China's new missile is locked on to the US
And could carry a nuclear warhead
As US-China Trade talks resume.
This is China Uncensored.
I'm Chris Chappell.
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The People's Liberation Army has just test-fired
a powerful new missile that can hit the US!
...territory of Guam.
That's still a big deal.
The missiles can fly 3400 miles
and carry nuclear or conventional warheads.
Not that the Chinese Communist Party would ever actually attack Guam.
Mostly because it would be a tragedy
to destroy the last place on Earth where everyone still loves Kmart.
But also because the Communist Party's military development
is only for peaceful purposes to defend its sacred territorial integrity.
It's just a coincidence the missile,
the DF-26
has also been dubbed "Guam Killer."
It's also a coincidence that Chinese state-run media
released footage of the missile tests
shortly after the United States has been
sending in warships through the South China Sea.
That's part of freedom of navigation exercises
that challenge the Chinese regime's perfectly reasonable
territorial claims in the area.
Those territorial claims being all of the area.
And at the start of the year,
the PLA put the new DF-26 in position
that could theoretically sink US warships in those waters.
But CNN had the audacity
to question whether or not those missiles
could actually hit anything.
Now this missile has never actually been used in combat
so we don't know it's true capabilities.
Well China may have built a missile,
but it's CNN that's throwing bombs!
So the Chinese state-run media apparatus
got underway to prove that CNN is just fake news.
CCTV released this epic, stylish propaganda video
showing that the DF-26 Guam Killer totally works.
And my Shazam is telling me
that music is from the first Transformers movie.
Now sure, the video doesn't actually show
whether the missile can hit a moving target.
Or, really if it can hit anything.
Really, for all we know this is a standard ballistic missile launch.
But I mean, when would Chinese state-run media ever lie to us?
The Global Times even made a point of calling out CNN's fake news.
And tweeted the video at them.
CNN is going to need some ice for that burn.
Trade talks between the US and China have resumed.
The two countries are in the middle
of a 90-day reprieve in the trade war,
where there's a shot at working things out.
If no agreement is made, on March second,
the Trump administration will hit China
with an additional 25% tariff
on 200 billion dollars worth of Chinese goods.
So how are the talks going?
According to CNBC,
"People familiar with the talks and trade experts watching them
say that, so far, there has been little indication
that Chinese officials are willing to address
core U.S. demands to protect American intellectual property rights
and end policies that Washington says
force U.S. companies to transfer technology to Chinese firms."
But according to the Wall Street Journal,
"Chinese officials said
they have already taken concrete steps
toward reform, citing more liberal rules
for foreign competitors in sectors
such as autos and financial services,
and tougher enforcement of intellectual property."
Although Chinese leaders have made promises of reform before.
And on our recent podcast of China Unscripted,
we talked about how hard reform really is.
The way the Chinese Communist Party runs things,
even private companies have to follow its political objectives.
So it's next to impossible for the Communist Party
to actually reform or deal with most of the issues
the US is concerned about,
without giving up a lot of its own power.
To drive home that point,
FBI Director Christopher Wray,
at a US Senate committee hearing on Tuesday,
said the lines between
"the Chinese government and ostensibly private companies"
are blurred if not totally erased and
"especially the lines between lawful behavior
and fair competition and lying and hacking and cheating and stealing."
Basically, we're trying to play basketball,
and the Chinese regime is playing no-rules jungle ball.
Speaking of private Chinese companies
that have to follow political objectives:
Huawei, China's biggest telecom company.
In December, Canadian authorities arrested Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou.
She faces extradition to the US for allegedly violating US sanctions on Iran.
Well on Monday, the US announced 23 criminal charges
against Meng and Huawei.
Meng was personally charged with bank fraud, wire fraud,
and conspiracies to commit bank and wire fraud.
Plus, Huawei itself was charged with
technology theft, bank fraud, obstruction of justice, and money laundering.
And right before the trade talks,
Meng made her first public appearance in more than a month
in a Canadian court.
Canada now has a month to decide
whether the US's formal extradition request is strong enough.
During Tuesday's hearing,
the judge delayed the next hearing by a month, to March 6th.
I mean, why deal with something now,
when you can put it off till later?
But for a brief moment,
it looked like Canada may have been caving
to the Chinese regime on the Huawei case.
At least that was the impression given
by Canadian ambassador to China John McCallum.
"'As I was saying, I think Ms. Meng has quite a strong case.'
McCallum then laid out in some detail
why he believed a Canadian judge would reject a US request to extradite Meng."
And as Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said,
that's a problem.
"Ambassador McCallum's comments
were inconsistent with the position of the government of Canada.
The first and foremost job of any ambassador of our country
is to express accurately our government's position."
McCallum later apologized,
and told the Canadian newspaper The Star that he misspoke.
But then right after, he opened up his mouth again
and promptly inserted his foot.
"McCallum told a reporter that it would be great for Canada
if the US dropped the extradition request
once again suggesting it would not be the rule of law
that would decide the issue, but some political horse trading."
And then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
told Ambassador McCallum, "You're fired."
I think Trudeau just wanted to impress Donald Trump.
Anyway, former Canadian ambassador to China,
David Mulroney, said McCallum's comments were "mind boggling."
But this is what the Chinese Communist Party is good at—elite capture.
That means getting influential foreigners
to support the Chinese regime's approach to issues,
and then push those agendas in their countries.
In fact, former Ambassador to China David Mulroney
knows a lot about elite capture.
In an email to the Star, Mulroney wrote
"China is amazingly successful at convincing people,
including seasoned diplomats,
that the most important thing in the world
is maintaining good relations with China."
"By this they generally mean not commenting
or otherwise reacting to something egregious that China has done."
"They"—the Chinese regime—"persuade people
by playing to their vanity,
making them believe that their unique understanding of China
is evidenced by their ability to keep things calm and untroubled.
They do this because it works — for China."
That's ridiculous.
I mean, I have a unique understanding of China.
I'm also vain!
Why hasn't the Chinese regime tried to elite capture me?
In McCallum's case,
he apparently received more than 73,000 Canadian dollars
worth of trips to China when he was a member of parliament.
I guess that was a good investment.
Of course, my favorite Chinese state-run media, the Global Times,
had its own unique take on the matter.
The real political interference
was McCallum getting fired
for saying there should be political interference in Meng's case.
"Ottawa is now as sensitive as a frightened bird."
A frightened bird?
Doesn't the Global Times know he's a shiny pony?
"Justin Truuuuuuudeau!"
"He's wearing liberal red, of course.
I call him the Shiny Pony.
He looks like he's in some sort of zen yoga trance."
And it's not just the Global Times spewing hot air.
According to a new study,
China has not actually honored its commitment to cut methane emissions.
The Communist Party not honoring its commitments!
I'm shocked!
Shocked I tell you!
In fact, "Not only were the reductions not made,
but Chinese methane emissions actually increased
by 1.2 million tons per year during the five-year period."
So...I guess we now know the answer to this question.
If you've been watching the show,
you know my two great loves are anime...
and communism.
Well now, Chinese authorities have finally combined
my two great loves into one single monstrosity!
A Chinese anime TV series about the life and times...of Karl Marx.
So young and handsome.
I would gladly redistribute all my capital for a chance to see that!
And before we go, now is the time when I answer questions from you,
my loyal 50-cent army
fans of the show who support what we do
through the crowd funding website Patreon.
Charlie Matsubara asks,
"Assuming CCP has learned its data fudging lesson
from the Great Leap Forward.
What negative consequences might there be
for fudging GDP numbers?
Does China's tax revenue numbers give
an better idea of its real economic growth?"
Great question, Charlie.
China recently released its official GDP growth figures
for the last quarter of 2018.
It was 6.4%, the lowest in 28 years.
But as even Chinese Premier Li Keqiang once admitted,
Chinese GDP figures are manmade and therefore unreliable.
So the GDP numbers are made up,
but you probably can't get better insight
from China's tax revenues, either.
Because those numbers are not made available
to the public or to reporters.
What a surprise.
So maybe China's economy is doing okay.
Or maybe it's on the verge of absolute collapse
and it's going to take down the global economy with it.
No one knows!
I mean, we can kind of guess,
but no one really knows.
But this is how the Communist Party functions.
It would rather cover up problems now, to make it through the day.
What happens in the future, is a problem for the future.
And that means: They really know how to live in the present;
it's a beautiful thing.
Thanks for you question, Charlie.
China Uncensored relies on your Patreon support
because a lot of advertisers don't dare to work
with a show that criticizes the Chinese Communist Party.
So head over to patreon.com/chinauncensored
to learn how you can help keep China, uncensored.
And as a way of saying thanks,
I'll answer your questions on the show...live.
Well, taped live.
It's almost as good.
Thanks for watching.
Once again I'm Chris Chappell. 248 00:11:23,500 --> 00:00:00,000 See you next time.
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