Is a “real possibility”

A brazen new attack by Chinese hackers

And a Chinese government plan to boost “masculinity”

That and more on this week's China news headlines

Welcome to China Uncensored, I'm Chris Chappell.

We are in a Cold War with the Chinese Communist Party. 

And what's a cold war without the threat of nuclear annihilation?

A nuclear war with China is a “real possibility”.

That's according to the head of U.S. Strategic Command Admiral Charles Richard.

He wrote his rather grim summary in this month's issue of "Proceedings," the U.S. Naval Institute's

monthly magazine.

“There is a real possibility that a regional crisis with Russia or China could escalate

quickly to a conflict involving nuclear weapons, if they perceived a conventional loss would

threaten the regime or state.”

Sort of the Andross model.

If I go down, I'm taking you with me.

“Consequently, the U.S. military must shift its principal assumption from 'nuclear employment

is not possible' to 'nuclear employment is a very real possibility.'”

Which is why I'm happy to announce a new company I'm starting called Vault-Tec Industries!

We'll build for you the absolute highest quality fallout shelters, guaranteed not to

be secret horrific sociological experiments!

But you shouldn't worry too much about Cold War 2.

Because first you should worry about proxy wars!

Once again, China has sent military planes into Taiwan's airspace.

But this time, a US military aircraft joined as well.

And so China took the opportunity to remind everyone that Taiwan independence means war.

Obviously, Taiwan is already an independent country.

China's not flying provocative warplanes into their own airspace.

But, uh, let's not tell them that.  

So how will the Biden Administration handle an increasingly aggressive Chinese Communist

Party?

A State Department spokesman says Biden wants to be lockstep with America's allies on

China. 

Hopefully the spokesman is referring to being lockstep with Taiwan on defense—not lockstep

with our European allies on their China investment deal.

Which brings us to Gina Raimondo.

She's Biden's pick for Commerce Secretary.

She's spoken about protecting US telecom networks from Chinese companies.

But in her nomination speech, she didn't say whether or not the Biden administration

would keep Chinese telecom Huawei on a blacklist.

The US has been calling Huawei a national security threat since the Obama Administration.

But the Trump Administration went further by actually putting Huawei on a trade blacklist.

Now, House Republicans, led by Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs

Committee, want to delay Raimondo's confirmation, until the administration makes its Huawei

stance clear. 

“The fact that the Biden Administration has still refused to commit to keeping Huawei

on the Department of Commerce's Entity List is incredibly alarming and dangerous.”

So they want to, “place a hold on Ms. Raimondo's confirmation until the Biden Administration

clarifies their intentions for Huawei and on export control policies for a country that

is carrying out genocide and threatening our national security.”

It is kind of hard to say I really want to do business with a country that's committing

genocide.

Of course, not all countries have problems doing business with those committing genocide.

Like Myanmar!

I'll tell you more after the break.

Welcome back.

Myanmar has billions of dollars of investment deals going with the Chinese Communist regime.

Myanmar also had a military coup this week. 

China has blocked the UN from condemning the coup.

And if the US isn't careful, it could push Myanmar closer to China

For more on the Myanmar Coup, and what it means for the Biden Administration's attempts

to deal with China, check out yesterday's episode on America Uncovered.

According to Reuters, Chinese hackers may have exploited a bug in SolarWinds software

to spy on a US federal payroll agency.

Don't worry.

“The software flaw exploited by the suspected Chinese group is separate from the one the

United States has accused Russian government operatives of using,” to compromise sensitive

federal agencies.

Is that supposed to make me feel better?

Two hostile authoritarian regimes were able to separately break into SolarWinds?

I'd actually feel better if they had to work together to crack it. 

Like some kind of terrible sequel to Hackers where Russia is played by Steven Seagal and

China is played by Jackie Chan.

Now to Hong Kong refugees.

Which is now pretty much anyone in Hong Kong looking to escape the long arm of Beijing. 

The new Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has suggested the US could give them sanctuary.

In an interview with MSNBC, Blinken said, “We see people who are, again, in Hong Kong

standing up for their own rights, the rights that they felt were guaranteed to them. 

And if… they're the victims of repression from Chinese authorities, we should do something

to give them haven.”

Back in December, there was a bill that would grant temporary refuge to Hong Kongers.

It unanimously passed in the House, but was blocked in the Senate by...Ted Cruz.

He worried there weren't safeguards in place to prevent Chinese spies from sneaking in

as well.

Meanwhile, the UK is offering Hong Kong residents a route to citizenship.

Hong Kong residents can apply for a British National Overseas passport, or BNO.

In response, China said it would no longer recognize BNOs.

Speaking of the UK, the UK has revoked the license of Chinese state-owned broadcaster

CGTN, which is the English version of China Central Television.

It comes after the media regulator Ofcom “concluded that the news channel was ultimately controlled

by the ruling Communist Party of China.”

I could have told them that years ago.

But better late than never.

It also comes after Ofcom ruled that “CGTN repeatedly breached impartiality standards

with its coverage of protests last year in Hong Kong.”

And it *also* comes after a complaint by Peter Humphrey, a UK citizen who was forced to give

a confession while in a Chinese prison.

CGTN then broadcast that forced confession on its channel in the UK, which was illegal.

We had Humphrey on our podcast a few months ago.

Check that out for more.

You may remember in a recent episode I talked about Lai Xiaomin, China's most corrupt

official.

He was caught with 3 metric tons of cash that came from bribes, as well as 100 mistresses.

And now, he has been executed.

For the bribes.

Not for the mistresses.

Jack Ma—one of China's richest men.

He mysteriously disappeared back in October, and reappeared in January.

But his troubles are just beginning.

First, Chinese state-run media left his name off a list of entrepreneurial leaders.

And now his company Ant Group is being forcibly restructured by Chinese regulators.

Those are the same regulators Ma criticized back in October.

Before disappearing for months.

And the increased pressure is now causing Chinese tech companies to turn on each other.

Two of China's biggest tech companies are in a lawsuit.

Douyin the company that owns TikTok, is suing Tencent as the government launches an antitrust

crackdown on China's tech industry.

China is also stockpiling computer chips in response to a US ban.

And in the midst of all this, Apple is starting to move production out of China.

I do hope the iPhone 13 comes with less slave labor.

Also this week, I want to give a big thank you to Australian Senator Eric Abetz for mentioning

China Uncensored in the Australian Parliament after we had him on the show last month.

“China Uncensored, a YouTube program from the United States.”

Also, I guess, thank you for your many years of courageously standing up to the CCP.

But mainly, thank you for name dropping China Uncensored in Parliament.

Does this mean that China Uncensored is now in the official parliamentary record? 

Despite all the chaos in the world, the Chinese Communist Party hasn't forgotten its core

mission: persecuting Chinese people.

  In the past three years, 50 people have been

sent to jail for using Twitter.

But there are bigger problems.

Chinese millennials aren't getting married.

So obviously, the solution is boosting masculinity with PE classes!

Surely this won't become some insane new government policy that overzealous local officials

take to an extreme.

But China's top advisory body, the CPPCC, is worried.

They say “Boys...have become too delicate, timid and effeminate after being schooled

mostly by women teachers.”

And so, “Some affluent parents, worried that their sons are too fragile, are sending

them to private boot camps that promise to turn them into 'real' men through army-style

drills.”

In other words, a new generation of soldiers for the US China Cold War.

And we end where we began.

And now it's time for me to answer a question from one of you, a fan who supports China

Uncensored through the crowd funding website Patreon!

Tommy Hoover asks, “Yall should play socialism monopoly again..

It was hilarious we watched the whole thing lol”

Ah, Tommy is talking about a recent episode of our podcast, China Unscripted.

We play the very real game—Monopoly Socialism.

It was a lot of fun for us.

But this reminds me of an idea I had for a new show, one where Matt, Shelley, and I talk

about news and politics while playing through video games.

It could be a fun way to get people into some topics that might be a little dry or too serious

on their own.

But I'd love to hear what you think about that  idea.

Does that sound like a show you'd watch?

Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for your question Tommy.

And thank you for watching.

Once again I'm Chris Chappell.

See you next time.