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  • The US Navy warns

  • China could invade Taiwan soon.

  • And the Chinese Communist Party wants the US

  • To be afraid.

  • Very afraid.

  • Welcome to China Uncensored.

  • I'm Chris Chappell.

  • This episode has been sponsored by Surfsharkbecause you should be protecting your identity whenever

  • you go online by using a VPN like Surfshark.

  • There's been a lot of attention on Taiwan recently.

  • And not because of its delicious pineapples.

  • Ok, some of the attention has been because of its delicious pineapples.

  • But there's more and more concern over whether the Chinese Communist Party will try to take

  • Taiwan by force.

  • That's why the Taiwan Strait, the body of water that separates Taiwan from China, has

  • been called a powder keg that could set off a world war.

  • I know what you're thinking.

  • Yet another light, uplifting China Uncensored episode.

  • And it gets better.

  • Earlier this year, a US Admiral warned that China could invade Taiwan in the next six

  • years.

  • That was Admiral Philip Davidson, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command.

  • He made that assessment back in March and then...retired from the Navy.

  • Good timing.

  • The new commander of the Indo-Pacific Command is also concerned about Taiwan.

  • He says that China's threat to Taiwan iscloser to us than most think.”

  • And that a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan is the biggest threat in the Pacific.

  • And a bigger threat than North Korea or Russia.

  • Look, there's a reason that I started China Uncensored, and not North Korea UnJuched,

  • or Russia UnPutined.

  • And that reason is...I don't want to get poisoned.

  • Anyway, the point is that it's good news that the US military is concerned about the

  • Chinese regime's threat to Taiwan.

  • Now the question is, what are we going to do about it?

  • The answer is: Absolutely nothing.

  • We don't want to get involved at all!

  • Because, according to my favorite state-run media, the Global Times, the US will lose

  • a war with China over Taiwan...island.

  • Now, at first glance, this seems like a pretty standard Global Times article.

  • It blames the US and its Taiwan Relations Act for giving birth toTaiwan's renegade

  • secessionists.”

  • It calls Congress's support of Taiwan corrupt.

  • And it compares Taiwan's situation to the Confederacy during the American Civil War.

  • Just a reminder that Taiwan is a self-governing country that was never controlled by the People's

  • Republic of China at any point in history.

  • So, yeah, totally the same thing as the Confederacy during the American Civil War.

  • But what does the Global Times article say that the US should do, if it doesn't want

  • to fight over Taiwan?

  • Tell Taiwan to acceptone country, two systemsrule under the Chinese Communist

  • Party.

  • I mean, it worked out so well for Hong Kong.

  • And if that doesn't work, the US president could just rescind the Taiwan Relations Act...which

  • he can't do because it's a US law, and only Congress can change laws.

  • But if Congress gets in the way, then the US president should just order the US government

  • to not get involved in a China-Taiwan conflict.

  • And why would the US do this, again?

  • Well, it's because China has a decisive advantage in a fight with the US: casualty

  • tolerance.

  • Meaning, that to get what it wants, the Chinese Communist Party is way more willing to let

  • its own people die than the US is.

  • Here's the kicker, though.

  • The whole point of this article is this sentence: “Taiwan's fate poses no existential threat

  • to the US, and the US should not fall into the trap of paying for their hubris with American

  • blood.”

  • They're saying, Taiwan's not important, so it's definitely not worth shedding American

  • blood over, so we should encourage them toreunifywith an authoritarian regime

  • that they were never a part of in the first place.

  • What a great idea!

  • Like I said, it sounds like a standard Global Times article.

  • But it turns out, it wasn't written by a Global Times editor.

  • It was written by a retired Marine Corps infantry officer who now serves as a US civil servant

  • in the Pentagon.

  • Wait, is the Pentagon ok with its employees writing opinion articles in a Chinese propaganda

  • outlet that's been designated a foreign mission by the US government?

  • Well, apparently the author didn't ask for approval before publishing this piece.

  • Which means he could be facing disciplinary action.

  • Now, I don't know why this author chose to write this article for a Chinese propaganda

  • outlet.

  • Maybe he really thinks he's preventing war between China and the US.

  • Regardless, for the Global Times, this is a propaganda jackpot.

  • I'll tell you more after the break.

  • Welcome back.

  • This Global Times article is a perfect example of the Chinese Communist Party's political

  • warfare.

  • As Professor Kerry Gershaneck says, political warfare is the Communist Party's plan to

  • win without fighting.

  • Part of political warfare is media warfare.

  • Thatinvolves using public opinion as a weapon by propagandizing through various forms

  • of media in order to weaken the adversary's 'will to fight.'”

  • Here's an example: This China Daily article warns that Taiwan should abandon its independence

  • stance to avoid war.

  • The Communist Party might call it Taiwan's independence stance.

  • Normal people would call it acknowledging reality.

  • Unlike Chinese state-run media, which has to call Taiwan's presidential elections

  • the Taiwan regional leadership elections.

  • Because they can't admit that Taiwan is in fact already independent.

  • But the point is, the Communist Party is using media warfare to intimidate Taiwan.

  • And that's what they're doing to the US, too.

  • Their message is, Taiwan isn't worth fighting for, so we should encourage them to give in

  • to the Chinese Communist Party.

  • What's interesting is that the Communist Party's media warfare messaging is showing

  • up in American media outlets, too.

  • More after the break.

  • Welcome back

  • Messages from the Communist Party's media warfare are showing up in US media outlets.

  • Like in this article, which calls a war over Taiwan foolish and costly for the US.

  • It says the best case scenario is that the US willsuffer egregious losses in ships,

  • aircraft, and troops.”

  • While in a worst-case scenario, American cities are turned into nuclear wastelands, killing

  • millions.

  • And all over an issue that doesn't directly affect our national security.

  • That is bullpucky.

  • Excuse my French.

  • I've talked before on the show about why Taiwan is an important national security issue

  • for the US, and especially US allies in Asia.

  • Including Taiwan's strategic position in the first island chain.

  • And the fact that Taiwan manufactures the most advanced semiconductors in the world.

  • And how losing Taiwan would put US security in the Pacific at a huge risk.

  • Oh yeah, plus the moral issue that we shouldn't just hand over a democratic country of 24

  • million people to an authoritarian regime that's committing genocide.

  • When people talk about appeasing the Chinese Communist Party by letting them take Taiwan,

  • it's like they assume that the Party is going to stop with Taiwan.

  • No, the Party never stops.

  • There are other examples of the Party's media warfare messaging popping up in US media.

  • Like this New York Times opinion article that calls President Biden's Taiwan policy reckless.

  • Because it's increasing the risk of world war.

  • Yeah, that sounds bad.

  • But the article conflates showing more support for Taiwan with trying to establish official

  • diplomatic relations with Taiwan, something the Biden administration is definitely not

  • doing right now.

  • And it assumes the reason we've been able to avoid war over Taiwan for 40 years is because

  • everyone just pretends that Taiwan is not officially a country.

  • That's wrong.

  • The reason we've been able to avoid war for 40 years is because the Chinese Communist

  • Party's military isn't able to invade Taiwan yet.

  • But the message here is that we shouldn't do anything to anger China, because that could

  • lead to war.

  • It's straight out of the media warfare playbook!

  • So what's the point of this media warfare messaging?

  • It's not going to intimidate the Pentagon, but it still could have a huge effect.

  • First, it plants the idea in US media that the US shouldn't support Taiwan, because

  • that might anger China, which could lead to war.

  • That leads to more and more articles about how the US shouldn't support Taiwan.

  • And that influences US business and political elites to also say that the US shouldn't

  • support Taiwan, because that might anger China, which could lead to war.

  • That especially works for those elites who have business interests in China.

  • Which is...all of them.

  • It's like the Chinese Communist Party is...winning the war without fighting.

  • And this could also affect US policy, too.

  • Support for Taiwan is a popular, bipartisan issue among US officials.

  • But most Americans don't know much about Taiwan, or why it's important.

  • So this type of media warfare can be used to demoralize average Americans.

  • If you turn Americans against the idea of fighting for Taiwan, then that puts even more

  • pressure on US politicians to stop supporting Taiwan.

  • Look, no one wants to see an actual boots-on-the-ground war with China.

  • But the way to avoid war is not to appease the Chinese Communist Party.

  • We should know by now that appeasement doesn't work.

  • The way to avoid war is deterrence: not letting it get to that point in the first place.

  • And there are many ways the US can deter a war with China over Taiwan...which I can talk

  • about in another episode.

  • See?

  • This was uplifting.

  • I'm ending it on a note of hope!

  • And this episode is sponsored by Surfshark.

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  • Once again, I'm Chris Chappell.

  • See you next time.

The US Navy warns

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