It’s been a year of protests,
human rights abuses
and military madness.
These are the biggest China stories of 2019.
This is China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
2019 has been a big year for China.
The Chinese Communist Party is facing
unprecedented crises on all sides.
And the rest of the world is finally becoming
aware of
the threat of the Chinese Communist Party...
or, at least some of the rest of the world
is.
In other words, it’s been a good year for
China Uncensored.
So join me as we take a look back at the 10
biggest China stories of 2019.
Number 10
The Chinese Communist Party celebrated
70 years of bloody rule over China
in the only way they knew how!
A massive military parade.
But it wasn’t just about terrifying Chinese
people.
It was also about terrifying Americans.
For example, the H-6N Long-Range Bomber.
It can fire nuclear missiles that can hit
the United States.
Worst birthday party ever.
Number 9
2019 was also the 30th anniversary...of nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Stop asking questions.
Actually, this was the year of a lot of anniversaries.
Besides the 30-year anniversary of the Tiananmen
Square...
oopsie daisy,
it was the 60-year anniversary of the Communist
Party’s
“liberation” of Tibet...
where they liberated people from their culture,
their religion, and their lives.
and it was the 20-year anniversary of when
Falun Gong practitioners
went from quietly meditating,
To getting tortured for meditating.
And the 10-year anniversary of a crackdown
on the Uyghurs in Xinjiang
after protests there.
It seems like the Communist Party
constantly needs a new group to persecute.
Who will win the coveted position in the next
decade?!
Number 8
China’s Belt and Road is expanding.
No, I’m not talking about Xi Jinping’s
waistline.
I’m talking about China’s allegedly trillion
dollar investment plan,
also known as One Belt, One Road.
Mostly China invests in developing countries,
including lots of authoritarian regimes.
But this year the Chinese Communist Party
made inroads in the West.
Italy joined up.
So did New Zealand.
But will 2020 be the year that these countries
discover
it was all One Belt, One Big Mistake?
Number 7
For decades US companies have been doing business
with China.
This year, they got called out for it.
Big US tech companies have been the backbone
of the Chinese Communist Party’s Orwellian
surveillance state.
Google, Apple, Hewlett Packard, IBM.
You name it.
“Microsoft has worked with a Chinese military-run
university
on artificial intelligence research that could
be used
for surveillance and censorship.”
Even MIT University was working with a Chinese
company
specializing in AI facial recognition technology.
Thermo Fisher was selling DNA sequencers
directly to Chinese authorities in Xinjiang.
And worst of all, China seized control of
gay dating app Grindr.
But now they have to give it back.
Number 6
The US China trade war enters its second year.
How shall I describe it?
"We're having a little spat with China."
Perfect.
The US has been hitting China with heavy tariffs.
The Chinese Communist Party has been trying
to fight back,
by putting tariffs on American goods.
And while China can’t hit the US
with nearly as much as the US can hit China
with,
China has targeted American farmers
in the hopes that will swing the 2020 US presidential
elections.
In December, the US and China agreed to
a “Phase One” deal to reduce US tariffs,
and get China to buy agricultural goods.
But something tells me the trade war isn’t
over yet.
What with China’s rampant intellectual property
theft,
state-owned industries, and massive subsidies,
it’s hard to get the Communist Party to
reform everything
it needs to reform to be on a level playing
field with the US.
Some experts think this is all headed towards
the US economy decoupling from China.
Maybe we’ll have the answer in 2020.
Number 5
The US doubled down on its fight with Chinese
telecom giant Huawei.
At the beginning of 2019,
the US charged Huawei with violating US sanctions
on Iran.
As well as being in general a national security
threat.
“It provides the capacity to maliciously
modify or steal information,
and it provides the capacity to conduct undetected
espionage.”
Did I mention accusations Huawei is funded
by the Chinese military?
At least according to the CIA.
And I trust the CIA.
This has served as the driving force for the
US
encouraging countries around the world ditch
Huawei.
There was also a US ban on certain Huawei
products,
but it’s been delayed several times,
now until 2020.
So it looks like I’ll still have a job next
year.
Number 4
With the trade war and attacks on Chinese
state-backed companies,
it’s no wonder the Chinese economy isn’t
doing so hot.
The Chinese regime has taken extreme measures
to try to cope.
But a failing economy threatens the Chinese
Communist Party’s
grip on power more than anything else.
The regime has managed to get away with insane
human rights abuses,
mass surveillance, and ethnic cleansing by
promising people,
hey, at least you have a shot at making some
money, right?
When that’s no longer true, watch out.
Number 3
Speaking of human rights abuses,
an international tribunal ruled this year
that yes,
China is killing innocent people for their
organs.
“Some of the more than 1.5 million detainees
in Chinese prison camps a
re being killed for their organs to serve
a booming transplant trade
that is worth some $1 billion a year.”
According to the tribunal, the primary victims
are Falun Gong practitioners.
Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual
practice,
but the Chinese regime sees Falun Gong as
an ideological threat—
just like anything else that people believe
in.
Like I said earlier, the Party has been
persecuting Falun Gong practitioners since
1999.
That’s 20 years worth of organs.
And now it looks like the Uighurs might become
a big chunk of the unwilling organ “donors”
as well.
Which brings us to...
Number 2
China has built concentration camps to ethnically
cleanse the Uighurs.
Now the Chinese regime says these camps
are actually vocational training schools.
To help teach the mostly Muslim Uighurs
not to be religious extremists.
Which is why leaked internal memos about
these camps say to use the “organs of dictatorship,”
and show “absolutely no mercy.”
But if you ask Chinese authorities,
they’ll show you some Uighurs who seem
very happy with these camps.
“If you’re happy and you know it clap
your hands.”
That’s why so many Uighurs are lining up
to go!
Escorted by police.
With shaved heads.
Handcuffed and blindfolded.
But after facing international condemnation,
the Chinese regime has good news.
All the Uighurs have graduated!
So no need to look into this anymore everyone.
Nothing to see here.
And finally Number 1
I’m sure you can guess.
The protests in Hong Kong.
The people of Hong Kong are revolting against
Chinese rule strangling their freedoms.
While the police of Hong Kong are simply revolting.
Six months of protests and the Hong Kong government
has failed to meet protesters’ demands.
But millions of Hongkongers have refused to
back down.
And best of all, the Chinese regime is really,
really worried
these protests will spill over to the rest
of Mainland China.
Of course, most Americans didn’t hear much
about it
until Houston Rockets manager Daryl Morey
tweeted his support for Hong Kong.
And then the NBA pressured him to delete it,
and then tried to distance itself from Hong
Kong,
to avoid upsetting their Chinese partnerships—
which are worth about 4 billion dollars a
year.
It ended up just making everyone mad at the
NBA.
On the plus side,
now more Americans know about the protests
in Hong Kong.
And the craziest part?
All the attention on Hong Kong has gotten
Democrats,
Republicans and President Trump to all agree
on something:
passing a law to support the Hong Kong protesters.
Now that’s a Christmas miracle to end the
year on.
So those are the biggest China stories of
the year!
Thank you for being with me through all of
it.
Especially because YouTube is trying to run
this show out of business.
All year long, almost every single episode
we’ve done about Hong Kong,
and about half of all our other episodes,
have been instantly demonetized.
That means it’s really hard for us to make
enough money
to pay our staff and studio costs.
Fortunately, thanks to viewers who contributed
to China Uncensored
on the crowd funding website Patreon,
we’ve been able to continue to expose what
the Chinese Communist Party is doing.
So as a thank you to those fans,
the ones I call my 50-cent army,
I answer their questions at the end of these
episodes.
The last question of the year comes from Benjamin
Jull.
“What is the popular opinion of ordinary
Chinese people
towards these proto-Orwellian surveillance
systems?
Are they afraid of them or does it simply
not have any effect on their lives.
As bad as it seems it could turn out to be
a complete white elephant.”
That’s a good question.
There are so many surveillance cameras,
you might think people would just get used
to them.
In one major Chinese city,
there’s a camera for every six people.
Many Chinese people have gotten used to it.
What choice do they have?
And this ties into a bigger question:
How do Chinese people feel about the CCP?
We recently spoke to a Chinese dissident living
in America
who still has a network of connections inside
Mainland China.
And he told us that inside China,
there’s widespread hatred of the Chinese
Communist Party.
So maybe in 2020 or soon after,
we’ll really see some Hong Kong style protests
erupting in Mainland China.
Thanks for your question.
And thanks for watching.
If you’d like to give China Uncensored a
belated Christmas gift,
join the China Uncensored 50 cent army
and contribute on patreon.
Have a blessed and safe new year.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you in 2020.
