed, Hu Xijin’s Twitter account was immediately suspended and all his videos on the Global Times were removed. Juuuust kidding. What actually happened was the Weibo user’s account was shut down and Hu Xijin is still on Twitter. I’ll say it again. Hypocrisy truly is China’s superpower.
And after the break, China’s economy gets even more bad news. Welcome back. Ukraine’s intelligence service has blown up a railway line between China and Russia. A Ukrainian official told Politico that Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the SBU, was behind it, but neither Russia nor Ukraine have said anything publicly.
The official said this was the only serious railway connection between Russia and China and that the military supplies China was sending to Russia have now been paralyzed. China has been supplying a lot of “dual use” equipment to Russia, which seems pretty clearly meant for Russia’s military. But hey, if trains don’t work anymore,
I’m sure Putin has some horses he can use to transport supplies.Russia’s trains aren’t the only thing blowing up these days. China’s economy is as well.Moody’s has downgraded China’s credit outlook from stable to negative this week. A lot of that has to do with how much debt local governments have accumulated.
Moody’s is anticipating that the Central government will soon have to bail local governments out. China’s Ministry of Finance claimed that “concerns of Moody’s about the prospects of China’s economic growth and fiscal sustainability are unwarranted”. A state council researcher also claimed that Moody’s just didn’t understand how China’s economy or government worked.
I don’t think anyone does. Now I’ve got to talk to you about a way I’m beating YouTube censorship, but first this episode is sponsored by Incogni. Whenever you do anything online or use apps on your phone, there are a huge number of companies that collect your personal data.
When I signed up for Incogni, I discovered there were dozens of data brokers that potentially had my private information—without my permission. And these companies can get hacked, spreading my private information even more widely. Some Blue Shield of California members were recently notified that their personal data
May have been compromised by a global cybersecurity breach this spring. And if a big company like that can be hacked, think about all the smaller ones that have your personal data that can also be hacked. What can you do? Get as many companies as possible to delete your data off the internet.
And that’s what Incogni does for you. Incogni has already gotten my details removed from 166 of these data brokers, with a lot more in progress. And I didn’t have to do anything after signing up. Incogni just handles it. So I recommend you get Incogni for yourself.
Click the link below, or go to incogni.com/uncensored. The first 100 people to use the code UNCENSORED will get 60% off. Get your personal data off the market with Incogni. And in my ongoing effort to talk about all the things YouTube considers too controversial
By hiding it in video game content, check out the latest Deep Thoughts While Gaming about Resident Evil and Big Pharma. YouTube will hate it, you’re gonna love it. Check it out and let me know what you think. Once again I’m Chris Chappell. See you next time.
